Darkest Before Dawn (21 page)

No, he couldn’t be telling me this. This wasn’t real. “Akil, what exactly have you done?” My hands clenched at my sides, fists aching as my muscles strained.

Firelight played in his eyes. “She’s with the Institute.”

My balance tilted out from under me, and my vision blurred. Staggering back, I fell against the countertop. “No. No, Akil. You aren’t telling me this. The Institute?” I slumped forward and concentrated on my breathing because, if I didn’t focus on something other than the rage bubbling up from the depths inside, I was going to lose control. I heard myself repeating “No” over and over, even as my element thrashed inside me. “She’s just a little girl... Just a little thing... She deserved a shot at freedom, you son of a bitch.”

“She’s gone. There is nothing more to be done.”

I swung my head around and snarled, welcoming my demon as close to the surface as she could get. “Get her back.”

He blinked and held my stare. “This is not negotiable.”

“You’re afraid of her, aren’t you?” I grinned. “The mighty Prince of Greed is afraid of a nine year old girl.”

“She plucked an immortal chaos demon apart at the molecular level. Yes, I’m afraid of her. I happen to enjoy living, even after all these years. A whelp of a girl isn’t going to threaten my existence.”

“You selfish bastard. She wouldn’t have hurt you. She only hurt Levi because he was going to kill Ryder and hand us both over to Asmodeus. She trusted you.”

“That was her mistake.” He arched an eyebrow and gave me a bored look. “Did you witness her killing Leviathan?” He saw the answer on my face. “Then you know how wild she is. Look past her human vulnerability, and see the demon inside her soul, Muse. It would be remiss of me to let a threat like that walk free.”

She would have killed me. I already knew that, but I’d tried to convince myself that I’d understood her. “Do you have any idea what they’ll do to her?”

“She is in the only place the demons cannot reach her.”

I shoved off the counter and strode up to him, crowding his personal space. Jenna watched from the sidelines as I faced off with the Prince of Greed. “Take me there. Now.”

“No.” He glowered down at me, fiery eyes fierce with defiance. “If you go there, all you will accomplish is your own incarceration. Is that what you want?”

“I don’t care about me, Akil. I’m already lost.”

Jenna chose that moment to bolt for freedom. I cursed and lunged after her. Akil snatched my wrist, pulling me up short. “Let her go,” he growled.

I tugged, but his unyielding grip held me fast. “Goddamn you, Akil. She’ll tell Val where Dawn is. You think he’s going to let the Institute stop him getting what he wants? He’ll send Jenna in. She’ll get Dawn for him. I have to stop him. I have to get her out of there before they ruin her like they did Stefan, like they did me. Let me go, Akil. Just let me go.”

A flicker of acknowledgement narrowed his eyes. He exhaled a curse and released me. I ran after Jenna, only slowing as I approached the open back door. I couldn’t see her outside, nor could I see my brother. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t there. I stepped out into the blazing sunshine, expecting to feel the touch of his power, but the absence of his element told me all I needed to know. He was gone. He could flit between vast distances just as well as Akil. He might already be at the Institute, manipulating Jenna.

I climbed into Akil’s Lamborghini and jabbed the start button. The car burst into life with a hungry, resonating growl. The instruments lit up. I flicked the paddle shift into gear and spun the car, kicking up a wave of gravel in my wake. Akil could try to stop me at any time. We’d fight. I’d win.

The supercar twitched under my control, champing at the bit as I planted my foot to the floor.
I’m coming for you
,
Dawn.

A
plume
of black smoke marred the pale blue sky over Boston. I spotted the cloud a few miles outside the city limits, but as I crawled the Lambo through the early morning traffic and the cloud bellowed higher, an unsettling sense of dread crawled across my flesh. I flicked on the radio. It didn’t take long to locate a news broadcast. A warehouse complex was ablaze. I flicked to another station. The reporter was giving a breakdown on an international company charged with policing the demons: the Institute.

Disregarding traffic laws, I demanded everything the Lambo could give me and plowed through the clogged main routes. Akil must have left Dawn at the Institute while I slept, no more than a few hours ago. What had happened in that time? This had to be Val’s doing.

I abandoned the Lambo as close to the Institute as I could get, outside a barrier of fire trucks and fought my way through a crowd of onlookers. Black smoke blotted out the sun. Thick, rolling shadows rippled across the walking wounded huddled around ambulances. It was chaos. There had to be hundreds of people spilling from the Institute doors.

I searched the faces for any signs of Ryder or Adam but couldn’t see them.

“Ma’am, you can’t go any further.” A stocky fireman in all his firefighting gear blocked my path.

“I work there. I can help.”

“There’s nothing you can do.”

A crackle on his radio drew his attention. I skirted around him and bolted between two fire trucks. Two rigs had extended their ladders over the flat roof of the warehouse complex. I couldn’t see any flames, but smoke rolled skyward with no sign of letting up. I called my element and immediately felt the blast of heat inside the building and something else, the sickly, abhorrent touch of Dawn’s unique power.

A line of firefighters helped a steady stream of smoke-damaged people spill from the doors. I strode up to them, very much aware of my unassuming appearance. They weren’t going to let me inside. I didn’t need to see their eyes behind their visors to know that.

In the next step, I threw a second skin of flame across my body and plastered a crazy grin on my face. They all recoiled. The wounded scattered. One of the firefighters barked into his radio, “There’s a woman, a-a demon woman coming your way.”

“Have you vented the smoke?” I asked, my demon-voice barely more than a growl.

The guy peering back at me gave me a wary nod. “What you gonna do?” He hedged, clearly not sure if he should try to stop me from entering the building.

“Fire demon.” I quirked an eyebrow. “I’m going to put the fire out.” That was the plan, although I’d technically never tried to extinguish a fire anywhere near the size of the inferno raging inside the the Institute. “You goin’ to let me pass?”

He stepped aside.

Smoke immediately hindered my advance through the building. I pulled my element into me, not needing to add to the heat already pulsing against the walls. A few stragglers hurried by, coughing into rolled up shirts, their eyes wild with fear. Shoring myself up with a courage I didn’t know I possessed, I kept low and ventured deeper into the building.

A closed door blocked my path. From the bubbling paint and terrible weight of heat throbbing the air, the inferno raged beyond. I planted my feet and called my demon, letting her slip inside my skin and protect my fragile human flesh beneath her lava-veined skin. My wing jutted against the ceiling. I drew it in behind me and sucked in a deep, smoldering breath. Time to see if I could tame the flames. Dawn was in there, alive, if the touch of her power was reliable. She’d be terrified.

I closed my hand around the door handle and shoved.

A wave of super-heated air blasted my body. Fire lunged for freedom and gobbled up the ceiling. I sent out a sharp flicker of power, curling my element around the wild roaring heat and drawing it to me in a motherly embrace. The wildfire coiled around me, answering my call. Power fizzled through my limbs and danced across my skin. A groan escaped me as the fire seeped into my demon flesh.

As I walked on, the flames danced around my blazing body, eager to please. The tunnel of fire beckoned. Blazing energy boiled across the walls and smothered the floors. The dark pollutant around my heart throbbed with the beat of the flames, devouring the rush of heat, feeding its addiction. I was walking a thin line of control. So damn thin it might as well have been a tightrope. My demon rode high, turning me into a beast of molten heat, the walking, living, breathing soul of fire. And I was hungry.

I stumbled against a wall, my hand sinking into the charred plywood. A snarl bubbled from my lips. Ahead, the heart of the fire beat for me, calling me closer. It hungered too. It wanted freedom. So did I. I rolled my shoulders and spread my ragged wing, absorbing the heat through every inch of my flesh. Fire lapped at the pleasure receptors in my brain, firing off my ingrained lust for chaos. It was wicked and divine. All the things my demon wanted, I wanted. I was demon.

I threw my head back and laughed. We walked on, demon and woman soaking up the power, reveling in the simplicity of madness.

Charred timbers rained around me. Ashes swirled in my firestorm. Walls collapsed, floors buckled, and I laughed. The roar of the fire gobbled up my laughter and raged higher. It taunted, beckoning me closer to its heart.

The Institute was lost. Nothing was coming back from this blaze. I felt a curious tease of pleasure ripple down my spine at that knowledge. I could help it on its way. Blast the building to ash. I’d done it before in the netherworld. I could raze the Institute, grind it to dust beneath my feet. If I reached for the veil, I’d feel what it truly meant to destroy. Giddy with power, I chuckled. It was what they deserved. They meddled with demons, cavorted with chaos.
Well, chaos always wins, you sons of bitches.

I sensed something human to my left, behind a blackened door. Someone was alive inside. The blaze tempted me. I didn’t care for these people. They were nothing, fuel for the flames. But my humanity had not yet died. I stumbled against the door and almost tumbled inside as it gave way beneath my superheated flesh. Fire licked at my wing, teasing me further into chaos, but as I swept my gaze around the room I recognized the wall of books and the old, claw-footed desk.

Adam lay sprawled on the floor, a limp hand reaching toward the door. I cocked my head and looked down at the man I despised. I could hear his heartbeat flutter in his chest and his short rasping breaths. He would die here. All I need do was turn and leave. Demon desires tugged me away. The flames beckoned. The firelight’s embrace called. I stayed in the doorway, unable to move.

“Adam...”

His fingers twitched. His heavy eyelids blinked. He rolled his eyes up to me and saw a fire-bathed demon looming over him. I smiled, baring fangs.

“Muse,” he rasped, hand reaching.

A splintering crack above us snapped my attention to the ceiling. Fire pooled above. Melting plastic dripped to the floor, and then the entire ceiling ignited, flooding a wash of tumbling orange flame above us. I thrust an arm out and funneled the hungry fire through my fingers, down my arm, and into my body.

“Go!” I snarled.

He tried to heave his bulk off the floor but collapsed, breathless and unfocused. Dammit. It was taking all my control not to walk away. My demon wanted more than that. She wanted to bury him in flame. It was all he deserved. Nobody needed to know how I’d ushered him toward death.
But I’d know.

“Go, Adam. Go now–” A roar was the only warning before the ceiling and its framework collapsed, slamming me to the floor under the weight of debris. I clung onto consciousness despite a jagged tearing pain assaulting my senses. If I lost consciousness, the fire would roar back to life. I had hold of its reins for now.

I clawed at the floor, grating sharp claws through the melting carpet. Black boots. I blinked, and looked up at the man those boots belonged to. A firefighter peered down at me behind his visor and oxygen mask.

“It’s a demon. Leave it behind.” A voice barked through his radio.

“No.” Adam shouted. A wracking cough almost robbed him of his ability to walk. He leaned heavily on the firefighters hurrying him from the room. “Don’t leave her.”

I wanted to tell the firefighter to help me up. That I could stop this, but it only came out as a growl, probably cementing the notion in his head that I was little more than an animal. I locked my gaze on his eyes behind the soot obscured visor.
Help me.

The voice crackled through his radio again, telling the crew to fall back. The building was lost.

He muttered something that I missed and then crouched beside me and heaved the metal gantry high enough for me to wriggle out. He headed for the hall.

“Come with me,” he said, voice muffled through all his breathing gear. His bright eyes pleading.

I shook my head. “There’s a girl here.” I could still feel Dawn’s power. She wasn’t far. “Go.” I felt his gaze on my back as I walked into the flames.

I
devoured
the fire with every step. Dangerous laughter played in my mind the whole time. It was glorious. I couldn’t escape the sensation of wonderment. Like a proud mother, I admired the destruction the fire wrought even as I corralled the wayward flames to me.

Dawn’s power loomed up ahead in what had once been the cafeteria. As I rounded the ruined corridor, I saw her demon form suspended amid her threads of chaotic tendrils. Black eels of power whipped and thrashed around her, containing her inside a pulsing bubble of dark energy.

Her eyes flicked to me, and treachery burned there.

I tugged on the fire devouring the room and snuffed it out in one sweeping gesture. Smoke drifted and rolled between us, shirking her aura. I caught the unmistakable odor of burned flesh, but I couldn’t see the bodies, just dunes of debris, fragments of ashes, papers, and shredded clothes.

“Dawn...” I stepped closer. A lash of power snapped out at me, clearly a warning. “It’s okay. I won’t hurt you.”

“I was wrong.” Her innocent voice had twisted beneath the riding power of the demon. She didn’t sound like Dawn. She sounded like madness. “I trusted you and Akil. You said not to. You said he was bad. But you trust him, and I trust you.”

The dark boiled around her, dangerous and deadly. I had no doubt she could kill me and probably do it in an instant. I might not even see death coming. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know what he was planning.”