We were saved from any awkwardness this go-round by my phone beeping a text alert.
I slid it out of my back pocket and pulled up the message from Creed.
TALKED TO DYLAN AND HUGO.
BOTH COOL.
“It’s Creed,” I told Gabe. “He talked to Dylan and Hugo and they were good about it.”
He had already resumed his task. “That’s good. I’m glad.”
I quickly sent a reply:
TOLD YOU SO.
I TOLD GABE.
HE’S COOL, TOO.
I put my phone back in my pocket and watched Gabriel for a moment. He was already halfway through the last tray, despite all the talking we had done.
“I started to ask you last night if you have plans for Thanksgiving, but we were interrupted,” I said.
“Right. That’s this week, huh?”
“Yup,” I confirmed.
“My sister Gwen is hosting dinner at her place. I just have to show up and eat.”
Gwen was the Wyatt sibling who was my age. A feminine version of Gabriel, she was blonde-haired, blue-eyed perfection. But unlike her older brother, she didn’t so much appreciate the finer things in life as demand them. Not long after graduation, she had caught her a surgeon nearly two decades older and set herself up as a trophy wife. These days, they lived in a boujie subdivision in Fort Worth that made the houses in Iron Terrace look like tiki huts.
“Are you staying the night?” I asked. “We can cover a few nights for you in the rotation if you want to take off.”
“No, I’m going straight there and back. It’s not that far and I find spending too much time with my family… taxing.”
I giggled. “Well put.”
“Thanks, though. Any big plans for you?”
“Nothing big. My mom invited us over, Dylan and Joss, too. She invited James, but he politely declined. I guess he finds us taxing.”
Gabe and I had a good laugh as we fell back into our normal rhythm. I was able to give him some actual help when it came time to close the casings, and within another hour, we had a few hundred rounds more to work with. I kicked him out to go get some sleep before work and went back to the main house to wait out sunrise.
Working on the silver ammunition was the most action I saw all night. Not that I was complaining.
Chapter 7
“Too quiet last night,” Creed commented as he drove us back home in the early morning light.
“It just feels that way after how much happened the last couple days.”
He glanced at me sidelong and smiled. “Hope you’re right.”
Turning into the parking lot for my building, Creed eased into the spot next to my truck. He came around to open my door for me and took my hand when I got out.
“It’s a relief the others reacted the way they did when we told them about my father,” he said.
When they had come back to HQ, we made quick work of talking to Jocelyn, Casey, and Garret. They felt about it much the same as Gabriel—it changed nothing as long as Creed was on our side.
I knew over the course of the morning Garret would tell Aric, and Hugo had either already mentioned it to Meredith or would. She would be as unfazed by it as she was by anything else, so that would be that. Every Amasai would know we had a Nephilim on our team and we’d go about our business as usual.
“You hafta give us more credit,” I told him. “A family doesn’t turn its back on one of their own, especially not over something you can’t change.”
We reached the base of the stairs that led to my second-floor apartment, and I caught a whiff of tainted air. My skin prickled as I came to an abrupt halt.
“What is it, su—”
“Wait,” I said, reaching for my handgun. “Smell that?”
Creed sniffed the cool morning air. “Yeah, it’s awful. What is that?”
Burning sulfur. I wasn’t mistaken.
“Hellhound. Gabe and I smelled it the other night,” I told him. “You armed? Silver bullets?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I have my Sig.”
“Good. Split up and go around the building. You go left.”
I ran to the right, across the front of my building and toward the breezeway that separated it from the next. We were approaching that time of morning when a steady stream of residents would come from the apartments as they all headed to work and school. It would be all too easy for a hellbeast to snatch an unsuspecting victim.
The farther I moved in that direction, the less I smelled the hellhound’s distinctive odor. Which meant…
I turned on a dime and raced back in the direction Creed had gone. He had already rounded the other side of the building when I heard his voice.
“Remi!”
With everything I had, I sprinted to where his cry had sounded. Handgun leveled, I came around the building and found the hellhound on Creed, his arm between its powerful jaws. He was struggling to fight off the beast.
I aimed and double-tapped the trigger. Two silver bullets pierced the hound’s skull, and it fell into a heap on top of Creed. I let out a heavy exhale and ran the rest of the way to help him.
Creed heaved the carcass off him and struggled to get to his feet. I put a hand under his uninjured arm and helped him up.
“It got the drop on me,” he said, clutching his left arm. “I never even got a shot off.”
“I’m sorry—we shouldn’t have split up. Are you okay?”
“No, it was the right call. We needed to find that thing fast.” He paused and made a ginger movement with his arm. “I’m pretty sure it’s broken. Would’ve been worse without a jacket on. Those teeth are legit.”
People appeared at their doors and on balconies to check on the commotion. They were tentative, as they should have been after hearing gunshots, but we had an audience, nonetheless.
“How are we gonna get rid of this thing?”
“I have an idea,” I told him.
Focusing, just as I had in the armory hours before, I directed the Holy Light to my left arm. I pointed my palm at the dead hellbeast and hit it with a beam of light. The mass of matted fur and snapping jaws disintegrated into white embers and black ash. It sparked and withered until there was nothing left.
I could just make out the sound of concerned murmurs from the people watching. After the zombie attack forced the entire town to take a good, hard look at the supernatural goings-on, this would come as no big surprise. It wasn’t difficult to imagine their questions, though.
Starting with: What the hell was that?
“Is it safe now?” one woman’s voice called, loud and clear. “Can we come out?”
“All clear,” Creed answered calmly.
To our surprise, a few “thank-yous” were spoken before folks went about their business.
“I didn’t know you could do that,” Creed said, pointing at the spot where the hellhound had disappeared.
I shook my head. “I didn’t, either, until last night. Even then, I wasn’t sure that would work.”
“Glad it did. I don’t think Animal Control would’ve been happy to get the call for disposal of that.”
“Let’s get inside. I’ll call Meredith and ask her to come look at your arm.”
She told me my timing was impeccable because she had just left the drop-off line at school. It would be a few minutes, so I offered to have coffee ready and waiting.
We hung up, and I texted Solomon in case Creek County Sheriff’s Department got any calls about the ruckus with the hellhound. The detective would be able to head off any issues.
THX FOR THE HEADS UP.
LET YOU KNOW IF I NEED ANYTHING.
He replied as I was filling a filter with coffee grounds.
“Are you hungry?” I asked Creed. “I could make us something more than coffee.”
“No, thanks. I think I still have a little too much adrenaline pumping,” he smiled.
I didn’t want to go through the bother of making breakfast just for myself, so I snagged a cer
eal bar from the pantry to have with my coffee.
The doorbell rang right as I was coming back out, and Creed saved me from a dash across the apartment to get the door.
“That’ll be Meredith,” he said.
After a cursory glance through the peephole, he opened the door.
“Thank you for coming.”
“Any time, really. I got Sofie and Danny dropped off at school, so it’s no trouble. What happened?”
“Hellhound ambushed us as we were coming home. I think my arm is broken, but I’ll take that over a broken neck any day.”
Meredith smiled. “A broken arm, I can fix. A broken neck, not so much. Did it break from a fall?”
“No, it bit me.”
The clinical focus in her gaze failed to hold back a momentary concern. A bite could be disastrous, considering we didn’t know the potential effects.
“Let’s have a look.”
Creed’s movements were stiff as he slid off his leather jacket. “I don’t think the teeth punched through.”
“You’re right,” Meredith agreed. Relief. “There’s no blood. I’d hate for us to find out the hard way what their bite does.”
She rubbed her palms together, summoning the divine healing ability. Placing her hands on Creed’s arm, she closed her eyes and concentrated. A moment later, he was rotating it, testing the healed bone and declaring it good as new.
“Amazing. I would’ve been in a cast for weeks.”
“Does it drain you very much?” I asked.
“Not a straightforward injury like that, not much. It takes more energy to get my two hellions ready for school,” Meredith laughed.
“If they’re anything like Dylan and I were as kids, I can only imagine. Can I get you some coffee?”
“I’d love some. I can’t stay long, but tell me more about this hellhound. I’m worried about it being out during the day.”
She and Creed settled onto barstools at the kitchen counter while I pulled out three mugs and filled them.
“I think it was more that I flushed it out from a hiding spot,” Creed said.
The entire ordeal sent a new tingle down my spine. There weren’t a lot of families with children there at the apartment complex, but there were some. Kids had a way of poking around in places adults might not. If one had wandered off to explore before school…
“You okay, sugar?”
Creed’s voice interrupted my dark imaginings, and I looked down to find my hands frozen on the coffeepot. I let go and went back to adding cream or sugar to our liking.
“Sorry, I was just thinking how glad I am it was us who found that thing.”
Meredith nodded. “I agree. Do you think it was just coincidence, it being here where you live?”
“I’m not sure,” I shrugged. “We don’t know much about them yet. It’s not the first time I killed something nearby, though, and we all know it won’t be the last.”
Though the vampires tended to hunt on the edges of town, they had occasionally strayed into more central parts, like where my apartment was. It was a simple enough explanation that the hellhound had been on the hunt and prowled too far.
“Has Hugo told you about what I discussed with him last night?” Creed asked her.
“He has.”
“And you came anyway.”
It wasn’t a question. He sounded like he was confirming something to himself.
“I think you’ll find that every one of us cares more about your actions, your loyalty, and how you treat people than your parentage.”
Creed nodded. “So far, that’s unanimous.”
“Believe us when we show you we’re not going to throw you away. We Amasai stick together as a team. As a family. And you’re part of that.”
Creed seemed stunned to hear the sentiment from someone other than my brother or me so bluntly laid on the table. “I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything. But stop worrying about what we think and work out what knowing about your father means to you.” Meredith gracefully slipped off her barstool. “Thanks for the coffee.”
“Any time,” I told her. “Thanks for coming so fast and for the chat.” I gave her a pointed look.
She smiled her warm smile, then turned to Creed and offered a hug. I couldn’t pinpoint if it was her caregiving nature or because she was a mom, but her hugs were among the best. Whatever it was, Creed left the conversation, and the embrace, relieved—I could see that much in the set of his shoulders and less furrowed brow.
“For what it’s worth, I agree with her,” I said as I shut and locked the door behind Meredith. “You’re looking at this new revelation through the lens of what we all might think about it and it’s causing you unnecessary worry. Yescha said Azazel poses no threat, so you can safely stop and consider what all this means to you… and only you.”
Creed rubbed at the spot where his arm had been broken. “You’re both right. I think I just needed to know where I stand. Now, I can focus on what to do with the information. Long term, I mean. I’ve spent so many years questioning what I am. Now I know and it only opened up more questions.”
“Do you regret finding out?”
“No, not at all. It’s a shock to the system, but it beats the hell out of not knowing.”
I covered a yawn with the back of my hand. “Good. I wouldn’t want to be the one who pushed you into something that made you unhappy.”
“You didn’t push… too hard.” Creed smiled and took my face in his hands, kissed me. “Why don’t you go on to bed and get some sleep. I’ve got some things to think through and I doubt I’ll knock off anytime soon.”
“I understand. I’m here if you need me.”
“I know.” He answered me, but his thoughts were already a thousand miles away.
We had reached an impasse. There was nothing else I could do except reassure him I wouldn’t run for the hills because we had learned an inconvenient truth. A truth that was now his to do with as he would.
Chapter 8
I woke up, stretched from my fingertips to my toes, turned over to reach for Creed, and found… nothing. Just a cold, empty side of the bed.
I tried not to let it bother me. He had, after all, said he had some thoughts to work through and wasn’t ready to sleep. But he had never not come to bed. Since he had started staying with me, even after nights when his guilt about the zombies had been overwhelming, he would eventually settle down and be there when I woke up.
The apartment was quiet; so quiet, I thought he had fallen asleep on the couch.
My bare feet whispered across the carpet as I left my bedroom and went down the hall, and the scent of coffee wafted in my direction. That had me picking up the pace and rounding into the living room to find… Creed, still fully dressed, sitting at the dining room table with a cup of coffee in his hands. He was looking out the wide sliding glass door, focused on nothing in particular.
My entrance had been silent, so I cleared my throat to get his attention and not startle him. When he looked in my direction, he smiled, but the expression didn’t quite reach his eyes. Their dark depths were veiled, haunted by thoughts I didn’t understand.
All the same, I smiled back, trying to offer a sense of normalcy. An invitation to share his burden.
He started to rise from his seat. “Did you want some coffee?”
“Yes, but don’t get up.” I waved him off. “I’ll get it and join you.”
I poured myself a cup of joe, creamed and sugared it how I liked, and settled into the chair next to Creed. “Did you sleep today at all?”
“No. I tried, but never could settle myself.”
“Do you wanna talk about it?”
Creed breathed a heavy sigh. “Honestly? Not really. I don’t have anything to say that hasn’t already been said, and I don’t want to wear you out by beating a dead horse.”
“But you won’t—”
“You don’t have to keep saying that. I know you want to help, but ther
e’s nothing you can do. Don’t you understand this darkness inside me is dangerous? I see that now. You should, too.” He paused and scrubbed his hands through his hair. “I’m sorry… Look, I have to get to work downtown, so I’m gonna head out. I just didn’t wanna leave before you got up.”
Sliding his chair out, he nearly knocked it over backward in his haste to escape. I got up, too, but he was already halfway out the door before I could react.
“Wait,” I told him. “I thought you were on the graveyard shift?”
“I am, but… I… I need to go. See you in the morning.”
He shut the door and was gone before I could say anything else. My eyes shifted to the clock on the wall that read 3:30 p.m. The night shift at the downtown pawnshop didn’t start until eight o’clock, and that was only if the swing shift needed extra help. I frowned and sat back down to finish my coffee, guessing at what had made Creed so jumpy that he couldn’t stand to be in my presence. He obviously had a lot to work through, so I tried not to take his rush to get away personally, but thought maybe I had been crowding him in my drive to find the truth.
The truth was supposed to set you free. I wasn’t so sure in this case.
Sunset was coming in less than two hours, so I decided not to stew and go get myself ready to be on watch that night. I had wanted to get in early and let the others know about the silver bullets working for killing the hellhounds as Garret had suggested, but now I needed to get my mind off Creed and how he had left.
Seeing Solomon’s car parked in the driveway in front of our farmhouse headquarters was a welcome surprise. I didn’t care what he was there to tell us or discuss with us; a visit from the detective was a break from the usual.
“Remi. Just the woman I was looking for,” he said when I came through the front door.
Hugo, Aric, and Garret were standing in the center of our gathering area with Solomon, and their conversation ceased when Sol greeted me.
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