“I’ll be fine,” I say, reaching up on tip toes and kissing his cheek. I keep my hand in his and enter the room Scarlett moved to, and the others file in behind me.
The room is not what I expected. A huge square room, that looks like any fancy pants legal office, one wall of glass, looking out over what I assume is the rest of this level. Out there, is more what I expected since we arrived here. Rivers of red running through dark rock, screams reaching us, even in here.
Scarlett sits behind the dark wood desk in the corner by the glass wall, undoing the button of her white blazer from her pantsuit as she does, exposing a lacy red bra beneath and nothing else. I school my features, refusing to rise to the bait.
“So, please, tell me how you found yourselves in the Shadow Realm,” she says leaning backwards and crossing her arms. It takes serious restraint not to roll my eyes as she pushes up her tits, but Roman barks a laugh, which he tries to smother with a cough. Apparently I’m too tired to hide my emotions from my face fully.
“We’re looking for someone,” Levi tells her, and I’m just tired enough that I don’t mind that he took the lead, despite me telling him I was fine. He sits in one of the chairs opposite her desk, and pulls me back into his lap, wrapping his arm around my waist as I get comfortable. Creek sits in the chair next to us, while Roman moves to stand by the door, and Kain moves to stand by the wall of glass, making sure the entire room is covered, should it need to be.
“Well, that doesn’t give me much detail, does it?” She purrs and I grit my teeth but say nothing.
“A Demon is working with a Hunter on Earth, I’m sure you’ve heard about it,” Levi taunts her, as if anyone of importance would be aware.
“I hadn’t heard that one yet, but then, my level tends to keep to itself,” she says, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her desk.
“Well, this Hunter requires a portal to be opened between the Shadow Realm on Earth—” Levi starts and she interrupts.
“But he’d need a Shadow Walker for that.” She eyes me as she says the words.
“Yes, well, the Hunter gave over a friend of ours to ensure our co-operation in helping him, we came here instead to get her ourselves,” Levi says. “We’re looking to find information on who is keeping her, or to get to the queen for her assistance.”
Her eyes go wide as she takes in what he says.
“Well, unfortunately for you all, I can’t help you with either of those things,” she says with a shrug. “I can let you pass to the next level.”
“But?” I ask, turning to face her and she grins.
“Clever Hunter. But… there is a cost, of course.”
“Of fucking course,” I grumble. “What is your cost?”
Man, why can’t more Demons be like Callie and Magnus. I know, I know, they’re Demons, but seriously!
“I want to feed,” she says simply as if that explains everything.
“You’re a succubus?” Levi asks and I go rigid against him.
“Correct, Angel.” She winks at him and I clench my fists. Of course she’s a fucking succubus. I’m really starting to hate this fucking realm.
“How, exactly, do you feed?” I ask her, trying to remain calm.
“I fuck and feed,” she purrs, her delight in her tone. “Any one of you will do, but all of you would be better.”
I clench my fists and she laughs. “Don’t make your decision now. Take the night to rest, I’ll have Terran set you up in one of the private residence quarters above the club. Let me know your decision tomorrow.”
Her eyes glitter as she says the words, and presses a button on the console on her desk. Seconds later, the woman in white, Terran I assume, opens the door by Roman.
“Set them up upstairs, get them anything they need,” Scarlett tells her and she nods.
“If you’ll follow me,” Terran says, and opens the door wider for us all.
“I’ll see you in the morning,” Scarlett purrs, running a hand down her chest. I roll my eyes at her and stand, Levi and Creek rise with me.
Kain joins us and we follow Terran, Roman bringing up the rear as we follow her and walk back across the entire club, towards the way we entered. We all remain silent as we take in the sights around us. Apparently while we were having our little meeting with Scarlett, things ramped up in here. The room is essentially one giant orgy. I guess Scarlett is getting her fill tonight.
Terran leads us outside of the club, which it turns out is just the bottom floor of a skyscraper and takes us to an alley beside it, where a staircase leads up to a metal door. We continue to follow her in silence and she places her palm flat on the door, unlocking it before pushing it open revealing an elevator.
“If you’ll please enter,” she says to us and I look to the guys who look as uneasy as I feel, but we climb in regardless. She presses the top button and smiles as she inserts a black card into the slot next to it. “Enjoy your evening.”
She steps back and the doors close, her grinning face the last thing we see before shooting upwards in the lift.
Fucking Demons.
It’s less than a minute before the elevator stops and the doors open with a ding. I grab the black card in the slot as I take in the view before us. The doors open directly into the apartment, a bright white space that’s bigger than I expected. Creek and the guys head out into the apartment first, and I catch up, realizing they’re making sure the space is empty.
Once they all reconvene in the living room, I flop down onto the sofa that faces the giant wall of glass in the room.
“That’s a hell of a view,” Roman says with a smirk and I can’t help but laugh at him.
“So punny,” Creek chuckles as they all sit down around the room with me.
“So, obviously we’re not fucking that crazy bitch,” Kain says, undoing his suit jacket. “So what is the plan?”
“I have no idea. I think we need to sleep, and work on it after we’ve rested,” I tell him, feeling my eyes droop already.
“I feel like I slept through most of the day, I’m not even remotely tired,” Roman says. “But you should sleep princess.”
“I’m not sleeping if you guys aren’t,” I shrug. “We’ll just work this out now.”
“No, you need to sleep,” Levi says, sounding firmer than I’ve heard him in a while. “I’ve no doubt you downplayed everything that happened while we were in that fucking trance of Luna’s. You need to rest otherwise you’ll burn yourself out, Remy.”
I look over to him and I know he’s right. I did downplay it. My ribs still fucking hurt, so does my face, but I’m healing, even if it is slower than usual. I guess that’s part of the Shadow Realm’s awesomeness too.
“Fine, but I’ll just sleep on the sofa here while you guys plot away.” I shrug and lean forward to undo my boots.
“Why would you do that when there is a giant bath tub in the bathroom, and an even bigger bed in the room back there?” Kain says softly. “Mon amour, you’ve looked after us all day. Let us take care of you now. Let us carry some of the weight from all of this for you.” His eyes plead with me, and it hits me that I’m worrying them. I take a deep breath and nod.
“Okay fine. I need to shower first though, Magnus might have helped clean me up, but I swear I can still feel the blood and grime on my skin from the day.” I stand, looking forward to getting out of this leather get up and stumble a little. I guess I really do need some sleep. Roman catches me before my legs give out fully and carries me to the bathroom, leaving the others to start on some form of a plan as they watch us leave, their concern painted all over their faces.
“I could’ve walked,” I whisper.
“You could, but why walk when I wanted to carry you,” he says softly, his breath tickling my ear. I sigh contentedly against him and let his strong arms carry me. He sits me on the counter and turns on the shower before coming back to me and stripping me out of the leather. His touches caring rather than their usual demanding when I’m bare in front of him. H
e reaches up and pulls the tie from my hair and I sigh at the relief from the tension I hadn’t even registered was there.
He strips down to his boxers and lifts me from the counter, carrying me into the shower. He puts me down in front of him, and turns me to face away from him before reaching around me and picking up the bottle of shampoo in here.
“You don’t have to…” I start and he growls lowly.
“Let me take care of you, princess,” he says, his chest still rumbling as he works the shampoo into my hair as he stands behind me. I groan as his fingers massage my scalp with the hot water rushing down my body. He removes his hands and spins me again to rinse the shampoo, before grabbing the soap, and taking extreme care as he washes me gently. He growls softly whenever he finds a not yet healed part of me, especially when I wince as he runs his hands over my ribs.
“I should’ve pulled that bitch’s innards out,” he says fiercely, and I open my eyes to find his glowing.
“I’m okay, I’m here with you now. I’m safe,” I tell him, as much for his wolf as him before kissing his chest, over his heart, softly. He lets out a contented sound and turns to rinse me down before shutting off the shower.
“You still want that bath?” He asks as he steps out of the shower, wrapping a towel around his waist, before wrapping one around me.
I shake my head and smile at him as I secure the towel around me. “No, I think I’m ready for bed.”
“Okay,” he says moving towards me and scooping me back up into his arms.
“I can walk,” I tell him and he kisses my forehead as he moves me to the bedroom.
“I know you can.”
I wake when the bed dips, and I open my eyes to find Kain lying beside me.
“Good morning mon amour,” he says before leaning over to kiss me. His kiss is soft and full of love, and I sigh happily into him. “Did you sleep well?”
“I slept like a baby. How long have I been out?”
“About ten hours, we didn’t want to wake you, but a message appeared on the table a few minutes ago to advise that Scarlett would be here in an hour, so we thought we should wake you.”
“Did you guys come up with a plan to get us out of this mess?” I yawn as I stretch before sitting up to face him.
“Get dressed, and we’ll talk,” he says putting the pack on the bed. Dread runs through me at his words.
“That doesn’t exactly fill me with hope.” I sigh.
“Come out back to the living room when you’re dressed,” he says sadly and leaves the room.
Fuck my fucking life.
There’s no other way is there. I already know what they’re going to say, and I’ll be fucked if I’m letting her have any of them.
They’re mine.
I fling the blankets off me and get dressed, shimmying into black skinny jeans and a white tank with pretty white lace bra and panties. Simple, but comfortable, and I get the feeling I’m going to want to be comfortable for the conversation we’re about to have.
Because I know they’ll each offer to sacrifice themselves rather than us fail, but that shit is not happening.
Nope.
I reign in the anger and jealousy that bubbles beneath my skin at the thought, reminding myself that they wouldn’t offer themselves if they thought there was another way to get to Fallon. I slip into the chucks from the pack, and slip a dagger in the back loop of my jeans, concealing it with my tank. I put everything else back in there, before picking it up and heading out to find them.
I find Creek, Kain, and Roman sat around the kitchen table, while Levi is cooking at the stove.
“Morning,” I say as I walk in, and the three sat down look at me with a grim smile while Levi hands me a mug of coffee.
“Morning Angel,” he says, kissing me gently before I sit at the table. “Food won’t be long.”
I’m not particularly hungry, it feels like I have a stone sat in my stomach, and I feel nauseous as hell, but I’m not going to tell him that. If him feeding me makes him feel better about the conversation we’re going to have, I’ll let him.
I sip at my coffee while they chatter amongst themselves until Levi brings a feast of eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast to the table. “It’s nothing fancy, but it’ll fill a hole. You need it eat.”
He looks down at me as he lays the last plate down before sitting next to me and kissing my hand. The others can barely look at me, and I realize they nominated Levi to fuck that Demon bitch.
“Nope,” I say before taking a bite of the bacon Levi piles onto my plate. “None of you are fucking her.”
They all look at me, looking like they’re torn between arguing with me and agreeing.
“Remy…” Levi starts but I shake my head.
“I said no.”
“But what about Fallon. We’ve come so far, we can’t just turn back now. It’s not like any of us are going to enjoy it,” Creek says, his voice pained.
“We’ll find another way, or I’ll offer myself up.” I shrug and take another bite. Man I missed bacon.
They all practically shout their disagreement at me and I smile. “See, you don’t like it any more than I do.”
“Then what do you propose?” Levi asks and I smile at him.
“I have no fucking idea, but I’ll think of something. Now let’s eat up, I have a feeling today is going to be a long day.”
We all tuck in, I stay quiet, listening to them talk strategy about potentials for when we reach the next level. Greed. I smile, knowing they trust me to handle Scarlett, but I don’t doubt for a second that one of them will try to offer themselves up anyway if she refuses any other way.
I’ll cut up that pretty face of hers before I let her touch any of them.
We finish eating and I clear up while they take turns showering and redressing while we wait for Scarlett to arrive.
The elevator door pings, almost to the second of the hour she gave us, and she strides into the room, today in a black pant suit and bright red shoes. If I didn’t want to punch her in her smiling face, I might even compliment her for rocking the outfit.
She sashays across the apartment and drapes herself on one of the chairs in the sitting room, and waits in silence until we all sit in the room with her.
“So, did you make a decision about my offer,” she asks, grinning at me hungrily.
“We did, and our answer is no,” I tell her with a smile of my own as her face falls.
“Well, how very disappointing. I guess you do not want to move to the next level as much as you made out,” she tuts and moves to stand, and I jump up pulling the dagger from my back.
“I think you’ll find I can be very persuasive, and that you’ll find another solution to getting us to the next level,” I say and she snarls at me, standing dead still in front of me. I don’t take my eyes off her, but I feel the guys move behind me, protecting me from the back should any of her lackeys appear.
“What do you propose?” She asks through gritted teeth, her eyes on the blade in my hand.
“A blood payment.” Her eyes reach mine and she smiles again. The guys grumble behind me.
“Your blood?”
“A Shadow Walker’s blood carries a decent cost down here doesn’t it?”
“That it does. But you are a Hunter.”
“I am a Shadow Walker.” I grin at her, happy that she hadn’t worked it out.
“You have a deal,” she says, her eyes dancing with glee.
“Good,” I say as I lower the dagger and catch my finger on the tip.
“Shit,” I hiss and blood pours from my finger onto the white carpet under my feet.
“Amantara! There you fucking are!” I jump as a guy pops into the room behind Scarlett. He strides towards me and wraps me up into a bear hug.
“Who the fuck are you?” Roman growls from behind me. The guy pulls back from me and faces my guys with a huge smile. I relax when I realize who he is.
“Calm down, mate. Me and Amantara go way back.” He winks
at them and I laugh.
“Caleb, what are you doing here?” Scarlett says, fear obvious on her face and my guys relax a little at his name.
“I’ve been chasing this one around the Shadow Realm.” He laughs nodding to me.
“Why on earth did you keep moving after signaling for me?” He asks, looking at me and my confusion must be obvious on my face. “You don’t remember do you? Well, this just got interesting. Morganna is waiting for you, so if you’re ready?”
I blink at him, completely confused about what the fuck is going on, but I nod at him.
“You’ll take us to her?” Levi asks skeptically.
“Are you kidding me? She’s been kicking my ass every time I came back without this one.” Caleb grins. “You boys coming too?”
“Where I go, they go,” I tell him with a smile.
“Sounds good to me. Scarlett, we’ll have words later.” He scowls at her and she flinches under his stare. I have to swallow down my laughter as he moves back towards me, the guys all watching him closely.
“Morganna will be so excited to hear about these new developments of yours, Mara.” He grins at me shaking his head, before clicking his fingers, and darkness wraps around us.
Chapter Twenty-One
Fallon
I wake, my neck stiff from where it hangs down to my chest. As I become more aware, more and more pain filters into my conscious state and it takes everything in me not to cry out.
Azriel is the cruelest being I've ever come across in my life.
I lift my head slowly, one of my eyes is swollen shut, and I can feel dried blood crusted on my face and hands.
Hours.
He tortured me for hours. Asking questions he knew I didn't have answers to. Taking such happiness from each scream he pulled from me, no matter how hard I tried to resist.
He captured my tears in a vial, before licking my face to taste what was left.
He's the most vile creature in existence.
Once I get my magic back, I'm going to tear the skin from his body slowly, and make sure he stays conscious the entire fucking time.
A Crown of Shadows and Secrets Page 19
