Into the Light (The Admiral's Elite Book 2) (30 page)

The smell served as a warning as to what they would face just before they rounded the corner. Close enough to touch, they came upon the tall figure shrouded in a long coat and shielded by shadow, his back to them, a tease of light brown hair visible in the low light. When he turned around, Gabrielle’s throat closed and her nose burned. Tears sprang into her eyes as she beheld her long-dead Luc. Almond shaped brown eyes the color of warm cocoa blinked back at her. The olive skin covering the left side of his face, destroyed by bombs half a century past, had miraculously knit itself back together. His skin was smooth once more, unlike the one that so often found its way into her nightmares. She took a step, fingers seeking to prove what she saw before her. Then he smiled, and Gabrielle caught sight of a dozen yellowed spear-tipped teeth, backlit by a pale blue light that came from within.

In that moment she felt the soul-rending pain of his loss anew. Those few sightings had been enough to plant a seed. That somehow, maybe something like her change that had altered her being and delayed her aging, had seeped into the ground, bringing her Luc back to life and, after all this time, to her. But Ryan was right; Luc was gone. This
thing
had somehow found a way to pry the memory of him out of her head and use it to manipulate her. It brought her right to it and now it had used her to endanger Ryan. The small flame of what had been anger at Ryan for following, flared into a bonfire of justified rage at this thing.

“You have brought me a feast in this one. His energy is potent.” He smiled Luc’s smile.

“No,” she declared decidedly. “Ryan is mine.”

The demon’s teeth were backlit again by its own internal light in what must have been an attempt at a smile. “Can you bear to watch the light fade from another’s eyes knowing you could have prevented it?” it taunted, the voice asthmatic, breathless and mild. Its enthusiasm to have her or her mate, tempered by the apparent inability to breath their air.

“The only one who’s dying today is you, asshole,” she spat back.

Luc’s eyes, commandeered by the demon, turned pitying. “What must it be like to carry such guilt?” He feigned wonder, head slowly wagging side to side for show. “You abandoned them.” The demon with Luc’s face dipped his chin to look her in the eye. “You left them there to die with no one to ease their suffering. They died in agony.”

Her mouth opened but there was no sound.

“Do you think they called for you? You or the doctor while they lay bleeding? Limbs blown off, their bodies cut to shreds by shrapnel.” Her departed’s face twisted into a sneer. “Do you think I suffered?”

She continued to gape. There were no words that could make what he said less true. The full weight of her guilt crashed down and Gabrielle covered her mouth, only managing to muffle the sobs that erupted.

Ryan turned his head to see her from the corner of his eye, unwilling to take his attention from the threat within arm’s reach, and his features drew together. “It’s not real, Gabs.”

The snarl coming from the far side of the theatre, directly across from them, stopped the demon cold and its head spun around allowing Ryan to look past it to the source.

Chapter 29

Coherent thought was impossible. Michael took a step outside himself, letting the closely guarded monster ruled only by animalistic needs have control of their shared body. Fangs out, body crouched with one hand beside him and his feet ready to jump, he opened his mouth and roared.

“Good to see you here, Mike,” Ryan called across to him.

Whipping his face from the demon to the newcomers, Michael had only enough sway over his own form to turn his face from the target to his peer. Ryan gave him a brief nod. He’d been witness to what was about to happen a handful of times and knew Michael was not his friend at present. Best to keep his distance.

“Where’s Becca?” Ryan called carefully, ushering the grief stricken Gabrielle off to the side, putting a few feet between her and the demon. He didn’t want her getting caught in the crossfire when Mike let loose.

The demon’s wheezing chuckle answered. Michael was off the wall and had the demon by the throat in time to cut off his laughter, not his pointy grin.

“You shouldn’t laugh, demon,” Ryan advised. “You’re about two seconds from demon dust. He’s gonna rip your head off.”

“I don’t think he will harm me.” The brown eyes turned back to the big man next to Michael. “Or you either. Not so long as I hold
them
.” His black-gloved hands came up to shoulder height, palms up so that they wouldn’t miss him pointing at both women.

Ryan’s easy manner evaporated and Michael’s struggle to regain reason under threat of harm to Becca was visible. His hand never wavered from the creature’s throat, its glow shone bright around his pale fingers.

The vampire gave way under Michael’s fury. The only evidence it remained near the surface was the black eyes and long fangs showing prominently under his curled lip. “What hold do you have that won’t go with you when we send you back?”

Panting, the demon ran its purple forked tongue over its bottom lip. “They let me in; now I have them to feed from whenever and however I please. If you destroy me, I take their minds with me.”

“What do you mean ‘let you in’?” Ryan let his gaze settle on Gabrielle, chewing her knuckle, her eyes glazed over with a random tear falling onto her hand now and again when they proved too much for her lids to contain. “How did you get into their heads?”

The hand on the demon’s throat loosened enough to let him speak more easily. “Ah, I won’t say because telling you would only spoil the fun.” The brown around his pupils began to waver, the color dissolving for lack of a better word. Within seconds, the pupils went to slits and the irises flooded red. The leather encasing his hands made a chafing sound as he rubbed them together. “Then again, maybe it’s better for me if you
do
know.” The tongue flicked out again, hovering for just a split second in front of him, scenting. “Yours,” he looked to Ryan first. “She was so beautiful. The golden fur, those long legs; you wouldn’t guess how fragile she is to look at her.” He made a sound low in his throat and Ryan’s back straightened putting his head just below the taller demon’s chin.

Michael’s hand tightened again and the red, goat-slitted eyes shifted back to him. “You should be as lucky. That one,” he lifted his still-human chin, “she was more than willing. All I had to do was sit back and let her come to
me
.” He flashed his pointed teeth again. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen a human who could do
that
. Did
you
know she could possess souls?” He leaned in and lowered his voice, “Has she ever possessed yours?” The forked tongue flashed again. “Mmm, now that would be interesting.” 

“You’re lying.” Michael backed him up until the shoulders hit the dark carpeted wall and the demon laughed. His words lacked conviction and they all heard it.

“It’s true. You should ask her yourself.” He feigned a wince. “Ooh, that’s right, you can’t. Unless…” The human flesh morphed into a shorter female form, perfect replicas of familiar hazel eyes gazed up adoringly at him atop a wash of light freckles. Michael, horrified, found himself staring into Becca’s eyes as he choked her. “Michael, please stop. You’re hurting me.” It was her voice.

Reflexively, Michael let the demon go and took a step backward. His ears concentrated on the heartbeat, or lack of in the Becca creature’s body.
It isn’t her.
He told himself. Still, he couldn’t force his hands to harm even a false image of her. That wasn’t a picture he could carry in his head.

Ryan was not encumbered by the same concerns. His fist flew and the demon Becca’s head rocked backward. Though instead of being cowed, the demon’s response was again to laugh. Ryan’s control wavered and his teeth grew, lips pulling back as he growled deep in his chest. “I’m going to stuff you back in that ley line and make sure you stay there if I have to break both your legs to do it.”

The red eyes tightened at mention of his being forced back into his cage. Like a genie being stuffed back in his lamp, it was an eternity of captivity he would face once they sealed him inside. Michael knew from what he’d read and what Black had told him that the demon would weaken over time, starved of his richer sources of energy. The ley lines had lost some of their potency over the millennia, fewer people worshipping and feeding into them while the planet steadily lost giant parts of itself due to mining and drilling. Eventually the demon would become a mindless husk, cursed to wander the full range of the lines just to pull enough energy to survive. That he’d gathered enough to gain a solid form on this side had to be due to his enslavement of the windigo.

When Becca’s face twisted into a snarl and spat at Ryan, Michael stayed the bigger man’s hand from a second blow though he replaced his hand loosely on its neck, if nothing else than to keep its attention on him and not on those defenseless or enraged enough not to control themselves. Destroying this body could leave the demon free to possess another or take a different form. Better to have the one they could see than lose it in the streets.

Thankfully demons didn’t bleed and his first punch hadn’t left a mark so Becca’s face remained unmarred. Turning to Michael, it sneered and spoke. “You know the changeling’s plan won’t work
and
you know why.”

“What’s he talking about?” Ryan frowned. “We can’t put him back and we can’t kill him?” Worried, his gaze darted to see Gabrielle still out of it on the other side of the demon. There was a hint of her he could see in her eyes, struggling to come forward. It wasn’t too late to save her.

“It isn’t that easy,” Michael advised him.

A feminine titter escaped the thing’s mouth and it ran its purple tongue over its lower lip.

The tongue, so different than Becca’s small pink one, gave Michael strength. Seeing it helped him to keep in mind this was not her. He glared at the thing and continued. “We need to find where he came through in the first place. And to do that we need,” he hesitated. The others weren’t entirely aware of all Becca could do, but what they’d seen had made them increasingly uneasy. Hearing that she was going to continue to get stronger might shake up the cohesiveness of their unit. Then again, they would find out eventually, he told himself, justifying the breach of protocol in telling them. “And to do that, we need someone who can sense those things. We need a witch.”

Ryan’s eyes bulged. “A witch? Well that’s just great.” He threw up his hands and walked away, into the main part of the theatre. Whirling, Ryan shoved his hands into his hair. “When were you going to tell us that?”

Gabrielle gnawed at her fist, her eyes large and vacuous. The thought passed briefly through Michael’s mind that she might try to eat the thing. Could the demon make her do that? The answer that came to him just as quickly made him thankful he couldn’t vomit. It controlled her body and mind. It could make her do anything. Granted, he’d seen more graphic displays of cruelty, though not to someone he was close to. Not someone he’d fought side by side with. The impotent fury inside him grew yet more and his fist clenched. The demon gasped and there was a flare of sanity in Gabrielle’s eyes. Loosening, he watched the haze return to her eyes and then tightened it again to see her fighting to come back.

Not entirely patiently, Michael let Ryan pace back to him before answering quietly. “We have one.”

“Who?” Hands falling from his head, Ryan twisted his upper body to see the general area where he knew Michael had stashed Becca’s unconscious body. He thumbed that direction and turned back. “Becca’s a witch?”

“What did you think she was?” He was quickly losing the skill set that allowed him to remain calm.

The hulking man’s shoulders pinched and his face flamed for a moment. “Clairvoyant,” he mumbled, seeing in the light of day that his initial summary had been woefully inadequate. “Why didn’t she tell me?”

“She didn’t know there was a name for what she was until we were here.” Michael tried not to think about that conversation and the state she’d been in. “This is all new to her, what she can do and what it means.” His chest ached where his heart would be as memory of her pain and distrust of him came back to him.

The demon moaned ecstatically as their emotions escalated.