“You spin such lovely visuals,” Rafael complained from the back seat. “You should be a writer.”
Aric smirked despite his frustration. “She does have a way with words. That’s always been one of my favorite things about her.”
“Let me use my words now,” I prodded. “Let me be me. Let me scare the crap out of him.”
“I have no issue with you scaring the crap out of him.” Aric tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, the only sign he was anxious despite outward appearances to the contrary. “I have issues being excluded from this confrontation. She’s my child, too.”
I stilled, surprised. That hadn’t even occurred to me. “I wasn’t trying to exclude you. I was … .”
“I know what you were trying to do.” Aric cut me off with an impatient wave. “You’ve never gone out of your way to prove you’re stronger than me. I appreciate that. But right now you’re treating me that way without meaning to do it.”
I rubbed my cheek as I stared out the window at the non-descript colonial. It wasn’t attractive, but it fit the neighborhood, not drawing attention for being ostentatious or tacky. It was simply a regular house on a regular street in a regular college town. Except it wasn’t.
“You know I don’t think that,” I said after a moment. “You’re the strongest person I know. I didn’t mean to cut you out. I simply … .”
“Want to scare the crap out of him,” Aric finished, grabbing my hand. “I want to be there when you do it.”
It was a simple request, yet … . “There’s a reason I don’t want you there.” I knew Rafael was in the back seat, listening, but I pretended otherwise. I wasn’t keen on playing out marital strife in front of an audience. Rafael wasn’t simply a friend, though. He was family.
“I know that reason, too,” Aric said. “You’re afraid I’ll see you as a monster if you beat the snot out of him. That won’t happen.”
He knew me so well. I couldn’t understand how anyone, especially a man as good as him, could see into the depths of my soul and not be afraid of what lived there. “One day I’ll go too far and you won’t be able to see me any other way. I think I was close at the fraternity house the other night.”
“That’s not even remotely true,” Aric argued. “I’ve seen you burn an entire pack of wolves without so much as glistening with sweat. Heck, I’ve seen you do that a few times now. I’ve seen you crush spines, torture a woman for information, and burn a few people alive merely by placing your hands on them.
“I’ve seen it all, Zoe,” he continued. “I’ve also seen how you love Sami and me. I’ve seen you fight for Paris when she might not have deserved it. I’ve seen you deliver a baby – our baby and someone else’s, for that matter – and I know what’s in your heart. This isn’t something you should do alone.”
“He’s right,” Rafael offered quietly. “We should present a united front. We want this Martin Bishop to fear us. We also might notice something in the house you don’t. Extra eyes can only help.”
He had a point. I heaved out a weary sigh and pinched the bridge of my nose as I stared out the window. “Okay. We’ll go together.”
“Okay?” Aric looked relieved. “Good. I wasn’t in the mood to have one of our patented screaming matches in front of Rafael.”
That made two of us. I gripped Aric’s hand tightly before he could move to leave the vehicle, forcing his eyes to me. “I love you.”
Aric smiled as he pushed a strand of my hair from my face. “I love you, too. That’s a given with us, even when we argue. It’s you and me against the world. Don’t forget that.”
“I won’t.”
Aric leaned over and gave me a small kiss while Rafael made fake vomiting sounds behind us.
“Don’t make me come back there and thump you,” Aric warned, regrouping. “You’re starting to sound like our kid, and it’s freaky.”
“That is freaky,” Rafael agreed. “I’m starting to get what she means when she says the kissing and touching is weird. It’s making me uncomfortable.”
“You share that with a twelve-year-old girl,” I teased, pushing open the door. “You should be so proud.”
“She’s the only one who makes sense all of the time,” Rafael argued. “She’ll be a marvelous woman one day.”
“She’s always going to be my baby,” Aric warned. “Don’t ever forget it.”
“You don’t have to worry about that.” Rafael’s grin was cheeky. “All one has to do is look at her to be reminded of exactly where she comes from. That’s what gives her strength, and purpose.”
I smirked. “Thank you.”
“Now, let’s make the professor crap himself,” Rafael suggested. “I’m very much looking forward to that. I doubt very much I’ll mind, despite the smell.”
MARTIN BISHOP answered on the third knock. He flashed a smile, as if he expected someone else, until he realized exactly who he was dealing with. He reacted like all cowards, moving hastily to slam the door in our faces.
Aric calmly shoved his foot in the opening as Rafael slammed his into the bottom of the door and forced it open. And just like that the three of us, a trio of vengeful angels that our prey saw as monsters, let ourselves into the enemy’s abode.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Martin sputtered, dumbfounded. He scrambled away from the door, tripping over a rug in the middle of the hardwood floor as he desperately tried to get away from us.
“I think we’ve come to have a discussion,” I replied, keeping my tone even as I glanced around the house. The decorations were mundane, drab even, but I couldn’t help but notice a grouping of photo frames on the far wall.
I left Aric and Rafael to watch Martin while I moved closer to the wall. Once right in front of the frames I realized I was looking at newspaper clippings, not photographs. “I see you have a bit of a shrine here to daddy dearest, huh?”
Martin, his face white, shook his head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. As for you two … stay back. I am a martial arts master and I’m not afraid to use my hands as weapons.”
Aric and Rafael snorted in unison.
“And my teeth are registered as lethal weapons,” Rafael volunteered, baring them so Martin could see exactly what he was dealing with. “I’m not afraid to use them either.”
“What? No!” Martin was understandably baffled as his gaze bounced between the window – where the sun shone – to the vampire standing in his foyer. “How can you walk under the sun?”
Rafael smiled. “I’ve learned to adapt to my surroundings.”
“And Zoe gave him a gift thirteen years ago,” Aric added, stressing my name. “She likes to protect certain members of her army.”
I shifted so I could look in Aric’s direction, not missing the looks Aric and Rafael exchanged. They were plotting on the fly, and they clearly wanted to make Martin understand how powerful I really was.
“Yes, the mage blessed me with the ability to walk in the sun,” Rafael agreed. “I’m now more powerful than any of your precious books tell you.”
“He can turn into a bat, too,” I added.
“I cannot turn into a bat,” Rafael shot back. “How many times do I have to tell you that?”
“Only until I believe it.” I ran my finger over the frame containing a large article about Kennedy Reagan’s death. It happened right before I graduated from Covenant College. “When did you find out he was your father, Martin? Was it before or after he died?”
“I … I … .” Martin looked as if the last thing he wanted to do was answer questions.
“When did Paris say the new birth certificate was issued?” I asked Aric, removing Martin from the conversation entirely.
“I don’t know that she did,” Aric replied. “Why does it matter?”
“I’m curious,” I admitted, pulling the frame from the wall. “I want to know if Martin decided to hide his identity before or after we handled the problem with Kennedy.”
“Don’t you mean murdered hi
m?” Martin spat, taking me by surprise with his vitriol.
“No, I meant what I said,” I replied. “We didn’t technically kill him. We merely sat back while others killed him.”
“I would’ve killed him with my own bare hands if I had the chance,” Rafael offered, throwing himself on the couch and lifting his feet to rest on the coffee table. “This place is really devoid of personality. It reminds me of a dorm room before it’s decorated.”
“I think that’s because Martin is terribly worried about anyone finding out who he is before he’s ready to tell anyone,” I offered. I stared at the frame a second and then slammed it against the console table on the wall, breaking the glass. I tossed the frame on the floor without looking at it again. “So, Martin, did you know Sam Blake? Did you know him as a brother or merely worship him from afar?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Martin seethed, his cheeks flushing with color. “If you don’t leave my house right now I’m calling the cops.”
“That’s a marvelous idea,” I concurred, flashing a demented smile. “I would love to have a discussion with them. I’m curious as to how many members of the department are aware of what you’re doing in the basement of the athletic center.”
Martin opened his mouth, a wheezing sound escaping.
“Oh, I don’t think he realized we knew about the athletic center,” Aric noted, amused. “He thought we were operating in the dark, or perhaps on very limited information.”
“We know a lot more than you think, Martin,” I offered. “I know about Christy and Alan. I know that you’re spreading lies about my daughter … and mages in general. Just for the record, they’re not avenging angels. You should really know your source material better before you start spinning stories.”
“And she has a soul,” Aric growled, moving closer to Martin. “Stop telling people she doesn’t have a soul or I’ll rip your throat out and watch you bleed to death in the middle of your own living room.”
“Honestly? The lack of soul stuff bothers me less than the crap he’s feeding his followers about wolves being okay because they have souls,” I volunteered. “The wolves at Alpha Chi are clearly soulless.”
“They’re patriots,” Martin snapped.
“And there he is.” I wagged a finger. “I thought I recognized you because we went to school together, and I guess that’s still a possibility, but what I truly recognize in you is Sam Blake.” My mind briefly traveled back to the smug professor and the countless conversations in which he tried to manipulate me. “You looked up to him, didn’t you?”
“He was a hero!”
“He was a liar who hated what he was,” I corrected. “He wanted to be a full wolf, but as a hybrid he never shifted. Only certain hybrids shift, and Sam wasn’t that lucky.”
“What about your daughter?” Martin sneered. “Can she shift?”
Aric grabbed the front of Martin’s shirt and slammed him against the wall, causing the man to gasp for breath as he buckled and fell to his knees.
“I recommend not mentioning our daughter,” I warned, moving to the desk against the wall and opening the top drawer. “We don’t have much of a sense of humor where she’s concerned.”
“She’s an abomination,” Martin snapped. “We’re going to kill her.”
Aric punched Martin in the stomach, causing him to make a choking sound as he attempted to suck in a breath.
“You might believe you’re eventually going to kill her, but first you’re going to try to recruit her to kill me.” I was having a good time letting Rafael and Aric physically terrorize Martin while I merely flapped my lips. “You think if you grab her now you can turn her to your cause. You think she’s more powerful than I am.”
“We’ve been watching you,” Martin seethed, his face a violent shade of red as he struggled to fill his lungs. “We know she’s more powerful than you.”
“She’s very powerful,” I agreed. “We’ve never come up against each other in direct competition, but I can guarantee your little friends – including Corinne and Becca – haven’t even glimpsed her true abilities.”
“I have no idea who those people are.” Martin said the words but he didn’t put nearly enough effort behind them.
“How will your followers feel when they find out you’re utilizing other paranormals, murdering some, to secure your goals?”
“I just said I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Martin bellowed.
“You’re a terrible liar.” I made a clucking sound with my tongue as I moved closer. “Your father was a terrible liar, too. I bet you thought you did a good job covering up who you are. We found answers right away, so you didn’t do nearly the job you think you did.”
“I don’t know … .”
I slapped him as hard as I could, adding a bit of fire magic to the blow and causing his face to explode in red magic.
“Omigod!” Martin wailed. He reached for his face, but I used my magic to lash his arms to his sides.
“We need to have a serious discussion here, Martin,” I said. “You’re clearly under the delusion that I’m going to let you near my child and husband. If you thought things were bad before – my no-tolerance policy, I mean – I can promise you that they’re about to get much worse.
“I’m not big about sending messages unless I absolutely have to, but that’s what I’m going to use you for,” I continued. “From now on, anyone who comes after my family is going to die. I won’t kill them before I find out who they are, though. Then I’m going to track down their families and kill every member left behind, whether they’re innocent or not.
“Now, I’m not one for empty threats, mostly because I find them a waste of time,” I said. “That means I will follow through on my threat. You might think I won’t have time to do it all myself, and you’d be right. That doesn’t mean I don’t have people willing to do it for me.”
“Lots of people,” Aric hissed, causing Martin to cringe.
“If I hear you’ve been telling tales out of school again, Martin, I’m coming for you next,” I said, extending my hands toward his head. “You won’t like what happens when I do.”
“What are you doing?” Martin shrank against the wall, his body wracking with shudders. “Stop!”
“I’m going to give you a little preview,” I gritted out, grabbing the sides of his head and pouring as many dark memories as I could muster into him, an endless stream of the death and destruction I witnessed over the course of the past twenty years. “This is only the beginning of what will happen to you. Prepare yourself, Martin, because you’ve started a war that I’m going to finish.”
Twenty-Five
“What did you do to him?”
We were barely out of the house when Rafael voiced the question.
“I showed him some of my greatest hits,” I replied, rubbing my hands together. The day was warm and humid, almost sweltering, yet my hands were cold.
Aric gripped them, as if sensing I needed the contact, and slowed his pace as we hit the front sidewalk. “Whatever you showed him was enough to scare the bejeesus out of him.”
“He didn’t crap his pants,” Rafael pointed out.
“He wanted to, though.” I mustered a smile because I knew Aric needed to see it. “I showed him many things. I showed him the assault on Quinn’s compound, including my reflection with the black eyes. I showed him the final battle at Covenant College where his father fell.
“I showed him the zombies and how I took them out, the witches who thought I was the Candyman, Corinne and Becca’s deaths, and what I did at the wolf retreat,” I continued. “I made him very aware that I’m accustomed to violence and not shy about doling it out. I hope that’s enough.”
“Enough for what?” Rafael asked. “Enough to scare him off? I don’t think we should be complacent. I think we should go back and kill him.”
It was an interesting argument, but I wasn’t ready to go that far … yet. “We need to give him time to see how
he reacts. We need to follow him, see who he engages with. We need to know who else is involved, because I’m telling you right now he’s not alone.”
“I already thought of that,” Aric said, slipping an arm around my waist. “See that truck over there.” He inclined his chin in the direction of the intersection.
I narrowed my eyes and nodded.
“Those men belong to my father,” Aric said. “I got a text while we were inside, and they followed the GPS on my Explorer. They’ll be watching Martin and reporting on his activities. There are also people slipping into his yard and moving to cut off the neighborhood should it become necessary.”
I widened my eyes, surprised. “That was quick.”
“My father doesn’t mess around when it comes to his granddaughter.”
“No, he doesn’t. What about the athletic center?”
“He’s handling that, too,” Aric answered, smoothing my hair as he smiled. “We’ll know the ins and outs of that building in less than twenty-four hours, including which people are heading into the basement. We’ll have photographs and information very soon.”
“That’s good.”
“It is,” Rafael agreed, his eyes traveling to a spot over my shoulder. When he didn’t look back, I followed his gaze and swallowed hard. I recognized the two people standing across the way, staring. They obviously recognized us, too.
“That’s Alan and Christy.”
Aric jerked his shoulders and narrowed his eyes, causing both students to jolt. “Should we kill them?”
“Maybe not yet,” I said, pulling away. “Maybe we need more than one messenger. I’m convinced the boy is a bloodthirsty monster and irredeemable, but I’m not sure about the girl.”
“You want to show them what you showed Martin?” Rafael asked, tilting his head to the side. “It couldn’t hurt. I could also glamour them and see if they know anything.”
That was an interesting thought. I never even considered it with Martin. “Maybe we should’ve done that with their leader.”
Dying Covenant: The Complete Series Page 74
