by Elle James
“That’s a bunch of crap.” Alex snarled, his fists balling. “My mother abandoned me, didn’t she, Nic?”
“Not according to her.” Nicolae turned to Alex. “Question is, who do you believe? Your true brother...or a stranger who didn’t bother to find her missing brother.”
“Don’t listen to him, Alex. He’s lying. We searched. Our mother spent every bit of her savings and worked additional jobs to hire investigators to search for you when the police couldn’t help. We never gave up hope. You don’t give up on family.” My words faded. If I was honest with myself, I was wasting my breath. All of Alex’s memories of me and my mother had been erased, swept away by the evil that was Nicolae. But I couldn’t give up. Focusing on Alex, I channeled the power of the amulet, all my love, and all our mother’s love into getting through to him. Softly at first, then growing louder, I hummed the song I used to sing to him at night when he went to sleep. The song I’d used to frighten away the monsters beneath his bed, the song he used to sing with me.
The teen’s eyes narrowed, his fists clenching and unclenching, his mouth set in a grim line. “Stop.”
I couldn’t. Once I’d started, I had to finish. It was my last hope to get through to him.
Alex clamped his palms over his ears. “Stop it, damn you!”
Nicolae flung out a hand, the force of a major league baseball bat punched me in the chest and sent me sprawling on my backside, sliding across the concrete. Pain radiated upward from my tailbone. As soon as I caught my breath, I hummed again, pulling myself to my feet, my legs shaking.
Nicolae’s face wavered in my peripheral vision, as I focused all of my attention, thoughts and love on my brother. But I could see his hands flick out on both sides.
Werewolves inched closer, hugging the shadows outside the glow of my flashlight shining across the floor where I’d dropped it.
I didn’t move from where I stood, repeating the song.
Alex swayed, his eyes glazing over, his hands pushed through his hair. “Tell me she’s lying, Nic. Tell me she’s not my sister.”
“He can’t. Because it would be a lie,” someone said from behind me. With the song in my head, reminding me of my past, and the family I’d loved so deeply, I recognized the voice immediately as my father’s. I was a little girl again, surrounded by the love of my mother and father, holding my little brother in my arms.
Tears swelled in my eyes and spilled onto my cheeks. I stared at my brother, willing him to remember.
His gaze finally connected with mine and I could tell the moment he remembered. His eyes widened, his mouth opened and he held out his hand.
I reached out. Then everything happened at once.
“Take her!” Nicolae shouted.
The werewolves who’d closed in on me while I’d been in my singing trance, rushed forward.
“Katya!” Blaise’s cry pierced the gloom.
My song ended when a werewolf plowed into me like a linebacker, trapping my arms against my sides, lifting me off my feet.
My father and Blaise raced toward me, too late to stop my attacker. Other werewolves met them and a struggle for survival ensued. Demon versus werewolf, each powerful in their own way.
I fought to free one of my hands so that I could curl it around the amulet, sure that it was the key to surviving the attack. But I couldn’t move.
As the werewolf carried me toward Nicolae, the amulet shook free of my shirt and dangled around my neck.
As soon as I was close enough, Nicolae yanked the amulet from my neck and raised it into the air. “Now witness the power!” he shouted above the melee.
Nicolae raised his other hand, his fingers curling in the air.
My air was cut off. I struggled to breathe past whatever closed around my windpipe. The werewolf released me and I rose from his arms, hanging suspended in the air.
“Stop fighting or I kill her now,” Nicolae called out, his voice ringing off the concrete walls.
Blaise stepped back, my father with him.
The two remaining werewolves, that hadn’t been knocked unconscious, formed a barricade between them and me.
My gaze went to Alex. He was closest to Nicolae, the only one who had a chance to stop the demon from following through on his promise to kill me.
Without the amulet, I couldn’t communicate with him, couldn’t insinuate my thoughts into his mind and I couldn’t speak to urge him to do the right thing. My only hope to survive was drying up like the oxygen to my brain. Gray haze closed in on my peripheral vision. Help me, Alex.
“Let her live, Nicolae.” Alex spoke in a soft, urgent tone. “She’s not a threat to you without the amulet.”
“Oh, don’t be so sure.” Nicolae laughed. “Keep your friends close, right, Alex? And kill your enemies closer. That’s our motto.”
“Let her go.” Ivan Danske stepped toward the barricade of werewolves. “I’m the one you hate. Not my daughter.”
Werewolves grabbed his arms.
Alex’s gaze shifted from me to my father, his eyes widening.
“Take your revenge out on me.” Ivan struggled against the beasts’ hold. “It’s what you’ve always wanted.”
“Oh, but I am. And what better way than to watch you suffer as your family dies around you.” Nicolae flipped his hand toward Alex and my brother slammed backward, hitting his head against a metal pipe and slumped to the floor.
I kicked out, fighting to maintain consciousness. I had to help Alex. If Nicolae hated my family this much, he wouldn’t stop until he’d killed us all.
“Take me.” Ivan stepped closer, holding his hands out to his sides.
“I will. After I’ve killed your daughter and son. I want to watch you suffer.”
As my father moved toward Nicolae, Blaise inched closer to werewolf nearest to him.
Blaise lunged for the werewolf at the same time Ivan dove for Nicolae.
The grip on my throat released and I dropped to the ground.
Then my father rose off the ground, his hands clawing at his throat.
“So you want to go first?” Nicolae laughed. “Have it your way.”
For a moment, all I could do was breathe in blessed air, my muscles completely useless.
Blaise knocked one werewolf into the other and sent them both crashing into low-hanging rusted pipes. After a brief struggle, he’d subdued both and went after Nicolae.
I couldn’t let the evil demon kill Blaise and, despite my animosity toward my father, I couldn’t let the demon kill him as well. I staggered to my feet as Blaise threw himself toward Nicolae.
The demon stopped him with a raised hand and held him alongside my father, suspended in the air.
Nicolae laughed. “Try anything and I’ll hang you as well.” He laughed. “You might as well give up. You and your family are going to die today.”
“Not if I can help it,” said Ivan Danske. A streak of what looked like lightning shot out across the room, hitting Nicolae in the wrist of the hand holding the amulet.
The amulet flew from his grip and landed on the floor in front of him.
Blaise and Ivan slumped to the floor, gasping for breath.
Too far away to grab the necklace, I ran and did my best slide into home, kicking the amulet out of Nicolae’s range and right into my brother’s hands.
He raised the amulet into the air, his face set in hard lines as he stared across the concrete at Nicolae. “You’re not my brother.”<
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“Yes, yes. I am.” The evil demon waved his hands at the teen. “Give me the amulet.”
“You wouldn’t have slammed me into the wall, if you were my brother,” Alex said, his glaring at the now less powerful demon.
A werewolf who’d recovered consciousness rose up behind my brother.
“Alex, look out!” I shouted.
Ivan Danske threw himself at the werewolf, tripping him. But he caught Alex as he went down, taking the boy with him.
Alex lay beneath the heavy werewolf, the amulet lying on the ground, inches from his fingertips.
Nicolae dove for the magic stone.
Together, we can take him. For once, I appreciated Blaise’s thoughts intruding in on mine. He gave me strength and bolstered my courage and determination. I focused on Nicolae, picturing a giant hand smacking him down like a pesky fly.
The demon’s dive was arrested in midair and he dropped to the floor, bouncing hard, his head connecting with concrete where he lay still.
Ivan grabbed the werewolf by the back of his collar.
As the creature transformed, Ivan slammed a fist in his half-human face.
The transformation stopped and the man slid to the ground.
With Nicolae and the werewolves out of commission, I rose to my feet, every bruise and mauled muscles screaming at me. I pushed my aches and pains to the side and stared across at the boy with the tattoos and piercings, holding the amulet in his hand, his gaze on Nicolae. “He’s not my brother.”
“No.” Ivan stood and closed the distance between himself and Alex. “He stole you from your family out of revenge, not love.” Ivan held out his hand. “Can I have the amulet?”
The boy curled his palm around the stone and shook his head. “It has power. I can feel it.”
“Yes, but it also carries a curse. The bearer becomes more evil every day he wears it.”
“I don’t care. It’s mine now.”
“Alex.” I stood where I was, my heart filled with the joy of finally finding my brother. “You’re not evil. I can feel it. And you don’t need the power boost of the amulet. Your own abilities are strong.”
Ivan nodded. “She’s right. I’ve never sensed a stronger demon than I sense in you.”
“But I’m not a demon. I’m human.” The teen shook his head side to side, a frown marring his smooth brow.
“You’re a halfling,” I told him. “Like me.” My gaze went to my father. “And this is our father.”
A scuffle drew my attention behind me.
“Ah, what a happy little reunion.” Nicolae had recovered and grabbed Blaise from behind, holding a wicked knife to the demon’s throat. “The amulet, or your boyfriend dies.”
A trickle of blood oozed from where Nicolae pressed the sharp knife to my demon’s skin.
My heart stopped. Was throat-slashing one of the ways to kill a demon? Now I wished I had asked Blaise. Not because I wanted to kill him. I never had wanted to murder my partner in the first place.
The damn demon had slipped beneath my radar. No, he’d bulldozed his way into my life, refusing to take for an answer from me. Now, when his life hung in the balance, I realized I didn’t want to live without him. I didn’t want to go home to my apartment without him in it.
In the few short weeks he’d been my partner on the force and in my bed, he’d come to mean more to me than I’d cared to admit.
Blaise smiled, the movement turning into a grimace as Nicolae pressed the knife closer. I love you, too, babe. But don’t let him have the amulet. Blaise didn’t say a word, his thoughts curling around mine, reassuring me.
I held out my hand to my brother. “Please, Alex. We can’t let him kill Blaise.”
My darling demon frowned. What are you doing?
Trust me. Whether he could hear my thoughts or not, Blaise was in no position to argue with me. I had to free him by any method possible.
Alex curled his fist around the amulet. “No. It’s mine now.”
“You aren’t evil, Alex. You used to carry the spiders outside to release them rather than kill them.” I smiled at him. “You can’t change the person you were born to be. Please, let me have the amulet.”
The boy held on a little longer, then handed the necklace to me.
As soon as the amulet rested in my palm, a channeled the building energy, focusing all my anger and frustration on the demon holding Blaise. “Let him go and I’ll give you the amulet.”
“Let me have the amulet first. Then I’ll let go of your boyfriend.”
Don’t do it, Katya. We can defeat him together, Blaise entreated.
That’s what I’m counting on. I held out my hand and dangled the amulet in front of Nicolae, just out of his reach.
His eyes widened and his lips curled back in a feral grin. “It’s mine.” He lunged for the amulet, his grip on the blade loosening.
Blaise drove his arm up through the curve of Nicolae’s and knocked it away. The knife sailed through the air, burying itself into the wall.
Nicolae grabbed for the amulet.
I jerked it up into my palm.
When his hand touched the smooth stone, flesh sizzled and he screamed, yanking his hand away. “Bitch. It’s mine. Give it to me.”
The sickening stench of burning flesh almost made me gag. “No, I think you’ve done enough damage.”
“You don’t know the damage I can do.”
“I have an idea.”
Nicolae raised his hand, his fingers squeezing into a fist.
My throat tightened enough that I struggled to get air to my lungs.
But my feet were solidly on the ground.
I had this. This demon didn’t scare me. I channeled all the anger I’d felt for my father into one surge of emotion and aimed it square in the demon’s chest.
He slammed backward, hitting the wall behind him. He slid down and slumped to the side.
Blaise held out his hand.
“I’m not giving you the amulet.”
He chuckled. “I don’t want it. However, I’ll take your zip ties.”
“Here.” I handed the amulet to my brother. “Guard that with your life. We have a demon to secure.”
Alex frowned. “You trust me?”
My father laid a hand on the young man’s shoulder. “We’re family. And though I haven’t been around much, I hope to remedy that.”
“What about the others?”
Ivan frowned. “The other children Nicolae stole?”
My brother nodded. “What will happen to them?”
“We’ll find help for them,” I promised. “But for now, I have a demon to deliver to the Tribunal.” I raised my eyebrows toward Blaise. “What do you say we deliver him ourselves?”
Blaise grinned, tossing Nicolae over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. “I’m sure they’ll be happy to lock him up and toss the key.”
“Should we worry about his werewolf following?”
“Remove the head of the organization and the rest crumbles.”
“Sounds a bit gory if you ask me.” I led the way to my self-appropriated undercover car and unlocked the trunk.
Blaise tossed Nicolae in and slammed the lid.
“I hope this is the end of this particular assignment.”
“I was enjoying playing bodyguard.” Blaise smiled at me. “You all girly and scared. Me the macho demon, there to protect.”
I snorted. “Yeah. Right.”
*
* *
After we’d personally delivered Nicolae and the amulet to the Tribunal holding facility, the lieutenant gave us the rest of the night off. “You two work great as a team. Now go get some rest.”
We settled my brother in the hotel in which my father was staying, then Blaise and I caught a taxi to my apartment.
Standing beside the cab, I rubbed my suddenly damp palms against my jeans. “You don’t have to walk me to my door. I’m a big girl. I can make it on my own now that Nicolae has been contained.” Once again, I was pushing him away. Only this time, I didn’t want him to go.
Blaise leaned into the taxi and paid the driver. “I know you’re a big girl, but let me walk you to your door. Then I’ll be on my way to my home.”
Relieved that my ploy to blow him off hadn’t worked, my pulse quickened and I scrambled to find a way to ask him in without seeming too eager. Hell, I’d pretty much told him I didn’t want him staying with me anymore. What kind of flake would he think I was if I asked him to stay now?
Not a flake at all.
“Shit, Blaise. Did you read all my thoughts?” I had to get a better handle on my emotions if I planned to have any kind of relationship with this demon.
So now we’re in a relationship?
I ground to a halt and pointed a finger at his chest. “If you’re going to push words into my head, make them count, will ya?”
“And how will I do that?” His gaze slid over me, all smoldering heat and lust.
My eyelids drooped to half-mast. Make them sexy. I turned and walked away, swaying my hips the best way I knew how. It felt kind of good to act like a vamp, all girly and alluring.
What will the guys on the force think?
I propped my fists on my hips and tossed an exasperated frown over my shoulder. “Okay, that’s not sexy, and I don’t give a damn what they think.”
That’s my girl. Blaise scooped me up from behind and took the steps up to the third floor, two at a time.
