Night's Darkest Embrace

  “I told you,” he murmured, squeezing me back but far more gently.

  I pushed him away after a moment, blinking to clear my gaze so I could see those five pinpoints of light in his eyes again. To me, they were more beautiful than a basket full of diamonds.

  “I’m going to make you so happy,” I promised in a voice gone scratchy from emotion.

  His laugh became huskier while his hands began to travel down my back.

  “I intend to make you happy as well, but slower this time.”

  • • •

  I lay stretched across Rafael’s chest, his wings gone except for those ridges decorating his spine, when his voice broke the peaceful silence.

  “Tranquilizer shot. Very clever.”

  Inwardly I cringed, but in reality, my muscles didn’t even twitch. My body felt like it was in a permanent state of euphoric lethargy after the past couple hours.

  “Sorry. With everything I’d heard and how I knew you were lying to me about certain things, I thought you might be a Pureblood. Fallen never even crossed my mind.”

  He dropped a kiss onto my shoulder. “It doesn’t with most people. That’s how I’ve managed to hide what I am for this long.”

  I rolled over to look at him. “I told my family horrible things about you. Among other important actions, I need to clear that up with them right away. I don’t want them shooting their future son-in-law on sight.”

  A hint of a grin tugged at his mouth. “No, that wouldn’t do.” Then his expression sobered. “I’ve already surmised that you went back to Nocturna intending to tell everyone what you thought you’d discovered about me. What happened? Did Ashton catch you unawares in the forest?”

  “No, Jack set me up,” I said, cursing to myself at the memory. “I trusted him, so I told him about you, thinking if I had his support, other Partials would be more likely to believe me. But he knocked me out, and I woke up with him snickering as Ashton dragged me into a river where another barrier was.”

  Rafael’s mouth curled downward. “Jack,” he repeated bitterly. “He hid what he was well over the past century. Out of my men, I suspected him the least.”

  “Which others of your men did you suspect?” If Billy was also a Pureblood, I’d never trust my judgment in people again.

  He listed a few people that, thankfully, I wasn’t friends with. Then again, that didn’t mean they were guilty and Billy was innocent. Or that any of them were guilty, for that matter. Wouldn’t it be a relief if all of them were innocent?

  “What if Jack is the only Pureblood hiding in Nocturna?” I offered.

  Rafael gave me a dark look. “There are at least two more. Every time the barriers are breached, I can feel it as a Fallen. That is why I knew to come to this realm looking for you. I felt one person enter Nocturna, and then soon after, two people cross over to this side. I correctly feared one of them was a Pureblood and the other was you.”

  I shook off the suffocating, squeezing memory of being pulled through the dimensions. “So while you can’t tell if someone’s a Partial or Pureblood when the first barrier into Nocturna is breached, if the second one’s parted, you know you’ve got at least one Pureblood wandering around.”

  “Exactly.”

  And I’d thought that as ruler of Nocturna, Rafael had his hands full just keeping a bunch of partial demons in line. Little had I realized that was the least of his concerns.

  “We need to get Jack to tell us who the other Purebloods are, fast. Before they escape through the second barrier, which you know will be the first place they’ll run once you take Jack into custody.”

  “If they do, I’ll follow them,” he replied with deadly emphasis.

  “And blow your cover?” I reminded him. “If someone catches you crossing those barriers, your masquerade as a Partial is over. Plus, even if you do follow them, you might not catch them. I haven’t seen all of it, but this realm looks huge. I’m beyond lucky you found me in time, but with a little head start, those Purebloods might get away permanently.”

  There was also the other, uncomfortable possibility, that because of me, Jack had turned the opinions of Nocturna’s residents against Rafael. I’d told Jack where the other barriers were, and I’d told my family that Rafael was in league with Purebloods. At least several hours had passed since I left my sister in the Bed Bath & Beyond parking lot. Who knew how many other Partials she might have repeated my former, erroneous beliefs about Rafael to? Combined with Jack’s support, that meant Rafael could be slaughtered on sight.

  “You can’t go back until we know who the others are,” I said, steeling myself for the fight I knew would come with my next words. “Because of what I told people, it’s too risky for you. I’m the one who has to catch Jack and get him to talk.”

  Rafael sat up, crossing his arms over the sculpted beauty of his chest. “That is too dangerous—”

  “I got the drop on Jack before,” I interrupted, my tone hardening. “This time, I won’t give him a chance to take advantage of my trust. Besides, I’m the last person Jack will expect to come after him. He might be on the lookout for you, but Jack thinks I’m nice and dead with my essence keeping Ashton’s tummy warm.”

  Rafael still had a look of utter objection on his face. I sighed, reaching out to smooth my hand across his clenched jaw.

  “I owe Jack for what he did to me, and for what he helped Ashton do to Gloria. You’ll have your own battles in the future that I won’t be able to fight for you, even though I’ll want to, but this one? It’s mine, and if you respect me as your mate, you’ll let me fight it.”

  Rafael didn’t say anything for a long moment. I waited, my stomach churning. His response would either strengthen our relationship, setting a foundation that we could grow on despite our differences in age, race, and abilities, or fracture our new bond under the weight of stubbornness and chauvinism disguised as chivalry.

  “Once you’ve secured Jack,” Rafael said slowly, to the accompanying burst of joy in my heart, “you’ll need help to get him to talk.”

  I hugged him, feeling his fierce answering embrace and promising silently that I’d be the best damn mate in the history of demonkind. Then I let him go before the hard, sensuous feel of his body led to less planning and more time spent on the cushions.

  “I know Jack’s got to rat out his kinsmen quick, before anyone gets word of what’s going on. I like the idea of sticking him with some hot pokers to get him to talk, but even that might take too much time.”

  “I’ll show him what I am,” Rafael said in a quiet, frightening voice. “That should get him to talking.”

  It no doubt would, but that presented its own set of problems. If Rafael flashed those incredible wings at Jack, then we’d have to kill him right away so Jack didn’t report what Rafael was to anyone else. No, it was better if Jack was left alive so his guilt could be shown to all the Partials in Nocturna, clearing Rafael’s name against anything Jack—or I—had said against him.

  A wild idea formed in my mind. I stood up, ignoring the flare of heat that rippled through me when Rafael’s gaze lingered over my body.

  “There are gateways back to Nocturna in this mountain, aren’t there?”

  Rafael inclined his head toward the large crystal desk in the corner. “Inside that is the gateway that opens in my castle.”

  He could travel between realms straight from one bedroom into another? Talk about convenient, and that worked out even better for what I had in mind.

  I gave Rafael a wicked smile. “I know we’re not going to have a conventional relationship, but I’m going to ask my new mother-in-law for a wedding present anyway.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  I ran through the woods, close enough to the main lighted path of lanterns that I wasn’t worried about colliding with a tree, but far enough away that I shouldn’t have been easily visible to the mounted patrol
s. Of course, at least one guard didn’t need lanterns to see, but I wasn’t worried about Jack. He wasn’t patrolling the woods. He was up ahead by the barrier, ready to be the first to greet—and size up—any new entrants into Nocturna.

  Still, I slowed down when I was within a hundred yards of the clearing that skirted the barrier and picked my way more cautiously through the trees. No need to screw things up by being impatient. Then, once I was close to the cross section that marked the beginning of the lighted path before the clearing, I hunkered down on all fours, digging quietly.

  When I was satisfied with the shallow ditch I’d created, I crawled into it, covering myself back up with dirt and some nearby fallen leaves. Only my hands and my face were left exposed, and I’d already camouflaged my skin to blend more with the forest floor. My dark brown hair didn’t need any additional help to blend in, so with my new nest and the darkness, I should have been nearly invisible.

  Long minutes ticked by. I was glad no watches worked in this realm, or I would have been checking the time incessantly. Instead, I sought to stem my edginess by thinking back over everything that had led me to this moment. Gloria’s excited smile flashed in my mind from that afternoon so long ago at the movie theater. Mara, this is Drew and Ashton. They’re Partials, too, and guess what—they know how to get into Nocturna!

  So many things had happened as a consequence of our stupid decision to go with two strangers into a realm we’d been warned about, but now that memory didn’t bring only pain. A part of me would never get over losing my cousin, but another memory flashed in my mind, showing the good that had come out of such tragedy.

  Large hands smoothed the hair back from my face, their gentleness a welcome balm after the brutal force Drew had used when he’d bound me and thrown me over his horse. I tried to squelch my sobs, vaguely embarrassed that I’d been smearing tears and a runny nose all over the chest of my unknown savior. But he’d taken me in his arms without hesitation when I’d collapsed after the shock of watching Gloria being yanked through that barrier, and he whispered that he wouldn’t let anyone hurt me . . . and I believed him. Without even seeing his face, some part of me knew that he meant every word, and with that knowledge came a sense of peace that I shouldn’t have felt under these horrible circumstances.

  Then he let me go, standing and awing me with his height as I stared up at him. A scraping sound preceded the sudden flare of a match, making me gasp as I got my first real look at him. He was staggeringly beautiful, with hair the same reddish gold of the flame, a strong jaw, wide mouth, and eyes the most incredible shade of blue. It took me a second before I could even register that he’d spoken.

  “Do not fear. My name is Rafael, and I am ruler here. . . .”

  No wonder I’d thought he looked like an angel that night. I’d been close to right; Rafael was the son of an angel, albeit a fallen one. I’d dreamed of him for the next several years, stricken whenever I’d heard my aunt and uncle report that his name had been linked with Purebloods. The night after I turned twenty—the end of the embargo Rafael had sternly outlined when he’d taken me back to the barrier—I’d returned to Nocturna, expecting my adolescent longings to vanish under the reality of seeing him again.

  Instead, they’d grown stronger, until even the suspicions I’d had hadn’t totally been able to harden my heart against him. Now that I knew what he’d been hiding—why he was so often close by when Purebloods were captured, and that both our bloodlines marked us for each other—I was filled with joy and determination.

  Only a few things stood in the way of Rafael and me starting our lives together, and I was going to tear those things down.

  Hoofbeats thudded in the distance, growing closer. After a few tense moments, I smiled. Someone was headed right this way. I cocked my gun and waited, straining my eyes for the first hint of the rider.

  That hint came in the shock of white running through the crown of the rider’s hair. I smiled wider as I sighted down the barrel, taking my time, careful to compensate with my aim for the rolling gait of his horse so I wouldn’t accidentally shoot the young girl Jack had in front of him. All the training and target practice I’d done over the years boiled down to the next few seconds. No way would I miss. No way.

  And then I pulled the trigger. Not once, but three times, sending out a trio of staccato coughs that didn’t even startle the horse. Jack slumped in his saddle, moaning. The girl grabbed him and the reins at the same time, steering the horse toward my position with a quietly authoritative “Yah!”

  Atta girl, Lena. You are SO much more mature than I was at your age!

  I rose up from my shallow ditch, waving so she could see me and ripping off pieces of duct tape from one of the two rolls I’d stuck into my pants. In the seconds it took for my sister to make it over, Jack tried to go for his gun, but she yanked it from his belt and threw it near my feet. Then I had the duct tape slapped over Jack’s mouth before he could even gasp in shock at seeing me.

  “Best patrolman in the realm, aren’t you, Jack?” I purred nastily at him. “I knew you’d be the first to make a young teen feel welcome here. You were so kind to me and Gloria that night when we were kids, and you were the first to welcome me so many other times when I came back. . . .”

  Jack’s eyes bugged even as he made furious muffled sounds behind the gag. I ignored him, yanking him from his horse and handing off another roll of duct tape to Lena, who began to wind it around his wrists.

  “I think you punctured a lung,” she said, giving one of the bleeding holes in Jack’s torso a critical look. Her coolness surprised me. I’d been worried about including her in my trap to take Jack down, concerned that Lena wouldn’t be able to handle being so close to Jack when I shot him, but she insisted on being involved. She did make the perfect bait for Jack, and contrary to my prior apprehension, she seemed to be downright blasé about his wounds now.

  At my gape, Lena shrugged. “What? I’ve studied anatomy already. Besides, dissecting a dead pig last year was much grosser than this, let me tell you!”

  “Little sis, sometimes you scare me,” I muttered, securing Jack’s feet. Then, once he was bound just like he’d bound me, I hefted him sideways over the horse, enjoying the pained “Oomph!” he made against his gag. Three bullets wouldn’t kill a Pureblood, but they would hurt like hell, and Jack had so had that coming. That, and a whole lot more.

  “Okay, we’re going to double back very quietly to the barrier and then you go straight back through to our realm like we agreed,” I said, glad her part in this was over.

  Lena shook her head. “There are too many other riders around the barrier. We passed two on our way here, and I heard more aside from them. You’ll have to take me with you.”

  I chewed my lip. The plan had been for her to lure Jack into picking her up so he could bring her this way, where I’d shoot him. That had succeeded, but then Lena was supposed to go right back through the barrier afterward so she’d be safe—and wouldn’t see what else I had in store for Jack. But if any of those other guards caught her with me and a trussed-up, shot patrolman, who knew what might happen? They might shoot first and ask Lena’s age later. I also couldn’t send my little sister off alone to walk back to the barrier. Not when there were still Purebloods roaming around.

  “You know you don’t have a choice,” Lena pointed out logically. “So quit wasting time gnawing on your lip and let’s get going.”

  My father and stepmother were going to kick my ass for this, but . . .

  “All right,” I whispered. “Get up there and make sure he doesn’t fall off. I’ll walk so I can keep my hands free.”

  After all, I drew the line at having Lena shoot someone, if it could be avoided. Yes, she’d had a gun concealed in her jacket just in case Jack tried anything before I had him in my sights, but even though Lena knew how to shoot, I hoped she wouldn’t need to.

  Lena kept one hand on Jack an
d the other on the reins as she directed the horse to follow me. I didn’t need to stay close to the light from the nearby path as I made my way toward Jack’s cabin. I’d taken this route dozens of times before, lulled into a false sense of security by the guard who had seemed so friendly and compassionate. Lies, lies, lies. If not for Rafael forbidding me to return while I was a teen—an order that, coupled with what had happened to Gloria, had held more weight than all the urgings my father had previously given me—I might have ended up as Jack’s lunch one day.

  I glanced back at my sister, perched on Jack’s horse, her eyes wide as she took in Nocturna for the first time. Who knew if Jack had even intended to take her into town like she’d asked him to? For all I knew, he’d been heading to his cabin with Lena, intending to get in a little snack before he went back out patrolling.

  Well, that snack turned out to bite back, didn’t it?

  I led us around the back of the cabin, tying Jack’s horse out of sight by his shed instead of in its usual stall, where someone might see it. Then, with Lena’s help, I dragged Jack inside his cabin, not being particularly gentle about it. Once inside, I lit only one candle, then sat him up in his favorite rocking chair, winding more duct tape around him until he looked like a bug caught in a spider’s web.

  “Lena, hand me that crossbow on the wall,” I directed, smiling at Jack as I looked around. “All these nice weapons you have. I always liked how you decorated the walls with them. Now they come in awfully handy, don’t they?”

  Jack’s blue eyes burned with hatred at me. I accepted the crossbow from Lena and jerked my head toward the back of the cabin.

  “Go in the bedroom.”

  “But I don’t want to!” Lena burst out.

  I rolled my eyes. It was debatable whether it was the rebellious teenager or the one-eighth demon behind her protesting, but it didn’t matter.