The Darkest Pleasure

by Gena Showalter

CHAPTER NINE

 

  WHILE A WARRIOR FOR THE GODS, Reyes had battled heavenly creatures now only whispered about in books and fables. Cerberus - a three-headed dog thought to have stood watch at the gates of hell. Chimera - human/animal hybrids. Harpies - half woman, half demented bird. All had left him bleeding and in agony. Back then, pain had not been a pleasure.

  His first few years in ancient Greece, the demon had churned inside him, pulling his strings, leading him to slaughter and maim. When the humans finally started fighting back, war had reigned, destruction in every corner. He'd lost limbs, regrown them only to lose them again, had nearly been decapitated several times. And yet he had never experienced fear as potent as this.

  Danika would soon be face-to-face with Aeron. A man whose demon urged him to kill her with the same kind of relentless persuasion that always plagued Reyes. A man who had clearly tried to gnaw his way through his own wrist to free himself of the chains that bound him. Thankfully, he'd only gotten through the first layer of muscle when Reyes and Lucien arrived.

  But what if Aeron managed to slip free while Danika was nearby? What if his strength increased exponentially and he snapped his wrists off in a blink, launching forward, teeth bared - Stop!

  Reyes wanted to sweep Danika up and carry her away from the fortress, but she wanted answers, so he would get them for her.

  It was that simple. Her wants came before his own.

  He descended a flight of stairs to the lowest level of the dungeon, Danika behind him and Lucien behind her. They journeyed from homey to slightly cared-for to completely neglected. The stone walls were crumbling and broken bits coated the floor, digging into the soles of his boots. Reyes could not even tell if he walked upon wood planks or marble, the rocks and dust were piled so high. His guilt returned, increased. How can I treat my friend this way?

  So what that Aeron, the real Aeron, didn't want to kill the women. So what that Aeron yearned for death. The man didn't deserve to suffer like this, bound and locked away as if he were disposable. In a place Anya had proclaimed even gloomier than the godly prison Tartarus.

  "The Darkest Pleasure"

  Damn the gods for reducing Aeron to a killer and Reyes to a jailer!

  Thankfully, none of the other warriors were around. They were too busy packing and gathering supplies for the upcoming trip to Rome. A trip Reyes wasn't sure he would take. He wanted to find Pandora's box and defeat the Hunters once and for all, but he didn't want to cart Danika all over the world.

  She might run again. He might not be able to find her. The Hunters might decide she was better off dead and come after her.

  More and more, he was beginning to think his existence depended on hers. He didn't understand it, didn't like it, but there it was. He was still amazed that every time he neared her, he and the demon both calmed.

  Danika coughed.

  He rounded a corner, tossing a glance over his shoulder. She was waving a hand in front of her face. Dust sparkled around her hair like a halo. Some of her tresses had been washed of the dye, revealing a tantalizing glimpse of blond. First time he'd seen her, he remembered thinking her hair was like the sun, bright and radiant. "Want to return to my room?" he asked. "I would be very unhappy if you sickened. "

  She offered him an exaggerated frown, an expression of dry amusement. "I coughed. I'll live. Keep going. "

  A man's irritated grumblings echoed off the walls. "I don't want to play Wrists-and-Blood anymore. I told you, stop. "

  At least Aeron was not screaming.

  Reyes turned another corner and barred cages came into view. He stopped abruptly, holding out his arm so that Danika would not pass him. For a split second, her breasts pushed into his forearm, soft and full, and her damp hair slapped at his skin.

  He swallowed a curse; she stumbled backward as though she'd been shoved. His entire body suddenly felt engulfed by white-hot flames. Her scent filled his nose, thunderstorms and innocence.

  "Stay here. " The raspiness of his voice embarrassed him. He didn't mind if others - and even Danika herself - knew he desired her. There was no hiding that fact. What he did mind was anyone knowing the intensity of that desire. The knowledge could be used against him.

  "Why can't I go farther?" she asked.

  He was pleased to note her voice shook.

  "I want to see him first, discover if his mood has changed since I left him. " And check to see if his wrists had healed and were no longer in danger of detaching, but Reyes didn't add that part. "If he's relatively calm, you may approach the bars. You will not enter the cell at any time. Understand?"

  "Yes. "

  "You may ask him questions, but do not insult him and incite his. . . wrath. "

  "Okay! I get it. Stay back, ask nicely. Just get on with it already. "

  He didn't. He remained in place. "When you see him, do not be afraid. I will not allow anything bad to happen to you. "

  "Yeah, and tomorrow I'll count to infinity. Twice. If you don't move this along, I'm going to snap. "

  Reyes peered over at Lucien, who was watching him with a hard expression. "Stay with her. Please. "

  At that, Danika growled. He didn't think she was angry that he wanted her guarded and didn't trust her to take care of herself. She truly had reached the breaking point and needed answers.

  Lucien nodded.

  Reyes pivoted away from them. More than he wanted to take his next breath, he wanted to look at Danika, to reassure her, comfort her. Hold her. But one glance at her, and he would not be able to stop himself from doing all of those things. He would not be able to leave her.

  Fisting a blade in one hand and the cell key in the other, he unlocked the door. The hinges creaked as the metal parted. Creaked again as he closed the door. Aeron crouched against the far wall, steeped in shadows. He ceased mumbling the moment he spied Reyes.

  Reyes studied his friend, hoping to find signs of the warrior he'd once been, not the monster he'd become. Eyes - still dilated and hungry. Teeth - still sharpened and bared. Still a monster, then, but also a man Reyes loved. The tattoos that covered Aeron from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet were familiar.

  Reyes didn't know why Aeron had tattooed himself with colorful depictions of things he probably wished he'd never done: killing, mutilating, destroying. Reyes had never asked, and Aeron had never volunteered the information. Some things were simply too painful to talk about. That he knew very well.

  "Leave," Aeron barked.

  The command was not slurred or layered with the voice of his demon, and Reyes blinked in surprise. Had the warrior's bloodlust faded, even slightly?

  "You are lucid now, I see. " A glance at the bound man's wrists, and Reyes saw that they were mostly healed. "You were crazed when Lucien and I appeared in the cave. I'm sorry if I hurt you trying to get you here. "

  "Free me. I have a job to do. "

  "Two weeks ago, you were grateful to be restrained. You hated what you'd been ordered to do and begged me to kill you. "

  "Grateful no longer. " Aeron shifted, his legs inching closer to his chest. "Those women need to die. "

  "The Darkest Pleasure"

  No, the bloodlust had not left him. "So they still live? All four?" Tension radiated from Danika and enveloped him. There was distance between them, yes, but still he felt that blistering tension.

  Guilt flashed in Aeron's eyes. Guilt - both beautiful and terrible. Beautiful because it meant Aeron was still inside that mind, still fighting. Terrible because it probably meant one - or more - of the women were already dead.

  Reyes's skin pulled tight against his bones, and he held back a disappointed groan. He'd desperately yearned for good news. Now, he could only pray there was a survivor. "Aeron. Tell me about the women. "

  Silence.

  "Please," he said, ready to beg if necessary.

  Again, silence.

  No, not silence, he realized a moment later. In the background, there was a soft but me
nacing growl.

  "Answer him!" Danika shouted.

  Aeron stilled, even stopped breathing. His eyes glazed over, glowing with crimson rage that overshadowed any hint of guilt. Then, without warning, he sprang forward. His wings popped from the slits in his back, black gossamer that ripped away the remaining tatters of his shirt and expanded across the entire cell. Their razor-sharp points scratched at the walls.

  Reyes held his ground. Aeron wanted to lash out, so he would allow Aeron to lash out at him. Better him than Danika.

  The chain around Aeron's neck jerked taut, placing the warrior inches from Reyes's face. So close a sulfur-laced breeze caressed him. He'd been so near hell, he would reek of its scent for days. Reyes almost wished his demon had not remembered how to get there, allowing him to bury Aeron in the first place.

  "Girl," Aeron shouted. His hands snaked around Reyes's neck and squeezed tight. "Want her. "

  "Mine," Reyes managed to push past his lips. "Tell me about her family. "

  "Die!"

  "Tell me. "

  He heard Danika gasp. Thought he heard Lucien shout a terse warning.

  "Tell me. " The plea was barely audible. He dropped his knife, unwilling to use it on his friend to save himself, and clutched Aeron's wrists. If this was needed to get answers out of Aeron, this he would allow.

  But all too soon, the feeling of Aeron's hands squeezing tighter and tighter, harder and harder, became too good. The pain was too intoxicating. His demon purred happily.

  More.

  "She must die," Aeron snarled.

  "She's. . . innocent. "

  "Doesn't matter. "

  "Once it would have. " Before Reyes could add anything else, his mind fogged, dizziness rushing through him like the ocean to the shore.

  You have to protect Danika. As he pried Aeron's hands off him, his windpipe shattered, a thousand needle pricks in his throat. Oxygen could not get through. Blood laced with the bone shards and swept them into his stomach; along the way, they cut everything they encountered.

  This was going to kill him. For a little while, anyway.

  His eyes closed in bliss, but his mind screamed in denial.

  "HELP HIM!" Danika shouted to Lucien. She gripped the prison's bars, cold all the way to her soul. Colder than ever before. Right now, she couldn't see Reyes. Not even a glimpse. Aeron, the bastard, had him wrapped in those lethal black wings. "Help him. " None of her instructors had prepared her for demons attacking other demons, and she didn't know what to do. "Please. "

  "He'll survive. " Lucien withdrew a gun from the waist of his pants, checked the magazine.

  "No one could survive that," she said, eyeing the weapon. Her first thought was that he meant to shoot her. Her second, that he would have done so already if that had been his plan.

  "Aeron, let him go," Lucien called.

  "No!" the warrior roared.

  A moment passed. Lucien stiffened, muttered, "What is that thing?" and withdrew a bullet from his pocket. He slid the lethal ball into the gun's chamber.

  Danika was shaking violently, couldn't stop. "What if you accidentally hit Reyes?" She wanted Reyes. . . what? Alive, yes. Unhurt, definitely. He had protected her two weeks ago, had taken the brunt of Aeron's rage today, and now she would protect him. At the moment, he was her only lifeline. At least, that's what she told herself. That had to be the reason he suddenly mattered to her.

  "As I said, he'll survive. "

  Would he, though? He was immortal, he was a demon, but was he completely immune to strangulation and bullets? Every time she'd seen Reyes, he'd been cut and bleeding. Clearly, he could be injured. And what if Aeron attempted to cut off his head while he was incapacitated? Stefano had told her that decapitation was the surest way to kill an immortal permanently. Tacking on that "surest" meant there were other ways to kill them.

  Her wild gaze locked on Aeron, who most likely still had a death grip on Reyes. The enraged warrior was unmoving now, head bowed, no sound emerging from him. Oh, God. What did that mean? "Just - just let me distract him. I'll get him away from Reyes, then you can shoot Aeron. "

  Hinges creaked as she opened the barred door.

  Lucien grabbed her arm, stopping her. "The gun isn't for Aeron. " He motioned to a corner of the cell with a tilt of his chin.

  "The Darkest Pleasure"

  Danika followed the line of his vision. There, in the corner, was a thin, waist-high. . . thing. Her eyes widened in shock. Green scales covered its naked body. Its teeth were long like sabers, saliva dripping from them, and its ears were pointed. Bright red eyes glowed as Aeron's had glowed just before he'd attacked Reyes.

  "To my knowledge, I didn't flash the creature here," Lucien said. "It is not our friend. "

  What was it? And why did she feel as though she'd seen it before? Watched it? Frowned in confusion over its antics?

  "Demon," Lucien said as though she'd asked aloud. Maybe she had. Lucien aimed the gun.

  "Don't shoot near Reyes," she said on a rush of air.

  Lucien looked at her in surprise, as if he couldn't quite believe she was defending her captor. "I'll be careful. "

  Aeron's body began shaking again, nearly convulsing. He once more began growling like an animal at mealtime. What was he doing? She released the bars and her nails bit into her palms. Sweat poured down her back, even though she trembled from that shivering cold.

  Standing here, doing nothing, she felt utterly helpless.

  Boom.

  Danika's ears rang. Underneath the ringing, however, she could make out an eerie laugh. Alarmed, she watched the creature bound around the cell walls and even crawl along the ceiling.

  "Play, play. Thisss fun. "

  I've seen this before, she thought again. But how? Her nightmares? Her eyes widened. Yes, of course. She constantly dreamed of demons and hell, so it stood to reason she might have visualized a creature such as this.

  Lucien added another bullet, fired again.

  More laughter.

  Aeron straightened. Blood poured from his mouth and stained his hands. Catching her first glimpse of Reyes since Aeron had begun choking him, Danika covered her gaping mouth with the back of her hand. He was slumped on the ground, motionless, his neck. . . flat.

  Should be happy, should be happy.

  But she wasn't. Tears were burning her eyes. She should hate this man for everything he'd done to her. Should, should, should. The word meant nothing to her at the moment. Bending down, she curled her fingers around one of the blades she'd stolen, not caring that her theft was now revealed.

  Aeron had to die, and she had to kill him. It was as simple as that. He was a crazed murderer. He had hurt Reyes - not dead, he couldn't be dead - and he wanted to hurt her. Worse, he'd probably harmed her grandmother. It was clear her family would never be safe as long as he lived. Yes, he needed to die. Now or never.

  Determined, she finally stepped into the cell. Lucien was too busy following the demon with the barrel of his gun to notice. She moved forward tentatively. Aeron's narrowed gaze locked on her and tracked her every movement.

  "Legion," Aeron said. "Need you. "

  The scaled creature jumped onto his shoulders and held tight. "Me here. " Bony fingers caressed Aeron's scalp. Words Danika didn't understand were whispered into Aeron's ear. Soft words, gentle.

  Aeron's body relaxed, his muscles no longer clenched for attack. The red in his eyes faded.

  Lucien paused outside the cell. "Danika," he said.

  "Get Reyes out of here. His body can't take any more damage. " Danika continued to inch forward. When she reached Reyes, she crouched beside him. Her gaze never left Aeron as she placed a finger on Reyes's neck, hoping to feel a pulse.

  She didn't.

  Don't panic. He was too vital, too strong to die here, like this. Wasn't he? He desperately needed medical attention. "Lucien. For God's sake, come get him. "

  "He's fine, and I am unwilling to lose focus with the
demon unfettered. "

  Damn it! She couldn't leave him here. Truly, any more damage and there would be nothing left of him. Save Reyes or question/try to hurt Aeron? She didn't have to think about it. She latched on to Reyes's shoulders, knife flat - she would not release it - and tried to drag him. When Reyes was out of range, she could attack Aeron without fear for him. But Reyes's large body proved to be too heavy and she only made it a foot before stopping to catch her breath.

  Aeron straightened, his knees bending to accept his weight, his hands curling to strike. Any minute, and he would attack.

  "He was your friend," she said, pushing back to her feet to haul Reyes another few inches.

  "But you are not," Aeron replied.

  "No, I'm not. "

  He grinned, wicked, eerie. "Do you wish to hurt me, little human?"

  "Yes. " No reason to lie. The truth blazed in her eyes, she was sure. "I wish to destroy you. "

  "Try. "

  "So you'll feel better about what you plan to do to me? No, thanks. Not while Reyes needs help. But once he's out of the cell, you're mine. "

  For some reason, the conversation seemed to calm him as much as the little creature still whispering in his ear. "Do I scare you?"

  "You? Scare me? Never again. " Another inch. A few more, and she'd have Reyes's shoulders out the door.

  "Why don't you come for me, then?"

  "The difference between us is that I care about someone else more than I care about my own wishes. "

  "The Darkest Pleasure"

  He lost his grin in a hurry. "You cannot care for Reyes. "

  She didn't want to, knew she shouldn't. But. . . Footsteps suddenly echoed behind her, saving her from trying to form a reply.

  "The others are coming. " Finally Lucien opted to help. He approached her, gripped the base of her neck before she could protest his touch. One second she was holding Reyes, the next she was inside Reyes's bedroom.

  Dizziness assaulted her. When Lucien released her, she realized she couldn't stand on her own. She toppled over, her knees hitting the floor. She cringed at the action, but was too wired to feel the jolt. "What the hell did you do to me?"

  "Stay here," Lucien said.

  As she fought to stand, she glared up at him. "I don't - "

  Without another word, he disappeared, leaving her gaping. Bastard! She couldn't, wouldn't, leave Reyes down there with that. . . that. . . animal. Should have killed the beast when you had the chance. Determined to return, she lumbered toward the front door. She tripped over a pair of boots and barely managed to stay upright.

  "I told you to stay put. "

  Spinning, experiencing another wave of dizziness, Danika released a startled gasp. Lucien had appeared once more, stoic, uncompromising. He was cradling Reyes in his arms as he strode to the bed. Gently, he laid the still-motionless warrior on the mattress. The springs creaked.

  Danika rushed to Reyes's side.

  "Take care of him," Lucien uttered, a warning in his tone.

  "I - will. " The last was said on a sigh. He had disappeared again.

  Almost afraid to look, she slowly turned her head. Her eyes landed on Reyes, and her stomach twisted. There were so many sides to him: captor, savior, demon, man. But he was still such a mystery to her, this being who had both threatened her life and saved it. And here he was, defeated. His throat was smashed, his Adam's apple smooth and discolored.

  His chest was utterly still.

  The tears that had stung her eyes so often this day now ran freely down her cheeks. How could someone so strong have been - Through the watery haze, she thought she saw his chest move, thought she saw his decimated throat constrict. Please! Let that be real.

  Her hand fluttered to his heart, the beat frantic against her palm. A wheeze filled her ears, and it was a glorious noise.

  He was alive!

  Crying out, she fell to her knees. She clutched at his hand, felt his fingers give a weak squeeze. The strength of her relief was appalling. Unwelcome. Because it meant she would never be able to betray this man. This demon. Not now, not later. Aeron, yes. Sabin, yes. But not him, never him. Not even to save her family. "I'm here, Reyes. "

  His eyelids cracked open.

  "Don't try to talk. Just know that I'm here. I'll take care of you. " Only problem was, she had no real medical training and didn't know what to do. She choked back a pained laugh. She'd been in this situation once before. Ashlyn had been sick. Bargaining for her mom, sister and grandmother's lives, she'd lied, told Reyes she was a healer, and doctored Ashlyn as best she could.

  Ashlyn had come out okay. Would Reyes?

  Dark irises came into full view. They weren't flooded with pain; they were glazed with. . . pleasure? Surely not. Their gazes collided a moment before he closed his eyes again. Her lungs deflated on a sigh.

  Reyes's lips moved, but no sound emerged from them.

  "You're hurting yourself," she said. "I told you not to talk. We'll - "

  "Don't go back to Aeron without me," he managed to get out, the words savage. "Promise. " His hand clutched at her. "Protect you. "

  Again, he wanted to protect her. Little wonder he'd battered down her defenses and reduced her to a devoted puppy. "I promise. "