“Who’s my father?” Ronan asked, his voice weak and unsure.
“Maggie refused to tell me, only that he was a descendant of the Forbidden Thirteen and he walked away from her. The idiot had no clue how valuable you and Maggie were to the world. She later told me he’d died, and she’d burned every last shred of evidence of his identity. There were a lot of things Maggie did against my wishes.”
Ronan shook his head. “No. I got my blood from her. She was one of the Thirteen descendants.”
“Not so. She was a pathetic half-assed seer and nothing more. Maggie destroyed the evidence she’d collected about the Thirteen families so I couldn’t readily locate them. I’ve spent years trying to find Ms. Walker’s identity. Too many wasted years because of that bitch’s treachery.”
“No doubt because she learned of your plans,” Adam spit out.
“I only planned to right the wrongs of an ignorant world. The three of you together will lure the others to me. I can help them attain their abilities. It’s all spelled out in the Illuminaria. Without the Illuminaria, you’ll all kill each other. With the Rift open now, there’s no stopping the magic from returning to this world. It can’t be contained in the Void.” Riley continued spilling his secrets as if he chewed on a bargaining chip. “The Thirteen will rule this world. What’s wrong with that? How can that be a bad thing?”
“What about my doppelgänger.” Once again, I held my breath, waiting to hear what we’d suspected.
Riley chuckled. “Your ancestor ruled the Thirteen alone. She created and invoked the sorcery to destroy the world’s magic. She created twelve doppelgängers from the original Forbidden Thirteen.”
Fascination zoomed through me like asteroids hurtling toward Earth, fiercer than the fear eating my stomach lining. I couldn’t imagine whether Riley told the truth or not. A horrible mix of emotions clamped my mouth tight. Riley was willing to spill, so I zipped it. Then I’d hex his luck for eternity.
Pure hatred toward his father contorted Ronan’s face into a dark mask of murder. I knew then that his feelings for Riley had never changed. Had he been playing his father since the moment Riley captured us? No longer one hundred percent convinced he’d betrayed me, I wanted to torture and kill Riley for Ronan’s sake.
“You’re a piece of work,” Ronan ground out. “Do you honestly think we’ll go along with your mission now, Dad?”
Riley clicked his tongue, his OCD as consistent as the Seattle rains. “Are you going to kill me? You going to call the cops or PVD? You won’t have a choice. I’ve got your blood, Aria’s blood. I’ve still got Kiera and Katrina. I’ve perfected advanced bio-drugs to keep you in line. The second I’m released, it’ll take one keystroke on my cell and you’ll be incapacitated. It’s worked so far, hasn’t it, son?”
Had he drugged or controlled Ronan all along? Hope perked up my foggy brain. Rift magic seeped into me, nudging out my headache and lethargy.
“What are you thinking?” Riley asked, remaining immobile as though patiently waiting for our magic to wear off. Au contraire.
“Absorbing your fairytale.” Sarcasm sparked the bitter edge of my fury when I didn’t want to provoke him further. Sue my mouth for being a rule breaker.
“Clever words.” His eyes shone brightly in the glow of the flashlight. “It’s a shame your parents didn’t live to see you grow into your birthright.” His gaze swerved to Ronan. “Same with yours, Ronan.” He laughed in that smooth, scornful way I found beyond irritating.
Rage and loathing shattered my last nerve. “You scum sucking prick!” Satan would get his asswipe back tonight.
Riley curled up and swung out his legs, knocking me off balance. Arms and legs still bound, he lunged to my left away from us and fell back to the ground on his side. A thick cushion of air stopped my tumble and pushed me away from him. Adam’s eyes glowed lavender for a second until he shut down his magic.
“I’ll stick a deadener gun up your ass and turn you into a lollipop if you try that again,” I said. “Thanks, Adam.” I erected an aura shield around the three of us.
During that few seconds of our preoccupation, Ronan had extracted a weapon from his jacket and aimed it at Riley. Simultaneously, Riley pointed a gun at Ronan. His wrists were bound, but his fingers still moved.
“You wouldn’t dare.” Riley’s hand shook slightly. “Your doppelgänger and your master Thirteen won’t let you. I have the information you need to live. It will die with me, and then you’ll have nothing.”
“I’ll have Aria and Adam,” Ronan said, quietly lethal and ominous. “That’s enough.”
I aimed a surge of magic at Riley, a second late and a credit short.
In surreal horror, Ronan and Riley pulled their triggers. Despite the silencers on both guns, the muted shots boomed in my head. The blasts split a hole in our aura meld, splintering it on the damp breeze, diamond flecks scattering onto an ebony canvas.
A dark stain blossomed on Riley’s white shirt below his heart. Slack-jawed, he slumped to his knees.
I spun toward Ronan. Through the dim light, I couldn’t see where the bullet made contact. Ronan’s face betrayed no pain, but out of the corner of my eye, I’d seen him jerk. Terror skewered me and my mind leapfrogged onward.
Riley thumped on his stomach, his mouth working in his last moments of life. “I…loved you…like a son.”
“Yeah, well, fathers don’t murder their sons’ mothers.”
“I didn’t—”
“I was there, you stupid ass. I saw the whole scene from the closet. I have it all on video,” Ronan screamed, waving his fist at his pseudo-father. He advanced on Riley, and I thought he might stomp the bastard’s smarmy face into the ground.
My shock knew no bounds. Why would Riley try to kill Ronan? Or had he just meant to hurt or scare him? Too bad stupidity wasn’t painful. I wanted to hug Ronan, but I held on to Adam’s hand, giving him my strength, curling my other fist against my stomach. Ronan needed to kill his demons his way.
The stain on Riley’s chest swelled. Blood dribbled down his chin. “She…threatened…to expose me and you to…authorities.” He coughed and spit. “She betrayed us. She deserved to die.” He laughed a wet, gloppy sound.
Ronan’s rage shot a surge of toxicity inside me. Chaos battled as both sympathy and betrayal clouded the bond that should have been springtime fresh and summertime warm. Instead, I felt autumn’s wane and winter’s cold.
All of a sudden, someone plunged into the scene, a dark wraith from out of storybooks charging from behind us. My watch beeped its hourly chime, a lonely sound in the hostile park, thirteen after the hour. My left pinkie twitched. Ah, criminy. Toe tag time.
“And you deserve this,” the hooded man said, cool as dry ice. He stepped forward and shot the Dick Tator point-blank between the eyes.
Chapter 28
Ronan sank to his knees, his fist clutched to his chest. I screamed and crawled toward him, clawing the wet grass. Woozy and unsteady, I felt like I was lapping up a river of tar until I had my arms around him. I cradled his shoulders on my lap, wanting to give him all the new life inside me. Adam shoved aside the bullet-shredded jacket, revealing a crimson stain darkening the front of Ronan’s gray Seahawks T-shirt. Blood drained out of my face, and I wanted to crawl inside Ronan and give him my life’s blood. After all this, I refused to let him die on my watch. Not when I was so close to figuring out which side of the light and dark I would choose. No. Idiot. Wake the hell up. I already knew I was falling head-over-hard-heels for Ronan, even after he’d shattered my heart when I believed he’d betrayed me.
“Don’t die, Ronan,” I whispered. Mom believed in you. I believe in you. I believe in us! Oh, God, there’s no us without you.
The mysterious intruder turned on our huddle, pushing his hood off. It was too dark to make out his features, but his eyes glommed onto my face and he smiled. “This has been a long time in coming.” His voice choked on the words.
The barest Scottish accent served up
another side order of crap. Was he another of Riley’s bounty hunters from the pool of Celtic diversity?
“Who the hell are you?” Ronan ground out. “You kill me and you got nothing. No bounty. It’s over.”
“I’m Alexander Caliburn. There won’t be any more killing tonight.” The vaguely familiar man tucked his gun into his shoulder holster. He crouched next to me and gently applied pressure to Ronan’s wound.
Adam grabbed the gun out of the man’s holster and trained it on Alexander’s chest.
Ronan’s throat bobbed. “Aria?” He throttled my name.
Without giving the standoff a second thought, I swept tangled hair off Ronan’s forehead. My tears dripped onto his cheek as I bunched his jacket over his wound, applying pressure to stem the bleeding.
“You crying over me? Don’t—” A hacking cough nixed his words.
“Shhh…” I caressed his clammy cheek.
“Is he dead?”
“I think so.”
His eyes closed, eyelashes a fringe of black against his polar-white complexion. “You’re safe now…from him.”
“Stop talking, will ya.” Bands squeezed my heart.
He opened his eyes. “It’s not fatal…I’ll live.” He tried to move his left hand to feel for the injury, but I took his damp hand in mine, keeping him from moving.
“You’re all safe from me.” The man turned to me, his hand straying to my cheek. I jerked back to avoid his touch. “I’m not here to hurt you. It was never my intent.”
“Then what do you want from us?” I demanded.
Two of Riley’s guards rushed us. The moment they took in the scene and the gun in Adam’s hands, their weapons hit the ground and hands lifted in the air.
“Get Ronan in the back seat of the SUV. Then we’ll take Riley’s body to his compound before the cops make their rounds.” Adam’s authoritative voice belied the anguish emanating off him.
“You don’t recognize me?” the familiar stranger asked, emotion heavy in his voice.
“I can’t even see you in the dark.” I helped lift Ronan to his feet. “All I know is you’re the man who fired the killing bullet on Dickhead Riley. You’ve probably been chasing me all over the freaking West Coast. The bounty’s cancelled. Now get out of my way.” I pushed at him and it was like pushing a boulder.
“Aria Elle.” He held my arm, his grip warm, with something familiar in the way he said my name. Like R.L., like Dad used to so many years ago.
My knees sagged. Dad’s dead. I shook my head. “No. You betrayed me. You’re dead,” I whispered.
“It’s not true. It’s really me,” he said as Adam came between us. The guards hefted Ronan under their arms, blocking my view of him.
“Screw you and the asshole you rode in on.” I left him standing alone and ran to catch up to Ronan, Adam on my tail. I blinked back the tears threatening to unseat my tenuous new foundation.
We took Ronan to Dominion Research. A skeleton crew was on night duty, and we managed to skirt around them and avoid their questions. I had no clue what they did with Riley’s body. The mysterious Alexander took care of everything. The comfort that act brought me reminded me of my childhood, and I gave in to the security he granted me that night.
Surprise, surprise, Riley’s Scrambler guard, the one I kept sensing the ebb and tide of his magic, Carlos Sorentino, was also a doctor. Unable to trust anyone, Riley wanted his prized biochemist close at hand, guarding him. Doctor Carlos kicked into high gear to patch Ronan up. The bullet hadn’t hit anything crucial, and Ronan would only have a short stint of physical therapy to return his arm to peak gun-slinging shape.
Blood and gore didn’t bother me, but I grew dizzy at the sight of needles sewing flesh. Reluctantly, I left Ronan in Dr. Scrambler’s expert hands to hunt down Zoe. Jax and Jon had found her outside the park where the police had forced her out.
I fell into her hug on the couch in Riley’s office. “Did the fairies get away?”
“Did you think I’d abandon them?”
“What’d you do, promise to email the PVD team nude photos of yourself?”
Zoe knocked a finger at the side of her head. “Damn, I could’ve used that one.” She grinned wickedly. “No, I just promised a couple of hot, single PVD officers a night on the town with a redfire frenzy and a blonde-streak bombshell.”
“No way!” I tugged on her hair.
“It’s not like we have to keep the date. Don’t get your thong stuck up your crack.” She gripped my arm. “Tell me what happened.”
While we waited for Adam, I gave her the peapod version of my escapades.
“O-M-G. Your father’s alive?” Tears welled in her eyes and she hugged me tight. “Is it over?” She wiped her face on the shoulder of my borrowed sweatshirt.
“Eew. Stop it.” I rolled away and sagged on the couch in a comfortable recline, rubbing my shoulder against the back cushion. “For now.”
She hugged her knees to her chest. “It’s just the beginning, isn’t it?”
The door suddenly swung open. Saved by the proverbial bell. Adam sauntered in, closed the door behind him with a quiet click. A seductive smile lit up Zoe’s face, erasing her unease and fatigue. I think she might have drooled on her hand too.
She listed sideways and whispered, “If you’re passing on him, he’s mine.”
Jealousy pricked my heart before we giggled it off. Certain now that it was Ronan in my blood, holding my heart, usurping that part of Adam’s magic, I didn’t know how I felt about Zoe and Adam together. First, a bone deep exhaustion anchored me, and I needed to go lick my wounds.
The droopy eyes of fatigue hardly detracted from Adam’s return to hotness. He was radiant, perfect, and his eyes twinkled brilliantly. Scenes of flowers, meadows, the sun, moon, and stars flickered in his irises. It almost hurt to look at him, but I couldn’t tear my gaze away. A lank of tawny-gold hair lay casually on his forehead. Long, silky tendrils framed his honeyed face. His minty aura swirled above him, and if I peered just right, I saw chinks of pink and blue with a fuse of all three colors on the edges. Life bloomed from him like a field of new springtime wildflowers. Even in his exhausted state, he exuded cheerfulness, and his charm wound around me in a silken shroud of euphoria.
He perched on the arm of the overstuffed chair across from the couch. “We’re heading back to the hotel.” He yawned broadly.
I sat up. Concern creased the tree bark scrapes on my forehead, stinging my skin. “I want to stay with Ronan.”
Adam rubbed the stubble sprouting anew on his chin. “He doesn’t want to see you right now.”
Hurt and guilt curved around my heart. Oh. “Okay.”
“It’s the drugs, Aria.”
I narrowed my eyes. What drugs? Ronan had refused a sedative and almost refused a local anesthesia while the doctor dug out the bullet and sewed him up. Then it dawned on me: Riley’s advanced bio-chemicals, advanced enough to eclipse a person’s will. Ronan had me so convinced of his betrayal, I couldn’t see beyond it. I still wasn’t one hundred percent sure of his agenda. I tried to blow the cobwebs from my brain, but the eight legs of emotions spun faster and thicker.
Adam interrupted my near short circuit. “He’ll stay and shut the place down and destroy the blood Richard collected from you, your mother, Ronan, and the girls. We already sent Kiera and Katrina home before their families called in the PVD and FBI.”
A red, raw cuticle earned my attention. “Is he safe here?” I studied my crusty sneakers, loathing the sight of them. Would life ever be safe again?
“Jax will stay. Jon will return with us.”
“Riley’s body?”
Adam stood up and held his hands out to Zoe and me. “Everything’s taken care of.” He paused for a long moment. “Alexander—your father—wants to see you.”
“He’s not my father,” I slung back.
As if on cue, the door slid open and the rat bastard sauntered into the room. There was no mistaking that the man who shot Riley was
an older version of the father I remembered, the man formerly known as Patrick Walker, a name as fake as my own. Salt sprinkled his thick brown hair. His slightly flared nose and the rare blue-green eyes matched mine. The telling evidence was the round scar on the back of his right hand and the emerald and diamond Claddagh ring he always wore. He had burned himself working on his car a year before abandoning his family.
The fit and trim man had taken off his hooded jacket, exposing expensive slacks and a button-down shirt underneath. I think his Rolex probably cost more than my car. Had he lived a life of luxury while Mom, Granny, and I had scraped by?
“Can we talk alone?” he asked, his gaze sweeping past me to Adam and Zoe.
“They can stay.” Zoe and Adam surrounded me, my wingmen in a burgeoning sea of the unknown.
He gestured at a lone chair next to the couch before taking a squat. “Sit.”
My gang and I sat rigidly on the couch. Not that I was obeying him, my knees were about to turn to mush. My anger had become a limp noodle instead of a steel rod.
“Spill it. You left. I heard you were dead. Now you turn up as Alexander Caliburn. What gives?” I lashed out.
He scrubbed his hand over his face, plucked on the familiar goatee. He looked young for his age, despite the shallow lines fanning his eyes. “Your mother and I agreed this was for the best. She knew I was leaving. I’m sorry I had to do it that way. We thought it best that you hated me so you didn’t try to track me down. Your grandmother wasn’t so keen on the idea and had written me off.”
“Yeah, no kidding.” I snorted. “She freaking hated you till the day she died. Who does that to her own son without a valid reason?”
“Preaching to the preacher.” His eyes never strayed from my face. “I stayed away to protect you, to draw others away from you, to throw them off. I was there at significant events, at your graduations, even at some of your public birthday parties. I killed the couple who abducted you from the mall in Las Vegas when you were ten.”
Myths & Magic: A Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection Page 176
