Forged in Fire

by Juliette Cross

  “Oh, he did, did he?”

  Wow, one kiss and a kidnapping to Dracula’s Castle and I was suddenly willing to hand myself over, body and soul. Danté was quite sure of himself. I suppose that comes with centuries—no, millennia—of seducing others to debauchery. I shivered and screwed my courage into place.

  “Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go.”

  I stepped away from him, heading for the door. A quick glance over my shoulder. Sure enough, he followed with Spiky and three others in his wake. From the looks of it, they’d found the new recruits recently. They were sort of dazed and shifty-eyed, reminding me of the guy Garzel possessed at the jukebox.

  Luckily, Mindy and the boys were kicking back another round of shots, completely oblivious to me sneaking off. As I made my way through the crowd, I noticed Kat slipping out of the cage. I squeezed past Sunshine at the door and others trying to get in.

  “Hey, beautiful. Leaving so soon?” he asked, frowning at my odd escort.

  “I’ll be back,” I called with a wave. “No worries.”

  Beside me, Fabio latched on to my arm. His expression deepened into an ugly scowl.

  “You know,” I commented lightly, “your face could get stuck like that.”

  He yanked hard, pulling me close to his side. I cursed inwardly, waiting for my moment. Spiky took the other side with the new guys flanking us. The night had grown cool and windy, blowing my hair behind me. I wished I’d sacrificed a little style and worn it in a ponytail to keep it out of my face.

  Two of the new recruits were dirty, oafish and in a blind stupor. The third was skinny and unkempt. Greasy hair clung to his face and neck under a black skullcap. I wondered if they’d found these guys from one of the homeless dens under the interstate, feeling rather sympathetic in spite of the fact they wished me harm. The humans didn’t, but the demons did. Now, Fabio and Spiky were another story. Jude had said they were fused to their human hosts, so all bets of mercy were off.

  My nerves stretched, suddenly feeling alone with five determined demons marching me farther away from the comforting sound of music pumping and people babbling outside Tartarus. They walked me nearly two blocks. The only sounds were boots on pavement and horns honking in the distance of the hip-hopping Quarter. I couldn’t sense Jude or Kat at all, putting me on edge. My stomach tightened. Fabio might sift out with me, but Jude had told me lower demons have limited power—that being one of them.

  Taking a deep breath, I centered my VS and touched that inner place. A shimmer of starlight responded, making me smile.

  “What’s so funny?”

  Fabio glared, veering me down a side street toward a black SUV with tinted windows.

  “You are. You and your thug crew just crack me up. Could you get a more obvious kidnapping vehicle? You could’ve gone old-school with a white van and tin-foiled windows, I suppose.”

  “That’s about enough,” said Fabio, gripping my arm tighter.

  “Yeah, you’re right about that,” I muttered, wrenching my arm free and spinning around to face them.

  I pulled the cast of illusion back inside myself, revealing the daggers strapped at my ribs. Fabio snickered. Spiky circled to my left, straight-faced. The other three drones followed behind me. I remained motionless, squaring my posture, eyes on Fabio.

  “Little kitty cat wants to play, you see that, Bor?”

  Bor? Seriously? Spikey suited him much better. Fabio took a step forward.

  “I thought you were being way too cooperative,” he grunted with a sneer.

  “Ooo, cooperative is kind of a big word for you, isn’t it? Don’t hurt yourself.”

  “I’m going to make you shut that smart mouth.”

  “Ready when you are.”

  I gritted my teeth, dagger in hand. So predictable, he lunged straight for me, bulky arms reaching out, though he moved faster than I remembered.

  “Flamma intus!”

  I slashed my dagger across his abdomen. A pulse of white light rippled out of my chest, down my arm, flinging Fabio back onto the pavement and knocking his head against the brick building. Eyes wide with shock stared back at me as a dark line seeped through his gray shirt in the same place as my own wound.

  “Payback’s a bitch, isn’t it?” I glared.

  Stunned still for a second, Spiky leapt for me. I spun, swinging my boot up and punching out with power simultaneously. My VS obeyed the summons without repeating the words, though my blow missed. He ducked and clipped me from behind. I fell forward, scraping my palms on the pavement, and rolled sideways as he lunged again. I slashed in an arc, my dagger cutting across his face. He screamed and stumbled backward. Two viselike grips pinned my arms. I’d put my back to the newcomers by mistake. Instinct had me yanking to free myself.

  “Hold her!” yelled Fabio, grim-faced, marching forward.

  I crunched my boot on the foot of the scraggly guy to my left. He screamed and let go. As I swung to punch the one on my right, someone grabbed me from behind around the waist, pulling me tightly against his sweaty, foul-smelling body.

  Spiky. Panic shot through me, strong and potent. I tried to elbow the captor at my back, but the other minions had a tight grip on both forearms.

  “So, the Vessel has learned a few tricks,” Fabio grumbled, touching a finger to the bloody spot on the back of his head.

  I stopped struggling, took a deep breath and summoned VS power. A weak pulse thrummed in my core. I closed my eyes to focus, inhaling a deep breath. A squeezing hand clutched my throat, snuffing out the pulsing light at once. Fear startled my eyes open to see a leering Fabio, sinister eyes glinting with rage.

  “Not so smart now, are you? Master gave me a little something extra to deal with you.”

  I choked out a laugh, sensing someone else on the wind.

  “You won’t be laughing long, sweetheart.”

  “Neither will you,” I promised.

  His eyes narrowed. “Why is tha…?”

  Blood gurgled in his throat. He coughed metallic-scented spray across my cheek as a sword blade ripped through his chest from behind. The besmeared tip exited the left pectoral at an angle. Dazed, Fabio peered down, gripping the blade with a shaking hand as if to shove it back through.

  Jude had sifted in mid-thrust. Fabio was skewered before anyone even saw the man ringed in red-orange flames with death in his eyes. He chanted low in the demon’s ear as the life-blood drained away. At Jude’s command, the creature began shriveling inward. Clawing and convulsing on the pavement, it shrieked, gurgling crimson from its mouth. I couldn’t feel sorry for the demon, but I pitied the man who’d fused itself with the beast.

  Eyes hooded, Jude continued to whisper an expelling chant to the thing at his feet. Fury consumed the air, brushing against my skin, my face, the emotion so strong I felt that if I reached out, it would flay the skin off my bones. Instead, a moon-bright beam reached out from within by instinct, coating my skin in luminescent light. A shield against the rage pouring from Jude as he broke the man and demon in half. With a final wail, the human host crumpled to a lifeless heap. Legs and arms twisted at unnatural angles, the neck lolled completely parallel to the shoulder. Smoke swirled up, dissipating in the scattering wind. We’d all frozen to watch the scene in horrific fascination. Spiky had let me go and now slowly inched away.

  “Hello,” came Kat’s casual voice from behind.

  Spiky took off in one direction. The two oafs scattered, but the scraggly one fell to the pavement a few yards away. Well, no. His human body fell, but a three-foot, bony creature with sagging gray skin squeezed out of him. I felt a crackle of Flamma energy as the little demon cast illusion, disappearing into the night. Its human host lay unconscious as I’d seen happen to all the others when the lower demons vacated the premises.

  All the while, Jude stood over the broken body of Fabio, eyes closed, breathing heavily. His aura of fire licked in angry waves, caressing his shoulders, flaring in arcing bursts high above him. Something was wrong.


  “Jude?” I stepped cautiously forward. “Are you okay?”

  He labored to catch his breath, his chest rising and falling in quick succession. He gripped his sword, a rough iron-made weapon, in a tight fist. The tip rested on the pavement, dripping red into a puddle at his boot. An acrid stench of sulfur and something else—rotten and putrid—lingered around the distorted body of what was Fabio. Even worse, a malevolent presence moved in the space around Jude. Darkness, tangible and breathing, skirted up the front of his body, almost petting him.

  I heard a snap and shrill cry behind me but couldn’t tear my eyes away from Jude. Recognizing the distinct sound of a demon’s painful exit when ripped from its host by a Dominus Daemonum, I realized Kat had taken care of Spiky.

  “Jude?”

  Nebulous mist hung in the air for a second longer before settling onto his chest and torso, fading away. The broiling flame of light wrapping his body dimmed, seeping into the taut shoulders, broad back and slightly bent form of my demon hunter. Golden-orange fire evaporated and vanished altogether. It was as if he simply sucked the elements back into himself. Jude unclenched the fist not gripping the hilt, cracked his neck, then peered at me with irises drenched in obsidian. Not a glimmer of gold.

  “Are…are you okay?”

  My voice shook. He wiped the flat of one side of the blade on his jeans, then the other, sheathing it in the scabbard across his back. Kat marched directly toward Jude, gripping his jaw and forcing his eyes down to meet hers. She leaned so close, I thought she was about to kiss him. If he hadn’t just staked an unmistakable claim on me back in the bar, I would’ve been jealous. But Kat examined him. For what, I don’t know. The inspection took all of three seconds before he pulled out of her grasp.

  “Take care of it,” she murmured in an uncharacteristically grave tone, then spoke to me when I stepped closer. “Good job, Genevieve.”

  “Thanks,” I muttered, feeling strangely like an interloper.

  “We better get back to your friend before we have to scrape her off the floor of Tartarus. And trust me, you don’t want her on that floor.” The lightness was back in her voice as she swished back in the direction of the club, blonde braid flying as she tossed it over her shoulder, “You might want to dim the lights too. Don’t think we can explain that away.”

  I glanced down at my arms, shimmering with a faint white glow. Closing my eyes, I willed the stars to pull center, orbiting the core where my VS spun and beat to the rhythm of my heart and the flow of my blood.

  “Here,” said Jude.

  He untucked his black shirt, wiping my forehead, left cheek and nose. Fabio’s blood. The pained expression Jude wore concerned me.

  “What just happened?” I asked.

  “I thought it was fairly obvious. We beat the hell out of a pack of demons.”

  He had flipped my palms up, brushing lightly to remove dirt and a bit of gravel. I winced.

  “That’s not what I meant. What happened after?”

  “You were wonderful. You kept calm under pressure.”

  “I didn’t feel calm at all, and I wasn’t wonderful. I got myself completely pinned in. Now stop evading, Jude.”

  “Your mission was to scrounge up a demon to battle. But no. You corralled five of them and faced them with courage.”

  “I was scared shitless. Now tell me what I sensed hovering around you after you killed Fabio.”

  I gestured to the heap without looking at it. The sight was pretty revolting. My stomach squeezed with nausea.

  “Does this hand hurt much?” he asked.

  I shook my head. He twined his fingers through mine and led me away toward the club. “Jude.”

  A heavy exhalation of breath. “Let’s get you home.”

  My own sigh nearly matched his. Would I ever win a battle with him? “Okay.”

  Kat exited the club with a sloppy, stumbling Mindy on her arm when we made it to the door. Sunshine glanced at us, me in particular next to Jude, giving me the oh-well-your-loss shrug. Doubtful, Sunshine, but I had to admire his confidence.

  “Hey, Gen!” squealed Mindy with blurry-eyed giddiness. “This is my new friend, Pat!”

  “It’s Kat.”

  “Yeah, that’s right. It’s Skat.”

  I shook my head. “At least you’re a happy drunk, Min.”

  We hadn’t parked far. Kat and I managed to get her there. She weighed next to nothing between the two of us, even when she leaned with her whole weight.

  “Who’s drunk? Where we goin’? Bourbon Street? Whoohoo! Let’s go to Pat O’s!”

  “Um, that would be no.”

  She turned to Kat, ignoring my refusal. “You like Hurricanes? They’re awe-ssssome.”

  Yeah, that’s what she needed, a sixteen-ounce drink of rum, vodka, gin, amaretto liqueur, triple sec and grenadine syrup. That would certainly do the trick.

  “Here we are,” I said, unlocking my car with a click and opening the backseat.

  Mindy crumpled in and started to sing, “Here I am—rock me like a hurricaaaaane.”

  “Looks like you’ve got this,” said Kat with her winning smile. She sifted out in a quiet snap.

  “I’ll drive,” said Jude, taking my keys. I didn’t argue.

  Mindy fell into silence on the ride home. So did I. Jude, laconic as always, said not a word. The plan had gone relatively well, considering I did demonstrate my use of Vessel power, though weakly. Still, none of us were remotely hurt, and I finally got those two thugs out of the picture. Of course, there was apparently an endless supply of weak-minded people who could be used for possession. But what disturbed me most of all was the undeniable presence of evil lurking around Jude after he killed Fabio. He didn’t want to talk about it, and now I wasn’t so sure I did either.

  Jude pulled up the drive, parked, then tossed the keys to me. “I’ll get her for you.”

  He lifted Mindy from the backseat and followed me to the door. Her blonde head rolled. She had to force it upright to see her carrier, slowly focusing on his face. “Well, hello, there.”

  She looped her arms around Jude’s neck—a pretty, though highly intoxicated, doll in his arms.

  “Hi.” He smirked at me as I passed in front of them. Mindy got that glassy-eyed gaze.

  “Hey. Are you Batman?”

  I giggled.

  “Do I look like Batman?”

  “You totally look like Batman.” Poor Mindy. Tequila and beer—not a good combo. “You’d look soooo hot in a mask and cape,” she slurred, staring dreamily up at him.

  “Please ignore her drunken blathering,” I said as I jingled the key in the door.

  Mindy waved a hand around her ears like she was shooing a fly.

  “Don’t mind her,” she whispered outrageously loud. “Do you have a Bat Cave?”

  “Of course I do,” he replied with such sincerity I had to choke back a laugh. “But I dare say, it may be a bit cold and dark for a sweet little thing like you.”

  I led him into her bedroom and pulled back the pink rosebud coverlet.

  “I wouldn’t mind,” she said, her head thudding against his chest. “I like bats.”

  Jude placed her on the bed while I pulled off her boots and tucked her under the covers.

  “Night, Gen,” she murmured, rolling over. “Night, Batman.”

  I clicked the door shut behind us and walked back into the living room. When I turned around, he stood right behind me, gazing with those fathomless eyes.

  “I’ve never seen your Bat Cave,” I teased.

  He eased forward, sliding large hands along my waist. “I’ll be more than happy to show you,” he whispered, leaning closer.

  “Aren’t you afraid it will be too cold and dark for me?”

  “Genevieve.” His face lost all trace of humor, suddenly bracketed with harder lines. He pulled me into a tight embrace flush against him. “I will keep you close and warm, and you will be my light.”

  How do you respond to a statement like that? Simpl
e. You don’t.

  I laid my head against the hollow of his neck, wrapping my arms around his waist, pressing myself closer. His arms were bands of steel, molding my body to his. We stood there in silence, feeling the warmth of each other, languishing in a new, fragile intimacy. My mind closed off the world as my senses reached out to record everything—the expanse of his large hand against the small of my back; the heady, masculine smell of him; the steady beat of his heart within his breast. Unbidden, my mind opened a vision in the space of a heartbeat.

  A line of torches flickered gold light on the faces of warriors smeared with blue Wode at the verge of a wood. Among them, Jude peered from the shadows, the fire dancing over his still features. Hatred lined the planes of his face. Menace sparked in the bright amber-gold of his eyes. This was no demon hunter, but a man—one filled with such focused loathing that it etched every hard angle of cheek, jaw, nose and brow. Face fixed on something in the distance, he waited like a statue. Long black hair with war braids at the temples framed the hardened face of a warrior with murder on his mind. A fierce-looking man to his left bearing a scar across nose and cheek muttered deep and low, “Tá anseo cinniúint, mo dheartháir.” Something lurked in the shadows behind them, swathed in night, wrapping them in cold and wind. Jude’s stony countenance gave an almost imperceptible nod, his eyes aflame with torchlight. His voice so deep and low, I almost didn’t hear his terse response: “Aye.”

  I jumped, reeling back to the present. My pulse pounded wildly in my head. I had no idea what the man had said, but the words must have been some form of Gaelic. I had taken a celtic mythology class last year with a professor obsessed with linguistics. We’d read stories not only in partially translated Gaelic but also listened to them in the original tongue. The vivid vision struck cold against my heart.

  Jude pulled me back, fixing a searching gaze on me. No amber, no light—only the darkness of night. His brows bunched together, though he hadn’t seemed to sense me having the vision as he did the time before.

  “Are you all right? You’re shaking.”

  I glanced down, my voice proving him right. “Just a little tired,” I said, pulling farther away.