by Faulks, Kim
His cousin had been there that night I first saw the night hag. He may not’ve been the one to unleash the taser, but he’d been a cop who said nothing while his partner did what he wanted.
Cops…they hated more than any vampire I knew…they turned on each other faster than any shifter, tearing each other apart.
“A high-ranking official,” Redemption murmured. “That’s what Betty said…one of the Nine. He was a high-ranking official.”
“What’s more official than a cop?” I whispered.
Redemption turned his head to look at me as, in the distance, the faint lights of Harbor City glinted like diamonds.
The Nine…I was closing in…
And so were they.
And that desperation inside me grew. “Make it there, Redemption. Whatever happens, make it.”
Chapter Twenty
Lorn
The multiple lanes of the highway spread out the traffic. We whipped by the bullet-riddled sign to Alma’s, and it was only then I thought of something I needed. “My pack…my damn pack.”
“In the backseat. Ace grabbed it while—”
Ace…Ace had been there…blue eyes, blonde hair. He strode for the shadows in the house… “He was there, Ace was there.”
Convent of Heavenly Christos.
The words filled my mind as a medallion flipped over and over and over.
I’d read that name before, in Alma’s notebooks, and I tried to picture the words…a nun. A nun who died. A nun who knew Alma well enough to call her to the nun’s deathbed.
There was more, but I couldn’t think…I couldn’t do anything but—
“Brace yourself,” Redemption growled as he cut his gaze from the mirror to the highway. “He’s going to try to push us off the road.”
The crunch of metal came as I flew forward. I thrust my hand out, hitting the dash, as we careened toward the minivan in front of us.
And all I saw were stick-figure stickers.
Mom.
Dad.
Bronnie.
Charles.
And a fucking cat.
“Redemption!” I screamed as he whipped the four-wheel drive right. Dust and stones kicked up in our wake. We hit the shoulder of the road and flew down the side. Tall grass buckled under the power of steel. Redemption fought the wheel, and the gears, downshifting before we climbed the ridge once more.
Horns blared behind us as we whipped back onto the tar a second before the road became a bridge.
“Jesus fucking Christ. There’s humans on the goddamn road!” Redemption’s roar was deafening.
The minivan was up ahead, slipping between the traffic. I caught sight of those stickers before it was gone. We could’ve hit them…could’ve killed them.
My arm shook, hand splayed against the dashboard. I stared at the towering buildings looming as Redemption took one look into the rear-view mirror. “He’s coming again. Hold on…I’m going to try to lose him.”
The Raptor snarled and then surged forward. We whipped between sedans and cars, wide-eyed faces turned toward us as Redemption nudged and fought his way into gaps barely bigger than a motorcycle.
I stared into the side mirror as the dark sedan fell further and further behind. My grip slipped on the dashboard, palms sweating as we crept closer and closer, until finally the sign to Harbor Metropolitan Hospital pointed left.
Redemption eased the four-wheel drive close. He watched the rear-view mirror as we slipped onto the off-ramp and toward the medical hub.
“He knows where we’re going,” I muttered. “He knows.”
“We just have to get you there faster, that’s all. Hold on.”
I’d never seen him fight like this before. He was fighting for another man, a man I truly loved with all my heart. The savage look of determination on his face only made me love him more.
I slipped my hand from the dashboard, and over his on the gearshift. “When this is done, when Titus is okay, we’re all going to have a talk, and figure how this can work.”
He risked a glanced toward me, dark eyes glinting with need before he turned back to the road and clenched his jaw. I was wrong, he wasn’t fighting because he wanted me, he was fighting because this was right.
We were right.
I quaked with the thought.
All five of us.
The parking lot of the hospital loomed a block away.
“Get ready to run,” he growled and whipped the four-wheel drive into the oncoming lane.
Everything slowed down for me, the cars, Redemption…my heart.
We spun sideways and mounted the curb hard. I flew forward, head hitting the roof. There was pain…pain that slipped away from me even though I knew it was there.
My hand slipped to the door latch as the front doors came into sight. I was yanking, and leaning as the rear of the Raptor swung hard, and then stopped.
“Go! Go!”
Redemption’s scream was a shotgun. I lunged out of the truck as the sound of a siren cut though the fog inside my head.
They were coming…coming for me…coming for us. A blur of black at my left before the crack of a gunshot tore free. Blue eyes…blue eyes held me as Rival spun on the spot and then turned back.
Flecks of blood flew through the air in front of him. He reached for me, pushed me, and together we raced through the automatic front doors of the hospital.
I’d walked these hallways so many times. I knew every inch and yet this place felt strange. Blood bloomed beneath the hole in Rival’s chest. Still he reached for me, grasping my hand, pulling me forward.
Pain ravaged his face. His skin paled, his blue eyes seemed to dull, but he ran with me…shoving me forward as we hit the entrance to Intensive Care.
The nurse never had a chance to stop us, we were gone before she even knew, tearing left and then racing toward the end of the hallway.
But inside…inside, that room was filled with strangers.
The doctor turned his head as we lunged through the door…I stared at his unfamiliar face and then glanced at the others.
Thea Banks stood at the foot of the bed, eyes downcast, cheeks fresh with tears. I heard it now…heard the slow…beep…beep……beep…
“We tried calling you,” she muttered behind me. “I’m sorry, but we couldn’t wait.”
Titus…my Titus lay there, his skin graying…the monitor now stopped.
Flatline, they call it.
“Wait!” A nurse called behind me as I neared the side of the bed. “You can’t just go in there!”
“It’s okay, Sue. It’s fine,” the doctor murmured.
But it wasn’t fine. It wasn’t okay. I tore my gaze from Titus’s perfect face as white closed in. There was a thud…and then a shriek somewhere in the hall.
A feather flew through the air. The strands of one side stuck together with blood and pus.
“Lorn,” Gabriel called as I lifted my leg and climbed onto the bed.
“But I know now,” I whispered as that monitor screamed beside me. “I know what you are.”
And as I touched him, I felt the call of Hell like I’d never felt it before.
Like a hum…
Like energy.
Like a portal.
The thunder of boots echoed in the hall.
“Gabriel and Redemption…touch her!” Rival screamed a second before the room fell away.
Gone was the beeping…gone was the white…Hands touched me, held me…comforted me as a hot wind blew.
My bones trembled.
My spirit sighed.
I lifted my gaze to the midnight sky above and then smiled.
Lightning cracked overhead. Blood red, violent and angry. He was calling for me…the Keep…the Watcher…the Protector…and underneath that, something that felt alive.
“Where the fuck are we?”
I turned my head to Redemption as he glanced at Titus, and then into the fiery pit of Hell.
“Home…” the word slipped free before I knew.
“That’s where we are…home.”
“This shouldn’t happen,” Gabriel muttered. “You need a portal.”
Rival clutched his chest and stumbled. “You don’t, not when you are the damn portal.”
They looked at me as I dropped to the ground. Sharp edges of the obsidian rock stabbed and cut. Titus was lifeless…growing colder even as we stood, high on the entrance to the pit they called the Dragon’s Breath.
We were higher than before. All the way up to where the mountain turned into the dragon’s head. Wind howled, whipping my hair into a frenzy. On the outskirts of the funnel was where the gusts were unmerciful.
And it was where I’d thought of, at that moment the hospital room seemed to slip away.
I opened myself to the power, grasping hold of all I could, and looked down at Titus. The minuscule creature was almost hidden, her head and tuft of white hair stuck out from under his arm, wedged against his body.
Little eyes closed, pale lips slack, there was the tip of a tiny tongue peeking out.
“Lorn.”
My father’s snarl echoed like thunder. I couldn’t look at him. I couldn’t tear my gaze away, not now…not now when everything I wanted was right here.
I cradled Titus’s head in my lap and lifted my head. Lucifer stepped down from the stony bridge above me as Rival’s knee buckled and he hit the ground.
“Rival?” Lucifer stumbled forward, reaching out as another male came from behind.
“Don’t touch him.”
Heads snapped up, and then slowly turned as the man from the photograph stepped down from the ledge. He looked just like the picture, strong jaw, intense eyes…sparkling.
“Aeon?” Lucifer whispered. “What are you doing?”
It was him that echoed from this mountain. It was his power I’d used. Lucifer’s energy raced through my veins, though his energy was harder, hotter…dark, brooding, intent on destruction. But not him…not this immortal.
“You can do it,” Aeon murmured.
He glanced at Titus and then to me. “You can save them all, if you want to.”
I closed my eyes and felt the hum, it ran through my bones and along my skin. I wanted them…wanted them all, and this was more than a mark of power…more than a score on skin.
This was love…this was everything I am and everything I had. This was theirs, life, my blood, my body, my energy.
And as I gave in to that thought…as I dropped every wall I’d ever built between me and them and let them all in, I felt that power climb, around and around, whipping like the hurricane winds on the end of the Dragon’s Breath.
Red…purple…green…blue…I knew what he was now, knew the blood that flowed through his veins. That door in the Keep was Aeon’s, the power of all the immortal blood…and Titus Banks was his son.
You can save them…you can save them all.
They were mine.
They were all mine.
Mine, who I’d bled for.
Mine, who I’d killed for.
Mine, who I’d protect.
Mine, who I loved.
Sparks collided behind my eyes. Flashes descended, every moment I was with them…all of them from this moment until the end of time.
Rival growled and whimpered.
Redemption cried out in alarm.
Gabriel was silent, but I could feel him.
His desperation, his warmth…wet tears on my cheeks.
And the power inside me grew…around and around and around. “I love you,” I whispered. “Rival, I love you…Redemption, I love you…Gabriel, I love you.” I opened my eyes to see the flush of pink on Titus’s face as I whispered the last words, “Titus, I love you.”
There were no walls now, nothing that divided me from them. My power was their power, my love their own…
The tiny creature in the crook of Titus’s arm gave a shudder and then moved. Her little head lolled to one side before she opened her eyes and looked around.
Tiny wings flapped as she dragged herself out from the confines of Titus’s arm. She shook death from her soul and crawled upwards to stare into his face.
“A Dragon’s Pixie,” Aeon murmured. “I never thought I’d see one again.”
He stepped closer, and opened his hand as the tiny creature looked up and met his gaze.
Love poured from her gaze. Love and power and sadness. Her little words chirped and tweeted. She pointed to Titus and then to me.
“I understand,” Aeon answered, and took a step closer. “But he’s made his choice.”
He’s made his choice…
Those words resonated like a sledgehammer to my soul.
Was it to leave me?
Was it to die?
And as the thought ended, Titus’s eyes opened. Deep brown eyes…the edges etched with gold, while the middle was flecked with blood. Colors bloomed against his skin…purple and blue and red and green all at once, and the longer I stared, the bolder the colors became.
“Jesus…” Rival hissed, “are those…”
“Scales,” I answered as I stared down at Titus, “beautiful perfect scales. You never knew your real father, Titus. But you can now.”
Confusion carved a perfect line down the middle of his brow. He blinked, and stared at me for a long time before he whispered, “Am I dead?”
I lifted my gaze to Rival, who probed the hole in his shirt and lifted the hemline to his perfectly healed chest. “That was my favorite goddamn shirt.”
“I’ll buy you a new one,” Redemption snarled, and rubbed his chest. “I’ll buy you an entire fucking wardrobe if you want. Just owww…how the fuck do you stop this?”
Rival sniggered as he stared at the curved crescent mark over Redemption’s heart. “You can’t, no more than you can stop Lorn doing whatever she wants.”
“Is that forgiveness?” Gabriel broke in. “Is that on the table at all?”
I stood up from the mountain and opened my arms. “There is nothing to forgive. We did what we had to do…all of us, and we did it out of love.”
“Are you dead? No, honey, you’re very…very much alive.” I said to Titus.
“I was looking for you,” Titus mumbled and closed his eyes once more. “I was searching and searching and searching.”
“You found me. I’m right here. Always here.”
“There was a man,” Titus snapped his eyes open. “Dark hair…looked just like…”
I lifted my head to Aeon, who watched us. There was a flare of apprehension in his gaze as Titus lifted his head and pushed upwards.
“Titus, I want you to meet someone,” I said, and held out my hand. “I think you’ll have a lot in common, and by a lot, I mean your mom.”
He jerked his head right, following my gaze, as Aeon stepped forward. And in that moment I saw Aeon for what he was. In my mind the image of a man was replaced with something monstrous, and powerful scales shimmered, casting rainbow colors across the land.
His power was our power.
His life was the very thread that tied us all together.
He lived here, not because he was shunned by us—but for protection.
“Now do you understand?” Lucifer murmured. “Now you can see why I couldn’t just leave. Why I couldn’t allow anyone any hint of power. If they knew…if they only knew.”
Hell wasn’t a prison, not to Aeon.
Hell was a sanctuary.
Titus was slow, pushing his hand against the ground as he rose onto his feet and wobbled.
“Easy, brother,” Rival snarled, and stumbled forward.
He gripped Titus by the arm, balancing him with his strength.
“You’re okay,” Gabriel murmured, and turned his head as he arced his wings, pulling them upwards, and then extended them out.
They were perfect. Pure and white, the feathers long and strong at the tips, tapering all the way to the joint.
There were no scars.
No blood.
There was nothing but perfection.
&nb
sp; Heavenly perfection.
“Do you want to take a walk?” Aeon murmured, and stepped forward, holding out his hand. “Hold on to me. You’ll feel better in no time.”
Titus flinched and then stilled. He reached out, childlike, and grasped Aeon’s hand. The first steps were awkward, shuddering bones, and shaking knees. It was all I could do not to hold him against me, and give all my strength to him.
“Better get used to this view, dude. Hell isn’t just another realm when you’re around this firecracker,” Rival muttered, and then glanced my way.
“Tell me about it,” Redemption grumbled, and cast a smirk my way. “I’ve got a few stories I can share, they’ll stand your hackles, hound.”
“Yeah?” Rival cocked his head and gave the hint of a smile. “I think I’d like to hear about those stories…I think I’d like that very much.”
“Really?” I snapped, and Rival’s smile got wider.
Damn hellhound…Redemption took a step, casting me a sneaky glance as he shook his head, and for a second I thought there was a curl of his lips.
“Oh great, you’re gonna tell everything, aren’t you? Whatever happened to a gentleman never tells?”
There was a snigger and chuckle. I wasn’t sure who owned which sound. But I could guess. I could damn well guess.
“Lorn,” Gabriel murmured, drawing my gaze as the Unseelie and the hound turned right and moved out of hearing.
I turned to my beautiful archangel and opened my arms. “Don’t say it. Don’t say a thing, just hold me.”
Strong arms wrapped around me, and I was home again, lost in the sweet seductive scent of Heaven once more. He was more than a lover and a friend, to me he smelled like home. “We’re together and that’s all that matters.”
“I’ll never leave you again,” he murmured and closed his wings around us, cocooning us in soft pure white. “Never ever again.”
I inhaled hard and felt that ache in my chest ease. My body trembled, my soul soared. In this moment, standing at the edge of the Keep in Hell, I was safe and happy and whole.
We were all whole.
I felt Lucifer watching, standing there all alone. I broke the hold and took a step toward him. They all watched, letting me go to my father. Lucifer just turned his head and glanced at Titus and Aeon. “The last living Dragon,” he murmured. “The only one who holds the power of all races. Can you imagine what would happen if I fell…if I let them take him?”
