Daemon Grudge

by Stacey Brutger

  He blanched, like she’d just taken a blade to his balls.

  “Hurry. Up.” Nikos popped up next to her, breathing heavily, ducking and weaving as he dodged fists from two soldiers. Then he gave a vicious smile, swinging at a soldier who tried to stab her in the back with a wickedly big knife that could easily have filleted her spine from her back. A second later he was gone, launching himself at someone who was trying to sneak up on Thomas.

  She’d been stalling, curling away from the coming pain.

  No more delays.

  Taking a deep breath, she set her hands on the cage. Power snapped into her so strong that her back bowed. Keegan snarled, then placed his hands next to hers. The pain lessened slightly, enough that her insides didn’t feel like they were shredding with each breath.

  The metal practically crumbled under their touch…then Keegan was free.

  He gently swept her up in his arms and carried her away from the battle. She squirmed in his arms, struggling to crawl over his shoulder to get back, and he cupped her ass, her legs somehow ending up around his waist.

  “We can’t leave.”

  Even as she spoke, she saw Warrick was using the sharp, torn edges of the table still dangling from his cuffs like blades. He practically shredded the soldiers targeting them, blood soaking his clothes and dripping from his face and hair.

  Atticus was fighting one of the daemons she’d failed to doze. Thomas and his men were trying to get at the Kronos leader as he fled to the second dissection room and out the rear door. A couple of the soldiers paused in their pursuit and began releasing the prisoners from their cages. Thankfully, the cells weren’t enhanced, just normal steel. The enhanced metal was too rare, not to mention wasted on daemons who had yet to come into their full power.

  Those who were able quickly joined the fight, while a few others gathered the sick and weak and fled down the hallways.

  Travers was fighting Darren…and failing. Despite the dose she gave him, the elite warrior was clearly the better fighter. Though Travers did his best to fend off Darren’s knife, the elite soldier was slowly whittling him down with each slash of the blade, the last blow sending him careening backwards. Without a hint of emotion on his face, Darren slashed Travers throat with a brutal blow, almost decapitating him.

  Travers stumbled back, nearly tripping over the body at his feet. He grabbed his throat to stem the blood, but it poured through his fingers like water. His eyes met hers across the room—and death stared back at her.

  He wasn’t going to heal before he bled out.

  His face hardened into determination, and he charged Darren. The blade went flying, clattering to the floor as the two of them slammed into what remained of the stainless steel table.

  The sharp edges of the metal carved into Darren’s side, nearly gutting him. Darren shoved at Travers, and she watched as the daemon collapsed to the ground, his sightless eyes staring up at her. Darren took one look at the room, his face twisting into a snarl of fury before he ran like a fucking coward, leaving behind a river of blood.

  Nikos stayed close, kept the others away from her and Keegan, and she reached over and grabbed his shirt, pulling him close.

  “Grab the blade.” Even at the distance, power radiated from it, and her hand itched with the need to possess it.

  There were more dead people than alive in the room. The fighting had almost slowed to a stop, moving away from them. All her guys were breathing heavily, covered with blood, but still alive.

  Nikos bent and retrieved the blade, then bowed and offered it up to her over his arm like a servant would a bottle of wine. She had to poke Keegan twice in the ribs to get him to lower her. He harrumphed, burying his face in her neck, inhaling deeply before he loosened his hold, and she became aware of how intimately he’d been holding her.

  When he loosened his grip, she slid down the front of him, struggling to remember why she wanted down in the first place…until Nikos gave a naughty chuckle, flipped the blade, and offered it to her hilt first.

  When she reached to take it, he hissed at the ruined condition of her hands. Ignoring the way he reached for her, she quickly grabbed the knife, wincing at the sting when it came into contact with her sensitive flesh, her muscles aching and slow to respond.

  As soon as her hand curled around the pommel, it was like two magnets snapping into place. It felt like the blade had been searching for a place to belong and chose her.

  She brushed off her foolish thoughts when it looked like Nikos was going to protest, and she shook her head. “Later. We don’t have much time.”

  His expression was thunderous, but he didn’t try to force the issue.

  The rest of the guys gathered around her, including a few of Thomas’s soldiers, none of them letting down their guard. She staggered forward, her balance wobbly, and Keegan and Nikos reached out to steady her.

  “What are you doing, beautiful?” Nikos murmured in her ear.

  She glanced at him, then lifted the blade. “This metal is similar to the cages, though it’s not imbued with the same magic.”

  The guys exchanged a startled look, and Keegan peered over her shoulder at the knife. “How do you know? Hephaestus metal is extremely rare and coveted, the weapons are almost nonexistent. They say those who possess the blades of the gods can’t lose, the deities themselves guiding their hand in battle.”

  She frowned at them, puzzled. “You can’t feel the magic in it?”

  They all shook their heads, and she mentally sighed. She wasn’t sure how she knew the knife was different, only that she longed to possess it with a need that made her ache, and she tightened her hold on it.

  “Watch.” She headed toward the two remaining cages with a slight limp, determined to free the two battered guys waiting within. As she lifted her arm, the blade heated in her hand, as if pulling her magic into the metal, eager to do her bidding. When she thrust it down, the knife sliced clear through the bars, leaving behind a hiss and a string of smoke. The smell of hot steel perfumed the air as the freshly severed edges of the metal melted into sludge.

  There was a tug on her magic, a slight sucking sensation, but no pain, and she suspected it was because she hadn’t yet learned how to use her powers properly. Without hesitation, she slashed at the second cage, the heated metal against warming the air. When two of the soldiers showed up to help the daemons out of their cages, she turned toward Warrick and pointed the knife at the cuffs dangling from his wrists.

  Warrick lifted his arms out to her without hesitation, his makeshift blades still dripping blood. He looked deadly and savage and sexy as fuck. His pale blue eyes studied her intently, his face tightening as he noted every injury. Careful not to touch the blade against the vulnerable undersides of his wrists, somehow knowing a cut from this particular knife would be hard to heal even for a daemon, she sliced quickly and cleanly through the cuffs.

  They clattered to the ground, and everyone froze in shock. The silence was broken when Thomas and a few of his men charged back into the room. They were bruised and battered, their clothes rumpled, stained, and torn, but they appeared relatively whole. Thomas searched the area, relaxing when he finally spotted her.

  Her men had the opposite effect, and they stiffened when he neared.

  She pocketed the blade before anyone thought to take it from her and raised a questioning eyebrow at Thomas. His grim expression answered for him. “He escaped?”

  Thomas nodded, then held out his hand for her. She didn’t even hesitate to grab it, letting him pull her to the door, both of them ignoring the growls that echoed behind them from both Atticus and Nikos.

  She paused next to Travers’s body and crouched.

  It felt wrong to leave him with the others.

  He was an absolute ass, but he sacrificed his life to help them escape.

  He deserved more.

  “We don’t have time.” Thomas nudged her away, but she resisted.

  She reached down and closed Travers’s eyes. “May the g
ods favor you in death, when they didn’t in life.”

  Even as the last words left her lips, Thomas pulled her to her feet, tugging her over the fallen bodies and out the door. “We have less than eight minutes to get out of the building and clear of the blast radius.”

  There was no more discussion as they charged down the hallway, the remaining daemons and soldiers thundering behind them, and she was comforted knowing her men were alive.

  Whatever the future brought, they would deal with it together.

  Kronos and Darren were still alive, but they both suffered a severe blow.

  The war was still bearing down on them like a freight train, but she’d altered the course, which gave them time to figure out how to derail it completely.

  Besides facing the pantheon when they returned, she had only one battle left—figuring out how to convince the guys they belonged with her and not the demigods.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Nikos

  With every step, Octavia was conscious of the seconds ticking down. They charged out of the building with a few minutes to spare…and ran into pure chaos. Soldiers were faced off against a small army of lesser daemons.

  The daemons weren’t trained fighters, but they were holding their own.

  Barely.

  Warrick and the guys didn’t hesitate to charge into the skirmish. A cheer went up among the daemons and engineered humans at their appearance, and the order to fall back rang in the air. She turned and saw Aldrich giving the commands.

  Taking the chance to escape, the two factions split off, heading in opposite directions. Thomas and a few of his soldiers kept pace with her, the rest roaming ahead, getting the injured to safety.

  The enormity of what they’d just accomplished hit her, but worry ate away at her victory. There was never going to be a safe place for those who were changed by Kronos. The daemons would forever see them as human, even with their enhancements, and wouldn’t lift a finger to help them survive alterations that were done without their consent.

  The humans would see them as monsters. Kronos was scattered right now, but they wouldn’t be forever, and they were going to want their property back.

  Only one place might tolerate them…if they were willing to trust her and accept help. “Where are you going to go?”

  Thomas was grim, casting her a bewildered look. “I have no fucking clue.”

  She noticed he didn’t ask the daemons for help. They had a shaky truce for now, but once the truth came out, it was very likely that Thomas and his kind would become the hunted. She wanted to see him and his guys as victims, but it wasn’t really true. They knew what was happening was wrong, but turned a blind eye until they fell prey to the same injustice.

  The woods were silent as they ran toward the clearing. Her guys were scouting the area, keeping her in sight at all times. They were moving fast, none of them wanting to linger.

  A sonic boom rippled through the air, and a powerful wind blasted through the trees, kicking up twigs, leaves, and dust. The sky lit up like it was on fire, a ball of flames curling up into the air like the hands of hell were pulling the building into the underworld where it belonged.

  The moment the blast shook the ground, Warrick grabbed her around the waist and pulled her down, shielding her with his body. Atticus was there a second later, then Keegan and Nikos until she was surrounded and covered by a wall of muscles.

  Each of the guys had his hands on her. Despite being on the run, she’d never felt so protected. She stole a touch from each of them, comforted by their nearness. Only when silence filled the area did they reluctantly retreat.

  Dust covered everyone in the clearing, leaves were plastered everywhere, and an unfortunate few resembled voodoo dolls with little wooden pins sticking out of them.

  Thomas was turned toward the blast, watching it burn with a satisfied expression. “It’s done.”

  She came to a stop next to him. “For now.”

  He only grunted in reply.

  Octavia bit her lip, unsure how to broach the subject, but he beat her to it.

  “We’re dying.” He turned halfway toward her, giving her a crooked smile. “We already know it. Most of us can feel it.”

  A sense of loss and sadness hollowed out her chest. When she warned him about the danger, the last thing she’d wanted was for him to become infected. “I’m sorry.”

  He gave a bark of laughter and shook his head. “You have done nothing but try to be my friend, even after I pushed you away. For that, I’m sorry. After our last talk, I did some investigating, and discovered I wasn’t the only one. A handful of squads joined me, willing to fight against what was happening.”

  He turned, and she fell into step beside him as they made their way out of the forest. “Unbeknownst to us, they put in more security and already knew we were poking around. Instead of confronting us, they dosed the food. More than half of the infected are already falling prey to the serum. A few of us who were showing promise were given a booster shot, which we believe is holding off the worst of the symptoms. For now.”

  “The booster shot…you think it’s the experimental cure?” She wasn’t sure if she wanted it to work or not. It would be so much simpler if they were wrong—meaning that no one else would hunt her—but she wouldn’t want to condemn anyone to that future.

  “Maybe we’ll never know. It’s doubtful any of us will be allowed to live long enough to find out.” The grin he flashed her hurt her heart.

  As much as she wanted to leave that part of her life behind her, she couldn’t run from it. She learned that lesson the hard way, and many good people had lost their lives in the process.

  She studied his face, bracing herself for rejection. “I may know of a place where you and your men might be able to survive and be safe. A place where you can make a life for yourselves and stop this from happening to anyone else.”

  A number of the other soldiers turned their way, curiosity getting the better of them. Keegan was nodding, like he’d already guessed what she was going to say and agreed.

  “Your little abandoned town?” Thomas chuckled at her shocked expression.

  “You knew?” She’d always thought he hated her after she left. She never expected him to keep tabs on her. “Yet you said nothing to Kronos.”

  “Of course not.” Thomas gave a tired sigh, running a hand over his face, suddenly looking weary. “Why would you help us after everything we did? We’re monsters.”

  She gave him a crooked smile and lifted her a single brow at him. “Who better to catch a monster than another monster?” Her amusement vanished, and she studied the tangle of undergrowth they were walking through. “Kronos will try again.”

  “I know.” He gazed off into the distance, expressionless, until a look of disgust crossed his face. “I know I don’t have any right to ask it, but could the doctors be right? Can you save those of us who are infected?”

  Hope and despair swirled in his brown eyes. Warrick looked furious, ready to rip the man apart, but she waved him away.

  It was a valid question.

  Would she really condemn them if she could save them?

  Travers implied she had the ability to be more than just a daemon. “Daemons survive because they have a benefactor to help steady them when their powers threaten to consume them from the inside out. I’m not sure if it’s even possible, or if I’m even strong enough, but—”

  “No. Absolutely not.” Warrick grabbed her arm, pulling them to a stop, his grip just short of bruising. Ignoring the other man, he glared down at her, his pissed-off expression just inches from her face.

  The rest of the guys circled around her, their stances protective, murder in their eyes, daring the others to try and take her from them.

  “Warrick—”

  “No!” He shook her, fury darkening his face. “Being a benefactor isn’t that simple. If you’re not strong enough, their powers will consume you, and rebound back into them, killing everyone.”

  “
I—”

  “It will kill you!” He shouted in her face, his chest heaving, his icy blue eyes turning completely gray in his agitation.

  “Not if I bind myself to you and the guys first! Not if you make me one of the team!” She shouted right back in his face. She shrugged off his hold and plopped her hands on her hips.

  He reared back like she’d socked him in the face. Uncertainty tightened her gut, the thought of losing them making her feel adrift, and she didn’t like it. “I’ve seen you balance each other out. You can do that for me. You can teach me what I need to know.”

  The whole clearing rang with silence, making her feel uncomfortable, and doubt the wisdom of her plan. “You heard them…what if I can save them? They deserve the chance.”

  Warrick stepped into her space and cupped her face, pressing his forehead against hers. There was a stillness to him that belied the wildness in his eyes. “If you tie yourself to us, we won’t ever let you go. Are you sure this is what you want?”

  There was a yearning in his expression, something so deep and fragile that her breath hitched. She brushed her hand against his, leaning into him…then she peeled off his touch. His face went blank, and she tightened her grip to stop the way her hands trembled. “I’m a difficult person at times.”

  Thomas snorted, and she turned to glare at him before whirling to face Warrick.

  “I can promise to listen,” she continued, “but I can’t promise to always follow your advice.”

  Nikos cackled, and she gave him the finger without even looking. The rest of the guys gathered closer, their whole attention focused on her.

  “I can be a pain in the ass most of the time, and I can’t see that changing.”

  Keegan cracked a smile at that one. Warrick twisted his hand and captured hers in his grip.

  “And I suspect that more trouble will find me before too long. Kronos won’t give up so easily, nor do I expect the pantheon will be happy with us for breaking away from them.”