The Lost Soul Trilogy (Primani Book 5) (91 page)

Smiling at my perception, he nodded. “One day he’ll wish he’d made you Primani. You are more intuitive than most and more powerful than many. You’ve already got more power than you should because of me. If Raphael turned you with his blood, you would be too strong. The other archangels wouldn’t allow that to happen. And I’m profoundly grateful for that. I don’t want to share you with the rest of Heaven.”

“Don’t worry. I don’t want to be Primani. I can’t see myself living that life for eternity. So what about Michael? Why is he so scary?”

Smiling grimly, he said, “Michael is the head of all the angels. He’s the closest to Heaven. His powers are absolute and he is feared by anyone with any brains. He can strike down an angel with a wave of his hand. He has a short temper, very little patience, and no sense of humor, in case you were wondering.”

“Why do they talk to me? I’m just a person. I’m not an angel. I sense there’s a reason for it but I don’t know. I’m not going to be sacrificed someday, am I?”

His eyes twinkled and he lifted his pendant for me to see. “You’ve had Raphael wrapped around your pretty little finger since the first night he put your face back together for you. Once you gave him your heart, he was yours.”

He tucked the pendant back inside his shirt and let his gaze travel over my face before adding, “You have that effect on all of us. It’s your honesty, your pure spirit. You’re the human we wish all humans were. Loyal, kind, affectionate, considerate…you care about people. You care about the world. You forgive and you love without reservation. That is why Raphael is attached to you. That is why Michael listens to your prayers and deigns to answer them. Your cries for help will not fall on deaf ears.”

“I’m speechless, I think. Wow. I had no idea you thought that way. You really think that way about me?”

He used my arms to drag me over and down on top of him. Patting my butt, he said, “And that was before you learned to control my powers.”

His eyes turned serious and he asked softly, “Still feeling disconnected?”

“Not as much. Touching you makes it better. When we’re separated for too long, I feel…adrift? Unsteady? Disconnected? Something like that. You steady me.”

His eyes glowed brilliantly for a second and he pulled me closer. He nuzzled my neck making me squirm against him. When he nipped my earlobe I yelped out loud. Laughing, he held me tight and brought us straight to our bed in the same position. Sometimes teleporting was definitely useful. The room was very dark and I couldn’t see a thing. The sensation of his naked body lying against me, touching me in the darkness, was like a dream. His hungry mouth at my neck kissing and nibbling on me sent the current racing under my skin. My skin glowed gently under his hands casting his face into shadows. As the warmth and light spread with his hands, I tugged him over to his back and faced him in the darkness.

“I have to leave in the morning. Will you be okay with Rivin?”

Turning into his side, I sighed, “I suppose. I wish I could go with you instead. Rivin makes me nervous.”

Killian’s fingers danced lazily over my heart making it flutter like a hummingbird. The feeling was like bubbles in my blood…I inhaled sharply as the bubbles burst, sending shockwaves racing through me in a tidal wave of heat that curled my toes and arched my back. Smiling at my gasp of pleasure, he replaced his fingers with his mouth and my heart beat steady and sure again.

“It never gets old, the way we are together. I could spend years figuring you out.” He kissed me again and said, “I don’t want to leave you but I need to find Aisling, and Jordan is still out there. It’s time to finish this. Rivin will protect you. He’s a jerk and he’s not always reliable so keep alert. Close your ears when he opens his mouth and you’ll like him better.”

“If you say so. I’ll try not to kill him while you’re gone. Can you hurry though? I’m not sure how long I can hold back...”

Waving a hand in front of my face, he whispered, “Where’d you go just now?”

Snapping back to the moment, I tried to smile and failed. “I’m sorry; I had a thought…a vision really. It was Dec…standing over me.”

Astral plane # 15:

KILLIAN STOOD OVER the burning corpse and slid the glowing blade into its sheath. The red stone winked once and went to sleep. Its job was done for now. It had brought him to this cliff and this dead body. What was the point though? Why here? He’d focused his path on
Sgaine Dutre
when he’d traveled here. Instead of finding it, he found this body. What was the body doing here in the middle of nowhere? Standing far upwind of the fire, Killian watched until the body was reduced to ash. The smell was sickeningly sweet and made him a little queasy. Never a squeamish kind of man, he was even less so as a Primani. But it was hard not to gag over burning human flesh. Especially flesh like this. You’d have to be dead to not be grossed out.

When it was done burning, he lowered his head and sent the spirit on its way.

“Go in peace.”

Random dead people were a problem.

This particular one nagged at him as he set up camp farther down the river bed in a sheltered tangle of low trees. Automatically, he scanned the area for threats before starting a fire. The image of Aisling staring up at the endless night sky tugged at his heart, and he scanned the plane for her as well. Damn it to hell. She wasn’t here. He was sure he’d sense another Primani alone on any plane he landed in. She’d be the only other life form with the same
saol
signature. If he managed to find her plane, he’d have no trouble finding her within it.

It was a very big ‘If’-- a nearly impossible ‘If’-- but he wouldn’t give up.

He’d find her eventually, even if it killed him.

The moon was huge, bleaching the ground and sky into one surreal dreamscape. The pale color seemed strange, somehow not quite right. Staring into the night, he frowned and turned his mind to the body again. The corpse had been lying in plain sight on the river bank when he’d arrived here an hour ago. The skin was sloughing off but still intact enough to see what had killed him.

Death hadn’t come easy.

Someone had left the body on the riverbank for him to find. Someone who knew he’d be here. That was interesting...but not a surprise. Jordan was probably tracking him. No, the fact that Jordan followed him wasn’t a surprise at all. He’d been watching for it.

The
lab coat
was a surprise.

Peering through the darkness, he was uneasy. The plane seemed to be deserted, except for the corpse, of course. But something felt odd to him.

Stretching and working at the kinks in his neck, he wished for a real bed. He was tired and would crash anywhere at this point. He needed to eat and squeeze in a few hours of sleep to recharge. Running on fumes was not an option anymore. Too many lives were at stake. Too much was riding on this mission. He had to be ready for anything. He built up the small fire and dragged out the blanket from his pack. He sat on the blanket and pulled out the blade again. The gold was mellow in the firelight. At his touch, the stone shimmered to life, recognizing him, saying hello. As he did nearly every night, he passed the blade from hand to hand watching its eye and letting it know him. It occurred to him that he hadn’t yet named it. The naming would strengthen their bond even more. Studying the blade, he searched his mind for the right words. Mica casually called it his seeing-eye knife. His mouth tilted up on one corner at the thought. Well, why not? That’s what it was. That’s what he’d call it.

Holding it over the fire, he murmured, “
Sgaine Eiron
.”

Then he dipped the blade through the flames and drew the razor sharp tip across the palm of his hand. His whole body hummed with the force of his power, muscles tightening, blood raging through his veins. The ancient magic made him stronger, more powerful than any Primani. It filled him with a strength and clarity that simple Primani powers couldn’t provide.

He loved this feeling; the sensations, the rush. His mind expanded to watch near and far while his hands performed the rituals he’d done a thousand times before. Letting the force build inside, he watched clinically as the blood welled up and spilled over onto the golden blade. When his blood dripped from the tip, he held it over the fire and listened to it hiss.

“
Sgaine Eiron
!” he shouted and lifted the blade to the sky. His gods would see it; they would bless it. They would bless his work as they had for millennia. The eye flashed brilliantly red and then blue and then red again. He waited for the rush to settle into his bones, his blood singing with the remnants of power.

That’s better. Now we’ll see how you do. The stone winked faintly and went dark. He washed the blood from his hands and cleaned the blade before sitting back down to think. The wind was picking up and a gust blew the fire towards him so suddenly he had to jump out of the way. Kicking the embers off of his boots, he hissed as one lighted against his hand. Ouch, shit!

A faint cry of something large and probably hairy and lethal echoed in the forest and the hair on the back of his neck stood up. I am not in the mood for anything that’s trying to kill me or eat me, he thought with an irritated sigh.

It came again, closer.

Something was out there; something hungry.

Drawing his blade, he swung around in a crouch and scanned the trees. Nothing.

Come on, come on…where are you?

Motionless, he scanned the area and saw nothing. Yet the screaming was coming closer. He felt the vibrations of footsteps. Still, he didn’t see anything through the darkness. Slipping his pack over his shoulder, he waited. His heart beat steadily and his mind was clear. He had no fear of an animal.

The attack came from the right. A massive shape leaped at his chest, shoving him to the ground. Ignoring the pain, Killian sprang to his feet and turned to meet the next attack. The creature was like a giant mountain lion. Almost. It was a shaped like a cat but its feet were wrong. The toes longer and clawed like a lizard. The reptilian eyes confirmed it.

Killian snarled and waved a hand at it, encouraging it to come closer. “Come on, come and get me!”

The starving demon roared at the challenge and scrambled to lunge again. Its clawed feet slung dirt and grass everywhere as it struggled for traction. Staring straight into the gleaming yellow eyes, Killian raised the blade and brought it down into the demon’s chest as it flew into him. The demon shrieked with pain and rolled off to the side. Its jaws snapped at the ground as it tried to get up again. Jumping out of the way, Killian waited for it to turn to ash and blow away. It didn’t. Instead it lay there whimpering pathetically.

“What the hell?”

Cautiously approaching from the side, he looked more closely. “Well, I’ll be damned,” he mused. “You’re only partly demon.” He paused and added, “But what’s the other part?”

The demon moaned and dug its claws into its chest trying to ease the agony of its wound. Instead of the usual black fluid, the beast bled red. Swearing softly, he circled it. This was not good.

Killian studied it for a minute and finally said, “Can you talk?”

It stopped whimpering and stared at him with intelligence in its eyes.

“Who turned you? Do you know? Was it another demon?”

It shook its head.

Killian pulled out
Sgaine Eiron
and it flinched and closed its eyes.

“Did you see one of these with a blue stone?”

It blinked.

Jordan? It had to be. But
Sgaine Dutre
doesn’t have the power to turn animals into demons…at least it didn’t used to. Could Jordan have changed it?

Impossible.

He shook his head, nonplussed. There’s no way that could happen.
Sgaine Dutre
was fighting Jordan every step of the way. It wouldn’t cooperate and suddenly perform new magic. The creature whimpered again and Killian sighed, feeling almost sorry for it. It hadn’t asked for this existence, after all. He turned back to it and pulled out
Sgaine
Eiron
again and squatted. Holding the blade close to the demon so it would remember it if it got reanimated, he thought about how he could kill it mercifully.

“Death is a blessing,” he said as he lifted his palm and flash-fried the demon’s struggling body. The demon cried out once then disappeared into dust.

As he watched the dust vanish, the hair on the back of his neck stood up and he thought, I should’ve asked if it was alone here. The scream came right behind him just as his feet left the plane.

Eden:

Slamming hard into the ground and stumbling to his knees, he landed in front of his temple on Eden. Fuck! That was too close. His heart was racing this time. He reached back and felt the blood on his fingers.

His back was shredded.

There was no help for it. He’d have to stay here for the rest of the night. He needed to heal himself and recharge before he would be able to travel again. His weight pressed down on him and he knew he’d not be able to stay on his feet much longer. He dipped his hands piously in the pure water by the entrance and went inside. Immediately, the memories of his last visit swamped him, and he smiled grimly in the darkness as Mica’s face came to mind. The image was sexy and alluring but he could just as easily see her scowling at his injuries.

“Go away, Mica! I know I’m hurt. I’ll take care of this.”

He could see her eyes creased with worry as she fussed over him in the past. He’d never admit it, but he liked her fussing over him. It was a novelty in his self-imposed, lonely life.

Using his power to light a fire in the brazier, he stripped off the shirt and washed it out. Judging by the annoying stinging on his back, he had claw marks…again. Without a mirror, he could only guess how bad it was. He reached back to feel jagged edges of flesh hanging off in strips.

Nice. That’ll leave a mark.

The puncture wounds on his chest were deep and seeping steadily. Rinsing them with water left him gritting his teeth, but then he simply healed them with the rest of his energy. He ate a protein bar in three bites and crashed.

The next morning he ran 10 miles and ended his run at the coast. It’s good to be home, he thought. Standing high above the crashing waves, he inhaled the salty air and gazed out to the horizon. The sky was perfectly clear this morning. He stood on the shore and let the sound of the surf lull his senses until he could use his sight.

As the reality blurred into the background, he let the visions come as they would. He walked through the Valley of Death with Raphael at his side. The dead lined the road as they shuffled in search of their final destination. He recognized many faces as he walked with his friend. His mother, Maia; his father, Thorin; his first teacher, Abrol, the man whose temple he still used. Each person greeted him as he walked past them. He reached out to touch them but they had no substance. They never did. But still, he always tried. He’d lost them so long ago it no longer hurt to see them. But he would’ve liked the contact. When they got to the end of the road, Raphael turned him around just as a small, dark head moved past them in the crowd.

The sight hit him like a blow to the stomach and he groaned aloud.

No! Not again!

Not fucking again!

Violently shaking his head to clear the vision, he dropped to the grass and stared at his hands trying to make sense of it. The gold band glinted in the sunlight. Rubbing the inscription, he made a decision.

London, England:

Blood called to blood.

He could find her anywhere. They all could; after all, their blood filled the tiny gold heart. Blood called to blood, especially Primani blood. When he and his boys created the locket, it was so they could tie her to them; so they could keep her safe while she grew into her powers. Their angelic blood formed the chain and the locket, in addition to the drops inside it. She didn’t know all of that though, and no one would tell her. The less she knew the better. She was already overburdened with the demands they placed upon her. She was still human and fragile. He would explain it all one day when she was ready.

She also didn’t know that they could find each other by zeroing in on the blue glass in the wristbands and the pendant she’d made for them. She’d sincerely asked the angels to bless her gifts, and they had. They wouldn’t keep them safe, per se, but they’d let them find each other when there was no other way. He smiled grimly as he thought about that. The angels would answer your prayers, Mica, but you had to be careful about what you asked…sometimes they added their own twists. Normally they could use telepathy to find each other, unless they were unconscious or in another plane. That’s how he was able to find Sean. He’d been wearing the wristband and he spotted it in the vision that Mica had.

Now he was tracking Mica down. He needed to see her right now, right this second. His heart was slamming in his chest when he thought of the vision. She had to be alive! She had to be.

Wouldn’t he know if she was dead? Wouldn’t he feel it?

When he rematerialized, he was not surprised to find himself in the dreary churchyard of the Stone Garden. The rain was coming down in a heavy drizzle and it was cold enough he could see his breath. He knew where she’d be. Pushing aside a half-dead rose bush, he stopped dead in his tracks.