Chapter 46

“The Czech Authorities are on board.” Karim walked into the room, his now silent phone still in his hand. “It took some convincing but I think the evidence Lucien gathered helped sway them to provide us with a team to raid the auction.”

Kade looked up from packing a backpack. It had been little over eighteen hours since Lucien had dropped his bombshell and since then everyone had been working flat out to prepare to put an end to Dante’s plan. Admittedly, they still didn’t have an exact location for the auction nor where Dante had the girls kept but the end was in sight and that was all the glimmer of hope Kade needed to keep himself and his wolf sane. But, while Lucien had assured them that they would have everything they needed when they landed in Prague, it hadn’t left Kade comforted. There were simply too many unknowns and Kade still wasn’t totally sure if he should be trusting the fallen-angel.

No one had slept either but Kade and Mully were used to it. Karim however was flagging. His smart, polished look was starting to come apart. His tie was loosened and at an angle and the jacket had long since disappeared.

"We still have a few hours until the flight," Kade finally spoke up, voice muted but authoritative enough. "Get some sleep while you can. You deserve it."

Karim grunted and ran a hand through the shock of thick black hair on his head. "Easier said than done. Every time I think I can close my eyes I get another phone call."

"So? Let them go to voicemail." Mully cut in.

"It's not that simple, Mulls." Karim sighed tiredly just as his phone began to ring again and he stalked out of the room to answer it.

Kade let out his own heavy sigh as he dumped his now pack bag on the table and leaned back in his seat. In just a few hours they would be heading to Prague. Daniel and three other warriors from the pack would be meeting them at the airport and Lucien basically had an army of his own security detail coming with them. Between all of them plus authorities on the other side, they had a substantial amount of manpower but Kade wasn't sure if it would be enough to take on Dante and his followers.

Then of course there was the matter of taking on Dante himself.

The plan was a two pronged attack with Karim leading the raid on the human-run auction. Mully, Daniel and the other wolves would handle any rogues or other supernatural creatures that might be lurking around but it would be up to Lucien and Kade to go head-to-head with the demon. Lucien was confident that he would be able to stop Dante with the incantations. Kade just needed to keep Dante distracted long enough to prevent him from disrupting the spell.

Movement in the corner of his eye had Kade looking up to see Lucien hovering in the doorway. The fallen-angel didn't have to say anything or signal in any way for Kade to know that Lucien wanted to tell him something so he left the rest of the men to finish prepping while he followed Lucien out into the dusk.

It had been another sun-filled day and the air was still warm despite the inky darkness bleeding into the sky. Kade was certain that if he had been here for much better reasons he might have found the lazy silence of the countryside to be soothing on his battered soul but instead, it just felt like the calm before the storm. It has his senses on high alert.

"My sources have come through with the address of the auction." Lucien spoke calmly, black eyes never moving away from the endless twilight. "We will need to use our time wisely the moment we land in Prague."

"And what about Thalia?" Kade asked.

Lucien didn't respond immediately and Kade couldn't help but take that as a sign that something was wrong.

"Lucien?"

"I've not had any solid intel on her." The man confessed smoothly, seeming unruffled by the statement despite how Kade bristled beside him. "But I am confident she will be there somewhere. Dante wouldn’t let such a valuable part of his plan out of his sight. Not after what happened the last time."

Kade nodded but didn't say anything further on the matter. He wasn't comforted by Lucien's assurances but there really was no other way to find Thalia. Dante was their only clue so it made sense to follow the breadcrumbs.

"One thing I can't figure out is how you and Dante are brothers but he's a demon and you're not." Kade changed the topic.

"Hm," Lucien mused. "If I answer that then you must answer one of my questions."

"Alright." Kade shrugged.

"We have the same father." Lucien began his explanation as he moved to sit in one of the wicker garden chairs. "After the unseen war, as part of shaping the new balance, our father married my mother. Our father is a demon and my mother is an angel. It was a political union and one both agreed to. Unfortunately our father had a wandering eye and ended up making a lower ranking demon his mistress. She got pregnant and dumped baby Dante on our father, never to be seen again. My parents raised Dante but there was always a darkness in him. Eventually Dante disappeared as well until the beginning of the 18th century with no explanation for where he had been but a new found hate for the world. It was then that I knew my brother was lost to the darkness and that one day I or others in my family would be forced to put a stop to him."

“So you’ve known for a while that you are basically going to be responsible for Dante’s death?” Kade raised an eyebrow.

“In a way.” Lucien sighed. “I assure you that I take no pleasure in betraying my own blood but for the sake of existence itself, Dante cannot be allowed to succeed. The veil between our world and that of the humans must remain intact and the balance between good and evil must never be tipped one way or another. Gods know I have tried to convince my brother to abandon this dark path he insists on navigating but he remains steadfast.”

“Okay but that doesn’t explain why your other siblings are not helping you.”

Lucien chuckled but it lacked mirth and there was a bitterness that seemed to have darkened his already impossibly dark eyes. “My siblings believe that what will be will be and that we shouldn’t interfere with fate’s plans. They neither support me nor Dante. They feel it is honourable to take a passive approach but it feels more like cowardice at the best of times.”

“I bet Christmas around yours is a real laugh.” Kade muttered.

“We don’t celebrate Christmas but I get your meaning.” Lucien shrugged. “My turn.”

“Alright.”

“Legion’s eyes…what happened for you to end up with the eyes saved only for the killer of innocents?”

Kade didn’t reply right away. A sinking feeling settled in him as every nerve and fibre of his body tensed. It was a memory he tried desperately to avoid however there really was no escaping it. Seeing Mully and Karim only served to fuel it as well.

“I accidentally shot and killed a child in Afghanistan.” Kade finally forced the words from his mouth, avoiding looking at Lucien. “It was actually the same day that I met Karim and his sister was taken. I was tracking the men who had taken the girls when I saw a figure run between these sheets hanging in out to dry. I thought it was one of the insurgents so I shot him. Only it wasn’t an insurgent, it was a boy. I think he was maybe ten. I’d seen him playing football with the other kids before so I knew he was from the area but I have no idea why he wasn’t hiding with the rest of the civilians. Anyway, I tried to save him but my gun-fire alerted the insurgents to my location and they began shooting at us. When I came to they told me the boy had died and that the girls were gone.”

Silence fell once more between the men although Kade knew better than to assume anything he had said had surprised or disturbed a creature as old as time. However, there was something oddly soothing about forming the memory into words. He hadn’t really ever spoken of the day his whole world changed to anyone. Sure people knew; Daniel and Mully for example but Kade hadn’t gone out of his way to confess his sin to anyone. Perhaps it was because humans associated angels with their religion that he felt the need to confess or maybe it was because for once, he didn’t fear being judged.

“Do you think you’re being punished?” Lucien asked.

Kade looked at the man then, frowning softly in confusion and surprise at the rather odd question.

“Isn’t that what this is?” Kade answered with his own question. “The moon goddess punishes us for our crime by making it so everyone will know what we did the moment they see our wolf.”

“But is that really a punishment?” Lucien tilted his head slightly. “Why only when innocents die? And who determines who is innocent? Depending on who you speak to, all life is considered sacred. I gather you had killed others before this incident?”

Kade nodded reluctantly.

“And it was only when you accidentally killed this child that your eyes changed.” Lucien continued. “So perhaps it isn’t so much a punishment from the moon goddess but rather, a sign of grief and guilt. Perhaps it has nothing to do with the goddess at all but rather the honour that you as a man and as a beast have for a terrible mistake.”

“You’re saying I guilted myself into this curse?”

“No,” And for the first time since Kade had ever met Lucien, the fallen-angel’s features softened in compassion. “I’m saying that perhaps there isn't a curse at all and that the only person punishing you for what happened that day, is you.”

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