Genesis (The Legend of Glory Book 3) (19 page)

Jesse and Nyx.

We’ll make a plan and get back to you.

Wait. I can’t leave here.

Why
? she asked

I made promises to Jesse.

Ah crap, sweetie. Have you gone all Stockholm syndrome on us?

No. At least I don’t think so.
Had I?
It’s complicated. I gave my word.

Uh, huh. Are these promises more important than getting your baby out of there?

Genesis or Jesse, the world or my word? Of course I had to get out. What was I thinking? What was this place doing to me? I steadied myself.
You need to know that Nyx plans to take Genesis away as soon as she’s born, and if that happens I won’t leave. I’ll have to stay on the inside to get her back.

How close is she to coming down the chute?

With Gen, nothing’s been predictable. I think she might be poised and ready, but I’ve thought that for a while.

We’ll hurry.

They can read my emotions, Rory. Now that this has happened, how do I hide them?

Drown the ones you don’t want them to feel with stronger ones.

How do I do that?

Figure it out.
             

Rory never coddled.

Stand by
, Rory said
. I’ll get back to you. Stay strong. No guts, no glory.

Guts. Glory. Got it. Hey, Rory?

Yeah?

If I don’t make it out of here, tell Zane and Nicky that I’m sorry.

Sorry for what?

Did they really need to know what I’d done?
Actually, just tell them that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, okay?

You’re not going to die in there.

It wasn’t dying here that I was worried about.
Like I said, if I don’t make it out...

We’ll get you out. Keep the faith.

Then Rory was gone.

I took a shaky breath, emerged from my secret place, and looked around. Nyx sat on the couch, watching a movie. She didn’t appear to have noticed Rory’s visitation.

I sensed the scent and feel of Jesse’s approach, and my stomach caught the approaching fire.

The instant he manifested, his eyes captured mine, and his smile set me aflame.

“You okay?” he asked.

I nodded. “You?”

“Am now.”

“Me too.”

“Wow,” Nyx said, with a shake of her head. “You two are sweet madness pie topped with a huge cherry of crazy.”

“Gorgeous flowers,” I told Jesse, ignoring Nyx’s snort.

“Glad you like them.” He came up behind my chair and kissed the back of my neck.

I melted. After I had stopped resisting him, there was a wicked sensuality about his touch I found devastating. One part of me believed the intensity of it arose from his demonic nature. Another part didn’t care why it was happening and just wanted to relax and enjoy. The part of me which needed to block my true emotions realized that allowing myself to get lost in those seductive feelings might be a perfect way to hide. I tried not to think about how dangerous that particular hiding place might be.

)o(       )o(       )o(

Rory, Kaia, and Raven worked together to magically scry for Glory’s exact location in space and time. They each took a turn with the pendulum and the map of downtown Denver, and each zeroed in on the same location.

“Should we scout the place before we go in?” Raven asked.

Rory shook her head. “We recon, we risk tipping our hand.”

Kaia grew pensive. “Barry’s a world-renowned architect and incredibly well-connected. Perhaps he can get us some schematics of the building?”

“Inspired,” Rory said. “I’ll call.”

Rory’s adoptive father said he would send the documents in short order. While talking to him, Rory thought maybe she should say some sort of last words in case she didn’t survive the raid on Hell, but wasn’t sure it would matter to him one way or another. Barry had never been anything but kind to her, but, well, that was the problem. A sense of duty to a fallen comrade, a need for a powerful psychic in the Starlight coven, fighting together in the trenches—not the same as love. “Thanks, Father. Just send them to my new phone. It’s a burner; can’t be traced.”

“Smart girl,” Barry said. “Get the job done.”

Rory’s thoughts turned to Zane, and she wondered how the cure was going. It took way too much self-control for her not to call White Bear. She struggled with the desire to psychically tune in on Zane and get a read, but decided to respect the boundaries he’d asked for. Strange how discovering him to be family changed everything—it created in her a vulnerability she’d never before experienced. Until now, Rory hadn’t understood how deeply she wanted to love and be loved.

Glory’s circle of friends gathered in her living room to discuss strategy.

“The angels can’t go, but you can take me,” Dominic said.

Kaia shook her head. “You may be humanized, but you still have that angelic echo. They might sense you. Their wards could set off supernatural alarms. You can’t come.”

He appeared unconvinced.

“It’s true, D,” Raven said. “It’s all about energy. You still have a strong spiritual connection to Heaven and that power totally radiates from you. You even smell awesome, like the most amazing incense. You are Captain Obvious.”

“So what, just you three witches are going in for her?” Dominic asked.

Rory shook her head. “I’m thinking of calling the Goth Girls. See if they’ll help.”

“That’s an idea,” Kaia said.

Raven narrowed her eyes and studied Kaia. “Ever since you arrived, your energy field has been wonky. Like there’s a hole in it. I know you’re a demon hunter and all, but I’m thinking skill alone isn’t enough to pull off the vanquish.”

Rory had sensed something wrong with her, too. She figured that more happened during the Flanagan encounter than Kaia had revealed.

Kaia turned to the angels. “Dominic healed me after the car accident last summer. Micah healed us from our witch hunter wounds. Can’t you fix this?”

“If your wounds were physical, yes, but not those related to your magical powers,” Lailah said.

Rory thought about it. “I can channel energy from Mother Earth. I could feed Kaia magical energy to do her thing. We’ll team up on the vanquish.”

Bridget had told Rory her dance with Nyx wasn’t over yet. Of course, she had also predicted Rory’s imminent death.

Rory was three years old when she witnessed her mother being burned alive by Nyx’s sneak attack at Haven. Bridget’s shrieks still haunted Rory’s nightmares. The smell of her mother’s roasting flesh was the real reason Rory had become vegetarian, and not—as everyone believed—because of a desire to emulate Kaia. However, the greatest impact that trauma had on Rory’s life was to make her tough. Rory was not fearless, but she had spent a lifetime forging effective armor and never backed down from a fight. Even if the enemy faced was the most terrifying monster of them all.

)o(       )o(       )o(

Rory called Jinx and didn’t waste time on pleasantries. “Belle Starr’s brother, Jesse the demon, has kidnapped Glory. We need your help to rescue her.”

“Let Zane rescue his precious Glory,” Jinx said.

Whoa. Where did that come from?
“Zane’s not in the game, Jinx. He’s going through the cure.”

“The cure? So it works?”

“Don’t know yet.”

She was silent so long Rory thought they had lost the connection. Finally, Jinx asked, “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why do you need my help?”

“Glory’s been taken to a place that is warded against angels. Nyx is there with them. We’ve got three witches here, but we can’t break in and take them on alone. They’re real powerful.”

“I’m trying to keep Joy safe from Bo.”

“Does it take all four of you to do that?”

Jinx didn’t answer.

Rory closed her eyes, reached out to try to feel what was going on with Jinx, and was practically knocked on her ass by the force of the vamp’s emotional storm.
Wow
. “Look, Jinx, this is important.”

“Right, everything about Glory always takes center stage, doesn’t it?”

“It’s not just about her. Remember the night Joy was born and said she heard two heartbeats in Glory? Well, she wasn’t being fanciful. Glory’s pregnant.”

The storm got wilder, Rory grew dizzy, and she had to sit. Everything about vampires was so damn intense.

“Dominic’s baby?”

Rory didn’t really want to answer that one. “That’s not my place to tell—”

“Cut the crap, Rory. If you want me to do this, I think I deserve to know what I’m risking my life for.”

“The baby is Zane’s.”

Jinx laughed. “Right. Not possible.”

“It somehow happened during the time travel thing. She came back pregnant.”

Silence returned.

“You just going to sit there and breathe, Jinx?”

“Does Zane know?”

“No. Here’s the thing in a nut. Their baby’s
DNA
is vital to saving the world from another scheme cooked up by the
NWO
scientists down in Wonderland—the ones Zane’s been working with. We couldn’t let him know in case he accidentally tipped them off. See, the baby has to survive or very few people will.”

Jinx’s sarcasm exploded like a bomb through the phone line. “So Glory’s got to save the world again?”

“What the
hell
is your problem, Jinx? You’ve always liked Glory.”

Jinx sighed. “Actually, I do.”

Silence.

“So, will you help
all
of us save the friggin’ world again, Jinx?”

“You had me at ‘it’s Zane’s baby.’”

“I don’t know what’s happening with you right now, but are you going to be okay with this?”

“It’s the right thing to do,” Jinx said.

*          *          *

Nyx finally left Jesse and me alone. Light from a full moon streamed through the big windows during our magnificent candlelight dinner. Afterward, as we slow danced, he whispered things in my ear that were much better than the lame jokes he had recited the last time we danced tightly in each other’s arms.

“If you don’t stop that, my knees will get too weak for me to stand,” I said.

“Let go, babe. I’ve got you. I’ll always have you.”

“You’re such a good dancer.”

“A man who can’t move his feet can’t move what counts.”

“Did you seriously just say that?” I threw my head back and laughed.

He wrapped his fingers in my hair to keep my neck extended so he could nuzzle my throat.

I moaned my pleasure. He felt so good. This felt so right. I shouldn’t be this happy. Surely, something was wrong. Surely, something would go wrong.

It popped into my mind that he might be killed during the rescue attempt, and my emotions instantly became a wildly boiling cauldron.

He stopped dancing and frowned at me. “What is it?”

I panicked, and my brain struggled to come up with something to say. “Sorry. I get scared when I think of Nyx taking my baby. It hits me in waves.”

He lifted my chin, making me look directly into his eyes. “If, after you go demon, you still want the baby, I won’t stop you from trying. That is, if you can find it and if you can slay Nyx. Those are monster ifs.”

“What do you mean, ‘if I still want the baby?’ Why wouldn’t I want her?”

He sighed and brushed a wayward lock of hair off my face. “When you go demon, priorities change. It’s part of the process. You become a different person. Look at me. I’ve done things I never could have imagined doing when I was human. Demons and humans think differently, feel differently, act differently. Rules change. Hearts change.”

“You still wanted to be with me after you turned.”

“Passion’s different than motherhood. Completely different hormones. Baby-nurturing just isn’t a demonic thing. Not part of our makeup.”

“You really don’t know what Nyx is going to do with my baby?”

“I honestly don’t, and I think it’s probably better if you never try to find out.”

I began to tremble.

He put his arms around me and held tight. “If you want the baby after you understand what this life is about, and are clear on who you are after the change, I won’t fight you on it. But, like I said....”

Really big ifs.

Suddenly, he let me go and stepped back with a startled look on his face. “I gotta go.
Now
. I’m getting a 911 from Nyx.” He snapped his fingers and disappeared.

I staggered, from both the unexpected release of me and his revelations. Challenges never intimidated me, so I wasn’t worried about the odds, but if I no longer even wanted Genesis? I sagged onto the nearest chair and buried my face in my hands.