by Misty Evans
Such a dark place. A place I never wanted to go again.
Above all, though, I was a vengeance demon and justice had to be served. I’d released my demon on her and repaid her for many, many wrongs.
Raising my gaze, I met Rad’s with it. “I made her feel all the pain and despair she’d dished out on the rest of us all those years. She died screaming and begging me for forgiveness. But forgiveness wasn’t mine to grant.”
We sat that way for a long minute, staring at each other, the outside noise of the sleet and Cole’s ministrations fading into the background.
Rad’s gaze was heavy, weighted. Was he reevaluating me? “I didn’t know you were alive until I came to America. I was shocked and relieved and…”
The heater was pumping out more hot air than I needed. Sweat broke out along my hairline. I released the hold I had on my magic and let it dissipate. “And what? You couldn’t pick up the phone and call?”
“No. I couldn’t.”
“Why not?”
The driver’s side door opened and Cole flung himself into the seat, slamming it quickly behind him. His brown hair was plastered against his head. “God’s balls, it’s fucking cold out there.”
Talk time was over and Rad seemed relieved. I slouched down in the seat and closed my eyes. My head pounded again and my throat was tight with unshed tears. “Take me home, Cole. Wake me when we get there.”
Cole put the Land Rover in drive, and beside me, Rad blew out a long-suffering sigh. Tough. He still had some explaining to do, but really, what did it matter? He was marked as a Noctifector. He may have been forced into it, but he’d had to prove himself to get that tattoo between his shoulder blades. And that meant he’d hunted and killed demons and other supernaturals without distinguishing good from bad.
Demons like me and my family.
As ice and sleet crunched under the Land Rover’s tires, I let a tear escape down my cheek.
Chapter Thirty-nine
I woke sometime later, sprawled out across the backseat, warm and fairly comfortable considering I wasn’t at home in bed and my head was in Rad’s lap. Facing his crotch.
One of his arms was slung over my shoulder, a hand resting against my back. The other hand was buried in my hair at the top of my head. He’d removed his coat and made a pillow for me.
A soft snore expanded his chest. I thought about what he’d told me. About the Noctifectors kidnapping him, telling him I was dead. Torturing him until he agreed to become one of them. My face heated with shame for giving him such a hard time.
I’d built a solid, impenetrable wall around my heart. It wasn’t easy letting it down or admitting maybe I was being stubborn not to trust Rad again.
Why hadn’t he come to me, though, after he’d found out I was still alive? Why hadn’t he contacted me in some form until now?
All the years I’d thought he was dead, my heart in shreds, and then the more recent years, knowing he was alive, but thinking his love had been a farce…my heart had shredded all over again.
Now it squeezed off kilter, sending that familiar pain flooding my chest. Just like his song said, so many wrongs.
I eased out of his hands and sat up, wanting to say I was sorry, although I wasn’t sure for what. For not saving him from the Noctifectors? For not contacting him after I realized he was alive? For not believing he wasn’t out to kill me and every other demon on the planet?
He continued to sleep like the dead, head thrown back and tilted toward the door, the cords in his neck fully exposed. I’d never really looked at his neck before, but now I did. It was a sturdy neck, tan and virile. If I’d been a vamp, I’d have wanted to sink my teeth into it.
As a demon, I still had the urge just because he was so human. So alive.
And this might be our last day on Earth together.
We’d left the ice storm behind. Viscous clouds still hung in the sky, making the afternoon seem more like twilight. The Land Rover ate up the interstate miles and we passed a highway sign that said Rush Medical Center was a few miles away.
Dread mixed with relief in my gut. I was home, but for how long?
I climbed into the front seat next to Cole. He kept his eyes on the road and his voice low. “You and Guitar Boy have a heart-to-heart?”
Normally, I would have told him it was none of his business. Instead I just nodded.
“You all cozy again?”
“Why? You jealous?”
“Just wanna know where things stand.”
If only I knew. “How’s your neck?”
He rubbed a hand around it, shrugged. “Never had my neck broken before. Everything else on my body, but not that. Weird feeling.”
“Try having the plague. Not exactly a walk in the park.”
Traffic grew heavier. Cole took an off ramp. “Institute or your place?”
“I get a choice?”
He flicked his gaze to me and there was something leaden in his eyes. “For now.”
He’d heard enough of Lucifer’s lies to make him question who I was. “I’m just a demon, Cole. Nothing more, nothing less.”
His gaze returned to the road. “Didn’t say you weren’t.”
He might not have said it out loud, but his body language spoke volumes.
Not much I could do about it at the moment. “My place first so I can get cleaned up. Then the Bridge Institute. I’m sure Damon wants a full report in person.”
“Damon wants a lot of things.”
Wasn’t that the truth.
My phone rang, JR’s ringtone loud inside the cabin. Before I could answer, Rad stirred in the backseat. His hair was slightly mussed and he stretched like a large, dangerous cat, meeting my gaze with bedroom eyes. A little thrill went through me.
I squashed the thrill and answered my phone. “Hey, JR. What’s up?”
JR’s voice on a good day is a bit high-pitched. At that moment, it was almost shrill. “Where are you?”
“We’re near Rush. Everything okay?”
“Your blood slave, the witch, is here. She’s clawing and banging on the doors and demanding I let her in. Wants to know where you are.”
I put the phone on speaker so Cole and Rad could hear. “Why does Victoria want to know where I am?”
“Says she’s hungry. Guards ran her off a couple times, but she keeps coming back. What do you want me to do?”
I shuddered at the thought of Victoria drinking my blood. “Anyone else with her?”
“No. Nobody.”
Interesting. Lilith had loosened the leash on the human holding her here. Could be good, could be bad. “Leave Vicky outside, but tell her to hang tight. I’ll be there in about twenty minutes.”
“She’s a freak.”
“A dangerous freak. Don’t let her in, okay?”
“Hurry, will ya? She’s driving me nuts.”
I disconnected and looked back at Rad. He’d run a hand through his hair and it stuck up at odd angles. His neck, though no longer vulnerable, still looked extremely sexy and I bit my lower lip.
His gaze dropped to my lips and instant desire flashed through him. I know because I felt it. He was hungry again, just like Vicky, but it wasn’t only for my blood.
Needing to put some distance between us, I reached for the radio button. Metallica screamed from the speakers and Cole winced. I couldn’t physically get away from Rad in the small confines of the Land Rover, but music at high decibels could work as an invisible barrier.
Early afternoon traffic was thick, but Cole loved the challenge. We arrived in my neighborhood seventeen minutes later, after three near accidents. Rad laughed all the way. Me, I tried not to stroke out.
Vicky paced the parking lot like a caged animal. Her kinky hair stood out in a disarrayed hive around her head. Her long skirt was dirty. The jacket she wore was mis-buttoned and ripped on one elbow. When she saw us pull in, she ran for the car, eyes wide and feral.
I raised my protective magic. She might be human, but she was out of her
mind with blood lust like a vampire, and only my blood would calm the beast inside her.
She reached for my door handle before the car came to a stop. The auto locks were engaged so she couldn’t open it. She smashed a hand against the window, and tried to see past the tinted glass. I exchanged an eye roll with Cole. Out of all the humans to be tied to, why her?
Cole shifted into park, got out and played bodyguard, forcing Vicky away from my door.
“Are you going to feed her?” Rad asked from the backseat, his voice low but piqued with jealousy.
Like I had a choice. “Yes, I’m going to feed her. Do you need to eat again?”
“Need?” He chuckled low in his throat.
The sound raised gooseflesh on my arms. I turned to look at him and saw his eyes, half-lidded and filled with lust. No, he didn’t need more of my blood, but he wanted it. Wanted blood and sex and a hundred other things I couldn’t give him.
I swallowed hard, opened my door and slid out. Leaning back in, I met his gold stare with my brown one. “Wait for me upstairs.”
Chapter Forty
In the kitchen, I slit a wrist and bled into a glass while JR gave me a status update. Nothing had changed while we were gone. No visitors, except for Vicky. Di continued to enjoy herself at the Blackstone. Arman, my werecat blood slave, was still in the wind.
But if Vicky was this strung out, Arman had to show soon. Unless his cheetah side tempered my blood’s call to him.
Blood slaves. So high maintenance.
Vicky’s need was so strong, Cole had to restrain her while my blood dripped into the glass. I’d thought she was freaky before, now she was downright scary.
I thanked JR and sent him back to his tech cave in my office, wrapped a dishtowel around my wrist to stop the bleeding and handed the glass to Vicky. “Where’s Lilith?”
She grasped the glass with both hands but before she could raise it to her lips, I drew it back an inch. “Answer the question.”
Her body shook from head to toe. “I don’t know.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know? Where was she last place you saw her?”
“At a school. Underground.”
That matched Damon’s report. I let Vicky drink for a few seconds, dragged the glass away again. “Why’d she let you come here without her?”
Vicky licked her lips, eyes glued to the blood. “She said she’d follow me here, but she never showed up.”
JR poked his head in. “Kali? We’ve got a visitor in the cemetery.”
“Lilith?”
“Can’t tell. I see movement on the cameras, but there’s so much overgrowth in there and a fuzzy haze all the time. I can’t make out what or who it is. Could be an animal. Could be a person.”
Could be the queen of hell. Unlikely she’d hangout in the boneyard though.
Cole drew out his gun. “Want me to take a look?”
“It’s probably a raccoon or possum. Let’s stay inside and see if it comes to us or leaves on its own. If it’s not out of there in a few minutes, I’ll check it out.”
JR disappeared. I let Vicky drink some more. The shakes began to subside and her body relaxed a bit. “Why do you want Lilith here?” I asked her. “On Earth?”
Her gaze lifted, a quizzical expression in her eyes. “She is my god. Why wouldn’t I?”
“She’ll destroy all of mankind. You and everyone else.”
“She’ll bring us freedom. Lilith is unbound desire, sexual equality, power. She’ll raise women up where we should be and give us control over the world.”
The creativity I so admired in humans often brought about their destruction. Vicky and her followers had been drinking the Lilith-is-a-misunderstood-goddess Kool-Aid and creating a savior in their minds.
But doctrine and religious beliefs were harder to change than converting a Cubs fan to a Sox fan, so I didn’t argue with her. Didn’t bother telling her about the repercussions Lilith’s freedom brought with it.
Before I sent Lilith back to the pit, though, I had to figure out how to get Vicky to stop playing around with demon worship. Like Rad had mentioned, she would do it again, given the chance.
And what could I do about it? There was no way to stop her unless I killed her.
Rad was going to have to wait for his afternoon fix. I grabbed the kitchen phone and dialed Damon.
He answered on the first ring. “Where are you?”
“You need a better opening line. I’m at home.”
“I’ve got something to help you call on the powers of heaven for the exorcism. I found a spell in an old Yezidic text on angels. I’ve translated it and I’m faxing several pages, along with the spell, to you now.”
“Yezidic? Is that some magical language only Archdemons know?”
“It’s an ancient religion in the middle east. I’m also sending you a standard Judeo-Christian prayer for angelic help.”
”You can’t be serious.”
“What will it hurt?” He cleared his throat, lowered his voice. “Kali, if you want me there when you do this, just say the word.”
Facing the enemy and certain death makes you long for your friends and family to gather around you. It lessens the fear somehow. But this was my fight and I wasn’t taking anyone along for the ride. If I failed, Damon and the others would have to rally and continue to fight Lilith however they could.
“I’m good.” Vicky finished my blood and laid her head on the table. I moseyed out of the kitchen and away from her hearing. “You don’t happen to have a super-charged exorcism in any of those books of yours, do you?”
“Actually,” he hesitated. “I wrote a new one, specifically for this occasion. There aren’t many rituals, ancient or modern, that involve sending Lilith back to hell, so I sort of mixed and matched several exorcisms into one.”
The nerd in me thought that was pretty cool. The demon in me didn’t. This wasn’t a science experiment. “Will it work?”
“Probably.”
“Probably?”
“It’s included with the other material in the fax. When are you going to perform it?”
“As soon as my guest arrives.”
“You’re going to do it there? At your house?”
“Cemetery. The portal there will help. I’ve kept a tight hold on all these years, so I’ll have to reverse my magic and open it instead. Just so you know, I’m not sure what might sneak through. You should be prepared.”
“I’ll handle it.” He paused. “Be careful, Kali. I’ll see you at the coronation.”
“See you, Damon.”
But I was pretty sure I wouldn’t.
Chapter Forty-one
Two hours later, Lilith still hadn’t shown up. I’d kept Victoria against her will, finally allowing Cole to give her a love tap on her temple and knock her out when her ranting became too much. Rad tried to coax me into sex upstairs, but once I read all the information Damon sent, my libido went south. Instead, I called Di to say goodbye without really saying goodbye, and also Neve. I told JR he rocked as a tech guru and he looked me in the eye and blushed. Then I called Nudra’s house in my stupid emotional state to talk to Maddy.
Corina answered on the first ring. “Mistress Sweet’s residence. May I help you?”
Mistress Sweet? I sounded like a madam. “It’s Kali. Let me talk to Madison.”
“She’s in the basement. May I take a message?”
“What the hell is she doing down there? She’s not torturing Toel is she?”
“No, mistress. She’s chained up. Master Chase is gone.”
Oh, fuck. “Corina? How did Toel get out?”
“His friends came and released him. They killed the guard that was still here and chained Miss Madison up for befriending you. Oh, and Master Chase told me to give you a message.”
“And what was that?”
“He said to tell you…let me get this right…oh, yes, he said to tell you, ‘you’re dead, dude’.”
That moron. “Is Maddy hurt?”
“Well, go unchain her, Corina.”
“Do you wish to hold while I do that?”
“Yes.”
I paced off the seconds while I waited for Maddy to come to the phone. Finally I heard her bitching out Corina before she grabbed the receiver and started ranting to me about Toel, the douche bag, and what she was going to do to him.
“Maddy, shut up for a second. Is Jimmy dead?”
That took the edge of her hysteria. “Yeah. I’m sorry, Kali.”
I was too. Jimmy had been a good demon and a damn fine soldier. I swallowed my anger. “You hurt?”
“They roughed me up a bit, but I’m already healed from it.”
She was tough. “How fast can you get back to my place?”
Vamps had super speed, even on foot. “I can be there in a few minutes.”
“Good. Lock up the house and tell Corina she is not to let anyone in except me, you or someone from the Bridge Council.”
“Got it.”
We disconnected.
Cole lounged against the doorway. “Did that piece of shit take out my soldier?”
I rocked in my chair. “’Fraid so. I’m sorry.”
Cole clenched his jaw, shook his head. He felt about Jimmy and the other soldiers the way I did about Hone.
“According to Corina, he also threatened to kill me.”
“Ooooh.” Cole made a face. “Bet you’re scared now.”
“He shows at the coronation, I’m staking him flat out. No matter what Damon and the Council do to me, it’ll be worth it to kill that SOB.”
“Gonna be a lot of vamps at that thing tonight. We could take out more than Toel Chase.”
“We could.”
He was giving me that leaden look again. Like he wished we could go back a couple of days and rewrite what had happened. Like he wanted to say goodbye because he knew I wasn’t going to make it the coronation.
“Cole, when this goes down with Lilith, you and Rad and your guards have to be long gone. You know that, right?”
