Unearthed (36 page)

“No.” This was the Heights. No one who lived in the Heights was still alive inside.

As per Heights protocol, evidence was planted and minds altered until the fire could be explained without any connection to the supernatural. Despite her countless protests, Keira was taken to the hospital. As soon as she was alone, she snuck out and spent the rest of the day walking around numbly. Not sure of anything anymore.

The next day, she tried to eat. She waited twenty-four hours and tried again. The day after that she went to the gym. Training seemed like a good idea considering someone would be trying to kill her in a few days. She went through the motions. Again and again. Because that’s all she could do. That’s all any of this was—another day to go through the motions.

Thinking the city was the wrong place for her right now, she packed up nothing at all and started driving, not paying attention to anything but the next one hundred feet of road. It didn’t matter where she went—Davyn would find her. She’d seen a movie when she was younger and less empty. She didn’t remember much other than that the hero saying, “I will find you,” to the heroine. “I will find you.” Really romantic. Except of course that in her case, instead of the hero saying it, it was said by the demon who was planning to kill her.

She pulled off the freeway so she could be safely pathetic. A short breakdown before she had to suck it up and decide how to deal with Davyn when he came back. When the moment was over, she realized where she’d driven.

Home.
No, this hasn’t been my home for six years.

Instead of leaving immediately, she drove around the corner and parked behind a neighbor’s tree. If she tilted her head, she could see her parent’s front door, but they wouldn’t be able to see her. Perfect.

She stayed there all day, watching the house, wondering what she’d do if someone opened that door. With her forehead resting on the steering wheel and her palms pressed against her eyes, forbidding any outward emotion, she waited. What was she going to do? How could she save herself and Davyn? What did she have to do to make things the way they should be?

“Hello.”

She flinched, impressed with herself for having lost all her survival instinct so damn quickly. Her fists unclenched when she realized who it was.

Micah.

“I didn’t mean to startle you.” The bass in the angel’s voice calmed her. “I thought if I touched you to get your attention, I would’ve gotten hit.”

“You thought right.” After a quick glance to the house, she stretched her neck, disgusted by how stiff she’d become in only a few days. That could get her killed. Sooner or later… “Are you here to bring me donuts? I could really use a donut right now.”

“If only I had known…” Micah settled into the seat uncomfortably. Keira wasn’t sure what kind of cars angels drove, but it had to be nicer than her Hyundai. “I’m here because you called me with your whole heart.”

“Didn’t happen. In fact, I don’t remember asking for your help with even twenty-five percent of my heart.” It was one thing to get a little background from an angel for a job, but a totally different thing for him to show up unwanted on what could be the most painful day of her life. Which, by the way, was not an easy thing for a day to accomplish considering how many truly shitty ones she’d had.

“Angels do not lie.”

“Well then all those songs and clichés about the heart not lying are bullshit because I don’t need your help.”

“What are you afraid of?”

“I—” She stopped when she realized she needed to tell him, to talk to someone who cared, now that the only other person who did was gone. Micah hadn’t lied—Keira just hadn’t been paying attention to her own heart.

“Davyn told me hope sometimes makes things more painful,” she said quietly. “I thought he meant I should forget about Lamere or that he was just being demonic about the idea of any positive emotion. But I get it now—he was talking about us. It’s stupid to hope for something you can’t have.”

“He was wrong.”

“No,” she said, wiping dry eyes. “He was right. Maybe not always, but… That’s why I’m here. And I guess that’s why my heart called you. Because I have to do something I never wanted to do. I kept hoping someday things would be different, possible, and I’d be able to see them again.”

“Who?”

“Them.” She glanced out the window towards the blue house with white trim and metal railings up both sides of the steps. “The window farthest right is—
was
—mine. They haven’t changed the curtains.” They might not have even opened them.

“Your parents.”

Keira nodded. “They’re never going to stop looking for me. Hoping. It’s too dangerous, and they’ve been doing it for too long.” She looked at him. “Will you help me?”

He looked as pained as she felt. “Angels are required to follow many rules regarding our influence in human lives.”

“Sure, makes sense. It’s my problem, not yours.”

He reached to her hand to stop her from turning the car on. “I hesitate not because I do not wish to help you, but because I
can
. Because I deeply wish it wasn’t necessary, that I had a reason to say no, that there was some part of your old life you could regain. That there was a way I could give you back the hope you’ve lost. Hope is what makes you human, to see something other than a future of darkness. When you were imprisoned, did you not hope for freedom?”

Her first inclination was to say no—that she’d hoped for death, but that wasn’t true. She’d wanted to live, and she still did. Not because she hadn’t looked Lamere in the eyes while she killed him. She wanted another chance to look into Davyn’s eyes. Maybe while burning to death but, hey, you can’t have everything.

Or even most things.

“When Lamere had me, all I wanted was to see my parents again and be able to apologize for being a bitch after I died on that airplane. I just needed to make sure they knew how much I loved them. It got me through, I guess. But now we both know I can’t see them again or say any of those things. I’ve been putting this off for years…because I was afraid of having no one in the world who loved me.”

“You do have people who love you.”

“I meant who still think I’m alive. A family. But it’s not fair to them.”

“You have a new family now.” Micah spoke with such confidence and calm, because he only spoke the truth. No games or lies, manipulations or twists. “The Rising is your family, and they will accept you as you are. You all are more alike than different, have seen the same horrors and proven your strength by living through them.”

“I guess you think you’re pretty wise, huh?” she asked, trying not to smile.

He shook his head. “It is far easier to watch a life than to live it. The view is much clearer from a distance.”

“Will you do it? Tell my parents I’m gone?”

He nodded slowly. “On one condition: You must hope your future will be what you want it to be and you will have what fills your heart. You will find a way or allow a way to find you. Promise me that, and I will do what you ask of me.”

It was a bad idea to make a deal with a demon. It seemed just as dangerous to promise an angel something. Keira
wanted
to hope. She just wasn’t sure she could. She was a survivor, not a dreamer, or even an idealist like Addison.

Addison. The leader of the Rising had a major setback and felt responsible for a lot of deaths. She’d lost hope too. Knowing Keira had anything at all in common with her hero shocked her. What if there was more? What if that was the answer?

She turned to Micah and looked him straight in the eyes, not an easy thing to do with an angel. "Okay, I promise, but only to try because that’s all I can guarantee. Is that enough?"

Micah smiled and nodded. “All any of us can promise is that we’ll try.” He opened the car door and stretched his long legs as he got out and walked across the street.

When the front door opened, Keira slid down farther into her seat and waited, biting her lip. She didn’t look, couldn’t risk it even though it was almost unbearable not to peek. She would’ve given anything to just see her parents again, hug them one more time. Say goodbye.

She hadn’t felt this lonely since being kept by Lamere. Since then, she’d been alone by choice, relying only on herself because she was the only person she could count on. That wasn’t true anymore and hadn’t been true for a while, actually. She had a family in the Heights. Shit, she had an angel on speed dial. And for a brief time, she’d had that stupid asshole of a demon who was probably somewhere learning how to hate her right now.

‘In time your parents will heal,’
Micah whispered in her head,
‘and so will you.’
Keira peeked over the steering wheel to see him look at her, nod, and walk into her old house to tell her parents to stop hoping.
‘Remember your promise, hunter.’

She would.

“I need to see her.” Keira dropped her knife into Graham’s lap. Good thing it was in its sheath, or he’d really have had something to glare about. “We can fight about it later.” She didn’t have time right now.

He took out his phone and, after a few hushed and grumbled back-and-forths, gestured to the door. Then he went back to his book.

“Hey!” Addison was in the main room, sitting in a gigantic armchair that made her look like a little girl. She was pale, and her eyes were red.

Keira held up a hand to stop the dat vitae from asking how she felt, what was happening, and a billion other things that directed attention away from herself. “Addison, I say this with the utmost respect and admiration, but you need to suck it up, get off your ass, and move on.”

Addison’s eyes grew. “That was you being respectful?”

“You didn’t kill those seers or the humans. A demon did. You can’t control other people or much of anything at all, so stop trying.” She took a quick breath, knowing she was nearing the end of her courage and needed to hurry to get it all out. “Yes, there’s danger. There will always be danger, but that’s why we’re here—so we don’t have to face it alone. Nobody. Not the seers
or
our leader. That’s what you do for us. You give us hope and, I’m sorry, but if
you
give up then we’re all going to give up, and that can’t happen.

“We lose our families when we’re drafted into the Heights,” she continued. “The Rising gives us another family, a bond, people to rely on. So you need to deal with your shit until you can start hoping again. For all of us.” She took a deep breath, trying to remember anything she’d said. Adrenaline had taken over there for a little while, so it may have been closer to a parental lecture than an inspirational speech. Good thing
she
wasn’t the leader.

Addison was silent for a little while. Then a long while. “You’re a lot braver than I am.”

“That’s—”

“It’s true. Just like everything else you said, especially about us being a family.”

Keira nodded. “A beautifully dysfunctional one.”

“I think you may have just saved my life again, hunter.” Smiling, Addison motioned her over to the couch. “If we do this, really do it, together like a family, then we’re going to need a minivan. Primarily because I would pay serious money to see Graham driving a minivan.”

Keira sat down with her idol, the prophesied savior of their kind, and made plans for a future she still wasn’t sure she would have.

Keira pretended to sleep, just like she had every night for an entire week. No amount of jumping sheep can trump the knowledge that someone is coming to murder you. What if his re-forging took weeks? Months? She couldn’t live like this, constantly on edge, afraid. She used to think she wasn’t afraid of anything anymore, and maybe that had been true then. But it wasn’t now. Hacking Davyn up, and throwing him into the ocean, was never going to happen, but if Lamere had taught her anything, it was not to give up. Actually, he’d taught her a lot of things, but that was the only good one.

Physically, she was safe—a salt circle could keep a demon in or out, so the one around her meant Davyn couldn’t get to her. Since she’d lost her appetite and could only force down so much, she had enough food, but her supply of water was running low. And no one delivered to this area.

It was no use hiding, so she’d chosen to stay at his place. Besides, if they fought here, no one would get caught in the crossfire and he wouldn’t burn any buildings to the ground.

Fail to plan, plan to fail—her father’s favorite phrase. She didn’t know how true it was, but she was going to find out. There was more salt in this place than in the Dead Sea. Two-inch lines on the ground in various parts of the apartment, along with hundreds of feet of rope she’d soaked in heavily salted water formed a kind of web that would block off certain areas and lead him where she wanted him.

She counted the loops again—two near the headboard for the wrists, two at the foot of the bed for the ankles, and one for the neck that she hoped she wouldn’t need, because a rope around the neck seemed especially cruel. The pulley system checked out. Was she ready? As much as she’d ever be. If this part of the plan actually worked, did she know what she would do next? Yeah. Yeah, she did.

She stood when she heard a bump. “It could be anything.” Whatever it was growled. “Like a really big cat.” She crawled under the rope web, trying to get a better view. No need. He came to her.

Oh, shit.
Ready or dead, here he comes.

“I thought you’d be smart enough to run,” Davyn said, shaking his head and scowling. “At least make it a little bit of a challenge.” It was as if he had two voices, his own and another just underneath it, an unearthly hiss she could feel move through her body like poison.

He’d been one of the biggest people she’d ever seen, but now he was undoubtedly the most intimidating. He was still just as beautiful as she remembered, but the clench of his jaw and the darkness in his expression were new. Keira was almost afraid to meet his eyes—just looking into them might scald her.

All the power he’d once used to love her, he would soon use to fight her. Except she didn’t plan on fighting back. She’d never be able to overpower him or even touch him, so if the web didn’t hold and do what she needed it to, she’d burn. The twenty feet and about ten lines of salted rope that stood between them, intersected and overlapped like the scars on her body—protecting her.