“Hunter . . .”
Another kiss, and he was gone. Leda woke, the night dark, knowing she was alone. She turned her head on the pillow as tears slid down her cheeks.
Tain watched his brothers. He liked to come here and walk around them, gazing at the warriors he’d at one time admired, even loved. Theirs had been a turbulent relationship; brothers who were at the same time supportive and competitive.
Tain had been closest to Adrian, the oldest brother guiding and protecting the youngest. Hunter and Darius had had a friendship that sometimes slid into rivalry but always came back to banter and joking. Kalen had been a man apart, interested in his own special people, playing god to them, but no less stalwart when the rest of the Immortals needed him at their side.
Tain gazed at Kalen, a dark-haired, gray-eyed warrior, with arrogance etched on every line of his face. He was naked—they all were—Kalen’s head tilted back to rest against Adrian’s and Hunter’s.
Adrian next, Tain’s beloved older brother, his dark eyes open and unseeing. What was going on behind that enigmatic gaze?
The demon and Tain’s combined magic held the brothers in stasis, but these were Immortals, and their minds were closed to Tain. Behind the blank stares, he sensed spinning thoughts and dreams, but he could discern no details.
Hunter seemed to be having a good dream. His eyes were half closed, green sparkling between his lids. He wasn’t erect, but from the flush on his skin and the quick rise of his chest, what he dreamed of was likely sexual.
Tain couldn’t do anything about that. Let Hunter enjoy his last illusion. The demon would take it all away soon.
Hunter’s tattoo stood out stark blue-black against his abdomen, Adrian’s on his left buttock, Kalen’s high on his thigh. Tain’s fingers moved involuntarily to his own cheek, remembering how Hunter had taunted Tain into making his demon lover touch it. Tain remembered how Kehksut had jerked away, her eyes alight with pain.
But Hunter was wrong. This demon couldn’t be killed with the magic in the tattoo. Tain had tried that centuries ago, when the demon had first enslaved him. He’d tried to use his Immortal magic against her, but the demon had only sucked Tain’s magic into herself and used it to bolster her own power.
Something had changed in the last few weeks, Tain knew it. Bringing the Immortals together perhaps? The air was infused with magic here, crackling with it.
The demon had insisted on bringing the three brothers together, claiming things would drain more swiftly and easily once the Immortals were trapped, but Tain wasn’t a fool. Having Immortals together was dangerous. Tain’s brothers would try to stop him doing what was necessary, and the demon must know this.
Hunter, even in his immobility, managed to close his eyes and make a little noise of pleasure. Tain watched him with a pang of envy.
The demon gave Tain deep sexual satisfaction, but it wasn’t the same as being with a flesh-and-blood woman. Hunter had that—Adrian and Kalen too. Tain missed the joy of seeing a woman look at him with fondness in her eyes, feeling a caress on his cheek, the warmth of a smile. But he knew he could never have that simple pleasure again.
He growled in frustration, swung on his heel, and disappeared into the shadows.
Samantha watched him go from where she sat in the darkness, her knees drawn up to her chest. Tain hadn’t looked at her, seeming fascinated by the Immortals standing fixed and rigid in the middle of the light.
Samantha unclenched her hands, palms sweaty. The Immortals were dangerous, but she sensed Tain was the most dangerous of all. He was crazed and unpredictable, and if he’d turned his head and noticed Samantha there in the darkness, there was no telling what he would have done.
“Immortals,” she whispered, rubbing her arms. “And I thought demons were bad.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Leda woke again in the morning and lay staring at the ceiling for a long time. It was raining outside, as usual these days, the window gray. She heard the noises of a full house awakening, but she remained still, gaze fixed on the ceiling.
She remembered Hunter’s final words to her in her dream, the touch of his fingers on her lips. She laid her hand over her abdomen, wondering whether she felt a flutter of magic there that meant Hunter’s child, but she had no way of knowing, except to wait and see.
After a time, Leda threw back the covers and crawled out of bed, limbs stiff. Dream lover or no, having Hunter in her bed took its toll.
Downstairs Pearl whipped up breakfast for an army and growled at anyone who got in her way. Leda had heard Amber’s shower running when she’d passed her door, but nothing from Mai’s or Mac’s rooms. Ricco had mentioned he’d check things out in the city during the night, and either he’d returned silently and was lying low in the basement or had gone to ground for the day somewhere out in the city.
“Darius,” Leda said as she entered the kitchen. Valerian reached around Pearl to grab a mug from the cupboard, earning a blistering glare from Pearl. Valerian poured Leda coffee and shoved it at her, while Darius flicked his dark gaze up and down her.
“You look awful,” Darius said to Leda.
“Very diplomatic, Dar,” Lexi told him.
“I meant she looks like she’s been in a fight.”
“I didn’t sleep much,” Leda said. “I had many dreams, and I can’t explain them all now. Darius, you have to go after your brothers. You have to be with them. There must be five of you together.”
Darius’s brows rose a fraction. Leda had grown used to that Immortal stare, green and piercing from Hunter, dark and closed from Adrian. Eyes that told her that behind the I’m-just-a-brick-headed-warrior façade lurked an ancient being who’d learned incredible things while watching the centuries roll by.
“Five,” Darius said.
“Five warriors, five points of the star. Don’t ask me what it means. I have no idea.” Leda glanced at Lexi and frowned. “She was wrong, though. She said five witches, and there are only four of us.”
“She?” Lexi asked. Her gaze said she thought Leda as nuts as Darius did. “She who?”
“Kali.”
“Kali visited you in the night?” Darius’ entire interest and focus fixed on Leda, unnerving. “What did she say?”
“All the goddesses came to me—the five who created the Immortals, I mean. They said different things.” Leda closed her eyes, trying to sort out the fuzzy images. It didn’t help that her brain kept flooding with memories of Hunter’s erotic touch. “It’s hard to explain,” Leda finished. “Very clear in the dream; not clear now. But you need to go to them, Darius.”
“And how do you propose I do that?” Darius demanded. “Wave my arms around and say Hey, demon, over here. Take me?”
Leda lifted coffee cup. “I don’t know. They didn’t exactly give me directions.”
“Goddesses never do,” Darius said. “Or if they do, they don’t tell you the reason behind it.”
Lexi laid her hand on Darius’s strong shoulder, the gesture both affectionate and protective. “And if Darius disappears, what makes you think we’ll ever see him again?”
“I have some ideas,” Leda answered. She tried to sound mysterious and cryptic like the goddesses, but her voice came out an unconvincing croak.
“Hmm.” Darius drank coffee, set the mug thoughtfully on the counter and without a word, walked out the back door.
Lexi blinked, her lips parting, then she sprang after him. Leda watched out the window as Darius strode down to the grove where the streamers from Beltane still fluttered. Lexi, almost as long-legged as Darius, caught up to him quickly.
Valerian joined Leda at the window. Together they watched the witch and the warrior face each other, he tall and bulked with muscle, she lithe and lean, her werewolf’s strength evident.
They argued. Lexi planted her hands on her hips, and Darius folded his arms and stood with feet slightly apart, his duster moving in the wind and rain. After a few moments of this, Darius caught Lexi in his arms, drew her against him, and gav
e her a long, passionate kiss.
“We shouldn’t watch,” Valerian said.
“I know.”
Neither of them turned away as Darius’s hands slid down Lexi’s body to cup her buttocks and scoop her closer. Leda became aware that Pearl had stopped stirring whatever she’d been stirring and craned her head to watch. Two of the brownies climbed up on the windowsill and made little aw noises. Mukasa wandered down the porch steps and sat down, watching them, tail stretched out behind him on the grass.
Darius kissed Lexi for a long time, then he deliberately set her away from him. Lexi took one step toward him, then mastered herself, wiping her eyes.
Darius removed his duster and handed it to her, exposing his multitude of tattoos. Lexi folded the duster over her arm and backed away as Darius placed his palms over his pectorals and came away with his hands full of winged demon.
For one moment, Fury remained small, then his head grew to the size of Mukasa’s, and the rest of his body followed. Darius pointed to the air in front of him, toward the grove. Fury swooped once around Darius, then flamed.
There was a red flash as the air rent. Darius shouted something, then darkness engulfed him, the earth shook, and blinding light filled the grove. Lexi threw her arm over her eyes, and Mukasa flinched, growling.
Just as quickly, the light disappeared, and with it, Darius. Lexi lowered her arm and stared at the spot where he’d vanished. Fury flew in circles like a whirlwind, then he settled on the grass, becoming a leathery, smallish dragon-like demon, his wings drooping.
Amber and Christine ran into the kitchen. “What just happened?” Christine demanded.
Leda hurried out the back door without speaking, Christine and Amber following with Valerian.
Lexi swung on Leda, tears on her face. “He’s gone,” she snapped. “Are you happy now?”
“No,” Leda said, perfectly serious. “But now we have a chance.”
Four warriors. Kehksut gloated as he glided around them as a wisp of darkness.
Kalen, Hunter, Adrian, Darius. Naked and back to back, each one facing a point of the compass. Kalen with his scowl stood facing south, backing on Darius with his tattoos; Adrian and Hunter faced east and west.
One Immortal—Tain—would help Kehksut drain the life magic from the world. The other four would hold enough life magic together to keep the world in place and in balance, with Kehksut as its god. Enough magic at his disposal to challenge the goddesses. They could find another plane of existence to rule—this one would be his.
He’d taught Tain well and enjoyed every minute of it. Tain and his brothers would live here for eternity, shut in this space, keeping the world from being entirely drained of life magic. They were so powerfully life magical they’d keep the death magic from destroying the world completely. It would be his world, the world of Kehksut.
He’d have four warriors exactly like Tain to torture for eternity, and for his female form to ravish. How lovely.
Tain came in from the shadows, from wherever he’d retreated to brood. Even Kehksut couldn’t entirely reach Tain in his madness anymore. He never had any idea where Tain disappeared to, lately more than ever.
Tain had dressed himself in chain mail again, with his blue surcoat with the pentacle embroidered on it over all. Tain liked the surcoat—the last time he’d worn it in reality, the pentacle had been torn and bloody.
He regarded his brothers with calm blue eyes, looking over each one as he would statues in a collection. Kehksut morphed into her female self, feeling excitement rise in her blood.
“They’re all here.” She went to Tain and put her hands on his chest. She loved his hard, beautiful body, couldn’t get enough of it. “Now you can die.”
Tain kissed her, stirring her lusts to full life. “Yes,” he said. “At last, I will be free of you.”
“Almost.” She touched his red hair, liking the fiery color, the feel of rough silk. “Let me take you one more time. For the last time, let me have you inside me.”
Tain gazed down at her with unblinking eyes. A shudder of desire with a touch of uncertainty went through Kehksut’s body. She and her masculine self had done her job a little too well, she thought. Tain was far gone in insanity, now.
Without expression, Tain pushed her away with a strong hand. “Get away from me, you filth,” he said calmly, then he turned and walked back into the darkness.
Kehksut stared after him in astonishment. She morphed back into a man, staying naked for the time, his erection deflating. Something was wrong. Kehksut glanced at the four Immortals bathed in light and noticed their tattoos glowing like dark blue fire. He snarled in fury.
Kehksut searched for the half-demon woman, to kill her, to tear her apart to relieve his feelings, but he was unable to sense her in the dark. Tain must be shielding her, and that thought made Kehksut explode into rage.
He threw his magic at the Immortals, but the white light held, shielding them as it was supposed to. Gradually Kehksut calmed himself. He needed them, and it was no use giving in to a fit of temper. Soon the Immortals would be in eternal torment, and that would be vengeance enough.
“And now you’re going to rescue them by yourself?” Lexi demanded of Leda. She sat down belligerently on the porch swing, refusing to go back into the house, despite the rain and chill.
“Not by myself,” Leda said. “All of us witches together.” She made herself not flinch from the fierce glare of Lexi the werewolf bounty hunter. She must scare the daylights out of the skips she hunted down.
Leda had asked the witches to gather out here for a council of war. The others, of their own accord, stayed away, although Leda guessed that Mac was holding his own council of war in the kitchen with Valerian, Mai, Sabina, and Pearl. She doubted Mac would content himself to sit in the living room obliviously playing music—although truth to tell she couldn’t predict what the half-god Sidhe would do.
“Look,” Leda began, hopping up to sit on the porch railing. “I think I’ve figured most of it out. At first the demon didn’t want the Immortals together. He stole Tain and hid him for centuries. When it was time to start putting the pieces in place, Kehksut revealed Tain to Amber’s sister, so Adrian would go looking for him. He wanted to capture his second Immortal—Adrian—but Amber ruined that plan. But Kehksut still wasn’t ready for all the Immortals to be together at once, so he broke the Calling spell. Then the demon kept Kalen, Darius, and Hunter busy until the time was right.”
“Right for what?” Lexi demanded. She stretched out her long legs, her restless energy barely contained.
Christine, quieter and more thoughtful, nodded. “Time to gather the final pieces for his spell. A spell he needs all the Immortals to complete, I’m assuming.”
Amber fingered the tattoo on her upper arm. “And now we’ve gone and given him his four Immortals.”
“Five,” Leda said. “Kali said it had to be five. With them all together, things can happen for Kehksut.”
“I suppose that’s true,” Amber conceded. “Even with Tain crazy, the five of them together would be formidable.”
Leda continued. “Five warriors. Five elements—earth, air, fire, water, and Akasha—the fifth element that encompasses all others. Five witches. I’m air, Lexi is fire, Amber earth, and Christine water.”
“That’s only four,” Amber said. “Where is witch number five? Who’s Akasha?”
“Samantha,” Leda said.
The other three stared at her, Amber’s tawny gaze, Christine’s blue, and Lexi’s silver-gray troubled.
Lexi was the one who answered. “Samantha, the half demon who’s disappeared?”
“Hunter wanted her in Seattle for a reason,” Leda said. “I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he and Adrian took her with them behind the ripple.”
Lexi shook her head. “You can’t be right, Leda. Mac, Pearl, and Mai are more powerful than a half demon who doesn’t have many powers, as you said.”
“I’m willing to take the risk,” Leda sai
d. “I don’t claim to understand everything, but I think Samantha is key.”
Lexi scowled, her wolf’s eyes flickering. “I think you’re as crazy as Hunter is.”
“Maybe.” Leda spread her hands. “But the goddesses didn’t send me the dreams until Darius arrived, until all four Immortals had been found. There’s something each of them—and each of us—must do.”
“I agree with her,” Amber said.
Christine nodded, her face glum. “Me too. Can it be a coincidence that each of us fell in love with an Immortal about the same time?”
Lexi’s stern look relaxed into a smile. “I don’t think that was coincidence. I think it’s just them.”
“I had the same thought,” Leda said, returning her smile.
Amber’s expression softened. “Who can resist a gorgeous warrior racing to your rescue? We didn’t stand a chance.” The others nodded in silent agreement.
“And now it’s up to us to rescue them,” Lexi said, losing her smile. “We pool our talents and go after them. How do you propose we do it, Leda? Have you worked that out as well?”
“Easy,” Leda replied, but her heart beat fast and hard. “We conjure a demon and use his death magic to open the ripple.”
Another argument ensued in the grove that night after Leda finished her preparations. This time the entire household joined in, including Ricco, up again for another night.
Ricco had spent half the previous night checking out what was going on with vamps in Seattle. He reported, in disgust, that it was much as in Manhattan—vampires dividing themselves into those for Kehksut and those against. Nightly battles ensued, the vampires for Kehksut taking out those who wanted the demon gone.
Valerian huffed when Ricco finished. “You know it’s bad when I’m hoping vampires kick some ass. I hate vampires.”
“I know,” Ricco said coolly. “You’re known downtown as the Destroyer.”
Valerian’s face lit. “Yeah? The Destroyer? Maybe I should put that on a T-shirt.”
“You’re cute, sweetie,” Sabina told him.
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