Lassiter, page 34
After Sahvage went ahead, Lassiter followed and had a thought that he couldn’t imagine not walking into yet another of these meetings and seeing all these faces. Add Rahvyn to the mix? There had to be a way out of the Creator’s—
In the far corner by the hearth, two males who shouldn’t have been at any kind of get-together in the mansion lifted their hands in a wave—and Mike Myers went through his mind: Exsqueeze me. A baking powder?
No, wait, that was the other guy with the rubber face. From In Living Color. The Mask. That pet detective movie…
“So we move the venue,” Vishous said into the silence, like he was continuing a discussion. “That’s the answer. We don’t stop the meetings, we just go somewhere else.”
No, it was Wayne’s World, Lassiter thought as he started to make his way over to the other angels. But goddamn, why couldn’t he remember the other guy.
Then again, like he didn’t have a couple of things on his mind?
Phury stepped back to give him a little room, clapping him on the shoulder. Then Butch gave a smile from where he was sitting on the pale blue love seat next to his roommate. After that, Xcor nodded and leaned to the side so he could squeeze by. There were other acknowledgments, too, as he made progress through the crowded-subway-SRO, and he couldn’t help thinking that, in spite of his best efforts to be a jackass, they valued him and they wanted him here—
“Ace Ventura,” he hissed as he arrived at his destination. “And Jim Carrey.”
“No, I’m Eddie,” the angel said as he put his thumb to his sternum. Then he pointed next door. “And he’s Adrian.”
“Nice ta meet ya.” Ad stuck out his hand. “It’s been ages—”
As they got shhh’d, Lassiter put both palms up, mouthed WTF?, and then motioned back and forth between them.
“Long story,” Eddie muttered. “And I’m not talking about it.”
A sudden lift in Lassiter’s mood made him feel like he’d gone to see Dr. Now and “made good progress.” And then Eddie was repositioning him so that the three of them were standing shoulder to shoulder and he could see out into the room.
As new sites for the King to meet with civilians were discussed, Lassiter kept glancing over at his immortal buddies. But every time he did, they were still there, Eddie looking like someone had just made him eat a rotten egg, and Ad, as always, pierced and happy, rolling along with whatever.
You’re supposed to be going to the Creator, Lassiter thought at Eddie. My twenty-four hours is almost up.
Eddie’s lower jaw started grinding. Not talking about it.
So you’re staying? To help? When nothing came back at him, he looked at Ad. Hello?
For once, Ad looked him in the eye and got really fucking serious. The Omega was on their property last night. So there are two malevolent entities in this town now, and our prime directive has always been to engage evil.
Lassiter again went palms-up. But that was true last night and you were determined to finish your mission then.
How do we know there aren’t more coming, Ad thought. What if one of the barriers between planes has opened and there’s going to be a run of demons? Besides, do you want to argue with this? Really.
Nope, sure don’t, Lassiter thought back.
Plus hey, at least they would all be in trouble together—and under the theory that there was only so much of the Creator’s wrath to go around? Divide and conquer had always been an effective strategy, and at least now the pissed-off from on high was going to be split three ways.
“So that’s what we do,” the King announced from behind the great carved desk. “We move locations—and I want all rotations out in the field. Let’s go looking for lessers again.”
There was a growl throughout the room, low and threatening. Also annoyed, as if none of them could believe they were up to their daggers in the war again.
“I’ll get the word out about a change in venue,” V said. “And no one goes back to that house. If it was Lash—and it has to be because he’s the only part of the Omega left—he’ll stake out the site, and while we watch him, I don’t want any collateral damage or distractions.”
“That’s right.” Wrath held up his forefinger to emphasize the point. “I do not want any of the doggen going there.”
“Not a problem, I’ll take care of it.”
The King nodded. Then swept the room as if he were sighted, his face turning from side to side. “Any other updates.”
When there were just mumbles that were I-got-nothin’ in nature, the King banged the desk with his dagger hand. “Roger that. I’m calling this meeting adjourned. Get back out in the streets then, and find—”
“He’s going to ask my cousin to mate him.”
As Sahvage’s word-grenade landed in the center of the study, everyone looked at him. Then followed where he was pointing and stared at Lassiter. Every eyeball. In the room.
Well.
“Ahh…” Lassiter glanced around and then mouthed his second WTF? of the night in Sahvage’s direction. “She hasn’t said yes yet—”
A surprisingly hearty cheer rose up and resounded, and then the brothers and fighters swarmed in for high fives and attaboys.
Hello, it was an update, Sahvage mouthed back across the chaos.
“Let us know what she says,” Wrath called out over the din with a smile. “Fritz is always ready to plan a party.”
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
As dates go, this was not quite what I had in mind.”
As Lassiter spoke, Rahvyn squeezed his hand. “Well, I can’t think of anything I’d like more.”
The pair of them were up in the sanctuary of temples and tulips again, strolling side by side over the bright green, cropped grass. She didn’t know where in the extensive landscape they were headed, but she didn’t care. They were together and things were peaceful—and after the previous couple of nights, that was perfection in her view.
“Can I tell you what I was thinking? You know, date-wise,” Lassiter prompted.
She glanced up at him. “Please.”
“I wanted to razzle-dazzle you.”
With a laugh, she indicated around the bucolic environs. “We are in paradise. I can assure you my razzle is very dazzled indeed, whatever that means.”
He tilted down and kissed her. “Well, first I rented out the Palisades movie theater for us.”
“Oh! As in the moving picture show palace?” An image of gold-leafed grandeur and red velvet curtains came to mind. “I read an article about it whilst at Luchas House. It was very lovely, the interior. Quite fancy.”
“Yup, that’s the one. A little grandeur never hurts, even if we’re in jeans, you know? Also, if it’s good enough for Elvis, it’s good enough for me.”
“Elvis?”
“Long story. And I’d arranged a screening of one of my favorite movies of all time. Sixteen Candles.”
“Whatever is it about?”
“The guy gets the girl in the end—and there’s a red Porsche involved. It’s a defining movie of the eighties. Molly Ringwald. Jake Ryan. Anthony Michael Hall. Rice Chex. Farmer Ted. Totally outer limits. Amazing.”
Even though he spoke in a different language, she smiled broadly. “I should very much like to watch it with you.”
“I will make that happen.” He squeezed her hand back. “And afterward, I was going to take you to this 24-hour diner all kinds of people rave about. Apparently the place serves an apple pie that if consumed after midnight guarantees a religious experience.”
“Oh, I’ve never had one of those. But I look forward to it.”
Lassiter laughed in that way she liked to hear, deep and in his belly. Then he leaned in. “Are you talking about the pie or the religious experience? Because I’ve got another way I can give you the latter.”
As a flush went through her body, she remembered what they had done in that cave during all of the daylight hours—and decided, whilst looking around at all the privacy they had, that this was indeed the very best place for their date.
“I anticipate that even more,” she murmured.
“Preeeeach.” He kissed her again. “So anyway, that was my plan.”
“What made you change it?” When he didn’t reply, she felt anxiety take a bite of her stomach. “Lassiter… what aren’t you telling me.”
She stopped and pulled him to a halt. “Is it because of what happened behind that club? Or something else?”
As his eyes did not meet hers, she thought… dearest Virgin Scribe, something else.
“I should like to know,” she said as she released his hand and crossed her arms over her chest. “Right the now.”
Lassiter broke off from her and paced around, as if his body could not contain his worry, and as a sickening pit formed in her gut, she told herself that whatever it was, they could deal with it: The Brotherhood. Lassiter. Herself and those two angels who did not care for her very much, but who certainly would be useful in a fight. They had resources, and they could deal with anything.
“I am not afraid.” She lifted her chin. “And I am not helpless. Remember?”
“That doesn’t mean I like talking about this with you.” He shrugged. “Or anyone, at any rate.”
“So…?”
The angel she loved more than anything or anyone else in the world looked around one last time, as if he were searching for words. Or a different reality.
Then he spoke with firm authority. “The Lessening Society has found the place where the King meets with his civilians. How? They don’t know for sure—but it’s down the street from the parents whose son died during that lesser attack. Maybe there’s a connection, who knows. It’s just a really shitty coincidence otherwise.” He shook his head. “Add to that lessers back on the streets? And how many inductions we don’t know about? There’s this bad momentum coming to Caldwell, you know? And I’m worried—everyone’s worried—that we’re heading for a culmination nobody’s going to like… that maybe, nobody’s going to survive.”
Rahvyn thought of the portraits the Book had shown her, especially the image of the King, those symbols swamping in and consuming the features of his face.
“Yes,” she whispered. “It is a very dangerous time.”
“And then there’s the fact that the Creator called me home three years ago, and Eddie and Adrian have been in Caldwell, looking for me, all that time—but surprise! They just found me. It’s a helluva convergence.”
The thought of him leaving filled her with fresh dread. “The Scribe Virgin made you her successor, however. Surely that responsibility cannot be usurped.”
“No one is above the Creator. And somebody else can do the job.” He paced around again, making a circle in the grass. Then he stared off to the forest boundary. “Right now Eddie and Adrian are joining the fight—and I am so psyched about that. It’s the best fucking news. But like everything in existence, there is a higher power who is going to do what He will.”
“So they are not turning you over to the Creator.”
“Not tonight. Not tomorrow. Who knows in the future—and in any event, it doesn’t really matter. I’m on borrowed time for other reasons.” Lassiter looked up at the milky sky. “The thing is, the vampires need me. The demon and the Omega’s son together? Fucking hell, what if they have kids. And because of… certain circumstances, I’m in a unique position to help keep them apart. I can make sure that the pair of them don’t collude and turn what is a dangerous situation into an untenable one.”
“So they are…”
“I’m not sure demons and the seat of all evil can be called a ‘happy’ couple, but yes.”
“Oh.” Abruptly, she clasped both his hands. “Then you must stay. You must do whatever it takes.”
After a moment, he leveled his head and looked at her with a strange detachment. “I agree. Whatever it takes.”
* * *
As Lassiter spoke the words, he knew his female understood the gravity of the situation, even if she didn’t have all the details or the backstory. And he thought of the Book and its spells. Who’d have thought his life would change for the better because of something that demon did.
But here he was.
Slowly, he sank down on one knee.
“Are you unwell?” Rahvyn asked with alarm.
Staring up at his female, he saw her silhouetted against the sacred, milky sky of the Sanctuary, the diffused illumination like a halo all around her. And God, with her platinum hair falling forward and her body strung like a bow, she was impossibly beautiful. Except for the anxiety on her face.
He would have changed that if he could. Then again, he would have created for them all a different reality. If he could.
“Rahvyn… this was also not how I’d planned.”
“I beg your pardon?” With impatience, she pushed a wave of her hair out of her face. “Planned what.”
“You know I love you.”
“Yes, and I love—”
“Will you take me as your hellren?” he blurted.
When she just stood there, stunned, he wondered what exactly it was about him that made everybody freeze like that when the whole mating thing came out of his mouth.
“I talked to Sahvage earlier,” he rambled. “It’s your decision, but I wanted to do things right. Well, some of them, at any rate. I wanted to ask you on top of one of the bridges that span the Hudson. The city at night looks like diamonds that fell from the sky, and with the stars overhead—I wanted you to feel like you were my universe, you know? Cheesy, I get it. But I stayed up all day thinking of a place that was special. I even thought up a poem—but I can’t remember the words. I was going have a little music playing—except I forgot my phone in the cave. I just… I wanted this to be perfect for you because I was hoping if I had the right combination of elements, you were more likely to say—”
“Yes.” She closed the distance between their mouths. “Yes!”
Now he was still as a statue as she kissed him—and he wondered if he’d heard her right.
“You said yes?” he asked against her lips. “Wait, really?”
“Mm-hmm. That was a yes. Is a yes.”
Closing his eyes, he started to kiss her, and then he was pulling her down into the soft grass. As they stretched out together, their bodies getting flush, his arousal was instantaneous and urgent.
Yet he pulled back and looked at her. Stroking her face, he whispered, “I am so relieved.”
“You are?” She smiled. “As if I would say no.”
He thought about all they were facing. “I can’t do this without you.”
What’s more, he didn’t want to.
And as he thought about the alternative, she shook her head, like she was reading his mind. “Whatever happens, we face it together.”
“I just wish I had more to offer you.”
“You have given me yourself. That is all I should ever need.”
They started kissing again, and their clothes were not long for remaining on. Rolling her onto her back, he stared into her eyes as they were joined.
The pleasure had never been so intense.
Then again, he couldn’t shake the sense that though this was supposed to be a beginning for them… somehow it was also the end.
He thought back to the meadow and all those flowers.
Maybe this time, it would be different.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
After the meeting in the King’s baby blue study broke up, Eddie followed some of the members of the Brotherhood down the grand stairs, across the mosaic depiction of the apple tree in full bloom, and out through a vestibule into the night. Standing on the stone steps with Ad at his back, he looked across a courtyard to the smaller structure, then glanced out to the view from atop the mountain. The wind was persistent and strong, the cold creeping in through his leather jacket and his heavy flannel shirt, and as he took a deep breath…
He felt alive.
Which was about so much more than being immortal and not subject to death’s dispositive void.
He had missed this, he realized. Sure, he and Ad had had a purpose in finding Lassiter, but that was different from engaging an enemy. With a cadre of other fighters who were up to the task.
Fighting was in his blood. Avenging angel, indeed.
“Thanks for being here with us.”
Eddie looked over his shoulder. The goateed Brother—Vishous was his name—was lighting up, a gloved hand circling the fragile flame that he’d popped up at the tip of a Bic. As he exhaled, smoke drifted back toward the gray stone mansion.
“No problem,” Eddie murmured.
Ad leaned in to the vampire. “We like being useful as well as decorative.”
The Brother Vishous nodded. “And we’ll take the help, for sure.”
When the group on the steps had filled out to all of the assigned members, one by one the vampires dematerialized to the location they’d agreed on.
Eddie looked over at his best friend. “You ready for this.”
Ad was steady and sure as he nodded. “I feel like I’m back on track, actually. I’d rather be a soldier than a scout.”
“Me, too.”
“AWOL it is, then.”
They clapped palms and shook on it, the deal that they had been tap-dancing around sealed on both sides.
Then they followed the vampires, ghosting off into the night, traveling back to the neighborhood of fancy houses, and humans who were clueless… and demons who were trespassing. As they returned to their corporeal forms, it was not beside the white Federal mansion with the detached garage. It was in front of a Tudor-style house that was set very far back on grounds that were worthy of a garden party. Or twelve.
Eddie scanned the landscape—and Ad did the same. It was only after both of them nodded that the Brothers went up to the front door.
The Brother Tohrment, who Eddie gathered was the King’s right-hand male, was the one who put the lion’s-head knocker to use, and the reverberating sound was the kind of thing that could be heard even outside of the grand manse.
