“I’ll try,” she replied, since she didn’t know if that was a promise she could keep.
By the time they strolled up to a nondescript building, Maya’s nerves had built to a fiery crescendo that manifested as an unsettled stomach. Was she crazy? She’d spent the last fourteen years of her life destroying demons and searching for a way to banish them to Hell, and now she was going to walk willingly into a bar full of them? Not to mention the other creatures she hadn’t known existed—faeries and shifters. Vampires and werewolves, for God’s sake.
Taeg must have sensed her unease, because he paused and slung an arm around her shoulders. “It’ll be okay. Promise.”
She gave him a shaky nod.
He kept his arm around her as he sauntered over to the huge, burly man guarding the door. “Hey, Giorgio. How’s it hanging, dude?”
“To the left.” Giorgio’s attention darted to Maya and his eyes narrowed.
“She’s with me.” Taeg pulled her so close that the heat pulsing off his body penetrated her layers of clothes, warming her instantly.
Giorgio nodded and opened the door to allow them inside. They stepped into a small space that contained nothing other than a narrow staircase leading down.
“Was he some sort of shifter?” Maya whispered as they made their way down the stairs. Giorgio had that same ragged aura as Keegan, Bram, and Reiver—like something inside him longed to tear its way out.
“Shush,” Taeg replied.
Damn it, she had to know. But now wasn’t the time. They reached the bottom of the stairs. In front of them a long, narrow room housed a bar, small stage, and dance floor. But the room wasn’t nearly as interesting as its patrons. Short, squat men who looked like pigs, women with long, flowing hair and blue flesh, creatures with five eyes instead of two. There had to be at least thirty people in this part of the bar, and not one of them human. Not even the DJ, a beautiful woman with swirling amber and gray eyes who danced to the beat of her music behind her equipment on the small stage.
“Holy shit.”
Taeg tightened his hold on her, as if warning her to keep her mouth shut. She wasn’t about to blab, but man did her fingers itch to close around one of her daggers. He practically dragged her over to one corner of the bar.
“Hey, buddy”—he placed his hand on the shoulder of a guy who looked like a biker—“give the seat up for my girl, will you?”
The biker dude swiveled to face her and Maya stiffened, her fingers automatically moving to graze the hilt of her dagger over her shirt. But after giving her a once-over, he grinned and rose from the red leather barstool. “Sure, anything for a lady.”
She took the seat and Taeg squeezed between her barstool and the neighboring one.
The bartender sidled over to them. She was beautiful, with hair the color of midnight falling to her waist and glowing white skin with a tinge of blue. “What can I get you?”
Much to Maya’s surprise, Taeg barely spared her a glance. “I’ll take a Corona.” He turned to Maya. “You?”
“Gin and tonic, please.” Not that she would drink much of it. Even if she was safe here, as Taeg reassured her, the place creeped her out. She had to stay on top of her game.
The bartender quickly returned with their drinks. Maya waited until she left before leaning toward Taeg. “Did you charm that guy into giving up his seat?”
He rested his elbows on top of the bar and bent so that his mouth was close to her ear. “No. The use of powers inside the bar is strictly prohibited. People would be a lot less likely to cut loose if they had to worry about others using their abilities on them, so everyone’s happy to obey that rule here.”
“Wouldn’t they know if someone was using their power on them?”
“With some things, yes. But I could charm someone into forgetting we ever spoke, for example. It would work just the same on an Otherworlder as it does on a human.”
That was a pretty impressive gift he had there. “Don’t you wish that worked on me?”
Taeg let out a low laugh. “You don’t know the half of it.”
“Let me guess. You would have forced me to help you, right?”
He surprised her by looking her straight in the eye when he answered. “Yes, but you can’t deny it would be with good reason. Besides, you can rest assured knowing there’s plenty of stuff I would have imagined charming you into doing but would never have acted on.”
There he was, flirting again. But since he had broached the subject... “Have you ever... you know… with a girl?”
“Charmed her into digging me?” His eyes widened and he pulled back a little. “Do you think I would stoop so low?”
That was the thing. She didn’t. He wouldn’t have to. If she hadn’t known what he was, she might have jumped his bones herself.
“No, I don’t.” She turned her focus to his fingers, which were closed around his beer bottle. They were long, the nails neatly trimmed. Artist’s hands. Not a demon’s. But that was what he was. Maya had the feeling Taeg would never stop astounding her, would never act according to her expectations. Much as she wanted to deny it, he wasn’t like any demon she’d ever met.
Almost as if he’d read her mind, Taeg said, “You know, nothing’s ever black and white, Maya. Not demons or humans. Not anyone.”
“I’m beginning to realize that.”
He studied her as if he was trying to see below the surface and into her soul. As if he could.
She held her breath when he lifted his hand to brush a loose strand of hair out of her face, tucking the piece behind her ear. And when he traced his forefinger down her jaw, her whole body broke out into a shiver that had nothing to do with being cold.
“Little slayer,” he said, “when are you going to tell me what happened to you?”
She froze at the unexpected question. Damn him for asking like that. Damn him for being him, because it made her want to confide in him. And damn her for feeling weak. “I—”
“Am I interrupting you two lovebirds?” a shaky voice said beside them.
Taeg stiffened and dropped his hand. He turned toward a tall, gaunt man whose horns and mottled flesh betrayed him as a demon. At least, she thought he was a demon. For all she knew, he might be something else entirely.
“Shit, Horster,” Taeg said. “You look like you got run over by a fucking Mack truck.”
“I’m fine.” But the way Horster’s whole body trembled, he didn’t look fine. Not even close. “Ready to deal?”
Taeg nodded. “Let’s find a table in the back.”
Maya rose from her stool and Taeg laced his fingers through hers. He led her toward an arched doorway that split into two areas, one with booths and the other with tables. They followed the stumbling Horster toward one of the tables.
Taeg leaned down to whisper in her ear. “Horster’s a lorne demon, the local go-to guy for information on Otherworldly stuff. Unfortunately, word on the street is he got himself addicted to score.”
“Score?”
“A hallucinogenic. Deadly stuff.”
Horster slid into a chair and fumbled inside his jacket, pulling out a linen handkerchief, which he used to mop his sweaty brow.
“Can you trust him to give you the right information?” Maya asked.
Taeg laughed. “I don’t trust anyone, but I haven’t got much of a choice here.”
They made it to the table and Taeg pulled out a chair for her before taking his seat. “Horster, you don’t look good, man,” he said quietly. “I think you need some help. You’re going to kill yourself one of these days.”
Horster bristled at that. “I’m fi-fine. Now, you got the money?”
Taeg looked like he wanted to argue, but in the end he reached into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out an envelope. “You got the list?”
Horster placed his sweat-stained handkerchief back in his jacket pocket and withdrew a folded scrap of paper from the same place. He handed it to Taeg. Eww. Couldn’t he at least have put the handkerchief
in a different pocket?
“That’s the information my contact in Europe compiled,” Horster said. “He’s a professor, and he’s studied this legend for close to a hundred years now. He assures me this will lead you to the right spot.”
Taeg opened the paper and began perusing it. “Thanks.”
Horster nodded. His leer wavered to Maya, then down to the envelope on the table. He snatched it up and stuck it in his jacket. “Until next time.”
He rose and practically ran out of the place. As bad off as he looked, he was probably rushing out to buy his next fix.
“See ya,” Taeg grumbled noncommittally.
Maya examined the paper, which contained a bunch of foreign words. “What does it say?”
“Don’t know. It’s Welsh. I have a friend who reads it.”
“Are these potential locations for the sword?”
“Shit.” Taeg banged his fist on the table and abruptly rose, stuffing the paper in his pocket. He held his hand out to her. “Come on.”
She scrambled to her feet. “What’s wrong?”
“Move. Fast.” He turned and raced toward the front of the bar, dragging her behind him.
“What is it?” But he either didn’t hear or didn’t care to respond.
They rushed up the stairs. Giorgio must have sensed them coming because the door swung open at the last moment.
“Where’d Horster go?” Taeg asked him.
“That way.”
Taeg took off in the direction Giorgio pointed, and Maya had no choice but to race after him. “What the hell, Taeg?”
“Come on,” was all he said. He ran a couple of blocks before pausing and turning a slow circle. Maya finally caught up with him.
“What’s going on?” she asked in between pants.
He turned to face a narrow alleyway. “This way.”
“Great,” she mumbled when he disappeared inside. Nothing good ever happened in dark alleys. She would know.
Squeezing in behind him, she followed as he wound his way down the dank, smelly path. They came to a fork in the alley and Taeg paused, then turned right. They made it about ten more steps before four large men stepped out of an open doorway nestled in the dark. They were Others and they were scary as hell, with pierced brows and large tats covering portions of their bodies. And those were their least scary features.
“Shit.” Taeg ground to a halt in front of her.
Well said. These guys were terrifying. She didn’t consider herself a wimp by any means, but all her instincts of self-preservation screamed at her to get out of here. Now.
“What do we have here?” said one of the thugs, giving a pointed look at Taeg, then beyond him to Maya. “Looks like someone brought us a tasty snack.”
Taeg held up his hands and stepped back a few paces, bumping into Maya. “I don’t want any trouble, guys. I’m looking for a dude who came through here. Goes by Horster.”
Another one laughed. “He doesn’t look like much. We could take him with our eyes closed.”
“Maybe we should go,” she whispered into Taeg’s back.
“I could take ’em,” Taeg retorted. “Run back to Eros. Stay with Giorgio. I’ll meet you there.”
“But I can—”
“Nothing I like more than a fight,” the first thug said to Taeg. Then he gave her a toothy grin. “Well, maybe one thing, right, baby?”
“Sorry, chuckles, but I don’t swing that way,” Taeg replied easily. Funny, he didn’t sound scared. But he must be, right? These guys were terrifying.
“I wasn’t talking about you, pretty boy. But you can watch, if you’re still conscious.”
Oh, hell no. Maya slipped her hand under her top and snatched the hidden dagger. She pressed the hilt into Taeg’s side. “Here.”
“Thanks,” he said, palming it. “Now go.”
She hesitated.
“Go.”
Maya turned and started down the alley, taking a hard left and racing toward the street.
“Oh look,” she heard one of the thugs say, “he brought us a toothpick.”
“Great,” said another. “We’ll need it to pick his bones out of our teeth when we’re done with him.”
She heard the unmistakable sound of fists hitting flesh. Someone let out a grunt. She stopped. Four to one. Those weren’t good odds, especially when each of those men was almost twice Taeg’s size. Could she leave him here to fight on his own? What makes you think your odds will be better if you stay? She wasn’t stupid. Even trained, she was no match for their strength.
But she did have speed and agility on her side.
Oh shit, she was about to do something dumb.
She turned toward the sounds of battle and reached in her boots for her daggers. Holding their heavy weight, she raced back and rounded the corner, then came to a standstill to take in the scene. One of the four goons was already on the ground, either dead or unconscious, and Taeg fought the remaining three with an odd sense of calm about him.
“Go, Taeg,” she whispered approvingly. She didn’t know why she was surprised. He’d already proven he had strength and cunning.
She saw a flash of silver as Taeg sliced one of the men with her dagger. The man grunted when it slid through his shoulder, but it didn’t stop him. He landed a solid punch to Taeg’s cheek that momentarily dazed him, grinned, and cupped one fist in the other, lifting his arms overhead in preparation to bash his fists down on Taeg’s skull.
That would snap his neck. It could kill him.
“Hey, you ugly fuck!”
Well, that managed to catch everyone’s attention. They all froze, staring at her with equal looks of shock.
Perfect.
She ran toward them, and at the last moment did a little run up one of the walls before kicking off it, using that as momentum to arch into a dive. She knocked into the thug Taeg had sliced. He fell back and she went down with him, jamming both daggers into his neck. He gurgled as blood flowed out of the wounds, but threw her off before she could finish the job. She recovered one of her daggers. Doing a front roll, she jumped to her feet again.
“Damn it, Maya.” Taeg started in on the other two attackers. But the one she’d tried to behead only had eyes for her. He got to his feet and faced her, yanking the remaining dagger out of his throat. Before her eyes, his wounds started to heal.
“Freaking demons.” Their über-healing ability was so not fair.
He grinned and spat some blood before running at her with her dagger. She forced herself to hold her ground, waiting until he was a little closer before diving between his widespread legs. Hopping up and spinning around, she jammed the dagger into his back before he could turn to face her.
Despite the demon’s tough skin, her aim was true. He froze, paralyzed.
Bracing her other hand on his back, she twisted the blade and yanked it out, then grabbed his hair and rammed the edge of the dagger into his neck. He gave one low gurgle as the dagger sliced clean through, separating his head from his body.
Thank God—and sharpeners—for quality blades.
Maya whirled in time to see Taeg slice the head off another one. The last one lay on the ground, already decapitated.
“Whoa. Good job, Taeg.”
He gave her a dirty look while he used the demon’s shirt to wipe the knife clean, though his own clothes were so bloody he might as well have used them. “I told you to run.”
She bristled at his menacing tone. Of course he couldn’t be grateful that she killed one of the men. He didn’t want her to come to his rescue. “I don’t follow your orders. Besides, I might have saved your life, for all you know.”
“You damn near killed me, coming in here like some screaming banshee.”
The first man Taeg had taken down uttered a low moan. Taeg rose and walked over to him, neatly and efficiently severing his head.
“Did you really think I couldn’t handle four demons on my own?” he asked, nostrils flaring.
Well, she had. Now, after seei
ng him in action, she had a feeling she’d been dead wrong about that.
He wiped the blade again. “Are you hurt?”
“I... ” She looked down at herself. Other than a few scrapes and cuts, she was fine. “No. How about you?”
Taeg strode over to her, lifting her chin to examine her face, then ran his fingers over her arms and stomach. She held her breath, trying to ignore the shivers that crept down her spine. Though he clearly wasn’t feeling her up for the fun of it, her body still responded like he was.
When he’d satisfied himself that she was okay, he replied, “I’m fine.”
Maya touched his lower lip, which had been split, but already appeared to be mending.
“Pretty impressive, demon,” she said lightly. “You’re not even breathing hard.”
His lips twisted into a wry smile. He looked down at himself. “My shirt’s ruined, though.” Grabbing her hand in his own, he turned and headed toward the open doorway the thugs had first filed out of. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?”
“We’re still looking for Horster.”
She glanced back at the fallen demons. “Are we leaving them there?”
“I’ll call a cleanup crew once we’re done with Horster,” he replied.
Cleanup crew?
She had a feeling she didn’t want to know.
The doorway led into a large, empty space that looked like it might have once been an office. Everything had been emptied from it, but loose wires and stray pieces of hard plastic littered the concrete floor. Taeg moved through the room into a narrow hallway. They passed a set of doors with faded lettering denoting men’s and women’s restrooms, and he treaded over to a partially closed door at the end of the corridor. Swinging it open, he stepped inside.
Horster sat on the floor, his back to a wall with his jacket beside him.
A man knelt down next to him, squeezing a needle into his arm. “Did you handle them, Riggs?” He looked up and cut off with a squeak.
Maya made out the glint of Taeg’s teeth when he gave the man a feral grin. “Yeah, we handled them, all right.”
The man stood up, shaking as he lifted his hands above his head. With two crooked buckteeth and his thin face, he resembled a rat. He wasn’t much taller than her five-feet-two inches. “I... it wasn’t my fault. I only did what Horster paid me to do. I’m just his supplier, man. That’s all, I swear.”
Mark of the Sylph (Demons of Infernum, #2) Page 10
