Vengeance of the Demons (26 page)

“I’ve been cleaning him up for the past week. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t care.”

Mason nodded and his eyes softened toward her. “I’m sure that’s true, but I saw you with him when he fed. It’s very well possible that this is a life-long commitment. He responds to you the way my inner demon responds to Danika. And Selene responds to Neeman.”

Her stomach knotted and a wave of nausea had her putting her head between her knees and breathing deeply. A life-long commitment. Her life span was unpredictable. She could easily live to a hundred, two hundred maybe. Two hundred years was a long time to clean up blood.

“Well, how long is that really going to be if we get run over by demons next week?” she asked.

“If you’re in this for the long haul then you need to tell him.”

The nausea subsided and she lifted her head. “So when will you do it?”

“Tonight. The sooner the better. We don’t know when my father will be showing up, but it’ll be in the next few days, so we need to deal with everything that will take away from that focus now.”

“Well, let’s get to it then.” She got to her feet and her head spun. Mason reached out to steady her.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I stood up too fast.”

“If you don’t think you can do this—”

“I can. I can do this.” She tried to make herself sound more confident than she felt.

* * * *

William’s eyes burned in his skull. Danika sat holding his hand, tears in her eyes, and all he wanted to do was pull away from her icy touch. He tried not to think about what Doc had told him and instead focused on Mason’s solution. Danika was against it, but he was going to die if something wasn’t done, of that he was sure. So it was worth the risk.

“Promise me,” said William. “If I become worse than I am now. Promise you’ll kill me. I don’t want you and Evan having to deal with me like this. You both deserve more than to have to take care of me for the rest of my immortal life.”

“I can’t do that,” said Danika. “I would rather clean up after you than keep that promise.”

“I’ll keep it,” said Tommy.

William had forgotten Tommy stood in the corner.

“I’ll do it,” said Tommy. “Not because I don’t like you or anything, but because I don’t want Evan to have to do it and I don’t want to see her suffer.”

William nodded. The part of him that still clung to sanity was glad he hadn’t killed Tommy. He wanted Tommy’s blood, but he needed Tommy’s strength. And Evan would need him as well after William passed on. For as strong as she was he’d witnessed the fragility beneath her tough exterior. Losing her daughter had eaten a hole inside her. A hole she’d built a thick cement wall around. A wall that he’d inadvertently begun to tear down. And with each block that crumbled, she opened up to her heart to being impaled forever.

There was a knock and then Mason and Evan stepped in.

She walked to him, her face a mask of non-emotion.

“Could you give us a minute?” he asked Danika.

She nodded and she, Mason, and Tommy exited the room.

“Is this what you really want?” Evan asked.

“What I want is to live. Live without seeing everyone as food. Live without almost killing everyone I drink from. Live without the thirst being like a red stain in my eyesight that everything else is tainted by. But most of all, I don’t want to die.”

“I don’t want you to die.”

“Does that mean you’re saying yes to marrying me?”

She smiled. “Let’s just try and get through this first, okay?”

He brushed his knuckles across her cheek. “I want you to know something, and I don’t want you to get mad.”

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“If I do this and I come out…worse, I made Tommy promise to kill me.”

“What? How could you do that? How could he do that?”

He cupped her face. “He said he’d do it so you wouldn’t have to. I don’t want you to remember me as more of a monster than I am now. If I turn worse, I would rather go than hurt you.”

Her eyes held emotion that she tried to hide on her face. “You won’t. I know you won’t. Your soul is good. No matter what happens or who you become.”

“I love you, PITA.”

He wanted to believe her words, but the things he’d done lately… He wasn’t so sure. He pressed his lips to hers and breathed her in. It was the one memory he wanted to take with him if everything went wrong.

“Okay,” he said, breaking the kiss. “Let’s get this over with before I start spewing blood again. I can’t imagine what the laundry load looks like right now.”

He kissed her again, and she rubbed his cheek with her palm. It was all he’d dreamed of for the past year. Having her look at him like that and kiss him the way she did told him everything he needed to know. She did love him.

* * * *

Evan’s emotions flew all over the map. She’d not been so mixed up in years. She wanted William to live, but what happened if they didn’t work out? They hadn’t even liked each other that long. Her stomach roiled with nervous energy making her feel like she might puke.

“So how do we do this?” asked William.

Mason licked his lips. “It won’t be pretty, I’m afraid. I’ll need to drain you, and then you’ll need to drink from me, much like how you became a vampyr. While you drink from me I’ll perform the spell.”

“Sounds easy enough,” said William.

Mason’s gaze flicked to Danika. “Yeah… the problem is I can’t do all that in this form.”

William’s eyes widened. “Maelstrom.”

Mason nodded once.

“Maelstrom?” asked Evan.

William squeezed her hand. “He has to take his demon form.”

“This is demon magick, not fae magick. Only in my true form can I do what needs to be done. Only as the son of my father can I create demi-demons.”

She glanced around the group, Tommy was visibly shaken, and the rest looked worried.

“So what’s the problem?” asked Evan.

“Maelstrom is…”

“Unpredictable,” said Mason. “He’ll listen to Danika but the biggest problem will be once he and William are in the same room, we don’t know what will happen.”

“But he’s you,” said Evan. “And you’ve done this before, right?”

“He is me… but the worst part of me. Think of Jekyll and Hyde. He’s Hyde on steroids,” Mason said. “And no. I haven’t done this before, but I’ve seen it done.”

“Great.” Fear gripped her so tight she could barely see straight. So William wasn’t the worst thing to worry about, and Mason had only ever seen this thing done, not actually done it.

“Should we go outside for this?” asked William. “More space and all.”

“No. It’s better if we’re in a more familiar space for both of you,” said Danika.

“Okay.” William blew out a deep breath. “Let’s do this.”

Mason stood and scanned the room. He rubbed his face with his hands till Danika pulled them away and squeezed them.

“I’m right here.”

He nodded.

Tommy cleared his throat. “Maybe I should go into the hall.”

“I might need your help,” said Evan. “But if you can’t, I understand.”

Tommy’s cheeks flushed pink. “Way to put my manhood on the line there, sis, thanks a lot.”

Everyone laughed and the tension in the room eased somewhat. Tommy walked to Evan’s side of the bed and pulled up a chair. She took his hand and gave him a tight smile. He’d always been there for her. No matter what.

Mason stripped off his expensive, button-down shirt and handed it to Danika. He blew out a deep breath and then took her in his arms. She smiled up at him and whispered something Evan couldn’t hear. The laugh that rumbled from Mason’s chest wasn’t human. He kissed her hard and Danika crushed into Mason’s chest.

A growl shook the room. Evan’s heart raced as Mason’s skin darkened and he grew taller. Danika stepped away and Mason’s form widened as huge leathery wings spread from his back and spanned almost from wall to wall.

Tommy jumped to his feet. “Holy—”

“Stay where you are,” Danika held her hand up and Tommy sat slowly. She connected gazes with Mason again and laid her hand on his chest.

Mason raised a large hand and caressed her cheek. “Danika.”

“Maelstrom. I need you.”

“Yes.”

She looked to William. “We need you to help William.”

Maelstrom turned his fiery gaze on William. “Why?”

“Because I care for him,” said Danika.

Maelstrom growled.

“No.” Danika turned Maelstrom to face her. “Family. William is like my son.”

Maelstrom nodded and stomped to the bed. His footsteps shook the lamps and the floor. Evan stood to move away, but William clung tightly to her hand and she sat again.

“You want to be like me,” Maelstrom asked.

“Yes.” William’s voice came out strong and clear.

Maelstrom chuckled and pulled William to him. “I can arrange that.”

Maelstrom’s chin-length fangs flashed, and he bit into William’s throat. William grunted and Evan’s mouth opened in a silent scream. He crushed her fingers in his grip. Her eyes met Danika’s and they offered each other silent support. Danika hugged Mason’s shirt tight.

Minutes passed and anxiety grew in Evan’s gut as William’s grip slacked on her fingers. His glassy gaze connected with hers.

“I’m right here,” she said. “I’m not going anywhere.”

William gurgled a reply and his eyes fluttered open and closed.

“He’s slipping away.” Evan tried to keep panic out of her voice.

Danika took a step forward and placed her hand on Maelstrom’s shoulder. He shrugged her off and growled. Her eyes flashed and she stepped close, whispering in his ear. He threw William down on the bed and pulled Danika onto his lap, kissing her hard. She returned his kiss but her hands pushed against his chest.

Evan crawled over William, his body was deathly cold, and his eyes barely held the spark of life.

“Danika,” she said. “Danika! Do something!”

Maelstrom continued to kiss Danika.

Evan turned back to William. “Stay with me. Don’t go. Stay.” He didn’t move.

Forbidden tears slid from her eyes. She bent close to his ear and whispered to him. “Stay and I’ll marry you. I’ll stay with you all my life and take care of you if I have to. I’ll bring you every human I can find to feed you, just don’t go. Don’t leave me. Please.”

“Evan?” Danika’s voice pulled Evan from her thoughts.

She looked up and Maelstrom had already begun to chant.

“He’s gone,” said Evan. “He’s already gone.”

“Not quite yet,” Maelstrom replied.

He lifted William from the bed and bit into his own wrist. Maelstrom pressed it to William’s mouth and continued chanting in a language Evan had never heard before. A minute passed and then a second. Suddenly William’s eyes fluttered and he coughed. He grabbed Maelstrom’s wrist tight and latched on. His eyes connected with Maelstrom’s as he continued to drink.

His arms and legs shook but his teeth and his eyes stayed fixed on the huge demon. His skin took on a humanlike tone and Evan backed away. Her heartbeat pounded and her mind tried to understand what was happening. He was alive, that much she could see, but how he would be when it was all over remained a mystery. Maelstrom finished chanting. William lurched off the bed, sucked in a huge breath, and then cried out.

“You need to hold him down,” said Maelstrom.

Danika shoved Mason’s shirt onto a chair as Maelstrom’s wings folded into his back and he shrunk.

“Kill me!” William cried. He ripped at his chest with his nails shredding his T-shirt and scoring the skin beneath. Blood oozed from the cuts welling on his skin like a strand of red pearls.

Evan grabbed one arm and Danika grabbed the other. Tommy hopped from his seat and took hold of William’s feet. Together the three of them tried to keep him down.

William started by swearing at them, cursing them, all manner of vulgarity that Evan had never heard him say. When he turned his eyes on her, she almost let him go. Terror and pain etched on every crevasse of his handsome face as he begged her to kill him.

“Your gun is in your backpack. Please, Evan. End this.”

She hated herself for being so weak. For needing him so damn much, but she couldn’t let him go. No matter what it meant.

“No,” she whispered.

She watched on in horror as William’s skin turned black and then back to a dark tan color. His muscles bunched and refined further. His abs tightened and all fat melted away revealing taut, stacked muscles that cut down to his sweats in a shapely V. The sound of ripping fiber filled her ears and he screamed as his legs lengthened and his sweats pulled tight around his expanding thighs. Evan’s body responded to his bulkier, sexier physique. He’d been handsome before, but now he looked more like a Norse god. His fangs extended and reached long down to his chin. He fell silent suddenly and his entire body went slack.

Motionless, his breathing slowed and then evened out. Minutes passed and they all exchanged frantic glances. Was it over? Had it worked? No one dared move for fear of what might come next.

“It’s almost finished.” Mason threw his shirt over his torso. “You can let go of him now. That was the worst of it.”

“What do we do now?” asked Evan.

“We wait.”

* * * *

Every single one of them refused to leave the room as the minutes stretched into hours and the night continued on. Neither Danika nor Mason left the room to welcome guests that night. Instead they left it to Roth to handle.

Evan spent the hours brushing William’s hair or tending to the cuts on his torso. She propped him up on pillows and stroked his cheek, but no amount of coaxing got him to wake up.

Fear made a spider web in her mind, taking over every thought and leaving her on the edge of panic.

“Should it be taking this long?” Danika asked.

“It takes longer to corrupt a good soul than an evil soul,” Mason replied. “It’s a good sign.”

“But he will make it, right?” Evan stroked his cheek.

Mason didn’t answer.

Near two AM William sucked in a shuddered breath.

“William?” Evan’s voice came out barely above a hoarse whisper.

His eyes flew open and he looked over at her, drinking her in. Bright red eyes replaced his icy blue ones. They bore into her, sending chills up her spine.