Grim Rites (8 page)

Oh, God, I just needed to act normal, get myself under control, and everything would be fine. All I needed was a little time to….

“You bastard!” Nic said, launching himself past me, his fist connecting with Jason’s face, sending both men sprawling to the floor.

They fought, rolling across the floor, and I stood by, watching them.

I’d needed a distraction and I got it. Perhaps God was listening after all? And if He was, would it be asking too much for this all not to end in death?

T
he brothers continued their fight
, neither one gaining the upper hand, and yet I could tell to look at them that Jason was holding back. Was it because Nic was his brother and he didn’t want to hurt him, or he just didn’t want to give away what he was capable of?

Sighing, I stepped into the fray, grabbing the collar of Nic’s jacket and hauling him back from his attempt at battering his brother’s brains out. Jason lashed out, his leg hooking behind my knees and sending me sprawling onto my ass for the second time that day. Growling, I rolled back up into a crouch and dodged the stray punch that swung in my direction. I drew back my fist and caught Jason square in the jaw.

I could tell from the look of surprise, but not pain, on his face that it didn’t hurt. I was certain of that—or at least I was certain it hadn’t hurt him. His face seemed to be made of marble and my knuckles seemed to be the victims in the story.

Hopping to my feet, I tried to brush off the pain in my hand, but it continued to niggle at me.

“What was that for?” he said, rubbing the side of his jaw. Maybe I had hit him hard enough to make it hurt.

“For knocking me down. It’s not something I take too kindly to,” I said, forcing as much irritation into my voice as I could.

“Well, if you didn’t insist on getting caught in the middle of something that wasn’t any of your business, I wouldn’t need to knock your ass out of it.”

He was a jerk, plain and simple.

“Don’t talk to her like that, Jason. The only one in the wrong here is you. What happened to you? We all thought you were dead, you broke Mom’s heart.”

Jason dropped his gaze to his heavy-duty army boots and for the first time since he’d strolled in and set the demon on fire, his smug expression slipped, his face a mixture of pain and regret. Just as quickly as it had slipped, it was back in place, his shoulders stiffening as he shot Nic an arrogant look.

“You’re questioning me? What about you? You were supposed to be there that night to bail me out, but if I remember correctly, you were too busy getting drunk off your ass and starting bar brawls with blood suckers.”

I knew how much guilt Nic carried over that night; he hadn’t told me in so many words, but he hadn’t needed to. I’d seen it in his face, reflected in his eyes as he’d told me what happened. For Jason to bring it up now had to hurt, and I could see the flinching around Nic’s eyes as his brother spoke.

“I’ve changed…” Nic said through gritted teeth, “but I see you haven’t.”

“Changed? From the looks of it, little brother, you haven’t changed at all. You’re still hanging around with trouble makers, getting in way over your head, and letting your dick lead you down blind alleys….”

Anger made me bristle and it took every ounce of self-control to keep my power under wraps. If he was truly a witch hunter of old as the mark on his hand suggested, the least brush of magic would set off alarm bells in him. That was more than I could afford.

No matter how much I wanted to drive my power through his chest.

I cut off the dark direction my thoughts seemed to be taking and swallowed hard. My inability to control even simple things such as the thoughts that occupied my mind was getting worse. I needed to work harder at pulling it all under wraps; if I couldn’t, then I was in more trouble than I’d ever imagined possible. What I really needed to do was find a way to neutralise the demon mark—maybe if I could do that, things would get easier.

“And what is that supposed to mean?” Nic asked, but his voice had dropped low, the same way the winds drop when the eye of a storm passes overhead.

Jason didn’t seem to see the danger—either that or he just didn’t care—and jerked his thumb in my direction. “Let’s be honest, little brother. She’s cute, but are you sure hanging around with a demon magnet is the best way to get laid?”

Nic lunged forward once more but I planted myself between the two brothers, blocking him from getting his hands on Jason the way he wanted to.

“Get out of the way, Amber, this is between him and me….”

“No, he’s not worth it. He’s here for a reason. He wants something or he’d still be off elsewhere, playing dead….”

It was Jason’s turn to get angry; his entire body seemed to tighten like a coiled spring or a viper before it struck. Nic relaxed in against my back, his heat seeping through my jacket and spreading through my body.

“Why are you here?” Nic asked, his voice a little more controlled.

“Can’t I just come back to visit my family?”

“You were dead. I’m pretty sure we both know the answer to that is a resounding ‘no,’” Nic said dryly.

“I did my job, Dominic. You have no idea what that’s like; you’ve never had to carry responsibility like this, and I hope you never will. But I came back as soon as I could.”

“You’re sure you’re not back here for a job?”

Nic’s question was met with silence and it was the only answer we needed. He wasn’t back because he really cared about his family, he was back to hunt for someone or something. Swallowing hard, I crossed my fingers behind my back. Could I really be so unlucky that he’d have found out about me? It was entirely possible, but I needed to cling to the belief that he hadn’t; it was the only thing stopping me from going super nova.

“When I heard the job was here, I jumped at the chance to come back, you’ve got to believe that…” Jason said. The sudden earnestness in his voice made me suspicious. He was a jerk and now he was a liar. He wasn’t doing a good job of selling himself and I knew Nic felt the same way.

“How did you find us?” I asked, breaking Jason’s intense eye contact with his brother.

“I tracked the demon here…” he said, but there was something in the way he said it and the shifty look he gave the now-smouldering corpse of the demon that told me it was nothing but another lie. But I couldn’t exactly prove it, and I definitely couldn’t just accuse him of lying, not without proof of some sort.

“Where you’d get your supply of Holy Oil? Not even the Elite get bottles of it like you’ve got. The best we can do is daub the sign of the cross on a demon’s head without getting bitten and set it on fire.”

Jason grinned, and this time it was a genuine smile, one that instantly reminded me of Nic. That was why he’d looked so familiar to me in the first place. They were brothers, but they shared an uncanny resemblance. Of course, Jason looked a little older, and his unshaven face gave him a wilder appearance, but it was there, lurking beneath, and it came out when he smiled.

“The Vatican supplies us with it,” he said with a smirk.

“The Vatican supplies it to everyone, hence the name Holy Oil—I meant how do you have so much of it?”

“We work for the Church, or at least we used to. There was a period of time when our numbers dwindled after the destruction of the Shadow Creeps, but recent years have seen our numbers on the rise once more.”

“Is that not kind of odd?” I asked, trying to keep my anger over his name-calling under wraps.

“Not when there have been so many sightings of witches again. We were born to hunt them; if they become a problem, then it’s our job to keep them under control, wipe them out before they can cause any real damage.”

He was so matter-of-fact in his description, so easily blaming witches for everything. How could they have come to that conclusion? I knew the Shadow Sorcerers were powerful, and obviously some of them misused their power, but not every witch was a Shadow Sorcerer and not every Shadow Sorcerer wanted to raise Hell. There was more to the story than what the history books would have had us believe; I was certain of that.

“Look, I need to know about any suspicious cases that come in, things that can’t be explained away by the usual run-of-the-mill Elite party line.”

“We don’t have a party line, we get cases and we do our damnedest to solve them.”

Jason rolled his eyes and I caught sight of Victoria standing outside the broken window. She gestured towards Jason, her eyes filled with questions before she moved to the main door of the diner.

People were still huddled in small groups, their terrified expressions telling me they’d seen more than they’d ever seen in their lives. There was a reason the Elite liked to keep things under wraps. Not causing mass hysteria and uncontrolled panic was one such good reason.

“What happened here?” Victoria asked, crunching across the broken glass that littered the floor. The second she caught sight of the smouldering heap that had been the demon, her dark eyebrows shot up, disappearing beneath the heavy fringe she had.

“Underling demon attack,” I said.

“I killed it,” Jason said, his smug tone grating on my nerves.

“And you are?” Victoria asked, her voice cold enough to freeze Hell itself. It seemed I wasn’t the only one irritated by Jason’s arrogant attitude.

He held his hand out to her. “I’m Jason Holt,” he said.

Nic grunted and stalked away. I followed him, catching up to him as he reached the front door of the diner. Sirens split the air. Someone had obviously called the cops—when would they learn the police couldn’t help them with something like this? No matter how many times the citizens of King City were told to call the Elite when they came into contact with any sort of strange goings on, it still hadn’t sunk in. I couldn’t help but wonder if they’d ever learn.

“Nic, what’s wrong? I thought you’d be pleased to find out your brother was all right?”

“How can I, Amber? He lied to me, lied to my parents. You have no idea what his death did to my mother, it practically destroyed her. And my father….” Nic trailed off and stared off into the distance. “He put them through all of that, and for what?”

He was right, of course, but it didn’t change the fact that Jason was still alive. If I could somehow find out that my father was still alive after all these years, well, I’d always imagined I’d be happy. But maybe I wouldn’t. Maybe the thought that the person you cared for, loved, hadn’t returned to you, that they would rather live another life, would hurt too much.

“I’m sorry,” I said, brushing my hand against his arm.

He glanced back at me and gave me a half-hearted attempt at a smile. “You’ve got nothing to be sorry about, and you did a pretty awesome job with that knife and the demon’s mouth. I’d never have thought of doing that,” he said, the admiration in his voice causing heat to flush into my face.

“You’d have thought of it,” I said, but I couldn’t keep the pride from my voice.

“You two ready to take a trip down to the Elite office? Nic, your brother has information he needs to share with us, and you’re both needed for your statements on the demon attack,” Victoria said, her eyes signalling a W.T.F to me.

She’d obviously seen the witch hunter mark on him—either that or he’d straight up told her. From the look on his face and the way his eyes couldn’t seem to stray any further than the wiggle in Victoria’s ass, I was betting she could have asked him anything and he’d have given her the answer.

“I really need to get home and get cleaned up….” It wasn’t a lie, and I was hoping the forensic guys were done with the street in front of my apartment block by now. They’d certainly had enough time.

“This won’t take long,” Victoria said, nodding to the cops outside the door. “I’ll get it all squared away here and then we can get going.”

I sighed. There was no getting out of it. For the second time in as many hours, I was going to find myself on the wrong side of the interview table. The only bright side I could see in all of this was that whatever information Jason had to share with the Elite, Victoria would find it, and once she did, I knew she’d pass it along to me. Something had drawn the first witch hunter to King City and if Jason found out his buddy was dead then we’d never get rid of him, at least not until he found the party responsible. It’d certainly make it easier, having someone like him around to help hunt down the demon responsible, but it was also too much of a risk.

With someone like him around, there was too big a chance that he’d decide the party responsible for everything would turn out to be me. And I needed all the warning I could get before that happened.

S
itting
in the waiting area of the Elite building, I picked at my finger nails. My mother had always called it a disgusting habit, but I’d developed it as a way to not chew my fingernails down to the butt. I’d given up one but there was no way I was giving up the other.

I watched the other officers come and go. Their side glances told me they knew about the dead shifters. No one else in the office had taken down a pack single-handedly—no one else had tried either, but that didn’t come into it. I wasn’t even sure what they thought had happened. I mean, how do you fix that one in your mind? How could I murder eight shifters, all in the same place, at the same time? No one had mentioned me having any sort of special abilities. I knew for a fact if Jon honestly believed I had some sort of power, he’d have shouted it from the rooftops. His determination to get rid of me knew no bounds.

Nic appeared around the corner of the corridor, his expression a mixture of concern and irritation. Whatever they’d said to him had put him into a seriously foul mood.

He spotted me, crossed the waiting area, and plopped down into the same plastic seats we’d sat in a few hours before.

“
Deja vu
or what?” I said, cracking the hint of a smile in an attempt to get him to loosen up.

“Have you been in yet?” He asked, cracking his knuckles.

“Nope, no one’s been out to collect any information from me. It’s a little weird, they all just keep side eyeing me as they go in and out instead.”

“They had Jason sit in while they questioned me and took down my statement. From the second he walked back there with Victoria, they’ve been treating him like some sort of Messiah….”

My stomach started to knot uncomfortably and it took all of my will power not to bolt for the door. The second I did that then it was all over. They’d know I was guilty of something and Jon would be only too happy to find something he could make stick against me.

“Amber?” Victoria called to me and I pushed up from my seat. My palms were sweating and I scrubbed my hands against my jeans. It was a mistake; the blood of the witch hunter we’d found dead in the alley smeared up onto my hands, making them sticky.

Great, because what I really needed when going into to face a witch hunter was my hands covered in the blood of his dead comrade.

“Don’t look so worried, it’s just routine,” Victoria said, leaning in to whisper against my ear.

“If it’s so routine then why is Jason sitting in on the interviews? Shouldn’t he be getting interviewed too?”

“Jon tried, but the second he did, Jason handed him a card with a number on it and when Jon got off the phone, suddenly Jason was running the show. I don’t know what kind of connections he’s got, but they’re seriously high up in the food chain.”

I nodded. It made perfect sense, he was bound to have powerful connections. Everything I’d ever read about the witch hunters said they were wealthy aristocrats, men in positions of power that the Church recruited to wipe out the scourge that was the Shadow Sorcerers.

I shot Nic a contemplative look before I followed Victoria down the corridor that led to the interview rooms and the pen. If Jason came from a family who wielded the kind of power that had their son chosen to be a witch hunter, then why hadn’t Nic ever mentioned any of it before? He’d told me of his failed attempt at getting into the Elite—was it because of his family and who they were, or had his family decided the Elite was below their son?

It wasn’t something I was going to get answers on anytime soon but it certainly gave me pause.

Following Victoria down to the interview room, I avoided the eye contact of everyone I met in the hall. Seeing their curious glances and, in some cases, downright hostile glares, had my mind reeling, making it almost impossible to actually concentrate on anything I was supposed to focus on.

Victoria stood to one side and gestured for me to step into the interview room. Jason sat behind the desk, his booted feet propped up on the table as he leaned back with his eyes shut. He was the epitome of a man at ease and yet there was an undercurrent of tension that ran through the room. He was nervous about something, but I couldn’t get a read on what it was.

“Take a seat, Amber, and tell me in your own words what happened with the demon,” Jason said, the false boredom in his voice putting me even more on edge than I had been. He was definitely digging for something, some sort of information.

“Well, you were there, why don’t you enlighten me, seeing as it was you who killed the demon….”

Jason opened his eyes and let his feet drop from the table with a thud. He studied me for a couple of seconds before his easy smile returned once more.

“You know, I’ve never understood what my brother sees in smart-mouth little bitches. But I will give him this, he definitely has a type and you are it….”

Anger pulsed in my veins and I could feel the knot tightening up in my gut. This was what he wanted. He wanted to piss me off, draw me out. Probably wanted to see what I was capable of. And if that were true, then it meant he was suspicious of me.

“Are you always so charming? Or is this just your special interrogation technique?” I said, plastering a fake smile on my face.

Jason laughed and it, surprisingly, sounded sincere. Could it be that he actually had some sort of sense of humour buried beneath all that tough asshole exterior?

“Look, I know you’re not interested in my brother. I’ve seen women like you and all you’re interested in doing is using him before you move on.”

“I’m not sure I understand what this has to do with the demon attack in the cafe,” Victoria interjected, her voice dry and curt.

“Listen sugar tits, this has to do with whatever I damn well please. I’ve got full rein to use this branch of the Elite for whatever I deem necessary. Now, if you don’t like the way I’m talking to your little friend here, you can get the hell out.” Jason’s voice brooked no argument and I dropped back into my seat as Victoria pushed up onto her feet.

“That’s a good girl, don’t forget to—” He cut off, his voice strangled as Victoria wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and rammed his head into the table faster than he could react.

He swung wildly with his arms and Victoria grabbed one of his wrists, jerking it back up behind him with enough force to snap a lesser man’s arm.

“If you ever speak to me like that again….”

Victoria’s voice was hollow and her eyes had taken on a dark bottomless pit expression that had my stomach clenching uncomfortably. I shook my head at her, trying to convey with my gaze that she needed to stop.

Her Changeling status was still a secret, but it wouldn’t remain that way for long if she lost her shit in the interrogation room and snapped Jason’s neck the same way she had Zeck’s.

The darkness slid out of her eyes and part of me couldn’t help but wonder where it all went to. It moved like something living, like something that had a mind all of its own, and maybe it did. She nodded to me and released him abruptly.

Jason swung around, ramming the chair backwards with enough force to send it smashing into the wall where the two-way mirror sat.

“What are you?” he asked, his face a nasty shade of puce as he practically vibrated with rage.

“What’s the matter? Find it hard to believe you could be bested by a woman?” I taunted, drawing his ire.

He could piss me off all he wanted; I’d simply sit here imagining all the ways I would enjoy kicking his ass. Victoria, on the other hand, I was pretty certain didn’t have that in her. She was far too straight-forward and whatever she thought, she had a tendency to enact. And right now, I could visualise her ripping Jason’s spine out through his stomach.

“I know you’re trying to distract me,” he said through gritted teeth and from the look in his eyes I could tell he was struggling to control his anger.

“Well, you do look like someone about to….” I trailed off as I watched him suck in a deep breath.

What was wrong with him?

“Get out,” he said, his voice little more than a growl.

“What do you mean?”

Victoria didn’t need to be asked twice and she reached my side of the table in record speed. Grabbing my arm, she jerked me onto my feet and towed me towards the door.

“We need to leave, Amber,” she said quietly as she pulled open the door and shoved me out into the hall.

“What the hell is going on, Victoria?” I asked, peering over her shoulder into the room beyond.

Jason’s hands clutched at the table, his head hanging low. His body was tense and there was an odd tremor that seemed to run through his muscles. I’d never seen anything like it.

“There’s a lot you don’t understand about witch hunters, and one of those things is their inability to control their gifts when they lose their temper,” she said, closing the door quietly after her.

“Their gifts?” I asked, unable to keep the incredulity from my voice. As far as I knew, witch hunters were just human. They didn’t have any magic and so the idea of Jason having a gift was utterly beyond me. The thought had never even crossed my mind.

“It changes them, the anger and bitterness it takes to control it. I’ve heard it can destroy those who were chosen but who were unable to bear the responsibility.”

Jason lifted his face, the veins in his neck standing out as he let out a long agonised roar that reverberated throughout the entire building. People paused in their work, and the frightened looks they cast in the direction of the interrogation room said it all.

“What did they do to him?” I asked, staring at the man in the room as his spine contorted with the effort it was taking for him to control himself.

“This is why they don’t let them come home. They are as good as dead—the Vatican arranged it to be this way for a reason.”

The sound of screaming metal met my ears as Jason picked up the table that just seconds before had been bolted to the floor and bent the legs backwards on it before slamming it into the wall. He darted forward, slamming into the door, causing it to shake in its frame.

“You need to leave. If he catches you….” Victoria trailed off as she shot the man behind the door another quick glance.

“If he catches me, Victoria?” I asked, prompting her once more.

“You won’t be able to withstand what he’ll force you to do. No one can…” she said, pushing me back from the door.

“What about you?” I asked, refusing to budge.

I wasn’t about to let Victoria throw herself on her own blade for the sake of protecting me from Jason and I sure as hell wasn’t going to run from a fight. I was many things, but coward wasn’t one of them, and as much as I didn’t want him to find out what I was, I wouldn’t back down from a fight either.

Jason slammed his fists into the door and peered out through the glass. I gasped; his eyes were white, as though the eyeball itself had rolled into the back of his head.

“Jesus Christ,” I muttered as I stared up at him.

Whatever the Vatican had done to them, it was beyond anything I’d ever seen before. I knew what the face of true evil looked like; I’d stared into the soulless eyes of demons before, but nothing like this. Jason wasn’t a demon; he was a man. A man the Church had taken to use for their own purposes. They’d ruined his life, stolen any chance he might have at happiness.

Power flooded my veins and poured up my throat, practically choking me. Jason zeroed in on me, his white blank gaze digging into my very soul as he searched me for something only he could see, only he could find.

Pushing away from the door, I did the only thing I could do. I ran.