Howler's Night (32 page)

“They took everything.”

And no longer was it her and I and her family. Now it was just Pandora and me. Forgetting about everyone else but her, I turned her toward me.

“I know they did.”

“No!” She shoved me back, and the tears were streaming now. I didn’t fight her rage; I gazed at her calmly, accepting her emotions, knowing they weren’t for me.

“No, you don’t know. This was supposed to save me.”

“What are you talking about?” Luc retorted.

She pointed a finger at him, her entire body vibrated like a tuning fork as her face contorted with rage, but her eyes were still blue, still Pandora’s.

“You can just go to hell,” she snarled and then slammed her palm into the bars, rattling them so powerfully that the walls cracked. “Now I’ll never get better. It’ll never go away.”

“Dora, baby.” Bubba stepped forward, holding up his hands in a gesture of passivity. “We won’t stop looking. I vow it, girl.”

Wiping at her nose, she shook her head. “It won’t work like that. They left us nothing. Nothing to trace. Nothing to follow. There isn’t a damn thing in here that’s gonna help now. They took the machine, the only thing that could have sucked these demons out of me. It’s all fucking gone!” She kicked the bars, and this time the wall didn’t just crack, it groaned.

The halls echoed with the sounds of clapping hands. “Brava, Pandora. Brava.”

As one unit, the demons around me hissed, crouching into fighter’s stances as a thinly built, middle-aged man with glasses seemed to materialize as if from shadow behind her.

I was two steps from Pandora’s side. Just two steps. I should never have allowed that type of distance between us, should never have let up my guard for even an instant, because in the millisecond it took me to realize that, enormous bars dropped from the ceiling on either side of us.

They penned the demons and I in while keeping Pandora out, alone with the strange man.

“Pandora!” I screamed, rushing the bars, and then hissing the moment I touched them and dropping to my knees as the sensation of fire ripped up my arms. I should have seen the blood coating them, should have paid attention.

“Angel’s blood!” Luc and Bubba both cried as they too jumped back, clutching their hands to their chest.

Suddenly we were all huddling into the center, and Pandora was shaking her head, moaning long and low beneath her breath.

“Not you. Not you. You said I’d never see you again.”

“False memories.” He grinned as if letting her in on a secret. “Almost all of it. Aren’t I clever. Never saw this coming did you, nephilim?”

“Pandora!” I wheezed through the unbearable agony that still burned through me. I didn’t know who the man was, but she did, and I could see the terror building in her gaze.

All around me it was chaos as the nephilim imprisoned with me tried whatever they could to get out. Breathing through the agony of my scorched flesh, I shoved to my feet and gritted out, “I’m coming.”

The little man laughed. “Actually, you’re not. None of you are.”

I couldn’t sense a pulse of monster from him. In fact, when I scanned his body, he was nothing but a giant blank. Which meant he was more than a mere demon, or very, very human.

Which would be impossible, because a human couldn’t get the drop on us the way he had.

Pandora was shaking her head, taking miniscule steps back. Soon she’d brush against the cage.

“Pandora, stop! Don’t!” I cried, and then shoved her away through the bars just as she was about to fall back on them. The moment my arms brushed the painted steel I grunted, clenching my hands into fists and willing my mind to breathe through the agony.

She stumbled to her knees before him, and he glanced down at her with heavy lidded eyes and a softly smiling face.

“Miss me much?” He grabbed her chin, and I was going to kill him. I would end him, gut him, rip his heart out and feed it to the wolves.

“You leave her alone!” I roared, desperate to get to her.

Pandora wasn’t moving. She was only shaking, and moaning.

“Fight, Pandora! Fight him.”

Finally the bastard looked at me. “But she won’t. She can’t. See, she’s done exactly what I instructed her to do.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Luc grunted, and just like me he was on his knees, his hands bloodied, his breathing hard. “I saw you in her memories. Saw what you did, you fucking, no good—”

He rolled his eyes. “Ah, Luc. And to think we almost choose you.” He snorted. “My lovely Pandora.”

He patted her head, and through her whimper I could hear how much she didn’t want him to touch her. It killed me to see her so powerless; it was like watching her being raped right in front of me.

I spat. “You’ll fucking die, you prick.”

His smile was wide. “And she brought me a priest. One she swore she didn’t know. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.” He wagged a finger under her nose. “You all will do very, very well.”

“What are you talking about?” Pandora asked, but her words were nothing but a choked sound, as if speaking just that much was an effort of extreme will.

He placed a finger next to his jaw, tapping it thoughtfully. “I find myself in a most curious dilemma. Normally I wouldn’t talk to those about to meet their end. It creates attachments and all sorts of other issues when it comes time to kill. You know.” He shrugged, and the perversity of him, the way he continued to touch her, it made me see red.

Made me hate him with extreme prejudice.

I clenched my jaw, and a whimper of sound rang out from behind me. It could have been Keltse, or Vyxyn. I didn’t know, and I didn’t care.

“But this time, well”—he sucked in a breath—“this time I might just make an exception for you.” He smiled down at her. “Because you have been everything we dreamed you would be. So one time, Pandora, one time I will break my own rules. Ask whatever you want.”

“Who are you?” I spat.

His full bottom lip twitched. “What you actually mean to ask is
what
am I, right?” Smug arrogance glinted in the steel blue eyes. “Human. Completely. One hundred percent Homo sapien.”

Shaking my head, I said, “Impossible. I would have sensed you.”

“Actually, you wouldn’t have.”

My blood ran cold as I recognized that thick country twang. Dean stepped out from behind shadow, leaning a hip against the wall and giving me a hard, malevolent grin. “Guess I jumped sides again, Priest.”

“You traitor!”

His left brow twitched, as if this were funny, as if he hadn’t just dropped a bomb on me. “Y’all just do your thing. I’m only here for the bread.”

And then, closing his eyes, he smirked and looked for all the world as if Pandora’s life wasn’t collapsing down around our feet. Death had jumped ship, and my heart sank to my knees.

But Pandora seemed not to care about that revelation; her eyes were only for the man. “It’s you, isn’t it? The one Grace told me about. You’re the inside the Order.”

Pride glinted in his dark eyes when he looked at her. It made me sick, made me feel violent.

“Why?” she asked. “Why’d you betray them?”

He snorted. “Power. Why else? The chance at discovery. Do you know how long I’ve worked to create you, Pandora? You fought us like hell too. It’s probably why I’m just so damned proud right now.”

“You shouldn’t be.” I was relieved to finally hear the fire come back to her voice. She was still kneeling, but her body was bristling; she was regaining her power. “I don’t work for you.”

He frowned. “Are you sure about that?”

First one knee came up, then her hands shoved her off the ground, and I could sense the rolling shift of power.

Pandora was finally awake, unlocked from the stupor she’d been in only moments ago.

“I’m going to kill you.” She said it softly, but it was the way she said it, with that empty, hollow sound, that turned my blood cold.

The man’s laughter was chilling, echoing down the darkened, empty halls.

“Oh but, my dear, you can’t.” And reaching into his slacks he pulled out a glass slide, like the type you’d use to look at a specimen under a microscope.

My eyes widened at the same moment she hissed.

There were murmurs behind me, and as one, we all recognized what he held in his hands.

It was her mark. The strip of flesh that’d been torn from her during the zombie raid last year.

His smile grew wide as he rocked the slide back and forth between thumb and forefinger.

“I own you, Pandora.” Lifting his brows, he slipped the slide back into his pocket and nodded.

That mark meant everything to a neph; it not only marked them as a people, it was almost an extension of their soul.

My stomach bottomed out.

“You leave them alone.” She pointed toward us.

The wounds in my arms were already healing, and I had to figure out a way out of here. Dean gave me a side-long glance. The bastard knew exactly what I was thinking.

His lips twitched before he once again settled back against the wall.

“‘Leave them alone,’” the little man scoffed. “Why do you even think they’re here? Because of you. Because of the good little solider you are. Had a dream lately? Figured out where to find us?” He waved his fingers through the air. “Went west instead of east?” He nodded. “Oh yeah, we know everything. Planned it all down to the slightest little detail.”

Everything inside of me stilled. Went instantly quiet. You could have heard a pin drop as we all held our collective breaths, listening in muted horror. Dean hadn’t just switched sides, he’d been working for the enemy the entire time.

Stomach frothing with fury, I screamed at him. “You bastard!”

Death only snickered.

“No.” She shook her head. “I got better. Asher cured me.”

He shrugged. “Did better than we’d expected him to, yes. But still, everything went according to plan, so we couldn’t be too upset.”

“I’m not working for you.” Her voice trembled.

“Of course you are.” He laughed like it was the dumbest thing he’d ever heard. “Pandora, you’ve been led this entire time. Why do you think we went through all the effort of brainwashing you only to let you go? Did you really think it would be that easy? We built a machine—you belong to us. It’s why we released you. You had to learn to control your gifts. There was only one place to learn it. With your family. Who you trusted.”

“No.” She choked the word out and took a huge step back. “I would never do that. I would never betray them.”

“But you did.” He turned his eyes toward us.

I was numb, could hardly think or move. There was just too much to take in, to accept. How could I have missed this?

“Big mistake, Asher. Huge.” Dean chuckled, once again reading my thoughts.

“I’m going to end you, first chance I get.” My voice was a low, seething whisper.

With a snort, he rolled his eyes.

“Why do you think they’re here?” The small man said to Pandora. “For you. This is your final initiation. Now you are strong, powerful, a weapon. You can unlock the Gates of Hell. You only need to feed. One of each sin, there for the taking. And a priest for dessert. It’s all come together. Now”—the lilting ring to his voice grew deep and menacing—“do it.”

With a scream, she slapped her palm onto the bar and wrapped her fingers down tight, knuckles going white as the scent of burnt flesh scorched my nostrils. She was shaking her head.

“No. No. No,” she said, over and over.

Getting to my feet, I covered her fingers with my own. “Pandora, you don’t have to do this. You are you. Remember who you are.”

“Do. It!” The man’s mouth contorted into a frightening mask.

She twirled around, as if controlled by an inhuman force. Now it was the front of her pressing up against the bars.

“Let go of the cage, Pandora!” I roared, attempting to shove her back off them even as the flames licked at her flesh.

Luc and Bubba stood beside me, shoving and kicking her away, but her strength was absolute. Bloody tears ran down her face as her body spasmed from the pain of her wounds and the words of the man.

“Now! Take them now!”

“No!”  With a scream ripped from the bowels of her soul, she shoved away from the cage, landing in a heap on the floor.

I ignored the aches of my wounds, my focus only for her. Steam curled up from her body as blood seeped from her pores.

The man knelt beside her and shook his head. “Oh, Pandora, you should not have done that. I’d hoped to do this the nice way. But now that you’ve given me no other choice—”

“I will never hurt my family,” she said, as the bloody tears continued to drip.

He nodded almost sadly, as though he were terribly disappointed. And the pride that’d shined in his gaze when he’d seen her earlier was now gone as he said, “Red. Rain.”

Her spine stiffened and her head snapped up. Her footsteps were slow and ponderous as she slowly made her way to her feet, slowly turned toward us.

And the eyes staring back at me weren’t blue, or lavender. They were black as tar.

There could be no doubt that who stared back at me wasn’t Pandora, but Ya-el.

I saw her claws come out, saw her skin shift to gray. She would come for me first, and I didn’t have the strength to fight it.

Not anymore.

And just before her claws ripped through me, a hand shoved me to the ground. And when I looked up, her claws had reached through the cage and slammed into Luc.

He gasped, seizing up as she lifted him high into the air, disemboweling him. Jerking, he slapped feebly at her hands, but she raised him even higher.

I jumped to my feet and grabbed Luc, yanking him off her.

Bubba and Kane helped as well.

It took all of us to finally unhook him. The momentum ripped them apart, causing her to drop once more to her knees.

And for just a split second I saw a vein of blue thread through the black of her eyes, saw her face crumple up into one of horror. And with a screech, she ran for the man, hooked her arm around his middle and, clinging tight to him, she twirled.

The man was screaming, but she didn’t seem to notice.

Our gazes touched, and I shuddered as I saw Pandora’s light dim.

She said one word, a word only I could have understood. “Truth.”