“And Samantha?” Tain asked, sending the smallest bit of his magic into the corners. “Why did you want Samantha to become the matriarch?”
Tain’s magic was weak, dying off before it went very far, the death realm pressing at him. His first instinct was to flee back to the matriarch’s mansion and try to seal the portal—if he’d be able to find that exit now that he was in the Old One’s realm.
But Tain knew that, if he didn’t confront this Old One, the Old One would only grow in power, using his puppet, the matriarch playing the majordomo, to do it. The Old One had a nice thing going out here behind a magic-sucking vortex, a perfect place from which to plot his attacks. If Tain didn’t destroy him, Samantha would be vulnerable.
Tain’s power, however, was diminished in the death realms, not to mention in the magic-draining vortex outside in the canyon. This could get tricky.
The matriarch laughed. “I needed Samantha because of you, of course. Did you really think I’d want a half blood to take over the clan? She’ll not last past the first challenge to her authority. Another reason I told Tristan I’d back his girlfriend was because I knew damn well the rest of the clan would balk at anyone Tristan put forward, and they’d beg Samantha to save them from such a fate. Fulton was easy to flatter, and he convinced Samantha she had to become matriarch for the good of the clan.”
“He wasn’t wrong,” Tain said softly.
The matriarch ignored him. “The true reason I chose Samantha in particular—and not just any demon woman in the clan—was because of you. The Immortal warrior who killed Kehksut would be a wonderful gift to bring to my master, Bahkat.”
Tain looked down at her from his height, letting his voice grow icy. “What makes you believe I will let you make me your gift?”
“Because Samantha will be the next to die if you don’t let me.” The matriarch touched his chest again, the gold band on her wrist glinting. “You hate demons, but you’re addicted to them, and you know it. Why else would you be sniffing at the skirts of a half blood? I know exactly how to make you obey.”
Tain said nothing. He knew his love for Samantha had nothing to do with addiction and everything to do with her. Kehksut was dead, the ancient, powerful demon master dissolved into dust. Kehksut had broken Tain with pain and loneliness, despair and madness. Samantha had slowly but surely dragged him back into the light.
The matriarch’s body shimmered and took on the features of Kehksut in her female form. Tain knew it was a glam, but the matriarch had down to the last detail what Kehksut had looked like in Tain’s eyes—the curve of body with plump breasts, the black dress that hugged every bend of her, the long red-painted nails, the fall of black hair that was too much like Samantha’s.
“Kehksut was one of my lovers,” the matriarch said in Kehksut’s seductive tones. “He told me all about you.”
The Old One’s voice rolled out of the darkness as he came toward them. “Kehksut was one of my lovers too, Immortal. I have brought you here for my vengeance.”
Tain drew his swords and held them ready, but here the death magic rendered them only so much metal.
He seemed to hear Hunter’s voice in his head: Yeah, but metal with an edge.
The matriarch smiled, her eyes shining. “Have I pleased you, master?”
The demon Bahkat chuckled, a chill sound. “You have pleased me well. Enjoy him as you wish.”
Darkness rolled from the shadows and hit Tain like a heavy weight, and when his vision cleared, time had passed and things had changed. He’d had been stripped to the waist, his hands chained behind him around a square pillar.
“This is what you’re used to, isn’t it?” the matriarch purred, in her own guise again. She came close to Tain and drew her fingernails lightly down his bare chest. “Kehksut told me about what you liked and what you craved, and how he did it to you.” She pressed her palm flat between his pectorals. “Your heart is racing now. Is it fear? Or anticipation?”
Tain tensed his muscles, but the chains that held him were extra thick and spelled with death magic. The blanket of Bahkat’s magic over everything made Tain sick and exhausted.
“A little of both, I think,” Bahkat said, still in the shadows.
The matriarch reached behind Tain then showed him a long, hooked knife. “I think I’ll enjoy this. Feel free to scream when it hurts.”
She touched the point of the knife to Tain’s neck, and Tain closed his eyes, the comforting black of madness swirling in to coat his brain.
Samantha made a complete circuit of the smooth-walled prison she and Merrick were in without finding so much as a crack in the rock. The walls were natural, not manmade, the stone polished by weather and time.
“You see?” Merrick said when she stopped, frustrated. “They knew it didn’t matter if we unbound ourselves. There’s no way out if you don’t have climbing gear or a lot of magic.”
“Don’t sell me short,” Samantha said, irritated. “I’m pretty resourceful—I was trained to be.”
“Yes, at the police academy, where you were taught how to bring down demons and hungry vamps.” He sounded weary.
“Exactly.”
“Did you learn orienteering as well?” Merrick asked, his patient voice grating on her nerves. “As in maybe figuring out where the hell we are? This doesn’t feel like death realm, but it doesn’t feel like the sewers of Los Angeles either.”
“I think we’re in the place Tain and Logan told me about,” Samantha said. “A canyon in Nevada, in the middle of the desert.”
“Wonderful. That means if we do manage to get out, we’ll be miles from civilization, with no water.”
“One thing at a time,” Samantha said.
“If your boyfriend knows about this place, shouldn’t he have rescued you by now?” Merrick rubbed his arms. “It’s getting damn cold down here. Even demons can get hypothermia.”
“Shh,” Samantha said sharply.
“I’m merely pointing out that if we don’t die of thirst, we will certainly freeze to death . . .”
“Quiet. I’m trying to listen.”
Merrick snapped his mouth shut, and the darkness went still. Samantha strained for the sound that had come from far above, but she heard only Merrick breathing next to her and the skitter of an insect as it scurried across the rock face.
“Not hearing anything,” Merrick said softly.
“Wait.”
The sound came again, muffled and far away, but she knew it because it was familiar. Far off in the desert, a wolf was howling.
Samantha’s heart beat faster. “That’s Logan.”
“How do you know?” Merrick asked. “There’s probably another werewolf pack out here somewhere. I know there’s at least three in Vegas.”
Samantha wanted to laugh with joy. “Because every wolf has a unique cry, and that’s Logan’s. I worked with him for more than a year—I got to know what he sounds like. It was useful when we had to split up while investigating.”
“All right, I’ll believe you, but how do you know he’s come to help you and not bury you?”
Samantha stared at Merrick, trying to see him in the dark. “Why would he do that? I know Logan—he’ll rescue us.”
“No, you only think you know him. It’s amazing what we can make ourselves believe when we want to.” Merrick touched her hand where it rested on the rock. “Why do you think he’s in Los Angeles playing lone wolf? He was forced out of his pack, that’s why.”
Samantha stopped. “How the hell do you know that?”
“My dear, when you and your partner busted up my club, I made sure I found out everything I could about the pair of you. For leverage, of course. A few phone calls to an old friend in St. Paul, and voila.”
Samantha wanted to know more, but she didn’t want to hear it from Merrick. Not that she could completely trust everything that came out of his mouth, in any case. “It’s none of my business,” she said quickly.
“It is entirely your business. As matriarch, you
need to learn that any anomaly can spell danger, and to keep your eye on it.”
Samantha knew he was right, and knew with a sinking heart that being matriarch gave her the potential of becoming just like Merrick, or Septimus with his network of vampire spies. As a police officer and detective, Samantha had always believed herself to be one of the good guys. As matriarch, though, she had the chance to become vastly powerful, to make her world one where the line between good and evil blurred. That was how Merrick lived his life and Septimus lived his.
She also realized that Tain walked that line every day, deciding whether to help and heal or use his power to destroy.
The howl came again, closer now. Samantha beat her hands on the wall. “I’ll never have the chance to be matriarch if I don’t get out of here. Logan!” she shouted.
Merrick danced aside, rocks scraping. “Warn me next time you’re about to bellow like that. I think you shattered my eardrum.”
“Help me, then. It’s your ass on the line too.”
“Good point.”
They both began shouting Logan’s name. Far above Samantha, something moved, rock on rock, and then pebbles trickled down on them. Merrick cursed, but Samantha peered upward. Was it her imagination, or could she see a faint outline against a smudge of light?
What she didn’t imagine was the solid click of a shotgun being cocked and starlight gleaming on a very long barrel pointed right at her.
Tain’s skin healed rapidly, as it always did, but blood ran in rivulets down his chest and pooled in the waistband of his jeans. The matriarch didn’t flay him carefully as Kehksut had—she simply cut his flesh over and over again.
The excessive power Tain had acquired through his captivity, which he’d spent the last year and a half getting used to, now drained away, leaving him weak, but he no longer cared. He’d realized in the last few weeks that magical strength meant little unless you knew exactly how and why to wield it.
Samantha always thought she had very little power, but she was wrong. Samantha had an inner strength that could quiet the entire city of Los Angeles. She’d come to a crazed, out-of-control Immortal who’d been ready to destroy the world to heal his pain, and snapped at him to stop being selfish. Then she’d taken in that same Immortal warrior, who’d been defeated and bewildered, terrified he’d slide back into the dark place, and she’d trusted him.
Samantha kept giving of herself, and that giving was far more powerful than Tain’s magic was or ever could be. Tain had to face that she meant more to him than anything else in any world, and that if he lost her, he’d face immeasurable grief.
This was sane, human hurt, and the fact that Tain could feel it was the gift Samantha had given him.
The matriarch wasn’t finished. After she cut Tain’s exposed flesh in crisscross patterns, she whipped him, her gold bands tinkling with every lash. She knew exactly where to aim each stroke, how to find the welts of his cuts and open them again.
Bahkat said nothing, neither gloating nor laughing. He just stood with his arms folded over his bare chest and watched. He’d taken the guise of a man before he walked out into the light, handsome of course, with smooth skin over a well-muscled body, black hair in a short buzz, and very blue eyes. He wore jeans only, and his naked arms were covered in tattoos, demon runes that contained spells of power.
“Kehksut’s killer,” he said to Tain in a matter-of-fact voice. “You don’t seem up to much at the moment. Why did you kill Kehksut? You loved him.”
“You’re wrong,” Tain said, his voice a rasp. “I hated him.”
“He let me watch sometimes, did you know that?” Bahkat asked. “I got to see how he flayed every bit of skin off you, then took a female form and sexed you. You used to beg him for it.”
Tain forced his mind to go blank, trying not to remember, but the scenes welled up before he could stop them. Kehksut smiling much as the matriarch was now, the horrible agony as Tain’s skin was peeled from his body, the strange ecstasy of sex as his flesh began to heal. Over and over it had happened, until Tain hadn’t been able to distinguish pain from joy.
The fact that this demon, Bahkat, had watched Tain’s torture for his entertainment made Tain’s rage rise. He might be without magical power in this place of death, but he was still a warrior, trained long ago by his father and other soldiers of Rome, some of the best fighting men who’d ever lived.
He twisted his body and kicked the matriarch in the stomach. She lost hold of the whip and stumbled back. “Bastard,” she snarled.
Bahkat shoved her aside and stood directly in front of Tain as Tain regained his balance. “You don’t understand how to make him pay,” he said to the matriarch. “You only play at torture. We will make him so insane with the pain that he’ll do anything for us. Then the first thing we’ll make him do is kill the pretty half-demon he’s been banging like a lovesick rabbit.”
Tain’s heart constricted. He wasn’t certain what he feared more—the two of them hurting Samantha or himself being pushed into madness and hurting her for them.
Never, he thought. Samantha is my salvation, and I will never let her be touched. This I vow by all the gods.
Bahkat picked up one of Tain’s swords, the bronze that had been forged nearly two thousand years ago by a master Roman sword maker in faraway Britain. The demon examined the weapon, tracing the Roman runes of protection on it, then tested the blade on his thumb.
“Excellent workmanship,” Bahkat said. He drew the sword back, his muscles rippling, and drove its point straight through Tain’s left eye.
Tain’s scream rang through the vast cavern, hollow echoes overlapping each other on the way back to him.
“Keep your hands where I can see them,” a slow male voice came down to Samantha.
“You can’t see anything down here,” Merrick returned. “It’s pitch black. Are you with the wolf? If not, I’m not coming anywhere near where you can see me.”
There was a little silence as though the man with the gun was working through this. “Just don’t move.”
“Is Logan with you?” Samantha called up to him.
“He’s here,” the man said. “He can’t answer, being a wolf right now and all. You Samantha? Tain’s girl?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
“And her friend,” Merrick put in. “Her best friend.”
“Good thing I brought a rope,” the man said. “Looks like that’s the only way you’re going to get out.” He withdrew the shotgun and lifted one hand in a wave. “Hi there. I’m Ed, by the way.”
“Hi, Ed,” Samantha said in a weak voice.
“You sit tight. We’ll get you outta there.”
Samantha backed away from the opening as a rope came hurtling down. When she looked up again, she saw a wolf shape outlined against the stars.
“Thanks, partner,” she said in relief.
The wolf made a brief huffing noise then backed away, letting the humans do their work.
Samantha knew how to tie a rope around a person so they could be pulled up without hurting them or cutting off their breath. She insisted Merrick be hauled up first, and he didn’t protest too hard.
Merrick half-climbed the rock wall as he was towed upward. He made it out safely with only some cursing on his part, mostly about his clothes. When the rope came back down, Samantha fixed it around herself and let Ed haul her up.
When she reached the top, rolling out with the help of Ed and another man, she lay on solid rock and gratefully breathed the fresh, dry air. Stars stretched above her thick and bright, unmarred by pollution or clouds.
Logan bent over Samantha, his lupine nose touching her face. She used Logan’s strong shoulder to brace herself while she sat up, still feeling the effects of the Mindglow or whatever drug had been slipped in her coffee.
Two men stood next to Logan, both with graying hair and stubbled chins. The one with the gun, Ed, introduced the other as his buddy Mike.
“Is Tain with you?” she asked them.
Ed shouldered his shotgun. “Nope. Logan here called us, saying he’s Tain’s friend, and can we meet him outside this canyon? He said Tain disappeared, and he thought maybe you were together. Then Logan changed into a wolf—that was a sight, I tell you—and he hasn’t changed back since we walked into the canyon. He told us he might not be able to, because of this vortex thing.”
Samantha blew out her breath, her heart thumping in worry. “So we’re in the place Tain thought was being used by No More Nightmares.”
“Looks like. That’s what Logan said anyway. Tain’s not with you then?”
“No.” Samantha felt sick. “Do you have a phone? I can call him.”
Ed shook his head. “Logan’s already tried to find him, and he said some woman at your place says he’d been nabbed too. Girl was hysterical, he said.”
“Flavia?” Samantha felt both worried and a little relieved. She’d liked and trusted Flavia, and she hoped her cousin had nothing to do with this abduction. The majordomo, on the other hand, clearly hadn’t been abducted with Samantha. Was the majordomo a victim, or in on the plot?
Samantha looked around. She sat on stone in a box canyon, the walls of which rose high around them. Moonlight glittered on the white walls, picking out black outlines of petroglyphs. “Now what?” she asked.
“We go up to the cliff dwellings,” Ed said. “That’s what Logan told me we had to do. He also said to give you this. Mike?”
Mike, who’d said not a word, stepped forward, unbuckled a shoulder holster with Samantha’s Glock, and handed gun and holster to her. Samantha took it gratefully. She slid out the gun and checked it, finding it loaded, then slipped it back into the holster.
“Looks like everyone’s armed but me,” Merrick said, sitting down on a boulder. “And here I am with diminished powers. Anyone mind if I wait in the car? If you brought a car, that is, and if you’ll tell me where it is.”
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