INVISIBLE FATE BOOK THREE: ALEX NOZIAK (INVISIBLE RECRUITS) (17 page)

Chapter
Thirty-six

I didn’t think. I rocketed forward. Not to embrace but to pummel the crap out of him. Standing there. Tall. Dark and arrogant from the tip of his designer shoes to the lock of midnight hair that had grown a shade too long.

Murderer!

Whatever Bran was though, he wasn’t a lightweight. He used the shield of the door to counter my launch and sent me spinning backwards.

His one hundred percent focus was on me.
Fear rippled in the back of my throat. He wasn’t the kind, considerate lover here. Or even the ally. I didn’t know who or what he was anymore but I did know he killed Van and I wanted to rip his head off.

“We need to talk,” he said,
stepping warily into the room as my fellow teammates backed off.

Didn’t blame them. I’d be leaving by the back door if I could. But this was
my
fight. And talk wasn’t on the agenda.

“You killed him,” I snarled,
anger shaking my voice, firing my determination as I crab walked backwards on my hands until I could find protection at my back or enough space to scramble to my feet.

“Now wait just a minute.” He was using
that calm and reasonable voice. That alone was enough to have me screaming.

Instead
, I felt wetness dampening my cheeks. What the—? Noziaks did
not
cry. Never. Ever.

We got even. Eye for an eye. Death for a death.

Something bitter, deeper than sorrow exploded within me. Bran cared for me once. I cared for him. More than cared. Which was why his betrayal clawed at me all the more.

Right now he was making a bad thing
worse. Softening his voice, extending one hand like one did to a frightened dog.
Come here puppy, all will be well.

Only it wouldn’t. Not ever again. Van
would never be coming back and Bran was the reason why.

With a snarl of rage dragged from deep
within I scrambled to my hands and knees, never letting my intention waver. “You killed him,” I whispered, my voice so ragged it tore at my throat. “I asked … you said you’d …”

He actually frowned. Like I was the crazy one. His glance shifted then, for a split second as he looked toward Vaughn and Stone as if asking what I was babbling about.

As if he didn’t know.

I took his distraction for permission and kick
-started myself across the room at a speed that took us both by surprise. My shoulder cracked into his legs as he flew up and over my head.

Not so urbane sophisticated now as Mister Big Shot landed with
an exploding crack.

I was just getting started. A death for a death. It was only fair. Only just.

Blood pumping through me so loud I couldn’t hear beyond it even as I caught Jaylene and Kelly shouting something from their corners in the room.

This time I made it to my feet as Bran
’s head still shuddered, looking dazed. I raised one hand, a spell dancing on the end of my tongue. I brushed against the blood from the earlier battle still staining my skin, added it to blood I drew from savaging my lip.

“By darkest night. By deepest hole.

Debt be owed. Debt be paid.
”

This was black magic. The kind I swore I’d never use. The kind that took my mother from me. That needed blood to activate.

I bit down harder.
Fresh blood fueled the strongest black magic. Mine worked.

“Debt be owed. Debt be paid.

A life for a death.

Black for white. Go—”

Bran had raised his own hand, pointing one finger at me. His Celtic blue eyes ages older than when he’d walked through the door, his words even older, spoken in a harsh, garbled tongue I didn’t recognize.

“ἄβυσσος

κυβερνάω

ἄγγελος

ἱερός, ἱερός, ἱερός

ἔργον

δράσις
.”

What? In the heartbeat between one second and the next I went rigid.

His
words wrapped around me, heavier than chains, thicker than steel. Like whatever Hercules had done to the Weres. I froze; body, voice, action.

But not my mind. My thoughts screamed for release.

Whatever he’d just done he’d have to undo. And when he did, he was mine.

Chapter
Thirty-seven

“What just happened?” Sabina was the one to break the terrible silence in the room, the one broken only by heavy breathing until now.

“Lovers spat taken to a whole new level,” came Mandy’s snarky comment
, though even her words sounded wary.

Bran dragged himself to his feet. Slow like.
Acting hurt. As if. He’d not begun to hurt. Just wait.

“You kill somebody Alex knew?” Stone stepped to the fore, ice in his tone.

Go, Stone!

Bran shook his head, that unruly lock of hair tumbling across his forehead. “Not anyone who wasn’t trying to kill me. Or her.”  He actually glared at me. Me? The one frozen!

“Can you undo what you just did?” Kelly asked, walking right up to the warlock, her fists clenched, her eyes still sightless. How she knew what had gone on was beyond me but the Great Spirits love her, she had my back.

“Yes.” Bran looked at Kelly as if he meant the word. He might, in his own Machiavellian way, but he had no idea of the
payback I was going to unleash his way the second he freed my voice. That’s all I needed. Just a few words.

“Were you speaking the truth when you said you knew who or what
Zaradian is?” Vaughn asked, all business, as if I wasn’t standing here, a wedge of fury.

“Yes
.” Bran said again, straightening his shoulders, looking pained. Not that I was noticing. He deserved everything he got. What you sow so you reap.

“And?” Stone’s tone said get-on-with-it.

“Zaradian is the name of a demon cast out of Earth three thousand years ago. A follower of Satanail.”

“So he was cast out before Christ came?” Herc asked, doing the math.

“Yes. Or so the legends say. Many were lost in the battle between good and evil and it was a near miss that Zaradian was banished from Earth.” Kelly’s voice hitched as her hand went to her mouth. I knew the thought of dealing with demons pushed her buttons, given her background. But who knew if Bran was even telling the truth? What had I done to anger a demon? One gone for three-thousand years? Seriously? Was anyone really listening to this crap?

As if answering my thoughts
, Bran looked at me as he continued, “Zaradian was not only one of the followers of Satanail, a fallen angel, Zaradian chose his destiny when he joined with Satanail.”

“
And Satanail was who exactly?” pragmatic Jaylene asked.

“The older of
the two sons of God.”

Hercules whistled, looking down at something in his hand. A phone?
The kid was interrupting a warlock with info from a phone? Oh, this babe had a lot to learn. Kelly looked paler than before and Mandy was casting Jaylene a WTH look. I was with her.

Hercules nodded his head. “He’s right. Christ was the second son. Zaradian the first.”

I must not have been the only one wondering how the kid knew what he was talking about as he looked up and said, “What?”

“How would you know anything?” Leave it to Mandy to verbally bitch-slap him. Once again I was on her side. This was beginning to worry me. Not that I needed more to occupy me. My mind was razor focused. Get unfrozen. Kill Bran. Everything else was on hold until those two steps were done.

“
It explains about Zaradian on Wikipedia,” came Herc’s reply as he raised his phone. “It doesn’t have a lot but does say in spite of the esteem God held his son in it wasn’t enough for Satanail. He rebelled and promised his followers relief from devotion. God cast him and his followers out and Satanail wandered in the void with several other fallen angels.”

He glanced back at his phone and continued
, “He wandered until he decided to make a second heaven which he called the universe. Then he created the physical world filled with misery and suffering.”

“Fraulein Fassbinder isn’t going to be happy you’re getting all your intel from Wik
ipedia,” Jaylene snorted, looking back at Bran. “Any of this true?”

“Most of it.” Bran straightened his
cufflinks as if talking to a Rotary club meeting, or whoever passed as high-ranking mucky mucks in his world. And he must have used up a heck of a lot of his magic by chilling me out. By the intentional way he moved, as if he had to think through every action, he was either in pain or exhausted. Either would work for me the second I got unstuck.

Bran finished,
“Zaradian became one of Satanail’s main Watchers.”

“And a Watcher does what?”
Jaylene asked.

Probably didn’t freeze witches, that’s for sure.

“Watchers prepare the way for Satanail to return. When Christ came to this plane, he cast out Satanail and many of his Watchers. But not all. Those who remained continued to stir up trouble on Earth and in the universe until they were routed and banished, one by one.”

Nice
fairytale, warlock. Doesn’t mean you’re not going down!

“So what does this
Zaradian Watcher want with Alex?” Vaughn asked. At least she hadn’t forgotten I was in the room, listening to all this poppycock.

Bran looked at me then. Really looked at me and if I wasn’t hurting so bad at the thought of Van’s death I might have caved right then and there by that look. Sorrow. Resignation. Regret.

I’d have toppled if I wasn’t a solid mass of pissed-off witch.

“My guess is someone wants Alex, or her abilities, to free Zaradian.”

No way would I release a demon. No freakin’ way!

My whole team looked at me as if I was Hitler personified. Thank the Great Spirits for Kelly who stepped to my side, her sight now restored, as she bumped up against me
, hip to hip. Not hard enough to topple me but just enough to make it very clear whose side she was on. “Alex would never do that. Never. And I can’t believe even one of you would even consider that she would.”

She said the last bit directly to Mandy.
You tell her, Kels
! The kitten had some wicked-ass claws and wasn’t afraid to use them.

“No one said
she would,” Stone grumbled.

“There’s choice and then there’s no choice,” Bran said, earning all eyes
once again on him.

“What’d you mean?” Kelly asked.

“Every one of us, Alex included, have trigger points. Push them hard enough and we’d do whatever it’d take.”

“You mean like pain?” Kelly
prodded.

“That’s the tip of the iceberg
.” Each word Bran dropped was like ice shards in the room. “A lot of people can withstand pain. To themselves. But what if the threat was directed at someone they loved? A lot easier to make an impossible choice if it meant a loved one lives or dies.”

Chapter
Thirty-eight

If I weren’t as frozen as a turkey the week before Thanksgiving, I’d have jerked at Bran’s words. I hated it, but he was right. I’d done everything in my power to save Van. We all had loved ones, except maybe Mandy, who I’m sure was devil spawn, but that was beside the point.

But what about the rest of us? What would I do to save my family?

Wait, what was I thinking? Van was already dead. My own dad had abandoned me to prison— for life. My other three brothers were so far away from here I doubted they’d be brought into this mess. I was pretty safe.

Except.

Because it was the only thing I could move, my gaze skip-jumped around the room, landing one by one on my fellow teammates. What if someone threatened Kelly? Or Vaughn? Or Jaylene? Stone might be the biggest badass on the planet but he was still human, or mostly human, as far as I knew. And what about the teens in the room? Sabina was vulnerable and while I didn’t know Herc well, he had his whole life before him. Would I be willing to see him sacrificed?

No way. Even Mandy. I might grouse and grumble about her but I wouldn’t let her die if I could save her. Suffer maybe, but only a little.

And Bran?

It was one thing for me to want payback for Van’s death by taking Bran’s life but would I let someone else do the same?
If I could shake my head, I would have. If I could have let the tears acid-etching my eyes escape, I would have. Instead, I held myself still enough that even my breaths were minimized.

Bran’s words
had slammed the whole room into emotional reactive mode, which could get a person killed faster than lighting the tail of a polder duck demon. And that was fast!

It wa
s Vaughn who jump-started clear-headed thinking. “One step at a time. Before we start worrying about what Alex might or might not do, we need her back with the team. Bran, can you do that?”

He quirked one arrogant brow as if wondering why she’d bother
ed to ask.

But there
’s a world of difference between can and would.

Vaughn didn’t waste any more breath on him. “Good. Next is to create a plan of action. Standing around here is
inviting more Weres to attack. Kelly, I need you to make sure Sabina is safe. Can you take her to Ling Mai’s?”

It wasn’t a suggestion, it was an order.
Ling Mai might be a PIA but she could protect her people. When she chose to. There was that damn word again. Everything kept coming down to choices.

Vaughn turned to look at the other teen in the room.
“Herc, can you get us up to speed with using your weapons?”

“Ah, yeah, maybe one or two, but probably not everyone,” the young man replied.
“I don’t have enough ingredients to keep the whole team supplied.”

“One or two is better than
none. I’ll volunteer and Mandy–that’ll help us as fighters be on par with the others.” She turned to Stone. “You know of another place safer than this one?”

He nodded, a funny cant to his smile like he couldn’t get enough of his sweetie kicking butt and
giving orders.

Vaughn
gave him a quick, just-wait smile in return before she turned back to the group. “Jaylene, I want you to update Ling Mai on what’s gone down here and what intel we have on this Zaradian demon.”

“Soon as I figure it out myself,” Jaylene
murmured, already heading for the door.

“Mandy
, I want you to contact Fraulein Fassbinder, and the librarian if you have to, we need as much intel on Zaradian as possible.”

“Will do.” Mandy followed Jaylene out the door. If Kelly took Sabina and Herc away
, there’d be fewer targets here to attack if the Weres decided to try again.

“And me?” Bran asked, as if he accepted directions from others all the time. Not! He was more the giving orders and then giving more kind.

“You? I want you to unfreeze Alex, or whatever you did to her.”

I owe you
, Vaughn.

Bran must have translated my second thought, which was I owed him first, in a whole different way as he asked, “You sure?”

Oh, I’d make him pay for that
.

“Yes, I’m positive.”

“Then everyone stand back,” he said, stepping back himself.

“Why?” Sabina asked. I’d almost forgotten she was still here. She’d been so qui
et except for her eyes getting bigger and bigger. “Will it hurt her?”

Not as much as it was going to hurt Bran.

“No,” he replied, looking me eye to eye. “But I can’t say the same about anyone else in the room.”

And in a blink three things happened at once.

Bran raised his voice, speaking that bizarre language and the spell broke.

I shouted,

“Abeo. Abeo. Abeo.”

Depart. Die. Depart.

And Sabina threw her body between me and Bran, receiving the full jolt of my spell head- on.