by Tes Hilaire
“Not far. Just past the bend and down this passageway.” She swayed a bit as she spoke, her legs shaking, arms trembling. Time was passing. She had to get Mia somewhere safe. Go back and help Mike.
Logan looked back at the fifth warrior, a tall and lean, blond Paladin, and jerked his head at Katrina. “Bennett?”
Bennett stepped forward, reassurance enveloping her as he held his arms out for Mia. “I got her, luv. She’ll be safe with me.”
“Bennett you get them out of here, then get Aaron and take them back to base,” Gabby commanded, then not waiting to ensure that her orders were completed, spun back around, the others falling into line behind her.
Kat quickly pressed Mia into Bennett’s arms, giving her one last kiss. She’d be okay. She had to be, but Mike wouldn’t.
Be safe, Mia. I love you.
Gut churning, Kat turned, taking her first agonizing step after the others down the tunnels she’d just left. Knowing even as she did that she might not make it back out. Though with Gabby, Valin, Logan and, yes, even Jessica, those chances were far better than before.
“Hang about! How do I get out through the shield?” Bennett yelled, forcing her to turn back around.
Kat sucked in a breath, every instinct telling her to lie and evade the question, but then she remembered the easy acceptance of Jacob and the others. And this man was Gabby’s friend. “I’m half succubus. Mia’s my daughter.” She nodded down to her little girl that he clasped firmly, but gently in his arms. “She’s your key.”
***
Bennett ran, the child in his arms like a warm bundle of urgency. At some point after being passed off, she’d woken, and now, every time he looked down, she was looking up at him with those huge hazel eyes. Trust, pure and… what? Innocent. Part succubus or not, he had to get her out of here. He’d failed before, but he wouldn’t bodge this, not this time. He was going to keep her safe.
Gabby had ordered him to bring her to Jacob’s little home for misfits. That was good. Triffic. They would protect her while others might not. And damn it, but Valin was right. It was time to let go of the might-have-beens and let go of the guilt so he could deal with the now. He’d failed before. But he needed to put that behind him. Move on and be the man Annie needed him to be, whether she thought she needed him or not.
“What happened?”
He glanced down at the child. Had she been reading his thoughts? Had he been projecting his emotions? No, he was at full shields. He gave a tentative nudge across her mind. No response. Okay…
“What do you mean?”
“Your colors. You have all kinds of pretty colors. Warm red; that means love. Deep blue; that is devotion. And green; that means you are… um… steadfast? I think that is the word. Sometimes I get the meanings of colors wrong and mommy has to tell me a better word.” She tipped her head toward her shoulder, her brow puckered as she looked up at him hopefully. “Do you have a better word for green?”
Okay, maybe the kid was a bit off her trolley. No wonder after what she’d been through. “You got me spinning.”
She nodded in acceptance and went on. “You also have this pretty purple, but I’m not sure what it means, but it’s good too.”
“So I look like a rainbow to you.” And wasn’t that…unmanning.
She nodded. “Only you also have this icky yellow and blue spot, kind of like a bruise, with some yucky red right in the middle. What hurt you?”
He about went arse over tit. Barely managed to recover without dropping her. Blimey, was this child seeing soul auras?
He shook his head. That would be unreal. There had only ever been one soul healer ever. And she died a long, long time ago.
They reached the spot in the wall where the gaping hole should be, only the only thing there was the long stretch of rock.
“Shite. It’s not here.”
“What’s not here?”
“The door.”
“It’s right there,” she reassured him, reaching out and touching the wall. And sure enough, there it was. He didn’t hesitate, but pushed through the black hole. It was as bad as before and he stumbled out the other side, collapsing onto his knees as soon as he’d cleared. In his arms Mia was crying, fat tears running down her cheeks like the London raindrops on the old mansion’s windowpane.
“Hush, it’s okay. We’re through.”
“But those people are stuck in there.”
“People?”
She nodded her head. “They aren’t here anymore, just their colors, only they have no colors left. Just black and grey. They are so sad.”
She was sad, too. He could feel the sense of hopelessness radiating from her.
“It’s okay. My friends are going to get your mommy out of there.”
“I know. I dreamt that too.” She tucked her head into his chest. “I’m just sad because I don’t know how to save the others.”
Bennett wanted to quiz her further, but the sound of a battle drew his attention. He pulled Mia closer, keeping to the shadows as he tried to see up onto the platform at the end of the tunnel.
There was a full-blown war going on up there. Quick count suggested that Alex and the others were outnumbered a good three to one. Some were lesser demons, but there were at least a couple merker, and what must have been an entire coven of bloody vampires, too.
His hands shook, the desire to kill them all overriding everything. He stood up, taking a step toward the platform.
“You’re letting the not so nice red grow.”
He looked down, realized he was still holding the child. Core blimey, he’d about walked right into battle with a kid in his arms.
He glanced around. Saw one of those little indents that were evenly spaced through some of the subway tunnels down here, presumably so someone could jump off the track if need be.
“Here. You can hide in here.”
She tipped her head, her lip pulled tight between her lips. “Is this another one of those brave things?”
“Brave things?”
“The man said that being brave sometimes meant following directions, even if you didn’t understand why.”
“Yes, it’s exactly like that. Stay here until I come and get you, okay?”
She was looking at him funny, but she nodded. Satisfied she would be okay he pulled his knife, building speed as he ran down the tracks.
He burst out of the tunnel at full speed, leaping onto the platform. And what do you know, there was a vampire.
His knife sang as it arched through the air, slicing into the vampire that had been sparring with one of Aaron’s soldiers. He roared, commanding the blade to pulse with its heavenly light. The vampire screamed, then poof. Ash.
Bennett couldn’t help but smile.
And so it went, he slashed and spun and killed and moved on to the next. The blood flowed, the crimson light fading, ash settling each time he got a clean strike and followed up with a pulse of light. And damn but it felt good. Maybe one of these bastards was the one. Maybe they’d touched his Annie. Maybe this was the monster who’d taken the scalpel to her and scarred her, inside and out.
“Bennett! Look!”
He glanced up from his newest kill. Alex was pointing over his shoulder. He yanked his blade free, spun… only there was no enemy there.
“The girl!”
He pulled his gaze up, squinting into the dim light of the tunnel. And there she was, slipping back through the entrance into hell.
Chapter Twenty-six
The others had far outstripped Katrina in speed. She could hear the battle raging before her, relief flooding her when the sound of Mike’s roar echoed down the passage.
Mike was alive.
The knowledge sent a burst of new energy into her limbs, the distance dwindling as the violent sounds of the scuffle rose. Ahead she could see the chaotic combat unfolding, but she couldn’t see past the mass of lunging bodies to see if Mike was still up and fighting.
She slowed, her heart beating frantically as s
he tried to take in the chaos. Demons and merker everywhere, Paladin spinning and striking as they cut through the greater force. And there Mike was, still fighting Si’ane as two merker circled, taking strikes whenever they could.
Mike’s eyes glowed, the image of his beast riding him completely. The juxtaposition of their two forms was mind-bending, making it difficult to discern either without the other. Despite the warped image that her brain refused to comprehend, she could tell the fight was taking its toll. They bled, Mike, his beast and the merker, the floor slick with the mix of his red blood and the demon’s black.
In a spectacular move Mike lunged, his fingers racking diagonally across the expanse of Si’ane’s bare torso. Only at the same time Mike had moved, so had the beast, and where Mike might have had fingernails the beast had claws. Si’ane’s skin split, things spilling from the gaping wound in his abdomen that did not belong outside of a man.
Si’ane still didn’t realize he was dead. He blinked stupidly down at his abdomen.
Mike’s beast roared. His fist drove into the gaping hole, snaking up beneath the ribs. He yanked his hand back out, something lumpy and red coming with it, and then Mike was raising that fleshy red thing towards his face and…
Katrina swayed. She had not just watched Mike take a chunk out of Si’ane’s heart.
The beast raised its head from across the cave and grinned, blood dripping down the corners of Mike’s face.
Bad demon dead, the beast growled.
Okay… hell’s fires. She had.
But whatever she was supposed to feel about that fact was lost with another more ground shattering truth: Si’ane was dead. The incubus that had twisted her first ever crush into something so perverse and vile that she couldn’t even describe it was dead.
She was so stunned she didn’t even notice the two merker moving in on either side of Mike. Mike’s beast did though. He spun, ducking under one, his shoulder barreling into its gut. The other had some measure of power. It raised its hands, and heedless of the fact that its buddy was in the way, threw a ball of pure energy at Mike’s back.
They energy ball missed Mike by inches as he tucked, rolled and tangled with the other merker, each exchanging blows so fast Katrina couldn’t follow. The merker cursed, then sighed, pulling a black blade from somewhere in the folds of his coat as he advanced on Mike’s still exposed back.
Katrina’s gut tightened. That blade was bad news. She didn’t know how she knew, she just did. She started to run, made it maybe halfway when one of the Paladin, Logan she thought, grabbed her, trying to pull her away from the fighting.
He probably thought he was helping, probably thought with her lack of skills she was more a detriment than an asset, but he didn’t realize that she had an advantage that none of the others had. That was her mate fighting to the death with those merker on the far side of the room. And she would not let him die.
“Let me go! I need to help Mike!”
The man, Logan she was sure, spun around. Kat used the moment to elbow his side, jerking her arm free.
“Shit! Wait!” But he was already fending off another merker.
She ran, but wasn’t quick enough. Mike had pinned the first merker, his hand raised triumphantly in the sky as he displayed the still pulsing mass that was the merker’s heart. But he was too absorbed in the kill to note the other merker right there behind him.
“Mike!”
The merker lunged, the black blade swinging. It lodged deep in Mike’s side, right between two of his lower ribs. Mike roared, arching up even as the merker clung on, driving the knife deeper.
Katrina screamed, yanking a blade from the lose grip of another fallen body and charged. She threw herself at the merker, the short blade, poniard she thought, digging deep into its back. The merker roared, flinging her off like she was nothing more than a fly.
Katrina hit the ground with a rib-cracking thud. She gasped for air, trying to convince her already abused body that she was okay. As she and her body debated the merker spun, his mouth curving into a smile as he lifted the blood-stained, black knife. Kat won the fight with her body and inelegantly tried to crabwalk back across the body-ridden floor, knowing she was no match for him in direct combat. And that blade—that blade was way bad mojo.
The merker took two ground-eating steps, started to reach down towards Kat. And then jerked back, the knife falling to the ground as a wall of flame engulfed it.
Katrina’s jaw dropped, her heart hammering as she watched the merker squeal and scream. Boots stepped past her, a woman, Jessica, her arms outstretched, glancing down briefly as she continued her advance on the merker.
Jessica was a pyrotechnic? Lucifer’s fiends!
Kat watched as Jessica pinned the creature down with the wall of fire and then quickly finished it off with her Paladin blade.
“You okay?” a man asked.
Kat jerked her gaze from the charred remains of the merker and looked up to see Logan standing beside Jessica.
“Fine. How about you?” Jessica said.
Katrina suspected the question was for Logan, but Jessica was looking at her oddly. Maybe because Katrina couldn’t take her eyes off her. Jessica was beautiful. Jessica was strong and capable. Jessica who used to be Mike’s partner. Jessica who Mike had admitted to having a crush on once.
Her hand itched. She didn’t think, just shifted and clenched, trying to chase the ghostly tingles away.
“Katrina? What’s that you got?” A woman’s voice, Gabby’s she thought.
The woman crouched down beside her, trying to get a better look at what was in Kat’s hand. Kat followed her gaze, saw her fingers had closed around the hilt of a blade. It was beautiful, really, the etched lettering catching the dim light briefly before settling into the matte black blade.
“Shit! It’s one of those blades!” Logan yelled, pushing Gabby aside.
Katrina roared, trying to push off the ground and follow. The woman had to die. Her and all her terrible beauty. If Kat let her, she’d try to steal her Mike, too.
Arms latched behind her back, snaking through her armpits and pinning her elbows. A booted foot stomped on the blade before she could raise it from the ground. Another hand clamping down around her wrist painfully.
She fought, kicking and screaming. Had to get free. Had to kill the woman. Then Jessica. They were going to take her Mike away from her.
Pain screamed up her arm. Involuntarily her hand unclasped. The blade was kicked from her grasp.
“Shield it, Logan!”
Katrina growled, fighting the arms holding her. She had to do something. What was it she had to do?
And then all of a sudden the world shattered, silence slicing into her brain. Kat screamed, then clutched her head and moaned, sagging in the binding arms holding her.
“It’s contained.”
“You okay?” The man who’d been holding her asked. Valin. And…had she really tried to attack his mate?
“What was that?” she managed to ask through gritted teeth. Damn her head hurt.
“The blade. It’s virtual poison to anyone who touches it,” Jessica explained. “I think you can let go of her now, Valin.”
He did, shifting back a couple feet to give her room. It took a moment to process what Jessica had said but when she did…
“What if someone is struck with it?”
Jessica and Logan exchanged a significant glance. She thought perhaps Logan was going to answer, but he never got a chance. Across the cavern another scream rose, agony spiking through every nerve of her body and sending her back to the floor. The scream went on and on and on. That of a man in absolute agony.
No, not a man, a beast. Her beast.
“Mike!” she screamed. Forcing
herself to her hands and knees and scrambling around the charred remains of the dead merker to Mike’s side. Though his eyes were closed, he was bucking and arching on the floor and she was too weak to hold him down. Some sort of seizure.
But then the others were there, Logan pressing Mike’s shoulders into the stone, Valin and Gabby at his feet.
“Was he hit with that blade?” Jessica asked, her voice higher than normal, an edge of hysteria lining it as she started inspecting his many, many wounds.
“Yes. His side.”
Jessica cursed, her vocabulary more fluent than a sailor’s, as she ripped Mike’s shirt from hem to armpit.
Katrina gasped, staring at the area around the knife wound. It was black. Pure black, the surrounding veins pulling the darkness further into his bloodstream. He convulsed again, his scream turning to a moan as the convulsion ended, his body finally settling limply to the ground.
“Mike, no… Mike.” She stroked his face, trying to reach him through their bond. “Can you hear me?”
She felt a flutter of recognition. Mike growled, his eyes snapping open. Only, instead of the ice-blue or even glowing blue she expected, his eyes were black.
***
Mia had another dream about the blue-eyed man and her mommy while she was sleeping. She hadn’t really remembered until the blond man had carried her through the barrier and the lack of colors had made her remember. But either way it was okay, because she knew how to fix it now. Well, not those poor people. She didn’t know how to help them, but she knew how to help the man with the maybe-blue eyes. All she had to do was show him her other dream.
Something happened after she fell asleep and now he was lost. But that was okay because Mia knew what he needed. He just needed a map to find his way back. That was all. He had said he loved her mommy. He also said Mia was brave and that with time he thought he might like her, too. She just had to show him that he would. After all, Mia’s dreams always came true. So that meant both this last one and the one from the other night had to come true. Which meant she had to go back so that the second one would.
It was all very complicated, which is why she hadn’t explained it to the blond haired man, even though she knew he wanted to ask about the colors and her dreams.