He was still man enough to realize he wasn’t the only one who had been hurt in all this. He’d involved Jack and Missy in his escape, and now they were both in danger. He’d be damned if Layla would suffer anymore than she already had. She’d remembered painful truths. She kept telling him that she didn’t want to remember, and now he knew why. For his sake, she’d let him dredge up all the awful things that sent her down to the shower floor, broken and sobbing. And today she’d walked right into the belly of the beast—risking being captured by Seth.
He couldn’t blame her for wanting it all to end here and now.
“You don’t need to be involved in this anymore, Layla, but I’ve got to clear my name.”
“No, you don’t,” Layla whispered. “You want to clear your name, but you don’t need to. You can live a good life without a name. You could run. You could just leave the country.”
The truth was, with his powers, Ray probably could get on a plane and disappear. Besides, after all his country had put him through, why should he care what people thought about him here? But he did care. He wasn’t sure how to explain that to someone like Layla, who had lived long enough to see thousands of nations rise and fall and probably felt allegiance to none of them. He loved this country, in spite of everything. “Layla, I can’t leave everything behind.”
“I’d go with you,” she said. “If you wanted me to.”
As traffic crawled, Ray risked glancing over at her. It was too much to hope for. She was this timeless, exotic creature. How could she really want to stay with him? “Layla, how can I leave my family behind?”
“I think your family would rather know that you were safe and alive. They’d go on without you.”
They’d go on without you. That’s how his brother had justified killing himself, and Ray couldn’t believe Layla had echoed the same sentiment. “You don’t have any family, Layla, so how would you know a damned thing about it?”
Her mouth snapped shut and he caught a glimpse of pain flash behind her eyes before she lowered them. He’d been an ass. He’d hurt her feelings and had no idea how to fix it. “Layla—”
“No, you’re right,” she said, her voice icy. “I don’t have a family and I can’t pretend to understand mortals. I think that’s why I went into psychology. I wanted to understand. I never could fathom how men could whip themselves up into such a frenzy that they’d kill complete strangers on a battlefield. I never was able to wrap my mind around the horrors of war that Seth loved so much. I never could understand how soldiers would slaughter civilians. Maybe you can explain it to me.”
He felt his heartbeat skip. Did she know what’d happened? What he’d done for Jack Bouchier? In answer to his unspoken question, Layla flipped open the folder to reveal pictures of the massacre in Afghanistan. “Seth’s note isn’t the only thing in this file.”
Ray couldn’t bear to look at those pictures and hated the chill in her voice. If what she’d seen in that file made her doubt his innocence again, he wasn’t sure he could bear it. “I’m not responsible for killing those people, Layla.”
“Then who is?”
That was a question she’d never asked him when she’d been his interrogator. She probably could’ve forced him to answer her now. She could’ve used her riddler’s power. But she didn’t. “War isn’t pretty, Layla. Bad things happen.”
Tears hovered at the corners of her eyes. “Bad things happen? Ray, that’s what everyone at Scorpion Group said about your imprisonment and torture. The government said, ‘We’ve gotta get the bad guys before they get us, and if that means that a few innocent people have to suffer, so be it.’ Is that the way you think?”
It hit him like a punch to the gut. He didn’t know if she’d used her powers on him or not. He only knew that the breath went out of him. His chest seized with squeezing pain and it was as if the truck became a kaleidoscope of twisted metal and prison bars. He went hot, then cold, then hot again as he fought for control. What the hell was wrong with him?
“Ray?” she asked as the wheels slipped and the truck began to sway out of control.
Shit. It was happening again. Just like in the phone booth, but worse. He had to get out of the truck. He had to get some air. Frantically, he pressed the button to lower the window, hitting every one of them but the right one.
“Ray, you have to calm down.”
That made it even worse. “Don’t tell me to calm down!”
He managed to screech the vehicle to a halt on the shoulder of the road while angry commuters leaned on their horns. It didn’t matter that he’d pulled over at the top of an overpass. It didn’t matter that traffic was whizzing by dangerously close to his door. He had to get out. He had to get out or he was going to die right here. He shoved open the door and flung himself out.
“Ray!” Layla called after him.
It wasn’t until he was standing by the side of the road, gulping deep breaths of air, that he even realized she’d followed him. “Count—”
“I don’t want to count my fucking breaths!”
“Ray, you can’t let yourself lose control. You need help. You need treatment.”
“What do you suggest? A little couple’s therapy for fugitives?”
“You need treatment for your anxiety. Maybe medication.”
“I’ll get right on that,” he said, hands on his knees as he bent over, the pavement swimming before his eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have pressed you.”
He hated how she was always so willing to believe that everything was her fault. She’d only asked the same questions anyone would have asked him. She deserved an honest answer. Unfortunately, it was the one thing he couldn’t find the courage to give her. He managed to stand up, buffeted by the force of air that passing cars sent his way. Layla’s dark hair was whipping her face and his. “You have to get back in the truck, Ray. I’ll drive and we’ll keep all the windows open.”
“No,” Ray said, taking her cheeks in his hands, kissing her as if it would somehow substitute for all the things he wanted to say to her, but would never find the words to express. “You’ve done all you can for me. You need to take the truck and get out of here.”
Her eyes flew wide. “A minute ago I told you I’d go anywhere with you and now you expect me to just leave you standing at the side of the road? And go where? Do what?”
Once, he’d felt entitled to hunt her down and drag her into this mess. Now all he wanted was for her to be free of it. He didn’t want her to see him degenerate into some brutal, unthinking, rage-filled killing machine. He didn’t want her to watch him bust into people’s minds and slowly lose his own. Ray took her by the shoulders. “Listen, Layla, when I found you, you were desperate to get away from Seth, and if it weren’t for me, you’d have escaped him. You need to go. Run. You leave the country.”
He felt her tremble, then visibly calm herself, a fierce determination in her eyes. “I’m not leaving you here.”
He traced her chin with his thumb, then gently pressed the keys into her hand. “You’re going to have to leave me here because I can’t get back in that truck. I just can’t do it. It’s too confined. What’s more, I need you to get it off the side of the road before we attract any more attention.”
He started to turn, but she grabbed his elbow. “We could meet somewhere. I’ll get rid of the truck and we can find each other—”
“After all this is over, I promise I’ll find you, Layla. But not until it’s over.”
She looked stricken. Abandoned. Ray knew that she’d loved Seth and he’d cast her away. Now she looked as if Ray were hurting her even worse. “Why are you doing this, Ray? Why won’t you let me stay with you?”
Wasn’t it plain as day? Did he have to spell it out for her? “Because I love you, Layla. And because you’re the only one who knows I’m innocent. The truth of who I am needs to be safe with you.”
With that, Ray started walking the shoulder of the road. Layla followed him a few s
teps, but then paused, as he knew she would. The truck was causing traffic to slow. It was the kind of disorder that someone like Layla couldn’t abide. She called after him. “Ray!”
He dared not look back, but picked up his pace.
“Ray!” she shouted again, but her voice was warped by the wind and the passing cars.
Chapter 16
It’s pleasure mixed with pain. On your heart it
makes its claim.
Layla didn’t know whether it stunned her more that Ray had said that he loved her, or that he’d left her standing there on the side of the road. Layla ditched Ray’s truck, then set out on foot to find him, not realizing until she’d hit the National Mall that she had no idea where she was going. Now she meandered there, trying to make sense of it all.
Loved. Layla was loved. In all the thousands of years since Seth had shaped her from the sand, no one had ever loved her before and now the whole living world looked different to her. The flowers were in love with the sun, lifting their faces to gaze up in adoration. The passing traffic in the streets had a pulse of its own, like blood moving through the veins of a heated lover. The marble buildings were like the carved headboard of some giant bridal bed, with the silken sheets of grass folding out beneath it. Layla walked through it all in a daze.
Ray loved her. Rayhan Stavrakis—a man she’d interrogated, humiliated and manipulated—had not only forgiven her, but loved her. Yet, he’d also left her.
And he’d left her before she had a chance to tell him that she loved him right back. She shouldn’t stay here now. Seth had destroyed her memories once before and if he caught her this time, he’d destroy her memories of Ray. What if she had to live the rest of her life never knowing that someone had loved her? That thought alone was more than Layla could bear standing up.
Luckily a park bench was nearby, and she collapsed onto it, staring at the children playing next to the reflecting pool. It was hard to believe that such a beautiful day could exist while her insides were in such turmoil. How could the sun be shining when Ray was out there somewhere, in danger?
Ray would go to the Scorpion Group compound in Arlington. He’d go there to look for Missy and he’d go there to find evidence of his innocence. Maybe he’d even go there to confront Seth for transforming him into a minotaur. And then he’d die, or worse. There had to be some way to stop him. Layla put her face in her hands, trying to focus. Trying to think calmly and rationally.
“It can’t be as bad as that, chica,” someone said.
Layla looked up, squinting into the bright sunlight. Surely she was hallucinating. “Isabel?” Layla’s eyes widened, staring at Isabel—seeing Isabel not as a mortal would, but through the eyes of a sphinx. She’d always sensed Isabel’s feminine power, but how had she ever thought that Isabel was a simple administrative assistant? How had she never noticed the golden skin and supernatural aura? How blind she’d been! “Wh-what are you?” Layla stammered.
“I’m your friend, mija, but I’m more than that, too.”
Isabel was a goddess. It was all Layla could do to still the tremor that ran through her. Should she kneel in reverence? She didn’t know how to behave in the presence of a deity who didn’t own her.
“Relax,” Isabel told her, and sat down on the bench.
“But how?” Layla was so startled, she blurted out, “It must have been so hard for you to pretend that you’re an ordinary woman.”
“Bite your tongue, riddler,” Isabel said. “I never pretended to be ordinary!”
“You knew I was a sphinx? The whole time, you knew?”
“I knew you were a sphinx, but I didn’t know who you belonged to until Seth walked in the door looking for the minotaur. He was hoping to catch you both together.”
Somehow, against all odds, Isabel had found her first. “How did you find me?”
“I let my butterflies help me,” Isabel said with a quirky little smile as if she had secrets. “Seth won’t be happy about it.”
Layla blanched. “I don’t want to be his. I don’t even want to be what Seth made me.”
“Lucky for you that I won a wager,” Isabel said.
Layla listened with scarcely contained shock as Isabel explained. When Isabel was finished, Layla asked, “So then…I belong to you now?”
“No, mija. I didn’t make the wager so that I could have a sphinx of my very own. I want you to be free to give your heart and to live your life in any way you please.”
“That’s…” Layla couldn’t find the words to describe what an immense and gracious gift this was. “What do you want in return?”
“I want you to be happy and make others happy,” Isabel replied.
Tears were still such foreign things to Layla, but they slipped down her cheeks now. She didn’t know that gratitude could make her cry, too. Isabel had done her a great kindness, but Layla had already given her heart to Ray and feared she might now have to live a long life without him.
Ray liked his chances. The Scorpion Group facility in Arlington was off the main road. A chain-link fence surrounded the large parking lot, and a set of stone stairs marked the entryway. Somewhere in this building he might find Missy. And if he didn’t find her, there might be a file that would prove his innocence. Whatever strength Ray still had as a minotaur, he planned on using to get inside.
The two armed guards by the gate were easy enough to dispatch with his powers. He told them to take a walk and forget they’d seen him. Security was notably less lax inside the building where he forced the guy with a radio to pull the fire alarm. As soon as people started evacuating, Ray took the stairs up a floor and slipped into an empty office.
It was then that he felt the hard muzzle of a gun on the back of his neck.
Ray didn’t panic. He just slowly raised his hands in mock surrender. Eventually whoever it was on the other end of the gun would let him turn around. And when that happened he’d catch their eyes and… Shit. The guy was wearing mirrored sunglasses, and a malicious smile, like he knew just what Ray had been thinking.
“So sorry to disappoint you, Rayhan, but you’d only hurt yourself in the labyrinth of my mind. My memories are as old as the world.”
Seth. There was no question about it. Ray had never thought he’d lay eyes on a god until he died, and maybe not even then. Seeing one in the flesh was both humbling…and disappointing. Seth wasn’t shining with light or wielding thunderbolts in each hand. In fact, the war god was of modest stature; Ray towered above him. But even in his mortal guise, when Seth removed his sunglasses, his burning amber eyes made Ray wilt under their intensity. Incredible power frayed the edges of Seth’s mortal image and if everything Layla had told Ray was true, he was standing face-to-face with her creator as well as his own.
“Your abilities are coming along nicely,” Seth said, tracing the barrel of the gun across Ray’s skin. He was close. Too close. It was always safer to keep your distance when you were holding a gun on somebody. Ray tightened, waiting for the moment he could grab the firearm. “Oh, don’t bother trying to disarm me, Rayhan. I can kill you without shooting you. It’s just easier to explain bullet holes to the police than it is to explain a pile of human ash and bones.”
Ray believed him. “You went to a lot of trouble to fashion me into a minotaur just to kill me now.”
“Ah, so you know what you are.” Seth smiled without showing his teeth. “I suppose it was good of Layla to save me the tedious explanations. Just where is my little domestic house cat? I felt certain that she’d be with you.”
Ray silently seethed. Ever since he’d left Layla he’d been thinking he’d made the worst mistake of his life. Now he was glad that he had no idea where she was, because that meant he couldn’t tell Seth anything even under torture. “Layla and I parted company.”
“That’s inconvenient,” Seth said.
“For you, maybe. Now where the hell is Missy? Where are you keeping her?”
“Missy?”
Something inside of Ray shrivele
d and died when he saw the look of confusion on Seth’s face. Ray wouldn’t have been surprised to find that Seth was an expert liar, but he had a sinking feeling that Layla had been right all along. Somebody else had snatched Missy.
“Who is this Missy? A lover?” Seth asked. “You seem like a virile man….”
Ray clamped his jaw. He wasn’t going to say anything else about Missy or about Layla or about anyone he cared about. But Seth’s attention seemed to have wandered. “You’ve bulked up, I see. Good. I like a strong ox to pull my plow.” Seth circled Ray, examining him as if he were a slave upon the auction block. He wouldn’t have been surprised if Seth insisted on inspecting Ray’s teeth. “But you look overtired. Did your mind games with the guards tire you that much?”
Ray ground his teeth, determined not to answer.
“Did Layla tell you that it’ll kill you one day? Minotaurs get lost inside the minds of their victims and eventually turn into drooling simpletons. They waste away. But I think you might last a good deal longer than most. I let you escape from your Syrian prison to see how you’d survive. Thus far you’ve proved yourself capable, but from now on, you’ll reserve your strength for me.”
Oh. That wouldn’t be a problem. Ray was all about saving his strength to crush Seth. “What the hell do you want from me?”
“Hell.” Seth let the word roll off his tongue as if he were tasting it. “Hell is such an interesting concept, don’t you think? In my time, dying men worried that their hearts would be found unworthy and fed to the crocodiles. We too had our lakes of fire. Now you fear Satan and his eternal flames. Yet, your living world is already burning with war. You’ve seen it.”
There was an egomaniacal gleam in Seth’s eyes that burned like all the roadside explosions Ray had witnessed—sudden, forceful and deadly. It wasn’t cowardice that forced Ray to flinch away. It was the certainty that he could be drawn into Seth’s magnetic pull if he wasn’t careful. Ray burned with enough rage at what’d been done to him that he already had to fight his urge to smash and destroy. It would be something too easy for Seth to exploit.
Dark Sins and Desert Sands Page 17
