Good Side of Sin (40 page)

“It’s as good an explanation as any, I suppose.”

“Good,” he said, and grunted as he turned his hips toward Baddon. “Will ye take ma belt off o’ me? I’m a little tied up at the moment.”

Baddon raised an eyebrow. “Look, Troy, I like you, man, but you’re not exactly my—”

“The prong is actually a universal handcuff key. We carry silver cuffs on oor person because we fight demons and need a way tae restrain them once we’ve caught them. Malcolm actually designed it into the belt so we wouldnae lose them. I told ye Marcus wasnae very bright, or he would ha’e remembered tae de-belt us. The asshole kept ma Angel’s cap, too—definitely a dumb move on his part. He’ll realize that soon enough.”

Baddon went to work on taking the belt off Troy. “This Malcolm guy… he’s pretty smart, huh?”

Troy smiled as Baddon released him from the metal binding his wrists. “That’s wan word tae describe him. I pray Josselyn can find a way tae bring him back frae Limbo. We sure could use his brain about right now.” He rubbed his wrists and nodded to the others as he separated the tool from the belt. “Here—take the key and free the others frae their restraints.”Troy sat up, stuck the leather in between his teeth and positioned his hands over his broken leg. His teeth clenched tight on the leather, and he screamed in agony as the bone went back under the skin and the wound healed before their eyes.

The angel didn’t waste time resting after he’d healed himself. One by one, he moved to the others and healed them as quickly as he could.

When Baddon got to Lameria with the key, he only stared at her. “Whose side are you on, Lameria? This is your last chance to prove yourself.”

She swallowed. “Would you believe me if I said I was sorry?”

“Try me.”

“I am sorry, Baddon. I don’t know how to act outside of Hell. I don’t want to hurt anyone; I only do it out of habit, and yes, attention. I want people to like me. I just don’t know how to make them.”

Baddon smiled. “Sewing your mouth shut would be a great start.” He winked at her, and then gave her freedom from the chains. He was surprised when Lameria threw her arms around his neck and hugged him.

“I really am sorry that I’m not adjusting well. I want to try. I could do with a friend to help me, if you’re interested.”

Baddon laughed and pulled back so he could see her face. “You’re giving me permission to kick your ass when you need it?”

Her brow furrowed as she chewed her lower lip. “Something like that.”

“Challenge accepted. Now, what’s the deal between you and the archangel?”

She lowered her head so he couldn’t see her eyes. “I don’t want to talk about Isaiah. I ruined what we had together, and there is no one to blame except myself for that. He’s not ever coming back.”

Baddon’s eyebrows drew together in confusion. “He’s coming back. He just went to Limbo with Josselyn and Thoros to ask for Melina’s help.”

Lameria’s expression flickered with surprise, and then fell. She shook her head. “But he told me that he would never see me again. His soul is going to belong to Lucifer soon.”

Baddon snorted. “Only if we don’t win this battle against Lucifer, but if that happens we are all going to belong to Lucifer again, so—”

Her face brightened. “He’s really coming back?”

Baddon’s head bounced around on his shoulders, like a bobble-head doll. “If Melina lets them out of Limbo, he will be back.”

Her teary eyes popped wide as her hand shot to her mouth in shock. “But why would he—”

“Maybe he wanted tae say good bye in case it disnae work oot the way we all pray it will,” Troy interrupted. “And there will be no chance o’ that working out if we dinnae get out o’ this room and stop Marcus. Are you ready tae leave?”

Baddon’s face fell. “There is no way out of here unless someone on the other side of the door lets us out. The whole room is made with silver reinforcements. In here we have no more than human strength.”

Troy grinned. “Maybe a half-souled immortal has nae more than human strength when bound with silver, but I am an angel. You all need tae find a place tae hide until I return. My crew will stay with ye.”

In the next moment, Troy fleeted out of the room. Baddon heard a sound, like muffled scuffling outside the silver door, and then the locks were released and the door opened. Three guards were lying on the floor of the basement and Troy was dusting his hands. He smiled at the group.

“Well, c’mon. Eternity is no’ promised anymore.”

There was a faint hint of greenish purple shimmering on the horizon, almost like the Northern lights over an Alaskan winter night sky. The only difference was, we weren’t in Alaska, and it didn’t feel like winter. It was pretty—comforting even, if it was even possible for me to feel comfort at a time like this.

I concentrated on the dancing lights as they swirled, instead of the overwhelming feeling that Thoros, Malcolm, Isaiah, Emma, Ethan, Aries and Melina were all staring at the back of my head. It didn’t help that Omega was looking at me out of the corner of his eye about every five seconds, either.

Four… three… two… one… and there it was again.

I couldn’t wait to get out of here, so I could put some distance between them and me. Just when I felt like screaming, the dock to the ferry came into view and my heart leapt in my chest.

Finally!

“Can we talk?”

I gasped before I realized I had done it, and nearly fell off my saddle. Thoros had ridden up on my right and surprised me. I inhaled deeply, trying to ignore the feel of the inner magnet that was pulling me toward him, regardless of how angry I was with him. “Honestly, Thoros, it would be a waste of time,” I said, after a moment of careful deliberation with myself.

“I don’t think anything said between us is a waste of time. I cherish every moment, every word said, with you.”

Omega chuckled, and I could feel the tension pass from Thoros on my right to Omega on my left.

I sighed.

I suppose Omega sensed my annoyance, because he cleared his throat and rode ahead to the boy standing at the dock.

“Look, I know we don’t have much time, but I just wanted to apologize—”

My head jerked in his direction, and the sight of him took my breath away, despite the shock I felt from what he was saying. “Apologize!” I said, aghast. “You want to apologize? Seriously?”

“I didn’t mean to—”

“You didn’t mean to what? Lie to me? Not trust me? Tell me, Thoros, because I’m not sure I understand what you are so sorry about.” My voice was surprisingly calm. I even surprised myself how much it sounded like I didn’t care what answer he gave me, because, as much as I hated it, I did care.

“I’m sorry I didn’t trust you to come up with another option to get us out of this mess. I jumped to conclusions, but I didn’t want you to have to be the one to bear this weight. Her terms weren’t fair.” He cleared his throat and looked toward the dock.

I shrugged. “Okay. I accept your apology. You feel better?”

“No, because you don’t mean it.”

“Why does it even matter if I forgive you or not? You did this, and now it’s done. There’s no going back. We’re over,” I finished shortly.

He swallowed, and then blew out a heavy breath as he looked away from me. “That’s not what I want. I love you, Josselyn. I did it to protect you. I was wrong. And, yes, you’re right, I’ve really messed everything up, but what if things were different? I was careless and stupid—as Malcolm loves to remind me—and scared for you, for us, but what if I could find a way to fix it? Do you think you could ever forgive me… and actually mean it?”

My jaw clenched as I gave him a hard stare. “I have given you so many chances with my heart already, Thoros. You are the only man I have ever loved, and yet you are the only man that has ever hurt me. And I’m the fool who lets you keep doing it over and over and over again.” Oh no. There they were: traitor tears. My emotions were returning. Why now? I scrambled to hold on to the coldness.

He shook his head slowly as he stared at my shining eyes. “You’re not a fool, Josselyn. I am. I am so sorry for hurting you, but I know there has to be a way to fix my mistakes and earn your trust again. Just promise that you won’t give up on me. I won’t stop until I reverse the damage. I swear I won’t.”

I couldn’t believe I was actually listening to this. And what was worse—I wanted to believe him… again. What was wrong with me? Love has made me plum stupid! I huffed. “What you’re talking about doing is impossible. You know that, right?”

He smiled. I suppose that gave him all the hope he needed. “A wise man once told me that impossible things happen every day; they are called miracles.”

I rolled my eyes. “I see Malcolm is still giving his famous pep talks.”

“It’s really hard not to like the guy.”

“He tell you what to say to me?”

Thoros shook his head. “No, he just informed me of how stupid I am, as if I didn’t already know. He gave me the kick in the backside I needed to come up here and talk to you instead of riding back there wanting to rip Omega’s heart out through his back.”

I sighed. “He was apologizing, too.”

“He—ahh!” His hands came up quickly to cover his eyes as if they hurt.

“What’s the matter?”

Quicker than I could follow, he reached across to me and jerked the reins from my hands, and then flanked his horse hard. “Yah!” he shouted, and I nearly fell off my saddle backward from the jolt of my horse following his lead.

“Thoros!” I leaned forward, hugging Duchess’ neck as if my life depended on it. “What the hell are you doing?”

He didn’t answer me. He just kept riding, pushing his horse harder and faster, and pulling mine along with him. We passed the dock and Omega’s stunned expression, but Thoros only slapped the horse’s hind quarters with the reins to make him go faster.

“Thoros, stop! You’re going to get us killed!” He didn’t stop. He took us into territory we had never been in. Omega’s warning screamed in my head,
‘Duchess knows her way around the area pretty well, but she’s no match for some of the predators that would easily find you.’

I heard voices shouting from a far distance behind us, but I was afraid I would fall off if I moved to look or wave for help. This was too much. Thoros had gone too far. He had no idea how to protect us from anything in this world, yet he carelessly dragged me out here because he didn’t believe I had forgiven him? This was not the best way to earn my trust back! I needed a stick. A big one. One big enough to hit him over the head, so I could get away before he had a chance to catch me again.

“Thoros, please—”

He looked back at me with something in his eyes. Was that amusement? Why was he doing this? He really was trying to kill me! There really was no turning back or changing anything after the contract he had signed, so he wanted me dead so I would belong to Limbo, too. How was this fixing his mistakes? It was only making them worse.

I reached up by Duchess’ bit and took the taut straps with my fingers. After getting a firm grip of the leather, I yanked as hard as I could. I hadn’t realized he had the reins wrapped around his left wrist, and when I yanked the strap it threw him off balance in his saddle, causing him to pull on his own reins. My eyes grew wide as the sequence of events slowed down to super-slow motion. From the sudden shift of his weight in the saddle, Thoros’ horse was spooked and skidded to a stop directly in front of my horse.

There was no time to stop or prevent the catastrophe from happening. We collided, and I saw the horror cross Thoros’ face before my horse lost its footing in a tangle of legs.

We were going down.

I tried to brace for the horrible impact, knowing if I didn’t move as soon as I hit the ground that Duchess would roll right over me. I tried to ready myself to roll once we hit, but my left boot was stuck in the stirrup, and that was the side Duchess was going to land on.

It was going to kill me. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind.

I looked up at Thoros’ panicked eyes and outstretched hand, and knew his fingers were out of my reach.

“Josselyn, no!” I heard him scream, and then there was another sound: a drum beating? No, it was horse hooves, beating on the dirt road I was about to splatter. The other horse was close, so close I feared it might trample my body once I hit the ground.

I felt a jarring impact, and then I was bouncing. Was I dead? Did I belong to Limbo now?

I opened my eyes and saw the ground rushing by at an alarming speed. After I gasped for breath and got some oxygen to my brain, I realized that I had, in fact, not hit the ground; I was lying on my stomach, in front of a saddle, on a white horse.

As the horse slowed to a stop, I finally got the chance to turn and see who had rescued me from my imminent death.

Omega.

“Yeah, that was so not what I meant when I told you to make miracles happen,” Malcolm said as he arrived at the scene, but Thoros ignored him as he dropped from his horse and ran toward Josselyn.

Omega was helping her down from his steed. The guy had saved her life, and Thoros knew he owed his own to Omega for that, but that wasn’t his main concern right then. He had to know that she was all right.

“Josselyn—”

“I’m okay,” Thoros heard her say, and then Omega blocked Thoros’ view of her.

“Josselyn, please, you have to know I didn’t mean for that to happen. I just—I have no idea what I was doing—”

He was nearly to them when Omega opened his mouth. “Josselyn doesn’t want to talk to you—”

“Get out of my way, Omega,” Thoros said, irritated. “Josselyn—” Thoros tried to walk around Omega, but the guy moved to the side, cutting off his access. He growled as he stepped into Omega’s personal space, glaring down into the odd greenish-yellow eyes of the male. Thoros’ jaw muscles flexed under the pressure of his teeth clenching together. “Get out of my way or I will move you out of my way.”

“Don’t fight,” Josselyn said. “Thoros won’t hurt me, Omega.”

“Well, it looks to me like he just tried to kill you!”

“That wasn’t me!” Thoros snapped. “But since we are on the subject, didn’t you just try to kill her a few hours ago?”