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I felt like if I chased after her, it would only scare her and feed the urge inside me to cause her even more harm. It was safer for everyone involved if I stayed here. And part of me wanted her gone. If she disappeared, she’d solve all of my problems. I wouldn't have to hear her annoying Brooklyn accent, see her beautiful face, or wish I could kiss those Cupid’s bow lips anymore. I wouldn't have to watch her flaunt her hold over the men I loved, who couldn’t give a shit less about me anymore. The urges might go away if there was distance between us.
They came into the house, looking utterly exhausted. Bash had a sleeping Diana in his arms. Her wrists were bound again, but this time she had red, gold, and indigo neon magical bindings that tied her hands together. Her feet were tied together too. Ares and Desmond were murmuring to each other in low, careful voices.
“Oh, you found her?” I asked, trying to keep the disappointment out of my voice.
“Ares caught her and fire tattooed his name into her other thigh,” Desmond replied irritatedly. “Thank you for starting the cleaning process.”
He claimed her too? Seriously? Jealousy and disappointment crashed through me. I’d been in his life for over 250 years, but he claimed her after a couple of weeks?
“No problem. I also took stock of the house wards. She completely killed them. We’re going to have to redo everything. I cast some basic ones tonight just in case, but if the house gets attacked, they’ll function more as a warning alarm than actual defense.”
“That should be enough for now. Tomorrow we can start reweaving the protection, layer by layer. I’m going to put her in my room and lock the doors, then we can start planning.” Bash faded away with Diana.
“Planning what?” I had felt increasingly out of the loop since she came around, and now was no different. Now they didn’t even run ideas by me.
“We need to figure out what Azazel’s angle is. There’s no way he could be her guardian angel, so he has to have ulterior motives for watching over her. Him telling her to keep their meetings secret was shady as fuck, and I want to know what’s going on,” Desmond replied.
“We should find him and interrogate him, then kill him. He’s no good to us, and I don’t like that he was sniffing around Diana.” Bash rubbed his beard in thought. “I know he kissed her. Bash had said she tasted like pine the last time she disappeared, and that feathered fuck smells like a forest…” I could practically see the lightbulb go off above his head. “Did you know angel bone dust can be used in potions? We could sell it to witches in the city for thousands of dollars an ounce.”
Ares would have no issue grinding his bones too. He’d hated Azazel since the day he crossed their path. From what I heard, Ares had warned Desmond against getting involved with Azazel. But even our fearless leader could be foolish and horny as fuck. He didn’t listen.
“We can talk about it more after Bash gets back. For now, I want to figure out how he and Bash were both in Diana’s dream? Time-jump? Whatever the fuck it was. If we can figure out how to do that, we can catch him.” When Desmond had a plan, he was all in. I was interested in how she was time-hopping too.
We all sat in the cinema room. It only had one window busted out, so it was relatively easy for me to clean earlier. Ares started a fire in the grate, which added a weird layer of coziness to the devious plotting session we were about to start. Olga brought us all hot toddies on Bash’s request. He said it was theperfect drink to sip while planning revenge. As far as he and Ares were concerned, it was on sight with Azazel. Ares didn’t take Azazel kissing Diana lightly, and Bash had hated him since whatever drama they all had ended.
“We need to come up with a good plan,” Ares stressed. “I never want to chase after her again.”
“I’m sure we’ll figure it out.” For all of our sakes, I hoped they did. We were too far along in the plan to abandon it now. Our lives were riding on it.
* * *
The longer we discussed it, the more we realized how little we understood about time traveling. Witches and warlocks, as far as we knew, didn’t possess that magical gift. Diana was rare in that way,again. It seemed like she was rare in a lot of ways, so I figured, why not suggest it again? Maybe they would listen to me this time.
“Did you ever think that maybe Diana isn’t a witch? She has superspeed, superhearing, can time travel, glows, and her magic is iridescent. All powers and characteristics witches don’t have. Her power is remarkable for witch standards, let alone a beginner witch.”
“That thought has crossed my mind,” Bash mused. He sipped his toddie slowly, savoring the rich flavor. I’d never admit it aloud, but they were the perfect drink to do anything to, period. “But her mother, grandmother, and aunt are all witches. There’s no way she’s adopted, they all look like carbon copies of each other. Her father could have been something else, but the research I did showed he was human.”
“Or assumed to be human,” Desmond chimed in. “People create fake identities, and it’s not exactly hard to pretend to be mortal for most paranormal beings.”
“Great point,” I agreed. “But it seems like if we want to capture Azazel andpersuadehim to use his gifts to help us, we have to include Diana on the plan. Frame it as we’re going to bury the hatchet and work together to keep her safe.”
“Ha! After what went down with Desmond and Bash and him? There is a fat chance he’d ever willingly work with us. We need to get some kind of leverage.” Ares cackled, his rich laughter clattering around the room.
“After tonight, I doubt Diana wants to be involved with anything we do. She’s furious,” Desmond commented, glaring at Bash and Ares like it was just their fault. As far as I was concerned, each of us took some of the blame.
“I’m going to get my phone from my room, and see if I still have that contact from Heaven. She could put some feelers out, maybe give us a lead on where he is.” I faded into the hallway that held my, Bash’s, Ares’ and Diana’s suites. Using my super hearing, I honed in on Diana, to check if she was still knocked out from Desmond’s empath powers.
I heard stuttered breathing and whimpered cries from Bash’s room. I walked up to the door and hesitated. She was obviously awake. Ishouldleave her alone, but knowing her, she was already trying to figure out a way to break the magical bindings on her wrists. Checking on her wouldn’t hurt.
Go inside. A compulsion to rip her from the bed and snap her neck rose inside me.Hurt her.
No! I don’t want to do that.
Before I could stop myself, I unlocked the ward to Bash’s suite, fading beside his bed. Diana’s back faced me. I took a beat to appreciate the curve of her spine and the dip of her waist as it met her round ass beneath the blanket. She continued to cry, punctuating her sobs with sniffles.
I cleared my throat to get her attention. She rolled over and instead of glaring at me or outright dismissing me, she just observed me with a vacant expression on her face. I handed her a handkerchief I carried in my pocket. No matter how much the world around me changed, some habits from my own time died hard.
“How are you?” I asked.
