Mortal Sin (36 page)

Rico glared at him. “Maybe you told him.”

“I haven’t spoken to Phineas in five years.”

“Which is five years after he was expelled from the Order.”

“I immediately reported the conversation I had with my brother. He wanted me to join him on a specific mission. I knew it was his way to slowly bring me into the Sword. I got as much information from him as I could before I turned him down. If you weren’t told about it, that’s not on me.”

Rico hesitated.

Rafe sat down on the edge of his bed. “Rico, we need to work together to get Moira back.”

Rico didn’t say anything.

“You have a hole in your leg. You’re not one hundred percent. But I have no idea where to start. I can’t just call him up and find out where he’s keeping her.” Rafe paused. “Phineas and I don’t see eye to eye.”

“You are more alike than you know,” Rico said.

“And that’s your problem. You’ve always hated me because of him. I’m not Phineas. We are
not
alike. Do not think I would ever betray St. Michael’s.”

“You already have.” Rico stared at him, his dark eyes accusing him of things he didn’t know he’d done. “Moira has lied to me to protect
you
. You have secrets. You know things you can not possibly know through natural means.”

“I will tell you this once,” Rafe said through clenched teeth. “I am not using magic, nor am I part of Gabriel’s Sword. I don’t know what Bertrand did to me in while I was in a coma, but I think… I think someone was protecting me while I was under. I don’t know why I know things, but I do. And it’s for
good.
My knowledge helped trap two of the Seven. It saved Lily’s life. I don’t know why. I don’t know how. But it’s not from Hell, and I’m not going to turn my back on it. I couldn’t even if I wanted to.” He paused, emotional and angry, but wanting so much for Rico to understand. Because he admired and respected this man, even though Rico had unfairly pushed him and punished him. “My whole life I’ve felt disconnected. Everyone knew their calling, except me. For the first time, I know I am where I’m supposed to be.” He paused again, assessed Rico, then spilled the rest. “Rico, you can not let Moira martyr herself.”

Through clenched teeth Rico said, “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Do not lie to me. I’ll reconnect your IV and you’ll be unconscious and I’ll track down Phineas on my own. You and Anthony believe that Moira needs to sacrifice herself to send the Seven back to Hell. I’m telling you this: you’re wrong. There’s something off with Dr. Lieber’s papers—forged, altered, I don’t know—and you’d better figure it out because there is no way I’m going to let Moira die if I can help it. God doesn’t set things up to require human sacrifice.”

“You haven’t read your Old Testament lately.”

“It’s not going to happen.”

“You don’t have a say.”

Rafe squeezed the IV. He was close to restarting it. Rico grabbed his wrist. But his trainer was weak. Very weak.

“For now,” Rico said, “we’ll work together to get her back.”

“And when we do, we have a battle in Santa Louisa. If the town is still standing when we return.”

“That is not my concern.”

“Anthony is infected. He’s in an induced coma.”

Rico was stunned. “How?”

“We don’t know. Skye McPherson, the sheriff, is retracing his steps to find out who is patient zero, so to speak. But we can’t fight Wrath without Moira.”

“It’s Wrath? You’re certain?”

“Yes. All the signs are there.”

“Get me out. Then we’ll find her.”

“And?”

“And we’ll save Anthony if we can.” He paused. “But after that, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Rafe nodded. “I appreciate your honesty, so I’ll be honest with you. Moira will sacrifice herself over my dead body.”

#

Fiona twirled around the large room, laughing. “We have her!”

Her daughter, the firstborn who’d betrayed her and caused her untold grief and suffering, was going to pay for all her anguish, and then serve her purpose.

Fiona would have given her the keys to Hell, Moira would have had power like no other… but now she couldn’t be trusted. They needed her, apparently, but they could use her in chains. And she would suffer for eternity.

Fiona could not wait to watch.

Fiona wanted to kill Moira for her betrayal, but Matthew insisted that she was the only one who could fulfill the role of liaison to the Underworld in this generation.

“There is no other; Serena tried and nearly died. Moira was consecrated for this role. If we kill her, another will have to be conceived. That will take years.”

The unspoken words were that Fiona didn’t have years. She’d already given up too many days, months,
years
… because Moira ran away from her fate.

So they’d spent precious time learning how to use an unwilling host, and it could be done. Because she was marked.

Moira might have removed the outward signs, but inside, she would always be marked. She would always belong to Fiona.

She
would
fulfill her destiny. Moira had the choice of doing it willing while retaining both power and complete control. Now, she would be forced do it, have no power and no control. It would be painful. She would suffer. And Fiona could not wait to make that happen. She could not wait to hear her daughter beg for mercy.

“We don’t have her yet, dear,” Matthew said.

Fiona really did not like when Matthew rained on her parade. “Though I was skeptical of your plan, darling, it has worked swimmingly,” she said. “We should celebrate. She’s weak. She’s separated from that… that…” She had no words for Raphael Cooper. He had caused her as much anguish as her daughter.

“And they will both pay, dear Fiona. Serena is going to handle this. You need to let her do it. She has one of the Seven under her control. She’ll take out the entire Sword, retrieve Moira, and we’ll have our vengeance.”

“On Raphael as well?”

“He will come for her when he knows we have her. And he will be reckless. We will get into his head and get what we need.”

“You’re thinking about something, love.” Fiona took Matthew’s hands and sat him down on the couch. “What are you keeping from me?”

She didn’t like how Matthew and Serena had grown closer since they were reunited. Father and daughter had a bond Fiona didn’t understand—she had never known her father, like Moira had never known hers. Because that was necessary in their world. Serena, as the second daughter, was born out of lust and love, not duty. Serena had what Fiona yearned for, almost as much as she desired eternal youth and beauty.

But Fiona
could
have youth and beauty. She couldn’t, however, have a real father.

“There’s a boy, in Victoria. I don’t have the entire report yet, but he may be able to pull the information we need out of Raphael’s mind.”

“We tried for months!”

“We tried using spells and science. It didn’t work; something or someone inside Raphael protected the information. But I believe this boy has a gift we can persuade him to use to our benefit.”

“Is he one of them?”

“Not yet, but they’ll have him if we don’t get to him first.”

“And what leverage do we have if he doesn’t cooperate?”

“I’m working on that.” He leaned over and kissed her. “Trust me, love.”

“I do.” But she was becoming suspicious of Matthew’s vague answers. He’d been upset with some of her decisions. Did he blame her for other’s failures? It wasn’t her fault. It was Moira’s fault. It always had been. Fiona was still the leader of this coven. She was the most powerful witch in generations. She would
not
be minimized. She needed to find out everything Matthew knew… and she would.

“I will be the one to retrieve Moira from the Sword.”

“I told you—”

“Yes, you
told
me. But this is my life, Matthew. My hands.” She held them up. The wrinkles were deepening. She washed in virgin blood this morning to rid them of brown spots, but they would return. Everything was happening faster, too fast. “Look at them!”

“You will be fine.”

“Yes, because I will put Moira on the altar and offer up the Sword to appease the Seven. I will go to the island.”

“But you and I, we need to return to Santa Louisa. We must be at the portal at the appointed hour to draw back the Seven to their origin.”

“You and Serena return; you prepare the path and I will follow you with Moira in chains.”

It was clear Matthew didn’t like the idea, but the more Fiona thought on it, the more she knew she was right.

“Take someone with you.”

“I need four. One is already inside, so I’ll take three. Can the triad get here in time?”

“Maybe.”

Fiona dismissed the idea. “Powerful, yes, but too young, too inexperienced. And I wouldn’t trust them, dear Matthew. They are selfish and spoiled. “I’ll take Tiffany.”

“Serena has been depending on her because of the issues with Martin.”

“You and Serena will have to handle him yourself. I should have killed him long ago, though I can’t really complain about him taking out that whiny, sniveling, weak excuse for a magician.”

Matthew bristled. He’d always had a soft spot for Richard Bertrand. But the man had never been able to do anything that had been asked of him, not when it really mattered. He had Raphael Cooper in a coma for ten weeks and couldn’t get the information they needed out of his brain.

Truly, it was all Jeremiah Hatch’s fault for not destroying Raphael with all the others.

Pain shot through her head and she squeezed her temples with her fingers.

“Darling, what’s wrong?” Matthew eased her to the couch. “What do you need?”

“I’m fine,” she snapped, but she allowed him to massage her head. “Just tired.”

“You have been working far too hard, love.”

“It’s almost over.”

“If you need Tiffany, you may have her.”

“Thank you. You and Serena will be fine without her. Use the triad, just keep your eye on them. Their loyalty will always be to one another, not to us. When we’re done in Santa Louisa, we’ll need to destroy them.”

“As you wish.”

Fiona smiled as Matthew’s fingers soothed the pain away.

She always got what she wanted.

Phineas sat Moira down in the kitchen. She didn’t want to eat anything he offered her, but he’d made it clear he didn’t want to kill her, he wanted to use her. He wanted to convert her to the Sword. So when he put a tall glass of orange juice in front of her, she drank it. Nothing had tasted so good. He refilled it and offered her a basket of fruit and bread. She grabbed a banana and put an apple and biscuit in her pocket. “Just in case you decide not to feed me later.”

“You’re not a pet, Moira. I don’t want you to be a prisoner, either.”

“Right. You want me to join your band of merry men in Sherwood Forest.”

“And women. Women are just as important as men in this battle—unlike the view of St. Michael’s.”

“They’re coming around,” Moira said.

“Other than you, name one female in the Order? And I use
in
loosely because you’ll never be included among their ranks as anything but a weapon. A tool.”

She leaned forward. “I don’t think the best way to convince me to join Gabriel’s Sword is to threaten me, then shoot my best friend.”

“Desperate times, desperate measures.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. That’s the argument for every power-hungry dictator out there.”

She leaned back and ate her banana. There were three ways out of the kitchen—the doorway leading to the dining room, a closed door leading she didn’t know where, and a door with a shaded window, which suggested it went directly outside. It had a new lock—newer than the one on the door upstairs—that required a key to open. But that was probably her best bet to escape.

There must be security cameras all over the place. That was the only way Phineas could have known exactly when she was coming down the stairs. She would have to be careful. It would be easier if he trusted her, but if she gave her loyalty too quickly, he would never believe it.

Phineas poured himself coffee. “Would you like some?”

“Is the Pope Catholic?”

He didn’t smile at her joke, but did pour her a cup of rich, black coffee. She sipped. She needed the jolt.

“Good,” she said. “Though if you had tea that would be even better.”

“Most of our members are American; they don’t understand the European preference for tea. Nor do I; I’ve always preferred coffee.”

“Where are we?”

“A safe house. One that Rico won’t be able to easily find.” He drank his coffee and stared at her. “I’ve followed you for years.”

“Literally? Like a stalker?”

He frowned again. “You’re quite sarcastic.”

“It helps to be sarcastic when people are trying to kill you on a daily basis.” The orange juice and banana had definitely improved her mood and made her feel almost herself again. She picked up a roll and munched. “So I know a bit about the Sword. Rico pretty much hates you and everything you stand for. The vigilantes of St. Michael’s. The rebels. Yada yada. What don’t I know?”

“St. Michael’s is the old way; we are the new way.”

“New doesn’t make it better.”

“True.” He nodded. “Can we agree that the battle before us is the most dangerous one we’ve faced in our generation? Most likely, the most dangerous battle we’ve faced since the 1600s?”

“Debatable, but it’s definitely in the top three.”

He smiled this time. “Though St. Michael’s has an archive of valuable information, there’s no one who has lived through something like this. No one who truly understands what we face, except those on the front lines. Like Rico. He does understand. That’s why his betrayal hurt.”

“His betrayal? Don’t you mean
yours?
You left St. Michael’s.”

“St. Michael’s had become a prison. There was no dissent, no disagreement. And I couldn’t in good conscious follow a path that will lead to the destruction of all that we know. It doesn’t have to be this way. If St. Michael’s would enter the twenty-first century, recognize that the old ways no longer work—then we could work together. That’s what my dream is.”