A Demon's Wings: Vice College For Young Demons: Year Three

by Marie Mistry

  I nodded, snuggling closer to Bane. Now that we were out of danger, I reached into him with my odynokinesis, taking his pain and smothering it as best as I could.

  “How did it happen?” Blaze asked from the driver's seat. “I thought the Wraith would be more careful.”

  “The 'Wraith' was,” Aeron snapped. “He was protecting Lilith.”

  I grimaced at the reminder.

  “At least he did something right, then,” Blaze grumbled, and I could feel the grudging respect and sympathy down our bond.

  Nobody said what I was already thinking. If there was nothing in that book Daron was pouring over, the entire thing would have been for nothing. Bane getting injured, the potential to get caught…

  “This was a bad idea,” I mumbled.

  “No, it was bad luck,” Jin corrected, moving closer and wrapping a blanket over me and Bane. “Craven could have been broken out on any other day. Fate chose this one. Don't go beating yourself up for wanting to take the fight to the Syndicate for once.”

  “It was the right move,” Kain insisted.

  The van descended into a kind of uneasy silence, only interrupted by Bane's laboured breathing. It was a special kind of hell, watching my mate grow paler and paler before my eyes. I suddenly wished I'd handled things differently with my Greed mate. I should have settled things properly that night we escaped from Lucinda, not danced around the subject in fear of getting hurt again. I'd known I wasn't still angry at him for weeks but I'd not said anything.

  Now he could die, never knowing that I'd forgiven him.

  Watching Bane die slowly in my place was hurting a lot more than any betrayal ever could.

  My hands fisted every time I heard his breath stutter.

  “Fight it,” I urged him, sending the love I had hidden away from him down the bond. Our link was fractured, so I had no way of knowing if it worked, but I thought I saw the crease between his brows lessen slightly and that gave me hope. I stared at our bond on the psychic plane, willing it to heal so I could tell him I was sorry, just like he'd told me so many times. “If you live through this, I'll wear the necklace with the red roses,” I coaxed.

  “We're here,” Blaze informed me, jolting me out of the trance I'd been in. I felt the car begin to descend and knew we had seconds at most to sort ourselves out.

  I stood faster than before and turned to Aeron. “I'll deal with the rebels. Can you carry him?”

  He raised a brow that told me I didn't need to ask. “He's my brother,” was all he said.

  “Daron, wipe whatever's on those computers and hide the books. I don't want Torin knowing what we were up to.”

  Daron passed Enzo the books and my assassin mate winked at me as he started to fade into the shadow realm. “I'll be watching, Pretty Darling,”

  I looked at the rest of my men, all tired, grubby and yet still ready to take on the rebels if we needed to. “I'll do the talking but, whatever you do, don't let my condition slip.”

  “Their healer might be able to do something for you,” Jin protested.

  “I'll be fine until we get back to Rezinax,” I promised. “Enzo patched me up back in Craven's office anyway.”

  My Sloth mate said nothing but the suspicious glint in his eye told me he didn't believe me. And he was right not to. My headache was back. But I knew it wasn't serious and from experience, I could tell it wouldn't be for another few hours. Bane's condition was much worse.

  The van stopped and I heard the yells from outside.

  Time to face the music. Or, in this case, the swarm of irate rebels.

  I pushed open the door of the van and sauntered out. Uncaring of the thirty guns pointed in my face, I surveyed them all with a calmness that surprised me “The Wraith needs a healer, immediately.” I could hear Aeron climbing out behind me and read the indecision on the rebels' faces as they saw their commander lying wounded in his arms.

  “Sir, orders?” One of them whispered into his wristband.

  There was no answer and we waited in a tense standoff for several minutes. Then, when I was about to demand they just shoot me or get out of my way, a muffled yelling reached me. The doors behind the unshown blew open and a group of people dressed in white wheeled a stretcher through.

  “Oot of t' way! You can shoot 'em later, but me orders are to save his arse!” one of the medics called in the strongest Irish accent I'd ever heard.

  His brogue was so thick that it took a second for me to translate. In that time, he'd barrelled his way through, elbowing gun-wielding rebels out of the way as he went. A trail of nurses followed him, using the path he was clearing to their advantage.

  He was a tall, imposing kind of man, not at all like the icy calm delicacy of Rezinax, but he held himself in the same way. When Aeron laid his brother down with a threatening glare, the Irishman rolled his eyes. “Yeah, and I suppose yer gunna threaten me next? It'll take more'n that t' make me quake in me boots.” He turned his focus to me. “Doctor Eoin McCormix, at yer' service, Lady Carazor. Do nae' worry, Wraith's looked worse 'n this n' I've patched his sorry corpse up. He's a jammy bastard. Come find him when ye've sorted oot this mess, yea? We'll 'ave him up n' walking by t' time you get there.”

  Without waiting for my response, he turned and ordered the entire group back through the doors they'd come through.

  I looked to my left shoulder where Ivory was waiting, eyeing the gunmen before us distrustfully. “Keep an eye on him,” I whispered. “Find me if there's trouble.”

  The imp nodded, with a gravity that seemed odd for his kind, and took off, flying after the retreating medics.

  The mass of guards seemed confused now, their guns half-raised, and mostly pointing at Blaze and Aeron, the most openly dangerous of our group.

  “I'll see Torin now,” I said, as though one of the seven pieces of my heart wasn't fighting for his life. “Are any of you gentlemen going to escort me or am I going to walk myself there?”

  I took five strides towards the door before the men eventually made up their minds and followed me, guns ready, but not shooting.

  “Sir,” one of them whispered into the radio, “She's on the move.”

  “Of course she is.” Torin's exasperated, tinny voice echoed out of the device. “She's got bigger balls than all of you, it seems.”

  I grinned as the man himself pushed through the doors. “Lady Carazor,” he grumbled. “What the hell have you done to my commander?”

  “Don't blame her. It was his own choice,” Jin defended me.

  Torin arched a brow. “The rest of the infamous seven mates, I assume? Strange that I only count five…”

  “Pray that you never meet the seventh,” I muttered. “Because I seriously doubt you'd get along.” The very idea of the gruff rebel leader and my psycho assassin mate gave me shivers. “Now, did you need something? Or can I go and keep watch over my mate?”

  “Funny you should mention it,” he replied dryly. “But I have a favour to ask.” His voice made it clear that he didn't want to be saying the words any more than I wanted to hear them.

  I sighed, looking wistfully at the doors where Bane had disappeared. “What?”

  His jaw locked and unlocked for a few seconds before he answered. “We can discuss it in a briefing room.”

  And so, began one of the quietest walks of my life. I could have sworn I heard the crickets in the farmland above us as we marched in silence behind Torin. It was only once he shut us all into the same briefing room I'd been in before that he swallowed his pride and started to speak.

  “Rutia has heard that you are going to give twenty-year-olds across the continent their showings tomorrow evening,” he said, with contempt dripping from every word. “Before you bolster the ranks of the army the Assembly plans to send after my Resistance, she believes it would give us a tactical advantage to offer the opportunity of a showing to those among the Resistance who are in their awaiting.”

  I swallowed because this change of tone was making me nervous. I had
admired and supported the insistence of the Resistance that unshown were equal to all other demons. This felt like a massive step back. How desperate were they that they were willing to go against their core tenets?

  “You want me to give your people showings? What happened to the Resistance insisting the unshown are equal to all other demons? All your talk of them as the 'eighth caste' and yet you want me to do this?”

  “I don't have to want it to admit it would be useful!” he snapped. “It's a coward's way out, but Hannibal's 'reforms' are causing us a shit-tonne of trouble and having allies who aren't fucking microchipped like dogs would be a bloody good advantage. They've volunteered. Unlike the college brats you turn for your Headmistress, they know the risks.”

  I winced, keeping my voice low to try and calm him down. “I recognise you don't want to ask this of me, but please, stop acting like it's my idea. Every time I've used this particular 'gift,' I've been blackmailed into it.”

  His eyes glinted. “That could be arranged.”

  A blade slid around his throat, pressing delicately against the skin there. “Watch your threats when you talk to my mate, Rebel.” Enzo's growl was so low it made me shiver.

  Torin, to his credit, just growled back. “Fuck off. You think I care about a puny knife?”

  “No, but you do care about the bastard children you had while you were fighting in the States,” Enzo purred. “Annie and Johnny, such a sweet pair. And their mother, still refusing to move over here because of all the instability … Tut-tut, you should know that distance won't deter the determined.”

  Torin's face turned a stunning shade of purple as he turned the air blue with insults. When he'd finally run out of what was—admittedly—an impressive vocabulary, he rolled his eyes. “Call him off.”

  I just rubbed at my eyes. “If you honestly believe he does anything I ask, you're a fool. Now shut up and listen, you growly old bastard.” His face darkened again but Enzo's knife at his throat did a pretty good job of keeping him quiet. “I support the Resistance. I think the way the unshown are treated is horrible and demeaning and I truly believe your hearts are in the right place, so I'll do this for you. But I won't take being insulted and growled at with every move I make. You may be Babette's uncle, but you're also an asshole with enough pride to make my narcissistic mother jealous and more tantrums than a toddler. Stop treating my mates and I as your enemies—yes, that includes Blaze because the past is the past—and ask yourself if an advantage in battle is what you really want.” I sighed, my shoulders slumping. “I don't have the energy or the power to battle both you and the Syndicate. I barely…”

  The world wobbled and I grimaced, grasping the table for support and praying that no one noticed. “I'm tired. I'll sleep in whichever room Bane is in and I'll meet your recruits in the morning. Unless you had anything else to say?” My tone of voice made it clear there better not be anything else.

  “No, Lady Carazor. There is nothing else.” Torin's tone held enough grudging respect for me to forgive his earlier actions.

  There was nothing worse than losing your morals to beat your enemies. In many ways, it must feel more like a defeat for an old soldier like him to ask me to give those people their showings, than being killed in battle would.

  Enzo surprised me by releasing Torin but it would be too simple to just let go and disappear. No, the Assassin moved into full view and gave the Rebel a wink and a one-fingered salute before he faded back to the shadows.

  Ivory returned to my shoulder with a single thought from me and unerringly directed me through the warren of tunnels towards the medical centre. Through the white doors, and past a surprisingly expensive looking setup, I found my Greed mate resting on a bed, looking a thousand times better than he had before.

  “Aye, he's all fixed up. Cannae do nuttin' 'bout that ugly face though,” the doctor said, inviting himself in.

  “Thank you,” I whispered. “He'll be fine? No damage?”

  “Pretty ugly scar, bu' the skin was dead from infection.” The Irishman pulled back the covers to display Bane's naked chest and I smiled when I noticed the full sleeve of tattoos I'd never seen before. How had I not seen him without a shirt in over two years? I frowned, noting the scar that blotted the space below his heart. It was pearly white and old looking, but the knotted skin looked painful and a fresh wave of guilt hit me as I examined it.

  “When will he wake up?” I asked the doctor.

  Dr McCormix shrugged. “When he wakes up.” He tugged at his coat and headed for the door. “Kick his ass outta here when he does. He makes enough trouble as it is without taking up a bed in me ward.”

  I nodded and thanked him, but my focus was on tucking the blanket back over my mate. It was only as I moved to cover up the scar that I noticed the tattoo on his left pectoral. A single blue rose bloomed in the space over his heart, the outline of the petals was formed from a chain of the same tiny word repeated over and over again.

  “Precious,” I murmured as I traced the line lightly. I turned back to Aeron, who was on the other side of the bed. “When did he get this done?”

  He shrugged. “Right after his showing, I think. At the time, I thought it was something to do with that book about the hobbits … It wasn't till after you mated that I remembered my brother hates books and falls asleep in movies.”

  I giggled. “He doesn't sit still very well, does he?”

  “No, he doesn't.” Aeron looked down at Bane on the bed, no doubt thinking what I was: this was the stillest we'd ever seen Bane.

  I sighed and moved over to the chair in the corner. “I'm staying here till he wakes up.”

  “I'll go and find us all some food.” Jin grabbed Kain's arm. “You can help me carry it all up here.”

  Kain just grinned as he was pulled from the room with a wink. “I'm always happy to put my muscles to good use for my Sunshine.”

  Blaze found a spare blanket from somewhere and tucked me in. “As soon as he wakes up, we go back to Vice and get Rezinax to have a look at that headache you're hiding.”

  I was too tired and emotionally worn out to argue. “Spying down the bond again?”

  “It's becoming a necessity with you.” I sighed and he frowned before scooping me up, sitting in the chair with me in his lap and rearranging the blanket over us. “Sleep now,” he ordered.

  “Yes, Sir.”

  He kissed the top of my horn and I smiled, snuggling into his huge, warm chest while keeping my psychic eye on Bane down the mating bond.

  Chapter 30

  I woke to the sound of whispers, but I stubbornly kept my eyes shut for just a few more seconds, hoping—perhaps naïvely—that if I couldn't see my troubles, they would just go away.

  “Not a single hit on any of the names in those books,” Daron was saying. “Every poison the old Prime sold, I can match to a high-profile death.”

  “So, either he sold it and didn't record it…” Kain sounded as tired as I felt.

  “Or he's not our guy.” Jin finished, with a sad yawn.

  “Fuck.” Aeron sounded closer to me than the rest.

  “As ever, you astound me with your ability to communicate in single word sentences,” Enzo muttered, and I swore I could feel the darkness in his tone caress my skin like an angry lover.

  “So, what's the new plan?” Bane sounded as terrible as he'd looked and my eyes flew open to seek him out.

  “You're awake.” It felt like looking at a ghost. The doctor had said he'd be fine but I didn't truly believe it until I met his deep brown eyes with my own.

  I wasn't even fully aware of moving until I was somehow standing at the side of his bed. I hovered for only a second before he pulled me in next to him.

  It only took two seconds of him holding me against his warmth for me to break down. Tears started to run out of the corners of my eyes and I pulled back to glare at him.

  “Don't you ever do something so stupid again!” I knew that the embarrassing tears streaking down my face were ruining a
ny force that I could put behind the words. “Never! Do you hear me?” Bane was just staring, mute. I'd managed to stun him into silence. “I thought you were dead!” I sniffed. “If you die, Bane Krossian, I'll find a necrokinetic and drag you back to life just to kill you myself!”

  Bane looked over my head, presumably searching for advice from his brother.

  “Don't look at me,” Aeron said. “You're the one who's good with words.”

  “I'm … sorry I got hurt?” Bane asked, his hand rising to pat my hair with tentative movements.

  I let my head fall back onto his chest, probably soaking him with my tears, but right then, I didn't give a fuck. “You'd better be.”

  A tiny hand tapped at my shoulder and I looked back to find Onyx hovering there, struggling under the weight of a necklace. I smiled through my tears and held my hair back as he and Ivory carefully slid it around my neck, the tiny terrarium of twelve red roses coming to rest in between my breasts.

  Bane sucked in a breath. “Lilith, I…”

  “Shut up and hug me,” I mumbled, my cheeks burning.

  His arms came around me then, pulling me closer and crushing me to him like he was afraid I was going to disappear.

  Blaze cleared his throat. “There is something I should apologise for,” he began, and I turned my head to look at him along with the rest of my mates. Blaze wasn't focused on us, though. His eyes were fixed on Bane. “I doubted your sincerity and your commitment to our girl. I tested you, penalised you and I'm not too blind to realise I was a total dick about it.”

  Bane started to speak, but Blaze cut him off. “Shut up, will you? I don't apologise often so sit back and listen.” He took a deep breath. “The punishment ends now. You made a stupid mistake but you also came very close to giving your life for our mate, and I don't know what further proof of your loyalty I can ask for. Therefore, her other mates and I have agreed to get rid of the rules.”

  “Not all of them,” Enzo added, quickly. “We're keeping the one that states my treasure is off-limits!”