The Redeeming

by Jennifer Ashley

  Septimus gave her a faint smile. “I was following your Immortal. One of my underlings alerted me that he’d gone back to the Lamiah matriarch’s mansion.”

  A qualm stole through her. “So why aren’t you at the matriarch’s mansion?”

  “I was, then he spotted me and commandeered my limousine to drive him down here.”

  Samantha looked back at the building. “He went inside? I didn’t see him.”

  “He’s there.” Septimus pointed upward. “On the roof.”

  Samantha turned and stared up at the skyscraper, shielding her eyes against the afternoon sun. “What is he doing on the roof?”

  “I couldn’t say,” Septimus answered. “You may look through my driver’s binoculars if you like.”

  “No.” Samantha turned away, hearing the limo’s window glide up behind her, muffling Septimus’s chuckle, and ran back along the street and into the building. She impatiently waited for an elevator, then dove inside and pushed the button for the roof, which had been unlocked for the police investigation.

  The elevator let Samantha off in a maintenance room, where an open door on the far side led to the roof and blue sky. She went through this door cautiously, hand on her pistol.

  Tain grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out and around the corner of the little maintenance building. He had one of his swords in his hand and a look of fury in his eyes.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” he demanded.

  “My job. It’s a crime scene. Why are you here? And why did you go to the matriarch’s?”

  “To block a portal to one of the deeper death realms.”

  Samantha blinked at him. “Portal to a deeper death realm?” She frowned, trying to make sense of what he was telling her. “The matriarch would have a portal to the Lamiah death realm . . .”

  “This wasn’t the Lamiah realm,” Tain said, anger in his eyes. “It’s much deeper, and older. Another portal to the same realm comes out here.”

  “At No More Nightmares? They’re supposed to be demon haters.”

  “Demon sacrificers,” Tain said.

  “What?” Samantha stared, her thoughts whirling. “Is that what they’re doing with the hearts—some kind of sacrifice?”

  “Yes,” Tain answered grimly.

  “What about Nadia’s sister? Her heart was sent back.”

  “I don’t know.” Tain’s eyes gleamed with rage, and with his shaved hair, black tattoo, swords, and scarred body he looked more frightening than the scariest gang banger Samantha had ever come up against. “Maybe it was found wanting.”

  Samantha wet her dry lips. “I’d swear the No More Nightmares office has no death magic in it. You didn’t feel any, either. They aren’t sacrificing there.”

  “The office is a front for the people who truly believe they’re suppressing demons. But the temple is here on the roof.”

  Tain gestured with his sword. Beyond the building, Los Angeles spread out around them, a gleaming, glittering sprawl of city under a hot sky.

  On the far side of the roof was a low shed that looked like a shelter for electronics or plumbing. For a moment Samantha felt nothing from it, and then a wave of death magic blasted out of it, strong enough to knock her over.

  Tain caught her with a firm hand and shoved her back into the maintenance room as he shot life magic at the shed to counteract the threat.

  “So these demons beyond the portal,” Samantha shouted over the sudden noise, “are they pissed off at you?”

  “Oh, yes,” Tain said, and he smiled, just as demons, dozens and dozens of them, poured out of the portal into the late afternoon sunshine.

  Chapter Twenty

  Tain drew his second sword and stepped back outside to face the approaching horde. “Call Hunter,” he yelled over his shoulder. “Tell him to get his ass down here.”

  Inside the maintenance room Samantha pulled out her phone and punched keys with her thumb, her pistol in her other hand. “Why didn’t you call him when you got here?”

  Tain flashed her an annoyed look. “My damn phone stopped working.”

  “Didn’t you charge it?”

  Tain didn’t answer, but she thought she heard him mutter something like, “Fucking technology.”

  “Hunter?” Samantha yelled into the phone, then stopped as a terrible noise sounded behind the elevator doors.

  The phone went dead. Samantha shoved it back in her pocket just as the elevator exploded open and belched demons through a hole of complete darkness.

  Samantha sprinted outside, heart pumping, and made for Tain.

  “Change of plan,” she panted.

  The roof was thick with demons. The attack on the matriarch’s house had been done by only a score or so demons of one clan; this was an all-out assault by an entire death realm.

  Samantha had seen demons insane with bloodlust before, attacking and ripping apart anything they could get their hands on. Whatever Tain had done at the matriarch’s mansion, these demons were now intent on ripping him apart, and probably wouldn’t mind if they took out Samantha along the way.

  Samantha knew her pistol would be almost useless against them, but the bullets might at least slow a few down. Tain, however, wasn’t fighting. He had his swords crossed and all the lightning energy within him directed at the shed.

  Sealing the portal, Samantha realized, but it still left about a hundred demons on this side, and many of them could fly. Thinking of the horrific pain the acid-spitting demon had caused, she planted herself hard against Tain’s back, staying within his protective magic.

  “Do you think you could start fighting them off anytime soon?” she yelled at him.

  “There are thousands more behind them, and they’ll come through if I don’t plug the hole.”

  “Damn it, Tain, what did you do to make them so mad?”

  “Cut off their main portal and desecrated a shrine to their master.”

  “Oh, is that all?”

  Tain swept a last blast of life magic at the shed, which folded in on itself and crumpled into rusted pieces of metal. Tain swung around and directed another waft at the elevator inside the maintenance room. Demons screamed and dove at him and Samantha, talons and fangs bared, but any demon caught in the lightning from Tain’s swords died instantly.

  “Wait a minute,” Samantha shouted. “A shrine to what?”

  “An Old One. The matriarch was trying to increase her power by sacrificing to him.”

  “But someone killed her. That doesn’t make any sense.”

  Tain didn’t answer. He grunted with effort, and the light from his swords grew brighter. The black portal began to shrink, swirling in on itself like an inky vortex. Demons dove for it, a few making it back inside before the portal shuddered, and then exploded into shards.

  The maintenance room shook with the impact of the colliding magics. Cement blocks burst into gray shards, and pipes screeched and broke, spewing geysers of steam and water. The walls of the maintenance room groaned. Then, like the shed, the whole thing collapsed into a pile of stone, metal, and dust.

  The remaining demons screamed and fixed on Tain and Samantha, their rage shaking the air.

  “You know that was our only way out, right?” Samantha said, coughing.

  “Do you trust me?” Tain was gazing down at her, his blue eyes intense.

  Samantha tried to find her breath. “Oh, gods,” she said faintly. “Why?”

  “It’s a yes-or-no question, not a why.”

  She swallowed, her throat dry. “Are you saying you have a clever plan for getting away, but you don’t have time to explain, and I have to go along with it?”

  Tain gave her one of his cryptic nods. “Yes.”

  “You can fight them though, can’t you?” Samantha’s voice was sharp with worry. “You’re strong and Immortal. This is what you do.”

  “Put away your gun and trust me,” Tain said.

  Samantha’s heart beat faster. “You’re crazy, you know that?”

&n
bsp; “I know.” Tain sent her a feral smile. “Put it away.”

  Samantha slid her gun back into its holster, her body throbbing with fear. “Now what?”

  “You hang on to me, and hang on tight,” Tain said. “Do you understand? Wrap your whole body around me if you have to. Promise?”

  Tain held his swords warily, examining the distance between the horde of demons, the two of them, and the edge of the roof. Samantha followed his gaze, and her eyes widened. “Tain, you can’t fly.”

  “No,” he agreed.

  Tain sheathed his swords in one smooth motion, and then grabbed Samantha and sprinted past the demons, who swooped after them in glee.

  “I know I’m going to regret this,” Samantha shouted, but let Tain lift her into his arms.

  At the last minute Samantha wrapped her legs and arms firmly around Tain before he launched himself off the roof and into empty air.

  Tain expected Samantha to scream, but she didn’t make a sound. Cerridwen, give me strength, he prayed. Then he shot all the magic he had in him straight at the ground several hundred feet below.

  The demons that could fly dove after them. Tain hoped they didn’t catch up, because he couldn’t spare any magic to fend them off. If he moved his focus, his descent wouldn’t slow, and he and Samantha would make a spectacular splat on the ground. Even an Immortal might not be able to survive it—Cerridwen might think it kinder to let the puddle her son had become die.

  Wind rushed in Tain’s ears at a sickening speed. His magic splintered and sprayed, as though he scraped his hands along concrete at high speed. Below them traffic spread out of the way of his shaft of white-hot magic, and he saw Logan bound into the street in his wolf form.

  Tain sensed the death-magic pull of another portal opening, and he looked up to see it form, dense and black, high over the building. The demons who’d been chasing them whooshed into it, as though being sucked inside by a giant vacuum.

  Before the portal snicked shut, Tain felt it—the aura of an Old One, gloating, angry, powerful. The seductive pull touched him, and to his horror, Tain’s first instinct was to follow the demon home.

  “Tain,” Samantha said in his ear, her breath warm against the wind. “I love you.”

  The demon’s pull lessened. Over the adrenaline of the tumbling fall, Tain’s body tingled, a fire coursing through his veins, beating back the touch of the Old One.

  Tain redoubled his efforts to get them down safely, his arms aching, his body roiling with the magic that streaked through him. Samantha burrowed into him, her warmth giving him a point of focus, his need for her canceling out the demon’s siren call.

  Finally, gradually, Tain felt their descent slow, his downshaft of magic acting as a cushion. His magic gathered below and now sent a shockwave back to meet them. Fifty or so feet from the ground, the wave flowed around Tain and Samantha, cocooning them in a bubble, which decelerated them until Tain’s feet gently bumped the pavement.

  Samantha raised her head, her eyes black pools in her colorless face. “Are we down?”

  “Yes.”

  Samantha made no move to let go, still locked around Tain with all her strength. “You bastard,” she said clearly. “Don’t you ever do that to me again.” Then she hugged him hard, tears in her eyes, and kissed him on the lips.

  Septimus’s limousine squealed up to where they stood, Samantha shaking and sick. Septimus’s driver hopped out and opened the back door, and the vampire’s voice rumbled out.

  “Looks like you need another ride.” He was squeezed into the far corner while the door was open and didn’t lean forward until the two were inside and his chauffeur had safely closed the door again.

  Samantha collapsed into the seat that Tain had more or less shoved her onto. Tain lay back next to her and closed his eyes, his face drawn and gray. He’d drained himself, Samantha realized, giving every bit of magic he’d had to closing the portals and getting them down safely. At the moment, he was as vulnerable as Samantha was, and Septimus, one of the most powerful vamps in the world, sat across from them.

  “Can you take us to the Malibu house?” Samantha asked tiredly.

  Septimus instructed his driver through an intercom, and Samantha relaxed a little. Her panic was wearing off, and she desperately wanted to sleep.

  With Tain out cold, Septimus’s death magic filled the car, pressing against Samantha’s nerves. Septimus’s lips had pulled back, his fangs gleaming in the dim light.

  “I drank an Immortal once,” he said softly.

  “So I heard,” Samantha said. Leda had told her the story—Septimus had bitten Adrian and given him over to the demon Kehksut, a part of a master plan Septimus and Adrian had concocted, or so Septimus claimed later.

  “It was like nothing I’ve ever experienced, before or since.” Septimus’s voice was smooth as silk, the powerful vampire at his most seductive. Samantha’s body tried to respond to him against her better judgment, as though her blood craved to be caressed by his mouth.

  Tain didn’t react at all, unconscious in the gently swaying car. The vampire’s gaze lingered on Tain’s exposed throat, the stark hunter in his eyes.

  Samantha tensed. Septimus was an Old One, and deadly strong, but she was paranormal police. She slid her hand inside her blazer to rest on her gun. Bullets wouldn’t stop a vampire, but they could hurt him or at least make the driver pull over, where she could threaten Septimus with exposure to the sun.

  “Leave him alone,” she said sternly.

  Septimus laughed. “I could snap you like a twig, Ms. Taylor. What would you do against me?”

  “Anything I could,” Samantha said with conviction.

  Septimus laughed again, and then his fangs receded. “Where do these Immortals find such ferociously protective women? It’s delightful.”

  “I’m not delighted.”

  “I was testing you. You certainly are devoted to him.”

  Samantha eased back into the seat, but she didn’t relax again. “I’m armed, you know.”

  Septimus continued to smile. “I could take your gun from you or shatter a stake before you could get anywhere near me.”

  “Possibly.”

  “Just so we know where we stand. You’re an uncommon woman, Ms. Taylor.”

  “Glad you noticed.”

  “You’re not glad at all. You only have eyes for the Immortal. What is it about them?”

  “I don’t honestly know,” Samantha said. “I’m demon. I shouldn’t love him, but I do.”

  “Ah, love.” Septimus shook his head, his eyes taking on true humor. “It makes fools of us all, doesn’t it? Is that Shakespeare?”

  Samantha closed her eyes, the aftermath of the fall plus her worry about Septimus leaving her exhausted. “I don’t remember,” she said.

  Once Logan had assured himself that Septimus had gotten Tain and Samantha safely to the Immortals’ house in Malibu, he took on the task of questioning Merrick.

  The demon attack had baffled Logan and McKay, as well as everyone else present. But the demons had dispersed again, vanishing into whatever death realm they’d sprung from. Logan hadn’t even been able to catch one for questioning.

  He’d almost shit himself watching Samantha and Tain fall off the roof, sure he was about to witness the very messy death of his friend and partner. But Tain had pulled it off, and Samantha was all right—or at least whole. Tain had gone straight into the vampire’s limousine, shoving Samantha in as well, and Logan had decided that the crazy Immortal seemed to know what he was doing.

  Logan had turned away, still shaken, and resumed his human form and clothes. He’d continued the investigation as though nothing had interrupted it, knowing Samantha would expect him to come up with something the two of them could present to McKay in this insane case.

  He drove to Bel Air, where Merrick owned a luxurious home. Today the demon wore a crisp black business suit and received Logan in a cavernous living room.

  “I’m in the process of screening constru
ction companies to rebuild my club,” he said to Logan, waving him to sit in a leather armchair. Logan noticed that the paintings from his penthouse above the club had reappeared here. “I can open again in about a year, if I’m lucky.”

  “Great news,” Logan said dryly. As usual he felt uneasy in a demon’s domain—Merrick’s death magic permeated every inch of the place.

  Merrick sent him a smile. “You don’t give a rat’s ass about my club,” he said, while a butler served them coffee. “So, what do you want from me this time, wolf?”

  Logan took the steaming coffee, served in a fine porcelain cup, blew on it, and took a sip. The brew was the best he’d ever tasted, he decided, a rich roast from some South American plantation. “Samantha had a question for you,” he said, licking a drop of coffee from his upper lip. “She’d ask you herself, but she’d a bit indisposed at the moment.”

  “Ah, yes, I heard the story of her and the Immortal taking a leap off a downtown roof. He enjoys jumping from heights to save people, I have reason to know.” Another smile. “Very impressive display of magic, that.”

  Logan let out a breath and took another sip of coffee. “Not something I want to watch again in my lifetime.”

  “I’m sorry I missed it,” Merrick said, his large fingers holding a dainty coffee cup with surprising delicacy. “But I’m happy to hear our dear Sam will be harassing me, an innocent businessman, for a long time to come. Tell her that if she ever gets tired of arrogant Immortals, she can give me a call.”

  “I’ll let her know,” Logan said. He clicked down the coffee cup and opened his notebook. “The question is about Mindglow and its effects. If, for instance, you were to give it to a demon—not a human—what would happen?”

  “Hypothetically?” Merrick asked. “Off the record?”

  Logan gave him a nod. “I’m here in a purely friendly capacity.”

  “Friendly, you call it. I suppose you mean you won’t be bringing out the hot lights and thumbscrews. Very well. Hypothetically, Mindglow would do to demons much the same thing it purportedly does to humans. Make them compliant, easily suggestible, that sort of thing.”