by D. N. Leo
Lorcan nodded.
“Is all of your wiring gear ready?”
“Yep. I can do it with my eyes closed.” He smiled at her. “It should be okay. We’ll bug him and then hand him over to the cops. Then we can get out of here.”
“Have you thought of where you want to go?”
“Anywhere with you is good with me. Is there a place where the curses won’t follow us?”
“Unfortunately not. Until I can kill someone to feed the black curse, and you can stop loving me to free yourself from the white curse, we won’t find a place on Earth where we can be free.”
“How about off the planet?” Lorcan grinned.
Orla rolled her eyes. “Sure. Let’s take the spaceship. Have you reserved the tickets?”
Lorcan chuckled. “Yes, of course.” He rolled over and buried his face between her breasts.
“I certainly don’t sell any tickets in there.” She giggled, pulled his face out, and kissed his lips.
Chapter 35
William’s office was located on level forty-six of the Century Tower. Directly outside of the bank of elevators, a corridor led Orla and Lorcan to the sumptuous but deserted entrance of The Connector Group. The door swung open as they approached. There was no receptionist at the counter. The open planning area with more than twenty desks was empty. The lights were dimmed and the computer screens were idle.
“In here.” William’s voice echoed out from an office wing.
Lorcan pushed Orla behind him and walked toward the door.
The massive office had no furniture except for a gigantic desk at the far end where William sat. This was the corner end of the building where the glass walls allowed open views of the city. William gestured to the seats in front of his desk.
“We’ve just moved in. It will take time to settle,” William said and glanced at Orla. “Obviously, you haven’t brought the merchandise with you.”
“We’re not stupid,” Orla said dryly.
Lorcan put a piece of paper on the desk. “Here’s where we put Jo. You have the money?”
William put a briefcase on the desk. “As you requested, this is in cash.”
Before reaching for the suitcase, Lorcan attached a bug under the seat of the chair in which he was sitting. Orla dropped her purse on the floor.
“Excuse me,” she bent down to pick up her purse and attached a bug underneath the desk. When she sat upright, the exchange continued. The briefcase and the piece of paper were both pushed to the midpoint of the desk. William stopped, saying, “I can’t let you take the money before I check on your delivery.”
“I can’t give you the address without having the money first,” Lorcan said.
“As you can see, I have no assistance here. None of my staff are around. I couldn’t go against the two of you if I wanted to keep the money. I can make a call from here. You wait for my people to check out the address to see if Jo is there. Once they confirm, you’ll get the money.”
“What if they confirm, and then you kill us right here. It would only take a couple of bullets. I bet you have guns close at hand,” Orla said.
“And you don’t have a weapon?” William smirked.
“Indeed we do, but there’s no need for bloodshed,” Lorcan said.
“Are you sure the address is real?”
“Of course,” Orla said.
“And my people will find Jo there?”
“They will. But as I said, I can’t let you check it out before we get the money,” Lorcan said.
William leaned back in his chair, contemplating. Then he nodded. “You won’t walk out of here with the money before I verify at my end.”
Lorcan shrugged. “Okay.” Then he pushed the piece of paper further toward William, while William pushed the money toward Orla.
Then they heard a faint clicking sound.
Lorcan sprang to his feet and threw his body over Orla. They dropped to the floor.
Bullets sprayed the room.
Machine guns.
The glass wall behind William shattered. His body was riddled with bullets. His body, propped up in his desk chair, rolled over to the shattered wall and fell out of the building.
Wind blew through the office via the broken glass wall. Lights flickered. A hand snatched the piece of paper with the address before it flew away. Someone grabbed the briefcase of money. And then footsteps clicked on the polished floor.
Someone flipped Lorcan’s body which lay on top of Orla’s, flopping him onto the floor.
The footsteps walked away. And further away. Then it was quiet.
Darkness.
Chapter 36
Orla could hear the wind and feel the cold. She could hear herself drawing her last breaths. They were heavy, filled with bubbling blood flowing into her lungs.
She promised Lorcan she’d marry him when this was over. Now here she was, unable to fulfill her promise. She had unfinished business. She couldn’t let it end like this. She was special. She’d been born and raised to lead. She had spent her life as a thief because she didn’t want to kill. She’d sacrificed her access to power. And it wasn’t all to end her life on a cold floor, unable to protect her lover.
She heard herself chanting the ancient vow—the vow of devotion, the vow of herself—to her ancestor. The smell of jasmine rose up from the floor and thickened in the air. Whorls of black mist hovered around her. Strong spirits, she thought. But nothing was as strong as her vow, the vow she meant to make to her ancestors.
The jasmine scent increased. Energy washed through her body as she chanted the ancient spell. More energy. Waves of energy. Oceans of energy poured into her. Her wounds closed. Her body was healed.
She sat up, gathering Lorcan’s body in her arms. He stirred and opened his eyes.
“Orla.” As he spoke, blood bubbled from his mouth and ran down his chin. She wiped it away. Tears rolled down her face. “Orla, please don’t use the black curse to save me. I don’t want it to hang on you.”
“I can’t let you die.”
“The ring. It’s in my pocket.”
She took the ring box out of his pocket. “Lorcan, please don’t do this to me.”
“I’d like to see you wear it,” he whispered.
She put the ring on. Her vision blurred with tears. The sapphire stared up at her. In her arms, Lorcan smiled. He closed his eyes, and then he stopped breathing.
“Oh, no, no. You’re supposed to propose to me properly. You’re supposed to marry me.” She rocked his body in her arms. She knew he was gone. The white curse was too strong this time. But she couldn’t let it take him. Nobody, nothing, could take him away from her. She respected his wish, but she loved him more than any wishes on this Earth.
Then she chanted the black curse to summon the dark spirits.
She kept chanting, murmuring the ancient tune and the promises to the spirits and to her tribe, to the dead and the alive, and to her branch of sorcery. She called to everyone and everything she remembered from those short years of training in her childhood. She called. She promised. She’d turn around the planetary chart of the world if she had to.
He shuddered in her arms. She felt a hint of warmth. She could feel the blood flow again in his veins and his heart resume its steady beat. She heard bullets clank on the floor as they were pushed from his body. She felt his life return.
Lorcan coughed and opened his eyes. He jerked up, panting, and looked around. Orla cupped his face. “It’s all right. You’re all right. Calm down.” His blue eyes pierced her, striking and focused. He looked at her. Her eyes were dark. He glanced around, taking stock.
“What have you done?” Lorcan asked.
A tear trickled down her face. Lorcan could smell the jasmine. It was so thick it burnt. He knew it was the smell of spirits, the dark spirits. She had used the black curse again. But this time, it was more serious than before. This was the point of no return for her. He could see it in her face.
In the room was something beyond his control
, something that would take her away.
“No.” Lorcan sprung to his feet. “No,” he repeated. “I won’t let this happen.” He could see the black mist whirling now.
“I’m sorry, Lorcan.” Tears rolled down her face. “I have to go now.”
More wind blew into the room. It got colder by the second.
“No, you’re not bringing me back here and then leaving me, Orla.”
“But we live. Once we stay alive, we can figure things out.”
“Now.” A hollow male voice echoed in the room out of nowhere. “Orla. Now.”
“The whisper of an ancient sorcerer,” Orla mumbled in fear. Lorcan had never seen her afraid.
The black mist formed into the shape of a man in a black robe. “Now,” he said again.
Lorcan pushed Orla behind him. “Old man, she’s not going anywhere with you.”
The figure croaked out something in an ancient tongue that made no sense to Lorcan. Realizing Lorcan didn’t understand a word, the old man rumbled in English. “I can take back what I gave.” He blew out a stream of cold mist. It swirled and shot at Lorcan. Lorcan slumped to the floor as the energy was evaporated from him.
“No, ancestor. Whoever you are. Please don’t take him,” Orla cried.
Chapter 37
The door of an elevator opened. Mya strode in. “These shoes aren’t made for walking, let alone running. You owe me this one, Lorcan.”
On the floor, Lorcan looked up at Mya. She was stunning. Her skin radiant, her hair flowing, and gorgeous in those high heels. She looked different from the day he’d met her in the backyard in Mortlake.
“I won’t touch your subject, you won’t touch mine,” the old man croaked. He released Lorcan. Lorcan stood up and grabbed Orla.
“You made it, Mya. Do we have the deal?” Lorcan asked her.
Orla frowned.
Mya nodded. “Yes, we’ve got it. You’ve got what you asked for.” Lorcan grinned.
The old man growled.
“Where and when?” Lorcan asked.
“Down below. Now.” Mya pointed at the broken glass wall. Lorcan cautiously peeked over the edge and looked down. Orla followed. From level forty-six, William’s body sprawled on the cement of the empty parking lot looked like a broken toy.
“Can we do it on the ground floor? Or I can maybe tolerate jumping from level one. But this is a bit high, don’t you think?” Lorcan asked Mya.
“What? Jumping out of here?” Orla gasped.
The old man growled louder. His body glowed.
“Coahm Foley, I’m a deity. Do you really think that old spirit of yours can do any more than scratch me? Stop your infernal howling,” Mya chastised.
“Caohm? You broke our rules five hundred years ago. You used to be the leader,” Orla exclaimed.
Mya interrupted. “This is your one and only chance, Lorcan. I can’t control the gate. It’ll open on the third thunder strike and remain that way for exactly thirty seconds.”
The first wave of thunder rumbled across the sky.
Caohm roared and glowed so brightly he looked as if he would burst into flames. “Orla, come with me now. You have made a vow.” He advanced on her.
Mya swung her arm. A blade of cold air pushed Caohm backward.
“That’s going to cost me, damn it,” Mya muttered.
A second thunder crash.
“The gate will open on the next one, Lorcan,” Mya said.
Lorcan looked down, there was nothing in the air below.
“What gate, Lorcan?” Orla asked.
“The Daimon Gate,” he said.
“So we jump and die, and then end up at the gate to Heaven?” Orla asked.
Lorcan shook his head. “You promised to marry me when this is over. So follow me. I love you.”
The third thunder blast exploded in the sky.
Coahm roared in anger, “Orla, come back to your family.” He reached out. Mya blasted him with another wedge of icy air.
Lorcan stood at the edge of the floor. He turned around and looked at Mya.
“Thank you, we owe you this life,” he said. Then he spread his arms like wings and let himself freefall.
“Lorcan!” Orla screamed. She charged at the edge of the room, and she jumped after him.
The fall was long.
They fell. And fell. And kept falling.
Lorcan looked down and saw William’s body in the lot. He looked up and saw that Orla had followed him. Lying, body crushed, next to William in an empty parking lot was not the most desirable way to die. There was really no good way, Lorcan thought. He’d always considered the saying that your life flashed before your eyes before you died as a cliché, yet here he was, recalling the moments of his childhood with Orla at the spring in the Irish countryside. If his life could be summed up by short moments, those were the ones he was remembering as he fell. Not that his adult life with Orla wasn’t good. But it certainly wasn’t innocent. He was happy, but he craved the feelings they had for each other as childhood sweethearts. He was a sentimental fool after all.
The night after he saw Michelle dragged to Hell, Lorcan left Orla. Not for forever, but the thought did cross his mind. He would have preferred that they live apart but hold onto the love they had for each other rather than live together in a place where she had to block him and their love out of her mind because of her idiotic commitment to her family. Leaving her wasn’t a solution, but he was confused, desperate, and in need of a way out for both of them.
Then Mya came to him with a proposal he couldn’t refuse.
The brilliant and beautiful deity—who for reasons he didn’t understand and didn’t have time to find out—was bound to save his life. After Fossey Way, she told him that he was to die by gunshots if she didn’t interfere. He had died tonight, but Orla had cheated their way out of death again. In an effort to save him, Mya had negotiated for him to take a test to be a Daimon Gate gatekeeper.
Daimon Gate was a dimension that connected the multiverse. It was like another world, Mya said. The description seemed appropriate. A whole new world. In reality, it was a dimension that curved in time, space, mind, and world view. It was the connecting passage between ninety other dimensions. It was a tunnel that helped screen travelers between the participating universes. In a nutshell, in order to pass through the Daimon Gate, passengers had to pass tests designed by gatekeepers. The Daimon Gate was recruiting for new gatekeepers with the skills that Mya believed Lorcan had—data thievery for auditing and reinforcement.
If he became a gatekeeper, he could live in the Daimon Gate—a dimension and a world independent of any universe, Earth included. He would be free from life, moral debts, and lingering strings which attached him to Earth. He would be free.
That night, he took the tests. It was only a few hours Earth time, but in the gate, he suffered through three months of life and death tests that cut him to the bone. His body, his mind, and his spirit were tested to their limits. But he passed the tests, and they wanted him. He was offered a position that he never have dreamed of in his life. They wanted him, and they wanted him badly. It was at that point that he lay down his cards. He wanted a package deal. He wanted Orla there with him. He let Mya negotiate the deal for him. As far as he was concerned, it was all or nothing.
That morning, he returned to Orla in the apartment, not knowing whether the deal had gone through or not. The smell of wildflowers and forests lingered on his clothes. He saw her pulling him into her arms, not asking questions, and he knew that he had done the right thing for both of them.
And here he was, jumping to another dimension—or maybe not.
The gate was wide open on the ground, somewhere right in front of him. But this time, he knew they were testing him for courage by opening it mid-air.
He looked down and could still see William’s dead body. He looked up, and Orla was still freefalling with him.
How long was thirty seconds? It felt like a lifetime. As the important moments of his life play
ed out in his mind, Lorcan had a feeling that he might have been jumping to his death. Even worse, he had asked Orla to come with him. And she had.
He looked down again.
As they reached a point nine floors up from the ground, a hollow ring of air with a red rim of fire and sparks of electrical current opened up and swallowed them.
Chapter 38
Lorcan and Orla dropped down onto soft grass and rolled a bit before they got their footing. He stood up, darting toward Orla to help. She huffed. “Did we die?”
Lorcan chuckled. “Apparently not. What an epic jump we did!”
“Where the hell are we?” Orla asked.
In front of them were rolling green hills, the scenery of the Irish countryside. Lorcan smiled. He had requested the setting and the scenery that was similar to their homeland. On top of a nearby hill, a stone castle perched. He named the castle after her. He knew that would please her.
Lorcan kissed Orla. “We’re home,” he said.
She shook her head. “I don’t have a home. We don’t have a home.”
He tilted her chin up and looked into her eyes. “We do now. And we’ve earned it.” He smiled at her. “This is the Daimon Gate, a whole new world, our new world. It’s independent from any other world in any dimension, including the supernatural. This is a world where our curses can’t follow.”
Then he told her about the night he had left the apartment and had come back exhausted. He told her about the tests he had to pass to gain them entry to this completely free and virtuous world.
“You said virtuous?” Orla asked.
“Yes. The Daimon Gate recruits only the most virtuous to be gatekeepers.”
“Like saints?”
Lorcan laughed. “No. They recruit men. Good men.”
“What does being virtuous mean? Exactly how did they test that?”
Lorcan frowned. “I had my own way to pass the tests. I’m good at what I do.”
