“Relax, angel.” He reached over and tucked the strand behind my ear, and I shivered from the brief contact. Involuntarily.
Damn bloodbond.
“I've already put the word out. Now it's just a matter of waiting to collect.”
Again with the waiting game. Was he not getting the urgency of our little problem or did he just not give an actual damn?
Maybe he was onto something with the whole 'not caring about anyone or anything' thing. Must be nice, I mused.
Unfortunately, I didn't have that luxury. I shook away the reverie. “Shouldn't we be out there then? Talking to people—to Revs that might have heard something?”
“We aren't just here for the good malt, angel. In case you haven't noticed, this place is a hotbed for Supernaturals.”
My eyes quickly darted around the room, surveying the alleged suspects. Maybe that was the reason I had felt uneasy the moment I walked in here. Apparently, I was on enemy territory, and somehow, my body knew it before I did.
I guess the Cloaking spell really was fading after all.
“Balls,” said Dominic, his eyes narrowing into slits.
“What is it?” I asked as my pulse quickened. I could tell by the look on his face that something bad was headed our way. I turned around and tried to follow his pointed gaze, searching the room for what surely had to be Engel or his coven of rabid Revs.
What I found was far, far worse.
“Balls,” I repeated, turning back to Dominic as Tessa and Gabriel zeroed in on our table, looking not surprised and wholly pissed off. How the hell was I going to explain this one away?
The seconds ticked by like tepid tar. A moment later, an overbearing shadow loomed over our table.
“Tessa. Gabriel. You're both looking well.”
“Get up, right now,” ordered Tessa, ignoring Dominic's greeting. “Both of you.”
“What's the hurry? Sit down, take a load off, enjoy a drink with us,” answered Dominic, clearly enjoying the nuclear bomb that had just gone off in my life. “You look like you can use a drink. Possibly even two.”
“You have two seconds to get up before I feed your ass to that pack of werewolves at the back of the bar,” she said without even looking.
Dominic berated her with his laughter and was about to say something when I quickly jumped up from the table.
“Come on, Dominic. Let's just go.” I knew my sister well enough to know she wouldn't hesitate to make good on her threat. Plus, I really didn't want to face the firing squad on my own.
He looked over at me for a moment and then nodded. “Very well, angel,” he said, finishing the rest of his drink and then standing. “The things I do for you.”
35. HIGHWAY TO HELL
The tension in the car was thick and suffocating, like the lies between us had manifested into something tangible. Neither Tessa nor Gabriel said anything to me on the drive back to Huntington Manor. I wanted to think that their silent treatment was simply the result of catching me out with Dominic, but something told me this was about far more than their disapproval of the company I'd been choosing to keep.
Dominic's car was already parked in his driveway when we pulled up to the Manor in Gabriel's black SUV. Breathing a sigh of relief that he didn't bail out on me, I got out of the car and followed Gabriel and my sister into the house as my brain conjured up a dozen different reasons why the two of them were here, and exactly how much trouble I was going to be in.
“Sit down,” ordered Tessa as we entered the den, her gray eyes as sharp as a sacrificial dagger.
I flopped down on the red sofa and watched as Tessa moved around the room, locking the doors and drawing the curtains together as if to entomb us in our own coffin of privacy.
I looked up at Gabriel, who was standing by the mantel, staring down at me in utter silence. His arms were crossed over his chest and his eyebrows were pulled together in disappointment. It was the same look he'd left me with the last time I saw him.
I threw the disappointed look right back at him. “You promised you wouldn't tell.” The sting from his betrayal made my voice crack like a prepubescent kid.
“She had to know,” he answered mechanically. “She's your sister, and I'm your Handler. It's our duty and responsibility to keep you safe.” The fact that he didn't seem to have any remorse only made me angrier with him.
“I trusted you.”
“When are you going to learn, angel?” Dominic took a swig of the drink he’d fixed himself before we arrived. “When it comes to Gabriel, it's always duty above all else. Right, brother?”
“Something you couldn't even begin to understand the meaning of,” snapped Tessa, joining Gabriel by the broiling fire, her face draped in shadows as the flames danced behind her thin, athletic frame. “The only person you give a damn about is yourself, you arrogant little—”
“That's ironic coming from you, Miss Missing-In-Action.”
Tessa's arm lashed out through the air so quickly that I could have blinked and missed it. Luckily, Gabriel was ready for it, and much faster than her. He quickly clipped her wings mid-air before she had a chance to make contact with Dominic's face.
“Stay focused,” cautioned Gabriel. “This is about Jemma.”
Shaking out of his hold, she straightened her shirt and regained her composure. Her short, dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail and even though it was hard to make out all her features in the dim light, she was still as beautiful as always. Furious, but still beautiful.
Her thoughts turned inward, darkening her expression.
“Okay, Tess, just come out with it,” I said, raising my hands, ready to face her wrath. “Tell me how reckless I was and how much trouble I've gotten myself into. Go on. But just so you know, I'm already aware of it and I feel horrible.”
“You feel horrible?” she repeated. The way she said it made it sound like she was insulting me, mocking me with my own words.
“I should have told you about Engel. I made a mistake. I admit that, but I’m fixing it.”
“You really have no idea what you've done, do you?”
The severity of her tone made me falter.
“This is so much bigger than Engel.” She shook her head at me like I was completely clueless. “They're coming for you, Jemma, and they're not going to stop until they get what they want.”
I was already well aware that Engel was gathering reinforcements, and I'd made my peace with it. In fact, I was depending on it. “I'm kind of counting on that, Tess,” I said, doing my best to show her I was still in control of this. “I have the Amulet and as long as it stays around my neck, two things are certain—one, I'm protected, and two, Engel will come for me—”
“Jemma.”
“—But he's never going to get it, and neither will any of the leeches he sends after me. I know what I have to do. I just need to get close enough to him to—”
“Jemma!” she shouted, startling my mouth shut. “This isn't about Engel or the stupid Amulet anymore. Don't you get that? It stopped being about the Amulet the minute you took it off and let Engel taste your blood,” she seethed, obviously knowing a lot more than the watered-down version I gave Gabriel.
Gabriel's eyes snapped to me for confirmation, but I didn't have the nerve to face him. Not with all my lies and dirty laundry dangling so freely in front of everyone.
“I didn't let him taste my blood. It just happened,” I said quietly without meeting anyone’s eyes. “And how do you know about that anyway?”
“You need to be less concerned about what I know and more concerned about what the Dark Legion knows.”
“The Dark Legion?” Dominic narrowed his eyes at her. “What exactly does the Dark Legion have to do with any of this?”
“They know about Jemma,” answered Tessa, her expression somber. “They know everything.”
“So Engel has some kind of sick obsession with my blood and told all his little friends about it. Big deal. It doesn't change anything,” I insisted.
>
“It changes everything.”
“Why? What difference does it make?” I continued, refusing to back away from my mounting pile of denial. “I'm still going to take him out, and anyone else he sends my way, and then all of this will go away! Everything will go back to normal.”
“No, Jemma. It won't.” Her eyes squeezed shut as though trying to stave off a migraine. “He knows what you are now. They all do. You've put something in motion that you can't undo.”
Gabriel's eyebrows drew together. He heard that too.
“What do you mean he knows what I am?”
“I think you know what I mean,” she said woefully.
“The hell I do! What are you talking about?” I demanded. “What aren't you telling me, huh? WHAT AM I?” I shouted, gripping the edge of the sofa as something primal took over inside me.
“I'm sure Tessa misspoke,” said Gabriel, his eyes bouncing between me and my sister as he waited for her to confirm it.
Something told me he'd be waiting around until the next Ice Age. Clearly, I wasn't the only one left out of the loop.
“Oh, she only gave you half the story too? Well, here, I’ll catch you up,” I said to Gabriel with mock-spunk. “It turns out that my blood is some kind of Revenant elixir that keeps them from being vanquished, and apparently, Tessa knows why that is.”
“Jemma,” said Gabriel, looking at me like I was a silly kid playing make-believe. “There is nothing in existence that can protect a Revenant from being vanquished.”
“Yes, nothing...except her blood,” answered Dominic. “We've already tested it every which way and the results are always the same.”
An array of emotion flickered across Gabriel's eyes—confusion, concern, horror—and it only prompted my heart to beat faster and my anger to intensify.
“There you have it. So, what's the truth, Tessa?” I glared over at her with more conviction than a congregation of the Lord's most devout. “What's wrong with my blood? What am I?”
“It's not just about you, Jemma. It's our entire bloodline,” she said, taking a purposeful step towards me. “The Morningstar bloodline, that is.”
“Morningstar? As in Jacqueline Morningstar? Our mother?” I verified because, well, I wasn't sure of anything anymore.
She dipped her head in a nod and then took the seat beside me on the sofa. “The Morningstar bloodline is not like other Descendant bloodlines. We descend from a very powerful angel, Jemma—the first ever to be created and the first ever to fall.”
“That's not possible,” interrupted Dominic. “That bloodline doesn't exist. It's just a bunch of hogwash they put in the books to make their insignificant prophesies sound factual.”
“It is possible, and it does exist,” said Tessa emphatically. “You probably shouldn't talk about things you have no actual clue about.”
“Is that so?” jeered Dominic.
She looked at him as though he were miles beneath her. “The Morningstar bloodline is the single most powerful bloodline known to our kind. Do you really think they would share something like that with someone like you?” she asked with venomous contempt. “Think about it.”
He appeared to be turning it around in his brain.
“The Order's been protecting the bloodline from the moment it was created, and for good reason. They had to make sure the balance never tipped in the wrong direction, that the Dark Legion never found out about it,” explained Tessa, her eyes locked on mine now. “That's why our mates are chosen for us, why we're bred like cattle—to keep His blood contained,” she said and then glanced away, her eyes going to some faraway place. “And it's worked fine...until now.”
“Until now?” I struggled to swallow the ball that was throttling me at the back of my throat. It was taunting me with nightmares and screaming out truths I wasn't ready to hear.
“They've always known there would come a day when a daughter of the heavens would be born in His favor, and she would be the key to unlocking the gates.”
“Gates? What gates?” I shook my head in confusion.
“You aren't seriously implying that she's the One in the prophecy?” flouted Dominic. “The Daughter of Hades?”
“The Daughter of who?” I exchanged looks with Gabriel who stood as silent as a sentinel. “What prophecy? What's he talking about? None of this is making any sense!” I shouted frantically.
“Try to keep up, angel, will you?”
I jumped up from the sofa, unable to contain the adrenaline shooting through my veins. “Go to hell, Dominic!”
“Well, that's ironic.”
“Enough, Dominic!” Gabriel's voice boomed through the room like a judge's gavel.
Rubbing my temples, I tried to focus on what they were telling me. Morningstar bloodline. The First angel. Daughter of Hades. I couldn't seem to string a set of cohesive thoughts together to save my life. “I. Don't. Understand. Someone needs to start talking plain English because I’m about to lose it,” I said, bouncing looks between the three of them.
“Here, let me.” Dominic leaned forward with a smirk, his eyes locked on mine like a nuclear missile locked on its target. “She's saying you're a Descendant of Lucifer, love.”
“Lucifer?” My eyes bugged out wildly, threatening to pop from the surge of blood that shot to my head. “As in the devil?” There was no way I’d heard him right.
“As in Heaven's first and most powerful angel,” clarified Tessa.
“Semantics,” said Dominic, chuckling.
I looked over at Gabriel, desperate for him to rebuke this entire conversation, to put the two of them firmly back in their place, but he just stood there in silence, his lips pulled together in a telling line of inability.
“I think I’m going to be sick.” I sat back down on the sofa and cradled my head in my hands, trying to stop the world from spinning its vicious web around me.
“His blood is dormant in me as it was in Mom and her mother, and her mother before her. But you're different, Jemma. You've always been different.”
“No.” It was the only word I could speak.
“The Morningstar bloodline is dominant in you. It's always been dominant and I’ve spent my entire life trying to protect you from that truth. Just like Mom and Dad did before me—”
“No! Stop it! Don't talk about them!” I couldn't hear this, I couldn't hear any of it. It was too much to take in. She was shattering my world with her words, dropping bombs over the only life I knew and annihilating any semblance of hope I had for a future. “Why are you doing this to me, Tessa? Why are you saying these things?”
“You have to hear this, Jemma. It's time you knew the truth. The whole truth.” There was no comfort in her words, no softness in her voice. “Mom didn't just leave us—she died protecting your secret, Jemma, and I think Dad did too. He left the Order for a reason and it wasn't just because he didn't want this life for you. He had to keep the truth from them because if they ever found out, they would have killed you.”
My head was spinning so far out of control that I could barely sit upright on the couch.
“I think she's heard enough,” said Gabriel, running a hand over the length of his face. “She needs time to process this.”
“How much time do you figure she needs?” said Dominic sardonically. “An hour? Maybe two? Let's play it safe and give her three just in case. I'm sure she'll be fine then.”
“We need to go to the Council and figure out our next move,” said Gabriel to Tessa. “Engel obviously tipped off the Dark Legion. They need to be made aware of the threat against her.”
“You still don't get it, do you, brother?” Dominic shook his head at Gabriel. “They're going to kill her.”
“Yes, and that's precisely why we need to go to the Council. If the Dark Legion is after her—”
“He's not talking about the Dark Legion,” whispered Tessa.
“Then who is he talking about?” snapped Gabriel.
Tessa and Dominic exchanged looks as a clap of thunder e
xploded outside the house. Apparently, they were the only two who were still on the same page.
“The Order,” answered Tessa. “He's talking about the Order.”
36. NO WAY OUT
The storm tightened its grip over us, pelting rain against the glass like bullets spraying down from Heaven. Bullets that were undoubtedly meant for me.
“Why would the Order want me dead? I thought they were the good guys? I thought they were supposed to protect me?” My head was spinning around information like a wheel of misfortune and every prize I landed on was another bomb going off in my life.
“They are the good guys,” said Gabriel firmly. He believed it with every cell in his body—it was engraved in him, right there in is DNA.
“Sure. They're they good guys...until they aren't,” added Dominic cryptically. “It's quite conditional.”
“What does that mean? You're not making any sense!”
“It means you're a weapon, angel. Possibly the most dangerous weapon in existence.”
Tessa gave him a surly look and then turned back to me. “Your blood is like a key, Jemma, and that key can open the doors and unravel everything good they're worked to protect and everything bad they've locked away.”
“So they're just going to kill me because of some ancient crap written ages ago by God knows who! Since when can blood open up doors anyway?” I shouted, grasping at straws.
“We both know that temptress blood of yours can do a lot of things,” reminded Dominic.
“So that's it? Shoot first, ask questions later? Don't I get to defend myself? Don't I get to plead my case?”
“If what your sister is saying is correct, your blood is prophesied to bring on the end of days, love. To unleash Lucifer and open the very Gates of Hell. Permitting you to live means the Order is willing to risk the end of the world, which I assure you, they are not. Duty first, remember?” Dominic took of a swig of his drink and cocked his head over at Gabriel. “Tell us, brother, what are you going to do when you get the order to terminate her? Are you going to be a good little soldier and do as you’re told?”
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