by Angie Fox
I fell. It was like falling in a dream, until I hit the ground hard. My head rang with the impact. Pain shot through my ankle, my shoulder. I lay on the rocks and dirt for a moment. What happened? I stared up at the rock walls surrounding me, illuminated by the bright moon and stars above. I’d fallen into a crack in the earth. Grass and weeds clung to the top, about five feet up. I wiped the dirt from my forehead, tried to stand. “Crimeny!” Pain seared my ankle.
I could hear water trickling. I turned around and saw the entrance to a cave. I knew what this was, a cave fissure. It had been a passageway until part of the cave collapsed and formed a ravine of sorts. Thank you, Discovery Channel.
Dimitri appeared at the top of the hole. Oh goody.
“Make yourself useful and get me out of here.”
“Don’t move, Lizzie.”
Yeah, right. I didn’t have the luxury of slowing down. I tested my ankle. It hurt like heck, but I had to keep moving.
“Listen to me,” he said, serious as death. “Look to your right. Turn slowly.”
I didn’t like that tone. I turned. The fissure ended about six or seven feet to my right, the rock forming a vee. And in that vee…Oh no. I saw movement. I squinted, my heart slamming in my throat. A big, black snake coiled in a nest of fallen leaves.
“Yaak!” I jerked back and it hissed, its white mouth illuminated in the moonlight. Cripes.
“Wait,” Dimitri said. “Wait until it calms down.”
That could take a while. I tried not to breathe too deeply.
“That’s it,” Dimitri said. “That’s it. Now back away.”
I gulped and took three steps back.
“Slow,” Dimitri cautioned. “Easy. That’s it. Easy. I’m lowering my shirt. Grab on to it and I’ll pull you out.”
I kept my eyes on the snake, its fangs jutting from its gaping mouth.
“That’s it. Okay. Reach behind you.”
My hand caught hold of the black T-shirt, still warm from his body.
The snake reared back, fangs out. Not good. “Fast! Fast! Fast!” I wound my fingers around the cotton of his shirt and scrambled up the rock wall, my injured ankle burning with the effort. Dimitri gripped my hand in his and pulled me to safety. I let him have his T-shirt back and stood there, catching my breath. Yikes. That was close.
Dimitri’s gaze slammed into me. I’d ticked him off, or at least worried the snot out of him. Good.
I shook the dirt and leaves out of my hair. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he enjoyed standing there shirtless. Of course he looked fabulous. His chest—well-muscled, but not overdone—gave him an air of understated sexiness. A swirl of black hair traced its way down his lower stomach and down toward his…oh my. I blame my overt interest at a time like this on either head trauma or years of reading Johanna Lindsey, probably both.
He saw me watching him and his lips quirked into a predatory grin. “We can do something about this attraction if you’d like.”
“Yeah, let’s make out. That’ll solve everything.” Besides, if he thought I wanted to touch him after what he’d pulled, he’d better think again.
I stared out at the trees surrounding us, trying to get my bearings. “I should have ducked into the cave,” I said. Then I might not have needed him at all.
“Bad idea. There are bats in there.” He pulled his shirt over his head. “Three of them have rabies. Guess which three you would have found?”
My ankle throbbed. I leaned against a tree for a second. I planted my hands on my knees and blew out a long breath. “Why?” I asked, not even expecting an answer anymore.
“Simple. You’re a demon slayer. That means you’re attracted to danger, problems, things that need to be fixed.”
Oh, I had a problem all right. He was standing right in front of me.
“Think of it as a slayer skill,” he said, “a very valuable one. You need to be able to sense evil. Your powers give you an understanding of the nature of whatever it is you need to face. Now, if you were trained properly, you would have been able to make your way back to the coven. And I would have let you go. But, sadly, you are untrained. Uneducated. Underdeveloped. When you tried to focus on finding your way back, instead you began sensing every potential danger and running right for it, with no distinction between the supernatural and a cottonmouth snake.”
Boy, he sure knew how to make a girl feel good. “So you’re saying my supernatural compass is broken?”
He considered the question. “Not broken. Untrained. Weak. Immature.”
“Got it.”
“Coarse. Unpolished.”
“Zip it, Obi-Wan.”
He raised a brow. “I can train you, strengthen your powers. With my help, you can use this ability to your advantage. So that you can sense evil, even before it closes in on you or those you care about.”
Very tempting. I gritted my teeth. So if I’d known my magic from a hole in the ground, I might have even prevented whatever had happened tonight. Talk about a guilt trip.
Dimitri dangled one heck of a carrot. Maybe I would take him up on his offer to train me. But first I had to get back to the coven. Pirate was in trouble. I didn’t need the powers of a demon slayer to know that. Please don’t do anything brave, doggy. “Get me back there.”
He cracked a smile. “Not until we’re done here.”
“Oh, we’re done.” He could play hide-and-seek in the woods all he wanted. I had more important things to do.
He was having none of it. “I’ll tell you about Vald.”
“Yes, you will. Later. Now we find my dog.” He was stalling me. I knew it. I’d seen it at naptime at Happy Hands. I recognized the signs.
I planted my hands on my hips, wishing I had a clue which way to head. Which sparked an idea…
Dimitri needed me safe. I had no idea why he cared so much. At the moment, it didn’t matter. That was my bargaining chip. And I’d use it on him like I used Goldfish crackers on my three-year-old preschoolers.
“Hey,” I said, tugging at his black shirt, right above a bulging bicep. “If you don’t take me back to the coven right now, I’m going to jump back in with the snake.”
He seemed almost amused. “It left.”
“What?” I reached out with my mind. Blast. He was right. Worse, I didn’t even have a desire to jump into the hole, which meant even the rabid bats had wandered off. Just my luck.
I cleared my mind, focused my thoughts. I could feel danger to my left, fifty yards. I limped as fast as I could in that direction, hoping my ankle would loosen up. Or fall off.
His humor faded. “Where are you going?”
“Over here,” I huffed, pain slicing through my foot.
Whatever I find, please don’t let it be too horrible. How far was I willing to go?
“What are you trying to pull?” Dimitri’s voice betraying a hint of concern. “Okay. Hold it. Lizzie!”
But still, he let me hobble closer to…it. Arrogant jerk—why didn’t he stop me? I didn’t have time to be fighting everything in the woods. I struggled to see something, anything in the darkness ahead. It was no use. I couldn’t see more than four or five feet in front of my face.
Still, I hurried as fast as my ankle would allow. I had no idea what I’d find. An angry bear? Axe murderer? Deer stampede? I supposed it didn’t matter. Whatever it was, I headed right for it.
“Wait!” Dimitri blocked me. “Don’t.”
I lifted a brow.
He refused to back down.
“Take me back or I’m never speaking to you again.” I practically spit venom myself. He looked as angry as I felt. “I don’t even need to go in. You can go. But we need to head back now.” I stared him down. “Do what I say or whatever it is you want from me, you won’t get it. I promise you that.”
He stood there, indignant.
“You wanna go again?” I asked. “I sense something nasty back behind that tree over there.”
A muscle twitched in his neck. “Fine.” He gripped
my shoulders, too tightly. “I’ll take you to the coven. But you’re not going to like what you see.”
Chapter Eight
It looked like someone had detonated a bomb inside the Red Skull biker bar. Crimson smoke poured from the rickety two-story structure. I felt a wave of pain for the witches, for how scared they must have been when the coven had come under attack, for what they had undoubtedly lost.
I covered my mouth with my hand, as if I could somehow block the acrid sulfur burning down my throat with every breath. Dimitri squeezed my shoulder. It felt good to have him there. I wouldn’t have wanted to be alone at that moment. The forest around the house had fallen silent—not a cricket dared to chirp. The air felt heavy, foreboding.
A strange vapor curled from the edges of the Employees Only door at the back. It hissed from every window frame and—I gasped—it billowed from the open window of Frieda’s second-floor room. It was eerily similar to the mist I’d seen filtering out of the Yardsaver shed earlier tonight, when Grandma had communed with the demon Vald.
I checked out the storage shed and saw it had melted at the edges. A trail of charred grass and cooked asphalt led from the shed to the bar. My heart skipped a beat. “Holy Hoodoo.”
Dimitri’s shoulder brushed mine. “I wouldn’t call it holy.”
Pirate was nowhere in sight.
Every idiot demon slayer instinct I had ordered me—no, screamed at me—to race into the house and face whatever lurked inside. Dimitri had been right about one thing. I was enthralled with anything and everything that could snap my limbs or chop my head off.
As if he could sense my fear, Dimitri leaned closer. “Having second thoughts?” he asked, his voice edged with concern.
Um, yeah. I watched as shimmers of light danced in the upstairs windows. How about third, fourth and fifth thoughts? At least Dimitri was starting to treat me more like an ally than a ward to be protected.
Maybe I was getting through to him. I could use a partner right about now. A low moan sounded from somewhere inside the house, and I fought the urge to run far, far away. If I had this much trouble even looking at the house—imagine how Pirate must be feeling if he was still inside. Hang on, little guy.
Now that he wasn’t trying to hold me back, Dimitri could turn out to be my ace in the hole. “Let’s,” I choked. Embarrassed, I cleared my throat to make it work right. “Let’s circle around front to see if we can learn anything.”
We ventured as far as the trees and shrubs would hide us. A violet haze enveloped the street out front. The precise line of bikes we’d seen on the way inside tonight lay scattered like matchbox toys. I took heart that about half were missing. At least some of the witches had gotten away. Dimitri’s SUV lay on its side with the windows smashed in. It was impossible to know what hit it, but if I didn’t know better, my first guess would have been Godzilla.
I didn’t see the bike with the sidecar. I hoped Bob had made it out okay. I wished I knew whether Pirate had gone with him. One thing was certain. Grandma would not have left the bar with any of her coven members still inside. That meant two things. Number one, we had to check this place out whether we wanted to or not. And number two, I had a confession to make.
Dimitri stood beside me, dark and strong. This wasn’t going to be easy. I blew out a breath and hoped I wasn’t about to torpedo our fledgling truce. “I have to tell you,” I said, practically wincing. “I was supposed to receive the coven’s protection tonight, but it didn’t happen.”
Dimitri stiffened, anger pouring from him in waves. Good going, Lizzie.
“I thought they were smarter than this,” he hissed. “If you were a member of our clan, we would have conducted a protection ceremony as the first order of business. They have no right to have a slayer in their ranks if they can’t defend what’s theirs.”
Theirs? Hello, twenty-first century calling. Oh who was I kidding? I had bigger things to worry about. I’d set off his protection vibe. Big mistake. “It wasn’t their fault,” I said, thinking of the botched ceremony in the basement. “It was mine. When it came down to it, I just couldn’t drink that nasty potion. Look, I’ll explain it all later. The point is—”
“The point is we’re closing in on a demon infestation and you don’t have the proper knowledge, training or security.” He loomed over me until I had to crane my neck to see his stormy expression. “You refused your own grandmother’s protection. And now you’ve shunned my efforts to spirit you away from this hellhole until we pursue a dog that may or may not even be inside.”
The way he said the word dog ticked me off. I opened my mouth to tell him and winced as screeches echoed from the house, like metal rubbing glass.
“We gotta do this,” I told him. I didn’t know what was happening in there, but it wasn’t good. The sooner we snuck in, the sooner we could run like heck.
He drew in a hard breath. “We’ll go in there,” he said, his gaze trickling through me, “if you accept my protection.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. Dimitri wanted something from me. He hadn’t told me what, which in my mind meant it was probably something I didn’t want to give. It made me nervous to think of him having power over me.
“No. Let’s go.” I was doing fine on my own, wasn’t I? Eek. I didn’t want to think about it.
“Lizzie,” he prodded. “You know it’s the right thing to do.”
Oh, I knew. I sighed, torn between the urge to get this over with and the knowledge that he was right. I’d refused to drink the witches’ protection potion. I didn’t want to make the same mistake again. I clenched my jaw until it throbbed. Grandma said I shouldn’t trust him. But I needed him. And without the protection of the witches, I was probably crazy to even think about being as close as we were to whatever lurked inside that house. There was bravery, there was independence…and then there was pure stupidity. I didn’t need to go into this half-cocked. And if Dimitri could help me prepare, well, I had to accept that gift.
“Fine.”
He tried to hide his pleasure, but I could tell he was as happy as if I’d told him he could keep me in a lock-box and throw away the key. I’d let him enjoy his little victory.
“For now,” I added, wishing I could scrub the crooked smile off his face.
Warning bells sounded in the back of my mind. He’s too happy. Of course those were the same warning bells that told me not to drink Grandma’s protective potion. I buried my concerns. I had to, or we weren’t going to get anything done here. “How long will it take?”
He reached into his pocket and withdrew a small, velvet pouch. He tipped it into his palm and out slid an emerald the size of a grape. I whistled despite myself. It was shaped like a teardrop and glowed from the inside out, like it had its own energy, which of course was impossible—like everything else that had happened.
“This is an ancient stone from the Helios clan. My clan. A proud and ancient order of griffins from the island Santorini. I will offer it,” he said. “You will accept it.”
No problem.
“And my protection.”
He had to throw that in.
“With free will,” Dimitri added.
Ah, so that was the key. Okay. I was willing. For now. “Let’s get this over with,” I told him, eyeing the blue and red orbs cascading from the bar’s rooftop vents.
Dimitri held his hand under mine. His callous fingers sent a rough heat spiraling through my veins as he placed the gem in the center of my palm. It felt toasty, whether that was from his pocket or from something else. I felt its energy flow through me like a soft touch. “I offer you the protection of the Helios clan, freely given, freely taken.”
A bronze-colored chain, as thin as a spider’s thread, snaked from the tip of the teardrop. “Um,” I began. The unexpected intimacy of the moment caught me off guard. I wasn’t quite sure how to proceed.
“I accept.” I paused for a heartbeat. “Freely,” I added, fighting my reluctance.
It must have been good en
ough because the emerald glowed warm in my palm. My hand shook as the chain wrapped itself around my wrist. I resisted the urge to pull it away, to break the hair-thin band.
“Relax.” Dimitri’s touch reassured me as he pulled me farther into the cover of the woods. A breeze caressed my shoulders as I leaned back against the trunk of an old walnut tree. His emerald felt heavy on my wrist. It was strange, but I did feel closer to Dimitri, connected somehow. He narrowed the space between us. Was he going to seal the deal with a kiss? It occurred to me that I should keep my distance. He’d already bound me to him with the emerald. I didn’t need any more complications, but I couldn’t quite make myself walk away.
I should have been afraid of what would happen next. Instead, I found myself anticipating it. Dimitri was the kind of man who made women want to touch him. Too bad I wasn’t immune. I knew Dimitri wasn’t entirely human. And I wasn’t sure I trusted him. But we did want a lot of the same things. And I had to admit he fascinated me.
Dimitri hitched one leg against the tree and drew a long bronze knife from a holster in his boot. The thing was ancient, with strange carvings and green gemstones wrapped around the hilt. The polished blade gleamed razor sharp. There’d better not be blood involved in this ceremony.
Dimitri ran his thumb along the blade of the knife. “Remember this favor, Lizzie.”
Somehow, I didn’t think he’d let me forget. Frieda was right. It seemed Dimitri’s help did come with a price tag attached.
“Let’s not forget you owe me too,” I told him. If he hadn’t kidnapped me, I would have been able to get Pirate out on my own, before the house started smoking from every nook and cranny. I was about to get into that when I felt my wrist go disturbingly heavy.
“What the—?” I looked down. The wisp of a bracelet had thickened into a manacle. Of all the things I might have expected to happen tonight, I hadn’t even dreamed of this.
Mother fudrucker!
I watched in horror as thick chains snaked from the cuff around my wrist. They slithered down my leg and captured my ankles. Fear slammed into me. “What is this?” I clutched at Dimitri. He stepped back, empty of emotion.