“I understand.”
“You do?” She looked genuinely surprised.
“I get why it’s cool to like a guy when he likes you back.”
Amanda looked so relieved, it would be comical if it wasn’t so tragic.
“But seriously, Amanda, be careful. You know I don’t like him, and there’s a real good reason for it. Just don’t join the Ravens. Lead him on about it if you have to, but don’t join.”
“It’s not that big of a deal, Sasha. I mean, yeah, it’s kinda strange, but it’s not like I have to be a member forever.”
“How do you know?”
“Brett told me.”
This was so frustrating. “What if he’s lying? What if you say you give up God and pledge to follow Eryx, and it’s real?”
Amanda shrugged. “It’s not like I’m going to worship Satan or become a witch or a vampire or something wack like that. It’s just a club, like a secret society in college.” She looked down the hall, and said, “There he is. I gotta go.”
Sasha slumped back against Jax’s locker and stared after Amanda, watched her go up to Brett, saw him put his arm around her shoulders. How could she not see what kind of guy he was? It seemed so obvious to her, and it wasn’t like she was alone. People were talking about the basketball game, and how he had acted like such a tool, shoving the coach, then storming off like a big baby. He was kicked off the team, of course, and rumor had it Coach Gill suspended him from the ski team as well. Brett’s popularity had crashed and burned in less than twenty-four hours, and he’d done it to himself. That Amanda could like him … it blew her mind.
“It’s a done deal,” Jax murmured from her left.
She turned to look up at him. “Really?”
He nodded. “Brett won’t bother you again. He freaked when I showed him the picture.” He looked closer and said, “What’s wrong?”
She didn’t want to tell him, because he’d give her a lecture about free will and how pointless it was to interfere. So she straightened and smiled and said, “Nothing’s wrong. I was just worried about you and hoping it went okay.”
“It went even better than I imagined.” He glanced around at the still crowded hall. “We’ve got five more minutes until class. You wanna go under a cloak and make out?”
That sounded so much better than fretting about Amanda. “Only a lot.”
He grabbed her hand, they walked around the corner into an empty room, and disappeared.
Rose came during history and waved Sasha and Brett out of class. In the hall, she said quietly, “Mrs. Shriver called from the hospital and said Mr. Shriver’s taken a turn for the worse. She asked me to tell Brett, but I assumed she’d want you to know, too, Sasha.”
She’d assumed wrong, but Sasha didn’t say that. They followed her to the high school office and signed out for the day, then walked back out into the hall. Brett, she noticed, wouldn’t look directly at her. He said in a dull voice, “Do you want to go to the hospital?”
“Only for Chris. He doesn’t know what Tim did last night before he came home and smacked me around. He still thinks that’s his dad in that hospital bed, so I’ll go to be with him.” She walked away.
“Chris joined the Ravens about three hours ago.”
She stopped cold, turned quickly, and went back to him, shaking so hard, her voice came out in a weird warble. “You’re lying. He wouldn’t do that!”
“Mr. Bruno went to the hospital and told him he could save Dad’s life if he’d join.” He shook his head slowly, looking at her like he felt sorry for her. “When are you going to wake up and realize, Eryx always wins? He’s what people want.”
“Not everyone.”
“Yes, everyone. People need things, want things, and you’re kidding yourself if you think you can keep anyone from joining.”
“I can try. I have to try.”
“You might as well spit on a forest fire. No one’s immune. No one. Even my dad, Dudley Do-Right. He ate until he was a whale, then worried he’d kick off and Mom would throw Chris out in the street. Bruno promised him he’d stay alive at least until Chris is old enough to live on his own.”
“Why does she hate Chris so much?”
“Dad had a girlfriend in Russia who died having Chris, so he brought him home and told Mom she had to raise him like he was hers. People screw things up, then they want it fixed, or they want something they can’t get on their own, so Eryx promises it to them. Chris pledged his soul to save Dad’s life because he knows if the old man croaks, he’ll be Dumpster diving for his next meal.” He got right in her face. “What have you got to offer people like Dad and Chris?”
“The truth.”
“You think that’ll help Chris? You think the truth will save Dad?”
“It would have if they’d known it before they pledged. Eryx’s promises are lies, sucker bets for desperate people.”
“Where you’re stupid is not realizing everyone’s desperate. All Eryx has to do is figure out why, what they want, and promise it. Wait and see how many of your new friends believe the truth is where it’s at.”
It was as if the roof of the school opened up and a lightning bolt of rage hit her out of the clear blue sky. Reaching for his neck, she shoved as hard as she could, and they flew toward the lockers. She held him there, choking the life out of him, ignoring his clawing hands, his desperate kicks. She wanted him to die, right now, so he couldn’t tell Eryx’s lies to anyone else.
When she didn’t return for her backpack, Jax got up and left the room, pretending he was about to hurl so Bruno wouldn’t question why he was leaving. As soon as he went into the hall, he looked toward the office and his heart stopped. Against the lockers, she had a choke hold on Brett, and he knew, like he knew his name and that the sun would set tonight, she’d crossed the line between Anabo and Mephisto. He’d known it was coming, that it was inevitable, but thought it would take longer. All those kisses from him had done this to her, and he waited to feel terrible, but it never came. Instead, he thought she was freaking glorious in her rage and determination.
Realizing he had mere seconds before someone came into the hall and saw them, he popped himself to where she was, pulled her off of Brett, and set her aside. “Be still.”
Unconscious, Brett slid to the floor, and Jax bent to settle his hands on him and heal the damage to his throat and larynx. Grabbing Sasha’s arm, he walked her away and took the first door he came to, which was the girls’ room, erasing Brett’s memory and waking him up as the door closed behind them. He’d be confused about how he wound up on the floor, but he’d get over it. He’d collect his backpack, go to the hospital, and never remember how close he had come to death.
Jax threw the lock on the door and turned to look at her. In her red dress and black boots, she stood straight and tall, blue eyes flashing with righteous fury, breasts rising and falling rapidly. She had never looked more beautiful. “You almost killed him. You can’t do that. Do you understand?”
She nodded.
“Tell me why you almost killed him.”
In a low voice, she did.
He wasn’t sure what surprised him more—that she wasn’t crying, or that she wasn’t trying to get out the door and go after Brett to finish what she’d started.
“With Chris on the other side now, there’s no reason for you to go back to the Shrivers’. We’ll get your things and move you to the house, to an extra bedroom.”
“No. I’m staying there. I’m going to figure out Bruno’s plans from Melanie. If Tim’s gone, she’ll be with Bruno even more. She may even go with him on his trip.”
“I can’t let you do that, Sasha. If they find out you’re Anabo, it’s all over.”
“They won’t find out because they won’t be suspicious. I’m not afraid of Mr. Bruno. I’d like to kill him.”
“He’ll sense that as much as fear, and wonder why.”
“I’m going to find out where that meeting is, because once you know, you won’t need to keep B
runo around.”
“Then what? Are you still hell-bent to lose what you have of Mephisto and go back to how you were before?”
“I don’t know. I can’t think real well right now because it’s taking every bit of concentration not to shove you out of the way and go after Brett.”
He’d spent decades learning how to control the instinct to take the lost souls out. He realized he had a new problem with Sasha. “Go back to class, get your backpack, and leave. If he speaks to you, answer without looking at him and force yourself to think about anything but how much you hate him. Can you do that?”
“I think so.”
“I’ll be waiting just outside the door.”
He grabbed her hand and walked her back down the hall, then waited while she went inside, hoping she could get out of there without attacking Bruno. She was incredibly strong, but no match for a Skia. As soon as she came out, he glanced around, saw no one, and hauled her into his arms. Five seconds later, they were in the war room.
“Why are we here?”
“Everything’s changed, Sasha.”
“By everything, you mean me, right?”
“Yeah, pretty much.” He hit the intercom, and within a minute, his brothers were all there, looking from him to Sasha.
Key must have been in the greenhouse. He had soil on his hands and was brushing them together while he gave Jax a serious stare. “Talk now.”
Jax explained what just happened, aware that Phoenix was freaking more than anyone else.
As soon as he finished, his closest brother said to Sasha, “No way are you going back to that house. It’d be like leaving a lamb in a lion’s den.”
“A lamb with teeth,” Key said with a funny smile, his eyes on Sasha. “So you tried to kill a lost soul. How do you feel right now? Still wishing you could finish him off? Or are you having some regret about wanting to kill someone?”
“No regret.” She looked toward Phoenix. “If I go back, it’s a possible way to find out where the Skia meeting will be.”
“We’re watching every move Bruno makes, and we can do the same to Melanie. Your going back is pointless, and isn’t gonna happen.”
“Don’t I get any say in this? What about free will?”
Phoenix came toward her, walking like he had to hold himself back. “If free will means you die, then to hell with free will. I’ll lock you up and sit on you if you try to go back.”
Without knowing she was stomping on the eggshells they’d tiptoed across for over a hundred years, she asked curiously, “Did Jane change like I’m changing? Did she try to kill somebody?”
He stopped in his tracks and swayed like she’d slapped him. Nobody said a word, waiting to hear what he would say. His face was chalky white. “Jane was …” He swallowed. “She couldn’t walk. I lied about her sister. She wasn’t sick. She was perfect in every way, until she pledged her soul because she was told it would heal Jane.”
Jax stared at Phoenix, incredulous. His brother had never told him Jane couldn’t walk. He glanced at his brothers and could see they were just as dumbfounded.
“When I found her, that night of the ball, she was in another room, with all the old ladies, sitting alone. I thought it was weird, but was so elated to find an Anabo, I didn’t think so much about it. Until I told her to stand up. Everyone was frozen but her and the Skia.”
“You can’t freeze Skia?”
He shook his head. “Or Anabo. Later, when I went to see her, I told her I could fix her legs, but she wouldn’t let me touch her, not for a long time. She was the daughter of an aristocrat, very proper, even with a guy alone in her room.”
“So you didn’t kiss her two hours after meeting her, like Jax did.”
“No, it was a long time later, several weeks. Not only was she freaked about the Mephisto, about Eryx and all the rest, she was terribly upset that I’d taken her twin to Hell on Earth. When she finally allowed me to heal her, it was bittersweet, because she saw her handicap as the reason she’d lost her sister. I wanted her to understand that yes, her sister had done it for her, but it was so she wouldn’t be something less than perfect, because they were so beautiful, made such a lovely pair. It was vanity that made her sister pledge, but Jane couldn’t see it. I wanted her to. I wanted her to change, to be like me, so she’d understand. M told me I should kiss her, so I did, but like I said, it was a different time.”
“Not much spit?”
He shook his head. “She hardly changed at all. Then I hit on the brilliant idea that marking her would speed everything up, and she’d get it and stop being so ambivalent about me.”
“So she wouldn’t let you do more than give her a honey-I’m-home peck on the lips, but she let you sleep with her?”
“There’s some of the story I’m leaving out. The point is, once that happened, she died, so the answer is no, she didn’t change like you, and she didn’t try to kill anyone. She didn’t live long enough to have a chance, to do what she was born to do. I’m not going to let that happen to you.”
Sasha looked around the room, then said to Jax, “You and your brothers didn’t know any of this, did you?”
Speechless, he shook his head.
She huffed out an impatient breath. “Guys. Sheesh.” She looked at Phoenix. “That was really hard, wasn’t it?”
“If it makes you understand why I won’t let you go back, it was worth it.”
“I understand.” She leaned against the wall and conceded defeat. “You’re right that it isn’t worth the risk, not to mention that it’d be miserable. And once they’re gone, I’d have to come here anyway. I have nowhere else to go.”
“We could take you to Russia, to be with your mother,” Key said. “You have papers now, and it might be hard to explain that to her, but you could think of something. You always have a choice. We obviously want you to stay with us, but not as a last resort.”
Ty’s cell rang, and he answered it quickly, nodding before he said, “Got it,” and hung up. He looked around the room at all of them. “Tim’s doppelgänger is ready.”
Key said, “Everybody up on the plan, or do we need to review?”
They all said no.
“Then let’s do it.”
“What about Sasha?” Jax asked.
His oldest brother gave her a look. “Until she’s all in, she can’t be at a takedown.”
“Then I’m taking her to the Shriver’s to get her stuff.”
“We all go, or no one goes. You know that, Jax.”
Yeah, he knew that. It bugged him to leave her right now, but he didn’t have a choice. “I’ll meet you in the front hall,” he told Key, already reaching for Sasha with one hand and her backpack with the other. Two seconds later, they were in his room, but he didn’t let her go. Tossing her backpack aside, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. With lots of spit.
When he stopped, she gazed up at him with bedroom eyes, until they widened, like she was surprised. “Jax, I just figured out Phoenix’s problem.”
“You were thinking about Phoenix while I was kissing you?”
“I was thinking that you’re different, and I suddenly realized why he’s so miserable. It’s because he changed as much as Jane did, but when she died, he stopped. He couldn’t go back to how he was before, but he couldn’t move forward, either. He sees things differently, which is why he doesn’t go looking for anonymous sex, because it can’t be all about him anymore.” She studied his face, then said softly, “Last night, you asked me that question because you’re becoming like me as fast as I’m becoming like you.”
He knew she was right. What he didn’t know was if it was permanent. If she left and returned to how she was before, would he? Had Phoenix kept the changes because Jane died?
He thought about it and realized it made no difference. Even if his changes were forever, if he had to spend the rest of time more miserable than the past thousand years, he’d have no regrets. She was here now, and he would enjoy every minute until she wasn’t. r />
His brothers were waiting for him, but he bent his head to kiss her one more time.
Two hours later, Sasha was working on calculus when Jax called and said he was out front, in the car. “Let’s go get your stuff while the Shrivers are at the funeral home.”
“I’ll be right down.” After she slid into her coat, she left his room in search of the stairs, took a wrong turn, and wound up in a dead-end hallway.
He called again. “Where are you?”
“Lost.”
“Close your eyes and imagine you’re out here, beside the car.”
She stopped walking and did what he said. Damn, what a rush! When she opened her eyes, she was outside, but instead of being next to the old Mercedes, she was standing on the hood.
Hopping down to the snow-covered ground, she opened the passenger door to the sound of his laughter. She’d never heard him laugh like this, and it made her happy, made her smile, which totally killed any attempt to fake like she was mad at him for laughing at her. “I didn’t know I could do that. How did I do that?”
He only laughed harder. “Not very well. I said … beside the car.”
By the time he was halfway down the aspen-lined drive, he’d stopped laughing, but he was still grinning. “Until you become immortal, you can’t do it when you’re not on the mountain, or go anywhere off the mountain, but that’s not a bad thing.” He almost laughed again. “No telling what you might land on.”
“That was way cool. I’m going to practice when we get back.”
He looked across at her, his eyes still laughing. “You liked that, did you?”
“Totally loved it.”
When they reached Telluride, he drove straight to the Shrivers’, and she let them in with the key hidden at the back of the house.
“While you’re packing, I’m going to nose around and see if I can find anything about Bruno’s meeting.”
It took her less than a quarter hour to pack, and when she was done, she went to look for Jax. She found him in Melanie and Tim’s bedroom, poking through drawers. “Any luck?”