by Helen Scott
“The cut on your leg was beyond what your body is capable of healing right now. If you had already taken the throne, it wouldn’t have been so bad, but for now, you’re still mostly human.”
“Is that normal?” I asked, feeling like a freak of nature. I knew what a succubus was. After all, there were plenty of horror movies and books that explored the fear of female sexuality. The succubus, the vampire, it had all started because men got scared of women enjoying sex; at least, that was what my English teacher had believed, and I had to say, she made a pretty convincing argument.
“I have no idea if I’m honest,” Knox said with a sigh. “But you’re healing better now, so that’s good, I think. I’m sure Hunt will disagree with me, but my theory is that you came so close to death, you had to take some of our energy to kickstart your healing. When one of us wasn’t enough, we each stepped in.”
“It felt pretty good, too. It’s not as if you hurt us.” Emmett winked at me.
My cheeks flushed. “And how exactly did I take your energy?” I asked, pinning Emmett with my gaze.
“I’m happy to demonstrate if you want?” He chuckled.
“Maybe later.” I grinned.
“Fine,” he said with an exaggerated sigh. “You kissed us, but your eyes were glowing red at the time, and it kind of seemed as if no one was home.”
“Well, that’s not creepy or anything.”
“It’s certainly an interesting ability. One that doesn’t usually manifest in the descendants of the gods. I was half wondering if it came from the non-descendant side of you, but if you’ve never experienced it before, then that leaves a whole slew of questions,” Knox added.
We each fell into our own thoughts, and mine drifted back to the fight. “Did you catch her?”
“Catch who, angel?”
“The woman from the diner, from Alpha.”
“No, we didn’t even know she was there.”
“That’s who I was fighting. She didn’t even care about Derek. She just wanted my blood. Oh gods, is Derek okay?” Guilt rolled through me that I hadn’t asked that question first, but it wasn’t every day I found out I had the ability to suck the life force from people.
“He’s a little shaken, but he’s fine.”
I relaxed a little. “Has someone had the talk with him?”
“The man is old enough to know how sex works, my queen.” Emmett chuckled.
“No.” I play slapped his arm. “I mean the supernatural talk. Telling him he’s a judge and all that.”
“Oh, yeah. Nolan and Cass took care of that,” Emmett said, brushing away my concerns.
“Before we get off track,” Knox jumped in, “the woman you were fighting was the same woman you met in the bathroom at the diner?”
I nodded.
“Shit,” he swore under his breath as he rubbed his jaw.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, bracing for the worst.
“Derek said he couldn’t see her after you collapsed, and when Hunter came in, she wasn’t there, so we don’t know how long she was with you unconscious. And with all the blood you’d lost around the room . . .”
“She could have enough of my blood to claim the throne,” I said, dropping the bomb that the guys had been tiptoeing around.
“Exactly,” said Knox.
A deadly silence filled the room as we all took in exactly what that meant. Did Alpha even know what running the Underworld entailed? Did they have judges and hellhounds? Or the ability to fight off Hel? It was all a mystery that we didn’t have time to solve.
“I only see one course of action. We have to move forward assuming she took what she needed from me. If that’s the case, then we need to get Shadow as soon as possible and get to the Underworld before they do. I’m assuming there are only certain areas where humans can enter the realm?”
Cass, Nolan, and Derek had walked in while I was talking, and it left me feeling relieved to see them all there together. The only one missing was Hunter, and that made my heart ache. Before anyone could respond to my question, I pulled up my inner eye and looked at the bonds. I at least wanted confirmation that Hunter was healthy while he guarded the Underworld.
The blue flame of his bond was stronger than ever, almost as vibrant and big as the others. It made me wonder what exactly had happened when I took his energy, but before I could overanalyze everything, the guys all started talking at once. Nolan cleared his throat and got everyone to quiet down while I waited for Knox or Emmett to answer, as they were the only ones in the room who had spent a decent amount of time in the Underworld.
“That’s true, and it will be hard for them to find,” Knox said while Emmett nodded along.
“So, we’ve got a little time. Has anyone discussed a plan to save Shadow?”
“We’ve been a little busy trying to keep you alive, princess,” Nolan said with a wicked grin. I knew he was joking, but I couldn’t help feeling as if I’d failed anyway. My goal had been to free Derek, not to end up almost dying and possibly giving a strange organization trying to steal my throne from me everything they needed to accomplish their task.
“Fair enough,” I said, feeling resigned. “We know which high school thanks to Nolan’s research, and we know it was a weekend since school was out, but we don’t know which one. I have no doubt that Alpha will be after Shadow, as will Hel, so they can stop us from claiming the Underworld. We need to get to him now before it’s too late and all those kids die.”
“What kids?” Derek asked, concern flashing over his features as his eyes focused on me.
“I had a vision that some high schoolers would be murdered along with the third judge, Shadow. I want to stop it all from happening. It’s how I found you, too.” I wanted to smile and ask him how he was, to break the awkward barrier that existed between us, but now wasn’t the time for that. Although, I couldn’t stop my eyes from tracing his form. His short faded hair was a dark crown on top of his head that sat above his warm brown eyes that had widened at my revelation, a full nose, and even fuller lips. He was beyond handsome. When my eyes drifted lower, I drank in the athletic shoulders hidden under a gray T-shirt, along with what I was sure was a trim waist. His jeans fit him flawlessly and made him look completely at ease, especially when combined with his pose of one leg crossed in front of the other as he leaned against the wall.
“So, we go to the school and what? Kidnap him? Talk to him?” Cass asked. For the first time, he seemed somewhat irritated, and I couldn’t figure out why. Was he upset that we were adding yet another member to our little group? I knew my head was spinning. Seven guys? How we were all going to get along was a constant thought in the back of my mind like a leaking faucet. Was Cass’s irritation linked to something deeper? Or was I just reading too much into the whole thing?
“We go and have a chat with him. Try to convince him to come with us to the hotel and at least bond with Poppy so we can enter the Underworld and claim the throne, even if he refuses to come all the way to the Underworld,” Emmett said.
Derek raised his hand as if we were in school. He was so polite, it was adorable. When Emmett looked at him, he said, “I haven’t bonded with Poppy, or at least I don’t think I have.”
“We’ll get to it, don’t worry,” I said, not wanting to get into the nitty gritty with everyone listening. It wasn’t as though we hadn’t all been through it, but Derek and I hadn’t even had a full conversation yet.
“Can you draw us a map of the school, angel?” Knox asked next to me.
“Sure, but I can just lead you as well.”
Knox, Emmett, Nolan, and Cass all exchanged a look over my head.
“Oh, no. You are not leaving me behind,” I said. There was only one reason they would hesitate to tell me something, and that was if they knew it would upset me, which could only mean they were planning on leaving me there, and now they were debating breaking the news to me.
“You almost died, princess. You need to stay safe, or this is all for nothing,” Nolan said
quietly.
“I’m there. My vision wasn’t lying about that.”
“Maybe, but maybe not. Visions are fickle things,” Knox said.
“And what about Hunt?” I asked, folding my arms over my chest.
“We’ll tell him. He is still pissed we didn’t tell him last time,” Emmett said, cutting off Knox, who I was almost positive was going to say they were leaving Hunter in the dark. Again.
“How did he find out?” I asked, wishing I’d been a fly on the wall for the fallout from that.
“You were dying, and he felt it through his bond. He came and rescued you at the shop and helped heal you,” Emmett said with a shrug. “He does care about you, you know.”
“I know,” I said quietly. While I might not say it out loud, I was floored that Hunter had come to rescue me, that he had healed me. He was so prickly most of the time, but then once I got past the hard shell, he was a big gooey marshmallow.
I pleaded my case with the guys a while longer, but it was no good. None of them would take me along. Instead, after drawing them a map of the school from what I remembered, I was alone in the room. They had even taken Derek. Poor guy didn’t have a clue what he was walking into, but evidently, he was going to be more useful than me.
Chapter Seventeen
Poppy
There was only so many hours of daytime TV a girl could watch before losing her mind, and I was coming perilously close. Only, it wasn’t just daytime TV, it was Saturday-morning TV, and I wasn’t just watching it, I was using it to distract myself from the fact that I had only received two texts from Emmett the whole time the guys had been gone. The first text had read: “Here. School is mostly empty. On the hunt for Shadow’s classroom.” I had just about lost my temper between that message and the second one, which read simply: “Not alone. Will find Shadow ASAP.”
Not alone? What was that even supposed to mean? Were there kids there? Or agents of Hel? Or members of Alpha? There was so much I didn’t know. Every five minutes, I allowed myself to look at the bonds between us and make sure they were okay, that all the flames still blazed with life. I was constantly checking the clock, though, and when I did look, I tried to listen in through the bonds, figure out what was going on from the waves of emotions coming off my guys, but all I ever seemed to get was the same thing. Knox was calm and alert. Emmett was nervous but ready. Hunter was angry. Nolan was scared. Cass, the first of my lovely judges, well, he was almost vibrating with anxiety. I wished I had done the blood bond with Derek before he left, but we hadn’t exactly had time for the conversation, and I didn’t just want to spring it on him. He had gone with the others, but I had no idea what was going on with him. He could be dead for all I knew. Not that I was allowing myself to think that way.
I pushed myself up off the bed. My leg was still not quite stable, but it worked, which was more than it would have done if I were completely human. Since no one was there to stop me, I cut the binding away. The duct tape and gauze had been holding my skin together while it healed, but the itching sensation I’d had for the last couple hours had finally won. The silver tape and white bandage parted easily, revealing the angry red skin underneath. There was still some dried blood on my leg, so I washed it off and looked at the brand-new scar I had. The long, vicious-looking curved white line ran from my knee to my hip. It was still red around the edges, but only a little, and now that the skin could breathe again, the itching abated.
What I really needed was a good long shower. That would have to distract me for a while, right? I turned on the faucet and ran my hand under the water, waiting for it to warm up. Just as I stood to strip out of my blood-stained T-shirt and bra, I felt a massive drain on one of the bonds. It was like a kick to the chest that was also attached to suction of some kind. I looked at the bonds and saw Hunter’s flickering, along with Cass’s. Without a moment’s hesitation, I shut the water off and hobbled out of the bathroom to pull some clothes on. I needed to find out what was going on, and if need be, I would kick some ass, whether I had both legs working or not.
The jeans were my last pair, and the shirt was, well, it was basically my last decent T-shirt as well. All the adventures we had been having over the last few weeks had all but destroyed my closet. Thankfully even if my bra was ruined today, I still had another one.
Another tug on my bond with the guys, and I was wrapping the darkness around me, begging it to take me to the school. I didn’t care if I was off and in the building over or in someone’s house. All I wanted was to get to whoever was hurting and help them. My leg would just have to deal with it.
When the world appeared around me, my stomach sank. I was in the exact same spot the vision had started. The smell of cologne was the same, as were the signs plastered all over the walls. Without thinking, I turned and ran in the direction of my vision, mentally bracing myself for whatever I was about to find in the hallway.
The metallic scent of blood washed over me. It still coated everything. Lockers. Walls. Ceiling. Floor. It was the black sheen that ran over the surface that gave it away, though. It wasn’t human blood. It was blood from agents of Hel, which meant that my guys had definitely been through here. The whimpering noise I had been expecting sounded in the classroom on my left. The smell of sulfur and burning hair wafted toward me just as they had before, and I had to hold my breath to suppress my gag reflex.
The teacher was curled into a ball on the floor of the cupboard. Her short dark hair was wet, and her long purple maxi skirt was splattered with blood, as was her pale-blue T-shirt that read, “Stand back, I’m going to do science.” The same exact clothes I had seen on her before.
“Are you okay?” I asked, extending my hand to help her out of the cupboard.
“I’ll be fine once the police are here,” she whispered. “Is he still out there?”
“No, he’s gone. I’m going to look for the kids. You should go wait for the police in your car. Get out of the school but stay hidden. Make sure you go right out of your door, okay?”
She nodded and took my hand, almost pulling me over as she stood because of my damn leg. I was going to have to be more careful with it.
“It was just supposed to be a pizza party,” she whispered more to herself than anything else as she passed me to exit.
I watched to make sure she made it out okay and turned back toward what was apparently my inevitable future. I poked my head in Shadow’s classroom for a second just to be sure he wasn’t in there before I saw the same flash of white I had seen in my vision.
Shadow was kneeling on the ground in front of the agent of Hel, his face battered and bruised just like before, except this time, he was struggling, fighting with everything he had. The agent of Hel had an iron grip on Shadow’s faded blue T-shirt with one hand, and the blade in the other. Shadow’s arms were still about the size of my head, and he really did look as if he’d be able to rip a tree in half.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are! I can feel you, little goddess. Hel knew you were getting close, and she sent me to deliver a message, so come on out.”
The door latch gave easily under my hands, and the heavy metal panel swung open with a whine. “I’m right here,” I called out, and both their heads swiveled toward me. As I made my way forward, I worked hard to hide the limp my leg had given me. With my hands raised to show I wasn’t a threat, I approached the men. I could feel the panic shimmering through the bonds. I had wanted to track down the guys first, but everything was playing out too closely to my vision for me to feel comfortable walking away from Shadow, who I knew would be in the clutches of an agent of Hel.
“Oh, good. So glad you could join the party.” The pale man smirked, and my stomach turned, nausea rolling through me at the sight of his colorless skin and weird milky-blue eyes.
“I know, I know, the message is I lose. You’re going to kill everyone and then kill me, blah, blah, blah,” I said, waving my hand back and forth as though he were the most boring person on the planet. All I could do, thou
gh, was focus on getting closer to the center of the situation, trying to save Shadow and then save my guys.
The agent growled at me, and his hand came down with a slash. Shadow jolted out of the way, and the blade missed. He fell to the side, his head smacking on the ground and sounding almost hollow. When he rolled, I could see that the knife had still sliced his chest, but at least he was alive, which was more than had happened in my vision. The impact of hitting the concrete had knocked his brain about a little too much, and as I watched blood flow down his face, I wanted to kneel beside him and help him. If I did that, we’d both be dead. I wrenched my eyes away from the wounds and focused on the agent himself as he circled around us.
“Just hang on, Shadow,” I said quietly. “We’ll get you out of here. You have to trust us, though.”
“Oh, that’s sweet. You think you can save him when you couldn’t even save your hounds. No wonder Hel wants the Underworld. If someone like you holds it, then the human realm would be swimming in dead spirits before the day’s end.”
I ignored what he was saying and searched behind him for my guys. When I saw the edge of Knox’s head and arm peek out from between a bush and the corner of the main building, I had to restrain myself. The urge to run to him was so strong that I had already taken a step when I caught myself. The agent shifted then, and I knew he’d sensed my intentions. His head flipped around so fast that I wasn’t sure it was properly attached to his body. There was nothing for him to see, though. The sliver of Knox that had been visible was already gone, and the leaves in the bushes surrounding the area weren’t even rustling.
“What is Hel going to say when I kill you, hum?” I asked, drawing his attention back to me.
“You foolish child, I—” His voice cut off as I summoned the darkness, which quickly surrounded him. I was willing it to have mass, to be a snake instead of a tendril. I wanted it to crush his bones and send him back to Hel where he belonged. When I heard a crack, I wanted to whoop with joy. For the second time in one day, the darkness was doing what I wanted. Or at least, that was what I thought until the pale, almost translucent hands of the agent of Hel tore through the darkness. The thick python of darkness I had created almost disintegrated at his touch, as though it hadn’t even been there to begin with.