Once I'd assured Evan I wasn't calling him a son of a bitch, I got off the phone and turned to Roman.
"The vessel's not anywhere around here. It's up in BC."
Roman's eyes had followed my finger to White Rock on the map. "Okay, you get points for the compelling name, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything."
"Yes! It means everything. The Army's been a distraction from the beginning, when the seal was created, when Ephraim talked to Cedric...and when Jerome was summoned. They staged their event on the Space Needle- here , but they didn't actually do anything until Jerome was taken. As soon as he was, they acted out to draw Cedric's attention here, away from his own territory."
Realization lit Roman's features. Sociopath or not, he'd always been smart. "Because Grace then hid the vessel in Cedric's territory."
I nodded. "That's where it's at. She needed Cedric gone, in case he noticed its presence before it was hidden. I think he's down here for the thing with Ephraim, but if I call now and tell him-"
"No," said Roman quickly. "We can't tell anyone."
"What is up with you?" I exclaimed, standing up. "The clock's ticking. We may not have time for a leisurely drive before the stasis ends."
"Chance we've gotta take, love." He rose as well. "Grab your keys. Let's go."
I started heading toward my bedroom, then hesitated. "Damn. I told Seth I'd consider taking him with me. Too late now."
Roman considered. "No, do it."
"Why?" I asked in surprise.
"I'll go invisibly. I don't know if anyone'll notice you leaving, but if they're tracking you, better they think you're on a romantic getaway. Even masked, I don't want anyone in power seeing my face yet."
That put me in a weird situation. Roman's entire reasoning throughout all of this was increasingly bizarre. There was also the debate I'd had last night, about whether I should let the balcony date shine on us as my last beautiful moment with Seth or if I should eke out a few more seconds. Letting it end at last night would have been the poetic thing to do...but I was made of baser stuff. I called him as soon as I was on the road and picked him up shortly thereafter.
He rode in the front with me while Roman lounged invisibly in the back, which was creepy, to say the least. Fortunately, none of my talk with Seth was sappy or romantic. He sensed the urgency crackling around me and asked questions about my reasoning for the trip. I answered as thoroughly as I could, all the while trying to drive the speed limit. I couldn't risk the delay of a ticket-or count on supernatural charms to get me off.
It took a little less than two hours to get there. We'd accidentally left the atlas at home but had all but memorized the directions anyway, which were straightforward. When we'd almost reach the park where the aforementioned rock was, I had the sense to call Peter and tell him not to go outside.
"You think I'm stupid?" he asked. "I know as well as you the stasis is about to end."
"Yeah," I agreed. "But it might not end like you're thinking." We disconnected.
"This is it, isn't it?" asked Seth. A sign directed us to the beach's parking lot, and I turned toward it.
"Yeah, I think so." I could feel myself starting to panic. "God, I'm afraid...I don't know what'll happen..." Seth reached over and patted my shoulder.
"Easy, Thetis. This'll end the way it's supposed to. Do what you have to do, and we'll manage the best we can."
I parked the car and looked over at him. So much burned between us, it was a wonder it didn't suffocate Roman. Seth was right. This was the end, and we would face it and do what needed to be done, no matter how hard. That was one of the wonderful things about Seth. He knew what the right thing was. We got out of the car.
Seth and I headed off down the beach, hand in hand. It was low tide, and the receding waters had revealed a landscape that had almost as much gravel as sand. Once you moved farther inland, though, the terrain turned green and grassy-probably the result of park maintenance crews. Semiahmoo Bay itself stretched off into a dark, choppy vastness that would have probably been blue and beautiful on a nicer day. Heavy gray clouds obscured most of the land surrounding the far sides of the bay, and I thought I heard a rumble of thunder, something that wasn't so common in the mild Pacific Northwest. I hoped we'd find what we needed soon because it looked like a storm was about to break out. Ah, metaphor.
Seth interrupted my ponderings. "That," he said, "is a white rock."
I came to a halt, turning my attention from the larger panorama to the path in front of me. There, about eighty feed ahead of us, was a white rock-a huge, white rock. And from the looks of it, Evan hadn't been exaggerating when he'd said it was about five hundred tons.
"I kind of feel stupid wasting my time with scraps of white gravel," I mused, brushing hair out of my eyes. The wind promptly whipped it back.
"It was so obvious...and yet not. Shall we?"
I nodded, and we approached the rock, our steps filled with both eagerness and apprehension. After all this time and all the failed efforts, it didn't seem possible that we'd really done it. Something was going to happen. Something had to happen.
"Whoa," I breathed, staring up at the rock's top when we reached it. It was so massive that it covered us in shadows. "I can see why people thought this came from the gods."
Seth was looking down. "Unfortunately, we've got to direct our attention to less lofty places. How are we supposed to find this? Just dig at random?"
If Seth and I were alone, that would have been the method. Now, I was hoping Roman would reveal some insight about where the vessel was-if it was even here. A small part of me panicked that us ending up here might have been the biggest misdirection of all.
I scanned the ground around the rock, but there was nothing indicative of a recent digging. On a beach like this, all of the ground was uneven. "Something like that," I said, needing Roman to pick up on his cue.
Seth had let go of my hand when we reached the rock, but now he caught hold of it again and pulled me to him. "Georgina..."
I dragged my eyes from the ground and met his. My adrenaline was up, ready for the conclusion to this adventure...and yet, my heart was heavy, knowing what the consequences of this would be. I squeezed Seth's hands and stepped closer, resting my head against his chest. His heart beat heavy within. No doubt his emotions were tangled up as well.
"I know," I said softly. "I feel the same way."
He held me tight and kissed my forehead. "When we find Jerome...when you free him...it'll go quickly, won't it?"
"Yeah. I don't know how long it'll take, but...well, I think it'll be pretty fast. That's how it was when he was taken."
"And that's it."
"I guess."
We stood there, both of us hurting and confused. I didn't think anything could be worse than when Seth had forcibly ended things back in December. I understood now that he'd done it because he thought it would be for the greater good, but it still smarted. And this...this was a pain of a different type. When Seth and I first kissed back at my apartment, I thought this could all be a vacation for me, just as it was for the vampires. Seth would be my sunshine, something I could have a brief fling with before returning to my dreary immortality. I could take the memories with me, and that would be enough.
Only now, standing with him, I realized it wouldn't be enough. It would only hurt more now, knowing exactly what I could never have again. I would never make love with Seth again, never have these intimate moments of comfort and rapport. He wasn't mine anymore. He never could be again.
"I don't know what to do," Seth said, kissing my forehead.
"What do you mean? We don't have a choice."
"We always have a choice, Thetis. After this, even when you're a succubus again...I don't know. I wanted so badly to protect you from all the world's hurts. I still do. But after being with you this last week, I'm starting to wonder if-"
"You have got to be fucking kidding me."
Seth and I looked up in surprise. I would have expected Roman to come bust up our romantic interlude or maybe even Grace, in defense of her prize. What I was not expecting, however, was Dante.
I didn't know where he'd come from. He stepped around the side of the rock like he'd been lurking behind it, but I suspected he'd just walked up to us unnoticed in our moment of lovers' angst. Anger radiated off him, and his eyes were as dark and stormy as the sea beyond us. And as soon as I saw him, I needed no drawn-out questioning, no build-up to a revelation. I didn't need to ask what he was doing there because I suddenly knew.
"You're the summoner," I said.
"Of course." There was a dismissive tone to his voice as he said that, like it was an insult that anyone else could have played that role. "Who else? I wasn't kidding when I told you I was the best in the area. I can't honestly believe you never even considered me. No, scratch that. Of course I can believe that. No matter how jaded or sorrowful you get, there's still that Pollyanna piece of you that wants to believe the best in those you care about."
"You say that like it's a bad thing," I said, feeling my own anger grow. Being played this whole time was bad enough. But being played by my own boyfriend? Unacceptable. And yet...he was right. It had been stupid of me not to consider him, yet I couldn't believe he would have subjected me to all this torment.
"It is a bad thing. I was hoping I could break you of it, but I guess not." His eyes flicked to Seth's face and then back to mine. "Of course, I can't really talk about naïvet¨¦ since you were screwing me over this whole time. Or, well, screwing him."
There wasn't really anything I could respond with. I could hardly say, "It's not what you think," because...well, it was exactly what he thought. Regardless of his role in Jerome's summoning, the fact remained that I had cheated on Dante, and I'd been caught.
"I'm sorry," I said lamely, my hand still clutching Seth's tightly. He'd taken a step forward. He wasn't blocking me from Dante, but there was definitely a protective stance going on.
"Yes, yes, I know." Dante gave an exasperated sigh. "Damn it, Georgina. What does it take with you? I never gave you shit about your job. I was trying to make a good life for us. And yet...you still went back to him . As soon as you could fuck him without hurting him, you jumped right on it."
"Trying to make a good life...is that why you did all this?" I remembered Greg's comments about how anyone assisting a demon in this affair would be getting paid in concubines and TVs. In Dante's case, it had been much more basic. He'd simply been paid in money, enough to buy me jewelry and flowers and start talking about sharing a home with me.
"Succubus, what else was I supposed to do?" He was still speaking to me in a mocking tone, but I could see the raw anguish on his features. It tore at my heart. "You can enslave kings and rock stars. There was no way you were going to stick with me forever, not where I was going. The palms barely pay the bills, and the window for when my spells could really pay off has passed."
"None of that mattered," I said resolutely. "I would have stayed..." Yet, even as I spoke, I recognized the contradiction. So did Dante, as he gestured at a thus-far silent Seth. Seth seemed very intent on something.
Dante rolled his eyes. "Yes. Clearly."
"I never wanted this...never wanted you to literally make deals with the devil."
"What did you expect from me? You know what I am. You got involved with me because you wanted to walk on the dark side. This deal was my biggest chance-the biggest payoff I was going to get for my power. She needed the best, and she could pay for my services."
"She...Grace."
Dante gave me a twisted smile. "I should have known you'd figured that part out too and had been sitting on it. Even when you trusted me...you still didn't really trust me. Maybe you aren't as oblivious as I thought. And when I got to your place and saw the atlas-well, that's when I knew I'd underestimated you. You're lucky Grace just sent me up here and didn't come herself. We might get you out of here alive after all."
Seth and I still stood close, close enough that when he spoke into my ear, he barely had to raise his voice at all. "The watch," he breathed. "It's in the watch."
I had no time to process that further because suddenly, Seth broke from me and advanced on Dante. "Look, just leave her alone, okay? You caught her. She caught you. Call it even, and let us go." I stared. It was uncharacteristically aggressive for him.
"Even?" exclaimed Dante. "It is not even. I did what I did because I love her."
Seth's voice was level yet hard. "Love her? You got her caught up in that cult mess. You nearly got her killed by a demon."
Dante glowered and took a step toward Seth. "That wasn't supposed to happen. Jerome came up with the Canada thing on the fly. She wasn't supposed to be caught in the middle of this. The plan was for her to wait out the stasis like everyone else, and then return to normal once Grace was in power. Grace messed up when she told Nanette about her meddling, but then Grace made sure Nanette wouldn't fuck with her again. I worked to keep Georgina safe." Cedric had told the truth. He really hadn't told Nanette about my theories; Grace had.
"Yeah, you did a great job."
"It's not my fault!" yelled Dante. "Say what you want about me, my reasons were noble. Whereas hers"-he pointed at me-"were in keeping with the selfish little whore she's been her entire life."
And then...the unexpected truly happened. Seth sprang forward and punched Dante. I didn't know what was more surprising, that Seth would be so aggressive or that he could throw such a clean punch. He'd thrown himself at a mugger once, and while it had been wonderfully brave, it hadn't been nearly as precise or coordinated. I had no idea where he'd learned that. Dante appeared as startled as me. He staggered back from the blow and took a moment to recover. Then, with a snarl, he leapt toward Seth. Seth only partially dodged the blow-on purpose, it seemed-and fell back with the impact, causing both men to collapse to the ground.
They grappled around a bit, trying to get leverage and blows in, and for a moment, I was too stunned by it all to react. Then, finally, Seth's words hit me. The watch . I hurried over to them, careful not to get hit by a flailing limb. Seth caught a glimpse of me and did his best to grab a hold of Dante's wrist and thrust it toward me. Dante kept squirming, however-I had a feeling he'd been in a few more fights in his life than Seth had-and increased his struggles once he realized what was happening.
The watch. It made sense, really. Grace wore her part of the seal around her neck. Dante would want to keep his safe as well, and why not hidden in the only accessory that he-by his own admission-ever wore?
At last, Seth managed to immobilize Dante's wrist just long enough for me to get my fingers under the watch's straps. I gave a hard jerk, using more strength than I thought possible, and the strap broke. The watch came away in my hand, and I scurried back as Dante yelled in rage. Seth eased up on restraining Dante, now that our goal was achieved. As soon as he was free, however, Dante came after me, and Seth shot up to catch a hold of him.
I continued backing up, the watch clutched in my hand, until I hit something-or rather, someone. I turned and found myself staring into Grace's cold, hard eyes. Whereas Dante had seemed to appear out of nowhere, I knew Grace actually had. I froze, and behind me, the sounds of fighting stopped. I think the guys were just as surprised as me to see her-or maybe not. Dante had all but said he'd told Grace we were here.
"Georgina," she said. "You are such a good employee...and yet, you're also a bad one." Her voice was as flat and emotionless as ever, except unlike in the past, I had a feeling she was actually planning to kill me now.
"Why?" I asked, playing for time. "You had a good job under Jerome."
"Under being the operative word. I wasn't going to spend the rest of my existence as someone's second-in-command and certainly not their co-second-in-command."
"She has the seal," I heard Dante say behind me.
"I know she does," Grace replied. "You gave it to her."
"Hey, I-"
She raised her hand, and Dante screamed. Jerking my head around, I saw him writhing in pain, like he was suspended by strings that she controlled. After enduring Nanette's wrath, I knew how truly excruciating demonic torture was, and I couldn't stand to see anyone else go through that. Seth looked from me to Dante, clearly unsure what to do. Fistfights might be out of his comfort zone, though they were something he could do. But this? Totally different.
"Let him go!" I said. As stupid as it was, I reached out and tried to shake her, but I would have had as much luck budging the huge glacial rock beside her.
"I should never have relied on someone who was close to-"
Her words were cut off when she suddenly went flying through the air, slamming into the rock. The impact seemed to surprise more than it hurt her, and mercifully, her torture of Dante stopped. She looked around, eyes wide and confused.
"What the-"
Roman materialized out of the air and strode toward her, fierce and frightening. Finally, I thought. Without my immortal senses, I couldn't feel his aura or signature, but something told me he was wielding a considerable chunk of his power as he advanced. Doing so was risky. It would make his identity known to any greater immortals nearby, though with all the drama in Seattle, there probably weren't any in the area to sense him. Cedric certainly wasn't around.
Grace gave a sharp intake of breath. "You...I remember your signature."
That was all the warning she gave before fire streaked from her hands toward Roman. He didn't move or bat an eyelid, but the fire hit an invisible wall. It arced around him, leaving him unscathed.
"Georgina," he said, not taking his eyes off Grace. "The vessel's over by the north side of the stone's base."
I wasted no time in hurrying over to the spot he'd indicated. I heard Grace's outrage and caught her moving toward me in my periphery. But then, her anger turned to pain. Roman had blasted her with something, and her attention returned to him. My own attention was on the rocky ground as I began digging with my bare hands. In my zeal, I'd once again forgotten a spade. Seth was by my side in an instant, clawing at the sandy surface with me. Large, fat drops of rain began falling on us, but I didn't have time to care.
"Who's stronger?" he asked as the sounds of fighting raged behind us. If Roman's appearance startled him, he was ignoring it for now.
"I don't know," I said. The ground was getting harder to dig in. It was damp and caked together from a recent rain, and I could feel it building up under my nails. "Roman can theoretically be as strong as Jerome, and I'm guessing she's less powerful than Jerome. I don't know for sure, and he might be holding back. The more power he uses, the more he alerts others that he's here."
My fingers hit something hard, and Seth and I both worked to pry it out. It was a wooden box, an old cigar case from the looks of it. I managed a good hold on it, and it began lifting out.
"Here," I said, pausing. I tossed him my purse and then immediately returned to my digging. "Get my phone. Look in the numbers, and you'll find Mei. Call her. Tell her where we're at." The cigar box came up out of the earth.
"You want me to call a demon?" he asked in shock.
"We need her. Tell her where we're at. Then get away from here. Get in my car and go."
"Georgina-"
"Go!" I shouted.
Seth hesitated for the space of a heartbeat, then got up and ran with my purse, keeping well away from the combatants. I didn't know if Mei would react to a call from a mortal. I didn't even know if she'd answer, nor did I know if she could be trusted. I was relying on instinct-and that naïve hope about everyone's good side-that she and Grace weren't collaborating.
Roman's scream caused me to look up sharply. He was on his back, Grace advancing. What looked like lightning crackled toward him, though just with the fire, it split away. Only, it got a lot closer to him than before. He was weakening.
Frantically, I scraped sand off the cigar box. It looked deceptively easy to open, but when I attempted to pry the lid up, nothing happened. It wouldn't budge, and I knew no efforts of mine would make it happen. Turning to the watch I'd taken from Dante, I peered at it. The face was a pale brown marbleized pattern-one that easily blended in with the seal. It was an ingenious hiding spot. I smashed the watch against the cigar case, and on the third try, the glass cracked. I plucked away the pieces and tried to pull up the face. It was embedded firmly. Taking a small shard of the watch's surface, I slipped it under the seal's edge, and after a few moment's pressure, everything fell apart, and...there was no seal.
I stared. Gears, watch hands, pieces of glass, and the face...but no seal. Seth had been certain. I had been certain. Dante had no other place on him that he would keep it. Carter had said it was possible that the summoner might hide the seal elsewhere, and if Dante had done that, we were screwed.
"Fuc-"
I cut my own profanity off and stared at my wrist, at the glittering watch winking up at me. No. Surely it wasn't this obvious. Dante had given me the watch before Jerome had been summoned, and then I'd lost it right around the time of the summoning. I'd blamed it on myself, but was it possible that Dante had actually briefly taken it back...?
Jerking the watch off my wrist, I didn't hesitate to give it the same treatment as Dante's watch. It killed me to shatter that beautiful gold-and-glass piece of work, but when the filigree face popped out, I found a piece of smoky quartz that complemented Grace's. Dante needed more credit. He'd kept the seal close to him and hidden it where no one who was looking for it-i.e., me-would ever think to search.
The seal was useless, though, without the other half. Looking up, I saw that Grace had her hand around Roman's neck and was lifting him off the ground. He was completely limp. I didn't quite understand, but something told me he'd completely shut off all his power. Why? It was suicide. I wanted to scream, to run over and save him, but there was nothing I could do. Her back was to me, but I could imagine the gleam in her eyes.
"When I kill you," she hissed, "my position will be secured."
Suddenly, she jerked her head back toward me. For a moment, I thought I'd attracted her attention, but she wasn't looking at me. She was looking beside me, having sensed what I no longer could: the signature of another greater immortal. Mei stood there, hard and grim. I'd always considered her stone-faced, but the look she wore was truly terrifying, and I cringed.
She and Grace locked gazes, and then a few seconds later, Grace flung Roman away. He landed with a hard thud and lay still for a moment. Then, he lifted his head and slowly began crawling across the sand toward me, every movement seeming to cause him agony.
"You have seriously screwed things up," said Mei.
"I have improved my situation," said Grace evenly. "And I can improve yours."
"I don't need your help-especially when I reveal that you were behind all this. The others will reward me. Jerome will reward me."
"You're an idiot! Do you want to spend the rest of eternity working for someone else?"
"My time will come," Mei returned smoothly. "And I'd rather work for him than you."
And without any more banter, they lunged at each other. It was a bizarre fight. Half of it seemed very human, complete with physical blows and grappling. At the same time, there was definitely a supernatural element to it, as they wielded the same kind of elements and invisible blows Grace and Roman had. The rain was pouring down, drenching both of them. With their abilities, they could have remained impervious, but they were too distracted by each other.
Roman was still crawling toward me. Holding onto the seal and the box, I hesitantly moved to meet him half-way.
"Can you open it?" I asked, handing him the box.
His breathing was heavy and pained, but he gripped the box like I had and tried to pry the lid open. His fingers clenched the wood, and I saw exertion on his face, both of a physical and magical level. At last, he grimaced. "No. Not a greater immortal power I inherited."
I looked up at the demonesses. There was a slight shimmer around both of them. As the battle intensified, they were in danger of shifting to their true immortal forms, which would be bad for me to see. "Who's stronger?" I asked.
"They're evenly matched," said Roman, following my gaze. "Grace is a little worn down, though."
I hoped it would be enough. Hugging the box to my chest, I watched them fight, ready to look away if they totally shifted form. I'd always thought they had a hard sort of beauty, but now, it was all hardness and no beauty, and it wasn't difficult to see that under their human facades, they were truly demons of hell. I could also see what Roman meant about them being evenly matched. Each time one gained an advantage, the other took it back.
Until, just when it seemed Grace might be getting the better of Mei, Mei suddenly came on full force with an attack of unseen blasts that caught Grace off-guard and made her stumble back. With inhuman speed, Mei reached forward and ripped the choker from Grace's neck. Equally fast, she threw it toward me and then turned back to block Grace, who seemed to realize the end was near.
I grabbed hold of the necklace with trembling fingers and pulled off the crescent-shaped piece of the seal. I placed it next to Dante's half, unsure what to do, but as soon as they were close enough, they merged together into one whole disc.
"Put it on the box," said Roman. "Hurry."
I pressed the seal onto the box's top, and again, it seemed to know what to do, embedding itself in the wood's surface, almost like it melted. And with that, there seemed to be no other option. I opened the lid.
The power that blasted out of it knocked both Roman and me backward, and at the same time, I felt a different sort of power snap into my body. The strings that bound my soul to Hell reattached. My immortal essence coursed through me, and with it, I felt all the other abilities Hell had granted me return. I felt strong. Charged. Invincible. My senses tuned back in to the unseen world, and the blast of powerful immortal auras filled the air.
And there, in the rain, light and color slowly coalesced out of the box and into a man-shaped form. A few minutes later, it took on a completely human appearance. One that looked like John Cusack. Grace and Mei halted their attack, both staring.
Carefully, hesitantly, Mei then took a few steps back. Jerome paid her no attention. He was focused on Grace.
"Oh man," I said softly. "You are so fucked."
