Stephanie Rowe - Darkness Unleashed

  Ryland's lip curled in a sneer. "You will not get me again, you bastard. I'll save her without going over the edge. Never, ever, again."

  "Enough of this." Desdria strode across the floor, her body lithe and strong, like a cat stalking its prey.

  Ryland's adrenaline surged even further, and he tried to call his machetes back again. They were lying on the floor against the far wall. Again, they didn't respond. He tried to reach out to Catherine. Come on, Cat. Take my energy. Call my weapons. He didn't even hesitate with his next command. Call Thano's.

  There was no response. She just lay on the ground, motionless. Jesus.

  "I'm tired of this!" Desdria said. "Things need to be done. The queen is growing impatient."

  Ryland narrowed his eyes. "Queen? What queen?" Even as he asked the question, he continued to thrust healing energy into Catherine, his mind still racing as he searched for a solution, for a different ending than the one that happened before.

  Desdria didn't answer. Instead, she walked over to Catherine, grabbed her shoulder, and rolled her onto her back.

  Ryland went cold when he saw the ash-gray color of Cat's skin, the paleness of her lips. She looked like death, real death. Cat. I'll get you out of this. I promise. But there was no response, just an echoing hopelessness and an acceptance of death. She'd lost her will to fight now that her daughter was dead? No, Cat! No! I still need you. The Order needs you! Dante needs you! There's so much for you here! Don't give up!

  Desdria palmed her hand beneath Catherine's shoulder blades, lifting her so that Catherine's head lolled back in a defenseless posture. Then she raised her free hand high to the ceiling in supplication and began to murmur words under her breath.

  Panic and terror surged through Ryland as she began to repeat the same process that she'd used to kill Marie so many centuries ago. "No!" The roar exploded from the depths of his being, and he lunged forward with every last bit of strength. He reached the end of his restraints, and there was a brutal cacophony of cracks as the bones in his wrists, ankles, and neck shattered under the force of his lunge. He bellowed with agony as he collapsed to the floor, completely useless, the shackles still locked around him. His eyes rolling in pain, he managed to elbow himself to his stomach, his head hanging uselessly as numbness began to spread through his body. His limbs went still, frozen, paralyzed.

  He collapsed, his breath shuddering in wheezy rasps as Desdria continued to chant. As she spoke, her fingers lengthened into barbed claws with razor sharp blades at the end. He tried to move, but there was nothing left. His weapons lay inert on the floor. They would disappear within a few seconds if he didn't call them back first. Catherine! He fought to keep his focus, to awaken her. Use your death touch. Kill her now.

  But there was no response. Nothing.

  Simon squatted beside Ryland. "So, looks like you have three choices, Balthazar. Hold onto your independence and let this lovely woman have her heart clawed out by Desdria, so that she not only dies, but is held here in tortured suspension for all eternity. Or, you can surrender to your bad side, break the bonds as if they were made of silk and save the girl. Or, you can do the same thing you did before and play the hero just a little too late, so that you lose everything. So many good choices. What will you choose today? Repeat the past, or try something a little different?"

  Ryland rolled his eyes so he could look into Simon's smug visage. "Fuck. You."

  Simon grinned. "No, it's more like, you're fucked, and so is the girl." He stood up. "Kill her, my dear. Do it now." Then he grabbed Ryland's head and twisted it violently around to face Desdria and Catherine.

  His body convulsing from the agony of the movement, Ryland had a split second to register Desdria's claws descending toward Catherine's chest, just like before. At the sight, something broke inside him. Desperation, fear, and rage exploded through him, so intense he screamed as it shattered the protections around his mind. He didn't even hesitate. Not even for a split second. He just focused on Catherine and commanded the beast to come.

  It erupted through him with a thousand times the magnitude he'd ever experienced before. His bones shattered under the force of his change and reformed as the beast became him. His neck jutted forward, his teeth became fangs, his eyes blood-red beacons in his horned and scaled head, his twenty-foot spiked tail decimating the massive front doors that had locked him in, crushing them with one violent swipe.

  "Do it!" Simon shouted, and Desdria shoved the claws into Cat's chest—

  With a roar that shook the very earth, Ryland exploded forward. The chains shattered, and Ryland leapt across the room. He raked his claws across Desdria and hurled her into the wall. He whirled around, driving his spiked tail into Simon's chest as he scooped up Catherine's limp body in his massive jaws. He spun around and galloped for the door, unfurling his massive wings as he ran—

  "Balthazar, stop." Desdria's voice rang through the air.

  Ryland slammed up his mental shields as his muscles started to slow down and obey the command. Clenching Catherine so carefully in his jaws, he kept going, shoving himself forward as if he were slogging through air so thick it was like a swamp.

  "Balthazar, I said stop."

  The command rippled through his mind, and frustration coursed through him as his wings folded up, and his legs stopped running. No! He forced another step. And one more. Toward the door. He had to get out. Had to escape. Had to—

  "Drop her!" Simon shouted.

  Ryland's mouth opened, and Catherine tumbled from his grasp onto the stone floor. Helplessness flooded him as he stared down at her on the ground. Every instinct screamed at him to gather her to him and fly her to safety, but he couldn't move. All he could do was stare at her. His body did not belong to him, just like before.

  Then he remembered Catherine's words, that it didn't have to be like before. That there was a way out. That he was different than he had once been. Come on! Outrage roared through him, and he fought to pick her up, but instead, he went into a crouch, his tail flicking as Simon walked up, holding his hand to the hole Ryland had put in his chest.

  He walked right up until his face was pressed up against Ryland's massive snout. "Piece of shit," Simon snarled. "You think because you got a few extra steps before obeying that it's different this time? Never." He raised his palm and smacked Ryland on the side of his head.

  A flash of white light blinded Ryland, and pain shot through him, dropping him to his belly with a guttural groan. He landed beside Catherine, his nose pressed up against her hip. Blood was streaming from a wound in her chest, but Desdria hadn't taken her heart yet. Relief rushed through him, and he tried to nudge her with his nose...but couldn't move. Catherine. Wake up. He pushed at her mind, and he thought he caught a faint pulse of energy. Catherine! I—

  "Look at me." Desdria strode up, limping slightly from his attack, but perfectly sound.

  He fought it. He fought obedience with every fucking ounce of strength he had, but it didn't matter. Ryland felt his soul wail in dismay as he obeyed her command, swinging his head around to face her.

  Desdria reached up to his neck and grabbed his collar. She yanked on it, the action sending shocks shooting violently through his body. "Never, ever, deny us again," she snarled. "You are ours, Balthazar. You are nothing but a slave, and you will never be anything more."

  Bile spilled through him, a dark, seething violence to destroy her...but he didn't move. Couldn't move. Catherine was wrong. It wasn't different this time. Not different at all. But even as he had the thought, he reached out to her with his mind. They could control his body, but not his thoughts. Catherine. Help me. I need your help. She was his angel, the angel of death that the oracle had predicted, the Order's guardian angel. This was why she'd been brought into his life: for this moment, for this event, to salvage him from hell so he could finish his job and save Dante and the Order. Catherine!

  But she didn't respond.

  Fear began to hammer through Ryland. Why couldn't he connect with her?
She couldn't be dying, could she? Catherine!

  Simon walked over and slid his arms beneath her. Outrage roared through Ryland as he watched the bastard touch her, easing his palms over her skin before picking her up. Vile disgust spewed through Ryland, and he raised his lips in a deathly snarl.

  "Silence," Desdria snapped.

  The growl cut off instantly, and helpless frustration roared through Ryland as he watched Simon carry her toward the door, away from him. His woman was in the arms of the man who had used her and betrayed her, and then killed her daughter. Ryland's soul unleashed a battle cry, and he lunged for Simon.

  Simon's eyes widened in surprise, then he shouted at Ryland. "Down!"

  Ryland dropped to his belly like a fucking lap dog. His heart was racing, his body shaking with the need to attack him, but he was paralyzed, stuck to the floor, unable to do anything but watch as the Dark Lord descended the temple steps and disappeared into the darkness, heading toward his lair with Catherine.

  Desdria stepped in front of Ryland, blocking his view of his woman. She crouched in front of him, running her hand over his nose. "Tonight, you will service me, Balthazar. You will show me the man you have become."

  Ryland stared at her, disgust boiling through him.

  "But first, my dear slave, you will take care of one little matter for the queen."

  The queen again? What queen? Desdria was the ruler of the nether-realm, never subordinating herself to anyone. Who the hell was she talking about?

  "There is a little matter of some Order of the Blade members causing a ruckus outside." She smiled, an expression of such merciless cruelty that his blood ran cold. "Go to the entrance and kill them all. When you finish, you will return to the dungeons, where you will take your human form, lock yourself in my private set of chains, and then await a visit from your master." She dragged one of her claws down his front, tearing open a chasm leaking with acid and poison. He ground his jaw, not taking his eyes off hers as she opened a path down to way below his waist, to the parts of him that belonged to Catherine, not her. He didn't move, refusing to be cowed as she jammed extra deep in his testicles, then pulled her claw out of him, leaving him intact...but barely. It was a bitterly familiar promise of what would be coming later. She was filth and waste, and it filled him with her putrid taint.

  No, he snarled silently, conjuring up an image of Catherine's blue eyes in his mind. He locked his mind onto that bright azure, drawing her goodness into him, struggling to hold onto that light in the onslaught of such darkness.

  Desdria stepped back, his blood dripping from her claw. "Go," she commanded. "Kill them all, and then return. Now!"

  Disgust at his own weakness spewed through him as he obediently stepped past her to the top of the temple steps. His wings unfurled, stretching fifty feet in either direction as he began to flap them, stirring up the ashes of so many long dead.

  Desdria did not even have to tell him again. Her control of him was complete as he launched himself into the air, sweeping forward with that same intense speed he'd always had, careening through the nether-realm.

  Once again, he was the beast. The hunter. The slaughterer of innocents.

  Only this time, he was on his way to kill his own team. Dante's legacy. The very entity he had dedicated his life to protecting.

  They would stand no chance against him. He would destroy them all within seconds.

  As he hurtled toward his destiny, disbelieving fury roared through Ryland for how badly he'd failed. Catherine was in the hands of the Dark Lord. He was about to murder his team. Dante's soul remained in Simon's hands. Catherine's daughter was dead.

  All Ryland needed to do to change things was to resist the compulsion to obey Desdria's command.

  That was all.

  And he couldn't fucking do it.

  He was the same as he'd been hundreds of years ago. The exact same.

  As he flew over one of the faerie villages that had sheltered him as a boy, and saw that it was dark and abandoned, Ryland realized finally that Dante, the man he'd revered for so long, had made a mistake, and that mistake had been believing in Ryland.

  But as he streaked toward the great entrance, a fierce anger began to build inside him. Maybe he couldn't stop himself from killing his team or letting Simon take Catherine or prostituting himself as Desdria's submissive. But there was one thing that Simon and Desdria could not control, and had never been able to control.

  His thoughts, the same ones he'd used to reach out to Catherine.

  Even as his wings hurtled him toward his prey, even as his claws elongated in anticipation of ripping apart his team, even as his mouth salivated at the idea of fresh meat, Ryland drew his attention inward, and reached out over his blood bond to the one man who had always stood by him.

  Thano. I'm coming out to kill you, and I'm in dragon form. He ground his jaw, then gave them the information that would end all chances of him saving Catherine or Dante, but would give his team a chance to live. Strike a single blow in the eye of the dragon painted on my chest. It will kill me instantly. Do not hesitate. He paused, and then added one last request, relinquishing his claim on the one woman who gave his life meaning. Catherine is your sheva. Follow the blood bond to her and rescue her. Please.

  There was no reply from Thano as Ryland continued his ascent toward the entrance. He knew that he hadn't been able to connect with Thano from the depths of the nether-realm, but was he close enough to the surface now for him to hear him? As the light from the outdoors began to illuminate the interior, Ryland could only hope that his teammate had heard him.

  If not, carnage would ensue, and there would be no one left alive to save his woman. Do not hesitate, he told Thano. Kill me, immediately.

  He burst out of the nether-realm into the open. The first thing he saw was Thano in the middle of the clearing, stretched out on his back, Apollo standing over him, his body torn and bloody as massive asper cats attacked. The rest of the clearing was pure carnage, as Zach and the hooded Order members were fighting for their lives against a herd of asper cats, one of the most deadly creatures ever to transition from the nether-realm to the earth-realm.

  No one was ready for him.

  There was no one to strike him down.

  It was over.

  * * *

  "Catherine. You will wake up now."

  The rough voice pressed at her mind, urging her into consciousness. She recognized the voice of Simon, and bile churned through her. She became aware of his hands stroking her skin, of his fingers on her belly, circling lower and lower. Disgust roiled through her, deepened by intense hatred for the bastard who had killed her daughter...and enslaved Ryland.

  Fragmented memories broke through her mind. Ryland being chained to the wall. Shattering his limbs and his neck. The way he'd sprawled there, suffering. Broken. The beast he had summoned...something flickered in her mind, an image of a massive monster delivering her into Simon's hands. She groaned, tears falling for what they both had become.

  Ryland was lost to the demon he carried on his chest.

  Lucy was dead.

  More death. More damage. All because of the man running his hands down her body. Suddenly, staying alive didn't matter. Preserving her soul was pointless. There was nothing to save. Her daughter was gone. Ryland was trapped. The only way to free him was for this bastard to die.

  Truly die.

  In the way only she could do.

  Ignoring Simon's demands that she wake up, Catherine focused her energy inward. She summoned the very darkest part of who she was, calling it from the deepest recesses of her soul. It filled her like a great, lurking shadow swallowing every flicker of light as it swept through her.

  Simon swore. "What the fuck are you doing?" He shoved her hard, and she landed on the floor, on her bloodied hands and knees.

  She looked up, focusing her gaze on his putrid face. "You aren't a Dark Lord," she said, her voice laced with death. "You're just another pawn who is no match for the angel of
death."

  His eyes widened, and he raised his palm at her, white sparks flickering off his hand. "Don't fuck with me, angel."

  "It's too late for you, Simon." She harnessed all the love she'd once had for him and converted it into hate, the kind of vile hatred that made her kind so deadly.

  "Hey!" He hit her with a burst of white light, knocking her backwards. "You listen to me, angel. The well-being of Ryland depends on your obedience. You do what I want, or he suffers. Got it?"

  Catherine sat back on her tailbone, brought her knees up toward her chest and crossed her ankles. She braced the tips of her fingers on the ground beside her hips, and lowered her head, studying him through hooded lashes. More death flowed through her, turning her skin into an ominous shade of grayish-blue and purple. "And what is it that you want me to do, Simon?" She spat the question, even as she continued to build her energy. She knew it would kill her. Taking another soul would crumble what was left of hers, but it was worth it to free Ryland. To destroy Simon. To end the bastard's existence so that he never hurt anyone again.