Mark of the Sylph (Demons of Infernum, #2)

by Rosalie Lario

  Brynn shook her head. “Not in the sense you’re thinking of.”

  “I don’t understand. I mean, I’ve seen them. I’ve witnessed their evil.”

  “Oh, I’m not saying they’re all good. Just that they’re not all evil. You’ll get the good and the bad, same as with humans.”

  Maya felt her mouth open and close. Demons weren’t all evil? Her eyes narrowed as she examined Brynn. Was there something there she couldn’t see? “You’re not a demon, are you?”

  “No,” Brynn replied with a little laugh. “At least, not mostly.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I didn’t know what to believe when I first met Keegan and his brothers,” Brynn said. “But after seeing them all risk their lives to save mine, I’ll tell you one thing. They’re more decent than half the human men you’ll see out there. Despite the foolish, half-assed ways in which they like to do things, they’re good people.”

  “I... I can’t believe that.” But then, she didn’t know what to believe anymore. She was so confused.

  “You’ll see.” Brynn curled her hand around Maya’s. “You don’t know me from Adam, so I don’t expect you to believe me, but all I’m saying is maybe give Taeg a chance. You might find more of him to like than you could possibly expect.”

  Maya flushed at the innuendo behind Brynn’s words. “It’s not like we’re dating or anything. He only thinks I could be useful to him. Like a human metal detector.”

  Brynn snorted while she worked her thumb around the ring on Maya’s finger. “Yeah, right. Let me tell you, whether you’re useful or not, if Taeg brought you here it’s because—”

  She cut off suddenly, letting out a soft gasp as her eyes fluttered shut.

  “Are you okay?” Maya tugged her hand back and grabbed Brynn’s arms. Just when she was about to call out for help, Brynn’s eyes opened.

  “I’m fine. Sorry about that.” Her cheeks turned pink. “Things are a little loopy ever since the pregnancy.”

  Maya let go of her. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “Yes.” Brynn’s focused her attention on Maya’s hand. “That’s a pretty ring. Is it old?”

  “Oh. Yes it is.” Maya smiled down at the delicate gold band on her finger. It had little monetary value, but to her it was priceless. “It was my mother’s.”

  Recovered off what was left of her corpse.

  A glimmer of understanding flickered in Brynn’s eyes. She nodded and cast a slight frown at Maya’s leg. “Oh no, you have a little tear in your jeans.”

  “What?” Maya bent down to examine it. “Damn it, Taeg, these were my favorite jeans.”

  “Taeg did that?” Brynn asked, lifting her brow.

  “Yeah. Uh, long story.” She wasn’t sure whether Brynn would appreciate hearing how she’d tried to kill Taeg numerous times last night.

  Brynn nodded. “You don’t have any clothes to change into, do you?”

  Maya smiled. “How’d you guess?”

  “Just thought back to when I was first kidnapped by Keegan.”

  “What?”

  “I’ll have to fill you in on that some other time.” Brynn rose with a laugh and looked Maya up and down. “I’d offer to lend you some clothes, but I’m afraid mine won’t fit.” She sighed dramatically. “God, how I envy your curves.”

  “Really?” Maya shuffled to her feet and looked down at herself. “I was thinking I looked like a troll compared to you. I always wanted to be tall and thin.”

  “I guess we all want what we can’t have.” Brynn gave her a conspiratorial grin and Maya realized she liked this woman. And Brynn liked Taeg. So what did that say about him?

  “Come on, the men are probably starving.” Brynn grabbed her arm and headed toward the door. She opened it and started out. “Do you know, I—”

  Brynn cut off when she saw Taeg leaning against the opposite wall. “Waiting for us?” she said to him.

  The heat in his gaze speared Maya, making her belly tingle. The man looked dangerous even doing something as innocuous as leaning against the wall. “I want to talk to Maya.”

  Brynn crossed her arms. “Do you promise to behave yourself?”

  “No,” he replied bluntly.

  “Good.” Brynn grinned as she turned and retreated down the hallway.

  Maya recalled Brynn’s words: He can be a real tool sometimes, but he has a heart of gold.

  Taeg pushed off the wall and stalked toward her. “You okay?”

  “I’m fine.” Although the way he looked at her made her nervous. So she did what she always did when she was nervous—she hid her emotions behind a layer of bristle. “Do you mind respecting my personal space?”

  “Personal space?” He let out a snort and kept coming, mere inches away now. “Yeah, ’cause you were so worried about personal space last night when you were trying to kill me.”

  “I said back off.” Her fist shot out and caught him in the chest. His hand closed around her wrist, dragging her with him when he stumbled backward. Her front made contact with his chest at the same time his back hit the wall, and his arms closed tight around her, flooding her with the superheated warmth of his body.

  “That’s better,” he said.

  “Let me go.”

  “I don’t think so.” One of his arms traveled up her back while the other slid decidedly lower, in dangerous proximity to her bottom. “You didn’t seem to hate me so much earlier. In fact, I’d almost say you were jealous.”

  “Jealous? Ha!” She struggled in his grasp, but all that managed to do was rub his body against hers. Ignoring the growing hardness pressing against her stomach was impossible.

  “Uh-huh.” Taeg flipped them around so her back was to the wall.

  “You know what I think, little slayer?” His lips brushed against her ear. “I think maybe you like me more than you’d care to admit, and it scares you. Your mouth tells me you want to kill me, but your body says another thing entirely.”

  “You’re crazy,” she panted.

  “Am I?”

  If only. She was beginning to think she might be the crazy one. When she breathed in deep, his eyes dropped to the rise and fall of her chest, and stuck there. “Brynn told me demons aren’t what I think they are. What does that mean? Is it true?”

  “What if I told you it’s true? That demons aren’t evil beings from Hell, like you seem to think they are? Would that change things?”

  “I... I don’t know.”

  “Why doesn’t that surprise me?” With those words, he lowered his head toward hers.

  Her heart rate tripled, pounding to a loud, fierce rhythm he probably heard. Say no. Head butt him. Knee him in the groin. But she couldn’t force her body to respond to her brain’s commands. Of its own volition, her tongue wet her lips, all but inviting him to continue his downward descent.

  Holy hell, a demon was going to kiss her. And she was going to let him.

  Maya let out a gasp when, rather than touching his lips to hers, he shifted his head so they brushed along her cheek, down to her chin. Static electricity racked her body with an involuntary shiver. He stopped at her ear, and she felt a light flick to her lobe. Was that... was that his tongue?

  This time Maya couldn’t hold back the moan bubbling in her throat.

  “Come on, little slayer,” he whispered in her ear. “They’re waiting for us.”

  With those words, Taeg released her and pushed away. Before she could respond, he turned on his heel and disappeared down the same corridor as Brynn.

  Maya kept her back against the wall, bracing herself on legs that seemed too shaky to provide any real support. What had just happened? She’d known Taeg less than a day. She knew he was a demon. And she’d been about to let him kiss her?

  Maybe she was mistaken about his powers not working on her. Maybe he had charmed her after all, and that was why she responded to him the way she did. Yeah, and maybe pigs could fly. As much as she’d like to deny it, she had to face the truth: she had the hot
s for a demon.

  “Madre, perdona me.” Mother, forgive me.

  Shame coursed through her body as she walked down the corridor behind Taeg. How could she be so fickle? How could she forget, even for one second, what had happened to her family? What demons had done to them?

  Maya reached the entrance to a small dining room and stopped dead, her shame all but forgotten. A large, rectangular table filled most of the room. And seated in the chairs were more demons than she’d ever seen in one place.

  “Oh, shit.”

  All eyes turned to her, and her courage deserted her. She backed up slowly, going on pure instinct as her brain screamed one thing to her body, over and over again.

  Run.

  Chapter Seven

  Leviathos spoke into his cell phone while he walked down the busy street. “What kind of tracker are you? Shouldn’t you have some information on her already?”

  “I track scents. I’m not a detective,” Garin replied in his nasal voice. “You’ll need to give me more than a few hours, especially with the shoddy description you gave me. It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours yet, so it’s not like I can check the missing persons reports.”

  Leviathos tried his best to quell his impatience. This was the problem with working with just one goon—it was almost impossible to accomplish things at the speed he desired. Still, the fewer people who knew about his mission, the better the likelihood of accomplishing it. If his former mentor, Mammon, had believed that, he might very well have succeeded in raising his undead army without the Elden Council being any wiser for it.

  Leviathos was so unlike Mammon in that way. He’d never let pride stop him from acquiring his ultimate goal.

  “I’ll try tracking her scent from the address you gave me, see if I can trace it back to her apartment,” Garin continued. “But for obvious reasons I have to wait until dark.”

  Garin was a wolf-shifter, a skilled tracker in wolf form. But that did have clear limitations in a city like this. Not too many wolves roaming the streets. So his business was best conducted in the deepest part of night, when he had less chance of someone spotting him. Of course, in a city that never slept, there was always a chance.

  “Just do it as quickly as you can.” Leviathos hung up and ground to a stop in front of his destination. The nondescript building didn’t have any sign to indicate that a public establishment lay within. Of course Eros was specifically designed to keep out as many humans as possible. Located in the Lower East Side, not far from Taeg’s apartment, it catered to all classes of Otherworlders.

  Due to the early hour, the entrance lacked its customary security guard. Leviathos opened the door and descended the narrow stairs. Taking up a good portion of the basement, Eros had a marble-stained concrete floor and a tiled bar that matched the beige walls. On its own, it might have resembled a subway station, but the dim lighting, candles, and red leather stools lent it an aura of sophistication.

  This part of the bar was empty, save a tired-looking bartender behind the counter. Leviathos gave her a curt nod and moved farther back, where a separate room contained a couple of secluded seating areas. With the exception of his contact, who sat in a booth sipping a dark liquid from a tumbler, there was no one else here. Eros never filled up during daylight hours, one of the reasons he preferred to conduct business here during the day.

  “Do you have it?” he asked without preamble, sliding into the red leather seat across from Horster.

  Horster lifted a brow, his countenance somewhat unsteady. “Do you have what I need?”

  Leviathos stifled a smile and reached into his jacket pocket. He pulled out an envelope. Horster was a font of information for everything supernatural. He was also addicted to score, a drug made from ground unicorn horns. Easy enough to buy on this dimension, but the habit could get quite expensive. Lucky for Leviathos, he had access to the fortunes Mammon had amassed on Earth. Once Mammon had been captured by Taeg and his brothers, Leviathos had seen no harm in claiming the money as his own.

  Horster’s eyes glazed over and he reached for the envelope. Probably already imagining how much score he’d buy with this. Leviathos waited until his fingers almost reached the envelope before tugging it back. “Not so fast. Where’s my information?”

  “Here it is.” Sweat beaded on Horster’s forehead as he reached a shaky hand into his pocket and withdrew a small notebook. He ripped out a page and handed it to him.

  Examining it, Leviathos allowed himself a smile. Just what he needed.

  “You know, Taeg and Keegan are serious about tracking you down,” Horster said in an unsteady voice. “They’ve offered a serious amount of cash for your whereabouts.”

  Leviathos could practically see the dollar signs in Horster’s eyes. Leviathos infused a healthy dose of menace into his expression. “You’re not threatening me, are you?”

  Horster let out a little shiver and averted his eyes. “N-no. Just sayin’.”

  “Say so again, and you might meet with an unfortunate accident.”

  Horster nodded his flustered agreement.

  “It’s been a pleasure.” Leviathos handed the envelope to Horster and rose to leave.

  A pleasure indeed.

  §

  Demons. There were so many demons here. Blurry outlines. Glowing flesh. Red eyes. All watching her. Maya’s heart dropped to the pit of her stomach, dread choking off her air supply. She inched back on wooden legs, barely registering Taeg’s movements as he pushed away from the table and stood.

  “Maya, are you okay?”

  There was no way she could take this many. Not without her weapons. She was a good fighter, but she was no match for five—no, six—demons.

  “Maya,” Taeg said, wearing a concerned look on his face. “Are you okay?”

  “I... ” Her throat closed up on her.

  He approached her and placed his hands on her arms, backing her out of the dining room. “Are you okay?” he repeated, his voice hushed.

  She focused in on his face. “I... yes. It’s just... ” Now that she couldn’t see them anymore, she was kind of embarrassed by her reaction. It wasn’t like they had all charged her, or even looked at her in a threatening way. “I’m all right.”

  “It’s a lot to deal with. Believe me, I know. But no one in there will hurt you. I promise.” The honesty in his eyes convinced her she would be fine.

  Come on, Maya. Get your act together. They’re not going to eat you. She took a breath and firmed her resolve. “Okay. I’m good.”

  “All right.” Taeg examined her face. Whatever he saw there must have satisfied him. Turning, he enclosed one of her hands in his and led her back into the dining room.

  The expressions on everyone’s faces would have been comical if they hadn’t been demons. They all wore broad, exaggerated smiles, as if they were trying to be as non-threatening as possible. While Maya appreciated the effort, it wasn’t working. Not when half of them had red eyes.

  The demons she recognized as Taeg’s brothers were just as big, if not bigger, than Taeg. And the other two demons, one of whom she recognized as Bram, were massive, at least six-and-a-half-feet if she had to guess.

  Taeg kept a tight grip on her hand, lending her support while he guided her into the chair next to his and sat down. He motioned toward the head of the table. “Maya, I’d like you to meet my older brother, Keegan. He’s married to Brynn. The ugly guy next to him is my younger brother Ronin.”

  “Screw you,” Ronin said to him before he gave her a welcoming grin. But he didn’t sound offended and it was easy to see why. With a long, lean body, shaggy hair that hung to about chin-length, and features that resembled Taeg’s, there was no way anyone could ever consider him ugly.

  “And that’s Dagan, the baby of the family,” Taeg continued without missing a beat.

  “Baby, my ass,” Dagan muttered.

  Yeah, he definitely wasn’t. If she had to guess, he was in his mid-twenties, which made him close to her age. He had the most beauti
ful voice she’d ever heard on a man—deep and smooth as silk. The kind of voice that could talk a girl’s panties off without her realizing it. He also seemed to share Taeg’s proclivity for T-shirts with slogans. The one he wore now had the words Envy Me written on it. Guess he didn’t lack for ego.

  “Nice to meet you guys,” Maya offered. She raised her hand into a little wave before thinking better of it and dropping her hand limply to the side.

  Despite their similarities, the brothers had many differences. Not in their facial features or body shapes. No, those were quite similar. Even their eyes were identical—a hypnotic, swirling red. But while Taeg had a soft glow about him, Ronin’s flesh was almost opalescent, and Dagan’s was so eerily perfect he might have been constructed from marble. Keegan had a general haziness about his form that she couldn’t place.

  Maya turned to Taeg. “Are you full brothers?”

  He gave her a little smile, as if he found her question funny. “Half. We each have a different mother. What do you see when you look at us?”

  “I... ” The numerous sets of eyes on her made her feel self-conscious. “I don’t know.”

  Taeg raised a brow but he didn’t challenge her. He motioned to the two demons sitting on the far end of the table. “You met Bram earlier, and that’s Reiver.”

  Reiver’s form resembled Bram’s and Keegan’s—fuzzy, like something fought to rip out of his flesh.

  “Don’t worry,” Taeg continued, “they might look tough, but they’re as sweet and harmless as kittens.”

  Maya couldn’t help but laugh when the two giants mumbled protests. They seemed to take great offense at being called kittens.

  Taeg addressed everyone. “You’re all probably wondering why Maya is here.”

  “Yeah,” was Keegan’s brief response.

  “I already know.” Dagan crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair with a wide, satisfied smile.

  Taeg gave him a warning glance before continuing. “As I was lucky enough to discover yesterday, Maya is a magic-sensitive. She can see through glamours.”

  There was a moment of shocked silence as everyone turned back to Maya. She sucked in her breath and her stomach clenched. What if demons saw that ability as a threat? Would they let her leave here alive?