Fractured Souls by Ava Marie Salinger
19
Bailey droppeddown into the sewers after Cassius.
“What’s gotten into him?” the wizard muttered, staring after Morgan.
Adrianne followed Bailey’s gaze to where Morgan was talking to an Argonaut agent farther along the tunnel, irritation painted in every line of his body.
They’d returned to Bayview Park, at Cassius’s suggestion.
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s to do with that conversation with Victor Sloan we weren’t privy to.” She looked pointedly at Cassius as they started up the passage after Morgan. “You know, the one we were forcibly kicked out of Strickland’s office for.” The sorceress released a frustrated sigh. “And why the hell did he insist on Charlie casting a soundproof enchantment spell on his office?”
“Maybe because he knew you were planning to spy on the call?” Julia suggested drily.
Zach smiled.
Adrianne scowled, not bothering to deny the accusation. “I hate being kept in the dark. I mean we’re the ones investigating this damn case, aren’t we? So why all this cloak-and-dagger bullshit?! No one is even willing to tell us what it was exactly Tania Lancaster intended to do with the fractured souls of the people she killed thirty years ago! That would go some way toward helping us figure out who’s behind—!”
“She was going to tear the Nether open,” Cassius said.
Morgan rocked to a stop up ahead. He whirled around to face Cassius, his voice a low growl when he spoke. “I thought you were strictly forbidden from talking about what happened in London!” The Aerial glanced around. The tunnel was empty bar for their group, the Argonaut agents guarding the crime scene having fallen back. “Charlie, cast a—”
“Yeah, yeah,” the enchanter said morosely.
He made a movement with his hand and murmured a spell. A soundproof bubble formed around them.
Cassius narrowed his eyes at Morgan. The Aerial had been acting like a giant ass since they’d left the agency’s bureau a short while back.
“You knew?” Cassius said grimly. “And the secrecy spell doesn’t work on me.”
A muscle jumped in Morgan’s jawline. “About what Lancaster intended to do? Yeah.”
“How?” Cassius snapped.
“I have a source.” Morgan arched a defiant eyebrow in the face of Cassius’s glare. “One I have zero intention of telling you about.”
“Tania Lancaster was going to open the Nether?” Julia said in a deadly voice.
A soft glow lit the tunnel as the Terrene angel unconsciously drew on her powers in her rage, her skin radiating divine light. Zach looked similarly furious, crimson gleaming in his eyes and around his body.
“Are they talking about what happened five hundred years ago?” Charlie asked Bailey.
The wizard nodded, troubled.
“Why would she do that?” Adrianne said, aghast. “Wouldn’t it bring about another Fall?!”
Cassius strode angrily past Morgan and started up the tunnel. “We still don’t know why Tania wanted to create a breach in the Nether. Some people thought it might have something to do with the Nine Hells.”
The others fell into step around him, Morgan in the lead.
“But she did figure out something no one on Earth had grasped before,” Cassius continued bitterly as they made for the confluence chamber where the remains of the ninth victim had been discovered two nights ago.
“Which is?” Bailey asked warily.
“That a human soul contains its own inherent magic, irrespective of whether or not the person is a magic user,” Morgan replied in Cassius’s stead. “And that that soul can be fractured in such a way as to open a doorway between the realms.” He sighed at Adrianne and the other two magic users’ shocked expressions. “It’s why they call it selling your soul to the devil. Demons from the Nine Hells have used human souls as portals to travel to Earth for eons. But no one has ever tried to combine dozens of fractured souls to attempt something bigger.”
Cassius shared a grudging glance with the Aerial, impressed despite himself. “You came to that conclusion on your own?”
“I’m not just a pretty face,” Morgan muttered.
Cassius’s lips twitched despite himself.
“I doubt Tania found this out on her own, however clever she was,” Julia said in a steely voice.
“You’re right,” Cassius said. “We’ve long suspected someone else was pulling the strings behind the scenes.”
“And you never discovered who that person was?” Zach asked with a frown.
“No. He’s a clever bastard, whoever he is.”
Adrianne stared. “How do you know it’s a man?”
“Because the last word Tania Lancaster screamed before I killed her was ‘Master.’”
* * *
Morgan sensedAdrianne and Bailey’s nervousness and Charlie’s dread as they gazed at the dark-winged angel. Even Julia and Zach looked wary.
Still, Morgan felt no fear. He knew Cassius was incredibly powerful. Just as he knew that the Empyreal would never maliciously hurt anyone. He was far too soft-hearted for that.
Strickland was right. Cassius wouldn’t raise a hand to another being unless it were in self-defense or to protect others.
Irritation swarmed Morgan all over again. He could only guess how lonely and forsaken Cassius must have felt all these centuries of being shunned by the world and his own kind. His only sin was that his wings looked different from those of the other Fallen and that he possessed powers he had never wished for.
A fiercely protective feeling tightened Morgan’s chest. He would not let anyone hurt Cassius. Not as long as he had breath left in his body.
He slowed for a moment, stunned by the forceful emotions roiling inside him. It only confirmed what he’d suspected all along. That what existed between Cassius and him was more than just physical attraction. Morgan clenched his teeth.
He could no longer deny what he wanted.
And that was to own Cassius.
Morgan wished to stamp his mark all over the angel. To make him his in the eyes of this world and every other realm. And he knew from Victor’s eyes that the demon craved the exact same thing. Whatever relationship had existed between Victor and Cassius, the demon hadn’t given up on claiming it back and more.
“How long are you intending to be grumpy for?” Cassius asked in an exasperated voice, oblivious to Morgan’s dark thoughts. “It’s getting difficult to breathe down here with all your negative energy.”
“I’m not grumpy,” Morgan protested.
“Liar,” Julia muttered.
“Considering we’re going to have to cooperate with the other agencies on this case, the truth about what Tania Lancaster intended to do was bound to come out sooner or later,” Cassius told Morgan.
Adrianne rocked to a halt. “Wait. What’s this about other agencies and our case?”
Morgan grimaced at his team’s unhappy expressions. “Victor told Strickland he should get Cabalista, Rosen, and Hexa on board. Though I hate to say it, I agree with him. This is too big for any one agency.”
Cassius stared at Morgan.
“What?” Morgan said defensively. “I changed my mind.”
“He normally doesn’t,” Adrianne told Cassius blithely.
“Wait.” Julia frowned heavily. “Does this mean we’re gonna have to deal with Jasper Cobb?”
“Yes,” Morgan muttered.
“But he’s such an asshole,” Julia protested.
Cassius grimaced. “I hear you.”
“I take it Reuben and Brianna will be in on this too?” Zach said coldly.
Reuben Fletcher was the Aerial angel in charge of San Francisco’s bureau of The Order of Rosen. He was known to be a stickler for the rules and had little patience for people who didn’t toe his line.
Brianna Monroe, the director of the local Hexa bureau, was a Level One witch with a strong affinity for transformation magic and a hard woman to get a handle on.
Zach had crossed paths with all three bureau heads in the past. Although he’d never gone into the details, he’d clearly come away with a sense of distaste for their practices. Considering how mild-mannered the Aqueous demon was, that was saying something.
Lights cut through the gloom up ahead. They came out of the tunnel and into the chamber Cassius had discovered with Loki two nights ago.
The area had been temporarily drained by the city’s public utilities agency at the request of Argonaut. The remains of the dead man were long gone and the bitter scent of black magic imbuing the air had disappeared. Only forensic markers remained, along with the odor of sulfide that pervaded the sewers.
Cassius stepped down into the basin and headed over to the altar.
“You finally gonna tell us what it is we’re back here for?” Morgan said curiously. “Our techs have been all over this place several times already, as have we.”
Cassius climbed onto the stone dais. He walked across the complex pattern of runes carved into the rock and headed to the center, not bothering to avoid the Dark Blight staining the surface. A silvery residue now covered the black lines.
The powder was a carefully prepared concoction of Glitterfang and Blossom Silver. Used by white-magic users in their rituals and potions, Glitterfang was made by the Nereids and was poisonous to demons and black-magic users. Blossom Silver, a medicine concocted by the Naiads, could heal non-fatal injuries caused by demonic weapons or black magic.
When combined in a very specific way, the two neutralized the deadly effects of Dark Blight, the black liquid made by shadow alchemists from the heart of a Dryad.
“This place gives me the creeps.” Bailey glanced nervously at the tunnels radiating off the chamber. “That poor guy must have been terrified when they brought him down here.”
“He was probably unaware of what was happening to him.” Cassius took out his Colt, removed a bullet, and stood the slug in the middle of the altar. “Most of Tania Lancaster’s victims were under the spell of her enchanter by the time they became part of the ritual. A soul crying out in terror is not as useful a weapon as a sedated one.”
Morgan frowned as Cassius removed his dagger and unleashed his Stark Steel sword.
“I’d step back if I were you guys,” Cassius said.
“Wait.” Julia stiffened as a pulse of power blasted across the chamber. It was coming from Cassius. “What are you doing?”
A look of intense concentration came over Cassius. “Summoning a Reaper.”
Surprise jolted Morgan a second before a wave of divine energy washed across his skin. Light exploded inside the chamber. The Aerial raised a hand to his eyes, his heart quickening. The brilliance slowly faded.
Adrianne gasped.
Cassius’s wings almost touched the walls of the confluence chamber where he hovered above the altar, his brilliant, white feathers fluttering with small bursts of power that made the air tremble. The Empyreal gripped the blade sheathed in Heaven’s Light in both hands and slammed the pointed tip into the Rain Silver bullet, splicing it neatly in half.