God. The word sends a bad taste to my mouth.
“The oracle is God’s mouthpiece, and yet you’re giving me very mixed messages, Confidant,” I inform.
She grins at me. “Once again, I find it hard to believe that Imae said you were well behaved. Does Tasia have this big of an effect on you, or is this a culmination of everything you’ve been through?” She holds up her hand when I’m about to answer. “Don’t answer that,” she says. “I’d like to think, as the confidant, it isn’t my job to sit there and agree with everything Cassius says or does. I am there as his rock. I am there to question his decisions.”
“Are you saying that you don’t like what’s been going on? You don’t like the way the oracle has been doing things?” I ask.
“I can’t say that. I don’t have any love for demons, and they have been destroying this world. Everything he’s been doing makes sense to me. What bothers me is the fact that Cassius is so emotionally involved in everything going on. Still, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s wrong, now does it?”
She stretches and places her hand on her lower back, as if to relieve some sort of discomfort. “I don’t know anymore,” she says.
She pulls her long hair back and out of her face, but then she releases it just to fall all over her shoulders once again. “I was raised in the same world as Cassius,” she says. “You weren’t. Maybe someone like you can show us the truth. You have a good heart, one of the very best I’ve ever seen, and the fact that you can even remotely sympathize with a demon like Arsen has to mean something.”
I’m about to tell her I don’t sympathize with Arsen, but she holds her hand up to me again, signaling me to be silent.
“You shouldn’t think of me as an ally, Rynne. However, I will hear you out whenever you feel the need to speak. Even if I can’t always support what you say or what you do, the very least I will do is listen. At the very least, I don’t plan on interfering.” She leans in close to me and whispers, “Remember that.”
“SO WHAT’S THE plan?” Arsen asks. “I know you want to capture Uden, but it’s going to be a real drag with just the two of us. Who’s to say he’s not going to be able to slip away again?”
“We’ll call for backup,” I tell him curtly as I open the door to the garage
I want to find Uden, but mostly I want to get Arsen under control. If we find Uden, it’ll be a plus.
“Seriously,” Arsen says, lowering his voice. “What’s the plan?”
“We’re going to find Uden. You’re going to track him down. Your beast is like some great big wolf mixed with a dragon. You must have a good sense of smell,” I say.
I think I see Arsen grin for a moment. He quickly hides the fact that he was doing that with a scowl. “I’m good, but not that good. How do you expect me to track him when he escaped into the ocean? I can’t sniff him out in the ocean. Despite how highly you may think of me, I still have many limitations.” Now he grins.
I bite my tongue out of frustration as I close the door behind us and open the garage door. The way Arsen talks makes me so mad. He’s one of those teasing types that I could never stand, which is bad enough on its own. It’s worse because he’s a demon. It’s even worse because he killed my parents. I can’t stand being by him, but this is what I have to do to help everyone else. Did I hate him this much before? I know I must have, but my anger is a ticking time bomb now.
“We’re driving? I could just fly us there,” Arsen remarks.
“Well, maybe I don’t want you to fly me anywhere,” I reply.
“It would be faster.”
Ugh. I probably should have Arsen fly. But it’ll be cold. And what if he drops me? I feel like I’ll have even less control in the air. And heights.
“Nervous?” Arsen asks.
“No. Shut up. We’ll fly. Do I need a heavier coat?” I reply.
Arsen snickers. “No, you’ll be warm enough next to me.”
God, I hate this.
I close the garage door once Arsen follows me outside. It’s another freezing cold, icy day. Maybe I should get a warmer coat anyway. Arsen nudges me with his arm.
“Seriously. You won’t be cold,” he says. “I’m going to shift.”
“Fine,” I say.
I turn around, so I don’t have to see anything. I hear some rustling and a strange cracking noise. Then a big wolf nose nudges my arm and I startle, turning back around to face him. I saw Arsen shift to his beast before, but I didn’t really get to see him up close like this. I stand there with my mouth open as I stare at him. He’s bigger than I remember, probably because he’s standing right in front of me now. He looks really different like this. His fur is the same color as his hair though, and his eyes are the same. He spreads out his large wings, making him look even bigger. His scales glitter in the sunlight, a pretty purple. The two spiraling horns on his head and the spines along his back look fierce, and he has big black claws extending from each of his paws.
He chuffs softly as his big green eyes stay trained on me. I reach out my hand, though I’m not sure why. Arsen meets me with his big black nose. The combination of scales and fur feels weird, but not bad.
Stop.
I shake my head, grab Arsen’s clothes, shove them into my backpack, and walk to his side. He tucks his dragon wings back to his side and drops to his belly. I take a moment to figure out how to climb this mammoth demon. He barks at me. Whatever. I guess I’ll just go for it.
I catch my fingers in his dark fur, but as soon as I reach the scales covering his back, it’s harder to get a grip. Somehow I manage to get on his back anyway, between two spines as I sit near the base of his neck. I test the spine in front of me. It’s not sharp except for the end. Guess I’ll hold on to that.
Then he takes off. I gasp as the world below me seems to grow smaller and smaller. This would have scared me so bad at one point. I totally would have screamed, but it’s not as bad as I thought it’d be at all. I love how my white diamond silences all of my fears. It’s better than any medication I could have ever been on. Arsen rises higher and higher until we’re lost in some clouds. I know I should be freezing with all the wind and water vapor up here, but Arsen’s body is like a freaking furnace.
I watch between breaks in the clouds as the city disappears and Arsen flies east. We’re up so high, I doubt anyone would think we’re anything more than a bird or something, so there’s no danger of drawing attention. I have to admit, this flying thing is pretty cool though. I cling to the fur I can reach on Arsen’s neck instead of holding on to the spine in front of me when he takes a sudden turn in the air. The surprise makes my heart beat a little faster, but I don’t scare like I would have if I didn’t have my white diamond. Arsen’s body rumbles underneath me as he lets out another bark. Is he laughing?
“Knock it off,” I say.
He turns his head to look at me, and I scowl at him. I’m not here to have fun, and neither is he. Having fun with Arsen is the last thing I want to do. I think he figures that out, because he doesn’t mess around again. It’s strange to be so close to someone, literally sitting on their back, and to feel disconnected from them. I hate Arsen. I hate him more than I’ve ever hated anything, and all of this is temporary. I just have to bear it because this is about more than me. I’ll make sure Arsen does some good with his power after all the lives he’s ended. This is the best kind of punishment he can have.
HAVING TASIA ON my back feels really good. I can’t member the last time I felt this content. The way she holds on to my neck whenever I change course or whenever there’s any amount of turbulence is extremely satisfying. It’s nice to have her near. It’s nice to have her depend on me. My logician thinks this is all crazy, but right now I’m enjoying the sensation. It’s been quiet aside from Tasia giving a few directions here and there, telling me exactly where she wants to go. It’s not like I can say anything back as I am. My beast isn’t satisfied. It knows Tasia isn’t enjoying this ride the same way that we are. She’s changed. She f
eels different from the nervous girl I saw before. She used to be somewhat receptive to me, but not anymore.
“There’s the Mermaid Pub,” Tasia comments.
I begin to descend from the sky, not worried about drawing any attention since the pub is located on an isolated beach so far away from anything else in Cape May, New Jersey. As soon as I land on the sandy beach, the same one Cassius tortured me on, an involuntary shudder courses through my body. I still myself before dropping to my stomach, allowing Tasia to carefully slide off my back and land on her feet in the sand beside me. She’s unsteady, so I catch her with my snout before she can fall. All the flying must have affected her legs. She pushes away from me, slightly startled by my big head. She takes a few steps back, not that it makes much of a difference with how big I am in this body, but I suppose it makes her feel better.
“You better not have been trying to bite me,” she says.
I snort. If I bit her like this, I could take an arm clean off. My beast would never do that to her. My beast tosses the very idea and image out of my mind as if it never existed in the first place. I want to please this girl. Pleasing has nothing to do with hurting.
“Change back,” she says. “We need to go inside the pub and see if we can find any clues.”
My body ripples and pops with energy as I shift back to my logician. It’s a smooth process that doesn’t take long. Tasia watches me at first, but she turns around before too long. She digs inside her backpack and holds out my clothes behind her. I find her shyness amusing. She was eager to look over my beast when I shifted outside of the hunter base in Philadelphia—which pleased my beast greatly. Now that my body looks much like a human, I won’t get the same treatment. Humans and angels and their damn modesty.
I take my clothes and dress without a word.
“Are you dressed yet?” Tasia asks.
“Yep,” I reply, though that’s not entirely true. I’m still working at my sweatshirt.
Tasia turns around and stifles a gasp. So I lied a little, what does it matter? I know it’s perfectly acceptable for men to be seen without a shirt in her culture. The heat I see on her face tells me it’s something else. The rapid beating of her heart gets my beast excited. My logician shuts those feelings down quickly. I need to focus.
“Let’s go in,” Tasia says, masking her previous reaction. “The coast is clear, right?”
“I don’t sense anyone besides you,” I say.
She takes that as the okay and makes her way to the empty, broken pub. The building is dusted with snow since Uden blew out a side of the building when he escaped—just like the window he threw me out of. The floor is covered in glass, and bottles of alcohol have been spilled all over. I wonder how easily the place would go up in flames. Probably not too easily. It’s pretty wet in here thanks to all the damage.
Tasia starts digging around. For what, I don’t know. I enjoy watching her as she looks through debris, though. Her coat rides up in the back when she crouches down to look at something, and I get a good view of the smooth skin on her lower back. Yeah. I’ll just sit back and watch.
She stands back up and looks at me with her eyebrows downturned. “We’re here looking for clues,” she says.
“We won’t find any here,” I say, not missing a beat.
“You’re that certain we won’t find anything?” she asks.
“Any information worth knowing is with him—in his head. Uden had this place by the ocean for a reason, so he could bail like he did,” I explain. “He’s not stupid.”
“Then what about other demons?” She asks. “Won’t they be curious about where he is? I’m surprised you haven’t sensed any nearby.”
“I don’t sense any around here, on this beach” I retort. “But I sense plenty in Cape May. Not natural demons though. As far as I can tell.”
“Then let’s go into the heart of the city,” she says. “We’ll find some demons, or monsters, and interrogate them.”
I doubt we’ll get anything she’d consider worthwhile out of some lowly made demons.
We leave the wrecked pub and walk across the beach. I lead the way, using the weight of darkness as my guide. I figure there are around five made demons hanging around this city. Tasia follows me wordlessly even after we make it to the heart of the city and walk along Cape May’s streets. Uden must have gone out of his way to find the worst looking beach in the entire area, because this city is nice. There are large beach houses in bright colors and the people around here seem content. I wonder if the Mermaid Pub is actually considered within city boundaries. Not that it matters anymore.
Nobody on the streets pay us much attention. To anyone watching, it probably doesn’t look like Tasia and I are together at all. She’s staying far enough behind me that it looks like she’s simply heading in the same direction as I am. I want to fall back so I can walk by her side, but I don’t feel like having her remind me to focus on finding some damn made demons. I hate this.
My beast’s sensitivity leads us to a colorful hotel. I go inside, and Tasia follows behind me.
“How can I help you?” the receptionist asks.
“We’re just here to visit a friend, actually,” I say, giving the woman my best smile.
She smiles back, caught by my charm. “Well, if you need any help, let me know,” she says as she gestures to the stairs.
Sometimes it’s good to be me.
I take the stairs and Tasia closes the distance between us a little bit. Don’t think about her presence. Focus on the made demon. I feel the air and pause by a couple doors before I find the one with the dark presence behind it.
“Now what?” Tasia asks.
“We break in,” I say simply.
I grasp the door handle, easily breaking one lock, and then I force the door open, breaking the other lock. The made demon in this room launches himself at me as soon as I get inside, but I catch him by the throat and squeeze before he can even lay a hand on me.
“Don’t kill him,” Tasia says hastily as she tries to close the door behind her, but it won’t latch. “We need information.”
I give the made demon in my grasp a once over. I notice the curtains drawn and how dark the room is. He’s likely a vampire based on his clear aversion to sunlight. I release my death grip on the made demon. He buckles to the ground, and I allow him a moment to cough.
“Answer my questions,” I say. “If you don’t, I’ll kill you. You clearly see our power difference, don’t you?”
The made demon nods his head furiously, causing strands of brown hair to fall into his eyes. He’s as cowardly as they come.
“Do you know about a demon named Uden?” I ask.
The made demon shakes his head furiously. “I’ve never even met a demon.”
I look behind me and say, “There’s your answer, Tasia.”
“You believe him?” she asks. “Just like that?”
“I can hear the nuances of his heartbeat,” I say. “He’s terrified. He has no reason to lie to me.”
“Then kill him.”
“Just like that?” I echo her words. Then I turn away from her to face the cowering excuse for any sort of demon in front of me. “You’re as cold-blooded as I am.”
The made demon is about to bolt, but compared to me, he’s slow and sluggish. I catch his throat again, and I use my other hand to dig into his hair, forcing his head back so I can dig my teeth into his throat. I drink his life dry in the matter of seconds. Then I drop his lifeless body onto the floor. His body petrifies into stone, revealing wings and dangerous claws, and then it cracks and shatters into pieces. I was wrong. He wasn’t a vampire. He was a gargoyle. Not like it matters.
I try to gauge Tasia’s reaction. There’s no fear in her eyes. What just happened didn’t faze her in the slightest. She looks down at the rubble with the self-righteousness that only comes from angels and those who think they know God, those who think they know what is good. The slight upturn of her chin, and the way she looks down on the rubble�
�� It’s just like Cassius. Just like the other angels. She’s even emanating the same energy they do. It’s so powerful right now, the self-righteousness, that I might’ve thought she was the oracle himself if I didn’t know better. Tasia didn’t feel like this before. She’s always been a harbinger of light, but this isn’t the same kind of light. Regardless, it makes my stomach churn.
“Let’s find the other monsters in this city,” she says.
“That could take all night,” I comment. “This guy was locked in his room because he couldn’t go out in the sun without petrifying, but the evening is quick approaching, and then night will fall.”
“So?” she snaps. “I’m not tired, and this is more important.”
She walks out of the room, and down the hall. I step after her. As I watch her back, I decide I’m sure of it. Cassius has been inside of her soul. This is a strong bind he has her in. The trance he put the old hag in Reverie in was one thing. She wasn’t constantly under his control, but with Tasia it is a constant. When immortals look inside of a soul to see its unique resonance, it doesn’t mean they own that soul’s will. It just means they can see it. Of course, if they wanted to see that soul again, if they wanted to condition it, it would be much easier for them since they were let inside once before, but I’ve never seen anything quite like this. Is Tasia’s freewill stripped away now? I wonder. This time I have alone with Tasia is the perfect opportunity to try and figure this out. If I’m really lucky, maybe I’ll be able to break the spell she’s under. If only she’ll let me get close to her…
MONSTER AFTER MONSTER. They’re nothing compared to a real demon. Arsen takes them out easily, without any problems whatsoever. None of them know anything about Uden. They’re just hanging around Cape May like it’s a perfectly normal thing to do. It’s dark now, well into the night. I can’t believe how many monsters there are in our world. Arsen and I have been through four this evening alone! I know there aren’t as many of them as there are humans, but there are still way too many. This is why Cassius, this is why God, is finally taking a stand against them. Why did it have to get to this point though? It makes me sick.
The Pull of Destiny (Undying Love, Book 2) Page 28
