by Trina M. Lee
I nodded my agreement.
When Nova took the FPA-issued handcuffs from the wall, Ghost offered his wrists up with a shrug. This was nothing to him. Who was this guy? I mean, really?
While we watched intently Nova jerked Ghost’s arms behind his back and secured the magic-blocking cuffs on his wrists. Any power he used would be reflected back at him. In effect he was rendered powerless.
“What a crazy damn vampire,” Tavi muttered absently, moving to make room for Corr when he came to stand with us. “There’s a twisted motherfucker inside that man, no doubt.”
Although I didn’t know Ghost well, I had been up close and personal with him. I knew the sinister malice that Tavi sensed. He hadn’t done anything to hurt me, but for one brief moment he’d held my face while fucking me, searching my eyes with this strange, dark intensity. What he’d been seeking I didn’t know, but it had shaken me.
“I’m pretty sure you all know how this works.” Nova addressed us, but his gaze locked on the disinterested vampire. “I’m going to ask Ghost for some information, and when he refuses to give it to me, I’m going to use force to get it. The FPA will exercise tactics that would make you sick to your stomach. Not only do you need to learn to withstand such tactics, you’ll need to learn how to turn them right back around on the Feds.”
Tavi huffed and shifted from foot to foot. Her beast was restless. “He’s going to turn us into victims, then artists of torture. Perfect.”
“He can’t turn you into anything if you don’t let him.” The welcome gentleness of Corr’s soft tone cut the tension thickening the atmosphere. “We are in control of how we respond to all of this. Don’t let him get inside your head. Own that space.”
Tavi muttered something beneath her breath about hippie bullshit. Unfazed, Corr shoved his hands in the pockets of his hoodie and watched, pensive.
Inside the room Nova kicked a folding chair into a corner and shoved Ghost down to his knees on the floor. “Now, Ghost, tell me your real name.”
Everyone in the vampire community knew Ghost protected his identity. Aside from his home country, not much was known about him. Definitely not his real name, who’d sired him, or just how much power he really had.
Ghost turned a sly smile on Nova. “Not gonna happen.”
“No? How about your bloodline? Hmm? Tell me who turned you.” Nothing about Nova’s delivery indicated he actually believed Ghost would start spilling truths. If anything, he seemed to be counting on his silence.
Pressing his lips into a tight thin line, Ghost watched the demon with the alert stare of a snake that knew it was cornered. The silent confidence he exuded both inspired and enamored.
“Nothing, huh?” Nova prodded. “Good. That’s what I was counting on.”
Raising a hand, the demon snapped his fingers. Immediately Ghost pitched forward onto the stone floor. He writhed and grunted, his body twitching like electricity coursed through it.
Nova ceased his magical assault. “How about now? Anything?”
When Ghost’s response was to spit on Nova’s shiny black boots, the next assault had the vampire screaming. Still he wouldn’t crack. Nova asked him several personal questions, all designed to dig deep into Ghost’s mystique. When magical pain and torment didn’t work, Nova started to smack him around.
Watching the entire thing made me sick. “You’re right, Tavi. This is seriously fucked up. How far do you think Nova will take it before he stops?”
Nova whirled to face the glass, revealing for the first time that he could hear our peanut gallery discussion from the surveillance room. Pounding a fist against the window, he nailed me with that deadly red stare. “As far as I fucking want to. Got a problem with that? Do you want to take his place, firecracker?”
On the inside I shrank down into a tiny ball and hid. On the outside I did everything I could to protect that vulnerable inner self. Like I had since the day I stood up and stopped taking shit from anyone. “Do what you’ve got to do, Nova,” I snapped, throwing both hands up in invitation.
With a snicker Tavi said, “Bitch has got moxie.”
Not precisely. The jackass demon cut the ties on my tightly restrained temper. Knowing I should just keep my mouth shut didn’t stop the anger from tumbling out.
Corr’s light touch on my elbow brought me back to earth, reminding me that it was a demon I called out.
Too late. I’d already let my temper do the talking.
Nova merely waved a hand, and the door to the interrogation room flew open. “By all means then, join us, Blaze.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Rocking forward I didn’t hesitate to stride right into that room with my head held high. A folding table leaned against the far wall. Aside from that and the chair Nova had shoved in the corner, there was no furniture.
Because I refused to be intimidated no matter what Nova did to me, I grabbed the chair from the corner, spun it around, and straddled it. The door closed, shutting off Tavi and Corr. I couldn’t see them through the large mirror on the wall, but I knew they watched intently.
“You think I’m fucked up?” In slow, steady strides Nova prowled toward me with the calm, primal stalk of a hunter who knew his prey was cornered. “You think all of this is fucked up, Blaze? We’ve barely gotten started.”
Pressing my lips together, I drummed my fingers on the back of the chair. “Please explain how torturing us first is supposed to prepare us for anything. Sounds like a solid way to break your people down before they can use their strengths to serve you.”
Yeah, that’s how I felt and I planned to stick to it. From his place in the middle of the room, Ghost eyed both the demon and me in turn. Like he couldn’t wait to see how this went down.
“Sometimes an organization must break its people in order to keep them in line. To keep them obedient.” Nova came to stand right in front of me, forcing me to crane my neck to see him.
So we’d come to the will-breaking part of my training. Even though I knew it would be in my best interest to keep my big mouth shut, my temper ignited and the fury poured out. “I see they’ve done a real number on you,” I deadpanned with a straight face. Even if Nova killed me, I planned to go out on my terms. Laughing right in his jerk face.
“Do you have any idea what kind of hell the FPA will put you through if they get the chance?” Grasping the chair, Nova unceremoniously dumped me off. “They’ll beat you, starve you, torture you with sound and light. The shifters and humans will get waterboard treatment, at the very least, and you’ll be thrown to the sun. Is that what you want?”
I caught myself before I hit the floor. Anxiety set off alarm bells in my head. A memory threatened to seize me, but I wouldn’t let it. In an effort to put distance between Nova and me, I took a few steps back. But he followed me, stalking me right into the corner until my back pressed against the hard, stone wall.
“Is that what you want?” Nova demanded louder. He leaned in close to whisper in my ear. “The heat of your fury makes my cock hard. Do you fuck with this much intensity?”
Swallowing around the lump in my throat, I failed to produce words. The incubus’s erotically charged words sent a serpentine slither through me right to my groin. With the quickening of Nova’s pulse pounding in my ears, I managed to utter, “Sorry, Nova. That’s the kind of information you’ll have to torture out of me.”
“So be it.” Nova didn’t miss a beat. Despite trapping me in the corner with his large frame, he pointed a finger in Ghost’s direction. “Get on your knees beside him.”
That sensual crimson gaze darted about my face, settling on my lips. He knew damn well that I would defy him. He wanted me to, which was reason enough to keep him from drawing me into what could only be a deadly game.
“No.” Fingers splayed on the wall to brace myself, I stood defiant. I would die before I’d willingly put myself at the mercy of a demon.
“No?” Nova echoed, a confused frown wrinkling his forehead. His breath tickled my face when he
murmured, “I just gave you an order. Don’t make me repeat myself. You don’t want them to see what I will do to you.”
A tremor shook me. I beat it back down, refusing to acknowledge the tingle between my legs that grew in response to his proximity. Just being so close to Nova made that tingle turn into a throb. The worst part was that he wasn’t even trying. Surely if he had been, I’d have been naked and begging by now. He just exuded this natural sexual charge. Like how the scent of food used to make me hungry, Nova had a similar effect on a different appetite.
Licking my lips, I held his gaze, watching the pupils dilate until his eyes were almost solid black. “What will you do to me, Nova?”
Shadows stole over his face at my brazen challenge. With a snap of beastly fangs inches from my face, Nova drove me to my knees right there in the corner. Both hands on my shoulders, he forced me down. “I’m going to make you sorry that you defied me in front of your fellow recruits. What kind of example would I be setting if I let you get away with it? When I say get on your knees, I mean it.” Nova extended a hand and a set of metallic cuffs appeared. Dangling them by one finger, he motioned for me to turn around. “Are you going to fight me on this too? Because you know I’d love to wrestle you into them.”
Panic struck. Nova could do a lot of things to me, and I’d find a way to push through. Restraining me was not one of them.
“Don’t.” Palms pressed to the cold floor, I shoved to my feet, almost losing my balance in my haste to get away. “You’re not putting those things on me.”
Ghost shuffled to get out of my way as I almost bowled him over in my attempt to keep Nova at a distance. Unfortunately, a room the size of a postage stamp didn’t allow for that.
“You don’t have the authority to stop me,” Nova retorted, huffing like an angry bull as he watched me prance out of reach.
What he didn’t know was that I fought a losing battle with myself. Memories threatened to rise from where I’d buried them. If I went back to that place in my mind, to Remington and the hell he’d put me through, several decades of careful work would be undone.
Leaving that experience behind hadn’t erased the scars that remained or the trauma that had awoken me from sleep for years after. I’d focused so hard on taking back my power. To now have it threatened, I swallowed down a primal urge to fight.
The Circle of the Veil didn’t care about my past or what it had done to me. They only cared about what I could offer them. And if Nova persisted in restraining me, I’d prove myself to be nothing but a liability.
Because I wouldn’t beg or plead, I only shook my head as he advanced on me. Come on, bitch. Get it together. Do not give him your power.
My internal dialogue got nastier as Nova got closer. I’d survived shit that should’ve killed me several times over. This was nothing. A demon doing his best to scare me.
If I gave him what he wanted and submitted, he would stop. The rising panic would end, and I could escape that suffocating sensation of the past coming back for me. But it would be failure. Surrender. And I just couldn’t do that.
What I feared most wasn’t the flashbacks and the horror of reliving hell. It was what might happen if Nova pushed me too far. I could take a lot of abuse, but when I reached my breaking point, I became deadly to anyone around. Remington had found that out the hard way.
“You don’t understand,” I said calmly. “If you force me, if you make me do this, something bad is going to happen.”
Keeping this secret meant the world to me. Once Nova brought me to what he’d called Mayhem House, it had been just a matter of time until it came out. My blood magic held a sinister and deadly edge.
Rem had tormented me for the last time. Pushed me too far. On my knees, blood staining my hands, my magic had exploded out. Power great enough to blow a hole in the wall of his house. Power wild enough to cause overhead powerlines to crash down, setting the roof ablaze. And more than enough power to tear Remington limb from limb before causing what was left of him to burst into spontaneous flames.
I watched from where I sat, frozen, blood magic pouring from me as the hateful man who’d made me a monster died. Rem shrieked a series of curses, promising me that he’d see me in hell. Seconds later there were only ashes where he’d been.
While the house burned I’d dragged my bleeding, exhausted body out with nothing but the jewels he’d given me throughout the years. Gifts from an abuser. Like that made it all ok.
Not once did I look back as Remington’s house burned. It had never been my home. Never did I regret what happened. But I’d lived with a fear of myself ever since.
Such massive surges of blood magic proved difficult to control. That was the worst incident, but it hadn’t been the only one. If Nova restrained me, panic would take over. If I panicked, I’d do anything to get free. My skin would inevitably break; the blood would find a way.
And when my blood flowed, bad things happened.
My hand closed on the door handle but it was locked. No escape.
Much to my utter shock, Nova went to Ghost and freed his hands. “Get out.” Turning to the mirror where the other two watched, the demon barked, “All of you. Out. I don’t care where you go, just get the hell out of here.” Pointing at me, Nova hissed, “Don’t even think about leaving. I’m not done with you.”
Ghost got to his feet, sliding a sidelong glance my way. Judging by the reluctance in his gait, he didn’t want to leave me alone with the demon. But he didn’t have a choice.
I hovered as close to the door as I could get, but Nova slammed it shut upon Ghost’s exit, locking the two of us in together. Jaw clenched, I crossed my arms, closing myself off tight. Just don’t fucking bleed, I told myself.
Nova stared through the mirror, seeing what I couldn’t. Once satisfied that we were alone, he turned to me with a snarl. “This is your only chance to tell me whatever it is you’re hiding. Something is up with you, red. I want to know what it is. Start talking or I’ll make you talk.”
I held out a hand to keep him at bay. “Ok, I’ll tell you. Just stay over there. Please. I need a minute to clear my head, and I can’t do that when you get too close.”
Being honest worked. Nova lingered near the closed door, watching me shuffle about the room. A few steps one way, then back the other way, I raked my hands through my hair with anxiety. I felt like a basketcase and knew I must have looked just as bad.
Nova couldn’t resist a pointed remark. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“It’s about the blood magic,” I finally said, staring at the toes of my running shoes as I walked. “There’s been a few… many… incidents where it’s kind of… gotten away from me. So to speak.”
As Nova listened I told him about the night with Remington. I’d held it near and dear for so long, never sharing it with anyone. I expected it to feel like ripping open an old wound as I laid it all out there, but it didn’t. The weight of it felt easier to bear.
When I’d finished, I stood stiff, afraid to look at him. The longer he stayed quiet, the more it bugged me. Finally I caved and turned to face him.
Nova eyed me with a curious wonder, like he was seeing me for the first time. “You have power that you don’t know how to control.” He nodded like I suddenly made sense to him. “A dangerous liability indeed. But it doesn’t have to be. I can teach you.”
His expression revealed nothing. If he felt anything at all about what I’d shared, he didn’t show it. I’d gone easy on the details, but Nova could put it together. He was a freakin’ demon. I doubted I could say anything that would surprise him.
“Why would you do that?” Suspicion colored my tone.
Holding both hands up in a gesture of harmlessness, Nova took a few steps and stopped, staying out of my personal space. Just barely. “Because despite what you might think, I don’t want to kill you. But you’re a walking firecracker ready to blow someone apart if they find your triggers. You’re a weapon. So instead of recording it and reporting you as
a potential weak link, I’ll help you turn it into the strength it really is.”
“I don’t understand why you’d do that for me. Isn’t it risky?” The sound of my own heart thundered in my ears. I hovered on the edge between calm and losing my shit, ready to go either way depending on what happened next.
Still holding his hands up, Nova shrugged. “Let me worry about that.”
Another step brought him close enough to touch. The inviting vibes rolling off him welcomed me to do so. I hugged myself tight to keep from responding to the sensual urge.
“I don’t trust you.” The words spilled out unbidden. “Why would you do anything for me? You don’t even like me.”
Nova edged closer still and I didn’t stop him. The closer he got the more my head swam with a nice warm fuzziness that made me want more. What would it feel like if he hit me with his full thrall? What would it do to me?
“That’s true.” In a brazen move he dragged his thumb over my bottom lip. “I don’t have to like you to help you. Or for anything else you may desire.”
So badly I wanted to dart my tongue out and lick the tip of his thumb. I managed to keep myself from doing so. But I couldn’t prevent the surge of lust that flooded my entire body with heat.
“I don’t make a habit of hooking up with people who dislike me,” I said more to convince myself than him. Those heady incubus vibes were messing with me. If I could just move away. But that would involve wanting to, which I didn’t.
Nova’s thumb slid to the edge of my mouth, and he leaned in close enough for me to feel his breath on my face. “Why not? Makes it interesting.”
When I didn’t pull away Nova pressed his lips to mine. His kiss was inquisitive, exploratory. It seemed to ask a question and provide the answer. An explosion of light went off behind my closed eyes as I gave myself over to his kiss. Still I could feel that he was holding back, actively fighting the need to overwhelm my volition.
Feeling his resistance made me see another side to the demon I’d believed to be the enemy. My will was quiet literally in his hands. At any moment Nova could bend it and manipulate me into a puddle of desire. He never did.