The Devil's Third (29 page)

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Paige

“Noooo!” I somehow managed to scream over the lump in my throat. My vision clouded, and my body jerked forward to go to Tree. My ears rang and a dark, menacing laugh echoed around me. From all sides, people emerged–about a dozen. One of them had an AR-15 in his hands. The human must have been in his mid-twenties with long blond hair tied back into a ponytail. His leather jacket sported metal studs down the sleeves. He was about three hundred yards from where I stood. He raised the rifle, pointing it at me. Nathan suddenly appeared behind him. He twisted the guy’s head and chin, reminding me of the same thing he’d done to Cassondra. The guy dropped to the ground. Nathan picked up the gun and aimed it behind me. I whirled when I heard another bang and saw blood spray out of a chest of a dark haired guy who was obviously coming at me. He fell backward, and then I heard another round go off. Out the corner of my eye, I saw another blonde, this one female, dropped, the front of her white parka a dark crimson.

My eyes scanned the area. Brayden was fighting a dark skinned guy, and in one swift move, he drove the heel of his palm up the base of his opponent’s nose. The world seemed to spin, filled with sounds of struggle, shrieking, gunfire, and the smell of gunpowder and blood. In those short moments, I remained rooted, but when my gaze fell on Tree’s still body, I snapped into action.

An attacker with short, red, spiky hair, ran toward Tree. In a flash, I stepped between him and my friend. I kneed Red in the groin, and when he bent forward, I grabbed a fistful of his hair, my hand poised to do what Brayden just did. It would be an easy kill; however, I made a last minute decision. No. I wanted this dark spirit to suffer. No easy way out. I kicked his feet out from under him. He fell to the ground, and I straddled him. His right hand swung up to punch me in the face. I grabbed it before it made contact. Fingers pinched the back of my neck, then dropped when I bent back his wrist, snapping it. He yelped. I snatched his free arm and broke that wrist as well and was rewarded when he howled in pain. The palm of my hand smacked his forehead. He tried desperately to buck me off, his brown eyes wide with fear, but I was too strong. I heard another round go off and ignored it. In my most powerful voice, I said an incantation in Latin. He screeched and thrashed beneath me, but I continued without pause. Just like the last time I’d cast out a dark spirit, I felt it shoot out of his body through the feet. In that brief instant, I became cold and sweaty as a haunting jolt went through my heart.

“Paige, behind you!” Brayden shouted.

My eyes tracked Brayden’s voice. He was in the middle of tossing a body aside. I turned when a Goth chick with black hair cut in a bob style lunged at me. I rolled to my side onto my feet. She dove forward, with her hands out to break her fall. I kicked her in the chest, and she landed on her back. Her lips curled over her teeth, a deep growl reverberating from her heaving chest. I was on her in a second. She caught me off guard when something sharp sliced across my forearm through my jacket. I cried out and jerked my arm away. She had a pocket knife. She raised it, aiming for my chest. I grabbed her hand when her other hand clawed at my face. I swiped it away while I bent her thumb back, snapping the bones. She hissed and snarled, dropping the knife. Without thought, I picked up the knife and slit her throat, releasing a torrent of thick blood. I flung the blade aside and hopped off her.

The fog had lifted just enough to see bodies scattered. It was over, though the smell of gunpowder and blood still lingered.

“Are you okay?” Nathan’s anxious voice asked behind me. I felt his hand on my shoulder, and he turned me around. “Why are you cradling your arm?”

At first, I couldn’t process his words. He could have been talking in a foreign language. All I could think about was, I just killed a human, something I’d never done before . . .

I. Paige Reed. Killed. A. Human.

I didn’t know how I felt about it. My heart pounded in my ears, and the adrenaline in my system made its presence known through my short quick breaths. I closed my eyes.

I killed a human.

I didn’t break her neck, making it a clean kill. No, I slit her throat.

Was I turning into a monster?

“Paige?” Nathan said. “What you did was necessary. I’m guessing she cut your arm.” His thumb moved in cycles on my shoulder blade. “Your reaction was natural, not heinous.”

I understood his words this time and opened my eyes right when Brayden called out my name. He was by Tree, kneeling beside him and . . .

Tree was sitting up.

I zipped to him, tears streaming down my face. In that moment I came to the realization that yeah, I killed a human–a soulless human. But what I did was in the heat of battle. It wasn’t as if I enjoyed it. Besides, soulless people weren’t an asset to society; they were abusers, thieves, rapist, and so forth. And honestly, I’d do it again if a dark spirit in possession threatened me or the people I loved.

Tree rubbed his chest and had a dazed look in his eyes. Brayden reached across Tree’s face and ripped the duct tape off. Tree’s hands flew to his lips, massaging the side of his mouth. He moved his jaw around and looked at me. I flung my arms around him, feeling something hard beneath his Sex Pistol’s sweatshirt. I released my arms and sat back on my heels, poking his chest. He lifted the end of his shirt, revealing a bullet proof vest.

“Son of a bitch!” Brayden said. “Those motherfuckers planned this all out.”

My hand flitted to the black and blue bruises on the right side of Tree’s face. He flinched away and held a hand up.

“Sorry,” I said.

He cleared his throat and swallowed. “I’m sure it looks worse than what it feels.”

“What happened?” Nathan asked, kneeling beside me.

“Wait.” I said, my eyes surveying the area. “Where’s Aosoth and Roeick?”

“I didn’t see them,” Brayden answered. He looked at Nathan. “Did you?”

“No.” Nathan shook his head. “Unless they were one of the people I shot.”

“They were here,” Tree confirmed, “but they left as soon as the fighting began. They planned it all out like Brayden said.” His hand went up to his head. He ran it over the top, feeling smooth skin and grimaced. The muscles in his jaw tightened. “They had to mess with my hair for no reason except to be assholes.”

“Why would the other dark spirits fight us when they knew Aosoth and Roeick would bail on them?” I asked.

“Because they’re Aosoth’s followers, and they’re a bunch of nitwits,” Tree answered. “They think by getting in her good graces, Bael will admire their loyalty and except them into his group. To them, it would be a great honor to serve Bael.”

“Dumbasses,” Brayden mumbled.

“How did they capture you?” Nathan asked.

Tree’s expression shifted into disgust. The very movement of his face muscles made him winced. His hand lifted to his right cheekbone where an angry purple welt bulged. With his fingertips, he carefully touched it, then dropped his hand. “It was my own damn fault,” he began. “I had a feeling I was being followed, but I wasn’t sure. I thought maybe I was just being paranoid. This morning when I went to my dad’s shop to grab a couple tools, I took the trash out to the alley. As I was dumping it in the metal bin, they jumped me. I managed to fight them off and used the knife you gave me. But then more of them appeared. I was outnumbered eight to one. One of them said to make sure I stayed alive. I’m guessing it was Aosoth, if she was in a male body, so maybe it was Roeick. I don’t know.” He paused and drew small circles in the dirt. He had a distant look on his face, as if his mind were a million miles away.

“Then what happened,” I pressed.

His eyebrows knitted. “I used a pepper spray on a few of them, but then . . .” He gingerly touched the back of his head. “Everything went black.”

Tree went on and told us the next thing he knew, he was in the back of an old panel van covered in a wool blanket you’d find at an Army surplus store, with duct tape over his mouth. He had pretended to still be unconscious and eavesdropped on the flowing conversations around him. Roeick was driving with Aosoth in the passenger’s seat. There were other people riding with them. Aosoth instructed them to put up a good fight, but not to harm Tree too badly. She and Roeick would escape while the others were fighting, and if they did a fine job, Aosoth would make sure Bael would get word of it. She gushed about how Bael begged for her forgiveness after he saved her from a long, tortuous human death, and the dark spirits hung onto her every word. He even gave her Solomon’s ring to win back her trust. She was giddy when she told them Bael wanted her and Roeick to meet him in Africa.

As Tree was talking, I couldn’t help think what a stupid idiot Aosoth was. Her stupidity never ceased to amaze me. The ring Beal had given her was fake. He’d made a ton of identical rings to Solomon’s. I wondered, though, why would Bael want her in Africa? He loathed her, just like Volac did. What were Bael’s intentions behind it?

“At gun point, they forced me to my knees here in the woods,” Tree continued, pulling me from my thoughts, “and after they yanked my jacket and sweatshirt off, they strapped a bullet proof vest on me with a breast plate under it and told me to fall backward when they shot me. If I didn’t comply, they’d shoot me in the head.”

At first I didn’t think it made sense what he said. How can he still be alive? But then I remembered from the TV show Cops, an AR-15 held a .223 round. If you were to shoot somebody with a bullet proof vest from three hundred yards away, the bullet wouldn’t penetrate it if there was a ceramic breast plate beneath it.

“When did they shave your Mohawk?” Brayden asked.

Tree’s hand went back to his head. He rubbed it and frowned. “They must have done it while I was knocked out.”

“Why would they put a military grade bullet proof vest on you, and then shoot you in front of me?” I wondered out loud. “I’m thrilled they spared your life, but why?”

“Aosoth did it just to let you know she can,” Nathan said, his jaw muscles flexing, face hard.

I could feel the heat creeping up the back of my neck as thoughts of Aosoth killing off my family spilled into my head. Now she was messing with my friends. This stunt she pulled today was her way of reminding me of how she destroyed my life. Hot blood filled my cheeks, stinging them. In that moment, I promised myself I would find a way to wipe her from this earth. A spell or something.

“Don’t worry, Paige,” Brayden said in a calm and even voice. “We’ll find a way to get rid of Aosoth for good. But in the meantime, we need to get to Africa, so you can find Solomon’s incantations.”

Nathan stiffened beside me, and I couldn’t really blame him. I wasn’t sure if Brayden was trustworthy or if he was just making poor choices in the company he chose to associate himself with. Maybe in his heart, he thought he was doing the right thing. I didn’t know. However, what he said earlier about being one of the most powerful immortals on earth didn’t sit well with me. “We’re not going anywhere with you,” I told Brayden. “I explained to you earlier I didn’t want to see you again until you came to your senses.”

Brayden rubbed the corner of his brow and sighed. “I understand, but you need my help because of my connections. If it weren’t for me talking to Anwar earlier, you wouldn’t have known Tree was in trouble, and he would probably be dead now.”

I flinched, hating to even entertain the idea of Tree no longer being with us. I glanced at him. He looked pale; however, several emotions were pooling in his brown eyes.

I knew the look.

He had a gift for reading people and figuring things out and was now in observation mode. So instead of answering Brayden, I asked Tree instead what he thought we should do. Amazingly, Nathan kept quiet through this. Maybe because he was trying to decide what the best recourse we should take, but I did notice him focusing his attention on Tree when I asked Tree that question.

“I don’t know what Brayden said to you,” Tree told me, “to cause you to shut him out of your life, but I know this . . . he would never intentionally put you in harm’s way. His choice in friends is a bit questionable; however, he does have a point.” My eyes drifted to Brayden. A triumphant smile crossed his face, and he nodded to Tree in appreciation. “He has connections,” Tree went on, “and can get inside information you can use.”

“But the information can most likely be false,” Nathan pointed out.

“True,” Tree mused. “But you walk into the snake pit knowing you can get bit, arming yourself, knowing the possibility.” He shrugged. “If that makes sense? It sounded better in my head.”

“I get what you’re saying,” I said.

Nathan ran a hand through his hair and sighed. “So do I.”

“I think if Brayden can help you reach your goal faster, then you should except his offer,” Tree said. “I believe in my heart he wouldn’t put you in danger.”

“I know,” I said. “But he’s friends with Anwar who did a blood oath with Bael. So basically he’s friends with Bael, too . . . what if unintentionally Brayden leads us into a trap?”

“Hel-lo.” Brayden piped in. “I snapped Bael’s neck. I think I ended the friendliness between him and me to save you.”

“True,” I said, acknowledging his statement.

“Look,” Brayden said. “Shem is on standby right now. He can fly us to Africa tonight. If we were to take a commercial flight, it might take days to get there. I checked all the airline schedules earlier. The soonest flight to Africa is tomorrow night.” He paused and looked at Tree. “I know you might not go for this, but I think Tree should come with us. Do you still have your passport?”

Tree went to Germany a couple summers ago to visit some relatives, so I knew he had a passport, but I didn’t like the idea of him getting further involved in this mess. Silently, I hoped Tree would decline. To my dismay, he jumped on it.

“I do,” he answered.

“What about Carrie?” I asked, hoping her situation would deter him from joining us. “And your parents,” I pointed out. “Don’t you have to help your dad in his garage?”