The Darkest Pleasure (12 page)

More laughter.

Aeron straightened. Blood poured from his mouth and stained his hands. Catching her first glimpse of Reyes since Aeron had begun choking him, Danika covered her gaping mouth with the back of her hand. He was slumped on the ground, motionless, his neck…flat.

Should be happy, should be happy.

But she wasn’t. Tears were burning her eyes. She should hate this man for everything he’d done to her. Should, should, should. The word meant nothing to her at the moment. Bending down, she curled her fingers around one of the blades she’d stolen, not caring that her theft was now revealed.

Aeron had to die, and she had to kill him. It was as simple as that. He was a crazed murderer. He had hurt Reyes—not dead, he couldn’t be dead—and he wanted to hurt her. Worse, he’d probably harmed her grandmother. It was clear her family would never be safe as long as he lived. Yes, he needed to die.
Now or never.

Determined, she finally stepped into the cell. Lucien was too busy following the demon with the barrel of his gun to notice. She moved forward tentatively. Aeron’s narrowed gaze locked on her and tracked her every movement.

“Legion,” Aeron said. “Need you.”

The scaled creature jumped onto his shoulders and held tight. “Me here.” Bony fingers caressed Aeron’s scalp. Words Danika didn’t understand were whispered into Aeron’s ear. Soft words, gentle.

Aeron’s body relaxed, his muscles no longer clenched for attack. The red in his eyes faded.

Lucien paused outside the cell. “Danika,” he said.

“Get Reyes out of here. His body can’t take any more damage.” Danika continued to inch forward. When she reached Reyes, she crouched beside him. Her gaze never left Aeron as she placed a finger on Reyes’s neck, hoping to feel a pulse.

She didn’t.

Don’t panic.
He was too vital, too strong to die here, like this. Wasn’t he? He desperately needed medical attention. “Lucien. For God’s sake, come get him.”

“He’s fine, and I am unwilling to lose focus with the demon unfettered.”

Damn it! She couldn’t leave him here. Truly, any more damage and there would be nothing left of him. Save Reyes or question/try to hurt Aeron? She didn’t have to think about it. She latched on to Reyes’s shoulders, knife flat—she would
not
release it—and tried to drag him. When Reyes was out of range, she could attack Aeron without fear for him. But Reyes’s large body proved to be too heavy and she only made it a foot before stopping to catch her breath.

Aeron straightened, his knees bending to accept his weight, his hands curling to strike. Any minute, and he would attack.

“He was your friend,” she said, pushing back to her feet to haul Reyes another few inches.

“But you are not,” Aeron replied.

“No, I’m not.”

He grinned, wicked, eerie. “Do you wish to hurt me, little human?”

“Yes.” No reason to lie. The truth blazed in her eyes, she was sure. “I wish to destroy you.”

“Try.”

“So you’ll feel better about what you plan to do to me? No, thanks. Not while Reyes needs help. But once he’s out of the cell, you’re mine.”

For some reason, the conversation seemed to calm him as much as the little creature still whispering in his ear. “Do I scare you?”

“You? Scare me? Never again.” Another inch. A few more, and she’d have Reyes’s shoulders out the door.

“Why don’t you come for me, then?”

“The difference between us is that I care about someone else more than I care about my own wishes.”

He lost his grin in a hurry. “You cannot care for Reyes.”

She didn’t want to, knew she shouldn’t. But…Footsteps suddenly echoed behind her, saving her from trying to form a reply.

“The others are coming.” Finally Lucien opted to help. He approached her, gripped the base of her neck before she could protest his touch. One second she was holding Reyes, the next she was inside Reyes’s bedroom.

Dizziness assaulted her. When Lucien released her, she realized she couldn’t stand on her own. She toppled over, her knees hitting the floor. She cringed at the action, but was too wired to feel the jolt. “What the hell did you do to me?”

“Stay here,” Lucien said.

As she fought to stand, she glared up at him. “I don’t—”

Without another word, he disappeared, leaving her gaping. Bastard! She couldn’t, wouldn’t, leave Reyes down there with that…that…animal.
Should have killed the beast when you had the chance.
Determined to return, she lumbered toward the front door. She tripped over a pair of boots and barely managed to stay upright.

“I told you to stay put.”

Spinning, experiencing another wave of dizziness, Danika released a startled gasp. Lucien had appeared once more, stoic, uncompromising. He was cradling Reyes in his arms as he strode to the bed. Gently, he laid the still-motionless warrior on the mattress. The springs creaked.

Danika rushed to Reyes’s side.

“Take care of him,” Lucien uttered, a warning in his tone.

“I—will.” The last was said on a sigh. He had disappeared again.

Almost afraid to look, she slowly turned her head. Her eyes landed on Reyes, and her stomach twisted. There were so many
sides to him: captor, savior, demon, man. But he was still such a mystery to her, this being who had both threatened her life and saved it. And here he was, defeated. His throat was smashed, his Adam’s apple smooth and discolored.

His chest was utterly still.

The tears that had stung her eyes so often this day now ran freely down her cheeks. How could someone so strong have been—Through the watery haze, she thought she saw his chest move, thought she saw his decimated throat constrict.
Please! Let that be real.

Her hand fluttered to his heart, the beat frantic against her palm. A wheeze filled her ears, and it was a glorious noise.

He was alive!

Crying out, she fell to her knees. She clutched at his hand, felt his fingers give a weak squeeze. The strength of her relief was appalling. Unwelcome. Because it meant she would never be able to betray this man. This demon. Not now, not later. Aeron, yes. Sabin, yes. But not him, never him. Not even to save her family. “I’m here, Reyes.”

His eyelids cracked open.

“Don’t try to talk. Just know that I’m here. I’ll take care of you.” Only problem was, she had no real medical training and didn’t know what to do. She choked back a pained laugh. She’d been in this situation once before. Ashlyn had been sick. Bargaining for her mom, sister and grandmother’s lives, she’d lied, told Reyes she was a healer, and doctored Ashlyn as best she could.

Ashlyn had come out okay. Would Reyes?

Dark irises came into full view. They weren’t flooded with pain; they were glazed with…pleasure? Surely not. Their gazes collided a moment before he closed his eyes again. Her lungs deflated on a sigh.

Reyes’s lips moved, but no sound emerged from them.

“You’re hurting yourself,” she said. “I told you not to talk. We’ll—”

“Don’t go back to Aeron without me,” he managed to get out, the words savage. “Promise.” His hand clutched at her. “Protect you.”

Again, he wanted to protect her. Little wonder he’d battered down her defenses and reduced her to a devoted puppy. “I promise.”

R
EYES AWOKE GRADUALLY
,
his senses already on alert thanks to several oddities.

One, there was a weight on his chest. Warm, so warm, and soft. He was used to waking unfettered, a little cold. Two, the scent of thunderstorms and angel-skies filled his nose, sultry and erotic. It was a scent he craved with every fiber of his being, but one that was dangerous to his peace of mind. Three, he never wanted to leave this paradise.

Pain did not agree.

Pain was prowling the cage of Reyes’s mind, roaring. Roaring so loudly Reyes covered his ears. The weight on his chest shifted to the side, taking with it that delicious warmth and softness.

The roaring increased in volume, and he cringed.

“You okay?”

The voice of an angel, a perfect match for the scent. Danika. The roaring became a broken mewling, her rich timbre soothing the beast.

What was it about her? What made her so different from the other women he’d known?

Ashlyn had alleviated Maddox’s torment. Anya had renewed Lucien’s desire to love. Both women had accepted the warriors for who and what they were. Danika enhanced Reyes’s pain
and
drove him crazy. She would never accept him. But even if a miracle happened and she could, he would never be able to bed her, thereby allowing Pain to sink its claws inside her. Change her.

As a couple, they were hopeless.

That failed to lessen his need for her. Again, he wondered why. She was pretty, intelligent and courageous, but other women were equally so. Weren’t they? At the moment, he could think of no one else whose bright eyes pierced him to his soul. No one else whose silky hair caressed his skin so perfectly. No one else who faced him dead on and refused to back down.

Only Danika.

Her name whispered through his mind, and he eased open his eyelids. First thing he noticed was that morning sunlight seeped past the black curtains, painting hazy yellow dots everywhere he looked. Normal enough. Then a dazzling halo appeared in front of him, strands of pale hair tickling his chest. A soft breast meshed into his side.

“You okay?” Danika asked again. Concern burned in her sleep-rich eyes, lids at half-mast. Through the thick shield of her spiked lashes, he could see electric green, his new favorite color. “You took quite a beating last night.”

“Last night?” His voice was raspy, and every word rubbed his throat raw. A delicious sensation. “Your hair.” He reached up and drew several strands through his fingers. “Pale again.”

“I took another shower and the semipermanent dye washed the rest of the way out.”

“I like it.”

Appearing uncomfortable, she nibbled on her bottom lip.

His body heated another degree. Oh, to have those teeth nibbling on
him
again. “Last night?” he prompted.

“With Aeron. In his cell.”

The memories flooded him, images flashing one after another, and he jerked upright. He’d taken Danika into the dungeon. He’d entered Aeron’s cell. Aeron had looked guilty at the mention of Danika’s family, as if he’d already taken one—or more—out. Then Aeron had attacked him and Pain had loved it.

Mortification created a symphony inside him: the pound of
his heart, the rush of his blood, the purr of his demon. He’d reveled in it, and Danika had been there, had seen him take pleasure in so vicious an act.

Shamed to his soul, he closed his eyes, dropped his head into his waiting hands.
She doesn’t know,
he assured himself.
Otherwise, she would not be sitting calmly on the bed, conversing with you. She would be hurling insults like “pervert” and “deviant.”

Some women could accept his particular brand of pleasure. Most could not. For a few years, Reyes had found his partners in BDSM clubs. They’d been secret venues back then. Private. The women had liked to be strapped down, whipped, and he’d liked delivering the pain. And when he’d commanded them to hurt him, they’d done so willingly, happily.

But after learning that the women he’d bedded had erupted in violent sprees, he’d stopped going to the clubs. For centuries, he’d relied only on his own hand, cutting himself while he fisted his cock. Then he’d had what he’d considered an epiphany. Surely those females had been predisposed to violence. Surely
that
was why they’d harmed innocents so casually after bedding him.

So he’d tried again, this time taking Paris’s advice and choosing Sunday-school teachers and librarians as his bedmates. The first few times he’d asked them to wear spurs on their ankles and dig them into his back. Among other things he did not like to recall. “You’re sick,” a few had cried. “Get help, you pervert.”

If only they had continued to resist him.

Before long, they, too, had begun to crave pain. For themselves, a thousand others. When he noticed the hungry glint burning deep in their eyes, he’d ceased all contact, hoping, praying they would morph back into the women they’d once been. They hadn’t.

Soft fingers brushed his brow, smoothing his hair out of the way. Always before, that type of touch had disgusted him.
Physically, he’d felt nothing, so the gesture had merely reminded him of what he could never have. Only the hard bite of nails and the sharp sting of teeth had delighted him.

Here, now, with Danika, he still felt nothing physically, but the generous act rocked him emotionally and he found it just as tantalizing as a sting. She had never touched him like this before.

Your demon infects every woman you desire. To have Danika is to damn her soul. Do not forget.

“Reyes?”

He blinked, Danika coming into slow focus. “Yes.”

“I lost you.”

“I am sorry. You are well?” he asked.

“Yes.”

Her hand fell away from him, and both he and the demon wanted to shout in protest. He blinked in surprise. The demon was upset? Missing a soft touch?

“There was a…creature with Aeron.”

“Yes,” Reyes said with a nod. “I remember.”

“Had you seen it before? Do you know where it came from?”

“I had not, but I know it came from hell.” Pain had recognized it for what it was—a brother in evil. Reyes turned his head, facing Danika. “Do not concern yourself with him.”

She paled, color fading to snow-white. Whatever thoughts danced in her head were not pleasant. “Why didn’t you fight him?”

“The little demon?”

“No. Aeron. I’ve seen you engage him in combat before. You weren’t afraid. You were strong and…” She gulped, as though the rest of the confession pained her. “Capable. But this time, you just stood there. You let him hurt you.”

Reyes straightened fully, his eyes never leaving her. Her legs curved behind her, her hip flat on the mattress. She rested her weight on one elbow, her hair a glorious silk curtain that fell over her shoulders. She still wore jeans. Jeans he had picked out for
her. He felt pride and satisfaction, for he’d spent hours shopping for her, hopeful he would one day see her in what he chose.

Her features were so delicate. She could have fallen straight from the heavens and he would not have been surprised. Small, pert nose, rounded cherub cheeks. Ruby-red lips that glistened.

As always, the sight of her caused his chest to ache. Pain loved it, loved the ache and the ensuing hollow sensation in the pit of his stomach. Reyes smiled wryly. Perhaps he would simply gaze upon Danika for the rest of her too-short human life. His demon would always be sated.

At the thought of her death, the ache became a throb.

“Well?” she said.

What had she asked him? He replayed their entire conversation in his mind. Oh, yes. Aeron. Reyes’s secret enjoyment. He’d had good intentions before Pain took over. “I have hurt him many times. He owed me.”

“No.” Danika shook her head. “That’s not why you did it.”

He frowned. No way in hell could she guess the truth. “Then why?”

“You wanted answers. For me. And you thought that was the only way to get them.”

All right, maybe she could. Until now, she had only believed the worst about him. Was she…could she possibly be softening toward him?

“Are you and Aeron still friends?” There was a hard edge to her tone this time. So much for softening.

“Yes. We are.” He hoped. He loved Aeron. He did. Danika, though…He still wasn’t sure how he felt about her or what, exactly, she meant to him. Only that she did mean something she shouldn’t, and he couldn’t stop the emotions she pulled out of him.

Can’t have her.

“Stop,” she said stiffly, and turned away from him. She stared up at the ceiling.

His brows furrowed in confusion. “Stop what?”

“I don’t know. That gleam in your eyes when you look at me, it…distresses me.”

“I cannot help myself.”

A pause. “There can be nothing between us, Reyes.” There at the end, her voice cracked.

“I know.”

She wrapped her arms around herself. “What am I doing here?”

“I could not leave you with the Hunters.” Truth.

“Maybe you should have.”

In that moment, he knew beyond any doubt the Hunters had asked her to act as Bait. His stomach rolled into several hard knots, each beating against the other. He would have to remain alert with her. Always alert. Not reveal anything that could hurt his friends. He would have to watch her, make sure she didn’t try and sneak those bastards inside the fortress or tell them where the warriors were headed. And why.

But he couldn’t let her go. He couldn’t kill her, even though it was the smart thing to do. Even though his friends would demand it if they learned the truth. They suspected, otherwise Sabin wouldn’t have entered Reyes’s room to question her.

How much danger was Reyes placing them in by letting her live? Did it matter to him?
I am such a fool.
Perhaps he did love her.

Pain laughed giddily at the thought, for love brought its own brand of torment. Lots and lots of torment. In the heart, the soul. Both causing a physical ache too intense to be relieved.

Reyes scowled. “Do not mention the Hunters to my friends,” he commanded tightly.

She laughed. Unlike Pain’s, it was not out of giddiness. Strain echoed in the undertones of that forced amusement. “I couldn’t, even if I wanted to.”

“And why is that?”

“They left.”

His confusion morphed into anger, and he jolted to his feet. The stone was cold against his skin. He stalked to his closet. “When?”

“This morning.”

“Everyone?”

“Except the one named Torin. Maybe a few others. I can’t keep your friends straight.”

Pausing in the door frame, Reyes pinched the bridge of his nose. Once he would have been furious at being left behind. Now, what he felt for Danika was even stronger than his desire to find
dimOuniak.

“They came for you. When they saw you were still recovering, they told me to deliver a message.”

A muscle ticked below each of his eyes as he pivoted and faced her. “Well? Deliver it.”

Danika raised her chin. It was an action of defiance and one he’d noted she performed often, ready to take on the world. “The one called Sabin said to tell you to stop acting like a pussy and do your duty. What’s in Rome? Someone mentioned a temple.”

Reyes ignored her question and glanced down at himself to hide the glint of fury he knew must be shining in his eyes. His weapons were no longer strapped to his ankles and thighs, but he still wore his jeans. They were unfastened. While he liked the thought of Danika undressing him, he did not like the notion that she could have taken his weapons.

He hated that he had slept like the dead. She could have done anything at all—might have done everything—and he wouldn’t have known. Frowning, he hastily snapped the jeans and turned back to his closet. He withdrew the velvet-lined cache of guns and knives, saw that was in order, nothing out of place. Good. He wouldn’t have to frisk her.

“I didn’t steal from you,” she said sharply.

“All right.” Not that he believed her. He palmed one of each weapon, then checked the gun’s chamber. Loaded. He’d have to be more careful now that Danika was living with him. He
couldn’t keep his weapons at the ready. His frown deepened as he stored the semiautomatic at his back and faced her.

She was watching him warily, her features as pale as a snow queen’s might be. The ache returned to his chest, and he bit the inside of his cheek. The gods should be punished for endowing one person with so much beauty.

“Headed somewhere?” she asked.

“Maybe.” His gaze roved over the walls. Two daggers were missing, though she’d taken great pains to cover her tracks by shifting the angle of the weapons that had once surrounded them.

He didn’t blame her, wouldn’t take them from her. He was surprisingly…aroused by the thought of this woman being armed.
Idiot.
She probably wanted his blood spilled all over the floor, pooling between the stones.

He shivered at the thought. She would have to stab him to spill his blood, and gods knew how good that would feel.
If she wanted you dead, she could have cut off your head last night.

“Why didn’t you run from me while you had the chance?” he asked.

She slapped a hand over her forehead and fell against the pillows. “I don’t know. I’m a moron.”

“Why didn’t you hurt me?”

“Again, I don’t know. Okay? You’re the goddamn enemy. I should be able to cut your throat, no problem. I’ve trained for it, you know?”

He blinked. “For cutting my throat?”

“Yes. I’ve taken classes. Not just self-defense, but classes that teach you how to take down your enemy and get away with it.” She brushed a piece of lint from her leg. “I will
never
be helpless again.”

I helped destroy her innocence, and I didn’t even have to touch her.
Shameful.

Reyes leaned his shoulder against the closet’s frame. “Do not
be too upset with yourself. Perhaps you could not bring yourself to hurt an unconscious man. That is an honorable thing.”

“Yes, but you aren’t a man.”

No, he wasn’t. He was a demon, and the reminder stung. Enough to prompt the next words to tumble out of his mouth. “I am awake. Try now.”