Wayward Devils (Souls of the Road #4)

Chapter 15

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

T here was a cool breeze blowing through the kitchen, just a soft breath of a thing whisking over my forehead and face.

“I was dead—that monster killed me, turned me into nothing but a ghost,” I said. “How could I be the voice?”

Raven picked up a cup of coffee and drank, refusing to answer me.

“You weren’t a ghost,” Ricky said. “And no, you weren’t barely a ghost, either. When you were angry, really angry, you moved the world, Brogan. We could hear you. Even through the veil between the living and dead.”

“It makes sense,” Lula said.

“It doesn’t make sense,” I said. “No damn god is going to halfway kill me and you just so she can make us into puppets she can control.”

Raven tsk ed, the softest of sounds. “Gods always get what they want. You know that. Gods will go to any extreme it takes to get something they really want. Something like revenge, and At? wants revenge on all the gods who wouldn’t let her play with their spellbook.”

I was pacing, couldn’t hold still. “This can’t… Why?” I heard the volume of my words but couldn’t find the dial to turn it down. “Why us? There are millions of people, billions . Why us?”

Silence ticked between the songs of birds warbling outside. A flock had found Crow’s offering and were making their way through the field.

Lorde walked through the door, warm from the sun, wagging her tail. She leaned against my leg, a fuzzy, stalwart presence. I stopped pacing and dropped my hand into her soft fur.

Lu stared out the kitchen window, her eyes the palest color of honey. I couldn’t read her expression.

Ricky frowned, her palms braced on the edge of the countertop, arms locked straight behind her. “It’s a good question, Raven. Why them?”

He put his cup down. “You have very strong souls,” he said kindly, the voice of a father, an uncle, a brother who was trying to catch your shoulder and guide you through the darkness of a frightening place. “Strong enough that a piece of your soul was torn from you and fused to Lula’s. Strong enough a piece of her soul was torn from her and fused to you. Yin. Yang. She lived, mostly. You died, mostly. Not many can survive that. It’s probable not many did.”

Ricky swore softly at that revelation.

“You and Lula survived. Because you refused to stop,” Raven went on. “You refused to stop loving, to stop hoping. Even when it seemed there was no tomorrow left for you.”

“The watch.” Lu turned. Her amber eyes were clear. “It helped,” she said. “To touch you. To see you.”

I moved to her, unable to deal with the distance between us. I put my arm around her, and she leaned into me.

“I don’t think At? expected you would have the watch,” Ricky said.

Raven’s smile was wide. “No, she did not. That was a nice bit of luck, a very special bit of magic.”

“Did you send it to them, Raven?” Ricky asked.

“Wish I had. Wish I’d done more. But I wrote off At? years ago and forgot that damn spellbook even existed.”

“Forgot?” Ricky said. “How do you forget a spellbook full of god power?”

“It was a lark, Ricky, a romp. And not the first or last I’ve been a part of.”

“A romp?” She scoffed. “It can destroy worlds. Destroy lives. Gods! I don’t think there’s a single creature more short-sighted or self-absorbed.”

“There isn’t,” Raven agreed. “I’ve been around for a long time. How could I not have forgotten powerful things? And, unfortunately,” he nodded toward us, “how could I not have overlooked important things?”

“Maybe because you care about them?” Ricky said. “And now that the book matters to you, now that you want it, you’re sticking your beak into other people’s business.”

“I stick my beak into people’s business because I like my beak there. This—this is definitely personal.”

“Because someone touched your precious spell in the book and dropped a car out of the sky?” she asked.

“Because someone used a single spell— mine —out of that damned book to threaten the people I love. To threaten my home.”

The god grew darker, shadows a feathered blackness around him.

“ That is why I am breaking a few minor, very small, rules about what I can and cannot do inside or outside Ordinary, with or without Fate, and shutting this problem down permanently.”

Ricky blew a raspberry. “Get in line. Cupid’s got dibs on the book.”

“Cupid doesn’t know how to keep it safe.”

“I’d like to be there when you tell him that,” she said.

“I can arrange it, but I don’t think you would like it.”

She pushed away from the counter. “So, if we believe you’re telling the truth…”

“I am. Because it benefits me to do so.”

“…then At? created the vampire-monster who turned Lula and half-killed Brogan.”

“Yes.”

“Then is Dominick that creature?” Ricky asked.

Lula inhaled and held that breath. I tightened my arm around her. I knew the answer. I knew it wasn’t what she wanted to hear.

“No. I don’t think so, no.”

The tension in Lula changed, and she released the breath.

“That isn’t why we’re going to help the witches,” I said. “If we do it—fight Dominick, kill Dominick—it’s because there’s a child’s life on the line. A child in danger isn’t something we walk away from.”

Raven spread his fingers. “I know. But I brought you here for Ricky to corroborate my information. She and the house are free to check if what I say is correct.”

“We will,” Ricky promised.

“What about the hunter, Hatcher?” I said.

Lula didn’t lean away from me, but I could tell she didn’t like this change of subject.

“He touched the book,” I said.

Silence.

“He held the book, Raven,” I insisted, “back in Illinois. He took it from us and shot Lorde.”

The house darkened, and I heard a distant growl.

“Calm down,” Ricky said. “Lorde’s fine. She’s right over there.”

The growling stopped, but the house lights were still darkened. Then a pile of toys and chew bones popped into existence next to Lorde.

Lorde yipped happily and sniffed her way through the offerings. She chose a squeaky ear of corn the size of a small country.

“Your point?” Raven asked.

Lorde chewed hard, and the corn squealed. She dropped it and yipped, batting it with her feet.

“That means Lula isn’t the only one who can touch it,” I said.

Raven shrugged. “The book chooses who can touch it. But what you’re trying to point out? That At? can just use someone like Hatcher to access the power in that book? No. The hunter would not work for her.”

“Why?”

“He’d probably explode.”

I gave him a look.

“I am capable of telling the truth, Brogan. Hatcher, if he’s human, or most other creatures, has only one soul. But you two have two souls, and each is welded to the other.” He jammed his fingers together and made a fist with both hands. “It gives you endurance. Makes you stronger. Strong enough to be a tool for a god. Well, not for me,” he unlocked his fingers. “I don’t use tools. I’m more hands on. After all, the dirty work is half the fun.”

“You asked us to bring the book to you,” Lula said.

“Ordinary. I asked you to bring it to Ordinary.”

“I don’t see you out there tracking it down,” I said.

“I think the witches have a line on it,” he said. “Haven’t I mentioned that yet?”

“Isn’t that convenient,” Ricky said. “The witches find the book while Lula and Brogan put their necks on the line saving a child from a vampire who is spoiling for a fight. Sounds like you’re gilding a bear trap, Raven.”

“Or I’m helping to get the book into the right hands, and that comes with risk. Sometimes you have to trust someone untrustable, Ricky.”

“Like you.”

“Life demands risk. You know that.”

Ricky had found a glass of lemonade and took a drink. The ice in the glass clattered. “You’re asking them to take a hell of a lot of a risk, Raven.”

“We can save the girl,” Lula said. “We will save her,” she said to me, “that was never the question. If we get Dominick’s blood, will the witches need more than their power to cure Rhianna? Will they need more to cure Variance?”

Raven looked at Ricky, and Ricky set down her lemonade. “Let me do some research.” She walked out of the kitchen toward her study.

“Remember,” Raven called after her. “He’s a witch vampire, not vampire witch.”

“How can I forget something I just learned ten minutes ago? And stop feeding the birds. You’ll attract geese, and they’ll crap all over my lawn.”

“I know you were talking to Brogan,” Lula said, “but I need to hear it from you. Do you think his blood will cure Rhianna?”

Raven rubbed at his jaw. I had a second to consider just how old of a creature he was, and just how many things he had experienced, known, and forgotten.

“If I had to guess,” he began in that low, kindly voice, “I’d put my money on the witches finding a way to bring her and her father back to his humanity.”

She nodded and looked up at me. “I’ll go ask Ricky for weapons.”

“Good,” I said, “good.”

She drew away. Then it was just me and Lorde and Raven in the kitchen. A headache settled behind my eyes. I wanted a shower and to sleep for a month. No, I wanted a vacation. Somewhere away from the Route. Away from all of this.

“You’ll want to get that,” Raven said.

The phone rang. There was now an old-fashioned, yellow landline telephone attached to the wall.

“It’s Ricky’s phone,” I said.

“Ricky’s busy.”

“Then you get it,” I said.

“I’m busy too. So busy.” He kicked his feet up into the empty chair and gulped down more coffee.

“For the love of—” I picked up the phone. “Hello.”

“Hi, Brogan, hi!” Abbi was breathless, happy.

“Did Ricky make moon cookies? I love moon cookies. And is Valentine there? I bet Valentine’s there. Oh, Cassia says hello. She wants to wave at you, no, she wants cookies too. No, oh…the phone?”

The sound of the phone being handled crackled through the line.

“We have information on Rhianna. A way to reach her,” Cassia said.

The pounding in my head got worse. “How?”

“We are witches,” she said. “We used magic, guided by the Moon Rabbit.”

“I’m very powerful! Very bright!” Abbi shouted so close to the receiver, I winced. “Like the sun!”

“How can she be reached?” I clarified.

“I’d rather not say over the phone. But we need to act quickly. Tonight…”

“Because it’s a full moon, and that’s better than a full sun!” Abbi said.

“…tonight is our chance,” Cassia agreed. “Can you be here?”

She didn’t ask where we were. I assumed Abbi had told her the number to dial for Ricky, but she might not know we’d been god-snapped to Missouri.

I knew what Lula would say. We’d already decided to help save Rhianna, even if Dominick wasn’t the monster we’d been hunting. “We’ll be there.”

“Yay!” Abbi cheered. “Can you bring moon cookies?”

“Abbi,” I said.

“Thank you,” Cassia said.

She ended the call. I hung the receiver on the hook, turned, and leaned against the wall, thumping my head against it once.

Lula strolled back into the room, took one look at me, glanced at the god, then back at me. “News?”

“The witches have new information. They need us there tonight,” I said. “They said the clock’s ticking.”

She motioned at Raven. “We don’t have time to drive. You’ll need to snap us back to Texas.”

“Do I?”

Ricky walked into the room and deposited various magical weapons onto the table. “This is important, god. Get a move on. Make with the snapping.”

For the first time, I saw a glimmer of annoyance flash across his face, but he covered it with a droll smile.

“Oh, is this an important issue? Something we should pay attention to? Something a god would take time out of his vacation— a much deserved vacation by the way—to deal with? It’s that kind of important? Do tell.”

She just sorted weapons by size. “So much drama. Like you’ve done any serious work in decades.”

“I’ve worked.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I’ll have you know I run a very…well moderately…well not un successful shop in a quirky little tourist town.”

“Wow,” she said, the sarcasm just oozing. “Do you turn on the Open sign all by yourself every day?”

He waved his hand in the air. “I have people for that.”

I joined Lula and Ricky at the table and considered the weapon options.

Ricky picked up a knife, a spool of thread, and a ring and handed them to me.

“Knife with origin soil from the original vampire, which isn’t ideal—I’d prefer to have the soil of Dominick’s homeland, but I don’t have that. Still, this will give it more kick against any vamp you find. Spool of thread so you don’t get lost. Ring for speed. Best we can do on short notice.”

I put the ring on my good hand, stuck the thread in my pocket, and held onto the sheathed knife, since it was going to take two good hands to attach it to my belt. “Thank you.”

“Lu?” Ricky asked. “Choose your poison.”

Lula already had knives, guns, and other weapons back in the truck. “Defensive, I think,” she said.

Ricky pointed at a leather bracelet with dark stones. “Good for cloaking. How about a few explosives?”

And oh, how my wife smiled. “Lay it on me.”

Ricky handed her a string of what looked like acorns, although they were bright blue and too large to actually be acorns. “These should do you.”

Lula took them. “Thank you.”

“I should come with you,” Ricky said.

“No,” Lu shook her head. “Your power is here. And what you’ve done,” she lifted her hand to indicate the place of rest, the friendship, and then pointed at the table and the remaining magical deadly bits and bobs, “is more than enough. Is everything.”

“Anytime. I am here. We are here for you. And if you need me, call. Oh, and the house says take this to the witches.” Ricky handed Lu a flat box. “It’s the diary of a very powerful witch. She did a lot of healing, including vampire bites.”

Lu took it. “Thank you.”

Ricky pulled her into a hug. When she released Lu, I was there, waiting for my turn.

“Well, well,” she said, accepting a hug, and hugging me back. “Be careful,” she whispered. “Don’t die.”

I gave her a small squeeze to indicate that was the plan.