Gerald’s voice rang out from somewhere nearby. “Stop flirting with my wife!”
Madelyn laughed. She drew me into the kitchen where her husband cooked at the stove. Sweat beaded his brow, but he winked at me when I entered.
“That man is just waiting for me to die so he can swoop in and take my Maddie away.”
“Oh, shush,” she said, swatting him on the behind. “Pay him no attention, Ava. Hector and I are only friends and have been since we were children. Nothing more.”
“I didn’t think anything of it. But how are you, Madelyn?” I asked, trying to avoid being caught staring at her huge belly.
“Ready to be done with this pregnancy, that’s for sure. Any day now.”
“Well, you look amazing.”
One brow quirked up. “You’re such a liar.”
I placed a hand at my heart and gave my most sincere look. “A Defender doesn’t lie.” Oh, but I did. And apparently, I lied a lot.
She smirked and shooed me out of her kitchen. “Get out of here, my honorable Defender.”
With a book tucked under my arm, I carried a large covered platter from the complex, heading toward the two-story red barn. Beneath was the compound prison, an edifice that hadn’t needed to be used in hundreds of years until first Zane and then Charlotte.
Zane had been tried by the Council and found not guilty. There were punishments, however, for letting the shapeshifter in. He couldn’t retain his position within security. Now he served as the compound mechanic and was not allowed to sleep amongst the others for two years but had to be brought back to his cell every night until he re-earned the trust of his people.
Charlotte was a whole other story. The Council had yet to meet about her, a girl that they had known since she was a toddler, because the demon that took her body over still resided within.
I lifted the latch that concealed the stairwell down into the prison. My shoes echoed on the steps, announcing my arrival, but nothing stirred when I entered the white-washed space. A single desk faced four barred doors on the opposite side of the room. Each door opened a separate ten-by-ten cell.
Violet lay asleep on top of her neatly made comforter, likely exhausted from watching me sleep all night. Since her imprisonment, a few changes had been allowed for her prolonged stay. A wide dresser sat against one wall. A dozen romance novels ordered alphabetically lined the top. A flower-painted privacy screen hid her makeshift bathroom, and a microwave sat atop a new mini fridge that hummed quietly in the corner.
I set the tray on the desk and went to search for the key, but when I turned around Violet’s eyes were open, watching me. I gasped, my hand flying to my heart.
“Oh my gosh!” I laughed, nearly breathless. “You scared—” But my voice trailed off. The blood drained from my face when I registered who it was that stared at me through crystal blue eyes.
5
Secrets
Charlotte glared, transfixed upon my face. Unblinking hatred seethed from her. Of their own accord, my legs moved toward her cell. Her gaze followed me as I stepped closer and reached a hand to grasp a bar, but still she didn’t move.
It had become almost too easy to forget that my mother’s demon had overcome a body that didn’t belong to her. It was also easy to admit that to me, Violet was a vast improvement over the original owner, but staring into Charlotte’s memorable blue eyes, a fissure of guilt ripped through my heart.
“Charlotte, can you hear me?” But she didn’t answer. “Charlotte?”
She blinked and sat up ramrod straight. Black flooded the blue, drowning out the icy color.
“No, darling,” Violet said in a soothing tone. “It’s me. Charlotte is not here.”
A shiver rattled my spine. “She—she was watching me.”
“Did she speak?”
“No, but you were asleep, and she was watching me.”
Violet selected a strand of hair and examined the silver blonde tips. “I’m sure she was, but she is gone now. You have nothing to fear from her again.”
“Have you talked to her? Does she know what Nikolaos is planning?”
“I’m sorry, my darling. She still refuses to answer me.”
I stared at my knuckles grown white from gripping the bar so tight. If only I could have gotten Charlotte to open to me—to show me what she knew. But then I rolled my eyes at my own mental stupidity. Charlotte hated me. I was the last person she would expose her secrets to.
I retrieved Violet’s food. Placing the book on top, I slid the tray through the opening in the bars. “Hector wants you to eat before our run this morning.”
She beamed at the offering. “He is a dear.”
The muscles between my brows contracted. I had never thought of Hector as “a dear” but then again, I didn’t have much to do with him outside of work. Over the past month he had seen to most of Violet’s needs and was the main reason for all the improvements of her space. I didn’t know if he acted in memory of his friendship with Charlotte or if there was another motivating factor. Whatever the reason, Violet seemed to favor him.
She picked up the novel and hummed in approval. “Jacob’s Revenge. Sounds promising. But I think, from now on, I’d like to read what you have finished.”
I grimaced. “I haven’t had much time, lately.”
She tsked. “Never stop reading. It’s good for the soul.”
“Fine. I’ll see what I can do.” I checked the handle of her room. Locked. “What’s—what’s going to happen to her? To Charlotte?” I asked, afraid to know the answer. “If you stay in her body, what will happen?”
Violet set the novel on her nightstand and moved to the door. She gripped the cell bars as she peered into my eyes. “If I stay on in her body, she will become weak. Every day I remain, the more despondent and vulnerable she will become. Soon, she will stop fighting. Stop caring. And then... she will go.”
“She’ll die?”
She nodded, then rested her head on the metal cage, watching my response. The intensity and sincerity of her words cut me to the core. Nothing about Violet made sense. Jonathan either. How could the mortals be more wicked than the demons that controlled them? Was it truly possible, or was I playing the fool?
“Her soul will relinquish hold and then I can fully take over.”
“Is there another way?” I closed my eyes, breathing through my guilt.
A hot touch brought me out of my sulking as Violet reached through the bars and took hold of my arm in a firm grip.
“If I leave her body, she will keep coming after you. Her mind is more altered than you or anyone here can imagine. She was groomed from a very young age to be what she is. You must trust me.”
Only when I nodded did she let go. My skin tingled from the release of pressure. She smiled and reached her arms above her head, stretching her long muscles. “You’re late,” she said, changing the conversation and tone.
“I know.” I wiped sudden perspiration from my forehead. “I’m sorry.”
“I was getting hungry.” She sat on her bed and pulled her tray in her lap.
I gently kicked at her cell bars with the tip of my toes. “I’m surprised you didn’t just hop out and get breakfast yourself.”
Violet swallowed a bite. “Now why on earth would I do that? I don’t want to scare all my new little friends within my new little home.”
“Oh.” I huffed a laugh, taking a seat on the ground. I straightened my legs to do my pre-running stretches. “You just want to scare me to death in the middle of the night?”
She set down her fork and gave me her most angelic smile. “That was never my intention—but I will be honest: your reaction was intensely gratifying.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “What are we supposed to do with you?”
“As of right now, I am a necessary evil. The Three wouldn’t know what to do with Charlotte if she were in full control of her faculties. She is a risk. They can’t release her to the outside world, and they would never commit anyone
to death.” She shrugged. “Charlotte would remain locked up for who knows how long, turning the ears of her compound mates and making it miserable for those who saw to her care. This would break down the protection to your sanctuary and put you at risk. It’s better that I am here, my love.”
She was right. Charlotte was manipulative and destructive. Zane was proof of her capabilities—the result of her manipulations.
“So how did you do it?” I asked once she had finished her food. I stood and wiped the dust from the back of my shorts. “How did you get out?”
“You want me to tell you my secrets?” she asked, selecting her running shoes from the top drawer of her dresser. She placed them at the foot of her bed.
“Yes.”
Her smile faltered. Her head cocked to the side as she considered me. “Very well.” She began tugging off her shirt and I spun around to give her privacy. “You have been taught about energies, have you not?”
“I have.”
“And you know the effect of using negative energy against negative energy, correct?”
I hummed in the affirmative. “It can be used against me.”
“Have you mastered it?”
“I...” My voice trailed off. Darius, Jonathan, Elisa, Fiona—they had all tried to teach me this concept, and while I was improving on it, I had come nowhere near to mastering it. There was just too much anger in me still. Too much residual hurt.
“That would be a no.” She laughed. “You can turn around.”
I did as I was told. Dressed in shorts and a tank top, Violet slipped on her running shoes then stepped to her door. “This lock.” She tapped the metal plate where the keyhole was located. “Its main purpose is to keep me confined in this cell. Its energy is focused on that one, solitary goal. If I fight against it, it will fight right back.”
Without warning, she reached through her cell and grasped my wrist. Shocked, I jolted back, but she didn’t seem to notice. Stronger than I had realized, she easily pulled my arm through. I growled as my shoulder and the side of my head rammed against the bars. My mind raced, wondering if I should be afraid, but the Demon’s Eye was calm. Not a single vibration warned of foul play.
Violet set my hand upon the lock, laying her palm flat over the top of mine. Her demonic caress heated my skin, so different from the bite of the cold metal beneath my touch.
Her voice whispered in my ear. “So much of our time is wasted in battling the obstacles that stop us—the objects that, duty-bound, block our path. We want to move them, to break them, to blast our way clear, but that is ultimately what causes our failure. When we don’t take the time to realize what someone or something’s sole purpose is, we lose the fight from the very beginning.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked through gritted teeth.
Violet tsked. “Ava, this lock’s sole purpose is to keep a foe behind bars. It is used for an enemy, but I am no enemy and I must tell it so. I must prove I’m its friend.”
Power beat from Violet’s scorching touch into mine. The radiation pulsed through my skin and into my very blood. Fire burned, but instead of pain and agony that normally flowed from the touch of a demon, the feelings intensified into a strange kind of warmth, hope, thankfulness, and even love.
A metal pin within the lock clicked, the sound reverberating within my soul, and Violet released my hand. I stepped away as the door swung open, blinking back a strange, raw emotion that gathered in the corner of my eyes.
“But I don’t understand,” I said, my voice hoarse.
“Understand what, darling?”
“You—you are a demon, Violet. How could you even know…?”
“I am a Fallen, Ava, who followed the wrong leader. But because of your mother, I was able to switch sides, in a sense. At least for the time being.”
“What do you mean the time being?”
Her gaze traveled my worry-worn face. “We all have to pay the piper, don’t we?”
My heart squeezed painfully. “Violet, I—” But I clamped my mouth shut. I didn’t know enough about the God I worked for to know how to comfort my mother’s demon. How to comfort Jonathan.
Violet closed her cell door. “Shall we go get Hector?”
Frustration and confusion tugged for control within my mind. We met the others at the pitch for our pre-running stretches but I was no longer interested in exercising. I wanted to figure out this connection between my mother and her demon. Between Jonathan and me. I couldn’t quite place why, and maybe I was crazy, but I felt the answer could be essential to my calling.
I drew my toes together and pulled my feet in for a seated butterfly pose, not allowing the action to penetrate deep within the muscles. Without warning, a body pressed my back.
Darius whispered as he leaned his chest against me, forcing a deeper stretch. “You seem distracted.”
My neck tingled in response to his breath upon my skin. After a moment, I managed to speak. “What makes you think that?”
“Straighten one leg,” he ordered and, strangely obedient, I complied. “Will you tell me why?” he asked when he resumed his aided stretching.
Despite my just-before sullen mood, I almost groaned when the heady scent of his cologne invaded my senses. It took me longer than a few seconds to remember what it was that had preoccupied my thoughts. “I—I want to question the Demon’s Eye. Tonight.”
Darius hummed. The vibrations from his chest sent a delicate shiver up my spine and elicited a rush of goosebumps.
“Tonight we take care of some demons, remember?”
“Of course,” I snapped feeling guilty. That was our number one priority. I cursed my forgetfulness and my lack of rational thought.
“Hey, is it my turn next?” Roman asked with a throaty laugh. “My glutes are feeling a little tight over here.”
Noah laughed, the sun playing in his strawberry-blond hair. Hector smacked him on the back of the head, silencing him. Violet sat next to Hector, a curious expression on her face.
Two by two we did our miles through fields and orchards. Violet kept close to me, but ran behind with Hector at her side, their constant conversation never ceasing. Roman and Noah took up the rear. Roman had removed his sweat-soaked shirt and wore it as a makeshift headwrap around his dark, curly hair. The sun glistened off his chest and abs, and I wondered if he did it to win my approval and the role of Guardian.
He winked when he noticed me watching. Suspicions confirmed. Roman’s body was nothing to the muscle-toned perfection of Darius at my side and paled in comparison to that of my personal demon.
What was I thinking? My face flushed red, but not from exertion.
While we ran, more thoughts flooded my mind. Could it be true? Had Violet switched sides? How was that even possible? And would Jonathan make the same choice?
After four miles, Darius’s direction shifted toward the lake. My body tingled with the desire to remove my sweltering shoes, feel the cool water upon my skin, touch Darius’s rounded shoulders. I shook my head to get rid of my torturous thoughts.
“What’s the matter?” he asked as he peered down at me.
But I didn’t respond—couldn’t respond. What in the heck was wrong with me?
I sprinted the last few yards until my shoes hit the soft sand at the edge of the lake. I braced my hands on my knees, breathing deep breaths. The others jogged in but maintained their distance as they slowed to a walk, pacing to catch their breath. Darius cleaned debris from the area where we usually did our training. Violet scanned the landscape, content with the scenery.
Roman watched me as I took off my shoes and threw them several yards away. He removed his makeshift skullcap and came to join me, looking out over the surface of the water.
“Is this where you and Darius go to train when you two disappear?”
I glanced over my shoulder, but Darius was speaking to Hector, unaware of our conversation. Violet lounged beneath the shade of a tree.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to be alone wit
h Roman, but I answered his question. “Sometimes.”
He laughed, almost to himself. “If I were to take a beautiful girl to such a place like this, the last thing we’d be doing was training.” I ignored his pointed comment. “And maybe that’s the problem,” he continued. “Maybe you need someone a little more exciting? Someone like—”
“Like you?” I asked. My head jerked his direction and I glared, but it only seemed to encourage him.
“You said it, not me.” He smirked. “But I think you should at least give me a shot. You might like what I have to offer.”
“And what would that be?” Darius’s voice was so close that I jumped. I inhaled a sharp breath, my hand to my heart, but Roman was unimpressed.
“I’m just letting our Defender know that despite what you may have her think, she has options. That’s all, my man.”
Darius bristled. “Does she now? And you think you have those same options?”
Roman smirked. “Of course. You’ve had your chance.”
Noah whistled. His southern accent accentuated his shock. “Dang, Roman, you got some nerve.”
My face grew hot, exploding into what I knew was angry patches of red.
“Then, I’ll tell you what: let’s make this a simple matter.” Darius patted Roman on the back then scanned the rest of the group. “And I’ll extend this offer to anyone who’s interested. Whoever can beat Ava in a one-on-one competition will get my approval to date her.”
“What?” I croaked, both surprised and infuriated, but no one seemed to be paying attention to me.
Noah laughed out loud but Hector merely shook his head.
Violet arrived at my side. She whispered low in my ear. “Allow this to play out, my darling. I feel there is purpose in this charade.” Then she sauntered away, taking a seat next to Hector.
“But what if we’re not vying for the position as the next Guardian?” Hector asked. His head made a slight bow my direction. “No offense, my Defender, but not all of us want the burden that comes with that calling.”
Personal Warriors Page 5
