Mercy's Protectors (Mercy Ashby Book 1)

by A. M. Hardin

  “One nick and you’ll be on the floor in agony as my flames travel through your veins from my knife. If you were a higher level demon it wouldn’t kill you. It also wouldn’t kill you if it weren’t running through your body. However, every one of you assholes are lower level demons. It really won’t take much to kill you all.”

  One of the other demons grins at me, his teeth, though sharpened into spikes are disgustingly black and brown. A shiver crawls down my spine as I fight the urge to gag at the sight.

  "Little girl, there's four of us and two of you," he points out. His eyes trail to something behind me, making me stiffen when I sense the presence there. "Five," he corrects with a wicked laugh.

  "My dear, Mercy," Jerome's voice crawls over my skin. "Found you."

  15

  Chapter Fifteen

  Mercy

  Moving to the side of the room so Jerome isn't behind me anymore and I have the others in my sight I narrow my eyes at him.

  "How'd you get past the guys?"

  Jerome smiles and I'm vaguely aware of the others fight resuming after War gets rid of two from behind while they were distracted with me and Jerome. "I'm not going to tell you all my secrets, my Mercy."

  I scrunch up my nose. "Will you please stop calling me that? I'm not yours. I'm don't belong to anyone. I belong to myself."

  He shakes his head. "Maybe right now, you belong to no one, but it won't always be the case. My master will have you and then you'll be mine when he's done with you."

  I flick my eyes in time to see War finish his last demon off.

  "Mercy will never belong to anyone unless she wills it so," War says slowly as he gets to my side.

  Jerome narrows his eyes at War. “I’m not interested in what you have to say Warwick. Why don’t you go help your friends downstairs so I don’t end up having to hurt you.”

  War smirks. “You’ve never managed to hurt me before, Jerome. What makes you think you can hurt me now?”

  Jerome grins and an old sword appears in a cloud of smoke in his hands. There’s designs along the blade and jewels decorate the silver hilt. “We’re equally matched yes, but with this I can easily kill you.”

  War's jaw hardens. "Where the hell did you get that?"

  "My master originally wanted me to use it on Hunter, but of course, the favored son is nowhere to be seen."

  “Favored son?” I ask War. He blatantly ignores me. Dick.

  "Even with that you wouldn't be able to defeat Hunter and you know it, Jerome," War sneers.

  "No, I suppose not," Jerome muses, twirling the sword around.

  “Mercy, you need to get down to the guys. Now! If Jerome gets me in the right spot with that blade I'll be dead. After that, there won't be anyone else to stop him from getting to you.”

  “I am not leaving you. We can also always find a healer for you if needed.”

  He subtly shakes his head but doesn't say anything else. I pull my short sword out from behind me and hand it to him, keeping my dagger in my hand.

  As soon as the sword is in War’s palm, Jerome attacks. War shoves me out of the way without any warning and blocks Jerome's strike with my sword.

  “Stay out of this Mercy,” War says just before they really start going at each other.

  They're moving so fast I almost can't see their movements. Higher level demons are scary fuckers, that's for damn sure. If War can't handle Jerome then I don’t think I’ll be able to either. Who the hell am I kidding? I know I can't take Jerome. It might be a semi-even fight but he'll still overpower me in a big way.

  After several gut wrenching minutes of swords clanging against each other Jerome and War cry out simultaneously before pulling themselves away from the blades buried in their bodies.

  War brings a hand to his side, trying to stop the flow of blood while Jerome does the same to the gaping wound in his stomach.

  “War?”

  “I'll be fine, Mimi. We need to get out of here. Where the hell are the guys?”

  I bite my lip. “I don't know. The last I heard from anyone was when they said that Jerome was here.”

  "This doesn't change anything. It may not have been a fatal blow but that doesn't mean that you're not in some serious pain from the spell placed on the blade," Jerome says between heavy breaths.

  “I'll incapacitate him. Come closer and I'll help you so we can get the hell out of here.” I glare at Jerome as War moves towards me. "Hey, Jerome," I call out as I call my flames and put them in my dagger. "Go tell your master he can go fuck himself." I throw the knife at him and hit him dead center of his chest and he goes down, crying out in pain. I can see the flames go through his stomach wound, tearing it up even more while he falls to the ground.

  War wraps an arm around my shoulder, leaning some of his weight on me to help walk out of the room and down the stairs.

  “Where are we going?” I ask.

  “Tunnel in the kitchen, behind the pantry.”

  We move quickly through the large house, and I'm thankful that it sounds like the fighting has stopped for the others, though I can still hear Jerome's moans of pain while my flames eat him from the inside.

  “We don't have much more time,” I warn him as we get into the kitchen. I stop and stare. “What fucking pantry? This place is huge! There's fucking five of them in this damn kitchen.”

  War chuckles and points his finger to a pantry in the middle of the kitchen. We walk into the pantry and I have to fight to roll my eyes.

  "How the hell are we supposed to get into this tunnel?" I hiss, mildly freaking out that my flames are no longer holding Jerome back from coming after us.

  War reaches under a shelf and it looks like he runs his hand along the bottom of it. There's a soft click and a staircase appears in the floor below us.

  "I don't care! Find her!" Jerome's shout sounds far away though I can hear that he's moving quickly through the house.

  Time to go. Warwick and I head down the stairs. As soon as we step on the flat ground the stairs disappear and the floor closes itself up, shutting us in darkness.

  "Are you okay?" I ask War while I lean him against the side of the tunnel.

  He nods his head. "I'll be fine. Eventually." He groans. "It might actually take more than just giving it time to heal this though." He pulls his phone out and turns the flashlight on so he can look at it.

  "What do you mean?"

  "I'm an incubus, Mimi. It's going to take more than time to get me healed. Especially because of the spell embedded in that damn sword. I need more." He meets my eyes, searching for something. For what, I don't know.

  My cheeks warm and I bite my lower lip. "Are you saying you need sex?"

  "I don't need sex, it's not that bad, but I will need some amount of sexual contact soon." He pauses, his eyes fixed on my lower lip where my teeth are biting into the skin. "I'm not expecting you to do anything though, Mercy. I'd never ask you to do that."

  I meet his eyes, attempting to calm my racing heart at the thought of kissing him. Touching him. Being with him.

  His eyes widen slightly while he studies me and I feel more warmth flushing my cheeks when I realize he can sense my arousal. Stupid incubus abilities.

  Swallowing, I try to speak past the lump in my throat. "What if I'm offering?" I ask quietly, not able to bring myself to meet his eyes. I've never really been the type of girl to throw myself at a guy, and even just being the one offering first is unusual for me and has me feeling off kilter.

  War uses his finger to lift my chin up, forcing me to meet his gaze. Using the pad of his thumb he rubs my bottom lip gently.

  Bringing his hand around to the back of my head so he can fist a handful of my hair, he slowly brings my face to his.

  "Tell me if you're not sure, Mercy," he murmurs against my mouth.

  I lick my lips, my tongue brushing against his lip. "I'm sure," I breathe.

  Closing the distance between us, I press my lips firmly against his, breathing in his delicious scent. I can't
put my finger on what it is but it's fucking amazing.

  His tongue brushes against the seam of my lips. Opening for him, he deepens the kiss, our tongues dancing together. Sliding my hands through his hair, I let out a soft moan when he nips at my tongue at the same time his hand slips under my shirt and touches bare skin.

  I groan as I feel the magic travel from me to War to heal his injury in his side. His hand travels higher and skims the bottom of my bra, almost like he's waiting for me to object before it slips underneath and squeezes my breast.

  I move to straddle him, careful of his injury but needing to be closer. Grinding myself on top of him I gasp when his mouth leaves mine to travel down my throat. I can feel him as he grows harder against my core. The knowledge that he’s reacting to me this way is heady and I desperately want more. When he bites into my pulse I let out a whimper and pull his hair to bring his mouth back to mine.

  "Well, this isn't what I was expecting to find when I came to check if you made it into the tunnel," Kai's amused voice says from behind me.

  I pull away from War's mouth but don't turn to face Kai. I have to fight the smile forming at my lips when I see War scowling at Kai.

  "Where the hell did you guys go anyways?" War asks, his voice stronger than it was before our brief make-out session.

  Finally turning to Kai I see him smiling outright and looking at us with desire in his eyes. "We were down the tunnel. Talon heard a noise come from this way and sent me to check to see if it was you guys."

  "You couldn't tell until you were right on top of us? War's phone light is still on," I point out.

  "Mmm, yeah, when I realized what was happening I couldn't deny myself the show." Kai shrugs like it's no big deal. "Speaking of, why were you guys just playing tonsil hockey?"

  I roll my eyes and look down when I feel War's hand slide out of my shirt and rest on my hip, only realizing then that I'm still straddling his lap.

  My face flushes as I clamber off, doing my best to be careful of the wound in his side.

  "I'm alright, Mimi," War assures me, lifting his shirt to show where he was hurt. Instead of an open gaping wound, in its place is a mere scar, showing that he had been hurt, though if I watch close enough I can see it slowly disappear around the edges. "Thank you."

  "You're welcome," I mumble, standing up and wiping the dust from the tunnel off my jeans, trying to hide the red in my cheeks.

  "What the hell happened to you?" Kai asks after War stands and grabs his phone.

  "Jerome brought a little surprise. Any of you guys injured?"

  "Just a few bruises and cuts here and there. Nowhere as bad as what you apparently had, if that blood is anything to go by."

  We're quiet the rest of the way to the end of the tunnel where Parker and Talon are waiting. As we approach Talon and Parker raise their brows when they see the blood covering War and I.

  It takes everything in me not to blush when Talon’s eyes rove over my face and hair. Most likely taking in my swollen lips and messed up hair and realizing what War and I had been doing before Kai interrupted.

  “Everything okay?” Parker asks.

  “Everything’s fine,” War replies.

  “Good. Let’s get the hell out of here. We’ve got to walk for a while before we get to where we’re going,” Talon warns.

  “Where are we going?” I ask curiously.

  “Hunter’s place.”

  16

  Chapter Sixteen

  Mercy

  Three hours into our trek the air shimmers and tingles against my skin as we walk through a ward.

  “Not too much farther. Just gotta make it through the next stretch of woods,” Kai informs me.

  "Not too much farther" turned into another hour of walking through the woods, uphill.

  "I'm glad that I actually use treadmills on an incline, otherwise I'm pretty sure I'd want to kick your ass right about now, Kai," I pant when we reach the front of the cottage on top of the hill hidden behind the trees.

  Kai chuckles. "Aw, you tired Mercy?"

  I shoot him a glare and roll my eyes before pushing his shoulder, making him stumble sideways, laughing. "Shut up."

  "Will you guys stop fighting like children?" Talon snaps back at us.

  I cross my eyes behind his back while sticking my tongue out at him and flipping him the bird, causing Kai to choke on a laugh. "Some of us aren't old, ya know," I point out.

  "We're well aware that you haven't even hit your twenties yet, Mercy," says Talon.

  I snort. "Way to make that sound like hitting your twenties is some kind of milestone, Talon. Although, I guess in our world, it can be."

  Talon just shakes his head and doesn't respond while he opens the door to let us in.

  "Parker, give Hunter a call and see how much longer he'll be and tell him that we're here. If you can't get ahold of him, War, you'll need to go to him and tell him what happened."

  Parker and War nod their heads. Pulling his phone out of his pocket, Parker puts his backpack down on the floor by the door and steps back outside to call Hunter.

  "How long are we staying here?" I ask the guys. Their faces are carefully blank as they meet each others eyes before finally turning their gazes to me. "What?"

  "We preferably need to stay here until Hunter gets here. However, if something happens then there's a good chance we won't be able to hang around here and wait," War says.

  "Okay, that's the first question answered, now how about the other? Why are you guys looking at me funny?"

  "War told us what happened to the demon that you killed before Jerome got there," Kai says.

  I raise a brow, waiting for more. "What of it?" I ask when no one makes a move to say any more.

  "How can you do that?" Talon asks. "I've known Hunter almost my entire life and I've never heard of a demon having that ability, let alone a half-demon."

  I shrug. "It's something that my uncle taught me. He said it was one of my father's skills that he didn't really broadcast. So, it's actually not all that surprising that you haven't heard of a demon using that ability before."

  "What exactly does it do?" Kai's eyes show nothing more than an innate curiosity.

  I take a deep breath. "Where demons' flames are deadly to all creatures, even each other, a half-demons is considerably less powerful than a full blooded demon. Not all demons can control flames after they're inside someone's body. Usually it'll stay focused on the area that was wounded where the flames entered. My father and I can direct the flames to flow throughout their body as soon as we strike. My flames don't hurt a demon on the outside, but if I can get them inside their body and they're a lower level demon, I can kill them. A higher level demon, I can cause pain to and incapacitate, but I can't kill them with my flames."

  The guys are quiet as they absorb the information I gave them.

  Parker comes back inside, breaking the silence. Waving his phone, he informs us, "I managed to get ahold of Hunter. He says that we're not going to like what he has to say when he gets back here. He's also extremely unhappy that we got found at Talon's house only a few hours after he left us. He'll be here in a couple hours."

  "Well, since that's all figured out, I'm going to go find a shower." I grab my bag and walk out of the large living room. I lift my hand in the air in a lazy wave, not bothering to wait for a response from any of the others.

  After opening the fifth door, I finally find the bathroom. The others were closets or bedrooms. It makes me wonder just how big of a cottage this place is. It certainly didn't seem like it was very large from the outside.

  I strip off my workout clothes and get in the shower. Instead of washing right away, I tilt my head under the running water and allow it to just soak my hair and body. My thoughts drift back to my conversation with Xena earlier.

  What connection, besides me, do Ada and Aiden have? It can't be a coincidence that they both went missing, especially when considering that there are people inside the Order working for Payne and telling h
im and Jerome where to find me.

  While washing my body and hair my thoughts scramble between thoughts of Ada, Aiden, Xena, my mom, my uncle. When I'm done washing I decide that I'll just give my uncle a call and tell him that I want some sort of protection on Xena and hopefully he'll agree or at least put her in hiding.

  I dig through my bag and find a bra, panties, a tank top, and a pair of blue jean shorts to throw on, shaking my head in disgust at my meager choices. I didn't have enough room for all of my clothes that I had bought yesterday so I had to choose clothes that would be easiest to move in.

  Grabbing my phone, I dial the familiar number and wait for the answer.

  "Mercy. To what do I owe this pleasure?"

  "Roderick, I have a favor I need to ask of you."

  He lets out a heavy sigh. "What do you need kid?"

  "I need you to get Xena protective detail."

  He's quiet for several long and agonizing minutes. So long, that I thought he was about to deny me my request. "Why exactly do we need to get Xena into protective custody?"

  "You haven't heard then?" I ask, more than a little shocked that he hasn't heard.

  "Heard what?"

  "The guy, Aiden, that you had meet me when I got to the Order is missing and so is a girl that I got into a fight with that night. The only connection Xena and I can see is that they had something to do with me."

  "Mercy, that's kind of stretch," he starts but I cut him off.

  "I'm aware of that, but I'd seriously feel better if there were someone at the Order to help look out for Xena. She didn't get as much training as I did, Uncle. She disappeared before we could teach her very much."

  "Why are you really pushing for her to have protection?" He asks.

  "Because she needs it. I'm really worried, Roderick. Jerome finding us at Talon's club was one thing, but he found us at Talon's house today. Warwick got hurt and all because he was stopping Jerome from getting to me. I can't have anyone else get hurt because of me," I whisper into the phone. "Please."