I giggled before I could stop myself and my mom slapped my dad’s chest with the back of her hand.
“Well, no,” I laughed. “But it’s hard to know if he’s you know… the one. I don’t get a second pick. If I choose Jericho, then that’s it. And forever. Like forever. This relationship will never end, not even with death.”
My parents sat back in their chairs, equally contemplative. After several moments of only Jericho’s mumbled voice breaking the silence, my mom sat forward and held me with her steady gaze. “You know, I think it must be very hard for the parents of all these… Immortals. At least your dad and I had the reassuring thought that someday you guys would die.”
Orion and I both gasped out a stunned, “Mom!”
“No, I’m serious,” she said. “Forever is a very long time. Obviously, I don’t need to tell you about that. It’s overwhelming when I think about it. I can’t imagine what you’re going through trying to accept the idea. And I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Luckily, I know you’re strong enough to handle it, Livie. I know you are.” I warmed under her praise and confidence in me. Her words had done something I hadn’t been able to accomplish yet and that was to give me the courage to face forever, to meet it headlong and believe I could survive it. Maybe even thrive in it. “That being said, you’ve just added an indescribable weight to my job as your mom. I raised you believing I would only have to worry about what your life would become for a set amount of years. But now you’re telling me that I have to worry about you for eternity. You’re telling me that this life will never end for you and I won’t ever get to relax about how you’re doing and if you’ll be alright. You’ve added endless worries to my already long list of concerns.”
Her eyes were so intense that I could do nothing more than squeak, “Sorry?”
Her expression softened just a touch and she shook her head slowly at me. “But if that’s true, that these people love for life, without exception… then that would be one less thing for me to worry about. I would know that you would never be lonely or alone. I would know that someone else was worrying about you too, taking care of you, providing for you. I would know that someone else loved you enough to keep you for eternity. And that you could love for that long, too.”
“Mom,” I groaned in an effort to lighten the mood. “That’s very antifeminist of you.”
She didn’t relax, “No, this has nothing to do with women’s rights or what we have to prove. Love is a two-way street. You are provided for but you provide as well. You are taken care of but you care, too. You meet each other half way most days, but there are times when one of you gives more or takes more than the other. That’s not unfair or antiquated, that’s the beauty of loving beyond yourself. I don’t know Jericho very well; I hardly know anything about him actually, except that he loves you beyond himself. He sees beyond selfishness and greed and sees you. And honestly, Livie, that’s all I want for you, whether that lasts eternally or for just fifty years. That’s all I want for all my children.”
“I don’t even know what to say,” I admitted. “This is the last conversation I imagined us having after I came home.”
“You need to see that, little girl,” my dad chimed in, clearly in accordance with my mom. “You need to see that you’ve been both blessed and cursed. You are going to live a life that the rest of us mere mortals could only dream up in books and movies. You’ve been given a gift that surpasses anything else on Earth. And I know you; I know you will do something great with your time. But don’t be left alone. And don’t push people away. Otherwise that gift will turn into a never-ending hell. Liv, you don’t trust anybody, but we see how you trust him. You don’t even like most people, but don’t deny that you like him, maybe more than like him. We’ve seen the way you look at him, the way you let him in. Honestly, we never thought we’d see you open up like this to a person outside of your family. Don’t ignore these feelings. You might not be ready to give him everything he wants yet, but that’s a good man in there. That’s a man that will keep you safe and love you for as long as he promises to. That’s a man that will give you everything you want and need long, long after we’re gone.”
I swallowed against a thousand more fears and feelings I didn’t even know I could feel. How were my parents so perceptive? How could they see all these things in the short amount of time we’d been back together?
And how could they ask me to consider something so extreme?
I felt a little betrayed by their conviction over this; but it was buried beneath the strength of their love and concern for me. I knew they thought they had my best interest in mind. But Jericho was also the only other Immortal they’d ever met. They had no idea what existed in the rest of the Kingdom except for Terletov- which was obviously the exact opposite of Jericho.
Speak of the devil, Jericho finally reappeared in all his devastatingly handsome glory.
He spoke to everyone in that authoritative way he had. “The team’s here. The house is well protected. I know you have lives to live and all, but I’m going to ask you to stay here for right now, until we tell you different. We want to make sure that you’re safe. And the easiest way to do that is to protect one place. We can get you whatever you need. My lead Guard will introduce himself and he can send someone out for anything you want if you ask.” My parents nodded immediately and my brother paled. He did not want to be in the middle of this and I couldn’t say I blamed him. “They have the house surrounded, and will mostly stay out of sight. But if you see someone walking around in a black polo, black slacks without a coat, that’s one of our guys. I trust these men, and I think Liv does to, if that helps make this easier for you.”
“I do,” I agreed quickly.
Jericho smiled warmly at me. “Talbott has a lead if you want to go. You can stay here if you want, or check this out with me.”
“I’ll go,” I answered quickly. I hated the idea of sitting idly here, waiting for Terletov to come to us. My parents and brother needed to stay here. But I would go crazy if I had to wait for him to come to us. “Will we be gone long?”
“Depends on what we find,” Jericho answered cryptically but his eyes sparkled at me, which made me think this was a good lead.
“Alright, give me a few minutes to get ready.”
“I’ll meet you back here,” he agreed and then left to get dressed and armed.
I turned around to face my parents. I felt weird about leaving their house to go hunt down a man and try to kill him. I’d lived here since I graduated from high school, while I went to school, but they’d given me complete freedom ever since I turned eighteen. Of course, I’d always been a responsible child.
It was hard to get into trouble when you didn’t hang out with anyone other than your siblings.
But for some strange reason, I felt like I should ask their permission before I left. Maybe because I was actually searching out trouble this time? Or the consequences of my actions were lasting and final?
Either way when I raised an inquisitive brow at them they both snorted and waved me off. “You’re twenty-one, Livie. Time to make your own decisions,” my dad ordered.
“Why do I feel like this message is deeper than it appears?” I backed away from the table with a smirk on my face.
“Probably because it is,” he grinned at me.
Wanting to escape before I had to listen to another lecture on how amazing Jericho was, I turned to sprint up the stairs. “Sorry about the mess in the kitchen!” I called.
“You’re lucky I’m so happy you’re home again!” My mom called after me.
I met Jericho ten minutes later by the front door. We’d both changed into “mission” clothes. He’d packed an extra set of black fatigues and a tight fitting black t-shirt that I didn’t think could be originally his because of how it stretched across his broad shoulders. If I didn’t know he was Immortal, I would have been worried about him freezing to death the minute we stepped outside; but from experience, I knew his body could handle the freezing temps and
the few feet of snow.
“So this is how Olivia Taylor really dresses?” he smirked at me like he was privy to some inside secret.
I shrugged, glancing down at my stylishly baggy army pants that sat low on my hips and my scooped neck black t-shirt. I was even wearing my own black pumas. I had to admit it was not at all like I dressed in the Citadel. The clothes there were trendy, expensive and refined, but nothing like my normal eclectic, bohemian style.
“I should grab a jacket,” I told him just to break hot tension between us.
“Why?” he almost laughed. “Are you going to get cold? Wasn’t that lesson number one?”
I smiled, unable to hold back. “No, that was not number one.”
He just grinned at me and then took my hand. We both easily ignored the cold weather and jumped in the rental SUV without saying another word.
On the way to the “mission” Jericho explained that Talbott had gotten a tip from some Immortals that lived in Chicago. A few Shape-Shifters had disappeared months back. Shifters, apparently, were not known for setting down roots in any one city because of the oppression they lived under for so many years. They usually moved around in colonies and stayed off the grid. However, since Avalon and Eden came into power, the Monarchy had been working hard to encourage them to settle permanently.
It was these kinds of Shifters that had disappeared from the city.
Talbott told Jericho that the Immortals that knew about the disappearances hadn’t thought anything more than Shifters being skittish about living surrounded by civilization. They’d assumed the Shifters had gone back into hiding out of habit. That seemed logical to me as well. The Immortals had reconsidered though after the announcement was made that Silas and Gabriel had died.
The death of those men was a huge deal to the Kingdom. Jericho said that Gabriel grew up in the Palace and was very close with Kiran’s dad, Lucan, before Lucan went in Jericho’s words bat-shit crazy. And Silas was apparently the head Shifter in the entire Kingdom, and led a colony of his own before Avalon asked him to join his royal council.
They were extremely important men and I could hear the strain and grief in Jericho’s voice as he told me about them. I desperately wanted to pull him to me and hold him while he recovered from his pain, but I kept my hands to myself. My parents’ lecture this morning had more than freaked me out. I just didn’t want to encourage anything with him until I was certain.
The Immortals living here remembered the missing Shifters as soon as they heard about Gabriel and Silas and immediately called Talbott.
We happened to already be in the city and so this was a lucky break. But I wondered if most big breaks tended to be a bit lucky.
Once the backup Guard arrived sometime very early this morning, Talbott and Titus had driven around the city trying to get a Magical trace, which Talbott could pick up because he was a Titan. They were assuming Terletov already landed in the city and went back to his original base of operations. And even if he didn’t have a “lab” to work from, they were hoping he set up somewhere.
Chicago was obviously huge, but they’d narrowed down the area to some sketchy parts of downtown. And now as we drove into the city from the small suburb of Wheaton, Illinois, that I called home, I could see why.
I could feel the same pull to the center of the city. It felt like a hunch at first, some tiny instinct that nudged me in one particular direction. But the closer we drove, the stronger the instinct became until it wasn’t just a feeling anymore… until I could clearly sense the other Magic and where it clustered together.
I didn’t have to tell Jericho where to go, because he already knew from Talbott’s directions. Talbott and Titus were staking out some abandoned warehouse, waiting for our backup.
Jericho came to a stop blocks away from where we were supposed to meet up with Talbott. I originally thought this was so we could manage some kind of surprise attack on Terletov, but Jericho quickly dismissed that theory.
“He’ll know we’re coming,” he shrugged. “He has as many Titans as we do, or at least their Magic. I’m parking the car here so that it doesn’t get blown up again. It’s really inconvenient when that happens.”
I laughed because I couldn’t help myself and because I was extremely nervous. It didn’t matter if I had Magic or not, my brain could not wrap around the possibility of not dying.
“Someone might steal it,” I suggested, gesturing around at the area of town we were traversing. He just shook his head. “Magic, remember? Doesn’t matter how tough they think they are, every human will be afraid of that car.”
“The car’s Magic?”
“Pieces of it,” he confirmed. “All our vehicles, planes, whatever we own or use regularly, we infuse Magic into. It not only puts our signature on the item, but keeps humans far, far away.”
“What if they aren’t afraid? My parents weren’t all that afraid of you.”
He grinned. “Your parents like me.”
I rolled my eyes. “They do not. And if they do, it’s only because they don’t know you yet.”
“Then we better be quick about this.”
“Why?”
“Obviously, so I can go convince them I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to you.” He flashed me a charming smile that the bastard knew would get under my skin.
“Then you better spend some time trying to convince me of the same thing.” My goal was to sound a bit bitchy.
But that didn’t work.
Jericho took the challenge and grabbed my hand. He yanked hard, tugging me to him so that we stopped in the middle of the snow-packed sidewalk, with abandoned metal buildings rising all around us. He pulled my body into his and his mouth was on mine before I could fully comprehend how I got here. With a swift, incessant kiss that left me spinning and breathless, he released me very slowly.
“Okay.” His eyes met mine with promised conviction.
“Okay?” I asked because I couldn’t remember anything before that kiss.
His mouth split into that devilish grin again and my knees actually wobbled under the force of it. Drawing his words out so that I couldn’t mistake his meaning even if I tried, he said, “Ok, I’ll spend some time convincing you that you like me.”
Before I could even struggle for breath, Talbott whistled from a block away. Jericho released my hand and body and then we were jogging across an empty intersection in order to meet up with Jericho’s teammates and prepare for battle.
Since I was about to fight the crazy maniac that got me into this mess to begin with, I should probably stop thinking about Jericho’s yummy kisses and get my brain straight.
Ugh.
Chapter Twenty-One
Jericho
The warehouse was as nondescript as all the rest. The windows were all broken, graffiti colored the gray concrete walls and the heavy, rusted metal door hung off its hinges. Wind whipped through the broken glass of whatever remained of the plated windows in a gusting howl that sent ominous goose bumps over my forearms.
I gave Talbott a questioning glance and he confirmed that this was the place with a nod of his head. I looked at the four of us and hated that there weren’t more.
But with the Guard split between the Citadel, where they were needed most, with Analisa, Kiran’s mom, Olivia’s house and random hotspots around the world, there wasn’t much else of an option. If we didn’t have Alexi to worry about, I would have at least had more of my own people, but necessity had drained us to this point. It was the four of us against whatever Terletov had with him.
My one consoling thought was that whatever happened to us, Olivia would at least survive. Even if Terletov managed to drain and kill the rest of us, Olivia, by his own admission, would live. And she would never become his perfect soldier. He had to be absolutely out of his mind to think that. I spent all of five minutes with her before I knew she wasn’t the kind of girl to submit or surrender.
Of course, she’d been trying to claw my eyes out in her tortured, exhaus
ted, traumatized state. But… I couldn’t imagine Terletov fairing much better.
“Front door or split up?” Titus asked under his breath.
“They know we’re here,” I answered. “Why prolong the inevitable?”
Titus grinned at me and Talbott looked as if he wanted to kill me for hesitating even for a moment.
I gave Liv an encouraging head nod and then we stalked as one unit to the side of the building and pushed our way through the worn metal doorframe. The door shrieked on its dilapidated hinges and I had to use Magic to get it to budge, but when we finally walked into the dim, filthy building we stood face to face with Terletov and fifteen of his henchman.
“Clever fools,” Terletov greeted us immediately. “I truly hope you’ve come to return what’s mine.” His eyes traveled Olivia’s length in a slow, leering perusal and I decided just then that I would gouge his eyes out with my fists before I killed him.
Just to make it fun.
I stepped in front of Liv and met his depraved expression with my own deadly one. “I doubt that will happen.”
“Pity,” Terletov grunted. His head tilted to the side and he looked at us calculatingly before he ordered, “Kill them. Except for the girl, of course. But then again, you can’t kill her.”
Chaos broke out in that exact moment.
Guns, swords, Magic. Every weapon we contained clashed together in a cacophony of sound and onslaught of aggression. We each had a gun of our own, but they were a dangerous thing to waste when our time was spent flying through the air in an effort to dodge bullets.
We didn’t have Eden or Avalon with us, so if anyone of us were hit with a bullet we would drop and there would be nothing we could do about it. These bullets caused a magically induced coma that was as deadening as Ophelia’s, except that Eden could heal us.
Usually I fought with surety and confidence that could only be possessed after years of winning. Honestly, I was good at this. I could be clinical to a heartless fault and I could be as ruthless as I needed to be. Maybe it tore me up later, but in the moment all I had to rely on were my instincts.