Prince of Shadows

by Tes Hilaire

  Unloved. Unwanted. Evil…Monster.

  A hand touched her chin, tipping her head. Angeline had sobered completely, her blue eyes darker as if her light had been diminished. “And you have even less belief in yourself than he, don’t you?”

  Gabby met her gaze, sure that the haunts of her past and how they’d tainted her would be visible to the angel. “I’m a succubus. A vampire. And I killed him. I killed the man I love.”

  “Love, is it?”

  Gabriella flushed, seeing immediately the blasphemy of such a statement in the face of what she’d done.

  “He would say he gave his life to spare yours.”

  Gabby shook her head vehemently. “No! I don’t want that. I would not ask that of him.”

  Angeline pursed her lips, her finger tapping lightly on Gabby’s chin. “Hmm. Then I guess there is really only one choice now, isn’t there?”

  “What?” Gabby all but leapt on her, just barely stopping herself from grabbing her arm. “Tell me, please, what can I do?”

  “Will you still give your life for his?” Angeline asked, straightening.

  “Yes. YES! I’d give anything.” Her life. Her soul. Her very existence—oh, yes, she’d gladly give that. To wipe out the past, to erase all the pain she’d caused?

  Angeline nodded, smiling sadly as she gazed once more at Valin. “Then I guess it’s time for good-byes.”

  Gabby blinked down at Valin, her vision blurring, or at least it must have been because he was but a smudge of light before her.

  This is it. Say it quickly…

  “I love you, Valin. Forgive me.” She bent to kiss him, momentarily confused by the salty wetness on her lips as she licked them in preparation. Her tears. Of course. Gently she pressed her mouth to his, needing this one last touch to seal the bargain. Her eyes widened, surprised at the warmth of his lips. She drew back just as the room blazed. Like a star exploding, the power rocked through her, ripping her from her body. And then came the pain. Endless, unfathomable pain as the purging of His light tore through what she guessed was her soul. And God, how could she have been so foolish as to think that being wiped from existence would be the easier path? It went on and on and on and all she wanted to do was scream though she had no earthly body to house such misery.

  And then it stopped.

  She floated. The light, which had burned before like a raging inferno, now soothed like a balm. It tugged her gently from here to there, touching on everything that was good or even remotely happy in her life, oftentimes showing her things in a way she’d never thought to look at them. She wanted to cry again, though this time her tears would be of joy, as something Logan had once said to her drifted through her thoughts: He’s a merciful God. The truth rang through her being like a cymbal crash, and she began to think that perhaps, just perhaps He was merciful enough to hold her here in His planes. And if that were the case then maybe, someday, she might possibly see Valin again. Even if it would simply be another good-bye as he passed on to the woman he truly loved. The mother of his unborn child.

  “You little fool. How could you even think I would pass you by?” The gruff voice pulled her like a bungee jumper who’d reached the end of her cord, snapping her back into her body.

  She blinked, trying to figure out what the heck had just happened by opening her eyes. She was still sitting on her heels in that horrid room only…holy crap…

  “Valin?” she choked, reaching for him, only she couldn’t because he was already holding her, his hands tight on her biceps as he glared at her out of perfectly alert, perfectly lively eyes. No, make that livid.

  She frowned, her body tensing as she waited for the one-two sucker punch. Bloody room, check. In the coven’s house, check. But that was most definitely a very alive Valin sitting on his heels before her.

  Careful, nightmares never end like this.

  Oh how well she knew. They got far, far worse than a little glaring from the man she loved.

  Valin gave her a good shake, an imprinted memory telling her it wasn’t the first one in recent moments. “How dare you try and trade your life for mine.”

  “What do you mean, how dare I?” She punched him in the gut, eliciting a satisfying oomph that still did nothing to ease all the pent up anger and horror and fear she’d felt when she’d first snapped free of Christos’s evil influence and realized what she’d done. No, what he’d done—selfish bastard! Of course, she ruined her anger by throwing herself at him. He gave another oomph, but caught her, his arms linking with a reassuring tightness around her shoulders.

  “Oh, God, you’re alive. I can’t believe…” Sobs chocked the rest of her words in her throat. Valin’s hands slid into her hair, his lips pressing against her forehead as he murmured reassurances. Words like “it’s okay” and “I’m here now” and all sorts of crap that didn’t change the facts at all and had her heart racing with fear that this was just a horrible, horrible nightmare that would end with her waking and having to relive the eviscerating moment of Valin dying in her arms all over again.

  She pulled back, searching out every feature, and finding no telltale inaccuracy, shook her head. “You were dying. And then Angeline came and offered a bargain for your life if I were to give my own.”

  “I know. And I’m royally pissed that you would even think to take such a bargain.”

  She stilled, wondering if this was the sign that this was not at all real: He’d given no flicker of pain at the mention of Angeline’s name.

  A Paladin never stops grieving for a lost mate.

  She pressed out tentatively with her mind. Nothing in the room. Nor the mansion. Besides, wouldn’t she feel if Christos had any control on her still? Even he had difficulty hiding the evil within the lie.

  “I don’t understand,” she said carefully, still not convinced this wasn’t some sort of sick joke.

  Valin shook his head, making a garbled noise that sounded like a combination of frustration and disbelief. “She was right; you are as much a stubborn fool as I am.”

  “What are you—” she started to question, but he cut her off.

  “You’re my bond mate, Gabby. Angeline was only my pair mate.”

  “Pair mate?”

  He nodded. “Compatibility pairing. Friends. Best friends even. And I do miss Angeline, shall always miss her and my unborn child. But you are of my heart. The soul to complete my own. And though I may miss them, it’s you I need.”

  Her mind reeled, hope trying to blossom through the thick fog of disbelief. “But the bargain?”

  “You’re not the only one who can bargain.”

  No shit, but if those in charge had gone with his, then why was he here? Not that she’d argue, but…She narrowed her eyes. “What did you bargain for?”

  “I just pointed out that He needs warriors. But I also told him I wouldn’t come back without my mate. Of course, my mate had already stupidly bargained away her own life so there was only one thing to do.”

  Her heart hammered. Here it was, the sucker punch. “What’s that?”

  He tipped his head, stroking her cheek. “How do you feel, Gabby?”

  She thought about it, mentally checking each part of her body. Relatively whole, considering she’d been blasted with His light. In fact, she didn’t even ache much and…she glanced down, gasping at the sight of the white gown that clung to her clean skin. No blood, no wounds; in fact, the only thing to mar its smooth lines was the bulge along one of her thighs.

  “How?” Feeling as if she were poking at a scorpion, she gingerly fingered the lump through the thin material—her hand closing around the object she already knew was there.

  “This can’t be right.” She lifted her gaze to Valin’s, her heart thumping again at the simple pleasure of seeing the familiar mischievous glint in his eyes.

  “Oh it’s right. Welcome to the club, cookie.”

  She shook her head, unable to comprehend or believe. How could she know this was real?

  “Go ahead, test it ou
t.”

  Well, she supposed that was one way.

  Taking a deep breath she pulled the knife from the holder on her thigh, lifting the jewel-encrusted weapon before her face. It was a curved blade, symbols etched into the blade itself. And when she blew out a breath, thinking of the serenity that had embraced her after the purging, energy throbbed through the blade, the glow of His light pulsing in rhythm with the one that lay on the floor beside them.

  Her gaze flew to Valin’s. His mouth curled up in a broad grin. He leaned close, his words but a warm whisper across the side of her face. “Smile, Gabby. This is a happy moment, don’t you think?”

  Her lips curved upward, but stopped partway there. Something was different. Very much so. Practically hyperventilating, she rubbed her tongue over her front teeth. Her hand snapped over her mouth.

  “Holy crap,” she said, the exclamation muffled by her hand. She felt her teeth, the evenness of them. “But I’m not…I didn’t actually die, did I?”

  He shook his head. “Technically, neither of us did.”

  “You didn’t? Because, uh, you seemed pretty dead to me.” No heartbeat. For what? Four? Five minutes?

  “I tried to make a bargain, but He didn’t much like it and kept me waiting while He sent Angeline to see if He had a better one…yours, to be precise.”

  “But I had nothing to give, nothing but my life.”

  “Oh Gabby, you’re so wrong.” He pushed a lock of hair back from her face, his bourbon eyes deepening with emotion as he looked into hers. “Luckily He’s smarter than the both of us combined.”

  “So He took my life and made me a warrior?”

  “You’re still you, Gabby, warrior or not. But you’d bargained a life for mine. You just didn’t specify which life, so He made an executive decision.”

  “Which life?”

  “Your Paladin life, your life as a succubus, or your one as a vampire. Guess He picked to get rid of the life that had tainted you with the most darkness.”

  As if his words called to it, darkness edged in against the halo of light cast by the blades, memories both new and old tumbling through her mind.

  “Oh, baby.” Valin reached for her, his despair flooding her from across their bond. And wow, that was going to take some getting used to. This mate bond thing was far more intense than a simple blood bond.

  “I’m sorry those couldn’t be taken from you too,” he said. “Sorry you ever had to go through that.”

  She wasn’t. Not when those horrors had led to this moment. To them. She would not let those memories hurt him through their bond though, their mate bond. Ruthlessly she cut the streaming feed of horror off, wrangling them up into one ranging bonfire. But old habits, or in this case nightmares, died hard, and she needed something to smother all that hate and pain, to replace those emotions and shut those memories away for good.

  She grabbed his shirt, pulling him close enough to smash her lips against his. He growled, his arms tightening around her back as he, too, sought to get closer. Yes, this is what she needed. His mouth on hers. His hands touching her. His mind caressing hers. And his soul…Light engulfed them, a great sense of peace taking over as their passion burned away the remaining darkness.

  When they were both breathless, she pulled away, knowing now that she was going to be okay. No, better—she was finally free. This—a Paladin—was who she’d always been meant to be. And though the journey to now had frankly sucked, both dark and light had been needed to get her to this point.

  Her smile faded, her gaze taking in the residual horror of the room. Darkness still lay like a blight here and would for so long as the man responsible lived. “Christos and his followers are still alive.”

  “Does it matter?” Valin asked. She could feel his concern and knew that he worried that what Christos had done to her still affected her, that she still might lose sight of the important things in life while searching for her revenge.

  “No. Not in the way you mean.” She shook her head, tipping it up to his. “Christos can’t touch me anymore. Not when I’m with you.”

  He pushed back a tendril of hair, his dark eyes hot on hers. “You’ll always be with me. Now that I’ve found you, there is no way I’m letting you go.”

  She raised her brow, wondering if she should sucker punch him again. “You sound kind of possessive, don’t you?”

  “I am possessive. You’re mine, Gabby. My heart, my lover, and my partner.”

  And, all right then…she leaned against him, sighing. “I can live with that.”

  “Good.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “Now let’s get out of here.”

  She smiled. “You ready to go kick some ass, partner?”

  “After, but first…” He stood, scooping her up in the process, and carried her like some sort of helpless bride toward the doorway.

  “Valin!” she yelped as he bumped her feet against the jagged doorframe and maneuvered them into the hall. “Put me down,” she insisted, but oh, gee, it was strange she couldn’t find an ounce of willpower to put up any sort of fight. And whoops, those were her arms wrapping around his neck, weren’t they?

  “Not on your life, cookie. You might run away.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Why would I run away?”

  “We have a honeymoon to go on.”

  “That doesn’t sound so bad…”

  “After we attend to the little detail of our formal bonding ceremony, that is.”

  “Hmmm…” She gnawed her lip. “I imagine that’s not going to go over too well with your stuffy council.”

  “They’re your stuffy council now too. And you think I care?”

  “No.” She tightened her arms around his neck, pecking his chin with a light kiss. “And that’s what I love about you.”

  He stopped, his feet posed on the threshold of the mansion as he closed his eyes and drew in deep breath.

  “Valin?” she asked, concern making her heart skip as she scanned the grounds. “Is ther—”

  “Say that again.”

  She looked back at him. “What? That I love you?”

  “Yes, that.” He opened his eyes, his heart, no, his very soul burning into hers through his gaze. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited to hear those words.”

  Her chest warmed, filling every dark corner and crevice she’d ever housed and burning away the last of the coldness that had touched her for so long. He loved her, and because she’d been brave enough to love him back, they had their whole lives to figure out just where their faith in each other would take them.

  “I love you, Valin,” she told him, letting him see all the way into her heart. “You’re mine too. Heart, body, and soul.”

  “Ah, cookie, you were so worth the wait.” And with that he carried her out into the falling twilight. Her black knight. Her beacon of strength in their dark and often crazy world. Her partner.

  Epilogue

  Christos fell to the cave floor, his kneecaps cracking against the blackened stone. Ignoring the pain, he lowered himself further, head against the rough surface, arms stretched out in supplication. There was no amount of too much in the groveling he was about to perform.

  Lucifer stepped down from his thrown, paced around him, the dark caress of the shadows that enfolded him licking at Christos like ice-cold fire. Christos resisted the urge to plead, knowing that his failures would only be judged more harshly for such a weakness.

  “Well, my son? Do you wish to try and tell me what went wrong?”

  Christos clenched his teeth, his fury rekindled despite his precarious situation. What went wrong was that somehow the freak of a Paladin had overcome Christos and Gabby’s blood bond. No, not overcome; somehow the Paladin had purged the blood Gabby had drunk from Christos’s vein, making her his.

  Shadows pulsed around Lucifer as he stared down at him, the oppressiveness of his lord’s inaction setting every one of Christos’s nerves on edge. The silence went on for so long that when his master finally spoke, Christos f
elt like he’d been severed.

  “But your blood, you say it transformed her, obliterated her light.”

  “Not well enough, obviously.” And didn’t that burn. He’d thought, finally, that he’d found the one. The prophesied one, his queen. Born of light and dark; her Paladin heritage, his blood in her veins. It should have worked, for wasn’t he, short of Lucifer himself, the epitome of dark? Beyond that other freak, Karissa, there had been no other who had come close to meeting the criteria. And since that experiment had backfired in all their faces, Christos had been born anew, sure in the knowledge that his original instincts that Gabby was the one had been correct. But no. He’d been wrong. Again. And now he’d be kowtowing to Lucifer and his general until he could live this failure down.

  “Hmm…obviously you are correct.”

  Christos held his breath. Above him Lucifer rolled his shoulders, his wings unfurling to wrap around Christos’s prone form. Black. Suffocating. The burning smell of smoke and charred flesh. Christos’s ribs locked down, the putrid air trapped in his chest. A single thought was all it would take to end him.

  The wings eased back and Christos worked hard not to gulp at the fresh air. A clawed finger stroked across his cheek, the action almost comforting if not for the indifference stamped in Lucifer’s nightmarish face. “It did work though, for a while, yes?”

  “My lord?” Christos asked, unsure whether to be hopeful or worried by his liege lord’s question.

  “Ah, my son…child of Lilith. How blind I have been.”

  Before Christos could fathom what he meant, Lucifer plucked a transparent blade out of nothingness and plunged it into Christos’s gut. Christos screamed, his hand clenched over Lucifer’s on the hilt as his lord and master began to chant. Christos watched in disbelief as his blood wicked up the blade, seeping into it and staining it black.

  The blade was yanked free. Christos gasped, falling back to the floor. With his hands clutched over the wound, he watched Lucifer raise the black knife over his head, twisting it this way and that as he mounted the carved steps to his throne. Christos squinted, trying to see through the dimming fog of pain, but it was so hard to see, the light around the knife seeming to seep right into the hungry blade.