Pandora's Box (21 page)

Street lights and cars zipped past them, a blur, as Phoenix accelerated to almost eighty miles an hour, pretty fast for city streets. “Nice car.”

“I’m sure the owner thanks you.”

“Where’d you get it?” He fondled the steering wheel as he sped through two red lights without slowing down.

“Hijacked it.”

“A Maserati?” He quirked an eyebrow at her as he shifted lanes quickly, and swerved back into the original roadway. “What, too many Hondas to pick from?”

“The Hondas didn’t fit my mood.” Petra pulled her shirt over her head and chucked it onto the floorboard. “Wrong color.” She sent him a snarky grin.

“Wh-what are you doing?” Gage demanded from behind them, and Phoenix shot her an uncertain gander as well.

“Protecting your ass.”

“By removing your clothing?” Gage sounded more than a little prudish.

“Yeah, stripping and fucking you will protect your ass…not.”

“Sarcasm is not—what the hell are you doing now?” Gage again.

She wished he’d shut up. She needed to concentrate. Ignoring him, she carved elaborate symbols on her left arm with the blade.

“What the fu—” Phoenix veered into oncoming traffic. To a bevy of bleating horns, he wrenched the vehicle back into his lane, slamming her against the door hard enough to jar her teeth.

Blood dripped on her jeans and the car seat. The owners weren’t going to be too happy when they located the vehicle. “Drive faster! I’ve been compromised.”

Phoenix punched it, hitting one hundred. “Compromised? What exactly does that mean?”

“And how does that cutting shit protect our asses?” Gage’s prudish voice grated on her nerves.

Petra sighed, and went to work engraving the designs on her other arm.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

“Turn here,” the blonde mutilating herself in the passenger seat instructed, without glancing at the road. Nix wasn’t sure why they trusted her. Saving them from Micah. He gave a mental snort. All of this could be part of some elaborate trap.

Nix wrenched the steering wheel to the right, and the car fishtailed as he punched it down the side street.

“Next time, a little more warning,” he snapped.

She ignored him and focused on painting her blood on the dash. She smeared it on the passenger window and leaned a breath away from his face when she smudged a symbol on the driver’s side window. A flirty twinkle spelled mischief in her eyes when she replied to his comment. “Next time, I will try.”

She dropped back into her seat, crying out as she clasped her forehead with her left hand. Stomping her foot on the floorboard, she panted, “Here,” and shoved the glowing blade, handle first, toward him. “Take it.”

Nix refused the weapon and continued speeding down the street.

Her eyes swirled an eerie color of violet and blue. “He’s talking to me,” she gasped, as if in severe pain. “Take the fucking blade!”

“Why?” Gage leaned forward, between the seats, as Nix took the knife reluctantly from her bloody, shaking fingers. “It won’t harm you.”

She started speaking in demon, with pauses, as if she were listening to someone. Nix glanced at Gage in the review mirror. His cousin shrugged.

Abruptly she turned to face Gage. “The knife will harm you, dumbass.” Twisting to her knees, she grabbed his head with her bloody hands and smeared a mark on his forehead. Before Phoenix could protest, she did the same thing to him. “Repeat the design on me,” she instructed. “Now! Unless you want to be compromised along with me.”

Gage needed no further incentive. Being compromised by a demon didn’t tally on the winning side of this war. Gage swiped his fingers in the blood on her arm and drew the symbol on her forehead. Sighing with obvious relief, she slumped into her seat. “Better. Thanks.”

“What’d that do?” Phoenix asked, shooting her a quick glance. The Maserati’s tires should be smoking from his speed, as he ran red lights and stop signs alike.

“It disconnected our long-distance, mental call. He attempted to tap into your heads, too.”

“Who is he exactly?” He made a face. Should he really believe she actually helped them? Demons never helped Sherlocks.

“Micah. You remember him, right? Madison’s husband and Amos’s daddy? Turn left two streets down.” She sent him a saucy grin. “Was that enough time for ya, honey?”

“Yeah,” he said, sending her a hard glare. “What does Micah want with us?”

“He wants Madison and Amos. They’re in hiding, and he can’t break the spell.” She shrugged. “He decided to use you as bait.”

Nix felt sick to his stomach at the idea of being bait for Mads.

Two streets down, he made a left, and she directed him to a ritzy hotel. “I’m in the penthouse. We’ll be safe there.”

“We’re not going into your hotel room with you,” Nix argued hotly, sure as hell she planned something nefarious. She probably led them straight to Micah.

“We won’t get past the front desk, with all this blood,” Gage said reasonably.

Not to mention she wore only a red bra and leather pants.

She turned toward them, but before she could speak, Nix demanded, “Are you going to put your shirt back on?”

“Inside, you’ll be protected from Micah and any other demons he’s sent after you.” She rubbed her temples. Her gaze clashed with his, and she said, sweet as rain, “No, the shirt stays off. The magic won’t work if the symbols are covered. You got a problem with red? ‘Cause I can remove the bra, if red’s an issue.”

“No!” Nix couldn’t get the word out fast enough. He hoped the horror of her exposing her breasts didn’t show on his face because he got the idea if she knew, she’d remove the garment to spite him.

“I have enough strength to throw up a spell to make us invisible to anyone we might encounter. It won’t last long.” She circled her temples with her fingertips again. “We gotta be quick, though. Micah is going to bust through my sorcery soon, if I don’t get inside the hotel room.”

Nix parked the vehicle down the side street she indicated.

“You should dump the car,” she told Gage.

“What about his safety?” Nix glared at her, wondering if he should just butcher her and leave her bleeding out on the street.

“Once I’m locked inside the hotel room, he’ll be protected, too. Just don’t remove the symbol, sunshine. We can’t risk the car being found anywhere near us. He will sniff us out if he can’t find us through telepathy. You gotta park the car far, far away.” She turned to Gage. “Got it, sunshine? Far away.”

Nix and Gage glanced at one another. By expressions alone, each could generally tell what the other thought. Nix wanted to play this out, see what she was up to. Maybe he could find something useful against the supernatural species in her hotel. Gage would prefer to hightail it to safety, which was the smarter choice. He prayed his cousin would be the first to concede and follow Nix’s preference.

“Go with her,” Gage said. “Let’s ride this out. I’ll dump the car, backtrack to our vehicle, and call you when I’m finished.”

With a nod, Nix agreed.

They made it past the front desk without incident. The elevator took them to the penthouse floor. Leave it to a demon to want the best, to have the money for the best.

Petra stumbled from the elevator and into the penthouse, bleeding like she’d been run over by a Mac truck, leaving a puddle of blood in the elevator. He was glad she could cloak them.

Knocking canisters aside, she located black chalk on the table beside the door, dropped to her knees, and scratched symbols on the floor. She swiped her blonde hair off her forehead, leaving a red smear of blood behind. She muttered something in the Xapil tongue, and dark magic vibrated like static before becoming visible in the room, a black-violet color that smelled like rotten eggs and tasted like burnt offerings.

The air turned foul as decomposing corpses while the alchemy boomed, making his ears ring and her hair fly from the force. She collapsed on her side, panting and gasping among symbols glowing reddish-orange like fire embers. With a sizzle and pop, they died out, leaving the flooring scorched and the edges of her hair singed.

“Are you okay?” He knelt beside her.

“For now.” She put a hand to her forehead, wincing. Nix thought warmed-over shit might look better. She panted hard, and her eyes fluttered. “What’s your name?” His question surprised her if the flare of her eyes were any confirmation. “Have I hunted you?”

“Yes.” She sounded tired.

Looking over the gorgeous demon, he frowned. “I would remember seeing you.”

“Never saw me.” She licked her paper-white lips. “Disguised myself.” Her voice wavered and her eyes slipped closed. “I must rest. You should put an Angel Lock around me until I wake. Just an Angel Lock. Understand?”

Angel Lock? Strange words from a demon.

“Let me clean your wounds,” he said, lifting her arm and studying the carvings she’d slashed into her flesh. Nothing like anything he’d ever seen. Blood poured from them into the markings on the floor. Gage had stabbed her with the same blade without leaving injuries. Confusion high, he released her arm.

“No, you mustn’t clean my wounds.” She rolled onto her side and curled into a ball, pressing the black chalk into his hand. “The spell needs to bleed out.” What a bizarre statement. On her next breath, she slept, leaving him without the ability to ask more questions.

Slowly, he chalked an Angel Lock around her, unsure how that would trap her. She bled like crazy. She claimed to own her body, unheard of in the demonic world, unless dealing with a King. If she owned her own body, could she bleed out like a human? Doubtful, since she showed no signs of worry.

Bizarre situation. No more bizarre than a demon losing consciousness in the presence of a Sherlock and trusting him not to kill her while comatose.

He snooped around the penthouse. Impressive. High class, high quality, definitely nothing like anywhere he’d ever lived or even possessed the cash to crash for a night.

Unless I lower my standards and delve into that fucking account Mads gave me.

That wouldn’t be happening!

Symbols covered every surface in the room. Her security deposit sure as hell wouldn’t be refunded when management got a good view of her artwork.

The blade she’d shoved into his hand radiated a combination of colors; pulsating with life. The vibration tingled in his palm. Unsure what evil it portended, he went into the kitchen and rinsed away her blood under cold running water from the faucet. Immediately, the colors and pulsation ceased.

Hmmm….the blood must be the catalyst. Did her blood cause the knife’s response, or would any blood do? He hoped to never find out. Wedging the weapon between his belt and jeans, he took the opportunity to more closely examine the penthouse, found nothing to identify the demon, and settled on the couch to wait for Gage to call.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Nix palmed his cell phone when it vibrated. Anxious for Gage to call from dumping the car, he answered on the first buzz.

“Hey, sexy.”

“Mads?” He shivered at the sound of her sultry accent. The only woman who could drive sexual fantasies through his skull with the sound of her voice.

“Yeah. You’re okay, right? Petra got to you in time?”

“Petra?” Nix frowned. “Do you mean the hot, blonde demon with a snarky attitude?”

“That’d be her.” The sound of a car door shutting left him wondering where she was.

“Um…yeah, she got there. We might have killed her.”

The snap of shoes against pavement. “How do you mean?”

“I think she may be bleeding out.”

“Crap!”

Despite Mads’s obvious worry, her curse forced a laugh from him.

“How do you know about her?” Nix walked back to where the demon lay unmoving on the floor.

Petra? Could she be Petralegija? He thought he remembered her using the name when she snuffed out those demons in the bowling alley? At the time, he thought she called on Petralegija’s power, and now he wasn’t so sure.

“I sent her to help you.” Her voice became a bit muffled, as though she spoke away from the receiver. “Hi, Pablo. How are you this evening?”

Pablo’s distant reply came through from her end. Where the hell was Mads?

“Are you in the hotel room with Petra?” Madison’s voice was once again clear.

“Yeah. I’m waiting on Gage to ditch the car and return.” Afterward, they were getting the hell away from the demon…Petralegija? God, he hoped not. That particular demon was one scary bitch. His first meeting with her had played out as a waking nightmare. She’d killed three Sherlock teenagers and tortured another by the time he and Gage joined the party. They’d tried to save Jessie from Petralegija’s evil grasp, except they’d been too late. “Mads? How are you associated with a demon?”

“I’ll explain,” she said, and a ding sounded on the end of her line.

“When?”

“Now.” A rap sounded. “Hang up and let me in, Nix.”

Nix swiveled toward the sound and peered at his phone. Even though he strode across the room, he didn’t disconnect the call. He swung the door open and his jaw hit the floor. “Holy fuck!”

“Hey, handsome.” Mads grinned, plucked the phone from his fingers, and pressed the end button. She pushed the phone into his jeans pocket and asked, “Where’s Petra?”

Stepping to the side so she could see the mutilated demon, he couldn’t speak because all his brain cells had died and gone to high-falutin’ heaven. He’d never seen her dressed like this before. A red cocktail dress hugged her curves and stopped a couple of inches above her knees. High heels left her half an inch shorter than him.

Mads brushed past him and went directly to the demon. God have mercy, the back of the dress slung low enough that if she moved just right he might get a glimpse of the top of her ass crack. She definitely wore no bra beneath the delightful garment.

He’d have new fantasies to frustrate his long, sleepless nights.

She knelt beside the fallen demon, twisted Petra’s head face-up. “Where’s her blade?” she asked, swiveling to face him in her crouched position.

Nix plucked the knife from the waistband of his jeans and handed it to Mads, hilt first. She pressed the tip of the dagger to her thumb, and blood as crimson as her dress bloomed. Passing him the blade, she smeared blood across the demon’s lips.

“What are you doing?”

“Taqmelv tak.”

“Speak English, Mads, not that demon shit.”

“Sorry.” Rising, she gave him a contrite expression and sucked the remaining blood off her thumb. “I forget what language I’m speaking, sometimes. I said I was helping her.”

His cell phone jangled. “Gage?” he said, staring at Mads as he placed it to his ear.

“I’m in the elevator. Where do I go?”

“Take it to the top floor. We’ll meet you in the foyer.” He flipped his phone closed. “You got some explaining to do, Mads.”

“Yep.”

“Gage is on his way up.” He stared at the chick sprawled on the floor, still bleeding. He couldn’t tell if her blood loss slowed or not.

He strode to the door and opened it just as Gage stepped out of the elevator. “Is she alive?” Gage asked.

“Best I can tell.”

“I’ve been thinking about this situation, Nix.” Gage walked across the hall. “I can’t figure out why a demon would go to all this trouble if this isn’t a trap. Her life would be in danger otherwise. Especially now that she saved us and killed fellow demons.”

“I can think of a very good reason.” Nix stepped out of the doorway and allowed Gage to enter.

“Wha—Madison!” Coming to a dead halt, Gage stared at her.

Mads smiled. “Hey, Gage.”

Nix gawked and went brain dead again. Thinking became next to impossible with her attired like a socialite. He could see Mads dressed like this in her former life. But not the new Mads. For years, she’d left his blood smoldering. Sweet fucking God—this garment made his blood hot enough to melt titanium.

Undressing her wouldn’t be difficult with what she wore. Hell, shoving her against the wall, flipping the skirt up, and ripping her panties off…. Nix ran his fingers through his hair.

“Care to do that explaining now, Mads?”

“You’re all business today, Nix.” She winked and kicked her heels off. Nix wanted to tell her to put the fucking things back on. He kept the words trapped behind gritted teeth. “Petra is Amos’s sister,” Mads said.

“What?” Gage frowned. “How? She’s too old to be your daughter.”

A half-amused laugh exited her lungs, a sound Nix’s dick liked way too much. “Oh, she’s not my daughter. Petra is Micah’s daughter. She’s older than all our ages combined. She’s part-angel, part-demon, and no human. My understanding, she’s his first experiment with breeding a superior race.”

“Petra?” Gage scowled. “That short for Petralegija?”

“Yeah.” She confirmed their suspicions. Gage shot Nix a disturbed look. “What do you know about her?” Mads asked, making it obvious she read their silent speak.

“She’s an evil bitch for starters,” Nix said. “The first time we met her, she partied by slicing and dicing teenagers for sport.”

Mads stared at the fallen demon and shook her head. “I knew she had a colorful past, but—”

“Colorful, Mads? You call that colorful?”

“Would you prefer I use the word ‘dreadful’?”

Nix stared at her, surprised by her sassy lip. “Do you trust this fucking bitch?” She couldn’t seriously be that gullible, could she?

Mads shrugged, met his eyes, and he wanted to shake some sense into her. “Not really.”

He shoved his hands into his pockets to keep from shaking her. “Then why has she become a member of your entourage?”

“Amos trusts her.”

“He’s eight!” Nix curled a hand buried in his pocket into a fist. “Eight-year-olds trust the wrong people all the time.”

“Amos is almost nine. And he isn’t the average eight-year-old. The things he knows—”

“You can’t possibly be this naïve!” Nix yelled, unable to contain his frustration any longer.

“Thanks for saving our ass, Madison, and sending her to help. We were good and fucked before she arrived.”

She nodded at Gage. “Amos saw the attack, otherwise we wouldn’t have known.” She turned back to Nix, and an ironic smile touched her lips. “I don’t expect you to understand. It’s complicated, Nix.”

“I understand, Mads. Oh, I understand alright. You’re fucking buddies—buddies, not ‘fucking buddies’—whatever…with a goddamn demon.”

“Need I remind you I’m half ‘goddamn demon’? And Amos is three quarters of the scary stuff.”

“Um…yeah…Mmm…Okay.” Gage rubbed his forehead with the corner of his cell phone. “Zoe’s on the line.” Since Nix had heard no ring, he guessed it was Gage’s subtle way of getting out of a sticky conversation. Neither responded. He and Mads continued to stare at one another, until Gage shrugged and walked out of the room.

“Have you never really thought the thing on the floor might have an agenda?” he asked.

She popped him on the cheek, not hard, just enough to get his attention. “That thing on the floor shares part of my makeup, and I’m coming dangerously close to being insulted, Nix.”

“If I thought you were a thing, Mads, I wouldn’t think you were smokin’ hot in this dress!”

She smiled, slow, a glint in her eyes he’d identify as sensual on any other woman. Mads had never given him such a provocative gander.

“Aww…Nix.” She rubbed the cheek she’d popped. “That’s…kinda sweet.”

“Truth.” He shrugged, not touching her. If he started, he’d lose every ounce of his resolve not to drag her to the bedroom down the hall and fuck her silly.

“I feel naughty wearing it.”

“Why?”

“I’m not wearing a bra,” she said in a scandalized whisper.

Nix chuckled. “Wickedly outrageous, Mads.” He tried to force a shocked tone into his voice, and knew he failed miserably.

Silence drifted between them as she stared at him with a contemplative sparkle in her eyes. “Or panties.”

Nix choked. She laughed and patted his cheek. “You’re so easy.”

Could it be possible his southern belle flirted with him? “I think your demon stepdaughter has been teaching you evil mind games.”

Mads’s expression turned serious again as she studied the demon lying on the floor. “She knows I’d kill her if she hurt anyone.” She returned her focus to him. “Amos controls her as easily as a puppeteer. It’s scary how tight she’s wrapped around his finger. I don’t pretend to understand their relationship, but I’ll use anything I can to get a leg up against my opponent. Micah has had millennia to prepare. He knows the ins and outs of demonic warfare. I’ve had three years to learn all I can, and who knows if I’ll get more. Tomorrow I could wake up staring into his face and have to fight for Amos’s and my souls.”

“You know I’d be at your side to fight with you, if you’d let me.”

A sad smile. “I wish you could help. This is something we have to do ourselves.”

“What about your crystal genie?”

“He’s not mine, Nix.” She sighed, a purely frustrated sound. “He’s got his own bone to pick with Micah. He’s the one who trapped him in his crystal cell. Zen could kill us and stop whatever outcome Micah plans.”

If that happened, Nix would have to go after Zen. He sure hoped the outcome never happened.

“He can’t fight the battle for us either.”

“I feel like you’re all alone in the world, Mads.”

She ruffled her fingers through his hair and down the side of his face. Nix attempted to talk his cock into some semblance of softness and lost the fucking battle. Shifting his hips, he tried to ease the pressure of his jeans. Again, he lost the battle.

“I was lonely when I had a husband at home.” Her gorgeous baby blues, rimmed in a darker sapphire shade, met his, her expression intense. “Micah never completed me.”

Nix would love to try completing her…whatever the fuck that meant. Her gaze dropped to his mouth, smoldering and hungry. Nix swallowed hard.

She shook her head as if shaking out of whatever lusty trance she’d been in. Her hand dropped, and she stepped out of his personal space. “Anyway,” she cleared her throat, and wouldn’t meet his stare. “Loneliness isn’t the worst that could happen to me.”

“Mads—”

“You and Gage should go. Petra will wake soon, and we’ll get out of here,” she said, rushing over anything he might have said. “Make sure you put this on your body somewhere….” She took a pen to the palm of his hand and sketched out a rough design.

“What’s this?”

Mads peeked at him through her lashes. “If I tell you, it’ll freak you out.”

Nix tugged his hand out of his jeans, plunged his fingers into her hair and pulled her head back. Their stares locked. “No secrets between us, Mads.”

“Secrets never hurt anyone, Nix.”

“I’m guessing Micah and your mother’s secret never hurt you or Amos?”

She inhaled sharply. Yeah, he hit below the belt.

“I promise not to hate you,” he said. Nothing could make him hate her.

“What I drew on your hand….” She licked her lips. “It’s my sigil.”

“Demon sigil?” All the Kings possessed a sigil; he guessed it only fair play for a Queen of Hell to have one, too.

She nodded. “It’ll protect you, Nix. Just not from Micah or the other Kings.”

They stared at one another a long while. He shifted his hand out of her hair and ran his thumb along her jaw. “You’re playing with fire, Mads.”

“I don’t have a choice, Nix.”