The four of us dispatched all twelve Hathas while Quinten watched our backs for more that could be approaching. Ben and Luke met Nick and I in the middle of the pile of corpses. My sensors went haywire.
“Lieutenant,” Quinten shouted, pointing to the tops of the buildings sandwiching the alley.
My heart stopped.
Demons snarled from the rooftops, surrounding our scouting party. There had to be fifty of them at least, a mix of breeds. I spied Yathuri with their blood-red eyes trained on us, their claws jutting from their hands, Efrits with their elongated snouts openly hissing, displaying rows of gleaming fangs, and more Hathas. I heard the flapping of leathery wings and glanced skyward. The rising dark was obscured by the blackened bodies of Ahures.
Five against more than fifty. Even for a full squad, those would be crappy odds. I had to get my men out of there.
“Move,” I ordered.
The nightmare poured over the rooftops and onto level ground, surrounding our hunting party. We formed a circle with our backs to each other. There were too many to take down with hand-to-hand combat. I nodded at Quinten and the rest of my men switched to their assault rifles. We had to risk the close confines. My men opened fire.
I yanked my .45 out and began firing rounds. All thoughts of Cade, the Coven, and the rest of my wretched life emptied with every kicking reverberation of my side-arm.
The Ahures dive-bombed our little party with talons extended. They liked to play with their prey and would snatch their victim up, fly them a hundred feet or so in the air, before dropping them to their death. Sick fuckers liked their meals as liquid pulp. I dropped my shoulders as one missed me by a few inches.
“Shit!” Nick screamed, and I heard him go down. Was he dead? I glanced back and saw him holding his shoulder. Not dead, but the Ahure’s talons hurt like hell. The rest of us surrounded him as the demons caught scent of fresh human blood. Their actions became frenzied. I sensed their ever-present hunger. They thirsted for human blood the way we craved water.
Demon carcasses piled up around us, making movement difficult. If we stayed put, we would become this horde’s next meal.
“We need to leave the alley,” I bit out, striking my blade against a Yathuri’s throat when a bullet failed to stop its advance.
“Christ, Lieutenant, there’s nowhere to go, and we’re surrounded. How the hell do you want us to accomplish that?” Ben huffed out, protesting as he wrestled with a Hatha.
“If we can remove ourselves from the confines of the alley, we can toss a few grenades to clear out the rest,” I ordered, taking a page out of my father’s book. “Quinten, Luke, I need you to push our advantage forward to the street. Ben, grab Nick. I’ll bring up the rear. We need to move, now.” I commanded.
“Let’s do this,” golden boy Luke affirmed.
As a unit, we fought. Their green serpentine blood caked our features as we forced a demon retreat. A bullet caught an Ahure between the eyes, and its head exploded. Only fifteen feet until we reached the street.
We jostled forward, claws swiped and clutched toward me.
“Duck!” Quinten boomed.
Heat blasted me as a fireball careened past my head and exploded up against the building’s side. The flames snagged a few Hatha in the mix. Their dying screeches pierced my ears. It seemed a Feronte had joined the fray.
Oh, joy!
Our party pressed forward, firing at every demon in sight, until we emerged on the open street.
“Watch for friendlies.” I heard an all too familiar voice behind our company. We were no longer on our own.
By the gods this was bad!
“What the devil are you doing out here?” I swiveled my head from the melee long enough to spy Cade, with his platoon of soldiers flanking his sides. Some of his men had already engaged with the enemy and leaped into combat.
“Get your balls out of their vise grip and help us out,” I snapped. Man could take his rage and suck it up like a good little soldier.
Fury emanated from his solid frame as he engaged with a Yathuri. The look in his eyes told me in all of two seconds that there would be hell to pay for this jaunt. I had given him and the Council the proverbial finger. Would he cast me out and take me before the Council? A part of me hoped he would. Then I would at least be shod of him and good riddance.
I directed my gaze back to the two Ferontes who approached.
With no time left to consider the consequences, I jumped with my long blade, bringing the blade against the Feronte’s neck, and watched its head tumble to the ground. The second Feronte died before it could unleash a screech in my direction.
With the added help from Cade’s men, the remaining demons were exterminated with ease. Hands grappled me and yanked me from behind. Cade hauled me from the victory we had achieved here.
“You bitch.” He snarled, shoving me toward the building. Any opportunities for a civilized conversation evaporated the moment he put his hands on me.
Sheathing my blade, I fought like a cat about to be dunked in a bucket full of water, focusing all my wrath, all my indignity on him. How could he think he could bully me like this, and in front of our squads? It didn’t matter that I had been relieved of command, my men still respected me. I had been needed in this fight. I sucker-punched him with a right uppercut, and he responded in kind. It was no wonder I would never willingly submit my body to him. His left fist clipped my jaw, not really intending to hurt me, just stun me. It pissed me off more. I was not known for being level-headed, but his blatant mockery of my skills and feinting an actual rebuttal to my assault was like tossing a lit match on a powder keg. Any common sense in my body fled, and I went for his jugular. I pounded on his chest and beat him back.
If he was surprised by the brutality of my assault, his gaze never faltered. His only aim was to secure the prize he’d won by order of the Council. I wanted a knock-down, drag-out fight, until the last one was still standing, and he gave me the neutered version.
Sadistic fucker.
I lunged forward with a kick that had brought down hulking demon brutes. Confidence bloomed that this parry would bring the smug bastard to his knees.
It did.
Except, then Cade withdrew from his pocket a small black device, no more than three inches long, and jabbed it against my exposed flesh through a tear in my pants. Volts of electricity sizzled and flashed throughout my body. It felt like thousands of nails being jammed into every inch of my body. I could focus on nothing but the searing, mind-numbing agony. The demon carcasses diminished, and I viewed the scene before me in a haze. Jaw clenched, I struggled against the anguish. My hands balled into fists as I collapsed on the ground.
Son of a bitch had Tasered me.
While my body trembled from the remaining electricity sizzling in my system, he hoisted me up, tossing me over his shoulder. His lengthy strides removed me from my men. And I could do nothing but clasp him more firmly as he spirited me away.
Chapter Five
Prison cells at the Compound were not much different than regular rooms. The only structural differences were the bars across the door and the dirt floor, but other than that, they were rather cozy. The dank walls held the stench of the Thames below, never quite losing that musty, stale scent.
It had been twelve hours since Cade and my father had locked me in here. Twelve hours since I had last spied my squad leaders as they were led away in handcuffs. Twelve hours for the Council to decide my fate, yet again.
Being trapped was worse in my mind than a sentence to the Desert. At least in the Desert, a body withstood a chance, slim as it might be, for survival. In here, locked in, all a person could do was await their fate, instead of fighting to change it.
I licked my parched lips for what must be the hundredth time. They had long since cracked, and in the corner I tasted dried blood. I had bit the inside of my lip during the worst of the electrically induced tremors.
I had had no visitors, no food, no water, no bloody warmth in
this hovel since Cade had dumped my body here. One would think that they would at least give a prisoner a blanket or a fire. Although, I think they did that on purpose. This way, when a person went before the Counci, they were willing to agree to anything as long as they did not have to journey back to their cell.
Footsteps stomped against stone, and I knew my time in this place was finished. Where would the Council send me? To Cade or the Desert?
My prison bars swung inward, and Cade’s men surrounded me. No Cade. So the sadistic bastard didn’t have the balls to face me himself. He sent ten armed men to escort me to the Council, I presumed, but couldn’t be bothered with me himself. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy that he thought it would take that many men to keep little me in line. As for Cade, that man would rue today’s transgressions, make no mistake. I would never allow him anywhere near my body, at least not willingly. The Council might disagree on that matter.
Walking to a Council hearing with armed guards was never a good sign. If this was how it would be? Then my actions, regardless that they were made for the greater good of the Compound, had made me an enemy of the Council.
Figures. Bloody hell, if I survived this one intact it would be a wonder.
“Move.” Rick Sloan nudged me forward at gun point. If my fate didn’t dangle precariously over the edge of no return, I would show this idiot how we did things in my squad. He jabbed me again. Either I moved or the man would put a crater in my back and end my apparent futile rebellion. How the hell had my life barreled so far out of hand? I was not attempting to start a revolution. I just wanted to live on my terms, not the Council’s.
A third, firmer nudge against my already bruised ribs and I picked up my feet.
Better to get the bloody inquisition over with than stoke the Council’s ire even more than I had already. Would they make an example out of me, punish me more fiercely than most to serve as a warning to the rest of what happened when a person resisted their system? I blinked as the light in the hallway battered my gaze. We marched onward through the familiar twists and turns of the underground Compound, past the half-expectant faces of residents who waited with bated breath to see what the general’s disobedient offspring would conspire to do next. I took none of it in. I let their rapt gazes fall upon me like leaves in a stern wind.
The soldiers led me to the Council chambers. The guards standing watch opened the double steel doors at my approach.
“Alana Devereaux, Your Grace.” One of the guards announced me at the threshold of the chamber.
“Come forward,” Amelia demanded the silk of her voice encased in steel.
Head held high, I ambled into the chamber. The door closed with a resounding thud behind me.
“Ah yes, Miss Devereaux, we meet again so soon. Perhaps the last time you were here you misunderstood the Council’s directive.”
“No, ma’am.”
“Ah, so then you intentionally defied the Council and committed more than four acts of treason against your brethren.”
I sucked in a swift breath. Treason. When had defying orders become treason? Would they imprison me for life, using me solely for breeding purposes, or exile me? I wondered why I had spent so much time in a cell when it seemed my fate and my acts had already been judged. This meeting appeared to be more of a formality, a way to assuage the masses the Council presided over to convince them that the stringent dictatorship of laws was just.
“No, not intentionally.” I wanted to scream at them, rail against them for the unfairness of it all.
“So you admit you defied the Council.” By the goddess. The Coven Mother clearly wanted to convict me. Why? Because I’d defied their edict?
“Yes.” I hissed and felt the nails being driven into my coffin. I should just go dig my grave in the common yard. It was to be exile for sure. Never mind the hundreds of lives I likely helped save, nor the countless missions I had engaged in that had protected the very laws they held so dear.
“And your majors. Did they commit treason with you?” I felt faint as she threw down a gauntlet I had not expected. Why penalize my men? They had only been following my orders. Granted, I had been removed from command, but that was a tiny technicality. The Council could punish me all they wanted, but my men were off-limits. They evidently did not understand the brevity of the mission we undertook. They lived because of us.
I glanced around the room at the stone faces before me. Yes, I had willfully denied the Council and butted against their system, but never at the cost of my men’s freedom or their lives.
I swallowed my pride and pleaded with the Council. “No. Please don’t punish them. They were following my orders. Do with me what you will, but leave them out of this.”
“Your men will be dealt with,” Amelia stated, as if their sentences had already been decided.
I paled. How could I be so stupid that I put my men at risk?
“I’m sorry. Please, they had nothing to do with this. Send me into exile or imprison me, but reassign them, put them on latrine duty. No one should be banished but me.”
Amelia held up her fine-boned hand, magic pulsing from her palm.
“Silence.”
I could not speak if I tried. The Coven Mother had spelled me with a flick of her wrist.
“The Council has agreed that you are henceforth banned from Cantati Forces. You shall be transported from Council chambers to your room, where Cade McDonnell awaits your presence. That is where you will remain until you’re with child. If, for any reason, you must leave your room, you shall be accompanied by armed guards. Is that understood?”
In all the commotion, I had forgotten one thing: my womb was far too valuable for them to toss me into the Desert. Power. I had it and had failed to use it. Amelia flicked her wrist and removed the charm.
“Yes,” I blurted out but stayed further words. My guys’ lives were far too precious to me to cause them further harm. The Council had me, and by the gleam in the Coven Mother’s eyes, she knew it. Even if she were bluffing, she knew I would never intentionally risk their lives.
“You are dismissed. Guards, take her to her room.”
Four soldiers, supplied to the hilt with weaponry, surrounded me. They were ready to lead me to Cade.
“Oh and Alana,” Amelia purred with an edge of ice belying the sugary coating.
“Yes?” I shivered. She had trumped me in every way possible. What further recourse could she have?
“Any further infractions, and the Council will expel your entire squad into the Desert in your stead.”
Chapter Six
That bitch!
She utilized my softness for my squad to control me, to force me to submit to their decree that I allow Cade to impregnate me. I hoped the Coven Mother burned in hell for this one and let her know it with my glare.
“Good, I see we understand each other,” Amelia replied.
“We do.” I turned away from her, rattled by the strength of the woman’s hatred for me and fueled by the urge to retaliate. If not for the threat she posed to my men, I would have given in to the urge to punch her until I felt better.
I marched toward the door, and the guards raced to catch up.
“After you.” I let the first two pass as we walked into the hallway. It was not every day that a prisoner galloped to their punishment. Which was why the men at my sides continued glancing my way, as if they expected me to sprout horns and a tail. It was mere self-preservation, for not only myself but my men. Amelia had upped the ante and called my bluff better than any cardsharp. She knew I would not risk the lives of the men who served under me.
The trek to my room was way too brief. Before I could turn the knob on my door, one of my keepers did the deed for me.
Cade stood amidst my meager belongings, dominating them. The rage I had witnessed near the wall was barely contained behind a sheen of civility. No one discerned the menace but me. There would be no aid this night.
“Come in.” He held the door open farther for me. For th
e rest of the group, he appeared the concerned mate, ready to forgive my crimes. When that could not be further from the truth. The unknown nature of his retribution sent slithers of apprehension through my system. I could handle myself in any situation, any circumstances that I could fight my way through. Except I could not fight him, could not defend myself in any way against him. Otherwise my men paid the price. What’s more, by the glean in his eyes, he knew he had won.
“That will be all this evening. Please don’t disturb us for any reason, regardless of what you hear.” He winked at his men, who masked their chortles with coughs.
My cheeks flamed as I passed across the threshold. He had blatantly told these men exactly what he planned to do with me tonight. I was not virginal by any stretch of the mind, but I had never been free with my body. He had all but smacked my ass and staked his claim in front of them.
Bastard.
I would never be his. My body, yes, but my soul …
Never.
I stopped short at the sight of my bed, the navy covers turned down in anticipation. The door slammed shut with a resounding thud. Metal screeched as he secured a deadbolt and trapped me inside. I did not move, just waited for him to pounce. My breath caught in my throat, and I squeezed my eyes shut.
Fingers dug into my jaw and tilted my head back.
“Look at me.”
I ignored him, keeping my eyes closed.
The rage I had only sensed in him exploded, and I found myself pressed up against the wall with one hand around my throat while the other was clenched like talons around my face.
“Look at me,” He growled, and his hot breath washed over me.
I cracked my eyes open and poured every ounce of my hatred into that one glance.
“You will never pull a stunt like you did yesterday. Do you understand? I wanted to be nice, give you a chance to get used to the idea of our situation, but you have forced my hand. You are to shower and rid your form of dungeon stench. You will return to this room without a single stitch of clothing on and lie on the bed. Tonight and every night from here on out, you will fuck me as if your life depends upon it. From here on out, you will not wear clothes unless I desire it. You will not eat or sleep unless I make it so. And I can promise you this, Alana, if you ever pull a stunt like that again, I will give you the spanking you so richly deserve and then fuck you anyway.”
Ruptured: The Cantati Chronicles Page 4