Blind Destiny: Grimm's Circle, Book 7 [retail mobi] (11 page)

He gave me a sharp grin and crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, there are more than a few who think that’s who I came from—the very devil.”

“Ha, ha.” I tucked a couple of blades into the hoops. They’d hang down over my back, and years and practice let me get to them without the shirt getting in my way. I’d tear it off if I had to, anyway, and likely would. Twisting my hair into three braids, I coiled the mess at my nape and continued to wait for Will’s answer.

“You’re getting dressed,” he said after a slow, careful study. “And you’re carrying weapons. Dare I say this means you’re actually going to quit hiding and go to work?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Don’t push me, pal. I’m one of the few, maybe the
only
, who can actually do you some serious damage. It’s hard enough being here. I don’t need you poking at me.”

“I think that’s actually exactly what you need.” Will shrugged and shoved off the wall. He looked different, I thought. I couldn’t quite place it, but there was something unusual about him. With his hands in his pockets, he closed the distance between us and stood there, just a few inches from me. I’d been tall for a woman in my time, nearly a giant at five feet eight.

Will was only two inches taller and with the boots I’d put on, we were now standing eye to eye.

I could hurt him. When we’d first started training together, he’d been the one to hurt me, then eventually, it evened out and I gave as good as I got. As one of the oldest, I was one of the most powerful as well and it was no lie, no bragging or boasting to say I could hurt him. And in that moment, I wanted to.

“You don’t know how hard it is.” I stared at him. “Being
here
.” I was quiet about the rest of it.

“And being with him,” Will finished for me.

I turned away. Hell. He knew. Of course he knew.

“Why?” I demanded. “Why me? Why
him
?”

“You’re here because you’re uniquely suited to the task,” Will said, his voice dispassionate. “And Luc is here because he is uniquely suited to you.”

I turned around, shaking my head. “No.”

Will shrugged. “It’s not my call, Myrsina. I know everybody seems to think that
I
am behind the odd pairings of late, but it has nothing to do with me. I do as I’m told, and this isn’t my call. Nor, really, is it yours. You already love him and you can’t stop that. He has feelings for you, and you can’t control that. The control you
do
have? You can walk away from the chance you might have at happiness. But really, Sina…when have you ever been an idiot?”

He moved around me. Heading to the door. Just like that.

“He doesn’t have feelings for me!”

“Again, Sina, when have you ever been an idiot?” Will paused and looked over his shoulder at me. “Sometimes I have to wonder…are you as blind as he is? At least he
tries
to see.”

No, it wasn’t his call.

Sometimes Will wished it
was
up to him to decide where people went, whether or not a job needed a partner. But he was just a soldier in a very old war, and like any soldier, he followed orders. His orders came via odd methods, granted, but they were orders regardless.

He left Greece with pleasure, glad to be away from that oppressive, soul-sucking cold.

And he found himself wrapped in fire.

It was a good thing he didn’t have to breathe, because the warehouse was going up and it was going up fast.

Finn stood in the middle of a nest of demons—incubae, the lot of them—and the Grimm’s face was tight with fury as he flamed one right after the other. His clothes were torn and although Will didn’t know what had happened, he had a bad, bad feeling in his gut.

The fires were spiraling dangerously out of control and it took a lot to push Finn to that point. He still preferred his firearms over fire.

One of the incubae tried to rush in Will’s direction, half-blinded by the smoke. Will’s eyes were stinging, but it didn’t keep him from shooting out a hand and catching the demon. He slammed the creature to the floor and smashed his skull open. While the bastard was distracted with that, Will ripped open a portal to the netherplains. The demon buried in the human’s body screamed as Will killed the mortal husk—it was just a husk now. The soul was already gone. As the body died, the demon inside was forced out and Will sent it through to the netherplains were it belonged. A few more followed before Finn realized he was no longer fighting alone.

“Lemme the fuck alone,” Finn bit off. “I’m having fun.”

Will ignored him. It took five more minutes to clear the place of any demons and the entire time, the fires raged higher and higher. By the time the last demon fell, he could hear the faint wail of sirens.

Will focused on the flames, forcing them to die. It took a few moments—he rarely had to use that ability. Only a handful of Grimm had ever been gifted with that one, and Finn was the only one alive now. But he wouldn’t
stay
that way if he wasn’t careful.

As the last of the flames flickered and died, he studied at Finn for a moment and then threw open another portal. “Come with me. You and I need to have a word, Finn.”

Finn curled his lip. “Go fuck yourself.” Rage still danced in his eyes.

Will sighed. “We are having this talk. Either you come with me, or I make you.”

Luc found the boy’s home.

Or rather Krell did.

It was too close to the squalid, dismal piece they still hadn’t investigated. Luc had already decided he’d be going there next. If Sina wanted to hide away and pretend this assignment would do itself, then let her.

He wanted it done so he could get away from her.

Liar
.

A cold, unpleasant chill settled over his shoulders as he neared the house. He tried to shrug it off, but it wasn’t happening. Eerie. It was damned eerie.

The Grimm weren’t unaware of cold, but it didn’t affect them the way it did mortals. Just like a lack of sleep wouldn’t affect them, just like darkness.

But this affected him. It had a weight to it. Almost a taste, even. Old, cloying and damp.

Like death.

Krell growled low in his throat and leaned against his leg as they stopped at the back door.

A new scent flooded Luc’s nose, something he hadn’t noticed, so caught up in the odd chill in the air.

New. But not.

This wasn’t anything that ever changed. Not really.

Some things just never changed.

Things like life.

And death. The stink of it hung in the air and it was unmistakable.

Using the hem of his shirt to turn the doorknob, he eased it open. Wouldn’t do to leave fingerprints or anything. Not that it would matter much. Will could undo any sign he left, but why make it worse?

The punch of death came hurtling to him and Krell’s whining increased.

“Sorry, boy. We have to look. Keep your ears sharp,” he told the dog as he merged their minds more deeply. A deeper link would let him see better, but he wouldn’t be as aware of his surroundings as he needed to be, caught up in the more basic mind of his animal.

Death. Recent.

Blood. A lot of it.

Sadness.

Pain.

Lots of anger.

Lots of confusion.

All of those things had a scent, scents Krell processed easily.

But there was something else.

Something Luc didn’t think he’d ever scented before, and neither had Krell.

While it was an oddity that the dog hadn’t caught such a scent, he was only twenty years old. Luc, though, after more than a few centuries, thought he’d came across just about everything.

But not this—

Something drifted across the edge of the dog’s sight.

Krell whirled, snapping.

Luc felt his own anger rise in reaction to the deep link he’d forged with the dog. Felt the dog’s uneasy fear, felt the way the animal’s heart started to race, the crazed rush of adrenaline. Wild, panicked fear—

“Easy, boy,” he murmured, pulling back on the link a little even as he searched through the dog’s eyes, reaching inside his jacket for his bladed staff. He curled his fingers around it but didn’t pull it out. Not yet, not yet—

Where are you, he thought.

Krell wouldn’t have reacted that way over nothing.

But Luc saw nobody.

And when he lowered his shields, he sensed nothing.

There was absolutely nobody in there.

Save for the dead woman, who was swinging from a crossbeam in the middle of the room, her face painted with too much makeup, a garish, grotesque smile on her swollen lips.

They were alone with a dead woman.

But Krell had seen somebody.

Or something.

And still, that uneasy sensation of cold lingered.

Chapter Nine

The sound of sirens was the last thing I wanted to hear as I left the hotel.

Yet it wasn’t terribly surprising. Seeing the police go around the corner of the narrow little street, I debated on whether to follow and see what was going on or look for Luc.

I needed to find Luc.

I knew this. But something tugged me to whatever was going on. Even though it was close to the Christou place. I had to get over this—

My hands shook as I reached up to push my hair back. My hands were literally
shaking
and I was standing there, transfixed by the sight of that house. One might think I thought there was a monster inside that might come out and get me.

There was no monster inside.

The monster was out here.
I
was the monster.

I was the villain of my story.

Yet I stood there, trembling and shaking, frozen in place for reasons I couldn’t even understand. I might have stood there endlessly if a couple of women scurrying down the street hadn’t crashed into me.

I stumbled back, falling against the hotel, banging my shoulder.

One of them muttered an apology. But I barely noticed.

The villain.

“Still feeling sorry for yourself?”

The sound of Luc’s voice was a slap in the face. Pulling myself together, I turned my head and found him standing two feet away. Something about the way he faced me made me think he had been standing there for quite some time. Somewhere inside, there was a smart-ass, pithy reply waiting. I knew it. I opened my mouth, ready for it.

But nothing came out.

Sighing, I shifted my attention back to the house. Focusing instead of the noise I could hear even from a street away, I listened to the cacophony of voices. “Something else happened.”

“A woman killed herself.”

Closing my eyes, I rested my head against the building behind me. It would be hypocritical of me to wonder
why
. To mutter about how it was such a waste. At least, I was given another chance.

And this is how you spend it
, a sly little voice whispered in my head.

“I’m going in the house,” Luc said, unaware of my inner turmoil. “You enjoy doing whatever it is you came here to do.”

Going in—

Long, agonizing seconds ticked by and then I turned my head to look at Luc, but he was already moving through the throng of bodies gathered on the street, letting Krell lead the way.

Absently, I thought about how blind the people
around
him were.

Some of them were staring at Krell, then Luc, with expressions varying from pity to curiosity.

At least he tries to see
, Will had said.

Shit. They shouldn’t look at
Luc
with pity.

Out of the two of us, I was the pathetic one.

Swallowing the nasty, bitter knot that had lodged in my throat, I took off behind him.

I’d come here to do an assignment. It shouldn’t even be that
hard
, damn it. But if it was, so what? I was coming up on two thousand years old. There were more tales based off my legend than I could count. There were very few creatures in existence who could hold a candle to me, and I was standing there afraid of a
house
?

Maybe I had truly gone mad.

Krell yipped.

Luc ignored him.

He knew she was trailing them.

She could damn well catch up on her own.

He was too busy winding his way through people and trying to figure out the best way into a house when there was a veritable circus going on outside.

He circled around the block, coming up from the other direction, at the back. Most of the fun was taking place on the opposite corner and nobody could see him or the dog from here. All he needed to do was get inside and if he had to—

“We could wait until night to do this,” Sina said quietly.

Resting his hand on Krell’s head, he edged closer to the house. “If I wanted to wait until night, I would.”