by Moira Rogers
He kissed her long enough to make her dizzy, long enough to drive every thought from her head while he memorized the way she felt against him, hot and alive. He kissed her like it might be the last time, because even if he survived what he had planned, he might never win her forgiveness for what he was going to do.
The heavy vault door stood only a few feet behind him. When he released her, he did it so abruptly that she stumbled back, took one disoriented step.
It was enough. Warrior reflexes got him through the door before she could move. The metal clanged shut as he slapped his hand against the biometric scanner next to it and entered his override with a time limit of one hour. Cache might be able to work around it, but not soon enough. By the time anyone sprang Devi, he’d be long gone.
She might never forgive him, but she’d be safe. In the end, that was all that mattered.
He’d locked her in.
Devi considered pounding on the vault door, demanding that he let her out, but she’d only wind up with bruised hands and a sore throat. Zel wouldn’t waste time once he’d set the lock.
She sank down on a crate instead, weary and raw. He wanted to rescue his people and hers, but that was only part of what motivated him. He also wanted to face his father—probably kill him too—and there was no way to reason with that.
And he wanted to keep her safe. Look at the lengths he’d gone to, just because he knew she wouldn’t stand by while he sacrificed himself.
Not today, Zel. And not me. If you wanted a woman who would let you pull this shit, you picked the wrong one when you picked me.
Devi ignored the tiny voice that answered, the one that reminded her Zel had already rectified that mistake. It couldn’t be a mistake, not with the way he kissed her, with undeniable hunger, like he was starving and only another kiss would sate him.
The panel beside the door was a long shot, but it was all she had. Devi tried to activate it, but the message that flashed chilled her.
Secured by Dominic Wetzel.
That was it. She couldn’t disengage the lock, and she couldn’t call for help. Devi let loose with a string of blistering curses and slammed her palm against the scanner hard enough for the terminal to chirrup a warning.
She was going to beat him half-senseless, and then she was going to kiss him until she finished the job.
“You know, if you keep smashing up the electronics, it’s going to be harder to get you out.”
The voice drifting out of the speaker was unmistakably familiar. “Trip?”
“I could have told Cache to let you out, but she doesn’t know my encryption algorithms like I do. So if you hang tight a little bit, I can override his override.”
He was in the terminal. Devi shuddered. “Zel locked me in because he’s headed out to a demon camp, alone. Has he left yet?”
“He’s headed for the garage. Not sure how long it’ll take him to get the four-by-four started, though. Judging by his telemetry, he’s running on ninety-eight percent blood-pumping rage and two percent brain power. At best.”
“Damn it.” Devi drew in a calming breath. “Is there a way to stop him?”
“I was kind of hoping you’d go after him, since you’re one of the few people he won’t kill on sight.”
She couldn’t catch him…but she could follow him. “Do you have tracking systems on your vehicles?”
“Nah, damn things are ancient. You need to get your hands on a tablet. Luckily I thought ahead. Cache is on her way. She should be there by the time I spring the door.”
She might make it before Zel managed to get himself killed, after all. “Trip, I owe you. Big time.”
“Wanna pay up? Talk Cache out of going with you. Because I’m pretty sure that’s her big plan, even though she’s scared cross-eyed.”
“Hell no, she’s not going,” Devi said, aghast.
A ghostly, disembodied chuckle echoed out of the speakers. “Well someone’s a little bit of a hypocrite. Not that I’ll argue in this case, but still.”
“I’ll take it.” If she were truly a hypocrite, she’d never forgive Zel for leaving her behind. As it was, she thought it was a jackass move, but she still understood why he had to try.
The console on the wall beeped softly, and something clicked in the door in front of her. “There you go. Cache just went past the security camera one hallway down.”
Devi scrambled for the handle. By the time she got the heavy door open, she almost ran into Cache. Tablet?
Cache shook her head abruptly, hair flying wild around her face as her fingers flashed. I’m coming with you.
No. Stay. She caught Cache’s chin and made sure the girl saw how serious she was before releasing her. They need you.
Frustration darkened Cache’s eyes, but she reached into her back pocket and pulled out a slim, compact handheld. She held it out, but didn’t let go when Devi reached for it. Instead she spoke, her voice hoarse and the words slurred. “Don’t leave me here alone. All of you have to come back.”
Devi nodded, her throat tight in the face of Cache’s terror. Everyone. I promise.
Cache’s eyes glistened as she turned her attention to the tablet. Her fingers flew over the surface, and the device beeped. The screen came to life as a basic topographical map with roads traced in black. Cache pointed to a stationary black dot and her hands flicked once. Tablet. Her finger stabbed down on the blinking green circle moving slowly toward the side and then twisted into an unfamiliar sign she gave meaning with one carefully spoken word. “Zel.”
“Zel.” Something inside Devi eased; she’d be able to find him. Where is Lorenzo?
Cache’s eyebrows drew together as she watched Devi spell out the halfblood’s name with her fingers, but a moment later her expression cleared and she flashed another sign, one that began with an L and looked vaguely rude. She watched Devi’s face to make sure she understood, then repeated the gesture with her answer. Medical.
Thank you. I’ll see you soon. She drew Cache to her in a short hug.
The girl’s fingers clutched at her back for a few heart-breaking seconds, but Cache pulled back and smiled shakily before turning on her heel and bolting back the way she’d come.
Devi tried to think of something to say on the way to the Medical, but her mind went blank as soon as she saw Zel’s mother. What could she say? I couldn’t stop him from going, but I’ll make it right.
Lorenzo stepped close and dragged her into a small room off the hallway. “I thought Zel would have locked you up.”
“He did.” She gripped Lorenzo’s shoulder. “His mother has to stay here.”
“I know.” His eyes sharpened, and he looked at the tablet in her hand. “So do you, Devi. He’s crazy right now, and if he sees you out there…”
God, not another argument. “That’s why I have to go. I can’t let him go out there to face Aton alone, especially if he’s not thinking straight.”
He hesitated before finally capitulating with a nod. “Then don’t get yourself killed. Make it back, even if he doesn’t. That’s what Zel wants. What he needs.”
He could have tried to keep her there. He might even have succeeded. “Thanks.”
“Lorenzo.” Sora’s voice, cold and unwavering. “I want to speak to her.”
Devi stiffened. She couldn’t allow Zel’s mother to come with her, and she had no idea what to say if the woman asked. “Sora. What do I need to know?”
Sora looked to Lorenzo. “Go.”
He left them alone, and Devi clenched her hands. “How do I deal with him?” she asked softly, knowing Sora would understand. Not Zel. Aton.
“Carefully. He’s not like the others, Devi. He’s…brilliant. Charismatic. He fancied himself a warrior philosopher and studied humanity like a curiosity. He half-seduced me, before it was over. Made me forget what he was, until he’d do something so monstrous, so terrible—”
She took the older woman’s hand. “Is it curiosity now? Why does he want Zel?”
“I don’t k
now.” Sora closed her eyes and dragged in a shaky breath. “He was pleased when he found out I was pregnant. I think he wanted a child, wanted to understand human families. He might want Zel now, or me, and when Zel finds out…” Sora’s fingers tightened painfully around her hand. “Henry’s dead. I can’t bear to lose another child, especially not like this.”
“Sora—”
“I’m not a good woman, Devi.” The words were flat. Implacable. “I know my son wants you to stay here, but I’m going to beg you to go, because Zel would die for me…but for you he’ll stay alive.”
“I hope so.” She struggled for some comfort she could offer Sora. Her child had fled the compound—a grown man, a leader, but still the baby she’d held in her arms. Finally, Devi said, “I’m not being reckless. Whatever Aton wants, it concerns both of us, and I—”
Sora lifted both hands to frame Devi’s face. “You’re being reckless, but this is a reckless world. I know he’ll keep you safe. I believe in him. In both of you.”
A promise to return with Zel, safe and sound, rose to Devi’s lips, but she couldn’t force out the words. The handheld in her pocket would show her the way, but who knew what would happen when she found him?
Chapter Nineteen
Half a mile from the coordinates Trip had given him, the oppressive weight of demonic power hit Zel like a fist to the gut.
There wasn’t much of a road here, but he eased his four-by-four to a stop in the middle of the cracked blacktop and braced his hands on the steering wheel. The press of magic wasn’t unusual—most halfbloods had well-honed senses that extended to any sort of magic. Summoners fairly glowed and mixed-blood offspring evidenced themselves in a chaotic range of ways, but demons—demons always felt heavy. Prickly.
Familiar.
Zel turned off the vehicle and left the keys in the seat along with his tablet. If the trucks weren’t running, some of their people could still escape in the four-by-four…if they could reach it.
If they were still alive to escape.
Devi’s alive. It was his mantra as he started walking through the darkness, following the undeniable lure of power. The street was a jumbled mess of cracked tar and stones, with weeds growing as high as his knees. No one could afford to maintain any but the main roads now, and even those grew rough in poorer regions. Out here, far from the nearest city, civilization might as well have ended fifty years ago. Abandoned houses had mostly begun to collapse, leaving skeletal ruins nearly destroyed by the intense seasons of this part of the world.
As a youth, he’d marveled over the sheer size of houses like this. Oliver had called them tract homes and dismissed them as small, but Zel had a hard time imagining one family being able to use so much square footage, much less take it for granted. In Rochester, space was at an increasing premium, with families of six or eight members often squeezed into two rooms. The excess of the world before the Fall seemed like a luxury and a warning rolled into one.
The first strains of conversation reached his ears a few minutes later. Zel cut between two ruined homes and found himself standing at one end of a rough street that ended in a sweeping circle. The homes were even larger on this street, looming shadows spaced farther apart, leaving a riotous jungle of overgrown plants between each one. A few of the houses still had roofs and walls, though how structurally sound they were was anyone’s guess.
The demons had taken over the end of the street. A large bonfire had been built in the center of the circle, and at least a dozen warriors—male, all of them—lounged around it in various states of relaxation. Another fire burned in front of the sturdiest-looking house, and the pair of demons there looked more alert. Guards, his instincts prompted at once.
Even as the thought came, one of the demons at the fire rose to his feet and turned. At this distance, with his face in shadow, Zel couldn’t make out his features, but he didn’t have to. The darkness inside him stirred, focused on that figure and screamed in warning and recognition.
Aton took a single step, and the firelight slanted across his face. He waited, obviously secure in the knowledge that Zel would close the distance between them. “Dominic.”
It was his name, the name his mother had given him, but in this moment he was the man Oliver Wetzel had made him. “Zel. My name is Zel.”
Aton nodded, pleased. “Yes, good. Even the most doting, devoted mother cannot choose a warrior’s name. He must do that for himself.” He peered around Zel. “Where is the hauler?”
Anger burned hot enough to make him half-mad, but Zel kept his rage on a leash. “You have me. I want to see my people.”
Surprisingly, Aton let it go. He lifted one hand, and a guard slipped into the shadows and headed for the door of the sturdy house. “I will release most of them. There are a few, however, who intrigue me. The summoner, for one.”
Zel’s blood chilled. Tanner or Ruiz—but not Tanner. There was something more than human about the man, but it wasn’t summoner blood. Ruiz. She’d been at the fight, and he’d talked to her once in that private room Cache created for conversation.
So easy to forget that the network wasn’t real. The only time he’d actually seen her had been a short glimpse before the trucks had left. If her summoner heritage was weak or distant, it might have gone unnoticed unless someone touched her.
Fuck.
“Yes, the little blonde. And her bondmate,” Aton added. “I’ll be keeping him, as well.”
Bondmate. One of the warriors had ferreted out Ruiz’s secret, then, and taken the steps to protect her. “Why do you want to keep them?”
Aton shrugged. “Because the girl seemed surprised, and the halfbreed barely seems to know her, yet he bound himself to her. They interest me.”
Getting Tanner and the other three warriors free would at least put more fighters on their side. “Promise me they won’t be harmed.”
“I have no intention of harming them.”
Which didn’t mean he wouldn’t. “Fine. I’ll stay here if you let the rest of them go.”
Aton smiled as if amused. “Very well. I agree.”
A line of figures materialized out of the darkness. They were chained together and moved slowly, but Zel recognized them immediately.
As they shuffled to a stop near Aton, he circled them, appraising them like horses for sale. “They are impressive fighters, all things considered. Very healthy, in spite of their subterranean existence. But this one…” He stopped beside Tanner and turned the man’s bruised face to his. “Quick to act and slow to heal. Not bright.”
Sleepy rage stared out of Tanner’s eyes, and Zel silently willed the man to be still. “He’s human.”
“This one?” The demon released Tanner with a quiet, quizzical noise. “He’s not human, not anymore.” Then he turned away. “Take them to the edge of camp and free them. If they return, kill them.”
“No.” The chains rattled as Tanner lurched toward Aton. “I’m not going.”
Aton didn’t look back. “If he continues to resist, kill the summoner.”
Tanner froze. Zel caught his gaze and shook his head, just a little. “They’ll leave and return to the settlement. Those are my orders.”
“Commendable,” Aton mused, “but hardly helpful. The only orders that matter are my own.”
Careful, Zel. Careful… “There’s nothing wrong in having a trusted subordinate reinforce a difficult order.”
Hearty laughter greeted his words, and Aton fixed him with a knowing stare. “You aren’t a trusted subordinate. You’re my son who despises me. The idea of me, anyway. The sheer, barbaric notion. You hate what I represent, what you think I did to your mother, and you hate that I am part of you.”
All truth, but Zel still smiled. “I wasn’t talking about your trust for me. I was talking about theirs.”
“A bemusing statement. Their trust does not matter. They are prisoners, not soldiers receiving orders.” Aton’s voice went flat, hard. “Prisoners who could easily die at my orders.”
&nb
sp; The creature that had fathered him might find strength amusing, but clearly insubordination would not be tolerated. Zel ignored the rage churning in his gut and nodded. “Acknowledged.”
He waved a hand, and the guards dragged the prisoners away. Jai wasn’t among them, and Aton watched him take note of the absence. “Jai, I believe? He’s with his summoner.”
Of course he was. Jai had grown up in a demon enclave. He of all people knew what was likely to become of a woman with summoner blood trapped in a warrior camp. Zel forced himself to remain calm as he asked the question that could kill Devi. “Is she unharmed?”
“Quite. As I said—” Aton’s lips twisted. “The warrior is bound to her. If she were hurt, he’d have fought until he fell, and they would both be dead.”
The sounds of the guards and his people had faded into the darkness, leaving an eerie silence broken only by the crackling of the fire and his own breathing. No conversation came from the small group of skins stretched out around the central campsite, all of their inhuman attention fixed on him.
He’d freed six prisoners. Two were left. Three, counting himself. Two-thirds of the way there. “So I’m here. What do you want from me?”
Aton waved again, and the skins around the fire scattered. He settled beside the flames and motioned for Zel to join him. “I wish to know you. For you to know me.”
By the time he got out of here, his teeth would be ground to powder. It hurt to sit, to guard every word knowing the wrong one could spell Ruiz’s or Jai’s death. Everything he hated about the petty diplomacy of the council had taken on life-or-death urgency, and it was the one battle for which he was wholly unprepared.
He couldn’t even think of anything smart to say. So stick to simple questions. Simple, at least, would make it harder to offend. Maybe. “Why do you want to know me?”
“Because we made you, Sora and I.” His fingers stroked over his cheek and the patch that rested there. “How is your mother?”