by Lizzy Ford
“I’m sure he didn’t mean for that to happen,” Hannah said, sounding unconvinced. Katie glanced at her troubled sister, unable to help the guilt she felt at Hannah’s look.
“He means well. He said he sent someone to find you,” she forced herself to say. “He’s kinda got a whole bunch of people to worry about.”
“I know, Katherine. I’m not upset at him. I just wasn’t expecting to be confronted with … what were those things?”
“Demons.”
“Not what you want to see when you’ve just taken the most heavenly bath.”
“Probably not.”
“You did really good back there,” Hannah said, turning her winning smile on Katie. “I’m impressed, little sis.”
Despite her anger at her sister, Katie felt the warm smile affect her. Hannah used that smile to charm everyone from waiters to potential boyfriends, but it was nice to have her sister smile at her rather than remark about how disappointed she was.
“You think Kris is okay?” Hannah asked, her smile fading. “I feel like we ran off and left him.”
“You don’t want to be there to see how bad things get,” Katie advised.
“You don’t worry about Rhyn?”
Katie hesitated, her hand going to the tattoo at her neck. “I do, but I know he’s the scariest thing out there. I don’t think anything can hurt him.”
She found herself hoping Gabriel made it here before Rhyn did. She’d been so pissed at him, she’d told him what she’d planned to keep from him. A sense of desperation almost took her strength away. She dropped to her knee and pretended to retie her shoe.
Gabriel was coming for her and the life growing within her. She could barely fathom what that meant. She didn’t understand much of the Immortal world, but she knew Death always won. In Gabriel’s mind, he’d already killed her, or he wouldn’t have looked at her with regret instead of pity.
“Hannah, I need to lie down,” she said and rose unsteadily. “Go eat and I’ll see you later.”
She turned without waiting for her sister to respond and made her way to her room. Her emotions crippled her, and she flung herself on the bed, sobbing.
*
Rhyn slammed Tamer to the ground one last time, too incensed to notice his half-brother was trying desperately to tap out. Kiki grabbed his arm and yanked to get his attention.
“Enough, Rhyn!” he shouted.
Rhyn blinked and stepped back. Tamer was still for a long moment, until Kiki shoved a foot beneath his belly and rolled him over. The large man gasped for air, his eye swollen already.
“Can we count you in?” Kiki asked.
Tamer nodded. Kiki extended a hand and pulled him up. Rhyn paced, eyeing Erik, whose bloodied nose had finally stopped bleeding. His tactics would never earn anything but scorn from Kris, but they worked.
“I’ll send my men,” Tamer grunted. “Tell Kris— next time he wants something— to call instead of sending this animal.”
“Enough from both of you,” Kiki said. “I think we need to get a few things straight before we go.”
Rhyn ceased pacing, and Erik frowned.
“One, what do we want to do about Sasha?”
“Kill him,” Tamer said without hesitation.
“Yep,” Erik agreed.
“Let Darkyn have him,” Rhyn growled.
“The consensus is that Sasha dug his own grave,” Kiki said. “Two, what are we going to do when Kris chooses the Code and his oath over our unanimous vote to kill Sasha?”
Three pairs of eyes went to Rhyn, who stood ready to take on any of them that mentioned leaving the Council.
“We fucking live with it,” Tamer said with a scowl. “Even though Sasha is going to kill us all.”
“Very well,” Kiki said. “Next, how soon can you all have your men to the castle to kill some demons? Mine are on the way.”
“As are mine,” Erik said.
“I’ll send them now,” Tamer said.
“Best Council meeting ever,” Kiki declared. “Rhyn, to the castle?”
Rhyn gave a nod, hands clenching at the thought of facing off against some demons. Kiki tucked his iPad under his arm and opened a portal through which all three went before Rhyn followed. They emerged into the castle, and he sensed the demons before he’d even set foot into the hallway outside of Kris’s conference room. A blow sent him smashing into a wall, and he morphed instantly, diving at the demons chasing his brothers as they retreated through the burnt doorway of Kris’s chambers to search for weapons. He tore through the demons and panted as he waited for his brothers.
“I see Kris on the park,” Kiki called from the window. “Never seen so many demons!”
Tamer emerged from Kris’s chamber into the hallway first, armed with a scythe and a bo, while Erik followed with a long sword. Kiki trailed with nothing more than his iPad and a long knife. Rhyn snorted at him as Kiki strapped the iPad around his body.
They charged through the hall toward the stairs and descended to the main floor. Rhyn was the first to engage any demon in his way while Tamer and Erik beheaded every creature that crossed their paths. Rhyn led them down the main floor and out the front door, slamming into one of Kris’s Immortals by accident.
“Rhyn, you idiot!” Tamer shouted.
Rhyn righted himself, unconcerned, and barreled toward the demons. Kris’s two-to-one advantage had dwindled, and Darkyn didn’t hesitate to unleash every demon he could. Kris and a few of his Immortals were surrounded in the middle of the park while demons darted from the forest to attack pockets of Immortals. The snow was drenched with blood, like an Immortal snow cone. Kris, he knew, was the best Immortal warrior ever known.
Rhyn tackled one of the demons who took down Kris’s wingman and slashed its throat open. He fought with unrestrained fury, not wanting to stop and think of the most ridiculous thought ever to cross his mind. That he, a half-demon, half-Immortal who had spent the better part of his years in Hell, was looking at becoming the first of his brothers to father a hatchling …
Confusion and rage blinded him, and he threw himself into the battle, not noticing the nicks and bruises his opponents inflicted upon him. He focused on the taste of their warm blood and on tearing them limb from limb.
In his blood-filled haze, he heard one of his brothers shout, and the demons shift their focus from Kris’s small group— which Rhyn defended— to the warriors pouring out of portals onto the small battlefield. He fought until the yard was lit only by the castle’s outer lighting, then onward to dawn, free after so long restraining himself around the Immortals and humans.
Stability. It was a word Andre had used that Rhyn never understood. For once, Rhyn knew some sort of stability within himself, no doubt because of his bond to Katie.
He tore apart a demon and stood breathless, seeking his next opponent, only to see the body-strewn park was empty of living demons in the early morning light. He panted, agitated by the snowfall and not having anything else to kill. Everywhere around him, the Council’s Immortals were finishing off the few demons remaining.
“Rhyn?” Kiki asked uneasily as the half-demon approached.
“You’ll have a sword to the throat if you don’t transform,” Kris snapped.
Rhyn growled but shifted to his human shape. His skin and clothing was soaked with demon blood, and Kiki gave him a long look.
“Where’s Katie?” Rhyn demanded.
“They’re fine. I evacuated the castle,” Kris said. His white hair was streaked red with blood, his roving gaze tired. “Kiki, I owe you. Whatever you said to bring the others back, thank you.”
“You can thank Rhyn for beating some sense into us,” Kiki replied.
Rhyn met his eldest brother’s gaze, not expecting any words of appreciation and not disappointed. Kris turned away and maneuvered through the piles of dead-dead Immortals and demons toward Tamer.
“Kiki, I need a count of living and dead-dead Immortals!” he ordered.
Irritation flashed acr
oss Kiki’s face, and Rhyn raised an eyebrow in warning.
“Fine,” he grated.
“The Council needs to come with me,” Kris added. “That includes you, Rhyn.”
“You can leave Rhyn out,” Erik said.
“I’ll sit outside the door to make sure no one leaves,” Rhyn suggested. The dangerous note in his voice drew Kris’s attention. Kris looked at each of the brothers then back at him, as if forced to acknowledge what— or who— had compelled them back. He said nothing of his thoughts but strode into the castle.
Rhyn didn’t want to follow. He wanted to track any remaining demons in the forest and kill them, too. He trailed his brothers. Kris didn’t go far, just far enough to be out of earshot of the Immortals.
“We need to find Sasha,” he said grimly.
“And kill him,” Erik added, earning a sharp look.
“He took the vial of blood he brought with him,” Kris said. “The next time the demons attack, they may be immune to death by our hands. Kiki, Rhyn, check our father’s crypt. You two come with me.”
Tamer grumbled but obeyed, and Rhyn shook out his tense body.
“The last thing I want to do is go down there,” Kiki said. “You’re not pissed about the display, are you?”
Rhyn eyed him and started down the hall, not caring what his brother thought of anything at the moment. He trotted through the body-littered floor to the back stairwell. Kiki followed him through to the basements, and Rhyn stopped in front of the door to his father’s crypt. The door hung by a single hinge. He saw before entering that the sarcophagus was gone.
He explored the crypt, gaze going to the display of his mother on one wall. He felt the sense of foreboding again, the unseen danger toward Katie. His eyes traveled to where his father had lain.
The son of a demon and an Immortal had turned out too fucked up for anyone to tolerate. He doubted Katie would be anything like a demon mother, and yet, he could see the both of them ending up as his father and mother did: dead-dead before their child was six. He wondered what a half-human son would be like, and his thoughts went to Gabriel, who started out human before turning Immortal. Bitterly, he realized he didn’t know who had the best chance of killing them: the Dark One, the demons, or one of his brothers.
She’d be better off without you. He’d wanted to continue denying the words of his brothers. Gazing at his dismembered mother, he couldn’t help thinking they were right. Everyone who had ever been close to him died horribly. His chest grew tight at the thought of Katie’s fate if she stayed with him. Now, there was something else to consider. His gaze went to the statue of him.
“There’s nothing here,” Kiki said with a frown. “C’mon.”
*
And still Darkyn pursued her in her nightmares. Katie jerked awake from the latest one where she and Toby were running from the unseen demon down a sandy beach. The first light of day filtered in through the small square window above her bed. The creaky bed protested as she sat, and she tried hard not to make more noise and wake Toby. She slid her feet into plain sandals provided by the convent along with her plain sweats and T-shirt. The Caribbean air was heavy, the ocean chill warmer than the weather at the castle. She wasn’t hungry but walked toward the cafeteria so she wouldn’t be alone with her thoughts.
A breakfast buffet lined one end of the cafeteria, with brown-robed women moving in between the food and the kitchen. Two Immortal mates were already eating, and she looked over the food with disinterest. The makeshift bar in the corner, however, drew her attention.
“Excuse me.”
She turned to see Helga, the woman who had greeted them when they arrived.
“We had an Immortal wash up on our shores last night. He’s alive but a frightful mess, and we haven’t been able to identify him. I thought I’d ask before you sat down for breakfast.”
“I doubt I’ll be much help,” she said. “I’m rather new to this world.”
“The ladies eating didn’t know him either. I have to keep checking though,” the woman said with a level of determination that made Katie smile.
“I’ll come with you,” she said. “I take it this guy is unconscious?”
“Yes. Our healer did what we could. We think he might be an Ancient, but he’s so weak and his face has been so damaged, we can’t tell.”
Katie stopped in place, her chest growing tight. Helga turned to look at her curiously, and she forced herself forward.
“You don’t normally allow Ancients inside the walls,” she said. “You made an exception?”
“He was mostly dead when we fished him out of the bay. When he’s strong enough, we can send him outside the walls.”
Katie couldn’t help the sense of panic growing within her. She rubbed her scarred arm and glanced up at the sky, which had begun to lighten. Helga led her to the men’s wing of the Sanctuary and opened a door to a room smaller than Katie’s.
Sasha’s face was a mottled mess that made him resemble Frankenstein’s monster, with newly sewn stitches holding together the edges of swollen red gashes. She took in the bandages around his chest and arms. He looked as if he’d survived a run-in with a blender.
“He is an Ancient,” she said. “Sasha.”
Helga gasped. “The first to betray the Council and serve the Dark One?”
“The only to betray the council and serve the Dark One!” Katie shot back in irritation. Rhyn had done neither of those things, despite the legend he had! The distinction was lost on Helga, whose look of horror made Katie pity the woman.
“He cannot be here,” Helga said. “But by the Code, I cannot throw him outside the walls when he is so injured.”
Katie hesitated to speak her mind, her gaze taking in Sasha’s beat-up body. It wasn’t a coincidence he was there. She debated with herself about his intentions. Would he go to this extent to be granted admittance, even though he might not survive long enough to get whatever it was he came for? What had he come for? Her or Hannah? Refuge from the demons?
“Was he carrying anything?” she asked. “Or was there anything in his pockets?”
“I’m not sure. If he was, it would be in the trunk under his bed.”
Katie inched forward, terrified he’d leap off the bed to attack her. She eased the small trunk out from under his bed and carried it into the hallway. She set it down and opened it. His shredded clothing had been laundered and folded. Pulling it out, she sucked in a breath and withdrew a familiar vial of blood. She stared at the discovery in her hands. With the castle flooded by demons, she didn’t know where she could take the vial to keep it from Sasha when he woke.
Whatever Sasha’s plan had been, it must’ve backfired. He’d never risk losing something so valuable! Without replacing the clothing, she tucked the vial into her pocket and rose.
“Is there an Immortal named Ully here?” she asked.
“Not that I recall,” Helga said. “There are four Sanctuaries. The Ancient Kris probably contacted the other three, because we only have about forty Immortal refugees here now. We’re the smallest Sanctuary by far.”
“You need to toss him outside the walls, fast,” Katie said. “Or you’re risking the lives of everyone here.”
Helga appeared aghast, then torn. Katie strode back to her room, mind racing. Rhyn might come if she called him. Or he might not after her accidental slip-up. Either way, she feared seeing him again before she had her it’s-not-me-it’s-you speech ready. She opened her door and glanced over at Toby then did a double-take. The youth sitting on Toby’s bed wasn’t Toby.
“Who are you?” she demanded, startled.
“Toby, Mama,” he said with a snicker. The kid on the bed was closer to twelve than five, and near her height. She stared at him hard, recognizing the brown eyes but not the lean face and body.
“Today must be your birthday,” Helga said from the doorway.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Someone care to explain?” Katie asked.
“Angels jump from age to
age. They mature slowest of all Immortals, but when they hit certain points in angel years, they jump to the next human stage of maturity,” Helga said. “It’s fascinating. We raised an angel here for several hundred millennia. You wake up one day and find he’s turned from child to man overnight.”
Just when she thought she understood the rules of the Immortals, they changed.
“A hungry man,” Toby added.
“I forgot your cocoa and marshmallows in my suitcase at the castle,” she said. “I’ll bring them back with your toys next time I go there.”
“I’m not six anymore, Mama. I’m going to breakfast.”
She stood out of his way, barely able to care for a child and at a loss as to what to do with a boy on the verge of becoming a teenager. As if unaccustomed to his longer legs, Toby tripped twice on his way to the door, stabilized himself, then started forward more cautiously.
Katie waited until he was gone then shook her head, tired of Immortal surprises. Her hand went to her pocket, where the vial was.
“I need to get this someplace safe before Sasha wakes up,” she said. “Another Sanctuary maybe, so I can find my friend Ully?”
“Your mate can help you, can’t he?” Helga asked with a glance at her neck.
“He’s sort of busy fighting demons.”
“Then I can help you get to the Indian Ocean Sanctuary.”
“I feel like I should take my sister and Toby with me. If you throw Sasha out, can you keep him from entering?”
“No, we cannot. It’s an informality that the Ancients respect about visiting us,” Helga said. “But, we can try to keep him asleep. You came with a healer, didn’t you?”
“Yes, Lankha.”
“I’ll have this Lankha keep the Ancient in a deep sleep until you return.”
Katie hesitated again, afraid to leave her sister after the demons invaded the castle. The vial had to go to Ully, though, and at some point, she’d have to face Rhyn. For the first time since meeting him, she almost preferred to deal with Kris.
“If anything happens …” There was nothing anyone could do, least of all her. She couldn’t bring herself to voice the words out loud. Helga gave her a warm smile.