Page 41

41. Don’t Get Killed

Mira

“This forest is creepy.”

Tossing her black curls over her shoulder, Gigi huddled against Kerry, who cut his eyes down at her. He didn’t say anything, but he did pull back the power that sparked off him and take one of her hands in his.

“Sorry,” she murmured. “I’m such a baby.”

“Then I am, too.” Travis shrugged. “No one in their right mind would come here and not freak out. This is like the perfect setting for a horror movie.”

“Don’t worry,” Kerry growled. “Nothing here is more dangerous than me.”

That’s God’s truth. He’s about to explode.

“Remember this is an extraction only.” Rome looked at each of us in turn. “You especially, Kerry. This can’t turn into a personal vendetta. We’re not here to clear out a nest of demons. We don’t have the numbers or tools for that. We find our friends and any other victims and we get out.”

“It’s a good thing we rented an SUV.” Travis smiled. “No way we’d all fit in Mira’s car, especially if we find anyone else here.”

“Okay, okay, enough talking!” Kerry growled. “Mira, you ready?”

“Yep.”

“You get my boy out of there, Kerry.” Power darkened Gigi’s eyes and brought out an edge in her voice. “You bring him back to me.”

“I won’t let you down,” he promised her.

“I know you won’t.”

She and Travis said goodbye to the rest of us and climbed into the SUV, where John was already stretched out in the back seat.

“We’ll meet you in the middle.” Rome climbed behind the steering wheel of my car, then rolled down the window and stuck his head out. “Don’t get killed, Mira.”

“You, either, Sir Serious.” A smile blossomed on my lips.

He rolled his eyes and looked over at Kerry.

“Wait for my signal before you go in. And don’t get her killed.” He jerked his head in my direction.

Kerry waved an impatient hand. Rome started the car and drove off the grassy shoulder and back onto the road, and Gigi followed right behind him.

“Sheesh. I didn’t think those mother hens were ever gonna leave.”

With a wicked grin, Kerry lit up with so much power, the hair on my arms pulled in his direction. When my long braids followed, I took a prudent step back. I didn’t know if Divine power worked like lightning, but I wasn’t fool enough to stand there and find out.

“Relax, Boots. I got it under control. For now, at least. But I need you to do something for me.”

“Okay.”

“Find my angel and get her outta here. Do whatever you have to do. You hear me? You get her out no matter what.”

I met his eyes, and there was nothing of Kerry Harker in those blue depths. The tiger that stared back at me would sacrifice us all to save her. Without question or hesitation or doubt, and certainly without regret.

I turned away and scanned the forest as I spoke.

“Rome doesn’t understand your relationship. I mean, he gets why you like her. She’s everything you need, plus he said she’s adorable. But he’s at a loss as to why she likes you.”

“Pity,” he snorted, and a long blue flame shot past me in the predawn darkness. “That’s all. She feels bad for me.”

“Are you stupid ?” I wanted to whack his arm, but knew better. “No one seriously dates someone outta pity. At least not for long.”

“She’s probably afraid to break up with me. Maybe she thinks I’ll get mad and hurt her.”

“Has she seen you mad before?”

“Uh, yeah . Tons of times.”

“Like, really mad?”

“Just before we came on this mission, I almost killed a guy who knocked her down.” The blue storm around him calmed a bit. “If she hadn’t stopped me, I would have.”

“And did she act afraid of you?” I looked at him with narrowed eyes. “When you lost your temper, was she scared?”

“No.” He made an exasperated face. He wasn’t dropping sparks of power anymore, which I took as a sign that he had himself under better control. “She got between me and him and made me let him live.”

“How?” I crossed my arms and cocked an eyebrow. “How did this girl, who Gigi tells me is tiny and quiet and gentle, make you do that?”

“She asked me to.”

I blinked. The tiger had been enraged enough to go for the jugular, and she’d only had to ask him and he’d stopped?

“So she’s definitely not afraid of you. Have you ever lost your temper with her? Like, she was the center of your rage?”

His eyes flared up again, and I scolded myself. He’d been almost calm.

“Yes. Once.”

“And did you hurt her?”

“No. Not physically. At least, Gigi swears I didn’t.”

“What did she do after you finished yelling and blowing up things and calmed down?”

“She tried to talk to me. To apologize. And she reached out her hand to touch my arm. I dodged her because I still wasn’t safe, and I didn’t talk to her because I woulda regretted whatever came outta my mouth.”

“Was this the incident Gigi told me about? The one on the Appalachian Trail right before the ambush?”

“Yes.”

“If she hated you and wanted you outta her life, why would she have tried to talk to you? Tried to make up with you? Kerry, I’ve never met Gemma Shepherd, but I can tell you for a fact that she isn’t dating you out of pity or because she’s too afraid of you to break up with you.”

“Then why?” he demanded. “Why does she want to be with a piece of roached-out demon-taint?”

“She loves you.”

“She doesn’t love me. How could she?”

“Everything you’ve told me says otherwise.”

As he turned his face away, compassion swelled my heart. I knew what he was feeling, what he was thinking.

I, too, had faced the same battle nearly all my life.

People like Rome, who grow up knowing they’re valued, can’t understand how difficult it is to accept that others will find you worthwhile when you consider yourself worthless. Likewise, it’s almost impossible to believe someone can love you when you hate yourself so much.

Unfortunately, there is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to move from the darkness into the light. I couldn’t let his words hang between us, though, without offering some comfort.

“The taint stirred up the monster inside you so much, you can’t remember. When it quiets down again, you will, and you’ll wonder why you doubted her.”

I only hope that happens before the darkness crushes you.

His phone chimed, and he held it out like he wanted me to read it.

“Rome says it’s time.”

His power, which had faded to a candle’s glow around him, burst up like a bonfire.

“ Finally !”

#

Kerry

Me and Mira cleaned out a few little devils we found lurking in the underbrush as we made our way up the drive. It was fun, but where were the rest?

And where was my girl?

We met up with the others in the middle of the park, and Rome said they’d taken out two sentries, but hadn’t come across anything else. The place seemed deserted, but the heavy stench of the Diabolical was all the evidence we needed we were in the right place.

“Worse than cat pee,” Mira said, coughing.

“Or skunk.” Gigi waved one hand in front of her face. “That’s pretty concentrated.”

“Musta been a lot of ’em,” I growled. “And not long ago.”

“Maybe we just missed them.” Travis started to wander around, eyes fixed on the ground. “Maybe there’s tracks. I’m not a guide, but I’ll look.”

I was pissed, and got even more pissed when Rome scented something Divine before I did.

“Hey! Over here.” He pointed to the north. “Kerry, come see if you smell this, too.”

I picked up on it when I joined him. My control slipped a bit as my adrenaline pumped up, even though I knew she wasn’t gonna be wherever this trail led. It was Maddy’s scent, not my angel’s.

I glanced back at Travis. He was with the girls, gawking at the weird buildings as they tramped behind us, and I almost told him to hurry up, but Rome was herding me on and I let it go.

In the end, considering what we found, I was glad I’d kept my big mouth shut.