Page 59 of Blood Submission

Chapter23

Jesse sat strokingCruthú’s black feathers just outside the crumbled remains of Leeha’s mountain fortress. The raven preened under his attention, ruffling her feathers against the misty rain and rubbing her beak along his hand. She gave a squawk, tilting her head and staring at him with one intelligent blackeye.

“I know, Cruthú. I know. But Shea left us. She made her choice. And she won’t even take my calls. Although, I guess that as long as she keeps hanging up on me, I know she’s safe.” As if on cue, his cell phone rang. The raven jumped up to his shoulder as he dug it out from his pocket. He stared at the number on the screen. Accepting the call, he held it to hisear.

“Jesse?”

Her whiskey voice came across the line clearly, as if she were sitting right next to him. If he closed his eyes, he could imagine that shewas.

“Jesse, I know you’re there. I don’t have a lot of time. I need your help. I need to know something.” His heart fluttered for a fraction of second. It stopped cold at her next words. “I need to know what Leeha’s demons are after. They’re here. And we have something they want.” A pause. “We think it’s aclue.”

No. That couldn’t be. If they were coming after the box, that means they had found the others and nearly had all of the clues. If the demons got their hands on the last one, the world as they knew it would no longer exist.

Cruthú flapped her large wings, sensing his disquiet. “What do you mean you think you have one of the clues?”

“It’s a wooden box with a carving of a dagoba in the bottom underneath the felt lining.” She paused again. “You know what itis.”

How the hell had they gotten their hands on one of the clues? It should be across the ocean. “Shea, listen to me carefully. You need to get rid of that thing. Immediately.”

“We are,” she said. “We’re taking it somewhere tonight and hidingit.”

“They will find it,” he told her. “It doesn’t matter where you hide it. They won’t stop until they findit.”

“What is it, Jesse?”

Jesse struggled with the decision to tell her. If she knew what it was, it would endanger her even more. However, to not do so would also put her immortal life in danger. And somehow, in the short time they’d known each other, her life had become very important to him. “It is a clue,” he heard himself saying. “When the demons were tied to the altar, thousands of years ago, the witches that performed the spell drained them of their blood so their souls could not find their bodies again. The clues will lead them to where their original blood is hidden.”

“What will happen once they findit?”

“They will be able to reanimate their original physical forms…and hell will reign on earth.”

Shea was silent for a long moment. “Is there any way to stop them?” Her tone held littlehope.

He thought about it. “If we can stop them from finding the clue, it will slow them down. But if they have the others—”

“I’ll tell Luukas that Dante was right and we just need to burn the fucking thing. They’ll never findit.”

He smiled. If only it were that simple. “That’s impossible. It won’t burn. The old witches made sure of it. They wanted to make sure their descendants would be able to find the blood, and keep it hidden. In retrospect, probably not the bestplan.”

“Can the blood be destroyed somehow?”

He shook his head, even though she couldn’t see him. “It’s demon blood. It must exist in some form or another.”

“What about you?” she asked quietly.

“What about me?” Jesse fought to keep his tone impersonal. It was very difficult.

“Are yousafe?”

“They won’t find me or my things, Shea. And I need to stay here. I need to protect the altar, in case there’s ever a chance we can bring them back to it. Though I appreciate your concern.”

“They’ll kill you if they find you there.” Her voice was deadpan.

The corners of his mouth lifted at her concern. It was unnecessary, but she didn’t know that. “And would that bother you, Shea? Would you shed a tear over my cold body before you walked away? Again?” He was being an ass. But he needed to hear her admit that it would.

She didn’t answer his question. “I have to go. Thank you for tellingme.”

He stared at the pine trees towering around him, like ghostly sentinels in the misty rain. “You’re welcome,” he toldher.

The line disconnected, and he put the phone back in his pocket. Lifting his face to the cold rain, he let it soothe his heated skin. It was coming down harder now, so he pulled the hood of his cloak up over his head and headed back through the trees to the mountain that loomed in the darkness, and the underground labyrinth he’d been unable to make himself leave.

He’d lied. He didn’t need to stay here to protect the altar. The altar had been there for thousands of years, and it would still be there long after he was gone. In all honesty, he hated this mountain. Yet he wouldn’t leave. For even though she was only there with him for a short time, it reminded him of Shea. And he still held a thread of hope that, someday, she might comeback.

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