Demon's Mark: The Complete Series

by Nora Ash

  “Indeed you will.” The hot finger finally moved from her chin, and despite how annoyed she was with Kesh, she was pretty thankful for his protection at that moment. When he placed a hand on her shoulder and gently pulled her back a step and out of his father’s dark aura, she breathed a shaky, and embarrassingly audible, sigh of relief.

  “Any news of Kain?”

  Kirigan pursed his lips and finally stepped away. He headed towards a small wooden table hosting several bottles of expensive looking liquor. “Yes. My connections have managed to locate him. He is being held in a secure location up in Vermont—far into their territory. Extracting him will be … challenging.”

  Selma stared from his back to Kesh. Hope surged in her chest, but the slight pause made her guess there was more to it than what he let on. “Challenging?”

  “Nothing for you to concern yourself with, my dear. We will find a way.” He poured a measure of whiskey and sipped it calmly before turning back around. “However, there is one thing I would discuss with you. A curious thing, really. My connections also said that one of the Prince’s lackeys was killed the night they took my son. Only, he wasn’t killed by Kain. He was found several miles away, by the side of the road with scratch marks on his face and arms, as if someone had tried to defend themselves against him. Someone small and weak. And, as if this wasn’t puzzling enough, it turns out this demon is a very old and very crafty man—much too smart to get caught out by an ambush. Marathín. Marathín Hershey, you would know him as. Your procurer, according to the records.”

  Oh.

  Fuck.

  Somehow, she doubted the demon world would take kindly to knowing what kind of power apparently lay dormant in their precious Breeders.

  “Is that something you would happen to know anything about, little one?”

  Kain’s preferred term of endearment for her spoken by this frightening creature startled her for a moment, but she still managed to stick out her chin in defiance.

  “I have no idea what happened.”

  Kirigan’s lips curled up in the smallest hint of a smile. As if her resistance amused him. “Do not try to lie to a demon, Selma. You will rarely deceive them.”

  Yet she had deceived Marathín. Selma did her best to keep her gaze firm, though she felt her back press into Kesh’s strong chest for support.

  “I am not lying. I am scared, and worried about Kain.”

  The older demon’s smile turned a little sharper at the corners of his mouth. “You mistakenly believe your scent is the only indicator of your deceitfulness. You are young and inexperienced, and there is little you can do to hide a lie from a demon my age. It’s painted in the tensing of your jaw, the slight dilation of your pupils. My sons may be stricken by your pheromones, and easily manipulated with the call from your sweet little cunt. You will not find me so easily distracted.”

  Her mouth fell open with shock at his sudden use of crude language, but that wasn’t the cause of the fresh wave of true fear in her stomach. No, that was down to his eyes—those dark, soulless eyes that seemed to swallow all light that touched them stared straight into hers, demanding her surrender. It was as if she was staring into the depths of madness, realizing that just below the surface there were true horrors to be found.

  “Father,” Kesh interjected. His hand squeezed comfortingly on her shoulder, trying to draw her into his own protective aura, but there was no escaping those terrifying eyes as long as Kirigan chose to keep them locked on hers.

  “Did he force himself on you, Breeder? Is that how it happened?”

  The feeling of Marathín’s hands on her body, ripping at her clothes and touching her as if he had every right to, made its way to the forefront of her mind, and she couldn’t repress the shudder it caused, nor the sense of dread. She stared up at the demon in front of her, shaking her head in denial, but his gaze was alight with whatever it was that normally lurked just underneath the surface. The twisting emotion in her gut was no longer fear—it was pure terror, too strong to rationalize away with the fact that Kesh was here to protect her, or that as mad as Kain’s father was, he wouldn’t want to intentionally harm her. Instead, her instincts screamed of danger, and she grasped at the protective body behind her, desperate to escape.

  “That’s enough!” Kesh grabbed her by both shoulders and easily lifted her behind him, squaring up in front of his father. “Get a hold of yourself—you’re terrifying her!”

  Selma had a moment’s worth of relief that she was no longer in the enraged demon’s direct line of sight and wrapped her arms protectively around her midriff to try and get a hold of herself and her racing heart, but it shattered to pieces when Kirigan’s face contorted in a snarl. In the next second his hand cracked against Kesh’s jaw, sending her powerful protector flying into the nearest bookshelf. Dark magic shot up around his limbs, pinning him in place.

  The small whimper that escaped her lips sounded like a scared little animal—and it apparently didn’t do anything to quell Kirigan’s rampage. His face lit up with feral ferociousness when she cowered back against the wall behind her, and he followed her retreat smoothly with slow, measured steps.

  “Lying little Breeder. So small and soft. You reek of fear—which is why my foolish son is trying to break himself apart to get free and save you. Do you enjoy the power you hold? Is that what happened with Marathín? You made him mad with need, only to kill him when his desire got out of control? Show me what you did to him!”

  “I did nothing!” It came out as a small shriek.

  He snarled again and grabbed her shoulder. “Show me! Now!”

  His fingers dug into her flesh, not quite firmly enough to cause her pain, but it triggered her panic nonetheless. With a cry she brought both fists up to punch at him, hammering them against his unyielding flesh.

  “Let go! Let go of me!”

  “Fight me all you want, girl. Unless you do to me what you did to Marathín I will make you scream. And if you still don’t show me what I want to see, perhaps I will take the baby in your womb.”

  Perhaps she should have questioned his claim to want to hurt his own grandchild, but in that moment all she saw was his terrifying, distorted face. And for a moment, his features changed in front of her eyes, adding a layer of red and black scales and long, black, coiled horns. And his eyes … his eyes no longer had any white, their black emptiness swallowing the last remotely human thing on his feral face.

  Selma screamed.

  It had been so long since she was faced with the visual aspect of her lifelong nightmares, and all the years of living in terror crashed back into the present at the sight of the monster who had her in his claws. She didn’t think—she only reacted. Something warm and powerful rose within her, and she grasped for it in desperation, using its strength to strike at the demon.

  Bright, white light rushed from her hand like a current, blasting into Kirigan.

  Black and white sparks flew around them both as he lifted dark magic around himself at the very last moment, causing the air to vibrate with a high pitched screeching, like the sound of a breaking train. It didn’t stop the shock wave of the impact from throwing him to the ground.

  Selma stood frozen, staring at the man the power within her had tried to destroy. That she had tried to destroy in her terror for her child’s life. His features were once again human, and the zealous fire in his eyes no longer reflected danger as much as absolute awe.

  “I knew it!” His voice was raw with emotion. “The light! So pure. I knew it was inside of them! Kesh, did you see? That is their call—that is what drives us mad!”

  By the bookshelf Kesh slowly got to his feet, his bindings gone. He was eying her carefully, as if he didn’t know if she would attack.

  “I’m sorry.” She whispered it, not certain her voice would hold. “I didn’t mean to.”

  Kirigan got off the floor, his disturbing gaze focused on her. “Marathín was the first time?”

  She nodded, confused at his apparent exci
tement. She’d expected anger.

  “You are not a weak little girl. You have strength to rival ours.” He was still staring intently at her, as if he was trying to see the white light through her eyes. “I always knew it was buried within you, but I could never …. And then you come waltzing into my son’s life, bringing us new life, and this.”

  As abruptly as his mood had changed before he now turned away from her, murmuring to himself in a language she didn’t know.

  Kesh stepped forward as his father went to one of the bookshelves furthest from them. He glanced from the mad demon to her, wariness still evident on his features. A faint trail of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

  “You all right?”

  “Yeah.” As all right as she could be after being subjected to a mad and powerful demon, at least. Her pulse was still drumming rapidly in her throat.

  “I’m … sorry I let him do that. I was unprepared, and I failed you.” Kesh looked distinctly uncomfortable, and it suddenly dawned on her that despite how mistrustful he might be of her at the moment, she would still be reeking of fear, which was undoubtedly wreaking havoc with his instincts. But like his brother, he was fighting to control himself.

  “Why does it not affect him?” Selma lowered her voice a tad and glanced at Kirigan. “My scent?”

  Kesh growled irritably as he gave his father’s back a dirty look. “Who the fuck knows.”

  “It does, in a way.” Kirigan turned back towards them without looking up from the leather-bound book he was leafing through. “But your pheromones work by upsetting our ability to calm our nervous system, and I have lost the ability to feel much of anything. Therefore the added aggravation of a frightened Breeder isn’t too difficult to ignore.”

  Selma kept quiet, though she had a hard time believing he was telling the full truth.The way he clung to the glass filled with amber liquid suggested that he was more likely trying to desperately numb feelings too painful for him to cope with—and she’d seen a glimpse of what lay beneath the dead gaze. Agony. Madness. Despair.

  More likely he could ignore her scent’s effect because he was drowning in a nightmare much worse than what her pheromones could compete with.

  Despite her fear of him, and despite what Kain had told her he’d done to his mate and her human family, she pitied him.

  “I first came across a reference to what you just showed us many years ago,” he continued, as if there was no reason to be anything but calm—as if he hadn’t just threatened her with killing her unborn child to make the light inside of her burst out against her will. “This text mentions ‘the powerful light within the Seers’. I am old enough to remember when your kind was something other than our mates and mothers. Did you know we weren’t always able to mate with the women who see us for what we truly are?”

  Selma nodded, errantly wondering exactly how old the being in front of her was. As far as she had understood, they had been known as Breeders for centuries.

  He smiled, though it looked more like a grimace. “Then you also know we have the gods to thank for that. And the traitor Queen of course, may she burn in the pits of the Earth. What I don’t understand is how you can access it, when there has been no other incidents as far as we know.”

  Love.

  Bealtih had claimed the key to unlocking the lost power was love.

  Though, she highly doubted no woman had ever loved her demon captor, at least after some time. Stockholm syndrome was a thing, after all.

  Maybe it was because of Kain. If no other demon had ever loved his mate so unconditionally that they were willing to give them up, perhaps he was the reason for her newfound strength.

  Not that she wanted to test Kirigan’s mental stability by talking about love and gods.

  Thankfully, he didn’t seem to be expecting an answer, and his gaze remained thoughtful and distant rather than burning into hers as it had when he was determined to force her to speak.

  “Yes, well, whatever it is, musing about it won’t help us get Kain. Let’s just focus on bringing him back—he chose to claim a mate, so he can also get to deal with her unstable power,” Kesh interrupted. He’d folded both arms over his chest and frowned, frankly looking like he was more than ready to pawn her and her unexpected issue off on his brother at the first given opportunity. Apparently, this Demon Lord had had enough of babysitting a wayward Breeder.

  “But on the contrary, my son.” Kirigan’s mouth quirked lightly at the corner, lending his expression a somewhat wicked slant. “This is exactly what we need to focus on to get Kain back. A Breeder capable of killing our kind? The females will never see it coming, and it will lend us the element of surprise we need in order to overpower them.”

  “Absolutely not!” Kesh’s scowl dropped for pure outrage, and in the next moment she was shoved behind his back, as if not being able to see her would discourage his father from including her in their plan. “I am not taking her into the middle of the Queen’s territory! Kain left her for me to protect, not you, and there is no way I’m risking her life on such a folly!”

  “In case you haven’t noticed, she’s not exactly a helpless little darling,” Kirigan’s dry voice sounded from the other side of Kesh’s broad back. “Do you have a better plan?”

  “She is untrained. We have no guarantee she’ll be able to call on it at will, not to mention what will happen to whatever men we bring with us. The second something scares her they’ll likely abandon their positions to protect her, risking the entire fucking operation. It’s not going to happen, and I don’t care how bloody you beat me—I’d rather risk your wrath than have to live with the knowledge that I caused a Breeder’s death!”

  The last sentence hung in the air between them like a solid entity in the room. Selma winced, desperately praying that the harsh words didn’t cause Kirigan to go over the deep end.

  However, when he spoke, his voice was quiet and controlled.

  “If you learned anything from your mother’s death, it should have been that no one can force these creatures to bend to our urge to possess them. Not in the long run. Now, do yourself a favor, and ask the little one what she wants to do.”

  “It doesn’t matter what she wants,” he hissed, though his voice had lost some of its power. “She is my responsibility.”

  Selma sighed silently from her protected vantage point and placed a hand against his back. From what little she’d managed to learn about them, a demon as agitated as Kesh was at this moment needed a gentle hand.

  “I am going, Kesh.”

  Slowly, the big man turned, staring down at her with a both dark eyebrows pulled into a frown. “Do you understand how ludicrous this idea is? You and your baby would be in mortal danger—the exact thing Kain sacrificed himself to prevent. No.”

  It was just his instincts—he couldn’t help the urge to treat her like she was made from porcelain. Selma did her best not to show her brewing annoyance at his high-handed demeanor.

  “If I can help in any way, I’m going. As you said, Kain sacrificed himself for me. I’m not going to abandon him.”

  His eyes narrowed. “He did not send you to me so I could drag you back into their claws. You are not going, and that’s final. Have I made myself clear?”

  * * *

  It wasn’t that she had complete faith in her ability to control the light inside of her, far from it, but despite Kirigan’s less-than-stable sanity she knew from their discussion that he was right—she was their best shot at getting Kain out, because no one would think her capable of doing any harm. If they were spotted while trying to sneak in, Kain and Kirigan would distract the females so she could finish them off.

  It was curious, really. She’d never thought herself capable of killing, but the thought of ending the life of one of the monsters responsible for imprisoning Kain didn’t disturb her as much as she had thought it would. Marathín’s death had proved that despite her urge to help people in need and her hatred of violence, she could kill a true monster withou
t breaking her own soul apart. And the creatures who had taken her mate were monsters.

  When she looked at the men in the SUV transporting them as close to the Queen’s territory as they could get by the cloak of nightfall, she caught Kesh’s angry glare, and couldn’t suppress a mildly teasing smile. The Demon Lord had gone so far as to threaten to lock her up to keep her safe in his father’s house while they attempted to rescue Kain. Neither of them had been prepared for the sudden outburst of tears his last shouted ‘no’ had caused, but while Selma was fairly sure it was just due to hormones, Kesh had looked like he’d just accidentally killed a litter of puppies. He’d cradled her and cooed and soothed with a clear undertone of panic, and that was when she’d realized how she was going to get her way.

  He’d still not forgiven her for the borderline cruel manipulation if his instincts that followed.

  “We’re at the meeting point in two minutes,” the Demon Lord said, his voice clipped and rather cool. “You will stay behind me at all times, or I will abandon the mission and drag you home, no matter how much you cry. Is that clear?”

  Selma sighed, but nodded to placate him. None of them would benefit from distractions, and she knew he needed to believe her safe to focus. As long as they got to Kain, she didn’t care what she had to do to make that happen.

  * * *

  The shackles around his wrists cut into his already bleeding flesh, but the pain was easy to ignore.

  Snarling, he crouched by the wall he was chained to, ready to lunge the second the female came close enough to reach. He would snap her neck as he had the last of his captors who made the mistake at getting within the limited reach of his chains.

  “Now now, big boy. I just want to chat,” she purred from the safety behind the bars of his prison. She cocked a hip and looked him over with hunger in her cold eyes. “You are such a handsome one. And strong. I just want to make you feel good. Don’t you want to feel good?”

  “I want to rip the head from your shoulders. That would make me feel good.”