Chapter Forty-Two

Adrik

Ilya had informed her that something was happening in the kitchen, so we all met Sephie there. There were guys holding down a girl in the back of the kitchen. She was struggling as much as she could, but she didn’t stand a chance. She was little anyway, but she had three guys holding her.

I don’t like this one bit. Every single one of us went on high alert, trying to figure out what was happening. Sephie gave one glance to Ivan and he promptly picked up every single one of the guys holding the girl down and tossed them aside.

Sephie knelt down in front of the girl, trying to find out more information. We were all surprised that she was seeing my mother and Kostya. I didn’t even know my mother followed Vitaliy around.

In the way that only Sephie could, she calmed the girl down while explaining to her what she was seeing. She even told the girl that she had angels watching over her. I didn’t expect her to out Ivan, but she did. The girl could definitely see there was something different about Ivan, but she looked fascinated by him rather than the fearful girl we saw when we walked in.

She asked Sephie why she believed her and Sephie reached out and touched the girl’s arm. Her eyes went wide as she saw Sephie. Everything about Sephie. Sephie went to remove her arm, but the girl grabbed her hand. She was completely captivated by what she was seeing.

“You’re different from the others. How?” she asked Sephie.

“It’s a very long story. My point, Jessica, is that not everything you see that’s different from what we think of as normal is going to be bad. Did you have a bad feeling when you saw the angels earlier this evening?” she asked.

The girl shook her head no. “No, it got bad when I told people what I saw. They called me crazy. I kept trying to tell them I wasn’t and explain what I saw, but it got worse. That’s when they held me down.”

We could feel Sephie’s sadness at the way this girl was treated. “You’re going to need to be very careful whom you tell about this from now on. For your own safety.”

The girl nodded in agreement. “I don’t want to tell anyone now. They’re going to lock me up. My parents already think I’m crazy,” she said quietly.

Sephie silently asked Ivan if he had a card she could give her. He handed her one. Sephie then handed it to the girl. “Jessica, if you ever get in trouble or they try to lock you up, I want you to call me.”

Her eyes went wide again as she took the card from Sephie. “You would help me? You don’t even know me.”

“No, but I know what it’s like to be going through what you’re going through right now. It’s not easy. Just knowing you have someone to call is sometimes very comforting,” she said.

We could see the tears welling up in her eyes again. She looked at Sephie and quickly hugged her, holding on to her for dear life. Sephie chuckled, but she hugged her back, stroking her hair lightly as the girl worked to calm herself down.

“Can you leave tonight? I think it’s best if you get out of here right now. You’re safe at home?” Sephie asked.

“I’m safe at home; I live by myself. I was working tonight for extra cash though. This isn’t my normal job,” she said.

I walked to her, pulling what Battista, Vitaliy, and the rest of the guys had given me earlier for winning the bet pool on when Henry was going to show out of my pocket. “This should cover it. Go home. You don’t need to be around those people anymore tonight,” I said.

Her eyes went wide again. “You’re like her,” she said quietly. I couldn’t help but smirk at her. I just nodded once.

Sephie turned and looked at Ilya and Misha, who were standing close by. “Would you two mind escorting her to her car?”

“Of course,” Misha said.

Sephie turned back to the girl, who was still in shock. “They’re going to make sure you get to your car safely. Are you okay to drive yourself home? We can take you home as well if you’re worried about driving.”

“No, I’m okay. You’ve done so much already. Thank you,” she said. She quickly ran to get her bag and then came back. Misha and Ilya walked her out the back to take her to her car.

As soon as they were gone, I wrapped my arms around Sephie. She leaned into me, her body completely relaxing as soon as she felt my touch. “I love you. You’re incredible,” I said, kissing the top of her head.

She sighed, looking up at me. “Once Misha and Ilya get back, I think it’s time to go. I’ve had enough fun for one night.” Her lips curled up into a half smile as she added, “At least the kind of fun you have in front of people. I have other fun activities I’d like to pursue once we’re alone.”

“I could not agree more,” I said, leaning down to kiss her.

We walked back to find Vitaliy and Battista. We told them both that we were planning to leave once Misha and Ilya came back.

“Come to my house first. Battista can finish telling us his conversation with the representative and you can fill us in on everything else. It won’t take long, but we need a place to speak freely,” Vitaliy said in Russian. I wasn’t happy with the idea of having to wait longer to get Sephie out of her dress, but I also wasn’t mad at the opportunity to look at her in it for a little while longer. It was a conundrum.

Misha and Ilya returned; both of them had grins on their faces.

“Do I want to know what those grins mean?” Sephie asked.

“She was cute. She apparently talks when she’s nervous. She was very nervous,” Misha said.

“Cute enough to get her number?” Sephie asked, unable to hide her own grin.

“You should ask Ilya that question, not me,” Misha said, his wide smile stretching across his face.

“Ilya, you dog. Did you get her number?” Sephie asked.

The shade of red that his face turned was a very clear answer. “What? She’s really cute. I’m a sucker for short, blonde girls,” he said.

Sephie looked at him for a few moments, smiling at him. She finally said, “I’m just glad you feel good enough to consider it. She seems like a sweet girl, but you tell me the first moment she shows you otherwise.” We could all feel her hackles going up as she felt protective of Ilya. It wasn’t surprising in the least that she felt that way about the guys, but it did surprise me just a little that she already felt that way about Ilya. I was still happy to see it.

Vitaliy caught it too. He laughed. “Malishka, it’s his job to protect you, not the other way around,” he said. She just turned to look at him, narrowing her eyes at him, silently reprimanding him for teasing her.

We all quietly left the fundraiser, making our way back to Vitaliy’s house. The guys and I were all happy to ditch our jackets and ties while Sephie was only able to ditch her shoes. Sephie looked at all of us as we walked into Vitaliy’s house. “It’s just not fair that you’re all still so handsome with just half your tux on,” she said, smiling at everyone.

“We can’t help it, spider monkey. We just woke up like this,” Andrei said, his wide smile across his face.

She walked to him, sliding her arm around his waist as we walked up the steps to the front door. “I just kind of love you,” she said wistfully, leaning her head on his shoulder.

Once we were all convened in Vitaliy’s new office, we started to go over the evening’s events. Battista and Vitaliy weren’t aware of what had happened when Stephen got rid of the things hanging around the hospital administrator and the mayor.

“Is that what made them cough uncontrollably?” Vitaliy asked.

“We think so. When it happened, the demons were almost desperate to find a way in. It really agitates them when they hear Stephen speak,” Ivan said.

“I think the coughing is the body trying to reject it,” Sephie said.

“Does this mean the mayor is good to go now? We don’t need to worry about him further?” Battista asked.

“Not exactly. He still has weaknesses that a different demon can exploit. Viktor is what fixes that, but we haven’t figured out a way to do that subtly yet. It’s visually very obvious when he fixes someone,” I said.

“It’s visually obvious to you. Has anyone who is not you seen him do it yet?” Battista asked. “You all can see things no one else can anyway. Maybe the average person couldn’t see it.”

He did bring up a valid point. Viktor hadn’t used Kostya around anyone else outside our group yet. I glanced at Ilya, asking, “Did you see it?”

“Yeah, but maybe it was just because I’m his brother?” Ilya said.

“Or maybe Kostya wasn’t thinking about being discreet,” Sephie said. She looked at Viktor, asking, “Can you ask him if there’s a way that he can do it so no one else would notice?”

Viktor was silent for a few moments. None of us had any idea that he could communicate so quickly with Kostya, but apparently he could. He said, “He thinks he can make it so it’s not obvious. He still needs me to touch the person to make it happen, but that’s easily explained.”

“Want to test it?” Sephie asked, grinning at him.

Viktor smiled his sweet smile that was reserved specifically for her. “Who did you have in mind?”

Sephie looked toward my father’s men, Eduard and Sergei. “I’m really sorry, Sergei, but you need help. You’ve needed help since I met you. I just wasn’t sure you’d let anyone help you.”

Sergei had been with my father since I was a kid. Not as long as Aleksei, but I’d still known Sergei for most of my life. He was a hard man, but he was a good man. Whatever Sephie had picked up on, I was sure that Sergei deserved help with it.

Vitaliy was surprised. He looked at Sephie, then looked at Sergei, asking, “This is true?” Sergei was silent, but everyone could tell from his body language that he was fighting something he never spoke about.

Sephie answered for him. “I don’t mean to call you out in front of everyone, Sergei, but you’re struggling. It’s getting louder, which means it’s harder for me to ignore.”

Andrei said, “I can hear it too. You don’t have to deal with all that on your own, you know.”

Misha got curious and did his own searching when Andrei said something. “Sergei, you know that wasn’t your fault, man.”

It was that moment I knew what Sergei was still struggling to deal with. When I was a boy and the other bosses tried to get to my father through me the first time, Sergei was the one who was with me. The attack killed the driver, Petr. It almost killed Sergei. I somehow managed to survive, but that was the first time I found myself in my own darkness. I was out for days. My father never left my side and he never left Sergei’s side.

Sergei struggled to not blame himself for what had happened. He said he felt like he should’ve been able to see it coming. He was overprotective of me from that point until I hit adulthood. We all thought he had handled it, but clearly, he was still carrying around guilt from it. Silently beating himself up for it for almost my entire life.

Sephie went to him, placing her hand on his shoulder. “You are very good at your job. You always have been. You always will be. What happened that night is not a reflection of you. It needed to happen, Sergei. He needed to go through that experience so he could save me when the same thing happened to me. If he hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here,” she said quietly. Sergei looked at her, his eyes wide. He was trying to comprehend what she’d just told him.

Ivan walked closer to them. “Nor would I, Sergei. He saved her so she could save me. That night had to happen. You kept him alive. There’s no way he could’ve survived that crash without you shielding him. You did exactly what you were meant to do.”

Sephie glanced at Stephen. He walked closer to her and Sergei. She whispered something quietly to Sergei. He nodded his head, then Stephen touched his arm. It took a few moments, but Sergei gasped loudly, like he just jumped into freezing water and his lungs were revolting. Stephen didn’t let go. Sephie recognized that Stephen was having to work to get Sergei cleared completely, so she grabbed his other hand, giving him the needed boost. It took a few more seconds and Sergei visibly looked better.

She looked at Viktor, who basically traded places with Stephen. Sephie looked at Battista, as well as Eduard, saying, “You two have to watch and let us know if you can see anything.” They both nodded. Battista looked completely fascinated by what was happening.

Viktor touched Sergei and we all clearly saw his aura, much like Andrei could see regularly. It was dim, with plenty of holes in it. Viktor removed his hand, waited for a moment, then put his hand back on Sergei’s shoulder. We didn’t see Kostya this time, but we could see the effects of Kostya being there. Sergei’s aura lit up while all the holes were being filled in.

I glanced at Battista, asking, “Can you see that?”

“See what? He just has his hand on his shoulder,” he said.

I looked at Eduard, asking the same thing. He said, “It just looks like Viktor has his hand on Sergei’s shoulder to me.”

“That’s all you saw the whole time?” I asked. They both nodded. Once Viktor was done, I said, “We have our answer then. They didn’t see anything. I didn’t see Kostya this time, but Viktor still lights them up when he touches someone.”

Sephie turned to Battista. “You didn’t see anything other than Viktor’s hand on his shoulder?”

“I saw nothing. I’m actually disappointed I saw nothing. I would like to see something,” Battista said.

“She can show you,” Misha said. “I’ll help,” he said, offering her his hand.

“I might need both you and Bubba,” she said. She walked over to Battista, asking for his hand. She tried to push what it looked like for all of us to him. It took a few moments, as well as Andrei’s help, but we saw Battista’s eyes go wide as he finally saw what the rest of us saw.

“That is incredible,” he said.

Sephie offered to show Eduard as well, using both Andrei and Misha again. He cursed in Russian, having never seen anything like it in his life, which made her laugh.

“Well, now we know that we can fix someone discreetly. We just need to let Kostya know when he can leave his headlights on and when he has to turn them off. And Ilya’s girlfriend is going to have to learn when to keep her mouth shut,” Sephie said, grinning at Ilya.

He laughed, saying, “You haven’t even met Sasha and you’re already trying to steal his job.”

“Can you explain to me, like I’m a child, what you just did?” Battista asked.

Sephie chuckled. “Stephen helps to clear a person, so whatever heavy issue they’ve been struggling to deal with can successfully be dealt with, basically. In very general terms. Sergei, for example, has been struggling with something that happened over twenty years ago. He still carries a tremendous amount of guilt from it. Any time you carry around heavy emotions for too long, they start to cause other problems. For Sergei, it was becoming overwhelming. It was all he could think about. He was beating himself up about it, blaming himself for what happened, doubting himself because he felt like it shouldn’t have happened. Stephen helped him create a pathway to get all of that out. Viktor, on the other hand, helps to strengthen his aura. It ensures that those negative thoughts and feelings can’t get a foothold in him again. He might still feel them from time to time, but they’ll move through him like they should, rather than illegally squatting in his psyche for twenty years. What you saw was Sergei’s aura, before and after Viktor fixed him.”

“Those holes that you saw before Viktor fixed him are where demons gain access to people. Big enough hole, weak enough person, the demon can get in and start running the show,” Ivan said. He glanced at Sephie, as they both had the same idea at the same time. She grinned at him, walking back to Battista.

“Wonder Twins, unite!” she said, motioning for Andrei and Misha to come back. She grabbed Battista’s hand again, using them to push what Ivan could see to Battista. “That’s what it looks like when a demon has gained access and is starting to run the show. Her demon has been there for a while. It’s very defined. Sometimes, they’re not as clearly defined. It’s like they’re fuzzy if they’re new. Hers has been there a while.”

“This is how you knew about my business associate?” Battista asked.

“One of the ways, yes,” Sephie said. I could feel her reluctance to reveal everything to Battista.

“You were right when you said we all complement each other. We’ve figured out how to work together to confirm whether someone’s demon is running the show or not. Because we’ve done it a few times now, the demons know who Stephen is. If they haven’t gained full access to a person, he can essentially scare them off. If they have gained access, that’s when the only choice is to break their psyche,” I said.

“Ah, yes. My business associate’s family was saddened to hear of his sudden massive stroke that left him in such a state. They were quite happy to have access to his finances, however,” Battista said whimsically.

“This is what happened when the people were coughing uncontrollably? Stephen scared the demons off?” Vitaliy asked.

“Yeah. I’m not worried about the hospital administrator, but the next step would be to have Viktor fix the mayor. We did buy him some time with what we did tonight, but he’s still vulnerable,” I said.

“What about the DA?” Battista asked.

“He was fine. Nothing hanging on him. If there was a demon there, it was the most talented one we’ve come across yet. No one picked up on anything,” Ivan said.

“That’s also not to say that it won’t be an issue in the future. They were fine tonight, but that could always change. Depending on their own decisions,” Sephie said.

“What did you find out from the switch-hitting representative?” I asked Battista.

His mischievous smile crept across his face. “She’s more than happy to have me fund a new wing on the hospital. I suspect that she’s much the same as just about every politician on the planet, however. She’s going to figure out a way to make it all about her and take the credit for everything,” he said.

Sephie and Andrei looked at each other and laughed. “That’s exactly what she was thinking. You just left out the money laundering part. She’s gonna suck as much money out of the project for herself as possible,” Andrei said.

“Sucking is an activity that she seemingly enjoys,” Misha said. Somehow he managed to keep a straight face when he said it. Clearly, Stephen was coaching him on how to do so. The rest of us erupted into laughter.

Once the laughter died down, Sephie looked at me and said, “She is connected to Ricardo already though. She has everything on him. He’s helping her use it against you.”

I wasn’t surprised. “She might be slightly more difficult to get rid of than we thought,” I said.

“What was your original plan?” Vitaliy asked.

“Expose her affair with Henry. Her wife comes from a wealthy family. If we expose her affair, along with Henry, her wife divorces her, the family money goes away. She stops wanting to help Henry, as he’s basically the one who ruined her life,” I said.

“That could still work. It might not destroy her completely, because she’s likely to get help from Ricardo, but that could also work to our advantage. Expose that connection and she goes down when Ricardo goes down,” Battista said.

“Or she has an untimely ‘stroke.’ It could go either way, really,” Stephen said.

We talked for a while longer, coming up with a plan for how to get Henry out of the picture, along with his girlfriend. I needed to keep the people of the city on my side; helping the mayor fight corruption was an easy way to do that. The less options that Ricardo had inside the city, the easier he would be to take down as well.

On the way back to the penthouse, I pulled Sephie closer to me. “I have to admit that was the most fun I’ve ever had at one of those events.”

“It did go much better this time. I’m very happy it went much better this time,” she told me, as her gorgeous smile stretched across her face.

“We’re all very happy it went better this time.” I told her, kissing her temple. “Although, I’m not going to lie, getting to look at you all night long in that dress made me even happier.”

“I was thinking the same thing about you in that tux,” she told me, as she turned her face toward me just enough that she could see me out of the corner of her eye.

I reached over and ran my finger lightly down her neck, following the plunging neckline all the way down. I could feel her sending her warmth to me as she closed her eyes and enjoyed my touch.

“I don’t think you should wear any color but this one to any formal event ever again,” I said. “It looked like you were radiating love for me the entire night.” I turned her toward me, pressing my lips to hers.

“The color of the dress just made it obvious for you so you noticed it for the first time. I’m always radiating love for you, no matter what I wear,” she said, reaching up and pressing her palm against my cheek.

My breath caught, which made her smile even wider at me. I was suddenly desperate to get home and get her alone.