Chaos Rises: A Veil World Urban Fantasy

by Pippa Dacosta

  I was still human, barely. Demon sensations strummed beneath my skin and twitched through my muscles. I leaned right into him, pressing all of me against all of the best parts of him, and breathed in through my nose and over my tongue, drinking his scent down deep, where it stirred the heat in my belly. A shudder tracked through my human body. His too. I might have said something, but I’d already forgotten what it was, and when I nuzzled his neck, my teeth audibly chattered. If I let my demon go, I’d tear into him. I’d hurt him, and I didn’t want that. I want this. I wanna hurt him until he cries out for more.

  Tremors spilled through him, and where my thigh pressed against the heat of his, very real and ready hardness strained against his pants. I nearly broke then, to know he liked this. My cheek brushed the fine stubble along his jaw. He breathed fast, and I fancied I could hear his heart pounding with mine. How far could I go?

  “I don’t break easily,” he whispered.

  Whether that was an invitation or a threat, I wasn’t sure. He wasn’t fully demon, just the wings, and the all-over ripple of his elemental touch—a touch that licked up my back between my shoulders, leaving the promise of where his mouth and tongue might later follow. This was so wrong, so demon, and I was a hair’s breadth away from losing it.

  “You’ve never rucked as demon, have you?” His words touched me where no one else ever had. “You’ve never let go of your control?” He didn’t move, even though he could have. He could have pushed me off, could have fought me. He was physically stronger, we both knew it, but he didn’t fight. His compliance only made it worse—or better. I couldn’t tell which. I had to get control. This wasn’t the place or the time to experiment. If I’d wanted him, I shouldn’t have given him up to Allard.

  My lips brushed his ear. “Listen, listen to me.” It was a struggle, but I managed to hide the words in hisses. “He’s coming for you. We have to leave. Now.”

  The change came over Torrent as hard as a lightening strike. He slammed his hands into my chest, launching me across the poolside. It happened too fast for me to register the pain until I found myself sprawled among the loungers, my arousal dampened and my hip burning where I’d hit tiles.

  “You told him we’re here?” he snarled, stalking forward. His wings flicked outward—the demon equivalent of cracking his knuckles—and fury peeled his lips back from sharp teeth. And all I could think was how he looked…glorious. The rippling pool light illuminated his wing arches, making him seem twice as big, twice as formidable. Yes, my demon purred, we want him under us.

  “Why would you—” He snapped his gaze toward the gate, and with an audible pop, his wings collapsed into a wash of water.

  I felt it then too, the incoming wave of power. Torrent snatched his coat and crossbow, but it was too late.

  The gate flung open, and Allard’s guards spilled through the gap, branching out to surround us. I struggled to get to my feet just as Allard appeared. The demon dealer lifted his head and favored me with a questioning look. The light from the pool rippled over his proud face, washing his skin of all color but rippling blue. He didn’t look any different for his brush with my ice, but it was the damage I’d done to his ego that mattered.

  Torrent wavered between me and Allard. He held the bow in his right hand, pointed down at the ground. Don’t. I silently begged. Don’t attack. We were surrounded, and even if Torrent got a shot off, it wouldn’t do anything more than further annoy Allard. C’mon, Torrent. Be smart like I know you are. You can’t fight them all. There was only one thing he could do.

  He stepped forward, dropped to one knee in front of Allard, and bowed his head, as he had on the pier.

  He was wrong, I realized. Half bloods did get a choice. He chose to live and fight another day.

  “Where’s my brother?” My voice bounced around the poolside. Maybe I’d wake some of the hotel guests, and maybe they’d call the cops. I could hope. Although, if the cops caught any whiff of demon, they’d send the Institute. At this point, the Institute was looking like a viable alternative.

  “I tried,” Allard said, his award-winning smile pinned to his charming face. “He didn’t want to come.”

  “Liar.”

  “Gem, it’s the truth.” He said it in the same voice he used on me when trying to humor the silly half blood.

  “You’re holding him somewhere.”

  Allard’s eyes flashed a warning, and his tone leveled. “Delta is exactly where he wants to be. Come back with me, and you’ll see. Despite what you believe, I have no intention of hurting you or Torrent. You’re both…” He paused and looked down at the half blood prostrate before him. “You’re both very important.”

  “At Vanessa’s…”

  He opened his arms in a hapless shrug. “You ran me through, Gem. I lost my patience.”

  “Torrent—”

  Allard placed his hand on Torrent’s head. “Was foolish enough to attack me at the worst possible time.” He eased his fingers through Torrent’s hair and then down, beneath his chin to tip Torrent’s head up, urging him to face him “I can overlook such mistakes. You are only half bloods, riddled with humanity.”

  With a dozen pairs of demon eyes on both Torrent and me, Allard beckoned Torrent to his feet. Torrent was taller, I noticed. Not by much, but it was easier to concentrate on that fact instead of the horrible emptiness gnawing on my insides when Allard slowly, deliberately closed the distance between them. He could break Torrent’s neck in the next second, and it would be my fault. There were other water elementals.

  Allard’s dark-eyed, unblinking gaze roamed Torrent’s face, examining, reading, assessing, and then in one obscenely gentle motion, he brushed his lips against Torrent’s. It was a slow, sensual performance, drawn out with deliberate skill, testing for a reaction. Torrent’s elemental touch—the only part of him he couldn’t easily control—lashed around him. He could attack Allard, but that was exactly what the demon dealer waited for. And when Torrent didn’t retaliate, the test became more, and the kiss deepened.

  It’s a small price to pay when you’re worthless to begin with, I heard Torrent’s words, and on the tail of that memory, guilt-born tears blurred my vision.

  Choice, I thought dryly. There was no choice here. This was an attack of a different kind, a show of power. And exactly like when Allard had taken Vanessa’s wings, I couldn’t look away. And so I watched, teeth gritted, as Torrent parted his lips and brought the backs of his fingers up to brush them along Allard’s jaw in a delicately tender touch. He gave Allard exactly what he wanted. Power. I struggled to keep my head up, to keep my element locked down while Torrent’s whipped up an invisible and intangible storm.

  Allard turned his face and fixed his eyes over Torrent’s shoulder on me, as Torrent trailed his mouth along the demon dealer’s jaw. Mine. The ownership burned in Allard’s steady gaze.

  I couldn’t watch, not this, not when Torrent’s element reached for mine, crackling with tension and urgency.

  “Come back with me. Gem,” Allard said, his smooth voice dark and thick with desire. He slid his hand around the back of Torrent’s neck and eased him away, and all the while those dark eyes fixed on me. Don’t push me, that gaze said. I own you, and those you care for. “Hurting you was never my intention.”

  He needed us for his puzzle. He was using us, the same as I’d used Torrent to trade for my brother. But my brother wasn’t here, and that bitter taste in my mouth was betrayal. I’d betrayed Torrent for nothing.

  I glanced at Torrent, but he stood at Allard’s side, his gaze on the ground—far, far away in that place he went when he couldn’t pull his wings around him and hide. I swallowed and tried to calm the rapid pounding of my heart and the vicious, barbed snarls resounding from deep inside me.

  If I went with Allard now, I’d be right back where I started. He might not have me in his grip as obviously as he had Torrent, but he had my brother. There was never going to be a bargain. He’d never let us go.

  I had to go bac
k.

  I wasn’t ready for this fight. Not yet.

  I locked stares with Allard. His responding all-demon smile was filled with sharp teeth and sly intentions. A low, threat-heavy growl bubbled up my throat.

  Not yet.

  I was going back to Fairhaven.

  Chapter 18

  The wet sounds of flesh tearing and the snapping of teeth filled the drained basement-level swimming pool. The room had once been a gym but now hosted Allard’s proving trials. He’d toss demons into the pool, let nature take its course, and the surviving demon attracted a higher price on the open market.

  I hated it down here. I’d always hated it. The quick flash of teeth and the slicing of claws, combined with the low ceilings and little light, reminded me of the maze. I hung back, watching from the fringes. Allard paced, but only to get a better look at his prize demons. He watched for weaknesses, studying the two lessers. His flight—the trusted group of demon guards that followed him—jeered. They wore their vessels, but the snarls and growls were purely demon.

  Torrent wasn’t here.

  After we’d returned from our brief visit to LA, Allard had ordered me to stick to my room and promptly taken Torrent away, deeper into Fairhaven. A few hours later, he’d summoned me here, to the proving pit. Torrent’s absence was ominous. For all Allard’s sweet words about protection and not wanting to hurt us because we were important, he was demon, and a demon’s idea of protecting half bloods involved the white room, at least in my experience.

  It wasn’t my fault, or so I’d told myself. I’d warned Torrent that Allard might be just as bad as whatever he’d suffered with Vanessa. He knew what he was getting into.

  I hadn’t asked to be his friend.

  To compound all the runaway guilt, fear, and disgust, my demon was virtually free. The injectors had been taken from my room. Considering the layered madness overlapping my normal thoughts, she might even be completely free to do as she pleased. The last time I’d been wholly free of PC34A, it had been after the netherworld, after the Fall. I’d had Del then. Now…now I didn’t have anyone. Just my demon.

  Cool shivers crawled across my skin like dozens of insects. My demon remembered what it had been like to be completely free. She remembered what it felt like without my control. And she recalled precisely how we’d fought tooth and claw in the netherworld, torn into demons twice our size, three times as vicious, but none as ruthless. None as fast. None as hungry for the kill as she and I.

  I pulled my arms crossed over my chest, secretly hugging myself. It had been Hell, just like the humans had named it long ago, a mad, swirling storm of sensations: pain, fear, exhilaration. I’d wanted more.

  Shoving the memories aside, I closed my eyes and dropped my head back against the wall. Allard’s demons were still trying to tear strips off each other. I tried to block those sounds too because the sounds of splattered blood and shrieks sounded too much like the netherworld.

  I needed PC34A. I needed it like I needed to breathe. Allard was playing with his pet demons in his pit. Somewhere, my brother was a prisoner. And now Torrent… Torrent was gone.

  A muscle throbbed in my temple. I rubbed at it and ground my teeth together so damn hard my jaw ached. I just had to keep it together a little longer. Like Torrent, I had to give Allard what he wanted, be submissive, and he’d tell me where my brother was. I had to play the obedient half blood pet. Give him what he wants.

  “Gem.”

  I snapped my eyes open to find Allard’s rich brown eyes inches from mine. He stepped back, wearing a curious smile. Scarlet demon blood had splattered over his white shirt and dappled his neck. Behind him, the pit was empty, but for one demon carcass. His guards had gone. I hadn’t heard the fight end or seen the demons leave.

  “Tell me where my brother is.” My voice had taken on a frosty edge. Allard’s smile twitched at the command.

  Be submissive. Be the half blood girl. Do it for Del.

  I cleared my throat and dropped my eyes, counting the spots of blood on his shirt. “I want to apologize.” A quick look confirmed Allard was watching me, waiting. Eyes down again, I continued. “You’ve been more than generous. When you found me and Del… We—we were lost. I’ve been ungrateful. And I am truly sorry, my lord.” Maybe the my lord was too much? It had seemed to work for Torrent.

  He made a low growling sound in his throat, one of appreciation, and came forward. The air shifted, lacing my nose and throat with his warm, earthy scent but also the acrid burning smell from the carcass in the pool. Netherworld smells. My demon purred.

  Allard’s smooth hand cupped my chin. He lifted my head and turned it left and right, examining my face like he would a new addition to his stock. “That must have been difficult for you. You are not a submissive creature. Your demon wants power.” He let go but didn’t step back. “I appreciate that. If you convince me, I can even give you more power than your little half blood demon could dream of.”

  Convince him of what? I blinked blankly back at him.

  Allard closed the last few inches between us and placed his hands against the wall either side of me, fencing me in. I held his gaze, looking up at him. Inside, my demon pushed to be free. I clutched at the shreds of control I had left and held her back.

  He bowed his head and whispered against my cheek. “Your brother was easier to break.”

  My element surged. My elemental touch unraveled, spilling outward, up and around Allard. He gasped sharply, grabbed my hands, and pinned them back against the wall. I couldn’t have stopped the demon in me even if I’d tried. With no control left, I let her free and maybe even welcomed her. Ice spritzed across my skin and clothes, encasing me in demon skin. Her chilling power licked up my spine, smothering the human until my skin, my muscles, my entire body sang with demon resonance.

  Allard shuddered against me. The sound of his snatching breaths had my teeth chattering. Just like with Torrent, I wanted to fight, to sink my claws into Allard. But unlike with Torrent, my desire here was a vicious intent to kill.

  Allard pressed into me. Ice snapped over his clothes and laced needles into his hair. When he freed my left hand, he clamped his right around my neck. His element whipped around us both, feeding through mine, tangling, knotting, sparking. Earth and ice. Not opposites, but close.

  “Hear me, half blood. You are under me. I control you. You are mine.” The last words rumbled the floor and walls. “What follows is my doing. You submit to me and no other.”

  Submit? Never.

  Ice sparked outward. I felt it reaching, breathing, building, and behind me, my jagged wings cracked, shifted, and snapped open along the wall.

  Allard pulled me forward and slammed my head back against the tiles. “Submit!”

  A growl rumbled up from deep inside of me and bubbled from my lips. I grinned, showing him my teeth. “Where’s my brother, you bastard?”

  He hit my head against the tiles again. Something cracked, the wall, the tiles, some ice. And I laughed.

  “Submit or I will find another ice demon for my court.”

  Court? I jerked my head forward and snapped my teeth together millimeters from his lips. In his black-flooded eyes, my reflection glowed, sparkling bright, a crystal nightmare.

  I knew I had to submit to win, to let him think he owned me. It was the only way he’d let me closer to him. But I couldn’t. I eased my free left hand down his arm, over his shoulder, and clamped my cool fingers against the back of his neck. He seethed, practically boiling out of his vessel. But he was in control here. He didn’t want to turn. That would make us equal.

  I yanked him forward, pressed my ice-dusted lips against his. “I will never submit to you.” I flicked my tongue out, sparking needles of ice into the corner of his mouth.

  “Submit,” he growled low, and I felt every quiver ripple against me. “Or your brother suffers in your place.”

  I heaved my shoulders forward, arching my crystalline wings around us. They sparkled and sang, even as I pointed t
heir razor-fanned edges at his sides. I still had him by the back of his neck, but equally, he still had his hand around my throat. He could turn demon, turn to stone, and I couldn’t do a thing to stop him.

  I licked at the corner of his mouth, spreading ice beneath my tongue, and purred. “What’s the matter, Azazel? Afraid of a little half blood?” The demon behind his eyes glared through the swirl of black. “You said you wanted to see me lose control. What would your demon brethren think if they saw you struggling with a lowly half blood pet?”

  He tightened his grip around my throat. “Submit, Gamma.”

  I might be demon, but I still needed to breathe. His body smothered mine, and while my ice snapped and danced all over him, it didn’t seem to have much effect.

  Not yet. I couldn’t do this yet. I’d pushed too far. He was killing me. My strength fizzled out of me. His face blurred, lost beneath the pounding in my head. My element flexed, stuttering, and my wings started to break apart. Fragments tinkled against the poolside.

  He gave me one last shake. My eyelids fluttered closed.

  “I…submit…” I rasped.

  He let go, and I dropped in a heap. The pounding subsided, and I pulled my element around me, breathing it in with a shudder of relief. By the time I could see clearly again, Allard had gone.

  A scream swelled inside of me. All the rage, the fear, the denial surged out of me in one great shriek that was as far from human as anything this side of the veil. He’d hear it. The whole hotel would, and I didn’t care.

  Not yet, not yet, not yet.

  My demon slipped away, leaving me spent and cold, kneeling in a pool of melted ice. I wasn’t sure what had happened. Somehow, my attempt at an apology had turned into a power battle, and I’d lost.

  I slumped onto my forearms and fought the shivers.

  I’d lost. It was always going to end that way. But I had learned something.