Released

by Jus Accardo

  “Sam…”

  The stone is unable to do that. It is powerful, yes, but it is a part of me. It cannot be used against me.

  I shook my head. “The stone can’t do that. It won’t—”

  “No!” She fisted handfuls of my shirt and shook me as hard as she could. “You took him from me once. Not again. Not again!” The blows followed. They landed erratically from my shoulders to my gut. One even grazed my chin. I let her rage, let her lash out until her fury-fueled cries had dissolved into soft sobs, and the force behind her attacks was nothing more than a whisper. “Please do something. Fight,” she begged. “Anything. Just don’t leave me again.”

  I had nothing to offer her. No solution or soothing words. So I did the only thing I could. I gathered her into my arms and held on like I was standing on the edge of the world, which, when you looked at it, I guess I kind of was.

  I will not be able to replace you.

  The blue thickened. Sam’s sadness now blanketed everything. Even the stone, glinting off the strange light coming from the cave walls, was lost to it.

  I have never felt sorrow so profound.

  I held her. She cried. For what seemed like years, we just stood there, at the end of our road and staring down the reaper.

  I cannot…I will do it.

  What the fuck are you talking about?

  No way was I going to speak out loud with Sam standing right here. Her distress was suffocating, and I didn’t want to give her false hope. Not until I was sure.

  I will leave.

  Just like that? Bullshit.

  You underestimate me. My…emotions.

  Demons don’t have emotions. You’ve told me that multiple times.

  It appears I was mistaken. I felt Azi focus on Sam, on her pain, and shudder. I could not remain here and watch her die.

  You promised me you’d look after her.

  And I would. But she would perish all the same. Even now, I feel it. Surely you can as well.

  I felt it. I’d been choosing to ignore it, but that had gone over about as well as an Uzi in a church. Since I’d confessed the truth, the weight of it had been crushing us. Had been crushing her.

  Let me see if I understand this correctly. You’re saying you’ll move out? Shuffle off the earthly plane?

  Correct. I felt a tremor of amusement. For now, at least.

  Because of Sam?

  I shouldn’t question it. Never punch a gift horse in the balls, right? But the demon had tricked me before. I wanted to make sure I had this straight.

  “Jax?” Sam’s voice cut through my fog, momentarily pulling me from the conversation. “You seem…you aren’t…” An explosion of gray burst into the air.

  “Biting it?” Her face paled, and I regretted the joke. “Sorry to disappoint, Sammy. You’re stuck with me for a little while longer.”

  She laced her fingers through mine and squeezed once. To comfort me, or herself, I didn’t know. I didn’t care. If what Azi was saying was true, then none of it mattered. I stole a glimpse of the stone, then refocused on the demon.

  You were saying?

  I am not human, it said. I do not feel things the way you do. But what I do feel for her is immeasurable. My overwhelming desire is to see her happy.

  That’s love, I replied, trying to ignore the insane prickles of jealousy. Because, really? What the fuck?

  Perhaps. I have felt human love before, through the lives of my previous hosts. It has never been like this.

  Sammy and I aren’t like other people.

  You are not, it agreed. And maybe that is why I allowed you to live. It bristled and then let out a contented sigh. You are an enigma among humankind, Jax Flynn. And you have my word. As soon as the stone is in your hand, I will depart.

  What should I do with it? Zenak won’t have any reason to off me with you gone, but Sam is still a Pure. And what about the half it already has?

  Give the stone to Samantha Merrick. She has the power to destroy it.

  I’d bet my balls Sam had no clue how to go about that, but I gave an internal nod. And the other half?

  That will not be my concern. Once I am gone, you will have to figure it out on your own. To remain and offer aid would mean your demise. Even now, I can feel your essence detaching. We must hurry if you wish to survive here.

  There was a moment of hesitation.

  You will never be clean, Jax Flynn. You must understand that. Though I will leave you to live out your natural life, you will always be Tainted. My essence will always be with you in some way.

  I can live with that.

  Good. Then I have but one last request. I wish to say good-bye to Samantha Merrick. Alone.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Sam

  There, only a few feet away in the center of a small grotto, sat a small stone. It was at the center of a formation of rocks that sat on a mound of dirt surrounded by a pool of the clearest water I’d ever seen.

  I gave Jax’s hand one final squeeze and started forward. Water splashed, increasing the bone-numbing chill that already racked my body, but I didn’t care. In fact, I’d never felt as numb as I did right then. I wanted to hope for more, to think that maybe Jax was wrong and maybe—just maybe—Van could purge the demon. But I’d seen it in his eyes. Resignation. Truth.

  With a deep breath, I reached for the stone, but hesitated. I held my breath, almost expecting some witchy booby trap to come zooming down on us, but when nothing happened, I leaned in for a closer look.

  It was beautiful. Deep red and slightly bigger than the one Sadie wore around her neck. “I can’t believe we did it. We beat them here…”

  And without further ado, I wrapped my fingers around the rock and lifted it from its prison with great care. It was warm to the touch and felt…right. Like it belonged in my palm. Like it had been made to sit exactly there.

  I couldn’t help it. Regardless of what he’d said, despite the fact that Van wasn’t here, I had to try. I was this amazingly powerful thing, right? There was an unparalleled source of energy humming through me. There had to be a way to tap into it. To make this happen.

  Stone in hand, I turned to face Jax. He was confused—with his brows drawn in a deep V, he shook his head in a question. I stepped forward and brushed my fingers across his cheek. I let them slide slowly down his chin to his neck, almost lovingly. Then, without giving him warning, I wrapped my hand around his throat and squeezed hard.

  “You’re finished, Azirak.” I jammed the stone against Jax’s forehead and closed my eyes. I concentrated like I never had before and pictured Jax—whole, happy, and alive. Free from the demon who’d shadowed his every moment from the second he drew first breath. It wasn’t until I heard a soft snickering that I opened my eyes. “What the—”

  “The stone does not have the power to vanquish me, Samantha Merrick. Nothing does.”

  Gone were Jax’s beautiful stormy gray eyes, replaced once again with the soulless black of the demon’s. “I thought maybe…” I backed away and fought the lump threatening to choke me. The stone, still in my hand, had gone cold.

  “Your persistence and fortitude in the face of impossibility never fails to amaze me,” Azi replied, all traces of humor gone. “These traits are so rare among your kind.”

  I shook my head, refusing to comprehend the words coming from his lips. My gaze fell to the stone in my hands, and in that moment, all I wanted to do was throw it. Smash it. Bury it beneath ten tons of concrete. It was useless. A stupid rock.

  “So that’s it then? There’s nothing at all I—” A soft sob escaped me, and I crumpled to my knees. I was vaguely aware that the stone had slipped from my hand and rolled a few feet to my left. “Is he gone?”

  Azi knelt down and lifted my chin so that we were eye to eye. “He is not, but there is little time left. Moments—maybe less—so please be silent and listen.” It took a deep breath. I watched as Jax’s shoulders shifted and his chest heaved, almost as though in pain. “You must be strong. The
power that resides within you is a potent call to creatures of all alliances. You must destroy the Brim Stone and ensure that it never again becomes whole. This world is not ready for such power.”

  “Destroy the stone? First of all, how the hell am I supposed to do that? And second—”

  “I would not have taken things much farther,” it said, Jax’s voice barely above a whisper. “At my cabin. I would not have engaged in consummation with you through trickery.” Jax’s lips lifted with a smile. “This should prove to you that I am a rarity among my kind as well. That I am…changed. That you, Samantha Merrick, have changed me.”

  Jax’s lips met mine in a bruising kiss that stole the air from my lungs and scrambled my brain just enough to have me kissing back. Azi wrapped Jax’s arms tight around me and squeezed, and just when I thought my lungs might actually pop, it eased up and pulled away enough to let his lips linger at my ear. “I love you, Samantha Merrick. Not as humans love, but as demons do—with ferocious intensity and sacrifice.” It pulled away farther. “I wish you happiness, Sammy. Live long and live well. Enjoy your mortal life with him and perhaps we will meet again.”

  My mouth fell open, but I couldn’t say a word. Jax’s head snapped back, and a tremor ran through his body. I stumbled up and staggered away as he began to shake. He clawed at his neck, and a terrible noise spilled from his lips, an awful keening mixed with the sounds of choking.

  The demon fell forward and braced itself against the floor with Jax’s hands. The area around his body seemed to darken, almost as though Jax’s body was on fire and the smoke from that blaze was bleeding into the air around him. A fierce growl filled the cavern, and the smoke grew thicker, enveloping Jax’s entire body for a moment before rising to hover just above his head.

  At first it was nothing more than a collection of blackish smoke. An undulating clump of nondescript fog. But as I stared, it began to come into focus. It began to take shape.

  The shape of a man.

  “This…has never been done,” a voice said from somewhere inside the churning mass. Azi. This was Azi!

  I wanted Jax with all my heart and soul, but a part of me felt…something…for Azi. “What will happen to you?”

  The smoke convulsed, breaking form for a moment before solidifying slightly. “I suppose I will die after a time. If I conserve my energy, I may linger for a bit.”

  Tears gathered in the corners of my eyes and spilled over. Their warmth left twin trails of liquid fire across my skin. I swallowed back a sob, unable to fathom the reality of what was happening. A demon, a boogeyman straight from nightmares, was sacrificing itself to spare two humans pain. It was unfathomable. Beautiful.

  It gave me hope… “I—”

  A soft noise pulled me from my reverie. I looked down at Jax, at his eyes. They were the gray of violent summer storms.

  And they were the most amazing thing I’d ever seen.

  Everything else faded away. I threw myself forward and dropped to the ground. “Please,” I whispered, and buried my face in the crook of his neck. I wound my arms around him and held on tighter than I ever had before. “Tell me it isn’t my imagination. Tell me this is real.”

  He returned the embrace, just as fiercely, and looked up. The collection of dark smoke was still there, lingering above his head, but had no detail. It had already begun to thin. “The demon is gone, Sammy. It’s just me now. Just us.”

  I pulled away and grabbed his face to kiss him, but he shook his head. “The stone.” He nodded to the ground a few feet away where the red rock lay. “You have to destroy it.”

  It was my turn to shake my head. “Destroy it how?” I glared at the thing. It looked so harmless, lying there in the sand. “Can’t we just go bury it somewhere?”

  “It has to be destroyed. If we leave it floating around out there, then Zenak could find it. It could use the stone to get to you. We have to be sure. And then we have to get the other half. I don’t care if it takes the rest of our lives, Sammy. We have to be sure.”

  “That still doesn’t tell me how to destroy it.” I shifted, leaned to the side, and stretched my arm to reach for the stone. The tips of my fingers grazed the edge—but that was as far as I got before something heavy crushed my hand into the sand.

  I looked up and saw him. The one person who could still ruin everything. The brother of the man I loved. The host to the demon who had vowed to kill Jax.

  Chase.

  …

  “Thank you.” Chase’s voice echoed through the small space. He put more pressure on my hand and bent to retrieve the stone. “I’ve been looking for this.”

  He twisted his foot once more, hard, before letting up. I held my breath, terrified that if I tried to speak, I’d do nothing more than scream. Surely he had to have broken my fingers. The thumb and pointer, if not all of them. The pain brought tears to my eyes, the throbbing radiating down past my knuckles and up my arm in quick, sharp pulses.

  Van stood beside him. She was soaked, like the rest of us, and her lip was swollen. She looked terrified, but at least she was in one piece.

  I scanned the cave and saw no trace of the black smoke.

  Behind me, Jax stumbled to his feet. He wobbled, hands shaking as he teetered back and forth. Whatever it took for Azi to leave, it had left Jax weakened. It had left him vulnerable at the worst possible moment.

  Chase laughed and dug into his right front pocket. A moment later, he produced the other half of the stone. “I’ve been waiting a long, long time for this.”

  Then, as we all watched in horror, he held both pieces next to each other. For a moment, nothing happened. But the relief I felt was short lived. A smell filled the air—the scent of burning rubber mixed with pungent sulfur. The edges of each piece of the stone started to spark—

  In a brilliant flash of light, the two separate pieces were one again, reuniting the ancient rock and spelling trouble for every living being on the planet. I could feel it, the power humming through the thing. And if I could feel it, I didn’t want to even think about the destructive force Chase now held in the palm of his hand.

  “Chase.” I took a step toward him. “Please—”

  The ground rumbled and shook, and from the dirt beneath our feet, thick vines burst from the earth. They twitched and churned and wrapped themselves around Van and me, acting like ropes and securing us firmly to the spots where we stood.

  He laughed, a disturbing cadence of amusement and fury. “How long has it been since I’ve felt such power?” He glanced down at the stone in his hands, then threw it up and caught it. “Of course, it’ll probably pale compared to the juice you have running through your veins, Samantha, but for now…” He turned to Jax. “It’s just what I need.”

  “No!” I struggled against my bonds but it was pointless. The vines might as well have been made of steel.

  “Gonna kill me?” Jax asked. He threw his hands in the air, a show of mock surrender, and grinned. “You’re welcome to try, brother.”

  “You have the stone,” I called. “You don’t need him. Azirak isn’t even—” The vines twitched again, and this time they wound farther up my head and covered my mouth. A sense of unparalleled panic overcame me.

  “You’ve been the thorn in my side since the day we were born,” Chase said as he advanced on his twin. “I mean, it had to come to this, right?”

  Jax’s grin widened. “Guess it did.”

  “Any last requests?”

  “Yeah,” Jax said. “I’ll take a burger, rare, and an order of extra spicy fries.” He spread his legs apart just a little wider. “And your fucking head on a platter.”

  Jax launched himself forward at the exact moment Chase did. They crashed together, a flurry of fists and rage. Chase swung hard and pivoted as Jax retaliated. The blow sailed painlessly over his head. He ducked another onslaught and buried both fists into Jax’s gut.

  He stumbled back and gasped for air, and again I fought my bonds. Again I failed. This wouldn’t last long. With Azi
gone, Jax was nothing more than human. He didn’t have demonic senses or strength to help him anymore. And while I had all the confidence in the world that under any other circumstance, he wouldn’t need those things, he wasn’t facing off against another human. Zenak was still inside Chase.

  I watched in horror as Chase’s blows landed more and more. One to Jax’s jaw. To his kidney. Another to his shoulder, which knocked him off balance… He crashed to the ground and dragged himself backward in the dirt in an attempt to put some distance between himself and his brother.

  I bucked against the vines again, frantic. There was something in Jax’s eyes I’d never seen before. Defeat. Acceptance of surrender. Fear.

  Chase stood over him, and his shoulders shook with a laugh. “You’re making this too easy, man.”

  Jax coughed and struggled to catch his breath as he used the uneven cave wall to pull himself upright. “It’s over, Chase. Azirak is gone. Killing me won’t get Zenak’s clan back their powers.” He grinned and spit out a mouthful of blood. “Looks like you’ll just have to sit tight for another sixty or so years.”

  Chase laughed again. “Really, Jax? You thought that would work?”

  “Because I’d let you kick the shit out of me to try tricking you?” He shoved his brother. “You really are a special kind of idiot, Chase. If Azirak was here, you’d sense it.”

  I held my breath and waited for one of them to make a move. Chase still had the stone. It was clutched in the white-knuckled grip of his left hand. He sighed loudly and shook his head. “You could have easily learned to conceal him. I did it, after all. You never could accept defeat,” he said. “Either of you.”

  I caught a flicker of movement in the corner of the cave—the smallest tuft of black smoke. Jax saw it, too. He smiled and hitched his thumb to the right. “There,” he said. “Azirak is gone, man. Not inside me. This is over.”

  Chase followed his gaze, but the wisp was already gone. He laughed. The sound was like a million shards of glass all raking against my skin at the same time. It was cruel, and angry, and worst of all, it was human. His eyes met mine, and Chase smiled. “You’re right. It is over.”