Beyond the Darkness (6 page)

The grudge was a given. Briggs had wanted him dead since the day he was born. The very fact that he hadn’t ambushed Salvatore before he realized the bastard was lurking around hinted that he had some plot beyond murder.

“What kind of plan?” she demanded.

“That,
cara,
I don’t yet know.”

She stabbed him with a frustrated glare. “Well, thanks a butt-load for dragging me into the middle of your feud.”

Salvatore moved to capture her face between his hands. There was no way he was going to be the villain of the piece.

“Ah, no, I won’t take the entire blame. Caine was the one to drag you and your sisters away from the safety of my lair.”

Her chin tilted to that stubborn angle he was beginning to recognize.

“Oh, yeah? If you hadn’t been messing with our DNA, then he never would have taken us.”

Salvatore studied her breathtaking beauty with a brooding gaze. “I wonder.”

“I’m not sure I want to know.”

“If Briggs is responsible for Caine’s mystical visions, then he’s no doubt the one who convinced the gullible cur to steal you from my nursery,” he said slowly, speaking his vague suspicions out loud.

“Why?”

“Just another question with no answer.”

“Great.”

Salvatore stilled as a familiar scent of granite whispered through the air.

“Damn.”

Her eyes widened. “What is it?”

“The cavalry,” he muttered with a grimace. “Unfortunately.”

“Why unfortunately?”

Salvatore turned his head to watch the drain cover in the middle of the cement floor shoot upward, followed by a small gray form pushing out of the hole.

“Because the only thing worse than being stuck in this cell is being rescued by that.”

Once clear of the drain, Levet gave himself a shake like a wet dog to regain his usual lumpy shape, a smirk curling his lips as he met Salvatore’s resigned frown.

“Oh, Wilma, I’m home.”

Obviously less conflicted about their rescue, no doubt because she had yet to spend any quality time with the annoying pest, Harley hurried toward the edge of the cell, kneeling beside the silver bars.

“Levet,” she breathed, her voice softening in a way that made Salvatore grit his teeth. How the hell had he become the bad guy, while the stunted gargoyle was treated like a long lost friend? “What are you doing here?”

Levet waddled forward, careful to keep a distance from the bars. Even gargoyles were allergic to silver.

“
Ma belle,
you did not believe I would abandon you to a pack of mangy dogs?”

“How did you follow us?”

“Fah.” He waved a clawed hand. “As if I could be outwitted by a mere witch.”

“Stop preening and get us the hell out of here,” Salvatore growled.

“I see that you are in your usual charming mood,” Levet sniffed, carefully reaching through the bars to pat Harley’s hand. “I do not envy you, poor Harley, for being trapped with this foul beast.”

She shot Salvatore a taunting glance. “You have no idea.”

“Levet, do you remember that conversation we had about your wings and whether or not they remain attached to your body?” Salvatore said, his soft tone making the gargoyle take a hasty step backwards.

“Bully.” His tail twitched. “If it were not for your lovely companion, I would leave you here to rot.”

“Just hurry, gargoyle.”

Moving to the door of the cell, Levet studied the lock, his heavy brow lowering.

“Uh-oh.”

“What?”

“The lock has been spelled.”

“I thought that no witch could outwit you?”

Levet managed to look offended. “I can blast through it, but you are always so testy when I blow things up.”

Salvatore muttered a curse. “Perfect.”

Levet tilted back his head and tested the air. “There are six curs in the house and three more outside.” He stabbed Salvatore with a questioning glance. “Can you overpower them?”

“No.”

“Some king you are…” Levet bit off his words, his gaze sliding toward Harley as he belatedly recalled the reason for Salvatore’s lack of power. “Oh.”

“Precisely.”

“What?” Harley frowned. “What’s going on?”

Salvatore ignored his companion as he concentrated on the small gargoyle.

“Can you reach Styx?”

“
Non,
we are too far away. I attempted both Tane and Jagr, but I could not locate either of them. I could perhaps reach your curs.”

“No, I won’t have them rushing here on a suicide mission,” Salvatore said without hesitation.

“Oh, but it is fine for me to risk my neck?”

“Absolutely.”

Levet sent him a raspberry, but before Salvatore could reach through the bars and rip out the gargoyle’s tongue, Harley straightened and sent him an impatient glare.

“Can we just concentrate on getting out of here?” she snapped. “Caine might be a lowly cur, but eventually he’s going to smell a gargoyle in his basement.”

Salvatore swallowed a sigh of resignation. If it was ever discovered he’d been rescued by a pint-sized gargoyle, he’d never live it down.

“Can you blast a hole big enough for us to get through?” he grudgingly demanded.

Levet glanced toward the thick ceiling. “Not without the possibility of the house falling on our heads.”

“Not up,” Salvatore corrected. “Down.”

Levet paused, sniffing the air. “A tunnel.”

“More than one.” Salvatore shifted his gaze to Harley. “Do you know where they lead?”

“No.” She shook her head. “I was never allowed in them.”

“We’ll have to risk it,” he said, knowing even as the words left his mouth he was going to regret this. The gargoyle was a walking disaster. “Levet?”

The tiny demon lifted his hands. “Stand back.”

Wrapping his arms around Harley, he hauled her to the back of the cell, doing his best to protect her from the silver bars, as well as the coming explosion.

“What are you doing?” she muttered. “The silver…”

“Trust me, the silver is the least of our worries,” he said, tucking her head in the hollow of his shoulder.

He had a clarifying instant to recognize just how perfectly she fit against him before the shocking concussion hit, the air filling with a deadly bombardment of silver shards as Levet burst open the cell. Hastily spinning, Salvatore used his back as a shield, grinding his teeth as tiny slivers of silver lodged in his shoulder.

“Holy shit,” Harley breathed.

“Hold on,” Salvatore growled, already knowing what was coming next.

There was another explosion, this one sending powdered cement rather than the deadly silver pelting against him, thank God, and tightening his arms around Harley, he braced himself as the floor beneath them disappeared and they tumbled into the tunnel below.

The jarring impact of the landing wrenched Harley from his arms, and cursing the pain of the silver digging into his flesh, Salvatore crawled forward, using his hands to search for his mate through the thick cloud of dust.

“Harley.” His hands found her sprawled on the hard dirt. “Are you hurt?”

She coughed, sitting up to brush the dirt from her face.

“I’m fine.” The dust began to clear and she glanced up at the gaping hole above. “Levet?”

“I am here,
ma belle.
” With a delicate flap of his wings, Levet stepped off the edge of the hole and floated down, landing beside Harley with a small bow. “Your magnificent knight in shining armor in all his glory.”

Salvatore rose to his feet, inwardly contemplating the pleasure of roasting the gargoyle over an open fire. The damned demon didn’t have a speck of dust on him, while the rescue had left Salvatore covered in a new layer of filth, his back aching from the fall, and a half dozen silver splinters in his shoulder that were already aching.

“Your glorified head is going to be displayed on Caine’s trophy mantel if you don’t get a move on it,” he rasped.

Levet snorted, assisting Harley to her feet. “As if I fear a flea-bitten cur.”

Striding forward, Salvatore knocked away Levet’s hand and pulled Harley close. His logical mind understood he was being ridiculous. His instincts, however, couldn’t bear for any man to be near this woman.

“Caine’s working with a powerful Were who has tapped into black magic,” he snapped.

Levet’s eyes widened in alarm. “
Sacre bleu.
What are you waiting for?”

Salvatore shook his head as the demon scurried down the dark tunnel, his tail twitching in agitation. He turned to regard his companion with a somber expression. Who knew what was waiting for them?

“Stay close,” he warned softly.

Her eyes flared in the darkness. “As if I have a choice.”

“You never did,” he said, leaning forward to steal a short, possessive kiss.

Then, grabbing Harley’s hand, he tugged her to him as they strode after the retreating gargoyle.

Salvatore kept their pace slow but steady as they wound their way through the dark tunnel. He wasn’t running headlong from one enemy, only to blunder blindly into the clutches of another.

Not that his reasonable caution was appreciated by his companions.

At his side, Levet muttered French curses and behind him, Harley kept herself occupied by comparing him to several body parts of animals, none of them complimentary.

What was the point in being king if he couldn’t have a little respect?

Gritting his teeth, Salvatore attempted to ignore the silver that remained imbedded in his flesh, making it impossible for him to shift into wolf form. His wounds wouldn’t heal so long as the silver remained.

And worse, it was another drain on his fading strength.

The very thing he didn’t need.

He intended to make Caine and Briggs pay for every moment of this misery.

In blood.

Levet broke off his inventive curses, glancing over his shoulder. “The curs have entered the tunnel.”

Salvatore’s pace never faltered. “They won’t be the only ones.”

“What do you mean?” Harley demanded.

“If Caine has any sense at all, he’ll have sent a few curs overhead to try and cut us off at the exit.”

“So you have effectively trapped us down here?” she accused, her angry tone unable to hide the fear he could sense in the air.

“Of course not,” he smoothly lied, coming to a halt. The mark of any great leader was convincing others you knew what you were doing, even if you didn’t have a clue. Besides, he didn’t want to listen to any more bitching. “Levet, can you cut off our pursuers?”

The gargoyle sniffed. “My talents are boundless.”

“Can you do it without bringing the entire tunnel down on our heads?”

He lifted his tiny hands toward the ceiling. “We shall see.”

Not entirely reassured, Salvatore grabbed Harley’s arm and pulled her farther down the tunnel.

“You might want to give him some room,” he muttered. Then, as a pulsing shaft of light speared through the darkness, he abruptly turned his head. “And hide your eyes.”

“Not again,” she muttered, the words barely leaving her lips when the explosion sent them both tumbling backwards.

Rolling on top of Harley, Salvatore protected her from the flying debris, relieved that they were the usual rocks and clumps of dirt to be found in a tunnel. He wasn’t in the mood for any surprises.

“Ta-da,” Levet chirped, his wings flapping with pride as Salvatore rose to his feet and pulled Harley upright. They all silently studied the seemingly solid wall of dirt that now blocked the tunnel behind them. Then, just when Salvatore hoped that something had actually gone right, Levet glanced toward the low ceiling. “Oops.”

“Oops?” Salvatore growled.

“Maybe we should hurry.”

Salvatore heaved a resigned sigh. “Damn.”

As one, they turned to sprint forward, no longer concerned about what might lie ahead, just as dirt began showering down on their heads.

The dash to stay ahead of the cave-in lasted nearly two miles, but at last the ceiling once again became stable, and better still, the tunnel widened and branched into two separate passageways.

Salvatore came to a halt, waiting for Levet to skid to a stop at his side. Despite his perfect vision in the dark, this cramped and dank place was more suited to a gargoyle than a Were.

“What do you sense?” he demanded.

Levet sniffed the air and pointed his hand to the right. “This tunnel has an opening thirty or forty feet past the curve.” There was more sniffing. He pointed to the left. “That one…”

“What?” Salvatore prompted.

“It continues on, but I cannot tell more than that. It has not been used for several years.”

Salvatore hesitated only a moment before coming to his decision.

“Can you get past any curs who will be waiting?”

“If you are attempting to insult me…”

“Can you do it?”

Before Levet could answer, Harley grabbed his arm and jerked him around to meet her scowl.

“Just hold on. What are you planning?”

“We have to split up.”

“Split up? Are you kidding?”

“If Levet can get past the guards, he can contact Styx and let him know we’re in trouble.”

She blinked in surprise and Salvatore smiled wryly. Hell, she couldn’t be any more shocked than he was. Before this moment, he would have laughed at the suggestion he would deliberately seek out the leeches for help. So far as he was concerned, the only good vamp was one who stayed in his grave, where he belonged.

Unfortunately, the suspicion that Briggs was still alive changed everything. Lunatic curs he could handle. A Were siphoning black magic meant that he had to swallow his considerable pride.

The vampires were the only ones he could trust to keep Harley safe.

“The vampire?” she muttered.

Salvatore grimaced. “As much as it pains me to admit it, we’re going to need his help.”

“You’re going to use the vampires to kill Briggs?”

“For now, all I want is to get away from Caine and his goons,” he hedged.

She tried to hide her shiver. “Then shouldn’t we be trying to get out of these tunnels?”

“I don’t doubt we could fight our way past the curs, but they’ll be right on our tails. I prefer to slip away unnoticed.”

Her scowled remained. “What of Levet?”

“The curs have no interest in a gargoyle, and once he comes out the curs will be expecting us to be behind him. Hopefully, it will take some time for them to figure out we aren’t with him.”

She gnawed her bottom lip, trying to find the flaws in his logic.

“Have you considered the possibility that the tunnel might be a dead end?” she at last demanded. “We’ll be trapped.”

Salvatore slowly smiled. “Trust me.”

She snorted. “Not in a million years.”

“We’ll see.” He grabbed Harley’s chilled hand and glanced toward the silent demon at his side. “Go, Levet.”

Tossing his hands in the air, the tiny demon stomped his way down the dark tunnel.

“Go, Levet. Come, Levet. Sit, Levet,” he muttered, making sure his voice carried back to Salvatore. “You do know I am not the dog around here?”

With a roll of his eyes, Salvatore tugged Harley in the opposite direction.

“
Cristo.
I hope one of the damned curs eats him.”

“You aren’t very grateful,” she predictably protested. The damned gargoyle possessed an unfathomable appeal to the fairer sex. Color him baffled. “He did rescue us.”

“I will give you anything you desire if you keep that our little secret.”

She laughed. “Is the big bad wolf embarrassed to be saved by the itty bitty gargoyle?”

“That itty bitty gargoyle could drive a perfectly reasonable demon over the edge,” he grumbled.

Thankfully, Harley was smart enough to let the conversation drop.

“Always presuming we live long enough to get out of these tunnels, what do you intend to do?” Harley demanded.

Salvatore slowed his pace as the passageway narrowed, batting aside the thick cobwebs.

“First I intend to get you somewhere safe,” he said, too distracted to consider his words. Stupid mistake. “Then I’ll deal with Briggs.”

“Ah. So you intend to unload me on the vampires so the manly man can take care of business without having to tend to the helpless womenfolk?”