He frowned very deeply. “I can’t phase.”
“Oh no?” Theo cocked a dark eyebrow.
That weird feeling Darrak had gotten since he first woke up grew much larger. He now realized it was paranoia. “What’s going on, Theo?”
Theo shrugged. “Stuff.”
“Can you be any less helpful?”
“Probably. If I tried harder.”
Darrak scanned the street again. The wraiths were gone, which eased his mind some. Then he saw something else. It looked like a woman with long auburn hair who disappeared behind a corner up ahead.
He wasn’t sure why, but he started walking, quickly, after her.
“Where are you going?” Theo asked.
“I need to talk to her.”
“Who? I don’t see anyone.”
“Her . . . uh, I don’t know. There was a woman over here.” He reached the corner and looked around it, but nobody was there. He swore under his breath. “I am really messed up tonight. I’m seeing things.”
“Who did you think you saw?”
“Somebody, I—I’m not sure.” He frowned hard. “I thought I recognized her, but I have no idea who she is.”
“Sure, that makes sense.”
It didn’t make any sense at all, which was why he was starting to get more concerned about his current disoriented state. Maybe he’d been drugged or bespelled. But who would do that to him? And why?
Something was off, and he had a feeling it had to do with the woman he’d seen—or, rather, that he’d
thought
he’d seen. He’d felt a desperate need to catch up to her, to grab her arm and pull her around so he could see her face.
Women. More trouble than they were worth. Especially the ones here in the Netherworld. For all he knew, it was some apparition sent to lead him to his doom.
He glanced around the unfamiliar street. The Netherworld had the appearance of the human world, depending on where you were. You either got this type of urban setting—always night—or you got the inferno. And, no matter your location, it always felt like the hottest day of summer.
He didn’t tell anyone, but he preferred spending time in the human world. At least there was a little more variety up there.
This area didn’t look familiar to him. It was deserted. A lot of the Netherworld was very busy, bristling with activity, but not here.
This didn’t feel right. At all.
Darrak turned around in a circle, trying to see something that might strike a chord of familiarity in him, but nothing did. “Talk to me, Theo. Tell me where we are.”
“We’re exactly where we need to be.”
“And where’s that?”
“You could call it a waiting room.”
He hissed out a breath of frustration. “A waiting room for what?”
Somebody tapped Darrak on his shoulder, and he turned to see the two male fairies from the bar standing there.
“What are you doing here?” the taller fairy asked. The edge of his razor-sharp teeth could be seen under his upper lip. “What are you looking for?”
Good question. He wished he knew.
“Who wants to know?”
“We do.”
Darrak snorted. “And who exactly are you?”
“We’re the neighborhood watch for this area making sure dumb demons don’t wander off and get themselves hurt.” The fairy jutted his thumb in the direction he’d been headed. “Go down there and you’re in big trouble. You won’t be coming back.”
Okay, this was turning out to be a bit amusing. “Down there?” He nodded at the street where he thought the redhead’s apparition had disappeared.
“Yeah.”
“See, you saying that I can’t go down there makes me want to go for a nice long walk. Down there.”
The fairies exchanged a glance. “Then you’re even stupider than you look.”
Darrak clenched his jaw. “I’m not stupid.”
One of the fairies gave him a head to toe assessment. “Incubus, right? I can tell by the brainless, shiny surface.”
“Archdemon, actually,” he growled.
“Former incubus, though, right?” They both laughed knowingly.
Assholes. “You two should walk away. No reason for this to turn into something.”
“First we need to know why you’re here.”
“He’s here because there’s nowhere else he can be now,” Theo said. “He’s on the list.”
Darrak frowned. “The list for what?”
“So what’s the delay?” the shorter fairy asked.
“All good things come to those who wait, boys,” Theo said. “Patience is one of my seven favorite virtues.”
“You said you’re neighborhood watch?” Darrak asked.
“We are. Nothing happens around here without our knowledge.”
“Then you should probably know there are a couple of wraiths standing right behind you. They’ll probably bring down the property values around here.”
He’d never seen fairies roll their eyes before. It wasn’t pretty. “Don’t be ridiculous. Wraiths never come this close to the hole.”
The hole? The area wasn’t upscale, but it was an odd nickname for it.
Darrak shrugged. “Could have fooled me. Because they’re here anyway.”
They began to look uneasy. It seemed as if they didn’t want to move their attention away from Theo and Darrak, but they still swiveled, as if in unison, to see the two dark forms lurking behind them.
The wraiths were cloaked, their faces unseen, swathed in shadow and something that turned the hot night around them much colder. Darrak knew that they revealed their faces to you just before they sucked you dry, and that they were the most beautiful women in the entire universe—a sight which helped to freeze a victim in place, shocked that something so alluring could be so dangerous. By then it was too late.
He didn’t see any beauty at the moment. All he saw were two gloved hands with pale, slender fingers dart out from each of the wraiths, fastening around the fairies’ throats, drawing them closer for the kiss.
The fairies didn’t even have a chance to scream before the cloaks surrounded them and their entire forms were consumed by the wraiths.
That was all Darrak really needed to see. Self-preservation was a powerful motivator. He wouldn’t say he ran away, but he moved quickly, very quickly, along the path the redhead had taken before she’d disappeared.
“Theo,” he growled. “You either tell me what the hell is going on here or I’m going to beat it out of you.”
“You think so, huh?” Theo strolled next to Darrak, his hands casually clasped behind his back.
“I know so.”
“Think back, Darrak. When was the last time you saw me? If you can answer that, then maybe you actually have a chance. Let’s see how strong your survival instinct is.”
Darrak normally had a joke or a quip for every situation, but this wasn’t the time or the place. Something was horribly wrong here, and he couldn’t figure out what it all meant. He’d woken up in a bar with no idea how he’d gotten there. He couldn’t remember anything recently, apart from a fuzzy recollection of being summoned to the human world by a power-hungry witch. When was that? What had become of her?
He remembered talking to Theo, agreeing to be his business partner in overthrowing Lucifer and taking over Hell. But that felt like such a long time ago—centuries, even.
No, wait. He remembered something else. Something much more recent.
Another bar. Another meeting with his demonic best friend. Looking at him as a threat, rather than an ally. Having differing opinions of how to deal with an important situation.
There was another demon lord—Asmodeus. Theo worked for him now. It was all a part of Theo’s ultimate plan to defeat Lucifer and take over his throne, to take over Hell itself. Asmodeus—he needed a body. He had set his sights on Theo’s, a powerful archdemon that had the desirable appearance necessary to contain the essence of the Lord of Lust.
Darrak’s voice was quiet when he spoke. “He destroyed you. Asmodeus, he burned you away and stole your body. Then I destroyed him.” Darrak raised his wide gaze to look at his friend. Yes, it was true. Theo was gone. Despite their disagreements, he’d been a true friend, trying to save Darrak from a huge mess he’d gotten himself into, right till the end. And Darrak had felt grief for the first time in his long existence. “You shouldn’t be here. You shouldn’t be anywhere.”
Theo shrugged. “Looks like you still have some brain juice left over after all.”
“What is this? Why am I able to talk to you right now?”
“Thought this would be a face that would set your mind at ease.”
“So you’re saying you’re not really . . .” A flash of anger and confusion rushed through Darrak. “Who the hell are you?”
“A friend.”
“Liar.”
He stormed forward to grab hold of Theo, to throttle the truth out of him, but instead he went straight through Theo’s body and hit the brick wall behind him.
Darrak spun around, but Theo was no longer there. Darrak was alone.
“Okay,” he said aloud. “This is even worse than I thought.”
Theo was gone and something had been using his face to lead Darrak here—wherever the hell this was. He couldn’t phase for some unknown reason and there were energy-sucking wraiths wandering around.
Maybe he shouldn’t have said no to that last drink after all.
SEVENTEEN
Ben tried to keep hold of the shapeshifter, but she put up a struggle once they reached the exterior of the Malleus headquarters. He’d taken a shortcut to a hidden exit a guard had shown him for emergencies. In his opinion, this qualified. They had to get as far away from this place as possible.
The woman, however, wasn’t making things easy for him.
A block away she finally managed to wrench herself out of his grip.
“Are you crazy or something?” she snarled.
“Possibly.”
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“I believe I just saved your life.”
She stared at him for a long moment before thrusting her wrist out to him. “Take this thing off me.”
He eyed the cuff. “You want me to remove it so you can shift form and run away?”
“That’s basically what I’m thinking.”
Despite himself, amusement began creeping in at the edges. Or maybe he was just losing it. With one decision he’d ruined his entire life, and there was no turning back now. “What’s your name?”
“Bertha.”
He snorted. “You’re lying.”
“You’re smart.”
“I already told you my name. Ben Hanson.”
“Yeah, golden-boy.”
“What?”
She swept her gaze over him. They were behind a corner and could hear the busy downtown traffic close by. “That was Darrak’s nickname for you. He thought you were a real threat to his and Eden’s happily never after.”
So funny he forgot to laugh. “Yeah, some threat.”
She studied him for a long, heavy moment. “The name’s Kathleen Harris. But people I like call me Leena.”
“Leena.”
“I said people I
like
call me that.” Her amber eyes slid down the front of him again. “The jury’s still out on you.”
He didn’t have time for witty repartee. “We need to get away from here. It won’t be long before they figure out what I did and this”—he brushed his fingers over the brand on his arm, currently covered by the sleeve of his leather jacket—“is going to lead them right to me. By then I need to make sure you’re safe. So are you coming with me or not?”
She stood with her hands on her hips, still studying him as if he was a curious creature she’d found at a museum. “Why did you rescue me? Why would you put yourself at risk like that unless this is some sort of stupid trick?”
He didn’t have time for this. “You don’t trust easily, do you?”
“As little as I can, actually.”
“I rescued you because . . .” His jaw clenched. “Because I’m not that person, the one they think I am. I have no interest in forcibly extracting information from women and I don’t particularly care what that information is or who wants it. And if that’s what they want me for then they can look elsewhere.”
Leena frowned at him. “You’re right about one thing.”
“And what’s that?”
“You did put a nice target on your back, Ken doll.”
He sighed. “Thought I asked you to stop calling me that?”
“Why? You’re gorgeous, blond, and way too perfect to be anything but plastic underneath it all.”
He almost laughed at that. “Yeah, so perfect. I’m about as far from that as you can get.”
Leena stopped arguing and followed him to the van that he’d parked two blocks away. He’d known from the moment he arrived what he was going to do and what it would mean.
“So you don’t want to be the Malleus’s pet anymore even though you went through the ritual and got the brand,” she said. “Not the smartest move, but pretty damn brave to defy a direct order like that.”
He glanced at her as he shifted the van into drive. “You sound like you know the ropes.”
“I’ve been around a few dangerous men in my life. Some of them were mixed up with Malleus business. They always got me in deep trouble. You, I’m thinking, aren’t much different, even if you’re all knight in shining armor right now. I just want to know what changed. It couldn’t have just been me that prompted this crazy decision. You don’t even know me.”
His hands tightened on the steering wheel as he pulled onto the road. “You want to know what changed?”
“Yeah. Lay it on me.”
“Darrak’s gone and it’s my fault. But only now I realize it was the wrong thing to do.”
Leena gasped out loud. “He’s gone?”
“One-way nosedive into the Void.” Ben never in a million years would have guessed he’d feel guilty about that, but he did.
“Holy shit.” Leena pressed back in her seat and raised a hand to her mouth. “How’s Eden taking it?”
“Badly.” He blinked hard. “I was stupid to come between them, but I honestly had no idea how much she loved him. It was a mistake. I see that now, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I can just fix other things that need fixing.”
She went quiet for a moment before nodding firmly. “Fine. So now what’s the plan?”
“The plan is to get you to a motel as soon as possible.”
She raised an eyebrow. “That sounds interesting.”
That she was able to make him blush surprised even him. “So you’ll be safe.”
“That’s usually the reason dangerous men want to take me to motels.”