Requiem (28 page)

“
I saw what Jared is
capable of the night I was stabbed. I’ve experienced first hand
what Claire can do. They aren’t…normal. I know Grahm and the other
cops were dirty, but Anderson was a good man. He didn’t deserve to
die. Quit treating me like I can’t keep a secret and just tell
me.”

I looked past Ryan to see Jared stand up,
look around, and then lean against the Escalade, freeing it from
the ruts without effort.

“
Okay, Baby. We’re out.
Let’s go.”

Ryan walked to the Escalade, evaluating the
slide marks the tires had made. He craned his neck at Jared. “I’m
going to figure this out. It would save us all a lot of time and
energy if you’d just tell me.”

“
Let’s go, Nina,” Jared
said.

I nodded, climbing into the cab.

“
Maybe I could help you.
Have you thought about that?” Ryan said.

Jared took off, leaving him in the
snow-buried street.

I pulled my coat tighter around me and
stuffed my hands under my arms. “It wouldn’t hurt to have a
connection in the police department.”

“
Not Ryan,” Jared
said.

“
You sure talk a lot of
smack to Claire about thinking with your emotions. You’re not being
objective at all!”

Jared ignored me, instead, pulling over when
he noticed a woman trying to dig the snow out from under her buried
tires.

A short drive around town turned into a
three hour- long aid mission to free stranded motorists from the
ice and snow. I would pretend to help, and Jared would pull or push
cars and trucks out of snow drifts, ditches, and the side of the
road.

It felt good to use Jared’s abilities to
help others; even if it was something small.

When we returned to the house, Claire’s
Lotus was in the drive, along with a police cruiser.

“
I don’t believe it,” Jared
said, helping me from the passenger side. He carried me through the
snow to the side entrance, and then stomped through the house until
he found them.

They sat in the kitchen at the breakfast
table, laughing. Claire seemed genuinely happy for once, and I
smiled at the sight.

“
How long have you two been
here?” Jared demanded.

Claire’s smile faded. “Don’t worry, I waited
for you. I told Ryan you’d tell him what you thought he needed to
know.”

“
No questions asked,” Ryan
promised.

Jared’s hand balled into fists at his side,
and the tendons in his neck were strained. It took every ounce of
willpower he had not to charge.

“
I’m not telling him
anything,” Jared growled. “Leave, before I do something we’ll all
regret.”

He turned his back to Claire, and she jumped
up to stop him.

“
Wait,” I said, landing the
palms of my hands on Jared’s chest. “Sit, calm down…we’ll just
talk,” I said, nodding to Claire and Ryan. “Let’s just sit down and
hear them out, and if you still feel the same way, we’ll
go.”

Jared took a deep breath, and then nodded,
taking a seat across from Claire. I sat beside him, placing my hand
on his knee.

Claire mimicked his sigh, turning to Ryan.
“Anything Jared tells you is privileged information, Ryan. Nina has
lied to you, to her best friends, to her family. Are you sure you
want to know?”

Ryan glanced at me.

I leaned forward. “It’s not
fun knowledge to have. In this case, ignorance
is
bliss. I recommend you walk away,
but it’s your decision.”

Ryan met Claire’s eyes. “I’m sure.”

“
Okay,” Claire said. “First
thing’s first.” She grabbed his shirt and ripped it open, popping
off the buttons.

“
Hey!” Ryan said, holding
up his hands.

“
Standard procedure,” she
said, pulling up his white tank top underneath, bearing his chest.
She ran her fingers down each side, and then around his
back.

“
Come on. You think I’m
wearing a wire?” Ryan said, looking at each of us.

“
I killed your partner,”
Claire said, expressionless.

“
What?” Ryan said. His
eyebrows turned in, and he shifted nervously in his
chair.

“
Just get right to the
point, Claire,” Jared said, shaking his head in
disapproval.

“
Why would you kill Kit? He
was a good man. He was a good cop….” Ryan said, trailing
off.

“
He set you up. He asked
you to meet him so men working for someone named Donovan could
kidnap you, and ultimately use you as bait.”

Ryan shook his head. “No. Kit wouldn’t do
that.”

“
Then he was forced. He has
kids. They probably threatened to kill them if he didn’t
cooperate.”

Ryan’s shoulders fell. “So you were
protecting me.”

“
That’s my job,” Claire
said.

Ryan’s once confused expression
metamorphosed into suspicion. “W-What do you mean it’s your
job?”

“
Here we go,” I said,
covering my mouth with my hands. I remembered the moment Jared had
told me the truth about what he was, and I knew Ryan wouldn’t
believe her.

Claire was stoic. “I’m your guardian angel.
My father was an angel, my mother is human. When my father fell in
love with my mother and decided to stay with her, he was cursed by
Heaven so he would continue to protect his Taleh…his human.”

“
My dad,” I
added.

Claire continued, “The curse is carried
throughout the bloodline for a few generations, so Jared, Bex, and
I also have Taleh. We have trained our entire lives to be able to
protect you, and we have superhuman speed and strength. Nina is
Jared’s…you’re mine. I killed Anderson to protect you. I killed
everyone else to protect Nina, so Jared could stay with her while
she healed. I watched you throughout your entire military career,
and yes, I pulled you out of the desert.”

“
I thought you said you
were going to let me tell him,” Jared said, displeased.

“
I don’t have all day,”
Claire answered.

Ryan was silent.

“
You forgot the most
important part,” I said.

Claire rolled her eyes. “Oh yeah, and
because of the curse, I can’t die unless you do.”

The room was silent. I squeezed Jared’s
knee, thankful he hadn’t dropped the truth on me the way Claire had
just done with Ryan. We all waited for him to breakdown, yell, or
try to leave. He just sat in his chair, letting it soak in.

I took my hands from my mouth and slid them
across the table. “Are you okay?” I asked, touching his hand.

“
Yeah,” he blinked. “Just
trying to get it all straight in my head.”

“
If you tell anyone, I’ll
end your life,” Jared said in a low, frightening voice.

“
Not likely, since you’d
also be killing your sister,” Ryan said.

“
He was paying attention,”
Jared said.

One side of Ryan's mouth turned up. “So you
would literally take a bullet for me.”

“
No,” Claire said, with
zero emotion.

“
No?” Ryan said, surprised
at her answer.

Claire rolled her eyes, annoyed that she had
to answer. “If I have time to stand in the way of a bullet, you
have time to move.”

“
True,” Ryan said,
nodding.

“
So the question is,” I
said. “What will you do with the information now that you have
it?”

Ryan paused in thought, and then fastened
the few buttons left on his shirt. “Find Donovan.”

“
Welcome to our club,” Bex
said, plopping into the chair beside me. “I just talked to Kim.
They’re on the move.”

“
Kim. Our Kim?” Ryan asked,
his eyes darting to me.

“
Yes. She’s sort of the
opposite of a demon magnet.”

Ryan left that one alone, turning to Claire.
“Sounds like you left a lot out.”

She stood, pulling Ryan with her. “Yes. This
is going to be like on-the-job training. Can you handle it?”

“
So far,” he
said.

“
That’s the hardest part,”
I said, turning to Bex. “Where are they now?”

Bex traded glances with Jared before he
spoke. “We have to move. They have an entourage, so it will take
all three of us.”

“
Okay,” Jared said, nodding
as he was lost in thought. “Where is Kim?”

Bex twitched. “Outside.”

Jared nodded. “Kim, stays with Nina.”

“
Jared!” I
protested.

Claire pulled on her coat. “Did you hear
Bex, Nina? The three of us are going. We don’t need Kim.”

“
Ryan,” Jared said. “I’ll
need you to stay with Nina. The only things you can’t handle will
be protecting what we’re going after.”

Ryan nodded. “I won’t let her out of my
sight.”

“
You have your gun?” Claire
asked.

Ryan patted his side in confirmation.

I threw my arms around Jared and squeezed,
shutting my eyes tight. “Don’t stay away long.”

“
In and out, Baby. In and
out,” he smiled.

“
And don’t come back full
of bullet holes this time!” I called after him.

The door shut, and the sound of the
Escalade’s engine faded as everyone I loved most in the world
traveled farther and farther away.

“
Bullet holes?” Ryan
asked.

“
Come on,” I said, pulling
him into down the hall. “Let’s find more comfortable chairs. This
is going to take a while.”

Chapter Sixteen

If I Told You
Everything

The rain beat against the window of the
classroom, prompting Professor Sawyer to speak louder than her
small voice could accommodate. Words squeaked from her throat as
she struggled to lecture through the snickers and murmuring of the
students.

Her words blurred together as I stared at
the blank page of my laptop monitor. The nightmares were absent the
night before, but only because sleep never came. The Ryels didn’t
return home until just before the sun rose, and even if I could
have ignored the worry long enough for my eyes to close for a
moment, Ryan’s incessant questions kept me awake.

So...what if she gets shot in the head?

If I die and then Claire dies does she go to
Heaven?

What if I don't die but I'm a vegetable?

Can she get knocked out?

So her dad was an angel? Can he see me right
now.

His curiosity was insatiable. I finally lost
my temper and yelled at him to shut up, but he only smiled and sat
quietly long enough to think of more questions. For the first time,
I was glad that Ryan was no longer enrolled at Brown.

I twirled the diamond ring around my finger,
trying to block out images of what Bex and Claire had described
earlier that morning. Their clash with Isaac and Donovan was
short-lived, but had the Ryel's been human, it would have been
lethal. The vision of Isaac was so vivid and frightening in my
mind, the thought of coming face to face with him terrified me. He
and Donovan had been commissioned to protect the Naissance de
Demoniac, and because they were faced with all three of Gabe Ryel’s
children, they decided retreat was the prudent option—but not
before sinking four bullets into Bex’s chest.

The kitchen was a bloody mess by sunrise,
and although Bex’s eyes were wide with excitement, seeing Claire
pluck the remnants of bullets from his flesh left
me…well…unsettled.

“
Oh, to hell with this,
class dismissed,” the professor said in defeat.

I blinked, seeing the other students pack up
without pause and leave the classroom. Once the doorway cleared,
Kim stood with a smirk on her face.

“
Why didn’t you come back
to the house with the others?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Two papers due today. I still
go to class, you know.”

“
So how did it go?” I
asked, following her down the hall. My feet scampered along her
wide strides.

She shook her head, clearly troubled.

“
Don’t do that, Kim. You’re
the impervious one.”

“
Taking Shax, or Donovan
and Isaac head on isn't working. We need to think of another way to
get the Demoniac. They know when we’re coming. We can’t distract
them because they want nothing else more than that
book.”

I frowned, wary of Kim’s uncharacteristic
concern. “I still say we don't need it. Your family had the book
all this time. You have to know what it said. Didn’t you open
it?”

“
No,” she said firmly. “I
was never allowed to open it.”

“
What about your uncle?
Your father? Between them and Father Francis, can’t we just get
enough information for Jared to work with?”

Kim lowered her chin. “I guess you didn’t
catch the part about how we weren’t allowed to open the book.”

“
You said it yourself!” The
words were louder than I’d meant for them to be. I looked around,
and then lowered my voice. “We can’t take it when they know we’re
coming.”

Kim nodded, but her somber
expression melted away as an idea lit her eyes. “There is
one
thing they would
want more than the book.”

I shook my head. “No. No way, Jared would
never go for it.”

“
We need them to come to
us. We need bait.”

“
Think about it. He’s not
going to risk my life to save me, Kim. And I kind of hate you for
even mentioning it.”