Septimus rolled away from her but only to strip her, maddeningly taking his time. Stockings first, then her blouse, then skirt, then her bra. Before he completed the task, he rose and divested himself of his own clothes, his tall, honed, gorgeous body coming gradually into view. Once he was naked, he skimmed her panties from her hips and joined her again on the bed.
Kelly lifted her body to his as he closed her in his arms. “Go ahead then,” she begged. “Make me love you.”
Septimus growled a laugh. He pressed her apart and slid himself firmly inside her, filling her empty spaces. She closed her legs around his, and Septimus’s eyes softened as they began to move together. When he sank his fangs into her neck again, Kelly screamed, coming fast and hard. Still, he took his time, showing her for the next several hours just how patient he could be.
* * *
Adrian woke from his stupor after the sun was well down, and darkness filled the room. The demon wasn’t there, and neither was Tain.
Adrian concentrated his magic on healing his body from all the harms he’d suffered in the last twenty-four hours. His thoughts moved like languid moths, flitting from one idea to the next, images confusing themselves in his pain. The only clarity he could muster was the determination to keep Amber away from here. The demon and Tain were astute enough to know that her death would hurt Adrian as none of their physical tortures ever could.
Tain had to be under the demon’s full control. That was the only explanation for why he’d decided to drain the world of life magic. And yet, once or twice Adrian had caught full reason in Tain’s eyes. He spoke calmly of wishing to die, and seemed regretful that the only way to do so was to take the entire world with him.
Perhaps if Adrian reached that reason, maybes fan the remaining spark of Tain’s sanity, he could get Tain to Ravenscroft where he could truly heal. The demon would be locked out of that otherworldly place of life magic where the goddesses ruled. He’d get Tain to Ravenscroft then slaughter the demon before the demon could take retribution on Amber. Seemed like a good plan.
He heard Tain’s footsteps on the stairs, alone this time. Good.
Adrian blinked when Tain snapped on the overhead light, the glow of the bulb ordinary against the white-hot glare of Tain’s crackling life magic.
Tain studied Adrian for some time, while a lock of red hair fell over his forehead. He traced Adrian’s bare bicep. “You don’t have Ferrin with you. Where is he?”
“Someplace else. Obviously.”
Tain smiled, showing the tilt of lips that had made ladies sigh and follow him. “Ferrin is only a weapon,” Tain said. “Easily broken.”
A weapon bestowed on Adrian by Isis and infused with her magic. “You used to admire him,” he said.
“I used to admire you.”
Adrian drew a painful breath. “I never deserted you, Tain. I’ve been searching for you since the day you disappeared. I say we scrag this demon and go to Ravenscroft. We can stay there as long as you like, and then go wherever you want after that, do whatever. I don’t know what kind of hold this demon has over you, but I’ll help you break it. Isis will help, and Cerridwen . . .”
Tain put his face close to Adrian’s. “Shut up. You don’t know anything about healing. I can never heal.”
“You look fine to me. He’s twisted your mind, Tain—he’s a demon. An Old One, more powerful than any we’ve faced. But two Immortals together are better than one against an Old One any day.”
Tain leaned his forehead against Adrian’s, his eyes closing, his spice-scented breath touching Adrian’s face. “Please, shut up.”
“I won’t let him have you.”
Tain began to laugh. He stood up, his eyes lighting with mirth. “You’re too late. He—she—had me centuries ago when she led me away from the battle in Scotland. I didn’t notice you stopping her then. I called to you, I waited for you to burst in and rescue me, my big, arrogant brother, but you never did.”
“I tried. I searched for you. He hid you from me.”
“Well, you didn’t look hard enough, did you?” Tain’s laughter died. “The most powerful of the Immortals, and you let a demon trick you. I stopped wanting you to come for me a long time ago.”
“That’s because he’s screwed with your mind,” Adrian said.
“She screwed with many things. And it’s made me stronger. I’m so strong now, stronger than you ever have been. I was going to ask you to help me drain the world of life magic, but I’m powerful enough to do it on my own.” He smiled again. “How do you like that, big brother? I’ve surpassed you.”
Adrian said nothing, the pain in his heart having nothing to do with the demon sticking a sword through it. Tain was in there, somewhere, his mind as imprisoned by the demon as his body had been in the ice cave.
Adrian leaned his head against the wall, curling his fingers, which had become bloodless and numb. Adrian was a fighter, good at battle and good at assessing strengths and weaknesses of his opponent. On the other hand, he was bad with words and emotions. He had no idea how to persuade without using his mind-touch, and that didn’t work on his brothers.
He let out a sigh, pretending resignation. “All right. I’ll help you if you want.”
Tain stared at him a moment, then laughed. “Nice try, Adrian. I don’t believe you, but it’s a step forward. You will soon understand what I’ve gone through, why I want to die. When you watch me drain the life magic out of your witch, you’ll grieve with me, and you’ll join me. I know you, Adrian. You’re not good at dealing with heartbreak.”
“What if I told you I don’t care about Amber?” Adrian said quickly. “That she’s just another woman to me?”
Tain’s smile broadened. “I’d know you were lying. She is precious to you—I’ve heard how you’ve protected her again and again, even when you lost ground because of it. You’ve grown to love her, and losing her would eat you from the inside out. You’d do anything to stop the grief.”
Adrian fingered the links in the chain, knowing they were spelled with magic as strong as his as well as being as thick as tree limbs. No popping out through a portal to Ravenscroft and escaping. “Why have you waited so long?” he asked Tain. “If you’ve been tormented for seven hundred years, why have you not drained the world before this?”
Tain brightened as though Adrian had asked the right question. “I wasn’t ready yet. I harbored hope. Once she finally convinced me there was no more hope, then we knew it was time for me to die. When I saw the young witch riding between while I was in the ice cave, I reached out to her, and she talked to me. She felt sorry for me. She was so interesting. She told me about her sister, and I knew right then that Amber would be the kind of woman you would like. Once you fell in love with her, I would be able to reel you in.”
“So you had the demon murder her sister to drive us together?” Adrian passed his tongue over his cracked lips. “The Tain I knew would never do that.”
“I regret it,” Tain said, sounding sad. “Susan intrigued me, and she truly loved her sister. I didn’t know the demon would kill her. But I needed to begin, and Amber’s life magic is strong.”
“Then he has stripped every ounce of caring out of you,” Adrian said. “You never would have hurt an innocent when I knew you before. Hunter, in particular, will never forgive you.”
Hunter was merciless to those who harmed innocents, because once upon a time, Hunter’s two children he’d had with a human woman had been murdered as pawns in a larger game. The incident had made Hunter wilder than ever.
“Yes, Hunter,” Tain said, his look faraway. “The fierce warrior with no mercy. I believe I’ve surpassed him too.”
Two certainties hit Adrian at that moment. The first was that he’d truly lost Tain, and lost him long ago, because the Immortal who faced him now was only the shell of his brother.
The second was that Adrian was facing something far more terrifying and dangerous than an ancient demon: An Immortal warrior turned rogue, one who nurtured a de
ath wish. The most powerful life-magic being ever created was about to turn on everything he’d been raised to believe and protect.
“Shit,” Adrian said softly.
He needed to shift his strategy from trying to rescue Tain to getting himself out of there so he could stop what Tain was trying to do. It was almost a relief to move his brain back to something he understood—escape and fight, worry about Tain and his mental problems later.
The demon glided into the room in female form, this time wrapped in a sari-like garment. Adrian watched in revulsion as Tain laced his arm behind the demon woman’s back and jerked her close. She lifted her garments and straddled his bent knee, making little noises of satisfaction as she rubbed herself against Tain’s hard thigh.
Adrian growled and rested his head against the wall. “If you two want to have sex, could you please do it downstairs? Or better yet, unchain me, and I’ll leave you alone to go for it all you want.”
The two in the middle of the room ignored him. Tain pulled the demon up for a long and passionate kiss. “I love you,” he said.
The demon smiled at him, her face more beautiful than a goddess’s. “It’s time,” she said.
Apprehension filled Tain’s eyes. “Can’t it wait a few more minutes?”
She shook her head. “You know we cannot. The third hour after midnight on the third day. It must ever be so.”
“Oh yeah?” Adrian said, voice hoarse, wondering what the hell they were talking about. “Must be inconvenient when you change time zones.”
As before, they didn’t seem to hear him. Tain swallowed and nodded. “All right. I will ready myself.”
The demon stood back with a smile on her face as Tain began to remove his clothes. As the suit and shirt fell away, to be neatly folded and set aside by the demon, Adrian stared at his brother in horror. Adrian’s skin might be crisscrossed with battle scars, but that was nothing compared to what he saw now on Tain’s body.
Wide scars snaked up and down Tain’s back, arms, and buttocks in a uniform pattern, running lengthwise down his legs and up under his groin. Not one bit of hair grew on Tain’s body now, which was a mass of white, puckered tissue. The wounds looked recent, as though as soon as his rapidly healing body could mend itself, his skin was opened up again.
Every three days.
“Isis help us,” Adrian said, his own pain forgotten. “Tain, kill him.”
The demon lifted a long, curved knife from the table as Tain looked sadly at Adrian. “I must do this. It makes me stronger.”
He turned, naked now, and placed his hands on the wall. The demon slipped from her clothes, then stood naked behind Tain and began to peel the skin from his body in slow, even strokes.
* * *
“He’s in my house?” Amber asked in shock.
She, Detective Simon, and the two shifters had arrived at Adrian’s Los Angeles home in the small hours of the morning to find Septimus and Kelly waiting for them outside, a few steps beyond Adrian’s bubble of protection. Valerian made a grab for Septimus’s throat, but the vampire blasted Valerian back with a wave of death magic, likewise Sabina, who’d rushed to defend Valerian.
Septimus then calmly explained how he’d handed Adrian over to the demon, while Kelly stood straight and tall next to him, her arm threaded through his.
“Your house is where I was instructed to deliver him,” Septimus finished. “The demon claimed Tain would be there, and that Tain wanted to see Adrian.”
Amber chewed her lower lip, remembering her conclusions that Adrian finding Tain—or rather Tain luring Adrian to him—would not be a good thing.
“So, dow the demon has bod of them?” Valerian asked. Valerian’s cold had dissipated as they traveled home via helicopter then plane, his strong dragon body healing fast, but he still had a few sniffles.
“It appears so,” Septimus said, voice calm but resigned. He might have been at a board meeting at his club, admitting bar sales were down.
Valerian balled his fists. “Good. Thank you for the information, now prepare to be a dragon snack.”
Septimus’s eyes glittered dangerously. “You’d choke on me.”
“I’ll risk it.”
Kelly stepped between them. “Leave Septimus alone. He was forced to help the demon. He had no choice.”
“He made you believe that, because you’re his blood slave,” Valerian said.
“She isn’t,” Septimus returned evenly. “Kelly is free to leave me whenever she likes. I haven’t bound her to me.” Kelly shot him a look of surprise, and Septimus nodded. “It is true. I don’t want you tied to me by anything false.”
Kelly’s stiff expression relaxed into relief, then she reached up and kissed Septimus’s cheek. Valerian turned away, making a gagging noise.
“Can we return to the main problem?” Amber broke in. “Why are Adrian and Tain holed up in my house with the demon? What is so special about my house?”
“Simple,” Detective Simon grunted. “You live there.”
“And they want me there? Why should they?”
“I can think of a number of somewhat sadistic reasons,” Simon replied.
“I have to agree with him,” Septimus said, while Kelly nodded next to him.
“What I mean is, I don’t have any special powers or talent that they could want. I’m a fairly ordinary witch—good at some things, need practice at others.”
Septimus disagreed. “Then obviously they want you as leverage over Adrian. Keep you to threaten, so he’ll cooperate. That’s what I’d do.”
“Of course you would,” Valerian growled.
“Be quiet, all of you,” Amber said, pressing her hands to her head. “I have to think.”
She pushed past them and went across the drive to Adrian’s house, entering through the unlocked front door. The others trailed after her, Valerian carrying the duffle bag with their supplies over his shoulder.
Detective Simon reached Amber first. “You’ll do what you promised me you’d do. Stay here and be safe while we investigate ways to get him out.”
“That was before I realized he was in my house,” Amber said. “I’m going up there and getting him out. No, wait, I’ll throw the demon out. He’s violated my space, ruined a hundred years of witch magic and our sacred places, and he’s going to pay.”
“Amber.” Detective Simon’s tone was rigidly reasonable. “If Adrian the Immortal warrior can’t get away from him, what do you think you will be able do?”
Valerian said, “For one thing, she’ll have a dragon with her.”
“And a werewolf,” Sabina said, arms folded.
“And a vampire,” Septimus put in quietly.
Kelly looked from one to the other. “Oh, hell, I can probably do something too. I still have a few underworld connections from my old neighborhood—forget I said that, Detective. But they might have Seattle connections who can help.”
Amber paced the large white living room, her thoughts moving rapidly. “The only way to remove a demon infestation in a house is to exorcize him. And to do that I need life magic, lots of it.” She again remembered Susan going on about the Coven of Light, how the energy of their circles, connected from around the world, could do wonders. Did they have enough strength to best a demon, even together? She had no idea.
Amber balled her fists. “All right, here’s what I need. Sabina, go through my bags and find every single one of my crystals, spent or charged, and several small bags for them. Septimus, get us booked on the next flight to Seattle—and pay for it. It’s the least you can do for handing Adrian over to the demon. Kelly set up Adrian’s laptop for me. I need to do some heavy-duty emailing.”
“What do you want me to do?” Valerian asked, dabbing his nose with a tissue as the other three parted for their tasks.
“Get all the way through with that cold, because I’m going to need you at full dragon strength. But remember when we get there that it’s my house and if you tear it up too much, you’d better hope you’re good at
home repair.”
Valerian grinned and took himself off to the bedroom. Through the open door, she saw him flop on Adrian’s bed and put his hands behind his head. “Sabina,” he called suggestively. “Why don’t you look through the bags in here?”
“And me?” Detective Simon asked. “Do you have an assignment for me?”
He stood quietly, disapproval flowing from him, but he knew he couldn’t stop her. Amber also sensed his fury at the demon and his need to help bring him down.
Amber nodded, giving him a grateful half smile. “When I’m finished emailing, I want to talk to you and Ferrin. If this is going to work, I’ll need you both.”
Chapter Nineteen
The demon flayed Tain alive, and Tain did nothing to stop her. His blood ran in rivulets down his arms and legs to the floor, and when he wept it was blood, but he did not cry out or scream.
Adrian, on the other hand, roared in fury and bent all his strength toward trying to pull the chains out of the wall.
To hell with it. He’d get himself out of here and protect Amber from the two of them, even if he had to lock her in a bank vault and call every goddess in the universe to guard her. White hot magic shot through him, gathering to focus on the demon and her ruthlessly efficient knife.
Both the demon and Tain turned as one and threw a black spell back at him. Adrian slammed into the wall, his head cracking against the boards so hard they split beneath the wallpaper.
Excruciating pain raked fire through him. Adrian was spent, his usually quick-healing body weak from torture, the spelled chains draining his strength. He was reduced to snarling foul words at them in every language he knew, from ancient Egyptian to Babylonian to modern-day English.
The demon peeled every inch of skin from Tain, carefully setting aside the strips. Adrian didn’t even want to know what the demon meant to do with them. Tain was clutching at the wall to keep himself on his feet, his body covered with blood.
Adrian watched in furious silence as the demon female finished, then carefully wiped off the knife and laid it back on the table, her naked body coated with Tain’s blood.