Chapter 12

CHAPTER12

“He doesn’t know much more than the others. Ember kept her cards very close to her chest,” I say as I release my hand from Joash’s forehead and turn to face the others. Ashen, Cole, and Ediye look on with dismay as Cyrus and another guard hold Joash down on a chair.

“Fucking vampire slut,” Joash snarls behind me. I hear him snort a lob of snotty, bloody spit at me before I can move out of the way. It lands across the back of my pretty cream eyelet lace dress. Ashen roars at the guards as the smoke fires from his back like a pyroclastic cloud. His deeper wings, which had disappeared after a full day of sleep, rustle as the soft leather unfurls and spreads beneath the black smoke.

“You motherfucker. Do you know how hard it is to find anything even close to white in this realm?” I ask, twisting to look at the stain. My shoulders sag as I let out a disappointed sigh. “Well, at least you got the wings to come back. I should probably thank you for that.”

“Don’t wanna know,” Ediye says.

Cole barks a laugh. “Lies. You want all the details.”

“Fine,” she admits. “I do.”

I smirk at Ediye before shifting my attention to my furious Reaper. “I did find one little gem, however,” I say.

I saunter up to Ashen, his rage vibrant with burning heat. His fiery gaze stays fixed to mine as I come to a stop before him and reach out my upturned palm. His brow furrows and he moves to unsheathe his dagger, but I shake my head and point to the strip of leather that crosses his chest. He shifts his hand to the hilt of the sword strapped to his back and my smile is matched by his wicked grin as he places the handle of the weapon in my palm.

“Cyrus, hold that out for me, would you?” I ask, nodding to Joash’s wrist. Cyrus pulls the demon’s hand away from his body as Joash struggles in his chair. We nod once to one another before I swing the blade in an arc and bring it down at Joash’s elbow, severing his arm in a clean strike. Blood splatters across the floor in a pulsing spray. Joash bellows in pain and rage as Cyrus holds on to the dismembered arm. “He can be summoned. He has a hidden bond.”

Ediye steps forward and takes the arm by the severed hand. I snicker thinking of all the jokes she could make about hand jobs. She glances at me and smiles, shaking her head. “There is something wrong with you, woman.”

I motion between the writhing, bleeding demon and the sword and the severed arm. “Clearly.”

Ediye turns her attention to the demon’s forearm. She sets it down on a table and places her palm over it as she starts to chant. A flare of red light bursts from the flesh. Ediye lifts her palm away to reveal the glowing script.

“Ana harrani sa alaktasa la tarat. Sisitu arad,” she says. “Road whose course does not turn back. I am your servant.”

I draw the tip of the sword across my palm before passing the weapon back to Ashen and returning to Joash, holding my hand above the severed limb. My blood drips onto Joash’s injured stump as Ashen lets out a disgruntled sigh, his wings fluttering against the stone floor. “Can’t have him bleeding out and taking his arm with him to the Resurrection Chamber,” I say, tossing my comment over my shoulder. Ashen grunts in reply as he wipes the blade down and sheathes it. “Cyrus, have the others take him to the dungeon and put the arm on ice in the morgue, under guard. You stay.”

Cyrus orders the other guards around and Joash is dragged away. I wait until it’s only the five of us left in the room to open the bag I brought with me. Under their curious, watchful gazes, I pull the tourmaline sphere from the main compartment, shifting its cool weight between my palms as it starts to hum.

“There was something else. I didn’t want him to know that I saw. This is what they’re after,” I said, passing the stone to Ashen.

“What is it?” Cole asks.

“I was hoping one of you would know.”

“Is this the key you were talking about? From the cavern?” Ashen asks, passing it to Cyrus. He holds it up to the light and twists it under close inspection, but I already know there’s no irregularity in the polished black surface. The only truly odd thing about it is the purr it emits.

“Yeah. At least, that’s what I think it was. It opened a sort of a doorway on a wall of rings. Any of that sound familiar to anyone?” I ask with dwindling hope. They all shake their heads. “On the other side there was a woman in the distance. I couldn’t really see her, but she spoke to me for just a moment before the door closed. It wasn’t a language I know. It sounded almost like Sumerian, but not quite.”

Ediye takes the stone from Cyrus and tries whispering a revealing spell over the orb, but nothing happens. She frowns and looks up at me as the stars recede within her eyes. “And this is why the Nephilim want you?”

“Seems so. There’s another one too. I saw it in Leander’s mind when we were at Valentina’s estate, something he definitely didn’t want me to see. A similar wall but in gold. It had rings inscribed with the same language but different words. The key in that one is lapis lazuli. I heard a brief moment of conversation about a gateway, but no details about it. All I know for sure is that the Nephilim want the stones, and I think they believe I can get them both.”

“Well, I guess that makes us one step ahead, even though we have no clue what this is or what it does,” Cole says as he takes the sphere from Ediye.

“Is there anyone who would know?” Cyrus asks, his gaze bouncing between me and Ediye.

“I have one idea,” Ediye replies. “Ammon Hassan. The old man has seen pretty much everything in his time as an apothecary. He’s neutral territory, too, so it keeps us from having to ask that snotty angel friend of yours, Ashen.”

Ashen huffs a breath of a laugh. “Agreed. Let’s keep this from the anunnaki until we know more about it. Besides, we need Mr. Hassan’s help anyway.”

“What for?” I ask, my brows drawing together in confusion. I follow Ashen’s graceful strides as he walks to a sideboard, pulling a cloth from a stack next to a pitcher of water. He soaks it before stalking back to clean the lob of bloody spit from my dress.

“We have an issue. You want to improve the conditions for the souls here, correct?”

“Yes, of course. I really want to,” I say, glancing over my shoulder as Ashen swipes methodically at the stain, the fabric growing damp against my skin.

“Well, the best thing we can do is resurrect them.”

“As Reapers?”

“Essentially,” Ashen replies. He dabs at my dress a moment longer before his fingers flow down the back of my bare arm to signal that he’s finished his work. I watch as he takes his place at my side, the smoke of his wings thinning as his anger fades now that the stain is clean. “It doesn’t mean they have to take souls or go back to the Living Realm to deliver justice. But it would give them a place here. It would clear their confusion and nightmares. They would no longer suffer. We just have to ensure we are adequately prepared with accommodations.”

“I don’t get it, what’s the problem exactly?”

“We need a Resurrectionist. Demons will continue resurrecting through the Chamber, but to bring a soul back, you need a stronger conduit. You killed the last one. It was Imogen.”

I blow out a heavy sigh. “Yeah. I see how that could be an issue.”

“This is something Mr. Hassan can do?” Cole asks.

Ashen nods. “Yes. We just have to find an appropriate person to fill the role, but he can facilitate the transformation.”

“I volunteer. I’ll be the Resurrectionist, if you want,” Cole says. His boyish features suddenly look a little older with the weight of his words.

I don’t know much about this place, but I doubt the responsibility of that role would be a light one. When I shift my gaze to Ediye, I get the feeling she’s thinking the same thing. A brief flare of worry flashes in her eyes, but she shutters it away beneath the pride that also warms her expression.

A heaviness settles in my heart when I look at Cole again, knowing how much he’s already sacrificed for the balance of the realms. “Thank you, Cole. I appreciate it. Give me a little bit of time to think about it, okay?”

Cole nods with an understanding smile. “Of course.”

“We need to get this done as soon as possible,” Ashen says as he goes back to the sideboard. He drops the soiled towel in a basket, then pulls a pen and paper from a drawer. He writes a note and folds it, then writes a second and folds that too. His wings rustle beneath the smoke as his attention is drawn to his letters and they fade away, no hint of their existence evident on his shirt when the last sparks disappear. When he returns, he passes the first piece of paper to Ediye. “Take this to Mr. Hassan, he’ll know what to do. Get Eryx too, take him with you.”

Ediye’s brows twitch with confusion and she opens her note. Her eyes widen for just a heartbeat, and she meets Ashen’s eyes before folding it. “Will do, demon,” she says with restrained amusement in her voice. She sets the tourmaline sphere on the table, then takes Cole by the hand and pulls him along with her, shouting out a ciao on her way out the door.

“What the—”

“Cyrus,” Ashen interrupts, handing the other note to his second in command. The man’s stoic expression stays firmly in place as he opens the folded paper and reads the instructions. “Pay them whatever amount of money it takes. Whatever they want. Got it?”

“Yes, sir.” Cyrus pivots on his heel and exits the room before I can even toss him a question.

I turn to Ashen, my eyes narrowing as I scrutinize his unreadable face. The emotions I feel from him tell me nothing either. There’s only his residual rage and the determination to execute a plan set in motion. “We have to buy stuff? Do I have money to buy stuff? How expensive is this resurrectionist business?”

Ashen smiles as he passes me to place the humming stone in the bag and toss the strap over his shoulder. He takes my hand and kisses my knuckles before lacing our fingers and pulling me toward the door. “Money is not an issue, but we need a few things from the Living Realm. And I want them immediately.”

“Shocker. The demanding demon demands stuff.”

Ashen gives me a lascivious grin. “I have it on good authority that you love my demands.”

“Oh really? Whose authority exactly?”

“Your pussy’s.”

I snort a laugh. “That bitch is such a traitor. You come around with your sexy, brooding demon ways and your badass tattoos and that wicked tongue of yours and she just gives up all my secrets.” Ashen’s grin widens and he pulls me into his side, wrapping his arm across my shoulder as we walk. “Where are we going, anyway?”

“You’ll see.”

“What if I don’t like surprises?”

“That would be a pity, my vampire,” Ashen says as he presses a kiss to my temple. “Because they have only just begun.”