And now, because of my oversight, I’m roped into an uprising that’ll go against the three men who helped me, who saved me. The three men who have tapped away at the stone surrounding my heart.
I feel sick to my stomach.
“I thought you’d be a little more excited,” Luna says, her tone thoughtful. She isn’t watching me outrightly, but I know she’s keeping an eye on me, waiting to see how I’ll react, how I’ll move. So, I don’t. I rest my head on the back of my chair.
“Finally getting rid of these demons? I’m fucking ecstatic.”
“Of course, you are.” Her tone is still thoughtful, more that than convinced. Truthfully, I find it hard to care what Luna’s thinking right now, wanting to focus more on how to scrape my way out of this. “You were good. You dealt with them nicely. The same way –”
She breaks off. I look at her, knowing exactly what she was about to say. “Like my father?”
“He always knew how to calm the beasts. Different methods, of course. But same result.”
“It’s good to know that I’m just like daddy dearest. I hope if I ever go missing, you are all willing to go to war for me as well.” I say that last bit with a twinge more resentment than necessary and try to overshadow it by laughing. “Half the Guild will probably rejoice instead.”
Luna doesn’t laugh. “If you ever go missing, Melody, we’ll go to the end of the earth to find you. As we would for any other hunter. That’s our job. We protect the city and we protect each other above all.”
“Like you guys did for Natalia.” The words come out with more bitterness than I mean for them to. I’m getting worse at controlling my emotions.
“We did all we could for those missing hunters, Melody. There was no trace of them. As far as we knew, they just upped and disappeared. Like smoke, Melody, one moment they were there and they next, they weren’t. And they left nothing behind to help find them.”
Other than her apartment. But, if Mr. Black had sent search teams to go look there, and they had run into Lucifer like I did, I doubt it would have ended well. I doubt they would have even made it out alive.
“She had an apartment, you know,” I tell her. “It was a secret, of course. I went there from time to time. Even made friends with the security guard outside. I went there after Mr. Black announced their disappearance.” Luna looks at me and I can’t bring myself to say the words I’d been planning to. “But I didn’t find anything.”
She looks back ahead. “I don’t think I ever gave you my condolences. As busy as I was, I forgot. And I apologize for that.”
“Hey, don’t get all polite on me now. It’s okay. I wasn’t the best company.”
“No,” she says, lips twitching. “You weren’t.”
Even with everything that happened still resting on my mind, I laugh.
15
As soon as I walk in, I see Merlidon lounging on the couch, one arm draped over the back. He looks up when I walk in, that familiar languid smile stretching across his face, eyes sparking with mischief. “Nice set up you got here,” he says. “Who’d you fuck to get it?”
“Brotus,” I say and watch as the smile falls from his face.
“Lucifer asked us to take care of you. To fulfill all your needs, so that’s not at all surprising.” When he says the words I know he’s trying to convince himself more than anything. A shake of his head and then his attention is back to me. “But Brotus? Seriously? You call him instead of me?”
“Jealous?” I shoot back and head straight for the bedroom. He’s right on my heels.
“Offended, maybe. Well, not just maybe.”
I fall onto the bed and pull my hands up to cover my face. Merlidon doesn’t badger me about Brotus anymore. Instead, he settles down beside me.
“Something’s wrong,” he says, more gently than I’ve ever heard him speak.
I sigh, closing my eyes. The deep release of breath doesn’t help me at all. In fact, if anything, it seems to open my mind up to more hectic thoughts and I want to sigh again.
Merlidon doesn’t laugh, sneer, or do anything else he usually does. Instead, he pierces me with a concerned look.
“What happened?”
“It’s nothing –” I start without thinking but he growls, cutting me off. I blink at him in surprise.
“Melody, fuck that. Tell me what happened.”
I sigh again, and I see his frown deepen. “They’re planning an uprising.”
Merlidon’s muscles tense, as if he’s ready to spring and has to contain himself. The sudden movement has the bottom of my stomach lighting up. “What?” Merlidon whispers and I know he’s holding back more than he’s letting on.
“An uprising, Merlidon. I told them about Mr. Black’s disappearance and one of the Guild leaders told me about the stone they found in South Africa.” I look at him, piercing him with eyes that attests to the seriousness of the situation. “They’ve begun, Merlidon. They’ve begun their charge.”
I think of Lucifer again, of the anger I felt from him. Maybe this was the reason why. Maybe he already knows this is happening.
Finally, Merlidon springs to his feet, stalking around the room as frustration rolls off him in waves. I sit up, watching his long legs eat up the distance around him before he makes his way back to the bed, coming to sit before me. He brings his face close to me. “What did they say? How do they plan to go about this?”
“As far as I know, they don’t have anything solid yet. They have other items, not only the stone, and the general plan is to break those items apart and infuse them into our weapons.”
His eyes adopt a slightly wary, slightly curious look. “You don’t sound pleased by that. I thought you wanted us all destroyed.”
“If you think I still think like that Merlidon, then you’re stupider than you make yourself out to be.” Sighing, I lie back on the bed, this time on my stomach, and close my eyes. “If you need me to say the words, I’ll say them. No, Merlidon, I’m not keen on having any of you die.”
“You’re not keen on Lucifer dying.”
I huff out a breath. “If you die, Merlidon, who am I going to trade blows with?”
“I’m sure you can always find another punching bag.”
“You’re my favorite punching bag,” I say, closing my eyes again. “Slim, but sturdy. Just the way I like it.”
He doesn’t respond. But soon, I feel his hands on my shoulders, rubbing gently. I look at him again but he only smirks, though it’s nothing like the usual Merlidon. The usual Merlidon smirks to annoy the Hell out of me. This smirk seems tender, almost a smile. Maybe it is a smile. “You look tense,” he says as explanation.
I don’t have the energy to fight him. Not when his hands feel so good. I close my eyes again, enjoying the feel of his fingers, pushing into my muscles, easing the knots until they’ve become undone.
Just as complete relaxation hits, Merlidon flips me over with such force, I fall off the bed. Laughter roars from his lips as I go down, but I spring back up again, leaping onto the bed and pinning him beneath me. Hidden in my boots are my knives, one of which I pull out and put to his neck. His breath tickles my hand as he laughs.
“You fucked Brotus,” he says, pouting.
“And this is you punishing me for that?”
He shrugs, clearly not perturbed by the knife at his throat. We were in this same position not too long ago, me above him, my knife at his neck. Him laughing and me growling my anger in his face. Only this time, I’m laughing too, so much that my pose slackens and Merlidon takes that as an opportunity to flip me back on my back. This time, he’s the one straddling me and he pins my hands above my head.
“Got you,” he says, laughing.
My laugh is long gone. Heat spreads through my chest at his touch. His body above mine, his hands holding my wrists. I writhe beneath him, not able to help it, and the remainder of Merlidon’s smile falls, lust mapped onto his face. He licks his lips. I lick mine.
“Lucifer gave us orders be
fore he left,” he says lowly, eyes trailing down my face, my neck, my body.
I can hardly breathe. “Did he now?”
“Whatever you should need,” his eyes meet mine, intense, “we should give.”
Without stopping to think, I don’t say anything, only push my chest higher. An invitation? I’m not sure. But he surely takes it as one because he leans forward until our lips are a hair breadth apart.
Merlidon captures my lips with his, but, unexpectedly, he’s tender. He’s soft. He’s gentle. My craving for his touch mounts with each slow swipe of his tongue, each time he pulls my lip between his teeth. Without thinking, I wrap my arms around his neck.
Suddenly, he picks me up and I cling him to keep from falling. Merlidon grins when he sees the surprise in my eyes. I can’t help but laugh.
“You never know when to stop playing, do you?” I say between chuckles.
His only response is to nuzzle his lips into my neck, licking and biting, causing my laugh to fade into moans. I can feel his smile against my skin, but he keeps going.
“Who would have known?” I push out. “Your mouth isn’t just good at spitting insults.”
He lifts his head, grins that impish grin. An answering smile spreads across my face and I kiss him. I can’t help it.
Grabbing him by the shoulders, I push him back onto the bed. Merlidon laughs, placing his hands on my hips as I straddle him. Again, I’m laughing. Why am I always laughing around him?
“Easy there, tiger,” he says, still grinning. “I’m delicate.”
“You’re as delicate as Brotus’ left arm.” I descend onto his neck, feeling his body vibrate with yet another chuckle. They dissolve into his own breed of moans that spur me on.
It’s easy with him, I think. So easy. To laugh with him, to play with him, to bicker as if we’re old lovers. So easy to stoke fires of passion within me, then let me feel at ease, let me lash out the way I feel comfortable.
He isn’t the silent comfort Brotus is, nor is he the man of power that is Lucifer. He’s that witty demon with fingers that work magic, and a sense of humor not to be underestimated.
I keep going, trailing my way downwards. Not wanting to stop until I’ve set the bulge in his pants free. Not wanting to stop until I’ve taken every inch of him. But life, as usual, throws a curveball into my plans.
A scream rips through the air, causing the both of us to freeze. To listen out for the sound. My heart races as I register the direction it’s coming from. Not even a second later, I’ on my feet. “It’s Luna!” I’m already halfway to the door when Merlidon lifts himself from the bed. I don’t wait for him to follow. This, after all, isn’t his battle to fight. And more than anything, Merlidon does not belong here.
“Luna?” I yell, trying to unlock the door. When that doesn’t work, I bang clenched fists against its wooden surface. The screams have stopped, and in their place, a deadly silence fills the air. Again, my fists pound against the door. “Luna!!! Luuuunnnaaa!!!!”
Nothing. Merlidon’s hand on my shoulder is the reason I stop. “You’ll hurt yourself,” he says gently. “Let me.”
I watch, impatiently, as he balls a fist and slams it into the door. A previous shadow of that earlier desire sparks inside me at the display of strength but it’s gone a second later when I see the absolute chaos the room is in.
“Melody!”
I rush into the room, shouldering past Merlidon, not caring whether he came full glamored or not.
I find Luna in the bedroom, one hand stretched out to me. Behind her, a ball of white light glows almost blindingly. She reaches out to me as my feet carry me as fast as I can toward her. The faster I move the bigger the light glows. The bigger the light glows the more of Luna disappears into its depth. I charge forward even faster, hands outstretched. But it’s too late. I’m too late.
“No.” I stagger backwards, right into Merlidon. He catches me, whirls me into him, away from the spot where she stood.
“No,” I say again. Tears mark every inch of my cheek and I don’t make a move to remove them. Merlidon buries my face into his chest.
“It’s okay,” I hear him say. “It’ll be okay. We’ll find her. We’ll definitely find her.”
I want to believe him, but deep down I’m terrified that this is a battle we have no chance of winning.
Merlidon picks me up the way one would lift a small child. I don’t comment on the fact that I’m perfectly capable of walking because right now that doesn’t feel like the case. Carefully, as though I’m fragile enough to break, he lowers me onto the bed. Rather than getting in next to me, he stays standing.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers. The way he looks at me threatens to split my heart in two. I’ve never been viewed as weak. Never. But right now, there’s no denying that I’ve been robbed of all my strength. Emotionally I’m a goddamn wreck.
With his eyes still fixed on mine, Merlidon leans forward. The kiss he brushes against my forehead has more emotion attached to it than either of us can put into words. “I’ll give you some time to think.”
“No,” I say, my voice sounding world’s away. “Please stay.”
He crawls onto the bed, slowly as if trying not to startle me. I watch him, watch as he curls around my back, wrapping his arm over me. “It’s okay,” he says. He’s been saying that for a while now. “Everything’ll be okay.” I still don’t believe it.
16
Merlidon stirs in the bed behind me and I grumble, spinning around to face him. Except it’s not Merlidon I’m faced with. In his place is Lucifer. He gathers me close and presses a kiss to my forehead. A second later everything goes black. Now, we’re in his castle. In his bed.
“Where did Merlidon go?” I ask.
“I dismissed him.”
I don’t ask why he did it. Instead, I lead with the thing that’s pressing heavy on my mind. “They took her, Lucifer. They took her and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to stop them.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“I should have found him. I should have found the person behind this before he had the chance to strike again. I was so caught up in … in fucking politics, that I wasn’t focusing. And now she’s gone.”
“Melody,” he palms my cheek, forcing me to look back at him. Tenderness shines in his eyes, pleading with me to forgive myself. “It’s not your fault, okay? And you’ll find her. We will find her.”
I’m not convinced, but I nod anyway. “They’re starting an uprising. I’m sure you know.”
“I caught wind,” he says, letting out an exasperated breath. The Western Cape Guild has contacted the United States, England, and Australia.”
“Knocking out all the big leagues first, huh?”
He nods. “They were heading to China the last I checked. It’s moving fast. England has already begun with the modifications of their weapons.”
“I had to pledge allegiance to the cause. They caught me off guard. There’s no way I would have been able to say no.”
“I know.” He continues stroking my hair. “It’s alright, Melody. We’ll sort this out. In the meantime, I have some good news for you.”
“Which is?”
He pulls away and sits up, forcing me do the same. “I’ve found a way to contact the angels.”
I frown at that. “Really?”
“There’s a demon who resides near South Africa. During my trip, I decided to pay him a visit. He’s a man who has a lot of connections because of his … art.”
“Incubus?”
He grins. “Quick as usual. Yes, he is. And because of that, he has made quite a few friends in his lengthy lifetime. Angels included.”
“Angels mingling with an incubus. You never cease to blow my mind.” My tone is dubious and I know he doesn’t blame me. From my encounter with Charmeine, I’ve learned that angels are perhaps the most self-righteous beings in existence. Even more than their self-righteousness is their hate for demons. There’s no way an angel succumbed to an incub
us.
“I was as surprised as you were. When I went, I was thinking maybe he’d know someone who knew how to get to them, not that he knew them himself. But, apparently, angels are like demons in some ways. Apparently, they don’t all subscribe to the stereotype associated with their kind.”
I know he’s talking about himself as well. Lucifer likes to believe that he isn’t like other demons, that he actually wants to live in harmony with the humans rather than be in constant battle with them. When I first met him, I didn’t believe a word. Now, I know the real Lucifer isn’t the same as the one I was raised to despise.
“So, he seduced an angel. A fucking angel. Wow, Lucifer, you should give him a raise.”
His eyes light with humor. “He gets more than his fair share, trust me. Anyway, he told me how we can meet one.”
“So get on with it, will you?”
He clucks his tongue at me. “So impatient. It’s simple. He says all we have to do is pray.”
“Pray?” Surely, I heard wrong. “As in ‘clasp my hands and close my eyes, let us pray’ pray?”
“That, exactly. For those with the sight, they’ll appear. He gave me a name as well. Clariel.”
“We need to get out of here then,” I say getting off the bed. “Angels can’t come to Hell. I’m not even sure they can hear us from here.”
“We can’t go to the Guild either,” Lucifer says. He keeps his eyes on me as he rounds the bed and stands before me. “Too many eyes. Too many things that can go wrong.”
“So, where then?”
He takes my hand, a slow smile spreading across his face. “Why don’t we take it back to where this all started?”
“Please don’t tell me you’re talking about Natalia’s apartment?”
“Why not?” he says with a shrug. “The walls are soundproof. Whatever goes on inside won’t be heard by the neighbors.”
Hunting Light: Hunter her Lovers (Demon Hunter Book 2) Page 11