The Devil In Disguise (Bad Things #1)

by Cynthia Eden

  No, they were terrifying.

  “I control you now.” His fingers curled around her neck. “Only I can remove the collar.”

  Collar. Now he wasn’t pretending. She wouldn’t, either. Mina let him see the hate in her eyes.

  “You will speak when I allow you to speak. You will follow the orders that my agency gives to you. You will do exactly as you are told…or I will see to it that you never speak again. I can take your voice from you. Take it completely, and you will be helpless for the rest of your days.”

  No, she wouldn’t be helpless. She wouldn’t have the power to compel others, but she’d still be able to fight. He didn’t understand her, he never had. She’d gone to Luke because she’d wanted that terrible power taken away.

  But losing her voice wouldn’t destroy her. Just as Garrick wouldn’t destroy her. She wouldn’t let him.

  “Guards!” Garrick called, raising his voice. “Get Eli to the med ward! Patch up the guy before we start swimming in his blood!”

  He was…he was really going to help Eli?

  Garrick’s hand slid away from her. “See…it’s that trust I spoke about. We’ll fix the rift between us. Soon enough, things will return to the way they were before. You’ll want me again.”

  Insane. No doubt.

  He caught her hand and lifted it to his shirt-front, putting it right above his heart—and the scar there. “And I’ll forgive you,” Garrick said.

  She waited until the guards had removed Eli. Waited until he was out of there and on his way to get help. Then she smiled up at Garrick, and, moving her mouth slowly so that he’d be able to read her lips she told him, “Screw you.”

  He just laughed. “Doesn’t work, baby. Not without the voice.”

  He turned away. Sauntered out of the cell. Shut the door and left her there.

  “We are going to be great together,” he said, his words drifting back to her. “Just you wait and see.”

  She grabbed for the necklace and began to claw it, but the choker—the collar—just tightened, threatening to cut off her breath.

  “Oh, don’t do that.” His voice had sharpened.

  Her head jerked back and she stared at him through the glass.

  Garrick wiggled the remote in his fingers. “Only I can get that off. Try to cut it, try to pry it loose, and it will just keep tightening. It will tighten until you can’t breathe. You’ll die long before it comes off.” Then he smiled. “God, I have missed you. Welcome back, baby.”

  Her hands fell to her sides and fisted.

  ***

  The scent of blood led to the Naval Air Station on the island. Luke hovered above the facility, his gaze on the humans he could see moving below. Like desperate bees, buzzing around.

  Wind whipped against him and he knew just who’d appeared to ruin his fun. But then, he’d smelled Leo coming this time. Righteousness could reek.

  “You can’t kill those humans.”

  Luke just stared at him. “After all these centuries, after all of the wars we’ve seen, you should know by now that humans aren’t innocent. Sometimes, they are the monsters.”

  “It’s not our place—”

  “Then who should be punishing them? Who should be stopping them? They took what was mine, and that crime will have a cost.”

  Leo gave a grim shake of his head. “You are to stay just with the paranormals. I handle the humans. You know—”

  Luke grabbed his brother’s shoulders. “I know that you’re a pain in my ass. I know that you’ve stood back and just watched for far too long. Well, guess what, brother? The time for watching is over. Now, you’re about to get down and dirty in my hell.” Then he didn’t hesitate. Using all of his considerable strength, Luke shoved his brother straight down, sending him barreling for the building below. He kept up the force on his brother’s shoulders, flying down with him as they got closer and closer to impact.

  He wanted to get in that facility. So…why not just bust his way inside?

  Right before impact, Luke let his brother go and he watched as Leo slammed straight through the roof of the facility, leaving a big, gaping hole in his wake.

  How absolutely perfect.

  ***

  When the ceiling caved in on her, Mina screamed. Or, well, she tried to scream. But the collar made sure that no sound slipped from her lips.

  Something big—with giant, black wings—had just broken its way into her cell. The wings were huge—easily six feet long but they were…sharp. Gleaming. She backed up against the wall, trying to flatten herself because she had no idea what fresh hell this was and—

  The wings vanished. In a blink, they were gone. A man knelt in the middle of the rubble, his dark head was bent and what looked like dust and plaster covered his broad shoulders.

  His familiar shoulders.

  He tilted back his head and his dark gaze met hers.

  Relief swept through Mina, almost making her dizzy. She’d known that Luke would come for her. Okay, maybe she hadn’t known, but she’d really, really hoped. Mina ran to him, feeling a wide smile stretch her lips.

  He blinked at her, as if in surprise, and he rose to his feet.

  She threw herself against him, holding him tightly. She shot onto her toes and her mouth pressed to his as she pulled his head toward her.

  It took her only about two seconds to realize…something was wrong. Very wrong.

  The body against hers was hard, strong. Sexy. The mouth against hers was sensual and skilled but…

  No fire ignited in her blood. That wild, reckless need didn’t flare within her. Maybe it was because she was in prison, her voice was gone, and danger was everywhere or maybe…maybe…

  She pulled her lips from his. Mina searched his eyes. Her lips parted and she mouthed the words she couldn’t speak. “Who. Are. You?”

  But then the air around her seemed to heat. There was a rush of hot wind and—

  Luke stood a few feet away from her. He wore the fancy suit that he’d had on when they dined on his balcony. He looked sexy, polished, and utterly…furious. The Eye of Hell gleamed on his hand.

  Her gaze jerked from him to the man before her. A man who looked exactly like her Lord of the Dark. Exactly.

  She tried to retreat, but the man holding her just tightened his grip.

  “Thanks, Luke,” he said, his deep voice so similar to Luke’s that Mina ached. “You sent me straight to the person I needed.”

  Luke’s head turned to the side as he cracked his neck. Then he rolled back his shoulders. She wanted to tell Luke that this was all a mistake, that she’d gotten confused, but Mina couldn’t say a word.

  His twin. This is Luke’s twin.

  And the really, really bad situation that she’d been in? It had just gotten about a hundred times worse.

  But then an alarm started shrieking. The same alarm that had heralded the arrival of Garrick and his goons before. Sure enough, doors flew open and armed men rushed toward her cell. Garrick was leading the pack, and his eyes seemed to double in size when he saw that there appeared to be two Lukes in her cell.

  “I should get her to safety, don’t you think?” the man holding her murmured.

  Before Luke could reply, the guy had scooped Mina into his arms and flown straight up—flying right through the gaping hole he’d left in the ceiling.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “What in the hell?” Garrick blasted.

  “Exactly,” Luke snarled right back, enraged. “Just hold that thought for one fucking moment.” His knees bent and he shot into the air, flying right after Leo. His brother dared, dared to take Mina? No, it would not happen.

  His skin heated. Burned. Smoke filled the air around him. His body stretched and his bones snapped. The shift rolled through him and when he looked down, when he saw the humans running out of the station and firing up at him…

  His control broke. Luke opened his mouth and he breathed his fire onto them.

  ***

  “Look at him.”
<
br />   Mina hated that his voice was just like Luke’s. She hated that his body was the same. His face the same. Leo. The twin.

  “Look at the man you took for a lover and see him for just how evil he truly is.”

  Her head turned. She saw a cloud of smoke rising from the Naval Air Station. Her breath rushed out as flames burst into the air—bright orange and red flames. And in the middle of all that fire…someone was moving.

  Something was moving.

  The creature burst out of the flames—big, dark, its mouth bursting with razor sharp teeth. Its massive wings cut through the air and its tail whipped behind the beast.

  Not just a beast…

  Scales were on its body. Big, heavy-looking scales that gleamed in the moonlight. Its eyes were huge but…serpentine in shape. Just like its head. Only it wasn’t a snake coming at her. It was a dragon. A freaking dragon! Breathing got very, very hard for Mina.

  “That’s his true form. That’s what he is beneath the mask of a man. Evil and darkness. He burns and he destroys and he doesn’t care who he hurts.” Leo’s grip on her tightened. “I will take you away from him. You’ll be safe, I guarantee it. You were never meant to be with him. You aren’t one of his creatures. You aren’t—”

  Gunshots cut through the night. She saw the bullets hit the dragon flying toward them. Luke wasn’t just hit once. Not twice. But again and again. The dragon’s giant body jerked and blood burst from his wounds. The gunshots hit his wings, ripping through them and…

  It fell. The dragon fell.

  No, he fell. Luke. His body crashed back to earth, falling right toward the shooting agents.

  She opened her mouth, screaming for him, but no sound emerged. Nothing came out, not even a whimper as terror nearly choked her. Luke!

  “Well, that was…unexpected.” The air fluttered around her. “I’ll get you to safety. You’ll be free. You’ll—”

  She wasn’t leaving. She grabbed for the collar at her neck, yanking it with all of her strength. She could feel it tightening, biting into her skin, sinking deeper and cutting her air supply off as she struggled.

  “What are you doing? What’s happening?” Alarm had entered Leo’s voice. “How can I help you?”

  Get me down. Get me to Luke.

  Her throat was being pierced—a sharp slice right from that cursed emerald. It was cutting into her and dizziness swam through her head. She just had to get the collar off.

  “Why are you fighting this way? For him?”

  She nodded even as she kept clawing at her throat.

  “Dammit.” Leo’s arms tightened around her. “And here I thought we’d get away clean.” But then he turned his body and instead of flying up, they were suddenly hurtling straight toward the ground. She sucked in a deep breath and choked on the smoke as they went through that black cloud that the dragon—Luke—had created. Mina felt the lance of heat around her skin and then…

  She was standing on the ground, right in the middle of the smoke and the flames. The man who’d held her moments before seemed to have vanished, but Luke…

  He was a few feet in front of her, on the ground, his body naked, bleeding.

  Mina ran to him. He was face down on ground that had been blackened, and she rolled him over. Her heart was about to burst from her chest. He was covered in blood. His arms were twisted, the bones seemingly shattered. His face—his handsome face had been smashed. His nose was broken, a bone poking from his cheek. She felt tears raining down her own cheeks because he didn’t seem to be moving—not moving, not breathing.

  One of her tears fell onto his face. She smoothed her fingers over his neck, searching desperately for a pulse. Don’t do this to me, Luke. You’re supposed to be all powerful. Bullets can’t take you out. That’s not the way this works.

  “Get away from him, Mina!” It was a familiar voice roaring at her. The voice she heard in her nightmares. Her head lifted and she saw that armed men now surrounded her. Garrick and his men. Garrick had a pistol in one hand and that hated remote for her collar in the other. He was glaring at her. Seething with his fury. “I don’t know what that bastard is,” Garrick shouted. “But our scientists will figure him out. They’ll cut him apart and piece him back together. He’ll be a weapon no one else can beat. Our weapon.”

  She still hadn’t felt Luke’s pulse. She didn’t think he could be anyone’s weapon. Not when he was…gone.

  No, no, don’t be gone. Please. I don’t want to lose you. More tears tracked down her cheeks and fell onto him. The flames raged around her. Flames he’d created before plunging back down to earth.

  “Mina…” A warning edge thickened Garrick’s voice. “Step away from him, now.”

  Then she felt the jerk beneath her fingers—Luke’s pulse, starting again. Oh, dear God, he had been dead. But he’d come back. His eyes were still closed, his body far too battered and bloody, but Luke was alive.

  She had to keep him that way.

  If Garrick and his men got hold of him, they would cut him open. They’d keep him captive. She had once thought nothing could stop Luke, but that had been before she saw him fall from the sky.

  She would keep him safe. Her fingers lingered against his skin for just a moment more. Then Mina rose. She eyed the men around her, all men who were armed and ready to attack. Men who were staring at her as if she were some sort of monster. But they were the ones planning to cut up Luke.

  “Come to me, Mina,” Garrick ordered her.

  Garrick. The man who thought he had her under such control. He’d been her lover once, back when she’d foolishly believed his lies. Before she’d realized he wasn’t actually working for the FBI. He was working for some covert group within the government, a group that specialized in unusual warfare techniques. Off the books, secretive.

  Deadly.

  Garrick had wanted to use her. He’d tried to force her to use her powers to kill.

  That wasn’t who she was.

  Or, rather, it wasn’t who she’d been.

  She started walking toward Garrick, making sure to keep her head bowed, making sure her steps seemed uncertain and that she let shudders wrack her body. Not hard, really, because she was terrified.

  Mina was also furious. And if she looked up, if she made eye contact with Garrick, he’d see that rage. He’d attack. She couldn’t let him do that.

  Mina intended to attack first.

  “Good, Mina.” The bastard sounded so satisfied. Then, raising his voice, he said to the men there, “Once she’s clear, shoot that bastard again. I want to make absolutely certain he’s out before we take him to containment.”

  Her jaw ached because her teeth were clenched so tightly. She just had a few more feet to go…Almost there…yes.

  Mina stumbled when she was near Garrick. He lunged to grab her and she grabbed him. Mina snatched the gun from him, just yanked it right out of his grip, and then she pushed it against his head. Her reflexes had always been fast—far faster than a human’s—and the whole switch took less than two seconds.

  He blinked at her, stunned. “Mina?”

  She just stared back at him. Thanks to that bastard, she couldn’t speak, but she thought he could get the message from her eyes well enough.

  I will kill you.

  “There is no out for you here, Mina,” he said, his words thick. “No way you get to walk away.”

  She could kill him right then. Just squeeze the trigger and…bam. One of her biggest problems would be gone, but then she’d still have to deal with his guards.

  Keeping the gun pressed to his forehead, she looked at the others, needing them to understand—everyone had to back the hell away. They needed to get away from Luke. Luke…who was now rising to his feet. He blinked, his expression confused, groggy, and then he seemed to realize where he was and exactly what the hell was happening.

  She kept her right hand tight around the weapon. With her left, Mina pointed to the sky. This time, her message was for Luke. Get your ass up there. Fly away. Be
safe. She’d hold off Garrick. His men weren’t going to move, not with that gun jammed against their leader’s head.

  She only counted four armed men. Normally, she would have thought Luke could take them out, no problem but…

  They took him out. Brought him straight out of the sky. Now she was terrified.

  “Mina, I think you miscalculated.” Garrick didn’t sound afraid. Or angry. Just amused and that made her tense even more. “You have the gun, yes, but I still have this…” He lifted the remote. And he pushed it.

  Excruciating pain sliced into her throat. Her mouth opened in a scream, but no sound came out.

  “Mina?” Luke still seemed dazed. “What’s happening to you?”

  She wanted to fall to her knees, to claw at the collar, but instead, she just pointed to the air again. He had to go. He had to go right then.

  “If you don’t move the gun,” Garrick said, giving her his smile. “I’ll take that voice of yours away permanently.”

  No, he was lying. Bluffing. He wanted her power. Why destroy it?

  “You can’t get out of here,” Garrick continued, damn near gloating. “Your…hero is too damaged. We weren’t packing tranq or even normal bullets when we hit him. I guess you could say we got an upgrade.”

  Her gaze dipped to the gun.

  “You’re outnumbered, Mina.” The pain kept cutting into her. “And…really…do you want to die for that freak?”

  Helpless, her stare flew to Luke and that was when Garrick lunged forward. His body slammed into hers. They hit the ground with an impact that had her shaking. He grabbed her wrist, twisted it, nearly shattering the bones and she screamed—

  No sound.

  At least, no sound from her.

  A deep, guttural bellow seemed to shake the very earth itself. And suddenly, Garrick was flying through the air—being thrown through the air. Luke was there. He scooped Mina into his arms. Held her. His gaze searched her face, so desperate. So worried.

  “Fire at him!” Garrick yelled. “Shoot him until he’s down again!”

  She looked over Luke’s shoulder. Saw the agents aiming. She squeezed her eyes shut, an instinctive reaction as—