by Laken Cane
She kept her gaze resolutely averted from his. “Do whatever you want. I can’t stop you.” Keeping her voice emotionless, her heart hard, and her determination strong might have been the most difficult thing she’d ever done. But he’d scared her. Bullied her. And she was not putting up with that shit.
He sighed, then ran his lips over the mark on her cheek. “You will punish me for your fear. But I like your fear. I’ll do it again, Krista. Many, many times. Just as you…”
She couldn’t resist looking at him then. She narrowed her eyes and stared up at him as he let her slide down his body. Still, he didn’t release her when her feet touched the ground. “Just as I what?”
“You...” But he wouldn’t say it. His cock was hard and he didn’t want the softness of emotions to interfere with that, apparently. He slid his fingers under her shirt and to her breast. “Soon you will beg me to come to your bed.” Then he flung himself away and was simply…gone.
She felt the absence of him with every single part of her. If she hadn’t managed to drag her pride and anger around her like a protective cloak, she would have called him back and begged him to never leave her again.
And maybe that was something she would only ever admit to herself.
5
When she shook off the aftereffects of her encounter with the demon lord, she realized Triganoth had not returned her to the sidewalk where she’d stood with Talon. He’d returned her to her house.
She sighed, then pulled her cell phone from her pocket as she began walking back toward the city.
“Krista?” Talon answered. “Where are you?”
“Triganoth thought I needed a ride home,” she said dryly. “I’m walking back. Pick me up?”
“Yeah, I’m on my way. What did he do?”
“He scared the hell out of me. He doesn’t want me taking on Vogdris.” She tilted her head as she heard the crackle of his radio in the background.
“Call coming in.” He listened, then, “Another child taken. Hang on.”
“Where?”
“The attack is ongoing. Chester Street. Someone inside the house hid in a closet and called.”
“That’s two streets over from me. The asshole is close.” She didn’t like that he was attacking so close to her house, even though he wouldn’t know where she lived. She threw a glance up at Maggie’s window.
“Meet you there,” Talon said.
She shoved her cell back into her pocket and began to run, her head swiveling, stare probing the shadows, watching for a demon lord who gave new meaning to the word “evil.”
She heard the screams long before she reached the invaded house—screams of the family blending with screams of approaching sirens. Neighbors spilled into yards and stood in clusters, uncertain, and then, as she raced down the street and toward the house, she saw Triganoth.
He stood on the sidewalk, body relaxed, hands at his sides, waiting. He spotted her and held up a hand.
Her immediate instinct was to ignore his silent command, but common sense prevailed. She could not get between two battling demon lords and survive. Especially not when one of those demon lords was full of new power.
“He’s still inside?” she called. “Is he still—”
Then Vogdris burst from the house. He didn’t bother opening the door—he hit it so hard it flew free and landed a few feet from where she stood. But she barely glanced at the door. Her horrified gaze was glued to the monstrous demon barreling from his latest victim’s house.
Vogdris had grown. The earth seemed to tremble as he stomped across the yard, and though he was big, he was fast.
As he ran, bright red flames flared behind him, breaking off to land upon the ground. The grass began to smoke immediately, and chunks of dull red embers flared and faded like weakening Christmas lights.
Trig was around six feet four, but Vogdris made him look like a child. Not just in height, but in bulk.
Vogdris had always looked like a proper demon lord. Now he looked like a proper demon monster. And as Triganoth stepped in front of him, Krista felt her heart stop.
Vogdris would kill him.
“Back inside,” Krista screamed at the gawking neighbors. “Get inside!”
A few of them halfheartedly turned toward their homes, but they didn’t run until Vogdris lifted a giant, flaming fist, and sent a ball of fire at Trig’s head.
Triganoth ducked and the ball of power crashed into the house across the street, shattering the huge picture window.
Talon sped down the street toward her, and as soon as he slammed on his brakes, she jumped into the car. “We need to follow them. If Trig can’t kill him, we’ll be waiting to try.”
“Triganoth is going to fight that thing?” he asked.
“We’re going to fight him,” she pointed out, “and we are no Triganoth.”
At that moment, Triganoth opened his fist and threw a lightning bolt of silver power at the other demon lord. Vogdris yelped and staggered back as it hit his shoulder.
“That level of power won’t last long,” Krista muttered. “He’s going to get hurt.”
Usually, the longer a demon lord stayed away from his world, the weaker he got—but that wasn’t true of Vogdris. The blood and souls he’d stolen from the children were making him stronger.
Triganoth would be the one to weaken.
She caught Talon watching her. “What?” she asked.
“You’re worried about a demon getting hurt.”
She could feel her face heat. “I’m not…he’s not a…”
He said nothing but his judgment was in his eyes.
She absently touched the mark on her face. “Don’t be a dick.”
“Sorry.”
And they put their attention back on the demon lords.
Vogdris shook off the zap he’d taken and ran for Triganoth, and Triganoth thumped his chest, cracked his fingers, and went to meet him. They collided like two mountains, though one of those mountains looked too small to withstand such a crash. Somehow, he did.
She clenched her fists and shuddered. Mine. That is mine.
Vogdris drew back his fist and hit Triganoth in the face, and she flinched as blood flew from her demon lord’s mouth.
She didn’t figure he’d be kissing her for a while.
Despite their fear, curious humans lingered. They crept out onto porches, stuck their heads out upstairs windows, and shouted at the slayers to “kill the soul-stealing motherfucking lowlife assholes” who were zombifying their children.
“If we combine our power,” Talon told her, “we’ll be stronger.”
“As soon as we can,” she agreed.
Triganoth had warned her to stay away from Vogdris. To let him handle the monstrous demon. But Vogdris was harming human children, and it was the slayers’ responsibility to stop him. If they got a chance to take him out, they would take it. The souls he’d stolen didn’t belong in the red-dark.
The two demon lords had stopped beating each other senseless with their fists and had gone back to magic—but Triganoth’s zaps had become indistinct, weak, and close to ineffective as he used up his power.
Vogdris’ had not.
But Triganoth was fast, and he was strong, even though her world drained his magic. He was demon lord strong. He ducked Vogdris’ fireball, and it didn’t matter that Vogdris still had his power—it still took him a few seconds to rebuild a ball of magic. In those few seconds, Trig wrapped what power he had left around his knuckles, and he began beating the soul-stealer with those massive fists of power.
Vogdris couldn’t concentrate on calling his magic because Trig wouldn’t give him a chance. The soul-stealing demon lord could only try to defend himself against the blows. But finally, he got in a punch of his own. With a roar of rage, he smashed Triganoth’s face and as Trig flew backward, Vogdris followed.
Thankful they were leaving the neighborhood, Krista fastened her seatbelt. “Let’s go,” she said, as the strident sounds of sirens grew louder. “C
ops are coming.” They and the paramedics would see to Vogdris’ latest victim.
Talon stomped the gas pedal, and they sped after the battling demon lords.
It was like chasing a storm. The night glowed red from the flames drifting around the demon lords, and intermittent flashes of power lit the sky with white lightning.
Still, they would have lost the demons as they tumbled through the night but for one thing. Krista felt Triganoth. She opened her mind to him, and through the mark he’d forced upon her, she was pulled to him like a chunk of metal to a powerful magnet.
She would always find him.
They chased the demons to an overgrown field behind the burned-out hull of a warehouse. Talon stopped the car and they jumped out, then ran to the corner of the building to watch, wait, and hope they’d see Vogdris fall.
“If you see a chance,” Krista told Talon, “take it.”
Trig, bloody and burnt, folded his fists and with dwindling power surrounding them, delivered a vicious punch to Vogdris’ throat, then followed it with an uppercut to the jaw.
Vogdris roared and staggered backward, but he recovered abnormally fast and slammed a wall of power into Trig’s chest. Triganoth flew backward and hit a tree so hard Krista was sure his back was broken. Even before he could struggle to his feet, Vogdris was striding toward him, laughing.
“Son of a bitch,” Krista muttered, and without another hesitation, she and Talon rushed the big demon lord.
Talon went after him because he wanted to destroy the baby-killing monster. Krista went after him because she was terrified he’d kill Triganoth.
So that’s what I’ve become.
Of course she wanted to kill him to free the children and protect the innocent humans, as well, but that wasn’t the first thought she had. The first thought she had was that Trig might die, and then she might live with the consuming grief.
She’d revisit the horror of that realization later. She loved a demon lord. She loved a demon. But she shoved it away because there was no room for such dark emotions. Not then. She could only fight, and she could only try to save her demon lord.
6
“Hey,” she screamed. “Hey, asshole!”
Vogdris paused, half turned, and grunted with what she guessed was surprise. His eyes widened when he spotted the mark on her face, and then a crafty look replaced the surprise.
Trig climbed laboriously to his feet, hunched over slightly as though it hurt him too much to straighten, but still managed to glare—whether at her or Vogdris she couldn’t have said. Likely at both of them.
Talon grabbed her hand. “Together.”
As they’d done to call the demons a few weeks earlier, they combined their power, hoping they’d have time to let it build into something strong enough to stop a massive demon lord. They had only seconds. Vogdris turned his back on Trig and raced toward them, and with Krista’s blood magic twisting around Talon’s moon, they hurled their combined power at the oncoming threat.
The push of power collided with the huge demon lord and it was like hitting a train. Krista groaned as she absorbed the impact, which traveled up her fingers, over her arms, and then through her entire body.
At that second, she saw the children.
Their souls swirled around him, inside him, unable to disconnect, unable to do anything but scream at the horror of their imprisonment. Trapped and confused, faces contorted in terror, mouths wide as they screamed for someone to save them.
Because he was a sensitive, Talon was hit harder than she was. She saw the children’s terror.
But he felt it.
And even with their powers combined, they couldn’t hold off Vogdris for long. The initial hit caused him to pause, but then he began to fight against it. He began to push back, and he shoved his power down her and Talon’s figurative throats. If they could just have a single moment to regroup and force a final, intense push, they might make some headway.
She caught sight of Trig loping in behind Vogdris. If he managed to build some lingering power, they could catch the enemy between them and squash him like a bug.
Vogdris forced her to take another step back, and she ground her teeth as pain lit her hands and arms on fire. Talon wouldn’t be faring any better, but if Vogdris magic flew free and hit them, they’d be feeling a heck of a lot worse. Again, she stumbled backward beneath the force of his power.
Then abruptly she felt someone behind her, and he put his hands on her hips to steady her. “I’ve got you, Kris.”
Luke.
Keeping one hand on her body, he lifted his other. He sent his silver power to tangle with the bloodiness of hers and the white of Talon’s, and that was the edge they needed.
The moment Luke’s power ran like lightning down the line of magic and hit Vogdris, Trig rammed the other demon lord from the back. Not with his power, but with his body.
The children screamed on.
But one of them bumped loose, somehow, and in a flash, disappeared. Krista shouted hoarsely in shocked glee, knowing they’d at least saved one child.
And then another soul broke off, flared brightly, and disappeared.
Two down, perhaps a dozen to go.
“Did you see,” she cried.
Vogdris, caught in the middle of three slayers and an irate demon lord, realized he was losing his stolen souls—and with them, his precious power.
He struggled free of the trap, and he ran.
“No,” Krista screamed.
But Triganoth was the only one of them fast enough to chase a demon lord—at least on foot. He didn’t hesitate, and the two demon lords rushed away. The quiet of the night arrived so abruptly it was dizzying.
Krista and Talon were disoriented and emotionally drained—especially Talon. “I know them now,” he whispered. “I know them.”
“We saved two of them,” she told him.
Luke just watched her silently.
She felt his stare like a physical touch, and finally, she walked to him. “You came back,” she whispered.
He smiled. “I told you I would.”
“I wasn’t sure I believed you.” Her voice was full of tears, but her eyes were so dry they burned. Then, “Why’d you come back?”
“Kris,” he murmured. He opened his arms. “I couldn’t stay away.”
She closed her eyes as she pressed against his familiar body and lifted her lips to sink into a kiss that lasted a second, and an eternity.
“When we’re finished with this,” he said, “you and I have something to start.”
“I’ll be waiting,” she said. “I’ve been waiting since you left.”
But right then, they had work to do.
Talon was watching them with unmistakable longing in his stare. But as soon as he saw her looking at him, he dropped shutters over his eyes.
He needed to belong. He needed to be loved.
He didn’t know how to do either.
Someday she’d find out what had hurt him so badly. And if he gave her the chance, maybe she would try to help him heal.
“I stopped by the house,” Luke said, as the three of them walked to Talon’s car. “Asa told me about the council’s deal.”
Talon pulled away and got into his car, then blasted some music while he waited for her—maybe to give her and Luke some privacy. She watched him through the windshield for a few seconds before turning to Luke. “Did he also tell you he promised Maggie he wouldn’t let them take me?”
“Asa would burn down Darkwell if they tried to hold you. We’ll kill Vogdris, and we’ll gain a pardon for you—with or without the summoner’s name.”
Abruptly, she changed the subject. “I saw the kids, Luke.”
“Their bodies?”
“Their souls. I saw them in Vogdris.” She gestured. “Around him. That’s how I knew two of them were saved.”
He rubbed his face. “Fuck.”
She nodded. “Trig has been sent to take Vogdris back to their world. If he succeeds, those children
will never be free. We have to kill Vogdris before Triganoth manages to force him home. Also, Talon said his lines are weakening. We need a plan.”
But she had no idea what to do. No idea at all. How did one find a demon lord who didn’t want to be found? And he was getting stronger with each soul he stole, each drop of blood he drank.
Luke opened his mouth to reply but his words were lost beneath her cry when an unfamiliar, unbearable pain sliced through her face. She slapped a hand over her mark and bent double, thinking, for one brief second, that she was dying.
Then she realized she wasn’t dying.
Triganoth was.
7
Luke grabbed her shoulders as Talon jumped from the car and ran to them. She could hear their voices through the mist of pain, but distantly, and their words made no sense. There was only pain.
No, not only.
There was terror, as well.
It took her precious seconds to regain control and figure out how to function through the deluge of agony, and each second that ticked by saw Triganoth closer to his end.
Finally, she flung their hands away, and with her face on fire, she ran for the car. “I can find Vogdris,” she said. “Hurry!”
Luke left his car and jumped into Talon’s with them. “What are you feeling, Kris?”
“Vogdris is killing Trig. Right this second.” She put her window down and let the cold air cool her burning skin. It helped also to clear the confusion from her mind. “I’ll guide you, Talon. Kick it.”
“Are you okay?” he asked her, spinning out of the field.
“No. But Trig is worse.” It took them an eternity to reach the section of the city where she felt Triganoth the most intensely. “Stop here.” She was out of the car and running before it had completely rolled to a stop.
She’d never felt such urgency. She ran on pure instinct, following a feeling, a crushing, desperate feeling. She spotted the Old River Bar and Grill and knew immediately that’s where she needed to be. Not inside, though.