Locked in Silence: Grimm's Circle, Book 5 (2 page)

“What do you
want
?” she demanded.

“Meet me…or not. Like I said, I have a deal for you, Vanya. One that will make you faster, stronger…and you’ll be able to kill all the monsters you wish.. And they’ll never be able to take you over. That nightmare, the one that haunts you? You’ll be free from it. Forever. I promise you.”

He turned around and strode away. She stared at him, dimly thinking she hadn’t told him her favorite restaurant.

Free…

She shook her head, trying to make herself listen to common sense, and not that desperate, desperate hope.
He’s just a quack,
she told herself. One who hadn’t even
asked
her what her favorite place was, so how could he meet her?

“I’ll be there, Vanya. I promise. The question is…will
you
be?” he called out over his shoulder.

A quack—a freaking
weird
one.

One who…holy shit.

He’d fucking disappeared.

Right in front of her.

“So…did I pass the test?”

Vanya swallowed as he slid into the booth across from her. Yeah.

He’d passed her very strange test, but she wasn’t about to tell him that. In the past one-hundred-and-eighteen minutes, she’d showered, changed her clothes and hit two different restaurants—the first one had been her favorite.

This one had been her sister’s favorite.

What she wanted to know was how he knew that, how he knew to be here.

He’s following me, that’s all
, she thought.

“I’m not following you. You were at the roadhouse for a while and left, though I know it was your favorite.” He smiled and leaned back. “You were last here with your sister. On her birthday, three weeks before she died. You bought her dinner, spent your entire paycheck on it. It meant a lot to her.”

Tears sprang to her eyes.

“How do you know that?”

He glanced around, a casual glance, one that probably nobody else would have noticed.

She
wouldn’t have thought anything of it, if she hadn’t felt a prickle across her skin.

Goose bumps rushed over her skin. She’d felt something…similar. The same, but not, when she was the presence of those things.

Terror rushed through her, and suddenly, she was very, very glad she’d strapped a knife on before she’d left the little, hellacious hotel room where she was currently staying.

“You won’t need the knife, Vanya. I’m not going to hurt you,” he said quietly. “And I’m not one of the demons.”

She licked her lips. “Duh…demons?” Yes, she
knew
they were demons. It was the only thing that made sense, but nobody else seemed to believe her. She’d even tried talking to a priest at a Catholic church, and although he hadn’t said it out loud, he’d been convinced she was either on drugs or mentally unbalanced—she’d seen that in his mind. “Demons. You believe in demons, old man?”

Old man—
he didn’t
look
old. Despite the silvery hair, despite the look in his eyes.

He stared at her, a strange smile on his face. “Don’t you? The kind you killed earlier were incubae—male demons who thrive off sexual energy. Their female counterparts are succubae. They seem very drawn to you, and you’ve got a knack for sensing them out. I think it’s because of your sister. There’s a strange bond there.”

Demons. Incubae—he’d called them a name. And he was talking about them just as causal as can be, right here in the middle of O’Charley’s where anybody could hear them.

He grinned. “Nobody can hear us. That’s what you felt a moment ago…I was muffling everything. They’ll hear the hum of our voices but no actual words. A handy little gift I have.”

She blinked. “You’re crazy.”

“No. Would you like me to prove it? We can be as loud as we want, talk about whatever strange things we wish and nobody will notice.”

“Ah…”

“Go ahead, try it out.”

The waitress appeared then, smiling at them, that professional, polite smile fixed firmly in place. “What can I get you two?”

“Ah…a Coke,” Vanya said, intentionally talking a little louder than necessary…and watching as the waitress’s smile wobbled a little. “And the appetizer platter. Make the wings extra spicy.” He was buying, crazy or not, she was getting as much food as she could.

“Just ice water for me,” the man said, keeping his voice level.

As the waitress walked away, Vanya looked back at her very strange companion and said, “Well, there’s the proof I needed. She heard us just fine. And she thinks I’m either a moron or deaf.”

“Because we spoke
to
her. Try screaming at me. Nobody will hear.” He waited, a brow cocked, a challenging grin on his face.

She hunched her shoulders, glancing around. Shit, she was in the middle of O’Charley’s with a lunatic.

He started singing.

Loudly. He had a great voice, she noticed—she didn’t know jack about singing voices, but he sounded like he belonged on a stage somewhere, and that deep, mellow voice carried. Although she wasn’t
quite
sure that “Henry the Eighth I Am” was going to win him any record deals.

Blushing hotly, she shot a look around. “Would you…”

But nobody was looking.

Not a soul.

He stopped singing. “They can’t hear me, Vanya.”

“Ahh…” She licked her lips. Feeling very much like an idiot, she screamed. It was a weak, chirping little sound, but definitely loud enough that somebody, like the people behind them should have heard. Nobody so much as peeked at her. “Okay. This is weird.”

Shifting her gaze to him, she asked, “What in the hell are you?”

He smiled. “I’m a guardian angel.”

Vanya laughed.

He sat there like he’d expected just that response, his silver eyes vacant, that polite smile remaining firmly in place. Something about the way he sat there, so unaffected, killed her amusement very, very fast.

“You really want me to believe that.”

“It’s the truth,” he said, lifting a shoulder in a lazy shrug.

“A guardian angel.”

“Yes.”

“Bullshit.”

He leaned forward and now the look in his eyes wasn’t vacant and he was no longer smiling. He wasn’t angry, she didn’t think, but the look on his face was…intense.

“You believe in demons, Vanya. And don’t bother answering that—I already know the answer. I sense it, I feel it. You’re psychic and your shields are excellent, especially considering how young you are and the fact that you’re untrained. How can you believe in demons…but not angels?”

Staring into his eyes, she decided that was a very, very good question.

She licked her lips, uncertain how to answer. Looking away from that intense gaze, she found herself staring at the little girl at the table across from theirs.

A pretty little fairy, she thought absently.

The girl smiled and waved, showing her a gap-toothed grin. Automatically, she dipped her head, hiding the scars on her face, not smiling back.

“You can smile at her, you know…children don’t care about scars the way adults do. Your scars don’t bother her. She just wants a smile. She’s not afraid of you.”

“Like I care,” Vanya muttered. But, despite herself, she found herself trying to smile. “I don’t ever know her.”

The little girl’s smiled widened and she went back to scribbling on the coloring book in front of her, babbling to her mother.

“If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t be so worried about scaring her,” Will said quietly.

Shame and sadness wrenched her heart and she looked back at him.

He stared at her, his eyes locked on hers. Looking at
her
, not the scars.

They were ugly—three raised, ridged marks running down from her temple, down along her cheek—scars her sister had given her. Right before Vanya had killed her.

In the days following, an infection had settled in, almost killing her. Vanya had been living on the street and it wasn’t until she’d collapsed that she’d gotten medical attention. Of course, she’d also almost ended up in foster care, would have, if she hadn’t read the nurse’s mind and run away only an hour or so before she would have been put into the care of the state.

“I don’t like having people read my mind,” she said, bolstering her shields as she studied his face.

“I’m not reading your mind. I just…know you. I’ve been watching you for a while. Keeping an eye on you, making sure you weren’t in over your head.”

She curled her lip at him. “I can take care of myself.”

“Of that, I have no doubt. Which is why I’m here. About that deal…”

Now…

He’d laid out the deal that night.

She’d accepted, still half-thinking he was out of his mind.

Even though, somewhere inside, she knew he wasn’t.

Will was about as sane as they came.

And tonight, she realized, it was time for her to make good on that deal he’d offered.

She hadn’t thought she’d be so afraid.

Her hands were sweating.

The death she tasted in the air—it was hers.

And they were close.

Succubae, incubae—more of them. Man, she hated their kind. They so loved this sort of place. Hot and ripe for the picking. Full of the young, the restless and the horny.

After that first initial rush, her heart rate settled down to something resembling normal and she leaned closer to the mirror, under the guise of examining her makeup.

The girls were still jabbering. Still giggling about dresses—somebody else’s now. Feeling sort of disconnected, Vanya realized they had noticed her. Habit, forged in a lifetime where she’d been happier to fade into the background, had her wanting to hunch her shoulders and mumble an apology, disappear. Instinct dictated she stay where she was.

Pride did the same thing.

Pride also had her lifting her chin and meeting the gazes of the girls in the mirror.

That was when they saw the scars.

Eyes widened.

Mouths dropped.

Over the past few years, Vanya had learned
never
to let anybody see a reaction off her, not through a blush, a nervous smile or laughter. One girl—the girl with the transparent dress—met Vanya’s gaze then shifted her stare to the scars.

With a snicker, she jabbed her friend with an elbow and said in a pseudo-whisper, “Geez, hasn’t she ever heard of plastic surgery?”

“Holy shit, Robbi, you didn’t just say that!” One of the girls, her face stricken, looked at Vanya with wide eyes. “Girl, I am so sorry. She’s drunk and she doesn’t always think good when she’s drunk. I’m sorry.”

Turning around, Vanya lifted a brow. “Why? You didn’t say it.” Then she looked at Robbi, studied her face and wondered if this foolish kid would live through the night, if Vanya would have to be the one to kill her.

It bothered her. Life was precious—Vanya had seen too much death

But whether it bothered her or not, Vanya wouldn’t let it stop her. If the girl let one of those things inside her, though, Vanya would kill her. Robbi wasn’t strong enough to fight it, and Vanya would be damned if she let the little bimbo infect anybody.

She wasn’t precognitive, although she did have a knack for knowing when somebody was about to die. No, she was just psychic, but she understood the laws of karma.

Somehow, she had a feeling this chick here had caught the sights of a succubae.

The door opened not even a heartbeat later.

As the punch of sex, slick power and sweet perfume flooded the air, Vanya reached up and absently touched the silver chain. It held the silver cross that had belonged to Irina.

Okay, big sis…I get a feeling this is it.

The succubae slid Vanya a look, and sure enough, she caught a glimpse of something not quite human peering out from behind those mortal eyes. A typical, well-adjusted human would look at her and want to get the hell away.

Vanya wasn’t surprised when several of the girls standing next to Robbi sidled away, putting some distance between themselves and the demon-possessed mortal.

“Score one for me,” Vanya whispered.

Of course, Robbi looked at the succubae with a cocked brow, a cocked hip and a cocky smile.

Vanya sighed and glanced at the others.

“You all might want to leave,” she said. Then she shifted her gaze to Robbi and smirked. “And you should go home and change—the dress doesn’t make you look any sluttier than getting fucked on the hood of some guy’s Smart Car, but, sweetie, that color doesn’t look good on you anyway.”

Robbi went red then white, but Vanya didn’t spare her another five seconds.

Looking past her, she stared at the succubae and debated her choices. If she really, really wanted to minimize human contact, she needed the succubae out of here.

And maybe she could let Robbi live another day or two—who knows, the idiot could always grow a brain cell or two.

With an internal sigh, she made a choice and sauntered toward the succubae.

She knew how to appeal to this kind of demon.

After all, she’d been killing them on the sly for years.

But always one-on-one, which required luring them away from the rest.

And there was more than one demon in this club…Vanya could feel them.

With a silent prayer, she made her choice.

She’d been told a few years ago, when the time was right, she wouldn’t be alone.

Didn’t seem like there would be a better time than now.

Oddly enough, she felt pretty damn alone.

Chapter Two

Then…in years past…

The boy laughed.

Sitting in the sunshine, he’d discovered something amazing.

He could make the sun hide.

It was amazing. It was wonderful. If he wished, the darkness could hide him as well, and when he let the darkness fade, coming back to the sun’s bright light was wonderful.

He wanted to show his mother, his father.

They would be so amazed by what he could do.

So amazed…

With a smile, he went to search for them.

It was not long before his smiles and laughter turned to tears and screams.

It took much longer, though, for the screams to be silenced. It took days, or was it weeks…months? Perhaps years?