So convicted with what she
was saying, she didn’t notice another dark figure walking behind
the tall woman. “I won’t have to take you from anything, darling.
See, I brought him to you. And once Talon is awake, he will get to
see the woman he loves more than anything in this world and the
next,
die
. At the
hands of her previous lover.” For the first time, the woman showed
emotion other than a calm knowingness. Her hands clapped together
and she smiled with giddiness. “Oh, this is better than those human
TV shows!”
“
Wake up,
Talon.”
The calling reached him deep. It was
like a floating note around his head, like magic and beauty all
wrapped in one. His eyes opened on their own. The first things he
saw, he could barely make out. His eyes were blurred from his
sleep, and for a second he swore he was still with Jamie, but at a
hotel or something.
Except, they weren’t even in a room
with a bed. Or a naked Jamie.
He searched with frantic eyes for her.
There was no one around him, not even the woman who had called to
him. The ground he was laying on was cold and hard, like marble but
rough. There wasn’t enough light for him to see past his feet, and
the more focused he became, the more de ja vu ran over him like a
semi-truck.
He moved his arms, trying to stop the
wave of coldness that ran over him.
When he heard the shackles, though, he
froze. And almost screamed with inhuman rage. Wrapped around his
ankles was familiar chains that linked to were linked to the wall
behind him. A small, barred window was placed neatly in the center
of the room, with not even the light of the moon to show him
much.
A frost had shrouded the room, and
specks of snow were lightly dancing their way in front of his face.
Only the light of the stars gave him a sliver of vision, and even
that was barely enough.
There was a weight around
his neck…his
bare
neck.
Chains rung with a metallic clang as
he brought his arms up to his chest, feeling for
clothing.
There was none.
For possibly the second
time in his life, tears stung his eyes and he realized that, once
again, he was trapped. His head fell back as his roar of fury
echoed through the room, completely desperation. He couldn’t be
here, not again.
Not
again
.
“
Auro,” he shouted, body
flinging into the air, straining against the chains that were wound
against his body. “Get the fuck in here! Face me, you coward,” he
snarled, feeling a rage so deep that his body became as hot as
fire, blazing and destroying. A small, pleasurable pain came then,
in his mouth. Fangs exposed, he bared his teeth in the direction of
the door and roared again, helpless.
There was no response, not even a
malicious chuckle. No, all he heard was his own ragged breathing
and short, gasping sounds. He wondered what they were until he
realized that it was him. Talon fell limply to the ground, eyes
burning even worse until he felt the small trickle of the
tear.
Jamie…
God, what had he done with her? If he
had Talon, he sure as hell had Jamie. And because of his brother,
he could only imagine what he was doing with her…
“
God damn you,
Auro!
” he bellowed, punching his fist into
the wall with helpless rage. When Talon got his hands around that
bastard’s neck, he was going to kill him…
“
I’m sorry to say this, but
Auro is no longer with us,” came a smooth and golden voice from
thin air. His head snapped up in the direction of the voice, chest
tight with a painful burn.
“
Where the fuck is Jamie,”
he snarled to the voice, eyes flickering around to see where it had
come from. Why did it sound so familiar? He knew he’d heard it
before, and not just when it had called him to wake up.
“
Right here,
warrior.”
Suddenly, the room was washed in light
and there they were.
Jamie, staring at him with terror in
her eyes. Chris, her bastard ex-boyfriend, and…an image from the
past. Amenia. Amena’s twin sister. She was in the robes that he had
seen her in last, her hair was exactly as long as it had been
before, and her eyes were a soulless black. Something that only
happened when death was following her, ready to sink its greedy
fangs into the next damned victim.
“
Witch…” he breathed, and
only a second later he was shouting, trying to break away from the
wall. “I’m going to kill you, you fucking
bitch
. Let Jamie go!”
“
And how are you going to
kill me when you won’t even have the strength?”
Chris stared at him with one of the
most pleased smiles in the world. He reached over and yanked her by
her hair, causing her to cry out and fall against him. Talon stared
at him, letting his hate flow between them. The cold stare was
enough to make him back up, but he tightened his hold on her and
once again yanked on her hair, pulling her farther back.
“
The second I get my hands
on you, I’m going to drain you dry and throw you carcass into
hell,” he snarled, chains rattling as he twisted his wrists, about
to just crush the damn things so he could get to Jamie.
“
What would be the fun in
that?” she asked softly, gliding closer to Jamie. Her hands, like
snow covered twigs, reached up to caress her cheek. Jamie snapped
at her, almost taking off her fingers. Talon growled. “It would be
much more enlightening to watch your pain at the loss of this
beautiful young woman.”
Talon screamed, denial coursing
through him.
Chris shoved Jamie onto the ground,
right in front of him. He reached out, taking her hand in his. It
was so small, so delicate. So cold and scared. He could feel the
tremors that were shaking through her hand all the way to
him.
“
Talon,” she whispered,
staring into his eyes. “I want you to look away. Just turn your
face to the wall. Please.”
Tears were falling down her
face, yet her eyes were no longer terrified. Beautiful and blue.
They were strong, so much more stronger than he was. Her eyes clear
and straight. Not pleading, but
telling
, him to look away. Chris was
behind her, laughing maniacally. He reached into his jacket,
pulling out a small black gun. Pointing it at her head. Clicking
off the safety.
“
Talon,
please
just turn away. I don’t want
you to watch –“
“
No
,” he bellowed, trying to drag her to him. Chris just sneered,
aiming the gun. “Chris, I’ll give you anything, I swear – I’ll give
you life, money, anything. Just
don’t
,” he shouted, trying to cover
her body with his. Yet she was pushing at him, rejecting him,
crying for him to stop.
Never in his life had he
felt so weak. So helpless. Now though, as the realization came that
he was going to lose the most important thing he had ever had in
his life, he was shuddering. Pleading. “Chris,
don’t
.” He could taste his own tears,
could taste the pain in them.
Amenia spoke from the shadows, staring
at Talon. “Your pain does not bring me the happiness I had thought
it would. The way you murdered my sister will never leave me. This
woman will feel no lasting pain when she dies – that is only for
you.”
Several things happened at
once.
There was a small flash.
A
pop
. A startled
gasp.
“
Jamie,
no
!” A horrified, pained voice rang
around the room. There stood the king, standing over his daughter.
He burst into action, attacking Chris like a wild man – but he
wasn’t quick enough.
“
Talon, turn
arou—“
Her scream was cut
off.
And replaced with the last sound she
would ever make in her life – a soft cry.
He watched as she fell limply to the
ground, a gentle trickle of blood marking the life that left her
body.
Chapter 20
Devlin pushed off the large rocks,
grimacing as her back snapped and the familiar weight of her wings
held her down. When in pain, they became a defense mechanism and
were almost impossible to get rid of till she was feeling better.
She went with the fact that it hurt like a bitch to move her arm
and assumed it was broken.
It took longer than she
wanted to get free of the rocks. She looked around the rubble,
ignoring the pulse in her arm. Lucian wasn’t visible, and neither
was Talon. She’d sensed his presence a second before passing out
because of the weight of the rocks. It looked like a hurricane in
the sky, and because of the fact that they didn’t even live near
large bodies of water, she knew shit was going down. She put her
hands on the rocks, bracing with her undamaged hand. What the hell
was that
smell?
“
Daughter
.”
Devlin’s head snapped up,
alert. To conserve his energy, her father had only contacted her
through
whysper
to
set a meeting.
“
Meet me, quickly. You
know where to go. I fear I do not have much longer before I
perish.”
“
How much time,
father?”
She was already getting to her
feet, forgetting completely about her elbow and letting her
frost-seeping wings take flight.
“
Not…much,”
he responded weakly, before the connection was cut
off.
Devlin beat her wings hard, tears
already blurring her vision. She had lost two of the most important
men in her life this day, and she had a feeling there was no way to
get them back. Ever.
~*~
Mike stared down into the portal,
emotions warring. It wasn’t in his nature to care, or to even think
about what he was doing. Live in the moment and die hard – except,
he couldn’t die. Or live, for that matter. So basically, he just
did whatever the hell he wanted to, when he wanted to. And right
now, he wanted to help that woman.
With a fine mist spread across the
glass, he looked into the mirror and saw himself behind a scene. A
scene of pain and absolute fuck-up. Her body did a weird sort
of…slump, against the ground. And then the blood rushing out of her
back spread to the ground. The king, Zyn, gave the largest and most
painful cries Mike had ever heard, and tore the blonde man’s head
from his body.
And Talon…. Mike knew it was
desperation that had the chains ripping from the wall. There was no
way anything else could have freed him. He dragged himself to his
dark-haired lover and wrapped his arms around her, tightly. Even
though he only heard what was happening with a fuzzy ear, as if
they were miles away, he could hear him pleading with her. He
begged and begged, telling her he loved her, that she had to come
back.
Mike turned the screen to the
pale-haired witch, Amenia. Sister to Lyne’s former cheating wife,
and not the most powerful witch in the universe. Despite her old
age, her malicious side had kept her from advancing on in her
powerful state. No, she was as weak as a babe compared to other
witches he knew.
Talon was still clutching the woman,
sobbing now.
So much pain, anguish,
complete
agony
.
How did he deal with it? Mike watched with a frown as he slowly
lowered Jamie’s body to the ground, taking care to arrange her
limbs, smoothing a hand over her forehead, tracing her lips. Her
lifeless lips. Zyn was making good work on Chris, and Amenia was
staring at the scene with a small smile to her lips. And then he
made his way to the witch, who didn’t even notice.
Only Mike, who had known her for as
long as he had, knew what she was thinking and feeling. Right now,
the bloodbath was about to make her orgasm and he sure as hell
couldn’t have that. This was just making him pissed off. He might
get his ass chewed by Kevin for doing this, but he could really
give a shit.
He reached into the mirror, grabbing
her hair. She had gone too far, had cost too many lives and with
Talon on a killing-rage, the world would go horribly out of
balance. He grinned; couldn’t have that, now, could we? Poor Kevin
would get his British bloomers in a twist.
“
Unhand me!” she gasped. He
let her slump to the floor in front of him.
“
That must have been
dreadfully painful,” he said casually. “Like glass, slicing through
you? Yeah, I bet Talon knows how that feels, right.”
With pursed lips, she got to her feet
and, only because he was the only thing saving her from a life of
hell, bowed her head. She was the lesser and she knew it. He could
even smell her fear behind her calm façade. It was like candy to a
child, he thought happily.
“
Now, I understand that you
went on a bitch-rage and just killed an innocent –“
Her head snapped up. “She wasn’t
–“
“
Shut the hell up,” he
growled. He liked playing games, liked to have fun. But when people
interrupted him, it pissed him the hell off.
Especially
because she was wrong. Her
face paled and she once again dropped her head. Yet even at the
submissive pose, her hands were twisting under her
robes.