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

by Rosalie Lario

  Ronin didn’t have to ask what Keegan meant by that. “I came across the research on Excalibur months ago, but I discounted it because Merlin’s invisibility spell was rumored to be so powerful that it couldn’t be undone.”

  “If Taeg’s intriguing little find can see through glamours, then that doesn’t matter,” Keegan said.

  “Yeah.” Lucky break. In fact, given the circumstances, Ronin couldn’t fault Taeg for holding her against her will.

  “What are the risks?” Keegan asked.

  He thought hard about that one. “I can’t think of any, other than the possibility of wasting our time.”

  “Yeah, but let’s face it.” Dagan’s voice sounded behind them as he strolled out to join them on the balcony. “We don’t have any better ideas anyway.”

  “That’s true,” Ronin replied. The Book of the Dead was locked up somewhere safe, but that wasn’t good enough. Leviathos was resourceful. Even if it was almost impossible for him to get his hands on it, he’d never stop trying.

  “He’s going to fall for her,” Dagan commented. It didn’t take too much thinking to figure out he meant Taeg and Maya.

  “Good,” Keegan said. “He could use something else to focus on. I want to find Leviathos more than anyone, believe me, but his determination borders on obsession. It’s not healthy.”

  “He feels guilty,” Ronin told him. “He thinks he betrayed you when he refused to help you save Brynn after the Council ordered her execution. I don’t know if he’ll ever forgive himself for that.”

  Keegan grimaced. “Yeah, that’s what worries me.”

  They stood in silence, looking out onto the cityscape.

  “Damn Taeg,” Dagan finally said. “He’s a lucky bastard.”

  Ronin thought about Maya’s lush curves and her exotic features. Yup, Dagan had it right there.

  “I’m gonna go check on Brynn,” Keegan said. “She’s feeling sick again.”

  Ronin couldn’t help but feel a twinge of envy. Keegan was happily married, with a baby on the way. Taeg was occupied with Maya. Dagan had already screwed half the chicks in the city, and was on a mission to get the other half. He was living life just the way he liked it. But for him... life felt a little empty. He wanted... Shit. He didn’t know what he wanted. But he did know one thing: marriage and babies weren’t in the cards for him. Not after what he’d lived through. He knew how easily loved ones could be ripped away, like Mammon had taken him from his first family. And he could never risk loving a woman when he’d have to live with the fear of losing her. No, wasn’t meant to be.

  “You’re sighing like a chick, dude.” Dagan raised his brows. “What’s up?”

  “Nothing.” Because he couldn’t say what he truly felt. There were only so many feelings brothers could share.

  §

  Well, damn. Twenty-four hours after being kidnapped by a demon and here she was, tied to the bed again. At least Taeg had tied her in a sitting position this time. He’d also turned on the television and left a remote within reach. After he’d let her spar with him and allowed her to land a few hits. She didn’t hold any illusions about that one.

  Maya let out a deep sigh. Was she totally insane, letting the demon tie her to the bed again? Not that “letting” was the right word, since Taeg was far stronger than her and wouldn’t take no for an answer.

  Crazy enough, she sort of understood why he was doing this. He’d taken a big risk bringing her to his brother’s apartment, and he wanted to make sure they’d be safe, even if she chose not to help them. Made sense since he knew she loathed demons.

  What would he say if she told him she had killed more than a handful of demons over the years? She’d gotten lucky, she now knew. Demons were strong. Fast. The only thing she’d had on her side was the element of surprise and a deep sense of vengeance that allowed her to switch her emotions off during a fight.

  For the first time since meeting Taeg, she allowed that sliver of doubt buried deep in her mind to rise to the surface. Those demons she had destroyed, none of them had ever done anything to her. She’d killed them simply because of what they were. Because of her belief that they were evil, that they would hurt others if she didn’t destroy them. But if demons weren’t all evil, as Taeg and Brynn would have her think, did that mean she might have taken innocent lives?

  Was she no better than those demons who had brutally murdered her family?

  “No.” Her breath came out in large gasps, and somewhere in the dim recesses of her mind, she recognized she was on the verge of hyperventilating. She concentrated on taking slow, even breaths.

  No. She wasn’t like those monsters. She wasn’t evil.

  She wasn’t.

  By the time she heard the footsteps outside the bedroom, signaling Taeg’s return, Maya had managed to calm herself down. Right now she had to focus on herself, and what she was going to do about Brynn. And Taeg.

  While she hadn’t been able to save her own family, she might actually have a chance at helping Brynn and the baby. What kind of person would she be if she walked away from that?

  Taeg entered the room with a suitcase she recognized as hers.

  “I didn’t hear you open the front door,” she said. “I didn’t hear you leave either, for that matter. How do you do that?”

  He smiled, though it lacked its characteristic cockiness. “I have my ways.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I got a call from a contact of mine,” he replied with a frown. “He’s got some information that may be helpful in locating the sword. I need to go meet with him.”

  “Tonight?”

  He nodded.

  “Where are you going?”

  “To a bar not far from here.” He set down her suitcase next to the bed.

  Well, she wasn’t about to stay behind. Besides, if there was a chance she was going to help him, she wanted to see more of his world. “I want to go, too.”

  That earned her a husky laugh. “I don’t think so.”

  “Why not? You can’t expect me to stay tied to this bed all night.”

  He gave her a smoldering look that was much more like him. “Sounds good to me.”

  “Come on,” she pressed. “You want me to help you. So let me come with you.”

  Taeg’s expression grew serious. “Does that mean you’re agreeing to help?”

  “I’m thinking about it,” she answered honestly.

  He stared at her for a long moment. Was he waiting for her to change her mind about wanting to go along? She wasn’t going to. Finally he let out a sigh and strode over to sit on the bed next to her. “Maya, the place I’m going is a bar that caters to Otherworlders. I don’t think you can handle that.”

  “Otherworlders?” Her mental warning system went on red alert. “What’s that?”

  He rubbed his chin. “Tell me what you think you know about demons.”

  “I... ” She stiffened her spine. “Demons are evil creatures escaped from Hell, like it says in the Bible. At least... that’s what I thought.”

  “Yeah, I had a feeling.” He took hold of one of her hands and looked her in the eyes. “Did you notice that me and my brothers are different from each other?”

  She gave him a slow nod. “Yes. I did find it strange. I mean, I know you have different mothers, but you share the same demon father, right?”

  “Yes.” He took a deep breath. “This may come as a shock to you, but not every non-human you see is a demon.”

  “What?” Maya lurched forward so fast her wrists tugged against the binds, jerking her back a few inches. “What do you mean?”

  “Demons aren’t those evil beings from Hell that you read about in your Bible. We’re actually a race from a different dimension.”

  “Different dimension,” she echoed hollowly, barely hearing the sound of her own voice over the sharp ringing in her ears. “What do you mean?”

  “There are many dimensions, each inhabited by separate races of beings,” he continued, with more urgenc
y this time. “Here on Earth, we refer to them as the Otherworlds. Most humans don’t know this, but there’s a way to travel between the dimensions. A portal. Many, in fact. They’re policed by the Elden Council—a council of beings composed of different races.”

  “A council.”

  “It’s how we came to Earth.”

  Maya stared at his unflinching face. A wellspring of emotion erupted within her, working its way up her throat. It came out as a laugh.

  “I’m not joking.”

  She cut off abruptly. “You’re telling me demons are another race of beings, one of many that walk around here on Earth?”

  He nodded. “There’s some reality to pretty much every one of your myths. Vampires, werewolves—they all exist.”

  “Vampires and werewolves.” Oh God, this was like her worst nightmare come to life.

  “Yes. Wolf-shifters to be more exact, but remember, they’re not all evil creatures. Like humans, there are good ones and bad ones.” Taeg reached out and gently squeezed her arm, as if he were trying to lend her his strength, to convince her he was telling the truth.

  This was unbelievable.

  “Untie me.”

  He lifted a brow but did as she asked.

  Maya shrugged away from his grasp and bounded off the bed. She rubbed her wrists while she paced the room, trying to absorb what he’d told her. She turned back to where he sat, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. “Okay, I’ll bite. If you’re only half-demon, what’s the other half? Based on what you’ve told me, I’m guessing it’s not human.”

  “You’d guess right. My mother came from a world called Faelan. She was an air sylph.”

  She gave him a disbelieving look. “A faerie?”

  Taeg winced at her use of the word. “Yeah, I guess you could say that.”

  “You said you have the ability to compel others. To charm, I think you called it.”

  “Yup.”

  “Oh shit,” she whispered. She’d studied enough mythology as an archaeology major to know that many cultures had stories of faeries and their ability to compel others to do their will. “I need to sit down.”

  Maya wobbled toward the bed on rubbery legs and slumped down next to Taeg. All the demons she had seen over the years—pale or colored flesh, grotesque features, pointed ears—a good portion of those were bound to be something other than demon. Which meant...

  “Oh God.”

  “I know it’s a lot to take in.” Taeg leaned toward her and placed his hand on her back, rubbing it much the way a parent would when consoling a crying child.

  This was too much. And if this was true, it meant all her years of research, of studying the Bible and trying to find a way to banish demons back to Hell, they were all for nothing. She couldn’t think about that right now. She simply couldn’t.

  “Your brothers? What are they?”

  He took a deep breath. “Keegan’s mother was a dragon-shifter.”

  She gulped. “Dragon?”

  “Dagan’s mom was a siren. Legged cousin to the mermaid. They can breathe underwater but don’t grow tails.”

  “Okay... what about Ronin?”

  “Ronin?” He let out a husky laugh. “Ronin’s an angel.”

  She blinked at him.

  “And before you say anything, no, I’m not referring to an angel from Heaven. They’re another species from my world, Infernum. They can heal and have the ability to calm others with their presence. I guess you can say they’re the equivalent of hippies in my dimension. Thankfully, Ronin is half-demon, so he’s not too big a pansy-ass.”

  Maya stared down at her clasped hands. Focus, just focus. “The other two men who were at the apartment—Bram and Reiver?”

  “Panther shifters.”

  “Shifters.” Oh Jesus. That’s why Keegan, Bram, and Reiver all looked like something fought to crawl out of their flesh—they were shifters. “This bar you’re going to, it will have all these kinds of beings?”

  “Yes.”

  Okay. She’d dealt with some pretty bizarre things before. She could handle this.

  “What should I wear?” Her voice came out far more even than she could have imagined.

  Taeg cocked a brow, but he didn’t try to argue with her. “Upscale casual. You should be able to find something among the clothes I brought you.”

  Maya concentrated on acting like she had her shit together. “All right, I’ll be ready in twenty minutes.”

  Beside her, Taeg let out a defeated sigh. “Good times.”

  §

  It took far less time for her to get ready than Taeg would’ve thought, especially considering how good she looked. But then, his tempting little Maya would look good wrapped in a bedsheet. Especially with nothing else on.

  Yeah, his cock liked this train of thought. She might not appreciate him walking around with a raging hard-on, though, so he needed to cool it.

  “You look good,” he told her.

  “Did you purposely pick my skimpiest outfits?” She cast a wry glance down at her body, clad in skintight black jeans and a red halter top that put her ample cleavage on display and billowed in loose layers below.

  Fuck yeah, he had. Had she noticed her pajamas yet? He’d bypassed all the respectable pieces and gone straight for the slinky lingerie. Who knew? Maybe he’d get to see her in them.

  Never hurt to be optimistic.

  Taeg grinned at her. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “I’m sure you don’t.” The corners of her mouth ticked upward and she peered down at her boots. “I feel naked without my daggers.”

  “Here.” Taeg strode over to the wooden coffee table and lifted the top to reveal a hidden compartment. He retrieved the daggers Maya had used to attack him back in the alley and held them out to her, hilts first.

  Her mouth dropped open. “You’re going to give them back to me?”

  “If there’s a chance we’re going to work together, we have to learn to trust each other.” And after the glimpse he’d gotten of what she’d been through as a kid, if it would make her feel safer, he was all for it.

  When she continued to stare at the daggers with wide eyes, he said, “Just promise you won’t use them on me.”

  She looked at them but didn’t reply, as if she actually debated stabbing him in the heart. But when she took them she slid them into their sheaths inside her boots without a word.

  “Better?” he asked.

  “It’ll do. I usually have an iron dagger I strap to my stomach when I go out, but I left that one at home yesterday.”

  She had to be kidding. “Where did you leave it?”

  Maya frowned. “Beneath my bed.”

  “I’ll go get it.”

  “You’ll have time to do that?”

  “Sure. Be right back.”

  He opened up a fae path, the air shimmering in front of him. In the span of a heartbeat, he was at her apartment. Maya was no doubt shocked as hell, but he figured she’d learn about his ability to flash soon enough. Might as well show her now.

  He grabbed the dagger and a holster from under her bed, then flashed back to his place.

  She stood by the coffee table, right where he’d left her. Her mouth hung open in shock. “What was that?”

  “I forgot to mention it,” he said casually. “The fae can travel paths to get from one spot to another in an instant. It’s called flashing. Only works within the boundaries of the dimension I’m in, though.”

  She plopped down onto the coffee table, her eyes glazed over as if she was stunned. “What else can you do that you haven’t told me about?”

  This was almost kind of fun. “I can dissipate into air form.”

  “Show me.”

  “I’d love to”—he gave her a wry smile—“but I can’t take the clothes with me, so unless you’d care to see me in all my naked glory—”

  “Let’s skip that one.” Standing now, she took the dagger and holster from him, and with shaky hands lifted her shir
t far enough to strap them around her waist.

  Taeg swallowed hard. He turned away before Maya could tell how much he liked getting a glimpse of her softly rounded, utterly feminine belly. Damn, she was like a walking wet dream.

  “Ready,” she said, and tossed on a light jacket he’d stuffed into her suitcase. “Are we going to flash to this bar?”

  He wished. “No, I can’t bring people with me. Just objects.”

  “Guess we’ll have to get there the old-fashioned way, huh?”

  Taeg chuckled and grabbed the keys. They left the apartment and walked downstairs. He couldn’t help but like that she followed him willingly. Not even a hint that she thought to escape. Maybe she was beginning to trust him after all.

  He hoped so, because if she tried anything funny on the way to or at the bar, he’d have to handle it. Now that he had her, he wasn’t about to let her go. Not when she could lead him to the sword.

  “Once we get to the bar, stay by my side,” he told Maya on the steps of the building.

  “Got it,” she replied with a nod.

  “One more thing.” He looked pointedly at the spot where she’d hidden her dagger under her blouse. “Please, please, try not to stab anyone.”

  She must have found that funny, because she let out a silky laugh that reverberated all the way down to his bones. “I’ll do my best.”

  Chapter Nine

  What a perfect fall night in the city. Wearing her black denim jacket, Maya barely felt the light breeze that blew through the street, fluttering stray scraps of paper. They took the steps down, but instead of heading toward the car, Taeg turned in the opposite direction. For a moment, she stood still and admired the way his jeans hugged his perfect ass. Delicious. But then she realized he’d kept going, leaving her behind.

  She hurried to catch up with him. “We’re walking?”

  He flashed his straight, white teeth at her. “Eros is only a few blocks away.”

  “Oh, that close, huh?” They passed a Chinese restaurant and a pizzeria whose combined aromas made her mouth water.

  “Listen,” Taeg said in a low tone, “when we get there, don’t stare too much. I don’t want anyone to know you can see through glamours.”