Embrace of the Damned

by Bast, Anya

  There was no end to the tricks Loki played on the Brotherhood. Clearly there was something special about this woman. He just needed to figure out what it was and hope it didn’t bite him in the ass.

  He narrowed his eyes at her. Was the woman worth all of this? He could just leave the diner right now, leave the woman to whatever fate would befall her. Reject Loki’s “gift.” He’d gone this long without sex, what was another thousand years?

  His gaze traveled across her creamy skin and over her lush mouth. He imagined those lips touching his, traveling lower. He imagined undressing her, one offending piece of fabric at a time, spreading her lovely thighs and tasting her. He closed his eyes, turning his head away. He clenched his fists as his body tightened.

  Yes, she was worth it.

  Damn Loki and his games. The petty god had known that this woman was his every dream and he’d never be able to walk away from her.

  Jessa sipped her coffee and cocked her head to the side. “Are you all right?”

  “Yes,” he ground out. He sounded pissed off, but he couldn’t help it.

  Her eyebrows rose up into her dark blond hairline and she muttered, “Okay, then,” under her breath. Opening her purse, she extracted a long box of what looked like candy, opened it, and popped a brightly colored … thing into her mouth.

  “What are those?”

  She flashed the yellow box at him. “Jujyfruits.” When he gave her a blank look, she gawped at him. “Jujyfruits? You’ve never heard of them? Never, I don’t know, gone to a movie in your life?”

  He frowned at her. No, he hadn’t.

  She sighed as though he was hopeless. “They’re candy, usually consumed at cinematic events, a.k.a. movies.” She stared down at the box. “When I was depressed about something, or feeling anxious, my aunt would take me to the movies and buy me these. I guess they’re sort of like a drug for me now. I eat them when I’m really sad or stressed.” She snorted. “I’ve been eating lots of them lately.”

  For a moment Broder considered what it would be like to have someone take him to the movies, then mentally shook it off. “They look disgusting.”

  She offered the box to him. “Try one.”

  He considered the brightly colored candies for a long moment, then chose a red one and popped it into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. “They taste disgusting, too.”

  She shrugged and selected another. “More for me. So, what’s your favorite candy?”

  “I don’t eat candy.”

  “Big surprise,” she muttered, then eyed him suspiciously. “You know, you don’t strike me as a very well-rounded individual.”

  He stared stonily at her.

  “You seem, I don’t know … like you’re all work and no play. Not that I know what your work is….” She trailed off, eating another Jujyfruit.

  “Anyone ever tell you that you talk a lot?”

  “Anyone ever tell you that you don’t talk enough?” She set the candy box aside and closed her arms over her chest. “Okay, I showed you mine, now show me yours. What was the deal with that fanged thing back in the parking garage?”

  “We can’t discuss that here.”

  She snorted and rolled her eyes. “If you think I’m going anywhere with you that’s not a very public place, you’ve got another think coming.”

  He twisted his lips. He’d always found that turn of phrase to be odd. “If I am meant to protect you, you will go where I say and not complain about it.”

  Her pale brows rose. “Oh, really, Mr. Caveman? I think not. I can protect myself just fine on my own. I’ve taken self-defense classes and I carry pepper spray.”

  Catching her gaze, he held it steadily. “You’re kidding, right?” The woman had no idea what she was dealing with. “Your self-defense classes and your pepper spray mean zilch against demons and you know it.”

  “Demons?”

  “What else would you call a man with fangs who wants to suck all the blood from your body?”

  She visibly paled. “Uh, well, normally I’d call him a vampire.”

  “There’s no such thing as vampires.”

  “No vampires … yet demons exist?” She grew a little paler.

  “He froze your skin. That’s what demons do.”

  She blinked. “Tell me more.”

  “Not here.”

  She nodded, her jaw working in her rage. “Okay, you won’t give me any answers? I’m out of here.” She dug into her purse and slapped a dollar and a quarter on the table to pay for her coffee. “Thanks for your help in the parking garage. Have a nice life.”

  Letting his head fall back against the plastic seat behind his head, he grunted. So, she was going to be a pain in the ass. Great.

  The bell on the door tinkled as she left and through the plate-glass window of the all-night diner he could see her step to the curb outside to hail a cab. It was raining again and it quickly soaked her raincoat and plastered her hair to her head. They’d left her doorless car parked at the garage. It would have been tricky to explain to the security guards at the exit of the ramp.

  He tossed a few bills on the table, then, slowly, he rose and followed her.

  “You can’t go home,” he said, yelling over the sound of the pelting rain. “How many fucking times do I need to tell you it’s not safe?”

  She paused and looked at him, her hand still up in the air to signal the passing cars. “I have no reason to trust what you say.”

  “Yeah, only the fact that I saved your life.”

  Lowering her hand, she turned toward him. “Yes, you saved my life and I’m grateful for that, but you aren’t being straight with me, either. I need to know what your motives are. Your secrecy is not making me feel secure.” She turned back to the street, muttering under her breath, “I’m done with secrets.” Then, louder, “Taxi!”

  A yellow cab pulled over to the curb and she climbed into the back. Broder climbed in after her. She wasn’t going anywhere with his dagger. She’d probably forgotten she had it tucked into her enormous purse.

  She turned toward him, a look of pure indignation on her face, tendrils of her wet hair plastered to her pale cheeks. “Get out!”

  “No.”

  “You are not going to follow me home. I’ll never feel safe in my apartment again.”

  He bared his teeth at her in frustration. “You have no reason to feel safe now. It’s possible you’re being stalked by demons.”

  “And I’m supposed to think being stalked by you is safer?” Making a frustrated sound, she rolled her eyes and leaned forward. “The nearest police station, please.” She gave him a smug look, which he ignored.

  The cab pulled away from the curb and started down the street.

  “What do you intend to tell the police when we arrive?” Broder murmured, gazing out the window at the rain-slicked streets. “That you were attacked in a parking garage by a vampire who tried to suck you dry and were saved by a leather-clad man with superstrength who is trying to follow you home? That should get you pretty far … far as the nearest mental hospital, anyway.”

  “Don’t worry about what I’ll tell the police. That’s my business … and your problem. Hey!” She leaned forward, addressing the taxi driver, a tall blond man with an unruly mustache. “You just turned down the wrong street. There’s a police station over on Ash.”

  The taxi driver remained silent and suddenly Broder went on alert, the runes in his coat giving off a subtle pulse of power. Something was not—

  The driver yanked the wheel, pulling the taxi to the side of the street. The doors snicked locked and then the driver lunged into the backseat with the sinuousness of a snake—straight at Broder. The agent’s hands closed with incredible strength around his throat. Broder choked, his air leaving him.

  Beside him Jessa screamed.

  He grabbed the demon under his arms and slammed him up into the ceiling of the car, trying to dislodge his hold. It was unlikely the agent could kill him, but the demon could definitely put Broder
out of commission long enough to kill Jessa. There was no room to move in here, no room to fight … and Jessa still had his dagger.

  Jessa was busy screaming and trying to open the door or roll down the window—both of which were child-locked. No escape for her.

  He slammed the agent’s body into the ceiling of the car again, but the man’s grip still didn’t budge. The agent’s jaw was opening, fangs descending. The demon hissed, freezing spittle spraying Broder’s face, his eyes soulless black. Broder cast a desperate, sidelong glance at Jessa. He was going to be incapacitated and she was going to die if she didn’t remember she had the dagger. He tried to mouth the words, but no air came out to give them life.

  Black spots appeared in his vision. He was going to pass out. He’d return to consciousness with her bloodless body in his lap. The thought made him insane with rage.

  Fighting with every ounce of his will the unconsciousness that threatened, he found the agent’s eyes and gouged. The thing screamed, fangs flashing, but still didn’t let go. It wouldn’t, of course. Once an order was given, these mindless, primal, lower-level agents wouldn’t stop until they’d achieved their goal or died trying. The thing’s grip tightened, even as its blood ran down Broder’s hands.

  Jessa was screaming her head off and the black spots were growing bigger, stealing his consciousness. Soon it would all be over.

  The agent exploded into ice.

  Broder inhaled, gasping for breath and getting nothing but foul demon ice mist, which made him choke. Jessa had dropped the dagger onto the seat of the cab and was busy trying to climb over the seat, still screaming, “You gouged out his eyes! He’s all … ice! There were more f-fangs!” In between screaming, she seemed to be hyperventilating.

  Now she was acting like most humans did when exposed to the Blight and the Brotherhood. Kind of a delayed reaction, but there it was. Oddly, it made him feel better.

  She scrambled for the driver’s-side door and opened it, falling out into the rain-filled gutter of the street. Crawling on her hands and knees, she made her way to the middle of the sidewalk and sat down, hugging herself, her dark blond hair tangled and covering her face.

  Broder broke the lock on the back door easily and opened it, going to her and kneeling at her side. He sighed. “It’s a lot to take in.”

  She laughed. “You love to understate things, don’t you? That thing almost killed you.”

  “No. I was never in danger.” He paused a beat. “It almost killed you.”

  “Why do they burst into ice when they die?”

  “They were created in Hel.”

  “Demons from Hell, of course.”

  “It’s not the Christians’ Hell; it’s a different realm from that. Hel is a very cold place. The Blight were molded from Hel’s ice by the goddess who rules there, in order to wage war on Earth. When they’re stabbed by one of Loki’s blades and die, they return to their original form. Ice.”

  She stared straight ahead and let out a humorless laugh. “That must make cleanup a snap.”

  They stayed that way for a long moment, while he let her absorb everything. The Blight were still after her for some reason that he suspected not even she understood. They wouldn’t stop until she was dead. That meant … “Do you have any kids, Jessa?”

  She shook her head.

  “Any pets at home?”

  “No.” She looked up at him suspiciously, his questions reaching through her shock.

  “Do you take any special medications you don’t have with you?”

  Frowning, she shook her head. “No. Why?”

  He sighed, touched her forehead, and let her collapse into his arms, unconscious. “That’s why,” he murmured, scooping her up and laying her in the backseat of the cab, moving his dagger out of the way first. Then he climbed into the front and pulled away from the curb.

  She was going to have to stay with him for a while, like it or not.

  Jessa woke slowly, as if waking from a deep, delicious sleep that had nourished every part of her body and mind. Stretching, she smiled, recalling the weird dream she’d had. Vampires that poofed into ice when stabbed with a special blade and hunky, mysterious men coming to her rescue. Shaking her head, she opened her eyes … and went very still.

  She pushed up, seeing she still wore her clothes and she was not, as she’d presumed, in her own bed. The quilt covering her was fluffy and soft, in tones of brown and gold. The bed was an enormous four-poster—king-size. The room was huge, with a massive creek stone fireplace dominating the opposite wall. A comforting fire flickered there.

  The place was sparse with furniture, despite its size. A large brown-and-gold-toned area rug covered the polished wood floor. A couch, table, and chair rested to her right, in front of a large bay window. To her left were two darkened doorways—a walk-in closet and a bathroom, she surmised by the look of it. Two chests of drawers stood on either side of the massive bed.

  Where the hell was she?

  Unfortunately, she suspected the answer once she’d examined her most recent memories. Broder had touched her head and she’d slipped straight into dreamland. Neat trick. The trick of someone not human.

  This had to be his house.

  Pushing the blankets away, she slipped out of the bed. Her bare feet touched the cold floor and she spotted her socks, shoes, and bag along one wall. Padding across the room in the opposite direction, she pushed aside the drapes and peered out the window at a large, manicured lawn with a heavy treeline shielding the house’s view of its neighbors.

  She let the drape fall back and immediately crossed the room to the door and found it open. Broder had kidnapped her and brought her here for some reason—she still wasn’t sure she bought his “protecting her” shtick. After all, he didn’t know her; why would he risk his life for her? One thing was for certain: She needed answers.

  He probably wasn’t human. She understood that, but she wasn’t ready to deal with it yet.

  She put on her socks and shoes, grabbed her tote bag, and slipped out into the hallway, her feet meeting a long runner rug of blues and silvers. Whatever Broder was, it appeared he had money. Tasteful artwork decorated the neutrally colored walls and accent tables set with fresh flowers sat periodically down the long corridor that was filled with doors.

  Scratch that; maybe he’d brought her to some kind of hospital or halfway house. That would mean that either she—or he—was crazy. At this point she wasn’t ruling out any explanations for recent occurrences.

  At the end of the corridor, she found a sweeping staircase and followed it down into a huge foyer with marble floors and a set of heavy double doors. From a room on her right, she could hear the sound of murmuring voices, all of them male. She stopped in the middle of the floor, shivering in the cold air of the house, and considered the front doors. They might be unlocked, just like the door to the bedroom she’d been placed in.

  She might be free to leave.

  Yet she’d been attacked—twice now—by fanged monsters Broder claimed were demons. Who was to say she wouldn’t be attacked again, and without Broder and his magick dagger to fight the things off, what chance would she have?

  The primal part of her brain that sought her survival told her that maybe leaving this house wasn’t the path to take, even though she felt scared here.

  “Hello,” said a deep voice from her right.

  She tore her gaze away from the doors to meet a pair of startling blue eyes that were attached to one of the most gorgeous men she’d ever seen. If she was hallucinating this, between this man, the mysterious Dmitri, and Broder, her insanity had good taste. Maybe she’d stay awhile.

  She blinked and the apparition didn’t fade. “Uh. Hello.”

  “You must be Jessamine.”

  The man possessed the same accent that Broder had—clipped vowels and slightly strange pronunciation of some words. It was the kind of accent that occurred if one spoke another language before learning English, yet spoke English flawlessly. She couldn’t pla
ce the accent at all, but that was such a mildly odd thing in a sea of bizarre that it barely even registered at this point.

  She stared at him, taking in the full impact of the gorgeousness. Thick, tousled tawny hair, piercing blue eyes, tanned skin, chiseled features—and the powerful body of a god. The same body Broder possessed.

  This man was light to Broder’s dark, though there was something every bit as forbidding about him. Broder and the stranger both had an edge to them, something impossible to define, but that marked them both as dangerous to deal with. Despite this man’s attractiveness, she’d normally go out of her way to avoid him.