Sentinel Lost (Mind Sweeper Series Book 5) (28 page)

I described it, as well as the in-between. Katya listened, the expression on her face like that of a small child on Christmas morning.

“How long before you got sick?” Katya asked.

“I didn’t get sick at all. Dalton got sick within an hour or so.”

“You didn’t get sick? How long were you there?”

“A day.”

“That makes no sense.”

“I was thinking it had to do with my power.”

Irina glanced at me in surprise, and then over at Dalton. “It’s okay, Dalton knows about my ability to change memories.”

“That is a formidable power to have, but I don’t think it’s what protected you.” Katya stared at me for a moment and then held out her aged hand, palm up. I reached across the table, and her fingers wrapped around mine in a surprisingly strong grip. She closed her eyes.

I glanced at Irina, who nodded reassuringly at me.

After a few more seconds, Katya opened her eyes. “Well, that explains it.”

“What?”

“You are part demon, my dear.”

I jerked my hand out of her grip and jumped up, knocking my chair onto the floor. “That’s crazy. I’m human.” I looked at Jean Luc and Misha, who both stared at me, wide-eyed. I pointed to them. “They would have sensed demon in me. Hell, I had a shifter boyfriend, and there’s no way he wouldn’t have known I was demon.”

Katya tilted her head to the side and smiled. “I’m not wrong.”

“I didn’t see that one coming,” Aleksei blurted.

“No! You have to be wrong. Jean Luc. You bit me, wouldn’t you have tasted demon in my blood?”

Jean Luc frowned. “I would think so, Kyle, but I have never bitten someone who is both demon and human.”

“Then someone explain it to me,” I demanded shrilly.

Katya answered, “They do not sense demon in you because, as far as I know, a human and a realm demon have never produced an offspring before. Your demon side is cloaked beneath your human side.”

“Realm demon?” I wobbled on my feet, and Dalton stood up and steadied me before I landed on my butt.

“Sit down, McKinley. It’s okay.”

He righted my chair, and I plopped down.
Okay? How was this okay?

“Do you know what kind of realm demon I am?”

Katya frowned. “No.”

Jean Luc reached for my hand and squeezed it. “We will figure this out,
ma petite
.”

“How?”

Irina spoke up. “You could talk to your parents, Kyle.”

I shook my head. “I never knew my father. He took off before I was born.”

“And your mother?”

Misha walked over and stood behind my chair, placing his hands on my shoulders. “Kyle’s mother is dead,
Babushka
.”

I blew out a harsh breath. “Actually, that’s not quite true.”

Chapter 34

After my announcement, Misha’s hands dropped from my shoulders, and he moved away from me to stand silently to the side while Irina and Katya left the room.

I didn’t have the first idea what to say to him. How to make it better. His face looked like someone had stolen his puppy. I’d never lied to him about my mother, exactly. But I didn’t think now was the time to argue semantics.

When the door clicked shut, my quiet teammate erupted. He ranted in Russian and paced in the back of the room. It was as if he was having a conversation with himself. Or more of an argument, really.

Jean Luc patted my hand. “He will calm down shortly, Kyle. We will then plan next steps.”

Dalton watched the tirade for a moment before turning to me. “Do you know what he’s saying?”

“Oh, yeah. Misha taught me all the Russian swear words. He’s being very creative with them right now.” I frowned. “I don’t recognize that phrase.”

Aleksei chuckled. “It translates loosely to pig-headed woman.”

“Ah.” I nodded. “That makes sense.”

After a few more minutes, Misha’s pacing subsided, and he finally turned to me and glared, his ice-blue eyes practically pinning me to the wall.

“I’m sorry,” I blurted.

“Why would you tell us your mother was dead?”

“The woman who gave birth to me is still alive.”

Misha crossed his arms. “Isn’t that the definition of a mother?”

“Not in my book.” I rushed on. “I never said she was dead. I said she was gone.” I guess I
was
going to argue semantics.

“And you knew exactly what we would assume. Why would you do that?”

I looked at Aleksei, and he inclined his head slightly. “I’ll take my leave now.” He walked out without an argument. And he fell down another notch on the jerk-o-meter. At the rate he was going, I might end up liking him.

I stared at my hands. I’d never told anyone about my mother. Except Dalton, and he didn’t remember. The irony was not lost on me, especially when I glanced up and saw the same compassionate look on his face that he gave me last year.

“My mother kept a roof over our heads. She also clothed and fed me until I was fourteen, and then I took on odd jobs to pay for things. She didn’t care what I did or where I went. She did expect me to go to school, but that was only so I could graduate, find a job, and get out of her house. I’m paraphrasing that last bit, but it’s close enough. I moved out a week after I graduated from high school.”

“Does she know about your gift?” Jean Luc asked.

“No.” I bit my lip to stop the tears. I wouldn’t waste them on her. “She did. I told her when I was sixteen, but I erased her memory a few days later when she made me use my power to cover up something for her.”

“Shit,” Dalton mumbled.

“Yeah. That about sums it up.”

Misha uncrossed his arms and enveloped me in a hug. “This must have been terrible for you, little one.”

“I never talk about her because I try not to think about her.”

Jean Luc came and put a hand on my arm. “Unfortunately, I believe you do need to talk to her, Kyle. She is the only one who can tell you about your father. Do you know where she lives now?”

“Yeah. She lives in Wheeling, West Virginia. But this is something we can table until after we finish the case.”

Misha pushed me to arm’s length so he could look me in the eye. “That’s a thirty-minute flight from here. Father will let us borrow his jet. We can be back here tonight.”

“Mish—”

“
Ma petite
, listen to him. You and Misha should go to Wheeling. The rest of the team will stay here in case Sylvia calls. You will return tonight in any event.”

Dalton nodded. “He’s right. You need to know the truth.”

Says the man I was lying to. That irony was not lost on me either.

* * *

The taxi pulled up in front of a small, modular home with tan siding, burgundy shutters, and an old Chevy Malibu sitting in the driveway. I took a deep breath and slowly let it out through my nose.

Misha squeezed my hand and smiled at me. “I can go in with you if you want.”

“We talked about this on the plane. It’ll be better if I do this alone.”

“Well, I’ll be right here waiting. I can be inside with you in a heartbeat.”

“Got it.” I mustered what I hoped was a convincing smile, even though I felt like running in the opposite direction. I got out of the cab and walked up to the small porch. Two steps up, and I was in front of the door. I lifted my hand to ring the doorbell, and my fingers shook. But I pressed the bell and stepped back.

I held my breath, the chicken in me hoping she wasn’t home so we could jump back on the plane and scurry home to Cleveland. But the door opened, and my mother stood there, staring at me through the screen door. I hadn’t seen her in more than ten years. She looked the same, except her dark hair was in a short bob. No gray hair or wrinkles yet, but she was still in her late forties.

“Whatever you’re selling, I’m not buying.”

I cleared my suddenly clogged throat before answering her. “I’m not selling anything. It’s Kyle.”

She opened the screen door and narrowed her gray eyes at me. At least I had gotten one thing from her. “I didn’t recognize you with blond hair. What are you doing here?”

“I need to talk to you. Can I come in?”

She hesitated for a second and then stepped back, letting me into the house. I studied the small living room. It was relatively clean, with a couch and recliner sitting in front of a flatscreen TV. Very few knickknacks cluttered the space, except for a collection of wooden and glass turtles sitting on a shelf behind the couch. There were no pictures anywhere.

She gestured to the couch, and I sat there while she chose the recliner. Or rather, perched at the front edge of the recliner, as if to say she wouldn’t be getting too comfortable and I shouldn’t either.

I decided to jump in with both feet. “I need you to tell me about my father.”

Her eyes widened. “You won’t find him.”

“Is he dead?”

She grimaced. “I hope so. Why do you even care?”

“Because I need to know who he is.”

“Your father was a liar. He told me he loved me. That he would never leave me. But he got me pregnant and left me. I was on my own at seventeen. At first I thought he left because he couldn’t handle fatherhood. Then I found out he left after his job was done.”

“What job?”

“He was supposed to get me pregnant.”

“What do you mean?”

She stared at me, as if sizing me up before she answered. “You’re old enough to know the truth. Your father wasn’t human. He was the devil, and he left his offspring for me to raise.”

My heart clattered in my chest like a pinball machine. “Why do you say he was the devil?”

“Because his eyes glowed.”

“What color did they glow?”

“What color did they glow? That’s the first question you ask me after I tell you your father wasn’t human?” She sat up straighter. “You already found out, didn’t you?”

“What happened to him?”

“He left me when I was eight months pregnant. But first he told me to keep the baby safe. Which—duh—is what mothers do, right? Except he neglected to tell me that others like him would try to kill me.”

“What?”

“Another devil came after me and tried to kill me. Or tried to kill you, and since you were still inside me, I was just collateral damage. And this one was crazy, spouting some shit about needing to stop you from being born and changing the balance of power.”

“How did you get away?”

“He attacked me at the gym where I worked. A couple showed up and saved me. They acted like cops. I think they were some kind of demon slayers or something, but they never said, and I never saw them again.”

I blinked at her, wondering if I was imagining this conversation, but I wasn’t, and my gut twisted, because apparently this, whatever-it-was, was far from over.

“I had been tricked into being an incubator. And you never did anything normal, Kyle. You did things your own way. Even your birth was on your own terms.”

“That’s why you weren’t surprised when I told you about my power.”

Her eyes narrowed on me. “What did you say?”

“Nothing.”

“After you were born, a man came to the hospital and told me I was in danger. That I couldn’t stay there. I had to go into hiding to save you.”

“Do you remember his name?”

“No, but I remember what he looked like. They had given me some pain medicine in the hospital, and I thought for a moment I was hallucinating when he walked into the room. He reminded me of Cary Grant but with blond hair.”

Son of a bitch.
I clenched my fist and dug my fingernails into my palm, imagining the wind up before I clocked Nicholas right in the face the next time I saw him. I could literally feel my pulse pounding in my temples.

I choked out, “What did you do?”

“I changed my name to Dee Baxter before taking you far away from Indiana and starting over. I even met a man who told me he loved me. Everything was going to be okay.

“Until I heard him one night on the phone talking to someone, telling them the toddler was fine and he was happy his job was almost finished so he didn’t have to keep pretending to be in love with me. Couldn’t stomach sleeping with a human. Or so he said. I ran again and changed my name to Anne McKinley.”

God.
“No wonder you wanted nothing to do with me. Why didn’t you just give me away then?”

She looked away. “So someone else would die in my place? They had no idea what you were, and if I’d tried to tell anyone they would have called me crazy and locked me up.”

“Glad to see your motives were so altruistic.”

She shot up from her chair and walked to the front door. “Be happy I took care of you.”

I stood as well and followed her to where she held open the door.

“Do you have a name for my father? A picture?”

“He told me his name was Anthony Grayson, but I’m sure it was a lie. And I burned all the pictures of him when he left me.”