When Darkness Reigns

by Trina M. Lee

  That’s because I didn’t give a shit about you. “I wouldn’t concern yourself with how she fucks me. You’re not half the succubus she is. Now if you don’t mind, I’m trying to get drunk alone here.” Fixing my gaze on the drinks set in front of me, I dismissed Nyx completely.

  From the corner of my eye I saw her stand up and tug at her short skirt. She tossed her red curls and readied to sashay away. “Just thought you might want some company. No need to be such a stone-cold cunt about it.”

  I chuckled to myself before polishing off another drink. The buzz was starting to hit high and hard now. A few more and I’d be perfectly loaded.

  Right in time for sunset back in the mountain time zone. I half considered dialing it back a notch. Alexa might need me when she got out of that stone. A bitter taste filled my mouth at the way that possibility ate at me, and I downed another straight whiskey in an attempt to wash it away.

  From behind me I heard Nyx say, “Now you look like someone who would appreciate all of this.”

  The voice that answered set my bones on fire. “No doubt about that, sweetheart. Give me five minutes, and you can have me anywhere you want me.”

  Bane.

  I turned in time to see him give Nyx a smack on her tight ass. Then he turned to me with a brow raised in amusement. He plopped down on Nyx’s abandoned stool, a beer stein clutched in one hand.

  Redirecting my stare straight ahead, I gave him the same disinterested cold shoulder I’d given Nyx. Bane’s proximity, the cavalier way he slurped beer a mere foot away, hell everything about him made the tiny hairs on the back of my neck prickle. He set me off like nobody could. But I knew that’s what he wanted, so I gave him nothing but emotionless silence.

  “Getting loaded right before you jump back to the other side. Trouble with your girl?” Bane guffawed, his own personal audience. His ego alone was enough to make me sick. When I gave him nothing, he had to try again. “What’s wrong, Falon? Worried about the demon queen your wolf pissed off? Yeah, I’d be worried too if I were you. They say Lilah is ruthless and relentless. Bad combination.”

  Another splash of whiskey hit my tongue. I rolled it around, enjoying the burn. It coursed through my blood, urging me to smash Bane in the face with my empty glass. Drunken barfights weren’t allowed in Sanctuary. We’d be tossed out on our asses if we started anything. Still, it might be worth the roughing up I’d get from the bouncers on the way out.

  “You know,” Bane said, unable to leave well enough alone. “I’d be happy to help out. I have more than enough demons at my disposal to take down whatever pitiful army Lilah has managed to amass so far. Not to mention ample space in my dungeons for the demon queen herself. I could hold her far better than the angels ever could.”

  My hand tightened on my glass. I knew the game he was playing here. My pulse pounded as my temper steadily climbed.

  “Of course my services would come at a price,” Bane continued, entertained by the sound of his own voice. “One night with Alexa. You can watch if it makes you feel better. I would love to break that little beauty in front of you.”

  Done. I couldn’t hold back. It wasn’t a choice I made. I just reacted.

  My whiskey glass shattered against Bane’s jaw. My fist followed. Bane held both hands up in defense, making no effort to hit me back.

  “Come on, you fucking coward.” With both hands I beckoned him to engage. “You wanted a reaction and you got it. Let’s go.”

  Bane stepped back, keeping his hands in sight as two heavy-set demon thugs approached. “No idea what you’re talking about. Just thought maybe you could use some help with your demon queen problems. It was just a business proposition. Nothing more.”

  From across the room Nyx watched as the two thugs grabbed me by each arm. I didn’t fight them. Bane’s boastful grin widened.

  “It was a pathetic attempt at getting close to someone you could never attract on your own merits, Bane,” I snarled as the bouncers dragged me along toward the exit. “You’re beneath Alexa.”

  Without another word he watched them escort me out. His grin remained fixed in place, but there was a crack in it now. The truth was undeniable.

  Flung out onto the street, I was left to fume alone. After unleashing some drunken rage on a demon who scowled in my direction, I made my way to the next bar. I had more than enough time for another drink.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  The cleanup had almost finished when I arrived at The Wicked Kiss. I made a note to give the staff a raise. Anyone willing to spend the day putting this place back together deserved their own damn parade, but a raise would have to do.

  The daring and the addicted streamed into the club undeterred by the potential danger because that’s what they were here for. I refused to shut the doors because of Lilah. Not only did I refuse to give her that kind of satisfaction, but The Circle expected me to provide the vampires of the city with a place to sate their hunger out of the public eye. Protect the secret and all that jazz.

  I was pretty sure they also expected me to deal with Lilah before she became a bigger threat. After my brief talk with Nova I wondered if proving myself to The Circle would get them to stop looking so closely at Falon and me. I wasn’t holding my breath.

  “Do you think Shya will join Lilah?” Shaz asked, helping himself to a drink from the cleaned and reorganized bar. “Or do you think he’ll oppose her?”

  “I wish I knew.” Shaking blonde locks from my eyes, I hopped onto the bar and surveyed the growing crowd. “If they turn on each other, it could help me out, but then I’ll have to deal with whomever is left standing. Not to mention Salem. Something is up with him. I don’t think he and Lilah are on the same page. They weren’t together last night, and when she left suddenly, I got the feeling it had something to do with him.”

  Shaz popped the cap off a beer bottle and took a swig. “Makes sense. Twin flames self-destruct when they both go dark. But those two can’t die so they just exist in this unnatural state of limbo. Sounds painful.”

  “It does.” I nodded, my gaze following Arys as he approached a couple seated at one of the surviving tables across the room. “I feel for Salem. He doesn’t deserve to suffer that way.”

  Willow, Jenner, and Gabriel had gone to Shya’s house to fetch Gabriel’s things. Without a doubt Shya would show up there sooner rather than later. Hopefully after they’d cleared out. I didn’t doubt that the three of them could hold their own against Shya. Two of them were pretty much demon experts. Still the demon’s scattered mental state concerned me. I wouldn’t completely relax until they arrived back here.

  They weren’t the only people I waited for. An hour past sundown I’d expected Falon to appear with some snippy lecture about me leaving Arys to come to his aid. When the minutes began to crawl by, I grew increasingly uneasy. Imagination working overtime, I started to picture what kind of trouble he might have run into on the other side.

  “Are you getting in on that?” Shaz came around to my side of the bar, using his beer to gesture at Arys who worked his charm on a curious couple. “It might be a good idea. You need to be at your strongest.”

  Watching Arys use that sinful smile to flirt and seduce gave me warm fuzzy sensations. A careful touch on the man’s forearm, a lingering kiss on the back of the woman’s hand, and he had them both. They eagerly followed him to the back, where he would draw out their desire, feast on it along with their blood, and then leave them to fuck it out of their systems with one another.

  So badly I wanted to join, but after the day I’d had with my lovers, I didn’t need the fix. With another wackjob demon now on the loose, I couldn’t afford to be caught with my guard down for pure pleasure.

  “No, I’m good. Arys can enjoy this one solo. One of us should be alert to what’s going on around here. I’m not sure who will turn up first. Lilah or Shya.” Or Falon.

  From the hall entry Arys caught my eye. A dark brow raised in a question. An invitation. Yeah, I definitely wanted to join him.
When this was all over, I would be sure to enjoy such an encounter in all its fullness. For now…

  I had to stay alert and wait for my fallen angel to turn up.

  With a shake of my head I blew him a kiss. He winked and disappeared into the back. Surprisingly, Arys had come around to this vampire blood den concept. Although he’d much rather be hunting the night like a true predator, the convenience and highly erotic energy of the place appealed to him.

  “Um, Lex.” Shaz tapped my shoulder, drawing my gaze from where Arys had just slipped away with his willing victims. “Is it just me or is Falon completely wasted?”

  I turned to find Falon wavering just inside the doorway, a bottle in one hand and a bloody dagger in the other. What in the hell?

  Hopping off the bar, I crossed the room in record time. Falon’s trendy hair was in disarray. The ripped v-neck shirt he wore showed off his muscular forearms, which were spattered in blood. He glanced down at the dagger he held, surprised to see it. Opening his palm, the blade disappeared entirely.

  At my approach Falon pointed a finger in my face. “I’ve got a bone to pick with you, wolf. Either you are the ballsiest bitch to walk this Earth, or you’re the dumbest fucking animal to ever exist. I can’t decide.” There was a slight slur to his words.

  When he went to take a drink from the bottle I snatched it from his hand. Whatever it was it smelled like it had been brewed in the pits of the underworld. Which maybe it had been.

  “You’re drunk,” I stated the obvious, holding the bottle away to keep from smelling the noxious fumes.

  “And you’re sexy as hell.” When I slapped his reaching hand, he chuckled. “But damn am I glad to see you in one piece. Why the fuck did you go into that stone?”

  So he knew.

  I almost touched the feather on my neck but stopped myself midmotion. “To strike a deal with Shya. It didn’t work. And I’m not listening to your drunk ass bitch about it.”

  “Damn straight, you will. I need a drink.” In his drunken state Falon almost missed the few steps that led down from the doorway into the club. Losing his balance, his wings flared wide to catch him.

  A public no-no.

  “Falon, wings!” I shouted over the music, grabbing hold of his arm. “Wings! Put them away!”

  He glanced over his shoulder and managed to seem mildly shocked to see them. They vanished a moment later. Then he swept me into his arms and crushed his mouth against mine.

  Falon’s kiss was messy and demanding, tainted with enough liquor to knock out a bear. Still I responded to the emotion that drove it, kissing him back. Then I regretted that when he cut it off abruptly and strode past me, his sights set on the bar. Jerkhole.

  I caught up to Falon in time to block him from slipping behind the bar. He tried to go around me. So I shoved him back, forcing him to grab onto the counter to keep from going down from his lost balance.

  “Care to tell me why you’re drunk off your ass?” I snapped. Relief manifested, bursting out as anger. Seeing him here, healed and whole, let me finally release the breath I’d been holding.

  “Care to tell me why you’re such a buzzkill?” Falon fell onto a barstool and caught me by the waist, dragging me in between his spread legs.

  From a few stools over, Shaz watched this with thinly veiled, sarcastic amusement. Unlike Arys he kept the nasty thoughts and insults to himself. It certainly wasn’t Falon’s finest moment, and I was glad Arys wasn’t there to see it right then.

  I slapped at Falon’s pawing hands. “I’m serious. We have trouble. I need you clear headed. Shya escaped the stone.”

  Stupidly, I expected that to sober him somewhat. It was bad news. I needed a new plan of action, and I counted on him to provide insight and snarky opinions infused with an age-old wisdom.

  The maniacal laughter that I received instead did not inspire confidence. Falon seemed to find it hilarious that a demon with a vendetta against both of us was running free. “Of course Shya escaped the stone. He probably found some loophole in that amateur’s spell the second you stepped in there. Well, what’s one more, right? Lilah. Bane. Might as well add Shya in there too.”

  “Bane?” I glanced down at the blood splatters on Falon’s arms. He still held me in a sloppy-drunk embrace despite my efforts to pull free. “Is that his blood?”

  Falon followed my gaze. “No, it’s someone else’s. I never got the chance to fuck Bane up before they threw me out.”

  “You’ve been bar fighting? And you did see Bane?” I stopped struggling against Falon, taking a good hard look at him. He looked better than when I’d last seen him beaten and wounded in Shya’s living room. Healed. And yet, haunted.

  What was up with him? Since Vegas, since Envy and everything after, Falon had been edgier than usual.

  “It’s a great way to pass the time. Not much else to do on the other side.” Shadows passed over Falon’s face, and his possessive grip on me tightened. “Yeah, I saw him.”

  “And?” There was more he wasn’t saying. Aware of Shaz’s watchful wolf stare, I pressed Falon for more. “What happened?”

  Falon too became aware of Shaz’s intense gaze upon us. Other side liquor had loosened his inhibitions enough that he spilled what I think he would have withheld had he been sober. “He made an offer to help us with Lilah if you would spend a night with him in exchange. I believe ‘break that little beauty’ was the term he used. I busted my glass across his face and got tossed out.” Falon paused and his jaw clenched. A storm brewed in his silver eyes. “You know I won’t let him touch you.”

  I knew he meant what he said. But we both knew that wasn’t something he could promise. “I know.”

  With his sick intentions Bane scared me in a way that few others could. He wanted to break me, and thereby break Falon as well. We were up to our eyeballs in demons, and I didn’t know how much more I could take.

  The weight of Shaz’s gaze grew heavy. A frown creased his brow. His eyes had gone wolf. “And you thought getting wasted would be a good way to protect her from Bane?”

  “I thought getting wasted would be a good way to pass the time while I sat there wondering why you assholes let her go into that stone. Because it wasn’t Bane who triggered that mark.” Flippant yet vicious, Falon flung Shaz’s accusatory tone right back at him.

  “Guys, stop.” My own wolf rose up to stare out at both of them. I pulled free of Falon and stepped back to nail them both with a deadly glare. “It is not Falon’s fault that Bane took an interest in me, and it is not Shaz or Arys’s fault that Shya escaped the stone. Can we please focus on the matter at hand? Because I don’t know what the fuck to do.”

  My voice rose to a shrill octave that had even Josh the bartender scowling in my direction. Shaz and Falon exchanged a glower, but neither of them threw another jibe. Having so many strong men with equally strong personalities, there was bound to be some clashing. However, we’d proven how powerful we could be together. That unity had to come first.

  “You know what you have to do,” Falon said after a long moment of quiet contemplation. “You have to claim Lilah’s kingdom as your own. Just like it wants you to.”

  There was that age-old wisdom I’d been seeking. Too bad it rarely told me what I wanted to hear.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” I gaped at him like I couldn’t be sure he’d really said that.

  Falon held my gaze. Even drunk off his ass, those silver eyes held the entire world and then some. “You know it’s the only way. That’s why it wants you to be its queen. You linked it to you when you destroyed the key. Claim her kingdom and then it’s yours. She’ll have nothing.”

  The cold chill of truth stole over me. Claim a demon’s empire as my own? Could I even do that?

  “That actually makes sense,” Shaz chimed in, wolf eyes slipping back to human. “You took command of it before, and it’s openly asked you to be its queen. Take Lilah’s power core for yourself and use it against her.”

  “Using it against her is jus
t the beginning.” Spying a bottle within reach, Falon leaned over the bar and snatched some rum. He pried out the pour spout Josh had stuck into it and took a lengthy drink. “Use it against all of them.”

  The chill in my bones began to spread. “I’m not an immortal. Can I even do something like that?”

  Goosebumps broke out on my skin, and I vigorously rubbed my arms. Everything about the entity set me on edge. Its voice alone made my teeth hurt. However, it coaxed out my dark side and begged me to claim its vacant throne. A power source, it needed a conduit.

  “You’re the Queen of Light and Dark, beautiful,” Falon drunkenly slurred, ogling me like I was candy and he had a sweet tooth. “You can do whatever the fuck you want. If the constant repetition hasn’t beat it into your head yet, I’m sure I can find a more effective way to drill it into you.”

  Pure desire shone in Falon’s keen stare. I could see the naughty thoughts flit behind his glassy eyes as he devoured me with a look. I’d never seen him so drunk. If I hadn’t been scared crapless of the many demons that wanted a piece of me, I’d have loved to find out how much he’d reveal with his inhibitions lowered.

  Shaz set his beer down hard enough to upset the bottle. “Is that really necessary?”

  “Incredibly,” Falon quipped, taking another swig of rum. “It’s the only way this stubborn wolf will ever learn.”

  It was easy to forget that the other guys didn’t know the inner workings between Falon and me. Used to this kind of talk from the loud-mouthed angel, I shrugged it off, prepping my comeback. But Shaz didn’t like it at all. His eyes were wolf again.

  I opened my mouth to tell Falon to cool it but never got the chance. The air rippled behind me. I turned in time for Shya’s knuckles to crack across my face in the ultimate openhanded slap.

  The unexpected smack made me stumble backward, right into Falon who was already on his feet. Shaz moved to my side in a heartbeat.

  In the few hours since I’d seen him, Shya had changed into a new pricey suit and arranged his black hair neatly into place. He almost looked like the demon I knew but with a little more madness around the eyes. He stood there with a wan smile, regarding the three of us with that sinister amusement I used to dread.