Mark of the Sylph (Demons of Infernum, #2)

by Rosalie Lario

  “That’s part of the lake where the sword is supposed to be located. Llyn Ogwen.” Taeg pointed to the right, where a long body of water paralleled the small highway they rode in on. It looked pretty unremarkable from this vantage point.

  “So what are we supposed to do, stop right here?” Maya asked.

  He laughed. “I’m willing to bet we need to be on the water to have a chance at spotting anything.”

  Taeg drove until they reached a large marina where a fair number of sailboats were moored, their tall masts seeming to pierce the thick, white clouds above. He pulled in and parked. “According to the GPS this spot is about a twenty-minute boat ride from the lake.”

  Dagan’s snoring stopped. “What do we do now?”

  “Now we commandeer a boat.”

  “I love that word,” Dagan replied. “Sounds much better than stealing.”

  Taeg’s fingers tapped along the steering wheel. “It’s not stealing if you give it back.”

  “You’re not actually planning on taking one of these, are you?” Maya asked him. “I really wouldn’t like spending my first night here in jail.”

  He laughed and pulled her in for a quick kiss. “Course not, sweetheart. I don’t have to.”

  “Huh?”

  “He can charm someone into lending him their boat,” Dagan explained.

  “Oh yeah.” She’d almost forgotten about that ability. Easy, since it didn’t work on her.

  “There’s just one problem,” Taeg said.

  “Problem?” Maya asked him. “What problem?”

  “Sun’s going down in about an hour. Does that give us enough time to get out there and find the sword before we lose visibility?”

  Good point.

  “We could spend the night and get an early start tomorrow,” Dagan suggested.

  They could. But now that they were here, she was itching to get out there and see what she found. They were so close.

  Taeg must have felt the same way, because he said, “Let’s chance it.”

  He slid out of the car and gave her an easy grin, poking his head inside the open window. “Back in a flash.”

  Sure enough, within minutes he was back. He grinned triumphantly and wiggled the strange-looking key in his hand. “Our ride awaits.”

  Taeg led them to a medium-sized boat packed full of fishing rods. An older man with a salt-and-pepper beard watched as they hopped on, giving them a bemused wave.

  “Is he going to be okay?” she whispered to Taeg.

  He spared the man no more than a quick glance. “Fine. He’s just a bit confused, which is typical. But don’t worry, he won’t say anything.”

  She gave the old man one more concerned look. He looked more like he’d gotten his brains scrambled than his mind charmed. “I’m so glad that doesn’t work on me.”

  Taeg turned the boat on and maneuvered it out of its berth like someone who’d been on boats his whole life.

  “Nice moves,” Dagan said.

  “Thanks. In my next life I want to be a boat captain.”

  She rolled her eyes. Even now he couldn’t help but joke.

  As they headed down the canal leading to the lake, frigid wind whipped out over the water, making her glad she’d thought to pack her heavy winter coat. She shivered and dug her hands into the pockets.

  “Come here.” Taeg pulled her in front of him and reached his arms around her sides to steer the boat. She leaned back against him. With his elevated body temperature she felt warmer in no time. A little too warm, maybe. She couldn’t help but remember all the things they’d done the last time they were in bed together—a few of them in positions quite similar to this one.

  Less than half an hour later, the canal opened up to the lake. It looked completely different from this angle, with no highway to distract from its beauty. The scenery was dramatic and breathtaking, like a scene from a movie based in medieval times. The blue water was clearer than any she’d ever seen back in the United States. They were also the only ones out here, more than likely due to the frigid autumn weather.

  “Be careful.” Dagan pointed to a craggy shape rising out of the water ahead. “The lake looks shallow and it’s littered with rocks.”

  Taeg slowed the boat to idling speed so that Maya could survey their surroundings. Jagged rocks spiked out of the water at irregular intervals, casting spooky shadows along the water. She slipped out from between his arms and peered over one edge of the boat. The blue-gray water roiled as the boat displaced it, but she couldn’t see any farther than a few inches below the surface.

  Something about their surroundings lent an aura of mystique to the lake. She could practically imagine some mythical water serpent leaping out to frighten the ever-living crap out of her.

  For all I know, sea serpents might actually be real.

  That thought made her flesh prickle with unease. But after what seemed like half an hour of searching, nothing struck her as being out of the ordinary. She held back a frustrated sigh. “I’ve got nothing.”

  “Let’s keep looking,” Taeg said, his voice clipped.

  They putted forward to where the lake opened further. It was larger than she had imagined, a lot of ground to cover. Too much ground. She tried to force back the worry of impending failure and moved around the boat, looking for something—anything—unusual. When the sun started sinking low on the horizon, lending an orange cast to the water, Taeg flipped on the navigation light on the front of the boat. Still, nothing.

  Crap. They were running out of time. What if they couldn’t find it? Panic set in, lending a frantic edge to her movements. If only she had the strength and speed of a demon. Maybe that would make things easier.

  “How big is this lake?” she asked Taeg.

  “Runs about a mile long.”

  “That’s a hell of a lot of water to search,” Dagan said.

  After half an hour, it was full dark and still she’d seen nothing. Light filtered down from a three-quarter moon, illuminating little slivers of water, which danced in eerie reflection to the light. The temperature had steadily dropped to just short of freezing. Maya pressed her hands to her face to warm her frigid cheeks. Disappointment settled like a bitter pill in the pit of her stomach. Time to admit defeat. “I’m sorry, but I don’t see anything.”

  “Let’s head back and find a place to sleep. Maybe we’ll have better luck tomorrow.” Taeg sounded as frustrated as she felt, and she couldn’t blame him. They were so close. They’d come so far. What if they never found it?

  He turned the boat around, when she caught a shimmer of something in the water.

  She blinked and it disappeared. “Wait.”

  Taeg immediately cut off the boat, throwing her a hopeful glance. “What is it?”

  “I don’t know.” She crossed to the edge of the boat and stared at the spot, directly ahead. Nothing there. “I thought I saw... ”

  Shit. There was nothing there. Swallowing the heavy lump in her throat, she turned away. “I guess it was wishful thinking.”

  But when he turned the boat back on, the navigation light cut off momentarily.

  “Wait!”

  “What is it?” he bit out, clearly impatient now.

  She rushed back to the side of the boat, her heart thrumming against her ribcage. “Cut the lights.”

  The moment he flipped the switch she saw it.

  “Oh my God.” She covered her mouth with her hands, only dimly aware of Taeg and Dagan rushing up beside her.

  “What is it?” Taeg asked, at the same time Dagan said, “I don’t see anything.”

  Well, he wouldn’t, would he?

  “It’s there.” Her hand shook when she pointed to the spot, about twenty yards from them.

  Taeg moved behind her, closing his arms around her front, steadying her with his touch. “What do you see?”

  “The air is shimmering, and the water directly below it is glowing blue.” What a difficult thing to describe to people who couldn’t see it. “Have you eve
r seen any pictures of bioluminescent bays?”

  “I’ve seen one in person.”

  She swiveled her head back to look at him. “Really?”

  “Mm-hm.”

  “Well, it’s like that.” She turned back to the glowing water.

  “Amazing. I see nothing but moonlight and dark water,” Taeg said. “How big is the area?”

  Maya did some rough measurements. “About twenty feet.”

  He stood behind her for several long minutes, as if letting her absorb the scenery, before finally breaking away. “I’m going to try to drive us over there. Can you call out when we get close?”

  She nodded, and when Taeg left to start the boat up, Dagan fell into place beside her. “It’s pretty amazing, what you can do. You know that, right?”

  “I’m starting to figure that out.”

  Taeg turned on the lights. “Can you still see it?”

  “No.” When he flipped the lights off again, she called out, “It’s back.”

  “Interesting,” Dagan murmured. “You can only see it in the dark.”

  “I’d say that’s the least interesting thing about it,” she retorted. A soft laugh escaped her. This had been the craziest. Week. Ever.

  “Keep me posted. I’m flying blind here.” Taeg started forward, taking it slow as he edged the boat closer and closer. When they were less than ten feet away, he started to swerve.

  “No, keep it steady,” she called. What was he doing?

  “I am,” he bit out.

  She exhaled, exasperated. “No, you’re going around it.”

  “I could have sworn I was going straight.” He shifted the wheel until she told him to stop, then started forward again. Like before, he edged past the spot.

  “You’re doing it again.” She tried to keep the sharpness out of her voice, but failed miserably.

  “I’m going straight.” His voice was no less sharp than hers.

  Dagan stiffened beside her and turned to shoot Taeg a meaningful glance.

  Uh-oh.

  “What is it?” Maya asked Dagan.

  “Sounds like a repellent force field.”

  “That would explain the blue glow only you can see, and why no one has ever stumbled upon it before,” Taeg called out. “No one can get close.”

  A force field. “Ok-a-a-ay. What are we going to do?”

  Dagan bit his lip as he looked out over the water. “How far from the spot are we?”

  “About fifteen feet now.”

  Dagan shed his jacket. He turned to Taeg and shouted, “Cut the engine.”

  Maya blinked at him. “What are you doing?”

  He gave her a mischievous grin. “Going swimming, apparently.”

  “Uh, it’s freezing out there.”

  Taeg took one look at Dagan, who was now peeling off his shirt, and shook his head. “Guess I need to put the anchor down.”

  She watched him grab the anchor before turning back to Dagan, now in the process of tugging his jeans down over his thighs. Her gaze inadvertently dropped to the dark cotton boxer briefs hugging his lean, muscular body. He noticed it, too, because he winked at her. “Like what you see?”

  Heat rushed through her body. Well, at least that was one way to warm her cheeks.

  “Stop fucking around.” Taeg spoke with the confidence of a man who knew he had nothing to fear. And he was right. As deliciously handsome as Dagan was—and oh, he was—he was no match for his brother in her eyes.

  Dagan laughed and stepped out of his jeans, leaving him clad in his boxer-briefs and nothing else. He stared out onto the horizon again. “Where is it now?”

  “Straight ahead,” she choked out. “But you’re going to freeze out there.”

  “Don’t worry, I’m hot-blooded.” With a final smirk, he jumped overboard.

  “Smartass,” Taeg grumbled as he moved behind her and hugged her, lending her his warmth.

  The moonlight barely illuminated Dagan, who expertly swam toward the light. But a few feet before he hit the glowing water, he swerved and started to swim around it.

  “Damn it,” she cursed. “You’re going around it!”

  “No shit,” Taeg marveled behind her. “Looks like he’s going straight to me.”

  Dagan treaded water as he called out, “Which way did I turn?”

  “Right.”

  He immediately adjusted to the left. Still it took several tries before he managed to swim directly into the glowing pool.

  “You’re in,” she called. “Starts where you are and goes ahead of you for about twenty feet.”

  Dagan gave them a double thumbs-up sign before diving forward and disappearing into the water. Three, four, five minutes passed. She grew edgier with every minute.

  “Relax.” Taeg nuzzled into her neck. “He can breathe underwater, remember?”

  True. But they didn’t have any idea what was down there.

  Finally, half an hour had passed with no sign from Dagan. Now even Taeg couldn’t restrain his nerves. He released her and began to pace back and forth on the boat. “Maybe I should go in after him.”

  “That’s insane,” she argued. “You can’t breathe underwater, plus you can’t see the spot.”

  “Still, I can—”

  She took a deep breath. “I’ll go.”

  That stopped him in mid-stride. His mouth dropped open. “Are you out of your mind?”

  “At least I could see what’s down there.”

  “There’s no fucking way I’m letting you go down there,” he practically spat out. “You’ll freeze within seconds of landing in the water.”

  Two could play the overprotective card. “Well, I’m not letting you go by yourself, either.”

  “You don’t have a choice.”

  “Um, when you two are done fighting, maybe you could help me out?” Dagan’s voice sounded from somewhere beside the boat.

  “Dagan!” Relief tore through her, making her feel half-drunk with giddiness. She ran to the side of the boat while Taeg rushed to the console to flip on the navigation lights.

  Dagan treaded water at the rear of the boat. He clung to the ladder with one hand while holding onto something with the other. His teeth were chattering, and he panted hard.

  Maya lifted her brows. “I thought you were hot-blooded.”

  “Even demons get c-c-cold.”

  “Shit, bro.” Taeg appeared at her side. “Get the hell out of that water before you freeze your ass off.”

  “Take this.” Dagan hefted the object in his hand onto the deck.

  She paid it no more than a cursory glance, enough to see that it was a sword and scabbard, before rising and scavenging around until she found a heavy wool blanket. “Here, dry off with this.”

  Crawling onto the boat, Dagan accepted it and wrapped it around himself. Still, he shook so badly she could practically hear his bones creaking.

  “Damn it, Dagan,” Taeg snapped, his eyes flashing in anger. “Why did you stay down there so long?”

  “I—I was blind out there. Just kept swimming ’til my hand grazed something.”

  “Idiot,” Taeg croaked. He reached out and yanked Dagan toward him, closing his arms around him and holding on tight.

  Dagan attempted to pull away. “Hey, hands off the merchandise.”

  She moved behind Dagan and circled her arms around him, too, trapping him between their bodies. “Oh please, stop with the whole macho act, will you?”

  After a while he’d apparently warmed up more than enough, because he stopped shivering and drawled, “Are you two pervs gunning for a threesome, or should I get dressed again?”

  Mortification lent her speed. She retreated before he finished his sentence, averting her eyes when he dropped the blanket to slip off his soaked boxers. She shifted her focus to the sword lying on the boat deck. For the first time it registered what she was looking at.

  “Whoa.” She knelt so she could run her fingers along the sword and its scabbard. It looked so... so... ordinary.


  Taeg dropped to one knee beside her. “This is it? Sort of anticlimactic, isn’t it?”

  “It looks like a plain old sword, even to me,” she said. This couldn’t be right.

  With a swish of his clothes, Dagan squatted down next to them. “The thing has survived at the bottom of a lake for over a thousand years without getting any rust or shit on it. Must be something magical about it.”

  Taeg shrugged and rose to his feet, holding one hand out to Maya so she could stand. He flashed her a brilliant smile. “Have I told you lately how awesome you are?”

  She was, wasn’t she? After all, she’d managed to find something that had been hidden for over a thousand years. “Not nearly enough.”

  The corners of his mouth quirked up and he pulled her to him, covering her lips with his. When she made an involuntary sound in the back of her throat, he coaxed her lips apart, sliding his tongue inside. He tasted like chocolate and sin, and victory.

  Maya lifted to her toes and ran her fingers through his short, silky hair, memorizing the feel of it on her fingertips. She couldn’t wait to find a place for the night. There they could celebrate in their own private manner.

  Dagan cleared his throat. “Get a room, you guys.”

  Taeg laughed against her lips, pulling back long enough to throw his brother a grin. “You drive.” Then he brought her in for another kiss, and she forgot about everything else.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “About fucking time.” The breath Taeg had been holding had escaped in one big rush as soon as the wheels of the plane touched down at JFK in the late afternoon. The thought that from now on he’d have to travel this way whenever he wanted to leave the country made him want to cry.

  Later, while they made their way through the crowded airport, Dagan said, “I’m glad we made it past airport security. Close call there, big brother.”

  “Hey, you try charming your way through three separate airports with a sword in your carry-on bag.” Especially given the unusual size and shape of the bag. Damn, but he hated flying.

  “Come on, boys.” Maya took his hand, the tone of her voice making it clear she found their constant bickering amusing. Well, she might as well get used to it. The deeper meaning behind that thought hit him so hard he halted in mid-step.