The Protect Her Box Set: Parts 7-9 (23 page)

Of course, Riley stood in my way before I took more than a step. “Paige.”

“I don’t want to hear it, Riley,” I said. I pushed him away when I saw him reach for me. “You can’t fix this. You can’t tell me that it’s okay. I need a minute alone, okay? Just leave me alone.”

Riley stepped aside, and I wanted to hate him for it, but it made me love him all the more. I needed space away from all of this to get my head straight again. I stormed out the door and stopped on the other side. It was nothing but an empty street in a town that wasn’t familiar to me. I wasn’t surprised. This was a place that was empty of humans like me, and a stunning visual reminder that I was way out of my league.

As I walked down the sidewalk, not knowing where I was going to go, I heard the sound of my footsteps echo on the concrete. This place wasn’t meant to have inhabitants in it. It was an empty echo of the world where I was supposed to belong. But I didn’t belong there. I didn’t belong anywhere. Not anymore. That was probably the part that chafed the most. Even though I knew with every fiber of my being that my place was at Riley’s side, I didn’t understand my larger purpose anymore. I was as listless as I felt.

So as I passed the opening of the alleyway, I didn’t expect the hand that emerged from it and grabbed my arm. I opened my mouth to scream, but another hand clamped down over my mouth as I was dragged into the alleyway out of sight of the front door. I reached for my magic but hit an invisible wall. I found myself staring into Bruno Proctor’s fiery eyes, and my mind went blank.

“Hello, Paige. It is so lovely to see you again.”

CHAPTER SEVEN –
RILEY

I didn’t want to let her go, but I did anyway because I could see the turmoil that she was trying so hard to keep a grip on. I understood it. My world had been flipped around, twisted, contorted, and spit back out again. I had no idea how to comfort her because I didn’t know how to reconcile my own truth yet. What I could do for her was let her go and give her the space she needed to calm down.

“Are you sure you should have let her go?” Klein popped up next to me.

“She’s upset,” I said gruffly. “She has every right to be.”

“Yeah, but you also did point out to everyone here that she’s the primary target. So is it safe for her to be out there alone?”

“This is a safe place,” Samuel said from across the room. “At least for a short time longer. It’s harder to track us on this side of the veil. There are a million places to hide as long as we avoid those places where we can usually be found.”

“She can take care of herself,” I told Klein in a low voice. “She’s stronger than she looks.” I gave him a meaningful look. Paige’s control of her magic had grown exponentially in the last couple of days. I still wasn’t sure that it wasn’t her magic that brought me back to life. With access to a goddess’s power, she could be practically unstoppable.

I turned back toward the archangels. “I’ll entertain the idea of letting you keep an archangel pet as long as there is some kind of guarantee that he can’t do anything to Paige ever again. That includes taking him out altogether if he can’t be rehabilitated or whatever you want to call it.”

Samuel nodded slowly. “We will agree to those terms assuming you will agree to one of ours.”

“I won’t kill Paige,” I said, anticipating the demand.

Samuel sighed. “If she is possessed by Eva, she won’t be Paige anymore, Riley. She will become someone who will bring an age of death and destruction to every mortal on Earth. Surely, you can see that and understand the risk. You were the one willing to risk his life to close the Hell gate to ensure the safety of all humans. How can you walk away from this responsibility when the result of that action would be the same?”

“I will deal with Eva if it comes to that,” I said. “But it won’t. I’m not losing Paige. I will find another way. There’s no losing her for me. I won’t accept that, just like I wouldn’t accept death.” There was a long silence around the room. “We go after Benjamin, and then it will be Proctor’s turn. And on that front, just so we’re all clear, that demon is going to get what’s coming to him. I’m not doling out any more free passes. What he did to my family, what he’s done to me and Paige, makes this point non-negotiable.”

“There will always be another to replace him,” Samuel said. “Demon officials are like a virus. They spread and multiply. Bruno Proctor is a known entity. We have a kind of understanding with him. To remove him from the equation introduces a potentially new threat that might very well be worse.”

“Then I’ll deal with that when it comes,” I said. “There’s always something else with you guys, isn’t there? All worst case scenarios.”

“I am doing nothing but telling you the truth. I’ve lived many more years than you,” Samuel said. “I’ve seen many things. These are all things you still have to learn.”

“Guess that’s something else I have to look forward to,” I said. I looked at Klein. Then the world seemed to bend a little bit, and I felt a wave of dizziness.

“What is it?” Klein asked.

I felt a knot of fear. “It’s Paige. She’s in trouble.”

I didn’t allow for further explanation. I just let the energy inside of me follow the bond that I knew existed between us. Then I was there. It was the alleyway next to Slinky Pete’s. I had done more than a few dirty deals there that I recognized it immediately. I saw Paige on the ground. Her head was bleeding, and she had her arm up to ward off another blow.

“Hey, I think you’re picking a fight with the wrong person,” I said. I knew that my wings had extended out behind me. My fists knotted into tight balls as the form in from of me turned around.

“I heard that you grew wings. Interesting development,” Bruno said. His smile widened. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had a chance to go toe to toe with an angel. It almost doesn’t seem fair though.”

“I’m not planning to go easy on you,” I taunted.

“That’s not what I meant,” Bruno said. “It’s almost not even fair for you. Newbie angel and all. If you think that your current form frightens me, I can assure you that it does not. Especially when I have this.” He held up the small item in his hand. It was the relic. 

I almost pounced on him, but I held back. I wasn’t sure what effect the relic would have on anything when it came to this fight, but I was ready for him. I had been ready for him when I was mortal, and I had almost won the first time. Proctor thought that he had the upper hand, and that was okay with me. I wasn’t sure how to flex my strength, but as long as I played it smart it would be fine.

“By the way, in case you were wondering, I’ve made sure that we won’t be interrupted by your archangel buddies,” Proctor said. “I brought some friends of my own.”

That’s when I heard the crash of wood and concrete coming from inside the bar. The smell of heavy, acrid smoke filled my nostrils.

“That’s okay. They’re really not my buddies anyway.” The only one that I cared about was Klein, but the kid had a good head on his shoulders. He’d figure out a way to stay out of the crossfire.

“Well, as long as we’re clear then,” Bruno said. “There was really only one reason that I was interested in keeping you alive, and I knew that if I was just patient enough, that you’d deliver on that as well.”

“You wanted Viho,” I said. “Interesting how you knew he was alive when nobody else did.”

Proctor’s smile widened. “I have sources everywhere. It wasn’t random that he disappeared all those years ago. It took me quite a long time to track you down. The Hopekee go to great lengths to ensure that no one realizes that necromancers all derive from the same bloodline. That’s why they are so rare. Only one or two every few generations. And those that are born, the Hopekee spread out to the wind. No accountability, those Hopekee. But you learn much just by sitting back and waiting.”

I managed to keep the shock off my face. “I wouldn’t put patience on your list of strong suits right now.”

Bruno moved to stand in the middle of the alleyway. “What can I say? Now that everything is finally coming together just the way that I planned, I’ve gotten a little bit excited. Two hundred years I’ve waited for all the right stars align. Eva’s vessel, a new Protector, and the relic. They were all intertwined.” Bruno ticked them off his fingers. “Don’t think that one or two of these things haven’t popped up before, by the way. But the timing was always off for some reason or anything. When I met our dear Paige, though, I knew that it was finally time.”

“You leaked the picture,” Paige croaked. I could see that she was hurt, and I seethed inside. I couldn’t go to her until I took care of Proctor. “You leaked the picture and sent demons to the Calamata Island. You knew that Benjamin would hire Riley.”

I spun that revelation around in my head, and I realized that she was right. “You set this all up. Why?”

“I watched, I waited, and I learned,” Proctor said. “I have the relic, and I have the vessel. Now I’m going to torture your father to get him to spill the final piece, and I’ll have everything I need.”

“Everything you need for what?” I spat out. “What is this grand plan that required two hundred years and the destruction of so many lives?”

“I want Hell,” Proctor said. “Lucifer has gone soft, but if I have Eva’s power then I have everything I need to best him.”

I started to laugh. I couldn’t help it. “Your grandiose plan is just simple mutiny? You are so small-minded it’s amazing.” Proctor’s eyes narrowed. He was pissed, and that was good. Because it was true. “You are going to pull all that power and for what? To take over a puny kingdom that means you’ll become the target for every other demon official who decides to get uppity? Besides, there’s no way in Hell, pardon the pun, that the archangels are going to let that happen.”

“Once I have Eva’s power, there won’t be anyone left who has the power to stop me,” Proctor said. I saw his shoulders tense. He was gearing up for something big, but that was okay. I was ready for him.

“That’s where you are wrong,” I said. “As long as I’m living and breathing, there’s no way I’m going to let that happen. All of those big dreams are for nothing.”

“You can’t stop me either,” Proctor said.

“Try me,” I growled. And just as I hoped, Proctor threw a ball of energy directly at me. I moved to the side and let it dart past me, but then I reached out and grabbed it. I have no idea how or why that worked, but there was a part of me that seemed to know what to do. I turned it and tossed it back at him. He easily ducked it, but that was okay. I wasn’t looking to do any damage. Not quite yet.

I felt my wings expand, and it was as if my body sizzled with electricity. But that wasn’t the way that I liked to fight. There was something uniquely satisfying about putting your hands on your opponent and literally kicking their ass. And I wasn’t about to deny myself of that in this situation.

My wings took me through the space between us in an instant, and I wrapped my hands around Proctor’s throat even as I crashed into him because I realized too late that I overshot the distance. I felt a crackle of pain as he responded by smacking another ball of energy into my shoulder. Up this close, I smelled the stench of death that surely permeated every pore of his borrowed body.

“I am going to kill you,” I hissed.

“Never,” he said as he pushed back against me, but my grip around his throat held. I pulled back just long enough to shear my fist up the underside of his jaw and was delighted to see his body propel upward and back into the air. I leaped after him and grabbed purchase on the front of his shirt even as his body hurtled back to the ground.

We landed hard, and I thought I heard the crack of bones break underneath me. Then another bolt of pain shot up through my torso. Proctor slammed the relic against my chest, and I let loose a howl, but I didn’t move. We stared into each other’s eyes, and I saw the first sign of fear creep into his expression. The effect of the energy being sent into my body was doing nothing but enhancing every bit of bloodlust that curled inside of my body.

“Impossible,” Proctor choked. I saw a bubble of blood appear in the corner of his mouth.

“You picked the wrong guy to fuck with,” I said through clenched teeth. The energy coursing through my body filled me to the brim, and it carried with it an intensity and longing for something more. I needed to end this once and for all. Proctor wasn’t going to hurt my family any more. He’d never touch Paige again. I’d make damn sure of it.

“Joke’s on you, jackass. That magic may be cursed, but so am I.”

With those words, I rammed my hand into his chest even as I called forward the words that I knew by heart. They had been tattooed onto my soul the day that I became a full-blown necromancer and knew that the dead would forever be my bitches.

Proctor howled in pain, and I saw his eyes roll back into his head. His essence was what I was after. It tried to hide from me inside his vessel, but it was a fruitless endeavor. I had been plucking life forces from demon hosts for ten years. No one could hide from me.

As I yanked my hand back out, I held up the black squishy mass that only had physical form because I had wanted it to be that way. I stared at it. Then I said the words in the language of my ancestors that I knew wouldn’t just banish it back to Hell. Bruno Proctor was done on this plane of existence and everywhere else.

“May you never rest in peace, motherfucker.”

There was a wail of pain in my mind, and then the black goo burst into a thousand pieces before sucking back in on itself and disappearing. I slowly stood up and felt my knees waver, but they held.

The relic dropped onto the body of Proctor’s host, and I watched in a kind of twisted fascination as it burned a hole through the dead man’s corpse.

“Riley?” I heard Paige’s shaky voice behind me. It brought me back to reality. I turned to face her. What I saw in her expression was something that I never expected to see when it came to me.

Fear.