I looked up, cautiously meeting his eyes. “You don’t love me anymore?”
“Of course I still love you.” He hugged me to his body and kissed the top of my head. “I will always love you, Leda.” He set his hands on my cheeks. “That’s what makes this so much worse.”
He kissed me briefly on the lips. Then he looked upon me. For a brief moment, his eyes betrayed the all-consuming pain he felt within. Then they went cold.
He rose from the sofa. “I have to go now.”
“But it’s storming outside.”
“An angel doesn’t shy away from duty, Pandora. And with Nyx gone, I have many duties to attend to.”
I continued to sit there, long after he’d left, my mind going in circles. Yes, Nero had many duties. But he’d delayed those duties to sit here and speak with me. So there still had to be hope for us. Right?
My phone rang. A picture of Calli showed up on my screen, telling me she was the one calling. I answered it.
“Leda, I was just talking to Gemini and Sagittarius,” she said. “They’ve learned that the vampires had hired guards.”
“I know. Some shifter mercenaries.”
“Gemini and Sagittarius claim to have tracked down the shifters,” she told me.
I jumped to my feet. “Bring Gemini and Sagittarius to my office.” I pulled on my jacket. “In fact, bring all the bounty hunters you can find with you.”
The Legion of Angels was decidedly short-staffed at the moment. Most of my soldiers were busy controlling the crowds of unsettled citizens, tracking leads on Spellsword, and gathering up supernaturals for magic testing. Nerissa didn’t even know if she could detect the curse in supernaturals, but she was determined to try.
The world was coming apart at the seams, and all of my soldiers were busy. If I could track down those shifters, the vampires’ hired help, maybe I could find out more about how their former employers had caught this curse. And the bounty hunters were just the team I needed to help me out.
22
Civil Unrest
When I entered the ballroom, the news was on the television, and five bounty hunters were watching the media’s latest siege on my character. I caught a few choice phrases, including Betrayer of Humanity and Harbinger of the Apocalypse, before Calli turned it off.
I’d have preferred a less ominous start to our quest.
“They sure paint a pretty picture of you, Leda,” said Gypsy, whistling.
“Eventually, they’ll get bored of me and move on,” I replied.
“Perhaps.” Gypsy tapped her chin and her eyes lifted in thoughtful silence. “But just in case, maybe we should sneak into their houses, go to their garages, disassemble all their cars, then reassemble them inside out.”
I laughed, even as Sagittarius said humorlessly, “You cannot reassemble a car inside out.”
“You can the way I do it,” chuckled Gypsy.
He frowned. “In a non-functional way.”
“Exactly.” Gypsy slapped him on the back. “You got it, grandpa.”
He stiffened. “Young lady, I am hardly old enough to be your grandfather.”
“Only someone who is old enough to be a grandpa would call a grown woman ‘young lady’,” she replied with a smirk.
At that, his wife Gemini laughed. “She’s got you there.”
“Is there a point to this conversation?” Nolan Ash asked.
Of the five bounty hunters, he was the only one not sitting down. He stood stiffly. Like a soldier.
“You were less uptight when you were a soldier than you are as a bounty hunter, Ash,” Calli told him. “Relax. Sit down. Kick up your feet.”
He looked horrified by the idea. “One does not relax, sit down, and kick up one’s feet in the presence of an angel.”
“Leda isn’t like other angels,” said Calli.
“If she were like other angels, I doubt we’d ever be able to climb our way out of this pile of dragon dung that Spellsword shitted out of his magic wand,” added Gypsy. “But as it is, she’s going to lead us to salvation.”
“Which brings us to the price attached to this salvation,” said Gemini. “Calli said you had an offer for us.”
“It had better be a good one to lure us away from the Spellsword job,” added Sagittarius.
“My offer is as follows,” I said. “You all help me track down the four mercenary shifters who worked as guards for Drummoyne’s vampire nest.”
“In exchange for what?” Gemini asked.
“In exchange for my letting you hitchhike with me on my airship instead of you chasing my shadow all the way to Europe.”
Gemini frowned. “I was referring to monetary payment.”
“I suggest that you accept my offer. Last time I checked, I was the only person in this room who can fly on her own. A flight across the Atlantic Ocean isn’t cheap.” I slid a wry smile Gemini’s way. “And there’s always a chance you get eaten by monsters if your airship isn’t properly armed.”
Gypsy laughed. “I told you guys she was one of us.”
Gemini snorted. “Indeed.”
“What about the one million dollars?” Sagittarius demanded. “That is, after all, why we are all here.”
“If you do this, if you help me stop the curse, then I will split the one million five ways between you all,” I promised them.
“Share it?” Sagittarius grunted like the grumpy old man that he obviously was. “Gemini and I would rather have it all.”
“You can either share it with the others, or get nothing at all.” I folded my arms over my chest and smiled at him. “It’s your choice.”
“Choice.” He humphed. “You say it like we even have one. You could just commandeer our services under the Legion code.”
“I could indeed.” I allowed my smile to widen. “So best be grateful that I’m offering you any money at all.”
“You are most generous, angel.” Nolan bowed to me. Then he bowed again.
“Angel? You know her name, goofball,” Calli scolded him. “And you knew her before she was an angel.”
“And for that I am honored.” Nolan just kept bowing to me.
“You should totally take advantage of his devotion, Leda, and make him fetch us all coffee,” Gypsy chuckled.
“Enough smalltalk,” Sagittarius said, his voice gravelly.
“So you all agree to split the money five ways?” I asked the bounty hunters.
“Make that six ways.”
We all turned toward the new arrival. But I knew who it was before I’d even seen him. Jinx. He strutted across the room, plopped down on one of the chairs, and kicked his feet up on the table. Nolan Ash looked so horrified by his behavior that I thought he might faint.
“You weren’t invited, Jinx.” Calli swatted his feet off the table.
“I know.” His grin was totally relaxed. “That’s why I followed you and eavesdropped on your conversation. And I’m coming with you. You need me. It’s as simple as that.”
“No one needs your kind. You’re a backstabber and a cheat.”