The demon would pay with his life.
Wraith launched himself at Byzamoth with a vengeance. They knotted together, a vicious swirl of hand-to-hand, a form of combat at which Wraith excelled. He would not lose. He could not lose. Kynan’s death would not be in vain.
Byzamoth’s wing sideswiped Wraith and knocked him to his knees. The fallen angel kneeled beside him and wrapped his clawlike hand around Wraith’s throat.
“I scarcely have time for this.” Byzamoth glanced at the horizon, where the clouds pushed against the sun’s light.
Wraith opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Not even breath.
“I know who you are. A demon born to a vampire.” He licked the gash he’d made in Wraith’s cheek. “I found your dam. She’s in Sheoul-gra.”
-Sheoul-gra. The place where dead demons went until their souls could be reborn. But according to many, deceased evil humans, vampires, weres, and shapeshifters didn’t go there, because they couldn’t be reborn.
“You’re wondering why she’s there instead of suffering eternally in Sheoul?” Byzamoth dug his finger in the wound, and Wraith grit his teeth against the pain. “She’s serving there. Serving the demons who are waiting to be reborn. The things they make her do…”
Wraith could imagine. Didn’t need to imagine, actually.
“She had a message for you, her darling boy.” Byzamoth punched his hand into Wraith’s gut, and agony accompanied a wet, hideous rip. “She can’t wait to see you. And she’ll make what she did to you as a child seem like, well, child’s play.”
A shudder ran through Wraith, no matter how hard he tried to contain it. Even after all these years she could prey on his fears.
No. She was not going to win, and he was not going to be seeing her anytime soon. Because his mother no longer had control of his fears. Not when his greatest fear was losing Serena. He had to get to her. But Byzamoth’s hand was deep inside his body, tunneling its way up to his heart.
“Now, I send you to see your mother.”
Wraith dug into his pocket for a weapon. His fingers, slippery with blood, found a blade, but he couldn’t grasp it… but wait… he closed his fist around the wooden top. Byzamoth’s fingers found his heart.
Byzamoth squeezed. Weakly, Wraith stabbed the pointed end of the top into Byzamoth’s eye. The fallen angel reared back. Finally free, Wraith punched a dagger into the fallen angel’s gut. It sank deep, and Byzamoth hit the deck.
“Mother,” Wraith rasped, “is going to have to wait.” With a snarl, he slashed Byzamoth’s throat. The fallen angel’s neck opened up all the way to his spine. Blood flowed in a river, but the holy site seemed to be ready. Steam billowed up as the blood burned to ash. Quickly, Wraith slit his own wrist, let the blood drain into the wound.
Instantly, Byzamoth went up in smoke.
That was it? Wraith had thought an angel’s death would somehow be more dramatic.
Outside, demons shrieked as they, too, began to flame. Wraith looked down at himself, made sure he wasn’t on fire. So far, so good. Except for the fist-sized hole in his gut.
He seized the amulet from the floor where it had fallen when Byzamoth poofed, and staggered out of the Dome of the Rock. In the distance, Eidolon moved from human to human, healing where he could. Nearby, Tayla barked out orders to the less severely injured Guardians. Luc was rendering aid and looking a little worse for wear himself, but he appeared to have all his body parts. Near the Harrowgate, Reaver was spreadeagled on the ground, chains holding him down.
Wraith gathered Kynan’s body in his arms and limped down steps that were tacky with burned demon remains and human blood. Eidolon looked up from healing a guy wearing what looked like a Spanish military uniform, his expression falling when he saw Kynan.
“Is he…”
“Yeah.”
Still, E’s dermoire lit up as he lay his hand on Kynan. “Ah, fuck.” His arm fell away.
“Yeah.” Wraith cocked his head toward Reaver as Eidolon channeled a healing wave into him. “Someone needs to help the angel. I’m going to Serena.” He looked down at Kynan’s limp body. “And Gem.”
Lore had to take a leak. He had no idea how long he’d been sitting in the hall of what he’d figured out was an Aegis house, but he really could use an opportunity to stretch his legs and hit the bathroom. Why the fuck his brothers had brought him here instead of leaving him at the hospital was beyond his comprehension
Being chained up there was just as good as being chained up here, and likely less hazardous to his health, given how the Guardians eyed him like they wanted to drag him outside and use him for target practice.
The door across from him opened, and Shade came out of the room.
“So.” Shade crossed the hall and stopped in front of Lore. “What’s your deal? We haven’t had a chance to chat.”
“Too bad, too, because you seem like such a nice guy,” Lore drawled.
Shade thunked him in the forehead with his palm. “Says the guy who tried to kill his own brothers.”
“Yeah, about that.” Lore glanced down at his arm, and then glanced at the matching set of markings that marched their way up Shade’s forearm. “I know you and your brothers are a breed of incubi. So I’m guessing I am, too?”
“What did you think you were?”
“Dude, I didn’t even know I was a demon until I was in my twenties.”
Shade gave him a you’re-a-dumbass look. “The fact that you were born with a dermoire wasn’t a clue?”
“Dermoire? That’s what it’s called?” At Shade’s nod, Lore shook his head. “I wasn’t born with it. It appeared when I was twenty.” He remembered the hell he’d gone through immediately prior to the appearance of the markings, the insane desire to have constant sex when, for twenty years, he’d not even gotten an erection.
“It appeared when you were twenty?” Shade frowned. “What species was your mother?”
“Human.”
“Well, there’s one piece of the puzzle. You’re a cambion. Half-breed. Which is why we can’t sense you.” He looked down the hall where two Aegis slayers weren’t even attempting to be covert as they watched them. Shade flipped them off and turned back to Lore. “So your human mother named you Lore?”
“Loren,” he mumbled.
Shade eyed him with sympathy. Because, yeah, Shade was such a great name. “When were you born?”
“Eighteen-eighty.”
“Then you were one of our father’s firsts. Idiot either didn’t know any better than to impregnate a human, or he was already off his rocker.”
“You know, I’m not feeling the love here.” Lore shifted, wincing at the tingles shooting up his leg, which had fallen asleep.
“Our father got off on fucking things he shouldn’t.”
Lore had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but Shade’s tone didn’t invite questions, and really, Lore had more to worry about than his deadbeat dad’s choice of bedmates. Besides, Lore didn’t have a lot of room to judge.
“Where is he?”
“Dead.” He gestured to Lore’s dermoire. “What’s your gift?”
“Gift?” Lore laughed. “Is that what you call it? Can you kill everything you touch, too?”
Shade cocked an eyebrow. “I can kill with my gift, but I have to make an effort to use it that way. Its primary purpose is to force ovulation in females.”
Since Shade was an incubus, that made sense. “Can all Seminus demons do that?”
“Wraith can get inside female heads and make them receptive to sex. Eidolon can ensure an egg is fertilized. You said you kill everything you touch?”
“Yeah. Except it didn’t affect Eidolon.”
“Could be the brother thing… or it could be because E had activated his own gift, and maybe they countered each other.”
It had to be the sibling thing. Lore had never hurt his sister with his touch, either. “So why is my gift all fucked up?”
“Probably has something to do with the cambion
thing. We’re not meant to breed with humans. Stuff tends to go wrong with the offspring. Obviously.”
“Is there anything else I should know about? You know, that might go wrong?”
Shade appeared to consider that. “Oh, hey, you’re probably sterile. You know how when a donkey and a horse or a water sprite and a fire sprite—”
“I got the picture,” Lore snapped. For some reason, the sterile thing annoyed the shit out of him, but he had no idea why, since he couldn’t fucking have sex without killing his partner. Having kids was a moot point.
Shade said something under his breath about him being high-strung. “So why did you think killing me and Eidolon would be a good idea?”
“Some dude named Roag paid me.”
“And you didn’t know who he was?” Shade threw back his head and laughed, but the sound wasn’t one of amusement. “That sick sonofabitch.”
“Can I get in on the joke?”
“He was our brother.”
“Brother? As in, that sick fuck, too?”
“Yep. No doubt he knew who you were all along. I’ll bet he had it arranged so that when you got the money for killing us, you’d learn the truth.”
Fun guy, his insane brother. Of course, the one in front of him didn’t strike him as a load of laughs, either. “I’m glad he’s dead.”
“Well, he’s not exactly dead. But he’s suffering a fate worse than death. Trust me.”
A commotion in the front room brought Shade to his feet. The pounding of heavy footsteps and hushed curses heralded the arrival of something… not good.
Wraith stalked into the hall, his arms cradling a body. The human male, Kynan. Oh, cool.
Gem’s scream pierced the silence, and his feeling of satisfaction shattered.
“No… no… no!” She’d been in the room with the sick woman, and now she stood in the doorway, disbelief and horror etched on her face. She backed away, hand over her mouth, shaking her head, and as Lore watched, she stumbled and fell to the floor.
Wraith moved slowly down the hall toward the bedroom, his eyes closed, but his aim never wavering. Shade uttered a soft curse and moved aside as Wraith took the body to Gem and laid it before her.
“No, Wraith… no!” She grabbed his hand, pleading with him to make Kynan not be dead.
Shade and Wraith both bowed their heads until Gem collapsed on top of Kynan, her sobs wracking her body.
Wraith seemed to weigh a thousand pounds as he went to Serena.
No one in the room seemed to know what to do, but Gem’s cries lanced Lore’s heart. He should use this opportunity to comfort her, to take advantage of her loss. Had he been the one to kill Kynan, that’s what he would have done.
But seeing her suffer wasn’t pleasant.
“Shade.” The guy didn’t move. “Shade!”
“What?” He was still standing, head bowed.
“Release me.”
“Fuck off.”
“Shade.” Lore swallowed, knowing this was crazy and that it might not work because he didn’t know how Kynan had died, but he had to try. “I might be able to help.” He kept his voice low, not wanting to give any false hope.
Shade turned, slowly, eyes bloodshot and narrowed. “If this is a trick, know that I have no problem killing a sibling.”
Lore gave a single nod, and Shade crouched, released the chains holding him.
With Shade on his heels, he moved to Gem and Kynan. She was draped over him, her face buried in his throat.
Drawing a deep breath, Lore crouched at Kynan’s feet. He grasped the human’s still-warm ankle. He concentrated, let his “gift” work its way down his shoulder to his fingers, until his markings glowed. A wave of energy spread up the human’s leg, into his torso, his chest, his extremities.
The heart sparked. But the body was drained of blood, and it took several precious minutes for his marrow to start churning, creating new blood to fill his veins.
Gem turned to Lore, her eyes nearly swollen shut, but possessive anger shone through her misery. “Get away from him!”
Shade knelt next to her and whispered something in her ear. She nodded and went back to sobbing.
There. The heart beat. Once. Twice. It shuddered as though unsure what to do next… and then it started up in a strong, steady beat. Kynan’s chest rose, and his lips parted as he took in a giant, choking breath.
“Kynan?” Gem scrambled off him. “Kynan?”
“Yeah,” he rasped. “Fuck. Yeah.”
Gem shrieked with joy and threw herself around him. Lore stood and backed away. A hand came down on his shoulder. Shade’s.
“Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it,” Lore said. “Really.”
Fuck, that was a stupid thing to do. Lore rubbed his hand across his chest, over the hand-shaped scar over his heart. These guys might have the answer to who he was, but really, did it matter? He could pretend to be his own man, could pretend to be a free agent. But the truth was that he was on a short leash connected to the fist of a demon who could—and did—call him to service at any time, on short notice, and for truly vile jobs.
He’d feel the life Lore brought back, and there would be punishment. On top of the punishment for not fulfilling the contract to kill the brothers. If there was one thing Detharu couldn’t abide, it was reneging on a vow.
That, and being cheated out of his cut of the death money.
So Lore was in for a shitload of pain.
Good thing, then, that he liked it.
Twenty-nine
Wraith ignored the Guardians who gawked at the state of his clothes, at the blood dripping off him, and yeah, maybe at the sight of the little piece of Heaven in his hand. Only Val wasn’t staring. He was sitting quietly in a chair next to Serena’s bed, head bowed, holding her hand.
Relief that Kynan was alive was tempered by the fact that Serena lay deathly still on the bed, her chest rising and falling with shallow breaths. Shade gripped her wrist and channeled some of his gift into her.
“She’s okay,” he said softly. “I’m just keeping her asleep to slow down the…” He didn’t need to finish.
“Well, demon?” asked the Elder named Juan.
“Yeah, yeah. I got your precious amulet.” Wraith let the necklace slide through his fingers, totally getting off on how everyone—everyone except Val—was on their toes, holding their breath, waiting to see what he’d do.
“You need to hand that thing over, demon.” This from the one female Elder, Regan.
“To you?”
“Yes.” She held out her hand. “The Aegis is the best qualified to keep it—”
Wraith laughed. “Seriously, you people are so full of yourselves.” He stepped forward. “I’ll give it to Tayla then.”
“No!” Juan looked like he was going to stroke out. “She’s… she’s…”
“Half demon?” Wraith offered. “But she is a Guardian, and aren’t they the best qualified to keep it?”
Serena’s rattling breath reminded him that he needed to stop fucking around. Remembering what Reaver had said, he crouched next to the only human in the room besides Serena who was worthy of breathing the Earth’s air.
Kynan was still sitting on the floor, sweat beaded on his pallid skin, being held up, as far as Wraith could tell, by Gem.
Kynan tensed. “Wraith, no—”
Wraith looped the chain around Kynan’s neck and stood. “It’s yours, man. The fate of all humankind is in your hands.” He winked. “No pressure.”
While the humans gaped at Kynan, Wraith caught Lore by the shoulders. “You. You can bring back the dead?”
The guy watched him calmly. “Sometimes.”
Wraith shoved him into the wall. “No half answers. I want to know that if something happens to her—” he pointed to Serena “—you can fix her.”
Lore’s gaze was flat and black. “What’s killing her?”
“Demon infection.”
“Then no. Has to be a natural cause.”
/> Wraith gestured to Kynan. “Having his blood drained by a vampire isn’t exactly a natural fucking cause.”
“But bleeding out is.” Lore shrugged. “Your female’s problem is supernatural. Nothing I can do except make it happen faster.”
The casually spoken suggestion that Lore could put her down easily flash-seared Wraith’s temper. But before he could rip the guy limb from limb, Shade put an arm around his chest and dragged him away.
“Not the time, bro,” Shade said. “Not the time.”
Shade was right, but that didn’t stop Wraith from shooting Lore a “you’re mine later” glare as he scooped up Serena. “We’re taking her to UG. Now.”
He’d wanted her to be around people she knew while he was battling Byzamoth, but now he wanted her to have the best medical care available in an environment he thought of as home.
Home. Actually, he’d never thought of it that way. Until now. Because he’d just realized that home was the place you returned to when things were bad.
And this was as bad as it could get.
Kynan sat there, unmoving and in shock as Shade and Wraith whisked Serena toward the door. Val tried to interfere, just once, but Wraith said something that froze him right to the floor
As they were leaving, Reaver entered, looking like he’d been through a meat grinder, but at least he was alive. The last Kynan had seen of him, he’d looked about one breath away from his last. Then again, right after that, Kynan had taken his own last breath.
Wraith held Serena against his chest, but he paused long enough to give Reaver a respectful nod, which was returned, and then the two brothers were gone.
Gem still hadn’t let go of Kynan, was wrapped around him like a blanket. Tears had left black streaks down her cheeks, but he’d never seen anything so beautiful. If he’d known he had to die to get her back, he’d have done it sooner.
And wait—how had he come back?
Juan turned on Kynan. “This was a huge mistake. Hand over the necklace. The Sigil will guard it.”
Regan shook her head, making her long, dark ponytail swish around her thighs. “Once the necklace is donned, it cannot be removed except by an angel.”