Drowning In The Dark: #4 The Veil Series (16 page)

A
fter helping
Ryder secure Val in the gun range, Stefan and I drove out of Boston, toward Salem. I’d called Akil. He was gathering his troops at Blackstone, his countryside retreat. I told him
we
were on our way. He seemed surprisingly calm, considering the company I was keeping, which probably meant he had a contingency plan should Stefan go all frosty on arrival.

Each minute of the ride up passed with excruciating slowness. Tension sat in the car with us like a silent third person, a pissed off third person about the size of Jerry, who could snap at any moment. Silences gnawed on me at the best of times. This silence begged to be shattered—with a sledgehammer.

Stefan barely moved. I listened to his soft breaths and even fancied I could hear the soft beat of his heart. With his face turned away, he appeared to be watching the scenery pass, but I wasn’t buying it. I glanced over a few times when I was sure he wouldn’t notice. When I’d first met him, he’d been a different man: easy going, with a lust for life that had shown on his luscious smile and intelligent eyes. He’d laughed easily back then. Now, he was cold, like his element. A part of me wanted to grab him and shake some sense into him. As the tension ratcheted up with every mile, I had to work to pace my breathing to stop it from giving my internal wrangling away. Here we were, so close, and we might as well have been half a state away from each other.

“Fuck it.” I pulled the car onto the shoulder and twisted in my seat. “Just say it already.”

He arched an eyebrow, “What?”

“I don’t know. Whatever is in that head of yours. You wanna kill me? Then do it because this silence is driving me batshit crazy. What do you want, Stefan? To fight me? Take it all out on me? To kill me? Huh, is that why you came back? Or do you want to fuck me?” The filter I employed between my brain and mouth appeared to have completely malfunctioned, or the silence really had driven me crazy. Too late, I realized what I’d said and considered clamming up, and then I thought,
screw it
,
might as well say it all.
“Maybe both? Fuck me then kill me? You wanna try it on for size? Let’s have it out now because I don’t have patience to tiptoe around you anymore. Look—” I gestured at the window and the empty road ahead. “It’s a miracle. Nothing is trying to kill us. I have all my marbles, mostly. So c’mon, Frosty. Spit it out. There ain’t gonna be a better time to tell it as it is.”

He unclipped his seatbelt, slowly turned in his seat, and leveraged an arm against the seatback to face me. I had a moment to go over what I’d just said, wondering if I should try to backpedal, and then he lifted his remarkably blue eyes and pitched his lips into a devilish grin. “I want to fight and fuck you. Part of that is my demon’s messed up ideas, but most of it is me. You wanna know crazy? Crazy is thinking I might have a hope in hell with you, and in the same breath, wanting to kill you. The demon in me sees you as a threat. After everything that’s happened between us, my sister—the veil, being trapped in the netherworld, your alliance with the Prince of Greed—you are my enemy.” The smile wavered, but he wasn’t going to stop. “Crazy is all kinds of messed up because I see you with Akil, and I know what you feel for him, I even understand it. But it hurts. It hurts enough that I know, somewhere in all this psychosis, I’m still human. All I had was this damned desire to rage at the world. But the second I saw you eating ice cream with Lacy, I could believe nothing had changed. I wanted everything to be fine.” The smile faded behind a sneer. “I came back to kill you. I told myself it was to stop the princes, but my demon has other ideas. It was simple. Everything was simple.” He pointed a finger. “
You
make it complicated.” He shrugged. “It’s crazy. I’m crazy.
You
make me crazy, Muse. You always have.”

“Oh.”

“Oh?” He unclipped his belt, which I might have been concerned about had I felt his power churning, but neither element stirred until he reached for the steering wheel, lunged across the seat, and kissed me hard on the lips. I clamped his face in my hands and yanked him close, opening my mouth to let him in while plundering his. Flutters of anxiety snatched my breath, and the heat of desire surged. I dropped a hand, hooked my arm around him, and yanked him close. His element lapped over me—pins and needles—against my skin. I palmed his cheek and forced him to look at me. His blue eyes sparkled like diamonds, the pupils as black as night. Power burned through him. His element simmered beneath my touch like an electrical current.

“You know how wrong this is? How screwed up we both are?” he said, his voice a growl that did peculiar things to my innards. “Ice and fire? I should kill you.”

“Mmm.” I shoved him back, climbed over the center console, and straddled his lap, pinning him to his seat. “Try it.” I silenced him with a sharp kiss, and he gave himself to me. His hand fisted in my hair, dragging me closer, possessive and demanding. There was no trace of the gentleness that drove me crazy. He owned me with that kiss. I broke away, gasping, body hot and mind a muddle. Reason told me to stop. The rest of me tossed away caution and trampled on it with glee.

“Muse—”

I planted a finger on his lips. “Shh, I know what you’re going to say.”
It was a bad idea. We didn’t have time. He couldn’t control himself. He hated/loved/wanted to kill me. I couldn’t control myself. Ice and fire don’t mix. The sun was going down, and the half bloods would be here soon and the princes not far behind.
Akil was waiting. Adam was missing. My brother was scheming. The netherworld was coming.
Screw it all. I wanted him, and he wanted me. In that moment, that was all that mattered. It really was that simple if we allowed it to be. “Close your eyes.”

He smiled behind my finger and obeyed. I leaned in to taste his lips. His sweet wintery taste tingled on the tip of my tongue. He opened for me, and I slanted my mouth over his, delighting in the way his hunger stoked mine. His hands slid down the curve of my back and spread over my hips. He held me tight, pulling me close.
Would it be so bad if we just stopped thinking and felt, just for a little while
? I thought
.
I didn’t care that he might, in one breath hate me, and in another, love me. It really didn’t matter.

He tasted too good, like an indulgence I shouldn’t give in to. I trailed kisses down his jawline, his neck, and slid my hands up under his shirt. Hard chest muscles barely gave beneath my touch. Smooth, heated skin warmed my hands. I wanted to taste him there, to lick across his chest, swirl my tongue around his nipple, and rake my nails down the ripple of his abs. Sinking my hands over his shoulders, I shoved his coat off, yanking it down his arms. He tore himself free, slid his hands around my waist, and pulled me into another hungry, plundering kiss. Lust spritzed my skin with power. Stefan arched me back. His lips and tongue burned a devastating trail of tingling as he roamed lower. Hooking my fingers under my top, I yanked it over my head and gasped as he nipped at the rise of my breast.

Threading my fingers through his hair, I forced his head back and stared into his dazzling eyes. His ragged breathing, indulgent lips, and hungry eyes speared heated desire through me. Ice dusted his cheek. I kissed it away. Then a ghost-like fractal slid across the skin of his neck. I swirled my tongue and lapped it up, feeling his pulse throb. I rolled my hips against him, and he snatched a sharp gasp and growled low and deep. The sound alone almost had my demon spilling through me. I shoved her back, rocked my hips again, and kissed him hard. He was all mine.

My cell chirped.

Stefan’s touch burned but not with pain. His hands skipped, his fingers kneaded, as though he sought to explore every inch of me. Too many clothes thwarted my attempts to feel him. I cracked my elbow against the door and tried to twist aside and clutch at his button fly. The gearshift dug into my thigh. “Dammit.”

My cell chirped again.

“Muse…” Stefan cradled my face in his hands. “You need to answer that.”

“I really don’t.” I nipped at his bottom lip and sucked it between my teeth, freeing a frustrated groan from him. Damn, if I could make him growl, I wouldn’t need much more help to tip me over the edge into ecstasy. Grazing my nails over the entwined scorpion tattoo below his navel, I watched his eyes widen. His hips bucked. Oh yes, he was sensitive there.

Another shrill ring from my cell.

He gripped my hips and held me still, attempting to appear serious while a wicked, seductive smile danced on his lips. “The end of the world won’t wait for us.”

“It would if it knew what we’ve been through.”

He slid his hand around the small of my back, and drew me in close. I let him pull me down, already sensing his withdrawal from the moment. I’d soon change that. His painfully delicate kiss just about drove me to distraction. Any moment, I’d pin him down, rip his shirt off, and taste every delicious inch of him.

“I want this,” he said, but by the downward tilt to his lips, there was a ‘but’ coming.

I ground my hips, marveling at how he pushed back, lips parting, eyes ablaze with power. “I can tell.” I wanted it too. I ached to feel close, to have his arms around me. He was the cooling salve to my wildfire.

The cell blipped. A message. “Oh, for hell’s sake.” Snatching the phone up, I poked a finger into Stefan’s chest. “Stay there.” He suppressed a grin and watched me dial Ryder back.

“Muse, damnit woman. I told you to call me every thirty minutes. Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. We’re fine.” I sounded hoarse and growled, trying to clear my throat. Stefan pushed his hands up my thighs, applying just enough pressure to make me squirm. He arched an eyebrow and teased his tongue across his lower lip. I tracked the tiny, entrancing movement and my mind vacated the premises.

“—Muse?”

“Huh?”

“I said, where are you? Are you with Akil yet?”

“What? No?” Stefan’s hand roamed higher.

“What’s going on?” Ryder barked.

Stefan’s fingers skipped lightly over the denim between my legs, sending countless tremors rippling through me. I gasped, heard Ryder swear, and punched Stefan on the arm. He feigned pain with a chuckle.

“I should never have let you go together.” Ryder grumbled. “It’s like letting two kids loose in a candy-store. For fucks sake, Muse. Save it ’til later.”

I covered the mic on the phone. “Busted.” Clearing my throat, I batted Stefan’s hands away. “Ryder, it’s nothing. We just stopped for…gas. We’re nearly there. Five minutes out, max”

“Get to Akil’s, make sure he’s doing what he’s meant to be doing, and come back here. Your brother is awake and giving me the evil eye. He’s too smug. I don’t like it.”

“Understood.”

“Good, now pass the phone to Stefan.”

“Erm, okay…” I handed it over, answering Stefan’s enquiring gaze with a shrug.

In the quiet of the car, I heard every one of Ryder’s words. “If you hurt Muse, I will hunt you down, use every rusted weapon I own, cut off your precious parts, and feed them to the hellhounds.
Comprende, amigo?”

Stefan swallowed back a chuckle. “Understood.” Ryder hung up before Stefan had chance to. “I believe him.”

“He doesn’t make empty threats.” Well, that was the mood thoroughly spoiled. A blush touched my face as I realized I was straddling Stefan, virtually naked from the waist up. I snatching my top from the dashboard and wriggled it over my head. “We will continue this,” I promised, or maybe threatened. Who knew with Stefan?

He leaned forward, eye-to-eye with me, salacious smile begging to be kissed. When he reached out to touch his fingertips to my cheek, I tensed, uncertain. “You’ll either save me, or condemn me, Muse. Either way, I have no intention of letting you get away again.”

I’d have kissed him, but he bowed his head and pulled me into the kind of embrace reserved for goodbyes. My heart fluttered, trapped. I closed my arms around him, gathering him close, suddenly so very afraid for the both of us. What if this was the best we ever had? What if tonight, something terrible happened? Val had said Stefan’s future held tragedy.

The smallest of trembles shivered through him. I tightened my grip and turned my cheek against him, holding him so close that his heart beat against mine. This, now, was real. This was Stefan, and he just wanted to be held. I breathed him in, and stroked my hand softly down his hair. “It’s okay.”

When he whispered, his lips tickled my ear. “I’d forgotten what it was like to feel.”

Years in the netherworld, hunted by the Institute, abandoned by his father, how long had it been since somebody loved him? I tightened my hold and clutched his shirt in my fists. He’d been alone through all of it. Was it any wonder that ice had frozen his heart? How else could he have survived?

“I...” He sighed. “Don’t let go.”

He couldn’t see my face, buried as it was in his hair, but had he been able to, he’d have seen bright tears in my eyes. “Never. As long as I live and breathe, as long as I have a shred of humanity left, as long as I have it in me to care, I will be here for you. Always.”

D
emon eyes glowed
in the half-light, smothering the long, meandering driveway snaking through the forest toward Blackstone. As soon as we’d pulled off the main road, I’d felt the crawl of demon stares. Within a few hundred yards, they’d started to spill from the trees. Now, as we rolled forward at a snail’s pace, the demons were everywhere: in the trees, lining the driveway, crouched by the earthen banks. They watched with multicolored eyes. Lessers, mostly, but some higher demons, especially the closer we got to Akil’s house. Wings fluttered, flapped, and shivered. Claws glinted, and teeth chittered. Elements swirled, charging the air. The hairs on the back of my neck rose.

“Stop. Let me out.” Stefan climbed from the car and strode ahead. Speared by headlights, the demons parted before him, hunkered low, submissive, even as they hissed and spat in his direction.

With a clear path behind Stefan, I picked up the pace in the car, muttering to myself, “This is the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Blackstone shone ahead. Lit up like a beacon for all things demon, the wing-design roof structure and ultra-modern rectangular glass seemed utterly at odds with the dozens of demons crawling all over it. There were hundreds, maybe more. The forest heaved with demon-forms, and their eyes glowed like stars in a midnight sky.

I pulled the car to a halt beside Akil’s sleek vehicle. A demon the same size as the arrow-shaped sports car sprawled over the entire length of the vehicle, tail dangling off the hood. It eyed me with curiosity, as though it was capable of turning me into a tasty snack, but maybe later, when it wasn’t so sleepy.

All of Blackstone’s doors and windows were thrown wide open, so Stefan and I took that as an invitation to head inside. More demons. Some slept in the hallway, others squabbled, growled, and jostled for rank in the rooms we passed. It was like a frat party for demons. Chaos. Could Akil control them all, or were they here for sanctuary?

We found Akil in the kitchen, leaning back in a chair at a dining table, playing poker with Jerry. A black satin shirt gaped with several buttons undone. He wore tailored black pants, but his feet were bare. He slid a hand through his hair, contemplating his next play. He saw me standing, mouth open, in the doorway. “Muse.” He slid his gaze to Stefan standing just behind me, and his eyes flared with a touch of fire. One of the three demons in the corner hissed, then settled back down, curled around its companions like kittens in a basket—big, leathery, ugly, demon kittens.

Jerry looked up from his cards, saw the look on my face, and laughed. The heady, rolling, sound of his laughter tempered the rising tension. “Join us. The stakes are high. Cocktail sticks and chocolate coins.”

This was absurd. The world was ending, and Akil was playing poker? “Jerry, Akil… What are you both doing?”

Akil glanced at the spread of cards on the table. “I’d have thought that was obvious.”

Jerry huffed some more rumbling laughter and spread his cards on the table. “I fold. Ahkeel, I never could beat your poker face.”

I glanced at Stefan for back up, but he arched an eyebrow and stayed quiet. That was probably a good thing. “Akil, your house is full of demons.”

He placed his cards down and stretched back in his chair. “I had noticed. Where did you expect them to go? With the veil weakening, many of them are struggling to maintain human form. The people of Boston will kill them or try to. I offered them sanctuary in exchange for their allegiance.”

“How many are here?”

His eyes narrowed, and his gaze briefly wavered. “Five thousand seven hundred and sixty three–no, two. They’re squabbling over territory in the woods. If the princes don’t arrive soon, the numbers will decline. This many demons do not socialize well.”

“They’ll fight for us?”

“For me.” He sucked in a deep breath and turned his attention to Stefan once more. “Reconsider those thoughts, Wrath. The second you attack, my demons will shred your half-blood flesh and turn your frozen skin into snowflakes.” Another growl emanated from the tangled pile of demons in the corner.

Stefan stilled. He lifted his chin and glared back at Akil. I’d forgotten they shared Prince FM. Akil had picked up on Stefan’s less-than-friendly thoughts about him. “I can wait.”

Akil sighed. “Indeed.” He shoved out from the table, stood, and sauntered across the kitchen, pouring masculine prowess into every stride. Stefan’s element reached out and coiled around my legs with a silvery chill. Akil either didn’t notice or didn’t care. He stopped too close, well within my personal space, and brushed his knuckles down my face. “Why did you come here?”

“To check up on you?” I hadn’t meant that to sound like a question.

“A call would have sufficed. You do not trust me.” His voice, deep, smooth, slippery, wove into my mind, unraveling my stubborn denial that I felt anything for him. I tasted spices, smelled cinnamon, and had to stop myself from reaching out to him. He didn’t need to touch me to make my insides liquefy and heat pour through me. He was already
inside.
Dammit. This was going to be harder than I’d thought.

Jerry was beside me, his presence like a damned portent of doom. I blinked, Akil’s spell broken, and backed up. Stefan glowered from behind Jerry, his power coiling and wisps of vapor rising off his clothes.

“Ahkeel, now is not the time to taunt the half bloods.” Jerry’s cavernous voice held power. I looked at him, as though seeing him for the first time. His huge bulk—smothered with black swirling symbols—radiated calm. There had always been something soothing about Jerry. He was terrifying to look at, but I’d never feared him. From the moment Carol-Anne had first introduced us, I’d warmed to him.

I flicked my gaze to Akil, saw him bow his head and turn away. Akil didn’t take orders from anyone, and he certainly didn’t bow his head. “Holy shit, Jerry, You’re the king.”

Jerry’s lips creased into a smile, bowing the tattoos on his cheeks. “The king died long ago.”

Akil crouched beside the demons curled in the corner. They purred awake, although they didn’t have any eyes to open. One nuzzled his hand. Another flicked its forked tongue out and licked his face. He muttered something in the old language, and the three demons purred their pleasure.

“The symbols hide you,” I whispered.

“My symbols protect me from nosey demons getting too close.”

“You’re the king. Oh, my God.” It had to be true. Akil had said I’d met him. He’d been right in front of me the whole time, patching me up when I got myself poisoned by Scorsi venom. He’d always been there. The king was control to the queen’s chaos. That was the sensation I had from Jerry. Control.

Jerry leaned back and frowned. “Ahkeel, she’s not listening.”

“Muse never does.”

“Deny it.” All sets of eyes swiveled to me, and nobody said a word. “Ha! See? You can’t.” I poked Jerry in his barrel-like chest, and then tensed and curled my fingers into my hand. If he was the king, poking him was not the best course of action. I backed up and moistened my throat.

“I thought you believed me to be the king?” Akil glanced over his shoulder.

Stefan snorted. “King of Liars. Nobody would dispute that.”

Akil patted the demon on its haunches before him and rose. “Stefan, you are a half-blood whelp compared to my infinite existence. It takes a special kind of fool to insult the Prince of Greed in his domain while surrounded by a loyal army of five thousand demons. Don’t you agree? I suggest you keep your comments to yourself, unless you’d like the battle to start here and now.” Behind him, the three demons snarled as one, except they weren’t three separate demons, but one huge beast with three heads. Although blind, it could clearly see Stefan because all three heads pointed at him, marking their target. Three gaping maws snuffled and snarled, dripping streams of saliva.

“You think I fear your pet?” Stefan smiled, and all the traces of the warm Stefan I’d witnessed in the car were gone. “We both know I’m more powerful than you. Set your dog on me, and watch it die. Your whole army of demons can’t stop me. So go on, old man. Bring the fire.”

“Your word is true. I have no intention of stopping you, but Muse will.”

Oh dammit. I lifted my hands, palms out. “Let’s not do this now.” I sent a silent plea out to Jerry. “Please, can we all just play nice until we’ve beaten back the netherworld?”

Stefan stood his power down but continued to stew in silence. Akil’s smile declared he’d won that battle, and Jerry chuckled to himself. I puffed out a sigh. If two princes could barely control themselves, how was Akil going to control an army of wayward chaos demons? “Akil, may I have a word with you. Privately.” I received a sharp glare from Stefan and ignored it. Akil inclined his head and left the room with me close behind. We wove through Blackstone’s halls. I’d spent much of my adolescence in that house. It still felt like a home, even crawling with demons.

I snorted a derisive sound as Akil led me to the master bedroom, which was conveniently clear of demons. My honed demon senses picked up on his rich, masculine scent and delivered the memory of when I’d last been in the room, sprawled naked in the bed, and I covered a purr behind a cough. “We have Valenti tied up at Ryder’s place. He says his half bloods will be coming for him. We’re going to be ready. Do you want in?”

Akil moved to the windows. Outside in the half-light, demons crawled over the manicured lawns like stone gargoyles come to life. “My place is with the demons. It takes half bloods to stop half bloods.”

I liked to think I knew Akil fairly well, even if my life was a grain of sand on the beach of his existence. And seeing him standing by the windows, his back to me, something felt off. When he’d first brought me to Boston, he’d stood like that, studying the city outside, as though measuring it for a good fit. Now he looked out over a squabbling contingent of demons, and it felt like a backward step, almost as though he’d withdrawn himself from the fight. “What’s going on?”

“I have lived thousands of years and made just as many mistakes, but I do not intend for you to be one of them.” He turned, and I caught the low flicker of dying embers in his eyes before he blinked and extinguished them. “I am an eternal demon, the Prince of Greed, but I am something else, something I do not understand. In this form, I feel. You believe me a liar. You think I am incapable of emotion. Before I brought you to Boston, I would have agreed with you. When I first met you and manipulated events to sequester you away from your owner, I did so for Asmodeus because I owed him a service. From that day, when I saw fire in your soul the likes of which I’d never witnessed, you changed me.” He laughed softly, but it was a bitter sound. “You changed a constant. You altered chaos. It is impossible. I denied what I felt for so long. I attempted to forget you when you left me, but every day away from you only seemed to deepen my obsession.” He paused, and the look in his eyes wasn’t friendly. I’d seen that look only a handful of times, most recently when he’d threatened to tear my demon out of me. He glared, motionless but for the swirl of power in his eyes. “There are events coming that I have no control over.” He paused and moistened his lips, dropping his head as though considering his next words carefully.

I swallowed and willed my racing heart to slow. This was not Akil. He was fire: indifferent, uncaring, ruthless, hungry, selfish. The being standing before me was conflicted, confused, angry, and hurting. If I didn’t know better, I’d think him almost human.

“I cannot protect you from yourself. Nor can I protect you from what is to come. I fear this...” He closed his eyes and locked his jaw. The constant background touch of his element withdrew as though he pulled it around him, holding it close. When he opened his eyes again, they blazed amber. “I fear this night will change everything, and for the first time in my infinite existence, I am powerless to stop it, to stop you.”

He was afraid. And if he was afraid, the rest of us should be terrified. I pinned a shallow smile onto my face and felt it twitch, trying to flee. “I won’t fail.”

He smiled and shook his head. “I know. That is the problem.”

“I’m not going to go
loco
. I feel ready. I can do this. You’re inside me. You must feel it too?” He lifted his eyes, and damn me, if he didn’t look beaten already. “Akil, this isn’t you. You’re the Prince of Greed, a Prince of Hell, a First. You think you’d stand there as Mammon and tell me all this?”

“This isn’t coming from Mammon.”

“Wait, what?” Were Akil and Mammon separate? I’d believed Mammon was Akil, and vice-versa. Akil had told me his human vessel was a trap. Now I wondered who had become trapped? I lifted my hands. This was all too much. Maybe it was the soul-lock making him doubt himself. I had some of him in me, so maybe he had some of my humanity in him. Whatever it was, we’d figure it out when the countdown to Armageddon clock wasn’t ticking over. “You’re just off, is all. Maybe P-C-Thirty-Four had more of an effect on you than we thought.”

“Perhaps.” Which was a no. “I will kill Adam Harper the next time I see him, if for no other reason than his disrespect.”

A fist bump seemed grossly inappropriate. I wasn’t even sure Akil would recognize the universal sign of mutual celebration. He’d probably duck and sucker-punch me. Plus, I didn’t want to get any closer for fear he’d tell me loved me or something equally disturbing.

I angled toward the door, considering my escape. “You’re just…unsettled.”

“Call it what you will. I’ve been trying to resolve my internal conflict for fifteen years. Whether I am entirely demon or something else… I do not wish to lose you.”

“Don’t make me come over there and kick your ass just to knock some sense into you.” Here comes the snark. He was cutting too deep, too close to raw wounds. “You just need to go demon for a bit—get back in your lava-veined skin.” He came forward, his stride as confident as ever I’d seen it. He didn’t doubt his words, and his smile dared me to challenge him.

I straightened and held fast, refusing to back down. I didn’t do backing down—not any more. “Don’t do this.”

He stopped inside my limited personal space but didn’t touch me. He didn’t need to; his element reached out and encircled me. Lifting my gaze, I flicked my hair out of my eyes and plastered a bored expression on my face. Amber churned in his eyes, and those forbidden lips curved into a seductive smile. “A kiss?” he whispered, somehow closer without moving.