“And then what?” She could kill me as a warlock just as easily as she could kill me as a mundane if I chose not to defend myself.
“I think you know.”
I suspected. “Spell it out.”
“I jump into you.” She leant forward with an elbow on her knee and boxed a picture frame with her fingers. “Gideon Crest and Sage Daniels ride off into the sunset while poor Lexan Delacotte watches in despair.”
She laughed, high on her own damn delusions. “I wasn’t sure what to do with him, but I like this. Your body and my existential essence and our little Claimed sidekick. I hope he lives a long life to appreciate the dramatic flair.”
She didn’t know Lex. He’d hunt her down and get Sage back and make sure my body went to its rightful grave.
And she didn’t know me. I had no intention of letting any demon walk out this warehouse.
I looked up at Sage with bone-deep regret. And more…more than the futility of a useless death…more than the loss of her fulfilling her destiny and giving Lex’s back to him.
It felt like a chainsaw going to work inside my chest.
She looked at me, took one hand off the railing and ran it through her hair, holding back the silky lengths from her gorgeous face. Somewhere along the way, Sage had drawn me into her orbit and I wasn’t ready to free fall.
Lex always gave me shit about how damn easy this was for me.
It was fucking hard.
But this wasn’t just about a demon walking out of here. This was a demon walking out of here in my body. In death, I would betray everything I had lived for.
I scrubbed my jaw, a physical pain creasing behind my eyes as I looked my full one last time.
My back teeth ached from what I had to do.
I’m sorry.
She pulled her hand down to the barrier again, leaving her hair to fall over her cheek and she smiled.
She fucking smiled.
It was wobbly and sad, and the bravest thing I’d ever seen.
“Gideon, it’s okay.” Her voice was as steady as the look that held my gaze. “I know what you have to do. I want you to do it.”
The chainsaw hacking away inside my chest went still.
My mouth shrugged around a grin.
I’d never pretended to be a saint. What the fuck. Maybe I’d been born to die a traitor’s death, betraying my coven and my duty and my blood.
I cocked a brow at her and brought my eyes down to the coiled hell vine.
The moment it touched skin, it would live up to its name. All hell breaks loose inside me.
I tipped a toe inside the coil and dragged it with me as I shuffled backward. “One condition. We do this outside.”
“Boys and their pride, you’ll die for a girl but you won’t let her see you cry.” She slunk down from the crates and followed to the raised roller door. “That’s far enough.”
I took one more step and went down on my knees with my back to the outside wall. I’d broken her range from the stairwell. Any further delay would just risk Lex losing patience and blowing his chance to claw Sage from the barrier and carry her away.
There was no way to sever the connection of a Claimed, but Lex could keep her restrained, safe. Eventually a Moon or Sun would find and vanquish this demon.
Jessica had half an eye inside the warehouse. That wouldn’t last. She’d be engrossed in me once the fun started.
I took a moment to quieten my soul.
Then I got on with stripping my leather jacket.
“So eager,” Jessica observed, her tongue tart with disdain. “You must really love the girl.”
I laughed at her.
I laughed for myself.
I wasn’t in love with Sage. I was attracted. Fascinated. Surprised. Impressed. And I wasn’t doing this for her. I was doing this for myself. There was a ton of dark shit I could live with but it seemed that throwing Sage to the dogs didn’t make that list.
I tossed the jacket aside and pulled my shirt off.
Jessica stepped closer and stooped to gather the hell vine. “This is where I’m supposed to say this is going to hurt me more than you, but that would be a lie.”
She dropped the coil over my head. As soon as the vine hit my shoulders it came alive, cutting into my arms and chest as it wrapped its way down my torso. The cuts were superficial pain that barely registered.
I clenched my jaw, closed my eyes, waiting for real thing. It wasn’t called hell vine for its providence.
My stomach twisted.
I was only human after all.
The poison pricked and burned slowly through my veins. A cold sweat broke out on my brow. This was only the beginning, my magic stirred by the foreign intrusion. Once it started fighting for survival, I’d have a front row seat to hell. When it was depleted, my angel blood would be exposed and defenseless for the hell vine to consume.
The burn spread out over my skin as the poison spread into the finer blood vessels. Time passed. Minutes? Hours? I lost track as my magic fought harder. I fisted the pain into my palms, tried to… it wouldn’t be contained.
Sweat dripped into my eyes. My breath came out in pants. I tried to bite down on it, but the fucking groans escaped.
I’d thought I could do this with dignity.
Where’s that arrogant bastard now?
Somewhere out there on the peripherals of my hell, I thought I heard the sound of an engine, a car door slamming, a shout, I wasn’t sure. The agony was building beyond my sanity, raw, flaying my organs from the inside out. I was black fire, an inferno of tormented agony. I was the scream that pounded inside my head, over and over.
I was damnation.
The eternally damned…
Awareness returned as the raw pain receded. Not gently. It blazed through my blood like a backdraft of hell fire. The agony was being plucked, ruthlessly ripped from my veins. The scream clawed itself loose from my skull.
“Arran is here.” More plucking, barbs torn from their hook. “Arran Macleod. Fuck, this is… Gideon!” More pain ripping before it came free. “You’re going to be okay. Can you hear me?”
“I hear you.” My eyes opened more slowly than I liked. My skin felt turned inside out. But the pain had dimmed enough for me to function. “You need to go. Now. Take Sage and go.”
What the fuck was he still doing here?
“You scared the shit out of me,” Lex said in a low voice, snipping at the vine with what looked like the toolkit from my key fob. The hand that ripped it away was thickly bandaged with what looked like my t-shirt. “Sage is safe. I cuffed her to the stairwell. She can’t hurt herself and Arran is here. He has Jessica occupied.”
Every snip and rip was torture and redemption, fire bleeding from my veins followed by the kiss of cool water.
“He blew his fucking trumpet when he saw the hell vine.” Lex spoke fast, worked quickly. “I think he’s going to vanquish her.”
“Think again.”
He plucked the last vine loose and snapped the toolkit shut. “You don’t think he can?”
“I don’t think he will.” I tested my feet and stood, wiping at the hair clumped to my forehead. When I brought my hand down, I noted the trembling.
So did Lex. He pushed up from his knees. “You look like shit.”
“I feel like shit.” I took in his bare chest. “Were you feeling left out?”
“How do you think I cuffed Sage? We forgot to pack the rope.” He scowled at me.
“Sorry, next time I’ll remember the rope.”
“What the fuck was that?” He shoved at me, caught me off guard and sent me stumbling back a step. “Hell vine? Seriously?”
“It wasn’t my idea.” I put a finger up. The voices from inside the warehouse were indiscernible. I couldn’t tell if they were fighting or making up. “He’ll never do it.”
“Jesus.” Lex pulled a hand through his hair. “Do you have the juice?”
I had no idea. I didn’t even know if the vine had gotten at my angel blood. I summoned a f
istful of magic and threw it. A ball of blue-threaded veins glowed brightly, then snapped and crackled into nothing.
“It’s something,” I murmured and went to collect my discarded jacket. “Can you get Arran away from her?”
Lex hesitated.
I shrugged into the leather. “I’m doing this, Lex.”
“I know.” He shook his head, but got moving. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Once his back was turned, I planked both hands in front of me. Not quite steady. I shook them out in disgust and pressed close to the wall, edging toward the entrance.
“I need help with Sage,” I heard Lex shout. “No, not her. I don’t want her anywhere near Sage.”
“You wound me.” Jessica. “I’m behaving. I swear.”
“Not now lass,” Arran said gruffly.
I peered around. Jessica was all the way over, perched on the far end of the conveyor belt. She watched as Arran crossed the cavernous space to join Lex at the stairwell. I couldn’t see Sage but I trusted Lex could or he would’ve stopped this.
I judged the distance between me and Jessica. Forty feet? She’d see me coming and I had no magic to waste in the run up. It wasn’t the demon that worried me. I had to get to her before Arran got to me.
My eyes landed on the conveyor belt. It reached almost to the loading door.
As soon as Arran neared, Lex went head on with the man into a full blown, raised voices argument.
“There’s naught I can do for her.”
“Your wife did this! Get her to break the connection!”
“The lass isna being cooperative right now.”
I darted across the opening and slipped inside against the wall.
Crouched low, I shot across the gap so I could creep up along the other side of the conveyor belt. Crates and debris littered the ground, providing additional cover but also risking a misstep that could give me away.
The heated argument went back and forth, creating noise and keeping Jessica’s attention diverted there. They were still at it when I came up behind her.
She sensed my presence and whirled about.
I smirked and brought my hands up, cradling her at the temples.
“Arran!” she screamed.
Too late.
Blue flames wove in and around my fingers and spiraled her head, neck, shoulders.
“Arran!” Not a scream. A shrieked squeal of pure terror.
She knew this was the end.
I chanted and the flames engulfed the demon within.
“sata de tenebris
maledictim, et oblivione delebitur
et abierunt”
Arran’s roar resounded throughout the chamber of the warehouse, echoed within the approaching thuds of his heavy footfalls as the demon went up in flumes of black smoke and sulfur. The remains of his wife’s body settled over the belt and ground like a coat of soot.
He came to a crashing halt, breath heaving, his arms hanging loosely.
I ignored him for now.
My ritual was always the same.
The demon was gone.
Silently, I repeated the words in English to myself.
spawn of darkness
cursed and forgotten
be gone
I pressed a hand to my heart and bowed my head.
A life was gone, too.
earth to earth
ashes to ashes
dust to dust
you were loved, you will be missed
When I looked again, Lex and Sage were making their way toward us.
Arran’s head lifted, fathomless depths of sorrow and anguish burning in his eyes. He looked broken. He looked like a man who’d just lost his soulmate.
“I am sorry,” I said quietly.
It wasn’t enough.
It never was.
His hands gathered into fists at his side. The burn in his eyes turned to cold embers of vengeance. “You shouldna have done that.”
I had a bad feeling about this. I sent Lex a look. Go.
He got the message. He grabbed Sage by the hand and abruptly changed direction.
Arran sensed something. His head bent their way.
I summoned my magic and threw a splutter of sparks at him. Shit. That was all I had left.
He flung out an arm, a tidal wave of invisible power that swept Lex up into the air and across space.
“Lex!” Sage screamed.
I leapt on top the conveyor belt as Lex crashed down into a crate and launched myself at the burly Scot—his raised palm stopped me, a wall of energy that bounced me back and to the ground.
What the hell was he?
My next breath was a sharp pain I recognized. I’d cracked a fucking rib. I dragged myself upright for round two.
Arran was one step ahead. He curled a hand through the air that grabbed me by the scruff of the neck without touch and lifted me off my feet. “I warned you ta leave me and mine alone.”
He sounded like a wounded bear.
He looked like a damned avenging angel.
“As you have taken from me, I will take from you,” he vowed and flung me high with speed and force.
My body hit the wall and dribbled to the floor. Pain and shock exploded through me. I was done. It felt like every bone in my body was broken. Every internal organ splattered.
I lay there, my cheek plastered to the cement, choking on my breaths, and watched Arran tear a screaming, cursing, kicking Sage from Lex’s side and drag her off with him.
21
SAGE
“Calm down and stop fighting me,” Arran growled.
The panic and rage swarming inside me pooled away. My limbs went loose beneath his rough grip. His next furious stride nearly yanked the ball of my shoulder from its socket. “Ow!”
He brought us up short at the gaping fence and let go.
I rubbed my shoulder, not looking at him, not caring about the pain, not caring that Arran was probably a demon just like his shitty wife. The fight had left me. Overwhelming grief took over. My heart was back in the warehouse with Lex. And Gideon.
Lex still had a pulse. I’d checked. He seemed to be breathing okay, but I had no idea what kind of internal injuries he’d suffered.
He’s not dead.
I wasn’t as sure about Gideon. I’d seen the speed at which he’d hit that wall and crumpled to the ground.
“Lass, I’m sorry.” He sounded gentler. “I dinna mean ta hurt you. You’re safe with me. No harm will come ta you.”
Maybe not a demon.
Another Eclipse Warlock?
Sun?
That made sense. He had no reason to hurt me. But from what I knew, he could have every reason to hurt Lex and Gideon. And he had.
“You’re coming with me and you have no objections,” he said and walked on ahead to where his silver truck was parked behind Gideon’s Audi. “Get into the car.”
I followed, digging into my back pocket for my phone. Gideon wouldn’t like it. My breath caught on a broken sob. He could still be alive and he didn’t have to like it. I bent my head to see what I was doing and punched 911.
Arran’s shadow fell across me. Without a word, he pried the phone from my hands and tossed it into the long grass. “Do not use any phone without my permission.”
“They need medical attention.”
“Aah.” He considered that as we rounded each side of the truck, but didn’t change his mind and go back for my phone.
I slammed my body into the passenger seat and folded my arms tightly to hold in the pain, the dread, the desolation, the complete and utter exhaustion.
Suddenly it was all too much.
After everything I’d gone through today, after everything we’d all gone through, this was not how it ended. Not with Lex desperately injured and Gideon possibly dead.
Arran climbed behind the wheel and closed the driver door.
We sat there, Arran staring out the windshield, me staring past him to the warehouse, chewing on my lip until it
bled—I wanted it to bleed, I wanted to feel pain that I could see—and holding my dark emotions close to my heart.
“The lads will be fine,” he said after a timeless moment.
My stare came in to him. “You don’t know that.”
“Eclipse Warlocks are tough ta kill.” He looked at me.
“They’re not immortal!”
“So long as their hearts pump blood, they will heal, and I didna see either of them bleeding out.” His eyes cut forward and he started the engine. “I slowed them down. I didna kill them.”
I shook my head away from him. “Why should I believe you?”
“Because I’m the one who’s going to tell you the full truth,” he said solemnly. We pulled onto the road. “And trust me, once you hear it, you may well wish they were dead. Rest now, we have a long drive ahead.”
He sounded sincere, but I wasn’t ready to trust his version of anything. If Arran Macleod was Sun, it would be harshly biased.
I put my head back against the seat and cast my gaze out the side window, thinking about Lex and his missing scar. Angel blood, he’d said. I heal quickly.
Maybe Eclipse Warlocks were tough to kill.
Maybe I’d believe that part.
Maybe that’s how I’d survive this road trip, wherever the hell we were going.
The hours ate up the miles. I slept through some of it. Mostly my thoughts spun around the worry I couldn’t quite let go of and the horrific events of the day.
The demon was vanquished. Grant, Haley and Kenzie would have been released from that catatonic state. They were safely home by now. And very confused, I imagined. That brought a fleeting smile to my lips, there and gone, my thoughts already spun into the next dark place.
The sounds torn from Gideon when the demon had him outside. I hadn’t seen what she’d done to him. I’d heard. Not screams. Much lower. Quieter. A noise that carried so much anguish it travelled on its own weight.
A kind of torment I had no reference point for.
And I couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d suffered through all that for me. When he’d gone outside with the demon, I’d assumed it was part of his plan to vanquish her. I’d stood there on the walkway, waiting for the final command that would end me before Gideon did what he was sworn to do.
But death hadn’t come for me.
Torment: Dark Paranormal Romance (Eclipse Warlocks Book 1) Page 24