Soul Weaver Page 21

  With a mindless roar, Nathaniel charged. His shoulder sank into Saul’s ribs and sent him scrabbling across the ground.

  “Touch her again, and I will stuff your soul into a pit myself.” Nathaniel knotted his pendant’s broken chain and settled it over his head. The second he had substance, he ushered Chloe behind his back, standing between her and Saul.

  Saul rolled to his knees, flapping his wings to gain his feet. “You’ve bound her soul to yours.” Saul managed a single, winded laugh. “I’d almost given up hope, but she’s proof that stable resurrection is possible.” Hovering several feet aboveground, he whooped with triumph. “You’ve really done it.” His smile was fierce with relief. “Bring her and the shears. We’ll meet at your cabin and—”

  “The only place you’re going,” a familiar voice called, “is Dis.”

  Bran’s limping gate was broken by the use of a silver cane. “Delphi is expecting you.” He stopped a few feet away and planted his feet wide. “Now.”

  Nathaniel breathed a sigh of relief even as Saul’s gaze met his in a clear warning.

  “Do you know what the problem is with eavesdropping?” Saul settled to the ground close enough his wings eclipsed Bran. “You miss important parts of a conversation.”

  “Then why don’t you fill me in?” Bran waited. “What? Nothing to say? Things looked tense when I arrived, so I doubt you two were discussing the weather.”

  Saul shot Nathaniel a look. “Not that it’s any of your business, but we were making plans for tomorrow—after the inquiry.” His expression turned apologetic when he glanced back at Bran. “Sorry, I would have invited you, but it’s for adults only.”

  Ignoring the insult, Bran turned to Nathaniel. “Is he telling the truth?”

  “Of course I am.” Saul didn’t give him a chance to answer. “I wanted to learn about the woman who’s captured Nathaniel’s interest. So he invited me for lunch at his cabin.”

  “Nathaniel?” Bran sounded doubtful.

  “I can’t keep Delphi waiting.” Saul tapped the hilt of his dagger and Nathaniel got the message. Pay now or pay later. “So am I meeting you for lunch… or should I plan on seeing you in Dis?”

  “I’ll meet you.” He had no other choice.

  “Good.” Saul chuckled. “Until then, I can see you two lovebirds need some time alone.” He pointed farther down the wall where Chloe had crept several feet from behind Nathaniel. “Let me give you some brotherly advice. Women aren’t keen on being lied to, no matter the reason.”

  He leaped skyward and vanished through a portal sliced by his blade.

  Nathaniel watched until the rift healed itself, then faced Bran. “I’ll meet you out front.”

  Though he didn’t look happy, he nodded and made his way toward the sidewalk.

  When they had some privacy, Nathaniel approached Chloe.

  She shrank back against the bricks. “Don’t touch me.” Imprints from Saul’s fingers dotted her throat and deepened her voice. Tears spilled over her cheeks, but her palms were too busy feeling their way along the wall to reach up and wipe them away.

  The fear in her dark eyes cut him to the bone. “You lied to me.”

  “I didn’t have a choice.” Not if he wanted to save her soul. “I still don’t have a choice.”

  “If you think I’m going anywhere with you or that thing, you can forget it.” Her chest rose and fell with frantic breaths. “I know what you are. I’ve seen it.” More tears fell. “I’ve felt it.”

  “I didn’t know you were being hurt.” The need to touch her, hold her safe in his arms, brought him closer. Her sharp cry made him take a step back. “You have to believe me.”

  “I don’t have to believe a word you say,” she said. “You’re not who I thought you were. You’re not even human. For all I know, you’re not even real.” She swallowed past her bruised throat. “I’m going upstairs, I’m taking my pills, and you’re going back to whatever hole in my psyche you crawled out of.” Shoving past him, she broke and ran for the door.

  From the mouth of the alley, Bran’s worried gaze lit on him and Nathaniel knew he had to let her go, for now. There were precious few hours left and he needed a plan.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Saul’s mind spun with possibilities until he was drunk on them. His brother had done what he failed to do. Instead of the usual sting those revelations brought, Saul felt only renewed hope.

  Nathaniel had done it.

  How had he done it?

  The woman, Chloe, was a marked soul. The harvester bond had linked them. Damn it. He’d been inside her head, but her images were garbled and useless. She’d committed no crimes. She was clean, a blank slate, almost as if something had shielded her thoughts, memories, from him.

  Nathaniel, on the other hand… Saul’s wings lifted him higher and higher into the sky. Oh, his brother had been a very, very naughty harvester. Saul would have never thought his brother had it in him to defy Delphi, let alone over a woman, and not after the way Saul had lost Mairi.

  Yet he had. Oh yes, he had. The scandal was delicious, and Saul took a moment to savor it.

  “Nice. Real nice,” Reuel drawled. “Is that your handiwork?”

  Saul blinked, confused for a moment. In his excitement, he’d sliced a rift that spat him out at Mairi’s gravesite. He applied a somber expression before turning toward Reuel. “Of course not.”

  “I figured that’s how you’d want to play it.” Reuel tapped his wrist. “Time’s up. I’m here for the soul. I trust you have it for me?”

  “I was just on my way to collect.” Saul took a step back, palmed his dagger.

  “Do you really want to play this game?” Reuel loosed a shrill whistle.

  Air stirred and dust blew into Saul’s eyes. His mouth parched when he heard it. Feathers rustled, twelve sets of wings thrust. It was the sound of his end approaching if he didn’t act fast.

  Trates hit the ground first. His head fell back and his lungs filled with fresh air. “I remember this.”

  “It’s too bright.” Arestes squinted. “I don’t like it. Let’s be done with this and return home.”

  The seraphs were panting, but not from the flight. They wove on their feet, blinking rapidly.

  Saul suppressed his glee. Poor little seraphs weren’t used to this altitude compared to Dis.

  Pity their handler had forgotten how long it’d been since these seraphs last saw Earth.

  “Wait a minute.” Reuel stepped between Saul and the seraphs. His expression was grave. “I warned you this day was coming. If I don’t turn in either you or that soul, then Delphi will skin me alive, and that’s not really how I see myself going. Tell me where the missing soul is and we’ll collect it, together. ”

  Turn in Chloe? Never. Saul wanted to crawl inside her and figure out how she worked. Take her apart, piece by piece until he understood how Nathaniel had succeeded where he had failed.

  If his brother knew the secret Azrael had withheld, then Saul would be freed of that burden as well. No more bowing and scraping to the warped angel. No more Zared. No more Hell and no more creatures to feed and coddle when he’d just as soon slaughter them all and be done with it.

  He was tired of all the hiding, secrets, and lies. He wanted peace. Was that so much to ask?

  Saul braced himself. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

  “Glad to hear it.” In a blink, Trates stood before Saul. “I’ve waited a long time for this.”

  Arestes appeared a heartbeat later. “I anticipated a hunt.” He sighed. “Ah well.”

  “Grab him, boys.” Reuel had his knife in hand. “Let’s get him to Dis before he gets ideas.”

  “Delphi said to bring Saul to his office.” Trates grasped Saul’s upper arm. “He didn’t say we couldn’t interrogate him first.” The seraph grinned. “I’m sure our master would appreciate any information you could give us before your punishment commences.”

  Saul kept calm. He waited until Reuel sliced his portal
and it shut on his heels, waited until Arestes grabbed for his free arm, then Saul struck. He sank his knife into the column of Arestes’s throat. Blood spurted. Trates howled. With a quick twist, Saul freed the blade from Arestes and sank it into Trates’s gut. The seraph staggered. Surprise lit their eyes as they bared their teeth.

  “It’s been a long time since you two came topside.” Saul staggered out of reach while Trates helped Arestes to the ground. “How are you feeling? A little dizzy? Headache? Stomachache?”

  Arestes gurgled. Trates hissed but had removed his shirt to cover his brother’s wound. They were trapped and they knew it. If one twin died, the other did too. Trates wouldn’t risk that loss.

  “You’ve signed your death warrant.” Trates’s wings ruffled. “We are Master’s favorites. He will come for you.”

  Saul shrugged off the threat. “He’ll have to take a number.”

  With that, Saul sliced a rift straight into Nathaniel’s bedroom. He had to know if his brother was armed. No. He spotted the shears in the same place they had been. Drawn to them, he had to touch them, had to try one last time. He picked them up. “Work, damn you.” He squeezed them, but no energy pulsed, no soft glow emanated from them. “Work. Work.” His pleas went unanswered.

  Furious, he flung them across the room. They clattered on impact. The empty sound mocked him. He forced himself to walk to them, pick them up again, and arrange them exactly as they had been. It wouldn’t do for Nathaniel to become suspicious. He must be tending his mortal. Once he had her calmed, he would return for his shears. Saul had no doubt of that. Once they were in his brother’s hands, then Saul could bargain. Finally he had leverage. Finally Nathaniel had been the one to screw up beyond salvation. Now he had a choice to make. Either he transferred the shears to Saul or Saul gave Chloe to Delphi. Nathaniel would never allow Delphi to snuff out her life.

  Of course, what Nathaniel might not know was that Saul wouldn’t either. He would protect her to his death, anything to discover the secret of her creation. The time for revolution was now. All the careful centuries of experimentation were over. Armed with the shears, Heaven would be forced to kneel at his feet. Tempted as he was to cut Azrael from this moment of glory, Saul had to have the angel’s backing. His throat burned and he tasted bile. If he fell, he expected Azrael to make good on his promise. Damn the consequences. Saul was taking the shears and the woman.

  With a trembling hand, he sliced a rift into Hell and went to rally his soldiers.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chloe slammed the door to the store shut behind her. Customers glanced up. Neve called her name. She saw them, heard Neve, and she tried to speak, but her feet were running on autopilot and her legs wouldn’t stop pumping. She ran past Neve, shouldered past her customers, and hit the stairs leading to her apartment.

  Seconds later, footsteps thumped behind her as the old staircase protested such rough use. Somewhere below, a patron asked if anything was the matter. Neve paused to tell him everything was fine.

  By the time Chloe heard Neve jog over the threshold, she was sliding across her bathroom’s tile floor. She opened her medicine cabinet with a shaky hand and her fumbling fingers knocked amber vials into the sink and floor, as well as into the trash and toilet.

  Neve skittered to a stop seconds behind her. “You went out,” she panted, “alone.”

  Chloe ignored the implied question and shouldered past Neve to reach the kitchen and her cupboard. There was nothing to tell. Nothing had happened. None of it was real. Everything was fine.

  “God, Chloe, your throat.” Neve grabbed her shoulders and spun her around. “Are those fingerprints?”

  Chloe blinked. Could two people share the same delusion?

  “Who did this to you?” Yanking aside the collar of Chloe’s shirt, Neve fanned her fingers as if testing the distance between dots. “Whoever it was had a mighty large hand.” Her eyes narrowed. “I don’t suppose he has a hammer and knows how to use it?”

  “No.” Chloe blurted her denial. “Nathaniel wouldn’t… He would never hurt me.”

  God, she was an idiot. He was some kind of supernatural killer. Of course he would hurt her.

  “You don’t sound convinced.” Neve grabbed Chloe by the hand and dragged her to the table, shoving her down in a chair long enough to pour her a glass of water and pry the pill bottle from her hand. “Half or whole?” she asked.

  “Whole.” She definitely needed the whole thing, because if Neve saw those fingerprints, then Chloe wasn’t crazy. On impulse, she unbuttoned her shirt and pulled the halves apart. Four purple-black splotches dotted across the puckered scar on her chest. She couldn’t deny the truth. The proof was written in her skin. Whatever those things were, they were real.

  “What in the world are those? More bruises?” Neve yanked her shirt open before she could fasten it. “Chloe”—her voice shook with emotion—“I understand if you think you need to protect Nathaniel. Really, I do. But you can’t let him hurt you.” She sank into a chair opposite Chloe. “He seems like a nice guy, I liked him too, but my ex was the same way. He always had a smile for everyone but me. Always had big plans and other people to carry them off for him. When we were alone, though…” She shivered. “A nice guy wouldn’t treat you this way.”

  That was the problem. Since meeting Nathaniel in the flesh, he had been a perfect gentleman. Her graphic dreams had stopped, and being freed from that nightly fear had been euphoric all on its own. The nightmare she remembered was cruel and merciless, but the man was thoughtful and kind. They were polar opposites. So which was the real Nathaniel?

  She jumped when Neve touched her arm. “I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but maybe he picked you for a reason. A woman with your condition, living alone, he might have seen you as an easy target.”

  He had targeted her, months ago, though Chloe couldn’t begin to guess why.

  “Are you listening to me?” Neve shook her arm, jarred her from her thoughts.

  “I am.” Chloe pulled back. “It’s… complicated.”

  “From the inside, it always seems that way.” She folded her arms across her chest. “Mark my words, with distance comes clarity.”

  Distance was a luxury Chloe couldn’t afford. She was stuck in here, and he was… “Can you do me a favor?”

  “Name it,” Neve said without hesitation.

  “Check the front window and see if Nathaniel is still out there.”

  With a frown, she checked and then returned with her report. “He’s talking with another man. It’s not the same one as before. This one has a cane.”

  It must be the third man from the alley, the one who sent Saul away. Could that monster really be Nathaniel’s brother?

  Dropping her elbows to the table and her head in her hands, she groaned through a budding headache. Nothing added up. Not the dreams. Not Nathaniel. Not the man with a cane or the demon with an attitude.

  Each question fed into another question. Why her? Why now? What exactly had Nathaniel done to her to make Saul want her so badly? He’d mentioned binding their souls. That wasn’t possible, was it? And why were they keeping the third man in the dark about it all? He seemed to have some status since he ordered Saul away, so why did he allow the others to shut him out?

  “Is he part of the problem?” Neve’s lips set in a hard line. “I can call the cops and get them shooed away from the store if you want.”

  Chloe doubted the cops could do much with either of them. Saul had vanished before her eyes, and she knew from her dreams Nathaniel could manage the same trick. The same held true for the third man. He was in good company if he needed to pull a disappearing act.

  “No, I’ve never seen him before today,” she said. “I don’t know who he is.”

  “You know,” Neve said, “you could always pay what you owe on that porch and tell Nathaniel you never want to see him again.”

  Chloe’s laughter rang sharp. “I doubt that would work.”

  Nathaniel had g
iven his word to Saul that he would bring her to his cabin, and she got the feeling the terms were nonnegotiable. As far as they were concerned, she was going to that cabin one way or the other. All that remained was whether she put up a fight or caved like the coward she feared becoming.

  “I know it’s a stretch for you—but is there any place I could take you? Somewhere Nath—that no one knows about? How about my place? It’s not much, and you’d be dodging the kids, but…” Neve searched her face. “You could take some time to think, get yourself together before you deal with him.”

  Risk dragging Neve into her private hell? No way would Chloe do that to Neve or her kids. Chloe was tired of running from her fear. She was going to make her stand, here, in her home, on her terms.

  “Chloe.” Nathaniel’s voice rolled through her mind as comforting warmth embraced her.

  Her traitorous heart accelerated at the sound, and something unfurled inside her, reaching for him through some undefined channel. Her sigh was one of relief when they connected. What that said for her questionable sanity and her sense of self-preservation, she didn’t want to know. Forget a ring on her finger; she’d settle for a soundproof box for her brain.

  “I’m not listening to you.” She thought hard in his direction. “Stay out of my head.”

  “And I’ve lost you again.” Neve sighed. “Well, it didn’t hurt to toss the idea out there.” She tucked a hair behind Chloe’s ear. “You’re strung out and hurting, sweetie. You need to rest. I’ll lock up early so you don’t have to listen to all the bumping around downstairs.”

  Noise was part of life over the store. Chloe barely heard it anymore. Still, if a few locked doors between her and Nathaniel would make Neve feel better, she wouldn’t complain.

  “Thanks.” Chloe smiled up at her. “I mean it. I think I’ll go lie down and try to read for a while. Get my head back on straight.”