Darkness Surrendered (Primal Heat Trilogy #3) (Order of the Blade) (43 page)

Elijah frowned. “He’s been in prison—”

“When I was merged with Nate before he died,” Quinn explained, “I could feel Ezekiel’s presence in his mind. Nate had been doing his bidding for two thousand years, and it turns out that one of those tasks was to dump every direct descendent of Caleb into an Illusionist hell.” Quinn met his gaze. “Weren’t you in a pit when Dante recruited you for the Order?”

Elijah ground his jaw and gave a terse nod. “Yeah. I was. I was insane.”

Gideon nodded at the confirmation. “Ezekiel had everyone killed except for you—”

“No.” Elijah suddenly understood what Ezekiel had done. All Ezekiel’s comments made sense now, that he was the only one who had survived, that he was the one who’d been selected. “He tried to have me killed, too, and I survived. That’s why I’m worthy.” He swore. “It was all a test, an audition to see what family member deserved to stand by his side.” He paced the room, analyzing the times during his torture when he’d felt Ezekiel’s presence touching his. Testing, always testing, seeing how Elijah was faring. “Son of a bitch. I’ve been sucker-picked for this shit all along.” For six hundred years, Ezekiel had been toying with him.
Six hundred years.

Ana touched his arm. “See?” she said quietly, her eyes gleaming with such pride it made his heart actually stutter. “You aren’t the weak one, Elijah. You are the strong one, the strongest one of all.”

One other thing
, Gideon continued, retreating into the privacy of their blood bond, a message not meant for Ana to overhear.
Lily also discovered that there is precedent for the same female being a sheva for more than one Calydon.

Elijah snorted.
We already know it can happen. What about it?

Whoever completes the bond first wins the girl. The other male’s marks disappear completely. It’s a race to the finish line.
Gideon’s gaze flicked to Ana’s arm.
And it looks like you guys are in a pretty close heat.

Elijah’s entire soul froze.
You mean I could lose her? Completely?
His entire body began to shake, and he grabbed Ana, yanking her against him.
I can’t lose her!

Gideon gave him a grim look.
I know, buddy. I fucking know.

“Someone’s screaming! Victims!” Ryland shouted from the hall. “We need to move.”

Adrenaline tore through Elijah as he became aware of the screams. Every fiber went on alert, and he was already racing for the door before the first echoes were over, his Calydon instincts to protect the innocent raging at him.

Still reeling from Gideon’s revelation, Elijah held tight to Ana’s arm as they ran into the hall, the Order moving fast and silently. The minute they stepped out into the hall, Ana could hear the screams as well. They were screams of such pain, such torment, such
hell
. A woman. “Dear God,” she whispered, shocked by the torment in the woman’s voice.

The Order was running flat-out now, nine men focused on one goal, weapons out. They moved fast down the hall and hit the entryway of the house.

Ana stumbled when she saw where they were. They were on a magnificent landing, with a gorgeous mahogany railing, overlooking a gilded entry way. A crystal chandelier hung down, sparkling in the foyer, reflecting off the marble tile. “I’ve been here. Nate brought me here. We murdered a Calydon in this hallway. This has all been set up from the start, every death, everything—”

Elijah squeezed her hand, yanking her back from her memories. “Come on,” he said urgently. “Don’t let Ezekiel distract you. The shit’s going down in the basement.”

There was a tension to his tone that caught her attention. “You think it’s a trap?”

“Hell, yeah.”

She tried to stop, digging her heels in as they headed toward the stairs. “So why—”

“Because he underestimates us.”

Ana saw the grim determination in Elijah’s eyes, and her heart leapt. There was no fear in there, no worry about his mind fragmenting or his vulnerability with Ezekiel. He was a warrior on a mission, completely focused and confident, aware of his limitations, but fully cognizant of his strengths. Elijah had come back into his own, and he was ready.

Relief and excitement swirled through her, and she stopped resisting. “Okay, let’s do it.”

He gave her a brief grin, then turned his focus to the battle, shouting orders to his team as they sped down the stairs toward the screams. “Gideon! Call on Lily! You’re going to need her help to fight Ezekiel!”

“Already on it,” Gideon shouted back.

By the time they reached the bottom of the main steps in the lobby, Ryland was decimating the basement door with his machete. It fell as the rest of the Order caught up, and then they were through, the remains of the door splintering.

They charged down the basement stairs to an enormous room the size of a ballroom. Cement walls stretched up three stories, and there were chains hanging from the walls around them, all empty, except for one female. She was slumped over, her skin a mottled gray, as if she’d been poisoned by Ezekiel’s touch.

Ian swore and sprinted for her, but the rest of the team stopped dead, fanning out in a defensive position, weapons ready, bodies tense.

Ana felt a dark pressure in the air above her head, and she looked up at the same moment Elijah did.

Suspended above them by chains were Ezekiel and Drew...or the physical manifestation of their bodies. Both were gagged, tightly bound, and dressed in black trousers, a white dress shirt and polished loafers. Both men were wearing dark sunglasses, making it impossible to see into their eyes and determine who was who. Which soul was in which body?

The man the Order had brought with them tensed to leap up, and Quinn tackled him. “No, Vaughn! We don’t know which is housing Drew’s spirit!”

“Back off!” Vaughn tensed and whirled toward Quinn, rage burning in his green eyes. “Don’t fucking stop me—”

“You want to kill Drew by mistake?” Quinn demanded. “He could be in either body.”

Vaughn swore and stared up at the hanging bodies, neither of which had moved. They were both dangling limply...unconscious? No, not unconscious. They were both holding their heads erectly. Why wasn’t the one which was Drew reacting?

The Order took position beneath the two males, half of them below Drew and half below Ezekiel. Weapons were out, ready to take them on. Except for Ian, who was using his flange mace to try to break through the chains holding the woman. His body was tense, his shoulders rigid, sweat pouring down his back—

Elijah glanced over at Ian, pain flickering in his eyes. “That female looks exactly like Ian’s
sheva
. The one I killed.”

The girl had reddish blond hair, and she was gagged and bound. Ian was working furiously to get her free, his voice muttering soothing words of comfort as he fought with the bonds that were resisting his weapon.

Elijah continued to stare at Ian and the woman, his skin beginning to pale. “I swear it’s her.”

“But you killed her.”

“Yeah, and Nate killed me. I’m still here, aren’t I? Maybe it’s her. Maybe she didn’t die.”

“You’re immortal. She’s not. Big difference.
It’s not her
. Ezekiel found someone who looked so much like her because he wanted to fool Ian into thinking she was still alive, so he can lose her again.” Ana frowned at Elijah’s rising level of tension and looked up again at the males suspended above her. She reluctantly opened her mind to the males above her head, and she felt Ezekiel emanating from both of them. “He’s in both, still.

Elijah tore his gaze off Ian and looked up. “I can feel him too.”

The air was getting heavier, thicker, and the cloying stench of death was oozing into the room. “So, we kill both?” Quinn asked.

Elijah shook his head, slowly. “We can’t kill Drew—”

“Sacrifice of one innocent to save thousands,” Quinn recited grimly. “We do what we have to do.”

“No. Not this time.” Elijah cocked his head. “Not Dante’s son. We need him.”

“Well, then what the hell do we do? Wait here until they break out the keg and invite us to party?”

There was a sudden rush of darkness, and then huge doors slid open at the side of the room. Through the doors stepped dozens of Calydons, weapons out. They stood shoulder to shoulder, muscled and broad, black lines painted on their chests. They were soldiers standing at attention, waiting for a command from their leader.

The Order drew tight together, a formidable unit. Ana was tucked behind them. “Bring it on,” Thano said in a low voice.

Then there was a struggle from the back of the mass of Calydons, and Gideon went rigid. “What the fuck—”

Lily and Grace were suddenly thrust to the front. They were both bound and gagged.

Quinn let out a roar of fury, stayed only by Elijah’s grip on his arm. “Wait,” he said. “We have to play this right. Don’t let him fuck with you!”

Quinn’s face was ashen, his entire body shaking with the effort of holding back. “Make it fast,” he muttered. “Make it fucking fast.”

Gideon swore, and Lily closed her eyes. Instantly, there was a swell of power in the room, and Ana realized Lily was feeding Gideon power, giving him the strength to defeat the entire mass of warriors holding her captive.

“Now they die,” Gideon shouted. “They all die for touching her—”

Then there was a roar from above them and they all looked up to see Drew—his body, that was—free his arms and hurl a dozen weapons through the air, straight at Ezekiel’s Calydons.

“Drew?” Vaughn whispered.

“Drew must be back in his own his body,” Ryland said. “And he’s still got Ezekiel’s weapons and he’s using them to take down Ezekiel’s Calydons—”

“Jesus, no! He’s attacking Lily and Grace!” Gideon let out a roar of outrage and charged the Calydons.

Ana jerked her gaze back to them, realizing with horror that the weapons were indeed headed straight for Grace and Lily, not the Calydons guarding them. It wasn’t Drew throwing them, it was Ezekiel, and he was going to kill Grace and Lily!

“No!” She screamed her protest at the same instant the Order erupted into action, launching a full-scale attack at Ezekiel’s Calydons. But before they could reach them, a battle axe slammed into Grace’s stomach and a spear went right through Lily’s chest.