Mephisto left.
And he left laughing.
Hawk could clearly feel the schadenfreude in Mephisto's eyes as the demon lord turned, shut the gate of Hell behind him, and disappeared, still chuckling.
Bottom line:
Heaven might be here to claw jurisdiction back from Mephisto.
But—
Heaven is Mephisto's enemy. Hawk is Mephisto's enemy. Two enemies squaring off? That was good news to him.
If Mephisto had his way, Hawk and Heaven would go at it.
Ideally, both sides would bleed.
Hawk said nothing. Once the Hell-gate closed, he stepped back out of the rift.
In the next instant,
Katherine's dazed gaze cleared. She looked at Hawk, who was lowering his right hand, and reflexively took a step back.
She didn't know what had just happened.
But she knew she'd gone blank for a second or two.
She hated that feeling.
Hawk, withdrawing his hand, glanced at her and smiled. "Thanks."
He still didn't quite see what Heaven picking a fight with Mephisto over Earth's admin had to do with him personally.
But that was between him and Heaven.
It wasn't Katherine's problem.
She wasn't one of Mephisto's "birds," either. Her soul might trace back to Heaven, but in essence it was no different from other souls Hell claimed—only the point of origin differed.
So—
"Let's go."
He turned toward the mouth of the tomb to keep his word—exactly as he'd bargained—by getting Katherine out.
As for Dr. Merrick—the likely Heaven-interference case—Hawk would find Heaven and ask for an explanation.
With that thought, he said a brief word to Katherine and headed for the seal.
Katherine blinked, then hurried after him.
Hawk stopped before the seal, one brow lifting—then vanished.
Katherine's stomach sank when he winked out.
Before she could even wonder whether she'd been played, heat swept up at her back. Two hands settled on her cold shoulders.
A heartbeat later—
Boom!
With his palms on her shoulders, Hawk pulled—and in the blink of an eye, Katherine was out of the sealed space.
She stiffened from head to toe. The instant his hands released her, her body, on reflex, relaxed again.
Hawk slid his hands back into his pockets. "You can go."
"…"
In truth, the moment his hands left her shoulders, Katherine had already flickered away like a blur, vanishing into the gorge.
But—
She reappeared in front of Hawk almost immediately.
He'd been mulling Heaven; now he frowned at her return—and at how the wariness and masked fear in her eyes had lessened. "What—grown attached to the décor? Don't want to leave?"
"No."
She shook her head, studied him with open curiosity, voice neither coy nor cold. "Can I have your name?"
Hawk smiled. "Hawk."
"I'm Katherine."
"I know."
"I know your name, Ms. Pierce."
Katherine laughed softly at the formal address. "I'm going. Thank you, Hawk."
"Safe travels."
Short, simple.
She turned—and vanished.
But—
A second later,
she popped back in again, and Hawk couldn't help a small laugh. "Really planning to move in?"
Katherine shook her head, drew breath to speak—
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Three figures, ghost-fast, dropped in nearby.
Stefan.
Damon.
And Caroline.
"Well, well."
Hawk arched a brow at Caroline and smiled. "Out late for someone who said she was going home to sleep, Cousin?"
After dinner at the manor, while Aunt Liz stayed to chat with Gwen, Caroline had claimed she was tired and turning in.
Caught, Caroline felt the flush of being found out. "Hawk."
Damon snorted. "Knew it. You're here for Katherine."
Hawk turned his eyes on him, voice level. "You're alive because I allowed it. Try gratitude."
Did Damon need to live?
No. In Hawk's world, no one did—except Gwen.
Damon lived because Hawk chose not to kill him. To Hawk, that was a flick of the wrist.
To Damon, it was a gift. If he didn't appreciate it, Hawk wouldn't mind taking it back.
His voice was soft.
But it carried.
Damon bristled, about to speak—but Stefan cut in with wary politeness. "Mr. Phoenix, are you here for Katherine?"
Hawk spared the civil brother a glance, then looked to Katherine. "Aren't you leaving?"
Katherine stared at the brothers—then at Caroline, whom she herself had killed before the girl turned. "They took my daylight ring. I'm weak. If they lock onto me, I won't make it out."
Hawk's gaze dropped to her hands.
A moment later,
he willed a band into being and drew it from his pocket—a "daylight ring" that would screen ultraviolet for seventy-two hours—and held it out. "This lasts seventy-two hours. Enough time to find a real one."
He'd coaxed it from the Reality Stone—simple work now that he'd absorbed Tiamut's life force.
Katherine had her share of witches.
Often, witches and vampires ran like wolf and jackal, each useful to the other—especially black witches and vampires. Enchantments for the sun in exchange for protection.
Katherine's eyes lit as she took the ring. "It'll do."
She'd roamed five centuries; real friends were rare, but safe houses and stashes of blood were plentiful. Within five hundred kilometers, she had at least one bolt-hole.
"Seventy-two hours," Hawk repeated. "After that, it vanishes. Go."
She slipped it on, glanced at the three unfriendly faces opposite—two exes and one girl she'd once killed—and hesitated. "And… them?"
"You showed me your soul. I promised a way out. Go. They won't chase you. But remember—my promise applies once."
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it."
Hands back in his pockets, Hawk turned to Stefan, Damon, and Caroline.
"Go on."
"Right."
Katherine didn't dither. She nodded and became a streak, darting away.
Damon moved first, springing to cut off the ex he'd once loved—and now hated.
The deeper the love, the deeper the hate.
Hawk's eyes narrowed.
"Optic Shock."
Boom!
Damon, mid-blur, took the hit full-on and cratered into the cliff wall.
Rock fissured and rumbled.
"Damon!"
Stefan shouted, then vanished—
Hawk didn't move. He didn't even spin up his Cosmos.
"Optic Shock."
Thud!
Stefan popped clean out of his blur, body jackknifing as the blast sent him skidding backward.
Crash, crash, crash—
Trees in the distance snapped under his flight.
Caroline…
Didn't dare move.
She'd tensed to try—and then Hawk's gaze locked on her.
Her body froze.
In the space that bought them,
Katherine cleared the gorge and was already headed for one of her safe houses.
Caroline swallowed, met the warning in Hawk's eyes, and worked her mouth. "So you're Katherine's ex, too. Does my cousin know?"
Hawk's smile curved. "What's this—can't hit me, so you'll get my fiancée to scold me? Going to tattle to your cousin, dear Caroline?"
"No."
Caroline shrugged. "You love my cousin. She loves you. I'm only asking whether she knows—since she's my cousin, and if not… it's on me to tell her."
Hawk's look turned wry, amused. "Funny—you're not the first to put it that way."
"What?"
"She told me the same—'Caroline is my cousin. I'm responsible for her.'"
"…"
Caroline blinked at him.
Hawk went on, smiling. "She asked if there was a way to turn you back. Said you're only nineteen, with all your years ahead of you."
Which was why he'd warned Caroline off—Gwen cared. Otherwise, he wouldn't bother.
Caroline's pupils tightened. "My cousin knows I'm—"
"Ask her yourself."
"What?"
He had a phone in hand before the question finished.
He put it to his ear, smiling. "Gwen, your cousin's about to tell on me—says I didn't come to be with you, but to rescue some ex named Katherine."
Gwen, who'd been standing on the back lawn waiting for him—as she always did when he didn't say otherwise—laughed softly. "Put her on."
"Mm."
Hawk tossed the phone to Caroline. "Your cousin wants a word. Oh—and you can ask whether she believes I'm Katherine Pierce's ex."
"…"
Caroline caught the phone, saw the call timer already past the half-hour mark, drew a breath, and put it to her ear.
"…Cousin?"
"Caroline."
Gwen's voice was warm, even. "I thought you'd be asleep. Good—you're up. Come keep me company awhile. Remember how, every time I came home to Mystic Falls, we shared the bed on the first night?"
Caroline was quiet a moment. "Okay."
Then she held the phone out to Hawk. "She wants you."
Hawk took it. "Gwen."
"Did you finish?"
"Two vamps left. I was considering—"
"Bring my cousin back. She's afraid of the dark."
"…Okay."
He smiled, hung up, and turned to Caroline. "Let's go. Your cousin says you're scared of the dark."
Caroline hesitated, glancing at Damon sprawled in rubble and Stefan out cold among the trees.
Before she could speak, Hawk was already in front of her, his palm warm on her shoulder as the Cosmos surged.
Sixth Sense—Teleport.
Whoosh!
They vanished.
A moment later,
two more figures rushed into the gorge—a girl in black, not as fast as a vampire, and another boosted by a speed spell.
Bonnie Bennett and Elena Gilbert.
Elena spotted Stefan crumpled on the grass and gasped, dashing to him.
As for Damon?
Bonnie spared him a look, then traded a glance with her best friend—and headed for Stefan as well.
Poor Damon.
But the pitiful often had it coming.
In short:
Hawk hadn't spared him out of softness.
He simply believed that once Gwen learned what her cousin had endured, the first order she'd give him would be to take Damon's head.
Sooner or later.
Because—
What Damon had done was vile.
So Hawk left Damon breathing—for now. Let his fiancée vent later.
He took Caroline back to the manor and reported in.
Caroline was still processing when Hawk walked up to Gwen.
"I'm going to shower."
"Okay."
She smiled. "I put your kit out—in the blue pouch. Use the half-bottle shampoo first."
"Got it."
He slid through the patio doors and disappeared inside.
Only then did Gwen turn back to her cousin.
Caroline had finally snapped out of it. She stared at the house, then at Gwen, replaying the blink from gorge to lawn in her head.
"Cousin, he—"
"Not Hawk. You. How did you become a vampire?"
Gwen's brows drew together as she cut her off.
Caroline's mouth twisted in a rueful smile. "Cousin, I don't—"
"If you don't tell me, I'll ask Hawk. And believe me, if I ask, he can pull your memories from childhood and watch them like a reel. Do you know what he thinks of vampires?"
"I don't."
"His words: not worth his eyes. Originals included."
"I didn't say 'not worth my eyes,' I said I wouldn't bother to look at them," Hawk called down from upstairs.
Gwen tilted her head up. "Hush. Shower."
"Oh."
Silence again.
Gwen's lips quirked; she knew he was boosting her—then smoothed her face and looked back at Caroline. "So. You can tell me yourself, or I can have Hawk sweep the town, bag every vampire, and we'll hear their versions."
Caroline stared, stupefied, at a cousin who'd casually threaten to round up every vampire in Mystic Falls.
Gwen smiled. "Haw—"
"Don't!"
Caroline snapped back to life, blurting before her cousin sicced the demon on the town. "I'll tell you."
Gwen stopped cleanly, smiling. "From the beginning. And include the vampires in town."
She arched a brow as another thought struck. "And while you're at it, tell me about Katherine Pierce."
Caroline looked at her cousin, then thought of how Hawk had floored Stefan and Damon with a flick—and sighed, eyes flickering.
"It started a few months ago…"
…
(End of Chapter)
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