Call of the Siren (24 page)

“
Fuck
.” He let out a scream of fury that shocked the infant into a hiccupping silence. Clutching his head, Rage forced the unwanted images from his mind. The last thing he needed was to be thinking of that bitch right now. He’d sworn when she died that he would never let her dominate his thoughts again.

The baby let out another soft hiccup. His teary gaze landed on Rage, and something deep and unfamiliar unfurled in his chest. Those damn eyes…they looked so much like his in their unglamoured state.

“Ga ga,” the infant said, releasing the fist in his mouth and clumsily punching those wet fingers toward him.

Oh, hell. Rage had seen a lot of sick, twisted shit in his life. More than half the time, it had been
him
doing it. But this—what Belpheg was doing to this infant—was truly twisted. It made him sick to his stomach.

“Ga?” The baby sucked his knuckles back into his mouth, shooting Rage a glance that he could have sworn looked hopeful.

“Fuck me,” Rage breathed. He momentarily shut his eyes, giving into the inevitable.

He couldn’t leave this child here alone.

Even as he knew he was signing his own death warrant, he bent down to scoop up the infant, blanket and all. The child made a startled noise and his slobbery fists landed on Rage’s chest, snatching the tight fabric of his black shirt into his tiny hands.

“There, there.” Awkwardly, he patted the infant on the back. Even though he felt stupid doing that, it seemed to calm the little guy. “You’re okay.”

Rage pulled back to meet the infant’s gaze. The baby stared steadily up at him.

“You’re going to be the death of me, you know.” His heart gave a tight squeeze when a toothless grin transformed the kid’s face.

“Ah, eff it. My soul was doomed to hell anyway.”

From the moment he was born. Why prolong the inevitable?

Turning, he raced up the stairs with the baby tight in his grasp.

It was pandemonium on the ground floor. Though the earth had stopped trembling, the screams and cries of Belpheg’s ishtari henchmen echoed all the way back here.

Unable to help himself, he headed toward the sound at the front of the castle. Yeah, probably stupid given that he had the baby in his arms, but he would find no escape from the rear of the property at any rate. The moat surrounding the castle prevented him from skulking into the forest, and on top of that, the impenetrable barrier kept him firmly ensconced within the castle grounds. Besides, he was banking on Belpheg and Mammon being completely focused on whatever the hell was going on out there.

He passed several of Belpheg’s household staff as he made his way down the corridor, but they didn’t even notice him. They were much too busy screaming and running away in panic.

What the hell is happening out there?

The terrified expressions on the servants’ faces was enough to fill even the boldest man with caution. If he was sane, he’d turn around and run the other way. But since any sanity he’d once held had long ago been beaten out of him, he pushed forward.

As Rage reached the threshold, he stopped cold at the sight before him. It was fresh out of one of those horror movies humans seemed to favor so much. He’d seen a lot of crazy shit back in his home world, and even here on earth, but this was…
wow.

A small army of skeletons descended on them, spilling out of the dense forest surrounding the massive, manicured front lawn. Their spread-out location indicated that Belpheg’s invisible barrier had somehow come down. Either that or someone had made quick work of tearing a wide hole with that sword Belpheg had told him the Detainors carried.

Most of the advancing corpses lacked any flesh, but as he watched, one of the ishtari guards flew over a group of three skeletons on the outer edge of the property, attempting to slice them in half with the sword in his grasp. He missed. One of the zombies reached up and grabbed him by the wing, knocking him to the ground. The three skeletons were on him before the ishtari could do more than let out a few petrified screams. They ripped and gnawed at his flesh, devouring him within moments. As they ate, their bodies began to flesh out, gory sinew modeling itself over the bones.

“Fucking awesome,” Rage breathed.

Belpheg, who stood several feet from the base of the stairs leading down to the lawn, turned to the twelve men who’d lined up at his right side. “Do something. Use your powers!”

The majority of the men—with the exception of Maddox, the incubus he’d befriended over the past few days who he knew despised the things Belpheg had done in the name of justice—sprung into action. They raised their hands, sending ribbons of energy toward the several dozen zombies that had now ambled from the forest. But most of their magic bounced off the corpses harmlessly. A few of the skeletons rattled from the vibrations of the magic and fell to pieces, but they immediately began to reform, barely slowing their forward progress.

Muttering a curse, Belpheg motioned to the chief sentinel Emry. “Get the rest of the ishtari out there.”

“They’ve already taken most of them down,” Emry yelled back, his eyes wild with fright. “They’re no match for zombies. Why don’t you use
your
magic? You’re the most powerful one here!”

Belpheg let out a loud curse, and Rage thought he’d strike Emry down. But in the end, he refocused his attention on the corpses and lifted his shaking hands in the air.

Time to go.

While everyone was still distracted.

After securing the now eerily quiet infant in his arms, Rage stepped past the threshold and raced toward the stone balustrade to the left of the staircase. He leaped on it and dropped the twenty or so feet to the ground, landing with minimal impact. The baby let out a soft hiccup but made no other noise, simply holding tighter to his shirt with his tiny fists.

As if trusting Rage to keep him safe.

Hold on tight, little buddy. I’ll get you out of here.

Though he had no clue what the fuck he’d do with the kid then.

Using his preternatural speed, he raced toward a spot on the left edge of the forest that appeared to be free of zombies. Part of him expected Belpheg to notice and strike him down as he ran, but to his surprise, he made it past the first copse of trees without incident. The frantic sounds of Belpheg’s battling men receded just a fraction as he sped deeper into the woods.

A wave of power rolled through the forest, momentarily knocking him to his knees. He squeezed the baby tight to his chest and absorbed the force of the energy. The feel of it was familiar.

Belpheg got the barrier back up.

Lucky for him and the kid, he had safely made it to the other side first.

Rage started to rise, but before he could stumble to his feet ,something struck him from the side, almost causing him to lose his grip on the bundle in his arms.

“Shit,” he cried out, righting himself. But when he looked for the source, his heart all but stopped. It was a zombie, a fleshless skeleton who lunged at him with its fierce jaws snapping. The zombie latched onto his elbow and tore off a chunk of flesh. Almost immediately, it began to build sinew, causing its bones to drip with gore.

“Ow!” Pain tore down his arm, seizing his muscles with blinding heat.

Motherfucker, that hurt!

And so, so gross, up close and personal.

Keeping his other grip firm on the baby, he shook the zombie off when it advanced again. Flesh wounds would heal, but nothing would bring him back if the damn thing managed to tear him to pieces.

Not to mention what those powerful jaws could do to a defenseless little baby…

He scrambled to his feet just in time to send the zombie flying when it lunged for him again, but his relief was short-lived. Something else knocked into him from behind, and he barely managed to avoid crushing the infant or knocking his tiny head into the ground when he fell forward onto his elbows and knees. A second later, a jagged ache tore through his back, forcing a cry from his throat. Though he couldn’t see the creature behind him, the rancid smell and dripping gore told him it was another zombie.

Instinctively, Rage squatted over the infant, protecting it from the zombie at his back and the other zombie who even now scuttled back toward him. “Get the fuck away. You can’t have him!”

Bony fingers closed over his neck, and he flinched, preparing for the worst, when a woman’s cry unexpectedly rent the air. “Stop!
Stop
!”

The anguished sound of the woman’s voice caused his hair to stand on end. Somehow he knew, to the depths of his soul, that its shrill tenor would haunt him to the very end of his days…

However much longer that might be.

Rage froze and, much to his amazement, so did the zombies. Then, they surprised him even more by scampering backward, freeing him from their clutches. They remained crowded around him though, panting and dripping fluids from their jaws, as if simply awaiting the order to attack.

His mouth dropped open in shock. Rage lifted his gaze toward the source of the sound.

A beautiful woman stood several feet away, just beside a tree. Her thin form was encased in dark jeans and a black sweater, and her long, brown hair had been pulled back from a face that had blanched at the sight of him. Beside her stood a muscular, shirtless man with flashing turquoise eyes and dark hair that hung in ragged layers past his chin. The man was frozen in place, his hawk-like stare taking in every minute detail of the scene before him.

“Aegin?” the woman’s voice trembled, her gaze locked on the squirming bundle nestled between Rage’s elbows.

The infant let out a sharp, plaintive wail, his plump fists jabbing the air.

“
Aegin
!”

The combined shriek of panic and joy in her voice was so palpable that it caused a full-blown shudder to wrack Rage’s entire body. Startled, he pushed back onto his knees.

Without further warning, the woman raced forward, rapidly closing the distance between them. She snatched the bundled infant out of his arms. Ragged, soul-wrenching sobs tore from her throat as she ran past Rage, straight out of sight.

When he tried to turn his head to see where she’d gone, the zombie at his back closed in, a ribbon of bloody slime dribbling from its meaty jaws. Flinching, he directed his gaze back to the man who now stalked toward him with an implacable expression on his face.

While the zombies continued to flank Rage, the man stopped no more than a few feet in front of him. The stranger’s curious gaze raked over his face. “You were protecting him.”

A hot flush crept to Rage’s cheeks. Feeling suddenly foolish about his unexpected lapse in behavior, he bristled. “So fucking what?”

The stranger arched a brow and bent down to look him straight in the eye.

That was when Rage realized, with a start, that the man’s thick, straight brows and the stark curve of his jaw matched his own. Their cheeks could have been molded from the same cast. Even the line of the man’s broad, muscular shoulders held a sense of familiarity.

When the stranger let out a startled puff of air and rocked back on his heels, his eyes going wide, Rage figured he’d just made the connection too.

Interesting…

Rage sat back on his haunches and unabashedly exchanged glances with the man looming over him. Somehow, he sensed that everything in his world was about to change.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Vicious streams of energy wound through Belpheg’s arms, causing them to shake uncontrollably as he concentrated his efforts on resurrecting the invisible barrier around his property. Barely visible currents of power wound down from the moon into the forest directly ahead. The other side had a light-worker on their team—a moon elf.

Normally the elf would be no match for him. Their magical powers weren’t particularly strong. But he was so very weak right now, and he needed to focus on conserving what energy he had left for the casting of the circle.

“What’s wrong?” Mammon ground out from his right side. “This should be no problem for someone with your magical power.”

“Shut up and go get the child,” he snarled, resisting the urge to strike out at Mammon for his snarky comments.

Once Mammon disappeared from his side, Belpheg turned to Emry. “Get out there and stop those things, no matter what it takes.”

Emry’s eyes flashed with fear, but he obeyed, flying out along with the two remaining guards to battle the zombies. But still, too many of them advanced for the guards to handle on their own.

Damnation.

“Get out there and stop them, but protect yourselves at all costs,” Belpheg yelled to his twelve, who were currently using their powers to try to stop the advance from a distance.

All but one of the men instantly obeyed. Unfortunately, their abilities, while impressive in their own right, had little effect over the undead creatures who clearly felt no pain. Though they raced this way and that, Belpheg feared they might get turned into zombie meat at any moment.

That simply wouldn’t do.

He concentrated his efforts on painstakingly weaving the invisible shield over the property once more, gritting his teeth to work through the pain in his chest. Finally, with a flash of power that stole the breath from his lungs, the barrier rose again.

He clutched his chest and bent over, panting for breath. When one of his twelve rushed to his side, he waved the man away. “Help the others destroy the rest of the zombies.”

Once the pain in his stuttering heart subsided, he straightened to observe the scene on his front lawn. His men had dismantled the zombies who remained on this side of the barrier and, with frantic movements, tossed the body parts in various directions in order to slow their reformation.

Emry appeared to be the only ishtari guard left standing, though chunks of flesh had been torn from his battered body. Belpheg watched as he and several of the twelve began to bury the heads. That slowed the corpses even further. However, just outside the barrier, additional zombies lined up in droves, their teeth snapping as they clamored for entrance.

Scrubbing his face with one shaking hand, Belpheg cursed himself for picking a spot that had been the final resting place for so many men. But he hadn’t imagined anything like this would happen.

“Mammon’s sons have been keeping secrets of their own.”

The Book of the Dead hadn’t been destroyed as they’d assured the Council…either that or the heir to the book had somehow retained its magic.

“Belpheg,” a voice called out from behind him.

He turned to see a wild-eyed Mammon rushing down the stairs of the castle. “He’s gone!”

Belpheg’s heart seized. He rubbed the tender spot until the fierce staccato of his heartbeat resumed once more. “
What
?”

Mammon came to a frantic stop in front of him. “The child, he’s gone. Missing.”

“
Missing
?” Clenching his teeth, Belpheg counted to three. “How is that possible? He can’t even crawl.”

“I don’t know.” Mammon’s gaze held a hint of panic, as if he feared he’d be shot for being the messenger. As tempting as that seemed, Belpheg still had use for the man.

Turning back toward his makeshift battlefield, Belpheg observed the zombies once more. Even dismembered and scattered, with the heads buried in the earth, the parts still worked to reassemble themselves. Bones shifted and wiggled along the ground in an effort to find their match.

The zombies outside the barrier tore at the invisible force field, mindlessly seeking to accomplish their goal. Energy practically seeped from their bodies, crackling the air around them.

Pure, unbridled energy.

“What are we going to do?” Mammon asked, his voice hoarse. “I don’t have all my powers yet.”

No, and that was a true concern, especially since the currents pulsating from the barrier told him it wasn’t going to last this time. The moon elf on the other side must be working to bring it down again, and he was doing a damn good job of it. Belpheg had minutes, half an hour at most, before the barrier fell. He didn’t have enough power left to keep it up. Not without his centering spell.

“I think we’re going to have to improvise,” he said.

“Improvise?” Mammon shifted in his spot, shooting a fearful look toward the mindless creatures on the other side of the barrier. “How?”

The Detainors and the heir to the zombies thought they were gaining ground by using zombies as an attack mechanism. But maybe they were inadvertently helping him instead.

Before he’d been informed that the book had been destroyed, Belpheg had sought to retrieve it and use the energy created by the resurrected beings to fuel his own body. Perhaps he could use the zombies to lend Mammon the additional strength he’d need in order to form the circle.

It was risky. He couldn’t deny that. But the Detainors were out of his grasp now, and attempting to capture them would be even riskier without the lure of his miniature bargaining chip.

No, better to use the corpses to fuel Mammon, form the circle, and rid himself of Mammon’s pesky sons once and for all. They’d turned out to be far more trouble than they were worth.

“Get the remainder of the twelve and form the circle out on the lawn,” Belpheg barked before turning and starting up the stairs.

“But what about the rest of my powers?” Mammon yelled at his back. “Where are you going?”

“To prepare for the centering ritual,” he called back.

He was going to need his scrolls for this. They would guide him, point him in the right direction. They always had.

He’d come too far to give up now.

…

Lina and the rest of the group gathered around the clearing hidden deep within the dense forest. They’d debated splitting up before attacking the castle since they didn’t know the extent of the dark fae’s powers. But ultimately, they’d decided to stick together. They could always split up if need be.

As it turned out, they hadn’t needed to. Yet.

Instead, they’d received an unexpected boon.

Her gaze moved from Tenos, who stood halfway across the clearing with his hands stretched toward the moon while he muttered an incantation, to Brynn, who sat slumped against a tree on the opposite end of the clearing. A precious bundle squirmed in her arms.

Aegin. Thank the gods.

Brynn made cooing noises at him, her teary-eyed smile so wide that Lina’s heart split open just watching the two of them.

Brynn and Aegin’s story might have a happy ending yet.

Watching the two of them, Lina couldn’t help but think of her own daughter. While she would forever grieve Sara’s death, as well as the part she and Thorne played in it, the past had shaped her into who she was now. The best way to honor Sara’s memory would be to continue her efforts to become a better person. To fight for what was right.

I promise to never give up, Sara. To honor your memory, I’ll never give up again.

She redirected her attention to the stranger who’d shown up twenty minutes ago, stalking through the clearing with Keegan at his side. The man who acted like he didn’t know or even cared whether or not he was a prisoner.

Another freaking brother.

It certainly didn’t surprise her that there was one, given what she’d learned of Mammon. The demon no doubt had countless others spread throughout the worlds. But the fact that they’d met one, and that Rage had worked for Belpheg but delivered Aegin to them…that was definitely a shocker.

“Once Mammon absorbed your essences through the succubi Belpheg keeps prisoner, Belpheg was going to use him as the twelfth to form his centering ritual,” Rage said. He leaned against a tree, and he was surprisingly nonchalant given that he was surrounded by a crew consisting of Keegan, Taeg, Ronin, Dagan, her, Amara, and Amara’s mother and succubi friends.

“That bastard,” Amara spat.

One of her friends reached out and grabbed Amara’s hand, squeezing it tight. They’d been through a lot together, and Lina could only imagine how they must feel hearing that Belpheg had succubi slaves of his own.

“So if we strike now, does that mean he won’t be able to perform the ritual since he doesn’t have all twelve of his men fully powered?” Dagan asked.

Rage shrugged. “Got me.”

“Tell me again,
what
were you doing there with them?” Ronin growled, animosity and unease radiating from his pores. It was clear her big brother trusted the hybrid about as much as she did, but even still, she had to recognize the guy had done them a favor by getting Aegin out of that castle.

Slipping his hands into his pockets, Rage said, “Belpheg contacted me a few months ago, told me he could arrange for me to meet Mammon. I was curious about the man who fathered me, nothing more.”

“Yeah, so why did you stay?” Taeg inched a little closer to Rage, as if expecting the guy to try something at any moment.

“Nothing better to do.” When Ronin and Taeg continued to regard him with clear suspicion, he let out a snort. “It’s not as if I became chummy with him or anything. In case you didn’t realize it, Mammon is an asshole who doesn’t give a shit about anything other than himself.”

“Oh, we realize it,” Dagan muttered.

“Count yourself lucky as fuck you didn’t have to grow up with the sadistic bastard,” Taeg threw in.

Rage didn’t respond, but something dark flashed in his gaze, something that warned Lina his story was probably just as complicated—and messed up—as the rest of theirs.

“So what now?” Rage asked.

“Now we kill Belpheg…and Mammon, too.” Keegan’s tone was aggressive, as if he challenged Rage to naysay him.

But the hybrid only gave him a
Who-the-fuck-cares
look that quickly grew contemplative. “You know, I might be able to help.”

Keegan cocked one brow at Rage’s unexpected offering. “How?”

“One of the twelve, he hates the fuck out of Belpheg, and from what I can tell, he’s sort of got a death wish. Maybe I can convince him to join your side. With him out of the picture, you might stand a chance of taking Belpheg out.”

Dagan gave him a dubious look. “Why would he help us? Isn’t he bound to the dark fae or something?”

Rage’s brow furrowed and he shrugged. “What’s the worst that’ll happen, he gets killed? At this point, he’d probably find that a relief.”

He said the words with such absolute certainty that Lina had no doubt he meant them.

Keegan gave him a pensive look before turning to his brothers. “Give us a minute.”

He headed to a spot just out of range, with Ronin, Taeg, and Dagan hot on his tail. When Dagan turned and cocked his head in her direction, Lina took that as her cue to join them. Amara fell into place beside her. She stopped next to Dagan, and he took her hand, enveloping her with a sense of warmth and belonging that almost coaxed a smile to her face.

“What do you think?” Keegan asked them in a low voice.

“I don’t think we can trust him,” Taeg replied.

“Hell, no,” added Ronin.

Amara glanced back and forth between Rage and the rest of them. “I don’t know. I think he actually wants to help.”

When Ronin let out a disbelieving scoff, Lina chimed in. “I agree with Amara.”

They all turned to her, and she elaborated. “He’s stayed here with Belpheg and Mammon, so we know he’s messed up in the head, but when it came down to it, he was willing to sacrifice his own life to save a child he doesn’t even know.”

“That doesn’t mean he’ll help us when it comes down to it,” Ronin argued.

“No, but I think he will.” She glanced back at Rage, who watched them through shuttered eyes. Even though his body posture was casual, as if he didn’t care one way or the other what they did, she sensed something deep inside. Saw something haunted in his eyes.

Something familiar.

“He plays it easy, like he doesn’t give a shit, but deep down he wants to belong,” she murmured, her gaze locked on Rage. “Whatever happened to him growing up, it left a void inside him. He tried to fill it with Mammon, but you guys know all too well what a futile effort that is. I think he’ll give anything, even his life, for a chance to feel like he’s part of something. Even if only for a moment.”

A long moment of silence.

“How do you know this?” Ronin asked.

She turned her gaze back to the man she loved like a brother, the man she’d desperately mourned after he disappeared from her life. For the first time since she’d been reunited with him, she spoke the words in her heart. “I know because I feel it in him, Ronin. That need to belong, to be loved. Because I felt the same way. Before I found you guys.”

Ronin sucked in his breath, his eyes going soft.

When Dagan squeezed her hand, she shifted her gaze to him. His warm, reassuring smile melted her from the inside out.

“I’m proud of you,” he murmured.

Thank you,
she mouthed, unable to force the words past the sudden clog in her throat.

Suddenly she knew…she would have to tell Dagan the whole truth about her role in Sara’s death. Maybe he’d hate her for it, but he needed to know. Because this was one secret she just couldn’t live with. Every time he looked at her with love in his eyes, she’d know she hadn’t told him, and it would eat at her until there was nothing left.

No, he had to know.

“I agree with Lina,” Dagan said, his tone strong and sure. “We all know what it’s like to grow up with a void. We had each other at least. That poor sap—I get the sense he didn’t have anyone. And that really sucks.”