by Jamie Magee
“Mr. BellaRose is an honest man, takes care of his own.” She lifted her brow. “Even when they stray from the fold.”
Clearly reading between the lines of that statement Reveca was quick to respond. “Maybe they wouldn’t stray if he didn’t keep so many secrets so close to his belt.”
“Men with a broad vision, who have seen as much as him, have no choice but to do so.”
Anger and disgust filled Reveca’s gray eyes. “His vision is a little too longsighted for my comfort.”
Thelma Ray let a slow smile come to her. “Some people have to believe it’s their choice to go down a path before they agree. Telling them to do such things would only muck up the twisted fate we’re all trapped in.”
“No one should be forced to go down a path or led to one. Either they feel called or they don’t.”
Thelma Ray’s dark stare landed squarely on Reveca. “And some people are too stubborn for their own good and have no patience.”
“We’ve had this discussion,” Reveca said with an easy smile.
“And apparently it didn’t sink in the first fifty times.”
Reveca tilted her head back, slightly narrowed her eyes. “I don’t withhold death from anyone. Some are not meant to move on, they are meant to stay here. I light the path, the souls agree, the power decides. The way I see it, if they come back they were meant to.”
Thelma Ray just stared.
Reveca winked, did her best to hide a sly, guilty grin. “And those that temporally forget the gift they were given are being dealt with.”
Thelma Ray shook her head. A deep chuckle came from the center of her and wobbled her large chest just so. “By you sending them back to the Veil you state they were not meant to be in.”
Reveca’s grin wavered, but the glint never left her eyes. “Don’t twist my words, old woman. I’ve made mistakes. I know that. I’m rectifying them the best I can.”
“I know, child, and I do agree that it’s part of a larger plan we can’t understand from our current point of view. One day, it will make sense.”
Reveca had lived long enough to know that nothing made sense. Each time it almost seemed clear, inevitably she’d figure out she had not understood anything but found another mystery to unravel.
“Why did she let go? Why did she not wait for me to bring her back? It can’t be because of the girl. I could have brought them both back. Even if the Veil had taken that girl I could have bartered my way to her, I would have figured something out.”
“I can’t speak for the dead.”
“No, but you know more than you’re saying. You didn’t even question what girl I was talking about. GranDee’s death, that surge of energy, its impact hid that girl. It allowed me to bring her back without any force—dark or light—clearly knowing what the hell I was doing. She died to give that girl a chance, a chance to live, to finish what she started.”
“And here I thought she died because she was shot.”
“Not funny.”
“I’m not laughing.”
“Holden is in jail now for killing a dead man with a twenty-two, as absurd as that sounds. He should be in prison for the coldblooded murder of four innocent people with a forty-five, but Miss perfect, almighty Saige, needed me to cover up Newberry’s death instead. I only have so many creeps on standby to frame for murder.”
Thelma Ray nearly laughed at Reveca’s tone. “And now Blackwater is under the impression that you killed GranDee to cover your tracks.”
“How do you know that?”
“Came by, a few times, with his deepest sympathies.”
“But you said Newberry was not an informant, rather you backed up what Jamison already told me. How did GranDee’s home even come into this fight?”
Reveca was waiting for her to slip, say something that backed up what the Sons already knew, along with the suspicions they had about what they didn’t know.
Thelma Ray sighed. “Newberry did go to the police with several findings, but they laughed him off. Then their undercover lawman confesses to killing him at a vigil where three murders were committed. He’s pulling at straws.”
Reveca lifted both her brows. “He’s doing what he can to take any one of us down.”
“That he is,” Thelma Ray agreed as a deep hum came from her chest and she shook her head. “And he’s having a hard time with that because everyone he speaks to tells him that you were very dear to GranDee, that the reason you’re clean from all criminal activity is because of that bond. Gardening. We made it clear that GranDee inspired your love for such things.”
“All truth.”
Thelma Ray nodded.
“I have to figure out what went down that night, and I have to figure out what the deal with this girl is while handling the business that was keeping me well occupied.”
She nearly smiled. “I’m sure it will come to you, how all the pieces line up.”
Reveca reached in her back pocket and pulled out two cards. The last two that GranDee had dealt.
“You want to tell me what this has to do with that girl?”
“You? You need me to read cards for you? You were the one that taught GranDee, who then taught me.”
That was true. It was so odd to know someone from life to death, to see them as a child then a wise soul. A person that you guided that then in turn guided you.
“This is old magic. Magic from another world. I don’t even know how she got this in the first place.”
“I surely don’t.”
“Who is the girl?” Reveca asked again.
“I thought you had what you needed to wake her.”
“I did. A little too much. Her memories are erased back until she was seventeen—to be honest that’s making her a bit childlike, scared.”
Thelma Ray laughed, hard, her whole body shaking, just before she fanned herself. “That timid mindset surely has nothing to do with being in a house full of men that would make any prim woman pant and bend to any will they suggested.” Thelma Ray chuckled again, unconsciously fanning herself as a sinful smirk dangled on her lips.
“My boys are on their best behavior,” Reveca said trying to keep her dark mood. She was always teased by both GranDee and Thelma Ray about the boys she kept close to her. They enjoyed the company of her boys to say the least, like to let their stares linger as if they were twenty-year-old girls wanting a taste of a dare.
“Still hot. Got to be hard to concentrate with all that muscle moving around.”
“She was clear enough to focus on one of them.”
“That a fact,” Thelma Ray said with a knowing smile.
Reveca smiled coolly before she spoke her next words, prepared to judge each and every reaction. “Yeah, downright worships one of them…at least she did when she first came out. King.”
Thelma Ray, who was sipping her tea, nearly choked.
“Not the name you were expecting?” Reveca asked with a lifted brow.
Thelma Ray just shook her head. “I didn’t know you had a boy named King.”
“Bull. Shit. You knew I went after him. And while we’re being honest I’m sure you know my history with this boy, that I lost track of him for a long while.”
“Might have heard that.”
“She recognized him, said ‘I knew you were real.’ Why?”
“Did you ask her?”
“Apparently she knew he was ‘real’ in the gap of memory she’s lost. The seventeen-year-old memory didn’t know a King. She doesn’t even remember saying that.”
“Interesting.”
“Agreed. Even more interesting is that I have no doubt you expected me to say Shade. Now, why would Evanthe give me a boy to save, pull into my fold, then years later Grandee give me a girl?”
“Evanthe gives you souls all the time, some for you to save others for you to walk into death. I don’t see why this is odd to you.”
“Maybe because my boy feels a hum around this girl. Maybe it’s because it’s driving him up the fucking wall
because he doesn’t want to.”
Thelma Ray stayed silent, just staring at Reveca, a stare that told Reveca she should already know this answer.
“I’m not running a dating service over here, Thelma Ray. I don’t appreciate being asked to do so.”
“Dating service, huh? Is the romance hot and heavy at the Beauregard Boneyard?”
“Don’t even…” Reveca had to halt her words just so she would not say anything she’d regret. “I want to help this girl. I need help to do that.”
Thelma Ray leaned forward. “Tell me how King is.”
“Why do you care?”
“Because I care about you.”
“That was long ago.”
“Time doesn’t mean a damn thing.”
“It does until I can figure out where the hell he’s been, why he wants to kill Cashton, why this girl recognized him.”
“He and Cashton are fighting?”
Reveca smirked. “Don’t play dumb. You suck at it.”
“Not playing, understanding.”
“Understanding what?” Reveca snapped.
“Understanding that we’re not as close to our Rapture as we thought.”
“I love you, but you are just as brainwashed as Saige.”
“Do you say that often?”
“What?”
“Love.”
No, she didn’t. Never really said it when it bore weight. She couldn’t. Made her think about her beginning too much, when Kenson called her that. Who turned into King, who now calls her sweet and wants to kill another man clearly over a girl. Oh, and another girl at some point worshiped him. Someone she shouldn’t even fucking know.
“No.”
“Rectify that. Use it when you mean it.”
“That doesn’t have shit to do with anything.”
“One day it will.” She nodded to the cards. “You know that means daughter, and that one means seer. You want me to read them all then I need them all. But you’re not going to show them all to me because deep down you don’t want to know. You don’t want to know where King has been, and you’re going to have to get over that. From all accounts I know, he was yours first.”
“What does that have to do with this girl?”
“Nothing.” Thelma Ray let her dark eyes move over Reveca nice and slow. “That girl had a hard life, no one there to guide her magic. Then someone found her, used her, and she escaped. She escaped because a faction of souls that you refuse to believe in saved her and landed her on GranDee’s doorstep, where GranDee then did her best to remedy her jacked up mind.”
Reveca sat back in her seat and just stared. The souls that GranDee accused her of not believing in were called Escorts. And they were called that because they were meant to escort dark energy from human souls to a king, or God rather, and that God would cleanse the energy, feed off of it. Which brought balance. The Gods stopped doing that. They started to create dark energy instead of cleanse it, which, according to the theories of Saige and others, was the reason evil was gaining power. Saige believes those dark Gods will be slain, new ones will rise, hence Rapture.
There had been rumors that some of the Escorts had broken off from their Gods, or rather kings, and made factions to try and change the path of darkness.
Reveca knew if any of that bullshit, those old myths and fairytales, were true, whoever did dare to breakaway was far too outnumbered to make a difference.
That didn’t stop people from pretending they were someone they were not, though. Saying they were born of some dark God and had changed their path—it was just the same as a dime store witch claiming to be connected the spiritual world.
“Myths and fairy tales…no, I don’t have time to believe in that. Tell me who brought this girl to GranDee.”
“Helco faction.”
“And those people believe they are born of some dark God?”
“They know.”
Reveca clinched her fist and did her best to remain calm. She was not in the mood to be preached at.
“And how did they know where she was?”
Thelma Ray breathed in deep, glanced out her window to the neighboring backyard before she spoke.
“When you come across a fool like Newberry who gets his hand on old lore, they toy with the words. Too arrogant to believe there is something out there that can hurt them. They feel if they do happen to make something happen with the words they say they will find fame for proving there is some great beyond.”
“Well aware,” Reveca said as her thin line of patience was all but erased. When Thelma Ray didn’t say anything else Reveca leaned forward. “You’re trying to tell me they beckoned an Escort to them, and that Escort rescued this girl and pulled her across state lines because they were in a good mood.”
“No, I was just telling you that Newberry is but one ass out and about. As for why Gwinn was located by the Helco faction and brought to GranDee, I suppose you’ll have to ask them.”
“Me. Ask some fictional souls why they had mercy on this girl. Laughable.”
“That is why you will never understand this. They’re not real to you.”
“I’ve seen it all, Thelma Ray. I mean everything. These Gods, kings, I would have come across them by now. No, I don’t believe in them. What I do believe is that there are assholes out there that are playing with magic that is best left alone.”
Thelma Ray eased back from her seat. “Well hopefully Miss Gwinn will regain her memory in due time and explain how she came to be with this coven.” She looked down at Reveca. “Of course if you grow impatient perhaps King will enlighten you.”
That was a dare, and Reveca knew it. Her ‘do later’ list was well known around those close to her life. They knew if something bore too much emotional weight for her, she’d rather hang out with the likes of Crass than deal with it.
“Mr. Jamison will see you now,” Thelma Ray said with a nod to the window.
“This is not over, Thelma Ray. You will tell me what you know. Next time I see you I don’t want to hear fairy tales,” Reveca said as she pushed back from her seat and made her way to the door.
“Perhaps they will not be fairy tales next time we meet.”
Reveca gritted her teeth then all but slammed the back door open. She was nice and ticked off, saturated with frustration—exactly how she needed to feel to face the likes of Zale and Jamison who were both standing in the neighboring backyard waiting on her.
Zale. He hadn’t changed, nothing but the clothes which were more modern. He still preferred suits, apparently.
He stood well over six foot. His hair was kept clean cut and was near white—his grey eyes reflected well with that shade. Broad shoulders and a lean build rounded out the picture. Wealth, power, and sex dripped from his presence.
That come hither smile of his as he stood next to Jamison was enough to make Reveca want to rip him limb from limb.
“You look ravishing, darling. Downright glowing,” Zale said to her as his stare moved over her tank and cut-off shorts, all the way down her long legs to her boots. “Doesn’t she, Jamison. My, I haven’t seen her glow like this since the old world, since before all that war nonsense.”
“Cut the bullshit,” Reveca snapped. “What are you doing on my side of the planet?”
Jamison, sporting a white oxford and slacks, let a proud grin come to his placid expression. Clearly he was pleased Reveca still had disdain for Zale, that his presence had not altered the way Reveca saw him.
Reveca glanced to the folder under Jamison’s arm then back to Zale.
“Family issues,” Zale answered with an easy smile.
“What? Evanthe not playing nice? You get ticked that she was moving to help me save all those you turn.”
Zale, with all his knowledge of magic, had figured out how to bring souls back without Reveca, even enhance them. The thing was, the ones he brought back had more of an edge, had a harder time with their newfound enhancements, a harder time blending in because it was clear they were not
human. The color of their eyes, their build, the way they looked at humans as if they were food made that impossible.
What made it all the worse was Zale shared his knowledge with others. Which meant that fools that couldn’t even dare to have enough respect for this dark magic were practicing it at their leisure. All the while thinking they were building armies, legions of souls that would be loyal to them. They were wrong. The souls they brought back didn’t care to be controlled by anyone.
“Oh, you know how it is to have twin. You have ups and downs, you agree, you disagree,” Zale said letting his gray eyes wander over Reveca once more.
Her energy reached out and assaulted him. A blow that would’ve knocked anyone across the yard didn’t budge him. Too much power.
“I have missed you, dear.”
Reveca moved her glare to Jamison. “What the hell is going on?”
“Evanthe…she’s been taken.”
“What?” Reveca said as she felt her gut flip.
“That expression almost looks genuine,” Zale said with a tilt of his head.
“You thought I knew about this?” Reveca bit out.
“Well, you are harboring the last little witchling Evanthe tried to help,” Zale said evenly.
“You’ve been misinformed,” Reveca replied with a glance to Jamison. Right then she wasn’t sure if she was being asked to cover up something else of the likes of Jamison. If he was silently asking her to hide where Gwinn came from.
“He’s speaking of Tisk,” Jamison said to answer her glance.
Reveca nearly laughed. “Tisk is no fucking witch.”
“We all have dreams,” Zale said with a sardonic grin. “Evanthe thought it was best to teach misguided wannabe witches, help them learn boundaries, among other little projects she took on. When I spoke to her last she was harboring Tisk, someone she said had toyed with the wrong magic.”
“Black magic?” Reveca questioned.
“Evanthe wasn’t clear on that. She said the girl said she was being followed, even claimed that she had been summoned by some human.”
Reveca glared, did her best to hide her rage. Tisk knew that Evanthe was an original, a close friend to Reveca and had not said one damn word about this. No, for the last week she was more preoccupied with getting laid as she pranced around in next to nothing.
