Animal Instincts (Entangled Ignite) (6 page)

Chapter Ten

On edge all the way home, I kept imagining I was being followed. Flickers of movement taunted me from the side windows of the car, but when, pulse rushing, I turned to see what was out there, it was always nothing.

That didn’t mean I was safe.

Thankfully, I arrived home without further incident. I looked up and down the empty street before leaving my car and jogging to my building. Upon entering, I curbed my instinct to go straight into the first-floor apartment to tell Shade everything. Boomer needed a walk first. But once we stepped foot in the foyer, the dog parked himself before the door to Shade’s apartment and whined pitifully.

“Okay, okay,” I said, unlocking the door.

Boomer rushed in before me, tail wagging.

I called out, “Shade, where are you?”

“I’m right here.”

Shade materialized and stooped to the dog’s level. Boomer stuck his nose right through Shade’s face.

Shade laughed. “Sorry, boy, but I’m glad to see you, too.”

I waited until he straightened and focused on me before I asked, “Where do you go when—?”

He shrugged. “Don’t know. I must kind of fade in and out, I guess. As far as I’m concerned, I’m still here. At least part of my consciousness is. Ethan was here with a team.”

“He saw you?”

“Afraid not. I tried, but nothing. So I eavesdropped on them. They didn’t find anything but two sets of prints. Undoubtedly yours and mine.”

I nodded but my mind was already elsewhere. “Why didn’t you tell me about Nuala Lazare?”

“Who?”

“Beautiful. Dark hair and eyes. Intense. Sound familiar?” Shade continued with the blank look, so I said, “I thought maybe she was your snitch, maybe even the one who got you information on what I thought were dogfights, but apparently you had a thing with her. At least according to her brother Luc.”

His expression accepting, Shade threw out his hands. “Okay.”

“Okay? You were seeing someone and you didn’t tell me. And she’s part of a crime family that runs a questionable operation hidden beneath a legal casino. They’re probably responsible for the fights you were investigating.”

“Sorry, I don’t remember any of this.” Shade’s forehead pulled tight. In the end, he shrugged. “I got a couple of flashes, but nothing I can hold on to.”

Throwing myself onto one of his leather chairs, I regaled him with the twenty-five cent tour of my night, including its thriller ending.

“I don’t understand what’s going on in the lower level of that casino boat.” I shook my head. “I’ve never before heard anyone’s thoughts, and my communications with animals has always been through images and emotions. Then there was all that mind-control stuff going on.” At least Luc Lazare had been trying to control me. “How is any of this possible?”

Shade perched on the arm of a chair and Boomer settled at his feet. “I don’t know. I don’t seem to know much anymore.”

“The thing that keeps ringing in my head is Luc Lazare asking me ‘What are you?’ as if I were something other than a human being. What could he have meant, Shade? What could I
…we
…be?”

“Uh…”

I didn’t think it was possible, but my ghostly brother went even more pale. He appeared ready to fade into the shadows behind him. My breath shortened as I stared at him.

“What?” I asked, certain there was something he knew that I didn’t. “Tell me.”

“It’s not much. Dad saying something like that to Mom when she was so sick. He said if she was what she claimed to be, then surely she could make the cancer go away, that she could find the answer in that book of hers she was always reading and scribbling in. I remember her telling him it didn’t work like that. Despite the gifts she was given, she was still susceptible to human ills.”

Wishing there had been some way she could have saved herself, I said, “If only she was here to give us some answers.”

“Maybe she still can,” Shade said. “Maybe we’d find answers in that book.”

Frowning, I only vaguely remembered the book. “Does it still exist? I haven’t seen it since she died.”

“Remember, Dad gave a bunch of Mom’s stuff to Grandma.”

“The basement.” When we’d inherited this building two years ago, there’d been what seemed like a lifetime of possessions stored in a room down there, but we’d never taken the time to go through it all and dredge up old memories. “I’ll go look.”

Normally I only used the basement to do my laundry. I hadn’t been in Grandma’s storage bin since we’d first moved in. The eight-by-ten-foot room was filled with boxes and old furniture laden with dust. I was looking around, trying to figure out where to start, when an old trunk drew my attention. Certain I recognized it, I stood staring at it for a moment. That trunk had been in the room where Mom had spent a lot of time alone.

My pulse fluttered and I was drawn straight to the trunk. My heart beat faster as I lifted the lid. The book wasn’t visible. The top of the pile was strewn with candlesticks and crystals and swaths of cloth. My hands tingled, and as if pulled down by a magnet, they thrust downward through the layers to the bottom of the trunk. I knew when I touched it. It seemed to hum in greeting. Ignoring items spilling out of the trunk, I concentrated on pulling out the heavy book.

The leather cover was worn, but I could make out lettering:
The Book of Powers
.

Despite my sudden trepidation, I hugged it to my chest and headed back upstairs to my brother’s apartment.

“Got it,” I said as I went straight to the living room, where I sat in one of the chairs near the fireplace, Shade at my side.

The initial entry was first written in Gaelic, then what looked to be an English translation alongside the original.

“This seems to be an introduction,” I said, aware of the energy surging from the book where I touched it. “‘We, the progeny of the Powers, the bearers of conscience and the keepers of history, will continue the fight against evil spirits that wreak chaos throughout humanity. We will balance light with the growing darkness, will restrain the power of demons to corrupt humanity, will prevent fallen angels from taking over the world, thereby keeping the universe in balance. This we swear.’ And it’s signed Brigit, the Protectress.” I thought about it for a moment. “The progeny of the Powers. What does that mean?”

“The Powers are part of the hierarchy of angels.”

A weird feeling shot through me. “And you know that how?”

He shrugged and aimed his eyes upward.

My mind raced. Progeny of the Powers. Meaning progeny of angels. Meaning descendants of angels.

Meaning Shade and me?

I could hardly catch my breath. This was too far out to process. Still, I couldn’t stop reading now.

Noting some pages were dog-eared, I checked them out. Certain passages laboriously copied were marked and commented upon in the margins by several hands. Some notations were from Genesis in the Old Testament and others were from sources like the Book of Enoch and from the Book of Jubilees, both of which many scholars thought should be part of the Bible.

And it came to pass when the children of men had multiplied there were born unto them comely daughters. And some angels saw and lusted after them, and took them to beget progeny.

“The fallen angels,” I mused, my supposition verified by a note in the margin.

“And the children of those unions were the Nephilim,” Shade said. “And their progeny or descendants are also known as demons.”

…progeny of the Powers…will restrain the power of demons…

My heart raced and my mouth went dry. I was an animal rescuer, not a demon slayer. I was a normal person, not something else. I wasn’t.

I kept turning pages, kept reading until I got to another passage that was oddly significant.

The Lord saw how great the Nephilim’s wickedness on the earth had become, and his heart was filled with pain. He decided to send a Great Flood to wipe mankind and animals, all of whom he created, from the face of the earth.

“So that’s how the Ark came about,” Shade said. “Apparently Noah wasn’t one of the Nephilim.”

“But somehow the Nephilim weren’t all wiped out,” I said, scanning further entries. “Look, there are accounts of the Nephilim after the Flood. How did they survive?”

Astonished by it all, disbelieving that any of this could actually be true, I let exhaustion both physical and mental overwhelm me. My hands on the book tingled softly, as if
The Book of Powers
was alive. Maybe I was imagining it. Maybe none of this was real.

Maybe it was simply all a nightmare.

Boomer started whining, snapping me back to the now. Barely able to take a breath, I closed the book and set it down. I’d had enough for one day.
The Book of Powers
and its implications were too much for me.

“Why are you stopping?” Shade asked.

“The dog has to go out. I’d better take him before he has an accident. Then I’m going to bed. I’ve had a long day and I’m exhausted. The book can wait until tomorrow.”

Thankful that Shade didn’t try to stop me, I grabbed the dog’s leash and headed for the door. The farther I got away from the book, the more normal I felt.

I was relieved to be free of its thrall, if only for now.

…

Luc had faded into the shadows of the front porch near the open window to listen, and now he was glad he’d done so. Having decided he needed to protect Skye Cross, he’d come to check on her. He couldn’t let her be killed as her brother had been.

Or Jez.

He mourned his lifelong friend. They’d played together as children, and she’d always stood up for him. If only he’d been able to figure out who was running the shifter fights before Jez had been involved. But no one was talking. Now he would make it his mission. He looked forward to the day when the one responsible for Jez’s death—
her murder—
would pay.

In the meantime, he needed to know how Skye had found her way into the cloaked area of the casino. He would need to run interference if she’d made a deal with the wrong being to get her invitation, so he’d followed her here, to her home, to find out whom she knew.

Here, where another surprise awaited him in the form of a dead man who lingered still. Shade Cross’s unexpected presence had kept him from entering the building, had kept him one with the shadows. Had kept him listening. He’d gotten quite an earful.

Skye was leaving the apartment with the dog.

To escape detection, Luc thought of himself in the ground-level shadows of the building. His body tingled as he sifted out of sight, and his blood rushed when he resurfaced. He could change locations in the blink of an eye. A useful ability but unfortunately limited in scope.

Sequestered in the shadows, he watched Skye race down the stairs and follow the dog to the parkway where it did its business. She tried to go back to the building, but the dog barked at him as if it could see him and stood firm. She stooped down, gave the pooch a hug, and set her forehead against its fur.

The next thing he knew, she whipped around and stared into the dark well next to the building where he stood, as if she could see him.

“Show yourself, Luc,” she said. “I know you’re there.”

Reluctantly, Luc stepped out of the shadows. The dog started barking again.
Quiet down. I’m a friend.

“You’re not
my
friend.”

“I was talking to the dog.” Who now sat halfway between him and Skye.

He’d never met one of her kind before. Lucky for him. He’d asked her what she was, but she hadn’t known. Now she did. Or at least she had some idea. He’d assumed she was simply human, but that wasn’t fully true, not if she had
The Book of Powers
in her possession. She was one of
their
descendants.

His kind and hers didn’t mix.

Now that he knew what she was, he would proceed with even more caution.

“You followed me home?” she asked.

“Not exactly. Was someone following you?”

“What exactly then?”

“Instinct.” He figured she’d had enough surprises for one day. “Did someone follow you?”

“Did you tell someone to?”

“No.” But someone else might have. Luc switched on the internal radar that would pick up the presence of another Kindred.

“No one here now.” He heard a car door close on the next block. “Well, maybe a human.”

She followed his gaze. “You heard something?”

“I hear a lot of things.”

Her expression anything but friendly, Skye stepped closer, stopping next to the dog. “Does that include my private conversation with my brother?”

“And if it did?”

“I wouldn’t like that.”

He moved closer. The dog growled and moved to block him.

“Boomer, it’s okay, honey.” She bent over to pat the dog’s head.

“You like this beast.”

“I love him. I love all animals.”

“All?”

“
Animals
,” she repeated.

“Ones like the coyote and the African wild dog?”

“Why not?”

“What if they’re something else?”

Even under nothing but streetlights, he could see her blanch.

“What else would they be?” she said.

Luc laughed, then was surrounded by emotion. Hers. Embarrassment. Anger. Fear. He didn’t want her to fear him.

It didn’t matter what he wanted.

He had an obligation. A duty. He had to make sure that Skye was safe, even from him.

“They are what they are,” he said. “They chose their fates.”

“Chose? What does that mean? Did you choose yours?”

The reminder that he hadn’t chosen anything yet stung. His mother had raised him to respect and protect humanity. His father had shown him that corruption came naturally to the weak, that it couldn’t be forced, and that it could be used to the Kindred’s advantage. He didn’t agree with everything Pop said or did, but he understood more than he wanted to. He was still torn between his two worlds, still looking for the thing that would make his choice inevitable. Either that or he continued to live his hell on earth, void of satisfaction or happiness or love.

“Well, if you’re done talking, Boomer and I will go inside.”