by D. G. Swank
A sly grin lit up Caelius’s face. “The Great One will be here soon enough.”
I took advantage of Caelius’s distraction and crept closer to the triangle. That was my priority.
But Caelius had his eye on me. “Not too close, love. There’s some nasty magic protecting that triangle.” There was an amused lilt to his words. This was a game to him. Entertainment.
But he was right about the magic. The closer I got, the more I felt something needling my skin. The closest I could get was about ten feet away before the pain became too much.
Rhys whispered my name with such fear it cinched my breath.
I wanted to run to her. She seemed the most scared of the three of them. This was the second time in less than three weeks she’d been kidnapped because of me. “I’m going to get you out of there. I promise.”
She nodded slightly, watching me with trusting eyes. She truly believed I could.
“All it takes is a trade,” Caelius said.
“Okay, I’ll bite,” I said, keeping my attention on Rhys. “What’s the trade?”
“You willingly give yourself to my desires and they all go free.”
Something about the way he’d worded his request seemed off. Jack caught it too.
“It’s a trick, Piper, not to mention that it will kill us anyway.”
“I will not kill them,” Caelius said. “I will set them free. I swear it on Okeus.”
The mention of Okeus caught my attention, and I whipped my head to face him. “Abel said you are a Roman demon. How do you know Okeus? He’s a Native American god.”
He laughed. “Okeus is currently the most powerful being in this world.”
“Ahone might disagree with that,” Ellie said.
Caelius laughed. “Ahone is like an old fool, stuck in the old ways. Only those who adapt will survive.”
“Ahone?” Hudson asked. “Who’s that?”
I shot him a look of surprise, but he was focused on Ellie, watching her with interest.
Ellie looked just as surprised by his question but answered him nonetheless. “Okeus’s twin. Ahone split himself in two and gave the bad parts of himself to his twin. They will do anything to destroy each other. Ahone tricked Manteo into locking up the gods, demons, and spirits back in the late fifteen hundreds.”
“So Ahone stayed free?” Hudson asked, then turned to face me, his eyes intense and boring a hole in me. “And everything else was locked up?”
What was he getting at? Then it hit me.
Abel.
Abel, a supernatural being, had been born after the spirit world was locked up. Was he Ahone’s son?
But how did Hudson know enough about the situation to have come up with a theory about Abel’s identity? I hadn’t shared any of my recent suspicions with him.
Hudson turned back to Ellie. “You’re wrong. Okeus is a clone. Not a twin.”
Ellie’s mouth parted slightly. “What?”
He gave her an apologetic look, but there was a hint of defiance in his eyes. “Just pointing out the discrepancy.”
Ellie recovered, starting to look irritated. “Semantics.”
Hudson gave a little shrug.
Why didn’t he look more scared?
Suddenly I knew, and it felt like all the air in the room had been suctioned out. I struggled to stay on my feet.
Hudson was my betrayer.
Why? It went against everything I knew about the man. Hudson was my best friend. He’d been with me through so much and vice versa. We’d always had each other’s backs.
How could he do this? The simple answer was he wouldn’t.
There had to be another explanation. Please let there be another explanation.
“I have a gift for you,” Caelius said. Then a grin lit up his face. “A courting gift.”
“You’re courting me?” I asked in disbelief, still trying to keep up.
“Call it what you like, but it’s a gift designed to please you.”
That sounded ominous. “What is it?”
He waved his right hand with a flourish toward the group of Guardians. “Your opportunity to get answers.”
I suspected the only way to break through the power holding my friends in the triangle was to slice through the magic with my dagger. I still had enough of my wits about me to know that a battle was likely to break out the moment I started using a weapon. As much as I hated to admit it, I needed to wait until I had a better handle on what was really going on. While it went against everything inside me, I turned and walked over to my grandfather’s good friend.
I stopped next to Collin, about ten feet away from my other betrayer. “I know this one,” I said, waving my sword toward Robert. “He and his wife are my grandparents’ dear friends.” Then, with bitterness, I added, “But maybe not as dear as my grandparents thought.”
“You had to be watched,” Robert said. “We agreed to leave you alone, but then your father double-crossed us.” He pressed a hand over his heart. “Still, we are a people of honor and we uphold our agreements.”
“More like the gate to hell was still closed, so no hurry,” Collin said.
Robert’s lips pursed in semi-acknowledgment.
“Honor?” I protested. “You killed my father because he refused to let you train his ten-year-old daughter to use a pair of daggers? Where is the honor in that? Where is the honor in making me an orphan?”
“I understood the cost,” he said. “I was the one who ordered it.”
I gasped.
“Did you order my mother to be killed too?” Ellie asked, coming to stand beside me. I was surprised at how calm she sounded.
“No,” he said with a smirk. “You were someone else’s problem. I was only charged with Piper. Her father was supposed to have her hold the daggers every day until her power manifested. Instead, he locked them up, reasoning no daggers, no power.” He gave her a smug grin. “He was wrong.”
This man felt absolutely no remorse for ordering my parents’ murders.
“How many of you are there?” Ellie asked.
“Our numbers have dwindled after the massacre on Roanoke Island several weeks ago, but we still have an army.”
“But an army without leadership,” Collin said. “All of your leaders were at the ceremony that night and only a few escaped.”
“True, but we will rebuild.” Robert turned to the woman at his left. “Isn’t that right, Rosalyn?”
I gasped, recognizing the name—and the face. This was the woman who’d driven past us in the campus lot when Jack and I were on our way to meet Autumn.
I turned to Hudson, my mind racing. He gave me a blank look.
Caelius shifted in his seat, looking bored. “Piper, do you have more questions? Speak now or forever hold your peace.”
What was his hurry? Was he sending them away? I glanced from Ellie on my right to Collin on my left. “No, but—”
“Then it’s time to bid them adieu.” Caelius snapped his fingers and the creatures behind him rushed across the stage and leapt on top of the Guardians. One of them clamped its jaws around Robert’s head midjump, biting it clean off by the time it flattened him to the floor. The warehouse echoed with screams and snarling.
I looked on in horror as Collin grabbed my arm and the three of us scrambled backward to get out of the way of their massacre. The creatures were as large as lions on steroids but had faces akin to a bulldog. Their coats were black and the blood that now coated them sank into their short hair.
“We have to help them,” Ellie said, ready to jump in to the fight.
“It’s too late,” Collin said. “Most of them are dead already, and the one who remains is almost there.”
He was right, but it was a hard pill to swallow. The night of my first demon kills, Abel had made me watch the demons attack the Guardians. Now I fought through my horror and forced myself to pay attention to how these demons behaved.
Because I had no doubt Caelius would soon turn them on us.
; Where was Abel? Watching from the shadows? Waiting to kill me if the need arose? But after everything I’d learned from and about him in the past two days, I had trouble believing he’d let me get into a situation that would force him to kill me. On the drive over, he’d tried to take me away from this fight, declaring me too important to lose.
So why wasn’t he standing by my side, ensuring I survived?
I realized that Collin was right. Abel had to be in hiding. I already knew he was trying to stay off Okeus’s radar, and now I was certain it was because he was hiding the identity of his father.
If Okeus found out his brother or clone or whatever had a son, he could use that son against him.
Abel would become bait.
“Well,” Caelius said with an exaggerated sigh as he surveyed the carnage. “That’s done.”
The creatures were still devouring the flesh of their victims, which didn’t sound like demon behavior at all…at least not as far as I knew. What were they?
I swallowed the bile rising in my throat as I tried to ignore the bloody carnage.
“Great show,” Collin said in a flippant tone. “But it looks like the Great One is a no-show, so let Piper’s friends go and we’ll be on our way. We can have a rematch later.”
Was this a trick or was Collin really willing to walk away? From the look on Caelius’s face, he was wondering the same thing.
“If you curse keepers wish to leave, you may,” the demon said, “but Piper and her friends will remain with me. The best surprises are yet to come.”
“Well,” Collin drawled, “if Piper stays, then we’ll stay too. We’d hate to miss the surprises.”
“I want my friends, Caelius,” I said in a firm voice. “And I want them now.”
Caelius gestured toward the triangle. “Then I offer you a trade.”
I knew what that trade was. I glanced over at my friends, refusing to look at Hudson. Jack looked horrified and Rhys was staring at the carnage in shock. The demon knew I’d do anything to save them. Even play with fire.
I turned back to look up at Caelius in defiance. “You want to have sex with me until I die. The ultimate la petite mort. What a way to go,” I said dryly. I tossed my sword onto the ground and it skittered toward Jack. “What the hell? Let’s do it.”
Caelius stared at me in confusion.
“What?” I asked. “Not romantic enough for you?” I reached down and grabbed the hem of my T-shirt, pulling it over my head and tossing it down too. “Shows what you know about me. I’m more of a practical person.” I reached down and quickly unzipped my boots.
“Piper?” Ellie called after me as I kicked off the boots.
Jack and Rhys watched me in horror.
“Piper, what are you doing?” Jack pleaded.
I ignored him and reached for the button on my jeans. “Like what you see, Caelius? I’ll give it to you. Just let my friends go.”
“Piper!” Rhys shouted. “No!”
I shoved my hands between the denim and my hips, then slowly tugged the fabric down. “Is that better? You want a little show?”
Collin started to rush toward me, but Caelius snapped his fingers and the lion demons snarled then raced toward the curse keepers.
“Tsagasi!” Collin shouted.
“That’s better,” Caelius said. “No more interruptions.”
But I was distracted by the chaos ensuing to my left. Five demon lions had surrounded my friends, but Tsagasi and the others had joined the fight.
“Eyes on me,” Caelius said in a lilting tone infused with power, and I had no choice but to give him my full attention.
He was watching me with interest, but it occurred to me that the demon fed on sexual urges and feelings, and I was feeling anything but turned on. I needed to fix that.
I tried to think of something to get me in the mood, a difficult task given what was happening all around me, but I had to succeed with this charade or my friends would be killed. They were counting on me to save them.
I shimmied out of my jeans, and before I knew it, I was standing in nothing but my bra and panties and the belt Abel had cinched to my hips.
Suddenly thoughts of Abel flooded my head. When he’d kissed me after I’d killed the demons at Helen’s Bridge. When he’d kissed me on his balcony. When I’d straddled him in the SUV on our way here tonight. They were my thoughts, but I had no control of them. Had Abel sent them to me? The memories were so strong I could feel his hands on my bare skin, his lips on mine.
I released a low moan.
My hormones surged, and I could feel Caelius lapping them up as he released a low moan of his own.
“Piper!” Jack shouted. “Stop!”
I kept my eyes on Caelius, who was now descending a set of stairs to the side of the platform, but it was Abel who consumed me, making parts of me ache and throb.
My lips lifted into a sexy smile. “Eager, Caelius?”
“As much as I want you,” he said with his eyes on the dagger at my right hip, “I’d prefer that you lose the weapon.”
“This?” I asked in a sexy pout as I slowly slid Ivy out of its sheath and held it up. Then I threw it to the side in what I hoped appeared to be a careless toss. It hit the floor and slid into the triangle.
Caelius started to watch where the dagger went, but I took two steps forward, drawing his attention back to me. I needed to distract him from the dagger still hanging on my left hip. “So where do you want to do this? No comfy couches this time.”
“We were in a hurry to get your friends here,” Caelius said. “No time for the comforts I prefer.”
“So it’s the floor, then?”
Caelius’s power had been surprisingly dormant, probably because I’d caught him off guard, but the sex demon was over his shock. A wicked grin spread across his face as he sent a subtle wave of power toward me.
I didn’t put my guard up, instead letting it wash over my skin like a caress.
Caelius gave me a look of surprise then pleasure as he moved toward me. “You’re really giving yourself to me.”
“I told you I would. I didn’t choose this life. If I’m going to be killed by a demon, this seems like the best way to go.”
Caelius stopped in front of me and wrapped an arm around my back, pulling me tightly to his body. “There’s where you’re wrong, my love. I don’t plan on killing you.”
My breath stuck in my chest, but I forced out, “So you plan to keep me as a pet?”
“No,” he said. His arm tightened around my back, and he lifted my feet off the ground and then carried me toward the triangle. “I plan to use our combined power to call Okeus. He’ll reward the Great One and me beyond belief for the gift I’m about to give him.”
Oh shit.
I glanced at Ellie and Collin, who were in the middle of a battle, but I heard Tsagasi shout, “Caelius is calling Okeus!”
“Hey, Caelius,” Ellie shouted while slashing at a demon lion that swiped at her with its paw, “isn’t Okeus a little pissed at you and the Great One for trying to batten down the gate to hell?”
“Why do you think we’ve altered our plans to offer him your cousin?” Caelius called out. “A peace offering.”
“You’re going to hand me over to a god?” I asked, stalling. Was Abel really not going to intervene? Should I mention the creator of worlds part of my résumé to make Abel jump into action? He’d been freaked out about what Okeus would do with that particular piece of information. Was it too dangerous to use?
“I’ll still do this willingly,” I said, “but you have to let my friends go.”
Caelius reached the middle of the triangle and set me down. Cocking an eyebrow, he gave me a mocking grin. “Who said I need you willing?”
Was now the time to make my move? Rhys was still in the place I’d last seen her, the dagger two feet to her side. Why wasn’t she reaching for it?
Then I realized why—something or someone was holding my friends in place. But somehow I sensed it wasn’t Cae
lius’s power, and it was too strong to be the work of one of his minions. I reached out with my power to search for demons. Caelius was so close his essence was nearly blinding, but I could sense the six lesser demons Tsagasi had mentioned—five fighting Ellie and one behind the platform—and a seventh demon somewhere nearby, someone close. It was a bright essence that had been dimmed, like it had thrown a cloak over itself to conceal its light.
Caelius had lied. The Great One was here. It was simply concealing itself.
Obviously I’d miscalculated this entire thing, not that I’d put much thought into it to begin with. I’d counted on Abel saving me from death, but he’d stayed outside; I’d counted on Caelius sticking to his screw-to-death plan, and now he planned to hand me over to Okeus.
I was screwed. In more ways than one.
“It’s time for your next surprise,” Caelius whispered, sending shivers across my skin. I couldn’t resist him without revealing my intentions, so I didn’t. I quivered with need.
I started to reach for the hilt of my remaining dagger.
“That’s really not necessary,” I said, my voice sounding sultry.
“But I insist.” He spun me around and pressed my back to his chest, wrapping an arm around me. His palm splayed over my lower abdomen as he sent another wave of power through me, making me forget about the dagger hanging on my hip. I pressed myself back against him, feeling his erection. His mouth lowered to the base of my neck and he kissed above Abel’s bite, sending another wave of pleasure that threatened to drag me under to complete submission.
“You are so delicious,” he said as he licked the bite wound. Then he motioned with his free hand and one of the demon lions came around the corner with something large in its mouth.
Rhys released a gasping cry, but it only vaguely registered as another wave of pleasure rippled through me.
I closed my eyes and started to lean my head back against him when Caelius whispered in my ear, “Don’t miss your surprise, my pet. We picked it out special for you.”
