“Or what?” she asked, meeting his gaze evenly.
“Don’t push.”
She tried to focus on anything but the desire uncoiling too fast inside her. He covered her head-to-toe, and each nerve begged for movement. For release. “I don’t need to be a smart-ass.”
“Sure you do.” His gaze finally gentled. “You’re a small human surrounded by vampires who think you’re going to save them all. The smart-ass attitude reassures them and keeps you from spiraling into fear.”
She blinked. Twice. How was it possible he could see her so clearly when they’d only met in person once across a deep cavern? Nobody knew her that well. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” The rain continued to batter the sand around them, while the tree boughs protected them for now. “You lied to me.” As hard as she tried, she failed to keep a tendril of hurt from her words.
He sighed, his gaze softening. “I didn’t lie. I just didn’t tell you I’m a demon.”
“Half-demon,” she muttered.
His smile broke out, a flash of white against his bronze skin. “Half-demon.” The hold on her hands relaxed. “My uncle ordered me not to tell you, but I wouldn’t have anyway.”
She frowned. He didn’t trust her? Hurt competed with desire inside her. “Why not?” she whispered.
He lifted an eyebrow. “Because you would’ve told the king, and he would’ve figured out a way to use it to his advantage. Like I would in his place.”
True. Janie flexed her hands. Nope. Still couldn’t move. “Did you know about my uncle Jase?” she asked.
“No.” Sympathy twisted Zane’s lip. “I was fighting in Iceland for years and had no clue Suri had taken your uncle or was torturing him. Once I did find out, I tried to discover where, but Suri kept the truth from me. I am sorry.”
So perhaps Zane and Suri weren’t on the same page. Relief helped Janie to focus. She hoped he was telling her the truth. Her body relaxed, and his pressed her harder into the sand, flushing desire through her again. Could she trust him? “How did you get the scar on your face?”
He blinked. “Suri. Training with him, was . . . difficult.”
Sympathy softened her. “I’m sorry.” She didn’t want to let emotion rule her, but she felt so much for him it was difficult to maintain logic. “What’s your plan, Zane?” she asked.
He glanced toward the tree line and frowned. “My plan is in place and includes you staying out of the way for now.”
“Out of the way?” she spit. “I’d love to stay out of the way, but that’s impossible. Either let me in on your plan, or get the hell out of my way.” If he wasn’t going to help her, then he was part of the problem. “Make a choice.”
His focus returned to her. “Just because our people are enemies, doesn’t mean we have to fight each other.”
She shook her head, sand spraying. “You don’t really believe that, do you?”
He exhaled, his shoulders dropping. “No. Anything I tell you, you’ll tell your uncle.”
Of course. Her family came first, and they wanted to end the war. “Ditto.”
“I know,” he said softly, his gaze going to her mouth.
Her lips tingled. Just from one little glance. “Zane?”
He shook his head, a low growl rumbling from his chest. “This is madness.”
Her breath caught. “What is?”
He blinked and slowly, so damn slowly, lowered his mouth to hers. “This,” he whispered against her.
Yeah. True, crazy, and untamed. Without thinking, she allowed her tongue to dart out and lick his lips. Yum.
His chest hitched, and a new tension spiraled around them. “Belle.” A question—a warning.
She did it again.
He growled again, and his mouth enclosed hers. Warmth, fire, and male surrounded her, plunged, and went deep.
She opened her mouth, taking all of him, feeling every inch of his body covering hers. His mouth consumed her with a primal force that both ignited and startled her. Hard and pulsing, his arousal pressed against the apex of her legs in an overwhelming demand.
Her entire body burned for him, and she kissed him back with everything she had.
His shoulders stiffened, and he broke away.
No!
He lifted his head toward the tree line, his focus cutting hard. “I have to go.” Desire, lust, and something all male darkened his tone. Rising to his knees, he slowly stood and tugged her to her feet. “Stay out of trouble until I figure things out.” He released her and stepped back.
She glanced toward the quiet tree line, her body on fire, her mind fuzzing. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know.” He leaned down to brush sand off her legs.
Warmth vibrated to her core, and she forced down a moan. Then she glanced around and shook her head to regain reality. “I’m surprised Kalin didn’t jump in here.” Ever since Kalin had bitten her in a dream world, he’d been able to come and go at will.
Zane frowned. “Me too. Since he’s not here, he must be busy, which is a bad sign.”
Yeah, it was. She tilted her head and cleared her throat. “You’re not forgiven for lying to me.”
His instant grin reminded her of better times, of when he had been young and rather carefree. “Of that, I have no doubt.”
“Are we going to find peace together?” she asked, hope weakening her knees as she tried one last time while trying to calm her rioting body.
Regret filled his eyes. “I’d like to find peace.” Turning on his heel, he strode toward the tree line, stopping to glance over his shoulder. “Be safe, Belle.” With that, he disappeared behind two pine trees.
That wasn’t exactly a yes.
Chapter 5
Zane stood on the balcony, his body rioting with a hard-on strong enough to punch through concrete. If they hadn’t been in the dream world, he might not have been able to hold back.
Janie wanted him as badly as he craved her, but now was a bad time.
A seriously bad time.
Plus, the first time he took her, he wanted it to be real. She needed to make the decision facing the real him and not a dream-world mellowed-out version of the killer he’d become. Even so, one more minute, and he might have taken what she’d offered on that sandy beach.
But something had alerted him to head home, and he lifted his head to the moon-filled night.
Power. A different sort of power hinted on the breeze, bringing a tension that tightened his gut. No fucking way.
Turning on his heel, he jogged into his quarters and through the old whorehouse, reaching Suri’s door within seconds. A wave of power slammed into him, and he gasped.
Schooling his face into calm lines, he nudged open the door. Suri faced a Kurjan across a battered desk. A Kurjan with long black hair tipped with red.
Kalin stood and turned to face him. “We finally meet in person and not in a dream world or an underground cavern surrounded by vampires.”
It took every ounce of Zane’s control to keep his composure. Just the tension in the room from the Kurjan made his fingers itch to hold a blade. He looked beyond Kalin to his uncle. “What in the hell are you doing?” Stepping inside, he closed the door.
Kalin laughed, flashing incredibly sharp canines. “Peace makes for strange bedfellows, demon.”
Zane glanced up about four inches to Kalin’s face. At six-foot-six, Zane didn’t look up to many people, but Kurjans were a tall race. “We going to bed, Kurjan?”
Kalin’s eyes morphed from odd green to a flashy purple. “You’d be ruined for all other beings.” His blood-red lips twisted. “Even Janet.”
Explosions detonated inside Zane at the mention of her name. Going on instinct, he yanked free his knife and lunged toward his enemy. They impacted with a boom louder than the thunder in Janie’s dream world.
Papers flew and a stapler ricocheted into the window as they collided against the desk. The antique oak smashed to the ground, splintering into pieces.
Kalin punched the knife out of Zane’s grip, following up with a shot to the jaw.
Zane’s vision fuzzed, and he struck out, nailing Kalin in the nose. A desperate fury raced through Zane, and the need to kill ignited the beast within him. Blood arced and burned Zane’s neck as he continued throwing punches.
“Stop it!” Suri yelled, kicking shards of wood out of his way.
Rough hands, tons of them, yanked Zane off Kalin, who continued to punch.
Zane struggled furiously, swearing in multiple languages at once. The Kurjan had to die. A treaty between demons and Kurjans would mean a disaster for Janie, without question.
His uncle cocked a gun. “You want to get shot?”
Zane stopped fighting and shrugged off the three demon soldiers who’d stopped him. “Who the fuck are you, Suri?” he asked. Demons held Kurjans lower than beetle shit, and his uncle went and aligned himself with them?
Kalin shoved rubble out of his way and rose to his impressive height, taking a moment to dust off the medals at his breast. “We’re not done here, demon.”
Zane snarled through a busted lip. “Name the time and place, asshole.”
Kalin wiped blood off his face. “Don’t worry. Our time will come.” He turned and bowed to Suri. “The deal stands. Good day.”
As simple as that, the ruler of the Kurjan nation sauntered out of the demon’s office. The three demon soldiers followed him.
Zane spit blood onto the floor. “I never thought I’d see the day a demon conspired with a lowly Kurjan.” His uncle was a bastard, it was true, but even bastards had standards.
Suri eyed his destroyed desk. “I never thought my sister would whore herself out to a vampire. Life often takes unexpected turns.”
Zane’s hands clenched, despite his shredded knuckles. “Stop talking about my mother like that.”
Suri lifted a thick eyebrow. “Or what? You finally going to try to kill me?”
Zane turned and slowly surveyed his uncle. His mind spun and then cleared. “We both know I could.”
Suri scoffed. “Bullshit. I’m twice the fighter you are.” He kicked kindling out of the way. “Besides, if anything happens to me, your mother and brothers will instantly pay the price. I do have my safeguards in place.”
“Where is my mother?” Zane asked quietly. The day was fast approaching when he’d have to torture Suri for the information, but right now too many of Suri’s followers surrounded them.
“Safe for now.” Suri shrugged. “Have you made contact with Janet Kayrs?”
“No. Apparently she’s pissed I’m a demon and won’t enter the dream world.” Zane kept his gaze level as he lied. “Not that I’m surprised.”
Suri smirked. “The vampires hate you because you’re part-demon, the demons despise you because you’re part-vampire, and the Kurjans just want you dead. You’re lucky I’ve provided you shelter all these years.”
“Why have you?” Zane asked, not bothering to react to the truth of the rest of the statement. The reality of his birth had been dealt with long ago.
“Your gifts with the chosen one,” Suri said. “You are about to become very handy.”
Chills cascaded down Zane’s back. “What did you promise the Kurjans?”
“None of your damn business.” Suri reached down to an orphaned desk drawer to grab another laser gun. “Your only concern is keeping your mother alive, and don’t you forget it.”
Zane hadn’t been able to forget that fact since the first day he’d arrived at demon headquarters. “I deserve to know the plan with the Kurjans. Did you promise them Janie? If so, in exchange for what?” He couldn’t get his mind wrapped around that possibility.
Suri shrugged. “It matters little what I promised Kalin, although I did say we’d fetch Janet Kayrs for them. Once I get what I want, all deals are off the table.”
“What do you want?” Zane whispered.
“This whole damn mess to be over, and for the vampires and Kurjans to go back to killing each other off without involving us.” Suri straightened his perfectly pressed uniform. “For decades, even before Janet Kayrs was born, the doom attached to her life hung over our heads. The Seers are never wrong, and they’ve envisioned a destroyed world if she’s allowed to fulfill her destiny.”
Zane reached down to retrieve his knife to sheathe in his boot. “Changed how?”
“Nobody knows, and that’s the crux of the problem. Change for immortals is never good, and there’s a sense of the dystopian to the visions. Can’t you sense the danger?” Suri’s eyes flashed black and hard. “If you were a true demon, a real leader, you would instinctively feel the weight of disaster in the very oxygen around us.”
The spit dried up in Zane’s mouth. “The Seers are wrong, and I don’t want to lead the fucking demons. Stop threatening me, stop threatening my family, and let us be.”
Suri cracked his massive knuckles. “To think I had such high hopes for you.”
Zane shook his head. “I care little for your hopes. What do you want?”
Suri chuckled, and the sound coated the roam with invisible oil. “You’re a killer, plain and simple.
The Ghost.
So kill.”
Zane’s blood heated until the liquid burned his veins. “My destiny isn’t to kill Janet Kayrs.”
“No?” Suri kicked a mangled piece of desk out of his way. “The choice is, of course, yours.”
“Meaning?” Zane asked softly.
Suri smiled, fangs glinting. “Your mother or your whore. One will die by the end of the week.”
A blade weighed heavily against Zane’s calf, almost pulsing with the need to slice into his uncle. “I’ve expected that ultimatum for a while now. But it does beg the question, if you want me to kill Janie, why make a deal with Kalin and the Kurjans?”
“Plan B.” Suri glanced pointedly down at Zane’s leg. “I’m not entirely sure you won’t sacrifice your mother.”
Zane’s head snapped up, rage heating his breath. He rushed across the desk, grabbed Suri by the shirt, and pummeled him against the wall. Old plaster rained down, covering them both. “I will never sacrifice my mother.” Zane leaned in close, surprised he had to look down a couple of inches. “Besides, as I recall, my mother has kicked your ass more than once.”
Suri flushed. “Your memory is faulty.”
Zane’s fangs lengthened as memories rushed through him. Once, during training, Suri had beaten Zane so badly he couldn’t see for several days. Felicity, although petite, had taken Suri down in a bundle of parental fury. Female demons were rare, notoriously tiny, and fucking deadly. “You’re afraid of her, aren’t you?” he asked.
Suri growled. “No.”
“Liar.” Zane leaned in even closer, pleased to see Suri’s pupils dilate. “Female demons are dangerous as hell and stronger than their counterparts. Why else would you have her sequestered by soldiers away from here. Coward.”
Suri slammed both hands against Zane’s chest and shoved him across the room. Zane’s shoulders hit the wall, knocking in old wooden beams. Pain flared along his spine. Sometimes he forgot how much power his uncle leashed daily.
“Watch yourself, boy.” Suri yanked down his uniform top. “We both know I could end you in a second. In addition, the fact remains that I have your mother contained and surrounded. The moment I give the order, she dies. So, nephew, you have one week to figure out how to end Janet Kayrs in that dream world you share.”
Zane loped into a run through the old mining town, jogging past a ramshackle saloon fronted by one sagging door. If he concentrated, he could still hear the clatter of horses and bustle of women’s skirts. Even as he tried to calm his thoughts, fear punched him in the gut. He’d lost contact with both of his brothers as well as his mother and could only hope Suri hadn’t ordered their deaths yet.
That time was coming.
Suri allowed Zane’s family to live only to use them against him, and the second the mess with Janie was straightened out, Zane and his family would be of no further use to Suri. In fact, their royal blood made them a threat to the demon leader and his rule, which meant they needed to be eliminated.
So Suri could rule his fiefdom alone.
Crazy bastard.
Zane exited the town and increased his pace to wind through a barely there dirt road through the forest. How many dreams had been lost in the old town? How many loves had been sacrificed for silver and gold?
For years he’d sacrificed, doing Suri’s deadly bidding. Not even his brothers knew all the terrible things he’d done. Now Suri demanded the ultimate sacrifice on Zane’s part, and he couldn’t do it. He kept running through the chilly night to prevent himself from jumping back into a dream world where Janie would be warm and willing. There had to be a scenario where both his mother and Janie Belle lived through the week, but as hard as he tried, he couldn’t find a plan.
Footsteps echoed in his wake, and he kept pace until Nikolaj Veis reached his side.
“Running from or to something?” Nick asked evenly, falling into step.
Zane glanced at the scarred soldier dressed in sweats and a ripped T-shirt. The Veis whom Zane had known a decade ago wouldn’t have been caught dead in damaged clothing. “Nice shirt.”
Nick shrugged. “What else would one wear to a midnight run?”
Zane grinned. “Good point.”
“We could just spar, if you wish. I’ve missed sparring with you.”
Zane nodded. For years, they’d trained, and the older demon had often tried to find some sort of protection for Zane from Suri. But it had been ten years, and now Zane and Nick stood as equals. “Neither one of us needs more violence.” Zane ducked a branch. “Was the witch worth it?” he asked.
Nick jumped over a boulder. “Absolutely. What’s ten years of hard labor and exile compared to the fire of a witch?”
Zane’s feet pounded rhythmically on the path. “What exactly were you doing conspiring with Simone Brightston of the Coven Nine?”
“Have you seen the woman?” Nick said dryly.
Zane stretched to hurdle a mass of huckleberry bushes. “Yes, and I agree that she’s a stunning witch. But you helped her with land use matters in Russia against Suri’s interests, and I’ve never figured out why.” He’d missed his friend when he’d been sent away. Frustration clenched Zane’s hands into fists.
“Simone and I have a history . . . one I don’t want to discuss right now.” Nick shoved a small pine tree out of his way. “As for Russia, let’s just say the witches have a problem with our land holdings there.”
Zane slowed to a lope and then a walk. He’d already surmised Nick and Simone had once been lovers. But the land dispute didn’t make sense. “Russia? They did ask for the territory during demands yesterday.”
“I’m sure,” Nick said, stopping to twist his torso.
Zane leaned back against a white pine, wondering how well he really knew Nick. “What’s in Russia?”
“Russians?” Nick rolled on his feet. “Witches and their issues are irrelevant to us right now. Focus.”
Zane scratched his jaw. “Is there an
us
?”
Nick stilled. “What are you asking me?”
Zane eyed the dark face of someone he’d once considered a friend. But years of hard labor often destroyed a man, especially when demons designed the labor. They hadn’t talked in too much time, and even now, Nick might be desperately loyal to Suri. Demons lived for subterfuge. “Are you broken?” Zane asked.
Fire flashed through Nick’s gray eyes. Muscles rippled along his arms and broad chest. “No. Are you?”
“No.” Zane’s shoulders settled into place.
“Well then.” Nick studied him. “I wonder where this leaves us.”
Everything in Zane wanted to trust his old friend, but he’d learned young that trust could be bought. “Can you get into the main control room?” Zane asked.