by Harley James
She looked into his haggard face and saw the love and acceptance she’d always craved. “I want that.”
Her arms jolted out to the side as the full, euphoric impact of Ari’s life force joined with her own. An exploding kaleidoscope of colors that was there, then gone, leaving behind a new level of dynamism in the Chains that still hung around her neck.
Below them, Leviathan’s scaly gray body swam in a rapid circle just beneath the surface of the churning water, healing, rejuvenating her power. The current swirled, a huge dimple growing in its center.
A massive whirlpool.
Ari thrust a hand into her hair at the nape of her neck and brushed a rough kiss against her lips before she slipped from his warm embrace and dove. She plunged into the whirlpool’s center, the howling of the wind deadening as she sank through the murky water. Instead, she heard the archdemon’s piercing underwater vocalizations, driving away all forms of marine life.
Katherine blinked, resisting the urge to wrap her arms around herself and cry. Her remaining foot touched the sandy ocean bottom, and she used her love and trust in Ari to close the door on the fear that beat in the back of her brain.
Her vision shifted, brightening. Objects came into focus. Shadows lightened and swayed from the rush of water pulling at her.
I am of water.
The aqua element surged in her chest, more powerful this time as it was knit with Ari’s corresponding air element. Her heart pounded. She opened her mouth.
No water entered.
“North. She senses you. At my signal, clear the water and make haste to safety.”
Leviathan was building a watery grave for her. But she could do this. For Mary. For Ari. For Raj and all the Guardians who worked so hard for their second chance.
For the human lives they all protected.
The boiling holy water hadn’t worked. This had to. I am of water. Her hands curled into fists, her foot shooting with phantom pains as it regrew. She inhaled and exhaled. Again and again before she allowed herself to believe she could actually breathe underwater.
“Now, North!”
Katherine spun supernaturally fast, forcing the waves to reel back at her command. The water retreated in a booming, frothing roll, leaving a circle of dry sand a quarter-mile diameter wide. Leviathan’s monstrous form surged through the edge of the retreating water, landing in a mighty thud against the dry sea floor where crabs scurried and colorful fish flopped amid coral and waterlogged seaweed.
Katherine streamed back to the safety of the water and sent every last thread of her remaining power pouring into the archdemon’s form and found…
Sadness. Loneliness.
Despair.
An echoing eternity of it. All of the things the archangel had seen inside her own soul.
Tears swelled in Katherine’s eyes, then blended with the ocean. Leviathan rolled and crouched on her hindquarters, her black eyes intent, everything about her seeming to wait for annihilation at Katherine’s hand.
Then she shifted back to her human form and hung her head, her long frizzy hair a halo concealing her face.
What the hell?
The archdemon’s form flickered in and out.
“Don’t let her leave!” Ari’s voice barreled through her mind.
“I don’t know how to make her stay!”
“Use the Chains!”
Katherine reached up to wrap her hands around the Chains that had bound St. Peter, but before her fingers could grasp the ancient iron, Mary stood beside Leviathan on the dry sand.
“Mary?” Katherine gasped, blinking back more tears.
“Kitty.” Mary’s sweet voice was as clear as the sunny morning when their world had fallen apart. “People hurt others because their own souls weep.”
“I know, sister.” For decades Katherine had cultivated an icy front to keep people at a distance. If she had no close attachments, there would be no guilt, no chance of pain.
But oh, the loneliness.
She’d even kept Jade at arm’s length as hard as she’d tried to worm her way in. But Katherine had ended up hurting herself most of all because she’d missed out on so much.
“I can’t destroy her, Grimm.”
Ari’s warmth stroked through her mind. “Mary’s not really here. She’s beyond the reach of demons. You know that, North. Leviathan’s reflecting your feelings to create sympathy. She’s using your humanity to try to defeat you because she finally realizes she underestimated you.”
Her heart was beating so fast in her chest. “What if you’re wrong?”
“Look inside yourself and see if what she’s projecting is more about you than it is her.”
Katherine stared into Mary’s dark eyes, so like their mother’s, waiting for a spark of connection.
Waited as the water around her pulsed with Leviathan’s dark energy.
Waited for warmth or humanity.
Nothing.
The moment Katherine’s hands curled around the Chains, Mary’s form winked out. Leviathan shifted into the scaled monster once more. Her long, forked tail twitched, sending a volley of sand hurtling through the wall of water, pelting Katherine like stinging buckshot.
Katherine pulled energy from the Chains, sending out her element to bind with the liquid molecules in Leviathan’s form. Katherine’s body shook, the rattling of the Chains magnified underwater as her power worked to dehydrate every last ounce of moisture in the archdemon’s body.
Leviathan bucked and screamed as Ari drove away the clouds so the sun’s potent rays could wreak more devastation. The archdemon’s body smoked and her skin began to desiccate. Her claws gouged giant furrows in the sand as she snorted and pawed her way to the boundary between sand and water where Katherine stood.
“I can’t hold the water off of her for much longer.”
“Okay. Raise your protection shield.”
“I don’t know if I have enough energy. I can’t divert it from Leviathan.”
“You have to. Do it now!”
Suddenly, the pressure changed. The water condensed around her, leaden, cold, and unimaginably heavy as though she were two miles below the surface instead of thirty feet. Hard to breathe. She dropped to her hands and knees. She ground her teeth together and diverted a portion of her element to insulate herself, and the crushing pressure lifted. She looked over, gaping as russet-colored powder puffed out of Leviathan’s scaled nostrils and mouth. She was lying on her side on the sand, jerking unnaturally, the once-shiny scales of her body now shriveled and dull.
But in her defeat…a thread of humanity. The archdemon’s eyes, sorrowful.
Katherine raised a hand toward her, but the creature didn’t even have the strength to cry out as Ari continued to apply a massive amount of pressure to her form, crushing her withered internal organs into dust.
Soon there was nothing left but a pile of coppery soot. A great rumble shook the earth as a crevasse opened in the ocean floor, swallowing the archdemon dust.
Katherine stood up slowly, shakily, and stepped from the water onto the dry patch she’d created. She looked up to see Ari fall like an angel from the sky.
Chapter 29
Ari shot out of bed, his beloved Ulfbehrt sword already in hand by the time the footsteps halted outside Kat’s door. He strode naked across Kat’s Aqua bedroom as three powerful raps shook the wood doorframe. He glanced back to see Kat scoot up, her blonde hair tousled, her sea-green eyes soft, and those breasts…
He sucked in a rough breath and put a finger to his lips with a look he hoped was one part ‘don’t worry’ and twelve parts ‘don’t you dare leave that bed.’
“I hear you two breathing in there, mate. The sooner you open the bloody door, the sooner you can resume your celebratory, demon-ass-kicking fuck-fest. Come on now, don’t make me pull a Spencer and go the full monty on this door.”
Nate Temple, owner of the Minneapolis club, Mirage.
Ari almost laughed out loud when he heard a slap, then a muffled
“ow” from the other side of the door.
“There’s a female heartbeat out there. Get some clothes on your relentless body, Viking, or somebody’s gonna get hurt.” Kat slipped into the itty-bitty satin robe he’d relished peeling off her last night. At the moment, however, he wasn’t too keen on her wearing it in front of another male, even if said Guardian was already bonded.
“Relentless, huh? I’ll show you relentless.” He lunged for her. She squealed and snatched a towel from the back of the chair, snapping it across his pecs so hard it left a mark.
“You’re going to pay for that.”
“Gladly.”
Saucy. He growled to hide a smile, cinching the towel around his hips before opening the door.
Nate had an arm around the shoulders of his bonded mate, Jessie Blaze. He moved a half step back, smoothing the feathers of her long white wings so they wouldn’t touch the doorjamb as the angel entered the room.
“Thank God the mighty Viking listens to you, Katherine.” Nate winked at his Unholy Inc partner. “My eyes couldn’t have handled him starkers this early in the morning.”
“Get on with it, English. And it better not be bad news.”
Jessie’s lips curved at Katherine. “I’m sorry to bother you so early and indelicately with my Neanderthal in tow. But as soon as Raj recovered and filled us in on your battle against Leviathan yesterday, we had to come. Well done, you two.” She approached Katherine, arms outstretched.
Ari watched the shifting play of emotions on Kat’s face as she fought against her inclination to shun physical contact, to ward off intimacy. It all happened in the blink of an eye, but he saw her triumph over the artificial walls she’d kept up for so long. Kat wrapped her arms gently around Jessie’s wings and closed her eyes, feeling the embrace so thoroughly that Ari felt its echoes through their soul bond.
“I love you, North.”
Katherine opened misty eyes and blew him a kiss before pulling back from Jessie to smile warmly. “Welcome to what’s left of Aqua.”
“I wish we could stay to help clean up, but unfortunately, we have to hustle to San Francisco,” Nate said. “Spencer’s maxed out with Baal still raising hell at Inferno.”
“When you get there, let us know if you need some extra hands. My staff is competent enough to handle the cleanup.” Katherine crossed her arms under her breasts, drawing Ari’s undivided attention until fingers snapped in front of his face.
“Up here, Grimm.” Katherine pointed to her amused eyes, then glanced at Jessie. “Looks like you’re not the only one cavorting with a caveman today.”
Ari advanced on her purposefully, unable to resist touching her for another moment. Countless times yesterday he wondered if he’d ever have the chance to hold her in his arms again. Because of that, last night, not one hour had passed without feeling her skin next to his.
It was healing for both of them.
He pulled her against his side. “You wouldn’t want me any other way.”
Nate smirked at Jessie. “What he said.”
They all laughed.
“We’ll let you know if things deteriorate further at Inferno. What we’re more concerned about is Alexios,” Nate said quietly.
A bad feeling settled in Ari’s gut, remembering how Alexios looked on the beach the first day he’d arrived on O‘ahu.
Katherine had gone completely still. “What’s wrong with him?”
“He’s been increasingly absent from Rapture, and when he is at his club, he’s…volatile,” Jessie responded. The unflappable Guardian leader had always been their rock. If something rattled the Spartan, it was truly cause for concern.
“I don’t think he’s located Sophia yet,” Ari said. “The only other time I’ve seen him this unstable was when he couldn’t find her in the sixteenth century.”
“Is he sure she’s even reincarnated in current times?” Kat asked.
Nate nodded. “In each of Sophia’s reincarnations, Alexios feels when her presence enters the ether. He knows she exists somewhere on the planet, but he can’t locate her until she’s in danger. Jawahar thinks the difference this time is that Alexios feels her need of him, but can’t find her.” As Rapture’s head of security and Alexios’ closest friend, Jawahar Bajwa would be the one to know.
Ari pulled Katherine to his side. “That would drive anyone mad.”
“But especially the oldest of the Guardians,” Jessie added.
“At various times over the centuries, I’ve had concerns about how he was able to go on. Having to lose your soul mate over and over like that. To watch her die, not knowing where or when you’d see her again…” Ari trailed off, and the four of them remained silent for a moment.
“What can we do to help?” Kat asked.
“When you have things squared away here, you might want to check in at Rapture. Jaws is completely capable, but your help was invaluable to me at Mirage. There’s really nothing we can do to help Alexios find Sophia, but helping out at his club would let him focus on her recovery.” Nate smiled and squeezed Jessie. “We should probably leave now to let these two return to their slap and tickle. Unless you want to grab a room of our own—”
Jessie open-mouth kissed him, then shoved him back with a smile. She turned to Kat. “I want to apologize for calling you stuck up and sexually repressed that first day we met.”
Kat raised an eyebrow. “Do you now?”
Jessie’s smile slipped and a furrow appeared between Nate’s brows.
Apparently, Kat’s haughty expression was only transparent to Ari. He tried not to laugh. After all their time together at Mirage, Nate should be able to tell Kat was fronting. “You’re being mean,” Ari said on their intimate connection.
“Do you really expect me to change overnight? I have decades of bitchiness to beat back, you know.”
Her blue eyes blinked up at him as he approached. “Excuses, excuses. You expect me to believe you aren’t strong enough to overcome things you yourself want to change?”
Too late she realized his intentions. He bent down and pulled her over his shoulder, her mouthwatering ass next to his face. He kept his back to Nate and Jessie so they wouldn’t see her nether regions exposed under the flimsy robe. “In case you’d forgotten, accepting an apology is one of the cornerstones of friendship, North.”
The pads of her fingers played over the muscles of his lower back, dipping beneath the edge of the towel. He closed his eyes to focus on the lesson, but his body had other ideas. Her leg shifted slowly, deliberately, across the bulge in the front of the towel, making him cross-eyed.
“Oops,” she whispered throatily, then pushed laughter into his mind.
His fingernails dug into the backs of her thighs to hold her still while he angled his body to the side to address their guests. “My apologies. It seems my mate is more interested in corporal punishment than graciously accepting an olive branch. I will deal with her accor—”
“Oh, stop. Really, Grimm, this responsible, ‘teach Katherine how to be nice’ side of yours can be so annoying.” Katherine paused, then added telepathically, “Put me down. Now.”
When he did—carefully so as not to expose her bits and his own—she took Jessie’s hands in her own with a secret little smile that Ari didn’t quite trust. “Look, I’m no an angel. I never will be. I’ve pretty much deserved everything I’ve been doled out. So, I’m grateful for your apology. I give you mine as well, even though I’m damned jealous of those gorgeous wings.”
Jessie laughed and pulled her into a hug. Ari caught Kat’s brief surprise before she hugged her back. “Then all’s forgotten.”
Kat wasn’t the first to pull away. That, more than all her words, made Ari realize she was truly opening her heart. He rubbed at the sudden warmth in his chest as Nate and Jessie bade their goodbyes.
Kat closed the door behind them, then leaned back against it for a moment. His feet felt rooted to the middle of the floor as he looked at her.
She cinched her robe tight
er as the tropical sunlight slanted through the windows and struck her golden hair. “What are you staring at?”
“You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to bond with you.”
She moved away from the door. His heart rate accelerated as she moved toward him. “You are a persistent man, I’ll give you that.” Her lips curved softly.
Her smile made him happy. “I will never give up on you. Don’t ever forget that.” His skin warmed every place her gaze strayed—his lips, neck, shoulders, chest…
“You’re pretty hard to forget.” Her lips quirked as her gaze traveled further south. “Perhaps I should say you’re a hard man in general.”
“Indeed.” He closed the last few inches between them, his thumbs hooking under the lapels of her robe to slide it down her sleek shoulders. He bent down to feather his lips against her neck. Her swift intake of breath was all he needed right now.
He kissed his way down her body as he went to his knees before her. His fingers pulled on the ribbon that circled her waist. As the black satin fell away, he watched his own hands as they skimmed up and down her curves, her skin alive, quivering, reaching for his touch. A poetry all its own.
He built the pressure in the air behind her, then eased her back to float semi-reclined on the dense atomic mass that molded comfortably around her body.
She sighed and closed her eyes. “Ah, fancy tricks. Being so old has a few perks, I guess.”
“Old, you say?” He waved his hands at the windows to draw the curtains. No one else was going to partake of the coming view. “That mouth of yours is going to get you in trouble if you don’t have a care,” he warned, hopeful she would misbehave as he bent to kiss his way up her calves.
“I can handle any trouble as long as I have a fresh coat of lipstick.” Her breath hitched as his lips moved to the insides of her thighs.
“Is that so?” he whispered, pressing her legs further apart to nip, lick, and suck on her flesh like it was his last meal. Deliberate. Wanting to savor the moment. The feel of her fingers pulling at his hair. He shifted between her legs, aligning his mouth with her sex. “Then maybe I should concern myself with your lips as well. No?”