So he fought, trying to expunge the black images and disgusting impulses constantly bombarding him, yet at the same time hold them inside. An impossible challenge, and one he would soon lose. He knew it. There were too many, they were too strong, and theyd already burned away his immortal soul, the last tether that had bound them to his will. Not that hed ever had control.
Hed fight with every fiber of his being, though. Until the very end. Because when those images and impulses, those demons, were loosed on an unsuspecting public
A shudder rippled through him. He knew what would happen, could see the destruction in his mind. Could taste the sweet flavor of devastation in his mouth.
Sweetyes
And like that, this newest moment of clarity evaporated like mist. So many images swam through his head, a deluge of memories, and he didnt know which belonged to him and which belonged to the demonsor their victims. Beatings. Rapes. Murders. Rapture in the face of each. Pain. Trauma. Death. Paralyzing fear that consumed as it destroyed.
Just then, he only knew that fire smoldered around him, melting his skin, blistering his throat. That thousands of tiny, stinging bugs had managed to dig their way into his veins, and they were still feasting on him. That the smell of rot filled his nose, and had infused his every cell. That
Dead bodies were piled around him, on top of him, smashing and burying him, he suddenly realized. He was trapped, suffocating.
Help! he screamed inside his head. Someone help me! But no one ever came. Hours passed, perhaps days. His frantic struggling waned until he could only smack his lips. He was thirsty. Oh, gods, was he thirsty. He needed something, anything, to wash away the ash caked inside his mouth.
Please! Help!
Still no one came. This was his punishment. He was to die here. Until he came back to life to suffer some more. Desperation renewed his struggle to free himselfbut that only made things worse. There were too many bodies, the weight of them drowning him in a ceaseless sea of blood, rot and despair. There was no hope of escape. He truly was going to die here.
But then his surroundings changed again, and he was looking down on that mountainous, decaying pile, grinning and holding another body to toss on top.
This one had died too soon, he thought, gaze shifting to the motionless female soul he held in his scaled, gnarled arms. Souls were as real and corporal down here as humans were up there, and for seventy-two years hed kept this one chained. Shed been helpless as hed sliced her piece by agonizing piece. Hed laughed when shed begged for mercy, revived her when shed thought to find that same mercy in sleep, and forced her to watch as he did the same to her beloved family, two members he also owned.
So much fun
A females tears had never tantalized him so exquisitely, and hed meant to enjoy her suffering at least another seventy years. But hed gotten carried away this morning, his claws just a little too sharp, the tips sinking just a little too deep.
Oh, well.
He was Torment, and there were a thousand other souls awaiting his attention. Why mourn the loss of this one?
He rid himself of the body with the barest flick of his wrists. She landed, the other damned mortals clanking around her. He waited, expectant, and was soon rewarded. One of his minions, his hungry, hungry minions, crept to the body and began to feast, snapping and hissing at any other creatures who attempted to thieve the delicious meal.
Such a pretty picture they made, the scaled, crimson-eyed fiend and the naughty human whod dared to die before hed finished with her. Oh, well, he thought again. Her soul would soon wither, materialize, and solidify somewhere in this endless pit, and if he were the one to find her, he would have another chance to torture her.
Whistling under his breath, he turned and strolled away.
In the next instant, Amun was swept out of hell in a blinding gale of fury and sorrow, Torment no longer, but a female. Human. She huddled in a corner, no more than twelve years old, the harsh material that covered her body like something out of a historic reenactment, tears scalding her cheeks, fear a living entity inside her chest. She was dirty, pale, the straw surrounding her the only source of comfort.
Have you forgotten how I saved you? a hard male voice asked. In Greek. Ancient Greek.
His booted feet slapped the ground as he paced in front of her. He was on the short side, his face scarred by the pox and his body rotund. His name was Marcus, but she called him the Bad Man. Yes, hed saved her, but hed beaten her, too. When her words pleased him, she was given food, shelter. When they did not, she was forgotten, locked away, terrified of being sold as a slave.
She didnt want to be terrified anymore.
Hed plucked her from the hut where shed lived her entire life. Until he had arrived, shed been too afraid to leave, even though thered been no one left to care for her. Somehow, he had known about the terrors that filled her every dream, both awake and asleepmemories no little girl should have, much less replay over and over again, eyes open or closedand he had promised to help her.
For some reason, she had hated him at first sight, just as shed begun to hate everythingherself, her hut, the worldbut in her desperation, she had believed him. Now she wished she had run.
Have you. Forgotten how. I saved you? How the evil one wanted you dead, how I whisked you away before he could return? Dont make me ask again.
N-no, I havent forgotten, she replied in that same lost language, the words trembling from her throat in a panicked rush.
Good. Nor will you forget how the evil one infected you. Or what, exactly, the evil one is.
She didnt understand the part about being infected, but the rest had been drilled into her head. He is a Lord.
And who killed your family?
A Lord. Her voice was stronger now, a flash of mutilated bodies appearing in her mind.
A memory quickly followed, the Bad Man disappearing from view. A memory only three weeks old, and yet, it seemed an eternity had passed already.
You were promised to someone, her parents murderer had said, his voice eerie, unnatural, as hed splashed over the crimson river between their bodies. He was the evil one, and something in his voice had caused a blanket of ice to form around her soul. Hed had no face, and his feet hadnt quite touched the floor. He was tall and thin, a black robe swathing him from head to toe, shielding every inch of him, floating around him and dancing in a wind she couldnt feel. They should have kept their promise.
Who are you? shed asked shakily, terrified and numb all at once. She had only stumbled upon this scene a few minutes ago and hadnt quite processed what she was seeing.
Now, looking back, with the Bad Mans warnings about the creatures evilness ringing in her ears, she quaked. Despite her wonderings, the memory continued on.
Who I am matters not. Who you are is all that matters, the faceless being said. He scooped her up, obviously planning to leave with her, but she fought him with all her might. When he couldnt subdue her, he stabbed her. Once, in the side, barely missing vital organs.
The pain that consumed her was devastating. And yet, with the pain, more of that aberrant cold stormed to life, seeping from her. A cold that didnt just numb. A cold that raged liked a blizzard inside her.
And then, ice actually crystallized over her skin, seeping from her pores. What she was seeing couldnt be real. Couldnt possibly be real.
As the creature strode outside the hut, still holding her, she reached up and pushed at the face she still couldnt see, skin meeting skin. He howled with an agony that matched her own.
For several seconds, neither of them could pull away. Perhaps they were locked together, frozen by the ice. Then he dropped her, and she scrambled backward, bleeding, hurting. Still howling, he disappeared, there one moment, gone the next. Leaving her reeling, uncertain of what had happened and how shed done what shed done.
How are you going to repay these Lords, my darling Hadiee? the Bad Man asked, drawing her back to the present. She didnt like him any better than she liked the evil one.
Another answer that had been drilled into her head. One she wouldnt forget, one that was as much a part of her as her arms and legs. Perhaps more so, because it was a shield of armor around her, keeping her safe. Slaughter them all. They were murderers, after all, and they deserved to die.
A pause, silence, and then soft fingers briefly ruffled her hair. Thats a good girl. Ill train you yet.
A split second later, the image inside Amuns mind changed. He realized he was no longer reliving a memory, her memory, but was now staring down at the girl. She was bathed in light, older, a woman now, and sleeping so innocently on a bed of silver silk.
There was something familiar about her name, even though he knew she had changed it. Hadiee then, but Haidee now. There was something familiar about her surroundings, too, but his mind refused to bridge the gap from questions to answers.
She had a shoulder-length crop of pale hair that shed streaked with pink. Her face was lush in its femininity, despite the silver eyebrow ring she sported. Perhaps because her dark blond brows arched like a cupids bow.
Lashes thick enough to be a ravens wing fluttered open, one moment fanning over the rise of perfectly sculpted cheekbones, the next framing eyes of pearl-gray, the next, fanning again. She fought to awaken, as if sensing his scrutiny, but failed, allowing him to continue.
Her delicate nose led to lips that reminded him of a freshly blooming rose. Her skin appeared eternally flushed, as if she were constantly lost to arousal, the undertones kissed by the sun. No, he thought next. Not just kissed by the sun, but sprinkled with its rays, as if she was lit from the inside, a thousand tiny diamonds crushed into her flesh. Not like the Harpies, whose luminous, multihued flesh rivaled the brightest rainbow. This woman, this Haidee, didnt actually glow. She was simply beauty personified.
He could have watched her forever, he mused. She was his first glimpse of paradise in what seemed an infinite nightmare. But, of course, even this was to be taken from him.
Though he fought, the image shifted again, orange-gold flames suddenly filling his line of vision. Plumes of smoke curled upward, painting the acrid air with what looked to be a demons breath.
A city burned in front of him, huts crackling as timber fell and grass disintegrated. Mothers screamed for their children, and fathers lay facedown in the blood-soaked dirt, weapons protruding from their backs. All of them wore the same type of clothing little HadieeHaidee now, he reminded himselfhad sported. Dark, threadbare linen, rough and stained.
He wasnt the only one watching the destruction. Eleven warriors stood at his sides, their eyes glowing bright red, their skin merely a mask that concealed the hideous monsters lurking underneath. Monsters with sharp-tipped horns knifing from their skulls, poisonous fangs jutting from their mouths, and oozing scales rather than peach-tinted flesh.
Their gore-covered chests lifted and fell with the force of their breaths, their nostrils flaring. Their hands clenched around blades as their thoughts invaded his mind. More. They needed more. More flames, more screams, more death. For only when the entire world was flooded with the blood and bones of these precious mortals would they be satisfied. Fulfilled.
Except
Amun didnt want to kill just then. He wanted to return to the little girl. He wanted to hold her close and tell her everything was going to be all right, and that he would save her from the Bad Man. He wanted to return to the woman. He wanted to curl beside her and hear her tell him everything was going to be all right, and that she would save him from the demons.
And he would. He would return.
Amun struggled to reach her. He didnt care when skin tore and bone snapped. No, he welcomed the pain. Liked it, even. Perhaps too much. And he didnt care when flames rushed to him, licked over him, hundreds of spiked tongues leaking acid. He welcomed the sting, because with these newest wounds, the bugs in his veins were finally freed. They raced out, crawling all over his body, the bed.
The bed. Yes, he was atop a bed, he thought hazily.
Suddenly he could feel the shredded sheets underneath him, every savage gash carved in his muscles, the pain so much greater than before, and not so welcome now. Worse, steel pressed into his wrists and ankles, preventing him from stanching the flow of blood or shooing away the bugs.
Though every instinct he possessed shouted that he continue to fight, he forced himself to stop thrashing. In and out he breathed, realizing the air was heavy and coated with decay. But underneath the rot, he smelled something elsesomething crisp, like the earth. Pulsing, vibrant life.
And beneath the flames, he could feel the sweetest kiss of winter ice, soothing his burns, gifting him with tendrils of strength. Whatwhowas responsible?
He tried to open his eyes, but his lids were sealed shut. He frowned. Why were his lids sealed shut? And the steelchains, he thought as the haze began to fade. Binding him, holding him prisoner. Why?
A startling moment of lucidity.
He hissed in horror, even as he clung to every thought now forming in his head, praying he continued to remember. He was Amun, keeper of the demon of Secrets. He had loved, and he had lost. He had killed, but he had also saved. He was not an animal, a brutal killer, not anymore, but a man. An immortal warrior who safeguarded what was his.
He had entered hell, knowing the consequences but willingly overlooking them. Because he couldnt bear to see his friend Aeron hurting, crazed with the knowledge that his surrogate daughter was trapped in hells torturous blaze. So Amun had gone, and had emerged with hundreds of other demons and souls all trapped inside him, writhing, screaming, desperate for escape.
But he was home now, and he needed to die. Had to die. He was a danger to his friends, the world. He would die.
There would be no comforting Haidee, nor taking comfort from the woman shed become, for he could never allow himself to leave this room, his sanctuary. His coffin. And that, he found, was what he would mourn most. Whether hed encountered her soul in hell and absorbed her memories there, or had stumbled upon her years ago, her voice lost in the dark, thorny mire of his mind until now, he would never know. This was it for him.
This was the end.
Flames.
Screams.
Evil.
Once again they battled for his attention and threatened to overwhelm him.
Amun knew he couldnt hold them off for long. Too demanding, so demanding He focused on the earthy perfume and cooling breeze, head automatically turning to the left, following invisible threads wafting in the air. Leading from this bedroominto the one next to it? Power.
Peace.
Salvation.
Perhaps he could leave this room, he thought then. Perhaps he could be saved. That small sip of salvation, the barest tastea frosted apricot, juice so sweet his throat would forever rejoice.
He just had toflames, screams, evilget there. Mustfight. FLAMES. Amid the growing black thunder in his brain, Amun jerked at his bonds. SCREAMS. Already torn flesh surrendered, and already broken bone dusted to powder. EVIL. But he couldnt pull himself free. Hed already used up his strength, he realized. He had nothing left.
FLAMES, SCREAMS, EVIL.
As he slumped onto the mattress, he laughed silently, bitterly. Hed lost, and so easily, too. Hed truly, finally lost. He couldnt even call for his friends. A single word spoken, a single sound made, and everything inside him would spew out, his clash against the evil all for nothing.
FLAMESSCREAMSEVIL.
Closercloser now
A shocking burst of hope as that sense of defeat shattered.
If he couldnt reach whoever was in that bedroom, perhaps heshetheycould reach him.
As the evil swamped him once more, Amun shouted as soundlessly as hed laughed. Come to me!
CHAPTER THREE
COME TO ME!
The desperate male voice invaded Haidee Alexanders mind, a thriving fire amid a raging ice storm, dragging her from a cloying sleep and into total awareness. She jerked upright, panting, wild gaze scanning, mind cataloging her options in seconds, just as shed trained it to do since being captured by the demon. Unfamiliar bedroom with one window, one door, offering two possible escape routes.
The door, varnished to a luxuriant shine. Scratches around the handle, meaning it was well-used. Probably locked. The window, thick glass, unstreaked by hand or bird. The pane wasnt nailed shut, then. Couldnt be, not to maintain that level of cleanliness.
Window, best bet.
Alone. Had to act now.
Riding a cloud of urgency, Haidee threw her legs over the side of the bed and stood. Her knees instantly buckled, too feeble to hold her weight. Not normal. Usually she could awaken and five seconds later be ready to run a marathon. A this-is-the-only-way-to-survive marathon.
This weakness How long had she been out this time?
She lumbered to a shaky stand, trying to find her balance as she replayed the happenings of the last weeks through her head. Shed been overpowered by Defeat, the demon shed been hunting. Hed carted her to what seemed a thousand different locations, trying to lose her boyfriend, Micah, and his crew of four. Hunters, all of them.
Dont think about that right now. Youll lose focus.
Escape. Thats what mattered.
She tripped her way to the window, but just before she tugged on the pane, she stilled. In all their days together, Defeat had never left her side. He hadnt even trusted her to go to the bathroom or shower by herself, but here she was, on her own.
So, where was he now?
Two options. Either the demon had reached his final destination and was confident enough in the surrounding security to venture off on his own, or someone had stolen her from him.
Next thought: if someone had stolen her, they wouldnt have abandoned her. They would have wanted her to know their intentions. Good or bad.
So. Defeat had her where he wanted her. The door and the window were probably wired, so there was a very good chance an alarm would sound the moment she touched either one.
Would an army of demons come gunning for her?
Probably. But she didnt care. She had to try. Giving up wasnt in her nature.
Haidee gripped the warm edge of the panel and shoved. Cursed. Nothing, no movement. Not just because her fingers were as weak as her knees, but because the pane was sealed. Shed been wrong about the cleanliness factor, but at least shed also been wrong about the wire.
Still. Shed have to find another way out. And she would. Shed been in far worse situations than this and survived. Hell, thrived.
Steeling herself, she peered outside to note what shed have to overcome once she left this place. The sun shone brightly, amber rays causing her eyes to tear. She wiped each drop away with the back of her wrist. No girly weaknesses allowed. Her prison rested high on a mountaintop, a barbed gateelectric?stretching skyward and wrapping around the perimeter. Shed encountered similar gates in the past and knew this one would be impossible to climb without inflicting so much damage shed die on the other side. If she even made it over.
Still. There were hundreds of trees, each more lush and green than the last, their limbs stretching in welcome. Those limbs would hide her, their leaves draping her and allowing her to search for a way to bypass that gate. And if there wasnt a way to bypass it, shed forgo cover and climb. Bottom line, death was preferable to staying here and being tortured by a demon.
Okay. So. New plan. Shatter the glass and shimmy to land. Easy.
Yeah. Right. Ive never been that lucky. Haidee twisted and surged through the room, her steps not getting any smoother. Clearly, whatever drug Defeat had repeatedly injected into her vein still poured through her.
Concentrate, woman. The spacious chamber boasted a king-size canopied bed with a white swath overlaying the top and falling to the floor like clouds sprinkled with fairy dust. A floral print love seat and a small glass table perched in a tiny alcove, illuminated by a chandelier weeping with glittering crystal. None of which she could throw.
To the left was a freshly polished desk and matching chair. No paperweights or knickknacks rested on the surface, and the drawers were empty. To the right was a full-length mirror surrounded by an ebony frame. Both were bolted to the wall. Next she tried the door. As shed suspected, it was locked.
Panting, fury blooming, she kicked the bench at the foot of the bed. The heavy wood didnt move an inch. And shit, that hurt! She yelped, hopping and rubbing her stinging toe. Someone had removed her shoes, leaving her barefoot. Something she wished shed noticed before.
Damn, damn, damn. The luxury and wealth here made a mockery of the hovel shed scrimped and saved and finally managed to buy for herself, yet there wasnt a damn thing she could use to aid her escape. What the hell was she going to do?
Come to me!
The tortured, pain-filled voice overwhelmed her senses, the words like licks of fire, somehow heating her up. A voice? Heating her? Could be a hallucination, yeah, but shed seen and experienced all kinds of weirdness throughout her too-long life to simply write this off.
Who said that? She spun, fighting a wave of dizziness and automatically reaching for the blades she kept anchored at her thighs.
Only silence greeted herand she sported no weapons. Defeat had taken her knives, guns and poisons, foolishly thinking hed triumphed. But thats what heitdid. Broke down the opponent through any means necessary, destroying all thoughts of achieving victory, no matter the cost of surrender.
Not that hed broken her.
Hed learn. Haidee was unbreakable.
Come tome Weaker now, riding a tide of despair, but no less urgent.
Not a hallucination, she thought. Couldnt be. That heat So, who was he? A prisoner like her? There was something oddly familiar about his voice, as if shed heard it before and it had made an impression. Yet she couldnt specifically place it. Was he a Hunter? Had they met during training? At one of the thousand debriefings shed attended?
Come
Her ears twitched, and she turned, following the sound of his voice this time, determined to help him, just in case he was a Hunter as she suspected.
Comeplease
There. She frowned. A wall. Was he on the other side? The fact that shed heard him certainly suggested he was nearby.
Slowly she approached the wall. She padded her hands along the smooth, delicate paper, finding no hint of a doorway, and yet Haidee dropped to her knees, gaze zeroing in on a tiny gap between crown molding and floor. A small crack of light seeped through.
No, not light. Not fully. Woven with that stream of light and dancing dust motes was a wisp of black, a writhing phantom, curling up, inching toward her.
With another yelp, she scrambled backward. The black tendril followed her, avoiding her pants and her T-shirt to reach the skin bared at her wrist. But when it touched her, a screech rent the air and thething was sucked back through the crack, returning to the other room.
What. The. Hell?
Had she just met one of the demons, stripped of its human cloak? Was that what tormented the man whod called her? Probably.
Her fight-or-flight instinct screamed flight.
Haidee replied, Screw you, flight! I wont leave a man behind.
Teeth grinding, she scraped her nails over the wallpaper until she created a groove. Then she began ripping, tossing the pieces she extracted over her shoulder. She worked feverishly and finally revealed enough of the wall to find the outline of the door.
No knob. Of course.
Through faint scrape patterns on the floor, she knew the door had once opened from the right. Which meant there would have been a knob at one point. She had only to find where the demons had spackled over the hole its removal would have left behind.
She scraped the center of the right side, cringing at the grating sound she created, until flecks of white chalk began to embed in her nails. Bingo! Clawing harder, deeper, she removed the spackle as fast as she could. Took half an hour to reach the other side, and by then, ice coated her entire body in a chilly sheen.
Her arms trembled violently, her sense of urgency increasing. She was swiftly using up her reservoir of strength and knew she wouldnt be able to stay on her feet much longer.
When she collapsed, she wanted to be outside, the man with her.
Haidee latched her fingers around the edges of the hole and jerked. The door eked open a mere fraction of an inch. Fighting disappointment, she gave another jerkonly to be rewarded with another fraction. Get in the game, Alexander. You can do this. Deep breath in, hold, hold As she exhaled, she tugged so hard she feared her spine would snap. Finally. Real movement. Not much, yet just enough. When the door stopped, it stopped hard. She lost her grip and fell to her ass.
Pinpricks of starlight dotted her gaze, but when the crackling orange and yellow washed away, she focused on the gap shed created. A sweet sense of victory flooded her as she popped to her feet. Her knees rebelled with every step forward, but she didnt pause.
She squeezed her way through the opening, shirt snagging on a sharp protrusion, then ripping as she just kind of fell into the other room. When she balanced, she quickly took stock, readying herself for anything. Another bedroom, this one a mix of light and dark. There was a thrashing man on the only bed, smoke rising from him, undulating.
Her gaze locked on the smoke, and she gasped. It was as beautiful as it was horrifying. An ocean of crumbled black diamonds, punctuated by the occasional sparkle of paired rubieslike eyes, watching, lethally intentand damning flashes of white. Sharp, like fangs.
Come on, come on. Times wasting. For some reason, looking away actually hurt, shooting a pain from her temples to her belly, but she did it, refocusing on the man and closing the distance between them. The moment she reached him, bile scalded her throat, and she nearly lost her last meal. Fruit and bread that Defeat had grudgingly given her. All those injuries
What had the demon done to him? Peeled him? Lit him on fire? He was
Oh, God. Oh, dear God. Eyes widening, she covered her mouth with shaky hands. No. No!
Despite the savaged body, the swollen, nearly unrecognizable face, she knew who writhed before her. Micah. Her boyfriend. Same dark skinwhat remained of itand same muscled frame. Same inky hair he constantly smoothed from his brow. No wonder shed recognized that battered voice.
Oh, God. The demon must have caught him while hed chased after her, trying to save her.
Tears rained down her cheeks, crystallizing into ice as they fell. She almost crumpled into a sobbing heap. Shed dreamed of this man long before shed ever met him. Had loved him long before shed ever met him. Shed thought him a memory that hadnt quite been wiped clean after
Nope. Dont go down that road, either. Those kinds of thoughts would paralyze her as nothing else could. Micah. Shed think only about Micah now. He needed her.
About seven months ago, she discovered he wasnt simply a memory or even a figment of her imagination. He was real. Shed thought, Surely this is a sign were meant to be together. A point further proven when they were both assigned to the same demon-hunting mission in Rome, and then again when hed asked her out, as attracted to her as she was to him. Shed said yes without any hesitation.
Except the real man hadnt lived up to her imaginings.
Thered been no bone-deep connection. No earth-shattering awareness. Shed blamed herself, and rightly so, and had tried to force the bond. Because of her visions, shed knownknewon a level she didnt quite understand that he would make her happy. That he was her future. That he could at last melt the unnatural ice that still swirled inside her.
So shed stayed with him, all the while thinking the connection would soon spark. It never had. And though they were still seeing each other and were totally exclusive, shed always held a little piece of herself back. She hadnt even slept with him yet. But nowconnection. Sizzle. And it was everything shed expected to feel for him.