Page 12 of Laundering Down the Legions
I wanted to push harder, to lean on whatever walls he kept throwing up between us, all that responsibility he'd decided was his alone to hold. But something told me we were right on the edge of a shift.
"Can you make more openings for Ryker?" I kept it quiet. "So he sees he's not alone. We're here. I'm here. I need him to believe he's part of us."
"Same way you're part of us." It came easy out of him, like a thing we both already knew. "It's going to take a while. He needs time. And I'm ready to be here for it."
I nodded, the resolve setting up harder than before. Maybe what all of us needed wasn't to charge ahead or fix anything. Maybe it was just to breathe. To be present enough to pull each other closer without demanding anything for it.
CHAPTER 7
The common room felt too small, the walls creeping in while I sat across from the Supernatural Team 5 operative slumped in an armchair. She had the look of someone who'd finally broken. I leaned against the doorframe and shoved my own chaos down, because today wasn't about me. It was about her.
She shifted, arms wrapped tight around her knees like that could keep the world, or her own past, away from her. This place and organization used to feel like a sanctuary for her. Now it was a cell for both of us, full of memories neither of us could outrun.
"I want out."
The air sat thick with all the fear and all the stuff going unsaid. I kept my voice controlled. "You want out, huh?"
She flinched, gaze dropping to the floor like the concrete had something to offer her. "I want a clean break." Her voice came out fragile. "No record, no trace, no forwarding address. I'm done." The resolve in it pulled tight in my chest. I wanted to promise her she could get out, but it wasn't that easy. Some of the teams were so deep in the division, like ST5, that they had no established lives outside of these walls. Besides, I didn't know the first thing about facilitating something like this.
I watched the shake running through her. "I get it. Hard to believe in freedom when your will and autonomy is stolen like that. But I can't?—"
A jolt shot through me, my connection to Jericho flaring to life and crashing through me in waves. Not my old demon fire, which was still gone with the rest of the power that had drained out of me. This was something else with chaotic energy that tilted the floor under my feet.
My pulse jumped. The room brightened and went dark at the same time, shadows draining and deepening all at once. The operative's head came up, eyes going wide with recognition, or maybe fear. I made myself breathe, made myself ground the spark whipping around me, some uneasy clarity cutting through the weight of it all. "I?—"
The oath buzzed, beating like a second pulse. This thing wasn't only mine to use. It felt different, looser, like a door left cracked with chaos leaking through the gap. Her breathing picked up, the desperation coming off her as she leaned in. "Parker?" The uncertainty pooled in her face while she tried to read whatever was happening to me.
"I'm here." I forced it out, holding my breath against the storm kicking up inside me.
Then Jericho's voice slid through my head, calm and dark, cutting clean through the panic. This is not merely your demon connection, Parker. You've invoked an ancient link. A blood oath is unrevokable and cannot be interfered with.
Cold fear grabbed me by the spine. I was frowning at the shadows skittering around the edges of the room before I knew I was doing it.
"No!" She shot upright, eyes snapping to me. "Not a demon. You can't let him in! You don't know what he'll do!" The panic caught in her voice.
But I wasn't consciously controlling it. There was just a thread shimmering up out of the chaos, and it carried intention with it. Raw, terrifying intention that promised either answers or wreckage.
I stalled, trying to keep my feet planted. How was he getting through the division anti-demon barriers? "Trust me. Please." I meant every word of it. "I'm not going to let him hurt you."
Jericho's energy thrummed through the air, cranking the tension higher. I needed to think straight and be strong. The oath was a two-way connection… a tool I could use.
She leaned back, terror threatening to override all of her sense. "You can't trust demons. Ever. They're all evil."
"Not all of us." I somehow managed to control my tone as I refuted her claim.
"I..." She caught on to her faux pas, hesitating, whatever she was about today changed. "I just... I didn't think I'd ever be in this situation."
The shadows thickened around us. I held my breath and waited for Jericho's theatrics to finish.
The air pulled like a riptide the second Jericho appeared, swirls of purple smoke sliding around his body.
Jericho stood there, charismatic and way too calm. "Parker." His voice came smooth and warm, with something under it that told me this wasn't a social call. Then he dropped to his knees and bowed his head, his hand making a gesture that indicated his loyalty was to me.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I stepped forward before I'd thought about it. He shouldn't have been able to get into the compound, not like this. The wards were supposed to hold. Had they failed?
He shrugged, the easy tone scraping against all the tension rolling off the team. "Seemed like a good time." His gaze swept over us, taking us apart one by one. I felt stripped down under it.
"I'm not joking." My voice pulled tight. "You don't just waltz in here. This place is demon-proof." My pulse hammered while the team shifted around, trading looks that said exactly what I was thinking. What did this mean?
