by K. M. Scott
“I don’t scare easily, Nyx. I’ve seen those I loved die in front of me. I’ve had to live a lifetime in a matter of years. I can handle whatever the Underworld has in store for me.”
She leaned forward and kissed him sweetly. “I hope that’s true, but I suspect what you’ll see there will change you forever. Remember why you’re there, and don’t get lost in everything else and I think you’ll be fine.”
“You act as if I’m not ready for this. It’s my destiny. I have no choice.”
Nyx stood and sighed. “Then I’ll be ready to escort you to the Underworld when you want to go.”
As Theron walked into the bathroom to splash some water on his face and clean himself up, he wondered what she kept referring to when she mentioned things he’d see in the Underworld scaring him. No matter. He’d told her the truth when he said he had no choice but to go. His only choice was when, and there was no point in putting off the inevitable.
Either he would defeat Hades, or the god of the Underworld would defeat him. There was no third possibility.
Chapter Nineteen
The Archon headquarters felt oddly quiet, as if everyone had deserted the place before Solenne and Declan could arrive. She felt a sense of dread that they’d missed their chance at finding Marc Verrater and it grew with every step they took through the building and saw not a soul.
No Archons. No hunters or guards. No one appeared to still be there.
“Where is everyone?” she asked Declan as they reached the second floor.
He shook his head and sighed. “I don’t know. There weren’t that many Archons left after Ramiel and Theron got to them. He’s here, though. I know it.”
Solenne could only wish that Marc hadn’t disappeared before they could give him exactly what he deserved, but she was losing hope. Office after office sat empty, but there didn’t seem to be any hint that a mass attack had occurred. No piles of dust showed as evidence that Sion and Kali had cleared the place out before they arrived.
They finished searching the second floor and headed into the stairwell to move up to the next floor. Declan looked like a man on a mission, his arm cocked with his hand clutching his stake as he prepared to send any vampire they found onto the Underworld. Solenne just hoped they wouldn’t suddenly find a pack of Archons who may be able to overpower the two of them. He didn’t seem to be worried about that, but as this was her first real battle, she didn’t have the kind of confidence he possessed.
He slowly opened the heavy metal door and crept out of the stairwell onto the third floor, his head swiveling left and right to check for any stray vampires. After a few seconds, he waved her on to join him, and they began the tedious job of clearing yet another floor. For all her training, Solenne hadn’t been prepared for this part of the fight.
Suddenly, a creaking noise put her on edge, and she looked down the long hallway toward where it came from. At the other end of the floor, another stairwell door opened, and seconds later, two vampires rushed out toward them.
Declan stepped in front of her instinctively to do what he always did when danger presented itself, but she hadn’t trained for months to simply be a female who needed to be protected. She pushed her way around him to stand by his side and readied her stake for the attack.
“Solenne, just remember what we did in training!” Declan yelled as the vampires launched at them.
Even as pure terror rushed through her, everything he’d taught her came back instantly, as if her body knew what to do even as her mind filled with fear. The male came at her like a being possessed, his fangs flashing as he lunged at her neck. Before learning how to fight, she would have been yet another victim of his since she was sure he’d killed before. The rabid animal look in his eyes said as much.
But she wasn’t going to be a victim this time.
Slashing her weapon through the air, she took aim at his chest and sunk the point of the stake into his heart in one swift motion. The thrill of hitting her mark the first time coursed through her, and she rammed that piece of wood through his body until it came out the other side. A second later, he made a gurgling noise and then exploded into a puff of dust that slowly drifted down toward the floor.
Solenne staggered toward the wall, grasping for anything to hold her up as the reality of what she’d just done settled into her mind. A vampire had come at her to kill her, and she’d defended herself successfully. Even more, she’d killed him. The hand holding the stake shook from a mixture of excitement and shock.
But was Declan safe too?
She turned to look over at where he’d been when the vampires attacked and saw him drive his stake into the chest of his opponent. He didn’t seem as surprised as she was that he’d succeeded, and immediately, he turned toward her with a look of concern.
Without saying a word, she looked down at the pile of dust that had been her attacker and smiled. Declan’s mouth dropped open, and he shook his head as a smile lit up his face.
“You did good, honey. How did it feel?”
Still shaky, she leaned against the wall for support as she tried to come up with a truthful answer. “That was the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life.”
“He was just an appetizer. The main course is next, so get ready. You okay to get moving again?”
“You don’t give a girl much time to rest, do you?” she said before taking a deep breath and pushing herself off the wall.
Her knees knocked together, but after a few moments, her legs felt strong enough to let her walk. She took a step toward Declan, but he met her halfway and pulled her to him.
“I promise there will be all the time in the world to rest once we finish here. I don’t want to give you a chance to start thinking about what you just did, or you might lose your nerve,” he said, punctuating his words with a kiss on the center of her lips.
Solenne looked up at him and smiled. “Don’t worry about me. I’m ready to do what I have to.”
“Then let’s go. He’s here. I know it.”
For the first time, she knew it too. Marc Verrater wasn’t far away, and when they found him, he wouldn’t have much longer to live.
*
At the end of the hallway on the fourth floor, Solenne stood next to Declan in front of the only door they hadn’t checked yet. A sense of calm washed over her, and she knew the time had come.
He was in there.
Declan turned to look at her and nodded before pushing the door open and rushing in. She followed close behind, and when they reached Verrater’s office, she finally saw the face of the monster who had terrorized her mind and body for so long.
Marc sat behind his desk and looked at them with a stunned expression, like he was oblivious to the fact that the rest of his fellow Archons had abandoned their headquarters or had been killed. Half a dozen glass vials sat empty and strewn around his otherwise empty desk. Solenne knew what that meant.
“You bastard. The vampire world is burning down around you, and here you sit doping yourself up with that Bliss shit,” she said as disgust filled her once more over the garbage he’d created from her own blood.
“Lena,” he said in a faraway voice. “Are you for real or am I just dreaming?”
She looked over at Declan, who didn’t seem impressed by Marc’s drug-induced stupidity. Something about killing him while he was like this disappointed her, though.
“This is going to be easier than I thought. Good. Makes getting on with our lives that much faster,” Declan said with a chuckle. “I’m going to give him a little dose of his own medicine first, though.”
Grabbing his arm, she tried to stop him. “Wait! He’s out of it. He probably won’t even understand what we’re doing.”
A look of confusion settled into Declan’s features. “So? This was never about him, Solenne. This was about revenge. I’ve played this out in my mind so many times that there’s no way I can just stake him and be done with it now. He’s done too much to deserve to get off that easy.”
“So, Archon Verrater,” Declan began as he stepped around the desk to stand next to him. “Ready to play a little game?”
Marc sat up in his chair and looked up at him. “What makes you think I’ll play anything with you?”
Typical Marc. Even when he’s about to be staked all the way to the Underworld, he couldn’t stop himself from being cocky. He made it impossible to feel even a hint of regret for what Declan was about to do to him.
Solenne watched as Declan pushed his forearm against Marc’s neck to hold him in his seat. A few more responses like that and she suspected her husband wouldn’t have the patience to follow through with his grand plan of revenge.
“Your time is over, fuck. The Archons have lost. By now, another Son of Navarus has staked your buddy Consera off to the next life. We walked the halls of this place for twenty minutes looking for you and only found two hunters, which we kindly staked the fuck out of. And soon you’ll follow them and all your friends to your judgment. But first, I thought we’d spend a little time letting me give you exactly what you deserve.”
Marc didn’t seem to understand anything Declan said. Looking over at Solenne, he asked, “What does he mean, Lena? There will be guards here any minute, so you better hide or they’ll stake you.”
Taking a step closer to the desk, she planted her palms on the top of it and leaned forward toward him. His eyes focused on her, but the drug’s effects still made him dopey.
“It’s over, Marc. The Archons have lost the war. Any who haven’t been staked yet will be soon enough when the Sons and their troops find them. We’re going to stop the Bliss from getting to any more vampires. Hades isn’t sending any more daemons to fight us. You’ve lost.”
Suddenly, his eyes opened wide, and he jumped up out of his chair, catching Declan off guard. She didn’t know what she’d said to shake him from his Bliss stupor, but whatever it was, Marc was now fully aware of what was happening.
“So you brought your husband to stake me?” he asked, his voice verging on panic. “What have I ever done to deserve that? I made you immortal, Lena. Every Archon knows your name and sees you as a goddess.”
“Made me immortal? You stole my blood after torturing me and created a drug that has enslaved vampires around the world. What the fuck is wrong with you, Marc? You raped me over and over. What did you do to deserve this? Are you crazy?”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Declan move toward him, his arm raised to stake him. “Fuck your immortality, Verrater. You hurt the woman I love. Whatever else you’ve done in your miserable life, that’s enough for me to kill you.”
As if suddenly all they’d said finally sunk into his brain, Marc shook his head wildly and flailed his hands toward Solenne. “I never meant to hurt you, Lena. I loved you. I adored you. You were a goddess to me. Tell him I didn’t do anything bad. Tell him so he doesn’t stake me!”
She didn’t know how to respond to the madness coming out of Marc’s mouth. That he could even say the words he didn’t do anything bad to her was nothing less than stunning, but she had the feeling he truly believed that. To him, he’d adored her by forcing himself on her and then stealing her blood to hurt other vampires.
All of it was nothing less than pure evil. Maybe that’s why she couldn’t understand it.
“I can’t tell him anything. You did what you did to me. That you thought you’d never have to answer for that is a prime example of why the Archon system needed to be eliminated. You’ve hurt millions, and you made me an accomplice to your crime, Marc. You’re pure evil. That’s all there is to you.”
Declan had heard enough and grabbed the Archon by the collar. “Sit the fuck down, you son of a bitch! I’m tired of hearing your crazy shit coming out of your mouth.”
He ripped the cord off the phone on the desk and forced Marc’s hand down onto the arm of the chair. Quickly, he wrapped it around his wrist and then pulled the cord taut to tie the other arm down. It all happened so fast that Marc didn’t realize he’d been immobilized until it was too late.
“And just for shits and giggles, this building has been secured by a witch who’s made it impossible for any of us to disappear. You’re not going anywhere until I stake you, Verrater.”
Marc thrashed around for a few seconds before looking over toward Solenne for help. “Don’t do this. You’re not this kind of vampire. I know you, Lena. You aren’t a killer.”
His insistence on using his pet name for her instead of her name made something snap inside her, and Solenne screamed, “My name is Solenne! It’s not Lena. It’s never been Lena. Solenne Collins! And you don’t know me. You never knew me. You never bothered to think of me as anything but a female you could take from. Sex, blood, anything you wanted you thought you should be able to take from me! No more, Marc! Whatever Declan does from this point on is too good for you.”
By the time she finished yelling at him, her hands were shaking like leaves in the wind and her mouth had not an ounce of liquid left in it. She’d waited for so long to finally tell him how he made her feel, and now that she had, it felt like she never wanted to stop.
But her husband had other ideas. He pushed up the sleeves of Marc’s dress shirt to bare the skin on his arms and then stepped back to take out his knife. “Now onto the fun. Ready, Archon?”
Marc’s eyes opened wide in terror as he watched Declan slice through the skin on his forearm. Just a tiny cut, but only the first of what Solenne knew would be many.
“Stop him!”
She knew the intention wasn’t to let him bleed out, as painful as that would be. No, Declan had never been that patient. He’d do this for a little while, but she knew he’d grow weary of Marc’s constant pleas and would just stake him after a short time.
For as much as he wanted to torture him for all he’d done to them, her husband couldn’t help but want to get on with their life together after this war.
“He’ll stop when he’s done, Marc,” she answered as Declan sliced yet another cut into the Archon’s skin.
After a few minutes, each arm had about twenty cuts that trickled blood, but he wasn’t done quite yet. From his bag, Declan pulled out a salt shaker that looked suspiciously like the one from their kitchen table and lifted it up for Solenne to see.
“Did you bring that from the house?” she asked in disbelief how practical he could be in all of this madness.
“I’ve thought about this for a long time. I wanted to be prepared,” he said with a smile. Turning his attention back to Marc, he leaned in close to him and laughed. “This is going to sting a bit, but it won’t kill you. We’re not there yet.”
Declan held the shaker a foot above Marc’s arms and began to pour salt onto his wounds. The Archon let out a blood-curdling scream, but Solenne sensed his cries were more for show than a reaction to real pain. Either way, it didn’t stop her husband, who seemed to be enjoying the whole thing a bit too much.
“Just what I’ve always wanted—seasoned Archon. If we had a spit, we could roast him slow until the skin turned just brown enough to seal in the juices.”
Terrified, Marc looked up at him and then over at Solenne. “He’s going to cook me before killing me?”
Declan rolled his eyes, but she had a feeling this was all becoming too crazy. “Maybe we just get done with this and leave? You’re freaking me out a little, honey.”
Her husband screwed his face into an expression that made it seem like his feelings had been hurt by her suggestion. “Come on, Solenne. This bastard is the reason so many in the vampire world are drug addicts. He never gave a damn about anyone. Remember Emily? How about we get him to admit what he did to her since I severely doubt he let her go before all hell broke loose here?”
Guilt showed all over Marc’s face at the mention of
Emily. For all her flaws, she had helped Solenne escape, and for that, she’d be eternally grateful.
“Did you stake Emily?” she asked him, suddenly needing to know what had happened to her.
He winced at the question but refused to answer. In his silence, she found the truth, though. Had he ever been good to anyone?
“I think she cared about you, Marc. I mean truly cared about you. How could you stake someone who loved you?”
Declan pushed his knife against his throat and pressed until a spot of blood appeared. “You killed her because she helped Solenne, didn’t you? Tell the truth or I swear I’m going to slit your throat and watch you bleed out, you motherfucker.”
Still, Marc refused to answer, pressing his lips together like he had to work to keep the truth in. So Declan slowly began drawing the knife across his neck, leaving a thin trail of blood in its wake.
By the time he reached the Archon’s Adam’s apple, Marc couldn’t take anymore and finally cried out, “Fine! I fucking killed her. Right over there near the wall. Why is that such a big deal? She was willing to help me spread lies about you, Saint, so what do you care if she died or how?”
Stopping his knife’s slicing, Declan stepped back and grimaced. “You killed her because she helped Solenne. Admit it.”
“Of course I did.”
The way he so casually admitted the truth made Solenne sick to her stomach. She was sick of playing with this bastard. They needed to finish this and move on.
“Enough! I can’t listen to this anymore. Just do it, Declan.”
Both males turned to look at her with surprised looks on their faces. Marc had a flicker of hope in his eyes, a mistake because she wouldn’t stop anyone from killing him, and her husband frowned like someone had taken his favorite toy away. She’d fantasized for so long about making Marc’s death long and drawn out. He deserved it, after all, and the idea of seeing him suffer had always made her feel so good.