Scion's Redemption

by Traci Douglass

  He grabbed a few weapons from the pile the guys had made last night before tugging her out of the bedroom and across the living room toward the exit. Before they reached freedom, however, two heads poked out of the kitchen—Wyck and Sloane.

  “You heard it too?” Kagan asked, joining them. He looked worried.

  Through the windows of the living room, the night faded, shrouding the outside world in gray and shadow. Everything blended together in the strange pre-dawn light.

  “What’s happening?” Luther scowled.

  Kagan shook his head. “Not sure.”

  “I am.” Sloane stalked past them, heading out of the front door and down the stairs at a quick pace.

  The guys looked at each other, then Kagan hurried after Sloane. Luther drew Thana closer to his side as they followed Wyck and Lin down the stairwell to the lobby. It was dark but Wyck held out his palm, light glowing from it to light their way.

  They stopped short on the sidewalk in front of the building as one of the creatures, like the ones who’d attacked her, stood in the middle of the empty roadway, his pale skin reflecting white against the deep charcoal color of suit. His quicksilver eyes looked like molten steel as he studied their group. His thin lips widened into a hideous grin, cruel and dark.

  Sloane unholstered the gun at his waist, clicking off the safety as he stormed toward the Nephilim intruder.

  “Wait!” Kagan said, grabbing his arm.

  “Fuck waiting,” Sloane shouted, charging ahead despite the fact that two more of the half-breeds had appeared, seeming to step out of cracks in the air itself.

  Sloane strode straight up to the Nephilim at the front and aimed his gun right between the creature’s eyes. “Say goodbye, Neilar, you sick bastard.”

  “Scion.” The half-breed raised a brow, his tone oddly monotonous as he looked past Sloane to where Thana stood with Luther.

  Kagan stepped forward, unsheathing his daggers.

  The Nephilim’s gaze shifted back to Sloane, then waved a hand behind him, the two half-breeds at his flank disappearing into thin air again. “It makes sense now at least.”

  “What does?” Sloane asked, his weapon still aimed to kill.

  Thana was so busy staring at scene playing out before them she jumped when Luther placed his hand on her arm.

  “Do you know him?” she asked Luther.

  “No.”

  “Still guarding your Seals, I see.” The man shrugged and gave a bored sigh. “Shame.”

  “The only shame here is that I should’ve put a bullet in your brain back in Paris, unholy abomination.” The frustration in Sloane’s voice made it clear that he knew this man intimately. “If I’d known then what you pricks were up to I would have.”

  The half-breed growled, stepping nose-to-nose with Sloane. “Try it, ambisextrous whore!”

  Sloane gave a laugh that was somewhere between a snarl and a snort. “Seriously? That’s the best you’ve got, asshole?”

  “Back off.” Kagan stepped between them, pressed his sword to the Nephilim’s throat and forced him away from Sloane. “What the hell are you doing here, Neilar?”

  The creature’s cold gray eyes shifted to Thana again. “I’ve come to stop her from dying.”

  “Liar!” Luther shouted. “You’re one of them. Part of the half-breed hive mind. You want her dead just like the rest of your kind.”

  Neilar regarded him and then looked back at Thana, his gaze boring into her and making her feel exposed, vulnerable. “I have no love for you Seals or for you, Scion. But I disagree with the current regime. If you don’t do as I say, she will die. I have seen it in the pools of Hades. Luther is there when it happens, so he must know—”

  “What?” Hurt and astonishment rolled through Thana, searing her heart. She broke free of his grasp and faced him. “What the actual hell? You knew about this and lied to me anyway?”

  “Bitchy, isn’t she?” Neilar said.

  Sloane nudged the barrel of his gun harder against his head. “Shut the fuck up. The only bitch around here is you. You’re not good enough to lick her shoes, let alone speak to her.”

  Thana heard their remarks in the background of her whirling thoughts but couldn’t focus on them at present. All she could think of was that this creature, the same as the half-breeds who’d tried to kill her the night before, now claimed to want to save her life. Luther had called him a liar, but then Luther had also apparently been lying to her about her future and the fact that he would be there when she died. Nothing made sense. Nothing.

  All of this, compounded on top of the chaos her life had become over the last few days, had Thana backing away, desperate from some space. She needed air and time alone to sort the real from the fiction.

  She went back inside, pacing the empty lobby alone, her footsteps echoing loud on the tile. Through the plate glass doors, she could hear the guys still arguing with Neilar. It didn’t matter. Her heart felt torn in two. Part of her wanted to believe Luther, that he’d known nothing about her impending death and that he’d been as shocked by the revelation as she was. But the other part of her, the rational, sane part of her brain, said there were too many warning flags to ignore. After all, he’d kept the truth of who he was, what he was, what she was, from her for this long. What were a few more lies to him?

  Instead of heading up to her apartment, she ran down a corridor next to the staircase. It led to a store room. She tried the handle, silently praying it wasn’t locked. Thankfully the door opened, and she hurried inside, rushing toward a second door that led to a small courtyard at the center of the complex. Without the sun up yet, the air was chilly, but Thana didn’t care. She paced the cream York stone patio, treading across the narrow space from one wall to the other, gathering her scattered emotions and gaining control over them again. She’d just started to relax when another set of footsteps joined hers.

  “I swear I didn’t know,” Luther said but she refused to look at him.

  Even if he hadn’t known that she would die, he still should have told her who he was and what she was before now. Perhaps she’d be better off with Neilar and his half-breeds than a Scion.

  “You’ve kept secrets from me for far too long.” Thana kept moving, too agitated to remain still. It helped her think and stopped her from lashing out at Luther.

  He was silent for a moment. “I was trying to protect you. It’s my duty—”

  “Stop.” Thana held her hand up and drew in a shuddering breath, halting at the opposite side of the courtyard from him. “I’m so sick of hearing about your duty.”

  She’d been fine when this had all been about protecting her. No one had mentioned death. Just a little danger. Now she had a rogue Nephilim telling her time was up and Luther would be there when she died. Ugh. She didn’t want to die. All she wanted right now was for all this craziness to go away, so she could have her old life back.

  “Thana,” Luther said, coming to her. He placed his hands on her shoulders and she tensed, eyes closed. No matter how much she wanted to remain angry, his touch chased away her fury away, leaving her yearning to lean back into his strength and feel his arms around her. “No more lies. Only truth. I’m telling you I knew nothing about your death. It came as a shock to me too. Please look at me.”

  She shook her head, feeling far too weak to meet his gaze. If she did, her resolve would crumble, and she’d fall into his arms. She wanted to hear him say that Neilar was wrong and she wasn’t going to die. That he would not fail her. That he would protect her. That they would get through this.

  “Please.”

  The sorrow in his tone was her downfall. Slowly, she turned and looked up into his eyes. He crouched slightly to put the at eye level and tucked her hair behind her ear, brushing his thumb over her cheek.

  “You have my solemn vow as a Scion that I did not know about any of this, Thana. Xander and Divinity refused to tell me how my mission would end, even though I begged them to do so.” The sincerity in his gaze drove belief deep into
her soul. “I’ve asked every time I returned to Heaven for decades, but they have continued to refuse. Now I know why.”

  “But they sent you to protect me, didn’t they?”

  “Yes.” He lowered his head. “But my mission has nothing to do with why I’m here with you now, or why I was intimate with you.”

  The affection in his pale green eyes and the tenderness in his touch told her everything she needed to know. What had once been a duty was now a personal mission and he was confused and conflicted. Kagan had said Luther was fiercely devoted to his work and Heaven, and that love had changed several Scions’ priorities in the past. Perhaps that was the case with them as well. She placed her hand over his, bringing it up to cup her cheek, and leaned into his palm. “Am I truly more than a mission, Luther?”

  He nodded. “So much more, Thana.”

  He drew her into his arms and she frowned. “Can we get away for a while? Somewhere we can escape this insanity and just be together?”

  “I’d like nothing more.” Luther hesitated, and her hope faded. “But first, I must speak with Neilar about what he has seen.”

  Thana’s shoulders slumped, her courage spent. The events of the past day combined with the knowledge that she was going to die left her quaking. She couldn’t face the Nephilim again so soon but running away wasn’t an option either. She just needed time to find her strength again and face her fate, whatever it was. “Is it set in stone?” she whispered. “The future…”

  Luther kissed the top of her hair. “No. If there is one thing I have learned in my eternal lifetime, it’s that nothing is set in stone. The future can be changed, and disaster averted.”

  That was a small comfort at least.

  “I don’t want to die.” She buried her head against his chest and he brought one hand up, sliding his fingers through her hair, holding her gently against him.

  “I promise you, Thana, with all of my heart, I shall not let you die.”

  The strength in those words made her smile, as did the stony conviction in his tone.

  “Why would that half-breed betray his kind and come here to warn us?” She looked past Luther’s arm to the open backdoor of the store room and down the hall to the building’s entrance. From here, she couldn’t see the street or the other men. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  Luther stroked her hair, his movements slow and gentle. His steadiness flowed into her, calming her fears and settling her heart. “Neilar is shifty. He’s never fully become a part of their hive-mind mentality, though I would never consider him an ally. The only hide he cares about saving is his own.”

  “So, these Nephilim. You’re saying they have a collective mind? Like clones or something?” She shuddered. “Sounds too bizarre and Borg-like to me. They’re half angels. I thought angels were good. How can something so heavenly become so evil?”

  “In the beginning, the Nephilim were not the hideous creatures they are today. They kept to themselves and lived amongst humans peacefully on Earth. But then they became greedy and used their powers to hurt and destroy. Soon their souls became so corrupted that the damage was irreversible. They evolved—or devolved, as the case may be—into the abominations you see today. Cold. Heartless. Destructive. Killers to their rotten cores.” Luther held her closer, his hand stilling against the back of her head. “We’ve battled them for millennia, and yet they persist. One day we shall defeat them, and peace shall reign again.”

  Thana sighed and pulled away from him reluctantly. “I guess we should see what he’s got to say.” It wasn’t what she wanted to do, she wanted to stay here in Luther’s arms and forget the past few minutes had ever happened, but she wasn’t a coward. She’d face whatever life had in store and survive. She’d finally found a good man, a beautiful Scion, and she wasn’t about to give up or surrender without a fight. She’d live through this and be with Luther.

  He held her a moment longer and then took her hand and led back to the entrance.

  Neilar was gone.

  12

  “Where is he?” Luther hurried out to the sidewalk where Kagan where he stood.

  Kagan looked from him to Sloane, still standing in the street where the Nephilim had been.

  “Tell me,” Luther demanded, growing impatient with the silence. Neilar couldn’t have left. He’d promised to wait, stating they needed to talk. “I need to know what he saw.”

  “He’s halfway to Hades by now.” Sloane walked back to them, an edge of guilt in his icy blue eyes. “Good riddance.”

  “Not good.” Luther stepped forward to get into Sloane’s face, anger rising within him. “I want to know why he left!”

  “Hey.” Kagan caught Luther’s arm, his grip firm and not easily shaken. “Sloane will get a message to him. Right?”

  Sloane nodded.

  It was too late now to argue, but it wasn’t too late to find that traitorous Nephilim bastard himself. He wasn’t about to wait around while Sloane contacted the guy either. He’d find a way to go to Hades himself and track the half-breed down. He needed to know what Neilar had seen. He couldn’t let anything happen to Thana. It was more than duty driving him now and he couldn’t fail her, not when he’d promised to do all in his power to protect her.

  Luther looked up. The sky was streaked with blues and pinks and golds as the sun rose. It looked to be another hot, sunny day. Not a cloud marred the sky.

  He closed his eyes to summon a vortex. He couldn’t easily enter Hades to find Neilar, but he could enter Heaven and demand answers from Divinity and Xan. This time he wouldn’t leave without discovering what they had seen and why he had to protect Thana.

  “Where are you going?” she asked from behind him, her soft voice tinged with fear.

  Brilliant rainbow light burst forth a few feet away and Luther turned to face her. She grabbed his hand, her fingers warm against his palm, and his desire to remain with her battled his need to leave.

  Luther couldn’t bring himself to trust a Nephilim. Three of them had already come after Thana and they hadn’t done so to protect her. For all he knew, Neilar could be lying so he’d hand Thana over to him, believing that she would be spared a terrible future. Perhaps Neilar was the one who killed her. He’d only said Luther was there when she died. That didn’t mean that he or anyone from Heaven was responsible for her death.

  Frustrated, he stared deep into Thana’s obsidian-dark eyes. Her fear spoke to his heart and he couldn’t bring himself to leave her side, not until she felt more secure. Neilar hadn’t said when the event would take place, but Luther would use what time he had left to get answers about the future and avert it, if possible.

  But first, he needed to ease Thana’s fears.

  “Sloane… please try to contact Neilar or anyone who might know about this,” he said without looking at his Scion brother, then then took hold of Thana’s hand and led her back into the building and through to the small garden.

  The patch of sky above was already turning deeper blue, promising warm sunlight and a cool breeze to chase away the heat of day.

  The quiet and time alone with Thana soothed him and the longer he stood with her hand in his, the more he shared her need to escape for a while and be alone with her. It wouldn’t solve anything, but it would give him time to answer her questions, to regain her trust, and perhaps ease the fear in his heart and hers. He leaned down and kissed her forehead. “Put something warm on and come back here.”

  Thana headed for the door, looking back at him, her expression uncertain. When he smiled, she went inside. Through the open doorway, he could hear Kagan and Sloane arguing out front. Most likely the neighbors could hear them too. Thankfully, they fell silent a few seconds after Thana left and Luther titled his head back to gaze at the sky again.

  Everything that had happened this morning ran through his mind and he searched for clues and inspiration on where they should go. He’d take Thana away for a few hours. That was all he could spare for now.

  Heavy footsteps fell behind him, bu
t Luther kept staring at the sky.

  “I know you’re angry but consider Sloane’s position. He went through a lot of pain and torment because of Neilar. His response to the bastard’s appearance was kind, given what’s passed between them.” Kagan’s tone was soft, careful and measured, as though he’d put a lot of thought into the speech.

  Luther sighed.

  He hadn’t realized that Neilar had been the one to have Sloane imprisoned and tortured.

  “The half-breed left because Sloane would not allow him to take Thana, and he believed you were able to change her fate. He told Neilar he wasn’t needed, and we wouldn’t entrust Thana to him.”

  Shame washed over Luther. Never, in all eternity had he doubted his Scion brethren. He should never had believed Sloane capable of doing something that would endanger Thana. He might live his life by flouting the rules, but he was still a Scion with a Seal host of his own to protect.

  Luther gazed at his friend. The hardness in Kagan’s golden gaze dared him to say another word against their brethren, but Luther wasn’t going there. Not again. He sighed and exhaled slow, relaxing his tense shoulders. Holding on to his anger toward Sloane was pointless, especially knowing how Neilar had betrayed him and also how Sloane had defended Thana. “I’m sorry.”

  Kagan’s expression softened, and he clapped a hand on Luther’s shoulder. “I know how you’re feeling. We were all shocked by Neilar’s statement… but this cannot be completely unexpected. Perhaps it’s your mission to change something so it won’t happen. Heaven has ordered you to protect her, haven’t they?”

  He nodded, a glimmer of relief swelling inside him. Kagan was right. Xan had ordered him to protect Thana and he wouldn’t fail. They’d find out what Neilar had seen in the Hadian pools, even if he had to find a way down there so he could confront the man himself.

  His eyes widened.

  Hades.

  “Kagan, you know the way to the pools in Hell, yes? What if I could see the future?”