The Lost Soul Trilogy (Primani Book 5) (23 page)

“I can still use that,” Jimmy grunted. He jammed it into his pocket and went to help Aiden.

I gasped for some oxygen and looked for Sean. He was still battling Xarchi with Killian. I grimaced as I saw the burns. Both had been hit but were ignoring the pain. They were concentrating fiercely on their prey. They had him backed into a corner. What were they doing though? Xarchi was missing an arm and dripping black fluid all over the floor. He bellowed with rage and threw another fireball. Killian dove to the side and rolled to his feet. His back was to me so I couldn’t see what he did next, but he lifted his hand and a blinding light hit Xarchi in the chest. He doubled over with a roar. I strained to get a better view when a body sent me flying into a speaker. That hurt, a lot. I groaned and carefully pulled myself up. The speaker was history. The body that hit me belonged to the bass player. He sat up and shook his head. He was bleeding from a deep gash above one eye, but the rest of his face was okay. He grinned at me, showing a missing front tooth. Oops, okay, not completely okay.

A lot of the action was dying down now. Most of the human thugs had either killed each other or knocked each other senseless. There were bodies sprawled all over the place. A few people were still fighting though. I took a quick inventory. Dec had evidently destroyed his demon because it was gone and Dec was covered in ash. How did I miss that? He stood ready to jump in if Killian or Sean needed him.

Bleeding heavily from his nose, one of the guitarists swung the last usable pool stick across Skinhead’s head with a crack. The stick broke off into two directions, and Skinhead fell over like a tree. Aiden staggered over to the wall and collapsed against it. He’d just ended his fight by slamming the guy’s head into the nearest wall. He was breathing hard but still amped up on adrenaline. He gave me an unfocused sort of happy nod. Geez, men were stupid! He sagged to his knees. That’s when I saw the blood. His black t-shirt was soaked, and it was dripping down his leg.

“I’m fine,” he protested.

“Oh, right.” I peeled up the sticky shirt to find a nice big gash in his side. It must’ve been some knife. He hadn’t even felt it. I hoped the other guy looked worse. I dragged my sweater over my head and used my tee shirt as a bandage. It was clean at least.

“Jimmy? Help me!” Maybe he could keep pressure on this for Aiden.

“Mica! Look out!” Dec yelled at me.

Startled, I looked up just in time to see the third demon getting ready to throw a fireball at me. I threw myself to the side just as it landed. The reek of sulfur hit me, but I wasn’t on fire. I took a look at my patient. He wasn’t on fire either. Good for him. He had enough problems.

The demon wasn’t doing too well though. While focused on me, he didn’t notice the drummer and Missy sneaking up on him. When he released the fireball, the drummer jammed a drumstick into his eye. Enraged, the demon bellowed, the sound echoing above the chaos. His nasty eye was dripping yellow fluid all down his face. Two things happened at once. He spotted Missy just as she jumped up and kicked him in the back with a pretty impressive move. Both feet hit him, and he toppled onto his face. The drumstick went through the back of his head with a crunch. At the same time Missy kicked him, Dec jumped in and hit him with a fine blue light between the eyes. A split second after hitting the floor, the demon exploded in a cloud of ash.

Stunned, no one moved for a minute. Dec took over and got us moving. We had to get out of there before the cops showed up.

“Dec, what about the band? Everything they own is trashed!” I felt really bad about the guitar I smashed.

“Don’t worry about that now. They’ll be okay. I’m going to see if there are any survivors. We need intel.”

I’d almost forgotten our original mission. We still needed to know what was going on with the demons, and who was working with them. I hurried over to talk to what was left of RockHard!

They looked like combat survivors but were happy enough. Nothing like a good brawl to get the blood flowing… Aiden was awake but finally lying down. Jimmy was keeping pressure on the bandage. He probably had a broken nose, but the rest of him looked untouched. The drummer had a split lip and both hands were bloodied. I think one of his pinky fingers was broken. It stuck out at a right angle. Missy, like me, didn’t get hit in the face tonight. This was a new experience for me since I always get hit in the face! She was limping and had a couple of huge bruises on her arms though. She was also liberally dusted with demon ash and it was already starting to burn. She was scratching at it. Finally, I looked around for the Scottish dude. What happened to him? I didn’t see him and started to worry.

“Where’s kilt guy?” I asked Missy.

With a sigh, she gestured to the right. What on earth?

“Dude, what are you wearing?” He seemed to be wearing a… napkin? No, tablecloth.

Moving stiffly, he joined the rest of us. I stifled a laugh. Missy snorted. I bit my lip. He
was
wrapped in a tablecloth and cradled something dark in his hand.

“What’s that?” I asked.

Instead of answering, he sadly held up the remains of his kilt. There weren’t a lot of remains. It was a very small kilt with lots of burned edges. 

Chapter 23: An Assortment of Vows

“ARE YOU SURE this is a good idea? What if they need your help?” I asked for the third time. I was jogging to keep up with Dec.

He didn’t slow down. Exasperated, he said, “Sean and Killian have destroyed more demons than I have. They don’t need my help with that. Stop worrying. You’re messing up my concentration.”

The man we were tailing was moving surprisingly fast for someone who recently left a bar brawl. I guess he was knocked out early on and slept through it. He tried to slip out the door during the confusion, but Dec had spotted him just as we were about to leave. I wanted to help Sean, but Dec dragged me with him. So now we were tailing one of the thugs from a block behind. The man hadn’t seen us so he must be an amateur. We weren’t that good at hiding.

After several zigzags, I lost track of our direction. We hugged the shadows and followed the man to a bridge. He stopped at the base of the bridge to catch his breath. His back was to me, but I could clearly see him in the streetlight. He was wearing a Devil’s hockey jersey and a red skull cap.

As I caught my breath too, I pointed a thumb at the guy. “He has no taste in hockey teams.”

Dec gave me a confused look and hushed me. Apparently he had no taste in hockey teams either.

The area around the bridge was industrial and rundown. In the harsh winter light, it looked bare and abandoned. There were metal buildings surrounded by chain link fences clustered here and there. Parking lots were empty and rutted with packed snow. There were no trees or anything remotely vegetable in nature. Probably it was
really
ugly in the daylight. We hung back because there was little cover. Our luck held though. Our man was more worried about getting into a dilapidated warehouse than making sure he wasn’t followed. As he slipped through a gate, Dec tugged me behind the cab of an 18-wheeler parked in the lot. The warehouse was fabricated metal and the color was washed out in the poor light. It had an abandoned feel to it except for the security lights discreetly mounted on the corners. Ah. Someone didn’t want to be surprised. Where there are lights, there might be cameras. I made myself smaller behind the truck. We crouched and watched, and watched, and watched some more. Nothing moved.

“I hate to say this, but I have to pee. How much longer?”

After looking at his watch, he said, “We should get back anyway. We’re not going in by ourselves, and the others are wondering what’s going on.” He laughed softly at my surprised expression as he scooped me into his arms.

Our re-entry was much smoother than the last time I’d traveled. Instead of tumbling to the floor in a pile of body parts, we arrived in the living room exactly as we left the warehouse. As before, I didn’t notice the movement and was still protesting when I realized we had an audience. I stopped in mid-sentence as Dec set me back on my feet.

Alex dismissed me immediately and sent me to bed. Guess I wasn’t in the inner circle just yet. I should’ve been unconscious as soon as I hit the pillow. But I tossed and turned instead. Where were the others? Were they okay? What happened to the demons? Where was Sean? When I did finally fall asleep, I dreamed vividly and came awake with adrenaline surging through me. I lay shaking with the last fuzzy images from the dream fading into the dark. I was left only with a crushing feeling of loss. I tried to hold onto the dream, but it was gone. There was nothing for me to see. It was 5:00 and still very dark outside. Frustrated with the dream, I jumped into a hot shower and got dressed. It was going to be a long day.

I was surprised to find Raphael in the kitchen. He poured me a cup of coffee and sat down. We chatted about the brawl at Dump and the warehouse. He was interested in what I sensed there. Sensed? Hmm. “I didn’t sense anything. It was dark, cold… I didn’t sense anything weird.”

“You must have. You may not have mastered your abilities, but they won’t go away. They’ll get stronger as you mature. Even now your senses will pick up impressions and send them to your brain. It’s up to you to weed out the important information from the endless flow of mundane items. We’ve got nothing special to do right now. Why don’t we work on that?”

For the next hour, he patiently grilled me on every minute of last night. I was surprised by how much I absorbed unconsciously. By emptying my mind of the mundane images, things like weather, food smells, car horns, and people’s conversations, I was able to retrieve memories relating to what he wanted to know about. I described the faces of the sentries in minute detail. I was able to recall that the thugs in the bar spoke with a strange accent. I don’t remember noticing that while we were at Dump. After more thought, I recalled the looks of recognition between the Mob Guy and Skinhead. They ignored each outwardly, but they knew each other. Were they working together? Whose interests did they represent? What did they want from the demons?

Satisfied with my progress, Raphael gave me a fatherly smile and told me to go wake up the others. We had a lot to do today, and it was already 7:00. Feeling lighter somehow, I hopped up and set off to wake up the guys. They were sharing a suite that was beautifully decorated with black and white paintings and deep blue walls. Whoever decorated this place had a thing for blue, but the effect was lovely. I hovered in the doorway, marveling at the three bodies sleeping in front of me. I hated to wake them. Sean grimaced and flung out an arm. He’s dreaming again. I wish I knew what he dreamed about. He was making me crazy with his secrets. He mumbled something I couldn’t understand and inhaled sharply. Okay, that’s enough. It was time to wake them up. I cleared my throat. Killian sat up instantly, his eyes zeroed in on my face, hand wrapped around the haft of a knife. The sheet fell to his waist. My eyes followed the movement and got stuck. Whoa! Yum! He was all carved muscles and tan skin. He was perfect. With his face and this body… No woman would stand a chance if he actually cared enough to be charming.

Dragging my eyes away, I licked my bottom lip, and announced, “Uh, it’s time to get up. Raphael wants you in the kitchen.”

For once, he didn’t comment on my thoughts. Instead, he gave me a sardonic smile and swung his legs off the bed. Flustered, I scuttled over to Sean. He was awake and frowning at me. In fairness, he also looked perfect. He had a beautiful body too, but I was used to it. A naked Killian was a mind-blowing shock.

The morning meeting took a few hours, but everyone thought we were ready by the time we were done. The plan was simple. Later tonight, we would go to the warehouse and three Primani would slip inside to investigate. Killian was leading the operation and went over the plan again and again until we knew it by heart. I would play lookout on one end of the parking lot. James would play lookout on the other end of the access road. I was taking my Sig in case I was attacked. Sean and I were going over minor details now. I sat very still as Sean fitted me with a tiny earpiece.

“This will help us keep in touch with you. We’ll be silent most of the time, but if something happens we’ll let you know. Same goes for you. Don’t use the mic unless you have an emergency. We don’t want to be distracted once we’re inside. Got it?” He stepped back to look at his work.

My hair covered the tiny mic. Sean insisted I put on body armor for tonight. It was very lightweight, but I felt ridiculous wearing it. He adjusted it once more and declared me ready. We had a few hours to kill before it was time to go. I needed some quiet time. In my room, I stripped off my clothes and sat cross-legged on the floor to meditate. I closed my eyes and slowed my breathing. I cleared my mind and thought of my happy place. The tiny clear pool was surrounded with purple orchids and tendrils of mist. Dripping tropical plants hid the pool from prying eyes. I pictured myself standing in the pool with the small waterfall sluicing over my bare shoulders. Relaxing my shoulders, I took another deep breath. The waterfall was warm, and the air was sweet. I was very relaxed now and let my head droop.

A wisp of cool air washed over my wet shoulders. I whipped my head around to see someone else. His look of shock must have mirrored my own. Our eyes met. I couldn’t move if I’d wanted to. He approached me slowly as if I would bolt and run away. I trembled but didn’t move.

“You’re so beautiful. I didn’t see it before.”

And then he kissed me for the first time.

“Babe? Are you decent?” Sean’s voice brought me back to the physical world. He closed the door with a click.

Oh, thank God, that was just a dream! I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him like I would never see him again. I needed to kiss him, needed to feel
him
. I pressed myself against him, desperate to wipe that vision out of my memory. The image taunted me… floated inside my mind like a dream, a premonition. Squeezing my eyes shut, I clung to Sean, spreading kisses down his neck. What could I have been thinking? Sean was the only one I wanted, and I wanted him right now. Completely confused by my actions, Sean tried to pull back to say something, but I held his mouth to mine until he gave up with a groan. I forgot I was completely naked until his hands smoothed over my bare hips to curl around my butt. As his calloused fingertips stroked my skin, my heart pounded, my breath stopped, my muscles turned to mush. It was time. I wanted more than kisses, more than his hand on me. I wanted all of him. Everywhere. I rubbed against him like a cat. He yanked me against him, his erection hard against my belly. A hundred thousand years of instinct overruled any restraint I might have had.

Drawing back to look into my eyes, he whispered, “Are you sure? I don’t think I can stop…”

Arching up to kiss him again, I breathed, “It has to be now…” We might not get another chance.

Murmuring words I didn’t understand, he peeled off his clothes and lowered me to the floor. When I was completely breathless, he raised our hands above us. Although nearly blinded by the force of the current flowing through me, I could clearly see what he showed me. Our two hands were gone; there was only one, and the mirage flowed over our arms and chests to cover every part of us that touched. Blue eyes bored into mine as he pushed himself inside of me, and the two of us disappeared completely.

“I want to say
I love you,
but that seems like such an understatement now.” Sean smiled into my dazed eyes. “Are you still conscious?”

“I think so. I’m not sure this isn’t a dream. Did that really just happen?” I was still glowing… literally and figuratively. My body was gently pulsing with light, and the golden locket was shining against my skin. The lines of Sean’s body were indistinct… as if we were still one person. I blinked my eyes to clear the fuzziness. When I opened my eyes, the solid muscles were clearly defined. Something had definitely happened. I felt the click of connection and knew we’d both been changed.

“I’m surprised no one has knocked on the door yet. It’s getting late, isn’t it?”

Sean nuzzled my neck and informed me that they knew perfectly well where we were and were giving us some privacy. What did that mean? I tried to sit up, but he wouldn’t get out of the way.

“Are you telling me everyone knows what we just did?” I blushed to my toes.

“Not exactly. They aren’t in here with us, now are they? They can’t see through walls, right? But your thoughts aren’t exactly your own these days…”

Oh, God! “Killian knows? He read my thoughts? That’s sick!” I would have to kill him. That’s the only solution. And after that dream… Uh-oh! Did he see the dream too?

Sean was scandalized by this idea. “What? No, he wasn’t trying to read your thoughts. But your, ah, emotional state was pretty intense, and he would pick up on that even from the other room. I’m sure, well, mostly sure, he wouldn’t want to read your mind while we were…”

I covered my face and groaned. We’d be needed very soon, and I didn’t want to leave this bed. I pressed him against me and closed my eyes. I would remember this moment forever. No matter what happened tonight or tomorrow. Time was running out. I shoved the niggling feeling of foreboding into the back of my mind.

“Regrets, Mica?” He pried my hands away from my face. “I didn’t disappoint you, did I?”

“What? No, never! I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t understand my destiny, and I don’t understand
ours
. All I know is that I need you like I need air.”

“And I need you. Now, come on, love. We’re about to be interrupted.”

Awkward doesn’t begin to describe the atmosphere in the foyer. We’d gotten dressed for the mission and were in the foyer getting ready to leave. Sean was adjusting my body armor for the second time when Dec came in. Regardless of what he did or didn’t know, I turned purple with embarrassment. Dec didn’t say anything, but I saw the questions in his eyes. He looked from me to Sean and back again. He knew something was different but didn’t ask. His eyes settled on my mouth. My lips were puffy and slightly red from Sean’s kisses. He knew! I stared at the floor, hoping to become invisible. Sean ignored him while he adjusted my mic with a professional attitude. When he accidently grazed my neck with his knuckles, I felt the effect down to my toes. Dec snorted with amusement.

“What?” I whispered to Sean.

He shook his head with some humor. Dec snorted again just as Killian walked into the room. His expression was colder than I had seen it in years. His disapproval cut like a knife.