Renegade (43 page)

I wasn’t sure what I thought about Gemma and Cole’s relationship, but I guess it didn’t matter now because they would never get the chance to see.

“I’m leaving for a while,” Gemma told me.

“I wish you would stay.”

“I can’t stay here. Here is…
him.
”

I understood that. It was the same reason Sam didn’t want to sleep in the room he thought of as Logan’s.

“But you’ll be back?”

“Oh, yes. Unfinished business.”

By that I knew she meant Kimber. I didn’t try to talk her out of it. Kimber meant nothing to me. A hazy memory from the past. She was just someone I used to know.

“You’ll always be my family. My sister.”

“You’ll always be mine,” she replied.

A few moments passed by and then the giant bell on top of the church began to ring. Gemma got up and walked away without looking back.

I wondered when I would see her again.

*     *     *

It was nearly a week after Cole died. Nearly a week after I dialed 9-1-1 and the paramedics came to the farm, announced him dead on arrival, and zipped a body bag over his face. It was nearly a week ago today that the doctor came out and told a waiting room full of devastated people that Cole had suffered a heart attack likely from a preexisting heart condition that no one ever knew he had.

His mother had looked at me then from across the room, her eyes piercing me until everything else around us fell away and all I could hear was her silent accusation.

You. You did this. My baby is dead because of you.

Sharp, stinging pain brought me out of my thoughts and I looked down at the slice in my finger. Blood welled to the surface and I stuck my finger in my mouth because I’d rather do that than see the blood. I’d seen too much bloodshed already.

The half-peeled apple lay discarded in my lap as I stared out into the sky—the sky that promised snow. A pair of feet appeared in my line of site and I looked up, blinking at Riley like he might be a mirage.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey,” I replied, pulling the finger out of my mouth and putting it in my lap.

He sat down next to me. “Where’s Sam?”

“Work.”

“It’s cold out here.”

I shrugged.

“As soon as I listened to your message I came.”

I nodded.

“Cole, huh?”

I swallowed. “Yeah.”

“That sucks,” he said and put his arm around my shoulders. I felt the cold that he mentioned then. He was so warm that everything around us seemed frigid. I leaned into him a little farther.

“Aren’t you going to make some sarcastic remark?” I asked.

“Not today.”

We sat there for a while and then he pulled away, took the knife and the half-peeled apple from my lap, and began where I left off.

I watched him for a minute and then he glanced at me. The dark ends of his hair curled around his neck and hung over his ears. From this close I could see the deep cobalt that made up his eyes. “I wish I could see your aura.”

He smirked. “No, you don’t.”

“You’re different.”

“Different how?”

“Hell’s changed you.”

“Hell’s changed us all.” And with his words I knew he saw the way we all suffered. He felt what we’d been through, too. He just hid what he saw behind sarcasm and jokes.

“But it’s different for you. You’ve changed for the better. How has hell changed you in a good way, Riley?”

“I haven’t changed for the better,” he told me, his glance sliding away. “You’re just upset.”

“Maybe. But my being upset has never changed how I looked at you before.”

“Touché,” he quipped.

I gave him a light shove and he smiled.

“I like you, Riley Stone.”

“You’d be the first.”

“I thought the ladies loved you.” I joked. Something around him changed, just slightly.
Was this about a girl?

“Most of them,” he replied, concentrating on the new apple in his hands.

“Most?”

“Some girls are just too good for a guy like me.” He said it lightly, but I heard the weight behind his words.

“I don’t believe that,” I said, bumping my shoulder into his.

He didn’t reply and I got the feeling he was done talking about it, but I wasn’t ready to let it go. I was about to push for more when a car pulled up to the house. I stiffened so Riley did too, looking up sharply at the visitor.

He grunted when he saw who it was, but when I didn’t relax, he glanced at me and then back to Kimber climbing out of her new car, still as shiny as the day she bought it. I wrapped my hand around the muscle just above Riley’s elbow as if he would anchor me and keep me from clawing out her eyes.

“Heven, we need to talk,” Kimber said, stopping in front of her car and looking at me. Her hair was limp, her skin was pale, and she was actually wearing a dreaded pair of sweatpants.

“Get off my property before I make you,” I said, low.

Riley looked at me sharply. “Doesn’t she live here?”

“No.”

Kimber’s lower lip wavered and it made me angry. “I would never hurt him.”

I felt my nails dig into Riley’s arm.

“You have to know that, Heven. I loved him. More than anything.”

The grass beneath her feet suddenly caught on fire. She jumped backward and glared at me. So I lit the new patch under her feet too. She jumped back. The fire followed. This went on until the yard looked like it was full of polka dots.

“Want to fill me in here?” Riley murmured out of the side of his mouth.

“She killed my brother.”

This seemed to shock Riley and he looked at Kimber who was finally getting a break from flame hopping. “Her?” he said, pointing at Kimber.

“Yes, her,” I snapped.

“It was an accident,” she implored.

“Okay, she was trying to kill Gemma and Cole got in the way,” I said through clenched teeth. The bush near the house went up in flames.

“Oookay, time for you to go, Red.” Riley got up and went over to Kimber, grabbing her by the arm and forcing her toward her car.

“I want to explain,” she told Riley.

“Clearly no one here wants to hear it. Leave or become barbeque.” He shoved her into her car and shut her door against whatever she was saying. The fire in the bush grew larger by the second.

Heven?
Sam said, no doubt picking up on my stirring emotions.

Kimber was here.

How much damage?

Not nearly enough,
I replied as I watched her drive away.

Beside me Riley was putting out the fire with a nearby fire extinguisher.

I’ll be home soon.

I’ll be waiting.

Riley dropped the red can at his feet. “This happen often?”

“Yep.”

“How about instead of lighting anything else on fire, you go make me a pie with these apples?”

He looked so hopeful I smiled.

“There it is,” he said.

“Why are you here, Riley?” I asked, still smiling.

“You called.”

“That’s it? No sign of Beelzebub?”

“Nope. He’s still here on Earth, causing trouble.”

I glanced back to where Kimber had driven away. Earth didn’t need Beelzebub around to make trouble. It seemed we humans made enough on our own. The truth was he’d been very quiet. I hadn’t seen or heard from him since that day at the school.

“I want those souls released, Riley.”

He nodded. “I know.”

“No, I want them released now. As soon as possible.”

“As soon as we can find them—” he began, but I made a sound, cutting him off.

“You don’t understand,” I started. “I’m tired, Riley. I’m tired of people dying. I’m tired of hurting, of wondering. I’m tired of knowing my mother is suffering. I’m going to find those souls. I’m going to do it soon and then Beelzebub and Hecate won’t be able to hurt us anymore.”

I didn’t realize I’d been crying until Riley wiped a tear off my cheek and rubbed it on his jeans. “Let’s do this,” he said.

“Let’s do this.”

Heven

In a strange way the death of my brother was a motivator. I wanted time to grieve, time to really mourn the people we’d lost. I realized I would never truly be able to have that until this was over and Beelzebub was too busy trying to build up his power source (stolen souls) to come after me and my loved ones anymore.

I wanted to hide. I wanted to dig out one of those oversized hoodies I used to wear, comb my hair over my face, and stay inside alone, but that wasn’t an option anymore. I was past that. I knew that wasn’t the answer.

The only way I was going to truly get my life back, to truly have the time and space I desperately wanted to grieve, was to fight.

So fight I would.

Today was the day. Today was the day we were going into hell and I was going to find those souls no matter what it took. I owed it to myself and to my mother.