Blind Destiny: Grimm's Circle, Book 7 [retail mobi] (17 page)

I’d cursed her to this place. I’d cursed the very ground. I’d made things so much worse.

I was so fucking stupid.

“I did this,” I whispered, feeling sick inside.

“Yes.” The wraith glared at me, the cold edge of his fury only adding to the sickness I felt. “You are responsible, you little fool. For their misery, for their suffering. You—”

“Hey, featherhead.”

The wraith whipped his head around, his black gaze zeroing in on Luc.

“You said something about leaving her here. Does that mean you came to
get
her?”

The challenge in Luc’s voice was enough to cut through my own self-flagellation. I needed to be kicked, and hard, but if he wasn’t careful, we would have problems. Luc wasn’t familiar with wraiths—none of us were, really. They weren’t exactly common. They only emerged when there were…recalcitrant souls. Most mortals weren’t strong enough to cling to this world once their bodies died, no matter what humans might think.

But some could. If they were the kind of soul who could cause problems, a wraith would come for them and force them over.

We were on the same side, really. But wraiths were a little more…crazed, a little darker, a little odder, stranger, than even we were. And Luc was goading this one.

“Fetching her is my duty,” the wraith said, his voice a low, rough grumble that came from deep inside his chest. “One I’ve been unable to do for hundreds of years, thanks to this inept fool.”

I sneered at him and went to say…something.

But Luc, ever the knight gallant, gave the wraith a mocking look. “If you waited all that long, why aren’t you doing it now, instead of being an asshat?”

The wraith’s eyes narrowed and his mouth went tight in a scowl. He was thinking. I could see that well enough.

He was ancient. I could feel the age on him and knew he was easily as old as I was. Probably older. But unlike me, he didn’t live in this world. He drifted in and out, pulled in only when he was called. Unsocialized to the max, this one.

So it’s understandable that it took him a moment or two to realize he’d just been insulted.

And being an ancient one, the slice to his honor, his pride had the kind of result I would have expected. Swearing, I went to jump between them, but they had already launched themselves at each other.

Oh.

Oh, shit.

This was going to get ugly.

Krell snarled and growled, barking low in his throat as the two men tumbled far too close to him. I watched as he sank his teeth into the woman’s shirt and started to drag her away, trying to get her to safety.

“Shit,” I muttered.

Just as I reached her, the pendant that lay under my tank top, trapped between my breasts, heated.

As the portal flared and burst into being, quicker than normal, I hauled the woman’s stiff, frozen body into my arms. “It’s about damn time,” I snapped at Will as he strode through.

Two seconds later, Luc’s body went flying through the air.

Blood arced in splattering trail all around us, and I shrieked as I saw something bloody and wet in the wraith’s hand. He flung it on the ground and went to lunge.

I shoved the girl into Will’s arms, trying hard not to look at the pulpy mass on the ground.

Luc pulled his bladed staff free, ignoring the gaping hole in his side, ignoring the pain. Okay, so the fucker had just ripped out his kidney. He could think through that pain, long enough to do—

But the giant was on him again, almost instantly. Relying on Sina’s sight was almost impossible and he couldn’t call Krell to him with the girl there, either.

He settled on the second sight that guided him most often, something he didn’t always trust in battle. To that second sight, this man’s presence was a gaping, empty void and Luc struck out at the winged appendages just as the man came down on him.

“You fight well,” the wraith said. “Especially for a fool. I will kill you quickly, despite the insult—”

“Crow.”

“Go away, traitor of old,” the wraith said.

Yes…talk, fucker. That makes it easier to track you…
Luc jerked up with his blade, and had the satisfaction of hearing a roar of pain.

Then, the massive weight pinning him to the ground was gone. Gentle hands touched him and he found that path that led him to Sina’s mind, opening to him. “You stupid bastard,” she muttered. “There was no reason to fight him.”

Coughing hurt like hell, but he couldn’t stop it. As she pressed down on the gaping hole in his side, he tried to look around.

Will.

He’d heard Will…

Crow stared at the oldest of the Grimm. Old for a Grimm. But not old for an angel. There were some far older than this one. And many of them hated this new breed.

Crow was one of them.

Dismissing the pale creature, he said, “Go away. I have a mission to see to, a man to kill. Do not worry, I will not kill the female Grimm or the mortal.”

“You’re not killing any of my Grimm,” Will said.

Baring his teeth, Crow took a step forward. “You could not stop me on your best day.”

“Perhaps not. But on my worst day? Yes. And those are about all I have.” Will cocked his head and lowered his gaze to the lifeless body that held a soul inside it. “Isn’t she who you came for?”

“My mission is my own concern. I’ll see to it when I choose, traitor of old.”

“You should see to it now, before she finds a way to break free of that mortal shell and find another host,” Will said. Then he shrugged. “But that is your concern, as you say. The lost souls are your area. Demons, naturally, are mine. I sent Sina here to break her hold on this place so you could see to your job.”

“Her blindness left this place in hell,” Crow said, shooting the female Grimm a dark look. “She all but cursed this land with her negligence. You should discipline her.”

Will lifted a brow. “How I manage my people is my concern, Crow. Not yours. And had you bothered to let me know there was a problem, it could have been done ages ago. Perhaps word should be sent up the line about
your
negligence.”

Crow curled a hand into a fist. “I am not responsible for the ineptness of your warriors, traitor.”

“And I’m not responsible for your stupidity.”

Just one strike, Crow thought. That was all he desired. One strike to that bastard’s face. But it was forbidden. He couldn’t break the law—and he’d tried, more than once. He was physically incapable of striking the one who called himself Will.

Lifting a hand, Crow held it, palm down over the ground. A black maw opened. Shadows danced and flickered within and the screams, the wails of the souls within were an eerie song that flooded the night.

Smiling, Crow called to Despoina.

She fought.

But he had done this for too long and none were able to resist him. Within seconds, she was cast out of the body she’d stolen and her soul, a black, sticky thing was winding toward the void in a recalcitrant curl. “In you go,” Crow murmured.

She gave one final jerk, tried to wrap around Will’s ankle.

But that touch made her shriek, almost in pain, and Crow used it to his advantage, hurtling her into the blackness of eternity. As her soul faded away, he felt the tugging of his own void pulling at him, but he ignored it.

He still had a fight to finish.

Will stared at him.

“She is gone,” Crow said quietly. “Now…”

He turned and slanted a look at the other man.

“Don’t,” Will warned.

Crow opened his mouth, then stopped, thinking a moment. There was something he wanted to say—oh, yes. There it was. “Fuck you, Will.”

As he took a step, one of his wings dragged the ground. The black-haired Grimm had cut his wing. Had insulted him. He’d suffer for it.

A sword jerked up, short and sturdy, as Crow moved closer. “Unable to fight me with just your own hands, Grimm?” he taunted.

“I’m pretty good at using whatever weapons I’ve got at my disposal, featherhead,” the Grimm said, his eyes a little off center.

Crow frowned.

Shifted a step to the left.

A few seconds later, the Grimm’s eyes tracked him.

But not immediately.

An uncomfortable thought settled in the back of his mind, but he brushed it off. “If you hadn’t insulted me, you could have left here alive,” Crow said.

“Well, if you hadn’t insulted my woman, I wouldn’t have felt the need to insult you, fuckhead. So let’s do this.”

Light burst between them.

Crow, though, was the only affected.

As he went flying back, Will moved between them. “Crow. Enough.”

“Damn it, Will, get out of my way,” Luc snapped.

“No.” It was flatly, coldly said. “Sina, do not let him use your eyes.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. If I feel it, I’ll block it.”

Luc snarled and went to reach for Krell, but that was blocked. Then Krell whimpered—an odd, strangled little sound that went abruptly silent. “Damn it, Will if you’ve hurt my dog, I’m gutting you.”

“I wouldn’t hurt your dog. He’s sleeping.” A hand slammed against his chest. Luc sensed it coming, but it was a few seconds delayed, just like everything was with the second sight and he couldn’t evade.

A rush of sound came at them, but Will just sighed. Luc felt the electricity charge the air and then there was another crash. “Crow, the more you throw yourself at us, the more I’ll throw you around,” Will said.

“I do not see how you can trust your warriors if you must battle for them,” the wraith said.

“This isn’t a battle,” Will snapped, and his voice was about as close to anger as Luc ever heard it. “You insulted a woman he has feelings for. You’re so worked about your honor—have you forgotten
your
mortal years? What would you do if a man had insulted a woman you cared for? Ignore it? Yank your head out of your ass. You fought. You bloodied each other. Enough.”

“Fuck off,” Luc said, twirling his staff and readying himself. The man wanted a fight? That was just fine with Luc.

He moved—and a hand yanked him back.

But it wasn’t Will’s.

“No,” Sina said softly. “Enough. Crow fights to the death…and we aren’t doing this just because the two of you feel
insulted
or whatever foolishness this is.”

“Is she your woman?”

The man was blind.

Crow moved closer, painfully aware of his dragging wing, of the bruises all along his body and the myriad wounds that were slowly healing along his mortal form. He only took to this form when in this realm, and only then if he had to. The longer he wore it, the quicker he could control the healing, but conversely, the more acutely he was aware of the mortal failings. Like pain. Hunger. Exhaustion.

And now, there was a great deal of pain.

Done to him by a warrior who couldn’t even see him.

By a man who had been defending his woman.

By a man who still hadn’t answered him.

“I asked you a question, Grimm.”

The Grimm swung his staff, a graceful blur of wood and blood-streaked silver in the air. His blood was on those blades, Crow thought. His blood.

“I heard you well enough,” the Grimm said. “I’m blind, not deaf.”

Then he reached up, touched his free hand to the arm the woman had wrapped around him. Sighing, he said, “She feels like mine. But that is neither here nor there. You insulted her. It pissed me off. This is between us and we’ll end it between us.”

Disgruntled, Crow turned away.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Will, the hated traitor, watching him.

“It’s already ended,” Crow said sourly.

He did not remember much of anything of his mortal life, but he did remember honor.

A man defended what he loved.

And this man had defended it well.

Crow’s dragging wing was proof enough of that. Limping through the house, he found something tugging at him.

No. Someone.

He’d sensed her earlier. The young mortal.

Her skin was the warm, sun-kissed gold of his own, marked with lovely, graceful lines that disappeared under the covering of her clothes. Something about her felt…warm. Warm against the ever-present coldness that was his nature.

“She heals souls,” he said, turning his head to look at Will. “And she has seen too much. The mortal world is no longer for her.”

Will lifted a brow. “I believe I’ve already said I know how to handle my people.”

Crow curled a lip. “She’s more suited to
my
kind than yours. You deal with demons. I deal with souls.”

“It would be up to her. And it’s a long way for her.” Will circled around, cutting a wide path to avoid Crow’s wings. “She can’t go where you go yet. But she can go where we go.”