Well, fuck a duck.
Somewhere along the line he’d come to take it for granted she was going to be sticking around. He couldn’t fathom the thought of her not being with him.
You went and did it, shithead.
He’d fallen in love.
“What’s wrong?” Maya came to a stop and swiveled to face him. She gave him a tentative smile and brushed a stray strand of hair off his forehead. The simple beauty of her hit him hard, tightening his chest until he could hardly breathe.
Sweet devil, he loved her. He was totally batshit about her. The urge to confess his feelings was overpowering.
“What is it?” she asked, her smile wavering.
He opened his mouth to speak when he remembered. Her family. The only reason she’d agreed to help him. He hadn’t yet lifted a finger to find the evil demons who murdered them. How could he confess he loved her with that on his chest?
Simple. He couldn’t.
Once he’d done something for her, then—maybe then—he’d be worthy of her love. Until that moment, he was just a lying sack of shit who was using her for his own selfish purposes.
“Nothing,” he muttered.
She looked dubious, and once again the urge to confess tore through him.
“Are you guys coming?” Dagan called from up ahead, where he’d paused to wait for them.
Right. Now wasn’t the time. Not yet.
“Come on. We’d better get back to the apartment.” Taeg tugged her back to his side and hurried to catch up with Dagan.
§
Keegan greeted them inside his apartment, looking worn and haggard. His hair stuck up in sections and he had deep, dark circles under his eyes.
“When’s the last time you slept, bro?” Taeg asked.
“Not since you left. Did you find it?”
Taeg followed him to the living room before yanking the bag off his shoulder and removing the sword. Keegan took it and examined it before setting it down on the coffee table.
“Great,” he said in a monotone voice.
“How’s Brynn?” Dagan asked their big brother from across the room.
“Okay, considering. Pissed as hell about being on lockdown, but she knows it’s for the best. She’s in the kitchen fixing a snack.”
“Ooh, snack. You said the magic word.” Dagan turned and headed for the kitchen.
“I’ll go, too, and say hi to Brynn.” Maya smiled at him before leaving the room.
Taeg waited until they were well and gone before turning back to Keegan. “What’s the word on Leviathos?”
Keegan sighed and walked over to the bar. He flipped over two highball glasses and filled them with whiskey. “Didn’t you once say you think better when you’re drunk?”
“True story.” Taeg accepted the glass and knocked half of the liquid back with one fiery swallow. “Damn, that burns. I take it the search for him hasn’t gone so well?”
“Not a thing. People have seen someone matching his description around town, but no one seems to know anything about him or where he lives. And one more thing.”
Taeg arched a brow at the gloom-and-doom in his voice. “What?”
“Horster’s dead. They found him in an abandoned building a few blocks from Eros. Head severed from his body.”
The only sure-fire way to kill a demon.
Stifling a sympathetic shudder, Taeg knocked back the rest of his drink. “His days were numbered, anyway. He was addicted to score.”
“Maybe, but one of the bartenders at Eros says she saw Horster with a man matching Leviathos’ description a few days ago.” Keegan took a healthy swig of his own drink.
“What?” Taeg’s fingers tightened on the glass. “That sneaky piece of shit. He was double-crossing us?”
Keegan shrugged. “You said it yourself. He was an addict. I know demons addicted to score who’d sell their own mother for another hit.”
“You just can’t get good help these days.” Taeg headed to the bar and refilled his glass. “So now what?”
“Now?” Keegan’s lips morphed into a grim smile. “We keep looking. I’ve got this building guarded, at least. If Leviathos is stupid enough to try coming here, Bram or Reiver can have a team of men on his ass by the time he lands on this floor.”
Taeg took another big swallow. “This can’t go on forever.”
“I hope not.” Keegan swallowed the remainder of his whiskey. “This is no kind of life for Brynn. Or our baby.”
No. The baby wouldn’t be forced to live like this. It wouldn’t take that long for them to find Leviathos. On his life, it wouldn’t.
“We’ll find him,” Taeg promised. Even if it killed him.
§
Hours later, Taeg led Maya to the guest bedroom in his brother’s apartment. Only made sense for him to stay here until Leviathos was captured. The more manpower surrounding Brynn, the better. He set the bag holding the sword under the foot of the bed, giving a silent moment of thanks that Maya had agreed to stay with him. At least for tonight.
One day at a time, bucko. One day at a time.
“Taeg, what’s wrong?”
He turned and she draped her arms around his neck, rubbing her cheek along his chest like a cat seeking comfort.
“You seem so quiet,” she said.
“Just tired, I guess.” But with her chest pressed against his, he could feel her nipples hardening. His cock followed in response.
“Too tired?”
Tell her now, his conscience screamed at him. Admit you were lying to her at first. Apologize. Grovel if you have to, shithead. Beg for her forgiveness.
Maya pulled away with a teasing glance. She grabbed his hand and led him to the bed, pushing him down so he sat on the edge.
Now. He opened his mouth to speak, to explain, but what came out was, “I’m never too tired for you, sweetheart.”
Laughing, she dropped to her knees in front of him. Her hands worked on the button of his jeans while she gazed up at him. Warmth and desire filled her eyes, along with another emotion he couldn’t classify. “Have I told you how proud I am of you? I mean, it’s amazing how you’ll go to any lengths to protect your family.”
Yeah, right. He’d do anything. Even betray the innocent.
Tell her.
“Maya, I—” He cut off with a gasp when she closed her hands around his cock and drew it into her mouth. “Oh... fuck.”
She made a sexy noise deep in her throat while she alternated deep sucks with light, teasing licks. Damn, but she knew how to drive him insane. Soon enough he was lost in his need, lost in the desire to forget about everything in the world but the two of them, and the way they could make each other feel.
Tomorrow. I’ll tell her first thing tomorrow. Tonight, he simply wanted to lose himself in her.
“Come here.” He pulled her to standing and made short work of her jeans before urging her to stand on the bed with her legs on either side of him.
“This is weird,” she said, looking down at him uncertainly.
“Shush.” Leaning forward, he slid his tongue along the crease of her entrance. Her honey and spice essence enveloped him until he ached with the need to bury himself inside her.
She let out a little scream that was like an aphrodisiac, making him harder than he already was. He drove his tongue into her, drinking in her flavor until he was ready to explode. Finally, with a low cry, she pulled his head into her, holding him while she ground herself against his tongue.
Even in lovemaking, she didn’t wait idly around for someone to give her what she wanted. She took it, and that more than anything was what made her so fucking right for him.
“I want you,” she panted.
Those three words called to him like a siren song. She wanted him, and he wanted her. More than anything. Right now, that was all that mattered.
“Then come. Ride me.” He leaned back, supporting her as she straddled him and placed the tip of his erection at her entrance. One easy slide and he buried himself in h
er welcoming heat. An involuntary groan tore out of his mouth. “Take me in deeper.”
She arched her back, pressing her hips forward until they were joined as much as could be. Then she bent down to press little sucking kisses to his neck and chest. Nothing mattered but the deep, wet glide of their bodies. The eager, pounding rhythm they set. “I want you so much, Taeg.”
“So take me,” he whispered. “Take me.”
Hips pumping and gliding, she did. Harder, faster, until her body was nothing but a blinding blur of passion and ecstasy. When his release overtook him, he finally realized what she was to him. His own little taste of heaven.
Chapter Twenty-Four
In the span of one instant, Maya slipped from a pleasant, dreamless sleep into an old, familiar nightmare.
Clomp... Clomp.
“Donde estas, niñita? Te encontraré.”
“No,” she whispered. “Not again.”
She willed her feet to move, but nothing happened. Once again she was that helpless child, hiding in the shadows.
And then the screaming started.
“No.” She shook her head, plastering her hands over ears. No use. Those screams would never stop. “No!”
A pair of scuffed shoes appeared in front of her, startling her out of her panicked frenzy. Then a strange man knelt down in front of her. No, not a man. A demon. The one from her dream that night at Elain’s house, she realized with sudden clarity.
“What do you want?” she asked, dropping her hands from her ears.
He tilted his head to the side, as if drinking in the pained screams of the dying. When he returned his gaze to hers, his eyes flashed green. “Same thing as you. Vengeance.”
“Vengeance? Who are you?”
The stranger gave her a smile, one full of promise and wickedness. “What if I told you I have the names of the demons who savaged your family, who ate them as if they were nothing more than a cheap meal at a fast food stop?”
A sense of dread and foreboding wound through Maya. She sat up and realized she was no longer that lost little girl, but herself.
“Who are you?” she repeated.
“I only want a trade. Small price to pay for justice, isn’t it?” His eyes sparked once again. “I can tell you where to find them. At this very moment.”
“How?”
“Taeg can’t help you. He doesn’t know where they are. Who they are.” He studied her with a look of pity on his face, his handsome features darkening. “He never made a single inquiry on your behalf.”
Just then, she knew who this man was. Knew without a doubt.
“Leviathos.”
He grinned and inclined his head in a gesture of acknowledgment.
“How is this possible?” She shook her head, as if clearing away the evil surrounding her. “It’s just a dream.”
“He’s never told you about dreamscaping, has he?”
“Dreamscaping?”
“Demons can communicate telepathically with humans in their sleep. Tell me, Maya, how many times have you dreamt of Taeg since meeting him?”
A series of memories flashed through her mind—the first dream she’d had the night Taeg had kidnapped her, and how guilty she’d felt about it. Her pulse raced. “You mean... ”
“He was using you, Maya. Planting dreams in your head. Making you want him. Recruiting your aid for his fool’s mission, when he never planned on assisting you in return. He lied to you. Used you.”
“You lie.” She shook her head in denial. But why had Taeg never told her about dreamscaping? “He’ll find out who they are.”
He laughed. “Don’t you understand? He doesn’t care. Now that he got what he wanted from you, how much longer do you think he’ll stand your presence? How many more nights will he put up with fucking the same woman, when he has his pick of so many?”
She winced at his crude language, still unwilling to admit he might speak the truth. Unbidden, a thought of Elain popped into her head. Of Nadia, the siren from Opiate. “No.”
Leviathos couldn’t be right. Could he?
“He betrayed you, Maya,” Leviathos said, his green eyes boring into her, all but telling her how stupid she was for believing Taeg. “You’ll get nothing from him but heartache. But me, I can give you vengeance. For a price.”
Like hell. “If you think I’m going to trick Brynn into running to your arms, you’re insane.”
“Brynn?” He scoffed, shaking his head. “I don’t want the heir. I could care less about her now. I want what you recovered from Wales.”
Wales? How did he know about Wales? “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“The sword. Excalibur. Ring a bell?”
Her mouth dropped open. “How did you know that?”
He grinned at her. “It was a guess. I knew Taeg would be hell-bent on destroying the Book, and there’s only one object rumored to be able to do it.”
And she’d revealed all their cards by confirming his guess. Great job, genius.
“The sword in exchange for the names and whereabouts of the demons,” he said. “Your parents would be so proud if you were the one who avenged their deaths.”
Who did he think he was? “Fuck. Off.”
He stared at her as if taking her measure. “Are you really going to give up your quest for vengeance just because of a man? Did their lives mean so little to you?”
Much as she tried to deny it, his words struck a chord. Finding the killers had been her only focus for so many years. Was she really this close, and if so, could she simply walk away?
Dios, this couldn’t be happening.
Leviathos laughed and rose to his feet. “Here are your choices. You can sneak the sword out of the apartment and meet me in Central Park, where I’ll give you the information you seek in exchange for the sword. Or you can refuse, and my army of men will storm that lovely, exclusive penthouse where you and your lover are currently sleeping and kill everyone inside. Including the heir. Then I’ll simply take the sword.”
Penthouse? Could he know where they were? He had to be bluffing.
She shook her head. “Not going to happen.”
“Do you truly think I don’t know where you’re staying? I’ve known for ages. Just like I know the heir is pregnant. I could easily walk in there and take it now, but I’d like to avoid a bloodbath if at all possible. I’m not like Taeg’s father. Unnecessary violence holds no thrill for me. Now tell me, do you really want all their deaths on your hands?”
Fear and uncertainty ate at her. What if he was telling the truth?
“Tell me, Maya, do you know of blood bonds?”
She blinked at him. “No.”
“Has your lover told you anything at all about demons?” He shook his head. “Demons are bound to oaths they make. And I swear by my blood that if you deliver the sword to me, I’ll leave your lover and those he cares for alive. However, should you fail to deliver it, or should you notify anyone at all before doing so, I will kill them all. This I swear.”
She stared at him, anger making her blood boil. “You son of a bitch.”
“That I don’t deny. Now, meet me at Bow Bridge in Central Park. Come alone and I promise you safe passage.”
“Come alone? What about you?”
“I will be alone as well.” He inclined his head. “You have one hour. After that, the deal is off.”
One hour? “That’s not enough time.”
“One hour,” he repeated with a grim smile. “Ticktock. Ticktock.”
“But—”
Just like that she awoke, nestled beside Taeg on the bed. He slept on his stomach, one long arm thrown protectively across her hips.
Oh shit. Oh shit. What was she going to do?
She eased Taeg’s arm off her and sat up inch-by-inch. He looked peaceful, sleeping like that. Content, even. He seemed so happy. Could he have betrayed her the way Leviathos said he had?
The sudden memory of Taeg in their rented car in Wales replayed in her mind. The way
his eyes had dulled when she’d mentioned searching for her family’s killers. The way he’d put it off whenever she tried to question him about it. And when had he taken the time to search for them?
Son of a bitch.
Leviathos was right. Taeg hadn’t done a thing about her mission. That was why he looked so damned guilty whenever she brought it up.
Fury and betrayal churned in her gut. Had he ever meant to help her, or had he been stringing her along the whole while? Oh God, had sleeping with her been part of his whole ruse? Maya doubled over, clutching her stomach. She felt sick at the thought he might have used her in that way. But she couldn’t lose it now. She had a decision to make.
What if she woke Taeg up and explained what had happened? What could the possible consequences be? Knowing him, he’d insist on rushing to meet Leviathos. But assuming Leviathos was telling the truth, she couldn’t take that chance. Not with Brynn. Not with the life she had growing inside her.
The hardwood floor cooled her feet as she hunted for her clothes in the dark. She struggled to put them on. Leviathos could be lying about meeting her alone. What if he had men with him at the park? They could easily overpower her and take the sword. Kill her before she learned who the evil demons were. She might never get the vengeance she desperately craved. No, needed. On top of that, she couldn’t risk Leviathos getting his hands on Excalibur. It was too dangerous.
Shit! What was she going to do?
A thought hit her just as she located her boots and daggers. She’d seen an office in the apartment. Antique swords hung on the walls. The sword they’d found looked similar to some of those in the office. It might not fool Leviathos forever, but she didn’t need forever. If she could get him to believe it was the real deal, it might buy her some time. Or, if he didn’t expect it, maybe kill him herself.
And she’d have the names of the demons she’d been seeking for over a decade.
That was the bottom line. She was willing to risk this if it would give her those names. If that meant she might be able to avenge her family’s death and finally put the past behind her. No more nightmares, no more guilt. Their souls would finally be at peace.
Mark of the Sylph (Demons of Infernum, #2) Page 24
