His Seductive Target (Afterlife, #2)

by Nichole Severn

  Black wings expanded in a heartbeat. The sharp gust of wind knocked her onto her back. She hit the ground, exposed, vulnerable. Her cover hadn’t done a damn bit of good. Pain flared across her shoulder wound. She reached for it, but there was nothing she could do. The infection had gotten worse. Breath knocked from her lungs, she barely had time to move as the demons advanced. Crimson eyes that matched the sky above centered on her and her blood heated. She gone up against Isabel and survived. But two demons and an injury? Doubt took hold of her confidence and held it captive.

  She closed her eyes. Focus. Her heart resonated as fast as a jackhammer. The energy she’d hated the moment she’d discovered she wasn’t human circled deep in her gut. Like something alive. Seconds past. Nothing happened. She relaxed the tension across her ribs and shoulders and exhaled.

  Grayson.

  The wind beating against her skin died. Complete silence engulfed her. Opening her eyes, she locked on the guards converging fast. Unfamiliar energy swirled inside her, rampant, hard to hold onto. She raised a single hand against the demons and stretched her hand wide. Now. A pulse of invisible power slammed the demons back to their posts along the stairs. The energy holding her steady vanished. She collapsed back against the hot ground. Crimson clouds rolled overhead as lightning streaked above her. A wave of exhaustion washed over her, her eyes heavy, body weak. No time to rest.

  Rolling onto her right side, she pushed herself to her feet. Keep going. No time.

  She struggled up the steps, past the unconscious guards, and shouldered her way into the castle’s cavernous anti-chamber. Her boots squeaked on the stone floor, too loud. Columns supported an arched ceiling without end in all directions and threatened to swallow her whole.

  A low, rumbled laugh echoed off the walls and pooled dread at the base of her spine. Nika’s paranoia rocketed to a whole new level. Where was the bastard? The doors shut behind her, the engaging locks cutting off a fast escape. She’d descended into Hell for a demon and she wouldn’t leave without him. “I’m coming, Grayson.”

  Darkness closed in from all sides. She pushed deeper into the fortress. The sound of her footsteps reverberated throughout her veins as though she were half asleep and heightened her body’s automatic jerks to the screams bouncing off the columns. Flames licked up the stone walls the further she walked, but never seemed to burn the fabric draped over them. The cavernous hall led to a long walkway, an immeasurable drop on either side. She focused on the prize at the end and not the trembling in her muscles as she crossed.

  “I’ve been waiting for you, Veranika.” Calm, collected, the man seated within the massive, black onyx chair multiplied the dread humming through her veins. Three piece suit, shined black shoes, pale skin so bright against the backdrop of his throne. The Deceiver. Had to be. His black gaze connected with hers. “Although, I assumed you’d be here sooner considering the stakes. No matter. I’ve waited years for you to show up on my doorstep. What’s another hour or so, right?”

  Suffering, torment, death, and every living being he controlled attacked her mind like a swarm of yellow jackets. Her skin burned, eating her from the inside out. She dropped to her knees, mouth open, but couldn’t force her lungs to work. Her eyes clamped shut as waves of agony flowed down into her nerve endings. She rounded her upper body down against her knees for protection. Didn’t help. Not when the attack had come from the inside. Her bones threatened to snap from the tightness in her muscles. She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think.

  Grayson!

  No. She’d fought Isabel and had killed two demonic bounty hunters. Her heart had been ripped to pieces and she’d survived. She wouldn’t die now. A cooling sensation spread throughout her nerves. Electric pulses shut out the horror, bringing feeling back to her body. As quickly as it’d struck, the pain disappeared. She dropped onto all fours. She stared down into the vastness of the fiery hell below.

  “Grayson was right about you. You’re the strongest Destroyer I’ve come across yet. None of them lasted as long as you during that test. Actually, none of them survived at all.” The Deceiver’s smooth baritone forced a sour taste across her tongue.

  “Is that supposed to be a compliment?” Nika gripped the stone that bit into her knees and palms with spidered fingertips. Sorren had to have Grayson by now. She had to hold on longer. “Because it was pretty pathetic.”

  The Deceiver descended from the snake-carved, onyx throne. His suit, perfectly wrinkle free despite the dry atmosphere, glided over him in a smooth wave. She noted bulky muscle rounding out his movements. He didn’t just have the power to kill her, but had the strength if the fight turned physical. “You are truly one of a kind. No wonder he couldn’t give you up.”

  She straightened one spinal disk as a time and wobbled on her own two feet, but stood steady after a moment. Sweat dripped down her neck beneath her clothing, but she refused to allow her exhaustion to get the best of her. She’d driven herself harder than this on a handful of homicides. She could do this. Her hair whipped into her face as a gust of wind ripped through the hall. The chamber had grown warmer with his approach as though a thousand bodies heated the room. “Where is he?”

  “Bring them to me,” he said over his shoulder, but no one else occupied the room. Them? The Deceiver stopped a mere foot away from her and rocketed her pulse higher. Black eyes studied her from head to toe and nausea simmered low in her stomach. If he didn’t stand for all that was evil, hadn’t used her demon as bait to bring her here, and have a plan to kill her, she might’ve found him attractive. But where this demon used his powers to manipulate and control, hers had protected her. The vast difference between Grayson and the Deceiver solidified her determination. Grayson didn’t belong here. No matter what this bastard had turned him into. He wasn’t anything like the other demons she’d encountered. He was different. He was good.

  The Deceiver brushed his hand down one side of her face. “Yes, I can see exactly why he’s fallen for you.”

  Her gut flipped and she pulled away. The urge to rub his touch off with her jacket consumed her control. Her fingers itched to use her newfound powers against the demon in front of her, but that wasn’t the mission. She was the distraction. Make sure Grayson was safe then get the hell out. After that, she had no idea. Could they even hide from the most powerful evil on earth?

  Movement registered over the Deceiver’s shoulder. Two guards, giant tar-skinned beings like those she’d knocked unconscious at the front gate, led Sorren from the back of the throne. She used her fingernails to puncture the skin of her palm. Damn it. He’d been captured. Had he even gotten to Grayson? The guards stopped short of their master, but refused to back down from their charge.

  The Deceiver maneuvered his body to keep both the Arch-angel and her in sight. “Sorren— if that’s what you’re calling yourself now days—it’s been too long.”

  “Not long enough, traitor,” Sorren said.

  “Still mad at me about what happened to your mate? I’ll tell you, that woman has a mind of her own. Doesn’t even follow my orders anymore. She just took off when I needed her the most.” A smile exposed the Deceiver’s gleaming, straight white teeth. With one strike to the lower neck with the butt of the gun tucked into her jeans, she could put him down faster than it’d take for him to counter attack. Her hands ached for it, but the bastard had been too smart to bring Sorren and Grayson out together. She couldn’t make a move until she set eyes on her demon. “Hence, the bounty on her head.”

  “Speak of the devil and she shall appear,” a familiar feminine voice said from behind.

  Nika spun her attention over her shoulder, taking two steps back. Out of the way. Isabel. The demon responsible for killing her partner and her sister stood several feet back, a large sword in one hand, a smaller, more manageable knife in the other. She’d come prepared. Her body armor gleamed with help from the flames circling the throne room. The same fire spread in her eyes.

  “My loyal servant.” Eyes flashing red, the De
ceiver slid in front of Nika and closed the distance between him and Isabel. He notched his chin higher. As fast as a cobra, he wrapped his hand around the demon’s throat and squeezed as he lifted her off the ground. Isabel dropped her swords and shot her hands to his wrist for leverage, but didn’t struggle. “Did you really come back here thinking I would forgive your betrayal?”

  “Put her down,” Sorren said.

  Energy like nothing Nika had ever experienced slammed against her from behind, but died a single second later. A combination of something she could only describe as light and darkness simmered like an ulcer in her stomach. She rounded her attention over her shoulder. Tendons and muscle strained across Sorren’s upper body. Rage filled his gaze, his expression locked down, the same look that crossed Grayson’s features when she’d been threatened. Her heart broke with understanding. “She’s your mate.”

  The Arch-angel lunged, but the guards at his sides were faster. Wrapping their talons around his arms, they jerked him back into place. A scream of agony ripped from his throat. “Let her go!”

  “This has nothing to do with you, lover.” Barely audible through the vice around her larynx, Isabel’s words didn’t contain half the pleading as her eyes. She gripped the Deceiver’s wrist with both hands. Her talons elongated from her nails as she refocused on her master, but she didn’t fight. The red in her eyes faded. “I need to pay for my crimes.”

  “And you will.” With a strong push, the Deceiver threw the demon backward. Her body rolled several times across the hard stone before going limp. He hovered over his second-in-command with an indecipherable expression and for the first time, Nika feared for Isabel. “Your previous life is fighting to the surface, Isabel, but I’m not going to kill you. Not yet. I hereby banish you to the mortal world for eternity. An immortal in a mortal’s world. Powerless. Useless. And alone.”

  “No!” Isabel screamed.

  The power that radiated off Sorren blazed again, like a solar flare trying to escape the sun. Coldness spread through her system as a cloudy darkness, like Grayson’s shadowy power, bled through every pore in Isabel’s body. Arching upward as though trying to retrieve it, the demon gasped, tears running down the sides of her face. The cloud absorbed into the Deceiver without hesitation and left a pale, gray-eyed, sobbing woman on the floor.

  “Isabel,” Sorren said. “Look at me.”

  The Arch-demon—now human—rolled onto her side, but away from her mate and Nika’s stomach dropped for Sorren.

  Shuffling footsteps focused her attention on another set of the creatures that came around from the back of the throne. And the man between them. Her heart rate slowed as relief coursed through her. Grayson. A smile tugged at one corner of her mouth. Every cell in her body awakened at the sight of him. He was alive. Thank God. She moved to step toward him, but a strong grasp wrapped around her upper arm.

  “You’re not going anywhere.” The Deceiver wrenched her back into him. Her back hit solid muscle. The sick scent of sulfur dove down into her lungs, burning her esophagus and nostrils. She swallowed back the bile that worked up her throat and jerked her arm out of his hold.

  “Get your hands off me.” Her confidence reached an all-time high with Grayson in sight. The guards shoved Grayson a few feet closer, right beside Sorren. His sharp inhale rang in her ears. He cupped both hands against his abdomen, where tendrils of blood seeped between his knuckles. No, no, no, no. She spun into her captor with a thud of her fist against his chest. In vain. “What did you do to him?”

  The Deceiver strengthened his grip around her arm, almost bruising. “He tried to kill me. What was I supposed to do? Let him?”

  “Would’ve helped,” she said.

  “Nika, what are you doing here? I told you not to follow me.” Blood had dried along one side of his sharp jawline, but she couldn’t see any injuries to his face or head. Just the abdominal wound. His jade-green eyes hardened, letting her know he didn’t agree with whatever plan she had in mind. She didn’t give a damn. He was alive. They had a chance to make it out. Together. “Get out of here.”

  No way in hell.

  “I told you. I don’t follow orders well.” Nika shoved her elbow back into the Deceiver’s solar plexus as hard as she could. His hold vanished as he doubled over from the hit and she had her freedom. She lunged for Grayson. If she could take out the guards like she had at the front door… Pain erupted through every nerve ending she owned. She slammed to her knees, the air knocked from her lungs. Blistering heat swept through her mind and shot white streaks of lightning across her vision. Her own power banished the agony without hesitation, but her body failed to respond to her commands. She struggled to lift her chin to see Grayson.

  “Nika!” Hands tied behind his back, he wrestled a blade from the demon holding him and sliced it across the demon’s neck. The ties around his hands fell to the floor and he lunged toward her with fire burning in his eyes. Demonic eyes. A growl ripped from his throat, inhuman, and sent a tremor down her spinal column as she realized how inhuman he was about to get.

  Another wave of pain burned through her system and her body protested in the most violent ways. Muscles strained. Her head pounded. Gripped by the seizure, she recognized Grayson’s boots closing in around the dark spots in her vision. The Deceiver. Had to be him. He kept hold of Nika’s insides with an invisible rope, a single tug on which her entire body could shatter into a million pieces.

  “You’ve betrayed me for the last time, Grayson.” The Deceiver turned on her.

  “No!”

  Grayson’s shriek barely pierced through the haze. Her body rose off the stone floor without her permission. Isabel, Sorren, the guards…all were forgotten as a large gust of wind tore through the chamber. Her hair whipped against her face in stinging beatings. Weightless, she fought against the paralyzing power that held her hostage inside and out, but the darkness had already consumed so much of her. It was eating her alive. Like a plague spreading cell by cell. The darkness twisted and turned through her insides until, any second now, it’d consume her whole.

  “Nika!” Her demon battled against the violent winds to get to her, shielding his face with his forearms as fire spread at his feet. His mortal skin stripped away with each step and revealed the black hide underneath. Seemingly increasing in size, the man she’d risked her life to rescue no longer existed as a wave of wind pushed him back several feet and tore the remaining skin and clothing away from his true nature. Bones and cartilage popped unnaturally and transformed the demon she’d fallen for into something she couldn’t fathom. In Grayson’s place, a monster stood against the swirling tornado. Horns, shaped like a battering ram’s, protected a scaled jawline and a full mouth of black razor teeth. Where tanned skin had covered him, ribs protruded, sharp as blades. The jade-green eyes she’d fallen in love with faded into pitch black.

  “Kill him!” the beast roared.

  Fear surged throughout her as she fought against the Deceiver’s hold. Never in her nightmares had she imagined something so sinister hiding beneath his skin. The monster she’d discovered back at Grayson’s cabin locked its blazing eyes on her. No sign of the FBI agent she’d trusted with her life bled through. Confronted with the beast once again, fear took control. He was dangerous. He’d killed people. Maybe innocents. He was just like Isabel. Just like the Deceiver. “What are you?”

  Chapter Nineteen

  He’d become a monster in her eyes—he saw it written across her perfect features—but that wouldn’t stop him from saving her life.

  Invigorating energy pulsed through his veins. Bone and muscle stung as pure power consumed every inch of his body. Not his. The Destroyer’s. It filled the chamber with high gust winds and pushed him back, but he fought harder. For the first time since his death, he and the beast had the same goal: Nika. It’d given him full control with the protection he needed to fight the bastard determined to rip his life apart. Fully transformed, nothing could stop him from reaching her. Sorren, Isabel, the Deceiver.
None of them mattered. He wouldn’t lose her. His mate. Not now. Not ever.

  The demons that’d kept watch over him latched onto each of his arms. Mere insects. Their grips shattered with bone-crunching blows. Screams echoed as they were caught in the blistering hurricane that tore the throne room apart piece by piece. Debris, bodies, and fire swirled around him in a chaotic dance, but he only had eyes for Nika. Her crystal blue eyes lightened to white as the surrounding tornado whipped her jacket and hair around her. Held off her feet by an invisible hold, she confronted the Deceiver alone. But not for long. Shielding his eyes against the flying debris, Grayson forced his massive legs forward. Ten more feet. Five.

  “Enough of this. I am the god of this world.” The Deceiver’s teeth elongated, collarbones growing wide, legs lengthening. The suit he prized ripped down the center of his back as muscle bubbled beneath his reddening skin. The mortal facade fell away with the remnants of his clothing. Black lines, almost like tattoos, slithered across the bastard’s crimson hide and face. The ground shook as the Deceiver’s true nature popped its neck to the right, then the left. “You have no power over me, Destroyer.”

  In two strides, the Deceiver closed in on his target and wrapped long, black talons around her neck. No! Panic and rage combined in a dangerous flood of adrenaline in Grayson’s veins. Her hands went to the asshole’s wrists to try to break the hold. He lunged, head down. Stone blurred across his vision the faster he ran. Braced for impact, the solid horns atop his head slammed into the Deceiver’s side. His entire body jerked with the collision, but he didn’t stop. Every muscle protested as he shoved the bastard hard.

  Nika dropped to the ground. The violent gusts surrounding them slowed, the fires at his feet drenched. Debris fell from the sky. She was free. Now to finish the job. Talons extended, he dug through the Deceiver’s flesh and bone to keep his prey close. Hit after hit rained down across his back, but the devil’s efforts failed to break his hold. The edge of the eternal drop off glowed bright with molten lava. A few more feet. That was all he needed.