Evil (33 page)

I said, “I thought that man was your father.”

Damien had been watching me. His eyes were knowing as he nodded. “We’ve been connected since I first started talking to you. I didn’t realize how powerful you were until you slipped into my memories. I had to block you after that. I’ve been blocking you since, well,” he regarded Kellan, “until last night.” He gestured beside me. “You and Kellan fully bonded, and that ended the connection you and I had.”

“What does that mean?”

“Wait. I have more to confess.” We could see the actual pain on his face. He paled, his eyes and mouth straining at the ends. “I’m the one who revealed your hiding spot to the demons. They attacked you because of me. I thought if the other side took you, I wouldn’t have to deal with Sachiel.”

It was because of him.

I leaned forward, saying softly, “We were protected there.”

“I know.” His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down.

“We were safe there.”

“I know.” His eyes darted to Kellan’s, and his lips pressed together. Flinching. “And you guys defeated them.”

“You arrived the next day.” Kellan’s eyes were narrowed to slits.

“I was there before. I tracked where you were through my connection to Shay.”

I closed my eyes. I’d been betrayed through my own blood. I whispered, “They took Aumae.”

“Child.” She rested her hand over mine. “He’s confessing now. That’s all that matters.”

Kellan grunted. “I’m not that forgiving.”

Aumae insisted, “Let us hear the rest from him. He’s repenting and he’s trusting us now. He’s making himself vulnerable when he never had to. We must remember that.”

My own blood—I couldn’t get over that. A dagger was inside of me, cutting away around where my heart should be resting. It was becoming hollow, more and more, but Aumae was right. I could hear the forgiveness in her voice and I clung to it. I let it wash over me.

“I can’t track you anymore, if that makes you feel better.”

“It doesn’t.”

Damien’s head hung down, and he didn’t say anything more. I knew he had more to say, but for a moment, I needed him to shut up. For once, Kellan wasn’t the one ready to commit murder. Damien was my brother, and he had betrayed me. He hurt someone else who was good, who should have never been harmed. I glanced to Aumae and she was watching me back. Her eyes were so loving, so giving. She smiled at me. She was trying to convey the same peace to me, so that I would forgive him, but I couldn’t.

I sighed. “You can’t connect to me anymore because of Kellan, right?”

Kellan added, “You’re a part of my blood now. It’s like we’re married, Shay. You’re my family.”

My eyes went wide. Oh. “Okay.” I wasn’t surprised, not really. “That makes sense.” I guess…

Kellan grunted, hiding a smile. “I thought you knew.”

“I think I did.” I laid my hand over his. “I still would’ve done it, been with you, if I’d known the full ramifications. I’m okay with it. I am.”

He turned his hand upside down, lacing our fingers, and pulled our hands to his lap. They were hidden from the others. Damien had been waiting, he cleared his throat. “Like I was saying before, there’s a war going on above, and Sachiel is a big contender for one side.” He faltered, his head bowing slightly. “Uh…this is hard to say because this was what I was supposed to encourage. Shay, I told you before that you should bond with Kellan because then you’d be too powerful for your father to take on. That isn’t true.”

I knew where this was going.

He said further, “Sachiel
wants
you to bond with Kellan, because he intends to take your powers. Both of yours.”

I felt Kellan’s anger mounting and snuck a peek at him, but he wasn’t showing anything. His face was unreadable. His eyes gave nothing away, and he even held my hand in a gentle and loving way, but I felt his demon stirring away. My messenger side was awakening as well, and she wasn’t pleased.

“The truth is that neither of you is a match for Sachiel, and he knows that. I was supposed to get close to you, Shay, and get you to bond with Kellan. That was the first part of my job.”

A knot formed in my stomach. “And the second?”

“I’m supposed to deliver both of you to him.”

“You know how to call him?”

Damien nodded. “The messengers aren’t watching like they had been before. He was surprised at how you guys were able to fend him off, and how Shay killed the other messengers. He thought you guys had bonded and to be honest, so did I.”

“You told him where to watch for us?”

Damien glanced to Kellan. “Yeah. That was me. I came to get you guys and take you back there. That’s why I showed up when I did.”

I said, “And that’s why you didn’t want to help us rescue Vespar and Giuseppa?”

He lifted a shoulder, turning away for a moment. “I worried about what he would say, if it were reported to him that I helped save two demons. That was part of the reason. The other part was because they’re both
demons
.” He sneered, saying the last word. “It is beneath our kind to help them.”

The ground began rumbling.

Aumae and Damien both started, but I knew the cause. I was holding his hand. Both caught on when Kellan and I didn’t move.

“Oh.” Damien frowned. “I’m sorry for my part.”

“Why?”

“Why?” He echoed my question.

“Why did you do it? You were born to a human family. That means you have family still, Damien, and I’m not talking about me or our father.”

He glanced away, his jaw clenching.

“Oh dear.” Aumae spoke for the first time, her quiet words splicing through the tense room. She shifted in her seat. The corner of her mouth turned down. “Are they still alive?”

Damien jerked his head up and down. “My mother is, and so are my little sister and brother.”

He had siblings. That rocked me. “From a different father?”

He nodded again, his voice growing hoarse. “I’m sorry, Shay.”

He had a family. I did not. I tried shrugging. It didn’t matter. I had Kellan now, but my shrug fell flat. It did matter. It stung. Damien had a true family. A mother he could go back to and hug. Two siblings that would wind their tiny arms around him. I murmured, “I bet their father loves you like his.”

“He does.” Damien breathed out. “Yes. They think I was kidnapped, which I was in a way. Sachiel took me in and taught me about my messenger lineage.”

“What happens when you deliver us to him?”

Everyone turned to Kellan, hearing his question.

Damien’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “I’m free. I can go back to my family and live out my life like a normal person.”

“But you know that’s a lie, don’t you?”

Kellan’s question hung in the room as he stared at my half-brother. It wasn’t a challenge, just the truth how Kellan saw it. A second later, Damien nodded and sighed. His hands fell to the chair in front of him and curled tight around it. “I know.”

“He’ll never let you go back, if your family is even still alive.”

“I know.”

“And you’ve finally realized that now, and that’s why you’re coming clean to us.” Kellan rose from his chair. “You want our help.”

With each statement Kellan said, Damien’s gaze fell to the table, then to the floor. He looked back up now, shame brimming bright in his eyes. “Yes.”

Kellan narrowed his eyes, “That’s what I thought.”

The last two days passed too quickly. Damien explained there were only two ways to kill a messenger, and none of us would be free until Sachiel was killed. One way was to use a biblical weapon, which we had none, and Damien didn’t know where to find one.

I asked then, “And the second?”

He didn’t answer at first, drawing in a deep breath. “You’re not going to like the second option.”

“What are your choices?” Kellan mirrored Damien, standing at the opposite end and leaning forward with his hands on his chair’s backrest. “Spill it, messenger. Let’s start getting this over with.”

And he began, “Well, you see—you’ll have to let Sachiel start to drain your power…”

Here we were. Standing on a hill, feeling the ground shake with my father’s arrival, and I knew that I would either live through this or not. Those were the two options. The plan consisted of letting Sachiel start to drain our powers. Kellan and I would be linked. Sachiel would open himself up to us and he would be vulnerable. When that happened, Damien and Aumae were going to connect to us as well, and the four of us would instead drain Sachiel of his power. When that happened, when he had no power left, he would be vulnerable to a human weapon. Mr. Kent Ocean had volunteered for that part, stepping out from a closet, pale face and trembling like the other night.

He raised his hand in the air and tugged at his shirt’s collar. “I’ll do it.”

Aumae made a sound and hurried to his side. She flashed Damien and Kellan a warning, touching a protective hand to his shoulder. “Now, dear, are you sure?”

The owner pumped his head up and down. “If this guy is as bad as you say, he won’t be focused on a little human being around. He’ll be distracted by all of you guys.”

“If you kill us instead, I will come back from hell. I will kill you and every single member of your family.”

Sweat formed on Kent’s forehead. He wiped it off using the back of his arm, his eyes held by Kellan’s during his threat, and he squeaked out, “I won’t. I, just… I want to help now. I don’t think a lot of us folk ever get called to fight a battle like this. I mean, I’m a church-going man. I don’t think I could sit back and not help, you know.”

“You’re a church-going man?” Kellan drew closer, moving around the table and me.

Aumae snapped at him, “Stay back!”

I caught Kellan’s arm. “Stop.”

“I—uh—I mean, it’s not right. No matter how much of a celestial being your father is. He shouldn’t be forcing his son to turn on his daughter. I’m a father too and that isn’t right. It’s the children that are supposed to be protected. That’s my job. That should be his job too.”

And so, here we were. Mr. Kent Ocean was tucked away behind some nearby trees, protected by the same spell Kellan used to hide us when we were at Kent’s home. Sachiel had no clue the person who would kill him was the least powerful there was and in a way, it was ironic. He wanted power, but he was going to get stripped of his instead.

We felt the earth shaking first.

The winds picked up after that.

The sky darkened.

Then, there was complete silence. It was like a tornado was at our door, and we were waiting for it to ring our doorbell. All breaths were held. Everyone paused, their hearts suspended, and then, with a sudden whoosh, he landed in front of us. As he ascended, the ground thundered once again. It was enough to be a small earthquake.

My father arrived, glancing around—he was alone. That was lucky for us, but I didn’t want to question our fortune. He looked like me. He looked like Damien too. Now that I knew Damien was my half-brother, we had the same nose, same cheekbones, and even the same heart-shaped chin. Our father stood tall, closer to Kellan’s height, and he was like a Greek god. Long blond hair that curled around his shoulder. Broad shoulders. Thin waist. I looked for wings, but saw none until I glanced down. A shadow of them lay out behind him on the ground. As I watched, they folded up, tucking close to his body. His eyes were blue, like Damien’s, and he was watching me, studying me back.

“You look much like your mother.”

I frowned. “I thought you would’ve seen me before now.”

He shook his head, then grew still and tilting his head forward. His eyebrows pinched together and his forehead wrinkled. “I’ve been looking, but I’ve not seen you until today.” He glanced to Damien. “Thank you for calling me, and though I asked for them to be unconscious, thank you for having her awake. Your foresight is commendable.”

“Foresight?”

I glanced sideways to Damien, who shrugged back to me. He said, “Uh—yeah.”

Our father strode forward, his hands stretched out. A low and deep growl erupted from Kellan, and he moved forward, blocking me from my father. Sachiel drew back, his eyes finding Kellan’s for the first time, and his hands went back to his side. “I see. You think to fight on her behalf, demon?”

“You’re a condescending bitch. Do you know that?”

I caught movement behind me, from Aumae, but I didn’t dare look to see what she was doing. I hoped it would help in our fight, because now that my father was in front of us, I knew it would be a big one. The power emanated from him in waves. It was almost overwhelming, threatening to choke me.

“We can’t win.”

I wasn’t sure if I had the realization or if it came from Kellan, but I shared a look with him. It was true, though. My father was too powerful. The plan wasn’t going to work. We’d never be able to overwhelm him, not with all of us.

Despair lodged in my throat. I didn’t know what to do now. We were here. He was here. There was no going back.

My father laughed, pointing a finger at Kellan. “You have backbone. Most demons don’t. You all are sniveling idiots.” he spat, indicating the ground. “Every time I come across one, it’s always the same. They start spewing promises. They’ll turn in their mother/father/sister/brother/best friend/best mate. Whoever it is that might hold my interest and they fall to the ground. They kiss my feet and start begging. They’ll serve me even in hell. They’ll search out whoever I wish to be on my side. They’ll kill anyone I want. Crying. Begging.” He paused, his eyes narrowed on Kellan. “Pathetic.” He drew closer, and Kellan’s eyes closed to slits. “Are you going to be the same?” He flicked his wrist to me. “You are in love with my daughter, and she with you. I can smell the bond between you, unlike the last time. You both are dripping with it. You’ve recently coupled. Perhaps four hours ago.”