Fate: California Obscura

“But what if they break through? How can we possibly defend ourselves against a pair of demons?”

“We don’t have to defend ourselves,” he said. “We just have to get away, and they probably wouldn’t come for me themselves. That sort of thing seems like it’s beneath them. It’s more likely they’d send their foot soldiers, and by the time they figured out how to get around the wards, we’d be long gone.”

“Foot soldiers suggests they have an army.”

I grimaced when he said, “Just a small one.” After a pause, he added, “I’m sorry for dragging you into the middle of this, although I think you’re much safer here than in L.A. You were practically right in their backyard, and if they’d ever linked you to me, they wouldn’t have hesitated to use you as leverage.”

I asked, “What did you do to get on their bad side?”

“I got close to them and earned their trust, and then I took down their human trafficking operation from the inside. I think you know most of the ways I make a living are illegal, so it was easy enough to get an introduction and ingratiate myself to them. They never saw it coming.”

“You did that on your own?” When he nodded, I asked, “Why wouldn’t you go to the police, or the FBI?”

“What could human law enforcement possibly do to two powerful demons?”

He had a point. “What happened to the victims?”

“I freed seventy-two people from a holding facility and got them all to safety. I also managed to turn the traffickers’ entire network against each other before I was found out. It’ll take them a while to rebuild, if they even bother. Demons get bored easily, so they might have found a new way to entertain themselves at humankind’s expense by now.”

I reached across the table and took his hand as I said, “What you did was really brave, and I’m proud of you.”

“It was just a drop in the bucket,” he muttered. “I wish I could have driven them out once and for all, but I’m totally powerless against them. I hate that feeling.”

“It was more than a drop in the bucket to the people you saved.”

He squeezed my hand, then let go of it and got up. As he started to clear the table, he said, “That’s my only consolation, but all I can think about is how many more people the brothers could hurt on a whim, and the fact that no one on earth has enough power to stop them.”

“The brothers?”

“That’s what people call the demons, because they’re inseparable. Their real names are unpronounceable, so they’ve taken to calling themselves Cain and Abel. Don’t ask me why. It always seemed like an odd choice.”

We both fell silent as we turned our attention to cleaning up the kitchen. When we finished, Elias asked, “Would you like to go for a walk? It actually stopped raining, but that might not be the case for long.”

“Sure. Let me grab my coat.”

We met at the front door a few minutes later. Elias had added boots, a black peacoat, and a black wool scarf to his ensemble, and he looked polished and pulled together. Meanwhile, I looked like a kid who was about to go sledding in my puffy, cream-colored ski jacket. In my defense, I hadn’t exactly planned ahead for any of this. I also hadn’t had a chance to pack a bag, so my jeans and light blue button-down would have to be my uniform for the foreseeable future.

As we cut across the field at the back of the house, Elias asked, “Have you forgiven me for whatever I said earlier to make you angry?”

“It’s the same thing you always say, which basically comes down to omegas being obedient little lap dogs.”

“I never said—” Elias cut himself off, then pushed his hair back from his eyes. “Never mind.”

He took my hand as we cut through the trees on a well-worn path. After a minute, we emerged at a rocky overlook, and I said, “This is really beautiful.” Half a dozen islets dotted the rough, gray sea, each its own miniature world of rocks and trees.

“It is. I’m trying to appreciate it, instead of resenting the fact that I’ve been stuck here with the same view for ninety-three days.” When I shivered a little, he said, “Come here.” Then he unbuttoned his coat and held out his arms.

I slipped my hands inside his coat and around his waist, then leaned into him. His warmth and scent surrounded me, and it was wonderfully soothing.

He wrapped his arms around me and rested his cheek against my hair. After a few moments I asked, “How can you be so different now than when we first met? You don’t even seem like the same person.”

“A century is a long time. People change.”