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What the fuck? Mrs Briars? Their Mrs Briars?
“Yeah, she did,” nodded Luc sagely. “Good sense that woman, she probably had it on her hands when she touched me while the boys here were having fun in the other room. Probably around the same time she was threatening Dante with a tartless eternity.” Roth swore he saw Luc throw a wink in Lily’s direction. The bastard was attempting to deflect the conversation, and damn it, it worked.
All eyes were on Athon and Roth, but the fucker wasn’t getting out of this no matter how hard he tried.
“Who’s Caria, Luc? What the fucks been your deal all these years? Most importantly, whose ass do you need to kick, and how can we help?”
Praise be to the Almighty, every head swiveled back to Luc. Roth wasn’t ready for more talk about himself just yet. Athon’s hand on his thigh gave a firm reassuring squeeze. He reached down and laced their fingers together. The small smile that lit Athon’s face was like sunshine on a cloudy day. Fuck, what was with the poetic shit, surely he was getting too old for that crap, but apparently not.
Luc took a big deep breath, the room froze for what seemed an eternity, and then he let it all out. He told them everything. How he met her, how he found her, the Praesidium’s response, and how it all just disappeared like a dream that never was.
When he was done you could have heard a feather hit the soft carpeted floor. Well fuck, no wonder the guy was acting loopy. Something like that would definitely mess with your head. His mystery woman, their mystery woman, maybe, had only ghosted eight years ago, but he was already starting to slip, and he wasn’t even involved with her like Luc had been. To think Luc had been holding it all in for over seventy years; it was almost too painful to think about.
The chick was definitely not human, not from what he’d seen, and he could see by the look in his General’s eyes he now knew it too. Luc’s previous assumption of her humanity having rapidly dissolved with each revelation throughout the day left questions without answers. Like, what was she, where was she, and how the fuck were they going to find her?
“Like fucking hell I’m going to sit on my ass while anyone else searches for her! We all saw what happened in the dragon realm. It’s her last known location. Nothing short of the Almighty themselves will stop me chasing after her. If you all think you can stop me, then every last one of you is delusional. I want answers. I need them. It’s been nearly seventy-three years. I think I fucking deserve answers, don’t you?” Luc’s voice ground to a ragged halt on the last syllable, but he glared at every set of eyes that dared lock with his own. Reaching for the glass of water before him, he quickly took a few sips to wash away the hoarseness before he devolved into gasping fits of coughing. Not that he could blame his throat or chest for it since he’d spoken without pause and his air intake had been greatly inhibited.
“Not saying you shouldn’t go, my brother,” Marco calmly intoned. “Just saying we should do this smart and send in some recon first. You do tend to go in like a hammer to an anvil, and, well, dragons don’t take too well to that shit on a good day.”
“And wait how long? She could be anywhere by now. We wait any longer, I might never find her.” He barely recognized the sound of his own voice. It was like all the air was being sucked out of the room and his ears were about to pop. His shadows warmed under his skin, almost writhing in agitation. Murmurs filled his ears, like indecipherable whispers of madness. Control was slipping through his fingers, he was low-key terrified. What the fuck was happening to him? Never had Luc heard of shadows being like this, of having so much power over their host angel.
“We at least need a plan, General. You more than all of us should appreciate a good plan. How many times have you reamed our asses for going off half-cocked, flying by the seat of our pants and nearly ballsing shit up?” Dante smirked at him, completely unaware of the lit powder keg Luc felt was inside of himself.
“Not us,” piped up Lily, pointing to Perri and herself, her brow hitched with sass. “We happen to always think things through. Maybe because we don’t have said cocks, but more likely because we’re just smarter than you lot. Perri and I, that is. Not necessarily women in general. ‘Cos I’ve met some dumb as fuck women over the ages too.”
The wet spray of water from Fynn’s mouth hit Luc’s face and pulled him slightly out of his haze as everyone stared at Lily in wonder before chaotic laughter echoed through the room.
“Remember that time in Athens?”
“The mud wrestling?”
“Or that saloon in the mid-west back in the 1860s?”
“What about that nightclub boss a few years back?”
Luc hadn’t seen Lily’s face that shade of purple and red in such a long time, he longed to reach out and pull her into his arms, just as he’d done the day they’d found her. He cleared his throat, he knew his eyes flashed red by the scarlet filter over his sight. Thank fuck they heeded his warning and simmered down to silence.
“Yeah, yeah, smart asses. Some other time, I’m going to write a book of all the shit you lot have done over the years. It’d be a bestselling comedy, or maybe a tragedy, depending on how I choose to end it.” The stiletto dagger that magically appeared in Lily’s hand, she was that fast on the draw, caught their eyes as she twirled it with her fingers like a baton. Every male present shifted in their seats, the sound of mumbled apologies, in such respectful tones, echoed loudly in the quiet room. Luc figured they’d all just been reminded about what had happened to the last guy who’d made fun of her. It hadn’t been pretty, but he’d been so fucking proud of her.
Even as these thoughts filtered through his mind, they were lost in the veil forming over his awareness. What the hell? No, this should not be happening. Mrs Briars had double dosed him before she’d left the room. He’d felt it and she’d confirmed it. Without it he was too unstable. Luc began to panic, his eyes darted around the room, he desperately wanted to call for help, but an invisible force held him silent and still.
Whispers invaded his ears, urging him to move, to search, to tear the world asunder to find her. To drag her home to him. Not even the voice inside his head sounded like his own anymore, but he’d gotten used to that a while ago. He’d thought maybe he was going crazy, and maybe he was, but it was better than being lonely. The comfort of another voice sharing in his misery, only speaking it’s need to find her too was something he’d come to rely upon. Fuck, his inner psyche was totally messed up
He vaguely saw the faces around him as they shifted from one emotion to another before they all landed on variations of the same; sheer panic. Red filled his vision, his shadows flew about him, knocking everyone backwards out of their chairs. Before he could control it, or even knew it was happening, he was moving through the vast expanse of space that made up the link between realms. The dragons better have his girl, or he’d rip their world apart. Treaty or no treaty.
Chapter 13
“Where the hell did Luc just go?”
“What the fuck was up with his shadows?”
“Fuck his shadows. Did you see his eyes?”
“He looked full-blown feral on steroids.”
Everyone spoke at once. The shocked faces around the room looked like stunned goldfish, but no one laughed at the comical expressions. Not even Dante.
Luc had been “normal” one moment, then completely deranged the next. Never had he acted more shadow-like than angel before. It was unheard of. The shadows weren’t exactly sentient, rather more like an extension of the angel themselves. At least, that’s what they’d always believed. Like a superpower that you could wield without really thinking about it. Sure, they manifested in different ways, but that was always unique to the angel. Roth’s shadows took the shape of a wraith with red eyes and a gaping maw when he chose to employ it. Thus his code name, Wraith. Athon was called Snake, thus his shadows formed into a very large and deadly serpent or snake, depending on your knowledge of mythology. The others all had their own as well, no two the same. Luc’s depicted the devil incarnate, just like those biblical representations he’d always found so freaking amusing.
