by Laken Cane
He was the youngest of the Edgefield slayers at twenty-five, and he was very good at his job. He had a scary temper, an irritating moodiness, and was something of an empath. He’d gotten that “useless gift” from his father, he’d told her.
He stood beside Asa and she was caught for a moment on the contrast between the two men. Asa was always neatly dressed, his hair tied back into a short ponytail at the nape of his neck, not so much as a crease in his customary black shirt. He was big, calm, and beautiful.
Talon’s long, light brown hair snaked over his worn Jimi Hendrix t-shirt, and he wore tattered, faded jeans and old boots, and he was so unaffectedly sexy that he caused her heart to stutter.
They were not easy together, he and Krista. There was an awkwardness between them that she didn’t feel with the other slayers, and she wasn’t quite sure of the reason. She didn’t completely trust him. He’d left his last partner to die alone, and that was bound to make his new partner a little wary.
Once they all sat around the table—all but Luke, who she missed with a fierce, aching, sadness—they began to update her on everything she’d missed in the last few weeks—nothing major except for the injured children and the demon lord who was attacking them.
“We don’t have long,” Talon said. “Once he absorbs the souls, there’s no way to separate them. If he dies, they die with him.”
“At least he can’t leave the city,” Krista said, “thanks to your lines.”
“The lines are weakening,” he said.
They all gaped at him, stunned by his bombshell.
“What?” Krista asked. “What do you mean?”
He didn’t look at any of them. “They’re fading. I can’t strengthen them, and I can’t redraw them. I’m not…” He swallowed. “Not powerful enough. Not yet.”
“How long do we have?” Barbie asked.
He shook his head. “It could be any day. If they break and he leaves the city, it’s over.”
“And I have maybe a week or two,” Krista murmured.
“What?” Maggie asked. “What do you mean?”
Krista took a deep breath. “The demon lord will start absorbing the souls. We think he’ll go back to his world then. I’m to deliver his head and the summoner’s name to the CIA before that happens, or I’ll serve out the five-year sentence they gave me.” She looked at Maggie. “In Darkwell. I’m sorry, Mags.”
“Ma, no!” Instant tears filled Maggie’s eyes. “You can’t.”
“She’s not going anywhere,” Asa said.
Maggie jerked her head around to look at him. “She’s not, Asa?” And for once, she sounded her age.
“Absolutely not,” he told her.
Maggie wiped her eyes, a watery but relieved smile breaking through the tears. “Whew. I was scared there for a minute.”
Krista wanted to tell him not to give the girl false hope, but she couldn’t bring herself to. Maybe she wanted to believe him, too.
Barbie stared at Maggie. “Just like that? Just because he says so, you think your mom won’t go to prison?”
Maggie picked up her fork. “If Asa says she’s not going anywhere, then she’s not going anywhere. He wouldn’t lie to me.”
Barbie and Talon exchanged quick mystified looks. “Wow,” Barbie said, finally. “I’ve never known that level of trust.” She looked at Asa, and there was something different in her eyes. Something considering. Something…interested.
“Barbie,” Krista said.
“Yeah?” Still, she didn’t look away from Asa. He looked up and met her stare, his eyes emotionless.
“Asa is off limits,” Krista said. “He’s mine. So whatever you’re thinking right now, you need to let that shit go.”
Barbie turned her head, finally, to look at Krista.
“Am I clear?” Krista asked her.
At last, Barbie shrugged. “Sure. Sorry.”
But Krista had a feeling that Barbie was going to try. The tall, blonde slayer was physical perfection, and she was not used to wanting a man she couldn’t have. He was forbidden, so she would want him even more.
And she would try.
Asa didn’t smile, but he winked at Krista, and his eyes twinkled like a couple of bright stars in a dark sky. “I might have a say in this.”
Barbie leaned forward. “And?”
“It took me years to get her to look at me. I wouldn’t risk that for anything.”
“I have a cool mom,” Maggie said.
Everyone laughed, and the tension dissipated. Rules had been set, and Barbie might try to break them. Krista would be ready for her.
Talon wasn’t eying Asa. His stare was glued to Krista. But when she looked at him, he dropped his gaze. Maybe he was afraid of what she’d see in his eyes.
She couldn’t help but wonder.
He fumbled for his cell phone when it beeped, then got up and walked around the table to her. “Video just came through. You need to see this.”
Asa and Barbie gathered around as well, and they watched a dark video of a tree for two minutes before Krista frowned. “What’s the deal with the tree?”
“Vogdris is standing against it,” he said.
“Where?” Barbie asked. “I don’t see—”
But then Vogdris moved, and suddenly they could all see him. “How did he do that?” Maggie asked.
“He’s picking up new abilities,” Krista said grimly. “If he can blend in with his surroundings like that, he’s going to be more trouble than ever.”
Maggie leaned her chair back to peer through the French doors. “Stella’s coming. She has three dogs with her.”
“Yeah?” Talon pocketed his phone and headed to the door. “I’ll help her.”
Barbie snorted. “He likes dogs more than people.”
“I can understand that,” Krista said. “People are assholes.”
“Ma, have you heard from Luke?” Maggie’s crush on Luke was no more subtle than Talon’s love for dogs.
“No,” Krista said, her heart clutching at his name. “Not yet.”
Maggie frowned. “He said he’d be here today. I don’t know what’s taking him so long.”
“What? When did you talk to Luke?” Krista put her hand to her chest. “He’s coming here today?”
“Hell, Krista,” Barbie said. “Are you trying to start a harem?”
Krista grinned. “Maybe.”
“He calls or texts me a couple times a week,” Maggie continued. “He said he’d see us today.”
“He will,” Asa said. “Unless he’s delayed.”
Krista stood to greet Stella, smiling as the woman swept through the doorway and left Talon to handle her dogs—a job Talon was happy to accept.
“All right,” Stella said, sitting in the chair Asa pulled out for her. “Let’s talk about what we need to do to get those precious souls back into their bodies.”
The house was filling up with friends, cheer, and warmth, and Krista relaxed. The crushing weight of a soul-stealing demon and tormented children was more easily borne when she was surrounded by her people.
4
Luke called her at eleven o’clock that night. “I got held up, but I’m on my way.”
“I’m glad,” she murmured.
A beat of silence, then, “They treated you well?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll see you soon. You’ll need help with the demon lord.” He disconnected the call.
She placed the cell phone on her nightstand, then leaned back against Asa’s body. “He said he’ll see me soon—who knows if that means tonight or tomorrow or next week.”
Asa pulled her tighter against him, then ran his fingers up her bare arm before circling his palm over her naked breast. The nipple stiffened immediately, and she shivered, then clenched her thighs against the pressure between her legs.
“I can’t get enough of you,” he murmured.
She had decided to take one night to relax before she went to work tracking a demon lord and investigating the
stolen children. Despite the council making sure her physical needs were met, being held at CIA headquarters had taken an emotional toll. She hadn’t slept well the entire time she’d been there.
But now she was home.
She let herself relax against Asa, then turned her head to kiss the side of his neck—and once again, her cell rang.
Asa patted her arm. “They’re not going to let you sleep.”
“I know.” She answered her phone.
“Hey,” Talon said. “I didn’t want to call.”
“It’s okay, hon. What do you need?”
“I saw him, Krista.”
Her breath froze in her lungs. “Vogdris? Where?”
“I was called to a home invasion—and I caught him leaving through the back.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes. I only glimpsed him. He’s faster than ever.”
“And the child?”
“In the same condition as the others.”
“Fuck,” she whispered. She climbed from the bed, set the phone on the dresser, and began to get dressed. “Where are you?”
“I can be there in ten minutes.”
“I’ll be ready.”
“There’s something else with this one,” Talon said.
“What?”
“The father said he couldn’t stand the thought of his boy lost in the demon’s world. Or wherever he might be, afraid and alone. He killed the kid’s body.”
She closed her eyes. “God,” she whispered. “No.” Many people believed if the soul left the body and the body lived, the soul would be stuck. Kill the body, and the soul would automatically go to its afterlife, and not even a soul-stealer could hang on to it.
“We need to find Vogdris fast,” Talon told her.
“Yeah.” She leaned over to kiss Asa. “I have to go to work.”
Neither of them was surprised. She was a little relieved. Tired, in need of a good night’s sleep, but relieved. How could she sleep while someone was destroying the children of her city? She couldn’t.
“Can you drop Maggie at my mother’s in the morning?” she asked him.
“Of course.” Then he leaned back against the headboard and watched as she finished getting dressed. “I’ll be in the city, Krista. If you need me.”
She smiled, despite the urgency of the situation. “I’ll always need you.” Then she went outside to wait for Talon. She rubbed the mark on her face, wishing for Triganoth. She could have used his help dealing with Vogdris. And she almost succeeded in convincing herself that was the only reason she wanted to see him.
“I don’t know how we’ll capture him,” Talon said, after she got into the car and buckled up. He hesitated. “But I’m glad you’re back to try.”
“It’s good to be back. It almost feels like I never left.”
“Edgefield attracts its share of trouble,” he said, driving too fast back to the city. He parked across the street from the house Vogdris had invaded earlier.
They didn’t get out and go in. The place was crawling with police, paramedics, and news vans. The child was dead and Vogdris was gone. There was nothing for them inside that house.
“What we need,” she said, “is some luck.”
And at that exact second, she got some.
Whether it was good luck or bad luck was debatable.
Triganoth Deorthorak disentangled himself from the shadows and strode toward the car, and in response to his nearness, her hands began to glow even as the mark on her face began to throb.
Talon’s power came, as well, as their inner slayers eagerly readied their magic to take out their enemy. Only Triganoth was not exactly the enemy.
Her heart galloping like a herd of wild horses, she opened her door. “Let me talk to him alone,” she told Talon.
But when she climbed from the car and began walking to meet Trig, she heard Talon’s door shut. He wasn’t going to stay put.
Triganoth was changed.
He seemed wilder. Less refined and more…demon-like. He’d always been rough, raw, and unrestrained, but it was as though he’d come straight from his world and everything he was there still clung to him.
The human world, which would drain his power if he stayed long enough, had yet to touch him.
He stared down at her as she neared him, dark and silent.
“Trig,” she said, and clenched her fists, trying to control her eager power. She wasn’t sure what else to say, so she simply watched him as he watched her, and she waited.
She wanted to fight her feelings for him. He was a demon. He was something she should kill, not something she should love. But he’d carved his mark onto her flesh and into her soul. He called to her, softened her, awed her.
Power came off him in waves. And though he was gently glamoured or changed somehow by her world, she saw him. Saw him as he would look in his own world. In the red-dark.
Saw the vast, black wings, the black, silver-tipped horns, the muscled body. Long, soft, dark brown hair that rippled down his back and over massive shoulders, and the scar on his face that exactly matched her own. The cruel slant to his full lips, the distrust and scorn that lived inside his hazel eyes, the pain. The absence of joy. That was what he looked like in his world.
In her world, he hid the horns, the wings, and the bulk. When he looked at her, something in his eyes was different. Softer. And that was real.
He’d once told her that her light chased back the darkness inside him. He’d given her the gift of the white demon to cure Maggie. Whatever else he was or had done or would do, how could she not feel tenderness toward him for that?
And unable to resist, she slipped closer to him.
“Krista,” Talon said, a caution in his voice that she ignored. “Wait.”
She reached out a tentative hand, its glow extinguished, and touched the demon lord’s arm. “I never had a chance to thank you. For Maggie.” She rubbed his arm softly, the way one might pet a wild animal.
He glanced down at her hand, pale and small against his skin, at his ring upon her finger, and the corners of his lips lifted in an almost smile. “My woman,” he said, his soft, deep voice creeping into the darkness. “Each time I see you, I am…” He shook his head, and his voice took on a tone of subtle frustration. “I am softened.”
“Why are you here?” she asked.
He stared down his nose at her and said nothing for a few long seconds. “I’ve come to take Vogdris Rozas home. Our king commands it.”
He watched her, the look in his eyes hungry, dark, and so fiercely hot she imagined her skin would smoke wherever his glance landed.
He hadn’t come because he couldn’t stay away from her. He’d come because apparently, his ruler had forced him to. “I need Vogdris’ head,” she told him. “You can take the rest of him back to your king.”
“No.”
“I have to kill him here, Triganoth. If he dies here, the souls he stole will fly back to their bodies. If he dies in your world…”
“If he dies in my world, the unmoored ones will be doomed to roam the red-dark forever,” he said. Then he shrugged. “He will not die. His punishment is to suffer, not to rest in death.”
“Force him to release the souls,” Talon said. He didn’t move, but his hands swirled with power. “And you can take him home.”
Triganoth curled his lip but didn’t deign to look at Talon. “I can do anything I wish to do.”
“Don’t provoke him,” Krista told Talon. “Vogdris is a lord, too. Trig has no power over him.”
“Don’t bait me, Krista.” Triganoth’s voice was silky smooth and dark as midnight.
She shivered but didn’t back down. He wouldn’t hurt her. In his own strange way, he loved her. He’d marked her. He would not hurt her. Or so she honestly, stupidly believed. “Can you force Vogdris to release the souls?”
“Do you want to see what I can do?” he murmured, and before she could call her power, before she could open her mouth, even, he shot out a hand, whirle
d her around, and yanked her against him. With her back pressed against his body, he hooked his arm around her waist, and he took them to the sky.
She thought she heard Talon yell, but the wind was screaming through her ears, Trig’s arm was tight around her ribs, and her legs swung loose and limp as she dangled from his grip, high in the dark sky.
“You are not to chase Vogdris,” he said, his breath hot against her cold, cold cheek. “He is stronger because of the souls, and I do not want you to die. Leave him to me.”
She dug her nails into his arm, terrified he would drop her as his huge, vast wings whooshed and cut through the air, lifting them higher and higher.
“You play with me as though I am a child. I am a powerful man,” he continued. “I rule my own kingdom. I am master to many. You will not disrespect me again. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” she screamed. “God, yes.”
He turned her to face him, then laughed as she flung her arms around his neck and buried her face at the side of his neck. “You are my human, Krista. Mine. I won’t allow you to fall. I could not live with my heart broken upon the earth.” He tightened his grip. “I would like to fuck you now and secure our bond. Are you agreeable?”
She was shaking with anger and fear, and could barely get the words past her clenched teeth. “No, I’m not agreeable,” she bit out, her voice shaking. “Asshole.”
He grabbed her hair and forced her face away from his neck, then slid his lips against hers. His kiss was brutal, punishing, and completely inescapable.
Somehow, she forced herself quiet. She didn’t fight his kiss, just lay like the dead in his grip and gave him absolutely nothing. Nothing.
His kiss gentled then. Softened, became seductive and sweet and sensuous. He coaxed her lips open, slid his tongue into her mouth, and whirled them slowly back to the ground as he kissed her, and though anger at his tactics continued to batter her mind, she could not stop her body’s reaction to his touch.
Surely he could sense it. Feel it. Smell it.
He took his lips from hers and stared down at her, his eyes glittering and hot and full of dark desire. “I want to fuck you,” he said again.