Blind Destiny: Grimm's Circle, Book 7 [retail mobi] (10 page)

Krell whined and lowered his head. Luc felt the dog trembling. He could sense what was going on, even if the boy couldn’t.

It will be well, Krell,
Luc said reassuringly as he continued to ignore Will.

Threats were next.

Those lasted for about ten minutes.

Luc figured he had another hour or so of arguments before he could try again to make Will see reason.

It was something of a surprise when Will abruptly gave in.

Fine. You supercilious son of a bitch. Just keep his eyes facing away when I arrive. I’m getting Greta and I’ll be there in under ten minutes.

Greta?

He frowned, puzzled by Will’s sudden acquiescence, puzzled by the decision to bring Greta.

Krell nosed his leg.

Frowning, he rested a hand on the dog’s head as the dog swung a look back to the boy. He was getting up.

“Are you heading off?”

The boy was frowning. “Do you want to go to the other beach?”

Chapter Eight

They’d only been walking six minutes, give or take, Luc thought, when he felt the gathering tension in the air.

His name was Georgios, although Luc was told to call the boy George, after Luc butchered his name several times.

A nice boy, Georgios. A nice, sad boy who needed to have somebody straighten out the mess that had become of his life.

Georgios might feel something when Will arrived, Luc suspected. Kids were more sensitive to that sort of thing than adults—they hadn’t locked their minds off the way many adults do, and this child had already sensed an evil in this village.

He pretended to stumble and in a sheepish voice, he said, “Could you maybe let me hold your arm as we walk?”

If he had to, he could put his body behind the boy’s just before Will came through.

And that was exactly what he was forced to do as Georgios stiffened. Luc apologized silently for the intrusion on the boy’s mind as he edged in front of him and formed a mental link at the same time. The boy sensed something of it, stiffening, fighting it, but he simply couldn’t hold Luc off, and Luc couldn’t let the boy see anything that would endanger him or raise questions.

He’d seen nothing, though and Luc found himself eyeing at his own chest as he used his body to block off the trail behind him.

His ears popped as Will’s portal formed and then, as the tension in the air lessened, Luc broke the link. “I think I hear—”

He moved aside just as a woman’s voice called, “Hello up there!”

Greta.

“Why Greta?”

Will stood off to the side as Greta laid a hand on the boy’s neck.

Luc was inside his own mind again, preferring the silence of it when Will was around. The man disconcerted Krell and Krell was sitting off by himself, sulking a bit with his head on his paws. Rather than listening to that, Luc kept himself in the darkness.

“You’ve worked with her before. What does she do?”

He frowned and thought back. It had been an age since he’d worked with that particular Grimm. Greta was more of a solo player in their field. Or she had been, up until she paired up with Rip a while back. She’d take on a pupil every now and then if one came along who had a gift like hers…oh. Oh, yes.

“Compulsion,” he murmured. Greta had the ability to control people. “You’re going to use her on that boy.”

“Well, it’s either that or drag him along kicking and screaming.” Will’s anger was a cold, scathing slice in the air. “He doesn’t want to leave, or didn’t you bother to look for that?”

“Oh, I looked. But his mother is doing awful things—it doesn’t make sense.”

“We’re ready, Will,” Greta said, her voice strained and heavy.

Luc fell silent as he sensed the portal being built. He had more questions, but they’d just have to wait. After all, the main thing he’d wanted was for the boy to be safe.

That was all he’d wanted and now he had it. He could get back to the hotel, rest a bit and refocus.

Try to figure out what the boy had meant.
Don’t. People who come here die—I’m going to
.

Why the darkness of this place seemed to infect people. It was almost demonic, but not quite.

Almost.

As the power of the portal faded from the air, he called for Krell. “Come on, boy. That’s done—”

“Not hardly.”

Will.

Cracking his neck, Luc sighed. “Why in the hell are you still here?”

“Trying to figure out why you’re botching up a job that should be relatively simple. Trying to figure out why you’re
here
, instead back in the village dealing with the problem. Trying to figure out a great many things, to be blunt.”

“If the problem is so simple, if the job is so simple, why I can’t see the solution?” Luc said, rocking back on his heels.

“Because you’re not looking for it. You’re too busy thinking with your dick, and Sina is too busy thinking about your dick when that’s the last thing she needs to do. Just screw her already and get the job done,” Will snapped.

Carefully, Luc reached up and pulled off his sunglasses. He tossed them over by Krell as he took a step in Will’s direction. “I’m sorry to inform of you of this, Will, but my bed partners are none of your concern.”

“
Bed
partners…” Will laughed. “Oh, that’s a good one, Luc. You have had exactly
one
bed partner and you haven’t even had
her
since you were human.”

Closing a hand into a fist, Luc pondered whether or not he could land a punch before Will moved. He knew where the man was standing. Nobody understood how he could know that, and he couldn’t explain it well himself, but after a hundred or so years in the darkness, he’d developed a
sense
of things. Almost like he could feel a person’s aura, he supposed. And he knew exactly where Will was standing. It took a few seconds longer to track than it would if he was using vision, either Krell’s or the sight of somebody else, but it worked well enough.

He wanted, very much, to throttle the man standing roughly five feet away.

“Again, none of your fucking business,” Luc bit off.

“No. It’s not. Although I admire the persistence, Luc, you’re right. It’s not my business. Except right now, you’re out
here
, your head screwed up six ways to Sunday, instead of thinking about the assignment.” He paused, and then asked, “Can you say I’m wrong?”

“I can say your little protégée is rubbing off on you. You just used the phrases
six ways to Sunday
, and
screwed up
. You almost don’t sound like the ancient old fossil you are,” Luc muttered, turning away.

He couldn’t decide what pissed him off more. The fact that Will was right. Or the fact that he didn’t even know what to do about it. Oh, he could make himself focus. But it was a temporary fix, and he knew it. Luc might as well have written the definition on obsessive. He’d obsessed, grieved and focused on Perci for so long that she’d become his everything, even when he was nothing to her.

Nothing but a painful memory, at least.

And now it seemed that Sina was going to become a different sort of obsession.

“She doesn’t want me,” he said quietly and then he swore as he realized he’d let those words out at all. “Fuck me. She might well want sex, but she thinks about as much of me as she does of a mongrel dog and I’ve a bit too much pride for that, Will. So while I understand the need for concern, you’ll have to keep your nose out of my sex life, as non-existent as it is.”

“You’re wrong.”

Will had moved. Luc felt the disturbance in the air, felt it as Will’s very presence moved closer, their auras clashing together. Will had never played very well with others. Over the years, Luc had amused himself watching the way Will’s aura had bounced, rubbed, grated against others. Spiritual annoyances, he supposed.

It wasn’t a new experience for him, but damned if he cared for it as Will stood there in front of him, maybe two feet away now and Luc felt like striking out, even knowing it would be a waste of time.

“Sina rarely
wants
anything. Ennui is her lot in life, as it’s mine.”

Luc could feel the weight of Will’s gaze, a heavy, intent one and just then, he was glad he couldn’t see. He might have found himself looking away from that weighty gaze.

“She wants you, though,” Will said quietly. “She has from the beginning. The problem is Sina, like you, has a great deal of pride. One of you will have to take a step forward. Who will it be?”

The pressure lessened as Will turned away.

Luc sucked in his breath as that question settled inside him.

He’s wrong
, he told himself.

Very wrong.

But another part of him wondered.

He felt the gathering tension in the air.

“Wait!”

The tension subsided. “Yes?”

He opened his mouth, then snapped it shut. Luc would be damned if he asked for any more insight into the puzzle that was Sina. He’d figure that out on his own, thank you.

Still.

Will sighed. “Luc, I don’t have time for this. I’ve got a mess with Finn going on. I need to figure out what to do with the boy. I’m still trying to get Mandy trained. And
you
have a job. Ask your question and be done with it.”

“This town. The boy thinks people who come here die.”

“People die everywhere, Luc,” Will said, his voice cryptic.

“Unnatural deaths, you arrogant bastard.”

“It’s an irony, hearing that from you,” Will said caustically. “And while I don’t think the boy said anything or thought anything about
unnatural
deaths, he isn’t wrong. There’s a darkness here. You’ve already felt it. It’s your job to fix it.”

“It’s not demonic.”

“No. Not yet. But it could easily go that way. It’s something of a miracle it hasn’t happened yet.”

With that, Will cast his portal and left.

Closing his eyes, Luc turned that over in his mind.

Luc wasn’t the only one with tricks that let him peer around things, into things.

I had my own.

He used the eyes of others.

I used a mirror.

I imagined I could use a mind, the way he did, but I didn’t like touching the minds of others all that often. A static, lifeless thing was easier.

It hadn’t always been that way.

It was something I started messing around with after that silly story came out and I thought maybe I could actually use some of those twists to my advantage for once, instead of just using them to hide us all.

The stories were my idea, but sometimes they were such a pain in the ass.

The mirror thing was cool, though.

I’d discovered it when I was teaching Luc.

He’d accidentally discovered he could merge minds and use the sight of another; I was the first one. After it happened, we experimented and he found he could use it with animals.

I never told him that I went on to see if I could do it as well.

I wasn’t as skilled at it was he was, but perhaps it was because necessity hadn’t forced it on me.

Sometimes I wished I’d practiced it more, and now was one of those times. I was forced to use the wavery, imperfect surface of the windows to watch him as he came striding through town, his hand on Krell’s harness, his handsome face unsmiling.

He looked tired.

Even we could use some rest now and then. I was exhausted and I was older than he was—he should need the rest even more than I did. But he was still out there. Searching.

Out there doing our job because I was too afraid of this damned village.

It pissed me off.

Pissed me off enough that I made myself climb off the bed, strip naked and stomp into the shower.

A cold, bracing shower cleared some of the cobwebs from my mind, but it did nothing to cool the frayed edges of my temper. I’d wanted him to come back earlier so I could talk to him. Ask him what he’d meant, perhaps. No. That would sound too needy. But I’d apologize. I owed him that.

Apologize and see if maybe we couldn’t try that again…

Except he was still out trolling through the village while I was up in my room, watching him through mirrored surfaces and reflections and sulking like a child.

“You, acting like a child. Imagine that.”

The sound of Will’s voice might have stopped my heart.

Spinning around, I caught him leaned against the dresser, an annoyed look in his eyes as he glared at me. I glared back as I left the bathroom, wearing nothing but my skin. I was too old to be bothered by my nudity and Will had helped piece me back together more times than I could count. He knew what my boobs looked like by now and he had as much interest in my breasts as I did in his dick—absolutely none.

“Where the devil did you come from?” I grabbed some clothes from the closet and shimmied into them. Jeans, a bra, a tank top. I grabbed a belt that had a few hoops and sheaths for weapons and a long blouse that would cover them.