Iolina—Lina to those who knew her.
He made a sound in his throat that the chick plastered to his front must have taken for assent, because she grinned and started moving her hand again. Barely paying her any mind, he kept his gaze locked on the woman beyond the veil.
Lina was the adopted sister of his older brother. She had been a part of Ronin’s life before Dagan had known him, back when Ronin had lived with his mother. After their sadistic father had kidnapped Ronin at the age of nine and brought him to live with Dagan and his other brothers, Taeg and Keegan, Ronin hadn’t seen Lina again. Until several months ago, that was, when they’d run into each other by a pure twist of fate.
That was when Dagan had met her.
When Lina pushed the filmy curtain aside and stepped into the back, his hands tensed on Elven-chick’s hips, but before he could push her away, Lina’s searching gaze landed on him. She kept going for a moment before realizing what she’d seen and, with a start, turned her eyes back to him. They narrowed into little slits, and who could blame her? Even though the woman’s back was to Lina, she couldn’t miss that the woman’s top was scrunched up to reveal her chest.
Aw, fuck.
Self-loathing settled in the pit of Dagan’s stomach like a harsh pill, accompanied by the lyrics of Green Day’s hate-filled Platypus song. He yanked Elven-chick’s top down over her breasts. Even though Lina couldn’t see it from her angle, he had a feeling she knew exactly where the woman’s hand was. He reached down to disengage it, but the woman fought him, protesting the whole while.
“You can’t seriously tell me you want to stop now.”
His gaze still locked on Ronin’s sister, Dagan read the exact moment the shock and disbelief in her eyes morphed into bitter revulsion. Her mouth puckered, and she turned away, dismissing the scene before her with clear disdain.
“Sorry.” Dagan disentangled himself from the woman, ignoring her continued protests, and buttoned himself back into his pants. He surprised himself with the ease of his movements, when deep inside, crippling regret and humiliation fought for dominion.
The worst part of Lina catching him back here wasn’t that she knew his brothers, or that she might tell them what she’d seen. No, it was that his feelings for her were anything but brotherly. Every time he saw her, his heartbeat tripled and curling ribbons of a sweet melody unfolded in his head.
Clearly it was wrong to feel that way about someone his brother considered family, but he couldn’t help himself.
Pull yourself together, dude.
He had to find Lina, and somehow repair the damage he’d caused with his careless actions. Even if the thought of facing her made him want to lay down in shame.
…
Dagan. Sexy demon hybrid, and sibling to the man Lina had once loved as a brother.
And he hadn’t been alone. A thin blonde had been plastered to his front, blocking a good portion of him from her view. Her tank top had been squished up underneath her armpits, baring the large tramp stamp decorating her lower back, and one hand had rested on his shoulder. The other was out of sight, but the movement of her arm was unmistakable.
When it had struck her that she was watching another woman jack Dagan off, her stomach had turned and a sour taste filled her mouth. She’d jerked her gaze back up to his face, and the chagrin in his eyes broke her out of her shocked daze.
Ew…gross!
She’d then schooled her features into a look of disgust and speared him with it before moving away. But the scene she’d just witnessed insisted on replaying itself in her head. There was no mistaking the intense clenching sensation deep inside her chest.
Envy, burning a vicious hole in her heart.
Stop it. You mean nothing to each other.
He was Ronin’s brother, that was all. But even though she knew that, Lina couldn’t help the way her body responded every time he was near. The shameful pulsing of her heart was eclipsed only by the dampness that covered her thighs. Only one other man had ever elicited such a response.
And look how well that ended.
That thought alone was enough to firm her resolve. There could never be anything between her and Dagan.
Feeling properly chastised, she stepped back out to the main part of the club. Gods, what the hell was she doing in this shithole?
After all the things Lina had seen and done in her twenty-five years of life, she wouldn’t have thought she could be talked into anything. Leave it to her pseudo-adopted brother Ronin to prove her wrong. When he’d asked her to speak with her fellow mercenaries in an effort to get information about the dark fae the Council was tracking, she hadn’t been able to say no. But then, the couple grand he’d offered had done a lot to persuade her.
Lina squashed her guilt at the memory of Ronin’s disappointment when he’d had to resort to offering money in exchange for her assistance. Truth was he had plenty of it, and she needed more. Ronin thought she was a money-grubber—that much was obvious from his expression. And he was right.
But he didn’t know why.
Or what she did with it.
Keeping her eyes firmly away from the section of the club where she’d seen Dagan, Lina continued her search for her contact, Sam.
As she neared the bar, a slimy-looking man in tattered jeans took stock of her outfit, from the dusty rose corset top underneath her black leather jacket to the jeans tucked into her calf-high boots, and made a beeline for her. “Hey sexy, can I buy you a—”
“Fuck off.”
He recoiled, anger transforming his face, but didn’t pursue her. Good for him. She knew just what to do with assholes who couldn’t take no for an answer.
Almost instinctively, her hand crept toward the stiletto knives she carried in a hidden interior pocket of her jacket. Weapons weren’t allowed inside Opiate, but she didn’t give a damn. As long as no one messed with her, they would stay sheathed.
She came to a stop in front of Crull, the gold elf who manned the bar. “Hey, Crull, I’m looking for Sam. Seen him?”
Crull snagged a mug and poured some lager into it. “Saw him around earlier. I’m sure he’s here somewhere.”
“Thanks.” She stalked through the club, searching for Sam’s distinctive black Mohawk. Sam was a lorne demon, as well as a kick-ass mercenary. She’d teamed up with him for a job or two in the past, and he’d been there a month and a half ago when she’d banned together with Ronin and his brothers to take down Asmodeus. The incubus creep had had it coming, of course. He’d enslaved Amara, the woman Ronin loved, along with a handful of other succubi, and had forced them to murder for him.
When Lina had called Sam yesterday, he told her he might know someone who’d done work for a powerful dark fae. They agreed on meeting here tonight, hopefully with his contact in tow.
“Lina!”
Aw, damn.
She groaned at the sound of Dagan’s voice. Couldn’t he just have pretended he hadn’t seen her? The last thing she wanted to do was rehash that little incident.
A moment later, a hand closed on her arm.
She took a breath, and turned.”It’s Iolina.”
Ronin and his brothers insisted on calling her by her childhood nickname even though she’d repeatedly asked them not to. Truth be told, Lina was the name she responded to the most, even if it did have so many bad memories attached to it.
When Dagan gave her a look that told her she was fighting a losing battle, she sighed and looked him over. He had rearranged his clothes into some semblance of respectability, and even though she knew what he’d just been doing in that darkened corner with another woman, she couldn’t help but notice how amazing he looked. His dark hair curled over his ears, its color perfectly matching the heavy brows framing his turquoise-glamoured eyes. A five o’clock shadow accentuated the powerful angles of his squared jaw. The black leather jacket that covered his fitted gray shirt and dark jeans was probably a tad too warm for the mild, late-spring weather, but who knew better than she how great jacket
s were for concealing weapons? Besides, demons and angels didn’t feel heat and cold in the same way humans did.
Damn it, why did he always have to look so good? That just made her even more pissed off.
Dagan took one glance at her face and released her arm. His hand clenched at his side. “Listen, I…uh…”
“Didn’t expect to see me here,” she finished for him.
His cheeks colored, and he edged closer, lowering his voice. “I came to see if I could find any more information about the dark fae. Keegan thinks he might be recruiting help out of here.”
“And yet, somehow, you ended up with some random bimbo’s hand stuck to your dick. Is that part of your cover? ’Cause if so, it’s a damn good one.”
She bit her lip as soon as the words escaped her mouth. Could she possibly sound any more like a jealous shrew? But he didn’t seem to notice. The color on his cheeks spread to his ears.
“I…”
A sheepish expression crept onto Dagan’s face, and he stuttered to a stop. That made her even more mad. The guy couldn’t even rustle up a weak excuse. Not that he owed her any sort of explanation for his actions, but still, the least he could do was refrain from chasing tail for a few hours while he worked.
Or maybe he couldn’t. Ronin seemed to think that was the case, and he often reminded her of it.
She smoothed an errant lock of her long, blond hair behind her ear. “Couldn’t resist fucking around on the job, huh? I’m sure your brothers would be so surprised.”
Hurt, then anger, flashed in his eyes, making him appear far more dangerous than a skirt-chasing player had any right to be. “Why do you care so mu—”
Something rammed into her from the side before he could finish his sentence. A rough pair of hands grabbed her arms and jerked them behind her, lifting her to her toes.
What the hell?
That was when she realized what she would’ve picked up on seconds earlier, had she not been so focused on Dagan and his insatiable wang.
They were under attack.
Lina twisted away from the hands trying to imprison her and whirled into a spin kick that tossed her attacker halfway across the crowded club. He took down a couple of other patrons as he flew back, like some sick, people-version of a bowling game. She stared only long enough to confirm she didn’t know the man. When she turned back to where Dagan had stood moments earlier, a small crowd of men surrounded him. And they were focused on pummeling him to the ground.
All of the patrons who stood nearby had eased away, staring at the men fighting.
What a roomful of gentlemen.
A shadow in the corner of her eye alerted her to the presence of another man. She turned just in time to avoid his fist. If it had been just the two of them, she could have used her calming ability to stop him, but that particular gift didn’t have the same effect in a crowd this size. Besides, she hadn’t used that gift in a long time…and fighting back was so much more fun, anyway.
Her knee shot up and caught him in the small of his back. He arched backward in pain, and she leaped into the air, striking her elbow into the left side of his neck. The man’s eyes rolled in his head as he crumpled to the ground.
“I told you to take her fast,” a familiar voice yelled. “She’s a good fighter.”
Shock reverberated through Lina’s bones like the heart-pumping bass of a drum. She sought out the source of the voice, and sure enough, he was one of the men trying to take Dagan down.
“Sam? What the fuck are you doing?”
A glimmer of something that looked like regret shone in the lorne demon’s eyes before they flicked to the side. His nervous tick tipped her off to the fact that the first man who’d attacked her, a burly wrestler type who had to be at least six and a half feet tall, had recovered. He stalked toward her, purposeful intent glinting in his eyes.
Lina ducked, but not quickly enough to avoid his meaty fist. It bashed into her face, and something crunched in response. Biting back a yell of pain, she regrouped just in time to sidestep another blow. Thank goodness for her speed, because her physical strength would be no match for a beast of his size. She reached into her jacket and pulled out a knife. This was when she felt most empowered—when she had a weapon in her hand, preferably a sharp one. Getty had trained her well.
Her attacker took one look at her weapon and laughed. “Nice toothpick.”
He lunged for her, but she swung to the side and spun around, cleaving the knife over the main artery on his wrist. He grunted and stared down, dumbstruck, at the blood gushing out in a steady spray. Clearly he hadn’t expected it to be so sharp, or for her aim to be so accurate.
She took advantage of his distraction and leaped onto his back. Grabbing a hank of hair with her free hand, she sliced through his neck. He collapsed to the floor with a gurgle, and Lina hopped off, landing light on her feet. Once upon a time, the idea of taking another man’s life would have been unthinkable. But that had been the old Lina, the one who’d had something to lose. Now she had no compunction about taking someone down. Especially someone who’d attacked her.
And even if she did feel the tiniest bit of guilt, well she could easily ignore that.
Lina whirled around to where Dagan stood fighting off his attackers. Two men lay on the ground at his feet, which left him three more to deal with, including that bastard Sam. She dug in her jacket for a second stiletto and raced for Sam.
Take that, jackass.
He saw her knife and leaped to the side a split second before it could sever the artery at his elbow joint.
Damn. Close, but no dice.
“What is wrong with you?” she gasped as she lunged for him again.
He blocked her thrust with a hit that jarred her wrist. Using his free hand, he delivered a punch to her stomach that sent her flying back a few feet.
“Sorry, babe,” he panted. “You’ve made some big enemies.”
What the hell? Sam and she weren’t the best of buds or anything, but they’d been through some shit together. She’d trusted him. Why would he turn on her now?
Sudden realization stopped her in her tracks.
“The dark fae we’re searching for. You work for him.”
The flash of guilt in Sam’s eyes was all the response she needed.
“Why?” she asked.
Sam shrugged and, before she could move, rushed straight at her. Lina caught a flash of silver an instant before a searing-hot bolt of agony speared her in the side. She groaned at the pain and dropped one of her daggers, placing her freed hand on Sam’s chest for balance. Regret and some other sad emotion shimmered in his eyes as he jerked his dagger out of her side. When she yelled out in pain, he repeated, “Sorry,” and lifted the dagger to her neck.
Lina stared at Sam through watery eyes. She couldn’t believe she’d allowed him to best her. After all these years of learning how to fight, how to kick ass, she’d gone and fucked up big time. Her only defense was that his betrayal had surprised her. And now she would pay for that with her life.
Funny, after all these years of secretly wishing for death, for an end to the never-ending sorrow deep inside her heart, now that the moment was here, she found she wanted to live.
Wouldn’t you know?
Sam read the look in her eyes and shook his head. “I’m not here to kill you.”
“Then what—”
A loud roar cut off the rest of her sentence. A figure collided with Sam, knocking him to the side and his dagger safely away from Lina. Without the support of Sam’s body, she crumpled to the floor in a kneeling position.
She looked up to see Dagan shoving Sam to the ground and wresting the dagger from his hand. He held it to Sam’s neck.
“No,” Sam pleaded.
Dagan growled, his arm shaking with the effort of keeping the dagger at Sam’s throat without slicing it into him as he so clearly longed to do. A thin line of blood spread on Sam’s neck where the dagger pressed into his flesh.
“You okay, Lina?�
�� Dagan asked without taking his eyes off Sam.
Lina surveyed her surroundings. The men Sam had used to attack them with all lay on the ground, blood flowing from their beaten bodies. When she realized she hadn’t been breathing, she took a big gasp of air, then whimpered at the agony it sparked in her side. Why the hell hadn’t she healed herself yet?
She placed her hand on the oozing wound and activated her healing ability. A warm rush of golden light spread from her core up to her chest, then flowed down her arm and into her fingertips. Her side tingled in residual pain as the wound repaired itself in a matter of seconds. Thank goodness for her angel heritage. Otherwise she might be in some deep shit right now.
“Lina?” Dagan said through gritted teeth.
“I’m good,” she said, just as Dagan glanced back at her.
Freed from Dagan’s piercing gaze, Sam dug a hand into his pocket and pulled out an electric blue, gelatinous orb about the size of a golf ball.
Lina scrambled to her feet. “Watch out!”
Dagan turned back to Sam, but not quickly enough to stop him from squishing the ball in his fist. A ray of blue energy filled the club, crackling the air and momentarily blinding Lina. Her hair raised on end.
“What the fuck?” Dagan gargled.
When Lina blinked, the world settled back into view. She sought out Dagan, and saw the reason for his muttered curse. The spot where Sam had just lain was now empty, and Dagan straddled nothing but air.
His confused gaze met hers. “Where did he go?”
Chapter Three
This night had so not turned out how Dagan anticipated. First, a surprise attack from Lina’s contact. Then the guy up and disappeared. Like poof, into thin air. Dagan and Lina searched the club and surrounding area for him, but Sam was nowhere to be found.
Takes some serious magical mojo to pull off an escape like that.
After smoothing things over with the club’s owner, who was understandably pissed about the damage done to the place, he rejoined Lina by the bar. She sat on one of the stools, drinking down a beer that Crull had served her. To the naked eye she looked calm as could be. But he didn’t miss the tension in her shoulders, or the tight set of her jaw. Lina was rattled, and who could blame her? Sam had been a trusted associate, and he’d stabbed a knife into her like their relationship had meant nothing.
Call of the Siren (Demons of the Infernum) (Entangled Edge) Page 2