Page 16

16. Fate Stamped All Over It

Kerry

It was dark by the time we returned to the hotel. Feeling like we should celebrate, we ordered room service and piled up on the beds and furniture as we ate some fancy-schmancy supper. Gemma ordered shrimp and grits, which looked like yuck to me, but she speared one of the shrimps on her fork and held it out to me.

“Want to try?”

I looked at her, looked at my rib eye, then looked back at her with a Really? face, but she smiled and what could I do but eat the stupid thing?

While we filled our bellies, Clem explained our plan to Amanda and Kyo. It was good and made sense, but I wished I could call Hank. He’d been in his fair share of tight situations and could bring fresh eyes to this one.

“What does shift mean?” Gemma nudged my arm with her elbow.

“Shift?” I blinked, trying to figure out what she was talking about.

“Yes. Rihanna said Roman nephilim who couldn’t fight, flee, hide, or shift ended up dead. What’s shift?”

“There are species of shifters, like werewolves, who have an animal spirit inside them,” I told her. “But as far as nephs go, shifting is short for shapeshifting. It’s a side skill.”

“Why don’t I have an awesome side skill like that? Or any side skill?” she demanded, her eyebrows puckering and making her even cuter, and I hid a smile because I didn’t want her to think I was laughing at her.

“It’s a random gift. I don’t have one, either. And they have limits.”

“That’s right,” Clem interrupted. “Remember Rome, Mike Spinelli’s friend I mentioned? He can transform into animals, but only ones that are found on land. And a man I hunted down a while back could mirror anything he imagined so long as it didn’t currently exist on Earth.”

“A doppelganger?” Tara’s eyes flew wide open. “That’s a scary thought! That someone can imitate another person!”

“Not just imitate,” Amanda pointed out. “They become their physical clone, right down to how they smell. Their mind, of course, remains their own, but even a parent wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the two.”

“Incredible!” Gemma rolled her bottom lip out in a little pout. “I’m so jealous of those with side skills!”

“My power focus teacher has a theory about them,” Travis piped up. “She’s researched at least four thousand nephs over the past two hundred years and found those who have an artistic talent never have a side skill, and those who have a side skill never have an artistic talent. Her theory is that you get either a side skill from your Divine blood or an artistic talent from your human blood, but never both.”

Clem agreed with him, and the two of them rambled on, but I tuned them out. I didn’t really care.

“Will you speak with me in private?” I heard Amanda ask, and it took me a second to realize she was talking to me .

I glanced at Gemma, who smiled and nodded, so I shrugged and grabbed my jacket. Tara offered to fetch her coat for Amanda to borrow, and Clem glared at me the whole time we waited.

I didn’t need words to hear what he was saying.

“Nothing will harm her, old man,” I promised.

“You won’t live to regret it otherwise.”

“At least one thing hasn’t changed, William.” Amanda patted his arm. “You remain as overbearing as ever.”

I hustled her out the door before Clem could answer.

“Uh, where do you want to go?” I asked as we rode the elevator down to the lobby.

“Somewhere quiet. This world is noisy.” A tiny frown formed on her face. “And busy. And bright.”

“I guess it is.” I rolled my shoulders. “I don’t know too much about history, but Gemma says they didn’t have cars or electricity in your day.”

“My day was yesterday to me. ’Tis hard to believe. Like waking up disoriented after a long sleep.”

“That I can sorta relate to.” I smiled down at her, then led her to the exit doors. “Earlier, I saw a park about a block away. Let’s go there. Unless it’s too cold for you.”

“I welcome it,” she said as we reached the sidewalk. “I’ve always enjoyed the colder months.”

Then she tried to slip her hand through my arm.

Yelping a little, I took a long stride away.

“Don’t touch me!” I swallowed hard and tried again. “Uh, Gemma says to tell people it’s nothing personal, but I have space issues.”

When she swept her power over me in a glow of white, I knew she was seeing into me like Chessie Catt did, and I hated her for it.

“Don’t look, lady. It’ll only make you sick.”

“Oh, my.”

Her face went bone-white and horror filled her gray eyes.

“Yeah. Like I said.” I sighed. “I’ll take you back. You can talk with Jax or Gemma.”

I turned, but she stopped me by darting in front of me and holding up one hand.

“In my day—” she started.

“Yesterday,” I nodded.

“It was the way of things for a woman to hold a man’s arm as they walked in public. I see now that this formality has been done away with. I apologize for seeming old-fashioned.”

I cut my eyes to her face and saw she looked honest enough. Shrugging, I swung around and started walking again.

“I must spend some time devising appropriate gifts for those who freed me,” she said. “You, especially, must be rewarded. While it was the effort of several, you were the one who faced the greatest risk.”

“You owe me nothing. The others would say the same.”

“Ah, but I am not one to allow a debt to go unpaid.”

“You sound like my mission skills teacher.” I smiled as I thought of Ms. Chapman. “But yeah, I understand about paying debts.”

We reached the park and found a bench near a water fountain that had been drained and wrapped for winter.

“So what did you wanna talk about?” I shoved my hands in my pockets.

“The reason I was petrified.”

My eyebrows shot up.

“You sure you wanna tell me ?”

“I do. After all, you are more fit to be its guardian than I, who merely created it at an archangel’s request.”

“Uh, I don’t know about that. And I’m not so sure I wanna be any sort of guardian.” I scratched my head, feeling outta my league here. “Besides, the archangel who asked you to make it. Won’t he want it?”

“No pure hand may touch it lest its power be undone. What is more, only one who walks in all three worlds can use it.”

“All three worlds? So a tainted neph would be the perfect combination, huh?”

“Precisely. How convenient that one should be among my rescuers.”

Convenient, my butt. This has fate stamped all over it.

“All right. How big is this thing? And where do we have to go to get it? And what does it do?”

Instead of answering any of my questions, she reached into her pocket, then held out her palm to show me a tiny key. It was about the size of a handcuff key, but thicker and with eight teeth instead of the usual one or two.

“Sure doesn’t look like it’s worth the trouble it’s caused,” I said without thinking and earned a stern look.

“Swift judgment often overlooks hidden qualities. Additionally, size is no indicator of power. Take a candle’s flame. An inch or two in length and weightless, yet in the dark, its value is immeasurable, is it not?”

Her way of speaking was frustrating, but I figured, like Gemma, she’d get to the point sooner or later if I let her ramble long enough.

“What does it unlock?”

“Anything.”

“Anything?”

“Anything.” The moonlight glittered in her eyes as she looked up at me. “Anywhere. Anytime.”

“Even on other planes?”

“Yes.”

“Even in warded places?”

“Are you unfamiliar with the concept of ‘any’?” She squinted up at me.

I half-smiled and held out my hand, and she dropped the key into my palm.

“This burden I pass to you, Kerry Harker, with both confidence and relief. However, I caution you to conceal it until such time as its purpose is revealed to you.”

“Keep it secret until I need to use it?” I guessed.

“Yes, and then only in the direst of need, for Diabolical and Divine both can sense its power when employed. The more you use it, the brighter a beacon it will become, and I fear there are those on either side of the war who would seek it for their own purposes.”

“Then I’d better just hold onto it until we find another guardian.”

A real guardian who knows what they’re doing. Seeing as I’m just making this up as I go, I’m half-surprised we’re all still alive.

“You must do as you see fit.” Her expression was smooth as she stood up. “I have discharged my duty with a clear conscience.”

“Why did the archangel ask you to make this? I mean, in the wrong hands, this is the Apocalypse, right? You could open the gates of Dudael and free the rest of the Fallen. You could unlock Sheol and Gehenna and release the greater demons. Why would anyone want this thing to even exist ?”

“My dear boy.” Her grin made dimples in her cheeks. “If a key can open, it can also lock.”

#

Amanda fixed the key so I would be the only one able to sense it, and I added it onto the chain with my grace of refuge. We agreed to put the illusion on someone else, though, so when we got back to the hotel room, she asked for a volunteer to be the decoy.

You can guess who wanted to do it.

“I make the most sense,” Gemma insisted. “The shadow prince knows the miracle worker was female. I stand the best chance of mimicking a miracle well enough to fool most people. Plus, I’ll be with you. A hunter would expect her to be the most heavily guarded, right? And who’s a more powerful guard than you?”

I glanced over at Jax, wanting his opinion.

“It’s only a couple of days at the most.” He shrugged. “And you’ll be with her, like she said.”

“I can do this, Kerry.” She was wearing that face, the one that said she’d already made up her mind and good luck trying to change it

So I agreed - and hoped the bad feeling in my gut was just from that freaking shrimp Gemma made me eat.