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“You what?”
“I transcended us – a process Daemons use to move around.”
“Daemons?” She looked up to take a real, solid look at this maniac…and ran smack into the eyes of the gorgeous man from the physical disturbance this morning in her bookstore. Criminy, I have been abducted by the hottest lunatic ever. Jade looked around her, trying to assess the likelihood that she could escape and outrun him. She saw an open window and on the opposite side of what seemed to be a living room, the front door. Door is further, but I probably won’t break a leg if I go for the door. Door it is. She shoved him away and was up and running!
Before she took three steps, he was in front of her, a giant wall of muscle. She turned on the tips of her replacement stilettos and bolted for the window. This time he gave her five steps. He was in front of her again. Mr. Tall, Dark, and Broody gently picked her up with one of his arms behind her back, swung her legs up and over his other arm and carried her to the divan, where he smoothly sat her down and smiled.
“Can I continue? Or would you like to take another turn about the room? If it’s exercise you’re looking for I can think of much better ways to expend your energy.” He folded his arms, as if daring her to make another run for it. His golden eyes flickered with unmistakable amusement.
“Oh, for crying out loud, fine. I will listen to what you have to say. Only because you outweigh me by at least a hundred pounds, are way quicker than I am, and clearly you are willing to use force to have your way.” She was waving her index finger in the air, much like Matt did when he got excited. “But stop grinning at me; I am a hostage, not a plaything.”
“Pity.” His eyes did a swift head-to-toe assessment of her body. “I can assure you I wish this could be done any other way. Unfortunately the circumstances at hand have forced me into your life.”
“That I can see,” she hissed.
“Jade, I’m afraid our time together has just begun,” he said, squinting his eyes a bit. “I, or rather my family and I, require your assistance, and your gifts. We know you have the ability to sense emotion; we also know you can, in various degrees, affect emotions around you. Also your ability to tell if beings are lying may come in handy as well.”
“How in the world could you know that? Or my name? Who the hell are you?” If it were possible, this conversation was starting to freak her out even more than what had already happened.
“My name is Nias, and let’s just say I have it on the best authority.”
“Well, then, Nias, do you know where this curse came from? Can you tell me?” She wasn’t sure why it had come out as a question and not a demand; maybe it was fear at finally having an answer. What she did know was even discussing its origin made her recall all the pain and sadness it had brought into her life. If there were a way to find out where it came from, possibly there would be a way to get rid of it. She would do almost anything to accomplish that.
“That, I cannot do. I am not at liberty to inform you of any more than you have to know in order to help us.”
“Why am I even having this conversation, then? For all I know, you found out somehow, got Matt drunk, maybe, I don’t know.”
Then it hit her. The strangest thing about this situation was she could tell he wasn’t lying. She always got a feeling when someone lied to her. Almost like a sharpness at the back of her neck and behind her eyes, like a fierce headache was coming on, and she wasn’t getting it from him. So there were only two possible conclusions; one, he believed what he was saying so strongly that it didn’t come out at her as a lie, which meant her half-sarcastic comment was correct and he was insane. Or two, he was being truthful. Surprisingly to her, it wasn’t the possibility of the former, complete insanity, worrying her the most; it was the possibility of the latter, that his story could reflect the truth, causing the bubble of nervousness and trepidation to rise up from her gut.
“Well, can you get rid of it? I want to get it out of me; it is awful, to tell you the truth. You are looking at this thing as a gift, but it isn’t. This thing has made me a freak. My own parents couldn’t handle it. Or I guess it was me who found it hard to tolerate their loathing of my oddity. It wasn’t just them; try making friends when you know their every feeling and lie. It crashes into my head, and did I mention it hurts? Can you, they, who, whatever, make it go away?”
Nias was not completely surprised to see the look of pain in her eyes, but it had an effect on him he did not expect. He had an overwhelming need to make that look, the causes of that look, go away, but he knew it was impossible. He needed the part of her causing that pain.
“No, I can’t. I was asked to find you, explain the situation, and obtain your help. And to be honest, I doubt they would be willing to take away something they find useful.” He couldn’t help but place his hand on her forearm, to touch her, to soothe her. And then, as quickly as he had placed it, and felt the warmth of her skin, her eyes flickered straight towards his own, and he yanked his hand away.
He would not do this. This human would not affect him. He pulled himself together and got back to the business at hand.
“My brother has been kidnapped by some very bad individuals.”
“I feel his pain, as I seem to be in the same situation.” He appreciated her sharp wit and snappy comeback, and smirked despite himself.
“Trust me, Jade, you are not in the same situation. I will not hurt you. If you try to run, I will bring you back. But I will not ever hurt you.” And he suddenly realized he meant every word of it.
Again Jade could feel he wasn’t lying. He meant what he said, and strangely she didn’t feel like she was in any immediate danger.
“I need to get to him, and I need you to use the abilities you possess to help me do it. The place I have to take you is evil beyond your reasoning; it will be like nothing you have ever seen or imagined,” he continued to explain.
Jade shuddered at the sincerity and seriousness in his voice. “Where is this place and who are these people?”
“I cannot give you any more information right now, but we need to start with your training immediately, if I ever expect to see my brother alive again.”
“Why in the world would I get involved with this? It sounds extremely dangerous, and I’m sorry to be harsh, but it just isn’t my problem.” Even as she spoke the words, she thought of the one and only thing that could possibly make her do something so crazy; to actually have a normal life, to be rid of this blasted curse. This man might not know where the curse came from, but even if there was an infinitesimal chance she could find its origin and maybe, just maybe, find out a way to make it stop, she wanted to try.
“Unfortunately, Jade, the moment you came into contact with me you started being watched and it became your problem. The Shaitan have eyes everywhere. They have, no doubt, seen you by now, so you are involved already. You’re just not safe without me or one of the Djinn beside you anymore.” Nias looked into her eyes and she thought she saw a tiny glimmer of regret. Then she experienced a flash of anger that he had put her in this position. If what he said was true, he had already endangered her life.
All thoughts of agreeing to this madness had flown out of her mind. She clenched her teeth as she responded.
“I appreciate you want to retrieve your brother, but I don’t know anything about these … these Shaitan, or Djinn, or Daemons, or whatever they are called. I have a business to run, I have a life!” A sad and pathetic life; one where I cannot keep a relationship intact, prevent my head from erupting into spontaneous bursts of pain or even manage to stay out of dreamland long enough to cope with the madness. But right now she didn’t care, she needed some air to breathe not full of super-hot “I’m a Daemon” guy. She needed to get away and think, time to sort through this mess.
She continued her tirade getting up and taking a step toward him. The tension in the room was palpable. “I am going to go, please do not stop me, do not contact me, do not drug me or drag me across the country anymore!”
She paused for a time, looking at him, and when he made no move to stop her, she stormed past him and out the door. To her surprise, he let her go.
As Jade walked out of the flat, she wondered what kind of fiendishness was truly involved in getting her there. She had been to San Francisco before, and as she looked around she realized quickly he was telling the truth on that count. Did he take her across the country, unconscious on a plane? Surely not a public one. How long was she out? She had not felt herself go under or come out of a blackout. What she did know was she needed to find a way home.
Luckily she was a credit-card-in-the-pocket, and not a purse kind of a girl, because she was going to need a cab ride and a plane ticket before that hot but vexatious man came looking for her. She was not sure why he had let her walk out, and right now she did not give two shits about the why’s, she just wanted as far away from here as she could get.
Unfortunately, as far away as she could get was two blocks, when something metal slammed into her stomach and then hit her over the head, and this time everything did go black.
Chapter 3
When she came to, it wasn’t in a lovely flat with a gorgeous alpha male. Instead, she was in some kind of an abandoned warehouse-looking place. It was so dark she could only see by the thin cracks of light coming through what she assumed were doors, which extended from the floor to incredibly high ceilings. Her head was pounding and a foul odor smacked her in the face. She had no idea what it was, but it was a smell one could only imagine in a nightmare. A stewed thickness wafted of feces and other body fluids. She had never smelled decaying flesh, but she could imagine it smelled exactly like this.
She tried to move and realized she was chained to a beam, which connected to the ceiling. Terrified, she struggled, but the chains did not merely shackle her wrists and ankles; she felt them wrapped around her body, rendering her practically paralyzed. She began screaming from the depths of her soul, fear producing a sound she never imagined could come out of her. As she cried out she swung her head around, violently at first, but that made her pounding headache turn into an explosion of agony. She continued screaming and crying until snot and tears mingled and dripped from her face. No one responded, and she couldn’t see anyone else there. She finally passed out, most likely from the combination of fear and pain.
Next thing she knew, someone slapped her across the face so hard it split her lip and flung the other side of her face into the beam. She would have registered immense pain, except what was in front of her stole every bit of her attention. She sensed the emotions coming off of the person joining her in the cavernous space. If pure evil were a feeling, this would be it; hatred, jealousy, rage, loathing, greed, mistrust hit her all at once, and then she tried to shut them out. She pushed against it with her mind, despite the throbbing in her head. She had minimal success, making it slightly less overwhelming. She could make out a shadow of someone hunchbacked. From what little she could make out, it looked like he, or she, had been born with some hideous deformities. It seemed lopsided. One arm appeared to be longer than the other. Its breath smelled like putrid sewage … no that wasn’t it; it smelled of death. She could also hear the voices of several others behind her, but they weren’t speaking a language she understood.
Then a high, whiny voice spoke in English. “How is it you know Nias, what business does he have with you, human?”
Fuck, fuck, fuck, did it just say human like it wasn’t one? She only wanted to go back home. She wanted to wake up from this whole nightmare. She began crying again, and she couldn’t breathe right. The chains were too tight and she couldn’t calm herself.
She was screaming again!
“Stop!” It slapped her, hard. “What is your business with Nias? Answer me or I will not continue to be so kind,” it whined in a macabre, singsong manner.
Although fearful, she felt compelled to lie. “I don’t know who that is! I have no idea who…what do you want from me?” she managed to choke out through the blood running from her mouth.
It tore through her shirt with a razor-sharp claw, drawing down her chest, diagonally over her breast, across the chains, ripping across her stomach. She cried out and then bit her bleeding lip. The nails made a scratching noise as they pulled over the last of her bindings. Sharp pains were now emanating from her torso in concert with the continued pulsing in the back of her skull.
“Do not lie to me, I saw you transcend in with him! You were in his home; I saw you converse. What did you discuss?”
Her vision was hazy and she wasn’t sure what she should say. She didn’t want to make it angrier, but she had the feeling giving it too much information was definitely a bad idea. Actually, she couldn’t think of a good idea at all.
“Speak!” It ran one of its razors slowly down her arm.
It was horrifying, but the feeling of being trapped and powerless over the situation was starting to make her angry, despite her terror. She clenched her teeth and began to struggle again, but this time with fury. She shoved aside the pain and pushed back at it with her mind, grabbing the emotions within its head and twisting them. She attached herself to the darkness within it and it consumed her; she knew it would, but she also knew it would only last until she gained control.
When attempting to alter someone’s emotional state, she used the opposite emotion to push it out. Her success varied. It depended a lot on how in touch with the opposing emotion she could get, and how strong the target was. Although the utter darkness and pure hatred was heavy and difficult to move, she found its self-doubt and the creature allowed her manipulate it; at least, she hoped, enough to get it to stop injuring her. She tried her best to channel pleasure until she could feel its hate dissipate, if only slightly. Unfortunately, she was finding it a little difficult to find any pleasant images to pull from. She only wished hate could move hate. She was feeling plenty of that and channeling it could have knocked the fucking thing on its putrid ass.
Jade thought she would try to trick it into letting her go. She tried to speak evenly. “I was taken by the man you’re referring to, but I’m not sure how.” The best lies were always the ones that contain at least minimal truth. “I have no idea what he wanted from me. What is it you want from me?” Her anger and pain were starting to make her breathless.
“I need to know what the Djinn are planning. They are a bad lot. They hurt people, did you know this?” It continued in its high-pitched, unholy melody. She could sense immediately it was lying to her but decided to play along.
“I didn’t, but I knew when he abducted me that he had bad intentions. I was afraid for my life.” Yeah, does this stupid thing not get that I am afraid for my life now?
“Yesss,” it hissed, “you were right to fear for your safety, you are much safer now.”
Really? Did it really just rip its claws through my body and tell me I was safe? She had to get out of here. The pain in her head was abating, but it was starting to swim now, probably from blood loss.
“I really can’t breathe right,” she pretended to hyperventilate; “can you loosen … the chains?”
It made a discontented grunting sound, and called out for someone else to come and do the chore. And something else arrived, but she couldn’t see it. Its breath was rapid and short. It sounded as if it only used its mouth to breathe. Whatever it was she could feel its hand come from lower than a man’s hands would be. It seemed to be the size of a small child. It unlocked the chains to give them slack, but as it did so there was a moment it let them give a little more than it needed to, and she felt the chains fall below her knees. Jade was by no means a fighter, but the adrenaline pumping through her body made her fear and anger override her pain. Before she even knew what she was doing she had stepped out of her bondage.
With both arms straight she clasped her hands together and, using them like a bat, she swung at the hunchbacked creature, knocking it to the ground. The child-sized thing hissed at her and clutched at her legs. She punched at it, and then grabbed at the shadow, ripping at its skin with her fingernails. Thank God for her long fake nails. She could tell she had wounded it and torn at its flesh, which is exactly what she had wanted to do to any one of them since they had flayed her own skin. She began running blindly, staggering for the light coming through the walls, hoping she had been right and it was a door of some sort. The floor was damp or slimy, maybe, and she could feel her feet almost slide out from under her several times as she ran.
When she actually made it to the wall she crashed into it as hard as she could, trying to use her body like a battering ram. She didn’t look behind her, but she could hear multiple shuffling footsteps rushing toward her. The wall didn’t budge. As she felt up and around the sides of her prison, panic began to take over again. She heard herself starting to breathe too quickly as she became hysterical. Then they caught up with her. The first one grabbed her by her hair and ripped her backwards to the ground. She managed to get her hands behind her before her head hit the floor, but her arms burned with the impact. It began dragging her back across the slick floor. It was speaking fiercely in that bizarre language again, stopping suddenly to kick her in the ribs and yell something at her. She started to break a little. If they started in on her again …
And then she heard a deeper voice boom through the darkness; it was right above them and it seemed to speak the same language, but with a much deeper tone. She turned in the dimness to see a figure towering over the beast, grabbing it by its neck and twisting, producing a horrible cracking noise. She could hear the sound of other monsters scatter and then pained, high-pitched moaning. Another force seemed to be beating them down.
Jade still lay on the floor in a state of alarm and shock, turning over and trying to crawl away without being noticed, pain wracking every part of her body. She couldn’t even force herself to her feet, but still, escape was the only thing she could fathom. Then a large thing that felt warm and solid and smelled like a familiar musk picked her up in its arms and held her close. As she began to struggle, still panic-stricken and feeling the pain of the gashes that other thing had ripped into her body, it spoke.
“Jade, it’s okay.” He, and it was most definitely he, the he she had run from, pulled her face toward his so she could see who he was. “I’ve come to get you out of here. The things are dead, I’ve got you.” Even in her shock she knew that beautiful face and his voice soothed her. She immediately sensed inside his mind; he was hyper-alert, aware and concerned; he emanated calm safety. And involuntarily, she curled in tightly to him.
“Get me the fuck out of here, please!” she said breathlessly.
He began walking with her toward the other side of the warehouse, as he shouted in that unusual dialect to some others she couldn’t make out in the darkness. She suspected he was calling out orders at them about going after the fleeing creatures. It sounded like there were four or five other men. But she had no intention of lifting her head to find out. She felt safe curled in her current state, buried beneath his long, dark hair, which spilled over her. He even smelled like safety. A warm rich musk mixed with sweat, a dirty masculinity. She could feel the hard muscles in his arms and the thickness of his chest, and for right now she wasn’t moving a muscle of her own.
Damn it, why did I let her go?
Right after she had left, Nias had taken the three flights from his flat down the cramped stairwell two at a time. He slammed open the heavy door at the bottom with all the ferocity and frustration the situation had caused to fester inside him. The thick carved wood tore from its top hinges, dangled and then careened to the sidewalk.
Nias stalked past one streetlight to the next, one block after another. The scent of Chinese food and stale beer sickened him as he searched for what he needed. Threatened and fearful humans moved quickly out of his path, as gusts of wind swirled like dervishes around his menacing stomp, projecting dirt, discarded trash and anything underfoot. Lightning crashed in the deep-blue sky as his emotion became even darker and his self-loathing for letting this happen meshed with a determined vengeance within him.
Now because of his fuck-up, Jade was gone and he was one step further from retrieving Joss. Nias inhaled and through the sweat of strippers, cheap cologne and myriad smells of the dirty San Francisco night, he caught the scent of what he was searching for, and what he was hoping not to – the smell of Shaitan, and Jade’s fear. And he knew they had taken her.
Nias had then transcended directly to the Djinn Sentry. Phaeton, being the current Sovereign, had ownership and control of the compound, their base of operations, for the Cause. Nias walked in and started ordering Daemons to locations throughout the city. He would cover them all. The more guards he had out, the faster they could find her. They always found the Nests in these mass deployments. All Djinn had a potent sense of smell. When they got within a few blocks of a Shaitan Nest, they would know.
It had taken the Sentry about an hour to locate the Nest. When they did, Nias had transcended directly inside with a small group consisting of whomever he could immediately muster. The girl had been badly injured, but he could also see she had put up a fight they would have not suspected her capable of.
He could see she had escaped the bonds they had put her in, but not before she had been cut up. The beautiful redhead was being dragged across the blood-splattered floor of the dirty warehouse, and he was consumed with a burning rage toward the beast that had dared to touch her. That it did so sent a shuddering hatred through him he did not expect. He grasped its neck with the blind fury of a man who had been personally violated. After he picked it up and finished it, he was flooded with disappointment that he had not drawn out the vile creation’s pain.
Nias took Jade into his arms and held her shivering body tightly to his chest, wanting to absorb her panic within him. He ordered the extinction of the rest of the pack, calling out to the Djinn to spare no violence; tear their heads from their bodies if they wished, he would welcome it. Dispose of the rot when they were through. The Sentry would take the dead creatures back to the incinerator in their compound.
He didn’t realize Hamartia had witnessed his bloodlust and emotion until he stood with the unconscious girl in his arms and she appeared suddenly before them.
“Hello, my delicious pet.” Her voice scraped through the darkness like nails on a chalkboard, giving him chills penetrating to his very spine.
He growled, “Hamartia, I so do not miss your hideous whine. What could possibly draw you out of Sheol? I can’t imagine anything worth you missing even a minute of your enjoyment of the suffering and torture of the damned.” He watched her tall shadow approach him in the dimness of the room. She had long black, dreadlocked hair, which fell around an ugly scarred face. Her body was diseased from her conception and had continued to slowly rot for millennia. Wetness from her open sores shone through the encrusted dark fabric of her ancient, worn, floor-length gown.
Iblis had once taken her as a lover simply to amuse himself with something vile. It had been during a time when he had a sick fetish for fucking things that disgusted him. After centuries of finding pleasure in those who didn’t consent to his advances, he sought a distraction with a different kind of depravity.