I was interrupted by a sudden flare of sparks and a faint slap of warm ivory on my sweating palm as Xylo flung his freaking hand at my outstretched hand for a long-distance high five.
Oh shit.
My heart stopped and I opened my mouth to shout a warning for Cain to fucking run for his life.
But I was too late.
A bolt of black lightning tore down from the night sky in a concussive explosion that sprayed me—and my open mouth—with sweet, pulpy gore.
I gagged, spitting it out as I tried to blink away the stars in my vision from the proximity of the blast.
Cain. I’d just tasted Cain’s guts. I instantly gagged, wondering how the hell I was still alive.
Then I heard cursing. “You crazy son of a bitch! What the fuck was that?!” Cain roared.
“A high five, bitch,” Xylo muttered.
“Little overkill, man. Now I’m covered in applesauce!” Cain muttered, disgustedly. “Who the hell high fives like that?”
Applesauce. Not Cain’s guts.
I wiped heaps of apple pulp from my eyes to find Cain glaring at Xylo. I rounded on the skeleton, too. “You could have killed him!” I snapped.
He shook his head adamantly. “I know how to control it. The reason I destroyed the Infernal Armory was because I was angry at it—for denying me the Eternal Metal.”
I harrumphed. “Hell of a way to test your theory, Xylo. You still could have killed him by accident.”
“He deserves no less,” Xylo said definitively.
I stopped short, as did Cain.
“What are you talking about, Xylo?” I asked, staring at him incredulously.
He was glaring at the apples on the ground, now. “You found these on the ground, you said,” Xylo said, as if he’d discovered some great clue in the scattering of apples that Cain had dropped.
Cain grunted. “So? I was trying to be nice. Callie likes her juice boxes, but they don’t have juice boxes here, so I was going to make her some fresh juice,” he mumbled, avoiding eye contact with me as if embarrassed.
I smiled crookedly. That…was incredibly sweet.
“Perhaps she deserves better than fruit gathered from the ground,” Xylo growled through clenched teeth.
Cain opened his mouth to argue and then cut short without actually saying anything. He remained like that for a few seconds, cocking his head as if at a bizarre thought.
“Xylo, you lost your balloon. Maybe you should go find it,” I said, watching as the two of them stared at each other intensely.
“I’ll get another one,” he said distractedly. Before I could recover from my shock of him not caring about his balloon, he held out a hand towards Cain. “Give it to me. Now.”
I had absolutely no idea what the hell was going on, but I realized we now had an audience. Xuanwu, the massive Black Tortoise stood a safe distance away, murmuring under his breath.
Roland stood beside him, eyes wide.
Alucard…
He’d found some peanuts and was tossing them back like it was the bottom of the ninth inning with bases loaded in the last game of the World Series—Royals versus Cardinals.
I didn’t dare step away from Xylo and Cain, though.
Cain reached to his belt and slowly withdrew the long bone dagger he always had on his person. He never broke eye contact with Xylo, his face haggard and incredulous.
Xylo nodded back ever so slightly and took a step forward, holding out his Silver hand. “Yes, brothermine. Yes.”
I gasped.
Cain held out his dagger, his hand shaking. And the dagger immediately began to glow with embers and sparks. Xylo touched it and the bone dagger flared brighter, almost too bright to stare at.
Cain crashed to his knees. “Abel,” he whispered, tears streaming down his face.
“Yes, brother. Yes,” Xylo said calmly.
Oh shit. The dagger…it was the blade Cain had used to kill his brother.
Abel, not Xylo. Motherfucking Abel. Cain’s brother.
The brother he had murdered so long ago.
Family reunions were historically very dangerous events.
But this one was about to go down in the record books.
Chapter 37
I jumped between them before I consciously considered the dangers. “What the hell, Xylo? I thought you couldn’t remember anything?” I snapped, gripping him by the shoulders before he did something stupid with the bone dagger.
The bone dagger Cain had used to kill him so long ago.
Xylo looked back at me calmly, the shadows in his eyes shifting back and forth. “I didn’t. Not until I saw the apples. Then the dagger tucked into his belt. It all came crashing back to me.”
I stared back at him, shaking my head. “Apples?” I asked, not understanding how that had triggered his memory.
Cain spoke up from behind me. “When we were supposed to give a gift to God, Abel offered up the firstborn of his flock of sheep. He was a shepherd,” he explained, his throat raw.
Shepherd…
That’s what Lily had meant. Not Vatican Shepherd. But literally, a shepherd.
Cain continued. “I collected fruit already fallen from the trees, feeling lazy that day. God challenged me on the quality of my offering, rightly so. He accepted the sheep over my fruit, and I…”
“Killed me, Cain. You killed me. Your little brother!”
Cain nodded numbly. “Yes,” he admitted without attempting to justify it. He stared up at Abel, the shame, disbelief, and guilt painted all over his cheeks in his tears.
I shook Xylo. “I’m not justifying what he did, Xylo, but he’s changed. I helped him get past it. The guilt was crushing him from the inside. For thousands of years, he kept everyone at a distance, never trusting himself. I broke through that and convinced him to look at our relationship as a second chance at being a good brother.”
“That doesn’t change what I did, Callie,” Cain whispered, his voice shaking. “My brother has every right. I submit. I think I might even welcome it, if it weren’t for being concerned about you. I don’t want to leave you alone.”
Xylo glared down at him, gripping the dagger tightly. “She will never be alone, brother. She has me, now.”
Cain nodded. “Then I am content. Show me peace. Please.”
I cut in. “Well, I am not content. I beg you, Xylo, just hold off on your judgment. See for yourself if he has changed. Observe him. You are both my family, now, and I think we’ve all had enough of broken families. Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
Xylo slowly turned to look at me. “He is guilty. He killed me, his own brother. For no other reason than jealousy.” I nodded. “He was supposed to watch out for me. He was his brother’s keeper. He chose to become his brother’s killer. And for that, I was somehow brought to serve at Castle Dracula like some prized pony, living a life of shame and guilt without even knowing why. I was bullied, laughed at, mocked, ridiculed. They all knew who I was. They had to,” he whispered, his voice pained and furious.
Jesus. He…was right. Knowing Dracula, that was probably exactly how it had happened.
I grimaced, ignoring the tears misting across my vision. “Even still. He’s been paying for that crime for thousands of years. He didn’t know about Castle Dracula. You can’t pin those crimes on him.” Xylo lowered his gaze, nodding stiffly in acceptance. “I wouldn’t have accepted him as my brother if I thought he was still the man you remember him as. He made a terrible, terrible mistake, but he has changed. Give him a chance.”
Cain interrupted me. “No.”
We both turned to look at him. His face was no longer torn, but relaxed and content.
“I will only agree to that if you agree to give Abel the chance to make the final decision on his own. No interfering. Give him a time limit, but after that you must let him choose as he wishes. I demand this, Callie. I want Abel to do as he needs. Not to simply agree to your plea. I accept death—now or later. But that is for him to decide.”
&nbs
p; I wanted to argue, but…
I couldn’t. I had the unique perspective of having helped both men—no, brothers—through their personal torments. But each of them only knew their side of the story. And as much as I wanted to be their sister in this…
I wasn’t. Maybe a step-sister.
But this was blood. Quite literally.
I finally nodded. “Okay. Can you give him two weeks to see what I see in him? That’s all I ask.” And I took a deep breath before stepping back, letting the two brothers face each other unobstructed, one of them armed, the other ready and willing to die.
I looked down at Cain and he smiled back at me, not a flicker of fear on his face. In fact, I’d never seen a bigger smile on his face. “Thank you, Callie,” he whispered, his voice cracking. “No matter how this turns out, this is the greatest gift I’ve ever been given. To see Abel again. To have the chance to apologize to him, even if he doesn’t want to hear it.” He shook his head wondrously. “Only you, Callie. Only fucking you could pull something like this off.” More tears poured down his cheeks and he laughed, a great, light-hearted sound. “Thank you,” he finally whispered.
Xylo—Abel—studied the two of us thoughtfully, still gripping the dagger. But he no longer looked angry. He looked…pensive.
A small part of me realized that maybe Cain had something to teach Abel. That Cain’s ridiculously cheerful demeanor was the exact thing Abel needed to learn himself. That the two actually needed each other. If only they could come to learn that.
Cain needed, wanted, forgiveness. He wanted to prove he could look after his brother. Hell, he had sacrificed his life for me in order to prove just that in the Doors. It had been part of the test to gain entrance to Solomon’s Temple.
And Abel needed to learn happiness. How to escape his depression and the self-doubt heaped upon him by pseudo-Dracula—Jonathan Harker.
I nodded. “Remember that you aren’t just each other’s brothers. You are both my brothers now, too. And I am my brothers’ keeper.”
They both stiffened. I turned away, hiding my tears.
So sue me. If I had to use a little guilt to get the two idiot men to do what they needed to do, so be it. It was a woman’s prerogative—to save idiot, stubborn, mule-headed men from killing each other.
I stumbled over to Xuanwu, not even bothering to say hello. “I need a drink,” I muttered, ignoring Cain and Abel talking to each other behind me.
He smiled knowingly. “I have sake.”
Alucard beamed and Roland nodded.
“Perfect. You better have a lot.”
Chapter 38
I stood in the pre-dawn chill, shivering, soaked, and trying to follow Xuanwu’s strange, glacially slow, martial arts form. Tai Chi.
I felt like each individual brain cell needed its own dose of ibuprofen.
Xuanwu held more of a naturalistic philosophy and had woken me up with a pitcher of ice-water to the face.
I’d lurched out of bed with a shout—still feeling drunk—tripped over a table and then tore entirely through a rice-partition wall to fall head-first into the koi pond.
I’d never heard anyone laugh as hard as Xuanwu had. After I lunged out of the water, gasping for air, of course.
At least the pond had been warmer than the pitcher of ice-water.
After finishing the required martial arts training, I’d gone searching for Cain and Abel, only to find they had left Xuanwu’s house, not telling anyone where they were going.
So I was in a foul mood when I decided to visit Solomon’s Temple. Richard had taken one look at me, grunted, and had quickly brewed an entire pot of coffee as if by magic. Solomon soon joined us, healthy and hale, and I wrapped him up in a tight hug, laughing with joy to see his black veins entirely gone. Qinglong had been able to heal him without issue and was still shacking up in my mother’s laboratory.
I spent the better part of an hour catching them up on my journey to Castle Dracula, pointedly avoiding the topic of Cain and Abel. I told them about Xylo instead. I showed them my mother’s shotguns and they’d gasped in disbelief, having thought they’d been long lost or destroyed. I gave them a few moments to process my story and fondle the shotguns and then I asked them a question.
“Mind if I move some of my things here?” I asked. “Roland made some calls to my old landlord and cleared up the confusion by explaining that I hadn’t actually died. When I didn’t pay my HOA dues or respond to their demand letters, their standard procedure was to evict, even if I owned the place. But I’m thinking about selling it, if you have room here, of course.”
Solomon and Richard both smiled eagerly. “Of course, Callie. This place could use a few more souls to keep it lively.”
“You know, it’s funny you should say that,” I said casually. “How good is the security here?” I asked lamely.
His smile slowly slipped. “The best, of course. You know that.”
They were both frowning at me.
“And no one from the Armory can just walk in here, right?” I asked.
Solomon nodded slowly. “We can ward off exterior doors to pocket dimensions. It’s where your mother stored extra demons when her ring was getting full. What…exactly are you concerned about, Callie?” he asked, sounding nervous.
I let out a breath and asked them my real question.
Solomon choked on his coffee, jumping to his feet. “WHAT?!”
Richard had dropped one of the shotguns to stare at me, unable to even speak.
“Is it possible?” I repeated, ignoring their reactions.
Solomon cursed wildly for a few moments, arguing both sides of my question as if debating himself. I let him tire himself out before repeating my question for a third time.
He finally sat back down with a huff. “Yes,” he finally admitted. “As much as I want to say no, this is your home, and we can keep it safe. It’s just…” he trailed off, already having shouted out every reason he was both for and against it.
“It has a whole library,” I said casually. “Things even you probably haven’t seen before.”
He glanced up sharply, and I gave him a slow nod. I’d held that part back as a bargaining chip, knowing this would be a hard sell.
“And we’re just going to put it where? In the fucking back yard?” Richard blurted, shaking his head incredulously.
I shrugged. “It’s like the Armory, right? We can move it here to restrict access for everyone else as a safety precaution. I just want to know it’s safe. It’s fucking huge, guys. Huge.”
“And it has a library,” Solomon repeated, scratching at his beard.
I nodded. “With ninja baboons,” I added.
He arched a brow, mouthing ninja baboons a few times. “Well, we need to do it right. Let me do a little research, but I don’t see any reason why you can’t move Castle Dracula here,” he finally said with a tired sigh.
Richard made his way over to a nearby liquor cabinet and began drinking straight from the bottle. I smiled at him. “Tons of monsters live there. We can go hunting,” I said casually.
He lowered the bottle, looking up at me, his curiosity piqued. And as simple as that, I knew I had him.
Castle Dracula was going to be relocated.
“Is that a lily pad in your hair?” Richard asked curiously.
I scowled. “Yeah. I think I need a shower. It’s been that kind of morning.”
As Richard led me to the showers and Solomon took off to one of his libraries to research for the Castle Dracula move, I tried to think of anything else I could do to keep my mind off Cain and Abel. I knew I needed to visit Pandora to deliver the piece of Excalibur to the new King Arthur—whoever that was—but I didn’t feel up to running into Nate and crew—the St. Lunatics, as I’d considered naming them. Not with lily pads in my hair—and hungover.
Claire would also be furious that I hadn’t checked in on her, but I decided that I needed some real sleep after my shower. It had only been…how long had it been since I’d slept?
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I counted back and grew very uncomfortable. Other than last night—when I’d passed out drunk—I hadn’t slept in about a week or so. And I didn’t feel even remotely sleepy or delirious.
I thought of Xylo and my new toughened skin. I also hadn’t eaten in about the same length of time. I shuddered, wondering just how much I didn’t know about my new bond with Xylo.
Abel.
And then my mind was back in that storm of emotions.
So I very pointedly focused on each step as Richard led me to the showers, studiously keeping my thoughts on the steps required for bathing.
Maybe I really did need some sleep.
Even if I didn’t feel like it.
Chapter 39
I sat in the Feast Hall of Castle Dracula with Claire. Even having visited the place twice in the past two weeks, she was still creeped out by everything. Especially the bevy of skeleton guards who constantly followed us around.
I’d called Nate Temple and set up a time to deliver Excalibur to him next week and had caught up on any other number of little things that had sat on my to-do list while I’d been traipsing about castles and other dimensions.
Sanguina sat curled up on a chair, dozing as she usually did. She hadn’t minded the move to Solomon’s Temple, but I hadn’t introduced her to anyone but Claire yet. I knew Solomon would have a million questions for her, so hadn’t let him meet her either. Even though he was technically her new landlord.
I sat at the piano, practicing. I had no experience with pianos, but everyone knew one song.
It took me a few tries—and plenty of heckles from Claire—to nail it, but I was soon playing it well enough to recognize. Kind of.
A voice cleared behind me and I turned to see Cain and Xylo standing at the other end of the room. Claire leaned forward nervously, knowing that this was about to be terrible or amazing.
Cain smirked at me. “Pretty sure you’re supposed to play dark, haunting, creepy, foreboding music,” he teased, eyeing the skeletons curiously.
Xylo stood motionless.
“I don’t know any Nickelback,” I said, shrugging.
Godless: Feathers and Fire Book 7 Page 23
