Reap & Redeem (27 page)

“The One True Light,” Kylen said, his voice sounding weak even to himself.

“Well, thank God for that.” Rashnu tossed back the last half inch of his drink and slammed the glass down on the bar with a hearty whack. “Now drink up. You’re about to have a visitor.”

Kylen snapped up his gaze to meet Rashnu’s glittering, green eyes. “Who? Olivia?”

“No, you’re going to have to save Olivia on your own. Drink if you want to find out.” Rashnu walked out from behind the bar, heading for the door.

Kylen picked up the glass with both hands and pressed it to his lips. It trembled there for a moment, and then he tipped his head back, letting the amber liquid slide down his throat, feeling more like a death sentence than a rescue. A purple mist emanated from his throat and chest as the drink made its way through his insides like a stream of molten lava. He slammed the glass down onto the bar and tried to curse, but he couldn’t pull in enough breath to force out the words. Panic rose up from his gut, and he was sure he would suffocate from it when he heard the door open and shut behind him.

When he turned, Kara stood before him.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Kylen closed his eyes and rubbed them hard with the heels of both hands. What had that damn angel given him? He needed to lie down…for a month. This entire debacle was exhausting. But when he opened his eyes again, she still stood before him, wearing a flowing white robe, her green eyes luminous.

He stared at her, unable to believe she was anything other than an illusion.

When she took a step toward him, he startled and nearly fell from his bar stool.

What the hell?

“Kylen. It’s me. It’s not a trick.” Kara held out a hand in a placating gesture like he was a frightened child or a wild animal to be tamed.

Her eyes sparkled as she approached him, but her smile was what shattered him.

Planting his feet on the stone floor, he took a tentative step toward her. His legs crumpled beneath him, leaving him on his knees before her. He hung his head and gasped in ever-more labored breaths, trying to keep himself from passing out. When her hands tangled in his hair and pulled his face up to meet hers, he couldn’t hold back the groan that choked from his heaving body.

He was ruined.

If this
was
a trick, he was lost.

She stroked his hair and pulled his face against her thighs as his arms wrapped around her of their own accord. He wanted to stand but couldn’t make his legs work.

Mercifully, she knelt in front of him, and he raised his trembling hands to the sides of her head. Cradling her face between his palms, he studied her against his memories. Her green eyes and straight white-blond hair were the same. He smoothed a hand down her cheek, letting it linger there. She pressed her face against his palm, and he broke.

“How?” he asked, not wanting the answer but desperate for it, too. He’d dreamed of seeing her again, yet he’d never believed it was truly possible.

“I came back to bring you a gift, Kylen. A gift of life.”

“Return to me.”

“I can’t. Purgatory is as far as I can come and only this once. Rashnu broke all the rules to get me here. He wasn’t supposed to let me return to the fourth Heaven if I chose this, but he figured out a way…if you made the right choice first.” Kara stroked his face and pushed the hair from his eyes. “I’m so glad you did.”

“I’m sorry,” Kylen said, his voice cracking.

“Why are you sorry? You saved my soul. You gave me everything.”

“I betrayed you.”

“With Olivia? Kylen, you still have a life to live. Live it. You betrayed nothing. I know you love me. You proved it when you saved me and Deacon and a thousand times before that. You deserve to be loved by someone who’s alive. Let her love you.” She leaned in and kissed his lips. He was paralyzed by the fear that she’d vanish.

“How?”

“The same way you loved me, Kylen. Utterly.” She kissed his forehead. “Fiercely.” She kissed his closed eyes. “Completely.” She kissed his lips once again, and then drew a vial from her robe and offered it to him. Its pink contents shimmered and swirled in the light.

“What is that?”

“It’s the essence of the Valkyrie. My essence. My strength. I don’t need it where I am now, but if you give it to Olivia before it’s too late, you can save her. If you take a sip here and give the rest to her when you find her, it will bind her to you. It’s been blessed, Kylen. Olivia will be healed. So no more thoughts about giving up. Keep your light and your head, and you’ll keep your woman. You have a job to do and a life to live out to its end, however long that may be. Live it well, love.”

Kara unplugged the vial and held it to his lips. His lips parted, and she poured the liquid into his mouth. The room before him fractured as his vision exploded, shattering everything into a million disjointed images. Memories unraveled from his mind, the worst of them, the demon’s, torn out like weeds, streaming away from him in a visible line, much like the souls he’d purged thousands of times.

He fell to the floor prostrate and laid his forehead against the cool stone as Kara caressed his back. Nausea came in wave after wave as the demon’s memories were purged from him. When the pain finally ceased, he lay weak and helpless on the floor.

Kara wiped the sweat from his brow with the hem of her robe, and then plugged the vial with the stopper, tucking it into his pants pocket. “Find her, Kylen. Save her. Save yourself.”

She leaned down to kiss him, and he struggled to hold on to her for a moment longer. Gaze upon her for one more second.

“I love you,” he pleaded, tears searing down his face.

“I know.” She pulled away and walked to the bar. Raising the glass, she tipped it toward him. “To your health, Kylen. I’ll love you always, too. Be well. Be loved.”

As soon as the liquid disappeared down her throat, she began to shimmer. In a blink of his eye, she was gone. Again.

Forever.

He closed his eyes and tried to believe it was all another dream. A crazy, cruel dream, but the vial in his pocket proved otherwise. And now that the worst of his demon’s memories were gone, a glimmer of hope ignited in him.

He had a chance.

A chance to say goodbye and a chance to save Olivia.

He’d made his choice.

Now all he had to do was find her.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Kylen had no idea how much time had passed when he finally managed to pull himself together. He scrubbed a hand down his face, wiping away the evidence of his emotion. With renewed purpose and much steadier legs, he stalked across the room to the only door, scythe in hand. As he reached for the handle, Rashnu pulled it open from the other side and stood in the doorway.

“Now what?” Kylen asked.

Rashnu laid his hand on Kylen’s shoulder and squeezed. “Welcome back…for real this time.”

“Let’s not get all Dr. Phil just yet. I still have to find Olivia. Now.” Kylen shrugged from his hold.

“Yes, I have work to do, and you have a woman to save. Good luck, Kylen.”

Kylen pushed past him, but then stopped just outside the doorway. He stared down the long tunnel, unable to look the angel in the eye. “Thank you, Rashnu.”

“You are most welcome. I’m happy you chose well.”

“Thank you for…all of it.”

“Yes.”

As he turned, Rashnu touched his shoulder and flashed him out of Purgatory.

* * *

Kylen landed in Ruth’s hospital room.

“So it’s true. They’re alive?” He looked at Ruth’s burned and bandaged body, so frail in the cold room.

“Kylen?” Deacon offered him an awkward embrace. “What happened to you?”

“Kara. I got to say goodbye.”

Deacon nodded.

“You asked Rashnu to do that for me, didn’t you?”

“I planted the seeds, but I didn’t know what the outcome would be.”

Nate and Maeve appeared in the doorway, disheveled and out of breath.

After stepping into the room in front of her partner, Maeve gave Kylen an appraising once over, her forehead wrinkled with a question. “You’re back? We thought you’d gone postal.”

“Not yet.” Kylen said.

As Maeve told them the story of Olivia’s kidnapping, Kylen grew increasingly agitated. “We’re running out of time.”

Deacon turned to look at Maeve. “I need you to stay with Ruth. Promise me you won’t leave her side.”

“I promise.”

“Where do you want to start?” Deacon asked, stroking his hand through Ruth’s hair.

“I found an exit portal. I followed two demons to it. Do you think he would have taken her to Hell?” Nate said.

Kylen shook his head. “No. I think he’s holding her as bait. We should start at Good Hope, where Olivia was taken.”

“Maybe Bo can pick up her scent,” Nate said. “He’s in the chapel.”

* * *

Olivia awoke on a hard wooden pew. She was afraid, and had no idea where she was other than in an empty church. Two of the windows to her right were broken and boarded over with plywood. Moonlight illuminated the room with slants of light, enough for her to make out the typical accoutrements of a church, but from this vantage point she couldn’t get a true sense of the size of things…or a possible escape route.

Her rapid breaths reverberated through the otherwise silent room. Exhaustion coursed through her body, making her limbs heavy and her bones hurt. Pressing the little button on the side of her watch, she saw that it was 3:00 a.m. Three hours since she’d died.

Clearly this was not Heaven. Or at least no version she’d ever imagined. Bits and pieces of the night floated back to her. The cats, yowling and hissing. The fire. The terrifying car ride. The cemetery. She drew her knees up to her chest, curling into a ball on the bench. The small movement reignited the pain from the wounds in her calves. Images of the handsome man with sleek black hair and the yellow eyes of a beast returned to her.

He’d bewitched her somehow. He was no angel.

And she was not dead after all. Not just yet, anyway.

She sat up carefully to examine her wounds. Deep angry red gouges festered beneath her shredded jeans. Rising from the bench, she looked around the sanctuary, searching for any sign of her kidnapper. Determining she was alone, she crossed over to the door and tried to budge its heavy wood. It was locked and much too solid to break open, at least in her weakened state, so she walked over to the remaining stained-glass windows and tried to peer through them. The images outside were distorted by the colored glass, and the small amount of moonlight wasn’t enough to provide illumination. Still, blurred movement caught her eye, and a shiver skipped down her spine, raising gooseflesh on her arms and legs. She wasn’t alone after all. Something
was
out there, stalking around the church. Something small. A
lot
of somethings.

Like cats.

Olivia searched the sanctuary for anything she could use to break through the window. Surely it would be safer to go outside and face the cats, or whatever they were, than to stay here waiting for her captor to return.

Camael.

The name whispered in the back of her mind. Had he told her his name? She couldn’t remember. Picking up the wooden lectern, she carried it to the window. Closing her eyes, she pulled it back and rammed it into the stained-glass depiction of the Fall of Man. It bounced off the window without leaving so much as a crack in the glass, but sparks exploded upon impact, crackling through the wood. She released the lectern in surprise and it crashed to the ground, splintering into dust.

So much for breaking out the windows.

A sudden wave of fatigue overtook her, almost crumpling her to the floor. Her surge of adrenaline had been spent. She made her way back to the pew and laid down, curling herself back into a ball, tucking her hands under her head for a pillow.

Closing her eyes, she prayed that Kylen would find her before the man returned. She pulled the front of her T-shirt out enough to peer down between her breasts. The electric-blue blaze, the strange aftereffect of their lovemaking, had all but vanished. She couldn’t help but think that she was fading, too. Her old pains had crept back into her bones and joints.

Time was short.

Would she pass away here in an abandoned church, all alone? A twinge of fear stabbed at her heart.… She had thought she was ready, but she didn’t want to die. Not yet. Not without telling Kylen goodbye. Despite her best efforts and intentions, she did love him. Already. She wanted a future with him.

As unfair as it was and as much as it would hurt both of them, she wanted the opportunity to tell him that.

She resolved that whatever happened to her here in this church, she wouldn’t die. Not until she saw Kylen again. Peace washed over her with that resolution. She couldn’t escape. But she could wait.

Closing her eyes, she listened. Somewhere in the night she could swear she heard a cat mewl.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Kylen stood in Good Hope Cemetery and sent his senses out into the night, desperate to find some sign of Olivia. If they found an imp or a demon, he would get his answers, one way or another, but nothing returned to him. He was blind to the dark side; his tether to it had been severed for good.

Nate encouraged the hellhound to pick up Olivia’s scent from the front seat of the car. Deacon watched while the beast sniffed the Lincoln and then the ground around it. “That’s one huge-ass mutt,” he said.

The beast’s tail started to whip back and forth. He lifted his head, letting loose an unearthly howl that was promptly answered by dogs and coyotes from miles around.

The dog sniffed excitedly along the ground, weaving in a line toward the wrought-iron fence. He jumped up, setting his paws down on the grates on the small side-entry gate, and howled again.

“Shut that damn thing up.”

Nate jogged up to the dog and patted its head. “What did you find there, Bo? Good boy!”

Deacon pulled Bo back by his collar and unlatched the small side gate, swinging it open. “He’s on to something.”

Bo sniffed circles around the grass, moving up and down several feet along the street before sitting down and waiting.