Ren blinked and moved his hands away from the keyboard to lean back in his swivel chair. “No one knows I’m here?”
“Just Zachary,” Storm admitted knowing he was going to be in for a fight with Ren on this, “I’m going to have Zachary watching over most of the ones that are already here.”
“Why do I not like the sound of that?” Ren narrowed his eyes but had a feeling this would be a losing battle. “What’s up with the mansion and set up? Why the bribe?”
Storm cocked an eyebrow, “It’s kind of hard to bribe someone who can walk up to an ATM and ask it for money.”
“You’re avoiding the question,” Ren pointed out.
“I’ve let you hide from the paranormal investigation teams for this long, and hell… I’ve even joined you in the solitude more times than I should have.” Storm held up his hand when Ren started to argue, “You’ve always claimed that you owed me one… I’m calling in the favor now.”
“And that favor would be,” Ren’s voice had lost its edge due to his honor. Storm was right… he owed him a life debt and Storm wouldn’t call him on it for something frivolous.
Storm started pacing back and forth in front of the desk. “The only real answer I can give you right now is you’re here to help me fight. I’m calling in many favors on this one. I’ll be bringing in the best of the PIT teams here to the city and you have now been upgraded to second in command.”
“Lucky me.” The fact that it was said with absolutely no emotion was ignored by both of them.
“Zachary will be in charge if something happens to us,” Storm made a point of adding. “And sooner or later, you two will have to exchange information… especially if I can’t be contacted.”
“Well that doesn’t sound good,” Ren frowned silently wondering why Storm didn’t already have the answers to his own questions. For someone who could bounce into the future, it was odd not to know who would be on the winning side of a battle.
“I won't be around very much for a while because I’ll have to hunt down most of the teams. Although they work in pairs, they do have the annoying habit of disappearing off radar and forming their own assignments as they run across them.” He ran his hands through his bangs, “They’re going to be hard for even me to track down.”
“And as you drop them off here, I get to baby sit?” Ren asked wanting clarification.
“No,” Storm shook his head and smiled at the thought. “These people are not children. Their job is the same as yours… to protect the city. Whether you communicate between each other is entirely up to you. But with your power, you can make a grid of the city to let them know where all the hot spots are. This is just the home base for now. You and Zachary will be the only ones who can contact me if I’m not here.”
“Really?” Ren rocked the chair back and forth becoming intrigued by all the mystery. “And here I thought I was the antisocial one between the two of us,” Ren pointed out. “Do you plan on disappearing?” It was supposed to be a joke, but when he noticed Storm’s flinch he stopped rocking the chair.
Storm rubbed his neck having to be very careful with his words, “I’m a time walker within this dimension, but if there is an area where the dimensional walls have thinned or ruptured… it rejects my power.” That was putting it mildly.
Reading Storm had become a science to him and Ren suddenly understood Storm’s reason behind not knowing who would win the battle. “I’m following you so far,” he hinted.
Storm walked over to the huge window that was facing the ocean and tapped the glass. “This glass is a step beyond bullet proof.” He sighed as he turned around and leaned against it. “But it’s not evil proof.” He nodded his head toward the sofa he had just vacated and whispered words long forgotten by history.
Ren gasped when the ceiling and floor lit up in a wide circle surrounding a large area on the right side of the room with the sofa directly in the center of it. He could even see the luminescent barrier walls connecting the circle on the ceiling and the circle on the floor.
“What is that?” he tried to keep the amazement out of his voice but failed miserably.
“In Layman’s terms… it’s a demon trap.” Storm answered basking in the fact that he had officially awed Ren, which was a very hard thing to do. “Go ahead… walk through the barrier. It won't hurt you.”
Ren reached out but paused before touching it. “Am I expecting a demonic visitor?”
Storm tilted his head, “Let me remind you of something. If a child of the fallen comes near you, then it is you that becomes… the demon.” He lowered his voice making it creepy while saying “the demon”. He and Ren didn’t quite agree on the subject. Ren was still prejudiced against anything he didn’t understand.
Ren took a step back from it as what Storm said sank in. It even took him a few seconds to think of a good comeback, “At least I’ll be the one who knows where the key to the cage is. Question is… how do I get them in it, put demon treats on the sofa?”
Storm smiled and pushed Ren into the circle.
Ren whirled around and started back toward Storm but ran into what reminded him of ice. Backing up, he shoved his palms against it and blinked seeing the walls of the barriers ripple where he touched it as if the surface of the barrier was made of water.
Smacking it again he growled at Storm, “I am not a demon!”
Storm cocked an eyebrow, “Well, I’m glad we got that out of our system.”
Ren smacked the wall of… whatever.
“Relax, I tweaked the spell enough to where it traps anything not human and since you’re a succubus and I’m within range…” he smiled again knowing this was one lessen Ren needed to learn, “Unless you want to call me a demon?”
“I got it. Shove the thing in the circle and don’t step in my own trap. Now let me out.”
Storm said the spell again much the same way he did the first time with just a couple syllables difference.
Ren was a quick study and had already committed both spells to memory before he made it back to the safety of his desk. The silence stretched before Storm felt the humor of the prior moment fade and he began to talk again.
“This castle used to be in Scotland. I had it brought here brick by brick and reconstructed during the land rush but the upgrades are more recent. There are demon traps in almost every room and you are the only one who can trigger them.”
“It’s very beautiful,” Ren nodded wondering what Storm was getting at. Sometimes his stories were longer than an old man's as he drifted through his timeless memories. He was allowed to talk about the past as much as he wanted but it was dangerous for him to say anything about the future.
He’d once asked Storm why he didn’t spend his time going back in time and correcting all of mankind’s mistakes like offing Hitler. That’s when Ren had told him that his powers had limits… it seemed trying to change human history was one of them.
“This castle was a wedding gift for a very close friend of mine.” Storm looked out the window that held the view of open land falling off into the ocean… it truly was breathtaking. He swallowed, pushing the haunting memory aside for now.
Gazing back at Ren, Storm realized that for once someone besides him needed a hint of what was coming. Since his power decided to come with annoying rules that kept him from seeing some of the most important things and barred him from tampering with affairs of the heart, he would have to come up with a very good reason for Ren to want to stay.
He could already feel the pain slice through his mind because of the rules he was about to break but he ignored it.
“This place won’t be here much longer unless I can make the future change.” His voice took on the anger he was feeling as he fought the pain, “Before I decided to bring you here, I stepped into the future several times… only a couple years from now. Every time was a different outcome and it’s because of a dimensional shift… or a lot of them, happening right here in LA.”
Storm swiped at the blood that started dripping from his eyes and nose. “The last time I tried to walk here… part of the castle had collapsed and the walls that were left standing had sun dried blood baked into the brick.”
“Shut up,” Ren glared at him not liking the way the color had just drained from Storm’s face as the bleeding started. Storm had always made jokes about not being able to tell anyone their future... saying it would kill him, but Ren didn’t think it was funny seeing it was the truth. “I get the gist of things and the rest I’ll figure out on my own.”
Storm staggered back to the chair holding his head, “I’m trying to even the odds by bringing LA as much backup as I can.”
Ren got up and walked around the desk, gripping Storm’s shoulder and in an instant they were back on the island. “If you ever try to tell me the future again, I’m gonna kick your ass.”
By the time Storm was steady enough to realize where he was, Ren was gone. Feeling the splitting headache that would probably last for days he smiled knowing it had been worth it. Ren was in place, and now that Angelica was within the city limits, she should draw in another hidden power that could turn the tables completely in their favor… they needed the gods on their side.
*****
Ren had spent the last week mapping the city by walking the streets. He knew from the download of the PIT files where some of the non-humans were but as he walked or drove his motorcycle, he could feel power riding him that didn’t belong to the things on that list.
He turned on the huge screen that covered one wall of the study, pulling the grid map up on it and leaned back in the chair behind the desk. To anyone else, the map might have resembled a Christmas decoration since it was littered with pinpricks of different colored lights.
It was the colors he was studying now. He could see exactly where the shifters were… had even visited Moon Dance and Night Light. The corner of his lip twitched at the memory. He’d made the mistake of ordering Heat and had done fine until he’d called it a night and come home. By the time he’d made it half way home, he was way out of the range of the shifters and completely drunk.
The shifter’s territory was backlit mostly by green lights with a couple pinpricks of red and blue… blue was the PIT team stationed in that area and everything that happened there he was leaving to them… the same with the wolf pack.
Michael, Damon, and Kane were all loose cannons as far as he was concerned, which had earned them yellow and their soulless progeny that were slinking around in the shadows city wide were tastefully a blood red. At least that cowardly group was nice enough to bed down during the day in groups and tended to stay in groups at night which made it easier to track their feeding ground.
Now, the fallen were a different story. They had been hard to track at first, but recently they were so unstable that he’d given up though he knew when they were close… he could feel them. He thought back to the history lesson he had gotten from Storm.
The short version was the fallen had almost destroyed their own world by breaking through to our dimension and stealing some of our women because they thought they were beautiful. Stealing humans had only been their first mistake. Once they were back on the other side of the wormhole, the fallen had taken turns breeding with the stolen women.
The problem was… the children that came from those unions were not what they expected and the birth always killed the human females.
Only a small percent of the children were born full-blooded fallen and only one out of hundreds were female. The rest were known as demons… hybrids that didn’t turn out to be full blooded anything. Most hybrids were what humans called monsters. As those monsters turned on their own creators, the fallen started eradicating their world of all the hybrids… whether they were monsters or not.
Once they were finished with their genocide, they found there was now dozens of males to each female in their world. So the idiots had come back through the wormhole, this time keeping their creations on our side as they mated with as many women as they could… as quickly as possible.
As the children were born and the mothers died, the fallen would pluck any full blooded fallen and take them back to their world, leaving the hybrids behind. Not needing the male children that were born, they took them and trained them to fight their half breed siblings.
Just before those boys hit puberty, the leaders of the fallen sent them back here and closed the wormhole between the two dimensions… stranding all children here except for the female fallen for whom they had sacrificed so many lives.
The story hadn’t ended there. Those young warriors had been trained to do the same thing their fathers had done… rip openings into the bordering dimension… just not the one leading to their home world. This new one existed so close to us that it was only a breath away. One could only presume this was where the theory of Hell originated. So close that humans with heightened senses could feel it and sometimes see it.
As the warriors sought out the hybrids, they found that many of their rivals were just as powerful as the full blood fallen. Bloodshed happened on both sides and it was also documented that some of the fallen were dragged into the alternate dimension with the hybrids.
The murdering masterminds that had sent their children here had known it was a death sentence. They had counted on the fact that their progeny would kill each other and clean up the mess they’d left behind.
Only a handful of those boys still roamed the earth and most were younger than the first batch, arriving after the war had died down and the surviving hybrids had scattered. In Ren’s opinion, this was where things got muddled. Not all hybrids were what you would call demonic… and if undetected they could blend in with the humans and animals… again breeding hybrids for over a millennium.
The big secret Storm was protecting was the fact that most paranormal creatures, shifters and weres, or humans with even the slightest abnormal ability were more than likely the descendant of one of these hybrids… including the succubus powers he’d been using to track them then turn against them. It still made Ren uneasy to think of himself as part hybrid.
In his own defense, Ren was pretty sure the demons he’d killed in the past were not of the redeeming quality… either that or he would call it self-defense because they had sure been trying to kill him.
To make matters worse, Storm just had to drop the bomb on him that some original hybrids are not evil, even though they give off the same aura as a high class demon would. And if that wasn’t enough of a headache, then add the fact that a vampire is not a hybrid at all… but something entirely different that had invaded earth.
Ren rubbed his left temple still staring at the grid map. All area’s he found where he’d felt a power boost were black-lighted and considering Misery never stayed in one place… that was most of the city. But taking into account that she had a fetish for soulless vampires, he could only allow her to claim the areas that were near the vampire nest.
That left a lot of unlisted power and somewhere among it was the reason for Storm’s bloody prophecy. Speaking of Storm, he hadn’t seen him since he’d tossed his fortune telling butt back on the island and so far no one had shown up claiming to be part of PIT.
Ren smirked knowing exactly how to get Storm’s attention. He had become so in tune with the high-tech computer system that he no longer had to do anything but be in the same room with it. He watched the computer screen flash as it linked up to the main PIT system then fed the grid map behind the thick firewalls that only he and Storm could access.
It usually only took a few minutes before Storm would respond or pop into existence, so when the minutes ticked by with no response, Ren became worried. Then the screen flashed.
Storm appeared on the screen so Ren could see him and lowered a crimson spotted cloth from his nose before he leaned back in his chair and smiled at Ren via the webcam.
Ren frowned at that and could also see that Storm was at home on the island. “I’m surprised you didn’t come yourself… but then it kind of looks like you’ve been breaking the rules again,” Ren chastised with an arched eyebrow.
“The time flux in your area is keeping me from jumping and giving me one hell of a headache.” Storm explained holding the bloody tissues in his fist.
“Then stop trying,” Ren glared.
Storm nodded, “We’re going to have to stay in touch this way until things settle down on your end. For now, you have incoming PIT teams and it’s time you start learning how to work with them for everyone’s sake. Since you have a photographic memory and have read their files, I’m sure you will know more about them than even they know about themselves.”
“So you’re finally putting me in the middle of a lot of people with powers? Is that a smart thing to do? What if I can’t control it?” Ren asked not relishing the idea of working with someone else besides Storm.
Storm grinned and lifted his shoulders in a shrug, “Practice makes perfect Ren and you’re about to get a crash course in human interaction. Zachary and Angelica are moving in with you so they can access the databank and all the equipment I’ve stored in the castle. They’ll also handle most of the PIT teams that are coming. As for you, your job is to try to find out what the hell is causing the time flux and barring me from the area.”
He paused for a moment before leaning toward the screen. “Answer your door.”
The video link abruptly disconnected, leaving Ren staring at it with raised eyebrows. A loud knock at the door made him look in that direction then back at the blank screen.
“I hate it when he does that.” Ren grumbled and stood up from his chair grabbing his sunglasses to hide his eyes.
Walking through the open double doors that led into the foyer, Ren answered the door and stared at his visitors… soon to be roommates.
Zachary was smiling when he saw the young man standing on the other side of the entrance. “It’s nice to finally meet the real ‘ace in the hole’ that Storm has been talking about for as long as I’ve known him.”
Ren gritted his teeth but accepted Zachary’s outstretched hand and nodded at Angelica before standing aside and letting them in. He knew every face on PIT’s roster and what their gifts were. He’d made a point to memorize the profiles of all PIT members not long after Storm took him in.
Storm had added notes into the blocked version of the profiles and Ren had mentally downloaded those too. Storm was right… he probably knew more about them than they knew about themselves.
Zachary was a little bit of a wild child with what Storm had described as a double personality… one minute Zachary was joking and the next he was as deadly as a ticked off cobra. He’d seen the news broadcasts of the fire that took out the home of a mob boss a while back and the whole situation had PIT, more specifically Zachary, written all over it. The next morning Zachary had filed the report into the PIT system and confirmed Ren’s suspicions.
Angelica’s power was a little more complicated, being able to kill demons using the magic she was born with. Storm had once called her the key but never said what the hell she unlocked.
Her file was thicker than anyone else’s… it was as if Storm had been documenting her every move since birth. Ren couldn’t figure out why… and he didn’t really care at the moment. Without a word, he closed the door and headed into the room that served as his office. Somehow he’d known they would follow him.
“So,” Zachary said after less than a minute of awkward silence, “Do you live here alone?”
“No,” Ren said. “I have new roommates.”
Angelica smirked at the dumbfounded expression that appeared on Zachary’s face. “I think he’s trying to break the ice.”
“He’s doing a bad job,” Ren said already feeling crowded.
“I know,” Angelica soothed recognizing a quiet loner type when she met one.
Zachary sent Angelica a mock glare. “Hey, you’re supposed to be on my side.”
“Why?” Angelica laughed. “Believe it or not, some of us can go for days without running our mouths. You… I’m lucky to go two seconds without hearing you going on about something.”
“I can to be quiet!” Zachary exclaimed. “Watch me!”
Zachary then commenced to slouch back on the sofa and cross his arms over his chest with his lips pressed into a thin line. Angelica rolled her eyes before getting up to take a closer look at the computer system Storm had set up.
Ren watched her closely, ready to answer any questions she might have and glanced over at Zachary. For some reason, the other man had found something very fascinating about the buttons on his shirt. Ren mentally counted down from five before the inevitable explosion occurred.
“GAH!” Zachary yelled. “I can’t stand this.”
Ren laughed making Angelica and Zachary look at him in surprise. It didn’t last long and Ren ran a hand through his hair before taking in the others. “Go ahead and explore the castle, there are plenty of bedrooms.” he said once all traces of humor vanished from his face.
Angelica nodded, “I’ll go get my suitcase.”
Once she was gone, Ren looked over at Zachary and found himself face to face with the other side of the fire starter’s personality. “I’m curious… what powers do you have?”
“Yours,” Ren smirked, “and Angelica’s… and anyone else that comes within my succubus range.”
Zachary flipped his palm up and opened it seemingly satisfied that his powers were still there.
“I didn’t say I took your power away,” Ren shrugged, refusing to resort to parlor tricks to prove what he was saying. He locked eyes with Zach and saw the disturbed man behind the mask. “By coming near me, you are giving me the same power,” he stated for clarity.
“I take care of Angelica while she’s here,” Zach announced out of the blue.
“I’m not a babysitter and you can take care of everyone who shows up,” Ren corrected him. “It’s not my job.”
Zach nodded as if he had just won a strategic war, “I know Storm is putting together an army.”
Ren nodded, “Yeah.”
“He’s going to need one,” Zach rubbed his hands on his pant legs and stood up. “Who else has he called in for this?”
“Almost everyone as far as I know,” Ren answered. “But there are a few he hasn’t been able to locate.”
“Anything I can do to help out?” Zach asked.
Ren nodded toward the computer, “Find those that Storm can’t. He’s listed all that are still missing in action.”
Zach grinned and walked over to the computer. “Let’s see who the almighty one missed.”
Ren watched, completely fascinated with this total switch in attitude. He didn’t know which side he liked best… but he knew which one he trusted more.
Chapter 4
Angelica lay on the bed with a couple of pillows propped up against the headboard behind her trying to avoid sleep… her new favorite pastime. As soon as she came back in with her suitcase, she knew Zachary had pulled his little switch on Ren as the other man was sitting on the sofa staring at him. Zachary had told her to go ahead and find a room and get some sleep so she’d happily pretended to do just that.
She’d walked the long halls for a few moments before choosing a door at random and opened it. Upon seeing the interior she smiled and placed her suitcase on the bed. The room was decorated in shades of purple accented with gold and lighter shades of lavender.
The bed was huge, probably emperor size, with a beautiful canopy accompanied by gold and purple throw pillows and comforter. The sheets and pillowcases were lavender and she almost giggled at the little gold tassels on the corners of them.
A large armoire sat on the far side of the room. When she opened it, she half expected to see it filled with old fashioned dresses from the ballroom area. To her disappointment, it was empty. On the wall across from the bed was an antique vanity table with a large mirror.
Next to the bed was a writing desk with a supply of pens and paper, along with a note telling her the data port for her lap top was on the wall underneath it. Angelica had almost laughed when she read this and bent over to take a look. Sure enough, she saw the access point and immediately dug out her laptop and hooked it up.
From her lazy position on the bed, she had a perfect view through the balcony doors at the moonlight shining down on the ocean. She smiled because it was an honest to god balcony.
Most people that knew her would have thought that she didn’t go in for such girly things… but all little girls had the fantasy of being a princess in a castle and she was no different. She even used to pretend that she was Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty, waiting for her prince to come and take her away.
Too bad she no longer believed in the theory of a knight in shining armor coming to rescue her from the big bad demons who surrounded the castle.
With a sigh, Angelica looked back down at her drawing and sketched out a few more lines before putting the pencil down on the night table beside her. Placing it on her lap, she lifted her hand and studied her palm where the symbol was imprinted. It wasn’t a burn nor a tattoo of any kind… it was just there.
Picking the paper back up, she looked at the picture she’d drawn of Syn and added the symbol in the bottom right corner of the page. She blinked when the picture started to blur and lowered it back to her lap, closing her eyes for a moment just to stop them from burning.
Syn appeared beside Angelica’s bed as soon as she’d fallen asleep. He’d silently made his way through the castle and the city touching the minds of everyone she’d interacted with. He’d needed to gain knowledge about her life so he would know exactly what he was dealing with. So far the most interesting information he’d gained had been from Zachary’s mind.
The blonde man was sharp as a whip but hid that fact under so many layers. He also held power of his own right as a hybrid. Zachary had been assigned as her protector and he took the job seriously. Syn knew Zachary would have to quickly get over his crush on Angelica… she was not for the hybrid.
Zachary had read her dossier that PIT had on file, starting with her birth until now. The details were very accurate and siphoning that information from Zachary's mind let Syn know there were several people in her past, her childhood to be more precise, that would later meet a very uncomfortable fate.
Syn silently promised that he would erase them from existence without her knowledge. She would never again know the pain of rejection or violation of any kind.
Syn had watched through Zachary’s eyes the memories of Angelica fighting the monsters of this world and knew it was sheer luck that she was still alive. He was sure she knew it as well, though with her interesting view of this world she would never admit it. His eyes trailed to her lips knowing the real reason he had come to her tonight.
Bending over her, Syn placed his hands gently on the pillow on each side of her head and let his lips hover tantalizingly close to hers. When she inhaled deep in her sleep, his lips parted and he blew softly. He watched the silver tendrils of power flow from his lips to hers. It was his promise… the gift of a sun god to bestow the breath of life on his soul mate for her protection. From now on, any injury she received would heal just as quickly as it was given… and she would no longer age.
He stood back up and gazed down at her with soft eyes. Her dark brown hair tumbled over the pillows, shining in the soft light of the room. The rich brocade of the pillows reminded him of how she’d looked the last time while he watched her sleep in their bed on their home world.
The palm of her right hand was turned upward, revealing the mark he had placed there. It had already started its work, awakening her powers and soon her craving for him would follow.
He tried again to see into her mind but her ability to block him was just as strong in this life as it had been in the past. He found himself filled with jealousy knowing that Zachary could read her mind and he could not. He wondered over this but concluded it had to do with trust. She trusted Zachary enough to let her guard down around him… he planned on gaining that same amount of trust.
If she’d ever taught him anything, it was to have an obscene amount of patience, which he realized he was starting to grow a bit short on. Right now her mental shields were high but he was looking forward to working past them and convincing her to let him back in. Now that she was protected by his power, he would have all the time he needed.
Syn sat down on the edge of the bed and picked up the notebook to see what she had been working on. An intense calmness stole over him when he saw his detailed likeness on the paper… she was already reaching for him and didn’t even know it.
Angelica felt movement beside her and opened her eyes thinking it was Zachary. Only he would have the nerve to enter her room while she was sleeping.
She blinked finding the dark haired man she’d just drawn sitting on the edge of her bed holding the drawing she’d been working on. Angelica acted on instinct, diving toward him with her palm outstretched to exorcise him as she would any other demon.
“Hello wife,” Syn caught her by the wrist without looking up from the drawing and finished his perusal of it before lifting his dark amethyst gaze to hers.
Angelica locked her elbow in place, making her arm taut. She cocked an elegant eyebrow deciding to ignore the wife remark… demons were delusional.