by L. E. Wilson
Mojo ran into his house to hide.
Her head whipped around towards the noises coming from the wall. "They found us." Her voice wasn't quite steady.
She looked around frantically, but he already had her rucksack and was throwing things into it. Throwing it over his shoulder, he shoved Grace towards the ladder.
"We've got to go, poppet. NOW."
She didn't stop to ask questions. Grabbing her shoes out of the cubby by the bag, she started up the ladder without even putting them on. At the top, she started chanting, but paused suddenly. Looking back at Aiden on the rungs below her, she yelled over the noise.
"Mojo! Aiden, you have to get him!"
He jumped down off the ladder, shook the little guy out of his house and into his palm, and then, with a myriad of curses, stuck the prickly little bugger into his hood. When he got back to the ladder, Grace was just finishing up the spell and the hatch door was opening.
Leaning to the side, Aiden grabbed a knife and a 9mm off of the wall that he'd loaded after they'd arrived, and followed her up and out into the early morning darkness.
Stepping out onto the grass, he stayed down, gun at the ready. The moon was low in the sky, and he could sense the dawn wasn't far off. They'd have to find shelter, and quickly.
He scanned the area around him. They must all be on the other side digging. He could hear them, banging against the wall of it, trying to bust their way inside.
Funny they'd left no one to guard the rest of the area.
Keeping low to the ground, he crept around the side of the sculpture. The densest area of trees was on this side, and so he assumed Grace had gone this way. All they'd have to do is make it across the garden without being seen.
But when he got around to that side, she was nowhere to be seen.
His heart stopped as his eyes pierced through the dark, searching for but not finding her. He wanted to call out, but couldn't risk those things hearing him. Even Mojo was quiet in his hood, like he knew the danger they were in.
Had she already run across that quickly? Gone to the other side? Why hadn't she waited for him?
He hesitated, undecided on which way to go now, when he heard a noise behind him: the ominous and unmistakable sound of a number of pump action shotguns loading a shell into their chambers.
Slowly, he straightened out of his crouch position and looked back over his shoulder, holding his hands up in the air.
Grace stood in the center of a group of the human Suits, all armed to the teeth, the wooden box in her hands.
He hadn't even noticed her grab it from the bag.
But what he did notice was that she wasn't being physically detained. He also noticed that none of them were watching her, as if they had no fear of her running away.
And what he noticed most of all, was the defiant tilt of her chin, in direct contrast to the guilty tears streaking down her cheeks. Her lovely forest green eyes pleaded with him to understand.
A stab of betrayal pierced his heart, and he closed his eyes, suddenly unable to stand the sight of her. His breath whooshed from his lungs as pain clenched in his chest.
He'd been a bloody fool.
"Drop your weapon," the Chinese leader said in broken English. "The bullets in guns are silver. No wrong moves, or we kill you."
Aiden opened his glowing eyes and dropped the pistol and the knife. He didn't need the weapons to annihilate these wankers.
Baring his fangs, he leaned towards them with a feral hiss. Silly humans thought they were going to keep him from his lying female with a few little guns? He would rip them apart before the last one could manage to aim and fire, and add their heads to his collection.
Well, maybe not the horrid looking one on the left.
At his show of aggression, the humans took a step back almost as one, and the smell of piss filled the air as one in the back revealed himself to be the weakest link of the group.
Just as he gathered himself for the attack, something hard and cold jabbed Aiden in the back of the head.
"Hello again, Waano." The thing that used to be Steven crowed happily.
Aiden's guts churned at the name. Ignoring them, he leveled his glare on Grace and she recoiled visibly, turning her face away.
"Don't turn from me now, luv," he growled at her. "Don't you want to watch? Enjoy the show you orchestrated all by yourself? I only wish you had let me know what my bloody lines were." He gave a derisive laugh. "I'm finding myself a bit at a loss here. Am I the one who lives? Or the one who dies a horrible death in front of your eyes?"
"Aiden, stop!" she begged. "Just do as they say. They promised to let you go if I gave them the box. I offered it to them. There was no other choice!"
He threw his head back and laughed out loud. He laughed for so long the Suits began to exchange worried glances with each other. "And you believed them?" Clutching his stomach to try to relieve the searing ache there, his smile turned into a sneer. "Come now, poppet. I know even you are not that naive."
"I had no choice," she insisted quietly.
"There is always a choice," he snarled harshly. "And I choose not to believe your bloody lies anymore." He smiled. "And also, I don't want to be in your bloody show."
Without looking he twisted to the side, knocking the gun at his head aside with one hand and throwing an elbow back into Steven's face. Blood spattered everywhere as the crunching sound of bone blended with the thing's scream of rage.
But before he could follow through with anything else, two others rushed forward and grabbed him by the arms, wrenching them up and to the sides behind him.
He tensed to throw them off, and then felt Mojo in his hood. It gave him just enough pause for Steven to recover.
Grabbing him by the hair, he yanked Aiden's head back until his blood-covered mouth was right next to his ear.
"Oh, you're going to be in the show, Waano. But we're not going to kill you. Not just yet."
Chapter Twenty-Two
Grace hugged the box protectively to her chest as she shoved her way through the group of Suits until she was next to the leader.
"You swore you would let him go," she admonished him in Mandarin. "You swore it!"
"I did," he agreed with a shallow nod of his head. "I gave you my word, and I will honor it."
She closed her eyes, exhaling in relief.
"However," he continued, "I cannot be held accountable for what they will do." He jerked his head in the direction of the things holding Aiden.
Her eyes snapped open. "What? What do you mean? We had a deal!"
"You and I had a deal. And we have a deal with them," again he indicated the things holding Aiden. "The two deals have nothing to do with each other."
Aiden grunted and she whipped her head around, pushing her hair out of her face. The one called Steven had him by the hair on the crown of his head as he eyed up the box in her hands. As she watched, he pulled Aiden's head back until she thought his neck would snap, and two others had his arms outstretched painfully to either side. Fresh tears filled her eyes.
He looked like a sacrifice.
The leader of the Suits bowed to the hybrids. "We will meet you at the appointed place for the exchange."
Steven wiped the blood from his face with the back of his free arm and gave them a gruesome smile. "Agreed."
"Come," the Chinese man told her. "There's nothing we can do here. You can come with us to the meeting place, away from here. Give us the box there, and you will leave unharmed as we agreed."
"What about him?" She indicated Aiden.
The leader didn't even bother to look his way. "He is no longer your concern, or ours. There is nothing we can do for him. They will bring him...or they won't."
Grace locked eyes with Aiden, and his look of complete betrayal nearly knocked the air from her lungs.
Her mind spun as she frantically tried to come up with a way out of this. She couldn't just leave him here with those things.
She had no weapon, and what little
magic she possessed was useless in situations like this. Still, there had to be a way. Something she could offer them, something she could do...
"Go along then," Aiden growled at her. "Get out of my sight, you bloody bitch, before I kill you myself."
His words hit her like a slap of cold air, and she reared back with a gasp.
"Aiden..." she nearly sobbed.
He surged forward with bared fangs, fighting his captors to get to her.
Pain and fear ripped through her. She spun away before he could see and automatically put one foot in front of the other, walking away in the midst of the humans.
What had she done?
He doesn't mean it, she told herself. He's just pissed off. Really pissed off.
Uncontrollable tears ran down her face, but she refused to look back. She couldn't. She couldn't stand to see way he was looking at her anymore.
I didn't betray you! I was trying to save us! She screamed the words in her head hoping that somehow he would hear them, but knowing he wouldn't.
She'd been stupid. Stupid!
Why won't you trust me, luv?
She fought back a sob as Aiden's husky voice came back to her. Why hadn't she trusted him? He would've gotten them out of there somehow.
But more and more of those things had kept coming every night, and he couldn't leave during the day, and she'd been running low on supplies. She thought she'd come up with such a great idea: the perfect solution. Play nice with the less dangerous humans by giving them what they wanted, and work out a way to get Aiden out of there.
She'd believed her Mom, believed he couldn't be trusted, and in turn, she had become the treacherous one.
Way to play hero, Grace.
The group picked up their pace as they got farther away from the sculpture, all of them except Grace looking back over their shoulders every few steps. Seems they didn't quite trust their business partners.
Couldn't say that she blamed them.
They got to one of the roads and hurried towards a line of vehicles parked on the one side. She was herded to the front car and she climbed into the back seat gratefully, wiping the tears from her cheeks. Her back was on fire from holding herself so stiffly upright, when all she wanted to do was curl up in a ball around the ice in her chest until it either melted, or hardened enough so that she didn't care anymore.
None of them noticed the soft sounds of padded footfalls following them to the cars within the shadows of the tree line.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Aiden watched Grace walk away until she was out of sight.
She didn't look back. Not once.
Good. That's good. At least that's what he told himself.
He hadn't meant to shriek at her like that. The look on her face...he felt like a total bastard.
With his next breath, he stubbornly pushed aside the feelings of remorse. He'd needed her to go away: Far, far away from these things.
He was hurt. Yes.
He was disappointed in her. Yes.
She had lied and completely and utterly betrayed him. Yes.
Yet the thought of her being at the mercy of these evil things around him turned his bowels to water.
His mouth twisted up into a tight smile. He was being a fool. A fool for a wisp of a girl who had only used him as a means to an end. She didn't care what happened to him. And there was absolutely no reason he should think otherwise. Not after what she'd so blatantly done.
A ghastly thought suddenly occurred to him.
Was that what the last few hours had been about? Distracting him with her feminine wiles so he wouldn't figure out her plan? Had that been her strategy all along?
Yet she'd seemed as completely panicked as he when she'd realized they were busting through the wall.
A hard yank on his hair brought his mind back to his own rather sketchy predicament.
"Mmm, mmm, mmmm," Steven murmured behind him as he watched Grace rush away with the Suits. "Check out that juicy ass. I'm going to enjoy seeing all that pale skin turn red and raw from my palm. Right before I fuck her until she screams. Or maybe while she screams."
Anger, hard and hot, rose up in Aiden at Steven's words. He gritted his teeth against it, biding his time.
There was no bloody way he would let this thing get anywhere near her.
"You won't be able to keep me away from that little piece. You can't protect her," He-Who-Used-To-Be-Steven gloated in his ear. "And she has no powers that are strong enough to be used against us. Oh, yes," he said when Aiden stiffened at his words. "I know exactly who she is. As soon as I'm done with you, I'll be going after that sweet ass. And you won't be around to stop me. Just like you weren't around to stop the ones that killed your family."
Aiden breathed deeply, in and out. This thing was a demon. A demon in his friends' body. It was only fucking with him, playing on his insecurities. He needed to remember that and not rise to the bait.
For that's what it wanted.
Steven shoved Aiden's head forward and let go of his hair, coming around to stand in front of him. The other two tightened their grips on his arms. They were freakishly strong.
Without a word, Steven stared into his eyes for so long that Aiden finally arched a disdainful brow, "Don't be staring at me like that," he gritted out. "I'm sorry to say I don't swing that way, and your ogling is making me rather uncomfortable, to be completely honest."
Steven's nostrils flared as he breathed in through his nose and exhaled heavily, his face the picture of waning patience. "I'll ask you again, what game are you playing, Waano?"
"And I will tell you again, Steven, that I have no bloody idea who this Waano character is..."
Steven's fist came up faster than even Aiden could track, connecting hard with a bone-shattering uppercut. If he'd been human, his jaw would've been pulverized.
"See, the thing is, I know you're in there, Waano. I can feel you. Although..." He cocked his head to the side and smirked as Aiden spit out a mouthful of blood and glared at him. "Hold on. Don't tell me you're hiding behind this vampire?" He made a sound somewhere between a snort and a laugh.
"I would shut up now if I were you," Aiden suggested. "And clear off, while you still can."
"Don't tell me that the big, bad demon feared by all is really nothing but a fucking spineless coward?" Steven continued as if he hadn't spoken. "A recluse who's afraid to leave your safe, little world. Afraid your inferiors will rise up against you and you won't be able to do a fucking thing about it."
He spit on the ground between them in disgust. "I always knew you were nothing but a fucking pussy."
Aiden felt a nauseous stirring inside of him, and fought to tamp down the spike of fear that accompanied it before it showed on his face.
Leaning towards Steven as far as he could without pulling his shoulders from their sockets, he glanced from side to side and whispered confidentially, "I wouldn't call him that if I were you. I don't think he likes it."
Steven leaned in also, his hot breath heating Aiden's face as he spit out, "I don't fucking care. Pussy."
Aiden wrinkled his nose and pulled back. "I wasn't yanking your chain earlier, mate. A little mouthwash, at the very least..."
Pain exploded in his cheek and his head whipped to the side as Steven backhanded him. The strength in that casual strike was staggering, even for a vampire.
Of course, he wasn't just a vampire anymore, was he?
Much as he didn't want to admit it, Aiden knew what was going to have to happen if he had any hope of gaining the upper hand on these twats.
Working his jaw from side to side, Aiden frowned. "I apologize if the truth hurts, but it's not like I didn't make the suggestion to you before."
Another crushing uppercut nearly separated his head from his neck.
A low growl began from somewhere within the innermost depths of his being, part him and part something else. It rose up until it vibrated deep in his throat. Raising his head, he gave Steven a bloody smile as he felt a roili
ng heat swell up inside of him.
"Well, now you've gone and done it."
His head dropped down onto his chest and his body sagged between the guards.
Steven chuckled, glancing around at the group. "Come on. We'll take him back alive to show 'our mistress'." He made air quotes. "Leeha likes this vampire. Wait until I tell her he's still residing in his body with her pussy ass demon lord." He nodded, almost to himself. "We can hold him over the stupid bitch's head; use him as collateral when we need something from her." Gripping Aiden's hair, he lifted his head. "Hear that, Waano? You're nothing but a pawn in our game now."
Dark shadows swirled in the grey eyes. "Take your filthy fucking hands off of me, Mammot."
Instead of complying, Steven moved his face in closer. "Ah, so you are in there. I was beginning to worry that you really had turned into a complete pussy. And it's 'Steven', you fucker."
Aiden could feel the demon's anger rising fully within him, and he didn't fight it. He was quite convinced now. Letting him loose was the only way for him to get his body out of here in one piece. These demon hybrids were freakily strong, even more so than Dante, the oldest vampire Aiden knew.
Once the demon took him over completely, he would just have to trust that his mates would find him and get it out again somehow. Then maybe they could help the others, now that he knew from experience that they were still there inside of their bodies.
Somewhere.
The foulness of the entity that possessed him rose up then, drifting around like smoke inside of his body. It oozed through his cells, infesting his muscles and polluting his bloodstream until he felt vile and filthy throughout. Bile filled his throat, and he fought the urge to vomit.
Hello, Aiden.
The voice in his head was rusty with disuse. It's English heavily accented.
Waano, I presume?
His physical form was feeling a bit crowded. It was the strangest feeling. He was still aware of himself and everything that was going on, but the demon, Waano, was there also. Sharing what little space there was.
He felt transcendental within his own body for the first time, and idly wondered if this was how it was with the others.