Authors: Suzanne Rock
Then the mist continued to swirl and rise, going through the
entire rainbow of colors as it reached for the sky. Suddenly, a bolt of
lightning came out of nowhere. A thunderous echo reverberated throughout the
common as the mist caught fire and spread down the column to the base of the
tree. A loud crack fractured one of the roots and the column of mist poured
back into the tree.
“Let’s get out of here,” Soren said.
“Just one more minute.”
“Donar, this is crazy. We’ll be caught.”
“One more minute.” Donar shook his head, his gaze fixed on
Urian. “Something just happened, something important. I want to know what it is
so we can report it to Darien when we find him.”
“Assuming Darien is still alive,” Soren muttered.
Donar ignored his friend and focused on the scene before
him. Urian held out his hand. The fire jumped from the tree to his palm and
Urian ground his teeth against the pain.
“Fuck,” Soren said. “What’s happening to him?”
“I’m not sure. It looks painful.”
“That’s putting it mildly.”
Finally, the smoke and fire disappeared.
The spirit’s loud voice echoed through the common. “You have
been branded in my name and will hence forth be known as the keeper of the
stone, ruler over all my children. Now, bow down to your new master.”
Urian grunted and fell to his knees.
“What did that thing do to Urian?” Soren asked.
“I don’t know, but I think I’ve seen enough.” Donar nodded
to the swirling circle of color half-hidden in an alley not far from where they
hid. “There’s the portal.”
“Fuck, that’s a good two miles from where we entered this
world. How does it keep moving like that?”
“According to my research, I learned that the portal comes
from a tear in the fabric between hell and earth. The fabric is not stationary,
and the tear can move within a certain radius from a power source.”
“By why does it move? And what is keeping it open?”
“For the love of the goddess…Soren, I don’t know. Look, we
can stand here and discuss the physics of portal movement or we can get the
hell out of here. Can you run?”
“If my life depended on it, yeah.”
Donar snorted. “Let’s go.”
Soren scrambled to his feet and they both sprinted across
the last portion of the common, across the street and toward the portal.
“Did you hear that?” Urian’s voice echoed from behind.
“Ah hell, we’ve been discovered.” Donar pushed his brother
in the center of his back. “Run faster!”
* * * * *
“Did you hear that?” Urian asked.
“Hear what?” Nergal seemed much more relaxed since that
spirit went back into its prison within the tree. The
deahman
slave
seemed almost carefree and optimistic.
“Maybe it was my imagination.” Urian glanced at his hand,
examining the tattoo the spirit had placed there. Three sixes intertwined
around a stone. It was a sign. He was the
deahman
leader now.
There was that sound again, a rustling of leaves. Were they
spotted? No, their former leader had placed a spell over the area. Urian closed
his eyes and felt the ripple of magic around him. The spell was still there,
but there was something else too. Urian felt two new shifts in the magic around
him. Two energies he hadn’t felt in a long, long time.
Urian opened his eyes and glanced at Nergal. The
deahman
nodded and drew his sword. He had heard it too.
Urian pulled out his blade and crept over to the bushes
nearby. He came within about twenty paces when two figures burst from behind a
bush and took off into the night.
The twins.
“Get them!” Urian started to run.
Nergal swore and followed. “We can’t let them get away. They
know too much.”
Urian cursed as he weaved around the trees of the common.
They had to silence the twins before they located Darien and told him what they
had seen. The last thing he needed was his former boss up his ass. He didn’t
want to deal with Darien until he was good and ready.
How the hell did the twins get here? No
deahman
can
pass through the portal without using the power buried in one of the shards
from the shattered stone. That meant…
Shit, they had one of the shards.
“Donar! Soren!” Urian roared. “Stop, it’s me.”
They rounded another corner and the portal into hell came
into view. If Soren and Donar crossed that portal in the alley, then he was
screwed. There were thousands of places they could hide in the Netherworld,
thousands of rips in the fabric that they could cross back to Earth. He had to
stop them.
Urian’s strength was growing. He could feel the seductive
black magic from the spirit running through his veins. Perhaps he could use it
to persuade the twins to his way of thinking. Together they could kill their
former leader and everyone Darien held dear.
Do it.
The spirit’s voice echoed inside his head. The
voice was heady, persuasive. Urian’s own inner darkness purred with erotic
pleasure. Urian cried out and pointed his sword at the backs of the twins in
front of him. Ancient words fell from his lips.
“
Ní mar a shiltear a bhítear
.”
The portal shimmered, then the colorful mist within the
large oval stopped swirling and turned gray.
The portal was frozen, at least for the moment. No one would
be able to pass. Urian knew that the magic he cast was fleeting. Soon the mist
would begin to color and swirl, as if it was a drop of oil in water, and
passage could be taken once more. He had only precious moments to capture the
twins before the portal would reopen and they’d be lost to him.
“Stop!”
The twins wouldn’t listen.
“Use your magic,” Nergal shouted from beside him.
The twins stopped short of the portal and paused for a brief
moment in confusion. Another foreign phrase tumbled from Urian’s lips as he
pointed the sword at their backs.
Black mist shot out through the tip of the sword and sped
through the air. The twins turned, their eyes widening in fear as the mist
hurled toward them. They withdrew their swords in a feeble attempt to battle
the magic. It was no use.
Urian’s power slammed into their bodies, tossing them up
into the air as if they weighed no more than a feather. A loud blast echoed
through the air as the brick wall behind the portal exploded and bits of brick,
dirt and dust spread out in all directions. Urian and Nergal were forced to
cover their mouths and duck. Dust, dirt and smoke filled the air, obscuring
their vision.
“Shit.” Urian didn’t want to kill them, not when there was a
chance he could turn them against Darien. He and Nergal continued to run as the
air started to clear of debris.
From somewhere far off a siren sounded. All of the noise had
alerted the local authorities. They didn’t have much time before the police arrived.
Although Urian had no doubt he could take the entire Boston Police department,
it would take a lot of time and effort, and at the moment there were more
important things to do.
Like seeking out his revenge on Darien Lange.
Urian and Nergal finally reached the portal as the dust
cleared. The mist was still frozen, and the portal was still closed. Urian
looked around on the ground for the twins’ broken bodies.
“Where did they go?” Nergal asked. “No one could walk away
from a blast like that.”
Urian retraced his steps, going over and over the small
alley where the portal had been erected. What the hell happened to them?
Nergal stopped his searching and swore as he sheathed his
sword.
Urian looked up at his friend. “What?”
“It looks like our twins might have had some help.” He
pointed at the ground. “You better look at this.”
Urian crossed the alley and stood next to his friend. There
were two large disturbances on the ground, presumably from the bodies of the
twins. There were also two unique sets of footprints, once small and slender,
the other quite large, larger than the twins, larger than Urian himself.
“Let’s follow them.”
Urian pulled the shard out of his pocket and stared at it,
considering. Who would make those footprints? Why would they help the twins?
Was it a trap?
There was a creaking noise off to his right. Urian looked up
and saw the portal mist begin to swirl once more.
“No,” Urian said after a moment. “First we’ll find a
stronger
deahman
to come with us, one who will be able to help if this
is a trap.”
“Good thinking. I know just the
deahman
you need.”
Urian raised his brows. “You do?”
Nergal smiled. “Of course. Those two will never be able to
resist the killing machine I have in mind.” He placed his hand over Urian’s on
the shard. “Victory will be ours, brother.”
Urian knew what Nergal was offering. The slave wanted a
prominent place in Urian’s new regime. Urian had no interest in
deahman
politics. If trusting Nergal meant that he could get Darien’s head on a platter
sooner, then he’d do it.
“You have a deal, my friend.” Urian squeezed the
deahman
slave’s fingers.
“So be it.” Nergal nodded and let go of Urian. “Follow me.”
Together they crossed the portal back into hell.
Chapter Two
Tara wrapped her arms under the body and looped her hands
under the armpits. She crouched down low over the man’s head and pulled with
all of her strength. The effort robbed her of breath and made her legs shake.
After a few moments she let go and fell backward onto the hotel room floor in
exhaustion.
“That man weighs a ton.”
“Not a ton, only about two-hundred twenty pounds,” Samir
said from behind her.
Tara brushed her jet-black hair away from her face and
stared at the unconscious man before her. Even sleeping, the man appeared to be
worried about something. His sharp, angular features wrinkled around the eyes
and mouth and cuts and bruises marred his otherwise handsome face. She brushed
his long, blond hair away from his forehead, revealing a small, diamond-studded
earring. “Which twin do you think he is?”
Samir walked over and stared down at the man. “I’m not sure.
Then again, I’m not the one who has been studying them.”
This was true. Tara was the one with the mission to bring
the twins back to Darien and the
Iatros
. Samir was just along for the
ride. She focused on the man before her and tried to remember her notes.
This twin appeared long and lean, and Tara guessed that he
relied on his speed more than his brawn in a fight. She immediately felt a
kinship with him since she had to do the same. At only five-foot-four, she had
to be faster, because she sure as hell couldn’t beat a
deahman
in a
contest of strength. They were both trained fighters, both fighting for a cause
that seemed more and more helpless with each passing hour.
She leaned over his ear. “You were damn lucky Samir and I
were there watching you,” she whispered. “Donar. You’re Donar, aren’t you?”
Of course, he didn’t respond. That blast back in the alley
threw those two men off the brick walls as though they were ping-pong balls.
They were lucky that they were only unconscious. It didn’t matter, Tara knew
that she was right. Of the two, Donar was the brains, while Soren was the
brawn. No one would ever dare call Donar scrawny, however. He was chiseled in
his own right, just less bulk than his brother.
“Are you sure that these are the twins you were looking for?”
Samir scooped the man up in his arms with ease. Tara watched as her friend
strode over to the large king-sized bed and dumped him next to the other body.
“They
have
to be the twins. They have the earrings.”
“Lots of men wear earrings.” He pointed to the small gold
hoop in his own ear. “Aren’t they supposed to have scars or something?”
“Tattoos.” If her intelligence was correct, each man
received one earring and one tattoo as an initiation into some gang.
“Well, maybe we should look for the tats.”
“No, don’t bother. They’re the right ones.” Tara didn’t
really want to go looking for the tattoos, considering where they were located.
It would be like violating them in their sleep. Not that touching them was
unappealing. Quite the opposite. Who wouldn’t want to roll around with chiseled
bodies, blond hair and kissable lips? She just didn’t want to do it with Samir
watching her.
“How do you know they’re the right ones?” Samir asked as he
eyed the closest man. “I think we need to check.”
Tara rolled her eyes. His comment was so typically Samir.
The man was ready to hump anything that moved on a moment’s notice. Male or
female, it didn’t matter. All that mattered to him was the sense of adventure,
the pursuit of pleasure.
“No,” she said.
“You’re no fun.”
“No, I’m not.” Tara felt a little possessive toward the men,
and didn’t like the thought of Samir touching them so intimately. She had been
studying the twins for six months and felt she knew them inside and out. Tara
had memorized their pictures, running her finger over their outline and
imagining herself pressed up against all of that hard muscle, cocooned in all
of that warmth and strength…
“Tara? Are you okay?”
Tara shook herself from her thoughts. “Yes, I’m fine. These
have to be the men we’re looking for. There’s no other explanation why those
deahmans
are so interested in them.”
“I hope you’re right.” Samir stood at the foot of the bed
and studied the men, his large, round face turning hard with concentration. “I’d
hate for this to be a trap.”
Tara walked over and stood next to Samir. They both watched
the unconscious twins in silence, and Tara tried to think of what to do next.
The men before her were twins, yet different. The one she
had tried to carry was long and lean, the other broader. While one’s face was
thin, the other’s was wider and looked chiseled from stone. If the leaner one
was quick, the larger one was all strength. Together they would make a deadly
combination.
Heat sparked in her lower abdomen as she imagined herself
pressed in between those bodies, touching each dip and rise of muscle. What
would their touch feel like? What would they taste like?
“Tara, are you okay?”
Tara tore her gaze away from the men and frowned at Samir. “These
are
the twins. I’ve seen them before, remember?”
“That was along time ago. People change, especially people
who have been to hell and back.”
He was referring to the day Soren, Donar and the rest of the
FBI team went into hell. She and two other
Iatros
had tried to stop
them, but the team had gotten by their defenses and had gone through the
portal. This was the first time Tara had seen the twins since then. She doubted
that they’d even remember her, although not a day went by that she didn’t think
of them.
Tara pulled the pictures from the right pocket in her
leather jacket. She carried them with her everywhere, just in case.
“These are from their file. Here, take a look and tell me it’s
not them.” She pushed the pictures into his hands.
Samir rubbed his fingers over his stubbled chin as he looked
back and forth from the pictures to the men on the bed. “The evidence is
compelling.”
“More than compelling.” Tara shifted her gaze from her
friend to the men on the bed. “I better heal them. There wasn’t time to do
anything back at the portal.”
“Yeah, especially since I had to carry the three of you out
of there.” Samir handed her back the photo.
“How was I supposed to know that the
deahman
would
know to use the ancient spell?” She pocketed the portal and frowned at her
friend. “It wasn’t as if I was broadcasting that I was an
Iatros
.”
“No, you weren’t.”
Frustration burned deep within Tara’s chest. Every time one
of those damn monsters stopped the portal from swirling, Tara and the rest of
the
Iatros
in the vicinity lost their ability to move. It wasn’t until
the portal started swirling again that she was able to help Samir carry the men
away. It was one of the drawbacks to having her spirit tied to the portal.
Tara shrugged out of her jacket and dumped it and her sword
on the bed. “Let me do my work.”
Samir stepped back from the bed. “Don’t you think you should
call your contact first?”
“No. There isn’t time. I have to stabilize them first.” Tara
pulled off her tank top until she was in nothing but her bra.
“Purple?”
She looked down at her neon purple bra. “Are you
complaining?”
Samir chuckled and shook his head. “Not at all.”
She didn’t think so. Although she and Samir were only
friends, she knew that Samir would have sex with her if she asked him to. He
was that kind of guy.
They didn’t have that kind of friendship however. Tara
needed more than just a fuck. She needed the emotional pull from her partner, a
pull that could only be found between an
Iatros
and their true spirit-mate.
She frowned at her friend. “Stand back.”
Samir moved over by the door to the hotel room. Tara closed
her eyes and let her wings extend from her back. Bright light filled the room
and she watched Samir shield his eyes. She knew he was seeing their full color,
evidence of her power.
“I’ll never get used to those butterfly things.”
Tara rolled her eyes. “I am not a butterfly. I’m an
Iatros
.”
“Same thing. All of you magical creatures creep me out.”
Samir said the words with a smile, but Tara knew that he was only half-joking.
Samir hated magic of any kind. He didn’t trust it. Tara didn’t trust it either,
that was why they had become fast friends. Normally Tara liked to rely on steel
and speed to get the job done. Unfortunately, the twins could be dying and
there was little choice but to use her gifts to help them.
She couldn’t let the twins die, not after she had worked so
hard to find them.
“You should probably remove your other weapons before you
begin. You don’t want one of them waking up and stabbing you with your own
knife.” Samir moved over to the blue armchair and swung his legs up over the
side.
Tara glanced at him. “You’re probably right.” Damn him.
“You know it.” He winked and pointed at her.
Men.
Samir was cautious. Tara liked that about him. It was one of
the reasons why she kept him close. They’d formed an instant bond, and in the
beginning Tara thought that perhaps he might be the one she had been searching for,
her spirit-mate.
It didn’t take long for her to realize that her first
instincts were wrong. Bonding to him had been a total disaster. They were great
friends, but incompatible in so many other ways. There was no spark, no sexual
attraction. Both of them preferred to be alone, not answering to anyone else.
Tara stared at his gold hoop earrings and stubbled chin and
wondered if there was a woman alive that could tame that man’s wandering heart.
Even their friendship was subjected to his whims. Samir came and went when it
pleased him, living for the next adventure. Tara knew that as soon as she
brought the twins back to her queen, Samir would leave, only to show up when
she needed him once more.
It was the way they both liked it.
Tara removed her knives, throwing stars and other weapons,
then tossed them on the second king-sized bed. Samir raised his brow at the
large pile.
“Impressive.”
“I think you better leave. I need to concentrate.”
He yawned and then stood. “Good thinking. I’ll go down and
get us coffee. I can also scope the place out and make sure it’s clear of the
pale-faces.”
“Make mine a mochacchino,” she said.
“I’m not sure the vending machine does that fancy stuff you
like.”
She frowned and waved her hand in the air. “Cream and sugar,
then. Lots of it.”
Samir nodded. “I’ll call you on my cell if I see or hear
anything.”
“Okay.” Tara waited for him to close the door and then
turned her attention back to the men on the bed. While Samir didn’t spark any
desire, just looking at these men made her thong damp and her nipples tighten.
It was obvious that they were related. Each was taller than
the average man. Not as tall as Samir’s six-foot-five frame, but close. The
leaner one had medium-length golden hair, wavy and layered. He reminded her of
her favorite singer, Keith Urban. The broader man wore his shorter, in a James
Bond sort of look. She wondered if their hair would feel the same when it
sifted through her fingers.
No, she had a job to do. It would be just her luck if both
men died on her while she sat there ruminating on how their bodies would feel
pressed against hers.
Tara pushed aside her desire and sat on the bed. “I still
think you’re Donar,” she said to the thinner man with medium-length hair, the
one she had tried to move herself earlier. He looked to be slightly older than
the other and a little more worse for wear. Did he suffer more in hell? It was
difficult to tell.
She shifted her gaze to the other man on the bed. “And you
are Soren.” His features were more relaxed, more carefree. Tara leaned over
Donar and touched Soren’s cheek. She closed her eyes and flexed her wings, then
sent her magic into his body, searching for any wounds she might find. She met
an inky blackness, a darkness so deep, so thick, that it stole her breath.
It was the taint. When a human accidentally touched a
deahman
or an object with
deahman
power, there was a chance that the black magic
would enter them and alter their psyche. There, the blackness would feed on the
good, engulfing it and growing day by day until the poor human would become a
deahman
himself.
Anger welled up inside of Tara. She had seen many people
succumb to the taint inside of them. Friends, family, relatives. It was a slow
and painful process, one she wouldn’t wish on her worst enemy. She forced her
hand away and opened her eyes. She had to save them from a fate worse than
death, but how? She stood and walked around the bed.
“I’m not going to let you die,” she told the men. Tara sat
down next to Soren and framed his face with her hands. His taint seemed less
than his brother’s. Donar’s face was contorted in physical pain, while Soren’s
seemed more at peace.
Tara would start with him.
She moved to his side, closed her eyes and ran her fingers
over the rough stubble, imagining how it would feel like against her inner
thigh. Soren had strong emotions, she could feel it. If she could somehow reach
down and harness it, then perhaps she could save him from his pain.
Tara let out her magic and searched through the darkness of
Soren’s mind. Immediately she was surrounded by a thick, black fog.
The
taint.
It was bad, but she had seen worse from souls that were damaged
beyond repair. She pushed past it, wondering whether there was any Soren left
in the vast wasteland of his soul or if he was already lost to them.
She pushed deeper and deeper into his psyche. With each
passing second, heat spread through her body. It warmed her skin and caused
moisture to pool between her thighs. Desire rose up, making her muscles shake
with need. Then she saw it, a spark of humanity in amongst the darkness. She
held onto it, tried to amplify it. Almost there…