Wasteland (14 page)

“What are you?” Russell planted his elbows on his knees and speared me with a stare.

“You know what I am.”

“One called you a half-breed.”

“I am unique.”

“You evaded our detection. That means you must be—”

“Part human, part demon,” Beka said from behind me.

The sound of her voice bathed me in heat, but the cold, steel blade pricking my neck stole that warmth.

CHAPTER 20

I froze, my fingernails growing, digging into my skin. My teeth extended and brushed my bottom lip. I willed myself to remain human, to fight the instinct, but a snarl made it through my clenched jaw.

“Your instinct is to kill.” Beka shuffled behind me, and the cold blade disappeared, making it easy for me to return to my human form.

“Yet, you retract the beast almost as soon as it emerges,” she said.

I chanced a look. She propped herself up on her hand, watching me with intent eyes. Her hair, tinted pink from the blood, draped over her shoulder.

“How do you know I am both human and demon?” I asked.

“I know much, now.” She hugged her knees to her chest, then unfolded her body until she sat directly beside me, feet planted firmly on the ground. “I have heard of attempts to mate humans with demons. Doesn’t work, though, because the demon is too evil for a human female to carry to term.”

The couch dipped beneath our weight, and her thigh touched mine. What surprised me, though, was she didn’t move away. I had just partially morphed into the demon while sitting next to her, and she remained close.

“Rebeka. You are well?” Russell asked. “What can I get you?”

“Whatever you are having is fine. I am famished.” She flipped her stringy locks behind her shoulder and sat straight. Her long, graceful fingers rubbed her neck as she analyzed me. “Such a tortured soul. Struggling to maintain sanity between the human and demonic worlds.”

She grazed her knuckles down the side of my face, leaving trails of electricity in its wake. The energy launched my heart into a steady staccato.

“How?” I asked.

“Here you are, Rebeka.” Russell handed her a plate of food and a glass. He sat in his chair and reached for his plate again.

“Jessica?” Beka swirled noodles around her fork.

“Safe in the room. Abraham stands guard.”

Beka sagged against the couch, breathing a sigh. “Saved by a demon.

“Half-breed?” Russell perched his elbows on the armchair. 

I nodded.

“Tell us,” Beka scooped noodles into her mouth.

“Four hundred and fifty years ago, my mother signed a deal with Lucifer. Traded her first born for riches.” I stared at my hands. A slight tremor settled in as the anger fueled my blood. “Contracting me to do his running when assigned.”

“Running?” Russell asked.

I stared at the light carpet, focusing on remaining composed. “Demons. I go get them and bring them to him.”

“Contract with Lucifer.” Russell whistled. “That’s binding.”

“Probably how your mother was able to carry you to term.” Beka rubbed her thigh with her free hand. “Powerful, especially signed in blood and with a first born.”

“Why would your master contract Jessica as your mark? She is not a demon,” Russell said.

“I figured she wasn’t.” I stared out the window, mind firing in a thousand directions.

“Why her then?” Russell asked.

 “Master probably wishes to kill her. He must know she is a powerful Light in the darkness he likes to spread.” I sat straight. “I never know more than I need to catch them. It’s not allowed.”

“Killing Jessica would extinguish the Light, yes, but even more powerful would be to have her for his purposes,” Beka said.

“Light to darkness. Whoever possesses her?”

“Yes.” Beka’s stare bore into me. “And if you don’t bring the demons he asks you to?”

“He calls his contract due, and I’m punished.” I rubbed my throat.

“Punished?” she asked.

“Two hundred and fifty years of solitary confinement.”

Beka gasped.

“But the first fifty years are burning torture. After that, I am left in a pit of sensory deprivation.” I palmed my drink. The cool, sweaty glass sent an icy chill up my fingers. I absorbed every essence of sensory input surrounding me, knowing my time was limited. Beka’s lilac scent. Buttery noodles. Soft cushions beneath me. A blooming sunrise. The gentle caress of Beka’s harmonic voice.

“Nothing? But how do you survive?”

“I cannot die. No matter how long I’m deprived of food—anything for that matter—I will survive. Weakened slightly but not much more than a human with a head cold.”

“You’ve had this torture before.” Russell leaned forward.

“My first night at your club was the first day out from the punishment.”

“So, you’ve not brought your Mark back before?” Beka asked.

“Only once. And not by choice. The one for whom I was punished died in an accident prior to my bringing her to Master.”

“The failure was beyond your control, yet you were punished?” Beka asked.

I rested my hand on Beka’s knee. “Master seems to enjoy punishing me. I am a half-breed. He cannot kill me, no weapon can. He can only throw me into confinement, but there are rules. No longer than two hundred and fifty years as set in my contract and only for failing to bring in a Mark. Not sure, though, what it is for killing my kind. Especially one as old as Gage. Regardless, Master and I are mutually bound by it.”

“Why?”

“I do not understand my mother’s logic for making such a deal. All I know is that she made it. Signed with her blood.” I laughed. “Funny thing. She died giving birth to me. Her death activated the contract, turning me into what I am today. Master snatched me immediately and raised me as his own in the ways of Lucifer.”

“Yet he wishes to punish you,” Beka said. “His son.”

“He is
not
my father.” I swallowed the bile. True, he was the only thing I knew as a father, but he was not.

“I’m sorry, David. I did not mean to anger you.” Beka’s hand soothed my shoulder. “I simply wonder why he would do this to the one he raised.”

“I’m told I scare him. He cannot touch me. Protected by the contract, yet bound to its terms. Not even agents of Light, such as yourselves, can harm me. Doomed to a life of servitude with no way out of it unless I become full demon.”

“How?” Russell asked.

“Doesn’t matter. I refuse to do it. I do not want to lose what little soul I have left.” I stood and moved to the window.

Violet streaks broke through the dark sky. Splashes of pink and orange tinted the hovering clouds. One star remained. The full moon maintained its possession of the night as if fighting the sun’s attempts to rule the sky.

I scrubbed my face, the long night beginning to weigh me down. Even with a full stomach, fatigue tugged at my eyelids. “There are none like me, I’m told. But surely Lucifer or other demons have found other females willing to sell their first born’s soul.”

“Lesser demons may have, but their power is weak and probably wouldn’t put out the powerful protections you have. Lucifer is the source of all evil,” Beka said. “He surely took an interest in you when he signed your contract.”

That didn’t comfort me in the least. “What’s my mother done to me?”

“Why don’t you run and hide from this Master?” Russell tossed his arms up. “Instead, you do his bidding. Killing innocents.”

“Can’t. He can activate my contract at any time. My mark will burn. The bonds around my neck and wrists will flame, barely tolerable until I get to him. Only then will the fire die, and I shall stand before him to await punishment or receive my next assignment.” I glanced at my reflection in the window, zeroing in on my thick neck. Not even I could see my
leash,
but I’d felt its misery before. “Quite frankly, I’m surprised he has not activated the contract yet. He must surely know I have given Jessica to Guardians.”

“You may be protected in this place,” Beka said.

I whirled. “Protected?”

She got to her feet, a smile creasing the skin at the corner of her eyes. “We have had this room blessed. Holy water flows in the pipes, and daily, Abraham blesses the rooms and the building. Your humanity, however little you have left, must allow you to be in this place since it is protected from demons entering.”

“The blessing does not prevent the beast from its appearance.” I glanced in Abraham’s direction. “You almost lost your guard because he surprised me.”

Beka looked at Russell, and he nodded. “David carried you in from the lot where we were attacked. Abraham startled him while he held you and the demon emerged.”

Beka swung her gaze back to me.

“I allowed him into our sanctuary from the hidden entrance. I hope I made the right choice, Rebeka. From the cameras I saw he carried you. He protected you with his life and gave up Jessica as well,” Russell said.

“Yes. I am aware.” Her voice went raspy, and her hand circled her throat. “You gave up your possession of Jessica and killed your brethren to save me. Why did you do that and risk your punishment?”

“I couldn’t let you die as easily as some.” I hurled a glare at Russell and showed Beka my back. It was more like I couldn’t watch
her
die
period
. The thought of the world without Beka,
my
world without Beka, was worse than any punishment Master could institute. Her smile. Her bright eyes. Her pure soul. Even in the reflection of the window her beauty gleamed.

The heavens got it wrong making her a Guardian. She was angelic. Deserving of the most brilliant wings created.

“I took Jessica here and was on my way back down to get you when I saw the demon—”

“Russell. Do not call him demon.” Beka’s fingers curled around my elbow. “His name is David.”

“Pardon me, David.”

I glanced to the side and was met with Beka’s stunning emerald eyes. Acceptance, tainted with a sprinkle of fear, flickered. A subtle sting pricked in my chest as my heart began to pulse faster. She saw me as David, not the demon?

“You carried me.” Beka’s breath warmed my bicep, her lips centimeters from my skin. Peace beamed from her face and slight smile.

I want that peace.

I tore my gaze from her mesmerizing eyes. “Russell said this was where we were going when we were ambushed. I brought you here for him to take care of and was leaving to turn myself in when he told me Jessica could help—” The words clogged my throat.

“Yes.” Beka smiled.

 “She can save my soul?” Did I dare hope?

Beka grazed her knuckles down the side of my face. “She is
meant
to save your soul.”

CHAPTER 21

“If it’s all right, I shall check on Jessica, then retire for some rest,” Russell said as he scooped up our empty dishes. “I am quite tired.”

“Sure. Thank you, Russell,” Beka said.

She stood by my side, watching the sun chase the darkness of the night away with me. The tips of the trees swayed with the wind. Clouds dotted the skyline, but they were no match for the sun’s dry, blazing rays.

I liked this state called Arizona. The heat was suitable, penetrating, yet comforting. Or was it Beka’s hand grasping my elbow. She’d inched it into the crook and settled in as if it belonged. Her light skin contrasted my dark, leathery skin.

I did not understand Beka’s interest in me. For hundreds of years she fought those of my kind, protecting the human race. Yet now, she stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the evil she vowed to battle.

“What troubles you, David?” Her soft voice sounded like a familiar melody my mother used to hum. Impossible. I’d never known my mother, only imagined what she would have been like. The songs she’d hummed. The color of her eyes and hair.

“I cannot stay in this room forever, if that’s, indeed, what is protecting me from Master’s call.”

“You do not have to. Jessica’s sixteenth birthday approaches,” she said.

“What will happen on that day?”

“We aren’t exactly sure other than the Light will transform her into a new being.”

“And it’ll be too late for Master to poison her?”

“Yes. If she transforms in the presence of evil, she will become evil. Her Light will become darkness.”

Fear coiled its frigid fingers around my chest. The demon bubbled to life at hearing the news of how to foil Jessica’s transformation.
I was
evil. I disengaged from Beka’s hold. “I must leave, immediately.”

“Why do you say such a thing?” She snagged my hand in hers.

Maybe staying in this room for eternity would be okay, if Beka stayed with me. But she would not. Could not. She was meant to be out protecting innocents from the likes of myself.

“David?”

I gripped the front of my shirt, willing my heart to slow. “I must leave. I might harm Jessica’s conversion. Evil flows through me.”

“So does Light.”

I stopped beside the couch. “Light? How can Light and darkness both flow through my veins? Impossible.”

“You are part human, are you not?”

I stiffened. “A small part, yes.”

“Years of doing Master’s bidding has whittled away at your humanity.”

“The demon often tries to take hold.”

“But now, something else pulses through your veins, that which counteracts the darkness. Do you not feel it?”

I faced her. The sun spilled in through the window, illuminating her smooth skin. The dried blood of her shirt had hardened, and it tainted her light hair, yet she was radiant. Like an angel.

“Quiet your mind, David. What do you hear?” She closed her eyes, and her chest puffed out, lungs filling with air. The fabric went taught across her chest, and I jerked my focus to the sunrise. The streams of violet, red and orange streaking the sky didn’t compare to Beka’s radiance.

I could never get lost in Beka. Never taste her the way I longed to. Not without surrendering my human soul. But, oh, she was tempting.

“Try it, David. Tell me what you hear.”

Darkness enveloped me as my eyes shut. The image of her face burned into the back of my lids. Her graceful neck, her supple body. Heat licked at my cheeks, and my fingers itched to touch her.