Demon of Vengeance: Chronicles of the Fallen, Book 4

by Brenda Huber

  Phoebe’s lips compressed. “I don’t think so.”

  From across the room, Sïnsobar scowled, clearly displeased that she wasn’t more eager to jump on the family train.

  Phoebe leaned close to Sebastian and asked, “Why do you not look happy about this?”

  “Because, darlin’,” Gideon interrupted. “Familial ties among the Carpathï are very, very strong. I think it’s pretty safe to say that your days of peace and quiet are over.”

  Phoebe looked around at the decimated building and turned huge eyes on Sebastian. “This is peace and quiet?”

  Gideon burst out laughing once more before he too shimmered away.

  “Temptation is correct. Familial ties among our kind are very strong. Which is why, now that you’ve mated my niece without my permission you will help me,” Sïnsobar said, turning to Sebastian at last.

  “Hold the phone one damned minute.” Phoebe stiffened and took an aggressive step forward, placing herself squarely, protectively in front of Sebastian. But he was having none of that. He grasped her around the waist and tugged her to his side. He wouldn’t dream of trying to shove her behind him. He’d probably end up with a hole in his back. Phoebe shot him an irritated scowl, but went on as if she hadn’t been shuffled to the side. “Sebastian doesn’t owe you a damned thing. Mating him was my choice, one I made willingly. I don’t care whether you give your blessing or not. You didn’t care about what those…those things were going to do to me in the cave. Don’t think for a second I’m going to believe you care about me now just because we share common bloodlines.”

  “Our species is ruled through male hierarchy. I am the head of our line. It is my duty to protect you. And as a Carpathï of my line, it is your duty to gain my approval to mate.” Sïnsobar glowered at Phoebe. He probably thought he could intimidate her into compliance. Sebastian thought about warning him that the tactic wouldn’t work. Instead, he decided to sit back and watch the Carpathï fail in an epic way.

  “Yeah? Well, my human half doesn’t care jack shit about your approval. In fact, my human half says you can take your approval, or lack thereof, and stick it where the sun don’t shine.”

  Crash and burn, baby.

  Sebastian couldn’t have been prouder of his mate. However, he was curious as to why Sïnsobar would make such demands of him. “Help you how?”

  “You will help me locate and free my sister Danika.”

  Phoebe took a step forward, but Sebastian tugged her right back. “She’s alive?”

  Sïnsobar nodded. “She was captured by a portal, much like the one rumored to have captured War and the mates of the Slayer and Temptation.”

  “She’s alive,” Phoebe whispered, lifting a hand to cover her mouth. Sebastian tightened his arm around her, fearful she might collapse.

  “For my mate,” Sebastian swore solemnly, “I will find and will free Danika. But only for my mate, not for you.”

  “We will,” Phoebe piped up.

  “We will,” Sebastian corrected after a pointed elbow connected with his ribs. “But we will do it without you.”

  “I can be of assistance.”

  “I don’t trust you as far as I can throw you. Besides, if you could be of that much assistance, you wouldn’t need my help.”

  “Our help,” Phoebe corrected.

  “You will stay out of harm’s way,” Sïnsobar instructed Phoebe. “Which reminds me, Vengeance. As head of her clan, and as her uncle, you and I need to have a chat about the way you’ve been letting her run wild.”

  “Letting her?” Sebastian choked and began coughing.

  Phoebe helpfully pounded on his back.

  “If you require instruction on the proper way of things, I will be happy to show you,” Sïnsobar said.

  Now it was Sebastian’s turn to laugh. He glanced down and met Phoebe’s mutinous glower. “Good luck with that,” he told Sïnsobar.

  Sin looked between the two of them and shook his head. Once again, he addressed Phoebe. “I will always be near should you need me.”

  He bowed his head, touched his forehead briefly with one hand, and then swept that hand toward her before he shimmered away.

  Just as Sebastian turned to pull Phoebe into his arms, she glanced down. And a look of horror twisted her features. “Is…is that a lung?”

  Sebastian clapped his hand over her eyes. “Hold on to me,” he instructed.

  “Wait!”

  Sebastian frowned at her.

  “We have to go to the ruins.” She shook off his hand and beamed up at him, her face alight with excitement. “To Calakmul.”

  “The others will already have their mates back.”

  “I know,” she said, shaking her head. “This isn’t about them. Or not directly.”

  “Then why—”

  “When I was trying to shimmer, trying to figure out where to go, I felt this tug. I knew I had to take them there, to Calakmul. Don’t you see? I’m drawn there. My power is strongest there. There’s a reason for it.”

  Sebastian tilted his head and waited.

  “I think the sword is there. And I’m pretty sure I know exactly where.”

  Sebastian’s smile grew. “Take me there.”

  “It’s at the top of the—”

  “No,” he insisted, shaking his head as he wrapped his arms more securely around her. “I want you to shimmer us there.”

  Her eyes widened, and panic filled her expression. “Oh, but—”

  “You can do this, Phoebe. I have faith in you.”

  She blinked up at him like he’d lost his ever-loving mind. But then, by slow degrees, determination took over.

  “I can,” she finally said, and pressed her lips together. She put her arms around him, and Sebastian watched as her face—her precious, beautiful face—screwed up in a severe frown of concentration.

  Sebastian was well-versed in the ways of shimmering. But it was always unsettling when you weren’t the one in control. Still, he gave himself over to her, trusting in her to get them there safely.

  The world fell away, and returned with a jolt. Their feet hit the crumbling stone, hard. As soon as they solidified, Phoebe lurched sideways. If he hadn’t had a tight hold of her, she would have slipped right off the side of the ruins. He jerked her back, taking several cautionary steps away from the edge.

  She was puffing and her eyes were wide, but she was recovering quickly. She pressed a palm to her temple and blinked.

  “Sorry about the landing,” she said, grimacing.

  He laughed. “You did great, sweetheart!”

  “No, I almost—”

  “Almost doesn’t count,” he murmured, laying a finger against her lips. “First time I shimmered, I ended up halfway inside a tree. Trust me on this. You’re a natural.” He dropped a kiss to her lips. “Okay, so where is this sword?”

  “Oh! Right,” she said, slipping from his arms. Phoebe hurried inside the temple and Sebastian followed.

  The chamber was surprisingly large, with a massive stone altar in the middle of the room. Or what was left of a stone altar. The enormous slab had been shoved askew and tilted onto its side, the corner was broken, and a network of cracks snaked across the surface. The altar itself had been decimated. The very floor of the room had huge holes smashed into it, as if beefy fists had slammed into the aged stone. All around, scorch marks marred the carved surfaces where great chunks of ancient, irreplaceable works of art had been demolished.

  “My God! What happened here?”

  Sebastian watched as Phoebe paced the confines of the room. She slowly reached up with trembling hands and lightly brushed her fingers over a blackened hole high up on the wall.

  Sebastian surveyed the burns. “Demon battle is my guess.” He moved farther into the room, then drew up short. He couldn’t believe his eyes.

  Ther
e in the rubble of the altar rested a fist-sized, mangled ball of blackened gold and jewel bits. Crouching, he picked the hunk of precious metal up and examined it. Could it be? Had this been the Amulet of the Gods? The very talisman Gideon had been searching for to break his curse?

  So it was real after all.

  “What’s that?” Phoebe came to peer over his shoulder.

  Standing, Sebastian bounced the ball in his hand once, twice, then tossed it back into the rubble. “Nothing of importance anymore,” he said with a big grin.

  Phoebe shot him a questioning smile, before turning away. He watched as she returned to the doorway, and then began counting off paces. Six steps in, she turned left, paced ahead four steps, stopped at the wall.

  “Please conjure the key.”

  Sebastian called forth the bejeweled rock she’d found in the statue and handed it to her.

  Phoebe held the key in one hand, and used the fingers of her free hand to trace a seam in the wall in front of her.

  “Why six and four?”

  “Hmm? Oh, it’s my birthday. June 4th. Ah, here you are,” she finished on a whisper.

  Phoebe brushed debris from the crevice, and then, after considering the hole she’d uncovered, she twisted the rock in her hand, considered, and turned it over again.

  And then she inserted the rock key. Pushed and jiggled until a loud pop echoed throughout the chamber.

  Phoebe glanced at him, her eyes wide and excited. That excitement was contagious, and Sebastian found himself grinning too. Phoebe turned back to the key, but Sebastian grabbed her wrist, stalling her.

  “What?” she asked, a puzzled frown darkening her brow.

  He stepped closer, put a hand on her hip, and angled his head, bringing his face close to hers. “No matter what we find here, we’re in this together, yeah?”

  She smiled. “Yeah.”

  “I love you.” He pressed a fleeting kiss to her lips. And then he moved behind her, taking a protective stance.

  She started to twist the key, then paused, turned to grab a fistful of his shirt and dragged his face down to hers. “I love you too.”

  She gave him a much longer, much more leisurely kiss. Just when he decided to hell with the sword, and was seriously considering dragging her down to the floor to have his wicked way with her, she released him and pushed out of his arms. With a giddy laugh, leaving him standing there on wobbly knees, she spun around and gave the key a triumphant twist.

  Stone grated on stone, and a long panel of ancient glyphs slowly began to slide out of the way. Sebastian yanked her back, afraid the stone might roll forward and crush her, but it only fell harmlessly to the side. And as they shifted to peer into the hidden compartment, a shaft of sunlight broke through the clouds.

  Phoebe gasped, and Sebastian whistled.

  A dusty sword was propped against the back wall. Forty-five inches in length. Three inches across the fort. The indentation running down the length of the straight double-edged blade was etched with glyphs. The cross guard was inlaid with silver. The bone grip was covered in red, leathery-looking skin with some kind of distorted black markings. And a single, rough cut, blood red stone was set in the pommel.

  Phoebe turned her face to smile up at him, so radiant Sebastian’s heart ached at the beauty of it.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The sun had set long ago, but the full moon bathed the waters in shades of silver and shadow. Sebastian took Phoebe by the hand and led her to the water’s edge.

  “What are you doing?” She tugged, but he wouldn’t let go.

  “We’re going skinny dipping to celebrate.” He vanished their clothing with a thought. And then he morphed back to human form, knowing she’d be more comfortable that way.

  That was something else they were going to have to work on. Getting her comfortable in her skin, literally. Phoebe squawked and tried to cover herself, but he was having none of that.

  Sebastian turned and started walking backward. He caught both her hands and held them slightly out to the sides so he had a good view as he pulled her along in his wake. The sight of her naked went straight to his head…and his groin.

  “You know, you’re pretty sexy in red,” he said, his voice gone husky with desire.

  “Sebastian!”

  “Phoebe!” He mocked her and chuckled as the water slowly crept up their legs.

  He tugged her off balance, and she tumbled into his arms. Pinning her to his chest, Sebastian moved deeper in the water. She dropped her forehead to his shoulder and whispered, “I don’t know how to change back. When I changed last time, it just sort of…happened. I don’t know what to do.”

  “Do you want to?”

  “Yes.”

  “All right. But know that I still want you, no matter what you look like.”

  “I can feel that,” she whispered. He was sure she could, as his erection was currently rock hard and trapped between them.

  “Okay, draw a deep breath—”

  “I’ve already tried this,” she interrupted.

  “Phoebe.”

  “Well, I have. Besides, how do you know what I’m supposed to do all of a sudden?”

  “I made a phone call. A very expensive one. Now, be quiet and listen.”

  She peered up at him suspiciously. “Who did you call?”

  “Phoebe!”

  “Okay, okay.”

  “Draw a deep breath. Try picturing in your mind what it feels like when you summoned plasma balls. The gathering of energy, the way it coalesces, the way it surges and ebbs.”

  She nodded.

  “Now see if you can send that energy elsewhere. Not to the palm of your hand, but to your nails, to your eyes, your hair, your skin. Your very cells.”

  Suddenly Sebastian was standing in the water, with his arms full of…an exact replica of himself. Surprised, he dropped her and lurched back a step. She’d just skin shifted. Right before his eyes.

  Holy shit!

  Phoebe gasped and sputtered as she splashed up out of the water. Sebastian was relieved to see that she was his Phoebe once more, and not a clone of him.

  “What the hell?”

  “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Sebastian grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back into his arms.

  “What was that for?” She turned hurt eyes his way as she wiped wet hair from her eyes.

  How to tell her without her freaking out? “Um, you slipped,” he finally settled on saying.

  Tomorrow. He’d tell her tomorrow. For now, just for tonight, he wanted this moment.

  She gave him a wary look, but she let him draw her close. “You’re not upset about Sïnsobar being family, are you? Or that we have to find my mother now?”

  “No.” He smoothed a stray rope of wet hair from her cheek and watched, fascinated, as a bead of water rolled down the side of her face and pooled at the base of her throat.

  “We’re going to have to keep that sword hidden away,” she reminded him.

  “Yep.” He bent to lap at the little hollow by her collarbone. He swept her back up into his arms and set his lips to her skin.

  “Mikhail was in pretty bad shape.” She gasped aloud and shivered when he found a particularly sensitive spot. “Shouldn’t we check on him?”

  “The others will let us know if they need help.”

  Her breathing turned shallow as he slowly slid his hands down her sides, over the gentle flare of her hips, and he reached for her knees.

  “We’re pretty much homeless, you know,” she breathed.

  Sebastian drew her knees higher on either side of him, guiding her ankles around to lock them at the small of his back.

  “I figured we might try camping for a while,” he said with a small smile against her skin.

  God, he loved the way her head fell back like that when he kissed
her neck. And there was that sexy little moan. His dick pulsed in response, and his balls drew up tight. He slid his hands along the bottoms of her thighs. And then, gripping her tight little ass in both hands, he angled her just right and slid home.

  She moaned his name, just how he liked it, and then she tipped her forehead to his. “Qui et illisium speccaté,” she whispered.

  Sebastian wrapped his arms around her and held tight. He had the whole world, right here in his arms. And he was never letting go.

  Now and forevermore.

  Epilogue

  Maggie tore down the stairs. She couldn’t catch her breath. Her mind raced.

  “Oh, no. No, no, no,” she whispered furiously as she threw the door to the newly remodeled study open and burst inside.

  Gideon was around the desk and grabbing hold of her before she made it halfway across the room. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

  Maggie clutched the front of his shirt. Her wild-eyed gaze swept the room, touching briefly on the three couples gathered round the fireplace.

  “I just checked on Mikhail—”

  “Damn it, Maggie! I told you not to—”

  “Gideon, listen to me!” She fisted her hands in his shirt and tugged. “He’s gone. Mikhail’s gone!”

  About the Author

  Brenda Huber lives in Iowa with her husband, her two children, and her very spoiled dog Sam. You can learn more by visiting her on her website (brendahuber.webs.com), or following her on Facebook (http://on.fb.me/1F4VsNc).

  Look for these titles by Brenda Huber

  Now Available:

  Chronicles of the Fallen

  The Slayer

  The Seer

  Temptation

  Demon of Vengeance

  Don’t miss the other titles in Brenda Huber’s Chronicles of the Fallen Series!

  A demon with nothing left to lose. A Halfling who will prove him wrong.

  Chronicles of the Fallen, Book 3

  With the destruction of the Amulet of the Gods, Gideon’s last hope of Divine forgiveness is lost. Cursed to never know the touch of another, he spirals closer to losing control. But, for the sake of his brethren, he takes on one last mission.