Frustrated, I wandered the dance floors, scanning the sea of demons. My demon paced back and forth inside my mind. I couldn’t bring her to the show, not without revealing who I was. I could dye my hair and paint my nails pink all I liked, but my demon didn’t change. A half blood was rare enough. A half blood missing a wing? They’d know me the second I dropped my humanity.
My phone buzzed in my jacket pocket. I plucked it free and ducked to the side of the dance floor, almost falling over a crate as the crowd spat me free. Except it wasn’t a crate. I ignored Ryder’s call and crouched down beside the metal cage.
“Dawn?”
She was curled up in the middle of the cage, her filthy slip of a dress barely covering her grazed knees. She blinked doe eyes out from behind matted bangs. “Muse?”
“Move back.” I summoned a slither of heat into my palms, gripped the bars, and tried to pour it into the metal. White glyphs flared beneath my touch, sending my jolt of heat back up my arms. I cursed and let go. “It’ll be okay. I’m getting you out.” I wouldn’t leave her there. If I had to tear the club down around us, she was getting out of that cage.
She hugged herself tighter. “No. He’ll hurt me.”
“Who?” I pressed my face close to the bars. How could anyone do this to a little girl? I knew the answer. I’d had it done to me. They didn’t see a girl. Dawn was property. The demons in this club barely gave her a second glance. Just a half-blood toy in a cage, an abomination.
“He’s inside my head. He drowns me, but I don’t get wet. Just go. He’ll hurt you too.”
Drowns but doesn’t get wet? A shiver trickled across my flesh as the memory of experiencing exactly that bubbled to the surface of my thoughts. She had to be referring to Leviathan. Beneath the multicolored lights and deafening beat of the music, I couldn’t see anyone resembling Levi. The club was too full of demons and their mingling elements to even try to sense him. “Is he here, Dawn?”
She bit into her lip and nodded. “The one with the black wings brought me back here. I don’t like him. I don’t like any of them.”
Black wings? Valenti. My twisted excuse for a brother had handed her back to Levi. “Did the black-winged-one hurt you Dawn?”
She shook her head. “He said it wasn’t right for half bloods to be free.” She blinked, dislodging a silent tear. “The water prince likes it here. He told me he likes to make the demons thirsty. I get so thirsty. All I want is water. Then he drowns me...” Her tiny body shivered. “But it’s not real.”
“I know, honey.” I had to get her away from here. I searched the edges of the cage and found a padlock. Bolt cutters would get it open. Ryder would have those. “I can get you out, but I need tools. I’ll be back real soon, okay? I promise.”
Her eyes saddened, and she turned the torn rabbit over in her arms and hugged it close. “I want it to end. I want to hide.”
I closed my fingers around the bars. “Hiding won’t make it go away. Hiding just delays the inevitable. Unless we do something about it.” I offered her a hopeful grin. “I let my friend down once and didn’t get to him in time. That’s never happening again. Do you hear? I’ll be back later, and I’m getting you out. And if Levi shows up, I’ll boil him dry.”
She blinked and nodded. “Okay, Muse.”
* * *
I called Ryder from the parking lot beside the club and told him everything. He picked me up in the tired Mustang ten minutes later and drove a few blocks away before parking.
“Okay, listen up...” Twisting in the drivers seat, he gave me the no-bullshit glare. “The club closes at four hundred hours. I’ve checked local security footage. By five, the staff have gone. The security is non-existent, probably because nobody is stupid enough to break into a club owned by a Prince of Hell. So that’s what we’re doing. We break in. Cut open the cage. Grab Dawn. And get the hell out of there before anyone knows we’ve been inside. You sure you can deal with Levi if he shows up?”
“Yup.” Maybe, mostly... definitely. If I could suck the fire out of Akil, I could most definitely turn Levi to steam. I had to. I wasn’t leaving without Dawn. “Sounds like a plan.”
He grabbed a gun from the back seat, checked the chamber, magazine, and handed it to me. “You’re toting demon-killing soft point rounds, etched with glyphs. One shot to the head will take down any lesser demon, but the princes are tough bastards. It’ll slow a prince down, but it won’t kill him.”
Cool. “You tested it on a prince?”
“I planted a few in Akil a few months back, but he took ‘em like they were bee stings. Happened a few blocks from here.”
Oh. I ejected the magazine and examined the rounds, deliberately avoiding Ryder’s keen stare. I’d healed Akil’s wounds that night. Ryder’s bullets were more effective than he realized.
“You up to this?”
“Huh? Yeah. Sure.” The adrenalin had ousted much of the alcohol in my veins. A blast of fire from my demon would combust the rest. Unfortunately, my demon couldn’t help my fragile state of mind.
I briefed Ryder on the conversation I’d had with the wasted demon. Until a few months ago, the princes hardly featured on the lips of demons at all. It seemed they’d thrown off their complacent attitude and gotten their hands dirty. Akil would be in the midst of it. Perhaps I should have been concerned, but given his recent behavior, he clearly wasn’t as weak as he allowed everyone to believe. He was different, he’d said so himself.
Memories of the garden event summoned thoughts of Stefan. I quickly trampled those before my past dragged me down toward the yawning pit of despair I tried to crawl out of on a daily basis.
“Have you thought about what you’re going to do once you have Dawn?” Ryder asked, anchoring my thoughts in the present.
“Take her home.”
He gave me a look that said, try again, firecracker. “Don’t blow your cover. If you take her back to your place, you might as well paint a target on the top of your building saying, Muse isn’t dead.”
“Damn.” I hadn’t thought that far ahead. Dawn was hot property. Every badass demon I knew wanted a piece of her.
“Hand her over to the Institute.”
“Ryder, no way. We’ve been through this.”
“Yeah, I know, and I’m still right. Look me in the eye, and tell me half bloods aren’t dangerous.”
He had me there. “Adam doesn’t have a great track record with half bloods. He’ll ruin her.”
“Muse, c’mon... she’s a little half-blood demon girl. If she survives to adulthood, it’ll be a bloody miracle. You only made it because Akil kept you safe.”
I flinched back. “I don’t belong to Akil.”
“That ain’t what I said.”
“Is that what you think?”
“Muse, don’t dump your shit on me, alright. Dawn doesn’t have an asshole like Akil besotted with her. She won’t last on her own. Her only chance is the Institute. You know it’s true. Stop trying to find her a happy ending. There ain’t no happy endings for half bloods. The best place for her is the Institute.”
“Did you know Adam has two other half bloods squirreled away somewhere? He’s buying or breeding them, rearing them like pets, and turning them into weapons. You think he’d care about Dawn at all? He ordered the death of his own son. I’m not giving her to him. I’ll take her away somewhere. I‘ll drop off the grid. I’ve got nothing else. I’ll keep her safe, Ryder, and don’t you dare try and take her from me.”
I’d tested his loyalty to the Institute before. There were times he should have bundled me back to the men in white coats, but he hadn’t. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t though. From the hardened military-grade stare he’d fixed on me, he clearly wasn’t negotiating.
“The Institute can’t have her,” I said. “Dawn deserves a chance at freedom, and maybe you’re right. Maybe half bloods don’t get happy endings. That’s why I have to give her what nobody else can. Freedom.”
His lips parted, and those old eyes steele
d. “Then you’ll both die. If she doesn’t get you killed, she’ll blow a fuse one day and nuke the neighborhood.”
My scowl tightened and brought a snarl to my lips. “You’ve given her up as a lost cause already, haven’t you?”
“No. I want what’s best for the girl. If you stopped thinking with your heart, you’d see that.”
“Have you given up on me, too?”
He spat a curse. “I’m here, ain’t I?”
“Yeah, now. What about tomorrow or next week when I screw up, which I will, because I’m only human. What then? You gonna tie me up and bundle me off to the Institute too?”
He narrowed his eyes. “You know the answer.”
“Yeah, I do.” Crossing my arms, I slumped in the seat. The answer was yes. Ryder was the only man I knew—demon or otherwise—who never lied about what he was. “That morning at my apartment, you would have shot and killed Stefan.”
He flinched and turned his face away. “Yeah, and it would have been the right thing to do. I screwed up. Hesitated. It won’t happen again.” Slowly, he faced me once more. A muscle twitched in his jaw. “He nearly killed you.”
A sharp smile sliced across my lips “It must be easy, seeing in black and white.” His glare contracted. “Sometimes, there is no right thing. Sometimes wrong wins, and that’s okay. Life can’t be distilled down to right and wrong. It’s all about that messy gray area in between and how we deal with it. I sure hope I’m not the one staring down the barrel of your gun when you figure that out.”
He humped and glared out the window. It was going to be a long few hours until 5am.
Chapter Twenty Three
The last time I’d broken into the Lounge, I’d been with Akil, and Levi had flushed me down a hallway. I chalked that up to him having the element of surprise. This time I was ready. I had no wish to repeat that experience and planned to get Dawn out before the Prince of Envy realized we were on his turf. In all likelihood, he wouldn’t be on the premises. Surely princes had better things to do than stalk empty clubs? If not, I was ready to flash-fry his ass.
Dawn’s cage was right where I’d left it. Ryder’s flashlight beam washed over her. She gripped the bars, eyes wide. Swirling protection symbols flared beneath her delicate hands, and a peculiar quiver of power jolted through me. Not Levi’s element. I shook it off while Ryder cut the padlocks.
I swept my gaze across the shadows coating the dance floor, gun in hand, anti-prince rounds locked and loaded. I’d shoot the slippery bastard between the eyes before he could say, “Boo.” Bam. No talking. No evil monologue. That’s how things go wrong. Levi was too destructive. Give him an inch, and he’d take a mile. That wasn’t going to happen. I’d pepper him full of bullets and hope they killed him. At the very least, it’d ruin his pretty human-suit and slow him down.
Dawn burst from the cage and clung to my leg. I sunk a hand into her hair. “It’s okay, honey. We’re gettin’ out of here.”
Breathless whispers slipped from her lips too quietly for me to hear. I crouched down. Her wide eyes pleaded. She shivered and whispered. “He’s here...” Her breaths fluttered across my cheek.
Ryder dropped the bolt cutters. They clattered against the floor. “Fuck. Muse. What the fuck?”
He lifted his gun at arm’s length. Tremors wracked his grip. He aimed at Dawn, then brought the weapon up, and tracked me with it as I straightened. Perspiration beaded his pale face. “This ain’t me. I’m not doing this!”
Ushering Dawn behind my legs, I mumbled, “I know.” I searched the dark. I couldn’t see Levi, couldn’t even sense him.
“Fuck, Muse. I can’t—I can’t stop it.”
Ryder’s disjointed hand angled the gun around. His arm followed until he held the muzzle at his temple. His expression twitched. He drew his lips back and snarled. “Get the fuck out of my head!” His eyes darted, searching for the source.
“Levi...” I growled. “Are you a coward now?” My voice bounced around the empty club. “Not going to show yourself?” Any second, I’d hear a gunshot, and Ryder would be gone. Adrenalin surged through my veins, threatening to pull the fire in its wake. “You don’t need to kill my friend.”
Ryder dropped to his knees with a strangled cry. He was fighting it. He’d die fighting if I didn’t act fast.
Dawn whimpered and huddled in close. “Dammit, Levi, face me!”
Water vapor coalesced on the dance floor. I aimed my gun and narrowed my sights down the barrel as the steam adopted a female outline. The vapor spun up, like a reverse waterspout, and She-Vi stepped out. I pulled the trigger. The blast cracked the air. The gun kicked in my hand. The bullet splashed through She-Vi’s forehead and smacked into the wall somewhere in the shadows behind.
She-Vi laughed.
A knot of dread tightened in my gut, even as I fired again, and again. Well, damn. I’d been so convinced the rounds would at least slow Levi down. It hadn’t occurred to me they’d sail right through his watery vessel.
“Burn the bitch!” Ryder hissed.
She-Vi’s brow jumped. “Summon your element, undead half blood, and I’ll redecorate these premises with the contents of his skull.”
My demon rattled her mental cage. She wanted out. The lure of the veil, albeit quiet, lingered within my reach. How quickly could I open it, draw from beyond, and throw flame at Levi? I was fast, but not bullet-fast. Given time, I could boil Levi dry from the inside out, but not before he killed Ryder. God, what had I done? I’d been so desperate to free Dawn, I hadn’t even considered Ryder’s vulnerability – his human mind.
“Half bloods are intriguing.” She-Vi’s singsong voice rippled through the dark. “Demon and human. Both and neither. Humans are puppets of flesh. All of them.” Levi stalked to one side then the other, pacing, observing, weighing the three of us. “Humans dance for me.” Her double-eyelids flickered. “They break like toys. I discard them, find more. Those break. They come here and drown themselves in drugs and alcohol to forget. Their fragile minds shatter. It’s tiresome. But half bloods... Half bloods break and come back for more. My little half blood was learning well before Carol-Anne took it upon herself to flaunt my pet in front of Mammon. My little one, my Dawn, has spirit. There’s no sweeter taste in the mind than a crushed spirit.” She stopped pacing and lifted a hand, curling her fingers into a fist. “Like you, Muse. You were dead. The infamous half-blood daughter, Mother of Destruction. Ruined, spoiled, broken. Tortured...” She tasted the word on her lips. “And then deceased. Much was argued after your demise. Mammon believes it. Asmodeus believes it. The Court of Dark believes it. Nonetheless, here you stand: changed, hungry, raw. And yet you are the same petulant human, once again stealing what is mine. Valenti’s sister, no less. And he had the gall to chastise me for losing my little pet. Your persistence is commendable. One might begin to believe the whispers cloying the air around you, Muse. Perhaps your father, Lust, is not wrong.”
“Take me to Asmodeus,” I said, hoping to bargain my way out. “I won’t fight you. Just let Ryder and Dawn go.” Levi had been tasked with my retrieval. I’d worry about my own chances of survival once my friends were safe.
She-Vi chuckled. “Why would I let them go? Dawn belongs to me. Half bloods must be owned. That is the way of things. And this puppet... Ryder? He is nothing. I would kill him now if his mind did not harbor such delicious intricacies. This one is a killer, a hard man, and yet so perfectly simple.”
“Bitch!” Ryder snarled. “If you wanna mind-fuck me, come over here and let’s get personal. Go deep, I like it rough. See what you find in there, princess.”
She-Vi’s body shimmered. In the next step, Levi was all masculine and muscle again. He cocked his head and observed Ryder curiously.
“Well, fuck me.” Ryder spat a harsh laugh, gun muzzle grazing his temple. “Now if that ain’t an instant turn-off, I don’t know what is.”
Levi’s double-eyelids blinked, but otherwise he didn’t move. Ryder appeared to fascinate him. Maybe it was h
is no-bullshit stance on life. He had a military past. Perhaps those memories intrigued Levi. While I coiled a slither of energy into my body, Ryder locked his fury-laden stare on Levi. To reach for the veil, I’d need to call my demon, but I didn’t have time to do both. Levi would sense my demon as soon as she broke over my skin. He’d blow Ryder away.
Dawn’s tiny hand slipped into mine, and a curl of slick energy touched my palm. I tightened my grip, afraid to look down at her for fear of catching Levi’s attention.
“It’s okay,” Dawn said. Only she didn’t. Her voice plunged through my thoughts like a beam through the dark. “I will unmake him.” The crawling touch of her power dragged up my arm, spilling pins and needles in its wake. I flinched. The human part of me wanted to recoil and sprint away from her, as though something about her tiny body repelled me. Her power bloomed beneath my feet. A wash of energy rose over me, knocking me aside. One minute, I stood beside Dawn, my skin trying to crawl away from her, the next I was face down half a dance floor away, ears ringing, body dashed by countless needles of pain. I pushed up on my hands, wincing as a sudden pain scurried around my skull. Raw energy tickled my skin, itching madly. I had to fight not to dig my nails in and scratch the unwanted element out of me. Whatever element she wielded, my humanity ran screaming.
I twisted, half scrambling to my feet and saw Dawn, or rather, saw her demon. She was a nightmare of liquid green and oil black suspended a few feet off the ground, back arched, arms out. Dark-light bled through her emerald skin. A mass of oily, black barbed vines lashed about her head, each moving independently. Vines sprouted from her back, tangled around her, exploded outward, and knotted through the mangled miasmic cloud that had once been Levi. Dawn had literally unmade him, torn into him, pulled him apart, and thrown him back together into a frothing soup of blood, flesh, and water. The vines picked, plucked, and stabbed, working like a thousand needles.
Darkest Before Dawn: A Muse Urban Fantasy (The Veil Series Book 3) Page 17
