Dark Devotion: Dark Series 3

by Lauren Dawes

  “Put both of your hands on the steering wheel.”

  Aubrey didn’t move.

  “Don’t even think about being a hero. Do it.” To drive his point home, the guy pushed the gun in tighter.

  Being a good hostage, Aubrey put his hands in position, and was on the verge of fading away when a metal bracelet was snapped onto one of his wrists. Squinting at it closely, he studied the runes inscribed in the steel.

  Fuck.

  It was an incantation to prevent fading. Whoever this guy was, Aubrey now knew he was a god.

  Hating the feel of the cold metal against his wrist, he said, “I don’t believe we’ve met.” The gun was pressed harder into his temple and Aubrey ground his teeth. “That’s going to leave a mark.”

  “Be thankful that’s all it’s going to leave … for now.”

  “Look, as much as I’d like to sit here with you in my garage all night and chat like girls, I do actually have somewhere to be.”

  There was a small growl of – irritation? Even Aubrey knew it wasn’t a good idea to piss off the god holding a gun to his skull. “You aren’t going anywhere right now.”

  “All right. Can we at least get out of my car? I’d hate to get blood all over the upholstery if I can avoid it.”

  “You talk a lot,” the god said, easing off Aubrey’s temple just a little. The movement caused blood to rush to the point of pressure, making his head throb in time with his galloping pulse. “That might serve you well … but then again …” He ground the metal back into Aubrey’s skull. “Maybe it’ll just make me kill you a whole lot quicker once your usefulness has worn out.”

  So that was the plan? “Who do you work for?” There were any number of dealers out there who could be gunning for him; Aubrey had burned a lot of bridges on his way to the top of the business.

  “Myself.”

  “And who are you?” Aubrey tried again to get a name.

  The god laughed. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

  “Try me.”

  “Loki.”

  He was right; Aubrey didn’t believe him. “Loki is chained to a boulder far beneath the earth, being driven mad by the poison of a snake.”

  “I told you you wouldn’t believe me.”

  “That’s because it’s impossible,” Aubrey replied. This god – whoever he was – was just delusional. “So, Loki, tell me what’s going to happen here.”

  “You’re going to get out of the car and enter your home where you will be imprisoned and used as a bargaining chip.”

  Aubrey smirked. “By you, I take it.”

  The god cocked his head to one side. “You find that amusing. Why?”

  Aubrey turned his head to look at the guy. “Because you aren’t Loki.”

  The other man shrugged. “Believe me, or not. The outcome will not change.”

  “All right,” he conceded. “You’re going to imprison me, then what? Why are you doing all this? What do you hope to achieve? I’m at the top of the food chain. There’s no one out there who is going to bail me out, so this whole exercise is pointless.”

  That statement made the god frown. “I don’t understand that phrase – being at top of the food chain – but you are wrong. There is someone who will do everything in her power to bail you out, as you put it.”

  Her power? No. No fucking way. Taer was not being dragged into this shit. He’d rather die. “You leave her out of this. Do you hear me?” Aubrey growled, knowing his eyes would have changed from pale gray to a dark slate. “Touch a hair on her head and I will personally remove the fingers that cause the offense. I’ll then proceed to remove every other finger, toe and appendage from your body, roast them and eat them, picking my teeth with your bones.”

  The god’s mouth flexed in a small smile. “Imaginative.”

  “How do you suppose this is all going to go down then? You’ll keep me here and she’ll, what, just come looking for me?”

  “Yes. In fact, she’ll be here shortly. You are meeting with her, correct? That is where you were going just now.”

  Aubrey could feel the color drain from his face. No. No. Although he hated to do it, the next words to come out of his mouth were necessary. “Please, I beg you, don’t hurt her.”

  “Get out of the car,” Loki said.

  Aubrey’s jaw bulged as he followed the instruction, popping open the driver’s side door and stepping out.

  “What are our orders?” a voice asked in the darkness.

  “Wait for her in the courtyard. When you capture her, bring her to me.”

  “Yes, Loki.”

  Aubrey’s heart dropped. It really was Loki.

  The god added, “And don’t inflict too much damage when you capture her. I still need her whole.”

  The gun was shoved into Aubrey’s spine, forcing him to go through the door connecting the garage to the house. Once inside the kitchen, Loki directed him to the basement. A small flicker of hope ignited in his chest. All of his weapons were down there. With his mood buoyed by the knowledge, he led the way, flipping the light switch at the top of the stairs.

  When they reached the bottom, Aubrey was horrified to find that his training equipment and weapons were gone.

  “Surprise,” Loki said. Aubrey’s cell phone vibrated then for a long second before his ringtone for Taer started to play; he’d programmed Marilyn Manson’s version of “Sweet Dreams” just for her. Loki smiled. “Oh, that might be Taer now.”

  “Leave her out of this!” Aubrey demanded fiercely.

  Loki’s returning smile made him shiver. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.” Shoving the barrel of the gun into his face, Loki forced Aubrey to a chair in the center of the room. “Sit down, or I’ll make you sit down.”

  Aubrey bit the inside of his cheek until he tasted blood. He spat on Loki’s shoes as he lowered himself into the chair, glaring up at him. With the gun still on him, Loki retrieved a metal chain from the corner. He tied Aubrey up quickly, wrapping the links around his chest and securing the ends behind the chair.

  “I still don’t understand,” Aubrey ground out. “What does Taer have to do with this? She’s not involved with the business.”

  “I don’t know what business you’re referring to, light elf, but my business is with Odin.” Loki was behind him when he spoke. Aubrey strained his neck in an attempt to see what the god was doing. His mind raced, trying to connect the dots to a puzzle where he had no idea what the final picture was. How could Loki get to Odin through Taer? It made absolutely no sense.

  The only thing he could come up with was that Loki was insane.

  *

  Whiskey Saigon was a popular nightclub in Boston. Taer had never been there before; she’d been too busy training to kill indiscriminately to go out and drink and enjoy herself. When she arrived, there was a small line of people waiting to go in on one side of the door. She stood on the opposite side, folding her arms over her stomach and leaning back against the glass wall. This was where Aubrey had said he would pick her up. She checked her cell phone to see if she’d missed any other messages from him. There were none.

  For fifteen minutes, Taer watched the people come and go from the nightclub, checking her cell phone every few minutes like a love-sick woman. When the time stretched out to thirty, she called him to see where he was. It went straight to voicemail. She left a message and hung up. After forty-five minutes, a little unwanted voice started to whisper in her ear.

  He got what he wanted from you already.

  She shook her head, angry at herself for even thinking it. It just wasn’t possible. He said he was home. He said he was coming to see her, and he was. There had to be a logical explanation for him being late. She waited until the bouncer at Whiskey Saigon started giving her strange looks. By now, Aubrey was an hour and a quarter late.

  Taer walked away, finding the closest alleyway to fade to his house. After materializing in the courtyard, she looked up at the redbrick building, seeing that the lights were on upsta
irs. Standing on tiptoe, she peered into the garage through one of the side windows. His car was still there.

  She slowly lowered herself down when the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched. She glanced around, wishing she had her katana with her. Unfortunately, toting around a giant Japanese sword wasn’t as easy as she’d like it to be.

  Remaining still, she looked up to the windows of the house, hoping to find Aubrey staring down at her, but there was nobody behind the glass. She faded to the street, putting her back against the brick wall and pulling out her cell phone. Hitting redial, she listened to the automated message on the other end.

  “Aubrey, it’s me. Where are you? I’m at your place now. Call me back when you get this message.” She didn’t want to sound too irritated with him, but some of it had leaked into her voice. And that same voice was back – the one that made her doubt Aubrey was ever interested in anything more than just sex with her.

  He was just using you.

  Men always want what they can’t have, and you stupidly gave it all up to him.

  He’s forgotten about you.

  This time, she listened to the voices. Shoving the cell phone back into her pocket, she looked around and started down the street. She was too angry to fade. Just then, a stiff wind blew across her face, carrying with it an unusual scent.

  Her brain threw up the warning flare and her feet ground to a halt. Peering over her shoulder, she saw a man stepping from the shadows.

  He started toward her, and Taer pulled a dagger from her thigh holster. Holding it steady down by her leg, she watched him, gauged him, studied him. With a small snarl, he launched himself at her. Taer lowered herself down, her thigh muscles easily complying. She remained still except for the pumping up and down of her chest. Time seemed to slow as she watched the distance between them get smaller and smaller. She couldn’t see whether or not he was armed, though. When he was a mere foot away from her, she side-stepped him, performing the maneuver at just the right moment.

  She watched his body fall and skid past her. He landed headfirst into a red-brick garden wall. The sickening crunch made her smile and the smell of blood was immediate. She had caused the first injury and men always tended to get a little pissy when that happened.

  Adrian had always told her to let her opponent underestimate her. Males tended to think they could best her just because she was a member of the fairer sex, and she was more than happy to let them hang themselves with that mistake.

  Her head whipped around when a noise drew her attention. Moving away from her first attacker, she kept her focus on the new male who had just come running down the street. His gaze first found the other body crumpled against the wall before it fixed on her with deadly precision. Like her first attacker, he launched himself at her too, only this time she was a fraction of a second too slow. His strong arm banded around her torso, driving her backwards. Her spine seized as she hit the cobblestones on the road, her whole back searing in pain. Her arms flopped out uselessly at her sides, her fingers releasing their grip on her dagger. The blade landed a few inches from her hand.

  She gulped down on the O2, trying to get her lungs to work again. She wheezed. Coughed. Sucked in another mouthful. As she worked hard to get her breathing under control, from the corner of her eye she saw the first man start to stir. He got to his feet slowly, shaking his head as if he were dazed. Her attention went back to the weight on her chest and she studied the face of the second man.

  He had sharp features and shrewd eyes. His jaw was square with a healthy dose of stubble on it. His attention wasn’t on her though. It was on the other guy.

  “My brother, are you all right?” he asked.

  The male stood up, swaying a little on his feet. Bending at the waist suddenly, he gripped the hood of a nearby car and looked over. Blood ran down the side of his face and dripped from his chin from the gash at the top of his head. The taste of metal hung on the air. “I’m fine,” he replied through gritted teeth.

  Taer felt her heart rate start to slow. Stretching out her fingers, she felt for the handle of her knife and dragged it into her palm, sliding the blade under her forearm to hide it from view.

  “Is she secure?” the injured man tacked on as he slowly straightened again.

  “Yeah, I got her,” the guy said, leering down at Taer.

  She bared her teeth at him.

  “Just come with us quietly, female, and you won’t get hurt,” the injured man said. Turning her head, she looked at him as he stumbled forward a step. He grimaced and clutched at his stomach for a moment. He probably had a concussion thanks to that up-close-and-personal with the brick wall.

  Good for him.

  As she waited for the perfect time to strike, she wondered whether she was the intended target, or whether she just happened to cross their paths as they waited for someone else.

  “Get her up and let’s go.”

  The male holding her reached under her arm and pulled her vertical. “Put your hands behind you,” he commanded, pulling out black cable ties from his pants’ pocket.

  Taer smiled and shook her head.

  “I’m not playing with you,” he ground out.

  “You wouldn’t like the way I play anyway,” she said in reply.

  The guy growled and the sound turned Taer’s blood to ice. “And you wouldn’t like the way I play, either. Do what I say or I will present you as spoiled goods.”

  “My brother,” the other man said in warning.

  That growl returned. “Fine,” he ground out, spinning Taer around so she was pinned to his body, her back to his front. Roughly, he shoved her forward until her face was flush to the same garden wall the first guy had gotten cozy with. She stilled for a moment, wanting her attacker to think that she was giving up.

  “That’s better,” he said into her ear, his breath tickling the skin on her neck. She closed her eyes and threw her head back. Her skull connected with his, except she hadn’t broken his nose as she’d wanted. Her ears began to ring as she realized she’d struck his forehead, maybe above his eyebrow.

  “You little bitch,” he snarled, pressing his whole body into her upper body and shoulders, forcing her in tighter into the wall. Her first hand was wrenched around from its position by her side. As he reached for the second one – the one where she had concealed the blade – she thrust the weapon down into his thigh. The steel met with some resistance before sliding through his skin.

  Leaping away, he spat, “Fuck.”

  Taer spun around, keeping her back to the wall. She looked at the blood flowing freely down the man’s pant leg, covering his hands as he tried to apply pressure. Her eyes darted to the other man who was still bleeding profusely himself. He had his hands up in front of him.

  Taking aim, she threw the dagger at him and took off running in the opposite direction. The adrenaline in her bloodstream meant she wasn’t fading any time soon. In the six-inch heels still on her feet, she ran until her calves burned and her lungs felt like they were going to explode. She was still in the suburbs of Boston, but the sound of downtown was a constant buzz in the background. She turned down a small side street and slumped against the side of a building. She couldn’t hear anyone coming after her. She waited until her heart stopped thumping in her ears before she shut her eyes and faded back to the safety of the Eye.

  Chapter 15

  Boston

  Loki was quietly smug with his progress. Killing Thor was just the start. It had thrown Odin off balance again, and there was nothing Loki liked more than having his blood-brother flailing.

  Odin’s hubris – once something Loki had enjoyed, had even encouraged – had become his downfall. He didn’t need Loki’s help to dismantle his world. He had done that all on his own. He’d pushed away everyone he’d ever cared about, all because he refused to change with the times, had refused to accept his position in the new world.

  Once Odin’s Valkyries would have prote
cted him fiercely, even to the death, but now they would be the ones to murder him, with Loki’s help. He would be successful in obtaining Bryn’s feather cloak one way or another. But it was Korvain who was the roadblock he had to remove in order to strike at the Valkyrie.

  And the sledgehammer to break him?

  Well, that was where the light elf currently chained to a chair and unable to fade away to save himself came into play. The little Mare would come for him – was probably here right now – and when Geri and Freki got her, and when Loki sent Korvain a message conveying as much, Korvain would come for her, thus leaving Bryn unprotected. If he had made it inside the Eye once, he could do it again.

  Loki laughed, seeing how each strand of his web was being weaved together to create Odin’s inevitable death. It had been a long time coming. Would he take his time and make the god suffer? Would he make it a slow, painful death, or a quick one? The All-Father had never shown Loki any mercy, so that really only left one option.

  Drawn-out and painful.

  Loki smiled.

  “What’s so funny?” Aubrey asked.

  “I was just thinking about what I would do to Taer once I have her restrained beside you.”

  The only physical sign that his words had any effect was the slight flair of the light elf’s nostrils. “I don’t know why you’re doing any of this. I’ve never even met Odin before.”

  “That is extraneous to the larger plan.” Loki stepped toward him, crouching down so they were eye-to-eye. “You are part of this, a simple fly now stuck in my web, even if you are unaware of it.”

  There was a creaking overhead – feet moving over the floorboards. The brothers must have secured Taer.

  “Excuse me,” Loki said cordially, taking the stairs up into the first level of the house. He found the twins in the kitchen, one rifling through the freezer, the other through the cupboard under the sink.