by Eva Brandt
Come to think of it… Why had Alan acted that way that day? He was many things, but he’d always loved me, or rather, Imogen. He wouldn’t have discarded that bond so easily, not when the rest of our family was gone. And the other hunters were the same. Yes, hunters hated demons, but we also stuck together. I’d thought he’d deemed it his duty to slay me because I was no longer completely human, but had he seen something about me that had alerted him to what was going on?
Back at the Committee meeting, he’d said that he’d made a mistake. He’d wanted to take me in to be ‘cleansed’. What had he meant?
And then, there was Daimon and his strange behavior. He’d always acted so mysterious about our connection and had insisted I belonged to him. But, thinking back, I didn’t think he’d called me ‘Imogen’. Not ever. It was always ‘my bride’, or ‘my mate’. I hadn’t paid attention to that little tidbit at the time, but now…
Was it possible? Could I be someone else entirely? And if that was true, where had I come from? Who was I, really?
“You can’t expect me to believe something so outlandish,” Ulysses told Mother Dora. “I’ve held Genny. I’ve kissed her, claimed her. I would have known if she was a demon.”
“But you did feel it. You just didn’t realize that was what you felt. Imogen Julius’s body is still human and that might have affected your perception. You can’t afford to fool yourself any longer.”
Through my bond with Ulysses, I could feel Mother Dora looking straight at me. “That goes for you as well, demon. You know in your heart that I’m telling the truth. I have no reason to lie, not about this, and you feel as alien in that body as you are. But it is not about you, not really. As long as you cling to your bond with these werewolves, you will harm them. They will gradually lose their minds, more and more. Alpha Brooks was the first, because he must have placed the foundation of your link. But that is only the beginning. The Beta will be next. And eventually, even Ulysses. He has some resistance due to his background, but that won’t help him forever. You will destroy them. If you truly love them as you say you do, you have to let them go.”
I curled into a ball and buried my face in my hands, every inch of me protesting her words and the knowledge of what I’d done. The memory of Xander burying his claws in Byron’s chest flashed through my head, over and over. Ulysses had been convinced that Daimon had been the one to attack us, but even then, I’d sensed that wasn’t true. It had been my fault. Everything was my fault.
“Technically, if it helps, it’s my fault. Well, mine and that of those annoying wolves. Like the witch said, you didn’t ask for this.”
I opened my eyes, only to see Daimon sitting there, on the edge of my bed. I should have been surprised, but I wasn’t. “Did you make her say that?” I asked shakily. “Did you force her to lie to me?”
It was my last hope, and it shattered when Daimon shot me a look that was almost compassionate. “I didn’t, no. Even if I’d tried, I doubt she would have done it. Witches don’t joke about matters of the soul.”
“Maybe this one does. I don’t have to believe her. I don’t have to believe you.”
The words sounded empty even to my own ears. I didn’t have to trust Mother Dora, no, but she was right. In my heart, I knew she’d told me the truth.
Daimon couldn’t have missed that. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have come here again, not after I’d sent him away last time. Even so, he offered me an olive branch. “I can prove it.”
“Prove it?” I repeated. “How?”
The question left my lips before I could stop it. It was idiotic. Any evidence Daimon could provide would undoubtedly be another huge lie. But even so, I wanted to hear him out.
“Well, here’s the thing, my beautiful bride. The witch is both right and wrong about the ritual. The purpose was indeed to sacrifice the huntress’s soul and exchange it with another soul, a demonic one. Unfortunately, Byron Page intervened when I was midway through, and that meant the ritual was contaminated.
“Normally, the spell cleanses the vessel of all leftover traces of the original soul. But because the ritual was broken, I never got that far. Imogen Julius’s memories remain implanted in your brain. Physical memories anchor someone’s soul, and for that reason, she still clings to you, to your consciousness. I’ve been holding her off, but I can’t chase her away, not without you.”
I gaped at him in shock, remembering the demon-shaped shade that had interrupted my werewolf mates the first time they’d tried to claim me. For me, everything was a bit of a blur, but Ulysses and the others had seen and heard more than enough. “You have no right to do this,” the shade had said. For the first time, I understood what that meant, and I wanted to throw up.
I was a parasite in someone else’s body and I’d forced my bond onto her. She would have felt it, would have felt the connection with three people who were not her mates. And then, there was Daimon who had been presumably ‘holding her off.’ I didn’t think he’d been all that kind with the woman he perceived as an obstacle in his path.
“Show me,” I said, needing to see this, needing to understand everything I’d done, the full extent of my sin.
“Genny, no!” Ulysses shouted at me through our bond. “Don’t listen to him.”
The pet name was the last thing I needed for me to make my decision. I wasn’t Genny. That name belonged to the huntress and her family. It was yet another thing I’d stolen from her, just like I’d stolen her body and the right to have her own life, her own mates.
“All right,” Daimon said. “But you need to come with me.”
The shadows in the room deepened and Daimon’s figure went blurry around the edges. I blinked and all of a sudden, he was standing in front of me. He looked more solid than he had before, and I realized that during our conversation, he’d only been a mental projection.
He smiled and offered me his hand. “Come on. You know this is the right thing to do, for everyone.”
By now, Ulysses was panicking. He’d left the healing chambers and he was half-way here. But if he did confront Daimon about this, then what? Sure, I could step in between them like I had last time. Maybe Daimon would leave again, for my sake. But where would that bring us?
No matter how I looked at it, the fact remained that I’d only brought pain and suffering onto the Brooks pack. Sandra might have claimed that none of what had happened was my responsibility. But Sandra was dead, killed in the battle with Roman Popovic. I wasn’t the one who’d torn her throat out, but my existence was still what had caused this whole tragedy. Maybe if I went with Daimon, I could somehow convince him to deal with Roman too. That way, the pack would be safe. I owed them that much, after everything I’d done.
I clutched my necklace in my fist, and the weight of it gave me strength. I allowed myself a few more moments to hold onto it and then took it off, knowing I couldn’t keep it any longer.
Then, I braced myself and took Daimon’s hand. It was pleasantly warm, more comforting than I’d thought it would be. “Good choice.”
He pulled me into his arms and the shadows enveloped us like a seductive cocoon. I snapped my eyes closed, hoping it would help me drown everything out, including the sound of Ulysses screaming in my head.
It didn’t. I could still feel the echoes of his desperation. By the time we emerged on the other side of the portal, I was shaking, feeling horrible for turning away from my werewolf mates like this. If Daimon hadn’t been holding me upright, I would have undoubtedly fallen to the floor. “I know it hurts, my love,” he whispered in my ear. “But it will all go away soon. I promise. Everything will be fine. We’ll take care of you.”
His strange phrasing snapped me out of my trance. “We? Who is ‘we’?”
He didn’t actually need to answer. I figured it out myself the moment I took a look around the room.
Daimon had taken me into something that looked like a ritual chamber. There was no furniture, and the only thing of note was the pool of dark shadows still swirlin
g in front of me, threatening to drag me back inside. But there was another person there, someone I hadn’t originally seen.
Roman Popovic grinned at me, his eyes glinting with savage satisfaction and lust. “Hello, princess. We meet again. I hope you’re not too angry with me about what happened last time.”
What the fuck?
* * *
Daimon
This had all worked out far better than I’d expected. My beautiful bride was upset, but I’d known that would happen. For the moment, she was here, with me, and that was the only thing that mattered. I didn’t even care that I’d have to share her with Roman. That was fine with me, as long as she was no longer with those idiotic werewolves.
Unfortunately, Roman’s presence disturbed my lovely mate further. She freed herself from my arms and shot me a betrayed look. “What the hell is going on? What is he even doing here?”
“Daimon and I have an agreement, little one,” Roman replied without missing a beat. “Did you never wonder why I decided against attacking the Brooks pack again? Well, this is why.”
I knew it was selfish and unfair of us to dump the idea of this bond on her right now. She was vulnerable, heartbroken. It might be too much for her to bear.
But I believed in the soul I’d summoned. After all was said and done, she would see the truth. She’d find strength in me and Roman, the strength she would have had from the very beginning, had she not been dragged down by the shifters.
“This will probably be a little overwhelming, but I promise I’m not here to hurt you,” Roman said. “We’ve been working together on a plan to free you from Imogen Julius.”
“Free me?” my bride repeated. “But why? I can understand why Daimon would want that, but what’s your interest in me?”
“The same as his, of course. It’s not often that vampires find their soulmates, but when we do, we would do anything for them.”
My mate stared at him as if he’d just sprouted a second head. “You can’t be serious.”
“Dead serious. Or should I say undead.”
It was the worst possible time for him to make a pun. I flinched, wondering if my alliance with Roman had been a bad idea after all.
And then, my bride burst into laughter. The sound held no humor, only hysteria and disbelief. She laughed and laughed and laughed, until she stopped laughing, and tears started trailing down her cheeks instead.
When she dropped to her knees, Roman went to her side and sat next to her. “It’s okay. Let it out. Cry. Scream. Hit us. Hurt us if you have to. And when you’re done, we can move forward. And we can show you what we mean.”
Now, I felt a little like an idiot. Of course he’d been trying to reassure her. This whole ritual had to happen willingly. She was already reluctant to trust me. Adding Roman to the mix would make it even more difficult for her.
Well, this was my responsibility too, and I wasn’t about to let the damn vampire take all the credit for my work. I’d gone to all this trouble to bring my bride here and draw her to my side. I might have been willing to share her, but I had my limits.
And so, I joined Roman and my mate, kneeling by her side as well. I took her hand and pressed it to my chest. “Like I told you, none of this is your fault. It’s mine. Go on. Take it out on me.”
She screamed, and an uncontrollable blast of power erupted from her body. Both Roman and I were thrown back and hit the wall with a crack. Roman laughed, undaunted. “She is more magnificent than I thought.”
Yes, she was. I’d always known my mate would be powerful. She would need to be, to match an ancient demon, to withstand the bond with me. But so far, she had surpassed my expectations. And she looked even more beautiful in her grief and fury than ever before. It was unkind of me to think that way, but I couldn’t help myself. Her eyes lit up with demonic fire and her whole body was glowing from within. At that moment, even if she inhabited the body of Imogen Julius, she didn’t much look like the huntress at all.
“I hate you,” she hissed at me. “Why did you have to do this to me?”
“Because I’m a demon and a very selfish man,” I admitted. “I’ve been alone for millennia. I wanted a bride. Whether you wanted it or not didn’t matter to me.”
I could have lied to her, but there was no point in it, not anymore. If everything went well, she would see right into my heart. It was better for her to completely understand what I was. That way, she wouldn’t be taken aback or shocked when she actually became capable of seeing into my mind.
My honesty gave her pause, but it wasn’t enough to calm her down. “Do you even care about how many people you’ve hurt with this? The Julii? The Brooks pack?”
“Of course not. Why should I?”
“Caring is for mortals, little one,” Roman added. “People like us only care about a select number of individuals. But you know that already, don’t you? That’s why you’re here.”
She glowered at him, her hands burning with vicious light. For a few seconds, I thought she’d try to burn him alive. She wouldn’t be successful, of course. Vampires like Roman could survive even an attack from demonic fire. Maybe she knew that, or maybe she realized fighting us wouldn’t really help her in the end. Taking a deep breath, she wiped her eyes and forced herself to calm down.
“You said you could offer me proof,” she told me. “Show me then. I want to see.”
I suppressed a grimace. Yes, I had promised her that, but I wasn’t sure she was ready to witness what I’d done to Imogen Julius. She had obviously been horrified when she’d found out the truth about the huntress. I shared a look with Roman, and I knew the vampire had the same concerns.
But my bride wouldn’t let it go. “If you don’t, I’ll find another way. I’ll leave. I might be in your home, but that doesn’t mean I can’t escape.”
She was probably resourceful enough to do it too. But that wasn’t the main issue I had with her threat. If she got angry with me about this, we couldn’t perform the ritual. That would be very dangerous for her in the long run. So whether I liked it or not, I had to fulfill my promise. “All right, my love. But just so you know, it won’t be pleasant.”
“Oh, I’m well aware of that already,” she replied, clenching her jaw.
Together with Roman, I returned to her side. “In order to make this safe for you, we will be using a special ritual. Roman will be helping us with that.”
“A ritual, huh?” she asked, suspicious. “My past experience with your rituals isn’t that great. What do you need to do?”
“I will just need a little blood from you, princess,” Roman replied. “Beyond that, Daimon and I will take care of everything.”
“You want me to give you my blood?” my mate asked in disbelief. “I’m no witch, but even I know it’s a bad idea to do that.”
“Nothing will happen this time,” I promised. “No one will interfere. It’s going to be perfectly safe. Or at least, as safe as it can be, considering that we’ll be tapping into powers that are very close to the Veil.”
Oddly enough, it wasn’t my attempt to reassure her that sealed the deal. My bride believed me only after I delivered that warning. “All right,” she said. “Let’s do this then.”
She offered Roman her hand and his eyes flared with lust as he studied the veins in her arm. Still, he was discreet enough to not make this about him. He gently sliced into her palm with a claw and produced a purified vial from his pocket. My mate said nothing as he gathered the blood in the vial. He poured the crimson liquid into the pool of shadows, at which point it was my turn to join in. My magic and Roman’s entwined and together, we sought out the soul of my captive.
I’d never really had trouble tracking Imogen down, but it was even easier now that I had the blood and Roman’s help. The vampire’s powers blended naturally with mine. Unlike during my past trips, though, I didn’t travel all the way to the Veil. I would have been able to do that myself, but it was too dangerous for my bride.
Instead, I created a projectio
n of the Imogen Julius’s prison. The ritual chamber around us vanished, replaced by hot pits of molten lava and swirling shadows. My mate gasped. “Where are we?”
“Technically, we’re still back at the den. But like I told you, we’re bringing the power of the Veil here, so you can get your answers.”
“I’m not sure if you’re aware, princess, but the Veil between Life and Death stands at the core of all vampiric rituals,” Roman explained. “Some of our necromancers possess the ability to reach beyond the Veil and summon souls back. That is why, even when our bodies die, we cannot truly be killed. Of course, there are exceptions, as was the case of my brother.” His voice went softer, a little quieter. “But I do believe that everything happens for a reason, and even Vladimir knew that. That brings us here, to our huntress friend.”
As if following an invisible cue, the pits of lava turned red with blood. Imogen Julius emerged from the largest one, her body covered in cuts, burns, and bruises. Even if I didn’t get as close to her as I had in the past, she sensed me and opened her eyes. “Here to gloat, are you? And you brought… that thing.”
She stared at my bride with such hatred and vitriol I wanted to eviscerate her on the spot. “You must be very happy now, bitch. You’ve taken everything from me. I can never even love again, not after what you’ve done to me.”
“I’m not happy, no,” my mate replied. “I can’t ever apologize enough for everything you had to go through. But even if I tried to say ‘I’m sorry’, I don’t think it would help you very much.”
Imogen smiled, a bitter expression that didn’t suit her face. “No, it wouldn’t. Besides, I don’t believe you. If you truly felt sorry, you’d give me back what you stole. You’d return my body.”
I’d known she would ask that. How could she not? If I’d seen my bride’s vulnerability and regret, so would the huntress, and it stood to reason that she’d try to take advantage of it. “Unfortunately, I won’t allow that. And she’s not to blame for any of this. You are only here because of your own stubborn refusal to move on. If you had accepted your fate, you could have long ago found peace beyond the Veil.”
