Black Widow Demon (25 page)

Being Raven’s stepfather might. It depended how he played that card.

“I wouldn’t be as surprised as you might think. My stepdaughter is spawn,” he said, watching carefully for her reaction.

Interest spiked in her eyes, although not her tone, which remained hard. “What do I care what your stepdaughter is?”

“She survived among the faithful for years too, and without discovery, until the demons departed. I’m trying to find her now and bring her home.”

“What will happen to her if you do?”

He tried to sift out the response that would best win her over. She was suspicious of his motives, which was to be expected. “She’s all I have left of her mother. I’ll continue to care for her, as I always have.”

The woman spun the flames, making them twirl like burning blue dust devils. The flames were captured in her eyes, giving them a peculiar cast that made the sweat turn to ice as it trickled along his spine.

“How odd it is, then,” she said, “that just a few short weeks ago, a Godseeker publicly denounced his stepdaughter as a spawn and attempted to burn her alive.” She tipped her head to one side. A private smile danced on her lips. “Would you like to know how many more spawn have been living in these goddess-forsaken mountains for so many years, safe from their demon fathers?”

She waded closer through the melting snow and thick layer of fog, the hem of her skirt dragging in the slush her passage created, and the fiery ring shrank even tighter around them. Justice felt the flesh on his face begin to sear, and steam curled from his soaked clothing.

“We can make a run for it through the flames,” Cage said. His cheeks had grown shining red, yet he, too, stood his ground.

“No. We wait.” Justice did not intend for either of them to break. A panicked dash through demon fire would not save them. If anything, it would most likely give this half demon pleasure. No one burned a village full of people to death the way she had unless they enjoyed inflicting pain and suffering on others.

“Were there spawn among the villagers you burned?” he asked her.

Malicious joy twisted her features. “Only the ones who wouldn’t join me.”

“My stepdaughter won’t join you, either. She’s already enslaved two assassins in the short time she’s been free,” Justice added. “What do you suppose that says about her abilities? And her intentions? Why would she need to join you?”

The woman hesitated. The gyrating flames became less kinetic and their blistering heat abated to an almost bearable level. He speculated as to the extent of her demon abilities. If fire was all the talent she possessed, then that would explain why she needed others to join her.

It did not explain how she had managed to gather all those people into the temple and keep them from escaping while she burned them alive. She had not tried to hold either him or Cage in thrall, so that was unlikely an ability she possessed in any significant amount.

Whatever her objective, she needed allies to achieve it.

He pressed on. “I want my daughter back. If you help me, I can guarantee you safe passage out of these mountains in return. I have no interest in what you did, or do, other than that you do it elsewhere. The Godseeker assassins will be hunting you soon enough. They already know about one village you destroyed by demon fire, and they’ll be prepared for you to do it again. Are your other demon talents enough to keep you alive?”

“I have any number of talents you know nothing about.” She spoke with bravado, but the increasingly erratic shift of the flames indicated to Justice that she worked hard at maintaining them.

The flames began to recede. He tasted victory.

The woman spoke a few words that he could not quite interpret. A second circle of fire joined the first, touching so that they created a giant figure eight. An enormous, crouching figure materialized in the second ring, its shadowy presence flickering unnervingly in the flaming night.

It straightened to more than eight feet in height. Massive biceps curled from shoulders broad enough to support the weight of a full-grown hross.

Justice’s elation soured, and Cage tensed beside him.

“What?” the woman asked, as if enjoying their surprise. She lowered a hand to her hip and arched an eyebrow upward. She glanced at the demon, then back to the two men still contained by fire in one half of the conjoined circles. “Did you think I traveled alone?”

Blade tossed another piece of damp wood on the sputtering and smoldering flames while keeping an observant eye on the three men and one woman seated around the fire with them. He did not miss the nervous way the men regarded him in return.

They had reason to be wary—he did not trust them. He wished they had continued on their way and ignored Raven’s pleas for open discussion. Since they had not, he’d warned her to keep the location of Roam’s mountain village to herself. When she tried to argue, he had pointed out that there were other villages in the mountains where they could seek refuge. The one Roam had spoken of was far too close to the assassins to be safe for too many people, and they had no idea of the actual numbers Roam had already contacted.

Sitting cross-legged on the cold ground, Blade yawned and blinked, his eyelids dragging grit across his eyes. It had been a long and trying day, but his helplessness when Raven was attacked left him hyperaware—he would not sleep well with these people here. The shadows interwoven amongst the skeletal trees of the desolate valley enhanced his unease. He expected them to come to life at any moment. Full demons could not hold their monster forms when close to Raven, but these spawn seemed able to hold their shadow around her with no trouble at all.

A pale, silver moon, blurred by the bleak night sky, reflected in broken bits and pieces of shimmering light off the rippled black waters of the lake below. The soft sounds of waves lapping at the shoreline filled the drawn-out pauses interspersed between the women’s chatter.

The men had not introduced themselves, so Blade had not bothered, either. He knew the woman’s name was Laurel only because Raven had somehow drawn it from her thoughts, and repeated it in a quiet, soothing manner that generated calm.

Laurel was a good deal older than the men, and although perhaps not quite old enough to be their mother, she would at least pass for an older sister. All four shared a familial resemblance in the light brown coloring of their hair and an attractive, although unremarkable, cornflower blue to their eyes. Even though the men allowed Laurel to speak for them, which in itself was unusual, they did not seem to know each other especially well. Blade guessed their physical resemblance had been passed to them by a common demon ancestor since they all shared a talent for shifting to shadow. Other than that, their connection did not seem close, and they appeared to have come together out of necessity. He knew Raven felt pity for them and a degree of affinity. They, too, traveled higher into these mountains to find safety.

It was as Roam had warned—throughout the world, demon spawn had begun to emerge from hiding. And not all of them were harmless. While Blade appreciated the precariousness of their situation, he did not plan to make their troubles his. It would be difficult enough for him to conceal Raven from experienced trackers. But four more people?

“I don’t understand,” Raven was saying to Laurel. Confusion crackled in her pretty eyes. “You say a woman destroyed your village?”

“You don’t believe that women can be evil?” Blade interrupted.

Raven looked at him, her aggravation with him plain to see in her expression. “Of course they can. What I find hard to believe is that any woman—or man—could do such a thing alone.”

One of the men darted a glance into the shadows, then eased closer to the fire. “She didn’t act alone,” he said. “She raised a demon to do it for her.”

Blade’s splayed hands tightened on his knees. He was wide-awake now. This was not welcome news.

“I would never have believed it possible now that demons have been banished from the world,” Laurel added. Her voice shook. “But it seems that somehow, this woman can raise them. She arrived at the village and claimed to be a goddess. A few little tricks, and she had everyone convinced.” Tears sparkled in her eyes. “I didn’t really believe in her, but I didn’t dare go to the temple with the others, just in case she’d know what I was and reveal me. I couldn’t convince my husband not to go, though, and he insisted on taking the children.” The tears dripped off her lashes and onto her cheeks. “I couldn’t very well say anything to him, could I? How could I tell him his children had demon blood, even if only a little?” Raven reached for her hand and clasped it tightly. “We all lost at least someone,” Laurel added, looking at the others. “We met up afterward, when we went back to look for survivors. That was when we realized we have something in common.”

Blade did not want to sympathize with them. A lot of people experienced tragedy in their lives and survived.

“How did she raise the demon?” he asked.

Laurel looked at him, uncomprehending. “What do you mean?”

“She has to control it somehow,” he said. “What did she do? Was there a ritual of some kind?”

“I can’t remember.” Laurel passed a hand over her eyes in an unconscious attempt to wipe away images only she could see.

Blade knew she might never remember the details of that day simply because she did not want to, and he did not blame her for it. Replaying the tragedy would not bring her family and friends back.

But it nagged at him that this woman spawn she spoke of had raised a demon. Raven’s father had wanted her to summon him, too, and he would not want such a thing unless he knew he’d be in control. It made no sense otherwise.

“Fire,” the man who had spoken before said. “She called the demon into a circle of blue fire that surrounded the temple.”

Such a circle would have been enormous. Now, Blade really did not believe she had done it on her own. He rubbed his temple with the heel of one palm, trying to think logically with a brain that was too tired to function.

“I’ve seen demons raised,” he said. It was not something that could ever be forgotten. “But by a priestess who invoked the protection of both the Demon Lord and the goddesses. Her circles were made of sanctified water that demons couldn’t cross. I’m not convinced demon fire alone could really contain one, at least not for long.”

“It must,” Raven said. “No demon would allow itself to be held if it had a choice.”

Demons did what suited their own interests. If this one had something to gain from the woman believing she controlled it, then it would allow the illusion to be maintained. Temporarily.

Blade kept his opinions and reservations quiet. These people were frightened enough, and he did not want to alarm Raven either, but he wished his friend Hunter were here so they could discuss the matter. Hunter’s new wife, Airie, had been the one to banish the demons.

But Blade was on his own, and the possibility of demons returning to the mortal world was enough to hammer thick, numbing shards of ice through his temples.

He rubbed his scarred leg as he focused on the trail of smoke rising from the small campfire and mentally counted to ten until the numbness passed.

Raven was watching him, concern obvious in her eyes. Rubbing his leg had been a telling reveal to her, and she must have felt the shift in his emotions. He blamed his carelessness on fatigue and was glad he had not been touching her at that moment or she would have been able to read his thoughts, too.

A fallen log in the fire cracked and split apart, revealing the red-hot embers inside. Sparks sprayed, then dulled to tiny flecks of falling ash. He rose. “Discussing this further is mere speculation. I’m ready to turn in for the night.” He nodded to the three men. “If you leave before I wake, then I wish you a safe journey.”

“We could all continue on tomorrow together,” Raven said to him, hope in her eyes.

Her suggestion was met with silence and a lack of enthusiasm on everyone’s part. What Raven did not seem to understand, or chose not to see, was that Blade was not one of them. These people did not trust him any more than he trusted them.

He had noticed something else he did not like. The youngest of the men had not been able to take his eyes off Raven since she’d joined them around the fire. It might be best if Blade kept her separated from him.

“We continue on alone,” he said to Raven, loud enough for the others to hear.

The other men nodded, although the youngest with less conviction.

Laurel’s hands fussed with the folds of her heavy cape. “I think that’s for the best,” she said.

Blade read disappointment and reproach on Raven’s face when she looked at him. She refused the hand he held out to her, rising to her feet unassisted as she uttered wishes to the others for peaceful dreams.

His dreams would not be. They would be tainted by worry because she was troubled, which in turn exposed her to the demon boundary, and he prepared himself for another sleepless night.

They slept with the flap of their shelter open because Raven liked to watch the emerging stars. Blade liked to be warned of anything that might come too close in the night.

“Why don’t you want us to travel together?” she asked him, her voice a soft whisper against his throat so it could not be overheard.

“I don’t want them to know where we’re going. What they don’t know can’t be repeated. If we’re successful in crossing from the Godseeker Mountains, I don’t want others to know that it’s possible. We don’t want to take the problems from our world to a people who might have no knowledge of spawn, or even of the immortals themselves.”

“Laurel and her companions aren’t dangerous,” Raven said. “I’d know if they were.”

Blade agreed with her about that much. Their danger was not in their intentions, but in what they themselves were. Laurel’d had a family. The news of spawn bearing children made Blade more aware than ever of the potential magnitude of their numbers. Laurel’s children would have been one quarter demon, and that was assuming that Laurel herself was half. Blade was no expert on breeding, but if her husband had also been half demon, any of their children could have been born with more demon characteristics than mortal ones. That made the world perhaps even less stable now than before the demons were banished. The realization was disturbing.