Anise seed, like black licorice. The smell I had ignored.
Adrenaline rushed through me and my heart pounded faster and faster.
Fury took over. “You sonofabitch. You killed Caprice.” I shouted as I rammed my dagger toward its neck again.
The Chance-Demon laughed. “Easy prey,” it said as it caught my wrist while I was going for the kill. “Just like you.”
When the Demon yanked my arm, I lost my grip on my dagger and it thumped in the wet grass.
“The other sack of meat—Jon, I believe Caprice called him—fell for the same stupid ploy that you did.”
The Chance-Demon caught both of my wrists in a tight grip in front of me. “This was too easy. Princess,” it said in the language of the Dark Elves, obviously trying to shock me.
It worked. For half a second.
My actions were automatic.
I gave a slight jump so that 1 was bent at the waist with my feet on the Demon’s armored belly.
Then I jammed my boots against the Demon’s face and I shoved as hard as I could, flipping my feet over my head.
He shouted as I whirled my body horizontally, ripping my wrists from the Demon’s claws. Blood dripped along my arms from the tears in my skin.
My feet were steady as I landed a few feet away in a crouch. My remaining dagger was already in my left hand by the time my feet touched the grass.
The torn flesh on my wrists burned so much I wanted to scream. My heart pounded even harder, but now it felt like it might explode.
I staggered to my feet. My vision started to go cloudy.
It hit me like a Troll’s club slamming against my chest.
The Demon’s claws were deadly. The poison fatal to all races, including Light and Dark Elves. I was going to die.
The Chance-Demon had already won. Three times.
As I stumbled to the side, anger flooded me. It was like a rush of fire that blocked some of the pain and poison-induced confusion.
No! This fucking Demon wasn’t going to win.
I might be dying, but I was so taking the Demon with me.
My muscles already fought me, trembling as I moved.
It took all of my concentration and focus to fling my dagger straight for the Demon’s throat.
I managed to summon enough of the element of air to push the dagger faster toward the Demon, This time I caught it by surprise. Its blue eyes widened.
Just before my dagger glanced off its neck and landed on the ground.
The Chance-Demon smiled at me.
Excruciating pain tried to drive me to my knees as it stormed through every limb, every nerve ending, every cell in my body.
I staggered again. Blinked to clear my sight.
No way.
This thing would die with me.
Your training. Use your training. Nyx.
I shoved back the pain.
As I charged the few feet between us the power of air brought my dagger to my hand. It took all my remaining strength.
I gripped the dagger tight for one last time and drove it straight for the Chance-Demon’s vulnerable spot.
The blade slid cleanly into the sac of fluid that had given it life.
And now gave it death.
The power of my momentum smacked me into the Demon’s armored body, and more pain shot through me. I didn’t have the strength to push myself away.
I fell with the Demon as it dropped onto its back, and the ground shook from the impact. I could do nothing but lie on the Demon’s chest.
The fire and blinding pain of the poison were taking me. Even as death rushed toward me, I had one last sight that pleased me.
The look of complete surprise in the Chance-Demon’s wide-open, glazed eyes.
And one thought that I held onto. I had found my revenge. I had taken out Jon and Caprice’s killer.
My killer, too.
CHAPTER 21
Darkness.
Complete and total darkness.
I blinked. Not a sliver of light. Even my normally enhanced vision could see nothing.
In the distance water was dripping and plopping into something. A pool, maybe. The scent of earth was strong. Smells filled my nostrils that I thought I recognized, but couldn’t place because of the fog that was in my mind.
It almost smelled like—like home.
Pain. My wrists burned, and my head ached so badly I could hardly think.
I lay still, partly from the pain, and partly because of the images reeling through my mind about what had happened in the park. The Demon.
No confusion, no wondering what had happened. Just the fact that it had.
I was dead.
I was a Tracker. Often a killer. I’d always wondered if I would end up in Summerland or in Underworld.
Now I knew.
Total and complete blackness, the smell of earth.
and a sound like water dripping in a cave—where else could I be but Underworld?
Unless there was an underground version of Summerland for Dark Elves.
It didn’t matter, though. I’d fallen for a trap and I hadn’t been able to help Randy.
Or had that been part of the trap, too? Goddess, I hoped ail of the other Trackers had made it through the night.
I hoped Rodán knew exactly what had happened to me so that he could warn the others. No one would have found my body because there would be no body to find. Drow always fade away in black sparkles, unlike other paranorms.
Unless my human half had been dominant this time?
Who knew? I sure didn’t.
Did my mother and father know what had happened to me?
Thoughts of my parents made pain build up behind my eyes. I hadn’t even had a chance to say good-bye.
The headache seared my brain and I couldn’t think any longer. Maybe in this place not thinking was a good thing. At least for now.
It was completely void of light here in Underworld, but I still blacked out.
“Nyx.”
It shouldn’t have surprised me that Demons in Underworld knew my name. But the softness of the voice, the familiarity of the voice, did surprise me.
This time, even with my eyes closed, I could tell there was light. It was dim, but it came through my eyelids. Unlike before, I smelled something bitter that made me want to wrinkle my nose.
But more importantly, I caught the sweet perfume of someone familiar. The warm, precious scent of someone I loved.
Now I had to be confused and dreaming.
“Nyx, honey.” Mother’s voice.
Oh, that was so cruel. Send me to Underworld and let me imagine my mother was with me. What God did I piss off that badly?
“Open your eyes.” The voice that was supposed to be my mother’s was calm, but sounded concerned. “You’re okay.” Now her voice trembled a little. “You have to be okay.”
All right. I’d play the game. There would be a Demon hanging over me with my mother’s voice, and then it would laugh at me.
I blinked and her face came into focus. “Mother?” I said, afraid this was a dream or a trick. That it really was a Demon instead of my mother. Because I was dead, right?
She smiled. Mother had the most brilliant smile, and I think that’s one of the reasons why Father loves her so much.
And then I was in her arms, feeling the softness of her body and her warm tears on my neck.
Nothing and no one smelled like my mother. Like flowers and sunshine and everything good and wonderful. No way could that incredible scent be duplicated by any creature.
Mother held me so tight it was hard to breathe.
But who needed to breathe? I held her just as tightly not ever wanting to let go.
“Is this real?” My voice came out rough. “Are you real? I’m not dead?”
Mother gave a sniffle and drew away so that I was lying on my back again. “You are very much alive, thank God.” Tears made her cheeks shine in the soft light. She held my hand in hers, mine amethyst against her pale skin.<
br />
It was night. Otherworld time was different than Earth’s, and I guessed it was late afternoon there.
I got my sapphire-blue eyes from Mother, and I remember wishing sometimes, when I was a youngling, that I always looked human, like her. But then I’d see my father and realize I had the best of both worlds because half the day I looked like my mother and the other half like my father.
The only difference between me and Mother was that she was blond, and I have black hair when I’m in human form.
I couldn’t help smiling. After thinking I had died, so much happiness filled me at seeing my mother again that I didn’t think I’d stop smiling. “So tell me why I’m either dreaming or in Underworld after all.”
“You’d never go to Underworld.” She gave me a frown. “Drow go to Summerland like anyone else, as long as they’re not evil. You are a good and wonderful person, Nyx.”
“Cool.” I looked at the wrist of the hand she was holding—no sign it had ever been injured. I raised my other wrist to see it unmarked, too. “And I’m alive because ...”
“Torin.” Mother sounded a little choked up as my eyes widened. “If it wasn’t for him, you would be dead.”
“T?” I could feel my eyes widen so much that they hurt. “Him?”
“Torin—I don’t know what type of being he is, but he has to be some kind of Healer.” Mother raised her free hand before dropping it in her lap again. She wore blue jeans and a button-up blouse as she usually did, but the shirt was wrinkled, like she’d been sleeping in the chair beside my bed. “Torin found you and healed you. Somehow he sucked the poison out.”
I couldn’t think of a word to say. Not one.
“Whatever he did made him sick,” Mother continued, “but he was all right after a few hours.”
I pushed myself to a sitting position to find I was in the infirmary belowground in the Drow Realm.
I recognized it since I’d been treated here a few times after sword and dagger fights with male warriors who had something to prove. I’d usually won anyway. “How long have I been here?”
Mother glanced to her right and I followed her gaze to see two of her guards, enormous, blueskinned, black-haired Drow warriors. She gave a slight nod and one of them left. She looked back at me. “About twenty-four hours.”
“A day?” That meant it was around noon in New York, evening here in Otherworld. “Was anyone else hurt? Trackers? Other paranorms?” I swallowed, thinking of Adam as I said, “Human liaisons?”
“One Tracker died the night you almost did. His name was Randy” She pushed her long blond hair away from her cheek. “And, yes, a human liaison vanished.”
It was the Drow half of me that kept me from crying, but I wanted to. I really wanted to. Jon.
Caprice. Randy Their deaths tore at me as if a dragon-claw dagger had disemboweled me.
For a long time I kept my head bowed—out of respect for my friends who had died, and with pain at the thought of what they’d gone through.
Another liaison? That meant more clues might have been found, and 1 needed to know what, if any, they were.
“Three days in a row ...” I drifted off in thought as I frowned. “Three Trackers and three liaisons. Then one night of nothing ...
“I’ve got to talk with Rodán.” I met my mother’s eyes again. “There’s been a breach in security at the Pit and he needs to know as soon as possible.” I rubbed my temples. “Too bad there’s no cell phone service between here and the Earth Otherworld.”
Mother looked concerned. “We’ll send word to Rodán right away.”
“I need to talk with him myself.” I grabbed my mother’s hand. “I have to get out there to help the other Trackers. Now.”
“You are your father’s daughter.” Mother looked both sad and resigned. “I knew that’s exactly what you’d insist on.”
“I want to see my daughter,” came a bellow from the hallway, and I could imagine everyone within a hundred-foot radius scattering. “Now.”
A huge, handsome warrior stepped through the arched doorway. Broad-shouldered, muscular, and powerful, he had pure sapphire-blue hair past his shoulders and light blue skin. He wore leather breeches, boots, a jeweled breastplate, and a sword sheathed at his side.
I was already out of bed, and I threw myself into my father’s embrace and wrapped my arms around his neck. I barely noticed the pain through my soft Elvin tunic when my body slammed against his breastplate.
“By all the Gods and Goddesses.” His voice was so hoarse he sounded like he would cry, too, if he could. “We almost lost you.”
“I’m here, Father.” I had a hard time even talking, as choked up as I felt. “You can’t get rid of me that easily.”
“And that’s why you’re going to stay belowground, in our Realm,” he said, every word hitting me like a rock. “I’m not about to lose you. Ever.”
Twin emotions almost tore me in half. Happiness at seeing my father and anger at what he’d stated.
I came this close to causing a scene. As my father crushed me in his huge hug, I saw past his arm where my mother was shaking her head behind Father. Her eyes darted to the warrior guards.
Okay No scene with the King in front of any other Drow. That would not help my case one bit. Nor would losing my head and not thinking this through clearly to solve it in a levelheaded manner.
You’re an adult now, Nyx. Act like one.
Calm down.
Yeah, right.
As long as I could remember, once he made a decision, my father never backed down. His decisions were extremely well-thought out and intelligent.
This was not one of those decisions.
I pushed away from Father and glanced at the guards, who feigned incuriosity pretty well, but I saw the interest in their eyes.
My father had just made a decision in front of other Dark Elves. To change his mind for a female, even though she was his daughter, would undermine some of the confidence my father’s people had in him. They were extremely loyal, and Father was well-loved and respected as King, but there were some things that wouldn’t make him look good.
This was one of them. No way in all the Underworlds was he going to make me stay, and give up my life in New York City.
I looked into my father’s determined gray eyes. He was a big, big male. I had to pull on his shoulders to get him to lean down enough that I could whisper in his ear.
“Father.” Kudos to me for keeping my voice even. “Please take any nearby guards somewhere private and tell them that they are not to breathe one single word of this conversation to any being, Drow or Other. Or you will personally sever their heads.”
My father rose and studied me, and I knew he saw the oncoming fight in my eyes. In turn I saw the determination and the “I’ve made my decision” in his gaze, but he was bound to know I wouldn’t go down without a fight. I am my father’s daughter, just like Mother had said.
Only this was one fight I was going to win.
He gave the slightest nod before saying, “If you are well enough you will join your mother and me for supper in our private chambers.”
“I am looking forward to it.” My words were in the formal tongue of the Dark Elves. “I am well.”
“My Princess.” Father hugged me again before he left the room and indicated to the guards that they were to accompany him.
In moments a fresh pair of guards joined Mother and me.
I sighed. The life of a royal.
At least the three of us made it through dinner without any arguing over what my father had stated.
I was starving, and shoved food into my mouth like I’d never ever get another meal Like tomorrow might never come.
There almost hadn’t been a tomorrow.
The King and Queen always had the best of the best, and I was happy to eat as much of it as I could.
I had a feeling I’d need the strength for my upcoming “conversation” with Father.
Goddess, how I’d missed the smell of freshl
y baked bread, the juicy taste of roasted fowl, and the flavor of crisp Otherworld vegetables. Dessert— nothing on Earth could compare to the puddings, which were more heavenly than the moistest human chocolate cake with whipped cream. It even beat Derek’s incredible chocolate mousse. Both the cake and mousse happened to be my favorite desserts in the city.
Mother and Father had contacted Rodán via an Elvin messenger, and sent word that Rodán needed to tighten security and that I would explain as soon as possible. Of course Father had no doubt figured that meant Rodán meeting me here in Otherworld, aboveground at night, me with an escort.
The thought of my father’s decision to make me stay here caused my ears to burn, and I lost interest in my dessert. It was all I could do to wait until they were finished eating, and not explode with anger.
After the servants had cleaned away the last of the dishes, utensils, and napkins, my skin started to tingle. Daylight was breaking aboveground.
“Excuse me, Mother, Father.” I stood and gave a slight bow before going to the center of their enormous and very richly appointed chamber. The circular, patterned rug I stood on was Fae-made, and finer than any Persian rug one could find on Earth. I wore a blue tunic and breeches made of soft leather.
The transformation was more important to me now than ever. My father needed to see me as human.
I tipped my head back and felt my cobalt-blue hair flow into long black hair. I went through every stretch, every movement I always made when I transformed and, as usual, reveled in it. Whether it was from Drow to human, or human to Drow, I loved it.
As I moved, my amethyst skin faded to the same fair shade as my mother’s. My small incisors retracted so that my white teeth were completely human, and the points of my ears rounded.
When I finished, my father’s frown didn’t bother me, and my mother’s smile made me feel even better.
Father loved my human half, I had no doubt about that. I was also certain that right now he didn’t want to be reminded that I’m half human. He was going to demand that I remain in the Drow Realm even though half of me belonged aboveground.
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