[The Veil 01.0] Beyond the Veil

by Pippa Dacosta

  How the hell was I supposed to beat that?

  Akil noticed the half-empty wine bottle on the table and suppressed a smile as he sat down opposite me.

  “You’re late,” I grumbled.

  “Traffic.”

  I snorted a laugh. Traffic? He could bend reality around him, and a few stop lights had prevented him from being on time? Right.

  A waiter appeared and offered Akil a choice of wine. I glared at him through the brief exchange, watching him taste the wine and express his preference before the waiter poured him a glass. Once the waiter departed, Akil met my stare, his smile hitching up a little. “You’re angry.”

  I shrugged. “No.”

  He leaned forward, swirling the wine in his glass. “You are angry with me.” He, on the other hand, appeared to be in quite a good mood, as though my anger pleased him.

  “Yes.” I sat forward, planting an elbow on the table and picking up my wine. “Do you think I’m an idiot?”

  “Sometimes.”

  I bit into my lip. A flicker of anger ignited inside me like a pilot light. From that one little light, an inferno could blaze, but right now, it was controlled. “What are you doing, Akil?”

  “What do you mean?” Oh, playing coy now was he?

  “Let’s cut the bullshit.” A few of the other diners in the restaurant glanced our way. Akil also found that amusing. “What’s going on? The workshop? The Hellhounds? Did you know a demon attacked me in the stairwell at your hotel? Damn thing nearly chewed my face off.”

  “You’re surprised?”

  That little flicker of anger, it flared brighter, my element stirring, awakening. “Are you doing this to me?”

  “No.” He said the word softly. Both of us were leaned in close enough that he didn’t need to raise his voice. “How many times do you need me to say it?”

  “It’s not Val. I asked.” I waved my left hand. The wounds from earlier in the day were scabbed over but still sore.

  “That was idiotic.” He pointed a finger at me, smile failing. “You’re very lucky he didn’t turn you inside out.”

  “He couldn’t. I protected myself.” Ha! See? Not so stupid. I decided not to mention how my brother had tried to skewer me. “He said he didn’t send those hounds, so who else, Akil? There’s only one other demon I know who has enough power to control those beasts.”

  “And this one demon you say you know, did he save you from an abusive owner, the very same owner that sheered a wing from your ethereal body and destroyed your mind? Did this demon give you the tools you needed to exact your revenge on your owner? Did he protect you from that day to this one? Has he ever hurt you? Ever?” Embers of heat briefly sparkled in Akil’s dark eyes before vanishing as he blinked.

  And that’s where my argument always fell over. I sucked in a breath and closed my eyes, rubbing my hand over them. “No.”

  “I don’t deserve your anger, Muse.”

  I opened my eyes to see him watching me. “So who does?”

  “I don’t know. Why does one demon have to be to blame? You’ve ruffled enough wings to infuriate a whole horde of demons. Look at that detective, who I saved you from, in case you’ve conveniently forgotten that as well. He was just one of many. What does it matter? If you had done as I’d asked and stayed with me, none of this would have happened.”

  He knew all the right words, but it wasn’t enough anymore. “Why me? I’m just a half-blood. Why do they even care if I live or die?”

  The waiter appeared with his pen and pad. “Are you ready to order?”

  Akil glared at him with enough force to make the poor guy squirm in his shoes and slink off. Akil picked up his glass of wine and took a generous sip. “There is something I’ve… neglected to mention.”

  “Oh?”

  He swept a pertinent gaze about the restaurant. “Not here.”

  “Then let’s leave.” I pushed my glass to the middle of the table, about to stand, when Akil’s hand covered mine, his warm fingers closing, holding me tightly.

  “No. We order. We eat. And we enjoy each other’s company.”

  The heat from his hand wove its way up my arm, its sensual touch rooting me to my seat. His words weren’t a request. A part of me resented being told what to do, but the power in his words teased through my human barriers and did peculiar things to my demon half. There was no denying the control he had over me, over the demon inside of me. She would roll over and let him tickle her belly if she could, and I couldn’t blame her. She was me, and there was a large part of me that desired everything about Akil. How else does a woman fall in love with a demon?

  Once I shrugged off my anger, I actually enjoyed the meal. The food was fantastic, and Akil had all the right levels of charm with an undercurrent of wicked innuendo that had me nearly salivating with the thought of what we might get up to. He hadn’t got to where he was by bullying his way to the top. His suave exterior, irresistible charm, and outright sexy demeanor were virtually impossible to deny. The evening air had a frosty bite when we left the restaurant, prompting me to pull my coat tighter around me as we walked along the waterfront. Yachts of all shapes and sizes bobbed in their moorings, riggings clinking against the masts. We leaned against the railing beside a vast yacht with a helicopter on its retracted top deck.

  I took a deep breath of sea air. There was something pure about the sea, its endless ebb and flow, timeless and constant. It would be there long after I’d gone and would maybe even outlast my brother. I hoped so. Akil hugged me against his side. His jacket was over my shoulders, keeping out the worst of the chill. We stood like that for a few minutes. I listened to his breathing, let the warmth of him soak into me. The sky above sparkled with diamond stars. The water below was a bottomless black darkness.

  He turned me to face him. The press of his body, coupled with the lightheaded effects of the alcohol, conspired to rouse temptation in me. As he lifted a hand to my face, I leaned my cheek into his palm, closing my eyes and sighing.

  His lips brushed mine. “Why did you leave me?” he whispered.

  It was the only question I could never answer in a way he would understand, and perhaps that was an answer in itself. He would never understand what it meant to be human. He could pretend, but he had none of the fragility of life. It wasn’t even that though. He wouldn’t know the joys of the simple things in life because he was always playing the grander game. We were like ants to him, milling back and forth, our destinations of no interest. I’d only caught his eye because I’d belonged to Damien.

  For five years, I’d been Charlie, and it had been the best five years of my otherwise wretched life.

  “I didn’t leave you.” I rested my forehead against his, moistening my lips as a depth of sadness dragged my mood down. “I left behind the part of me that’s demon.”

  “After everything I did for you.” His hand pushed against my face. Only when I felt his touch tremble did I open my eyes. I searched his eyes. Slivers of heat fragmented the dark irises. It had never really occurred to me that I could have hurt him. But standing beside him, my gaze lost in the maelstrom of emotion in his eyes, I realized I had. I’d walked away from him after everything he had done for me. I’d turned my back on him.

  I stood on my tiptoes and pressed my lips against his. When he didn’t immediately respond, I pulled back a little. “Akil?” The way he held my gaze, his eyes ablaze with heat, told me something was wrong. I caught a glimmer of emotion like nothing I’d seen from him. Before I could process it, his lips met mine with a ferocious hunger. I immediately succumbed, but a fragment of uncertainty had splintered in the back of my mind. I’d seen something in Akil that struck fear through my heart like the piercing jab of a rapier. Hatred.

  “You want to know why they seek your demise?” he breathed, pinning me back against the railing. His hand roamed down my waist, over my hip, and gripped my thigh, hitching my leg up, enabling me to hook it around him and pull him tighter against me. I couldn’t think clearly. His k
isses burned on my cheek, my neck, branding my trembling skin.

  “Yes,” I hissed.

  “You’re not half a demon.”

  He let his element roll over me. The warm flush of it across my skin aroused my element. My demon woke from her slumber, summoned like a cobra at the beckoning call of her charmer. I struggled to pull her back, fearing she might spill over my skin and reveal herself right here by the marina.

  He smothered my mouth with his, blunt teeth nipping gently at my lip. “There is no such thing as half a demon. Inside…” He splayed a hand across my chest. “You are whole.”

  His hand roamed higher, fingers easing behind my neck. “You’re entirely human and demon, and they despise you for it.” His grip tightened around my neck while the demon inside me rode higher, fighting to be free. I tried to rein her back in, but Akil’s hardened grip distracted me. I couldn’t breathe. I dug my fingers in behind his, trying to pry his hand free as my demon burst out of my flesh, enveloping me.

  Akil took a few steps back to admire his handiwork. I stood bathed in my demon form and tried to consider my actions, tried to think clearly about what I was doing, but the chaos spiraled out of control. I couldn’t reason with chaos. It wanted the madness, the hunger, the glory of destruction. He could see me battling for control but wasn’t preventing me from manifesting. If anything, he was enjoying his personal freak show and my outright failure.

  “What are you doing?” I panted. My wing sprouted from my back, tugging at my flesh as it unfurled. My right side slumped. The weight of the one wing pushed me down, while the opposite stump protruded uselessly.

  “You’re beautiful.”

  I was dangerous, not beautiful. He was calling my element, luring all of it out of me, but with nowhere to channel it, I would fall victim to its wrath.

  “Stop.” Another wave of heat washed over me, its receding edge dragging the last vestiges of power out of me. I dropped to my knees, giving myself over to her completely, because it was inevitable. I couldn’t control her, not like this, not with a demon of Akil’s lineage pulling my strings.

  “Akil, please… don’t do this. I can’t…” I slumped over, one hand on the ground. “I can’t control it.” Heat from the earth pooled about me. I felt the residual warmth from the city shoring me up, an unending supply of chaos to fuel my lust for destruction. I didn’t want to hurt anyone, but before long, I wouldn’t have a choice.

  Akil stood over me. “This is what you are.” He took my hand and pulled me to my feet, apparently impervious to the tendrils of my power lashing around him.

  “How dare you?” A snarl rippled across my lips. “You think I won’t use this? You think I can’t? You have no idea what you’ve done.” My voice no longer sounded like mine. My demon spoke through me. The words echoed in on themselves.

  Akil reached a hand through the shimmering veil surrounding me as if to stroke my face, but the thought of his invasive touch only angered me further. How dare he play me like this? I batted his hand away with a growl. When he tried again, I planted both hands on his shoulders and shoved him back.

  He just smiled. I peered through my demon guise and watched his demon form emerge, framing his human vessel so that both man and demon existed, one layered over the other. Mammon leered at me, his leathery wings held aloft. Embers fizzed along their ragged edges. I cocked my head to the side, closing the fingers of my right hand into a fist while pooling energy into my arm. It came willingly, like an eager pet rushing into me. I flung the blast of heat outward, feeling it peel over my arm and spill from my fingers. Akil staggered back, lifting a hand, palm out. He laughed.

  By that point, I’d had enough of the games. I summoned everything I could call, pulling heat from every surface, teasing it from the tiniest of molecules, and drawing it into my very being. I drew the lingering heat from the metal of the engine of the boat behind me. The lights, central-heating systems, electricity cables, even the residual warmth inside the walls of the nearby buildings and the ground beneath our feet. It came freely to me, rushing from every crevice to bolster my strength.

  “Nobody uses me, Akil,” my demon snarled. “And you’re a fool if you think you can.”

  He backed up and gleefully shook off his mortal appearance. His truly demonic being appeared before me. He smiled, betraying rows of pointed teeth behind black lips. A chuckle rumbled through him like distant thunder. I lashed out, cracking a whip-like tendril of fire in the air before thrashing it across his chest. He flinched but opened his arms, his muscles quivering as the wound I’d opened instantly resealed itself.

  I lashed the tendril of heat at him again, catching him across the face. A gash smoldered across his cheek before the leathery skin stitched itself back together. My demon roared her frustration, not just at him, but at everything. The torture we’d endured, and then my attempt to forget she even existed, and now these numerous attempts on our life ignited a molten river of rage. I lifted both hands, holding them in front of me and balling the free-flowing energy between them. My fingers, blackened like coal, framed the pulsating sphere. Its heat rippled in the air around me.

  “You can’t hurt me, Muse.” Mammon’s voice resounded in my head.

  “I already did.” I saw him falter. Even with him in his demon state, I could see his features pitch into a frown. I launched the radiating sphere at him, casting with it every ounce of anger and frustration in me. I funneled it all into that attack with a scream of rage that shattered the glass in the buildings behind him. Alarms shrilled in the air as the flow of energy slammed into Mammon. He deflected it with ease at first, but as the flow strengthened, its blanching heat flooded over him, forcing him to stumble back. Seeing him hesitate only drove me forward. I called more power into me, letting it flow through me and blast outward, taking with it a lifetime’s worth of fury.

  Mammon found his back against the wall, wings pinned flush against the granite blocks, and still I poured everything through me, channeling it all down my arms so it could spill from my hands. Suddenly, he lunged, plowing a shoulder right into my stomach to drive me back. I hadn’t seen him conjure the ethereal blade, but I saw it now, right as he lifted it above his head. I had a moment to appreciate the beauty of its shimmering blade before falling. Mammon’s demon face sneered down at me as I reached for him, but I was fast falling away from him. A cool breeze brushed against my smoldering flesh right before the water engulfed me, quenching the blazing rage within a few breathless seconds. My demon retreated inside me so quickly that she knocked the air from my lungs. I gulped water, a current of bubbles fluttering in front of my eyes. My lungs burned for air. My head pounded.

  I didn’t know which way was up. I kicked out and twisted, desperately seeking the surface, but saw only darkness. My demon cowered inside me. The water completely robbed her of any helpful input. My attempts to summon my element were met with spluttering denials.

  I’m drowning…

  That wasn’t quite how I’d envisaged bowing out of this life and certainly not by Akil’s hand. Quiet descended over me. I still thrashed, my limbs desperately seeking purchase in the endless black. My chest heaved and my lungs flooded with water, but I didn’t mind so much. I could watch it all from afar, as though it were happening to another poor soul, not me. It was okay. I’d be okay. It no longer hurt.

  Chapter 15

  Salt water bubbled up my throat. I bucked against the wooden boards beneath me and coughed water from my lungs. My stomach heaved up water and the remains of my meal, dumping it unceremoniously on the decking beside me. I spluttered and spat, my throat burning, eyes watering, but I was alive.

  “She’s okay!”

  I didn’t recognize the voice, or the people looming over me. Someone rushed in and wrapped a blanket around me, saying the paramedics were on the way. I might have muttered something about being fine, which of course I clearly was not. It took a few minutes before I could stand. Flashing blue lights danced off the yachts around me. Police cars and fire
trucks lined the marina. Glass glistened on the roadway. An ambulance peeled its way through the crowd. Someone asked me if I knew what had happened. I shook my head quickly, wet hair clinging to my cheeks. The marina looked as though it had survived a bomb blast. I began to tremble, shock rattling my bones. I couldn’t quite breathe. My head spun. I had to stop walking and clutch hold of the stranger who’d been helping me. When the paramedics finally got to me, I needed them.

  By the time I arrived at the city hospital, I’d regained some of my wits. I couldn’t stay there, not without them asking too many questions. I still had the death of a detective hanging over me, not to mention a Prince of Hell trying to kill me. At the first opportunity, I found the washrooms and attempted to clean myself up. My reflection didn’t look like me at all. The woman in the mirror looked like death warmed up—literally. I ignored her terrified eyes, her bruised flesh, and the dozens of cuts and tried to gather my thoughts into a coherent order.

  “He tried to kill me.” My wide-eyed reflection peered back at me. The demon inside me twisted anxiously, knotting a ball of pain. I could argue I’d brought it on myself, but Akil had been the one poking the sleeping tiger with a stick. He should have left well alone.

  There was nothing I could do with my appearance. I tried to comb my fingers through my tangled hair, but the knots refused to give in. I’d have to walk out of the hospital and hope I didn’t get stopped. Outside the washroom door, a hand gripped my arm. I turned, armed with a stock response about being fine, only to find Stefan frowning at me. I snatched my arm free from his grip and brushed my hair back, preferring to watch the people flow through the corridor around us than see the concern on his face. He was going to be nice, and if he did that, I’d likely cry. I sure as hell was not crying in front of him, or anyone.

  “I’m sorry.” He stepped into me as someone briskly brushed by him. I backed up, finding the wall to lean against as he bowed his head, searching my expression. “Are you all right?”