Unbroken Vows Read online

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Epilogue

  Also by Christine Pope

  About the Author

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, places, organizations, or persons, whether living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  UNBROKEN VOWS

  Copyright © 2020 by Christine Pope

  Published by Dark Valentine Press

  Cover art by Christian Bentulan

  Ebook formatting by Indie Author Services

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems — except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews — without permission in writing from its publisher, Dark Valentine Press.

  Don’t miss out on any of Christine’s new releases — sign up for her newsletter today!

  Chapter 1

  As soon as she saw Caleb Lockwood standing on the porch, Rosemary’s first instinct was to slam the door shut. He’d obviously anticipated that maneuver, though, since he grabbed hold of the door and pushed it inward, forcing her to take a step backward. Even though her mind reeled at his completely unexpected appearance here at Will Gordon’s home in Pasadena, she wasn’t knocked so completely off-balance that she forgot to summon the angelic powers within her to come to her aid. The magic — or whatever you wanted to call it — surged around her, reaching out with bright flickering tendrils to dispel the intruder.

  Except he only laughed and raised a hand, and the bright glow that had surrounded Rosemary disappeared at once. She let out a sound of dismay and backed away, and he took the opportunity to step toward her again, then slam the door shut.

  Still smiling, he said, “You don’t look very happy to see me.”

  “I’m not,” she snapped, even as she did her best to resist the cold fear that threatened to overwhelm her. Her thoughts darted this way and that, but she told herself that she couldn’t lose it right now. She just couldn’t.

  And she didn’t even want to think about the hard drive that contained the Project Demon Hunters footage, hidden only a few yards away in the office closet. True, Will had locked up the hard drive in the little fireproof safe that also held the title to the house and other important paperwork, but Rosemary had no idea whether the combination lock that guarded the contents of the safe could stand up to an assault by Caleb Lockwood.

  After all, he’d apparently come back to life, so who the hell knew what other powers he might command?

  He pressed a hand against his heart. “I’m wounded, Rosemary. I thought you’d be happy to learn that reports of my demise were greatly exaggerated.”

  Even though her heart was pounding painfully beneath her breastbone, she somehow found the courage to say, “Not really. I was kind of hoping you’d stay dead.”

  “I suppose that would have been more convenient for you,” he responded, not looking offended at all. He glanced around. “All alone?”

  “You know I am, or I doubt you would be here right now,” she shot back.

  He pursed his lips, then shoved his hands in his pockets. “Oh, I don’t know. I think you’re giving Will Gordon more credit than he deserves. You must know that you’re the real threat here, Rosemary, not your preacher would-be boyfriend.”

  How in the world could she respond to that remark? Deep down, Rosemary knew Caleb was right. Will might have assisted his friend Michael Covenant with several cases of possession and demonic infestation, had probably been a calm and steadying presence at an exorcism or the blessing of a house, but he certainly didn’t possess any supernatural powers like she did.

  Possibly sensing her mixed emotions, Caleb went on, “Anyway, I didn’t come here to talk about Will Gordon.”

  “No, I assume you’re here for the hard drive,” she shot back, figuring she might as well address that subject directly.

  “Partly,” he admitted, although he looked remarkably unconcerned. “But I also wanted to talk to you, Rosemary. There are a few outstanding matters that require some…clarification.”

  She crossed her arms, somewhat relieved that he’d stopped moving forward and seemed content to remain a few feet away from her…for the moment, anyway. Eyes narrowed, she asked, “Clarification about what? How you came back from the dead?”

  That question earned her another chuckle. “Oh, I was never actually dead.”

  Rosemary blinked. “What? But the police — ”

  “The police saw what I wanted them to see,” Caleb broke in, still wearing a small smile, the sort of smirk that made her wish she was powerful enough to wipe it permanently off his face.

  “Well, I saw it, too,” she said. “The body, I mean. It was definitely you.”

  His mouth quirked. “You still don’t get it, do you? We can be whatever we want, whoever we want.” For just the briefest second, his features wavered, and she could have sworn that was Will standing there, although she knew the man she loved would never have smiled at her in such a smug, hateful way. But then it was Caleb once more, his face his own again as he said, “And we can use that power of illusion on others. You didn’t see my body, Rosemary — you saw the body of a dead drug addict. It was easier to maintain the illusion on him because he was around my height and build, but he was no one you knew.”

  “But the dental records — ” she protested, her mind stubbornly wanting to hold on to something real, to something solid, to facts and figures that couldn’t be altered by magic or illusion.

  “Yes, they eventually would have given my trick away,” he said. “Which was why the body was accidentally cremated before they could get a match. A paperwork mix-up of some sort. I guess that kind of thing happens from time to time.”

  Of course, it hadn’t been an accident, but rather meddling demons making sure their subterfuge wouldn’t be discovered. Rosemary didn’t bother to ask how they’d made it happen, partly because it probably didn’t matter very much at this point, and also because she was fairly certain Caleb wouldn’t tell her the truth anyway.

  “Clever,” she said, in tones that indicated she thought pretty much the opposite. He didn’t seem to take offense, however, but merely lifted an eyebrow. Before he could respond to her remark, she went on, “I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me why you bothered with such a charade.”

  “Oh, sure,” he responded easily. “But first, let’s sit down and discuss this like adults.”

  “I’m not sitting down with you,” she told him, arms crossed.

  “Suit yourself.” Caleb went over to the sofa and took a seat. A moment later, a pint glass filled with amber liquid appeared in one hand. “You sure you don’t want a beer?”

  While a drink to steady her nerves sounded kind of great right about then, Rosemary knew she’d never admit to such a weakness. “Positive.”

  He shrugged and took a large swallow from his pint glass. “Being dead served two purposes. First, it caused trouble for you — ”

  Somehow, she wasn’t the least bit surprised by that revelation. “So, you wanted me to get arrested for murder?”

  “Oh, I knew you’d get off eventually, just because there wasn’t anything excep
t the most minor circumstantial evidence tying you to the crime.” Caleb drank some more beer before continuing. “But it sent you off-balance, occupied your mental energy for a time. Also, it helped me to be dead because that way ‘Caleb Dixon’ was effectively removed from the board. No trouble with breaking my lease, or leaving my job — ”

  “Your job was real?” Rosemary cut in, surprised. Not that it really mattered anymore, but she’d just assumed he’d made up his P.A. job on a Netflix show as a ploy to give him time away from her to do, well, whatever demonic skullduggery he was up to at any given moment.

  “Yes, it was real.” He leaned back against the sofa cushions, the amused expression returning to his face. Looking at him, she found it hard to believe that she’d once found him attractive. He looked like…well, he looked like a total asshole. An asshole demon. Before she could respond, he went on, “Should I be offended that you think I couldn’t hold down a real job?”

  “You can be offended, or not,” she said. “I honestly don’t care.”

  Caleb crossed one leg over the other, ankle resting casually on one knee. He definitely had the appearance of someone who didn’t have a care in the world…which was probably why Rosemary could feel herself growing tenser with every passing moment. What was he playing at, anyway? If he was here to recover the hard drive, why the whole devil-may-care act, so to speak? He’d already proven that he could overpower her without any problem, so it wasn’t as though he had to be worried about her trying to stop him.

  “Oh, I think you do care,” he replied. “If only because you still can’t quite figure out why I needed a job.”

  “Well, your daddy is rich, isn’t he?”

  “Yes,” Caleb said without hesitation. “But you knew that already. You’ve been to the house and met him, after all.”

  She wasn’t quite sure why such a comment made a cold trickle of fear work its way down her spine. After all, it seemed obvious enough to her that of course father and son must have been communicating, or Caleb wouldn’t have even known that the hard drive had been taken from his parents’ home in Greencastle. “And your mother,” she said lightly. “She seems pretty wrapped up in your father’s money and position.”

  That remark wiped the remainder of the smug smile off Caleb’s face. His brows drew together as he growled, “Leave my mother out of it.”

  Ah, apparently she’d struck a nerve. Rosemary couldn’t be sure if that was because he didn’t like to be reminded that his parents’ marriage wasn’t exactly founded on love, or whether he would prefer to forget that he was actually more human than demon. The latter, probably; she doubted that Caleb possessed enough finer instincts to be offended by the mercenary basis for his mother’s supposed “affection” for Daniel Lockwood.

  “Sure,” she said easily. “So, what, you got the job to prove what a good, upstanding citizen you were?”

  “It provided good cover,” Caleb replied. “I needed to work in the entertainment industry to maintain the masquerade, and I also wanted the kind of job where I wouldn’t have to worry about anyone trying to visit me while I was working.”

  Unlike her own job at the bookstore she owned with her sisters, where Caleb had sought her out. It definitely would have been a lot easier to avoid him if she’d been stuck behind a desk somewhere in a big office building…or on a film production somewhere.

  “Fair enough,” she allowed. “And now we’ve gotten that out of the way, why are you here?”

  Another swallow of beer, and then he set his glass down on the coffee table — ostentatiously avoiding any of the provided coasters. “I should think that would be obvious.”

  The cold trail of dread down her spine seemed to spread out so it enveloped her entire body. Rosemary swallowed and then made herself lift her chin and reply, “You’re not getting it back.”

  “Getting what back?”

  She planted her hands on her hips and matched him stare for stare. “Don’t try to play innocent, Caleb — it doesn’t work when you’re part demon.”

  “No, I suppose not,” he said easily, then got to his feet. To her relief, however, he remained standing by the couch and didn’t attempt to make a move toward her. “Yes, of course we want the hard drive. But I also wanted to talk to you, to disabuse you of a few notions you might be harboring.”

  “Such as?” Rosemary responded, doing her best to sound unconcerned. Her gaze slid toward the clock on the mantel. Fifteen minutes until five, which meant Will should be home in less than half an hour…unless he got hung up at the church. However, she honestly didn’t know how much he could do to help her, although she thought he might be able to catch Caleb off guard by simply coming in through the front door. Normally, he would have entered the house via the back door off the kitchen, since the property had a detached garage, but they’d been tandem parking in the driveway.

  However, that was a long shot, and probably not anything she could count on. Instead, she found herself mentally flipping through the book of spells Will had given her and wondering if she recalled enough of any of them to use them against Caleb Lockwood. Probably not; most of what she’d seen had been defensive in nature, and besides, the wards she’d put in place didn’t seem to have done diddly squat when it came to keeping him far away from the property.

  So much for those supposed powers of hers.

  Caleb was silent for a moment, surveying her in a fashion that seemed almost pitying. That stare made her go cold all over, mostly because she guessed if a demon — or part-demon — was looking at you in such a way, you were probably about to get some spectacularly bad news.

  “You sure you don’t want to sit down?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said icily.

  A shrug. “All right. So, it seems you met your father in Indianapolis?”

  If her body had felt cold before, now it seemed as though liquid nitrogen was being pumped through her veins. How the hell had Caleb found out about her father? Those meetings had been, if not secret, then definitely held in places that were far away from the watchful eyes of the Greencastle, Indiana, demon horde.

  However, Rosemary realized there was no point in expending mental energy on the “how” of it all. What mattered was that Caleb seemed to know about John McGuire and the way he’d reached out to his daughter after allowing her to think he’d been dead for the past ten years.

  “What if I did meet him?” she asked, her voice guarded. There didn’t seem to be much point in denying the meeting had occurred, not when Caleb already knew about it, but on the other hand, there was also no reason to go volunteering information.

  For a moment, he didn’t reply, only stood there, still with that almost sympathetic expression in his dark eyes. Then he said, “He’s not who he says he is.”

  “Oh?” she responded, doing her best to indicate with her tone that she wasn’t about to believe a single word Caleb said. “Who is he, then?”

  “One of us,” Caleb said simply.

  Rosemary didn’t bother to ask him what he meant by that phrase. Instead, she let out an incredulous laugh and said, “A demon? Give me a break.”

  “It’s true.”

  Once again, she looked over at the clock. Five minutes until five. Please, Will, she thought. Please come home and stop this so I don’t have to listen to anything else Caleb Lockwood has to say.

  But there was no sign of Will, and so Caleb went on, “I know you don’t want to hear this. But how else do you explain these powers of yours suddenly manifesting out of nowhere?”

  Even though she knew she should have kept her mouth shut, shouldn’t have allowed Caleb to goad her into a response, the words tumbled out anyway. “There is an explanation. But it’s not because my father is a demon.”

  The smirk returned to Caleb’s mouth. “I suppose he told you he was an angel.”

  Her knees suddenly felt weak. How could he have known about her father’s true origins? Unless….

  No, she told herself, these demons obviously have ways o
f digging up all kinds of information. It would be easy enough for them to find out about Dad, especially when he’s apparently been watching them for decades. Know thy enemy, and all that.

  Apparently, Caleb was able to guess the reason behind her lack of response, because he said, “I know you want to think that I’m lying. It would be a lot easier for you, wouldn’t it? But I’m not. You’re not some magical half-angelic being. You’re a quarter demon, same as I am.”

  Although her mouth was parched, dry as desert sand, somehow she was able to make herself reply, “That doesn’t make any sense. Why would my father be working against the rest of you if he was supposedly on the same side?”

  “Don’t be so naïve, Rosemary. What makes you think he’s working against us?”

  She stared at Caleb, wondering what sort of game he was playing now. Something crooked and completely rigged, as befitting a demon, no doubt. In fact, she was starting to believe that he’d initiated this entire conversation in order to continue messing with her head. “I don’t know…because he basically gave me everything I needed to go into your house and steal that damn hard drive?”

  Caleb grinned. “Did you ever stop to think he might have done that precisely so you’d have a reason to be in my house in the first place?”

  None of this was making any sense. Even though she’d adamantly insisted she didn’t need to sit down, she realized then that she really did need to take a seat. Otherwise, her rubbery knees might have given way completely. Without responding to his question, she went over to the chair next to the couch and lowered herself onto it, then perched at the edge of the seat cushion, hands grasping the arms so they’d provide some additional support.

  Staring at Caleb, at the satisfied smile that tugged at his lips, she made herself say, “So…why did you want me in your house?”