“Thank you. For coming, I mean.”
“No problem. I was just doing someone unimportant.”
Someone. Nice.
Sadly, that was the last thought Koldo had before his mind went blank.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“YOUR UGLY FACE disgusts me,” his mother shouted.
“You hesitated over a kill today,” his father growled. “You must be punished.”
Love me. Why can’t you love me?
“I wish you had never been born!” His mother.
“I’ll make you regret the day you were born.” His father.
Be proud of me. I just want you to be proud of me. For once.
“You’re not a Sent One. You don’t deserve to breathe the same air as me.” Again, his mother.
“I’ll make a soldier of you yet.” Again, his father.
Please...please...
Koldo came awake gradually, his head a heavy block, his muscles sore and knotted. When full light at last dawned, he blinked rapidly, then gazed around. A barren cave with jagged, bloodstained walls greeted him. The air was cold, the warmth of his breath creating a thick haze in front of his face. He lay upon a stone dais, no blanket beneath him.
This wasn’t one of his homes, he thought, jerking upright. Dizziness struck him, but he pushed through it, inhaling, exhaling.
“Easy now,” he heard Axel say.
Axel. Familiar. He relaxed, but only slightly, his attention cutting through the gloom and finding the warrior crouched in the corner, razing a stone against a short, broad stick to create dangerous spikes at the ends.
“Where am I?” he asked.
Eyes of crystal blue flicked up and stayed on him for only a second before returning to the weapon. “Only the best place ever—my place. I carried you here. And by the way, you’ll be getting the bill for my new back brace. Anyone ever tell you that you weigh, like, ten thousand pounds?”
“How long?” he croaked.
“The bill’s only one, maybe eight, pages long, you have my word. The good doctor said—”
“No. How long have I been here?”
“Oh. Three days.”
Three days? Nicola had been on her own for three days. After he’d promised to spend at least an hour a day with her. But now he could spend far more than an hour, couldn’t he? Zacharel had placed her in Koldo’s constant care.
He might have failed her on day one.
He threw his legs over the side of the dais, and despite the return of the dizziness, stood. He waited until his vision cleared, then looked down at himself. He wore a long white robe, the material as clean as he was. In fact, he was as clean as if he’d just taken a couple hundred showers.
“Don’t worry,” Axel said, holding out the stick, closing one eye and zeroing in on one of the ends of the weapon. “I checked on your girl. She’s fine. And I mean that in every sense of the word.”
He left that last part alone. “The serps stayed away from her?”
“Of course. They were too dead to move. But she does have two minions hanging around.”
Two minions were hanging around Nicola? Had Lefty and Righty returned? If so, they would have to be dealt with—permanently. “And the other girl? The blonde?”
“Wait.” Frowning, Axel set the weapon aside and peered over at him. “You mean the redhead is yours?”
“Yes. Why? Did something happen? Did she see you?” Want him?
Rage blossomed...
“Uh, no. Nope. Not at all. She’s fine, too.”
...receded. “You’re sure?” he asked, watching for any sign of a lie. The smacking of his lips. The wrinkling of his nose. A deeper frown. Axel displayed none of those.
“I am.” Easily stated. Expression relaxed.
Very well. The demons were hanging around Laila, then, and he’d already known that. “Thank you,” he said, only slightly grudging.
“I’ll be collecting, don’t worry.”
Koldo would have said the same, and couldn’t blame him. “Collect from me. Not her.” He’d promised to pay her bills, not to add to her tab.
Axel rolled his eyes. “As if there was ever any doubt. She’s got nothing I want.” He wiped his hands on the towel draped over his thigh before digging a piece of melon out of the bowl beside him. “Here. Eat.”
Koldo caught the fruit and bit into the juicy center. Sweet flavors exploded on his tongue, and his body purred gratefully. Sent Ones could die in a number of ways, and starvation was a big one.
Thank the Most High, Koldo had had the foresight to stock Nicola’s cabinets before leaving her. She had been well fed during his absence. And thank the Most High forevermore, Axel had been willing to see to her defense.
But Koldo wanted to do more than rely on another Sent One for such a thing. If anything like this ever happened again—not that it would, Koldo never made the same mistake twice—Axel might be too busy to check on Nicola. He might lose interest, or decide Koldo had nothing of value to offer in trade.
I’ll have to mark her, Koldo thought. Not just with the essentia, but with ink. He would code her.
The Most High had made a blood-covenant promise to the Sent Ones. In exchange for obeying His laws, they were given protection. Koldo hadn’t been kicked from the heavens, therefore the promise still applied to him, and the code was still etched into his heart. And because Nicola was his charge, his responsibility, the promise now extended to her. But he would have to give her an outward sign of it.
He would etch the code into her flesh, and that code would be able to create a barrier between her and any demons that dared approach her. All she would have to do was concentrate on the numbered sequences during an attack. The more she stared at her tattoos, the stronger the power of the code would become, until finally expanding, covering her entire body and shielding her.
But if a demon managed to distract her...
Not going to happen, Koldo assured himself. He would train her for that, too.
“So why were the serps after you?” Axel asked.
“I’d like to know the answer to that, as well.” Was his father still out there or not?
Koldo hadn’t seen Nox’s body, had only watched as grenade after grenade soared toward him, the unsuspecting male not knowing to flash away. There’d been multiple booms and an intense wave of heat, flames drenching the ground and bouncing into the sky.
Should have killed him up close and personal. But Koldo had had a choice. Destroy Nox face-to-face—or destroy the man and everything he’d worked for in one swoop. Koldo had chosen the latter.