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“If I had known—”
He held up a hand to stop her from saying anymore. “You could have done nothing about it, unless you wanted to risk your own ass for nothing. Your turn now, Mari. Tell us about yourself. What trauma led you to defect from the only place you’ve ever really fit in?”
“That’s rude,” Johnny mumbled under his breath. He reached over the back of the chair to brush some hair out of Marilyn’s face.
“I think it’s obvious,” she answered. “I’m Marilyn Ansen. I’m a witch, and I was kicked out of my coven when I was sixteen because I was stronger than its High Priestess, which he didn’t take kindly to. My family was asked to choose whether they wanted to face exile with me or disown me, so they chose to disown me. I applied to be a Para when I was eighteen. Survived hell and made it through.”
She paused to swallow. Her eyes fell to Johnny, and her expression morphed into something indecipherable. “I fell in love with a stupid werewolf who found me on a bridge and about to make a pretty shitty life decision. He taught me a few things that the people who’d raised me and who I’d hung around hadn’t, and now I’m indebted to him.”
“That’s me, by the way,” Johnny said with a grin. “She’s talking about me.”
Sariel narrowed his eyes.“You acknowledged your feelings for him despite knowing the Upper Council’s rules?”
She laughed emptily. “I thought I would be exempt. I had rank. I was well respected. Sometimes, I dined with the Highest Priestess herself in her home in Africa. She would fly me out there since I was their loyal lap dog. She laughed in my face when I told her about Johnathan, left me with some advice on how to deal with it, which was basically telling me to kill him before he made me do something stupid.”
Johnny’s grin widened. “Aren’t you glad you didn’t kill me?”
She glanced pointedly at the road ahead of us as Reese zigzagged around a few cars. “Mhm. Sure am.”
“Is that why you did Azazel’s bidding?” Sariel asked Johnny. “Did he know?”
“Francesca shared that information with everyone on the Council,” Marilyn answered. “They’ve probably already begun to connect the dots.”
“So he blackmailed you?” Sariel directed at Johnny again.
“Yes,” Johnny answered. “He gave me a choice; bring Aria back, or he’d kill Marilyn.”
“He knew she would be sent there,” Sariel mused.
“No, he didn’t,” Marilyn said. “Loreo was supposed to pick him up, but his wife went into labor a few days early. I volunteered to take his place so he could be there for his first child.”
“What a fucked-up coincidence,” I breathed.
“I got your sister out,” Johnny added, and all the hairs on my body stood on end. I remembered Rebecca’s cry when Azazel’s claw had slashed across her chest. “She’s fine, healing, and with your nieces and her husband at a safehouse.
He looked at my expression. “We can’t get into contact with them without risking exposing them. She’s going to have scars, but she’ll be all right, Aria. She’ll be waiting for us when we get out of this shit, but for now, it’s best to keep communication at zero.”
“Okay,” I agreed quietly. “Um, Reese?”
“Aria?” she answered, dragging out the syllables in my name.
“Do you want to go next?”
“I’m Reese, and I didn’t actually know supernatural beings existed until about three days ago, when Johnny here shifted into a wolf in my living room at like five AM. I used to be a chemist in Raleigh, but I’m sure I’m now unemployed based on the fact that I haven’t showed up for work in three days.”
“Why the hell would you come, Reese?” I asked, choking up. We’d only spent hours together, yet we’d bonded like sisters.
“Because you needed me,” she said simply. “You didn’t see yourself when I picked you up that evening. You were shaking and mumbling quietly to yourself. You wouldn’t stop glancing around, and every time you dozed off, you would jump awake. You reminded me of me, Aria. I don’t even care that you lied to me and I laid my soul half-naked at your feet, because now that I know the truth, I’m even happier that I stopped for you. I would do it again.”
I sniffled. “Thank you, Reese.”
“Please don’t cry,” Sariel grumbled. “It agitates the fuck out of my angel, and I can’t afford to have him unreasonable while we’re in an enclosed space.”
He then reached over the back of the seat, hooked an arm around my back, and yanked me over the seat and into his lap. My feet accidentally slammed into the side of Johnny’s head as I scrambled over.
“Sorry, Johnny! Sariel, what the hell is wrong with you?”
“You were too far away,” he said, as if that explained everything perfectly. “Get back there, Johnny.”
