by Cynthia Eden
“The hellhounds,” Julian supplied with a frown.
“Yes. If Ramiel truly found a way for them to drag me into their flames, I won’t escape. I’ll be gone.” Her stare drifted toward Leo, and sorrow tightened her chest. “And then the war will come, just as it was predicted so long ago.”
Luke’s laughter was cold. “So I’m supposed to buy that you’re the only thing keeping us all in check? That you’re the reason my brother and I haven’t torn each other apart long before now?”
“No.” Her denial was immediate. “The reason you haven’t fought before now…it’s Leo. His control has held. But…” But when I go, it will break. Because she was his weakness. Just as he was hers.
“And what in the hell do you think I can do to help him?” Luke asked quietly, but, in the next moment, he was stiffening. He spun around and glared back up the twisting path that led to the main house on the island. “Mina, no! Love, don’t come down here!”
“I won’t hurt her,” Leo groused. “You know that—”
And Mina was obviously not listening to her lover because her blonde head appeared. The breeze tossed her hair and her steps were certain as she hurried forward.
Luke swore and ran to meet her. He wrapped her in his arms and held her close.
Right against his heart.
Leo inclined his head. “Perhaps you can see how I feel, brother.”
“I feel like you need an ass kicking, brother,” Luke retorted, glaring with enough fire to melt snow.
Mora exhaled. “We are wasting time.” She moved up the path a bit, needing Luke to let go of his anger and help them. But—
“I know you.” That was Mina’s voice…the low, seductive voice of a siren. A siren’s power was in her voice. She could compel anyone and anything to do her bidding. Well, mostly anyone.
Doesn’t work on me. Won’t work on Leo, either. Not since he’s now pulling the strings of the dark creatures.
Mina lifted her hand and pointed at Mora. “You and I…we met in that old bar…”
“Resurrection,” Mora murmured.
Mina smiled at her, a real, warm smile. “You told me about Luke. Said that he could help me. Could change my life.” She laughed and the sound was musical. “It took me five years to find him, but I finally did…and you were right.”
Mora shrugged.
Mina pulled from Luke. She hurried toward Mora and wrapped her in a tight hug. “Thank you.”
Inexplicably, Mora had to blink away tears. “It’s kind of my thing. No big deal.”
“It was to me,” Mina whispered back.
A tear trickled down Mora’s cheek. She hadn’t been able to blink that one away. “Luke was your fate. I just pointed you in the right direction.”
“Oh, hell.” Now Luke’s voice was loud—and very, very annoyed. He tugged Mina back into his arms and glared at Mora. “I owe you.” Each word was tinged with distaste. “I hate owing anyone. You did this, didn’t you, Mora? Played a fucking player.”
Mora didn’t let her expression alter. “I’ve just been trying to keep everyone alive. To balance the sides—good and evil, right and wrong. They shift, you know? Nothing stays the same, it never does.”
Leo took her hand and curled it in his. “When the hounds come for Mora, I need you to stand with me, brother. I need your help, and I will pay any price. You want to rule the light and the dark? Fine, do it. I just need Mora.”
Her head turned. She stared at him. He’d sacrifice so much for her?
Leo stared straight in her eyes. “I just need Mora.”
And she needed him. That was the real reason she was on that little island right then. Not to save herself. None of the work she’d done had ever been about herself.
It was always you, Leo.
Luke swore—quite imaginatively and quite viciously. “Fine. Come inside and let’s figure out what the hell we are going to do to save Fate.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“The hellhounds will find her,” Leo concluded grimly. He hated saying those words, but he knew they were the truth. “Ramiel cast one more summoning spell for them before his death. And the bastard used my own blood to seal the spell.”
Julian Craig’s dark brows shot up. “How’d he get your blood?” The faintest British accent sharpened his words.
“I went to kill him, and he got in a lucky attack with his knife.” Leo paced around the elaborately furnished room. They were inside Luke’s mansion, and Leo’s footsteps seemed to echo as he walked across the marble floor. “Ramiel knew that I’d figured out he was a traitor, and he wasn’t going down without one final battle.”
Rayce Lovel whistled. “So you’re seriously telling us that you took out an angel? I thought they were the good guys.”
Since Rayce was mated to an angel…or, a fallen angel, his opinion wasn’t surprising. His Lila was good. But…
It was Mora who answered the wolf. “Ramiel wasn’t good. Not anymore.” Mora sat, with her spine ever-so-straight, on Luke’s fancy settee. “His own bitterness had driven him past that point.”
Luke downed a glass of whiskey. “Ramiel saw visions, right? Like you?”
Her lashes lowered. “Not quite like me, but, yes, he did. And he knew—”
“He knew Leo was supposed to rule the dark, and that I was the one bound with angels?” Luke’s words were mocking.
Mora nodded. “Stop acting like you don’t already know this.” Her lush lips tightened. “We both know you’ve sensed it for some time now. Why else would you make all of your recent deals?” Her hand waved around the room. “You let your most trusted guard…” Now she was eyeing Rayce. “Even mate an angel.”
“Fallen angel,” Rayce corrected her as his eyes narrowed. “My Lila fell.”
Mora’s eyes closed. “Did she?” Her shoulders rolled back. “Maybe you shouldn’t be so sure of that…like I said, things change.”
“What?” Rayce bounded forward.
Even though Mora had just shocked him, Leo schooled his expression as he shoved his hand against the wolf shifter’s chest. “One problem at a time, okay? The angel isn’t here now so—”
The doors flew open and a female with long, red hair strolled inside, moving with a dancer’s grace. “Actually, I am.”
Leo’s eyes squeezed shut. Everyone was coming to join their party.
“And I brought company,” Lila added.
He already knew who the company in question would be. He could smell the vampire. Julian’s mate…Rose. A former human who’d fought with all of her strength to stay with the man she loved.
Leo had even fought for Rose, too. Something about her had called to him. His breath blew out slowly as he opened his eyes. “You all don’t need to be here. In fact, everyone but me, Luke, and Mora should leave. The rest of you should get as far away as you possibly can.” He didn’t want them to be collateral damage when the hellhounds came hunting.
Rose laughed and she hurried to Julian’s side. “I’m not leaving him. Not now, not ever.”
The angel took up a position near Rayce. “If Rayce is fighting, so am I.” Lila’s face was both serene and determined.
Leo growled and whirled to glare at Luke. “Tell them to get lost!”
“I don’t control them any longer.” Luke just shrugged. “I thought you did.”
Asshole. “You can at least—”
“They’re all here for a reason.” Mora’s voice was strong and when his gaze swung back to her, Leo saw that she’d jumped to her feet. “Don’t you see? Good and evil, blending together. Because you can’t have one without the other.” She took a step toward him, her gaze intense. “Do you hear what I’m saying? You can’t have one…without the other.”
“Fuck me,” Luke suddenly drawled as he snapped his fingers together. “You set them all up, didn’t you? Every single one of them. I thought I was making the deals, but you were behind the scenes, pulling the strings. Fate.” The one word sounded like a curse. But suddenly, he was in
front of Rose and Julian. “What did you do here?” He touched Rose’s shoulder.
Mora bit her lip.
“What did you do, Fate?” Luke demanded.
“Watch that tone…” Leo warned him again.
“Rose’s brother was a twisted bastard who had to be stopped.” Mora’s voice came out quickly, the words almost tumbling over one another. “If left unchecked, he would have destroyed a significant portion of the paranormal population. So I…I gave Julian a push. In the right direction. Made sure he was in just the right spot to find the woman who would be the other half of his soul.”
Leo saw that Julian’s face had gone slack with shock.
But Mora wasn’t done talking. “And I knew that once he met her, he would make any deal to assure she stayed in this world.”
Julian paled. “She died. She was shot, bleeding out in front of me. I had to get Luke to transform her.”
“That was her fate. She was always meant to be a vampire, not a human.” Mora’s attention cut to the angel and her werewolf. “And before you two ask, yes, I had something to do with both of you, as well.”
Leo knew his mouth was hanging open. He’d always blamed himself for what had happened to Lila. He’d failed the angel, and guilt had been heavy on his shoulders. I still carry it.
“There was a race, right?” Mora questioned them. “To see who could find the fallen angel first. Would it be the powerful werewolf…or…” Now she looked at Leo and gave a little wince. “Or the so-called Lord of the Light?”
And he saw just what had happened, finally. “You slowed me down, Mora. When I was trying to find her so desperately to return her to heaven. You were in my path, and I didn’t even know it.”
She inclined her head. “Rayce needed the angel, and Lila needed him.”
“Why?” Rayce demanded, his voice angry and tight. “Why move all the players like we’re on a chess board?”
Mora was silent a moment. Her head bowed. Her shoulders slumped.
Leo wanted to take her into his arms and hold her against his heart. He—
Her head lifted. Her gaze was clear as she stared not at Rayce, but at Lila. “I had to change your fate, Lila, because when the battle is over—and the dust clears—you’ll take the Lord of the Light to the angels. The others will listen to you because you are one of their own. You’ll help to mend the pain there, you’ll help them to see…that Luke isn’t so bad after all.”
Lila’s mouth dropped. “They…they won’t believe—”
“Luke saved you. You’ll be the proof they need, standing right in front of them.”
No one spoke. Leo couldn’t look away from Mora.
Once more, her shoulders straightened. She gave a nod that was oddly regal. Fate. I told her…she’s a goddess. “And that’s why. That’s why I did everything, even when I was supposed to hate Leo. So all the pieces could go together.” She pointed at the vampire and her panther. “While Lila and her wolf see to the angels, you two will be at the side of the Lord of the Dark. You’ll help him to keep the more dangerous paranormals in check. You’ll guide him, you’ll help him, and balance will be maintained.”
Silence. The really uncomfortable kind.
“It gets so tiring,” Mora blurted and Leo could tell by her expression that she wished she could take the words back. Too late, baby. “So tiring…always trying to make sure everyone is okay. Grabbing the little lines of a life and twisting them so that endings are different.” She pushed back her hair. “And I never could see my own ending, but I knew it was coming.” Her lips curved into a sad smile. “It’s coming soon.”
“It’s not the end,” Leo immediately denied. Didn’t she get it? He wasn’t going to let her go. He was ready to trade anything, everything, for her. She’d worked so fiercely arranging everyone else’s life—couldn’t she see that he’d do anything for her life? To keep her safe in this world?
“If it’s not the end…” Luke drawled, sounding as if he were bored by the whole encounter. Such an ass. Leo knew boredom was the last thing his brother felt. “Then what’s the plan? What’s the big miracle that is going to save Fate?” He inclined his head toward Leo. “And us?”
Leo rolled back his shoulders and tried to block off his emotions. Mora’s revelations had pretty much just knocked him on his ass. All that time, she was working to protect everyone?
“Leo?” Luke prompted. “What the hell is the battle plan?”
Focus. Protect Mora. Lock down your emotions. This was the part where things could get dicey. “We’re going to lock her up.”
From the corner of his eye, Leo saw Mora jerk. “What?”
But Leo focused on his twin. “Your prison can hold any paranormal, right? It’s escape proof?” So the stories had always said.
Luke’s jaw hardened. He sent a fast glare toward Lila. “It was, but then a certain angel escaped. However, I do believe I have things in order now.”
“You’d better have them in order.” Anger hardened each word. They couldn’t afford any mistakes.
“Leo…” Mora grabbed his arm. “What are you doing? I thought we were going to get Luke to help defend—”
“He will defend you. He and I will both stand between you and the hounds. They won’t take you.” His words were a vow. A world without Mora? No. “But we don’t know what sort of spell Ramiel worked before his death. For all we know, he set it so that the hounds will return again and again, until they get you.”
Her lower lip trembled. “I…see.”
“So we just make sure they don’t get you, and we don’t send them back.”
She backed up. “The hounds have to go back to the flames. They’re too dangerous to be loose in this world.”
Luke gave a sharp bark of laughter. “Ah, my dear brother, now I see where you’re going with this plan.”
Beside him, his mate Mina gave a hum of frustration. “Well, I don’t see…”
Luke’s fingers trailed up her arm. “Leo wants me to keep the hounds in my prison, love. He wants to lure them in…with Fate as bait. And then Leo wants us to cage the beasts.”
“Nice plan,” Julian allowed with a nod. “If the beasts are caged, then they can’t take your girl to hell.”
Leo smiled, and he knew it was a cold and cruel sight. “Exactly. We lure the bastards into the prison, we seal them up, and they don’t get out. Mora stays safe, and the world keeps right on turning.”
Rayce’s skin had gone a bit pale. “You’re just going to keep them locked up…forever?”
Oh, right, Rayce had once spent a very, very long time in one of Luke’s paranormal prison cells. “The prison cells were made for a reason. To hold back the beasts that were too dangerous for the world.” A little known secret…he’d actually helped Luke to build those cells. “The hounds can’t be free.” Leo was determined to make this happen. “The plan can work, I know it. We just have to make sure they go in the prison…if Mora is inside a cell, they’ll rush straight to her. The trick is to get her out, and keep them inside.”
“Before they rip her to shreds,” Luke finished.
Mora swayed a little.
But… “Exactly,” Leo told him. “That’s what we have to do. We have to get Mora out before they can hurt her.” His gaze swept the room. The “bad” paranormals—they were the ones on his side for the coming fight. Strange. “Are you all in?”
Julian and his Rose nodded.
“We’re in,” Lila agreed softly as her fingers locked with Rayce’s.
Mina nodded. “In. Absolutely.”
Luke just smiled. “Why the hell not? After all, what’s the little matter of life and death between enemies?”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“I don’t like this plan,” Mora muttered. She sat on a narrow cot inside one of Luke’s paranormal prison cells. Her hands were twisted in her lap, and her head was bent forward. Her hair hid her expression from him. “Being bait wasn’t at the top of my to-do list.”
Leo stepped inside
the cell. The door was open behind him. No one else was in that area—the others were preparing for the fight that was coming. “I won’t let the hounds touch you.”
She still didn’t look up. “The others—they all feel betrayed. They think I’ve been playing with them all. Toying with their lives. I could see it in their eyes.”
He crossed the cell and stopped just a few inches from her. Her scent teased him, and Leo could feel the warmth from her body like a touch against his skin.
“Fate doesn’t play,” she whispered. “Fate isn’t cruel. She isn’t kind. She just is. Why don’t people see that?”
“Mora…”
Her head tipped back. She stared up at him, her face very solemn. Her eyes were so big and deep. “My cousin, Sabrina…the muse—”
“Sabrina Lark.” Yes, he knew all about Sabrina. Because of her, he’d found his way back to Mora.
“If things don’t go well, if they don’t go the way we hope, I need you to tell Sabrina…she was always like a sister to me. And I’ll miss her, but I’m so glad she has a mate to stay at her side, to help her—”
Screw this. He caught her hands and pulled Mora up to her feet. “No.”
“No?” Her brows shot up. “I need you to do this for me—I want her to know—”
“You’re not giving me some I’m-gonna-die order, Mora. I won’t deliver a message to your cousin because you’ll be around to tell her yourself, got me?” And that icy fist pounding into his chest—it wasn’t fear. He couldn’t afford to feel fear. Mora was going to be fine. His plan would work.
Her gaze searched his.
“You will be here,” he said flatly. “You can tell her yourself.”
“I will be here,” she repeated, her words husky.
“Damn straight.”
Her lips lifted in the faintest smile. “Do you remember the first day we met? Probably not, I mean, it was centuries ago—”