Tangled Sin (A Dark Realm Novel) (27 page)

The fucker was projecting.

Ayperos sneered. “You wondering where I am? How strong I have become, still wanting to be like me—”

“Yeah, it’s what I spent my life doing, emulating you,” Riley drawled while scanning the psychic vibe, trying to track where the projection originated. “I have better things to do, like prepare for my birthright, that’s what you're after, right,
brother
?” he taunted, hoping the bastard would appear in his corporeal form.

“You think to mock me?” Even with the flickering projection, the sinister image spewed venom. “I will have what is rightfully mine. Or that little mortal you mated will die.”

At the threat to Saia, Riley’s barely leashed temper cracked open. He lunged for him, but Ayperos’s image shimmered and flickered off like a firefly. The urge to tear him apart with his bare hands shook Riley so badly, he spun around and punched the wall. Pain vibrated through his bones.

Saia, please, please be safe
. He tried to connect with her, but his mind was too frayed.

Blood seeped from his knuckles. Ignoring it, he fished his cell from his jeans pocket and called her.

She answered on the first ring. “Riley?”

“Hey, baby. What you doin’?” He flexed his fast-healing fingers.

“Watching a dirty movie—want to join me?” He didn't respond to her teasing, just squeezed his eyes tight, his chest loosening in relief. “Riley? What’s wrong?”

Her concern for him leaped out of the phone. “Just an encounter with my past.”

“Ayperos.”

“Yeah. Stay safe for me.”

“Ditto.”

Ending the call, he flashed back to The Quarter. His hands clenching and releasing at his sides, he scanned the area around him. He needed a fight, needed to get this shit battering at him under control. A drunken group of humans jostled him as he stalked down the noise-filled Decatur Street.

Clamping down his irritation, he cut into another alley reeking of Eau-de-crap, looking for trouble, for Trevor, he didn't care which. He jerked to halt at the sight of the shadowy figure leaning against a wall, flicking a lighter on and off.

Bloody hell, he didn't need a family reunion right now.

“I don’t trust this kind of silence.” Noah flicked his lighter on again as Riley neared him. Then off. On. Off. “More shit’s stirring, and it’s not from those Caligos waiting for some idiot to stumble by.” He nodded to the turbulent mass of black mist clinging to the red brick wall of the gloomy, defunct building opposite them. “But something…darker.”

The lighter clicked on again. The hint of fire kept the formless fucks at bay, but by Hades, it irritated the shit out of him.

Noah cupped the flame in his palm and blew it into the blackened alley. The tiny blaze grew to the size of a golf ball and exploded. A sharp shriek and the shapeless mass evaporated. But the sounds reverberated through Riley’s skull.

Noah dropped his lighter into his jeans pocket. “Whatever it is, is heading straight for us.”

At his ominous prediction, Riley stilled. He couldn’t deal with whatever that portent was. With his transference just days away, he had to leave soon. Leave his mate.

Gods! He tried not to think about leaving Saia alone for who the hell knew how long.

No, no, can't leave
… the worse kind of danger trailed his ass right now. He rubbed a hand over his clipped hair, down his nape. Fists clenching.

“You okay, there?” Noah asked.

What was it with everyone asking him the same bloody question? He dropped his hand. “Yeah. Great. Later.”

He headed for his bar. The skull-rocking noise there was far better than the storm splintering inside his head.

Saia puffed out a breath, scrubbing away the damp strands sticking to her sweaty face as she and Ikaria left the gym the following afternoon. She climbed the stairs, wincing with each step. The muscles in her butt protested, too sore from landing on her bottom several times.

Training with Ikaria had been just as tough as the session with Riley the day before.

Ikaria gave her an encouraging smile. “You learn fast, Saia. I'm impressed.”

“Yeah? I don’t think my backside agrees.”

Laughing, Ikaria looked her over, her expression morning into concern. “You sure you okay? You look a little pale.”

So she was a little tired. A sleepless night would do that, worrying about Riley after his call. “I'm fine, nothing a tall glass of orange juice can't fix—coming?”

“No. Later perhaps.” Ikaria slung her towel over her shoulder. “I want a shower first.”

Saia parted ways with her and headed for the kitchen.

A moment later, taking a long, thirsty drink of her OJ, she headed for the back stairs. At the sounds of voices coming from the other end of the corridor, anticipation had her hurrying toward them instead. She slowed to a halt, disappointment crushing her.

Her brothers had arrived, with Piers.

They’d obviously ransacked the kitchen earlier and were now armed with the cookie jar and a six-pack of Coke. “Hey, sis,” they chorused.

“Bros.” Unable to avoid Piers, she greeted him. “Hello, Piers.”

“Saia.” His gaze lingered on the hand-span of skin her black tank revealed. She resisted the urge to wrap her arms around her waist. This time, she couldn’t even blame her mother for his presence here since she’d gone off with her father to some corporate lunch in the city.

Hastily, she turned to her brothers. Zayn slugged back more of his Coke and smirked. “You look like something the cat wouldn’t drag anywhere.”

She gave him a dirty look. “I’m not one of your floozies who spends twenty-four-seven in front of a mirror—don’t you two work?”

“Hey, now, it’s past five. Don’t be a slave driver like Noah,” he grumbled.

Her gaze snapped to Rohan, munching on a cookie. “And you—”

“Me, what?” His brow rose innocently like he didn't know that Mary had made those choc-chip biscuits for her.

“—stop stealing all the cookies.” She helped herself to one from the jar he held and bit into it.

“Where’s the beautiful Aria?” Zayn asked. “I can't seem to get a moment alone with her.”

“Hiding. She said to stop bugging her.”

Zayn laughed and tugged her braid. Saia wrinkled her nose, skirted them, and headed for the front stairs, aware of Piers’s burning gaze following her.

“Saia, a second?”

Aw, crap. So close to escape. But best to get this over with. She turned.

“I’ll catch up in a moment,” Piers told her brothers.

“Two minutes or you forfeit the game and the Renoir is mine,” Rohan warned as they headed for the rec room.

Good, at least Piers’s time was limited. But playing against the twins? Had he not learned anything?

Piers closed the distance between them, stepping too damn close as usual. Did he even know the concept of personal boundaries? The acrid reek of whatever he smoked swamped her air space and clogged her lungs, stirring her queasiness to life. She stepped back.

“I hear congratulations are in order.”

“Yes. Thanks.”

“I wasn't congratulating you.” He scowled, a light flush flaring across his sharp cheekbones. “You’re making a mistake. Dammit, Saia, I'm so much better, don’t you see?”

Saia stared absently at the cookie crumbled in her palm and wondered if she should just walk away. She didn't need this now.

“I think he’s somehow coerced you. Let’s leave now. We can go to Vegas, be married by tomorrow, then he’d leave you alone.”

Piers couldn’t take a hint if it whacked him straight in the face, and now she’d have to spell it out for him, be the bad guy. Sheesh! Her mother just had to go and pick one that was a little mental. “Look, Piers, I'm sorry, but I don’t feel the same way about you—”

“You lie! You’ve always liked me.”

She sighed. “Piers, I was a child then. People grow up. Change. I love Riley. He hasn’t coerced me into anything. I want to marry him.”

“Don’t play with me, Saia.” He crowded her against the foyer wall, his breathing erratic, and trapped her with his hands on either side of her. An angry flush streaked his face. “This past week, you encouraged me whenever we met.”

What the hell? She narrowed her eyes, her nails biting into her palm so she wouldn’t punch him. “You’re delusional. I did no such thing. Now get off me.”

“Or you’ll what?” He sneered. “Call your brothers? No, wait, the bartender. Yes, he’ll sort me out.”

With her cookie-crumbed palm, she shoved him hard with one hand, the juice she held sloshing over the other. He stumbled back. “What’s wrong with you?” she snapped. “Sure, Riley tends the bar, but in his own damn place!”

“You mock me?” His expression darkened. He seized her braid, yanked her to him. His mouth slammed down on hers. Her glass slipped and crashed to the floor in a shattering of glass. Saia hit his chest, struggling to break free. His grip on her hair tightened, became painful. His teeth ground against her lips. Furious, she bit him.

Snarling, he reared back and slapped her across the face.

She cried out, pain streaking through her cheek and into her skull. She cupped her throbbing flesh in disbelief. Gasps rang out.

Mary and the front room’s maid stood there in shock. Mary scurried off.

“See what you made me do?” He stepped back, licking his bleeding lip, and glared at her like it was all her fault.

Rough breaths sawed past her lips. Anger, wild and vicious, jetted through her veins. Muscles coiled, Saia kneed him hard in the crotch.

Howling, he hunched, cupping his groin.

“Don’t you ever touch me again!” She zipped past him, eyes blurring with tears from the stinging slap, and slammed full force into a hard body materializing in front of her. Strong, familiar arms banded around her. She buried her face in Riley’s shirt, inhaling harshly, trying to get her fear and anger under control.

“Saia?”

At the soft timbre of his voice, she held on tight and willed herself not to give in to stupid tears. A finger beneath her chin lifted her face up. His gaze narrowed on her burning cheek and bruised mouth. She had a mere second to see the icy rage flare fiercely in his green eyes.

In a blur, he moved. She spun around just as Piers crashed into the podium, knocking over the crystal vase. The thing shattered on the marble floors in tinkling fragments, along with her mother’s prized roses. Blood streamed from Piers’s nose.

“You dare touch my mate?” Riley stood over the fallen male, his tone freezing the tiny hairs on Saia’s arms. He hauled Piers up by his shirt.

“Let go of me, asshole!” Fist swinging, Piers caught Riley dead in the belly, but it didn't even move him. Riley trapped him against the wall, a hand on his throat.

Then Piers’s eyes popped wide, fear overtaking his face. “His eyes—his eyes!” he yelled, tugging at Riley’s deadly grip.

Saia couldn’t see his face, but she knew.

“Riley, no!” Panicked, she darted over, grabbed his arm and tried to pull him off Piers. But it was like moving the Erymic Mount of Stygia. His eyes gleamed a perilous python-green. A flare of red burned in his pupils. If he killed Piers, it would be the end.

Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to calm down and bring back the man she loved from near self-destruction. “Riley.” She stroked his arm, his biceps felt like coiled steel, his rage an ominous cloud.  “Please, let him go. You have to let him go.”

***

Kill him. Kill him, he deserves your punishment!

The clamor in his mind to decimate, to annihilate the bastard grew.

“Let him go. Please, Riley.”

From a distance, through the roar in his head, he heard Saia’s soft voice. Calm, cool. His safe haven.

Inhaling harshly, he struggled to reel in his fury and dropped Piers. He landed with a thud on the floor. Coughing and rubbing his reddened throat, Piers glared at him. Snarled. “You’ll pay for that, you sonofabitch!”

“Shut up, Piers,” Saia snapped.

“Saia? What’s wrong?” Rohan sprinted into the foyer, followed by Zayn. “Mary called, she sounded hysterical, said you were being attacked?”

“Where the hell were you two?” Riley barked, his anger finding new targets. “You left her unprotected with that junkie?”

The twins’ expression flinted as Piers pushed to his feet, swiping at his bloody nose. All sorts of accusations flew out of him about Riley being a demon’s spawn. “He’s fucking evil! Look at his eyes.”

Riley could give a shit right then if the entire world saw what he was.

The twins’ gaze narrowed and zeroed in on the reddened handprint on Saia’s pale cheek and her bruised lips. All hell broke loose.

Zayn slammed his fist into Piers’s belly, sent him reeling back. “We thought you a friend!” he spat. “You fuckin’ hurt
my
sister?”

“I didn't mean to,” Piers blustered, red in the face. He held up his hands in surrender. “An accident.”

“Hitting my sister was an accident?” Rohan strolled closer, let loose an uppercut to his jaw. Piers’s head snapped backward. “Damn, my fist slipped. Yeah, an accident.”

Riley glanced at Saia. His lips tightened at the raised swelling on her cheek. He reached out and drew her into his arms, held her and tried to get the dangerous rage prowling through him to quiet down. He would make the bastard pay.

Oh, yeah, he would. Twenty-nine had already signed his one-way ticket. One day soon, he’d pass through the Nine Circles of Hell. And Riley would be waiting.

Zayn pulled out his cell just as the front door opened and their parents entered, bringing in the crisp, fresh scent of winter.

Smiling at something his wife had said, Edward glanced at them and stopped. He waved off the maid hurrying forward to take their coats. Both of their attentions zipped straight to Saia in Riley’s arms, then to the twins, finally settling on a bleeding Piers.

Edward’s blue eyes cooled. “What’s going on?”

“He hurt Saia,” Zayn snapped, glaring at Piers again. “You come anywhere near my sister—my family again, and you're dead.”

Lips thinning, Edward walked over and touched his son’s arm. “I’ll deal with this.”

“Daddy, please,” Saia pleaded, pushing away from Riley. “Let it go. Zayn, don’t call the police. I just want to forget this happened.”

What the hell? She would protect this junkie who’d hurt her?

Before Riley could open his mouth, Jemima, still in her outdoor coat, brushed past them, a perilous squall, one a sane person would do well to keep out of the way of. An odd chill emitted from her, making him frown. She wasn't psychic, unlike Edward or her sons, so what the hell was it that got all his psychic senses rising?

“A minute, Edward.”

He stepped back. At her nod, the twins released the struggling male and joined their father.

“It was an accident.” Piers stumbled back, wariness riding his expression. “I didn't mean to hit her. She wouldn’t listen to reason. You liked us together,” he pleaded with Jemima. “It’s what I was trying to do.”

“Yes, beat on my daughter.” At the sliver of power in her words, Riley pushed harder, tried to see through her unbreakable shields. And still he couldn’t. “My mistake. I thought you had a little more decency than most men.”

Saia stiffened. She appeared shocked at her mother’s defense. Then Jemima lowered her voice. Whatever she said, Riley couldn’t decipher a thing, even with his heightened hearing.

Piers stiffened. A stricken expression paled his features.

Coolly, Jemima turned on her heel, her gaze resting on Saia again. Her mouth tightened a fraction. “Put some ice on your face.” She headed for the stairs. “And you can have your garden wedding.”

***

Despite the steamy bath, shock still held Saia in its grip. It was easy to wash off the sweat from her training, but not the awful incident. She’d left her family to deal with Piers, desperately needing to wash away the horror that had occurred.

More, she still couldn’t get over the fact that her mother had relented. Heck, she was just glad to not get into any more fights about the wedding.

Inhaling a shaky breath, she pulled on her thick, blue, terry bathrobe and wrapped her hair in a towel then crossed to the misty vanity mirror. She swiped it clear with her hand.

Oh, Christ
. She stared in horror at her reflection. Piers’s handprint on her cheek appeared like it’d been etched into her skin. Her lips hadn't fared too well either. They were swollen, felt raw from being ground against her teeth and his.

Carefully, she rotated her jaw—

Aww, crappin’ hell!
Her pain receptors were unfortunately in perfect working condition. Gingerly, she rubbed her aching jaw, and as she entered her bedroom, tying the belt on her robe, the door opened.