Rebel Heart series Box Set

by Trina M. Lee

  “Cinder believes I can do this. So I’m doing it.” Fear made it hard to breathe. My hands shook, and my palms quickly grew moist with nervous perspiration. “If you don’t want to do this, I understand. But I have to.”

  Jett glanced back at Nova who followed at a leisurely pace, clearly without concern. “I know you feel like you have to prove something to yourself, but you don’t. It’s alright to walk away from this. But if you’re staying, then I’m staying.”

  My best friend was friggin’ awesome. I gave her arm a quick squeeze.

  We exited the church only to be shocked by the change in scenery outside its doors. Where the church was a peaceful demon marketplace, the cemetery out back was a demon celebration of all things wicked. Demons were clustered together in various groups partaking in black magic rituals, orgies, and fights among themselves. More than one fire blazed, keeping the place alight.

  Bile rose in my throat when my gaze landed on a demon standing in the center of an upside down pentagram, hands raised to the sky as he chanted. Blood smeared his face like war paint. At his feet lay the crumpled form of a human. From where I stood I couldn’t tell the age or gender, not that it mattered.

  Right away a demon broke away from the throng, making his way to us. Just one? How lucky.

  A mouthful of razor sharp teeth in an otherwise human face made him one of the creepiest things I’d seen in some time. Since we were outside where anything seemed to go, I reached for my fire.

  “Who brought the party favors?” He snickered, pushing in close, his long, forked tongue darting out to come within inches of my face.

  I jerked back out of reach, unable to suppress a shudder. Before I could raise a fiery hand, Nova was there, shoving between me and the demon. He wasn’t there to save us, however, merely to claim us.

  “Back the fuck off.” Nova flung out a hand and hit the demon with a small tornado of wind that thrust him into the wrought iron fence surrounding the cemetery. “These two are mine.”

  Unlike nephilim, demons could manipulate energy on a large scale without the limitations we faced. Like us though, they often excelled at various elemental powers as well. Nova was evidently a possessor of air. That might not be his only element though. I was starting to feel less sure of my decision to take him on.

  “This way.” Expecting us to follow, Nova sauntered away from the center of the action.

  Several others took note of us as we fell into step behind him. Not one of them made a move toward us. Whether it was from Cinder’s seal upon me or Nova’s claim over Jett and I, I couldn’t be sure. Probably a little of both, which meant that Nova was a guy they’d rather not mess with. And here I was about to do just that.

  He led us to a clear spot where the headstones ended. The snow was worn away in places, revealing the dead grass beneath. Where it was still hard packed, it shone with an icy sheen. With the iron fence on one side and headstones on the other, there wasn’t a whole lot of room for a fight. Nova probably didn’t think he needed much.

  He stopped, faced us, and held up a hand with the throwing star clenched between his fingers. “So it’s both of you then?”

  “Got a problem with that?” Jett challenged, her voice heavy with wolf. Her eyes seemed to glow in the firelight.

  “Not at all.” Nova stood there with wings flared, his stance ready. “Alright then ladies. Come and get it.”

  Jett and I exchanged a look. She was so much more wolf than human, right then it made my skin crawl. I’d seen Jett as a wolf before, but it wasn’t a common occurrence. She saved that side of herself for wolf nights out with her pack. Excitement lit up her face in a vicious light. With a nod to me, she waited for me to make the first move.

  Still I felt her impatience driving me to hurry up. I slid the Midnight Star from its sheath on my back. Holding it in one hand, a fireball in the other, I advanced on Nova.

  The fireball exploded at his feet. I followed up with a swing of the sword, gripping it tight with both hands. He avoided the blade with the ease of a simple side step. A flick of his wrist, and the fire receded, leaving little more than a wet puddle where it had melted the snow. If Nova commanded fire as well, this had just gone from crappy to downright shitacular.

  Jett rushed him with both hands up. In a blur of superhuman speed, she landed a kick to his middle before slashing with claws. Blood welled up from a gash on his arm. The wound healed before a drop had hit the ground.

  She didn’t let up. Throwing a fist that he caught, Jett landed hard as he shoved her back. She narrowly missed a broken headstone as she fell.

  I moved in fast, hoping to get in a hit while his focus was still on Jett. The stream of fire I shot toward him was met with a blast of ice.

  “How many damn elements do you have?” I muttered more to myself than to Nova.

  “Only one way to find out.” Hands raised, he beckoned with his fingers in invitation, welcoming another attack.

  With her silver-coated sai in hand, Jett slipped around behind him. Nova turned sideways in an effort to keep an eye on us both. Overthinking every move was a sure way to lose this battle. I needed to let go and let instinct and training guide me. I’d been putting in a lot of time training with Cinder. Time to find out if I was learning anything.

  I jabbed at Nova with the Midnight Star. The way he eyed the blade with a thinly veiled wariness told me that he knew it, which meant he knew it had the power to drive him back to the other side.

  He jerked back out of reach, flinging a hand toward me before turning to Jett. The wind whipped around me, stealing my breath as it forced me away. I hit an icy patch and struggled to regain my footing as I slipped.

  Jett had lunged at Nova with the sai as he’d hit me with the wind. The tip of the middle point pierced his side, ripping an angry cry from him. He whirled on her with wings flared wide. A few beats of those mighty wings and a gale force wind slammed Jett up against a headstone where she scrambled to grab hold of it with her claws while keeping her grip on the sai.

  Smoke seeped from the wound. It didn’t heal as fast as the first one had. Silver’s ability to weaken demonkind was impressive. Unfortunately, their rapid recovery was also impressive.

  Nova didn’t wait for our next attack. He flung a hand in my direction, throwing a psi ball of ice before going after Jett. The ice blast could’ve been crippling in several ways. Lucky for me, my training kicked in, and I deflected it with the blade of the sword, causing it to shatter into shards on the ground.

  “That was a good shot, little beast. A little too good.” Nova spoke with a guttural snarl. He had her pressed against the headstone. Closing the space between them, he traced a finger over the side of her face, chuckling when she snapped fangs at him.

  The air grew hot as he poured on the incubus charm. It was warm and inviting, like the touch of a fireplace on a cold night. It drew me.

  Jett stared up at him, frozen in lusty awe and frightful wonder. Her grip on the sai grew slack, and Nova ripped it from her hand, flinging it aside where it stuck point down in the ground several yards away.

  He was pulling her under fast. Feeling the tug of his strange power, I wasted no time in throwing a fireball at his head. It was blocked by a raised wing, but it had distracted him. Nova left Jett and turned on me with a sneer.

  Feet fixed in place, I held the sword between us, keeping him an arm’s reach away. Nova drove me in a circle, advancing just enough to force me back a few steps. Using small bursts of wind, he pushed me back toward the iron fence.

  I couldn’t let him corner me. He would turn that incubus stare on me, and I’d be done for. Wildly swinging the Midnight Star, I chopped through the air, hoping to land a blow or, at the very least, put some distance between us.

  Careful to avoid the blade, Nova threw three attacks at me in quick succession: fire, air, and ice. With a raised hand I easily took command of the fire and nullified it, but the air blast threw me on the ground. I had just seconds to throw an arm over my face and c
url up into a ball before ice shards rained down.

  Like glass the ice sliced through my skin. I shrieked as cuts opened up on my exposed arm, leg, and side. Nova advanced on me, taking advantage of my downed position. Ignoring the warm sensation of blood seeping from the gashes, I pushed up from the ground, springing to my feet as Cinder had taught me.

  Too late.

  Nova grabbed my sword arm and twisted it, forcing the sword away from him. Unwilling to have another wrist injury, I twisted with him rather than fight. He shook my arm, squeezing my wrist until my fingers opened and the Midnight Star hit the ground.

  Gripping my shoulders, Nova dragged me so close I could feel the warmth of his breath on my face. “That was too easy.”

  Flashing a fang-revealing grin, he ran a hand over my jaw, forcing me to look into his eyes. I struggled, doing all I could to avoid the red abyss. He was going to kiss me. I knew it. No kiss from an incubus was a mere kiss. No, it would be absolute hell.

  Even as I struggled to make my limbs work, they betrayed me. My mind was hitting and kicking, but my body refused to respond. Already it succumbed to his erotic influence, and he had barely touched me.

  The fight went out of me. My will to resist faded as my desire for him grew. Maybe one kiss wouldn’t be so bad.

  There was a growl followed by Nova’s grunt as he was knocked away from me, his incubus spell broken. Jett, a brown blur in wolf form, was on top of him snarling and snapping. She didn’t hold back, sinking fangs wherever she could in the precious few seconds she had before Nova reacted.

  I picked up the Midnight Star, hoping this was my chance to plunge it into the demon. A yelp pierced my ears as Nova flung Jett off with a slap of pure, dark energy. She hit the ground hard and skidded several feet.

  Though I wanted nothing more than to go to her, I had to take every opportunity to nail Nova. But by the time I swung the Midnight Star in a deadly downward arc, he was gone.

  Reappearing behind me, he hit me with a heavy fist that sent the world spinning.

  White noise crashed through my ears as they rang from the unexpected blow. The side of my face where his fist had connected grew hot, somehow both numb and painful at once.

  “Give up yet, Ember?” Nova taunted, once again twirling the throwing star between his fingers. “I can do this all night. You two are looking quite worn out already.”

  Adrenaline kept me from feeling the cold winter temperature, but my fingers were starting to stiffen on the sword handle. How much longer could I keep this up?

  A hateful glower crossed my face. “It’s Spike to you, asshole.”

  Nova’s lips quirked. “You’re a bit of a bad girl, aren’t you? But not bad enough to be dark. Such a shame. You’ve got potential. Although I think being a white lighter is part of your appeal. It makes you forbidden fruit. I bet you taste sweet as sin.”

  “Am I supposed to take that as a compliment?” I scoffed, wary of his intentions.

  “I don’t care how you take it.” He shook his head, black hair spilling over his shoulders. “But you will take it.”

  Unease crawled through me. Though I didn’t dare look away to check out Jett’s situation, I could see in my peripheral vision that she wasn’t moving. My hands grew hot with fire fed by anger. It might not help me against Nova, but at least my hands weren’t cold.

  Seeing my discomfort, Nova saw an opportunity. He sprang. Though I raised the sword, he moved faster. He slammed me up against a tall headstone with a statue of a weeping angel atop it.

  Air forced from my lungs, I gasped painfully for breath. The Midnight Star hung down at my side, trapped by the knee Nova used to pin my forearm against the cold stone. With a hand he pinned my other arm down as well. Son of a bitch. If I could just properly touch him, I would be able to swipe a sample of his power. Turning it back on him might be my only chance at incapacitating him. With my arms trapped between the demon and the headstone, that wasn’t going to happen.

  “You put up a good fight,” Nova said, his gaze sweeping my face before falling to my heaving chest. Despite the hoodie I wore, he looked me over with a disturbing raw hunger. “But not good enough. I’d recommend learning how to balance out your wolf friend’s weaknesses and vice versa. Also, tell Cinder your sword skill needs a lot of work. You’re not ready to go head to head with someone like me. And if his sloppy teaching gets you killed, you never will be.”

  “This isn’t over yet, Nova,” I said between clenched teeth. I didn’t have a clue how I was going to get out of this. All I knew was that I had to believe I would, somehow.

  “No, it’s not,” he agreed with a cryptic grin. “Not until I take what’s mine. We had an agreement after all.”

  “Do you seriously expect me to just stand here and let you violate me?” Somehow I managed to keep my voice calm, though inside I was screaming.

  With his free hand Nova cupped my face, his thumb stroking the edge of my lip. “I hope not. It will be much more satisfying if you put up a fight.”

  I jerked away from his touch. His skin felt too warm, almost hot. Strangely enough, it left chills in its wake. Pinned as I was, the odds of escape were not in my favor. Still, I couldn’t just willingly let him screw with my mind, or anything else for that matter. The thought was so terrifying I couldn’t entertain it.

  My mind raced as I tried to figure a way out of this. Could I get a knee up between us? Would a kick to the nuts have an effect on a demon? Was it possible to call forth my fire and have it engulf my body? Even if I could, in mere seconds he’d take command of it. Shit!

  Nova leaned in close, forcing me to press against the stone in a futile attempt to avoid his touch. Slipping his hand along my braided hair, he breathed in my scent like a hungry animal sniffing out a snack.

  A violent shudder racked me.

  Before I could decide if a kick in the balls would work, a shadow appeared, snaking around Nova’s neck. He was ripped away from me and flung against the wrought iron fence. Arrow stepped into view. I never thought I could be so relieved at the sight of him.

  “You ok?” Arrow didn’t wait for a response before turning on Nova, following up his attack with another.

  Shadows swarmed Nova, cloaking him in a black fog. I searched for Rowen, finding him crouched beside Jett as she got to her feet with a confused shake of her furry head. Satisfied that Jett was alright, Rowen joined his brother.

  Together with light and shadows, they slammed Nova with hit after hit. Slinking along, low to the ground, Jett crept closer to the action, ready to jump in. I swung the sword in a figure eight, slicing through the air as a fire burned in my gut. Nova was giving up that throwing star. I wasn’t leaving without it.

  An explosion of fire burst from Nova. It swept over both brothers, forcing them to retreat or burn. But not me. The flames rolled right over me, leaving me untouched. I stood before the demon with sword held ready, my teeth clenched in anticipation.

  “Well look at you and your tiny nephilim army,” Nova laughed, shoving away from the iron fence. “And it seems we have a traitor in our midst. Four on one? No problem.”

  Eyes blazing, hair whipping wildly in the wind he called, Nova flung out both hands and spun to direct his attack at each of us in turn. He blasted me with an ice-cold wind that roared painfully in my ears. Icy shards pelted the brothers. Arrow was quick to freeze them in place before smacking them to the ground. A fireball meant for Jett missed its mark as she darted out of reach.

  Demons began to gather closer. Though most of them had ignored us, now they were drawn to the fight. Not one of them made an effort to get involved. They just wanted to watch. A few even came out of the church to get a look. I caught sight of the white-haired demoness standing at the top of the back steps.

  Nova had enough staying power to do this all night. We didn’t. I could see how fast this would spiral out of control if we couldn’t put an end to it sooner rather than later. I needed to touch him, to swipe some of his power and turn it against him.
I didn’t see any other way out of this.

  Arrow attempted to freeze Nova in place. It held just long enough for Jett to lunge forward and bury fangs in the demon’s side. I moved forward to slash with the sword, but Nova broke free. He was too powerful to be held immobile for long.

  Together the four of us surrounded the demon. We threw attacks of all kinds. Shadows, light, fire, and fangs. We were keeping him busy and distracted enough that his retaliation was unfocused, but we weren’t beating him down.

  “Arrow,” I shouted. “One more time. Everything you’ve got.”

  It was a long shot, but if anyone had a shot at getting me that precious second I needed, it was Arrow.

  His gaze met mine, and trusting me, he nodded.

  A thick cloud of shadows engulfed Nova from head to toe. I moved in as close as I dared, waiting for that perfect moment, hoping to grab it before it passed me by. Before the shadows could dissipate, Arrow threw both hands up, trying again to freeze the demon.

  Then I moved. In less than two seconds, Nova broke free, but I’d already grabbed hold of his wrist. Power roared from him and raged through my head as I sought what I wanted. It flowed from Nova to me. Ice in my veins, wind in my head, and a hot, sensual sensation down low in my center.

  Nova’s eyes widened as realization took hold. “Thief,” he muttered, jerking free of my grasp.

  “I prefer the term replicant, but thief works just as well.” With my free hand I guided the demonic force, thrusting everything I’d taken back at him.

  He tried to grab it, to take command of it. And to some degree it worked. The ice and air attacks were mediocre at best, a small victory. But those were not what I was counting on to give me the edge here.

  As I’d hoped, an incubus could be the victim of their own power. Nova blinked a few times and shook his head as if confused. That gave way to raw, unbridled desire, so demanding it drove him toward me, not to attack but to embrace.

  I was ready. As he stepped into my personal space, I raised the Midnight Star and slid it between his ribs. Shock filled his red eyes. The lusty haze faded, replaced by grim amusement. He found this funny?