Chapter Thirteen
Chapter
Thirteen
Aurora had to get the hell out of here. There was no
way she was going to sit around and wait for Hawkyn to serve her up to Drayger
like a main course. If Drayger could, indeed, track her, she’d just keep moving
until she could set up a trap to either kill him or bleed him.
Killing him would probably be impossible thanks to Hawkyn’s
protection, but if she could just get some blood, she could try Wytches_Float’s
instructions for breaking his ability to track. Of course, she’d need a sex
partner for that too.
She suddenly pictured herself in bed with Hawkyn, his
muscular body moving with hers, his strong hands touching her, stroking her,
giving her the kind of pleasure she hadn’t experienced in far too long.
Feminine instinct told her he was the kind of male who would be dangerous in
the sack, not because he was violent, but because he was addictive. She’d
barely gotten a taste of him and she already
understood that it would only take a single orgasm to get hopelessly hooked.
Snarling with frustration that was only partly sexual, she
slipped out of Hotel Hell’s side door. After checking to make sure no one was
paying any attention, she secured her duffel on her
shoulder and hurried toward the pad she and Hawkyn had arrived on. She didn’t
know how to operate it, but he’d said non-angels arrived and departed via a
twin portal, so she had to try. How difficult could it be?
No one stopped her. Heck, no one even looked at her as she
stepped onto the portal and planted her feet at the very center.
Nothing happened.
Was there a command? Or did it operate the way most of her
abilities worked, with a mere thought?
Think.
She pictured a twin portal, and instantly, a rush of tingles
spread through her insides. A tugging sensation came next, and the next thing
she knew, she was looking at a forest, and this was definitely
not Sheoul-gra.
But now what? There was a Harrowgate nearby, she was sure,
but she wasn’t sensitive to them and had no idea how to find it, let alone
operate it.
She should have paid more attention when Runa escorted her
through the one at Underworld General.
Well, she thought, as she considered her next move, at least
she wasn’t in Hell anymore. But if this was Siberia or some shit, it wouldn’t
be much better. She had no money, no identification, and no idea in which
direction she should start walking.
Just as she was contemplating going back to Sheoul-gra, a
tall male, his face concealed inside a hooded brown robe, popped onto the pad
with her.
“Coming or going?” he asked.
“Ah...I guess it depends on your point of view.” She eyed
his robes and wondered if he was an angel, and if so, what kind. Weird, just
days ago she hadn’t been sure angels existed, and now she was aware that there
were different varieties of them. “I’m trying to get to Portland, Oregon.”
He stared at her with eyes so intense that she scrambled
backward until her heels hit the edge of the pad. Power radiated from him in
waves that crashed into her like an angry ocean and left it hard for her to
breathe.
Was he going to hurt her? Her mind screamed for Hawkyn, and
she didn’t even care that she was in this situation because she had been trying
to get away from him.
“Trust your instincts.”
“What does that—”
A shower of light filled her vision, and a heartbeat later,
she found herself standing in front of her house, her palms sweating, her heart
pounding.
Jesus. How had she gone from living a relatively normal
human life to bouncing around a supernatural landscape at the whim of beings
she hadn’t even believed in mere days ago?
She inhaled a ragged breath and tried to gather her
thoughts. At least she was home. She could work with that.
It was night, but the full moon was so bright that it cast
shadows all around her. Inside her house, the lights on a timer had come on,
the faint glow streaming through gaps in the curtains.
On the surface, everything seemed normal. But as she moved
toward the path to her front porch, a chill ran down her spine, nearly
paralyzing her right there on her lawn.
Drayger.
Holy shit, he was inside her house. Inside her sanctuary.
Rage, terror, and the desire to take ugly, nasty revenge
bubbled up in her throat where a war cry was on deck, ready to join the blast
of silver fire she was going to send streaming into Drayger’s chest. Her well
of energy wasn’t completely restored, but what she’d gotten from Hawkyn would
be enough for one short burst. She just had to catch Drayger by surprise.
He knows you’re here.
Yes, he probably did. But if she could hide, maybe sneak in—
The front door opened. Her fingertips burned as her power
gathered. The second she saw his ugly face, he was toast.
“Aurora, no!”
Strong arms closed around her, and suddenly Hawkyn was
there, his body between her and Drayger. Then, in a gust of cold wind,
everything changed. The temperature. The time of day. The freaking continent.
She was no longer standing on her lawn, but on a cobblestone
path. And she was no longer looking at her house, but a well-kept medieval
castle.
“What the hell are you doing?” She tried to jerk away from
Hawkyn’s grip. “I was going to—”
“Kill him.” Hawkyn released her and stepped back, his
expression hard, cold, and despite her anger, she shivered. “You were going to
kill him.”
“Damn straight I was!” She cursed, releasing the hold on her power. As it drained from her fingers, her fury
drained with it. Well, some of it, anyway. “Look, you have to
protect him. I get that. But I need to live.”
“What do you think I’ve been trying to make happen? That’s
why I took you to the Gra.”
“You’re trying to keep me alive because you screwed up in
the parking lot and you’re trying to save your own skin. Can you blame me for
trying to save mine? I’m not a pizza for you to deliver.”
“Pizza?” He blinked. “What brought this on?”
“Does it matter? It’s true, isn’t it? If Drayger’s fate
requires me to die, you’ll hand me over like a thin-crust pepperoni and you
know it.”
“Ham.”
“What?”
“I like ham on my pizza. Not pepperoni.”
She huffed. “The pizza isn’t for you. That’s the point.”
“Your point is stupid,” he said, sounding a little tired.
“Listen to me, Aurora.” He gripped her shoulders and dipped his head so his face was mere inches from hers, his gaze holding
her in place even more so than his hands. “In the past, things might have been
different. I’ve always done my job even if it didn’t make sense. Even if I felt
that what I was doing was wrong. But I’m invested in your well-being now. I’m invested in you. I will find a way to keep
you safe. You’re not a pizza. That’s why we’re here.”
She eyed the castle, wondering if anyone was covertly
watching them from the battlements or the arrow slits. “Why didn’t you take me
back to Sheoul-gra?”
He snarled. Actually snarled.
“Because my father kicked us out.”
“Oh.” She certainly wasn’t going to touch that topic right
now. Seemed to be a little sensitive. But then, she’d
be prickly too if her father had kicked her out of their home. She couldn’t
even imagine it, not when her parents were so loving and supportive. “So where,
exactly, are we?”
He took her hand and started along the drawbridge that
appeared to still be in working order. The moat beneath it teemed with... What
the hell were those sharp-toothed, three-eyed things?
“We’re in Belgium.” His voice was still harsh with
smoldering anger, but with every step they took, the tension eased in his body,
his gait becoming looser, his shoulders pulling back.
Her fingers itched to dig deep into those big muscles and massage the remaining
stress away. “I lived here for a few hundred years, give or take a century.”
A splash below drew her attention, and she looked down just
as one of the dolphin-sized things in the water snapped its jaws, its three
eyes focused on her like she was dinner. “Don’t humans ask about the monsters
in the moat?”
He laughed, a deep, lovely sound she appreciated even more
after the earlier tension. “Those are horror-maws, sort of demon sharks that we
use to keep enemies out when the drawbridge is up. And no, humans don’t ask
about them because this castle is hidden by an invisibility enchantment. No one
can see it from outside the veil except Memitim. The only reason you can see it
is that we’re inside.”
Even as he spoke, she swore she could feel the magic on her
skin. A guard wearing a combination of modern military BDUs and plate armor
waved them through the gate and into a massive courtyard where a dozen or so
men and women sparred with various weapons.
“Everyone here is Memitim,” he explained as they passed
through a stone archway to the main building. “There used to be more of us, but
almost everyone has moved to Sheoul-gra. My brothers and sisters who remained
are the few holdouts.”
“Why would they be holding out?”
He shrugged, making his black T-shirt ride up so she got a
glimpse of tan skin just above his waistband.
“A lot of reasons, I guess. Sheoul-gra can be a bit
claustrophobic and creepy. Plus, Azagoth can be an asshole.” More anger
billowed from him, but he seemed to put it back in some sort of container
before he continued. “Some of my siblings have no desire to meet him. Ever.
Can’t say as I blame them.”
Aurora couldn’t help but be sad for him – for all of his siblings, and once again she counted her
blessings that she’d grown up in a stable, happy family.
They approached a door with a brass plate that said “Admin,”
and he stopped. “I’ll just be a minute. Don’t run away again.” He paused. “How
did you get to your house, anyway?”
“I don’t know. One moment I was standing on a landing pad
thingie in a forest with a guy in hooded robes, and then I was home.”
He frowned and then nodded. “Jim Bob. He arrived in
Sheoul-gra just before my heraldi alerted me about Drayger being in danger.” He shoved open the door. “I’ll be right out.”