Jegudiel (Deadly Virtues 2)

So Diel kissed her back.

He was Finn Nolan. His sister was named Cara. They had both been lost to the Brethren. Diel had been liberated. He had been found. Now it was time for Cara to be found too.

It was time for her to come home.

Chapter 19

Gabriel stared at the door that Diel had fled through with Noa quickly following behind. The room was thick with tension, with anger on their brother’s behalf.

Diel had a sister. Finn and Cara Nolan. Gabriel’s gut squeezed in sympathy for his brother. To have gone this long repressing his past, only to discover the truth, the sad and tragic truth of who he used to be. It had broken him; Gabriel had seen that in his devastated expression.

He closed his eyes, breathing through the heaviness in his heart and his soul. Later, he would go to the chapel and light a candle for Finn Nolan, the boy born into such dire conditions. He would light a candle for Cara Nolan, another little girl lost to the sinful labyrinth that was the Brethren’s organization.

“Friday can’t come quick enough.” Gabriel opened his eyes as Raphael spoke, his tight voice echoing the feelings of everyone else in the room. Gabriel caught Maria’s eyes. She was pale; the regression had clearly impacted her too.

“I’ll study the ledger harder,” she said. “I’ll study everything we have on the Brethren, try to find something out. There must be some trace of her somewhere, some record of them being taken.”

Gabriel nodded, but he knew there was nothing in the few files they had. They needed more information. They needed more on the Brethren. He just had no idea how to get it without risking everyone he loved.

Movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention. Naomi was placing the flashlight back in her bag. She had done this for his brother. Gabriel felt anger stirring inside him. He tried to quell it. But when he recalled how Naomi had sounded when she spoke, how fearful and embarrassed she had been to speak aloud in front of them due to her tongue being cut …

The Brethren had done that to her too. They had taken from her the ability to speak clearly. Why? How could they do such things? How did they call themselves priests of God when they did such ungodly things?

Naomi walked silently back toward her sisters. Gabriel opened his mouth to thank her for all that she had done, but before he could, Bara was on his feet and stepping directly into her path.

Bara towered over the petite redhead, the impressive breadth and height of his body shadowing hers. Gabriel tensed. Nothing good came from Bara confronting anyone. Out of all his brothers, Bara was the one who caused him the most restless nights.

Naomi stopped dead. She slowly lifted her bowed head to see who had blocked her path. Gabriel noticed that Dinah’s face fell, and she stepped forward to intervene. Dinah was the heart of the Coven. He wasn’t sure if she knew it, but she was. She was their fiercest protector.

Naomi’s body was statue-still when her eyes met Bara’s. She clutched her bag to her chest like a shield. He unnerved her; that much was clear. But then Bara took her hand and, looking her dead in the eyes, said, “Thank you, fire witch.” There was no smirk on his face, nothing disturbing in his green gaze. “You gave my brother his past back.”

Naomi exhaled a shuddering breath at Bara’s obvious honesty, and she lowered her head, silently accepting his gratitude. It took a few seconds for Bara to let go of her hand.

Bara went to stand next to Uriel and Michael. Uriel was frowning at Bara, but he didn’t say a word.

Dinah released a loud sigh. “I fucking hate those pricks.”

“He has a sister,” Sela said. As the brother closest to Diel, Gabriel could see that the revelation of who Diel was, the fact that Diel had a sister who was abducted too, was hitting him hard. Sela looked at Gabriel. “His fucking voice as he talked us through what he was seeing.” Sela grew stone-faced. “The fucking pain in his voice when he realized that starving kid was him. When he realized Cara was his own flesh and blood.”

“That bitch let her go blind,” Uriel said, the fading light in the room reflecting off the piercings in his body. “Her own fucking mother let her go blind in one eye, hid her away because she had what sounds like a fucking port-wine birthmark?” Uriel vibrated with untapped violence. “And what the fuck would the Brethren do with her? Why the hell did they think she was evil too? She didn’t hurt anyone. She was fucking neglected, abused.”

“We’ve only scratched the surface of them,” Jo said. “The Brethren have been doing this for years. Taking vulnerable people, people they believe are sinners, from their everyday lives. Yet in all this time, out of all the people they have abducted, we’ve only just found each other. Fourteen of us including Priscilla. That’s all we know of.”