“You really stole the Sword from the angels so you could be with me?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said on a throaty breath.
I wanted to yell at him… scream. What a fool. But one thing held my angry words back. The Sword. He had it somewhere, and I wanted it. No, I needed it. My fingers twitched to feel the cold metal beneath them. The compulsion to hold it in my hands was so strong it was as if I’d become an addict in need of a fix. It ran through my blood constantly searching for that high.
Where the hell was it coming from? What had changed me so drastically that whenever it was close, I suddenly couldn’t live without it? Nothing else mattered but owning that Sword.
“I need to think,” I said and turned to walk away from the cage. Caleb’s and Braydon’s eyes focused on my back. Their concentration on me was tangible, but since the room had only one door, I made my way toward it.
“Sit tight, little bird,” I heard Caleb say to Braydon.
The door clicked open when I reached it, and I continued walking and listening as Caleb followed behind me. Once we were out of the room and the door closed behind us, Caleb grabbed my arm to try and stop me, but I yanked it away from him and kept going. I had no idea where I was or where I was headed, I just needed to walk and think. Because of that, I barely noticed we’d entered a torch-lit hallway made of stone. The place was eerily familiar, reminding me of the corridors in Nergal’s hell, but even that thought didn’t penetrate my obsession with the Sword and new situation… new opportunity.
“You want it as bad as I do,” Caleb said when his palm rested on my left shoulder. I stopped, and he remained where he was. His touch still burned through the material of my T-shirt, but I didn’t pull away, I merely eyed him over my shoulder.
“That’s good, Cassie. That’s very, very good,” he said with a slow, confirming nod.
I turned and faced him, looking him directly in the eyes. “Tell me why.” I wouldn’t deny it anymore. I just needed to know.
“Okay, my queen.”
He pulled me into him, and I succumbed to the expected nothingness.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Caleb and I materialized in the library he’d shown me earlier. We were standing in front of the sofa. The door was closed, and the only sound was a crackling fire still burning in the hearth.
“Have a seat, I’ll get us something to drink,” Caleb said as he walked over to a small wet bar to the side of the fireplace.
“I’m good,” I told him, but that didn’t stop him from pouring a brownish liquid into two tumblers.
“Believe me, Cassie, you’re going to want this.”
“Forgive me if I don’t feel all that comfortable accepting a drink from you. It always seems to come with some kind of ulterior motive… or side effects.”
“I promise you, this one is only to calm your nerves. Here,” he said, handing the glass to me.
I took it but eyed him suspiciously. He made an X with his finger over his chest.
“If you had a heart, I might actually believe you,” I said.
He laughed. “C’mon, let’s sit.”
I took a seat at the corner of the sofa.
Caleb sat next to me, but not close enough to make me feel intimidated. He angled his body toward me and took a sip of his drink, gazing at me through the glass. I looked back at him expectantly.
He lowered his glass, and said, “Nergal lives.”
If the words had physical weight, they might have crushed me. “What?”
“He does. He lives inside of us. Both of us.”
“What the hell are you talking about, Caleb? Are you talking metaphorically here, or literally?”
“Literally.”
“I don’t understand. How is that possible? He’s dead. I was told only his essence can live on and that’s only if someone uses the Sword on his dead body. That Sword has been in the hands of the angels since we killed him. Hell, that’s what all this is about, isn’t it? You wanting the Sword so you can embody his essence and have his ultimate power? How can he be living inside of us if neither of us has gotten the Sword anywhere near his dead body?”
Caleb smiled and took another sip of his drink. “The angels don’t know as much as they think they do,” he said when he was finished.
My heart rate had accelerated from the first two words of the conversation, but now it was erratic. All along, I’d believed I was prepared for the final showdown because I’d pictured it in my mind so many times. I’d already lived it one hundred times over. I was ready for deviations but wasn’t naive enough to think dealing with Caleb would call for anything less. Now, I wasn’t so sure. A prickly feeling deep inside was telling me I was nowhere near ready for this.
“Tell me,” I said.
“You and I are the chosen ones.”
“The chosen ones,” I repeated, sarcasm dripping from each word.
“Yes. Nergal gave each of us some of his essence before he died. He knew he was going to be killed. He prepared for it. It’s amazing, Cassie. He already lives within us. He chose us. We are the ones who will carry out his ultimate plan of domination over the universe. You and I, together.”
As Caleb spoke, a fire deep in my gut grew and lapped at my insides as if his words were its accelerant. The more I heard, the more it expanded, until I was burning from the inside out. Sweat started to form above my lips and on my forehead. Had the fire in the hearth gotten hotter?
“How?”
Caleb gently put his hand on the one I was using to hold my drink and lifted it up to my mouth. “Drink, Cassie.”
I did as he said, not because he told me to, but because I thought it might douse the flames. Unfortunately, the burning liquid only added to them. I choked and then asked again, “How?”
“Honestly, I don’t know the exact answer to that. I guess he did it at some point down in Hell. I don’t know how, but I know he’s there.”
Flashbacks of the time Nergal held me prisoner in Hell inundated my brain. For months I’d been tortured, half the time unaware of where I was or what was happening. I had no idea how long I’d been down there until Hunter came to my rescue. And afterward, I was too afraid to remember. My entire personality had changed, full of rage and hate, but I told myself it was from feeling so utterly victimized and helpless. I completely ignored the little hunch that was warning me it was something else.
Caleb spoke, bringing me back from my thoughts. “I feel him inside of me. I hear him talk to me, lead me. He told me to bring you here, Cassie. And now that you are, he’s doing the same to you. I can tell.”
I wasn’t going to deny it. He was right. The voices, the feelings. Somehow I knew all along it was Nergal, but I just didn’t want to believe it. He was dead. We’d killed him. I didn’t want to think he was still connected to me. But somehow I knew. And now I needed to know all of it. As much as it scared the living hell out of me, I had to find out what I was up against, or more importantly, what I was becoming.
“Why here? Why now?”
“Because the rest of his essence is here, in our home. The closer we are to it, the more powerful he is within us. I knew it the moment I had his body brought to me.”
I thought about the room down the hall and how something from within seemed to be drawing me in there. I knew then, without a doubt, that’s where Caleb was keeping Nergal’s body. It was all starting to come together, like one big, fucked up puzzle.
“This is all so unbelievable.” My words came out in one exhale.
Caleb set his drink down on a table next to the sofa, then grabbed mine out of my hand and did the same with it. When he was done, he grabbed both my hands and held them in his. Ducking his head to capture my eyes and lock me into his gaze, he whispered, “But it’s real, and I think you know that.”
I clenched my teeth together, not wanting to say the words. Saying it, agreeing with him, that would make it too real.
“Your not saying the words, won’t make it any less real, Cassie,” he
said, reading my mind. “It’s time to face our reality and follow our destiny.” He lifted one of my hands to his lips, and I merely watched as he kissed my knuckles. “We’ll do it together, as Nergal intended.”
I snatched my hands away and glared at him. He rolled his eyes as if my obstinacy was getting tiresome.
“What I don’t understand is why Nergal would choose us. It makes no sense. I hated him. My blood is mixed with that of the angels. Hell, I’m the one who helped kill him. And you. You conspired with me to kill him and take over as king. Why in the hell would he choose us to carry out his plans?”
“He chose us because we’re the only ones strong enough and resolute to succeed. Think about it. It makes perfect sense he’d choose me. He knew this was what I wanted all along, to rule over the entire universe, to have power over all. No one has more determination to have that than me. And you, my queen? You are an enigma, Cassie, a perfect weapon. With the power of both worlds, the angels would never know what hit them.”
So, there it was. The cards were all out on the table. I knew exactly why I was there and why I’d been feeling the way I had ever since I regained consciousness from Hell. All the dreams, visions, and thoughts made sense now. I was a pawn. Again… no, still. That’s what I’d been all along, since the day I was born. My fate would forever be intertwined with the mix of my blood. I was DNA. I was something instead of someone.
I didn’t want to be someone’s thing. I was powerful, more powerful than I thought, and more powerful than the people who wanted to use me. So, why wasn’t I using that power? Why wasn’t I the one in control?
It seemed the only obstacle in my way was me.
“Show me the body,” I said. My blues glowed in their sockets as I directed them at Caleb.
When he caught a glimpse, surprise widened in his eyes for only a split second. “Why do you want to see it?”
I had a feeling he already knew and merely wanted to hear me say it, and I had no problem accommodating him this time.
“Easy. I want to find out how much power this bitch can give me.”
A slow smile turned up his lips. “That’s my girl,” he said as he stood and held his hand out to me.
Ignoring the offer for help, I stood on my own and started toward the door.
That’s exactly how I planned to keep things from here on out.
On my own.
***
The power radiating from the room didn’t surprise me this time. It seemed to permeate my skin and take hold of my body. I let it, whether it was an option or not. I wanted it. I needed it. What I would do with it, I had no clue, but that didn’t matter yet. Nothing mattered, but the power I knew was mine behind that door.
Caleb stayed a few steps behind, which surprised me. He wasn’t one to let a girl lead the way. Maybe he was testing me, watching how far I’d take this, seeing if my thirst for power was as strong as I was letting on. It was. The time for false pretenses had passed.
Maybe he didn’t trust me at his back.
I put my hand on the door handle and turned it, but it didn’t budge.
Caleb smiled and winked.
“That’s just for show,” he said, and when I lost my grip on the handle, the door opened inward on its own with a quiet click.
I sighed and shook my head before entering the room, wondering if I’d ever get used to those damn mind locks.
“Wow, nice digs,” I said once I was fully inside the room. It was so modern, one would think we’d just stepped into the penthouse of a newly constructed five-star hotel. We stood in a large living room with white, plush carpet and black and leather furniture. The tables and fireplace were black, highly polished and pristine with not a speck of dust on them… as far as I could see. A few statues were featured throughout the room, each about four feet tall with a stone finish. Each of them was about four feet tall stone angels in various poses, which I thought odd at first since this was Caleb’s quarters. When I realized all of them were either bowing or praying, or both, it made sense. In the context of the rooms, they appeared to be pleading.
“They remind me every day of what I have to look forward to,” Caleb said, confirming my thoughts, “as do the paintings.”
I looked around at the paintings on some of the stark, white walls. They were all scenes of an apocalyptic war set on earth, fire in the skies, with people and white angel wings lying lifeless and scattered amongst ashes on the destroyed land.
“As if you need a reminder,” I said.
“True. It’s a vivid picture I carry around right here,” he said, tapping his temple.
A staircase at the back of the room, with black, filigreed, wrought iron rails, wound up to a second floor. I could only make out the carpeted landing up there before it went off to the right.
“The master’s chambers,” Caleb said, following my gaze. “Want to go check it out?” he asked with a waggle of his eyebrows and a sinful smirk.
“I’ll pass for now,” I told him.
“Mmmm… for now.”
He obviously missed my sarcasm, or simply ignored it, which was probably more the case.
I quickly changed the subject. “What’s with that area?” I asked, motioning toward the open kitchenette off to my right. It was as pristine as the rest of the place, black marble countertops, stainless steel appliances, white stone flooring. “You haven’t started eating human food now, have you?”
“Oh, hell, no. That’s merely for entertaining guests.”
“Guests?”
“Well, Cassie, what did you expect me to do? You’ve taken your time coming to your senses. A man has needs, you know. I admit, I brought a few of the ladies back to fulfill my own, but now you’re here, that won’t be necessary. I vow complete fidelity to my queen, so you needn’t worry.”
I stared at him, unsure of which was more surprising, that he’d found the need to admit he’d had a couple, or probably several, trysts, or that he thought I’d care.
“Human guests?” I asked, unable to think of any other response.
He pursed his lips to the side as if contemplating how to answer me. “Well, they were human at some point.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and held up my hand to stop him from saying anything more. I’d had enough and was going into Caleb-information-overload. In addition to the power pulsing within me, I thought I might explode any second. “I… it’s… just show me the body… er… Nergal’s body, I mean.”
“Someday, Cassie, you’re going to know all of me,” he said, stepping closer and putting his hand on my back. “Every. Single. Inch.”
I cringed. No amount of power radiating inside me could block that mental picture.
“This way,” he said with a forward wave of his hand.
We walked toward the back of the room, to the right of the staircase, and headed down a hallway. I noticed a bathroom to the right, and then a large, steel door at the end.
“I’m surprised, Caleb.”
“Surprised?”
“Yes. That you’d keep him so far away from you.” He didn’t need to tell me the body was in that room, the intense power radiated through the door. “I mean, what if you’re upstairs entertaining guests and someone were to slip in down here and try and steal it.”
“No one is allowed in my quarters,” he said in a low, ominous voice. “Only two others ever step foot on this floor and that is just to guard it. They all know if they are caught anywhere near here, it would be a very painful eternity for them.” His face softened, and he went from sinister to sweet in the blink of an eye. “I’m not worried. Nor should you be.”
“I’m always worried,” I said. “It’s hard not to be when every person I’ve ever known has lied to me or used me. The only thing I don’t worry about is trusting anyone ever again… because I’ll never let that happen.”
“A relationship cannot survive without trust, Cassie. You’re going to have to learn to get over that with me or this will never work out.”
I wan
ted to laugh at his delusions of us having some typical relationship as if we were a couple contemplating marriage, kids, and a white picket fence. I held back, however, because the look on his face told me he was quite serious.
“Fine,” I said. “Let’s start with you showing me that body then.”
“What, right here?” he asked with a devious smirk and a twinkle in his eyes. “If you insist.” He crossed his arms over his chest, lifting the hem of his T-shirt.
I grabbed his wrist and held it against him so he could go no farther. “You know what I meant.”
The shit ass grin on his face made me want to punch him. Instead, I turned and pulled the wrist I held toward the electronic pad attached to the wall next to the door. I’d almost gotten his hand on it when he snatched it out of my grasp.
“Let’s get one thing straight before we proceed,” he said. “I’m still in control here. You’re only here because I brought you. You will not force my hand… at anything, Cassie. Do we understand each other?”
Our gazes locked, a battle of wills playing out with our eyes. The urge to see how much power I really had at that moment was overwhelming. More power surged through my veins than ever before, but I didn’t know if it was enough. Caleb was so strong, possibly as strong as Nergal had been. Not to mention, I had no clue how to use any newfound powers. I couldn’t chance the little amount of freedom I’d already been given. I was too far in to turn back now.
I decided to use his own words against him instead. “Trust, remember?”
He studied me for a moment before his features softened. “Touché,” he said with a laugh.
“All right, then.” He raised his hand to the electronic device and blue neon glowed underneath his palm. “Let’s go see sleeping beauty, shall we?”
The electronic lock beeped and the door in front of us clicked, but did not open.
I peered up at Caleb in question and noticed his eyes were closed, so I waited. After holding back from rushing the door for what seemed like forever, it slowly swung in.
Angel Of Fate (Fate Series Book 3) Page 18
