Embers

by Suzanne Wright

  Harper stumbled toward her, shaking from the cold that had invaded her body and seemed to weigh her down like lead. But, in control of the child, the incorporeal righted itself, shot a creepy smile at Harper, and thrust out its palm. A bitterly cold wind soared out of its hand, slammed into Harper, and tossed her aside.

  There was a crack as her head hit the wall hard. Motherfucker. Harper slid to the tiled floor with a shaky moan just as the incorporeal swept out its arm, sending a blast of glacial air that froze the humans around them.

  Harper’s mind told her to get up. Attack. Fight. But her body helplessly curled into a ball, trembling from the cold. It reminded her of the time she’d fallen into a frozen lake, only this was ten times worse. God, she was so cold her skin burned; it felt like she was being stabbed with needles.

  Her demon raged, urging Harper to rise and charge at the little fucker. She wanted to get up. Tried. But she could barely breathe, let alone move. Hell, it was hard to think about anything other than the pain.

  Hearing pounding, she realized that Tanner was kicking and punching the door. A door which was covered in the same ice that had crept along the walls. He couldn’t get inside, and there was no way for her to help him. She just couldn’t get up. Every muscle contracted painfully. Each breath she took chilled her throat and lungs, as if she was breathing in ice-cold air. It made her chest hurt like holy hell.

  Even as the cold began to fog her brain and cloud her thoughts, she retained enough presence of mind to call out, Knox, need you here. Her telepathic voice was soft and weak, but she knew he’d hear it.

  The incorporeal skipped over to her with a giggle. “You don’t look too good. Don’t worry, the pain will be gone soon … because you’ll be gone.” She giggled again.

  Harper snarled, but what could she do? Even if she was prepared to hurt a kid on the off-chance that it would also hurt the incorporeal, she couldn’t have moved to do so. Numbness had crept into her fingers and toes, like her hands and feet were submerged in snow. Her demon surfaced with a hiss and said, “You will die for this.”

  “That would have sounded scary if you weren’t chattering your teeth.”

  The air thundered as fire erupted out of the floor. The incorporeal wasted no time in attacking. The moment Knox stepped out of the dying flames, it sent a blast of glacial energy at him. The blast had no effect. Just skimmed over him, barely even ruffling his hair.

  Harper? It was a demand to know if she was all right.

  I’m fine, Harper told him. Kill it. Her demon didn’t settle now that he was there. It wanted to fight alongside him. Harper wanted it too, she really did, but she couldn’t stop shaking. Hell, she couldn’t even speak. Every breath hurt. It felt like shards of ice had splintered her throat and lodged in her lungs. The air in the room sliced at her skin like it was a bitterly cold wind; making her nose numb, her ears throb, and her cheeks feel windburned.

  Smiling up at Knox, the incorporeal let out a nervous girly giggle. “You wouldn’t hurt a little girl, would you?”

  Glaring hard at the incorporeal, Knox flexed his fingers. Fury lived and breathed inside him right then, making his heart pound and his blood sing with the need for vengeance. His demon ached to take charge and annihilate their enemy, but Knox didn’t trust that it wouldn’t annihilate everyone else in the process, considering them collateral damage. The demon only cared for the safety of its mate and son.

  “I see you have something in common with your owner,” said Knox. “You hide behind others—or, in your case, within others.”

  The incorporeal narrowed its eyes. “I am not owned.”

  “Sure you are,” he said, tone derisive. Taunting. Cutting. “He holds your leash and tells you to go fetch. You obey his orders like a good … little … dog.”

  She hissed and bared her teeth. “I am no one’s dog.”

  “And yet, here you are, doing your master’s bidding at the promise of a treat. You may have escaped your glass case, but you are still very much a captive.”

  “Once I am free of this bargain, I will find Dion and make him pay for keeping me in that case,” she snarled.

  Well that confirmed that it wasn’t Dion who had helped Alethea free it.

  “If you persist in coming at me and mine, the only freedom you will find is in death.” Knox slipped an arm behind him and shot a wave of raw power at the front door. The moment it burst open and Tanner rushed inside, Knox clipped, “Get Harper out of here.”

  The hellhound probably would have done exactly that if the incorporeal hadn’t hit him with a wave of glacial energy, encasing him in ice—it happened in a mere millisecond.

  The incorporeal giggled and put a hand to its mouth. “Oops. Wasn’t that one of your big, bad sentinels? Frozen is a good look for him.”

  Harper shot a hard glare at the incorporeal as she spoke to Knox. Kill it for fuck’s sake.

  With a sudden sharp cry, the incorporeal slapped its little hands to its head.

  “You feel me inside the child’s mind, don’t you?” taunted Knox. “I see you have a good grip on it. But to make you loosen your hold on her … all I have to do is this.”

  Harper winced because whatever ‘this’ was made the incorporeal scream like a banshee. It thrust out both chubby little hands, and a harsh wind whooshed out of its palms and whirled around Knox like a tornado. He stood inside it, looking unimpressed. Even a little bored. Which only pissed the incorporeal off beyond measure.

  He was playing with the incorporeal, Harper knew. Letting it see and feel just how outmatched it was. And she suspected his demon was thoroughly enjoying that.

  Finally, he stepped out of the mini tornado, nary a hair out of place. “Enough. I think we’ve established that the glacial energy has no effect on me.”

  The incorporeal’s mouth sagged open. “Impossible,” it spat. Another gust of wind rushed out of its hands. But Knox slammed up his own palm and sent a blaze of fire streaming at the incorporeal. Wind and fire crashed together like swords, and a backlash of the colliding energies swept across the room in a bright sheen of light that almost blinded Harper.

  Again, her demon urged her to rise and fight, but she simply couldn’t. Instead, she could only watch as the archdemon and incorporeal battled hard.

  “I will have my freedom, Thorne, you cannot—” Once again, the incorporeal’s hands snapped to its head as it let out yet another high-pitched scream. The sound went on and on and on, until Harper thought the windows would smash. A blizzard suddenly whipped up around them, ruffling her clothes and tossing her hair everywhere. It would no doubt have also sent objects sailing around if they weren’t frozen in place.

  Knox merely flapped a hand as if swatting at a fly. Just like that, the blizzard seemed to shudder and then abruptly die off. “When will you learn that you stand no chance against me?”

  The incorporeal once again screeched, knees buckling under the strain of whatever mental pain Knox was causing it. The girl’s body bucked as the incorporeal lunged out of her … which was what he’d been waiting for.

  A raw dark power buzzed and pulsed in the air just before flames instantly erupted out of the ground—vivid flames that were red, gold, black, and deadly. The incorporeal dove straight back into the kid’s body to escape them. Eyes wide and afraid, it stared at the flames of hell as they inched around it, barricading it in. “You can truly call on them.”

  “There’s no way out of this,” Knox told the incorporeal. “I can do this all day.”

  Panting, it hissed. “But your mate cannot. Do you not see what is happening to her? She is freezing from the inside out. Soon, her heart will fail and rupture into tiny pieces.”

  Harper knew the incorporeal wasn’t exaggerating. She could feel her heartbeat beginning to falter. Could feel the cold invade and surround the organ. Her vision was starting to darken around the edges, and a deep sleep beckoned her.

  “You could save her, but only if you move now and make her warm. At a guess, I would say y
ou have mere seconds before it is too late for her.”

  No, kill it, Harper insisted, but Knox instantly pyroported to her. At the same time, the incorporeal surged out of the child’s body. The hazy vapor flew over the flames and rocketed out of the front door, fading as it did so.

  Knox crouched in front of her, eyes glinting with panic. “Baby.”

  You should have killed it. Then darkness swept over her.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  For a second, Knox didn’t move out of sheer terror. His mate was curled up on the floor, shivering violently, teeth chattering, arms wrapped tight around her body. His demon let loose a deafening roar. “Shit, baby.”

  Knox lifted her and held her close, shocked that her skin was so cold it was uncomfortable to touch. Her system seemed to literally soak up his body heat—he could practically feel the warmth leaving him.

  With a single thought, he reined in the flames of hell before they could do further damage or harm the little girl within them, but he never moved his eyes from Harper. She was gulping in breaths like she’d just surfaced from the ocean after being submerged for too long. Each shaky breath fogged the air.

  He stroked her face. “I need you to breathe for me, baby. Relax. Slow it down.”

  She clumsily tried fisting his shirt but seemed barely able to move her fingers, as if they were too numb.

  “I’ll get you warm, you’ll be fine.” But she didn’t look fine. Not at all.

  There was a loud, birdlike screech just before a black harpy eagle soared inside the café and landed on the floor. A billow of smoke swirled around it, blanketing it for a mere moment, and then Larkin was stood in its place.

  She glanced around, taking in the frozen people, the little girl unconscious on the floor, and the block of ice encasing Tanner. “Oh, God. Tanner called me and—what the fuck happened to Harper?”

  “The incorporeal happened.” With a quick wave of power, Knox freed Tanner from the block of ice. The hellhound blinked, as if surprised to see that time had passed. “I need to get Harper home, Tanner,” said Knox, urgency in every syllable. “You and Larkin need to take care of the situation here.”

  Concern lighting his eyes, Tanner said, “Consider it done.”

  Knox unfroze the rest of the café and then pyroported his mate to the walk-in closet of their bedroom. Although he wanted to put her straight into a hot bath, he knew he needed to slowly increase her core body temperature first.

  Snatching a fleecy blanket from a top shelf in the closet, he stalked over to the bed and lay her down. He then quickly shed their clothes, which wasn’t easy when her jeans were stiff with cold. Her eyes fluttered open. She tried to talk through blue lips that were dry and bleeding.

  “No, baby, don’t talk. Just get warm.” Lifting her, he held her tight, sharing more of his body heat even though her icy skin made him flinch. As he pulled the fleecy blanket around her, she huddled inside it, chin dropped down to her chest.

  Flipping back the coverlet, Knox settled in bed with her tucked close to his body and then dragged the coverlet over them both. She burrowed into him, placing her hands on his chest as if to greedily absorb more of his warmth. Her hands and feet were like blocks of ice.

  Under the blanket, he rubbed at her skin, hoping the friction would warm her. Inside him, his demon roared and raged. Knox’s own fury was tangible. The fucking incorporeal had tried to kill her. Tried to freeze her from the inside out. Tried to take from him the very thing that had brought life to his existence.

  He’d known she’d taken a hit from the incorporeal, but he hadn’t known it was fatal, assuming Harper would have told him if it were. But she hadn’t. And she’d almost died right in fucking front of him and his demon but, so focused on toying with the incorporeal, they’d been completely oblivious to just how seriously hurt she’d been.

  He didn’t need to ponder why Harper hadn’t drawn attention to her condition. But he already knew the answer to that: she’d sooner die along with the incorporeal than have it be free to harm Asher. His demon wanted to spank her pretty ass for being so ready to sacrifice herself. Knox wasn’t at all averse to the idea.

  He telepathically reached out to Keenan. Harper and I are home, but I need you to keep Asher downstairs. He gave the sentinel a brief summary of what had happened at the café.

  Son of a bitch, spat Keenan. Will she be okay?

  Yes, she will. Knox wouldn’t have it any other way. Reach out to Levi and explain what happened. Knox’s focus needed to be on Harper. Breaking the connection with his sentinel, he touched his housekeeper’s mind and said, Meg, I need hot water bottles for Harper. She was attacked, and she’s ice-cold. Bring them to the master bedroom.

  I’ll be as quick as I can, replied Meg, sounding frantic.

  Just as frantic, Knox stared down at Harper. His mate never looked weak. But right then, huddled into a tight ball, she looked so delicate it made Knox’s chest tighten. Every rough breath sounded like it was sawing at her throat. Being upset with her, letting her sleep alone and then leaving before she woke—it all seemed so stupid now. Stupid and petty and beneath him. She’d deserved none of it.

  He kissed her hair. “I’m sorry I was a shit, baby,” he said, unsure if she was even properly aware of where she was or who she was with.

  One by one, the other sentinels telepathed him questions, wanting to be sure that Harper was fine. He answered their queries but was far too furious to sound reassuring.

  Meg bustled into the room with a hot water bottle that was wearing a chunky knitted cover. “I could only find one,” she said, anxiously. “Here, put it near one of her major arteries.”

  Satisfied that it wasn’t so hot it would burn her skin, Knox tucked the water bottle under Harper’s armpit and then pulled her blanket tighter around her, hoping to trap the heat and hot air inside it.

  Twisting her fingers, Meg asked, “Should I make her a hot chocolate?”

  “I don’t think she could drink it, Meg. She’s shaking too badly.”

  “Watch out for chilblains and frostbite. Can she get those things if she hasn’t really been out in the cold?”

  “I don’t know.” He gently touched her dry mouth. “Get her some lip balm or something,” he ordered, and Meg swiftly disappeared. He should have felt like a bastard for being so gruff, but he didn’t have tact in him right then. Not when he was so worried for Harper. He didn’t like how slow and shallow her breaths were. Didn’t like how weak her pulse was or how her muscles kept spasming.

  “Baby, I need you to be okay,” he whispered, breezing his fingers over her cheekbone. Like her lips, the skin on her cheeks and forehead had cracked. “You hear me? You have to be okay.”

  Her chapped lips trembled, but she didn’t respond.

  With Dan trailing behind her, Meg came back into the bedroom holding a tub of Vaseline. “This will help.”

  When she unscrewed the lid, Knox dipped his finger inside and then gently spread the Vaseline over Harper’s lips.

  “Is there anything I can do?” asked Dan.

  “Help Meg and Keenan watch over Asher for me,” said Knox. “I’m not leaving Harper’s side until I know that she’s fine.”

  As both Dan and Meg melted out of the room, closing the door behind them, Harper’s eyes fluttered open again. She stuttered words that he couldn’t quite make out.

  If you really need to talk, do it mind-to-mind, Knox told her.

  My skin is prickling and tingling, she said.

  That’s good. It means it’s beginning to thaw. But that didn’t bring him any relief. Even when her pulse began to steady and her trembling eased a little, he didn’t settle. Couldn’t. Not until she was one hundred percent okay. Maybe not even then.

  Still, taking a deep breath, he did his best to rein in his anger. She’d be fine, he assured himself. She was safe. Alive. Right there in his arms. But it was hard to find calm when his demon’s own anger still bubbled within Knox’s veins. Stroking her skin, he inhaled deeply, l
etting the feel and scent of her calm the chaos in his mind.

  Knox glanced down at the ring on his finger that was studded with black diamonds. He hadn’t imagined he’d ever completely commit himself to another person, let alone ever wear a symbol of commitment. But he wore it with pride—even smugness. That same satisfaction always filled him when he looked at the rings on her own finger.

  He was not an easy anchor, and he was an even more difficult mate. It would probably always astonish him that Harper had accepted his claim on her. She’d changed everything. Brought out emotions in him that he’d never before felt. Emotions he’d never thought he could feel. He needed her. Fucking adored her. And now he needed to fix his fuck-up.

  He lay there with her for what could have been hours, holding her close, rubbing her skin, talking to her in a low, soothing voice. Her skin eventually warmed, and she slipped into a restless sleep. He just continued to hold her, stroking her hair and skin.

  At one point, Tanner’s mind touched his. How’s Harper? Any better?

  A little, replied Knox. How is the clean-up going?

  Once you unfroze the people in the café, I pushed the smell of smoke into the air and yelled that there was a fire. Everyone other than Royce—who was shaking on the floor from what I’m pretty sure was soul-deep pain—rushed outside. With regret, I carried the asshole out of there instead of leaving him to burn in the fire that Larkin then started. Once the building was destroyed, she let the hellfire ease away. It was the only way to cover up the scorch marks left behind by the flames of hell.

  What was Harper doing in the café? asked Knox, rubbing a silky strand of her hair between his fingers.

  She was restless and wanted to go for a drive. I don’t know if she meant to drive to her old studio, but she pulled up outside and just looked at it. She’s hurting that Devon won’t take her calls.

  He knew that. Hated that he hadn’t been more sensitive about it. If he had, if they’d talked last night instead of arguing, just maybe she wouldn’t have felt the need to go for that drive. Then the incorporeal wouldn’t have almost killed her.