Wrapping my arm around the top of her chest till my fingers gripped her opposite shoulder, I pressed my forehead to the top of her head and mumbled, “We’ll do Nadya’s plan.”
I couldn’t look at them, couldn’t see the possibility of failure or doubt in their eyes. The sounds of feet shuffling as they made their way to the door was all the response I got.
“Meet us at George’s place tomorrow. Thornton Hall,” said Xander.
Once they’d pulled the door closed behind them, I remained where I was, battling with the sensation of sinking into quicksand at what I’d just agreed to. Nadya pulled away, tightening her grip on my hand and pulling me with her.
“Come to bed with me, Uriel.”
I followed, needing her close, needing my skin on hers, to be buried inside her. In a few days’ time, I’d finally get what I wanted. A face-off with Vladek. Somehow, now, rather than victory, it tasted like ashes in my mouth. But I couldn’t fight Nadya’s logic. She was right. If we didn’t catch him, he’d hunt us for eternity. And that wasn’t an exaggeration of the length of time he’d seek us out. This was our chance. So I’d take it. I’d have to risk it, have to risk her.
I groaned as I pulled her onto the bed, both of us shoving off clothes with desperation. Her breath caught on a sob when I opened my mouth on her breast and sucked her nipple hard. She writhed beneath me as I tasted and licked and sucked every sweet curve and dip, needing to devour and imprint her scent into my skin, into my bones.
“Nadya,” I growled when I lowered between her legs and pushed inside her wet heat.
She clawed me closer, tears slipping silently into her hair, as I ground down and pushed deeper, hammering with a drive that threatened to unhinge my mind.
“Can’t get deep enough,” I whispered on a stream of curses.
She fisted a hand at the back of my hair and lunged up to kiss me hard, latching her ankles behind my thighs.
“Harder, Uriel. Don’t hold back.”
I gave her my weight, seeking an end I knew would never come. This madness called love wasn’t like anything I’d ever imagined. It was a sentient being, binding us in a silken rope woven with hope and ecstasy and a terrifying kind of joy. It remade my flesh with new chemistry and atoms taken from the woman crying out beneath me, reforming and melding us in an unfathomable way. It couldn’t be described. Only known by those who’d experienced it before. The thought of that rope being severed was worse than enduring the seventh circle of hell. Worse than death.
I came so fucking hard, my vision blurred, and three words spilled from my mouth over and over. I hoped the heavens could hear and sympathized with what the loss of her would do to me. Did they care? I could only pray they did.
“I love you. I love you…”
She pulled me close, pressing her mouth to my neck, kissing and whispering in gasping breaths near my ear. “I know, Uriel. I feel it straight through me.” Her voice cracked with emotion. “You’re in my heart, too.”
I pressed my forehead to hers. “This has to work.”
“It will,” she assured me.
“I’ll kill him once and for all. For you. For us.”
“I know you will.”
As our breathing evened out, our bodies slick and sated and wound together, we said no more. There was nothing left to be said. One way or another, this trip to Ivangorod would save us or destroy us both.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Uriel
Circe breathed deep in her slumber. I’d reluctantly left Nadya’s bed—our bed—to center myself for the fight ahead. It was too easy to get lost in her body, in her love, when I should be readying my mind for what was to come.
I sat on a cloak I’d tossed on the snowy ground and leaned back against a tree trunk, meditating, whispering the incantation to pool energy of the air inside me. I’d been murmuring the old words, the energy humming in a hazy yellow aura around me, for an hour when the swift crackle of an otherworlder snapping out of the Void stopped my spell at once.
Circe didn’t even growl, and I recognized the soothing signature of George before he stepped closer from the shadows.
“Nice night, eh?”
I chuckled. It was gray and cold, as always. “Lovely. You were strolling nearby?”
His suave smile and casual tilt of the head warmed me. “You know me so well. Just a nice walk through the dense woods of Erzgebirge, Germany.”
He strolled closer, the long-sheathed sword now visible in his hand at his side. I knew why he’d come, and my heart ached at the gesture. He sat cross-legged in front of me and placed the sword across his lap.
“How are you, my friend?” he asked.
“I’m well. As can be expected.”
George was the first human I remade into a Dominus Daemonum. He was also the only one who hadn’t died with a mortal sin on his soul that needed atoning for. He’d actually died in a valiant, courageous act that cost him his life. In the eleventh century, George was killed saving an innocent woman from a dragon, a demon spawn sent to kidnap the woman for his pleasure. He would go down in history as the legendary Saint George. But he was reborn as George Draconus, leader of my hunters. And my friend.
I gestured toward his lap. “I see you’ve brought me something.”
Without further ado, he smiled and passed it to me still in the leather scabbard. “I thought you might need her. For what’s ahead.”
I unsheathed the well-crafted sword, the steel zinging under faint moonlight. Circe chuffed from nearby, sensing the danger. She was right to be nervous.
“Silversong,” I whispered. “A fine sword.”
“She’s been good to me.” His voice leveled with gravity. “She helped me find my love and bring her back.”
I caught his gaze, burning with the old pain I knew so well. I’d mourned with him when Kat had been taken so far away, we thought we’d never find her. But George…he never gave up, and he did finally find her.
“She needs a little sharpening,” he added. “But I thought you might like to do that yourself.”
I smiled. Yes, I’d want to sing my spells into her before Ivangorod. I slid my finger along the edge of the blade.
“She’s embedded quite a few demons. And dragons, hasn’t she?”
“And a demon prince,” George added. His voice was light, but the glint in his eyes told me he remembered that moment with relish when he’d gotten his own revenge. “I’m hoping she has it in her to impale one more.”
I re-sheathed the blade and held it with both hands, sensing the magic humming in my hands. “Thank you, old friend. This is generous of you.”
For as far as I’d known, he’d never let Silversong out of his sight.
“I know—” he started, then stopped, pressing his lips tightly together and clamping his jaw a few seconds before he went on. “I know what it’s like to want to protect the woman you love. I don’t want you to know what it’s like to lose her. I know you’re an archangel, but…well, I thought she might give you an extra edge.” He smiled, lightening the sudden heaviness. “No pun intended.”
“Your kindness is more than appreciated.”
“You were there for me,” he said seriously. “You’ve always been there for all of us. And we’ll be here for you. You know you don’t have to do this alone, right?”
I dipped my chin. “I know.”
And I did. Even though I’d become used to doing things on my own, which is how I’d gotten myself captured in the first place, I was happy to rely on friends now when I needed them the most.
“Good,” he said, standing before me.
I remained in place, needing to meditate for a few hours longer. Now, I’d send my magic into Silversong as well.
“Then come to Thornton Hall tomorrow with Nadya so we can sketch out our plan.”
“I will.”
&
nbsp; George arched a paternal brow at me. I laughed, which only made him shake his head.
“Bloody hell, Uriel. I thought you’d forgotten how to laugh. I suppose this witch does have some magic in her.”
“You have no idea.”
“Tomorrow,” he said with a smile.
“Tomorrow.”
Then he snapped out into the Void, whirling the snow where he’d stood a second before. Circe snorted and shifted her snout closer.
“Get ready, my girl. Our time has finally come.”
She blinked heavily and closed her eyes, unafraid for the road ahead. Strangely, so was I. Gripping Silversong closer, I leaned my head back against the tree and whispered words of power, summoning winds of magic and longing for my day of reckoning.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Nadya
“I know there’s definitely an unwarded escape room here.” I pointed down at the map. “Here in Vorotnaya Tower. At the very top is his bedchamber and a room he keeps padlocked where only he has the key. I know he sifts to and from Ivangorod from there.”
“Then we can’t let him get back to his tower,” said George, leaning over the map stretched out on the table between two sofas in the large parlor of Thornton Hall.
It was a palatial estate that was refurbished and kept in the styles of its origin, built back in the 1700s. Uriel had told me that George Draconis was once a gentleman of the ton in the 1800s. It was actually when he’d met and fallen in love with Kat, once named Lady Katherine Blakely. That was when she’d become one of the hunters for Uriel, but apparently George had been one for centuries longer. It was hard to imagine Kat as a lady of the aristocracy, seeing her now, a fit warrior hunter with a long sleek ponytail and a no-nonsense attitude.
“Once inside the fortress walls,” said Kat, “we’ll target him and keep him from getting to the tower.”
Uriel stood, staring down at the map as if it were a disgusting pile of manure. His disapproval for the plan we’d all agreed upon reeked in the room, no matter that he knew this was the only way. “You’re all assuming I won’t have killed Vladek by the time you make your entrance.”
“It’s a possibility that he’s more powerful than you think,” added Xander, mirroring Uriel’s scowling expression and crossing his arms over his chest on the other side of the table.
Uriel sighed. “Are you saying I can’t take him?”
“I never said that.”
“You’re implying it.”
“I’m just saying it’s a small possibility that the demon king who has conquered most of eastern Europe might be a challenge for you.”
“Xander, I know you’re concerned, but I’ve got this.”
“I have faith in ya,” said Dommiel with a wink. “You’ll get him, bro.”
“Thanks,” muttered Uriel.
Xander rolled his eyes. I couldn’t help but smile and love the hunter even more. It was so obvious he was berating Uriel because he cared so much about him.
“Enough, boys,” said Kat with a glare. “What about our entry? Do we have that all taken care of?” She looked at Xander.
He gave a stiff nod. “I’ve got it all in line.”
“Are you sure it will work?” she asked.
He scoffed. “Trust me. It will work. I’ve seen it before. And I have influence enough to make it happen.”
No one had decided to tell me exactly how they’d be getting through the wards, and the tension was so thick, I didn’t want to ask. The more left unsaid, the better. As long as I knew my part, I was fine.
George, a calm and collected sort of man, said, “Remember that we can’t predict everything. What we do know is that we don’t know how this will all play out.”
“But we know how it will end,” said Uriel, his icy stare skating from one to the other, landing on me.
“Right,” I said. “I think Xander has told everyone that I plan to be there.”
“Yeah, baby,” said Dommiel, lounging back on the sofa with his arm along the back, stroking the arch of Anya’s wing. “Still not sure that’s a good idea.”
“It’s a horrible fucking idea,” growled Uriel.
“My intention isn’t to put myself in harm’s way,” I said. “I know that I’m no warrior or fighter. But what I do know is Vladek. Better than any of you in this room.”
A silence fell that crackled with tension. Mostly emanating from Uriel. I went on to state my case.
“If Uriel goes into his fortress alone, then Vladek will put the full force of his men on him immediately and Uriel will be caught. Our plan ruined.”
“So why don’t we just all go in together?” said Xander. “If we all go in as one, then—”
“Then there’s a good chance Vladek will slip away,” interjected Kat. “Demon princes prize their survival above all else.” George and Kat shared a knowing look that made me wonder.
“Exactly,” I said. “And if Vladek has the chance to run away this time, you’ll lose yet another opportunity to be rid of him once and for all. We can’t go on chasing him blindly. I know what he wants more than anything.” Swallowing against the fear of saying it aloud, I blew out a shaky breath. “Me.”
“I’m still not following the plan,” said George. “While I respect your bravery, we don’t want you to sacrifice yourself.”
“That’s not my plan,” I added patiently. “Trust me when I tell you that Vladek will fight Uriel when he challenges him to. And when I’m there to add fuel to the fire. Vladek’s ego is beyond any tragic Greek hero. His hubris will doom him.”
“He would be the villain actually, baby,” said Dommiel. “Not the hero.”
Anya stood. “She’s right. I think our best chance is using her as bait. It’ll allow Uriel to get his chance to kill him on the arena floor. And less chance for him to get away in the chaos we’ll bring shortly after.”
Dommiel slapped her on the ass. “Yeah, baby. We’re definitely bringing chaos.”
I almost laughed at his sudden interest in Anya’s backside and his completely uncouth manners in the middle of the other growly, frowning men.
“I agree,” added Carowyn. “With Kat.”
She arched a brow at Dommiel the way my grandmother used to do to me when I’d said something inappropriate. Dommiel just grinned and winked at her. Carowyn walked over to me, holding out a belt and sheath. She pulled out a black-hilted dagger, small but very sharp.
“I made this for you. I know you said you’re not a fighter. But you’ll know where to stick this if you get into trouble.”
“Aim for the eyes or the throat,” said Kat. “And if all else fails, knee him in the balls.”
Dommiel winced. “So glad I never had to tangle with you.”
“You should be,” she assured him with confidence, her blonde ponytail sliding over her shoulder.
“We’ll be there, too, sweetheart,” said Dommiel more seriously, standing next to Anya and weaving the fingers of his black mechanical hand into hers. “Carowyn and I. We’ll be there the whole time with you.”
“Right.” Carowyn smiled. “You may not see us, but we’ll blend into the crowd before you even get there.”
“Good.” I exhaled a deep breath.
While that should’ve made us all feel better, it seemed the tension was mounting. This was going to happen. Battle plans were in place. Uriel was going to challenge Vladek into one-on-one combat. And I was going back to the place of my worst nightmares.
“That’s enough,” said Uriel, marching over and taking my hand. “We’ll see you all in Russia.”
No one responded as we walked in silence out of Thornton Hall. On the front lawn, human adults were playing with a group of children, a game of blindman’s bluff or something. Uriel had told me that George housed a large group of human resistance fighters, their families, and orphans here at his est
ate since it was heavily warded.
A few of them stopped and waved to Uriel as we passed. He nodded in response but kept marching us down the gravel drive toward the gate. The sight and sound of the children filled me with both joy and dread. It was a rare sound these days, but such a beautiful one. I wondered if there’d come a time when we’d no longer hear that sound at all. If it would fade into nonexistence.
No. I couldn’t allow that. And there was one way I could ensure that would never happen. By helping to kill Vladek. His kind of evil left unchecked would run rampant until only wickedness prevailed. This was the only way. Go into the devil’s den and kill him in his own house.
Once we crossed through the iron gates and beyond George’s wards, Uriel pulled me to a stop, sliding his arms around my waist. But he didn’t sift away at once.
“Are you sure?” he asked again for probably the hundredth time.
“I’m not changing my mind, Uriel. I’ll do what it takes to destroy him. It’s the only way to stop him from continuing to conquer and enslave others.” I clutched both my hands into his shirt at his waist. “You know this.”
“Besides, you’re stronger than he is. Smarter than he is. You’ll beat him.”
“You think I’m stronger and smarter?” I’d never seen Uriel wear a smirk, but he wore it very well. “What else?”
“More handsome. More wonderful. More…everything.”
“Thank you,” he murmured, pulling me close and wrapping me tight, pressing his lips to my temple. “The thought of him even looking at you makes me want to explode.”
Coldest Fire (Dominion series) Page 20
