Reign’s arm shot out, halting her attempt to walk around him. The same huge black blade he wielded at RedZone a few weeks ago appeared in his hand. He had killed three quimaera all on his own, while Avery, EJ, Quin, Brayden, and Tyrone had their thumbs up their asses. Then he nearly kicked Tyrone’s ass—and he was a demi-god.
“Avery Nicolis, is that you?” Alexis said, but Reign hadn’t moved. He shielded her with his body.
Instead of answering, Avery brought his gun up and trained it on Reign.
Reign’s eyes glowed blue, different from Roman’s blinding white glare. “I don’t want to kill you, but I will not let you harm anyone here.” His blade went from jet black to crimson edged.
“Me? You kill your twin and then go into protector mode?” Avery seethed. The family was fractured, in pieces because of Reign’s actions. Roman didn’t trust them, suspected each of them of treachery without trial or jury. None of them deserved that shit.
But you think about his death, every time you're in the same room with him. The darkness inside of you craves it. Never! Never would he betray any of his ‘brothers’. Nothing could make him take that path again. He would kill himself first.
“Roman is alive,” Reign snarled.
“You skewered him.” Avery’s finger itched to pull the trigger, though it wouldn’t kill the bastard. His darkness stretched beneath his skin, ready for war. He tasted the violence on the back of his throat, crawling up from his gut, inhaled the acrid scent which singed his nose hairs. The room rumbled. Books tumbled from shelves, knick-knacks crashed to the floor.
“What is happening?” Mrs. Kelly said.
A tide rose within him, stronger than the usual tide his emotions surfed on. He rode the wave, willing himself not to fight, instead let the rage filter through him as he always had. But memories—better left unexplored—exploded all over the inside of his skull. They scoured everything else away and left only anger and the aftermath of his actions.
“It is him.” Reign pointed to Avery with his blade. “I can see his aura.”
“What aura?” Avery demanded.
Mrs. Kelly stepped into the space between them. “Calm down. You two won’t be destroying my home. Both of you lower your weapons.”
“Answer the question.” Avery didn’t budge, couldn’t. He was locked into a spiral headed straight for the bowels of his soul. Reign hadn’t moved either, Avery didn’t expect him too.
“Damn it! I called Reign to save Emeline.” Mrs. Kelly shouted.
Reign’s gaze shifted to the sofa. His blade vanished, but he kept his position in front of the former detective. “I can help her.”
A fraction of sanity returned, easing his needle out of the red and back into the black, enough for him to ask, “How?” He didn’t trust the bastard.
“He’s a demi-god.” Alexis stepped from behind Reign. “And he saved me from a quimaera attack.”
Demi-god? If that were true, then Roman was also. Nice of him to leave that little tidbit out.
Why didn’t he tell me, us? The truth wasn’t a stretch of the imagination. They’d all seen what Reign and Roman could do…and did. Is that why this was happening to him? Changing? But into what?
He glanced at Emeline’s still form. She was dying. The time for other options had expired and his questions could wait. His arm fell to his side and he stepped aside. The darkness in him wailed. So close to being free, it didn’t want to retreat. “Do it.”
Reign crossed the room and dropped to one knee beside the sofa while Alexis went in the opposite direction to Emeline’s head. Light gathered in Reign’s palm.
Avery stood there, stupidly watching, wishing he was lying on the sofa bleeding out, instead of Emeline. His hand landed on Reign’s shoulder, gripped it hard. Reign’s head jerked up and he glared at Avery. “Tell me you know what you’re doing,” Avery said.
Reign studied Avery’s hand.
Alexis took Avery’s arm. “I was wounded. A quimaera sliced into my side, nearly took a chunk out of me. If it wasn’t for Reign, I’d be dead. Come over here with me and let him save her.”
Avery dropped his hand from Reign’s shoulder, but he wouldn’t leave. Reign pressed his hand to Emeline’s wound. Her head rolled from one side to the other. She groaned, and her body jerked.
Avery dropped beside her and took her hand. Her pain bit into him, ripped him open. He swore he was on the sofa, bleeding with her, suffering as she suffered. They were synced. Her pain became his and they rode the cresting waves together. Sweat beaded his brow as his muscles bunched and pushed back at the agony tearing through his side.
“Hold her down. It is about to get worse,” Reign said. Alexis pinned Emeline’s shoulders. Emeline knocked her away, her head thrashed from side to side. She arched off the sofa and a scream ripped from her throat which resonated within him.
“I said to hold her,” Reign shouted.
Alexis scrambled to pin Emeline, but she threw her off again. Avery gripped her shoulders and pressed his weight upon her. She sobbed and almost slipped from his tight grip. Where did she get this strength? Brute force wasn’t working. He had to do something else. He cupped her face in his hands. “Breathe, Eme. Just hold on and breathe for me. The pain will be over soon, sweetheart.”
“Stop, p-p-please s-s-stop!” She cried. Her eyes were open, pleading with him, leaking tears from the corners.
“Eme—hold on. It’s almost over. Hurry up!” He threw over his shoulder at Reign.
Emeline stilled but gnashed her teeth together. “A-a-very.” Her teeth chattered and she trembled violently.
“I’m here, baby. I’m not going to leave you.”
Relief entered her eyes before they fluttered closed and her body sagged.
“Eme—Emeline!” He shook her.
“She fainted,” Alexis said.
He almost joined her. “Did you do it? Did you heal her?”
Reign nodded and removed his hand. The glow on his palm slowly faded, revealing Emeline’s smooth, perfect skin. Except…for a dark spot in the center of her birthmark. He’d seen every inch of her, licked her birthmark repeatedly, that spot was not there.
Her soft hand touched his head. Avery glanced up. Her eyes were closed, her features relaxed. He hugged her to his chest. She felt warm and her heartbeat strong. “I almost lost you.” He couldn’t stand the thought. That’s why he stayed away. Fear. He wanted nothing he couldn’t live without. Bad enough EJ refused to cut the umbilical cord. He needed no one else to worry about; yet she’d wormed her way into his heart, probably from the second he first saw her.
Panic threatened to swallow him. He beat back the emotion and kissed her temple, breathed in her scent. Her hand stroked his head—sending a tingle down his body—and slid down to his face. Gently, he pulled away and Emeline’s beautiful eyes opened. A big, dreamy smile swept over her face and his gut went goofy.
I am so fucked.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Ridley scrabbled along the floor of the gathering chamber, trying to find purchase. Somehow, Khuket had grabbed a fistful of Ridley’s pixie hair and dragged her to the altar at the far end of the room.
For an instant, she was airborne, then her back met the table with a bone-melting impact. White light exploded in her brain. Her heart sputtered and gave a single beat—and stopped. Life drained out of her. Everything slipped away and she didn’t have the power to stop the slide into nothingness. This is not how her story was supposed to end. She had three more months. Three important months. To die now meant the curse would continue. All of her plans, everything she’d worked for…meaningless. She couldn’t die. She wouldn’t.
Pain seared her cells, jolting her back to life. The all-encompassing void receded and light pierced the veil of her eyelids. She sucked in an achy breath, expecting sulfur and brimstone. Instead, the subterranean, earthy scents of the gathering room filled her nostrils.
“Death will not offer you a reprieve from my fury.”
Ridley’s eyes fluttered open. Khuket floated near her. The bands comprising her body whipped about, propelled by an invisible tornado. The ends—once blunted—were now transformed into sharp points.
A band snapped out, cracked the air as a sonic boom, and buried deep in Ridley’s abdomen. She screamed, a cry no one heard but her until her voice gave out. Yet the agony continued.
“Why have you thwarted my efforts?”
Rational thought evaded her. All she could focus on was the rabid pain cutting through her abdomen. Bloody rivulets ran down the sides of her body and cooled on the table beneath her back.
Khuket extracted the band and flicked the tip clean with a sharp snap that echoed in the chamber. The pain eased enough for Ridley to take a shallow breath. Her hand slid over her skin and brushed the ragged edges of the scar.
“I’m alive?” she rasped. Of course, she was. Curse trumped goddess. No matter what Khuket did, today wouldn’t be Ridley’s end.
“For now. The day, the hour, the second is my decision. Answer my query.”
Ridley almost smiled. Her death was preordained down to the day, the hour, the minute, the second. “I went there to get the Orbs. I called Vito but he never answered.”
“How did you know they were there?”
“My operative at the hospital eavesdropped on Avery and Emeline talking. She got the address from Emeline’s grandfather.”
Khuket bristled, her bands poised to strike again. “You chose not to inform me of this important detail?”
Just because Ridley couldn’t die, didn’t mean she couldn’t suffer. “I-I-I thought to impress you, Great Goddess. I could see your disdain, and I wanted to rise in your esteem by providing you the Soul Catchers. Now and forever, I am your loyal servant. But if it pleases you to end my life, then I gladly die in your service.” She gambled and tossed in that last part to appeal to Khuket’s vanity.
Bands skimmed Ridley’s body. She shivered and waited for her fate.
“Be assured. You will die in my service. Take me to this Vito and you may live another day.”
The pain ceased as if it never existed. Ridley glanced at her abdomen. A tear separated the material of her shirt. She yanked up the edge and swept her hand over her flat, unmarred stomach. Ridley rolled off the altar and landed on her wobbly feet. “Yes, Great Goddess.” Living another pain free day sounded excellent.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Emeline’s insides felt like it they’d had been spooned out and stuffed back inside. Yet with each breath, the torture receded, leaving her clear-headed and aware of Avery’s arms around her. From his hard chest to his steely arms, all of him surrounded her.
“Better?” Avery whispered.
“Much,” she whispered back. He eased her back onto the cushions and she noticed they had an audience, Mrs. Kelly, a man taller than Avery, and a cute red-headed woman.
A noise at the doorway jerked all of them around. Grand leaned against the wall an oxygen mask strapped to his face and an O2 tank slung over his shoulder. Avery caught him before he slumped to the floor.
“Is Eme all right?” He mumbled through the mask.
“She’ll be fine.” Avery placed him in a recliner. “Sorry I forgot you out there, Sir.”
“You took care of Eme. S’all that matters. You’re a good man for her. Good man.” He wheezed. The tank beeped. Less than five minutes left to empty.
Shit. One crisis averted only to land in another one. Emeline sat up, wincing at the lingering pain in her side. She touched the tender area, relieved to find healed skin, and went to Grand.
“Let me help him,” the man said behind Avery.
Avery moved out of the way and Emeline watched the stranger take Grand’s arthritic hands. Where had she seen him before? He had the bluest eyes and the darkest hair touching his massive shoulders. Maybe if his hair were shorter. Her brain lurched.
It can’t be.
Yet who else could be Roman Nicolis’s doppelganger, but his long-sought, thought dead missing twin, Reign. When had he shown up on the scene? She’s picked a great time to leave the Order, just when Reign Nicolis and quimaera came out of the woodwork.
Light flared from Reign’s palms. The glow bathed Grand’s skin and sunk in. His gnarled hands straightened, earning a startled cry from lungs no longer wheezing.
Grand pulled away from Reign and tore the mask off his face. He leaped to his feet. “Holy Shit! What was in that juice?” He danced around the recliner and twirled Mrs. Kelly. “I haven’t felt this good since 1950.”
“Now that no one is dying, someone needs to explain what’s going on,” the redhead said.
Emeline stared at the woman and almost cursed. She couldn’t believe the much-reported missing detective Alexis Lever stood, with her hands on his hips, in Mrs. Kelly’s living room. Every news station continued to splash her picture across the airways.
“You first,” Emeline said to the detective, and then turned to Mrs. Kelly. “What are Alexis Lever and Reign Nicolis doing in your house?”
“They’re good friends and needed my help. Much like you do right now.” Her watery gaze landed on Avery.
“How do you know he’s Reign Nicolis?” Avery’s hard stare accused and judged her without a trial.
“Alexis, Emeline, and I are Nulls, descendants of the Eidos, the first gods who roamed the earth. We’re a part of a community called the Order.” Mrs. Kelly answered for her.
“There’s a community? You didn’t tell me anything about a community, Mrs. Kelly,” Alexis said.
“They’re a bunch of nosy busybodies, charlatans all of them,” Grand blurted as he strutted around the room like a toddler discovering he can walk for the first time. “They’re Watchers.” He made the word sound like leeches.
“Historians.” Mrs. Kelly defended. “We chart the history of the Egyptian Gods.”
“Tell them why you chart it.” Grand stopped in front of Mrs. Kelly.
“We keep a record of everything concerning the Egyptian gods. There is nothing nefarious about what we do.” Mrs. Kelly’s diminutive body seemed to grow two inches as she addressed Grand’s accusations.
Grand wagged a finger in her face. “You old witches track and sniff and scribble in your history books about every piss and fart the gods make. No matter how high or how low, you chart every shit and screw for posterity and call it a job. I never should’ve allowed Eme’s parents to hand her over to you shysters. They thought the Order was a noble cause. I understood what you were leading her to—”
“Enough, Grand.” She pleaded, glancing at Avery’s fierce expression, but it was already too late. She could see the questions forming in his nearly black eyes.
“It’s not enough. You could’ve been an archeologist, a real historian, instead of skulking around in the shadows, stalking people. The Descendants of Ra! The legend of the Nicolis family, bullshit! I read some of your reports—” he waged the same finger in Emeline’s face. “You gave up a life—”
“We gave them a heritage and an education! One most of them would never have received,” Mrs. Kelly said.
“Who did you watch, Emeline? Who were you assigned to stalk?” Avery’s razored voice cut through the chatter.
The room silenced and five pairs of eyes seemed to land on her. Though she wasn’t a coward, she couldn’t meet Avery’s gaze. Yet, she had to. She knew this moment would come. Probably from the first instant she had laid eyes on him. Now that it was here, no rock was big enough to hide under. In agonized increments, her gaze rose and met his tight glare. “I was assigned to you.”
A pulse of darkness leaped from him and receded. Did she imagine it? Reign shifted to Alexis’s side. His body tense, an air of expectancy clung to him.
“How. Long,” he said through thinned lips.
“…A year, but only when you were in New York.”
Silence. Though fury seemed to build within him. Then—
“You stopped when your grandfather arrived on your doorstep.”<
br />
Her spine stiffened. “That’s about the same time you started watching me.” She refused to be the only bad guy in this situation.
Avery stepped forward until he towered over her. “You knew. All this time. You knew I was there?”
Reign chuckled. “You watched each other. You are both guilty of the same deceit.”
“The questions you asked…you already had the answer. Nothing about our first meeting was by chance. Was it?” Avery reached for her but stopped at the last second.
Their first official meeting was a few days ago. What meeting is he talking about?
“The first time I saw you in the park. That wasn’t an accident. Was. It?” His nostrils flared and a vein popped in his temple.
She couldn’t think. Couldn’t remember. The heat from his body, the darkness shimmering around him, his fury, all of them combined fogged her brain. “What park?”
“A park in the West Village. In April.” He spat. “You were wearing an orange dress.”
My sundress. I bought it the day before at an art fair in The Village. He remembered what I wore? Emeline nodded. “I remember. You had just returned from Syria. You saw me?”
He jerked away like she was radioactive. “And the RedZone?” he whispered.
Dread choked her, though didn’t stop her head from nodding. “At first I got the job because you and EJ frequented the place. I stayed because I needed the extra money,” she croaked. His frosty glare went all the way to her marrow. “Avery, I’m so—”
He stormed out of the door and into the night. Emeline stood, rooted to the spot, humiliated. He didn’t like what he heard so he left. After he’d promised to never leave.
Damn, she’d never pegged him for one of those men. The type that ran, rather than hear the truth. His rejection shouldn’t hurt. Not like she didn’t know this was coming and not like she didn’t deserve his abandonment, and much more. So why did her eyes tear up and a knot clog her throat? Why had a stone settled in her chest, right where her heart should be? And why did she want to go running after him?
Evermore (Descendants of Ra: Book 3) Page 23
