The Three Fates of Ryan Love (25 page)

Sabelle knew better than to ask, just as she knew not to meet Aisa's eyes. She'd been Aisa's slave for her entire life. A simple look from the woman—
her mother
—could bring Sabelle to her knees.

A raven cawed and circled overhead. More joined it, skimming the low clouds, centering their flight above the humans and Aisa, avoiding the higher ground where Roxanne and her reaper waited.

Aisa turned her chilling stare to Ryan.

“Resilient as ever, Mr. Love.”

“You sound disappointed,” Ryan replied, eyeing the birds distrustfully. “I'm hurt.”

“A nice, clean car crash would have made things easier.”

“Easy's not really my style. You know what they say: Go big or go home.”

“In this case, I pick go home. You to yours. You can take that one with you.” She gave Elijah a dismissive glance. “He's defective anyway. I'll keep the others.”

“Defective because he's only human?”

“See, we do understand each other.”

“Not quite. You're not keeping anyone. Not Sabelle, not Joel or Elijah. Not my family. Got it?”

Aisa stretched her lips. Sabelle supposed she meant to smile. “What about the reaper? Am I permitted access to him?”

“Wrestle that alligator on your own, lady.”

“I appreciate your stand, Ryan. I truly do. But I'm not known for my patience and the wants and whims of humans . . . I really don't give a shit about those.”

“Sounds like a personal problem. Maybe it has something to do with all that gray hair and wrinkles. You should moisturize. Hydrate.”

Aisa narrowed her eyes. “You
are
as dumb as you look.”

“I get that sometimes.”

“I'm sure you do.” Aisa locked eyes with Ryan and stared deeply. Ryan's hand tightened around Sabelle's and his muscles tensed. Sabelle knew he was weighing odds, looking for weaknesses, calculating how fast he could move. What damage he could do to Aisa; what damage she would do to Sabelle, Joel, and Elijah. The answers were clear. None and total.

Aisa didn't let him look away and the birds spiraled down, down, until Sabelle could feel the brush of their feathers, smell the musty stench of their bodies.

Aisa said, “Sadly, you're missing the point here, Ryan. The simple fact is, I can take . . . I can
keep
whoever I want.”

She paused, and her satisfied expression alerted Sabelle a second before she noticed that Ryan's face had gone blank, his eyes distant and unseeing. Was Aisa whispering in his mind?

“What are you doing to him?” Sabelle demanded.

“Whatever I want,” Aisa answered coldly.

Ryan didn't even blink. Sabelle squeezed his hand, tugged. “Ryan,” she shouted, pulling harder.

The birds shrieked and fluttered as they landed on the ground all around them. Fear rose up like a sickening wave inside her. Sabelle could feel the emotions raging beneath Ryan's lax expression, emotions Aisa had trapped inside.

Still kneeling in the mud, Joel cut his eyes back and forth, splitting his attention between the unfolding drama and Elijah's labored breathing.

Aisa leaned close and spoke in Ryan's ear. “Reece says hey, by the way. I'm afraid his new digs aren't quite up to par, but he's a stubborn one, your brother. He'll have a thousand lifetimes to regret his decisions . . . and yours. You could've upgraded his standard of living so easily.”

Ryan was breathing fast. Aisa had hit her mark. Satisfied, she turned her attention to Sabelle.

Sabelle held herself very still, trying to hide the panic that cramped her muscles and made her shake, trying to think of some way to intercept, intercede, but she was so afraid and Aisa . . . Aisa was so powerful that even in illusion she made Sabelle want to cower.

“Sabelle's a mouse, Ryan. You won't even miss her when she's gone. Let her go.”

Sabelle thought he shook his head, but she couldn't be sure. She didn't understand what Aisa had done to him, but she guessed that whatever it was, she could have done it at any time. Joel thought Aisa had a plan from the start and Sabelle had to agree. Aisa had allowed Ryan to feel that he had free will so he would bring Sabelle to Joel and Elijah. She still had no idea why Aisa wanted that, though.

“Let Sabelle go, Ryan. She's mine.”

The coaxing tone, the dark words . . . Sabelle's horror blossomed into terror.

Aisa switched her attention to where Joel knelt on the ground. Elijah lay across his lap, unmoving. “That doesn't look good,” Aisa said. “One can only hope the ambulance gets here soon. It would be a shame if they got lost or the police . . .” She paused and looked up at the ridge where the police cars waited with their flashing lights. “Or if the police thought you'd done something wrong. You might resemble killers on the loose.”

Sabelle swallowed hard and forced herself to meet Aisa's eyes. Her knees shook, her throat felt hot and swollen, but she kept her shoulders squared and her gaze steady.

“Defiance isn't a good look for you, seer,” Aisa warned, and Sabelle struggled not to cringe.

Aisa stroked Ryan's cheek, never looking away from Sabelle.

“It's time for your little snowflake to come home, Ryan.”

Ryan made a tortured sound, but still he didn't move, didn't speak.

“Joel should come with her. Tell them to give me their consent and I won't send deranged policemen to rape and murder your sisters. I won't urge a drunken doctor to perform massive surgery on Elijah's wounds. I won't kill everyone you've ever cared about.”

A big, fat raven flapped its wings and perched on Ryan's shoulder just as a sound from up above echoed down at them. An instant later, a bullet plowed up the mud and dirt near Joel.

Sabelle jumped, staring in shock at the point of impact. Joel shouted, pulling Elijah closer. Ryan didn't even flinch.

“I love it when a plan comes together, don't you?” Aisa said. Another gun went off. The bullet whizzed over Sabelle's head and snapped the tether of dread that held her prisoner. Ryan had tried so many times to protect his loved ones. She wouldn't stand by and watch him fail now.
She
would protect
him.

“You can't just
take
us,” Sabelle said angrily.

Aisa's eyes widened in surprise. “I don't intend to. That was yesterday. Today I expect you to beg for the privilege.”

Two more guns went off, their sharp claps overlapping as they traveled down. The first bullet slammed into a low, flat boulder near Brandy and sent shards of granite flying. A jagged piece hit the dog and made her yelp. The other bullet caught Elijah in the shoulder. His body jerked and blood pooled around the wound instantly.

“Send her back, Ryan.”

Aisa was toying with them, delighting in their fear, their wounds. She'd whittle away chunks of Sabelle's friends, of the man she'd come to love—had probably always loved—until she finally got what she wanted.

With the clarity of a vision, Sabelle saw the truth. She could never win against Aisa. She'd been a fool to even think it possible. Now she had two choices. Watch Aisa torture to death the people she cared about or sacrifice herself.

The next bullet caught Elijah in the gut and Sabelle heard the message. Aisa had run out of patience with her game. She'd escalated from playful to deadly and the next shot would be for keeps.

Still Ryan said nothing. He stared sightlessly, entrapped by whatever Aisa spun in his head.

“Fuck,” Joel shouted, trying to cover Elijah with his body. His face was red, splattered in blood and mud. He looked like he wanted to charge Aisa, but he didn't want to leave Elijah unprotected. Another shot embedded itself in Elijah's thigh. Blood gushed from both wounds as Joel tried futilely to stanch the flow.

“The next one has Ryan's name on it,” Aisa warned.

“No,” Sabelle said.

The bullet seemed to come before she heard the shot. It grazed Ryan's arm, tearing through his shirt and leaving a red trail in its wake, more threat than wound. Sabelle knew that Aisa wouldn't kill Ryan right away—he was her bargaining chip. Still, it terrified her how Ryan didn't even jerk with pain.

“That was close,” Aisa said, smiling sweetly at Sabelle. “Beg and I'll make it stop.”

“You fucking bitch—” Joel yelled as the next shot cut through Ryan's shoulder and out the other side.

“I beg you,” Sabelle cried, watching in horror as blood spread. “I beg, I'm begging. Take me. Please—”

Ryan made a sound—muffled but agonized—and Sabelle took a step forward, hoping. His eyes met hers and in them she saw his rage and confusion. Panic added darkness, fear made them wide.

Aisa hadn't released her hold, but he fought her power. “I'm sorry,” Sabelle sobbed. “I'm sorry.”

She screamed as the next bullet slammed into the ground so close to Elijah's head that mud sprayed his face.

“Beg,” Aisa said again, her voice soft, her command immense.

Her cold eyes were on Joel this time. Joel stared back at her with revulsion and loathing, but he gave her what she wanted.

“Yes,” Joel said.

“I didn't hear you.”

“Fucking yes. Whatever you want. Just stop hurting him.”

The gunfire ceased so abruptly that Sabelle's ears rang. She could hear a woman screaming, “Stop shooting, you idiots. That's my brother,” in the sudden quiet.

Roxanne desperately trying to stop the inevitable. And that's what this was, Sabelle realized sadly. She should have known. She should have been smarter. She, who thought it her duty, her
calling
to guide the fate of humans.

“No,” Ryan gasped, his voice rough and hoarse, as if inside he'd been screaming all along. A new emotion joined the turmoil in his eyes—pain. “No,” he whispered again. “Take it back. Dammit, take it back.”

But it was too late. Aisa had her consent.

Aisa slipped something around her neck. Sabelle jerked and looked down at the necklace Aisa had put on her. Its twin now circled Joel's neck, too. Some sane, rational part of her knew the necklace was an illusion, but Sabelle could feel the chill of the chain against her skin, the weight of it around her neck. She reached for it, trying to tear it off, but it slipped and slid through her grasp like a writhing snake.

Suddenly, Sabelle realized what it was . . . what it meant.

“No,” she breathed.

Copper, like the penny key chain Ryan had given her, it looked like an ordinary necklace, with dainty links on a shiny bright chain. A clear crystal with a red stain at its center dangled at the end of it, blunt-edged and heavy. Copper had powerful qualities, crystal held its own mysticism and blood . . .
Aisa's
blood . . . Sabelle shuddered.

It appeared to be a delicate piece of jewelry in this world, but in the Beyond, it would be solid and unbreakable, like Aisa herself. That's how she worked. Understated, terrifying.

The necklace was a manacle that would shackle her forever.

Sabelle had been a slave her entire life, but she'd never worn a collar. Aisa hadn't needed to use such tactics. Her seers had feared her wrath. When betrayed, she was vicious. Never lethal to her seers, but so cruel. So very cruel.

Sabelle knew the only way out of this collar was for Aisa to remove it, but she clawed anyway. Futilely, desperately, while Ryan fought the prison Aisa had erected in his mind. Sweat beaded on his brow and blood saturated his clothes, but he never looked away from Sabelle.

He managed to raise his hand, fingers trembling with the effort. He brushed her chest as he tried to reach for the necklace. Sabelle caught his fingers with hers and held them to her heart. The chain around her neck felt like it weighed pounds instead of ounces and it grew heavier by the second.

“I'm sorry, Ryan,” Sabelle said. “Please forgive me.”

Aisa allowed her that moment, but only because she knew how sweet it would feel when the reaper ripped Sabelle away. The darkness rolled in like a storm, clouded mist so black that it lacked depth but not texture. She felt the presence within, recognized the cold taste of death, the needy grasp of the reaper.

Aisa looked at Ryan. “You'll be seeing me again,” she said coldly. She vanished first, and Ryan's body suddenly went slack as her hold released.

Sabelle's gaze snapped up, knowing it would happen suddenly. “Good—”

Ryan's shouted “
No!
” rebounded off the fogbank as all the feeling left Sabelle's body. A great pressure built behind her ears, hot and fierce. Ryan called her name. His hands were on her shoulders, trying to hold on to her. He begged her to look at him. To stay with him.

Stay
. She'd longed for that word from him for so long, but now that he'd given it, she had no choice in the matter.

She fought to keep her physical form even when she knew she'd fail. The reaper who'd brought her had been gentle. The one who took her now used sharp talons to yank her out of Ryan's world. She heard the ripping of her heart.

Then she heard nothing but her own screams.

L
ike magic, the ambulance arrived soon after the gunshots ended. Up on the road, it looked like mass confusion, with Roxanne shouting at the cops who'd tried to kill Ryan and Elijah and the bewildered officers trying to understand what had just happened and why they'd been compelled to shoot the innocent victims below. Ryan waited what seemed an eternity for the emergency medics as they lowered their equipment and carefully followed, navigating the treacherous gully with caution. He sat in the cold mud next to Elijah, putting pressure on the worst of the wounds. It's what they did on TV. He hoped it was the right thing to do in real life.

He couldn't believe what had just happened. Aisa had been in his head, squeezing his brain, blinding him. Crippling him. He knew now that she'd had that power all along—all those moments when he'd thought
he
was in control.

It had been a game for her, a psychotic round of chess, and she'd manipulated him expertly, planting seeds of doubt. Making him think the decisions he made were his own. Driving them like cattle to this ravine, where she could pick them off like targets at an arcade.

She'd taken Sabelle. And he'd stood there helplessly. He'd let her do it.

His shoulder throbbed. He had no idea how serious the gunshot was. Though it didn't matter when his heart felt like it had been ripped out and stomped to pulp.

Sabelle had begged him to let her in and he'd held her at a distance, even when he'd been buried deep inside her body. He'd given her everything but the part of him she'd needed most.

You've known me for years.

She was right. He had, yet he'd denied it. No one fell in love in a matter of days and fate wasn't real. That had been his mantra. So he'd withheld his love and acceptance when she'd given hers so fully.

And now she was gone, in a place where he couldn't follow.

Filled with the hollow ache of her loss, Ryan stared at the mud and blood swirling in a puddle beside him and something glinted from its surface. Frowning, he shifted and pulled it from the muck. The smashed penny he'd given Sabelle came free of the sucking sludge.

The key chain had broken off, leaving only the penny with a hole at the top. He wiped the mud off it with his shirt and held it tight in his palm, remembering her delight when he'd told her she could keep it. He'd forgotten about the stupid key chain but she had kept it like a treasure. His eyes stung and a deep tremor went through him.

The news crews arrived as Elijah was hauled up on a gurney. He looked gray beneath his dark skin and he lay so still that he might have been dead already.

Elijah roused briefly when they transferred him from the rescue stretcher to the bed. While the EMTs hooked him to an IV, Ryan took Elijah's hand and spoke to him in a low voice.

“Joel must really love you, Elijah, so you better hang on. He'll kick my ass if you die while he's gone.”

Elijah's eyes stayed closed, but Ryan heard a rattling chuckle go through his chest. “Is he coming back?” he asked.

“If I have anything to do with it.”

He opened his eyes. They were bloodshot and unfocused. The medics had given him something for pain but they weren't talking about his chances. The shot to his gut had them worried. They were moving fast, readying him for the ride.

“Is
she
coming back?” he asked.

“Sabelle's coming back.”

“I believe you.”

For some reason, that made him feel better.

“Mr. Love? We need to go,” one of the medics said.

Ryan got to his feet, bent so he didn't bang his head on the ambulance roof. He put his palm against Elijah's forehead and smoothed his brow. “I'll see you soon. Hang in there, buddy.”

Elijah's eyes were already closing, but he fought it and mumbled, “It was always you, Ryan.”

“What was always me?”

The other man moved his lips but he slipped back into unconsciousness before he could speak.

T
he reaper and Roxanne lived in a small A-frame located deep in the heart of Oak Creek Canyon. Tiny and remote, it had an open floor plan that backed into the side of a mountain, leaving only the front exposed to the elements. It made the interior dark, but solar tubes and lamps alleviated the cavelike atmosphere, and the security it offered brightened everything else.

Roxanne brought Ryan a change of clothes and showed him to the bathroom. He took a quick shower to clean off the mud and blood and clear his mind. The wound on his arm hurt like hell, but his resolve didn't require reviving. When he joined Roxanne in the compact kitchen area, he felt hyperaware and ready to go, the kind of adrenaline charge that came after shock. He was too wound up to sit down, so he leaned against the far wall and accepted the glass that the reaper handed him.

“Thank you,” Ryan said, sniffing it. Wild Turkey. Santo was a bourbon drinker. Ryan took a drink anyway, letting it run down his throat. The alcohol hit his stomach and sparked the burning embers to flame.

The reaper said, “Tell me what you saw before Aisa took them.”

Roxanne had been moving about the kitchen, putting water on to boil for something. Ryan hoped it wasn't food. Even if his sister could cook worth a damn—which she couldn't—Ryan couldn't eat.

“Aisa was in our bedroom when I woke up this morning,” Ryan told them. “She threatened me. She said she'd do exactly what she did—make Sabelle beg. She swore she didn't need Joel, though. I don't know if she took him just to piss me off or if that was her plan all along. I should have said something. Maybe if I'd warned Sabelle . . . I was afraid telling her would scare her off. She was already heaping responsibility for this whole fucking mess on her shoulders. If she'd known about Aisa's threats, that would have been it for her.”

Ryan swallowed hard. His eyes still burned and it felt like he had a boulder lodged in his throat. He kept seeing everything in instant replay. Aisa. The shots. Elijah. Sabelle.

He wanted to shout at his memory of himself for not doing anything to stop it—even when he knew he'd been as much a prisoner as Sabelle was now.

“At first Sabelle stood her ground,” he went on. “She didn't beg, but then the shooting started and Aisa had me all locked up. All I could do was watch.”

Sabelle had consented in order to save him and his family. She hadn't even thought twice about it. As soon as she'd seen it coming, she'd bowed her head and accepted it.

He couldn't just go on as if she'd never been a part of him. He couldn't leave her to a fate she didn't deserve, whether he believed in fate or not. She'd come here for him. All the other reasons took a backseat to that one. She'd come for him and he hadn't kept her safe.

“After the shooting started?” the reaper prompted.

“Sabelle saw how it was. Aisa would have happily killed me and Elijah, and if Sabelle still held out, she said she'd start on Ruby. On you, Roxanne. She even asked about Santo.”

The reaper narrowed his eyes.

Ryan went on: “Aisa wanted Sabelle to beg, so Sabelle begged.”

“And Joel.”

Ryan hung his head, remembering the anguish in the older man's voice as he'd surrendered. “She didn't give him a choice. Elijah is in bad shape. There was so much blood . . . As soon as Joel gave in, she came up with these necklaces. I don't know where she got them.”

“Describe them,” the reaper demanded.

Ryan looked up. “Why?”

“Because it might be important.”

“They were just necklaces with a crystal or piece of glass hanging on it.”

“What color was the chain?”

Ryan's mouth opened. He shook his head, trying to picture them. After a moment he said, “Copper.” He stuffed his hand in his pocket and pulled out the smashed penny. “Same color as this.”

The reaper stared at it for a long moment. “Was there blood in the crystal?”

“I don't know if it was blood, but something dark, inky-looking in the center.”

“What do you think, Santo?” Roxanne asked.

“I'm not sure. Copper is an old metal—maybe the oldest of all metals. It has ties to blood. The gods thought it had protective qualities. They thought it would keep them from disease.”

“So?”

“So, everything Aisa does, she does for a reason. She's shackled Sabelle and Joel with copper—not steel, which is stronger, but copper. If we want to help them, we should know why.”

“Help them?” Roxanne said. “How can we help them?”

“The original plan involved going to the Beyond,” he said calmly.

“Which we unanimously agreed was a crap plan.”

The reaper stared at Ryan thoughtfully. “I may have a better one, Ryan.”

“Let's hear it, because I got nothing.”

“It's risky. Before you say yes, you need to consider that.”

“He's not going to say yes,” Roxanne said in a tight voice.

“
Angelita
, look at him,” Santo murmured. “He already has.”

The reaper's unemotional tone grated on Ryan's already torn emotions, but his shadowed expression wasn't filled with mockery. Ryan would swear he saw compassion there. For Ryan. For Sabelle. The comforting touch he gave Ryan's sister held all the warmth his words lacked. He really cared about her. He really cared about what had happened to them all. He and Ryan might not see eye to eye, but this reaper wasn't as unfeeling as he liked to let on.

“Your boyfriend's right. It doesn't matter what the plan is, Roxy,” Ryan said. “I'm in.”

“You're going to get yourself killed.”

“If that's what it takes. All I know is, one way or another, Sabelle is coming home. I told Elijah Joel would, too. I meant it.”

It might be pointless, hopeless, probably futile. But something in the reaper's eyes gave Ryan hope. He looked like a man with an idea that might work, and Sabelle and Joel were at the mercy of a being who had no conscience. If it took a fight to the death to get them out, so be it. He'd told Aisa he was Sabelle's new muscle. It was time to flex.

“She'll scramble your brains just like she did today,” Roxanne insisted in a pained voice. “They were
shooting at you
and they didn't even know why. She made them do that and I watched it happen.”

Roxanne looked close to tears. When she was little, those tears had made him want to do anything to dry them. But there was nothing he could say this time to make it all better. Aisa could kill him. She could kill all of them.

“But can she bend spoons?” he said with a tired laugh.

“What do spoons have to do with anything?” Roxanne demanded.

Ryan shook his head. “When Aisa's down here, she has to work through other people. Even when she's up there, she has to manipulate others. She can't pull the trigger herself.”

She could only control through illusion.

Both Roxanne and her reaper looked at him blankly.

“Never mind. It was a joke and not a very good one. It doesn't matter anyway. I'm not leaving Sabelle. She risked her life to save mine. My life isn't going to be worth anything to me if I don't do the same for her.”

“If you die, she'll have done it all for nothing,” Roxanne said flatly. “Can't you see that?”

“No. I can only see the look on her face before she vanished. I can't live if that's my last memory of her.”

He took a deep breath and slowly let it out. He looked at the reaper—Santo, Ryan corrected himself. If the guy was going help him, Ryan ought to at least call him by name. “So. What's your plan?”

Santo met his gaze and shrugged. “We go in after them.”

“Can you really do that?” Ryan asked, knuckles on the table, body leaning forward. “You can take me?”

He hadn't believed it when they'd discussed it earlier. The weak plan hadn't held water and so he'd discarded any hope of it. Now he desperately needed an answer.

Santo nodded and more hope swelled in Ryan's chest.

Roxanne threw her hands in the air. “Do you have any idea how insane this sounds? Ryan, I know you're hurting. I know you want to help Sabelle and Joel. But you're a human being talking about going to a place where humans don't belong.”

“You've done it.”

“I'm different.”

“Maybe you are, maybe you're not. We've got the same blood in our veins. Maybe I haven't been there because I have better survival skills.”

“Well, this isn't one of them.”

“
Angelita
,” Santo interrupted softly. “You know he's not going to walk away without a fight.”

“But this is a fight there's no way to win.”

“I don't accept that,” Ryan said. “Do you think Aisa's just going to leave us alone now that she has what she came for, Roxy?”

Ryan's question caught her off guard. She didn't answer.

“I pissed her off when I tried to keep Sabelle from her. As soon as she's sure everything has settled down back at slave central, she'll be at the door and she won't be knocking.”