When everyone was reasonably dried off and assembled in the mess hall, they looked like a NATO meeting gone horribly, horribly wrong.
The group that came to their rescue was impressive, to say the least. First of all, Hunter and Mischa had shown up. One of them was strong enough to level the building. Both of them? Together they could destroy the entire city. Seemed like overkill that they’d both shown up, but Harper was flattered nonetheless.
Seven and Lucas had also shown up. Lucas was stark naked when they all got to the mess hall, so she assumed he’d shifted into a wolf as soon as they’d arrived. At least, that’s what she hoped happened. Any other alternative seemed…weird. But thankfully, after Riddick had complained—loudly—that no one wanted to see Lucas’s dick, a solider had given him a set of military fatigues.
Nikolai—and his deadly crossbow—had also come to their aid. He said Quinn had whined and pouted about wanting to come, too, but Tina had made him stay behind to protect her, Marina, and the kids. Just in case, she’d said.
Pfffttt. Like anyone was going to try anything with Tina on guard duty.
Benny, never one to be left out of any potential mayhem, was there, too. Mischa had been quick to point out that he’d been utterly useless so far. To which he’d merely shrugged and said, “Someone needs to be the comic relief. God knows none of you stiffs can pull it off.”
He wasn’t entirely wrong, Harper thought.
Gabriel had offered the last seat at the table to Seven with a grand bow and a flirty smile, which made Lucas snarl at him like an angry badger. The fire demon had gotten quite a chuckle out of that before he leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. Apparently he was still buzzing with the energy he siphoned off Riddick, and had no interest in sitting down again anytime soon.
Harper couldn’t blame him. If she’d been stuck in a cell and tortured for decades, she couldn’t see herself willingly sitting down all civil-like across from the dude responsible.
So now, they were all seated (except for Gabriel, of course) around one long dining table, with her and Riddick at one end and her father at the other. She almost laughed when he stationed a couple of guards by the doors. What the hell were they supposed to do against this group?
Harper leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table. She didn’t remember much about her father from before he left, but she knew he hated it when she put her elbows on the dinner table. She’d gotten smacked more than a few times when she was a kid for doing just that. He narrowed his eyes on her just a smidge, and it made her happier than it probably should have to know she still had the power to irk him.
Oh, Pops, you have no idea how much I can still irk you.
“Well?” she asked. “What’s the military’s plan for closing the rift?”
Her father cleared his throat. “That’s not our first priority.”
Hunter raised a brow at him. “There’s something more urgent on your agenda than sealing a rift between our world and what is essentially a Hell dimension?”
David didn’t say anything, but his gaze shifted to Gabriel.
With a disgusted snort, Gabriel said, “He’s worried that more demons got through when I did. He’s more concerned with hunting down demons than he is with sealing the rift.”
“We have guards on the rift 24-7. Nothing else is coming through. But…we know of at least ten more like that thing,” he said, pointing at Gabriel, “who came through at different times over the years.”
And with that, he listed a series of ten dates and times—a few of which stuck out in Harper’s mind.
“Haven’s birthday,” she murmured. “And Riddick’s.”
Seven nodded. “And mine.”
“Children of magic and science,” Mischa said, sitting up straighter in her chair. “The rift must open wide enough to let demons through when a dhampyre who has some element of magic is born.”
Nikolai’s eye widened in alarm. “Harper, your sister is nine months pregnant. She could go into labor at any time. Won’t that baby be a child of magic and science?”
Harper rubbed her suddenly aching temples. “It’s possible. I mean, Marina has never had any powers, but the magic is there in her bloodline—our bloodline. It’s entirely possible that when her baby is born, the rift will allow someone to slip through.”
A muscle in David’s jaw tensed. “The rift has been steadily growing for the past nine months. It all makes sense now. The rift will split wide open at this rate. That child cannot be born.”
Everyone went still. No one said anything until Benny leaned over to Harper and whispered, “Did he just suggest killing a baby? ‘Cause it sounded like he just suggested killing a baby.”
Harper narrowed her eyes at her father. “No one is stopping that baby from being born. Do you understand me?”
He stood up so fast his chair toppled. “We don’t have any choice.” He reached for the Walkie on his belt.
Faster than she’d ever seen him move in her life, Benny whipped his switchblade out of his pocket, flicked it open, and hurled it at the radio. The Walkie made a sickly squawking sound as the blade disappeared into its electronic guts.
All eyes swiveled to Benny, who shrugged and said, “What? It seemed like he was going to radio in an order or something, and it didn’t seem like any good could come from that. Was I wrong?”
“No,” Riddick, Seven, Lucas, and Nikolai said in stereo.
David glanced down at his radio and a vein bulged in his forehead. “You’re not in charge here. These men will only answer to me, and I’m telling you right now, we have no choice. We have to stop that child from being born.”
The guards at the door started easing their hands towards their weapons. Without looking at them, Hunter pointed in their direction and said, “I wouldn’t if I were you.”
They swallowed audibly and raised their hands in surrender.
Harper stood up. “See, I think you’re missing a very important part of the picture right now, Daddy dearest. You aren’t in charge anymore. You know why? Because I’m here.”
Riddick glanced over at Gabriel with a crooked smile. “That’s my girl.”
Harper gave him a wink before turning to Hunter. “Did the book at HQ—or the mad scientist—give you any clue as to how to close the rift?”
He sighed. “Yes, but I’m not sure how to interpret it. The book said hellfire, but the mad scientist insists it’s the children of magic and science who can close it.”
Her father started to say something, but Harper ignored him, turning to Mischa instead and saying, “Keep him quiet, will you, please?”
Mischa’s answering smile was nothing short of chilling. “With pleasure,” she said. Then she raised her hand in David’s direction and made a tight fist. David immediately clutched his throat, eyes widening as he realized that Mischa had choked off his ability to force words past his tongue.
“That’s so fucking awesome,” Benny muttered. Mischa wiggled her eyebrows at him in response.
Gabriel stepped forward. “When you say ‘children of science and magic’, do you mean people like Riddick?”
“Yes,” Harper answered. “Why?”
“Because his energy is like nothing I’ve ever felt on my side of the rift. It’s way more powerful. I don’t know how much energy it would take to seal the rift, but if I could channel energy like his into fire…I don’t know. It might work.”
Hunter nodded thoughtfully. “It could work. But based on what I read, you’d need more power than just what Riddick can provide.”
Gabriel shifted his gaze to Harper. “How many more like him do you have?”
“You might be surprised.” She turned to her father. “But first, you’re going to get me on Skype with your boss.”
One of the guards, who still had their arms in the air like a couple of idiots, sputtered and said, “But he reports directly to the President.”
Well. That was…unexpected.
Benny glanced over at her. “
Maybe you should comb your hair first?”
“If you were the President of the United States, would you be more likely to turn over control of what’s probably a life-and-death mission that holds the fate of the world in the balance to me if my hair looked better?”
He studied her for a moment before adding, “And maybe put some lipstick on, too.”
Sure. Why not?
Chapter Fifteen
Harper stepped out into the hall and eased the door shut behind her, then she leaned against it and swiped her sleeve over her sweaty forehead.
Riddick was right there waiting for her, as always. He put his hands on her hips and smiled down at her. “How’d it go?”
She let out a long sigh. “I should’ve let Hunter talk to him. I was so nervous! I blurted out two bad hair puns, a weird Oompa Loompa reference, and a joke about The Apprentice and being fired before I got my shit together. It was bad.”
A furrow creased his brow. “Bad like we’re-about-to-be- deported bad, or bad like he refused to give you official control over this mission?”
“Oh, he’s letting me take control of the mission. He understood that my dad doesn’t have any hope of getting that rift closed without us, and that I refuse to take orders from him. But I don’t think he liked me very much. We should probably have an in-case-of-deportation-break-glass plan in place. You know, just in case.”
He shrugged. “Meh. Fuck him if he can’t take a joke. We’ll go to Canada if we have to.”
She grinned up at him. “God, I love you.”
The super-elusive dimple popped out in his cheek as he grinned back at her. “I know.”
“Ooohhh, you’re so hot when you Han Solo me,” she said before grabbing two fistfuls of his T-shirt, dragging his mouth down to hers, and kissing the crap out of him.
“If you two are quite finished,” Hunter said from somewhere behind Riddick, “everyone is here.”
Harper gave Riddick one last kiss, then said, “Everyone?”
“Everyone.”
And when they got to the mess hall again, everyone was indeed there.
It looked like a dhampyre family reunion. Or circus, depending on how you wanted to look at it.
Quinn was in one corner of the room, tossing Haven into the air and catching her, all while she squealed and giggled and begged him to toss her higher.
Marina sat in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs with her swollen feet up on a table while she talked to Violet, who was rocking her toddler, Annika. And Annika, God love her, was sleeping like the dead, despite all the noise and chaos around her.
Nikolai was showing Seven his new crossbow, and Lucas was having a very serious-looking sign language chat with Lane, who gazed up at him like he was imparting the secrets of the universe. He might’ve been for all Harper knew. Though she’d be shocked if any of them knew anything Lane didn’t already know.
Benny and Addy were working on card tricks again while Tina watched with pursed lips and a disapproving expression. Hunter and Mischa chatted quietly in the corner, and from the heated look on Hunter’s face, their conversation wasn’t about demons and interdimensional rifts and clandestine military ops.
Harper saw these people every day, but something about seeing them all together now, in this place, for this reason, made her heart ache a little. She loved every single one of these messed-up, weird, crazy outcasts. And they were all here because she’d asked them to come. They followed her lead and just as she’d give her life for any one of them, she knew they’d do the same. This was her family. Every last one of them.
All she could do at this point was pray that their devotion to her wasn’t going to get them all killed.
“What now, boss?”
She jumped at Gabriel’s voice directly behind her as she spun around to face him. “Son of a bitch, man, don’t ever sneak up on me, got it?”
His appearance stunned her speechless for a second or two. When he was covered in filth and smelled like three-day-old roadkill, it was easy to overlook how attractive he was. But since he’d taken a shower and changed into a clean T-shirt and military-issue cargo pants, it was impossible to ignore how hot the fire demon was. Pun not entirely unintentional.
He’d shaved away his grimy, gnarly ZZ Top beard, revealing a jawline sharp enough to cut glass and highlighting knife-edged cheekbones that any fashion model would kill for. His black hair, now squeaky clean, was shampoo-commercial shiny and fell past his shoulders in loose waves that it would’ve taken a shit-ton of hair products for Harper to achieve on her own curls.
And his body…wow. His muscles had muscles.
Honestly, if she didn’t know better, she’d think the dude was Riddick’s long-lost brother. He fit right in with her gaggle of dhampyres.
He shot her the Bruce Willis smirk again—she idly wondered if he ever actually smiled, or if that smartass half-smile was as close as he could get—and said, “Sorry.”
He didn’t sound sorry at all. Fucker. She narrowed her eyes at him. “First of all, you’re going to answer a few questions for me.”
“Shoot.”
No hesitation, no nervousness in his voice. That was good, she thought, but not definitive. Maybe he was just extra confident in his ability to lie effectively. “Can you tell by touch which of us are children of magic and science and which are normal humans, or strictly children of magic?”
He nodded. “With one touch.”
“And when you touch us and sense our power, it doesn’t have any negative impact on us, right? You’re not…draining us, right?”
He looked mildly amused. “I’m not a vampire. I don’t drain people. Besides, your energy, your life force, can’t simply be drained away. It’s always in you and can’t really be transferred to another. What I get out of funneling your energy though my body is more like…a contact high than it is actual nourishment. Little hits here and there keep me going, but don’t necessarily take anything from you.”
She leveled her hardest stare at him. “Even from the kids?”
Now he looked offended. “Of course. I’d never hurt children.”
“How would I know that?”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “I guess you’ll just have to trust me.”
Oh, the poor dumb bastard. He had no idea.
“Well, there is another way,” she said mildly.
“Run away,” Benny said behind a cough. “Runawayanddon’tlookback.”
With that she motioned for Tina. “So, Gabriel, I’d like you to meet my mom. You guys should have plenty to chat about.”
***
Twenty minutes later, Gabriel sat all by himself, staring blankly at the wall, looking a little messed up and all kinds of lost.
Harper tilted her head as she studied him. “Did you break him?” she asked her mom. “He looks broken.”
Tina scoffed and fluffed her already super-fluffy blonde curls. “Of course, I didn’t break him. We had a lovely chat.”
He didn’t look lovely. He looked like those people on the news you see wandering out of the rubble after a tornado just wiped out their entire town. But then again, this was what most people looked like after a “lovely chat” with Tina Petrocelli, empath extraordinaire.
“What did you get from him?” Harper asked. “Is he trustworthy?”
Her brow furrowed. “Well, trustworthy might be a stretch. He’s not especially forthcoming about his emotions, and he did his level best to block me from reading them, but regardless, his interests are definitely aligned with ours. He wants that rift sealed just as much as we do. And he was telling the truth about channeling our energy. It won’t hurt us or the children.”
“And he thinks he can seal the rift if he channels enough of us at one time?”
“He does.” Her nose wrinkled. “He’s very cocky. He doesn’t doubt for a second that he can generate hellfire hot enough to seal that rift.”
Harper nodded. “Hunter’s pretty sure it’ll work, too, based on what he read and wha
t the mad scientist said. Did you ask him anything about what it’s like? The other side, I mean?”
Tina glanced over at Gabriel for a split second, and Harper saw pity in her gaze. “He was extra-cagey about what it’s like over there,” she whispered. “But his emotions when I asked…they were a mess. Pain, fear, guilt—he felt it all and he couldn’t hide it from me. It must be truly awful there, Harper. He genuinely preferred his time in that basement cell over the time he spent in his own dimension. That certainly tells me a lot. We have to seal that rift. We can’t let whatever is over there, whatever made him feel like that, into our world.”
That was all very…ominous. “I guess I have to trust him then, huh?”
Tina shrugged. “I do.”
“Well, that’s good enough for me.”
A throat cleared behind Harper. “Well, it’s not good enough for me, I’m afraid.”
Harper couldn’t have held back her eye roll if she’d tried. “I don’t recall asking your opinion, David. This is my mission now, remember?”
His indignation made him appear two feet taller than he actually was as he stared her down. “You can’t trust that thing. Given half a chance, it’ll kill us all. How do you know it won’t use your power to rip that rift wide open and usher millions more of its kind into our world?”
“Because I trust him more than I trust you,” she spat back. “You’re the guy who had your own daughter shot full of tranquilizers and kidnapped. You’re the guy who locked my husband up in a cell. You’re the guy who abandoned his whole family. You don’t get a say in anything anymore. All you’re going to do is take us to that rift. We’ll do the rest.”
He looked ready to argue, but then he seemed to notice for the first time that she wasn’t alone. His gaze shifted to Tina, and his mouth opened and shut a few times like a landed trout before he gave her a curt nod. “Tina,” he mumbled. “Good to see you again.”
Harper face-palmed. The guy walks away in the dead of night, leaving the woman to raise three kids on her own, doesn’t bother sending child support or even a note letting her know he’s alive for decades, and all he has to say for himself when he sees his wife again is “good to see you?” What a fucking tool.
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