Octavian's Undoing (Sons of Judgment) (38 page)

“Why would the Angels agree to that if they want all demons killed?”

“Had the strigoi joined, no one would have survived. It would have been a blood bath. Inanimis and strigoi would be running amuck, turning humans at will and thus ending all mankind. It was safer to accept the terms and live in a tenuous alliance rather than suffer the consequences. They were given a limit to the number of subjects they were permitted to turn, which of course they get around by turning only the most faithful while converting the rest into mindless servants. The Angels, I suppose, hadn’t thought of that, but seeing as the human isn’t harmed… I think they tend to overlook the matter.”

“Whoa, whoa!” Riley put her hands up. “Hold on, back up. What?”

Amused by Riley’s reaction, Kyaerin giggled. “Like the features of a strigoi and their scent, humans are easily addicted to their blood. When given a drop of the Master’s blood, the human because a…” She trailed off, waving her hand in a circular motion as she fished for the right word. “Zombie, I think is what you call them. They become addicted to their Master’s blood and enamored by the Master himself and will willingly do anything that is asked of them.”

“So if a strigoi has its soul still, does that mean they look human?” Riley wondered.

“Yes. The strigoi
,
unlike the inanimis
,
look remarkably human until you get close and notice the flakes of red in their eyes and their fangs. Because they prey on creatures that are attracted to pretty things, strigois are very alluring. They are attractive to humans the way Sirens are attractive to fishermen because of their singing. They will glamour their prey and lure them into their web. An inanimis is the opposite. They are all fangs and yellow eyes and evil to the core.”

“Okay so is Final Judgment the only gateway to Hell? Are there other Gatekeepers? How did you get chosen? Did you apply for the position?”

Kyaerin laughed at Riley’s rapid fire of questions. “There are other four other gates and each gate is guarded by an elemental creature.”

Riley frowned. “A what?”

“Creatures that possess powers over one of the five elements. Selkies, Mermaids and Sirens are creatures of water. We can manipulate it and bend it to do our bidding. We are bound by our elemental water magic. It’s what makes us who we are and the powers we wield. Our control over oceans and seas make us impossibly powerful, especially since seventy percent of earth is covered by water.”

“What about Sirens or Mermaids? Are they keepers of the other gates?”

“Mermaids and Sirens can’t walk on land. They are water-bound. Selkies are the only water creatures that can shed their skin and become fully human, but we can never stray far from the pond. It is where we draw our powers. When we were elected gatekeepers, the Angels chose us to guard the gates of the north.”

“You said there were five elements but only four gates. Who guards the others?”

“You remind me of the boys when they were children; always asking a million questions.” But she smiled endearingly. “The gates are positioned across the four corners of north and south America. Sylphs who live in the west control the air. The Salamanders are keepers of the south and wielders of fire and, lastly, you have gnomes in the east and they control the elements of earth. Together, the four corners dome over everything, creating the Aether in the center. ”

“What about the rest of the world?” Riley wondered. “Shouldn’t there be more gates, or keepers?”

“We don’t have jurisdiction on other countries.”

Riley exhaled, slumping back in her seat. “I should have brought a notepad. No way I’m going to remember all this.”

Kyaerin laughed. “Why don’t we order some food and talk about something else?”

Riley could so get behind that. All this talk about blood and Demons was beginning to make her stomach roil.

They ordered club sandwiches from the moony-eyed boy behind the counter. He threw in free sodas and bags of chips to go with the phone number he slipped Kyaerin on a folded napkin under her sandwich. Kyaerin smiled at him sweetly, but slipped the napkin into the garbage when he wasn’t looking.

“You’re like twice his age,” Riley said as they returned to their table.

Kyaerin laughed. “Sweetie, I’m thousands of times his age. When I was born, humans were just leaving their caves and creating mud huts.”

Riley wasn’t sure she even wanted to count that high. “You look like you’re twenty.”

Kyaerin’s grin was wry. “The curse of immortality.”

“Does it really suck being immortal?”

Kyaerin set her tray down and slipped into her chair. “No, I have my family and the man I love. Immortality is only bearable with them by my side.”

“Will you ever die?”

Kyaerin shrugged. “I suppose so, one day. All things, even the immortal, eventually die. Not naturally of course, but you never know what will happen tomorrow, especially being a gatekeeper and the mother of a clan of Casters. There are always those who wish us dead.”

Riley looked down at her lunch, her stomach too queasy to eat. “I’ll die. I’ll die before Octavian.”

“Immortality isn’t the number of years you’ve accumulated, but what you did in those years.”

She raised her eyes to the other woman’s face. “When I’m sixty, he’s still going to look twenty.”

“And when you are sixty, you will still not have reached a quarter of his actual age.”

She’s totally missing the point,
Riley thought miserably. But then again, could she really expect Kyaerin to understand what it was like when her husband was immortal like her? She decided to drop it. It wasn’t as though there was anything anyone could do about it. The last thing she wanted was for Kyaerin to think she was a whiny child.

“So you promised to tell me where Octavian was born.”

“How was lunch, ladies?” Liam glanced up when Kyaerin strolled into the diner, followed by Riley. He set the oddly shaped bottles he was holding down onto the bar and dusted his hands.

“Fantastic.” Kyaerin said, unwinding the silk scarf from around her slender neck. “New shipment?”

Liam glanced down at the crates at his feet, and sighed. “Early shipment. They weren’t supposed to arrive for another week.”

Kyaerin set her purse and scarf down on a nearby table before joining him behind the bar to survey the mess. “We’ll have to stock some of these in the storage room.”

“That’s what I was thinking, except.” He ruffled a hand through his hair. “A lot of these need cold storage.”

Kyaerin looked up at him. “Kitchen freezer?”

“Not enough room.”

Watching them, Riley unsnapped the buttons on her coat. She peeled off the gloves Octavian had given her on their adventure to their pond, as Riley had come to call it, and stuffed them into the pockets. She was in the process of pulling the jacket off when the kitchen door swung open and Gideon ambled out, lugging a wooden crate.

“You got another one, Dad,” he said, taking it over to the bar and setting it down.

Liam muttered something in a language Riley didn’t understand, but knew enough from the tone to assume it was a curse. “Darling, can you please check the shipping forms and make sure they haven’t made a mistake? I’m going to go see how many more’s left.”

Kyaerin nodded, stepping around him to take his place.

“Is there anything I can do?” Riley asked.

Liam faltered in mid pass and glanced at her. “I’m not sure yet. Why don’t you come into the back with me? The others are already there sorting out whatever has arrived.”

Riley followed him through the kitchen to the open storage room door. The forearm on her right arm began to itch something fierce the moment she stepped over the threshold, but she ignored it as she surveyed the teetering tower of boxes lining straight up to the ceiling. She had a feeling there was a bit more stock than they’d anticipated.

“Insane, isn’t it?” Gideon appeared next to her and slung an arm around her shoulders. He leaned into her side.

“Was this deliberate?” she asked.

“Nope. Someone, somewhere, has made a mistake.”

Riley peeked around all the boxes to the back and the open doorway spilling bright sunlight into the dank room. She could hear the Liam and another male voice arguing.

“How do you guys get shipments if this place is so top secret?” Riley wondered.

“All shipments get sent to a warehouse run and operated by members of the Caster society. It is then packed up and sent off to us.”

“That’s a lot of work.”

He shrugged. “That’s business.”

“Gideon!” Liam poked his head around the boxes. “Find Octavian.”

“I swear he thinks I’m a bloodhound or something,” Gideon muttered, unlatching his arm from around Riley.

Biting back her chuckle, Riley watched as he shuffled out of the room. A moment later, his place was replaced by Magnus.

“Did a shipment truck throw up in our stock room?” he muttered.

“Magnus, come give us a hand!” Liam called, having spotted his son.

Reggie ducked around his father with a box in his arms. He dropped it unceremoniously on top of a growing pile.

“I’m telling you there’s been a mistake.” Liam was shouting.

“And I’m telling you there wasn’t,” the guy snapped back. “Everything is right here in the order form.”

Together, the two squeezed their way through the narrow opening between the boxes towards Riley. She ducked out of the way as they marched past.

“Riley, can you go ask Dad if he wants us to bring the drinks to the front or leave them here?” Reggie said, panting.

Riley spun on her heels and bolted from the room. She found Liam, Kyaerin and the delivery guy, a short, round man with way too much hair coming out of his nostrils, standing at the bar, looking down at the cases.

“Why the hell would I order thirty six cases of Virgin Blood?” Liam was arguing.

“Hey, I don’t judge,” the man replied.

“Where are your order forms?” Kyaerin interjected before Liam could open his mouth. “I’d like to see them.”

“Lady, I can tell you right now, I brought the exact number—”

“Please,” Kyaerin said curtly, leaving no room for argument.

The man threw up his ham-sized hands and trudged back towards the kitchen, muttering something about wasting his time.

“Who is that guy?” Liam exclaimed. “Do you know him?”

Kyaerin shook her head. “He must be new.”

“He’s an idiot.” Liam forced his long fingers back through his hair. “I know I looked over the order forms myself, twice. I made sure—”

Kyaerin touched his arm lightly. “It’s all right, Liam. We’ll fix it.”

“If all else fails,” Riley chimed in. “There’s a little troll of a man that comes in here and that’s all he orders. I bet he’d happily buy several dozen cases.”

“Yung,” Liam and Kyaerin said in unison.

“Trolls love the taste of blood, but more if it’s… pure,” Kyaerin said with a slight tilt in her lips.

Riley recoiled. “It’s real… no, don’t tell me. I will never be able to serve him if I know the truth.” Shaking her head in disgust, she focused on the reason she was there. “Reggie wants to know if you want the rest of the drinks to be brought in here or left in the stock room.”

Liam moaned, scrubbing a hand over his face as though trying to remove a stubborn stain.

Kyaerin patted his arm lightly. “Tell them to put all the drinks to one side. We’ll deal with it later.”

Riley turned on her heels and hurried to let Reggie and the others know.

“We can’t unload the rest!” Gideon’s voice carried like a whip through the stock room. “There isn’t any room.”

“That isn’t my problem,” the delivery guy barked. “I got other orders that need delivering.”