But each day the torture grew worse, the demons taking him closer and closer to death.
Somehow, he had to make her fall in love with him all over again.
Before it was too late.
Chapter 5
Gunner woke the same way he had for the last four months—that scream of agony ringing through his mind. His heart was racing, gut gripped tight, but now with this…shit, this added sense of urgency, of fear that he couldn’t shake.
Pale violet eyes flashed through his mind, and he sucked in a startled breath, rubbing his face. Christ, he recognized those eyes, but why were they in his head?
What in the fuck was going on?
Adrenaline pumped through him, making his barely awake limbs tremble as he climbed out of bed. Christ, he was shaking from it. His body wanted to explode into action, was preparing to fight, preparing for something, but had nowhere to go.
His hands continued to shake as he showered and dressed, and by the time he headed down to the first-floor training rooms, tension vibrated through him relentlessly.
He tried to shake it off, to ignore it.
He and his brothers usually trained on Wednesday, and the way Silas and Lazarus usually went at it, he wanted to be there to make sure they didn’t kill each other. He ignored the way his muscles twitched and his back itched with the urge to let loose his wings and take to the skies.
But he had no fucking destination. This feeling had no outlet.
When he walked into the training room, there was no sign of Silas. What he did find, though, was a furious Grace, with Eve, Mia, and Meredith at her side, all facing off against their mates.
“Now what?” Gunner muttered, not in the mood for this right fucking now.
Grace thrust her phone at him, and his muscles spasmed when he read the message. Another text from Grace’s friend. At least from her phone.
His stomach gripped tighter. Coincidence? That he’d woken this morning with that female in his head?
You don’t believe in coincidences.
He quickly scanned the message.
Goth Girl: You’re not looking hard enough.
Gunner frowned as that sense of urgency increased to almost unbearable proportions, as fire burned through his muscles and gut, urging him to go…somewhere, right fucking now. “Why the fuck doesn’t whoever’s sending these just tell us how the fuck to find her?” he growled out.
“I don’t think it’s that easy,” Grace said. “We know these demons are capable of blocking themselves. Hiding in plain sight. That has to be what’s happening now.”
Gunner drew in a rough breath, trying to calm the hell down. “Yeah, I agree, but we can’t force them out of hiding. Christ, we were probably on top of them last night. Why didn’t they attack?”
“They didn’t want us there,” Chaos said. “Whatever they’re hiding, it’s important and not something they want us to find.”
“I can find them,” Eve said, hands planted on her hips, gaze locked on her mate. “I know I can.”
“No,” Lazarus growled out. “There’s not one fucking chance in hell you’re going anywhere near that place.”
Eve took a deep breath, her gaze not wavering. “My feet don’t even need to touch the ground. You can carry me, fly above them.”
Kryos eyed Lazarus’s mate. “You think you can get into their heads, even through whatever’s blocking them?”
“No,” Laz said with more force this time.
“You’ve seen me work, Kryos. You’ve seen me interrogate them. My powers are so much stronger now,” Eve said, ignoring Lazarus completely. “I want to at least give it a try. If I can help this female, I need to do it.”
“I could come as well,” Mia said. “If for some reason you have to get closer, I could hold them back…”
Zenon’s snarl tore through the room. The male didn’t even bother with words.
Mia closed the space between her and her mate and took his face in her hands. “You think those creeps could get through my fire?”
Zenon shook his head. “Not happening.”
Chaos moved deeper into the fray. “Look, I get where you’re coming from, Laz, you know I do. But I think we need to at least consider this. You can keep Eve away from any danger. Fly her over, let her feel it out. That’s all she’s asking.”
Lazarus scowled as he stared Chaos down. “Thanks for the clarification, brother, but I think I know what my mate is asking…”
“Please, Laz,” Grace said. “I know you're scared for her, but Eve can do this. She’s strong and fearless and more than capable. There’s a female who needs our help, who could be in serious trouble. She’s the reason we were able to save so many demi a few months ago. She’s the reason I’m standing here now. If we can help her, we need to do it.”
Laz made a rough sound and his hand shot out, hooking Eve around the back of the neck and tugging her close, pulling her into his side. “I know how fucking amazing my female is, more than anyone.” He took her chin in his other hand and tilted her head back, looking into her eyes. “You’re really set on doing this?”
“Yes,” she said, wrapping her arms around his waist. “You’ll keep me safe.”
Lazarus stared down at her for several long seconds, and his nostrils flared. “Fine. We’ll do it. But you aren’t going anywhere near the fucking ground, not even for a second.”
“Okay.”
“I don’t like this,” he added.
“Noted,” Eve said, a small grin playing at her lips. Then she turned to Chaos. “When can we leave?”
Pins and needles danced over Gunner’s skin as they flew over the vacant lot they’d been to the night before. With so much adrenaline pumping hotly through his veins, he was struggling to hold himself back. He was being torn in two, his body in full battle mode when there was nothing to attack.
Lazarus was beside him, bright green eyes razor-sharp, scanning the area. His charcoal wings moved slow and steady, keeping him hovering high above the lot, Eve cradled protectively in his arms. He pressed his lips to the top of her head. “Do your thing, sweetheart.”
She closed her eyes, her body relaxing in her mate’s embrace. Lazarus looked down at her, watching Eve closely, trusting his brothers to have their backs as she used her telepathic power to search for any active minds below them, for any demons hiding in plain sight. Her power had seriously grown in the last few months—
Eve spasmed in Lazarus’s arms.
“Eve?”
She gasped, her eyes snapping open before rolling back. Blood trickled from her eyes, nose, and ears, something that happened often when she worked. But opening her mouth wide and screaming—a scream that wasn’t her own—was not.
Gunner jolted as if someone had grabbed his shoulders and planted their knee in his gut. It was the scream that had tormented him every night for the last four months.
“Eve, look at me.” Laz shook his mate gently, fear lining his harsh features. “Goddamn it, baby, fucking look at me right now.”
Lazarus leaned in, his massive hand cradling her head, and said something rough against her ear.
She gasped, and her eyes rolled forward, locking on Lazarus. “She’s there,” Eve said, as tears slid down her face, mixing with the blood. “Oh god, she’s…she’s in so much pain. We have to help her. You have to save her…”
“How many can you feel?” Chaos asked gently, moving closer.
“I’m not sure…ten? No more than fifteen,” she said, visibly trying to rein in her emotions. “You need to let me go back,” she said to Lazarus. “There’s someone else there, the one blocking them. I think…I think I can get into their mind and talk to them.”
Laz pulled her closer. “You’ve never done anything like that, what if…”
“It’s okay,” she said and cupped his face. “I’ll be okay.”
She closed her eyes again, and Laz pressed his face into the crook of her neck, arms tightening around her.
As soon as Eve went deep
again, Gunner spun back, searching the lot.
“Gunner?” Chaos flew in front of him. “You okay?”
Gunner tried to shake out his shoulders, to breathe through the feeling building inside him, pulsing and growing, the buzzing in his head, the racing of his heart. “Something’s down there, and it’s…fuck, it’s calling me.”
Chaos frowned and looked down at the ground and back. “What are you feeling?”
Gunner clenched his teeth. It was muted, but it felt like…oh fuck, it was the same feeling he had when he was locked up and felt her.
As soon as he thought it, his body went haywire, back torquing, fangs punching through, sliding down his chin.
Chaos moved back. “What the fuck’s going on?”
Eve was muttering and shaking. The barrier hiding whatever was down there was thinning, was about to drop because he felt her even stronger.
This couldn’t be happening.
Could this really be happening?
His demon confirmed it when he clawed his way to the surface, preparing to fight with him, to do whatever it took to get to her. Gunner didn’t even try to stop it because he felt the same, and if his demon could help him get to her faster, he was all for it. He exploded into his Kishi demon form with a roar that he couldn’t hold back, echoing through the night sky.
Gunner glanced around him, at the shocked faces of his brothers. Rocco was there as well, hanging back, but the look in his eyes… Yeah, Rocco knew.
There was only one thing that could have caused this kind of reaction, and the determination on Roc’s face, the threat of death to anyone who got in Gunner’s way, was so clear it could have been tattooed across his forehead.
Eve continued to whisper rapidly, then she screamed again, and whatever was blocking the demons there dropped. The bare lot transformed into a big-assed house, a mini-mansion similar to the others on the street.
Gunner didn’t wait for an order, he flew at the place, teeth bared and sword drawn.
Luna screamed. She didn’t know if it was out loud or just in her mind.
She screamed for him. For Gunner.
He was near.
She felt him.
Maybe it was her mind playing tricks on her? Had her starved brain conjured him up? But the roaring in her head and the tingle over her limbs wouldn’t let her retreat, kept telling her it was the truth, that he was there.
A wave of agony burned through her more fiercely than ever before, and her scream grew louder. Her eyes were closed, but she no longer felt the rough concrete against her body, her cheek. After so long in this cold, damp room, she felt like she was suspended in her pain.
A strange heat began sliding through her limbs.
He was closer.
Her internal cries grew stronger, more frantic. What if he didn’t find her? What if he left again?
The tingle of her fangs trying to extend had her whimpering, and the gnawing in her gut was like acid, opening her up and spilling her insides out onto the floor.
Gunner.
Please, don’t leave me here.
I need you.
I need you.
I need you.
Gunner!
Chapter 6
The demon screamed as Gunner sunk his claws into its throat and tore its head off. His brothers were at his back, Rocco at his side. They were all fighting, cutting their way through the demons guarding the house.
Gunner wasn’t following Chaos’s lead, he had no plan. He had a one-track mind. All he could do was fight—fight to get to her.
She wasn’t dead.
She wasn’t dead.
“I’ve got you, brother.” Rocco dragged his blade across another demon’s throat. “Follow it, let it lead you,” he growled.
Yeah, Rocco knew, he knew what had flipped him out.
A demon came at Gunner and sunk his razor-sharp teeth into his arm, right through the tough crimson skin of his Kishi demon form, and hung on like a rabid dog. Gunner punched it in the forehead twice, and when it still hung off him, he pulled his blade free and planted it in the top of its head.
Its mouth released and it fell back, twitching on the floor. Rocco moved in and hacked its head from its body.
Fuck. The screams, they were growing louder, echoing through Gunner’s skull. A wave of energy, of power, washed over him so hard and fast, his knees started to buckle from the sheer power of it. Rocco caught him around the chest before he face-planted the ground.
His brothers closed in, fighting back the demons as Gunner fought to stay upright.
“Fight it. She’s waiting for you,” Rocco growled against his ear.
His words caused another spike of adrenaline, strong enough to propel Gunner forward. He followed what his female was sending out, as it grew stronger.
Oh god.
Her screams, her pain…no, it was agony, and it filled him to overflowing. He roared and swung his sword, slicing, maiming any demon who tried to get in his way, who tried to stop him from getting to her.
His brothers were behind him, finishing them for him as he ran, colliding with fucking walls, like a drunk man, snarling and growling, roaring with fear and euphoria the closer he got to her.
He reached the bottom of a set of stairs that took him deep into the basement. A door stood in front of him, and he smashed through it.
An elderly male demi-demon stood in front of another door beyond that, a kitchen knife in front of him, shaking his head furiously.
“Get out of my way,” Gunner roared. “Or I go through you.”
“I won’t let you hurt her,” he said, throat working.
Gunner wasn’t capable of articulating what this was, who he was, not this close, not when he felt her agony and fear so strongly. Not when she was calling his name. Screaming it. Screaming for him.
“She’s his mate,” Rocco said from somewhere behind him.
Then his brother was there, prying the knife from the male’s hand, moving him out of the way.
Gunner went for the door, trying to yank it open. Locked. He stepped back and charged it, smashing his body into the reinforced steel, over and over. It dented, started folding in on itself. Gunner didn’t let up, roaring so loud his vision momentarily blanked out.
With a metallic screech and a groan, the door finally gave out, and he gripped the buckled edge and tore it off the hinges, throwing it aside with a concrete-shattering crash—
Gunner froze at the threshold.
Oh fuck.
Oh fuck.
Jesus. Fucking. Christ.
Backed into the corner, naked and motionless, she was nothing but skin and bones. One of her legs was bent at an odd angle, and her long black hair was matted around her drawn, skeletal face, but those violet eyes, so pale now they were almost white, were unmistakable. It was her.
All this time, she’d been right here. She’d been with a monster. She’d been suffering.
He’d wrapped his hand around her throat after she helped Grace escape. He’d touched her, and he’d had no idea who she was.
His gaze moved over her, and his heart cracked down the middle.
She should be dead. The condition she was in, she should already be dead.
Rocco cursed behind him.
Gunner ignored his brother and lifted his hands in surrender, somehow managing to shift back to human form despite the turmoil whipping through him. She whimpered, and tiny little fangs slid down.
Dhampir.
His female was half vampire.
“It’s okay, love,” he said as softly as he could and gently scooped her up.
Her head was on his shoulder, her face in the crook of his neck, and she whimpered again. He tilted his head to the side for her immediately, giving her the room she needed to feed.
He felt her fangs scrape his skin lightly, but she was too weak to break through. Cradling her head, he gently moved her away, brought up his blade, and nicked the side of his throat, then led her mouth to the cut.
Her l
ips latched on immediately, taking what he offered. She made soft mewing sounds, but she was still limp in his arms. Each pull on his vein, though, got stronger and sent shockwaves through his body.
His knees gave out, and he fell against the wall, sliding down.
“That’s it, love, take what you need. I’m here now. I’m here.” He cradled her to him, offering her everything. She could take it all, every last drop of his blood.
Moisture hit his cheeks. He was crying, and he didn’t give a fuck. Tears of joy, of relief, of agony for what she’d been through were streaking down his face.
He looked up at the door, to his brothers gathered there, big boots shuffling, pained expressions on their faces.
“She’s alive,” he rasped.
Chaos cursed. Zenon and Kryos looked down, stepping back to give him privacy.
He cupped the back of her head, but his frail female stopped sucking, going completely limp again. He panicked, feeling for her heartbeat. Nothing.
“She’s not breathing,” Gunner cried out.
Rocco crouched down in front of him. “Dhampir don’t need to.”
That’s right. He knew that. He’d panicked. Still, Gunner quickly shifted her so he could look down at her. Her eyes were open, lids heavy.
Then she blinked, painfully slow.
Gunner squeezed his eyes closed with relief. She was weak, that was all. He held her to him, but not too tight. She was so fragile, he was afraid he’d break her. She needed to feed but could only handle a little at a time right now.
He needed to get her home.
He looked around, wanting to cover her nakedness. He had nothing. His clothes had disintegrated when he’d shifted. Rocco tugged his shirt from the back of his jeans and handed it to him as if reading his mind. Gunner took it and carefully pulled the T-shirt over her head, covering her. His demon didn’t like another male’s clothes on their female, but wanting her covered won out over the possessiveness roaring inside him.
Naked, he stood with her in his arms.
Laz appeared at the door. He’d obviously taken Eve back to the compound and had just returned because his eyes widened as he took in Gunner’s female.
Knight's Absolution (Knights of Hell Book 5) Page 5