“Touch me again, and I’ll kill you!” I snarl. “Where am I?”
He stands, looking at me with venom. He’s around six-foot-three and has about thirty pounds of muscle on me. Dressed in scrubs and a powder coat.
I clench my fists—a doctor.
Just then I notice the heavy pressure around my neck and wrists, black crystal, tight bracelets of it. I feel faint, my breathing speeding.
The doctor gets a syringe out of nowhere and tries to inject me with it. Despite the panic, my body reacts, not with the latent abilities that come with having Asteri blood, but with what Nox and Bryce have taught me.
I block his arm and punch his solar plexus, winding him. Nevertheless, he crashes against me and sends me to the floor, one knee pressing painfully against my stomach, both hands holding my forearms.
Fire burns in my chest and ready myself to release my power, feeling it ricochet and curl painfully inside me.
The bracelets, they’re blocking me. No no no.
The effort costs me. I cry out as my sight swims and pain lances down my spine. The doctor releases me, and I know what he’s gone looking for.
So I curl on my side and groan a bit, peeking through my eyelashes as I wait for the right moment. The doctor approaches, face smug, syringe in hand. I kick his right leg with my left calf, unbalancing him, and then kick his crotch with all the strength I can muster. He falls to his knees and I waste no time in moving, grabbing the syringe and pushing all the clear liquid inside what I hope is his carotid.
He crumples to the floor with a surprised expression I have only one second to enjoy.
The door to the massive bedroom opens and Aaron enters, looking completely relaxed as if he hasn’t just killed an innocent male.
I see red.
Murderous rage fills me, it’s worse than when I fought Kazzian. I want to kill Aaron with every fiber of my being. But I know my limitations; my power is trapped and I have no idea how many others are around.
I call out to him with my mind, then aloud.
“Princeps lucem ac tenebras et vocavi te.”
“That won’t work,” Aaron sneers. “Go ahead, scream for him if you like. If the bracelets weren’t enough to contain your energy, then the wards are.”
I swallow hard, battling down panic.
If Nox can’t reach me… Then I have to find a way out on my own.
“If you let me go now, I might convince him not to kill you,” I lie.
Aaron snorts. “You’ll never see him again.”
The sheer satisfaction on his handsome face makes me feel nauseated.
“It’s best if you listen before doing something rash,” the bastard says with nonchalance, leaning on the wall.
I feel my nails stabbing my palms as I fist my hands. “Why did you kill Derek?”
Maybe it’s stupid to ask, but I just need to know.
He shrugs. “One day you’ll learn not to mourn the death of a demon, to see it for what it is, one less creature to pollute this world.”
“Derek was not polluting this world, you zealot fuck!” I cry, volcanic anger burning inside me.
Aaron stands straight and takes a step inside. I wish I had my power.
“A thing that looks like a man but turns into a beast with red eyes, that needs to consume flesh and blood to maintain its filthy existence,” Aaron sneers. “What would you call it?”
“You’re sick,” I say, feeling tears of rage and grief cloud my eyes, blinking them furiously away and getting ready to fight.
Aaron snorts. “No, you’ve been polluted by demons, you’ve been brainwashed, but you’ll see the light.” I clench my teeth and snarl at him, something I’m sure riles him up. “And don’t even think about fighting, you can’t win.”
I snort. “Your little friend here would disagree.”
Aaron takes a step closer, his eyes flashing with the puke-colored green light.
“Oh, how brave and mighty,” I growl, “using your power while you’ve taken mine. Nothing but a repulsive coward.”
The glow vanishes. “You still can’t win, I don’t want to hurt you.”
I take a fighting stance. “But I definitely want to hurt you.”
He moves in a flash to take a hold of my neck and knock me out as I anticipated. I pivot myself and crouch, sending a blow to his stomach. He blocks the kick to the balls and my left fist from connecting with his face. I can’t access my power, my strength is diminished. If it’s due to the bracelets or whatever else they’ve done to me, I don’t know.
Nevertheless, I push my brain, not asking but demanding for that imbued combat knowledge, and to my utter surprise and relief, it works. He’s almost 40% stronger than me, but that’s okay, that’s what I’ve been trained for—to compensate with skill and speed my lack of strength.
His movements stop being measured within seconds, he’s fighting back earnestly now. All the blocked and landed blows reverberate painfully through my bones, but I refuse to focus on the ache. My only hope is breaking his neck so he’ll be out enough for me to move past the wards and summon Nox.
He manages to break my defense as he lands a kick to my stomach, sending me back against the wall near the door, fifteen feet away. I lose all my breath as I hit the mirror hanging on the wall—the brick structure cracks with the sheer force of the impact as the mirror shatters. The back of my skull feels on fire before I even land hard on the floor—sharp pieces of glass raining on me, scratching against my skin.
There’s nothing feigned about the whimper that escapes me as I curl in a fetal position, struggling for air.
“That’s enough,” Aaron says, breathing ragged. “If you would only listen to us, you’d understand.”
He’s enjoyed kicking my ass, I feel his repugnant satisfaction. I’m sure he thinks I deserve it for being surrounded by demons.
I sense him getting closer and groan, welcoming the sharp pain in my fingers and palm as I half turn to a crawling position. Aaron yanks my right arm to force me to stand, I swing with the left, catching his face with a piece of broken mirror. He hisses and releases me. A nice gash crosses his face. I hit his groin with my knee and jump on his back, wrapping my arm around his neck, trying to break it.
Aaron growls like a wounded animal and tries to toss me over him. I knew he would, so I wrap my legs around him with all the strength I can muster. I refuse to let go even when he moves and slams me against the wall. My strength is waning and I can’t break his damn neck!
I see a flicker of green and then feel as if I’m being electrocuted. I cry out, my limbs lose all strength. I fall on the floor, not feeling the pain of my skull bouncing against the granite floor through the agony lancing down my spine, coursing through every nerve end. Aaron looms over me and spits a word in what I can only assume is Asteri that means pain. My body arches and writhes against the cool floor. I can’t hear it, but the tautness of my neck indicates I’m screaming. Green crackling energy envelops me completely. I can’t breathe—
NOX
“I had it covered, you know,” the vampiress says. But she reaches out to the wall for support, tanned skin paling. She’s five-foot-eleven, with long raven hair and sharp, elegant features.
“Of course you did,” I deadpan.
She rolls her eyes.
We are several yards underground, beneath a mansion in Connecticut, of all places. The owner is now very dead, pinned to a metal table with several horrible looking stainless-steel devices—no doubt what he was planning on using on the vampiress. More bodies lie scattered around, mercenaries. Some were killed by her, others by me in less than two minutes.
If I couldn’t feel the echo of fear emanating from her, I’d think she isn’t surprised to be facing a demon. I give her a quick look, careful not to linger on her naked frame, not wanting to imagine what the sick bastards were planning on doing to her. Aside from her brain, which must be feeling like soup right now, she’s relatively unharmed. She took a few shots—one in her right shoulder and one in her le
ft hip—but she’s healing fast, despite the cyanide embedded in the bullets.
“I allowed them to capture me,” she says. I turn to look at her eyes. “I hadn’t anticipated that the bastard had a fail-safe in case he died. The fucking frequency got ten times worse the second I gave him the Vlad Tepes therapy. Thanks for getting rid of the frequency, by the way.”
“How did you manage to use your telekinesis against such a potent mental attack?” I can’t help but ask.
Humans discovered a few decades ago the correct frequency to harm a vampire’s brain. Vampires possess considerably more resilient and developed minds than humans. But they are also highly sensitive, which gives them hypnotic and empathic skills, and unique weaknesses. Humans are nothing if not resourceful.
She shrugs with feigned nonchalance, now steadier on her feet. I can feel her rallying a significant amount of power—all things considered—in preparation to fight me should I try to attack her. I’m not sure if she’s brave or just crazy, maybe both. The usual frightened response I get from most supernaturals is making her uneasy, but won’t stop her from fighting. I like her already.
“It’s far from being the first time I have to endure it,” she explains. “I think I’ve built up a certain level of resilience.”
We stare at each other. Her light blue eyes are set, determined.
I summon a long, black coat and offer it to her. She blinks, examines me with her empathy, and takes a tentative step closer. I toss it to her instead of forcing her to get closer to me. She accepts it and puts it on at once. Impervious to cold or not, being naked is no fun.
“So, did you just happen to be in the neighborhood?” she asks, looking straight at me despite the reflexive fear she’s trying to quench.
“I believed the sick bastard was extracting elixirs from supernaturals, so I came here to see if he had any prisoners that could be saved,” I admit.
The vampiress bites her lip. “Fuck, same here. And we were both right, but the cells are empty, so he either finally killed the poor prisoners or they moved them.”
“I’m betting on the latter.”
She nods. “Me too.”
I send a tendril of my power in all directions. All the mercenaries are dead, some of their souls are aimlessly traveling around. I’ve taken the ones of the millionaire pervert and the most rotten ones sparing a few. The last thing we need right now is for the Asteri to show their faces.
“Right, so, I have C4 to place and a facility to blow up, and you?” she asks, taking a step closer towards the door that leads to the hall facing the only elevator, the only way out for her.
I cock my head. “I assume you’ve met one of my kind before and they weren’t amicable.”
She laughs ruefully. “Oh, that I did. He wasn’t like you though, he was a common nox, not a what? A Duke? A Prince?”
I say nothing, she blinks. “A Prince then.”
“I mean you no harm,” I assure her, staying still, waiting for her to decide if she wants to play the I’m-not-scared game for longer or if she’ll run away.
Her shoulders slump a bit. “And if you were lying, I’m as good as dead, aren’t I?”
I cock my head. “If that were the case, you’d go down fighting, wouldn’t you?”
Her lips flicker. “I’ve beheaded a demon before, I’d try my luck again.”
I nod. “As I’ve said, there’s no need, I have the feeling we do much the same. The only difference is I take their souls and you, what was it? Oh yes, give them the Vlad Tepes therapy.”
She snorts, some tension leaves her visage, the fear dimming. “Okay, fine, let’s say I believe you. I gotta ask though, is my soul not tempting?”
“Nowhere near wicked enough for my taste,” I say, and it’s the truth. Her aura is pulsating with sky blue flashes, only a few brushstrokes of darkness taint her soul. “May I give you an opinion?”
She swallows. “Sure.”
“C4 is effective but crude. It’ll leave evidence that something out of the ordinary happened, and it will make his potential associates suspicious.”
She nods. “True, but nervous fuckers make mistakes.”
“Indeed,” I agree, “but sometimes subtlety can pay off too.”
She cocks her head. “Fine, then let’s hear it, what would you’ve done if I hadn’t been here?”
“Take the hard drives, files, and destroy only the underground facility, leaving the mansion intact. No one will know.”
The vampiress looks at the ceiling, she’s still protecting her mind and sharpening her telekinetic power into an invisible but mighty blade. “I wasn’t planning on blowing up the mansion, you loon. Though my methods would have caused a bit of an earthquake. You can do better, I assume.”
“I can.”
She licks her lips and mulls it for a bit. “Okay. Let’s do it your way.”
I flick my hand towards the door. She narrows her eyes in warning and disappears down the corridor. There is an office a couple of doors down, with shelves full of vampire and fae organs in jars, and books. A single computer sits on a mahogany desk. I grab the small CPU and give it to the vampiress, who takes it with an arched brow.
She avoids looking at the jars as she locates a box full of files that looks promising. I scan everything else using my higher speed, ignoring the repugnant texts I’ve encountered before and finding a journal that could be relevant.
The vampiress carefully avoids the dead bodies, keeping her bare feet away from the coagulating blood as we make our way towards the elevator.
I cast the spells. Watching out of the corner of my eye the surprised look of the female standing beside me. Amethyst runes are embedded in the walls and the foundations beyond our immediate sight, I can see it in my mind’s eye.
“May I touch your shoulders?” I ask.
The vampiress nods, rallying all of her power and sharpening it towards my neck. She would undoubtedly destroy the physical vessel of a lesser demon with that, and she’d hurt me enough to make me bleed if she were to use it against me. She’s a Pureblood. Only one of her kind could possess such power.
I hold on to the eye contact as I lay my hands on her shoulders; she stiffens a bit. The box with all the things we recovered between us. Physical contact is necessary when portalling someone alive, unfortunately.
She gasps as the vortex encompasses us and I portal us to the forest near the mansion. The mammoth Victorian construction is bathed in warm sunlight. No one would think such horrors happened deep inside. I step away quickly, releasing her.
“That was, um, interesting,” she says, shaking her head and blinking quickly.
I channel my power through the runes and cast the other half of the spell under my breath. I can see the river of amethyst fire consume all organic matter in that place with my mind’s eye, right before the walls crack, effectively burying that place without destroying the mansion. The ground vibrates gently beneath us. It would most likely not be noticed by the humans who live in the mansion. They’ll probably wonder where the patriarch is in a short time, and I can’t help but feel very satisfied to know there isn’t a single molecule of him left in this universe.
“Well, that was fun,” the vampiress says, taking a step back, still ready to fight if need be, but slightly less afraid. “What’s your name?”
“Nox.”
She snorts. “Naturally.”
“It is a part of my name actually,” I confess, and I’m not sure why.
She cocks her head. “I’m Mal. A pleasure to meet you, Your Highness.”
I give her a small bow, not bothering to deny it.
“So,” she wrinkles her nose at the box of perversion. “Shall we split it?”
I open my mouth to answer her as coldness curls inside my chest. A small sound of pain leaves my throat, unbidden. Fear, anger, incredulity, and desperation claw at my insides where there was calm warmth, and just as suddenly it’s gone, completely.
Something changed the night before with D
inah. I attuned myself to her energy with more efficiency, being able to feel her even at this distance.
Someone has hurt her and hidden her life-force.
I will not think about the other option.
My stomach twists painfully, desperate rage bubbling inside me, threatening with breaking my self-control. My heart takes speed. Losing that faint bond Dinah and I had just begun to share feels like having one of my limbs torn off.
I wrap an arm around Mal, throwing a shield around me should she decide to attack. She doesn’t, to my surprise. She reaches for my shoulder with one hand and holds on tight.
I portal us directly to the reception of the hospital, almost crashing into Alice. Mal, still lightheaded, loses her footing as I release her. Alice drops a tablet to the floor, expertly reaching for Mal’s shoulders to stabilize her.
“Dammit, now what?” Alice demands, examining a slightly unsteady and surprised Mal.
“Link her up,” I say before portalling away towards the place where Dinah’s energy went out from—the university. I go through the men’s restroom. Fortunately, there’s no one around to deal with. There’s chaos in the hall near her classroom, and when I get close, I see why. My stomach almost turns from the sight of Derek’s mutilated body. He’s been decapitated with a Light weapon, the wound partially cauterized. The repugnant trace of energy tells me exactly who did it.
I cast a spell that creates a small EMP that fries the cellphones of the fifteen students and the teacher that surround the body. I launch myself into their minds. Wiping out the last ten minutes and have them return to their classrooms. Kneeling, I touch the body, wrapping a tendril of my power around it and opening a dimensional pocket to the morgue in the hospital. Something I’ve done more times than I’d like before.
A few more spells vanish the blood, but not the lingering feeling of Dinah’s energy and that bastard’s corrupt power.
This is my fault, I should have killed Aaron when I had a chance.
An electric and quivering sort of pain spreads inside my chest.
I portal back to the hospital morgue, covering Derek’s body with a sheet before focusing on Isir’s energy. Once upon a time, she was on the verge of death and I allowed her to siphon my life-force. The bond we share is faint but traceable within a certain distance. I portal right beside her. Isir whirls around, surprised, dropping the cup of coffee she was pouring. The mug crashes against the marble floor of Bryce’s kitchen, sending hot liquid and ceramic over Isir’s feet and my shoes. I could have stopped it if I had been paying enough attention. I vanish the disaster before meeting Isir’s gaze. Her chocolate eyes widen, she looks fresh out of the shower. Bryce is sitting by the island.
Demon Warden: A Paranormal Urban Fantasy (The Cursed and the Fallen 1) Page 29