Rush of Pleasure

by Rhyannon Byrd

  “Willow!” Noah roared. “Get your ass out of here!”

  “I can’t,” she whispered. “It’s affecting me, too.”

  Calder gave a husky laugh as he lowered his arm and crouched down beside Sienna, studying her ghostly face, while Noah and Willow remained locked in place. The fact that he could hold the two of them like this without even putting any effort into it meant he was even more powerful than Willow had feared.

  Rage darkened Noah’s face, the tendons in his neck straining as he fought to break free. “I thought this spell didn’t work against other witches.”

  “That’s only when it’s performed with a witch’s power,” she explained. “He’s using Sienna’s spell, but he isn’t a witch.”

  Watching Calder with a deadly glare, he snarled, “How the hell did you get inside my brother?”

  The Casus looked over his shoulder, flicking his gaze over the leather charm hanging around Noah’s neck. Then he smiled, saying, “I’m afraid your baby brother wasn’t too impressed with your little protection token. I found it in his bag. He hadn’t even bothered to put it on.”

  “I’m so sorry, Noah.” Sienna’s voice was barely a thread of sound. “I didn’t stop him. I waited too long.”

  Still looking at Noah, Calder said, “I was going to take you first, but baby brother made it so easy for me when he ran away from his guard dogs.”

  “Fuck you,” Noah snarled.

  With another gritty laugh, Calder pushed to his feet and straightened his clothes. “You know,” he said conversationally, “now that I’m in this body, I’ll probably be able to stroll right into that Watchmen compound in California and take over that other brother of yours next. Save you for last, so that you’ll get the chance to see the show. After all, I plan on having a lot of fun with that feisty little wife of his.”

  “You son of a bitch!” Noah roared, straining against the force of the spell so violently that a blood vessel burst in his eye.

  “And when that gets boring,” Calder drawled, “I can always play daddy with his precious baby girl.”

  “Monster,” Sienna rasped, the quiet word barely audible over Noah’s shouting. Searing hatred burned in her eyes as she lifted a shaky hand and pointed it at the Casus. “Go to hell, you bastard!”

  A blinding light suddenly formed behind the Casus, circular in shape, the violent roar of a windstorm filling the room. A ferocious scowl twisted Calder’s face as he fought to move away from the light, but it seemed to be sucking him in, like a giant whirlpool. He snarled, releasing his fangs and claws as he struggled to reach Sienna, who was clearly losing her strength as she fought to control the portal, but the pull of the wind was too powerful. He turned his chilling gaze on Willow, and she screamed as he lunged forward. She could hear Noah’s and Sienna’s horrified shouts as Calder’s clawed fingers wrapped around her wrist, the freezing spell he’d put on her making it impossible for her to fight him. With an evil smile, he yanked her against him, and the portal sucked them in with a deafening, explosive blast of power.

  NOAH WAS STILL picking himself up off the floor when Damon kicked down the door and burst into the room. He took one look at Sienna, then cut his dark gaze toward Noah. “I felt…something. Some kind of power surge. What the hell happened?”

  “Calder was here,” he grated, the aftereffects of the spell and the blast making him nauseous. Or maybe it was just his fear for Willow that was twisting his insides in knots. “Sienna blasted him through one of her portals, but he grabbed on to Will and dragged her through with him.”

  Damon cursed, his face turning pale with fear.

  Noah made it across the room and dropped to his knees beside Sienna. “Si, listen to me,” he said, turning her face toward him. “I need to know where you sent him.”

  “Outer Circle. Use the demon. Find her…” She swallowed, struggling to continue. “If…if something happens, tell her the key to the spell is love.”

  “What spell?” Noah grunted. “The one to find Calder?”

  “No. Another one. The one to save her heart,” she whispered, and then she slipped away.

  Noah lifted her hand and pressed a hard kiss to the backs of her fingers, then reached down and closed her eyes. “What the hell does Outer Circle mean?” he asked, moving back to his feet. “The outer circle of what?”

  “Of hell,” Damon rasped, scrubbing his hands down his face.

  He froze as the meaning of those chilling words sank in.

  “Why would she send him there?”

  “Because she knows the fucker won’t be able to escape.” Damon lowered his hands and looked at Noah, his blue eyes burning with fury. “And she knows I’ll be able to get there.”

  “How?” he demanded.

  Damon gave him a sharp smile. “I’m a demon, man. Getting in and out of hell is what I do.”

  A flicker of hope started to burn in his gut, but he was still wary. “If that’s true, then why didn’t Sienna just come to you for help? Why bother with Calder?”

  “Her husband was human,” the demon explained. “His soul, if it’s even there, would have been kept in one of the lowest parts of the pit. No one goes there unless they have a death wish.”

  The spark of hope flared into a roaring blaze, fueled by fierce determination. “Every second we waste is a second Willow’s trapped there with him,” Noah growled. “We need to go now.”

  Damon’s eyes went wide. “Are you serious? You’re planning on coming?”

  Noah locked his jaw and the demon ran his tongue over his teeth. “Shit, I can see that you are,” Damon grumbled, blowing out a rough breath. “Noah, you know what’s going to happen. If you show up there, Calder’s going to find a way to take you over. He’ll use Willow for leverage against you. You should just let me go on my own, man.”

  “And if he kills you? She’ll be trapped there with him.”

  “He isn’t going to kill me.”

  “He’d better not, because I need you to get her out of there once he turns his attention on me.” Noah grabbed the Marker off the bedside table and handed it to the demon. “When it happens, you know what to do.”

  Damon’s stare was deep and measuring. “You sure you’re willing to give up your life for hers? Because that’s really gonna piss her off. She’d want you to stay here.”

  Noah narrowed his eyes. “You leave me behind, demon, and I will kill you.”

  Damon’s tone was wry. “Believe it or not, I hear that a lot.” Then he reached down, grabbed Noah’s arm and everything went black.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  WILLOW COULDN’T BELIEVE her eyes.

  “No,” she croaked, a scream of frustration rumbling in her throat as she spotted Noah and Damon walking toward her, while the barren landscape of the Outer Circle spread out for miles behind them.

  “I knew Winston would come for you. It was only a matter of time,” Calder purred in her ear. He held her locked against the front of his body, one arm wrapped across her torso, just beneath her breasts, the other around her throat. Her hands were trapped behind her back, bound with a length of cord he’d taken from his pocket, her wrists already worn raw from where she’d struggled to break free.

  Considering she was literally in hell, the place wasn’t nearly as horrific as Willow had imagined it would be. But then, this was just the Outer Circle, and she knew the deeper in you traveled, the more hellish it became.

  But here, there were no monsters. Except for the one standing at her back.

  The setting reminded her of the desert, only with a sky that was bloodred instead of blue. Beneath her bare feet, the ground was covered in blisteringly hot sand, and there were huge outcroppings of red, jagged rock dotting the landscape for as far as the eye could see. Willow had been staring across that rugged landscape since she and Calder had arrived, filled with fear, but thankful for the fact that Sienna had found a way to save Noah.

  And then he’d suddenly appeared, about forty feet away, standing beside Damon, an
d she’d known that she was truly in hell. Her heart pounded harder with each step that brought the two men closer, her throat burning with the need to rant and scream. Didn’t Noah know that she would have gladly given up her life to save his? That if she’d had her choice, he would have remained back in their world…and left her to fate?

  Didn’t he know that when Calder took his body, it wasn’t only going to kill him, but her, as well?

  “Sienna?” she rasped when Noah came to a stop a few yards away from where she stood trapped in Calder’s evil embrace, Damon lingering a little farther back. Noah shook his head in response to her question, and tears spilled from the corners of her eyes. “You shouldn’t have come here,” she whispered, her voice cracking at the end.

  Calder pulled her tighter against his body and smiled. “But then he would have missed all the fun,” the Casus murmured. “And we can’t have that. After all, he’s the whole reason for this little drama.”

  Noah’s gaze burned with a cold, murderous rage as he looked at the Casus. “You won’t get out of here, Calder. You’re trapped in this shit-hole forever.”

  A low laugh rumbled in the Casus’s chest. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Winston. I’ve found that where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

  Jerking his chin toward her, Noah said, “Let the witch go and we’ll talk about what you want.”

  “Ahhh, but you already know what I want.” Calder released the claws on his right hand with a sibilant hiss of sound and trailed them down the center of Willow’s body. “So take off that bloody charm hanging around your neck, or I’ll kill her right now.”

  Keeping his eyes on the Casus, Noah curled one hand around the charm, and Willow shouted, “No! He’s going to kill me no matter what you do! Damn it, Noah, look at me! Don’t you dare take off that charm!”

  But he did it anyway, pulling the charm over his head and dropping it to the sandy ground. Willow’s horrified scream echoed through her head as she watched the leather pouch slip from his fingers, its slow descent toward the ground seeming to take an endless forever. She didn’t stop screaming as Calder shoved her away from him, his maniacal laughter full of triumph and satisfaction.

  She must have stumbled and fallen, because the next thing she knew, Damon was yanking her off the ground and setting her on her feet. He used his talons to quickly slice through the cord that bound her wrists, then shoved her behind him, as if he meant to protect her with his body. Desperate to get to Noah, Willow tried to get around the demon, but Damon fisted his hand in her shirt and she only made it as far as his side.

  She sucked in an outraged breath, ready to demand her release so that she could run to Noah, when Damon looked at Calder and said, “So what now, Casus? That body you’re in needs to die before you can hop into Winston. You planning on having us kill you? Or are you gonna do the deed yourself?”

  The Casus smiled. “I don’t need to die, demon. Thanks to one of Sienna’s spells, I can slip from this body to his before you can even reach me.”

  Until that point, Noah had kept his gaze focused on Calder, ignoring Willow’s pleas for him to look at her. But he turned his head toward her now, his beautiful eyes dark with regret. He moved that devastating gaze slowly over her face, touching upon her features one by one, as if he wanted to imprint them on his memory, knowing this was the end.

  “I can’t believe you came for me,” she whispered, her voice ravaged by pain, and his gaze lifted from her mouth, locking with hers. It seemed they held that stare for long, heart-wrenching moments, though in reality it was no more than a handful of seconds. Noah’s throat worked, and he parted his lips, but whatever he was about to say was lost on a breathless gasp as his body suddenly shuddered and jerked, his arms and jaws spread wide as a dark vapor poured into his open mouth. She knew it was Calder, Jackson’s body now lying lifeless on the ground, and she gave a hoarse cry, the back of her hand pressed to her trembling mouth as tears poured down her face.

  The experience of claiming a new body was obviously taxing for the Casus. He was hunched forward, with one hand braced against an out-cropping of rock, while the other clutched his stomach, his chest heaving with hard, rasping breaths. Then he finally lifted his head, and slid Willow a slow smile. “I think the poor man was about to tell you he loved you.” The smile spread like a stain. “I couldn’t have timed that better if I’d planned for it.”

  “You bastard!” she cried, filling her hands with fire, wanting to burn the Casus to a crisp. But he was in Noah’s body…which meant she couldn’t hurt him. Not without giving up hope that she could get back the man she loved, and she refused to do that.

  “Come on,” Damon growled. “I’m getting you out of here.”

  “No, I’m not leaving him!”

  Damon’s voice was hard, but gentle. “He’s gone, Low. That’s it.”

  “No, goddamn it. That is not it.” She spun toward Damon in a rage of fury and grief, beating her fists against his broad chest. “Noah’s still in there. I know it!”

  “I wouldn’t count on it,” Calder rasped. She turned her head and watched him coming toward her, and he looked like Noah. Like the man that she’d loved. But he wasn’t. The walk was all wrong. The cruel expression. The cold, deadly look in his eyes. The idea flashed through her head that this might be how the prophecy came true. That she would die by Calder’s hand while he was living inside Noah’s body.

  With a sharp smile, the Casus lifted his arms, blasting a wave of power at Damon that was meant to freeze the demon in place. But it didn’t work.

  As Damon stepped away from Willow, his chest shook with a gritty laugh. “Sorry, big guy. You’re on my turf now. Those spells of yours aren’t going to do a goddamn thing against me here.”

  With a snarl, Calder launched himself at the demon, swiping at him with his claws, and as the battle started, Willow wondered if the Casus knew what he was getting into. Damon was one of the meanest fighters she’d ever seen. Amazing…and deadly. She cringed every time he landed a crushing blow against Noah’s body, hoping he couldn’t feel the pain. But Calder had finally gotten the strength he wanted, because he wasn’t going down. He was fighting back, coming at Damon hard and fast, striking out with his claws again, and again. But he couldn’t take the demon down.

  Roaring with furious frustration, Calder began to take his true Casus form, Noah’s handsome face transforming into that of a muzzled monster—but Damon wasn’t having it. With a crushing blow to the Casus’s jaw, Damon sent the monster sprawling to the ground. Kicking him to his front, the demon placed his knee in the center of Calder’s back and grabbed his wrists, pressing them against the Casus’s spine at a painful angle, while chanting a demonic spell. As Calder regained consciousness, he pulled at his arms, trying to move them, but he was bound in place.

  “You can’t break the spell,” Damon drawled, “so don’t even try.”

  “What have you done to me?” the Casus snarled, struggling to pull his legs beneath him, but Damon kept him pinned in place.

  “We’re in hell, you bastard. You have no idea what I can do here.”

  While Calder continued to fight to break free of the invisible bonds, screaming obscenities, Damon reached into his back pocket and pulled out the Dark Marker.

  “No!” Willow shouted as she ran toward the demon. “What the hell are you doing? You can’t kill him!”

  Keeping a firm grip on the cross as she tried to rip it out of his hand, Damon said, “Low, if the shit hit the fan, this is what Noah wanted.”

  “What are you talking about?” she cried, refusing to believe him.

  “Noah gave me the Marker. He knew Calder would want him in exchange for you. That’s why he gave me the cross. He wants me to end it, so that bastard can’t ever come after you again.”

  “Well, that’s too damn bad,” she growled. “Because I’m not letting the son of a bitch take him away from me!”

  “Then what do you want me to do?” he barked, the gritty words ed
ged with frustration.

  The idea that shot into Willow’s brain was so brilliant, she almost smiled. “Do you have any of my blood left?” she asked in a breathless rush.

  “What?”

  “The blood that you took earlier. The virgin blood. Do you have any left?”

  Damon reached in his pocket and pulled out a small vial that was only half-full. “Just this. I gave the rest to Kierland, in case those guys need it for another ritual.”

  “It’ll have to be enough,” she said, praying it would work. “You can perform the Death-Spell from the journal, and it’ll suck that evil bastard right out of him!”

  “I can try,” Damon told her, his tone lacking any real enthusiasm. “But, honey, there might be nothing left when Calder’s gone. Noah might not be in there anymore.”

  “He’ll be there,” she snapped, refusing to give up on him. “Noah’s strong. I bet he’s ripping that asshole to pieces on the inside. We have to help him.”

  She didn’t know if Damon believed her, but he didn’t argue or call her crazy. Instead, he did what any good friend would do, and he helped her fight for the man she loved.

  Placing another binding spell across Calder’s shoulders and legs, Damon moved to his feet, then picked up one of the jagged rocks that were scattered over the ground. Standing several yards away from the Casus, he knelt down and started drawing an intricate circle in the sand with the rock. When he was done, he squinted up at Willow and said, “I don’t know how this is gonna go down, Low. You might not want to look. The scene with the Death-Walkers was bloody as hell.”

  “That’s because they were pure evil to begin with,” she argued, wondering if she sounded crazy. And not caring if she did. “Noah isn’t. He just needs that monster ripped out of him.” She jerked her chin toward the vial of blood that Damon was holding, and said, “Now do the damn spell.”

  Since the body he wanted to perform the ritual on was already there, Damon didn’t have to carry out the first part of the ceremony, and was able to go straight to the second. Kneeling in the center of the circle he’d drawn in the sand, the demon chanted in a low, guttural voice as he poured some of the blood in his hand, then smeared the blood around the edges of the circle. He repeated the process a second time, chanting louder, and a hot, powerful wind began to surge around them, knocking Willow to her knees. Calder, who hadn’t stopped his snarling and cursing, suddenly fell silent, his body shuddering with violent convulsions. Then there was a blinding, deafening explosion of light that sent a shockwave over the land, and when it was gone, Noah’s body lay on the ground with a deathly, silent stillness.