Jolene nodded. “It will no doubt take them a while.” Her face softened as her gaze slid to Khloé. “We won’t let this—Enoch—taint your home, sweetheart. He doesn’t get to have that power. Before you go anywhere, you need to call both your parents and tell them what happened tonight.”
Fuck, those conversations wouldn’t go well. “I’ll do it when I’m packing my stuff.”
Of course, both her parents lost their mind on hearing that Enoch had struck again. They both also tried convincing her to stay with them for a while, but they eventually conceded that staying in the Underground would be a better option.
Keenan came with her to her house while she packed, but he didn’t say a word. Nor did he speak when, as promised, Harper helped her get settled into the penthouse. It really was gorgeous with the shiny marble flooring, the stylish custom furnishings, the unique artwork, and the floor-to-ceiling windows. It was also as freakishly clean as Khloé’s home, so that was enough to make it feel homey for her.
Khloé doubted she’d make use of the gym during her stay—she was far too lazy for that. But she’d be happy to try out the sauna at some point.
As the couple were leaving, Knox said, “If you need anything, if there’s a problem of any kind, press this.” He gestured at a button on the keypad attached to the entryway wall. “It will alert the hotel staff. You probably won’t need to, of course, given that you’ll have Keenan with you.” He looked at the sentinel, who was staring out of the window overlooking the Underground.
“Sleep well,” said Harper, giving Khloé a quick hug. “See you tomorrow, Keenan.”
The couple then stepped into the elevator, which soon began to descend.
Khloé turned and walked into the living area, her feet dragging. God, she was dog tired. Which was unsurprising, given that she’d expended a whole lot of psychic energy tonight. “I need to go shower and clean my wounds—I’m sure you’ve noticed I absolutely reek,” she said to Keenan’s back.
He slowly turned to face her, and his eyes swept over her injuries again. He crossed to her, tension in every line of his body. A sense of helplessness poured off him, making her chest ache.
He skimmed his hand up her arm. “I hate seeing you wounded,” he said, his voice thick with suppressed anger. “It makes me want to kill.”
“Yeah, me too.”
He rested his forehead on hers and closed his eyes. “I couldn’t get to you.” He almost choked on the words. “You kept your promise, you called out to me. But I couldn’t do my part and get to you.” Guilt dripped from his voice.
She loosely fisted his shirt with one hand while combing her fingers through his hair. “That wasn’t your fault.”
Shame snaking through his system, Keenan opened his eyes. “You could be dead now. Worse, you could be one of Enoch’s fucking puppets.” Just the thought of her shuffling toward him, her eyes empty, her face pale and slack, made his stomach lurch.
There would have been only one thing that Keenan could have done for her—destroy her, just as she’d destroyed those other corpses tonight. But it would have killed something inside him to do it. Something that never would have healed.
Khloé was laughter and mischief and life. Enoch was intending on snuffing that out. The worst of it was … Enoch could do it without ever again touching her, because she was already ill, and it was getting worse.
Every moment of every day, it played on his mind that she was riddled with a fucking infection—one he had no way of fighting. Not without divine help. Literally. And so far, he’d had no luck getting it for her.
He felt like he was letting her down. Felt like the biggest fucking failure. What good was all his power and training if he couldn’t protect the person who mattered most to him?
His demon didn’t do “guilt,” so it felt none of the shame that assailed Keenan. But the entity was all eaten up by the powerlessness that taunted them both. It had no intention of losing Khloé but, like Keenan, it could almost feel her slipping away.
Earlier, he’d paced outside her house with the others who’d gathered there on noticing the shield. He’d struck it with power over and over, but the shield hadn’t once faltered. Not even when he, Jolene, and the sentinels worked together to try taking it down. They’d needed Khloé for that—the person inside it.
“You have no reason to feel guilty, Keenan. Nothing that happened tonight was on you. What went down was bad, I know, but you’re missing the positives. His plan was an epic failure. He didn’t manage to trap me. He didn’t manage to kill me via his puppets or even severely wound me. I saw how much that infuriated him when I spoke to him—the defeat was hard for him to take.
“We have a better chance of making him surface again now. If he comes at me directly, we’ll all be waiting for him. And, more importantly, I’ll have the blade with me—Grams even gave me a knife sheath to strap on my thigh so that I can carry the blade at all times, but I prefer tucking it inside my boot. He doesn’t know about the knife yet, which gives us an advantage.”
Keenan curved his hand around the side of her neck. “It should make me feel better, but it doesn’t. You’re forgetting one very important thing. If he manages to rip that blade from your hand and stab you with it, there’ll be no healing your wound. The steel is fatal to all demons—that’s the only reason it can kill him.”
A line creased her brow, and he could see she hadn’t thought of that. “But I’m more at risk from dying at his hand if I don’t get rid of him fast,” she said. “There’s only so many times he and I can do the same dance before he gets lucky and manages to kill me.”
“I know. That’s exactly why, from now on, I’ll be shadowing you whenever you go somewhere. No, don’t argue. I know you’re powerful, and I know it’ll be hard for him to get to you here. But I won’t be able to function if I don’t at least escort you from place to place. I don’t trust anyone else to protect you as vigorously as I will.” He stroked his thumb down the column of her throat. “Give me that peace of mind. I need it.”
She would have fought him on it, but she could see that he really did need it. And since it wasn’t as big of a deal to her as it was to him, she sighed and said, “I don’t think it’s necessary, but fine. You want to follow me around, knock yourself out. But don’t whine when you get bored.”
“You’re many things, Khloé, but you’re never boring.”
“Why, thank you.”
He took her hand. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.”
*
Khloé ambled along the footpath, passing house after house after house. All looked the same, just like every car and driveway and lawn looked the same.
It was the house at the end of the street she needed to reach, but it seemed so far away. She sped up, eager to get there. But the street seemed to stretch and elongate, keeping the house away from her. She walked faster and faster but couldn’t seem to get any closer to it.
She began to jog and slipped her hand into her pocket. No key. She’d lost it. Which meant she’d only get inside if Penelope let her in.
Khloé slowed as she noticed a man lounging on the roof of a car up ahead. Realizing it was Enoch, she hissed.
He turned his head and pinned her with his gaze, smiling. “I’ll bet you’re pleased with yourself, aren’t you, Miss Wallis?”
“Pleased?”
“Well, you killed all those people I sent your way.”
“They weren’t exactly people.” But he was not getting that. “I made their state of death more final, though, yeah. And I think they would have thanked me for it. But since I destroyed the corpses of people who’d never done a damn thing to me, no, I’m not pleased.” She planted her feet. “I’d much rather fight you. But you’re hardly ever around.”
“I was at every attack.”
“Not always bodily.”
Humor lit his eyes. “And you think that means I fear you.”
“No. I think you want to draw this all out as long as you can; make us
suffer as you feel that you’re suffering.”
He gave a slow clap and sat up. “Clever girl.”
“But you’re still a chicken shit.”
He stiffened but didn’t drop his smile. “Really?”
“Well, it’s not like I can actually kill you for good. You could fight me in person and survive it just fine. Instead, you use puppets.”
“It hurts to die, and then I’m weak for days until my body regrows—not something I enjoy. Why not get my revenge from the comfort of a chair?”
She tilted her head. “You really think Molly would want you to do this? To turn on your lair? To try to kill the sister of one of her best friends? To live as a stray and always be looking over your shoulder?”
Fury flashed across his face. “I think she’d rather be alive. But your grandmother killed her. Jolene will die soon, too. And she’ll die at your decomposing hands, but not before she’s felt the pain of your passing. We’ll see just how easy it is for her to accept someone she loves is dead; we’ll see if she can bring herself to destroy her resurrected granddaughter.”
“Jolene didn’t kill your little girl. Molly was already gone.”
“No, she was gone after you sliced through the shield that protected her, leaving her vulnerable. I couldn’t keep my psychic grip on her after that. I lost her. And it is something that both you and your grandmother will pay for.”
He conjured a black orb and tossed it at Khloé so fast she couldn’t dodge it. It crashed into her head and—
Khloé’s eyes snapped open, and she clenched the coverlet hard as her surroundings sank in. There was no pain, no Enoch, no street, no black orb. Instead, she was lying on the luxurious bed in the penthouse’s guest bedroom.
Beside her, Keenan curled an arm around her waist and drew her close. “You all right?” he asked, his voice thick with sleep.
“Yes. It was just a shitty dream.” And yet not entirely a dream. Enoch had invaded her sleep again. Was it another distraction so that he could send in his puppets?
She reached out with her mind and scanned the penthouse. Aside from Keenan’s, there were no other minds present, demonic or otherwise.
Keenan slid a hand up her back. “What was the dream about?”
She hesitated, not wanting to worry him.
“Khloé.”
She sighed. “I think Enoch went for a stroll through my dreams again.” She relayed what happened. “He’s obviously pissed and needed to vent a little.”
“It’s more than that. He doesn’t want you to feel safe. He wants to make you feel that he can get to you anywhere, anyplace—even in your dreams.”
“Huh. Never thought of it like that.” Khloé blew out a breath and rubbed a hand down her face. “I’m not going to be able to get back to sleep.” In all honestly, she was reluctant to drift off in case he went strolling into her dream again. Plus, her demon was too restless to settle any time soon, and its edginess would keep her awake.
Keenan tossed back the covers. “Then let’s go make some coffee. I’ll ask Levi to contact his incantor friend, Ella, and see if there’s a way to block Enoch from entering your dreams.”
Khloé lifted her brows. “Do you think it could be done?”
“There’s only one way to find out.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
It turned out that it could be done, so Levi brought Ella to the penthouse an hour later. Khloé’s inner demon stirred, sensing the female was powerful. Khloé had met the slim, leggy redhead once or twice before. There was something very striking about her. It wasn’t just her rich ruby red hair or her piercing inky blue eyes. She carried herself with a confidence that said she could take out anyone without breaking a sweat—Khloé liked that.
“Levi told me someone keeps going for a stroll in your dreams,” said Ella, settling on the sofa beside her. “I can use magick to help. Normally, it would be pain free. But Levi said that someone built protective shields around your vital organs. I’ll first have to unravel the one around your brain and then rebuild it afterward—both processes will hurt.”
Yeah, Khloé remembered the pain from when Vivian first constructed the psychic shield. Going through it again would be worth it if it meant keeping Enoch out of her dreams. Her demon was still in a tizzy about it.
Jolene had been just as furious to hear that he’d pulled that shit yet again. In fact, so was Teague—Khloé had called him shortly after last night’s attack, not wanting him to find out about it from anyone else, but she’d called him again after the dream incident. He went freaking nuclear.
“That’s why I have a tub of ice-cream on my lap,” Khloé told her. “I’m hoping that eating it will distract me.”
“One can but hope,” said Ella, twisting in her seat to face her.
Khloé did the same and spooned some ice-cream. “Ready when you are.”
Keenan loomed over them, seeming almost manic with restlessness. “How does this work?” he asked Ella. “You plant a psychic wall in her mind to keep him out?”
“If I did that, she wouldn’t be able to telepath anyone,” said Ella. “What I’m going to do is embed a sort of ‘tripwire’ in her mind that will become active when she sleeps. If anyone tries to invade her dream, it will flick the tripwire, which will snap her awake.” She smiled at Khloé. “Let’s get started.”
Ella’s fingertips danced in the air, and she chanted under her breath. Her magick punched its way into Khloé and crackled through her body, just as Vivian’s power had. Her demon stiffened, disliking the sensation, but it didn’t fight back; it simply watched the incantor closely as she worked.
The entire time, Keenan sat behind Khloé with his arms curled around her waist, keeping her and her demon anchored. Eating the ice-cream didn’t distract her much, but she hadn’t really expected it to.
“Done. Now I’m going to plant the psychic tripwire,” said Ella.
Khloé grimaced. “Is it going to hurt?”
“No. You might feel a strange sensation in your head, like a butterfly is trapped in one place just beneath your scalp, but it will pass.”
‘Strange sensations’ she could cope with just fine. While Ella did her thing, Khloé said, “It’ll infuriate Enoch that he can’t reach me, which will further bait him into coming at me.”
Keenan rumbled a low growl against her neck. “Don’t remind me. I want him out in the open. But I don’t want him near you.”
“I know, but—” Khloé blinked. “Wow, that really does feel like a butterfly’s trapped up here, flapping its wings.” She pressed down on the spot. “I can’t feel it with my fingers when I touch my scalp, though. Oh, wait, it stopped.”
“Because the tripwire is now in place,” said Ella. “Now I just need to rebuild the shield around your brain.”
Again, magick jolted through Khloé’s head and unsettled her demon, but the entity again put up no resistance. Khloé leaned back against Keenan and ate her ice-cream, not really tasting it. Finally, the crackling sensations faded.
Ella smiled and said, “All done. If anyone tries slipping into your dream, you’ll wake immediately.”
Feeling fidgety and jumpy, Khloé let out a long breath. “Thank you, Ella. I know it’s a long shot, but is there anything you can do to fight the infection?”
“I already asked her during our drive here; it can’t be done,” said Levi, his tone heavy with regret.
“Only pure life can destroy that sort of darkness,” said Ella.
Khloé sighed, not particularly surprised by the answer. “I don’t suppose you know any angels, do you?”
The incantor shook her head. “No, sorry. I’ve never come across one. They provide their services to many preternatural creatures—for a price, of course—but they’re less likely to work with demons. Hey, Lucifer was once an angel. Maybe he could help.”
“He gradually lost his power to heal after eons of living in hell,” Khloé told her. “He’s been whining about it ever since, according to my grandmother.”
“He probably wouldn’t have helped you anyway,” said Keenan, resting his chin on her shoulder. “He doesn’t involve himself in Earth matters—they apparently bore him.”
“I think most things bore him, with the exception of Asher,” said Khloé. The Devil seemed to have a genuine fondness for her little cousin. But then, Asher could win anyone over. His dimply smiles could melt even the hardest heart.
“Lou’s currently trying to convince Harper and Knox to allow him to ‘mentor’ Asher,” groused Levi. “Lou feels that, as the boy’s honorary uncle, he’d be the best choice.”
Khloé shook her head, and her demon rolled its eyes. “Unreal.”
“A whole lot of power lives in that child—I sensed it when I first saw him—so it’s unsurprising that the Devil would want to be around him,” said Ella. “Lucifer would no doubt try to use him for his own purposes.”
“Neither Knox nor Harper would allow that to happen,” Levi stated.
Damn right they wouldn’t. Lou was darkly powerful, yes, but he wasn’t the most powerful entity in existence or even the cruelest. There were far worse things in hell than Lucifer—he’d just made a home for himself there and brought some order to it.
Just then, Keenan’s phone began to chime. He dug it out of his pocket and stood. “I’ll be right back.” He headed to the kitchen to take the call.
Looking at Levi, Ella tilted her head. “On another note, how’s the kid you asked me to spell?”
“Fine, from what we’ve seen,” replied the sentinel. “He and his mother are being watched at all times.”
Khloé pursed her lips, wondering if they were referring to Thea and Lane. She didn’t ask, unsure if Keenan would have to deal with some blowback for telling her lair business.
A tickle built in the back of her throat. She coughed and sat up straighter, patting her chest hard.
Ella shot her a look full of regret. “I’m sorry that there’s nothing I can do about the infection.”
So did Khloé. Like yesterday, she felt tired and drained. Her throat was still dry and sore, and her chest still ached like a mother.
Omens (The Dark in You Book 6) Page 21
