Rae of Light: Dark Paranormal Tattoo Taboo Romance (The Chronicles of Kerrigan Book 12)

by W. J. May

“That doesn’t make you a bad person.”

  “Yes, it does.” Julian’s voice was hard. “That girl has a family, too. She has people who love her, care about her. And I was willing to have Gabriel shoot her, just because I couldn’t imagine what my life would be without…” He trailed off, unable to go any further.

  “Jules, you can’t beat yourself up like this. You dove in front of a wave of liquid fire to save the woman you love. I’m almost tempted to make a cliff-jumping comparison. It was brave.”

  “It wasn’t. Angel was brave. She was trying to take responsibility for her actions.”

  “By getting herself killed?” Devon asked sharply. “You really think that’s the responsible course of action? You really think that would have made amends?”

  “Of course not, I just—”

  “That girl had no idea what Angel and Gabriel went through. The things that were done to them. The things they’ve sacrificed since then to make it right. The impossible hurdles they’ve overcome just to get to where they are today.” His voice took on a strange kind of respect. “If it weren’t for the fact that Gabriel’s only damn goal in life is to…” he sighed, “…anyway, we know what they are. Who they are. Throwing themselves into the fire isn’t the answer. They can be good people. They just need to be given a chance.”

  Rae blinked in astonishment, careful to hold her breath so Devon wouldn’t hear. She had never heard him talk like this, not a single time. She knew that Devon respected what Angel and Gabriel were capable of. She knew he put up with Angel’s eccentricities because she was with Julian, and felt a stinging sort of gratitude to Gabriel for saving Rae’s life.

  But respecting them as people? She didn’t think his feelings stretched that far.

  “But that’s just it,” Julian suddenly whispered. His voice was muffled, like he was holding his face in his hands. “I’m so afraid of what’s coming. Of what she might do.”

  “What do you mean?” Devon asked gently.

  “You saw her today. That’s her version of atonement. Letting herself get killed. Just standing there and…” He refused to let himself go any further. “I can’t…I don’t know what’s going to happen if she comes face to face with Cromfield. I don’t know what she’ll do. And I can’t see it.” His voice tightened in actual pain. “There’s too much going on. I can’t see it.”

  There was a lengthy silence between them.

  “If there was some way I could make sure she didn’t go—”

  “Oh, good luck,” Devon stopped him, sounding grim. “You think that’s remotely possible? You think I haven’t thought about that already? With Rae?”

  Julian’s voice was shaking. “Angel and Gabriel were raised by the man. And then betrayed him. There’s no telling what—”

  “—and Rae’s the object of his devotion.”

  There was another pause.

  “Are you trying to…like…one-up me here?”

  Devon chuckled softly. “Of course not. I’m just saying, I know how you feel.”

  “You know how I feel?” Julian quoted caustically. “Rae’s the only person who is guaranteed not to get killed in this fight, by either side. She’s literally indestructible.”

  Instead of answering, Devon fell silent.

  “I don’t know how I’m going to do it. I don’t know how I’m going to stay sane,” Julian said bleakly. “Terrified, every second, that the girl I love is going to die.”

  “It could be worse.” A sad note of irony twisted Devon’s voice. “You could be terrified every second that she’s going to live.”

  Rae’s heart stopped beating as she stared up at the door. Had he just said what she thought he did? Julian must have given him a strange look as well because he sighed softly before continuing.

  “I’m fighting to have a future with a girl who’s turned out to be immortal. I’m fighting to build a life with a girl who’s going to watch me grow old and die. If her immortal suitor doesn’t kill me first. I mean, what are we going to say at the wedding? Till death do I part?” He pulled in a deep breath with another sigh. “I don’t know, sometimes I think…”

  “What?” Julian pressed when he fell silent.

  “…sometimes I think she’d be better off if she never met me. So I couldn’t die and leave her all alone. So I couldn’t eventually, inevitably, break her heart.” He wavered a bit at the end, but cleared his throat with a forced laugh. “I mean—you think you’re selfish? For diving in front of Angel? I just got down on one knee and asked the woman I love to be an eternal widow. What the hell does that say about me?”

  Rae brought her hands up to cover her mouth as a stream of silent tears slipped down her face. She was half afraid she’d scream aloud if she didn’t. Inside, the boys had fallen silent, each one lost in their own personal hell. Outside, Rae felt as though she was dying a million deaths, as ironic as that might have been given the recent discussion.

  Finally, Julian shifted restlessly and broke the quiet. “When did it get so complicated? To tell what’s right and what’s wrong?”

  There was a faint sound as Devon clapped him on the shoulder. “I think it’s more about the fact that you’re still asking the question.”

  “Even if I get it wrong?”

  Devon’s voice lightened with a smile. “Even psychics get it wrong sometimes.”

  Julian snorted. “Only bad psychics.”

  “Well, we never said you were very good…”

  Rae pulled away from the door as the guys broke off with quiet laughter. She’d heard enough. In fact, she couldn’t stand to hear another word.

  She fled back down the stairs, avoiding the people in the kitchen and bursting through the back door into the frigid air. The second she was free, she fell back against the wall, gasping as though she’d just run all the way back to London.

  How could he…? How could he say…?

  Is that how he really felt? That things were hopeless? That by putting the ring on my finger, he was asking me to give up a small portion of my endless life for him? He’s always seemed so confident, so calm. That we would find a way out of it, together. That we would find a way through—

  “Rae?”

  A quiet voice broke her out of her reverie, and she looked up with a gasp. Angel and Gabriel were standing just a few yards away, staring at her with surprise and concern.

  She wiped her face quickly on her sweater, turning away in shame. They must have been just coming back from wherever it was they’d wandered off together when she came flying out of the house, weeping like the world was about to end.

  “Hey,” she said thickly, trying to pull herself together as she forced a tight smile. “Sorry, I didn’t see—”

  “What’s going on?” Gabriel asked with a frown. “Did something happen?”

  Did something happen? Yeah…you could say that. “Where have you guys been? We’ve been worried sick,” she deflected, deliberately avoiding Gabriel’s probing gaze as she turned to Angel. “I could try to heal that if you like.” She gestured to the giant burn on her face. “I picked up a new ability. Haven’t been able to test it out yet, but I could give it a try—”

  “No,” Angel said curtly. “I’m leaving it.” When Gabriel flashed her a look of pained frustration, her eyes narrowed to defiant slits. “If I’m lucky, maybe it’ll even scar.”

  She swept into the house without another word, leaving Rae and Gabriel standing in awkward silence. It went on for a minute, before Rae remembered that Gabriel didn’t do awkward. He was always sure.

  “I wasn’t going to let my little sister get killed,” he said abruptly. “You couldn’t have expected that.”

  Her voice dropped to half-volume and she stifled a sigh. “I didn’t,” she answered. And it was true. She never, for one second, imagined that Gabriel would let anything happen to Angel.

  His face clouded in confusion. “Then—”

  “You aimed for her chest, Gabriel,” Rae interrupted quietly. “You aimed for her heart.”
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  This time, the silence went on much longer. Even he seemed unable to break it. Several times, he opened his mouth to say something. But each time, he came up blank.

  Rae was just about to give up and go inside, when there was a crunch of gravel and a tall man came striding towards them from around the front of the house. At first she just blinked up at him in surprise, before suddenly remembering why he was here.

  “Commander Fodder,” she said quickly, wiping any remaining tears from her face. “I’m sorry, we didn’t…I guess time got away from us a little.”

  “It’s like this place is a ghost town,” he said more animatedly than usual. “I pull up and there’s this brilliant obstacle course in front of the house, but no one’s on it. No one’s in the fields, the houses seem eerily quiet. I was about to think that…” His voice trailed off as his eyes flicked between Gabriel and Rae’s stricken poses for the first time. “I’m sorry,” he said with a touch of uncertainty, “am I interrupting—”

  “Not at all.” Rae flashed him a forced smile as Gabriel disappeared around the side of the house without another word. “In fact, we’ve been expecting you.”

  * * *

  Considering the fact that this battle was about to irrevocably change all of their lives, the plan was surprisingly simple.

  According to Fodder’s source, Cromfield and his followers—a group consisting of about a hundred men and women—were holed up in an abandoned factory on the outskirts of the city. As the place was half falling apart, and was therefore easy to penetrate, the plan was to bring the fight to them. Send in the neutralizing tatùs first, anyone with the ability to shock or stun, before marching straight into their indefensible corners with everybody else. Sharpshooters and people with long-range firepower were to take up positions near the exits and on the towers, picking people off one by one and providing protective fire, while those gifted in hand-to-hand combat broke through the remaining security and opened the factory up to everyone else.

  And as for Cromfield…that part was up to Rae.

  “It’s really quite simple.” He handed her a small vial that she recognized almost immediately as Angel’s blood. “You have Miss Cross’s ability to freeze, as does Cromfield, and yet this paralytic agent was still able to incapacitate you for a brief amount of time. As there’s no ‘defeating’ him, in the strictest sense of the word; you must only get close enough to get this into his system. Our doctors can do the rest. The second he’s no longer a threat, we can put him into a medically-induced coma. Make sure he never has the ability to use any of his powers ever again.”

  Rae looked at the little vial shining in her hand. “Simple as that, huh?” She lifted her eyes to Fodder’s. “Have you ever met the man?”

  There was a murmur of assent from the crowd. Everyone had gathered in the barn to hear Fodder’s plan. It was the only place big enough to fit everyone, although there was about a fifty-person buffer between any of the hybrids, and whoever had fought on the other side. For the moment, however, all those divisions seemed to be temporarily forgotten as the group banded together to discuss the bigger threat.

  “You want me to get close enough to stick this vial inside him?” Rae repeated incredulously.

  Devon was quick to speak up in her defense. “That’s a terrible plan. For one, it puts all the risk on Rae. And for another, it’s probably exactly the opportunity Cromfield is looking for.”

  Julian nodded grimly. “For everyone to be so distracted fighting each other that he can steal Rae away without anyone being the wiser.”

  Rae shot a look behind her, speaking in a dark undertone. “What do you care? It’s probably for the best, right? Maybe he can figure out a way to kill me.”

  Devon’s face paled in sudden understanding, but before he could say anything Kraigan stepped forward and pushed him roughly to the side.

  “Well, maybe it wouldn’t be such an impossible idea if you weren’t dealing with so many powers on the other side.”

  Rae’s head jerked up in surprise, as the point he was making suddenly hit home. For the first time, a faint fluttering of hope began stirring in her stomach.

  “Of course…” she murmured. Her eyes lit up and she flashed him a genuine smile. Much to her surprise, he grinned back.

  “We can make it a family affair. I’ll drain the ink right out of him while you stick him with the needle.” He clapped his hands together. “There. Problem solved.”

  Molly’s mouth slowly fell open, while Devon and Julian exchanged a quick look. Behind them, Carter and Beth were looking at Kraigan as though they were debating adopting him right there on the spot. Only Fodder looked confused. In fact, he looked rather confused about who Kraigan even was and what he was doing there.

  “I’m sorry,” he frowned diplomatically, “I don’t believe we’ve—”

  “Kraigan Kerrigan. That’s Kerrigan with a ‘K.’” He flashed Camille a little wink before turning back to the commander. “I’m the guy who just made all your dreams come true.”

  Rae rolled her eyes apologetically. “This is my brother, Kraigan.”

  “Half-brother,” Devon and Gabriel said at the same time.

  “Yeah, my half-brother. Kraigan has a unique kind of power. In short, he’s like—”

  “—I’m like a black hole,” Kraigan finished with a cocky grin. “The place where tatùs come to die. Apparently that only works on Rae. Because the moment I take someone else’s tatù, the previous one returns. It's kind of like my father’s tatù. I can mimic, and steal. However, with Rae, each time I take her tatù, she doesn’t get it back. Maybe we can do the same with Cromfield.”

  “How is it I’ve never met you?” He looked at Carter, to Rae, and then back to Kraigan.

  “It’s my particular set of skills. It’s why the Privy Council kept me locked up for so long.” He flashed Carter a rather chilling look, before shrugging it off with an equally chilling smile. “But that’s all water under the bridge.”

  “It could work,” Beth said softly, staring down at the map of the factory. “If Kraigan can just get close enough to get his hands on him, then whatever tatù Cromfield slips into, he can instantaneously absorb.”

  “That’s if he can get close enough,” Gabriel said with a frown. After Kraigan had stolen Devon’s power and taken off into the night, the budding bromance between them had abruptly died. “The man has more abilities than you can possible imagine. How exactly to you plan on laying your hands on his skin?”

  Kraigan’s eyes cooled at the vote of no confidence. But then, he tilted his head and turned to Gabriel with an appraising smile. “Well, maybe I’ll need someone to help distract him. Keep his mind on other things while I come in from behind. The prodigal son, perhaps?”

  About a thousand voices shot this down with resounding protest, surprisingly none louder than Devon’s, but Gabriel met Kraigan’s mocking stare with a steady smile.

  “I’m in.”

  “ABSOLUTELY NOT!” Rae shouted, silencing the sudden buzz in the room.

  “Rae,” Carter said gently, “it really is the best plan.”

  “Absolutely not.” Rae was scarcely breathing, her eyes dancing with her mother’s fire. “If he goes, I don’t. You decide.”

  Fodder and Carter exchanged a nervous glance, but Gabriel merely shook his head with a smile. “Oh, you’ll go,” he said with certainty.

  Rae’s voice dropped down to a growl. “Gabriel, I’m not messing around—”

  “You’ll go to save the life of everyone you love.”

  There was a deliberate pause, one during which his head lifted in triumph and hers bowed in defeat. He was right. There was no getting around it. The only way this plan stood any chance of success was if they did it together.

  His eyes softened slightly when he saw that he’d won. “And who knows?” She looked up and he flashed her a wink. “I may just make it out of there.”

  There was a moment of silence, then Fodder cleared his throat awkwardly.
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br />   “That settles it. Get some rest, people. We leave at first light.”

  There wasn’t a sound to be heard as the barn emptied silently into the night. Everyone who left gave the group in the middle a self-conscious nod of support before they disappeared, leaving the place suddenly deserted.

  Deserted.

  Except for the seven friends.

  “This is not happening,” Angel hissed, her eyes locked on Gabriel. “I won’t let it.”

  She was scowling so hard the burn on her face re-opened, sending a tiny trickle of blood dripping down her face. Julian reached over to wipe it away, but she shook him off fiercely.

  “Angie,” Gabriel began patiently, “you know it has to.”

  “Then why couldn’t it be me?” she cried in a flash of temper. “We’re in exactly the same position. Why couldn’t I be the one to go?”

  In spite of her yelling, he gave her a tender smile. “Because you have someone to come back to.” His eyes flicked momentarily to Rae. “I don’t.”

  There was a silent tearing inside Rae’s chest, and it felt like something died. She looked up at him in silent horror as her feet rooted to the spot.

  Angel, on the other hand, stepped right in front of him, glaring up with all her might.

  “You have me,” she said between clenched teeth. “You cannot leave me.”

  For a second, his face clouded with a wave of pure, gut-wrenching emotion. Then he took a deep breath and cleared it with a careful smile. “Then I won’t,” he said simply.

  She took a step back, breathing hard through the nose. “No. You won’t.”

  The next thing they knew she fled the barn, unable to look at him a second longer.

  Gabriel stared after her for a moment, that same weighted emotion in his eyes, before he fixed his gaze on the reason Angel was staying behind. The psychic with the worried eyes.

  “You take care of her, Julian,” he commanded. There was an intensity in his voice that made every hair on Rae’s neck stand on end. “Take care of her, or I will come back from the dead and haunt your every future. Do you understand?”

  Julian’s face tightened, but he nodded in silent promise. “I will.”