by Michele Hauf
He had to set her free.
“I heard you howl last night, wolf,” the soul bringer teased Bron snidely.
“You kept her in the cage all night?” Bron asked, wandering back and forth like a caged animal himself. The blade handle hurt his bones, he gripped it so tightly.
“Don’t you know a werewolf can’t shift without its heart?”
Again Bron glanced to Claire. It may have been a strange mercy for her that she hadn’t shifted. “I’m so sorry,” he felt the need to say to her.
“This is your fault!” she yelled, summoning a twinge of remembrance, at the back of his neck. He had wronged her. Again. “Get me out of here!”
“There must be some bargain we can come to,” Bron said, stopping his pacing before the soul bringer. “She isn’t a part of this.”
“I made her a part of it.”
“But she’s...” He couldn’t say it. That she hadn’t meant anything to him over the centuries. That even now he only felt compelled to help her because she was the classic damsel in distress. No woman should be treated so cruelly. Someone had to rescue her. But care for her?
Had he ever loved Claire? Or had he simply been fulfilling a requirement to become pack leader? Had he fooled himself that he’d known love?
Yes. The affair had proven it. It was time to move on. And fight for something that he really could love. Like Kizzy. And the only way to do that was to right a past wrong.
“I know. I’ve heard the sad tale of your infidelity,” Blackthorn offered. He crossed his arms and leaned against a steel pole. He was not broad in shoulder or wide with muscle. Slim and lean, he epitomized the slinking dark menace. “Love is tough, isn’t it?”
“As if you would know,” Bron spat out and resumed his pacing.
He’d come with a plan that he had known would fail. But how else to avoid bringing the woman he did care about into this mess? He just hoped to solve this before Kizzy woke and figured out what he was up to.
“I know love,” Blackthorn said. “It is why I need that damned Purgatory Heart.”
“Soul bringers are emotionless,” Bron said. “You are a liar.”
“I cannot lie. It’s an angel thing. And I have learned to love since Desdenova came into my life.”
Within a second the soul bringer stood before Bron, gripping him up under the chin. The black gloves he wore fit like a second skin. His coal eyes blazed with a cold fire. “My Nova died a week ago. She was a sin eater. Do you know what that means, wolf?”
Bron shook his head within the tight grip. If he could just slash far enough with the blade...
“Unfortunately, sin eaters are mortal, and something so repulsive as a drunk driver took her life. Upon her death she went to Purgatory. Sin eaters are destined to spend eternity in that place. They cannot reach Above without direct guidance from a soul bringer.”
Bron kicked the man at the hip, which released him to land on his feet and stumble backward a few steps. He wielded the blade between them but did not move to slash. He wanted to hear what the soul bringer had to say.
“Then why did you let her go?” he challenged. “You could have brought her Above.”
“I was ferrying other souls! I was not there when the car struck her, crushing the life from her as she was thrown from her feet and slammed against a brick wall. I could not get to her soul fast enough. With her last breath, her soul was instantly sucked into Purgatory.”
“So that’s why you need to get to Purgatory?”
Blackthorn nodded. He sucked in a stuttering breath. “I know love, wolf. And it is fierce. Do you know what they will do to my Nova in Purgatory? She is reviled for the multitude of sins she has eaten to allow sinners to pass into Above instead of Beneath where they belong. Not once in her lifetime had Nova sinned. Never. Always she kept a clean soul in order to take on the brunt of the evils she ate to cleanse others. And yet the Toll Gatherers will take their revenge on her for those stolen souls they were not given opportunity to torment. I must get her out!”
Bron winced to recognize the desperation in the man’s voice. Perhaps the soul bringer had loved. Bron had always walked away before any degree of love could escalate in his life. His one-night-stand rule. And yet, yes, he had known love in the eyes of an innocent child.
And now to learn exactly why the soul bringer sought an entrance into Purgatory changed things. Minutely. He still wouldn’t hand over Kizzy’s heart.
I dreamed of a werewolf ripping out my heart.
Bron’s heart had cracked when she’d told him that. He believed in premonition and portents. But did she?
And now he knew the enemy he dealt with had a weakness and could be ruled by emotion. Blackthorn Regis wasn’t simply pure evil.
Which made him much more complicated.
“I thought you were not able to enter Purgatory?” Bron asked. Not so eager to simply react now, he relaxed his shoulders, yet maintained a defensive stance with feet apart, blade at the ready.
“Purgatory is closed to me. I’ll worry about that when I get the heart.”
“Did someone ask about a heart?”
Bron spun around at Kizzy’s voice. “No! Get out of here!”
She marched across the concrete floor toward him. Bron shoved the blade into the sheath where he normally kept a stake and gripped her by the shoulders. The contact filled his senses with her essence and momentarily returned him to the bed they had shared last night. She smelled like sex and warmth and everything he couldn’t live without.
So he was wrong. He did know how to love. Fiercely.
“No, Kizzy,” he said so softly because he wanted her all to himself. And, for some odd reason, he didn’t want to disrespect Claire. “I won’t let you do this.”
“Then it’s a good thing I can make up my own mind. You can have my heart!” she called to Blackthorn. “If you promise to put it back when you’re finished with it.”
“Of course I will,” the soul bringer said.
“You won’t be the same,” Bron argued. He clutched her shoulders tightly, wanting to make her stop, to force her to turn away and run. But she was a strong woman who would not be dissuaded. He loved her for her strength. Damn it!
He turned to the soul bringer. “There’s no way you can take out her heart without her suffering.”
The soul bringer gestured toward Claire in the cage. “She’s doing just fine. Although I must say, she is getting weak. The longer her heart remains out of her body—” he shrugged “—well, that’s how it goes.”
Kizzy dashed for the black box Bron had left sitting on the floor before he’d attacked the soul bringer. She held it up. “Give her back her heart, and then you can have mine.”
“I believe we have a deal,” Blackthorn said. “But no putting the werewolf’s heart back until I’ve seen if your heart opens the doorway to Purgatory.”
“No!” Bron grabbed the box. “Give Claire back her heart now. Or this won’t happen.”
“It can’t work that way.” Kizzy gripped Bron’s forearm. Her eyes flashed with more of that incredible strength. She stood between him and Blackthorn, and he could see Claire out of the corner of his eye. The haggard wolf gripped the cage bars, her eyes a desperate plea.
“This is the only way it can happen,” Kizzy said calmly. “You know that. And the sooner it gets done, the sooner she can have her heart back and get the hell out of here. Look at her. I’m sure she wants that desperately.”
“Yes, please,” Claire pleaded. She had fallen to her knees and no longer clung to the bars. She was growing weaker, for her eyelids fluttered, and she was so pale. “Do it, Bron. You owe me this much.”
When Kizzy turned up her gaze on him he swallowed. Double guilt trip? Hell. How could he allow this to happen? He’d sworn he would protect Kizzy.
&nbs
p; She began unbuttoning her shirt, and he gripped her hand. “Stop it.”
“I’m not going to strip. I’m just preparing.” She swung a look to the soul bringer. “Will it hurt?”
Blackthorn shook his head. “I’ll make it painless. As much as I can.”
She looked to Claire, then stroked Bron’s chin. “Is she angry with you?”
“What do you think?”
“Of course she is. But she’ll forgive you.”
He didn’t need Claire’s forgiveness, but he did need her absolution. For the love he had never been able to give her.
Kizzy took his hand and pressed it against her chest. She didn’t wear a bra, and his thumb brushed the curve of her breast beneath the loose blouse. “Remember what I told you? There’s already a ‘cut here’ line.”
She tried to make light of the situation. He hated that she felt she had to save them all. She didn’t have to do that. He could find a way. He had to. “Just walk away,” he said. “You don’t have to sacrifice—”
“I do. And you know that.”
“No, I—”
“Bron,” she whispered. Her shaking fingers stroked his beard. He could smell not fear but apprehension. She was so brave, and he admired that about her. So much he loved about her. “Even if I walk away right now, it will never stop. He’ll always be after me for reasons I can never know.”
“He is in love,” Bron said, noting the soul bringer paid keen attention. “His lover died recently and is in Purgatory. That’s why he needs a portal into Purgatory.”
“So, what will going to her mean?”
“She is a sin eater and does not have a chance to go Above. She will be tortured eternally in Purgatory. If she is taken out of there, then Regis can ferry her soul to Above.”
“Then you have to hurry!” She released his hand and turned to the soul bringer.
It felt as if he would never hold her hand again. Never feel the warmth of her on his skin. Never get to sing to her those silly little lines from movies that stayed with him because they reminded him that life could be fun if he sought it. Never know how much it hurt to love someone so much.
Was this a fierce love, then?
It was. The realization hurt because it was so bittersweet.
“Kisanthra,” he whispered, as the soul bringer uncrossed his arms and opened them to her. “I love you.”
“Oh, you are my hero. I love you, too.” She turned and leaned over to kiss him quickly. Too quick. He missed her already, and she wasn’t even gone. “So if you really love me,” she said, “let this happen.”
He exhaled.
She lifted a brow, waiting for his response with a tease of the coy lover he’d held through the night. If he wanted to win her, he must step back and let her do this. Curse his immortal soul, it would kill him, but he must. Because he loved her.
Bron nodded.
“Thank you. Let’s do this,” she said to Blackthorn. “But you promise when it’s done, you will put my heart back, and I will walk out of here in the same condition as I am now? I mean, all good?”
“Your goodness has no bearing on the results of having your heart removed. If you are asking whether or not you will be alive and healthy? Then, yes, you will be so. But time does become an issue. Your hero must work quickly.”
“I don’t know what he has to do,” Kizzy offered.
And in that moment Bron knew the answer. This day Kizzy’s nightmare would come true.
He lifted his head and met the soul bringer’s bullet gaze. A triumphant defiance held him frozen. He couldn’t speak. Couldn’t imagine what it would be like. Only knew this sacrifice was only just getting started.
“Bron Everhart will be my champion. He will be the one going to Purgatory,” Blackthorn said. “Since I am unable. Blade!”
The bowie knife flew out of the sheath at Bron’s hip and landed with a shing in the soul bringer’s grip. “Get over here, wolf. You’ve just become my heart-plucker. Remove all electronic devices. They will prove a detriment in Purgatory. This has to happen fast.”
“No, I...” His legs wouldn’t move. He dumbly patted his pocket with the phone in it. Remove all electronic devices sounded so pedestrian. As if he were merely stepping onto an airplane security scanner...
He couldn’t step up and rip out Kizzy’s heart. All the armies in all the world couldn’t make him. There was nothing...
He’d made a vow. He would not break that vow as he had with...
Claire sat in the cage, intently focused on the three of them.
“Please, Bron.” Kizzy’s brown eyes teared, and her hand extended, awaiting his. “You have to do this. You’re the only one who can save us all. Claire. The soul bringer’s love. And me.”
Fuck. Three women depending on him?
When he felt sure he should fall to his knees and yell for mercy, Bron instead lifted his chin and stepped forward. Tugging out his cell phone, he absently handed it to Kizzy. He stook another step. He nodded once.
And the soul bringer dragged the blade down Kizzy’s chest.
Chapter 23
The knife that cut open her chest did not hurt. In fact, Kizzy had to look down to see that the blade was actually against her skin. She did not bleed either.
The soul bringer stood, stretching back his arm, fingers gripping the bloodless knife. Bron then kneeled before her, taking in the long, open gape in her chest. He looked as if he could be sick. Tears dropped from his eyes. He clenched a fist before him. Kizzy wanted to hug him, to reassure him that she was not in pain, but all she could manage was a few tears, as well.
“Quickly, wolf,” the soul bringer stated. “Pluck out her heart. Or I’ll have to cut her open again.”
“I’m so sorry, Kisanthra,” Bron said. “I promised I would never hurt you.”
“You’re not,” she reassured. “I’m not in pain. Just find the sin eater and come back to me. Promise me that.”
He nodded. “I will. You are everything that I live for now. But I...how can I take out your heart?”
“Grip it,” the soul bringer instructed. “And pull. Come on, wolf, she doesn’t have all day.”
“Back off!” Bron growled at the man.
Holding his hand over her open chest, his fingers shook, then suddenly he gripped his fist tightly and nodded once. He whispered, “I love you,” then plunged his fist into her chest.
Kizzy sucked in a gasp. The weird, muffling sensation of something moved in her chest, yet she panted to breathe through it. No pain, just an odd sense of being possessed. Claimed. By a man who had just said he loved her.
And yet, the nightmare had just come true.
When he pulled out his fist, she felt something leave her. A warmth. Vitality. Life?
Bron’s bloody hand held a beating heart. She gaped at it. That was her life. Out of her body. And yet, she was breathing. Alive.
For now.
“What is your woman’s name?” Bron asked the soul bringer, “And how will I find her?”
“Desdenova Fleetwood is her name. She goes by Nova. She will be the only embodied soul in Purgatory. Slight of frame and dark hair. The most beautiful woman in creation.”
“Yes, yes. They always are.” Bron bowed over Kizzy. His teared eyes searched hers and then he kissed her mouth. “You okay?”
Probably not, but he didn’t need to know that. “Hurry,” she whispered. “I love you.”
“She will be fine unless you drop the heart,” the soul bringer said. “It is your return ticket back to this realm. Now. Turn it to grip it directly over the handprint, and that should—”
When Bron turned the heart in his grasp, suddenly a brilliant white light exploded out from his hand, and then he was gone. Only a few blood droplets stained the concrete floor whe
re he’d just knelt.
* * *
Bron had been gone twenty minutes. Kizzy wandered the floor, feeling better when she moved. She was light-headed. The cut on her chest had closed up, and she’d buttoned up her shirt. Somehow, she felt her missing heart as an emptiness in her very soul. It ached and pulsed in her core. And yet, nothing beat in her chest. No heartbeat. How wrong was that?
Had she done the right thing? Whether or not she survived this, she wanted to feel as if she had done the right thing. But that hinged on her trusting the soul bringer.
The man who held her life in his hands stood by the dirty window, his gaze seemingly on her and Claire, but Kizzy sensed he would close his eyes on occasion. Thinking deep thoughts? The asshole. He’d involved too many to save his girlfriend. His dead girlfriend. Wasn’t like Bron could bring her back from Purgatory alive, was it? Of course, if her soul could be saved from eternal torture, then Kizzy supposed the trip was worth it.
Bron had been forced to commit an unspeakable act. It had killed him to pull out her heart. And he had sworn that was something he’d never do so long as he lived. Poor guy. She would never forget the look in his eyes as he’d held her heart before him. In his mind he had wounded her deeply, irreparably. So she had to stay alive to prove him wrong. When he returned he would put her heart back in her chest, and all would be well.
She remembered what Eglantine had said about the soul bringer needing a champion to go into Purgatory for him. If only they had known then what they knew now. Would Bron have agreed to do it all over?
Yes. He was that kind of honorable.
She hoped his trip would not take long. For her sake, and for the sake of the poor woman in the cage. The werewolf sat on the floor, her face tilted against a cage bar, eyes closed.
Kizzy spun about and faced the soul bringer. “Why must you keep her in that cage? It’s not as though she can hurt you. She’s weak. Should she and I join forces, we wouldn’t be able to cause you an annoyance.”
The soul bringer’s eyes opened slowly. They were fathomless voids. With a smirk, he lifted a hand slightly and made a flicking motion with two fingers. The cage door swung open.
