More daemons poured into the grounds, surrounding the barrier, clawing and punching it.
Behind him, Cass muttered something in Russian.
“You’re doing great, baby,” Daimon murmured softly.
She snapped at him. “Just do something about them!”
Ice shot up on the other side of the barrier, impaling several of the daemons. But where one fell, two more climbed over the body to continue the assault on the barrier.
There were too many.
Marek and Caterina fought as one, working with Calistos to defend the north side of the garden. Valen and Ares moved to his right, to defend the south.
Keras stood his ground in the middle, facing the gatehouse, conducting his shadows, pleasure building inside him as they ripped through the weaker daemons in their pursuit of the larger males.
He grinned as he managed to snag the ankle of one of the demonic brutes, yanked him out of the air and slammed him into the barrier. Bright blue glyphs shimmered across his skin, and light chased over the dome.
“Not helping,” Cass gritted. “I do not think it will hold much long—west. They’re behind us!”
Keras snarled and stepped there, and growled again as Enyo joined him. “I told you to look after my brother and the others.”
His mood only darkened when he caught sight of Marinda hurrying from the house, rushing to join Calistos.
“I am protecting them. You cannot do this alone. There are too many of them.” She drew her blade from the air and lowered it in front of her, rolled her shoulders and narrowed her eyes on the swarm of daemons pouring over the high wall.
She was right, there were too many of them.
It didn’t stop him from fighting.
His shadows shot up from the bushes and paths of the garden and twined around as many of them as he could manage. They screamed as his shadows tightened their hold, squeezing the life from them, turning their skin a sickly shade of grey as they devoured them.
Fed on them.
Made him stronger.
He lashed out again, only this time he didn’t need to summon his shadows on the other side of the barrier.
Because it went down.
In a bright flicker of blue light, it was gone.
Enyo roared a battle cry as she launched into the fray, not missing a beat, her sword swift justice to anyone who tried to cross the line where the barrier had curved around the garden. He focused on the others, tearing through any she left alive and injuring others, weakening them for her to finish off.
Maybe they did stand a chance.
That feeling died as two portals appeared and four huge males stepped out of them, their heavy boots hitting the ground with a thud that he felt as he stared at them. They rolled their necks and shook their heads, and wings grew from their backs as their eyes blazed crimson and horns curled from their foreheads.
“There are more of them?” Enyo flicked him a worried glance.
“Apparently so.” Keras re-evaluated his tactics, launched all his shadows at these newcomers.
Growled when he met with the same result as he had with the others. The moment his shadows struck them, glyphs shimmered over their skin.
Three powerful daemons of this breed and with this protection spell inscribed on them had been troublesome enough.
Seven was a problem.
The sixteen in total he could now sense on the battlefield had him switching tactics again.
Because even he could see when the odds were against him.
Against them.
Esher was still unconscious. Vulnerable. Aiko and Eva were in danger, even with Valen and Ares having fallen back to protect them. He thanked the gods Ares had taken Megan to the Underworld.
He pressed his hand to Enyo’s stomach and forced her back with him, keeping his gaze and his senses fixed on the four daemons advancing on them through the garden, trampling everything in their path.
Anger burned up his blood, born not only of the violation of his territory by these wretches, but from what he needed to do.
He crossed the vermillion bridge and glanced off to his left, past the wing of the house and beyond the zen garden to Marek and Caterina where they fought a group of daemons, battling to reach the smaller building where they had stored the bodies of the wraith and the other furie.
Bodies he had used as bait and now regretted it.
“Stop,” he shouted to Marek.
Marek tossed a female daemon aside and turned to look at him.
Satisfied that his brother and Caterina weren’t in the firing line, Keras launched his shadows at the building, gathering more along the way, pushing himself to the limit and pouring his strength into them and the attack.
The swirling mass of shadows struck the building.
Obliterated it.
When they parted, falling away as quickly as they had engulfed it, all that was left was rubble and scattered pieces of everything it had contained.
A high keening shriek slashed through the cool night air.
Keras’s strength bled from him as Meadow screamed again, her rage a palpable thing as pieces of the building fluttered down from the sky. Enyo caught him, supporting his weight with an arm around his waist and keeping him on his feet.
He looked at the battle and knew what he needed to do.
They couldn’t fight here.
As much as he wanted to end the furie, taking advantage of the pain she was experiencing and using the weakness her rage caused against her, as much as he hated the thought of her side winning any battle, this one was a loss for his side.
He turned towards his brothers where they all continued to fight, struggling to protect their home.
Their loved ones.
“Evacuate. Now!” he bellowed.
Everyone looked at him.
Daimon grabbed Cass, who lunged for a transformed Mister Milos, managing to get a hand on the winged lion a heartbeat before his brother whisked her away.
“Go.” Keras looked at Ares.
Ares nodded and ran for Aiko, bundled her up in his arm and raced for Esher’s room.
Valen and Eva were hot on his heels.
Marek disappeared with Caterina.
“Mari! We have to go!” Cal called and Keras looked for her.
His gaze swept back to the zen garden.
Marinda clashed hard with her furie half-sister, her eyes bright violet, her golden hair falling loose from the braid that arched over the top of her head as she grappled with Meadow. Meadow hissed in her face and smashed a fist into her jaw, sent Marinda staggering backwards.
Cal hit Meadow with a blast of wind that caught her off guard and sent her flying into the wall near the remains of the building where they had stored the bodies.
He ran for Marinda.
Meadow was back on her feet in a flash, a vicious snarl pealing from her lips as she spotted him racing towards Marinda. The sixteen demonic males Keras had sensed in the area dropped from the sky, forming a wall of muscle between Cal and Marinda.
Keras teleported, appearing next to Cal, grabbing his arm and pulling him back just in time. The blade one of the male’s had aimed at him sliced across his chest rather than his neck, ripping a cry from his youngest brother.
Keras twisted with him and slammed his fist into the male’s gut, grimaced as pain shot up his arm and shoved forwards, unleashing his shadows at the same time. His head turned as they burst from him, as they engulfed the male and lashed at the two nearest him.
But failed to hurt them.
On the other side of the wall of daemons, Marinda hissed and attacked Meadow, lost in her furie hungers. She wasn’t going to retreat. Their only hope was reaching her.
Enyo teleported into the fray, appearing on the other side of the daemons. She made it a few steps towards the furie before one of the males tackled her, slamming her into the white gravel.
Keras roared and tossed the daemon his shadows had surrounded aside, hurling him at the one who had
Enyo pinned, sending him flying off her. She scrambled onto her feet and sprinted forwards.
Meadow delivered a punishing blow to Marinda’s face. Marinda cried out as her head whipped to her left, as blood sprayed from her lips, and threw a stricken look at Calistos.
Cal growled as the furie seized hold of her and a portal formed behind her. His brother stepped and lunged for Mari’s hand as she twisted towards him, reaching for him, and Enyo barrelled towards her too.
Keras’s heart seized as he realised she wasn’t aiming for Marinda.
She was aiming for Meadow.
She would be pulled through Meadow’s portal too, captured by his enemy.
A daemon collared Calistos and yanked him backwards just as he was about to grab Marinda’s hand, and his brother unleashed an agonised bellow as Meadow pulled her into the portal.
Keras swept his hand out and his shadows struck at the male holding Calistos, dislodging the daemon and freeing his brother, an attack that cost him as his head turned and his knees gave out. Enyo skidded to a halt on the gravel and pivoted to face him, her jade eyes wide, filled with fear.
Calistos kicked off, reaching for the portal.
Too late.
It closed before his brother could reach it.
Cal turned wild stormy eyes on the remaining daemons and a tornado tore through the garden as he roared, ripping across the zen garden and coming close to striking the house.
Keras grabbed his brother and Enyo and stepped.
Collapsed in a heap on the slate floor of the dark-wood-clad vestibule of the castle in Scotland.
Wind battered the ancient dark stone walls, rattled the arched leaded windows and blew out a few of the panes. Snow whipped against the building and waves lashed the shore of the small rocky island.
“Cal.” Ares hurried to him, sank to his knees and gathered him into his arms, holding him even as he struggled, trying to break free as he growled and snarled, twisting violently in Ares’s arms. “What happened?”
Keras didn’t have the strength to speak and answer that question. Not yet. All he could do was breathe, and focus on maintaining control as darkness curled through his veins, growing stronger by the second, taking advantage of his weakness. He battled it in silence, waging a war he feared he was going to lose as everything that had happened replayed in his mind, as he thought about the mansion and how he had been forced to flee from his own damned stronghold.
“The other furie,” Enyo said, and he was grateful to her for taking command. “Marinda was fighting her and Calistos tried to get through to her, but… she was taken.”
Darkness swamped the room, the tinny scent of magic flooding it. Provoking the darkness within him. He curled his fingers into tight fists as his nails became claws, as the voice within him whispered tempting things about making the witch fight him. She wanted to fight. He wanted it too. Spill blood. Split flesh. Break bone. The hunger to surrender to that need was overwhelming.
“Taken?” Cass snapped, fury lacing that word, black malevolence that poured off her.
Outside, the afternoon grew dark, verging on pitch-black.
Not Cass’s doing.
His.
Enyo’s gaze came to rest on him, a warm caress that chased some of the shadows from his heart and his mind. He couldn’t bring himself to look at her as he fought the darker side of himself, as he denied the urges running unchecked through him, a terrible need for violence that he feared he would turn on her if he so much as glanced at her.
He didn’t want to fight her. He didn’t want to goad her into hitting him. He didn’t want to turn that fight into foreplay, using it to heighten the pleasure he would feel as he sank himself inside her welcoming body again.
She moved a step closer, her presence a light that drove the darkness back, but it still writhed within him, pushing to the surface even as he forced it back down.
He kept his eyes fixed on the witch, refusing to surrender to the darkness, even when other images flashed across his mind, fragmented memories of holding Enyo against him, her back to his front, and his fangs poised against the smooth column of her neck.
Gods, the desire that surged through him stole his breath as he fell into that memory, flooded him with a need to mark her like that, to sink his fangs into her flesh and hold her in place as he took her.
As he claimed her.
He shook his head, dislodging that memory and denying that need, dragging himself back to the present.
For a moment, Keras felt sure Cass would use a spell to return to the mansion, or lash out at his brother. The vicious expression etched on her face slowly faded as she breathed, as her eyes turned from bright silver to ice blue, as Daimon came to her and took hold of her hand. She looked at him, her face crumpling.
“We’ll get Mari back,” Daimon said, belief ringing in his voice.
Keras looked at all his brothers, at their women, and pushed back against the darkness, denying it and clawing himself back towards the light. He mustered his strength and managed to pick himself up off the floor, stood with effort that had his muscles clamping down hard on his bones.
He refused to give in to the weakness rushing through him. Refused to surrender to the darkness or the insidious voice that murmured sweetly in his ear, speaking of his pills.
Because his family needed a leader now more than ever.
They needed hope.
“The enemy need Marinda alive.” He sagged a little, hoped his brothers wouldn’t notice how weak he was and how much of a struggle it was to remain upright as they all looked at him. He pushed the words out. “We will have a chance to get her back.”
He reached for Calistos.
Placed his hand against the back of his head.
Funnelled the compulsion to sleep into him before he could do anything.
Almost followed his brother into the darkness.
Enyo caught him, keeping him upright, lending him her strength.
“Was that really necessary?” Cass looked from Cal to him.
“It was,” Daimon answered her before Keras could gather the energy to do it. “Cal was getting too worked up. There was a danger he might pass out and the gods only know how long he would be asleep if that happened. This way, he can rest while we come up with a plan.”
Valen lifted Esher from the cold stone floor and jerked his head to his left as Aiko glanced at him. “I’ll show you to his room.”
Eva followed them as they disappeared into the small hallway that adjoined the large foyer and banked right.
Ares stood, taking Cal with him, cradling him gently as he looked down at Keras. “You okay?”
Keras nodded. “Get him comfortable.”
“I’ll get the boiler running.” Marek turned away from them, leading Caterina to the hallway and taking a right too, only Keras knew he was heading down into the basement with her rather than up to the first floor. His brother’s deep voice faded into the distance as he said, “You can check on your brother while we’re down here.”
Caterina’s brother had been turned into a wraith, his transformation completed by Eli, the wraith who had been on the enemy’s side. Guillem had pledged his allegiance to that side too, but Marek’s latest reports on Caterina’s efforts to reach her brother and turn him to their side were positive. Guillem had started giving them information.
Showed signs that he wanted to go back to his old life with his sister.
Keras wasn’t sure how much of it was a desperate act to save himself since he had been locked in the basement cells for months now.
He thought about the other source of information they were holding down there. A need to force her to talk in case she knew where the furie might have taken Marinda filled him.
Pain ripped through him and he doubled over as he gasped, as he wrapped his arms around his stomach and gritted his teeth. His stomach twisted violently, hunger swamping him as feelings collided inside him, forming a maelstrom that swept him up in it, had him spinning out of
control just as he had thought he had pulled himself together.
Fear and anger crashed together, blurred with the bitter disappointment of having to withdraw from the Tokyo mansion, the self-loathing of losing a battle. The dark need to bite Enyo and claim her.
He screwed his eyes shut and struggled to breathe as they all rushed through him, rousing a terrible urge to return to the Tokyo mansion and fight.
Cold sweat rolled down his spine beneath his shirt.
His entire body quaked and his breath stuttered.
Shadows whipped around him, moving faster and faster as he spiralled downwards, into the mire of his feelings, drowning in them.
Light breached the darkness.
Her touch whisper soft.
He leaned into that caress as it chased over his right cheek, seeking the warmth of it, the steadiness as his entire world tilted wrong way up and he felt as if he was falling.
“You should not have teleported so many when you were weak.” Her soft chastising words roused the dark beast inside him, had him seething with a need to lash out at her for calling him weak.
He battled it, conquered it and sank into her touch instead, seeking the comfort of it.
She took hold of him, gently pulled him up onto his feet and helped him into an adjoining room. She set him down on the hard antique couch and kneeled before him, stroking her fingers over his brow.
“Is he all right?” Valen’s voice was low, filled with worry that was unlike his brother.
Things had to be bad if Valen’s bravado had slipped, revealing the heart he insisted on hiding from the world.
“He will be.” Enyo feathered her fingers down Keras’s cheek. “He will be.”
He appreciated the conviction in her tone, clawed together the strength it instilled in him, the belief that the emotions bombarding him would pass if he could just hold it together.
He wasn’t going to drown in them.
He didn’t need a pill.
He had pulled himself together a few minutes ago, and he could pull himself together now. A mocking voice inside him asked if he believed that. He didn’t. He did. The suddenness and the strength of the episode had caught him off guard, that was the only reason he was doubting whether he could make it through it. He could.
Keras: Guardians of Hades Series Book 7 Page 24
