I was heading to my office when I heard the sound of a throat clearing behind me. I turned to see a familiar face standing in my doorway.
He was dressed in fire-resistant clothing and held a helmet under one arm, his handsome face was soot darkened and smudged, with a strange arc of pale skin under each eye, as if he’d been wearing goggles.
He was wearing the same look of incredulous disbelief he’d been wearing the first time I’d met him, in the smoking ruins of Demonica. His lips lifted in a smile as he recognized me. “No. Don’t tell me, you left your purse in here too.”
I grinned at him, feeling as if my day had just gotten a little brighter. It was the cute fireman I’d met when I’d gone to investigate the fire at Demonica, demon king Abrine’s nightclub and headquarters. “Have you seen it?”
He laughed, “If it was in this building I’m sure it’s a small pile of ash somewhere.”
I nodded, the smile sliding away. “This was my office. My business.”
He let his smile fade too. Pity slid into his pretty green eyes. He had the longest, thickest lashes over those pretty eyes. “I’m sorry. We did all we could…”
It occurred to me that he felt somehow responsible for the loss of my building. I shook my head. “It’s not your fault. You couldn’t have stopped the fire, or the people who caused it for that matter. The world is just…” My throat clogged suddenly as it hit me, like a poisonous wave, how ugly everything had become.
He lifted a hand in a silver glove as if he wanted to reach out and make it all better. “I’m really sorry, ma’am.”
I nodded. “Thanks.”
“Did you lose any…are your employees all safe?”
I nodded. “Yes, thank Him for that. Our neighbors helped us get out in time.”
He nodded, looking down at the helmet he was holding between his hands now like a barrier.
I suddenly realized he wasn’t crazed and violent. And he was human. I decided there might be some useful information that could be gleaned from that. Why were some of the humans apparently resistant to the effects of the veil, while others had become little more than animals.
Then it occurred to me. I narrowed my eyes at him and he shifted from foot to foot in sudden nervousness. It was very endearing. He was big and strong and very…male…and yet I was able to cause him to squirm with a single look.
Sometimes it was pretty cool to be a woman.
I knew I needed to ask but I was somehow reluctant. And I was pretty sure he would pretend not to know what I was asking, given the present mood about all things magic and magical. But I realized we were well past the time for caution and careful manipulations. In the grand drama that had become my reality, we had entered the eat-or-be-eaten phase. And I very much needed to keep men like the human before me from getting eaten.
I stepped toward him, wanting to be within touching distance when I asked. I let my sensing power drift away from me as I stopped in front of him, close enough to grab his arm if it became necessary. “I need to know. And I need you to be completely honest with me.”
His pretty green eyes widened and I saw his aura pulse with alarm. I reached out a hand and laid it gently across his forearm, not clutching, not yet, just a steadying touch.
“How long have you been aware of the veil?”
The green eyes went from alarm to fear in the beat of a heart. His aura flared into bright, terror-stricken red. He shifted his body weight as if he would pull away and I tightened my grip on his arm. I was fully prepared to use force to keep him there if I needed to. But something in my eyes must have reassured him and he stilled.
He gave a sigh and then, incredibly, he smiled at me. It wasn’t a happy smile. “I sensed it once when I was eight years old. It was much weaker then and slid away after a time. But I knew it was coming back. I’ve been feeling the edges of it now for several months. I’ve seen the people change…”
His gaze slipped away from me and I knew the horror of his thoughts, his memories. I’d been there with him, dealing with it in other places at the same time. I knew the nightmares that clawed and dug inside his mind when he tried to sleep.
“I need to ask you to help us fight this thing.”
He looked at me and I knew he’d been expecting it. Dreading it. But I also knew he’d do whatever we asked. If he had seen the inner workings of the veil, he knew that it had to be stopped and he probably suspected that he was important to that effort.
Finally he nodded. “What can I do?”
I reached for my cross and called Flick.
Flick popped in behind me and the fireman standing in front of me blinked. He took a step back, his handsome face tinged with horror.
“It’s okay.” I smiled. “I’m sorry. I don’t even know your name.”
He blinked at Flick a few times and then turned to me. “I’m Brett.”
“Brett, this is Flick, he’s my guardian.”
Brett gulped and held out a hesitant hand. Flick took it with a bright smile. “Brett, nice to meetchya.”
Turning to Flick I said, “Brett is one of the special humans Myra’s group has been working with. Can you take him to h—”
I suddenly remembered she was in the clinic fighting for her life. “To wherever it is they’re working and make sure he’s comfortable?”
Flick nodded.
Are you sure, Astra?
I gave him a slight nod. “Yes, if you could please. I need to take care of some business down here.”
Brett’s eyes widened. “Down here? Where are you taking me?”
I laughed, “Think of it as an adventure in the sky, Brett.”
He opened his mouth but Flick grabbed his arm and they popped out.
I felt a little guilty for sending poor Brett to the clouds but figured he’d be in good hands. And maybe he could help them figure out how to stop the veil.
I headed toward my office again just as my mental drawers were shuffled and a voice I’d never expected to hear in my head resonated there.
Astra, thank Him! Where the hell have you been? I need your help right now, they’re going to kill each other!
Torre?
Hurry, Astra. Come to me.
The air shifted and Torre’s soul form was suddenly standing beside me. He reached out a hand and I grabbed it. Movement and time jolted to a stop as he shifted me out of my office.
We popped back into the real world just as a blood-curdling scream pierced the air and I saw two, tall, golden forms with silky black hair in a deadly battle with huge swords coated in bright red blood.
One of them pulled his sword from the chest of the other as I started forward, screaming, “No!”
Dialle turned to me when I screamed and Emo used the instant of Dialle’s inattention and drove his sword into Dialle’s chest. Dialle gasped and turned deathly pale, crumpling to the ground with Emo’s sword still embedded in his chest. His breathing rattled in his chest and his beautiful golden hands clutched ineffectually at the huge sword jutting from his body.
Emo’s head turned slightly, his black eyes widening in surprise as he slid down the wall he’d been driven against, fresh blood staining the rock behind him as he crumpled to the ground. “Astra?” His lips were cracked and flecked with blood. Fresh blood ran from a gash on his temple and coated his hands.
I turned to Torre. “Call Darma and then find a way to get her here.”
All the pretty golden color drained from his handsome face. “She’s in the clouds. I can’t go up there.”
I stood a few feet from my two favorite men, realizing they would both die if I couldn’t help them quickly and knowing that I’d have to make a choice over which one to help first.
I felt my heart tearing from my chest at the thought.
“Just do it! I need her help here right now!”
He nodded and disappeared from the room with a tiny pop.
I looked down at Dialle and saw that he was smiling at me. “My princess, you’re still alive.” His voice was weak and I knew he didn’t have long in this life if I didn’t help him.
But Emo was making a terrible sound as he breathed and blood poured from his slack mouth. His head had dropped to his chest and his breathing seemed to be slowing to an unnatural rate.
I just stood there between them, unable to make the decision that would save either one of them.
Suddenly Darma was there. “You help Dialle, I’ve got Emo.”
I wanted to kiss her. I knew Emo was safe in her more than capable hands. And now I didn’t have to make a choice.
I bent over Dialle and immediately sent my healing power into his body. I sent the sword out of his body on a wave of power and threw it across the room in a fit of temper. Then I started mending the ripped flesh and torn organs.
How is he?
I asked Darma.
He’ll be okay.
I closed my eyes in relief.
Thank you, Darma. I can’t tell you how much it means…
Emotion swamped me as Dialle grabbed one of my hands, willing me to stop the flow of power into his freshly healed body. “Unless you want to heal me of wounds I haven’t received yet, my princess, I think you can stop now.”
I opened my eyes and saw him smiling at me. It was the most beautiful sight I’d ever seen. I gave a little moan of relief and threw myself at him. My lips hit his with such force his head slammed back onto the cold stone floor beneath him.
He didn’t even seem to notice. He wrapped both arms around me and rolled us over so that he laid full length on top of me. His lips consumed mine possessively, hungrily, driving my breath out of my body on a wave of almost uncontrollable passion. I tucked my arms under his and filled my hands with his silky black hair holding him to my lips and meeting his near frantic passion with a raging hunger of my own.
The kiss filled my consciousness so completely that the room and its occupants slid away from me and there was only Dialle and me and a lust too big to be assuaged in only one coupling, or even hundreds.
Finally my sister’s dulcet tones managed to shred the wall of lust we’d built around ourselves and deflate our hunger.
“Oh for His sake, Astra, get a room!”
Dialle and I parted reluctantly and I peered around him to see my sister’s disgusted face. But there was a suspicious sparkle in her eye that I hadn’t seen before and Torre was standing behind her, with his arms wrapped around her waist possessively.
I grinned at her sheepishly. “Oops. Sorry.”
Darma snorted, turning away before I could see her smile. Torre winked at us and they popped out.
Which left me with a direct line of sight to Emo. Who didn’t look happy.
“Hey,” I said on a weak smile.
He scowled at me and stood up. “I thought you were dead. I thought
he’d
taken you. I didn’t know what the hell had happened to you, Astra.”
I pushed myself to my feet and wiped suddenly sweaty palms on my thighs. “I was taken into the shadows by my mother. Darma was there and between the two of us we managed to escape. Then the Serpent showed up…” I narrowed my eyes at him as the anger on his face slowly morphed into a guilty flush. “Is that why you were fighting with Dialle? You blamed him for my disappearance?” I suddenly realized what Emo had been thinking…and I couldn’t believe it. “You thought
he
would hurt me?”
“Ridiculous isn’t it?” Dialle was suddenly standing at my side. I spared him a glance and felt his hand slide to my waist.
Emo was having trouble meeting my eyes. “He’s fully capable of getting you killed, Astra. When you disappeared I,” his gaze shifted around the room before lighting on my face, “I went a little nuts.”
My heart sped up as I realized my partner had indeed gone a little nuts. The question is why? We’d been friends for a really long time, as long as I could remember in fact. But attacking and trying to kill Dialle seemed a bit over the top.
“I tried to explain to him that I was searching for you too but he wasn’t listening…to me…or to anyone.” Dialle’s gorgeous face was dark with anger. His black eyes pierced the distance between him and Emo with unfettered rage. “He’s unbalanced, Astra.”
I reached a hand back and touched his arm to silence him.
Emo’s black eyes met his with equal anger. “You do nothing to help with the veil. You care only for your court and the power it stands to gain by this. If you were truly the Great Unifier you would help us defeat this thing.”
I felt Dialle stiffen at my back. “And curse my own kind with subservience for all time?”
I stiffened too. I didn’t want to hear that. I sooooo didn’t want to hear Dialle proclaim for the other side. I turned to look up at him but his gaze was locked angrily on my partner.
“You presume too much, Tweener.” He spat the title as if it was a foul taste in his mouth.
Emo took an angry step forward. “I have Royal blood in me too, Pretender but
I
will choose the light side over the dark!”
I heard a hiss of air and turned to see a sword clutched in Dialle’s elegant fist. A matching hiss across the room told me Emo had armed himself too.
I sighed. Dance of the idiots round two.
I flung up my hands and both men were encased in power bubbles. They fought to extricate themselves for a few beats and then turned angry black eyes toward me. I smiled, though I wanted to cry.
“I’m not releasing you until you start thinking with your brains rather than your testosterone.”
Dialle gave a mighty roar and lunged at the bubble, sword first. He nearly drove the hilt into his stomach on the backlash.
Emo laughed, spurring Dialle to new levels of rage. But there was nothing he could do to pierce my bubble and after a couple of minutes he stood panting and glaring at me.
“Okay, Astra. You win. I will behave.” The sword in his hand disappeared.
I looked at Emo. He sighed and let his sword disappear too.
The bubbles disintegrated with a soft pop.
“Now, can we discuss this like rational beings?”
“We would
all
need to be rational to have that occur.” Dialle said with a glare in Emo’s direction.
Emo arched a dark eyebrow at him. “And we would
all
have to be on the same side.”
At least the swords didn’t make an appearance again. It seemed we were settling for spearing each other with words.