Payable On Death: A Jax Rhodes Novel, Book One (The Jax Rhodes Series 1) (17 page)

"It wasn't just blood. It was
your
blood that called to him. He wants you almost as much as he needs you." Dane stepped away, pulling a vial of holy water from his pocket and slamming it against the obsidian.

"And you're afraid I won't be able to resist him?"

The black glass cracked, shattering into thousands of tiny shards. I threw an arm over my face, half-turning and crouching to avoid the sharp airborne particles as Dane mimicked my position and opened his coat wide to cover us.

"I'm afraid I won't be able to stop you if you can't."

"You're what brought me back." I leaned in, stealing a kiss under the safety of his leather duster as glass rained down on us.

Two gateways down. Four to go.

"Tobias, you have
to give us more than that. We can't keep going like this. She's going to get killed. She almost got pulled through the portal."

"I have given you all the information I can. We can't aid you in this task anymore than we already have." Tobias fell into the chair beside the love seat.

I'd toed off my boots and taken up residence on the couch. Dane had been arguing with Tobias for hours after we got back from destroying the second portal. All I wanted to do was sleep. I thought Dane and I were on the same page about that. Clearly, I was wrong.

As soon as he saw Tobias waiting for us when we opened the door, he went ballistic. I'd tried to interject, mentioned more than once that I was in the room and they didn't need to talk about me like I wasn't there, told them to shut up--still, they refused to listen to me. I decided to curl up on the sofa with a blanket too small to completely cover me up because it was apparently just for decoration, and a couple of those useless throw pillows, rather than waste another breathe. They kept arguing as my eyes fluttered shut. I'd grown up in more than one house where Mommy and Daddy argued at the dinner table. A heated discussion between my Sin Eater and my angel ward wasn't going to keep me awake.

"Tell him, Jax."

I cracked one eye open at the sound of my name, making out a blurry look of expectation on Dane's face. Obviously, they waited until I'd dozed off to include me in the conversation and I was supposed to agree with something. I muttered something about him being right and rolled over.

"See, she agreed. Just like I said."

"She's not even awake, Sin Eater, that doesn't count."

"Tobias, please. We need your help, you can't just sit on the sidelines anymore."

"There are rules. We influence events, we don't change them."

"You're the only ones still playing by the rules."

"You expected something different from an angel?"

"He wants her—it's more than just because she's the last Elioud. He's… enthralled by her. I saw it last night, felt it. I don't think I can stop him.” Dane let out a sigh. “And I don't know how much longer she'll want me to. He stirs something inside her, a part of her – however small – is drawn to him. She cares for me, I know she does, but I don't think it's enough to fight him off again. What if I'm not enough, what if my love for her isn't enough?"

Enough?
I'd had enough of their arguing. Ridiculous and pointless, talking in circles that wouldn't solve anything. I chucked a throw pillow hard, nailing Dane in the back of the head before Tobias had a chance to warn him. I kicked off the covers and stomped off to my room, slamming the door behind me.

Cares for him? I made my feelings for him pretty damned clear. Lost the closest thing I had to a best friend over him. I told him he was what brought me back. When the primal song of the gateway called to the darkest parts of me, his voice called to my heart. Why didn't he understand that? Taking my frustration with Dane out on my clothes, still filthy from demon blood and god knows what else, I ripped off my shirt and pants and tossed them toward the corner by the door.

Dane got in the way, catching my clothes with his face as he entered the room. Served him right for doubting the way I felt for him. He was lucky I'd shucked my weapons when we got home. The door closed with a soft click behind him. He stood there for a moment, pulling my top and pants from around his neck and head, clearly trying to figure out why I was so upset.

Words I never expected to say to another human being flew from my mouth before I had a chance to stop them.

"I love you, you moron. Don't you get it? That has to count for something. It has to. Otherwise, what's the point of all this? What are we even doing this for? I can do this, Dane. You’re going to have to trust me. As much as I trust you to bring me back."

"What did you say?"

"You have to trust me." I sort of hoped he missed the other part. No such luck. We'd claimed each other the night before. I knew he felt the connection, the commitment, just like I did. Still, admitting the depth of my feelings had the words sticking in my throat.

"No, the other part."

"I love you."

"Say it again." He dropped to his knees, wrapping his arms around my waist, his forehead pressed against my bare stomach. "I need to hear you say it again so I know I didn't imagine it."

"You didn't feel it last night? When I gave all of myself to you? More than I've given anyone?"

"Yes, but hearing you say the words it… I don't know how to explain it. It makes it real somehow."

I tipped his head up, forcing him to look at me, at my eyes that would show him more than I could ever say. Everything I felt for him was there in that one look. Unhooking his arms from around my waist, I knelt and kissed him. His hands slid across my hips, fingers pressed firmly into my flesh as he pulled me up onto his lap. With my legs wrapped around his waist, he lowered me to the floor. Caged within his muscular arms, his body hovered inches above mine as he held himself over me.

"I don't deserve you."

"I'm not that special, Dane. Apart from the whole Elioud, seeing demons thing, I'm just a regular girl." Nothing like a little self-deprecating humor to lighten the mood.

"Nothing about you is regular. You're extraordinary. And after what I did, I don't deserve you." He stopped talking to nuzzle behind my ear, nipping at my neck and collar bone.

"Everyone screws up. Lord knows I have. And I've been given a second chance. Sort of. So I offered one to you, because that's what you do when you love someone. Right? Unless.... Are you trying to talk me out of loving you, Dane McDonough?"

"No."

"Then stop talking and show me why I made the right choice." I arched my body, closing that last inch between us, encouraging him to do what I wanted. What I hadn't realize I needed until he followed me into my room.

To feel alive. To feel loved. And Dane didn't disappoint. In the last twenty-four hours, we'd fought demons, closed portals, slipped through the Devil and death's grasp. What I wanted desperately was for him to take me to the height of ecstasy and then catch me when I came down. He did that and more, holding me in his arms pressed against him until the sun came up and, with it, our next assignment.

For the first time in weeks, breakfast didn't wait for me on the kitchen counter with a note or an angel accompanying it. We were on our own. Tobias left. All sign of him cleansed from the apartment except for a replenishment of supplies in the munitions room. Dane made himself useful, gathering ingredients to whip up an omelet and some toast for us to share while I drank my coffee and continued to search for any signs Tobias would be returning.

My search produced zero results.

"I guess he meant what he said about influencing, not interfering, huh?" I stole a pinch of shredded cheese from the bag before Dane used it all in the eggs and hopped up on the counter.

"See, that's why so many people lose faith."

"Care to elaborate? I believed, even when the demons were hounding my every waking moment."

"Don't take this the wrong way, but you didn't believe. Well, not in the sense of having faith. Knowing and believing are two totally different things. It's why so many people struggle with faith. Dane held up a hand, haulting any interruption from me.

“If God created the world, made all of these tangible things, things we feel with our heart and taste and touch, then why can't we see Him? Why does He give us all the ability to learn to use our senses, to rationalize and expand our minds, without giving us the opportunity to use them to get to know Him better?"

Dane’s questions seemed rhetorical, rather than try to answer them I asked one of my own.

"Is that how you became the Sin Eater? You knew, because of what your family before you did, so you never believed?"

"No, I had faith. Even as a child I was devout. My mother prayed for me to take a different path than my grandfather. And for a time, I did. Then God saw fit to take my wife and unborn child during labor. My heart filled with rage and pain, I refused to accept that God has a plan for us all.” He closed his eyes, caught up in the memory.

“I withdrew from family and friends, consoling myself with wine and ale until I no longer recognized my own reflection. My mother died and I was too drunk to attend the burial. That's when my grandfather found me again. Took me in, cleaned me up and made me his apprentice. That's how I became a Sin Eater." His eyes opened, searching my face for judgment that wasn’t there.

"I'm sorry about your wife and baby." I set my coffee cup down on the counter, placing a hand on his forearm.

"It was a long time ago. I'm not that man anymore. I'm not sure I ever was. She was a beautiful woman whose life ended before it ever began, but I think even if she'd lived, in the end, I still would have become this."

"Maybe God has a plan after all." My heart broke for the man he'd been, for the wife and child he'd lost. I wanted to say something more profound, more reassuring, but the words didn't come. I didn’t even know if he needed them. Although it was the first time he'd shared any of his past with me, it had been a lifetime ago for him.

"Maybe He does. I'm starting to think his plan for me all along was you." After cutting the omelet in two, he plated the halves, placing a couple of slices of toast next to each one. "Let's eat before the eggs get cold."

We'd barely finished eating when I received a text with the address for the next church.

"I can't believe
we have to do this three more times after this." It'd only been two days and I was utterly exhausted.

We’d reached the end of the safe zone, the first abandoned church we'd been assigned razed to the ground, a pile of rubble across the street from where we stood. Neither of us had set out to be saviors and yet here we were, heading out to close the third gateway to Hell in as many days. People went on about their daily lives, struggling to make ends meet, caught in the rat race of life, completely unaware of us and our task. They were better off not knowing.

"We need to get a car. All this walking is bullshit. Thomas had a car and he wasn't even old enough to drive for the majority of the time I knew him."

Dane laughed at my grumbling over the next several blocks, probably because I was right. It's not like we could take the bus or the light rail armed to the nines.

Something felt off. Something other than the usual tension between rival gangs and fear of being caught in the crossfire by citizens who didn't have a way out of the neighborhood. No, this wasn't a drug war or a gun deal gone bad—those happened every day, hell, probably every hour. This was something different, something unnatural, and it was headed right for us.

"The portal is active." Dane closed ranks, moving in a little tighter on my right side as we crossed the next street.

"It's daylight, almost noon. How is that possible?" I hated to think what awaited us if the portal was spitting out demons strong enough to leave the sanctuary of their desecrated grounds and the energy the gateway fed them during the day.

So far, everything had been concentrated in the two locations. The first hadn't been fully activated with only a few demons defending the grounds. The second had been overrun with demons, but none had ventured beyond the boundaries of the church. It was starting to look like the Devil decided to send up the heavy hitters. Demons who were able to take on the appearance of humans and walk freely among them. In the middle of the day.

We were so screwed.

My inner demon alarm didn't just go off, it felt like an air raid siren inside my head. Two second level demons crossed the street, making a beeline for us. Two more stepped out from an alley we passed on the last block. Several more blocks stood between us and the location of the portal and I doubted very much these four were the only demons we'd see before we reached it.

"We're going to have to fight our way there." I slipped a hand behind my waist, palming the gun tucked into the back of my pants.

"There's no way. We can't fight them in the middle of the street. Somebody's going to call the police." Dane reached for his own weapon.

"Look around, Dane. People in this neighborhood don't call the cops." Freed from its hiding place, I held the gun at my side, tapping the barrel on my thigh.

We continued toward our destination, walking in the middle of the street like two gunslingers itching to draw first and ask questions later. The demons followed, two on each side – flanking us, but not attacking. They waited for us to make the first move. I was about to put an end to their anticipation when Dane stopped me from pulling the trigger.

"Wait."

"For what? If they come at us, especially if they shed the people suits, we're done for." My finger still hovered above the trigger.

"They want us to attack first because then it looks like we've upset the balance, like we went after them for no reason."

"What? It'll look like we upset the balance to who? They're demons who can disguise themselves as people—that's pretty much all reason I need."

"Jax, I've been tipping the scales in one direction or another for a long time. Trust me. I can't explain why, I just have a feeling not everyone is in the know about us. Or the mission. If we gun them down like it's the Wild West, negotiations in the safe zone fall apart. The safe zone
itself
could fall apart."

"And then what? There's no angels this side of Heaven?" Dane didn't say anything so I took that as a yes. "Seriously? Things go south and they just take their ball and go home?"

"What if I told you there's more than one Bible?" He stopped walking and looked at me.

"Everyone knows that. I'm not following—where are you going with this? I've banished more than my fair share of demons and the safe zone hasn't broken down."

"You would be surprised how many people don't know who the Vice President is, never mind that the Devil has his own Bible. The last chapter of this Bible doesn't quite end the same as the one you're used to."

"The fallen."

"Exactly. The demons you've sent back barely registered on the scale. The guys following us, they're different. They're foot soldiers. Like the same level as Tobias."

"Okay, I agree that sounds pretty bad. But we already know he wants me so he can free the fallen to usher in his version of a new world. Dane?"

The demons had closed in while we were talking.

"I see them. Just keep walking. The only way the Devil can complete his goal is if you die, and he doesn't have the Spear, so that option is thankfully off the table. Or if you succumb to him, give yourself to him."

"Well, that's not going to happen."

"It may not seem like it; nevertheless, you've had a lot of help. Joseph, Tobias. Thomas." I could tell it was difficult for him to concede I'd actually needed Thomas at one point. "Everything has been business as usual—deals are still being made and there's a presence here from both sides. If that changes, if something causes the angels to close ranks, go home, and regroup...."

"We're here alone."

"Really alone. The lower circles aren't always in the know of what the Principles have planned. They'll follow protocol and head back to Heaven to await new orders. And that leaves you exposed because there's a hell of a lot more demons here weaseling souls away from Heaven than have crossed through the portals so far and when trading stops...."

"They come after me."

"There's more than one way for you to give yourself to him. I get the distinct impression he would prefer the carnal version, although torture works just as well. I'm not certain but I get the feeling this is a power play. He knows you like to fight and you'll banish a demon without batting an eye. He's baiting you."

"So now what?"

Two of the demons were close enough to hear our conversation. Their snarling smiles confirmed they'd at least heard the part about me potentially being tortured and were hoping to take part in it.

"We keep moving toward the church. Stick to the plan and destroy the portal. Only this time we wait for them to attack first. Which they will as soon as we're below ground and out of sight of anyone who could witness you fighting them."

I had to give it to him, Dane was right. No sooner did we clear the sanctuary of a handful of lesser demons and go down to the basement, which was no more than half the size of the building itself and housed the utilities, than the four demons were on us.

Holy hell, foot soldiers hit hard. They made Lazarus look like a lesser demon.

The first hit knocked me back into the wall hard enough to dent the breaker box with my head. Raising my gun, I fired, emptying my mag into the demons closest to me while Dane did the same.

We barely slowed them down.

Their skin bubbled and hissed as boils from the holy water ammo formed and popped all over their bodies and still they pressed forward. I didn't bother trying to reload, just grabbed another gun from beneath my leather trench coat and pulled the trigger until all the rounds left the chamber. The demon dropped in a sizzling heap next to the one that Dane killed. Two on two. Might have been fair odds if we had more ammo. As it was, we'd used four mags on two demons and only had maybe two left between us. It came down to our blessed steel and them.

Once freed from their sheaths, my blades became an extension of me. Grip firm, doing everything I could to hold onto them and land a strike, I dodged a blow from the demon. A huge, crumbling hole in the wall marked the spot where my head had been. I started to doubt whether the Spear was the only thing that could kill me because it looked like the demon had a pretty good chance.

The beast shed its human skin, no longer appearing like a Titan from Greek mythology. It morphed into something more like a Minotaur. Cloven hooves crushed the concrete floor beneath the weight of the enormous creature. Above the large, muscular bovine legs rested the torso of a man—if he were on steroids—with huge biceps and fists. The neck and face contorted back into something bull-like, its horns perfect for goring and spilling my entrails all over the place. I'd been fascinated with the story of the labyrinth and the Minotaur as a child, but always believed the monster to be a metaphor, yet there it stood. The beast that inspired the myths.

A massive hand wrapped around my neck, constricting my air flow and crushing my wind pipe. I'd need a trach if I didn't get him off of me. Feet dangling and black spots dancing along the edge of my vision, I sliced the creature’s wrist and drove the other dagger into its neck before I lost the strength to hold them any longer. Black coagulated blood dropped in chunks from the deep gash on its wrist and the hole in its neck, still it didn't release me.

Backing up a step, it moved us closer to the portal. It wasn't trying to kill me. And the other demon wasn't trying to kill Dane, just keep him occupied long enough for the other to get me through the gateway. And their plan was working. The other demon, only partially transformed, drove a horn into Dane's thigh. Despite the black color of his pants, I could see the blood soaking through the fabric. Shifting his weight to his good leg, Dane readied himself for the next attack. He didn't even realize I was halfway to being unconscious, unable to recite a banishing spell and only a couple of feet away from being dragged into Hell.

Dane dropped the small swords and pulled his gun, slamming a mag home before the demon came at him again. He waited for the beast to drop its head to charge, offering up a sweet spot at the top of its skull, and emptied the gun into its brain a second before the demon's horn would have pierced his side. And a second too late to keep me this side of Hell.

Dane turned in time to see the demon breach the portal with me in his arms, half in, half out of the demonic doorway. Terror filled his eyes as he watched the demon slowly disappear as the portal swallowed more of its enormous body. Less than half of it remained on the Earthly side. Sweat soaked my back as the dry heat of the first level of Hell scorched through the opening, searing my clothes and skin. The smell of singed hair wafted up to my nose and I gagged. The pain from that reflexive movement ripped a silent scream of agony from me. My vocal chords were too damaged to give my pain a voice.

Dane began the prayer I'd used to clear the demons at the last church, repeating the words over and over with more conviction each time. The demon’s grip faltered and I took the opportunity to suck in an excruciatingly painful deep breath. Even halfway through, enough of the demon remained for the banishment to work. Dane continued the recitation, pulling vials of holy water from his coat pocket. On wobbly legs, he stumbled forward, shaking the blessed water onto me and the demon with each step. He opened another, quickly throwing it into the portal before uncorking a third, dumping it directly on its sliced wrist when he got close enough, never once skipping a beat in repeating the prayer.

I hit the ground hard enough to bounce. When the blackness engulfed my vision, I welcomed it knowing the damp concrete meant I'd landed on the right side of the portal. Dane banished the demon. We'd live to fight another day.

After we closed the portal.

My eyes fluttered open, easily adjusting to the dim lighting. I reached for Dane, tapping his leg as he knelt before the portal preparing to draw the angelic symbols on the floor and seal the gateway. He turned, fear and relief warring for dominance over his expression. When he saw my outstretched hand, fingers reaching to take the black paint away from him, he scooted me further away from the portal. Leaning in to place a tender kiss on my forehead, he whispered that he'd close this one, before his lips pressed against my skin.

We'd found one of those paint markers used on glass in one of the desk drawers back at the apartment and opted for that to write with since my blood had an undesirable side effect of pulling me toward the portal. He continued to work his way around the doorway until he reached the other side, squeezing in the last symbol before the joint where wall met floor. Nothing happened. The pulse of something dark and powerful still thrummed through the room, through our bodies.

The portal was still active. And something was trying to come back through.

From the looks of the horn piercing the wavy surface of the gateway, it was safe to say our Minotaur friend was back. And none too happy by the sounds of him.

"Time to go." Dane dropped the paint.

Scooping me off the floor and tossing me over his shoulder, he hauled ass up the narrow staircase. There was a clink of metal hitting the steps and rolling down to the concrete floor as Dane pulled two pins from grenades and tossed them, along with a small I.E.D., down the stairs. He picked up the pace, forcing himself past the pain in his wounded leg and my added weight, to get us out of the church and safely across the street. We'd barely made it down the front steps before the explosives went off, the blast propelling us forward until a primer-coated nineteen nineties Honda Civic stopped us. Debris rained down from the cloud of dust and smoke, covering the vehicle and us.