Demonstorm: Heart of a Vampire #6

by Kallyn, Amber

  There was no way in all the hells she could put such trust in this man. This stranger.

  But…

  Perhaps she could use him, as his clan wanted to use her. Her escape hadn’t been planned out, therefore she’d failed. Maybe she could bargain, convince him to take her closer to her brother.

  Not for her freedom.

  Never that.

  But she could pretend to agree with his clan’s desires.

  The waitress set more plates down, covering the table with food. Sean ate as heartily as Mayah.

  She continued to think through the ups and downs, as well as pushing away the niggle of distrust. What if he suddenly showed his demon colors and became exactly like Brüs? Or worse.

  The more she thought it over, the more it looked like her best—possibly only—hope was to risk it. She didn’t have time to play cat and mouse with both this man and Brüs, not if she wanted her brother to survive. Which meant trusting Jezzie’s words. But could she truly do this?

  With a sigh, she pushed the last plate away. She’d try. See how it went. For now. “I’m not going anywhere without freeing my brother from Brüs’s dungeon first.”

  Chapter Six

  “Why didn’t you say something when we were leaving the castle?” Sean demanded, caught off guard by this new complication.

  “Because, obviously, he wasn’t kept in the same place.” She looked up at him, her face blank. “That would make it too easy for us to try escaping.”

  “Where?” He was starting to think her mask was a defense mechanism. A way to hide her emotions.

  “I’m not sure… exactly. Only that it’s north. But my brother’s release is the second condition of my helping your clan.”

  “You just escaped from the demon, and now you want to go knocking on the door of his summer house?”

  Her lips compressed once more into a thin line. “The only reason Cyrus still lives is to be used as a bargaining chip for my cooperation. If Brüs doesn’t get me back soon, he will kill my brother.”

  Sean didn’t even have to think about his answer. “No. Let me take you to my clan. You’ll be safe. I can gather some men and rescue your brother.”

  “You seem to think this is a request. I will be rescuing my brother, and I will do so now. There is no time to lose. I’m merely giving you the option of coming with me.” Her voice wavered between bravado and a hint of fear that he was about to pounce, tie her up and drag her off to a dungeon.

  He stared her down, but she didn’t look away. “You just said you don’t even know where this place is located. How do you expect to find it?”

  “May I see my box?” Her tone of voice was pleasant, but her eyes were wary. As if her question was a test of some sort.

  He slipped the small gold box from the bag, turning it over in his hands. Only now, looking closer, did he see carvings in the ivory inlay. If he wasn’t mistaken, they were couples in various sexual positions.

  Clearing his throat, he handed it to her. He’d never actually intended to force her cooperation with it, only buy some time to talk. She currently seemed amicable to trying to find a compromise with him, but something about her sudden agreeableness struck him wrong. Still, he’d take what he could get until earning her trust. He didn’t figure that would happen any time soon.

  Opening the box, she gently pulled out a shiny necklace made of thin strands of gold wrapped around a dozen or so white crystals of different sizes. “Like my gloves, this was a gift from my father. As I told you, it helps me concentrate and direct my visions a little.”

  “A little?” He raised a brow.

  “Enough.”

  Sean snorted. “So you’re going to try to see where this brother of yours is. You don’t think Brüs will be waiting?”

  “I know he will be.” Her eyes dimmed, voice filling with a deep, sorrowful pain. “But if it was your family, could you just sit back and do nothing?”

  He couldn’t. Hadn’t he been forced to watch his mother be beaten and abused for centuries before they’d managed to escape? Then countless more years, always on the run, for fear of being caught and locked back up by the demon sorcerer?

  His mother had done everything in her power to keep him safe, and he’d done the same for her.

  So, yeah, he knew exactly what Mayah must be feeling. “It will be dangerous. Most likely futile. But I’ll help you.” His family probably wouldn’t like the delay, but they would understand the reason.

  Her eyes flashed, something unreadable mixed with surprise at his agreement. She frowned, as if regretting receiving his help. A long moment passed, and he could practically hear her thoughts running in circles.

  Then she sighed. “Then I guess I better figure out where Cyrus is being kept.”

  Sean ordered a few more meals to go and they returned to the motel.

  She stared around the room. “I’m going to take a shower and get cleaned up. I must be able to relax in order to direct my visions.”

  Keeping her bag clutched tight to her chest, she disappeared into the bathroom. She returned, grabbed a chair. Back in the bathroom, locks clicked. The chair thumped against the door, scraping the floor, as she wedged it beneath the knob as a barricade.

  She had to know as well as he that such a thing wouldn’t stop anyone who wanted to force their way inside the small room. But it would make a decent alarm system, he guessed.

  Soon the water started running.

  Something clattered to the door and Mayah cursed. Then the shower curtain rattled. Against his will, and hitting him from out of nowhere, Sean’s mind conjured a picture of her standing beneath the stream of water. Naked.

  Tension filled him at his overactive imagination—unbidden, unwelcome.

  He hurried to leave the room and sat outside, ignoring his previous thoughts. Concentrate on enjoying the evening’s warmth. The colorful sunset. Not the woman inside the room who was becoming a strange distraction.

  And he wondered abouther, full of contradictions. After her initial shock that he was a half-breed, she’d seemed to take it in stride even if she’d showed her uneasiness time and again. He rubbed the backs of his knuckles together, feeling at a great disadvantage. He knew damn near nothing about demons, other than the bastard sorcerer who’d held him and his mother captive for centuries, torturing them for his depraved pleasure.

  The same bastard who’d made Sean into what he was.

  Half-breed.

  Not even his mother knew exactly how he’d been turned. She’d been pregnant when turned by a vampire. Somehow, it made him vampire as well.

  The demon captured her right after the attack, and decided to experiment on them both.

  When Sean had been born, he’d been other. His soul split.

  He knew a lot more about vampires. Now he wished he’d found someone to teach him about demons.

  Mayah’s words from the forest drifted to him. He did deny half of who he was, didn’t even want to think about it. He sure as hell didn’t think it would be his peril to continue ignoring it. Yet…

  The door opened and Mayah strode outside.

  He glanced up, then froze in shock.

  She’d washed off the thick layers of make-up and now looked like a fresh faced twenty-year-old. Her multi-colored hair had been unbraided and fell around her shoulders, down her back, to her knees. Shades of whites, blondes, and reds mixed in a riot of hues.

  Her eyes, a blue-green surrounded by a thin band of black, seemed lighter without all the kohl. And his imagination took off once more.

  She caught him staring and her cheeks darkened with pink as she nibbled her lush lower lip. “What?”

  “You look so different,” he said, slightly awestruck.

  If he hadn’t seen her fight earlier, didn’t know she was a demon, he’d think her an innocent young mortal. Someone who needed to be kept safe, protected.

  She scowled. “Well, I’m not putting more face paint on. I didn’t wear it by choice in the first place.”
r />   He didn’t know how to respond to that as he struggled to rein in his thoughts.

  She went inside, clasping the shiny necklace around her throat, then laid down on the bed. She stared at him for a long moment, her face full of distrust before finally saying, “I’m ready.”

  Sean refused to allow his mind to follow that one down the gutter. “I’ll ensure your safety.”

  Her lips twisted in disbelief. After a few even longer moments, her eyes finally fluttered closed. She remained tense, though, her fear and mistrust clear.

  Sean locked the door, then glanced out the window as he made sure the curtains were closed tight. He waited a good twenty minutes before he heard her relax on the bed. He didn’t move for fear of startling her.

  When he turned around a while later, he studied Mayah. So still, she could have been a corpse.

  He wasn’t here to fantasize over her beauty, her rebellious spirit that for some reason called to him. He was here to get her to his clan, gain her help in figuring out this war everyone was worrying about. Instead, he was going to go off to who in the hells knew where, on a futile mission to save someone who, for all they knew, was already dead.

  For a long moment, he struggled with the urge to do as she feared. Tie her up and cart her home. Where she’d be safe. But he’d never treated anyone, certainly not a woman, thusly.

  And for some reason, he found himself wanting to gain her trust, to prove to her that not everyone out in the world was like the evil ones she’d encountered. A small part of him whispered the desire to keep her to himself for a little while longer as well. To try to figure her out, if such a thing would ever be possible.

  With a deep sigh, he turned back to the window. What in the hells was wrong with him lately? His thoughts bouncing here and there, to places they shouldn’t touch with a twenty-foot stick. And yet, all his senses were attuned to the woman laying just a few yards away. He smelled her flowery scent, felt sparks of energy over his skin from her presence. He inhaled deeply, taking it all in, his mind a mass of swirling confusion she seemed to light inside him.

  * * *

  Mayah drifted in darkness, feeling caught in that place between waking and asleep.

  Light flashed. Something tugged at her soul. Then the world exploded in colors and events.

  Past.

  Present.

  Multiple futures.

  Mayah walked through a strangely lit hallway, unnoticed by those traversing the narrow corridor. People wearing thin, shimmery clothing, strode by. Eyes, mostly the color of a stunningly clear sky, blue and bright, seemed brilliant when compared to the people’s pale skin, made paler by everyone’s light-blonde, nearly white hair.

  Everything remained soundless, like most visions. She could usually only hear the one she was meant to see.

  Mayah waited until someone spoke, then headed after the young man her vision had brought her to watch. She followed him from the building, out into the middle of a bustling city. Overhead, metallic car-like contraptions flew through a stormy sky.

  The boy walked faster, muttering, “Father is going to kill me.”

  He hurried toward a tall, imposing castle in the distance. Near an intersection of flowing crowds, the man stopped, tapping his foot impatiently.

  Mayah studied everything. The royal insignia on the man’s ring confirmed her suspicion of when and where she had been drawn.

  Atlantis.

  The islands that had become mere myth.

  But why was she here? This place had been gone for thousands of years.

  Overhead, sounds rumbled, building loudly. The hum of a flying vehicle, the growl of thunder.

  Lightning flashed, striking the castle on the horizon. Stone and metal exploded as if a bomb had gone off in the towering structure.

  In front of her, the man cried out as he broke into a run. Before he could go more than a few paces, a vehicle swooped down. Arms reached out, grabbing the man and jerking him toward the contraption.

  Lightning flashed, over and over. Strikes hit buildings. Animals.

  People.

  “What’s going on?” the man cried out.

  “Attack. We must go, Sire,” someone replied.

  “Sire?” The man’s face fell. “My father is dead?”

  “We must get you to safety,” was the reply.

  The choking stench of burning flesh and hair made Mayah gag as she stumbled after him, but the vehicle was soon out of view.

  Light flashed.

  Darkness surrounded her.

  She heard weeping. Screams of agony.

  The scents changed to a putrid decay.

  Light grew, showing her a throne made of bone. Brüs sat on it, his eyes burning bright. At his feet, a bloody carcass shuddered. Brüs kicked the demon, who continued to weep.

  Mayah inched closer, realizing the guy he was beating had been one she and Sean fought during their escape.

  “You let them get away,” Brüs thundered, delivering another sharp kick. The shattering of bones cracked through the still air.

  “Abatu,” the demon screamed.

  Darkness.

  A flash of light.

  In a dank, dark cell, the air seemed moist and full of minerals like one would find coming from an underground river, deep in a cave. Mayah stared at her brother. Still chained, he looked worse than in her previous vision. Dried blood covered his swollen face. He glanced up, as if once more sensing her.

  She wanted to go to him, free him, but in this vision world, she was nothing more than an invisible ghost, incapable of touching anything.

  It was the hardest thing in the world for her to do, but she turned away and moved through the halls until she reached outside. It seemed forever, but was probably only seconds, to find the information she needed.

  Northern Alaska.

  She touched her necklace, comforted by the ice-cold crystals, willing herself to emerge from the vision and return to herself.

  Light flashed.

  Darkness descended.

  Mayah opened her eyes, finding herself once more in the present, in the motel room. She glanced around. Sean stood guard near the window, staring out through a slim gap in the curtains at the star filled sky.

  As if sensing she’d returned, he glanced her way. His red-gray eyes burned with intensity.

  “Is something wrong?” she asked, sitting up.

  “No. We’re safe. We should have a few hours for some much needed sleep. Then we’ll head out. No telling when the demons might find us if we stay too long.”

  She stood, unclasped her necklace and slid it back in the box.

  “You know where we need to go?” he asked.

  “Northern Alaska.” She glanced at him, trying to gauge his reaction, but he seemed to be nearly as good as she was at hiding his emotions.

  Her hope lay in Jezzie’s message, and the strange, nearly impossible feeling that there might just be some slight chance she could trust this man.

  It would have been so easy for him to chain her, or any number of things, while she’d been caught up in the vision. Yet, he’d kept his word… So far.

  Chapter Seven

  After a too short nap, Sean felt slightly more awake. Before long though, he’d need a decent amount of rest or his thinking would turn fuzzy and frazzled.

  After brushing and rebraiding her long, mesmerizingly colored hair, Mayah stuffed everything back in her bag. Her face remained blank as she turned to him, though her hands shook imperceptibly.

  He cleared his throat. “What did you see in your vision?”

  She shrugged. “My brother. The day Atlantis fell.”

  “Atlantis? Why am I not surprised to find out it was real?”

  Shooting him a wry look, she said, “Maybe because you know so many myths do actually exist?”

  “Perhaps. So what was important about the day it fell that it showed up in your vision?”

  “I’m not quite sure.” She picked up her pack and headed to the door. “We can ta
lk more on the drive.”

  He grabbed his few things, glad he’d filled up on blood as she’d slept. He didn’t understand her aversion to his drinking it. For vampires, it was food as much as the sandwiches they’d eaten earlier. His body needed both just the same.

  The sun shone bright as they headed to his truck. He remained alert for any sign of demons, but they checked out and drove away without mishap.

  In the passenger seat, Mayah slipped off her shoes and pulled her legs up, crossing them as she leaned back. “You planning on driving the whole way?”

  He glanced over. “Oregon to Alaska is only a few days’ drive. I know some back roads. They’ll take a little longer, but we won’t have to deal with traffic or trying to cross the borders.”

  Her eyes swirled with a strange light he thought might be a spark of interest. “How?”

  Thinking of the endless cross-country trips he’d taken while running from a different demon, he only said, “I like to drive.”

  Which, for the most part, was true. It relaxed him. On the highway, speeding along the road, he could escape into an almost meditative state. Look at things more clearly, see the big picture. Think.

  “I don’t believe that’s all,” she stated lightly. “But if you don’t want to talk about it, fine. Instead, tell me why you avoid your demon side. Your magic.”

  His hands clenched the steering wheel, shoulders tensing. “I’d rather not discuss that, either.”

  “It may have came from the ether, but my words before were true. If you don’t embrace all of who and what you are, you will be lost.”

  He suppressed a shudder at the thought of tapping into his demon side. “Why don’t you tell me about your vision of Atlantis?”

  “As you wish. Atlantis didn’t fall like the myths say. It was attacked, and those who did the attacking controlled the weather.”

  Sean’s mind spun at such power.

  “I was following the Princeling when the storms came in. Lightning struck the palace, destroying it and killing the King. Then someone, a guard maybe, grabbed the Prince to take him to safety.”