His Witch To Keep (Keepers of the Veil)

by Zoe Forward

  She dialed Eli.

  “Hello? Who is this?”

  “It’s me.”

  “Bloody hell, where have you been?” Eli sounded breathless, stressed.

  “Busy. Here and there.”

  “Uh-huh. You okay?”

  “Making it.”

  “Is he treating you well?” Silence descended for a few tense moments between them. “Serenity? Damn it. Is he?”

  She said, “I need some information. Stat.”

  “I’m not telling you jack shit until you reassure me you are okay and he is behaving.”

  “He’s fine. I can handle him—”

  “The bastard’s not being nice?” Eli interrupted. “I will fucking kill him next time our paths cross.”

  “I didn’t say he’s not being nice. Get over the fact I’m here with him right now. I need your help and if you’re not going to give it, then I need to phone someone else. This is important and time sensitive.”

  “What do you need?”

  “Leif International. Everything you got.”

  “One sec.” She heard the tap-tap of keystrokes. Then he replied, “They’re a private security company. Publicly they’re glorified bodyguards and private investigators. Off the record…give me a sec. I’m tapping into MI6. Still have a back door into them.” There were a few silent seconds. Then he whooshed out, “Wow. They do everything from guerrilla to contracting for various governmentals. No ties to one government in particular. I got hits from Nicaragua to Australia to Thailand. They’re contracting for the U.S. in Afghanistan and Syria.”

  “I thought the U.S. wasn’t in Syria.”

  “Yeah, like they’re not really still in Iraq anymore.”

  “Good point. Anything else?”

  “They’re a subsidiary of…crap. Hold on.” He paused as she listened to the click-click of a keyboard. “They’re a cover corporation for Mercury.”

  “Bullshit. Mercury got downsized and then disbanded three years ago. All that hoopla about accidentally blowing up a school in Nigeria pretty much killed their bigger contractor agreements. The U.S. pulled its funds. Venezuela and Canada stopped using them.”

  “I’m reading an honor roll roster of Mercury boys and a few girls. Leif is their newest incarnation. You know they switch up the name of their shell company every five years or so.”

  “Who’s the CEO?”

  “Some guy named Luc…I can’t pronounce this last name. It’s U-n-a-i-j. Never heard of him. His picture’s of this pasty gray-haired guy. Sixties-ish. He was a flight commander, ex–air force.”

  Serenity sucked in a breath. She interrupted his dissertation. “Eli.”

  “Worked in USAF Special investigations. Did some time in Thailand and—”

  “Eli…” She tapped on the phone.

  “Stop it. What?”

  “Spell that name backward.” Jainucul. Spelled with a C but still the same entity.

  “Shit on a stick. Don’t mess with these guys. I’m telling you right now. Don’t. Not without us. Hell, not even with us.”

  “I think they’ve got Liz.”

  “Please, Serenity. Don’t be impulsive.”

  She said softly, “You’ve been my rock for years and I’m so sorry it wasn’t destined for us. I really am. You are the best person I’ve ever known. But don’t come after me this time. Let me…us handle this.”

  “Shift away. Just do it, if you have to,” he pleaded. “You’ve got to survive. Your sister…she…well, hell, she can’t do this like you can.”

  “I don’t want to lie to you that I think this is all going to turn out great. I have to do this. She’s my family. You’re my family. Always.” She hung up.

  Alexi spoke into a cell while pacing in front of the car. Strength and violence swirled around him. He ended his call and opened the door. “Time to go. The underside of this building is connected to the Leif skyscraper underground.”

  How did he know that? Maybe that had been Nikolai on the phone. As she stared into his handsome face and ice-cold eyes, her anger about being kept in the dark coalesced with her fear for his safety. Her breath hitched as a lump lodged. Her chest was too tight. She popped out of the car and strolled around to him. “Are we going to make it through this?”

  “You will survive this. I will make certain.”

  “What about you?”

  He stared to the exit of the parking deck.

  She hit his chest. “Damn it, Alexi. Do you make it?”

  “There is risk in any situation. We do what we trained for and use the skills the gods gave us.”

  “What kind of answer is that? What about Liz? I know you can see some of our future.”

  His eyes bounced to her and slid downward for a few seconds. Then he glanced away. “We must depart.”

  Oh, no. Something very bad might happen. Oddly, she was more concerned about him than her sibling. Wasn’t that screwed up? He grabbed her hand and led down to the lower levels of the garage. She stopped. “Tell me. Please.” I can’t lose you.

  He paused. “I only get glimpses of the future. I don’t know if I can do enough to make what I see not happen. There’s no use telling you the possible future. It might not be the real future. There is uncertainty in what I see and yet certainty. The future is about choices. Mine. Yours. Those around us. I was able to prevent your death many times before when I glimpsed your likely death. I have confidence I can do it again.”

  “Please be careful. Please help me get her out safely.”

  He faced her. The cut of his chin was rigid. “I do this because you would go without me, and you asked this of me. But understand I am here for one reason only. That is to ensure your survival. No one else is my priority.”

  You are my priority. She stepped close enough to him that she could feel the heat radiating from his body. She whispered, “Don’t die. Promise me that whatever happens you won’t die.”

  “I can only promise to do everything I can to ensure you live.”

  “This isn’t just about me.”

  “Ragana, everything I do right now is about you. These contracts for your death must go away. The one who put up those contracts must die. I don’t…I can’t lose you. Without you, I’d be…” He shook his head.

  Unable to resist, she cupped the back of his neck and pulled his mouth to hers. She pressed her lips to the warm contour of his mouth. Her hands fisted in his hair, desperate to close all distance between them. Their tongues swirled together. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back as if his very survival depended on it.

  She poured her soul into the kiss. Her love. How she wished her skill was spell casting. If it was, she’d cast a protective spell over him to ensure he made it out alive.

  Unexpectedly he stopped, pulled away, and stepped back. She tried to shake off the confusion and dizziness.

  He ran a shaky hand through his hair before meeting her gaze. His eyes swirled with fierce emotion. “I can’t make any promises about what happens here. I’m not sure. At this point we must proceed. There is too much in play.”

  “What else is going on?” She hated being left in the dark.

  He took her hand and pulled her through the parking lot to the building’s elevator.

  What the hell had he done?

  Alexi led the way through the dark, musty basement in silence, with Serenity close behind. The place would make a great meat locker. Cold. Empty. Serial killer paradise. He worried she didn’t wear enough layers. At the door he stared at a card-access keypad. Maybe…

  He removed the key card his brother had slipped him as he left in D.C. The Leif symbol decorated the black key card.

  She asked, “How’d you get that card?”

  “Nikolai.”

  “How did he get it? Or even know we’d need it? We didn’t even know where we’d be going.” She waited for an answer. When he gave her no explanation, she asked, “He’s a precog, too, isn’t he?”

  “I am not a precog. Nikolai sees farther int
o the future than me, which might qualify him as having precognition.”

  “Then he knew we’d be here?”

  “Yes.” He cursed in Lithuanian. His secretive brother had known far more than the pitiful intel he fed to them. “We go up. Stairs only. Based on the floor plan there are unusual rooms on the seventh floor, where I suspect they would house a prisoner.” But this is not going to go like you expect. She wouldn’t follow his lead if he told her the truth. She wouldn’t believe anything negative he might say about her sister. Hades filled in more information on Liz’s deeds as they ascended—a laundry list of the disgusting acts, and barely believable for anyone related to Serenity.

  I got it, he shot back against the barrage of images. On my way to do your bidding, oh Master.

  As he jogged up the stairs, his brain performed an involuntary analysis of his life. This scrutiny plagued him any time he stood at the threshold of shitville with the probability of success heavily weighted against him. The places of his life and his few friends were all a product of how he’d lived and what he did. He lived on the fringes of society and knew well everything illegal, violent, and evil. He accepted darkness and death. But before he died he would make things right for Serenity.

  Future glimpsing confirmed hostiles headed their way from above. If they fought, they died. Her survival depended on surrender, which went against his core mantra. As they rounded the fourth curve of the stairwell bullets greeted them. He pushed her behind him and ducked them behind the curve of the stairs.

  “We have you cornered from above and below. There’s no escape,” came the shout from above. “Throw out your weapons. Then kneel with hands on your heads. I will count to three and if weapons are not surrendered, we will come down firing.”

  “We have no choice,” he said softly to her. “They’ll throw gas next.”

  “I can go invisible,” she offered.

  “They will still get you. You should bounce to your other place.”

  “We could both hop.” She squeezed his arm.

  Not an option, at least for him. He had a job to do. “This is our only chance…your only chance to know the truth. If we leave now, we may be safe, but we will not discover the truth for a long time. If we try to fight, we die. If we surrender, then we can learn what is going on with your sister.” He held a hand out for her gun.

  “If we stay, what happens next?” she asked.

  “We meet the leader.”

  “Jainukul?” Her eyes gleamed with irritation. Surrender wasn’t inherent to her nature any more than it was to his.

  “One…two…three…” echoed from above.

  “Decision time. Is this about your sister, or will you value your life?” Please choose yourself for once. Go to your other dimension.

  She put her gun in his palm. “For her. She’s my responsibility. But…”

  And let the shitfest start. He’d expected this. But he’d foolishly hoped she’d make a different choice.

  She leaned in and hugged him close, pressing herself tight to his chest. She whispered, “Thank you for being here. Promise me you’ll live.”

  I can’t promise that. He closed his eyes and breathed in her fresh scent. Images of sunshine and peace calmed his mind. He ordered, “Kneel.” He threw their weapons onto the floor around the corner. Both of them knelt with hands on their heads. Rough hands cuffed his hands behind him. Hers as well. All emotion clamped down to stoicism as she was patted down. He wondered if she had a cuff key hidden, like him.

  Roughly they were hauled into the hallway and into an elevator. On the silent ride to the twelfth floor, he unlatched his cuffs but maintained the appearance of detention. The four hostiles slowly inched away from him. Too bad they didn’t heed that sixth sense. When the elevator arrived, Alexi and Serenity were dragged into an open empty conference room, where they were pushed to their knees.

  “Finally,” a woman declared as she sauntered into the conference room long enough later that his knees ached from kneeling.

  “Liz?” Serenity asked. “Your hair…it looks good. I thought your captors cut it off.”

  Her hair looked better than good, in his opinion. She looked clean, wearing a dark business pantsuit. Her hair, although short, was a professional cut with fresh highlights, not the ragged mess he’d expect of a kidnappers’ hack job.

  “You are tougher to kill than Steven Seagal,” Liz said, but stared at Alexi. “Recruiting him surprised me. Smart. A Russian assassin and previous enemy. Did you have to fuck him to get him to go along?”

  “Are you working with Jainukul?” Serenity asked.

  Liz cocked her head in condescension. “Oh, dear sister. You always were so blind to what’s right in front of you. I’ve worked for a decade to create my empire.”

  Serenity sucked in a breath. “You are Jainukul? Please…tell me that’s not true.”

  Liz’s arrogant sneer held a reptilian quality, a coldness that Alexi recognized from years of dealing with the dregs of the human species.

  “Oh, God, Liz. Are you really responsible for the explosion at the Olympics last year…all those thousands of innocent people dead? And what of the London Underground explosion eighteen months ago?”

  “Those paid very well.” She waved an arm as if they didn’t matter. “Now I will be immortal and all powerful. All I need is for you to oblige me by dying.”

  Serenity snorted and then chuckled.

  “What’s so funny?” Liz asked. Her confident facade cracked.

  “I would gladly give you this Pleiades curse if I could. Do you even understand what it means to be this? To have this responsibility?”

  “You get all the powers. And what—your one obligation is to spit out a girl baby?” She shrugged. “I could probably even surrogate that, if needed.”

  “If only it was that simple. There’s this business of bonding and destineds that’s…well, it’s a royal pain in the ass.” Serenity’s gaze slid to meet his for a second.

  His gut clenched. Was she saying she thought he was her destined? Holy fuck.

  Serenity said, “You get no choice on the guy, and he could be a real dickhead.”

  Liz shrugged. “Whatever. I could find any druid to step up for that.”

  She shook her head. “You really don’t get it. This isn’t about you or me deciding what you’re going to do, or who’s the Pleiad. Or who’s going to be your destined. Hell, if I had my way I would’ve ditched this whole business eons ago. I’d have left it to you, if that’s what you wanted. This is about gods and goddesses—deities who you cannot control. They dictate our lives.” Softly she added, “They’ve probably already decided our fates.”

  “I don’t believe in deterministic bullshit,” Liz said.

  Serenity squinted at her and whispered, “You don’t believe in the goddesses? If you don’t believe, then how can you possibly become one of us? They’re very real. I saw it. I’ve lived this shit since Mom died.”

  “Enough. Just die. Please.” Liz raised her gun and motioned to one of her guys.

  The beefy guy with ferret eyes advanced on them. Serenity disappeared.

  “Oh, no, you don’t,” yelled Liz. “Light of moon. Dark of night. Make this woman show to light. Come to light.” She waved her hands wildly.

  Alexi watched Serenity from his peripherals, where she’d taken up residence on his left. Her form remained hazy for seconds before she materialized to normal. She stood too calmly. Was she playing games with Liz? That spell seemed absurdly inadequate when dealing with a woman of Serenity’s abilities. She might not be able to dimension hop with her hands cuffed behind her back, but the restraint did not prohibit her other gifts from working.

  Liz targeted Serenity’s chest with her gun.

  Serenity glanced down, meeting his gaze. He read apology and a depth of emotion for him that staked him in the center in the chest. Like hell he’d let her die for him. Or die at all.

  She glared into Liz’s sneer but didn’t beg for life. She stood h
er ground—silent and upright, accepting her fate. Spectacular.

  When Liz’s gun fired, he blocked Serenity with his body, moving her left and out of fatality range. But not out of range of the nine-millimeter bullet that rocketed through his stomach like a nuclear bomb.

  It burned. Really fucking burned.

  He reached behind Serenity with preternatural speed and unlocked her cuffs. To onlookers everything would seem instantaneous and inexplicable.

  “You’re shot,” Serenity said. He glimpsed her hand moving toward him where the bullet had passed through. But he’d already moved.

  It got you, too, he thought. His temper was held in check by his self-control. But he wanted to unleash and annihilate everything in this building in a spectacular bloodbath. Just for hurting her, he wanted to grant maximal pain to that bitch sister of hers. He was on the closest unfriendly without even thinking. With a twist he freed the guy’s gun and jabbed at his throat to push him backward. As the guy fell, he shot him through the skull. Pivoting, he bull’s-eyed lead into six hostiles. One to go. With a quick punch forward he slammed the butt of the now empty Smith & Wesson into the face of the last man, giving the evil minion a split second of tweety birds before he whirled behind him and broke the guy’s neck.

  Strain thinned Serenity’s lips. He might’ve gotten her out of the line of fire, but she hurt. Her safety was the only thing that mattered. He might not survive this, but he’d do his damnedest to ensure she did.

  He faced off against the female threat. Liz shot at him, which he dodged with a humorless grin. He grabbed Liz’s gun hand, twisting the weapon free. With a lean in, he closed his fist around her neck and gritted out, “Your soul has been chosen.”

  “This can’t be true,” Serenity pleaded behind him.

  He couldn’t look Serenity’s way to see her begging for the life of this evil creature. There was no option but to eradicate Liz. The power of Hades whipped through his body, energizing every cell.

  Liz’s eyes widened in terror. “What are you?”