A Rush of Wings

  Dante was lost within his own wounded mind.

  An hour or so ago, the static blocking their bond had vanished and Lucien had followed it like an ethereal rope to his Sleeping child.

  Lucien’s fingers curled around the door’s cold handle. Locked. Pressing his hand flat against the door, he flicked energy into the lock. Blue sparks showered to the pavement, melting tiny holes in the snow. He grasped the handle and opened the door.

  Air reeking of blood and violence, sweat and stale cigarettes rolled out of the van like black smoke from a fire. Lucien caught his breath, for underneath, like coals beneath a pile of ash, smoldered the scorched and bitter stink of twisted lust, of evil.

  Lucien listened to the slow, steady beat of Dante’s heart. The sound soothed him. I have found my son. Climbing into the van, he parted the curtain and slid through, careful not to let the weak winter sunlight touch his child.

  Lucien looked at Dante Sleeping on the van’s floor. That burning-in-the-sunlight scream, that heart-wrenching sound of a child’s agony—his child’s—echoed within Dante’s fragmented dreams. Reminded Lucien of what he’d felt…what he’d heard while standing in the kitchen with Wallace.

  Chloe. My princess. My heart.

  I won’t let them have you.

  Kneeling, Lucien gathered his son into his arms. Dante’s heat baked into him. Heat when he should be Sleep-cool. Blood trickled from one nostril, streaking his lips.

  Ah, little one, they took her anyway. There was nothing you could’ve done. Nothing. You were only a child, too.

  Lucien brushed the hair back from Dante’s face, touched the cool silver hoops in his ear.

  His past devours him.

  Lucien’s gaze dropped. His heart constricted as he stared at the slashes in Dante’s T-shirt. The blood smell—Dante’s. He pushed up the blood-stiff material. Countless healing wounds crisscrossed his chest and abdomen. Cuts. Punctures. Knife wounds.

  Are knives required equipment for a journalist’s assistant?

  Lucien finally gave his attention to the sleeping mortal handcuffed to the van. A bitten and purpled throat. One arm in a sling, the fingers swollen. A knife hilt stuck up from his thigh. Lucien’s gaze flickered down to the boy cradled in his arms, paused, then returned to Jordan.

  Across from Jordan was a mattress spattered and smeared with blood. Dante’s blood. Blood also flecked the wall and the ceiling above. A book—poetry?—and scattered papers and photos littered the carpet beside the bed.

  Lucien tensed. He recognized the photos. The same ones he’d looked at with Wallace. So, Dante’s past had been given to him with blood and knives. Given without mercy by a dead-eyed mortal.

  And yet somehow Dante had freed himself. So why was Jordan still breathing?

  Had the wretch bargained for his life? Lucien’s gaze shifted back to the papers and reports scattered on the floor. With what?

  His first impulse was to gather Dante into his arms and fly home. Once his child was safe, he’d return. Then Jordan and Moore would endure a final reckoning, an Elohim judgment and an Old Testament–style death.

  But daylight burned outside. He needed to wait until dusk to carry Dante home. Lucien bent and pressed his lips against Dante’s, breathing energy into him, just as he’d done when Wallace had served her warrant. Urged his child up from Sleep. Up from the ashes he curled in, his arms around a little girl.

  Pain slammed against Lucien’s shields. Inhaling, he flexed it away. He touched his fingertips to Dante’s temple. Poured cool light into his child’s pain-ravaged mind and fevered body.

  Dante drew in a deep breath. His eyes opened. He looked at Lucien, but no recognition sparked within the dark depths of his eyes. Shoving free of Lucien’s hold, Dante rolled to his knees. Body coiled, muscles taut, he hissed.

  Fear trailed a cold hand down Lucien’s spine. Was Dante lost to madness? A creawdwr unbound and insane? Or was it simply Sleep refusing to release him? There was always a risk in awakening a Sleeper.

  Lucien held up a placating hand. “Dante, child, you are safe. Hush.”

  “Not Dante,” a low voice said. Jordan. “That’s S.”

  “S doesn’t exist,” Lucien said. “Only Dante. S is a part of you, child. The rage you deny, the pain you ignore.”

  “He ain’t exactly been denying rage lately,” Jordan muttered.

  Never taking his eyes off Dante, Lucien pointed a finger and snapped a whip of energy across the mortal. Jordan yelped. The smell of ozone cut through the air.

  Lucien met Dante’s red-streaked and simmering gaze. He saw it now. Sleep lingered in his son’s eyes. “She can’t rise with you. I’m sorry, but you must leave her behind and let her sleep.”

  “No.” Dante’s hands knotted into fists. Pain and Sleep shadowed his eyes. “I promised forever.”

  “Child, you’ve given her forever,” Lucien said, voice husky. “She’s always with you. But she doesn’t need to be here. You are in a van with Elroy Jordan. He stole you. Tortured you. Dante, awaken.”

  Dante winced, his pale face drawn. He touched a trembling hand to his temple. “Chloe,” he whispered. “I can still save her.”

  “It’s too late, Dante.”

  Dante looked at Lucien, Sleep fading from his eyes. He swallowed hard. Looked away. After a moment, he nodded.

  Lucien cupped Dante’s face. “You are my son,” he said. “You can hate me all you want, but that truth remains—you are the child of Lucien and Genevieve.”

  Dante jerked his head away from Lucien’s touch and pushed fever-hot hands against his bare chest, preparing to shove away, then stopped. A single clear note rang through Lucien, reverberating through his flesh and back into Dante’s palms. Wonder lit Dante’s face. Gold gleamed in his eyes. Energy played back and forth between them; a creawdwr drawn by his creation, an aingeal captivated by his Maker.

  Dante yanked his hands from Lucien’s chest. Lucien saw the questions in his eyes as the golden gleam faded: What was that? What just happened?

  “There are things I must teach you,” Lucien said. “Before it’s too late.”

  Dante shook his head, his hands clenching into fists against his thighs.

  Lucien wanted to shake reason into his headstrong child even as he wanted to embrace him, hold him close and safe. “Yes, whether you like it or not.”

  “The Big Guy’s your fucking daddy? Holy shit!” Jordan laughed.

  Blue flames arced around Lucien, burned through his veins with a cool, cleansing fire. He turned. His hand closed around the mortal’s purpled throat and squeezed. Jordan’s eyes bulged. His tongue protruded. He kicked, but Lucien blocked each slow-moving blow with his arm. A shame. This would be an easy death compared to what he’d imagined for him.

  “No!” Dante’s fingers locked around Lucien’s wrist.

  “What bargain did he strike with you?” Lucien said, voice low. Jordan thrashed, eyes rolling up white. Spittle flecked his lips. “Dante, what?”

  “He’ll give me Gina’s last words.”

  “In exchange for what?”

  “A few more hours,” Dante said. “I…S…” Confusion flickered across his face. “I…agreed not to kill him until after Moore.”

  “Ah, child,” Lucien sighed. He relaxed his hold, but didn’t release Jordan. His gaze shifted to Dante. “Her last words won’t change anything. How do you know he’s not lying to you?”

  “I don’t,” Dante said. “But I’ll know Gina’s words from any he’d make up.” Pain and loss shadowed his face.

  Fragile, Lucien realized. Dante’s endured too much. He needs Sleep. Blood. Quiet.

  “There’s nothing you can do for those already gone,” Lucien said. “But Heather searches for you in D.C. She needs you. Not the dead. Their needs are over.”

  “Heather, oüi,” Dante breathed. His fingers slipped from Lucien’s wrist. “Is she safe? Who’s with her?”

  Jealousy spiked from Jordan, black and bitter and sharp.

  “She’s alo
ne,” Lucien said, fixing his gaze on Jordan. Leaning in, he whispered into the mortal’s ear, “She yearns to return to Dante’s bed, his embrace. She’s forgotten you.”

  Lucien released him. The mortal slumped, gasping and retching, supported only by his handcuffed wrist. Hatred poured out of him, hot and greasy, shimmering around him like oil on water. Lucien smiled.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Dante said. Exasperation and anger edged his voice. He ran a hand through his hair. “This ain’t the time for games. Someone’s trying to kill Heather and she’s alone. I gotta get to D.C.”

  Lucien shook his head. “When the sun sets, I’ll take you home—”

  “No. I’m gonna finish this.” Dante’s eyes dilated suddenly. His body tensed. “Do whatever the fuck you want, but I’m going to D.C.”

  Pain whispered against Lucien’s shields, pain and droning voices. Why won’t the past release him? He reached for Dante. Lucien felt it as memory yawned open and swallowed Dante. Shook him. Lucien held him tight, heart hammering. His child’s eyes rolled up white. His body arched. Convulsed.

  Memory seizure.

  Dante wasn’t remembering. No, Lucien thought, that was too kind of a word for what his child experienced…relived…endured. A moment from Dante’s past rippled, like the land during a quake, edging up, then sheering away into darkness. Gone.

  Dante endured, yes. Lucien’s throat tightened as he held his son’s trembling body, brushed the hair back from his pale face. But for how much longer? He could hide Dante from the Elohim, protect him from nightkind and every other creature walking the earth—but he couldn’t protect him from his past or from his own mind.

  Dante needs to confront the past my absence condemned him to. Needs to confront Johanna Moore. Then, perhaps, he will heal.

  Forgive me, my Genevieve. I failed to keep our son safe.

  But I stand beside him now and will guard him forevermore.

  “Sa fini pas,” Dante whispered. His eyes opened. Exhaustion shadowed his gaze, smudged the skin blue beneath his lashes.

  “Shhh,” Lucien murmured, touching Dante’s temple. “It will end. I’ll drive the van while you Sleep. We’ll be in D.C. by nightfall.”

  Dante’s eyes closed as Sleep took him.

  Lucien eased his Sleeping child onto the bloodstained carpet. His gaze fell on the handcuffed mortal. Jordan glared at him with hate and jealousy.

  Lucien moved beside him. Wrapped a hand around the knife hilt sticking up from his thigh, looked into Jordan’s seething gaze, and yanked. The mortal sucked air in through his teeth.

  Lucien tilted his head, listening. “A god? I’ve known gods. You’re just rotting flesh needing to be buried.”

  A grin stretched Jordan’s lips. “Yeah? Well, guess what? I’ve got Dante’s protection.” His gaze flicked to Dante’s Sleeping form. “Ain’t that an ass-kicker?”

  The smell of pungent lust curled into the air. Lucien grasped Jordan’s chin, forced his gaze away from Dante. “Touch him again and I’ll peel that rotting flesh from your bones while you watch with lidless eyes.”

  Jordan jerked free of Lucien’s hand. “I’ve got something he wants.”

  Lucien shrugged. “Your bargain is with Dante, not me. Remember that.”

  Jordan looked away. A muscle twitched in his jaw.

  Half an hour later, Lucien pulled the van back onto I-75 and into Tennessee. Jordan sat in the front passenger seat, his right wrist handcuffed to the molded emergency grip above the passenger window. He stared straight ahead, face sullen.

  Dante Slept behind the curtain on the rear seat Lucien’d unfolded, a blanket draped over him, head to toe. The bloodied air bed and protective sheet of plastic had been tossed into a Dumpster. Using the mortal’s Zippo, Lucien burned the file on S, but kept the photos of Dante.

  Snow drifted down from the gray late-morning sky. Lucien listened for trilling wybrcathls, but the sky remained silent. None of the Elohim winged overhead in answer to his wybrcathl, seeking the creawdwr who’d sang a powerful, chaotic response.

  Yet.

  * * *

  32

  A Rising Storm

  « ^ »

  VOICES PENETRATED THE DARKNESS—quiet voices, terse.

  “Traffic’s finally moving,” a man said. “We’ll be there in fifteen.”

  A radio crackled. A car, then. A heater purred warmth into the air. A lurching forward motion.

  “This is some storm,” a woman said. “I hope we don’t get snowed in.”

  “Check Wallace.”

  Fabric rustled. Vinyl creaked. A whiff of sweet melon. Perfume?

  “Still out.”

  Heather’s heart double-timed as memory awakened. Parka and Trenchcoat. The airport. Falling. Snow cold against her face.

  We’re taking you to Dr. Moore.

  Images flashed through Heather’s mind, stark and vivid—Dante slipping out the window of his smashed MG; Dante sprawled across the threshold of Ronin’s house, blood trickling along his temple; Jordan grinning as he drove away in the van—and her heart sank.

  Have I failed again?

  Heather felt herself sliding toward darkness once more. She bit the inside of her cheek. Tasted blood. The gray morning light and bright swirling snow hurt her eyes, lanced pain into her head. She shifted her gaze to the seat in front of her, focused on the beige vinyl. Ignored the hypnotic whoosh-shoosh of the windshield wipers. Her entire body tingled, like she’d taken a massive shot of Novocain.

  Glancing down, Heather saw her purse on the floor behind the front passenger seat. No doubt she’d been patted down and her .38 confiscated. She tried to move her hands. The index finger on her right hand twitched. A quick look confirmed that her hands were cuffed in front. Easier to slide her onto the backseat with her hands in front instead of behind?

  Heather closed her eyes in case Trench checked on her again. She struggled to keep her breathing even without slipping into the comforting embrace of sleep. Why did Moore want her? Did she suspect that Jordan and Dante were on their way to D.C.? If she’d tried to have Heather killed in New Orleans, why not now? What had changed?

  If Moore wanted her dead, like Stearns had said, why weren’t these two taking her to the woods or a field and putting a bullet in her skull?

  Had someone intervened? Spoken for her? Her father, perhaps?

  She suddenly flashed back to her recurring dream of the shadow-faced driver slipping out of the idling car, hammer gleaming in his hand.

  No. She shoved the memories and images away. Focus on now. Vinyl creaked and she kept her eyes closed, counting to a thousand before she risked a glance through her lashes. Trench’s blonde head faced the windshield.

  The tingling intensified, shifted into a prickling vibration. Heather’s hands clenched into fists. Hope ignited within her. She relaxed her hands. The tingling and prickling faded to a pins-and-needles sensation. She lifted her cuffed hands, her gaze fixed on Trench’s blonde head, and edged her awakening fingers toward her purse.

  The wipers tick-tocked across the windshield. The snow-chained tires crunched through the snow, the sound thick and muffled. Heather’s fingers slipped inside her purse. Her pulse thundered in her ears.

  Her fingers fumbled through the purse’s contents, tracing shapes, seeking a slim edge, seeking the feel of metal, the grit of alley dirt. Her heart thudded hard against her chest as Trench moved her head, then glanced out the passenger window. Heather yanked her hands out of her purse and returned to her original position. Closed her eyes. Breathed in and out, slow.

  “It’s really coming down,” Trench said.

  “The commute home’s gonna be a bitch.”

  “If you get to go home.”

  “I’m getting out of there if I have to snowshoe home,” Parka said, voice low, tense. “Have you read any of those reports? Do you know what S is?”

  Heather listened, eyes closed, her fingers inching back to her purse. So Moore does know. But how?

  “I k
now,” Trench murmured. “I’ll admit, I’m curious. I kinda want to see him in the flesh, y’know?”

  Heather’s hands dove into her purse. Her fingers plunged to the bottom.

  Parka snorted. “You know what they say about curiosity and the cat.”

  “Yeah, yeah. When did you get to be such an old maid?”

  “I don’t plan on being psycho bait,” Parka said.

  A finger tapped against a sharp point. Cool metal touched her palm. Heart hammering, Heather slipped the nail file out of her purse.

  “Me neither,” Trench said. “Maybe that’s what she’s for.”

  Parka grunted.

  Heather froze. Moore couldn’t know about her relationship with Dante. Unless…Dante was still being monitored, hidden cameras watching his every move at home and at the club. If so, it explained why she wasn’t dead and buried beneath the snow.

  And De Noir? Had he abandoned her to search for Dante? Intuition told her yes. The memory of De Noir’s stricken face burned bright in her memory. Hush, child. I will find you.

  Eyes burning behind closed lids, Heather wished it so—funneled every bit of awakening energy, every future birthday wish, into the image of Dante safe beneath De Noir’s black wings.

  In the meantime, she didn’t need intuition to tell her she was alone and without backup. Her fingers curled around the nail file. She lifted her hands, raised them to her chest. Dropped the file inside her blouse. Tucked it inside her bra.

  Saved my ass in the alley.

  She hoped it would again. She dropped her hands, lay still. A moment later, vinyl creaked and she caught another whiff of Trench’s sweet melon perfume.

  The car slowed, then stopped. Cold air blew into the car as Parka rolled down a window. “Hey, Morris,” he said. “Where is everyone?”

  “Doctor Moore sent most everybody home ‘cause of the storm,” a gravelly voice answered. Security check? “I’m surprised you’re coming in.”

  “Me too,” Parka grumbled as he rolled up the window, sealing off the flow of frigid air. The car moved forward, snow crunching beneath the tires.