Dark Flight (The Shadow Slayers) (31 page)

“Yeah, well, I think your distress tracker is broken. I’m fine,” she answered instead.

“Shit, sis. You’re more stubborn than our mother was.”

Everything in Kara slowed. “Our
mother
? But I was Deanna’s first and only child.”

“You were her second. I was Ailexon’s and Deanna’s first.”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-eight.”

“You don’t look twenty-eight. And didn’t you brag that you were old enough to drink now?”

“Well, if I’m twenty-eight then I’m clearly old enough to drink on the surface. You only have to be twenty-one in the U.S.—eighteen in Mexico.” He waggled his brows.

Kara bit back a moan when she shifted her hip to get comfortable. “Okay, baby face. You’re aging well, I guess. You got good genes.”

“You know, your dad totally screwed up my familial vibe.”

Kara had an older brother. An older brother who looked and sounded like a younger brother. And he’d lost his mother because of Kara being conceived. “Yeah, sorry about that. Your dad sent mine to the Abyss, so I guess we’re even.”

Maybe she should have been running like hell from this man who claimed to be related to her, but if she allowed her instincts to guide her, they said Dane might be hiding something but that he was still a good person.

“Why now, Dane?” She steadied herself with a breath through her nose, trying to expel the pain with it. “Let’s say I believe you, that Ailexon kept you so well hidden that no one even knew Deanna had had a child. Why seek me out now?”

“I was young, Kara. I didn’t know about you. I didn’t understand what had happened to make everything go down the crapper. I only knew that my dad was a moody son of a bitch. Some days he would spend hours playing with me, and others it was like he couldn’t bear to look at me.”

Dane smiled uncomfortably, as though he might have said too much. “And anyhow, one day several months ago, I felt something weird. I realized later that was probably your first trip to the Shadowland. I started asking questions of the right people, and I found you—you and that black-wing of yours.”

She wanted to ask him what it was like to live with the man who’d killed his mother, but it was all he’d ever known. If he was twenty-eight, he would have been too young to even remember Deanna from before she died. That was so incredibly sad, and to some extent, it was Kara’s fault.

If Teras could have known what the outcome of his actions would be, would he have left Deanna to her marriage with the chief of the fallen angels, or were they truly in love? Would fate have brought them together no matter what?

“Ouch. Hold on.” Kara was flat on her back, but she tried to roll to the side to get those damned pieces of wood out of her thighs. With the pain of the spikes in her gut, though, she couldn’t fully sit up.

“Holy mother-fuckin’ shitbags! What are those things sticking out of your back?”

“Wings,” she panted. “Well, just the blueprint so far. But they work.”

“Ha!” Dane slapped his thigh. “You’re full of surprises, aren’t you? My dad is going to be
pissed
! I mean, I’m not gonna tell him. But there isn’t much he doesn’t hear about sooner or later.”

Besides the pain, Kara was starting to feel really woozy. “These wings are a gift from the Sanctiáre. I’m not even sure I get to keep them once my mission to send Brakken to the Abyss is done.”

“The Abyss? You don’t mess around.” He gave her the thumbs-up. “I like it! Little sis kicks ass!”

Kara’s hand went to her stomach and she blinked, trying to clear her vision. She had to get these out so she could heal.

“You’re not lookin’ too good. See, I told you. That distress tracker works awesome. I came up with it myself.” All of the sudden, Dane’s face got really big in her field of vision. “Kara?” And she felt his hand patting her cheek…a little too hard. “Kara?”

“Good. You got them out and they’re starting to heal,” said Julian’s voice.

Kara had just been dreaming, she was sure of it, because the scenario had involved Gavin and Julian, both naked and both very aroused. “You woke me up.”
A-hole
.

Julian looked her over, seeming pleased, and it occurred to her that she didn’t remember removing the spikes from her flesh.
Thank you, Dane.

“I’m sorry I took so long,” Julian said. “They weren’t thrilled about Lancelot’s arrival. I practically had to claim him for
my
harem.”

“Lovely.” Kara snorted, and to her surprise, she didn’t feel like it tore her gut open to do it. Even for a Demiáre, that was incredibly fast healing. “Was there any word on Gavin? Has he checked in?”

“No.” He shook his head. “But that doesn’t mean Brakken has him. He could be helping wounded warriors like we did.”

“Okay, seriously, don’t make us sound so noble. You cut the guy’s wings off, and I made him take me into a place that was booby-trapped. I doubt we’re up for the Humanitarian of the Year award.”

Julian shrugged. “We will be once Brakken is gone. Either way, what I’m saying is that even when we find Brakken, Gavin may not be there.”

“Nothing could make me happier than
not
finding Gavin here, trust me.”

Kara stood, so thankful Dane had taken the arrows from her body and allowed her a few minutes of healing—while she dreamed about very naughty things with the two men she wanted most.

When she swayed on her feet, Julian’s hand streaked out to steady her. “Are you okay? Tell me the truth because we cannot go in there if you aren’t operating at a hundred percent.”

She shrugged off his hand. “Hey, I’m at a good, strong ninety-nine percent. You ready?”

He breathed deeply and closed his eyes, and Kara felt the energy in the room go off the chart. When he opened his eyes again, he gave a quick nod. “Yes.”

“Then follow me.” She rested her hand on his forearm. He could probably track her with no problem, but this made it easier for everyone involved.

A knot tightened Kara’s stomach when she thought of that room where she’d had to grasp Gavin’s baby’s feet and pull him from Rachel’s body. That was something she never wanted to experience again in a hundred lifetimes. Even so, she flexed her bony wings and let the thought of that room lead her.

When she opened her eyes, she stood in the same cramped quarters where Rachel had given birth, but Rachel and Darrinda were gone. The soiled blankets lay discarded on the floor beside a small stack of Brakken’s very own arrows.

Julian ran his gaze over the heavily bloodied linens. “That’s from birth?” He shook his head. “I had no idea.”

“No, that’s from being shot by Brakken.”

“Ah. Good to know. My desire for children was almost permanently altered.”

Kara walked to the door she’d seen the guard go through. “There were some men in this direction. Well, one at least.”

Julian rubbed his hands together. “Let’s go introduce ourselves.”

When he strode through the door, Kara followed. The room exited onto a long hallway. Talk about a maze. There were doors every few feet and other hallways branching off in every direction. It didn’t help that everything was made of drab gray stone and there weren’t any markings on the walls whatsoever to tell one room from another.

Julian tried a door handle. “It’s stuck.”

“Well, tough guy, unstick it.”

Julian put his foot to the door and gave a mighty kick. His foot only went through the wood of the door before it pulverized the stone behind it. Kara coughed at the sudden burst of rock dust in the air. When he stepped back, she examined the hole, putting her hands through it and pulling hard enough to tear the door from its hinges. Behind the door was a solid wall of rock.

“Oh, you’re flippin’ kidding me! How are we going to be able to tell which ones are real doors and which are just facades for Brakken’s maze?”

“Allow me…” As they walked down the hall, Julian struck his fist through each door. “Rock,” he would say with a small groan and a shake of his knuckles when the doorway was solid. But every once in a while, his fist would sail straight through, like it did now.

Julian pulled the door from its substantial hinges and tossed it aside. The room was empty. They did this over and over down countless hallways, but the only evidence they could find that people had lived here was an occasional dusty mat or discarded blanket.

“I’m going to have to thank Brakken for having a rodent-free kingdom. He showed a lot of restraint.”

Julian snickered. “Be prepared for anything, love. I’ve heard tell of Brakken’s hellhounds, and we won’t want to be seeing any of those down here.”

The next room they entered was different. There were three spider-web encrusted skeletons shackled to the wall with arrows still protruding through the spaces between their ribs.

“Unfortunate souls,” Julian said.

“Or props,” Kara replied.

“Why props?”

“Gavin told me once that Brakken loves to play mind games. He enjoys it as much as hurting people, even going as far as creating replicas of Gavin’s mother. And look…” She walked to the first skeleton and plucked away a bit of webbing. “Décor. There are no spiders in the Shadowland unless Brakken went through the trouble of creating them from his will, and he’d have to do a good enough job that they’d be functional web-spinners.”

Julian shook his head. “Perhaps you’re right, but I’m not sure it matters if these old bones were props or not.”

Kara raised the skeleton’s arm. “It matters to this guy.”

Julian took an arrow from the middle skeleton’s ribcage. “These are not like the arrow Brakken shot me with.”

“You can tell the difference?”

“Yes, the energy behind the arrows in Brakken’s quiver is unlike anything I’ve felt.”

Kara headed for the door. “Note to self: avoid getting shot again.”

Just as she was about to open the door, she heard the sound of feet. “Something came down this way,” a deep voice said. “The traps were triggered at the entrance to the lower dwellings and someone reported pounding noises.”

“Will you look at that!” another guard said. “Every door is blown out. It stops here.”

She only had enough time to meet Julian’s eyes and see him dissolve before the door banged open. Then, standing in front of her was the same black-hearted bastard who’d been hovering around Rachel’s room at the time of the birth.

“You!” he exclaimed.

“Yep. It’s me. I’m back!”

Two more guards burst in behind him. “It’s Kara Reed!” he said, pulling a dagger from the belt at his waist. “This should brighten the king’s mood.”

But then suddenly, one of the men behind him went ramrod straight and his head twisted hard to the side. With a loud snap of his neck, the man fell in a heap on the stone floor.

“What in the hell?” the man beside him said, but then Julian materialized at his back just as easily, twisting his neck until it popped.

Ignoring the man with the dagger as though he didn’t merit the attention, Julian dusted his hands off. “They’ll regenerate.”

“I know. I didn’t say anything.”

“But no doubt you were thinking it.”

Kara sighed. All the death and the violence were too much for her. She’d never been afraid of a brawl, but the last twenty-four hours had tipped her over the edge. It needed to stop sometime—like right after she dealt with this bastard. Anyone who would be cruel to a pregnant prisoner really was scum of the earth.

The hefty man thrust his blade in Kara’s direction. “Call him off, or I’ll skewer you.”

“Julian. Don’t kill this one.” When the man smiled triumphantly, she added, “
Yet.
He’s the scumbag who gets his kicks from harassing innocent women, and he knows where the females are. We need him.”

Julian raised his hand and the man’s dagger shot into his grip. Quicker than sight, he pushed the man’s head down and brought the blade to his throat. “If you would be so kind?”

“Right this way,” the man said, and led them down the long, dark corridor.

Chapter Twenty-Five

They walked quite a distance, but finally, Kara heard voices. She’d had time to wonder what she would find—a door opening onto an oasis with sparkling pools and frolicking females, or something more sinister. When she heard the low din of frantic voices through the walls, her heart and hopes sank. There was no frolicking happening behind that door.

“This is it,” the man said. “I can’t go in there. He’ll kill me for certain.”

Julian smiled, twisted the knob on the door, and shoved the man through first. “Thank you for your help,” he said. “You were so kind to volunteer to lead us here.”

Kara stepped in behind Julian and the whole room went silent. This place wasn’t an oasis, but it wasn’t anything like the other rooms, either. The walls were covered in tapestries and colorful scarves. The cold stone floor was piled with rugs and furs, there were even tables scattered throughout with pitchers of wine-colored liquid and assorted fruits and meats. It was a far cry from where Brakken had been holding Rachel and Darrinda.

“You missed me. I knew you’d be back.” Kara’s gaze shot up, searching for the black-eyed monster that went with the voice. Then she saw him. He walked out from behind a curtain of sheer red fabric, grinning in a way that showcased his sharp teeth.