This was the end.
Flames.
Screams.
Evil.
Once again they battled for his attention and threatened to overwhelm him.
Amun knew he couldnt hold them off for long. Too demanding, so demanding He focused on the earthy perfume and cooling breeze, head automatically turning to the left, following invisible threads wafting in the air. Leading from this bedroominto the one next to it? Power.
Peace.
Salvation.
Perhaps he could leave this room, he thought then. Perhaps he could be saved. That small sip of salvation, the barest tastea frosted apricot, juice so sweet his throat would forever rejoice.
He just had toflames, screams, evilget there. Mustfight. FLAMES. Amid the growing black thunder in his brain, Amun jerked at his bonds. SCREAMS. Already torn flesh surrendered, and already broken bone dusted to powder. EVIL. But he couldnt pull himself free. Hed already used up his strength, he realized. He had nothing left.
FLAMES, SCREAMS, EVIL.
As he slumped onto the mattress, he laughed silently, bitterly. Hed lost, and so easily, too. Hed truly, finally lost. He couldnt even call for his friends. A single word spoken, a single sound made, and everything inside him would spew out, his clash against the evil all for nothing.
FLAMESSCREAMSEVIL.
Closercloser now
A shocking burst of hope as that sense of defeat shattered.
If he couldnt reach whoever was in that bedroom, perhaps heshetheycould reach him.
As the evil swamped him once more, Amun shouted as soundlessly as hed laughed. Come to me!
CHAPTER THREE
COME TO ME!
The desperate male voice invaded Haidee Alexanders mind, a thriving fire amid a raging ice storm, dragging her from a cloying sleep and into total awareness. She jerked upright, panting, wild gaze scanning, mind cataloging her options in seconds, just as shed trained it to do since being captured by the demon. Unfamiliar bedroom with one window, one door, offering two possible escape routes.
The door, varnished to a luxuriant shine. Scratches around the handle, meaning it was well-used. Probably locked. The window, thick glass, unstreaked by hand or bird. The pane wasnt nailed shut, then. Couldnt be, not to maintain that level of cleanliness.
Window, best bet.
Alone. Had to act now.
Riding a cloud of urgency, Haidee threw her legs over the side of the bed and stood. Her knees instantly buckled, too feeble to hold her weight. Not normal. Usually she could awaken and five seconds later be ready to run a marathon. A this-is-the-only-way-to-survive marathon.
This weakness How long had she been out this time?
She lumbered to a shaky stand, trying to find her balance as she replayed the happenings of the last weeks through her head. Shed been overpowered by Defeat, the demon shed been hunting. Hed carted her to what seemed a thousand different locations, trying to lose her boyfriend, Micah, and his crew of four. Hunters, all of them.
Dont think about that right now. Youll lose focus.
Escape. Thats what mattered.
She tripped her way to the window, but just before she tugged on the pane, she stilled. In all their days together, Defeat had never left her side. He hadnt even trusted her to go to the bathroom or shower by herself, but here she was, on her own.
So, where was he now?
Two options. Either the demon had reached his final destination and was confident enough in the surrounding security to venture off on his own, or someone had stolen her from him.
Next thought: if someone had stolen her, they wouldnt have abandoned her. They would have wanted her to know their intentions. Good or bad.
So. Defeat had her where he wanted her. The door and the window were probably wired, so there was a very good chance an alarm would sound the moment she touched either one.
Would an army of demons come gunning for her?
Probably. But she didnt care. She had to try. Giving up wasnt in her nature.
Haidee gripped the warm edge of the panel and shoved. Cursed. Nothing, no movement. Not just because her fingers were as weak as her knees, but because the pane was sealed. Shed been wrong about the cleanliness factor, but at least shed also been wrong about the wire.
Still. Shed have to find another way out. And she would. Shed been in far worse situations than this and survived. Hell, thrived.
Steeling herself, she peered outside to note what shed have to overcome once she left this place. The sun shone brightly, amber rays causing her eyes to tear. She wiped each drop away with the back of her wrist. No girly weaknesses allowed. Her prison rested high on a mountaintop, a barbed gateelectric?stretching skyward and wrapping around the perimeter. Shed encountered similar gates in the past and knew this one would be impossible to climb without inflicting so much damage shed die on the other side. If she even made it over.
Still. There were hundreds of trees, each more lush and green than the last, their limbs stretching in welcome. Those limbs would hide her, their leaves draping her and allowing her to search for a way to bypass that gate. And if there wasnt a way to bypass it, shed forgo cover and climb. Bottom line, death was preferable to staying here and being tortured by a demon.
Okay. So. New plan. Shatter the glass and shimmy to land. Easy.
Yeah. Right. Ive never been that lucky. Haidee twisted and surged through the room, her steps not getting any smoother. Clearly, whatever drug Defeat had repeatedly injected into her vein still poured through her.
Concentrate, woman. The spacious chamber boasted a king-size canopied bed with a white swath overlaying the top and falling to the floor like clouds sprinkled with fairy dust. A floral print love seat and a small glass table perched in a tiny alcove, illuminated by a chandelier weeping with glittering crystal. None of which she could throw.
To the left was a freshly polished desk and matching chair. No paperweights or knickknacks rested on the surface, and the drawers were empty. To the right was a full-length mirror surrounded by an ebony frame. Both were bolted to the wall. Next she tried the door. As shed suspected, it was locked.
Panting, fury blooming, she kicked the bench at the foot of the bed. The heavy wood didnt move an inch. And shit, that hurt! She yelped, hopping and rubbing her stinging toe. Someone had removed her shoes, leaving her barefoot. Something she wished shed noticed before.
Damn, damn, damn. The luxury and wealth here made a mockery of the hovel shed scrimped and saved and finally managed to buy for herself, yet there wasnt a damn thing she could use to aid her escape. What the hell was she going to do?
Come to me!
The tortured, pain-filled voice overwhelmed her senses, the words like licks of fire, somehow heating her up. A voice? Heating her? Could be a hallucination, yeah, but shed seen and experienced all kinds of weirdness throughout her too-long life to simply write this off.
Who said that? She spun, fighting a wave of dizziness and automatically reaching for the blades she kept anchored at her thighs.
Only silence greeted herand she sported no weapons. Defeat had taken her knives, guns and poisons, foolishly thinking hed triumphed. But thats what heitdid. Broke down the opponent through any means necessary, destroying all thoughts of achieving victory, no matter the cost of surrender.
Not that hed broken her.
Hed learn. Haidee was unbreakable.
Come tome Weaker now, riding a tide of despair, but no less urgent.
Not a hallucination, she thought. Couldnt be. That heat So, who was he? A prisoner like her? There was something oddly familiar about his voice, as if shed heard it before and it had made an impression. Yet she couldnt specifically place it. Was he a Hunter? Had they met during training? At one of the thousand debriefings shed attended?
Come
Her ears twitched, and she turned, following the sound of his voice this time, determined to help him, just in case he was a Hunter as she suspected.
Comeplease
There. She frowned. A wall. Was he on the other side? The fact that shed heard him certainly suggested he was nearby.
Slowly she approached the wall. She padded her hands along the smooth, delicate paper, finding no hint of a doorway, and yet Haidee dropped to her knees, gaze zeroing in on a tiny gap between crown molding and floor. A small crack of light seeped through.
No, not light. Not fully. Woven with that stream of light and dancing dust motes was a wisp of black, a writhing phantom, curling up, inching toward her.
With another yelp, she scrambled backward. The black tendril followed her, avoiding her pants and her T-shirt to reach the skin bared at her wrist. But when it touched her, a screech rent the air and thething was sucked back through the crack, returning to the other room.
What. The. Hell?
Had she just met one of the demons, stripped of its human cloak? Was that what tormented the man whod called her? Probably.
Her fight-or-flight instinct screamed flight.
Haidee replied, Screw you, flight! I wont leave a man behind.
Teeth grinding, she scraped her nails over the wallpaper until she created a groove. Then she began ripping, tossing the pieces she extracted over her shoulder. She worked feverishly and finally revealed enough of the wall to find the outline of the door.
No knob. Of course.
Through faint scrape patterns on the floor, she knew the door had once opened from the right. Which meant there would have been a knob at one point. She had only to find where the demons had spackled over the hole its removal would have left behind.
She scraped the center of the right side, cringing at the grating sound she created, until flecks of white chalk began to embed in her nails. Bingo! Clawing harder, deeper, she removed the spackle as fast as she could. Took half an hour to reach the other side, and by then, ice coated her entire body in a chilly sheen.
Her arms trembled violently, her sense of urgency increasing. She was swiftly using up her reservoir of strength and knew she wouldnt be able to stay on her feet much longer.
When she collapsed, she wanted to be outside, the man with her.
Haidee latched her fingers around the edges of the hole and jerked. The door eked open a mere fraction of an inch. Fighting disappointment, she gave another jerkonly to be rewarded with another fraction. Get in the game, Alexander. You can do this. Deep breath in, hold, hold As she exhaled, she tugged so hard she feared her spine would snap. Finally. Real movement. Not much, yet just enough. When the door stopped, it stopped hard. She lost her grip and fell to her ass.
Pinpricks of starlight dotted her gaze, but when the crackling orange and yellow washed away, she focused on the gap shed created. A sweet sense of victory flooded her as she popped to her feet. Her knees rebelled with every step forward, but she didnt pause.
She squeezed her way through the opening, shirt snagging on a sharp protrusion, then ripping as she just kind of fell into the other room. When she balanced, she quickly took stock, readying herself for anything. Another bedroom, this one a mix of light and dark. There was a thrashing man on the only bed, smoke rising from him, undulating.
Her gaze locked on the smoke, and she gasped. It was as beautiful as it was horrifying. An ocean of crumbled black diamonds, punctuated by the occasional sparkle of paired rubieslike eyes, watching, lethally intentand damning flashes of white. Sharp, like fangs.
Come on, come on. Times wasting. For some reason, looking away actually hurt, shooting a pain from her temples to her belly, but she did it, refocusing on the man and closing the distance between them. The moment she reached him, bile scalded her throat, and she nearly lost her last meal. Fruit and bread that Defeat had grudgingly given her. All those injuries
What had the demon done to him? Peeled him? Lit him on fire? He was
Oh, God. Oh, dear God. Eyes widening, she covered her mouth with shaky hands. No. No!
Despite the savaged body, the swollen, nearly unrecognizable face, she knew who writhed before her. Micah. Her boyfriend. Same dark skinwhat remained of itand same muscled frame. Same inky hair he constantly smoothed from his brow. No wonder shed recognized that battered voice.
Oh, God. The demon must have caught him while hed chased after her, trying to save her.
Tears rained down her cheeks, crystallizing into ice as they fell. She almost crumpled into a sobbing heap. Shed dreamed of this man long before shed ever met him. Had loved him long before shed ever met him. Shed thought him a memory that hadnt quite been wiped clean after
Nope. Dont go down that road, either. Those kinds of thoughts would paralyze her as nothing else could. Micah. Shed think only about Micah now. He needed her.
About seven months ago, she discovered he wasnt simply a memory or even a figment of her imagination. He was real. Shed thought, Surely this is a sign were meant to be together. A point further proven when they were both assigned to the same demon-hunting mission in Rome, and then again when hed asked her out, as attracted to her as she was to him. Shed said yes without any hesitation.
Except the real man hadnt lived up to her imaginings.
Thered been no bone-deep connection. No earth-shattering awareness. Shed blamed herself, and rightly so, and had tried to force the bond. Because of her visions, shed knownknewon a level she didnt quite understand that he would make her happy. That he was her future. That he could at last melt the unnatural ice that still swirled inside her.
So shed stayed with him, all the while thinking the connection would soon spark. It never had. And though they were still seeing each other and were totally exclusive, shed always held a little piece of herself back. She hadnt even slept with him yet. But nowconnection. Sizzle. And it was everything shed expected to feel for him.