He nodded.
“It’s beautiful.” She closed her hand around it, shut her eyes, and gave herself over to her senses.
A barrage of images and emotions flooded over her, beginning with a woman standing before a wooden crib. Overwhelming love and acceptance flowed from her as she removed the same necklace, and with a teary smile, pressed it into the bedding where an infant slept.
The scene faded, replaced by the image of a little boy, his fear unmistakable as a handsome but frightening man loomed over him, his fists raining down with punishing force. “I’ll teach you yet, boy. You’re my son. Don’t you ever forget it!”
Another scene replaced the last. The little boy had grown older, and the same man arrived after a long absence, along with a terrified nursemaid who carried a bundle in her arms. The man coldly summoned him forward as he bade the woman to unwrap the bundle. “Meet your new brother, boy. His name is Taeg.”
Yet another scene formed. The frightened boy had grown into a young man. He watched in helpless fury as the same man beat another brother to a bloody pulp. With sudden, blinding determination, he resolved that—even if it were over his dead body—this would never, ever happen to Ronin again.
Brynn let go with a cry, snapping back to present day. Remnants of emotions borrowed from Keegan intermingled with her own. She dimly realized he’d taken her into his arms and now supported her. Throwing her arms around his neck, she gasped as the emotions tore through her. His masculine scent comforted her, making her feel safe and warm.
After some time, Keegan pulled her back. “Are you okay?”
Brynn nodded and spoke around the heavy lump in her throat. “That horrible man I saw was your father, wasn’t he?”
He lowered his gaze, his mouth tight. “And a truly evil demon.”
“Tell me about him.”
He didn’t speak for some time before he let out a deep exhale. “Growing up, I knew my father’s word was law. He always wanted us to be like him, but we weren’t. We tried to be, for a time, but it was pointless. To him, every other person was nothing more than a tool to be used for his personal gain. We couldn’t be that way. We couldn’t not care, and we couldn’t use and abuse others the way he did.”
“So he beat you,” she said softly.
Keegan shrugged. “Whenever we did something that he didn’t approve of—which was often—he punished us all.”
“But he was hardest on you,” Brynn whispered.
“No. He was hardest on Ronin. Unlike the rest of us, who went to live with my father as infants, Ronin didn’t join us until he was almost ten. He was stubborn and disobedient, so my father constantly tried to beat him into submission. I stepped in whenever I could.”
“You mean you purposely antagonized him to take the heat off your brothers.”
“Yes. But after a while, even that stopped working. That’s when we escaped.”
The depth of his emotions—as well as his despair at not being able to protect his brothers from their father—sat like a heavy weight on Brynn’s chest.
“You were very brave to stand up to him.”
“I should have gotten in between them, should’ve made sure he never touched my brothers. The night we escaped, it was only because he’d almost killed Ronin and Dagan. No matter how I try to justify it, the truth is that I was a coward. I failed them.”
Brynn placed her fingers under his chin and turned his gaze toward her. “You’re crazy. You didn’t fail them—you protected them, when you were little more than a child yourself.”
He scoffed at her words, clearly not believing them.
“Ask any one of your brothers and I’m sure they’ll tell you the same.” She’d bet his brothers would be horrified to hear him say that he failed them.
Keegan dropped his gaze and swallowed hard. When he looked at her again, his eyes blazed with emotion. “My whole life, I’ve resolved that no matter what, I wouldn’t be anything like him.”
“You’re not. You could never be,” Brynn whispered fiercely. She might not have known him long, but after sharing some of his memories, she might understand him better than almost anyone else. Despite his upbringing, or maybe because of it, he was inherently good.
Keegan shook his head. “You don’t know that. You don’t know what I am capable of, or the things I’ve seen and done, or the things I’ve sworn to do.”
The bleak look in his eyes broke her heart. What would it be like to grow up in such a dark, hellish dimension with no mother and an evil, abusive bastard for a father?
Another tide of emotions swept over her, but this time they were sharper, sweeter. They were her feelings for Keegan, and sympathy comprised just one part of them.
“Keegan,” she said.
He opened his eyes. Whatever he saw there must have surprised him, because he sucked in a breath. His gaze grew hot and hungry, the pupils of his eyes darkening as they lost their focus.
Brynn touched his lips. They were firm yet soft, his breath making fiery little puffs against her flesh. “You really do run hot, don’t you?”
He let out a husky laugh. “Demon heat. We clock in at over one hundred degrees.”
More evidence that while he might appear human, he wasn’t. But her body didn’t care what he was. It wanted him so badly she feared she might melt into a puddle of desire. She needed to feel him. To touch him. To taste his lips on hers.
She leaned toward him. “Keegan—”
“Brynn.” With half-lidded eyes, Keegan slowly closed the space between them. But a mere second before their lips touched, he lurched backward.
“What’s wrong?”
He rose and strode across the room, faced the windows, and thumped one with his fist. “Damn it.”
She blinked as the sharp desire she felt for him faded to a dull ache. “What is it?”
“We’ve got too much going on right now. Another layer of complexity would…it would be foolish.” He sighed and pressed his forehead against the glass.
Brynn’s body filled with heat when she realized she’d been soundly shot down. Was he just using their situation as a convenient excuse to let her down easily? Or could he in fact desire her, the way she did him?
Keegan turned and silently walked toward the door.
“Wait,” she said.
He paused, his back still to her.
“I forgot to ask earlier. Back at the apartment, I saw you and Ronin heal. Then, a few minutes later, Taeg and Dagan were fully healed. Can all demons do that?”
Keegan turned around, seeming reluctant to do so. “The demon race is, as a whole, stronger and quicker to heal than the human race. But many of us have unique abilities. While Taeg and Dagan heal quickly on their own, Ronin and I can heal both ourselves and others.”
“So you each have different abilities?”
“It’s not so surprising, given we have different mothers.”
“Your ability to heal comes from your mother?”
“Yes.”
She opened her mouth to ask another question, but he beat her to it. “Right now there’s something else you need to know.”
The way he said that made her mouth go dry and her heart skip a beat. She tried not to let her trepidation show in her voice. “What is it?”
Keegan fidgeted, then flat-out said the words that would change her life forever.
“Brynn, you’re part demon, too.”
Chapter Nine
“You were what?”
“Overpowered, my Lord,” the frightened demon sniveled, his nervous gaze darting from here to there as if he searched out an escape route. “There were several of them, and very powerful. There was nothing we could do.”
“You could have killed them,” Mammon roared, slamming his fist onto the exquisite wooden coffee table gracing the sitting area of his luxurious Four Seasons suite. The force of his blow punched a hole straight through it. He absently wrenched his hand through the mess of splinters.
“I’m sorry. We tried,”
the demon whined. He looked plaintively at Leviathos, as if he would save him from Mammon’s wrath. As if he could.
“Damnation.” Mammon rose to stare out the large window. Not even the expansive view of the Nile could calm his temper now. “You say the demons were protecting her?”
“Yes,” he said. “They called for her to retreat into another room before we attacked.”
Well, this changed things. Apparently, the Council members weren’t quite as foolish as he’d thought. They’d somehow managed to locate the girl before he had. Yet he couldn’t allow them to win. Their twisted reign must come to an end.
“I’m very disappointed, Leviathos,” he said.
“We did everything we could to locate her, Lord,” Leviathos said, a hint of defiance in his otherwise conciliatory tone. “It was the scholar. He didn’t act quickly enough.”
Mammon gritted his teeth. Snarkiness aside, Leviathos was right. The damn scholar had been far too slow. Yes, he would pay for this. “Have him tortured for two weeks and then kill him. No…better yet, save him for me. I’ll do the honors myself.”
Leviathos let out an almost imperceptible shiver. “Yes, Mamm—Lord.”
Mammon turned to pace the room. “This complicates things. Now we must discover who has taken her, and where.”
He would have to visit her dreams and coax her into telling him. A laborious process, to be sure, but now that he knew her name and was assured she was the heir, it was doable.
“Did they do or say anything to give you an indication of their identities?” Mammon asked the frightened demon. “Did they call each other by names?”
“No, my Lord.” The demon shook his head emphatically. “But there were four of them, and one of them called another bro.”
Mammon froze in midstride with his back to the demon.
“Bro?” Leviathos repeated in alarm.
Mammon whirled to face the demon and prowled toward him. The menace in his expression must have been unmistakable, because the demon rose from the couch, cowering in front of him, his expression terrified.
“What did these men look like?” Mammon asked.
The demon squeaked at the steely, foreboding tone in his voice. “They all looked si-similar, my Lord. Tall with dark hair.” He dared a glance at Mammon, lowering his hands from his face. “Somewhat like you, in fact.”
“What?” Mammon roared.
Barely realizing what he was doing, Mammon wrapped his hand around the demon’s throat. The demon’s eyes widened, and he managed to utter one sharp squeal before Mammon twisted and yanked. His body fell to the ground as his head detached from the rest of him.
Mammon eyed the head for one moment before dispassionately tossing it over his shoulder. He turned to Leviathos, who had risen and was currently regarding him with a look of abject horror.
Mammon growled, his mind consumed with only one thought.
“Keegan… ”
…
For the second night in a row, Keegan wandered the halls instead of going to sleep. Strange, he hadn’t initially cared one way or another about this borrowed apartment. But now that they’d be leaving it tomorrow, he realized he would miss it.
Brynn infiltrated his mind the way she had ever since he’d first seen her. But this time, it was with a growing sense of desolation.
They were running out of time.
Mammon had already discovered her identity. How much longer before he found the book? If he got to it before they did, their options would be drastically limited.
Maybe there would be no choice at all.
Things might have been simpler if he hadn’t given Brynn his necklace, and if he hadn’t allowed her to read its memories. Something inside him couldn’t help but wonder if giving her access to his memories had been a crucial mistake. Her obvious distrust had morphed into compassion, and then into horror for what he’d experienced as a child. Who knew what she would have thought if she had learned his other secret, his mother’s legacy? Would that have been too much for her? Or would she have handled it just as gracefully as she’d handled everything else so far?
She truly believed he was a good man, and she trusted him now. And if he’d correctly read the lust etched onto her face, she desired him. How could he betray her?
Keegan paused outside her room, his forehead to the door, as if by that simple act he could forge an unbreakable connection with her. For the first time since he’d broken free of his father, he wished he were somewhere else, living someone else’s life.
He didn’t want to bear this responsibility. Didn’t want to have to make a choice between this vibrant, engaging woman and the rest of this world. Maybe all of the worlds.
He hadn’t expected Brynn to be such a shining beacon of hope and life, and he hadn’t expected to connect with her so deeply. If he was charged with ending her existence, if he went through with it, would he really be any better than his monster of a father?
His heart told him no. But what were his options?
One life or many?
There was no winning choice here.
Keegan lifted his palm to the door. It was cold and hard beneath his hand. The way he should be. But apparently, he wasn’t wired that way, no matter how hard he tried.
He couldn’t fail. The Council depended on him. His brothers depended on him.
This was his duty.
With a deep sigh, Keegan pushed away, stepped into his own room, and shut the door. With any luck, he would sleep a dreamless sleep tonight. But as he settled into bed and closed his eyes, something told him that was as likely as Mammon deciding to abandon his nefarious plot.
…
His fists flew at her with abandon.
“I’ll train you yet, boy.”
“No,” Brynn tried to choke out. “No, I’m not…”
But he didn’t listen and continued to hit her, blow after punishing blow.
The scene faded, and the pain with it. Now she walked within a dark, moist cave. Glimmers of moonlight shone in from cracks in the ceiling, illuminating portions of it. Somewhere deeper inside, water trickled, landing on the ground with marked little plops.
Fear permeated the air, palpable in its intensity. This place terrified her.
A shout from farther inside the cave pricked her flesh. Heart pounding, she followed the low noise, winding through a narrow passage. It opened up to a larger space, moonlight streaming in. Brynn bit back a cry at what she saw.
A woman was chained to the wall. She had an ethereal appearance, with long blond hair flowing in heavy waves to her waist. Her gown was so white it almost gleamed in the soft light, and in front of her stood a man. He was tall and slender with full dark hair cut short. Even though his back was to her, Brynn recognized him as Keegan’s father.
“Please don’t,” the woman begged him, tears rolling down her cheeks.
He laughed. One hand carelessly snatched at her dress, rending it in two.
“No,” Brynn cried, her voice a perfect echo of the woman’s own panicked scream. Neither of them heard her. The woman continued to stare at Keegan’s father, fear and horror on her face. When he began to unbutton his pants, Brynn screwed her eyes shut.
“Brynn, are you okay?” said a deep voice.
She opened her eyes, and she was back in her apartment. In her own bed.
Keegan sat on the mattress beside her, a question in his eyes.
She took a deep breath, then let it out slowly. “Bad dream.”
Keegan smiled. “You’re still dreaming.”
“I know,” she whispered. Part of her recognized how intrinsically odd it was to be having such vivid dreams, but compared to everything else that had happened these past few days, she could deal with a strange dream or two.
“How are you doing with everything?”
“You mean how am I dealing with finding out my ancestor mated with a succubus? That I’ve got demon in my bloodline? That this is how I got my abilities?” Brynn snorted. “Yeah, no big deal.”
He touched her face and caressed her cheek, a wicked expression crossing his eyes. “You’re tough. You’ll deal.”
She nodded, and he turned to her window, covered only by a sheer, billowing curtain. “It’s almost daylight outside. Not much time to waste.”
“For what?” she asked.
Keegan shot her a cocky grin. “For this.”
His hand moved to the back of her neck and he pulled her to him, taking her mouth in a demanding kiss. She moaned and plastered her body to his, deepening their kiss. He lowered her back onto the bed, snatching away her sheet. His searing tongue traced a path from her throat to her collarbone. There, he paused to pull down the thin strap of her silky nightgown, his breath causing a shiver on her sensitive flesh as he bared one breast.
“Yes,” Brynn moaned.
Keegan chuckled before lightly blowing on her nipple. It puckered from the heat of his breath. Then, an agonizing heartbeat later, his lips closed over it, rolling the sensitive bud around in his mouth and tugging on it.
“Keegan,” she breathed, tracing her hands from the heavy, corded muscles of his back down to his rock-hard backside. She wanted to feel the heat of his flesh under her fingertips. Her fingers crawled underneath the fabric of his pajama bottoms, while his hands slid her nightgown up to her thighs.
“Do you like this?” he asked, his voice husky.
Brynn gasped as his fingers expertly found that sensitive spot between her thighs and one finger dipped inside.
“You know I do,” she panted.
“Hmm,” he replied in satisfaction. He kissed his way down her stomach, thrusting his finger deeper this time, as his head journeyed downward.
Brynn moaned and closed her eyes, reveling in the exquisite sensation of his fingers playing over her. Moving inside her.
“Ooh, that… Don’t stop,” she whispered.
He chuckled, and it sounded a little different this time.
“I’m definitely liking this dream,” he said. His voice had changed, more gravelly now. A little deeper. The atmosphere had suddenly shifted, going from playful to menacing.
Brynn’s eyes flew open, and she screamed. It wasn’t Keegan’s face smiling at her anymore.