And then…I got it. “You’re soul mates,” I said, my voice trembling.
Nyla nodded and squeezed Rudyard’s hand, and I felt the stirrings of something very, very dangerous. Hope.
“Are there other Grigori like you? I mean…is it possible that…” I asked quietly.
“That you and Lincoln are kindred souls?”
“Yeah,” I said, blushing that I had to ask this question in front of Lincoln.
“It is,” Rudyard said. “When I felt your power at the airport, it seemed to gravitate strongly toward Lincoln’s essence. I have not seen one person’s powers pull on those of another so strongly since…” He looked at Nyla. “But it is more likely you are not. In all our years, we have never met another set of partners that have been bonded in soul. And if you are, while it is amazing, you should know, it is greater than any other kind of commitment. Greater than any kind of marriage in any culture, so think carefully before you…explore.”
Oh my God, this is the weirdest sex talk ever!
“Okay. Well, thanks for the heads up.” Lincoln stood, clearly sharing my awkwardness. “I’m going to make some dinner. Would you like to stay?”
“Thank you but no. We’re a little worried Zoe may try and put Salvatore back on a plane to Italy if we don’t get back to them soon.”
“Yeah. Poor guy,” Lincoln agreed.
“Zoe’s a good girl; she just had expectations for her partner—Salvatore was not it. But I believe she will be surprised, in time,” Nyla said, as she and Rudyard stood and instinctively wrapped an arm around each other.
Now that I knew they were soul mates, I could see how every little movement was somehow catered to by the other. They truly were connected, and when they looked at each other, although it was only brief, their eyes mirrored each other. Perfect love.
And look at me and Lincoln; we can barely look at each other. Every time we get close, something gets in the way. Would that happen if we were meant to be?
• • •
Just Lincoln and me—for the first time in what felt like ages. He set about making dinner. I didn’t bother offering to help. We both knew unless it involved the espresso machine, there was little point.
“I’m just going to throw on some steaks and make a salad. That okay?”
“Yeah. Great,” I said, feeling more uncomfortable than I had since I first found out about being Grigori. I walked around the massive open area that was now cluttered with gym equipment, the floor strewn with mats. I started putting some bits and pieces away in the buckets that sat at the base of my wall—I’d been trying to paint a mural on one of Lincoln’s large blank spaces, but I hadn’t got very far. It was a time issue more than anything. That and I’d hit a block. Every time I thought I knew what I wanted to paint, something changed my mind. Right now, there was a huge sheet covering it.
“Here you go.”
I jumped a little; caught in my thoughts, I hadn’t noticed Lincoln come up behind me.
“Thanks,” I said, taking the glass of Coke he held out.
“I’m sorry about last night,” he said. “I shouldn’t have gotten so angry.”
“I’m sorry too. We should never have gone in there. It was stupid.”
“True,” he said, smiling now and appearing just as relieved as I was that we weren’t headed straight for an argument.
I rolled my eyes but then got serious again. “Linc?”
“Hmm?” He was walking back into the kitchen.
“Um…” I was going to ask him about Magda, but I couldn’t. “We should go check on Onyx tonight.”
“Yeah, I know. I’ll do it.”
He said it casually, but it was a brush-off.
“Can’t we go together?” I pushed.
He glanced at me then took a bite of raw carrot. “Not tonight. I have to go out in a bit and there’s no point in you waiting around.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’m…just helping Magda with something.”
“Magda?”
He raised an eyebrow at my tone. “Yeah.”
“And you’re not going to tell me what it is?”
“Vi, I just need to do this thing myself. It’s…personal.”
I actually took a step back. A slap in the face would have been kinder. “Personal? For Magda or for you?” Because the way he was talking, it didn’t seem like it was Magda’s problem alone.
Lincoln closed his eyes and rested a hand on the bench as if trying to find the strength to deal with me, which just pissed me off. “Violet, just trust me. I don’t want you involved in this. You’re…a distraction.”
My jaw clicked to the side while I tried and failed to remain calm. “But Magda isn’t,” I said between deep breaths, unable to look at him.
“No. She isn’t.”
“Great. Well, you and Magda have fun.” I handed him back the glass of Coke and started collecting my things.
“Violet, you’re acting like I’m out having fun without you. This exile we’re tracking, he—” But he stopped mid-sentence.
“He what?” I snapped.
Lincoln looked away. “He needs to die.”
“You mean be returned.”
“If that’s the best I can do,” he said, his voice distant and rigid.
I stared at him, trying to hear what he wasn’t saying, what I was clearly missing.
“So, just you and Magda.”
“Yes.”
“Well, I’ll leave you to it then.”
“What are you talking about?” he asked as he watched me grab my bag and head for the door.
“You and Magda obviously have things under control and I just remembered Steph is staying at my place tonight, so I should probably get back there and have dinner with her. I might see you tomorrow.”
“Wait. Violet!”
I slammed the door on my way out.
“The heart is perverse above all things, and unsearchable. Who can know it?”
Jeremiah 17:9
Steph came round after I called her and begged for company. After her afternoon playing with Salvatore, she’d been planning on popping into Hades to see her brother, but after I pulled the best-friend card, she promised to be over in twenty minutes.
Steph brought pizza and got comfortable for what she knew was going to be a long night of me retelling the evening’s conversation and analyzing why Lincoln would suddenly only trust Magda.
“Vi, you don’t even know if something is going on between them.”
“Yeah, well, he didn’t even mention what Nyla and Rudyard had said about the soul mate thing after they left.”
That was even harder to understand because I was sure Lincoln had seemed genuinely intrigued—even excited.
“From the sound of it, he didn’t have a chance.”
“Steph!”
“Sorry. I think he was totally in the wrong and you have every right to be pissed with him. And no one likes Magda anyway. She’s a cow.”
I threw a pillow at her.
“What? Too much?”
I was just getting up for more ice cream when I heard a thump outside on the balcony.
“What was that?” Steph asked.
“I don’t—” But I didn’t get a chance to finish my sentence before someone (or something) was knocking on the glass doors.
“Steph, get back! Behind the couch!” I ordered, slipping into fighter mode.
“What’s wrong?”
I raised my eyebrows. “Apart from the fact that someone or something is knocking on the balcony door to my apartment that is twelve stories high?”
Steph’s face paled in the same time it took for her jaw to drop and to catapult herself behind the couch.
I switched off the lights, pulled out my dagger, and moved to the wall beside t
he balcony door. In one quick movement, I yanked the curtain back. My heart leapt into overdrive and I let out a squeal when I saw the figure standing outside the glass doors.
“Jesus Christ!” I yelled, jumping up and down to shake out the fear as I opened the sliding door, frowning when I realized it wasn’t locked.
“Nope, but you’re not the first to make that mistake,” Spence said, grinning mischievously.
Steph stood up from behind the couch. Spence burst out laughing.
“Seriously. Girls.”
“What are you doing here anyway? How are you here? I mean, did you scale the walls or something?” Steph snapped.
I bit back a smile. Not many people throw Steph off-balance.
He shrugged. “It was easy, and anyway, I’m here to collect you, Violet. In fact, we were hoping you might both be here. It saves the extra trip. You’re just lucky it was me that came up. Zoe wanted to use the tree outside as a slingshot.”
“We?” Steph’s eyes lit up. “Who else is here?”
“Slingshot?” I asked, a lot more interested in how that could have worked.
Before he could answer either one of us, there was another thud on the balcony. Spence groaned and spun around.
“I thought I told you to wait!”
Zoe pranced in, hands on hips. “You were taking too long. Plus, you’re not in charge.”
“You know, I do have a front door,” I offered.
“Aw—that’s no fun, and anyway, Steph told Salvatore you were under military watch or something,” Spence said, shrugging as both he and Zoe laughed. They knew Steph’s description of the doorman keeping an eye on things had been lost in translation.
I looked at Zoe. “Did you slingshot up here from a tree?”
“From the tree—you’ve only got one outside—and yeah. I would’ve landed sooner but I overshot. Had to drop down from the roof. The guy in the penthouse looked pretty freaked.”
“Where’s Salvatore?” Steph asked.
I looked at her with wide eyes.
Did she just miss what Zoe said? She flung herself onto the roof! THE ROOF!
Zoe’s eyes narrowed in on Steph. “He’s waiting downstairs like a good puppy. You’re welcome to go hold his leash.”
“We’re going out. We came to get you,” Spence butted in. A good decision, if the look on Steph’s face was anything to go by. “Anywhere good to go around here?” he continued, exploring the living room, taking time to look around the corners and down the hall, checking out my place.
“What about Nyla and Rudyard? Won’t you get in trouble?” I asked, half expecting theirs to be the next dramatic entry.
Spence shrugged as he walked back. “We slipped out. They don’t really expect us to be in bed by eight every night. They just…prefer not to know, you know.”
“Oh, well, I can’t go. My dad’s away, but he calls every night at a different time after ten. It’s the only rule he has, but I have to stick to it. I barely made it home in time last night. But Steph can go,” I offered. I knew Steph had wanted a night out anyway, and judging by the eager expression she was flashing the entire room, I wasn’t wrong.
“What number does he call you on?” Spence asked, walking up to the phone that hung on the wall. “This one?”
“Yeah,” I replied suspiciously.
“Do you have a cell phone?” he asked condescendingly.
“Yes,” I said, getting aggravated.
He lifted the receiver from the wall, started pressing numbers, then looked up. “Cell phone number?”
“Huh?”
“Cell phone num-ber, brains?”
I gave it to him and watched him punch in some more numbers. He hung up with a dopey smile on his face. “Let’s go.”
“What did you do?”
He rolled his eyes at me. “I diverted your home phone to your cell. When your dad calls, you can just go somewhere quiet and pretend you’re at home. Easy.”
It was easy. I couldn’t believe I’d never thought of it before.
“Great!” Steph called out, already at the front door. “Let’s go to Hades. I’ve being wanting to go there all day. I’ll go and wait with Salvatore.” She slipped out the door and that was that.
Spence and Zoe seemed to agree with her suggestion. We were going to Hades. I guess I’d get that chance to check in on Onyx after all.
• • •
Zoe sauntered into Hades as if she went there every night, and claimed a table right by the dance floor. Steph and I spotted her brother, Jase, who was working in the DJ pit. He’s four years older than Steph and works the bar scene all around the city, but he was at Hades as much as he could manage. The DJ pit there was tricked out to the extreme.
He gave us a sly look that melted into a smile when we approached, but he was mid-set and couldn’t really stop. He motioned for us to wait for five and, I think, yelled “Hi,” but Steph blew him off. She wasn’t about to wait that long to get back to Salvatore.
When we made it to our table, Zoe was enjoying the music and Salvatore jumped up to get more seats. He really was sweet. Steph beamed every time she looked at him. I noticed that he seemed equally smitten.
Oh well, good for them.
“Where’s Spence?” I asked.
“Getting drinks,” Zoe said, bopping in her chair.
“The bar staff here is pretty by the book, and he’s still seventeen, isn’t he?”
“Yeah, but the boy’s got skills.” Zoe gave me a wink and went back to watching the dance floor. I didn’t imagine she would stay sitting for long.
Sure enough, Spence came back balancing a stack of five shot glasses and a pitcher of something that looked so naughty I caught myself grinning stupidly. I’d forgotten how much fun it could be to just do something normal. And when that annoying voice from within cried out, That’s because you’re not normal! I tuned it out.
“How?” I asked.
Dapper was a strict and vigilant owner. It was an all-ages bar and restaurant, but he kept a pretty good eye on things. The only luck we’d ever had at drinking alcohol there was by smuggling it in.
“Glamour. It’s my thing.” Spence waggled his eyebrows.
I laughed.
“Speaking of which,” he said, “we”—he looked at Zoe and Salvatore—“were thinking it’s time to introduce ourselves properly. We figure since Steph already knows about you, we’re okay with her knowing about us too.”
I saw Salvatore nodding—he clearly understood most things—as Zoe just rolled her eyes.
“Okay,” I said, not sure where this was going.
“All right then, I’ll start.” Spence mockingly put his right hand in the air. “Hi! My name is Spencer and I am an angel carrier.”
Zoe whacked him on the arm so hard, it would have broken if he weren’t Grigori. Spence rubbed his shoulder and looked at her ruefully. “You know, I do bruise and I am still breakable until I have a partner, as everyone keeps reminding me, so careful with the merchandise.”
Zoe motioned as if she were about to hit him again.
“Okay, okay,” Spence said, smiling but also shifting away from Zoe. “I’m from a Dominations Angel. I’m lacking in the parent department, since they gave me up when I was born, so I don’t know which one died, not that it matters. I have all the normal gizmos, my sense is taste—and I’m never going to eat an apple again—plus I can glamour. So far just myself and things that I can touch, but I’m working on pushing it further.” He laid his arms wide to finish.
I couldn’t agree more on the apple comment. I don’t think I will ever like them again either, which is a shame because I used to love the apple pies from McDonald’s.
“See, was it so hard just to get on with it?” asked Zoe. “I’m from an Archangel, I’m minus a father, and I haven’t seen my mother in over three years
. I have normals, my sense is hearing, plus I have an affinity with nature. I can manipulate it to assist me, mostly with motion.”
Wow, I’d never heard of that. “That’s how you used the tree as a slingshot?”
“Yeah. I’m still ironing out some of the kinks, but that’s the general gist.”
I was surprised to hear that neither Spence nor Zoe had parents. I’d thought things were tough for me with Dad, but at least he was there and I knew, as dysfunctional a family as we were, that he loved me.
“So, I guess I’ll fill you in on Romeo here as well,” Zoe went on.
Steph put her hand up. “Wait! He can speak for himself. I can translate for him.” She looked at Salvatore and he nodded.
I was starting to gather that he could understand most things he heard in English. His difficulty was mainly just speaking it himself.
After he spoke for a moment to Steph in Italian—which sounded lovely, just hearing him speaking comfortably and in a normal tone—Steph turned back to the rest of us.
“Salvatore is by a Virtue Angel, his father died of…” Steph’s eyes opened wide as Salvatore went on. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said to Salvatore before looking back at us. “His father died when he was five days old in an airplane crash; he was a pilot. He has all of the normal gifts that come with being Grigori, his sense is sight, and he is a…seeker of lies. He says it is like what Griffin can do, but where Griffin is totally in tune with truth, in identifying its presence and delivering it, Salvatore is dialed into lies, to the layers of deceit that construct and surround them. Eventually, through his gift, he will be able to see the threads of one lie that has led to another and another.” Steph looked to Salvatore nervously and he nodded in approval of her explanation.
“So to sum up,” Zoe said, rolling her eyes and pointing at Spence, “glamour.” To herself: “Nature.” Then to Salvatore: “Lie detector.” Then she looked to me. “So? What’s your deal? We already got the built-in wristbands figured out. What about the rest?”
I suddenly had stage fright. Not because I was scared to say, but because I now had to admit that I didn’t know.
Entice Page 9
