His Soul To Keep (Dark Knights of Heaven Book 1)

by Knight, TW

  * * *

  Two hours later, Cassidy set the laptop aside and rubbed her eyes. "I need a break."

  Rail stretched, grunting. "Me too." He reached over and began massaging Cassidy’s neck.

  "Oh, God. That feels good." She shifted to give him better access, moaning in pleasure as he worked her sore neck and shoulders.

  A soft knock on the door interrupted any thought of taking things further.

  Growling in frustration, Rail rolled away from Cassidy, placing his computer in his lap to hide his erection. "Come in!"

  The door opened, revealing a female Un-tar.

  Cassidy checked the nametag and waved. "Hello, Lil-it. Can we help you?"

  The little demon ran forward and threw herself on the floor in front of Rail, gesturing wildly. Before Cassidy could react to the odd display, Rail leapt from the bed and grabbed the Un-tar roughly by her wings.

  Ignoring Cassidy’s startled screams, he dragged the demon from the bedroom and down the hall to the landing overlooking the foyer. Once there, he shouted in a singsong voice. In short order, the occupants of the villa came running.

  Cassidy realized he’d used the Angelic Language, and it no longer sounded like irritating noise to her—in fact, she could almost understand it. One word sounded like ‘death’.

  Boomer and Gina were the first to reach them. "Rail? What’s happening?"

  Kaz appeared at the bottom of the stairs. "What are you doing?"

  Rail hefted the struggling demon over the banister, shouting, "Here is your traitor, Kaz." He tossed her to the stone floor below.

  Broken and bleeding, the Un-tar reached out to her fellow demons congregating on the far side of the mosaic. Even without words, it was clear the female pleaded to them for assistance. All she got were bared teeth and claws.

  Cassidy grabbed Rail's arm. "What is going on?"

  "She confessed. She’s been passing information about us to her demon master—a servant of Lucifer!"

  "Lil-it?" Cassidy grabbed the banister as if she'd been struck.

  "She also told her master we were going out the other night. That’s how the minion found us." Rail trembled, barely in control. "They were looking for us."

  Turning ashen, Cassidy took two unsteady steps down the staircase. "Why, Lil-it? Why would you do that?"

  Kaz stepped forward, nodding to the other Un-tar. "They say she has always been distant, unhappy being here."

  "What the fuck is that supposed to mean? They begged us to rescue them from their master after we raided that demon nest," Boomer snapped. "They came with us willingly." When he stepped forward growling and partially transformed, Zach held him back.

  Motioning for Boomer to calm down, Kaz listened to the Un-tar Cassidy now recognized to be Norc. After a moment, the warrior translated. "They have been content here. Happy even. In Hell, they are considered little better than pests. Lesser beings to be tormented for fun. They were slaves to the whims of higher-level demons. They were treated no better when their master brought them to this world to serve his nest. Until we rescued them, they hadn’t been sure they had even been taken out of Hell. They were afraid we would send them back, but we gave them a purpose and a home. Even hiding from the new humans wasn’t bad. It was like a game. Things have gotten better recently. No more hiding. The females are happier. But not Lil-it. Lil-it was never happy. She…"

  Kaz stopped speaking as Norc gestured wildly, frustration clear on his childlike face.

  "He says he doesn’t have the right words, but I think he said that lately she’s been acting guilty or secretive. Sorrowful is the only word I understood clearly." Kaz paused and waited for the demon to regain his composure. "He says they should have known what she was doing and for that he is sorry. They are all sorry."

  Cassidy stiffly walked down the remaining stairs, feeling Rail behind her with every step. Stopping in front of Lil-it, she asked, "Why do you want me dead?"

  Lil-it gestured toward Kaz with her good arm.

  "She said she did not know you would be killed. Her orders were to help her master’s master catch one of us." Kaz shook his head. "She only told her master that a group was going to be leaving that night. She didn’t know you were going to be with them."

  "I told you taking on demon servants was a bad idea." Bass spat at Lil-it.

  The demon dragged herself toward Cassidy, bloody tears rolling down her face. Rail snorted with disdain. "She’s begging for your forgiveness."

  Cassidy shook her head slowly. "I don’t know if…if I can. You’ve been feeding information to the enemy, information about the Knights, about the humans who live here. You got me killed!" Fear, anger, and sorrow lodged in her throat, choking her.

  Kaz crouched in front of the broken demon. "What did your master promise you?"

  Lil-it answered, stunning the Knights.

  "What did she say?" Cassidy asked, breaking the lingering silence.

  "She said she was promised her mate’s freedom," Rail answered coldly.

  "You should have come to us," Zach responded. "We could have found a way to get him back."

  Lil-it shook her head and looked away, unable to meet his gaze.

  "No, Zacheril. Don’t you dare feel sorry for her." Disgusted, Rail turned from his brother and faced Lil-it. "You were willing to sacrifice my mate for yours. I have no forgiveness for you."

  "What now?" Tam asked, indicating toward the other Un-tar. "Can we trust them?"

  "They say they no longer hold allegiance to the underworld," Kaz answered. "And they want our permission to punish Lil-it by their laws as proof."

  Rail nodded and turned to face Cassidy. "Don’t look, sweetheart." Silence filled the space, and the remaining Un-tar converged on Lil-it.

  Cassidy looked away, burying her face against Rail's chest, but couldn’t block out the sounds: tearing flesh and snapping bones. She clasped her hands over her ears, thanking God she could not hear the Un-tar’s screams. Her friend’s screams and sobs were already deafening. With an agonized cry, she flung herself back up the stairs and ran to Rail's room.

  * * *

  Rail didn’t stay to watch the carnage, nor did any house members. Somber, yet shaking with rage, he slowly followed Cassidy back to his room. Inside, he found her bent over the toilet retching.

  "It’s over, sweetheart. It’s over."

  "I can’t believe this happened. It’s like a sick nightmare. They just…just killed her like rabid animals!"

  "It’s their way," Rail said matter-of-factly.

  "And you just stood there. You gave them permission."

  "Cassie." Carefully, Rail pulled her into his arms, refusing to let go when she fought his hold. "I’m sorry you had to witness that, but we are at war."

  Cassidy pushed against his chest again. "She didn’t die in battle, Rail. She was executed. Murdered!"

  "She was a traitor and this was justice served!" His shout echoed off the bathroom tiles.

  "No! No!" She broke free.

  Rail grasped her arms, forcing her to face him.

  "That was revenge for what happened to me and you know it," she hissed.

  Rail could not deny he felt some measure of gratification in the demon's death, but he would never admit that to Cassidy. "War is not pretty. In war, bad things happen. You do things you wish you didn’t have to do or forget you had to do. We do not kill because we want to. We kill because we have to. We do not kill innocents, Cassidy. Our whole existence is based on protecting human kind. Hate me if you want. Hate us all, but you must understand this: Lil-it was a threat to all we honor and hold sacred. We are at war with an enemy as old as time, as old as the entity who brought life to this world. An enemy who will use everyone and everything in its power to destroy us. That is its sole purpose…to destroy. It doesn’t care for anything but itself. And if I have to turn my back on the death of one demon to stop worldwide destruction, then so be it."

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Rail punched the bag again, and agai
n, and again, and he’d keep punching it until either he broke a hand or it burst. Which would eventually happen, despite it being constructed to take this kind of abuse. No matter, he had three more in the storage room. His hand would heal.

  Another jab sent the heavy bag swinging.

  Cassidy wasn’t talking to him and had figured out how to block their emotional link. Occasionally, her walls would slip, but more often than not he’d feel nothing more than what he referred to as ‘emotional static’ from her.

  Like now.

  This time, he punched with such force that a tear appeared within the Kevlar beneath his knuckles. Grumbling, Rail grabbed a roll of duct tape and wrapped a two-foot wide swath around the bag until the roll ran out. That should hold for an hour or so.

  The doors to the training room swung open, and Boomer strode in looking cocky. "Eight hours," he quipped. "New personal record."

  Eight hours? Boomer had to be exaggerating. He couldn’t possibly have been in the gym longer than three or four hours. Rail shook the sweat from his eyes. "So?"

  "You too tired to go on patrol?" Boomer lay back on the weight bench and lifted the bar for a few presses. "You’ve been off rotation for a while now, and I thought you might want back on. We’re going to Alaska this time." He grunted between lifts.

  "Kaz cool with this?" Rail changed up his routine, adding kicks and knee blocks. "Last I heard, I was grounded."

  "Yeah, well, he had to do something considering how you were acting." The bar clanked back into place on the stand. "Honestly, we didn’t want to take you out into the world."

  "What’s that supposed to mean?" Rail caught the bag as it swung into him.

  "You’ve been out of control since the incident with the Un-tar."

  "How so?" When he wasn’t sleeping alone in his quarters or out on the beach, he’d been in the gym putting the equipment through its paces.

  "Have you looked in a mirror in the last twenty-four hours? Hell, the last thirty-six?"

  "What does that have to do with anything?" Clueless, he dragged himself to the locker room to find a mirror. He wasn’t fully transformed, but he looked every bit as messed up as the Fallen Angel who stabbed Cassidy. Rail tipped forward and vomited into the sink, grasping the porcelain so tightly a web of cracks appeared. No wonder Cassidy wasn’t speaking to him, hadn’t even yelled back at him when he stood outside her bedroom door and demanded she open it.

  She was afraid.

  "You okay, man?" Boomer tossed him a towel.

  "I will be." Looking back to the mirror, Rail watched the demon recede until only a trace glowed in his eyes. "When do we leave?"

  * * *

  Cassidy looked up from the computer, hearing Rail's door slam. There had been a lot of door slamming since the revelation of Lil-it’s betrayal and execution.

  Since the argument in the bathroom.

  She wanted to run from all that had happened, from all that Rail had said. But that wasn’t going to happen.

  They needed to talk.

  Next door, she found Rail in the closet selecting his weapons. Just looking at him, heat and desired flooded her. She envied the black denim hugging his thighs, cupping his tight ass. If only she wasn’t still upset with him. Her heat cooled a few degrees. Without a word, Cassidy went to the bureau and took out a black lightweight sweater, placing it next to the duffel bag on the bed.

  "What’s that for?"

  "Alaska," she answered quietly.

  "How did you know we were going to Alaska?" Rail asked without turning to face her.

  "I’m the one who gave Tam the list of possible skratar attacks, remember?" Cassidy shrugged. "You had the choice between Peru or Alaska."

  "I remember. We chose Peru," he answered, his voice flat.

  Cassidy shivered, the coldness in his voice reaching into her bones. If he had gone to Alaska instead, he wouldn’t have died. They might not have become soul mates. They might not have discovered the traitor was Lil-it. They might not have spent the last two days apart. Cassidy swallowed the lump in her throat. "Well, have a good trip."

  "I didn’t mean it that way."

  Cassidy let out a breath. "I don’t know what you’re talking about."

  Rail stepped forward, blocking her path. "I was just stating a fact."

  "Reading my mind again?" She stepped back to cool the heat building between them.

  "Don’t need to. I can read it in your face and voice." He wiped a tear from the corner of her eye with his knuckle. "Good thing since you’ve been learning to block our link."

  "I just…it’s too painful to be that close to you right now. You’ve been so angry."

  "Not at you."

  "Yes, at me," Cassidy took another step back, "and everyone else. I can read your emotions too, you know."

  "Cassidy—"

  "No," she cut him off. "No. Tell me you don’t wish things were different. That we hadn’t become soul mates. Tell me you wish we’d never met."

  Rail's eyes flashed with fire. He stepped back and threw another gun into his duffel, stuffing the sweater in on top of it. "I’ve got to go. Boomer and Tam are waiting."

  “Oh, no. You are not getting out of this discussion that easily.” Cassidy growled in frustration. “Tell me the truth. You wish we hadn’t met and that I hadn’t mess up your happy little bachelor warrior life with all of these changes. You think all of this is my fault, don’t you?”

  Turning away from her, Rail rasped, "No, I don’t."

  "Don’t lie to me!"

  Rail hefted his bag onto his shoulder. "I can’t lie to you, remember?” Not giving her a chance to respond, he flashed from the room.

  * * *

  The cool temperature did nothing to temper his mood. Neither did the situation.

  "Sorry to disappoint," Tam said, returning from his scouting trip. "Looks like it really was just a random animal attack. Took the locals two weeks to hunt the polar bear down, but they caught and killed it last night. And before you ask, yes, I checked the victims’ bodies and the bear to be sure they weren't using the bear to cover up a demon attack."

  Rail wasn’t convinced. The story of a sick polar bear killing two fishermen smelled like a cover up, but who would believe the truth? "Damn." Rail stood and kicked a clod of frozen earth watching it sail into the tree line.

  "Where to now? Cassidy’s latest list showed a hit in Iceland, but the statistics are on the low end of possibilities."

  "I don’t…" Rail started but found his voice stolen by searing pain. Falling to his knees and screaming, he held his head, fearing it might burst.

  Boomer and Tam crouched next to him, concerned but alert for an unseen attack. "What’s wrong?"

  "Make it stop," he screamed.

  "What’s happening?"

  Abruptly, Rail's body spasmed and then went limp, his screams turning to ragged, guttural panting.

  "God, Tam, he’s bleeding from his ears." Boomer knelt next to his friend, cradling his head in his lap. "His eyes and nose too."

  "What should we do?"

  "Home." Rail gasped, coughing up blood-tinted foam.

  "We’ll have to call for another team." Tam retrieved his phone from his backpack. "Damn! The signal here is shit. We’ll have to move closer to that fishing village."

  "No." Rail grabbed both men. "Can’t wait." He gulped for air like a landed fish. "Home. Now."

  Before anyone could argue, they found themselves falling through a portal, moving from snow to grass.

  "Where the fuck are we?" Boomer took in the suburban neighborhood surrounding them and scratched his head.

  Panting heavily, Rail shook his head, just as perplexed.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  "I’ll be fine, Mom." Cassidy clenched her jaw so tightly against a wave of pain, she was sure she’d crack a molar. At least her muscles stopped twitching like nervous snakes, and she could breathe without choking.

  "You were vomiting blood and have a fever. Let us take you to the hospital."r />
  "No, Mom, you can’t." She couldn’t risk the possibility of a skratar attack. She couldn’t—wouldn't—put more innocent lives at risk. Just being here put the neighborhood, her family, at risk.

  Thunder rolled up the stairs. The house shook. Turning toward the door, Cassidy prepared to fight. Prepared to run. The movement set off a wave of pain. Until she saw him. Felt him in her very cells.

  Rail.

  "Who are you?" Mrs. Long put herself between her daughter and the stranger. "Charles! Charles! Get up here."

  Cassidy reached out. "It’s okay, Mom."

  Mr. Long barged into the room steps behind Rail. "Who the hell are you and the two bulldogs downstairs?"

  "Who’s downstairs?" Cassidy’s mother paled.

  "He brought friends. Pushed their way in when I answered the door. And this one," he jerked a thumb at Rail, "bolted up the stairs like his ass was on fire without so much has a ‘how do you do?’"

  Cassidy’s giggle turned into a moan.

  Rail shucked his coat and climbed carefully onto the bed, gently wrapping his arms around her. "It’s okay, sweetheart. I’m here."

  "Dad?" a worried voice called from downstairs. "Everything okay?"

  "Not sure yet, boy. You just keep that Winchester pointed at them," Mr. Long yelled back.

  "You left J.J. with a gun on them?" Concern gripped Cassidy’s chest as tightly, and she gripped Rail's arms. She took a steadying breath to calm her heartbeat, unsure if the anxiety was for her brother or the two Knights.

  Mrs. Long moved closer to Rail. "Oh, dear. Young man, you’re bleeding."

  Cassidy gasped. She’d been so shocked by his arrival, she hadn’t noticed his condition. "Oh, my God! Rail. Where are you hurt?" Ignoring her own pain, she traced her fingers over the dried blood coating his neck. Her heart leapt into her throat, choking off her words. Tracks from bloody tears lined his face.

  "I’m fine," he murmured, pulling her closer.

  "Would someone please explain what is going on?" Cassidy’s mom stomped her foot, planting her fists on her hips.

  "Rail and his friends have been taking care of me since the incident. They’re the good guys…honest." She held him tightly, afraid he’d vanish if she let go.