by Cassie Ryan
Amalya cried out again as he spilled inside her, and this time the golden glow that feathered across her skin tingled against him in a teasing rush.
Movement from the doorway had Levi glancing up to meet Jethro’s angry glare.
“We need to get moving. Something’s coming.”
Guilt stabbed Amalya deep as she met Jethro’s angry gaze.
She knew him well enough to see the pain beneath the anger, but she quickly reminded herself that she’d done nothing wrong. She’d never promised herself to Jethro and she hadn’t invited him up here this morning.
When Jethro turned and walked away, his heavy footsteps echoing down the stairs, Amalya sighed.
“Are you all right?” Levi brushed her hair back away from her face as protective concern glittered inside her gaze.
She nodded but didn’t meet his gaze as he pulled out of her and sat up. “He’s been a friend for a long time. I never wanted to hurt him.”
Levi nodded, his jaw tight. “Can I assume you didn’t come up here to fall asleep with me only to make him jealous?”
His voice sounded flat, but Amalya didn’t need to be supernatural to sense the bristling male pride in that statement. She smiled and leaned over to brush a kiss across his lips before she tipped up his chin to make him meet her gaze. “You can.” She held his dark gaze for a long moment to make sure he’d understood her before she grabbed her clothes and headed down the hall to the bathroom.
His warm gaze sent shivers of awareness over her naked skin as she left the room with a smile.
No matter what the “something” turned out to be that Jethro knew was coming, Amalya was glad she’d taken Raphael’s advice last night. Her body had the well-used ache that came in the aftermath of good sex, not to mention the warm thrum of energy from not only the ingested power but a few really wonderful orgasms too.
It had been centuries since a man had curled her toes just with a really good kiss. Levi could do that and much more, so there was no surprise that the total body orgasms he gave her were more than noteworthy.
She cleaned up and dressed quickly, jogging downstairs, thankful for her total return of energy. What would it be like to wake up every morning feeling like this? She forced the smile from her face as she suspended that train of thought.
Just because she and Levi had made up and had some amazing sex didn’t mean he wanted any type of relationship beyond this trip back to Lilith’s lair. Besides, even if he did, she still belonged to Lilith and there would be a price to pay for anything beyond that.
Her slightly darker mood took her through the doorway into the kitchen where she found Levi and Jethro looking out the window, a tense silence thick in the air between them.
“What’s going on?”
Jethro stiffened but didn’t move to face her. “There are dark clouds coming from the east. I think it might be the bounty demons. It’s the same thing that happened before they made it to Sinner’s Redemption.”
Memories from that day flooded back, including her last view of Celine being pulled back and forth between the two bounty demons. Worry clenched her gut. She hoped all the others had gotten away safely.
She shook her head reminding herself she needed to concentrate on the here and now. If the bounty demons were coming, they couldn’t afford to waste any time. “Let’s go.”
Jethro turned and Amalya braced herself to meet his gaze. But where she’d expected to see anger or hurt, she only saw distance. Not that she blamed him, the situation was uncomfortable and she couldn’t do anything to change it or fix it. But knowing he felt the necessity of putting up barriers between them squeezed her heart painfully.
He took her hand and placed something in her palm before closing her fingers over it. She recognized the familiar weight of her switchblade and smiled up at him as she pressed the button and watched the clean blade spring forward with a snick.
“I didn’t want you to leave it behind.”
Emotions threatened to close her throat and she swallowed hard and managed to nod before Jethro turned away.
“We still don’t know how we’re going to get across one of the portals.” Levi’s voice stopped Jethro and he turned back.
“We may just have to choose the closest one and fight our way through.”
Levi made a derisive sound. “And what would you rate our chances? All the portals are heavily guarded. We need to find another way.”
Amalya walked to the window letting their continuing argument wash over her. Something niggled at the edge of her mind. Some type of solution to this problem. She agreed with Levi—the portals would only see all three of them dead or, even worse, in Semiazas’s hands. But there was something else . . .
She raked her gaze over the cotton farm, tracing the destruction they’d left with the truck and then glancing up toward the gathering dark clouds. Movement near the truck caught her attention and she glanced back to see a lone shade hovering over the cab of the truck. “Too bad the shades can’t take us. They don’t need a portal to get to the other side.”
Shades were neither of this world nor of any other, therefore boundaries did not apply to them. If they could find a way to use that—to lure the shades to them and then hang on as they moved through the realms . . . It sounded crazy, even in her own head, and yet Raphael’s story about Graveyard Point Rim came back to her and she smiled. No interference, huh? She supposed telling her a story didn’t count as direct interference, especially since she had to choose to use the information or not.
She turned back to the two bickering men and held up her hands. “Enough!”
When they both fell silent, glaring at her with all the anger they’d built between them, she resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
“I know how to get us across. Let’s go. We can talk on the way.”
She braced for more argument, but both men surprised her by falling silent and heading toward the door.
16
Levi cursed as they tried again to make the truck’s engine turn over. The shades had sucked the battery dry—something they should’ve foreseen and hadn’t. The farmer had a pickup truck and even a tractor next to the house, but they’d already tried those as well with no results.
He stepped out of the truck and faced Amalya and Jethro. “Take her and get her to safety,” he said directly to Jethro. “Get her as far away as you can and I’ll find you when I’m done.”
Amalya stepped forward to stand toe to toe with him. “No way you’re dictating what I should do or where I should go. The three of us need to stick together if we’re going to make it.”
“Amalya, I don’t want you to get hurt.” He looked into her lovely face all flushed with anger and fire and wanted to hold her and keep her safe forever.
Instead, she poked him in the chest with her finger. “Don’t you dare treat me like some fragile porcelain doll. I’m not one of your servants you can order around.”
A snort from Jethro made Levi glare at the man over Amalya’s head, which had absolutely no effect on either of them.
He tried to keep the frustration from his voice when he asked her, “Then what do you suggest?” Didn’t she see there were very limited options here?
“I suggest you use your brains instead of your testosterone.” She turned to Jethro to glare him into silent submission as well.
Levi kept a tight rein on his temper, resisting the urge to shake Amalya into understanding that his was the only option available to them.
She fisted her hands on her hips and glared up at him. “There’s a generator in the mudroom that we can use to charge the battery.”
“What about jumper cables? We need some way to get the energy into the battery,” Jethro offered.
“Celine always kept jumper cables in all the vehicles for Sinner’s Redemption,” Amalya said over her shoulder.
Shock slapped at Levi. Why hadn’t he thought of that? He’d known about the generator and so had Jethro.
Damned if the woman wasn’
t right. He’d been thinking with his testosterone, thinking a fight would solve everything. He gathered all his bruised male pride and forced himself to nod. “Good idea.”
After a long moment where she was most likely receiving the overwhelming truth of his statement she smiled. “Good. I’ll steer, you guys push.”
After several teeth-jarring minutes of Levi and Jethro pushing the truck forward over the up-and-down bumps that marked the cotton field, the truck was parked hood-first against the back door of the farmhouse and Jethro and Levi were working together, male bonding over the best way to get the power from the generator into the truck battery.
Amalya wandered back inside the kitchen and searched through the cabinets. The dark clouds were getting closer and lower to the ground with every passing minute and she knew they needed to be ready to escape as soon as they could.
She continued to look for anything that could help them on their upcoming adventures and as an afterthought ran out to the barn to rifle through the farmer’s supplies.
Guilt edged through her as she helped herself to several items that she packed carefully into the bed of the truck. The two men were too involved with the generator to notice, and she was back sitting in the cab of the truck by the time Levi motioned for her to try the ignition.
When she did, it turned over on the second try and she slapped the steering wheel and laughed. “Yes.” Neither man would meet her gaze but seemed wholly engrossed in studying either the engine or the generator. She shrugged. It was a small price to pay to let them retain their male pride.
They let it run for several minutes to charge up the battery and then Levi unhooked the jumper cables and wound them on his forearm as he neared the open driver’s door.
“Shift over. I’ll drive,” he said as he slipped the jumper cables behind the seat.
Amalya raised one brow and glared at him. “I’m perfectly capable of driving, and since you two have pointed out that you’re better in a fight, that will leave your hands free in case the need arises.”
Levi clenched his jaw and she could tell he was battling against his normal instinct to order her to do as he wished. Instead, he walked around to the passenger’s side and motioned for Jethro to get in first.
“I fight with guns, remember? I can do that better riding shotgun than straddling the hump in the middle.”
Levi’s expression darkened, but he nodded in one jerky movement and slid into the middle until his thigh pressed against Amalya’s, his feet both resting on the passenger’s side so he didn’t block Amalya’s ability to shift.
Just as the neck-ruffling sensation of demon reached them, Jethro jumped in and rolled down the window, checking his ammunition as Amalya backed the truck away from the farmhouse and peeled out toward the main road.
Amalya glanced up into the rearview mirror and cursed. The two demons were running behind the truck, their supernatural speed gaining on them.
She upshifted, pressing the accelerator until the truck was at its top speed.
The demons slowly receded in the rearview mirror, but Amalya knew they would eventually catch up.
“We have to get to Oregon. Fast.”
Using a crowbar, Jethro broke the lock on the eight-foot-high metal fence that surrounded the entire graveyard and separated it from the sharp cliffs on all three sides. To the right and left were rocky slopes too steep for easy walking and at the far end of the graveyard, just past the tiny church that had stood for centuries, was a steep drop-off to the Pacific Ocean.
The only way in was through this gate and the small courtyard beyond.
When he swung the gate wide, it protested with a high-pitched screeching that made Jethro wince and clamp his teeth together. He motioned Amalya and Levi past him into the courtyard that held only three unmarked thigh-high stone graves.
Amalya pulled out her switchblade and sliced her palm with a hiss against the pain. She trailed her bleeding hand over the wroughtiron bars that made up the fence of the courtyard.
Jethro shook his head and turned back to pulling the supplies inside.
“Are you sure this is the best way to do this?” Levi helped Jethro drag their boxes of supplies inside the gate and then pulled it closed. “We can figure out a better way.”
Rather than yell over the sound of the creaking gate, Jethro waited until it was closed and then pulled out several locks of various kinds from the boxes and secured the gate.
Locks and gates might not hold back the demons, but hopefully they would slow the damned things down, which was all he wanted. He didn’t expect to live through this, so he planned to enjoy pissing off and poofing back to Hell as many demons as he could before he died—and probably ended up joining them there.
Wouldn’t that be an ironic bitch of fate.
“We don’t have time to figure out another plan and you know it.” He handed more locks and the crowbar to Levi and hefted two of the boxes of supplies before he walked deeper into the courtyard past the first stone casket, then the second. With a grunt, he lowered the boxes on top of the second casket and then continued on past the third until he reached the back courtyard gate that gave way to the rest of the graveyard.
Silently, Levi shoved the locks into Jethro’s hands and, using the crowbar, popped the ancient lock that currently held the gate closed.
He straightened and met Levi’s gaze. “Protect her.” It was a stern warning, and when Levi nodded solemnly Jethro knew the man would use his last breath to keep that silent promise. “I’ll hold them off for as long as I can. Go.”
Jethro turned his back on Levi, intent on walking away and avoiding any drawn-out good-byes, but he nearly ran over Amalya who stood waiting right behind him.
A thousand emotions churned through him, each one more painful than the last and he couldn’t bring himself to say anything. After all, what could he say that hadn’t already been said? And that she wouldn’t know for a lie immediately.
Instead, he reached out and slowly rubbed a strand of her blond hair between his fingers, memorizing the silky feel to take him into his last moments of life.
“I’ll see you on the other side, Jethro.” She stood on her tiptoes and brushed a kiss across his cheek that made moisture and heat burn at the backs of his eyes. He blinked hard to keep from embarrassing himself in front of both her and Levi, and then she was gone, disappearing through the back courtyard gate with Levi right behind her.
As it should be, he reminded himself sternly.
Levi made Amalya happy and could at least offer her some chance of matching her life span.
Biting back all the sarcastic replies to his internal thoughts, he methodically relocked the gate with six locks of various types and strengths before returning to his supplies. He would spend the end of his life in this small space, so he might as well get comfortable and set up.
He shrugged away the morbid thought and lifted the two large plastic jugs of holy water from one of the boxes. Unscrewing the tops, he walked the interior perimeter of the gate, splashing the holy water on the ground, the locks, and on the black iron bars of the fence, murmuring a prayer and essentially blessing the site the best he could with little to no experience.
With that complete, he tossed the jugs back into the boxes and lined up several refills of jacketed hollow points for his twin Glocks as well as a dozen bottles of whiskey.
“A damned waste of good whiskey,” he muttered as he uncorked the first bottle and took a healthy swig. The comforting burn of the alcohol seared down his throat as he held up the bottle in a mock toast to the oncoming demons. “Come and get me, you bastards.”
He grinned as anticipation spiraled through him. He welcomed a fight. All the running over the past few days had gone against everything he’d always believed in. He’d spent his life attacking situations head-on.
All except Amalya, his conscience reminded him.
He shook his head. If he were honest with himself, he had known early on that she didn’t return his feelings
. In a totally out of character and cowardly move, he’d resigned himself to be content with being her protector.
With a curse, he wrestled his thoughts back to the present.
He took another long drink of whiskey before he uncorked the rest of the bottles. Methodically, he stuffed rags into the neck of each one and then wedged the corks back inside to hold the rags in place. That complete, he fished a lighter out of his pocket and set it on the weathered stone grave next to the bottles so he’d be ready when the time came to light his homemade Molotov cocktails.
He’d never actually used anything like these. Back during his short stint in the army, he’d used grenades and some missiles, but there was something uniquely male and exciting about blowing things up using something handcrafted that appealed to him.
All the rest of his supplies he laid out within easy reach until they were needed.
The line of demons and other beings eager to cash in on the bounty on Amalya had just begun to appear over the ridge. They looked like a motley assortment of people who might be found at a crowded mall in any city. Apparently, demons liked to blend in since Jethro didn’t see any supermodels or other famous faces in the crowd, although he wouldn’t have been surprised to see some, which would’ve helped to explain some of the more bizarre behavior that set exhibited.
He swept his gaze in a wide arc, noting that from his position on top of the hill, if this didn’t work, he would be dead soon anyway. The thought was oddly comforting. He cursed himself for being a damned sappy fool to prefer death by demons over enduring watching Amalya grow closer to Levi. Even though she and the damned Brit fought constantly, Jethro could clearly see the bond and the affection growing and expanding between them.
Sounds from the demons grew louder as they moved in closer and he glanced up to check their progress. They were still far enough away that none of them had noticed him. There were no easy escape routes once he was surrounded, and they had to pass him to make their way toward where Amalya and Jethro would make their stand.
