A biting, sarcastic retort rose to Dani’s lips, but then her connection with Silas snapped free. Her consciousness slammed back into her body, and the quick return left her dizzy, making her stumble.
“Careful. You’re okay. Just breathe,” Spencer said, grabbing hold of her elbow until the wave of dizziness passed. “Get anything useful?”
Dani relayed what Pam had said, purposefully ignoring the concerned expression Raj had plastered all over his face, like he wanted to reach for her and hated that there was no need for him with Spencer already holding her up.
“That sounds like Uncle Caleb.” Spencer gently released Dani, waited a beat to make sure she was steady on her feet, then ran a hand through his hair. This time, when his fingers came away, his curls were a brilliant red. “He’s not going to cooperate easily. He’s a real prick.”
Dani squeezed her hands into fists, her anger distracting her from the fascinating illusion magic the reformed necromancer seemed to be using. “I’m sure I can make him bleed easily enough. Where do we find him?”
Spencer rattled off an address on the south end of Blackthorn. “Don’t tell him I sent you,” he said, turning back to his now bubbling concoction on the table. “I’d hate to give him an excuse for a family reunion.”
“Thanks, Spence. I owe you one.” Raj clapped Spencer on the back.
“I’d say this makes us even,” Spencer said, but he didn’t elaborate.
“I’ll let you know if we have any luck with Caleb.” Raj opened the door and slipped down the stairs.
Dani made to follow, but Spencer called out to her to wait. “Yeah?” She asked, one hand on the door.
“Take this,” he said, handing her a bag.
“What is it?” She peered into the cloth and found a black Glock and several boxes of bullets. Dani looked at Spencer quizzically. “You know bullets don’t banish demons, don’t you?”
“These ones do,” he said, a hint of pride coloring his inflection.
“I can’t pay for these,” Dani said, even as she clutched the bag to her chest.
“Consider it an advance payment.” Spencer’s blue eyes turned stormy. “When you see my uncle, hit him at least one extra time for me.”
12
Dani followed Raj out to the car, the Glock and bullets clutched tight to her chest. Her mind was reeling with so many unanswered questions. There was so much history between the two men, and though it shouldn’t matter, she was painfully curious. Why hadn’t her mother told her that some necromancers had their power thrust upon them like an unwanted gift they couldn’t return.
But Spencer gave it up.
She glanced at Raj, who was navigating the thin evening traffic. He played the part of a so-called moral necromancer, one who only made deals with willing victims, but he hadn’t forsaken his heritage like Spencer had. He was still profiting off demonic deals, no matter what line he thought he kept.
“Do you need to stop and get anything before we visit Spencer’s uncle?” Shadows played across Raj’s face as the car sped under street light after street light.
Dani pulled out the gun and checked the clip. It was full, so she looked through one of the boxes of extra ammunition, loading a second clip that was in the bag. The bullets felt like they had been coated in some sort of slippery substance, and runic symbols were carved onto the side of each. Yet even with the weight of the gun in her hands, she’d feel safer with her sword.
“Yeah, take the next ri—” Pain lanced up Dani’s spine, and a scream tore from her throat, echoing back at her in the small vehicle. Silas and Jasper stitched themselves back on her forearms, the pain always worse when it wasn’t their choice to return. Panting, she reached blindly for Raj’s arm. “Lana,” she said on an exhale.
She didn’t have to continue. Raj took one look at the Ink tattooed against her skin and made a hasty U-turn, speeding back toward his apartment. They rode in silence, the car screaming through intersections. Raj’s strong jaw flexed as he drove, his knuckles cracking when his grip tightened on the steering wheel.
A few blocks from his house, he finally glanced at her, his dark eyes full of concern. “Are you okay? Can you fight?”
Dani chambered a bullet in her new Glock. “Whoever hurt Silas and Jasper is going to eat lead.” She considered him, remembering what happened the last time they faced the succubus in the alley. “What about you?”
“I’ll be fine.” He pulled into the driveway, and they both sprang from the car the second it was parked. They crept toward the front door, and Raj unlocked the door “Three . . . Two . . . ” On one, he swung open the door, and they both rushed into the grand foyer.
Silence greeted them. Silence, and signs of a struggle.
Chairs were toppled over. There was blood on the marble floor.
“Poe,” Dani called, and the raven pulled from the skin on Dani’s chest, the sound of wings rustling on the wind filling her ears.
“Dani, look out!”
Pain exploded, hard and fast, across Dani’s back. She fell forward, catching herself in a roll, and was on her feet a moment later. She turned and came face-to-face with a many-toothed demon, scales poking through its human skin. The demon growled. Dani rolled out her shoulders.
“Bring it, asshole.” She sprang forward, pushing her enhanced speed to its limit, punching the demon with all her strength. The monster’s head snapped to the side, but though she was fast, the demon was faster. It swiveled right, and Dani could barely track the movement before the demon’s fist buried into her side.
The air left Dani’s lungs in a rush, but she caught it again on the next inhale and reached for the gun at her waistband. The demon knocked her to the floor before she could fire, and the gun skittered across the floor, leaving Dani with little more than her fists and her wits.
Glass shattered behind her. A stampede of heavy footsteps. When she managed to look up again, the room had filled with demons. A dozen, maybe more. Poe swooped and dove, talons flashing, while Raj conjured some kind of magic, his eyes glowing and fingers tracing demonic symbols that created wide, shields that looked like water in the air. He wielded them like battering rams and sent a nearby demon crashing across the room with the magical forcefield.
Focus, Danika! Poe squawked at her. I cannot fight this many demons alone.
Dani lashed out with a vicious rear elbow, breaking her demon’s nose. The creature howled, and Dani scrambled to her feet, running for the gun. “Kiva!” she cried, gasping as the mighty panther slipped from her back, the Ink pooling against marble before coalescing into the roaring form of her most powerful Ink.
Kiva pounced on the nearest demon, giving Dani enough time to grab the gun and aim her first shot. The bullet tore from the chamber and buried itself in the forehead of a vampiric demon sneaking up behind Raj. The necromancer whirled around as the demon’s blood splattered against his back. The creature fell to the ground in a heap of exorcised flesh.
“Thank you, Spencer,” Dani said, adjusting her grip and shooting another demon. The bullet lodged in the monster’s shoulder, but without a kill shot, it simply cried out in pain. Dani hadn’t trained with guns, but her heightened senses quickly corrected her aim.
The next shot landed true, hitting the creature in the chest and sending it back to hell. Across the room, Kiva pounced on another demon, tearing out its throat with her massive teeth.
On the other side of the room, Raj was holding his own against yet another demon. They traded blows, the demon’s fists glancing off Raj’s shimmering, transparent shield. Raj shoved his hands forward, and his shield crashed into the demon so hard it snapped its neck. The creature crumbled to the floor, temporarily stunned.
Another demon rushed Dani, screaming and slashing at her with razor sharp nails. She dodged under the attack and kicked the creature hard in the chest. It stumbled back, and she finished it off with a bullet between the demon’s eyes.
When she glanced, up, all the remaining demons lay in various stat
es of injury on the floor, but none of them were moving. Normally, she’d decapitate the corpses to banish the demons and let Jasper or Silas consume the remains, but the heaviness in her arms told her they were still too wounded to come out. Though she hated to waste the bullets, without her sword she was forced to shoot each one to make sure they stayed down and dead—permanently this time. “Everyone okay?”
Fine, Little Hunter. Kiva licked her paws clean of blood and padded over to where Dani was holstering her now-empty gun. Who’s your friend?
Poe let out an indignant sound. Our Danika has been consorting with necromancers.
“No one’s consorting, Poe.”
Raj shot Dani an odd look. “What?”
“It’s nothing. Poe. Kiva. Return.” The Ink burst into a cloud of liquid black and sliced into Dani’s chest and back. “Are you okay?” Dani approached Raj carefully. Blood dripped from his nose down to his full lips.
“I’m fine.” Raj wiped the blood on the back of his wrist. “It’s been awhile since I used so much magic. Just a little rusty.”
Dani tried not to consider where Raj acquired said magic. It was so much easier to pretend he wasn’t a necromancer when the signs of his demonic deals weren’t so readily apparent. She wondered how many more deals he had struck, how many more powers he kept to himself.
“If you say so,” Dani said at last, surveying the scattered bodies on the floor. They were in an array of decomposition now that demonic magic wasn’t keeping them animated. “Can you tell if they were raised by Spencer’s uncle?”
“Not with all of them banished, no.” Raj wiped at his face again, but his nose was bleeding faster than before.
“Why don’t you clean yourself up. We don’t want to storm Caleb’s place looking like we barely escaped whatever trap this was supposed to be.” Dani fought the urge to lead Raj to the sink herself. She had more important things to do than play nurse.
I told you I wanted this nonsense out of the house.
The memory of her mother’s voice caught Dani off guard. It swallowed her up until she was on the other side of the country, nursing school pamphlets in her lap. Andrea thought college was a waste of time, and here Dani was, over a year later, finally agreeing with her mother. A mother who now relied on doctors and nurses to stay safe.
Dani squeezed her eyes shut against the threatening tears.
Pain exploded against the back of Dani’s head. Her knees gave out beneath her. She crumbled to the floor, her vision going in and out. As the shadows closed in, Dani saw a familiar face smirking down at her.
Pam.
13
Voices filtered in first, hushed but unhurried. The rise of questions and the steady thrum of clipped answers. Next came the smell, pungent and vile, so strong Dani had to fight against the strong, self-preserving urge to gag. And then, with a violent jerk, she woke.
The rise to consciousness was sudden and overwhelming, like jumping into a frigid lake. Dani gasped, blinking against the darkness, looking for detail in the shadowed shapes before her eyes.
Thick candles lined the room, their flames jaunty and flickering. Dani took stock of her situation. Her body hurt, her head especially, but nothing felt broken. She was bound tightly, her arms chained palm up against an iron chair, her legs shackled to the floor.
The damp air was cold against Dani’s bare skin, and there was far more visible than there was before. When Dani looked down, she found her shirt in ribbons. Not ribbons, she realized. Whoever had taken her had cut away the places where her Ink marked her, exposing the intricate black designs that made up Poe’s tattoo.
They knew who she was. What she was.
Fear climbed up her ribs like they were the rungs of a jungle gym. It nestled around her heart and lungs, festering, making it hard to breathe.
“Ooh, looks like someone’s finally awake.” Lana—no, not Lana, Pam—walked into view. The succubus trailed a finger across Dani’s exposed collarbone. “We could have had so much fun when you tied me up.” Pam settled herself in Dani’s lap and kissed her cheek. “But you had to make it all boring.”
Dani reached for a biting retort, but when she tried to speak, she realized her mouth was gagged. As fresh terror panicked her lungs—if Dani couldn’t speak, she couldn’t summon the Ink to her aid—two men stepped forward. They wore black robes that billowed around them. The taller of the two had a shaved head, yet even that couldn’t hide the resemblance to curly-haired Spencer. This must be his uncle. The one who summoned Pam.
“Are you sure this is the Carrier?” the shorter of the men asked, glancing from Pam to Caleb.
“Of course, I’m sure.” Pam pouted and slipped from Dani’s lap. She approached the younger necromancer and trailed a finger down his face. He shuddered but kept his vision forward, not looking at her directly. The succubus glanced over her shoulder at Dani. “Aren’t my minions adorable?”
When Dani didn’t reply, Pam flounced away, dancing to music only she could hear. The moment her back was turned, Caleb struck the other necromancer hard across the face. “Don’t you dare question our lady’s judgment. We serve at her pleasure.”
The younger man shrank back, bowing his head. “I’m sorry. It’s just the Carrier. . . she’s younger than I expected.”
“Finish the potion,” Caleb snapped, pointing to the other side of the room, where a trio of similarly robed figures bent over a bubbling pot. “We don’t have all night.”
“As you wish.” The man bowed and slipped back to the other side of the room. He reached for a wooden spoon and stirred the foul-smelling liquid counterclockwise.
Dani strained to see the faces of the other necromancers across the room. Was Raj among their ranks? Had he betrayed her? She was a fool to think she could trust him. Her mother never would have fallen for his quick smile and kind words.
A small explosion rocked the room, the blast knocking Dani’s teeth together. Pam stumbled as the ground shook, but she righted herself and danced over to Dani. “Isn’t this exciting? I haven’t had this much fun since my first orgy in 1301. I think I was in Greece. It’s so hard to keep track of your human geography.”
“Lady Pamela,” the young necromancer from before said with a pious bow, “we’re ready.”
Pam clapped her hands and kissed the young man. His face burned scarlet, and when Caleb cleared his throat behind them both, the shorter necromancer bowed and stepped away. Behind him, the trio of other necromancers used thick gloves to carry the bubbling cauldron toward Dani.
They set the cast iron legs carefully on the ground, and the putrid smell nearly made Dani gag. She swallowed down the reflex, but a terrible fear made her entire body tremble. She pulled against her restraints as Caleb picked up a thick wooden spoon and dipped it into the boiling liquid.
“Ooh, what’ll that do?” Pam asked, hanging on the young necromancer again, letting her fingers trail up and down his chest.
Caleb flashed her a wicked grin, but he still bowed his head before speaking. “It’ll burn those wretched spirits from her skin. They’ll never trap you again, my lady.”
No! Dani struggled against her restraints, frenzied with panic. She pulled and pulled and pulled, but the chains simply rattled against the chair, unbroken. The Ink stirred against her skin, but without her voice to set them free, they were trapped.
Spencer’s uncle pulled the wooden spoon from the cauldron. Bits of the liquid slipped to the floor, the stone hissing as it burned away. “Where shall I start?”
Pam chewed at her lip, considering. Finally, she pointed at Silas, the python wrapped around Dani’s right forearm. “That one,” she said with a dramatic pout. “It nearly bit me.”
Dani fought against the gag in her mouth—begging, pleading, tears rolling down her cheeks—but none of her words would fully form. She pulled harder against her restraints. The cuffs and chains bit into her skin, but she couldn’t break free. Caleb lowered the ladle toward her right arm . . .
And poured the bo
iling liquid over her skin.
The scream that tore from Dani’s throat wasn’t human. It was the keening death cry of a centuries old being. The liquid burrowed into her skin, eating away flesh and Ink. As the last of her skin melted away, the python’s form pulled free, Silas solidifying just enough for his eyes to find hers. Dani . . .
His wild, terrified screams filled the room to bursting as the potion carved his soul from hers, leaving only jagged, torn edges behind.
Then— Silence.
Silas was suddenly gone, and Dani felt his absence like a hole in her heart. Felt it in the weakening of her muscles and softening of her bones. Her lungs didn’t fill as full. Her eyes less clear. Finally, her ears adjusted to the loss of Silas’s scream, and the gurgle of the bubbling potion grew loud again. Her shuddered gasps audible and broken and horrible.
Pam cringed. “That looks disgusting.”
Dani followed the demon’s gaze. At first, she didn’t recognize the red, blistered thing before her. Then, with a twist of her stomach, she realized it was her arm. Her fingers trembled, and her entire arm was slick with blood.
She looked up, rage and loss and hurt burning away the last remnants of fear. Pam flinched, and Dani tucked her thumb into her palm and pulled.
Her hand, now slippery with her insides exposed to the elements, slid free of the cuff. More skin tore, but it was nothing compared to the pain she’d already experienced. Dani grabbed the gag and pulled it from her mouth, tasting the tang of blood on her lips.
“Kiva,” she called, breathless from grief and hoarse from the screams that had ripped past her lips. The panther burst from her back, and Dani didn’t even register the pain before Kiva’s roars shook the basement room.
“Poe. Jasper. Si—” Dani cut herself off as she tried to summon Silas, and grief slammed into her again. He was gone. Forever. She screamed again, this time a sound full of fury and the promise of death, as Poe and Jasper burst from her body.
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