Lords of the Underworld Bundle (89 page)

W
HILE A WARRIOR FOR THE GODS
, Reyes had battled heavenly creatures now only whispered about in books and fables. Cerberus—a three-headed dog thought to have stood watch at the gates of hell. Chimera—human/animal hybrids. Harpies—half woman, half demented bird. All had left him bleeding and in agony. Back then, pain had not been a pleasure.

His first few years in ancient Greece, the demon had churned inside him, pulling his strings, leading him to slaughter and maim. When the humans finally started fighting back, war had reigned, destruction in every corner. He'd lost limbs, regrown them only to lose them again, had nearly been decapitated several times. And yet he had never experienced fear as potent as this.

Danika would soon be face-to-face with Aeron. A man whose demon urged him to kill her with the same kind of relentless persuasion that always plagued Reyes. A man who had clearly tried to gnaw his way through his own wrist to free himself of the chains that bound him. Thankfully, he'd only gotten through the first layer of muscle when Reyes and Lucien arrived.

But what if Aeron managed to slip free while Danika was nearby? What if his strength increased exponentially and he snapped his wrists off in a blink, launching forward, teeth bared—
Stop!

Reyes wanted to sweep Danika up and carry her away from the fortress, but she wanted answers, so he would get them for her.

It was that simple. Her wants came before his own.

He descended a flight of stairs to the lowest level of the dungeon, Danika behind him and Lucien behind her. They journeyed from homey to slightly cared-for to completely neglected. The stone walls were crumbling and broken bits coated the floor, digging into the soles of his boots. Reyes could not even tell if he walked upon wood planks or marble, the rocks and dust were piled so high. His guilt returned, increased.
How can I treat my friend this way?

So what that Aeron, the real Aeron, didn't want to kill the women. So what that Aeron yearned for death. The man didn't deserve to suffer like this, bound and locked away as if he were disposable. In a place Anya had proclaimed even gloomier than the godly prison Tartarus.

Damn the gods for reducing Aeron to a killer and Reyes to a jailer!

Thankfully, none of the other warriors were around. They were too busy packing and gathering supplies for the upcoming trip to Rome. A trip Reyes wasn't sure he would take. He wanted to find Pandora's box and defeat the Hunters once and for all, but he didn't want to cart Danika all over the world.

She might run again. He might not be able to find her. The Hunters might decide she was better off dead and come after her.

More and more, he was beginning to think his existence depended on hers. He didn't understand it, didn't like it, but there it was. He was still amazed that every time he neared her, he and the demon both calmed.

Danika coughed.

He rounded a corner, tossing a glance over his shoulder. She was waving a hand in front of her face. Dust sparkled around her hair like a halo. Some of her tresses had been washed of the dye, revealing a tantalizing glimpse of blond. First time he'd seen her, he remembered thinking her hair was like the sun, bright and radiant. “Want to return to my room?” he asked. “I would be very unhappy if you sickened.”

She offered him an exaggerated frown, an expression of dry amusement. “I coughed. I'll live. Keep going.”

A man's irritated grumblings echoed off the walls. “I don't want to play Wrists-and-Blood anymore. I told you, stop.”

At least Aeron was not screaming.

Reyes turned another corner and barred cages came into view. He stopped abruptly, holding out his arm so that Danika would not pass him. For a split second, her breasts pushed into his forearm, soft and full, and her damp hair slapped at his skin.

He swallowed a curse; she stumbled backward as though she'd been shoved. His entire body suddenly felt engulfed by white-hot flames. Her scent filled his nose, thunderstorms and innocence.

“Stay here.” The raspiness of his voice embarrassed him. He didn't mind if others—and even Danika herself—knew he desired her. There was no hiding that fact. What he did mind was anyone knowing the
intensity
of that desire. The knowledge could be used against him.

“Why can't I go farther?” she asked.

He was pleased to note her voice shook.

“I want to see him first, discover if his mood has changed since I left him.” And check to see if his wrists had healed and were no longer in danger of detaching, but Reyes didn't add that part. “If he's relatively calm, you may approach the bars. You will not enter the cell at any time. Understand?”

“Yes.”

“You may ask him questions, but do not insult him and incite his…wrath.”

“Okay! I get it. Stay back, ask nicely. Just get on with it already.”

He didn't. He remained in place. “When you see him, do not be afraid. I will not allow anything bad to happen to you.”

“Yeah, and tomorrow I'll count to infinity. Twice. If you don't move this along, I'm going to snap.”

Reyes peered over at Lucien, who was watching him with a hard expression. “Stay with her. Please.”

At that, Danika growled. He didn't think she was angry that he wanted her guarded and didn't trust her to take care of herself. She truly had reached the breaking point and needed answers.

Lucien nodded.

Reyes pivoted away from them. More than he wanted to take his next breath, he wanted to look at Danika, to reassure her, comfort her. Hold her. But one glance at her, and he would not be able to stop himself from doing
all
of those things. He would not be able to leave her.

Fisting a blade in one hand and the cell key in the other, he unlocked the door. The hinges creaked as the metal parted. Creaked again as he closed the door. Aeron crouched against the far wall, steeped in shadows. He ceased mumbling the moment he spied Reyes.

Reyes studied his friend, hoping to find signs of the warrior he'd once been, not the monster he'd become. Eyes—still dilated and hungry. Teeth—still sharpened and bared. Still a monster, then, but also a man Reyes loved. The tattoos that covered Aeron from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet were familiar.

Reyes didn't know why Aeron had tattooed himself with colorful depictions of things he probably wished he'd never done: killing, mutilating, destroying. Reyes had never asked, and Aeron had never volunteered the information. Some things were simply too painful to talk about.
That
he knew very well.

“Leave,” Aeron barked.

The command was not slurred or layered with the voice of his demon, and Reyes blinked in surprise. Had the warrior's bloodlust faded, even slightly?

“You are lucid now, I see.” A glance at the bound man's wrists, and Reyes saw that they were mostly healed. “You were crazed when Lucien and I appeared in the cave. I'm sorry if I hurt you trying to get you here.”

“Free me. I have a job to do.”

“Two weeks ago, you were grateful to be restrained. You hated what you'd been ordered to do and begged me to kill you.”

“Grateful no longer.” Aeron shifted, his legs inching closer to his chest. “Those women need to die.”

No, the bloodlust had not left him. “So they still live? All four?” Tension radiated from Danika and enveloped him. There was distance between them, yes, but still he felt that blistering tension.

Guilt flashed in Aeron's eyes. Guilt—both beautiful and terrible. Beautiful because it meant Aeron was still inside that mind, still fighting. Terrible because it probably meant one—or more—of the women were already dead.

Reyes's skin pulled tight against his bones, and he held back a disappointed groan. He'd desperately yearned for good news. Now, he could only pray there was a survivor. “Aeron. Tell me about the women.”

Silence.

“Please,” he said, ready to beg if necessary.

Again, silence.

No, not silence, he realized a moment later. In the background, there was a soft but menacing growl.

“Answer him!” Danika shouted.

Aeron stilled, even stopped breathing. His eyes glazed over, glowing with crimson rage that overshadowed any hint of guilt. Then, without warning, he sprang forward. His wings popped from the slits in his back, black gossamer that ripped away the remaining tatters of his shirt and expanded across the entire cell. Their razor-sharp points scratched at the walls.

Reyes held his ground. Aeron wanted to lash out, so he would allow Aeron to lash out at him. Better him than Danika.

The chain around Aeron's neck jerked taut, placing the warrior inches from Reyes's face. So close a sulfur-laced breeze caressed him. He'd been so near hell, he would reek of its scent for days. Reyes almost wished his demon had not remembered how to get there, allowing him to bury Aeron in the first place.

“Girl,” Aeron shouted. His hands snaked around Reyes's neck and squeezed tight. “Want her.”

“Mine,” Reyes managed to push past his lips. “Tell me about her family.”

“Die!”

“Tell me.”

He heard Danika gasp. Thought he heard Lucien shout a terse warning.

“Tell me.” The plea was barely audible. He dropped his knife, unwilling to use it on his friend to save himself, and clutched Aeron's wrists. If this was needed to get answers out of Aeron, this he would allow.

But all too soon, the feeling of Aeron's hands squeezing tighter and tighter, harder and harder, became too good. The pain was too intoxicating. His demon purred happily.

More.

“She must die,” Aeron snarled.

“She's…innocent.”

“Doesn't matter.”

“Once it would have.” Before Reyes could add anything else, his mind fogged, dizziness rushing through him like the ocean to the shore.

You have to protect Danika.
As he pried Aeron's hands off him, his windpipe shattered, a thousand needle pricks in his throat. Oxygen could not get through. Blood laced with the bone shards and swept them into his stomach; along the way, they cut everything they encountered.

This was going to kill him. For a little while, anyway.

His eyes closed in bliss, but his mind screamed in denial.

 

“H
ELP HIM
!” Danika shouted to Lucien. She gripped the prison's bars, cold all the way to her soul. Colder than ever before. Right now, she couldn't see Reyes. Not even a glimpse. Aeron, the bastard, had him wrapped in those lethal black wings. “Help him.” None of her instructors had prepared her for demons attacking other demons, and she didn't know what to do. “Please.”

“He'll survive.” Lucien withdrew a gun from the waist of his pants, checked the magazine.

“No one could survive that,” she said, eyeing the weapon. Her first thought was that he meant to shoot her. Her second, that he would have done so already if that had been his plan.

“Aeron, let him go,” Lucien called.

“No!” the warrior roared.

A moment passed. Lucien stiffened, muttered, “What
is
that thing?” and withdrew a bullet from his pocket. He slid the lethal ball into the gun's chamber.

Danika was shaking violently, couldn't stop. “What if you accidentally hit Reyes?” She wanted Reyes…what? Alive, yes. Unhurt, definitely. He had protected her two weeks ago, had taken the brunt of Aeron's rage today, and now she would protect him. At the moment, he was her only lifeline. At least, that's what she told herself. That had to be the reason he suddenly mattered to her.

“As I said, he'll survive.”

Would he, though? He was immortal, he was a demon, but was he completely immune to strangulation and bullets? Every time she'd seen Reyes, he'd been cut and bleeding. Clearly, he could be injured. And what if Aeron attempted to cut off his head while he was incapacitated? Stefano had told her that decapitation was the surest way to kill an immortal permanently. Tacking on that “surest” meant there were
other
ways to kill them.

Her wild gaze locked on Aeron, who most likely still had a death grip on Reyes. The enraged warrior was unmoving now, head bowed, no sound emerging from him. Oh, God. What did that mean? “Just—just let me distract him. I'll get him away from Reyes,
then
you can shoot Aeron.”

Hinges creaked as she opened the barred door.

Lucien grabbed her arm, stopping her. “The gun isn't for Aeron.” He motioned to a corner of the cell with a tilt of his chin.

Danika followed the line of his vision. There, in the corner, was a thin, waist-high…thing. Her eyes widened in shock. Green scales covered its naked body. Its teeth were long like sabers, saliva dripping from them, and its ears were pointed. Bright red eyes glowed as Aeron's had glowed just before he'd attacked Reyes.