Justin twined his fingers with hers. “You did great. You make me proud.”
“Thanks.” She leaned forward to catch Theo’s view. “And none of the demons I’ve vanquished have gotten back out of Hades?”
He shook his head. “So far, your touch appears permanent, if not more so than my Mavet. With all the snooping around I’ve done down there to try to see what happens with your vanquishes, I haven’t found a soul that you’ve dusted.”
“Amazing,” Justin said. “Lucifer’s punishment backfired, I’d say.”
“My and Sadie’s Mavets banish the soul to Hades, your touch sends them to the eternal fires, it seems.” Theo shook his head. “I’d say that’s a backfire of epic proportions.”
“Or exactly the Artifact I need to dust Lucifer.” Pario’s voice sent a bone-rattling spike of fear down her spine.
Suddenly her head was yanked back by her hair, dislodging her from Justin’s grip. In the next breath, a knife pressed to her neck. She saw the blade, but not the hand that held it. She felt the hard body behind her, but saw nothing.
The bracelet.
Pario.
Wait. Had he called her an Artifact?
Justin growled as he turned. Theo roared, fangs extended and his Mavets held up.
Fear paralyzed her. She’d trained for when she encountered Pario, visualized how to fight him. Hell, Theo and Justin had plan A, plan B, and a backup trying to anticipate Pario’s actions. But her mind went blank, forgetting everything.
“That’s right, pet.” A gloved finger ran along her cheek. Flashes of Pario violating her rammed into her mind. She reached for him, but something cold clamped around her wrist. Then her other.
“Move again, Shomrei, and I’ll slice her neck.” His bitter breath triggered her gag reflex. “And we know she won’t heal from that one.”
Justin narrowed his eyes, and his jaw twitched. She could see him calculating options, but she also saw fear. Justin couldn’t zone in on an invisible target in order to take aim or throw anything.
Neither could Theo.
Exactly what they’d been practicing with her. She needed to be able to get out of this on her own, use her invisibility.
Shit. Pario had been watching for all they knew. At least today based on how easily he’d sneaked up on them and ripped her away from Justin.
Again. She was at Pario’s mercy again. And she was so sick of it.
Theo grunted, then fell to his knees. “Sadie!”
A splice opened, but Pario muttered a quick phrase and the splice in reality vanished. How was he doing that?
“No!” Theo bellowed, holding his head. “No.” Blood trickled from his nose, and Justin knelt beside him, blade raised at Pario.
“I’m sorry, Gatekeeper. Your Mate didn’t make it.”
Tears stung. “No,” Yvonne whispered. “Sadie.”
“Stay there, Shomrei. Or you will lose your Mate as well.”
Yvonne’s gut clenched. “Please.”
She wasn’t sure to whom she was saying that: The Great One for help, Pario to release her, or Justin to stay back. Their team had prepared for a surprise appearance from Pario. Their planning hadn’t considered Sadie’s involvement, but Yvonne needed to trust in the Shomrei. The Great One.
“I’ll go with you,” she said to the monster behind her. “Just don’t hurt them.”
The chest at her back rumbled. “Oh, I know you’ll come with me. Tell your man to back off. I’ll return you once your usefulness has expired.”
“Yeah, right,” Yvonne said.
“Killing you would be too easy. I’d rather you live with the memories I gave you…and the new ones I will give you.”
A shiver climbed up her spine at the promise he would once again violate her to give her the new memories he spoke of. She would never allow that to happen.
“Szép,” Justin whispered, but gave her a slight nod.
Energy stormed through her chest and to her shoulder. His energy. Power. Courage. Yes. She’d be strong and make him proud.
“Let’s go.” She needed to hurry this along so Theo could get to Sadie in time to heal her. If he didn’t and she died, Theo and Justin would die as well.
She offered a wink to Justin and a silent good-bye: I’ll see you soon!
And she would. No matter what, Yvonne would fight. She would return to her Mate.
Even if she had to kill Lucifer to do it.
…
The hardest thing Justin had to do was watch his Mate be taken away by the invisible Pario, but that wink she shot him empowered him to go with her plan.
And the fact that she had a tracking implant in her shoulder, beneath his Mark, and her toe boosted his confidence as well.
But what was happening to Sadie? She should have been safe within the Arizona compound walls. Pario’s surprise appearance had been anticipated, expected, but not Sadie’s involvement.
“Sadie,” Theo whimpered.
To see his brother whimpering tore at Justin’s chest like a dirty blade.
“Try a splice again. They’re gone.” Justin tugged his brother to his feet. “Hurry. There’s still time. You feel her. Right? She’s not dead. Can’t be dead.”
“Only faintly.” His voice cracked. “Might be the baby’s heartbeat.”
“Then do it for your little one. Go!” Justin yelled. “Move it, Gatekeeper.”
Fear stomped through Justin’s mind. If Sadie were dead, Theo would die. Which meant he would die, too.
No. Sadie was created by freaking angels. She’d live. She had to.
The familiar winds of a splice opening sparked a flame of hope within him. “Come on.”
They had to hurry. First Sadie, then tracking Yvonne.
“Nothing. I feel nothing.” Theo fell through the splice and landed on his knees in the foyer of their compound. “Sadie!” His voice boomeranged off the walls. “How’d they breach our protection?”
“How the hell did Pario sneak up on us? How can he mask his presence? Things are changing, Theo. Get up. Let’s find your Mate. Focus!”
Theo closed his eyes, his fangs still down and his grip tight on the Mavets. “Where are you, love?”
He twitched his head to the side. His nostrils flared. Justin didn’t sense demons, but he heard moans. Whispers.
“Kitchen.” Theo took off. “Sadie.”
Justin followed after his Gatekeeper, watching their backs. He may not detect any demons at the moment, but he hadn’t sensed Pario, either. Damn, those creatures were changing. Getting stronger. Or…shit, maybe he’d gotten the Necklace and Gem of Desmios.
If that were true…
He stepped into the kitchen and time froze. Literally. His body stopped, and no matter how much he fought to move forward, nothing budged. His chest squeezed as if all the oxygen had been sucked from the room. He couldn’t hear anything, but he could still see.
Theo slid across the floor on his knees to Sadie. She lay on her back, a circle of blood around her body, more around her head.
No. Not the neck. Not the—
Her body twitched. Two figures cloaked in white stood near Sadie’s body, a female reaching toward her, yet not touching her. Tears streamed down the older woman’s brilliant face.
Sadie’s mother, Abby, and her father, Paxon. That was why Justin couldn’t move. He remembered feeling this from the first time Sadie’d opened the realm to her angelic parents.
But why weren’t they touching her? Healing her?
Theo howled, but he shifted enough for Justin to see. A red line across Sadie’s neck fused with a flash of light. Her chest glowed bright white, and her back arched. She opened her mouth, and her little fangs burst from her gums.
Abby covered her ears with her hands and leaned into Paxon.
Sadie reached for Theo, her eyes still closed. Their fused hands sparked a flash of light that rivaled the sun. Theo jerked to the side and tensed his jaw. The muscles along his forearm and his biceps triggered, but he didn’
t pull away.
He crumpled to the side but held himself up with his free hand. Justin struggled against his invisible restraints. “Theo!” but no voice came. No vibration from his throat to indicate he’d even spoken.
Great One, what’s happening?
Then suddenly, Justin stumbled forward but stayed upright. The angelic realm had closed, and Sadie’s parents had gone. Gasping filled Justin’s senses.
“Hold on, love,” Theo whispered. “Hold on.”
Justin fell to Sadie’s side. “What’s happening?”
“Look.” Theo pointed to Sadie’s stomach.
It was glowing as her heart was. “The baby.”
“He saved her.”
Sadie’s eyes opened and flashed ruby red. She took in a gasp of air. “Theo.” Her hand went to her stomach.
“Shhh. You’re okay.”
She sat up. “The baby. He’s—he—”
“Saved you.”
She groped her neck. “I was dead.” She cradled her stomach again. “He opened the angelic realm to Mom and Dad.”
“Why weren’t they healing you?” Justin asked.
“They couldn’t.” Theo leaned over and kissed her forehead. “Our baby wove your neck together.”
Tears dribbled down Sadie’s cheek as she nodded. “Our son.”
“Where’s Dasha?” Justin asked, scanning the kitchen.
“Oh, God!” Sadie jumped to her feet and took off toward the door to the gym. “I shoved her down when I saw a splice that clearly wasn’t yours open in the foyer. Dasha!”
Sadie ripped open the door, yanking it from its hinges. At the bottom of the long flight of stairs, Dasha lay on her side, curled in a fetal position.
“Shit!” Justin pushed by Sadie and stormed down the stairs.
He scooped her up and shouldered through the door into the gym. Sadie clicked on the lights, and Justin expected to see a mangled mess as he set Dasha on a padded bench to inspect her, but he didn’t. Instead he saw a series of black lines inked around her wrist, up her hand, and coiling around her left ring finger.
“Is she okay?” Sadie asked Theo.
“She’ll be fine,” he said, touching her neck.
Justin grabbed her hand and held it up. “Is this what I think it is?”
“The markings of a Hunter,” Theo said with a grunt as he absorbed Dasha’s injuries.
“What?” Sadie stepped closer. “How is that even possible? She’s human. Just plain old human.”
“Demon Hunters are chosen, no matter the bloodline. She doesn’t have to come from a family of Hunters. While some do, there are others chosen specifically by The Great One.” Theo nodded to Justin to continue.
He did look a little out of breath from healing Dasha.
“The Great One can see into people’s hearts. He must have seen something great in Dasha’s.” He grinned. “I’m not surprised. She’s a feisty little thing. Remember, Theo, you told me how she was so protective of Sadie when you first went to her dorm room to heal her from the poison.”
“True. Tiny but fierce. And when you were here, Sadie, after retrieving me from Hades, when your change really sparked—she would have tackled me had I cleaned you up while you were unconscious.” Theo smiled. “That’s when I first learned you’d waited, kept yourself pure for me.”
“She’s really taken to the training we’ve been giving her, too.” Sadie finger-combed Dasha’s auburn hair to the side. “What if she doesn’t want this life? What if—”
“It’s okay, love. Trust The Great One.” He glanced at Justin. “I’ll get Dasha to safety while she finishes transforming. Justin, get working on the trackers we put in Yvonne.”
“While she transforms? Wait, what’s happening?” Sadie asked.
“Come with me, love. It’s okay. She’ll be fine. But like you, she’ll change. Have gifts.”
Justin dipped his head and stormed up the stairs to the office beside the kitchen. Thank The Great One they’d come up with a number of scenarios and ways to track Yvonne in case she was taken. It all banked on them not taking her to Hades, though. Trackers didn’t work there.
He plopped down at the desk. Several minutes later, he’d clicked the devices to life and waited, staring at the map on his screen, waiting for the blips to emerge, identifying where she’d been taken.
Theo and Sadie stormed through the doorway.
“Dash okay?” He looked at Sadie.
“Dasha’s safe at the Hunter compound. The Artifacts are secure in our vaults. Now let’s go get Yvonne.”
Her dedication to Yvonne was admirable. Justin smiled at his Shomrei sister-in-law. “You dropped Dasha with Caden?”
Theo nodded as he rounded the corner of the desk to see the computer. “He’s a renowned Hunter with a strong team. They’ll watch over her until she awakens, then the training will begin. Any word on Yvonne?”
“Just waiting for the signals to pick up. Sadie, what happened here? Where’s Zander? Did he betray us?”
“No, he didn’t. The splice opened, and he immediately started chanting something. I think he was trying to close the splice. He did that while I pushed Dasha out of the room. The splice wasn’t like Theo’s or the demon splices I’ve seen. This one was laced with fire, and a roar followed the demons through, as if a monster was behind them, but only the demons appeared. One grabbed Zander immediately.”
“Pulled him into the splice?” Theo asked.
She nodded. “That left two. One ran out of the kitchen, muttering something about the Artifacts. I tossed the Mavet at that one and dusted him, but the other moved so fast I didn’t see him. I only felt the sting of the blade at my neck.”
“Holy Great One.” Theo yanked his Mate into his arms.
Justin clicked refresh on the computer screen, praying Yvonne’s tracking information would come online soon. He hated the fact that she was with Pario again. What was he doing to her? “So, since we have the Thata, how would these specific demons get access to a sanctuary that’s been protected for centuries?”
Theo shot a look at Justin, and his grim eyes told the story that Justin was starting to formulate.
“Lucifer.”
Chapter Forty-Four
“Nice of you to cooperate. I didn’t expect this,” Pario said as he and Yvonne made their way down a hallway.
She’d be calm for now, keeping watch for her moment to act. But with her wrists bound behind her, that made things a little difficult. “Where are we?”
“Topside. At a stronghold we’ve been forming for decades.”
Great. More newbie demons to face. “So, what’s your plan? Use your fledgling army, go into Hades, knock on Lucifer’s door, and ask where his Mate might be?”
It was a stupid theory, but evidently Dyre had once bought into it since she was Agares’s helpmate in the scheme. Not that she remembered her time as a demon. But now, Yvonne thought it would just royally piss Lucifer off, and he’d decimate everyone in his path. Everyone connected to the overthrow plot. No worries about the humans who might be killed in the process.
“So, you ditched the plans to find the other Artifacts for me?”
“Figured it’d be nice to burn—ha, get it?—Lucifer with his so-called punishment. Throw it in his face.”
“You really are stupid, you know? Lucifer is the original fallen angel. You can’t destroy him.”
“Says you.”
“Fine. What’s the plan, then?”
“We killed the Gatekeeper’s Mate. I’ve made sure the news got to Lucifer already.”
“Son of a bitch.” Sadie couldn’t be dead!
Yvonne bit back the rising bitterness in her throat with each step she took. But the rage built, too. She was going to end Pario. If she could just get her hands on him.
“Lucifer’s more present when there’s a shift in power. More exposed.” Pario grinned. “I have it on good authority that he plans to visit my quadrant in Hades in twenty-four hours to make plans.”
&nbs
p; “Leaving his Mate back home, of course.”
Pario dipped his head as he guided her to the right.
“Why are you topside, then?”
“Lucifer’s reach out here is limited. In Hades he’s more in tune with the minds of his children. Topside, all the humans’ emotions and souls clutter the connection. I can strategize more freely here.”
Damn, he sounded as though he had things in order and was deeply connected. “And Agares in all this?”
“He was to run the experiments. A great demon, yes, but too weak to really take the bull by the horns, so to speak.” He slowed and turned her to face him. “I noticed that the first time he coddled you. He took Dyre in, yet called her Yvonne. Told Dyre of her human life and fed her desire to leave Hades.”
Pario touched her cheek, but he was wearing a glove. She took a closer look at him and realized he was covered in leather. Jacket, pants, shoes, and gloves. Of course. No more Evania to put a spell over him, so he had to wear leather for protection.
She flexed against her restraints, the cool metal cuffs digging into her wrists. If she could break these cuffs and touch him…but even with her strength her hands remained locked behind her back. Think.
Pario grinned. “I see the spark of retribution flickering in you, lover.” He inched closer, and her back met the wall beside a door.
She ground her molars so hard she thought they’d crumble. Her stomach clenched. No way would she would let this monster—
“Evania was the only one who could cast the spell that allowed me to be with you before. At least until she ripped your humanity out of you to bring Dyre back. Then I had free rein of you, didn’t I?” He leaned in, stopping just before his face brushed her hair. Maybe even touching her hair would dust him.
She surged forward, hoping to connect her cheek with his face. But he jerked back, pinning her to the wall with his body and leaning out of reach.
“Feisty—”
Hiking up her knee with all her strength, she caught him in the balls. Foul breath streamed over her, and he grunted, crumpling to the side. She fell to her knees and turned, hoping to land her fingers on his face, but he batted her out of reach.
Fine. She’d test her flexibility. She ran a few steps down the hall and fell to her back. Stretching and pulling her muscles way out of their normal stretching limits, she eased her clasped hands down her back and over her butt.
Marked By Hades (Entangled Embrace) Page 26