Darkness Surrendered (Primal Heat Trilogy #3) (Order of the Blade) (33 page)

Thano ignored him. “But it seems to me that you all are getting caught up in a whole lot of pissing that’s better done when Ezekiel isn’t running around threatening the world. He’s letting us live because we don’t scare him. Am I the only one who is pissed off by that? I hate being underestimated.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ryland snapped. “You know nothing.”

Elijah frowned as he watched the warriors argue. Everyone was tense, agitated and distracted from their mission of taking down Ezekiel. It wasn’t like them to conflict like this. Even without Dante, the Order should have been focused, pulled together by the threat of an enemy such as Ezekiel. Even Ian wouldn’t be holding a grudge for his
sheva
, not with the stakes as high as they are.

Quinn stepped forward and entered the heated discussion, and the tempers began to rise. He was their interim leader, and yet he couldn’t get them focused. What the hell was going on? Elijah felt his own adrenaline kick in, and the urge to engage surged through him—

Ana touched his arm. “Do you feel it?”

“Feel what?” Elijah shifted restlessly, itching with the need to confront his team, to shut them up.

“The air. It has changed. It’s Ezekiel. He’s poisoning the Order.”

Well, damn. And this woman thought she was a monster? She was so damn pure that even Ezekiel couldn’t corrupt her. He narrowed his eyes at the significance of that realization. “If it weren’t for you, I’d be over there trying to kick everyone’s ass.”

Ana’s eyes widened. “Even mine?”

“No, not you.” Elijah pulled her close and kissed her lightly, thankful as hell for her presence. “Nor Gideon or Quinn.” A loud shout jerked his attention back to his team, and he saw Ryland and Thano in a heated debate, weapons out. “Shit. We need to stop this.” No one was listening to him and Ana talk. They were too caught up in the rising heat of the arguments. “Hey!” he shouted, trying to get their attention.

No one even glanced his way, oblivious to everything but the need to fight. Muscles were bunched. The warriors were in battle stances, aligning off in groups. Quinn and Gideon. Zach and Gabe. Thano and Ryland. Ian and Kane by themselves. Elijah shoved his way into the middle of the group. “Ezekiel’s screwing with all of you. Listen to yourselves. We’re at war with him, not each other.”

The shouting didn’t even dim. Elijah grabbed Gideon’s shoulder and spun his friend to face him.
Gideon! Listen to yourself! Ezekiel’s messing with us, the same way he screws with everyone else. He’s pulling the Order apart.

Gideon stared at him blankly.
What?

Elijah repeated the statement, opening his mind to include Quinn, calling on the blood bond they shared to reach them.

Quinn looked at him, blinked several times, then surveyed the room and cursed.
You’re right. How is he doing this? I want to beat the hell out of every one of these guys.

“Ezekiel’s reaching the Order through his bond with Ana and me. We need to take off, and then you and Gideon try to bring the Order back together.” His own aggression rising, Elijah knew he had to get out of there before he contributed to the deterioration of the atmosphere. He was safe only around those he had a blood bond with. Ana might be resistant, but he sure as hell wasn’t.

“We’ll take the team up to Dante’s fishing shack,” Gideon said, his voice tense with heated emotion. “That place is clean. Dante warded in some way. We’ll meet up there and get organized.”

“Good.” Elijah yanked Ana back as Gabe turned toward her, his halberd clenched in his fist, fury in his eyes.
Let’s go, Ana. Now
. He fought his urge to take on his Order mate for pointing his weapon at Ana. Instead, he headed toward the door, his body itching with the need to get into the fray.

He didn’t even have to look back to know that Gideon had stepped between Gabe and Ana, giving them time to get out. Ryland threw Elijah a hard look. “Where the fuck are you going?” His voice was hard and angry, even more than usual.

Elijah fought to keep his voice calm. “To get Ezekiel.”

“No, you’re not. You’re going to go hide your little woman, like Ian tried to do. The bond will fuck with you and take us all down. I won’t—”

“Hey!” Elijah grabbed Ryland by the throat and slammed him up against the wall before Ryland had finished raising his machete toward Ana. “The
only
reason I’m not going to kill you right now is because I know it will give Ezekiel the victory.” His fingers dug into Ryland’s throat, not even flinching as Ryland fought his hold.

Elijah felt so incredibly strong, and he knew Ryland had no chance against him. None at all. Ezekiel’s strength was flowing through his veins, feeding him, making him more powerful, and it felt indescribably fantastic. He felt unstoppable, like he could bring down the entire damn world.

Son of a bitch. Was Ezekiel trying to taint him with delusions of grandeur so he’d help him in his deranged quest? Crap. Elijah’s grip on Ryland’s throat tightened as he fought to resist the temptation to unleash the power surging through him. “Ezekiel is screwing with all of us right now. I’m going to take Ana and walk out of here, and no one is going to raise a weapon against anyone else. After we’re gone, you guys are going to pull your shit together and help us figure out how the hell to beat him so when I touch base we have a plan. Got it?” God, he could crush Ryland’s throat so easily. Just another squeeze—

“Elijah.” Ana’s hand was on his arm. “Let’s go.”

Her touch brought him back, like a flash of white light piercing the violence trying to consume him. Elijah jerked back, releasing Ryland. His comrade dropped to the floor with a groan, rubbing his throat, but his weapon was down.

Silence reigned, everyone riveted by the interaction between Elijah and Ryland. Anticipation was thick, the team clearly expecting Ryland to finally snap. But he let his head drop back against the wall and closed his eyes. “Get out.” His voice was rigid with restraint. “If you’re the one bringing this poison into the room,
get
out
.”

Ana was already at the door, and Elijah had to clench his fists to keep from jumping Ryland now that he was defenseless. Elijah could feel the hostility from the other Order members, and he knew any action by him would trigger them.

“Elijah.” There was strain in Ana’s voice, and fear. “Come on.”

It was her fear that penetrated Elijah’s anger, and he turned his head to look at her. Her back was against the door, her fists clenched and lines of tension around her eyes.

Elijah forgot about Ryland and everyone else in the room. All that mattered was his
sheva’s
well-being. He strode across the room to her without another thought, catching her hands in his. “You okay?”

She shook her head once, her hands icy cold in his grip. “We need to leave.”

“Yeah, we do.” He put his arm over her shoulder, pulling her against his side. He glanced back at the scene. Everyone was standing still, rigid, as if afraid to move. He’d caused this. It was him. He looked at Gideon. “I’m going to my place. You know where to find me.”

He didn’t wait for Gideon’s response. He simply hugged Ana to him and guided her out of the room.

* * *

Ezekiel slid open the door to his master bedroom and stepped inside. The king-sized bed of polished mahogany was surrounded by armed Calydons, standing shoulder-to-shoulder so tightly that he couldn’t see more than the occasional glimpse of the black silk coverlet on his bed.

He nodded and two of them moved aside, still keeping their weapons ready. Ezekiel stepped between them and looked down at the unconscious occupant of the bed.

He was staring at himself. Ezekiel studied the body in the bed, the face he hadn’t seen for two thousand years. His own face. He examined the slightly crooked nose, the scar along his jaw, the centuries of weariness so evident in the lines on the face. The skin was pale, utterly deprived of the sun. He looked old. Weary. Beaten down.

He didn’t want to feel like that.

He lifted his gaze to the mirror over the headboard and saw the face of a young man staring back at him, but with his eyes. There were no lines of age on his face, no scars. It was as he had once been. Innocent. The same age he’d been when he’d finally killed his bastard of a father, after watching the son of a bitch beat their mother day after day. The age he’d been long before he’d been betrayed by his own brother.

He examined the flush of youth on his cheeks, the narrowness of his shoulders from muscles still developing. It was a body devoid of a past. All options were open and available at this point. A chance for any future he wanted.

“Sir?”

Ezekiel peeled his gaze off the mirror and looked at Faulk, the Calydon he’d appointed his second in command, until the spot was occupied by his brother. By Elijah. “Let me know when Drew regains consciousness. I can’t do anything while he’s out.” He glanced again at the figure in the bed, knowing that he had to merge with it to regain his full powers.

He would do what was necessary. He just had to make sure the cost wasn’t more than he was willing to pay this time. “I have work to do. I’ll be back.”

Then he turned and strode out of the room, his strides long and energetic with the spring of youth long left behind.

***

Ana was exhausted by the time they reached Elijah’s condo. The stress of trying to keep Ezekiel out of her mind, combined with the effort of helping Elijah regain control of himself had reminded her all too clearly about the strength of their enemy, and what little resources they had to defeat him.

It was such a relief to reach Elijah’s condo and retreat into a place that was his, not Ezekiel’s, not the Order’s, just his.

His building was in a highly secure tower with a doorman she was pretty sure was armed with more than one type of weapon and enhanced with an Otherworld strength she couldn’t identify. Elijah had to use a key card to access the elevator and then punch in a security code to open the doors on his floor.

The opulent lobby on his floor was small, and there was only one door that opened into it, besides the fire exit, which had four heavy locks. Elijah used another key card, punched in codes to disarm yet another lock and then entered another long code just inside the door to turn off the alarm.

Ana’s heart filled with empathy for the locks that Elijah lived behind. He was one of the most powerful warriors alive, a man who could destroy virtually any threat, and yet he had cloistered himself away behind dozens of locks and isolation.

With all this security, it was clear that he may have partitioned the horrors of his youth for the last five hundred years, but it had always been haunting him. The demons had been chasing him for a long time.

Elijah glanced back at her as he opened the door and stepped back to let her in. “We’re going to regroup here, and then touch base with the Order and make plans.” His eyes were dark in the shadowed hallway, and she couldn’t read his expression as she moved past him.