Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 54626 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54626 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
“MF, there is something I must tell you. I believe the gods are behind this.”
“Why would you say that?” MF jerked her head back.
He told her about the parts being harvested getting sent to the same office building Cimil used in downtown LA.
“That doesn’t make sense. Cimil said if I helped you out, I’d get to be a vampire again. She’s on our side.”
“But how else can we explain the address? Another coincidence?” Damien’s mind returned to the last conversation with Cimil. He recalled thinking something was off. She hadn’t been herself, and then she’d told him the gods had switched powers. After that, no one had showed up for their meeting, and the note left behind had mentioned the gods retiring.
Something wasn’t right about this entire situation, and he knew it.
“It is time to return to LA. After we shut down this festival,” he said.
“What about them?” MF’s eyes drifted to a small cage in the corner. Damien hadn’t even noticed them. Goblins with no eyes, were-rabbits with no ears, and three fairies without wings.
Damien wanted to open his heart to them. But he could not. Instead, he focused on duty. “They will come with us. We will make sure they find their way home.”
What more could he do?
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Some questions were better left unanswered. After almost two hundred years, Damien knew this to be true.
However, as much as he wanted to ignore certain facts, the coincidences were piling up. And, as he’d said many times before, when multiple random events happened to people, they weren’t so random. He had the distinct impression that he was a rat in a maze, being forced to chase the cheese.
He and his “crew” arrived late to his home in LA, including his bag of injured immortals, which MF took to her place for nursing. His Chihuahuas had joined the glum, silent flight back, feeling insecure about staying in Miami alone. An immortal body-part-harvesting ring was disturbing. No one had said much of anything during the trip, including Pet, who’d demanded aspirin instead of peanuts.
If he had a heart to give, it would go out to these creatures. How could anyone hurt such helpless things, let alone the gods who were supposed to protect them?
I hope I’m wrong about that. Damien poured a tall glass of scotch and went to sit on his private balcony with the view of his decimated backyard. A pile of dead coals sat where his meditation garden once stood. The pristinely manicured grass now had a black ring in the middle.
Funny. He didn’t even care. The world he’d created, along with all its comforts, had shifted. His shop was still important, but that was about it.
“You’ve been quiet.” Sky’s hazy form stood in front of him, leaning against the balcony’s railing.
“Not much to say.”
“Was Elenore able to keep the rest of the immortal creatures away?”
He threw back his scotch and set the glass on the table beside him. “She texted. The power never came back, and the event holders called it quits around noon. She and her gang followed them all home. They’re probably snacks by now.”
“That’s good news.”
“Yes.”
She crouched in front of him, taking his hand. “Damien, tell me what’s wrong. I can feel you’re holding something back.”
He gently slid his hand away and studied the night sky off in the distance. He didn’t even know the time. Two? Three? Who-the-hell-cares a.m. in the morning? “How did you learn to do this?”
“Do what?”
“Appear. Fuck. Drive. Text,” he said calmly. “Someone had to teach you.”
Sky blinked her warm brown eyes and stood again. “I don’t know what you mean, Damien.” Suddenly her form began to fade.
“Don’t you dare run away, Sky.” His voice was firm. “You answer my question honestly, or we are done. I will find a way to detach you from my life.”
Her faded form flickered as she looked away.
“Tell me,” he demanded.
Sky sighed with regret. “You’ll find out eventually, so I guess it should be me to tell you; Cimil said she could bring me back in another body. All I had to do was convince you to take the job.”
Bring her back? How? And… “What job?” he growled in a low voice.
“I don’t know. Something about you being a sort of enforcer? It sounded like a big role, making sure any remaining immortals didn’t cause problems while the gods are away.”
How had she hidden this from him?
She added, “This whole thing is one big job interview.”
This had been Cimil’s plan all along? Make him run around, flipping over rocks, looking for clues, all so they could corner him into a job he had no interest in?
“And the tortured immortals? The trafficking of humans? Were those part of this fucking interview?” he snarled.
Sky shook her head. “I really don’t know. Cimil just said I had to trust her and have faith.”