by Hanna Peach
She yanked her arm from his grip. “It doesn’t matter where I’ve been. I’m back now.”
Jordan stared at her, incredulity lighting up his features. “It doesn’t matter? It doesn’t matter! Alyx, you were gone for almost two goddamn days.” He grabbed her by her shoulders. “I didn’t know where you were. I couldn’t find you through the DreamScape. I thought you were in trouble. I thought you were dead. I thought…” The panic, the pain, the complete frustration and helplessness crushed together in his throat so he couldn’t speak.
His fingers pressed harder into her flesh just to make sure she was real. That she was here and alive. That she wouldn’t just disappear and prove to be only a mirage constructed from his desperate thoughts. He could see from her face that he was squeezing her just a little too tightly, but he wouldn’t let go. He couldn’t let go. Not yet.
She didn’t protest. Her hands came up to hold his face. Real. She was real and her touch was warm and solid.
“I’m okay, Jordan. I’m sorry you were worried.”
This close, he could smell a sickly sweet perfume on her. Vanilla. He caught a musky smell…that smell… He closed his eyes, pushed his nose into her hair and inhaled. He knew that smell, that sticky musky wanton smell that hung in the corridors of Purgatory thick enough to hide the reek of sin.
His eyes snapped open. His voice came out low and menacing. “You went to Purgatory. Upstairs.”
Her eyes widened, and he knew he was right.
“I-I lost track of time…”
“I looked there for you. You weren’t in the bar. Lady Bluesette told me you hadn’t checked in. But she wouldn’t let me search her rooms. You…you were in one of the rooms?”
“Yes.”
The weight of the realization fell across him. She had spent two days in a room in Purgatory with God knows whom doing God knows what. An image of a stranger’s hands on her naked flesh made his stomach twist and bile coat his throat. Two days ago he couldn’t have imagined that Alyx would do something like that to save Israel. But then again, he hadn’t imagined that she would make a deal with the devil. “In a room. With someone. Was this some other deal you made to get information? Why? Why did you do it?”
“Oh God, no,” her eyes flashed green, her shock evident. “It’s not like that. I just went to see…a friend.”
“Balthazar?”
“No. She’s a mortal. Her name’s Cleo. She works there.”
“What were you doing with her?”
“I...” Her chin dropped.
Jordan pulled back to study her. Under his scrutiny, she started to squirm against his hands still holding her in place by the shoulders. He let his eyes roam over her, starting with her hair. It was messy, like she had an unsettled night’s sleep. But her eyes were cupped by two pale purple shadows, which told him that she hadn’t slept much. Maybe not at all in the last two days. He saw the glassiness in her pupils, the paleness to her lips and skin, so that the small veins running under the delicate skin of her neck were showing. Oh God.
“What did she give you?” he demanded.
Her eyes widened further. “W-what are you−?”
“Don’t lie to me, Alyx. What did she give you? What did you take?”
“I didn’t know what it was when she gave it to me. It was something called DreamDust. It was like we were in a DreamScape but…then it seemed we got stuck in one of Cleo’s memories.”
Jordan cursed under his breath. He knew it. She had been drugged. He should have forced Lady Bluesette to open up all the rooms to him, privacy or not, enchantment or not. Goddammit, what if Alyx had overdosed or freaked out over the experience. He wouldn’t have been there for her.
He snatched his hands off her so that he wouldn’t involuntarily hurt her. His hands curled into fists. He could just break something.
“Why the hell did you go to Cleo? What were you thinking? And with the deal you made with Balthazar,” Jordan hissed this part so that his voice wouldn’t carry. “Seven days, Alyx. Seven days. And you wasted two, out of your mind like a goddamn addict.”
“I know,” she hissed back at him. “Don’t you think I know?”
“Then why−”
“I have an idea, a way of getting the information from Adere. But I need your help…”
“My help.”
“And Israel’s.”
Jordan paused. “You want us to work together?”
“Yes.”
He snorted. “Good luck with that.”
“Are you saying you won’t help me?”
“No. I’m saying that he won’t want my help.”
“We’ll let him make that decision. Where is he?”
Before either of them could speak again, a loud cheer went up from across the Saint’s Revenge.
“Speak of the devil,” Jordan muttered.
Chapter 6
Alyx pushed her way to the front of the small crowd gathered at the end of one of the platforms, Jordan close behind her. Israel was standing in the middle of the circle, bare-chested and covered in a sheen of sweat. His fists, wrapped with strips of cloth, were held up in guard position near his face. His skin had recovered its golden glow. The three pale diamond scars twinkled at her, and an image of her fingers moving across the pale flesh flashed into her mind.
A cry rose up from the small crowd, snapping her out of her thoughts as the first pirate broke into the circle to attack Israel. No. He shouldn’t be fighting when he was supposed to be recovering.
“Stop this,” she cried as she lunged forward into the space. A hand caught her shoulder and pulled her back.
“Let them go, lassie.” It was Mason, the clan’s leader.
She yanked her arm out of his in annoyance. “I have to stop this. He’ll get hurt.”
“He’ll be fine, I promise. Just watch.”
Alyx glared at Mason in disbelief for one second until she heard the slap of flesh and the crowd roar. Her head spun back towards the fight, her lungs ready to scream for this nonsense to stop. But her protest caught in her throat.
Israel had already thrown aside the first pirate. A second and a third pirate came at him, then a fourth and a fifth. Whatever blows they threw at him, Israel was blocking them in quick succession, so fast that her eyes could barely keep up. He was returning hits so hard that he caused them to buckle over or knock back into the crowd.
What the hell?
To her, Israel had always moved with grace and fluidity. But what she was witnessing now was something…beyond human. It was mesmerizing. His movements were so quick, his limbs were mere blurs in the air, almost as though he could pre-empt where the next punch was coming from.
Israel shouldn’t be able to fight like this. Jesus, even before his poison-induced coma, he wasn’t able to fight like this.
What happened to him while he was asleep?
As the fighting progressed, Israel moved into her line of sight. His eyes found hers over the right shoulder of Razorback, an attacking pirate. In her stomach she felt a stab of guilt and longing all mixed up in one confusing throb. His eyes mirrored hers. Israel’s eyes shifted to her side, where Jordan was standing. She watched Israel’s eyes harden to stone.
Israel’s arm struck out to block Razorback’s right hook, then he threw out a series of punches to Razorback’s stomach so quickly that Razorback didn’t have time to defend himself. A kick to his side threw Razorback sideways, clearing the space between him and them.
Razorback knocked into the crowd with a cry. Israel stood glaring at Jordan, chest lightly shifting from his quickened breaths. A quick glance to her side told her that Jordan was matching his glare.
Israel wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Then he widened his arms out to his sides. “You came to fight, blondie?”
The crowd dropped to silence. All eyes shifted between the two.
“I’m not fighting you,” Jordan said.
“Scared?”
“Not on your life.”
Isr
ael dropped his arms in an exaggerated show of disbelief. “Funny. ’Cause I can’t see any other reason why you would dare show up in my presence after what you’ve done.”
“We’ve come to ask for your help.”
Israel laughed, but there was no humor in it. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Jordan growled and turned to Alyx. “I told you the boy wouldn’t want to help.”
Israel narrowed his eyes at Alyx, and she felt them burning all the way into her soul. “You two talking about me behind my back?” Within three long steps, Israel was standing toe-to-toe with her. So close she could see the roll of sweat running down his chest. Jesus. Had he always been this large? This towering?
He bent his head down to her so they were nose-to-nose. “You have something to say to me, angel? Say it to my face.”
“Back up, boy,” Jordan snapped. He pushed Israel back a step with a quick sharp shove. “She’s trying to help you.”
Israel snapped his attention to Jordan. “Touch me again and I’ll break your fingers.”
“Israel,” Alyx hissed. “Stop it.”
“Blondie and I have some shit to sort out.”
“Israel, your life is at stake.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“My life is at stake,” she whispered.
Israel froze. Then he turned to address the crowd. “Everybody leave,” he bellowed out. “Now. Show’s over.”
Immediately everybody scrambled, dissipating across the platforms. Alyx could feel their glances back at her and Israel. Mason obeyed as well, pausing only to squeeze her shoulder lightly. An act of comfort, she supposed. She didn’t feel comforted.
As the pirates left, they took with them all the lightness in the space. The tension between Israel, Jordan and her became so heavy, she felt like she had trouble breathing.
“You wanted my help,” Israel said. “Start talking.”
“We need to find Samyara so we can kill him. I think I know how. Dianne said that the only way that we would get information out of Adere was if she told us or if she replayed her memory. When Cleo and I were in a Dream, it brought up one of her memories. She stepped into it and replayed her role in it.”
“Who’s Cleo?” Israel asked.
“I’ll explain later,” Alyx said. “What if we go into a DreamScape with Adere and recreate the last few moments before she turned? She’d relive the memory, wouldn’t she?” She chanced a glance at Jordan to find he was watching her closely.
Jordan pursed his lips. Then nodded. “Highly likely. Which means she’d re-enact her next actions, which would be to go find Samyara. She’d show us where his den is.”
“Exactly. Jordan, if you can help us DreamWalk Adere, then Israel, you can recreate the argument between you and Adere before she turned.”
“No,” Israel said. “I’m not working with him. We can do it, you and I. You can use his blood like you did with Moloko.”
“No, she can’t,” Jordan said. “What she’s proposing is too advanced for her. When Adere ‘turns’ in the dream, she’ll be reliving an extraordinary amount of emotion and anger. It may tear apart the DreamScape, harming your mind and her mind in the process.” He turned to Alyx. “I have the utmost faith in your ability, but you won’t be able to maintain the DreamScape when that happens.”
Israel growled. “Then we can ask another DreamWalker.”
“You’re not going to find another DreamWalker out here with my ability.”
“You think a lot of yourself, don’t you?”
Jordan shrugged. “It’s true.”
Israel snorted, then turned to Alyx. “You trying to tell me that you fell for this guy?”
“I’m just stating fact,” Jordan said, his voice remaining calm and cool. “You need me. I have to DreamWalk it for you.”
“Israel, please. You have to,” Alyx said.
“I don’t work with people I don’t trust.”
“You’re going to have to trust him.”
“We’ll find another way to get to Samyara.”
“No. We don’t have time. I haven’t told you everything.”
Israel’s eyes narrowed at her as he crossed his arms over his chest, making his biceps bulge. Go on, his glare said.
“Jordan,” Alyx said. “Can you give us a moment alone, please?”
For a moment Jordan looked like he might refuse. But then he nodded. “I’ll just be over there. In case you need me.”
“She won’t need you,” Israel snapped.
Jordan ignored Israel. “Okay, Alyx?”
“Okay,” Alyx said.
As Jordan moved out of earshot, Alyx prepared herself to deliver the news. “Israel, you’re not half demon, half mortal…you’re part Seraphim as well.”
Israel looked like he had just been slapped. “Part Seraphim? But…how?”
“Your father.”
Israel paused. He reached up to touch the ring on the end of the chain around his neck. Although she wasn’t close enough to see the inscription, she knew it by heart: Ani Ledodi Ve Dodi Li. It meant, I am my beloved and my beloved is mine.
“So, a Seraphim gave my mother this. But who?”
“I don’t know.”
Israel tapped the ring with his finger, looking thoughtful. “If my father is a seraph, is there any way of using magic on this ring to find out who he is? Like, would there be his essence or his memory or something left on the metal?”
Alyx frowned. She knew that Tobias had created an object called a soulglobe, which allowed memories to be preserved, but could metal hold on to latent energies? “Maybe using Alchemist? I’ve never heard of such a thing, but maybe ask Tobias.”
“When this is over, I will.”
“Israel, don’t you see my point? Your bloodline makes you a tri-blood keye. You are the keye. You are what Samyara is after. Your blood can open the gates between all our worlds. This is why you were given a Guardian: me.”
“Holy… Wow.” Israel licked his lips. “Holy…” Then he rubbed his face, muffling a string of curse words. He spun on his heel to stand with his back to her, his hands gripping his hair.
“Israel,” she stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder. He flinched away from her touch, causing her a stab of pain at his rejection.
“Just give me a sec…” he muttered.
Alyx stood in silence, watching him. With his hands on his head, his back seemed to widen as if he had grown a pair of folded wings that fell from his arm to his waist. She became mesmerized by the drops of sweat collecting down the channel that was his spine until they sat in the small of his back. He took one last deep breath, and she watched as his ribcage filled with air before he turned back to her, dropping his hands.
“Okay,” he said. “So I’m the single thing standing between Lucifer and this Earth. Great. I can deal. Now what? I just have to stay out of the way of anyone who could use me to open the gates to Hell and make Earth a demon free-for-all party, right?”
Alyx cringed. “It’s not that simple.”
“What do you mean, ‘it’s not that simple’?”
“To save your life, I had to make a deal…”
“What deal?”
“I tried everything to save you; you have to know that. But the potion didn’t work because at the time, we didn’t know that you were part Seraphim as well.” She felt her face crack with despair. “I’m sorry, Israel. I’m so sorry. I had no other choice. I couldn’t let you die.”
Israel’s features tightened. “What deal?”
“Balthazar is a confidant, a demon. But it’s not what you think. He’s on our side, sort of. He told me the secret behind your blood, the reason why our potion didn’t work, and he gave me a cure to save your life. He saved your life.”
“What. Deal?”
“We have to stop Samyara, to neutralize his threat. Your blood on a weapon can be used to kill Samyara, actually kill the demon from here. We have…had seven days. But I’ve got a plan. We�
��ll defeat him, Israel. We will.”
Israel took a step towards her, closing the distance between them. “Or else?”
“I have to hand you over to them. To Balthazar.”
“Let me get this straight…you agreed to hand me over to a demon.”
“To save your life. We’ll find a way to kill Samyara.”
“But if we don’t and I refuse to go?”
“Israel, I was never going to hand you over to them. Never.”
“And if you break the deal with them?”
Alyx gave him a small smile. “Let me worry about that.”
“Alyx, we are bonded, far more than I think you realize. Whatever hurts you, hurts me too. So don’t you dare keep this from me.”
She inhaled audibly before releasing her lungs in a huff. And with that breath, the last of her hesitation left. She was done keeping things from him. “If I break the deal, I forfeit my life.”
Israel’s eyes widened. Then he shook his head. “No. That isn’t happening.”
“I made the deal, Israel. If we fail…”
Israel growled, and he grasped her chin with his hand. “I would rather be sent to Hell than have you die.”
She smiled, but there was no humor in it. “I would rather die than to send you to Hell.”
His thumb traced her cheek. This close, his manly scent and the heat rolling off his half-naked body was so thick, it cloaked her. “So, angel, we finally agree. We better not fail, then.”
* * *
When Alyx told Mason that they needed access to Adere again to perform more magic, he hadn’t been happy.
“What exactly are you going to do? No. Don’t tell me. I don’t damn well want to know,” he said. “Just promise me it won’t endanger any of my men.”
Alyx glanced over to Jordan. Would they be endangering the mortals in this station? If something went wrong…would the demons be able to find them here or to be drawn to the men here somehow?
“Nothing will go wrong. I promise,” Jordan said. “You and your men are safe.”
