Blessed by Sapphires (A Dance with Destiny Book 2) (4 page)

“I do not know what more you wish to hear from me, Tony. I’ve told you before. When I am in need, it’s there.”

“So, your
God
—who supposedly killed you or banished you or whatever the hell he did—is taking care of your every need?”

“I can only presume that is true, yes.” I raised my eyes to meet his incredulous gaze. “It has been this way since the moment I woke in that Louisiana bayou.”

The wall opened back up and Tony led me to my intended door. The card key worked perfectly. I collapsed onto the bed, exhausted.

“Well, you make yourself comfy and I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said as he turned to leave.

I jumped up, halting his retreating arm. “Where are you going?”

“Home. I need a stiff drink and time to read.” He held up my tattered book for emphasis.

“No. Please, don’t take the book. What if something happens and I never see you again?” My words were a frantic plea. “The only thing making my torturous exile bearable is the treasure you now hold.”

I’m certain my oncoming panic was evident in my terrified eyes as I held fast to the startled man, my heart going wild within my chest.

Tony slowly relaxed, no longer resisting my urgent tugs. “Well, where am I supposed to read it then?”

I pointed to the lounge against the wall.

“The couch? This book will take me
hours
to finish,” he complained.

I spoke not. I only stared at him.

“Okay, fine.” His shoulders slumped forward in resignation. “You get some rest and I’ll read.”

He sighed loudly as he reluctantly plopped down on the hard sofa.

Chapter 5

Tony Delvado

(TOH-nee dell-VAH-doh)

When I woke this morning, Tony was sitting on the couch, elbows on his knees, head in his hands. I quietly slipped out of bed.

“And just where do you think you’re going, Miss Embarr?”

I jumped at the sound of his voice. I’d spent years in solitude. My communication skills are severely lacking and I have become accustomed to being neither seen nor heard.

Instinctively, I placed my hand over my racing heart. “Oh, you startled me. I thought you were sleeping.”

“On this lumpy old couch?” Tony had a rather incredulous look on his face.

“Apologies. Feel free to lie upon the bed and get some rest. I’m going to bathe and change into my fresh clothing.”

“Get some rest? How long do you plan on that bath taking?”

“Until I feel like myself again.” I spoke as honestly as I could.

“Oh, yeah. I forgot… Mermaid.” He chuckled and let his weary head fall back against the couch.

I couldn’t help the disappointing sigh I let escape. “I see you have read my life, yet you do not believe.”

“Well, the way I see it, I have two options here.” He stood, groaning as he stretched his arms and shoulders. “Either I drive you to the nearest mental hospital and check you in for the rest of your delusional life…” He collapsed across the crumpled bedcovers, kicking off his shoes.

I had no idea what he was talking about, but I knew he hadn’t finished. “Or?”

“Or, I choose to accept a little bit of the oddities I experienced with you yesterday and take this book as
symbolic
of your life experiences, not literal. Either way, I have someone I think you should meet. I’ll rest while you soak,” he said with a yawn.

Later, after we’d both eaten, Tony escorted me in the ever-present eighth layer form of transportation, a car. It was horrific. The terrorizing experience reminded me of my first trip into the clouds with Vittorio—mind-reeling and gut-wrenching. I could barely breathe the whole time it was moving. I half jumped, half fell out the door the moment it came to a stop.

“What are you doing?” He grabbed my arm, jerking me to my feet. “Are you crazy?”

“Wh-where are you taking me?”

“You act like you’ve never seen a car before.”

I dusted off my clothing. “I have
seen
thousands of them. I’ve just never been trapped inside one.”

He laughed as he helped steady my wobbly legs.

“Tony, you didn’t answer my question. Where are we going?”

“I’m going to be completely honest with you, Jenevier, and just lay it all out there.” He leaned back against the car, crossing his arms over his chest. “No matter what’s going on in that curl-covered noggin of yours, this whole thing is a complete load of bull. I’m a seasoned Detroit City cop and I’ve worked these streets longer than you’ve been alive.” He looked around at the people passing by as he continued. “I’ve witnessed crap that would put your little fictional book there to shame. The only thing keeping me from locking your odd little tush up in a nut house, is a rookie I trained a few years back.” His eyes came back to rest upon me. “And that, tiny
Angel
, is where we’re going.” He chuckled at his jabbing reference toward me.

I was shocked when Tony’s jacket started singing. He pulled out a black square and put it to his ear.

“What is it, Snyder?” He paused as if he were listening intently. “No, I can’t right now. Call Mason in on that one. As a matter of fact, call Mason in to cover for me the next few days. I’ve got something to take care of that’s pulling me out of town. Call if you can’t handle it, Snyder.”

Tony put the curious little oddity back in his jacket pocket. I was beginning to worry. He was yelling about locking me up in some kind of house, and now he’s talking to a man who’s nowhere to be seen.

“Tony? How do you fare? Do your wits flee?”

“I’m fine.” He threw his arm across my shoulders and started walking, forcing me along with him. “I guess if you’ve never been in a car, it would be ridiculous for me to ask if you’ve ever flown.”

“Of course I have flown.”

“No, not in your make-believe Vashti mask. Have you ever flown in a plane?”

“What’s a plane?”

“Enough said.” He placed both hands on my shoulders, turning me to face him. “Okay, listen up. All I’m trying to do here is help you. I don’t know any other way to do that than to take you to some podunk little town in Oklahoma called Marlow. Now, that’s much further than I care to drive. We can take a plane into Dallas-Fort Worth, which is as close as we can get. From there, we’ll rent a car and drive up to Marlow.”

“Why Marlow, Oklahoma?”

“That rookie I was telling you about? It’s where he lives.”

“What’s a rookie?”

“Sheesh, girl.” He took my elbow and led me into yet another building crowded with busy people. “It’s somebody who’s brand-new at a job. He came in fresh from the academy. I taught him all I knew. But he wasn’t from around here. The streets of Detroit can be a rather dreadful kind of scene some nights. One case in particular, well… it broke him. He moved back to Oklahoma and is now the sheriff in Marlow. I think you two need to talk is all.” He led me down a strange, echoing tunnel. “You ready?”

“No,” I admitted.

Tony just laughed.

Chapter 6

Marlow

(MARR-loh)

I don’t believe I have ever been to Texas before, perhaps on a mission once, I couldn’t remember for sure. I knew for a fact I hadn’t been there during this second life.

I’d only
thought
it was too hot in Georgia during the summer months. That was nothing compared to Texas. I felt as if the accursed sun was right above my head. Like I could just reach up and touch it. There were no beautiful green mountains for enchanted creatures to hide and play in, not in Texas. All around me was dry wind and sunshine.

How can it still be so hot with the wind blowing?

The car ride to Marlow wasn’t nearly as bad now that I knew what was going to happen. I quietly listened to the music Tony had turned on and gazed out the window at all the brown, all the dust, and all the cows. As far as I could see, there was nothing new to catch my view.

Tony lazily rested his arm over the top of the steering wheel and tilted his head toward me. “So, you think God took your soul and gave it to this guy you murdered?”

“I can only assume so, yes.”

“So… you don’t have a soul anymore?” He cocked one eyebrow, looking at me sideways.

“Only a small piece of one.” I looked back out my window at all the dust. “I feel it stir within me at times,” I whispered.

He thankfully turned his attention back to driving. “I always thought people without souls were evil,” he mumbled, mostly to himself.

“As did I.”

“I don’t get the feeling you’re evil.” He smiled sheepishly but kept his eyes fixed on the road. “But hell, what do I know? I mean, I’ve only been a cop for the last twenty-five years, and here I am… escorting an admitted murderer, and an obvious thief, clear across these United States.”

Perhaps he was joking. In truth he probably was, but my childish temper reared its ugly head. I hated all this lifeless brown and I hated this long dusty drive.

“I have broken no eighth layer law,” I snapped at him, viciously. “How is it you hold me in contempt for a crime I committed in a place you don’t even believe exists?”

“But your thieving ways started here, Milady.” He winked at me then.

Yeah, he was pushing my buttons and I didn’t like it.

“You witnessed such yourself and yet you could not prove it. I only took what was given to me. I’m not a thief. Do you condemn a man and punish him in Detroit, only to drag him to Texas and punish him anew for the same crime?”

“Well, no. Once the crime is paid for, it’s paid for.”

“I was punished for my crime in Vanahirdem. You claim no jurisdiction over that holy city and I expect no more judgments from you for my
assumed
crimes. The only reason I’m living on this ugly forsaken layer is to pay my debt to God, not you.”

“Hey, I’m sorry.”

His hand left the wheel, searching for mine. I pulled away, as close as I could get to the door.

“I was just thinking out loud, trying to rationalize this whole thing in my head. That’s all. No condemnation here. We good?” He did turn and look at me then, regret painfully obvious in his dulled eyes.

I softened a bit and sighed. “I would have a hard time believing such a story had I not lived through it myself. How can I expect any more from you? You don’t even have magic on this layer. How could you possibly believe?”

“My thoughts, exactly.” A curt grin turned up one corner of his mouth. “Here we are, Miss Embarr.”

“Where?”

“Marlow, Oklahoma.”

This placed was nothing like Detroit. “A city?”

“A town.”

“Where?”

“Right over there.” He pointed.

“It’s barely a village. How is it you call it a town?”

Tony only laughed as we pulled up to the tiny little police station he’d told me about, and went inside.

*****

“Well, I do declare, Tony Delvado. What in the world are you doing all the way out here? You look good, Tony, you look real good.”

The two friends hugged and laughed. I could tell they cared a great deal for each other, like brothers. Tony had filled me in on what a cop or police officer does here on layer eight. They function as a vital part of the same type of judicial system as the majestic Vanir. They’re much like Vinika, they collect evidence. The main difference I could see was that they took the accused to the judge. Vanir go to the accused. So, they were like the
warriors
of the eighth layer.

The younger of the two men had an even, lean build. He was tall, probably six foot one or two, with sandy blond hair, nearly the same color as all the dust flying around in the air. His skin was tanned bronze by the ever present sun and I couldn’t distinguish the color of his eyes because they were squinted closed by that same burning glare. He had a sharp, masculine nose and a whole mouth full of pretty white teeth. His laugh seemed young and naïve. But his features turned stern when Tony pointed my way.

“Jenevier, I’d like you to meet Rankin. Rankin Hart, this is Miss Jenevier Embarr.”

The sandy-haired warrior extended me his hand, but not his lovely smile. “Howdy, Ma’am. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

I bowed slightly as I took his proffered hand. “Hello, good sir. To tell you the truth, I’m not completely sure myself.”

I tried my best to mimic his accent. I’ve found that people are more at ease when you don’t seem so
alien
to them. I’d gotten pretty good with many of the accents on this layer and had even picked up lots of their strange sayings and phrases.

“Come on, you two,” Tony said. “We need to go somewhere a little more private.”

Rankin led us to a room much the same as the one I had sat in for so long with Tony back in Detroit.

“I must say, my curiosity is more than just a little piqued. Tell me what’s wrong, Tony,” Rankin said.

“Nothing’s wrong, Rankin. I just ran into this lovely lady standing in the middle of a busy intersection, writing in her journal. She freely offered to let me read it. Parts of it put me in mind of you.” Tony smiled and slapped the younger man on the shoulder.

I did not believe it possible, but the sheriff narrowed his eyes even more. “So, you came all this way to try and set me up with some stranger you found wandering those filthy Detroit streets? How pathetic do you think I am?”

“Aww, come on, Buddy. It’s not like that. I just wanted you to read her story. You might find certain parts of it very interesting.”

“Thanks, Tony, but I don’t have time to read some junkie’s sob story. I have a whole town to protect out here,” Rankin snapped.

Now, I will freely admit I didn’t understand everything this man said. Yet, his tone had caused my temper to rise. Many people on this layer shared in that ability. I didn’t fully understand their inflections. I guess you could say, they rubbed me the wrong way.

I purposefully put a sharp edge on my words. “Apologies, Sheriff, I would never dream of taking up your precious time. You are not worthy the honor of knowing my life as a Vanir. It’s obvious to me you didn’t pass your transformation. When the time for your sacred Pyrolysis neared, you faltered.”

One corner of his mouth twitched, turning up in a superior sneer. “What the hell is she talking about, Tony?”

“What I’m talking about, failed warrior, is the fact that you ran like a coward from God’s summons in the big city to hide out in some stinky old cow pasture, pretending to adjudicate the law. You couldn’t handle the real pain oozing from the underbelly of this wicked layer.” I slammed my hands down hard atop the metal table. “You ran back home crying for your mommy, while demons roam free, devouring little children!”

Blood now raced through my veins as it once had long ago in Vanahirdem. My senses were tingling and my hair felt as if it stood on its end. I sensed the once familiar electric pulses emanating from deep within my marrow. I tried, futilely, to rein this tempting emotion in before it consumed me.

“Now listen here, little lady,” Rankin yelled.

And
that
was all it took. “How dare you, Rankin Hart. How dare you call me thus? I have executed a thousand more than you even have the guts to merely witness. Never… call… me… little.”

The wicked smile I flashed him hit the very nerve I had intended. Instinctively, I crouched down—almost feral-like—when Rankin’s shoulder muscles twitched. My mouth watered. I felt that long forgotten heat trying to channel itself through my body. I felt alive. For the first time in years, my fingertips tingled. I imagined my diamond claws extending, dripping morbidly with the crimson blood of this mundane warrior of naught.

“Whoa, whoa now.” Tony held his hands up toward me. “What the hell, Jenevier? Calm down, Rankin. This isn’t what I intended. Everyone just relax and take a deep breath.”

“Tony! Why in the holy hell did you dump this sack of horseshit in my peaceful little town?” Rankin spat.

I was on the table in the blink of an eye, growling as a rabid beast, spittle gathering at the corners of my mouth. Rankin stumbled back into the corner. Tony grabbed me around the waist and tucked me behind him, pressing me to the wall.

“Dammit, Tony!” Rankin yelled again.

“Now just hold on a minute, Rankin. I swear I’ve never seen her like this. She was so docile and sweet and lost. I had no idea she’d completely freak out on you.”

“Well, now ya know.” He hastily straightened his tan shirt, adjusting his gun belt in the process. He pointed at me. I really hate when people point at me.

“I’m locking that animal up until I can get to the bottom of this,” he said.

Dear Reader, do not think ill of me for I know not where it came from, but I didn’t behave much like a lady during this part. I easily pushed Tony off me and leapt up on that little metal table. Rankin pulled his gun, pointed it at me, and screamed words my racing mind couldn’t comprehend. Tony got back to his feet and tried to diffuse the escalating hostile situation he’d inadvertently created.

I bent down, knees popping loudly, effectively ceasing all speech. “Rankin, Darling.” My voice was cold, icy. I was poised, ready for action. Reflexes heightened to an almost painful extreme. Only my toes and the fingertips of my right hand touched the cold metal I was perched upon. “Let me enlighten you,
Brother
.” Their widening eyes caused me to chuckle. The sound was eerily menacing. “I plunged a butcher knife through my tormented heart and out the other side.” I lightly touched the spot on my chest. “Not a single drop of blood, dear boy. Not one… little… drop. What do you think your measly gun will do? Do you think you can stop me? Do you think you can pull that trigger before I rip your scrawny neck out?” I sneered viciously. “Are you willing to stake your life upon it?”

“Jenevier, he’s an innocent!” Tony’s words hit their intended mark.

The realization of my near actions rocked the tiny fringe of a soul flailing around inside me. Horrified at my disgusting behavior, I hastily apologized before I ran from the claustrophobic office and out onto the long, dusty road.

And… I walked.