A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums (Lilith and Co. #1)

Chapter 10

Chapter

Ten

C onnor ran through the night. A blur of animal running faster than any human eyes had the ability to focus on until we finally reached Raven, the cemetery, and finally, the mausoleum.

“What are we going to do for clothes?” I asked once he stopped. “You can’t go down there naked.”

“Since I don’t usually have the time to strip before I change, Luc keeps a special closet that’s always stocked for me.”

“Okay, but you won’t change back until you have something to dress in?”

He laughed in my head. It came out sounding like a gruff grumble in real life. “Doesn’t take much, does it?”

“No. And it’s annoying.” This whole protective mate bit. But then again, I wouldn’t have been too pleased with Jeffery going completely buff in front of other people. Not that he couldn’t have done it if he’d wanted to. His body, his choice, and all that. I just wouldn’t have liked it much and I really didn’t like the idea of Connor baring it all to the masses.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“Still a bit tired. I should’ve asked what she’d given me.”

“From now on, we ask before you drink.”

The door to the mausoleum opened. Connor started down the stone spiral steps. The door closed again behind us.

Luc stood at the mouth of the hallway with his arms folded over his chest, glaring at my mate and me. “Took you long enough. Do you realize how late you are?”

Connor gestured to Luc’s office with a tip of his head and continued past the fallen angel without stopping. Once the three of us got to the room and the door was shut, Connor walked over to the closet that I hadn’t noticed the last time I’d been in here. He changed to a man, only giving me a glimpse of his tight behind as he ducked inside.

A few moments later, he stepped out in jeans and a T-shirt. Blue jeans. Red T-shirt. He had socks and a pair of red-and-white-checked Vans in his hand. He walked over to the infamous sofa, the one we’d first— ahem –on. Yeah, that one. And he dropped down to slide on the socks and shoes.

I stood mesmerized, watching him. “ Damn …” I accidentally let slip. Both Connor and Luc looked at me. “What?” I asked. “I’m a lucky woman. I get to hit that.” Connor chuckled as I pointed at him.

“So why are you late?” Luc asked. “You should’ve started hours ago.”

“ Shit . Forgot to call. Simone was visited by a woman in her dream. She had some important things to say to Simone, but we didn’t understand it all. We met with a witch to see if Simone could remember when she was born and we were attacked.”

“Attacked?”

Connor nodded.

“By who?”

“That’s the ten-million-dollar question,” Connor added. “His face was blurred.”

Luc cocked his head. “Blurred?”

“As if a spell had been put on him to purposely obscure his features. He was large and wore head-to-toe black.”

“That could have been anybody,” Luc unhelpfully answered.

“Luc,” I said to get his attention. When I had it, I asked, “What do you know?”

His chin jerked back as if I’d hit him. “Excuse me?”

“I don’t mean you were involved with my attack, but when Connor and I first met, you told him to get to me, that ‘something started’ or something along those lines. My gut tells me that everything going on is a whole lot bigger than me. I think there’s a reason Jeffery died, and that Connor’s sister disappeared. And I think they’re both related to why I was attacked.”

Luc walked over to sit at his desk. “We all have quadrants down here.” He pulled open a drawer to grab an ancient-looking—but in remarkably good condition—map, unrolling it. “Obviously, this area falls under my jurisdiction.” Luc’s quadrant encompassed all of North America, Central America, and South America, along with all the islands in close proximity. “Lev gets the oceans because none of the rest of us wanted to take that on.” Luc then went on to point to different quadrants on the map with different names in each quadrant. “As you can see, some of us have larger quadrants than others—Mo was so ticked that he didn’t get South America. He’s always thought of himself as a Latin Lover.”

“Mo?” I asked and both he and Connor narrowed their pretty eyes on me like I was the dim kid in class.

“As MO deus,” Luc replied. “Demon of Lust. You might have heard of him.” I crossed my arms over my chest and shot him my meanest ‘ say one more word and I’ll end you ’ eyes. “Anyway,” he went on, looking back down at the map while snickering. “It has the potential to equal out because some smaller quadrants have vastly larger numbers of people to corrupt.”

“Right.” I checked my temper. “That makes sense. But what does any of this have to do with Connor and me?”

“That, I don’t know. Think of it like the mob. Bosses want more territory.”

I nodded my understanding.

“We all keep track of the goings-on in the other quadrants. When Connor first met you, even though he wasn’t sure it was you… Actually, I have a theory about that. I think your powers were bound as a baby. Whatever you are, you’re too strong to keep them bound forever. But that’s why our boy here didn’t exactly know it was you.” Wow! That made total sense. “Anyway, when you two first crossed paths, the other quadrants lit up. I’d had a feeling that something was coming; I’d had that feeling a long time. When the quadrants lit up, I knew whatever is coming started that day and it started with you and Connor meeting.”

“And you neglected to tell me this why?” Connor practically growled at his friend who I felt, even as a fallen angel, was taking his life in his hands.

“I told you what I could. You knew I had that bad feeling. You also knew when I felt it start. But I can’t tell you everything. It would take away the fun of watching you swing.”

“Even if it involves me and my mate ?”

“Even then. I hate that it’s that way, but it is that way. I don’t make the rules. You get an audience with the big guy upstairs, feel free to ask him why. Until then, my hands are tied sometimes.”

Connor chuffed a couple of times. “Can we go back to Simone’s powers?” Given the chuffing and the tone of his voice, it was clear he vacillated between sulking and wanting to tear Luc’s office apart in a fit of anger. “Tell me more about your theory.”

He turned thoughtful eyes on me. “It’s just something that I’ve been thinking about.”

“Why did my powers only show on the full moon?” I asked.

“Because it’s the most powerful time of the month. With your strength and the power of the full moon, the binding couldn’t hold. And you both know you two are more powerful together. That’s the purpose of mates.”

“But we’re not regular mates,” Connor said, stepping closer to me. He wrapped his arm around my waist, tugging me taut against his chest. Luc waited, hands folded over the map, for Connor to finish. “Agatha—that’s the witch we sought out to help us—she told us that I’m her protector.”

Luc raised his eyebrow. “You’re Agatha’s protector?”

“No, come on, man.” He tsked . “I’m Simone’s protector. That’s why we’re mates.”

“But protectors are saved for?—”

“Important people,” I finished for him. “Yeah, we heard. Who else besides fallen angels get protectors?”

“You don’t have to be fallen. Anyone important to the world, you know, that whole good-versus-evil dynamic, gets a protector. But when you’re mated to your protector…” He trailed off as if forming another thought. “That’s huge,” he finally finished.

Huge. Of course. Why would it have been anything different?

“Who is this Agatha?” Luc asked next.

“She’s a very powerful witch,” I said. “Old family. Goes back centuries.”

“Did this Agatha tell you anything else?”

“Only that we need to get to Ireland. Her relative should be able to help me access my memories again. We need to find out who my parents were so I can find out what I am. Agatha, Connor, and I believe that whatever I am, it’s relevant to what’s going on.”

Luc pondered this a moment. “At the end of your shift, you can take her through the catacombs. It’ll be the fastest way for you to get her to Ireland without being seen.”

“Catacombs?” I asked.

He nodded. “They connect the quadrants. A lot of us don’t go topside often. It tends to lead to trouble. But that doesn’t mean we don’t take meetings.”

I looked to Connor. He dipped his chin once. Although we were still new to this silent communication thing, I thought he got me. We didn’t have time to wait until his end of shift. Even as much as I hated to leave Luc in the lurch, he had to understand why Connor would do that.

People attacked us tonight.

To kill us.

Kill.

Us.

I let that thought sink in. I hated that thought.

“I’m showing Simone around the place,” Connor said. “Call me if you need me.” Then he held his hand out to me. The moment I grabbed it, Connor started pulling me out of the office, and with his long stride, I struggled to keep up with him.

“Take it down a notch there, Beethoven. There’s plenty of time to show me around.”

“Beethoven? Now you’re really reaching.”

“ Huh —I thought it was a cleverly used example of a lesser-talked-about dog movie.”

Connor rolled his eyes at me while shaking his head in what I thought looked a lot like humorous exasperation. But I’d like to note that although he found me exasperating, he slowed down, too. We moved down a hallway that I’d never been in before, obviously, since I’d only ever been down the hallway that led to Luc’s office.

The farther away from Luc’s office we walked, the grumpier the faces of the people or demons around us grew. It both said good things about Luc and bad things about the others who ran Hades.

Eventually, we hit a set of stairs that appeared to head down into a basement. “Do I want to know what’s in the basement of hell?” I asked.

“In this case, you do.” He tugged me to get moving along with him down the steps. The stone walls on either side gave off a rotten egg smell. I fanned my hand in front of my nose. “Ugh… no more chicken for you. Bad dog.”

He glared. I snickered. Quietly, of course.

“Connor, where are you taking me?”

He didn’t answer until we reached the bottom step, which opened into a kind of narrow hallway made of stone that seeped water from the water table and left puddles on the ground. “Catacombs.”

I stared at him, approvingly. “Are you breaking the rules?” I asked giddy that he not only totally got me in Luc’s office, but he went off script for me. “I mean, didn’t Luc say you couldn’t use these until the end of your shift?” So I really didn’t think my look back in Luc’s office would work on Connor as much as annoy him. Score one for Simone.

“Luc doesn’t have a mate who was attacked tonight.”

“Aw, Connor Baghest, does this mean you like me?”

“Not by choice,” he deadpanned and I threw my head back laughing but quickly covered my mouth to keep others from hearing us. He pulled me in for a quick kiss before leading us into the hallway.

“Wow, you really do like my booty, to go all rogue guardian.” I bumped his hip with mine.

“I’ve had worse.”

“And by worse, you mean everyone who wasn’t me?”

“If you absolutely need that confirmation to massage your ego.”

“Massage me harder, baby.”

“Not joking, babe. Stay close to me and stay alert. We’re heading into Sat’s quadrant. He’s a nasty piece of work.”

“Sat?” I asked. Connor stared at me, lips pursed, waiting for it to click. Then it clicked. “Sat? Do you mean Satan?”

“There you go.”

“Give me a break. We aren’t all on a nickname basis with underlords.”

“Man acts like a tyrannical Goodfella.”

“Um… yikes!”

“Ever wonder why that part of the world has historically seen so many wars?”

I wrinkled my nose.

“Exactly.”

“I thought Satan and Lucifer were one and the same,” I said while it hit me that we were actually heading into Satan’s quadrant.

He shook his head. “Nope. That’s something the mortals got wrong. Although, some theologians got it right. There’re a few lists floating around.” Then he put a finger to his lips.

I nodded and kept in step right beside him as he led me through the maze of dank tunnels. Finally, we hit a stairwell.

“I need you to make it so they can’t see us,” Connor said, stopping me before ascending the steps. “Probably better if they can’t sense us, either. Think you can do that?”

“I’ll do my best.” Then I began to think the words: “Don’t let them see us. Don’t let them sense us.” I chanted those over and over in my head.

“I can still see you and myself,” he said, sounding defeated.

“That’s because I didn’t manifest for you not to see us. Is that what you want?”

“No. Not if you’re sure this’ll work.”

“I think it will. It has in the past, but there’s a reason I don’t offer a money-back guarantee.”

He pressed his forehead to mine. “You got this,” he whispered. I smiled. For Connor, for Connor and I to have a chance at a future together, I believed I had this.

Nodding, I took the first step up the stairs with my mate at my side. To be on the safe side, I continued to chant my chant in my head until we reached the top of the stairs, entering into a beige, governmental office straight out of the 1970s, sucking all fun and happiness out of the air. If working in a place like this didn’t make one vengeful, I didn’t know what would.

“This is horrible,” I whispered. “Maybe if we painted his office lilac, he’d give up the wrath.”

“Sweetheart, he chose the color scheme to make his employees hate their lives. Wrath is in his blood.”

Oh, right. With that little ditty of information floating around in my head, it was now or never. We walked holding hands down the ugly hallway, unforgiving incandescent lighting and all, passing cubicle after cubicle without anyone turning a head. We weren’t out of the woods yet. Those employees could’ve been conditioned to keep their heads down, nose-to-the-grindstone, and all that.

A man in an ill-fitting business shirt and beige slacks with pleats walked out of one of the offices along with a woman in a very unflattering gray dress and her hair pulled back in a tight bun. They moved right past us without a second glance, and I melted against Connor. As he led us to the stairwell that opened to Ireland, another office door opened. In the doorway stood a man. He scared the crap out of me. Black hair slicked back. Dark suit with a white button-down, the top two buttons undone at the collar. He wore thick, gold chains and all his fingers sported thick, gold rings. A scar ran down the left side of his face.

That had to be him.

Satan.

Connor tugged me to keep moving. For just a moment, I swore he glanced in our direction, but it passed quickly and we ran up those steps. My calves and thighs burned by the time we reached the top, but the door opened and we stepped outside, finding ourselves next to a mausoleum that might have been even older than the one in Raven. The cemetery definitely was way older.

“Don’t take the juju off us yet,” Connor whispered.

I didn’t plan on it.

We walked to the edge of the cemetery, out the old gate, onto Irish soil.

Now we had to find Agatha’s relation.

That should be easy.

Not.