Ruined

by Jus Accardo

  Sadie threw her hands up and took a step back, but there was a challenge in her eyes. A dare. She was convinced this would end in her getting what she wanted from Jax. Everything she wanted.

  Over my dead body—although that was becoming an increasingly possible proposition.

  “That can’t be all,” Jax said, slipping his hand into mine. “An extended stay on the mortal coil doesn’t seem to warrant that kind of risk.”

  “Oh, it’s not. Over time some Tainted links develop, shall we say, heightened abilities.”

  “And that translates to…?”

  She shrugged and stepped away. With a grin, she undid the first four buttons of her blouse, allowing a patch of lacy black to peek through. “I suppose we shall see, won’t we?”

  “No. We won’t,” I snapped.

  Everything from that point on was fuzzy. Watery at best. A wave of fatigue hit hard, and I swayed on my feet. Jax screamed my name as strong hands gripped my shoulders and the world tilted sideways.

  A rush of images swarmed her. A watery face. A cold voice.

  “Come to me tonight,” it hissed. “Come to the club.”

  Shit. The link.

  Everything went dark.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Jax

  I hadn’t moved since I set Sam down on Kelly’s couch. For a minute I thought about snapping the cuffs into place, just as a precaution, but changed my mind. I’d just stay alert. Watch for signs that something was wrong.

  It wasn’t a long wait. Less than twenty minutes later, she shifted and slowly opened her eyes. “Jax?”

  “I’m right here,” I said, kneeling beside the couch. “How do you feel?”

  She pulled herself into a sitting position and tilted her head to stretch out her neck. “Sort of like someone used my head as a golf ball. All of a sudden I was so tired. I couldn’t keep my eyes open.” Sam hesitated. Several puffs of gray rose from her shoulders. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think we can say without a shadow of a doubt that, yes, I’m linked to this thing…”

  “What happened?”

  “It was there…the demon. Inside my head. I could feel it.” She shuddered. “It spoke to me.”

  Fuck. “You heard its voice?”

  “Yeah. Right before I passed out. But it’s not all bad… It told me to come to the club tonight. We know where it’ll be.”

  Five hours later, we were at the back door to the Viking. I hated this plan, but we were running out of time. Chase had called. He was still up at Huntington, but so far, hadn’t had any luck.

  Sam’s plan to trap the demon by using herself as bait made me itch in my skin. Azirak, too. But we were out of options. “Let’s go over it one more time,” I whispered.

  “Yes, Mom,” Sam replied with a roll of her eyes. She was still tired, but seemed to hum with a renewed sense of energy. “I’m going to stroll in there as though nothing’s wrong and do my job. Sling a little brew. Flirt with some guys. At the first hint of trouble, I’m going to give you the signal.”

  “And the signal?”

  She puckered her lips.”I’m going to blow a kiss to one of the customers.”

  I nodded. I’d have eyes on her every moment we were in there. Nothing to worry about. That’s what I kept telling myself. But even Azirak wasn’t convinced. The demon churned and shifted, uneasy about the whole thing.

  Heckle had called earlier with an update. While he hadn’t found a more optimal way to break the link, he did say he was on the trail of something that might dampen it to the point that it wouldn’t be an issue. He reinforced that we should still keep trying to find the demon Sam was linked to.

  “Can I go in now? I can’t afford to be late. I refuse to move back in with Kelly, so if I lose my job, I’m heading downtown to turn tricks…” She did a little twirl. “And looking like this, there’s a good chance I’d starve.”

  “Go,” I said, pulling open the door and trying hard not to stare. She wore jeans this time around, with a tight black tank top with the Viking logo on the front. I wondered what it’d feel like to slide my fingers beneath the hem and work my way slowly up her back. Azirak ran with the spark of lust, and flashed a scene inside my head. I had Sam pinned beneath me, against the hood of Rick’s car. My hands were sandwiched between the soft, thin material of her shirt and her warm silky skin, the subtle thumping of her heart under my fingers. She moaned, arching off the hood and into me as my body responded, the need to take her, to possess her, hitting me with feral veracity.

  “But be careful,” I finished, shaking my head to clear away the scene. Not the right time for that.

  It wouldn’t ever be the right time for that.

  I’d been standing by the railing on the second floor for almost two hours now. I was beginning to give up hope when the cell rang. If not for the demon, I never would have heard it above the nose in the club. I reached into my pocket and flipped it open. “Yeah?”

  “Jax, I think I got him.”

  I held my free hand up to drown out some of the noise. “Chase? What do you mean?”

  “The bastard that hurt Samantha. I think it’s a demon going by the name of Hank Sutton. He’s the TA from her history class.”

  “What makes you think he’s our guy?”

  “He was seen with a girl who went missing a month earlier. Several people also saw him leave the party right behind Sam. He’s a regular at the Viking. He’s actually—”

  “Going to be there tonight,” I said. “We know. We’re there now. Sam’s working and I’m keeping watch. Anything else?”

  “I can text you a picture of the guy. That help?”

  “Do it.” I hung up without another word as the music changed from techno dance to a hypnotic rhythm that had couples swarming the dance floor below. A moment later, the phone beeped. Chase’s text. On the small screen was a picture of a tall, lanky guy with wild, curly hair and an eerie grin. Fucking great. We were looking for a dorkier, demonic version of Carrot Top.

  I scanned the room. Sam was on the other side flashing a flirty smile to a couple of college boys. It was still early, but the club was full of life and the bar crowded. There was no sign of Sutton. What was I supposed to do with the demon if he showed up? Wrestle him out to the car and lock him in the trunk? Someone would call the cops, and with my reputation, I wouldn’t be given a chance to explain—not that I could come up with a reasonable explanation for stuffing someone in a trunk. Not reasonable to the rest of the world, anyway.

  Song after song, the dance floor hummed with electricity as bodies thrashed to the music. I watched the crowd, searching for anyone resembling Sutton, but there was no one. I pinched the bridge of my nose. There was too much crap in the air and it was giving me a headache. Perfume, alcohol, and emotion—thanks to Azirak, everything spun in a sickly swirl. Giving up on the balcony, I made my way to the stairs and across the room to the bar.

  “Hey stranger. What’ll it be?” Sam said with a grin. She leaned forward, bending low enough to give me an unintentional view down her shirt. My pulse quickened and I had to force myself to stay in place instead of moving forward to meet her. “Chase called a little while ago. Says he thinks the demon’s name is Hank Sutton. Sound familiar?”

  “Oh my God. Seriously? He was the TA at Huntington. Is he positive? Hank seemed so…normal.”

  “He’s pretty sure. Is there anything you can tell me about him? Anything that might help pick him out in a crowd? Chase sent a picture but…” But Sam wasn’t listening anymore. She was staring over my shoulder, at the bar. “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s him. Hank. He’s here.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Sam

  Jax flew across the room before I could stop him. Hank, who was chatting up a leggy brunette in a red leather miniskirt by the door, must have caught wind of him. The demon froze mid-sentence, looked up, and bolted into the crowd just as Jax hit the dance floor.

  “Shit,” I spat. The bottle of gin slipped
from my hand and rattled to the bar. I ducked out from behind the counter and sprinted after them. By the time I reached the other side of the room, both men had been swallowed by the crowd.

  I started across the dance floor, knocking into people with each step. Angry shouts and colorful words came from every direction as I plowed through the center, but as I reached the edge of the crowd, it all started to blur. Like I’d just stepped off a merry-go-round set on superspeed, colors swirled together, people on the dance floor becoming a single, shapeless blob. I reached out and caught hold of something—someone—as a vicious wave of vertigo washed through the room.

  “He’ll never catch me,” the same voice I’d heard at Sadie’s cooed inside my head, followed by a dark laugh.

  “No,” I whispered, continuing forward. I hadn’t had anything to drink. I hadn’t been to sleep.

  “Come to me,” the demon demanded. “Walk right out the front door.”

  Turn around and walk back to the bar. That’s what I needed to do. What I wanted to do. But my limbs had other ideas. The command was like an industrial-size rubber band snapping against my will. One foot in front of the other, I wove through the rest of the crowd and approached the door, every step a war between my mind and body.

  The cold night air stung my skin and the sounds of the club faded as I stepped onto the sidewalk. After a few moments, the only thing that was left was the sound my shoes made as they pounded the walkway. Clop. Clop. Clop.

  “Sam?”

  Thank God. Jax. Jax was here. He could stop me. Footsteps sped up behind, my pace never slowing. No. Not Jax. Way too noisy.

  “Sam! It’s me.”

  “Chase! Hurry,” I called over my shoulder. “I can’t stop.”

  He caught up and jumped into my path. I simply stepped around and kept walking. “What’s wrong? Where are you going? And where’s Jax?”

  “He took off after Hank, but I think something’s wrong. He’s in my head. Forcing me to—”

  “He’s controlling you?” he asked, surprised. He tried stepping into my path again, but I pushed him away and continued, undeterred. Chase cursed. “Okay. Forget the logistics. We need to stop this.”

  “Not sure what you have in mind. Other than throwing me over your shoulder, I don’t see how you can stop this.”

  He chuckled. “Excellent idea.”

  One minute I was walking, casual but determined, the next my feet were off the ground and the world tilted sideways.

  “How’s that?”

  I held my breath. The desire to keep walking was still there, but I didn’t feel the need to kick and scream to get down. Score! But it only solved one problem. “We need to find Jax.”

  “Agreed, but let’s get you someplace safe first. I don’t think my brother would be thrilled to know you walked off to meet a demon. Dude might get jealous. Any ideas?”

  I thought about it for a minute. How long would this last? And would it get worse? Chase couldn’t hold on to me all night. Then I had an idea. “Kelly’s house. There’s a pair of handcuffs we can use.”

  Chase whistled, and I felt his shoulders shake with a laugh. “You in handcuffs? Oh, I’m definitely game for that,” he said, and swiveled toward the parking lot.

  “Are you okay?” he asked. The expression on his face was apologetic, and I thought about making a bondage joke, but decided against it. Chase had a habit of taking things a little too literally and that was the last thing I needed right now. Him grabby and me in chains. The only thing that would top that would be Jax walking in on another kiss. Kelly had been talking about repainting the walls, but somehow I didn’t think bloodred was really her thing. “Are these too tight?”

  I twisted my wrist in the cuff. He’d secured my right hand with one side, and clipped the other end to the radiator. “As long as it keeps me here where I’m safe, then I’m good.”

  “Should try Jax again. Maybe we should use your cell?” We’d tried three times to reach him on the way over. There’d been no answer. If Hank was in my head, that meant that either Jax had been hurt, or he hadn’t caught up to the demon. Either way, it equaled trouble.

  “Can’t. Mine’s gone.”

  “You don’t have it on you?”

  “I don’t have it, period. It ended up at the bottom of the river. Don’t ask…”

  He shrugged and pulled out his own cell, turning toward the door to make the call. The sound the phone made as he pushed the buttons echoed through the room. After a minute, Chase shook his head and snapped it closed. No luck. He looked as worried as I felt. They bickered and clashed, but underneath it, the Flynn brothers loved each other. “Maybe I should go look for him.”

  “Yeah,” I said with a roll of my eyes. That would complete my craptastic week. Jax and Chase ripping each other to shreds while I sat chained in my aunt’s house. “Great plan. Go in search of the guy who wants to rip your heart out. Lemme know how that turns out for ya.”

  He frowned again and set down his cell. “Good point. After all this time, you’re still crazy about him, aren’t you? All this crap that’s happened is technically his fault, and you really do still want him to stay.”

  I didn’t want to talk about this. Not with him and definitely not now, but avoiding it wasn’t going to change things. Nothing would. “Doesn’t really matter. He doesn’t want me enough to stay.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t agree with the thing you two have going. I never agreed with it. Jax is volatile and dangerous and I was always worried about him snapping on you. But he does love you. Don’t think he doesn’t.”

  “Sometimes it’s just not enough, I guess.” I’d lived after he left last time and I’d live again. He was a guy, right? There were plenty of those walking around out there.

  The front door rattled.

  “Jax?” I called, breath held.

  Chase jumped from the chair and waved like a lunatic. “Shh,” he whispered, frantic. “If you’re linked to this thing, maybe it can track you down, too.”

  Well, crap. I hadn’t even thought about that.

  He crept toward the door, staying away from the windows. He’d almost reached the other end of the room when it burst open and a tall figure stepped into the light.

  Hank.

  “Look out!” I pulled against the restraints, digging into my pocket in a frantic search to find the key. Only I couldn’t. I’d insisted that Chase take it just to be on the safe side.

  Hank’s head snapped up and his eyes zeroed in on me. There was a spark of madness there. A feral, violent gleam, and in that moment, I wondered how I’d never seen it before. How could you hide that?

  He started forward. Thankfully he didn’t get far. Chase jumped behind him, half-full bottle of Kelly’s favorite wine in hand, and swung hard. The sound it made as it shattered across the back of Hank’s head, along with the muffled thud his body made as it crumpled to the ground, was a symphony of relief to my ears.

  Chase shuffled toward me, eyes wide and brushing tiny bits of glass from his sleeve. “You okay?”

  “Me?” I laughed. “You’re the one who went Rambo on a demon’s ass. Quick. Unlock these before he wakes up. We have to find Jax.”

  He nodded and slipped the key from his front pocket. There was the tiniest blush in his cheeks. “Aw, shucks, ma’am. It was nothing.”

  I stepped away from the wall, rubbing my wrist and glad to be free. “Tell you what, I’ve officially decided I’m not into the whole bondage scene.”

  He took my hand. “Well, that’s a shame. I hear—”

  That’s when it hit me. Or rather, it hadn’t hit me. “Something’s wrong.”

  Chase, growing pale, spun back around to check on Hank. When he didn’t move, he turned back to me, confused. “I don’t get it. He’s down for the count. What could be wrong?”

  “Exactly. He’s down for the count. If we’re linked, he’d be standing and I’d be down.”

  Chase considered it for a moment. “Well, maybe you weren’t linked?
Maybe he attacked you, but didn’t do this link thing?”

  “Impossible. I heard the thing in my head,” I said, peering around him to look at Hank. He was still and bleeding from a nasty-looking gash on the back of his head. I knotted my fingers through my hair, working them across my scalp. Not a scratch. From what Heckle said, there should definitely be something there. “I didn’t walk out of that club on my own. I was forced.”

  “So you’re saying he’s not the one who fed from you?”

  “Sammy!” Jax appeared in the doorway. He looked down at Hank and frowned.

  At the sight of him, relief washed through me and a weight equal to a Volvo lifted from my chest. “Jax! Thank God.” I dragged Chase across the room and stopped a few feet from where Hank lay. The faint rise and fall of his back indicated he wasn’t dead. “He found us. Chase got him, but I don’t think he’s—”

  “Sammy,” Jax repeated, this time softer. There was fear in his eyes. A kind of terror I’d only seen once or twice in all the time I’d known him. His gaze alternated between me and Chase as the fingers of his left hand twitched. “I need you to do something for me. No questions. No arguments.”

  “What—”

  “Come here. Walk to me.”

  Chase stepped in front of me, and with a squeeze of his hand, shook his head. “Wait a sec.” Turning to Jax, he said, “What’s going on?”

  Jax ignored him. “Sutton wasn’t the demon. Do you really think my brother would have been able to knock him out so easily if he were?” He came a step closer. “Please, Sammy. Come to me.”

  “That’s what I was trying to tell you. Hank followed us here, but when Chase hit him, I didn’t feel a thing. I don’t think he’s the one I’m linked to.”

  I tried to go to Jax, but Chase’s grip tightened around my arm. He was pale and looked just as worried. “Samantha, wait. Something’s wrong here.”

  “I know,” I snapped. Jesus. Were they deaf? “Have either of you been listening to me?”

  Jax inched closer. The look on his face was terrifying. Furious. Eyes trained on Chase, he said, “I’m listening, Sammy. But now you need to listen to me. Sutton isn’t the demon. He isn’t even a demon. It’s my brother. He’s the one you’re linked to.”