Chapter Five #2
“No,” Razr said, the odd note in his voice making Jedda
suspect he knew something pertinent to this conversation. “It’s just that Satan
hasn’t been seen in a while.”
Shrike tapped his long fingers on the desktop. “So you believe the rumors that he’s been usurped?”
Usurped? Jedda hadn’t heard that. But then, she’d never, not
in her hundred and forty years of life, been interested in the politics of the
Heavenly, human, or demonic realms unless they affected her directly. Heck, she
was barely interested in her own species’ politics.
At Razr’s casual shrug, she sighed. “Look, I don’t know what
you want me to do about this. You’d be better off hiring someone who locates
antiquities. I’m a gemologist. I specialize in finding gems that are still
rough in the earth or that have been enhanced with supernatural abilities.”
“Don’t toy with me, sweetheart. I know you deal in all gems. And the devil’s horn is one of the most
precious.”
Shit. How could she get out of this without revealing the
truth—that certain types of crystal were beyond her ability to sense? Not only
that, but quartz crystal, like that associated with the skulls and the horns,
might as well be her kryptonite? She’d learned that in the most embarrassing
way imaginable.
“Mr. Shrike, only two horns are believed to exist. I’m not
sure I can find either one of them.” She cleared her throat. “And I’m certain
that I won’t find them if you call me sweetheart again.”
He laughed, but she’d expected no less. “I have faith in
you. But I’m not finished.” He braced his forearms on the desk and leaned
forward. “There’s something else I want.”
Of course there was.
“Have you heard of the Gems of Enoch?”
Her heart stopped. Just...stopped. Her chest tightened, her
breath burned, and her stomach dropped to her feet. Beneath her skin, she felt
her panic response rise up,
and she had to force herself to calm the hell down.
And was it her imagination or did she see Razr tense up out
of the corner of her eye? Had to be her imagination.
Unless he sensed the sudden, cold terror inside her?
She hid her anxiety behind a forced laugh. “Mr. Shrike.
Surely you don’t believe that silly legend.”
“It’s no legend.” Shrike’s brows slammed down in annoyance.
“Three gemstones made of angel blood, Grace, and tears. Each was rumored to
possess different powers, and each was placed in an angel’s care. These
gemstones, when activated together, formed powerful magic. But around a century
ago, three extraordinarily powerful demons defeated the angels and stole the
gems.”
He was right about the stones, but he’d gotten
the story wrong. Very wrong.
“I’m sorry,” she
said, “but I’m not wasting my time on a silly goose chase.”
“It’s true,” Razr chimed in, not helping her at all. “At
least, the existence of the stones is reality.” He wandered around the library,
his gaze seeming to take in everything at once, and Jedda got the feeling he
was committing every tome and every artifact on display to memory. “Shrike
fucked up the story though.”
“Really.” Shrike glared. “Maybe you could tell me where I
went wrong and how you know this?”
“The exploits of the angels who used the gems in battle are
well-recorded in Heaven’s Akashic Library, and I like to read.” Razr ran his
hand over a pile of books on the table near the window. “According to several
accounts, demons didn’t defeat the angels. Demons murdered the humans who were
the custodians of the gems.”
Well, that was a little closer to the truth, she supposed.
But only one human had been killed, and the guilt weighed on her like a two-ton
boulder.
Shrike gave a skeptical snort. “Why would angels need human
custodians?”
“Because the power contained in the stones needs a conduit.”
Jedda immediately cursed her loose lips. “At least, that’s according to the
legends,” she added quickly.
Storm clouds gathered in Shrike’s eyes and his fingernails
dug into the desktop. “It appears that my source hasn’t been entirely
forthcoming with information,” he ground out, and man, she wouldn’t want to be
that source. Then, just as quickly as the storm came in, it passed, and Shrike
looked between Razr and Jedda. “If humans hold the gemstones, how do the angels
draw on the power?”
“I don’t know,” Razr replied as he flipped through a book
about carnivorous vegetation in the demon realm. “I didn’t get that far in my
reading.”
Jedda knew the answer to Shrike’s question, but she didn’t
feel like sharing. Hell, she didn’t feel like remembering that the
angels wore special jewelry made from their corresponding gemstone. The angel
who had murdered Jedda’s sister, Manda, had worn an amethyst charm around his
neck that matched the stone Manda possessed.
“This,” Ebel said as he rubbed his finger across his
necklace’s pendant, “allows me to tap into the power of the gem I know is in
your possession.”
He looked at Jedda, Manda, and Reina in turn, his icy
gaze sending a tingle of dread skittering up Jedda’s spine. He’d caught them in
the house they’d shared, a sprawling seventeenth century French manor that had
belonged to their deceased parents.
“Where is it? Where are all three of them?” He moved
toward Manda as she cowered in the corner, his booted foot coming down in the
puddles of blood and gems spilled all over the floor. “I sense mine. You reek
of it. I want it back.”
“She can’t give it to you!” Reina screamed. “It’s
impossible.”
He grinned, and around his neck, the amethyst charm
glowed. Suddenly, his hand flew out, and a gash, larger than the others he’d
inflicted, split Manda’s skin from her shoulder to her elbow. She shrieked in
pain as blood streamed down her arm and pooled on the floor. Gems formed in the
blood, some no larger than a karat in size, while
others, like the duck-egg sized enchanted lapis they’d stolen from a vampire a
couple of decades before were more impressive.
Which was bad. The larger the stones that formed outside
her body, the more damage was being done to the inside of her body.
“Do you want to understand the full power of the gems?”
he asked silkily, and no, Jedda really did not. She and her sisters had each
claimed a stone and absorbed its considerable energy. That energy had given
them abilities they hadn’t possessed before, but they’d been aware that the
power of the gems wouldn’t be fully unlocked without their mates, and now it
looked like they were going to find out how powerful those things were.
Screams blasted through Jedda’s brain, screams that belonged
to her sisters, herself...no, wait...
She blinked, realizing she’d been lost in the past, when
right here in the present people were screaming from beyond the door. Shrike
was grinning.
“More sacrifices,” he purred, the ecstasy in his voice
almost as disturbing as what was happening in the other room. “Lothar is
demanding. And with every scream, his will is seeping into you.”
Horror left her struggling to breathe. “What...what do you
mean?”
“I mean that every day that passes without you bringing me
what I desire, more and more misery will wrack your
body and life. Don’t worry, it won’t kill you. But before the month is out,
you’ll wish it would.”
Razr tossed the book onto the pile on the table and spun
around.
“You sick fuck.” He twisted the ring on his finger as if
trying to find something to do with his hands that wouldn’t involve strangling
the bastard sitting across from them.
Jedda voted for the strangling.
Shrike’s eyebrows climbed up his forehead. “You’re a fallen
fucking angel.” He sneered. “An Unfallen, I suspect, but you still fucked up
enough to get kicked out of Heaven. So don’t tell me you’ve never killed
anyone.”
Razr’s voice went low and ominous, and the hair on Jedda’s
neck stood up. “As an angel I killed thousands of fiends like you. Some of them
even deserved it.”
“So will Jedda,” Shrike said, “if she doesn’t bring me what
I want.” He speared her with a look that promised agony on a grand scale. “And
you will update me daily on your progress, or I’ll send my men to deal with
you.”
Son of a bitch. This was why she was in business
for herself. Why she refused to work for anyone except
on her own terms. She didn’t like being controlled or tied to anyone, and what
Shrike was doing both tied her to him and controlled her choices for the next
month, at the very least.
Fury scorched her throat with every word. “So you brought me here under false pretenses in order to
force me to do your bidding?”
“This wasn’t entirely a ruse.” Shrike steepled his hands on
his desk, his countenance so laid back that she got the impression he fucked
people over a lot. And got off on it. “I do sponsor a legitimate annual sorcery
conference. You can Google it.”
She had, which was why she’d felt comfortable attending.
“I’m so going to destroy you on Yelp,” she snapped.
Razr laughed, but it abruptly cut off as he glanced down at
the back of his hand, where the raised outline of what looked like a wing was
glowing with an eerie crimson light. Had it been there earlier? She didn’t
think so.
“Well, well,” Shrike murmured. “An Azdai
glyph.”
Razr’s gaze snapped up to meet Shrike’s. “What do you know
about Azdai glyphs?”
“I know more than I should.” Shrike’s expression softened,
even as his voice grew bitter, leaving Jedda more confused than ever.
“I need to go.” Razr made a “come with” gesture to Jedda and
started toward the exit, but Shrike shook his head and the clank of a heavy
lock sliding into place rattled the door.
“We aren’t finished here.”
Razr wheeled around with a hiss. “If you know anything about
Azdai glyphs, you know I have to.”
“I know you need someone to deliver your punishment.” Shrike
came smoothly to his feet. “I’ll do the honors.” He held out his hand. “I owe
you for the right hook and the cracked skull.”
“Go to hell.”
“Once again, I’ll point out that you have no choice. This
castle is on lockdown and I just decided to keep it
that way until you agree.”
“What’s going on?” Jedda demanded. “I don’t understand any
of this.”
Razr explained, but his gaze remained locked with Shrike’s,
a battle of wills that she had a feeling wasn’t going to end well.
“Azdai was an angel before humans
even knew what angels were. Before the rebellion that got Satan thrown out of
Heaven.” Razr sucked air between his teeth as if he was in pain, but Jedda had
no idea what could be hurting him. “Azdai hurt humans
in the way human children sometimes pull the wings off flies. He was curious
and cruel, and he had to be punished. Fallen angels didn’t exist yet, so Heaven
came up with this glyph and the punishment that goes with it.” He held up his
hand, where the feather-shaped glyph burned bright crimson, so angry she
flinched. “When it lights up, it means that it’s time to experience punishment.
If the punishment doesn’t take place immediately, we suffer until some asshole
angel shows up to inflict the punishment tenfold.” He reached into his jacket
pocket and pulled out the most beautiful ivory-handled cat-o’-nine
tails she’d ever seen. Even the little bone spurs on the ends of the leather
strands had been polished to gleaming perfection. “And inflicting the
punishment on ourselves doesn’t count.” He unfolded the compact handle and
locked it into place, and then he passed the torture device to Shrike. Jedda’s
stomach turned over at the realization that the cat was about to be used. “We
earn extra credit when the punisher is merciless.”
“Extra credit?” she asked, feeling utterly sick.
“We can go longer between beatings.”
She put her hand over her belly, but it didn’t quell the
nausea. “That’s...barbaric.”
“You’ll get no argument from me,” Razr said as he removed
his jacket and shirt. As she suspected, he was as fit as an athlete, his
well-muscled broad chest tapering to a narrow waist and abs
she’d bet would make diamonds seem soft in comparison.
“Wait.” She leaped to her feet and tried to reason with
Shrike. “Don’t do this,” she pleaded. “I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll do my
best to find the items you want—”
“You’re already going to do that,” Shrike said.
She looked over at Razr, who was now removing the various
weapons strapped around his hips and looking at her like she was crazy for
wanting to help him. She kind of felt that way, she supposed. This was none of
her business. Heck, she didn’t know why he was even in the office in the first
place except that, oh, right, he’d tried to save her from the Dinner Party From Hell and had gotten caught up in the trap Shrike had
set for her. So, yeah, this was all her fault, and she didn’t want to see Razr
hurt.
“What can I do?”
Razr flung his clothes and half a dozen blades onto a chair.
“You can make sure this asshole doesn’t fuck with me when I pass out.”
With that, he reached out and grabbed the wall.