Released (Eternal Balance) (9 page)

Chapter Thirteen

Azirak/Jax

As soon as we made it out of the apartment building, the girl jerked out of Azi’s grip. The demon was furious about what she’d done to the Tracker. It’d been concerned about the carnivi tracking us down and getting in the way, but this was an entirely new level of bad. Now instead of two, we would have four on our asses. One was hard enough to deal with. “We need to leave this place quickly. Before they reassemble.”

The girl straightened and squared her shoulders, putting on an air of confidence that she couldn’t quite sell. “Good luck and all that, then.”

“You misunderstand,” Azi said. It moved my body to block her escape. “You’ll be coming with us.”

Why don’t you drag her to the car by her hair and stuff her in the trunk? Asshole. Let Sam handle this.

She looked from me to Sam, then back again. “That so?”

Azi wasn’t concerned. It was confidant she was coming with us—one way or another. “It is,
witch
.”

“I already told you,” Sam said, eying me with an obvious irritation that Azi found alluring, “we’re here to help.” She jabbed a finger at the building, then turned it on the girl. “Those things in there are
literally
from hell.”

Savannah slapped Sam’s hand away. “You have no idea what I’m capable of. Get in my way and you’ll find out.”

The demon took a menacing step toward her, and the corner of my mouth lifted with a wicked grin. It was angry that she’d struck Sam, but more than that, it found her bravado amusing. “I know exactly what you are, but unfortunately for you, you don’t know what I am.”

She tensed. Azi could sense the shift in her. She was still confident she’d be able to walk away, but there was caution now. She
was
a powerful witch, but there was something off about her energy. Something blocking the full force of it. “And what is that?”

“Please,” Sam said, pushing my body out of the way. Azi made a sound like a growl, but she ignored it. “We just need to talk to you, and this isn’t a safe place to do it. Trust me, there will be more of these things coming.”

The girl grimaced, and a cloud of gray rose from her shoulders. She scanned the area as though expecting to see the armies of hell converging on us. “More of them?”

“More of many things,” Azi supplied. It took in her fear, let it spread through me, and let out a contented sigh.

She glanced back at the building again, probably weighing her options. There was one of her and two of us. Her magic—what little Azi sensed—might even the odds, but she wasn’t quite as confident as she’d been.

With a sigh she said, “I know a place that should be safe—but don’t get any ideas. I don’t know what it is you want—or are—but you don’t wanna fuck with me.”

…

Savannah, who’d told us to call her Van, brought us to the Magic Bean, a small coffee house about twenty minutes from her apartment building. Sam couldn’t sense it like Azi could—like
I
could—but this was no ordinary coffee joint. There was power within these walls. Strong magic.

Don’t do anything to get us killed, please.

Sam wrapped both hands tighter around her coffee cup and glanced around nervously. Her eyes kept going back to the door. “I’m not sure you understand the meaning of the word
safe
.”

Van simply chuckled. “Trust me, this place is safe. Nothing would dare touch us here.”

Sam wasn’t convinced. She scanned the room, eyebrows high, and shook her head. “And why is that?”

“Powerful magic guards the building. Intentions to harm cannot enter.”

“So if one of those things tried to walk through the door, it would, what, get vaporized?”

“Nah. It’s nothing that dramatic. Those things
could
walk in the front door, but the second one tried anything violent in nature, it would be incapacitated.”

Sam looked suspicious and I couldn’t blame her. I could think of a million methods of incapacitation right off the top of my head. “Incapacitated, how?”

Van shrugged and took a pull from her cup. “Beats me. No one has ever been stupid enough to test it.”

Sam wanted to argue—her eyes were wide and she was tapping her pinkie against the edge of the table—but she sighed. “We’re looking for something called the Brim Stone.”

“Sorry.” Van looked from Sam to me and shrugged. “Doesn’t ring a bell.”

The demon tensed. I felt my fingers ball tightly and the unmistakable itch in my limbs as my body was about to pounce. She was lying.

Just fucking chill. Give Sam a chance.

I didn’t think it would listen, but slowly the tension eased from my body.

“Look,” Sam continued. She shot an uneasy glance my way before continuing. “You don’t know us from a hole in the wall—”

“Even though we came to save your life,” Azi added.

Van’s smile never wavered. “Did you? And how exactly, I have to wonder, did you know it was in danger in the first place?”

“The Brim Stone, the thing you’ve
never heard of
? We aren’t the only ones looking for it. There are some…people…who want it. Badly. They know you have it, and they’re coming for you.”

She picked up her cup, totally unconcerned by Sam’s revelation, and took a long pull. “And by people, I assume you mean demons.”

My back hit the chair, and Azi picked up the fork in front of me. The demon turned it over several times and, while contemplating several unique ways it could use the utensil to get the information we needed, it said, “You don’t seem surprised.”

Van snorted. She eyed the silverware in my hand with an air of caution, then set her cup on the table. “You mean by the whole demon thing? Oh, buddy, I’ve seen much worse.” She leaned forward, elbows planted on the table. “I’ve been through worse.”

Azi matched her and leaned forward as well. She was only partially lying. The girl had seen hard times. But demons? These had been her first. Still, Azi decided to go with it. “Then perhaps you haven’t met the right demon.”

A shrill whistle cut the air, and Sam dragged my body away from the table and shoved it back in the chair. “This isn’t a contest.” She refocused on Van. “And it’s not a game. These things will kill you—and they won’t make it quick.”

“They can
try
,” she said with a gleam of challenge in her eyes. “My own sister tried to cut me down to gain my magic. She failed. They will, too.”

While Azi admired her resolve—and given my history with Chase, the demon found it almost ironic that the person who had stolen its stone was a victim of attempted sororicide—I wanted to choke the bitch. We didn’t have time for this shit.

This is getting old.

Sam sighed. “It sucks that something like that happened to you, and I’m really sorry, but you can’t compare a human and demon.”

“My sister wasn’t a human.”

“Witch,” Sam corrected with another sigh. She was losing her patience, reverting back to tapping the side of the cup. “Whatever. My point is—”

Van slammed her hand against the table, and Sam jumped. The girl eyed her with defiance. “She wasn’t a witch, either.”

“Well, if she wasn’t a witch, then what the hell was she?” Red seeped into the air around Sam’s shoulders. She’d stopped tapping her pinkie, and was now pressing the nail into the tip of her thumb. Much harder and she’d break the skin. It was something she’d started doing since Azi had taken over, a nervous tick to combat the frustration she felt. “A Smurf?”

No answer.

“Well?” Sam snapped.

“My sister was a goddamned demon,” she fired back, gripping the edge of the table until her knuckles went white.

You’ve gotta be shitting me…

Azi made a sound, so strange that it was almost hard to believe it’d come from my body, and a rush of images assaulted me, all of the same voluptuous, raven-haired woman.

“Sadie,” it said, keeping my voice low. I hated that despite being the reason—unregretfully—that the demoness was dead, I felt a profound sense of loss, a grief so overwhelming that it nearly suffocated me. It just proved that my ties to the demon went deeper than I could have ever imagined. “Your sibling was Sadie Gray.”

Chapter Fourteen

Sam

Van watched Jax’s face for a long moment, then narrowed her eyes. She tried to be subtle, but I caught her reaching into her pocket for something. I couldn’t see what it was, but odds were it wasn’t a pack of gum. “You know my sister?”

“Knew,” I said. Was it my fault that the word came out a little cheerier than it should? The bitch had caused me nothing but trouble—and that was all before I found out she thought she had some freaky demoniac claim on the guy I loved. “Sadie is dead. A few weeks ago.”

Some of the tension on Van’s shoulders eased, and she set her hand back on the table. “You’ll have to excuse my lack of tears. She and I weren’t BFFs. How’d it happen?”

“My human killed her,” Azi said. I wasn’t sure if she could hear it, but there was poison in Jax’s voice. Apparently Malphi’s death was still a sore spot.

“Your human killed her,” she repeated. “Is that…” She glanced back to me, brows drawn, and cocked her head. “Is that code for something?”

A lump formed and caught in my throat, and I had to swallow it back before I could push the words past my lips. I’d been living with this reality, but talking about it, saying the whole thing out loud, was an entirely different thing. “It’s a long, complicated story. My boyfriend, Jax, killed your sister to save my life. The demon Azirak locked him away as punishment.”

Van turned and leaned a little closer to Jax, squinting like she was trying to see inside his head. “Locked him away? Like, in a cage?”

“In a manner of speaking,” Azi replied. It tapped Jax’s head. “I have taken control of our body.”

“As in
you’re
a demon?” Azi nodded and Van looked dizzy. She leaned back in her chair. “And as a demon, you don’t want to cause her pain, right?”

“Of course not,” it said, annoyed. “I am fond of her.”

“Fond of her…”

“She makes this body feel good.”

Van’s eyes widened, and her mouth fell open. She jabbed a finger at me. “Are you—do you
screw
the demon?” She threw herself forward on the table, and her expression went from horrified to wickedly curious. “What is it like?”

White-hot embarrassment washed over me, and I couldn’t help glancing around the room to see if anyone had heard her. The café was mostly empty though, thank God, except for two women seated at the counter, talking quietly.

“I do not
screw
the demon,” I whispered and slapped the table for emphasis. “That’s—”

“We consummated once,” Azi interjected. The deadpan expression on Jax’s face, along with the word
consummated
, was almost enough to make my head implode. My face had to be a striking shade of red by this point.

My life had veered from deadly to surreal all in the span of an hour. I sighed. What the hell was the point? “Not like it sounds, but I guess, technically, yes. I did. But so we’re clear, the demon wasn’t invited. It just happened to be there, and there were no locks on the doors if you get what I’m saying.”

Van seemed to be enjoying this far too much. There was curiosity in her eyes and wonder in her expression. “So the demon lived inside your boyfriend, then took over when he pissed it off?”

I leaned back. “About sums it up. But really, we’re getting way off topic here. The Brim Stone…?”

Van was thoughtful. She sat back in her chair again, folded her arms, and watched Azi for a moment before shrugging slightly. “Let’s assume I had this Brim Stone. Why do you want it?”

“Because it belongs to me,” the demon said. There was menace in its tone, and if I had to guess, I’d say that what little patience Azi had when we started out was nearly gone. “And I want it back.”

I held up my hand and turned back to Van. “How about we start at the beginning. You said Sadie tried to kill you. Obviously she didn’t succeed, but how did you end up with the stone in the first place?”

Van narrowed her eyes. “You should know that I don’t have it. The stone. It’s too damn dangerous.”

I snuck a peek at Azi through the curtain of my hair, then focused on Van. I had to move this along. “We know. The problem is, what you have is only half the stone. The other—”

“You’re not slipping me intel I don’t already know. I’m the one who broke the damn thing to begin with.”

“Why break it?” Azi curled Jax’s fists tight and leaned forward. “If you stole it, then you must have understood its power. Why not take the entire thing?”

“I didn’t have much time—or choice. Sadie tried to kill me with that stone.”

“How?” Azi was losing its patience—and so was I.

Van surveyed the room. Her gaze snagged on the two women at the counter for a moment before returning to us. “I didn’t know what she was. Not at first. In fact, we grew up really close. But, I always knew Sadie was resentful. She was the first Gray in centuries to be born without her magic. It made her bitter, and as she got older, it only got worse and worse. When I was sixteen, she told me she’d found a way to tap into our line. To summon the power that should have been her birthright.”

“She intended to use the stone,” I said, understanding.

Van nodded. There was a glimmer of sadness in her eyes. Sadie had tried to kill her, but like Jax loved Chase when this all started, she still loved her sister. “Why wouldn’t I believe her? I mean, it’s not like she was lying. She
had
found a way to get Gray family magic—it just wasn’t hers.”

“It was yours,” Azi said with a nod. There was a note of respect in his voice. Like he was proud of his demonic bitch for figuring a way around their no-abilities loophole.

“Yep. There was just one small catch. In order to be a donor, I had to die. The whole thing was a little suspicious right from the start, and about halfway through the ceremony, I realized what she was up to. We fought—it wasn’t pretty. I finally managed to crack the stone in half, grabbed what I could, and got the hell out. I ran and never looked back.”

I couldn’t imagine how she must have felt. To be betrayed by your own blood. My parents had betrayed me, giving my location to demons after I was adopted by the Merricks, but I’d never known them. The sting hadn’t been as personal as this. “And she never tried to find you?”

Van laughed. “Oh, she tried. Almost did, more times than I can count. But I made friends with some powerful people and stayed off the grid.” She fixed her gaze on me. “Speaking of, how the hell did you two shmucks find me?”

“I told you. The stone is mine. I am linked to it. I can find it anywhere.”

Van met his gaze with challenge in her eyes. “That’s a wonderful story, but like I said, I don’t have the stone.”

“It was in your possession long enough to leave an imprint.” The demon inhaled. “It left a stain. I can smell it.”

Van shuddered. “Well, that’s not creepy at all.”

The demon stood. “Enough. I want the stone. Now.”

She stood as well. “And whose magic do
you
want to steal?”

“I wish only to regain what is rightfully mine.”

“If it was yours, then how did Sadie end up with it?” Van asked, suspicion coloring her tone.

“Her name,” Azi said tightly, taking a step around the table, “was Malphi.” Another move, this one much more than simply menacing, but the demon only got two steps before collapsing with a growl.

It wasn’t Jax in pain, but it was still his body. I couldn’t help myself. The chair went flying as I stumbled upright and flung myself to the ground beside him. He was shaking, face red and jaw tight. “Stop! Whatever it is you’re doing, stop.”

Van came around to stand above us. There was no pity in her eyes. She was joined by the two women from the counter. “It’s not me. This is his doing. He intended to hurt me.”

I grabbed the edge of the table and hefted myself up, hoping I looked as helpless as I felt. “I’m begging you. Make it stop. This is a demon, but Jax is in there. We have no idea what this is doing to him.”

Seconds ticked by. If she didn’t do something soon, I’d be dreaming up my own version of harm. Finally, Van nodded to the woman on her left, a tall redhead with a pinched face and designer duds. She waved a hand and whispered something I couldn’t quite make out, and Azi gasped. Jax’s body went nearly limp.

“Stay down,” I said. “Because I doubt they’ll make it stop if you pull that shit again.”

Thankfully the demon listened. Azi stayed down, curling Jax’s fists tight. You didn’t have to be a demon whisperer to know the nasty things going through its head. Considered royalty where it came from, this had to be one hell of a pill for the thing to swallow, being taken down and controlled by a spell.

“Thank you,” I said to the redheaded woman. To Van, I added, “Could I please talk to you? Alone?”

She didn’t move. I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination, but it almost looked as though the women flanking her grew a little taller.

“Really? What could I possibly do to you?” I spread my arms wide. “In here? After your little magic trick took down something like him?” I pointed to Jax.

It took a minute, but Van finally nodded, leading me away from the group. When she stopped a few feet away, I gestured to the door. What I had to say needed to be away from
all
prying ears.

Once the door closed behind me, and the tiny bell at the top jingled cheerfully, I sighed. “You don’t know me, so you sure as hell have no reason to trust me, but I need your help…” I eyed the building. What I had to tell her needed to remain between the two of us.

“They can’t hear anything we say, if that’s what you’re worried about. Even the demon. Magic,” she said with the smallest hint of a grin.

I let out a relieved breath. “Good. So, will you help me?”

“By giving that thing in there Sadie’s stone?” Her expression was stony, eyes narrowed and jaw tight. Van had seen things. She came across as average on first glance, but there was hardness to her. Scars that had shaped her, had fostered caution. I, more than anyone else I knew—other than Jax—understood her reluctance. We were similar, and under different circumstances I could see us getting along.

“I don’t want you giving the stone to the demon. I want you to give it to me.”

She snorted. “Because giving it to the demon’s whore is so much better?”

A burst of anger flared, but I stuffed it down and focused on my goal. Jax. “That guy in there? The one whose skin that demon is wearing like a Santa suit? He’s my entire universe, and I want him—I
need
him—back.”

“What’s that got to do with my sister’s stone?”

“It’s crazy powerful. You said so yourself. I think I can use it to banish the demon and save Jax.”

Van glanced through the window, gaze settling on Jax’s body. “What exactly are you basing this theory on?” She stuffed both hands into her pockets and turned back to me. “You’re…something. I can feel it. There’s a hum about you, I’m just not sure what it is. But you’re not a witch—that much I’m sure of. You have no actual power. How do you expect to wield the stone to banish a demon from a man’s body?”

I shrugged, feeling slightly less confident about the whole thing than I had before. I had no idea
how
I was going to do it, I was only sure that there had to be some way I
could
. “Well, if you put it
that
way…” I had to do this. Had to win her over. If I couldn’t wield the stone, then maybe she could. Maybe she would… “You’re right. I’m not a witch. Wouldn’t know the first thing about pureeing toadstool and serving up lizard tongue—”

“We don’t do that.”

“Whatever,” I said. “But I am something.
Someone
. Someone who will do just about anything to save the man she loves.”

“The stone is too dangerous. I have it well hidden.”

“Then help me. I have no magic, but I promise you—I have power.”

Her eyes narrowed even further. “What are you?”

The words came before I gave it thought. “I’m what they call a Pure.” Maybe I shouldn’t be advertising that fact all over the place, but what did I have to lose? I’d already been claimed—by myself—so no one could snap me up and take my power for themselves. Not without my permission—which I had no intention of giving. “It’s—”

Her eyes went wide. “I know what a Pure is,” Van said. The awe in her voice was outdone by the wonder in her expression. Wonder that was quickly displaced by something darker. “And you’re a liar. There’s no such thing as a
live
Pure.”

“There is now,” I said, unable to keep the challenge from my voice. “Look, the whole thing is a long, complicated story—like the rest of this. One I don’t really have time to rehash right now. My heart stopped, I was activated, and I claimed myself. End of story.”

“Oh.” She nodded. “So you have access to the largest source of otherworldly energy…and you’re hanging out with a demon? Guess we know which way you swing.”

I rolled my eyes. “I already explained this to you. As long as that thing is wearing my boyfriend, then it’s my new BFF. If you help me, I can get rid of it and then focus on fixing this Pure thing.”

Van snorted. “
Fixing this Pure thing
? What the hell does that mean?”

“I didn’t ask for this,” I said. The vehemence in my voice surprised me a little. I hadn’t made a conscious decision about it, since Jax was my current focus, but the truth was I wanted this power gone. Claimed or not, I had no desire to live my life on the run from the grabby hands of heaven and hell and whatever the hell else might be lurking around out there. I wanted normal. “If there’s a way to get rid of it, to be normal, then I intend to do it.”

Van laughed. “Get rid of it? Nothing short of a nuclear explosion can dissipate Pure energy. Unless you have the ability to go supernova, then you’re stuck with it.”

“Whatever,” I said, trying to hide my disappointment. I mean, what did she know? There could be something out there, right? A way to right the disaster Heckle had caused. I’d just need to look harder—once this was all over. Maybe a different witch. Some kind of spell. A magic amulet… “I’m begging for your help, Van. I lost him once already. I can’t survive it again.”

She studied me for a long moment, then glanced in through the window. “Say I believe your intentions are…pure. What happens to the stone after you get what you want?”