Soulcleaver, page 12
part #2 of Dreamwalker Chronicles Series
Marshall was a natural-born leader. Normally, he was in his element when things went pear-shaped. His mind would clear, and everything would fall into place. He could always see exactly what actions were necessary to get him to his desired goal, and he always knew what people were necessary to take them. What he wasn’t good at was dealing with people trying to take care of him while he was on a mission.
Sure, Jack and Adelle both did it to some extent, but they were usually subtle enough that it didn’t bother him. Not today apparently.
He was beginning to feel like a plan had been put in place by everyone around him called Operation Nova, and he’d been left out of the loop. And that didn’t make him feel like a respected leader, it made him feel like a coddled snowflake. He didn’t like it.
But taking it out on Clayton wouldn’t make him feel like a leader worthy of respect, so he took a deep breath and focused on the fresh sea-scented air as it entered his lungs.
Once he felt more settled, he allowed himself to look into Clayton’s eyes and say, “Thanks, you saved me some time.”
The redhead’s pinched features relaxed minutely, and he nodded with all the vigor of a puppy being given a treat.
He passed the man, opened the driver’s side door and caught Clayton’s eye again. “But don’t ever touch my truck again.” The note of steel he put into his words made sure Clayton understood he wasn’t joking, and that Marshall would only be managed as much as he himself allowed.
Clayton’s face turned bright red, an effect that was highlighted by the midday sun bearing down on top of him, nodded again, and all but ran back into the Chapter House.
Once Marshall was settled into the driver seat, he turned to notice Aeyli watching him with an air of disapproval.
“Did that make you feel better?”
“I said thank you,” he said, knowing full well he’d been a bit of an ass.
“He worships the ground you walk on. It took Samantha nearly half an hour to convince him to gas up your truck. If I’d known you’d be such a butt about it, I’d have done it myself.”
Panic clawed at his insides at the very idea. Aeyli had never learned how to drive and the idea of his Baby suffering at her hands was too horrible to explore. “Clayton was probably the right choice.”
He pulled the truck out onto Beacon Street and ignored the lavish brownstones as he drove past. Marshall preferred the way they’d looked in the 1800s; now everything seemed a little too perfect for his tastes.
“You’d better be nice to him the next time you see him.” Aeyli grumbled, making Marshall feel as though he was sitting next to a pissed-off kitten.
She and Clayton had struck up a friendship over the past two weeks, and she refused to allow anyone to say anything bad about him within her earshot.
Secretly, Marshall was happy to see her find something to focus her attention on, other than her quest to find her lost soldier. Even if the end result was that he was unable to ask Clayton to stop coming into his room to tidy up because every time he did, the man broke something.
“I will, I promise,” he said, hoping it would allow him to escape her wrath.
“Good.” She beamed at him approvingly, and his world felt right again. “So, where are we going?”
“That way.” Marshall pointed in the direction the truck was facing.
“You could just say you don’t want to tell me.” Aeyli’s voice contained a grain of hurt feelings, and Marshall’s world went off-kilter once again. This was exactly why he’d wanted to be by himself in the first place. It was harder to hurt the people he cared about if he wasn’t around them.
“I’m not trying to be vague, Aeyli. I only know which direction she is. I don’t know exactly where.”
“She? Who are we trying to find, Marshall?”
He could hedge. In fact, he should hedge if he didn’t want to spend the next few hours—hours because the tug in his chest told him Nova was pretty far away—filling Aeyli in all the details of the Nova situation. But he decided not to. Aeyli already knew the darkest parts of him, so she wouldn’t shy away from anything he was about to tell her. And anyway, talking to Aeyli felt good. Too good, sometimes.
“Do you remember when we were fighting Sekt?” Aeyli shivered beside him at the mention of the recently destroyed demon who had ruled her family for hundreds of years, and he decided to politely ignore it. She didn’t like to be coddled any more than he did. “And you and I were stuck in my head watching all the bad things that happened in my life?”
“I mean it was so long ago, but yes, I vaguely remember something like that happening.”
Marshall cut his eyes away from the road to see a mischievous dimple appear on her cheek as she held in a smile. She was resilient, full of sass, and a perfect addition to Fire if he had any say in the matter.
“So the broken house with the ifrit, er, flying monsters, buzzing around it was a mission where I lost a young girl named Nova. Fire was supposed to protect her, and we failed—I failed.” Marshall held up a hand to hold off the protest Aeyli’s indignant hiss surely heralded. “It’s been five years with no leads, but during our mission last night, I found her.”
He felt a small hand on his arm and smiled as he felt the hum of her power against his skin, waiting for an invitation rather than barging in uninvited like it usually did.
“I see. That she.” He heard Aeyli heave a small sigh. “Is there anything I need to know?”
Marshall took his eyes off the road to give her an incredulous look. If it had been anyone else—with the possible exception of Jack—he’d be getting the third degree right now. But not Aeyli. Rather than poking and prodding in an attempt to fix him, she was giving him the chance to open up, or not, as he chose. He found himself wanting to tell her everything.
Just as he opened his mouth to do so, he remembered that, while she might be a unique being with a connection to the stillness of the universe, she was still an eighteen-year-old who had her own issues to deal with, so he compromised and said, “Just that it messed me up a bit.” Which was more than he’d admitted to anyone out loud.
He did allow himself the luxury of letting his power reach out to hers and invite it in.
Immediately, he felt relief from the fear, anger, and stress that caused his head to pound and his neck to ache. His shoulders ratcheted down a full inch as he pulled out onto the Mass Pike. Aeyli was a wonder. He’d never felt peaceful while merging onto the highway.
Just as he was settling into the feeling, he felt the pink of her gift reach his chest, and he realized he’d made a mistake. A big one.
“For the love of Vis, Marshall! What have you done to yourself?”
Chapter 12
Nova
Her headache had, in fact, not gotten better, but she’d taken a boatload of ibuprofen and guzzled two iced lattes, so she was as good as she was going to get.
If she’d begged off from tonight’s assignment, Niko would have surely rushed her to the ER, and she couldn’t have that. Nova couldn’t take the chance a doctor might find a way to make it stop because she was afraid the strange flashes of memory that showed up with the headache might stop too.
She still couldn’t remember any details from the flashes, but the sense of urgency and desperation she felt after having one was too intense to ignore. It was like having the name of a song stuck on the tip of her tongue for weeks—if remembering said song title also held with it the gravity of the fate of the world.
The episodes she kept having were the key, she just knew it. Very soon, one of them would be big enough, last long enough, for her to finally remember what the hell she was supposed to remember. If they didn’t kill her first, that is.
Until one of the two occurred, she still had a job to do. Which was why she was strolling into the nightclub with a third latte in hand and a fake smile plastered across her face.
“Finally deigning to come into work, sis?” Niko asked as she dropped onto the white satin couch he was sprawled lazily across.
“I just haven’t been getting enough of your ugly face lately.” She set her latte down on the black lacquered table and swung her legs around to twine with her brother’s. He shifted to give her better access. Nova caught his gaze and attempted to communicate without words that she wasn’t bringing her A-game tonight, but not to ask questions. Her eyes bore into his as she tried to will him to keep up the charade of lighthearted banter a little bit longer.
Niko’s forehead wrinkled, and for a moment his expression was unreadable. Then an instant later he grinned broadly at her and said, “Let’s bag these two shall we?” Gesturing toward the couple making out by the bar.
“So what’s the game tonight?” Nova dove right into the job at hand and chose not to question her luck at getting her brother to let the matter go for now.
It was strange. For the most part, Niko was a relatively self-centered person who was only concerned with his own happiness and well-being, but when it came to his sister, he was a total helicopter mom. She often wondered why that was. It wasn’t as if Nova was indifferent to Niko’s safety, but she’d never been as obsessed with it as he was.
“This lucky pair has been selected for the Wonder Twin treatment. Dad says to drag it out as long as possible.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively and attempted to bring his cranberry mojito to his lips, but failed when Nova nudged it with the tip of one of her sapphire-blue Louboutin pumps.
She flashed a thousand-watt smile at his look of betrayal and laughed when he trapped her feet under a leg and drained his drink.
The Wonder Twin treatment consisted of the two of them going up to a couple, dazzling them with charm and showing them the wildest night of their lives. The objective was to ply the pair with copious amounts of alcohol then expose them to as much drunken debauchery as possible all the while slowly eroding their morals. By the end of the night at least one member of the couple, if not both, ended up sleeping with someone else.
“Fabulous.” She cradled her latte and frowned down at the straw. It was one of her least favorite games to play. A lot of couples were easy to break apart—thus negating most feelings of guilt she might have. But every now and then they had to get creative. She worried that someday their father would make them break up a couple who really belonged together. Just the thought of it made her headache stir to uncomfortable levels.
“Here’s the rundown.” Her brother pointed his chin towards the overly amorous pair. “The blonde bombshell getting her face sucked off is Katie, the daughter of Paul Freeman, Chairman of Lansa Entertainment. The brunette sucking her face off is William, the son of Mary Kensington, the head of advertising at Nev Inc.”
“Ah,” Nova mused. “I get it. Paul has been trying to woo Mary’s team for some time now, and she keeps shooting him down. If those two get together, it could change her mind.”
Her father had been trying to keep those two from joining forces for months now. According to him, the massive ad campaign for Noah’s new pet project could only be run by Mary’s team. Nova wasn’t surprised her father had finally caved and put the twins on the job.
“Bingo. If yon lovers by the bar have a terrible blowout—especially if it’s William’s fault, Mary will tell Paul to get lost. And, of course, Dad will be so grateful to us for fixing the problem, he’ll probably buy us our own boat.” Niko scooted Nova to the edge of the couch and put his head in her lap, the picture of relaxation. He obviously saw nothing wrong with the scenario.
“Jeezus, Dad.” Nova muttered under her breath.
None of this came as a surprise to her, but she was still left feeling gross about the way her family did things. Sure, when she was younger, it was all a big game she and her brother played. They called it What Can We Get People to Do?
However, somewhere around the age of sixteen, she started feeling uneasy during jobs. Usually Niko managed to cajole her out of those feelings and bring it back around to being fun. Though, if she really didn’t want to play a game, he always made sure she had an out.
A smile touched her lips, and she ran her fingers through her brother’s hair. As usual, thinking about Niko made her bad mood fade into the background. Unless he was the cause of the bad mood.
He would never drag her into something truly bad. It was just that his idea of fun was a bit more . . . intense than hers.
Turning her mind to the job at hand, she looked William over. He wasn’t a bad looking guy, a bit too lanky for her tastes and way too pretty. It took less than an instant to know that she wasn’t going to volunteer to lead William astray. The twins had pretty clear rules about that sort of thing.
Neither sibling had to sleep with anyone they had no predilection toward. In Nova’s case it almost never happened. Niko, on the other hand, had broader tastes than his sister. He was a firm believer of the old adage, ‘All is fair in love and war,’ as well as, ‘The more the merrier.’ Though when it came to Nova, his thinking turned more archaic. He refused to use her as bait in their honey traps even if she was willing.
“Well,” she announced, “He’s not my type, so . . .”
“You’re damned right he isn’t.” Niko interrupted and sat up abruptly, forcing Nova to yank her coffee out of the way. A trick of the light made his eyes appear to flash.
“So we’ll have to find someone else to lead him astray.” She continued lightly. It was better when she didn’t give Niko’s protective flare-ups any attention, it only encouraged him.
“Shouldn’t be too hard to do around here, all these lovely ladies.” Niko said, glancing around the crowded room.”
“You would know, darling. How many of these ladies have you gotten acquainted with?” she asked, referring to his legendary prowess with the locals.
“Somewhat more than the gentlemen, I suspect.” Niko said with a distracted air, as though none of them mattered to him.
“All right Casanova, let’s get this game started, shall we?” She nudged his side to get him to stand, then reached her arms out to him so he’d help her up.
“Sloths are more active than you, did you know that?” He rolled his eyes but pulled her up with a fond smile.
They made their way to the bar, squeezing past the crush of dancers. Once they were behind their targets, Niko put a hand on Nova’s back and pushed her into William, causing his drink to spill on the bar.
“Nova, you haven’t even had one drink! This is hardly the way to start our evening out,” Niko exclaimed dramatically, reaching out and pulling her off their victim and setting her back on her feet.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” She brushed William’s sleeve where some of his drink had spilled. Her head was throbbing with the beat of the music, so it wasn’t hard for her to pull on the mantle of space cadet.
“Let me make it up to you and buy you and your lady drinks for the rest of the night.” Niko caught the bartender’s attention with a gesture. “The name’s Niko, and this mess here is my sister Nova.”
✽✽✽
After introductions were made, it took little effort to get the couple to join them for the evening. Unfortunately, due to a slight overestimation of Katie’s ability to consume alcohol, the evening got cut short right before they were about to visit a strip club.
“Sorry about this, guys,” William said, embarrassment coloring his already flushed cheeks. “Katie isn’t much of a drinker. I don’t know what made her forget that tonight—she knows she’s a lightweight.”
Nova knew it probably had something to do with the fact that she and Katie had been drinking the same kind of drink that night. Any time Katie’s drink was significantly lower than Nova’s, she switched them, tricking the poor girl into drinking nearly twice what she had originally planned. The consequences of her mistake were making themselves very loudly and colorfully known much closer to her car than Nova would have preferred.
She was about to respond with some silly platitude when the headache she’d been ignoring all evening flared up to epic proportions. Not here. Just let me make it back home.
Niko looked at her oddly. Had she betrayed her suffering somehow?
“Don’t worry about it, man,” Niko said. “We can do this another night. Maybe we can leave the girls at home next time.”
Don’t even think about it. Nova gave her brother a hard look he returned with an impassive stare. She knew what he was up to by trying to make it a guy’s only night.
“Don’t worry about me, gentlemen. I can drink this one here”—she tapped her brother on the chest lightly with an expensively manicured finger—“under the table without trying, and I’ve got the pictures to prove it.”
“Of course you can come, sweetheart.” William drawled. The knife currently burrowing its way through Nova’s brain made it extra challenging to resist kicking him. Sweetheart, her ass. “Tomorrow night, let’s all try this again. Katie will want a chance to show you she isn’t a lush, right, sweetie?”
Katie chose to answer him with a groan followed by a wet, choked sigh.
“Great, I’ll text you tomorrow afternoon after we get up.” Niko waved a flamboyant goodbye, took Nova by the arm, frog-marched her to the passenger side of her car, and opened the door.
“This isn’t necessary . . .”
Niko looked around making sure the other couple had walked out of earshot. “Don’t even start with me. Just sit.” He punctuated sit with a not-so-gentle shove to get her in the car. Then he got in the driver’s side and started the car. The emotional atmosphere inside the car was toxic as they headed back to their house. Nova fought the urge to squirm.
Niko fumed silently beside her while he drove. When he broke the silence his voice was glacial. “Were you ever planning on talking to me about what’s wrong?”
Nova stared out of the window and watched the lights of the city recede as they sped away into the night. She didn’t want to do this now. Or ever. But she owed him some kind of explanation.
