Summoner of Storms Read online

  Not the reaction he’d expected. Defiance, sure. Lies, sure. But not this weary acceptance.

  “I’m not bluffing.”

  “I know.” Sean met his gaze, and he just looked...sad. Beaten. “I made a deal with the devil, but I did it to save my best friend.” Sean glanced past John to Caleb. “And I failed. And now we all have to face the consequences.”

  John clenched his fists. “Save me? By putting a bullet in my boyfriend’s head? You didn’t try to save me, you tried to destroy me!”

  “I knew you’d hate me,” Sean said. Dried blood cracked on his upper lip where one of John’s blows had split it open. “But I watched you for months, slowly falling apart after the succubus brothel.”

  “So you decided to give me a new nightmare?” John felt as if he couldn’t get enough oxygen, like he’d run a marathon instead of just standing there breathing in the stale, moldy air. “Do you know what I see every time I close my eyes now? Do you?”

  “John,” Caleb said softly.

  “What do you want me to say?” Sean asked. “I’m sorry? I’m sorry I had to do it, sure. I’m sorry Caleb got hurt. And I’m damned sorry it didn’t work, because the thing in his head is going to kill you.”

  “His name is Gray.” Pain lanced through John’s palms; the fingernails of his clenched fists had broken the skin. “He’s not a thing, he’s a person.”

  “It’s an NHE. Non-Human Entity. And I saw it had fixated on you, and I went home and I spent hours—days—asking myself what to do. Because you’d been heading for the cliff for months already, and you’d finally found something to push you the rest of the way over. I never wanted to go behind your back, I never wanted to hurt Caleb, and I never wanted to work with Forsyth.” Sean closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. “But I wanted you to die even less. You’re my best friend, John. I love you like a brother.”

  “And now you’re in with Forsyth,” Tiffany said. Striking from the side like a shark scenting blood in the water. “If you really care about John, tell us what he’s up to.”

  “You saw for yourself at RD.” Bitterness laced Sean’s voice. “Putting demons in people and not exorcising them. Trying to make an army. I’ve already been informed I’ll be transferred to RD soon. Whether Forsyth thinks it’s a reward or I need closer watching, I’ve got no fucking clue. I’ve spent the last two days trying to figure out how to turn it down without getting shot.”

  “Funny, we’ve spent the last two days getting shot at.” John folded his arms over his chest. He wouldn’t feel bad for Sean. He wouldn’t.

  But none of this had gone the way he’d imagined it. He’d pictured Sean laughing at their naïveté, admitting he’d done it all out of some twisted scheme to climb to the ranks at SPECTR, saying everything from their teen years on was just an act.

  “Let me help you.” Sean’s voice grated coming out, like he spoke around a constriction in his throat. “What Forsyth is doing is wrong. Let me help stop him. Please.”

  John couldn’t find his voice. How stupid did Sean think they were?

  The floorboards squealed as Caleb stepped forward. No doubt to tell Sean no way in hell would he agree to this.

  “You’d have to work with me. With Gray,” Caleb said. “Who, by the way, didn’t exactly turn to mindless slaughter the second our possession became irrevocable. Just in case you missed that part.”

  Sean’s mouth thinned. “Yeah. I noticed.”

  Tiffany shifted her weight. “The drakul is far more valuable to me than you are,” she told Sean. “If I agree to this, you better understand. I’ll shoot you if I even think you’re going to make a move against Caleb.”

  “What the hell?” John turned away from Sean to stare at Caleb and Tiffany. “You can’t be serious! He betrayed us once already. Are you really going to give him a second chance to stab us in the back?”

  “We’re pretty low on options, Starkweather.” Tiffany’s eyes remained fixed on Sean. Weighing. Judging. “I’ve known Sean even longer than you have. I think he did what he did out of desperation. And stupidity. A healthy dose of stupidity.”

  “No.” How could Tiffany seriously be considering this, let alone Caleb? “Caleb, he shot you.”

  “Yeah, believe me, I remember.” Caleb’s brown eyes went even darker with memory. “But like Tiffany said, our options are limited. Sean is our link on the inside.”

  John shook his head, taking a step back. “He’ll turn us over to Forsyth first chance he gets.”

  Sean had the audacity to look hurt. “John—”

  “Shut up.” John started for the front door, then paused. “If it was up to me, I’d bury you where no one would ever find you.”

  The door slammed behind him.

  * * *

  John stood in the weed-choked lot and stared up at the sky. Only one or two stars showed, the rest blotted out by the glare of city lights.

  When he’d been little, his family visited his grandfather’s farm every summer. Granddad lived way out in the country. Stars filled the sky there, and fireflies the fields. John would catch the insects gently in his hands before letting them go again, careful not to crush their fragile bodies. Dad sat on the grassy hillside with him, teaching him to recognize the constellations: the Seven Sisters, the Big Dipper, the bright path of the Milky Way itself.

  Goddess. He hadn’t thought about the farm in years. He’d been thirteen the last time he’d set foot there. The summer before his paranormal abilities manifested. The last summer Dad loved him.

  John closed his eyes against the burn of tears. He’d told himself over and over it didn’t matter if his parents voluntarily gave up custody to the state. It didn’t matter Granddad never wrote or called to make sure he was okay. Because he’d replaced them with a family who cared about him, who accepted him. Fuck, who wanted him because of his paranormal ability.

  SPECTR.

  But he’d just been a tool. Someone to be lied to and used. And he hadn’t even seen it until almost too late.

  Etheric energy brushed his back, and he opened his eyes in surprise. He’d half-expected Caleb to come after him, but not Gray.

  The sparks of lightning in Gray’s black eyes sporadically illuminated his face in the darkness. Unlike a human, who would have hesitated or spoken first, Gray simply walked up to John and embraced him. And there was something comforting in relaxing into Gray’s more-than-human strength.

  “I hate this,” he whispered, because Gray wouldn’t judge him. “I want...I want everything to be like it was. For SPECTR to be what I thought it was, for Sean to be my friend.”

  A soft sigh escaped Gray. “Forgive us.”

  “For what?”

  “If things had occurred differently, if Caleb never fell and I was never forced to change hosts at the wrong moment, this would have passed you by.”

  “No!” John pulled back, just far enough to look at them. “Ignorance isn’t bliss, okay? This would still have been going on, and maybe no one would have known to stop it. Or maybe Tiffany would be fighting this by herself. Or dead already. It’s not an acceptable trade.”

  “Sean—”

  “It hurts. It does. But he made his choice. Not you.”

  “He acted out of love for you.”

  John tightened his hold and buried his face against Gray’s shoulder. “I wish he and I never met. I wish he’d been a homophobe and thrown me out of his room at school. Anything except this.”

  Gray said nothing for a long time, only held John with preternatural stillness. John clung to him, breathing in deep the scent of desert sand kissed by rain, of ancient incense and ozone.

  “Caleb says what I feel is natural,” Gray said eventually. His voice was a deep rumble against John’s ear. “To hurt because another is in pain.”

  Despite everything, John smiled a little against the leather coat. Because it still seemed incredible, to have not just one but two amazing guys. Even if they were in the same body. “Mortal nonsense.”

  “Th
ere are many things I do not understand,” Gray admitted. “The memories I gleaned are not the same as experience. But I would never hurt you.”

  “I know.” John tilted his head up. “Like I said before. I trust you. Sean thinks you’re part of the pain that dragged me down. He doesn’t get you’re the joy lifting me up.”

  Gray kissed him with surprising tenderness. Not the possessive, hungry kisses of before, but something soft and startlingly sweet. Once their lips parted again, Gray nuzzled his hair. “This moment, to be allowed this, is a miracle to me. But it came at great cost, to you and Caleb, and I never wished for that.”

  And shit, John had never even thought about what this might be like for Gray. If he’d wanted this existence, or if he’d sacrificed just as much as Caleb. “Are you okay with this? It’s too late either way, but...is this what you wanted?”

  “Above everything except for Caleb’s pain. I wanted to truly live, but not at the cost of his life.” Gray paused. “Caleb says I am being foolish. He made his choice and does not regret it.”

  “You should listen to him. Caleb’s a smart guy.”

  “Yes.” Affection there. What did Caleb say about Gray loving him in some strange way beyond anything human?

  And, insane as it seemed, John was certain Gray loved him, too. Gray hadn’t said the words, but he’d certainly shown it in every action. Maybe John had lost his home and what he thought of as his family, but he had this. Two people who cared about him enough to alter their entire existences for him.

  “You’re the miracle to me, darling,” he said past the constriction in his throat. “You and Caleb. And if you guys think we should let Sean help us...I don’t like it, but I’ll accept your judgment.”

  Gray made a soft huffing sound. “I do not like the other mortal. He has hurt Caleb, and he has hurt you, and I would prefer he cease to exist. But killing him would do you greater harm, and Caleb and Tiffany believe he can be of help.”

  “Caleb trusts him?” And maybe it was a little underhanded to ask Gray, whose first instinct seemed to be honesty. But he needed to know.

  “Of course not.” Gray’s rumble threatened to turn into a growl. “But Caleb thinks he acted as he did out of concern for you, not because he believes in Forsyth’s cause. Just as I once accepted you wished me dead, not out of malice, but because of what you thought your duty.”

  Goddess, out of all the things Gray might have said, this cut the deepest. “I’m so sorry, I never—”

  “Yes; we have already discussed this, have we not?” Gray sounded genuinely puzzled. Apparently once something was settled with Gray, it stayed settled, without a grudge.

  John nodded. “Yeah. Okay.” And if Gray could believe—with good reason—John meant to kill him, but still want him, still care about him, maybe John could listen to his gut and accept Sean wouldn’t turn on them the first chance he got.

  “All right.” He pulled gently away, sliding one hand down until he wrapped his fingers around Gray’s. “Let’s go back inside and talk to Tiffany. See if we can find some way to let Sean be useful.”

  Chapter 10

  A couple of hours later, they camped inside yet another seedy motel room, pizza boxes and a six pack of beer strewn across one of the twin beds. Caleb sat on the other bed beside John, while Tiffany perched in the lone chair. Sean sat on the very edge of the first bed, picking at the toppings on a slice of pizza. Neither he nor John ate much, and didn’t exchange a word or even a glance.

  Caleb couldn’t blame John. He finished off the last bite of his veggie deluxe, wiped the grease off his fingers, and put his hand lightly on John’s knee. After a moment, John covered Caleb’s hand with his own, fingers curling together securely.

  On the ride over, Tiffany had filled Sean in on what they knew. Which was depressingly little, considering all the effort they’d gone through. Now Sean popped open a beer and took a long swig, before saying, “We need to figure out where the NHEs are being shipped. It would also be nice to know when Forsyth is going to start forcing them into people, instead of relying on soldiers willing to take the risk.”

  Caleb remembered the poor bastard possessed by a werebear, whom Forsyth had made Gray fight as part of their tests at RD. The grunt had obviously thought himself a bad ass, confident in whatever lies SPECTR had spun to make him sign up for demon-hosting duty.

  Had he healed from the breaks and dislocations Gray dealt out? Was he in some underground cell right now, a control collar around his neck? Or was he one of the soldiers hunting down the Vigilant, every day that passed stealing a little more of his humanity until only the monster remained?

  “Anything else, Captain Obvious?” Tiffany asked Sean.

  He shot her a glare. “Damn it, Tiff, I’m thinking out loud, okay? And maybe somebody does need to state the obvious. Like what is Forsyth really up to?”

  “We saw it at RD, didn’t we?” Caleb said. God, this was weird, talking to the guy who’d shot him in the head, as if nothing had ever happened. “He’s building an army, trying to figure out ways to control demons and make them fight for him.”

  “Right. But now he’s graduated to kidnapping people and moving enough bottled NHEs around for someone to take notice.” Sean set the beer aside, picked up another slice of pizza and just stared at it, like the answers might be spelled out in pepperoni and onions. “But once he’s got a bunch of new demons, then what? Is he planning on just sticking them in underground bunkers like out at RD? It doesn’t seem very efficient—you have to feed them, have to put guards on them, have to run power and security systems and God knows what else. Not to mention the risk of escape.”

  Caleb’s stomach constricted around the pizza, and he wished he hadn’t stuffed a whole pie in his face. “He must need them for something. Fuck.”

  Tiffany leaned forward and clasped her hands in front of her, staring at them with a frown. “If Sean’s right, this is worse than we thought. You don’t make an army unless you plan on using it to attack something. But what?”

  “Which is the million dollar question, isn’t it?” Sean dropped the pizza slice back in the box without having taken a bite. “One other thing—I don’t know if it means anything or not, but Forsyth’s been working out of the Charleston office this week instead of going back to RD. He took over Kaniyar’s office.”

  John stirred but didn’t look at Sean. “And what have you told people about why she’s gone? Why we’re gone?”

  At least Sean didn’t ask where she was. Not that they had any idea...so far as Caleb knew. Tiffany might. She had to be talking to somebody on those late-night calls, after all. But she played it close, and John hadn’t asked any questions, at least in Caleb’s hearing.

  Maybe he thought she wouldn’t answer. Maybe she wouldn’t. What they didn’t know couldn’t be tortured out of them, if things went sideways and they ended up in Forsyth’s hands.

  “I haven’t told them anything.” Sean inspected the label on his beer can. “The official story is you’re all on special assignment. Of course, Forsyth’s team came in and made off with everyone’s computers, so I’m pretty sure no one actually believes it. People have bugged me nonstop. Figure I’d know the truth because we’re...we used to be friends. And because of the bruises.” He gestured at his face. “Forsyth told me to take a few days off, but I couldn’t stand the thought of just sitting in the apartment.”

  Caleb chewed on his lip. “If Forsyth is hanging out here, does it mean whatever he’s planning will go down in Charleston?”

  “That’s crazy.” John shook his head. “How does he expect to hide an operation in the middle of a city?”

  “I can try sneaking into his office,” Sean offered. “I don’t know, bang around on his computer some, see if I can find anything? Or...I think one of the storage facilities is in Atlanta, where the euthanization furnaces were supposedly located. I could go down there, pretend I’m following up on some kind of discrepancies in the shipping records. It would at least tell us where t
he NHEs are going.”

  Tiffany tapped one finger thoughtfully against her lower lip. “All right. Here’s the plan. There are four of us and two potential leads. I can get some damn good fake IDs, but it will take a few days. I can also get a decryption program for Forsyth’s computer. Sean, you’re taking Forsyth up on his offer of a couple days off. I’m not giving you the opportunity to roll over on us, intentionally or not. Once we have what we need, two of us will head down to Atlanta and investigate the storage facility. The other two will stay here and get into HQ.”

  “Are you insane?” John let go of Caleb’s hand and stood up. “We can’t go to HQ! We’ll be recognized.”

  Tiffany glared at him. “No shit, dumb ass. Which is why you and I are going to Atlanta. Sean isn’t in any trouble yet. He can stroll right into HQ without anyone wondering a thing. The empath guard at the gate won’t be able to get a hit off Caleb. And Caleb can kill Sean without much effort if he betrays us. It makes sense to send him to HQ.”

  “No.” John took a step forward.

  “Um, I’m pretty sure people are going to recognize me,” Caleb said. “I mean, I kind of stand out a little amidst all the suits.”

  He didn’t like the grin Tiffany gave him. “Exactly. Everyone sees the hair and the leather, and doesn’t even register your face. A suit and a crew cut, and your own mother wouldn’t recognize you.”

  John looked faintly stricken. Caleb felt the same. “Do you have any idea how long it took me to grow my hair out like this?” And okay, it was kind of petty compared to everything else at stake, but damn it, he hadn’t visited a barber since he was ten.

  Gray stirred. “I can regrow it.”

  But...oh fine.

  “All right,” Caleb said. “Gray says he can grow my hair back out. But I’ll need a few years of therapy to get over the trauma of wearing a fucking tie.”

  * * *

  Three days later, John sat in the passenger seat while Tiffany negotiated through Atlanta’s infamous rush hour traffic.