The Second Sign (25 page)

Mir opened his arms as a gesture of communal. “We
are the good guys, remember?”

“Tell that to my dead mother,” she snapped. She
wanted to hit him. To wipe that stoic look off his face. He gave
her nothing. Nothing but pain. Instead she broke from his gaze and
stood up. Bolting wasn’t an option anymore. She did have someone
that loved her, and she couldn’t give up on him—Jake.

She rubbed her temples with her fingertips. “Okay,
Okay,” she said before Max could throw her out. “I’ll tell you what
I know if you tell me what I don’t know. Deal?”

Mir nodded, his lips a thin line on his face, still
feeling the rawness of her words. She hoped.

“Who is Naite?” she asked, raising her eyes and
stopping behind a high-back chair using it for support. She wished
she wasn’t making a mistake by trusting them, but she needed to
know what they knew, and she only had ninety minutes left before
Naite’s warning would expire. Something was going to happen to
force Gabby to call upon her. She felt it. Mir being here confirmed
it.

Adler spoke. “Naite is my counterpart. She is the
governess of souls for the demon-kind.”

“She visited me last night. Actually this morning
around midnight out in the lake.”

Adler’s eyes widened, the thick lines on his face
sagged as if his flesh were going to spill off his face.

“You saw her after she hung Heather out by the
Crossroads.”

“Yes, but didn’t know she knew...” Adler looked to
Mir, who nodded before he continued. “I didn’t think she knew of
your existence.”

“Because I have no predestined soul,” Gabby
whispered and walked around the chair and sank down into it,
leaning forward and running her fingers through her hair. “So how
did she find me?”

Adler lifted his eyes to Mir, leading Gabby to focus
on him. He studied her for a few moments in silence. “She found you
through Jake Myers. Dumb luck on her part.”

Gabby leaned back on the chair, a soft breath
escaped her lips. She had been right. Naite had been after Jake.
“What does she want with him?”

“Jake’s father is demon turned mortal. A price had
to be paid. Jake is the price for his father’s mortality,” Mir said
as if it meant nothing to her.

“She’s come to collect his soul?” Panic stripped her
of what little strength she had left and tears fell from her eyes.
“Why didn’t you tell me about her, about me?” she asked, looking
directly at Max.

“Gabby...” Max began, stepping forward, but Mir shot
out his hand to stop him. He looked confused, unable to say what he
wanted. It didn’t matter. Whatever he had to say wouldn’t ease the
betrayal.

“You were trying to fix your mistake,” she
continued, her eyes stabbing Mir’s, wishing that she could sear him
with her look. “Good guys.” She chuckled, it sounded forced and
obscene. “You’re not the good guys. You’re the same as everyone
else. Afraid of the things you can’t control. Tell me, Father,” she
hissed. “Are you afraid of me?” She stood up, her insides seething.
She caught a brief look of fear in his eyes, but it vanished as
quickly as it came.

Mir tightened his lip, his jaw clenched and he
rubbed his hands together. In that one pose, Gabby saw what her
mother saw in him—a vulnerability of love for mankind. He loved too
much. Gabby wasn’t sure unconditional love guided the angels.
Certainly Zorn didn’t appear to be as loving after shoving her hard
for hitting him. But she’d seen this in Max. The reverence for all
life, well, all except hers.

“What did Naite tell you?” Mir asked.

“She told me I was the Second Sign. My soul was up
for grabs. That I would be calling her in twenty-four hours to
choose. And then she started killing people.”

“What did she say...exactly?” he asked.

Gabby had a sense that he did read minds. His gaze
bore into her. Gabby bit her lip and looked up at Max who had a
sour expression on his face. Gabby sighed. “She said I summoned
her. I have a mark on my leg that doesn’t stay still and burns
sometimes.”

Adler and Max both gasped. “Why didn’t you say
something?” Max spat.

“Because you were going to let me die. Naite was
right. You weren’t going to save me this time.”

He flinched, opened his mouth to say something, but
then closed it.

“What does the marking mean?” she asked Mir.

“You didn’t summon her. She found you and marked
you. It means she’s tracking you. It means everyone around you is
compromised. Even us.” He looked over her shoulder at Zorn and then
the lights went out. Gabby hit the floor. Hard.

A Payment Must Be Made

“Jenna, can you go to the store to buy some grounds?
I think I can use a fresh cup,” Dad said.

Jenna looked from Dad to Jake. She took her keys and
walked out, suppressing what Jake knew would be her interrogation
that he would fall victim to later.

“What are you?” Jake bluntly asked. All his life
he’d felt different. His quest for immortality or his questioning
of his mortality made sense now. He wasn’t gifted or lucky in his
feats. Unable to die until the demon wanted him to.

Phil Myers let out a deep breath that seemed to
collapse his chest completely. Thick lines jutted his once smooth
face, and his eyes were marred by sadness that penetrated anyone
who looked at him. Jake knew his dad died that night alongside his
mother.

“Sit down, please.”

Jake sat down, the countertop between them. Folding
his hands on top of the smooth porcelain surface, he struggled to
remain calm and clear his head. He wanted to hear all of it.
Finally, getting the truth, though he already knew his father sold
his soul for the price of his own freedom, whether he had agreed to
it or not didn’t matter. It didn’t make it less painful and less
than the truth. All these years they had kept this very secret from
him. A destiny of sorts. His mother didn’t have to die for him. His
father neither. He would’ve turned himself in to Naite earlier.
Become demon-kind. Because he loved them.

“I was part of a group to roam the earth as
influence mongers. Created out of faith and born into man to live
for eternity.” Phil looked at his hands, squeezing them and opening
them as if the answers were written on his palm. “Until I met your
mother. She was pregnant with Jenna.” He ran his hand through his
blonde hair, his green eyes brilliant in the artificial light. “I
wanted out. I wanted to love her fully. I wanted to be human. I was
a fool.” He began to pace.

Jake could feel raw energy seeping from him, forcing
him to age.

“I was given my freedom by Senn, a warden of the
underworld with the warning that one day a payment must be made. I
thought it would be me. You see, as demons, we are barren. It is a
way to choose our beings and not be forced to have them merge with
the human condition of having a conscience and morality. But love
is something embedded in all creatures. Love of food. Love of
power. Love of life. It is a force that drives just as well as
hate. So demons and angels are cursed with the power to love and do
nothing to sate it. It is a rule unless we choose another path. One
given to us with a price.”

“Me,” Jake said.

“Your mother thought she could change the payment
but...” Phil took a chair and sat down, leaning against the kitchen
table, hiding his face in his hands. Jake loved him more than
anything in that one moment. “We tried to reason with Senn, with
Naite. We even went to the angels.” Phil looked up, his eyes
glazed. “They refused to help me.”

“Who refused?” Jake asked slowly, already preparing
his mind for the answer.

“Mir, the most powerful of the angels. He could not
interfere with whatever arrangement was made, so I went to Max, his
son.”

Jake stiffened. “His human son.”

Phil drew his brow together and nodded. “Yes,
half-human. Max tried talking sense into your mother. He was the
one who contacted me to let me know of her foolish plan to try to
appease the demons with her soul. It was why I arrived when I did
the night she died...but too late.”

Jake focused on his hands unable to clean them of
the blood he’d spilled. His mother died because of him. Marty died
because he wasn’t fast enough to save her. And he’d lost Gabby.
“Naite visited me,” he finally admitted.

Phil’s shoulders slumped forward. He wasn’t
surprised. “Yes, we suspected.”

Someone knocked on the door and Jake followed Phil
to answer it. Miller stood there with two other people Jake had
never seen before. He wanted to ask why the town cop came to visit
while the world was seemingly collapsing into Hell, but his dad
beat him to it.

“Tom, you made it,” Phil said, leaning into Miller
for a man-hug.

“I'm sorry you have to be here,” Miller responded,
trailed by a woman with a pissed off look on her face and a short
scrawny man with eyes hidden behind the folds of his brow. Miller
met Jake’s gaze and shook his head as if Jake had messed up big
time.

“Jake, you’ve met Miller.” Phil led them to the
living room where Miller sat down while the other two sniffed the
air and started deeper into the house without a word.

Jake shook his hand.

“This here is Sally and Donald.”

“What are you doing here?” Jake asked Miller who
looked at Phil for confirmation. Phil nodded.

“We have the town on lockdown. Naite and her group
have been seen across the lake, in the woods near the summit falls.
We think they’re getting ready to band for something.”

Jake arched his brow. How was Miller involved in
this? Phil seemed to notice the confusion in his face.

“Miller is an Onori. A cop not only in the human
realm, but the ethereal as well.”

“Nice.” Jake didn’t believe Miller could find a
cold.

“Mir and his folks are covering the south end.
Apparently there’s a host over there as well. The girl’s already
been marked,” Miller said.

The girl. Gabby. Jake regretted interrogating Gabby
the way he had. Who would believe a story about angels and demons,
and yet she tried to warn him. “The angels?” Jake asked.

“Yeah, we’re working together on this one.” Miller
took off his hat and set it next to him. His hands trembled
slightly as he wiped his brow. He didn’t inspire confidence.

“What’s a host?” Jake looked to his father.

“One of the soulless. Max tried to save your mother,
not because of his sense of duty, but because I promised to help
him find a way to save his sister. She’s soulless, not predestined,
and so her soul is up for grabs. Naite...” Phil trailed off, eyeing
Jake intently.

“Go on,” Jake said.

“We suspect Naite will use you to get to her.”

Jake forced a chuckle. His mind buzzed the pain in
his back flaring. “How so?”

“The girl is evil. She’s never shown compassion or
humility in anything.”

Jake snorted. “Yeah, tell me about it.” It was a
show of affection he didn’t intend and his dad caught it.

“Jake, what do you know about her. Have you met
her?”

He stepped back, defensive. He was not going to tell
his dad he loved her. Nope. Never. “What does it matter?”

His dad stepped forward, his stance tall and
brooding. Jake could see the intimidating demon he had been a long
time ago. “It matters. What do you know about her?”

“I met her when we got here.” He turned from his
intense gaze. “I saved her life,” he mumbled and sank into the
sofa.

Miller shook his head. “I told you to stay away from
her.”

“So what? What does it mean?”

“Jake, love is the root of all evil because it leads
people to do unspeakable things, stupid things, irrational things.
Please tell me you do not love her.”

“Dad, come on, I just met her,” he lied, feeling his
face flush crimson. His heart beat a million miles an hour. “I’m
not going to do anything stupid for love.”

His dad scrutinized his gaze. “Does she love
you?”

“We’ve only met.”

“Jake.”

He shrugged. “I don’t think so. No.” It hurt him
more than he cared to admit. His dad let out a long sigh.

“Good,” he muttered under his breath and Jake wanted
to yell at him. Good? Good that she didn’t love him while inside he
burned for her? Where was the relief in that? Instead, he bit his
tongue and excused himself.

He pulled out his phone. He wanted to talk to her.
To apologize to her for how he acted. He wanted to hear her voice
and know if his father’s words held some truth. Did she not love
him? Could she not feel the same? And then the whole business of
his soul. Was he going to burn in Hell forever for something that
wasn’t even his fault? He could go nuts just thinking about it. One
thing at a time. If he burned in Hell and never saw her again, he
had to know the truth.

He dialed her number.

She picked up on the first ring. “Jake?” she said.
She sounded worried, relieved, her breath a hard whisper.

“Gabby, are you all right?”

A long pause followed. “I’m sorry I lied to you,”
she said. “I didn’t think you’d believe me if I told you the truth
about us. And I don’t deserve you. You are good, Jake. I think I’m
something else.”

Her voice trailed, and he closed his eyes and
pressed the bridge of his nose. He wanted to go to her, to hold
her, to tell her his own truth, but it would be too late. There was
no salvation for him.

“I’m sorry I tried to force you. I don’t know what
came over me. It’s like I can’t breathe when I’m around you.” He
closed his eyes. He knew he shouldn’t be telling her this. He
couldn’t let her sacrifice herself for him. No one else would die
for him.

“I want to see you. Can you come over? My brother
has me on lockdown, and I’m in the danger zone with angels right
now. I can’t get out.”

“I don’t want you to do anything stupid tonight,
okay?”