Date: 2015-02-02 05:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Urban Fantasy; Demons; Paranormal; Fantasy; Magic; Romance; Adult; Supernatural; Fiction
Description: “I wasn’t demon enough to defeat my brother before. Things have changed.” As the veil begins to fall, and the demons bleed through onto the streets of Boston, Muse knows the battle is lost before it’s even begun. To make matters worse, Adam and the Institute have captured Akil at a time when the city has never needed him more. Muse believes Akil’s incarceration is a ruse, because if he truly is at the mercy of the Institute, she must choose which side she’ll fight for. Human or demon? The princes are coming. Valenti, Muse’s immortal half-brother, leads the charge. The Institute is not ready, t
Publisher: Crazy Ace Publishing

Drowning In The Dark

#4 The Veil Series

Pippa DaCosta

Copyright © 2015 by Pippa DaCosta

‘Drowning In The Dark’

#4 The Veil Series

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictions and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

ISBN: 1507816049

ISBN-13: 978-1507816042

Version 1.0 Feb 2015

Prologue

Akil Vitalis ~ Two nights ago.

I observe her from above. She has no idea I’m here, crouched on the rooftop, and I intend to keep it that way. Keep her that way. I shouldn’t be here. I’ve no concept of why I am. She stalks the Boston streets. My streets. And I stalk her.

The things she’s doing to me. I am not this man. I am demon. And yet this impossible woman undermines everything. Undermines me. Burrows deep. Deep into shadows, into darkness, into facets I’ve refused to acknowledge.

A siren wails. The sweet night air carries the sound, teasing me with the lure of chaos. Demons are close. They infiltrate my city. I do not share. I drive them back, and kill those who deny my authority. I should be doing exactly that. Instead, I am perched on a rooftop like the inferior lessers, eyeing my victim; not for the kill. No. My needs are visceral. Before her, they were easily met. I am greed. I yearn. I hunger. Here, in this time, this place, I take. But not her. I could. I could claim her, tie her up in lies and pin her down with promises. But I don’t. I skirt the fringes of truth. I weave a veil of misdirection. And ask myself, why? The answer eludes. Thousands of years, and I don’t possesses the answer to her.

Below, in that narrow stinking alley, she finds her quarry and frees a dagger from her boot. The demon she’s stumbled upon is nothing. I could end his miserable existence with a click of my fingers. So could she, if she allowed herself the freedom to follow her instincts. Her stance tightens. Her body poised to fight; blade glinting in her hand. I permit a growl to rattle free. The breeze rips the sound away. The same breeze carries her scent to me. I grit my teeth, sending a burn through my jaw. Lust burns. She hasn’t the faintest idea how she kills me with the way she walks, how she tips her head, licks her lips, touches her hair. How she looks at me; eyes narrowed, hand on hip, so adamant in her belief she knows who—what I am. I need to take her; hard and fast. Rip the degenerate bastard from her soul, and seed myself inside her. Own her for eternity. Longer. I get my wants. My needs prove more difficult.

Her demon assailant lunges. She’s fast. Light on her feet. She darts to the side, spins, and plunges her blade between his shoulder blades. Demons think her weak because of her size, and her past. I know the truth. I’ve always known. I swallow, tasting her scent. I do not recall ever wanting something more. I’ve felt the sting of her bite, the burn of her wrath. Grinding my teeth I ignore the throb of need and push aside the memories of having her beneath me. Not the fragile conflicting thing she once was. But the powerful creature who found me after I thought her lost. Those memories of my insurmountable weakness prove stubborn.

I shift, stand, and walk along the edge of the roof, hissing air through my teeth so that I might taste her. She doesn’t understand how she commands lust. Or, if she does, she denies it, like I deny I feel anything for her. Now, as she dances with the demon, she’s teasing him. I absorb the sounds of battle. Of her rapid breaths, her growls, grunts. There’s a beast in her. Heat quivers through my flesh. My vessel slipping. If I drop the human pretense, I will hunt her down, kill the demon she’s teasing, and… I growl. Deep. I am Greed. I need her like night needs day. She ruins me. Strips me raw. I hate her for it. Despise myself. A Prince of Hell, reduced to this.

Between one step and the next, I discard the man, the suit, the restraint, the control, and lift my wings high with a basal growl that rumbles from the depths of those damned emotions. I’d tear those flaws out, if I could. Weak, fluttering, nonsense. Boston’s heat beats over me, and I relish the touch of life, of thousands of lives. Humans, and their nonsensical ways. Ah yes. My city. Chaos contained, chained by mere mortals. Orderly streets. Infrastructure. Systems. Plans.

Chaos caged. By humans. A smile crawls across my lips.

Below, she lands a killing blow. I see her face. Wide eyes. Parted lips. She’s never been more alive. Together we could burn the world. I’d burn it for her; just to free the fire. Her dark eyes lift. Her victim crumples at her feet.

She sees me. Senses me with all her human and demon instincts. Lust rides her scent and a snarl ripples across my lips.

She thinks me just demon. She is wrong about that. I was wrong about her, I realize. She knows I watch her. Every night. And every night I fight my battle. She smiles a knowing smile—no less wolfish for blunt human teeth—wipes the dagger on her sleeve and tosses me the kind of fluttering dismissive wave I’d have killed others for. She dances with the devil. Flirts with destruction. While she turns her back and strides away, I watch her. I’ve always watched her. The time will come when I must act. I do not trust myself to do what must be done. But, until then, she’s mine. I do not share. I am greed. I will have her. All of her. She. Is. Mine.

Chapter One

Demon claws sliced into my waist, sending sparks of pain dancing up my right side and stealing a ragged cry from my lips. I twisted away, more by instinct than thought, and cracked my fist across the demon’s brittle jaw. His face fractured like glass, which would have been a victory, had the shards not pierced my knuckles. Damn, it was like fighting barbed wire. I saw the right hook coming—his claws spread wide—and realized I might have underestimated my quarry and overestimated my current abilities. I ducked, snatched my dagger from its sheath at my ankle, and lunged upward, driving the blade deep into his gut. He grunted. My gaze met his opaque eyes. His slippery blue lips peeled from jagged teeth. Hot blood spilled over my hand, but from the look of glee on his crumpled face, you’d think he’d won. I was missing something. His brittle laughter confirmed it.

“They’re coming, half blood,” he growled around his fangs.

“Yeah, I got the memo. The princes are coming, blah blah. Tell me something I don’t know.”

His hand shot out like a viper strike. I yanked the blade from his gut, recoiled from his scalpel-like claws, and arched away, but my balance wobbled. Overreaching, I staggered. My stomach flip-flopped. Fear churned my gut. The big grin on his bony face morphed into a hideous, toothy snarl. He lunged and slammed his not-so-lightweight body into me. My back hit the alley dirt, knocking the breath out of my lungs. This would be one of those times when calling the fire would solve my misbehaving demon problem. I could kill him in an instant. A flicker of a thought was all it would take. But I knew I wouldn’t stop there. The alley would look nice draped in fire. That overflowing dumpster back there would go up like the 4th of July. The buildings would catch next. My fire would lick the sky, devour the neighborhood, and gobble up every living thing in the immediate vicinity. Insane laughter bubbled through my thoughts.

The demon coiled his hands around my throat. His legs straddled me. I took a swipe at his arm with my blade. His skin peeled apart and blood dribbled, but he didn’t loosen his grip. I sliced again. My lungs burned. His grip on my throat tightened. My vision clouded. The edges of his broken face blurred. My demon snarled inside my mind and rattled her mental bars. Let me out… she urged. Let me play. We will make short work of this beast. We are destruction. We taste his death. Ashes in the air. Let us devour. It was pretty crowded in my head. Next to add to my demon’s cacophony was my personal parasite, and he spilled his poison into my veins, stoking my thirst for fire. I couldn’t hold out much longer. The fire would come. My demon would break the reins, and this time, I might not come back. This could be it: the very last time I had control. Was it over so soon? Would I lose my battle in this alley?

Demon spittle dribbled onto my face. My head lolled to one side. Through the fog of impending unconsciousness, a dark figure walked toward me. I didn’t need to see clearly to know him. His element flooded ahead of him. Heat. A terrible, breath-stealing, skin-crawling heat. Fire without the flames. The demon with his hands around my throat jerked his head up. His chokehold vanished as foreign words spilled from his lips. He scrambled off me, but he stayed kneeling, skinny shoulders hunched.

Akil’s image shimmered behind a veil of heat-haze. The air around his body rippled and strummed. He wore a double-breasted overcoat over his trademark suit, as though he might actually feel the cold on this chilly Boston evening. Only Akil could stalk back alleys and still look like he’d stepped off the pages of GQ magazine.

As my demon attacker mumbled and growled in an ancient and exotic language, I concentrated on filling my lungs with air, ignoring the odors of mildew, fish, and urine. The air tasted pretty sweet to my oxygen-starved lungs.

“Return to the netherworld,” Akil ordered, his tone level and direct. He didn’t expect to be disobeyed. He stopped in front of the prostrate demon, handsome face perfectly neutral.

“It won’t do any good, Sire. They come. There is nothing there but death.”

Akil’s dark eyes flicked to me. I wiggled my fingers at him. It was all I could muster.

“Perhaps you misheard because I’m certain you didn’t just deny a direct order from your prince.” A smile flirted across Akil’s lips, and fire rimmed the irises in his otherwise hazel eyes.

“No, Sire.” The demon ducked his head.

“Good.” Akil flicked his fingers, and a ribbon of light rippled open beside him. The veil. “Be on your way.”

“Now? B-But…”

Akil plucked the demon off his knees and shoved him through the twitching sliver of light. Moments later, the veil stitched itself closed, and Akil turned to me. “Before you say a word about not needing my help, I observed your altercation for several minutes before intervening. Had it gone on any longer, I’m quite certain you would be dead.”

“Dead is such a strong word.” My voice came out littered with scratches and hitches, dashing my attempt at bravado. I rolled onto my side, winced as the wound in my side flared, and climbed to my feet. Akil watched me stagger and right myself. He knew better than to help me.

“Nice coat. Do you always kick demon ass dressed like an Italian supermodel?” I brushed loose dirt from my jeans and tee. When I caught sight of the bloom of blood and the warm metallic scent of it hit me, I swallowed a knot of fear. It had been too close.

Akil blinked into existence right in front of me. His heat wrapped me in a quilt-like embrace. I attempted to deny how his warmth soothed my rattled body and mind, but it was a losing battle. Exhausted, battered, bruised, and bleeding, I was in no condition to argue with him. I’d not spoken to him in weeks—not officially—but I knew he’d been on the streets, eager to kick any wayward demons back to the netherworld, or hell as it was fondly referred to. According to Akil, Boston was his city, and nobody would take it from him, not an influx of demons and certainly not the other princes. I wasn’t entirely surprised to see him. I suspected he’d been watching me from afar.

He hooked a finger under my chin and tilted my head up. “Why did you allow that demon to best you?”

I fluttered my eyes closed. The disappointment on his face was too much. “I’m afraid.”

“Of what? Not him.”

“Damien.” My parasite. I opened my eyes in time to catch Akil’s glare narrowing. “He constantly pulls on my control. And my demon… She’s impatient. She whispers to me the whole time. If I let her go, Akil, I’m afraid I might not come back.” I’d lost control a few weeks ago, almost killing an angry mob and nearly tearing Akil’s arm off in the process. He’d stopped me from doing both, but it had been too close for comfort.

He drew his hand back. Our gazes locked for a few seconds before he dipped his lower, over my lips, my chest, to where his fingers peeled the sticky hem of my top away from my waist. “You know how to remove the soul-lock. I’m sure you don’t need me to say it again.”

Right, by letting Akil dig him out. I’d been thinking about it every night when I woke screaming, drenched in cold sweat, body aching and mind shattered beneath a flood of revolting images—Damien’s memories. Yeah, I’d thought about it a lot while drowning myself in whiskey. Damien was killing me as surely as if he stood over my shoulder, driving a dagger into my back. I needed Akil’s help. I was losing this battle. I’d been losing it since the beginning. And I didn’t have much time left.

“Could he ever come back?” I asked quietly. “The part of him that’s in me, could it ever become solid again, flesh and blood real?”

Akil searched my face, delaying, until he finally gave me the truth. “Yes. There is a way. But you need not concern yourself with it. Without your consent, it could never happen.” Disgust burned at the back of my throat. I wanted my owner out, gone for good. I’d have gladly cut him out with a rusted razor blade if I could. “You cannot continue like this, Muse.” Akil’s deft fingers probed my side, drawing a hiss from my lips. “If you refuse to summon your demon, you will likely die the next time you find yourself in harm’s way. I may not always be here to save you.”

I bowed my head, simultaneously resting my forehead against his chest while he pressed his hand over the wounds and fizzed heat through my flesh. “I think… maybe…” I sighed. “You’re right. I’m ready.” His body tensed, and his hand stilled over the wound. “You need to take him out of me, Akil. Please. I can’t live like this anymore.”

He laced his fingers into my hair and tipped my head back. I could have fought him, but what was the point? We both knew this had to happen eventually. He didn’t look as happy as I thought he would. He studied me, his sculpted face marred by suspicion.

“I expected you to, y’know, gloat or something. You’ve wanted this since he soul-locked me.”

“Much longer, actually. But I—”

His teeth snapped together, and he jerked as though struck then shoved me away from him. I almost fell over my own feet trying to stay upright. Stumbling against the wall, I spluttered a curse. “What the hell?”

He’d spun around and faced the mouth of the alley, his back to me. I saw them then: six black-clad men and women, assault rifles raised and trained on Akil as they closed in. Laser dots bounced around on his back. I searched the roofline and spotted the snipers. Worse, more special-ops jogged in from my left behind Akil. I recognized one instantly. Ryder led the smaller team, rifle shouldered and aimed at Akil’s back.

“Shit, Akil, get out of here.” I shoved off the wall and strode into the line of fire, exuding a confidence I didn’t have. “Don’t do this, Ryder.” I called over the sound of hammering boots on asphalt. Akil could kill them all.

“Get outtah the way, Muse,” Ryder barked. “We will shoot through you.”

Akil’s element lashed outward, surging past me and rushing toward Ryder’s group. “Dammit, Ryder, you wanna be responsible for more deaths?”

“Ain’t gonna happen.” His men were closing fast. It would be a bloodbath. I saw five in his group, a couple on the roof, and six approaching Akil from the front. It wouldn’t be enough. A hundred wouldn’t be enough. What the hell was Ryder thinking?

Akil’s element spluttered beneath my feet. I felt it choke and gasped, spinning around to see Akil drop to one knee and brace himself against the ground, head bowed. Heat throbbed around him, beating the air in relentless waves. He should have been upright, smug and confident. At the worst, he could have called his true form, Mammon. Something was very wrong. “Akil?”

The enforcers gathered around him. His shoulders rose and fell as he breathed hard, but he made no move to attack them or protect himself. A deep, inhuman growl rumbled through him. He snapped his head up and scored a few enforcers with his powerful glare, but it only seemed to make them more determined. They closed ranks, moving tighter.

I stole a few steps closer. Ryder grabbed my arm and pulled me to him. “Stay away, if you know what’s good for you.” He shoved me back, fierce determination making his glare hard and cold.

“Ryder, he’ll kill all of you. Are you insane?” Akil might be down now, but it was likely a trap. He was probably hoping to lure them in so he could catch them together. I strode forward. “Let him go before it’s too late.” I didn’t want to see anyone hurt, especially Ryder. We’d had our differences, but he didn’t deserve to screw up like this. “You can’t capture a Prince of Hell. Ryder, please, c’mon… Before he brings Mammon…” My words trailed off as Akil’s gaze found me. Lips pulled back in a snarl, eyes bright with amber, he glared at me, accusations burning in his gaze. What? Did he think I had something to do with this? “Akil… Don’t hurt them. Let them go.” Another growl rumbled through him.

“He’s not going anywhere, Muse.” Ryder raised his rifle, aimed, and pulled the trigger. The sharp crack bounced around the alley. Akil took the hit in the shoulder. He spun around, his body moving liquid fast, but it wasn’t enough. They all opened fire. The deafening noise of gunfire drowned out my shriek of alarm. I sprang forward, only for Ryder to grab me and shove me into the arms of three of his crew. I kicked, yanked, writhed, and bucked, but the enforcers held fast.

When the gunfire ceased, a horrible, unearthly quiet settled over the alley. The smell of hot metal and acrid gun smoke burned my nostrils and laced my throat. Ragged breaths sawed out of me. I couldn’t tear my gaze from the group huddled around a pool of blood. He couldn’t be dead. Could he? Why hadn’t he fought? Why didn’t he summon Mammon? He’d once told me seven hundred enforcers wouldn’t be enough to take him down.

The crowd of special-ops parted. My knees buckled. Akil lay on his side, shredded clothes dark with blood. His glassy gaze stared into the middle-distance, seeing nothing. Blood dribbled from his parted lips. This couldn’t be. My demon surged forward, driving a growl ahead of her and out of me.

Ryder turned to me. “Don’t even think of bringing her to the party, Muse.” He thumbed over his shoulder at the snipers above. I saw them and followed their aim and saw the red fireflies dancing on my chest. “Unless you want your demon packed away for another day.”

He glanced back, smiled, and nodded. “Job well done, everyone. Bag him, and let’s get outtah here.”

“You killed him, ” I snarled, battling with the terrible desire to spill fire into my veins and burn everyone in the alley—to turn them to ash and dance with their remains in the breeze. It was insane, but that didn’t make the thought any less appealing. “He was helping us drive the demons back.” I clamped my teeth together, hissing each breath between them even as I felt my fangs lengthen. “Why do this?”

Ryder finally looked at me and saw me, not another demon getting in his way, but me—once his friend. “Look.” He lowered his voice. “He ain’t dead. He’s just chock-full of PC-Thirty-Four and a bit beaten up. He’ll be so angry he could spit nails, for sure, but he won’t be able to do a damn thing about it.”

They’d drugged Akil. They’d drugged a Prince of Hell. Panic speared through me. “Give him the antidote. Now. Before he comes ’round. Let him go. Do that, and you’ll live. Otherwise, Ryder, when he wakes and realizes what you’ve done, you’re a dead man. And not just you, everyone here. Shit, maybe the whole city, for all I know. Don’t risk it. Walk away now. Tell Adam you failed.”

Ryder beamed and backed up. “Hell, no. This is the best night of my life.” He nodded in the direction of Akil’s lifeless body. “That bastard deserves everything he gets, and now we have him. Happy days, Muse.” He winked and patted a passing fellow enforcer on the shoulder.

“Ryder! Don’t do this. You’ll get them all killed. You can still make it right!” I kicked at the mountain of a man to my right, stomped on his instep, and tried to clamp my sharp teeth down onto the hand gripping my shoulder. Ryder grumbled a warning. Screw him. I snapped my head back, impacted with something soft on the outside and bony inside, heard one of them spit a curse, and drove my elbow back. The blow, when it came, cracked across the back of my skull and sent me spiraling into darkness.

Chapter Two

Ben Stone eyed me from behind his bar. His hands busily drying glasses. “Bit early for whiskey, Charley.”

“Bite me, Ben. I’ve had a rough night.” I eased my sore body onto a barstool. “What time does Adam get here?”

“Seven-ish.” He still eyed me like a stepbrother trying to decide whether he should care or not. “I serve coffee now. With real beans. Maybe you’d prefer caffeine to alcohol?”

“No offense, but the syrup you serve isn’t coffee.” I glared. He really didn’t want to push me. “I tried to take down a demon last night when he decided to wipe an alley floor with me and sharpen his claws on my insides. I then promptly had my Prince of Hell lover shot to shreds in front of me by my ex-friend and intend to speak with said ex-friend’s boss in about”—I checked the clock on the wall behind the bar— “ten minutes. So would you just cut me some slack, and serve me a drink? I’m a big girl. I can handle whiskey at seven a.m.”

“That’s what I’m worried about.”

“Your conscience is clear. You said your bit. Now, where’s my drink?” Yes, I was being short with him. He didn’t deserve it, but I’d had virtually zero sleep. I felt as though I’d been put through the wringer. Somewhere, a Prince of Hell was fuming at the hands of the Institute. If he hadn’t laid waste to their base of operations yet, he would soon. I had to find him. Fast. Adam was getting an earful the second he stepped through the Stone’s Throw’s doors.

Ben delivered my drink with a side order of judgmental expression. He knew I was a wreck. I knew I was a wreck. Surely we were past all the arched eyebrows and tut-tuts by now?

As the bar began to fill with Institute staff—most of them filing out the back to where they’d commandeered a room and made it their temporary base—I wondered where Ryder had taken Akil. Obviously, the Institute had another base of operations somewhere, yet they still used Stone’s Throw as an unofficial office. The forgotten bar Ryder and I’d frequented after work had turned into the Boston hub for all things demon hunting. The back wall looked like a psycho’s pin-board, except the photos and maps were all demon related. The enforcers rallied here, and Adam dropped by three days a week. Today just happened to be one of those days. I’d mostly avoided the days he graced the bar/office for fear I might boil his insides. In fact, I’d not been to the bar much at all since the events a few weeks before when Ryder had shot a half blood girl in the head, thereby destroying her short, tragic life and driving possibly the final nail in the coffin of my control. The only thing keeping me sane was stalking the streets, killing demons who stepped out of line or bumping illegal demon-immigrants back through the veil. I didn’t sleep. Not any more. He was there, stalking my dreams. I was on a downward spiral, one I’d finally accepted I needed Akil’s help to break free of. Well, that wasn’t happening any time soon.

Ryder walked in with several enforcers in tow. Jenna the raven-haired no-bullshit beauty was one of them. The group clearly still buzzed from the previous night’s exploits, bouncing on Enforcer happy-pills until they saw me. Ryder peeled away from them, wove around the empty tables, and hitched himself onto a stool beside mine.

I waited for him to comment on the whiskey in my glass. He picked up a coaster and teased the edges with his fingers, his smile dying. “Upward of a hundred demons came through the veil last week alone, and those are the ones we know about. New York caught or killed dozens more. We ain’t got the luxury of being picky—not no more, Muse. We gotta use everything we have. If that means grabbing the Prince of Greed, we do it. One prince down. Five to go.”

Technically four, if you didn’t count Stefan, the newly crowned Prince of Wrath. Ryder didn’t know about Stefan’s recent promotion. Few did. Akil knew. Would he tell the Institute? No. It wouldn’t come to that. He wouldn’t let it. Shit. Akil would make them pay if I didn’t get to him and talk him down.

“Akil was helping us.”

Ryder lifted mocha-brown eyes to me and ran a hand through his hair. His chin bristled with stubble, but he looked good in a don’t-give-a-damn kind of way. His scuffed, tan leather jacket looked as though it had seen as much action as he had. His eyes were bright, his gaze sharp. I knew that look. Ex-military, Ryder liked nothing better than to get his teeth into a mission and feel like he was doing the world a favor.

“I’m not getting into a bitching contest with you about Akil, Muse. He’s fucked you over more times than I can count. He’s the Prince of Greed, for fuck’s sake. Get over your Stockholm Syndrome, and move on. You’ll live longer.”

His words hit me like a punch in the gut. How dare he sweep me up in a statement like that? He knew what Akil had done for me. I’d thought Ryder knew me, really knew me, the way friends should. Maybe I’d been wrong about him. Hell, I’d been wrong about everything else. He wasn’t my friend. Perhaps he never had been. My voice of reason, the one which had been getting quieter with each passing day, told me to swallow the emotion, to keep it all inside, but that little voice was too easily quashed. Ryder had shot Dawn, and now he’d shot Akil. I snatched up my glass and threw whiskey in Ryder’s face just as Adam walked through the door. Ryder spluttered, knocked the glass out of my hand, and stilled himself. His right hand clenched into a fist. He trembled with the effort of restraint.

I shot to my feet, sneering into Ryder’s face. Ryder’s groupies loomed near the back of the bar, hands on their holstered weapons, Jenna included. “You bastard,” I growled. “I thought you were different. I thought we understood each other.”

“Get the fuck outtah my face, Muse, before I do something I’ll regret.” Even with whiskey dripping from his chin, he delivered his threat with enough bravado to deter me.

“What happened to you?”

“Me?” He dragged a hand down his face and flicked moisture from his fingers. “We’re at war, and you’re on the wrong side. Get your shit together, or get out of Boston.”

Adam’s presence loomed to my left. He was a big guy, built like a lumberjack in Abercrombie & Fitch apparel. Casually classy. He loitered in my peripheral vision, radiating authority the way Akil radiated heat. Behind him, three enforcers watched me like hawks hovering over their prey. Six others hung back. All they needed was an excuse, and I’d be full of bullet holes. Grossly outnumbered, I blinked and backed away from Ryder. This wasn’t over. I threw him a glare that told him as much and then steeled myself against Adam’s stare of abject disapproval.

Adam nodded once and beckoned me away from Ryder. Whiskey churned in my gut as I obliged. Ryder’s words couldn’t have hurt me more if he’d stabbed my in the chest. I knew things were bad between us, but I hadn’t realized how deep his hatred went. I shouldn’t have been surprised. I hated him right back for what he’d done to Dawn, the half blood girl I’d tried to save and he had killed.

“Everything okay?” Adam pulled out a chair and gestured for me to sit. I snorted and crossed my arms. “Sit.”

“No.”

“Very well.” He sat and leaned back in the chair, stretching his long legs beneath the table. “This is about Akil. Let me make something perfectly clear, Muse. You will not see Akil unless you’re under the influence of P-C-Thirty-Four.”

His words sucker-punched me right where Ryder’s had already wounded me. My head spun, and my vision blurred. I sat in the chair and slumped forward, sinking my fingers into my hair. A dull ache throbbed up my right side, and the whiskey in my stomach threatened to force its way back up my throat. “I can’t do that.”

“This is not something we can negotiate. You’re too volatile, and he’s too valuable.”

There was no way in hell I was letting Adam stick a needle in me and pump me full of PC34 again. Not going to happen. Ever. Not even for the demon who had saved me from myself on many occasions and in many different ways.

I lifted my head and despised the fact Adam would see the tears brimming my eyes. I couldn’t do a damn thing to stop them, so I snarled. “Akil was on our side. He’s been on the streets like us. He no more wants the Princes here than we do. What you’ve done… You don’t understand how bad this is. He’ll never let you live, Adam. He despises the Institute and how you meddle with demons. Until you did this, he tolerated you, but that’s not an option anymore. He’ll destroy you.”

“He’s contained—and he’s not going anywhere, Muse. Not for a very long time.”

The thought of Akil strapped to a table and at the mercy of the Institute scientists was almost enough to tip my thin control over the edge. “Is he conscious?”

“Yes.” Adam blinked slowly.

“Has he said anything?”

He didn’t reply as he assessed me, obviously working over a few possible replies in his head before finally saying, “He’s demanded to see you.”

My heart flipped, but Adam’s concerned expression trampled on my new shoots of hope.

He sighed. “He believes you were involved in his capture. He claims the reason you didn’t summon your demon in that alley was to lure him into action. He’s not saying much, but when he does, he’s quite…vehement.”

Shit. I clamped my teeth together. I could see how, from Akil’s point of view, it might look like I’d been involved. “And you haven’t said anything to put him right?” Adam didn’t reply. How could he sit there, so freakin’ calm? If it wasn’t for the anti-elemental symbols adorning the walls, I’d be dancing in the fire and giving him third degree burns right now. “How did you know he’d be in that alley?” I leaned back and crossed my arms, locking my trembling fingers into fists.

“Akil usually resurfaces around you. I had you watched.”

That was nothing new for Adam Harper. He didn’t believe in privacy laws unless the subject was his past. “Where are you keeping him?”

“A secure facility.”

“Is he… alright?”

“He’s recovering from the assault better than expected, considering PC-Thirty-Four is subduing his demonic nature.”

My jaw ached. Terrible pressure throbbed in my head. They could have killed him. Had they used etched bullets, they’d have destroyed his human avatar. Akil, as I knew him, would have died. Mammon would have lived. He was truly immortal. But I didn’t care about Mammon. I cared for Akil more than I’d realized. They’d taken him from me. He was mine, and the Institute had ripped him out of my arms. Worse, they’d defiled a Prince of Hell. A demon growl rumbled up my throat.

Adam’s eyes widened. “Do I need to be concerned about you, Muse?”

“I’d be concerned about your affairs, Adam. Best get that last will and testament written up while you’re still breathing.” They had no idea what they’d captured. Akil wasn’t just another demon. He was chaos eternal, a force of nature. They’d corked a tornado in a bottle. “You’re an idiot. You all are. You had a Prince of Hell working toward the same goals as you—a direct link to the others—and you’ve managed to royally fuck it up. After what you’ve done to him, he’ll never help you. You won’t get anything out of him. You might as well let him go before he escapes. Which he will. Trust me.” I looked around the bar and allowed my stewing anger to raise my voice. “You’re all as good as dead. You just don’t know it yet.”

A dozen enforcers glared back at me. They hated me. All of them. Fine. I was done with them, with everything and everyone. Ryder didn’t even look over. I got a great view of his back and knew exactly where I stood with him. I shook my head at Adam. “Don’t come crawling back to me, Adam, when you have the princes breathing down your neck. It’s over. I can’t help you any more.”

He nodded, not the least bit concerned. He would be.

Chapter Three

Lacy perched on the arm of my couch, one leg levered so she could rest her arm over her knee while holding her tub of ice cream. My cat, Jonesy, had curled up on a cushion beside her. Lacy occasionally reached down to give him a tickle while I explained how the Institute were shooting themselves in the proverbial foot. After leaving Stone’s Throw, I’d driven back to my apartment like a bat out of hell, checking my mirrors the whole time for Institute tails. Rage burned through me, and with it, the fire inside bubbled and fizzed. My demon paced. The psychotic bastard suffocating my heart throbbed like a raw wound. Lacy had knocked on my door five minutes after I’d gotten in. There was a rumor on the net, suggesting Akil Vitalis had been apprehended by the Institute. Lacy was a member of his online fan club. One look at my face told her the rumor was true. Hence the ice cream.

I stabbed my spoon into my partially melted ice cream and scooped out a large helping. I told myself the ice cream helped temper the heat swirling inside me. “To make it worse, he thinks I had something to do with his capture.”

Lacy gaped. “Did you?”

“Hell, no. I do have some sense of self preservation.”

“Well, that’s cool then. He’ll figure it out.” She shrugged the shoulder poking out of her baggy, black-and-white-striped top.

It was sweet, the way she thought she knew Akil. I’d spent much of my adult life with him, and I still couldn’t figure him out. But I’d come to appreciate Lacy’s outlook on life. She had a take-no-prisoners attitude unless one of those prisoners happened to be Akil. She’d happily take him prisoner. Ever since he’d coerced his way into her apartment and she’d been introduced to the temptation personified that is Akil, she’d grilled me for information about the netherworld and demons. A self-confessed member of Equal Rights for Demons, she flew the demon flag. I’d given her some framed protection symbols to keep the less-than-friendly demons out and taught her the finer points of demon etiquette. In other words, I’d shown her where their sensitive parts were should she need to make a quick exit. She was willing to believe that not all demons were bad. I was still trying to teach her that not many were good.

I wiggled the tip of my spoon in my tub of ice cream. “I er… I asked him to free me of the soul-lock.”

She jerked her head up. Her ruffled, short blond hair fell in front of her eyes. She gave it an angry sweep back, blinking rapidly. I’d told her everything a week ago while we’d both been wasted on a mix of tequila and Sambuca. “I thought you said you couldn’t trust him.”

I nodded and licked my lips. “It’s bad, Lacy.” It took more effort than it should have not to dip my head in shame. “I can’t control my demon much longer, not with him inside me. Whatever Akil might do, it couldn’t possibly be worse. I’m a mess. I’m going out every night, hunting demons, trying to convince myself I’m doing the right thing, but I can’t summon my own demon. If Akil hadn’t shown up when he did, I’m pretty sure I’d be mincemeat or the Queen of Fire. Soon, either a demon’s going to get lucky…” I gestured at my side, where the wound still throbbed. “Or I’m gonna go nuclear and kill a lot of people. And I might not come back. I might not want to come back. That’s the difference, right there.” I licked ice cream from my spoon, hardly noticing the taste.

“Maybe you should take that drug, P-C-whatever. Hey, don’t give me that look. Listen to yourself. No offense, but you’re losing it, and I gotta sleep right down the hall.”

A quick succession of knocks at the door gave me a temporary reprieve. Lacy was right, but I had an on-again-off-again relationship with ‘right’ and ‘wrong.’ I often envied Ryder his staunch black and white outlook on life. All I seemed to experience was the messy gray area.

I opened the door. The sight of Stefan tightened my chest and stopped my heart for a beat. The tub of ice cream slipped from my fingers. I made an ungainly lunge. Stefan caught it, quick as lightning, and I found myself looking into his eyes as we straightened. He drew up to his full height and turned the ice cream tub over in his hand, eyebrows hiked up and lips parted. “That could have been a disaster.”

My thoughts had careened off course and jolted to a stop. The newly crowned Prince of Wrath was at my door, standing so close his icy aura tickled the fine hairs on my arms. His nonchalant stance carried the same self-assured, infallible confidence I’d come to expect from him. Only a few lines around his eyes and lips spoke of the torment he’d been through. I wanted to smooth those marks away and wished it could be that easy to erase the scars of our past.

I cleared my throat. “I’ll have my ice cream back, thank you. Unless you’re planning on sticking around this time?”

He arched a brow, hooking the corner of his sensuous lips with it, turning the faint smile into something more salacious. “You left me the last time I was here.” A low growl wove beneath his words. His demon brogue fluttered my insides and roused my demon’s curiosity.

I should be angry. He had accidentally stabbed me and then disappeared for weeks before returning with the kind of revelation you don’t just dump on someone. I’m a Prince of Hell.

“Only after you went all evil-frosty on me.”

“Ouch.” That wicked smile stayed. Damn it.

I snatched the tub from his hand. “If you want ice cream,” by the way his gaze tracked the tub, I knew he did, “you have to promise not to try and kill me while in my apartment. I’m not at my best right now.” I pointed a finger, ignoring his smirk. “So don’t fuck with me.”

It occurred to me I’d just chastised a Prince of Hell. I curled my finger back into my palm. His eyes sparkled with humor while his unseen icy touch coiled around my ankle, up my leg, around my waist… If he controlled that explorative touch, he didn’t show it. I had no idea where I stood with him. Did he want to kill me, kiss me, or screw me over? The last thing he’d told me was that he’d been promoted, and he needed help. Now, there he was, catching my ice cream like he hadn’t recently stabbed me in the chest and looking every part the rakish don’t-give-a-damn demon-hunter. The gray sweats he wore did nothing to temper the kind of sexy vibe that should be outlawed. Blonde hair licked at his cheeks and fell over his eyes. I struggled to fight back the urge to brush a few errant locks back from his face. He’d probably freeze me solid if I touched him.

“I promise not to try to kill you while in your apartment,” he said solemnly, then tacked a smile on the end.

“Fine.” I stepped back and let him by. “You’ve met Lacy.” Lacy gaped, eyes wide.

“Yeah.” Stefan cleared his throat, ridding himself of the guttural accent. “Last time we met, I told you Akil likely wanted to wear your skin as an apron.”

She climbed down off the arm of the sofa and straightened up to her imposing five feet of Boston-Irish pride. “Yeah, that’s right. Asshat.” She stopped short of poking him in the chest, but the fire in her eyes said she wanted to.

He tucked a thumb over the waistband of his sweatpants, the epitome of chilled, and held out a hand, inviting her to shake it. “Maybe we should try this again?”

Lacy looked down at his hand, scrunched her face, and glared back at him. I’d told her the good and the bad when it came to Stefan, but even I had to admit the bad outweighed the good. Stefan didn’t retract his hand but returned Lacy’s glare with a casual expression of good humor. “I was—”

“Rude. Arrogant.”

“Out of line.”

“Damn straight.” She caught his hand, gave it a tight shake, and pulled back. “Dude, whatever, but if you hurt Charley, I’ll ruin you on the Internet, and the Internet is like forever. Got me?”

Stefan’s lips twitched. “I think so.”

“Good.” She crossed the room to me and handed me her empty ice cream tub. “Think about what I said, Charley, please.”

I offered what I hoped to be my most compliant smile and waited until she’d closed the door behind her before pinning a hardened stare on Stefan. He stood by the couch, chin dipped, blue eyes sharp behind fair lashes. He could project outward calm all he liked. It wasn’t fooling me. No sword. No coat. No drama. I could convince myself he was just a guy—built like an athlete honed for stamina, with a stubborn jaw, wicked sensuous lips and eyes that pierced the soul. Who was I kidding? He’d never passed for normal, and I wouldn’t have him any other way. So there we were, the two of us. Bad things happened when Stefan and I were together. Workshops exploded. Truths and lies blurred. People died.

“Ice cream?” I asked.

He puffed a sigh. “I thought you’d never ask.”

Turning my back on him, I busied myself in the kitchen, fully aware of exactly where he stood, how long it would take me to get to the front door, and how many side steps before I could reach the gun in my cupboard. “What’s with the sweats?”

“I got back from the netherworld and landed in someone’s back yard. These were just lying around…”

“You stole them. From someone’s clothes line?” I’d seen Stefan naked, both in human and demon form. I’d delighted in his sinewy muscles and teased my tongue over the entwined scorpion tattoo low on his navel. I’d tasted parts of him that brought a rush of heat to my cheeks. It felt like years ago, and yesterday.

“Considering our…volatile relationship I wasn’t sure how you’d react if I showed up sans clothes.”

Funny guy, ha ha. I turned and tried to will the heat from my face as I handed him a bowl of ice cream. His fingers brushed mine, launching a snap of raw chaos energy up my arm. Flinching, I pulled back with a tight hiss.

Chaos. If my demon hadn’t already been paying attention, she sure was now. The elements of chaos made up everything demon. And Stefan was chaos giftwrapped in a delicious body.

“Sorry… It does that sometimes.” Something like concern and resilient acceptance passed over his face before he turned away, opening a void between us that felt bigger than the physical space allowed for. “The way we left things last time wasn’t ideal,” he said, the master of understatement. Last time, Akil had used his ability to reality-jump from one place to another, and snatched me out of Stefan’s arms right after Stefan had dumped the ‘Prince of Wrath’ bombshell on me. By the time I’d convinced Akil to take me home again, Stefan had vanished.

I dug into my ice cream again, dampening down the desire to cross the space between us and…what? Devour him? Hug him? Hit him? My demon wanted all the power wrapped up in Stefan, and I wanted someone to hold me and make me forget how thoroughly messed up I was.

He relaxed against the arm of the couch, body angled toward the door, bowl cradled in a hand. “Are we okay?”

Laughter burst from my lips. “Are you kidding?” Apparently not, if his frown was genuine. “Stefan, we’re so far from okay, we’re in different time zones. You’re a Prince of Hell. How did that even happen?”

He swallowed and looked away, twitching a muscle in his jaw. “After I thought I’d killed you, I lost control.” His eyes narrowed. “The princes noticed.”

“All of them?” One Prince of Hell was bad enough. I couldn’t imagine facing more.

“Not Akil.” No, because he’d been unconscious with grief at his suburban house. “I only remember fragments. My demon was… We were high on power. I pulled it all from the veil.” He stabbed his spoon into the ice cream, scooped out a chunk, and tasted it. The resulting groan was more demon than man. “I miss this,” he mumbled around his mouthful.

“And? What happened?” He licked the spoon. My demon and I shared an internal purr. I swatted her back.

“One demon came at me. I didn’t know who or what he was. Wolf-like, but huge. I’m not talking about some hellhound mongrel. He was the size of a truck and would have torn me apart.” His lips turned down. “I fought with everything I had. They wanted me dead. They still do.”

“The wolf demon was Wrath?”

He nodded, taking another spoonful of ice cream. “When I worked as an enforcer, I suspected the princes had some sort of advantage over the demons. Turns out I was half right. The princes have a purpose; you might even call it a weakness. When chaos is shaped over time, it becomes honed, powerful, focused. It reaches out, hungers for more, and latches onto the thing the demon wants the most. Greed, lust, gluttony. All I had was anger. Wrath sensed that, I think. The others pulled back when he attacked, like it was personal.” Stefan licked more ice cream from his spoon, suddenly finding it fascinating.

Stefan was a skilled demon-hunter. I knew that. I also knew, as demon, he was powerful. But to battle a Prince of Hell on his home turf, surrounded by his brethren? I’d wiped out a few hundred demons once, and the memories still terrified me. How was he here, eating my ice cream like nothing had happened? “Did you kill him?”

“No.” His blue eyes darted to me. “You can’t kill a Prince of Hell.” He was wrong about that. A nine-year-old half-blood girl had recently proven the exception to that rule. “When I came back to my senses, Wrath was beaten, torn apart…” Stefan cleared the growl from his throat. “There wasn’t much left of his physical form. The princes backed off and...”

“What?” I’d forgotten my ice cream, forgotten everything, absorbed in his story. I’d seen Stefan in the netherworld, seen him battle Akil’s true form, Mammon. As a demon, Stefan was beautiful, as though carved from crystal—if crystal had razor-sharp edges and murderous intentions.

He lifted his gaze and fixed me in his sights. “The power I’d summoned should have killed me, but I took it all in and controlled it. Shaped it. It responded like our elements do, only this was chaos in its purest form. It wasn’t just about ice any more. I had control over of all the elements.” A slither of fear trickled down my back. Stefan’s eyes brightened. Their usual winter-sky blue churned darker, flecked with greens and purple, the colors of the veil. He blinked, and the colors vanished.

Stefan shoved off the arm of the couch and placed his bowl on the coffee table before settling on the couch. Jonesy gave him a prrp greeting and stretched feline limbs out, inviting Stefan to tickle his belly. Stefan stretched his own legs out, popped his feet up on my table, and threw an arm over the back of the cushions. Between him and my cat, they hogged the entire couch.

“How do you know you’re a Prince of Hell exactly?” I asked quietly, still uncomfortable speaking the words.

“I hear them.” He tapped his temple. “As if it wasn’t crowded enough in there already. It’s like having a radio on in another room. For the most part, I filter it out. I also heal quickly. I barely bleed when cut. The wound closes in seconds.” Stefan paused and steadied his gaze on me, waiting for my reaction.

Holy hell, was he immortal? Would he age? Was he still half human, or was he something else now? Akil had said Stefan was lost, but I didn’t believe it then, and I didn’t believe it now. “Do you hear Akil?”

He paused, listened, tilting his head slightly. “Not anymore.” He grimaced. “Why is that?”

I’d promised never to lie to Stefan, but I couldn’t help wondering why he was there. He was the Prince of Wrath, and he had debts to pay, scores to settle. Akil was vulnerable. “He’s otherwise engaged.”

A quiet settled over us, disturbed only by Jonesy’s purring. Stefan watched me watching him. I deliberately roamed my gaze, taking in his casual appearance. There was a difference in him—a stillness—but it wasn’t something quantifiable. His very presence gave off a low-level charge, like the electric tension in the air prior to a lightning storm. The more I looked, the more it occurred to me that I might not know this new Stefan at all. Power destroys people. Stefan had survived things that would have killed most or at least driven them insane. I barely held into the last thread of my sanity. He’d already let go of his. I swallowed hard. My pulse fluttered and beat in my ears. “Am I talking to Stefan or his demon?”

This time, the smile barely masked a tightly controlled wince. “You’re talking to me. You’ll know it when he’s in control.”

Did he know how I feared him? Feared for him? “So why are you here? You didn’t come back for the ice cream…”

“It feels good, being back.” He dropped his head back against the couch cushions and closed his eyes. “It’s too easy to forget in the netherworld.”

I knew that feeling. It tempted me every waking moment: the lure of freedom. I could look at him now and kid myself that everything was fine. Relaxed like he was, he almost looked the same as he had when we’d first met. He’d been quick to smile then, cocky and over-confident. Now he was too still, pulled tightly like a rubber band about to snap. “You said you needed my help…”

Stefan sighed and opened his eyes. “Yeah, I did. I do. Do you still have the file Adam gave you? The one about the half bloods they have?”

“Operation Typhon. There’s not much in it. After they failed with you and me, the Institute kept their half-blood experiments tightly controlled. They locked Subjects Gamma and Delta away. I don’t know where they’re keeping them.”

Leaning forward, he rubbed his hands together and drilled down the easy-going attitude, replacing it with the keen-eyed glare of an enforcer. “Does it say what they’re like? Mentally? Physically?”

“A little. They’re obedient.” Unlike us. “More demon than human. Not particularly powerful. Yet.”

Stefan hesitated a beat, just enough to jolt my heart with the thought of what was to come. “There are three half-bloods in the netherworld, controlled by your brother, Valenti. He’s about to release them on this side of the veil. Probably right here in Boston. Once the half bloods have annihilated the military response and created chaos, the remaining princes will step through the veil, bringing half the netherworld with them.”

It was so much, so suddenly, and delivered so effortlessly, that all I could do was stare, open-mouthed. The princes were indeed coming, and they had half-bloods: all-powerful, messed-up-in-the-head half-bloods. I tried to think of something to say, some wonderful words of encouragement, a way to sweep the implications aside, but all I came up with was, “Oh.”

Chapter Four

I woke to the sounds of someone rattling around my kitchen cupboards and the smell of cooking bacon. I was either being burgled by a hungry thief, or someone was in my kitchen, cooking breakfast. That someone could only be Stefan. He’d left me the previous night, saying he’d be back with a plan. I’d waited, but after two hours, exhaustion had gotten the better of me. I didn’t sleep though, not really. Sleep was a luxury I no longer had. The nightmares had come the way they always did, dark, twisted things, so deep, so hungry, they were almost alive enough to exist once I snapped open my eyes and listened to my own scream ringing in my ears.

I threw my legs over the edge of the bed, tossed on some jeans and a sweater, and trudged from my bedroom into the kitchen. And sure enough, there he was, brewing coffee, frying bacon, and making toast. He’d ditched the stolen sweats for jeans and a button-down, dark blue shirt. Rolled-up sleeves revealed steely arms, arms I yearned to have wrapped around me. He had held me once, held me against him as he’d whispered words of hope to the naïve half-blood girl I’d once been. At least that girl had hope. What did I have now? I hadn’t realized how I’d ached to have company, and seeing him doing simple domestic things, like normal people did, left me speechless. Thankfully, he didn’t notice me blink back a surge of emotion. Inside of a few seconds, I had myself under control again. I hadn’t expected him to come back. The men in my life tended to disappear with no explanation, and if they did return, it was often with dire news. Yet, there he was, and by the looks of it, he could fry up a mean breakfast. The world really must be ending.

“Hey.” He spilled the strips of bacon onto a plate already stacked with toast, fried tomato, eggs, and a salad tossed on the side as an afterthought.

He’d been shopping for groceries too? For me? I hitched myself onto the breakfast barstool. “Wow, this is… Wow.”

He slid the plate to me and flashed a smile. “You have an institute tail parked outside.”

I tensed, a piece of toast half way to my mouth. “Really?”

“Yeah.” Leaning on the breakfast bar, he nodded toward the window across the living room behind me. “Enforcers are about as subtle as demons bargain hunting at a garage sale.”

“Were you seen?”

Stefan gave me a give-me-some-credit look. I shrugged and crunched into my toast. He hadn’t made breakfast for himself, I noticed. So not staying then. “Are you going to watch me eat?”

“I killed him and hid the body in the trunk of his car.”

A jagged piece of toast lodged in my throat. “What?” I spluttered.

His grin was pure mischief. “You think I would?”

“I don’t know… Prince of Wrath much?” I coughed and rinsed the toast down with some juice.

“Your Institute tail is fine, despite there being a kill-order out on me. I guess I’m reformed.” His lip curled. “Mostly. I can’t take back what I’ve done, but I can make up for it by stopping the princes.” His smile wavered. The memories of his encounter with the princes was obviously not pleasant.

“They really want you dead, huh?”

“I’m a half-blood prince—not the Hogwarts kind—and an ex-enforcer. Plus, my father’s the Institute’s employee of the month. I’m sure my every breath infuriates them. Not to mention, Wrath wants his title back.”

“Oh, well. At least we don’t do things by halves any more, right?”

He chuckled softly. This was…nice. Really nice. Too nice. I had issues with nice. Nice threw me off my game like nothing else. People being nice leads to hope, and false hope is a terrible thing. False hope got a nine-year-old girl killed. False hope allowed me to believe I could live a normal life. I put my toast down and frowned at my breakfast. As lovely as it was, I’d lost my appetite. One breakfast wasn’t going to make up for the past. Nor was it going to change the fact the netherworld was gearing up for an attack on this side of the veil. “Stefan… I appreciate this. I mean, nobody has ever made me breakfast before.” I looked up. The fine lines of his face creased with resignation. He knew it too. As much as we both wanted the normal, it was never going to happen for the likes of us.

He shoved away from the counter and strode across the living room to the window where he parted the blinds and narrowed his gaze, no doubt contemplating my Institute stalker.

“None of this changes anything.” I sighed. “What are we supposed to do? I can’t stop my brother. I can barely control myself. And he’s…” I gestured, as though shooing a fly. “He’s…him. All scary-immortal-lust-demon. All he has to do is look at me, and I’m terrified. And then there’s the thing…”

“The thing?” He threw a glance over his shoulder, brow tight in confusion.

“My owner wrapped around my insides.” I shoved the plate of food away and wondered if I had any whiskey left in my emergency stash. My fingers trembled. I curled them into a fist. Stefan noticed, but his neutral expression didn’t falter. I’d have better luck reading runes than that impossibly measured expression of his. “I’m not a hero, Stefan. That was your job.”

He barked a dry laugh, the sound guttural, almost dirty. “Like I’m the epitome of self-control?”

After everything he’d been through, he seemed to be doing pretty well. He was here, talking, joking, almost himself. “How do you do it? How do you control it?”

He shot me a sharp look. “I don’t. It controls me.”

“So, why aren’t you all, y’know, frosty?”

“Because right now, I either have what I want, or I’m getting it.” The glitter in his eyes sparkled. “Don’t look at me and see a survivor. I’m not human, not any more. If the demon wants, it gets. I have no control. None.”

That wasn’t a particularly comforting thought, given how he’d nearly brought about an ice age and almost killed me several times. Bowing my head, I hoped to hide how his words affected me. I’d held out hope that Stefan would win. I didn’t want to hear the truth. If he was all demon, then what hope was there for me?

I held up my finger and thumb, showing him the tiniest of gaps. “This is my control. I’m this far away from going nuclear, and I’m too much of a coward to do the right thing.”

“Which is?”

“Take P-C-Thirty-Four.”

He flinched. He had an intimate relationship with the drug. The Institute had developed it by testing it on him. Plus, a few months before, I’d pumped him full of the stuff in an attempt to repress his demon side. He hadn’t reacted well. Shadows crossed his face as the history flittered through his mind. For a few seconds, I feared the memories might flick his demon switches, and I’d be captured in ice in the next breath. Finally, after what was probably only a few seconds but felt like minutes, he lifted his head. “You’re a lot stronger than you realize.”

“I’m really not. I’m propping myself up with alcohol. I hunt demons every night, hoping one might get lucky and kill me.” Yeah, there was that ugly truth out in the open. I hadn’t even been sure until that moment when the words were out and they sounded right. My lips twisted. Self-disgust churned my stomach. “I don’t trust myself. Not even a little bit. My thoughts are all over the place. I can’t decide, right now, if I wanna curl up in a ball an’ cry, go out on the streets and kill demons—and I mean kill them, not just deport their asses—or if I should jump you because the lust in my veins is driving me crazy. My demon wants a piece of you. She wants to burn everything to the ground, and she quite likes the idea of the princes showing up so we have an excuse to go all Mother-of-Destruction on them and destroy anything within range in the process. And underneath all that neurosis, Damien sits and waits, like some fucking monster ready to swallow me whole and spit me out, stripped of my humanity. So tell me again how I’m stronger than I realize.” Breathless and trembling, I whispered, “Jerry said half-bloods shouldn’t exist. That what we are—it’s impossible. I think I know what he means now. I can’t do this any more.” Dammit, I wasn’t going to cry in front of Stefan. He’d been through just as much, if not worse, and he wasn’t a jabbering wreck. Why couldn’t I get my shit together? I attempted a smile, as though that could paint over all the emotional cracks.

Stefan’s lips barely twitched in response, but the diamond hardness of his eyes softened. For a few moments, I feared he might cross the room and gather me into his arms. I surprised myself by wanting it to happen, needing it to happen. But he didn’t move, and neither did I. Always distant. I couldn’t blame him. It was probably for the best.

“You’re so much more than you think.” Jaw set, he gave a gentle shake of his head. “You think you’re weak. You’re not. So you’re not perfect. Survivors generally aren’t. I’ve seen victims, Muse. You aren’t one of them. You’ve survived everything the netherworld has thrown at you. You’ll never let it destroy you.”

I wished I had his faith in me.

I straightened and denied the doubt purchase in my thoughts. I’d come this far. I wasn’t going to lose my mind. Not yet. If the princes were coming, there were only a handful of people who could do anything about it. I was one. Stefan was another. He’d have a plan. He always had a plan. “What are we going to do?”

“We meet Val’s force head-on. Get to the Institute half-bloods—that’ll make four of us. Val has three. We can beat back his attack here, or we take the fight to him.”

Just the thought of releasing my demon sent shivers twitching through me: good shivers, bad ones, lust, desire, madness. If I had to go back to the netherworld, I’d be gone the second I stepped through the veil. My demon would win. Would I be like Stefan? Cold? Distant?

I needed a drink. “Seven half- bloods for seven princes,” I mumbled. Surely that wasn’t a coincidence. The universe prefers order. What would chaos do to it should the princes prevail?

“Four princes,” Stefan corrected.

Right. One was here with me. Akil was locked down at the Institute, and the Prince of Envy had been killed by a little half-blood girl, a crime for which I’d volunteered to shoulder the blame. That left Sloth, Lust, and Gluttony. I was long overdue a date with the Prince of Lust—Asmodeus, my father—but had no desire to speed that process up.

The few bites I’d had of breakfast churned in my stomach at the thought of facing him. “What do you need me to do?”

“Find Operation Typhon’s Subjects Gamma and Delta at the Institute.”

“Okay, I can try, but I don’t know where Adam’s base of operations is.”

“Then find out. Appeal to my father’s scientific side. If he thinks he can get some value out of you, he’ll tell you anything. Nothing gets between him and the progress of the Institute. Plus, he’s fascinated by you. You’re the one that got away…” Stefan relaxed back against the wall and rubbed at his forehead. “I can’t go near him. I’ll kill him.”

I figured Adam was on Stefan’s hit list. He was on mine. I puffed out a sigh and raked a hand through my hair. I really wasn’t up to this. “How long do we have?”

“I don’t know… A week maybe. I only get whispers, pieces of their thoughts, bits of conversations. I try not to delve into what I’m hearing. Half of it I don’t even understand. I’m not sure I want to. I do know they’re concerned about Akil’s disappearance. It’s giving them pause.”

“Is he part of their plan?” I asked, careful not to put too much weight into the question. Mentioning Akil within earshot of Stefan was like jumping on thin, cracked ice.

Stefan’s smile was far from kind. To call it a sneer didn’t do it justice. He smiled like a demon, hungry for the kill. “No, they despise him almost as much as they hate me. They’re afraid of him too.” Pausing, he seemed to mull over his last words. “He knows something that has them rattled. Whatever it is, they’re not happy about it. They suspect Akil was behind the Prince of Envy’s demise. They believe you’re Akil’s tool. They’re all too aware they’ve underestimated him.”

Didn’t everyone? They were probably right about all of it. Akil had manipulated the events that brought down the Institute. He could easily have steered the Prince of Envy into my path. If I thought about it for long enough, everything could be traced back to Akil. But confirmation that he was on our side had to be good news. At least, he had been on our team, before Adam locked him up. Now his motives were anyone’s guess. I needed to see him, to find out what he knew, to get the answers he owed me. “Akil told me the King of Hell could stop what’s coming. Have you heard anything like that?”

“No.” By the slight inflection of the word and arch of his brow, I could see I’d clearly piqued Stefan’s curiosity. “Really?”

I didn’t entirely trust Stefan and wasn’t sure whether any of the information I’d gleaned from Akil would help. It was all sporadic bits of dubious stories, nothing solid. But given the circumstances, rumors and speculation were all we had. “Alright… He told me there had once been a queen and king of the netherworld. When both ruled, they’d maintained a balance. But the queen killed the king, and the princes turned on her... That was pretty much when the netherworld went to hell.” I left out the part where I believed Akil was the king. He had told me the true king was hiding, but Akil hid the truth in plain sight. Stefan and Akil were destined to kill each other, like two freight trains on the same track. It was an unavoidable fact. I needed to keep them apart, especially if the so-called king could stop the demons.

“There’s a King of Hell?” Stefan had the same look on his face I must have had when I discovered the princes weren’t the worst the netherworld had to offer: an expression of abject shock and awe. “And Akil knows where he is?” I nodded. “That’s why the princes fear him. Do you know where Akil is?”

“Yeah, I do.” I hedged. “But I don’t want to tell you, especially after what you’ve said about who’s in your driver’s seat. Trust me, okay. Don’t ask. I’ll get to the bottom of the king rumors. If there’s truth in it, I’ll tell you.”

He nodded. “I do trust you.”

“Really?”

“Sure. Life is pretty simple now that the demon has control. Our past is irrelevant.”

There was so much wrong with his words that I pinned my lips closed and shoved the shock aside. It shouldn’t be that simple. Human beings are made up of turmoil. We challenge ourselves, we second-guess, we doubt, we live, we love, and we’re complicated, messy, and outright destructive. Stefan’s words denied all of that. Our past wasn’t irrelevant. It was right here in the room with us, but he didn’t feel it. That was how he was able to sit and chat like nothing had happened. He no longer cared.

I busied myself tidying away the breakfast neither of us had eaten so he couldn’t see the despair tugging at my face. “I guess you’re leaving again?”

“I need to get closer to Val’s half-bloods to see what we’re up against. I might be able to buy us more time.”

The thought of Stefan confronting my brother had my stomach fluttering with nerves. “Watch Val’s wings. They’re lethal.”

“So are mine,” he said from too close behind me. I turned, just enough to see he’d moved from the window to the breakfast bar, and was close enough to reach out and touch. My imagination played the scene of me doing just that, and in my head, things quickly escalated to more carnal endeavors. If what he said was true, I might never know him intimately again, and that thought, like so many others while in his presence, added to my burden.

Stefan could only wonder at the color in my cheeks. If he’d felt anything for me, it was probably buried under his demon’s desires. Demons don’t love. Maybe he never had.

I smiled despite my broiling emotions. “You know what? Maybe when all this is over, we can go out, grab a bite to eat, maybe catch a movie. Like normal people do.” I watched closely, trying to determine if what I saw was real or just a demon act.

“Like a date?” A frown touched his face, but didn’t cut deeply. Playful suspicion chased it away. He leaned a hip against the cupboard and crossed his arms. That trademark smile tugged at his lips. When he looked like that, I could forget how he’d changed. That smile reminded me of the old Stefan, living the demon-slayer dream: the wise-ass cocky half blood, with his red coat, flashy guns, and quick wit. So in control. So confident in his half-blood nature. His enthusiasm and lust for life had attracted me like a moth to the flame. But like those moths, we’d both been burned by our attraction. Yet, there I was, like an idiot, attracted to the cool burn of him all over again.

“Yeah, like a date…” I filed the plates in the dishwasher, keeping him in my peripheral vision.

“Did you just ask me out?”

“Yeah.” I gathered various plates, careful not to catch his eye, and loaded the dishwasher. “You got a problem with that?”

“Will there be ice cream?”

“Definitely.”

“Deal.”

I kicked the door closed on the dishwasher and straightened to face him. “You realize you’ve just made a deal with the Mother of Destruction?”

His eyes sparkled. “Will I forfeit my soul if I call it off?”

“Totally. No backing out, or I’ll send in my minion.” Jonesy prrped on cue despite not lifting his head.

“Hell no. My soul is all the human I have let in me.”

Chapter Five

Less than an hour later and back at Stone’s Throw, Ben didn’t hesitate when I ordered whiskey this time. He frowned at the hostile crowd and back at me while he fixed my drink. I wasn’t welcome, but it was a public bar, and unless Ben barred me, I could do whatever the hell I wanted there. Still, having half a dozen enforcers eying my head for a trophy wasn’t a particularly pleasant feeling. Ryder had made their thoughts pretty clear. I was the enemy. Adam’s intervention was likely the only thing preventing his elite squads from taking me out. I didn’t want trouble. I needed to get into the base of operations with my hands free and my demon intact. That wasn’t going to happen if I pissed them off. Time to play the good little half-demon consultant.

“Muse.” Adam acknowledged me with a nod then strode on by and sat at a table with a handful of enforcers. They spoke too quietly for me to listen in. As much as I wanted to overhear their conversation, looming behind Adam wasn’t going to win my any favors. I roamed the bar, checking out the incident wall. After twenty minutes, Adam finally joined me.

Adam towered over my itty-bitty five-foot nothing, intimidating me just by standing right next to me. Adam had the kind of natural strength you can’t hone at the gym. Good genes. Like his son.

A headache throbbed up my neck and around my temples. I took a sip of my whiskey and welcomed the burn. “How’s it going with Akil?”

He folded his arms over his chest and regarded the countless photos and documents pinned to the wall. It took a while for him to reply. So long in fact, I wondered if I was getting the silent treatment. “There was an incident.” The grave timber of his words made it clear things weren’t going well. “Conflicting reports say he wasn’t restrained properly or that he convinced one of the team to loosen the tethers. Either way, he killed one of the lab assistants and broke the arm of another before he could be…restrained again.”

“He did all that while still tied up?” What did Adam think was going to happen? You don’t capture a wild animal and expect it to roll over and let you tickle its belly.

Adam brushed a hand over his chin, bristling the day’s worth of whiskers. “The lab technicians will be more careful in future.”

A member of his staff had been killed, and he thought it would teach his staff a lesson. Those reactions were why Adam ruffled my demon bristles the wrong way. “Have you got anything of worth out of him?”

“It’s early days.”

“Yeah, lots of time to lose more valued staff members.”

Adam pointed at a photo on the wall. By the shoddy focus, I figured it had been taken with a cell phone, but it was clear enough to show the hideous lesser demon with its beast-like maw about to devour what looked like a human arm. “This demon took out a family walking in the park and tore them to shreds in broad daylight in a crowd of thirty people. It turned on others. Killed eight people in total.”

I tore my gaze away from the forensic scene photograph only to find Adam pointing at another.

“A fight broke out at the Aquarium,” he continued. “In the confined space, this demon killed seven and wounded fifteen people before staff trapped it in a side room.” His throat moved as he swallowed. The lines around his eyes pinched as he removed his glasses and wiped them clean on his shirt. “They’re coming through faster then we can send them back or kill them. It’s chaos.”

I bit back the urge to tell him to release Akil. He wouldn’t, even though he should. In Adam’s world, all demons were evil. The lesser demons, the ones without conscious thoughts, no more aware of what they were doing than wild animals, the no-name demons, just trying to get by, and the princes, they were all evil and needed to be destroyed. None more so than the Princes of Hell. “I can get information from Akil. Your people won’t get anything of value out of him, not in this century, and you don’t have a lifetime to question him.”

He slid his glasses back on and regarded me with a heavy sigh. “If I let you in there, he’ll kill you. Of that, he’s been quite vocal.”

I moistened my lips and scanned the pictures without really seeing them. Adam didn’t know how deeply my relationship with Akil flowed. Nobody really did. I often wondered about it myself. Stefan had suggested I give his father something Adam couldn’t refuse investigating. If I played this right, I could get into the Institute’s base and hopefully within spitting distance of the Operation Typhon Subjects. The other half bloods had to be near where they kept Akil. How many secret lairs could one organization have?

“He won’t kill me, Adam.” I tasted the words to come, rolled them on my tongue, and then reluctantly let them go. “He loves me.”

“Impossible. Demons are incapable of love.”

“That’s what I thought too, but he’s changed. When he believed Stefan killed me, it ruined Akil. I’m not sure he understands it, but it’s there. It’s real.” His behavior of late had me second-guessing what I knew of demons. Akil himself had told me he was different after I’d pumped him full of enough power to turn him into liquid fire. Plus, the grief he’d experienced, his reverent touch after he’d asked me to love him like a man, the things he’d said, the confusion behind his expressions: the signs were there. He hated it himself for it, but he couldn’t deny it. “He will talk to me.”

“Even if that were the case, I can’t let you in there with your demon. You’re a Class A demon and a volatile one.” He dropped his gaze to the drink in my hand. “You’re not even bothering to hide your instability. I’ve already lost one facility. I can’t afford to lose another, not while the demons are coming at us in vast numbers.”

“It’s not going to get any better. This is the first wave. You know that, right?”

He squinted at me. “It’s likely. Do you know more?”

“I have connections, remember. The princes have plans. They’re eyeing up Boston as prime real estate. Let me talk to Akil, see what he knows.”

“Do you love him?”

“Akil? No… I…” Adam gave me the arched eyebrow, and for a second, I saw Stefan’s incredulous expression in his father, the stubborn jaw, fierce eyes flecked with mischief. “It’s complicated.”

“Love usually is.”

“Seriously? I’m not having this conversation with you. What is it with Harpers and love? Stefan asked me the same thing once.”

“What did you tell him?”

“It’s complicated.”

“When Ryder’s team took Akil down, what did you feel?”

I scowled and gritted my teeth. “Are you psychoanalyzing me?”

“All the time.”

Tension crawled over my shoulders as I fought with myself to not swing at Adam. Everything about the man set my teeth on edge. A sip of whiskey, and the resulting burn reduced the itch to punch him. If I wanted to get inside the base, I had some convincing to do, and landing a right hook across Adam’s stubborn jaw wasn’t going to help. It’d sure feel good though. “Do I love Akil?” I repeated, listening to the resonance of the words, testing their weight. “I don’t want to. I know what he is. I don’t like him. Sometimes I hate him. A lot of the time, I hate him…”

Adam had the gall to look sympathetic. “Love and hate are not mutually exclusive.”

I pursed my lips. He’d just confirmed my own fears. “When Ryder took him down, I wanted to kill everyone in that alley. Akil was mine, and you’d stolen him from me. I was ready to go nuclear…until Ryder told me he wasn’t dead.” I’d felt the rage bubbling, ready to blow. I had no doubt I’d have torn that neighborhood apart.

“But you didn’t.”

“Obviously.”

“He can’t ever love you back, Muse. Their mental capacity isn’t designed for emotion the way ours is. They’re creatures driven by a purpose. Whatever they desire, they seek it out. It’s a simple existence. You might even call it liberating. But they don’t experience the complexities of life. You forget. I’ve dedicated my life to studying demons. Every minute, of every day, for as long as I can remember. It’s always been about them. They will deceive, misdirect, and use force. They will lie. A lie to them is nothing more than another tool in their catalogue of methods to manipulate. A demon does not and cannot experience love.” His eyes had softened and glistened wet at their corners. His lips pressed into the ghost of a smile. This wasn’t a clinical lesson. He was talking from the heart. He’d loved Stefan’s demon mother, Yukki Onna. And it had scarred him. Maybe she’d lied to escape him? A chip glanced off my absolute hatred for Adam; maybe he was human after all. Noticing my silence, his smile hitched, and he inclined his head. “I know what it’s like. They’re easy to fall in love with, with their smooth lies and forbidden beauty, but not so easy to fall out of love with.”

“You still love her?”

He leaned back and tightened his arms across his chest. “It’s complicated.”

When did it become okay to talk love with Adam Harper? As much fun as this wasn’t, I needed to make progress. Still, I filed his revelation away for possible leverage against Adam. I’d learned that secrets make generous currency. “We can argue this all day and night. While we do, Akil’s getting angrier, and more demons are spilling through the veil. Let me help you.”

“I will.” He smiled that oh-so-friendly smile. “When you agree to P-C-Thirty-Four.”

“I can’t.”

“It’s temporary. You know that. Once you leave the facility, you’ll be given the antidote.”

He even looked sincere, like he believed his own bullshit. “Adam, the last time you said that, I spent six months with your poison in my veins. I was nearly killed by my owner while you procrastinated over my so-called wellbeing. I may be volatile, but I’m not stupid.”

“You have my word.”

I lifted my brow. “I’d rather die.” I might well die if I didn’t sort my shit out soon.

“Then we’re at an impasse.”

“Yes, we are.”

Chapter Six

Walking back to my car, I considered how I’d failed my mission to get inside the Institute’s base. I had learned that Adam was still in love with Yukki Onna. Could I use that? Everyone has a weakness. Was she his? Was I wrong for even considering exploiting him? Hell, no. Bigger picture. I needed to get to the half bloods, and just because Adam might have a heart, didn’t mean I wouldn’t shove him in front of a bus given half a chance.

I crossed the street and descended into the parking garage. A familiar figure leaned against my car. He’d retrieved his long leather coat. Faded to the color of dried-blood, it bore scuffs and tears that should have seen it tossed in the trash. But he’d kept it. I allowed myself a few moments of selfish admiration. He stood demon-still, arms crossed over his chest, head tilted a little to one side, a curious, knowing smile playing on his lips. At least, I guessed as much. I couldn’t quite see the smile, but if the sensuous touch of his element was anything to go by, he had mischief on his mind.

“Well?” Stefan asked as I drew closer.

“I thought you’d have high tailed it back to the netherworld by now.” I checked over my shoulder and scanned the shadows draped over the dozen or so parked cars. We were alone, no Institute tails. Stefan hadn’t budged from my car door, but the invisible lick of his element swirled around him. I planted a hand on my hip and lifted my chin. “I didn’t get in. Adam won’t let me near their base with my demon intact. He says I’m half way to crazy town, and he’s got a point.”

“I could force the information out of him,” Stefan replied, deadly serious.

Oh-kay. “You’d kill him.”

The corner of his mouth tucked into his cheek, twisting his smile. “Yeah, there is that.”

“And you’re reformed, remember?”

He flinched. “And that.”

“So you’re hanging around my car because…?”

His gaze drifted to me, pinning me beneath its crystalline shimmer. A flush of heat spilled through my veins. My element sparked to life as surely as if he’d deliberately reached inside and stoked the fire. I swallowed, failing miserably at hiding my very physical reaction to his presence. “There might be something we can use,” I blurted, shifting my feet, and pretending to find the walls of the parking garage fascinating. Damn, he had power. It rolled off him, impossible to ignore and deliciously distracting. My demon blinked awake, very much alert and suddenly hungry for a Stefan-shaped snack. “Your mom, Yukki Onna.”

He sucked in a breath and drew the power with it, pulling it back from me as though he’d stolen the quilt on a bed. I shook out my hands, a demon reaction to rid my skin of the residual tingling.

“What about her?”

“He loves her.”

“What?”

“Adam loves Yukki Onna.”

Stefan hesitated, mind working as his scowl tightened. “How did you get him to admit that?”

“It just sorta…came up in conversation.”

He made a derisive sound in the back of his throat. “So how is his undying love for my demon mother going to help us?”

Well, at least the sarcasm now masked what I assumed to be anger and the lust-shaped elephant in the garage had vanished. “I’ve no idea. Would she come here? If you asked her to?”

He shifted, scuffing his boots on the floor. “Do you think it’d make a difference? Would he bargain his feelings for the Institute?”

“This is the same Adam, right? The man who bargains like a demon? He bartered for me before I was born. He made a deal with Yukki to get me away from Damien. Alright, it was Ryder’s idea…” Stefan glared, and shivers danced down my spine. I cleared my throat. “Any-who… Would she come if you asked her to?”

“He was supposed to send me back to Yukki Onna when I was old enough to fend for myself. He didn’t. He drugged me, caged me, and experimented on me instead.” Stefan threw his gaze high, searching the cobwebs trailing across the garage ceiling for the right words. “He left me for dead in the netherworld, and when I got back, gave the termination order. You’ve met Yukki. What do you think she’ll do if I ask her to come here so my father can profess his love to her?”

“Wear his guts for garters?” Stefan’s mommy-dearest was one badass ice-demon. We’d bonded whilst battling lesser demons, right before I’d lost control and attacked her. I liked her, especially since she’d probably kill Adam on sight.

He flashed me a sterile grin. “Bingo.”

“Maybe it’s a love-hate relationship?” I had one of those. I could relate.

“No. It’s a I’ll-murder-you-to-death relationship and a terrible idea.”

“Alrighty then. Just throwing it out there.”

“Want to come hunting?”

I blinked. The last time Stefan and I had ‘played,’ he’d killed seven enforcers. “Nope.”

He dipped his chin and peered through those long platinum lashes. “No?”

“No.” Locking my arms crossed, I stood my ground. This was dangerous territory, not least because I wanted to go with him. There had always been something about Stefan that drew me to him when I should have been repelled. Ice and fire: asking for trouble. Prior to him killing enforcers, we’d sparred, demon to demon, and I’d relished every second of it. Even now, my demon stretched her awareness through my limbs, awakened by the memories. I’d had control then. Now… Now I couldn’t risk it. It wouldn’t take much for me to flip to the dark side.

“I promise to behave.” He paused. “Mostly.” He smoothed the brogue from his voice while at the same time lacing it with a hint of something not entirely human. Did he know how he sparked my fire to life with just a look, a word, a purr?

“Stefan—”

He shoved off the car and captured me in a kiss so quickly I squeaked, violated, surprised, and aroused all at once. A warning chimed in my head, but the surge of desire drowned it out. He cupped my face in his hands and kissed me as though I was made of glass, delicately, afraid he might shatter me. Soft lips, warm and sweet—all I could think to do was open to him and take him inside. He tasted like sorbet and tantalizingly like chaos. Too soon, he withdrew, doubts narrowing his eyes. I splayed my hands on his chest and marched him backward until he bumped against my car. It never failed to amaze me how warm he was. And hard. My hands rode over his well-defined chest, fingernails digging in, just enough to snatch a breath from his lips. I had to stop this here and now, but my demon didn’t agree. She surged in the wake of my desire, brushing common sense aside. Slipping my hands higher, skimming inside his coat and over his shoulders, up his neck, I cupped his face and drew him down. The brush of stubble fizzed beneath my fingers. I traced the line of his jaw with my fingertips, committing the feel of him to memory, and traced a delicate path to his lips. When I rose up onto my tiptoes and pressed my lips tentatively to his, his restrained gentleness melted away. One hand plunged into my hair while the other slipped around my lower back and yanked me close. Pressed against him, I savored the feel of Stefan: the tiny shivers like a taut chain about to snap, the trickling touch of power. He unraveled my fear, my pain, and the terrible burden of guilt. His mouth destroyed the tender kiss and worked with a sudden, delicious, urgency, casting aside all the reasons this was wrong. I wanted this. I wanted him. Never mind all the reasons to stay away, I needed to feel him, to be close to someone who understood everything, to lose myself in the tingling touch and sweet taste of chaos the way I had once before. But this wasn’t like before. We’d both changed so much. He wasn’t the same Stefan who’d stepped through the veil, and I wasn’t the same Muse either, which made this kiss new, real, and so damn good. The kiss gave me hope that maybe—just maybe—everything was going to be okay.

He pulled away all too soon. His hand released from my hair, but the other hand still trapped me against him. He trailed the backs of his fingers down my face. I blinked and watched diamond dust sparkle in his eyes. How could he be so beautiful, so tender, after everything he’d been through? Did he see hope between us too? His hand settled gently at my neck, and his thumb brushed softly over my pulse. He hesitated there. Neither of us seemed particularly inclined to move. I found my breathing matched his: exhale and inhale. Did the racing beat of my heart match his too? Invisible threads of energy wove around us, his and mine. I swallowed hard, fighting the urge to pull him into a kiss that wouldn’t be so easily stopped. He rested his forehead against mine, and for a moment, neither of us cared to talk or move. Perhaps he knew as well as I did that this—us, whatever it was—wouldn’t end well. A twitch jolted through him, just a little skip of energy, but even that tiny quiver snagged on my demon and tugged, almost yanking her out of my control. My teeth clamped closed, and a groan escaped my control. He was too powerful, too much for my fragile mind. I couldn’t dampen the demon down while he stood close enough to ravage. She was a creature of lust and fire, a being fuelled by passion for the kill, for wanton destruction, and she was hungry for Stefan. What would it be like, to have him as a demon? The two of us, ice and fire, elements entangled, fighting, repelled, and yet drawn together. The cool burn of his glittering demon skin against the raw heat of my lava-veined flesh? Would it hurt? No. I knew, somehow, that pleasure and pain were interpretations of the same sensations. It would be demon.

He brushed a thumb across his lower lip, snagging my attention to the spot I wanted to tear kisses from. His blue-eyed gaze flicked up, sending shivers through me. Adam was right about one thing. Demons had it simple, and mine wanted Stefan, right there, on the hood of the car. Was he having the same internal argument with his demon? He licked his lower lip, and it took every ounce of control I had not to pounce. I searched his eyes for permission, saw his lips curl into a smile. No, he didn’t argue with his demon. His demon got what it wanted. The smile was permission enough.

“Lesser demons, twelve o’clock,” he said, voice coarse.

Adrenalin doused my lust and poured steel into my limbs. Senses suddenly on full alert, I reached inside my mind and used the demon part of me to pinpoint our unexpected audience. Three shadows of displaced energy moved behind me. One in particular throbbed with chaos energy. The fine hairs on the back of my neck lifted, human senses sending out physical alarms. The demons weren’t meant to be there, not meant to be part of this world. Demon urges muddied human thoughts; Kill them. Burn their flesh. Destroy them. Take them, and then take him, the Winter King.

Stefan brushed his lips against mine and sent a sparking jolt through me. My demon surged. His gentle touch in the storm of chaos whisked my thoughts into a frenzy. I hooked my arms around his neck and dragged him down. Screw gentle. Screw the demons. I tore into the kiss. Our elements flared bright and hot, tingling across my skin. He slid his hands down the curve of my back, over my ass, and pulled me hard against him. My breath caught. A heady mix of nerves, excitement, fear, and lust pooled molten warmth in my belly and lower. Oh, sweet hell, I’d never experienced a madness like it. I might gladly have sated the boiling need in front of our demon audience had I not heard the familiar click of obsidian claws on concrete. Hellhound? A thunderous growl rumbled the walls and startled half a dozen car alarms.

Stefan pulled back, surfacing from the madness of hunger. “I’ve got this.” He swept me aside, and in no more than two strides, had summoned a lance of ice twice his height. He strode toward the handful of demons, face determined. Two Scorsi demons, black scorpion bodies glistening, flanked the car-sized hellhound. I dipped my chin and shoved back my demon as she clawed to be free. The hellhound bowed its head. Huge hairless shoulders bunched as it readied to leap. Its flanks quivered, and paws the size of my head splayed on the asphalt. Hellhounds were tough. I’d been unlucky enough in the past to have several after me. They can’t usually be seen by human eyes or stopped. But the veil was weakening, and none of the rules seemed to exist any more. I had no idea if this one could be stopped, but Stefan didn’t seem concerned.

The hound leapt. Stefan’s crystal wings burst into existence. He lunged and plunged the lance into the beast’s neck. It let out a broken gurgling howl and smacked down behind Stefan with a sickening crack. He wrenched the lance free of the twitching beast and spun. His wings fractured the light, magnified it, and threw the fragments across the entire garage, bathing the scene in a broken kaleidoscope of light. The Scorsi demons scuttled on scorpion legs. Backing up, they danced nervously, suddenly unsure they’d chosen the right quarry. Their humanoid torsos rippled and bucked. Beady eyes flicked from me to Stefan. They must have sensed the residual power Stefan radiated. I smiled. This would be over sooner than I could have imagined.

Before I knew I’d been hit, I found myself crumpled on the ground, face down in a pool of motor oil. My head throbbed, my side ached, and something burned like a bitch down my back. What the hell? Huge scorpion legs skittered into my line of sight. The demon made a curious chuffing sound around its bristling lips and then arched its stinger high over its body, and plunged the barb into my shoulder. I screamed. Fire burst from my skin. My demon slammed into me, evicting my humanity, and the lights went out.

Chapter Seven

I woke with a mouth as dry as a sandbox, throat stripped by acid, and my skull caved in. At least that’s what it felt like. I groaned and winced as a hideous headache ballooned inside my skull. “I’m gonna be sick.”

Jerry filled my vision, not a hard thing for him to do, considering he’s built like a pro-football player. His all-over tattoos swirled and dipped across his cheeks, nose, chin, and continued over his shaven head. A black tank top strained against bulging muscles. He wasn’t the first face I expected to see. Concern knit his brows together.

“Welcome back,” he growled, his voice the verbal equivalent of dark chocolate: smooth, decadent, and delicious. “That deceptively little body of yours is going to punish you over the next few hours. Go with it. It’s ridding you of Scorsi venom.”

Oh, right. The garage. The demons. The kiss. “Stefan?”

“Here.”

I turned my head, even though the shards of glass shifted inside my skull, and saw him standing by the window, arms crossed, one leg leveraged against the wall. Wait, where were we? Bare floors. Oddly bright flower-print wallpaper. One couch, of the well-worn variety. Jerry’s place. “What happened?”

“You were busy ogling me and got yourself sideswiped by a lesser demon.” Stefan frowned. “Sloppy, Muse. How did you pass enforcer training?”

“I didn’t.” I plastered my cool hand against my forehead. “If you weren’t so distracting with those fancy wings of yours, I would have been fine.”

“Next time I’m taking down hellhounds for you, I’ll remember to tone down the pretty.”

Jerry’s deep chuckle washed over me like a calming salve. He had power in his voice. I hadn’t yet figured out what Jerry was, if he was anything other than human. He looked human underneath all those tats. He felt human. But his voice was something else. He straightened beside the couch. “Stefan brought you to me. Caused quite the stir at the clinic, especially considering you were demon.”

Jerry was a vet. He could make babies cry at ten paces and patch up poodles with his eyes closed. And he was a demon doctor in his spare time. “I was demon?”

“We hosed you down with a fire extinguisher. Seemed to do the trick.”

It was Stefan’s turn to chuckle. I glared. “I’m glad you both think this is funny.” Trying to sit up cracked my skull open again. Falling back, I lay still, closed my eyes, and fought the nausea.

The floorboards creaked. Jerry moved away. Jerry’s apartment was the size of a shoebox. He could cross it in two strides in any direction. “I also patched up that day-old wound in your side,” he called from his kitchen. “What did you do, stick it together with glue?”

I cracked an eye open and saw Stefan smile. “Yeah,” I replied. “Learned that from some cocky demon hunter.”

“Great.” Jerry clearly wasn’t impressed. “No more self diagnosis. Next time, come to me for surgical tape.” His rich voice boomed in the tiny space, but where it should have been intimidating, it warmed me. “On the plus side, the gunshot wound in your shoulder is healing well.”

Stefan shook his head. “How have you not died?”

“I did.” I fired back and then regretted it as his lips pressed into a thin line, and his guilty gaze flicked away. I shrugged a shoulder, and then groaned as a wave of hot nausea crashed over me. “Ryder shot me a few weeks ago.”

“Really?” Stefan’s light tone implied mild curiosity, but the slight growl spoiled the effect.

“I don’t think he likes me right now.”

“Don’t believe it. When Ryder had me holed up at the lake house, he wouldn’t shut up about you. I was sick of hearing Muse this, Muse that, especially as I had some…issues with you. He worked damn hard at trying to convince me you weren’t Akil’s pawn.”

I listened to the peaks and troughs of Stefan’s voice. I heard light humor but something else too, something darker, hidden deep. “Well, we sorta had a falling out. He shot me, and I threw whiskey in his face.” I didn’t want to go into how Ryder had executed a nine-year-old half-blood girl in front of me.

“Ryder will tell it to you straight, whether you wanna hear it or not.” Stefan chuckled a soft, gentle laugh. “I knocked him out once. No, twice.”

“You did?” I turned my head again and blinked at Stefan. Even in my beaten-up state, it didn’t take much for my thoughts to wander and the memory of the kiss to tingle on my lips.

“He’s stubborn.”

“Takes one to know one.”

“Yes…” He nodded, “Yeah, it does.” He held my gaze. “He’ll come around. Talk to him.”

That ship had sailed. “Maybe.”

“He cares about you, and he’s proud of you. Maybe leave out how you let a Scorsi demon take you down. It’s not like they’re stealthy. Or particularly bright.”

“Hey, pal, there were car alarms going off, and you were all sparkly.” And I was still getting over the shot of desire he’d dumped into my veins.

“You mentioned that.”

“Well, it’s worth saying again. I can’t be held responsible for my actions around you.” Wasn’t that the truth? Back in that garage, he’d moved like the Prince of Hell he was: strikes lethal, aim true. He’d toyed with those demons. Even the hellhound. He was sexy as hell and too dangerous for me to even entertain the idea of getting involved with. He undid my control with a glance, a kiss. The intensity of that moment, the raging hot lust, the debilitating hunger to have him… I couldn’t get close again. Even now, sick as a dog, remnants of the desire I felt for him tingled in places.

I turned my head away. “Thanks for getting me out of there.”

He strode closer. “Be careful, Muse. To stop Val, I need you.”

Right. I blinked. Because he wouldn’t need me for anything else? I nodded, not trusting my voice. Was that all he had returned for? Was he using me? No, Stefan wasn’t Akil. He didn’t manipulate with every breath. He’d lied, but only to protect me. But, Stefan had said it himself. He was more demon now than human. What if he’d only come back to get what he wanted, by any means necessary, and part of that plan was messing with me? He’d once believed I’d plotted against him. Did he still? I met his level gaze and wondered what his demon was telling him as he looked down at me. Was I a tool? A means to an end? Was there revenge on his mind? The Prince of Wrath had a purpose now. His demon would have what he wanted.

He must have read something of my concern in my expression. “Are we okay?”

“Sure. I’m just…tired.”

He seemed satisfied I would live, gave Jerry his thanks, and left. I squandered the rest of the day virtually comatose on Jerry’s couch in between bouts of heaving. Jerry hung around to make sure I didn’t choke on my own vomit. He asked me if the rumors about Akil’s disappearance were true. I told him the same as I had Stefan. I liked Jerry. He’d helped me out of some tight spots. But I didn’t trust him. There wasn’t anyone left in my life I could trust. Not even myself.

“I wanted to ask you about P-C-Thirty-Four.” It was near dusk, and I’d spent enough time lounging around. I’d tried to leave twice already, but Jerry wasn’t having any of it. Now though, I shrugged my jacket back on, making it clear I was leaving, no matter what he said.

“Do you want some?”

“What? No.” I zipped up my jacket. “Wait, you have some?”

“Sure.” He strode across the room and opened up a Seventies style cabinet to reveal an array of vials and a box of jet injectors. I couldn’t miss the entwined scorpion motif of the Institute.

He shrugged a massive shoulder, muscles rippling. “When the Institute went down, Thirty-Four turned up on the demon black-market. Most of the militia use it if they can get close enough to demons to use the injectors.”

“The militia?” I’d heard rumors of people taking matters into their own hands, and I couldn’t say I blamed them given the Institute’s ineptitude.

“The public who think they know better than the Institute.”

“What do you use it for?” Just the fact the drug had been in the same room as me gave me the chills.

“I’m running tests, mostly. It’s potent stuff. It’ll drop a lesser demon in seconds. You already know what it does to half bloods.” He straightened and gave me an all-over assessment. “Speaking of which, I wanted to ask you about that.”

“Sure, hit me with it. It’s the least I can do after you keep patching me up.”

“What happens to your human body when your demon takes over?”

“In this realm, she envelopes me, clothes and all. In the netherworld, we sorta combine, blur…” I didn’t really understand it. I wasn’t sure anyone did. Maybe Adam knew all the details, but he wasn’t about to share that sort of information with me.

“When she rides you on this side of the veil, she’s obviously still an integral part of who you are. Inside and out?”

“Yeah.” Whether she was me or I was her? Well, that was for a well-paid psychiatrist to figure out.

He nodded and pulled at his earlobe. “Have you ever used drugs? Alcohol?”

“Why?” I’d gone off the rails and tried pretty much anything and everything at one time. Akil hadn’t exactly been the best of role models, and I’d had what some might call a troubled upbringing. As for the alcohol…that was an ongoing problem.

“What I’m getting at is: can you become inebriated in demon form? Do drugs work on your demon?”

What a terrifying thought. A wasted Mother of Destruction. “No, when I go demon, she burns the toxins out of me. The whole fire as blood thing kinda trumps the alcohol, although I might burn blue for a few seconds.”

He smiled over a laugh. “That’s what I thought. P-C-Thirty-Four is just a drug. It’s not netherworldly. You should be able to burn it out of your system like you would pain-killers or alcohol.”

“Nope. I can’t summon my demon once P-C-Thirty-Four is in me. No demon, no fire.”

“That’s not strictly true, is it?”

A denial stalled on my lips. After I’d had the drug in me for six months, I’d started getting headaches, nosebleeds, and my demon had broken through on several occasions. It hadn’t been pleasant, and I didn’t have any control over her, but she had spilled through the effects of PC34. “You think I can work around it somehow?”

“I think that’s what was happening before. Maybe only fire elementals can do it. Given enough time or enough stimuli, I think your demon could burn it out of you. Fire cleanses.”

“Could?”

“It’s all speculation.”

“What about Akil?”

Jerry immediately stilled while a devastating frown cut into his mask of tattoos. “Why?”

Crap. “Well, y’know, should he ever happened to accidently—somehow manage to get P-C-Thirty-Four in him, could he, hypothetically speaking, burn it out?”

“You’re talking about a Prince of Hell. An immortal chaos demon. Not a lesser demon, not a run-of-the-mill average no-name demon, not a half-blood, but the pinnacle of elemental demons, the top of the netherworld food chain.”

“Yeah, that’s him.”

He eyed me like I was trying to con him out of the family fortune. “If, hypothetically, a Prince of Hell succumbed to P-C-Thirty-Four, I’d recommend running for the nearest bunker and waiting for the fallout to settle. If Ahkeel was injected? He’s different.”

“How is he different?” I hadn’t missed how Jerry had pronounced Akil’s old name, drawing out the inflections. That meant he’d known him back when Akil preferred that name. He’d known him a long time. And there I was thinking I’d introduced them the night Akil and I’d brought Stefan back from the netherworld.

“You turned him into liquid fire over Boston Gardens, Muse. He’s about as powerful as they get. Besides you, of course.”

Maybe Akil was King of Hell powerful? I grinned. “Naturally.” Best not to dwell on that. “So he could burn it out too?”

“Burn it out, turn it to steam, sprinkle it on his cereal. P-C-Thirty-Four won’t touch him.”

I knew it. Akil was faking it. Damn him. I so needed a bullshit filter between him and me. Jerry noticed my jaw lock. I flashed him a bright smile. “Thank you. You’ve been exceptionally helpful, as always.”

He beamed back. “I’m just a vet, but I aim to please.”

An idea stilled me. “Jerry, do you have any vials of the antidote?”

“Yeah, why?”

My smile peeked out, one sided. “You’ve just made my day.”

Chapter Eight

“Muse, it’s Jenna. Where are you?”

I wedged my cellphone between my shoulder and chin, and shoved the PC34 antidote into my car’s glove compartment. “Outside Stone’s Throw. I have a meeting with Adam. Why?”

“Okay, wait there… I’ll be right over.” She hung up.

Shrugging my jacket on, I left my car and raked a gaze over the parking garage where I’d recently been bested by a Scorsi demon. Ryder would chew me out about that. It was a sloppy mistake, and it told me exactly what I’d suspected. My head wasn’t in the game. My mind was far, far away. If I was going to help Stefan, and Akil, and Boston, I needed to focus. Easier said than done.

Damn Akil to hell and back. What was he thinking? Had he really been caught? It didn’t feel right. Akil wasn’t mortal. He wasn’t human. He wasn’t a half blood. He was an immortal elemental chaos demon. Those guys didn’t just keel over. Jerry had told me Akil was different. He must want to be inside the Institute for some reason. Was it the half bloods? I had to get in there, and fast. Taking PC34 was the only way. Time wasn’t slowing down. Val was coming. Akil was up to something. I didn’t have the luxury of going into the Institute tooled up. Maybe I could burn it out of me, as Jerry had suggested, but the vial of the antidote he’d given me would have to suffice as my security. Then there was the issue of how my demon would react. My darker half naturally didn’t enjoy being repressed. What if subduing her, and then bringing her back, gave her enough mental leverage to finally take control?

Jenna jogged down the ramp, all long-legged grace and enforcer attitude. I leaned back against the fender and waited, wondering if she’d seen my brother lately. My beloved immortal brother, Val, had gone to town on Jenna, turning her into a minion—Akil’s word. My brother was a potent mix of immortal badass and lust on legs. He’d dropped me with one touch of his velvet wings. Unfortunately, Jenna wasn’t so lucky. He turned all of his netherworldly gifts, namely lust, on her and gleaned information about the Institute, me, and the Institute’s half bloods from her lips. Tough as she was, she had no defense against Val. As far as I knew, he still visited her. She’d admitted it all. She knew what she was, had offered to quit, but Adam had refused her resignation. Now, she fed everything about her encounters with Val back to Adam.

“I didn’t know who else to talk to…” Breathless, she stopped in front of me and dug her hands deep into her pockets, slouching her shoulders. Her lips drew into a stern line. “Something’s up with Ryder.”

“Is he hurt?”

“No, no, nothing like that. He’s acting differently… He’s quiet. He’s not talking with the team.”

I pursed my lips. Ryder wasn’t the talkative type, but what he did say was usually to the point. “Maybe he’s hurting. He should be.” He’d killed a little girl. He should be reevaluating a lot of things, one of them being his own guilt.

She smiled a soft, heartfelt smile, and I began to get the distinct impression this was personal. “He is, Muse. Since…that day, he’s been distant, cold.”

“He just shot Akil. Ryder and I aren’t exactly friends right now.”

“He was following orders.” Jenna held my stare, which meant looking down on me, and sighed. Perhaps she realized I wasn’t about to back down. “Okay, so he would have done that anyway. But Muse, something is up with him. We…er… He and I… Look, can you try and talk to him?”

“Me?” I snorted a laugh. “That didn’t go so well last time.”

“Please.” Genuine concern pinched her features.

Oh jeez, she was into him. How had I missed that? “Fine, but you gotta do something for me.”

Her eyes brightened with honest relief. “Okay.”

“Tell me, has Val visited you recently?”

The change in her was instant. She shrank back, and her shoulders bowed. I watched a whole array of emotions flit across her face before she locked her teeth together and swallowed hard. “Yes.” She practically hissed the word.

“What did he ask?”

She cut her gaze away. A muscle twitched in her cheek. “The same as he always does. Where are the half bloods? Where’s the Institute base? I don’t know the answers, and Adam knows better than to tell me anything. I stopped giving your brother anything of use weeks ago.”

She wouldn’t look at me. I couldn’t blame her. I’d dragged her into this. Hanging around me had that effect on people. She’d followed me when I’d tried to save Dawn. Val had the same idea. He wanted Dawn back. Jenna was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and she still paid for it. Val fucked her in every way, because he could.

“He still comes though.” She bowed her head and bit into her bottom lip before dragging her gaze up to meet mine. “I still want him to.”

“I know,” I said softly. I felt for her. The small dose of power Val had given me had driven me out of my mind. He commanded lust the way Akil commanded fire. I remembered precisely how I’d have gladly screwed my own brother, but it wouldn’t have stopped there. Lust was a madness. I’d have torn myself apart in my need to have him. It was something primal, something in my DNA. Jenna was addicted. She hated herself, I saw that much in her eyes, but she didn’t want it to stop.

“Does Ryder know about Val?”

She nodded. “They all do.”

“I mean… Does Ryder know how you’re…intimate with Val, because you two are...y’know…an item?”

“Me and Ryder?” A delicate smile fluttered across her lips before she could trap it behind her steely training. “We’re not.”

“It’s none of my business. But if you screw him over, I’ll break your legs.” I smiled as sweetly as possible, which comes off as more of a sneer when it’s on my lips. Sure, Ryder and I had issues, but he was one of the only genuine friends I’d ever had. I was allowed to throw whiskey in his face because I loved him. If Jenna ruined him because of her addiction to my brother, I’d ruin her right back.

She blinked, mouth open. Yeah, she hadn’t expected that. A genuine warmth softened her face. “Thank you.” Now we were on the same page.

“My pleasure. Now, I have to stand within two feet of Adam without trying to kill him, so let me get that out of the way, and then I’ll talk to Ryder for you, but don’t get your hopes up. Ryder doesn’t do touchy-feely talks. He’ll work it out at a shooting range or on the streets. If there is a problem, I’m probably part of it.”

She nodded. “I appreciate it.”

“Sure. When Val next shows up. I want to know everything he says. Agreed?”

She nodded. “I report to Adam.”

“Well, now you report to me too.”

Jenna’s eyes narrowed a fraction. She didn’t trust me. She knew what I was capable of, and in her book, next to ‘unstable Class A demon,’ there was a picture of me. “Is something going on we should know about?”

I grinned. “Isn’t there always?”

Chapter Nine

The meeting with Adam went surprisingly well. Nobody got hurt. No blood was spilled. I agreed to have PC34 in my veins as long as he gave me the antidote when I left the Institute facility. And if they didn’t adhere to our deal, I had my own back-up antidote. I would be free to roam their base, but the location would remain confidential. I had to go in blindfolded. It was all very secretive. They’d already been burned once. And although I wasn’t responsible, I hadn’t exactly helped the situation. I might even have fanned the flames a little. Adam might be many things, but stupid, unfortunately, wasn’t one of them.

I would be taken to their facility that afternoon. After signing a few waivers—saying should any harm come to me on their premises, they weren’t responsible—I had a few hours to kill. Jenna told me where to find Ryder.

His back alley house was sandwiched between lock-up units. The first time I’d visited him, Nica, Stefan’s sister, had been with me. Ryder had tried to threaten me. I’d burned his hand. Thus had begun a somewhat awkward working relationship and what I’d considered a lasting friendship. Ryder had taught me about all things enforcer. I’d excelled at the Institute’s ridiculous tests and would have graduated with my own enforcer tattoo had Adam not been a lying bastard. He’d just wanted me close enough to observe. I was his Subject Beta, the second in a total of four half bloods bought or raised by the Boston Institute. Adam had tried to barter with demons for me when I was an infant, but the deal had gone south, and I’d wound up staying in the netherworld, where I’d been raised by demons until Akil saved me. Subject Alpha was Stefan. Gamma and Delta, I hadn’t met, but hopefully that would change once I got inside their facility.

Ryder answered the door, chewing on a toothpick, took one look at me, plucked the toothpick free, and said, “Fuck off. You’re the last person I wanna see.”

I rammed my foot in the door just as he tensed to slam it. “Hey, your girlfriend sent me, okay. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here.”

That stalled him. “Huh?”

“Jenna.”

“Shit, me and her, we ain’t… She’s the fuck-bunny for a demon. Why would I get involved with her?”

Even for Ryder, his words were harsh. I raised an eyebrow. “You going to let me in?”

“You need an invite now? Are you that far gone?”

“You’re an asshole. Stop pushing me away.”

“Fuck you.” He turned and marched down the dingy hallway. I followed. His house was a peculiar combination of narrow halls and rooms packed to the walls with books and magazines on rifles, shotguns, autos and semi autos… Anything weapon related, Ryder knew it. But his filing skills left a lot to be desired. He lived like he dressed: as if he didn’t give a damn. The truth was, he cared about the important things and nothing else.

“She’s worried about you,” I called, losing ground as he flung open a door and descended into the basement.

I hammered down the stairs after him and emerged in an underground shooting range. Naked fluorescent bulbs buzzed on and flooded the range in light. He’d taught me how to shoot here. It looked as though I was about to get a lesson in anger management by semi-auto.

The gun he scooped up was Stefan’s old Desert Eagle, a huge, shiny piece of American badassery complete with .50cal rounds. I’d used that very gun to shoot at hellhounds eyeing me up for snack time. I’d missed for the most part. Stefan had emptied the clip into Akil’s back. And Ryder had threatened Stefan several times with it. Stefan’s Desert Eagle was the only weapon that sprinkled shivers down my spine. On the grip, the entwined scorpion insignia of the Institute declared its purpose: demon-killing weapon. And if Ryder chambered etched-rounds, it could kill a prince, or at least a prince’s vessel. Ryder didn’t know it. He knew etched rounds were effective, but had no idea he’d almost killed Akil. It was only after my intervention that Akil had bounced back.

I hugged my arms crossed as I watched Ryder check the magazine, ram it home, and then check the chamber. Ryder was a lot like that gun, a steely, no-nonsense demon-killer. He’d screwed up once: he should have killed Stefan. He’d vowed never to make that mistake again, and not long after, he’d killed Dawn, put a gun to her head and pulled the trigger. Every night, I replayed the scene in my dreams. Ryder standing tall over a tiny nine-year-old girl. Arm outstretched, aim true. Not even a quiver. And she’d thanked him. Goddamnit. Dawn had been braver than all of us in the end.

I flicked my gaze down the range. Unshed tears blurred my vision. “You did the right thing,” I said quietly. I gave Dawn hope, but it was a false hope, which I had no right to dish out. I thought I could save her, the way Akil had saved me once, but it was a lie. I only had to look at Stefan, look at what I was turning into. Dawn hadn’t stood a chance. I’d been wrong, but that didn’t mean I was happy about it.

Ryder took aim at the target several hundred meters down the range, stole a breath, and pinched the trigger back. The gun blast boomed. I closed my eyes and relived the shot that killed Dawn.

“I don’t need or want your forgiveness. I know I did the right thing. She was a level-red threat. I eliminated a Class A demon—did my fuckin’ job. So keep your goddamn forgiveness to yourself.”

Considering Jenna had said he was quiet, I figured I was getting the uncensored Ryder. I pinched my lips together, biting back a few choice words, before settling on, “I’m sorry about the whiskey.”

He aimed again and fired. “Was a waste of damn good whiskey.”

The words ‘you deserved it’ were on my lips, but I somehow managed to keep them to myself. Apparently, I did have some self-restraint left. “Ryder… Is everything okay? I mean, besides the obvious?”

“Everything’s peachy, Muse. Demons are spilling through the veil quicker than we can deport their asses back to hell. Hellhounds are roaming Boston. People are dying, and we don’t have the numbers to protect them. And you… you’re…” He lowered the gun to his side and glanced across at me.

I smiled as gently as I could. “I’m still me.”

For a moment, his eyes saddened, and he aged years in seconds. Beneath the haggard lines, a brutal honesty bled through his expression, and damn, he looked exhausted. Then it was gone, and I was staring at hard-as-nails Ryder as he glared back at me, daring me to ask him what I’d just seen. “For how long, Muse?”

Yeah, he had me there. Hours. Days. No more than that. If I got through the week without turning demon, it’d be a miracle. PC34 would buy me a few days, but once the antidote washed the drug from my veins, my time was up.

“You heard from Stefan?”

I stilled and bit my lip, suddenly finding the floor fascinating.

“That bad, huh?”

“He’s…”

“Forget it. I don’t wanna know. I’ve got enough shit to deal with. Just go, Muse. You got no business being here. We don’t need to work together any more. If anything, I should lock you up. I don’t wanna have to shoot a friend the way I did that little girl.”

“It won’t come to that.”

He didn’t look convinced. “Get outtah here, and don’t come sniffing around if Jenna asks again. My problems ain’t nothing you can fix.”

Tucking my hands into my pocket, I nodded. “I’m going to the Institute facility later, to see Akil, with P-C-Thirty-Four in my veins again. When I come out and I get my demon back… I’m... Well, if it comes to it, I’ll go back to the netherworld. If I’m going to go nuclear, I’ll do it there and take every fuckin’ demon with me. I’ll make you proud.” I favored him with my best Ryder wink, turned on my heel, and left with the weight of his gaze on me until I climbed the basement stairs.

Chapter Ten

After an hour’s journey in the back of a blacked-out van, I was escorted onto the grounds of the Institute’s secret facility, which resembled a country club until I got a look at the inside. A single-story compound capped a vast underground complex. The elevator taking me and my escort of armed guards below ground took an age to descend fifteen levels into the bowels of the facility.

Once we’d arrived, I was signed in, searched—again—and jabbed with a jet injector. Five minutes turned into what felt like an hour as I gritted my teeth and fought against the pain of having half of my thoughts and half my soul ripped out. At least I didn’t pass out this time. Striding beside my personal guard, I swallowed back bubbling panic. Without my demon, I felt naked and vulnerable. A chasm had opened up inside. It took all my effort to plaster an expression of indifference on my face. It was that or drop to my knees and sob. I did learn that PC34 had no effect on a soul-lock. He/it was still there, a clenching tightness in my chest, a stagnant pool of darkness at the back of my thoughts. If anything, without my demon, the doors were open… Come on in, Damien. Pull up a chair. Make yourself at home. While the resident demon is away, you can play. All I could do was hope my parasite couldn’t do anything without my say-so because, if I was wrong and he was aware he now had free reign, I was in trouble, and so was the entire secret facility that’d just let a class A demon into their midst without knowing she was soul-locked. They didn’t have that check box on their waiver forms.

Adam took over from my armed escorts. He didn’t bother with small talk. We’d moved beyond idle chitchat when he’d first locked me up and drugged me. As we walked, I staved off an itching panic by absorbing all the information I could from my surroundings. I knew the Institute was generously funded, but this place had to be a multi-billion-dollar operation. You don’t get a swanky underground lair from Kickstarter. Only big corporation money could buy all the gleaming tech and qualified staff. As we followed shiny white hallways and my boots tapped out a beat in the sterile quiet, I wondered if Akil had known about the scale of this operation. If he was faking it, as I believed he was, then what possible reason could he have for wanting to get inside? Unless he meant to destroy it? He’d told me his attack on the Boston hub had merely been for their own good, to disturb the nest so they could rally their forces. It didn’t make sense for him to continue his assault, unless he’d lied. He did have a tendency to bend the truth around his whims, but I liked to think I wasn’t as easily fooled as I used to be. When he’d revealed why he’d sent Dawn in, why he’d set the Institute up, it had felt like the truth.

Stefan had said the princes hated Akil. Although, given that the princes seemed to despise one another, their hatred wasn’t a surprise. They distrusted him and knew they’d underestimated him. So whatever Akil was scheming, he was on his own. That wasn’t a particularly comforting thought. Alone, he’d managed to reduce the Institute’s topside operation to rubble, and he’d used a little girl to do it. He’d also told me he’d been manipulating the Court for years. Whatever his reason for getting inside the Institute’s underground base, I had to convince him to drop it. Now was not the time to play demon games.

My boots squeaked on the linoleum. Somewhere, a door hissed shut. Occasionally, I caught snippets of conversations. The white, the quiet, the pine-scented smell of cleaning fluids, Akil being here—it was all just plain wrong. What was I going to find? Considering how I’d last seen him, kneeling in the alley, his eyes scolding me with disgust, I would need to steel myself for what would no doubt be a verbal lashing.

We arrived at an antechamber. No windows. White walls and ceilings. Electronic keypads. Inside, a rotund, cocoa-skinned woman greeted me with a firm handshake. Dressed like a glamorous schoolteacher with complimenting neutral colors and a silk scarf slung loosely around her neck, she exuded a distinctly authoritative vibe, not unlike Adam’s. She was shorter than Adam, more my height in flats. Her dark hair had been curled into a bun. Not a single strand flicked free. She wore a trouser suit and not the cheap sort, if the flattering fall was anything to go by. Behind her, two white-coated lab assistants waited like sentries either side of a steel door, clipboards clasped in front of them instead of the assault rifles favored by their topside counterparts. Welcome to the Institute 2.0.

“Muse, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you. My name is Sabine Sturgill. I’m the East Coast VP.” She had a practiced, steely handshake further hardened by her rigid gaze. Here was a woman not to be underestimated. “Adam has kept me well informed of your progress.”

My progress? Oh, how I wanted to leap right on that one, but airing my grievances was not why I was there. I had a job to do, and my own personal baggage could wait—at least for five minutes. “He’s never mentioned you.” I smiled.

“Well, no. We tend to keep the higher echelons out of general conversation.”

Anyone who used the world echelon in conversation had better have the balls to back it up. Considering Adam’s quiet presence behind me, I could assume Sabine did.

“I hear you saved Adam’s life a few weeks ago…”

My sweet little non-assuming smile stayed. I blinked a few times too many. “Yes.” Not by choice, more by accident. “I have my uses.”

Her teal eyes sparkled. “Of course you do. Which is why you’re here. I’m assuming you’re ready to see him? You don’t need to freshen up first?”

My eyebrows lifted. Was I going to have to dance to this nice tune the whole time I was here? Just let me see Akil already. “No, I’m fine. The sooner I see him, the quicker we can start getting answers. I don’t think we have the time to get comfortable. Do we?”

“No. You’re right about that. I would like to talk with you some more about what you know. It’s quite evident we’re dealing with an unprecedented number of incursions, and I understand you have certain…connections?”

“Once I’ve seen Akil.” See my nice smile? I can do congenial. Just not for much longer.

Adam loomed to my right. I’d almost forgotten him; such was Sabine’s presence. “Muse, I’ve already warned you… Should anything happen, it will take seconds for my people to reach you. As you know, a Prince of Hell can do a great deal of damage in seconds.”

You have no idea. “Is there anything specific you’d like me to ask him?”

“Not yet. I want to see how he reacts to you first. We’ll go from there.”

I was really going to do this. They turned around, and the assistants opened the door into a narrow, empty chamber. Along the left wall, a waist-high stretch of glass afforded a view of an adjacent room, and with each step, more of the room slowly revealed itself. Steel chains sheathed in clear plastic trailed from the back wall and pooled around the hunched form of a man. He’d turned away from the glass, so all I saw was the refined musculature of his back and shoulders. Sweat glistened on his bronze skin. A flood of bright light washed over him, presenting him in startling clarity. Before I realized I’d moved, I stopped at the glass, hand reaching. “Can he see us?” I whispered.

“We aren’t sure,” Sabine replied. “It’s one-way glass, but he appears to be able to see through it on occasion.”

I gulped audibly, and forgot about maintaining my composure. Distantly, I registered my rapid breath and pounding heartbeat, but all of it faded to nothingness at the sight of Akil. The sense of wrongness I’d experienced since seeing him fall in the alley amplified tenfold. My thoughts drew comparisons with caged animals in a zoo. A panther perhaps, pacing back and forth behind its bars, its eyes dull, claws blunt, mind gone. Akil could not be the man beyond the glass in that bland, sterile room. He was fire. He was chaos, bright, infallible, impervious. How was this possible?

Adam was saying something, but his words drowned beneath the gut-churning horror. I had to get Akil out. He’d saved me. He’d found me in the netherworld and taught me what I needed to know to find my own way in the dark. He’d saved me in so many ways and so many times that I’d lost count. I couldn’t let this happen.

Akil lifted his head. The corded muscles in his back flexed as he shifted position, and then he turned. Amber-fringed eyes locked on me. His lip curled up, baring blunt human teeth. He saw me, all right, and there could be no doubt what thoughts fuelled the rage in his gaze.

He launched himself with lightning reflexes at the glass, but the shackles around his wrists locked taut before he could throw his weight against it. That didn’t stop me from jerking back. He strained on those chains, pulling forward, arms yanked back, body trembling, and his face twisted into a hideous visage of fury.

I hadn’t believed until that moment that Adam’s warnings were true. I didn’t allow myself to think the impossible. I was wrong. The Institute truly had captured Akil. And he would kill me the first chance he got.

Chapter Eleven

I didn’t go in. I wasn’t ready to face him, not like that. Sabine showed me to the cafeteria, and I sat, nursing thick, black coffee while the world continued around me as though nothing had happened. I’d seen Mammon sprawled virtually comatose once, and that was wrong, but this was worse. This was abhorrent.

Sixteen years ago, Akil—or rather his true form Mammon—had plucked me out of obscurity in the netherworld. I’d caught his eye after the Institute failed to purchase me, rousing my brother’s wrath in the process. Intrigued, Mammon wanted me, but he couldn’t challenge my owner, not directly. The laws forbade it, so he’d borrowed me for three nights and planted seeds of hope in my young, pliable mind. He’d taught me how to call my fire and spoken of a world where people lived in steel and glass towers. He’d given me the true gift of freedom. I bested my owner and escaped the netherworld with Akil. He taught me how to be human. How to live in this world. He was my first love, the first to hear my laughter, the first man to summon desire in me, to make me feel like a human woman. He’d shielded me when the demons wanted me dead simply for being a half blood. He’d protected me when the Institute planted a spy in my bed. He’d done all of that, and I’d walked away from him. I’d washed my hands of him and all things demon. He’d promptly tried to get me back in the only way a Prince of Hell knew. He’d set me up, tested me, roused the demon within, and tried to get back what he’d lost. I turned on him, drained him of power, and shoved him back through the veil, where the netherworld hadn’t wasted any time in stripping him of his title and probably more. He’d even protected me from myself when I’d lost control and almost killed innocent people.

When he’d believed me dead, he’d grieved, not like a demon who laments that which they could have possessed, but like a man, who’d lost the only thing he truly needed in life. I only knew that because he’d let his guard down and begged me to love him like a man, not a demon. He didn’t understand it. Neither did I, not really.

And now he thought I’d turned on him again, lured him into that alley with promises. I’d asked him to free me of Damien, and he believed my words were a web of lies spun to trap him.

Now he was in that room, chained up like a rabid beast, not demon, not man… Something locked partway between the two. God, what was I going to do? Even if I did somehow get him free of this facility, I couldn’t stop him from destroying the Institute at a time when we needed them. Yet, we needed Akil too. He wasn’t technically on anyone’s side but his own, but he had been helping us, and if Val was coming, bringing half bloods with him, I wanted Akil by my side. Nobody could deny the two of us together made a formidable weapon. We’d beaten back a Larkwrari demon over the skies of Boston. Together, we could take on anything the netherworld threw at us.

I had to convince the Institute to let him go: a seemingly impossible task. Adam would never release his prize catch. Sabine might. Could I somehow convince her that freeing Akil now was the only logical solution? Free him and pray he doesn’t turn around and burn them all. It might already be too late. What if PC34 had a lasting effect on him? What if by subduing Mammon, it altered his human vessel? What if Akil was changed?

I had to see him, talk to him. Surely, there was still hope he was in there and could be reasoned with. Jerry had said it might be possible to burn PC34 out of our veins. He’d also said it shouldn’t have any effect on Akil. I could hope it was all a ruse, right? If not, he might kill me the second I stepped inside that cell.

The darkness crushing my heart gave a painful squeeze. I winced, clenching my hand around my coffee, and tried to ride it out. Then there was that little issue. Without Akil to undo my soul-lock, I was effectively the Mother of Destruction in waiting. Tick-tock, tick-tock. My time was up. I needed Akil to do whatever it took to get the sick bastard poisoning my soul, out of me, or I was as good as lost.

“How deep does your relationship go?”

I looked up at Sabine beside me. I’d not heard her return and didn’t feel quite up to fake smiles and biting my tongue. “Deep.” I bowed my head and lost my gaze in my coffee. “So damn deep I can’t see the bottom.”

“I have a theory about demons. They are not so unlike us. I think, perhaps once, we were the same. Wherever we came from, evolution, or cosmic intervention, we share too much with them. Look at you, a half blood… An impossible combination of human and demon. Humans and demons are connected.” She moved around the canteen table and sat opposite me. “Most demons are driven by basic needs. They want, they achieve. Simple. But a select few are different. I don’t know a great deal about the princes, Muse. None of us do. There are demons coming through the veil we’ve never seen before. I suspect some demons have more in common with us than they allow themselves to believe.”

She wouldn’t say that if she’d seen the netherworld with her own eyes. “I don’t think so.”

“Then how do you account for the vehemence with which he speaks of you?” I winced and gulped my coffee, and she continued. “If he didn’t care, he wouldn’t waste the effort of harboring hatred. You know as well as I do, they waste nothing.”

If she was trying to make me feel better, it really wasn’t working. “You need to let him go.” I shook my head and licked coffee from my lips. “This isn’t right.”

“You grew up with him, didn’t you?”

“Here, yes. I matured in the netherworld. But he brought me here and made me human.”

“Why would he do that?”

Because he was playing the long game, crafting me, not unlike my old owner had done. Damien molded me into his ruined work of abused art. Akil was sharpening me the same way I’d once crafted swords, hammering out the imperfections, driving the stubborn metal into the shape I desired. Or so I suspected. He’d admitted I was his weapon. “His reasons are his own.”

“Could it be that he genuinely cares?”

He’d said as much, but what Akil said and what Akil meant were two very different things. “No. He’s demon.”

“Right now, he’s not.”

I blinked over my coffee cup. “What do you mean?”

“He’s as close to human now as he’s ever going to be. Don’t you think that’s why he’s reacting like he is? With such passion. Demons are not passionate, Muse.”

“He’s just fighting for freedom. He’ll say and do anything.”

She nodded. “Talk with him. We’ll further this discussion once you have. It’s fascinating, don’t you think?” She beamed and left me alone with my cold coffee and muddled expression. Fascinating? No. Insane? Yes.

Chapter Twelve

The door to Akil’s cell opened with an audible hiss like an exhaled breath. Arms straight at my sides, hands clenched into fists, and throat dry, I cleared my thoughts and drove courage into my limbs, willing them forward. It wasn’t exactly fear holding me back, but the vestiges of denial. I didn’t want this to be real. And yet, as I stepped through the doorway and swept my gaze immediately toward the seething mass of man chained to the wall, fear tingled across my flesh. Something like a whisper caressed the back of my neck, raising the fine hairs. The door hissed shut. Silence descended. My feet wouldn’t carry me forward. My body had its own ideas of self-preservation. I stared, barely blinking, and he stared right back. He was strung up by the wrists, and the chains had retracted, dragging him with them, so he had no choice but to stand with his back against the wall, arms spread, muscles tight. He didn’t move. Not even a quiver. Mannequin still. But as I stepped forward, breaking out of my icy cage, his eyes mercilessly tracked me, dark eyes, their centers black, edges kissed by burnt amber. With each step, his stare whittled away my resolve. By the time I’d walked around so that the mirrored-glass was at my back, fear twitched through my fingers and sprinkled perspiration in my hairline. It seemed stifling in that brightly lit room, but the heat didn’t come from Akil. The usual crawl of his element was utterly absent. Was it mine? I swept a hand through my hair, gathered it back in a lose bunch, trying to cool my skin. Behind the glass, Adam and half a dozen armed guards waited. Sabine was there too. We had an audience, but I only had eyes for Akil.

They’d at least given him sweats to wear, although in a way, it only further humanized him. When, as Mammon, he’d first revealed his human vessel to me, Akil had emerged naked and all the more bedazzling for the swathe of bronze skin. Demons didn’t care for clothing. He’d rather be strung up naked.

Damn, what was he doing here? How had this happened?

A snarl quivered his top lip, followed by a growl bubbling up his throat. “Do not pity me.” His voice, always so smooth, had gained a saw-toothed edge. He’d been quite vocal, or so I’d been told, especially when my name was mentioned.

I dipped my chin and lifted my gaze through my lashes. “I don’t. I see the Prince of Lies at work.”

He breathed in, for the first time it seemed. His chest expanded, and his body came alive, rippling with human twitches and nonsensical micro-movements. As a demon, he’d had perfect control over his flesh and never wasted a gesture or a glance. His every breath, every touch, had held purpose. Now, he was animated in that complex and intricately human way.

“You must stop this now, before it goes too far.”

A chuckle tumbled from his lips and quickly swelled to lascivious laughter. “You think I’m here by choice?” The laughter cut off, and the quiet rushed back in, but his eyes spoke volumes.

“You allowed Levi to torture you…” I didn’t want to say too much, knowing who our audience consisted off.

Akil shifted on his bare feet and rattled the chains. “Indeed, I did. But Leviathan had limitations, rules. He did not dare attempt to sunder my two physical states. No prince—no demon would do such a thing.” His gaze flicked over my shoulder and back to me, a cursory glance in which he no doubt saw them all. “Only the Institute believe themselves above the natural order of things.” He ground his teeth, jaw clenching, so that the muscles in his face twitched. The jugular vein in his neck pulsed. “They will get nothing from me.” He pulled again on the chains, clinking the links together. “And you, my dear Muse…” His tongue flicked across cracked lips, before he peered at me through half-shuttered lashes. “For you, I reserve a special place in this weak, wretched mind. I find my thirst for revenge quite maddening. Human emotions really are delightfully arousing.”

I opened my mouth to deny what he believed, but he lunged and spat a string of ancient words at me. I flinched, not needing to understand them to feel their sting. He snarled and snapped, straining against his bonds, every inch of muscle quivering with his desire to be free. I weathered the storm, standing stock-still and numb from head to toe as he raged mere feet from my face.

“Treat me like an animal,” he growled, his knees almost buckling before he caught himself and staggered back, “and I will behave like one.” His body heaved with each labored breath.

Light-headed, I blinked back at him while mentally clinging to my reserves of calm. Without my demon, I didn’t have her internal conflict to contend with, but I had fear in swaths. “What do you want?”

“Unchain me. I will not hurt you. But for them, I make no such guarantees.” A glance at the glass again, this time with a corner-snarl to drive home his point. “I will talk with you, and only you. If another of their technicians enters my personal space, I will kill him. I killed the last quickly. I will not be so merciful again.” He turned his hands, showing me his palms. “I do not need my hands freed to kill.” His smile was pure predator. Seeing him like that, all man, primal and wild, I wondered how much of the Akil I knew I’d attributed to his true demon form. Too much, perhaps. Human men and women could be just as bloodthirsty as demons, if not more so.

“You give me your word? You won’t harm me?” I moistened my lips and gulped back the acidic burn of fear.

“Why would I harm my investment? It has not yet come to fruition.” He curled me a sly smile and bumped back against the wall.

I internally cursed. Akil had just dropped the Institute a little breadcrumb on which they could fixate about me. Almost immediately, Adam’s voice came over a speaker. “We will release the chains, if you agree to reattach them when ordered.”

Akil made a disgusted noise at the back of his throat. “Ordered? No. Ask with due respect, and I may oblige.”

The wrist shackles burst open and fell away from his arms to clatter against the wall. I had a second to think, ‘Oh shit’ before he plowed into me, slamming me back against the glass. He locked his hand around my throat, driving my chin up so I had no choice but to witness the wicked slash of a grin on his lips. “Do you think they could spill into this room before I broke your neck?” A single dark eyebrow arched high. “They do not believe so. Hence they do nothing.” He leaned all of his weight into me, crushing my body beneath the weight of his. Slick muscles rippled beneath my hands trapped between us. A visceral heat smothered me, not elemental, purely masculine. I didn’t move, didn’t flinch. If I fought him now, he could indeed snap my neck. Without my demon, I was easy prey, even if he too was elementally restrained.

He bowed his head low and skirted my lips with his. “They listen,” he barely spoke the words, just a fleeting breath, whispered so lightly they were almost thoughts in my mind.

My brow pinched, and I once again parted my lips to speak when he planted a salty finger on them to shush me. He searched my face, and his wicked smile softened. “You should not be here. They poison your body…” Sliding a hand down my arm, he caught my hand and turned it over, lifting my wrist to his lips. “And subdue your demon at a time when she is needed the most.”

“And you? We need you topside, Akil. Not here like this. No good can come from whatever this is.”

He released my hand and splayed his on the glass beside my head, then curled his fingers into a fist and bared his teeth, but the snarl wasn’t meant for me, despite his eyes never leaving mine. “You don’t need me, Muse. This is your time. You must choose.” He shoved off of me, peeling his warmth away, leaving me cold and aching to have him back. “Human or demon?” His voice lifted, and he cocked his head. “I find myself in much the same alarming predicament.”

“Is that what you are?” I rubbed at my throat. “Human?”

He stalked back. His keen eyes darted, reading the room, looking for weaknesses. “No. I am somewhere between the two. Somewhere—something I should not be.”

There, I caught a glimmer of concern beneath the mask. That was real. He rebuilt his defenses as his gaze settled on me once more, but I’d seen it. Whatever this was, it wasn’t entirely in his control, but nor was it out of his control either. He cut his dark-eyed gaze to the mirror. “Go to them. They have questions. I guarantee no answers.”

I turned and headed for the door, hating that I couldn’t speak freely with him.

“Muse…”

I knocked on the door and glanced back. He stood, arms crossed over his chest, head tilted a degree, his eyes studying me.

“Do not let them take your strength from you.”

The door opened, and I left Akil alone, unchained, but locked away, pacing his cell like the exotic feral animal he was.

Chapter Thirteen

“If you ask me, he’s faking it.” I admired Adam’s bookshelf filled with technical-sounding titles written by various doctors. Behind me, Adam leaned against the front of his solid oak desk. Like the man himself, his office was organized, neat. Everything had its place. “You have no idea what you’ve captured. You can’t quantify Akil. He’s chaos.” I trailed a finger along the books.

“Did you sense any power coming from him?”

“No, but then I’m not exactly myself either.” Adam’s attention crawled up my back like a spider. I gave my shoulders a shrug. Tension strummed through my body. Acutely aware of the drug in my veins, I had to fight the urge not to scratch it out. I’d already caught myself digging my nails into my wrists.

“When he spoke to you in Arabic, do you know what he said?”

Arabic. Interesting. “No.”

“He said, ‘I will not be chained.’”

Adam couldn’t see my smile. I made sure to wipe it from my lips before turning to face him. “He’s playing you.”

“He’s in denial.”

“Oh, I’m not arguing that. He’s forever in denial. Please, Adam. I won’t beg again, but please let him go. He will destroy you and this place if you don’t.”

“Muse, what you ask is impossible. He’s our only direct link to the princes—”

“Who he can’t reach right now because he’s off the grid.”

Adam’s silvery eyebrows rose. “Explain.”

“Prince FM.” I tapped my temple. “Akil has tuned out, probably due to P-C-Thirty-Four. They don’t like one of their own going off the grid.”

Adam’s inquiring expression portrayed something like admiration. “Go on.”

“No.” He bristled at my rebuttal, a reaction which warmed my insides. “If you want information from me, if you want me to help you, then you must do something for me.”

“I won’t release him.”

It was his funeral. “Show me your half bloods.”

I’ll give him credit. His level expression gave nothing away. “Why?”

At least he hadn’t denied their existence. “I’m curious. Stefan and Dawn are all I’ve met of my kind, and they didn’t turn out so well. I just…” I sighed, laying it on thick. “I’ve never belonged. A man like you wouldn’t understand. Reared in the netherworld, I had no real identity, no self-worth. As you know, Akil saved me from that, but even with him as my… mentor, we weren’t the same. I became human under the ever-watchful eye of the Prince of Greed, a being as demon as they get. The only genuinely human contact I’ve had was with an Institute spy.” He flinched. Good. He deserved it. “And then Stefan…” I let his name hang in the air like a ghost and watched Adam swallow hard. “Well, we both know how that ended.” Unexpected moisture blurred my sight. Hey, look at me, the poor little half-blood experiment, so lost and alone. “I just need to see them. It’s not a lot to ask. And in exchange, I will tell you everything I know about the princes.” Which wasn’t a great deal, thanks to Akil’s uncanny ability to wriggle out of the truth.

“And you’ll tell me what Akil meant when he said his investment had not yet come to fruition.”

Ah, that. “I don’t know for sure, but I’ll tell you what I’ve figured out so far.”

“Tell me now, as a… precursor to our agreement.”

Damn, he could bargain hard. “He believes me to be a weapon. One he can wield.”

“How exactly?”

Always with the pertinent questions. “You saw what I did over the gardens, how I drew from the veil and boosted Akil’s power so he could drive the Larkwrari demon back?” Adam nodded. “I funneled so much power into him, I think it altered him somehow. He says he’s different now. I think, and this is just my gut feeling, but I think the two of us together would be…” Unstoppable? Terrifying? “…formidable.”

“And how does he intend to control you?”

“He’s always controlled me, one way or another.” I had no intention of telling Adam about the soul-lock. There be dragons down that path.

“To what end?”

“You’ll have to ask him that.”

“No, you will.”

I bit my tongue and smiled sweetly, gulping back my innate desire to argue with him and resist his orders. “Did you know there was a queen?”

Adam’s eyes widened. “We suspected, given their titles, but we have no confirmation. He’s spoken of her? Does she live?”

My smile turned sour. “Show me the half-bloods, Adam, and I’ll tell you everything.” Especially the part when you have the most likely candidate for the King of Hell in your cell.

He nodded. “I’ll allow you to meet them. And then we talk.”

I couldn’t help wondering as I watched him brighten with the idea of new knowledge if I was, in all likelihood, talking to a soon-to-be dead man. Stefan would kill him if he got close enough. Akil would kill him in a heartbeat. Hell, if I lost control, Adam was at the top of my demon’s to-do list, and her ideas put mine to shame. A lot of good his knowledge would do him when surrounded by demons thirsty for his blood.

“I knew you’d come good, Muse.” He straightened, squared shoulders, head up, eyes gleaming with pride. It took all my control not to snarl over my smile.

Adam wasted no time escorting me through the facility to an area innocuously called B Section. I’d been told the Institute’s half bloods were little more than animals in cages. To a degree, that was true. But their cages were the beds they’d been strapped to and the drugs keeping them subdued. The two half bloods, one male, one female, were naked beneath the single white sheets draped over them. Only the various monitors displaying jumping graphs and twitching numbers indicated any life. I’d get more conversation from bodies in a morgue.

A curious urge to touch proved undeniable, and standing beside the bed of a young male, I reached my fingers out, but stopped short of his bare shoulder. He appeared to be perhaps eighteen or nineteen years old. His hair, so short it was barely there at all, would probably be a honey blonde if left to grow out. Strong cheekbones, fine jaw. He’d be a heartbreaker at college. Resting my fingers on his shoulder, I expected him to flinch, but he didn’t react at all. Beneath his eyelids, his eyes twitched, as though he dreamed.

“They’re physically fit, athletic almost. You don’t keep them like this?”

“No. When Subjects Gamma and Delta are not in use, we put them in stasis. They have a strict training regime keeping them physically and mentally challenged.”

Adam stood behind my left shoulder, thankfully out of my peripheral vision. I couldn’t see him, which meant he wouldn’t be able to see my sneer. What he was doing here, it was so fundamentally wrong that it boiled my blood without the help of my demon.

“Do they have real names?”

“No.”

Of course not. That would humanize them. Like this, they were subjects, projects, pets.

The girl lay as still as her brother. Eyes closed. Chest rising and falling. She had a heart-shaped face, almost pixie-like. I imagined a bright, exaggerated smile on her pale lips if these kids ever smiled. This was no life. I thought I had it bad, but these kids were machines.

“Can they summon from the veil?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Are they aware? I mean, do they know what they are, who they are?”

“They know they belong to the Institute. They obey commands without fault. They are quite remarkable.”

I withdrew my hand from the boy’s shoulder. “You know these are kids, Adam?” Turning a little, I glared back at Adam Harper’s impassive face. This was routine for him and totally acceptable in his world.

“They’re half-bloods, hybrids. You know as well as I, uncontrolled half-bloods are dangerous. This is the best option for all of us.”

Stefan had listened to this bullshit from his own father for his entire life. Just when I thought I couldn’t hate Adam any more, he surprised me. “Don’t they get a chance at life? Y’know, school, friends, real things…”

“That method failed with Stefan.”

My hands curled into fists as the urge to argue swelled inside. “I’ve seen enough.” Following behind Adam, steps heavy, I imagined myself plunging a dagger into his back. It helped. How was I going to tell Stefan about these kids? For him, it would be like looking in a mirror. He wouldn’t react well.

At least I’d seen them. They existed. They were real, and Adam seemed to believe they were powerful enough to draw from the veil. We would need them if we had any hope of beating back the princes.

Chapter Fourteen

Less than an hour later, it occurred to me as I sat opposite the unchained and impossible contradiction that was Akil, that he probably knew all about the half bloods. They were, in fact, the very reason he was there. In all likelihood, he’d planned to get captured so he might discover the Institute’s underground facility— much the same way I’d wormed my way inside.

He looked back at me, posed sideways in his chair, reading my face while I tried to stare the answers out of him. Shirtless, he oozed masculine predator. And it wasn’t his demon either. The man looking back at me was exactly that—all man—and my internal Akil BS detectors were spiking off the charts.

“Have they gone?” My soft words somehow hardened in the quiet.

He blinked and answered without checking the mirrored glass. “Yes. Although they’ll be listening, recording, scribbling notes, making assessments, measuring me against their inadequate benchmarks.”

Could they see the smile lurking on his lips from behind their monitors or how the amber in his eyes shimmered like sunlight on water? I doubted it, which was exactly why he let me see it. They were so screwed.

“What are you waiting for, Akil?” I realized I’d subconsciously mirrored his relaxed posture and sat upright, shuffling in my seat. They’d at least furnished him with a table, chairs, and a bed. Not that he’d care. He’d happily sleep on the floor or might not sleep at all.

His keen gaze warmed my skin as he slid it from my face, down the hollow of my neck, and let it linger on my chest, undressing me with his eyes. For a few moments, he did nothing then slowly, languishing in the rising tension, he lifted his searing gaze. “I find I have a new respect for humans. You suffer emotions well. I, on the other hand, am struggling to contain the many feelings flocking like frightened birds in my head.”

Nice try. “You can’t be human, Akil.” He might be damn close to it while trapped in his vessel, but the elemental creature inside him wasn’t of this world. “You can’t experience human emotion.”

“Then tell me why I spent months grieving your death?”

Blinking rapidly, I pulled back. It was the first time he’d admitted it. “I don’t know. Maybe what you felt was just a byproduct of having your plans destroyed. Grief for all those years you wasted on me, perhaps?”

He shifted sideways in his seat and leaned an arm on the table. “Perhaps, although sixteen years really isn’t much when you consider I am eternal.” He tapped out a one-two beat on the tabletop with his fingers. “You lured me into that alley, Muse. You knew I watched over you. You used me.”

“You’re wrong, although I almost wish you weren’t. How does it feel, Akil? Being used? Pluck one of those new emotions out for me, and tell me what the great Prince of Greed feels right now. Had I used you, you’d admire me all the more for my deceit.”

A tick of a smile twitched across his lips and was gone again. “Why didn’t you fight the demon in the alley? He almost killed you.”

“I told you why.” I really didn’t want to mention the details while sitting at the heart of the Institute and tried to convey as much with my eyes. Don’t tell them about the soul-lock, Akil. Please.

He absorbed my silent plea, then his dark eyes narrowed. “You lured me in close and distracted me with the one thing you knew I couldn’t refuse.”

How could I tell him it wasn’t lies when I knew the Institute would jump on me the second they learned I had yet another demon cohabiting my body, soul, and mind. I genuinely wanted him to get Damien out of me. I needed it to happen, sooner rather than later, but it was a moot point while we were fifteen levels down and both elementally restrained.

“You’re paranoid. I wouldn’t turn on you, Akil. I owe you too much. We’ve had our misunderstandings, but I see you clearly now. Besides,” I tried a smile, but it felt too tight, “You used me to get yourself a one-way ticket to this place. So stop throwing stones in glass houses.”

“I didn’t plan this.”

“Liar.”

“You wouldn’t say that if you knew the turmoil I’m experiencing. I am not meant to be contained.” His eyes flashed. “I am elemental. The longer I’m trapped like this, the weaker I become. If the princes should discover…” He gritted his teeth, lips turned down, and tore his gaze away. “Not that it matters. There is little to stop what’s coming.”

“What is coming?” I wanted to know, as did Adam. We agreed on that, at least.

Akil leaned back. “In a matter of days, countless lesser demons will break through the weakening veil. My kind will create chaos. It is our…purpose. When your world reels from the first wave, the veil will fall. The princes will come, and there is no force here powerful enough to stop them. Besides you. And one other.” The brittle white light cut into his hardened figure. His golden skin seemed to soak it up, combining luminosity with raw wildness.

“What other?”

He looked at me then, his eyes wide, pupils swelling. I fought not to drop my gaze, like I would have once, when he’d plucked me fresh out of hell. “Half bloods are the key, if you survive the collapse of the veil.”

The veil could collapse? I held my expression, careful not to give away the internal alarm his words had tripped. “If the veil collapses, why would I not survive?”

“The veil holds back the elements. Should it fall, the netherworld will spill through.” He paused, allowing his words time to sink in. I’d summoned enough power in my time to understand what he meant. Too much netherworld energy would smother me. Half bloods walked the line between two worlds. We borrowed elements from both sides of the veil. A flood of netherworld energy could kill me, or it might drive me out of my mind. But Stefan had taken a blast from the netherworld, and he’d survived. I shifted uneasily in my seat. I’d also stolen too much before and suffered the consequence. Only the cold waters of Boston harbor had saved me from going nuclear. “It won’t come to that.”

“You shouldn’t be here,” Akil growled. “Half bloods need to be standing tall.”

The stilted tone of his words hinted at a deeper meaning. Half bloods. This was about the kids. It had to be. “I didn’t have much choice.”

“You came for me?” His expression softened with hope, but that couldn’t be right. Hope and Akil didn’t mix, like oil and water. He’d never waste time with hope. His words were clues, allowing me a peek inside his charade.

“Yes. Why else?” I blinked innocent eyes. He caught it, I think. Did we agree? I couldn’t read much beyond the half-smile and spark of intelligence in his eyes.

“You let them poison you again,” he gestured and gave a dismissive shake of his head, “after everything that’s happened?”

“Yes… I…” The words almost slipped free. I needed it. “It was the only way.” If it wasn’t for the Institute’s bad timing, I’d already be free of Damien. Akil would have evicted him, and I’d have that stinking, rotten darkness out of me. I huffed out a sigh, shoulders sinking, suddenly so damn tired. Portents of doom never failed to sour the air.

Akil stood, moved around the table with purpose, and settled his hands on my shoulders. His innate warmth immediately soaked through my muscles. Was it elemental or just male? I couldn’t tell, but it felt wonderful. I closed my eyes and let my head fall back against him. The familiar cinnamon and cloves scent of him, warm and comforting, smoothed my frayed nerves. He worked his fingers against my muscles, circling and kneading. I didn’t care that the Institute would be watching. I needed him close. He’d always subdued Damien and rejuvenated my reserves.

“You must leave,” he whispered against my cheek, so softly his breath tickled my skin and scattered needles of desire through me, “Your brother shares your element. Tear it out of him, as you did me. Destroy him before he rallies the remaining princes. You must be demon to do this, Muse. He will not suffer your humanity lightly. His lust will destroy the human in you, as it has the enforcer girl.”

I mumbled something like an agreement, but his touch worked out more than just tension. I found myself drifting in a sea of comfort, wrapped up so tightly in his warmth, that I just wanted to close my eyes and sleep. He massaged lower, fingers easing out the knots in my muscles, working them away.

“He has half bloods—” I murmured. He turned my head to the side, leaned over my shoulder, and captured my lips with a kiss. A ragged bolt of hunger and lust struck at my center. The ravenous need with which I kissed him back should have startled me, but I was too far gone to care. He plundered my mouth, devoured all I had to give, and would have taken more. Fire flared within me—ethereal, demon— and behind it swirled the dark like a looming storm. I gasped and tried to pull back. Akil clamped his hand to the back of my head and held me still. Whispers hissed from his lips, words I recognized only as part of the soul-lock, ancient words pregnant with elemental energy.

“Release Muse.” Adam’s voice shattered the spell riding me, but still Akil continued. His words touched my lips and dove inside, racing down my throat, and gathered like a lead weight in my belly. My parasite twisted. When Akil’s words stopped, so did the assault on my hitchhiker.

He touched his forehead to mine. “If they believed us allies, they would not allow you this close,” he whispered. “This gift will help. Be demon, Muse, but don’t let it win. I will come to you when I am ready.”

“Release her,” Adam’s disembodied voice barked. “We won’t ask again.”

So close to Akil, lost in his eyes, I witnessed his eyebrow arch before he gave me a hint of a smile and jerked away, lifting his hands. See? Harmless. Right. Akil had power. I touched my lips, absorbing the warmth through my fingertips.

“Muse.” Adam beckoned, not sounding particularly pleased.

I wobbled out of the chair and staggered to the door, head light, body numb, fire simmering, and darkness swirling. It was all I could do not to collapse in a heap and ride out the aftereffects of whatever Akil had just done to me.

Chapter Fifteen

“What the hell was that?” Adam sat rigid behind his desk, leaning forward, face the picture of frustration. “What did he do?”

I arched an eyebrow. “I would have thought that was obvious.” The lingering sensation of his gift tingled on my lips. Adam had marched me down the hall to his office as soon as I’d left Akil’s cell.

“Don’t treat me like a fool, Muse. You’re in my world now. The temp-sensors in the room spiked. He still has power.”

Well, duh. I rubbed at my forehead. “I think it’s contained inside him. His power, I mean. You can’t expect your science to subdue chaos, Adam. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”

“Did he give you power? Do I need to restrain you?”

Akil had done something. Given me power? Subdued Damien? How was I supposed to explain the existence of Damien to Adam? As soon as I said I was possessed, he’d lock me up and throw away the key. “Forget about me. You heard what he said. There are bigger issues here. You need to get your half bloods on the streets. Val’s coming. The veil might collapse.”

“Valenti? Your brother is behind this?”

Dammit. “So, I’ve been told.”

“By whom? Who’s your contact?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Okay, Adam had gone from angry to outright suspicious. His eyes widened. He dropped back into his chair and stroked a thumb across his bottom lip. “I can’t trust you. I have your Prince of Hell lover feeding you power, and now you tell me your brother is about to launch an attack on Boston. You seem to be at the center of this nightmare.”

And he didn’t know the half of it. “Akil didn’t give me power.” That was a lie. I could feel it, the spark of fire burning inside. Not my demon, but I sure had the beginnings of my element, probably enough to trigger the chain reaction Jerry had spoken of, maybe enough to flush PC34 from my veins. “Look, it doesn’t matter. You need to call all your resources to Boston.”

“Why here?” He sent his gaze about the room, his focus wavering as his analytical mind tried to find solutions. “Why Boston?”

“I don’t know. The fine dining and excellent retail facilities?” Adam glared, clearly not in the mood for sarcasm. With a sigh, I admitted, “I suspect it has something to do with the king.”

“Tell me everything.”

“If Akil was telling me the truth, then there’s a King of Hell, who’s hiding in Boston. Akil was…” If I told Adam I suspected Akil of being said king, he’d likely fill Akil’s cell with gas and knock him out cold for further tests. Bye-bye, Akil. “He told me that the king is like the anti-chaos. He’s control. The queen—chaos personified—thought she had killed him. The princes then killed the queen. Voila, the Seven Princes of Hell get all the juice. But Akil ferreted the king away and has protected him since.”

“If we can get our hands on the king, he could stop this?”

“Well, yeah, but he’s also the King of Hell. So, y’know… He could just as likely take Boston for himself. And the rest of our world, for all I know. Akil probably knows everything, but he won’t tell you, Adam. Not for anything. You may as well let him go. He’s no use to anyone in there.”

Adam stewed on my words. His shrewd gaze wasn’t comforting. In fact, I wondered as he glared at me, if I might be summoning Akil’s gift of fire in the next breath. I angled myself toward the door, should I need to make a quick exit.

“The half bloods aren’t ready. The boy, Delta, shows promise, but...” He shook his head. His shoulders bowed, and a tired, uncertain, man looked back at me.

I swallowed and looked away. Adam might have obedient pets as half bloods, but they weren’t going to do him any good strapped to examination tables. He believed Stefan and I were failures. But what he neglected to see was how Stefan and I were powerful while his docile pet half- bloods were probably little more than eager puppies. Adam’s fatal mistake was trying to control chaos. You can’t force chaos and control together. They are mutually exclusive. I was beginning to realize that myself. I continued to try to control my demon, but it was a losing battle. Akil had said I needed to be demon to defeat my brother. His lust will destroy the human in you. There was no escaping my fate.

“Val has half bloods, Adam, and given how they’ve been raised beyond the veil, I doubt they’re the docile creatures you have hidden in your science-lab. Val knows half bloods. He’s always been the one holding their leashes. His half-bloods will be rabid, terrifying beasts quite capable at leveling Boston at his command.”

Adam nodded, regret turning his lips down. “We know of Valenti’s expertise in that area. I circumvented him myself when we first bargained for you, Muse.” Adam had tried to make a deal with a demon for me, but it had gone wrong. Val found out and stopped it. I was sold to the demons instead. We all knew how that turned out. “Stefan was tasked with learning more and potentially neutralizing Valenti, but his mission was shelved when it became clear he was no longer viable.”

I bit my tongue, battling old arguments. “Adam. For once, can we just put all the history aside? People are dying. They’ll die in the thousands. We’re among the handful who can do something about it. For whatever reason, I’m in the middle of it. I share the same element as my brother. I can use that. Let me help. All of me. Give me the antidote. Let me talk to your half bloods and see if I can rally them. We have a few days. Would you just let me be me? You wanted a half-blood weapon, and you’ve got one, but you gotta work with me, not against me.”

His fawny eyes softened, and I saw something of the man behind the Institute, maybe even the father Stefan never had. He stood slowly, almost graceful. “I’m sorry.”

The door behind me swung open. I shoved from the chair, turning, and reaching for the little flame burning within. Taser prongs punched into my chest.

I should have wagered with Ryder. What are the odds of the Institute locking me up? He’d have laughed and told me only idiots bet on odds like that.

I woke in the muted light of the science lab, restraints fixing me to the bed. Well, shit. I took stock of my surroundings. I was alone. An IV drip-fed clear liquid into my veins, probably laced with PC34. The room was all spearmint and white, typical Institute neutrality. I snarled, mostly at myself for thinking Adam would ever listen to me. A flicker of heat licked at my insides. A smile crawled across my lips. They trusted their science too much. I closed my eyes and stoked the heat, luring it out of the dark. The delicate dance of power shimmied and shied. Come. I called to it. Come back to me. And in a rush of liquid heat, it did. Fire lashed from my toes to my head, rolling up and over me. I bucked and snatched a gasp. Alarms shrilled. Akil’s scent stroked the rising thrill and drove my soul-parasite back. This element was Akil’s and mine. His gift. As the power swelled, ecstasy raked its nails across my flesh and spilled heat into my core. Demon thoughts poured into my mind, and she came, my darker other half. Elemental energy surged through my veins, turning my skin volcanic black. Fire sizzled beneath my flesh. The restraints melted away, and I fell to the floor, a beast draped in flame. My one ruined wing burst from my back. I stretched it high as I got to my feet and gave it a refreshing flick just as the enforcers stormed the room.

“Hello, boys.” I threw up a veil of heat so intense it burned clear. They fired their semi-auto rifles. Non-etched rounds peppered my shield. It tickled. While they emptied their magazines, I sought out the heat slumbering in the building. This far underground, heat was plentiful. Ducts funneled much of it topside until I reached out to it and pulled it back. Flames licked and danced around me. I raised my arms and marveled at the play of firelight. Yes. This was me. And I was so damn ready to be destruction.

Only when the gunfire stopped, did I remember my audience. I turned my attention back to the squad of enforcers. They didn’t run. I’ll give them that. Had they run, I might not have been able to stop my instincts from demanding I give chase.

“This isn’t possible.” Adam loomed behind them.

I smiled my most friendly demon smile, the one filled with fangs. “Adam, Adam, Adam.” I purred. “When will you stop underestimating me?”

“Fall back,” he ordered his men. He stepped inside the room with his squad crowding the hallway outside. Sweat streamed down his face. Patches of wetness stained his shirt. Was he brave to step in front of his men or just too stubborn to believe I’d hurt him. “Muse, I didn’t want this.”

“Save it.” Predatory hunger bubbled my words.

“Look at yourself. You’re a threat. Just like any Class A demon. I had to get you off the streets.”

“Adam, when will you realize not every demon is your enemy? I’m not a threat to you.” Right now, I added silently. Considering how I was all-demon, dripping flame and calling a tide of heat to me, I could understand how he might not believe me. With a shuddering exhale, I shook my demon from my flesh. She snapped and snarled her displeasure, but I gave her the promises she wanted to hear. This wasn’t over. In fact, it had just begun. I shivered, naked. Steam rolled off my pink skin. “Now that we’ve got the inevitable lock-her-up out of the way, shall we talk about this like adults?” I sent out a silent thanks to Akil for his gift. Whatever he was planning, he clearly didn’t need my help.

“Sir.” An Enforcer approached from behind Adam. “We have a situation in Charlestown. We need to get you on scene ASAP.” His wide eyes flicked away from me then back again.

I smiled at the both of them. Yeah, drink it in, fellas. You’re lucky I didn’t burn you and your buddies alive. A demon purr resonated through me. I let it vibrate at the back of my throat and grinned as my audience tensed. The Mother of Destruction was back.

“Muse, you could have killed my enforcers,” Adam said, “but you didn’t.”

Without Akil’s control, I might have. “Yes, I could have killed you too, and the people behind those cameras, and the techs in the lab down the hall. I feel them, their heat. If I wanted, I could turn their own heat on them, ramp it up, and burn them from the inside out. You’ve heard of spontaneous combustion?” He paled. Good. “Don’t fuck with me again, Adam.”

He nodded once. “Will you help us?”

“Yes, had you been listening, you’d have realized that already, and we could have avoided the…theatrics. Now, can I have my clothes back, please?”

Chapter Sixteen

We rode back to Boston in their blacked-out SUVs. The guy forced to sit next to me squirmed and perspired. In the twenty minutes it had taken to leave the facility, the whispers of my power display had spread like wildfire. I’d reached out ethereally to Akil before leaving and felt his well of controlled rage. I didn’t envy anyone on shift when Akil decided the game was over.

As we neared Charlestown, wailing sirens punctured the night. The enforcers rammed in the back of the van with me grew restless. I looked at them, wondering what sort of people they were behind their combat gear. An electric current fizzled between them, a collective fear. They were afraid of me, of what was to come. I couldn’t blame them. I didn’t look like much, and given my history, they’d wonder whose side I was on. This truce between me and the Institute was a thin one, liable to snap at any moment.

The van pulled up, and the enforcers unloaded. The last to leave, I jumped out and immediately felt the burn of ice in the air. Dread hardened my gut. No, please no… But I only needed to look around the street for the evidence of Stefan’s handiwork. Jagged fans of ice jutted from the edges of tightly packed houses. Snow had drifted in places, piling against closed doors and banking against cars. But in other places, the street was clear. It wasn’t natural snowfall. And certainly, the razor-edged barricades of ice thrust upward out of the ground weren’t in any way normal.

I followed the enforcers as they fanned out down the street. Drops of blood marred the snow in places. In others, gouges scored through the ice. This was a battle site, not one of Stefan’s elemental slips.

We followed the sounds of groaning ice and blades clashing and came to an intersection where the ice had flooded across the road, capturing cars, streetlamps, and benches in crystal. The enforcers ducked down behind cover, signaling to one another. Adam hung back, talking into a radio. Buzzing radio chatter leeched through the quiet.

Screw this. I wasn’t wasting another second. I rounded the corner and walked into an icy blast of winter. I couldn’t miss Stefan’s beautiful wings sparkling in the mist ahead. The vapor rising off the street whipped and swirled. Hideous growls punctured the artificial quiet, and I caught sight of a massive beast inside the fog. Its furred hide glistened wet with blood and melted ice. I caught fragments of its form—blurs in the fog—like trying to piece a jigsaw together without all the pieces. I knew it was big, as least three times as tall as Stefan. Metal screeched, glass shattered, and the wrecked carcass of a car tumbled out of the mist to land roof down. That was probably my cue to summon my fire, but I still wasn’t entirely sure what I was dealing with.

A howl cut through the melee, so loud I hunkered down, covering my ears. Glancing behind me, I caught sight of the black-clad enforcers scurrying forward before the rolling mist swallowed them up. They were going to get themselves killed. I waved the enforcers back, faced forward, planted my feet, and released my demon. She came hard and fast, staggering me and almost sundering my control. Rage, hot and heady, boiled through my insides, and the latent heat slumbering in the street reared up like a storm surge. So much for a stealthy approach. A demon gaze washed over me as though I’d been blasted in the face with hot coals. The vapor hissed and withdrew, revealing the daddy of all hellhounds. Crimson eyes burned with a killer’s glare. The thing was massive, easily the size of a tank. It made little ol’ me look like a chew-toy. Oh hell. The lance-like quills protruding from its back rippled, sounding a deafening hiss. Then it lunged, springing off its hind legs, right at me.

Hunkering down, baring teeth, I thrust out my hands, spread my wing, and funneled a blast of heat ahead of me. I could do this. I was the Mother of Destruction, a powerful she-demon who could turn a crowd of demons into ash. This was just one big demon. Easy.

Stefan plowed into the hound’s side like a missile, altering its course. They tumbled and rolled. Sharp quills and jagged crystal tangled in a heap. Stefan staggered to his feet first. He saw me and held out a hand, shaking his head, indicating I shouldn’t intervene. The hell I was going to sit back and watch.

The hound planted its huge paws and dropped its head, opening its maw to reveal dagger-like fangs. Its lips pulled back in something like a grin. I could have sworn those ruby eyes sparkled with intelligence.

A crack of sniper fire shattered the quiet. Near the cresting rise of Stefan’s left wing, a fist-sized hole blasted through his crystal feathers. He flinched and turned his gaze on the rolling mist behind me. The hound lunged, jaws dropping open, eager to snap shut around Stefan. Instinct had me lashing out with a whip-like tendril of heat. The liquid arc of heat slashed across the hound’s face. It recoiled, threw its snout skyward, and howled like something out of a nightmare. The sound of it plucked on my fear, urging me to run screaming. As the howl died, a deadly quiet rushed in, bearing a new weight, one of impending devastation, as though the city held its breath. I saw them: orbs of red floating in the mist, moving closer. Eyes. Many, many, pairs of demon eyes. This was bad. I tagged a dozen pairs, and all the time, more blinked into existence.

Stefan threw up his hands, palms up, and shot me an incredulous look, as though this was my fault.

I shrugged, raining ashes around me. A blast of hot breath puffed against my wing. I spun, sweeping a wave of fire before me, making quick work of the hellhound that got too close. It wailed and pulled back to the pack spilling out of the mist. Five, six, no more. I whipped up a firestorm around me, affording me some protection, and went to work. Caught up in the melee, I couldn’t find Stefan among the wave after wave of quivering flanks of hellhounds, but gauging from the intermittent thunderous howls from the pack-leader, I could assume he was still in the game. I just needed to stay upright. Rifle fire whizzed by me, too close for comfort. I wouldn’t put it past Adam to have his men accidentally shoot me on purpose. They would shoot Stefan. He was on the enforcers’ Most-Wanted-Dead List.

I ducked a swipe from glistening jaws and spun, cracking a punch into the beast’s skull. It whimpered and went down, but not for long. Shaking some sense back into itself, it eyed me with a snarl and came at me again.

Time to bring out the big guns. I pinned the pack’s heat on a map inside my mind. At least twenty hounds stalked the mist. Some loitered where I’d last seen the enforcers. There was an oddly vacant patch where the cold sapped them of their heat—Stefan. I avoided him and focused on the demons I could sense. It takes immense composure to stand still and close your eyes when faced with hungry hounds of hell. But I had them now. I cast out my element, hooking it into each burning beacon of hellhound. Once I’d coiled my touch around their heat, I opened the veil between the two worlds with a mental slice, gasped as raw heat washed over me, and then thrust it through my link to the beasts. The ones I’d tagged burst apart in superheated clouds of ash. Demon howls filled the air. Their fear burned my soul, rousing my lust for destruction.

More.

With a flick of my wrist, I lit the others up like fireworks. A click of my fingers—gone. Embers floated in the air like fireflies. I laughed, caught the runners, and burned them from the inside out. Yes. More.

A huge source of heat loomed out of the mist. Ruby eyes delivered a hungry glare.

<Half-bloods two> The voice, gruff and beast-like, spoke directly into my mind. <Asmodeus’s daughter. I see you, mongrel-child. Forbidden thing, you are>

I stood my ground and glared up at the hideous face of the pack leader. Its hot, stinking breath blasted me like a furnace. We shared a moment of recognition before I felt the soothing balm of ice coil around me from behind. The beast pulled back and fixed its glare over me, fury flaring bright in its eyes. That’ll be Stefan behind me then.

A volley of gunfire rained over us, seemingly from all directions. Several rounds grazed me before I ducked down. The beast flinched, its flanks rippling as the rounds hit home, it yipped—once, twice. A mass of vaporous red tendrils unraveled from inside the beast, knotting around it, and then the beast was gone. The veil snapped closed. It should have been over, but the gunfire rained on, ricocheting off the street.

Stefan. I turned and found him shielding himself by curling his wings around him. Bullets slammed into his ice-armor, sending ice-chips flying. He searched the mist for the shooters but struggled to see them. I knew where they were. I’d tagged them, as I’d done with the hounds. The thirst for the kill stoked the fire of lust in my belly. I gulped the choking urges back, both physical and those in my mind. I had to hold on. Just a little longer.

Stefan’s sharp gaze narrowed. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill the enforcers. It didn’t help that they wouldn’t hesitate to kill him either.

Darkness pulsed through my veins as I crossed in front of Stefan, putting myself between him and the two dozen or so beacons of heat fanning out behind me. Stefan’s eyes blazed. The demon in him glared back at my fire-draped body. His face had hardened as though cut from solid ice. He glared with cold, empty eyes.

A bullet twanged off the road beside us. A warning shot. We both stood too still to be anything but targets. I really didn’t want a bullet in the back of my head, courtesy of the Institute’s finest.

“Stefan…” I kept my voice low, aided by the demon accent. “Don’t.” The oily touch of Damien crept out of its hiding place, seeking my resolve in an attempt to weaken me. “Please.” I couldn’t stay demon for long. Too soon, I’d need to drop the fire or risk losing myself to the chaos. Stefan’s expression twitched. He’d sensed my internal battle. Of course he had. Chaos rushed through his veins.

Stefan’s hand shot out viper-fast and closed into a fist beside my head. I flinched away, about to turn on him, when I heard the crack of sniper fire. He opened his palm and presented me with a perfect ballistic-tipped bullet, captured in ice. It should have warped or exploded, but he’d somehow caught it midflight and deflected the pressure into the ice.

He leaned into me, the frosted tips of his hair melting as my fire lapped at him. “They just tried to kill you, and you want me to let them take a second shot?”

I flicked my gaze up. “Leave them. This isn’t our fight. Not yet.”

The sound of boots crunching in the frozen snowfall bounced around the mist, making locating our hunters virtually impossible. But I could see them in my mind, flanking us on either side, fencing us in. I could end this very quickly. They obviously knew that, hence the kill shot.

Stefan unfurled his glorious wings, sweeping them back with dramatic flare. The barbs chimed as they splayed. He flashed me a bright smile. “It is mine.” He flexed his shoulders and called his ice-armor. Frozen fractals slid beneath his skin, spouting bristles of ice.

“No, Stefan, please.”

He slid his gaze away, summoning a crude lance of ice in his right hand. I couldn’t let him do this. He’d come back looking for help. Well, help was here, and I wasn’t going to let him ruin his chance at ever coming back to himself. I pulled the latent heat into me and shoved it toward him. The air twisted and distorted between us. Then the wave hit him, instantly bowing his glorious wings, sending streamlets of water down his back. He snarled and turned, cocking his head, as though he couldn’t quite believe I would fight him.

I didn’t want to. We’d sparred before. I’d witnessed what he was capable of. Smarter and faster than me, he had all the tricks, all the finesse, whereas I was more of a flood-everything-with-fire kinda gal.

“You wanna do this now? Here?”

The enforcers tightened their circle. “Sure.” I grinned and beckoned him forward while I backed up. “Think you can get through me, Stefan? Because I’m not letting you hurt them.” Holy hell, what was I doing? Taunting a Prince of Hell was never a good idea.

He took the bait and stepped forward, moving toward me while I backed up. The evil passenger sucking on my soul clutched at my heart, sending a bolt of pain through me. I staggered, saw Stefan’s eyes widen, his gaze sharpen, and realized I’d tugged the tail of the tiger quite enough, and ran. The mist parted within a few strides, spitting me out onto a narrow street. The Charlestown timber-clad terraces towered over me, funneling me in the one direction. Head down, wing up, I ran hard. All I had to do was draw him away from the enforcers. Running, I could do. What my demon form lacked in strength, I sure made up for in stamina. The brittle touch of ice nipped at my heels. He was close. Looking back would only slow me down. So now that I’d got him away, what was I supposed to do?

I veered down a tiny alley, barely large enough to drive a car down. Ice galloped along the walls on either side of me, reaching and snapping in my peripheral vision. He wouldn’t hurt me. Would he? My heart raced, pumping acidic darkness through my veins. The hunt… The chase… Let him come. We will have him. The Winter King is ours.

Something inside me snapped. My control perhaps, at least a part of it. I still ran, still wove my way around trashcans, pounding the street in time with the beat of my heart, but I wasn’t there. Not really. Detached. Cut adrift. I reached for my control and felt it slip through my fingers like the string of a balloon. If I didn’t get it back, it’d be gone for good.

Stefan hit me from behind, simultaneously tackling me, while hooking an arm around me, so he could wrench me off my feet and slam me into a wall. My fire flared. Body numbed by the tackle, I yelped and almost collapsed in on him as the control I’d lost poured back into my body. I was back. What the hell had just happened? Denied, my demon snarled, and the sound rippled my lips.

Stefan leaned into me, forearm pinned against my throat. His element nipped at my flesh, sizzling and spitting against my fiery skin. I met his winter-sky eyes, saw the flash of his fangs behind his victorious grin, and laughed. I’d almost lost it. She—my demon—had gained the upper hand, if only for a few seconds. But it wasn’t her time. Not yet. I’d come back. Giggles tumbled from me.

Stefan’s ice armor had long ago dissolved, leaving him somewhat vulnerable, but no less magnificently demon. He frowned, confused, and I laughed harder. It was that or cry.

He eased back, mouth hooking into a lopsided grin. “At least I’m not the only one who’s crazy.”

I snorted, a sure sign I couldn’t control my hilarity, and Stefan spluttered a laugh.

“You have… no… idea.” I managed to say between snorts.

He backed up and shook his demon visage off with a chuckle. Blue jeans and a black tank top made him look almost normal. “You know you faced Wrath back there?” He ran a hand through his damp hair and shook out stubborn ice crystals.

“I did?” I straightened and then barked more laughter. My demon slunk off, disgusted with my emotional outburst. I only laughed harder as I slumped against the wall, exhausted but oh so wonderfully human. My clothes clung to the thin sheen of sweat. I wiped a hand across my forehead. “He was playing with you.”

Stefan balked and brushed a fleck of something off his arm. “I think you’ll find I was playing with him. Until you showed up.”

“Excuse me for trying to save your ass.”

“My ass?” His gaze slid from my head to my toes, sprinkling desire in its wake. A touch of delight glinted in his eyes. He might have closed the meager distance between us had we not been interrupted by a hooded figure emerging from a doorway, aiming the business end of an M16 at me. Beneath the hood, a filthy scarf covered his face, so all I could see was his sharp-eyed glare. He jerked the gun and his chin in unison, indication we should lift our hands, and stood with the innate arrogance of those familiar with guns and how to use them.

Stefan and I stilled. Was this guy for real? He wasn’t an enforcer. They all had rods up their asses. Plus he hid his face. He had to be a rebel, one of the street militia, civilians who thought they knew better than the professionals and usually bought themselves early graves because of it. I lifted my hands to buy time while I tried to read him. Dirty boots, scuffed and torn jeans stained with oil, and a size too big or in fashion, depending on his age.

Another guy, taller, leaner, moved in from the opposite end of the alley. His assault rifle didn’t fit as easily with his spindly frame, but his severe eyes peering through the wrapped scarf left no room for negotiation.

Stefan arched an eyebrow. He was thinking the same thing: amateurs.

“You don’t wanna do this,” I warned, startled by the normal humanity of my words. I was still coming down off my demon high and not exactly grounded. Stefan would be feeling it too: an itch to get back into the fight. These men had no idea they’d trapped monsters in that alley.

“Oh, I think we do, Charley,” the skinny one said.

I knew that voice. “Coleman?”

He tugged down his scarf and smiled tightly. “Nice to see you alive.”

“What the—?” I gawped and lowered my hands. “You’re with the militia?”

He nodded. “I’m not the only one.”

I swung my gaze back to the quiet guy and reassessed my appraisal. The dirty rag covering his face wouldn’t have fooled me for long. Ex-military. You could tell it in his deceptively relaxed stance. Carefully, I eased forward, in front of Stefan, and lifted my gaze, noticing how our captor had tensed his grip on the rifle. “Just know,” I warned, “if you lift that rifle, I’ll bring the fire to this party, and you don’t want that, do you…Ryder?”

Chapter Seventeen

Ryder tugged his scarf down and shrugged back his hood. His gaze rested on me for a few seconds before settling on Stefan. I expected a growl from Stefan but heard only his soft even breathing. Ryder wasn’t a threat to him, not any more.

“Goddammit, Muse. Can’t I do anything without you showing up to piss on my parade?” His words were hard, but his smile was soft.

I puffed out the breath I’d been holding. “You’re with the militia?”

Coleman moved up behind me, sidestepping around Stefan with deserved reverence. “Boston PD’s Special Response Team is what we are. You didn’t think we were going to sit on our hands while the Institute did whatever the hell they pleased, did you?”

I blinked at Coleman and tried to come to terms with the shrewd man standing before me and the ways in which he didn’t match the clean-cut detective I’d helped in the past. Nope. I couldn’t do it. This was Coleman, for hell’s sake, the coffee-drinking, curious detective who’d hired me as a consultant to answer questions about all things demon, the one taking notes about their weak spots, their end-game, and who wanted to know all about Akil and the other princes. Well, maybe the signs that Coleman had been up to something were there. But Ryder?

“The militia?” I asked again.

He grunted. “I reckon I got some explaining to do.” His smile died when he regarded Stefan. “Just so we’re straight, I don’t trust you. I don’t know what you are, but it sure ain’t my partner. If I see one fuckin’ flake of snow where it shouldn’t be, I’ll kill you.”

“You can try.”

I winced and sliced Stefan a frown. He shrugged a shoulder.

Ryder glowered and eased his gun down to his side. “A temporary truce until this shit is over. Agreed?”

I nodded and slid Stefan a glance, suggesting he might like to do the same. He sighed and shifted his weight from one foot to the other, as though considering it. If I knew him, he’d be curious. This was Ryder, the Institute’s numero uno enforcer, working incognito for the militia.

“Sure,” Stefan drawled. “But don’t expect me to play nice if you turn that gun on me.”

There, we were all friends. Sort of. In an awkward, Mexican standoff kind of way. Coleman and Ryder escorted us back to their warehouse base. It looked as though the SRT has taken up residence in a recently abandoned call center building, complete with booths. Only these booths were filled with guns and people who evidently knew how to use them. We were greeted with suspicious glances, but the crowd milled around as though we were their own, not two half bloods with enough power between us to level a city. They’d spray-painted protective symbols on the walls, floor and ceiling, which I was grateful for, considering I was having trouble taming my demon instincts, but the markings wouldn’t have any effect on Stefan. Ryder knew that. However, he didn’t know how Stefan had joined the Prince of Hell club. I wasn’t entirely sure how he would react to that news. Frankly, I was surprised he hadn’t already tried to put a bullet in Stefan. As far as I knew, the last time they’d seen each other, Stefan had stabbed me, and I’d effectively died in Ryder’s arms. That sort of thing tends to leave a lasting impression.

“Coffee?”

I beamed at Coleman. “Do you need to ask?” He grinned and set about working a machine, dumping his rifle on the counter beside it.

Stefan hung back, reading the room with his sharp gaze. He saw me watching him and moved closer. His easy stride and relaxed posture utterly belied what he was capable of. “Coleman, you’re taking a big risk bringing us here,” he said, coming right out and saying exactly what I’d been thinking. “You saw us back there, right? You know we’re demon.”

“Half demon.” Coleman raised a plastic cup at Stefan, who declined the offered coffee with a shake of his head. “Tomorrow, we move. We never stay in one place long enough to become a target.”

Stefan scanned the crowd again. The low murmur of dozens of voices created a comforting background hum. His gaze settled on Ryder and lingered as his old friend chatted to a woman, the both of them engrossed in conversation.

Stefan and Ryder had worked together for a long time before I appeared on the scene. Ryder had briefly been charged with Stefan’s ‘rehabilitation,’ and when it became clear Stefan had no intention of reining in his demon, Ryder had been tasked with Stefan’s termination. He should have shot Stefan on sight. Ryder was not acting like the Ryder I’d come to appreciate as a friend, and Stefan knew it too.

Coleman dumped a load of sugar into my coffee, remembering I liked it sweet. He handed it to me. “What were you doing on the street back there? We caught the radio chatter and knew a demon battle was in progress, but when we arrived on-scene, the enforcers were already there. The fog rolled in, and we couldn’t make out who was fighting who.”

I recalled how Stefan had plucked a sniper’s round out of the air before it could smash through my skull. “I’m not entirely sure who was fighting who either.” So much for the Institute accepting my offer of help. They’d gotten me out of their facility—probably with the intention of taking me down once their precious base was a safe distance away.

“Ryder wanted to talk with you, so we stuck around. It’s good to see you, Charley. Just a shame it’s not under better circumstances.” Coleman slouched against the counter and ran a hand down his face. “I can’t believe how bad things are.”

Sipping my coffee, I watched Ryder stroll around a few booths to reach us. Stefan immediately tensed, and the touch of cool energy fizzed against my skin before vanishing under his control.

“Hey,” I hedged, not entirely sure whether I was meant to be happy to see him or if another argument was brewing. “I gather Adam doesn’t know you moonlight for Boston PD?”

“No, and I need to keep it that way.” His gaze wandered to Stefan standing sentinel beside me and then snapped back. “I need to talk with you. Privately.”

I frowned, not entirely sure if Stefan was tame enough to be left in a room filled with people who would kill him if they knew he was a Prince of Hell.

“Go.” Stefan smiled. “I’ll be fine.”

“It’s not you I’m worried about. Don’t go all Elsa on me. No ‘letting it all go,’ okay?”

“Cross my half-demon heart.” A glimmer of laughter touched his eyes.

I wanted to ask Stefan about Wrath’s words—he’d called me Asmodeus’s daughter, among other things. It appeared I’d been promoted from half-blood whore to a longstanding Prince of Hell’s daughter, and I wanted to know what it meant. “Don’t go anywhere.”

He nodded. “Be quick. We don’t have much time left, and I need to know what you discovered about the Institute’s half bloods.”

“Okay, it’s not good though, so don’t get your hopes up.”

I followed Ryder’s generous gait out of the main floor, up the stairwell, and out onto the roof, where he nodded to a guy and appeared to take his place on watch. Mist spritzed my face, clinging to my hair and cooling my flushed skin. It felt good to be back out in the night air, but it also meant my demon was free again, and her thoughts immediately muddied mine. A penetrating ache seeped from my chest. By the time Ryder and I reached the parapet wall at the edge of the flat roof, I had a hard time keeping the pain off my face.

“I’m sorry.” Ryder leaned against the wall. He crossed his arms. His lips turned down in disgust. “I’ve been an ass. I should have told you. I Just—”

“What’s going on? This isn’t you, Ryder. The Institute is your life.”

“No. It’s not. I make it look that way so nobody gets hurt.”

His shoulders dropped. He looked out over the peaceful city of Boston. The fine breeze feathered his hair across his forehead. From the rooftop, it didn’t look as though the demons were creating chaos in Boston. A siren chirped somewhere. The sound carried gently through the air, but otherwise the city slept.

“I have a daughter. Did you know that? Her name’s Kerry.” I did know but only because Akil had told me. “And a wife. Ex-wife. She’s…better off without me. They both are. But the Institute is threatening me, Muse. Using my daughter as leverage. I’ve questioned Adam for years. His ethics, his double standards. I’ve seen him sanction things… Horrible things. I know what he did to Stefan, and the others. And you. I know a lot more than you think I do. I told myself it was all for a good reason, but that became a lie over a year ago.” He sighed. “They threatened me after I shot Dawn, said they’d take my daughter away if I didn’t follow their goddamn rules.” Ryder sucked in a deep breath. “Coleman came to me right after his partner, Detective Hill, was attacked by Damien, and you went missing. He demanded that something be done and wouldn’t take no for an answer. That’s when he told me about the PD’s Special Response Team. I should have told Adam. I didn’t.”

I’d been so certain I knew Ryder. But he had secrets too, secrets I hadn’t earned the right to know. An alien burn smoldering somewhere deep inside quickened my breath. Damien awakening. I winced and squeezed my eyes closed, swallowing back acid. It wouldn’t be long now. Hours, if I could hold him back that long.

“Muse?”

“Yeah, I’m good.” I smiled brightly. There was nothing Ryder could do, and he had enough to deal with. “I had no idea, Ryder. About any of this.”

“I’ve always doubted Adam, but I’m a soldier. It’s not my place to question the likes of him. I might have let it go, but then he put me in charge of terminating Stefan. His own goddamn son, Muse.” He spat a disgusted curse. “I joined SRT right after. I know Stefan’s gone. I know that. But I just can’t do it.” Ryder grimaced, and his face cracked with despair. I struggled to keep from throwing my arms around him. “If he wants his son dead, the bastard can do it himself.”

“It’s okay.” I loved Ryder all the more in that moment. I’d always respected his stance with the Institute. He never pulled any punches, and was always straight with me, with everyone. It takes balls of steel to sacrifice it all for the right thing, and what he was doing here, with the SRT, protecting his family, that was the right thing.

“It really ain’t. There’s something else I gotta tell you. It’s been tearing me up. I hate what I did. Every time I saw you, I wanted to tell you. Every time, Muse. I had to push you away. I didn’t have a choice.” He held my gaze, his lips twisting, and then looked away. “You can’t do anything with this info. If Adam knows I’ve told you, he’ll… I don’t know what he’ll do to my kid, but I can’t risk her, Muse. Promise me.”

My heart fluttered. What the hell was he about to say? I didn’t have anything left to ruin, so why was he looking at me as though terrified of what I was going to do. “Of course. I know we’ve hit a rough patch, but you’re the best friend I’ve got. I would never put your family at risk. I promise you that.”

He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and rubbed his hands together. “Shit…” Hesitating, he settled his gaze on me one last time, before straightening and breathing in, as though drawing strength. “The little half blood girl you fought so hard to save. She ain’t dead.”

I blinked, not sure I’d heard him right. “What do you mean?”

“I mean Dawn’s alive. I reckon they’re keeping her locked deep in the facility.”

“But…” Dawn was alive? How was that possible? “I saw you shoot her,” I mumbled. “I saw her die.” When I wasn’t dreaming of darkness, I dreamed of her death, over and over and in precise detail.

Ryder shook his head. “I grazed her with an anti-elemental round, just like Adam told me to. They wanted the world to believe she’d died. The enforcers took her away. She’s alive, Muse.”

I reached for the wall and stumbled. “Oh, my God.” The little girl I’d failed. Dawn, who nobody but me had tried to save. A pawn in Akil’s game to rattle the Institute. A weapon. I couldn’t process it. She was a killer, but she had deserved more from those around her, those who knew better.

“I wanted to tell you, but they threatened my kid. You can’t do anything, Muse. Please. If Adam suspects you know…”

She was alive and in the hands of the Institute, probably in the same place as the other half-bloods. I’d been so close to her. In the same building. “Is she okay? Have they hurt her?” My voice floated, distant and detached.

“I don’t know.” Ryder stood and jammed his hands into his pockets. “I’m so damn sorry, Muse.”

I nodded, not really hearing him. “It’s okay. It’s not your fault.”

“You won’t say anything?”

“No. I…” I offered him what I hoped to be a reassuring smile. “I won’t say anything.”

Ryder hesitated, clearly wanting to say more. The background city noises ebbed and flowed like the back and forth thoughts in my mind.

He sniffed and pushed off the wall. “I should get back.”

I bobbed my head. “Sure, just give me a minute, okay?” As he left me alone on the roof, I sunk to a sitting position on the wall and bowed my head. Dawn was alive. That was good, wasn’t it? I’d tried to save her, but after her death, I’d come to realize my actions had been misguided. Dawn was chaos all wrapped up in the body and mind of a nine-year-old girl. She’d killed enforcers and admitted she liked it. She’d pulled a Prince of Hell apart. Even Akil was afraid of her. And now the Institute had her. They’d try to mold her, shape her, like they did an early Stefan. Given how destructive she could be, the Institute had one hell of a weapon. Could they control her? And Akil was there… Oh. My thoughts exploded. Akil was there! He knew. The bastard knew. She had to be the reason he was there. Was he there to save her or kill her? He’d already admitted she frightened him. He’d ushered her toward her death once already. I had to go back. But how? Adam wasn’t going to let me back inside.

“Sister.”

I snapped my head up and froze. Pure, unfiltered terror locked my body down, muting my thoughts as I stared at the horrible beauty of my brother’s demon form. Shadows rippled across his pale body, like the marbled effect of a tiger moth’s wings. His long, moon-white hair trailed over his shoulders and licked at his smooth chest. He was naked, like all demons, apart from two sword belts hanging low on his slim hips. His deadly velvet-wings hung relaxed behind him. He made a devastatingly beautiful demon. How could I admire him and fear him at the same time?

My parasite throbbed in my chest with a sudden ferocity. Viscous liquid bubbled up my insides. I heaved, my brother momentarily forgotten, as I fell to my knees. Thin black tendrils traced through the veins on the back of my hands. Damien’s presence spilled into muscle and flesh. Panic once again clawed at my mind. No, not yet. I wasn’t ready. Just a little longer. That’s all I needed, just a few more hours… Not here on this rooftop… I have to get back to Stefan. I have to help Coleman and find Dawn. Goddammit, Damien, not yet!

“An infusion, mmm… “ Val’s eloquent voice slid easily through the panic and urged the dark on. “It will hasten your transformation. Embrace it.”

“Screw… you…” I forced the words through clenched teeth and tried to call the fire. My element rippled, but my thoughts were too fragmented to organize, and the heat slipped beyond my reach.

Val’s soft chuckles stroked a perverse sensation of hunger. Hunger for the hunt. The kill. A lust for him.

“Do you believe you can drain my element before I flood your mind with lust, sweet sister-mine?”

Lust. Hell help me, no. Don’t let him do this. I slumped onto a forearm, shivering hot.

“You are still too weak. This is disappointing, although, not surprising. You’ve always disappointed. Not our father though. No, not him… He has only ever seen what you will be, not what you are.”

“Will you kill me now?” I silently wished he would. The dark clawed at my control, sinking phantom claws in, shredding my humanity. Kill me quick before I turn.

“No.” He spread his vast black wings and crouched down before me, encircling me in the swaths of dark velvet. Hungry lust chased the poison through me, threatening to sunder my sanity. My mortal body trembled, and my demon surged, trying to break free, but if she came in the midst of this assault, I would never regain control. I battled on all fronts, mentally, physically, demon, and human. My body heaved and trembled. It was all I could do to stay conscious.

Val tilted his head, studying my struggle like a bird of prey studies the nonsensical actions of its next kill. The molten silver of his eyes held me transfixed. I found myself leaning toward him, eager to drown in his embrace. The touch of his wings would end it all. I wanted that, wanted him. I licked my lips.

Val drew back. “Perhaps you will die here, now, fragile thing.” He reached out a hand and trailed his cool fingers down my cheek. His touch flushed desire through me and sparked painful pleasure. I gasped hard. “All humans are fragile things. I fear I have broken the enforcer. Not before she told me all I need to know. She’ll die with the taste of me upon her lips. Would you like to know that taste, dear sister?”

Jenna was dying? Might already be dead? I ground out a snarl, horrified that my friend lay hurting. Sudden and disgusting urges assaulted me. I did want to taste my brother. I craved him, his touch, his gaze. More. All of him. And still the dark drank me down. I had to let go and release my demon. I couldn’t survive this—survive him. As demon, I could stop him.

A cruel smile twisted on his lips. “You cannot deny fate, sister. The moment you gasped your first breath, I witnessed what you would become.”

I blinked, leaning into his touch, wishing he would trail his hand lower. My human body was not my own. Need pulsed hot and wet, flushing reason away. The stinking touch of Damien’s soul surged on.

“Our father has the ability to strip your human mind bare. You, dear Muse, read the past in metal. I see the future in flesh. And yours has always led you here to me. I held you in my arms as a babe, wet with your mother’s birthing blood, and saw the destruction you are destined to rain upon this world.” His smug smile grew as horror blanched my face. “Why do you think I refused the Institute ownership of you? Why does our mighty father protect you? Why, sister-mine, did Mammon keep you close, a half-blood nothing? He knows you, as do I. You cannot fight the future. You are the Mother of Destruction. I see the world reduced to rubble beneath your feet, and as much as I despise you,” he turned his fingers on my face and sank his claws into my cheek, “you will be magnificent.” His eyes shone as my memory clawed at those words, words from my past, words from Akil’s lips when we’d first met, You, little half-blood, will be magnificent.

My demon blasted through me, chasing away all traces of humanity. I screamed, even as pleasure strummed my senses. Yes, freedom, at last. My entire existence, my mind, my past, my thoughts, all funneled into that one precise moment. The answer for what to do with my brother was simple: fuck him or kill him.

Val danced back, wings and arms spread. A malicious grin distorted his face. He wanted this. An aura of white pulsed around him, but his wings were a consuming dark. I flung out my one ruined wing and summoned the heat, but it spluttered and waned. Something was wrong. Inside, I was wrong. Not yet complete. Not ready. Damien… Rabid thoughts emptied into my mind. Slaughter, blood, madness. Crimson insanity.

“Yes, sister-mine. It will not be long now. Embrace what you are. Come back to us.” The choking presence of my brother’s lust recoiled, and he vanished.

A hollow whine cut from me. I sank to my knees, throbbing with need, wretched with disgust, and riddled with fear. Yes, I wanted this. I was destruction. It was my purpose, my right. I’d lay waste to all in my wake.

Boots hammered nearby.

“What did you do to her?” Stefan. The tentative touch of ice pulled at my heat.

“She was fine when I left.” Ryder, distant, concerned.

Don’t let it win. Fight it. All of it. I doubled over, jaw clamped tight. My brother had hurt Jenna. She was hurt, dying. I had to get through this. To tell them. I had to get to Dawn. My time wasn’t over. Not yet. Not yet, dammit. Don’t let chaos win.

“Stay back.” Ryder ordered.

Stefan’s chill encircled me. He was close enough that I could taste the bite of winter on my lips. “Stefan…” I reached for him, demon fingers dripping flame. “Soul-lock.” I spat the words, trying to rid this hideous thing from inside me. Dragging my gaze up, I saw him on his knees beside me, concern pinching his features.

“Fight it.” He glanced at my hand, wanting to reach in, but wary of the heat.

I’m trying, I mouthed. A storm raged, tearing me apart. Human and demon. I clamped my hands to my head and bowed over. I was losing, slipping free. A gut-wrenching scream burst from me. It went on and on, tumbling over, echoing into forever. Stefan’s touch settled on my shoulder. Icy quivers shivered through my flesh and tingled deep inside. His element followed, rippling over me before sinking through my skin and flowing deeper. The shock and wicked relief silenced the insanity. Moments passed, and with every shuddering breath, the heat subsided and the madness dissipated. His hand slipped down my arm and drew me up. He was demon, his eyes like diamonds, iridescent skin marked by fractals. I searched his eyes for the spark of humor I loved, but found only hard, soulless ice. It was too much. I twisted, and tumbled against him, slipped my arms around his waist even as our opposing elements clashed. Fire vied with ice, tugging, waning, but I buried my head against his shoulder and shut it all out, all but the quieting effect of his ethereal touch as it wove through me, dousing my fire and quenching the madness.

A growl rumbled through him. I tensed but heard movement behind Stefan. Someone had ventured too close. I was safe. All was still. I was going to be okay. Not yet lost. But for how long? If I let him go, would it all flood back again?

“Val…” I whispered. The things my brother had said to me about fate and destiny and how he’d already seen my future. I read the past in metal. It made sense that my brother would see the future in flesh. He’d spoken as though he admired what I would become and said our father protected me because of it. It was why Akil kept me close. Akil knew. The bastard had always known I was going to turn into the stuff of nightmares. You will be magnificent, and you will be mine. He’d said it when we’d first met.

Stefan bowed his head, brushing his chin against my head. “Your brother was here?” he whispered, but the words held a heavy resonance, deep and rough.

“Jenna…” I clutched at Stefan’s arm, digging my claws in. He barely reacted, and when I lifted my head, he looked down at me, a smile as soft as snowflakes on his lips. “He’s hurt her. We need to go—”

“He came here to tell you that?”

Why had my brother come? To gloat, yes, but also to watch me suffer and push me further into the dark, to help ruin my humanity. I nodded. “Please. We need to help her.”

Stefan turned but didn’t release me. I clung to him like I might to a life raft. “Ryder, Jenna needs your help,” he growled. “Be careful. It could be a trap.”

I hadn’t thought of that. He was right. “I need to go too.”

Ryder shook his head. “I got this. Stay here.” He tossed one last concerned glance at Stefan and nodded an understanding. Stefan inclined his head. As Ryder hurried away, I noticed others on the roof. Strangers. I eyed them warily. Stefan and I were demon; they were the enemy.

Stefan’s hand slid gently up my back. He eased me back into a cool embrace and closed his arms around me. The soft beat of his heart soothed my weary soul. “I think it would be best if we weren’t demon right now. Our trigger-happy audience is nervous.” His words whispered coolly against my cheek. I closed my eyes and breathed in his fresh, clean, winter morning scent. Inside, the inferno had died down to the barest flickers of heat. His element still held me close, almost as close as his arms. If I let him go, it would flare up again. I needed his cold to temper me.

“I can’t. I’m afraid.”

“Don’t be. I’ve got you.” He drew back and lifted my chin. The warmth had returned to his eyes, softening his features. “Apart, we’re fractured, missing a piece of ourselves, but together, we’re complete.” He gently drew me to him and laid a delicate fluttering kiss on my lips. Our elements sparked, invisible to others, but not to us. Something in me brightened as I returned the gentle touch of his lips with a fragile kiss of my own. He was still Stefan. I knew it. I could feel it. Somewhere, behind all that power, inside all that glacial hardened armor, Stefan lived. This maddeningly gentle kiss was all him. Hope surged, a blind, ridiculous hope that not all was lost. If nothing else, hope was the only thing strong enough to keep me sane. It always had been. Tasting winter on my lips, I slipped out of my demon and eased her back. Stefan did the same. His lips softened, and the power popping and fizzing between us dissipated until it was just me and him, human, ragged, worn out, but together.

I pulled away and placed my hand over his on my cheek. “I think you just saved me from losing my mind.”

He bumped his forehead against mine and closed his eyes. “I wish I could rid you of that thing inside, Muse. If I knew how, I’d do it. I can feel how he’s destroying you.”

He really did understand. “Val can see the future the way I read metal. He said he sees the future in flesh. He knows what I’ll become. He’s always known.” I gently rested my hand on his cheek, marveling at his warmth when moments ago, he’d been made of ice. “I’m not going to escape this time. The netherworld will have me. They’re coming, and I can’t fight any more.”

Slowly, he shook his head. “No, I won’t let it happen. Not you, Muse. After everything you’ve been through, you deserve to be free.”

A painful knot tightened my throat. For a moment, I couldn’t find my voice. I lowered my head, afraid he might see the tears swimming in my eyes. “I wish the world worked like that.”

Raising his head, he brushed my forehead with his lips before trailing his delicate touch to my cheek. “Don’t lose hope. Not you.” His whispers tickled my ear. Another time, I might have responded to his touch with a different heat, but not then. That moment, there in his arms, was too exquisite, too real. We stayed like that, locked tightly in each other’s arms, listening to the sounds of Boston and the shared rhythm of our hearts. I knew it had to end. All things end. But I clung onto time and cherished every second I spent on the rooftop with Stefan. The netherworld was coming, and moments like that one would die forever.

A shockwave hit first. A blast of dry, superheated air slammed into us, followed by a deafening, explosive roar. Bathed in orange light, we turned toward the boiling fire-cloud several miles out, near the banks of the Mystic River. My element responded, leaping to life, like an eager pet. I winced, sensing the dark waking again, and Stefan placed a hand over my heart, easing his element through me, quenching the heat.

“It’s started,” he said quietly.

Coleman burst out onto the rooftop, rifle clutched in his hands, face white “Muse, we need you.”

Panic danced through my head. Stefan’s lips curled into a soft smile. He tucked my hair behind my ear. “It’ll be alright. I’ll stay close. I can keep it under control for a little while.”

Wobbly and uncertain, I let Stefan help me to my feet. He kept a hand on my arm, the contact just enough to keep his power alive in my veins.

“There are demons coming through all over the city,” Coleman explained as we followed him back inside. SRT’s base buzzed with organized chaos. “Adam Harper is missing. We’re listening in on Institute chatter. He never made it back after the skirmish in the street.”

Seeing my glare, Stefan frowned. “I was here with you.” He didn’t hide the predatory gleam in his eyes, though.

“Stone’s Throw is under attack, and we think the Institute’s scientific facility is next. Someone has told the demons where the Institute operates.”

Jenna? Val had admitted he’d gotten what he needed from her. Perhaps he went after Adam too.

Why was Coleman looking at me as though waiting for a miracle? “Muse…” He shook his head. “I’ve seen what you’re capable of. We need you out there on our side.”

My brother’s words haunted me …the world reduced to rubble beneath your feet. Coleman didn’t know I was part of the problem. I wanted to deny it, to tell him I couldn’t, but his despairing expression broke my heart.

Stefan gave my shoulder a squeeze. “Stay close to me, Muse, and you’ll be okay. We can do this.”

Could we? Or was this exactly what Valenti wanted?

The only way of making sure I didn’t go nuclear on this side of the veil was to get as far away from Boston as possible, or to go through the veil. Should I take the fight to them? I nodded at Stefan while my thoughts worked. A few moments in the netherworld would destroy what remained of my humanity. Damien would surge, my demon would win, and I’d be lost. I knew what she wanted. Destruction. It would be like pulling the pin on a grenade before tossing it into the netherworld. If destruction was all I was good for, I could damn well turn it on them.

The rebels quickly organized themselves into strike teams. Radios bleated, and guns rattled. Amid the raised voices, a slight slither of panic wove through the crowd. I tried to listen, but my thoughts were elsewhere.

Coleman handed me a cellphone. “Ryder.”

I plucked it from his hand and pressed it tightly against my ear. “How is she?”

Ryder’s rapid breaths sawed down the line. “Not good. I can’t leave her. She told Val everything.” He ground out a strained curse. “She followed a team back to the Institute’s facility. I’ll send you the GPS coordinates. Val knows all about the half bloods, Muse. He’s going after them. All of them.” That included Dawn. If my brother controlled them all, nothing would prevent him and the princes from destroying Boston. “Muse, you have to stop him.”

Me? Stop my brother? “I know. I will.” I didn’t believe my own words, but from Ryder’s sigh, he did. I glanced at Stefan. His winter eyes sparkled. His face was grim. “Hey, Ryder, there’s one thing Val doesn’t know,” I said. “Akil’s checked in at hotel Institute, and I’ll bet my human heart that he knows Val’s heading there. He won’t let Val take Dawn or any of the half bloods.” He’d previously stopped Val from doing exactly that. “Take care of Jenna.”

“Be careful, Muse.”

I almost laughed. “When have I ever been careful?”

He hesitated. “Okay, then don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“See you ’round, tough guy.” I hung up and mustered a smile for Stefan. “Ready to go kill some demons?”

“More than you know.”

Chapter Eighteen

The people of Boston tried to flee, but they made easy demon pickings as they sat in their cars. Helicopters hovered above, announcing by loudspeaker for people to stay indoors. Emergency services were the next targets. Stefan and I made short work of a pack of demons crowding around the fire trucks responding to the earlier massive explosion. With Stefan close and his element even closer, I could temper my urges, but it wasn’t easy, and Stefan suffered too. With every twitch of the dark inside me, he flinched. With every surge of power flooding my veins, he staggered. It was clear we couldn’t continue that way for long.

We commandeered an abandoned car and left Boston in the rear view mirrors. It felt wrong, driving away from the city I called home at a time it needed me the most, but skirmishes weren’t going to solve the bigger problem. The princes were coming.

“Do you hear them now? The princes?”

The pale glow from the car’s instruments illuminated Stefan’s face as he drove, exaggerating the harsh lines of his expression. “Yes,” he replied sharply.

In the quiet comfort of the car, his tone cut me down before I’d even drawn breath to ask the next question. I swallowed and faced ahead.

“They’re waiting.” He slid me a glance, his lips flirting with an apologetic smile. “They need chaos to come here en masse. If Val creates enough chaos, the veil will fall, and the netherworld will bleed through, overlapping this world with theirs. They’re waiting for the veil to collapse. If that happens, they’ll just walk right on over.”

“If the veil is gone, can we ever get it back?”

His throat worked as he swallowed. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.”

I eyed Stefan out of the corner of my eye. He denied he’d beaten the beast inside him. So if he was demon, what did he want? Why was he here and not a member of the princely club? He’d said they despised him, wanted him dead. Was it because he wasn’t one of them? No, there had to be more to it. Even as an exiled demon, he should be…colder. I smiled. I’d felt the old Stefan in his kiss. He might believe he was gone. Maybe he told himself that to get by, but I had my doubts. And hopes.

“I can’t contain your power for long, Muse. It’s already wearing me down. If you start throwing fire around, I won’t be able to hold you back.”

I’d figured as much, but it was okay. I had a plan. “I just need to get close to Val.”

Stefan switched hands on the wheel and frowned. “What are you going to do?”

“He wants demon.” I grinned. “I’ll show him demon.”

“You won’t come back from that, Muse. Embrace it, and you’ll never be you again. I know.”

“But you’re here, and you’re you. Sure, you’re a bit testy. It’s a little like walking on cracked ice around you, but you’re still Stefan.”

“Yeah, right up to the point I don’t get my way. I don’t care about any of this. I couldn’t care less if we get to the Institute, and they’re all dead. Actually, I’d like that. They’re part of my problem.” He arched an eyebrow at my frown. “I told you. Don’t look at me and get your hopes up. I’m only here because it suits me.”

“You helped me. You’re helping me right now by feeding your element into mine. You wouldn’t do that unless you cared.” I said it quietly, my own uncertainties weakening my conviction.

He leaned an arm on the door and massaged his temple with his fingers, gaze fixed on the road ahead. “It isn’t because I care.”

I blinked at him, but he wouldn’t meet my gaze. He stared ahead and clenched his jaw, biting back what he wanted to say. He was right. I did know demons. “You want something from me.”

“Yes.”

“What?”

“Figure it out.” His lips twisted around unspoken words.

“But you are the Prince of Wrath, and netherworld titles don’t get thrown around. I should know. I see anger in you when you fight the demons. When you faced the enforcers, I saw wrath in you.” Wrath wasn’t just anger though. It was anger with a purpose: retaliation for crimes committed. His glare cut me, his scowl sharp, but before I could challenge him, he snapped his head around and blurted, “Look out!” Ahead, the car headlights washed over a huge, leathery hide. For a moment, it looked as though a wall blocked our route, and then the ex Prince of Wrath swung his head around, opened his jaws, and drew his lips back. I had a fantastic view of his sharp teeth as I tried to push back into my seat while Stefan slammed on the brakes, yanked up the parking brake, and jerked the wheel, spinning the car in the road, so we faced the way we’d come. The engine roared, tires squealed, and the road heaved—or appeared to. The car lifted, and my stomach rolled. I had a moment to appreciate how the headlights lit up the swirling night sky, and then we tipped hood down, and the road rushed up to greet us.

Chapter Nineteen

No more riding in cars with Stefan, I vowed, dabbing at a sticky wetness on my cheek. Releasing the seatbelt, I landed with a thump on the underside of the roof, now acting as the floor. The glow from the instruments revealed enough carnage for me to know we were in trouble. The engine had died. Metal ticked as it cooled. Somewhere, fluid trickled. And I heard Stefan’s soft breathing. He hung upside-down, trapped by the belt in the drivers seat, out cold.

“Stefan!” I hissed, reaching up to release him.

A red orb glowed outside his window. In its center, a vertical pupil pinpointed me and dilated. I’d seen this movie. This was the part where the dinosaur ate the tourists.

Wrath snuffled at the door. His lips rippled, and a huge black tongue lolled out. Somehow, he formed growling, snarling words. “Come out, Asmodeus’s daughter. Come out and run for me.”

“Stefan. Please wake up.” His element began to unravel from inside me, and the icy touch I’d felt since the rooftop slipped away. In its wake, heat swelled, hungry and violent.

Wrath’s snout probed inside the car. He snorted hot air, snuffling and rooting around. I scurried back, wiggled through my broken window, and scrambled to my feet. “Hey…” He lifted his head, hunched, and leaped over the car. I stumbled back. Surrounded by trees, I guessed we couldn’t be far from the Institute’s facility. I had no clue what direction it was in, and if I ran, Wrath would cut me down.

His blazing eyes didn’t blink. He watched me with that eerie stillness that precedes an attack. Head down, he stalked forward. “Run, little half-blood girl.”

I did just that, turned and ran off the road, stumbling over a ditch and bursting into the trees. Behind me, branches snapped and groaned. Wrath’s snarls chased me down. I dropped my control and reached out for heat, turning demon as I ran. A beacon of light and warmth urged me to the right—a building, a large one. I veered off, tucked my wing in, and locked my gaze into the embrace of branches. I ran. Fire throbbed through my veins. My heart pounded, and my lungs burned. I glanced back once to see Wrath bounding behind me, charging through the trees, bouncing off some and knocking others flat, his eyes aglow.

The dark that Stefan had tempered spilled into my mind. Yes. The hunt. The kill. I forgot my fear as a wicked thrill strummed through my demon body.

I burst out of the forest and onto the lawns surrounding the Institute’s innocuous facility. Floodlights bathed the area in orange. As I slowed, shadows danced around my firelight. Black SUV’s grumbled. The Institute was mobilizing. Barks of alarm went up. I turned my back on them and grinned as Wrath leapt from the trees. Subterranean heat rushed to answer my call, ignited by my touch, and turned to liquid fire as I threw it all at Wrath. He bowed mid-leap, curling in on himself as the fire gobbled him up, and then he fell, landing hard on his side and tumbling over. I stalked forward, pouring more heat into him. His body twitched, wrapped in undulating flame. He howled and whined. The dark fed on my murderous intent, pleasured by his pain.

The enforcers opened fire. Standard bullets stung my molten flesh and spoiled my killing frenzy, but they meant nothing. Lifting my head, I counted at least thirty Institute men and woman scattered about the lawns. They scurried like ants, puny, insignificant, and so fragile it would almost be merciful to kill them. The fire was hungry, never sated, eager for more… Greedy.

My legs carried me forward as I marked them each in turn. Little beacons of heat. Tiny lanterns in the dark. A flick of my wrist, a click of my fingers, and they’d be gone. Snuffed out forever. Wait, no…They’d all burn for me. Fools.

A vast wave of heat crashed over me from my left where the building sat. I staggered, blindsided by the rush of power that wasn’t mine. Another wave crashed over me, almost toppling me to my knees. I swayed, stumbling, and turned to regard my enemy. Ah, yes… Mammon was mine. He emerged from the building, first as Akil, then morphing, twisting, revealing the huge lava-veined wings and obsidian, muscle-bound body. His roar shook the earth beneath my feet. He pinned me under his glare and stalked forward. Behind him, the vacant-eyed half-blood twins followed, and behind them, dozens of lesser demons spilled onto the grounds. He’d raided the Institute’s cages and stolen himself a platoon of demons. But not Dawn. Had he already killed her?

I planted my feet, spread my arms, stretched out my wing, and bared my teeth. He thought to stop me? He would fail. “I am fire, Prince of Greed. You cannot quench my flame. We are the same. Equals.”

People scattered, sirens and alarms wailed, and still the bullets came, but they were insignificant compared to the sight of Mammon and his followers. His proud demon face bore a generous grin. “Magnificent.” The word implanted in my mind as much as I heard it. “But flawed.”

Wrath barreled into me, sending me sprawling to the ground. Fire spilled from my flesh, rippling over the earth, seeking fuel to burn, to live. Stunned out of my madness, I felt panic quickly rush back in. Wrath planted a huge paw on my back, pinning me still. Drool sizzled against my skin. What had I done? What had I been about to do? I could have killed them all.

“Wrath, let her go,” Akil ordered.

I lifted my head as much as I could with a gigantic hellhound on my back and saw Akil a few strides away. He still wore the Institute pants, making the rest of him all the more extraordinary. His ruffled hair and fire-filled eyes declared him untamed. Bathed in heat haze, he commanded enough power to leave me breathless and half-mad for chaos. The young half bloods stood motionless behind him, eyeing their jailors, the enforcers. I had no doubt Akil had tamed them with sweet lies. His lesser demons snapped and bickered among themselves and yet stayed together, as though compelled to.

Wrath leaned his weight into me. I cried out, expecting my back to break under the strain.

Akil sighed at the sight of me and lifted his gaze to Wrath. “Let her go while you still can.”

He was right. The panic subsided, and with its retreat, my lust for the hunt rose. Without Stefan, I couldn’t fight it back. Fire licked higher, forcing Wrath to lift his paw. He growled as I rolled over and met his furious glare. “You should have killed me,” I said, tone flat. He snarled and backed up, body low, submissive.

“Muse.”

I flung my glare back to Akil. “I can’t stop it. I’ll kill you and him and everyone here. Kill me, Akil. Do it now. You know what will happen, Val told me you know what I’ll become.”

“It wasn’t meant to be like this.” He looked sorry, as though he didn’t want this, as though he hadn’t always known how my story ended. I sprang off my feet and lunged for him, but he dodged with ease. “Muse… Stop.”

Turning to face him once more, I moistened my lips and smiled. “Don’t let me destroy everything I’ve ever loved.” I reached for his element. I would drink him down and leave him spent. He had power, more than before, but he wasn’t a half blood. I had two worlds of power at my beck and call. He couldn’t best me.

My brother’s presence crawled over me like a fever. He shimmered between Akil and me, not yet tangible, but his power was. The remnants of humanity clinging to my mind responded to his intoxicating magic, and I forgot why I was there. Val became my whole world, my every thought, every sensation. I’d have gladly fallen at his feet had Mammon not loomed behind him and swiped a clawed hand through my brother’s ghostly visage. Val hissed and whirled. Mammon straightened and stretched his wings, gathering every degree of heat from the earth. He towered over my brother, fangs bared, and appeared to be every inch the terrifying Prince of Hell.

Val shrank back, wings tucked in and quivering. “You cannot stop her, Mammon. You know this to be true.”

Mammon lifted a hand and produced a beautiful ethereal sword of rippling blue light. “Stop her? No.” His black lips stretched into a hungry grin. The chuckle trickling from those lips was all auditory seduction.

Val vanished in a burst of static, only to reappear behind Mammon. His vast wings bellowed open, encircled the unsuspecting half bloods in his deadly embrace. This was my moment. Now. In a blink, he’d vanish again, taking the half bloods with him. I sprang forward, using all of my agility and speed. I sent out a sharp, scalpel-like thought, cutting a gap in the veil behind my brother. All I needed to do was tackle him, shove him back through the veil, follow him through, and then let it all go.

A wall of black, etched with fiery veins appeared in front of me. I reeled, but Mammon’s huge arms came down around me, clamping me against his immovable body. Screaming, kicking, I bucked and twisted, but Mammon barely moved. “Not like this.”

I knew the moment my brother had gone, felt his absence, and the absence of the half bloods, like a weight had lifted from my shoulders. Mammon roared, sending the lesser demons scattering and prompting the enforcers to open fire yet again. He turned his volcanic gaze on the crowd, seemingly unaffected by the standard bullets punching into his midnight flesh. Scalding leathery wings closed around me, locking me down, virtually suffocating me.

I sent out my element, coiled it around Mammon, and beckoned his power. How dare he stop me? That had been my only chance to make sure my breakdown at least took my brother with me—and hopefully half the netherworld. Now what did I have? Minutes, seconds, before I turned into my own nightmare. I was ridden by desires I didn’t want, poisoned by a soul-lock I couldn’t escape.

Mammon’s arms crushed me to him, and with a burst of cool energy, he jumped us away from the Institute. Pain slammed me down onto my hands and knees the moment he released me. My demon screamed her rage, but outside forces slapped her back into her mental box, leaving my human body spent and gasping. Shuddering, drenched in sweat, filthy clothes clinging to me, I peered through my matted hair at my own apartment. Jonesy trotted out from under the coffee table, tail up, and nudged my chin. “Hey buddy…” I croaked.

Scrambling back, I ran my hands over my face and pulled back my hair. My stomach heaved, body wracked by trauma, but my mind… my mind was unerringly still. I wiped my mouth with trembling hands. Damn, I was a mess. The framed symbols on my walls had beaten back my demon the moment Mammon had brought me home. Those symbols were the only things that could stop me.

“Suicide is not an option.” I turned my head at the sound of Akil’s obscenely smooth voice and saw him standing by the window, arms crossed over his bare chest, his expression one of disapproving concern. “That was your intention? To throw yourself at your brother and destroy him in the netherworld?”

I really didn’t have the energy to argue with Akil, especially when he was right. Slumped back against my couch, I concentrated on breathing and allowed myself a few moments to relish the relative clarity of my thoughts. Jonesy hopped onto my lap and massaged his front paws against my thigh. His purrs soothed me. I couldn’t ignore Akil though. He radiated fury. I wasn’t even sure he’d blinked. I sighed and would have welcomed the cool embrace of Stefan’s element.

“Stefan’s back there.”

“I do not care where Stefan is.” The ice in his voice confirmed he really didn’t.

I didn’t even have the energy to glare. “He was helping me control my power. We came together to stop Val getting the half bloods.”

“How did that work out for you?”

“Fine,” I snarled, “until you got in the way.”

Akil ground his teeth and tore his gaze away. “I had everything under control, Muse. The two half bloods were mine. They would still be mine if you hadn’t tried to kill yourself.”

“Looked to me like Val was about to steal them out from under you.”

“I made a choice.” His simmering gaze found me again, and in the darkness, his eyes blazed. “I could have stopped him. Instead, I chose to stop you.”

“Why?” I growled.

“Don’t be a fool.”

“Because you know I’m going to destroy everything? Val told me, Akil. ‘The world reduced to rubble at your feet.’” I mimicked my brother’s haughty tones. “You stopped me to protect your investment?”

“Yes. I know what you will be. I’ve always known, but that’s not why I stopped you.” He strode to my kitchen where he preceded to wet a towel under a faucet.

A cruel bolt of laughter shot free. “Don’t tell me you did it because you love me?”

Turned away as he was, all I saw was how his broad shoulders tensed. “Asmodeus charged me with your protection. I was to watch you, guard you if necessary, and when the time came, hand you over to him. That time has not yet come.”

I blinked at Akil’s back, too exhausted to entertain the anger that I should have felt. “That’s what this has all been for? You and me? All these years? You’re babysitting me for my father?”

He brought the damp towel to me and crouched down, draping his arms over his knees. “From the day I first demanded your company for three nights, to this moment now. All for Asmodeus.” He spoke softly. “But I didn’t anticipate one thing.” Handing me the towel, he leisurely sat beside me, leaning an arm on the couch behind my head.

“Which is?”

“That I would care.”

I snorted, grabbed the towel, and wiped the blood and dirt from my face. “You can’t care. It’s not in your DNA.”

“Evidently immortal chaos demons can—and do—change.”

Was he serious? “Do you still have P-C-Thirty-Four in you?”

“No, I burned their filth out the moment I returned to my original form.” He shook his head. “I had one simple motive for my incarceration: To liberate their half bloods. Only half bloods can best half bloods. They would be our response to Valenti’s charge. It was perfect. The half bloods are essentially demon due in part to Adam Harper’s less-than-human methods. They followed me because they recognized power and control.” He paused and curled his fingers into his palm. “I had them. The Institute could only watch. They believed me subdued, thanks, in part, to your marvelous acting.”

“It wasn’t an act, Akil. I believed you were caught.”

“You believed some unremarkable technicians, a few lengths of chain, and some elemental symbols could contain me?” He blinked at my scowl. “That must have been emotional for you.”

Emotional? He had no idea. Or maybe he did. “I should know by now that whatever you say and do, you mean the exact opposite.” He’d sacrificed it all to stop me pulling my own pin and blowing myself away in the netherworld. That was not princely behavior.

His gaze softened. He really had meant everything he’d said. “My plans were perfect. But I did not foresee your volatile return. Had I made my escape any later, you’d have destroyed yourself, and the princes would still breach the veil. You are the best weapon Boston has.”

Speaking of weapons. “Akil, Dawn is alive.”

“Mm.”

“Mm?”

“Well, it’s hardly surprising. Adam Harper is a most resilient human being.” Resilient was one word for him. I could think of several others that weren’t nearly as polite. “The little half blood wasn’t at their facility.” He turned his face toward my window. “I freed all the remaining demons.”

“Then where is she?”

“If I do not know, then neither do the princes, and that is all that matters.” I watched him, watched the light soften the hard, masculine lines of his face. I wasn’t sure when it had happened, or what it meant, but he’d changed.

“It’s bad out there, Akil.” I followed his gaze to the windows but saw only darkness.

“The demon population of Boston will follow me.” He blinked at me as I questioned him with my gaze. “The publicity? Interviews and such? Every demon who’s enjoyed freedom in this city over the past few years knows I’m here. They will rally at my call.”

Every demon but me. Inside, I wanted his power. Not even Mammon could deny me. “And me? If I step outside that door, I’m all demon, and I sure as hell won’t follow you. It seems I have my own agenda.”

“The Mother of Destruction.” Amber singed his dark irises. “I can remove your infusion, giving you back your control. It’s your owner’s influence that’s distorting your desires.”

“Remove it or replace it with your own?”

“Ah, that is the pertinent question, isn’t it?” I waited, while he delayed, measuring his reply. “Do you remember I told you there are two ways to remove an infusion such as yours? One is to simply tear it out, but that would likely kill you. The other option is less painful, but...” I nodded for him to continue. “It takes a great deal of skill and control to remove it entirely, hence only a prince can do it. Such a feat will leave me weak at a time when neither of us can afford to be vulnerable.”

“How weak?”

He didn’t meet my eyes. “Too weak.”

“The solution?” I already knew the answer.

“I replace Damien’s infusion with my own.”

Of course. I smiled, “Mm, and you get to control me? For my father, perhaps?”

“I would have thought I might have earned your trust by now.”

I barked a laugh. He’d even said that with a straight face. “The words ‘trust’ and ‘Akil’ should never be uttered in the same sentence.”

“I have no intention of handing you over to Asmodeus. Shortly after I brought you to Boston, I began to doubt my own motives. Whatever you think of me, I care about you in ways I struggle to admit, even to myself. It is an alien sensation—disarming—and I have no idea how to deal with it. I find my thoughts irrational around you. Believe me, Muse, I do not enjoy elevating your wellbeing above my own, but I cannot seem to stop from doing exactly that. In this form, it’s infuriating. As Mammon, I find my thoughts…dangerous.”

“I’m honored,” I drawled and then frowned at his less-than-appreciative scowl. “Maybe all the time you’ve spent playing human is rubbing off on you.”

“Perhaps, but I am not human.” Concern cut into his features.

My situation had gone beyond trust into necessity. If I was going to regain some measure of control, I had to rid myself of Damien for good. “Can I ever remove your soul-lock once you’re…in me?”

“Yes. When this is over and I can afford to be vulnerable, I’ll remove it completely. You have my word.”

“The word of a Prince of Hell?” I shook my head with a smile. His word was worthless. At least, it had been. I scooped Jonesy off my lap and wobbled to my feet. “Just… Just give me some space.”

“We do not have long.”

“I need you gone so I can think clearly.” And I needed to get out of my bloodied and filthy clothes, so I could at least pretend I was something close to human again. I needed to be alone with my thoughts.

He looked up at me from his position on the floor, the picture of composure even with his Institute sweats and mussed hair. “I’ll do what I can on the streets and return at dawn.” With that, he vanished, leaving me alone for the first time in what felt like weeks. Bone-weary, anxious, exhausted, battered, and bruised, I pushed all the concern and fear aside. I’d been ready to sacrifice it all to stop my brother. At least, that’s what I’d told myself. But inside, I feared Akil had been right. Suicide was not an option, even if it had seemed like the only way out. But he was back. There was another way out of this. I had to let Akil in and hope I didn’t live to regret not turning myself into ash in the netherworld.

Chapter Twenty

The TV news channels were filled with the chaos wrought overnight by the demon attack. The authorities, including the scattered ranks of enforcers, had managed to contain the madness, but speculation about more attacks was rife. Could it get worse? One channel noted Akil’s absence. As the spokesperson for the demon community, people wanted answers from him. I wished them luck with that. There were conflicted reports that some had seen him working with the demons at dawn, while others had seen him fighting against them. I tried to reach Ryder to check if Jenna was okay, but the signal on my cell kept dropping out. I tried Lacy’s number and got her voicemail. She’d left for her parents’ house in Maine and taken Rosa, my elderly neighbor, with her. I prayed they’d got out in time. I couldn’t even leave my apartment to check for fear I’d go nuclear the second I stepped outside.

Adam Harper’s disappearance made the headlines. Given his position as the head of the Boston Institute, the rumor was he’d been killed. I didn’t think my luck had changed, so I could assume he was still alive. If one person survived Armageddon, it’d be Adam Harper. Unless Stefan found him first.

Stefan… I had no way of knowing if he was okay. I’d left him out cold in his wrecked car. Wrath could have gone back and finished him off. Surely, if Stefan had been hurt, Akil would have told me. He had Prince FM in his head. He’d know if anything had happened to Stefan.

Trying Ryder’s cell again, I considered Akil’s confession. My father had tasked him to watch me. All this time, he’d been obliged to keep me close, not for himself, but for the Prince of Lust, Daddy Dearest. If that was the case, why had Levi come to collect me all those months ago? Perhaps because Akil had lost his title and was deemed weak. Asmodeus wanted me protected, and Akil’s ability to carry out his orders had been compromised. So my father must have sent Levi to collect me instead.

However, more disturbing than any of that was Akil’s confession that he cared. It should be impossible. If Akil’s words were true, then that put him at odds with my father’s wishes. As princes went, Asmodeus appeared powerful enough to order his brethren around. What would happen when the time came for Akil to hand me over?

The thought that my father was out there, waiting for me, sent a feverish heat washing through me. If Val had his way, it wouldn’t be long before I met our dearest father. If I survived that long. If any of us did.

I had to let Akil replace Damien’s tainted touch with his own. There was no way around it. I’d become so accustomed to Damien’s darkness sucking on my soul that I wondered just what I was agreeing to by letting Akil in. There was no choice here. If I didn’t agree, I’d cut loose and go nuclear. There wasn’t a way to come back from that, even if my half-blood body survived, my humanity probably wouldn’t. When Damien soul-locked me, it had been a vicious attack. Akil had mentioned that ours should be pleasurable union, very different from the physical and mental rape I’d endured beneath the claws of my owner.

My cell died. With a curse, I tossed it onto the kitchen countertop and turned, finding Akil standing in my kitchen. A feminine yelp slipped from me, prompting him to smile. “Holy hell. At least knock, or something.” I tightened my robe and tucked my damp hair behind my ears.

He’d swapped the sweats for black pants and an amethyst button-down shirt and had left his hair a ruffled mess, which worked just fine for me. He noticed me checking him out and arched an eyebrow. Damn him for being so devilishly delicious.

“What’s it like out there?” I flicked on the kettle. I needed coffee. Now. Intravenously, if possible.

“Better. I’ve made contact with the demons on this side of the veil. They’ll step in line or die.”

Subtle. I flicked him a glance. “And what about the king?”

“He’s…preparing.”

“Right. Like you’re doing right now. How convenient.”

“I’m not the King of Hell. If I was, I wouldn’t be in your apartment, wondering what it would be like to untie your robe, touch you in places I know will make you gasp, and breathe in your scent while my city crumbles.”

I ignored the deliberate attempt to bait me. At least I tried to ignore it, but a tiny slither of lust escaped my control and dashed the fine hairs on my arms. “What is the king thinking about then?”

“How to control his wayward subjects without a queen by his side.”

“Can’t he just find another queen?”

“It takes a special kind of demon to be queen, one who can both equal the king and negate his power. Chaos and control. Had we known this would all come to pass once the queen was killed…” A low growl rumbled through him. “Well, the past is filled with graveyards of fools. While the king survives, there is a chance the worst outcome can be averted.”

“If the veil falls?”

“It can be restored, provided the balance between chaos and control is reasserted.” I didn’t hear him move, but I knew he stood behind me just from the warmth pushing against my back. He gathered my hair in a hand and drew it away from my neck. When he spoke, his whispers tickled my skin. “Have you considered what to do about your unwanted visitor?”

I had a quip ready, something about kicking him out, but Akil’s soft lips touched my neck, sending shivers through me. He swirled the tip of his tongue and nipped gently snatching a gasp from me. “Yes.” I exhaled.

“Yes, you have, or yes, you agree to my taking his place?”

I cleared my throat and extricated myself from between him and the kitchen cupboards. “Yes, I’ve thought about it.” I moved into my living room area and fussed with some old magazines. “If I have to do this—which apparently I do—then I want to know how it’s done.” Meeting his gaze, I crossed my arms and lifted my chin. “I need to know all the details.”

He leaned against the countertop and regarded me with that look of perpetual amusement he wore when bored, intrigued, or angry. “If I tell you the details, it will negate the pleasurable aspects.”

“Pleasurable aspects?” I spluttered. “People are dying out there, and I’m not faring much better. Fun is the last thing from my mind right now.”

“Worrying about the demise of anonymous people won’t bring them back.”

Pursing my lips, I planted a hand on a hip. “How very demon of you.”

“Thank you.”

“That wasn’t a compliment.”

His eyes sparkled. “Do you want to sit here and wallow in your human emotions some more, or do you want to do something to protect these anonymous people? ‘Don’t let me destroy everything I’ve loved,’ those were your words?”

I glared back at him. “Yes.”

“Then let me help you. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”

“Because you’ve been the picture of helpfulness up until now? I’ve lost count the amount of times I’ve seen you help old ladies cross the street or rehome stray dogs or volunteer your services for the benefit of humankind.”

His smile twitched and turned down, and his eyes flared with the touch of amber. “You’re the most infuriating woman I’ve ever had the misfortune to meet.”

“Thank you.”

“That wasn’t a compliment.” There was some of that emotion he’d mentioned, just a flicker on his face, a crack in his mask.

“The soul-lock and your part in it, tell me everything now. Otherwise, it doesn’t happen.”

“Must you be so pedantic?”

“Akil, humans have these wonderful little things we like to cling onto called souls. The jury’s still out as to whether demons have them. I sincerely doubt you do. I’m not about to hand mine over without knowing what it entails. Tell me why demons would ever do this to one another? What is the purpose of a soul-lock?”

“An infusion, executed correctly, strengthens both demons. The infusion or soul-lock Damien subjected you to is a knotted cancer. It would never have worked because you weren’t willing. He forced it upon you. Therefore, it had the opposite effect. It weakened you and probably him, although he was too lost in greed to care.” Greed? That coming from the Prince of Greed.

“Okay, so it’s mutually beneficial. What happens when you’re…in me?”

He caught my flinch. “I will not hurt you.”

“Then how does it happen? Before, when Damien…” My chest ached, and despite my best efforts to appear calm, my heart stuttered. I was quite sure the fear showed on my face. I didn’t have the energy to hide myself from Akil. He moved forward but stopped when I shot him a warning glare. “Just tell me.”

“I must weave my element deep inside, pluck out Damien’s hold, discard it, and replace it with my own. Think of it like surgery, if you must. Before, with Damien, you underwent surgery without the aid of an anesthetic. By making it sexual, I can heighten what would be pain into pleasure. It helps that you have your father’s penchant for lust—”

“Stop right there.” I massaged my forehead, fending off a headache.

“You asked for details.”

“I need you to understand. This is… a business transaction. I’m not doing this because I want to.”

“I am painfully aware of that fact.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. I was about to tell you as much before the Institute shot me down in the alley a few nights ago. I’ve wanted this for a very long time, but…” He smiled, revealing blunt human teeth. “...not in this manner. I’d prefer you wanted to share yourself with me in a genuine union.”

My mouth fell open. Did the gates of hell open and swallow us all? “Holy shit, Akil. Do you hear yourself? Are you feeling alright?”

“Not particularly, but needs must take priority.”

“Okay, look. When all of this is over, we can discuss…” I gestured between us, flicking my hand back and forth with a frown. “…this, whatever it is. Until then, quit being soft. It’s freaking me out.” He settled his gaze on me, lips tight, eyes tighter. “Good. I need you to answer one last thing. Are you doing this to control me?”

“No. Had that been my intention, I could have taken advantage of your naivety long ago and locked you with ease. As I said, I’ve only ever tried to help you. Right now, I’m trying to protect you from yourself. You are—and will be—destruction. You need absolute control, and you need to be all demon if you’re going to survive what is to come.”

“What is to come?”

“That, I cannot tell you.” His smiled softened. “To know one’s future is a curse. You would not thank me for it.”

“So you really do know?” He blinked back at me. “All of it? Everything?”

“Don’t ask this of me.”

“Do I survive?”

His gaze dropped.

“Does Stefan?” He flinched. “Does he?”

“Muse, I have only the knowledge which Asmodeus permits, and Stefan isn’t part of that.”

“Not part of my future, you mean?”

He lifted his eyes. “That is not what I said.”

Oh, God. I couldn’t go through this without Stefan. I needed him, the immovable ice to my liquid fire. Just the thought of him not being there crushed my heart inside my chest and strangled the hope right out of my existence.

“Muse.” Akil said my name with enough force behind it to bring my rapidly deteriorating thoughts to a halt. “We do not have time for you to second-guess a future you cannot change.”

“Then I suppose we’d better get on with it.” I worried my lip between my teeth and swallowed deeply.

He stalked forward, fingers flicking open his shirt buttons. The fabric teased open, revealing a glimpse of bronze skin. I bumped back against the wall beside the window, unaware until that moment that I’d been backing up. Irrational panic dumped ice water in my veins. By the time he’d stopped in front of me, head bowed, shirt open, I was having a hard time trying to convince myself not to run.

He caught my hand—the one clutched on the belt of my robe—and turned it over, peeling open my fingers. Lifting my hand to his lips, he met my wide-eyed gaze and teased the tip of my index finger between his lips. A shudder tumbled through me, not entirely pleasurable—more like fear and terrible anticipation. He turned my hand over and trailed hot kisses over my knuckles. Lifting my wrist, he planted a heavier kiss over my racing pulse. When his flicked his gaze up this time, a golden burn haloed his dark irises. He wanted this, but I—

“Touch me.”

I moistened dry lips, uncertainty stalling me. He planted my hand on his chest, and a wave of heat spilled down my arm. His ethereal touch, a trait all demons shared. An extra sense. It was that touch that would need to dive inside me and dig out Damien. I shuddered and stilled when Akil’s lips brushed mine. He teased with his tongue, trying to convince me to open to him. This was going to be more difficult than I could have imagined.

“Muse…” He sighed, “You must relax.”

“I don’t think I can.”

“You must be willing.”

“It’s just...” I was afraid, not of Akil, but of the horrible memories bubbling below my thoughts, waiting to resurface. I thought I’d dealt with it. I thought I’d moved on. But I hadn’t at all. “It still hurts.” I was afraid of who I was, afraid of what was to come… So terribly afraid of everything.

“That will pass. Once I have him out of you, you’ll be your own being again.”

I nodded, not trusting my voice. Akil’s gaze searched mine, but what he saw there didn’t please him. He clenched his teeth, twitching a muscle in his cheek, and then pushed off me, strode to the nearest framed anti-elemental symbol, tore it off its hook, and threw it to the floor. The sound of glass breaking accompanied the blast of heat from my demon as she came roaring out of the dark. I opened my mouth to cry out, only to find Akil’s heat against mine. His kiss was a savage invasion. To call it a kiss belittled the attack. His lips burned, his tongue licked and teased, and I fell into him, starved for him. Concerns and fears were shoved aside. I needed this. Fire bloomed inside me. My element unfurled, opening, embracing. Yes, I’d wanted this for years—to take all of him into me, drink him down until he filled me up. The demon in me, the fire, the lust, the hunger, shoved my humanity aside.

His ethereal touch, a quiver of electric power in the rush of heat, filtered through my flesh and dove inside. Human worries bobbed to the surface of my thoughts, but Akil’s hands speared into my hair and pulled me so close I forgot it all. Lust ran through me like wildfire. I sunk my hands over his behind and yanked him hard against me, swallowing his groan inside our raging kiss. Pleasure spiraled higher, like a hawk caught in the updraft. I rode the madness, snarling when he pulled back, demanding more when he tore open my robe and brushed his thumbs over my nipples. When his mouth scalded those peaks, I arched back, hissing. Energies danced in the air between us. Need throbbed. Demon wants filled my head. I fumbled at his zipper, but it snagged, and with a frustrated groan, I diverted my hands to the hard ridge of his arousal, grinning as a powerful shudder tumbled through him. He growled out my name and knocked my hand aside, hissing into my cheek, “not yet.” The distinct touch of his ethereal power swirled around us, circling like a storm. At its eye, Akil pushed inside.

The dark buried within me twitched, awakening. Lust ravaged my thoughts and owned my control. Akil became all I’d ever know, all I ever wanted to know. His warm spiciness sizzled on my tongue. The devastating heat of him crawled over me, and inside, he smothered the dark with liquid fire. I lost all sense of the moment. Time slowed or hastened. I didn’t know which and didn’t care.

“Reach into me…” His words sailed through the storm and found me in the madness. I responded like a newborn flame, eager and hungry, and drove my element into him, reaching for the light. Power sizzled between us, shivering across my fevered skin, igniting beneath the deft play of his fingers and the tease of his lips. Freefalling, I reached for him, needing him close, so close. I wanted to crawl inside him. My body ached with desire, my mind flooded with lust, and inside, the parasite that was Damien snarled. He lashed out, a slippery tendril of darkness striking viper-fast, but Akil’s burning light slipped around it and squeezed. The sound of my own screams distantly echoed. Akil’s ragged breaths sawed against my cheek. His body rocked against mine in a primal rhythm, but we weren’t joined, not sexually. This wasn’t physical but gloriously dreamlike and entirely demon. He whispered dark words, foreign words that sounded devilish on his lips. His incorporeal touch wove through me, around me, needling the pulsing, hideous dark, and plucking its claws from my soul, finally freeing me.

I clung to him, both with my mind and body. I held him so damn tight my muscles burned. His fire inside me swirled and danced. It devoured the dark, destroying every part of my hideous owner. Akil fell against me, trapping my body back against the wall, and words weighted with power tumbled over and over, coming hard and fast, burying me while at the same time lifting me up. I mirrored the words, hardly realizing I was speaking. We spoke as one—matched in breaths, in tone—and my power flowed into him. I heard the rapid beat of his heart, felt him trembling, and listened to the strain in his voice. When the dark finally released, a jolt of pain fired through me. Akil pinned me still and smothered my scream with his mouth, kissing me with consuming passion. The dark dissipated, fizzling away to nothing, replaced by dazzling shards of heat, light, lust, and something brighter, something carnal, basic, primal: Akil. His raw, unrefined wildness simmered like a potent drug. I forgot myself, forgot my brother, the demon threat, Stefan, Dawn… I forgot it all. And for a few wonderful timeless moments, I was a thing of pure fire and exquisitely demon.

Cool, slippery ice hovered at the edges of the inferno. Akil must have felt it too because he froze. I fixed my gaze on his. A corona of fire burned fiercely in his eyes. The reflection of my own gaze blazed. A familiar, comforting sensation warmed me through, like coming home to a blazing fire in the hearth. He moistened his lips and bowed his head. Both of us breathed hard and trembled with residual power.

“If you kill me, Prince of Wrath, Muse will never be free.”

I frowned at his unexpected words, their meaning far beyond the reach of my addled mind. Akil gave me a look almost like an apology and peeled himself away. I slumped against the wall, legs barely able to hold me up, and saw the reason for Akil’s words standing in my apartment doorway.

“Stefan?” His long leather coat glinted with ice while his eyes blazed a glacial blue. Oh no… I shrugged my robe back over my shoulders and knotted it closed, not that it would do me any good. He’d seen enough.

Akil stood demon-still on one side of my living room, equidistant between Stefan and me. He looked ridden hard, breathless, and exhausted. His hair was a mess, and his clothes hung askew. We hadn’t technically had sex, at least not in the traditional sense of the word. But the devil was in the details. Power fizzled in the air like an electrical charge: mine, his, and Stefan’s.

Stefan didn’t acknowledge Akil. He only had eyes for me and made sure to pour all of his princely power into that bitter gaze. I cringed, ashamed, “The soul-lock—”

He turned and was gone. I glanced at Akil, the pain showing on my face, but he simply arched a brow. What did I expect from a demon? Sympathy? Empathy?

“I have to go after him.” I wobbled a few steps and stumbled against the couch. I wasn’t going anywhere, not until my body recovered.

“I’d suggest some clothes.”

I gripped the couch back and battled panic. “Is Damien gone?” I ground out the words, fearing the reply, but needed to hear it. I’d waited so long for this. I’d dreamed of it. “Is he dead?”

“Yes.”

“No coming back? No loophole?”

“He is no more.”

“Get out.” Akil moved closer, and I threw all of my own shame into my stare. “You can’t be here right now. You’re like Christmas morning, freakin’ temptation personified.” Lust sparked through me, almost wrenching my strength right out from under me. I wanted his hands on me, his lips burning against my skin, every part of him inside me. “I need some distance.”

“Distance from me is something you can’t have.”

Oh, I knew that. I felt him burning bright and wild inside me. It felt wonderful, but I wasn’t going to let it rule me. “I told you, Akil. This was a business transaction. Our transaction is complete.”

He straightened, and the fire in his eyes died. “When will you admit what we both already know?”

Standing straight, I tried to look formidable in my bathrobe and lust-drenched body. “Thank you for helping me, but it’s time for you to leave.”

He moved too quickly for me to track, gathered me in powerful arms, and pinned me back against the kitchen counter, all in the space of a gasp. The touch of his lips on mine was all it took to spark the fire alive again. I clenched his shirt in my hands, intent on pushing him off, but froze. I should have realized it wouldn’t be easy to deny the effect he had on me. I’d had trouble resisting him before. Now he was inside me—under my skin.

He splayed a hand on my face, holding me still as his other hand tore at my robe. “Stop lying to yourself,” he snarled. His teeth had sharpened, fangs lengthening. “I know exactly what you want.” His hand plunged lower. Using a knee to nudge my legs apart, his hot touch found the wetness between my legs. “Your words are fragments, scattered by the truth I feel right here.” A cry, something between a groan and a gasp, belied my attempts at denying him. He smiled into the curve of my neck, and plunged his fingers deep into my core. “We are joined.”

I thought of Stefan, of the ice-cold expression on his face. I’d betrayed him. It didn’t matter that it had been necessary to free me of Damien. If I did this, now, with Akil, I couldn’t go back.

“Akil…” I cleared my throat and tried again, this time with a growl. “Akil, get the fuck out of my apartment right now!” He snarled, pulled away, and vanished in a cloud of static, leaving me alone, sexually ablaze, and emotionally distraught. I reached down and finished what he’d started, touching myself hard and fast, until the pleasure crested, and I came with a wrought and frustrated cry.

Chapter Twenty One

I was free of Damien for the first time in decades, and for the first time in months, I had complete control. It was a clean, concise control. Surgical. Powerful. I wasn’t sure I’d ever felt so comfortable in my half-blood skin. With all remnants of Damien finally gone, I was myself as I was meant to be. Sure, I felt Akil close by, so close I could almost taste him, but his element complimented mine. Where madness had clawed at my mind, only clarity remained. A soft, hopeful smile crawled across my lips. The Mother of Destruction was ready to take on the netherworld.

Smoke spiraled out of the crumbled remains of Stone’s Throw bar. A couple of enforcers guarded the scene while a handful of people filtered through the rubble. With no idea where to find Stefan or what to say to him when I did, I focused on the task ahead and visited the office where Ryder and the militia had been only hours before, but they’d made good on their promises and abandoned their base. The only other place I could think to find someone of use was Stone’s Throw, but there was little left of my favorite haunt. The harsh light of day only served to remind people how soon the night would come again. The demons would return, and this time my brother might be with them. He had enough half bloods at his disposal to make short work of any military response. But not Dawn. He didn’t have her. Adam would know where she was. If I could find Adam...

“Hey, lil’ firecracker.” Ryder’s boots crunched on debris as he approached from behind and planted a hand on my shoulder, almost triggering my instincts to spin and sock him one. I might have, had he not tugged me into a bear hug. Tensed like a two-by-four, I swallowed and breathed in his familiar gun-oil-and-hot-metal smell. I wasn’t aware we were the sort of friends who hugged, and like a deer in headlights, I had no idea what to do.

“Hey,” I mumbled against his jacket.

He relaxed his hold and shrugged away, realigning his coat. He didn’t need to say anything. The strain of the last few hours had etched into his weary face and burned in his too-bright eyes. Avoiding my gaze, he rubbed at his unshaven jaw and surveyed the ruined bar. “What a clusterfuck of a night.” His voice, usually so confident, quivered with dregs of exhaustion.

I couldn’t find my own voice to agree. I’d always seen Ryder as the formidable enforcer, rough around the edges and ready for anything. The man beside me was just that, a man, one who fought demons twice his size, ten times as mean, and a hundred times tougher to kill. Clearly, he was rattled, and I felt the effects of the night all the more keenly, seeing him there on the verge of tears.

“How is she?”

Ryder drew in a short hiss. “Not great. Better. It’s not what he did physically. It’s up here.” He tapped his forehead. “But she’s coherent and pissed. She knows she’s responsible for this…”

“Hardly. Jenna was never going to be able to work Val to the Institute’s advantage. She’s too human.” Ryder’s brow arched. “What I mean is, he’s just too strong. You can’t play him. This wasn’t her fault. Adam should never have let her anywhere near Stone’s Throw. He should’ve kept her off the job. This is all on him.”

He snorted. “He’s got a lot to answer for. The netherworld’s attacking, and he’s missing. I figured him for a lotta things. Now I can add coward to the list.”

I might have come back with an equally snide comment, but my thoughts were caught on Jenna and her all-too-human response to my brother. “Would she want a chance to get back at Val?”

“Hell, yeah. In between bouts of guilt, she’s cursing demons with words that make even me blush. What are you thinking?”

“We could tempt Val back in. Could she summon him?”

Ryder combed his fingers back through his hair. “Maybe. She’s got balls of brass. But what’s to stop him finishing her off?”

“Summon him inside the symbols.” I’d summoned my brother once before in much the same trap. He’d tried to skewer me with a sword. Family like him redefined sibling rivalry. “He’ll still be formidable, but if we can keep him contained here, on this side of the veil…” An idea formed. “Those rifles you used on Akil, loaded with P-C-Thirty-Four, do you still have access to those?”

“Yeah, I got one in my personal stash at home.”

“Summon him, shoot him, and he’s trapped, virtually human—or better yet, out cold. Can’t do a damn thing. It won’t stop the princes, but it might slow their plans.”

“Summoning isn’t exactly air-tight though. It’s weak at the best of times. A demon like Valenti, pissed off, might break out in a few seconds.”

“How long do you need to pull a trigger?”

A smile touched his lips. “I like your thinking. It’d have to be at Jenna’s place. Anywhere else, and he’ll get spooked before he arrives.”

“Then let’s go talk to her.”

We rode in Ryder’s car, a beat-up old Mustang with doors attached by zip-ties, but it had the guts of a thoroughbred. After stopping off at Ryder’s place to fill the trunk with weapons, we headed for Jenna’s neighborhood. Clear roads seemed all the more ominous under the bright afternoon sunlight. Most businesses were closed. Helicopters buzzed above. Boston waited, as though holding its breath. Radio news stations broadcast the numbers of dead, reaching into the hundreds, but it could have been worse. They didn’t know worse was yet to come. Only those who had seen the netherworld could truly understand what was about to consume the city.

“—Stefan.” Ryder looked at me, eyebrows raised.

“Huh?”

“I said, what have you done with Stefan?”

“Oh, he er…” I’d already explained the disaster that had been the Institute breakout. I’d even added the truth about how I’d lunged for Val and how Akil had stopped me. “Akil brought me back to Boston. We left Stefan there. He’s—er—he’s okay though.”

Bumping the car up against the curb, Ryder cut the engine and twisted in his seat to face me. “You know I ain’t one for hoping, but when I saw him with you… Well, let’s just say, there might be something of him left in there. He may not even know it. He’s helping you. That says something.”

My throat dried up. I growled, trying to clear it. “Yeah, I… He said he wants to make up for his mistakes, but what he says and what he’s thinking aren’t the same. I know demons, Ryder. Dammit, I want to hope you’re right because I thought I’d seen the same in him. But demons are sly, slippery, manipulative creatures. I genuinely hope he’s here to help, but I’m worried.” Especially after he’d walked in on Akil and me in the midst of a heated physical discussion. Or, maybe the fact he’d walked away was a good thing? A demon wouldn’t have. Hell, even Akil had expected the worst, if his threat was anything to go by. Perhaps I could take the fact Stefan had walked away as a sign he still cared. Akil had been weakened by the infusion. It would have been the perfect time to attack. A demon would have. Stefan hadn’t.

Ryder nodded. “Hell knows, we need him on our side.” He opened the car door and climbed out.

I followed him up some steps into a converted redbrick warehouse and tried not to think about the last time I’d seen Stefan. He knew about the soul-lock. He’d understand. Probably. I just had to keep telling myself that.

Maybe because I was thinking about him, I didn’t pick up on the tickle of ice against my element until we stopped outside what I assumed to be Jenna’s apartment door. I stiffened, about to warn Ryder, when he must have heard the voices inside and quickly put two and two together. He bounced back and kicked the door in. It flung open, revealing Jenna curled on a couch in her pale pink pajamas and Stefan seated in the opposite couch, dressed exactly as he had been an hour or so ago, sans ice, but no less intense. Two empty ice cream bowls sat on the coffee table between them.

Jenna glowered at Ryder. “You just stole another year off my life. What the hell’s wrong with you?”

Ryder’s hand had disappeared inside his jacket and likely rested on a handgun. He didn’t say a word, just glared unblinkingly at Stefan.

A twist of bitter jealousy tightened my chest. I knew Stefan and Jenna had been friends—still were friends. I had no right to get pissy over who Stefan chose to spend his time with, but my irrational side, said screw that. What the fuck was he doing here? I tucked a thumb into my jeans pockets and hoped I looked bored. “This is cozy.” It sounded innocent in my head, but when the words left my lips, they hung heavy and ripe with accusation, an accusation I had no right to sling.

Stefan leaned back and spread both arms over the back of the couch, offering Ryder a bigger target and a smug smile. “Just so you know, I can freeze the bullet before it leaves the barrel.”

“Horseshit,” Ryder drawled.

I took a single step away from Ryder. “Okay, guys, let’s dilute the testosterone. We have a limited number of daylight hours left. Save the pissing contest until after, okay?”

Jenna’s fingers fluttered at her forehead. “Please, just stop, or take it somewhere else.”

Ryder withdrew his hand and wiggled his fingers. See? Unarmed. “I could outdraw you.” He said it like it was a widely known fact.

Stefan’s blue eyes sparkled. “You think so? I was always faster in training.”

“Yeah.” Ryder shrugged his jacket off and neared the couch where Jenna sat. “But you’re easily distracted by pretty things.”

Stefan’s sharp eyes flicked to me and back to Ryder. “Relax, Ryder. I just came here to talk.” He sighed and dipped his chin. “I knew Jenna had been attacked, and I clearly wasn’t needed at Muse’s apartment this morning, so I came by to check on Jenna and ask some questions about Valenti.”

“Why?” I asked, ignoring Ryder’s glance. I’d told him I hadn’t seen Stefan. Now he’d be wondering why I’d lied.

“Because we need all the information we can get, it used to be my job, and old habits die hard.” A slither of deeper meaning almost slipped through his words unnoticed. Stefan and I really needed to talk, but not yet.

Ryder stood behind the couch, close enough to Jenna to be protective, but far enough away that it could be argued nothing was going on between them. He might have gotten away with it if Jenna hadn’t looked up at him and stopped herself from reaching out. “Muse thinks we can lure Val back here and trap him.”

“Only if you’re up to it, Jenna,” I added.

“Do I get to kill him?” she growled.

“You get to stop him. He’s immortal, so killing him isn’t really an option.”

Ryder and I filled Stefan and Jenna in on my simple plan. Stefan wasn’t convinced PC34 would sufficiently slow Val down, but at the very least, it would mess with my brother’s head. It would have to be enough. Stefan absorbed my explanation and nodded his approval with the cold efficiency of a demon. Things are pretty simple now.

Ryder left the apartment to retrieve his weapons from the car, and Jenna went to her room to change, leaving Stefan and me alone in the living room. The pregnant quiet plucked at my patience. Perched on the edge of the couch, I rested my elbows on my knees and clasped my hands together. With my head bowed, Stefan couldn’t see me chewing my lip, and I couldn’t see him watching me. But I felt his gaze crackle across my skin. He held his power in check while mine strained behind the effect of Jenna’s framed symbols.

“There’s a change in you,” he said.

“Yeah.”

“Your owner?”

“Gone.”

A few seconds passed. “Good.”

“About what you saw…” I lifted my head. His flat, enquiring expression didn’t make this any easier. “Akil removed the soul-lock.”

“Removed or replaced it?”

My tongue traced my lower lip. “Replaced it, but—”

“Well done. You swapped one psycho for another.” His caustic tone told me more about his state of mind than any of his words could. To wield sarcasm effectively, one needed a modicum of emotion. He does care.

“You could say that.”

“You must be relieved.” His blunt white teeth flashed behind a tight smile.

“Actually, I am. You said you’d seen what was in me. I’m more in control now than ever before. I know what I can do. I can beat this, my brother, Akil, maybe even you if it comes to it. Don’t think you understand me because evidently, you don’t.”

“Whatever you want to do and who you want to do it with doesn’t matter to me. I told you. I really don’t care.”

To borrow a Ryderism: “Horseshit.” I sat back, mirroring his relaxed posture. “You care. That’s why you walked away. Your demon wants to kill Akil. After what you saw between me and him, you should have attacked. If you were all demon, you would have. Akil expected it.”

His expression hardened. His cheeks hollowed, and the line of his jaw tightened. “You’re right. You left me hanging upside down in a wrecked car in the middle of nowhere. When I woke up to find Wrath about to make me an entree, you know what my first thought was? That he’d already gotten to you. So what do I do?” He waited, and I blinked, wondering if he really wanted an answer. “Let’s just assume Wrath won’t be joining the end-of-the-world party. Before I shredded him and sent him packing back to the netherworld, he told me how all of hell broke lose at the Institute, that Val was there, and how you vanished.” He stilled as if carved from marble and slowly blinked his wintery eyes. “I was ready to turn hell upside-down looking for you.”

He’d showed up at my place worried about my wellbeing and seen me getting busy with Akil. If his words were knives, he’d just twisted them in my gut. “I’m sorry you saw that.”

Cutting his gaze away, he smiled an unkind smile. “Did you finish what you’d started with him?”

“No.” I caught it, just a tiny crack in his flawless armor, nothing more than a twitch, as though he’d flinched inside. He really did care. Stefan was still in there behind all the stoic demon bullshit. I shrugged. “Would it bother you if I had screwed Akil?”

“No.” He gazed out of the windows, his stare hard.

I’d stumbled on the exact thing I needed to rouse the humanity in him: my relationship with Akil. It was cruel to needle him, dangerous too, but would it be enough to stir his human instincts? Traits like loyalty, compassion, empathy, and the monster that is jealousy. “You’re right. You don’t care. So it doesn’t matter what I do.”

“Do you love him?”

Dammit, why did everyone keep asking me that? Why did they all assume they had a right to know what I hadn’t yet figured out? “I hate him.” I used my stock reply. It came out flat. Not a lie, but close.

Stefan tapped his fingers against the back of the couch. “You know, Muse, you can love and hate someone equally.” His gaze slid back to me, and with it, the chilling touch of power tightened the air, leaving me in no doubt who those words were directed at. I almost blurted, you love me? before doubt stopped me. He might not be referring to me. Why should this be about me? What if that’s why he was at Jenna’s place? And even if he did love me, he’d just admitted he hated me too. Hate was a horrible emotion, no less dark than the thing I’d had rotting at my core. Give it room to move, let it fester too long, and hate could smother the brightest spark of love. My hatred of Akil sure had. But if I dug beneath the words, the truth lay bare. A demon doesn’t hate, nor does it love. The current Akil seemed to be something of an anomaly. Did that mean Stefan was looking back at me right now? In control? Seeing me through human eyes and hurting? If I went to him, would he close his arms around me or drive an ice dagger through my heart? He never did get to finish the sentence in the car about his reason for being there, for helping me.

“Where’s Jenna?” Ryder blurted.

I’d been so lost in Stefan’s cool, hard gaze, I hadn’t heard Ryder return. “Huh?”

“You left her alone?” He dropped his bag of weapons and dashed for Jenna’s bedroom door.

I jumped to my feet. “She just went to change.”

Ryder froze in the doorway. Stefan was on his feet in a blur, his power surging around him, instantly prodding mine awake. Beneath all of the swirling elements, the cruel skin-crawling, ethereal touch of my brother oozed from the doorway and permeated the air.

Ryder raised his hands and stumbled back into the living room. A resonating growl rumbled from Stefan. Ice dusted my lips and nipped at my skin. My fire butted up against the protective barrier the symbols provided. Remembering Akil’s earlier actions, I calculated it’d take me a few seconds to reach the nearest picture and tear it down, freeing my power.

“Sister, do not move.” Val’s obscenely seductive voice rooted me to the spot. He came through the doorway, Jenna clutched against his human form, dagger pressed against her throat. “Wrath, subdue your element, or I bleed this whore.”

Stefan’s fingers flexed. From my position, I couldn’t see his face, only his back, but the swell of glacial forces pushed against my human skin. He wasn’t restrained by the symbols as I was, but he wouldn’t risk Jenna’s life.

Behind me, near the door, Ryder’s bag of weapons waited. If I could summon my power and throw it all at my brother, it would take precious seconds, and we shared the same element. With the symbols intact, Val was as elementally nullified as I was. The last thing I wanted was to give him power. Sure, I could drain him, but he’d slit Jenna’s throat the second I smashed the picture. So the bag it was then. But how to get near to it without Val seeing…

Val’s pale lips pressed into a thin line while his mercury eyes assessed Ryder, Stefan, and me, showing no hint of his conclusion. Wrapped in demon-skin leathers, he dripped menace. His lips were cruel, his gaze scathing. A rapier was sheathed at his waist, and I could bet he’d have further weapons strapped to his body. Jenna didn’t make a sound. From her dull-eyed expression, she wasn’t even aware of us. Her mind had checked out, which was probably for the best.

“I do not care for you,” Val pointedly told Ryder. “But my human female does. She weeps with pleasure, cries your name, mortal-man, while I poison her mind with lust. She spills her secrets in the throes of ecstasy. She betrayed your scheming as I knew she would.”

“I’m gonna kill you slowly,” Ryder spat.

Val ignored the threat and swiveled his gaze to Stefan. “What a glorious thing you are, half-blood Prince of Wrath. Such a shame you never live up to expectations.”

I sincerely hoped Val was guessing and hadn’t already seen Stefan’s fate as he had mine. What was it he’d said? He saw the future in flesh. That must mean he had to touch someone to read them, the way I had to touch metal to see the past. I couldn’t imagine he’d ever come into contact with Stefan. If they ever got that close, one of them would have surely died. “Why are you doing this, Val?” I’d inched back a little, but not nearly enough. “You despise people. You hate this world.”

“I have no desire to be here. But this night has long been approaching and my time with it. This night I walk in my father’s shadow. A’morrow, I stand beside him as prince, and he wishes for you, sister-mine, to stand beside us.”

Well, wasn’t that just the picture perfect family? I grinned. “You’d rather kill me than see me as equal.”

Val displayed impossibly perfect teeth in a leering smile. “You forget. I already know the outcome.”

“You see, I’ve never really been a great believer in fate or destiny. Let me tell you something about humans, brother-mine. We change, we grow, we learn from our mistakes. Demons don’t. A demon’s future might be static, but a human future is fluid. We’re too fickle for fate.” It sounded like a good theory. It was all the hope I had left. Ryder’s hand slipped inside his jacket while Val’s slate-gray eyes narrowed to slits.

“You forget one important thing, sister. You are not human.”

When Ryder pulled the gun, I expected him to shoot at Val, but he didn’t. He shot at the picture on the wall with three staccato blasts. Fire lunged through me like the wild, hungry thing it was. I yanked it back and instead, hooked my ethereal reach into the glowing beacon of heat my brother commanded. His head snapped around. A snarl bubbled from his lips, and his eyes blazed with the sheer indignation that I would dare attempt to do such a thing to him, right before Stefan blasted him with a jagged wave of ice. It arched up, around Jenna, and slammed into Val, piercing his body in countless places while at the same time slamming him backward. Jenna dropped like a stone. Val let lose a bellow, and I lunged for the weapons. I might have made it, had he not tugged his power back. Searing heat whipped from my body as though he’d wrenched out my muscles in one grab. I dropped to my knees. This would take more than a few party tricks.

“Muse…” Stefan shimmered, still pouring ice into the barrier clamped around Val, but it was melting as fast as he could shore it up.

Rousing my demon, I stayed down, bowed my head, and gently called my brother’s fire to me. He raged. I could feel the pressure of his anger almost as hot as his element, but it wouldn’t do him any good. I knelt, as though in prayer, and drank him down.

Moments later, the sharp retort of a rifle shot shattered my concentration. Almost immediately, the pulsing energy my brother commanded snuffed out. He let out an inhuman howl that would surely have the neighbors petrified, and then his malignant presence simply vanished.

I lifted my head and saw Ryder by his bag of weapons, rifle at his side, face stern. He saw me and winked. “Bagged ourselves an immortal. We’re so epic.”

I shrugged off my demon and turned. Stefan supported a limp-but-conscious Jenna, and behind him, out cold on the floor, sporting a tidy bullet-hole in his forehead, sprawled my very human-looking brother. “He’s not dead?”

“No.” Ryder tossed me some nylon rope. “Tie him up with those until we can find some anti-elemental cuffs to slap on him.”

I looked at the white rope and at my brother. “We need more rope. Chains too. And a bunker. Do you have a bazooka in that bag?”

“It’s on my Christmas list.”

I rolled my brother onto his front, cringing. Best not think about how he could be faking. “Should I poke him in the eye?”

Behind me, I heard Ryder chuckle. “The combination of the etched round and P-C-Thirty-Four will keep him out for a while.”

I carefully unhooked Val’s weapons and gave him a quick frisk, revealing half a dozen vicious blades. He didn’t have any power. That was real enough. Fingers trembling, I yanked his arms behind his back and wove the rope around his wrists, making sure to double knot them. Then I did the same again, for luck. Rolling him onto his side, I hooked a finger under his waterfall of white hair and drew it back from his face. Unconscious, the nasty sneer on his lips had softened. Sharp cheekbones didn’t seem so prominent. If it wasn’t for the demon-skin leathers and impractical hair length, he might almost look normal.

“How is she?” Ryder asked Stefan as he emerged from the bedroom.

“Jenna’ll be okay. She just needs to rest for a bit.”

I glanced up and saw Ryder offer up a fist. Stefan bumped his fist against Ryder’s, and his lips hooked into a crooked smile. He watched Ryder disappear into Jenna’s room, his expression warm with fondness. I bowed my head, hiding my smile, and pretended to be busy tying up Val.

“We should mark Jenna,” Stefan said.

I stood over my brother and brushed my hands together then gave him a kick. That was better. Just takin’ out the trash. “Mark her?” I turned to find Stefan inside my personal comfort zone.

“Yeah, like your friend the vet, although maybe not as abundant as his markings. It’ll stop Val ever getting to her again, at least elementally, and give her time to heal.”

It was a good idea. “What are we going to do with him?”

“Interrogate him.” Stefan must have seen me blanch. “You don’t have to watch.”

“Screw that. I’ve been terrified of Val my whole life. I want to be the one asking the questions. I wanna see him squirm…” My words trailed off as I realized Stefan was studying me, not with confusion, but admiration. “We make a good team.” I tucked my thumbs into my pockets. “The three of us.” For a moment, his eyes lit up, and a genuine smile warmed his face, but as soon as hope flared, it fled, and his expression hardened. He turned away, and the cold rushed in. With a sigh, I said, “Let’s tie this bastard to a chair and get on with it. We only have a few hours left until dark.”

Chapter Twenty Two

Val’s eyes weren’t simply gray. Up close, they were a symphony of silver, platinum, and slate, flecked with the occasional filing of crimson. Simply put, his eyes were mesmerizing. Despite being tied to a chair, he still threw off an aura of arrogance. I’d thought he’d wake hissing and spitting like a wet cat, but he’d slid his gaze around Jenna’s living room and accepted the situation with too much composure for my liking.

“How does it feel to be trapped in a human body?” I stood within reach, arms crossed, and looked down my nose at him. Stefan hung back, near the edges of the room where we’d shoved all the furniture, his icy touch like a hand on my shoulder. He wouldn’t leave me alone with Val, citing my tendency to lash out when angry. Ryder was with Jenna, using a permanent marker to color her skin with symbols. It was a temporary fix, but would suffice for now. He’d be back any minute, and then both he and Stefan would interrogate Val.

“You know the answer, sweet sister-mine. You’ve been trapped in human flesh all your finite life.”

“Didn’t see this coming, did you, you arrogant bastard?”

“This will accomplish nothing. The princes will not wait for my return. The half bloods will arrive no matter what you do with me. I’ll escape. My future is not confined in this room.”

“So we should kill you now then?”

“Kill me?” He recoiled, offended. “I have not lived for millennia to be bested by a half-blood whore and her puppet prince.”

“I killed Levi.”

Val’s lips twitched. “No, for that you had help from a remarkable half-blood youngling, who has since died.”

“She lives.”

A sneer tugged his upper lip back, and those eyes darkened. “Impossible. Your mortal man killed her. I witnessed it.”

Interesting that he hadn’t seen Dawn in his future. “A ruse, so the likes of you stopped hunting her.” His steady gaze jumped and reassessed the room around us. “That’s right, asshole. We have an immortal killer on our side, not to mention the Prince of Wrath, the Prince of Greed—who commands all the demons in Boston—and lil’ ol’ me.”

Ryder emerged from the bedroom. “Don’t forget the mortal man. I have guns, lots of them, a truck load of the drug polluting your veins, and some very nasty anti-elemental rounds that’ll make short work of your air-brushed skin. Plus, I’m part of a small army of mortals that would like nothing more than to shove your pretty head onto a stake.”

Finally, Val looked up at me with disdain. “Your words are worthless. I need only one half-blood to level this city. I have five.”

“Without your direction, I’ll bet they’re lost. I’ve seen the Institute half bloods. They’re nothing like Stefan or me. Machines.”

“Mine are not nearly as docile. They will come for me.”

I smiled. “Soon, I hope.” If we could force them to act before the princes were ready, then perhaps we had an advantage. “Did I also mention the King of Hell is here?”

“The king is dead,” he snarled.

“Yeah, that’s not exactly true.”

His throat worked as he swallowed. “Lies. The king died centuries ago. Our queen killed him.”

“You know that thing about Akil the princes fear? A big secret, maybe a back-up plan?” I watched Val’s face betray shock, fear, then anger. Satisfaction warmed me. “Maybe you’d like to reconsider taking this world? Seems like a lot of effort for something you don’t even want, Val.”

He tugged uselessly on the restraints around his wrists and whipped his head up, snarling at me. “This is not how it happens. I witnessed our victory in your flesh.”

“Is that what you told Asmodeus? Our father? Is that why the princes persist? Because you’re so damn certain you’re right, that it’s a foregone conclusion? You saw the Mother of Destruction lay waste to this world for you?” I crouched down so I could meet him at eye level. “Hate to disappoint the family, brother-mine, but that ain’t gonna happen.”

He drilled his gaze into me, as though scoring my soul. “I should have killed you before you drew your first breath, cut your throat the way I did your mother’s. I would have, had I not seen greatness in you. Had I kept what I saw to myself, I’d have killed you long ago. All these years, I have despised sharing father’s blood with you. He had the Prince of Greed watch over you after I sold you to the vilest elementals I could find. I had hoped your succession of owners would destroy you, but fate twisted you, shaped you, into the thing you are today. You will be destruction, sister. That is your destiny.” He jerked back and glared at Stefan. “And you, pretender-prince, will help her attain her true potential.” He smiled, and I didn’t like the look of it. “So tragic. Enjoy your final hours, Winter King.”

Stefan was a blur. He shoved me aside, clutched Val by his leathers and practically lifted him off the floor, chair and all. “Tell me everything.” Val laughed, prompting Stefan’s power to flood into the room.

“Let me touch your flesh, and I will tell you how you will die. I see you only through the eyes of others, but I have witnessed enough.”

“Do I kill anyone?” Stefan’s voice fractured. Val’s gaze flicked to me. “Tell me!”

“Stefan…” I moved into his field of vision. “You don’t want to know. It will drive you insane trying to second-guess yourself. Please…”

He turned his frosty glare on me and then dropped Val. I expected him to pull back, but instead he gripped my brother around the throat and leaned into him. “Tell me.”

Val’s eyes widened. He threw his head back and jerked in the chair. Oh, shit. My brother was witnessing Stefan’s future.

“Stefan, goddamnit… Don’t. Please.”

He skewered me with his gaze. “I have to know.”

“No, you don’t. You can’t trust what he says, and I meant what I said. We’re human too. We control our own fates. Please, this is a mistake.”

“I need to know if I kill you, Muse,” he hissed.

Ryder shot Val in the chest. Stefan stumbled back and turned his demon-stare on Ryder, and before I could think about my actions, I was between the two of them yet again. At least this time, Stefan didn’t stab me.

“Fuck, Muse, would you stop leaping in front of me?” Ryder growled, stepping around me.

Stefan stole a few backward steps and bumped against the wall, where he steadied himself. He looked like he’d be okay for a few minutes, and his power was receding. I turned my attention to Val slumped in the chair, bleeding through his leathers. He’d live. Unfortunately. How much of Stefan’s future would he have seen? I faced Stefan and met his dejected gaze. I knew why he’d returned: to get the answer to that question. Would he kill me? He dropped his head back and cast his gaze upward, muttering something about fate under his breath.

Ryder tucked his gun back in his pants. “Right, listen up. Gag Valenti. We need to get him somewhere secure. The gun range at my place will do. Fewer residents, just in case the half bloods show up and get frisky. Muse, find out about the King of Hell. If what you said is true, we need him now, and find out what Akil’s up to while you’re at it.”

“I’ll call him.”

“No, go see him. I don’t trust that slippery bastard. He needs someone watching him to make sure he’s not playing both sides.”

“I’m going with her.” Stefan’s tone left no room for disagreement.

Ryder nodded. “We have two hours until dark. If the half bloods come for Val, what the fuck are we going to do?”

“Get P-C-Thirty-Four in them, and they’re as good as human. They won’t have been on this side of the veil before. They’ll be disoriented. If anything comes through your door, shoot first, ask questions later.”

Ryder nodded and drew in a breath. “Muse, we could really use Dawn.”

“Only Adam knows where they’re keeping her.”

“I’ll see what Coleman knows. Maybe they have a fix on Adam’s location. You go to Akil. Call me every thirty minutes. We bring the fight to the demons at dusk.”

Chapter Twenty Three

After helping Ryder secure Val in the gun range, Stefan and I drove out of Boston, toward Salem. I’d called Akil. He was gathering his troops at Blackstone, his countryside retreat. I told him we were on our way. He seemed surprisingly calm, considering the company I was keeping, which probably meant he had a contingency plan should Stefan go all frosty on arrival.

Each minute of the ride up passed with excruciating slowness. Tension sat in the car with us like a silent third person, a pissed off third person about the size of Jerry, who could snap at any moment. Silences gnawed on me at the best of times. This silence begged to be shattered—with a sledgehammer.

Stefan barely moved. I listened to his soft breaths and even fancied I could hear the soft beat of his heart. With his face turned away, he appeared to be watching the scenery pass, but I wasn’t buying it. I glanced over a few times when I was sure he wouldn’t notice. When I’d first met him, he’d been a different man: easy going, with a lust for life that had shown on his luscious smile and intelligent eyes. He’d laughed easily back then. Now, he was cold, like his element. A part of me wanted to grab him and shake some sense into him. As the tension ratcheted up with every mile, I had to work to pace my breathing to stop it from giving my internal wrangling away. Here we were, so close, and we might as well have been half a state away from each other.

“Fuck it.” I pulled the car onto the shoulder and twisted in my seat. “Just say it already.”

He arched an eyebrow, “What?”

“I don’t know. Whatever is in that head of yours. You wanna kill me? Then do it because this silence is driving me batshit crazy. What do you want, Stefan? To fight me? Take it all out on me? To kill me? Huh, is that why you came back? Or do you want to fuck me?” The filter I employed between my brain and mouth appeared to have completely malfunctioned, or the silence really had driven me crazy. Too late, I realized what I’d said and considered clamming up, and then I thought, screw it, might as well say it all. “Maybe both? Fuck me then kill me? You wanna try it on for size? Let’s have it out now because I don’t have patience to tiptoe around you anymore. Look—” I gestured at the window and the empty road ahead. “It’s a miracle. Nothing is trying to kill us. I have all my marbles, mostly. So c’mon, Frosty. Spit it out. There ain’t gonna be a better time to tell it as it is.”

He unclipped his seatbelt, slowly turned in his seat, and leveraged an arm against the seatback to face me. I had a moment to go over what I’d just said, wondering if I should try to backpedal, and then he lifted his remarkably blue eyes and pitched his lips into a devilish grin. “I want to fight and fuck you. Part of that is my demon’s messed up ideas, but most of it is me. You wanna know crazy? Crazy is thinking I might have a hope in hell with you, and in the same breath, wanting to kill you. The demon in me sees you as a threat. After everything that’s happened between us, my sister—the veil, being trapped in the netherworld, your alliance with the Prince of Greed—you are my enemy.” The smile wavered, but he wasn’t going to stop. “Crazy is all kinds of messed up because I see you with Akil, and I know what you feel for him, I even understand it. But it hurts. It hurts enough that I know, somewhere in all this psychosis, I’m still human. All I had was this damned desire to rage at the world. But the second I saw you eating ice cream with Lacy, I could believe nothing had changed. I wanted everything to be fine.” The smile faded behind a sneer. “I came back to kill you. I told myself it was to stop the princes, but my demon has other ideas. It was simple. Everything was simple.” He pointed a finger. “You make it complicated.” He shrugged. “It’s crazy. I’m crazy. You make me crazy, Muse. You always have.”

“Oh.”

“Oh?” He unclipped his belt, which I might have been concerned about had I felt his power churning, but neither element stirred until he reached for the steering wheel, lunged across the seat, and kissed me hard on the lips. I clamped his face in my hands and yanked him close, opening my mouth to let him in while plundering his. Flutters of anxiety snatched my breath, and the heat of desire surged. I dropped a hand, hooked my arm around him, and yanked him close. His element lapped over me—pins and needles—against my skin. I palmed his cheek and forced him to look at me. His blue eyes sparkled like diamonds, the pupils as black as night. Power burned through him. His element simmered beneath my touch like an electrical current.

“You know how wrong this is? How screwed up we both are?” he said, his voice a growl that did peculiar things to my innards. “Ice and fire? I should kill you.”

“Mmm.” I shoved him back, climbed over the center console, and straddled his lap, pinning him to his seat. “Try it.” I silenced him with a sharp kiss, and he gave himself to me. His hand fisted in my hair, dragging me closer, possessive and demanding. There was no trace of the gentleness that drove me crazy. He owned me with that kiss. I broke away, gasping, body hot and mind a muddle. Reason told me to stop. The rest of me tossed away caution and trampled on it with glee.

“Muse—”

I planted a finger on his lips. “Shh, I know what you’re going to say.” It was a bad idea. We didn’t have time. He couldn’t control himself. He hated/loved/wanted to kill me. I couldn’t control myself. Ice and fire don’t mix. The sun was going down, and the half bloods would be here soon and the princes not far behind. Akil was waiting. Adam was missing. My brother was scheming. The netherworld was coming. Screw it all. I wanted him, and he wanted me. In that moment, that was all that mattered. It really was that simple if we allowed it to be. “Close your eyes.”

He smiled behind my finger and obeyed. I leaned in to taste his lips. His sweet wintery taste tingled on the tip of my tongue. He opened for me, and I slanted my mouth over his, delighting in the way his hunger stoked mine. His hands slid down the curve of my back and spread over my hips. He held me tight, pulling me close. Would it be so bad if we just stopped thinking and felt, just for a little while? I thought. I didn’t care that he might, in one breath hate me, and in another, love me. It really didn’t matter.

He tasted too good, like an indulgence I shouldn’t give in to. I trailed kisses down his jawline, his neck, and slid my hands up under his shirt. Hard chest muscles barely gave beneath my touch. Smooth, heated skin warmed my hands. I wanted to taste him there, to lick across his chest, swirl my tongue around his nipple, and rake my nails down the ripple of his abs. Sinking my hands over his shoulders, I shoved his coat off, yanking it down his arms. He tore himself free, slid his hands around my waist, and pulled me into another hungry, plundering kiss. Lust spritzed my skin with power. Stefan arched me back. His lips and tongue burned a devastating trail of tingling as he roamed lower. Hooking my fingers under my top, I yanked it over my head and gasped as he nipped at the rise of my breast.

Threading my fingers through his hair, I forced his head back and stared into his dazzling eyes. His ragged breathing, indulgent lips, and hungry eyes speared heated desire through me. Ice dusted his cheek. I kissed it away. Then a ghost-like fractal slid across the skin of his neck. I swirled my tongue and lapped it up, feeling his pulse throb. I rolled my hips against him, and he snatched a sharp gasp and growled low and deep. The sound alone almost had my demon spilling through me. I shoved her back, rocked my hips again, and kissed him hard. He was all mine.

My cell chirped.

Stefan’s touch burned but not with pain. His hands skipped, his fingers kneaded, as though he sought to explore every inch of me. Too many clothes thwarted my attempts to feel him. I cracked my elbow against the door and tried to twist aside and clutch at his button fly. The gearshift dug into my thigh. “Dammit.”

My cell chirped again.

“Muse…” Stefan cradled my face in his hands. “You need to answer that.”

“I really don’t.” I nipped at his bottom lip and sucked it between my teeth, freeing a frustrated groan from him. Damn, if I could make him growl, I wouldn’t need much more help to tip me over the edge into ecstasy. Grazing my nails over the entwined scorpion tattoo below his navel, I watched his eyes widen. His hips bucked. Oh yes, he was sensitive there.

Another shrill ring from my cell.

He gripped my hips and held me still, attempting to appear serious while a wicked, seductive smile danced on his lips. “The end of the world won’t wait for us.”

“It would if it knew what we’ve been through.”

He slid his hand around the small of my back, and drew me in close. I let him pull me down, already sensing his withdrawal from the moment. I’d soon change that. His painfully delicate kiss just about drove me to distraction. Any moment, I’d pin him down, rip his shirt off, and taste every delicious inch of him.

“I want this,” he said, but by the downward tilt to his lips, there was a ‘but’ coming.

I ground my hips, marveling at how he pushed back, lips parting, eyes ablaze with power. “I can tell.” I wanted it too. I ached to feel close, to have his arms around me. He was the cooling salve to my wildfire.

The cell blipped. A message. “Oh, for hell’s sake.” Snatching the phone up, I poked a finger into Stefan’s chest. “Stay there.” He suppressed a grin and watched me dial Ryder back.

“Muse, damnit woman. I told you to call me every thirty minutes. Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. We’re fine.” I sounded hoarse and growled, trying to clear my throat. Stefan pushed his hands up my thighs, applying just enough pressure to make me squirm. He arched an eyebrow and teased his tongue across his lower lip. I tracked the tiny, entrancing movement and my mind vacated the premises.

“—Muse?”

“Huh?”

“I said, where are you? Are you with Akil yet?”

“What? No?” Stefan’s hand roamed higher.

“What’s going on?” Ryder barked.

Stefan’s fingers skipped lightly over the denim between my legs, sending countless tremors rippling through me. I gasped, heard Ryder swear, and punched Stefan on the arm. He feigned pain with a chuckle.

“I should never have let you go together.” Ryder grumbled. “It’s like letting two kids loose in a candy-store. For fucks sake, Muse. Save it ’til later.”

I covered the mic on the phone. “Busted.” Clearing my throat, I batted Stefan’s hands away. “Ryder, it’s nothing. We just stopped for…gas. We’re nearly there. Five minutes out, max”

“Get to Akil’s, make sure he’s doing what he’s meant to be doing, and come back here. Your brother is awake and giving me the evil eye. He’s too smug. I don’t like it.”

“Understood.”

“Good, now pass the phone to Stefan.”

“Erm, okay…” I handed it over, answering Stefan’s enquiring gaze with a shrug.

In the quiet of the car, I heard every one of Ryder’s words. “If you hurt Muse, I will hunt you down, use every rusted weapon I own, cut off your precious parts, and feed them to the hellhounds. Comprende, amigo?”

Stefan swallowed back a chuckle. “Understood.” Ryder hung up before Stefan had chance to. “I believe him.”

“He doesn’t make empty threats.” Well, that was the mood thoroughly spoiled. A blush touched my face as I realized I was straddling Stefan, virtually naked from the waist up. I snatching my top from the dashboard and wriggled it over my head. “We will continue this,” I promised, or maybe threatened. Who knew with Stefan?

He leaned forward, eye-to-eye with me, salacious smile begging to be kissed. When he reached out to touch his fingertips to my cheek, I tensed, uncertain. “You’ll either save me, or condemn me, Muse. Either way, I have no intention of letting you get away again.”

I’d have kissed him, but he bowed his head and pulled me into the kind of embrace reserved for goodbyes. My heart fluttered, trapped. I closed my arms around him, gathering him close, suddenly so very afraid for the both of us. What if this was the best we ever had? What if tonight, something terrible happened? Val had said Stefan’s future held tragedy.

The smallest of trembles shivered through him. I tightened my grip and turned my cheek against him, holding him so close that his heart beat against mine. This, now, was real. This was Stefan, and he just wanted to be held. I breathed him in, and stroked my hand softly down his hair. “It’s okay.”

When he whispered, his lips tickled my ear. “I’d forgotten what it was like to feel.”

Years in the netherworld, hunted by the Institute, abandoned by his father, how long had it been since somebody loved him? I tightened my hold and clutched his shirt in my fists. He’d been alone through all of it. Was it any wonder that ice had frozen his heart? How else could he have survived?

“I...” He sighed. “Don’t let go.”

He couldn’t see my face, buried as it was in his hair, but had he been able to, he’d have seen bright tears in my eyes. “Never. As long as I live and breathe, as long as I have a shred of humanity left, as long as I have it in me to care, I will be here for you. Always.”

Chapter Twenty Four

Demon eyes glowed in the half-light, smothering the long, meandering driveway snaking through the forest toward Blackstone. As soon as we’d pulled off the main road, I’d felt the crawl of demon stares. Within a few hundred yards, they’d started to spill from the trees. Now, as we rolled forward at a snail’s pace, the demons were everywhere: in the trees, lining the driveway, crouched by the earthen banks. They watched with multicolored eyes. Lessers, mostly, but some higher demons, especially the closer we got to Akil’s house. Wings fluttered, flapped, and shivered. Claws glinted, and teeth chittered. Elements swirled, charging the air. The hairs on the back of my neck rose.

“Stop. Let me out.” Stefan climbed from the car and strode ahead. Speared by headlights, the demons parted before him, hunkered low, submissive, even as they hissed and spat in his direction.

With a clear path behind Stefan, I picked up the pace in the car, muttering to myself, “This is the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Blackstone shone ahead. Lit up like a beacon for all things demon, the wing-design roof structure and ultra-modern rectangular glass seemed utterly at odds with the dozens of demons crawling all over it. There were hundreds, maybe more. The forest heaved with demon-forms, and their eyes glowed like stars in a midnight sky.

I pulled the car to a halt beside Akil’s sleek vehicle. A demon the same size as the arrow-shaped sports car sprawled over the entire length of the vehicle, tail dangling off the hood. It eyed me with curiosity, as though it was capable of turning me into a tasty snack, but maybe later, when it wasn’t so sleepy.

All of Blackstone’s doors and windows were thrown wide open, so Stefan and I took that as an invitation to head inside. More demons. Some slept in the hallway, others squabbled, growled, and jostled for rank in the rooms we passed. It was like a frat party for demons. Chaos. Could Akil control them all, or were they here for sanctuary?

We found Akil in the kitchen, leaning back in a chair at a dining table, playing poker with Jerry. A black satin shirt gaped with several buttons undone. He wore tailored black pants, but his feet were bare. He slid a hand through his hair, contemplating his next play. He saw me standing, mouth open, in the doorway. “Muse.” He slid his gaze to Stefan standing just behind me, and his eyes flared with a touch of fire. One of the three demons in the corner hissed, then settled back down, curled around its companions like kittens in a basket—big, leathery, ugly, demon kittens.

Jerry looked up from his cards, saw the look on my face, and laughed. The heady, rolling, sound of his laughter tempered the rising tension. “Join us. The stakes are high. Cocktail sticks and chocolate coins.”

This was absurd. The world was ending, and Akil was playing poker? “Jerry, Akil… What are you both doing?”

Akil glanced at the spread of cards on the table. “I’d have thought that was obvious.”

Jerry huffed some more rumbling laughter and spread his cards on the table. “I fold. Ahkeel, I never could beat your poker face.”

I glanced at Stefan for back up, but he arched an eyebrow and stayed quiet. That was probably a good thing. “Akil, your house is full of demons.”

He placed his cards down and stretched back in his chair. “I had noticed. Where did you expect them to go? With the veil weakening, many of them are struggling to maintain human form. The people of Boston will kill them or try to. I offered them sanctuary in exchange for their allegiance.”

“How many are here?”

His eyes narrowed, and his gaze briefly wavered. “Five thousand seven hundred and sixty three–no, two. They’re squabbling over territory in the woods. If the princes don’t arrive soon, the numbers will decline. This many demons do not socialize well.”

“They’ll fight for us?”

“For me.” He sucked in a deep breath and turned his attention to Stefan once more. “Reconsider those thoughts, Wrath. The second you attack, my demons will shred your half-blood flesh and turn your frozen skin into snowflakes.” Another growl emanated from the tangled pile of demons in the corner.

Stefan stilled. He lifted his chin and glared back at Akil. I’d forgotten they shared Prince FM. Akil had picked up on Stefan’s less-than-friendly thoughts about him. “I can wait.”

Akil sighed. “Indeed.” He shoved out from the table, stood, and sauntered across the kitchen, pouring masculine prowess into every stride. Stefan’s element reached out and coiled around my legs with a silvery chill. Akil either didn’t notice or didn’t care. He stopped too close, well within my personal space, and brushed his knuckles down my face. “Why did you come here?”

“To check up on you?” I hadn’t meant that to sound like a question.

“A call would have sufficed. You do not trust me.” His voice, deep, smooth, slippery, wove into my mind, unraveling my stubborn denial that I felt anything for him. I tasted spices, smelled cinnamon, and had to stop myself from reaching out to him. He didn’t need to touch me to make my insides liquefy and heat pour through me. He was already inside. Dammit. This was going to be harder than I’d thought.

Jerry was beside me, his presence like a damned portent of doom. I blinked, Akil’s spell broken, and backed up. Stefan glowered from behind Jerry, his power coiling and wisps of vapor rising off his clothes.

“Ahkeel, now is not the time to taunt the half bloods.” Jerry’s cavernous voice held power. I looked at him, as though seeing him for the first time. His huge bulk—smothered with black swirling symbols—radiated calm. There had always been something soothing about Jerry. He was terrifying to look at, but I’d never feared him. From the moment Carol-Anne had first introduced us, I’d warmed to him.

I flicked my gaze to Akil, saw him bow his head and turn away. Akil didn’t take orders from anyone, and he certainly didn’t bow his head. “Holy shit, Jerry, You’re the king.”

Jerry’s lips creased into a smile, bowing the tattoos on his cheeks. “The king died long ago.”

Akil crouched beside the demons curled in the corner. They purred awake, although they didn’t have any eyes to open. One nuzzled his hand. Another flicked its forked tongue out and licked his face. He muttered something in the old language, and the three demons purred their pleasure.

“The symbols hide you,” I whispered.

“My symbols protect me from nosey demons getting too close.”

“You’re the king. Oh, my God.” It had to be true. Akil had said I’d met him. He’d been right in front of me the whole time, patching me up when I got myself poisoned by Scorsi venom. He’d always been there. The king was control to the queen’s chaos. That was the sensation I had from Jerry. Control.

Jerry leaned back and frowned. “Ahkeel, she’s not listening.”

“Muse never does.”

“Deny it.” All sets of eyes swiveled to me, and nobody said a word. “Ha! See? You can’t.” I poked Jerry in his barrel-like chest, and then tensed and curled my fingers into my hand. If he was the king, poking him was not the best course of action. I backed up and moistened my throat.

“I thought you believed me to be the king?” Akil glanced over his shoulder.

Stefan snorted. “King of Liars. Nobody would dispute that.”

Akil patted the demon on its haunches before him and rose. “Stefan, you are a half-blood whelp compared to my infinite existence. It takes a special kind of fool to insult the Prince of Greed in his domain while surrounded by a loyal army of five thousand demons. Don’t you agree? I suggest you keep your comments to yourself, unless you’d like the battle to start here and now.” Behind him, the three demons snarled as one, except they weren’t three separate demons, but one huge beast with three heads. Although blind, it could clearly see Stefan because all three heads pointed at him, marking their target. Three gaping maws snuffled and snarled, dripping streams of saliva.

“You think I fear your pet?” Stefan smiled, and all the traces of the warm Stefan I’d witnessed in the car were gone. “We both know I’m more powerful than you. Set your dog on me, and watch it die. Your whole army of demons can’t stop me. So go on, old man. Bring the fire.”

“Your word is true. I have no intention of stopping you, but Muse will.”

Oh dammit. I lifted my hands, palms out. “Let’s not do this now.” I sent a silent plea out to Jerry. “Please, can we all just play nice until we’ve beaten back the netherworld?”

Stefan stood his power down but continued to stew in silence. Akil’s smile declared he’d won that battle, and Jerry chuckled to himself. I puffed out a sigh. If two princes could barely control themselves, how was Akil going to control an army of wayward chaos demons? “Akil, may I have a word with you. Privately.” I received a sharp glare from Stefan and ignored it. Akil inclined his head and left the room with me close behind. We wove through Blackstone’s halls. I’d spent much of my adolescence in that house. It still felt like a home, even crawling with demons.

I snorted a derisive sound as Akil led me to the master bedroom, which was conveniently clear of demons. My honed demon senses picked up on his rich, masculine scent and delivered the memory of when I’d last been in the room, sprawled naked in the bed, and I covered a purr behind a cough. “We have Valenti tied up at Ryder’s place. He says his half bloods will be coming for him. We’re going to be ready. Do you want in?”

Akil moved to the windows. Outside in the half-light, demons crawled over the manicured lawns like stone gargoyles come to life. “My place is with the demons. It takes half bloods to stop half bloods.”

I liked to think I knew Akil fairly well, even if my life was a grain of sand on the beach of his existence. And seeing him standing by the windows, his back to me, something felt off. When he’d first brought me to Boston, he’d stood like that, studying the city outside, as though measuring it for a good fit. Now he looked out over a squabbling contingent of demons, and it felt like a backward step, almost as though he’d withdrawn himself from the fight. “What’s going on?”

“I have lived thousands of years and made just as many mistakes, but I do not intend for you to be one of them.” He turned, and I caught the low flicker of dying embers in his eyes before he blinked and extinguished them. “I am an eternal demon, the Prince of Greed, but I am something else, something I do not understand. In this form, I feel. You believe me a liar. You think I am incapable of emotion. Before I brought you to Boston, I would have agreed with you. When I first met you and manipulated events to sequester you away from your owner, I did so for Asmodeus because I owed him a service. From that day, when I saw fire in your soul the likes of which I’d never witnessed, you changed me.” He laughed softly, but it was a bitter sound. “You changed a constant. You altered chaos. It is impossible. I denied what I felt for so long. I attempted to forget you when you left me, but every day away from you only seemed to deepen my obsession.” He paused, and the look in his eyes wasn’t friendly. I’d seen that look only a handful of times, most recently when he’d threatened to tear my demon out of me. He glared, motionless but for the swirl of power in his eyes. “There are events coming that I have no control over.” He paused and moistened his lips, dropping his head as though considering his next words carefully.

I swallowed and willed my racing heart to slow. This was not Akil. He was fire: indifferent, uncaring, ruthless, hungry, selfish. The being standing before me was conflicted, confused, angry, and hurting. If I didn’t know better, I’d think him almost human.

“I cannot protect you from yourself. Nor can I protect you from what is to come. I fear this...” He closed his eyes and locked his jaw. The constant background touch of his element withdrew as though he pulled it around him, holding it close. When he opened his eyes again, they blazed amber. “I fear this night will change everything, and for the first time in my infinite existence, I am powerless to stop it, to stop you.”

He was afraid. And if he was afraid, the rest of us should be terrified. I pinned a shallow smile onto my face and felt it twitch, trying to flee. “I won’t fail.”

He smiled and shook his head. “I know. That is the problem.”

“I’m not going to go loco. I feel ready. I can do this. You’re inside me. You must feel it too?” He lifted his eyes, and damn me, if he didn’t look beaten already. “Akil, this isn’t you. You’re the Prince of Greed, a Prince of Hell, a First. You think you’d stand there as Mammon and tell me all this?”

“This isn’t coming from Mammon.”

“Wait, what?” Were Akil and Mammon separate? I’d believed Mammon was Akil, and vice-versa. Akil had told me his human vessel was a trap. Now I wondered who had become trapped? I lifted my hands. This was all too much. Maybe it was the soul-lock making him doubt himself. I had some of him in me, so maybe he had some of my humanity in him. Whatever it was, we’d figure it out when the countdown to Armageddon clock wasn’t ticking over. “You’re just off, is all. Maybe P-C-Thirty-Four had more of an effect on you than we thought.”

“Perhaps.” Which was a no. “I will kill Adam Harper the next time I see him, if for no other reason than his disrespect.”

A fist bump seemed grossly inappropriate. I wasn’t even sure Akil would recognize the universal sign of mutual celebration. He’d probably duck and sucker-punch me. Plus, I didn’t want to get any closer for fear he’d tell me loved me or something equally disturbing.

I angled toward the door, considering my escape. “You’re just…unsettled.”

“Call it what you will. I’ve been trying to resolve my internal conflict for fifteen years. Whether I am entirely demon or something else… I do not wish to lose you.”

“Don’t make me come over there and kick your ass just to knock some sense into you.” Here comes the snark. He was cutting too deep, too close to raw wounds. “You just need to go demon for a bit—get back in your lava-veined skin.” He came forward, his stride as confident as ever I’d seen it. He didn’t doubt his words, and his smile dared me to challenge him.

I straightened and held fast, refusing to back down. I didn’t do backing down—not any more. “Don’t do this.”

He stopped inside my limited personal space but didn’t touch me. He didn’t need to; his element reached out and encircled me. Lifting my gaze, I flicked my hair out of my eyes and plastered a bored expression on my face. Amber churned in his eyes, and those forbidden lips curved into a seductive smile. “A kiss?” he whispered, somehow closer without moving.

I turned my head away, stepped back, and met his gaze. “Akil, I don’t understand this either, but I do know one thing. Whatever you think you feel for me, whatever I might feel for you, it can never amount to anything. I will never trust you. Do you understand that? What we have, it’s messy and destructive. Maybe it’s demon. It certainly isn’t healthy. In all of those feelings you talk about, you must sense the truth?”

He blinked, and the smile died. “I know the truth better than you, dear Muse. I am inside you.” He settled a warm hand over my chest. “You love him. Stefan.” Fire flared in his eyes.

“Ahkeel…” I rolled his old name on my tongue, tasting the history it carried. “Don’t tell me who I love. I owe you more than I could ever repay. You saved me time and time again. But one day, I will be free.” I hesitated just a little, but I wouldn’t hide from the truth. “To be free, I can’t be with you.”

He pulled his hand back. “Go back to Boston. Face your future. I will be there when you need me.” He turned his back on me and strode to the windows.

I left with the goodbye burning unspoken on my lips.

Chapter Twenty Five

The electric tension sizzling between Stefan and me on the ride out to Blackstone vanished before we even began the journey back. Quiet hung over us like a thundercloud, but I let it linger, my thoughts bogged down by impending expectations and Akil’s disturbing admission. Whatever happened, whether Val’s half bloods came or not, the princes would, and I needed to get my head in the game. Besides Stefan, I was one of the most potent weapons on this side of the veil. With Akil’s constant touch glowing inside me, I had a chance at wielding the power of two worlds. It terrified me. Ryder would tell me I wouldn’t be human if I wasn’t afraid. But it was my humanity I was afraid of. Demons keep it simple. They want; they act. The part of me that was demon had no problem with the nightmare I was walking into. But humanity, by its very nature, throws a wrench in the works. I doubted my abilities, feared my potential, and secretly anticipated the rush. Being human was a half blood’s greatest strength and greatest weakness.

Rain patted the windshield as we returned to the quiet streets of Boston. Dusk was thirty minutes out, but beneath the blanket of clouds, it might as well have been night. The wipers sloshed, and the empty streets glistened beneath streetlights. I shivered, not cold but disturbed.

“Something’s wrong,” Stefan said quietly, leaning forward to peer through the rain-smeared windshield.

I felt it too. The air had thickened, darkened, as though a photographic filter had absorbed what little natural light there was. My skin prickled, human senses spiking.

“Call Ryder.”

Stefan redialed my cellphone. In the heavy quiet, I heard it ring, and stamped on the gas pedal. No way was I losing Ryder. In minutes, we swung into the dead-end street. Outside Ryder’s place stood something both beautiful and terrifying. Gossamer dragonfly wings branched out from behind a willowy phantom. She hovered a few feet above the road, like an apparition, barely there at all. Half a dozen bodies lay still around her. I couldn’t tell if any were Ryder.

Stefan and I climbed from the car. Slippery air slid across my tongue and down my throat, thick and sweet. Netherworld air. I mentally probed for the veil as my feet carried me toward the ghostly demon. The barrier between worlds rippled, tissue paper thin. It would tear at any moment. Like the demon, the veil was hardly there at all.

“Air demon,” Stefan said, voice flat. He pulled the cold from around us. “She’ll try to suffocate your fire.”

Air. Just great. My track record when it came to dealing with air demons included Damien, and he’d regularly wrenched the air from my lungs and doused my flames.

“Leave her to me. Find Ryder.” He flicked his wrist, producing an icy short sword that very quickly doubled in size and sharpened into a razor-edged scimitar.

A ripple of iridescent light cascaded through the air demon, and her amethyst eyes warmed with recognition. A half blood. “Stefan she’s—”

“I know.” He broke off from my side, passing his old workshop. The walls and sidewalk frosted in his wake. “I don’t suppose you wanna talk this through?” He curled humor through his words. “Maybe that half human part of you is curious? You ever tried ice cream?”

Her delicate laughter tinkled like the sound of diamonds poured over glass, feminine, yet sharp, more demon than human. Her eyes glowed. Her skin blurred, shifted, sailed away like fog, and then coalesced into her female form once more.

“You are too late. We have freed him.” Whispers, that’s all she sounded like, whispers against skin, promises forgotten. A slither of fear stoked my doubts, and my fire surged in response. Her face turned to me, and then she was gone. Just like that. Vanished in a blink. I searched the street, the rooflines of the industrial units, the shadows between empty warehouses, but couldn’t see any disturbance in the air.

Stefan whirled, raising the ice blade, slicing it through the cloud of mist that formed behind him. Her laughter echoed. She was intangible, and there was nothing for him to hit. He stumbled back, ice daggers glinting as they sparkled into existence around him, but with no target, they were useless. She hovered, ghostlike, too close in front of him. He reeled, but as her hands thrust out, into him, he snapped to an abrupt halt and choked.

Ryder would have to wait. I snapped my demon to attention, spilling fire through my veins, and sent my element out, coiling it through and around her ghostly form. She sizzled and snapped her head around, angling her wraithlike body toward me. Stefan dropped to his knees, gasping, and she rushed me. Cool, electric air gushed over me, the blast so dry and abrasive that it extinguished my fire as surely as a puff of breath might smother a candle flame. I knew this was coming. Damien had taught me how, without air, my fire was nothing. But what our ghost friend had failed to realize was that I was no newbie half blood, and Akil’s fire in my belly was eternal. I spun, spread my torn wing, and reignited the inferno from inside. This time, I sent it out with hunger behind it. Feed the fire oxygen, and it thrives. I felt the moment the flames blistered her wispy flesh and heard her screams. More solid with every passing second, she reached for the veil, and would have called the netherworld air to her had Stefan not plunged a dagger through her back. She fell into his arms, solid, naked, and bleeding. I got a look at her terrified eyes, and heard old words on her lips.

“I’m sorry.” Stefan lowered her to the ground. Her lovely eyes shone with tears. She was like us: human inside. Had she dreamed of freedom too?

There were no demon doctors here. No EMTs. Jerry was probably still playing poker with Akil. She would die on this drab backstreet, and nobody would mourn her. Half bloods don’t get happy endings.

Shaking my demon off, I moved up behind Stefan and rested my hand on his shoulder, careful not to snatch it back as the cold crawled up my arm. “Leave her. We don’t have time…” For what, exactly? Goodbyes?

He stood and strode ahead of me. Following, I briefly checked the faces of the other fallen bodies in the street. Militia. No enforcers, at least none I recognized. I couldn’t lose Ryder. He was the only real friend I had. What would I tell Jenna? What about his daughter? His ex-wife? How would I tell them?

“He’ll be okay,” Stefan said, as though reading my thoughts. He jogged ahead and into Ryder’s place. Ryder’s traps had sprung. Lesser demon bodies lay sprawled about the hall. “Ryder?” Stefan called. “Man, you here?”

The door to the basement gun range hung ajar.

“Wait.” I sent out my element. “Val is down there, and he has power.” I lowered my voice. “Not much, but it’s there.” He could have burned the drug from his veins as I’d done. He’d had time. Damn fire elementals.

Stefan hesitated in the doorway. “A trap.”

I nodded. “Yeah, maybe.”

The smart thing to do would be to walk away. But neither of us would. What if Ryder was still alive down there? We couldn’t leave him.

“I’ll go.” I brushed past Stefan, but he caught my arm and pulled me up short. “My brother can’t hurt me. Asmodeus wants me alive.”

“Muse, one touch of his wings…”

“I’ve got this.” He didn’t want me to go. It was in the stubborn line of his lips and his furrowed brow. “It’s time I faced him.”

“There’s no way I’m staying up here. I’ll be right behind you.”

We descended the narrow stairs into the bright, artificial light of Ryder’s gun range. Val stood against the opposite wall, wings spread behind him. Sprawled face down at his feet was Ryder. I couldn’t tell if he was breathing, but he was bleeding. His shirt clung wet and dark against his back. Rage scalded my flesh. I couldn’t have stopped the change to demon even if I’d wanted to. Black skin smoldering, I gave my wing a flick and stared into my brother’s molten silver eyes. “Hello, brother.” Pure demon, my voice bubbled and snarled.

The corner of his thin lips ticked up a fraction, and he dipped his chin. “He will live unless you defy me.”

“What happened?” I circled around, moving close while giving Stefan access from the stairs. The low ceiling and narrow space barely contained the three of us. Chaos mingled and snapped in the air, stirred up by our crowding elements.

“Revenge blinds humans. He knew it would be unwise to torment me. Still, he persisted. He feels for his mate, the enforcer female. I told him in exquisite detail how I’d entered her, ruined her fragile mind until she lay broken beneath me.”

His words slid off my cool demon thoughts. “You’re weak.”

“My strength returns with each passing moment.” His wings shifted with a sigh of velvet on velvet, and I shivered.

“Your half bloods came.”

He smiled, and I really didn’t like how pleased he appeared to be. “Come back with me. Stand beside our father. Become that which you are destined to be.”

Moving closer to my brother, I inched around the weapons table. “Destruction?” Behind my back, I scooped up the Desert Eagle. The grip smoldered beneath my touch. Val’s eyes stayed trained on mine. “Tell me what you saw in my flesh.”

“Hellfire raining from the skies. Buildings burning. Humans turned to ash, captured in a firestorm of your making.” Val bowed his head as I stopped before him, close enough to stand on my toes and kiss him. “Your fury is a wondrous thing. Alive and hungry. If it were not for Wrath, I am sure you would be eligible for such a title.” Stefan’s presence—cold and immobile—shored me up from behind. He hadn’t moved, hadn’t spoken. It was enough that he was there.

“I need only one title.” I heard Ryder’s ragged breathing. He was alive, but for how much longer? “What’s to stop me from destroying you, my father, and every beast in the netherworld? How do you know that’s not what you’re seeing?”

“The netherworld is your home.”

“No.” I flicked the safety off. “That’s the problem with demons. You believe in only one thing. Yourselves.” I brought the gun around, thrust it up under my brother’s chin, and pulled the trigger. I hadn’t expected it to work. Neither had Val. I knew Ryder had shells etched with anti-elemental symbols, but Val was immortal, the first-born of Asmodeus. I’d expected the bullet to sail through him, but it wasn’t nearly that clean. I fired, the gun kicked back, and Val’s head jerked. Half his beautiful face and skull blasted outward, painting the wall behind with brain matter, blood, and bone. This wasn’t the neat little hole Ryder had shot through my brother’s forehead in Jenna’s apartment. The .50cal round obliterated my brother’s face. His body dropped to his knees then slumped back, a dead weight of flesh and bone.

Stefan shouted at me, barking orders, but the gun blast still rang inside my skull, and the shock of seeing my brother’s face practically tear off in front of me held me dumbstruck. Seconds ticked by, maybe more.

My brother’s element whirled around us, wild and incensed. I saw the gaping hole in his skull reforming. His skin stretched, his face distorting like a rubber mask.

Stefan grabbed me, recoiling as my fiery flesh singed his skin. “Dammit, Muse. He’s immortal! You just pissed him off. The longer you gawk, the less time we have to get outtah here.” He adjusted Ryder’s dead weight in a fireman’s lift over his shoulders. “Get moving. Ryder isn’t getting any lighter.”

We sprinted out of Ryder’s place and back to the car. Stefan shoved Ryder into the backseat, and I chose that moment to look back.

Val didn’t emerge through the door of Ryder’s house like any normal being. Hell, no. A tangible darkness spewed from the windows and doorway and swirled in the street before blasting apart to reveal the moon-pale skin of my brother and his vast midnight wings. His white hair whipped about his face while his skin marbled with white-hot veins of fire.

He thrust out a hand and lashed a tendril of fire around the car at Stefan. Stefan threw up a shield, turning demon, but he stumbled under the surge of heat.

“Hey!” I tossed the gun into the car—it wasn’t going to make any difference—opened my wing, making myself a target, and strode forward. “You want to play, brother?”

Val’s bright white eyes locked on me. He forgot Stefan and yawned wide, revealing a mouthful of curved teeth.

“Get out of here,” I snarled to Stefan. “Go.” His wide crystalline eyes told me he didn’t want to leave. ‘I can do this… I’ll be okay.’ My attention snapped back to Val. His wings opened like ship’s sails, and he stalked forward. I registered distantly the growl of a car engine, but I trained my sights on my brother. “You think you can take the Mother of Destruction?”

He came closer still, his wings arching either side of me. “I don’t need to take you. I just need to keep you here, sweet sister.” My fire sputtered, fuelling his grin. “Can you not feel it?”

There was something. I’d noticed it as soon as we’d returned to Boston: the sweetness in the air, the heavy draw of it between my lips and across my tongue. I stumbled back, reaching out with my senses, exploring. The veil, wafer thin, and crumbling. Not dissolved, not yet. But close.

“It is too late. This city cannot be saved. The veil will fall in moments.” Val grinned.

“No, there must be a way to stop it.”

“This was always happening. You cannot stop the future.”

Pressure pushed at the back of my skull and fed down my neck. The headache from hell, literally. I tried to shake it off and focused instead on my brother. “I’m going to drain your fire, brother. If it doesn’t kill you, I’ll find another way while you’re spent and out cold at my feet.”

“Do it.” His wings came around like darkness closing in, and I sent out my fire to smother him, sink into his soul, and tear out the throbbing orb of power at his center. A splash of color above me snagged my attention. Val stilled and lifted his gaze. Washes of reds, greens, violets, mingled and spilled over in a waterfall of light. My element swelled, pushing beneath my blackened demon skin and spilling uncontrolled fire over my flesh. The pressure in my skull exploded in a white-hot blast of agony, ripping reality away. Distantly, I watched myself fall to my knees as an entire world’s worth of power poured into me. The veil fell. The netherworld flooded into the Boston backstreet. Lightening scored angry purple skies. The ground, black and burned, surged and heaved beneath my knees. Writhing brambles knotted and lashed around buildings and devoured the industrial units, Stefan’s old workshop, Ryder’s house. The hungry dark consumed it all. Blind to all but the elements, I closed my eyes. I still felt the power snarl and tangle around me, through me—all of the elements, not just fire. Earth, air, water, ice, and chaos. The part of me that was human shrank away from the onslaught, buried beneath the weight of two worlds. I hid inside, fled to the far corners of my mind, and curled myself into a tiny, insignificant thing. I knew the human part of me would not survive. Akil’s voice fluttered to me, a leaf tossed about inside the storm: You are destruction. Become what you are. I heard him hiss and felt him leave me, and then there was nothing but the howling storm with me at its center.

The storm raged for an eternity and for no time at all. Adrift, lost, and alone, I weathered it because there was no other option. Lightening fractured the sky. The seas boiled. This wasn’t death. Death wouldn’t be tumultuous, of that I was certain. Closing my eyes, shutting down, I hid inside myself where the ravaging storm couldn’t penetrate.

I curled my toes in the white sand, ignoring the painful bite of heat. The sun beat down, lashing my skin, but it didn’t seem to matter. Not really. Out across the azure seas, the storm raged on. Lightning twitched and bucked through dark mushrooming clouds, but it was distant, someone else’s battle. Here, where I stood, all was calm. I tilted my head up and welcomed the heat.

“Where are we?” Akil asked.

I turned my head, expecting him to be behind me, but I was alone. He was close though. I knew it the same way I knew I wasn’t really standing on a beach. Shielding my eyes, I scanned the endless stretch of blazing white sand. Nothing. Not a blade of grass or a bird in the sky. The washed-out blue sky funneled to the silvery, flawless sand.

“This is a phantom place,” Akil said.

“I come here when I have nowhere else to go.” When Damien beat me to within an inch of my life, when the pain smothered me like the sunlight pouring over me now, when my humanity failed. “What’s happening?”

He sighed, and although I was alone, I felt his breath on my neck and his fingers in my hair. “I failed to protect you from yourself.”

“I don’t understand.” Lightning licked across the distant sky, but no thunder followed.

“I believed the infusion would be enough to prevent this. I did not want to believe what the collapse of the veil would do to you.”

Yes, I remembered. On the street, the veil fell, and the netherworld flooded through. The power burned me. So much power… “The power of two worlds.”

“Yes. Half bloods are conduits. Torn between worlds. Belonging to neither. When the veil fell, you were exposed. I cannot stop what you will become. Only half bloods have the strength to stop half-bloods.”

“Stefan?”

“I do not know his fate.”

“Will I survive?”

“Yes.”

I sensed he wanted to say more but was afraid to ask. “Is this surviving?”

“Yes.”

His whispers touched my cheek. I pressed my hand against my face, imagining it was his. “Val was right, wasn’t he? I’ve lost.”

“No, you are here. This place keeps you safe. This sanctuary protects the heart of you.”

I smiled. Ironic, that the place I’d created to escape my owner had become the place I’d use to cling onto my humanity. I could thank Damien for that.

“Do you want to go back?” Akil’s words lapped at my mind the way the silken waves lapped at the diamond shore.

The storm heaved out at sea. Black clouds frothed. Death stalked that storm. I feared that, perhaps, I was the storm. Akil chuckled, and I wrapped my arms around me, inexplicably cold despite the sun.

“You are destruction,” he said. “You are the storm. You witness the destruction of your demon. If you do not go back, everything Val foresaw will come to pass. It already happens. You have a choice. Embrace what you are, take ownership of your control, be all you can be. Or stay here, weather the storm, ride it out, and hope when it passes, there will be something worth returning to.”

The pain on the street had been too much. My humanity had peeled apart. I was here because I’d let go. My demon owned me now. “I’m not sure I’m strong enough to go back.”

“You will not know until you are tested.”

Fear chilled me to the bone. I knew I was capable of horrible things. I felt the lust for destruction, the desire for more. It was seductive, tempting, a madness. If I went back, there was an equal chance I’d embrace the dark, not the light.

Demons. Many. Everywhere. I tasted their acidic burn on my lips and breathed their potent scents up my nostrils and down my throat. Elements licked at my demon flesh, probing, seeking, exploring. I saw through demon eyes, absorbed through demon skin. I stood inside the storm as it raged through the back street. The wind howled, and my kin howled with it. They scurried, skittered, climbed walls, and spilled through doorways. There were many. I was one. I could stop this. But did I want to?

Tremors shivered through my flesh. The harsh wind tore burning ashes from my body and sent the embers skyward. I would be free like those embers. A smile ticked across my cracked lips. Free. It was all I’d ever wanted. Let the power flow. Let the heat consume. Destroy it all, and be free.

I saw a light in the dark. He shone, sparkled; he was glorious. I watched him walk closer. The wind tugged at his crystal wings, and they sang like distant bells. His ice-bound body carved through the storm. This one was strong. I know strong. He stopped before me, a beautiful creature with a sharp and deadly gleam in his diamond eyes. Ice. My opposite. My enemy. He knows me. Recognition flared in his eyes, and then he struck. Fast, low, he flicked an ice-encrusted sword. I laughed, danced back, and called the heat of fire to me. The flames were hungry for his death. I offered them freedom, lashed heat, and fire, and flame at my enemy. His ice hissed. He lunged, twisted, fast and sharp, like a shaft of light slicing through the dark. His wings flared, daggers of ice sprouting from each quill, and then they struck. I flung up a curtain of fire but not quickly enough. Ice punched through my molten flesh, evaporating with a sigh, but not before he cut deeper. I snarled and staggered. He stalked around me, weaving through the howling wind, marking me with his eyes, sword pointed at my chest.

“I know you’re in there, Muse. Stop this now. Before I kill you.”

I smiled then laughed. It sounded like flames spluttering. “Kill me? You cannot kill me. I am destruction.”

“I can see that.” He remarked, flicking his gaze behind me. “You are Muse.”

For the first time, I saw my surroundings. Flames rode high, devouring buildings, skipping and dancing from one roof to another. The fire was free, and it was hungry. Yes. Go. Feed. I shuddered, pleasured by the fire’s thrill. Beyond this street, there is more. A whole city waits, its beating heart throbbing with power. It waits for me to take it.

“Don’t do this,” the Winter King warned.

I flicked my gaze to him and wondered why his tone was sad. “Join me. You are kin. We are the same.” Doubt clouded his gaze. His sharp features hardened. Fractals skittered beneath his glittering flesh, and then with a shake, I saw the moment he denied his nature. His eyes blazed bright, and hoarfrost coated his flesh. “Fool.” I snarled. “We could have it all.”

“Once, I would have.” A grin slanted across his lips. “You’d be proud.”

He tensed, poised to strike, and I lashed out, curling a ribbon of fire around my arm and whipping it across his body. He snarled and turned away. I pressed on, swirling a firestorm around me, listening to it roar and bay. If he would not join me, then he was my enemy and must perish. It matters not that he is a prince. The princes do not have my power. I am destruction. We danced, he and I. Fire rained from the sky, and all around, razor-edged ice glinted. He summoned avatars of snow, but they tumbled beneath waves of heat. He sliced the air with thousands of diamond daggers, and I devoured them all. The more we battled, the more I sensed him failing. He could be strong, but he denied himself. It would be his undoing.

Flames licked over him, driving him back against a crumbling wall. I shoved a blazing shoulder into him, drove the heat through him. The wall collapsed, and we tumbled inside the burning building. He cursed and tried to scramble free, but I pinned him beneath me, admiring how his wings melted and the ice-armor fractured. Steam hissed and spat where my fire licked his icy flesh. Spreading black hands on his pale chest, I sunk my heat into him. He bucked, cried out. His face twisted in pain. He is mine. He will die.

“Muse, please… This isn’t you.”

I leaned in, spread my wing high, and soaked up the flames as the Winter King succumbed beneath my power. “You could have been magnificent.”

“Please…” He gasped. “Don’t turn into the thing the demons want you to be. Don’t let Val and the princes win.” Pain rolled his eyes back. He was strong. Even as fire flooded him, he fought, but not enough. Still, he held back. Why was he letting me kill him? Why was he not fighting?

Something inside me shifted, like a brick dislodged in my very foundation. I faltered and twitched, distracted by a wicked slither of emotional pain. I looked down. I saw with human eyes. Stefan. Limp beneath me. With a cry, I pulled my hands back, but it was too late.

Chapter Twenty Six

He couldn’t be dead. I refused to believe it. With a furious snarl, I swiped at the air and extinguished the flames while shaking off my demon. I grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the smoldering building. Demons lunged in. I didn’t even give them a second thought. With a mental snap of my fingers, they burst into ashes. After the sixth or seventh, the others fled. I hefted Stefan’s dead weight beside the burned-out shell of a car and shook off my demon. “Stefan…” He was still demon, his skin pearly smooth, lips soft against hard features. Eyes closed, he could’ve been sleeping if he wasn’t so still. “Stefan…” I pressed my fingers to his neck, searching for a pulse. “Please, please… You can’t be dead. No… no…” I couldn’t find a beat. “God, no.” Pressing my ear to his chest, I listened for his heart, but over my own thundering heartbeat and sawing breaths, I couldn’t make out any sound. “Goddammit, you’re not dead, you’re not—” I tried his wrist. Snowflake fractals swirled beneath my touch. That was good, right? “Stefan?” There, I felt his pulse, a fluttering beneath my fingertips, weak, but alive.

Aware of an audience, I looked up and saw the lesser demons crowded rounded. Dozens. Tails twitching, eyes aglow. Beyond them, the street bore the scars of battle. Some buildings had crumbled to rubble. The sky twitched, rippling with the colors of the veil. Boston’s high-rises were dark, like tombstones marking a dead city. Val and the princes were out there. I had to stop this now. I had control. I was back for good. I was stable. I could do this. But at what cost? Stefan didn’t move.

“Please wake up. You could have killed me. Is that what you meant? You came back to kill me. To stop me…” He’d beaten his demon. He could have killed me. But he hadn’t. He hadn’t really fought. In the end, he’d controlled it. He’d won.

Somewhere deep inside the city, an explosion rumbled. It wasn’t over, at least not for the rest of us. But for Stefan? I clasped his head in my hands and peered down at his peaceful face. “I have to go. I’m sorry. I know I promised, but I can’t stay with you.” I kissed him on the lips, wishing—not for the first time—that the world and its troubles would just leave us in peace.

Standing, I sent a snarl out to the lessers. “I know you understand me. Guard him. Don’t let anyone or any beast close. Don’t touch him. You stay, and you protect him.” Their demon eyes regarded me without an ounce of emotion. I had no idea if they’d obey me or tear him to shreds as soon as my back was turned. “Do this, or I track you down and burn you all.” I singled out the biggest, ugliest, six-legged, slick-skinned thing. Beside him, I surged my element into a lesser and turned the demon inside out with flame. The horde whimpered. “Understand?” The ugly beast snuffled the ground and rippled its lips in a snarl. I took that as a yes. They scurried from me as I strode away. I glanced back once and saw them all watching me with piercing eyes.

Following the sounds of distant gunfire and spikes in heat, I jogged along empty sidewalks and barren streets. In some places, the netherworld had spilled over, tainting Boston with its bruised touch. Streetlights dripped thrashing black vines. Manholes hosted misshapen trees that corkscrewed skyward, creaking and groaning under the weight of their awkward twitching branches. Shadows layered over shadows. Halfway to Joe Moakley Park, a helicopter swooped low, followed by the sleek, arrow-shaped body of an Accipiter—hawk demon. Hunters gathered on building rooftops, squawking and bickering like oversized gulls. Some clutched what I assumed to be bodies in their talons, tearing at their prey with needle sharp teeth. I tore my gaze away and focused ahead. The world was going to hell. Had Stefan gotten Ryder to safety before the veil fell? I didn’t think so. Either way, I couldn’t help either of them now.

The closer I got to Dorchester, the louder the sounds of battle became. Deep booms, and high-pitched demon cries rattled and shook the night air.

I stumbled on a group of militia corralling a handful of lessers with Tasers and rifles. I could have made short work of them, but they had it in hand. Drawing unwanted attention to myself wasn’t wise. The militia would just as likely lash out at me.

I felt the tug of Akil’s element with every step. He was somewhere up ahead. There were other elements mingling nearby. Princes? I would have to face them. My brother too. And any remaining half bloods. I’d kill them all. Boston was mine.

An explosion buffeted the air. Troops pounded the street, hurrying ahead of me, heading into the fray where the sky bled crimson rain and the park writhed with things not of this world. And I marched on, wondering if I was walking headlong into my final moments.

Movie battles seemed so organized compared to the chaos churning inside the park. As many people fled, as rushed into the mayhem. You can’t smell the battlefield at the movies. I smelled it before I could see it: the stink of hot, wet metal, of choking oil-black smoke, sweat, and shit. I coughed the stench from my mouth—or tried to—but a fug hung several feet off the ground. As I broke through a hole in the fence surrounding the park, my steps faltered. Swaths of parkland suffocated under the rippling crawl of lurid black and purple netherworld undergrowth. Demons tore into militia and enforcer lines, their sheer numbers enough to plow through human barricades. People died in the time it took me to blink. Fear and disgust clawed into my thoughts, trying to pull me free, wrench me away from the madness. Forcing my feet to move, I skirted the fringes of the park, weaving between the burned-out husks of abandoned cars. It hadn’t taken long for the world to go to hell. The netherworld had washed over this part of Boston like a tsunami of devastation. What would happen if we couldn’t stop it? How long before Boston drowned?

Spotting a footbridge spanning Old Colony Avenue, I quickly pounded up the steps. All along the bridge, snipers reloaded and fired. The cacophony and the visceral odors overloaded my senses and draped me in blessed numbness, but the sprawling sight below stole my breath and briefly, my wits. The battle on the park was just the beginning. Further back, where Old Harbor used to be, the netherworld had invaded in all of its vicious, surreal glory. Poison consumed the city I called home. When Akil had said the veil would fall, I’d heard the words, but I couldn’t have known it would be like this. Ragged lightening sheared the sky asunder. The netherworld boiled like the storm inside my mind. It rolled and heaved forward, a hungry crawling monster devouring everything in its path.

“You gonna make yourself useful?” One of the snipers nudged me away from the handrail. I stumbled, reeling out of his way, and then ducked as a high-pitched screech blasted me from behind. The hunter came in hard and fast. It swooped so close I felt its reaching talons snag my hair. It sunk its claws into the sniper’s back and hauled him skyward. He screamed, arms and legs flailing. The hunter cawed, snapped its long beak, and beat its wings, trying to rise.

“No, you don’t.” I spilled heat through me, over me, and sent it out in one vicious whip. Fire licked up the back of the lesser. Its screech burrowed into my skull, and then it let go of its prey and took to the air. The sniper collapsed at my feet, stunned, face gray, but coherent enough to witness me burn the hunter from the inside out.

I helped him up, ignoring his wide-eyed thanks and turned my attention to the demons below. I could kill them. No, I could destroy them. One by one, I hooked into their internal heat, singled out each demon from the melee, and blasted their existence from Boston with a mental click of the fingers. It was too easy, like squashing ants. I steeled myself against the cruel lust, packing the demon desires neatly behind the restraints of my humanity. This was my purpose. My name. And hell help, me, it felt right. I worked beside the snipers on that bridge until my eyes streamed. My body trembled. We appeared to be winning. The demon numbers thinned, rebel and enforcer ranks swelled, and then the first of the princes came through, and the world went to hell in a hand basket. He came out of the heaving dark like the bow of a vast ocean liner, looming too high and too vast to comprehend all at once. Bullets skipped off his stone armor. We might as well have been insects throwing pebbles at him. The helicopters circled his monstrous head, guns rattling, but he barely paid them any attention. Moon-like eyes regarded the people like scurrying ants at his feet. The power rolling off him numbed my skin and unnerved my demon.

“Can you turn that one to ash?” the sniper I’d saved yelled above the sound of the choppers and the groaning bulk of mega-prince.

I shrugged a shoulder. Fire and stone? I’d need to funnel enough heat to melt him. Doable? How the hell was I supposed to know? It wasn’t as though I knew what I was doing.

“We’ll cover you. Get down there.”

“Listen, if a big-ass, black-skinned, lava-veined demon shows up, don’t shoot him, okay. He’s on our side.” I hadn’t yet seen Akil. The battle spread too far, but I sensed him close. He’d be here.

“No promises.” The sniper flashed me a crazed smile and boomed orders to cover me.

The enforcers fell back behind their armored vehicles. Someone fired an RPG. The rocket exploded against the prince in a bloom of rolling orange flame, but it only seemed to piss him off and barely chipped his armor. I stopped, planted my feet, and released my demon. Raw hunger, liquid fire, and explicit power tingled across my flesh. I flared my wing, readied my stance, and drew in the heat. My reserves were limitless, like trawling a net through the ocean. Heat from this world and the unrefined heat from the netherworld rippled around me. At some point, mega-demon noticed little ol’ me burning bright a few hundred yards in front of him, little more than a firefly. This firefly packed one helluva bite.

<Destruction.> His voice—spoken directly into my mind—grated, like stone on stone, an abrasive noise that set my teeth on edge. <I crush you. Yes?>

I grinned, not that he could see my tiny smile on my itty-bitty face. “I burn you. Yes?” The fire strained at my control and burst free. Lashings of ethereal energy spun away, twisting and writhing as it rushed toward mega-demon. As soon as my power made contact, fire flooded up his legs and bloomed across his chest. He spread his arms, admiring its climb, not concerned in the least.

<Tickles.>

Well, shit. I poured more through me, trying to convey furnace-temperature thoughts. Sniper fire cracked to my left and right, picking off demons as they attempted to tackle me. I lit up like a beacon for all things demon.

Mega-demon lifted a foot and slammed it down, quaking the earth below the entire park. Stumbling, I fell to one knee. Wasn’t I meant to be some uber-powerful she-demon? Hello, Mother of Destruction here. There had to be more to this, more I could give. I jerked my head up. Mega-demon crouched down, oblivious to the bullets raining over him. I met his huge eyes and thought of Stefan and how he’d brought me back from the brink of madness. I thought of Dawn, and how the brave little half blood had stared into the face of death, accepting her fate. I thought of Ryder, his stubborn determination and need to protect is family. Nica—sweet Nica—she’d died believing I needed to be stopped. I owed it to Nica, to everyone, to become all that I could be. My friends, my family. If I didn’t stop this beast and those that would surely follow, everything I loved would be gone. Hope, when the storm passes, there will be something worth returning to.

Standing tall, wing held high, I lifted my chin, glared into the curious face of a demon the size of a mountain, and reached out to the warm, beating heart of Boston.

Akil was right. Until tested, we never know what we’re capable of. It is only in the eye of the storm we discover who we truly are. Fire consumed me. Heat overwhelmed my flesh, spilled through my veins, filled my mind, and scorched my demon body until solid became liquid. Fire is not good. It isn’t bad. It just is. I became fire and soared high with the taste of freedom on my lips. I sought the soul of mega-demon—the center of his power—and set it ablaze, drowning him in flame from the inside out. A river of molten heat flowed through him, and laid him to waste. When the fuel had burned away and my power had nowhere else to go, I withdrew, snapping back into my body with a sudden, painful jolt that dropped me to my knees. I kneeled and poured all my remaining effort into staying conscious.

The smell of charred earth tickled my nose. I sneezed and felt someone place a coat over my quivering body. Stefan knelt beside me, his slanted smile the best thing I’d ever seen. Behind him, a small contingent of lesser demons crowded: the ones I’d charged with his safety.

“Hello,” I croaked.

“Welcome back. These guys won’t stop following me. You know anything about that?”

“Maybe.”

He cast his gaze to his right, and I followed it to where a sea of molten lava cracked and throbbed as it cooled. Mega-demons liquid remains. If he was a prince, maybe he’d come back from that. But not yet. “It’s not over,” Stefan said.

Beyond, where the netherworld yawned wide, came another wave of demons. “How many?”

“Looks like all of them.”

I wasn’t sure I had anything left to give. “Help me up.” Taking his hand, I leaned into him and shivered at the sight of battlefield. Dead demons. Dead people, the air stank of death, charred flesh, and the horrible netherworld burned-rubber smell that coated my throat. My ears rang, and my head throbbed. “Where’s Ryder? Is he okay?”

“He’s here. The idiot came around in the car and refused to let me take him to a hospital. Then the veil fell…and I lost myself for a while.” He met my weary eyes.

And Stefan came back for me. “Thanks.” That one little word didn’t do the depth of my feelings justice. Thanks didn’t cut it, but at that moment, it was all I could offer.

Stefan cocked his head and looked at me, into me. I might have thought it a predatory expression on his face if not for the slight widening of his eyes. “Don’t thank me. I came back as pure demon, looking for you. When the veil fell, I lost my mind. But when I found you on that street, draped in fire, I couldn’t lose you. You’re all I have left.” He smiled down at me with more in the hard lines of his face than any words could convey. “And you owe me a date.”

I blinked, words failing me. A demon brushed by, then another, bounding toward the gaping maw of the netherworld. Others galloped past us. Were they retreating? Some fought on the hardened lava field, attacking their own kind, and then I saw the reason why. On the edge of the lava field where the netherworld met Boston, stood a man. Even with his back to me, I’d recognize the proud figure he cut: Akil, arms outstretched. The demons closed ranks around him, hundreds of them, spilling in from all directions to bolster his line of defense. Beside him, stood a second man, bigger, broader, built like a wrestler, but not human. What had once been a second skin of tattoos danced around him like a shroud of moths. Those marks pulsed in time with the throb of power emanating from the netherworld. I’d felt that power before. From Dawn. Raw chaos. But from him, it was smooth, calm, like a cooling salve. Jerry turned and scanned the battlefield until he found Stefan and me. He offered up a salute, and then his human-guise burst apart. Muscles bulged, a double pair of demon wings spread far and wide, beating up a storm of dust, and a scaled tail lashed at the opposing demons, knocking them aside like bowling pins. He was beastlike. Primal. Devastating. Those elements were all I could see of him before the swell of his power demanded I look away from the King of Hell.

Stefan had pulled me close. His grip around my waist tightened. “I need to be there.”

“Go.” I nodded when he checked my expression. “I’ll be fine in a minute. Go. They need you. We need you.”

He pulled me against him, slanting his mouth over mine, drawing me into a desperate kiss. Already weakened, my legs buckled, but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except the very real taste of him, the feel of his body against mine, his arms around me. I didn’t want it to end. I clutched at his shirt and kissed him back, harder, hungrier, relishing the tingle of power and his clean, crisp scent. Like all good things, the embrace ended too soon. He swept my hair back, his gaze soft, lips softer. “Thank you,” he breathed, “for reminding me who I am.”

I bit into my quivering lip, afraid I might burst into tears. I couldn’t break down. Not yet. There would be time and space for tears later. He clasped his hands over mine and eased them open, peeling my fingers apart, forcing me to let him go. His eyes said it would be okay, but as I watched him turn and walk away, a bitter wind tore across the ruined park, carrying with it the cries from countless demons, and a sense that worse was yet to come. I pulled his coat tighter around me, gathering it in my hands as I had his shirt, and breathed in the leathery smell.

A punch from behind knocked the breath from my lungs. I arched away, or tried to, but my body seemed inexplicably snagged. A silent cry whooshed from my throat. My brother hooked his arm around my throat and dragged me back against his chest. “I have wanted to sink my blade through your flesh since I first laid eyes on you.” He hissed the words into my hair, so damn close it felt grossly intimate. I clutched at the cool slim thing protruding from my chest and looked down. Bright red blood dripped from the point of his sword. Obscenely calm thoughts said, Oh, he stabbed me. That’s not right. I saw Akil and Jerry, too far away to call out to. Stefan was a blur, slaying demons in his path as he made for the front line. He wouldn’t hear me even if I could cry out.

“Sweet sister.” Val shifted, just a little, but the pressure on the rapier burned through my body. “If you reinforce a belief often enough, it becomes reality. Do you believe you are destruction made of flesh, half-blood whore? Do you consider yourself my equal?”

“No.” I spluttered blood. The touch of his lips curled against my neck. He could tear my throat out if he wished or reduce me to a quivering lust-crazed wraith. “We are not equal.”

“No, we are not. I am immortal. I have lived a thousand of your finite lives, killed countless of your kind. Killed half bloods as babes when I foresaw undesirable futures in their innocent eyes. The elements breathe through my divine flesh. Your feeble human mind cannot begin to comprehend what it means to be demon. The Mother of Destruction would not die by the point of my sword. Perhaps, you are not the glorious creature I foresaw. Perhaps, you are the nothing I will make of you when I shred your mind.”

“Have you finished—” I coughed. Blood spluttered from my lips. “—stroking your ego?” More dribbled down my chin. “We are not equal because I am better.” My voice threated to abandon me, but not yet. “I am human and stronger than you will ever be because of it.” I tugged on his fiery soul, having latched onto it while he wallowed in self-admiration. He really was made of the elements. One in particular. I wrenched the fire out of him with one vicious, metaphysical swipe. He stumbled us both forward. In one step, I was demon. I turned, let out an inhuman cry, and diverted all nearby lesser demons to my cause. They came because they knew me, feared me. As Val spluttered and wheezed—wings down, sword arm limp at his side—the lessers pounced and buried his beautiful body beneath a heaving mound of demon flesh. You will die under tooth and claw, brother-mine. I will see to it they shred your body and mind until nothing remains, nothing but your ragged, immortal soul. I fed on his heat, like I had on Akil’s all those months ago. It wouldn’t kill Val, but it’d screw him up for a few hours, days if I was lucky.

I wobbled and reached out to grab a scorched tree trunk. Coughing up blood was never a good sign. As demon, I healed most wounds, but internal damage wasn’t as easy to dismiss. I needed time to rest and recuperate. The tree held me up as the world began to tip and skew. If I went down here, surrounded by demons, they’d probably eat me.

Val spread his wings. One moment, I was trying to stay upright, and the next he filled my blurred vision, glowing white hot, framed by wings as black and beautiful as perfect darkness. “You’re like the villain who doesn’t know when to quit with the evil comebacks.” I had all his fire, but there was no use using it against him. He was weak, his wings sagged, and his color had paled to a deathly gray, but he still had goddamn immortality on his side.

“To live, you must forfeit your freedom and your foolish love. You are incapable of losing either. Therefore, you will die, as you should have perished by my hand as a newborn abomination.” His wings loomed, large and surreal. I almost welcomed their embrace. So tired, so wrung out, I wasn’t even sure I had it in me to stand on my own two feet, but I shoved off from the tree anyway. I wasn’t going down without a fight.

“Bring it, brother-mine.” I swayed, and it took me a few seconds to realize he wasn’t moving. Blinking, refocusing, I saw why. Writhing tendrils of liquid chaos energy wove around him, knotting around the milky whiteness of his limbs, holding him rigid. He didn’t see me. Head thrown back, eyes wide, and hair failing, he was beyond seeing. Chaos had him in her grasp and was plucking him apart one piece of flesh at a time. Lashings of dark hooked into his skin and tore him to pieces. His wings dissolved, picked apart by ravenous eels of power. I blinked again and watched my brother cease to exist. Gone. Body and immortal soul, undone in a matter of seconds—an immortal chaos demon turned into memories.

There was only one being I knew who could pick apart an immortal. She stood in front of an armored personnel carrier, a little colt-like thing, all spindly arms and legs inside a monstrous heaving cloud of undiluted chaos. Our gazes met, and pure chaos tried to flood my mind. She might have succeeded had Adam not touched her lightly on the shoulder. The dark peeled apart, and Dawn stood looking at me. Tight ringlets framed her innocent oval face. A pink and white Hello Kitty dress hung from skinny shoulders. She blinked at me, gaze flat, peering right through me. What did she see?

The pair of them strode over, weaving around fallen demon and human bodies.

My demon slunk off, leaving me propped against the tree, sick and shivering.

“Are you hurt?” Adam’s flat tone relayed just how much he didn’t care about my answer.

“Pretty much.” I wiped blood from my lips and grimaced at the splash of scarlet on the back of my pale hand.

Adam reached for me. I instinctively recoiled and then froze as he pinched the collar of Stefan’s coat and rubbed it almost lovingly between his finger and thumb. “Where is he?” His puppy-dog eyes almost gave the impression he cared for his son.

“At the front line, trying to do what’s right. Not that you’d know what that was.” I dropped my gaze to Dawn. She watched the battle or at least stared in that general direction. “Hey, remember me?” She didn’t reply. Her distant glassy gaze wavered. What the hell had Adam done to her? I lifted my gaze and set it squarely on him. “They call me destruction, but they call you monster.”

Adam ignored me and searched the chaos for Stefan. From our position at the back, all we could see was the panoramic view of the netherworld where Boston had been less than an hour before. I should have been at the front. Wasn’t that what the Mother of Destruction was about? So much for becoming what I was meant to be. “I really need to sit down.” I dropped to my ass among the tree roots. “Just a little rest, and I’ll be okay.”

Adam whispered something to Dawn. Crouched down at her eye-level, he gripped her shoulders and muttered. I might have understood had I not been fighting to stay conscious. I caught Stefan’s name and Akil’s. “What are you d-doing?” I slurred. Tears swam in my raw eyes.

He straightened and marshaled Dawn in front of him, his big hands locked on her boney shoulders. “It ends here. All of it. There will be no demons left this side of the veil. None.”

Dawn stared through me. She’d do it. She’d kill them all. “Wait, no… Adam, please…” I reached for Dawn, but she was too far away. “You can’t kill them. Not Stefan, please. Not Akil. They don’t deserve to die.” I blinked, trying to battle the fog of unconsciousness. Adam had gone. I swung my head around and saw him guiding Dawn through the body-strewn battlefield, her little hand clasped in his. Dammit. She’d tear them apart as she had Val. Adam had his perfect weapon right there. Nothing would stop him, not with Dawn by his side. All demons would die. Even the good ones.

Maybe I could find my feet, somehow stumble across the cooled lava field, around the bodies and craters, and get to Stefan before Adam. I hauled my sorry ass onto leaden legs, teeth gritted against the pain radiating from my middle. I dared not look down at the wound. Somehow, seeing the blood would make it all the more real. Clasping Stefan’s coat close, I sucked in a deep, smoke-filled breath and fell into Coleman’s arms.

“Easy, I got you,” he muttered, scooping an arm around my waist and supporting me as we hobbled in the wrong direction.

“Wait. Akil… I need to get to the front…”

“Muse, you’ve lost a lot of blood. You’re in no state to go marching off to save a demon who’s immortal, right?”

“Yeah, but—”

“I’m sure he can look after himself.”

Not if he didn’t know she was there. Who would Adam go for first, his own son, or Akil? Maybe he wouldn’t kill them. Maybe he’d concentrate his efforts on helping them, using them, until he saw his chance. That sounded like an Adam thing to do. It would give me time.

I might have blacked out because the walk from the burned tree to the militia camp was a blank. I woke to a pair of soft brown eyes scowling at me. Ryder looked about as beaten up as I felt. “Hey, aren’t you meant to be wounded?” I grumbled.

He chuckled and slammed me on the shoulder in some sort of macho display of affection. “Says the lil’ firecracker with a hole in her side. I got a new scar. A crazy kid once told me scars are like armor. Get your lazy ass out of bed. We need you.”

Someone had patched me up while I was out. Bandages hugged my chest. They’d pumped me full of painkillers that would burn out of my veins the moment I called the fire. Without the healing properties of my demon, I wouldn’t have made it off the battlefield. Judging from the supply of body bags, many wouldn’t. “Shit, Ryder,” I groaned. “Adam has Dawn.”

“I know. With her help, he’s sweeping the demons back. Guess she’s making up for the people she killed.”

I sat up in a makeshift cot and waited for my head to stop spinning. The sounds of battle still boomed outside the tent. “He’s going after Stefan.”

Ryder’s lips twisted. “We got a city full of demons and netherworld scenery popping up all over the place. Stefan’s on his own.”

“He was your friend, Ryder. He still is. You were right. He’s still Stefan. He got me out of trouble tonight. Without him, I’d be on the side of the demons right now, probably laying waste to all of you. I could have killed him. I almost did, but he showed me what I needed to see. He’s Stefan. He’s back. And Adam’s going to kill him. You can’t let that happen. We can’t let that happen.”

Ryder closed his eyes and rubbed a hand across his forehead. He glanced at the people around us as they busied themselves with the wounded. “Muse, I can’t stop Adam. You know why. My kid…”

“So you’re going to let a good man—a friend—die? Can you live with that?”

His scowl burned when he settled it on me. “Fuck. No. I can’t.”

“Good, neither can I. Get me to the front line.”

He ground his teeth, twitching a muscle in his cheek. “We’ve got Humvees if you can get us through the lessers.”

I shoved to my feet, grimacing as my stomach pitched. “Not a problem. I’m the freakin’ Mother of Destruction. Those bitches will get in line or die.” I wobbled, and Ryder grabbed my arm to steady me.

He grinned. “Let’s go raise your kinda hell.”

Chapter Twenty Seven

Every bump, dip, or ditch the Humvee trundled over just about rattled my teeth out of skull. The field was littered with half-buried debris. Jaw clenched against the throbbing pain, I clung onto the light rack over the Humvee’s flatbed and directed sharp, mental jabs at anything lesser, combusting them on sight. I was back in my demon skin and feeling better for it. As we drew closer to what had once been a shoreline and was now a battlefront, the number of demons surged, but they weren’t attacking us. They swarmed around the three blazing demon-figures ahead: Akil in his true form as Mammon, Jerry as the devastating demon king, and Stefan, the Winter King. Holy hell. If the fact Stefan wasn’t trying to kill Akil was miracle enough, they appeared to be fighting as a united effort, seeing off the wave of demons spilling through the gaping maw of the netherworld. Fire and ice flashed blue and red, while Jerry’s chaos tendrils plucked demons from the sea of creatures and flung them back into the netherworld. As Ryder drove the Humvee closer, I could just about make out Wrath’s hideous bulk among the lessers. Stefan launched a barrage of ice at the ex-prince, freezing him mid-motion.

I thumped the roof, and Ryder pulled the Humvee to a halt. I jumped down as Ryder unloaded a collection of guns from inside the cab. He seemed comfortable packing enough heat to start—or stop—a war. He handed Stefan’s gun to me.

I arched the equivalent of a demon eyebrow and wiggled clawed fingers. “Trust me. Hellfire trumps fifty caliber bullets.”

He snorted and tucked the gun into his belt. “Your loss.”

There was no sign of Adam or Dawn, but they had to be here. The lessers weren’t capable of stopping Dawn. I wasn’t convinced anything was capable of stopping her. Chaos lapped against my skin, surging from the netherworld. Even if we did manage to battle back the demons, how would we keep them out? With the veil down, they could cross over as easily as crossing the street.

A silent wave of energy rolled over me, knocking me back against the truck. My demon surged forward, straining against my control. Ryder asked me if I was okay, but all of my attention drilled down on the looming presence emerging from the netherworld. The remaining princes were here. A haze rippled, obscuring my vision, but I saw enough. Two came out of the netherworld as though their battle was already won. They bristled with blades, huge, demon, winged, and terrifying. I’d expected my father to be with them. I’d only seen him once, years ago, before I’d found Boston. I might not recognize him, but I’d recognize his power because it felt like my own. But he wasn’t there. What was he waiting for? A sea of black rose up behind the two princes. Demons. Fear chilled my superheated flesh. We were all going to die. Their numbers were too vast, and they just kept on coming.

Jerry roared with enough force to liquefy the earth beneath my feet. I fought not to drop to my knees and cringe. His voice had held power when he’d been constrained in human form. Now it was a reckoning all of its own. Ryder slumped back against the Humvee, his legs buckling. He clung onto the hood, eyes scrunched closed, head bowed against the pain. I had to get to the front. If I could stand, I could fight. I needed to be with Stefan and Akil. I could help stop the wave. I had to do this. I could do this. Destruction. Theirs.

Dawn’s unique, acidic darkness flooded across my back, over my wing, wove around my shoulders, and plunged down my front. I had a moment to think, oh shit, before she yanked me back, clean off my feet, and held me suspended in a crushing darkness.

“You left me.”

Despite the noise of battle, I heard her small, wretched voice as clearly as if she’d stood right next to me and whispered in my ear. Dawn. I couldn’t stop her. It would be wrong to stop her. She was doing the right thing. She could stop the demons. I twisted, trying to find purchase, but couldn’t see, couldn’t think. Fire rushed to my aid, spilling from my body, but all it did was tangle with the liquid black eels of power knotting around me. The moment her power began to unmake me, screams poured free. Needles plucked at my flesh. They hooked in, twisted, and pulled out parts of me. She would rip me to shreds in seconds, and all I could think was, why? My element surged, a blinding visceral heat, but with no focus, all it did was throb. Dawn’s power sought my soul and found it occupied. Akil’s heat blasted over me, white hot and cleansing. I dropped like a stone. My cheekbone cracked against the solidified lava field, adding to the symphony of pain already riding my body. I reached for Akil, knowing he was close. His heat embraced me, gathered me in its cocoon, and held me.

Mammon’s midnight-black eyes held me rigid for a few seconds. He held out a hand and plucked me off my back, planting me on my feet. I shot him a sideways glance. His lips drew back, crescent teeth glinting, and I swear I saw something of Akil’s expression on the beastly face of the Prince of Hell. His energy fed mine—the soul-lock at work—and for a moment, I lost myself in him. The battle raged, the princes moved ever closer, the lesser demons caterwauled, howled and tore into their kin, and at the eye of the storm, my mind was calm.

Dawn’s power struck lightning fast and lashed Mammon across the chest. He staggered, flung open his wings, and gathered his power. Heat rushed from beneath my feet. I might have been enough. For any other demon, it would have been, but Dawn wasn’t any other demon. She threw her arm up, parted her little inky fingers, and fixed her red eyes on Mammon. Elemental demons are forged from chaos. Dawn was chaos, all wrapped up in a little girl’s body. She didn’t even have to get close. Thrusting her hand out, she clenched her fingers closed. Mammon shuddered and fell to a knee.

No. This couldn’t happen. “Dawn…” I called my power, but Mammon tugged it back, needing it more.

Dawn’s demon face virtually mirrored her human one. She looked human, if not for the purple-black skin and countless writhing tendrils of power snapping about her. Her flat expression and cold eyes told me: she would kill Mammon. She was the only one who could.

I ran toward her, even as I felt something inside, some new part of me, shatter. My legs buckled, I stumbled, but my momentum carried me forward, lengthening my stride. I leapt over bodies and debris, pummeling the uneven ground. No, no. “Dawn, stop…” Akil’s presence—the infusion—spluttered. I dared not look back. I’d seen her tear Leviathan apart. I knew what sight would greet me. She’d unmake Mammon as she had the Prince of Envy, and there was no coming back from that.

Closer. Just a few more strides. A whip of black acid snapped across my body. Pain burned across my torso. I yanked on the fire, but still Akil held it back. His presence hammered hard and fast, thrashing like a trapped animal. I glanced back and saw exactly what I’d feared. A miasmic cloud of pulsating darkness interlaced with threads of fire. I couldn’t even see his flesh inside the heaving darkness.

Another tendril lashed me. I stumbled, twisted, and lunged, slamming into the little girl who would be an immortal killer. She hissed and spat, raked her nails down my face, and then plunged her power into me. “Dawn…” I pinned her down as her chaos burrowed beneath my skin. “Please… please don’t do this.” Chaos tore through me, yanking my head back and wrenching a scream free. A cresting wave of fire purged her touch. I wasn’t entirely sure where it came from, but I took it while I could and drowned her in flame. She screamed and thrashed, but only when I felt her tendrils recoil, did I release her. I scrambled off, eager to get away, and then searched for Mammon. Fire licked across my skin. I staggered and quivered, the way one might to shake off an insect, but the flames clawed higher—outside of my control—not mine. In one blinding lunge, the liquid flame both smothered and consumed me. I couldn’t do anything but let it ride me and knew without understanding that this was wrong. It wasn’t meant to happen like this. The tingly spiciness on my lips, the cinnamon smell, the bite of cloves. Warm, comforting, familiar. It was inside me, everywhere. It was the scent of Akil’s death.

Chapter Twenty Eight

I snapped my head up and peered through flames. Mammon’s remains stained the lava field. Blood, bone, flesh, nothing larger than a fist. He was dead. The immortal chaos demon who had saved my sorry ass more times than I could count was gone. The suave, sly, manipulating sonofabitch I loved to hate would not be coming back. Not from this. He wouldn’t be saving me again. He wouldn’t be smiling at me, chastising me, protecting me, testing me. It was over. Heat bubbled beneath my skin and slid like oil from my flesh. A strangled roar deafened me. I registered that the ravaging bellow was mine, but it didn’t sound like any howl I could make. Not even demons produced such a terrible battle cry. My roar thundered, tumbling into the sounds of battle, casting a net of silence in its wake. I straightened, slid my gaze left and right, seeing but not seeing. Demons cowered around me. Even the netherworld itself seemed to recoil, withdrawing a little from Boston. The princes faltered. I saw them caught in a battle of the elements with Jerry holding the reins of control. My vision quivered, as though resetting, and I saw the souls belonging to an army not of this world, shining demons souls. I knew, without any shred of doubt, that I could funnel the power of two worlds and snuff out every single one.

Liquid heat dripped from my fingers. I skewered two fleeing figures, Dawn and Adam, and latched onto the heat of their fragile human lives. Dawn summoned her demon. Chaos reared up behind her in a wave of inky darkness. I’d start with her. Adam would be next. Then I’d kill them all. Every. Last. Demon.

Chaos snapped toward me and would have plowed into me had Stefan not intercepted it. Ice-white and razor sharp, he managed to deflect much of Dawn’s power, but not all. Her element tore through him and kept on coming. Ice exploded. The world went white.

I screamed a bellow of rage and released my cresting element, devouring the lives of countless demons in seconds. The maddening ecstasy of power over life and death sundered my mind. A tsunami of blistering heat answered my command and washed the battlefield clear. I swept them all away. The blast of heat leveled what remained of the park and reduced nearby buildings to ash. Fire burned so hot it ignited the air. With each entity that died, my hungry smile grew. Yes, this was what we were made for. Glorious, breathless, insane destruction.

Minutes passed, maybe just seconds. I blinked back to myself with the sounds of tumbling buildings and creaking metal. A blast pattern radiated out from my body as far as I could see. Anything flammable had simply vanished. The remains swirled in lazy dirt devils. Anything metal had warped and twisted, melted beyond recognition.

The huge netherworld scar still gaped, but it was empty. Thousands of demons gone. Nearby buildings flattened. The people? I wobbled to my feet and clutched Stefan’s coat tightly in trembling hands. People were moving. There was life in the blast zone. By some miracle, I’d targeted only demons.

Where was Stefan? I turned on the spot and saw soot-covered faces, but none I recognized. Where was Akil? I had to find him. My feet carried me forward, but my mind bumbled. Horror skimmed the surface of my thoughts. I had to find Stefan… Akil, I needed to find Akil. They were here. I’d seen them. They had to be here. My element reached ahead of me, searching. Akil.

“Muse…”

Ryder. I blinked. Cool silent tears slid down my cheeks. “Where are they?”

Covered from head to toe in ash, Ryder coughed a few times and shook a hand through his hair, sending up a cloud of dust. He gripped my arm and marched me beside him.

“Where are we going?”

“You can’t be here. Once everyone realizes what went down, you’re gonna be demon numero uno.”

One foot in front of the other. I smelled Stefan’s cool iciness in his coat. I hugged it closer. “Where’s Stefan?”

Ryder glanced back. “He got in the way of Dawn’s attack on you. After that, the whole world went white.”

Was he dead? No, no, he couldn’t be. Not after everything we’d been through. He was here. He had to be here. I stopped and searched the shocked and haunted faces around us. “He’s here. I just... I need to find him.”

Ryder grabbed my arm and pulled me along.

“Dawn?” I muttered. “Did I kill her?”

Ryder cut me a look. “I don’t know.” His grimace said no.

“Akil?”

Ryder stopped short. The twist of his lips almost looked like anger, but no, it was pain. Heartfelt pain. “She tore him apart like she did the Prince of Envy.”

“No.” I frowned. “No, that’s not right.” Snatching my arm from Ryder’s grip, I scowled at him. “No. Akil isn’t dead. He doesn’t get to die. He’s here.” Reeling, I scanned the carnage, searching for Akil’s distinctive outline. He’d be there because he was always there. He’d always been there. For me.

I staggered forward, stumbled over burned remains, and the tears fell. I knew, but I couldn’t believe.

“Muse...” I heard the truth in Ryder’s tone, felt it in my bones, in my flesh, in my heart.

“He can’t be dead, Ryder. He can’t.” I reached down and turned over warped metal, shoved aside scorched demon skulls. Embers sizzled against my hands, but I didn’t care. Akil was here. He was…

Ryder snatched at my ash-covered hands and yanked me upright to face him. His grip tightened around my wrists. I pulled, but he held firm. “Muse, goddamnit, stop. He’s gone.”

I had to get away. I had to find Akil. I pulled and kicked, half-mad. Akil needed me. Ryder yanked me into his arms and trapped me against his chest. “He’s gone,” he breathed, cradling my head into his shoulder. “He’s gone.”

The truth shattered my strength.

Gone.

No more true lies. No more fire-touched embraces. No more Akil. A ragged breath hitched in my throat, and I collapsed inside Ryder’s embrace. “We need to get out of here.” With his help, I moved forward. One foot in front of the other. Always moving on. If I stopped, I’d stop for good. Partial bones crunched beneath my boot. Clouds of ash puffed into the air. I made it another two feet before doubling over and throwing up.

“They’re coming.” Ryder placed a hand on my shoulder, fingers gripping deep.

The sound of vehicles growling to life carried across the blast zone: the Institute, or what was left of them. If they came, they’d capture me. I could barely light a match, let alone fight off the enforcers. “Get me out of here, Ryder, now.”

Chapter Twenty Nine

“You want a drink?”

“No, I’m good.” Ryder and I were in some half-baked attempt at a motel somewhere down the east coast. I stood at the window, arms crossed, squinting into the headlights of each passing car. I’d adjusted Stefan’s blood-red coat so it fit my physique, although it was still too long around my ankles. I kept it on, finding solace in the smell of warm leather and winter. It had been a week since I’d wiped out most of the netherworld. Behind me, on the TV, a news report rattled off the number of demons captured and killed in the past twenty fours hours. No new netherworld breaches had opened. Most had closed. But not the one in Boston. That still oozed like a festering wound. Nothing substantial had come through, not yet, or so the press said. The demons who remained on this side were being hunted with extreme prejudice. Anything remotely demon was a target. The strength of the veil fluctuated. In places like Boston and New York, where the attacks had been most ferocious, the veil barely existed at all, and the lesser demons still broke through. In others areas, mostly rural, the veil pulsed, separating the two worlds. Would it all fall eventually? Was this the human world now? Scarred and tainted by the netherworld?

I didn’t sleep. Killing demons helped me forget what I’d done, what had been done to those I cared about. Ryder joined my nightly hunts. So that’s what we did. By night, we hunted lesser demons and kicked their asses back to hell or killed them if they wouldn’t go quietly. By day, we travelled south. Needing to get away.

“I got a call.” Ryder sat back in a chair, boots up on the table, beer in one hand while he rubbed his shoulder, still bruised from where Val had stabbed him.

“I thought we agreed no phones.”

“Yeah, well, I got a throwaway and dialed up a mailbox I set up should the shit hit the fan. As this pretty much qualifies, I tried it. Jenna left a message.”

“Is she okay?”

Ryder nodded and took a long drink of his beer. “As much as any of us. What she said… You ain’t gonna like it. Adam is flaunting his demon-killing weapon, A-K-A Dawn. The Institute saved the day.” He saluted me with his beer can. “Hoo-fuckin’-ray.”

Dammit. Adam had more lives than a cat and could spin my bomb blast into a goldmine PR opportunity. “And?” There was definitely more. Ryder was too grim for there to be any good coming my way.

“He has my kid.”

I gritted my teeth. “I’ll kill him.”

He tipped his beer in acknowledgement, “You gotta get through Dawn first.”

“Ryder, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t. This ain’t your fault.” He rocked the chair back. “There’s more…” He hesitated, giving me a sideways glance. “There are reports of an ice demon loose in Boston. So far, it’s mixed messages. Some news reports have the demon on our side, others…not so much. Coleman’s talking to witnesses.”

“Stefan?”

Ryder nodded, “We don’t know, but it seems likely. Sounds like he’s alive, so that’s something.” Why didn’t he sound pleased? “You said he was good, right? I mean, I watched him get between you and Dawn. Demons don’t do self-sacrifice.”

Tell that to Akil, I thought. “Yeah. Being back, having a purpose helped him sort his shit out.” If Stefan had gone over to the dark side, we’d know. All of Boston would know. Like me, he didn’t do things by halves. “There are other badass ice demons. But if it is him, he’s probably doing the same as us, tying up loose ends, killing stray lessers.” I trusted Stefan. He’d faced his storm, and survived, as I supposed had I. Was surviving enough?

Ryder scratched at his bristly chin. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“Have you called Jenna back?”

“Not yet. Wanted to chat with you first.” Ryder dropped the chair forward and leaned both arms on the table. He downed his beer, crushed the can, and tossed it onto the tabletop. “I gotta go back.”

Of course he did. Adam had him under the thumb. Ryder’s kid needed him. I bowed my head and closed my eyes. I didn’t want to go back to Boston. Boston was Akil, and Akil was gone. A painful knot attempted to choke me. I gulped it away and twisted my lips, forcing out the quiver. I hadn’t cried. I hadn’t stopped to think. I couldn’t. Nothing around me had changed. The world still turned. The seconds ticked by. The hours turned to days. The world should have stopped. Something should have changed. Akil was gone. Why hadn’t anything changed? The sun still shone; life continued its relentless march as though Akil had never happened. Well, fuck that. He’d happened to me, and I’d changed. I shuddered and gulped back the burn of grief. Not yet. Not now. I couldn’t face the fact he wasn’t out there somewhere, manipulating someone or something so he could get back. He always had a plan. Always. But he hadn’t planned for death. No immortal did.

“Are you coming back with me?” Ryder asked.

I lifted my gaze and saw Ryder’s expression twist from regret to alarm. Something in my eyes had him tensing in his chair, his body freezing, muscles locking, ready to react. His glance at Stefan’s gun resting on the bedside indicated he was worried. Not just worried, but afraid of me, and I couldn’t blame him. I’d told him I had everything in check, and I did. I was more level, more stable, than I’d ever been, but that didn’t change his memory of seeing me go nuclear and kill thousands of demons in one terrifying moment. He hadn’t left my side since guiding me away from the battlefield. I’d had to convince him I was a big girl and could pee alone. Otherwise, he’d have hovered over me in the bathroom too. He was afraid of me, for me, for those around me. He was my mentor, my guardian, and if need be, my executioner. I’d never hurt Ryder. He was my failsafe.

I forced a smile across my lips. “Don’t get your panties in a twist. I’m all good.”

Ryder relaxed, but not entirely. He sat back and angled himself away from the table, giving himself room to spring out of the chair and lunge for the gun if he had to. “You know why Adam has my kid, right?”

“Leverage. He wants you to hand me in.”

“Yeah, that’s what I reckon. I won’t do it.”

“Go back. I’ll be fine on my own.”

Raking a hand through his hair, he chewed on his reply, obviously unhappy about leaving me. He settled his gaze on me, and his eyes narrowed in assessment. I stood demon-still and watched him watching me. “You’re one scary-ass demon, Muse.”

“Thanks, I think.”

“You should come back.”

Boston. Akil. I turned my head away. “Maybe.”

“The netherworld still bleeds through there. Forget the Institute, Boston could really do with you. If not for what’s right, go back for Stefan? Adam still has a termination order out on his son. It’s personal now, and he has Dawn to do his killing for him.”

There was that damn knot again. I growled low to clear it and hugged Stefan’s coat tighter. There were still unanswered questions from that day on the battlefield. Why wasn’t my father with the princes when they came through? Did the other half bloods survive? The two young kids, Adam’s Projects. Were they out there? Were they dangerous? And Dawn, damn her. She couldn’t be saved. Her young mind had been crushed beneath the influence of her demon. Adam controlled her, but for how long? I did have to go back. I couldn’t run from this. Certainly couldn’t hide. “I’ll think about it while we kick some demon-ass.”

Ryder stood and collected the gun. He checked the chamber, going through the routine as he always did. “Alright, but by the morning, I’m outtah this shit hole.”

A genuine, if fragile, smile played on my lips as I headed for the bathroom. “I’ll be right out.” I flicked on the light and locked the door behind me. My reflection revealed a gaunt woman, cheekbones too prominent and eyes too harsh. I saw more demon in my face than human. Parting my lips, I checked my canine teeth—still blunt. The last thing I needed was demon leeching through into my human appearance. Not that it mattered. People seemed to steer out of my way, consciously or unconsciously. I’d cleared a grocery store a day ago; the customers suddenly had somewhere else to be. People feel the unnatural like wild animals sense a storm coming. The demons too, they saw me coming and ran. I had become the monster my brother so despised and revered. I truly was the Mother of Destruction. Akil would have been proud.

I shrugged off Stefan’s coat, rolled up my sleeves, and splashed water on my face. Beneath the stark light from the single bulb, I didn’t even recognize the woman I’d become. Perhaps that was a good thing.

Warmth throbbed in my chest. I leaned into the vanity unit, hands gripping the edges, and closed my eyes. The tentative exploration of fire gently fed through my veins, radiating from my core. The tingling taste of spices tickled my lips. Lifting my head, I leaned back, and let the familiar embrace coil around me. Akil. I could almost convince myself he stood in the room with me, that it wasn’t the soul-lock playing tricks. It didn’t take much for me to pretend his arms closed around me. He would whisper something infuriating against my neck, his lips brushing my skin like butterfly wings. I missed him. I missed him so much that I gladly lost myself to fantasy. I became simply aware of how the wallpaper gained dark patches, as though fire damaged. Where the paper peeled, embers traced the dog-eared edges. Water in the basin bubbled, but I was too wrapped up in my own mind to care. A demon loomed behind me in the mirror. His muscular bulk brimmed the bathroom, filling the space from floor to ceiling and wall to wall. Slick crimson skin glistened. White-hot piercings rode the edges of his wings and hung from his ears and nose. Obsidian horns spiraled from his head. He closed his huge arms around me and drew me back against the searing touch of his chest. In my mind, he was Akil. I wanted him to be Akil, even if my eyes told me a very different story. My element reached for his. The demon bowed his head as his wings closed in. He said something almost too soft to catch, or perhaps I imagined it. “Amanat.” I understood the meaning of the word, even though I didn’t recognize the language or the voice speaking it. One word to mean something valuable in safe keeping, a debt to be repaid, a trust which must be returned. I knew, instinctively, that was that debt, that valuable item.

Eyelids heavy, I blinked at the obscure picture in the mirror. I’d seen him once before. I knew him. His fire, his blood, ran through my veins. We were kin, he and I. Make her bleed, make her read... I saw the past in metal. My brother saw the future in flesh, and this demon... he had the power to warp it all, to twist my human thoughts around his finger, make me believe anything. Akil’s phantom presence vanished, taking my smoky dream state with it. I came back to myself, clutched against the chest of a demon I’d spent my entire life trying to hide from. Trapped inside his arms, pressed against his chest, his scent so pungent it burned my throat, I couldn’t run, couldn’t fight, couldn’t cry out, and the sordid yellow eyes revealed he knew it. I did the only thing possible when faced with fate. I smiled.

“Hello, Father.”

To be continued in the final book of The Veil Series. Book 5, Ties That Bind, coming Spring 2015.

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Acknowledgments

The Veil Series wouldn’t exist without the following people. My editor, Karen, for teaching me about the finer points of dry heaving and leaving little smiley face comments as our own virtual fist bumps. My proofreader, Nic, for catching those pesky typos and working weekends. My cover artist, Celairen, because you were there at the very beginning, just like me. My husband, for listening to me ramble on about Amazon bestseller lists, algorithms, BookBub, keywords, while at least pretending to pay attention. And to my little girls, for making me laugh, even when the words fail me.

And oh, to you wonderful readers. Every single one of you who’s taken the time to reach out to me, send emails, leave reviews, chat with me on Goodreads and Twitter. I love you all, and send you a virtual hug. We’re close to Book 5 (the final book), and I’ve already shed a few tears for what’s to come. Like me, you’ve experienced the highs and lows of Muse’s life. Soon, it will be time to let her go. All good things must come to an end. Thank you so much for reading and I’ll see you for Book 5.

Pippa.

About the Author

Born in Tonbridge, Kent in 1979, Pippa's family moved to the South West of England where she grew up among the dramatic moorland and sweeping coastlands of Devon & Cornwall. With a family history brimming with intrigue, complete with Gypsy angst on one side and Jewish survivors on the other, she draws from a patchwork of ancestry and uses it as the inspiration for her writing. Happily married and the mother of two little girls, she resides on the Devon & Cornwall border.

Get in touch here:

- @PippaDaCosta

- pippadacosta

www.pippadacosta.com
pippadacosta@btinternet.com

Also by Pippa DaCosta

Wings of Hope ~ The Veil Series Prequel Novella

Beyond The Veil (#1)

Devil May Care (#2)

Darkest Before Dawn (#3)

Drowning In The Dark (#4)

Ties That Bind (#5)

www.theveilseries.co.uk

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Table of Contents

- Title Page
- Copyright
- Prologue
- Chapter One
- Chapter Two
- Chapter Three
- Chapter Four
- Chapter Five
- Chapter Six
- Chapter Seven
- Chapter Eight
- Chapter Nine
- Chapter Ten
- Chapter Eleven
- Chapter Twelve
- Chapter Thirteen
- Chapter Fourteen
- Chapter Fifteen
- Chapter Sixteen
- Chapter Seventeen
- Chapter Eighteen
- Chapter Nineteen
- Chapter Twenty
- Chapter Twenty One
- Chapter Twenty Two
- Chapter Twenty Three
- Chapter Twenty Four
- Chapter Twenty Five
- Chapter Twenty Six
- Chapter Twenty Seven
- Chapter Twenty Eight
- Chapter Twenty Nine
- Want more?
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Also by Pippa DaCosta