The Better Part of Darkness

Rex slung me an exasperated glower. “Not stole.” He stepped into the room, scanning every detail. I knew he was experiencing Will’s memories of this place, but as Rex, he was seeing it for the first time. As if on an afterthought, he turned back to Bryn, studying her just as intently as he had the surroundings. “William bargained to win back Little Miss Sunshine here. Don’t ask me why.”

“Go to hell,” I responded with the most withering glare I could muster.

Bryn’s face paled. Her hand fluttered to her neck as tears filled her eyes and fell over the rims. Her voice was barely a whisper as the cruel understanding dawned on her. “Emma.”

I didn’t have to answer. She understood. The tears trailed silently down her cheeks. Her chest rose and fell as though she had trouble breathing. She put her head in her hands and doubled over, rocking and mumbling the words, “Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God …”

Watching her fall apart was cracking my own self-control, and I couldn’t lose it, not now, not when Emma needed me the most. I went to reach for Bryn to shake her out of her shock and grief, but right before I touched her, she lifted her head, sat straighter, and sniffed. The grim copper gleam that came into her eyes startled even me. “I need to make a call.” She staggered to her feet and went into the kitchen.

Gently, I touched Hank’s shoulder. “Hank? Can you hear me?” He shrank away. Swollen eyelids slit open. He turned away from me. “Hank?”

“Leave me alone, Charlie,” he rasped out, his voice barely a whisper, but loud enough for me to hear true pain, and what sounded like blame.

“Hank. I didn’t leave you alone. Carreg was there to help. I had to get back to Em. You heard what Mynogan said.”

“Yeah, Carreg the Almighty wasn’t quick enough to stop this.” He lifted his neck. Both ends of his voice modifier had been fused together. Despair lodged in his throat. “It won’t come off.” And I knew what that meant. His greatest asset, his greatest power, was gone.

Stunned, I dropped back, my rear end landing on the carpet and my stomach folding into tight knots. The utter desolation in Hank’s eyes left me cold and despondent. And when he turned his back on me, I felt a keen sense of loss. I went to pull him over, to try and explain, but his eyes were closed and his breathing slower. He’d passed out.

Bryn came back into the room. Determination seeped from every pore. Still in shock, I stood, not knowing what to do next.

A knock sounded at the door, but the buzzer hadn’t gone off. I grabbed my gun, flicked the safety, and trained it on the door, but Bryn came up beside me, one hand on my shoulder and the other stilling my hand. “Reinforcements,” she said. “He won’t appear inside, but the landing I’ve allowed.”

With a deep, fortifying breath, she walked to the door and opened it. A tall male dressed in black leather pants and a dark green silk tunic that fell to mid-thigh stepped inside at her invitation.

A gorgeous, creative green aura swirled around him. The fact that I was now identifying auras before the actual person should have come as a surprise. But the figure in the doorway pretty much trumped that.

The reinforcement grinned at me. “Detective.”

CHAPTER 14

“Aaron.”

The memory of our meeting in The Bath House came rushing back. His wild black hair, tattoos, easy grin, and all that exposed skin … My face grew hot. Somewhere behind me, Rex grumbled as he realized there was male competition in the room. Aaron turned to him, lifting a thoughtful black eyebrow. He said something, a somber greeting perhaps, in Charbydon and Rex nodded.

I shot a questioning glance Bryn’s way. She leaned in, bumping my shoulder with her own. “You can trust him. I wouldn’t have called him otherwise. I might not like him, but I’d trust him with my life.”

Aaron turned to me, ignoring Bryn’s remark. “I hear you’ve made an enemy of an Abaddon elder, among others.”

“Yeah,” Rex cut in, “she’s pretty good at that. You should’ve seen what she did to—”

“Rex!”

“What?” he asked innocently, plopping down into Bryn’s love seat.

Aaron chuckled. “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.”

“Does Mynogan have any weaknesses?” I asked. “Anything you can tell me will help.”

Before Aaron could reply, the buzzer rang again.

Zara’s voice came through the speaker. “Hank asked me to call her,” Bryn told me as she went to the intercom. The fact that he’d called on Zara the Crush and not me burned on so many levels.

“It’s like a tri-world convention,” Rex muttered, fiddling with a glass orb on the side table near the chair.

Irritated more than I’d ever seen her, Bryn darted over and grabbed the red orb from him. “Don’t touch my stuff.”

I let Zara in. She gave me a quick nod before hurrying to Hank, kneeling down, and gently pulling him over. It took several seconds of soft coaxing for her to wake him. They mumbled together, foreheads touching. The pang of jealousy that went through me made me turn away. And then she gasped when she saw his modifier. Aaron leaned over to see.

“How do we get this off, Aaron?” Zara asked over her shoulder, her hand stroking Hank’s arm.

Aaron peered closer. “The metal is a fusion of Charbydon typanum and steel. You can’t cut it or weaken it by heat.”

“What about cold?” I asked.

“Possibly.”

“But how would you do it without hurting him? It’s so close to the skin.” This from Bryn.

“Maybe Carreg will know,” I said to myself.

Aaron’s head whipped around. “You know Carreg? The Astarot noble?”

I shrugged. Slowly, thoughtfully, Aaron nodded. “If he’s on your side, it won’t hurt. If he’s not, you’re up against two of the most powerful beings from Charbydon.”

“He’s on our side.” Unsure of it myself, I had to believe in some kind of an edge right now.

“Yeah, well, they’re not the only powerful beings around,” Hank rasped out, his feverish eyes burning into mine over Zara’s shoulder.

Suddenly I was front and center. All eyes turned to me in question. Only I understood Hank’s meaning. Carreg had said because of my DNA manipulation, I was now one of the most powerful humans on Earth. Either Hank had overheard, or Mynogan had filled him in after I’d abandoned him.

My gaze traveled over them. Hank. Zara. Rex. Aaron. And Bryn. Bryn, who wanted so badly for me to open up, to be like we used to be before Connor died. She gave me an encouraging nod, an outpouring of support and love, and something broke in me. I dipped my head, wanting to hug her, but now was not the time. I had a waiting audience. And a child waiting for her mother. Everything I did or said from here on out would bring me one step closer to her. So I told them everything I knew.

“When I died in the hospital eight months ago, Titus Mott saved me. But he did so with the help of Mynogan.” I drew in a deep breath, feeling violated by what they’d done and hating say the words out loud. “They injected me with his genes and genes from an Adonai priestess. Somehow, they mingled with mine. And … well … here I am, screwed up in the head when I close my eyes, but otherwise the same old Charlie.” I had to believe that. I was the same old Charlie.

Mouths dropped open. Even Bryn hadn’t expected this. Rex laughed. Zara let out a low whistle.

“DNA manipulation …” Aaron linked his hands behind his back, his sharp features becoming philosophical. “I suppose it’s possible. But both Charbydon and Elysian powers? There’s no way they can co-exist.”

I opened my arms and then let them fall against my thighs. “Yeah, that’s me,” I muttered. “Charlie the Freak.” Annoyance rippled through me. Not only did I hate talking about myself, but the betrayal at being an unwitting lab rat really pissed me off. But then, I wouldn’t be here, living, if not for them. “It works on some of