by Alexia Black
This was not good.
“Kill him, before he lets whatever is inside it, out.” I shouted at Aiden.
“No.”
I whipped my head around and met Aiden’s resolute stare.
“Are you kidding me?”
Aiden didn’t reply.
“Grab Callum. We need to get away! Fast!” I had only gotten a few steps towards the door when the smoke exploded, spiraling out of the scroll like a vengeful ghost.
The impact threw me off-balance. I flew back, thudding against Aiden’s chest. He caught me almost reflexively, hand wrapping around my abdomen, his knees bent from impact.
The smoke rose up like a column, then condensed into a ball the size of my face and expanded back again, as if figuring out how to exist in this world.
The smoke stopped moving, standing suspended in air like it was frozen in time. It shot downwards and moved up in a spiral like a small tornado.
When the tornado dissipated, there stood a woman.
Small black scales covered her muscular body like impenetrable steel, leaving only her eyes vulnerable. She stood tall at seven feet. White horns with runes curved away from her bald head covered in scales. Her pupil-less eyes were pitch black, like the abyss. An otherworldly aura surrounded her.
A demon.
“Shit. Use your powers on her,” I wheezed.
“I am. My powers aren’t working against her,” Aiden whispered, voice tight, a hint of fear slipping through.
Dave laughed maniacally from where he was lying on the ground, “Your powers will only work on people of this realm you warmonger.” He swiped his palm against his bloody mouth.
The woman opened her mouth, all hundred or so of her small piranha-like teeth gleaning like a macabre form of art, and snapped it shut.
Point made.
Chapter 18
The shifter came up in front of us, blood still trickling down his mouth. He sucker punched Aiden in the solar plexus. He staggered back from the impact, his face blank, as if the punch didn’t hurt a bit.
“Monsters like you should be dealt with by other monsters,” that devilish grin of his turned sinister. Aiden stepped forward, palms fisted, ready to punch that grin of his face.
“Stop. Don’t,” I held him back, a clear warning in my eyes.
Having a demon at his beck and call made Dave infinitely more dangerous than Aiden. The door was too far away and Dave and the demon were blocking it. Even if we managed to distract them and found an opening to run away, we still had Callum to think of. The blast from the scroll had thrown him off balance. He lay sprawled on the floor, a few feet away from us, still, but breathing, like he was waiting for his next command. There was no way we could escape with him in this condition. I knew Aiden’s instinct, like that of almost every supernatural, would be to fight their way out of it but we were in the worst possible scenario, with absolutely no advantage. Fighting now would just end up in our deaths. And I for one didn’t fancy dying yet.
Dave snapped his finger, “Restrain him.”
The demon stepped forward. “Don’t fight,” I hissed at Aiden. This demon felt leagues above the last one that had attacked us and we had escaped that with just dumb luck. Dave had called Aiden a warmonger, he knew what exactly Aiden was. He wouldn’t just come traipsing in if the demon he had chosen this time wasn’t more than a match enough.
But Aiden didn’t care. He swung his fist forward, it wasn’t a wild swing born out of anger, it was a precise one with enough force behind it to knock even a shifter out. The demon didn’t dodge it. She stopped his fist with one hand, her scaly palm enveloped his fist, the hard scales tearing the flesh where she held his, immobile.
Aiden’s eyes widened. “What the fuck?” he muttered. The demon attacked him that instant. She punched him in the stomach so hard, he flew back and crashed through the wall, landing in the other room with a sickening crunch that could be heard all the way back to me.
I stood frozen in fear. The dagger I had held tight even through the first attack from the demon slipped through my fingers. With a smirk, Dave kicked the dagger away.
“Aiden!” I screamed, running towards him. I knew he wasn’t dead because I was still breathing but…
“What in the fates?” I skidded to a stop beside and kneeled, uncaring of how hard my knees hit the floor. He lay surrounded by rubble, eyes closed, blood dripping from his forehead. I knew the demon was strong but what kind of power was this.
Aiden opened his eyes slowly. “I’m fine,” he coughed blood.
I gently touched his face, “I had told your dumb ass not to fight.” Aiden’s leg lay twisted at an odd angle, his wrist hanging limp. Blood flowed from the back of his head, mixing with the dust and the rubble.
I looked around for something to make a makeshift cast for his hand and leg. But, it was one of the spare rooms in the house. Empty, except for some furniture.
“I’ll be fine,” he pushed up to a sitting position on his unbroken hand. His spine made ungodly noises as his shifter genes worked overtime to heal him. I wrapped my hands around his back and helped him sit up.
Footsteps neared me. Dave walked towards us in a leisurely pace with the demon walking behind him like an obedient pet. A pleased smile lit up his eyes, knowing there was no way we could fight, much less escape now. We were completely trapped. But he had seen my watch, he had one too, when he had been working for us, he would know without a doubt that I would press the emergency switch.
“How the tables have turned,” Dave said, his gaze lighting up at the sight of the destruction. He stopped a few feet from us and looked around, soaking in the sight like an evil overlord, his chest puffed in pride.
The blood from Aiden’s head wound soaked through his shirt. He was a powerful supernatural so this wound wouldn’t be fatal but the demon had done all this damage with one punch. What would happen if she decided to fight seriously?
“Can you stay upright?” I asked Aiden.
“Yeah,” he replied.
I scrambled forward and set Aiden’s broken leg back in its place. He didn’t make a sound despite the excruciating pain he must’ve been feeling. His blood coated my hands. I wanted to vomit at the sight. I swallowed my bile and set the leg as straight as possible so that his shifter genes didn’t heal it at that odd angle. His leg would still have to be broken and reset properly, but at least, he would be able to walk now. I did it as fast as I could before Dave decided to stop his ego trip and asked his demon to finish what she had started.
Before I could set his wrist straight, Dave pulled me back by my hair with his gaze locked on Aiden. My head hit his chest with a thump as he wrapped his other hand around my neck. The other ripped off my watch and threw it away. I didn’t struggle against his hold, unwilling to push my luck and flame his rage. He looked like he was waiting for any excuse to kill us instead of kidnapping us.
“Phone,” he demanded.
I handed it over reluctantly. He threw it against the ground, breaking it into pieces. Aiden’s eyes flashed in rage but his power didn’t touch Dave. His hand around my neck had tightened in anticipation of an attack, ready to break my neck and end Aiden’s life. His grip loosened when he saw that his life wasn’t in danger.
“Not going use your fancy powers now?” Dave goaded.
Aiden vibrated in anger, his mouth twisted in a snarl. He looked demonic; like he was rage incarnated himself. He held himself back. He glared at the hand wrapped around my neck but he couldn’t do anything. Helplessness and frustration warred across his face. But not even a whiff of his power came near us. He probably diverted it all towards the demon.
When Dave saw that Aiden wasn’t going to attack no matter how much he goaded, he let out a sigh of annoyance. “Let’s get them back to the base,” he ordered the demon.
Shit.
They can teleport us too? It would take at least ten minutes for the company to send in backup. It had only been a few minutes since I sent an SOS. They won’t reac
h us in time.
The demon stepped forward, chanting something in a language that didn’t belong to this realm, the runes on her horn glowing brighter by the second, as if it was charging up.
Fingers crossed, Bart was in the emergency response team. Hopefully, he put two and two together and will be able to get Callum to a hospital. I didn’t know why Dave had left Callum alive. Either it was because Callum wouldn’t be able to provide any useful information or it was to set the rescue crew on someone else’s tail. I had no idea which.
“Work faster woman,” Dave impatiently tapped his foot at the demon. The demon didn’t respond but shot a glance at the unopened scroll that was clutched in Dave’s hand. I met Aiden’s gaze. We seemed to be thinking the same thing. Dave was controlling the demon with the scroll.
The chanting crescendo-ed, black smoke filled my vision, choking me. I fell on my knees as the smoke cleared, my legs going jelly. Around us, trees stood like sentinels, reaching towards the sky, blocking sunlight, thick roots twined up from the earth. The demon’s horns no longer glowed.
Where in the fates were we?
Chapter 19
I tried to stand up but immediately collapsed back on the ground, retching on Dave’s shoes. He jumped back with a disgusted sound.
“Ki,” Aiden held my hair strands away from my face and rubbed my back as I kept on retching on the forest floor. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and stood up slowly. My vision swam before me. Unlike me, Aiden didn’t look like he was seeing two of everything.
Teleportation definitely wasn’t meant to be handled by the bodies of powerless supernaturals like me.
He stood beside me, his hands around my waist, taking on my entire weight. I knew shifters healed fast but I didn’t know they healed this fast. How had his bones mended so easily?
I clutched my stomach in pain, my body still struggling to accept the magical assault. Bile came up my mouth. Taking deep breaths, I willed it down. That small action sapped my remaining energy. I leaned against Aiden, trusting him not to let me fall.
Dave wrinkled his nose in disgust, “Walk.” His shifter senses may not be that sharpened in his human form, but no one could ignore the disgusting smell of the vomit, least of all the person I had puked on. Internally, I crowed at the petty victory.
My vision slowly returned to normal, accompanied by a pounding headache. The demon walked ahead of us, her steps stilted. Dave brought up the rear, trying to rub away my vomit on the fallen leaves and tree roots.
I don’t know how long we walked. Maybe it was a minute, maybe it was an hour but finally, we stopped in front of a one story wooden cabin.
“Welcome to your new home,” Dave announced.
I wanted to look up and observe the building and the surroundings, check for weaknesses, figure out escape routes but as it was, I could barely keep my head up.
The demon and Dave led us inside, after taking the rest of my daggers and the charms I had hidden, the shifter pushed us into a room. I shut my eyes tight against the intensity of the light in the room. Dave cuffed me to Aiden, my right hand to his left and left, locking the door behind him. There was no one inside but I was sure Dave and the demon would be keeping guard outside.
I sat down gingerly with Aiden’s support and leaned against the wall till my headache died. It took a few minutes but I could finally think without the pain distracting me. I looked around, my brain going into survival mode. It was the only way I could function without being paralyzed by fear.
I analyzed my surroundings. The room was an average sized one, the hardwood floor was warm to the touch, the room devoid of any furniture, and overall had a very run down feel to it.
What kind of place was this?
I pulled on the handcuffs that bound us. It was enchanted to nullify magic, like a more juiced up version of my dagger. His power would be dormant as long as he was cuffed. Damn it.
I dragged Aiden up with me and inspected every inch of that room. There were no hidden cameras or anything else. There were two doors, the main one and one that looked like it led to an attached bathroom. Both doors were sturdy and locked. But nothing in the room suggested that it was designed to keep prisoners in.
“Did you notice anything when they took us in? Number of guards? Layout of the place, cameras?”
Aiden looked at the ceiling, trying to remember the details, “We are in a cabin in a forest. I’m not sure it’s a cabin though. It looks like a dormitory. Other than the wolf shifter and the demon, I didn’t see anyone. Didn’t notice any obvious cameras either but I wasn’t looking that hard.”
“That’s weird. It’s hard to imagine whoever is behind this didn’t hire enough guards after going through all that trouble of having you kidnapped.”
“Yeah,” Aiden agreed. “Are you feeling better? You kept slipping in and out of consciousness.”
I did?
“Yeah, much better. Thanks. I owe you.”
Aiden looked away, “Don’t thank me. I put you in this situation.”
“Listen,” I said. “If we are blaming anyone, let’s blame the kidnappers.”
Aiden didn’t respond to that.
“I wanted to ask you something. Have you trained in hand to hand combat?”
Aiden’s voice was guarded when he responded, “Why do you ask?”
“When you had tried to fight against the demon, your stance, the way you punched. You look like you had training. Do they teach it you in Rockstar 101?”
His lips curved, but his tone was grim when he answered, “My father was very particular about it.” There was an odd inflection when he said father. If Aiden had any less control, I would have imagined him to spit out that word.
I was wondering what to do next when the door flew open and a woman walked in flanked by Dave and the demon and two other guards. Expensive rings adorned her fingers. Hair styled in waves, dressed head to toe in designer, the redhead sashayed towards us.
“Hello darlings,” a familiar voice sing-songed. The voice on the phone. Callum’s girlfriend.
Chapter 20
Some days, you just have to wonder if the Fates were high on something.
“Caroline,” Aiden’s lips thinned in anger.
Was this some kind of joke?
Was this really the same Caroline that had dragged me and Bart through all those shops as her personal servants instead of bodyguards, who bared her golden fangs in front of a crowd like a dumb idiot, the same Caroline who almost revealed her species on social media?
Caroline ran a manicured finger along Aiden’s chest, “You look as sexy as ever, darling.”
“Get your hands off me before I break your fucking neck.”
She laughed, a beautiful wind-chime-like laugh. Gone was the vapid gaze, intelligence gleamed in her eyes. “If you do that, he will,” she pointed towards Dave who was standing behind her like a guard dog, “snap her in two. She is a frail little human after all. Oh scratch that, she is not even a human, is she?”
My breath caught in my throat. Was she bluffing or did she truly know what I was.
“Oh, I know exactly what you are. Why do you think I kept driving away those sexy bodyguards till you caught the bait?” she winked at me. “And Aiden, darling, no need to suppress your surprise, I know you are unaware of her exact origins.”
“How?” For the first time in years, my control broke, my voice cracked, “How did you know? Who told you?”
Caroline laughed, “Your father becomes very chatty once he has a few glasses of scotch in.”
I almost retched at her insinuation; dad and her? No, no way. No way in hell was that possible. He would never cheat on mom.
“Her father?” Aiden looked at me questioningly.
“What do you want from me, Caroline?” I clenched my fists, my knuckles turning white.
“Nothing.”
Huh?
“What I want is him, that gorgeous destructive power of his.” She gently wrapped her hand around Aiden’s n
eck, squeezing just enough to show who held all the cards here. Aiden couldn’t do anything. Not without getting me into the crossfire. “You will make me the queen of the new world and if you are alive after everything, I will let you into my bed too. And you,” she smiled at me. “You will be the catalyst.”
“What in the fates are you talking about?” I asked.
She ignored my question, focusing her predatory gaze back on Aiden, “You two took too long to finish your bonding. If I had taken you that first day, everything would’ve gone much more smoothly.” She took a step back, “Dave, take them, let’s start the ritual.”
“I don’t take orders from you,” Dave snarled. Nevertheless he stepped forward. This close together, I could see a striking resemblance between them, especially their eyes. Were they related?
Whatever this ritual was, Aiden didn’t seem to have much chance of surviving from the way Caroline talked. I had to stall.
“We aren’t fully bonded yet.”
And what kind of ritual was this supposed to be? Were we some sort of human sacrifices for the demons, like in the movies?
Her gaze caught mine. Vicious madness danced behind her eyes. And I knew without a doubt, that no one who opposed her would be left alive.
“Cal told me you were pregnant. Hasn’t the bond made you pregnant already?”
“Um. Nope.”
“Then why did you ask for a doctor?”
“I didn’t.”
Caroline reeled back in anger. With an angry hiss, she grabbed my collar and pulled me towards her.
“Are you saying you two haven’t fucked yet?”
“Yeah.”
Caroline drew back and slapped me. I blinked away the sudden tears, my cheek stinging from pain.
“Don’t touch her,” Aiden growled, pushing her back before she could land another one on me.
Caroline glared at him, “If our plans get ruined because of you two, I will not leave, even the vultures, anything to feed on.”
