The Knight: The Original's Trilogy - Book 3

by Cara Crescent

  He ran. Rammed into him. They both tumbled to the ground.

  The illusion he’d been in a moment before dissolved. Leaving him in a bedroom. Evelyn was pinned to the wall spread-eagle, several Guardian knives holding her in place. She was still alive. Staring down at him. She shouldn’t be . . . What the hell had Leopold done? Had he gone mad?

  He needed one of those damned knives.

  Julius got to his feet.

  A body rammed into him, taking him to the ground again. Fuck. Something sharp jabbed into his back, broke through the skin and slid deep. Pain lanced through his back and shoulder.

  I’m ash. I’m ash. I’m . . .

  I’m fine. He took a deep breath that seemed to echo through the wound in his back and bucked against the weight holding him down.

  Fire streaked through him as the knife pulled free. He rolled.

  Leopold held a diving knife. Jagged on one edge, but it was plain-Jane steel. “You can’t move.” Trust us. You can’t move a muscle.

  A wide smile slipped over Leopold’s face. He took a step forward.

  What the hell? Why couldn’t he mesmerize him? Was this a doppelgänger? “What happened?” He got to his feet. “Use all the Guardian blades on the missus?”

  A roar burst from his lips as he ran at him, Kamikaze-style.

  Julius caught the arm with the knife, holding it away from his as they fell back against the wall. They struggled, his muscles straining so hard he was surprised they didn’t burst through his skin. He pushed off the wall and swung Leopold around. Slammed him against the wall.

  Pulled him forward.

  Slammed him back again.

  He twisted his wrist. Grabbed the blade from his hand.

  Leopold shoved him away with far more force than Julius would’ve ever given him credit for. Leopold was thin. Weak. When had he gotten so strong?

  “You are one twisted fuck, man.” Julius shook his head, backing down the tunnel away from the bedroom. Away from those Guardian knives.

  Leopold followed.

  “I always felt sorry for you. Thought you couldn’t be all bad considering you took such good care of your mate.” His heel caught on the carpet in the main room and he stumbled. Caught himself. “Uh-uh.” He waved the knife in a side-to-side motion. “You stay where you are. I got some friends who want to meet you. Harrison!”

  Leopold grinned. “They’re too caught up in their nightmares to hear you.”

  Julius rolled his shoulder, trying to ease the growing ache from the stab wound on his back. “Yeah. How’d you do that? Thought you projected desires.”

  “Desires. Nightmares. With a little twist, they’re all the same in the end.”

  Julius froze. A tremor shook through him so hard he almost dropped the blade. “What’d you say?”

  “I said . . . .” Leopold laughed.

  But it wasn’t his voice. The voice that came through his mouth was so deep, so alien it made the hair lift on Julius’ skin. He remembered that. That voice. The way his vocal chords had to strain to accommodate the Watcher’s voice. The memory made his throat hurt. “You.”

  Leopold smiled. “Me.”

  No. No, Leopold wasn’t smiling. It was the thing inside him. That’s why he couldn’t mesmerize him. That’s what that bright red aura was—the Watcher. He continued to back down the hallway toward the main cistern. He had to warn the others. Shit.

  The Watcher stretched as if to confirm his theory and Leopold’s skin spread so thin it looked like he was going to burst.

  Spiders crawled under Julius’ skin, congregating in the same spots Leo was stretched to his limits. The shoulders. The ribs. Elbows. Knees. It wasn’t spiders. That awful sensation was the feel of the Watcher pressed up against his insides—a foreign object his body had wanted to expel. He wasn’t crazy after all.

  “Why? Why me?”

  “Funny story, that.” The Watcher’s humor vanished. “Didn’t get the punch-line myself until recently. See, the first time Leopold came to my tower, when he made the pact with me, I couldn’t possess him.”

  “Why?”

  “He’d sent his doppelgänger. So the deal was, he would provide me freedom and I would tie up his loose ends.”

  “Destroy the coven and the Guardian.And whoever else the little vampire didn’t like?”

  Leo’s body shrugged. “Seemed like a good enough deal,” Azazel said. “I’d destroy those who I would’ve had to destroy anyway and as soon as my part of the deal was done, I could destroy him.” His lips pressed together. “Until I killed your mate and you decided to hold onto me.”

  He had. He’d done that. Katherine had lasted until the end of the fight. She’d been trying to help him, trying to get him to resist the possession. He’d felt the Watcher getting agitated. Knew he needed to get out of his body before he got stuck and when he’d killed Katherine, Julius had held on. He’d been exhausted and scared and heartbroken and he’d held onto the son of a bitch.

  A breath shuddered out of Julius. He’d never been in league with the wayward Watcher. Or Leopold. He was innocent. He had been framed.

  Holding onto the Watcher had been the only way he could think of at the time to prevent anyone else from getting hurt.

  Except the Watcher had hurt others. So many others and he’d used his body to do so.

  The only thing Julius had prevented was the creation of the Nephilim . . . for 300 years.

  “That little maneuver of yours created a sort of double-bind.”

  He could hear Scott and Harrison behind him, still mired in Leopold’s projections. He had to wake them up and get them out of here. They needed to warn Trina that the Watcher was free.

  “You couldn’t escape my body without the help of the witches you’d destroyed.” He sneered at the Watcher. He risked a glance back, saw Harrison and angled his body in that direction. “And you refused to help Leopold until you had your freedom.”

  “I was trapped. He’d promised me freedom, not another prison. He couldn’t kill me until he completed his half of the bargain and I couldn’t kill him until I’d done my part—but I couldn’t risk killing the witches until I found the ones I needed. The Original took her sweet damn time reincarnating.”

  “And Rowena hid Lilith and Trina from you.” God, he was remembering. Azazel had stalked the two little girls. Was constantly harassing Rowena in the effort to get close to them. As much as he hated Rowena for all the abuse she’d heaped onto Kat and the others . . . she’d done a good job keeping the girls safe from the Watcher. Julius laughed. “She was a bitch, but she was smart.” He cocked his head to the side. “You didn’t answer my question. Why me?”

  For every step back he took, the Watcher stalked forward.

  “There was once a lost soul. The first soul created. The goddess had to discard the soul because it was an abject failure. It was called Abaddon. The first soul was also meant to be the last.”

  Julius snorted. “The goddess was going give up after one failure?”

  “No. But that first soul was meant to be the Destroyer—the one who terminated all souls when the end of the world arrived. That was you.”

  Was that why Trina hated him? Why Lilith avoided him altogether? Why they suspected the worst of him?

  “You were never meant to have form. Never meant to have a body and live among the humans. What the Original did, stealing a body for you, calling you her Tanin’iver to try to hide what she’d done, it was an abomination.”

  He didn’t want to believe what Azazel was saying, but it matched what he’d read in the Devil’s Bible and Watchers couldn’t lie.

  “Leopold figured it out. He never said a word. Never told anyone what he suspected about you. I still don’t know how he figured it out, but he did. He sent you to me, ensuring that you couldn’t cause any problems for either of us.”

  Julius’ gaze narrowed. Now that was interesting. Was there an upside to being this Abaddon? “How would I?”

  Leopold’s lips spread int
o a smile. “Perhaps I’ve been worrying about you for nothing.”

  Yeah, it was a bit much to hope the Watcher would tell him how to destroy him. “Leopold, I know you can hear me.”

  “He’s not worth your time.”

  “I saw what he did to Evelyn. You may hate me, but you can’t let him get away with what he did.”

  Leopold’s eyes widened.

  The hand that held the knife turned the blade toward himself.

  His free hand grabbed the wrist.

  Julius didn’t wait to see how their struggle would end. Leopold might earn him a few seconds’ reprieve, but that was it. He turned and ran straight for Harrison. Grabbed him, whirled him around and looked straight in his eyes. “Adia isn’t here.” She isn’t here. Trust us.

  Harrison blinked. Shook his head.

  “Grab Scott’s arm, hold onto him, and go home to Trina. Now!” Go to Trina. Hurry. He pushed him toward Scott. “The Watcher’s free. Tell Trina to summon Leopold Astor Hughes.”

  Leopold slammed into Julius and they both tumbled to the ground.

  The Shadow stumbled, though. She showed the Watcher exactly who he had possessed—Abaddon. Azazel was delighted. Of course he was, he knew the Original could not destroy him without Abaddon’s powers. As the first soul, Abaddon was the only one strong enough to hold the Watcher’s knowledge. Now, not only did Abaddon carry the goddess’ curse, he carried the Watcher’s curses, too.

  The two halves of the Original, Trina and Lilith, freed Abaddon and imprisoned Azazel. It should’ve been a moment of celebration. But the Original miss-stepped. They didn’t recognize Abaddon for who he was and planned to sacrifice him to make peace with the humans.

  Azazel used Abaddon well, too well, and while everyone was focused on their hatred and fear of Abaddon, the Watcher escaped a second time.

  The goddess cringed. Perhaps she’d been too hard on Abaddon.

  Chapter 32

  Machon

  “It’s Senator Dorset causing all the grief for the DDC.” Lilith rolled her eyes. “That man is as obstinate as they come. He doesn’t want help from daemons so he’s sabotaging us at every turn. Then he complains as loud as he can that we’re not working fast enough.”

  George rolled over on Kat’s lap, offering his belly. She rubbed his baby-fine fur and shook her head. Harrison had told her they were having a tough time but she hadn’t realized how bad it was. “Has anyone else noticed?”

  Lilith nodded. “They’ll be watching him and his allies closely at Crowley’s trial. Everything’s coming to a head now; it’s just a matter of time before his peers catch on to what he’s been up to.”

  A flash of light brightened the room and Harrison and Scott appeared right between Trina and Lilith. The women stood. George hopped down and went straight to Harrison.

  “Where’s Julius?”

  Harrison didn’t look at her. He didn’t look at anyone. His mouth opened and in a monotone, he said. “The Watcher is free. Summon Leopold Astor Hughes.” He blinked. Shook his head. “What happened? What did I do?”

  Trina’s gaze narrowed. “I think you got mesmerized.”

  “No.” Kat stood. “Julius wouldn’t. He wouldn’t leave me.”

  The pitying gaze they leveled at her made her cringe inwardly. Was she giving him too much credit? At first, she hadn’t trusted Julius at all, was she being too trusting now?

  No. She knew her mate. He was loyal. He loved her. “He wouldn’t leave me.”

  Scott glanced around. “I was talking to my daughter. I was . . . . She was there. . . .”

  Harrison sat and hung his head. “There was a boy screaming. I couldn’t find him.”

  Trina and Lilith exchanged glances. “What the hell happened?”

  “I was looking for the boy. Then Crowley grabbed me. He wasn’t wearing the hood. He said, “Adia isn’t here. Grab Scott by the arm and go to Trina. The Watcher is free.” His brow furrowed. “I swear I saw someone tackle him. Skinny with long white hair.”

  “Leopold.” Trina and Kat said his name at the same time.

  Harrison winced. “I walked right over them to get Scott.”

  “My daughter is back there.” Scott grabbed Harrison’s arm. “We have to go back.”

  “It was a doppelgänger.” Lilith softened her voice, speaking in soothing tones, “Leopold can create projections of your desires.”

  Harrison shook his head. “Mine was not a desire . . . it was my worst fucking nightmare.”

  Scott nodded. “I agree.”

  Trina shook her head. “The Watcher is here. He was making enough noise yesterday to draw crowds to his tower.”

  “But he’s quiet today.” Lilith bit her lips.

  “Like every other day . . . . And there was a Nephilim loose near the tower.” Trina closed her eyes. “It was a trick. He must’ve escaped while we were all focused on the Nephilim and Crowley.”

  Lilith whirled around and shouted to one of the guards. “Ring the bell.”

  That would bring everyone out to the sacred circle. She met Lilith’s gaze. “We have to help Julius. My mate is out there alone with Leopold and the Watcher.”

  “No. He gave us Leopold’s name.” Lilith took her hand. “He wants us to summon him. Maybe he has a plan.”

  In the next blink, they were at the circle. The bell in the Citadel began to peal. Brenda flashed in. Then Claire and Sherry. Then the others. Within thirty seconds the whole coven was there, taking their places, ready to get to work.

  “We’re summoning Leopold Astor Hughes,” Lilith shouted. “We will not ask for ‘something more’ this time.”

  Nervous laughter rolled through the women. When they’d summoned Julius for exorcism, the Watcher had brought a horde of Nephilim with him. They wouldn’t allow that to happen again.

  Trina added, “We’re not closing the circle this time, either. As soon as they arrive, we fight.”

  Kat took her place even though she had no Magic. She still had a voice. She knew the words. Her intentions were pure. Together they began the spell.

  “Leopold Astor Hughes, we summon thee. . . .”

  Come back to me, Julius Crowley.

  London

  * * *

  He wasn’t going to make it back to Kat.

  Julius pulled himself off the floor when all he wanted to do was go to sleep. He had at least four stab wounds and his energy was waning. Where the hell was the coven? Weren’t they going to summon Leopold?

  He turned to face Leopold.

  Leopold’s hand was raised, knife gripped tight.

  Julius blocked the blow, holding onto his wrist. He needed both hands to hold off the attack. His arms shook. He couldn’t take much more. Azazel was winning.

  He blinked. He remembered his name. A slow smile curved his lips. “Azazel.”

  Leopold staggered back, his eyes wide.

  “I remember.” He nodded. “I tried to tell James the night we fought him. I had planned to tell the coven when they exorcized you from me. Azazel.”

  Leopold’s mouth opened, but instead of a denial or a curse, the most wonderful words in the world spilled out. “ . . . to obey all commands made by me. This we ask, we do implore.”

  The coven was summoning him. Leopold wavered in and out of focus as the spell took hold. His face twisted. He took one last run at Julius.

  Their bodies collided and Julius grabbed hold of Leopold, holding on with the last of his energy.

  The knife came down on him again. He cried out as the cistern evaporated from around them.

  Again, the blade sank into his skin.

  A woman screamed.

  He let go of Leopold.

  But Leopold didn’t let go of him. The knife sank into him again and again and even a plain old diving knife would ash him if it poked enough holes in him.

  Leopold let go and he slid to the ground. Shit.

  The coven was still chanting, though the words changed from summoning to exorcism. He shook his head. They di
dn’t need to do that. Azazel wasn’t stuck. Not yet.

  He forced his eyes open. Leopold was bowed back at an unnatural angle. His body snapped forward and then sagged to the ground next to Julius.

  Azazel was free.

  He’d be weak for a few minutes after leaving Leopold. He needed to move before Azazel got his strength back.

  Leopold seemed to think the same. He got to his feet, turned, and stumbled right into Duncan Sinclair’s blade. Leopold’s ash hadn’t even settled before Duncan leaned down and offered his hand.

  Julius gripped it and Duncan pulled him to his feet.

  “You all right, lad?”

  He shook his head. “Azazel.”

  “What?”

  “His name is—” He’d been limping along next to Duncan and then suddenly something slammed into him and he was airborne. He flew through the air and hit one of the large standing stones that made up the coven’s sacred circle and dropped to the ground.

  The dirt shook beneath him as heavy footsteps approached. Jesus, Azazel wasn’t going to quit until he was dead.

  “Crowley!”

  Julius looked up as he struggled to his feet. Lilith and Trina were running toward him full tilt. Their feet hitting the packed ground so hard bits of dust kicked up behind them. Eyes wide. Breathing hard. They were terrified.

  They were running in the goddamned wrong direction.

  He could sense Azazel rising up behind him. Feel waves of hatred and violence rolling off his aura. Any second now the fucker would squash him.

  Julius took a step, his knee wobbled and collapsed, sending him right back to his knees. He had too many open wounds. Was bleeding his energy out like water through a colander.

  Still they came toward him. As they neared, they opened their arms.

  Then everything seemed to click in his mind. They thought he was the Tanin’iver. The Knight. They were risking life and limb on the idea that he held the last piece of their Magic. The piece that would allow them to destroy Azazel.

  Jesus. They were risking everything on a losing bet. He may be the Knight but he had no idea how to kill Azazel. He tried to wave them away, but they didn’t slow. Instead, they sort of slid the last yard as if they were coming in to home plate. Dust exploded into the air around them as the two women scrambled to their knees.