Touched by Fire: Magic Wars (Demons of New Chicago Book 1)

by Kel Carpenter

  “Who answered?” he asked, his tenor ten times deeper than it had been before. All other sound was muted outside his voice, and my heartbeat raced toward that dreadful stop.

  “Aeshma,” I bit out. “She came to me. To bargain.”

  “What did you ask for?”

  Water built behind my eyelids and a single tear dripped down my cheek in the face of such immense strength. “Power,” I admitted. Shame filled me.

  “Why?” he demanded. “Anders said you hate magic.”

  “I didn’t always.” My voice trembled. “I was five when the president was killed on TV. Magic became known when I was just a child, and I wanted it more than anything. For years, I searched for a way.”

  “Then you found one,” he surmised. “You joined the circle to call her for the promise of power.” I sensed something in his voice. Like something had occurred to him that hadn’t before. “She gave it to you?” he asked.

  Faster. Faster. Faster.

  I had moments at most.

  “Yes,” I said.

  Lucifer released me. The power that had been flooding my system drained away. I opened my eyes.

  He leaned away, assessing me carefully.

  “Then that’s why you smell like her. You carry a piece of her in you. I’m going to use that to find her.”

  In that moment, two things hit me, and they were absolutely vital to my survival.

  The first was that I was not his atma. Aeshma was.

  The second was that I lied. Somehow.

  Aeshma didn’t give me this power. I took it.

  And now Aeshma was dead.

  21

  Lucifer eased back, giving me space. My heartbeat slowed. Adrenaline drained away. He sat back on his haunches.

  “You’re a curious creature, Piper Fallon,” he said. “I’m tempted to taste you. Can you imagine her ire at me for defiling her servant?” he said softly. He reached out, letting his fingers trail up my jaw. His hand went behind my head and fisted in my hair. “It might be enough to bring her to me. I wouldn’t even have to look.” He licked his lips. Desire that wasn’t my own thickened the air. “Or I could just have you in other ways. Your scent alone is enough to get me off.”

  “You would do that? Even when you have an atma?” I said. I hoped that reminding him of that might keep him at bay. It’s not like his atma would ever show. But if she were his soulmate, wouldn’t he feel something toward her?

  “Aeshma rejected me. If she’s on this plane, that means she must have realized her own folly. She might be my atma and the center of my desire, but that doesn’t mean she’s the only one. You have some of her blood. You’d be more durable than the others. A fun toy to break . . .” He pulled me toward him, and I couldn’t resist. Our foreheads touched and his eyes closed, inhaling deeply. “You were her first blood servant, and she’s only been here ten years. She would feel a connection to you. Your pain . . . it would incite her.”

  What little my heart had eased was starting to rise once more. My blood pulsed through my veins, pounding in my ears.

  He was wrong. I didn’t have any of Aeshma’s blood. She never gave me any.

  Would I still taste like her? Or would he be able to tell?

  His lips slanted toward mine. Their velvety softness briefly brushed over my own, eliciting a groan from him.

  A knock came at the door.

  Lucifer paused.

  “What?” he demanded, pulling back. The door opened, but he didn’t look away from my lips.

  “Sir, the witch’s fight is about to begin.” I couldn’t place the voice beyond it being male, and that told me very little about who they were.

  Lucifer sighed. “Very well, we’ll be down in a moment.”

  The door closed once more. Lucifer’s tongue traced the bottom of his teeth, as if he considered going for another taste before the fight. His eyes twinkled with cruel amusement as he stood up, dragging me with him by his hold on my hair.

  “Come along,” he said, dropping his hold to take my hand. I glowered at it. “Take my hand,” he bit out, his eyes glowing for a brief second. I gave in to the power and took his hand in mine, letting him pull me along.

  Outside the room it was dark. The hallways were lit by fluorescent, unappealing light. They had concrete floors that were cracked in places. Reddish-brown stains pooled every few feet. I knew without asking it was from blood. How many people could bleed in a hallway and for what reason wasn’t that far beyond my imagination.

  We continued onward, turning corners before heading down a set of stairs. The sounds of the crowd grew as we stepped out of an opening. To our left, a set of stairs went all the way down to the sandpit, not ten feet from us. To the right, a couple of larger steps ascended to a dais of sorts, where a gaudy throne sat.

  Lucifer went for the throne, tugging me along behind him.

  The crowd quieted.

  Lucifer took his seat, releasing my hand. I stood there, crossing my arms over my chest. “I take it you expect me to stand here?”

  “Of course not,” he said, still smiling. “Would you rather sit at my feet like a pet, or sit on my lap like a whore?”

  My lips parted, but I bit back the snarky reply where I’d tell him to go fuck himself. That would only make my situation worse.

  “Feet,” I said, after a suspended second.

  “Very well,” he grinned. I turned to kneel, facing the pit, but two cold hands grabbed my waist. He pulled me back onto his lap. My ass positioned over his half-hard cock.

  “You just said—”

  “I asked which you’d prefer, I didn’t say you actually had a choice,” he hummed, wrapping a strong arm around my middle. He pulled me flush against his chest. His free hand knotted in my hair, pulling it hard. My neck craned back and to the side, manipulated at his whim. Cool lips brushed up the column of my throat.

  “Begin,” he announced.

  The crowd went wild now that the uncrowned King of New Chicago was here. In the sandpit, two doors on either side of it opened. On one side, a tall, lean woman strode forward. She wore black leather pants and knee-high boots. Her small breasts were strapped to her chest in some kind of black halter top. Golden tattoos lined her right arm, standing stark against her dark brown skin. She had long black hair pulled back into a sleek, high ponytail, showing off her pointed ears. Fae.

  She lifted her chin to the crowd, and they began chanting, “Dara! Dara! Dara!”

  On the other side of the ring, a much smaller, much dirtier, Nathalie stumbled out. Her brown hair was pulled back harshly in a bun. Her eyes were sharp, and her nose red from rubbing it. She was dressed the same as I’d last seen her, and overall, none the worse for wear.

  “Have I mentioned how delicious you smell?” Lucifer said, tugging at my hair as if he could sense my attention waning. My eyes cut sideways and narrowed, though he couldn’t see them.

  “A time or two,” I replied caustically. His length hardened beneath me.

  The fae woman pulled a whip from her side and cracked it once.

  Blue lightning arced down it.

  Nathalie paled, but she stood straight and didn’t cower.

  Lips grazed my skin, making me freeze. I couldn’t hold back the growl, and Lucifer purred, content as a fucking cat to play with his food.

  “You don’t like my touch?” he asked.

  “I’m not surprised you get off on forcing women. Only repulsive men that can’t get laid otherwise do that.”

  Lucifer stilled. “You think I can’t find willing participants?”

  I turned my chin to look at him, and the grip in my hair eased. “Is it willing if you order them to?”

  His golden eyes bore into mine. Neither of us were watching the match below, and I had a feeling it would be short. I needed to find a way to stop it and get out.

  “I could make you beg for it.”

  “That only proves my point.”

  “I could do it without ordering you,” he said, his tone sharpenin
g.

  “Could you do it without magic?” I said, braver than I felt.

  His icy features hardened, and I let my lips curl up on one side.

  “Of course.”

  “Hmm,” I hummed, debating how far I could go before I incited his wrath. In the pit, the fae woman lunged, and Nathalie dove to the side, barely getting out of the way of the whip as it cracked. A bolt of lightning struck the side of the ring, and a fissure formed in the concrete siding. “I thought you were going to kill her.” Nodding toward the pit.

  “The Le Fay girl?”

  “Were you planning to kill the other one too?”

  “At first, yes,” he said, leaning back to watch them once more. My pulse slowed a small fraction. We were treading dangerously close. “Dara Lightseeker can control lightning, though. Useful skill. Rare. I made her a deal instead. She’s now my top pit fighter.”

  “And Nathalie?” I asked.

  “Bait, but if she survives this fight, she’ll be sold to the highest bidder. I find slavery is worse than death in most cases. Before she just tried to summon a demon, and that warranted death. Then she helped you.” He paused as Dara closed in on Nathalie. Her whip wrapped around the witch’s ankle, tripping her. Nathalie fell face-first into the sand. “I can’t have that. It sets a poor example to simply kill her. You two have thrown off the order of things, but in selling her, and breaking you—I show my subjects what will become of them if they upset me.”

  I swallowed and looked at the ceiling. High above us, cement and metal pipes lined the top of the arena. Spotlights dangled from the pipes to illuminate the pit. I had no idea how long had passed since he’d knocked me out. It could have been hours or days. Underneath the ground, though, there was no way to tell. Fortunately, not all of the Underworld was actually underground. I just needed to get free and find my way out. Well, that and find a way to stop the fight.

  At the rate it was going, Nathalie didn’t have long before the fae killed her. I wouldn’t be far behind her once Lucifer’s game came to an end. He’d either take a bite and would then learn his atma was dead, or he’d rape me first, then take a bite.

  I was supposed to wait for Ronan and let him take on Lucifer while Nathalie and I got away. That was the plan.

  As the fae woman picked Nathalie up with one hand and slammed her against the wall, I knew in my bones that this was it.

  I may not know her well, but she’d stuck her neck out for me again and again. And this fae was going to slaughter her if I did nothing.

  But could I? That was a stupid question to ask myself. My racing heart said I very much could. Would I? That was a better question. A smarter one.

  To change her fate would change my own. Lucifer and every other person here would see the truth of what I was.

  Playing human after this wouldn’t be possible.

  But being dead was worse.

  Right as I shifted my weight, resigned in my decision, Dara struck.

  Lightning arced from one hand straight into Nat’s chest.

  She screamed, and blue light shone beneath her pale skin.

  “No!” I shouted. Our eyes met.

  Unbearable pain filled her expression as lightning coursed through her body.

  I waited for her to lose consciousness. I waited for the pain to become too much. I waited for her skin to char and wither.

  I waited for her to die.

  It seemed that I was not the only one surprised when that didn’t happen.

  A second suspended in time. The look of pain changed over the length of it, and her eyes never looked away from me as they started to glow. A pure, brilliant gold.

  She pressed her lips together, swallowing down the last of her screams, and I knew then that something was coming.

  Nathalie reached for the hand holding her pinned, and the fae woman faltered. Her pale fingers wrapped around that darker wrist. Dara’s strength waned, and Nathalie used that moment to strike. She canted forward and grabbed for Dara’s face with her other hand. The fae stepped back, but Nathalie didn’t stop. She didn’t pause.

  Her skin was glowing as she pressed her lips to Dara’s.

  The crowd stopped chanting.

  Everything went quiet.

  Then the fae exploded in a shower of ash and dust.

  22

  If I hadn’t been dealing with all flavors of supes most of my life, my jaw might have dropped open. I knew she was weird and had strange magic, but I wasn’t expecting that.

  Judging by the slack grip around my waist and the silent arena—neither was anyone else.

  Except Nathalie.

  She held her chin high amid the plume of dust that was all that remained of Dara.

  “Well, well, well,” Lucifer murmured. He stood up, and I slid from his lap, disregarded at least for the moment. “What have we here?”

  Nathalie didn’t cower under his stare. She straightened her spine and fisted her hands at her sides.

  “I asked you a question,” Lucifer said, speaking louder for her less advanced senses. The amusement dropping from his tone. “What are you?”

  “A witch,” she said, keeping her voice steady. She was thirty feet away, and yet I heard her as clearly as if she were next to me. I could only assume Lucifer did as well. “A gray witch.”

  He sneered coldly, disbelieving. “Try again,” he said, his eyes glowing.

  Nathalie grit her teeth, but it only took a second for the truth to force its way past her lips. “I don’t know.”

  Lucifer frowned. That wasn’t the answer he was suspecting.

  “Come here,” he commanded.

  Nathalie’s feet moved robotically as she crossed the sandy pit and came to stop at the bottom of the stairs. While she was strong, I could see my own panic mirrored in her face.

  “Give me your wrist.”

  Nathalie lifted her hand. Her fingers shook, whether from trying to fight the compulsion or from fear, I wasn’t sure.

  Lucifer grabbed it, pulling it to his face. He inhaled deeply.

  His fangs extended.

  His eyes glowed brighter than before.

  Then he bit her. Nathalie shuddered in revulsion as he took a single, long pull and then released her wrist. Blood smudged his mouth and her skin. She pulled her arm back to her chest, glaring defiantly at him. Lucifer tilted his head back, closing his eyes. A smile formed at the corner of his mouth. A gesture I was quickly learning to mean that bad things were coming.

  “I’d heard rumors,” he said after a moment. “But I hadn’t thought they were true. All these years . . .” He opened his eyes, and I saw madness there. “Looks like it’s your lucky day, witch. You’re too valuable to sell.” I noticed the crowd around us shifting restlessly in the stands. I wondered how many of them heard what Lucifer said. That’s how many people we’d have after us if we got out of here.

  Something told me that bastard knew what he was doing.

  “What am I?” Nathalie asked, seemingly unable to help herself.

  Lucifer snorted. “I think I’ll keep that to myself,” he said. “Let you wonder why the Lord of the Underworld finds you worth keeping.”

  I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes. His megalomaniac personality was more grating than most of these alpha assholes. Must be because he’s a demon. They were the worst of the worst.

  “Continue the fights,” Lucifer said lazily. “Me and my . . . toys have conditioning to do.”

  My stomach turned at what being called a toy implied.

  Lucifer turned on his heel, saying over his shoulder, “Come with me.”

  Both Nathalie and I shared a look, and then we followed.

  Lucifer walked with his back to us. The fluorescent lights of the hallways were a welcome reprieve from the high-intensity spotlights of the arena.

  I mouthed, are you okay?

  She nodded then mouthed back, you? The cautious glance she shot from me to Lucifer told me where her mind had gone.

  I’m fine, I said.

>   She lifted an eyebrow. Are you?

  It was an odd thing for her to ask me when I should be the one asking her. Nathalie didn’t look the sort to kill on a whim and think little of it. Then again, the world had changed from what it had been twenty years ago. It was dog-eat-dog, and in order to survive, sometimes you had to do bad things.

  Before I could respond or think on it anymore, Lucifer said, “Anders, find my pussy cats. Let them know I have a job for them.”

  “Yes, sir,” Anders said from several feet away. I leaned to the side to look around for Lucifer, who had stopped in front of a door.

  I wrinkled my nose. “Pussy cats?” I said, incredulous to hear a grown man speak like that, let alone a feared demon king.

  The door opened. Lucifer motioned for us to enter. “You’ll see,” he purred.

  I stepped inside, Nathalie following close behind me. It wasn’t the room I’d woken up in, but it was similar. White couches, slate floors, dim lighting. There was just one more thing.

  A king-sized bed.

  My heart skipped a beat, and I had to slow my breathing to lower my pulse just enough that I wasn’t at risk of flipping right then and there. The door closed behind me.

  I whirled around, uncertain of what I was going to do to him if he tried what I thought he was going to—but Lucifer wasn’t there. It was just Nathalie and I, in a giant room with a closed door.

  We stared at each other. There was a lot I wanted to say. A lot that I was questioning. But the words I settled on were, “You got balls, Nat.”

  She cracked a smile, despite her split lip. “I’m not the one that spit on him.”

  I snorted. “Yeah, well, it wasn’t one of my finer moments . . .”

  We stood there awkwardly. I brushed a hand through my hair, all the way down my long ponytail to the ends. They looked like pure spun gold beneath the ambient lighting.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the full truth of my powers,” she said. I guess we were talking about the elephant in the room now. “I’m normally weak, but when I’m not . . .”

  “You’re a fucking bomb?” I finished for her. She pressed her lips together, and I sighed. “Look, we all got secrets, it just so happens both of ours have to do with being freaks that have weird magic.” I laughed under my breath, a dark little huff.