The breathtaking second novel in New York Times bestselling author Jeaniene Frost’s Broken Destiny series finds Ivy and Adrian rekindling their alliance—and passion—as the struggle for the fate of the world begins...

Conquering a supernatural realm turned out to be easier than getting over a broken heart. But her initial victory has made Ivy a target for revenge, forcing her to reunite with the dangerous—and dangerously sexy—Adrian. Ivy isn’t sure which will be harder: finding the hallowed weapon that will repair the crumbling walls between the demon and human realms, or resisting Adrian, who’s decided that come hell or high water, he will make Ivy his.

At first, Adrian tried to resist his feelings for Ivy. Now, determined to break the curse that dooms their love, he’s vowed to save her and to have her. If only he can persuade her to forgive his past sins. But defying destiny—and surrendering to the smoldering desire between them—will bring consequences and sacrifices they never imagined...

Praise for New York Times bestselling author Jeaniene Frost

“Books don’t get much more fun or action-packed than this.”

—RT Book Reviews on The Beautiful Ashes

“Jeaniene Frost is blessed with a creative soul.”

—#1 New York Times bestselling author Sherrilyn Kenyon

“If you prefer nail-biting, otherworldly suspense, and adventure with your love story, this one’s for you.”

—BookPage on The Beautiful Ashes

“Jeaniene Frost will win your hearts with The Beautiful Ashes.”

—Fresh Fiction

“Captivating romance and adventure all wrapped into one thrilling ride that will bind you until it drops you at the very last page.”

—The Book Whisperer on The Beautiful Ashes

“A passionate and tantalizing tale, filled with dark sensuality and fast-paced action.”

—#1 New York Times bestselling author Kresley Cole on First Drop of Crimson

“I always open a Frost book with happy anticipation, and I’ve never been disappointed.”

—#1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris on Once Burned

The Sweetest Burn

Jeaniene Frost

www.millsandboon.co.uk

MILLS & BOON

Before you start reading, why not sign up?

Thank you for downloading this Mills & Boon book. If you want to hear about exclusive discounts, special offers and competitions, sign up to our email newsletter today!

SIGN ME UP!

Or simply visit

signup.millsandboon.co.uk

Mills & Boon emails are completely free to receive and you can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email we send you.

To my husband, Matthew, for a thousand reasons I can think of, and ten thousand more that I’ve probably forgotten.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Praise

Title Page

Dedication

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

CHAPTER THIRTY

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

CHAPTER FORTY

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

EPILOGUE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Extract

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

“ET TU, BRUTE?” I muttered as I walked along the beach, pulling my cardigan a little tighter against the salt-scented breeze. It would be hot soon, as per usual in Miami, but at this predawn hour, the spring air was a little cool for the knee-length dress I’d thrown on to look for my missing pet.

“Brutus!” I called out, loudly this time. “Where are you?”

I’d been calling him for over fifteen minutes with no response, and I was getting worried. He had never been away from home this close to dawn before. I might not have wanted Brutus when he’d been dumped on me, and he definitely wasn’t anyone’s idea of a normal pet, but over the past couple months, I’d really come to care for him.

Every night for the past two months, he left the house at dusk and was back by 5:00 a.m. at the latest. Before me, Brutus had spent his entire life in darkness, so he didn’t just hate sun; he was afraid of it. That’s why, when he hadn’t shown up by five thirty this morning, I’d gone looking for him. North Shore Open Space Park in Miami was one of his favorite places, and at this hour, the stretch of beach I walked along was deserted.

I scowled at the slowly lightening horizon, my worry increasing. “Brutus!” I yelled again. He’d better not be avoiding me because he’d broken the rules and had eaten someone.

Even if he’d done nothing wrong, if I didn’t find him soon, he’d probably break into someone’s house to avoid the sunlight. If that happened, God help the homeowner if they noticed him and tried to shoo him outside. Talk about an incident that would make the evening news.

“Did you lose something?” an unfamiliar male voice asked from right behind me.

I stiffened. No one else had been on the beach moments ago. Even with the sounds of the surf, my recently upgraded senses should have picked up on someone running straight at me, and he would’ve had to run to cover that much distance in mere seconds.

There was another explanation for how the man behind me had so suddenly and soundlessly appeared, but if that was the case, then one of us wouldn’t be leaving this beach alive.

I couldn’t let on that I knew something might be wrong. I turned around and fixed a false smile on my face.

“You startled me!” I said, hoping I sounded more surprised than scared.

A lock of black hair fell over the stranger’s face as he smiled back at me. “Sorry. I heard you yelling, so I came over to see if you needed any help.”

He looked a few years older than me, putting him in his early to midtwenties. Though he was on the skinny side, he was also cute in a boyish sort of way. If I’d have met him when I was back at college last semester, I would’ve thought the shadows that appeared and disappeared beneath his skin were figments of my imagination. After all, I’d been diagnosed with hallucinations by more than a few doctors. Problem was, now I knew I wasn’t crazy, although some days, I wished I were.

Then, I saw his eyes shine like an animal’s that had caught the light, evidence of the supernatural equivalent of tapetum lucidum. My suspicions had been correct. The guy in front of me might look human to anyone who didn’t have my abilities—which was over 99 percent of the world—but he wasn’t. He was a demon minion.

“I do need a little help,” I said, still smiling although my heart had started to race. “I’m looking for my, ah, dog.”

“Sure,” he said, casually taking my arm. “I think I saw a dog over this way.”

Both of us were lying. Brutus was no dog, and there hadn’t been one anywhere around here. Still, I let him lead me toward the brush that grew along the sea wall. As I walked, I hitched my dress up on the side that he couldn’t see. I’d learned a few things in the past several months since I discovered that minions and demons existed. The most important lesson? Never leave your house unarmed.

Even as I reached for the knife strapped to my thigh, I glanced at the sky. Brutus was over nine feet tall, as wide as two gorillas and had leathery wings that could double as swords, so now would be a really good time for him to show up.

He didn’t, though, and I drew in a deep breath for courage. Okay, so I was alone on a dark, deserted beach with a minion who’d been endowed with superhuman strength from whatever demon he served. Not good, but hysterics wouldn’t help. I knew that from experience.

“You seem nervous,” the minion remarked.

He sounded amused by the prospect, and that was like a shot of adrenaline to my body. Minions and demons had ruined countless lives, not to mention killed my parents, kidnapped my sister and almost killed me more times than I could count. This jerk thought that I was just another human slave to bring back to his demon master’s realm. Well, I had a surprise for him.

I whirled, balancing my weight on my right leg while kicking out with my left. At the same time, I pulled the knife out, smashing it into his face with more force than any human should be able to muster. That, combined with the minion’s downward momentum from suddenly getting his feet kicked out from under him, caused him to drop like a stone. My roommate, Costa, had been training me in hand-to-hand combat, and it had paid off. For the barest second, the minion’s shocked gaze met mine, and I felt a savage thrill at the disbelief in his gaze.

Who’s afraid now? I thought fiercely.

I shouldn’t have taken that brief moment to celebrate. Even with a knife sticking out of his face, he was still deadly. His hands closed over my ankles, yanking hard. I lost my balance and fell backward, twisting away at once to avoid his immediate tackle. He landed on sand instead of me, but then his fists smashed into my lower body. I doubled over, feeling like I’d been hit by a truck. He held on and started to crawl up my body, his grin visible even through the streams of blood coming from where the knife stuck out of his face.

I couldn’t break his grip, so I didn’t try. When he made it up to my thigh, my knee smashed into his face with all the extrahuman strength I had in me. Pain reverberated up my leg, but this time, I didn’t spare a single second before attacking again. I grabbed his head and yanked it to the side as hard as I could. A crack sounded and the minion’s whole body went limp.

I managed to roll away, my knees and ribs throbbing so much that vomiting felt like a good way to celebrate. Still, I was exultant. Looks like those fighting lessons had really paid off! In fact, Costa had trained me so well, my actions had felt more like muscle memory instead of a conscious decision to kill someone. I had killed the minion, though, and he wasn’t the first one, although he was the first one that I’d taken on by myself with only a normal weapon.

Being a killer hadn’t been anywhere on my list of life goals six months ago, when I’d been a junior at WMU. Since then, I’d had to learn how to do that as well as do a lot of other strange, unpleasant things. Thank you, unexpected supernatural lineage. You are the gift that keeps on giving.

With a suddenness that still startled me, the minion’s body dissolved until nothing but ashes remained. They began to blow away in the same ocean breeze that whipped my hair around like dozens of dark brown scarves. The way minions and demons turned to ash after death was the only considerate thing they did.

Even though everything hurt, I heaved myself up from the sand. Bruised and battered or no, I still had to find Brutus.

I was in the process of brushing the sand off me when my surroundings changed in an instant. The sand turned to sheets of ice, the light became pitch darkness and the sounds from the surf ceased with such abruptness that the new silence was ominous. The worst part was the cold. My teeth began to chatter, and the frigid air felt like it scattered razors across my skin.

Just as quickly, the dark, frozen world disappeared, leaving me back on the beach with a warm, salt-scented breeze and mauve-colored shades of dawn starting to paint the horizon. Still, I felt stiff from more than the cold that seemed to linger on the air. That hazy, alternate version of this area wasn’t a full-on sensory hallucination, although all of my former doctors would’ve sworn otherwise. Instead, it was a glimpse of a realm that hovered right over this one.

Physicists call it M theory—the idea that different dimensional layers existed next to each other. I called it a shitload of trouble, because that sunless, icy world was a demon realm. My lineage gave me the ability to catch glimpses of these deadly realms, but for some reason, I hadn’t spotted this one before. If I’d known that a demon realm existed right on top of this place, I would’ve never walked this beach at all, let alone by myself before the sun was fully up.

Before I could turn around to leave, a large slash suddenly appeared in the air and three people stepped out of it. At once, the supernatural tattoo on my right arm began to burn. I gripped it without looking away, and the part of my brain that wasn’t freaking out figured out what was going on.

The minion I’d killed hadn’t snuck up on me using his supernatural stealth and speed. He’d simply crossed from a demon realm into this one through a gateway that I hadn’t known was there.

I didn’t have time to wonder if the realm was new, or if it had always been there and was now accessible to this world through an ominous crack. The three new minions seemed startled to see me, but then their gazes roved from the blood on my dress and cardigan to the very incriminating pile of minion ashes near my feet. When the palest one stretched out hands that turned into living, writhing snakes, it was all I could do not to scream.

Not three minions. Two minions and an unkillable, shape-shifting demon.

Standing and fighting would be suicide, so I snatched my knife from the pile of minion ashes and began to run. The demon barked out an order in a language I recognized all too well, then the minions gave chase, and they were fast. If I had been a normal human, they would have had me in five seconds flat, but I wasn’t normal, and right now, I was glad about that.

I was also glad I had a mental map of the closest hallowed ground near the North Shore park. In fact, I’d memorized every plot of hallowed ground near my house just in case something like this happened. St Joseph’s Catholic Church was about seven streets away. If I made it, the demon couldn’t touch me because demons couldn’t cross hallowed ground. Minions could, but I’d already killed one today. Why not go for more?

Since sand was harder to run on, I headed toward the sidewalk along the park, needing the flat ground to increase my speed. Behind me, I could hear the minions cursing. They hadn’t expected me to make them work for this. That gave me grim satisfaction as I darted around benches and tables in the deserted picnic area. My knees and ribs still throbbed from my earlier fight, but nothing was as great a painkiller as survival instinct. As I ran, I counted down the wooden street markers in the park for encouragement. Eighty-Third Street. Eighty-Fourth. The church was just after Eighty-Seventh Street. I was going to make it.

Then, even though he was much farther away, I heard the demon yell, “She’s the Davidian!” in a rage-filled roar, and I knew all bets were off. My speed might have been preventing the minions from capturing me, but it also outed me as number one on the demon’s most-wanted list.

The demon was no longer content to send his minions ahead of him like a bunch of hunting dogs. Several quick glances over my shoulder showed him now tearing after me himself, and he made the minions look as if they’d been moving in slow motion. Benches, tables and other large objects were hurtled my way as he didn’t just chase me, but actively tried to kill me.

I ducked and weaved around as many as I could, but some still found their mark. I cursed when something heavy smacked me in the back, and while it made me stumble, I forced myself not to fall. Instead, I put all of my energy into running, staying within the limits of the park despite its greater dangers of projectiles. Taking the main road, A1A, would give me a straight shot to the church, but even at this hour, cars were on it. I couldn’t risk someone else getting hurt, and demons loved nothing more than collateral damage.

I’d just rounded a corner that brought me briefly back onto the beach when something slammed into my legs, knocking me over. I rolled at once, making sure not to stab myself in the process, and was back up when a loud, trumpeting snarl sounded overhead.

Brutus, my pet gargoyle, flew toward me, the dawn’s rays highlighting his large, beastly form in different shades of pink. I would’ve been relieved to see him, but I was too shocked by the man riding on Brutus’s back.

The minions and demon saw them, too, and at their confused expressions, I remembered that they didn’t see a large man on the back of a hulking, grayish-blue gargoyle. Due to Archon glamour, all they saw was an angrily squawking seagull somehow carrying his muscular male passenger, and from the way they cocked their heads, they didn’t know what to make of the sight.

“Ivy, duck!” the man yelled.

I hit the sand even as I reeled with shock. Only one person in the world could treat the deadly gargoyle like a winged pony, and that was the same person who’d broken my heart months ago, and then disappeared.

Adrian.

CHAPTER TWO

BRUTUS SOARED OVER ME, and Adrian almost grazed my back from how close he came. Seconds later, I heard multiple thumps and a scream. I rolled over in time to see the minions fall to the ground. Only bloody holes remained where their heads had been, and when Brutus whirled back around, his leathery wings were spattered with red.

Then Adrian jumped off Brutus and torpedoed himself onto the snake-armed demon. Two-hundred-plus pounds of pissed-off male slamming into the demon caused him to plow back into the sand. Adrian’s bulk pinned him down, but those coiling serpents surged toward him, gleaming fangs extended to strike.

“Watch out!” I screamed.

Before the first syllable left my lips, Adrian had already grabbed the serpents below their snapping jaws. With a brutal jerk, he ripped their heads off. The demon let out an ear-splitting howl and black blood spurted from where the snakes’ headless bodies still protruded from his wrists.

“Adrian,” the demon spat. “Don’t do this! Your father—”

“Is dead,” Adrian cut him off, then ripped the demon’s throat out. I caught a glimpse of something pulpy before I turned away, my stomach clenching with disgusted relief. Demon physiology was different, so what Adrian had just torn out was the equivalent of the demon’s heart.

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t kill him. Only three weapons in the world could kill demons, and one of them had melded into a tattoo on my arm that now hurt as though it had caught fire.

Adrian climbed off the demon. I stared at the snake heads, which, like the demon, weren’t turning to ash because the demon wasn’t really dead. He was just unconscious, so he wouldn’t disintegrate and neither would his severed serpentine arms, apparently.

“Were they poisonous?” I asked, still trying to recover from everything that had just happened.

Adrian glanced at the heads. “Oh yeah,” he said, sounding oddly amused. “Demon poison is the deadliest there is.”

“Then why did you grab the snakes with your bare hands?”

Fear for him sharpened my voice. It took all the self-control I had not to run over and check to make sure that he hadn’t been nicked by one of those lethal fangs. I wasn’t about to do that, of course. I might be thrilled that he hadn’t been killed, but I was still furious with him over other things.

Adrian let out a contemptuous snort. “I know that demon. Vritra is used to everyone running from his snakes, so he never expected me to go right for them. Sometimes, a person’s most powerful weapon is also their greatest weakness.”

My mind flashed to how close those snakes had come to biting Adrian. “How’s that?” I muttered, trying to ignore the roughly lyrical cadence of his accent that was as unusual as he was.

Adrian’s gaze raked over me as he came closer. “People count on their most powerful weapon too much, so when it’s gone, they don’t know what to do. The moments before they figure that out is your best chance to kill them.”

A cold-blooded assessment, but his ruthlessness didn’t surprise me. It was to be expected since Adrian had been raised by demons, hence the snake-armed demon’s comment about Adrian’s “father.” Foster father would be a more accurate way to describe Demetrius, the demon who’d snatched Adrian up when he was only a child. Demetrius wouldn’t be snatching up any more children. I’d seen to that when I killed him.

“What’s that?” he asked, suddenly lunging toward me. I jumped back, but Adrian had already grabbed me. His large hands slid along the cardigan covering my arms, and I yanked back, refusing to let him touch me. “There’s blood on your clothes,” he said, sounding concerned. “Did one of them hurt you?”

“Nope,” I lied. Yes, I was still hurt, and that counted for more than my physical injuries. “It’s from the other guy, who’s probably blown away by now.”

His dark blue gaze narrowed. “Another minion attacked you?”

Brutus didn’t like that idea, either. He stalked over to the ashes of the other two minions, snarling as he clawed them, as if that would make them any more dead. I went over and patted his wing, grateful for the excuse to turn my attention away from Adrian.

“Don’t worry, boy,” I crooned. “You got them.”

His gorilla-like head dipped as he slimed the side of my face with a lick. I hid my wince. If Brutus saw it, his feelings would be hurt. The fearsome two-ton gargoyle could be as sensitive as a golden retriever at times.

“Where were you, anyway?” I asked, not expecting an answer. Brutus could grunt, chuff, snarl and roar, and while I was getting better at picking up his mood from those, he couldn’t speak a single intelligible word.

“With me,” Adrian replied. “Sorry, we ran late today.”

Today? I stared at him, piecing together the subtext. Adrian couldn’t be bothered to even send me a text message these past couple months, but he’d been hanging out with my gargoyle on a regular basis? I glared at Brutus. Just you wait until we get home, I silently promised the gargoyle. Somebody wasn’t getting any raw chuck roast for breakfast after this!

The snake-armed demon’s skin was starting to blacken and burn under the dawn’s brightening rays. After everything demons had taken from me, I’ll admit that the sight pleased me. If I was just a tad more vindictive, I would’ve videoed it so that my sister, Jasmine, could enjoy it, too.

“What are we going to do with him?” I said, nodding at the demon. “The beach is empty now, but it won’t be for long.”

Adrian’s reply was to say something to Brutus in what I referred to as Demonish. The harsh yet disturbingly beautiful language was where Adrian’s unusual accent came from. I only recognized the word for “go,” but Brutus understood all of it. As soon as Adrian finished speaking, the gargoyle grabbed the demon and flew off toward the ocean.

“What’s he doing?”

“Dropping him far enough away that the demon won’t be a threat to any beachgoers,” Adrian replied. “If we’re lucky, his prolonged exposure to daylight will turn him into a withered husk. Demons can’t stand our realm in the sun. I told you that.”

He had, which begged the question, why had the demon risked such exposure by entering this world right before dawn?

“Ivy.” The low, resonant way Adrian said my name made shivers roll over me, although I’d rather die than let him know that. “It’s good to see you.”

I didn’t want to be, but I was glad to see him, too, and for more reasons than him knowing exactly how to take out Snake Arms. I’d tried to talk myself out of feeling anything for Adrian during the two months since he’d admitted that he had betrayed me and then disappeared. Told myself that what I’d thought I felt for him had been due to the extreme circumstances we’d found ourselves in mixed with the temptation of forbidden fruit. Some days, when I only dwelled on the cold logic of the situation, I even believed it. The fact that Adrian had made no attempt to contact me seemed to support that theory. And now, after all this time, he thought that showing up, smiling and flashing me a smoldering look would make everything okay?

“Yeah?” I said, turning my back on him. “Well, now you’ve seen me.” And I walked away from him. “I wouldn’t stay here, if I were you,” I threw over my shoulder at Adrian. “There’s a gateway on the beach. I glimpsed the demon realm only seconds before Snake Arms and his friends came out of it.”

“Where?” he asked, catching up to me all too quickly.

“About four blocks this way,” I said, cursing myself because now, he had a good reason to keep walking with me.

He reached over, touching my arm. “Ivy, wait—”

“Now, that’s funny,” I interrupted, jerking away. “Is that what you thought? That I’d just wait for you until you felt like showing up again?”

“You asked me to go,” Adrian said, his voice roughening with frustration. “In fact, you insisted, remember?”

I began to walk faster. “Who wouldn’t need a little time after finding out that you’d lied to me about my real destiny? Then, you didn’t even try to make up for what you’d done. No, you disappeared for months without a single word. You knew when I started this that I thought everything would be fine if I used David’s hallowed, Goliath-slaying slingshot to save my sister. But after I almost died doing that, you dropped the bomb that it was only step one in a destiny I couldn’t avoid, remember?”

Don’t even get me started on step two and three of my supposedly unavoidable destiny, where fate said that Adrian would literally be the death of me.

He sighed, running his hand through his hair. The front was still longer than the back, and the ocean breeze tousled those thick, dark gold waves. His silver-ringed eyes were deep blue, and even when he scowled, it highlighted lips both full and completely masculine. Adrian was as gorgeous as he was dangerous; another sign of fate’s cruel sense of humor when it came to our opposing destinies.

I looked away, blaming my staring at him on post-battle temporary insanity. Once, I’d laughed after almost getting ripped apart by a demon who could turn shadows into weapons. Adrenaline was more sense-depriving than heroin at times.

“Yeah, I remember,” Adrian said shortly. “Saying I’m sorry is worthless, so I won’t. All I can do is promise that it will never happen again.”

I wished it wouldn’t, for a lot of reasons. But how could I believe this promise when he still wouldn’t even apologize for the last time he’d lied to me? And worse, fate predicted that he would betray me again. Twice, and the final one would end in my death, making me just another dead Davidian in a long line of ones killed by Judians.

Except that I was the last descendant of the Biblical King David’s line, and thus the only human capable of wielding the hallowed weapons that could bring down demons. Adrian was the last descendant of Judas, and in addition to his incredible, otherworldly powers, he had also inherited the fate to betray and kill Davidians. When we first met, I had believed that he could beat his fate, if he tried. In fact, I’d believed it so much that I’d fallen in love with him. Now, I wasn’t so sure, but I had other things to worry about. Like the demons who would surely be after me, my sister and Costa now that we’d killed more of their people.

Adrian grabbed my arm. “Would you stop for a second so we can talk?”

“No,” I replied, yanking away. “And if you touch me again, you’ll regret it.”

“What’s your hurry?” he challenged, switching tactics.

I gave him an irritated glance. “I’m worried about my sister and your best friend. Costa’s house is on hallowed ground, so it’s safe for now, but three minions and a demon going missing from that realm won’t go unnoticed, as you of all people should know. The rest of the demons will figure out what happened since no human could’ve taken them down. Soon, they’ll be tearing this place apart looking for us, so Jasmine, Costa and I need to be gone before they do.”

He arched a brow. “Well, then, I guess it’s a good idea that I stay close to make sure you’re safe.”

“I can take care of myself, as one very dead minion would tell you if he could,” I shot back.

The smile he flashed me was maddening in its cockiness. “Seems like you needed a little help with the rest of them.”

He was right, but admitting that would be tantamount to telling him that I wanted him to stay, and I didn’t. “Don’t flatter yourself. I had a plan. Two more blocks, and I’d have been on hallowed ground. The demon couldn’t cross that, and he couldn’t wait me out with the sun coming up. And as you once told me, minions are easy to kill.”

“Not two at a time when you’re still a novice,” he replied.

I spun around, and then clenched my teeth when I saw the triumphant look in his eyes. He’d wanted me to keep talking and I’d let him bait me into it.

I began to hike up my dress as I resumed walking. Adrian watched with interest until I reached the straps around my upper thighs. I gave him a censuring look as I pulled out my cell phone. No, I wasn’t flashing him. I had to give Costa and Jasmine a heads-up that they needed to start packing. Poor Costa. He’d taken me and my sister in because we couldn’t return to our old house—or our old lives—after I’d decimated a demon realm rescuing Jasmine. Now, Costa would be forced to leave his own home, and I had no idea where any of us would go.

But when I looked at my phone, I let out a groan. The front of it was smashed so badly, I could see the plastic casing behind it. Memories of the minion’s fists explained how that had happened. My ribs hadn’t been the only thing he’d bashed as he’d tried to kill me.

“Do you have a phone?” I asked, breaking my new silence.

His mouth tightened. “No.”

“Who goes anywhere without a cell phone?” I muttered.

Adrian’s features closed off, as if this was somehow a sore subject. “I’ve been having issues with mine.”

We walked in silence for several moments. The sun was almost fully up, and I felt bad for Brutus flying in those rays while taking the demon far out over the ocean, even though I was ticked at Brutus for sneaking behind my back to see Adrian.

“Do you know the worst part of staying away from you these past months?” Adrian asked. “I thought it would be remembering everything that had happened between us, but instead, it was thinking of everything we didn’t do.”

I still said nothing. If he’d missed me so much, ignoring me for months was a real unique way of showing it.

He moved closer, until his big body blocked the wind. I still didn’t look up at him, but kept staring straight ahead as if I could will myself back at Costa’s with sheer mind power.

“I showed you terrible places when I should have shown you beautiful ones,” he went on, his voice deepening. “Told you horrible details about my past instead of letting you get to know the person I’d become, and I taught you how to wield that slingshot instead of teaching you a thousand different things that we would’ve enjoyed much, much more.”

The way his voice caressed that last part made his meaning explicitly clear. Surprise combined with a rush of heat as a treacherous part of myself started imagining what those things might have been. My lack of experience meant I didn’t have a lot to go on, but my mind seemed up to improvising. Then, with a mental slap, I forced those thoughts back.

“Too late now,” I said in a crisp tone.

Adrian caught me to him, his hands closing like warm steel bands around my arms.

“Ivy, listen. When we met, I didn’t think I could beat my fate. That’s why I kept pushing you away, why I didn’t tell you who I was at first and why I didn’t tell you what I felt until, yes, it was almost too late. But it’s not too late.” He stared at me until his gaze felt almost palpable with his intensity. “I know what I feel for you, and it’s stronger than any destiny. I told you the last time I saw you that I’d make you believe in us again. I meant that, and regardless of how mad you are at me, if you had a hard time resisting me when I was fighting my feelings for you...you won’t stand a chance now that I’m not.”

My jaw dropped as pride chased away the dangerous warmth that had caused me to sway the tiniest bit closer to him. I’d practically thrown myself at him the last time circumstances had forced us to spend time together, and what had that gotten me? Betrayed and dumped. Damned if I’d let history repeat itself.

“Don’t be so cocky,” I said, pulling away and starting to walk again. “I’m not the same person, either, so save your efforts. My panties aren’t going to fall off just because you’ve finally decided that you want them to.”

His laughter chased after me, sensual and challenging. “Oh, Ivy, they don’t need to fall off. I’m happy to tear them.”

I let out a frustrated sigh. Adrian wasn’t leaving and he wasn’t listening to me; I may as well be reliving the first time we met. Back then, he’d saved me from a minion kidnapping while opening my eyes to my “hallucinations” being real. Whether I liked it or not, if history was repeating itself, then his presence meant my life was about to irrevocably change.

Again.

CHAPTER THREE

SINCE ADRIAN WASN’T going away, I decided to make him pull his weight. When we reached the spot on the beach where I’d grappled with the minion, I gestured in the general vicinity of where I’d spotted the demon realm. I didn’t see anything now, but that wasn’t a huge surprise. My lineage meant that I was most attuned to hallowed objects, so at best, I only caught random glimpses of dark ones even when I was right on top of them. Adrian’s lineage meant that he was most attuned to dark objects, and a demon realm gateway was about as dark as something could get.

“The realm gateway was over there. Do you see it?”

He walked to the spot I’d indicated. Then he held out his hands as if feeling for a doorway, which, in essence, he was.

“It’s strange,” he said after a pause. “I see the realm and I do feel something, but it’s not as strong as a normal gateway would be. Instead of a door, it feels more like...a crack.”

“That’s what I’m worried about,” I said with a fresh sense of dismay. “With the walls between demon realms and our world weakening, cracks are probably turning up all over the place. If it gets worse, those cracks will turn into gaping holes and realms will spill out into this world. And then...”

I stopped speaking because I didn’t want to say what would happen next. The only thing worse than knowing was being the only person who could do something to stop it. That’s why I’d spent the past two months splitting my time between training and trying to get my sister, Jasmine, through the post-traumatic stress of being a former demon captive. You’d think with all that, I wouldn’t have had the energy to focus on Adrian, yet I had. A broken heart was the slowest wound to heal, it appeared.

“I think we’re safe for the moment,” Adrian said, not addressing my unfinished sentence. “The crack doesn’t feel strong enough to let anyone else through. Maybe the sunlight is weakening it.”

For now. I rubbed my right hand where the outline of a braided rope ran from my finger all the way up to my elbow. The remains of the ancient, hallowed slingshot no longer burned in that odd way, but touching it was a tangible reminder that Adrian and I had destinies to fulfill: me to possibly save those trapped in the demon realms, and him to probably betray me.

“All right, well, minions are dead, the demon’s gone, Brutus should be back any second and I’m almost home, so you can leave. Now,” I added.

A scoff preceded his response and the silver rings around his dark blue eyes seemed to gleam.

“I’m not going anywhere, Ivy. Ready or not, I’m back in your life and I’m here to stay.”

“But I don’t want you to,” I said, fighting the urge to thump him over the head so the words would sink in.

He only smiled, dazzling and so arrogant that I spun around so I didn’t have to look at him anymore. “Yes, I heard you, but while you might not want me—yet—you do need me.”

Then, with his lightning quickness, he appeared in front of me, shoving a small box into my hands. “Speaking of things I didn’t get to do before, happy birthday, although one day late.”

Shock made me stand still and stare at the box. Twenty-one was a milestone, but no one else had remembered. Not my sister, who was also my best friend, or Costa, my roommate who’d become as close as a brother to me, or Zach, the Archon who sorta mentored me and had supernatural knowledge of just about everything. Only Adrian, and I’d never told him when it was.

I couldn’t stop myself from opening the unexpected gift. Then I let out a little gasp when I saw the round stone suspended at the end of a long gold chain. The jewel reflected the first rays of sunlight back at me in a rainbow of colors that were so bright, I had to squint while looking at it. Unless it was the most sparkly piece of glass ever, Adrian had just given me a diamond the size of a large marble.

“There’s no way I can accept this,” I almost stuttered, adding, “Did you steal it?” because how else could he have gotten something that cost as much as several high-end cars?

Hints of darkness colored his laughter. “Former demon prince, remember? I might have left all that behind me, but I didn’t leave empty-handed.”

“You’re not a demon, you were just raised by them,” I muttered.

He shrugged. “Honorary demon prince, then. Either way, I can afford it. Besides, you lost your other necklace because of me, so don’t say you can’t accept this one to replace it.”

The necklace was so beautiful, a shallow part of me wanted nothing more than to put it on and run to the nearest mirror. I couldn’t, of course. For starters, I hadn’t looked into a mirror since the night I found out the hard way that some demons use mirrors as portals into our world. Plus...

“This feels like a bribe,” I said, holding the necklace out to him. “And you can’t make up for everything that’s happened with a shiny, expensive gift. Things aren’t good between us, Adrian. Not even close, and if I accepted this, I’d be implying that they were.”

He crossed his arms, his posture taking on a very familiar stubbornness. “I’m not trying to bribe you, I’m giving you a birthday gift. Throw it into the surf if you want, but it’s yours, so I am not taking it back.”

My jaw clenched. He might have been raised in an environment where money was no object, but I could no more toss this diamond into the ocean than I could burn a stack of hundred-dollar bills for warmth, and from the challenging curl to his mouth, he knew that. Still, that didn’t mean he was getting his way.

I folded the necklace into my hand and resumed walking. It didn’t take my enhanced peripheral vision to see Adrian’s smirk as he followed. He thought he’d won this round. Think again, I silently told him.

“So, if you’re rich, why did we only stay in crappy motels when we first met?” I asked as I kept walking toward Costa’s house.

He let out a laugh that managed to combine the lure of ecstasy along with the dangers of addiction.

“Because I was doing everything I could to kill the mood, not that it worked. Even in the ugliest surroundings, I wanted you so much that it almost killed me not to take you in every dingy room those crappy motels had to offer.”

“Stop it,” I muttered. Thankfully, Brutus picked that moment to fly past us and land in the tallest section of beach shrubs. I ran after the gargoyle, trying to soothe him as he attempted to cover himself with beach brush to avoid the sun.

“It’s okay,” I was saying when Adrian said, “Carparata!” loud enough to snap Brutus’s head up.

The Demonish word turned Brutus from a cringing creature into his usual, formidable self. The gargoyle might be my pet now, but to the bone, he still belonged to Adrian. After all, Adrian was the one who’d given Brutus to me as my protector. The fact that he’d done so when Adrian had thought he was sacrificing his life to save mine was yet another reason why he was so hard to evict from my heart.

Still, I wasn’t about to give up trying. “Here you go, my good Brutus,” I said, pulling out the necklace and latching it around his leathery wrist. Because of his size, it fit like a bracelet. “Something shiny for you.”

The gargoyle held up his arm, looking at the diamond next to his grayish-blue skin. Then he chuffed as if in approval.

“See?” I said, with a wide grin at Adrian. “He loves it.”

The glare Adrian gave me was priceless. Then, with a smile that was far too confident for my liking, he waved in the direction of Costa’s house.

“You can give my gift to Brutus and you can keep stomping off to Costa’s, but no matter what, I’m coming with you. Realm cracks are appearing and demons and minions are on the move again. You might have killed Demetrius, giving me the vengeance I’d wanted for years, but that didn’t take me out of the fight. I still live to kick demon ass, so I wouldn’t sit this out for the world, and if you know anything about me, you should know that. Besides, Zach’s probably aware of all this and waiting back at Costa’s for us. As you might recall, Archons may be nearly immortal, but they’re not very patient.”

CHAPTER FOUR

COSTA’S HOUSE WAS a former church, hence the hallowed ground it rested on that demons were unable to cross. The sight of its tall, slanted roof with the cross that Costa hadn’t bothered to take down filled me with a mixture of relief and sadness. I couldn’t say that I’d been happy here, but I’d felt safe, and that counted for a lot in this world. Now, it was time to leave, and I didn’t know if I’d ever see this place again.

Adrian was right; more people were at the house than when I’d left it an hour ago. My sister, Jasmine, seemed startled to see Adrian, but it didn’t escape my notice that Costa didn’t look surprised. I stifled my snort as we came into the kitchen. Had Adrian been in contact with Costa this whole time, too? Was I literally the only person he’d avoided these past couple months?

As I approached the table, Adrian pulled a chair out for me, but I ignored that. “I’ll stand.”

“Are you two fighting again?” Costa cast a knowing glance between us. “Situation normal, then.”

The other person I hadn’t seen in the past two months was Zach, but as Adrian had predicated, the Archon now sat at the kitchen table as casually as if he’d dropped by for breakfast. As with minions and demons, at first glance, you wouldn’t know there was anything unusual about Zach. His jeans and faded-blue hoodie matched his college-age appearance, and his dark brows, closely cropped hair and mocha-colored skin were a great frame for his deep, walnut-brown eyes.

One look into those eyes, however, and I couldn’t imagine anyone not realizing that there was something otherworldly about Zach. His gaze seemed to reach right into your soul, and if he chose to reveal his true nature, the room would be filled with exploding light and deafeningly beautiful voices. The one time Zach had dropped his human disguise to show me that, I’d unwittingly fallen to my knees with tears streaming down my face. You never realized how insignificant you were until confronted with a creature filled with the power and glories of eternity.

Archons—angels—were such creatures, so you’d think I’d be glad to see Zach. Instead, I felt a mildly growing sense of dread. Unlike their Hallmark Channel representations, Archons weren’t cuddly beings who spent their time sprinkling happy dust onto humanity. Instead, they were fearsome warriors who’d been relegated to the sidelines during the most important battle of the ages, so they were ready to fight no matter how that turned out for mankind. They were also our only allies against demons, so that made them indispensable to us regardless of their seeming indifference toward the fate of my race.

“I’m out of time, aren’t I?” I said in lieu of a hello.

Zach didn’t take offense. He’d probably invented the custom of not saying hello. “Yes. As the realm walls continue to weaken, new fissures are formed, allowing greater access between the dark worlds and this one. It is only a matter of time until those fissures rupture and parts of the demon world spills out into your realm.”

“I found that out the hard way,” I said with a sigh. “Three minions and a demon tried to nab me on the beach.”

Jasmine’s face paled and she ran over to me. “Are you okay? How did you get away? Did they know who you were?”

I gave my younger sister a reassuring squeeze, a pang hitting me as I looked at her. She’d always had my adoptive mother’s blond hair, but sometime during her hellish captivity, she’d grown a long white streak down the center of her head. Her pale blue eyes were the same color as my adoptive father’s, and seeing them reminded me of him so much, I had to blink back a sudden surge of tears.

Oh, how I missed my parents! They hadn’t deserved to die at the hands of minions and demons just because they’d been investigating Jasmine’s disappearance. Then again, no one deserved to die at the hands of demons and minions for any reason.

“I’m fine,” I reassured Jaz. “I got the first one, Adrian and Brutus took care of the rest. And they didn’t know who I was, at first. They were just looking for new slaves.”

Zach inclined his head in agreement. “The demons grow bolder as they gain more access to this world.”

Maybe it was the fresh wave of grief I’d felt over my parents’ death, maybe it was my fear over what I knew I had to do. Either way, I couldn’t hold back my brusque reply.

“Remind me again why Archons would allow terrible things to happen to innocent people when they have the power to stop it?”

The gaze Zach turned on me was hard. “A better reason than why your race would rather assign blame to others than work on looking for solutions yourselves.”

Yes, humanity had its flaws, but that didn’t mean we weren’t worth saving, dammit! And I still couldn’t figure out if Zach even wanted us to be saved. Some days, he acted as if he did, yet other days, the Archon seemed just as happy to let humanity burn if it meant finally ending the war between Archons and demons.

“If you truly believe your race is worth saving, then you’ll be eager to get started,” Zach replied, using his mind-reading abilities. How could I forget about those?

I glowered at him. It sucked being reminded that in this case, “somebody” doing something really meant “me.”

“I’m ready,” I said, which was the biggest lie in the world, but what else could I say? We’re all gonna die! seemed too defeatist, even if it was probably true.

Zach rose with his usual grace, then cast a sideways glance at Brutus, who was in the darkest corner of the kitchen. He’d be in his room, if he wasn’t waiting for his breakfast of raw meat.

“Would someone explain why that gargoyle is wearing the stone of Solomon around his wrist?” Zach asked.

“The what of who?” Jasmine said.

I wondered the same thing, but Adrian replied to Jasmine before I could ask. “Ivy didn’t like her birthday present, so she gave it to Brutus,” he told my sister.

“Birthday? Oh crap, Ivy, I forgot your birthday!” Jasmine said with a gasp. Costa seemed shocked for a different reason.

“You gave a three-thousand-year-old diamond with famed mystic qualities to Brutus?” he asked me.

Zach also gave me a look that seemed to question my sanity. I shifted defensively even as this news rocked me. “I just thought it was a normal diamond,” I mumbled.

“It isn’t,” Adrian said, his arched brow implying that I should have given him a chance to say this earlier. “King Solomon stole this diamond from Asmodeus, a demon king, because it was said to shield its wearer from harm. After Solomon’s death, Asmodeus stole it back, and when I was a child, it was given to me because demons wanted to protect the last Judian.”

I was openmouthed discovering the diamond’s history, not to mention its protective qualities. Adrian hadn’t just been trying to buy my forgiveness with an expensive trinket. He’d given me the same talisman he’d had since he was a child. Damn him for making it harder to stay angry with him, I thought, my emotions wrestling anew at this.

“Very well,” Zach replied, although he would have overheard my inner battle. “Ivy, you will leave at once. Adrian and Costa will accompany you on your search for the staff of Moses.”

“Not Adrian,” I burst out.

“Yes, Adrian,” Zach said in his best don’t-argue-with-an-angelic-being tone. “Without him, you won’t discover the map.”

“There’s a map that leads to the staff?” That was a surprise. “One of those would’ve been helpful when we were trying to find the first hallowed weapon.”

Zach shrugged. “It’s a map of sorts, and perhaps if you would have looked closer, you would have discovered it when you were searching for the slingshot, too.”

Archons and their cryptic-speak, not to mention their lack of initiative that bordered on apathy. Figures there had been a map back then and Zach hadn’t told me. For all I knew, he had another map in his pocket now, yet couldn’t be bothered to mention that, either. “Or, why don’t you just tell me where the staff is, if you know?” I said to cut through all the crap.

“Because this is your task to succeed or fail at, Davidian,” was Zach’s inexorable reply.

Don’t hit the Archon, I reminded myself while clenching my fists. We still needed him.

Zach’s mouth twitched, as if he found my impotent rage amusing. “Adrian is coming with you, Ivy. Don’t bother to list all the reasons why you don’t want him to. The fact remains that he must or you will not only fail, you won’t survive. That’s why I rescinded his ban from seeing you earlier today.”

My gaze swung to Adrian. “What do you mean, he rescinded your ban from seeing me?”

A low, almost growling sound left Adrian. “Zach put a supernatural restraining order on me. I couldn’t get within a mile of you without suddenly becoming paralyzed, Costa supernaturally forgot every message I tried to send you through him, and if I attempted to call, text or email you, my phone would blow up.”

“Really?” Costa looked bewildered. “You and I have talked several times since then, and I don’t remember that.”

Adrian grunted. “Exactly.”

“Cock-blocked by an angel,” Costa muttered. “That’s new.”

I ignored Costa’s comment in favor of giving Zach a disbelieving look. “First you supernaturally prevent Adrian from so much as texting me, then you insist that he come along on the search for the staff. What kind of game are you playing?”

Zach’s dark brown eyes gave nothing away. “No game. Only fate.”

Fate. My teeth ground. I really hated that word.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this on the beach?” I asked Adrian, giving up on getting a more definitive answer out of Zach.

Adrian’s coloring was darker than normal, and when I caught the look he flashed Zach’s way, I realized why. Pride. He’d rather let me think that he was a total jerk than admit that Zach had shut him down so effectively, he’d been helpless. Yes, for longer than I cared to remember, Adrian had had both minions and demons scurrying to do his bidding. Plus, with his incredible strength, speed and fighting skills, almost no one had been able to stop Adrian from doing something he’d set his mind to. In that light, his bruised-ego silence about the way Zach had shut him down was almost understandable.

Almost. Adrian should have told me why he’d abandoned me when I needed him the most. The fact that he hadn’t only highlighted that he was thinking more about himself than me. Plus, if he couldn’t admit something so small to me, how could I trust him with the really big things, like our fates?

And Zach. He got the other end of my stink eye. He could have said something before now, too. Men. They were the same whether they were Archons, humans or Judians.

Something else occurred to me. “Zach lifted his restraining order on you the same day I came across the first minions and demon I’ve seen in months?” It couldn’t be a coincidence...

“It isn’t,” Zach said, using his intrusive skills again.

My irritation died away. His inconsideration paled next to making sure that I was still alive.

“Thank you,” I said, hoping for the hundredth time that Archons were more invested in the fate of humanity than they let on. Aside from my bloodline, I wasn’t anyone special, yet Zach had saved me more than a few times. I just wished I understood why so many other people had to suffer and die.

Zach inclined his head, which was his version of “you’re welcome.” “Preparations have been made. You are to start your search for the staff at once.”

“You’re forgetting one thing,” I pointed out. “We have no idea where Moses’s staff might be. This is a big world, and that’s not even counting all the demon realms in it, too.”

Zach glanced at Adrian, and when they exchanged a meaningful look, my hackles rose. “If either of you even think of hiding something from me again—” I began furiously.

“We’re not,” Adrian interrupted, his gaze piercing as it landed on me. “I told you, Ivy, no secrets and no holding back this time. Moses’s staff controls nature, which is why we need it to repair the realm walls and the demons also want it so they can use it to send those same walls crashing down. So, our best bet is to start with places that have natural anomalies. Even while dormant, the staff will affect what’s around it.”

That made sense, but, “I doubt it’ll be as simple as googling places that are known for large congregations of locusts, frogs, lightning bolts or partings of seas,” I said tartly. “If so, demons would’ve found it centuries ago.”

Adrian raised a brow. “They’ve spent a lot of time scouring places with unusual natural phenomena, but they can’t sense hallowed objects. Only you can. That’s why we’re going to find the staff and they’re not.”

He sounded completely confident. Then again, he was overlooking the most dangerous part of this mission. It wasn’t whether or not we could find the staff. It’s what could very likely happen if I tried to use it.

“I’m going with you, too,” Jasmine said, her words distracting me from a topic I didn’t want to dwell on.

I turned to my sister. “You’ve been through enough. We’ll find you another place to stay at on hallowed ground, so you’ll be safe—”

“You think I’ll ever feel safe again?” Her voice filled with more pain than any eighteen-year-old should ever have. “I’m barely holding it together with you and Costa around me 24/7. If you leave me by myself, I’ll lose it for sure. And I spent months trapped in a demon realm, so I know what we’re up against.”

“Jasmine,” I tried again.

“I’m going.” She cut me off with a flash of her old stubbornness. “Either help me pack or get out of my way, Ives.”

She hadn’t called me her pet name from our childhood since we’d rescued her. That, plus the glimpse of her former spunk, melted my resistance away. Who was I to lecture her? She was right. In some ways, she’d been through a lot more than me.

“Fine, then you can help me pack,” I said, trying not to think about how I was going to find the staff while not getting myself killed, my sister hurt or my heart broken again.

“I’ll pull our ride around,” Adrian stated.

I gave him a doubtful look. “You think we can fit four adults and a winged gargoyle into your vintage metal baby?”

His smile was threatening and promising, like a lion licking its prey while deciding whether to eat it now or later. “We’re bringing my Challenger, but we’re not riding in it.”

Huh? “What’s that supposed to mean?”

His smile widened into a grin. “Get packed and you’ll find out.”

CHAPTER FIVE

I DROPPED MY suitcases when I saw the bus. It was so long that it extended well past the driveway, and it had to be at least three feet taller than Brutus at his full height. Now I knew what Adrian meant about bringing his Challenger but not riding in it. The muscle car was hitched to the back of the bus, and though it wasn’t small, it was dwarfed by the black-and-gray behemoth that had the words Soul Smashers emblazoned across both sides of it.

Adrian jumped down from the side door, ignoring the steps that led to the bus. “Like it?” he asked, grinning at my expression. “It’s not much for speed, but when it comes to space and comfort, this thing has it all.”

“You don’t say,” I managed. “Where did you get this?”

He glanced at it. “This was the tour bus for a band that was trying to be the next Smashing Pumpkins. The Soul Smashers never made it past being a one-hit wonder, which is why they went broke and sold their tour bus to me a few months ago.”

I didn’t comment on the irony of the last Judian and the last Davidian traveling around in a bus labeled Soul Smashers while trying to prevent a demon apocalypse. Instead, I climbed the steps and peeked inside. Then I blinked, convinced that I’d been glamoured because this couldn’t be real.

Plush, black leather couches and a matching leather recliner chair made up what looked like an upscale living room. Mounted wall speakers surrounded a state-of-the-art entertainment area with a large flat-screen TV, and unless I was crazy, across from that was a minibar.

Beyond that, there was a kitchen with the works: granite countertops, a double-door refrigerator, stove, microwave, sink and dishwasher. A dinette area was across from that, with a half bathroom tucked into the corner. And on the opposite wall, right before a door that I assumed led to a bedroom, was a full bar complete with a lower cooler filled with wine bottles.

No wonder these rockers went broke, I thought. They’d been too busy drinking and riding around in style to perform.

When I slid open the pocket door in the back, it revealed a large, king-size bed, and I spied another bathroom in the corner, this one with a shower. The exterior of the tour bus might look at little beat up, but on the inside, everything was brand-new and top-of-the-line. Hell, it was nicer than the house we’d just left, not that I’d ever say such a thing to Costa.

“Better than my Challenger?” Adrian teased.

I turned around to find him standing behind me. He had both my suitcases, but really what caught my attention was his smile. It was almost impish, and the silver rings encircling his irises seemed to gleam brighter from mischief. I couldn’t remember seeing Adrian look so...carefree. Under the power of that infectious smile, I smiled back.

“You could fit several of my former dorms in this thing.”

He shrugged. “As you said, Brutus is too big to fit in any regular vehicle, plus in addition to the four of us, we also have lots of luggage and weapons.” Then Adrian cast an almost casual glance at the bedroom. When his gaze met mine, his smile had a decidedly wicked slant. “This will suit all our needs.”

Wow, he wasn’t even trying to be subtle! Did he really think he’d just walk back into my life and I’d greet him with open legs? Okay, so I’d come close to giving it up before, but I knew better now. We had destinies to fulfill—or in his case, to overcome—so any attraction I might still feel for him was irrelevant. Saving people was my top priority. Not getting sweaty with the one person in the world who was fated to betray me.

“We could also have just taken different cars,” I said, my chilly look telling him, It’s not happening.

The single arch of his brow said, We’ll see.

Jasmine and Costa climbed into the trailer, interrupting our wordless conversation. “Nice, bro,” Costa commented, looking around with appreciation, but no surprise. Maybe Costa was used to Adrian living large, even if that was a side of him I was just beginning to see.

“Is all this necessary?” was what Jasmine said. I frowned. I agreed, but she sounded snippy, which wasn’t like her.

“Our first stop is California,” Adrian replied, his new, neutral tone not fooling me a bit. He hadn’t done this just because we had a long way to go. “Since it will take days to get there, we all may as well be comfortable.”

Comfortable, my ass. His glance at the bedroom certainly hadn’t been accidental.

Jasmine shot a look between us, then she tugged on my arm. “Come on, Ivy. If the bedroom’s ours, let’s get settled in.”

I grabbed my bags and led the way. “The closet’s yours, and there are more drawers under the bed,” Adrian called out.

“Thanks—”

Jasmine shut the pocket door before I could finish speaking. When she turned around, her arms were crossed in a way that reminded me of our mother when she’d been upset.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“Yes,” she replied shortly. “You and Adrian are what’s wrong.”

I was so shocked, it took me a second to find my tongue. “Lower your voice, he can hear us,” I hissed.

Her blue eyes seemed to turn to ice. “I don’t care. He’s destiny-bound to betray you and everyone knows it. If it were up to me, he wouldn’t be anywhere near you, but Zach insisted.”

I didn’t know what surprised me more, the harshness in her voice, or this latest revelation. “Zach? When did you talk to him about Adrian coming with us? When I was packing?”

She gave an impatient swipe. “After you left to look for Brutus. Zach showed up and said that you’d be back with Adrian. I begged him not to lift his restriction on Adrian, but you can’t tell an Archon to do anything he doesn’t want to—”

“You knew about Zach supernaturally preventing Adrian from contacting me?” I cut her off. “And you didn’t tell me?”

Jasmine’s expression hardened. “Who do you think asked Zach to do it in the first place? Zach agreed that you needed time by yourself. I was hoping you’d get over Adrian if he was forced to leave you alone, but ever since he showed up, it’s obvious that you haven’t.”

I stared at her in disbelief. The blond-haired girl across from me looked like my sister, but the Jasmine I knew was sunny, playful and impulsive. Not manipulative, hateful and hard.

“Jaz,” I said softly. “What’s going on?”

She let out a sound that was half scoff, half sob. “You mean, why do I hate him? Maybe it was seeing my boyfriend tortured to death in front of me in Adrian’s former realm, or seeing how demons treat people worse than cattle, or being their caged trophy for weeks. Maybe it was finding out that minions murdered our parents while I was away, or maybe it’s the fact that both demons and Archons believe that Adrian absolutely will fulfill his destiny by betraying you! You’re all I have left, Ivy.” Her voice broke. “I can’t stand to lose you, too.”

I felt so ashamed. Here I’d thought that Jasmine had been doing better over the past several weeks. She’d seemed like she’d been coping after her ordeal, but she hadn’t, and I’d been blind to it. Seeing Adrian again must’ve felt like salt in her wounds, and she had already suffered so much.

“You don’t have to worry,” I told her, my voice rough from holding back tears. “If Zach hadn’t made him come, Adrian wouldn’t be here. Anything I felt for him before...it was just our supernatural tie because we’re the last of our lines. Adrian even warned me about that when we first met. It might have felt like real emotions, but it wasn’t, and I’m over that now.”

I managed not to choke on the lie. Oh, if only what I still felt for Adrian was the same emotions that had drawn Davidians and Judians together for over two thousand years! Those had been compassion, empathy and the need to save. What I felt was different—stronger and deeper—and as much as I might want to, I couldn’t blame any of it on my lineage.

“You don’t have to be afraid of Adrian betraying me again,” I went on. I won’t let him, I silently added, but Jasmine needed more reassurance than that. “The day I wiped out the Bennington demon realm, Zach told me that Adrian had a chance to beat his fate. So, the demons might believe that Adrian is their weapon, but when you take someone’s best weapon away from them, it just makes them easier to kill.”

I was paraphrasing Adrian’s words from this morning, not that Jasmine needed to know that. She just needed to believe it, and despite all my issues with Adrian, I still did believe that he could overcome his fate. I just wasn’t willing to bet my life on it anymore, let alone my heart.

I went over to Jasmine and took her hands. She couldn’t know that I still had doubts. She was too fragile. “I’m going to get Moses’s staff, use it to repair the realm walls and then laugh as the demons choke on their unmet expectations of Adrian,” I told her in a strong voice that belied my inner fears. “If you don’t trust that he has truly changed, at least trust that Adrian hates demons even more than you do.”

Tears welled in her eyes until one of them rolled down her cheek. “Then why do all the demons still believe in him?”

I kept my hands on hers, but my grip loosened. “They need to,” I said at last. “Aside from getting lucky and managing to kill me first, Adrian’s betrayal is their only hope.”

She smiled with more pain than anyone eighteen years old should ever have. “And your only hope is that they’re wrong. Someone’s going to lose this bet, and whoever does will die.”

The truth of that was like razors across my heart. I couldn’t show that, so I turned away, starting to unload the contents of our suitcases into the room’s drawers and cabinets.

“I know this is winner-take-all,” I said at last. “But only people who bet everything stand a chance to win it all. We’re going to win, Jasmine. I promise you that.”

We have to, I didn’t add. If not, and the realm walls eroded enough to fall, or Adrian did betray me to demons as his destiny predicted, then all the horrible things Jasmine had experienced would become everyday life for the rest of humanity.

I couldn’t let that happen. I wouldn’t.

CHAPTER SIX

ADRIAN TOOK THE first shift driving. He’d been tight-lipped ever since I came out of the bedroom, and it didn’t take my new, improved senses to figure out why. He’d overheard my conversation with Jasmine. Whether he was more upset at her low opinion of him or my assurance that I’d never felt anything real for him, I didn’t know and I wasn’t about to ask.

Costa seemed unusually subdued, too. Of course, that could be because of Brutus’s close proximity. Even though we’d shared a house, I’d kept the gargoyle away from Costa as much as I could these past two months. Costa might only see a seagull when he looked at Brutus because of the Archon glamour Zach used to disguise him, but Costa never forgot what Brutus was. Neither did Jasmine, although she seemed to have gotten past her initial trepidation over him. Maybe Costa had seen too much of what Brutus had done when the gargoyle had been the demons’ flying version of a guard dog to ever feel comfortable around him.

Because of Brutus’s fear of sunlight, we had him in the back bedroom with the windows and door shut. I only hoped he didn’t break the bed under his weight or get slime on the pillows; man, that gargoyle could drool when he slept! Costa, Jasmine and I were on the couch watching TV, although I don’t think any of us were paying attention to what was on the screen. We all appeared to be lost in our own thoughts.

“So, California, here we come,” I said, trying to break the new, pensive atmosphere. “Which part are we going to? The beaches, the mountains, Hollywood?”

The look Costa gave me said he knew what I was doing, and it wouldn’t work. “Death Valley. Shine that turd, Ivy.”

Okay, so I had my work cut out for me. Was it riding with Brutus that had Costa so grumpy, or was it knowing that our brief, demon-free interlude was over? “Sun and sand, what’s not to love?” I said, accepting his challenge. “Beats the hell out of a freezing, pitch-black demon realm.”

A smile ghosted across Costa’s lips. “You’re right—I would take scorpions, dehydration and heat stroke over the realms, but that doesn’t mean I like where we’re going.”

I remembered that Costa hadn’t volunteered to come with us. Zach had just stated that Costa was going without bothering to ask his opinion on the matter.

“Do you not want to be here? If so, we can drop you off somewhere, or...do something else?”

Costa’s pointed look stopped my awkward attempt at letting him off the hook. “I’ve come this far, Ivy. I’m seeing it through to the end or I’ll die trying.”

I flinched. Costa had been through enough to know that death was a real possibility. As he continued to stare at me, his real age seemed to creep into his dark brown gaze. Costa was a good-looking Greek guy who appeared to be in his late twenties, but time moved differently in the realms. In the one Costa had been trapped in, it had slowed to a near standstill. He’d be seventy-five on his next birthday, and every moment of those years filled his stare as he spoke again.

“I’m okay with that, Ivy.” His voice was very soft. “The question is, are you ready to see this through, no matter what?”

I hoped so. I attempted a confident version of a smile. “Of course. It’s my destiny, right?”

He leaned back, flicking away wavy black hair that, along with his olive-toned skin and deep brown eyes, highlighted his Mediterranean heritage. “Destiny is only foreknowledge of choices you have yet to make.”

“You’ve been spending too much time with Zach,” I muttered, wishing I’d kept watching the movie instead of trying to lighten the mood. Boy, had that backfired.

“No,” Costa said, a harsh smile twisting his mouth. “I just know you want to get through this without hurting anyone except demons or minions, and that’s impossible. You’ve busted your ass training to fight them, but you haven’t accepted the fact that you might have to sacrifice everyone on this bus to win this war, and until you’re ready to do that, you’re not ready.”

I looked away, my jaw clenching. “I’m doing this for everyone on this bus. I already lost my parents, my friends and any hope at a normal life, so if I lost all of you, too...it’d probably be easy for the demons to kill me, because I would have lost everything I’d been fighting for.”

Costa’s smile was wiped away. “Then you need to find something else to fight for, because there’s a good chance that some or all of us will die before this is over. So find that something else, Ivy, because one day, you’re going to need it.”

As if I needed any more pressure. If this was Costa’s version of a pep talk, he sucked at it. I looked at him, Jasmine, and then snuck a glance at Adrian, who drove without the aid of any mirrors because he’d smashed all the ones the bus came with. Breaking the mirrors negated a demon’s power to use them as mini-gateways or as spying tools, but they must make driving the bus a little more challenging. If so, Adrian didn’t show it. He stared fixedly at the road, but I knew he’d been listening.

Did he agree? Did Jasmine? She looked grimly resigned to what Costa had said, but she had admitted herself that she wasn’t a fount of objectivity at the moment. Didn’t matter, I decided, renewed determination filling me. I didn’t need to find something else to do what had to be done to win this war.

I had all the motivation I needed right here.

* * *

I ROLLED OVER and stuffed the pillow in a new position under my head. Useless. The bed was comfy, the trailer was quiet, and yet I’d lain here, wide-awake, for hours. I blamed Costa, of course. His little chat had been as encouraging as listening to demons debate my chances, and needless to say, they were pretty sure I wouldn’t succeed, either.

Costa meant well, but like Jasmine, I figured he’d been through too much to be optimistic. I couldn’t blame him. I’d only been dealing with minions and demons for the better part of five months, and I still felt like I’d aged decades inside. If I’d been imprisoned by them for as long as Costa had, or lost my best friend to them the way Costa had lost Tomas? Yeah, I’d be a bowlful of doom, too, with a side order of bitterness.

“Ivy.”

My gaze flew to the door, but it was still closed. A quick glance revealed that Jasmine was the only person in the room with me. I hadn’t imagined hearing Adrian say my name from just a few inches away, though, so I strained my ears and waited.

“Ivy, come outside.” Adrian’s voice was low but clear, and I realized that he was speaking to me through the exterior wall of the trailer. “I need to show you something.”

I got up, mostly because I couldn’t stand to toss and turn anymore. I doubted something was wrong or Adrian wouldn’t be whispering. Plus, we’d parked at the edge of an old cemetery. Hallowed ground meant no demons, even if they could roam around our world at night. It wasn’t a deterrent to minions, but there’d need to be a lot of them to pose a threat with Adrian, Brutus and Costa here, not to mention me.

The thought cheered me as I moved quietly through the room. I wasn’t the same helpless girl I’d been when this whole thing started. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right? Well, I’d had lots of things try to kill me, so by extension, I had to be stronger by leaps and bounds.

Once out of the bedroom, I tiptoed past a snoring Costa, who was on the sofa bed. The lone pillow on the floor must have been where Adrian had slept. He rarely used blankets, having long ago become well acclimated to the cold. Like Costa and Jasmine, I piled on the blankets to offset my memories of the dark, icy realms, but Adrian’s time there had consisted of him being treated better than a king, so maybe he didn’t mind.

Adrian had left the door open a crack, so it made no noise when I opened it to go outside. He’d moved away from my side of the trailer and stood near one of the old tombstones. It took a second for me to realize that Brutus was perched on top of a crypt next to him. If I hadn’t spotted his red, iridescent eyes, I might’ve mistaken the gargoyle for an elaborate statue.

“What’s up?” I said, keeping my voice down although we were the only ones who seemed to have difficulty sleeping.

Adrian wore a jacket and jeans, and until he turned to face me, I didn’t realize that was all he had on. The jacket was open, and moonlight reflected off the muscles in his chest while shadows gave his abs more definition than they already had. As he walked toward me, every ripple of muscles reminded me of the power contained inside his stunningly sculpted body.

“Is this what you wanted to show me?” I asked, a tiny crack in my voice belying the quip. “If so, that’s playing dirty.”

A slow smile curled his mouth. “If I were playing dirty, I wouldn’t be wearing anything.”

Yeah, I thought, dragging my gaze away from his physique, that might do it. Since I’d never admit that out loud, I said, “Why did you want me to come out? Is it what I said to Jasmine?”

His smile faded. “No, but now that you mention it, that did piss me off. I don’t care what your sister thinks of me, but you shouldn’t lie about what you feel, and we both know our lineage has nothing to do with what’s between us.”

Feel, not felt. His deliberate use of the present tense told me that he wasn’t buying my being over him. The problem was, I was starting to doubt whether or not I was myself.

“Tell that to every Archon and demon alive,” I muttered, mentally kicking myself for bringing the subject up. I should just keep a piece of tape handy so I could slap it over my mouth every time I had the urge to say something reckless.

“I don’t care what they think, either,” Adrian said silkily, closing the distance between us.

I backed away, holding out my hands to ward him off. “Don’t. If this is why you called me out here, I’m leaving.”

Hard assessment filled his features, as if judging whether I meant that, but he stopped. “It’s not why, but it’s been so long since I’ve been near you that I can’t help it. Don’t say you haven’t missed me, too, or I’ll know that you’re lying.”

“Really? How will you know that?” I said, deciding that I’d much rather challenge him than admit to it.

He came close enough to brush my hair away from my neck, and I told myself it was the night air hitting my skin that made me shiver. His fingers trailed over my neck, lingering on the spot where it felt like my heart was trying to escape through my jugular.

“Because when you lie, your pulse pounds even harder.”

I moved away. Damn the memories that had come flooding back at his touch, taunting me with how his hands had felt when they’d explored other parts of my body.

“You’re wearing the necklace.” The masculine satisfaction in his voice scattered more shivers over me. I closed my hand over the pendant, as if concealing it made that any less true.

“With its history, I couldn’t risk Brutus losing it,” I said defensively.

Adrian laughed, but the knowing sound was nothing compared to the intensity in his gaze. “This time, I don’t even have to look at your pulse to know you’re lying.”

What was I going to say? That some crazed part of me had been so touched by Adrian giving me a priceless stone from his childhood that I’d put the necklace on right before I went to bed? I hadn’t thought that anyone would see my momentary act of weakness, yet since I’d forgotten to take it off before I went outside, now it was being used against me.

Brutus interrupted the moment by hopping off the crypt and stretching out his wings to their full extension. Then he chuffed at Adrian as if to say, Hey, pal, remember me?

Adrian threw a rueful look at the gargoyle. “You’re anxious to get started, I know, but your timing sucks.”

I actually loved the gargoyle’s timing. In fact, the next hunk of raw pot-roast meat I came across had Brutus’s name written all over it. Then I looked more closely at the gargoyle, noticing that he had something around his neck, too.

“What’s that?” I asked, pointing.

Adrian cast one more look at the diamond in my cleavage. Then he walked over to Brutus and fingered the straps.

“It’s why I called you out here. You’re about to have your first flying lesson.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

I KNEW MY ears weren’t malfunctioning, yet I still repeated his statement as if I’d misheard him. “Flying lesson?” Are you serious? my mind added in a screech.

He patted Brutus, murmuring to him in Demonish before he answered me. “I’ve had Brutus since right after he was born. He was so small, I could carry him around like a baby, and he broke every fragile object in my house when he was learning to fly.”

The mental image of baby Brutus learning how to fly was adorable, but it didn’t quell my apprehension. “But I don’t want to learn how to ride Brutus when he flies.”

The half smile that had curled Adrian’s mouth while he reminisced about Brutus vanished. “You remember why I had to leave you when we rescued Jasmine from the Bennington realm?”

“Yes,” I said hoarsely, fighting the memories from that day, but the most painful one came, anyway.

Adrian grasped my head, his silver-sapphire gaze almost burning into mine. “He can’t fly with all of us, and I’m the heaviest. Brutus’ll take you to the B and B, then you need to cross through the gateway.”

I was appalled. “Adrian, you can’t—”

He pulled my head down, his mouth searing mine in a kiss that matched the blazing intensity in his eyes. Desperation, desire and despair seemed to pour from him into me, but when he lifted his head, he was smiling.

“I love you, Ivy. I love you, and I didn’t betray you. For the first time in my life, I feel like I can do anything.”

Then he stuffed the slingshot into my pocket, slapped the gargoyle on his side and yelled, “Tarate!” Those mighty wings began to beat at once, flying Jasmine and me away while leaving Adrian to face a horde of minions alone...

His stare crashed through the memory and compelled me not to look away. “I don’t regret staying behind to make sure that you and Jasmine made it out, but if a similar situation happens again, I want us all to be able to escape. That’s why I’ve spent the past couple months learning how to ride Brutus when he’s flying, and why I trained him to strengthen his wings so that he can fly while carrying very heavy loads.”

I had to look away and blink several times to clear the sudden blurriness in my vision. “That’s...that’s smart.”

And brave, ballsy, thoughtful and so many other things I didn’t dare say out loud. I’d spent the past two months trying to convince myself that I felt nothing for Adrian. He’d spent that time thinking up new ways to protect me and Jasmine, and while it didn’t make up for everything that had happened, it did leave a dent in my heart.

He shrugged, although the intensity didn’t leave his gaze. “The bus has its perks, but speed isn’t one of them. That makes it terrible for getaways if we come under attack. Brutus has speed, maneuverability, and his hide is so thick, minions would need a rocket launcher to bring him down.”

Brutus chuffed, lifting his head a notch higher. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear he understood every word because then he fluffed out his wings as though he were preening.

“You’re all that and a bag of badass,” I told him, smiling when he chuffed again as if in agreement. Then I returned my attention to Adrian. “I get why you wanted to learn how to ride him, but why do you want me to?”

Adrian fingered the straps around Brutus’s neck, which I now realized was a harness. “It takes strength and concentration. If I were injured, I wouldn’t be able to do it, and Brutus maxes out at carrying three people in his arms.”

I swallowed hard. I didn’t like heights and I hadn’t even been good at horseback riding the few times I’d tried it. The thought of trying to ride on a flying gargoyle’s back made my stomach roil, but the thought of Adrian being left behind again was a thousand times worse. I’d rather puke my guts out than risk that. Hell, I’d rather die, but I’d keep that to myself.

“Okay,” I said, forcing a smile as I approached Brutus. “Let’s get the flying lesson started.”

* * *

“AGAIN!” ADRIAN SAID, followed by a command of “Tarate!” to Brutus. The gargoyle vaulted us upward like he was a reptilian version of a roller coaster.

I slammed back against Adrian, forgetting to hold on to the reins again. Only Adrian’s hold on them, plus his thighs gripping Brutus, kept us from falling as Brutus’s torque made my stomach feel like it bashed into my spine. The rush of wind turned my hair into tiny whips, and when Brutus propelled us higher with another powerful flap of his wings, my guts left my spine to plummet downward like a free-falling elevator.

The fact that I hadn’t thrown up yet was a miracle.

“Hold the reins,” Adrian ordered, pushing them into my hands. I grasped them and held on because refusing and begging for this to stop wouldn’t help. I’d learned that the first time.

Brutus tilted his massive head to glance back at me, as if he could feel that the reins had changed hands. Then he dipped slightly, angling his body downward and to the right. The shift tore a scream from me and it was all I could do not to drop them while grabbing wildly for the sturdier base of his wings. How had Adrian ever mastered this alone? If he hadn’t insisted on staying behind me, I would’ve fallen off a dozen times over.

“You’re doing better,” Adrian said, putting his mouth closer to my ear so he didn’t have to yell.

“Liar!” was my instant response. He chuckled.

“I told you, no more lies. Now, try looking straight ahead, it’ll help with the nausea. Then, try to steer Brutus.”

I opened my eyes into mere slits, wishing I’d worn the goggles Adrian had offered me. He’d insisted on giving me his jacket, which I’d thought was his excuse to show more skin, but now, I was grateful that he hadn’t taken no for an answer on that. March in the Florida panhandle was cooler than expected, or maybe I’d gotten too used to Miami’s perpetual heat. Either way, my fingers felt stiff from the cold, and it might take weeks for the feeling to return to my toes. Between Adrian covering my back and legs and Brutus’s large form blocking the wind from my front, the rest of me was warm enough, at least.

The few times I’d previously opened my eyes, I’d looked down out of a masochistic need to see how high we were. Answer: high. Now, I took Adrian’s advice and looked straight ahead.

At first, I couldn’t see much. There were lights, but they were faint, like indistinct stars. After a few hard blinks to clear wind-induced tears, I was able to see more clearly, and another few minutes of concentration later, I realized that Adrian was right. With Brutus flying relatively parallel to the ground and me staring straight ahead, the urge to puke faded.

“Steer him,” Adrian urged, touching my arm for emphasis.

I pulled the reins a little to the right. Brutus didn’t alter course. I pulled harder and the gargoyle turned, dipping down at the same time. Immediately, I yanked up, and Brutus responded by increasing velocity and torpedoing straight upward.

“Level him out, Ivy!” Adrian yelled, molding his body tighter around mine.

Through my instinctive panic, I remembered the simple lessons Adrian had given me. Pulling up on the reins meant fly higher to Brutus. Pulling down meant dive. I needed to pull straight out for the gargoyle to go back to cruising position, so I did, although harder than I probably should have.

Brutus leveled out, allowing my organs to realign back to their proper positions. Adrian’s grip on me turned less bruising, and when I pulled on the reins again, I made sure to keep them absolutely straight. This time, Brutus turned smoothly in the direction I indicated. Emboldened, I steered him toward the cluster of lights ahead. Within minutes, we were soaring over a city, the tops of tall buildings well below us and little dots in the nearby bay all that marked what might have been large, luxurious yachts.

I surprised myself by laughing as exhilaration replaced my fear. It was scary, yes, but I could, in fact, do this. Adrian’s laughter joined mine, and when he gripped me tighter, this time, it had nothing to do with keeping us from falling off. The gargoyle was the one soaring over the city, but in that instant, I felt like I was able to fly, and sharing that indescribable feeling with Adrian only made the moment more unforgettable.

I was almost sorry several minutes later when Adrian took the reins and turned Brutus back around. All too soon, it seemed, the lights from our house on wheels were back in view. One frightening dive later, we were back on solid ground, and Adrian issued a command that had Brutus lying down so I could slide off instead of jumping like Adrian did.

Once I was on my own feet, Adrian took the reins off Brutus, then said something in Demonish that I loosely translated as “Who’s a good boy?” The gargoyle took his praise as his due, even tilting his head in invitation. Adrian scratched him for a minute, then left Brutus to come toward me.

If I’d thought he looked luscious with his jacket open, that was nothing compared to how he looked with it off. His shoulders were so broad, my arms wouldn’t fit around them. Muscles flexed under skin tanned a deep gold, and his taut abdomen was set off by jeans that now hung so low, one tug would probably bare everything beneath.

I had a sudden urge to test that theory, and I clasped my hands together to stop myself before I did something crazy.

“So, some ride,” I said, more than a little breathless.

He came closer, and the raw hunger that flashed across his features almost leveled me. “The ride isn’t why your heart’s pounding, Ivy.”

He almost growled that last part, and his roughly sensual voice felt like it rubbed me while he spoke. I couldn’t admit that he was right, so I took a step backward—and almost tripped over a headstone. Adrian’s hand shot out, steadying me, and I shook it off while mentally berating myself.

Smooth, Ivy. Real smooth!

I pushed him away, feeling my heart hammer at the brief sensation of him beneath my hand. Touching him was more than enticing; it was addictive, which was why I had to get away from him before I let him do everything his darkly erotic stare promised me that I’d love.

I took his jacket off and held it out to him. His fingers closed over mine, but instead of taking the jacket, he used it to tug me into his arms. His hair brushed my face as he leaned down, and willpower alone caused me to turn my head at the last second, so that his mouth landed on my cheek instead of my lips.

He didn’t fight the movement, but slid his mouth lower until he reached my neck. A moan left me at the feel of his tongue, and I shuddered when he pressed his lips more firmly against my throat. Flicks, circles and light suction had me reeling from sensations, until I needed the arms he wrapped around me. Without them, I might have fallen.

“Ivy.” His voice was rough, and the hands that slid over me were achingly possessive. “I want you.”

I could feel that in the hard flesh that pulsed against my belly. Deep inside me, an answering throb responded. I’d been overwhelmed, angry, lost, betrayed, burdened and brokenhearted over the past several months, but right now, all I felt was passion that threatened to boil over until it scalded me, and I knew that I would love being burned.

But I couldn’t. Doing so wouldn’t just be epically stupid—it would be greedy, and greed was something to be avoided at all costs when it came to Adrian and me.

Judas had been guilty of three betrayals: trust, when he stole from the communal funds; greed, when he accepted those thirty pieces of silver; and death, when he identified Jesus to the Temple guards with that final, infamous kiss. Adrian had already betrayed my trust by lying to me about my real destiny. I wasn’t about to help him succumb to greed by saying yes now.

“No,” I said, pushing him away. Adrian let me back him up. He didn’t go far, and his hands flexed into fists as if he were fighting a fierce inner battle.

“Okay, so I still want you,” I went on, because that was obvious. “Whether that’s destiny, lust or something else, I don’t know, but if you care about me like you claim to, you’ll stay away from me unless you can prove that you’re not going to betray me again.”

And the only way he could prove that was if we succeeded in finding Moses’s staff and used it to repair the realm walls, then found the final, hallowed weapon, and did all of this without getting killed in the process. I may as well have told him that I’d give him a chance only if we were the last two people left on earth.

Even still, I couldn’t stop the emotions that rolled over me, breaking through barriers that hadn’t been strong enough to hold them. Adrian was right—I did still care for him. And that weakened me in ways my enemies would be too quick to take advantage of.

“I need to stay focused if I have any chance at winning this fight,” I continued, my tone hardening. “So, once again, if you really want to show me that you’ve changed, walk away from me. Now.”

He said nothing for so long that I wondered if he was going to walk away without a word. If he did, it would be for the best, which was why I refused to say anything else.

“What if I can prove that I won’t betray you again?” he finally asked, surprising me.

I let out a short laugh. “If any of us are still alive after this whole thing is over, sure, I might be up for a date.”

“There’s a way I can prove I won’t betray you without waiting until then, but I’ll need Zach.” Then his voice dropped, becoming rougher and softer at the same time. “If I can prove to you that you can trust me, that there’s no way I’d even be able to betray you again, will you give me a chance? A real one?”

I should say no. It might sound like a simple question, but it still possibly had destiny-affecting consequences. Then again, it was as realistic as my saying what I’d do if I won the Powerball, although I had better odds of doing that than Adrian had of proving he’d beat his destiny without actually having to beat it first.

Still, even as the word no formed on my lips, something rose up in me. What was wrong with saying what I’d do if an impossible dream came true? the part of me that couldn’t stop caring for Adrian whispered. After all, millions of people talked about what they’d do if they won the Powerball, and 99.9 percent of them would never find out.

In the end, I gave Adrian the same answer I’d forced myself not to say earlier. “Yes. Prove that...and I’ll give you a chance.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

DESPITE BEING AWAKE for half the night, I woke up before Jasmine. After I brushed my teeth and threw a cardigan over my tank top, I went out into the main room. From the swaying motion of the tour bus, we were already back on the road, but I was surprised to see Adrian driving. Brutus sat behind Adrian’s chair, and someone had thrown a large blanket over the gargoyle so that he was completely covered. Costa was awake, yawning as he opened a carton of eggs in the kitchen.

“Oh, let me make breakfast,” I said, smiling as I gently moved him aside. It’s not that I thought cooking was my duty as a girl. Costa loved to cook, but he also wasn’t very good at it, as the past several weeks had proved.

He gave me a hopeful look as he went to the wet bar, where a coffeemaker was now set up. “French toast?”

“Sure. Adrian?” I asked, a little unsure about how I should act. Things between us hadn’t changed, and yet I’d agreed that they might, if he could prove that he’d conquered his destiny.

“Nothing for me, I already ate,” he replied.

That neutral response told me nothing about his frame of mind. Come to think of it, Adrian had been blunt to the point of aggressiveness about wanting me, yet he hadn’t said that he wanted more than sex. Months ago, he’d told me that he loved me, but in fairness, he said it right before he thought he was going to be killed by minions.

Did he still love me? Or—in truth—had he ever loved me? Maybe his saying that back then had been impulse instead of sincerity? He had thought he was about to die, after all.

I began breaking eggs and mixing them in a bowl. Noises in the bedroom had to be Jasmine waking up, so I called out, “Jaz? Want French toast?” while still mentally stewing.

“Did you mention breakfast?” Jasmine said with a yawn, appearing in the doorway.

I turned toward her, smiling to cover the confusion that had started to swirl inside me. “Yep. Hungry?”

“Starving,” she began, then stopped, staring hard. “I don’t believe it,” she hissed before going back into the bedroom and slamming the door.

I exchanged a bewildered glance with Costa. “Beats me,” he said to my unspoken question.

“I’ll be right back,” I muttered, wiping egg residue from my hands. Then I slid the door open. “Jaz? What’s wrong?”

She was as far away from me as the room allowed, and when she swung around and glared at me, I came in and shut the door. Whatever it was, she obviously thought it was my fault.

“You snuck out to see Adrian last night,” she accused.

How had she known? She’d been asleep when I came back in! Then, I pushed my guilt back and straightened. I was a grown woman and I didn’t need my little sister’s permission to meet with anyone. Plus, I hadn’t done anything with Adrian.

“Not for what you think,” I said, trying to find a balance between you can’t tell me what to do and I love you, sis. “He taught me how to ride Brutus while he’s flying. Adrian used that trick to fight the demon from the other day, so it’s important that I know it, too, with what we’re up against.”

An angry kind of hurt filled her gaze. “Oh, so I’m supposed to believe that Brutus gave you that hickey?”

For the hundredth time, I cursed my inability to look into a mirror. I’d gotten pretty good at putting on makeup using other reflective surfaces, but they weren’t clear enough to show everything, like an incriminating hickey that needed covering.

“I expect you to trust me,” I settled on, meeting her gaze squarely. “Nothing is going to happen between me and Adrian. The only, highly unlikely exception to that is if he can prove that he can beat his fate, and that’s a very big ‘if.’”

Jasmine didn’t reply. She just stormed past me and headed toward the front of the former tour bus.

“Jaz, don’t!” I shouted, chasing after her.

“Let’s get something clear,” she snapped when she reached Adrian. “If you betray my sister again, I’ll kill you.”

I wanted to drag her away, but Adrian held out his hand to me in the universal gesture for Wait, I’ve got this.

“If I betray Ivy again, I’ll let you kill me,” he told Jasmine, a hard little smile playing on his lips. “Deal?”

“You’d better believe it,” she muttered, spinning around. “Forget the French toast, I lost my appetite.”

“After this, so did I,” I snapped.

“Don’t worry, Ivy,” Adrian said, his tone deceptively mild. “Now that your sister and I have an understanding, all that’s left is coming through on what you and I agreed to.”

Costa raised a brow, but after Jasmine’s little scene, I wasn’t about to explain my ultimatum to Adrian last night.

“Tell you later,” I said with a sigh.

Then, taking a deep breath, I went back to the kitchen and began mixing the eggs again. All the while, I repeated she’s been though a lot until it cooled my anger. Jasmine just needed more time to see that Adrian wasn’t the same person she’d heard so much about while trapped in his former realm. Right now, the only thing she knew was that fate predicted him to betray me two more times, the final one being permanent. No wonder she wasn’t his biggest fan. She didn’t have to be so bitchy about everything, but then again...

“She’s been through a lot,” I said to the room in general.

Adrian’s glance at me only lasted a second, yet its effect lingered. “So have you, Ivy.”

True, and the fight wasn’t even half over yet. The thought made me whisk the eggs far harder than necessary. Costa came over and gave me a supportive pat on the back.

“Don’t mind Jasmine’s attitude,” he said lightly. “I hated Adrian at first, too.”

I stopped whisking to whirl around in surprise. “But he pulled you out of a demon realm and saved your life!”

Something dark flashed over Costa’s face, marring his tanned, attractive features. “He did, yet I still hated him for a long time because of what happened to me in the realms. Some things, you get over. Some things—” his voice lowered until I doubted that anyone except me could hear him “—you don’t.”

A chill skittered up my spine. Yes, Costa had suffered horribly in the same realm that Adrian had ruled for almost a century, but I’d been sure that he’d forgiven Adrian since Adrian had walked away from that life to devote himself to destroying demons. Furthermore, Costa had fought side by side with us when we’d searched for the slingshot, and through it all, I’d never had reason to doubt his loyalty.

Yet that unfamiliar hardness in his dark brown gaze now made me wonder...what if I’d been wrong?

CHAPTER NINE

WE MADE IT through the next two days without incident. When it was daylight, the four of us took turns driving, once Jasmine and I learned the trick to operating a forty-six-foot-long vehicle that was also towing a car. Once night fell, we parked on hallowed ground, avoiding the chance of running into any demons who ventured out in the dark to play. Brutus was our version of a security system then. While we slept, he was awake, either perching himself on the roof of the bus or flying overhead to scope out danger from the skies.

Despite being in near constant contact with Adrian for the past few days, there seemed to be an invisible wall between us. That could be because Jasmine had practically welded herself to my hip, but I wondered if something else was up.

I should just ask Adrian how he intended to prove that he wouldn’t betray me again. Or ask him how he felt about me—the other question I couldn’t stop wondering about. Yet I didn’t have the courage to do it, and the irony of that wasn’t lost on me. How could I hope to win a fight against demons if I didn’t even have the guts to wage an emotional battle?

Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, California, was hot, with sunshine so strong, the rays almost felt tangible. I’d expected mile upon mile of gently rolling sand hills, but the terrain was flat, hard earth that reminded me more of an endless parking lot than a desert. In many ways, it was the exact opposite of a demon realm, yet this area had the same air of desolateness, and if I squinted, the mountains in the distance could have been gargantuan pyramids that demons so loved to show off with.

Jasmine looked around with more bemusement than trepidation, reminding me that the only realm she’d seen had been Adrian’s. That had been a paradise compared to some of the others, with petrified trees mimicking a forest and frozen rivers reflecting lights from the magnificent, blue-hued city.

“See all the rocks, Ivy?” Adrian said, breaking through my memories. “Those trails behind them are why we’re here.”

Countless rocks did litter the cracked ground, ranging in size from baseballs to boulders. Most had trails behind them, indicating that they’d been dragged to their positions. Some of those trails were short, as if a child had pushed the smaller ones a few inches before growing bored, yet some of them stretched out farther than I could see, and it would take several people to move the bigger boulders even an inch.

Why would anyone want to come out to Death Valley just to push around rocks? I wondered. Talk about being in desperate need of a social life. Then I looked more closely at the trails behind the rocks. Something was missing...

“There are no footprints,” I said in surprise. “How did those stones move, if no one was out here to move them?”

Adrian gave me an arch look. “Exactly. Scientists recently came up with a reason why the sailing stones moved on their own, but I don’t buy it. That’s why this place is our first stop. Do you sense anything hallowed at play here?”

The million-dollar question. I took a deep breath, focusing on the supernatural sensor inside me. After a few moments, I frowned. Nothing. Was this thing inside me even on?

I tried again, closing my eyes as I concentrated harder. Minutes ticked by, and still, nothing. Okay, maybe there wasn’t anything sacred within a hundred miles of this place, but then I should have felt the lack of it. Instead, all I felt was sweat trickling down my body and a headache coming on.

“Ivy.” Adrian’s voice was low. “Are you okay?”

I opened my eyes, a sigh hissing through my teeth as I figured out the problem. “No. I’m completely out of shape!”

“Says who?” Costa said, giving me a once-over.

I almost kicked a nearby rock out of frustration. “Not like that. I spent the past couple months learning how to fight, but I haven’t worked on my hallowed radar since I found the slingshot. That means now, my hallowed radar is as sluggish as if it spent this whole time couch-surfing while bingeing on chips and beer.”

Jasmine gave me an incredulous look. “Are you serious?”

“As if I’d joke about this,” I muttered.

There had to be a way to jump-start my process. After all, I’d managed to use my hallowed finder back when I didn’t even know that I had the ability. Of course, back then my life was usually in danger, so that had probably factored into things—

Inspiration hit and I spun around, grabbing Adrian by the arm. “Choke me,” I announced. “Survival instinct kicks my abilities into gear, as you proved so memorably before.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw. “No.”

“But you have to,” I said, which should have been obvious. Otherwise, we’d wasted three days driving all the way out here.

His featured tightened. “I only did that before because a child’s life was on the line. Unless it’s life-or-death, I’m never hurting you again. Besides—” his voice lost its harshness “—survival instinct isn’t the only thing that can trigger your abilities. Adrenaline should work, too.”

I let out a short laugh. “So I should find a scorpion and pet it for the sheer terror of the experience?”

His mouth quirked. “You could, but I had something else in mind.”

* * *

MY SEAT BELT was on as tight as I could stand. I also had one hand pressed against the side window while the other gripped the seat divider. In addition to that, my leg was braced against the dashboard so I could wedge my body farther into the seat. Still, it felt like I’d be vaulted out of the car at any moment.

And I couldn’t stop smiling. That was the craziest thing. At first, I’d been nervous when Adrian gunned the Challenger to incredible speeds across the desert, leaving Jasmine, Costa and the bus containing Brutus far behind. Then I’d been shocked by how he could spin the muscle car around in circles and cause it to “drift” while still maintaining complete control.

I’d never done something reckless just for the fun of it before. Jasmine had always been the impulsive one. I’d been careful, polishing my mask of normalcy as I went through the motions that were otherwise referred to as life. For the longest time, I blamed my ennui on the medication I took for my hallucinations, but then I found out the pills were placebos. My parents had supplied them, knowing there was no cure for my condition, but not wanting to admit that until they thought I could handle it. What they hadn’t known was that the cause of my visions was supernatural instead of medical.

No, I’d numbed myself to the world all on my own, resigning myself to never feeling the things that “normal” people felt. Then I met Adrian. He didn’t just wake something up inside me; in many ways, he’d transformed me. No wonder I had such difficulty controlling myself around him. Maybe, for the moment, I shouldn’t even try to. Maybe, like I was doing with this wild car ride, I should just enjoy being reckless instead.

I unclipped my seat belt and slid across the seat. Adrian gave me a startled look, slowing the car at once. I didn’t wait for it to stop before I leaned over and pressed my lips to his.

His response was immediate, and electric. He yanked me closer, the momentum from him hitting the brakes slamming me harder against him. I didn’t care, because his mouth slanted over mine and his arms crushed me to him. I moaned as his tongue slashed past my lips, tangling with mine until I felt drunk with his taste. I breathed in his scent, reveled in the scrape of his lightly stubbled jaw, then arched in wordless bliss when he pulled me all the way onto his lap.

He kissed me deeper, each stroke of his tongue igniting my senses, until my whole body felt like it vibrated from desire. I was lightheaded, as if everything around me was still spinning, but the car had come to a complete stop. His hands moved down my back with sensual possessiveness before sliding over my hips and staying there. I wasn’t aware that I’d been gripping his shirt until it ripped open at the collar. The sound he made as his kiss became bruising caused things low in me to tighten so suddenly, I cried out.

That rush of passion did more than cause me to writhe with need in his arms. With an internal flash that was as intense as a solar flare, my abilities activated and I felt that the staff wasn’t anywhere nearby. Oh, a few hallowed things were, but nothing as significant as an object that had channeled enough power from on high to control nature. That wouldn’t register as a faint “blip” on my radar. It would blast it, just like David’s ancient slingshot had when I found it months ago.

Adrian pulled away, his hands now framing my face instead of gripping my hips. “I felt that. What is it?”

“You can feel that?” I asked with a gasp.

He brushed my hair away while his gaze raked over me. “You’d be amazed by some of my abilities, Ivy.”

The raw sensuality in his voice promised pleasure and threatened obsession. At the same time, there was something distinctly not sexy about my abilities rearing their head right now. To say that I hadn’t been focusing on anything hallowed for the past several minutes was putting it mildly.

Yet my abilities had had their priorities in order, even if I hadn’t. I uncurled myself from Adrian’s embrace and began to scoot back into my seat. His eyes stayed locked onto mine, but he didn’t stop me.

“You were right, adrenaline did the trick, but the staff isn’t here,” I said, voice raspy as I tried to regain control.

“Ah.” The word did nothing to tell me what he was thinking about my putting the brakes on—or starting things to begin with. Was he frustrated? Upset? I couldn’t stand not knowing.

“You—you could say something else about what just happened,” I stammered.

The faintest smile tugged his lips, which were fuller from how hard he’d kissed me. “So could you, but if you want me to go first, fine. I love how you taste, how you feel, the little noises you make when you’re turned on, and when you ripped my shirt open, I wanted to throw you in the back and fuck you so hard, all the windows would shatter.”

Adrian’s tone was light and he never lost that half smile, but his stare said that he meant every word.

“You promised.” My response was 90 percent a reminder of his vow, and 10 percent a plea for him to forget it.

He reached out, catching my hand in his. Then he brought it to his lips, kissing my knuckles while never breaking his stare.

“That’s why we’re still in the front seat, but you wanted to know what I was thinking, so I told you.”

Then he let go of my hand and moved his seat forward. I looked away, flushing. I hadn’t even noticed him moving it back, but I wouldn’t have fit on his lap otherwise. Despite my tinge of embarrassment, I also felt a sense of relief. By repositioning his seat, Adrian was further confirming that nothing else was going to happen. I’m the one who’d started this, but I’d only meant it to be a kiss. Not for it to end with sex.

Then again, if my hallowed radar hadn’t acted up, who knows how this would have ended? With lots of broken windows?

“Your turn,” he said, interrupting that dangerous line of thought. “You’re the one who kissed me. Why?”

I squirmed at his bluntness. “Isn’t it kinda obvious?”

Another ghost of a smile. “I didn’t make you guess what I was thinking when I answered you.”

No, he sure hadn’t. I looked away, unable to reply while on the receiving end of that deep blue stare. His gaze was too probing, too knowing, and yes, still too enticing.

“I shouldn’t have,” I said at last. “That makes me a tease, I suppose, but I felt so...free, right before I kissed you.” I let out a choppy laugh. “Guess it made me forget all the reasons why I’m not.”

“Ivy.” The way he said my name forced me to look at him. When I did, he pulled me into his arms before I even realized that he’d moved.

“Adrian—”

“Shh,” he murmured. “I don’t think I’ve ever just held you before. I was always pushing you away, and the one time I didn’t, we were also in this car.” His lips brushed my hair. “Did you know that old Challengers were your aphrodisiac?”

I laughed, relaxing at his loose embrace and his light, bantering tone. “What can I say? I’m into vintage things.”

His chuckle rumbled against my back. “I’ve missed you, Ivy. All of you, so don’t think you’re not free around me because you are. That means kissing me isn’t teasing. I want to do truly filthy things to you, but I can wait. If Zach hurries his Archon ass up, I won’t even have to wait long.”

I had to say it. “You do know it’s extremely twisted that you need an angel’s help to hook up, right?”

This time, his laughter had an edge. “I never have before, but with Zach, I can give you the guarantee that you demanded.”

I didn’t remind him that I’d only promised him a chance, not a sure thing. “How does Zach factor into you proving that you can beat your fate?” I asked instead.

He tensed, but then relaxed almost as fast. “It’s complicated, so I’d rather show you than tell you.”

“That’s what my prom date said right before I cracked a beer bottle over his head,” I replied, my tone dry. “You told me no more secrets, remember?”

He angled his head so he could look at me, and his expression was serious. “I don’t want to tell you right now. That’s a choice, not a secret, and yes, there’s a difference.”

Not in my mind, but I’d given him an ultimatum—a huge one—and he’d sworn to meet it. I still didn’t think that it was possible, but I had to admit—the idea was starting to appeal. And if it was possible for Adrian to prove that he could beat his fate without having to wait until the end of this war, how could I refuse to honor the only stipulation he’d given me?

“Fine,” I said. “You’ll tell me, or show me, when Zach does what you want him to.” If he does, I silently added. Then I changed the subject. “So, the staff’s not here. What’s next on our list of places filled with unexplainable natural weirdness?”

“It’s...” His voice trailed off, then he almost shoved me away. He was out of the car before I could ask what was wrong, but one look around answered that.

When I’d glanced out the window moments ago, the sky had been bright blue. Now, it was deepest indigo that was fast turning to black. With all the crazy lightning, I would’ve thought a storm was rolling in, except there were no clouds.

Adrian jumped back into the car, slamming it into gear and hitting the gas. The instant velocity knocked me against the seats hard enough to risk whiplash.

“Call Costa.” His tone was urgent. “Tell him to aim for the lightning and get out of here, now.”

I began to tear through my purse looking for my cell phone. “What’s going on?”

Lightning continued to flash on every horizon, until the perimeter of the landscape was bathed in strobes of dazzling white. At the same time, the sky turned pitch black, and more terrifying, somehow looked like it was starting to fall.

Adrian floored the gas. “This area is being swallowed by a demon realm.”

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.