Cheat the Grave

them down with it, you turned their own magic against them. It was a natural law in any world. No person could stand divided, or in conflict against a part of themselves. And true, the Tulpa didn’t have a conduit forged in a smithy, and fitted to his attributes, abilities, or whim.

But he did have a daughter. Someone who was a part of him. Someone who, over the past year, he’d simultaneously courted, feared, and wanted dead.

“You are that weapon,” Carlos said, supplying the thought’s end for me. “Better, now that the whole of the paranormal world knows you’re mortal, he will never suspect you might be his downfall, blood against blood.”

Io’s lesson about the body’s connections was still fresh in my mind, as were the scents it’d brought to life. Coupled with her warning about Ashlyn’s fast approaching second life cycle, I realized there was more at stake in the immediate future than my life. So regardless of what Carlos said, I didn’t have a choice. I needed to do this for her. But damned if I wasn’t going to get something out of it too.

“Maybe,” I finally conceded, nodding slowly. “But if I’m going to kill the Tulpa, then enter Midheaven and free an army-”

“Then lead it,” Carlos added, seeing no reason to hold back now.

“Right,” I said dryly. “If you want me to do all that while still running from Mackie and hiding it all from my former troop, then I want something in return. Something equal to the risk.”

He finally looked wary. I let him think about it, and it didn’t take long. He shook his head. “She won’t like it. She may even stop working with us. Helping us.”

“I may stop working with you,” I said testily, and turned back to the weapons. “Look, Io said she worked on my mother before. She probably gave her the same protective coating for her organs, right? What else did she give her, Carlos? What else do you know?”

“Nothing. Zoe Archer is infamously paranoid and secretive. She trusts no one.”

“But you’ve been in contact with her.” Pulling the ancient trident from the chest, I flicked the blades open. They winked sharply in the full day’s light.

“She’s in contact with us. That’s how it is with her. I go along with her whim.”

Because he hoped she’d lead him to me. “I thought she had your father killed?”

“I don’t blame her. She was newly mortal, had no defenses against attack in the Guardian Angel Cathedral. Besides, she has done many helpful things for us since. While others merely sit around and talk, her actions are proof of her intent.” He pursed his lips and locked his dark, serious gaze on mine. The lone wolf act, coupled with a tragic past and dark good looks, was a heady mixture. His expression alone could gain a hundred beds. If I wasn’t already actively avoiding dangerous men, I might have inched closer. “But I can’t find her, no more than the Tulpa, or Warren. We’ve all looked, you know.”

I hadn’t known that about Warren…but it didn’t surprise me. He did a lot of things without the rest of the troop knowing.

I straightened, still determined. “But they don’t have her lineage and bloodline living inside of them. I do. I just need you and Io to help me develop my hereditary gifts.”

He continued gazing into the distance, breathing in deeply before allowing a slow nod. “It may be possible to redevelop your senses. With time and study and Io’s help.”

“That’s all I’m asking.”

Then I’d go after my mother myself. Because with her granddaughter’s second life cycle approaching fast, she’d be sticking close to Ashlyn. Thanks to a Shadow agent named Regan DuPree, the Tulpa knew of his granddaughter’s existence, and was gunning for her too. A feminine triptych, I thought wryly. He wanted us all.

Yes. My mother would be very close.

So with that alone as incentive, I would have agreed to help Carlos. But Mackie wouldn’t stop until either he or I were dead, and I certainly couldn’t take him on by myself. But with the grays’ help, an army at my back, it might be possible to survive.

As for a return to Solange and Midheaven and the special horrors awaiting me there…well, that was a worry for later. And I owed Carlos enough to try.

So he smiled when I nodded, a heady look bringing out new angles on the beautiful face, and I glanced back down at the conduit in my hand. It was archaic and not even my own, but my fingers twitched with the need for action, to once again take my fate into my own hands. Sure, I made mistakes-I had never pretended otherwise. But I did it armed. “Let’s try that gun again.”

16

So they took me back to Vegas to do what was previously thought impossible. Kill the Tulpa.

The opportunity wouldn’t come immediately. I was hosting Suzanne and Arun’s rehearsal dinner at the estate that night. Though far less crowded than the eight hundred wedding guests due at Valhalla the following day, it was still a big undertaking. Making sure there were enough hors d’oeuvres would be challenging. Killing the Tulpa might be a little too ambitious for cocktail attire. Which meant I had to stay alive at least until the next day.

Valentine’s Day, I remembered with a frown. Silk-lined boxes of chocolate. Intimate candlelight dinners. A body studded with weapons in order to kill a friggin’ tulpa.

Just like every other girl on V-Day, I thought wryly. Dressed to leave an impression.

I shook my head. Weaker than I’d ever been in my life and I was going to attempt to murder a being birthed through calculated thought and mean ambition. One who had taken over the Shadow organization with a virtual snap of his fingers. If it was really the thought that counted, why couldn’t I just wish him away? As it was, I had no better plan than to leap and lunge at the opportune moment.

Speaking of leaping and lunging, I glanced to the back of our stolen van to find Gareth, Vincent, and Roland all eyeing me speculatively.

“No,” I told them all. “I won’t go to the dance with you.”

Gareth and Roland shot me small smiles, and while Vincent didn’t offer me a promise ring, his scowl didn’t deepen either. Guys who looked at you and smiled, or at least didn’t frown, always wanted something, so I waited. Gareth finally held up a comic book…a manual depicting the last days of my time in Zodiac troop 175, and as an agent of Light. I assumed that’s what it was anyway. The cover art showed me drowning.

“You were the Kairos,” Gareth said, jutting out his pockmarked chin.

“So they said.”

“But you gave up all your powers for a mortal child. Someone less than even a rogue.”

I shook my head. “She wasn’t lesser than anyone.”

“And that’s why I will follow you.” Vincent crossed his arms over his beefy chest, his nostrils flaring. “Not because Carlos tells me to. Not because you’re a female and you can enter Midheaven and increase our numbers.”

“’Cuz the only number you care about is one,” Gareth snorted.

Vincent punched the kid’s shoulder so hard his entire arm went limp. I winced, but Vincent’s eyes were back on me. “Because I’m independent, and I am honorable. I don’t mask my deeds, good or bad, with lies. I won’t deceive you like that.” He jerked his head to the manual where the story of Warren’s trickery was literally spelled out. “I won’t betray you like the other one either.”

I’d wondered if Hunter’s story would show up. I swallowed hard. Now my personal life was splayed along those pages in the comic book equivalent of a gossip rag. And all these men had read it.

“Nor will I,” Gareth added solemnly, which had me glancing up despite my embarrassment. He seemed to have forgiven me for questioning his experience. Meanwhile, Oliver muttered his agreement from the driver’s seat. Carlos beamed. Tripp, gazing out the window, said nothing.

“I’ve a gift to seal my oath,” Roland said, rising from his seat. Oliver stretched to see through the rearview mirror, and Gareth leaned close. Vincent rolled his eyes before leaning his head back and closing them.

“What is it?” I asked, accepting the object. It looked like a fork that had gone head-to-head with a Roto- Rooter.