On top of that, he didn’t seem evil. She’d seen some real evil in her life, and yeah, she supposed he might be pretending, but no one was that good an actor. No one.
She jumped at the knock on her door. Before she had time to answer—or even decide if she wanted to—Keegan walked in, his movements deliberate and his hands visible at his sides. He paused near the door and left it open, clearly doing everything he could not to frighten her further.
“Brynn, we need to talk.”
“About what?” She chuckled humorlessly. “About the demons littering my apartment floor? About your claim that you’re one, too? Or that maybe I’ve gone insane?”
Keegan leaned against the wall. “You’re not crazy.”
“Right.”
“Listen, I know how hard this must be for you.”
“No,” she interrupted, her tone flat, “you don’t.”
“Okay. No, I don’t. But as crazy as it might seem, this is your reality. You have to deal with it. Your life depends on it.”
She shook her head in the vain hope that it would clear her thoughts. “What do you want me to say? Before today, I never knew if I believed in Heaven, and now you’re expecting me to believe in Hell? In demons?”
“No.”
Keegan strode toward her, dropped to one knee in front of her, and she fought the instinct to scoot back. He wasn’t a demon. He couldn’t be.
“No, Brynn. Everything you believe about demons is wrong. A perversion of tidbits of information humans have gleaned throughout the years. Demons aren’t evil creatures from Hell.”
Brynn blinked at him. “They aren’t?”
“There is no Hell. At least not as far as I know.”
She furrowed her brows. “Well then, what are they?”
“Demons are... well they’re a different race. To be specific, they’re a race of beings from a world that exists in another point of space.”
“Um... what?”
“Another dimension, Brynn,” he said gently.
“You actually expect me to believe you’re from another dimension?”
Keegan’s gaze bored into hers, his bluish-green eyes burning with an intensity that spoke to the depth of his emotions. “It’s called Infernum. I was born there, and it’s where I live. I was sent to Earth to stop Mammon.”
Brynn laughed. She had to. If she didn’t, she would cry. Or scream. “You were sent to Earth? So, how are you supposed to have gotten here? Through a tornado?”
“What?”
“You know, like Dorothy? Wizard of Oz?”
Straight-faced, he said, “I’ve never met this wizard.”
“Never mind,” she muttered.
Keegan raised a brow and tilted his head to the side. “There’s a portal to the Otherworlds. It’s guarded by the Elden Council, composed of elders from each of the worlds. The Council allows inter-dimensional travel under given circumstances. It’s how Mammon arrived here on Earth. Me and my brothers, too.”
How could she respond to what he said? It was so insane.
“Okay, let’s say that I buy this. It goes against every belief I’ve ever had, but I can’t deny what I saw back in my apartment, and those things were definitely not human. But”—she inhaled deeply—“you expect me to believe you are one, too?”
“Yes,” he responded, his gaze even. “I do.”
“No. No, you don’t look like they did. You look like a normal person.”
Keegan chuckled. “There are all types of demons, just as there are all types of humans. Some, like me, appear human. Others less so.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“Brynn,” he said, placing his hands on her knees, “I can prove it.”
Her heart stopped for a fraction of a second before resuming its staccato beat in her chest. “How?”
Keegan breathed in and closed his eyes. When he reopened them, their usual bluish-green had been replaced by a deep, fiery red, the color swirling in his eyes like a whirlwind of flames.
“Holy shit,” she cried. She scrambled backward on the bed, away from Keegan, and covered her mouth with her hands.
He shut his eyes, and when they flickered open, they were back to normal. He rose and walked around the side of the bed toward her. “Brynn.”
“No.” She brought her hands up in front of her. “No, wait.”
Keegan froze, expressionless. His tone was gruff when he said, “Don’t fear me.”
“Oh, God.” She rubbed her hands over her face. How quickly her life had morphed into a Stephen King novel. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“Brynn—”
“Just let me think for a moment.” A firestorm of thoughts blazed through her mind before she settled on one thing. “If most of what we know about demons is false, does that mean you aren’t evil?”
Keegan fidgeted, his fingers rubbing absently over the fabric of his dark jeans. How sick was it that even now, she noticed his long, artistic fingers, their flawless masculinity?
“Our culture doesn’t view morality on the same terms as yours,” he said. “My world is much darker, more morally ambiguous. But I will say that there are those who are evil and those who aren’t. Same as your world.”
He had a point. She’d found that out firsthand at the age of eleven, the day she learned about her other power. Humans could be pretty sick, too. Actually, now that she thought about it, maybe those sickos weren’t human. Maybe they were demons. That was something she’d never before had to consider.
She gulped. “My power—how I can drain energy? It doesn’t work on you.”
Keegan nodded. “Because of what I am. I don’t believe your ability works on demons.”
Well, that answered her question. Talk about a cosmic Fuck You. “So wait. Now that I know there are really scary things like demons out there, you’re telling me that the one thing that’s kept me safe all these years doesn’t even work on them?”
He sighed and rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. “I’m sorry that your sense of security was destroyed. Really, I am. But it was false to begin with. You aren’t invincible. There are things out there that can hurt you, that aren’t affected by your abilities.”
The truth of his words seeped into her very core. “I can’t believe this.”
“I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true.”
She gave him a shaky nod. Carefully, she studied him. He appeared so very human, with his lean, muscular physique, the heavy pectorals outlined under his T-shirt, his sculpted face and jaw. Even his eyes seemed normal.
Maybe she didn’t want to know, but she had to ask: “Is this what you really look like?”
“Except for the eyes. Those are glamoured.”
“Glamoured? You mean... magic?”
Keegan chuckled and sat on the bed next to her. “There’s magic in all worlds. Even yours.” He slowly reached forward and took her hands into his, giving them a pointed look. “Is that so difficult to believe, given what you can do?”
She gently pulled her hands out of his. Everything Keegan had told her made sense, in some crazy way. But there were still some things that didn’t add up. “So this guy who’s supposedly after me, this Mammon—”
“Is a demon,” Keegan finished. “What I said about him coming after you is true. He discovered that the Book of the Dead exists, that it really can resurrect the dead.”
Her mouth fell open. “It really can do that?”
“Not only that, but you are the key to the resurrection.”
The key?
“But, how? How could I possibly do that?”
“When your ancestor made the Book, he created it so that only one of his bloodline could work the spell.”
Only one of his bloodline. Ah. “That’s me.”
“That’s you,” Keegan confirmed with a short nod. “In fact, from what the Council can tell, you’re the only one left.”
“I don’t understand. Why does Mammon want to create an army of zombies? That�
��s just insane.”
Keegan laughed, although the sound was humorless. “If he has control of the Book, he can command them. They’d be stronger than humans, stronger than even demons. And they’d follow his bidding.”
Brynn shook her head. “I still don’t understand.”
“Mammon is an avaritia. A greed demon. He desires wealth and power above all, and he’s starting with this world. He won’t rest until every human being is subjugated or eaten, and then he’ll move on to other worlds until, ultimately, they’ve all been destroyed.”
“This is totally crazy,” she murmured.
“But true, nonetheless.”
“How did you get stuck with the duty of going after him?”
“Me and my brothers work for the Elden Council as Detainors. Inter-dimensional bounty hunters, of sorts. It is our job to hunt down and bring violators from Infernum to the Council for punishment. And for now, to protect you.”
God, this was all so fantastical. If only... if only she could trust him.
Wait. There was something she could do.
“Do you have anything old with you, anything from your home world?”
After a long moment, Keegan nodded. He reached under the collar of his shirt and withdrew a thin leather cord that hung around his neck. On it was a talisman made of some sort of metal. “I’ve had this ever since I can remember. I think it was a gift from my mother.” He drew it over his head and handed it to her. “She died when I was a baby.”
She traced the shape with her finger. “A dragon?”
He nodded.
“It’s beautiful.” She closed her hand around it, shut her eyes, and gave herself over to her senses.
A barrage of images and emotions flooded over her, beginning with a woman standing before a wooden crib. Overwhelming love and acceptance flowed from her as she removed the same necklace, and with a teary smile, pressed it into the bedding where an infant slept.
The scene faded, replaced by the image of a little boy, his fear unmistakable as a handsome but frightening man loomed over him, his fists reigning down with punishing force. “I’ll teach you yet, boy. You’re my son. Don’t you ever forget it!”
Another scene replaced the last. The little boy had grown older, and the same man arrived after a long absence, along with a terrified nursemaid who carried a bundle in her arms. The man coldly summoned him forward as he bade the woman to unwrap the bundle. “Meet your new brother, boy. His name is Taeg.”
Yet another scene formed. The frightened boy had grown into a young man. He watched in helpless fury as the same man beat another brother to a bloody pulp. With sudden, blinding determination, he resolved that—even if it was over his dead body—this would never, ever happen to Ronin again.
Brynn let go with a cry, snapping back to present day. Remnants of emotions borrowed from Keegan intermingled with her own. She dimly realized he’d taken her into his arms and now supported her. Throwing her arms around his neck, she gasped as the emotions tore through her. His masculine scent comforted her, making her feel safe and warm.
After some time, Keegan pulled her back. “Are you okay?”
Brynn nodded and spoke around the heavy lump in her throat. “That horrible man I saw was your father, wasn’t he?”
He lowered his gaze, his mouth tight. “And a truly evil demon.”
“Tell me about him.”
He didn’t speak for some time before he let out a deep exhale. “Growing up, my father’s word was law. He always wanted us to be like him, but we weren’t. We tried to be, for a time, but it was pointless. Whenever we did something that he didn’t approve of—which was often—he punished us.”
“But he was hardest on you,” Brynn whispered.
“No. He was hardest on Ronin. Unlike the rest of us, who went to live with my father as infants, Ronin didn’t join us until he was almost ten. He was stubborn and disobedient, so my father constantly tried to beat him into submission. I stepped in whenever I could.”
“You mean you purposely antagonized him to take the heat off your brothers.”
“Yes. But after a while, even that stopped working. That’s when we escaped.”
The depth of his emotions sat like a heavy weight on Brynn’s chest, as well as his despair at not being unable to protect his brothers from their father.
“You were very brave to stand up to him.”
“I should have gotten in between them, should’ve made sure he never touched my brothers. I was a coward. I failed them.”
Brynn placed her fingers under his chin and turned his gaze toward her. “You’re crazy. You didn’t fail them—you protected them, when you were little more than a child yourself.”
He scoffed at her words, clearly not believing them.
“Ask any one of your brothers and I’m sure they’ll tell you the same.” She’d bet his brothers would be horrified to hear him say that he failed them.
Keegan dropped his gaze and swallowed hard. When he looked at her again, his eyes blazed with emotion. “My whole life I’ve resolved that no matter what, I wouldn’t be anything like him.”
“You’re not. You could never be,” Brynn whispered fiercely. She might not have known him long, but after sharing some of his memories, she might understand him better than almost anyone else. Despite his upbringing, or maybe because of it, he was inherently good.
Keegan shook his head. “You don’t know that. You don’t know what I am capable of, or the things I’ve seen and done, and the things I’ve sworn to do.”
The bleak look in his eyes broke her heart. What would it be like to grow up in such a dark, hellish dimension with no mother and an evil, abusive bastard for a father?
Another tide of emotions swept over her, but this time they were sharper, sweeter. They were her feelings for Keegan, and sympathy comprised just one part of them.
“Keegan,” she said.
He opened his eyes. Whatever he saw there must have surprised him, because he sucked in a breath. His gaze grew hot and hungry, the pupils of his eyes darkening as they lost their focus.
Brynn touched his lips. They were firm yet soft, his breath making fiery little puffs against her flesh. “You really do run hot, don’t you?”
He let out a husky laugh. “Demon heat. We clock in at over one hundred degrees.”
More evidence that while he might appear human, he wasn’t. But her body didn’t care what he was. It wanted him so badly she feared she might melt into a puddle of desire. She needed to feel him. To touch him. To taste his lips on hers.
She leaned toward him. “Keegan—”
“Brynn.” With half-lidded eyes, Keegan slowly closed the space between them. But a mere second before their lips touched, he lurched backward.
“What’s wrong?”
He rose and strode across the room, faced the windows, and thumped one with his fist. “Damn it.”
She blinked as the sharp desire she felt for him faded to a dull ache. “What is it?”
“We’ve got too much going on right now. Another layer of complexity would... it would be foolish.” He sighed and pressed his forehead against the glass.
Brynn’s body filled with heat when she realized she’d been soundly shot down. Was he just using their situation as a convenient excuse to let her down easy? Or could he in fact desire her, the way she did him?
Keegan turned and silently walked toward the door.
“Wait,” she said.
He paused, his back still to her.
“I forgot to ask earlier. Back at the apartment, I saw you and Ronin heal. Then, a few minutes later, Taeg and Dagan were fully healed. Can all demons do that?”
Keegan turned around, seeming reluctant to do so. “The demon race is, as a whole, stronger and quicker to heal than the human race. But many of us have unique abilities. While Taeg and Dagan heal quickly on their own, Ronin and I can heal both ourselves and others.”
“So you have each different abilities?”
“It’s
not so surprising, given we have different mothers.”
“Your ability to heal comes from your mother?”
“Yes.”
She opened her mouth to ask another question, but he beat her to it. “Right now there’s something else you need to know.”
The way he said that made her mouth go dry and her heart skip a beat. She tried not to let her trepidation show in her voice. “What is it?”
Keegan fidgeted, then flat-out said the words that would change her life forever.
“Brynn, you’re part demon, too.”
Chapter Nine
“You were what?”
“Overpowered, my Lord,” the frightened demon sniveled, his nervous gaze darting from here to there as if he searched out an escape route. “There were several of them, and very powerful. There was nothing we could do.”
“You could have killed them,” Mammon roared, slamming his fist onto the exquisite wooden coffee table. The force of his blow punched a hole straight through it. He absently wrenched his hand through the mess of splinters.
“I’m sorry. We tried,” the demon whined. He looked plaintively at Leviathos, as if he would save him from Mammon’s wrath. As if he could.
“Damnation.” Mammon rose to stare out the large window. Not even the expansive view of the Nile could calm his temper now. “You say the demons were protecting her?”
“Yes,” he said. “They called for her to retreat into another room before we attacked.”
Well, this changed things. Apparently, the Council members weren’t quite as foolish as he’d thought. They’d somehow managed to locate the girl before he had.
“I’m very disappointed, Leviathos,” he said.
“We did everything we could to locate her, Lord.” Leviathos’s panicked tone mirrored the other demon’s. “It was the scholar. He didn’t act quickly enough.”
Mammon gritted his teeth. The damn scholar. He had been far too slow. Yes, he would pay for this. “Have him tortured for two weeks and then kill him.”
“Yes Mamm—Lord.”
Mammon turned to pace the sitting area of his luxurious Four Seasons suite. “This complicates things. Now we must discover who has taken her, and where.”
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