by Kim Faulks
“The hell I don’t.” I punched the mass of soft down. “Let me through, now!”
The wing gave a shudder and then lowered. Headlights from my sedan splashed. I skimmed the ground and stopped at the hellhound’s feet.
She was just a darkened blur. A tiny, curled-up, darkened blur. My heart smashed against my ribs as I took a step forward.
“Is she…” my hollow words bounced off the walls. I wrenched my gaze to the orange flames in Rival’s eyes. “Is she…”
“She’s not dead, if that’s what you’re asking!” he snarled, and reached for her.
“Wait!” I shoved Gabriel’s wing further aside, catching sight of the cuts on her face and blood on her hands. I swallowed…and swallowed, not wanting to look between her thighs. “She’s a damn crime scene.”
Orange flames turned red with rage. The hair on the back of my neck rose as Rival growled. “You think I care about that now?”
“You will…” I lifted a hand, palm up as I knelt beside her. I couldn’t look…not yet. “You will when it comes to finding this sonofabitch.”
Her beautiful red hair fanned out against the filthy ground. My damn fingers trembled as I reached for her…they never trembled.
I never trembled.
Not in the last fifteen years.
Until now.
“Has she been…” Gabriel muttered cold, empty words.
I wanted to touch her cheek…her soft beautiful cheek, but she was a mass of scratches and blood. The cop in me was looking for evidence and searching for clues.
But the man in me wanted to pull her into my arms and take her far away from this place.
I pressed my fingers against the hollow of her neck and waited. The throb was strong and steady. She was alive...that was all that mattered. I glanced over her body, lingering on her thighs.
Rival shoved her shirt upward. Her jeans were still buttoned tight. There was no blood, no marks on anything other than her face and her hands.
“Maybe she fought them off?” The hellhound muttered, and gently cupped her hand in his. “Yeah, that’s our Lorn. She’d fight.”
“We need to get her to a hospital.”
Rival yanked his gaze to mine. “Why?”
“Look at her, for Christ’s sake!” I brushed her hair from her cheek.
But he crouched beside her, almost shielding her from me. “No, no hospital. Humans don’t understand our kind.”
“That’s fucking ridiculous,” I snapped. “They’ve got their own doctors and a whole fucking ward that’s specialized.”
“No fucking hospital,” the hellhound warned as he slid one arm under her knees and the other around her back.
He was standing before I knew it, cradling her against him. Anger tore through me like a gunshot. I ground my jaw, staring at the scratches on her face. I’d never been a jealous man. Never wanted to be one, either.
I clenched my fist to still the shakes as Gabriel took a step closer. “I agree, no hospital.”
I wrenched my gaze toward him. “Really? You, too?”
There was hurt and sadness in his eyes as he stared at her. “We don’t know who did this. We don’t know anything…yet.”
He dropped his gaze to the ground and pointed. “Her journal.”
“I got it,” Rival glared, and bent with Lorn in his arms.
The pages flapped and fluttered as the book skimmed across the ground. I lunged for the damn thing, until a heavy hand slapped the cover closed and snatched it away. The burning flames of Hell sparked and danced…there was danger in his eyes, one I’d never seen before as he growled. “I said, I got it.”
Let it go…I straightened as anger flared again.
Just let it go. He’s worried. I glanced at Lorn, so still in his arms…we all are.
My stomach churned and burned as I gave a nod and jerked my head toward the car. “Then let’s get her home.”
Footsteps echoed, followed by the scrape of wings as Gabriel turned. “I want to hold her.”
“No,” Rival snapped. “She stays in the back with me.”
Gabriel’s blue eyes flared neon bright. There was a ruffle of his feathers as he took a step as they passed. “That’s not fair.”
“Deal with it,” the hellhound spat over his shoulder.
The bastard wasn’t playing. He was not playing.
Blonde hair caught the breeze as Gabriel swung his gaze to me. I shook my head. There was nothing we could say or do until we got her home safe.
I made for the open driver’s door as everyone piled in. Gabriel grunted and groaned, contorting his body to fit his wings in. The hard joint smacked into the windshield and was followed by the tinny sound of breaking glass.
“Sorry,” he muttered.
I shook my head. Claw marks punctured the headrest, and now this…I was past the point of giving a shit. “Don’t even worry about it,” I answered and yanked the door closed.
One glance behind me was all I needed. Rival had his head down, fingers trembling as he brushed the back of his knuckles across her blood-smeared face.
I shoved the car into reverse and backed out of the alley. The headlights bounced off broken glass. I hated leaving her car behind, hated leaving any part of her behind.
I tapped the brakes, easing the car to a stop, and then back into gear. There was no room for that now. No room for anything other than her.
Her whimper filled the space. Breaths stilled, everything stilled. The mark on my shoulder flared to life, burning bright and hot under my shirt. I glanced toward the others as I pulled the car out onto the street.
The same mark burned bright on them. Gabriel reached for his pen and massaged the muscle. In the rear-view mirror, the hellhound just closed his eyes.
All three of us carried her mark. It was the only thing we had.
The only thing that tied us to her.
The only thing that led us blindly through the streets of Midnight to find her.
“Easy,” snarled the hellhound.
My jaw tightened, my hands followed suit, strangling the wheel. The guy was starting to get on my fucking nerves. Territorial bastard. Still, I took the corners a little easier, rode the brake a little smoother, all the way home.
The restaurant was still alight as I pulled up to the curb. I scanned the front, catching the smashed front window and winced. I thought this side of the line she’d be safe…accepted, even. But the whole damn place was becoming unstable.
Time to get out, that voice in my head warned me. Time to leave the city and its festering sewers behind. Doors flew open as I shoved the car into gear and switched off the engine.
This time, I was the one out first, scanning the streets. I had no gun on my hip now. No silver rounds of protection. I glanced at the others as they climbed out. First Gabriel, as he glanced along the streets, following my lead, and then Rival as he kicked open the back door.
All I had were these two fucking chumps. I glanced behind me, stepping close and shoving the back door closed.
“All good?” Rival murmured.
“So far.” I motioned toward the apartment and pressed the remote.
Orange lights flared once in the dark as the locks engaged, then I was moving, scanning every fucking corner I could and made for the front of the building.
Lucifer’s bitch! The words were sprayed over the glass doors. The paint still fucking drying in the night air.
“Sonova…” I snarled and wrenched my gaze over my shoulder. “Heads up.”
They moved together, Heaven on one side, and Hell on the other, as all three of us mounted the stairs. I shoved through the doors and scanned the foyer.
The place was quiet, until a rumble and then a thud came from the apartment underneath Lorn’s. Don’t worry about Ace, Lorn once told me. The kid is a harmless Sorcerer.
Something heavy dragged its foot inside that apartment, and the sickening snort that followed at the lock made the hair on my arms stand on end.
Harmless,
my fucking ass.
“We good?” Rival shifted closer behind me.
I tilted my head, listened, and then answered. “Yeah, we’re good.”
I mounted the stairs first, taking two at a time until I reached our door….our door. I shoved the key into the lock and felt the wards around the apartment close around me.
It’d been so easy, and fast. One minute, we were chasing bad guys together, and the next, I was falling head over fucking knife-hidden heels.
Rival pushed past me as the door swung open. Gabriel was next, curling his spine to fit through the gap.
The man was a mountain, and quirky as fuck—and the hellhound…he was a temperamental, alpha-driven sonofabitch.
Rival lowered her to the sofa and then knelt at her side.
We were all learning how to do this…how all of us can be with her—and not tear each other apart.
“She’s not waking up.” He just stared at her and then lifted his gaze. Flames blazed in his eyes, but underneath the searing heat was the shine of tears. The guy was losing his shit as he murmured, “I don’t know what to do.”
Gabriel turned his head and looked at me. “You two are the supes, why the hell are you looking at me?”
“You know her better,” Gabriel answered. “She tells you more.”
Jesus. I neared the sofa and stared at her. This was why I wanted to take her to the damn hospital. I didn’t understand their kind. What kind of weakness did Lucifer’s daughter have, anyway?
I knelt beside her and brushed back her hair. God, she was beautiful, heart-stabbing beautiful. “One of you get a cloth so I can clean her.”
Heavy boots echoed as Gabriel raced along the hallway and headed to the bathroom. I scanned her shirt, and then her body. Her arms were bloody and raw. Her hands, smeared with dirt and grit…no, not grit…earth. Like she’d been clawing her way out of a freshly dug grave. “You seeing this?”
“Don’t have to see it,” Rival muttered, and winced. “I can smell it.”
I lifted her hand and stared at the blood and dirt. Her nails were torn down to the flesh—defensive wounds.
A warm cloth hit the back of my hand and a soft towel followed. I stared at her face, searching for hair or blood that wasn’t bright red. “I’m not trained for this shit,” I swore as I jerked my gaze to Rival. “You need to tell me what the fuck I’m missing here.”
He just nodded and stared as I cleaned and dried. It was worse than it looked. The scratches on her cheek were bad, but there were only a few.
She shivered as I moved lower, finding a bite mark on her shoulder. “Help me get her undressed.”
“But what if…what if she…” Gabriel tried to find the words we were all thinking.
“Then we man the fuck up and we deal with it. We take care of her, and then we take care of the bastard who did this. Either way, no one is sleeping, no one is eating—not until we find the person who did this—”
“And send them to Hell.”
“Unseelie,” she murmured, stilling my hand. “Unseelie.”
There was a flinch from the hellhound before his top lip curled. Gabriel closed in as I listened. “What about unseelie, Lorn?”
Her pale lips moved, her breath was warm and soft on my arm. “Unseelie.”
“Redemption. He did this,” Rival’s gaze turned cold and hard.
I shook my head. “We don’t know that.”
He jerked his head to me and spat, “The hell we don’t. First he conspires with Alma to leave her starving and broke, and now the bastard’s manipulating her emotions.”
He shoved up from the floor and strode toward the window.
“Unseelie,” she snarled, and then opened her eyes.
“Jesus, Lorn,” Gabriel lunged, reaching over me to grasp her hand in his.
But there was no answer, no response of any kind.
She stared into nothing and spoke again. “Unseelie.”
“Titus.”
I tore my gaze from her unseeing eyes to Rival. He still held her journal.
The cover was open, the pages bare.
“You have to see this,” cold…cold words.
They chilled me to the bone.
I dropped the cloth to the floor and rose. Gabriel closed in as I strode to the hellhound’s side. He opened the front cover and flicked through the pages.
There was nothing.
No writing, not even a mark.
All heads turned toward her. She’d clutched the damn thing like her life was written in the pages. She never let us near it, never wanted us to know.
Her mother’s journal was empty.
The whole thing was nothing more than a lie.
Chapter Thirteen
Lorn
No…no…no. I clawed and fought in the dark. Scratching…scratching…
Get off me…Get off!
Dark eyes, and a sunken face seized me. Its nails cut me, stinging my face, tearing my skin.
You belong to me…the thing hissed. You belong here, with me.
Always with me…
For the unseelie…
No…no…no. Panic was a fist clenched around my throat. I couldn’t breathe…couldn’t fight…couldn’t do anything. Darkness smothered me. Darkness and death. Taking me back there in the cold and wet…taking me back to him…to the one who waited in the shadows…to the unseelie.
Stay with me, Lorn…I flinched with the woman’s voice in my head.
I knew that voice…I’d heard that voice.
It lulled me away from the nightmare, comforting me, calling me.
Stay with me Lorn. Over here…I’m waiting. Can’t you hear me…the journal, honey…it’s the journal.
It’s true, I think I’m in love, the words cut through as the vision of the diner filled me. The same diner from my mom…I flinched and moved toward her.
That’s the way…you stay here in the light, with those who love you.
Stay with your lovers, Lorn. Stay right here, hold them tight…and don’t ever leave.
She’s hunting you.
She’ll find you in the dark…
Stay with me…her voice turned desperate and pleading. You have to understand what happened…stay with me…stay with me, Lorn!
December! Mom roared in my head, and the vision took hold.
Jay is not the man I fell in love with. He’s cruel and secretive and he looks at me as though he hates me, and I’m here trying to understand why?
I keep trying to talk to him. I keep trying to find out why he’s being like this, but he won’t answer my questions. He won’t even see me standing right in front of him.
He stays out late every night now, and when he comes home…when he comes home, he scares me. He whimpers and cries in his sleep. Last night he said something over and over…The Nine, whatever that is.
I tried to ask him this morning. Tried to find out who these nine are.
He clenched his fist, like he was going to hit me again, and then just left.
He is not the man I fell in love with. But I’m carrying his child.
She grows inside me…I know it’s a she, and all I can do is pray we make it through this alive. Hold on to me, little one…hold on…
The clash of a pan jerked me awake. I blinked and opened my eyes to the glare of the sun.
The place was quiet…too damn quiet.
I stretched out, finding the bed cold beside me, and then lifted my head.
Titus and Rival stood at the foot of the bed. Neither of them moved. Neither of them spoke. “Are you two damn statues?”
There was a flinch, and then a turn of their heads, but not toward me…toward each other. I dropped back down against the mattress and felt the twinge of pain. “What the fuck is wrong with you two?”
“You don’t remember?” Titus murmured and stepped around the side of the bed.
“Remember what?” I growled and reached for my face.
The sting made me hiss. Deep gouges covered my face. “Rival…was
this you?”
“Fuck no,” the hellhound snarled, fire burning in his eyes. “You think I’d do something like that to you?”
I wanted to smile at his words. I wanted to say something pithy and smart just to rile him up. But the spark of satisfaction quickly died away…as I realized they weren’t joking.
I shoved up from the bed and sucked in a breath. Agony tore along my side, and then speared across my chest. I lifted my hands to the raised marks on my face. “What happened to me?”
“We don’t know,” Titus answered. “We were hoping you’d tell us.”
I tried to think…tried to remember. But there was a fog inside my head, thick and black, like a wall I couldn’t get through. I pushed against that wall, pushed until pain flared across my temple. “I can’t…I don’t know.”
“Anything?” Rival moved closer. “What’s the last thing you do remember?”
Stay with me, Lorn.
Stay with your lovers.
She’s hunting you!
The words were snatched away in a second, and out of that desperate scream came a memory. Heat tore through my body as the image of Titus above me came to life.
Slick skin, hard cock…pounding…thrusting, making me shudder and quake. I swallowed hard and tried to move forward past the vision…
The heady scent of his hound filled me as Rival leaned close. “Well?”
Panic flared, mingling with the heat between my thighs. My nipples hardened, flesh tightening and puckering under my shirt.
“Lorn,” Gabriel moaned, and clutched the doorway. “What the hell are you doing?”
A low growl rumbled from Rival’s chest. I clenched the edge of the mattress and lifted my gaze. Fire and lust raged.
“Lorn,” the hellhound murmured.
I shook my head. “I-I d-don’t know…I don’t know what’s happening to me.”
Light flared from the mark on his chest. I shuddered, clenched my thighs tight as the wave of desire cut me to the core.
The movement deepened Rival’s snarl. “Don’t move,” he warned, dark eyes alight with need. “Don’t say or do anything.”
“Lord have mercy,” Gabriel gasped.
I lifted my gaze to Titus, who looked at me with the stony gaze of a murderer. The mark flared under his smeared white shirt, but it was his trousers that moved. His cock thickened, pushing against his zipper.