by Anya Bast
“Shit,” said Adam, turning around. “This place is like the haunted house at the state fair.” “What is Stefan doing in here?” Jack muttered.
“It’s dark, in the ground, and smells of earth magick with a twist. Smells like daaeman magick.” Theo paused. “He’s spell-casting with Bai in this place.” The sound of something slamming to the floor and shouting came from their right. The scent of combined elemental magick rose, drowning out everything else. Apparently, the group Thomas led had found pay dirt.
Theo and the others ran toward the commotion. Light glimmered at the end of the corridor they’d turned down. Another flight of stairs.
Farther down into the earth.
The stairwell emptied into a large room with concrete floors and stainless steel tables. A battle was already under way. Furniture had been smashed, tables overturned, herb crushed underfoot. The air witches — Claire and Mira — had been busy.
The scent of all the elements hung heavy in the air along with. . along with. .
“No,” Sarafina breathed beside him. “It can’t be.” But it was.
The room was not filled with warlocks spell-casting demon magick with Bai as they’d presumed. The room was filled with Atrika.
TWENTY-ONE
IT WAS THEIR WORST NIGHTMARE COME TO LIFE. The monsters weren’t a world away anymore, they were here. Sarafina, like the other Coven witches, was momentarily speechless at the sight.
It didn’t matter that it should have been impossible that so many Atrika daaeman were Earthside; somehow they were.
Stefan turned from the fray and centered his gaze on her. “You!” he bellowed. “You little bitch. You led them right to my door.” Just then a huge — hell, they were all huge—Atrika with long blond hair noticed the newcomers and lobbed a massive dose of demon magick at them.
“Sarafina!” Theo bellowed right before they were forced to part. The Coven witches scattered. Sarafina threw up a shield and rolled to the right, finding a table and hiding behind it as the demon magick slid past her in a bitter wave, scorching the concrete floor of the room.
Across from her, Theo rolled back up to his feet and retaliated, pushing the Atrika back. A bowl of some kind of herb went flying past her and smashed into the wall, followed by a demon.
Well. You didn’t see that every day.
The dark-skinned Atrika sprawled on the floor for a few moments, stunned, then spotted her and snarled. Sarafina scrambled to her feet and raised power. Clearly, she couldn’t hide behind the table forever, darn it.
She hit the Atrika with a blast of white-hot fire before he could completely recover, making sure she remembered not to tap all her power in one panic-fueled rush this time. The Atrika howled, hit dead-on, and Sarafina backed away, ducking flying debris.
Turning in a slow circle on the balls of her feet, she surveyed the room. Chaos ruled the day.
The room was awash in battle. To her left, Theo was tag-teaming an Atrika with Adam. Across the room, several daaeman were ganging up on Claire. She was a strong witch, but she was clearly in distress. Remembering Claire’s history with the daaeman, Sarafina strode across the room, raising power to aid her as she went.
Before she made it there, Stefan grabbed her by the shirt and whirled her around to face him. “How did you do it? How did you find me out here? How?” Sarafina plunged her hands straight into his chest and funneled fire magick from her seat straight into his. Stefan blocked with his own power at the last moment, but the force of the hit sent him careening backward all the same. He hit a table, flipped over backward, and lay still.
Just when she’d dodged that bullet, a seven-foot-tall daaeman with jet-black hair grabbed her upper arm almost hard enough to snap the bone. She cried out in pain as he whirled her around and slammed her into a table. Pain erupted through her stomach and she fought the urge to collapse on the floor and curl up in a fetal position, retching. No way could she raise power. She’d been rendered helpless.
Then Theo was there, drawing the monster away from her. She heard him calling to her, but she couldn’t respond. Sarafina held her hand to her stomach and drew deep breaths, recovering. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Theo attacking the black-haired daaeman with everything he had.
The second she could, Sarafina drew power and threw it at the back of the Atrika. Fire exploded and he went down with a mighty roar, smoking. Theo met her eyes for only a moment before another Atrika engaged him. Theo could take care of one Atrika. She was worried about Claire and her three.
Adam was also busy with an attacking daaeman, but he kept throwing worried looks over at Claire. She followed Adam’s glance and watched Claire pivot, obviously weary and tapped of energy. The three Atrika circled her, stared her down, scenting her weakness as if the wind carried the clue.
As a whole, the Atrika obviously had it in for Claire. If they had their way, the former handmaiden of the Ytrayi Cae wasn’t leaving this place alive. That was clear enough. They were teaming up on her more than they were Mira, who was the other most powerful witch in the room.
No, the daaeman knew who Claire was. Knew she was the one who’d carried the elium for a time and who had caused the death of two of their best warriors.
And they were holding a hell of a grudge.
Sarafina dove forward, putting herself in front of a redheaded daaeman that clearly intended to extensively torture Claire before he blasted her to Eudae and back. At the same time, she raised a wall of white-hot fire between herself and Claire. She practically collided with Adam, who had extricated himself from the battle. He wrapped his arms around Claire and leapt to the side, rolling her away from the Atrika.
The sheet of fire separated her from the attacking daaeman, but Sarafina knew it wasn’t going to last. She scrambled backward, crab-walking away as she gathered more energy. What she’d done was the equivalent of teasing a grizzly with a platter of salmon.
Guess who was the salmon?
“Sarafina!” Theo was battling an Atrika to her right, casting glances over his shoulder at her. “Sarafina!” “I’m okay!” she called back.
The wall of fire collapsed, leaving the huge, angry redheaded Atrika standing before her. His eyes matched his hair — killing rage. The air around him crackled with power.
Then again, maybe she wasn’t okay.
“Sarafina!”
The daaeman Theo was fighting sent a massive bolt into Theo’s side, sending him careening backward. He cracked his head on the floor and lay still. Sarafina screamed, momentarily forgetting the enraged daaeman advancing on her.
But she couldn’t forget for long.
Power rose like a massive wave, prickling over her skin. She was the tiny sailboat in the water; her defenses were not enough to stop the wave from crashing down over the top of her. Like she had in the ballroom, she gripped a fistful of magick from her chest, knowing it would incapacitate her. She just needed to get through this encounter; she’d worry about the next one when it came.
The daaeman in front of her roared. She jerked in the face of the sound, terror coursing clear and icy through her veins. Her hold on the bundle of magick she’d pulled from her seat never wavered.
And then Bai stepped between them. The daaeman glanced at her, baring his teeth briefly, then turned and roared back at the redheaded Atrika. They engaged, teeth ripping, throats snarling, claws tearing.
Sarafina blinked. Then she rolled to the side to avoid the spray of demon blood and the acid burns that would come with it. From a safe distance, her hands gripping an overturned chair, she watched.
It was like a scene from King Kong. She was the favorite of a monster, and he meant to keep her safe from all the other monsters.
Surreal. Sarafina wasn’t sure if she should feel relieved right now, or really, really alarmed.
The two Atrika rolled on the floor, sounds of animalistic bloodlust sending chills through her body.
Theo came from her left and she practically leapt into his arms. “You’re al
l right,” she cried. His head was gushing blood.
He half carried her away from the fight, over to the side of the room toward the door.
“Desist!” Stefan bellowed in the middle of the room. Nothing happened.
The head warlock muttered a stream of French and then, “Stop! I hold your leashes, and I’m yanking them. This is over!” In amazement, Sarafina and Theo watched as one by one the Atrika stopped fighting. Stefan was indeed commanding the Atrika.
Every one of the daaeman in the room stopped their battles except Bai and the redhead. Soon their snarling was the only sound.
All around them Coven witches and the handful of warlocks left pulled themselves up from the floor and limped to a safe place to see what would happen next.
“Bai!” Stefan bellowed.
The battle between the two Atrika finally came to a close. Bai’s great head swung around and fixed on Theo, who had his arm around Sarafina’s waist.
Bai snarled and stalked toward them. Theo stiffened and drew power, just as she did.
“Peace, Bai, let her have her fun.” Stefan smiled slowly, holding a hand to his head where he’d hit it against the table she’d catapulted him into. He fixed his gaze on her and smiled a cold little smile. “Soon she’ll be all yours. I can’t think of a more fitting punishment.” Stefan snapped his fingers. “Allez! Somebody get me out of here.” An Atrika daaeman reached out, touched his shoulder, and they all winked out, even Bai, leaving only Stefan’s hapless warlock bodyguards and the limo driver behind.
The room went silent, but for the occasional whimper or groan of pain.
Sarafina surveyed the wreckage, thinking it looked a lot like a battlefield after a war.
Theo turned her to face him. “What does Bai want you for?” Fear welled up inside her, then settled like a cold, hard rock in the center of her stomach. “He wants me to bear his children.” Theo said nothing in response, but his grip on her shoulders grew a little stronger.
Adam approached them, helping Claire who’d twisted her knee in the fight. “What did you say?” Sarafina shook her head and pulled gently away from Theo’s grip. “Apparently, there’s a shortage of Atrika females, and they’re having trouble kidnapping daaeman females, of the other breeds. Aeamon women are considered the next best alternative. Bai saw me in Chicago and took a liking to me.” She snorted. “Says he can tell I’m fertile and that I’m strong enough to bear good stock.” Her voice sounded thin and bitter.
Thomas had come to stand near them, accompanied by Isabelle. Isabelle was pressing a wet cloth to a gash on Thomas’s head. Her expression was one of horror.
She was welcome to join the club.
“I am telling you right now that will never happen.” Theo growled. “Not while I’m drawing breath.” She shivered and hugged herself. The thought of Bai killing Theo over her was too much for her emotions to hold.
“Someone give me a body count!” Thomas yelled abruptly, startling her.
“The limo driver’s dead,” Jack called back, then paused a beat. “Two dead Coven witches. A bunch of minor injuries. A few more serious. Lots of acid burns. Marcus probably broke his leg. James and Kelly are out cold.” Thomas swore, pulled out his cell phone, and turned away from them. Probably calling for aid. He snapped the phone closed after a few moments of talking in a low voice to someone on the other end. “Search the building. Get Micah down here to take a look at these herbs and try to figure out what they might have been doing.” He glanced at one of the warlocks sitting on the floor trying to stop a bloody nose. “Drug up the surviving Duskoff and get them back to the Coven. Throw them in Gribben, and we’ll question them.” Theo pulled her to the side. “Are you injured? How are your stomach and your ribs?” “I’m okay. I don’t think anything’s broken.” She touched her sore belly. “Just scrapes and bruises.” Bad bruises.
Thomas’s shoe crunched some broken glass on the floor behind them, making them turn. He swung around and pointed a finger at Theo and Sarafina. “Theo, you don’t let her out of your sight from now on. I don’t want her so much as peeing without you in the room.” Sarafina frowned. “Uh.”
“I mean it.” Thomas pointed at her again, like a father reprimanding a child. “Don’t make me handcuff you together. Go back to Louisville and find a good hotel. I don’t want you far from us. Sarafina, on the way there, call Micah and tell him everything you just told us.” Thomas started to turn away, then stopped and turned back. “And Sarafina, you did an awesome job here. Thank you for rushing in to defend Claire the way you did. If you want a job with the Coven, it’s yours.”
THEO FUMED THE ENTIRE WAY BACK TO LOUISVILLE, his hands tight on the steering wheel of their rented SUV. He couldn’t bring himself to speak or do much beyond concentrate on the road in front of him. The rage he felt at Bai and Stefan boiled through his veins, and he didn’t trust himself not to explode, so he just kept silent.
Beside him Sarafina sat staring out the window, deep in thought. He couldn’t blame her. Being earmarked for broodmare status by a daaeman would bring much contemplation along with it.
They reached the hotel where Stefan had originally intended to lodge and left the vehicle for the valet. Stefan’s limo was still parked back on the land and the Gods only knew where he was by now.
Eric’s flashy red bike was parked outside. Theo couldn’t help but sneer as he passed it on the cobblestone street.
They were both a mess. They needed to get up to the hotel room before anyone started asking why they were dirty and blood-streaked.
When they entered the lobby there was the man himself, sprawled in the lobby on a sofa near one of the gift shops. Eric had probably been waiting for her. His face lit up when he saw Sarafina and he rose to greet her, but Theo extinguished the man’s enthusiasm with one cold, hard stare.
“Thanks again, Eric!” Sarafina called over her shoulder with a smile as Theo pulled her past, toward the reception area. “I appreciate all your help!” Theo checked them into a one-bedroom suite and then asked that the concierge send up supplies, like a change of clothes, a first aid kit, pajamas, and toiletries. Then he took her upstairs, away from Eric, away from everyone.
He needed her to himself right now.
As soon as they cleared the threshold and the door was shut, he pulled her against him and crushed his mouth to hers. Her body compressed against his, soft against hard, and her breath hissed from between her lips as they broke the kiss.
“You were right about not needing to be reminded,” she said breathlessly. He loved that he could make her sound that way. Her smile was a little lopsided. “Maybe there can be something good about today, after all.
“I want you, Sarafina. I’m sick of denying myself.” He also wanted to put his mark on her, make sure the world knew in some way that he cared about this woman, that she was his. Not Stefan’s pawn.
And not Bai’s broodmare.
He needed to get her naked and make sure she truly was all right — that she was alive and well, warm and wanting him. They were both hurting, injured, but that wasn’t going to stop them.
He raised his head, sour realization blooming through him. “Fuck, condom.” He growled. “I don’t have one. Damn it.” “It’s okay. I’m nowhere near the time of the month when I could get pregnant.” “Are you sure?”
“I know my body, Theo. I’m totally sure.” “Thank the Gods.”
Theo lifted his head long enough to ascertain where the bedroom was and then moved her toward it, his hands pulling at her clothes as they went.
Once in the bedroom, he slammed the door so hard with his foot that the walls shook, closing it just in case the concierge arrived with their packages while they were busy.
He yanked her skirt down her hips and slid her grass-stained blouse the rest of the way off her shoulders, letting both drop to the thick carpeting beside the bed. She wore a red silk bra and matching panties that made Theo’s mouth go dry.
The only thing better would be to get those litt
le pieces of nothing off her.
TWENTY-TWO
“YOU’RE NOT GOING TO RUN AWAY AGAIN ARE YOU?” Sarafina ran her lips over the warm skin along his collarbone, making him groan. The scent of him intoxicated her, man and magick.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he murmured, finding her lips and nipping at them.
“Good.” She smiled. “I don’t think I could take another hit-and-run.” He bit the curve of her neck, sending a shock wave of want through her, followed by goose bumps.
They were both dirty from the day, bloody and battle-bruised. Her stomach and arm ached, and Theo had cracked his head really good, but none of that mattered now. All that mattered now was their skin, sliding hot and silky against each other’s. All that mattered now was the bed behind them and the different ways they wanted to show how much they cared about each other.
He dropped to his knees and pulled her against him, gently brushing his lips over the bruise that was blooming over her abdomen. “Are you all right?” “I’ll be fine.” She let her fingers brush through his hair. “Touching you makes all my pain go away.” Theo stood, slid his hands around her, and unhooked her bra, but she sidled back away from him with a mischievous smile before he could free it. She finally had a chance to undress him and see every inch of his gloriousness; no way was she allowing him to get distracted by her breasts.
She sank down on her knees and pushed the hem of his tight black T-shirt upward, revealing the tanned, tattooed expanse of his washboard stomach. Pure delight warmed her as she scattered kisses over it, feeling the brush of the line of dark hair that ran down past the waistband of his jeans against her lips. Sarafina closed her eyes, breathing in the scent of his skin and savoring the smooth hardness of his abdomen before she rose and pushed his T-shirt up and over his head, leaving him lusciously bare from the waist up.
