Hellhound (27 page)

“You think my words are foolish and naïve now. Laugh
all you want. You’ll see by sunrise.”

The projections in the crescent sprung, embedding
themselves into his flesh, and injected him with my essence as the metal locked
around his wrists. He closed his eyes and licked his lips.

“I almost forgot how good your essence felt.”

I ignored him. “You do realize that once I take your
memories, you’ll seize and die.”

“I hope that I’m the exception to the rules, that you
doing this to me won’t kill me.”

“What makes you think that you’re that special?”

“Because somewhere in your soul you still love me.
Somewhere in your essence, you’ll find me innocent.”

I shook my head. “I wish that I could believe you but
there are witnesses, and the evidence doesn’t lie. You have your words, but
when up against actual proof, they don’t stand a chance. Plus, your actions of
fleeing instead of standing your ground to fight for your own innocence are
against you. If you couldn’t stand up for yourself, how could I?”

He towered above me, taking another step. He peered
directly into my eyes. “Then this is the only way, my love. Read my memories,
kill me if you must, but I will not run from you forever, nor will I put you
through this forever. If you kill me in the process of finding the truth, so be
it.”

He lifted a hand to graze my cheek and went on, “Just
promise me that you will find the truth, the real killer, and make him pay for what
he has put you through, and for what he has done to us.”

For a brief minute, I was compelled to close my eyes
and lose myself in the moment of his tender, cool touch, but I refrained,
regaining my senses. I pulled away. I denied this slight bit of yearning had to
do with any feelings for him, and were more about the powers of an undertaker,
which he now expressed, the power of persuasion.

“Don’t touch me,” I barked.

He smiled, and in a quick instance, pressed his lips
to mine, startling me. I’d never seen anyone who could disobey my voice while
constricted by the crescent.

“How? The crescent should force you under my control.”

Maybe it was overused or needed a recharge, to be
refilled with my essence, like some supernatural battery?

He grinned. “Don’t you remember that I traveled to the
depths of the earth to retrieve this metal for you? I helped forge it, and when
the blacksmith molded it into the weapon, my blood, sweat, tears, and essence
fell into it. The crescent’s power is disabled if used on me. You cannot
control me with it, but I am a man of my word, and I will return with you to
the Council to end this.”

Fantastic. My only weapon against him didn’t work.

I kept my eyes on him as I called a taxi. We met the
car downstairs. I gave him directions to the gravel lot. Once I paid the man, Demetrius
and I crawled out of the cab.

He walked steadily in front of me with his usual
swagger. He didn’t look like a man who was about to die a horrific death by the
woman he supposedly loved. He walked like a liberated man. What was he up to?

Chapter Twenty-One

I kept the crescent on his wrists purely for show. It
clearly couldn’t serve me in this capacity. The crescent securely around Demetrius’s
wrists would detract from a series of unwanted questions and kept the sentinels
at bay. They approached and perched on high limbs, gathering around us like guards
of the passageway that led to a palace.

Of course, at least one sentinel was bound to show up
and ask questions. He shifted first into human from whatever animal form he
guarded the domicile in, and then rustled to get his pants on before emerging
to my right. I paused while he approached.

“Selene.” Angel smiled, refraining from showing too
much delight in seeing me. Then he acknowledged the man in our company in a
grave tone, “Renounced one.” It was amazing how low his voice could drop,
indicating just how much he disliked rogues.

Demetrius stood still and expressionless.

“I need to talk to you in a minute,” I told Angel in a
bare whisper, keeping our conversation out of the highly tuned ears of the
sentinels around us.

He took a step closer, almost touching me. He mimicked
my quiet tone. “Why not now? Nothing that we say in front of him will make a
difference, since he’ll die soon anyway.”

I met his eyes and then glanced to my right. Angel
dismissed the onlookers. They rustled and then sudden silence penetrated our
corner of the woods.

Taking hold of Angel’s jaw, I turned his face away
from me to check his left cheek and throat. There weren’t any perceptible
marks. I released him.

“Shifters heal fast.”

“Yeah,” he confirmed.

“How fast would a shifter heal if he had deep wounds?”

“Wounds would close within a matter of hours, and
scars would disappear within days.” He grinned. “Why? Did you get into a brawl
with a shifter?”

“Someone attacked me earlier tonight.”

His smile faded. His features were graveled. “Why
would anyone attack you? Who did this?”

“I don’t know.”

“Let me sniff around and find out. Where were you?”

“West, past the catacombs.”

“What were you doing way out there?”

I jerked my head toward Demetrius. “Fetching this
one.”

Angel scrutinized him. If I were a friendlier woman,
Angel just might have kissed my forehead to bait Demetrius, but I wasn’t that
friendly.

“Selene, you’re intended is dead and your former mate
is as good as dead as of tonight. When you are prepared to take a man, I will
be that man,” Angel declared. “My first act for you is vengeance on this
attacker.”

Demetrius fumed.

Angel nodded to me and disappeared into the brush
where he shifted and took off.

“Let’s go,” I muttered, looking around and keeping an
ear out for another unrelenting attack.

When we approached, my essence wafted out of my pores
and mixed around the invisible domicile. The dark area swayed and shimmered
until the building appeared. When we walked in, every sentry in the vicinity
crowded us. The door sentries slammed the doors shut as soon as we stepped into
the foyer.

The emergence of the greatest fugitive in our time
sent the clan into an automatic and immediate pandemonium. I’d never received
such hostile reception when bringing in a criminal before. Then again, this was
an extenuating circumstance.

“I’m fine,” I said in a loud enough voice for every
sentry to hear. I started walking, my hand on Demetrius’s elbow. He remained
expressionless, keeping his gaze forward.

“Our orders are to escort you down to the throne
room,” a sentry said.

“Fine. Only three will fit with us in the elevator.”

A few went down ahead of us to gather sub sentries, who
took over the role of guarding us once we emerged at the sub level. Word spread
like wildfire, and the entire compound was in frenzy. The minions were sure to
contact the Elders, and the Council was sure to pour into the throne room
within minutes.

No matter who tried to take Demetrius from me, I kept
a firm stand next to him. Normally, when I brought in a fugitive, I escorted
him or her through the doors of whatever domicile I returned them to. A group
of sentries and select Elders took that person away never to be seen again,
unless I performed a retrieval or ascension. I took payment, and then I took my
leave. Things were clean cut, end of story.

With my former lover, I stubbornly kept him at my
side. No one was going to separate us until his last breath suffered past his
lips. Few attempted, under orders I presumed, but I wasn’t having any of it. At
one point, I linked my arm around Demetrius’s elbow. He remained cool the
entire time, except once or twice when a sentry tried to separate us or bully
me. I had to stop that fight right away because Demetrius tried to protect me.
He had to pretend that he was under my control.

Finally, we were away from the clusters in crowded hallways.
The sentries seldom guarded below ground. Once we were transferred to the sub
sentries, the sentries returned upstairs to guard all the exits. The only exits
that weren’t formally guarded were the tunnels. I wondered where they led to,
if they opened somewhere above ground, or if they remained in loops in the
earth like graves. If there were exits, who could slip by and escape? Like after
murdering someone in the throne room?

I tucked that thought away for a minute. The grand
doors opened, and we filed into the throne room. Demetrius and I stood in the
middle of the floor while Elders took their seats on the row of thrones on the
upper level around us. Minions were present. About four sub sentries guarded
the doors and provided beefed up back-up while two sub sentries outside closed
the doors. The sound echoed. Everyone fell into silence for a pregnant moment.

Serph started. I figured it was because Claudius was
too emotionally compromised to take his lead as the lead Elder for this case.
From his throne, the older man appeared calm, certainly calmer than Claudius or
my mother. This must have torn her apart.

“Well done, Selene. We knew you would return the
culprit.”

I glanced at Demetrius from the corner of my eye. He
stood a good distance from me, but not so far that I couldn’t attack if the
need be.

“Let’s get on with it,” I rattled, ready for this
episode of my life to end.

“Do you have anything to say?” Serph asked Demetrius.

“I didn’t do it.”

The Council hummed.

“We have an eye witness, her memories of you stabbing
Nathanial, and your dagger at the crime scene as the murder weapon. Do you have
proof that you
didn’t
kill Elder Augustus and Nathanial?”

“No, just my word and my memories.”

“Do you have an alibi?”

“No. I was alone in Selene’s apartment before coming
down here early for the ceremony. What ceremony was I summoned to be here for,
anyway?”

“That’s irrelevant,” Claudius muttered.

Demetrius gave him a heated look.

“Do you resist us today?” Serph asked. “We have
already found you guilty.”

“I want to pass through the cerebral chamber to prove
my innocence.”

“It’s broken. The muses are…unavailable for the time.”

“Convenient.”

“Do you resist us?”

“I fully yield to my clan. I’m not guilty, but there
is only one way to prove it.” He looked at me. “The memory retrieval must be
done.”

I nodded. “I agree.”

“There’s no reason,” Serph chimed. “We have seen
memories that prove that you killed them. We do not need to see your memories
now. In either case, you will die tonight.”

“I prefer to perform the retrieval,” I said
assertively.

The Elders glared at me. Claudius spoke, “Do you want
this because you still hold onto him?”

“No,” I growled at the absurd accusation. “This is not
the end for me. I’m not sure how you will deal with this, but I need his
memories as closure. I want to see and know why he did this, and why I didn’t
know about his intentions sooner.”

The Council hummed again, this time with a few heads
bobbing in agreement.

I went on, “Furthermore, what harm would it do? I will
not show the memories if you don’t want to see them. They’ll be my burden
alone.”

“May I request something?” Demetrius asked in a
subdued, polite tone. “I would like Selene to take my memories
and
my
essence.”

“So that she can be eternally tortured by this?”
another Elder barked.

“So that she can have her answers without a doubt,” he
corrected him.

Claudius interjected with a change of heart, “There is
no harm in this. Allow her this for closure. I know as well as anyone that
closure is needed.”

The Elders muttered amongst themselves in a light
dispute of whether I should be allowed to do this or not. I scanned the room.
My eyes slid from each person, until I settled on Danther, who fidgeted with
something in his pocket. He had a cell phone, and stole a glance to view the
screen. What could be so imperative that he risked getting caught? Cell phones
were prohibited in the throne room. In fact, all modern-day human technology
was to be left at the door.

The Council took longer than I anticipated. I didn’t
understand why this was an issue, why my platform needed debate. This was never
a question before. In fact, performing the memory retrieval was always required
of me, despite my rare reticence.

What would I do if they denied me this? I would rebel
and force it on Demetrius. I was drenched in fury. This was my right as both
the Hellhound and the daughter of the deceased. I decided to put my foot down
just when the Council calmed itself.

Serph stated, “Selene is given permission. There is no
harm in doing so, and if Claudius doesn’t want to see the memories, he can leave
the room.”