Vengeance: The Niteclif Evolutions, Book 3 (21 page)

Muscles and tendons stood out in sharp relief on his neck and shoulders when he dropped his head back and roared to the heavens.

“Something tells me no one will hear your pleas.” I forced my hands to hang loose at my sides.

Chest heaving, Agares smiled. “Your heaven is nothing to me, woman. You,
you
are the ultimate prize in this particular game.” He licked his lips lasciviously and gestured again with his hips.

Cold stole over my skin at his words and my hand stole to my abdomen.

“You think to protect yourself from what’s to come, but you won’t.” He chuckled and I wished for a pair of pants, a sarong, even a potato sack for the man-creature. “You’ll belong to Asmodeus before this is all over.” His singsong voice taunted me.
 

A new terror I couldn’t understand rode me. I shuddered, head to toe.
Asmodeus.
Recalling my last conversation with Tyr, I knew that name. Dealing with the fear and knowledge would have to come later, though. Hellion needed me in the now.

The gun raised seemingly under its own power. “My heart belongs to Hellion.
I
belong to no one. And him?” I nodded to the warlock who stood rigid in the firelight. “He’ll never belong to you, you sick shit.”

With a roar, Agares lunged to his left, catching one of Hellion’s men unawares. He stumbled back instinctually, scrambling to get away from the Dominae who was morphing into Hell’s poster child as I looked on in horror. The man’s foot scraped the line of the circle and his candle winked out at the same time Hellion bellowed, “No!” A sonic boom concussed the air and the circle broke free.

Hellion made a slashing motion with his hand and slammed the fissured doorway closed, but not before two more Dominae peeled themselves free of Hell’s confines. They entered the melee with vengeful glee, ripping into soft human bodies as they tore toward me. Their hands sported thrice-jointed fingers tipped with obsidian nails filed to sharp points. Every movement was lethally graceful as they moved like dervishes through the first layer of shocked coven members.

Vampires rushed into the fight, providing the field-leveling manpower we so desperately needed. Darius launched himself at Agares as the Dominae and one of his brethren rounded on Micah. The vampire hooked Agares around the neck, squeezed and grunted as a rail of punches landed on his kidneys and the softest part of his belly. The blows seemed ineffective. Darius rallied with a series of sharp jabs to Agares’s face and neck, the Dominae gagging with the sharp blow to his larynx.

Micah fought with the other Dominae until Hellion, sword raised, charged into the fray.
 

“Down, Micah!” Hellion swung with all his formidable strength, beheading the unnamed demon where he stood. The creature fell to his knees, his head tumbling off his shoulders and his body beginning to decompose immediately. Putrid fluids oozed from every opening, the smell gag-inducing, as the body aged, turned to sludge, then seeped into the earth. Just like in the London alleyway, all that remained was a black smudge in the grass to prove the Dominae had fallen there.

Hellion turned back to the brawl. Rage made his features sharper, his cheekbones casting shadows up his face. His black eyes were bottomless pits. Something dark and alive burned within those depths, something that wasn’t quite human as it peeked out.

People scattered like hens in a henhouse when the fox drops by as the other Dominae continued to fight, always trying to make his way toward Micah who stood only a few feet in front of me. A vampire screamed in pain, causing Darius to glance his way. It was all the opening Agares needed.

He started away from Darius, but Hellion stepped into his path, putting himself between the advancing demon and Micah. My magus-cum-warlock and his nightmare sized each other up, circling round and round. I took a step to the right and raised the gun to eye level. In a two-fisted grip, I followed the action across the grass, waiting for my opening. Someone plowed into me from behind. I clutched the gun, almost squeezing off a round on accident as I went down. A heavy weight rode me to the ground. Just as I was about to curse the asshole who’d taken me to the dirt, a fist connected with my ribs and I grunted in pain.
 

I half rolled and took a glancing blow across a hip, tucked the gun in and fired blindly. The resounding boom rendered me partially deaf and the body on top of me permanently faceless. Blowback covered me in gore, and I fought to get out from under the body before I lost it. I didn’t make it. My stomach emptied into the grass as I continued to fight my way out from under the heavy Dominae who had begun to decompose.

“Help me!” I screeched.
 

Efien kicked the body off my lower legs and pulled me back, setting me on my feet. He pulled his shirt off and offered it to me in lieu of a towel. Grateful, I accepted the offering with a mental note to send him a Harrod’s gift card.

Darius slid to a halt in front of me at the same time Hellion threw his head back and yelled his rage at the night sky. It was then that I noticed Agares was gone.

Stars began to wink back into existence quickly, and I realized I’d never credited them with the amount of light they actually provided.
I won’t make that mistake again
, I thought, grateful for the extra illumination.

“All is well,
cara
?” Darius ran his hands over me, checking to be sure the blood wasn’t mine.

“Never better,” I said through the cloth of the shirt as I scrubbed at the bits of brain and bone on my face and neck.
Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it.
Don’t think about it.

Now that I was up, I could see the casualties were significant considering it had been three against an easy three-dozen people. The Dominae’s first run through the crowd had been effective, creating the chaos and confusion that had given them the upper hand. Hellion and Stearns were moving across the grounds, separating the wounded from the dead. I dropped my chin to my chest.

“Darius, how many…” I couldn’t bring myself to ask what I needed to know.

“Even one would have been one too many.” He laid his hands on my shoulders and their weight surprised me.
 

“Are you hurt?” I asked, incredulous.

The vampire smiled gently. “I am agelessly immortal, but not infallible, love.”

Scrubbing at my neck, I tilted my chin offered him my vein.
 

Instead, he picked up my wrist and looked at me, eyes pinched. “You are sure?”

“Positive. But don’t you need my neck—you cheeky sneak!”
 

He only shrugged. “I took what you offered. Now I’ve no time for sipping if I’m to be of any help to him at all.” My confusion must have shown because he paused, looking me in the eyes. “Someone must take the bodies home to London, love, and I’m the coven’s only pilot.”

I swallowed past the emotion lodged in my throat and nodded. I hadn’t thought beyond the immediate loss to the fact that there were families waiting for these people at home. Who would tell them—

“He will, Maddy.” Dark purple stained Darius’s irises. “He’ll see every family that knew what their loved one was, and arrange accidents for all the others. Some willed that they just be buried at sea so that no one could use their bodies against justice.”

My breath clogged in my throat, emotion changing over to near hysterical laughter that lodged mercilessly below the surface. “I’ve lived through the living dead once. They died when their creator died.”

“So what then must happen to the living dead when they’re created by an immortal none is sure can be destroyed?”

I pulled my hand from his grasp and grabbed his arms. “Cremate me. Promise me that if anything happens to me, you’ll—”

“Do no such thing, because nothing will happen.” Hellion’s voice stripped the last of my control.
 

Turning, I met his gaze. “Promise me,” I wheezed.
 

He stared at me, unblinking, unwavering.
 

“I give you my word,” Efien said, sliding away from Hellion. I hadn’t even seen him approach.

I nodded once, hard. “Thank you.”

Hellion rounded on the vampire. “You’ll do no such thing.”
 

“He’s not yours to command,” Darius said softly, “but he does answer to me. Efien, why strike such an oath?”

“She owes and is owed as much because of what she is.” Efien’s voice was a satin-covered blade that promised no compromise.

“Meaning?” Hellion glanced between the three of us. “Speak quickly. My temper’s about played out.”

“I’m the Niteclif. That’s all he means.” My eyes challenged the others to argue. “Anything else would be ridiculous, folly even.”

Efien nodded once and moved away.

“Hellion, Darius needs blood and I was just about to offer him mine. What can I do to help you when he’s d—one.” The last hissed out between my teeth, the sharp sting of fang in flesh not tempered by magic or good will. Darius must have been hurt worse than I thought. The erotic pulling sensation made me clamp my legs together, my nostrils flaring with each draw he made.

He finally released my wrist and I was disturbed to see the red oval indicative of a hickey. Hellion too seemed first surprised then irritated, grabbing my wrist and murmuring a few words. The burn of skin knitting together surprised a short gasp out of me, then he pressed his hot hand over the small wound, glaring at Darius as the vampire wiped his lips.

Darius only shrugged then turned and, moving easier already, started giving orders for getting people back to the plane.
 

“He’s efficient,” I murmured.
 

“He’s lucky he’s leaving,” Hellion answered darkly. “I begin to have the feeling I need to watch him where you’re concerned.”

I closed my eyes, unsure how much to share. Deciding discretion was still the better part of any relationship, I said, “It’s just one more thing to talk about, but later.” I slid an arm around his waist and was surprised to feel him lean on me.

“Agreed.”

Had I wondered how tired he was, that would have sealed it for me. “Let’s get back to the house.”

Hellion shook his head bleakly but stood on his own two feet once again. “I failed this coven tonight, cost people their lives.”

He moved away from me without looking back.

Emotional warfare was harder to fight than even the bloodiest battle, and it looked like I was leaving one battlefield for another as I headed back to the house.
 

I could only hope the odds of victory were better inside than they had been out.

Chapter Eleven

The stone tiles mirrored the state of my body and mind—hot under the running water, cold everywhere else. Hellion had gone straight to the study and shut the door, beginning to make phone calls to families who had lost loved ones tonight. Initial appearances had been worse because of all the wounded. At least thirteen people had been on the ground, wounded, and two of those were critical. It hadn’t been as bad as it appeared, with only seven coven members losing their lives.

“Only,” I whispered, the water beating down on my shoulders and the back of my head, racing around my face to drip off my nose. Slipping to the floor, I ignored the pain in my side. I wondered if I would appear selfish for asking Hellion to waste energy on healing insignificant damage. The pain was enough that it stopped me from effectively wrapping my arms around my knees, but I still bent forward and laid my head across my folded forearms. Tired. I was so tired.

I woke some time later to the same twinge in my side. It was the first time something significant had happened in my life and Tyr hadn’t been there to discuss it with me. Subconsciously I must have gone to the floor and zoned out in an attempt to reach him. I’d have to see if Hellion could help me contact him later. Though how I’d ask for any type of summoning after tonight was beyond rational thought. Shutting the water off, I toweled dry and padded into the bedroom.
 

Hellion had come in at some point. He lay on his side, facing away from the bathroom, his own wounds nothing more than pink lines across otherwise unmarked skin. Grime and blood dirtied the comforter and pillows he’d tossed about haphazardly as he burrowed into his grief.

I dropped my hair towel on the floor and made my way across the room to the bed, crawling up on the monstrosity. Shucking my bath sheet, I curled myself around Hellion only to have my jaws cracked together when he exploded off the bed.
 

“How can ye touch me, Madeleine?” He yanked his hair off his face as he spun to face me. Bottomless rage and grief warred for dominance in eyes gone tight at the corners. “Ye’d have me believe what? That ye forgive me my stupidity? Or maybe that ye don’t hold my weakness as a warlock against me?” He kicked a pillow and sent it sailing across the room. “Because I failed tonight, Madeleine. Miserable as it is to admit, I was bested at me own game.” Falling to his knees, he sat back on his heels and bellowed his rage for the third time in as many hours.
 

I sat where I was, unsure what to say or do. There were no words I could offer that would absolve him of this guilt and sense of failure. Nothing I could say… I slid off the edge of the bed and he watched me come, his eyes pulsing with a deep darkness.