Chapter Twelve
The priest showed them into the church basement. Dawn was just breaking, and Thane was feeling the toll of the all-nighter. He didn’t know how Reya had convinced the priest to let them in and let them hide out here. They were both singed and dirty. His shirt was burned in a few spots, but strangely, his skin underneath was fine.
“We have some mattresses down here,” the priest said, moving silently ahead. “Mostly for the homeless in the wintertime when it gets cold. They don’t like to come in during the summer months. There are clean used clothes in the cupboards.”
He turned on the fluorescent lights. The basement was long and narrow, lined with folded tables and chairs. The floors and walls were smooth stone. Crosses and religious paintings hung in random locations. It felt chilly and damp.
“You’ll find a restroom in the corner with a shower,” he said, taking them to the back. “We have a fully stocked kitchen, and there should be food in the refrigerator and pantry. I’m sorry, but we can’t turn on the heat. It’s been turned off for the season. It’ll get cold. Blankets and pillows are in the closet to your right.”
Reya asked, “How long can we stay?”
He turned to her. “We host bingo down here every Tuesday night. There are a few church meetings, but I can move those upstairs. Other than that, you can stay as long as you need.”
She smiled. “Thank you.”
He nodded and handed her a Bible. “Just in case.”
Reya took it, and the priest headed upstairs.
“Okay, what did you tell him?” Thane asked as soon as the upstairs door closed. He grabbed a full-size mattress leaning against the wall and dragged it across the floor. It was old, but it would do. Right now, he could sleep on a bed of nails.
“You know how it works,” she said.
Thane put his hands on his hips. “That flies with cabbies and pizza delivery guys, but this is a priest. And we are crashing in a church. That doesn’t happen every day. Why isn’t he asking a million questions?”
Reya grabbed two pillows out of the closet and tossed them to him. “He knows what I am.”
Thane threw the pillows on the mattress. “Good, then tell me, because I’m still trying to figure it out.”
She walked over and handed him one of the two blankets she was carrying. “After all we’ve been through, you think I’m playing both sides?”
He considered that when she knew Maurice’s name. But Maurice wasn’t messing around. He really was trying to kill her. “No. I’m just not sure how far over on this side you really are.”
“I could say the same to you,” she said.
She had a point. Right now, he was too exhausted to argue. “We’re safe here?”
“For now. At least we’ll be able to get some sleep.”
“Where’s the crystal?”
“In my pocket. They’ll have to take it off my cold, dead body.” Reya lay down on the mattress and pulled the blanket over her. He briefly considered taking a shower, but was afraid he’d fall asleep in there. So he sat on the bed, removed his shoes, discarded his ruined T-shirt, and slid over right next to her. The body heat felt good and real. Although “real” was becoming harder to figure out.
“Get your own bed,” she said, grumpily.
“I’m not freezing to death for you or anyone.” That was his story and he was sticking to it.
She looked at him over the edge of the blanket, her eyes heavy—sexy—but alert. “Remember, this is a church.”
He lay on his back and threw an arm over his eyes. “Don’t worry. I’ve seen you and lightning in action. Not tempting God.”
For someone who didn’t want him in bed with her, she pressed her back closer to his side. It was the best feeling he’d had all day. For a few minutes he thought about going to sleep, but his body was suddenly very attentive. Time ticked by slowly, and his left side was getting nice and toasty. So he rolled over on his side, laid his arm over her, and spooned her back. She relaxed into him instantly. The subtle move was enough to boost his energy level significantly.
Her body was real enough, soft yet strong. He nuzzled his face in her long hair. It smelled good, even with little bits of ash in it. The slow burn of awareness took a giant leap. He slid his hand up a little, finding the smooth skin of her bare arm. Knowing he was pushing his luck, he traced it with his fingertips. Smooth, warm, and soft. He was considering where to go next when he heard her even breathing and realized she was out cold.
He let out a long exhale. It might be worth tempting God after all.
* * *
Darcy sat in Surt’s best chair and gloated. Maurice had failed. Worse, he’d been sent back to the soul world. Served him and Surt right. Now Thane and Reya had dropped off their radar completely with the coveted crystal. It was almost more glorious than Darcy could stand.
She checked her nails. “So you want to apologize now or later?”
Surt turned from the window and glared at her. “Neither. This isn’t some kind of game, Darcy. We need that crystal.”
She shrugged. “Do you know how to use it?”
He frowned. “We know it’s linked to the grid—”
“But you don’t know how to use it,” she pressed and lifted her gaze to him. “Do you?”
He glared at her. “Driscoll knows. We’ll get the information out of him.”
“Does he?” she asked. “Because I don’t think he knows yet. No amount of coercion is going to change that.”
Surt didn’t say anything. He knew she was right. She was smarter than he was, although those words would never leave her lips. For now, she was just someone he used, which was fine. She had all of eternity to claim her territory. This city would be a good start.
“Do you have a better idea?” Surt asked.
She stood up and walked over to him. He was very handsome—tall, broad, brown hair, blue eyes. A wonderful human vessel. She ran a finger down his shirt. “Why bother if they can figure it out for you?”
He grabbed her fingers and pulled them away. “Because then they control the power.”
“Not if you play your cards right.” Darcy slipped her fingers under his shirt. “Why don’t you give me another chance?”
“You already failed once,” he pointed out.
“I have a better plan this time,” she said. Much better. Perfect, in fact. “I know his weakness.”
Surt reached around and gripped her by the back of the neck hard enough to make her gasp. He brought her face within an inch of his. “I knew I kept you around for a reason.”
* * *
Orson handled the crystal wand for a long time, murmuring the word “perfect” over and over while Reya paced the basement floor in front of him. She felt much better and clearer after six hours sleep and a quick cool shower. Waking up next to Thane had sent her body from zero to sixty in ten seconds flat.
She hadn’t woken up with a man since becoming a Redeemer. Not that anyone would care, but she’d been so focused on chasing down bad guys that she hadn’t had time. Besides, sex was overrated most of the time.
Thane walked out of the bathroom, toweling his hair dry. He’d found a clean shirt that fit him, but his jeans were a little beat up. In fact, he should have been beat up, too, but his body was flawless. She knew, she’d looked.
And if she hadn’t been so exhausted when they got here, she might have actually done something about it. She hadn’t wanted to tell Thane but dispatching Maurice had taken every bit of her energy. She barely made it to the bed.
Now, however, was a different story.
“So what’s the verdict?” Thane said, breaking the silence.
Orson peered over his glasses. “It’s a crystal.”
Thane looked at her. “The man’s a genius.”
She ignored him. “It’s not just a crystal. I felt its power. It’s an energy source.”
“What power?” Thane asked.
“How do you think I brought down Maurice?” she said. “My charming disposition?”
The corner of Thane’s mouth curled. “It must have a lot of power.”
She wrinkled her nose at him and turned to Orson. “What is it?”
“It’s perfection,” he said vaguely.
“Cut the crap, Orson. What is it for?”
She could tell Orson was displeased with her attitude, but screw it. She was getting tired of demons trying to kill her.
“It is a key to the grid,” he finally said.
Holy shit. She hadn’t seen that coming. “You’re sure?”
He nodded and handed the crystal back to her. “With that much power and perfection. It has to be.”
She took the crystal with a whole new respect. No wonder Surt was interested in it. The warmth of the rock hummed in her hands. She shouldn’t even be handling it. She wasn’t a grid worker. She didn’t have that kind of training.
“Wait,” Thane said and leaned back against a table. “That one thing could move humanity into the next dimension? And Surt would lose the controlling powers that he has now?”
Orson looked surprised. “That’s right.”
“But there are more keys to the grid,” Reya said and slipped the crystal into her pocket carefully.
“Thousands,” Orson added. “We don’t know where they all are though. And we don’t know which keys activate which parts of the grid.”
Thane threw the towel over his shoulder and crossed his arms. “Then what good are they?”
“When the time is right,” Orson explained, “the Gridworkers will place the crystal keys and activate their assigned sections of the grid.”
“Gridworkers,” Thane repeated.
“The builders, supporters, and protectors of the energy grid,” Orson said.
“Why can’t you tell them to do it now?” Thane asked.
Orson eyed Reya before replying. “Humanity is not ready yet.”
“Jesus Christ,” Thane said and threw the towel across the room. He stood with his hands on his hips and pointed to the front door. “Have you not seen the suffering out there? Where the f*ck is your compassion?”
Reya walked over to him and put her hands on his arms to calm him down. “I know it doesn’t seem like things are changing—”
“That’s because they aren’t,” he snapped, anger and heat radiating off him.
She held his biceps tighter and felt the strength and tension. “It will happen. It’s just a matter of time.”
His gaze settled on hers, and in his eyes, she saw the frustration and struggle for justice. He cared about people. He did. He was just so wrapped up in this world that he couldn’t believe there was anything else.
“It better,” he finally said.
She released him. “I need you to focus. We need your investigative skills.”
Thane ran a hand through his damp hair and took a deep breath. “Are the crystals located anywhere near where their point of activation is?”
Reya deferred to Orson. He shrugged. “Generally speaking, yes. But it could have traveled out of its range. Only the Gridworker for this particular crystal would know for sure.”
“As far as I know, my dad didn’t travel much. It has to be for this section of the grid.” Then Thane frowned. “Was my father a Gridworker?”
“Perhaps,” Orson said. “If he was, then he’d have been replaced.”
Thane looked at Reya with disgust. He hated the idea of his father being replaced. Orson was not getting points for sensitivity.
She asked, “Where is the Gridworker for this crystal, Orson?”
“I don’t know.” And then he raised a hand. “And don’t ask me to find out. People don’t know they are Gridworkers until they are awakened to their role. We can’t interfere with that.”
Thane swore. “Of course not. Wouldn’t want to stop all the human suffering.”
Reya winced at the black that flushed over his soul. Orson was sure to see that as well. “So if the time hasn’t come to wake the Gridworkers, then how did Thane’s father have the crystal already?”
Orson glanced at Thane. “I believe it may have something to do with protecting the legacy.”
Thane froze, and the air turned cool. “Are you telling me that my father was murdered because I’m a legacy?”
Reya closed her eyes for a moment. Bad move, Orson.
“I’m sorry, I’m not cleared for that,” Orson said.
“Then get f*cking cleared,” Thane growled and stormed into the kitchen. He slammed the door behind him.
“Nice going, Orson.”
“I was only saying the truth,” he told her.
“Sometimes the truth hurts. He’s been through a lot.”
“That is very observant of you,” he said.
She didn’t want points for being human. “You should probably leave before he returns.”
Orson stood up and looked at Reya in deep concern. “It is imperative that you keep the crystal in your possession at all times. Just you.”
She wanted him to be wrong. She wanted to be able to trust Thane, but she knew how much he was struggling with all this. It would be too much of a temptation. “I kind of figured that out for myself, thanks.”
* * *
“I don’t understand why you guys can’t talk to the ghosts? Convince them to be good little dead citizens,” Thane said, surveying the looting damage as they walked to an antique store owned by a man Reya thought could help them. A little bell tinkled as they entered the store, which was still intact. A strong rolling security gate across the storefront had been too much for the looters to penetrate.
“Hello?” Reya called.
“Be right with you,” a man replied from the back room.
Thane said, “Surt’s using them. Why can’t you?”
“Because that would be against the laws of the Universe,” she said, her voice low. Reya wandered through the collectibles in the shop. She looked strangely comfortable here among artifacts and history. He found it hard to believe she was an old soul. She was smart, fearless, nearly immortal, and smoking hot. And he had far too much energy to burn at the moment.
“They’re your laws, change them,” he said.
She leaned forward to peer at a ceramic statue. “It doesn’t work that way. There is order to everything, a cosmic equilibrium. It would disrupt the balance.”
That was bullshit because he hadn’t seen any balance so far. There was no amount of justice for the deaths of innocent people. “I’d guess the balance was shot to hell the minute Surt and Maurice hopped dimensions.”
The way she ignored him, he knew he was right. Or maybe he was just seeing it that way. He wasn’t used to sleeping with a woman and not having sex with her. It was doing bad things to his whole equilibrium.
“Karma isn’t punishment like most people think,” she said.
He found himself concentrating on her lips. Damn, he really needed sleep. When she focused on him, he felt his body react.
“It’s simply the balancing of positive and negative energies,” she said with a smile. “Equilibrium.”
If she was reading his mind, she’d know he was not thinking about karma at the moment. And the longer she looked at him, the more out of balance his equilibrium was getting. He knew of only one way to get it back.
“You are responsible for what you create—positive or negative,” she said. “Everything you do affects your karmic balance.”
“Equilibrium,” he repeated, completely missing that last part. He was about to ask her how her equilibrium was and if she needed any help balancing it when the owner finally appeared from behind a curtain. He was slight, short, and a little hunched over, like he spent a lot of time working. His glasses were thick and smudged. Wispy brown hair covered his head in a bad comb-over. Reya claimed he was some kind of sacred geometry genius, whatever that meant.
It was becoming clear that Reya knew a lot of interesting people. People who seemed to trust her instantly and without question for the brief amount of time she interacted with them. Was he the only one who saw through that?
“Sorry to keep you waiting. It’s been a hectic couple of days,” he said, shaking their hands. He said to Thane, “I’m Stewart Fulton. What can I do for you?”
Reya handed him the paper and pointed at the third symbol. “We need an expert opinion on this. Anything. Source, language, symbology, whatever you can give us.”
He nodded, immediately lost in concentration, and motioned for them to follow him. They walked through the curtained doorway into a disheveled workshop. Junk teetered in heaps on rows of two-by-four tables. Pieces and parts of antiquity hung from pegboard along the walls. Stewart sat on a creaky metal stool and turned on a bright desk light. He peered at the drawing through his dirty glasses. “Very unusual.”
“Have you seen this before?” Thane asked.
“No, but let me work on it a little,” he said and pulled over his laptop. He clicked an icon on the desktop and opened a CAD program. After it loaded, he opened a new file and started entering the symbol into the computer.
“You want a cup of coffee?” he asked, never taking his eyes off the screen. “Just brewed a fresh pot in the back. Help yourselves.”
Thane and Reya found the coffee and poured two cups. Thane glanced at the man through the open doorway. “You sure about this guy?”
She nodded. “He’s one of us. He’s a caretaker of knowledge like Chu.”
That explained why he wasn’t surprised by the weird request. “Does he know that?”
“No,” she said and smiled. “He won’t even remember us when we are gone.”
Thane leaned back against the counter, torn between her casual usage of anyone and everyone, and the taste of a good cup of coffee. At least it took his mind off his equilibrium. “How many of you are there?”
“I told you, thousands.” She sipped her coffee and looked at items stuffed into every corner of the room, avoiding his gaze.
“I’m thinking more like millions,” he said.
Her gaze cut to his. “You didn’t hear it from me.”
Of course not. He wondered how he was ever going to live the rest of his life knowing the insider information she’d shared. Although, he guessed if Surt has his way, that wouldn’t be an issue.
“Was Surt supposed to kill my father? Was that part of the plan, or did he break the rules?”
Reya looked at him then. “I doubt it was planned.”
The truth. He could tell by the pain in his gut. It only added to the big pile of steaming guilt he was carrying around with him.
“So I was responsible for my father’s death,” he said.
Her expression softened. “You were not responsible. Surt was. It was his choice and his choice only.”
A rush of comfort was quickly followed by anger. Surt. She’d even said it. And if it was the last thing he did—and that was becoming a real possibility—he was going to make sure Surt went back to whatever Hell he belonged in.
“Got it,” Stewart yelled from the other room. “You gotta check this out.”
Thane set down the coffee and was behind him first. Reya moved up beside him. The screen showed the symbol in 3-D. It rotated slowly, and yet, it didn’t make any sense to Thane. “It’s in 3-D.”
Stewart sounded excited, but was patient. “If you look at this in 2-D, it doesn’t make much sense, just a bunch of lines and circles and triangles, right? When you look at this as a 3-D object, it still doesn’t look like anything identifiable. But if you break the 3-D object and lay it out flat, then things get interesting.”
He typed in a sequence of commands, and the image unfurled and flattened out on the screen. It still looked like a bunch of lines and circles to Thane. “I don’t see it.”
“I think what you have here is a map,” Stewart said.
Thane glanced at Reya. Her eyes were wide. A map would definitely tie an Earth grid and a crystal together. He asked, “A map to what?”
Stewart shrugged. “No clue.”
“Scale?” Thane asked.
Stewart shrugged again. “Can’t tell. There’s no point of reference. It’s almost like it’s missing a piece.”
Perfect. Thane looked at Reya. “Are all your friends like this?”
She glared at him. “Stewart, can you do the same thing to all the symbols and print out a couple copies for us at different angles?”
“Sure,” he said. “Give me about an hour.”
Thane went back to collect his coffee, and his cell phone rang. He looked at the number. Martin. What were the odds that this was a social call? Probably not very good.
“Yeah,” he answered.
“Where the f*ck are you? O’Brien is about to have a coronary, my wife is ready to divorce me because I haven’t been home in two days, and I’m now everybody’s f*cking BFF. I need you here.”
Thane glanced at Reya, who had entered the room. “I can’t come in right now.”
There was a lot of swearing on the other end. “You have to. This is your job.”
“I can’t,” he said, holding Reya’s gaze. Her eyes were warm and wise. She knew exactly what was about to happen, and yet she didn’t interfere. She was leaving the decision up to him.
Martin broke the silence, his voice low and a little frantic. “What the f*ck is the matter with you, Thane? You’re throwing your entire career away.”
“I know what I’m doing.” He said it with as much conviction as he could muster. The truth was he didn’t know what was going to happen next. He had Reya and that was all.
“Bullshit,” Martin hissed into the phone. “You’ll never work in law enforcement again. Anywhere. No one will touch you.”
“I know.”
“Is it the woman? Because you know what? There are other women out there who won’t ruin your f*cking life.”
Reya eyed him over her coffee cup and took a sip. It was the woman. Partly. Mostly, it was just something he had to finish. Something that Surt had started. “It’s not the woman.”
Reya’s eyebrows rose.
Unappeased, Martin said, “Okay, whatever. Then what could possibly be more important than your job? The same job your dad had. The only job you ever wanted in your life.”
His father’s killer. That was more important. “I’m sorry, Martin.”
“Seriously? That’s all you have to say?” Martin’s voice rose.
He felt like shit, but there was no turning back now. “Goodbye.” Then he hung up.
“Problem at work?” Reya asked, running her finger around the rim of the mug.
He pocketed the phone. “Not anymore. That was my partner, Martin.”
“How long have you worked with him?” she asked.
“Three years,” he said. It felt longer though. “It’s was just me and him in a small department in the Siberia of law enforcement.”
“Siberia?” she asked.
“Paranormal investigation. A kneejerk creation for a few crazy neighborhood watch citizens who are more afraid of things that go bump in the dark than they are of the things they should be afraid of.” He paused. “There’s little budget and even less respect in the department. No one wants it. No one believes it. Until you need it.”
“Like now.”
“Exactly,” he said, sounding as guilty as he felt. How could he do this to his best friend?
“So what qualifies you and Martin?”
He tapped his fingers on the table. “We were two of the biggest troublemakers in the unit.”
“Martin is married with kids?” she asked.
Where did she get her intel? “Yes, he’s married to Nikki. They have three kids. A nice house in Queens. It’s a good life for a good man.”
Reya nodded, watching him. “I’m sorry.”
He tossed his phone on the counter. “So am I.”