Broken Heart 06 Come Hell or High Water (16 page)

Her hands stopped manipulating the sparkling gold strands, and they faded into nothingness. Her arms drifted down to her thighs and she blinked.

Her violet gaze went around the room. She got up, and I noticed she was shaking. Anise handed her a Milky Way and Astria nibbled on it. Anise looked up. "She needs the sugar after an experience."

I imagined she needed a therapist, too, but what did I know?

"What's a charmed one?" I asked Connor.

"Humans with latent magic. Usually starts manifestin' when they hit puberty," he said.

"Ella is thirteen," said Astria. "It appears she is a telekinetic."

I blinked. "A what?"

"She can move things with her mind," said Larsa impatiently. "Lilith's trying to come through again. Let's go stop that bitch."

Everyone else started getting up.

"What about the talisman?" I asked as Connor helped me to my feet. "Don't we have to find the other half and go to Broken Heart and get the woogy-woo done?"

"Woogy-woo?" he asked, his eyebrows going up.

"You know what I mean!"

"Stay here, then," said Larsa. She plopped a kiss on top of Jennifer's head. Then she looked at me scornfully. "It's not as if you need to go. And we don't need someone around who's so worried about herself she can't focus on rescuing the girl."

No one defended me against her vitriol, not even me. Because she was right: I wanted to be finished with this little adventure; I wanted to be free of this destiny crap. Maybe I'd thought I'd see it through, but... damn it, I
was
acting cowardly. I was not a coward, but I was definitely being whiny. Still, I was getting tired of the machinations of men and immortals. Why did they have to make everything so freaking complicated?

I caught Astria staring at me. She smiled. "You were dragged into a situation created not because you chose it, but because of what you are," she said. "Believe me when I say that I know what that's like. Unfortunately, destiny sometimes takes precedence over personal choice."

"No shit," I said, but without any rancor. She smiled again and drifted away.

Connor touched my arm and asked, "Do you want to stay?"

"Can I shoot her?" I asked, jerking a thumb over my shoulder at Larsa.

He grinned. "No, lass."

"I guess I'll go anyway."

He kissed me then, and the brush of his lips sent ripples of pleasure right through me.

I got the feeling he was going to be difficult to give up.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"She's at the Knights Inn in Tulsa," said Astria.

"That place is abandoned and way creepy. We'll meet on Peoria at the diner," said Larsa, "go over a plan there. We got time?"

"It's a dawn ceremony," said Astria.

Larsa nodded. "Let's go."

Everyone moved away from the furniture in preparation for transporting.

Jennifer tugged on my hand. "No one who worships Lilith is innocent," she said. I didn't know if she meant to comfort me or warn me.

"She appeals to the darkness that already splinters a wounded soul."

The red lights popped and spun. This time, Jennifer manifested as a young black woman dressed in a pink jogging suit and Nikes. Her hair was an explosion of corkscrew curls, some neon orange. She put a hand on her cocked hip. "Good luck, baby cakes."

"Thanks." I went with Connor and stood among the others. "Your sister?"

"Has to stay here," he said softly. "She's... unpredictable around humans."

"I like her," I said.

He grinned. "Me, too. An' she's worth savin'."

Damn straight. Just like Lilith was worth sending so deep into the Pit she'd never crawl out again. I couldn't comprehend anyone paying tributes to Lilith, much less gutting someone in her name. I'd seen plenty of death and destruction since becoming a vampire. I envied humans who remained unaware of the paranormal world. But even without knowing about werewolves or vampires, humans could create their own kind of despair and ruin. What kind of dark hearts had Lilith culled from the human population? How long had it taken her to make them spill blood for her?

"C'mon, Scry," said Connor. The Chihuahua had appeared from the kitchen, and maybe it was just me, but he looked a little fatter. The dog ran and jumped, and Connor scooped him up and put an arm around me.

"Ready?" Larsa was alone, and Anise and Ren had their arms around Astria. I wondered who among those three had the ability to transport.

Everyone nodded.

The world fell away. I think I was actually getting used to the pitching sensation, the soft implosion of my flesh. Then I felt a shift, a breaking apart of our energies, and I spun away from Connor 's connection.

Aw, crap.

I spiraled into a soft, endless blackness. Panic screeched through me.

Then the darkness peeled back and my atoms slammed together, and
boom!
I landed on a pile of squishy objects, my boot clanging against a hard metallic surface.

The stench was so bad my eyes started watering. It was dark as a cave where I was lying, although above me, I could see a buzzing light attached to a brick wall.

"Phoebe!" Connor peered over the green edge of the container, and that was when I realized I was in a Dumpster. I heard Scrymgeour yipping, his tiny claws scratching on the other side.

"Son of a bitch," I muttered. I tried to lever myself up, but my hand dove into something cold and slimy. "Oh, gross!"

Connor leaned over and held out a hand. "What happened?" he asked.

"I don't know!" I levered up on my elbow and slapped my defiled hand against Connor's. He grimaced, but didn't say anything. He pulled me to my feet and kept his hold firm while I ungracefully extracted myself from the garbage.

"You let go durin' transportation," he accused me. "That's dangerous."

"I did not," I said. "Maybe you let go of me." His eyebrows rose, his gaze suspicious. "Dinnae do it again," he said. "Or you might end up in a wall."

"I didn't let go, Connor."

"Neither did I."

"Whatever!"

"Maybe someone broke the bond," he said. "Someone trying to snatch you."

"Like Lilith?"

He nodded, looking both worried and frustrated. Great - the Queen of Evil was trying to demon-snatch me. Or not. We couldn't be sure.

I looked around. We were in the back parking lot of a restaurant. The greasy smells that I could discern beyond the stink of the garbage suggested an all-night diner that served anything fried and slathered in butter. This must be the diner Larsa had mentioned. I wondered why she called it "the diner," and realized they'd been hanging around for a while. Maybe waiting for Connor to fulfill his mission. She'd said Peoria, which was the street that ran through Brookside in Tulsa. And I recognized the Knights Inn reference, too.

"How long have your friends been skulking around Tulsa?"

"For as long as I was skulkin' around Broken Heart," he said.

I ignored the frostiness of his tone.

Not many cars were in the lot, and those that were probably belonged to the people who worked the late shift. My vampire senses told me sunrise was three hours away, maybe less.

I brushed off my pants and straightened my clothes. When I went to rub my backside, I touched the edge of something thick and crusted.

"Ew!" I peeled it off and it glopped onto the concrete. I turned and looked at the remnants of a pizza. I looked over my shoulder at Connor, who was looking at my ass - and not in an "oh, sexy" kind of way. "Well?" I demanded.

"It's a mess," he said. "There's sauce... and stuff."

"Stuff?"

"You don't want to know."

I faced him. "Work your mojo," I said, trying not to get hysterical about whatever was still clinging to my jeans. "New clothes. Hurry!"

He shook his head. "I'm a demon."

"I'm aware," I said. "Make with the magic."

"My power is my own in hell, but it's bound on the earthly plane."

Remnants of Demon 101 floated in my mind. Demons were powerful creatures, very much so, but their nature was to destroy. In their own realm, it didn't matter how they used their magic, but earth was the realm of the gods, and the majority of Pit dwellers' magic worked best if bargains were made. Transport spells were different. Demons could pop anywhere they wanted.

The reminder was as painful as falling into a pit of rusty spikes: The whole time Connor had been with me in Broken Heart, he'd been dishonest, but had not used his powers. Unless I counted seduction (which I did). Yet this time, when I thought about what he'd done, I felt sadness more than fury, though I still had wisps of that, too.

"How long have you known about the prophecy? About my part in it? About your part in it?"

"When my mother told me," he said. "A couple of weeks before I moved to Broken Heart to... see you. She took me to Astria."

"And you just believed that girl?"

"I believed my mother. And yes, Astria, too."

I strode to him. His nostrils flared, because I smelled like old food and rotting meat. Even though I knew I stank as if I'd just rolled out of a Dumpster, his reaction hurt my feelings. Embarrassment flooded my cheeks with phantom heat.

"It's not fair," I said, "to be dragged into a situation fraught with deceptions. You should've come to me and told me the deal. I would've helped you."

Connor gave me a disbelieving look, and I felt cut by it. Then I wondered,
Would I have helped?
I didn't like the idea that some whim of the universe had given me a role to play without my permission. I valued having choices, and mine had been taken from me.

"Lilith would've killed you without my protection. My father made her a sealed bargain that she would never harm me or mine."

"Yeah. I get why, I do, but that doesn't mean it was a forgivable act."

He flinched, and because I was petty and mean, I thought,
Good.

He looked away from me, a muscle ticking in his jaw. I heard a whisper in my mind:
Do I mean nothing to her? Was Astria wrong?

"What else did Astria tell you?"

"It dinnae matter," he said, his lips thinning. His resentful gaze burned through me. "Ye're so uneducated about your gifts, Phoebe. It's a wonder ye've survived as long as ye hae."

For a second, his barb hit a nerve, and I reeled from the pain of it. Then I realized his accent had gone thick, which was an indication of high emotion, even when everything else about the man suggested he was as cold inside as an Oklahoma winter.

I put away my hurt and narrowed my gaze.

"Don't change the subject." I didn't care about the fury whipping through Connor 's gaze or the way his hands fisted. "Well?"

"She said you would love me," he said bitterly. "When none could. I'm half demon, Phoebe. What heart could love mine?"

For a moment, my throat was so dry, I couldn't respond. Then I reached out, but he looked at me with such disgust that I dropped my hand.

"The others are waitin'. We have a girl to rescue."

"We should call the police."

"You really dinnae understand how this works, do you? Astria says we must do it. If we try to circumvent her vision, it goes badly for all of us. Most especially for Ella."