by Moira Rogers
He forced himself back against the wall and relaxed as much as he could. “I know. It may not look like it, but I know.”
The other man relaxed marginally, as well. “Think they’re planning an attack?”
“Maybe. I think they’re scared. I think they’re trying to figure out how much of a threat we could be.”
“Then that’s even worse, isn’t it?” Drake heaved a bleak sigh. “Fear and the unknown—two things guaranteed to make an animal lash out.”
It was the truth, and reason enough to find a way to breach the distrust between them. “How loyal are you to Hailey?”
The answer was immediate and absolute. “I’d give anything to protect her.”
“Would you stop fighting me?”
After a moment, he inclined his head. “Yes.”
Either Drake was lying—unlikely, considering how willing the man always was to deliver uncomfortable truths—or he was in love. The former was an uncomfortable proposition, but the latter could be downright dangerous. If the halfblood felt strongly enough, instinct would override intention when it came to keeping Hailey safe.
The only thing to do was channel that feeling. “Once Hailey’s on her feet again, we’re going to have a strategy meeting to discuss a transition to a more…useful council structure. If you’re willing to support her—and not fight us—I’d like to have you there. But if you betray her trust and go against us because you think you know better than she does, I will end you.”
Drake started shaking his head before Zel finished speaking. “I wouldn’t do that to Hailey. You, yes. But not her.”
“What do you think you’ve been doing? She’s my damn second-in-command, Drake. She agrees with what I’ve been trying to do.”
“You sure?” Drake asked quietly. “Agreeing with what someone’s trying to do isn’t the same thing as agreeing with how they’re going about it.”
“I don’t—”
A cry rose inside the room. High, outraged—the wail of an infant. Zel spun and started for the door, but it opened before he could reach it. His mother stepped out, looking drawn but relieved. “Hailey has a healthy baby girl.”
Drake’s shoulders slumped, and his scowl split into a grin. “Is she okay? Hailey?”
“She’s exhausted, and Lorenzo and Rosa will need a big meal and twelve uninterrupted hours of sleep. But everyone will be just fine.”
Relief weakened Zel’s knees. He found his mother’s gaze and saw nothing there to contradict the truth of her words. “Can Drake see her?”
“For a few minutes.” She stepped back and pulled the door wide. “Then all of you are leaving the poor girl in peace for a while.”
Drake rushed inside, leaving Zel whispering silent words of gratitude until Devi came to the door, her face and hands freshly washed. “It’s a girl.”
“So I heard.” He reached for her hands and drew her close enough to wrap his arms around her. He’d already grown to love the feel of her, the way she was soft and hard at the same time, and how willingly she settled against him. “How’s Hailey?”
“Exhausted, but I don’t think that matters now that she gets to hold her daughter.”
“I know. Ten fingers and toes?”
Devi laughed softly, her breath warm against his neck. “Everything’s just right.”
Maybe he was crazy. Maybe he’d lost his mind, like Drake had claimed, but he felt almost content as he kissed the top of her head and pulled back. “Now we need to—”
He didn’t get a chance to finish. Devi jerked, her eyes rolling back, and he barely caught her before she hit the floor.
The transition was so wrenching that Devi barely managed not to drop right back out of the network. She tilted and would have fallen, except for the chair that suddenly materialized under her.
Then she saw Juliet. Her signal was weak and glitchy, but the fear on her face was plain. “We’ve been attacked.”
Devi pitched off the chair anyway, rolled to her knees and clenched her hands into fists. “What happened?”
“I don’t understand it.” Frustration colored the words. “The demons didn’t kill anyone, not even the ones fighting the hardest. Now they’re taking us somewhere…”
Cache wasn’t bothering with niceties like fake terminals today. Her fingers twitched at her sides as her eyes darted back and forth, tracing something Devi couldn’t even see. “I’m trying to find your signal, Ruiz.”
And Devi knew she’d be successful. “Juliet, how many were there?”
“I don’t know. At least two dozen.”
They’d never had a chance to fight them off. “Listen, you and Tanner do whatever you have to do, but don’t fight unless you have no choice. Don’t provoke them. We’ll find you, okay?”
Her image fritzed out, almost disappeared, and Cache swore, the word laced with pain. “I can’t hold her much longer, there’s something weird with the signal—”
Trip appeared beside her, his face calm. “I’ve got it. I know where they are.”
Surprise flashed through Cache’s eyes, gone so fast Devi almost missed it. Something about Trip’s appearance had unsettled her, but Cache only nodded. “Good. Ruiz, hold on, we’re coming for you.”
The woman’s image wavered again. “Hurry. Tanner’s not taking this well, and neither are the halfbloods from Rochester.”
Devi stood, fear racing through her. She didn’t dare let it show. “Keep them in line as best you can. We’re on our way.”
A pained noise escaped Cache. “Dev, I can’t—”
Juliet flickered. The room flickered. Then everything vanished and Devi was back in her body with Zel leaning over her, both hands framing her face. “—damn it, tell Clara to hurry. She needs medical attention!”
There wasn’t time to adjust to the dizzying drop from the network. Devi swallowed her nausea and grabbed his hands. “I’m fine, but my crew isn’t. There was a demon attack, Zel. They’ve been captured.”
Zel dragged her to her feet just as the handheld at his hip beeped shrilly. He pulled it out and stared at the screen. “Trip sent coordinates. That’s where they are?”
“He tracked them.” She still wasn’t sure how he’d even known there was trouble, but it didn’t matter. “We need to go now. How far is it?”
“Let me just…” Zel tapped on the device and pulled up a map. The screen was too small for much detail, but the distance appeared at the bottom of the map a second later: seventeen miles.
Zel swore. “They’re breathing down our necks. But that means we can get to them—”
Another chirp from the tablet, and Zel frowned as a box popped up with the words Incoming Transmission: GlobalNetwork. “Could Tanner or Ruiz hack a network call?”
“Tanner, yes.” It was one of those tiny bits of his past he’d revealed without ever meaning to.
Zel tapped the Accept button in silence, but the face that filled the screen wasn’t Tanner’s. It was a man’s face, though, one as beautiful and cold as a statue. A complex tattoo trailed from his temple to curl under his left eye, which was a brown almost dark enough to be black. A patch covered his other eye. There was something familiar about him, and Devi stared at the screen and struggled to figure it out.
Then a voice rolled up out of the handheld’s speakers, smooth as silk and darker than night. “I have a message for Dominic Wetzel and the human hauler, Devindra.”
Across the room, Sora went pale. Devi gripped Zel’s arm as the pieces clicked into place, stealing her breath.
Zel didn’t seem to have made the connection. His eyebrows drew together and his voice became a rough, growling threat. “Who the fuck are you?”
“I am the warrior who has your people. They are being treated as gently as they allow, but I’m afraid I won’t be able to protect them from their own reckless escape attempts for long. The two of you will present yourselves at my camp, or my soldiers will stop being so gentle. You have two hours.”
The face vanished, replaced
with a black screen. Text blinked into existence, the length of the call and the originating network address.
Devi wanted, more than anything, to ask her question again. When can we leave? Instead, she took a step back. “We need to think about this, Zel. It could be dangerous.”
“Dominic.” Sora had one hand braced against the doorframe, the other splayed across her chest. Her cheeks held a deathly pallor, and fear had taken root in her eyes, fear and anger and a steely determination. “Let me go instead.”
Zel still didn’t understand. His shoulders stiffened, and he shook his head, dismissing her words without thought. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“He had one eye, didn’t he?”
“How in hell—” The muscles in his arm jumped under Devi’s hand, and she felt the truth hit him, felt the physical response roll through his body. She’d never heard so much pain in a man’s voice as the agony in his whispered denial.
“Aton. He said he found the name in a book at the Maple Grove Library and took it for his own. I think he liked sharing a name with an ancient god.” Sora’s gaze had fixed on some distant point, oblivious to the way every word she spoke smashed into her son. “The sun god. Aton loved books. He made the library his base, and his warriors brought their prisoners there. Dozens of us, serving them, praying we’d stay alive long enough to escape.”
“Ma.” Zel’s arm trembled.
“I’m sorry, Dominic. I never wanted you to know. I never wanted you to think—” Her voice strengthened. “I chose you. You’re my son, my first child.”
And if Zel went off to face the man who’d fathered him, he might not be able to control his anger. He might not come back.
Devi tightened her hand until her nails dug into Zel’s skin. “You can’t go,” she whispered. “Hailey can’t handle things right now. They need you here. But I—”
“No!” A snarl, barely human, and Zel’s hands locked around Devi’s arms hard enough to bruise as his tablet clattered to the floor. “You’re not going out there.”
“They’re mine too, Zel. My people, Tanner and Juliet. I can’t stay here.”
“Don’t test me, woman. I will lock you up.”
A cold shiver took her, and she stared up at him. He meant it, that much was easy to see. He’d hold her here—under lock and key, if necessary—to keep her from leaving Rochester. “You can’t keep me here.”
Zel didn’t look away as he raised his voice. “Lorenzo! Get your ass out here.”
Devi tugged back, but he held firm. Her cheeks flamed as her temper rose, but she kept a tight rein on it. “All right. Let’s go discuss this like rational adults.”
Lorenzo ducked his head out into the hallway. “What do you need?”
Zel kicked his fallen tablet in the other man’s direction. “Ask my mother. You’re in charge of Rochester until Hailey gets back on her feet. Devi and I have to go have a little chat.”
Chat. Such an innocuous word for an exchange that would undoubtedly include screaming. Devi jerked her arms free and avoided his gaze as she stomped toward the stairs.
Chapter Eighteen
He could have picked a nice, placid woman. He could have picked one with the sense to recognize a trap and the self-preservation to stay the hell out of it.
He could have picked someone without such a vast repertoire of curses so blistering they made his ears burn.
Zel strapped a knife to his thigh and glanced up at Devi, who had subsided into icy silence. “You’re a liability because you make me stupid.”
“Can’t blame that on me,” she retorted. “I’m sure you had your moments before we ever met.”
“And you’re having one now. What in hell do you think you’re going to accomplish in a camp full of demons? You’re just another hostage, and the bastard’s still got one good eye. That should be enough to tell that hurting you would hurt me.”
Her eyes flashed, and she stalked toward him, only stopping when her face was inches from his. “That’s my crew, Zel. Those are my friends. Hate it all you want, but don’t fucking tell me I can’t go.”
His body throbbed, confused by conflicting instincts. Fight, fuck—he didn’t know if he should scream at her as a fool or throw her against the wall and cover her mouth with his. “Don’t do this to me,” he whispered, clenching his eyes shut. “Don’t make me fight you and him and myself all at once.”
“I can’t stay here. Please understand.” She cupped his face, her hands gentle on his skin. “It’s not just them, it’s you too. I can’t let you walk into a situation like that alone.”
She wouldn’t stay behind. He had no right to hold her, and at any other time he might have been able to reconcile logic and instinct. Maybe if what they had wasn’t so new, so fragile that it felt like it might shatter if handled too roughly. They hadn’t had time to build a partnership, and if he went out to face the man who’d fathered him half-cocked and wild with protective rage, they never would. He’d end up dead, or she would, and the latter possibility was what forced him to reach up and grasp her wrists.
He hardened his heart against her as he drew her hands from his cheeks and stepped back. “Fine. I can’t go into a fight with a lover at my back, and you can’t stay here. It’s your choice.”
She stared at him, stricken. Unmoving. “Zel.”
Ice. He was ice. His heart, his eyes, everything had to be cold, so very cold, because he knew what she’d choose. He wouldn’t want her so desperately if she were the kind of woman who’d buckle, who’d abandon friends for the pleasure of a hot body.
Not hot now. Cold. She’d come with him, and the only way to keep her safe was to convince himself and the demon trapped inside that she was nothing to him. Not his to protect, to cherish and hold. Not his at all. “You and your people will be welcome in Rochester whenever you choose. I’ll have them assign you your own set of rooms when you get back.”
Her eyes grew bright and her jaw clenched, and it took her a long time to break the silence. “When do we leave for the demon camp?”
It was a hoarse whisper, weighted heavily with sadness and loss, and he hated knowing that he’d hurt her almost as much as he’d destroyed himself. “As soon as you pick a gun.”
Devi reached past him for a .45 caliber with a laser sighting system. “This one.” She checked and loaded it quickly, handling the considerable weight with practiced ease.
Just another soldier. Zel turned his back on her and studied the row of guns blindly. “Do you need to send a message to Cache?”
“No.” He heard the buckle of a gun belt. “I don’t want her trying to talk me out of going.”
If only she could. “Lorenzo will take care of her if anything happens to you.”
“Thank you.” The words were wooden, automatic.
“I’m going to trade myself for the prisoners. If they accept the trade, you get into that truck and you get everyone back to town. And if anyone lets my mother step outside the walls of this compound, I’ll cut their heart out.”
She landed a solid punch to his shoulder, then cursed and hit him again. “You’re out of your fucking mind.”
Zel caught her wrist and jerked her so hard she stumbled and slammed into him. “There’s a demon clan camped outside my city walls, sweetheart. Did you think we were going to shoot our way through and mount a daring rescue? I can’t leave Rochester unprotected. It’s just you and me. If I’m on my own, I might be able to escape later, but not if I have to worry about you and your people. So you will get in that fucking truck and drive them home, or I’m locking you in this vault.”
“It’s not a plan, it’s a reaction,” she ground between clenched teeth. “You think losing you isn’t going to kill your mother? We may as well take her with us.”
“There is no smart plan,” Zel snapped, driving the words home like weapons. “Demons don’t bluff. They’ll start cutting pieces off Tanner in two hours. Ruiz they might keep around and try to breed, but they’ll pop her first. My men and women will
be hunted for sport. The only advantage we have is me, so I’ll use it.”
“Demons don’t bluff?” she repeated, incredulous. “Until five minutes ago, you didn’t know this guy was your father, didn’t even know he existed. You don’t have any idea what he wants with you or me, so how can you say what he’ll do if he doesn’t get it?”
“I can’t, and that’s why you shouldn’t come with me. Maybe this will work. It’s worth the risk for me, because I’m hard to kill and trained to fight.” The words were the right ones, but he knew them for a lie. Underneath the need to rescue their people lay a dark, dangerous need to confront the man who’d given him life.
Her hand fell to the gun now strapped to her hip, an unconscious gesture that nonetheless betrayed her trembling. “I’m trained too. Together, we can come up with a plan.”
He melted in the face of her bravery, her unwavering courage, and he knew in that moment that no little tricks of self-deception would hide the truth of his feelings for her. Not from her, not from himself…
Not from the demons camped outside their walls.
Desperation gave his tone a vicious edge as he sliced open his heart by lashing out at her. “Your training is a joke if you’re shaking. Are you so damn proud that you’ll risk their lives because you can’t accept there’s something you can’t do?”
Anger sparked in her eyes, but it wasn’t strong enough to drive away the hurt. “What I can’t accept is giving up.”
Blood pounded through his veins and helpless frustration found focus in lust, in the terrifying, unbearable urge to tighten his grip and take her. On the floor or, even better, against the vault wall, with her strong legs around his hips and her voice breaking on his name as he fucked her over the edge of sanity.
He couldn’t. But he could kiss her, and he did, crashing his mouth against hers in a reckless, brutal meeting. She stiffened for a moment and then moaned something against his lips. Her tongue found his, and her hands braced on his chest.
