A Mermaid's Ransom

  Mina arched a brow. "I wasn't asking your permission."

  One way or another, they all wanted to imprison or hurt him. Even if he died, he'd still be trapped, a soul unable to free itself, unable to become anything else. The fragile leash on rationality broke, knocking down her filters. Dismemberment, death, isolation. She couldn't bear it. She wouldn't. "Then I will finish it here. I won't be the reason he's forced to suffer."

  Her emotions, all the feelings around her, whirled inside her mind and heart, but at the center of that hurricane was an eye of deadly calm. Beyond thought, lost in feeling alone, Alexis picked up the dagger some obliging angel had left next to one of the whetting stones, focusing every corner of her mind, heart and soul on what she was going to do.

  Alexis. No.

  She froze. It was faint, so faint. But it was him.

  Then it was gone as her father knocked the weapon from her hands, and yanked her attention from anything else as he lifted her up against the turret, slamming her against stone hard enough her head bumped. His thunderous visage was inches away from hers, and she'd never seen anything so frightening, not even in the Dark One world.

  "Don't you ever consider doing something like that to your mother," he grated out. "Not ever."

  In his gaze she glimpsed a pit of darkness as vast as Dante's. The darkness her mother's love kept in check. But her own darkness rose, an abyss she hadn't even known dwelled within her. As she gripped his shoulders and met him fury for fury, it welled out of her in a terrible voice, raw and enraged. "He is mine. I won't give him up. I won't let you sacrifice him for me. I won't let him be tortured or imprisoned. He is mine."

  It went far beyond romantic possession. He was a part of her, something vital she had to protect and safeguard to keep her own soul intact. A part she might conversely destroy her own soul to keep safe.

  Recognition flickered in Jonah's gaze, as if he'd just caught a startled glimpse of himself in a mirror.

  "Jonah." Anna was at his side, her gentle hand on his silver wrist guard, her face stark with pain. "Stop this." Looking around at the assembled, she met Mina's eyes briefly. "You will go and tell this Seneth our position. Jonah will do everything possible to gain Dante's release. But if he is unsuccessful, Mina must be able to cast her spell."

  Reaching over Jonah's arm, Anna drew her daughter's reluctant eyes to her. "Dante would not wish you to die with him. You've already told me he risked himself to keep you safe. Control your feelings, Alexis. You must continue to think, no matter how much you fear for him. We love you. We're your family. We will get through this together, whatever happens. All right? Can you believe in us that much? We are not your enemy in this."

  Alexis swallowed, closed her eyes, feeling her father's grip ease. For once, though, their love didn't bring her the comfort she wished it would, and she couldn't bring herself to fully trust her mother's words. Because she always knew their feelings.

  "All right," she whispered, though the mistrust in her heart was as painful as knowing her life would likely end, one way or another, in the next few hours.

  Twenty-nine

  SENETH had mandated that only three angels, the witch and the affected innocent could come. Mina went very few places without David, though it was always unclear whose stipulation that was. Jonah, of course, would come to speak on their behalf, and Marcellus was chosen to accompany him as the third angel.

  As Mina prepared the circle for the dizzying transport to the Fen world, Alexis stood apart, trying to do as her mother had said and which she knew was wisdom--steady her mind for what lay ahead. But when Anna came to her, took her hands, she found it hard to meet her mother's eyes and not draw away from her touch. Anna tightened her grip on her forearms, however. "I need you to listen to me, Alexis. I know it's difficult for you right now. Can you listen to me? Don't just say yes. Let me see you focus."

  Dutifully, Alexis struggled, bringing her mind out of her worries and fears to center on her mother's blue eyes. "I'm here, Myel."

  Anna gave her a searching look. "All right. No matter what terrible thing happens over there, above everything else, I need you to remember one thing. Trust your father."

  The angel who, more than any other, wanted Dante dead. But Anna's nails dug into Lex's flesh. Her blue eyes were sharp, the core of steel showing itself.

  "Do you understand me, Lex? Trust your father."

  All she could manage was a nod of acknowledgment, no more. Mina had begun to speak the words to open the rift and she gave Anna an impatient glance, warning her that her time to step back was drawing close. With one last look, Anna turned from her daughter to Jonah. Lex didn't hear what her mother said, but she saw Jonah's glance flicker toward her, then back to his mate. His gaze softened, though the hard set of his mouth didn't ease. He nodded, and her fingertips brushed his lips before Anna stepped out of the circle casting.

  "This is going to be bumpy," the seawitch said. "It will work, but there was no time to make it pretty. Clasp hands."

  Jonah closed his fingers over Alexis's, meeting her look briefly. Mina took her other hand, then David and Marcellus finished the circle. Lex had one more quick glimpse of her mother's face before Heaven disappeared, and she was in a whirlwind.

  Mina was right. It was like being caught in a tornado with flying debris. But the unexpected made it even worse. Hellfire. Even as she was spinning out of it, she heard startled cries, because of her forced transition.

  Just like the Dark One world, this world only accepted her merangel form, so she landed on a grassy knoll off balance, her clothes ripped and torn by the emergence of her tail, her wings flapping madly, a cross between a wounded bird and flopping fish.

  She swore in a way that would have made Clara proud, but got herself aloft, hovering off the ground so her tail didn't drag. The only garment the transition had left her was the bra whose straps she wore crisscrossed all the time for just that reason. It was a little provocative for mixed company, particularly company that included people whose modesty requirements she didn't know, but it was better than nothing.

  Forcing herself to get oriented, she took in her surroundings. The knoll overlooked a valley, dotted with trees and large, shaggy animals that were a cross between cows and buffalo. The sky was blue, vi brantly clear. In the distance, she saw small structures that might be huts, or tepees such as nomadic peoples used, but other than that, it was all nature. Grass, flowers, trees, sky and wind, bringing the smell of water, perhaps a nearby river or wide stream. It was like looking at preindustrial Earth.

  The three angels had automatically moved into a circular flanking position facing outward as they came through, their feet barely touching as they used their wings as well, spreading them out to make it more difficult to make the two women a target. But after gauging their surroundings, the three settled back to the ground, folding their wings to allow her to see the delegation awaiting them.

  She recognized the winged creature in the front, the one who'd told her she was unwise to help Dante. Since his stance was practically a mirror of Jonah's, she surmised he must be Seneth. His cheekbones were so sharp he looked almost foxlike. His dark, upwardly tilted eyes didn't have whites as well, another indication he and his kind were cousins to the angels.

  Two more of his fellows flanked his right and left sides, but a whole group of them waited twenty feet or so behind these three. Then she realized they weren't there to overwhelm their own delegation. They were guarding Dante.

  She bit back her cry only because Mina's hand closed on her wrist, nails digging in like Anna's, only Mina's nails were more like talons in their sharpness. "Be still and say nothing yet," Mina murmured.

  They had him bound to a pair of timbers that had been lashed in an X form so his arms and legs could be stretched out upon them. What held him looked like irradiated barbed wire, cinched in tight and spiraling across his limbs, all the way from the joining corner of his thumb and forefinger, down his forearm and to his shoulder. His legs were the sam
e, from foot to thigh. He'd been stripped, so she saw how the wire's razor points dug into his flesh. Fresh rivulets ran over the tracks that had dried on his limbs, chest and abdomen, giving him a macabre appearance. The X was propped up in a vertical position by scaffolding.

  Because he'd been hooded with a thick hide covering, she couldn't see his eyes, though a hole had been cut for his mouth. A hard fruit had been thrust into it, his fangs embedded in the orb. Strings of beads, locks of hair, bracelets and scraps of brightly dyed cloth and ribbon had been hooked on the barbs over his suffering flesh. More were threaded through the silver collar.

  Dante, we're here. I'm here.

  His head tilted, and she saw a frisson of tension run through his muscles. As he moved, every weapon of the dozen guards was drawn. They faced the X as if they expected Dante to snap his bonds and split into an army.

  Her reaction didn't help ease their watchfulness. As she opened the door to his mind, intending to use that connection to steady herself, she found a chamber engulfed in flames. The blast knocked her mind over, scattering her thoughts. Mina's hands closed over her arms, steadying her, but there was no escape from the raging, murderous fury Lex experienced. It was a bestial hatred, mindless destruction like the Christian version of end of days, Armageddon, the coming of the Beast.

  She knew there was no devil, at least not that kind. However, the soul could accept evil and become what others feared, the stuff of nightmares. She fought to lock down her filters against it, even suspecting that his third mark made her far more vulnerable to his emotions than anyone else's.

  "Let him go," she gasped. "Release him, please. You're making it worse."

  Instead, Seneth turned his sharp gaze to Jonah. "He can torment the innocent with his mind?"

  "He's not . . . tormenting me." She snarled through the maelstrom, though she could hardly blame them since it looked exactly like what they thought. Even the angels, knowing, looked unsettled. "I'm . . . an empath. I can feel what . . . he's feeling."

  She'd inherited the ability of angels to understand and speak in any language, but did Dante know what they were saying? Or had lack of comprehension only added to his mindless rage? As she struggled for control, a movement to the right took her attention from the terrible display. Unlike humans, who lived in doubt of angel existence, the Fen apparently knew their protectors. A small group of them watched impassively from a grove of trees. All males, they carried spears, and had their hair adorned with more beads and long leaves twisted into ornamentation. They looked like wood spirits. Long blue and red streaks marked their faces and bare chests. From their ordered phalanx, it was obviously a tribal council of some kind.

  Closing her eyes, she used force of will alone to slam down her filters. Getting torn open from the inside wasn't going to help Dante. With tremendous effort, she managed the magic and gradually the filters shut out the worst of it. Not wanting to do so, but testing herself, she looked toward him again. This time she noticed the beads embellishing Dante's torment were more delicately carved. Her gaze roved over the items, compared them to what was on the Fen males, and the terrible significance came to her. What hung on Dante belonged to females. Or had belonged to them. He'd said female blood was best for his magic. The Fen had turned him into a shrine to their murdered wives, sisters, daughters and mothers. Oh, Goddess. How many? And did she want to know?

  Getting a nod from Mina, indicating Alexis was back in control, Jonah stepped forward. "Thank you for hearing our petition. We are angels," he said formally. "We protect the Earth, and other parts of our Lady's universe."

  "We are the Bentigo. We protect the Fen." Seneth pulled his attention from Lex, nodded. "We know you as beings of worth and truth. Your presence is welcome here." His gaze shifted to Mina. "The witch's power is not as clear, but as she is your ally, we accept her presence."

  On a normal day, Alexis knew Mina would have a retort to that, but underscoring the seriousness of the situation, she remained still and silent. Seneth looked at Alexis again, more closely.

  "The innocent is your daughter."

  "She is." Jonah inclined his head, acknowledging the Bentigo's intuition.

  "She is lucky to be alive after exposure to this creature. He has taken sixty-two females of the Fen tribe over the past ten years."

  Holy Goddess. Alexis fought to keep her face impassive, but her hands closed into tight balls at her side. A muscle flexed in Jonah's jaw, but he said nothing as Seneth continued.

  "After we caught one of his foul minions, we determined it was this creature"--Seneth jerked his head toward Dante--"sending his slaves here to take the females. We could not find the rift in order to guard it, for it seemed to move each time it was opened. We also do not know what he was doing with them. But when their life essences disappeared, we knew they were dead to us."

  "Did you ask him what became of them?"

  Seneth looked over his shoulder briefly, his lip curling back in distaste. "We cast a Translation Spell that forces him to hear the accusations of the Fen and ourselves in language he understands. But he has not been conscious until now. When we brought him to this world, he escaped our netting. He killed several of us, and there would have been more if we'd not caught him from behind, flown him off a cliff. The drop knocked him insensible, and the deep waters below held him. He could not float, so we kept him there, below the water, bound until now. But he is a magical, dangerous creature, and we do not know his weaknesses. He is bound physically and by what magic we know. So we have not yet asked him anything."

  So the collar was inert. Despite her chagrin at their losses, Alexis realized that fact with some sense of relief. Mina had said she'd only set up the protection for humans and one merangel, so the Fen and Bentigo were not included in its scope. And perhaps it only worked on Earth. The magic must have been complex for it to have such a narrow scope. Or, as Mina had implied, her intent was not to make him defenseless, but to give innocents protection.

  Seneth returned his attention to Jonah. "The population on the Fen world is small. The attacks were concentrated on this particular tribe. Its female population has been depleted significantly."

  The Dark Ones had likely focused on this area because the rift he'd created was here, and they would not want to linger long. Forcing herself to think it through, Lex realized the Bentigo must have the same challenge the angels did. Because of their abundance of Light energy, they couldn't enter the Dark One world in pure angel form. An angel like her father would be consumed within minutes, like a person in a vat of acid. She had survived only because of the protections Dante had put upon her. Using the blood of these females.

  Her heart sank further, but she refused to accept defeat. Managing Dante's internal inferno, she opened up another thread toward the Fen, and found a different form of burning hell in the chief who headed up the council. He'd lost two daughters and their mother to Dante. The rage and grief boiling inside of him made her falter, drop closer to the ground. She realized David had moved in to support her on her opposite side, since her flagging energy was making her more difficult for Mina to hold up.

  It wasn't just her energy weighing her down, though. She was going to lose here.

  "My daughter saw what happened to one of the Fen." Jonah turned, then met her gaze. "Alexis."

  Oh, Goddess. Don't do this, Pyel. But his gaze was relentless, demanding she speak. He loved her, yes. But he would never hide truth, or let her do it, either.

  The Fen's fury and despair, Dante's barely leashed madness and the Bentigo's piercing regard and heavy weight of expectations nearly overwhelmed her anew. Goddess, this was why her gift could be difficult. To outward appearances she often looked like a drooling, weak idiot, because the battle she fought was in her head. She couldn't afford to be drowned like a tree standing before a cracked dam.

  It is your gift. Your weapon. Yours to wield, given to you by those who understand you were the proper one to have it. It is yours.

  Startled, she glanced into
the unusual bicolored eyes of the witch. She'd not realized the witch could speak directly to her mind. Mina made an impatient face. If you love him, prove to us why he is worth saving. Or have you changed your mind? Do you think it might be best to let him go, seeing all of these arrayed against him, including those you love? He killed sixty-two females. Do they not deserve justice?

  Lex looked at David and Marcellus, as well as Jonah, then came back to Mina. The witch cocked her head. They are who they are for a reason. They know the difference between good and evil, and they are not often wrong, because the understanding of it is part of their blood. But it is also part of yours.

  She knew Mina was right. Her angel blood had supported and strengthened her gift, eventually helped her learn which souls were beyond her gift, condemned to the consequences of their actions, nothing else capable of changing their dark course. Her gaze turned unwillingly to Dante.

  He wasn't speaking. While he knew she was there, he'd immolated himself in his rage. Feeling its breadth and scope, she now feared she'd only seen it on a small scale.

  She'd never had to stretch her gift as she had with Dante, reach past his actions and thought to find what was redeemable in his soul. But justice and redemption were closely linked, she knew. Her father's closest friend was the Lord of Hell, after all.

  Dante had walked his dark path in isolation for decades, and he'd gone farther down it than anyone she'd ever encountered. Her father and the others wanted her to believe the spark she sensed in him was the effect of her own light wrapping around the weak flicker of his. But in the Dark One world, surrounded by hopeless desolation, violence and fear, he'd protected her in the end.

  Not just because she was his key to escape. Not just because he considered her a possession, and in his world every possession required violence to keep, though in his mind he would likely think of it that way. He didn't yet have the internal lens to see anything different about himself. That was why he had her. She had seen and felt something different from him, in the very first dream they'd shared.

  No, the angels were not often wrong. Looking at Mina, she remembered many of the angels had once felt she should be destroyed for her Dark One blood. Later, Mina herself had said they weren't entirely wrong, for the Dark One blood had been very strong in her, and all that held her from a decision to embrace it was her own will. A choice, made against all other forces in the world, and there'd been a point where it could easily have gone the other way. If it hadn't been for David's belief in her.