The Protect Her Box Set: Parts 7-9 (2 page)

I kind of wished Benjamin’s shimmering shield was soundproof too. Ezekiel was proving to be a big pain in the ass.

“That’s because you all don’t know what we know,” I said, deciding it was time to roll the dice.

“Riley…” Paige used her warning tone again. Benjamin, on the other hand, looked slightly amused. I had a feeling that he thought I was about to fall flat on my face, and maybe I would. But I hadn’t come this far by playing it safe.

“If Paige has the relic, she can use it to make sure Eva can never possess her body. Ever.”

Benjamin rolled his eyes. “I am aware of the legend surrounding the vessel of Eva and its link to the relic.”

“Its name is Paige,” Paige corrected him with a fierce frown. “I am getting tired of people referring to me as an ‘it’ by the way.”

“So you know then the reason it’s linked to Eva’s vessel is because it is part of her life force that was cursed over a thousand years ago.”

“How do you know that?” Benjamin looked truly surprised for the first time since we had arrived.

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. I wasn’t one to divulge my sources in my line of work. “What does matter is if Paige has the relic, she can use it not only to deflect Eva’s influence, but possibly to possess Eva instead.”

I heard a cacophony of gasps outside the shield. Benjamin simply stared at me, this time with a considering look on his face.

“Even if that were possible, we can’t have an all-powerful mortal being walking around,” Ezekiel said. “I think that’s an even worse predicament than having the goddess back.”

I wasn’t going to try to wrap my brain around that logic. “From what I’ve heard, that goddess is going to come back and be after all of your heads,” I said. I pointed my knife blade at all of them with one sweeping gesture. “I’m going to guess most if not all, of you, were at her trial and participated in her getting tortured and then torn limb from limb. I’m also going to guess based on what I know about Eva that she’s not planning to forgive and forget that one.”

“Still,” Ezekiel sputtered, “The relic is cursed. There’s no way the vessel can touch it, much less use it.”

“Not unless we help her,” Benjamin said. He looked down at Paige again with a small smile. “I can help her.”

“You can’t do anything without agreement from the council,” Ezekiel warned.

Benjamin’s face swung toward his brother. “I stopped taking orders from the council long ago, and we all know it. I am the most powerful of all of us, and that is why the relic was given to me for safekeeping. I’ve been its guardian for almost a century, and it has not fallen into troubled hands that entire time. So if I were to decide to use it to stem the tide of the demons and ensure that Eva remains in the ether than that is my decision to make.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. We were finally getting somewhere. That was until I blinked again, and the shimmering dome was gone. And so were Benjamin and Paige.

CHAPTER TWO –
PAIGE

Although I wasn’t the type of girl who liked having a man speak on her behalf, I had to admit I got a bit of a thrill when Riley did it for me. I hadn’t had time to think much about the fact that he had told me that he loved me. It was still too new and fresh, and I didn’t want to do anything that would tarnish the rush of emotions that I felt about it.

I was in a relationship. That had been solidified with the expression of the fact that the love was mutual. It was crazy and harebrained and something I never expected to have happen to me. I was in love, and that was why it didn’t bother me when Riley jumped to my defense. It’s what I would do for him.

There had been a tense moment though when even with Benjamin joining our little group, I thought fighting was about to break out. The archangels were less than pleased that I was there. I had seen the look on Ezekiel’s face when Benjamin examined the healing wound on my palm that was my parting gift from my blood pact with Bruno. It was an expression that was a mixture of loathing and disgust. That is what made me suddenly as afraid for Benjamin as I was for myself.

When Benjamin declared that it was his right to decide what to do about the relic, I felt victorious. For a moment, I wondered why I doubted him. I had been telling Riley all along that he didn’t know Benjamin the way that I did, and the declaration seemed to prove it. But then something went wrong.

The cemetery faded away, and it was as if we were standing in a black void. I started to turn, but Benjamin held fast onto my hands.

“Paige, it’s important that we talk.”

“Where are we? Where’s Riley?” My heart began to pound hard against my chest. Aside from owning my heart, Riley was my connection to my magic. Panic didn’t help calm anything and almost certainly assured that I would flounder if I tried to grab hold of it. I’d be as likely to kill both of us as anything else.

“He’s there with my brothers in the cemetery right where we left them,” Benjamin said. “We’d be talking in incessant circles for hours and getting nothing accomplished if we stayed there. That is why I have avoided my brothers for many years, but this mess has brought all of them to my doorstep once again.”

“The mess with me,” I said. “All of this has happened because of me.”

“It was a mess that was bound to happen,” Benjamin said. “Regardless of whether it started with you or not. The relic is too powerful for those who want it to leave it alone for too long. Bruno Proctor has been one of the most fervent pursuers in his efforts to retrieve it, so it doesn’t surprise me to find out that you’ve been mixed up with him.”

I forced myself to be calm. Panicking wasn’t going to get me anywhere, and I sensed Benjamin wanted something from me. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what he wanted to talk about.

“I wasn’t his captive for long,” I said. “He wants to use me to get to you and get the relic for him. He said that he would kill Riley if I didn’t go along with the deal.”

Benjamin’s eyes closed for a moment, and he sighed. “I would so love to have a conversation with you that didn’t involve the necromancer’s name.”

My shoulders stiffened. “Well, that’s not going to happen, Benjamin. Riley and I are…together.” I wasn’t sure how else to say it without hurting his feelings, but it was the truth of the situation. Whatever feelings he had for me needed to be quashed. I hadn’t been great about doing that over the last three years, so I knew that I was partly to blame for the fact he still had those kinds of feelings for me. While I had never encouraged Benjamin’s continued affections toward me, I also hadn’t completely rebuffed them. I knew it had more to do with the fact he had been the anchor in a world where I had no memories of my past, but he would have read more into it because he wanted more.

His hands dropped from mine, and, for a moment, I had a weightless feeling as if I had been dropped off a cliff. There was nothing around me or below me, but darkness and the effect was more than unsettling on my senses.

“Together? You met him a week ago, Paige. He’s a lowlife. A gun for hire with the worst kind of intentions. That’s what I tried to tell you before. He would sell his soul if it fattened his bank account. Whatever you think you mean to him, I can assure you that you do not mean anything more than dollar signs.”

It seemed crazy to me that I kept having this circular argument, first with Riley about Benjamin, and now with Benjamin about Riley. I put up my hand to stop him. “You should stick to the subjects you know something about, Benjamin. My relationship with Riley isn’t the reason that I am here. We are together whether you like it or not. If you wanted to speak privately with me, that’s fine. We can do that, but I need you to guarantee me you didn’t just leave my boyfriend behind to get slaughtered by your brothers.”

Benjamin’s mouth twisted. “Boyfriend?”

I crossed my arms and shuffled my feet. The term ‘boyfriend’ seemed woefully inadequate for everything I felt like I shared with Riley. But we weren’t married. ‘Soul mate’ would have sounded terribly cliché given the circumstances. After scanning through the available possibilities, I decided it was the best label I had.

“Yes, boyfriend,” I re-emphasized. “So unless you want to end our friendship forever, you have to guarantee he is safe until we get back. You are right. We do have things to talk about, but none of those things have anything to do with my love life. You’ve crossed over into territory where you are not welcome.” Riley said that archangels were fiercely territorial and that Benjamin was one of the worst. I hoped by making this point, he’d stop thinking I was included in the definition of what he considered ‘his’ territory.

I could tell he wanted to say something else. His mouth opened and then closed several times. He closed it finally, but I saw the way that his jaw was working as if he were crushing stones. “Fine. My apologies,” he said. “All I’ve ever wanted was for you to be happy.”

Those words I knew were sincere because they were the same words he had been saying to me for years. I had known all along though there was a silent addition to that sentiment that had always ended with the words “with me.” Whatever Benjamin might have wanted to have happen between us, he needed to let it go.

“I am happy, or as happy as I can be given the current situation. I appreciate everything you’ve done for me,” I said slowly. I wanted to smooth this situation over because I still desperately needed his help. “You know that. You took me in, gave me a job, and helped me rebuild my life. I don’t take that for granted.”

Benjamin nodded his head. Then he sighed and closed his eyes. He said a few words under his breath. Then his eyes re-opened. “Your…boyfriend…will be safe from my brothers. They will wait for me to return. They won’t make any moves against him.”

I felt my shoulders sag in relief, and I let out a breath I didn’t even realize I had been holding. “Thank you. You’ve always done the right thing by me. I can’t thank you enough for that.”

Benjamin’s face turned away from me then, but I caught the flicker of pain in his expression before he smoothed it away. It hurt me too. There were many nights that I lied awake in bed, kept up by my insomnia avoiding the nightmares that plagued me, wondering why I couldn’t feel differently about Benjamin. The side that he showed me was his kindness, generosity, and empathy. I knew Riley said that Benjamin was equally cruel and unjust, but that wasn’t the man that I knew. Benjamin had always encouraged me to keep exploring the world with innocent, non-judgmental eyes. He told me to live every day to the fullest because you never knew how many of those days you had left. It was simple, yet powerful advice. It was because of Benjamin that I had grown into the woman I was today. That woman had been ready to fall in love with a complicated, dark, yet fiercely devoted man like Riley Stone. I saw the irony in all of it, and I’m sure Benjamin did too.

“You came back here for the relic,” he said. “To fulfill your blood pact with Bruno Proctor and save Riley’s life.”

“I came back to ask for the relic, and your help in using it to defeat Eva,” I corrected. “I want to take Bruno Proctor down in the process, which would release both me and Riley from our blood pacts. Riley can save his family. I can save myself.”

“And what’s in this for me?” Benjamin asked. “Riley gets his family. You get to live out the rest of your days supposedly with him, so he gets you too. With the relic gone, I lose the biggest leverage I have to keep my brothers at bay. They have questioned my leadership for many years and giving up the relic to you would be viewed as a sign of my continued weakness. At best, I get sent back to Heaven with a stern warning. At worst, I get my wings clipped, and I would become human.”

“I didn’t even know that was possible,” I said, my mind reeling from his revelation.

“Oh, yes. They’d make me human and then drop me in some remote place alone and defenseless to fight for my new mortal life. They’d make sure all demons knew where to find me. When you’ve been an all-powerful being for your entire life, the idea of being small and weak is a death sentence in and of itself. Did you know that there is a 99% suicide rate among converted angels? That’s just to ensure we have the dignity of leaving this world ourselves. If the demons find us, that exit would be much worse.”

I felt ashamed of myself. He was right. All this time, I’d only been focused on what retrieving the relic from him would mean to me and Riley. I never considered what it would mean for him.

“I would never want something bad to happen to you,” I whispered. I was supposed to be his friend. Even if I didn’t want anything more from him in the romantic sense, I still cared about him. “So, tell me how we can make this work so that this is a win-win for all of us. I’m open to whatever you suggest.”

“I could just say no,” Benjamin said. He turned away from me then, and I gasped as I realized that the space around us had dissolved into a night sky. It was brilliant and breathtaking. He stared up at the stars. “I’ve been alone for as long as I can remember. I started thinking that the stars were the only ones that I could truly count on. They were there night after night no matter what. They showed up. They were a source of comfort for me, at least, they were until you came along.”

I moved closer to him, but I didn’t touch him. “Benjamin, I am still your friend. I’ve always been your friend. That hasn’t changed. I found out that we live in a world where demons and angels exist, and there are terrible things out there that want to destroy us all. I don’t want Bruno Proctor to have the relic, and Riley doesn’t either. This is a way to remove the relic from being a danger to anyone ever again.”

“It is cursed, you know,” Benjamin said in a faraway voice that made me wonder how much of an impact my words were having on him at all.

“That wasn’t Eva who did that,” I said. “That was someone else who wanted to hurt her. I have a chance to fix that now. If I had access to Eva’s powers, I could help people. I could help you and your brothers. We could be true allies against the demons. You don’t have to hide your true self from me anymore. Isn’t that something good that has come out of all of this? I know you. The real you, and that is still the person that I consider my dearest friend.”

He turned to me then. His expression softened. “You are truly a beautiful woman, Paige. Inside and out.”

I took a chance then and embraced him. His body tensed for a moment before it relaxed, and then I felt his arms sweep around me as he hugged me tightly. I let the embrace go on for a few more moments, and then I broke it. I wanted him to trust me, but it was important I kept the boundaries of our relationship uncluttered.

“I need your help,” I said. “Tell me what I can do so that you’ll feel comfortable helping me.”

“You need to promise me one thing,” Benjamin said slowly.

“What?” I asked. I steeled myself for the answer.

“When this is all over, and you ride off into the sunset with your white knight, you will remember that it was me that turned the tide of this chaos for you. That you won’t close yourself off from me, or try to shut me out. You promise me that there is always a place in your life for me.”

It was a vulnerable and heart-wrenching request all at the same time. I knew how hard it must have been for him to ask it. “Of course, Benjamin. You are my friend, and I always want it to stay that way.”

Benjamin sighed then and nodded. “I will help you, Paige.”

The way that he said it didn’t feel quite right to me. Over the years, I had learned to read him and his nuances well. “Why do I feel like there is a ‘but’ at the end of that sentence?”

He shrugged. “It’s not a ‘but.' I’ve known the location of the relic for a great many years, as you discovered.”

“Yes,” I said slowly. I waited for him to continue.

“I’ve also told you there are many who wanted it, both among the demons as well as my brothers. Whoever holds the relic possesses its power, and that is a heady thing for those who are overly…ambitious.”

“Spit it out, Benjamin,” I said, starting to feel impatient. “Or better yet, just take me there now so that we can get it and get moving with the next part of the plan. The longer that I delay in killing Proctor, the more opportunity he has to figure out that Riley and I are planning to double-cross him. He’ll kill both of us without a second thought by revoking our blood pacts and then it’ll all be over anyway.”

“I realize that you are in a hurry,” Benjamin started. “But this isn’t the type of thing that can be rushed. I put into place certain safeguards when I first took possession of the relic that need to be considered.”