Page 17 of Transfiguration
“We have several child psychologists on staff. We’ll arrange a sit down and try to sort it out,” Hart said. “Are you okay with that, Bella?”
“Are they going to tell me I’m bad?”
“You’re not bad, Bella,” Con assured her. “Different isn’t bad. Look at me. I’m different, right?”
She gazed back at him, studying his many piercing and visible tattoos, the messy array of his hair and likely his tired face, but she smiled, not put off like everyone else was. Con had spent his life creating a visible shield to keep people away. His exterior made folks wary, and that was fine. Fewer people in his life meant he lost less, and as long as his guys loved him, that was all that mattered.
“Will you come with me to the meetings?” Bella asked.
He swallowed hard and said, “Sure.” He didn’t know if it was possible or even a good idea. But he didn’t want her to be afraid. Her gaze strayed to the shelf behind the desk and a strange-looking urn on it. Did Hart keep dead people in his office now? Or did she see someone?
Hart didn’t miss it either; he turned his head to glance in that direction. “What do you see?”
She bit her lip and reached for Con’s hand. “It’s okay,” Con said.
“He’s loud, but broken, like a movie that’s not streaming right,” she said.
“Fuck,” Sam cursed, and Con winced at him swearing around Bella. “Is it Matthew? Is that asshole’s ghost here? Does that mean souls and ghosts are separate? Linked?”
“What is he saying?” Hart asked.
“Bad words mostly,” Bella glanced at Sam. She stared at the spot, tilting her head a little as though listening. “Something about Say-ron? His. Focus.” She frowned. “He’s very broken and sounds sort of crazy. Repeating, glitched, but crazy.”
That sounded like Matthew, all right. Was he still obsessed with Seiran?
“He briefly had a Focus bond with Seiran.” Sam said. “I don’t think they completed it. Could he still be able to control Seiran? Like if the demon using Matthew’s body got close? How are those bonds tied? Soulbound? Body? Can the demon use Seiran without Matthew’s soul? Or does it need that too?”
That Matthew Pierson might have the ability to control the most powerful being on the planet was the worst news Con had heard in a long time. He frowned at his men, Sam meeting his gaze with horror on his face, and Luca much the same, as the idea sank in for them all.
EIGHT
“All excellent questions we have to find answers for.” Hart stood and returned to the other side of the desk, shuffling papers. “That brings me to a shift in assignments for you, Mr. Opal.”
Con frowned, always feeling like he was in trouble when someone called him by his last name. “Okay. What about the book?”
“For now, I want you to focus on retrieving Mr. Pierson’s body.”
Sam and Luca gasped.
“Fuck no,” Sam said.
“You want him to find the demon?” Luca demanded.
“The body,” Hart corrected. “We don’t know if there is a demon. It could be parts of a revenant, or even some vessel for a witch to gain immortality.” His gaze fell to Page. “Page only recalls seeing it once. But the spells, or pieces of the spells that he recalls, worry me.”
Page looked away. Had he been involved in all this?
“Why would a witch need immortality? Don’t they live like a couple hundred years anyway?” Luca asked.
“Not all witches are so blessed,” Hart said, his focus landing on Con. Con flinched.
“No one is really immortal,” Sam said. “Vampires can die too. Tresler is dead, so is Galloway. I made sure of it.” His eyes narrowed as he stared at the urn. “I will make sure Matthew is forever dead, too. Let me find him.”
“It’s not your strength,” Hart said, sitting down. “You may act as Constantine’s enforcer, but his tracking skills are better than yours. And he is the only one of my retrievers who can get in and out of any place without leaving a trace. There are signs all of this might be linked to a mortal cult. Humans, witch, it’s unknown. Better to keep our secrets and send in the man who excels at being invisible.”
“A cult?” Sam asked. “Like Human’s First?”
“Possibly,” Hart agreed.