Tain grabbed Samantha around the wrist and dragged her to her feet. “No,” he said, voice grating. “My way is better. It will hurt her more.”
Bahkat came forward, interested. Tain’s fingers clamped harder on Samantha’s wrist, forcing her hand to open, and he slammed her palm to his pentacle tattoo.
“No,” Samantha cried. She felt the enormity of his magic even before her hand contacted the mark.
The tattoo seared into her palm, hotter than it had when he’d overwhelmed her in the tiny bedroom in his apartment. Tain poured all his life essence into her, not slowing it, not preparing her, not stopping it from hurting.
The demon in Samantha at first drank it greedily, and then as the essence continued to gush in, Samantha started to scream. She couldn’t take it all at once—it would kill her, burning her from the inside out. She struggled, trying to jerk away from the tearing pain, but Tain held her remorselessly.
Tain’s essence filled her with white-hot heat, a magic stronger even than that of the goddess Cerridwen, who had entwined her psyche with Samantha’s at the battle with Kehksut. Then, Samantha’s real self had become enmeshed with the goddess, and she’d felt enormous power, but it hadn’t hurt.
This was unbearable. Samantha felt every cut of Tain’s torture, relived the horrible agony when Bahkat had cut out Tain’s eye. She was forced to take all of it, every space of her filling with Tain’s life essence, his memories, his magic. Samantha’s skin began to glow, the power of the essence she’d absorbed lighting the dark cavern.
Bahkat snapped his gaze to her, suddenly alert. He flickered and elongated, death magic pouring from him to surround the life magic now radiating from Samantha.
A roar filled the air, the sound of a shotgun, and Tain’s hand tore from her. Samantha stared in shock as Tain fell to the ground, his chest bloody. She whirled to see Mike standing behind her, staring with terrified eyes, the acrid smoke from his shotgun curling around his face.
As she gaped dazedly at Mike, Samantha felt Tain’s fingers, slick with blood, on her wrist. She looked down at him, the man she loved covered in blood and in terrible pain, his magic gone. He pressed the hilt of one of his swords into her hand. “Do it,” he whispered. “You’re strong enough.”
Pain burned her, Samantha’s head pounding with nightmare agony. Her vision was all wrong too—white lines crisscrossed in front of her, bright points that seemed to stab around the cavern, making the walls sparkle.
Bahkat rose in front of her, huge and dark, his body morphing to his demon form. He filled the cave, a horror with wings unfolding, his eyes red and burning.
Tain’s hand closed harder around Samantha’s wrist. “Do it for me,” he whispered.
Samantha’s mind cleared, and she understood. Tain had infused her with the life essence of an Immortal, the essence that had been too powerful for an Old One like Kehksut to take. Tain had trained Samantha, by letting her imbibe him little by little, to absorb that power.
Samantha pulsed with Tain’s life magic. His sword was in her hands as Bahkat rose over her, ready to crush her.
“I love you, Samantha,” Tain said, then his grasp went slack.
Samantha roared. It was a terrible sound, ringing through the cavern and out into the night. Samantha the demon and Samantha the woman screamed together in rage, and Samantha the matriarch came in for good measure.
She raised the sword. She was full of Tain’s beautiful magic that he’d drained himself to give her, Samantha’s demon self able to carry it in this place of death magic. She brought the sword down on Bahkat.
Bahkat slid out of her reach, throwing a wave of death magic at her, but the wave flowed around Samantha without touching her. She came at Bahkat again, sword high, laughing wildly.
“Do you know what happened when Tain suffered all those years at Kehksut’s hands?” Samantha shouted. “He got strong—stronger than all the Immortals put together. Did you really think you could defeat him? He’s got more power than any life-magic creature in the world, and your friend Kehksut made him that way.” Samantha stalked Bahkat as she spoke, her terrible strength rising in volcano fury. “Wouldn’t Kehksut love it if he knew the being he’d created was the one who killed you?”
Bahkat came at her, claws out, his body huge and horrific. Samantha drew back Tain’s well-balanced bronze sword, made a quick feint, and came up and under the demon’s reach to stab him in the neck.
Bahkat screamed. Black blood poured over Samantha’s hands, and the demon shuddered violently. Samantha kept the sword in place, holding it hard.
Tain’s white-hot magic poured out of her and up the blade straight into Bahkat, shaking him like an electric wave. The huge demon writhed and twisted, trying to get away. Samantha stayed steady, even though her arms felt like they were being wrenched out. She refused to move—she knew from experience it took a long time to kill demons.
A second Roman sword joined the first, this one driving deep into Bahkat’s chest. Tain stood beside Samantha, his body shining with sweat, muscles contracting as he held his sword in rock-steady hands.
Bahkat thrashed in panic, and death magic exploded over Tain and Samantha, crushing the air from Samantha’s lungs. She lost her hold on the sword and went down, hearing the blade clank faintly on the rock next to her.
Tain landed on top of her, shielding her while Bahkat’s death throes went on. The magic cavern began to crumble, the death realm losing its patron, its pillars toppling into dust.
Tain dragged Samantha up and over his shoulder, and he hurtled across the ledge to the ropes that led down. Ed, Mike, and Merrick were gone, having sensibly fled while Samantha fought Bahkat.
Tain half jumped, half fell over the ledge with Samantha, she banging against his shoulder. They landed on a jutting slab of rock below, where Ed, Mike, and Merrick already cowered.
The cave above them exploded, the ancient cliff dwelling going up with it. Bahkat’s cries of agony went on, long and shrill, growing fainter as the chunks of cliff dwelling fell to block the hole. Samantha felt the death magic dwindle as the entrance to the death realm was buried and destroyed.
Boulders and pebbles continued to rain down around them, plinking against the rocks like hail. Tain shielded Samantha with his body, never flinching as the falling gravel cut into his bare and already cut skin. The others huddled together, Merrick growling and cursing as the rain of rock went on and on.
After a long time, the pebbles pattered out around them, and everything gradually went silent. The last chill wave from the death realm dispersed into the vortex, and white dust spiraled into the light of the coming dawn.
What was left of the Old One Bahkat slithered through the portal he’d opened back into the matriarch’s mansion. He’d fled here in blind panic, drawn to the life essences of the group of humans repairing things in the basement.
Bahkat relaxed in relief. He could drain the humans and regain strength, then lie in wait to capture Tain and his half-demon bitch when they returned. He’d kill Samantha and seal the Immortal into Bahkat’s hell dimension. If Tain thought he’d been tortured before, it was nothing to what Bahkat would do to him now.
Bahkat crawled out, gasping and half-dead, to the secret room below the house. He would lie here, in human form, until he regained his strength, then he’d seek sustenance.
As his bare human feet hit the floor, he heard a strange whooshing sound, and he looked up to see a flaming sword in front of his face.
A green-eyed, tawny-haired man held the sword’s hilt, and behind him stood a lion, a true one, who snarled softly. Beyond the beast was another Immortal glowing with life magic, the snake in his hands just changing to a sword.
“Look, Adrian,” the green-eyed one said. “Tain sent us an Old One. This should be fun.”
“He’s dying,” the one called Adrian said. “Put him out of his misery.”
The green-eyed one’s horrible smile widened. The flaming blade swung around and swiftly and cleanly struck Bahkat
’s head from his body. The last thing the demon heard was the Immortal saying, “Oh, that was too easy. Tain got to have all the fun . . .”
Tain hobbled out of the canyon with his arm around Samantha. His magic was spent, the vortex and the battle sucking him dry, the white-hot essence he’d used to fill Samantha gone. Samantha staggered beside him, insisting on helping him walk, although it was clear she could barely walk herself.
On her other side was Mike, the only one of them still whole, who silently guided Samantha with a hand under her arm, his shotgun clutched in his other hand. Ed and Merrick limped behind them, Merrick uncharacteristically quiet.
They found Logan partway up the canyon, as far as he’d dragged himself before collapsing. He lay still, his fur matted with blood, a hind leg twisted and broken. He looked up with dull eyes when Samantha bent worriedly over him.
“Mike, can you carry him?” Tain asked tiredly. “I can heal him, but we have to get out of this damned canyon first.”
Mike nodded, handed Ed his shotgun, and leaned down and hoisted Logan up and over his shoulders. Logan yelped in pain and squeezed his eyes shut.
“Was that really the matriarch?” Samantha asked Tain as they moved on again. He liked having her arm tight around his waist, liked her warmth against his aching body.
“She said she switched places with her majordomo years ago,” Tain answered, his voice like broken rock. “There aren’t many demons left who remember what she looked like.”
Merrick laughed hoarsely. “The vixen. I told you she’d been a wild woman in her youth.”
“Well, she’d dead now,” Samantha said. She shook her head. “Just when I thought demons could be civilized, one tries to sacrifice me to an Old One.”
Merrick chuckled again. “When demons start to age, they get a little crazy. They hanker for the old days, which are gone forever. Live with the times, I always say.”
Samantha slanted Tain a glance, not smiling. Tain had hurt her deeply, he knew that, and there was a chance she wouldn’t forgive him for it.
As the canyon walls receded, Tain felt his magic return, slowly but surely. After about another mile or so they emerged onto flat ground, a chill morning breeze wafting across the desert floor. The rising sun glinted on the windshield of Ed’s pickup a ways off, and on the chrome of a motorcycle parked next to it.
When they reached the washboard road, Tain told Mike to lay Logan on the ground. The wolf shimmered and became a man, naked-and gray faced, covered with blood. Logan moaned, his eyelids fluttering.
Samantha knelt next to him. “Merrick, give me your jacket.”
Tain expected the demon to argue, but Merrick slid his suit coat from his shoulders and handed it to her. “Two thousand dollars at Armani on Rodeo. They know my size.”
“Shut up,” Samantha said, but without much heat. She spread the coat over Logan’s body, and Tain crouched next to him.
Magic flowed to Tain’s fingertips, tingling and hurting, his own body wanting to heal first. Tain tried to ignore the pain, and sank his magic into Logan, taking comfort in the familiar ritual of healing. He saw Logan’s injuries as a jumbled mass of torn muscle and bone, and he let himself straighten the threads of them one by one.
Logan groaned again, moving in pain as his body healed. Then he sucked in a sharp breath, normal color flooding his face. “Hell,” he said, looking weakly up at Samantha. “Looks like I missed all the fun.”
Tain next turned to Ed, healing the man’s abrasions and broken ribs. Next Merrick, whose neck became whole and smooth under his touch.
“You could sell that skill,” Merrick said when he’d finished. He fingered his throat. “Maybe when I open my club again, we could work a deal.”
Tain ignored him. He turned to Samantha and cupped her face in his hands, letting healing magic flow gently into her. He healed what he’d damaged with his flood of life essence, and allowed the feel of her to soothe his battered soul. He sensed Samantha growing aroused, as she always did when he healed her, and his own body responded even through the pain.
But Samantha said nothing, did nothing, and when he finished, she turned away from him without meeting his gaze.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Cleanup from a case was always a bitch, no less now that Samantha was not on the force. As the Lamiah matriarch, she had to find a way to explain that the majordomo and the real matriarch had switched places long ago. Also that the matriarch had called forth a nasty Old One, destroying demons in her own clan to do it, and that she’d met her death at said Old One’s hands.
Logan helped her tell the story to McKay, who listened with a tense look on her face. “And that portal is closed?” McKay asked. “No more big bad demon coming out to wreak havoc in my city?”
“Tain’s brothers sealed it up,” Samantha said, remembering Hunter’s glee when he told her. “And made sure Bahkat was dead. I don’t think there will be any more Old Ones popping into the matriarch’s house.”
“Thank goodness for that. Good work, lieutenant.” McKay stopped. “I mean matriarch.”
Samantha smiled, always enjoying hard-won praise from her boss, even if McKay wasn’t her boss anymore.
Tristan was arrested for sending the threatening letters for the matriarch, charged with being an accessory to murder. Tristan had expected Samantha, as his cousin and matriarch, to provide him with a top lawyer and get him off, and was shocked when she refused. Samantha also refused to supply bail money. Tristan needed to pay for helping the old matriarch cause the deaths of girls who’d done nothing to deserve being turned into demon sacrifice, Samantha decided. He needed to pay for Nadia’s anguish and grief, as well. The rest of the Lamiah clan agreed with her.
Ms. Townsend of No More Nightmares was brought in, and coldly confessed to kidnapping the demon prostitutes and presiding over the ritual killings. She showed no remorse at their deaths, not even at the death of her own assistant, Melanie. Once Ms. Townsend had discovered Melanie had demon blood, Melanie had to die, in order to cleanse the organization. It was easy to make Melanie’s death look like the others.
Samantha worried that a human jury might sympathize with Ms. Townsend’s anti-demon point of view, but Logan said Nadia had agreed to testify and tell the world what she and her sister had suffered. Logan was confident that he and Nadia could persuade a courtroom to see Ms. Townsend’s cruelty.
Samantha was exhausted and happy to return home, where Flavia had become very maternal. The young woman felt terrible that the coffee had been drugged and Samantha taken while she’d obliviously worked in the next room. Samantha reassured Flavia that it hadn’t been her fault, but Flavia still went about looking guilt-stricken.
Samantha hadn’t seen Tain since their long, dusty ride back to Los Angeles in Ed’s pickup. Tain had retreated to the Malibu house after Ed had dropped Samantha off at her mother’s, Tain saying he needed to spend time with Hunter and Adrian to heal. Samantha longed to be there with him, but Tain told her to return to the matriarch’s mansion as soon as she could, to smooth things over, reassure the clan, and keep the peace.
Samantha was surprised the clan still wanted her, now that they knew the matriarch hadn’t truly backed her. But Fulton said that Samantha had been chosen legitimately—put forth by a head of household and voted on at the muster—and the clan accepted her as leader. Samantha helping to kill the Old One that the matriarch had summoned, not to mention besting Tristan, only raised her in the clan’s estimation.
As for Merrick . . . Samantha learned that, by demon law, he was due compensation, because he’d suffered as a result of assisting Samantha in her role as matriarch. Samantha made a generous donation to the rebuilding of Merrick’s club, giving the money directly to the builders instead of Merrick himself. She even bought him a new suit from the shop on Rodeo.
So all was well at the matriarch’s mansion, but Samantha went to bed alone every night, her heart aching.
At the Malibu house, Tain waited for his Immortal body to
close its wounds and return his strength. He soon realized the eye Bahkat had cut out would not regenerate, though the socket scarred over, the flesh itself healing. Leda assured him he looked like a dashing pirate with his new eye patch, but Tain found no humor in it.
He waited until his strength returned in full, then made his way down to the matriarch’s mansion. Using spells to make himself unobtrusive, he slipped past Samantha and Flavia talking in the hall and waited for Samantha to return to her office.
When Samantha entered the room and closed the door with a sigh, Tain kept the spells in place and let himself look at her. She wore a classic suit, the skirt revealing her long legs, the jacket hugging her curves. He’d missed the fine smoothness of her face, her beautiful dark eyes, and the way she could roll those eyes whenever Tain said something cryptic and Immortal.
Samantha stood in the middle of the room, gazing out the distant window as she lifted her hair from her neck and let it drop through her hands. Her black hair shimmered as it fell, and Tain’s arousal swiftly rose. He couldn’t resist coming up behind her and sliding his hands across her shoulders, kissing the silken fall of her hair.
Samantha let out a cry and swung around, eyes wide. “Tain,” she gasped, hand at her heart. “Jeez, don’t do that.”
The door swung open and Flavia hurried in. “I heard you call out. What’s wrong?”
Samantha stepped out of Tain’s arms, flushing. “I’m fine. Tain startled me, is all.”
Flavia fixed Tain a cold stare worthy of the old majordomo. “You didn’t make an appointment.”
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