“He was a good man, and you murdered him in cold blood.” I called the warmth of the room into me. The lights flickered. My demon purred her pleasure at the flood of heat shoring up my rage. “If I could kill you for that alone, I would.”
His threatening snarl turned into a smile. He stepped closer, and this time, I did move back, but he didn’t stop. He was on me, shoving me back against the windows hard enough to startle a cry out of me. His hand splayed aggressively across my cheek then dragged down my neck. I tried to turn my face away. Disgust turned my stomach over. He knew what I felt, saw it on my face, and with another snarl, he pinned both my wrists back against the glass. I didn’t struggle. There was little point, but I did call more of the fire element out of the building, sucking the power of the city into my flesh, bolstering my rage and lust for revenge.
He chuckled into my ear. “I find it amusing that you think you can say these things to me and escape my wrath.”
“Why?” I hissed. “Because it’s the truth?”
“The truth…” He seemed to taste the words, let them play on his lips. “Do you even know what the truth is?”
He stood so close against me that the heat between us shimmered. We teetered on the edge of losing control. I couldn’t, not yet. If I could get my arm free and pluck the injector from my pocket, it would all be over.
His lips brushed mine. I clamped my mouth shut, trying to pull away. I couldn’t help the pull of hunger for him. My element sought his great well of energy. My demon wanted him, but I could damn well fight her. The human part of me held the reins, and neither she nor Akil were going to win.
He released my right arm. Now was the time. I could just…
He sunk his hand into the right pocket of my jacket. There was no hesitation. He knew what was in there, and sure enough, he lifted out the jet-injector. Horror doused my anger and spilled a cooling wash of doubt over the inferno within me. He knew. All long. He knew I’d come here to trap him.
His crooked smile and arched eyebrow confirmed it.
Turning the injector over in his hand, he admired the compact device for a few moments as though intrigued, then slammed it against the window beside my head, cracking the glass. When he lifted his hand away, the injector—what was left of it—fell away in pieces that tinkled against the marble floor.
He met my horrified stare, and I knew my time was up. He would kill me now.
“You think I don’t know about the Institute?” he hissed through bared teeth. “That I didn’t know what you came here to do?” He leaned in closer, pressing his entire body up against me. The intense heat rippled an aura of power around him. “You dress yourself like a whore and believe I can be fooled by such petty things?” He buried his face in my hair and took a deep breath. “I can smell him on you.” He nuzzled my cheek. “Your half-blood savior.”
Panic chased away all rational thought. I tried to push against him, but he barely moved. I moved to strike him with my free hand, but he slammed my wrist back against the cracked glass, holding me there like a sacrifice.
“Let me go,” I growled, kicking out, but he jammed a knee between my legs. His body smothered mine. “Akil. Please.” My voice trembled. “You didn’t leave me any other choice. I can’t go back home. I won’t. I’d rather die.”
“As you wish.” He released my left arm and clamped a hand around my neck, constricting my throat. I wheezed in what air I could and clawed at his hand, but nothing even came close to stopping him. I thrashed, throwing my head from side to side, chest heaving. My demon rushed through my skin, flooding into muscle, but he responded in kind. Fire blazed in his eyes.
“Akil!” Nica yelled.
He turned his head and received a face full of mace. He roared, flinging himself away from me as he clawed at his face.
Slumped over on my hands and knees, I gulped in precious air, choking and coughing it back up again. Stars dashed my vision. Incoherent thoughts reeled around my head. Nica snatched my hand and dragged me to my feet, pulling me stumbling after her, down the hall before veering into Akil’s study.
“Not here…” I wheezed. No exit.
Too late. As I stole a glance out the door, I saw Akil’s silhouette bearing down on us. We were trapped.
Nica backed up against the wall of books. “Oh Jesus, he’s going to kill us.” She pressed herself back into the books as if hoping they could somehow swallow her up.
I crossed the room and snatched a very familiar katana from its brackets. The same sword he’d killed Sam with. He must have brought it back from Stefan’s lakeside house. I plucked a lighter short sword from a bracket and tossed it at Nica. She caught it, but from the look of utter terror on her face, I could see I wasn’t going to be getting any back-up.
“Stay behind me.” I stepped in front of her as Akil rounded the doorway. He stopped a few strides into the room, regarding us both as we readied for the inevitable attack. He blinked slowly before looking away. A muscle pulsed in his jaw. When he faced me, sizzling embers danced in his dark eyes. He could call his true form at any time. If he did, Nica and I would be toast.
“Don’t do this.” All I could manage was a croaking growl, but it was enough. “You don’t need to do this.”
“I’ll admit this is not what I wanted.” He took a few languishing steps toward us, drawing out the inevitable.
I heard Nica whimper from behind me and raised the sword in both hands, sending a surge of element through my arms and down the blade. Flames licked up the steel, twisting unnaturally around the sword as my element embraced it. The blade would cut human flesh, while my element would slice through ethereal flesh.
“There’s still hope for you, Muse.” He reached the desk and danced his fingertips across its surface, leaving sizzling singe marks in the wood. “Give me that bitch, and I’ll let you live.”
“You’re a liar.”
“I’m the liar?” He slid his powerful stare over my shoulder to Nica. “She thought she could come into my home, my business, and my life and lie to me.” His human image shimmered before settling again as anger undermined his control. “The insolence of the Institute astounds me.”
I flexed my grip on the sword, never taking my eyes off him. “Blame them, not her.”
“Oh, I do.” He grinned.
My thoughts fragmented, vision blurring at the same time as Akil’s human form rippled. I flung every drop of power inside of me into play and summoned my demon. She came eagerly, enveloping me in a burst of heat. My lone wing burst from my back. Its leathery flesh flapped in the air.
Akil laughed as I spread my stance. His molten eyes drilled into mine. Lips parting, he said softly, “There you are.”
A snarl rippled across my lips. My blackened talons clenched around the flaming sword. “You think you know me.” My wing flexed. “You don’t.”
A cool trickle of air teased into the room, like the promise of frost on a winter’s morning and then Stefan sauntered into the room without breaking stride. He’d retrieved his leather coat and looked exactly as he had the night he’d entered my workshop and turned my world upside down.
“Akil,” he said with an obscene tone of authority that both bemused and startled me. “This isn’t part of the deal.”
Akil slung a glare over his shoulder at Stefan, not at all concerned about his arrival. In fact, Stefan stopped next to Akil and stood beside him with as much confidence as I’d ever seen him wield.
I straightened, feeling a deep scowl cut into my features. An horrific idea planted itself firmly in my thoughts, Nica’s words coming back to me. Stefan’s working for Akil.
I pinned my stare on Stefan, hoping to see something like regret or sadness on his face. I searched those winter-sky eyes for any sign he was playing both sides: a wink, a twitch, anything. Any. Damn. Thing. But there was nothing for me in those eyes. He glared back at me, as cold and hard as glacial ice. Dread twisted a knot in my gut, turning my stomach over and tugging my strength out from under me. “St
efan…?”
Akil fought back a smile. “I admire your work, half-blood.” He acknowledged Stefan with an appreciative nod. “And I upheld my end of the bargain. Nica is safe. In fact, the sooner you get her out of my sight, the better. Muse and I have much to discuss.”
Nica gave me a wide berth and skirted the room, moving around to stand behind her brother. At least she had the decency to look sorry. She had tried to warn me.
I must have been quite a sight: a one-winged half-demon-half-human with her emotions raw on her face for all to see. I couldn’t find my voice, let alone consider how I was going to get away. Stefan was working for Akil. Not in a let’s-pretend-I’m-an-assassin way, more of a lying-the-entire-time kind of way.
“How long?” I rasped.
Stefan blinked, but otherwise stood motionless. “Since the explosion at your workshop.”
Oh god. I staggered, my element briefly stuttering like a dying flame, its fuel burning out. “You set the explosion,” I whispered. I even glanced at him to see if he’d deny it. Nothing. His skin held a delicate shimmer, like a touch of frost on the ground in the morning. I’d once thought him glorious. I’d seen him fight off Hellhounds for me. Watched Akil stab him…
“Akil never misses.” I muttered. I should have known. Akil had plunged the very sword I was holding right through Sam’s chest. He wouldn’t have missed. It had all been an act. I lifted my head, and a growl bubbled up from my depths at the two of them, dark and light, standing together in their victory over me. I lifted my hand, dragging with it the latent heat-energy in the room to gather together in a tight ball of white hot heat in the palm of my hand. It pulsated, cracked, and fizzled. I flung the sphere at Stefan, but he easily sidestepped its arc, and it sailed past and splashed against the wall.
Nica backed up. “Muse—no!”
I breathed in energy, summoning every degree of heat from the building. It swept in from all sides, mostly from below, funneling through my legs and spooling at my heart.
Ice sparkled all over Stefan, as though he’d been powdered with diamond dust. He ordered Nica to leave and moved away from Akil. He held out a hand, briefly halting the proceedings, and checked Akil’s mildly-amused expression, asking for permission. As though Akil owned me. It was the last straw. I sprang for Stefan, bursting forward, intent on plunging the sword right through him, but he batted the katana aside. I barreled on, slamming into him, driving him back against the wall beside the fireplace. Fire flowed from me, spilling over him. Its licking tendrils spat and hissed against his coating of ice. He snarled down at me and with both hands, shoved me back.
“You wanna test me?” I lifted a hand, talons glinting like daggers, and called upon the veil. “Because that’s what this is. A trial, right? You’ve been testing me, preparing me for Akil.” I laughed, and my demon laughed. Our voices mingled.
“Wait.” He shoved away from the wall, ice wings cracking and snapping behind him.
The veil was there. I could see it, like a layer of flesh pulsating between worlds. I could slice it open and reach beyond, thrusting a world’s worth of energy into my demon.
“I…” He bowed his head, as though he might finally have an explanation for me, but it was a ruse. He summoned a shard of ice and launched it at my face. I jerked an arm up, gasping as the dagger of ice plunged into my arm before boiling into nothing but steam.
Stefan plowed into me, slamming me down against Akil’s desk. He drove his arm under my chin, forcing my head back. Ice cracked against spluttering fire. Steam and sparks hissed in the air. Ice cracked off his demon visage, quickly replaced by more as his demon repaired its shield in seconds. He snarled down at me, driving his arm harder against my throat.
“That’s enough.” Akil’s voice boomed.
Stefan didn’t ease off, if anything he leaned closer over me. Glacial-blue eyes were all I could see. “Trust me,” he whispered and then the weight of him was gone.
I lay on my back, wing crushed beneath me, staring up at the ceiling. Trust him? No. I was done with trusting anyone. The bastard had lied to me over and over. He’d stolen my life from me, given me hope, and then torn it out from under me. He may even have captured my heart in ice, and he’d done it all with a crooked smile and glint of mischief in his eye. Damien, Akil, Stefan, the Institute—they could all go to hell.
Akil tugged me upright. His fiery gaze unashamedly devoured my demon. I hissed at him and shoved him back. He stumbled, narrowing his eyes, control wearing thin.
“You can’t have her!” I screamed.
Stefan stood off to my left, multifaceted wings relaxed. Water dripped from their icicle tips. He moved around the room, flanking me. I growled at them both, snapping my teeth together and lunged for Akil. He’d seen me tense and dodged aside in time to avoid me. I twisted around in time to realize what I’d done.
Akil’s human guise peeled away, and the Prince of Hell stepped forth. Fire danced in the air as his muscular bulk filled the space between the floor and ceiling. Wings of embers and ashes butted up against the ceiling, fire tracing through the veins like fireworks igniting the night sky.
Stefan’s cold grip shoved me toward the door. “Go!”
I sneered at him, but I knew when it was time to leave. I made it as far as the lounge before Mammon parted reality in front of me, stepping through the ragged tear in the fabric of this realm. He reared up, wings spread behind him, black lips pulled back over rows of curved fangs. Stefan skidded to a halt beside me. He must have seen something in Mammon that I didn’t because he dropped to a knee and threw a shield of ice up around us like a brittle umbrella. I ducked behind the shield as a blast of pure energy slammed into it. The wave of heat flowed over us, but Stefan’s shield cocooned us from the blistering tsunami.
Stefan leaned into the shield, holding it firm against the onslaught. He shuddered, teeth clenched, eyes closed as he poured all of his element into our defenses. Steam bellowed around us, water droplets instantly vaporized by the barrage of heat.
He was losing. He hunched lower with an anguished cry. It was no good. He couldn’t draw enough of his element from the world around us. The city was heat. It was my world.
“Mammon, stop!” I yelled.
The blast of heat ceased. I peeked over the top of the rapidly melting shield and saw Mammon eyeing me with blank look on his demonic face. He snorted, lips rippling, wings ruffling behind him, dusting the floor with ashes.
I stepped out from behind the shield. “You were testing me, yes.” Each step, I recalled the heat in the room, catching sight of Stefan slumped against the wall beneath the windows, drenched and struggling to gather his element. “Testing to see if I’m worthy… You want to take me home.” I deliberately let my demon speak through me, over me. “To extract me from this human vessel.”
“Yes,” Mammon grunted.
“Then take me.” My gravelly voice echoed back on itself. “Open the veil, and take me.”
“Muse…” Stefan panted, “no.”
“Shut up.” I glared at Stefan. “You don’t get a say in this.”
Mammon snarled. He wasn’t a fool. He sensed I was playing with him. But what was I to him? Just a lesser demon, and half of one at that. What harm could I possibly cause a Prince of Hell?
He shifted, slick muscles rippling, and then tossed a glance to my left where a tear opened in the veil. The thin skin separating the worlds peeled apart like flesh beneath a surgeon’s knife. The edges frayed, and angry remnants of energy snapped about the mouth of the wound. I didn’t hesitate. Reaching beyond the veil, I called the heat of the netherworld to me, channeling the unending reservoir of power. A huge swell of energy tore through the veil and into me, lifting me off my feet. I flung a hand out and directed the force of it at Mammon, but all he did was laugh.
He lifted a hand, capturing the flow of energy in his palm and tossed it back at me as easily as throwing a soccer ball. I heard the sound of glass shattering and had an odd moment to recall how Akil had cr
acked the window earlier, and then I felt the cool embrace of the night air wrap itself around me. I saw the dark above, and snowflakes danced in the air around my reaching hands, but they fled, rushing away from me.
The bitter wind tore at my blackened flesh, whipping my hair around my face. I was falling. Instinctively, I flung my wing out, but all it did was twist me in the air, tumbling me over and over. I tried to claw at anything, desperate to find purchase, but there was nothing except the relentless assault of the wind and the harsh patter of snowflakes against my face.
Snowflakes.
They played around me, swirling around my flame-wrapped limbs like sprites with minds of their own. I felt them kiss my flesh, instantly dying when they met my heat. I wondered if Stefan had sent them, right before I plunged into a black arctic darkness.
Chapter 25
I lay sprawled on my back, unable to see. I was no longer plummeting to the ground but suspended motionless in a bitterly cold embrace. I opened my mouth and tried to snatch a breath of air, but water spilled over my lips and gurgled down my throat. I couldn’t breathe in to cough the water back up. Clamping my mouth shut, I tried to fight against the weight of darkness. Something shifted. Water pooled around my sizzling flesh. I could lift an arm through the suffocating soup, but without knowing which way was up—or out—I had no idea how to escape.
A cold hand closed around mine and yanked me free, almost dislocating my shoulder. I slumped to my knees in the thick blanket of snow. My demon had all but vanished, the sudden cold chasing her away. I was myself again as I blinked up at Stefan. Snowflakes swirled around him. The cold wind tugged at his coat. I shivered at the sight of his boreal eyes. He shimmered beneath the streetlights, his skin liquid ice. The element seeped from his mortal flesh, enveloping him in pure energy. He’d called from the veil.
He held out a hand. It was only when I took it and let him pull me to my feet that I realized the entire stretch of Atlantic Avenue had been buried in at least three feet of snow. Winter had descended abruptly on Boston. Inexplicably, a snowdrift had gathered at the front of The Atlantic Hotel, exactly where I’d plummeted from the penthouse apartment above. I heard shouts of alarm around us. People wandered from their businesses and stranded cars.
Demons & Djinn: Nine Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Novels Featuring Demons, Djinn, and other Bad Boys of the Underworld Page 163
