Darkness Surrendered (Primal Heat Trilogy #3) (Order of the Blade) (15 page)

Ryland was pacing behind the couch, his machete clenched in his fist, his body coiled with anticipation and tension. Kane was leaning against the doorjamb, his eyes razor sharp as he watched both Elijah and Ryland, as if he were waiting to see who was going to snap first.

Thano was lounging against the edge of the couch, his mouth quirked in the ever-present smirk he always wore. Zach and Gabe, best friends since they were kids, were standing shoulder to shoulder to the right, while Quinn and Gideon were in a similar pose in the middle of the room.

Ian was noticeably absent.

For which Elijah was grateful. He didn’t have time to deal with that right now. The memory of having to strike the killing blow to Ian’s
sheva
in front of Ian still burned hard. Elijah had killed
shevas
before, as had all the Order members, but the evisceration of Ian’s soul as he watched his
sheva
die still haunted Elijah. He didn’t know how to make it right with Ian, and it had been eating away at him ever since.

Elijah looked over at Ana, sitting beside him, and for a split second, he imagined Gideon or Quinn taking a blade to her heart. Something dark and deadly rolled through him, and he tightened his fingers on her neck. Yeah, he was starting to get exactly how much it had undone Ian to be pinned down by his team, watching his
sheva
die and being unable to save her. Elijah’s forearms burned and his weapons readied themselves, preparing to defend her—

Ana looked over at him and quietly shook her head.
No one is going to kill me, Elijah. It’s different now.

Yeah, the fact she was sitting by his side in front of his team made it clear things were different, but for how long? He knew damn well what would happen the moment his team decided Ana was close to triggering him going rogue.
I won’t let them hurt you.

She managed a small smile, but shook her head again.
I don’t want you to protect me. You need to focus on Ezekiel.

Elijah scowled, his entire being rebelling at the idea of his
sheva
not wanting him to protect her. But at the same time, he knew she was right that he had to focus on Ezekiel. But as he turned back to his team, he clamped his hand more tightly around her neck, just to make sure she knew that she was getting his protection whether she wanted it or not. “So, tell me what’s going on.” Elijah tried to keep his voice even, but he saw Ryland shoot him a sharp look. Shit. He’d have to try harder. They wouldn’t let him go after Ezekiel if they knew the truth, and he
had
to go.

Quinn nodded. “The short version is that an Illusionist named Frank Tully—”

Frank Tully.
Elijah’s mind blanked out, and he started to shake. Sweat started to trickle down his temples, and he felt the slide of a knife blade across his skin—

Ana moved across the couch and nestled up against him, her hand sliding beneath the hem of his T-shirt and flattening across his stomach. Her touch grounded him, and he realized nothing was slicing him. His body quit with the shakes. He threw his arm around her shoulders and hauled her up close, fighting the temptation to look down at his arm and confirm nothing was cutting him.

Quinn had stopped talking and was giving him an odd look, and the rest of the room was still.

“I met Frank.” Elijah kept his voice succinct. Yeah, he’d met him. How many times had he felt his control slide away from him when Frank was near? Frank had been a master at manipulating false emotions, like the hate for his team that had driven Elijah to murder Quinn. Elijah didn’t give Frank credit for that. He faulted himself for being so weak that he could be manipulated. “The bastard deserved to have his balls cut off.”

Laughter broke the tension, and Quinn resumed his recap. “So, anyway, Frank was working with Nate Tipton, one of Ezekiel’s peons, to free Ezekiel.”

That made no sense. How could they have gotten Ezekiel out? “How? How were they going to free him? His prison was unbreakable.” Elijah knew. Over the last five hundred years, he’d tried to get through it many, many times when no one else was around to see him crack.

“There was a safeguard created at the time he was put in the prison to get him out. Ezekiel and Nate found out about it, and they acquired all the tools necessary to perform the ritual that would free him.”

Elijah worked his jaw. “And it worked?”

“Yeah. He’s out.”

“The prison walls fell?”

Quinn shrugged. “I don’t know the logistics. We weren’t at the prison when it happened. We were at the pit—”

Elijah felt a stab of frustration. “If you weren’t at the prison, how do you know he’s out?” Was he out or not? Elijah couldn’t touch him if he was still protected behind those walls.

“We saw him—” Quinn began.

“No.” Elijah leaned forward, burning with the intensity to know what was going on. “None of us have ever seen him. We don’t know what he looks like. How do you
know
the person you saw was him?”

“Ezekiel took over the body of Drew, the young Calydon Frank had abducted, and then he took off. We couldn’t contain him.”

Elijah frowned. “He took over another Calydon’s body? How in the hell would you know that’s what happened? How do you know it wasn’t Drew the whole time?”

There was a shift of energy in the room. “It was obvious,” Quinn said. “Trust me.”

“Trust you? Ezekiel was unstoppable two thousand years ago, and he’s had all this time to figure out what he did wrong last time. He’s smart, smarter than we are prepared for.” Elijah shook his head and stood up, grabbing Ana’s wrist and pulling her to her feet. “I’m going to the prison to see if he’s still there—”

“Wait.” A woman Elijah didn’t know stepped forward. She was wearing jeans and a white blouse. She had long, blond hair, and her green eyes were brimming with intelligence and wit. On her arms were the full marks of Gideon’s throwing axe.

Shock rippled through Elijah. He shot a sharp glance at Gideon.
You’re fully bonded with her?

Gideon responded with a pulse of intense satisfaction.
Yeah. Kicks ass.

But what about destiny? Going rogue? All that shit?
Elijah knew the history of the
sheva
. He’d seen thousands of Calydons go rogue after completing the bond. No Calydon had ever come back from going rogue because of his
sheva.

That was the Order’s mission: to kill rogue Calydons, including the ones who went rogue because of the bond. But when an Order member bonded, the
sheva
had to be sacrificed because the Order member was too critical to the survival of humanity. It was impossible to bond safely. Impossible. But Gideon was standing there, grinning at him like some smug, oversexed fool. His eyes were black, and Elijah could tell he was nowhere close to rogue.
How the hell are you standing there?

No damn clue.
Gideon’s smile faded.
We’re taking it one day at a time.

Well, shit. What else had happened while Elijah had been gone? He shifted restlessly, uncomfortable that there was so much going on that he didn’t know about. He needed to get a grip on the situation, and get control, to get information that he could confirm, instead of having all this shit tossed at him.

He needed to get to Ezekiel’s prison and find out for sure whether he was free or not. He would be able to tell with absolute certainty, in a way that his team wouldn’t. He knew he would.

“Elijah.” Gideon’s
sheva’s
voice was almost musical in its lilting tones. “I’m Dr. Lily Davenport, the world’s leading expert on Calydons—”

“Dr. Davenport?” Elijah narrowed his eyes, shifting his weight restlessly, needing to hit the road and go check out the prison. “The one who screwed up our missions by releasing information we didn’t want out?” She was now invited to Order strategy sessions and had been allowed to bond with Gideon? What the fuck was going on?

Her cheeks tinged pink. “Yes, well, I apologize for that.” She walked forward, ignoring the weapons which were still out, coming to a stop in front of him, as if she had no fear at all.

Gideon shifted, and she shot him a glare, as if he’d ordered her not to get so close to Elijah and she’d told him to back off. Then she smiled at Ana. “You doing okay?”

Ana nodded. “Fantastic.”

Elijah felt the warmth between the two women, and he looked back and forth between them, trying to put all the pieces together. How did Ana know her? Where had Lily come from? He felt like his head was spinning, trying to play catch up. Then his eyes narrowed as he watched Lily. There was warmth, yeah, but she was also looking at Ana as if she were trying to ferret out secrets that Ana didn’t want to share.

Elijah pulled Ana closer to him, shifting so his shoulder was in front of hers. The team might trust Lily Davenport, but he trusted no one, not until he had enough facts to make those decisions.

The smile faded from Lily’s face, and she looked at Elijah. “Ana’s lying. She’s not okay.”

Elijah glanced at Ana, at the circles under her eyes and the haunted shadows on her face. She looked exhausted. Not just from a lack of sleep. From so much more. She’d suffered, was still suffering. And he was about to drag her out after Ezekiel? Yeah, touching her freaked him out on a certain level, but on another level, she was also his female, and his job was to keep her safe. And he was failing her more with every passing minute. Regret filled him that he had to inflict more upon her, and he pulled her closer against him. “I know,” he said quietly. “I know she’s struggling.”

Ana’s eyes flashed with indignation. “I’m fine. You guys have to stop treating me like I’m going to break. I’m fine!”

I know you’re strong, sweetheart. I’d never doubt that.

She looked at him, and he saw the confusion flicker across her face, as if she couldn’t reconcile his belief in her strength with his need to take care of her.

Lily ignored Ana’s protest, her gaze boring down on Elijah with fierce protectiveness. “You’ll take care of her?”

Elijah decided he liked Gideon’s
sheva
. Anyone who could demand his
sheva’s
safety like that got his respect. He met her gaze, acknowledging her request. “You need to ask?”

Ana stiffened next to him, and he knew she didn’t want him to go all macho protector on her. He slanted a glance at her, wondering what was going on with her. Why was she so against his protecting her? They were going to have to talk about it, because he wasn’t going to back down. He couldn’t help himself. It was simply the way he was.

Lily cocked her head, and her shoulders relaxed. “No, I guess I don’t need to ask.” She smiled again, and this time it was a real smile, and her eyes brightened with sharp focus. “Okay, so I did some research and confirmed Ana’s discovery that you’re distantly related to Caleb, Ezekiel’s brother. The one who brought him down. The
only
one who could bring him down.”

Elijah nodded impatiently. “I’m aware of that.”

Her eyebrows went up. “You already knew? And you never told anyone?”

He swore under his breath at his slip. “Quinn told me earlier,” he amended. Which was true. He wasn’t about to tell them what else he’d already known.

Ana was studying him a little too carefully, and he tensed, trying to keep his mind blank so she didn’t pick up on anything, wishing he could risk shutting her out entirely.

“But I haven’t been able to figure out how Caleb took him down,” Lily continued. “No legends have been passed down over the generations about what happened between the brothers. All we know is that when Ezekiel stole Caleb’s wife, Caleb went into a rage and rounded up his team and went after him. While his team was fighting with Ezekiel’s armies, Caleb slipped past the battle and the next thing anyone knew, Ezekiel was incapacitated.”

“We all fought him last week,” Gideon said. “I was enhanced at the time, and even I couldn’t stop him. He’s too powerful for us, just like he was too strong for everyone two thousand years ago.”

“Since I’m distantly related to Caleb, you think I can stop him?” Elijah knew full well he was a brutal warrior, fierce and deadly. Along with Gideon and Quinn, they were the only Order members who hadn’t lost a battle in five hundred years...the others who’d lost were all dead.

Elijah was as strong as his blood brothers were, but he wasn’t
more
than they were. They were equals, and if they hadn’t been able to hold even with Ezekiel, he wouldn’t be able to either. But was there a way he could? Anticipation rippled through him, and he leaned forward, itching for the answers that had eluded him for so long. “How do I kill him? Tell me.”