Deviant Knights (12 page)
Authors: Alexandra O'Hurley
“I only tried to help those this Inquisition has
tortured and maimed.
Families starve as
their fathers are imprisoned, unable to work their fields.
Men and women grow mad from their
incarceration.
I am not a demon.
I am here to save those you call unworthy.”
“The Inquisition clears away the abominations
and leaves only the pure.
If they were
tortured, it was to save their souls from eternal damnation, thus offering them
and their whole family
salvation
. We
do not care that these retches find peace on earth but find penance in order to
be allowed into Heaven’s Gates.
Suffering here will make the sweetness of the afterlife all the more
honeyed.
To not understand that, to go
against God’s work, you are a demon
or
a witch.
Either way, you will burn for
it.”
Fire.
Dammit
.
It will hurt, but won’t kill me.
Why couldn’t they just go straight to the
guillotine and get it over with?
The cardinal looked over his shoulder at the
captain.
“Beat him until he signs the
confession of heresy and witchcraft.
Then schedule the burning.”
The rancid smile that coursed over the captain’s
face made Michel’s stomach turn.
Michel
signed it mere hours later, only to take away the satisfied look the man had
when beating him.
Too bad the plan
backfired.
The captain didn’t stop
beating him until many hours later.
Fortunately for Michel, Gabriel and Thierry had
found him that night and brought him to safety.
He’d been saved from burning and whatever other tortures lay before him.
It was a distant past and he’d forced it out of
his mind long, long ago.
He was stronger
than this.
Paloma
was an adversary he’d longed to best.
Now he had his chance for vengeance.
Knuckles tightening into fists, he longed to see his hands around her
throat, stealing the very air from her lungs before he ripped her head from her
shoulders.
“Did you see them this time?”
Kadence
asked
quietly, pulling him from his reverie.
She was seated in the reverse direction, on the
seat across from
he
and Gabriel.
She was withdrawn, her knees to her chest,
arms wrapped around her shins.
The wide
expanse of black leather of the bench seemed to swallow her whole.
Michel noted that
Kadence
was ashen, her eyes large, as if she’d seen a ghost.
“Did I see…who?”
“The demons?
Or
whatever they are.”
Her brow
wrinkled and she looked out the window.
“Never mind, I’m going crazy.
I
saw your reaction and assumed—”
“You saw the evil beings again?
Like the child?”
“I must be hallucinating from all the craziness
going on.
A good night’s rest and I’ll
be fine.”
Her bottom lip trembled
slightly.
She was trying so hard to hold
back the floodgates.
Considering
everything she’d been through in the past few days, it was amazing that she
hadn’t lost it prior to this.
Tears in a female were something to be
avoided.
At all costs.
Especially after seeing
Paloma
and reliving that hell.
Yet for the first time in his very long life, he
wanted to be there, to console.
But he
couldn’t bring himself to touch her.
To hold her.
The
memories of his greatest heartbreak lingered too close.
Kadence
was a strong one.
The
glistening soon disappeared and she gathered herself.
Chin rising, she looked him in the eyes.
The determination he saw there made his body
stiffen in need.
Need he
refused
to slake.
“No,
Kadence
, I want
to know what you saw.”
He leaned
forward, taking her hands.
An electric
current raced through him.
It was the
first time he’d touched her since they’d nearly made love in his
penthouse.
She jerked at the touch,
apparently just as moved by the contact.
She eyed her hands, quietly appraising them before finally looking up
and telling him what she saw.
“At first, it was a woman with long curling
black hair and the two men beside her.
But then, like the little boy, they all began to morph.
Their features became exaggerated, twisting
into evil expressions.
Then their skin
grew red.”
Michel wasn’t surprised at what she’d seen.
Paloma
was
pure
evil.
She’d proven
that
years
before.
“Now that they know we’re here, we won’t be
safe, will we?”
Tears glistened in her
lavender depths, but she held them tight and didn’t release them.
Michel looked into her eyes, wanting to tell her
that their journey was over, but she was right.
They had precious little time to find Thierry and to see what he knew of
her before they would be running again.
The need to pull her into his lap, to kiss the tears away was
heavy.
But the doubt lingered.
He fisted his fingers and ignored his soul’s
demand.
“No, it isn’t safe here.
But we have other places to run.”
“So all that…the flying, the trains, the wending
our way through
from them finding us.
Will they keep
following us?
Are we going to run
forever?”
“Eventually, we will need to stand and
fight.
But first we go to Thierry.”
“Thierry?
Is he the friend we’ve come
to see?”
“Yes.
He’s the closest thing we have to a historian in the order.
He holds our records and maintains them.
If anyone knows what you may be, it will be
him.”
“And if he doesn’t know?
Will you keep pushing me away?”
Michel looked into her eyes, surprised that
she’d sensed him holding back.
“I have
to know.”
She reached forward slowly, her hand resting on
his chest.
“You’re telling me you don’t
already?”
He looked down at her hand and jerked back some,
unable to continue looking at the raw intensity in her eyes.
No words came to his mind.
Crippled by his inability to speak, he sat
back.
Her shuddered sigh rolled over him
and made his gut twist in guilt.
Trust wasn’t something he handed over easily.
The only people he’d ever completely trusted
were his Templar brethren…and
Paloma
.
The Order had never let him down.
Paloma
had
destroyed him.
Outside the very tight
circle of the Brotherhood, traitors, conspirators, and enemies surrounded him
at all times.
Seven hundred years was a
long time to breed contempt for those outside his neat little existence.
And seeing
Paloma
again, he was reminded of what a weakness a woman could be to a man such as
him.
Happily ever after was not a dream
he ever dared to consider.
“Why did you bother bringing me if you didn’t
trust me?
Why not turn me over to
those—things?”
“Keep your friends close and your enemies
closer.”
As soon as the words left his
mouth he felt his foot slam into it.
Regret roiled through him and he did everything in his power for her not
to see how much the words had hurt him to say.
The look of abject rage that coated
Kadence’s
face was something he hoped to never see from her again.
“That came out wrong…I didn’t mean—”
“I know exactly what you meant.
So, I’m your prisoner, not your traveling
companion.”
“No.”
“Then what
am
I?”
“We are protecting you from potential threat,
and in the meantime, trying to determine what it is you are.”
“But I could
be
the threat?
Words,
words, words.
You can string a
pile of bullshit together so floridly.
Add in the French accent and you could almost get me to believe your
lies.”
Her eyes lightened, almost to the
color of steel.
“I’m done here.
If I’m truly not your prisoner, I don’t want
your
protection
, as you call it.
It’s time I went home and away from your
brand of crazy.”
“You’ll go nowhere.
Not until we know what you are.”
Michel felt panic for the second time that
day.
Too bad it sounded more like anger
as it screamed from his mouth.
“And then what?
Will you cut me down and chop off my head if this Thierry tells you I
may be evil?”
Her voice rose to be even
louder than his bellow had been.
Michel was floored by her question, knowing full
well he couldn’t do that to her.
He had
no answer to give, only stood staring at her wild-eyed.
But his silence seemed enough of a response
for her.
“You would…wouldn’t you?”
A slender hand came to her throat, her voice
becoming hoarse.
“You’re planning to
kill me, aren’t you?”
“I don’t know what will happen next.
I’m solely focused on finding out what you
are.
I haven’t considered what comes
next.”
“Liar.”
Tears began to form on her
lashes again.
“All this time, I’ve been
worried about winning your trust, when I should have been afraid of you.”
They both whipped their heads to the side as
Gabriel roared.
“Stop this!”
Looking at
Kadence
, he
spat, “You’re in danger, but not from us.
I don’t believe you’re evil and Michel would admit the same thing if he
had any sense.
Yes, there are doubts,
but we go to Thierry to allay them.
You
aren’t going anywhere.”
Turning to Michel, “Leave her be.
She has done nothing so far to deserve coarse
words and your anger.
Don’t take your
hatred of the gypsy out on her.
We’ve
all had a trying few days, no?”
Michel relaxed some, the set to his shoulders
softening as much as he could allow.
Guilt still swamped him, but the words were said.
He couldn’t un-say them.
“
Oui
.”
“Then leave all this cackling to the hens and
wait for what Thierry has to say before you have more words to regret.”
Michel knew that Gabriel was right.
The arguing wasn’t helping the
situation.
Glancing at
Kadence
, he felt another small spike of guilt.
She looked to him, injury in her lavender
eyes.
Eyes that saw through to the soul
of
him,
shook him at his very foundation.
They were both right.
His gut told him that he could trust
her.
But his head, the one that had seen
deceit in all its forms for seven hundred years, could not open to her so
easily.
Chapter Eleven
Kadence
looked over the villa as she rose from the limo, her hand in
Gabriel’s.
Small-town
Kadence
hadn’t grown up around wealth.
She’d watched as the limo slowly moved
through a winding road to go higher over the city, the glittering star of the
Several sets of gates had been gone through,
with armed security sentries at each access point allowing them entry.
Going from a penthouse in
York City
Mediterranean in
She
felt out of place.
