“Henry?” Reese asked in disbelief.
“The ironic part of this whole thing is that besides you, he’s the most powerful demon on the planet.”
“I’m a demon.”
“No, you’re a Seer, darl. Weren’t you listening?” Another glass, another sip.
“What, just because he can make deals with everyone makes him powerful?”
“It’s more than that,” Ollo said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Henry controls where the souls go.” Reese continued to stare at him blankly, and Ollo made an impatient snort. “Do I have to spell out everything, darl? He’s Charon.”
“Charon?” She pressed her brows together. “Isn’t he a Greek myth?”
“When you reduce religion to the simplest terms, they basically represent the same thing: be a good person. There are many stories in the Bible, many myths from the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, native tribes, every culture on every continent to illustrate what it means to be a good person. And, like all legends, they are based on facts that get muddled with time and interpretation. Humans want to differentiate between their religions because they want to know without a doubt that their belief is the right one. In reality, what you believe in doesn’t amount to much compared to how you act on Earth, and that’s the thread that connects religions together. There is no one true religion because all religion is true.”
Reese let his words sink in and was surprised to find that despite his slurred tone, he actually made sense. “If Henry’s really Charon, why doesn’t he just ask God to forgive him and go back to his kingdom?” she asked.
“He refuses to apologize for being in love.” He rolled his eyes and took another drink.
“Okay, but that doesn’t explain why this war is starting and why I’m the key to ending it,” Reese said.
“The devil, Satan, whatever you want to call him—”
“Hades.”
“No,” Ollo snapped. “What is with you humans equating the Underworld to Hell and Hades to Satan? The Underworld was a place where all souls went after they died and Hades ruled over them. That doesn’t make him evil.
“Anyway, to put it simply, Satan wants more souls. You can’t have power if you don’t have people to exert that power over. In order to get more souls that want to spend their afterlife in Hell rather than Heaven, he needs to corrupt their thoughts on God. This is where Noir comes in.”
“Noir is involved in all of this?” Reese asked.
He gave her a flat look at her interruption and she narrowed her eyes.
“As I was saying, everyone fears Noir because he kills people for no reason,” he went on. “He doesn’t get some cheap sexual thrill from it; he doesn’t do it for money or fame or anything else. He also doesn’t discriminate when it comes to killing; he’ll kill women, babies, puppies, whatever he wants. Technically speaking, he’s an Excom, an Undesirable, which means neither Heaven nor Hell wants him. You can tell Excoms by their scars. Satan burns the right side of their face himself as a reminder that this particular soul refused to be in Hell, so his pride won’t let him accept the soul no matter how badly he needs it. Excoms are sent to places with the smallest populations, if there is a population at all, such as the desert. Deserts are the worst because the heat and the lack of water is torturous. In Noir’s case, he was sent to the Sahara until Satan found him and set him loose on Onyx a year ago. Satan believes that if someone murdered innocent people for no other reason than just to murder, people would lose their faith in God because if there was a God, why would He let awful things happen? See, people have this interesting perception of the world and can’t seem to comprehend the fact that bad things happen to good people. When things like that happen, they automatically blame God for it.
“Now, while God won’t do anything to stop Noir, He can help protect the people of Onyx.”
“The Black Wing,” Reese said in awe.
“Right.” He nodded. “Some people aren’t exactly thrilled with the Black Wing’s presence, but he’s helping restore faith.”
“Is the Black Wing a fallen angel?”
“From what I know, yes,” he said with a smirk as he sipped his fourth glass of alcohol. “He was some arrogant prince from a small kingdom in Heaven set to take over once his father stepped down, but his father didn’t think he was ready or taking it seriously so he sent his son to the Guard. He got placed in Onyx and the rest is history. Rumor has it he’s not happy with his position.” He snickered to himself.
“So this war?” Reese asked, getting annoyed with his sidetracks.
“It’s all because of a woman,” he said, clinking his ice in his glass. “Noir has become intrigued with a woman and that is bad for Satan. And before you ask why, I will tell you. The only way an Excom can be redeemed is if a person loves and accepts him for exactly what he is. Not for who he used to be or what he will be, but for who he is now. As impossible as it sounds, it has happened before to other Excoms, and Noir’s already changing. Normally, he kills all his victims. But he left her alive. Satan’s not happy about this which means he’s going to lash out in some way. Heaven will retaliate and the war will break out, which is why you’ve been awakened.”
“Oh, right. Because I’m a Seer.”
“Not a Seer,” Ollo corrected. Reese wasn’t sure how it was possible, but although he was on his fifth glass of liquor, she could understand him quite clearly. “The Seer. See, while God can’t stop the war from happening, he can give someone the ability to see particular visions that, depending on who you share these visions with, will assist them with how to win the war.” Reese continued to stare at him blankly and he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Your name is Reese Delilah Philbin, right?”
“How do you know that?” she asked, though the more she thought about it, the more she realized that if Henry was involved, he probably told Ollo about her.
Ollo ignored her. “D-E-L-P-H-I,” he spelled out. “The first three letters of your middle name and the first three letters of your last name. You are the Oracle of Delphi.”
Reese burst out into laughter because she wasn’t sure what else to do. “Okay,” she said. “If I’m supposed to be the Oracle of Delphi, then does that make Gabe Apollo since he claimed I’m his?”
Ollo’s eyes darkened at the question. “You were right with what you told him, darl,” he said. “You belong to no one. Gabe isn’t Apollo either. He’s Satan’s son.”
Reese forced all questions that sprung up from Ollo’s statement out of her head, and instead, asked, “And you? Where do you fit in?”
He gave her a sardonic smile that didn’t quite reach his hooded eyes. “I’m your trainer,” he said.
22
Andie wasn’t sure what had happened that would cause everyone to leave the museum so abruptly. All she heard were the loud murmurs of the crowd, and when she picked up the phrase “Noir sighting,” her heart stopped. In that moment, the voices and the blaring alarm drowned out, she couldn’t feel the rain on her skin and completely forgot that Jack was less than a foot behind her. Her focus turned to running back to the museum and finding Keirah. Before she could, his arm locked around her waist and pulled her against his chest.
“Don’t even think about it,” Jack said, his voice a gritty murmur.
Before she could say or do anything, Commissioner Jarrett ran up to the pair. His hair was matted to his face and his suit completely soaked. His eyes were sad, his presence disheveled. The look on his face told her everything she needed to know; Keirah was gone.
From then on, everything was a blur. Jarrett said something about Keirah, Jack pressed her to his chest and held her tight but she didn’t cry. Commissioner Jarrett said he wanted to take her home himself so he could explain what happened to her sister. Jack assured Andie he would tell Miranda where she went and made her promise to call him tonight so he would know she was as okay as she could be.
Andie went through the motions. She got in the backseat of Jarrett’s car s
till bundled in Jack’s jacket, and the commissioner led her up the stairs to her second-floor apartment. When he told Judith, she cried and yelled and cried some more. Jarrett stayed for as long as he could before he had to turn his attention back to actually finding Keirah. The moment the door closed, her mother whirled around to face Andie.
“This is all your fault!” she exclaimed.
Judging by the rapid movement of Judith’s mouth, Andie knew there was more, something along the lines of how Andie should never have invited Keirah to the party, how Andie should have told her that Keirah left in the middle of the night, how she was the reason Noir was after her in the first place, etcetera. All Andie wanted to do was to take a hot shower, wrap herself up in blankets, and cry.
A stinging pain in the left side of her cheek made her feel again, however temporarily.
“Are you even listening to me?”
Andie blinked and looked back at her mother. She had slapped her. Judith had slapped her.
“Of course you’re not listening to me,” she said, dropping the offending hand so it smacked her pajama-clad thigh. “I can’t do this anymore. You need to leave, Andie. Right now.”
Andie pushed her brow together. “Are you kicking me out?” she asked. Now she could hear quite clearly.
“Yes.” One nod, firm and resolute. “For now. I need to worry about finding Keirah.”
“What about me?” Andie asked, all her pent-up emotions spewing out of her like an erupting volcano. “I’m your daughter. Where am I supposed to go?”
“I don’t care.” Judith stopped and at least had the decency to wince at her abrupt answer.
“But—”
“You’re more like your father anyway,” her mother continued in a soft voice. Her dark eyes clashed with Andie’s light ones and she clenched her jaw. Any remorse she might have had about what she was doing to her youngest daughter had vanished, and Andie couldn’t be sure if it had ever been there in the first place. “You’ll survive. He has. I need to find Keirah. Get out.” She thrust her index finger to the front door. “Now.”
“Can’t I even get my things?” Andie asked.
“I said get out!”
Andie jumped and grabbed her purse before rushing out the door and slamming it shut behind her. Pressing her lips together to keep from crying, Andie opened her purse to grab her car keys when her phone started vibrating. The name on the caller ID made her heart leap in her throat and she immediately thanked God for helping her when she had no idea how to proceed.
“Jack?” she all but sobbed.
“Andie?” he asked. His voice was clear, like church bells on Sunday morning. “You never called. I’ve been—” He cut himself off, and then, “Are you okay?”
“I, uh …” She glanced at the empty hallway of her apartment complex and suddenly felt lonely. She knew she was being selfish since Keirah was gone again and could be in fatal danger, but right at that moment, Andie wanted nothing more than to be wrapped up in his arms and told sincerely that everything would be all right. “I just …” The tears sprung into her eyes but they weren’t falling. Not yet. “Um, my mom kicked me out, and I don’t, I’m not sure what to do.”
“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
Before Andie could dissuade him from actually doing anything and remind him that he had never been to her house before and it might be tricky to find since it was three o’clock in the morning, he had hung up. Frowning, she tried to call him back, but it went straight to voicemail. She let out a groan and decided to head to the parking lot so he’d be able to see her better. More than that, she didn’t want him anywhere near her mother. She wasn’t sure how either would react to the other and didn’t want to experiment tonight.
Nearly ten minutes later, a black Bentley pulled up, and after a minute, Jack parked the car and got out. He didn’t seem perturbed by the rain in the slightest, but before he could go to her, she emerged from the canopy that blocked her from the rain and slid into the passenger seat of the car. She watched as Jack’s lips quirked up into a grin, a puzzled look on his face as he followed suit. He started up the car, but only to turn on the heater, and faced her.
“What happened?” he asked her. “Are you all right?”
“My mom kicked me out,” she stated. It still hadn’t hit her that she didn’t have a home anymore. She didn’t have anything anymore. “My mom kicked me out.”
“Hey.” He reached out and cupped her face with his hands in order to break her out of her daze. She latched onto his unwavering jade green eyes like they were a light in a dark tunnel. “Hey. It’s going to be okay.”
There. She heard the words. She reveled in how genuine they were.
“I just …” She closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath before reopening them. “I don’t know what to do. I always know what to do.” Jack smirked and released her cheek in order to brush loose, damp tendrils away from her face. Andie wouldn’t let herself think about the fact that she naturally leaned into his touch and decided to hone in on his smile. “What? Do you have any suggestions?”
“Actually, yes, I do have an idea,” he said. “You’ll be staying with me until we figure this out.” He abruptly turned back to his steering wheel and proceeded to put the car in gear. “I know you’ve opened your mouth to respond, but do yourself a favor and just breathe, okay? I know you want to argue, but don’t. We can discuss everything tomorrow morning if you want, but let’s get you back to the manor and into some warm clothes, and then you need to sleep.”
Jack Phillip liked to break the law, at least in terms of the speed limit. They were back at his home in less than ten minutes; it would normally take a half an hour if he actually went the proper speed. Because it was dark, Andie couldn’t make out the majority of the manor, but she promised herself to go exploring tomorrow since the only other time she had been here, she was waitressing and didn’t have time to take it all in.
Jack drove up the driveway and flashed his lights against the entrance. She was surprised to find the doors to his house open with an older woman wearing a long white robe leaning against the doorway, as though she expected them. He turned off the car and before Andie could comprehend what he was doing, he was at her door, opening it for her.
“I’m going to park the car in the garage around back,” he told her, placing his hands on her shoulders. “Then I have a meeting with Hong Kong that will probably take a while since I’m not too familiar with the whole Skype thing. My aunt, Beverly, will get you some fresh clothes and take you to the room you’ll be sleeping in that has an attached bathroom and shower. We’ll talk in the morning.”
Andie nodded and Jack dropped his hands, turning to head back into the car. “Jack,” she called before he got in. He looked at her, pushing his brow up. She suddenly felt shy, but she forced herself to keep her eyes locked with his. “Thank you.”
He nodded his head, and as Andie walked to the entrance of his house, she heard him drive away. Beverly offered Andie a warm smile, murmuring something along the lines of how cold she must be and how she should take a long shower.
“It’s good to see you again,” Beverly said as she led Andie up the grand staircase.
“I’m not here to sleep with your nephew.” The minute Andie said the words, she forgot about being cold because her face caught on fire.
Beverly hooted her laughter and had to stop in the middle of the staircase to grab the banister to ensure she wouldn’t lose her balance and fall. Andie wasn’t sure if she should continue to feel mortified or if she should join in. Jack’s reputation with the ladies was no secret. She was sure Beverly saw a slew of beautiful nameless faces come in and out of the manor at all hours and she wanted to make it clear to this woman that she was not one of those girls.
“Of course not,” Beverly said. She started up the stairs again. “Though I must say—Andie, isn’t it?—I’m quite surprised you actually agreed to this. I thought you weren’t a big fan of his.”
When they rea
ched the top of the stairs, Beverly turned left. If Andie hadn’t been so cold, she’d probably slow down her pace to look around.
“Trust me, I wouldn’t be here if I had another option,” Andie muttered. Beverly chuckled. “Not that I’m not grateful, of course. I am. But I feel uncomfortable being here. Not with Jack, just in his house.” Andie stopped talking for a moment in order to collect her thoughts. She knew what she wanted to say, but it was coming out all wrong. “Sorry. I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m surprised he suggested this.” She paused, frowning. “Actually, ordered is more like it.”
Beverly started laughing again, but this time, Andie felt a smile start to light up her face. “It seems rather contradictory of Jack,” she explained, “but he’s not one for rejection so he’d rather order someone to do it. If they don’t follow his orders, they’re just being rebellious, not rejecting him.”
“For a guy who’s known for his arrogance, he sure does have a bunch of insecurities,” Andie remarked as they stopped in front of a door cracked open. “I just don’t get why, though. I mean, he’s attractive enough, he has a reputable business, a name known all over the world, and he’s only twenty-one years old. I get the whole having fun thing, but doesn’t it ever get lonely? Why does a twenty-one-year-old need a house this big anyway?” A light blush touched her face. “Sorry. It’s none of my business.”
“It’s my opinion that Jack isn’t as playful as his reputation might lead you to believe,” Beverly said, a knowing twinkle in her jade green eyes. “It’s just a front. Because he has all the things you mentioned, he has to be wary of …”
“Gold diggers and hussies?” Andie finished. She rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh. “Jack’s a pretty smart guy. He should be able to sniff those out, especially since their stench is so obvious.” She chuckled at her joke. “He could probably get any woman he wanted. Of course, he’d have to tweak that persona of his, but other than that …”
“Despite popular belief, Jack can’t get any woman he desires,” Beverly teased. She pushed the door open and let Andie walk into the room before she followed. “Here’s your room. The bathroom is just through the door,” she pointed to a door in the corner of the room. “My room is three doors down while Jack’s is across the hall. He’s out most of the weekend and tends to get cranky when he doesn’t get his beauty sleep. Let me get you some of Jack’s extra clothes, and after that you can take a shower and get warm, hmm?”
The Dark Paradise Trilogy Box Set Page 17
