Destiny: A Hunter's Novel, Book 3 (5 page)

“All my nightmares escaped my head, Bar the door, please don’t let them in, You were never supposed to leave, Now my head’s splitting at the seams, And I don’t know if I can. Here, beneath my lungs, I feel your thumbs press into my skin again.”

-
Radical Face
, Welcome Home

Az and I sat at the conference table, minus the candlestick, since I’d removed it, working on the translations just as we’d done when we were working for Mastema. Only now I was looking for something specific. Instead of translating everything, I had taken to reading and then writing down what I needed Az to make sense of for me. Az had taken to giving me the silent treatment.

He had not said more than three words to me since our little tiff on the patio. I understood his confusion, but I was barred from helping him with it. I could feel his pain, confusion and anger rolling off him in waves. Every once in a while I would also get a hint of lust.

We had finally figured out that this book was an ancient spell book. My Granddad told me that it was a dark ancient book and that we needed to be very careful with the information we took from it. I had found a translation in the book that was entitled
New Skin for the Wicked
. As I read the spell it spoke of giving a new persona/life to an evil soul. What if I could transform Mastema? Did he have a soul anymore?

I had just finished translating the entire spell and instructions and slid it across the table to Az. I stood to leave. I had more than a few questions for Serafine.

“Are you good without me for a while?”

Az didn’t look up or move. He was acting as though he hadn’t heard me.

“
Yes, of course Laney. No problem. Go do what you need to
.” I responded for him, having a conversation with myself. I tried to emulate Az’s voice, but was failing miserably, I would never be able to get my voice that low.

“Good,” I responded by to myself.

Az grunted as I made my way to the door. I grumbled to myself.

“How long am I going to be in the dog house? I mean if I could say something I would.
Come on
. Does he know me at all?”

I had said it quietly, but I realized too late I had slipped. It was a minor piece of information, but it didn’t take a dummy to know
does he know me at all
to mean he knew me well.

I turned back to Az to make sure he hadn’t heard me. He was still sitting with his head down, but I could feel a flare of his emotion – hope. Damn.

I didn’t know if it was a punishment to me or not, before I was able to feel some of his emotions, but ever since I’d found him through the compass on my arm I could read every emotion he was having and I didn’t like it – not at all. Everyone else’s emotions would come through to me when they were strong, but Az’s were clear as glass to me.

I hightailed it away from Az. I needed to meet with Serafine and I only knew one place that would work.

********************************************

I opened the door to The Wet Mug and sat down at the bar. Donovan came out from the back with a grin splitting his face.

“Delaney, good to see you again.”

I hadn’t thought I’d given him my name, but he knew my Granddad, so I didn’t think too much of it.

“Donavan, same to you. Can I get a beer? And some privacy?”

“Please, call me Michael.”

Michael Donavan had told me that if I needed help, he’d back me, and he didn’t fail me now. He walked to the front of the bar and flipped the dead bolt. I thought if someone really wanted to get into the tavern, a dead bolt wouldn’t keep them out.

As though reading my thoughts, he waived his hand and the same marks that my Granddad had put up the first time I’d been there appeared again.

“Thank you, I appreciate that.” I nodded my head. He tipped his chin, in a very man-like way.

He had basically told me, through his actions, that he was not only a lion Shifter but a Witch as well. Interesting.

Michael poured a beer from the tap, and put it in front of me. He went into the back, which I knew was his way of giving me the privacy I needed.

“Serafine. I need some answers. And don’t act like you can’t hear me, I know you can.”

I heard that same Angel/Serafine pop near the stool next to me and didn’t need to look over to see her sitting there. I took a sip of my beer.

“You want a beer?” I asked her, without looking at her.

“Angels can’t drink

“But you’re not just an Angel, are you?” I turned to her.

“Spoke to Fergus, your Granddad, about me?”

“Nope. He figured it out. Apparently, I smelled like you.”

“I knew I should’ve pointed you in a different direction.”

“I would’ve ended up walking for days. You would do that to me?”

“You would’ve found your way here eventually – and without my scent on you.”

I shook my head and took another drink.

“You want to tell me your story?”

“Not really, but I don’t know if I have a choice at this point. Just so you know – I might lose my wings over this.”

“I need to hear it. Don’t tell me anything that will make you fall but tell me what you can.”

Serafine looked up at the marks on the walls of the pub, put there by Donovan.

“I see Donovan is still going strong.” She surprised me with that comment. I knew she had lived here at one time, but I didn’t grasp how old this place and its occupants really were until that point. “I worked hard to get rid of my accent, took me a couple of years.” Serafine switched to having an Irish accent and I was shocked. “And then I left and went out into the world – with your Ma. Your Ma was my best friend.”

Serafine was looking at me through the mirror behind the bar and I could see the tears welled in her eyes.

“We lived together until your Ma met Janesh. They married after a few months of being together and she moved out and moved in with him. She convinced your Da, with some fancy talk and a little Witchery, that she was a Hunter from Ireland. He bought it. Once I was out on my own, about four months, I met a Demon and fell in love with him. I’m a mix of Angel, Witch and Demon.” Serafine now turned to look at me head on. And I swallowed the huge lump in my throat. “Mastema and I Mated.”

“I know that part. Azrael told me.”

“Yes, Azrael had been with Mastema for some time when I came into the picture.”

“I was under the impression that you and Mastema’s Mating had happened a hundred or so years ago, but that can’t be possible – you’re too young.”

“Have you forgotten that Mastema can bend time? We spent a hundred years together and then reached the time we’d actually met. Everyone knew me as his Mate. The only one that remembered me was your Ma. It upset Mastema. He had changed everyone’s perception of me, except for Vida.”

Vida. I had rarely heard my Mother’s name used. It had always been “Ma or Mother”. To hear Serafine say her name was amazing. It made me feel closer to her.

“She found me a few years later. She was pregnant with you. She begged me to protect you. She told me about who you would be. We had all heard the Prophecy growing up. But she told me you would be it.” Serafine looked like she was in physical pain. “I petitioned the Guardians to allow me in. To let me protect you. I was part Angel, so they had to take my petition up. I was granted the position as your Guardian.”

I recalled the conversation I had with Lito, and remembered what he’d said about the girl he loved.

“So you weren’t allowed to stay Mated with Mastema.” I said. Serafine nodded her head.

“I may as well have torn my heart out. And what he’s become –” She shook her head, as though trying to get rid of unwanted memories, if only it were that easy. “Sometimes I think it’d be easier, when my stint as your Guardian is over, to allow my existence to come to an end, too.”

“You can’t mean that.”

“I have seen everything he’s done. All of the horrible things he’s become. You didn’t know him when we Mated. Tema was a Demon, but he was good, too.”

Serafine sounded so much like me. I guess I could take her word for it, since I had said almost those exact same words about Azrael before. She had even called Mastema, Tema. The Devil had a nickname.

“You’re the one that gave my Mother that stone aren’t you?”

“No. Mastema did. He had a good heart and wanted to protect my family and the place I’d grown up.”

That threw me for a bit of a loop. My Granddad had told me my Mother had made a deal with Mastema to get the stone. I guess she had done that to protect
Tema’s
reputation. The webs we weave. At least I had some answers. Now I needed a few more.

“Does Mastema still have a soul?”

“He does, but he’s on his way to destroying it. If he kills you then it will be completely destroyed.”

“Why only if he kills me?”

“Your soul is what makes you who you are. Some souls are dark and some are very light. Demon’s are darker. With every crime a soul commits it deteriorates. Mastema started out dark, but once he lost me – it’s almost gone now.”

I could see the guilt written all over her. I was familiar with that emotion. I knew what guilt could do.

“You know it’s not your fault, right?”

“Just like what Azrael did when you broke it off with him wasn’t yours?”

Touché. I still felt guilt over the decisions I had made back then. It seemed like so long ago. It had only been almost a year, but experience and my blood had forced maturity and responsibility on me. I had to embrace it or chaos would’ve reigned.

“Can you petition to have another Angel take over as my Guardian?”

“Of course, I can ask for anything, but it doesn’t mean I’ll get it.”

“Petition.”

I knew from the look on her face that Serafine being my Guardian wasn’t a good place for her. She needed out from under the Angels.

“I can’t. I promised Vida.”

“Trust me, she’d understand.”

I could tell she was going to try and argue with me, but I could also tell it was simply for the fact that she had promised my Mother.

“Serafine. She’d understand.” I said it softly this time. Serafine studied my face as a single tear fell. She quickly wiped it away.

“Let’s pretend you didn’t just see that.”

“As long as you promise to petition.”

Luckily, Serafine didn’t have to be a Demon, an Angel or a Witch. She could be all of them or none of them because of her mixed blood. Her blood had burdened and freed her.

“I’ll petition.”

“By the way, who took over Nolito’s position?”

“Traugott.”

Now I had a name and may be able to help Serafine get out from under the Angels. I nodded my head. A moment later Michael came out from the back of the bar, Serafine saw him and got up from the bar like she couldn’t get away from it fast enough.

He stopped walking like he’d just hit a brick wall.

“Serafine? Where have you been!?” He ran around the bar, but she put her hand up. She bent low and her wings expanded out of – well, I didn’t know where. But there they were in all their shiny red glory.

“You’re an
Angel
?” Donovan sounded disgusted. I wondered where he thought she’d been.

“I made a promise to Vida to watch over her child, the Prophecy, Delaney.” She said. Serafine looked from me to Michael Donovan and then floored me, “Delaney, I believe you’ve met my brother Michael.”

“The road is long, and dusty and alone. I’ve got no place to rest, No place to call my own.”

-
The Gospel Whiskey Runners
, The Wound

“Someone else could’ve watched her. You’ve been with the
Angels
? This entire time I thought you were dead!” Michael spat the word Angels out again like it was putrid refuse.

“That is the way it had to look. Mastema couldn’t know I was still alive. To him, it felt like I was dead anyway so it wasn’t that far of a stretch. And according to the last time our Angel lineage came up, you told me I may as well be dead than throw my support behind the
Angels
. What did you expect Michael?”

Serafine sounded defeated, and Michael looked livid. His face was red, and unless my eyes were playing tricks on me, his hair looked like a lion’s mane and his face was elongating. I wondered how Michael was a shifter and a Witch and Serafine was an Angel, a Demon and a Witch.

“I’m a bit confused.” My comment snapped both their heads in my direction. “How are you,” I pointed at Serafine, “an Angel, a Demon and a Witch? And you,” I pointed to Michael, “a lion Shifter and, at least, a Witch?”

“Michael learned how to be a Witch from me. He doesn’t have the blood but he does have some tricks. He is lion Shifter and an Angel by blood. We share our Father, an Angel – well, he’s fallen now – but yes. My mother is a Demon and a Witch and his mother is a lion Shifter. Our family tree is really screwed up.” Serafine said, as though she was just realizing what her family tree looked like.

“Can’t be worse than mine,” I commented to deaf ears.

“I thought I’d never see you again.” Michael said, his eyes blazing.

“Nor I you.” Serafine looked like she wanted to hug him, but didn’t know if it would be welcomed or not.

She was wringing her hands together. She took a step toward him, and he ate the ground with a few steps, wrapping Serafine in a warm embrace.

“I still work for the Angels, but Laney wants me to get out.”

Michael put his sister down but didn’t let her go. He looked over his shoulder at me.

“What do you have against the Angels?”

“Nothing. I mean, one tried to kill me, but he’s in Hell now. Other than that, nothing. I just want Serafine to be happy.”

What I didn’t say was that I wanted her to be back where she belonged with Mastema. It was the one thing I hadn’t told anyone. I was working a plan, that if it worked – Tema would be a worthy ruler of Hell.

I had left Serafine and Michael to catch up. Before I’d left the tavern Serafine made me “swear to stay in Fergus’s house and out of trouble”. I had promised I would and left.

As I walked back to my Granddad’s house, I let the cool breeze settle over me and enjoyed the feeling of peace. I hadn’t felt any sort of peace in so long I didn’t think I’d recognize it if I saw it; but I did, and it was soothing.

I had answers in front of me where before there had been none. While parts of my life were still up in the air, I had found information that had been absent from my life. The story Serafine had told me about my Mother had given me a piece of Vida, the woman, and I would never be able to thank Serafine enough for that.

I came upon my Granddad’s house and smiled. No matter what happened now, I knew that coming here had been the right decision. I had gotten answers and more about where I’d come from, and money couldn’t buy those things.

My Granddad was sitting on the porch out front smoking a pipe. I loved the smell of pipe smoke but hated that he was smoking it. I didn’t want anything bad to happen to him.

“Have a nice walk, Lass?”

“Visited with some friends.”

“Aye?”

“Aye.” I laughed. While my Granddad made Irish linguistics sound sweet with his accent, I just sounded ridiculous. He blew out his pipe smoke and knocked out the remaining contents of the pipe into the grass.

“Azrael has been looking for ‘ya.”

I went into the conference room and found Az pacing next to the table. He had some of our translations in his hand and he looked agitated.

“You lookin’ for me?”

“Those translations we were doing? We thought it was a way to maintain the dead?” Az turned it around and put it in my face.

When we’d first started the translations for Mastema, we had figured out that the main idea of what we had been translating was a way to maintain the dead, we thought to control his hordes.

I couldn’t read the page he had handed me, there were marks all over it. I took it from him and looked it over.

“It’s a way to bring back the dead.” Az explained.

Mastema was trying to bring back Serafine. Kai was right, I was surprised by the strength of love.

“Don’t worry about this. I already have a fix so he won’t want this.”

“You’re just going to shrug it off? No big deal, nothing to worry about – are you crazy?”

“No. I am solving problems. I am in the midst of solving this one.”

“Why aren’t you asking opinions anymore? You used to ask for my help all the time and now you just go off and do whatever you think is the right answer.”

I wanted to scream that I needed him now more than ever and life sucked without him in the know. But I couldn’t. I knew that the spell I had cast was doing some good in holding off Mastema and the other part was the rock that hid the village we were in. I couldn’t risk losing that protection now.

“Am I your leader, Azrael?”

“Yes.”

“Then don’t question me again.”

I turned-face to leave, then thought I might as well talk to him honestly – well, as honest as our conversation could get without breaking the spell. We needed privacy first though. I looked around the conference room that my Granddad had created. It was beautiful, but I needed privacy. I put my hand up and open and closed it, asking for whatever power I had to keep the room sealed until I asked it to be opened. The same thing that I’d seen my Granddad and Donovan do at the tavern happened in the conference room. I then turned to Az.

“Don’t think for one minute that I don’t want to confide in you. I’m just scared.”

Truth.

“What are you scared of?”

“You.”

Lie. I was scared about what might come out of my mouth if I got too comfortable with him.

“There is no reason you should be scared of me. I may have been a Demon, but I’m not now. I work with Traugott.” I had forgotten Az had an in with the Guardians. Az had told me that the Angel that had taken over on earth for the Guardian Angels was Traugott. Az was working with the Angel that I needed to speak with about Serafine.

“Can you get me a meeting with Traugott?”

“Of course.”

“See? I still need you.”

Truth.

“When do you need the meeting?”

“As soon as I can get it.”

Az reached down to the now unmoving Angel wings that were on his arm and flexed his forearm. Lust filled me. Since I’d been lacking his touch, I wanted his arms around me with a vengeance. The fact that his forearm could make my mind fall into the gutter – that kind of said it all.

I heard a familiar pop behind me and turned to find a teenager standing there. I thought it must’ve been a mistake. The boy standing before me was about my height and had a cherubic, young face. I knew looks could be deceiving but this couldn’t be Traugott. However, I changed my mind when Az stepped in front of me and shook his hand. Looks could be deceiving.

“Traugott, good to see you again.”

“Azrael, why did you summon me?”

“Delaney, this is Traugott. Traugott, this is Delaney Hinders.” I could tell by the slight raise to his eyebrows that he had heard of me. Crap.

“Nice to meet you.” I said.

“What can I do for you Ms. Hinders?”

“Laney, please.” I moved over to the conference table and invited Traugott to do the same with a gesture of my hand. We all sat. “I wanted to voice a suggestion to you.”

“You could always do that with your Guardian.”

“It’s about her. I needed someone in management.”

“Alright.”

I guessed he was a man of few words.

“I don’t want Serafine as my Guardian anymore.”

“Is there a reason?”

“I think you’ll find this out soon enough, but she is going to petition to leave the ranks.”

I was testing the waters to see what the Angels’ decision might be.

“I’ll take it under advisement.” Great. He was a stone wall. I had no idea what he was thinking.

“Take this under advisement as well,” I leaned forward, “I have dealt with a lot of
crap
from the Guardian Angels recently,” I said referring to Nolito, hoping that he’d understand my reference, “and I think it’d be a good repayment to make my suggestion a reality.”

Traugott got up from the table, and came over to my side of the table, standing close enough to touch me.

“I will if you do something for me.” I was so over deals doled out by Angels.

“Maybe. I won’t agree blindly, I’m not naïve enough to agree to anything without some thought these days.”

“I don’t want you to take a place with the Angels.”

He didn’t want me to be a leader amongst the Angels. Luckily, I hadn’t even considered putting myself in the running for that. I didn’t want that kind of responsibility and I didn’t want to answer to that high of a higher up. But he’d caught me off guard. Of course, who I chose to lead was so far from my mind I couldn’t even see it on the horizon. But now I was curious.

“Why?”

“You would take my place.”

I studied Traugott’s face. Looking for any of the things I had seen countless numbers of times on Nolito’s face. I saw nothing but openness. It was refreshing.

I didn’t really want a spot with the Angels, what I wanted was for Serafine to be able to get away from the Angels instead of feeling like she couldn’t leave. She had given up so many years of her life for me, it was the least I could do for her.

“Done. I won’t choose to lead among the Angels.”

“Then yours is done as well.”

Three things had happened. One, I had sealed Serafine’s release from the Guardian’s, as long as she petitioned as she said she would; two, I had taken away the choice of becoming an Angel, narrowing my choices; and three, I felt good about my relationship with Traugott.

Turns out the road that lead to my roots was the one I should’ve taken in the first place. I just hadn’t realized it before.