The Lost Soul Trilogy (Primani Book 5) (105 page)

Her blood pumped faster. He could hear it rushing through her veins.

“That’s it, bitch. Let your blood pump. The faster it goes, the quicker your brain will explode.” His voice was soft and lazy as he watched her face turn an interesting shade of red.

“Rot in hell!” she managed to snarl before a guttural moan escaped her lips.

Her fingernails clawed into his hand gouging ribbons of skin as she tried to move him. He didn’t feel the pain, didn’t care what she did.

She had to die.

There was no other way.

Blood bubbled from her ear and slowly dribbled down her jaw. Intrigued, he leaned forward and lapped at it with his tongue.

“So that’s what it tastes like? Sweet.”

She was crying and screaming as the arteries tightened and burst inside her skull.

Licking her again, he murmured, “Keep yelling, sweetheart. You’re just turning me on. I can’t believe I’ve missed out on this all this time. I’m going to enjoy letting myself go.”

His hand gripped her tighter and she went silent, eyes dilated with mindless fear now.

His feral grin disappeared and he studied her clinically. Blood was oozing from her nose and dripped over her chin.

Any second now…

He leaned closer and kissed her brutally just as she lost consciousness and went limp in his hands. Caught up in the moment, he kissed her again and then let her slide to the floor.

He gave her one last look of disgust and wiped the blood off his mouth with the corner of his shirt. Just as he turned to go, Killian materialized and stopped dead, his face draining to chalk as he took in Mica’s still body and wide staring eyes.

“What did you do?” he whispered hoarsely.

“She provoked me.”

With a roar of rage, he lunged at Sean and the two of them slammed into the wall. The wall cracked and Sean’s head bounced so hard his teeth cracked. Killian hit him hard in the gut and he gasped for oxygen while spots danced in his vision.

That hurt. Ow.

Sean jumped away from Killian and gave him the finger before vanishing.

The frigid night air slapped him in the face when he rematerialized on the shore. The air felt good as it cooled his flaming body. Breathing shallowly, he stood still and took inventory. His ribs hurt like hell and he couldn’t draw a full breath. Freakin’ Killian broke a rib or two. Shit. Man, he never could leash his power. Didn’t know the meaning of taking it down a notch. He’d hit Sean with the full force of his strength. His left hand was dripping blood and the scratches stung like a mother. He hissed in a breath when the cold air hit it, sending a new wave of throbbing through his fingers. Mica had scratched the hell out of him.

Her face floated in front of him; eyes wide and staring, lips glossy with blood.

Ah, Mica.
Damn
, girl.

This just wasn’t right.

Guilt threatened to swallow him up. He ran his tongue over his lip and tasted blood. Her blood. The image of licking her blood horrified him and he leaned over and hurled.

Jesus. That shit better be convincing. He spit into the grass and shook his head. I’m a bastard. I’m too good at being evil to be faking this. A chill ran through him and he recognized the touch of evil as it caressed him in the darkness.

That didn’t take long.

Resisting the urge to puke again, he wiped his mouth and rolled his shoulders. Okay then, time for the next act.

But first, he needed some alone time.

The Irish safe house was right where he’d left it, and still open to him. He swiped the alarm pad with his palm and went inside. It had only been months, but it felt deserted already. The air was stale and dusty. Hey, house, I’m back. The house lit up as soon as he walked in and warmth seeped from the floor. It was happy for company. A bit later, Sean took a shower. He stood with his head against the glass wall and closed his eyes. With steaming water pouring over his taut muscles, he forced himself to relax. The faces of his family floated through his mind and he let them hang for a minute before gently shoving them away. He had to forget them.

His survival depended on it.

There was no doubt that Jordan would test him. He’d want proof of Sean’s loyalty. Sean had no one other than his Primani family and Mica. And Aisling. His Primani brothers could take care of themselves. Mica was now dead, and therefore, not available for him to torture and kill. And Aisling…well, she was lost. He wasn’t worried about demons going after her since he had no way to find her. They wouldn’t be able to connect the dots.

He turned around and let the water run down his chest. His shoulders relaxed and he breathed a sigh of relief. Saying goodbye one last time, he neatly tucked the memories into the deepest corner of his brain and mentally locked them inside. He’d call Raphael and only Raphael if he needed something. Even Jordan wasn’t stupid enough to send a demon, or a hundred, after the archangel.

Sean sprawled naked across the bed and stared at the ceiling. He went over the plan again and again before finally turning his brain off and crashing hard.

The next morning, he sat up with a start and held his knife in front of him. What had woken him up? A sound? A touch? He blinked into the pale light of dawn and held his breath as the specter shimmered and disappeared. A sharp odor washed over him and he swore under his breath.

How had they found him here?

With his location known, he shrugged and got up. It didn’t change things. He’d just call Jordan sooner than he’d planned. That crazy, fallen angel could wait until he was ready though. Taking his time, Sean took a shower and got dressed in his commando gear. He didn’t bother to shave, knowing that the black growth made him look meaner and more dangerous. His hair had grown out to curl up over his collar. He hated it long; it made him look pretty. Like a girl. But he needed it to grow out and be shaggy. He would fit in better if he looked more uncivilized. The military hair cut was too conservative, too proper. It would have to go for a while. He brushed his teeth and shoved the brush into a pocket in his pants. Evil he may be, but that was no reason to compromise on dental health. He grinned at the mirror, pearly whites gleaming back at him.

After enjoying a last cup of coffee and a frozen waffle, he readied himself. Mentally he was set. Family pics were tucked away. His alibi was solid. He still had some of Mica’s blood on his shirt--just in case. He tucked his Sig and his knives into their sheaths and slung his backpack over one shoulder. He’d tossed in a change of clothes--no idea if they had washing machines in Hell. He hated wearing bloody clothes; it was just nasty. After resetting the protection spell over the house, he set the physical alarm and stepped outside.

Raphael? It’s go time.

Out loud, he yelled, “Yo, Jordan! I need a ride.”

THE MIST CLOSED AROUND ME just as I slipped into the dark copse of trees. My steps were soundless as I went deeper into the darkness. Hushed, waiting, the very air vibrated with the energy of the unseen. Eyes followed me without blinking, expressions watchful, calculating. Expectant silence surrounded me. Who were they? What did they want with me? I shivered and ran my fingers over the goose bumps on my arms. I walked until I could move no further. The forest simply ended in front of me.

This wasn’t right. This shouldn’t be.

The air around me was thick and heavy like a curtain. Curious now, I ran my fingers through it and marveled as it flowed like silk and fell into place with a soft whisper.

It was warm, inviting...the silkiness wrapped around me, caressing my skin, soothing me. I closed my eyes and relaxed in the warmth. The baby turned in my belly and stretched languidly. With eyes still closed, I rubbed my palm over his tiny head and smiled.

The silky air began to writhe and tighten around me. My arms were pressed to my sides, my legs unable to move. Around and around the air swirled like a web cocooning me. I tried to scream but my mouth was covered and then my eyes.

I was trapped.

The baby squirmed frantically within me as my heartbeat slowed to a stop.

“Mica! Wake up!” Dec’s voice rumbled in my ear as I struggled to wake up from the nightmare.

Startled awake now, I looked around and grimaced. Safe. I was safe here. The baby was fine. It was that damn dream again. I’d been having it off and on for weeks. I stood and stretched the kinks out of my back. Falling asleep on the couch was something I did a lot these days. Apparently sleepiness is a side effect of early pregnancy...as was nausea, dizziness, and headaches.

“You okay?” he asked, totally invading my personal space.

Pushing him back a few inches, I said, “Geez, dude. Back off. It’s just a worry dream.”

I was pretty sure that was true; it didn’t feel like any kind of premonition, and God knew I was REALLY good at worrying. Especially since Killian was gone and Raphael told us that Sean was officially underground. I hoped he didn’t mean that literally.

Dec draped his lean self across the back of the couch and idly stroked Domino behind her silky ears. She closed her eyes and sighed. I think she started to purr but caught herself.

Taking a long deep breath, he plunged in. “Soooo, I’m starving like a hostage. You want me to make you some soup too?” His expression begged me to just say yes.

I didn’t want soup. What I wanted was to snap his gorgeous blond head right off his neck.

Knowing he wouldn’t cooperate with that plan, I resisted the impulse.

It wasn’t his fault. Really it wasn’t.

Oh sure, two weeks cooped up with a hot muscular guy who looks like a poster child for Australian tourism sounds like a great fantasy come true. You know, you spend days lounging on each other, feeding each other peeled grapes and laughing over silly things. Nights are spent lost in the throes of erotic adventures...

NOT!

The fantasy comes to a screeching halt when said handsome dude is more like your brother, will never be your lover, and you’re puking your guts out like clockwork. Add the constant tiredness, endless worry, and total seclusion and you get...

One viciously cranky bi-otch.

Poor Dec. In another lifetime, I would’ve felt sorry for him. Right now, I just felt...caged.

Feeling stronger after my nap, I paced near the small window and parted the ugly beige drapes. Huge sigh. It was raining.
Of course
it was. This was the wettest freaking place on the entire planet. It made me wonder why there weren’t more vampires slinking around London. I’d have to ask about that. Another huge sigh. Thumping my forehead against the cold glass didn’t make me feel much better but I did it anyway. My stomach gurgled unhappily and I scowled at it in dire warning. Don’t even think about it! You puked already today. You have a one-yack-a-day limit. Period.

The smell of chicken broth drifted to my nose. Another gurgle from the nether regions...

“Hey, little momma, you need to try to eat.” His face was carefully blank, somber, as he came over to me. A lock of streaky blond hair fell over his forehead, making him irresistible. “Please, sweetheart.”

I gave him a disgruntled half-smile and his face lit with pleasure. It was the sun bursting through a cloud bank. Yep, he was just that happy.

I smiled a real smile for him then.

“There’s my girl! I put rice in the broth so maybe it’ll stick with you. Come on, sit down and eat with me.” He wrapped a warm paw around my wrist and tugged me with him.

Carefully blowing on my spoon before each bite, I managed to put away the bowl without any lip from my stomach. Apparently the baby approved of rice.

“I have an idea,” Dec announced.

Domino trotted over and leaned her chin on his thigh with a small whine.

“You can come too, little spotted princess.” He gave me a full-dimple grin and tapped his watch. “Get some warmer clothes on. We’re getting out of this dump.”

“Seriously?”

“As a heart attack. You need some fresh air before you lose your mind and I wake up dead again!”

Three hours later, he pulled the car to the side of the road and parked. I wanted to jump out of the car, but the sight in front of me stunned me into mouth-hanging-open immobility.

Wow.

“Omigod, Dec! It’s so cool!” I gushed in whispered awe as I got out of the car.

Avebury.

It
was
breathtaking. I’d never seen anything like it. Mother Nature seemed to want to add to the drama by putting on a grumpy display of force. The winter sky was swollen with thick grey clouds that cast the field into early twilight. Tiny sunbeams trickled out to backlight the standing stones like works of art in a museum. Pale snow dusted the grey rock and the ground around the circle. The sky was grey, the rocks were grey; the air shimmered with darkness and light. But for the miracle of sunlight, the stone circle would’ve been creepy. As it was, it was mystical, inviting somehow. My heart quickened as a faint vibration ran through the earth under my feet. It felt like a welcome.

Taking my hand, Dec crossed the outer ditch and moved into the circle. Domino bounded with doggy joy and we let her go. There was no one here but us. To the casual observer, Dec would be a well-bundled young man out walking his spotted furball. I was cloaked. In other words, I was invisible to anyone but Dec. He held my hand to keep the magic in place. As long as we were connected, I was cloaked. It wasn’t always convenient, but it worked.

That’s what happened when you faked your own death.

Dec talked as he loped across the frozen ground. He said, “This is one of my favorite henges. It was built around 2,600 B.C., but it’s still a magical place. Can you feel the energy?”

Absolutely. It was like a constant hum in my blood. The waves of an unseen force washed over us like a gentle tide of warm sea water. It was like nothing I’d felt before.

“My teeth are vibrating. Does everyone feel this?” For some reason, I didn’t think so.

He glanced down at me and smiled softly, boyishly. “Now, darlin’, surely you know the answer to that?”

Okay...that was a big fat NO.

Guess we were special...

We wandered down the stone avenue and I was quiet for once.

Dec mused, “Someone’s named this West Kennet Avenue. It’s odd to me. Why does man feel the need to own everything? Why name this? Surely the Stone Age humans who built this place didn’t call it that.”

There weren’t a lot of standing stones anymore. It had been bigger a long time ago. It felt massive, powerful even. I asked, “What happened to all the stones? There were more than this, weren’t there?”

“Oh, yeah. Originally there were around 98 sarsen stones. By the time the Iron Age rolled around, no one used this place and the locals had no memory of why it was built. By the Middle Ages, overzealous Christians decided it was built by the devil and the villagers tried to dismantle it.”

That wasn’t a shock. Humans liked to destroy what they didn’t understand. I looked around at the lonely stones and sighed in sympathy. Men had built this place with sweat and blood only to have other men rip it down. The ghosts should be pissed, but I didn’t feel anything malevolent here.

“Why didn’t they destroy all of it?”

Dec chuckled and squeezed my fingers. His eyes reflected the eerie sunlight back at me. “Hard to haul rocks when you’re busy dying from the plague.” He shrugged and added with a wink, “Funny how no one took that as a sign.”

Laughing up at him, I said, “Oooh, you’re bad, Dec.”

He shot me a ‘who me?’ look of perfect innocence. “I am never,
ever
bad, sweetheart. I’m the good one, remember?”

Uh-huh. Yeah. Sure.

A gust of chilly wind swept through the stones. I pulled my knit hat down over my ears and shuddered. The sky was seriously thinking about dumping something wet and cold on us. I nudged him and gestured at the deepening gloom.

Whistling shrilly, Dec waited for our frolicking demon dog to race back to us. Her head snapped up and she took off like a rocket. Screeching to a stop beside Dec, she panted with her tongue lolling. She was in doggy Heaven.

This place rocks!

“Here you go, Princess. Have some water.” I stooped and poured some water into her grinning jaws. She suddenly stiffened and snarled deep in her chest.

Dec froze and gripped my hand in warning. He scanned the circle with narrowed eyes. I reached out with my own vision.

“Oh, crap. Dec, something’s here.” A cold shiver crawled up my neck that had nothing to do with the wind. The gust of frigid air numbed my face and stole my breath.

Dec’s entire body tensed and heated for battle. The snow melted beneath his feet. Still gripping my fingers, he searched for the entity I sensed. Domino was growling loudly now and barely controlling the urge to lunge and destroy. Her body trembled with adrenaline, but she planted all four paws firmly in the dead grass and guarded me.

Dec’s eyes turned fiery and he breathed, “Shit. Time to bolt. Let’s go!”

With a challenging glare at the unseen presence across the circle, Dec dragged me to the parked car and practically shoved me inside. Domino sat on my lap snarling out the window.

After we were several miles away and Dec was sure we weren’t followed, he let out the breath he was holding and said, “Damn it! That was messed up. Any other time I would’ve slaughtered that amateur.” He smacked the top of the steering wheel in serious the-one-that-got-away frustration. Primani NEVER ran from a fight.

Seeing my questioning stare, he shook his head and grumbled, “Dude, it was alone! I could’ve taken it with one hand tied behind my back. This feels so
wrong
!”

“What did it want? Was it me?” I hoped I wasn’t still sending out ‘kill me, please’ vibes to all of demondom.

“Nah, not you, darlin’. Me. Demons can sense our presence if they’re close enough. That one probably stays around here and picked up on my energy. It’s no biggie. He couldn’t see you so you’re safe enough.” He smacked the wheel with less force this time. “I hate walking away! I feel like such a girl!”

He blushed and hurriedly added, “No offense.”

“None taken,” I smiled placidly.

He was really, really annoyed right now. His emotions were careening out of him like a tiny nuclear meltdown. Annoyance, frustration, anger, and just a bit of fear (probably for me!) swamped me as my empathic powers went to work. The thing was, I couldn’t stay cloaked if he let go of me. The demons couldn’t find out I was still alive or they’d use it against Sean. On top of that, we didn’t know if the Primani powers or the demons’ powers would hurt the baby...like radiation or something. So we’d agreed to avoid all fighting and use of magic unless absolutely necessary. It was killing poor Dec!

An unfamiliar motorcycle was parked in the garage when we got to the house. The big Harley was still dripping wet. Who the heck was crazy enough to drive a motorcycle in the snow?

“Dimitri,” my bodyguard breathed with surprise. His bad mood vanished like smoke. “Come on, little momma. You’re gonna love this guy!”

Domino bounded up the steps and pranced impatiently while I picked my way across the slushy sidewalk.

Impatient himself, Dec lifted me up and carried me to the cleared porch. As soon as we came inside, the tallest man I’d ever seen froze and stared with surprise etched into his very handsome face. Straight golden hair fell to his shoulders, with a thin intricate braid hanging against his right cheek. Primani blue eyes blazed out of a pale face with high slanted cheekbones and feathery brows. A full mouth that curled into a natural smile completed the picture. He was easily taller than Killian and made strong and lean like a jungle cat. His black leather pants and heavy biker boots left no doubt that he owned the Harley.

Before anyone said a word, Domino gave a yip of mad joy and leapt into his arms. The blond giant laughed as she licked his face from top to bottom.