Caterina flinched away, curling forwards with her hands over her head as she gave her back to the blast. Marek was swift to raise his hand, to pull up a wall of earth between her and the shards of wood.
The portal reappeared on the other side of Caterina and the illusionist stepped out again, her smile cold as she looked at Valen where he knelt on the ground, holding Eva as she rocked and muttered things under her breath.
When the daemon turned that cold smile on Caterina, Marek knew in his gut that their plan had failed.
Caterina seemed to know it too.
She flung herself at the daemon. “Take me with you. I need to see my brother. I have information to give you.”
The daemon curled a lip at her and brushed Caterina’s hands away as she looked down her nose at her.
“Whatever information you have, it is of little consequence now.” The daemon waved Caterina away. When that didn’t deter Caterina and she seized her arm, the daemon scowled at her, grabbed her wrist and twisted her arm, forcing her to release her and sending her to her knees on a pained cry. The illusionist narrowed her silver eyes on Caterina. “Your role in this play is over. Eli no longer has a use for you. You have played your part.”
“My brother.” Caterina tried to grab her again, desperation washing across her face as she reached for the daemon’s leg.
“Eli still has a use for him.” The illusionist lifted her left foot, pressed her heeled shoe to Caterina’s chest and shoved her backwards as she sneered.
Caterina’s back hit the dirt, but she was swift to recover, scrambling onto her knees and kicking off as the daemon backed towards the portal.
Marek kicked off too, sprinting across the dirt on an intercept course. If they couldn’t get Caterina to infiltrate the enemy to bring them information, then he would get it out of this daemon.
He lunged for the illusionist as she stepped into the shimmering oval.
And collided with Caterina.
“He will be safe with us.”
Those words drifted from the violet and black smoke as it began to thin and dissipate, and Marek couldn’t hold back the growl that rumbled up his throat. Keras was not going to be happy. He should have reacted faster, the moment the daemon had made it clear that they were done with Caterina.
But part of him had believed she could convince the daemon to take her to the wraith.
Caterina stumbled through the lingering tendrils of the portal, pivoted and tried again, disturbing the remnants until they were no more. “I have to reach my brother. I have to reach him. Let me through.”
Marek’s heart went out to her as she desperately tried to capture tiny wisps of the portal.
To his right, Valen helped Eva onto her feet, every other word that left his lips a curse.
A light entered Caterina’s eyes.
“Don’t you do it.” Marek seized her before she could follow through with that thought. “We’ll find another way.”
She tried to wrestle free of him, but he tightened his grip on her, refusing to let her go, using all of his will and every drop of his power to keep her in place and make her listen to him.
“Your teleporting skills might land you way off the mark. It might land you somewhere that could kill you.” He lowered his head and willed her to look at him, but she was too busy trying to escape his hold. “Don’t, Caterina. I’ll take you wherever you need to go. We’ll get Guillem back together.”
He had no love for vampires, but Caterina loved this one deeply.
So he would do all in his power to save him.
“I have to help him, Marek.” Her struggles suddenly ceased and he could see it in her eyes as her strength leached from her. “I need to see him. I need him.”
She sagged against him, and he released her and gently wrapped his arms around her.
“We’ll find him.” He bent his head and kissed her hair as he stroked her back. He looked at his brother. “How’s Eva?”
Valen stopped fussing over her for barely a second. “Recovering. What did the bitch mean? Caterina has played her role?”
He wasn’t sure.
“Caterina was meant as bait for me. Maybe she served her purpose when I was captured… but I escaped.” He frowned as he looked at that from all the angles, considering every possibility. “The daemons didn’t really get what they wanted from me.”
As those words left his lips, a sense of dread loomed inside him.
Gods.
A shiver shot down his spine.
An ache bloomed in his shoulder.
“What is it?” Valen twisted to face him, his pale eyebrows knitting hard above his bright golden eyes.
“The wraith knocked me out by stabbing me with a blade.” He stared straight through his brother, reeling as the implications of that hit him and they hit him hard.
“Yeah, you said that before. What about it?”
He didn’t have time to explain.
“Grab everyone and meet me at the villa. I have to go back to Seville.” He pulled Caterina against him and focused.
“Why?” Valen hollered, halting him in his tracks.
If his brother needed a reason, something to motivate him into moving his arse and doing what Marek wanted, he would give him one.
“The wraith has my memories. He knows the protective wards on my villa,” Marek barked and understanding dawned in Valen’s eyes.
Capturing him hadn’t been the objective.
Stealing his memories had been.
The wraith had been after his amulet the whole time.
“He’s going to try to open the gate.”
Chapter 29
Marek landed in his villa with Caterina to find the entire place had been turned upside down. He released her and stepped down from the overturned couch he had landed on and ran his hands over his hair as he looked around at the mess.
He took swift steps across the terracotta tiles, heading straight for his office and the cupboard there, some stupid part of him hoping that it was going to be all right.
The doors were open.
He eased towards the cupboard and stared at the circular shield hanging at the back of it.
And the place where his amulet should have been.
“Damn it!” He grabbed the fallen lamp from his desk and hurled it across the room.
It hit the wall near the window opposite the door and smashed into pieces.
Caterina gasped behind him.
Marek shoved his fingers through his hair and growled in frustration as he clawed it back. Maybe it wasn’t too late. Maybe there was still time.
He looked out of the window at the darkness.
Maybe he was fucked.
Instinct said to move now, but he was already in enough trouble. If he went to the gates alone, Keras would kill him. The wraith wouldn’t be there alone, and Marek wasn’t talking about just the illusionist being with him. The daemon was clever.
There was no way he hadn’t mustered an army of daemons to keep Marek and his brothers occupied while he interfered with the gate, using them as cannon fodder to ensure he and the illusionist were able to complete their mission without coming under attack.
“I’m sorry,” Caterina said and slowly approached him. She slid her hand over his back as he leaned forwards and braced his palms against the edge of his desk, anger and disappointment colliding inside him. “Whatever it was he took, we can get it back.”
“It’s not your fault,” he muttered. “This mess is on me. All of this mess is on me. What happened to you… what happened tonight. It’s all on me. I should have considered the implications of what the bastard did to me, but I was too focused on my hurt… my anger.”
He pushed up and huffed as he looked at the cupboard, as he focused on the villa and felt that every ward had been disabled.
“I knew the wraith must have taken my memories through the blade, as he did with Esher.” He turned and sank onto his arse on the desk. “I’m an idiot for not realising it earlier.”
“Nah, don’t be too hard on yourself. If you’re an idiot, what does that make most of us?” Valen appeared in the middle of the room with Eva tucked close to him, both of them armed for war.
The onyx leather holster over Valen’s black T-shirt held rows of small throwing knives against his ribs, and a short blade hung from the waist of his combat trousers.
The holster over Eva’s own black T-shirt held guns, a weapon Marek had learned she preferred over knives, although she did have one of those strapped to the waist of her tight black jeans.
“We all fuck up at some point.” Valen boxed him on the arm.
That wasn’t a comfort.
So far, none of them had messed up this badly. The enemy had managed to seize an amulet more than once before, but the brothers involved had felt the wards on their homes trigger and had returned quickly enough to stop the enemy from realising the amulets weren’t the Keys of Hades.
Marek had a sinking feeling that wouldn’t be the case this time.
He wasn’t sure how long the wraith had been in possession of his amulet.
But he was assuming it had been with him from the moment Marek had come around in that country house to find himself a prisoner of his enemy.
Which meant there was a chance the wraith had already made an attempt on the gate and knew the amulets didn’t control them.
And if the wraith knew that, how long would it be before the male realised he and his brothers were the keys to the gates and their blood could open it for him?
Daimon and Calistos arrived, both of them geared up for a battle. Daimon wore a similar holster to Valen over his long-sleeved navy roll-neck he had paired with his jeans. Calistos had a wicked pair of knives the length of his forearms strapped to his hips and was wearing black leather vambraces over his forearms.
Keras appeared barely a second later.
Not a single weapon on him.
“Esher and Ares have agreed to protect the other gates.” Keras adjusted the sleeve of his crisp black shirt and scowled at the open cupboard, at the leather and bronze shield hung on the back wall of it. “Any idea how long it has been missing?”
Marek shook his head. “The wards were disabled. Some of them were complicated and might have taken time to break, but it’s highly probable that the wraith has been in possession of my amulet since the night I went missing.”
Valen whistled low.
Daimon cursed.
“You think they know?” Calistos looked from Marek to Keras, his stormy blue eyes growing darker as the tips of his blond ponytail fluttered.
“How about we find out?” Valen touched Cal’s shoulder, pulled Eva against him and smiled. “Race you to the twin gate?”
Cal nodded and stepped.
“I’ll check the main gate. I’ll text if something is wrong.” Daimon disappeared before Marek could tell him to be careful.
“Sorry,” Marek muttered as he looked at Keras.
Keras shrugged it off. “Sooner or later the ruse would end. We are more than prepared for that. We are strong enough to face whatever they dare to throw at us.”
Marek wasn’t sure they were, but he nodded and waited for Keras to step before he slid his arm around Caterina’s waist.
“I thought you wouldn’t want me there.” Her hazel eyes searched his, and he cursed the doubts in them.
“I want you right where I can see you.” He stroked the fingers of his free hand down her cheek. “I need to know you’re safe.”
He stepped before she could answer him, landing at the main gate.
Daimon stood in the middle of the beautiful garden in the heart of Seville, staring at the low fountain that stood in the middle of a crossroads in the gravel path that intersected the shrubs and trees.
He looked up from his phone, the screen making his irises appear as white as snow ringed with black. “Nothing here.”
Marek tightened his grip on Caterina and teleported again, landing on the hill overlooking the dusty valley basin.
And around four dozen daemons.
He immediately crouched behind a bush and pulled Caterina down with him. Maybe they weren’t too late after all. The wraith hadn’t attempted to open the gate yet. They could turn this around and keep the enemy under the illusion that the amulets controlled the gate, keeping their focus on getting hold of them.
And off his brothers’ weaknesses.
His gaze slid to Caterina. His own weakness. Just as Megan was Ares’s weakness and Eva was Valen’s, and, well, everyone was Esher’s weakness but if Aiko was hurt again, the world would pay for it.
Which meant Marek needed to get his hands on that amulet before the wraith realised all it did was protect him from the gatekeeper on the other side.
Valen lay prone on the ground beside him, frowning at the gathered daemons.
“Someone arrange a party?” he hissed with a smile in his voice that was out of place in such a grave situation.
It earned him a sigh from Keras.
“You take the left and I’ll take the right?” Cal whispered, and Marek wanted to cuff him for taking this so lightly.
Marek wished Keras hadn’t brought him. Whatever went down tonight, Calistos was going to take it personally. The Seville gates had been built when Calistos and Calindria had been born.
Meaning Calistos and Calindria were the keys to them, bound by blood to the gates in secret during their construction. Calistos had ultimate power over the gate bound to him, and there was a chance he could control the gate that had been bound to their sister too.
Marek kept a close eye on him, watching that storm brewing in his eyes.
He hated to admit it, but Keras had been right to bring him. If the gate needed to be closed, Calistos might be able to do it.
Emphasis on the might.
It was just as likely that Calistos would push himself too hard attempting it and would blackout.
Marek surveyed the daemons as they moved, parting to allow two figures through the crowd.
The wraith and the illusionist.
The daemons spread, moving as one to form a ring around the area where the gate would form, all of them facing outwards and all of them armed with swords.
Marek’s eyebrows drew down as he charted the location of the gate in relation to the wall of daemons and calculated the space the disc of the gate would occupy once it opened. The daemons had been placed in a perfect ring around the gate, leaving only a few feet of bare land between their backs and the edge of the disc.
He narrowed his gaze on the wraith where he stood, near one side of the ring, his long black coat making him almost blend with the illusionist as she came to stand beside him. The bastard must have noted the width and position of the edges in relation to the terrain when Marek had been called here before.
This had been his plan all along.
The wraith lifted his right arm and the amulet dangling from it caught the slender moonlight.
Any moment now, the wraith was going to realise that the amulet didn’t control the gate.
Marek needed to get down there and fast.
He went to move.
Froze.
Marek’s eyes slowly widened as the amulet began to shine.
“What the fuck?” Valen muttered, echoing Marek’s thoughts perfectly.
Marek gritted his teeth as something tugged at his chest.
The gate.
Someone was on the other side.
That was why the amulet was reacting.
He could use it to his advantage.
He kicked off and skidded down the dusty hill, using his arms to keep his balance as he plunged towards the daemons waiting at the bottom of it. One hissed as it noticed him, drawing the attention of the illusionist.
And then the wraith.
Marek barrelled towards the wall of daemons.
Keras beat him to it.
His brother appeared before him, a shadow in the night, black tendrils of smoke rising from his short onyx hair
like a twisted crown as he launched a hand out at the first daemon, closed it around his throat and snapped his neck in one brutal move.
Two daemons next to the fallen male shook themselves out of their stupor and attacked as one. Shadows raced from the trees, leaving the ground beneath them eerily void of them, and shot upwards as they reached the first daemon. The male panicked, slapping at the black spreading up his legs, clawing himself in the process as he tried to get the shadows off him. He spun away from the group, shrieking as he twisted in circles, desperately attempting to stop the shadows.
That high keening noise shut off as the shadows engulfed him.
Just as quickly as they had swallowed him, they fell away.
The daemon dropped to the ground, his skin a sickly shade of grey and eyes white as he stared into nothing.
Marek shuddered.
Once upon a time, he had been envious of Keras’s power. Then he had seen it in action, sucking the life from things, a black malevolent force that seemed to have a mind of its own.
The shadows rushed past him and he stepped back, giving them a wide berth as they skittered towards the wall of daemons.
Caterina slammed into his back, breathing hard.
“That was—” Her words died as she looked beyond him.
Marek tracked the line of her gaze.
Keras cut through the daemons, slashing throats with his claws and snapping necks, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake.
All with an empty look in his eyes and no trace of emotion on his face.
His brother was a cold, merciless killer as he decimated daemon after daemon, never slowing, not even when the more foolish ones tried to attack him rather than flee.
Marek made a mental note to keep Caterina far away from his brother.
To his left, Valen and Eva were working in tandem to breach the wall of daemons. Beyond them, Calistos and Daimon were cutting a path, combining their powers to form short spears of ice and propel them at high speeds at their enemies.
Marek cursed as light flickered in the centre of the collapsing ring of daemons, a bright purple spark that illuminated the entire area in blinding flashes. It grew rapidly, forming an orb that twisted, filling the air with a low hum as the sense of power built inside Marek.
Marek: Guardians of Hades Series Book 4 Page 30