by May Dawson
"Hey Levi," I called across the room, through the boxes. "Nothing to see here. I think it's a dead end."
"Got you," he called back.
I hoped that he would realize I had found something or I wouldn't be so damn loud.
If once I'd seen a man that turned out to be a stack of stuff, I wondered if this stack of stuff might be a man.
I wandered casually toward the pile, flipping my sword back over my shoulder and sheathing it smoothly. I’d gotten a lot better with a sword lately. I never even clipped my own ear with the blade anymore.
My nostrils flared as I breathed in sweetness: crushed herbs and flowers and something both fruity and spiced, like apple pie.
Levi came around the corner of the bookshelves, his tall form looming at the end of the aisle. He nodded once, his long blond hair brushing against his shoulders.
I threw my shoulder hard into the shelf. The whole thing went over, falling into a metal rack behind it full of glass bottles.
And suddenly the bundle on the shelf was a man. He scrambled to rescue himself as he fell.
I drew my sword, but Levi was already there. As Turner tried to launch himself away, Levi bent down and grabbed his shoulders, hauling Turner to his feet. He slammed Turner into the wall, and then dropped to his knees to pin Turner down.
Turner raised his hands, making a sound almost like a sob as the breath rushed out of his lungs. "Now, no need for violence. You know who I am and who my friends are—"
Levi nodded, consideringly, and then pulled Turner up by the shoulders and slammed him into the floor. Turner's head cracked hard against the wood.
"You know who me and my brothers are," Levi said, his voice rough with anger. "You hurt our girl. You hurt my brother. And now we've come to collect."
"We just want information." I held my hands out. Calm down, Levi.
Although God, I loved this side of him. This was not my best self, who liked seeing him hurt Turner, but I couldn't deny it. Levi’s protective rage was a different side of my gentle giant.
"Yeah," Levi said. He grabbed Turner's collar and hauled him to his feet. "You can just answer our questions. Pay us back with something other than blood. Sound good?"
Turner had gone very pale. "Sounds good."
Chapter 2
Ryker and Jacob ran up the stairs and turned the corner, ready for a fight.
"So you heard Levi bashing this guy around." I said, jerking my thumb at Turner.
There was a ripping sound as Levi duct-taped Turner to a chair he'd found in the corner. Turner's teeth were gritted, as if he were terrified. As he probably should be.
"I found him," I went on. "No big deal. He was using one of his magic tricks from before, impersonating a box."
"Good job." Ryker touched my shoulder as he passed me.
There was a wicked glint in Jacob's eyes as they fixed on Turner. He started forward, and I reached out to grab his hand, wrapping my fingers around his scarred hand. He stopped with a jerk. His beautiful golden eyes met mine, perplexed, as if I'd woken him from a vigilante dream.
"We don't need to hurt him," I said.
"But we could," Jacob pointed out.
"Let's see if he tells us everything we need to know first," I said.
"I'll tell you anything," Turner promised. "Anything."
"Were you packing to get out of here?" Ryker cocked his head to one side, regarding Turner curiously. "But you weren't running from us. You already knew that Jacob and Ellis were loose from the demon's cage you left them in."
"Technically," Turner sputtered, "I didn't put them anywhere."
"You sold us to the demons," Jacob said, his voice cold. "You know exactly what would happen."
Levi held a hand out, stopping Jacob. "But Ryker's right. What're you running from?"
"The Council," Turner said. "The Council's coming."
"What'd you to do piss off the Council?" Ryker asked.
"I'm hurt he didn't run because we were coming for him," Jacob muttered.
"We wouldn't waste our time on this fool unless we had to," Levi said.
"I would." That wicked glint was back in Jacob's eyes.
The boys had mentioned the Council before. When Olivia was attacked in our house by her brothers, the McKennas, Ryker had tackled Nimshi off one of the Hunters. Ryker had said that a demon attacking a Hunter would be a marked man.Nimshi had already drawn blood trying to protect Olivia, though. Nash had promised he already owned Nimshi's life.
I didn't much like this Council.
"They heard I was doing business with demons." Turner said guardedly. His eyes jerked to Jacob again, as well they should.
Jacob squeezed my hand in his, a promise not to do anything bloody, and then crossed his arms over his chest. He leaned against the wall and watched Turner coolly, letting his brothers handle the interrogation.
"The Council probably intends to make an example of you," Levi said. "I heard they turned the last wizard who betrayed Hunters inside-out. Popped his ribs open and left him holding his own lungs as he drew his last breath."
My enthusiasm about the Council just kept growing.
"So you must really want to get out of here." Ryker's voice was low and persuasive. "Tell us what we want to know so we don't slow you down."
"I'll tell you anything."
"Tell us how to go into the Far, down our Fourth." Ryker said.
Turner closed his eyes, his lips moving faintly, as if he were wracking his brain.
"We're going to try it before we cut you loose," Levi warned. "So if you're thinking of trying something, it'll just end with the Council finding you here. Having the bodies of Hunters around you, while we’re lost in the Far, won't make much of a case."
Turner's eyes opened. "I'm thinking about how, I swear to God."
Levi pressed his hands to his broad pecs, which his fitted gray t-shirt strained to cover, and then mimed a chest popping open.
"I'm not sure you're good for his concentration," Ryker muttered to Levi.
"Maybe I shouldn't have given him a concussion, bashing him into the floor," Levi admitted. Then a dramatically thoughtful expression stole over his handsome face. "Maybe I should give him a second concussion. Maybe it'll even things out."
"You need a spell to magnify your powers," Turner said. "And maybe a spell to mimic the presence of the Fourth? Do you have something of his, something that he had on him when he used his powers?"
I thought of Nimshi's pendant, engraved with his patron demon, and the cool weight of it in my fingers when he leaned forward close to me so I could hold it. I'd breathed in the spicy scent of his cologne and his body, cloves and cinnamon.
"If we have something," Ryker said. "What do we do with it?"
Turner told us what to do. Jacob and Levi left to sift through the wreckage on the first floor, and Turner's packed bags which they'd found by the back door, for the materials we needed for those two spells. Ryker and I stayed behind to watch Turner.
"We've got to hurry," Turner said urgently. "The Council's coming. We can go somewhere else so they won't find us."
"I'm not worried about that," Ryker said.
I caught Ryker's hand in mine, and he turned toward me. He angled his broad shoulders between us and Turner to block out the muttering, panicked wizard as much as we could.
"We'd have to go back for the pendant," I said softly.
"This pendant?" He pulled down the neck of his t-shirt, exposing the edge of a silver chain. "I took it off him at the grave. To remember my promise until we rescue him from hell."
I swept my fingertips across his chiseled chest until I found the edges of the metal pendant through his t-shirt. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because it's stupid?" he said. "It's sentimental. Hunters aren't supposed to use demon magic."
"Because you believe demons make you dirty," I said softly.
"I don't believe that." His voice was gruff.
He might have felt stupid for being sentimental, but
I'd wanted so badly for Nimshi and Ryker to come to see each other as brothers. I felt a glow in my chest that Ryker had come around. And then, yet another wave of loss washed over me. This revelation hadn’t come in time. It was Nim who needed to see that Ryke cared.
Ryker shrugged. "We're all fucked up, wherever we come from."
"You can't just say something nice and let it ride, huh?" But my lips still turned up in a smile. Ryker’s lips curled up slightly in response. He could never help smiling when I smiled at him.
He glanced behind us, watching Turner carefully, and then wrapped his big hands around my hips. "I say nice things to you sometimes."
"Sometimes."
"Sometimes you don't like hearing them." His eyebrows lifted above those vivid green eyes.
"Try me," I said.
He shook his head faintly, although there was a mischievous quirk to his kissable lips, which made his high cheekbones round slightly.
"Ryker Alexander," I said, "You know that I love you. Fucked up as we both may be."
"Adorably so, in your case.” He rested his hand against my cheek. “You know that I love you too."
I smiled, and his thumb drifted across my lower lip, sending a jolt of longing through my body. I leaned forward into him, my lips parting as my head fell back.
There were footsteps on the stairs. It was too late to take a step back before Jacob stepped up onto the landing . He looked at Ryker and I, tangled up together, his expression deadpan before he turned and said to Turner, "That's the real torture right there. Leaving you with these two love birds."
I turned my head over my shoulder to ask teasingly, "Are you jealous?"
In response, Jacob took a few quick steps across the room to join us. His tall, muscular form pressed against the length of my back. I felt him through his jeans as he pressed against my ass. Ryker's hands were still on my waist, so Jacob slid his hands up my thighs, his long fingers wrapping around the inside of my thighs.
Jacob leaned down, his whisper tickling the bare skin of my neck as I was pinned between these two men. "In the best of ways."
Levi shook his head to himself as he set a metal bowl in the center of what clear space there was in the room.
"What?" Ryker asked Levi. "Are you?"
"Nah." Levi winked at me as he scattered herbs across the floor. "I don't mind if she's all of ours, as long as she's mine."
I playfully pushed Ryker and Jacob away. A girl needs her space, even when the guys who press against her are hard-bodied and perfect.
"You know I am.” I met their eyes, first Levi’s bright blue eyes, than Ryker’s vivid green, then Jacob’s deep golden eyes. I wanted them know I meant it.
I couldn't imagine living without any one of them now. It seemed barbaric that anyone would ever have to choose between the ones they loved. Why choose? Love was always Heaven's sacred business, and the Lilith and her four were here to carry on Heaven's business.
Even if we didn't always understand it.
Ryker joined Levi, kneeling beside the bowl. He pulled the pendant over his neck and set it where Nimshi would have knelt for the spell.
Levi's eyes flickered over to take the pendant in. "If the Council finds out."
"We'll make sure they don't," Ryker said.
Jacob pressed matches into my hand. "Light the candles."
I nodded and moved to the bowl. I always was at the center of our circle when we entered the Far, or tried to. Just like I was at their center, the nucleus of our odd family.
There was no room for us to lie down like we usually did, so instead I sat cross-legged beside the bowl. Together, we scattered herbs and salt, incanting softly in Latin and English in turn. My boys who had grown up apart had different customs for their spells.
I lit five candles—one for every flame in the Far—and then drew the bowl into my lap. I held it as the boys formed a tight circle around me, each resting a hand on my body.
My eyes fell on Nimshi's pendant, lying alone on the dusty floorboards. I squeezed my eyes tight against the rush of grief.
"Lead us in, Jacob," I asked softly, whispering so my voice wouldn't break.
Jacob's hand squeezed gently on my shoulder, as if he knew. But he began. "We stand in the darkness. Complete darkness. Now watch the horizon brighten. It lights the trees. Ridiculous, shaking trees, full of monkeys—"
Despite myself, I felt my lips part in a smile as Nimshi's ridiculous trees opened up in front of me. Nim had guided us into a vision, using his power of deceit, and now we all imagined the same trees.
And the world shifted.
And we stood in the grass of the Far.
Chapter 3
Jacob's hand slipped off my shoulder as he turned away, his eyes wide in wonder. "We did it."
"You doubted us?" Ryker clapped his shoulder.
“Yup,” Jacob said bluntly.
Levi flexed his hands as he stared up at the shaking trees. "Our weapons didn't come with us. I thought what we were touching would come with us."
"You think it's a trick?" Ryker asked.
"I don't know much about the Far," Levi said. "But I guess we'll find out."
We walked forward under the wide-spreading branches of the trees above us, until we emerged into a long grassy field.
"This is where we met Elaine Joseph," I said, swiveling on my heel and taking a step backward as I looked back at the forest we'd just emerged from. The tree branches twisted together in lacy clumps, casting dark shadows on the ground. I couldn't shake a weird feeling, being here, after we'd been set up by her ghost before.
Levi pointed to an edge of gray along the edge of the field. "There's a road."
"All those books in the Mythos, and there's no map of the Far?" Levi shook his head. "I guess we should follow the road."
"Good news for us," Ryker said, starting off toward the road. He sounded boyishly energetic as he called back, "We want to find Hell. Unlike everyone else."
"He sounds so cheerful," Jacob muttered. "There's nothing to be cheerful about."
"Always up for an adventure." Ryker called without looking back.
Whether we were always up for an adventure or not, the four of us all headed toward the narrow road that wound through the field.
The trail seemed to wind subtly downward as we walked. The air was still here, stuffy and warm, as if we were still breathing in the air in Turner's attic. A deep blue sky stretched up toward heaven without a single cloud in the sky, and around us were fields of emerald-green grass, bright and perfect and untouched by man.
Jacob breathed in, a quick intake of breath, and stepped in front of me. I rested a hand on his broad shoulder, stepping out to one side to see what had caused that reaction. Ryker and Levi moved steathily in front of us, ready for a fight.
But it was just a man who limped along the road. His head was down, almost lolling on his neck, as he watched nothing but his feet shuffling along in the sand.
The guys exchanged quick looks.
"We knew there'd be people in the Far," I reminded them. "On their way to Heaven or Hell."
"Let's get out of his way and watch." Levi's strong fingers wrapped around mine, and he drew me toward the side of the road. Ryker and Levi joined us, although I could feel the tension hum through their muscular bodies, which were coiled to attack.
But the man just shuffled past us without even looking up. His bare feet raised small clouds of dust on the dirt-and-gravel trail.
"Well, that's creepy," Ryker said, when he had passed.
"The whole place is creepy," Levi said. "I want my sword."
"Is that your comfort object?" I asked. "Like a teddy bear or a blankie?"
"Yep." Levi towed me behind him back onto the road, and I suppressed a grin. "Always has been."
I thought of little Levi, just eight years old as he drove a sword into Hedron's side, and my smile ebbed. It might very well be true. These rough men of mine had been tasked with doing things no boy should have to face.
We crested a hill. The road before us dropped dramatically up and down steep, rolling hills, and beyond the hills, we could see the stone walls of a city that rose like Camelot from the fields.
"So many questions," Levi muttered.
Some flicker of movement drew my eyes upward. I saw a circle of hawks, high above us in the sky, and I shaded my eyes with my hand because I kept losing them in the glow of the sun.
The boys looked up too.
"Hawks?" I asked. I wouldn't have expected animals to be in the Far. After all, humans might have to choose their final destination, but all dogs—and other beasts—went to Heaven.
"Not hawks," Ryker said. He swore. "Wraiths."
"Let's get to cover." Levi wrapped strong fingers around my hand and then half-pulled me, half-shoved me, toward the woods.
I didn't fight him. Together, the four of us sprinted for the distant forest across the fields. The emerald grass was taller than I'd expected, up as high as my knees, and I tripped through it as we ran desperately for the trees.
A screaming wraith dive-bombed us. It came so close that the air from its leathery wings blew my hair back, and the scream made panic curdle in my chest. When it flew low over me, I breathed in an acrid scent, like burned flesh and sulphur. I pumped my arms and stretched out my legs, running for the trees frantically. Its wings flapped loudly, a sound like fluttering sails, as it turned to take another pass. It was bigger than I'd thought looking up at them circling in the distance; the wraith was the size of a man, if a man had been reduced to nothing but bones and then grown claws and flimsy dragon's wings.
We reached the shelter of the woods. I leaned over, my hands braced on my knees, trying to catch my breath; my chest and abs ached so much that I thought I might throw up, after that desperate race. Levi rested his hand on my back, and I felt some of my tension and adrenaline ebb away, enough so that I could draw a full breath into my sore lungs.
"Wraiths," Ryker said conversationally, "used to be human, but they definitely aren't anymore."
