by Karen Lynch
As soon as my gruesome job was done, I dropped the bloody shovel and fell to my knees. My stomach revolted, and I threw up until I was dry heaving. Cold enveloped me, and I somehow knew I was going into shock.
I had no strength left to stand, but I had to get as far away as I could from the corpse. I crawled to the corner near the fireplace and huddled with my knees up to my chest. It was a little warmer there, and the couch hid the gory scene from me.
The Lilin was dead by my hand, and he could never again hurt another girl. I rejoiced in that, even though I knew I hadn’t saved myself or the girls he’d taken. His sons would come to check on him, and when they did, they’d kill me. They idolized their father. My death would not be a slow or painless one.
Minutes passed, or maybe it was hours, before I heard the first pounding on the door. It was locked, but it wouldn’t take long for them to break through.
I pressed my forehead to my knees. Closing my eyes, I barred all thoughts except those of Chris from my mind. And I waited.
Chapter 23
Chris
“WHERE IS SHE?” I roared at the Incubus I held by the throat against the wall.
Around us, the bodies of his brethren littered the hallway, but the Incubus showed no fear. He smirked through bloody teeth and let out a rattling laugh.
“Too…late,” he rasped.
I rammed my knife into his chest so hard it pinned him to the wall.
“Chris.”
Sara’s voice cut through the bloodlust consuming me. I ran toward her, barely seeing the faces of the warriors I passed. All I could think about was Beth. I could sense her nearby, but I couldn’t locate her. Her presence felt muted, and I was terrified of what that meant. She could be dying, and I couldn’t find her to help her.
I found Sara and Nikolas in an office, standing before an open section of wall that led to a set of stairs leading down. I moved past them and raced down the stairs with them close on my heels.
I emerged in a dimly-lit hallway with a set of doors on the other end, and I knew without asking that this was the Lilin’s private quarters. We hadn’t found him since we’d stormed his lair, and my gut told me he was holed up down here. And he had Beth.
The thought of what he could be doing to her made me almost blind with rage. I hit the doors with the force of a truck, but I didn’t even put a crack in them.
“Beth,” I bellowed, shoving at the doors with all of my might.
Sara ran up to me. “Stop. You’ll hurt yourself.”
“She’s in there,” I snarled, my voice barely recognizable as my Mori came closer to the surface.
“It’s warded.” Sara waved me away and placed her hand on one of the doors. Blue sparks crackled over the surface of the wood, and there was a blinding white flash as her power obliterated the warlock magic protecting the door.
Solmi, my Mori growled when I felt Beth’s presence strong and clear. She was alive and behind this door.
I rammed the door hard with my shoulder, and it cracked under the assault. A second hit and it crashed inward.
The first thing I saw was the body in the center of the room. The head had been hacked off with what looked like a fireplace shovel, and the rug beneath the body was soaked with black demon blood.
“Beth,” I shouted, seeing no sign of her.
My eyes fell on the bed visible through the open door of the bedroom, and I nearly choked on the fear of what I would find in that room.
I was halfway across the sitting room when a tiny whimper stopped me cold. I looked toward the sound, and crimson bled into my vision when I saw Beth’s bloody and bruised body huddled in a corner. She was barefoot, and the pink dress she wore was ripped and bloody.
Blood roared in my ears as the last of the control I’d been holding onto for days finally slipped. My vision tunneled until all I could see was my mate, looking small and broken on the floor.
Beth’s head lifted slowly. Through the curtain of her blonde hair, her tortured gray eyes met mine. A wave of pain came across our bond, pushing through the red haze in my mind. My mate needed me.
I knelt in front of her. My focus never left her, but I was aware of every sound behind me. My body thrummed with feral rage, and I’d kill anyone who came near us.
Neither of us moved or spoke for a long moment. Then she reached out with one hand and touched my face as if she wasn’t sure I was real. I placed my shaking hand over hers, holding it against my cheek and letting her touch soothe the beast clawing to break free. For the first time in five days, the unbearable tightness in my chest began to lessen, and I could breathe again.
“Beth,” I whispered hoarsely.
Her eyes brimmed with tears that spilled over and left trails through the black blood on her face. She stared at me, silently pleading for what she was unable to put into words.
Letting go of her hand, I sat on the floor and lifted her into my arms. She curled into a tight ball with her face buried against my chest. A single ragged sob escaped her as I wrapped my body protectively around her, and the anguished sound sliced my heart to ribbons.
“I’m here, Dove,” I said, my voice hoarse with emotion. “I’ve got you.”
I could hear low voices and movement in the room, but all of my attention was focused on Beth. Nothing else mattered to me. I had no idea what she’d gone through down here, or what lasting effects it would have on her. My sole purpose in life now was to do or be whatever she needed to help her recover. I’d start by taking her away from this hellish place.
Standing with Beth in my arms, I walked to the door where Nikolas stood talking to Sara and Rachel. Rachel put a hand to her mouth to cover her gasp when she saw Beth, and Sara looked like she was trying hard not to cry.
“I’m taking her home,” I whispered, not wanting to startle Beth.
Nikolas nodded. He and Sara would stay here and oversee the care of the human girls and the demon slaves we’d recovered. Margot was most likely with them now, and then they’d need to be returned to their families. There were more than enough warriors here to handle that. My only concern was Beth.
“I’m coming with you,” Rachel said softly.
We made our way upstairs. Warriors moved out of our way and cast worried looks at Beth as I carried her through the large underground structure. She kept her face pressed to my chest, and I was glad she didn’t have to see the blood or the dead Incubi littering the hallway from our short and violent attack on the lair. She’d been through enough tonight.
I climbed the final set of stairs to the exit, a carefully concealed trapdoor in the floor of a utility shed at the back of the Bel Air property. My jaw clenched as I walked through the trees and the house came into view. It gutted me to know I’d been here four days ago, and the whole time, Beth had been a few hundred feet away.
Once Jordan had identified the Lilin, it hadn’t taken David long to find out that Henry Durham, who owned this property, supposedly had a grandson named Adam Woodward. That had been all we needed to convince us to come back for a second look at the place.
It was Sara who had suggested that the reason we didn’t find anything the first time was because the Lilin might be using warlock glamours. She’d stayed in the house on our first visit, but this time, she’d walked the entire property. She was the one who had discovered the trapdoor in the shed and had neutralized the powerful glamour hiding it.
I’d never be able to repay my cousin for what she’d done here tonight. She would say we’re family and she was glad she could help, but she’d given me back my mate. There was no gift more precious than that.
My mother was waiting for us in the driveway with a set of keys in her hand. She gave Beth a tender look and led us to an SUV at the bottom of the driveway. Rachel opened the back door for me, and I climbed in, settling Beth on my lap. The two women took the front, neither saying much as my mother drove us back to the command center.
Beth still hadn’t uttered a word by the time we arrived at the house, an
d her silence scared me. Killing a demon wouldn’t upset her. Something far worse had traumatized her, and I couldn’t bring myself to think about what had put her in this fragile state.
The women took over as soon as I carried Beth to her bedroom.
“Rachel and I will bathe her and check her for injuries,” my mother said when I sat on the bed with Beth in my arms.
“I won’t leave her.”
I gazed down at the girl I’d feared I would never hold again, and I didn’t think I’d ever be able to let her go.
My mother laid a gentle hand on my shoulder, and I looked up into her warm eyes.
“Christian, I know you two need each other, but it’s important that we understand the extent of her injuries. You have to let us tend to her.”
The meaning in her words sent a knife straight through my chest, and I could only nod helplessly. My protective instincts were riding me hard, and it took a Herculean effort to stand and place Beth in my mother’s capable arms.
Rachel ushered me out of the room and shut the door. A few minutes later, I heard water running in the bathroom and the soft murmur of voices.
I didn’t move from my spot by the door. The longer I waited, the more my mind replayed images of the scene in the Lilin’s quarters and tortured me with thoughts of what might have happened down there.
My hands clenched and unclenched, wanting to rip apart the demon that had hurt my mate. But Beth had dealt out her own justice on the Lilin. I couldn’t conceive of how a new warrior had been able to kill such a powerful demon with nothing but a tiny shovel. People were capable of seemingly impossible feats when they were pushed to their limit, and I was afraid what had happened to push Beth to hers.
I was seconds away from knocking on the bedroom door when it finally opened. My mother stepped out and shut it gently behind her. I tried to read her expression to be prepared for what she was going to tell me, but I was too wound up to think clearly.
“She has some cuts and bruises, but otherwise she’s unharmed,” she said, placing emphasis on the last word.
I sagged against the wall as relief coursed through me. It was a minute before I could speak. “She’s talking?”
My mother smiled. “A little. She’s going to be okay.”
“When can I go in?” I asked roughly.
“In a few minutes. You should use that time to clean up. At least, change out of those clothes.”
I looked down at my black-stained shirt and jeans. I didn’t want to spend a minute away from Beth, but I couldn’t go to her like this.
“My duffle bag is in her room. Can you get it for me?”
My mother went inside and returned with my bag. I used Mason’s bathroom to shower, and I was back at Beth’s door just as it opened again and Rachel came out, followed by my mother.
“She’s asking for you,” Rachel said quietly.
I entered the room, and my eyes immediately found Beth lying in the middle of her bed. Her eyes tracked me as I crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed. Anger boiled in me when I saw the bruises forming on her jaw, but I pushed it down. The last thing she needed now was to see me getting upset.
I wasn’t sure what she needed from me, so I took one of her hands in mine. “Are you in pain?”
“No,” she whispered. “Will you hold me?”
I lifted the comforter and slid in beside her. I lay on my side facing her, and she came into my arms with her head tucked under my chin. Closing my eyes, I struggled with the sudden onset of emotion at having her safe and in my arms.
Over and over, I found myself thinking about what she must have endured the last five days. Captivity, even for a short time, took a mental toll on a person, even a warrior. Beth’s physical injuries would be gone long before she recovered emotionally from her ordeal.
“Chris.”
I kissed the top of her head. “Yes.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too, Dove.”
I rubbed soothing circles on her back, and she let out a little sigh.
“At night…I imagined you holding me like this,” she whispered.
A lump lodged in my throat. “You’ll never have to imagine it again.”
She fell asleep a short while later, but I lay awake for a long time, not willing to give up a second of feeling her beside me. The sky outside was turning pink when I finally gave in to my exhaustion and joined her in sleep.
Beth
“How can you say no to a boot sale, Beth?” Jordan demanded incredulously. “You love boots more than I do, if that’s even possible.”
I tucked my feet beneath me on the couch and lifted a shoulder. “I’m just not in the mood to shop.”
Her gasp was a tad melodramatic. “Okay, who are you, and what have you done with my BFF?”
Mason chuckled from the other end of the couch where he was eating his way through his second bowl of popcorn. We were having a movie day, and I’d let him choose the movies. We’d just finished Blue Crush, and we were starting Point Break. Surfer movies weren’t really my thing, but I had to admit, it didn’t get much better than Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze.
Chris was supposed to be here with us, but he’d left two hours ago to meet with Nikolas about something. Not that I minded. He’d been pretty much glued to my side since I came home a week ago, and he could probably use some guy time.
Things had been quiet here since the Lilin was killed. Most of the warriors who had come to Los Angeles to join in the hunt had left, including Chris’s parents and Rachel. Slowly, life for everyone at the command center had gone back to the way it was before the Lilin had arrived in town. Well, for almost everyone.
I was finding it a little harder to get back into a normal routine. My injuries had healed after a day, but I was off active duty for a month. Council’s orders. Chris was on leave, too, and we spent our days training and hanging out together. At night, he slept in my bed, but all he did was hold me. I wished he’d kiss me again, but I didn’t know how to tell him that.
I’d told him some of what had happened in the Lilin’s lair, but I hadn’t been able to bring myself to talk about Adam’s plans for me or my last night there. I didn’t know how to tell him about Adam feeding me his power, or the attraction for him that had grown stronger every day. How did I tell the man I loved that I hadn’t been strong enough to stop myself from having feelings for another male? That I’d kissed another male? Just thinking about it made me want to throw up.
Chris never pressured me to talk about my ordeal. He told me we had all the time in the world, and he was here when I was ready. The Council wanted to know the details of the Lilin’s death, but Chris had asked Lord Tristan to get them to back off. The demon was dead, the girls were all safely back with their families, and the threat was over. He told them they’d have to be content with that for now.
“Are you even listening to me?”
I gave Jordan a sheepish smile for having zoned out on her. I’d been doing that a lot lately. “Sorry. What were you saying?”
She huffed. “I said if you don’t go, I’ll have to drag Sara with me, and you know how much fun she is to shop with.”
Mason snorted, and Jordan smacked him on the back of the head.
“Keep that up and I’ll make you go with me.”
The door opened, cutting off Mason’s retort, and Chris entered the guesthouse. He came over to me and surprised me by taking my hands and pulling me to my feet.
“What’s up?” I asked, puzzled by his actions.
He smiled. “How would you like to go on a little trip?”
My stomach fluttered with excitement. “Where?”
“It’s a little place by the ocean. My parents have a house there.” He brushed my hair back over my shoulder. “Unless you’d rather stay here.”
“No,” I said quickly, already imagining Chris and me alone in a house by the ocean.
His smile widened. “Good. Go pack. We’re leaving in an hour.”
&nbs
p; I hurried to my bedroom and stopped in the doorway to turn back to him. “Do I need to dress for warm or cold weather?”
He thought for a moment. “Colder than here.”
I waited for him to say more. When he didn’t, I frowned. “Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”
“Nope,” he said with a mischievous little grin.
Jordan helped me pack, and an hour later, Chris drove us to a private hangar at LAX where one of the Mohiri jets was waiting for us. We took off, and I still had no idea where we were headed, even after we’d stopped in Chicago to refuel. All I knew for sure was that we were heading east.
It was early morning when the plane began to descend. We landed at a small airport, and the first thing I noticed as the plane taxied to a hangar was the Canadian flag. It took me a few seconds to recognize the second flag from my world studies.
I turned to Chris and found him watching me with the same pleased smile in place.
“Your parents have a house in Newfoundland?”
I’d always wanted to visit Canada, but I’d thought I would start out west, maybe go hiking in the Rockies. I didn’t know that much about the East Coast, but now that I was here, I was eager to explore it.
“They bought it years ago, and they used to visit around once a year. But they haven’t been back since they moved to Germany. It’s a great place, and a local couple takes care of it for them.”
His brow creased with uncertainty. “I thought you might like a change of pace, but if you’d rather go somewhere else, we can.”
I smiled and grabbed his hand. “No. I can’t wait to see it.”
Instead of the usual SUV, there was a black truck waiting for us. Chris stowed our bags in the back of the large double cab, and we set out.
It was barely dawn when we drove through the city. Chris had been here before so he pointed out places of interest we could visit while we were here. When he said there were over two hundred miles of coastal trails for hiking and walking, I could barely sit still. He laughed and told me he thought I’d like that.