Chapter 10 #3
Less than an hour later, a truck arrived at sunset, pulled up to the gate, and buzzed for entrance.
Once it parked, the doors swung open to reveal two huge guys, one of them larger than the other by at least three or four inches, both of them strapped with muscle they made no effort to conceal from the cool Texas night.
It was thirty-nine degrees outside, and both wore T-shirts and sweats—clothes easily removed or torn from their bodies.
Shifters.
The larger of them had stepped from the driver’s side, rippling with so much muscle, Emma had to wonder if he considered professional wrestling. His nostrils flared as he eyed the surrounding area and sniffed the air. The second was dark-haired and green-eyed, power confined in a compact frame.
“This is Thomas,” River introduced, with a gesture to the hulk beside her. “Most of us call him Tommy though. He runs the local wolf pack.”
Imagining the monster wolf hiding beneath Thomas’s human body, Emma shuddered.
Even with her gifts, he could probably rip her to pieces with his jaws.
Right. Respect. Even if he’s an ass to me, I’m going to treat him with respect.
I won’t give them any reason to say we didn’t try.
“That’s good, actually,” she said in a cautious tone to Thomas. “You should know all of this as well.”
“Atropos is my territory, and while I may not have the fondest feelings for your kind, hunters are an issue I need to know about. They kill wolves too.”
Adrian stepped up to Emma’s side, oblivious to his own overprotective posturing. Maybe at the top of his game he could have taken two shifters, but she had her doubts about him doing it now while half of his blood coursed through her veins.
“This is Adrian Kennedy, a master from Belleridge,” Emma said.
“I can assure you that we’re not here to cause any trouble,” Adrian said politely.
Despite River’s attempts to create a cordial introduction, both of the shifters bristled, and a low rumble emanated from the dark-haired man.
“Down, boy. He’s not challenging you.” Her honey-brown eyes turned back to Emma and Adrian.
“Sorry. This one is my husband, Zacarias, a jaguar shifter. He’s a little vampire sensitive. ”
Zacarias snorted, but the tension melted from his shoulders.
His posture relaxed a fraction, and the death glare—like he was preparing to use her for a chew toy or a scratching board—diminished as he spoke.
“A little is an understatement.” Then he sighed and shifted his weight.
“Just don’t start anything with my wife and there won’t be any problems.”
Emma nodded in understanding. “We appreciate you coming out here. I know what happened with Rosenhaven ruined any goodwill for vampires in these parts. We owe you for this.”
“You don’t look like a vampire who was caught by a sunlight spell,” Thomas said with skepticism. “I’ve seen what happens when River does it, and there’s almost nothing left, if they don’t go up in flames altogether. What’s up with that?”
“She has most of my blood floating around in her, that’s why,” Adrian spoke up.
Emma flushed and glanced away. Leave it to Adrian to unintentionally make saving her life sound sexual.
“All right. I hope you don’t mind old goats then. They’re the best I could get on short notice,” the werewolf explained.
Adrian glanced at the two animals in the bed of the pickup. “Thank you. We’ll compensate you for the trouble.”
Thomas waved off the money Adrian removed from his wallet. “Nah. Don’t worry about it. Identifying these hunters and running them out of town will be payment enough. Maybe they started with your kind, but it’ll be us next. My father-in-law says he’s dealt with them before.”
“Please, come in,” Emma said. The irony wasn’t lost on her, the role reversal of inviting a witch and two shifters into their house.
“Go ahead and drink first,” River countered. “I get that you’re trying to play the polite hostess but, quite frankly, you both look like death warmed over, so…”
Zacarias snickered, apparently a man of few words.
After climbing in to fetch their prey, Thomas tucked a goat beneath each arm and leapt down from the bed of the truck. Ignorant of their fate, the poor creatures bleated and nibbled on the dry grass.
“Make yourselves comfortable inside. We won’t be long,” Emma said.
“Toss the carcasses back in when you’re done, will ya?” Thomas grinned. “We’ll make use of the rest.”
Adrian didn’t wait for them to leave, and their guests didn’t linger. Once they were inside, Emma practically launched herself at the remaining creature and sank her fangs into its throat. She’d scrub the furry taste out of her mouth later. Ugh.
Old goat lacked the succulent flavor of human blood, but at least it was better than the slayer she’d drained in Dartmouth. It hadn’t escaped her notice, either, that Adrian took the smaller of the two animals, but for once she chose not to argue about his gallant attitude.
“We’ll get a proper feeding soon,” Adrian said, moving up beside her. “Are you ready?”
“Yeah, let’s do this. How bad can working with them be?”
“Rosenhaven was your home—”
“And they all could have chosen not to follow Margot,” she replied. “It hurts, having lost those few friends, but I also know it was justified. I can’t blame these people for that.”
River, Zacarias, and Thomas awaited them in the living room of the sanctuary, a modest space decorated with humble furnishings and a single box television. River and Zacarias sat on the loveseat, while Thomas lurked beside the couch with his brawny arms folded over his chest.
“All right. We’ve given you the benefit of the doubt. Now tell us what’s going on. Where were you attacked?” River asked.
“At Joe’s house. He’s with the hunters,” Emma said bluntly.
Zacarias blinked. Thomas raised his brows so high they nearly disappeared beneath his shaggy brown hair, and River only stared at them.
“Excuse me?” River’s sharp voice cut through the tense silence once the initial shock wore off.
“He was accompanied by a mage armed with a sunlight spell, and they nearly killed Emma,” Adrian replied. “I counted nine vehicles in plain sight at the front of the property, and one had a duffel bag filled with stakes. A few others had rifle racks and firearms inside them.”
“Almost any truck in town has a gun rack,” Thomas pointed out.
“What’s your excuse for the stakes? For the guys inside who rushed me packing incendiary shells?” Adrian demanded.
Kneading both of her temples, River blew out an exasperated breath then slumped forward to rest her elbows on her knees. “Okay, start from the beginning and tell me everything.”
“Adrian hung back by our vehicle when I went up to the porch. A man I didn’t recognize opened the door and went to get Joe, who invited me inside. He claimed he was entertaining company and it was okay.”
Thomas wrinkled his nose. “What did you do to pro—”
River shot Thomas a hard look. “We aren’t here to accuse them. If you want to help, that’s fine, but if you’re going to insult her, you can haul your ass to the truck and we’ll hike it home.”
The chastened werewolf quieted, and Emma’s respect for River went up three notches.
“Since you tried to contact me, I guess you already know about my history with Joe. We didn’t part on amicable terms. Still, nothing about our split should have caused the desire to murder me.”
“His family was sacrificed in a sadistic blood ritual organized by vampires. I’m pretty sure that qualifies as a reason to murder you,” Zacarias said.
“I had nothing to do with that. Nothing.”
“He doesn’t know that,” Thomas said.
“They’re not excusing what he did,” River said, with a stern edge to her voice that made both of her shifter companions silence again. “Only trying to make sense of why he might have targeted you now. Please continue.”
Once Emma relayed the occurrences that took place between the attack in Dartmouth leading up to encountering hunters at Joe’s house, the three regarded her with solemn expressions.
“So, your vampire elders assigned you to find out what was going on. I knew Overseers had come through the area again, but Heloise mentioned the bulk would be north in the Fort Worth area.”
“That’s why they were there. They stumbled on a hunter safe house and found photographs of me. Now I understand I was targeted because of my relationship with Joe.” Sorrow and fury warred for precedence in her heart, both emotions too intense to suppress for long.
“So the hunters have been found. Now what?” Zacarias asked.
“It’s more than that. Are you at all familiar with an item called the Eye of Sariel?”
River frowned. “Yes and no. I don’t know about the eye bit, but the name Sariel is familiar. She—it—is a demon we’re told about when we first begin learning magic. There’s a list of them, in fact. Demons we’re to recognize and avoid at all costs if we’re ever confronted by them.”
Thomas peered over. “Demons?”
“Well. Fallen ones, I should say. There’s a distinct difference between demonic beings and fallen angels.
Demons lack a physical body in this realm and are forced to possess the weak-willed.
Neither tends to walk around, but they still try to influence and manipulate people.
Witches are especially vulnerable, and because of the way they harness energy, evil spirits and demons like to try and possess them.
Sometimes, young witches can be confused because a demon will try to pretend to be their best friend.
They’ll manipulate them, wear them down over time. ”
“Them? Aren’t you a witch too?”
“Not anymore, technically,” River said.
The air of mystery surrounding her words seized Emma’s curious mind and wouldn’t let go. She’d really have to ask about the demigoddess thing later, when the fate of vampirekind wasn’t hanging in the balance.
“I can’t believe angels and demons are both real,” Zacarias muttered when heavy silence hung between them.
River fixed him with a look. “You’re Catholic.”
“The church tells us it’s all metaphor.” He shrugged. “They don’t stand by the exorcism thing anymore these days either.”
“There’s also the fact that you’re married to a goddess,” Thomas said, uttering the words Emma had desperately wanted to say.
Zacarias quieted, and in a voice so soft even Emma’s vampiric hearing strained to pick it up, he murmured, “That’s different though.”
“What can you tell us about Sariel?” Adrian asked.
“Not a whole lot, I’m afraid. I don’t make it my business to research biblical lore, but stories say she was one of the archangels alongside Gabriel and Michael.”
“I thought angels were genderless,” Zacarias cut in again.
“Until today you also didn’t believe they existed,” River said, her voice filled with endless patience.
“Anyway, Sariel occasionally resurfaces and disappears throughout history, but we know her as the Lady of Lies. She was supposedly among the first angels cast from paradise and locked away somewhere centuries ago. The details on how or by whom are sketchy.”
“That must be the Eye then.” Emma frowned. “The stone is about the size of an egg, I guess, or a little smaller. I haven’t seen it in person, but the museum photographs show it as being translucent gray in color, with a blood-red center. Like a ruby encased in smoky quartz.”
“Except it’s a diamond,” Adrian clarified.
Zacarias and Thomas both whistled. The former leaned forward with interest gleaming in his green eyes. “So, how do you destroy it?”
River stared at him. There was a moment of silence before the exasperated witch said, “It’s a diamond, sweetie.”
“I meant the demon, woman.”
“You can’t,” Adrian explained. “She’s encased in the gem because she can’t be destroyed. We’re not speaking of the typical, everyday supernatural creature. This being is an ancient, evil source of energy that can only be contained.”
“And you think the hunters have it,” Thomas said.
“We know the hunters have it. I felt the presence of it nearby in Joe’s house, and there’s footage of them taking it.
” Adrian retrieved a tablet from his bag, pulled up the museum surveillance video, and passed it over to River who watched in silence, the wrinkle in her brow deepening more with each second.
“They’ll have to be stopped,” the witch finally said at the end when she passed it back to Adrian.
“They came for me in Dartmouth when I’ve done nothing but lie low and mind my own business,” Emma said. “If you don’t believe me, go check out Joe’s place and talk to him. See it for yourself with your own eyes.”
Thomas cocked his head. “All right then. Let’s bounce and see what’s going on. If you’re telling the truth, the five of us ought to be able to wipe out a squad of hunters.”
Adrian tensed beside her. “I’m not sure our presence would be wise.”
“No, we’ll go,” Emma interjected. “My task, my responsibility, and I have nothing to hide.”
Cracking his knuckles while appearing increasingly ready for a brawl, the enormous werewolf grinned at them and stalked to the door. “Great. I’ll drive with you.”