by Trina M. Lee
When he held the bottle out for me to take, I held both hands up in refusal. “No thanks. I’m good. You enjoy it.” I walked to the burnt-out remains of his living room.
To my flabbergasted wonder Shya finished off the bottle entirely and tossed it into the sink without looking. When he turned to me, remembrance settled over his face. “You’ll have to excuse the mess. It appears that I’ve lost my mind.” Shya waved a hand to indicate the rubble. His gaze strayed out the window to the backyard. “Oh, there it goes. No bother. I’m sure it will be back.”
Oh dear God, what had I gotten myself into? A crazy demon would be of no use to anyone. Maybe not even Lilah.
“Shya? Are you feeling ok? You seem a little…” Crazy? Insane? Fucked up?
“You bear an immortal mark of protection.” He changed the subject in a way that indicated he hadn’t even really heard what I’d said. “I never thought the day would come when Falon loved again. What did you do to him, succubus?”
“Wow, rude,” I quipped, trying to feel him out. No idea of his true mental state, I struggled to find the right words. “I’m not here to explain myself. I came to talk about Lilah. Are you capable of that?”
Focusing on the true matter at hand, I pretended I never heard what he’d just said about Falon. Instead I tuned into Shya without getting too invasive. His energy seemed scattered, as did his thoughts.
Though I braced for another random attack at the mention of her name, he pressed his fingertips together and calmly considered my request. “What about that vile serpent queen?” Yes, hatred for Lilah was a better sign than anything warm and fuzzy.
My face carefully neutral I kept a watchful eye on Shya as he made his way about the room, examining the destruction with a raised brow, like the demon couldn’t recall trashing the place. “She’s free. Salem went dark, and the two of them have run amok, trying to find a way to get back into her empire.” I paused to ensure that I still had Shya’s attention. When he glanced back at me over a shoulder, I continued. “She’s been having some trouble with that. She seems to think you can help. Any idea why that might be?”
Fooling a demon like this one proved harder than some might think. “She needs me,” he chuckled to himself. “Selfish heathen finally needs me after all this time.”
“Why does she need you?” I prodded, uncomfortable with the wicked glint in his eyes.
Tracing a finger through the soot on the fireplace mantle, Shya brandished the grin of the mad. “It was my idea to protect her kingdom by locking it away in her absence. We were on the run together, aware we had little time before Salem caught up to us. We planned to trap Salem, then Lilah and I would rule together. Of course, it didn’t happen that way.”
Because Lilah had never planned to share her power. She’d dangled that carrot to get Shya to help her. Had she ever really loved him at all?
“So she thinks that if anyone can help her get back inside, it’s you,” I filled in. “But the key was forged with twin-flame power, and it was destroyed that way too. Why does she think you can help? It’s not like you were able to get in before.”
Shya tapped his lip, leaving a soot stain. Like an afterthought he carelessly wiped the hand on a sleeve. “I don’t think she plans to break a lock that has no key. She’d blow open a whole new door. Something that involves magical loopholes, which I excel in.”
The demon seemed especially proud of himself. A moment later his face fell, like he just realized that, after loving Lilah for centuries, she still only cared about what he could do for her.
One of Salem’s memories surfaced, called forward as a revelation. Lilah begged Salem not to turn the shackled Shya into a human. “Salem, please, I need him.” Those were the words she’d used. She had not claimed to love Shya. Only to need him. The two were not the same.
For the first time in pretty much ever, I felt sympathy for the demon who’d cursed me. Who’d tormented and threatened me. He was a pawn to Lilah. A tool she only acknowledged when she needed to use it. His feelings were nothing to her but a way to get whatever she wanted from him whenever she wanted it.
Shya knew that too.
“I’m here to give you a chance to take her down,” I said gently, concerned by the vacant way he stared out the window. “To keep her from getting what she wants. If you were going to stop Lilah from getting back into her empire, how would you do it?”
Not three seconds passed before his head snapped in my direction. “I would use you.”
Shya burst into motion, shoving toward me. I took an involuntary step backward, but my heel struck an obstacle. Black wings flared wide behind him, Shya pasted me against the side of a broken bookshelf.
“Yes, I would use you.” His red gaze darted about my face with that malevolent glee I’d come to associate with him. “The key died with you. The empire is bound to you. That’s the only way in now. You.”
Alarmed at the truth that rang in his words, I lashed out, ready to defend myself. When he raised a hand, power darted from me to Shya, slamming him against the big picture window. “Don’t fucking touch me.”
Shock and awe blossomed on Shya’s face. He picked himself up, never taking his eyes off me. “How did you do it? How did you restore your flame?”
Oh, that’s right. I’d changed a lot since our last visit. “I faced death a second time and lived to tell the tale,” I answered honestly, wanting him to know. “Fulfilling our destiny to destruct was what saved us.”
Shya marveled at me, like it was his first time seeing a unicorn. Although in some ways it was. There was no one else like me. No other twin flame, vampire, or Hound of God who could command light and dark, life and death.
“Fascinating.” Nodding like it all made sense, Shya glanced again toward the window. What was he seeing out there that I wasn’t? “So you’ve been busy becoming a powerhouse in my absence. Lilah must be positively beside herself. She always was threatened by you.”
As much as my ego wanted to accept that compliment, I got the feeling it was time for me to leave. Shya seemed to dangle off the ledge of sanity, coherent but not all there. His certainty that I was now the key to Lilah’s empire terrified me. Did she know that? If not, I had to keep it that way.
“Think about everything she’s done to you,” I suggested, trying to suppress the rising tide of unease. “Think about what you’re willing to do for your freedom. I’ll give you a few days.”
“What? No, you’re not leaving. Not without me.”
Shya’s vicious snarl was my only warning. I never saw him move. He was on me in a flash, hands going for my throat. When I blasted him this time, he was ready for it. He didn’t defend against it though. Instead he took it with a smile.
So I hit him. But he took my punch too.
Blood dripped from his brow. “You’re not leaving me here, Alexa.”
“What are you doing? I came here to strike a deal. What the fuck, Shya?” I slammed my palm against his nose, following with a fist.
He didn’t fight me but he didn’t let go.
We wrestled as I struggled to dislodge him. He continued to find ways to grab onto me every time I did. And I saw then where I’d gone wrong. Gabriel had created a door just for me. So Shya’s plan was to make sure I couldn’t leave without him.
Would that even work? Were passengers allowed? Shya seemed to think so. I couldn’t take that chance.
“Here’s the deal.” With my next blow, Shya’s head snapped hard to the side, and he chuckled. “You’re going to take me out of here with you. I will help with Lilah, and as soon as she’s no longer a threat, you will hand control of her empire over to me.”
Shit, that was so not the deal. Like a maniac he entangled his hands in my hair, grabbing at anything he could to ensure I couldn’t escape him.
“I can’t do that. I’m offering you freedom. Freedom and a truce. You leave me alone and I leave you alone. Nothing else.” With clawed fingertips I tried to pry his hands off me, but the demon didn’t car
e if I slashed him bloody.
What did it matter to him? He’d just heal anyway.
Magic attacks were just as pointless. He’d keep coming at me until I wore myself out. If I arrived back at home at sunset, with a demon in tow and Lilah on the loose, I’d have royally fucked myself over.
So I stopped struggling. Like two children frozen mid-fight, we stood in the remains of his living room and glared into one another’s faces. With his hands buried deep into my hair, we were just inches apart.
“Are you kidding me right now?” I snapped, baring wolf fangs. A far cry from dragon fangs, but I was pissed. “Let go of me, Shya.”
“Not until you agree to my terms. Freedom isn’t enough. It’s nothing without power.” Shya’s reptilian pupils dilated dangerously, sending chills down my spine. That cold, calculating stare became almost hypnotic.
The worst part of Shya’s claim was that I agreed. Still, a shared need for power didn’t make us allies, friends, or anything really.
I’d expected a lot of things when I entered the stone. This crazed demon latching onto me like a literal lifeline had not been one of them.
“Freedom is a good place to start,” I offered.
A quick analysis of my options revealed I didn’t have many: If I tried to leave and he actually managed to make it out with me, any hope of a deal would be dead. Fighting him off wasn’t going so well. Just one thing remained to try. One horrible, terrible thing.
I could seduce him.
“We can help each other,” Shya insisted, gripping my hair tighter until I squeaked out a small yelp. “We’ve always been able to help each other, Alexa. It’s what I’ve been trying to make you see all along. There’s no reason we can’t scratch one another’s backs. That is the term, I believe. Isn’t it?”
I willed the succubus side of me to take over, to push back the defensive wolf and make this demon my bitch. Like hot lava the heady erotic force filled me and spilled out all over Shya.
“Is it just your back you need scratched?” I taunted in a low husky tone. Gagging on the inside, I forced myself to take advantage of Shya’s closeness and bring us within kissing distance.
The only time I had ever successfully seduced Shya, I had impersonated Lilah. I didn’t see it being so easy this time. Unless the loneliness of this place had softened him.
Shya’s grin broadened frightfully close to my face, revealing sharp fangs this time, a double set on the top and the bottom. The dragon peered out at me.
I trembled. Never had his mask slipped. Never had he so easily let me see inside him. Aside from the night I’d died, when he’d tried to stop me from taking Lilah’s key with me, Shya had kept his inner beast well hidden. Other than those slit-pupiled eyes of course.
No doubt he’d been here too long. Gone too fucking crazy. That had been poor planning on my part. I had failed to put a contingency plan in place for such a scenario. One I should have anticipated.
“You think you have what it takes to please a dragon, Alexa? I sincerely doubt you’ve got it in you.” Sly as the devil himself, Shya’s tongue darted out to drive me back. His forked tongue. When I refused to be moved, he brazenly licked the side of my face.
Could one shudder only on the inside? I didn’t think so. If it didn’t come out in my body language, it certainly showed in my eyes. Shya’s trademark vicious amusement flickered over his face, confirming it.
“You might be surprised,” I said, sounding much braver than I felt. “Let me show you.” Oh man, I wanted to vomit. If I couldn’t sell this it would never work.
I had to be the world’s worst actress. Because I couldn’t bring myself to kiss him, I reached to touch him instead. The thrall always worked best hands on. Shya seemed to know that too. He caught my wrist in a vice-like grip, threatening to break bones.
“I wouldn’t touch you if you were the last woman in existence. The thought alone makes me want to castrate myself. Not only are you beneath me, but do you really think I’d lay with any woman that Falon has defiled?”
My smirk bloomed before I could suppress it. “Sorry to disappoint you but he defiled Lilah too. Several times. Or maybe that was the other way around.” He had that emotional kick in the crotch coming.
With a guttural growl Shya used his hold on both my hair and my wrist to back me up against the picture window. “You never should have come back.”
That was one thing we both agreed on.
A strange, niggling sensation in my middle stopped the retort on the tip of my tongue. Something wasn’t right. The mist started to roll in, the foggy highway sensation, and I realized what was happening. The guys were pulling me back, and there was no fighting it. I couldn’t tell them to stop or warn them about Shya’s intent to hijack a ride out of his prison.
Once Shya realized I was about to be jerked from the stone, he held on that much harder. But he didn’t merely hold on, because I wasn’t really physically there. He wound himself to me, his essence to mine. Like a possession. The black magic he used choked me. I couldn’t even scream.
No amount of struggling could dislodge him. Because one on one, a disembodied vaewolf simply wasn’t a match for an immortal dragon. When the mist surrounded us completely and Shya still held on, I knew it was too late. I had walked right in there and given him an exit.
Drawing on everything in me, I fought to stop the twisting of our auras, using my light to combat his dark. It worked. For a moment.
The mist stopped moving. A sudden explosion of light both blinded and deafened me.
When I came back to myself I was on my couch, surrounded by my guys. The remains of the shattered stone littered the floor. And Shya was gone.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
FALON
My eyes snapped open at the first hint of a demon triggering the mark Alexa carried. Motherfucker. What the flying shit was that wolf up to?
I sat up in bed, stretching my wings with a curse. Odd. It was still daylight on her side of the veil. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I wondered if my paranoia was getting the better of me. Surely I’d dreamed it.
No, I knew that sensation, knew what I felt. After a moment I realized there was only one way Alexa could be face to face with a demon at this moment. Only one stupid as fuck way.
And she’d be dumb enough to do it too. Idiot wolf.
She went into that goddamn stone.
Surely Arys didn’t let her go back in there? So did she do it on the sly? Either way she had to have had help. My money was on Gabriel. Devilish little sorcerer.
Throwing the blanket aside, I got out of bed muttering choice curse words at that fool wolf. If only she could hear me. With a few hours before sundown, I was stuck waiting. Wondering.
Fuck I hated wondering.
A day of fitful rest had left me healed but not without some lingering soreness in my wing. That too would heal relatively fast, but I couldn’t afford a vulnerability. Any vulnerability.
A hot shower and a change of clothes took all of ten minutes. Too much time left to kill. With a scowl at my reflection in the mirror, I decided the best way to drown my thoughts was to head to my favorite gin joint and drink. It was that or sit here driving myself crazy imagining what kind of trouble that halfwit had gotten herself into now.
Why would she seek out Shya? What could she possibly hope to gain from that?
I was still asking myself that when I sidled up to the bar at Sanctuary, a halfway decent place with the best liquor this side of the veil. Unfortunately, it wasn’t exactly a well-kept secret. Popular among the immortal elite, there was no shortage of power-hungry types seeking opportunities and egomaniacs striking shady deals over drinks.
Sanctuary had a dark glam vibe going, like a dark-side Vegas hangout, minus the garish lights. No electricity this side of the line, illuminated only by magic and firelight. But for a place in the underworld, Sanctuary was relatively brightly lit. Nobody came here to hide but to be seen.
Which is why I took a seat at the end of th
e bar with my back to the room. A loud and clear message that I wanted to be left alone. A message that went ignored by the demon princess who slid onto the barstool next to me.
“Just trying to enjoy a drink alone, Nyx.” I finished the harsh whiskey in my glass before shoving it down the bar and signaling the bartender for another.
“You’re in a mood,” she observed coolly, stirring her drink with the tip of a pinky before sucking it into her mouth. The gorgeous redhead knew how to make that one action a complete and total seduction. She was a succubus after all. Turning up the volume on her sensual pout, Nyx nudged me with her arm. “Haven’t seen you around for a while.”
“Haven’t really had much reason to drop in. Been busy.” I gave her a brief once over, lingering on the inviting swell of her cleavage, waiting to feel something. A rush of blood to my dick. Even a fucking twitch. But there was nothing. Not for her.
Nyx noted my ogling and turned in her seat to offer me a better view. The bartender returned with my drink and leaned in to take her order. He took a long, lingering look, entranced by her succubus wiles. She snapped her fingers, and he jerked into motion, rushing to fetch her drink.
“With your vampire queen?” she taunted with a snicker. “That’s what they call her, right?”
I slammed back the entire drink in one go and gestured for two more when the bartender brought Nyx’s bubbly champagne. “They call her a lot of things.”
Short answers. Clipped responses. Nyx seemed to enjoy the idea of a challenge because she wasn’t taking the hint. “What do you call her?” With a sly smile she lifted her fancy crystal glass to her bright red lips and took a dainty sip.
The crafty demon thought she had me there. She didn’t know shit. “None of your damn business.”
Nyx laughed into her glass. “Well it sure doesn’t sound like she’s fucking you right. You were always all smiles after we were together.”
