The Lost Soul Trilogy (Primani Book 5) (96 page)

“According to the news, he shot her in the head and burned her body inside her car.”

Dec sat up straight, his eyes gleaming, “He
shot
her?”

“That’s what the news said. Why?”

Unable to contain his excitement, Dec pushed back from the table and got up to pace. “We had a plan for her. After what she did…we had a special end in mind for her. There’s no way he would’ve given her such a painless way out.” His voice dropped to a near whisper and he added, “No way he would’ve made it that easy for her.”

I asked, “So he didn’t kill her?”

Dec smiled somewhat evilly and shook his head. “My gut says he didn’t. I need to see him. Let’s go!”

The snow was still coming down when we pulled into the parking lot at the Stone Garden. It was fully dark already, but the snow gave off a pale light as we trudged through the thick coating on the paths.  Killian halted in front of the statue that was supposed to be Sean and Dec stopped beside him and bowed his head. Then he did something strange. He went to the base of the statue and wrapped his arms around the robe. He whispered something in their ancient language and waited. The stone wavered and shimmered and finally vanished to reveal Sean kneeling in prayer.

Dec cupped his brother warrior’s face between his hands and leaned his forehead against him. “What have you done, Sean?”

His eyes were closed, but they slowly cracked open and blinked. When he saw Dec, his eyes filled with tears. There was no expression on his face.

Oh, God, Sean! I stared in shocked horror as every detail came into sharp focus. His face was bleached white with pain and his eyes blood red in their sockets. The muscles in his arms and shoulders were hard with strain, the veins ropey and prominent. His fingernails were gone; the tips of his fingers shredded and bloody. I lurched towards him but Dec caught my waist and swung me back into Killian’s hands.

Turning my face away, he said flatly, “We’re going to fix this. You have to believe me. I need to talk to him now, and I need you to chill out and not interfere. Can you do that for me?”

Caught by surprise by this new authoritative tone, I could only nod and say, “Can you stop the pain? Please, Dec? Can’t you help him?”

He worried his lower lip and studied Sean’s condition. “Maybe. Let me think about it.”

Killian led me back to the shelter of the church. With his back against the door, he pulled me against his chest and turned on the heat.

“I’m sorry you had to see him like that. Are you okay?”

“Are you kidding? Of course I’m not. That’s torture! Are all the others in the same position? No wonder they cry. No wonder I feel waves of pain the minute I walk up to them. It’s barbaric!”

“It seems that way to you, but this is our way. Each angel clearly understands their duties and the consequences of straying. Sean knew it too.”

At my huff of disagreement, he said, “Angels aren’t people, babe. We’re held against much higher standards, and rightly so, don’t you think?”

Normally, I would’ve automatically agreed with that thinking, but this was different. Sean was
my
angel…he wasn’t just any old angel. He was special. His life had meaning--

“As do the lives of every angel. Do you see the flaw in your argument?”

Turning to face him, I muttered, “No. I still say Sean is special. He’s not like the others.”

Sighing deeply, he wisely kept his mouth shut until Dec sprinted over to us.

“We should go! We should go NOW!”

Alarmed, I looked for incoming and saw nothing but the snow falling in clumps. He grabbed my arm and teleported us to the car.

Once inside the safe house, Killian scowled at Dec. “What the hell did you do?”

Trying to look innocent but failing miserably, Dec peeked through the living room curtains and bit his lip. “I, uh...nothing. You shouldn’t know the details. I’d hate for you to end up in the same position.”

Killian took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. I could feel the annoyance wafting around him like a cloud. Oh, Dec…what did you do? Dec fidgeted and stared out the window again.

“So what happened?” I finally asked to break the tension.

Dec flung himself into a chair and said, “Here’s the deal. He tried to be cagey about it, but I know he didn’t kill that woman. He’s hiding something and I think I know what he’s up to.” He turned to Killian and said, “We need to find that woman--she’s still alive. If we can find her, we can get him out of there.”

“Still alive? That’s nuts.”

He shrugged and grinned, “Nope, darlin’, not nuts. That’s Sean’s twisted little plan playing out. By the way, brother, how’s the search for
Sgaine Dutre
coming along?”

Killian started to answer and froze in mid-word. His eyes went speculative and then gleamed with satisfaction. I went a little weak in the knees when he turned those eyes on me. A slow grin spread from ear to ear and he practically purred, “It’s still MIA.”

CHRISTMAS WAS COMING soon. It was already December and we were settled in to stay here for the holidays. My parents weren’t happy about me missing Christmas with them, but hey, I wasn’t happy that Sean was missing parts of his fingers. They’d have to forgive me just this once. There was no way I was leaving England. I still hated England, but I wasn’t leaving. Dec’s plan had to work because spending the rest of my natural life living here sounded a lot like Hell. It was just too wet. And cold. And gray.

“If you don’t get a move on, the good stuff will be all gone,” Dec nudged me.

He was trying to get me to move faster but I was stuck in slo-mo this morning. My brain was still half asleep from the trip to New York.

Scowling up at him, I finished stuffing my foot inside my boot. “It’s not my fault I’ve got jet lag. All this traveling is messing with my nervous system. My fingers are tingling.”

We’d been back and forth to Manhattan three times in the past week following up on leads about Christine Miller. After going to see Sean, we were all filled with a fanatical sense of purpose. Finally we had something positive to cling to. If Dec’s gut was right, there was a way to get Sean out of this mess.

In the spirit of divide and conquer, we’d split up and gone our separate ways. Killian was out scanning the universe for Aisling. Rivin was holed up with our bio experts going over all things smallpox. Killian shared the details of his meeting with Jordan (nut job!) and Alex agreed that jump starting Armageddon was too big a threat for our small team to manage alone. So Killian had detailed Rivin to work with other Primani to figure out likely targets, methods of disbursal, and likely numbers of dead. Rivin had glowed with happiness when he got the assignment; weapons of mass destruction were apparently his sweet spot. Even though he clearly couldn’t stand Rivin personally, Killian was very sure he would be able to do this part. I had my own doubts about Rivin, but I believed in Killian’s leadership. If he felt it was safe, it probably was. So while they were off saving millions of people and one lonely Primani, Dec and I were trying to spring Sean from prison.

Today we were back in England supposedly taking a rest. Like all Primani, Dec had to conserve his power for fighting. Traveling with me took a huge toll on his energy resources. The trip back here had been a little scary. The normal blur of movement and shift of air pressure seemed to slow down, the time space undulated erratically and my body slipped away from his just as we rematerialized in the safe house. My fingers had been tingling ever since. I studied Dec’s face and noticed the strain around his eyes.

I reached up and smoothed the lines around his eyes. “Dec, you have to rest. You’re burning yourself out.”

Taking my fingers, he kissed them one at a time until the tingling faded. Grinning with both dimples, he quipped, “You’re wrong, darlin’. I’m stronger than I’ve ever been. You need a rest though. I’d hate to have to explain to Killian that I’ve scrambled your circuits!”

A bit later, he took my hand while we wandered through a Christmas fair in a smallish village outside of London. Local vendors had set up booths to sell handmade items for gifts or decorating. The smell of food drifted on the air and my stomach rumbled in question. It wasn’t positive I’d actually feed it…rubbing absently, I resisted the urge to comment. We’d eat something while we were out, but right now I was cold. I sipped a cup of hot tea and burned the crap out of my tongue.

“What do you think about this one?” Dec held up a black scarf with an electric blue zigzag across the side. Wrapping it around his neck, he turned around for me to see his gorgeousness 360.

The giggles of two pretty girls caught his attention and he glanced over at them. Both were bundled up against the cold but there was no mistaking their appeal, or the thoughts racing through their heads. He was hot and they knew it. He winked at them and turned back to me.

“For you? Oh, definitely. It’s got your name written all over it!”

He rubbed the soft material between his fingers and nodded. After paying the bored man running the booth, he slipped it around his neck.

The vendors were all freezing and most clutched a cup of something steaming in their hands. A few had little space heaters glowing gently but it was too cold for them to be much help. The grey sky promised more snow and a chilly wind kept blowing my hair into my eyes. I hadn’t braided it before we left and it was all over the place. Every few seconds I reached up and dragged it off of my face. Tired of me bumping into him, Dec finally bought me a soft purple hat and slid it over my head to tame my hair. Tucking my hair out of the way, he said, “That’s better. Come on, I want to walk.”

Hand in hand, we followed the sidewalk out of the village. The cobblestone walk wound like a snake through the outskirts and disappeared into a narrow lane. The lane meandered into dead fields and finally into a patch of forest.

“I’m so unbelievably glad you’re not dead.”

He swung me off my feet and laughed, “Back at you! Do you know how much I worried about you? You’re like a death magnet.”

“Yeeeahhh. It does seem to be a problem.”

I didn’t want to think about that. I had felt the same thing in the past couple of years. I was really tired of fighting for my life. It seemed like destiny wanted me to prove I had the right to live. If you asked me, that seemed a little harsh. I mean, really. I didn’t notice the other billions of humans fighting to survive demons and psychopaths. At some point, I hoped they’d all leave me be, or just kill me off already. The anticipation sucked.

We walked in comfortable silence into the woods, Dec’s supernatural warmth surrounding me as much as his arm. He held me tightly against his side as we wandered along. It was good to know he still needed me as much as I needed him. Since he’d been back, the weight of the world was easier to carry. I didn’t really appreciate how miserable I’d been until he came back and kicked misery to the curb.

Not so with Dec…Distracted, he gazed off into the trees without seeing them. His body hummed with the force of emotion raging inside his mind. Frustration and anger…regret. Sadness.

“Spill it, Dec. What’s going on in your head?”

With sober eyes, he turned to me and said, “I wanted to come back. You need to believe that.”

Nonplussed by this confession, I nodded. “I believe you.”

“I
wanted
to come back!” He was agitated now and dropped my hands. “I watched you and Sean fall apart, in the tunnels…and later…doing nothing to stop it. I watched him hurt you…over and over again. But I couldn’t come back.” He kicked at a log and it flew 20 feet and landed with a crash.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?”

His mouth twisted into a grimace and he said, “I wish I could. But no, it’s not allowed. I can only say I was healing. That day in the tunnels, after Jordan broke my neck, Raphael intervened. I should’ve been able to heal myself but Jordan’s magic blocked my
saol
…” his voice trailed off. After a pause, he shook himself out of the memory and said, “I felt myself fading…just fading into the shadows. I tried to call Killian but my voice was gone. So I lay there and…just watched…helpless. When my heart stopped beating, my soul drifted and that’s when Raphael snatched me to him.”

Raphael. Killian’s maker. Sean’s maker. Dec’s…

Raphael…he would protect his boys, wouldn’t he?

“Raphael saved you. Michael healed you.”

That wouldn’t happen without a price tag. The angels wouldn’t preserve his life just because it was his. His life had a higher purpose. I knew this as well as I knew my own name.

“Yes. And now it’s time for me to earn my keep. You and I have work to do. This is the most important mission you will ever have, Mica. Failure is not an option.”

A chill slid between my shoulders and I wrapped my arms more tightly around myself. Dec abruptly stiffened as he listened to a silent voice. Killian? Raphael? Who was he listening to? He snapped back into awareness and flashed a relieved grin at me.

“We’ve got the go ahead. Are you ready to work a few miracles, love? I hope you can handle it, cuz I’ve just been unleashed!”

Late that afternoon, the snow had stopped and the air was crisp and frigid. What was up with this weather? According to most people, England wasn’t supposed to be this cold. But we were being treated to a lovely cold spell. Yay, this was awesome. I shivered in my coat and pulled gloves over my fingers. Sure, I could take advantage of my supernatural energy, but figured it would be better to conserve power, so to speak. Go green and all that. Dec pulled the McLaren around to pick me up and I slid into the toasty warm interior.

“You look nice,” I observed.

He’d gotten a haircut and shaved off the blond scruff that was perching on his chin. Baby smooth skin looked better on him. His eyes were glowing softly in the dim light of the streetlights we passed.

“As do you, pretty girl. I’m going to have to kick some ass tonight, aren’t I?”

Shaking my head at his resigned tone, I said, “I doubt it. No one even looks at me. It’s like I’m invisible.”

Barking an amused laugh, he said, “Well damn. If I was Killian, I’d make damn sure you were invisible too. Smart man.”

“He would never do that to me! He trusts me. There’s no way he’d put some kind of glamour spell to hide me.”

He arched a brow and said, “Mm hmm.”

Killian wouldn’t put a spell over me. Would he? Surely not. No way. I’d never believe it.

I was still pondering this mystery when we parked at the pub and got out. Dec, sweet being that he is, came to my side and held my hand so I wouldn’t slip on the ice. Walking with a hand on my elbow, he towed me to the entrance while scanning for demons.

I entered the room first and no one looked up. Not a single person glanced in my direction. Huh. The smart ass inside of me took over and I waved my hand in front of the nearest man. He looked right over me to rest his eyes on Dec’s tall frame. Their eyes met for a split second and the man looked away.

Smiling a bit too smugly at me, he said, “See? You’re invisible. That’s great because I don’t have to tear my new shirt fighting some idiot over you; on the other hand, now it’ll look like I’m talking to myself all night. Chicks hate crazy men.”

“Not like you’re looking to get laid anyhow,” I muttered in a grouchy tone.

“Don’t presume to know about my sex life, darlin’. Just because I don’t shove it in your face doesn’t mean I don’t have one. I’m just a lot more discreet than, say, Rivin.”

Beautiful, innocent Dec had a sex life?

The world as I knew it will never be the same!

“Close your mouth. You look silly. I’m over 1,500 years old. Of course I have sex. I happen to like it just fine.”

Dec? I’ve never seen him even
flirt
with a girl. This was new information that I realized I didn’t actually want. Definitely TMI. My brain was busy trying to spit it out like spoiled sushi.

He gave me an amused nudge and I led the way to a booth with a good view of the door. After making sure I was situated, he got up to order us some drinks. I watched him as he stood casually against the bar chatting up the bartender. He’d filled out in the past months. His tall frame was much more heavily muscled. He was made more like Sean now. They could really be brothers. They had the same broad shoulders and narrow hips with washboard abs supporting it all. He wore his typical straight-legged jeans and a button down shirt with the sleeves shoved up. The muscles in his shoulders filled out the shirt more than they had before and I resisted the urge to look at his butt. No way. I am not going there. Dec was like my brother and that would be weird.

“Why are you thinking about Dec’s butt?” an amused voice growled softly in my ear.

Before I could answer, he slid smoothly into the bench beside me. Tugging my jaw to part my lips, he leaned in for a very long, very thorough, and very territorial kiss. By the time he let me up for oxygen, I was torn between amusement and frustration…the good kind.

Blinking into his wicked baby blues, I found myself more than frustrated. It suddenly seemed like an emergency.

It was absolutely life or death.

A vague impression of an hourglass flashed in my mind and I gripped the edge of the bench hard enough to break a nail. The wave of heat left me breathless. I wanted him
now
. The object of my attention lowered his eyes to my throat and leaned closer to whisper in my ear.

“You’re throwing off take-me-I’m-yours vibes like solar flares, babe. Did I come at a good time?”

He punctuated his question by running his hand under the back of my sweater and up to toy with my bra straps. The hazy hourglass solidified into a real vision and I gasped as I saw how little sand was left.

I couldn’t seem to help myself; there was someone else controlling me. I would swear to that later. But for now I didn’t care who was in charge or who might be watching us. I pulled his mouth back to mine and said sharply, “Car, now!”

Dec’s face went from ‘hey, great you’re here!’ to ‘what the hell?’ as we bolted out of the booth. Killian looked over his shoulder and shrugged. Dec tossed him the keys and sat down to wait.