Incipient A Dark Paranormal Romance - Bianca Scardoni Page 0,2
a pregnant girl. “Besides, you don’t even know if the baby’s going to be evil.”
War snorted, though it came out more like a growl. “It’s of Lucifer’s blood.”
I immediately bristled. “So am I.”
War’s eyes flickered over me. “It has been prophesized.”
“Prophesies change all the time. You can’t know until you actually know.” Wait. Did that even make sense?
“Hardly,” replied War, doing that mind reading thing again that pissed me right the hell off.
I glared at him. “Look, we’re not doing anything rash until I get a chance to speak to…the girl—the mother. Maybe we can convince her to hand over the baby to the Council. They can run tests and see if the—”
War all but laughed in my face. “She will never hand over her flesh and blood. She is already bonded with it. She will protect it with her life.”
Famine winced as Trace applied antiseptic to the wound.
I shook my head at War. “You don’t know that.”
“No. It is you who doesn’t know, or simply doesn’t want to know. I have already seen what is to be.”
If this was true, why the hell hadn’t the Sang Noir mentioned any of it? What good was Angelic scripture if it left out all of the important parts? Then again, we hadn’t exactly finished translating it…
War perked up suddenly. “Do you mean to say you have the book in your possession?”
“Seriously? Stop doing that.”
“Not possible,” he answered unapologetically. “Do you?”
I wrinkled my nose at him. “Do I what?”
“Have the book,” he growled. “Is it in your possession?”
“No, it is not,” I answered stiffly and then crossed my arms, leaving out the part about how I wouldn’t share it with him even if I did. Grumpy arsehole.
“I will require access to that book at once.”
I blinked at him. “Yeah. Good luck with that. The Council has it under lock and key.
“Then they must accommodate me.” He gazed at me distastefully. “Or are they also so eager to serve Lucifer?”
“Eager to serve Lucif—?” I glared at him like the maniac he was. “Just because I don’t want to murder a mother and her unborn child based on your word alone doesn’t automatically mean I’m batting for Lucifer. Everything is not white or black here. There are shades of gray in between.”
“Not where I come from. Where I come from, there is good and there is evil—the righteous and the wicked.”
My eyes rolled all the way back into my head. I clearly wasn’t going to get anywhere with the all-knowing, stubborn rider, and honestly, he was starting to give me a migraine. I knew he wasn’t going to budge an inch on this, but neither was I. I refused to even entertain a mother-and-unborn-child murdering plot let alone be complicit in it. Not until I was absolutely sure there was no other way around it. And even then…
Needing this entire conversation to go away, I met his gaze and sighed. “Look, you can’t do anything until your third rider arrives anyway, right?”
“Correct.”
“So, how about you just sit tight and relax here for a bit. Maybe watch some television and acquaint yourself with modern living and all the joys of it.”
He looked at me as though I had just sprouted an eyeball on my forehead.
Good enough, I thought as I turned to Trace. “Can you stay here with them until I get back?”
“Where are you going?” Trace and War’s voices overlapped each other.
“I’m going to talk to the Council.” It wasn’t a lie per se, because I did intend to meet with William, the Senior Magister, but not until I paid Nikki Parker a visit first. I needed to see her belly; hear it from her mouth first-hand.
“I should come with you,” replied Trace, that all-too-familiar worry skewing his beautiful face.
I shook my head. “I need you to stay with them—especially him,” I added, gesturing to the injured Famine. “I just need you to port me to my car.”
“Us,” corrected War. “I will be accompanying you.”
I started to shake my head, but he quickly interjected. “That wasn’t a request.” His jaw was set into a firm line and his eyes were stone-cold with determination.
I paused to think about it for a moment and then nodded. I knew I wasn’t going to change his mind, but I wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction of knowing that. “Whatever. Pretty sure the Council’s going to want to have a word with you anyway. Might as well save me the extra trip.”