by Nikki Prince
“I can fucking smell his stink on you! You’ve been fucking Dante, you bitch!”
Before she could even react he backhanded her so hard the rich taste of blood filled her mouth. She cried out in pain, grabbing her face though she still stood her ground.
“Dante isn’t the problem, Jace. He never was. It was you and your failure to be anything but cruel.”
“He’s always been the fucking problem. You couldn’t keep your legs closed then, and apparently you can’t now.”
“I’m not your fucking wife! Hell, I’m not your fucking anything!” She raised her voice on purpose, hoping to rouse Dante, anyone.
Her bravery earned her two more slaps, both harder than the last, and just as her legs were giving out she was being slung over his shoulder. Dazed, she looked towards the balcony to see Dante rushing toward them.
“Jace! Put her down and face me like a fucking man!”
“Ahh, your hero has arrived as late as ever,” Jace said venomously.
She held out her hand weakly, and he reached for her. Their fingers met and were ripped away as Jace laughed and jumped off the balcony. They were high up, and she thought they would die. No such luck. Jace bounded on his feet and ran, carrying her farther and farther away from Dante.
Chapter Fourteen
“She’s out there with that madman right now, Felipe. I can’t sit by and wait. I need to find her. I know Jace. He will go after Jamie too!” The throbbing in his head was overwhelming. He was scared. Really scared. Jace was out for blood. The fear he had, he’d use it to his advantage. He wouldn’t let Jace see it.
Dante began pacing back and forth in the very room he’d been with Odette in. Time was ticking away. Felipe, Nico, and Flora all stood in the room, and he turned once more to look at them. Flora reached over and placed her hand on his shoulder; it helped to calm him but only a bit. The door opened and in walked Doctor Fairee before he could say anything more. The look on the Doctor’s face gave him some hope.
“Dante, I’ve already sent Bruno, Lucien, Phelan, and Conall to the address you gave us. They’ve arrived and assured me that Jamie, Petra, and the other kids are fine. What we need you to do is calm down so that we can move forward. Now please, take a deep breath. We will get her back. I promise you that. The other plane is waiting for us.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry. I’m ready to go now. Thank you, all of you for this…for your help.” He moved forward, heading for the door, and Felipe stood in front of him, holding his hands up to stop him.
Felipe spoke up. “Dante, you’re family here. There isn’t anything we wouldn’t do for you. The biggest mistake we could make is for you to go alone. What we’d like to know is where else would he go? If he can’t get to Jamison, and believe me, he can’t. Phelan and Conall have too much magic for that. They’re on their way back, and Lucien and Bruno have control of the situation at the camp. In fact, they’ve asked for back up from their pack.”
Safe, Jamison and the others at the camp were safe. Relief eased his mind about Jamie. It was a blessing to not have to worry about the little boy. Now he only had to focus his attention and all of their energy on Odette and how to get her back. Dante thought back to his past with Jace to see if he could figure out where the man would go. He had to slip up. He’d be angry that he couldn’t get to Jamison, but he had Odette. Heat flushed his body as realization crept in, and he knew without a doubt where Jace would go.
“He’ll go back to the warehouse he used to own where he tried to kill Odette and Jamison the first time. He’ll also expect me to come alone, Doc.”
“We will just have to make sure that Jace thinks you’re alone. The Irish wolves will be able to handle the demon, and then it will be up to you Dante to handle Jace.”
“The thing is, Doc, Jace is still in prison. Without freaking out my contact, I asked in the most polite way what Jace was up to. I was told he was still asleep.”
“From what the twins were able to deduce from their brief encounter, the type of demon that has a hold of him is one that is going to demand his soul as payment. He’ll be asleep for a long time if we are able to extract her from him.” Doctor Fairee’s words were straight to the point.
Dante understood that by asleep Doctor Fairee meant dead. He’d never wanted Jace’s death until he’d gone after O and Jamie and if in protecting them it came to his death, then that was what it would be.
Though he had no problem believing in the supernatural, the issue he had was when it came to the extraction part. He blew out a series of cleansing breaths and pulled from within himself the strength to do what he had to do. Throughout this no one said anything. They seemed to sense he needed time to come to terms with what was being said. Finally coming to terms with what they’d have to do, he spoke.
“Her? This is a female demon? Um, how powerful is this sort of demon?”
“Yes, a female succubus basically, and depending on her age she can be very powerful. So we have no time to waste, the twins should be on their way back. Let’s get ready. Phelan and Conall should be back shortly. We’ll meet you in fifteen minutes, Dante, so that we can fly out.”
He made as if to leave and was stopped short by Doctor Fairee’s reassuring voice.
“We will save her, my boy, have no doubt about that.”
Dante nodded his head, already turning away and rushing into the adjoining bathroom. The others knew their way out. He’d ask questions on how they’d get rid of the demon on the way to getting Odette. Doctor Fairee had never let him down, and Phelan and Conall were just as powerful in their own right. If anyone could help him, it was them.
For a moment he stood in the bathroom, staring at himself in the mirror. He’d almost died before saving the woman he loved, and there was no doubt in his mind that he would do the same this time if it came to it.
****
Odette woke up shivering. She was wet and naked, lying on the floor. Where had Jace taken her? Her head was killing her, the extreme headaches she had hitting her in waves. She was so nauseated she was scared to move. She took a deep breath; her nostrils were assailed by an old, rank smell. Wherever she was being held was an old building.
It was dark, and she had to wait for her eyes to adjust. Swallowing back the bile in her throat she turned her head slightly towards the sound of water dripping. A rusty pipe was next to her. That accounted for why she was wet. Maybe she could get up. Just maybe she could get out of there before he or it came back. She tried to rise slowly.
“I wouldn’t try it,” a female voice growled out.
Gasping, she turned her head towards the sound of the voice. She stood just at her feet, leaning against the dank wall with her arms crossed over her broad chest. If you could call the thing a she. Yes she had a female form, but there was something off putting about her. Human she was not, and instinctively Odette recognized this to be the being that occupied her ex. Demon, fiend, whatever you wished to call it.
She swallowed the bile that rose in her throat, which was threatening to choke her.
“Mmmm, the scent of your fear is most arousing.” The creature writhed and if Odette wasn’t mistaken she looked like she’d orgasmed. In fact from the moans coming from the creature there was no doubt in her mind that she had. Disgusting. Odette turned her head away and heard a sing-song laugh.
“Who are you?” Odette whispered with eyes shut tightly.
“I’m Na’amah…though I go by a legion of names.”
She really didn’t want to know, but she needed to ask. “Where…is Jace?”
“He’s asleep for a little while. I’m letting him rest so that when your man comes back, he’ll be ready.”
“Ready for what? Dante isn’t going to come.”
There was a loud peal of laughter that was wicked enough to send a shock through Odette’s body.
“Open your damn eyes and see me!”
Unable to resist that order Odette turned to see Na’amah slinking over to her on her hands and knees u
ntil her face was inches from hers. She wasn’t ugly, far from it, but knowing what she represented made her ugly to Odette and truthfully scared the shit out of her.
“You’re man will come. He won’t be able to resist…and then…” Na’amah made a gesture across her neck and cackled when Odette winced. “See? You lie even to yourself. You know that he can’t help but come.”
“He doesn’t even know where I am.”
Na’amah was right. Dante would move heaven and earth to find her. There was also the fact that he could read Jace even after all this time.
“He will find you and when he does…” Then before her very eyes Na’amah morphed from the form she was in and was a dead ringer for her. Iciness ran through her body as it dawned on her that the demon planned to use trickery against Dante. To make him think that she was Odette.
“Please…I’ll do anything, just stop this. Just don’t hurt Dante.”
“Of that I have no doubt, Odette.” Na’amah gestured with her hand. “But all of this…I’m not going to stop. I revel in such chaos. Mmmm….Jace calls. I can sense him. Time for the games to begin.”
The demon leaned forward and ran her tongue along Odette’s cheek. She gasped in pain as the lick was almost like a heated lash against her cheek. She heard the demon purr.
“Oh yes, you’ll be so much fun.” Then Na’amah vanished.
Chapter Fifteen
Dante could hear the murmur of voices outside his hotel room as he walked to open the door, letting in the twins, Felipe, Nico, and Doctor Fairee. No one wasted any time. They came in quickly and stood waiting for him to shut the door.
“Where do we start?” he said, looking eagerly at the others.
Phelan spoke up first. “We’ve already scouted out the place where you said he’d be. There are signs of him and the demon there along with the scent of Odette. The first plan of action is that you will go in, seemingly alone. This is what they are expecting. So we will give them what they want. You. Then Conall and I will sneak in to distract and draw out the demon, giving you a short window of time to kill Jace in this plane. He is still in prison, but if the succubus comes out, you have a bit of time to kill him here, and hence he dies in prison.”
“How will you capture her?”
Phelan held up a small amethyst crystal on a long chain. There were strange symbols all over it. It gleamed in a way that more than told Dante that it was old and held a very old power. The things that he’d seen since working for Fantasy were unreal. Many of them had been hard to accept at first. “With this and an ancient incantation, the plan is to bind her inside of it if timed right.”
“That little piece of crystal is going to save the day?” He couldn’t keep the skeptical sound from his words.
“That little piece of crystal, as you call it, is brimming with more power than you can imagine, and it will hold the demon. You’re not one who doesn’t believe in the supernatural. You know it’s real, am I right?”
“You’re right.” He gave a nod of his head to that affirmation. He’d stumbled across the paranormal realm when he’d come across Phelan in shifted form and in need of help. At the time he hadn’t known it was Phelan, and he’d been in awe of the fact that the wolf didn’t tear him to shreds but let him help. Then Phelan had gone delirious from his wound and couldn’t hold his shifted form. He shouldn’t be so skeptical about the crystal; powerful things came in small packages, so he had to believe that.
“So then no more doubting the crystal, Dante. We all have to be of one accord,” Phelan countered.
“One accord, you’re right. No more doubts.”
“Now, are you prepared to end Jace Rothbart?” Doctor Fairee stated.
He’d figured that question would come about. “Yes. I know that once the demon is free of him and distracted by Phelan and Conall, I need to shoot him.” He pointed to the gun in the waistband of his jeans. “Or at least his body that will linger for a spell before he is thrust back into his prison cell without any damage and able to conjure up another spirit of his choosing. So yes, I am prepared. He can’t be allowed to live another day.” If he didn’t kill him this time, Jace would be back. He had no doubt about that. Jace was out for blood, and Dante wouldn’t go down without a fight.
“So then everyone knows what they need to do. We will have people stationed outside the warehouse while you three go in. Just as a precaution. A doctor will also be on hand to take care of any injuries,” Doctor Fairee said. Dante had to smile. There was nothing frail about Doctor Fairee, nothing at all. In fact the twinkle in the older gentleman’s eyes spoke of the many mysteries he held close.
“What will happen to the crystal once we have the demon?”
“I will take charge of and put it in safe keeping,” Doctor Fairee said.
“She won’t be able to do any more damage, will she?”
“She’s a demon doing what demons do. Rothbart is your true problem.”
The good doctor was right about that. Getting rid of Jace would take care of the problems.
He glanced over at Phelan and Conall. “Odette. Can you tell me if you can sense anything about her?”
“She’s still alive, Dante. A bit roughed up and scared but alive. We can still feel her aura. Now…we may want to get going because that can change quickly.” This time Conall answered.
“All right the cars are waiting outside. Dante, Phelan, and Conall will go in the first car, with the rest of us following in the three others.”
With those final words they all filed out of the room and headed towards the waiting vehicles.
****
Odette spit out blood for what seemed like the thousandth time. Jace had come back with a vengeance. He’d told her for each hour that Dante didn’t arrive she would get another beating, and he hadn’t lied. She was sore and hurting in places she didn’t even know she had. It was amazing that he hadn’t broken a bone in her body. Yet. He wasn’t going to stay appeased for long.
Huddled in a corner of the room, she could hear Jace’s footsteps. He was coming back. She shut her eyes, wrapping her arms around her naked body, and thought of Jamie. Beautiful, sweet Jamie. If she didn’t make it out of there, Petra would take care of him. She should have told Dante she loved him. Even when he’d told her that they’d talk later.
“Perhaps I was wrong about him.”
She knew what he meant, but that didn’t stop her from egging him on. If she could get him to talk long enough maybe, just maybe Dante would be able to get to her. “Wrong about who, Jace?”
“Lover boy coming to get you and trying to save the day. I guess I will just have to kill you first and then go after him and the boy later.”
“Please, don’t hurt them. If you want to hurt someone…then go after me. Kill me but leave them alone.”
“You beg so prettily for him. Where is your fucking loyalty?” He hissed at her and then grabbed her shoulders roughly as he brought them face to face. She gasped.
She lost it then. “Fucking loyalty? Why the fuck would I be loyal to a misogynistic bastard like you?”
“Because you promised to honor and obey me. Something you haven’t done at all.”
He smacked her hard, knocking her head back against the wall. She groaned, the world spinning and her ears ringing from that hit.
“In the beginning, Jace, I did everything to keep us together.”
“Yes, by lusting after my best friend and fucking him!”
“No, never! Dante and I didn’t have a relationship like that. He was your friend; I’d never have done that to you. It’s not my fault that you don’t believe me.”
“And now?” he snarled.
“What the hell does now matter? You’re my ex-husband. Ex means we aren’t married anymore. I love him, and yes, I’ve fucked him, but it wasn’t while we were married.”
It was getting harder and harder to see, her eyes swelling shut. But she wasn’t going to back down. It was time to confront Jace, and she’d do it with her last
breath if she had to. Most would think her weak because she’d kept pushing Dante away. She’d done it for his own good, and now she could only hope she’d get to tell him she loved him before this was over.
“Now matters, bitch. You’re mine and will always be mine.” He gave a wicked laugh and pulled his fist back, and she braced herself for the pain to come.
“Never yours, always Dante’s!” she cried out as his fist connected with her cheek. There was a ringing in both of her ears, and it was getting harder and harder to stay conscious.
“That’s it, bitch, cry!” Once more she saw Jace raise his fist to punch her. She took a stuttering breath and closed her eyes, stealing herself for it. It never came. Instead a gag was placed in her mouth.
“Stop telling me what to do! I got this. I don’t need to tie her up. She can barely move!” At first, Odette thought Jace was talking to her, and then she realized he was talking to Na’amah.
“Ah, our guest has arrived. I think I will go and welcome him.” Odette cried out against the gag as she was looking into her own eyes once again. The demon was smart. She’d not only changed into Odette but she’d also made herself look like a battered Odette. It would be believable. Jace was wrong about one thing. The adrenaline running through her body would make it possible for her to move.
She tugged at the gag, which was tied tightly, and it took her a few moments to undo it, but she was determined. Once done with that her next feat was to get up and find where Jace had gone. She had to save Dante. Finally free of the gag, she eased herself up on her feet, heading in the direction of the door. No one had ever said that Jace was the brightest crayon in the box.
****
Dante stood just inside the entrance of the warehouse. The memories that flooded over him were almost too much, but he squared his shoulders and pushed forward. The twins had gone around to the back of the building. Phelan and Conall would enter from the back; they’d told him they were going to blanket the entire building with an incantation so the succubus couldn’t leave.
