Shades of Darkness

by Alexandra Ivy

  “Argh!” the tiny demon cried out.

  Chapter 18

  Chaaya snuggled in Basq’s arms, her leg thrown across his hip in a gesture of pure ownership.

  Not that she needed further proof. She stretched out her arm, revealing the crimson tattoo that ran the length of her inner forearm. For the hundredth time she waited for the flare of panic. This was the point where she realized that she was permanently tied to this male and freaked out.

  Only there was no freak-out. No panic.

  Instead a smug sense of satisfaction purred through her. Like she was a cat that had just found the biggest, best bowl of cream.

  Recovering from their latest bout of intense sex, Basq trailed lazy fingers over the vivid tattoo.

  “You’re marked.”

  She turned her head to study his bemused expression. “You sound surprised.”

  “I didn’t know since…”

  She snorted as he swallowed his impulsive words. “Since I’m a weirdo?”

  He chuckled, his hands gliding up her arms and down the curve of her back. “Don’t worry. I have a fondness for weirdos.”

  She leaned forward to nip at his lower lip. “Just a fondness?”

  “Maybe more than that.” He cupped her ass in his hands and pressed her tight against the thick length of his erection. Chaaya arched her brows in surprise. They’d already made love a dozen times. It was impressive that he was ready to go again. “Do you want me to demonstrate?” he asked.

  She did. Already she could feel the intoxicating intensity of his hunger as it pulsed deep inside him. The mating had created more than just a tattoo. The very essence of this male was scorched into her soul.

  Unfortunately there was a voice in the back of her head whispering that her duty was waiting for her. And outside the warp, time was ticking away. Who knew what evil might be released if she didn’t stop Brigette?

  “Later.” Licking the tip of one fang, Chaaya forced herself to rise to her feet and pull on her clothes. “I need to finish what I started.”

  With a fluid motion Basq was on his feet and fully dressed. She raised her brows. He looked perfect. There wasn’t one wrinkle in his black slacks or soft sweater, and not one strand of hair out of place.

  Amazing.

  “What we started,” he insisted, reaching out to run his fingers down the tattoo on her arm. “Mate.”

  She slowly nodded, shivering as the mark tingled beneath his light touch. “I’ve been alone a long time. It’s going to take a while for me to get used to the whole mate thing.”

  “I’m patient,” he assured her.

  She smiled wryly. “With me you’re going to need the patience of a saint.”

  His eyes shimmered with a white fire as his gaze lowered to her lips. “I’m not a saint.”

  Chaaya grinned, recalling all the ways he’d proven his lack of saintliness. The things he could do with those fangs made her melt in sensual pleasure.

  “Thank the goddess,” she said in husky tones.

  His fingers circled her wrist, as if preparing to tug her against him. Then, with blatant regret, he loosened his hold and stepped back.

  “Okay, let’s get this over with.” His expression was grim. “Then you owe me several centuries of uninterrupted peace.”

  She sent him a regretful glance. There was no way in hell she could stay out of trouble for centuries.

  “That seems highly unlikely.”

  “A week?”

  She grimaced. “We’ll see.”

  Turning to head toward the shimmering doorway, she halted abruptly as Basq brushed his fingers down the curve of her back.

  “Chaaya. It will destroy me if you die,” he warned in low tones. “Please be careful.”

  She pulled out her spear, glancing over her shoulder to meet his worried gaze. “I swear.”

  * * * *

  Brigette couldn’t judge how long they fell through the darkness. It might have been a second, or several centuries. Time had no meaning in the space between dimensions. She did know that she was unprepared when the void spat her out and she landed flat on her back.

  The impact was enough to knock the air from her lungs and rattle her teeth.

  Shit.

  For a second she sprawled on the mossy ground, gazing up at the dark, star-splattered sky. Where was she now? Her world? Another dimension? Pluto?

  She took a second to absorb her surroundings. There was a distant hoot of an owl, and the soft footsteps of a fox as he scampered away. A warm breeze brushed over her, carrying the scent of rich earth and sage.

  It was home. No, wait. It was home before it’d been destroyed by the beast.

  And her.

  With a low growl she shoved herself to her feet and glanced around. She half expected to see her village. It all felt so familiar. Instead it was…

  Different.

  With a frown she studied the dozen rough huts with peaked thatched roofs that huddled around a large pit that blazed with an enormous fire. Her village had been much larger and created out of stone and mortar. It’d also been built on the edge of a cliff, not in the middle of a flat plain surrounded by mountains.

  This place might have been one of the dozen human towns that had been near her home.

  “I hate jinns.” Levet climbed to his feet, giving his wings a disgusted flap to shake off the clinging moss. “Tricky beasts.”

  Brigette’s body ached from the abrupt landing, but the mere thought of the jinn made her insides melt with a nearly forgotten hunger. Through the long centuries of being infected with the corrosive evil, Brigette had lost the ability to feel like a woman. Or a wolf. The jinn had painfully reminded her of all she’d sacrificed.

  And only emphasized her acute need to rewrite the past.

  “They’re not so bad,” she muttered.

  “Fah.” Levet sent her an annoyed glance. “You only say that because you think he is soapy.”

  “Soapy?”

  Levet wrinkled his snout, as if struggling for the proper word. “Dishy. Oui. Dishy.”

  “He was gorgeous,” Brigette admitted without hesitation.

  “All jinns are gorgeous,” Levet told her. “It is one of their most annoying qualities.”

  “And sexy,” she added, enjoying the melty sensations that continued to ooze through her. Levet snorted. She pointed an accusing finger at him. “Don’t pretend you didn’t notice.”

  “Oui. I noticed. Just as I noticed he sealed my lips shut and dropped me like a sack of potatoes in this…” He spread his arms wide and glanced around. “Place.”

  Brigette shook away the memory of the jinn along with the male’s last troublesome warning. She had a destiny to change.

  “Do you know where we are?” she demanded.

  Levet tilted back his head to sniff the air. “Another dimension,” he finally announced. “This one is very old. And very small.”

  Brigette scowled. Why would the oracle bring her here?

  “Can you sense Chaaya or the vampire?”

  Levet firmly shook his head. “They are not here.”

  Brigette impatiently drummed her fingers against the side of her leg. “Are we alone?”

  Levet started to nod only to stiffen as he glanced toward the narrow road that led over a nearby hill.

  “Non. There is something approaching.”

  “Something?” Brigette didn’t like the sound of that.

  Levet spread his claws as if baffled by what he was smelling. Brigette ground her teeth in frustration. Once upon a time, she would have been able to recognize anyone or anything from miles away. But since her wolf had gone into hibernation, her senses were dulled.

  “It is not a demon,” Levet at last muttered.

  “A witch?”

  “Maybe.” He pointed down th
e road. “It is coming from that direction.”

  Brigette braced herself, prepared for anything to appear over the hill. A troll. An orc. A dragon.

  Instead a slender female materialized out of the darkness, marching toward them with jerky strides that hinted at annoyance. A portion of Brigette’s fear vanished.

  The stranger wore a long, flowing gown that was sheer enough to reveal that she was barely five foot and weighed less than a hundred pounds. It also revealed she carried no obvious weapons. Unless the female possessed some powerful magic, she was no match for a pureblooded Were. Even if Brigette couldn’t call her wolf.

  Then, as she moved into the reddish glow created by the fire, Brigette gasped in shock. There was no mistaking the delicate features and the large, dark eyes.

  “You said Chaaya wasn’t here,” she growled.

  Levet sent her a puzzled glance. “That is not Chaaya.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Positive.”

  Brigette swallowed her panic and forced herself to study the female as she moved closer. The face was the same, although the clothes were definitely different. Then she moved her head to the side, revealing her hair wasn’t buzzed short but pulled into a tight braid that flowed down her back.

  Halting in the center of the village, the woman pointed a finger in their direction. “Where have you been?”

  Brigette jerked. The voice. It was low and commanding. And shockingly familiar.

  “You’re the one who has been speaking to me,” she rasped, a combination of relief and unease swirling through her. On the bright side, she’d finally managed to locate the creature who’d offered her the promise of redemption. On the less bright side, the female looked exactly like the person most determined to stick a spear through her heart. “Are you Greta?”

  The woman narrowed her dark eyes. “I asked you a question.”

  Brigette jutted her chin to a stubborn angle. “Tell me if you’re Greta.”

  “I am,” she snapped. “You destroyed my portal, so how did you enter this place?”

  Brigette bit back her snarl. The woman might appear helpless, but she possessed the ability to give Brigette her heart’s desire. That meant for now she held the upper hand.

  “A jinn,” she forced herself to answer.

  “Jinn.” Greta looked genuinely confused. “Why would they interfere in my business?”

  Brigette shrugged. “He’s an oracle. He said he foresaw my arrival.”

  Greta glanced toward the fire as if considering the implications of an oracle being responsible for Brigette’s arrival in this dimension.

  “What does that mean?”

  “I don’t know,” Brigette admitted, her brows drawing together as Levet moved forward, his snout twitching as he leaned toward the distracted woman.

  “Druid,” the gargoyle abruptly announced in satisfaction.

  Greta jerked back, her gaze locked on Levet. “What is this creature?”

  “Levet.” The gargoyle performed a deep bow, his wings shimmering in the firelight. “Knight in shining armor, at your service.”

  “I—” Greta bit off her words as Levet resumed his sniffing of her gown. “What are you doing?”

  Levet tilted his head, looking confused. “You smell like Chaaya, but you are not her.”

  The woman stiffened, eagerly glancing around. “Where is she?”

  Brigette blinked. “I assume she’s still in the desert with the jinn.”

  “Why didn’t you bring her with you?”

  A shiver of unease curled through the pit of Brigette’s stomach at the sharp reprimand. The voice that had whispered to her for hour after hour had cajoled her to escape the dungeons and travel to meet her. She’d promised there was a glorious reward waiting for her, and that she had been chosen above all others.

  Now, this…Greta acted as if she was utterly indifferent to Brigette’s arrival, and instead was far more interested in Chaaya.

  “Why would I bring Chaaya?” Brigette narrowed her eyes. “In case you didn’t know, she’s trying to kill me.”

  The woman moved with a speed that caught Brigette off guard. Standing directly in front of her, she lifted a hand and slapped Brigette across the face.

  “You fool.”

  “What the hell?” Brigette lifted hand to her stinging cheek, glaring at Greta in furious disbelief. “Who do you think you are?”

  “Druid,” Levet answered, taking her words literally.

  Greta sent the gargoyle a glance of sheer distaste. “I was druid. Long ago.”

  Brigette continued to hold her cheek. The blow hadn’t been particularly painful, but it deepened the mystery. Which was the last thing she wanted.

  She was here for her reward, not to be abused by this…druid who looked like her worst enemy.

  “Why would a druid want to release a Were from her prison?” Levet asked the question that was hanging on Brigette’s lips.

  Greta hesitated, as if considering whether or not to answer. Then a smile of cold cruelty spread across her face.

  “Because you had the one thing I needed, wolf,” she told Brigette.

  “What’s that?”

  “The ability to lead Chaaya to me.”

  Brigette struggled not to panic. Okay. This was starting to seem like an elaborate hoax. But she wasn’t going to give up hope.

  If she did…

  She squared her shoulders. “I don’t understand.”

  “It’s simple.” Greta shrugged. “I need Chaaya.”

  “If you needed her, then why not simply reach out to her?”

  The cruel smile widened. “Because she is too smart and too wary to be swayed by an unknown voice whispering in her head.”

  Brigette flinched at the deliberate insult. “You chose me because I was too stupid and too desperate to ignore you.” Her voice was flat, her hands clenching at her side.

  “Only in part.”

  “What’s the other part?”

  The woman lifted her hands, as if to imply that Brigette was incredibly dense not to already have figured out the reason.

  “Your connection to the beast, of course.”

  That was the last thing Brigette had expected. She frowned in puzzlement. Did Greta think she could somehow use Brigette to tap into the evil magic?

  “The beast is locked away,” she said. “Along with her power.”

  “Yes, but the fear of it returning has remained. Which is why you were locked in the mer-folk castle.” Greta paused, allowing her gaze to skim down Brigette’s tense body before returning to her grim expression. “Well, not the only reason, I suppose. You also betrayed your pack and allowed them to be massacred, didn’t you?”

  Brigette clenched her teeth. The woman was deliberately goading her. Why? Maybe to keep her off guard. Or perhaps because Greta was just a bitch. The only thing Brigette knew for sure was that she would be a fool to continue to react to the insults.

  “What does that have to do with Chaaya?”

  The woman reached up to touch a brooch that held the neckline of her gown together. It was made of delicate silver and twisted in the shape of a Celtic knot. Brigette had seen such jewelry before. The humans in the nearby villages had worn them, some as a symbol of their particular clan, and others to ward off disease or misfortune.

  Brigette assumed the thing had some sort of magic locked inside.

  “I asked myself how I could lure her to join me,” Greta murmured. “The obvious answer was to create the proper bait.”

  “Me?”

  “I knew that the demon world would assume it was the power of the beast that had released you from the dungeon,” Greta said with a smooth assurance in her own brilliance. “And that they would insist on Chaaya following you to prevent the release of the evil spirit.”

  A hea
vy weight seemed to press against Brigette’s chest, squeezing the air from her lungs. It felt like a troll was squatting on top of her, but she knew that it was the toxic combination of regret and guilt and hopeless fury that crushed her.

  “So I was the bait,” Brigette rasped.

  “Exactly.”

  Brigette pounded her fist into the palm of her hand. Dammit. She hadn’t been chosen. At least not for any grand opportunity for atonement. It was Chaaya this woman wanted. And Brigette… She was nothing more than fodder.

  She wanted to howl in despair. Only she couldn’t. Her wolf had been the first to abandon her.

  Blinking back the scalding tears, Brigette glared at the woman who’d lured her to this place with false hope.

  “And what of my promise?” she demanded.

  Greta waved a slender hand. “You failed to fulfill your part of the deal. Why should you be rewarded?”

  “Since I didn’t know what my part of the deal entailed, I can hardly be blamed for not fulfilling it,” Brigette protested.

  Greta looked bored. “Why should I care?”

  Brigette faltered. A good question. Why should the woman care? The druid clearly had no interest in anything beyond her obsession to lure Chaaya to this weird place. And Brigette didn’t have any way of forcing her to give her what she’d promised.

  Which meant she was screwed.

  The realization had just formed when Levet loudly cleared his throat. “You should care because I will use my ability to speak into Chaaya’s mind to warn her this is a trap if you do not fulfill your pledge.”

  There was a startled silence as both females turned their heads to glance toward the tiny gargoyle. Brigette had nearly forgotten that Levet was there. Now she searched his ugly face in confusion. Was he serious? He’d never mentioned he could speak telepathically with Chaaya.

  Of course, that wasn’t something he would have confessed if he’d been snitching to Chaaya and the vampire to keep them updated on where they were located, a voice whispered in the back of her mind. And it would certainly explain how they’d managed to follow her.

  Then Levet angled his head so he could send her a quick wink.

  Brigette swallowed her urge to laugh in disbelief. He was lying. But why? This creature had no reason to try and help her. Just the opposite. He considered her the enemy.