Bound (The Divine, Book Four)

by Forbes, M. R.

  He was afraid, that much was clear, but he was afraid of the wrong thing. Most of the changelings were demons. If Joe had his way, he would be even more screwed than he already was.

  His face was flushing, and I thought he might either start crying, or yell back at me. Instead, he closed his eyes, reached up, and pulled off his shirt. His wings unfolded in freedom, and he lifted a few inches off the ground.

  "Okay," he said. "You're right. The Lord didn't make me this way to run a software company. What do you want me to do?"

  I smiled, leaned over the desk, and kissed him on the cheek, causing an embarrassed blush. There were two things I needed. To find out what happened to Max, and to get a new partner, even if it was an unwilling one.

  "You have a lot of nerds out there, don't you?" I asked. "I need to get my hands on surveillance recordings for the Hotel Andra from the day we met, and the week after."

  "Easy enough. Most of the hotels downtown use the same ISP, and they stream their surveillance to offsite data centers for security." He lowered himself to the ground, tucked his wings, and sat down at his desk. His hands were a blur along the keyboard. "I just sent an e-mail. We should have results in a couple of hours."

  "I knew you were the right person to come to."

  He glanced over at me. "I'm not certain I won't regret this, but hiding hasn't helped much."

  "Next request. Can any of your employees do anything with cell phones? I need to find someone's number, and all I can give you is a starting location from a month ago."

  He lowered himself back to the ground. "I've got a guy working remote in Australia that can probably do it. I'll send him an e-mail."

  He typed it out and sent it off. A few seconds later he pointed at the screen. "My contact at RainierNet is better than I expected." He swiveled the screen so I could see. "Login credentials for the remote surveillance service the Hotel Andra uses."

  "Let's see what we can see."

  He copied and pasted his way into the remote interface, and entered the date range I had requested. The hotel had a camera in the lobby and a few in the hallways on each floor. It was a lot of video to look through.

  "Start with the lobby. Just keep going until Joe turns up," I said.

  He started pulling it up, but a notification popped up on the screen. He tabbed back to his e-mail, and then pushed the keyboard over to me. "Put in the address and the date. No promises, but he'll do his best."

  I entered the data and he sent the reply back, then returned to the videos. He scrubbed through the lobby on the day we'd lost the Deceiver, turning up nothing until one o'clock in the morning. It wasn't Joe that walked into the hotel lobby.

  It was Elyse.

  "He got her too," I said. "She was on my side." The camera angle was wide enough to show her going into the elevator. "Can you find the third floor cameras, around the same time?"

  He complied, searching for the right clips. "Rebecca, can I ask you something?"

  "What?"

  "How did you get lost?"

  "What do you mean?"

  He looked at me. "In my Source, you said you were lost. I could see it in your eyes, you didn't just mean there. You're lost right now too. You must be, to be a spirit."

  He wasn't wrong, but the question made me uncomfortable. "It's complicated."

  He laughed. "I would imagine it would have to be. Still, maybe when we have more time you can tell me about it? People tell me I'm a good listener."

  There was a part of me that wanted to spill the whole thing right then and there. To confide in someone and unleash the torrent of mixed emotions I was holding onto. "Maybe." I winked at him.

  He half-smiled and returned his attention to the screen. "Here you go," he said.

  Elyse was walking down the hallway. She stopped at Room 341 and knocked. The door opened. Obi. He said something, she said something. He looked back into the room, and then left, closing the door behind him. He followed Elyse to the elevator at a run.

  "Is that your friend? What did she tell him?"

  "That's Obi, yeah. I don't know what she said. Maybe that I was in trouble?" I had no idea, but it gotten him moving in a hurry.

  Brian was ahead of me, seeking out the lobby camera. He found it fast, and we watched Elyse and Obi leave together. Two minutes later Obi came back in, with Joe right behind him.

  "What are you hoping to find?" Brian asked.

  "I was with two people. Joe got to Obi, but my friend Max is missing. I needed to know if he was killed, or if he got away."

  We found the third floor video. We watched Obi and Joe go in, and then Joe come back out with my pack. He glanced up at the camera just before the elevator doors closed.

  "It looks like he got away."

  It did look that way, but I remembered what Max had said. Deceit and trickery. Was there any way to know if Max had planned for this to happen? I couldn't rule it out. At least I knew he was still out there, somewhere.

  The e-mail notification popped up again. Brian switched over to it.

  "There's your number," he said.

  "Do you have a cell I can borrow?" I asked.

  He reached into his pocket and pulled it out. I dialed the number, trying to calm my nerves as I did. I was sure this was probably a bad idea, but I was out of alternatives.

  It rang three times before it was picked up.

  "Hello?"

  It was the voice I had been hoping for, and dreading.

  "Hello, Sarah? This is Rebecca Solen."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Rebecca

  "I should have known it was you, back at the beach house," Sarah said.

  "You don't sound surprised to hear from me," I replied. It made me more than a little uncomfortable.

  "I'm not. I knew you were out there, somewhere."

  "How?"

  I heard the rush of air against her cell's microphone, and then a new voice solved the puzzle.

  "Ah, hello my sugared dumpling. I've been waiting for your call."

  "What the hell is going on, Max? You left Obi here as an exorcist, and me to walk right into the Nicht Creidim's trap."

  He sighed. "It couldn't be helped, dearest. If you had followed the plan, I wouldn't have needed to improvise."

  As much as I didn't like it, he was right. "Okay, but I thought the idea was to keep Sarah out of this. She can't be trusted."

  Max started laughing. "No doubt. But then, you are the one who called her, are you not? I knew that you would, once you realized you were low on options. Before you ask, I was lucky to get out through the window when Joe came a-calling. He has the Deceiver, Truth, the Damned, and Avriel's Box. Do you have any idea what that means?"

  "He's winning?"

  The laughter stopped. "Yes. A mortal is winning. Kicking our asses, actually. You're just lucky he has no idea the extent of what he possesses. I know what Joe's plan is for the Box. All he would need is to get his hands on the Destroyer and he would be able to make it happen. I'm not happy about any of this, but seeing as how we're in dire straits, the best thing we could do is add an element of uncertainty to the endeavor. You knew that the moment you started dialing."

  He meant Sarah. There was no guarantee she could have all of that power thrown in her face without breaking bad again, with our without her consent.

  "The Destroyer?" I asked. It was the one blade left unaccounted for. "Do you know where it is?"

  "Yes. Shanghai, China. We can't risk making a move for it until we've gotten the other swords back. I need you to collect Obi-wan and get a flight to Japan. We'll meet you here."

  I glanced up at Brian, who was listening to the conversation as best he could. "How am I going to get Obi? Finding a mortal body that's stronger than his won't exactly be easy."

  "My apologies, apple tart, but you created this, which makes him your responsibility. I trust you'll find a way to fix it. Be here by this time tomorrow, for all of our sakes."

  He hung up.

  "Bad news?" Brian
asked. He surprised me with the sincerity of his concern.

  I kept my eyes on him while my mind ran. I couldn't take Obi on my own, but maybe I didn't have to.

  "Are you still in on helping me?"

  He hesitated, then nodded. "By necessity, not choice."

  "I'll take it however I can get it. I need you to help me kidnap my friend, and I need a private jet that can fly us to Japan."

  "At least you aren't asking for anything big."

  "Brian, I-"

  He put his finger to my host's lips to cut me off. "I'm kidding." He waved his hands around his office. "I have all of this because of the grace of God. If He brought me this so that I would be able to help you when you needed aid, so be it."

  It was a nice thought, but I knew that wasn't how it worked. There was no such thing as fate. Who he was, that was God's gift. What he had done with that gift was all his own. Just like what I had done as Reyka Solen was all my own. Blaming Lucifer would be a cop-out, not an absolution.

  "Give me the phone," he said. I handed it to him, and he began typing on it. "I'm sending Pete a message to charter a flight to Japan. Which airport?"

  "Osaka."

  He nodded and kept typing. "Done. Let me grab a fresh shirt, and we'll go and get your friend."

  "You really are an angel," I said.

  He smirked. "Not completely. I keep picturing you as that sexy raven I saw in my soul. Not all of my thoughts are pure."

  "At least you admit it. You're still human too."

  "I guess so."

  "Do you have a car?"

  "No, do I need one?"

  We were going to need some way to get Obi to the plane without being noticed. "It would help."

  "I'll have Pete send a car over to the hotel." He sent him a text before he had finished talking.

  I led him from his office, out to the lobby. Pete was on the phone, making final arrangements for the flight. He asked the person on the other end to hold when he saw us. "The plane will be ready at SeaTac in two hours. Are you sure though, Brian? This is going to cost, and the investors aren't going to like it."

  "I know. There's nothing I can do about it. If I don't make this trip, there is no Madalytics."

  "Good luck then, bro," he said, and then he resumed the call.

  "How did you come up with that name, anyway?" I asked him, once we were on the elevator.

  "It's based on Mary Magdalene. It was meant to be a spit in the face for my dad, without it looking too religious and scaring away the venture capitalists."

  It made me laugh. "Clever."

  We walked the half-mile talking about his company, about his religion, and what was most fascinating to me: his decision to go against everything his father had stood for. There was something about that story that gave me strength and hope for the final step of my own redemption. It was my fault that Joe had taken the Box and the swords, but maybe it was meant to be? Maybe fate didn't exist, but where was the line between it and faith?

  "So, what's the plan?" he asked as we stepped off the elevator on the third floor of the hotel. "I take it this friend of yours is strong like a bull?"

  "More like a mammoth. He's... enhanced. He's stronger than a regular human, which is why I can't hold him like this." I didn't have time to explain about Landon, or the Beast. "He's also a former United States Marine."

  "Is this supposed to be giving me confidence?"

  "You're an angel, or at least part-angel. You should be able to Calm him." At least, I was hoping he could. Maybe all he had gotten were the wings.

  "How do I do that?"

  "You're asking me? Just tell him to relax."

  We walked down the hallway, and I knocked softly on the door. I could still hear the television on the other side.

  Obi answered it again, his nose wrapped in white gauze. He wasn't alone. Two Nicht Creidim flanked him from behind.

  "Crap," Brian said.

  "So much for calm." I shot past Obi and planted the flat of my palm into one of his keepers, hearing the bones of his nose crumble and knocking him backwards. Obi turned and tried to hit me, but I ducked underneath the blow and caught him in the lungs with a solid side-kick. Brian threw his arms around him before he could come at me again.

  "Sacerdos ab Ordinario..."

  The second Nicht Creidim started the exorcism. I saw Obi's gun was still on the dresser, and I lunged across the room towards it. I heard Brian behind me, speaking into Obi's ear, telling him that he needed to relax and find his center.

  I felt a hand grab my ankle and send me teetering forward, still too far from the Eagle. I let go of my host and threw myself towards the exorcist, covering the distance of the small room in seconds while the marketing executive's head got twisted against the bottom of the dresser and hit the floor with a solid thud. I went in and latched on, taking in the pain of the man's memories and exulting over it. He was a trained thug, a standard grunt, with nothing special in his past that made him anything more than fodder. The first thing I did was shut him up.

  "He should have given you an Eye," I said. He might have seen me coming, and kept me from getting in.

  I looked over to Brian and Obi. The angel had gone down to his knees, holding Obi's head in his lap. I guess he could Calm after all.

  The first Nicht Creidim got to his feet, one hand on his nose. He tried to defend himself from me, but I had a fighter's body now, and I pushed aside his punches and returned them with force and speed. I put him back on the ground, leaving him unconscious next to the executive. I leaned down to check my former host's pulse, and cursed to find he was dead.

  "I'm sorry," I said.

  Maybe I shouldn't have taken him.

  I went to the dresser and grabbed the Eagle. "Good work," I said to Brian.

  "I didn't think that would work. Remind me never to piss you off."

  I bent down and grabbed Obi's legs. "I hope the car is outside."

  We carried him down the hallway towards the elevator, but I redirected Brian to the stairs. "Can you make it?" I asked.

  "As long as we hurry," he replied.

  The stairs emptied out into the lobby. The clerk at the front desk tried to get our attention, but we ignored him as we made our way outside. Pete hadn't let us down. A limo was waiting at the curb. I put Obi's legs down to open the back door, and then we maneuvered him in.

  "What the hell is going on?" the driver asked.

  "I'm Brian Rutherford, and I'm rich. If you want a nice tip, and I mean nice, you'll stop asking questions and drive."

  That was all it took to get us moving. I watched the street behind us through the back of the limo. I didn't see anyone following. After a few blocks, I turned around and slumped into the seat.

  "We did it," Brian said, with a huge smile on his face. "That was incredible."

  "You did it. I couldn't have put Obi out like this."

  He looked at the Marine, resting comfortably across the seat. "Maybe what happened to me isn't as bad as I was thinking."

  "I don't want to burst your bubble, Brian, but it's worse than you were thinking."

  He ran his hand over his bald head and sighed. "I appreciate your honesty. It just feels good to help someone. After what happened in the underground... I feel responsible."

  "You're going to help me stop it. All of it. That's something you can feel good about."

  We rode in silence for a while, until Brian got on his cell to ask Pete about the flight. "Plane will be ready before we get there."

  I hadn't been too worried about it, but I still felt a sense of relief at the news. "Great. Can I borrow the phone?"

  He tossed it over to me. I dialed Sarah's number.

  "Rebecca," she said. "What's your situation?"

  Businesslike. Cold. I shouldn't have expected anything else. "We have Obi, and a jet chartered for a direct flight. We'll be there in sixteen hours or so."

  "We?"

  I glanced over at Brian. "I picked up a stray millionaire. You'd like him, he has
wings."

  Brian's face turned red, and he looked down towards his feet. It was cute how innocent he was.

  "A human with wings?"

  She didn't know about the changelings? "Long story. Tell Max we'll be there on schedule."

  "I will."

  She hung up.

  "Who was that?" Brian asked.

  "I'll tell you on the plane. It'll take a few hours to explain everything."

  "I'm not sure I want to know."

  "I'm sure you don't, but I need to tell you anyway. All I ask is that you hear me out, the whole thing, before you pass judgement on anybody."

  "The only true judge is God."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Landon

  "What do you mean, like me?" I asked.

  "It is the reason you can absorb his power. You and mother both. The universe demands balance, it depends on it, as you know. The Beast was tasked with keeping that balance."

  "For the entire universe?" I was shocked. I had barely managed to keep the balance on earth in check.

  "Not this universe, but yes. It's hard to picture, but it was so."

  "What happened?"

  "He failed."

  I laughed. "You mean he decided to side with chaos."

  "No. I mean, he failed. He tried to stop it and couldn't. Everything he knew burned. I can feel the flames in his energy, the death of an untold number of planets and peoples in its ripples."

  I had no idea. I don't know if anyone did. "Malize told me he came to this universe to hide. That he asked God for safe haven."

  "He came in goodwill. The torment of his guilt drove him mad. Now it's all he is."

  Could I expect the same to happen to me if I failed? I'd underestimated the costs when I'd agreed to come back from Purgatory and be a champion for mankind and the balance. Had I trapped myself in the one true hell? I took a deep breath and blew it out.