by Trina M. Lee
“Why not?” Jez asked. When he didn’t respond, she added, “You’re really not the talkative type, are you?”
I ambled along beside Briggs, close enough to get under his skin. The old-fashioned gas lamps lining the hallway cast a mix of light and shadows on the path ahead. If anyone could find his way out of here, it would be Gabriel. He knew magic, even demon magic. He could sift through the energy and pick apart the threads that erected this house. However, I wasn’t counting my chickens before they hatched.
“He doesn’t want to end up like Kale and Jenner,” I explained with a dramatic sigh, hoping it didn’t give away how much that bothered me, Kale more so than Jenner.
“Can’t say I blame him.” Pulling a dagger from her thigh sheath, Jez spun it expertly in one hand. “You’ve got that look in your eyes, Lex. The same look Kale had right before he tried to kill me. Since I know you’re not entirely you right now, I’m going to warn you: come at me, and I bury this thing in your sternum.”
A challenge. Exciting. The cool promise shone in her dark green eyes. She’d do it too. “That’s fair. Just make sure you miss the heart,” I quipped.
Her gaze dropped but not before I saw the sadness that passed over her heart-shaped face. She had lost Kale, her dear friend, to the vampiric madness that I’d helped bring out in him. Jez missed him more than she liked to let on, but I knew her. Now she thought she was at risk of losing me the same way.
Seeing her pain was sobering. Somehow it helped me rein in the crazy. Somewhat. I refocused on getting through Shya’s horror house, though the wary side-eye Briggs kept slipping me remained enticing. He hurried to catch up to Gabriel, believing him to be less of a monster than me, apparently. Boy was he wrong.
Jez hung back, keeping an eye on me while trying to appear as if she wasn’t. I really loved that girl. Worry slashed through the aphrodisiac effects. I didn’t want her to end up like the rest of us, a creature of darkness. She was better than that.
We passed several doors and intersecting corridors. Gabriel paid no mind to any of them. He walked with purpose, a vampire on a mission. Of course he could be leading us to some horrific torture chamber at Shya’s request for all I knew. Honestly, I indeed suspected he was taking us to a torture chamber either way.
The hall ended at a heavy iron door. Symbols decorated the surface, all of them meaningless to me. Gabriel studied them, brows knit together, deep in thought. His lips moved in a silent chant. The atmosphere thickened and moved, bending to his will. With a groan of metal and a high-pitched squeal, the door slid open.
“Hurry,” Gabriel ordered. “It won’t stay open long.”
We’d all just cleared the threshold when the door slammed shut with a boom that reverberated through the stone room. And that was all it was. Four windowless stone walls and a near-empty space.
All it contained were a few select torture devices as if my expectation had been a self-fulfilling prophecy. A flat stone slab with a blade swinging from a pendulum occupied the center. An iron maiden stood in one corner, bloodstained and cruel. The only instrument of torment in use was the series of restraints lining one wall.
“Dear God.” Shock gave Jez’s hushed exclamation resonance.
Words failed me. I stared dumbfounded at the occupants of the restraints. Shaz and Brogan hung limp against their shackles, exhausted from whatever agony they’d endured. Even more disturbing than the sight of them was the one inflicting the punishment with a wicked grin on his gorgeous face.
Arys.
“Hello, my wolf.” Smooth like velvet, Arys’s low voice reached inside me. “You’re right in time for the best part.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“Are you sure this is the way out?” I whispered to Gabriel, unable to process this newest turn of events.
“Yes. We have to go through the toughest parts of the house to get outside to the maze.” Unlike the rest of us, Gabriel was unfazed by Arys playing in this torture chamber with the two people who deserved it the least. “He’s under the influence of a spell. It’s here, in this room. You’ll have to trust me.”
Before I could question him, Gabriel turned toward Jez, Briggs, and I with a hand up. He uttered some Latin, and a spell smacked us like a metaphysical punch in the face.
Briggs shook his head and reached to steady himself against the closest wall. “What the fuck did you just do?”
“Counter spell,” Gabriel said in his still solemn, disinterested tone. “It’ll keep what’s in this room from taking anyone else. Me included.”
His spell prickled as it slid over me like a protective second skin. It felt tight but strong. I wasn’t a fan of the dark magic he wielded, but in this case I could make an exception.
“Can you break the spell?” I asked, wary of looking at Arys. Just the sight of him made me want to do naughty things. The demon-charged force wrapped in my succubus power encouraged me to act on my impulses.
Gabriel gave the barest nod, as if he didn’t want Arys to see it.
Arys’s blue wolf gaze stayed locked on me, but there was something off about it, a flicker of something like he wasn’t alone in there. He had only to beckon me with a finger, and my feet were moving. Unable to resist I went to him, flinging myself in his arms. I just needed his hands on me.
“Where’ve you been, my love? I looked for you.” He captured my lips in a kiss that tasted like blood. Shaz’s blood.
“Arys, what are you doing? This isn’t you.” I gestured to Shaz and Brogan who had perked up at the possibility of rescue. “You know we have to stick together. All of us. It’s the only way out.”
Arys pressed his lips to my neck and made a wolfish rumble. “What is that roiling about inside you? You’ve been up to something, haven’t you?”
Over his shoulder I met Shaz’s gaze. His wrists were bruised and bloodied, but otherwise he seemed unharmed. Brogan slumped against the wall. Her hazel eyes were dull, and a few strands of blonde hair clung to her sweat-covered forehead. She was unblemished but clearly exhausted. I could take a wild guess as to what he’d been doing to them. The teasing torment of an incubus was as fun for the victim as it was agonizing.
“There’s no time for screwing around like this, Arys. We have to go.” Even as I said it, I was leering at Shaz who frowned and shot a questioning glance at my companions.
With both daggers drawn Jez moved to stand in front of Arys’s imprisoned victims. Determination made her usually soft features hard. While she stood guard Briggs inspected their manacles.
Arys watched this with grim amusement. “Um, just what exactly is going on here?”
“Play time is over, my friend.” To emphasize, Jez twirled both daggers, perfectly in synch.
“There’s got to be a key for these,” Briggs said. “The lock is big. You might be able to pick it with the tip of a dagger.”
Pushing me aside, Arys pressed close to Jez, stopping only when one of her blades rested against his chest. “Play time is over when I say it’s over. I’m bored with these two anyway. So…you can be next.”
“Nobody is next.” I shoved between them, pretending not to notice how good Jez’s flaring temper felt at close range.
After giving them each a push in opposite directions, I went to Brogan and easily manipulated the lock on each heavy shackle. She all but fell into Briggs’s waiting arms. I moved to Shaz and did the same, ignoring the weight of Arys’s scowl.
When I reached for the second cuff holding Shaz’s bleeding wrist, I found twin punctures. My hand shook as I ran a finger through the blood welling up from the wounds. There was heat in my touch. He let out a ragged sigh and leaned into me. I freed his wrist but not before dragging my tongue over the bite marring his lovely flesh.
“That’s disgusting,” Briggs said, his judgmental mask back in place.
Shaz leaned on me, taking deep breaths with eyes closed. He didn’t seem to be especially wounded, just tired. Arys must’ve put him through the ringer. With smut-stained demon ess
ence coating my thoughts, I was disappointed to have missed it.
Gathering himself, Shaz’s eyes fluttered open, settling on Arys before bleeding to wolf. A growl rumbled in his throat, and he lunged toward Arys. His fist connected with the vampire’s face in an audible smack that was repeated three times before I broke them apart with a flaming psi ball tossed between them. That pesky demon power was hard to control.
During all of this Gabriel stood apart from the rest of us. His lids were lowered, and he spoke softly, beneath his breath.
Arys was encouraged by Shaz’s violence, egging him on for more. It was a mistake to taunt Shaz. That only brought out the true beast in him, and Arys knew it.
Voices were raised as Jez and I shouted at them to stop. Briggs pulled Brogan away from the confrontation while I sought to separate them again, sans fire. A smack of demon-tainted power stopped the fight while also tearing a scream from me as a blinding pain seared my brain. I went down on my knees just as Gabriel’s chant ceased, hopefully breaking the spell affecting Arys.
Jez reached for me, but I waved her away. She just smelled too damn good. The need to purge myself of the evil coursing through me had grown strong. I couldn’t contain it much longer.
A hand on my shoulder helped to ground me, and the pain began to fade. Gabriel pulled me up, daring to touch me for the second time tonight. That was no easy feat for him. A touch could mean a vision, something Gabriel couldn’t always avoid but seemed to wish he could.
“Just hold on a little longer,” he said. “We’re almost through. I can feel it.”
Not only did a touch mean a potential vision, it also meant getting close enough to risk my thrall. Knowing I could do it, having the evil in me insist that I should, made it so damn hard to resist. I shoved away from him, feeling both proud and ill as I did. We needed to find Shya and get this over with.
“What the fuck?” Arys muttered, holding his head and blinking several times fast.
Shaz stood over him, fist raised. He was too good a man to pummel someone who was no longer fighting back.
“Can we get the hell out of here now?” Jez piped up. She cast an uncertain glance around. “How do we get out of here anyway?”
Once I was steady on my feet, I went to Arys. Confusion furrowed his brow. He pulled me close, hugging me to him. Pressing his face into my hair, he said, “I don’t know what happened. It’s like I was here, but I wasn’t in control. I couldn’t stop myself.”
“It was demon magic,” Gabriel supplied, though his attention was elsewhere. He walked the perimeter of the torture chamber, seeking the exit we could not see. “Shya planted it.”
Arys groaned and scrubbed a hand over his face. “Fuck. Brogan. Shaz. I’m sorry. I never would have…I mean, that’s not my style, Shaz. You know that.”
Shaz’s hands were clenched into fists. He was all fangs and wolf eyes, seething in silence. Brogan clung to Briggs, the only human present other than her. I’d probably be clinging to him too if I were in her position.
“Brogan?” I kept my distance, knowing better than to get too close. “Are you ok? Did he hurt you?”
She shook her head but wouldn’t meet Arys’s gaze. Her voice was hoarse, whether from screaming in pain or pleasure I didn’t know. Probably both. “Not really. Shaz distracted him. He took the worst of it.”
I looked to Shaz who vibrated with the need to tear Arys apart. Our eyes met, and with a raised brow, I asked the question I dared not ask aloud. His wolf peered out at me, and I read the conflicted emotions within it.
A loud crash caused us all to jump. Gabriel had shoved over the iron maiden. The harsh clang rang in my ears. He pointed to the trap door in the floor where it had sat.
I marveled at him, wondering if Shya realized just how dangerous this kid was now. After all, Shya had ordered Arys to turn Gabriel. Now here he was, using the power he got from our bloodline to uncover the many tricks and traps of the house Shya himself had designed. I was as uneasy as I was fascinated.
It took both Gabriel and Arys to haul the trap door open. They were also the first to head down into the dank stairwell below. Shaz and I brought up the rear. As my anchor, if the vile forces that tempted me were to prove stronger than I was, he might be the only one who could keep me from doing something I’d regret. Of course, there was no way to know for sure other than to put it to the test, which I’d rather not do.
The descent was shorter than expected. The staircase spiraled, taking us not to a door but right into a bedroom. It was lavish and warm in comparison to the cold, unfeeling places we’d traipsed through. For starters, it was huge, the kind of bedroom found in castles or mansions. The walls were painted a neutral beige, but the furniture was a rich wood, lending a coziness to the environment. Right away I noted the balcony. Was that our way out?
A curtained four-poster bed stood against one wall. A fireplace near the bed added to the welcoming feel. The seating area across the room boasted of lush sofas and a coffee table laden with food and drinks. Among them were goblets filled with human blood. I could smell it from where I stood. What caught my attention was the empty tequila bottle in the center.
“Willow?” I sprang into motion, searching the room.
“Alexa, wait,” Gabriel commanded. “There’s more to this room than it seems. Be careful.”
I tried to heed his warning, but suspecting that Willow might be in here spurred me on to scour every inch of the room. Being unable to feel demons the way I could feel vampires made it impossible to know for sure. They had a way of cloaking themselves that was beyond my ability to see through.
“This room feels weird,” Jez commented, drifting over to the coffee table to study the contents. “Like it’s all wrong somehow. I can’t really describe it. Does anyone else feel that?”
“The entire house feels weird,” Shaz replied. He stood rigid in the center of the room. “The architecture makes no sense at all.”
I jerked open a door that led to a bathroom as luxurious as the rest of the room. Empty. No Willow. I went so far as to lift the heavy blankets covering the bed so I could investigate beneath it. Still nothing.
“It’s fear,” Arys said, low and soft. “That’s what you feel in here, Jez. The entire room is just…fear.”
On my hands and knees beside the bed, I glanced up at him, puzzled. Something did feel strange to me, but the whole damn place felt like Bizarro-land. How was he feeling something so specific that I wasn’t?
Another throb of pain racked my skull, and I bit back a cry. Harnessing this much foreign power was not in my skill set. I couldn’t contain it much longer.
“Fear?” Jez repeated, but my attention had landed on the shutter-style doors beside the bed. A closet.
I got up and dived for the door, driven by a shot of adrenaline and certainty. Jerking open the shutters revealed a walk-in closet. Right away the noxious scent of tequila hit me.
“Willow.” His name was a whisper.
The closet was bare and dark. The light from the bedroom didn’t reach the back. My eyes adjusted accordingly.
Before my searching gaze could find him, a broken voice came out of the dark. “Go away.”
“How long have you been in here?” Ignoring his command, I pushed on until I found him at the back, on the floor with his legs drawn up, curled tight in a child-like manner.
“It doesn’t matter. Go away, Alexa.”
I crouched down beside him. In the dim light I could make out the hard set to his shoulders and jaw, but it was his eyes that caused the first trickle of alarm to slide through me. Deep in the depths of Willow’s scarlet gaze lay terror as raw as I’d ever seen it.
“You’re not alone now, Willow. Come on. Let’s get you out of here.” Curse Shya for creating this fucking place in an attempt to tear us all down. The reluctance I’d felt about having to seduce him into a trap was fading fast. I couldn’t wait to give him what he deserved.
When Willow didn’t accept the hand I offered, I gently
grabbed hold of his arm. The moment we touched I was electrified by the panic screaming through his aura. It jumped to me, crawling over me like a swarm of insects. My jaw dropped in a silent scream as a flurry of images raced through my mind, each more horrifying than the last.
Shaz with Izzy. Shaz with me. Shaz dead because of me. Jez with black eyes. Juliet, dead at the hand of my lover.
The fears, those I harbored so deep that I dared not think of them lest I somehow make them come true, surged to the forefront of my mind, attacking the scraps of my sanity with everything that scared me most. And beneath it all, feeding that festering fear was something akin to hatred. The need to blame and to loathe something or someone for the terror that called my subconscious home. Because only hate could conquer the insecurities of fear. For a little while anyway.
“I said go away.” With a shout Willow flung me off, breaking our connection. “This is all your fault anyway.”
The closet wasn’t all that big. I landed on my butt near the entry where Arys and Gabriel lurked. The images behind my eyes vanished but left me shaken.
Surprised by Willow’s reaction, I scrambled to my feet and just barely made it out of the closet before he burst out after me. His hair was in disarray, and his eyes were wild.
“It’s because of you that I met Christina. It’s because of you that I had to watch her die. If it wasn’t for you, I would never have sullied myself with her kind.” Willow hurled every vicious word into my face. “When I had to choose, I chose you because you were part of the greater good. Now I’m living my worst nightmare while you play the whore for a fallen fucking angel. A known traitor. I suffer while you fuck and kill your problems away, shitting on the sacrifice I made for you.”
Arys stepped forward, ready to defend me with violence. He burned with the sudden heat of it. With a hand on his chest and a shake of my head, I held him back.
A sob lodged in my throat. I choked on it, unable to speak. Despite the guilt that plagued me, I knew he was wrong to blame me for the choices he’d made. Pursuing Christina, taking her to bed, falling for her. None of that had anything to do with me, and we both knew it. Willow was hurting, and this room was taking him to the place where his fears lived and drowning him in the waters of guilt and despair.
