Bound (The Divine, Book Four) (19 page)

The demon looked at both of us and pursed his lips. Then he motioned to a row of seats in front of one of the gates. "I see the good will is running out. It's true I've deceived you and Landon. That is my forte, after all, so I will ask you this: how do you know you can believe whatever story I tell you? I can lie to the diuscrucis, and he can't tell. What hope do you think you have?"

Obi and I didn't sit, but we did look at one another, our animosity forgotten for the moment. "Damn it, Max," I said. "How am I supposed to help you save Landon, if I can't even trust that you
want
to save him? How can either of us believe a single thing you've said?"

He raised his index finger. "An excellent point.
Res ipsa loquitor
. You have witnessed my actions. You tell me which side of the balance they fall on."

We were silent for a minute.
 

"Neither side. You're fighting the Beast," Obi said.

Max clapped his hands together. "Yes! You have the Box, Rebecca. You have the Beast. I will help you rid this world of him, and return Landon to the place where he belongs. Whatever else I may do or say, that is the obvious truth."

"Fine, but the cat's out of the bag, Samael. Why not give us a little more context?"

"My name is Samael. I was human once, a mortal, many years ago in the time of Jesus. In my life, I was a singer, a womanizer, and a thief. I was handsome, and it made me good at all of these things, but most of all, I was a liar.

"Yet I followed the word of the son of God. I wrote ballads about Him, and worshipped Him while I lifted a purse or defiled a virgin. In some ways, I was the original diuscrucis, balanced in my deeds of good and evil.

"When I died and the tally was taken, the evil turned out to be greater. I should have gone to Hell, but Malize intervened. He spoke to Lucifer on my behalf, and I was brought to Heaven as an angel. Satan had Azrael to cultivate the souls of the damned. Malize made me his counterpart, the angel of death."

He closed his eyes and shifted, but not to the reaper form I had already seen. His face was light and delicate, his hair lustrous, his white robes flowing out around him, with tendrils of light trailing away and a massive pair of ivory wings spread out behind.
 

"Only Malize hadn't brought me up because he wanted death. He brought me up because he needed a liar. He told me about the Beast, and about his tree of possibilities. He asked me to serve him, and only him, even in the face of God himself, because of the threat the Beast posed to all that He had created. He convinced me of the need, and promised me an untold reward.
 

"In his name, I committed the ultimate sin and murdered a fellow angel, for no better reason than to fall. And I did fall, right into the lap of Baal, who took pleasure in my failure and made me a servant of Azrael."

His form shifted to that of the dark reaper. "I used my position of power to spy on Hell, and to keep tabs on the Beast, becoming Malize's eyes where he could not go. Many years passed, until one night I discovered a message from Malize, asking me to meet him. That was when he told me of the swords and bade me to collect each one and pass it into safekeeping. All except the Redeemer. I brought that one to him.

"I served Malize, and through him God, with my gift for lies. I tricked Satan himself into trusting me, and it afforded me the freedom I needed to know everything I needed to know. I noted when the Beast appeared, and followed the words Malize had forced me to memorize. Thousands of branches, and I needed to be aware of every one in order to do my part. So far, I have."

Max returned to his human form, and regarded us with serious eyes.
 

"Let's just get this done so we can all get on with our lives, or afterlives, I guess," Obi said.
 

The demon's intensity vanished, and he clapped his hands together. "Right you are, my good man. Our flight leaves in forty-five minutes. Shall we?"

We followed along towards our gate.
 

"I know we're going to Seattle. What do we need to do once we get there?"

"Not us," Max replied over his shoulder. "You."

"Me, as in, just me, by myself?" I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. After our experience with the djinn, I was leaning towards bad thing.

Max stopped walking again so he could look at me. "Not all of the blades are being held by half-djinn with daddy issues. Getting the Deceiver back is going to be a bit more of a precarious proposition. I had originally given it to a Templar named Gavin St. Croix for safekeeping. It turned out his skill at deception was equal to my own."

"He double-crossed you?" Obi asked.

"More than that. I understand that the war between Heaven and Hell is just that. I accept there is a risk that anyone can change sides, at any time, for any reason." His eyes burned into me at that. "What I didn't expect or account for was that Gavin would not only renounce his position as a Templar, but that he would sell one of the Swords of Gehenna to a mortal, for no better reason than to live out the remainder of his days in material comfort." His voice had been rising as he spoke, and he nearly shouted the last few words.
 

"You're telling me a mortal has the sword? How come neither side has tried to get it back?"

His laughter was laced with his anger. "They have tried, but the sword isn't called the Deceiver for nothing. Whoever holds it can not only lie, but it casts a glamour on the soul that few Divine can see through."

"A glamour on the soul?"

"Everything changes. Your perception of what you hear, what you see, how you feel. The Deceiver is unlike the other blades, because you don't know it's been used on you until it's too late."

"I take it there's a Heavenly version?" Obi asked.

"Yes. It's called Truth. It counters the effects of the Deceiver."

Obi laughed. "So, dumb question, but why don't we go get that one first?"

"An excellent question, old chap. There is a time for everything, and everything in its own time."

"Translation?"

"I have a plan to bring Truth to us. Besides, as I've said, Rebecca should be immune to the blade's power."

"Should be?" I asked.

"Don't fret, my salted caramel cupcake. Thanks to your run-through with the Redeemer, you are uniquely situated to be able to see the glamours, but not fall victim to them. It's one of the reasons we worked so hard to bring you into the game."

A tree with a thousand branches, and one of them with my name on it. Max had said it was math, not fate. A potential, not a pre-determination. I hoped for his sake he hadn't been lying about that.

"What's the other reason?"

"Our target is a twenty-two year old, unattached millionaire. I think Elyse has the look, and I know you have the resume."

"Are you suggesting you want me to seduce him?"

"In so many words."

I closed my eyes, licked my lips, and tried to calm my suddenly pounding heart. It was a big ask, after what I had put Landon through. Except, that attraction had been real for both of us. This was just a game within the game.
 

"I'm not happy about it," I said.

"I didn't expect you would be, but our needs dictate our actions."

"Can you shut up with your turn of phrases?"

Max smiled. "His name is Brian Rutherford. He's the founder of Madalytics."

"No way!" Obi said.
 

"You've heard of it?" I asked.

"Called the next Google, worth a couple billion dollars. Heck, yeah."

The demon shrugged. "His father was Evan Rutherford, an entrepreneur in his own right. He was the one who bought the Deceiver from a collector in Belgium. I don't know about Brian, but Evan was Turned."

Obi deflated at the news. "Oh. You think he's cheating to win?"

"I think it's very likely."

We started walking again. The flight was already boarding by the time we reached the gate, and we waited our turn to be herded onto the aircraft. I shifted the pack from shoulder to shoulder, feeling the weight of it growing in my soul with every step forward. Science, I could do. Combat, I could do. Half-succubus or not, seduction had never been one of my strengths. At least, not intentionally. Now I wished I still had that Divine gift.

I settled in for the flight, thankful that Max had at least hooked us up with first class. The extra space was appreciated, and I stretched out and watched the take-off through the window. Obi had grabbed the aisle seat straight away, and offered the middle to the demon. Despite everything we were going through together, he hadn't thawed towards me at all. It might have bothered me, but I didn't need his approval.

"
Elyse
." I let go, giving my host a chance to have a body for a while. There wasn't much she could do on the plane, so I decided that was the best time to let her out.
 

"Hey, Max," she said. "Rebecca's given me a little playtime."

He'd had his eyes closed, but now they popped open and he smiled at her. "How's my favorite human holding up?"

Obi leaned his head forward. "Wait. I'm not your favorite?"
 

"You don't count. You may not be Divine, but you still have some of Landon's gift in you. Elyse has gathered the power she has on her own."

"So, you're saying I'm your favorite overall? I can live with that."

Max and Elyse both laughed. In the moment, I wished that I could sleep without taking her body back.

"How are you holding up, Obi?" Elyse asked. "Max gave me a summary of what happened in Mumbai."

Obi was black, but his face paled. I thought he would be angry, but he stared down at his feet while he answered.
 

"It's more than that. To learn there's so much more out there, and that it's even more ugly than mankind can be. To meet someone who wants to fight back against it, and learn that even he can't protect us without turning some shade of ugly himself. To still be a friend when half the time you want to punch the guy in the face, and the rest of the time you want to do everything you can to help him stay alive and sane. To fall in... I don't know. Not love, but there was something there. She died, and almost killed me. I still have nightmares.
 

"I spend my time always looking out of the corner of my eyes. Always ducking, always listening. Paranoid, traumatized, whatever you want to call it. I tried to go back to work as soon as I got a flight out. First call, a guy who was beating on his wife." He turned his head, to catch Elyse's eye. "I've never felt so angry before, as I do now. I barely have control of it on good days, and I have to drink myself to oblivion on the bad days, or else I know I'll kill someone. I'm not someone I ever wanted to be, and it hurts like hell."

"I'm sorry," Elyse said.

"
You're sorry?
" I asked. "
You'd have no problem killing anyone in your own family to get what you want.
"

"That's hardly fair, Rebecca. In many ways I'm the same as Landon. I just want humankind in control of their own destiny. Anyway, I was born and raised to fight this war." She was speaking to me out loud. Now she reached across Max and put her hand on top of Obi's. "I am sorry. Rebecca thinks I'm nothing but a killer, because of the things I've had to do. She doesn't always see beneath the surface of things."

A tear rolled from Obi's eye, down his cheek to splash onto the seat. He split his mouth into a half-smile. "Thanks, Elyse. I'm sorry you got stuck carrying her around. I had to find out what she was about the hard way."

I didn't say anything else after that. If I could have, I would have let go of Elyse completely, and let the plane fly off without me. Vampires were superior in strength, intelligence, everything. But now I saw that I was an idiot. All the years I'd chased after the demonic dream, to be at the top of the food chain and look down on everyone from above. It had left me a novice at truly understanding anyone beyond what I needed from them. For as sure as I was that it was my mission from God to save Landon from the Beast, I had to admit the truth to myself.

I wanted to be redeemed. I wanted to go to Heaven. It was as much about what saving Landon could do for me as it was about what it would mean for him.

If I could have cried, I would have done that too.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Landon

"Waiting for her?" I asked, still trying to wrap my brain around what had just happened, and what was happening now. How could he be waiting for something that only existed because of Charis and I?

The seraph didn't move. He just looked up at Clara.
 

"I accept," she said, taking the sword from his offered hands.
 

"What's going on?" Charis asked.

Avriel got to his feet, and Clara leaned in and kissed his cheek, then handed back the blade. "He's here to help us," she said.
 

"Avriel isn't in the Box anymore." It seemed an obvious statement, but now I wasn't so sure.

"No, he isn't," Clara replied. "He's only a piece, a small piece. A shade of the angel you knew, the one whose life you forfeit, and whose death haunts you."
 

She knew because she was half me. "How can that be?"

"It is in the construct of the Box. When he escaped the piece was held behind."

"I need to take you somewhere," Avriel said. "There is something for you. A gift."

I had a thought. A frightening thought. "Clara, if a piece of Avriel was left behind, couldn't a piece of Abaddon have been left behind too?"

"It's possible. I don't know. If the binding was intentional there has to be a reason for it."

"I have something to show you," Avriel repeated. "A gift."

"Show me," Clara said.

Avriel bowed. "Follow me. We must be careful. I can feel their power building."

"Whose power?" I asked.

"The Beast," Clara said. "He can't find us yet, but his energy is re-forming. He'll try to slow us as much as he can."

"Come," Avriel said. "A gift."

We had no choice. We followed behind Avriel, back out of the park and into the street. He stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled, hailing a cab like a lifelong resident. We piled in, with Avriel taking shotgun.