“Today is the day for your punishment. Not that I care about that, I’m just curious what it will do to you. How do you feel?”
I had no choice but to reply with the truth, though it still galled me every time he asked me questions. I’d come to the conclusion that humans would label all Fae as insane. Sociopaths. They didn’t really lack emotions, but they did lack the morality that human emotions evoked. He really didn’t care about my misery, and wasn’t going to force me to betray my mission, or kill those I loved just to be cruel.
No, to him it was just a simple experiment to quantify my morality, emotions, and physiology.
I said, “Drake, I hate you, feel embarrassed, angry, impotent, and I’d really like you to die now. I’m also hungry.”
He smiled, “Splendid, now get out of your cage and get dressed. Can’t have you betraying your convictions in the buff, now can we?”
Asshole. I’d been naked all week, and he’d taken delight in displaying me before the rest of the clan. Though thankfully, he hadn’t had me raped. I was a bit surprised he didn’t think that would be a good experiment to learn my emotions and physiology, but perhaps he’d been telling the truth that the idea of laying with a non-Fae disgusted his sensibilities. Perhaps that also meant he didn’t want to watch it either, even as an experiment. It was one thing to be grateful for, but I was terrified. I had no doubt he’d be forcing me to either betray the angels and my mission, or kill my rogue family today.
Either of those things would destroy me.
I crawled out of the cage and stood up. My balance was better after a week in this body, but I felt too tall and skinny. The fae were graceful, I wasn’t used to this body yet, and was less than graceful as I walked over to the clothing options he’d provided. I’d prefer my own clothes, and wasn’t forbidden from conjuring, but of course they wouldn’t fit on this body. I put on a red sundress, because it made me think of blood, I wanted to wear Drake’s. I still had my sword too, not that it did me any good.
Drake said, “Outside. I still haven’t been able to decide which task to set you.”
That wasn’t a strange order, the Fae loved to be in nature, and I’d been on several walks with him the last week. I supposed it was their one redeeming trait, but it was probably just because of their magic. They lived in tents because they loathed houses, metals, and anything that separated them from nature or interfered with their magic. Even the tents were made of all natural fibers, but they were also highly strengthened by magic, and as tough as any house would be. I followed him out into the large meadow, filled with Fae, tents, and slaves. The Fae disgusted me now more than ever. I also felt shame for ignoring what they’d been doing to the other races for so long, not that I had a real choice in the matter, I wasn’t supposed to interfere with free will or make morality judgments. It wasn’t my place to interfere, I was on this world to enforce one law, but that didn’t change the way I felt at all.
“Sit.”
I sat, good doggie, I mocked myself. Damn it, I wanted to strangle the bastard, and see the light go out in his eyes. But if I ever escaped I wouldn’t make that mistake again, I’d just take his head, no matter what he deserved. The Fae were too dangerous to play with.
Drake said, “Like I said, I can’t decide, so I’ve decided to let you choose. Won’t that be fun? So… how does it feel, me giving you the choice of which loyalty you’ll betray?”
“You’re a bastard. I can’t choose.”
Drake laughed, “But you will, as soon as I order you to.”
I’d given it a lot of thought the last week, and I thought I knew what the answer would be if he forced me to choose, and it made me feel like shit. If it was just me on the line, either choice would destroy me, so I’d betray my mission in a heartbeat. It made sense in that context, because if either action destroyed me, I might as well not take the ones I loved down with me, they could live out their lives. They’d be okay without me.
But it wasn’t that simple, and it wasn’t just me. Declaring to humanity that the supernatural world was real wouldn’t just cause me to fall, or even just let humans know the truth. Humans would find out about the four other advanced predatory races living on their world, five including the angels still left in this dimension. Humans didn’t share well with others, it was instinct not to accept or share with another predator, no matter how civilized they thought they were, there would be conflict, deaths, and perhaps an all out war. In my opinion that was the main reason I had orders to keep the secret, so that the world wouldn’t self-destruct and humanity could advance without interference. There could be other deeper reasons, I was an angel, not a god, but the harm done from revealing the truth would be… vast, on many levels.
All of which meant, I was forced to measure the possible deaths of millions of strangers, against seventy-eight lives that I loved. The idea of hurting any of them killed me, but it was the lesser evil wasn’t it? Then why wasn’t I sure that’s what I would do? I wasn’t sure I truly knew, and wouldn’t know until he forced me to answer the question.
I was in the middle of telling him how I felt, when there was an explosion of dust, dirt, and small rocks about fifty feet away. I looked over curiously, and my heart jumped in shock and relief as the dust cleared, and I saw the Nephilim.
Relief?
How was he here, how did he find me, or maybe the better questions were why did he find me, and why was he here? I’d been bitchy and had shut him down hard, and then ran away. I just stared at him in disbelief for a long moment, and then smiled.
I looked up at Drake, and said rather smugly, “I feel hope.”
I should have known better by now, not to taunt my Fae captor. It always bit me on the ass, and this time was no exception.
Drake frowned in the first true concern I’d seen on him, and then narrowed his eyes at me in the first true maliciousness I’d seen him display, and then he ordered coldly, “Kill him!”
My hope fled…
Chapter Eighteen – Interlude
Katherine was scared, which was making her a bit bitchy. She leaned back into her husband and took strength from feeling his strong arms around her, he was her rock. The others teased him for being wrapped around her little finger, but the truth was that she’d be lost without him.
They were in the diner’s kitchen with Carla and Tammy, and talking about that mage from last week coming back. Her mind was only half on the conversation, she was worried about the mage they’d had locked up, for a whole week now, and even more worried about Portia. Their angel was never gone for that long, ever.
“Did he say why he was looking for her?”
John grunted, “He just wanted to talk to her, wouldn’t say about what. His scents were controlled, but I got the idea he wasn’t a danger to us.”
Carla asked, “Controlled?”
John shrugged, “Some people control their emotions better, that means less of a reaction physiologically as well. All I picked up was a little curiosity, worry for where she was, and that’s it. Oh, and he loved the apple turnover.”
She snorted and elbowed him. It hurt her elbow, her husband was all hard muscle. She dropped into her mage sight, and scanned the front of the diner again, and then groaned. She hadn’t really expected to see anything, she’d just been bored.
Carla frowned and did the same.
John asked, “What is it now?”
She spat, “Another damned mage.”
Tammy frowned, “That’s four in one week, well, three with one twice.”
They all looked over as the mage in question gazed at them with narrowed eyes, and walked toward the kitchen door. What the hell was it with pushy mages? She smirked at that thought, she supposed that would describe her pretty well too.
The mage held his hands up peacefully, “I was hoping you folks could help me? I’m a mage investigator from Sioux Falls. Name’s Daniel.”
Katherine asked, “What brings you all the way out here?”
Daniel said, “L
ooking for a fire mage by the name of Thomas. He was supposed to arrive and present himself to the council in Sioux Falls six days ago.”
Katherine’s heart hammered, but she didn’t let that show. Thank goodness only Tammy and John would be able to tell how freaked out she was in that moment.
Tammy said, “Name doesn’t ring a bell, but there was a mage through here last week, I only remember because it isn’t very common to see you city folk in the hind end of nowhere. As far as I know, he filled up the tank, ate, and moved on.”
Daniel frowned, “Are you all sure about that? This is an… interesting place you’ve got here.”
Katherine suppressed the urge to burn him to ash as he looked pointedly at her and John, fucking prejudiced assholes. She loved being married to a shifter. He weathered her fiery storms so to speak, and at the same time he didn’t put up with any bullshit. He was… well he was hers, and she loved him.
“What are you suggesting? We’re just a few rogues with no options, who’ve banned together for safety. I saw the mage leave myself.”
It was even true enough, she’d seen her husband carry him out on his shoulder.
Daniel sighed, “Thing is people, his cell phone’s last known location was here, which means it was turned off here, which means whatever happened to him, happened here. Are you folks going to start being honest with me?”
She bristled at that, offended, even if it was true enough, “Fuck off.”
Daniel raised an eyebrow, but otherwise looked calm and unruffled, “Fine, I guess I’ll have to come back another time, with enough men to do a proper search of the area.”
She wanted to blast him, he was strong as an investigator, but she was still stronger. It was why she’d never been able to find a city mage community to take her in. Still, it wasn’t about that, the wards would stop her from being violent too, which in this case was a real pain in the ass.
She sighed after he was gone, “That could’ve gone better.”
John laughed, and kissed her head.
She elbowed him again, Ow! Damn, she really needed to stop doing that…
Chapter Nineteen – Jason
Damn, I was such a klutz. In my defense, I hadn’t flown all that often, much less at four hundred miles an hour for seventy-five minutes. I’d come down a little fast and hit the ground like a damned meteor. Luckily, my magic shield against physical harm preventing me from going splat, and my Nephilim body managed to absorb the intense inertia of the stop.
When the dust cleared, I looked around. At first, I’d thought she must be in one of the tents. Then I saw the Fae woman sitting on the ground, with Portia’s sword around her waist. Or at least, that’s what I’d thought until she turned her head and looked at me. If it wasn’t for her dark blue eyes, eyes I would remember for the rest of my life, I wouldn’t have recognized her.
Her soft ephemeral beauty was gone, her subtly pouty lips had been thinned, and her cheekbones raised, giving her a severe beauty I could barely recognize or see her in. Her body was different now too, her gorgeous and sexy curves, and lovely breasts had been… shrunk and stretched. Her hair was changed as well, the gorgeous wavy golden blonde had been changed to ash blonde. It was pretty enough I supposed, but it wasn’t her.
I felt a surge of anger, and disgust. Not at Portia, disgust at the Fae who had done this to her. Her aura was all messed up too, I could feel the foreign magic and bonds within her body, and I had no idea what if anything I could do. But I wasn’t panicked yet, Korinna had said to take her to Chicago, surely a Fae expert could undo the damage?
She smiled at me, which made me smile despite all the anger I felt on her behalf, but then I heard the Fae order in a cold voice, “Kill him!”
She didn’t even hesitate, she jumped up and charged at me as she drew her sword. Kind of how Korinna had been doing it to me all weak, which meant I wasn’t frozen in surprise. I pulled my sword and lunged forward to meet her sword with my own.
“Portia?”
She had tears in her eyes, but didn’t answer as she kept attacking me. She was good, fast, and incredibly strong. Without my recent training, I’d have been dead in the first few seconds.
It also helped that she didn’t want to kill me, oh, she was trying hard to kill me with her sword, because she had to obey the command of the male Fae, but he hadn’t said how, which meant she was just using the sword. She hadn’t brought her magic to bear yet at all.
More than that, without her new body I might have been dead in the first few seconds anyway, it was hard to be sure. I could tell she wasn’t used to her new center of balance yet, which was making her rather sloppy, as I parried, dodged, and blocked her sword in lightning fast movements of my own.
Of course, sloppy didn’t mean incompetent, she was still very deadly.
Damnit, I felt the Fae’s magic impact my protections, and quickly fed them more magic, as I returned the attack with a large blast elemental fire, all while evading Portia’s attacks. I didn’t know if it was a good idea to kill her or not, not with all those soul bindings on her which I didn’t understand.
What if her soul was stuck in a dead corpse?
I felt the Fae man retreat from the elemental fire, which was good enough for now, his magical attack had ceased, and I concentrated on Portia and keeping myself alive. I couldn’t afford to lose my focus, it was the first fight with deadly consequences I’d ever been in.
I started to channel more magic into my sword, making it glow with a golden light. A mix of all the elements, plus infernal magic. Nephilim magic was golden, though I didn’t quite understand why it was, it was true enough. Then I pushed hard the next time she ran out of momentum, and drove her back with an attack sequence that I’d had particular trouble with when Korinna used it on me. It was a bit desperate, but if she wasn’t familiar with it, I hoped it would work.
At the end of it, as I’d hoped her sword was way out of position for the final stroke. Normally, Korinna had slammed my shoulder, instead I sent the flat of my blade at her head, and released all the magic built up in the sword in one giant pulse of magic. There was a bright pulse of light, and her protections fell on contact, and my sword kept going and nailed her in the temple.
She fell to the ground unconscious.
I wasn’t that proud of myself, I was fairly sure if she’d been using her magic actively, I wouldn’t have gotten away with dispelling and overloading her protections so easily.
I spun around, and the Fae were backing away from me, and I was tempted to go after the one that had her bound, but getting her out of here seemed more important. Vengeance could wait. I released a sleep spell into her just in case she recovered too quickly from the physical hit. Then I scooped her up, grabbed her sword, and teleported to Chicago.
I sheathed my sword and hers, and carried her into the house and went toward the living room.
“… I don’t like being away from him. What if something happens?”
Korinna said, “Relax, he’s here.”
I walked in to see Korinna, and a Fae. Another one of my grandfather’s mates, she was… odd to say the least. I’d only met her that last night, when my grandfather came out for dinner. As her words implied, she didn’t leave my grandfather’s side very often. Her magic wasn’t just Fae either, which I didn’t understand. Generally, cross species children were impossible, unless a Fae got involved, or in the case of angels creating a Nephilim.
Like Katherine and John, they wouldn’t be able to have children. Even in the case of shifter sub-species, a wolf and cat shifter can’t have a child either.
The Fae frowned at me, “I know you,” then she looked at the angel and her face grew angry, “I know those bindings as well. Put her on the couch, I will deal with this horror.”
“You know about them?”
She nodded absently, “I was imprisoned in a soul sword for several thousand years. It was… inconvenient, but then I met the love of my life, and finally knew my true purpose.”
&n
bsp; Wow, so that explained the odd part, she’d been driven insane… and still was. Insane that is.
Her green magic reached out and mingled with the body.
She frowned, “There is only one way to fix this. Her original pattern is gone and I can’t restore her body any other way.”
That didn’t sound good, but there was a way, right? How bad could it be?
She cast more magic, which bound her down onto the couch, and then woke her up…
Chapter Twenty – Portia
When I woke, I was lashed down to a couch, I also hadn’t ever been more glad I’d lost a fight in my long life. I thought for sure he wouldn’t be proficient enough to survive, even in this clumsy body and without me using magic. He’d surprised me. I still felt the command in me, and had to kill him, but I couldn’t move.
I looked up and blanched when I saw the Fae woman standing there with a smile on her face, but relaxed slightly when I saw the Nephilim there as well. The Fae’s aura was odd as well, not… Fae.
The Fae woman said, “Your original pattern is gone, there’s only one way to fix this. Be sure to come back and visit okay? I know my grandson wishes to speak to you.”
My mind was still processing that odd delivery of information, when a glowing green sword appeared in her hand, and she impaled my chest in a smooth fast movement, right through my heart. I would have screamed, if my body hadn’t locked up in shock.
Then I felt a powerful surge of magic enter my body, and the last thing I felt was that magic tearing the bonds that were binding my soul, to pieces, while I stared up into the Nephilim’s horrified face. Apparently, he hadn’t known the fix would be the death of this body. If I’d been capable of it, I’d have cried in joy at the destruction of my soul’s magical prison.
Then I felt nothing…
I was home. A spirit of energy, power, and magic, and I glowed with the joy of it.
I let it cleanse me, heal me, and I plotted my revenge. I was surrounded by bliss, safety, and my own kind. I knew I couldn’t stay though, just long enough to recover, so I could return, build my body anew. The week of hell had forever changed me I think, but the time I would spend on my home plane also restored me. I was strong, and wouldn’t make the same foolish mistake again.
Nephilim's Journey Page 10
