Drowning In The Dark: #4 The Veil Series (14 page)

The dark buried within me twitched, awakening. Lust ravaged my thoughts and owned my control. Akil became all I’d ever know, all I ever wanted to know. His warm spiciness sizzled on my tongue. The devastating heat of him crawled over me, and inside, he smothered the dark with liquid fire. I lost all sense of the moment. Time slowed or hastened. I didn’t know which and didn’t care.

“Reach into me…” His words sailed through the storm and found me in the madness. I responded like a newborn flame, eager and hungry, and drove my element into him, reaching for the light. Power sizzled between us, shivering across my fevered skin, igniting beneath the deft play of his fingers and the tease of his lips. Freefalling, I reached for him, needing him close, so close. I wanted to crawl inside him. My body ached with desire, my mind flooded with lust, and inside, the parasite that was Damien snarled. He lashed out, a slippery tendril of darkness striking viper-fast, but Akil’s burning light slipped around it and squeezed. The sound of my own screams distantly echoed. Akil’s ragged breaths sawed against my cheek. His body rocked against mine in a primal rhythm, but we weren’t joined, not sexually. This wasn’t physical but gloriously dreamlike and entirely demon. He whispered dark words, foreign words that sounded devilish on his lips. His incorporeal touch wove through me, around me, needling the pulsing, hideous dark, and plucking its claws from my soul, finally freeing me.

I clung to him, both with my mind and body. I held him so damn tight my muscles burned. His fire inside me swirled and danced. It devoured the dark, destroying every part of my hideous owner. Akil fell against me, trapping my body back against the wall, and words weighted with power tumbled over and over, coming hard and fast, burying me while at the same time lifting me up. I mirrored the words, hardly realizing I was speaking. We spoke as one—matched in breaths, in tone—and my power flowed into him. I heard the rapid beat of his heart, felt him trembling, and listened to the strain in his voice. When the dark finally released, a jolt of pain fired through me. Akil pinned me still and smothered my scream with his mouth, kissing me with consuming passion. The dark dissipated, fizzling away to nothing, replaced by dazzling shards of heat, light, lust, and something brighter, something carnal, basic, primal: Akil. His raw, unrefined wildness simmered like a potent drug. I forgot myself, forgot my brother, the demon threat, Stefan, Dawn… I forgot it all. And for a few wonderful timeless moments, I was a thing of pure fire and exquisitely demon.

Cool, slippery ice hovered at the edges of the inferno. Akil must have felt it too because he froze. I fixed my gaze on his. A corona of fire burned fiercely in his eyes. The reflection of my own gaze blazed. A familiar, comforting sensation warmed me through, like coming home to a blazing fire in the hearth. He moistened his lips and bowed his head. Both of us breathed hard and trembled with residual power.

“If you kill me, Prince of Wrath, Muse will never be free.”

I frowned at his unexpected words, their meaning far beyond the reach of my addled mind. Akil gave me a look almost like an apology and peeled himself away. I slumped against the wall, legs barely able to hold me up, and saw the reason for Akil’s words standing in my apartment doorway.

“Stefan?” His long leather coat glinted with ice while his eyes blazed a glacial blue.
Oh no…
I shrugged my robe back over my shoulders and knotted it closed, not that it would do me any good. He’d seen enough.

Akil stood demon-still on one side of my living room, equidistant between Stefan and me. He looked ridden hard, breathless, and exhausted. His hair was a mess, and his clothes hung askew. We hadn’t technically had sex, at least not in the traditional sense of the word. But the devil was in the details. Power fizzled in the air like an electrical charge: mine, his, and Stefan’s.

Stefan didn’t acknowledge Akil. He only had eyes for me and made sure to pour all of his princely power into that bitter gaze. I cringed, ashamed, “The soul-lock—”

He turned and was gone. I glanced at Akil, the pain showing on my face, but he simply arched a brow. What did I expect from a demon? Sympathy? Empathy?

“I have to go after him.” I wobbled a few steps and stumbled against the couch. I wasn’t going anywhere, not until my body recovered.

“I’d suggest some clothes.”

I gripped the couch back and battled panic. “Is Damien gone?” I ground out the words, fearing the reply, but needed to hear it. I’d waited so long for this. I’d dreamed of it. “Is he dead?”

“Yes.”

“No coming back? No loophole?”

“He is no more.”

“Get out.” Akil moved closer, and I threw all of my own shame into my stare. “You can’t be here right now. You’re like Christmas morning, freakin’ temptation personified.” Lust sparked through me, almost wrenching my strength right out from under me. I wanted his hands on me, his lips burning against my skin, every part of him inside me. “I need some distance.”

“Distance from me is something you can’t have.”

Oh, I knew that. I felt him burning bright and wild inside me. It felt wonderful, but I wasn’t going to let it rule me. “I told you, Akil. This was a business transaction. Our transaction is complete.”

He straightened, and the fire in his eyes died. “When will you admit what we both already know?”

Standing straight, I tried to look formidable in my bathrobe and lust-drenched body. “Thank you for helping me, but it’s time for you to leave.”

He moved too quickly for me to track, gathered me in powerful arms, and pinned me back against the kitchen counter, all in the space of a gasp. The touch of his lips on mine was all it took to spark the fire alive again. I clenched his shirt in my hands, intent on pushing him off, but froze. I should have realized it wouldn’t be easy to deny the effect he had on me. I’d had trouble resisting him before. Now he was inside me—under my skin.

He splayed a hand on my face, holding me still as his other hand tore at my robe. “Stop lying to yourself,” he snarled. His teeth had sharpened, fangs lengthening. “I know exactly what you want.” His hand plunged lower. Using a knee to nudge my legs apart, his hot touch found the wetness between my legs. “Your words are fragments, scattered by the truth I feel right here.” A cry, something between a groan and a gasp, belied my attempts at denying him. He smiled into the curve of my neck, and plunged his fingers deep into my core. “We are joined.”

I thought of Stefan, of the ice-cold expression on his face. I’d betrayed him. It didn’t matter that it had been necessary to free me of Damien. If I did this, now, with Akil, I couldn’t go back.

“Akil…” I cleared my throat and tried again, this time with a growl. “Akil, get the fuck out of my apartment right now!” He snarled, pulled away, and vanished in a cloud of static, leaving me alone, sexually ablaze, and emotionally distraught. I reached down and finished what he’d started, touching myself hard and fast, until the pleasure crested, and I came with a wrought and frustrated cry.

I
was
free of Damien for the first time in decades, and for the first time in months, I had complete control. It was a clean, concise control. Surgical. Powerful. I wasn’t sure I’d ever felt so comfortable in my half-blood skin. With all remnants of Damien finally gone, I was myself as I was meant to be. Sure, I felt Akil close by, so close I could almost taste him, but his element complimented mine. Where madness had clawed at my mind, only clarity remained. A soft, hopeful smile crawled across my lips. The Mother of Destruction was ready to take on the netherworld.

Smoke spiraled out of the crumbled remains of Stone’s Throw bar. A couple of enforcers guarded the scene while a handful of people filtered through the rubble. With no idea where to find Stefan or what to say to him when I did, I focused on the task ahead and visited the office where Ryder and the militia had been only hours before, but they’d made good on their promises and abandoned their base. The only other place I could think to find someone of use was Stone’s Throw, but there was little left of my favorite haunt. The harsh light of day only served to remind people how soon the night would come again. The demons would return, and this time my brother might be with them. He had enough half bloods at his disposal to make short work of any military response. But not Dawn. He didn’t have her. Adam would know where she was. If I could find Adam...

“Hey, lil’ firecracker.” Ryder’s boots crunched on debris as he approached from behind and planted a hand on my shoulder, almost triggering my instincts to spin and sock him one. I might have, had he not tugged me into a bear hug. Tensed like a two-by-four, I swallowed and breathed in his familiar gun-oil-and-hot-metal smell. I wasn’t aware we were the sort of friends who hugged, and like a deer in headlights, I had no idea what to do.

“Hey,” I mumbled against his jacket.

He relaxed his hold and shrugged away, realigning his coat. He didn’t need to say anything. The strain of the last few hours had etched into his weary face and burned in his too-bright eyes. Avoiding my gaze, he rubbed at his unshaven jaw and surveyed the ruined bar. “What a clusterfuck of a night.” His voice, usually so confident, quivered with dregs of exhaustion.

I couldn’t find my own voice to agree. I’d always seen Ryder as the formidable enforcer, rough around the edges and ready for anything. The man beside me was just that, a man, one who fought demons twice his size, ten times as mean, and a hundred times tougher to kill. Clearly, he was rattled, and I felt the effects of the night all the more keenly, seeing him there on the verge of tears.

“How is she?”

Ryder drew in a short hiss. “Not great. Better. It’s not what he did physically. It’s up here.” He tapped his forehead. “But she’s coherent and pissed. She knows she’s responsible for this…”

“Hardly. Jenna was never going to be able to work Val to the Institute’s advantage. She’s too human.” Ryder’s brow arched. “What I mean is, he’s just too strong. You can’t play him. This wasn’t her fault. Adam should never have let her anywhere near Stone’s Throw. He should’ve kept her off the job. This is all on him.”

He snorted. “He’s got a lot to answer for. The netherworld’s attacking, and he’s missing. I figured him for a lotta things. Now I can add coward to the list.”

I might have come back with an equally snide comment, but my thoughts were caught on Jenna and her all-too-human response to my brother. “Would she want a chance to get back at Val?”

“Hell, yeah. In between bouts of guilt, she’s cursing demons with words that make even me blush. What are you thinking?”

“We could tempt Val back in. Could she summon him?”

Ryder combed his fingers back through his hair. “Maybe. She’s got balls of brass. But what’s to stop him finishing her off?”

“Summon him inside the symbols.” I’d summoned my brother once before in much the same trap. He’d tried to skewer me with a sword. Family like him redefined sibling rivalry. “He’ll still be formidable, but if we can keep him contained here, on this side of the veil…” An idea formed. “Those rifles you used on Akil, loaded with P-C-Thirty-Four, do you still have access to those?”

“Yeah, I got one in my personal stash at home.”

“Summon him, shoot him, and he’s trapped, virtually human—or better yet, out cold. Can’t do a damn thing. It won’t stop the princes, but it might slow their plans.”

“Summoning isn’t exactly air-tight though. It’s weak at the best of times. A demon like Valenti, pissed off, might break out in a few seconds.”

“How long do you need to pull a trigger?”

A smile touched his lips. “I like your thinking. It’d have to be at Jenna’s place. Anywhere else, and he’ll get spooked before he arrives.”

“Then let’s go talk to her.”

We rode in Ryder’s car, a beat-up old Mustang with doors attached by zip-ties, but it had the guts of a thoroughbred. After stopping off at Ryder’s place to fill the trunk with weapons, we headed for Jenna’s neighborhood. Clear roads seemed all the more ominous under the bright afternoon sunlight. Most businesses were closed. Helicopters buzzed above. Boston waited, as though holding its breath. Radio news stations broadcast the numbers of dead, reaching into the hundreds, but it could have been worse. They didn’t know worse was yet to come. Only those who had seen the netherworld could truly understand what was about to consume the city.

“—Stefan.” Ryder looked at me, eyebrows raised.

“Huh?”

“I said, what have you done with Stefan?”

“Oh, he er…” I’d already explained the disaster that had been the Institute breakout. I’d even added the truth about how I’d lunged for Val and how Akil had stopped me. “Akil brought me back to Boston. We left Stefan there. He’s—er—he’s okay though.”

Bumping the car up against the curb, Ryder cut the engine and twisted in his seat to face me. “You know I ain’t one for hoping, but when I saw him with you… Well, let’s just say, there might be something of him left in there. He may not even know it. He’s helping you. That says something.”

My throat dried up. I growled, trying to clear it. “Yeah, I… He said he wants to make up for his mistakes, but what he says and what he’s thinking aren’t the same. I know demons, Ryder. Dammit, I want to hope you’re right because I thought I’d seen the same in him. But demons are sly, slippery, manipulative creatures. I genuinely hope he’s here to help, but I’m worried.” Especially after he’d walked in on Akil and me in the midst of a heated physical discussion. Or, maybe the fact he’d walked away was a good thing? A demon wouldn’t have. Hell, even Akil had expected the worst, if his threat was anything to go by. Perhaps I could take the fact Stefan had walked away as a sign he still cared. Akil had been weakened by the infusion. It would have been the perfect time to attack. A demon would have. Stefan hadn’t.

Ryder nodded. “Hell knows, we need him on our side.” He opened the car door and climbed out.

I followed him up some steps into a converted redbrick warehouse and tried not to think about the last time I’d seen Stefan. He knew about the soul-lock. He’d understand. Probably. I just had to keep telling myself that.

Maybe because I was thinking about him, I didn’t pick up on the tickle of ice against my element until we stopped outside what I assumed to be Jenna’s apartment door. I stiffened, about to warn Ryder, when he must have heard the voices inside and quickly put two and two together. He bounced back and kicked the door in. It flung open, revealing Jenna curled on a couch in her pale pink pajamas and Stefan seated in the opposite couch, dressed exactly as he had been an hour or so ago, sans ice, but no less intense. Two empty ice cream bowls sat on the coffee table between them.

Jenna glowered at Ryder. “You just stole another year off my life. What the hell’s wrong with you?”

Ryder’s hand had disappeared inside his jacket and likely rested on a handgun. He didn’t say a word, just glared unblinkingly at Stefan.

A twist of bitter jealousy tightened my chest. I knew Stefan and Jenna had been friends—still were friends. I had no right to get pissy over who Stefan chose to spend his time with, but my irrational side, said screw that. What the fuck was he doing here? I tucked a thumb into my jeans pockets and hoped I looked bored. “This is cozy.” It sounded innocent in my head, but when the words left my lips, they hung heavy and ripe with accusation, an accusation I had no right to sling.

Stefan leaned back and spread both arms over the back of the couch, offering Ryder a bigger target and a smug smile. “Just so you know, I can freeze the bullet before it leaves the barrel.”

“Horseshit,” Ryder drawled.

I took a single step away from Ryder. “Okay, guys, let’s dilute the testosterone. We have a limited number of daylight hours left. Save the pissing contest until after, okay?”

Jenna’s fingers fluttered at her forehead. “Please, just stop, or take it somewhere else.”

Ryder withdrew his hand and wiggled his fingers.
See? Unarmed.
“I could outdraw you.” He said it like it was a widely known fact.

Stefan’s blue eyes sparkled. “You think so? I was always faster in training.”

“Yeah.” Ryder shrugged his jacket off and neared the couch where Jenna sat. “But you’re easily distracted by pretty things.”

Stefan’s sharp eyes flicked to me and back to Ryder. “Relax, Ryder. I just came here to talk.” He sighed and dipped his chin. “I knew Jenna had been attacked, and I clearly wasn’t needed at Muse’s apartment this morning, so I came by to check on Jenna and ask some questions about Valenti.”

“Why?” I asked, ignoring Ryder’s glance. I’d told him I hadn’t seen Stefan. Now he’d be wondering why I’d lied.

“Because we need all the information we can get, it used to be my job, and
old habits die hard
.” A slither of deeper meaning almost slipped through his words unnoticed. Stefan and I really needed to talk, but not yet.

Ryder stood behind the couch, close enough to Jenna to be protective, but far enough away that it could be argued nothing was going on between them. He might have gotten away with it if Jenna hadn’t looked up at him and stopped herself from reaching out. “Muse thinks we can lure Val back here and trap him.”

“Only if you’re up to it, Jenna,” I added.

“Do I get to kill him?” she growled.

“You get to stop him. He’s immortal, so killing him isn’t really an option.”

Ryder and I filled Stefan and Jenna in on my simple plan. Stefan wasn’t convinced PC34 would sufficiently slow Val down, but at the very least, it would mess with my brother’s head. It would have to be enough. Stefan absorbed my explanation and nodded his approval with the cold efficiency of a demon.
Things are pretty simple now.

Ryder left the apartment to retrieve his weapons from the car, and Jenna went to her room to change, leaving Stefan and me alone in the living room. The pregnant quiet plucked at my patience. Perched on the edge of the couch, I rested my elbows on my knees and clasped my hands together. With my head bowed, Stefan couldn’t see me chewing my lip, and I couldn’t see him watching me. But I felt his gaze crackle across my skin. He held his power in check while mine strained behind the effect of Jenna’s framed symbols.

“There’s a change in you,” he said.

“Yeah.”

“Your owner?”

“Gone.”

A few seconds passed. “Good.”

“About what you saw…” I lifted my head. His flat, enquiring expression didn’t make this any easier. “Akil removed the soul-lock.”

“Removed or replaced it?”

My tongue traced my lower lip. “Replaced it, but—”

“Well done. You swapped one psycho for another.” His caustic tone told me more about his state of mind than any of his words could. To wield sarcasm effectively, one needed a modicum of emotion.
He does care.

“You could say that.”

“You must be relieved.” His blunt white teeth flashed behind a tight smile.

“Actually, I am. You said you’d seen what was in me. I’m more in control now than ever before. I know what I can do. I can beat this, my brother, Akil, maybe even you if it comes to it. Don’t think you understand me because evidently, you don’t.”

“Whatever you want to do and who you want to do it with doesn’t matter to me. I told you. I really don’t care.”

To borrow a Ryderism: “Horseshit.” I sat back, mirroring his relaxed posture. “You care. That’s why you walked away. Your demon wants to kill Akil. After what you saw between me and him, you should have attacked. If you were all demon, you would have. Akil expected it.”

His expression hardened. His cheeks hollowed, and the line of his jaw tightened. “You’re right. You left me hanging upside down in a wrecked car in the middle of nowhere. When I woke up to find Wrath about to make me an entree, you know what my first thought was? That he’d already gotten to you. So what do I do?” He waited, and I blinked, wondering if he really wanted an answer. “Let’s just assume Wrath won’t be joining the end-of-the-world party. Before I shredded him and sent him packing back to the netherworld, he told me how all of hell broke lose at the Institute, that Val was there, and how you vanished.” He stilled as if carved from marble and slowly blinked his wintery eyes. “I was ready to turn hell upside-down looking for you.”

He’d showed up at my place worried about my wellbeing and seen me getting busy with Akil. If his words were knives, he’d just twisted them in my gut. “I’m sorry you saw that.”

Cutting his gaze away, he smiled an unkind smile. “Did you finish what you’d started with him?”

“No.” I caught it, just a tiny crack in his flawless armor, nothing more than a twitch, as though he’d flinched inside. He really did care. Stefan was still in there behind all the stoic demon bullshit. I shrugged. “Would it bother you if I had screwed Akil?”

“No.” He gazed out of the windows, his stare hard.

I’d stumbled on the exact thing I needed to rouse the humanity in him: my relationship with Akil. It was cruel to needle him, dangerous too, but would it be enough to stir his human instincts? Traits like loyalty, compassion, empathy, and the monster that is jealousy. “You’re right. You don’t care. So it doesn’t matter what I do.”