Unholy Torment

by Kristie Cook

  “She’s not,” I said, putting as much conviction into the two words as I could muster.

  “Now we told you what we know. Give us Noah,” Tristan said.

  Merrick laughed. “What are you going to do? Convert him?”

  The mocking tone grated against my nerves. “It’s none of your damn business.”

  “You can’t convert the Summoned, stupid girl.” He disappeared from in front of us, and then his voice came from some distance behind us, closer to the wheel. “You lied, and so did we. Did you really think we’d give you Noah?”

  Jeana and my mother’s twin brother appeared next to Merrick. Noah’s long, dark hair waved to his shoulders, and the scar through his eyebrow really stood out with the way he scowled at me. I couldn’t get a good read on his mind, but I felt like he wanted us to help him.

  We’ll free you, I promised him, although I didn’t know if he could hear me. We’ll find a way.

  Stabbing agony wracked through my brain, worse than ever before, accompanied by a high-pitched ringing. I clutched at my head, doubled over, and then collapsed to the ground. My eyes squeezed shut for only a moment, but when they opened, the trio was gone. Tristan’s face wavered in front of me, flickering in and out of focus. His lips moved, but all I could hear was the painful tone in my head. Moisture trickled over my top lip, and my tongue swiped over it, finding the salty iron flavor of blood. I tried to say something, but I couldn’t hear myself think, let alone speak.

  Tristan swept me up into his arms and took off in a sprint. We crossed the bridge in a second, only to run headfirst into a battle. The sound of automatic gunfire drilled its way through the ringing in my head. More sounds of people screaming and stones breaking made their way through. The full scene came into focus as all of my senses returned.

  Magic spells shot every which way as Charlotte and Blossom fought against a couple of Daemoni mages in the street. The Norman soldiers sent sprays of bullets as they ran from Westminster and the camp toward the main road where we were. Vampires swooped in on Solomon, Jax, and Sheree, who were still closer to the building. Jax and Sheree burst into their animal forms. A piece of goo splattered onto my face.

  I wriggled out of Tristan’s arms and shot lightning at the soldiers’ feet, trying not to hit them directly, but to slow them down. Tristan waved the vampires off our friends, sending them flying backwards a dozen feet, and then turned toward the soldiers, paralyzing them all. I flicked my fingers toward each of the bullets before they hit anyone, while Vanessa yanked the guns out of their frozen grips. The vamps sprang back toward us, and Jax clamped his powerful jaws over one of them and took her into a death roll. They blocked my view just long enough for me to miss the last bullet.

  It bore into Charlotte’s shoulder.

  She let out a sound I’d never heard before—a yowl resonating intense pain. Owen and I both ran for her, but every step made my own head scream in agony. A Daemoni vampire flew into me before I reached Char, knocking me to the ground. A big, dark blotch swooshed across my vision and crashed into my attacker. Solomon and the Daemoni leech snapped and snarled as they threw each other around. I crawled over to Charlotte, who sat propped up in Owen’s lap.

  “I’ll be okay,” she said through gritted teeth.

  Her eyes narrowed as she looked over my shoulder, past me. Her hand lifted at the same time Owen’s did. Knowing they witnessed something terrible, but not what, I twisted my body over and around, flipping out of their way. Their spells streaked over to the vampire fighting Solomon. The Daemoni vamp flew several feet away and burst into flames. Solomon just stood there with his back to us, as though staring at the fire in front of him. Then, as if in slow motion, his body began to lean to the side. Something was obviously wrong. Very, very wrong.

  Charlotte and I both gasped.

  With his cornrows swinging, Solomon’s head rolled off of his neck and fell to the ground with a sickening thud.

  “NO!” I screamed, scrambling to my feet as his body swayed in the opposite direction. “Oh, no. No, no, no. Solomon!”

  Tristan turned at my scream, and his face blanched. Then he twisted his body, swinging his arm out and blasting everyone in sight with his strongest, deadliest power—the one forbidden by the Amadis except in extreme situations. Daemoni and soldiers alike dropped to the ground, all dead. Tristan ran and caught me in his arms as I reached Solomon, which was probably good because I didn’t know what I would have done as Solomon’s body hit the ground, landing front down, and something dark and squishy splatted next to it. But his head. Oh god, his head.

  My mind flashed back to another scene of detached vampire parts and watching Vanessa’s body pieces vibrate and move toward each other to reattach, making her whole again. But Solomon’s parts remained still, which I now found even more terrifying.

  “Why isn’t he moving?” I shrieked, trying to break free of Tristan’s hold to help Solomon put himself back together. He wouldn’t let me go, though.

  Vanessa went over to Solomon’s body, squatted, and studied it and the lump of dark red next to it. The abhorrent look in her ice-blue eyes, on her face, made my heart drop to my feet. Whatever she saw had to have been horrendous for her to react in such a way. She carefully lifted Solomon by the shoulder and turned his still body over. I couldn’t help the scream.

  “Oh my god, dear God, why?” I cried, covering my mouth with my hands but unable to tear my eyes away from the heinousness.

  Solomon’s entire front, from collarbone to navel, lay split open and pried apart, as though the vampire he’d been fighting had thrust a carving knife in and yanked downward. Blood and intestines spilled out to the sides. And the dark red lump next to him . . . the blob that had landed with a splat . . . was his heart.

  I finally turned away and buried my face into Tristan’s chest. But the image was forever emblazoned in my memory. I could never unsee that. So I opened my eyes and looked the other way around Tristan’s arm, only to see Solomon’s head. It still lay on its side, his empty eyes staring forward. I could only hope his last vision had been of Rina welcoming him into the Otherworld.

  Tristan’s arms tightened around me, and I hid my face against his chest again, trying to control the sobs. Trying to be strong. Charlotte had been shot, and I didn’t know who else might be injured. I would have to deal with this grief later. My people needed me right now. But when I tried to pull away from Tristan’s loving embrace, I instantly realized he needed me, too. He’d been holding on to me for strength just as much as I’d been holding on to him, and he wouldn’t let go. I tightened my arms around him as he buried his face into my hair, his breaths sharp against my ear. After several grief-filled moments passed, he collected himself and pulled away.

  My whole team had gathered, standing there, staring at what remained of the man who had been like a rock foundation for so many of us. I’d known him as long as I’d known Rina, when I met them both in Mom’s cottage in Cape Heron, along with Stefan. They had been the heart and core of the Amadis in my mind all of this time. Now Tristan and I were the only ones in the room that night who were still alive.

  My heart broke.

  Solomon and Charlotte had been our ties to Rina’s and Mom’s generations. Now we only had Charlotte. I looked over my shoulder at her. Owen was helping her to her feet.

  “I’ll be okay,” she said, though her face held no color and she leaned on Owen’s shoulder.

  “I’ll take care of this.” Vanessa nodded toward Char and Owen. “Go help them.”

  “Solomon deserves an Amadis send off.” My voice was hoarse and choked by the lump in my throat.

  “More Daemoni will be here any minute.” She nodded toward the parliament building where we knew dozens of Daemoni had taken up residence.

  “Let’s do the best we can.” Tristan strode over and helped Vanessa in arranging Solomon’s head near his ravaged body. He deserved so much more than being burnt in the middle of the street in downtown London. My heart cracked even more
when Tristan lit him up.

  “Bring him home, Rina,” I whispered. “He belongs with you now.”

  As if in answer, the body and the flames disappeared.

  Chapter 19

  We checked the other bodies, Norman and Daemoni alike, scattered about, but found no survivors. More Normans dead. Daemoni souls that might have been saved, but not now. Vanessa was right about more Daemoni coming soon when these guys didn’t return. Tristan blasted flames at the enemy corpses, but we left the Normans, hoping someone in the government remained with enough humanity to give them a proper burial. Then we hurried back to the compound, and Owen sealed it up tightly in case the Daemoni traced us back here and decided to retaliate.

  “Alexis, I’m so sorry,” Blossom said as she slid an arm over my shoulder once we were inside. “But you got to Noah, right?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “Really? But . . .” She trailed off, frowning. “That must be what went wrong.”

  “What?” I demanded, probably sharper than I should have been. “What happened here that went so wrong?”

  “A bunch of trucks arrived, and they started loading the metal boxes with the Normans inside, and we weren’t sure what to do, because we were running out of time. We waited and waited, and we didn’t hear from you, but then the soldiers changed from acting like puppets to behaving more normal. We thought that was the sign.”

  I sighed. “You thought we’d cut out Noah’s stone.”

  “Tristan said to watch out for their reaction, and that was a reaction, and like I said, we were out of time. So Solomon gave us the go. We didn’t even reach the trucks before they started taking off, and then the soldiers fired at us all at once. Like they were being controlled.”

  Because they were. Following Jeana’s orders, Noah had obviously turned the soldiers loose on my team. I couldn’t help but wonder if this had been part of Jeana and Merrick’s plan. Had they distracted us on purpose? Baited us over the bridge, and then set up our people? Or had we set ourselves up for disaster by falling for it so easily? Either way, this was one more time the Daemoni were one step ahead of us.

  “There was no way for you to know any differently.” I picked up my pace to catch up with Owen and Vanessa, who’d carried Char inside.

  They had already reached the same office where we’d brought Ammi for her conversion. Charlotte lay on the couch with Kristen hovering over her.

  “I was going to be a nurse,” Kristen said as she poked inside Charlotte’s wound with a thin blade, presumably searching for the bullet. “I was going to uni for it before this all happened.”

  “You’re sure you’ll be okay?” I asked Char.

  “Don’t worry. You’re stuck with me for a while longer.” She forced a small smile through the pain, but then she frowned. “We couldn’t save the Normans. They left while we were fighting.”

  I nodded, and then swung around and strode off, praying to the Angels she was right about herself. If they even listened anymore. I didn’t know what I’d do if I lost her, too. But the norms . . . Noah . . . we’d accomplished zilch, coming back empty-handed.

  Solomon had died for nothing.

  I desperately needed to pound the crap out of something. An Aikido session with Tristan to beat my frustrations out would have been nice, but that seemed like a luxury now, so I headed to our closet-room, glad to find Dorian wasn’t in it. Finally alone and surrounded by complete darkness, I let out a scream of frustration and hammered my fists against my thighs. Then I dropped to my knees on the mattress on the floor and doubled over to pound my fists into the bed.

  “Please forgive me, Rina,” I sobbed, my heart breaking all over again for her. “I am so, so sorry.”

  Tristan found me curled in a ball and staring at the wall. I didn’t know how much time had passed, but enough for me to wail out my frustrations to the point of being spent. But not completely. When he sat on the bed next to me, I turned over and crawled into his lap, straddling him. I braced my hands against his face, and he held mine as I leaned in and crushed my mouth to his. I pushed my tongue between his lips with an urgent need to feel and taste and devour him. His lips were soft yet commanding, and his tangy-sweetness filled my mouth with its deliciousness.

  Something about death and loss created an intense need to feel another’s touch, to hold onto another living being. Except it was more than that. An overwhelming necessity to feel the life force of the one you love, to hear their heartbeat, to ensure they were still with you and you were not left alone. To become as close to them as physically possible, to connect, to join as one and let the love and passion mingle with the grief. To remind us that with all the bad in the world, there was still good, there was still love, and we had to hold on to it.

  Tristan had known we both required this connection and release. He’d already planned for it and taken care of things, providing me with mental silence.

  I deepened the kiss while sliding my hands down his hard chest and abs, to the hem of his shirt, and lifting it up. Our mouths parted only long enough to pull his shirt over his head before crashing into each other again. His fingers worked at my leather corset, loosening the laces until he could pull it apart and off, and then I pressed my breasts against his bare chest, needing the skin-to-skin contact. Needing the intensity, the passion, the love we shared to cradle our broken hearts and souls. His hands slid up and down my bare back, his fingers trailing along my skin, and into my hair, grasping it in his fist, and his erection grew underneath me. I rocked my hips back and forth against it, making him moan into my mouth.

  “Are you sure?” he asked when I stood to remove my leather pants.

  “Never been more sure in my life.” I kicked off my boots and undid the button at my waist.

  His fingers pushed mine away, undoing it for me, and his hands slid under the leather at my hips to cup my cheeks as his mouth found my lower belly. It quivered with the warm wetness on my skin in contrast to the coolness on my legs as he pushed my pants down. I stepped out of them and then moved backwards so he could stand and I could remove the last piece of clothing that prevented us from becoming one. As soon as his pants were off and discarded, I latched my hands onto his shoulders and climbed onto him, wrapping my legs around his waist. He held me with one hand between my shoulders and the other under my ass, gripping and teasing. I looked into his eyes, the gold sparkling and the green dark with lust.

  “I need you,” I said, my voice thick with desire, as I slid down, over and around him.

  He moaned before his mouth captured mine, and his tongue took command of my own. My breasts rubbed against his chest, hardening my nipples into beads and sending a jolt of pleasure to my inner core. I shifted side to side, up and down, gasping as every little movement made both of us vibrate and convulse against the other. Tristan’s muscles tightened and undulated underneath me, his arms and shoulders and back muscles hard as rock. I slid my hands up his neck and into his hair, grabbing it in my fists, and pulling him closer as we kissed until we both became dizzy.

  His legs shook, and he dropped to the mattress. I slid down harder and deeper over him, making us both cry out. I lifted up to my knees and dropped down again. Pleasure rocked through my body. This was what I needed. To lose myself, my mind, my heart, everything, to the moment. To focus only on the physical, on the taste and smell of my man, on the feel of his skin and muscles under my touch, on the way he felt inside me, throbbing and pulsing.

  His hands clamped onto my hips, and his thumbs dug into the tender area at the top of my thigh, making me squeeze him and utter another moan. Then he lifted me, and I rose up on my knees until I almost lost him before sliding down again.

  “Oh, Lex,” he groaned. “Again.”

  His hand slid forward, and his thumb circled over my center, teasing the nub of nerves as he lifted me again. I whimpered his name as I came down and he thrust upward, and then I rose again, my movements becoming faster and harder as his thumb pressed deeper and worked quicker. The s
ensation started in my belly, like the feeling of falling, and bloomed downward and out and in, all at the same time. My skin tightened over my breasts, and I grabbed at them to release the ache. But the pressure was building below, making me convulse around him as I started to lose control.

  “Tristan,” I gasped. “Oh god, baby.”

  I dragged myself up and slammed back down, once, twice, and a third time, and I was about to soar over the edge when he flipped us over so I lay on my back. Then he drove into me, again and again, and I completely lost it. Lost myself in the moment. In the physicality. In the complete bliss. I left this godforsaken world for our own private one, floating into oblivion, screaming my lover’s name as I brought him with me. Leaving my body, with every muscle clenched down to my curling toes, if only for a moment of pure, unadulterated ecstasy.

  Tristan continued pumping into me, though, and my belly trembled, my spine tingled, and my toes clenched as he sent me soaring over and over again. He plunged into me one more time as his mouth said my name like a dirty word before he exploded inside me. I grabbed him, squeezing tight with both arms and legs, milking every bit out of him. Then he collapsed on top of me, and I wrapped myself around him, melding my body to his, becoming one with him.

  “I love you so much,” I whispered.

  “I love you more than life, sexy Lexi,” he said against my ear, and then he rolled off of me. I missed him immediately and rolled over to press as much of my skin against his as I possibly could.

  “I needed that.”

  He chuckled. “I’d say so. Not like you to let go like that.”

  “You know, the first time you had Owen do that, I was so embarrassed. But it’s necessary, right? Like on days like today.” I trailed my fingers over his chest and abs, making his muscles tighten under the light touch.

  “Lexi, I didn’t have Owen do anything.”

  My hand froze. “He didn’t muffle and block our room?”

  “Not this time. I hadn’t expected you . . .” His voice trailed off, and his head turned slightly toward me. He stared at me with sparkling eyes, but they dimmed as the seconds ticked by. “You can’t hear me?”