Defying Instinct (Demon Instinct Series)

by Jaye A. Jones

  “Thank you,” I repeated louder, and kissed him, pouring the full force of my relief into it.

  It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do, he telepathed to me, wiping tears from my face.

  I could have stayed in his arms, kissing him forever. But the room had grown quiet. I felt their eyes on us, felt their confusion. Pulling away, but planting one more, gentle kiss on his neck, which was scorched and pink but already healing, I turned to the room.

  “Is everyone okay?”

  They were all looking weary, black ash on their clothes and faces. Connell’s hair was burned on one end. Holly’s arm looked blistered, but was healing before my eyes. Nods responded, and the confusion grew. They thought I should be angry with Rowan.

  “Hadrian.” Though reluctant, he stepped over. “How…how did you even know?”

  “I am a Sorcerer, Savannah. I can be in two places at once.”

  Of course he could. Was there anything Sorcerers couldn’t do?

  “You saved all our lives.”

  I would have hugged him, but I got the sense he feared that I might touch him. Instead, I let the lock on my projected emotions snap open, and my gratitude and relief, my affection and respect filled the air. It was something they couldn’t deny, because I couldn’t fake it.

  Of all of the sets of astonished eyes staring at me, Ivy was the one who finally spoke.

  “I am yours, Savannah.” She bowed, all the way to the ground until her forehead touched hardwood.

  I opened my mouth to protest, but Connell unglamoured was commanding my full attention. Holly, Dmitri, and Benn gasped at the sight of him before he said, “Savannah. I am yours.”

  He bowed, all the way to the ground next to Ivy, his bat-lizard wings spread up and out, showing off the full, impressive span of them.

  Hadrian took a few steps back, and bowed his head, but didn’t go all the way to the ground like the others, saying, “I am yours, Savannah.”

  “What…” I began to ask, but Rowan put a hand on my arm.

  Let them have this one, sweet.

  Looking up at Rowan, I asked, what are they doing?

  Pledging their loyalty to you.

  The glamour didn’t tinsel-shimmer off of Dmitri. It exploded outward. Like it had from me in the memory Rowan shared a half hour ago. Dmitri wasn’t solid when the explosion stopped either. Instead of glowing white, he glowed cobalt blue for a few seconds before his form took shape again. That same cobalt blue color lay on his skin, looking a great deal like Grayson’s purple and silver pattern that had infected me. Only, I knew if that cobalt pattern got on me, if Dmitri touched anyone, he’d take their mind, know everything there was inside them, and devour it.

  “Savannah Cole,” Dmitri’s voice shot into me, and I knew why Razer demons, and Tempters probably too stayed at least partially glamoured even around each other. So much power. “I will follow you. I am yours.”

  I have been yours from the beginning, love, Rowan telepathed to me, lifted my hand to his lips, then bared his fangs and dragged them along the veins of my sensitive wrist. I trembled, and didn’t even bother attempting to stifle my whimper.

  I’m sorry. I can’t. This came from Holly, and I said nothing. What was I supposed to say? So I let my understanding project to her, and she bowed her head, hiding her surprise.

  “All right, who do we think tried to kill us?” I asked, and everybody rose from their bow, with puzzled and amused faces. “Holly, does Director Pakala do that kind of thing? Or other Division agents?”

  “Absolutely not,” she said, leaning against one of Hadrian’s iron bookshelves, with arms crossed. “Even if she wanted you dead, which she doesn’t, she likes me. And Division doesn’t believe in collateral damage.”

  I turned away from her, and looked at Connell. “Is Astor capable of it?”

  “Capable? Yes. Extremely.”

  “But we do not assassinate our own kind,” the Sorcerer interjected. “Especially not kin.”

  Everyone looked at Hadrian, and I asked, because at this point, I didn’t think anything could surprise me. “Her son?”

  Hadrian shook his red, black-horned head. “Nephew.”

  “She also wants me to spy on you for her,” Connell chimed in, showing his lack of teeth. “She summoned me last night.”

  So Astor wasn’t fully convinced I’d die during the Blooding after all. That was interesting.

  “All right, not Division. Not Faction. Are there any other players no one’s told me about?”

  “No average demon has the balls,” Rowan said.

  “I agree,” Dmitri said in a gravelly grumble. He was reglamoured, thankfully.

  “It was Iliana.” Ivy’s soft voice drew everyone’s attention, and my demon half appreciated how she could command a room. “She will try again before the day is through.”

  I swallowed. “Will she succeed?”

  “I cannot see that far. I can only glimpse the attempt.”

  “How will she do it?” I asked, having a feeling I knew the answer. After all, she was a Destroyer.

  “Breaching.” Ivy’s exotic, brown eyes turned white as she confirmed my suspicions. “She will take our minds. The human first. Her half-caste second. Next the Warrior, the Destroyer, the Succubus. Me, then Savannah. She cannot touch the Devil. She will make us kill each other.” Ivy frowned, then corrected, “No, she will make Savannah kill us.”

  I laughed. “I couldn’t kill any one of you. I’m physically weak compared to you, besides the fact that I just wouldn’t.”

  Their expressions told me what I didn’t know. If I gave them a direct command, they had to obey it. Literally had to. Even if I wasn’t in control of my mind.

  “Well, crap.”

  “Does our Savannah have a knack for understatement, or what?” Connell joked, and I play-kicked his shin as I passed him.

  I went to the window and stared out onto the slow waves of the Pacific Ocean, thinking how funny it was the view was so tranquil considering the tangle I was trying to unravel.

  “Rowan, can you show me the Blooding?”

  Immediately, I was watching the events of the ceremony from his perspective, like I was him. He’d skipped past all the pomp and circumstance for me, getting right to the part where I’d stopped being able to see.

  More than a few demons broke rank around the room, yelling, many in that ancient language Rowan didn’t understand either.

  We were both young compared to most demons.

  Rowan couldn’t tell how they knew what was being done to her. Could they feel it too, like he could? Grayson stepped up to the throne, protested, telling Iliana this was not the way the Blooding was done. Rowan felt gratitude towards Grayson, even though their relationship was an unstable one, and even though the Tempter got nowhere. There was no reason to be so cruel, Grayson had said, but Iliana ignored him, had Matteo punch him to shut him up.

  Rowan couldn’t keep his eyes off me. But he stood strong, didn’t let his anguish, his helplessness show.

  His heart twisted deep in his chest. His body roared to stop this, to protect her, to turn back time and force her to run, even if she would resent him for it.

  The six demons drew closer as six slashes appeared on Savannah’s arms. No one had cut her. No one was even touching her. The robe’s sleeves were held up to her shoulders somehow as the skin split, three red lines forming on each arm. Deep, dark blood began to pour out of the injuries immediately. The wounds were held open by mystical forces, allowing a shocking amount of blood to escape.

  Rowan knew things weren’t progressing the way they were supposed to. Holly, Dmitri, and Connell ran somewhere into the crowd, and produced knifes from some unknown place. Rowan berated himself. He felt like he should have been more prepared.

  He thought his love for me made him foolish.

  Holly, Dmitri, and Connell, without hesitation, sliced a piece of their flesh from their right arms.

  God, I didn’t want to know about this part.
Maybe it had been better not to be able to see and hear. If Iliana’s goal was to make things worse for me by blocking out my senses, she had calculated wrong. Seeing this, knowing what was happening, would have been worse than not knowing.

  The flesh the Tempter, Razer, and Mischief demon took from their arms rose up, blood of different colors dripping from the pieces. As if ghostly hands were manipulating it, the flesh found her arms, and burrowed beneath her skin.

  I shivered, and as if Rowan’s memories reminded my body of what happened, the three spots on my arms I’d just seen filled up began to sting.

  Dmitri went to Ivy, Holly went to Hadrian, and Connell went to Rowan, using the knives on their right arms. Rowan put his arm out without hesitation, but he watched Dmitri have to coax Ivy into it. She was shocked, despite seeming emotionless most of the time.

  “Savannah has little time,” Dmitri had said. Rowan saw Iliana’s face twist at the words, and then twist further when Ivy lifted her sad eyes that usually focused on the floor, and thrust out her arm.

  Three more pieces of tissue found their way to Savannah’s mutilated arms, burrowing into the unoccupied slashes.

  Then Rowan saw the disappointment in the Royal’s bronze stare as the slashes along Savannah’s arms began to stitch back together, a piece of flesh from each caste buried inside.

  And I was still standing. Still with that small upturn of my lips, still with defiant eyes even though I couldn’t see.

  “Well done, Daughter.” Iliana spoke to me, but surely she knew I couldn’t hear her, couldn’t respond. The snake had to be slithering inside my brain by now.

  When I did respond, Iliana couldn’t hide the shock on her face.

  “Thank you, Royal.” Savannah’s voice sounded wrong to Rowan, but Iliana didn’t seem to realize it.

  “You have proven to be strong this day. What have you to say on behalf of your chosen people? What have you to say for the humans?”

  “Humans have a saying, Royal. What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.”

  Whatever force in me that was able to respond to her even though I wasn’t lucid knew exactly which buttons to push. Iliana had wanted me to die. I’d be stronger because I didn’t, not physically, but in the eyes of the ‘realm.

  “But I’m not letting anyone strip away everything in me before I find my strength.”

  I didn’t understand what it meant, but Iliana and the surrounding demons apparently did. I watched inside Rowan’s memory as my mother grimaced. More than a few demons along the walls mumbled words of interest.

  Rowan was looking at me in the memory, stunned, and I knew his expression was that blank, empty one that scared me sometimes. Now, I was grateful for it.

  But I needed to see her face. I had to be able to see her expressions.

  “Okay,” I said, back in my own head, with my own thoughts.

  “Holly, it looked like you had a better view of Iliana at the end. Can you show me what you saw?”

  She did, and the events played out again, once I began speaking. Holly couldn’t tell my voice was off, that something was strange with me like Rowan could. She was astounded, though.

  “What did you see, Savannah?” Connell asked, his unglamoured, veiny eyes huge. He had to tuck his wings tight against his back to fit into Hadrian’s living room, but he stayed unglamoured anyway.

  “She needed me to break. When whatever she was doing didn’t get the job done, she made it worse, tried to get into my mind. She couldn’t make me fall. If I had, she could have denounced me. She could have argued that she hadn’t told the ‘realm about me in the first place because she didn’t think I was strong enough. Withstanding the Blooding…threw a wrench in her plan. She got desperate. The only thing she could do after all those demons saw me survive…”

  “Not only survive,” Rowan said, putting his arm around me.

  “Prevail,” was Ivy’s quiet word.

  Connell laughed. “With flair!”

  I smiled at the Mischief demon because only he could sound so jovial under the circumstances.

  “The only thing she could do was take us out. Iliana doesn’t want us stealing the ‘realm from her. She didn’t like how the demons she thought were hers reacted to us during the ceremony. We’re a threat. Together, we’re too strong.”

  “What do you want to do, love?” Rowan asked, and I could tell he was trying not to crowd me, but couldn’t stand to keep his distance. I’d almost died twice today. I think he needed my touch to convince himself I’d survived. I liked that. I loved that I understood it.

  I foresaw another world-shattering night ahead.

  If we could make it to tonight.

  Yes. What do you want to do, Savannah? Hadrian asked, the telepath surprising because I had a feeling it was rare for the Sorcerer to do it.

  All eyes were on me, looking to me for answers, for decisions.

  I made them, but didn’t think even one of the members of my council of demons were going to like it. I wasn’t even sure I liked what I came up with. But I knew it was the right thing to do. My demon half agreed. No matter the consequences, when my two halves worked together, everything was clear.

  CHAPTER 45

  Hadrian took us into the Underrealm through the back door, the one only Sorcerers could use. Since they were the caste who created the Gates, they’d been sure to provide themselves with a secret way in. My Razer half understood it completely.

  I asked him if Octavia knew about the back way in, since theoretically, she should have beaten us to Iliana my first trip to the Underrealm if she did.

  “Octavia is a youngling, and formed ties with Iliana instead of with her own caste,” he’d told me. I wanted to know more, but would have to save it for a time when our lives weren’t being threatened.

  I wondered if there would ever be a time when our lives weren’t being threatened.

  The Sorcerer in my council also managed to lift the ban on Hammer demons jumping inside the fortress. I suspected Octavia, who had no doubt set those restrictions, simply wasn’t as powerful as Hadrian. No wonder she kept her attention fully on him anytime he was around.

  So when the seven of us jumped into the white and gold hall unannounced, Iliana didn’t stand a chance of seeing us coming.

  We stood in front of her. The hall was still filled with the demons along the walls, but Iliana’s half-caste slaves weren’t behind her. Her advisors weren’t at her feet. Matteo stood with his hand on her shoulder. This must have been the way they relaxed together. Too public a forum for my taste. When I wanted to spend time with the male I loved, it was going to be in private.

  I wondered if the demons lining the walls ever got to leave.

  She tried to hide it, but as I appeared before her, Rowan, Connell, Dmitri, Holly, Ivy, and Hadrian standing tall behind me, I knew she wanted to ask how we got in undetected.

  Surveying her emotions, I realized she hadn’t even known we survived the explosion. She’d been lounging here, waiting to hear news of our demise.

  Inside me, human and demon instinct alike grinned.

  “Seems like we have some tricks up our sleeves too, Mother.”

  Iliana hissed, and the gold tattoos on her arms began to change, to move. To slither.

  I felt what she was feeling, the questions she had. How was I on my feet after the Blooding? I hadn’t lost my mind, hadn’t needed fourteen days to recover like she had. I didn’t know why I was okay, but I loved that it made her uncomfortable.

  Except, it also made her desperate.

  The moment I knew what she was going to do, she got into my head. I hadn’t reacted in time to keep her out. My control wavered for the first time in her presence as I stumbled, feeling poison in my brain.

  Before Iliana could fully attack me, do any real damage, take advantage of my weakness, the six demons that surrounded me, that were forever bound to me, reacted.

  Rowan was the first to move, jumping his body in front of mine, ready to take whatever came to spa
re me from it.

  Holly stood to the side, in front of him, and was unglamoured for the first time I’d seen, silver eyes looking maniacal, the deep purple and silver pattern on her skin pulsating in waves, making her glow. There was more than one set of male eyes that couldn’t look away from her—including Matteo—stunning them incapacitated.

  Dmitri’s glamour was also gone, and the cobalt blue of his skin was so bright, I had to look away. He stood to the left and in front of Holly, and my demon half saw the strategic perfection of how they had fanned out, one shielding the other, all shielding me.

  Ivy had slipped in close to my right. She leaned in, her eyes white, that soft, beautiful voice in my ear. “She won’t touch you now.”

  The sound of the air around us made me look up. Connell, unglamoured in all his winged magnificence, hovered overhead. His impressive, expansive wingspan cradled all of us, and elicited gasps from demons all around.

  Hadrian was the one I noticed last, because he had taken several steps to the right away from the rest of us. He cast one of those impenetrable shields around us all.

  Iliana didn’t seem to know which of us to attack first. I couldn’t feel her waves through the energy field. Incidentally, it kept us in too. I couldn’t telepath outside of the circle, and couldn’t anticipate her next move since I couldn’t feel what she felt.

  Her bronze eyes finally rested on Connell. He was pretty threatening, with his aerial advantage. And he was unglamoured.

  “How dare you show yourself in front of Royalty, Fae. You will mask yourself immediately.”

  I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face, and the light that shined within me as Connell said, “I am not yours to command, Royal. Only Savannah’s word matters.”Moments passed, the seven of us challenging her to retaliate. She couldn’t, not with Hadrian’s protective energy field around us. At least, for the moment. Hadrian told me before we left his penthouse that the field drains him. The longer he used it, the weaker he would become.