Beast of Fire -- a Demon Hunting Sexy Romance (31 page)

She wanted to deny him, but she could see the steely determination in him. He would not give in any more than she would. “Together,” she finally said.
 

Marisol pushed to her feet, shoving her chair away from the table with a loud scratch of metal on concrete. “Neither of you are going anywhere but back to that ranch,” she said. “Go tonight and take care of those rebels, so we can go home. And then I’ll do what I was put on this earth to do– heal.” With those words, she turned to the door.
 

Rock appeared, as if he sensed she was in need, his big, brawny body blocking her path. Rock who was obviously in love with Marisol, despite the fact that Healers were off-limits, untouchable. The instant he saw her face, worry etched his all-American Cowboy features. “Marisol?”
 

“I can’t talk to you now, Rock,” she whispered, and shimmered and disappeared.
 

Rock held out his hands to Kresley and Lucan. “What the hell happened?”

Lucan shook his head, obviously as stunned by Marisol’s out-of-character outburst as he was. “I don’t know,” Lucan said. “I honestly don’t know.”

“What does that mean?” Rock demanded. “She looked—"

A knock sounded on the door, then pounding. A muffled yell. Kresley and Lucan pushed to their feet as a commotion began in the living room. Rock was already headed toward the sounds. Lucan and Kresley quickly followed.
 

They found Tara pacing the room, rambling on about something that had occurred, waving her hands around as she spoke to Prince Rise and the Knights.
 

“I’d just left a meeting with Jag and stopped by the room,” Tara said. “I needed . . .I was . . ." She stopped herself, obviously rattled. “I walked in right when Cullen took the call.”
 

“It was Nick?” Prince Risen asked.
 

“Yes,” she said, standing still. “Nick took Sheila and her kids. He took Cullen’s secretary. She’s like…like a mother to him.”

“Yes,” Kresley said, with sickening clarity as she thought back to how protective Sheila was of Cullen. “I can see that. I think she’s important to him.”

Max sat on the opposite end of the couch from Rinehart. “Who would have ever thought,” Max murmured. “A Demon with a mother figure and a soft spot.”

“Takes some getting used to,” Rinehart agreed. Kresley felt the heaviness of being watched, her gaze seeking the source. She found it in Des. He stood near the door, arms crossed in front of his chest, an intense look on his face. And he wasn’t speaking up as usual. She frowned. He had said something big was coming and it had. Was he shaken by that realization?
 

“Where is Cullen?” Lucan asked, from beside her.
 

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you all,” Tara said, throwing her hands in the air. “He left! I tried to get him to wait for help, but Nick told him he had to leave that minute and do so alone, or he would kill one of the kids immediately.”

Kresley had never wished that she’d used her fire to end a life, until this moment. If she had killed Nick, this would not be happening.
 

“Any idea where Cullen went?” Rock asked earnestly.
 

Grimly, Tara shook her head. “No, but we have Coven scouts outside
 
the rebel headquarters. I called them as I ran down the hall. They are going to get right back with me with as much information as they can find out.”

Jag and Prince Rise exchanged a look, and Jag said, “Find out what you can. The two of us will scout out the rebels' main headquarters and report back. We'll end this ourselves, if we can.” Jag looked around the room. “Everyone be ready to move, in case we can’t.”
 
He and the Prince disappeared. Tara’s phone rang, apparently pressed into her palm.
 

Kresley found herself drawn to Des again. Remotely, she felt Lucan reach for her hand, his fingers entwining with hers, as if he needed to know she was safe. But Des was still staring at her, and he looked distressed. Troubled. He looked like he was running toward her.

A cold feeling touched her arm, and she looked down to where she and Lucan had joined hands. She frowned as the bracelet on Lucan’s wrist seemed to move, shimmy. She blinked. It moved again. She jerked on her hand and tried to back away from Lucan. The bracelet was swirling now, taking on the image of a slimy snake. “Lucan!”
 

But it was too late. The bracelets slithered off his arms in the form of snakes and shot toward Kresley.

Chapter Twenty-Three

It was Lucan’s worst nightmare come to life. The bracelets wrapped Kersley’s arms a second before she fell to the ground and started swatting at herself, screaming.
 

“Get them off me!” She was kicking, fighting, squirming. “Snakes!Snakes!” And she wasn’t talking about the bracelets. The Guradinas were making her hallucinated. They’d come full circle to one year ago, to the hell she’d been in when he’d struck his deal. This was why he’d traded himself – to stop her torment and pain.
 

Lucan leaned against the wall and held her, exactly what he had done before. “Get me Marisol! Or Laura. Or anyone. Get me some help damn it!”
 

Rock was already dialing his phone. Max, Des, and Rinehart all kneeling around Lucan and Kresley. She screamed again and Lucan shook with the impact. He was failing her again. He should have found an answer sooner, he should have found a way to keep this from happening.
 

Des and Max both put hands on his shoulder. “We’re with you, man,” Des said.
 

“We were always with you,” Max said, the words barely audible as Kresley started screaming and jerking again.
 

But Lucan registered his fellow Knight’s words, and he clung to them with the little bit of sanity he felt he had left. “She was suppose to have until the full moon,” he said. “She was suppose to –“

A shimmer of light came an instant before Marisol appeared. The Knights quickly cleared the way. “Help her,” Lucan said, casting her a desperate look. “Help her.”
 

Marisol dropped to her knees beside Lucan, the long white skirt she wore spreading across the floor as she touched Kresley’s hand. Lucan wanted instant results but Kresley didn’t calm.
 

“Hold her still,” Marisol ordered. Lucan struggled as Kresley squirmed. “Please baby,” he whispered. “Let us help.”

“Rock!” Marisol yelled, unaware he stood over her shoulder, protective as always. He was instantly responsive, aiding Lucan in his efforts. The two of them held Kresley still and the minute she was able Marisol pressed her hand to Kersley’s head.
 
Light sprayed from her fingers and Kresley went limp.
 

Lucan’s shoulder’s slumped. “Oh thank you. Thank you.”

Marisol leaned back and pressed her hands to her thighs. “They are powerful,” Marisol said,“ reaching inside the pocket on her skirt. “Keep her sedated until I return.”
 

Lucan grabbed her arm. “Where are you going?”

“I’ll be back,” she said. “And I will save her. I’ll save you both. I need a little more time though.” She covered his hand with hers. “Lucan. Do not give them what they want. I won’t fail you.” She disappeared.

Lucan scooped Kresley up in his arms and carried her to the bed. Do not give them what they want. He had a feeling he was going to find out what that was anytime now. And he was pretty damn sure the Guardian’s would do what they had done before – try to strike a bargain. He brushed wispy strands of red hair from her face, and she started to murmur and twitch again. He heard Des curse, as if he were watching and knew what Lucan had guessed as well – already Marisol’s touch was wearing off.
 

Lucan quickly injected her arm, praying the sedation worked. The twitching stopped almost instantly, and he let out a breath. He leaned against the headboard and curled Kresley against his body, under his arm.
 

“What can I do?” Des asked, drawing Lucan’s gaze to the doorway.
 

“You knew,” he accused, ignoring the question.
 

“Not until right before it happened,” he said. “I wouldn’t have kept something like this from you.”

“Not even if you knew it ended badly?”
 

“Even if it ended badly,” he promised.
 

“Does it?” Lucan asked.

“I know this isn’t the answer you want, Lucan,” Des said. “But I don’t know.” He paused. “I almost lost Jessica. She was dying. Max… If it weren’t for Max, she would have died. We've got your back, man. And we got hers, too.”

Emotion twisted in Lucan’s chest. He’d lost his family. Lost many of the friends he first known as a Knight when they’d fallen to the darkness. “I can’t lose her,” he said.
 

“I know,” Des said. “I know."

Rock charged into the room. “Des, man, Jag called. He says there are twenty wolves at the rebel camp and three hostages. Cullen went inside before they could stop him.”

Des hesitated and glanced at Lucan. “Go, Des,” Lucan said. “We can’t let that ring end up in the wrong hands.”
 

Still, Des hesitated.

“I won’t do anything stupid,” Lucan said. “Go beat some Demon ass.”
 

Des gave him one more long look, and then disappeared out the door. A few seconds later, voices faded quickly in the exterior room, and the main door slammed shut. A second later, Kresley started to shake again. The shot had worked all of what – ten minutes?
 

One of the bracelets swirled around Kresley’s wrist, and one of the snakes uncoiled, slithering to the end of the bed. The silver-clad Guardian appeared at the foot of the mattress.
 

“Lithe remains with Kresley,” Litha said. “She ensures that her terror continues.”
 

“What do you want?”

“The same thing we always wanted,” Litha said. “The ring. But since you won’t give that to us, we’ve decided to keep Kresley.”

“We had a deal,” Lucan ground out, holding Kresley tighter. “Her freedom for the ring. I still have time. We aren’t out of time.”
 

“Yes, you are,” Llitha said. “You double-crossed us. You called the Knights. You did not give us the ring. So no deal remains in place. Kresley will suffer until her marks become permanent. Then we will have her fire as our weapon. She will take the ring from Cullen, and we will possess both her and the ring. It is really for the best. We should never have settled for less.”
 

Kresley started screaming. “Snakes! Snakes!” She was swatting at herself again. “Snakes!”

“You bitch!” Lucan screamed. “I want to see Adrian. Bring him here.”

She laughed. “You think Adrian will come because you demand he come?” More laughter. “If you wish to stop her pain, claim her, Knight. Make her yours, then she will belong to us, too. Then, we will allow her the pleasure of peace…and she will be your little pet for eternity.” Evil laughter. “And ours. I’ll give you some time to think it over.” She shifted back to snake form.

Lucan tried to set Kresley aside and lunge for the sword Jag had given him, where it leaned on the wall, but it was too late. Litha was back on Kresley’s arm, and Kresley was screaming so insanely, he was sure hotel security would be knocking on the door any minute.

Lucan grabbed his phone, as he struggled to pull Kresley close, and dialed Marisol. No answer. He wanted to scream like Kresley. What happened to "he wasn’t alone"? He felt really damn alone right about now. He flung the phone across the room. Buried his head in Kresley’s neck and squeezed his eyes shut.
 

Fear gripped his heart, familiar fear, that same fear that had led him to the edge of poor judgment once before. How long could her heart handle this? How long could he bare watching her endure this pain.
 

***

There could be only one Healer – or two, in the case of the twins, the future healers, whom Marisol had been mentoring. And they were born Healers, born into a bloodline of Angels. She was created, sentenced for crimes of her past. She’d known her time was limited in this realm when they had appeared, knew she would soon be forced to depart. That she would have to leave behind the love of her life, Rock. And that she must accept this destiny bravely, as bravely as the Knights lived and fought.
 

She stood on the porch at the ranch house, watching as the dark-haired, twins walked toward her – she'd come to seek them out. In her arms she cradled her most precious possession, The Book of Knowledge, knowing she must soon give it up. Only a Healer could read its pages, and many were simply blank to her when they should not be.
 
She was fading, her abilities with her, and Kresley was suffering for it. Her chest squeezed as the twenty-year-old brothers, Jacob and Jared, stepped to the top of the porch. They were young, only twenty, long lives ahead of them.
 

Tears fell from her eyes as she said, “I need your help reading the book. I need … to save Kresley and Lucan.”
 

 
***