Page 215 of Lost in the Dark
To my eternal relief, she answered at last. Not in so many words, but her presence could be felt as easily as sunlight, her very existence was one of the flywheels through which the worlds moved. As much as I wished I could be the one to protect my new lover, a good man -luctusor otherwise - understood when to take up a sword and when to hand it to a more skilled warrior. Simply put, goddess trumped demon.
I'd managed to stand on my knees after long minutes of fighting the hold of the binding, straining and gasping. All at once, the invisible threads snapped and sent me careening into a messy bookshelf, binders and papers crashing around my head and shoulders. An irresistible call rang through me, right down to the core of my being - I was beingsummoned, and whoever was calling me wasnotTommy or Oizys. The signature was softer, enticing, a curl of command rather than a shackle being yanked.
I burned some of my restless grief and followed the call blindly to the origin point, unable to do anything but obey. As I manifested, the walls of my own mausoleum-room shimmered into being, and I was dimly aware of Oizys’ presence beside me, serene as ever. My attention was wholly captured by the scene on the bed, however. Rage like I’d never known burned through me, my grief igniting in snapping blue flames around me: Tommy was bent over an unconscious woman, choking the life out of her.
He. Was. Touching. Her.
I growled with a demonic fury that would have sent a hellhound scurrying for cover, closing my hand around the back of his neck and flinging the bane of my eternal existence against the far wall. He’d kill me for it, I was certain, but by the goddess I was going to get my hits in before he could. Fierce joy coursed through my veins as I heard a few bones crack, and I feverishly hoped they were important ones.
Tommy crumpled and groaned, holding a head wound that was streaming blood, looking at me with pure hatred as he started to snap off the syllables of an incantation intended to kill me. He’d always threatened he had a “kill switch,” and for once, the waste of flesh wasn’t lying. I turned to look at Cara one last time, taking comfort in the slow rise and fall of her chest, glad that my last act on this plane had hopefully saved her life.
Tommy’s shrill voice rose, bouncing off the stone walls, words I hadn’t heard uttered in millenia, not since the voluntary death-ritual of a fellowluctus. I didn’t wince, keeping my gaze on Cara, hoping to etch her features into my memory forever. I’d face my death with as much dignity as I could, and I’d do it a thousand times over to keep her safe.
And then…nothing. As the urgency of the situation bled from me, an epiphany flashed through me: I’d hurt Tommy. I’dtouchedTommy. That shouldn’t be possible. I looked to Oizys, who wore a bemused expression, flicking her eyes back to Tommy with a look of disgust. Her whispering chorus of ghost voices brushed at my ears. “Things have changed,luctus. You see now. As your Goddess I condemn this…creature…to your mercies for violating the sacred balance. Take back the gift he has been given and commit him to the earth, my gatherer.”
I took a knee and bowed my head in reverence. While I shared a generally family-like connection to my Goddess, abiding respect always came first with deities, if you were smart. I was smart.
For the first time since his deplorable presence had dropped into my life, I saw true fear in Tommy’s eyes.Good. Although I was tempted to draw out his suffering for what he’d tried to do to Cara, and for all hehaddone to me, I didn’t linger. Oizys had made it clear where she wanted him, and it wasn’t in my home. The coward’s gurgling scream of agony barely had time to bounce off the walls of my home before it guttered and died forever.
I was no psychopomp, but I could extract a soul in a pinch. It was with no small measure of pride that I handed my Goddess the muddied brown-green crystal that had been Tommy’s soul. Like the man, it was an ugly, loathsome thing, but Oizys would make use of it somehow.
After a quiet nod from Oizys, I checked Cara briefly, pulled on my discarded clothes, and slipped out. Even though I was reluctant to leave her side, I needed to take out the trash - it had fouled my space, my lover, and my Goddess with its presence for long enough. After a quick trip to the maintenance shed, I grabbed a wheelbarrow and brought it back, taking great delight in literally folding Tommy’s body in half to toss him in. I covered the wheelbarrow with a few burlap sacks leftover from a tree planting, wheeling it across the yard and unceremoniously dumping the contents into an open grave.
I smiled faintly at the undignified, awkwardly-broken sprawl of the once-man below me before snarling and spitting on him with a curse. A few minutes with the backhoe turned a seven foot deep grave into a five foot deep one - Mr. Paric would simply have to spend his eternal slumber a bit closer to the surface for the greater good. Satisfied my addition to the grave wasn’t visible, I set the equipment back where it should be, splashing some disinfectant around the wheelbarrow to erase any traces of the refuse it had briefly carried.
I hurried back to my mausoleum to find Oizys gently helping Cara sit up, her pale white hands smoothing over my lover’s bruised throat with a murmured word of power, erasing the marks entirely. All I wanted was to pull Cara into my arms and check her injuries myself, but I knew what it meant if Oizys was healing her. Carahadbeen among the ranks of the dead - Tommy had succeeded in killing her, and she was currently breathing through Oizys’ mercy.
My Goddess smoothed a hand down Cara’s back, looking up at me pointedly. “You are a favored son,luctus,so she bears my mark now, rather than joining the ranks of the dead. I gave to her the gift you were forced to take, andhisbesides.” She shot a look of distaste at the door where I’d just carted off Tommy’s body. “In return, she is bound to me, just as you are. She will work in my name.”
She bent towards Cara, gently touching their foreheads together before kissing her cheek - a soft, maternal gesture from a Goddess so many unjustly feared. Sorrow was necessary to add sweetness to life, and ours - a family that now included Cara - fulfilled a crucial role in the world. “Jax will explain to you the way of things, my daughter. You need only know you are safe, now, and how sorry I am for all you’ve endured.”
She gave Cara a fond smile and a gentle nod before dissipating into a gauzy mist, vanishing entirely a moment later. I hurried to take her spot on the bed, gathering Cara to my chest as she simultaneously climbed into my lap, huffing a sob. Her grief bloomed, different now, richer and stronger, less tainted by hopelessness.
“I saw her, Jax. I saw Brigit. She’s…healthy now, she’s whole. She’s with our parents, and she’s met my mom too, and they’re all so happy. I didn’t even want to come back, but…she said I needed to, and I just felt in my bones that she was right.” She sat back to look at me, her eyes brimming with tears that spilled over as her eyelids slid down. I carefully kissed the edges of each, the salt of her tears lingering on my lips as I kissed her mouth gently.
“And you’ll see them all again, Cara, I promise you will. I’m sorry you were introduced so suddenly to all this, but at least you got to skip clear over the disbelief stage, huh?” That got a laugh out of her, and I was relieved to see something approaching a smile on her once more.
“Wait! Is he-” Her eyes went wide as she looked at the door with a panicked expression. I brushed my fingers under her chin, turning her beautiful face back to mine.
“Gone. Forever. He willneverhurt you again. He’s been given an undignified, forgotten burial and had his soul ripped out for his trespasses against our Goddess. Please know it took the strongest death magics ever written to keep me from defending you.” I frowned, heart squeezing at the thought of what might have happened if Oizys hadn’t intervened.
Her fingers uncurled from something in her palm -the medallion. She shyly offered it to me, as easily as someone might give a piece of candy, or a pack of tissues. I took it in reverent fingertips, carefully using a tiny wisp of grief to push the chain links back together, sliding it over her head without a thought. Her fingertips flew to the tiny, ancient writing, her eyes searching mine.
“Jax - she…she told me what this was. You deserve to be free, especially after…” I smiled and leaned forward, silencing her with a kiss.
“And what is love,adoratur, if not giving yourself to someone wholly? Something in your soul called to mine, and I am a willing captive.” I brushed a knuckle over the front of the charm, feeling raw and vulnerable for the first time in memory. Grief, sorrow, these were my elements, not something soft and sweet like this, but for her I would try.
I laid back, pulling her into me and tucking her head under my chin after I had a moment to think. “Tommy is going to disappear after I catch him, red-handed, ‘defiling a corpse.’ He’s also going to leave ample evidence of his embezzling, betting addiction, and insurance fraud carelessly lying around - not like that’s hard to find. The office is already trashed, it’s believable there was a shakedown from one of his many bookies. We’ll alter your employment paperwork - already complete with his signature - to include administrative job duties, you’ll walk in tomorrow to find the office trashed, call the police, and maybe eventually they’ll find his car, which I’ll quietly ditch in an airport parking lot. I’ve got a brother that can digitally alter the LLC to make me an inheriting partner in Tommy’s absence and I can assign your rightful life insurance settlement to you too.”
I hugged her in the long silence that followed, hoping that I hadn’t terrified her with my complete lack of guilt for murdering a man, however vile.
She let out a slow breath. “Okay.”
“Okay?” I didn’t expect that. I expected crying, some hysterics,something. But her tone was as neutral as it’d be if we were deciding where to have dinner. She also hadn’t moved away - if anything, she’d snuggled closer.
“Seeing one’s departed loved ones and getting choked to death and being magically healed by a Goddess and finding out your boyfriend is some kind of grief…demon-thing…kind of shifts priorities, Jax. It’s not like I can un-know this stuff, and it’s kind of nice to actually see a shithead get what’s coming to him for a change, though I’m a little glad I didn’t have to see it up close and personal.”
“Boyfriend?” I raised a brow, leaning back to look at her as my stomach flipped happily.
She laughed loudly, smacking my chest. “Guess demonic men are just as dense as human ones. We’re talking about covering up a murder here and you’re worried I’m locking you down.”
“Ohh no, beautiful. Not worried in the least. Just making sure I heard you right.” I grabbed her waist and rolled her on top of me, the medallion dangling just above my chest. It looked so damn good on her, and seeing it where it belonged filled me with a fierce possessiveness. “Lock me down and throw away the damn key.”
She smiled, leaning down to kiss me, eyes warm with affection. “Oh? It’s ‘til death do us part, then, is it?”
I grinned up at her, hooking a finger in the medallion chain to tug her lips back down to mine.
“As if I’d let you get away that easily,adoratur.”
The end…for now!