by Cassie Ryan
Amalya hurried down the hallway after Jethro past rooms that she might never see again. A few women glanced up or waved as Amalya passed, and she tried her best to appear calm and happy, so as not to worry them. These women had become her friends and surrogate family, even though she had always been apart from them because of what she was. They had at least made her welcome and as much as possible treated her as one of their own.
The sound of Levi’s sure footsteps behind her made her quicken her pace.
Damn both men for treating her like she was too weak to make her own decisions!
She just wished she couldn’t smell the unique musky scent of Levi’s arousal that still clung to her skin and hair. It was a constant reminder of how much neither man trusted her judgment. Embarrassment and anger surged through her to flame heat into her cheeks as she rounded the corner and nearly ran into Jethro’s muscled chest.
He reached out to steady her and then motioned Levi forward. “Time to prove your skills, Ashford. They’re closer than we thought.”
Amalya frowned as she glanced between the two men, finally realizing that Ashford must be Levi’s last name.
Jethro handed a leather-wrapped bundle to Levi who unrolled it to reveal a dozen wicked-looking silver daggers with polished black handles.
“Thanks for watching over these for me.” Levi’s tone made it clear he hadn’t voluntarily given them up as he pulled each blade out of their bundle and slipped them into tiny sheaths all over him that Amalya would never have guessed were there if she hadn’t watched him.
Jethro pulled out both his concealed carry guns and checked them—for ammunition, Amalya assumed. She didn’t like guns and never had any desire to find out more about them.
Still angry with Jethro, she glared up at him. “Do you have mine?”
Levi stared at her as if she’d suddenly grown two heads. “Your what?”
She refused to acknowledge his question and instead held out her hand as Jethro laid her sterling silver single-action switchblade in her outstretched palm. She’d had to use it last week on a supernatural customer who had gotten a bit out of hand, and unfortunately, the trigger mechanism had been damaged in the process. Jethro had used his network of contacts to have it fixed for her.
The four-inch switchblade might not be a dozen daggers or a gun, but it had saved her enough times over the few hundred years she’d carried one that she usually felt naked without it.
Levi laid a hand on her shoulder. “Do you even know how to use that thing? Those can be dangerous.”
Amalya shrugged away from his grip and opened her mouth to tell him exactly where she’d like to use her blade right now, when Jethro stepped around her to stand toe to toe with Levi.
“Let’s get one thing straight right now, Ashford. I would never put Amalya in danger, which is why I’m going with her. In fact, if Lilith hadn’t sent you, your ass would’ve been relegated to the parking lot the first time you walked through those doors.”
The tension in the room skyrocketed until both men’s anger vibrated against Amalya’s skin like thousands of tiny ants. She glanced between them braced for more male posturing when Levi smiled and visibly relaxed. “I like you already, Jethro. I’m glad Amalya has had someone to watch her back all these years. But as I said before, you’re not needed on this trip.”
“Too damned bad. Because I’m not leaving Amalya’s side. Take it or leave it . . . Your Grace.”
Amalya stared between the two men trying to figure out the derisive nickname Jethro had just used, but her thoughts were cut short when Levi raised one dark brow as if surprised by the taunt. However, his manner told her whatever it meant, there was truth to it.
“All right then . . . peasant. Just don’t get in my way of protecting her.”
“You either.” After another few tense seconds, Jethro relaxed, nodded, and stepped back, as if the two men had just exchanged some type of unspoken male agreement. “By the way, she’s fully proficient with that blade, so I’d watch pissing her off any further if I were you.”
Amalya slipped the blade into a special pocket she’d had sewn into her bra and glared back and forth between the two men. “Don’t forget I’m still angry at you too, Jethro.” She took a last look around the back room of Sinner’s Redemption. “Wait, what about the others?”
“It’s you they want.” Jethro laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. “The sooner we’re away from here, the safer they’ll be.”
Amalya wasn’t so sure, but she’d demon-proofed the building the best she could when she’d first come to work here. And the women knew enough about what she was and what existed outside the realm of humanity to take care.
Amalya took a deep breath, opened the door, and rushed outside toward the staff’s private parking area.
The two male shouts of protest from behind her only spurred her forward.
The bounty demons could be here any minute and she was done letting the men take the lead.
The hot Nevada sun shone down prickling against her skin after the air-conditioned climate inside. Her steps faltered as she noticed a fine misty fog floating around the edges of the building. She frowned and started forward to investigate when the Madame of Sinner’s Redemption, Celine, stepped out of the limo that was used to ferry VIPs back and forth, her long red hair spilling over her shoulders, her face set into a concerned frown. “Amalya! Why are you still here?”
Amalya stepped forward to take the Madame’s outstretched hands. “We’re just leaving. Take care of yourself, Celine. I’ll miss you.” Amalya pulled the older woman into a quick hug before releasing her and stepping back.
“Maybe once everything dies down you could come back.” Celine’s green eyes filled with tears and she blinked them away. “You and your sisters. You would all be welcome.”
Amalya grinned as she sniffed back her own tears. “I’d like that.”
“Now go. Hurry.” Celine pressed a set of car keys into her hands. “Take the truck, it’s faster and has four-wheel drive.”
The men had caught up with her and pulled her toward the truck parked next to the limo as Jethro took the keys from her hand and tossed them to Levi. “Your knives can’t be used in a driving fight—you drive.”
“Hey!” Amalya protested. “I’m perfectly capable of driving, you know.” Before she could protest further, Jethro picked her up and slid her across the bench seat before he jumped inside the truck and pulled the door closed behind him. Levi slid into the driver’s seat next to her, cutting off her renewed protests.
The truck roared to life and Levi backed out, nearly running over Celine in the hasty maneuver just as two large bounty demons came around the back of the building.
The pestilence demon was entirely covered in mottled black skin with maggots and worms crawling along its flesh in a constant sea of putrid motion. Thousands of jagged sharklike teeth glistened with venom in its huge mouth.
The famine demon was nearly seven feet tall and seemed to be made up of bones draped in dried-out corpselike skin that hung on its scarecrow frame in tatters. Its face was drawn and gray and its limbs like sticks, but Amalya knew better than to rely solely on its appearance. Any demon was dangerous, but especially bounty demons.
The two demons grabbed Celine by either arm and began to pull. “Come out and play, little succubus, and we’ll let your boss go.” The voice of the famine demon seemed to echo inside her thoughts as if she was in a large, empty cavern, and her skin crawled from the uncomfortable sensation.
“No!” Amalya leaned over Jethro trying to reach the door, but he held her back.
“Go, damn it,” he barked to Levi.
The truck peeled out peppering Celine and the two demons with dust and gravel as Jethro captured Amalya in an iron grip.
Panic welled up in her throat and escaped in a small scream as the dust from the tires obscured the three forms they left behind. “Let me go. We can’t just leave her to those things!” Hot tears burned at the backs of her eye
s and she blinked them away, angry with herself for not insisting Celine come with them when she had the chance.
Jethro held her close, rocking her slowly against his hard body while Levi drove away from the place that had sheltered her for the past century.
“Amalya.” Levi’s voice was a soft command and she raised her head from Jethro’s shoulder to look at him.
“I never told the Madame why I was here. She only knew I was a paying customer with deep pockets.”
The truth of Levi’s words hit her like a hard slap and she flinched.
Back in the parking lot, Celine had known she was leaving, and the urgency for her to be gone. If Levi hadn’t told Celine, that meant her friend had been the one to sell her out to the bounty demons.
The pain of betrayal sliced through her like a white-hot knife to the gut and she wrapped her arms around her middle in silent defense. “No.” Amalya shook her head again. “Jethro must’ve told her.” She glanced up at Jethro, wordlessly begging him to confirm her thoughts. Anything to make it so Celine, the woman she’d loved like a sister, hadn’t betrayed her.
Jethro sighed. “I’m sorry, Amalya.”
As the truth of Jethro’s words vibrated against her skin like a tiny warm hum, Amalya took a deep breath, shoving all her roiling emotions deep inside her where she could examine them later. Now wasn’t the time to fall apart. Right now, she had to focus on getting to Lilith’s lair and reuniting with her sisters. She’d worry about everything else when those two things were done.
She sat up straight, keeping as much distance as the small space would allow from the men on either side of her.
Amalya had allowed herself to grow comfortable over the past century, and if she was to survive now, she had to get back to the mind-set of always being alert and looking over her shoulder. “What’s next? Where’s the nearest safe portal?” It had been several centuries since she’d been back to the queen’s lair, or even seen her sisters. Portals were part of the natural landscape of the universe and tended to creep or even move long distances over time. The ones she frequented in the past had most likely moved a considerable distance by now.
“That is going to be something of a challenge.” Levi turned onto the main freeway, expertly maneuvering around the other cars quickly without bringing unwanted attention. “Your sister, Jezebeth, has already made it to Lilith’s lair, but now the demons are watching all the portal points for the rest of you.”
“You’ve seen Jezebeth?” Amalya turned to face him as hope blossomed inside her chest like helium.
“No.” Levi cast her a quick glance before returning his gaze to the road. “Lilith mentioned it.”
Jethro turned in his seat to glare at Levi. “You told me there was no word of her sisters.”
Levi shrugged. “I didn’t have more time to waste giving you the play-by-play when we needed to get Amalya out of there.”
Anger vibrated around Jethro. “Bastard, you—”
“Stop it. Both of you.” Amalya glared back and forth between them. “What’s done is done, but from here forward, I need the truth from everyone.” She remembered her time with Levi back in her bathroom and how everything he’d said had been true—but he still hadn’t told her the entire story. “And that means no manipulations and half-truths. We have to trust each other to get through this. Agreed?”
Slowly, both men nodded and she turned her attention back to Levi. “What else do you know about my sister that you haven’t told us?”
Levi maneuvered around a slow moving block of cars and merged into the fast lane. “Jezebeth and her companion, a writer named Noah Halston, made it back to the lair yesterday.”
“Noah Halston, as in the horror writer?” Amalya had read several of his books. They’d given her nightmares for days afterward, but she’d always bought each book as it came out and usually read them in one sitting. “Why would Lilith send a horror writer to protect Jez?”
“Apparently, he was a good choice since she made it back in one piece.” Jethro glanced toward Levi. “Better than some snobby Brit.”
“This snobby Brit is perfectly capable of guiding Amalya safely to Lilith’s lair without your mouthy arse along for the drive.” The curse sounded odd coming from Levi’s mouth and delivered in his upper-crust British accent. “It’s not too late to let you out here.”
Jethro laughed. “Such common language, Your Grace.”
Levi’s lips quirked. “As you just pointed out, I’m still a bastard.”
“Stop it.” Amalya gritted her teeth. “We need to concentrate on finding a safe portal point, not on bickering among ourselves.” She glared at both men before turning her gaze out the front window where she scanned the freeway for any sign of demons. “What exactly did Lilith say when she sent you?”
Levi pulled the necklace out of his collar so it draped down over his tie. “She gave me this to make me immune to the effects of your succubus nature and told me to bring you back quickly and safely to her lair.”
The words were all true, but pure female intuition told her there was something unspoken left hanging between them. “And?”
“And that’s all she told me.”
Amalya turned to glare at Levi’s profile. “Then what aren’t you telling me?”
He never took his gaze off the road as he continued to thread through slower-moving traffic and took the interchange toward a connecting freeway. “It’s nothing Lilith told me.”
Jethro huffed out a derisive laugh. “So much for the total honesty and trusting each other.”
Levi glanced at both of them before returning his gaze to the road. “It may not even be true. It’s only a rumor.” He laid a gentle hand on Amalya’s leg and she fought against the comforting warmth that slid through her from the contact.
She stiffened under his touch until he moved his hand. She bit back an audible sigh of relief from the release of the unwelcome sensations of closeness. “Then tell us and we’ll decide together if it’s pertinent to us getting back to the lair.”
Levi gave a Gallic shrug. “The rumors are that someone is trying to jump-start Armageddon.”
“What does that have to do with Amalya and her sisters?”
“Maybe nothing.” Levi glanced at Jethro. “But I don’t know of anyone else powerful enough or angry enough in the demonic realm to call the horsemen except for Semiazas.”
“What about Lucifer?” Jethro countered.
Amalya shook her head. “No. He wants the world to continue. If Armageddon comes and the world is no more, then he and the other fallen don’t have anywhere to go.”
“Agreed.” Levi shifted in his seat and tapped the steering wheel with one finger as if it helped him think. “It just seems a large coincidence that Semiazas is the most likely candidate, and he’s also the one after the four sisters. And there are four horsemen.”
Something tickled at the back of Amalya’s mind, but she couldn’t bring it into focus. “What are you saying?”
Levi sighed. “I’m not sure. But there are no coincidences—especially when supernaturals are involved. And especially when the supernaturals involved are high level.”
Jethro waved away the comments. “Since we don’t know any of that for sure, let’s stick to the problem at hand. How do we find out where all the portal points are and choose one that will give the least resistance for us to pass through?”
Amalya’s temples began to throb as if her thoughts didn’t want to coalesce inside her mind. She glanced up through the front windshield in time to see a sudden wall of misty white fog looming in front of them. She wondered why there was more here than there was back at Sinner’s Redemption. From a purely scientific perspective, Nevada weather wasn’t right for fog or mist. “What’s—”
Her words were cut short when Levi swerved to the side, shifting into four-wheel drive and cutting across the grass strip of land that separated the freeway from a nearby cotton farm.
The sounds of screeching tires and crunching meta
l rose behind them snaking icy fear through Amalya’s belly. The mist was causing the cars to crash into one another. Where was it coming from?
As they hit the edge of the farm and their tires went up and over the large berm that separated the farm from the strip of land the city owned next to the freeway, Amalya cringed at the sounds of crunching under the tires that told her they were ruining the nearly grown crops. She wasn’t ready to trade her life for the cotton, but she felt for the poor farmer who would have the aftermath to contend with.
Fuzzy nearly translucent shapes were scattered across the farm in front of them, and Amalya blinked to bring them into better focus. They almost looked like . . . people.
“Shades,” Levi supplied.
Jethro braced his arm against the front dash as they bumped along over the farmland. “Shades of what?”
As the figures came into closer view and the SUV drove right through them, Amalya was able to make out some of their features. “Shades of the dead,” she said as understanding began to dawn. “Earthbound spirits.”
“What the hell?” Jethro craned his neck to study the next one they passed by. “Are they dangerous?”
Levi navigated around a water line and headed toward the gravel road that ran between two fields. “Not necessarily, but as we saw back on the freeway, they can be a distraction, which can cause problems.”
Amalya rubbed at the small throb that had begun at her temples. The mysterious mist was shades and drivers swerving to avoid them were causing terrible accidents. She spoke her next thought aloud. “And if people can now see the shades, then they might be able to hear them as well, which could cause mischief.”
“Define mischief.”
She cringed as they drove through the shade of a small child. “All of the shades have some type of issue that’s kept them from moving on. Some are confused, some stayed to watch over a loved one, some are angry or want revenge, and many more are afraid they won’t get into Heaven for the things they’ve done, so they choose to stay.”
