Passion Ignited (25 page)

Raider stopped as well, facing the winged
warrior. “What do you mean?”

“You were the one who drew me to your family.
I saw you before the rest of them and knew what had to be
done.”

“No, you came because of Draven and Ethan. I
thought you sensed their strength and power.”

“I did sense that, yes, but that was only once
I started watching your family.”

Demetrius glanced at the apparent confusion
that was plastered on Raider’s face and sighed. “The night that it
all happened I’d felt drawn to your realm. I didn’t know why at the
time, but felt that I needed to trust my Instinct. I reached your
realm just after everything happened. It was night, and the murders
had already been committed. There was death surrounding the palace.
I flew overhead, trying to decipher what had happened until I
spotted you in the lake. I hovered above you for a long time, just
staring as you held your female. You had no idea I was there even
though you kept looking up. That’s when I realized you were
praying. You were holding her in your arms as you looked up at me,
then you bowed your head.” Demetrius paused. “Are you sure you want
to hear this?”

Raider nodded.

“It was then that I realized why I couldn’t
look away.”

Raider interrupted him, a look of concern
across his brow. He held his hands up in surrender. “You’re not
going to tell me you fell in love with me, are you?”

Demetrius glared at him. “Do you want to hear
this or not.”

“Yeah, I do.”

“With you standing in the water, it looked
like black wings spread out behind you. I couldn’t take my eyes off
you…” Demetrius paused and scowled at Raider. “Not like that, you
sick bastard. It was because you reminded me of my brother,
Aragon.”

Raider took a moment to think about that new
revelation. Demetrius had never talked about family before. They’d
all been together for a century and not once had he talked about
anything personal. No one knew he had a brother, or even parents
for gods’ sakes.

“By the time I realized that you were trying
to kill yourself, you’d already passed out and fallen into the
water. I dove in and lifted you from the lake. You were so out of
it though, you only barely noticed me before you passed out again.
I set you on the ground and placed your wife in your arms. Then I
just watched as other vampires found you. I watched you grieve for
your wife and children. I watched as everyone mourned their king
and queen. That was all I did for days. The likeness you share with
Aragon was too intense to ignore. You don’t look exactly like him,
of course, but your demeanor and the way you looked in the water.
When I thought you had wings…I knew why I’d been drawn to
Vampur.

“I watched and waited. I didn’t know what for,
though. You were close to the new king and queen—and their sons—and
I found myself watching them as well. There was something special
about all of you. And I was right.” Demetrius paused and looked up
into the sky as he sighed. “So, my point to that long-ass story is
that I’ve learned to trust my Instinct. Had I not trusted it with
the twins, then you’d have never met Nitro.”

Raider blinked at him, taking in everything
he’d just learned. All this time, he’d thought that Demetrius had
come for Draven and Ethan, the only children ever born of a
Valkyrie. It had never occurred to him that it had been
him
that drew him to their family.

Demetrius had saved his life that
night.

It all made sense now. He’d been too drowsy
from blood loss to recognize the black wings that had carried him
from the water. But all he had to do was imagine that night again.
He could see Demetrius clearly, pulling him from the water. Not his
face per se, but the shape of his body, the arms and wings that
were unmistakably Demetrius’s.

“Alright, that’s enough. Don’t get all sappy
on me,” Demetrius said. He gestured that they should start walking
again. “What has Ferox been up to?”

Raider shook his head from his thoughts and
fell into step. “He’s fully healed now. But I think the fight with
Damion took more out of him than any of us realized.”

“How so?”

“He’s different lately. It’s like he’s him,
but not, if that makes sense.”

“Not really,” Demetrius admitted. “I’ve
wondered if he’s pissed at me. He hasn’t contacted me once since
that battle went down, which is weird. No update on how the new
warriors are handling things—which now I know between what you and
Draven have told me—but it is strange. We generally keep in
constant contact. He hasn’t even replied to my emails.”

Raider kept pace with Demetrius as they turned
into another alley. Nothing in sight except for more buildings,
which were encasing the shadows ahead. “Makes sense. He’s been
staying out of most Guardian business since the fight. I’m sure
he’ll get back on track soon.”

“I need you and Draven to keep me in the loop.
For the first time I’m not so sure that leaving Ferox in charge of
the Guardians is the best thing for anyone. All these years, I’ve
counted on him for this kind of information. You don’t think I
would have flown here as soon as I found out Nitro had been
infected—”

Demetrius was cut off as a loud boom and glass
shattering caught their attention. His wings shot out and he took
to the air just as Raider flashed through the city streets. Keeping
Demetrius in his sights as much as he could, he leapt over the
streets wherever there was traffic this late at night, and passed
countless blocks until he reached the building.

He reached Demetrius after he’d already
landed. His wings were folding into him, sliding into his skin
until they were hidden, which he often did if there was any chance
he’d be spotted by humans.

Fire leapt from the broken windows, licking up
the old walls of the brick building, engulfing more of it in flames
as it went. Screams erupted from within and both warriors raced
toward the structure. As they neared the entrance, both of them
stopped. A lone figure walked out of the blaze, a black profile
against the brightness of the burning building. Raider’s heart
pounded at the sight. The curves were unmistakable.

Nitro.

He raced ahead, halting just in front of her.
She carried a young child in her arms. He was breathing, but it
wheezed in and out of him from smoke inhalation.

“Take him,” she growled as she shoved the boy
into his arms.

Raider’s shock that she sounded so normal
quickly disappeared as he realized she was heading back into the
burning building. He stepped toward her, with the boy in his arms.
Reaching out, he grabbed her shoulder. “Where the fuck do you think
you’re going?”

She looked over her shoulder, her eyes resting
on his hand before they met his gaze. “I’m going back in there.
There are others.” She raced off and disappeared into the
flames.

“Demetrius, take him,” Raider
yelled.

He was by his side in a second, taking the
small child from his arms. “He’s bleeding.”

Raider quickly glanced at the boy and saw that
there was in fact blood seeping from his neck.

“I’ll get him taken care of,” Demetrius said.
“You sure you know what you’re doing?”

“Yeah. You stay out here in case we bring
others.”

Chapter
Twenty-Four

Bob had planned to leave the city. He’d had
every intention of doing so. It wouldn’t have been difficult at
all, but that vision he’d had changed his resolve. That flash of
something—of family—he just couldn’t ignore. He needed to know
where he came from.

So he’d gone back to the first thing he could
remember. He walked down Broad Street, went under the overpass and
kept going—to where it all began.

To anyone casually looking at the property, it
would have looked just like any old church. Stained glass windows
gave the brown brick building character, the steeple standing high
above painted bright white.

It was only when someone tried to cross the
threshold of the door that the scene completely changed. There
wasn’t even a doorknob to grip. Just air. It had completely wigged
him out the other night, but this time, he came prepared. He
stepped inside and took in the chaos. The building no longer stood.
Wood was splintered, chunks littering the ground lying in all
directions. Furniture was in tatters, black from soot and
burns.

He walked slowly over the debris, searching as
he went. Nothing had survived the blast that had taken this place
down. Nothing, except for him. He still couldn’t explain it, still
had no idea what had in fact happened here. So he bent down on his
knees and started to search. There had to be something that could
tell him who he was, something that could explain why he was a
monster.

He dug through debris, throwing planks of
burnt wood out of his way as he searched for answers. He came upon
the place where he’d dug himself out the other night, and decided
that he’d search that area fully. It hadn’t taken long until he’d
found something worth value. A desk. It wasn’t in good shape, but
then again, nothing here was. It was charred, and pieces were
missing, but none of that mattered. A desk held so many
possibilities. Answers could be safely tucked away
inside.

As he cleared away debris so he could open the
drawers, he spotted a bright red book and pulled it from the
rubble. The cover was ruined—whatever had been printed on it had
been burned away—but that didn’t stop him from cracking it
open.

It was old, like an antique. It was only after
flipping through some of the pages that he realized that this
hadn’t been a book at all. It was a journal. Much of it had been
burned away, but there was still a note that he could make out on
the inside cover. It wasn’t in English, but it was in a language he
easily read. The short note inside the book simply read:

To Damion

Love Ferox

He blinked away a tear that threatened to run
down his cheek. Finally. A name. It was small, but oh, so huge. He
wasn’t even sure if it was his name, but it was a start. It was
something he could work off of. He flipped through the book again,
but found every page to be empty. There would be no other answers
coming from the journal, but he wouldn’t stop. He’d search wherever
else he could.

****

Raider’s eyes burned. The entire building was
lit in flames, causing a reddish hue to fall over everything; far
brighter than his vampire eyes could handle. As he made his way
down a hallway, Nitro rushed past him, carrying another child in
her arms. That one had looked even worse for wear, with blood
running all over his neck and arms. Raider ran forward, realizing
he’d been headed in the right direction. He made his way through
the burning hallways, trying to listen for more screams. Nitro
rushed past him again, this time in the same direction he’d been
headed. He kicked into gear, following tight on her tail. They went
down a series of steps, flashing through the flames that licked up
the staircase. He continued to follow her through more hallways
until they approached a set of double doors.

The scene that unfolded before his eyes made
him stop. This was the arena he’d dreamt of, where he’d seen Nitro
fight for her life. The same overhead lights—most of which were
burnt out—were spotlighting random areas on the ground below. Dirt
covered the ground, blood-stained from previous fights. Stadium
seats were arranged behind a thick cement wall, which is where he’d
seen the crowd screaming and cheering. The bright orange paint was
chipping off, likely from weapons or bodies colliding with the
painted surface. Unlike his dream, now no one sat in the bleachers
watching this battle take place. Demons fought one another, some
over the small children that were littered everywhere. Some of the
children were screaming and crying, which only seemed to titillate
the demons more. Other children lay dead on the ground, their
throats ripped open. Or in some cases, they’d been crushed to
death.

Nitro swept through the melee, dodging attacks
left and right, using her claws to slice through any demon who
crossed her path. He watched in fascination as she threw her arms
out, a fireball rippling through the crowd, sending demons flying.
A small demon thing was all around her ramming into other demons,
kicking them, and even flinging them away despite its size.
Raider’s eyes dodged all around, watching Nitro, watching that baby
demon-thing, and it was then that he realized that Ekhart was
nowhere to be found. Only his demon creations littered the arena.
Nitro reached another child, battling a demon to rescue him. Raider
flashed forward, blades drawn, as he made quick work of a grouping
of demons that were fighting over a little girl.

Where the hell did all these children come
from?

Surprisingly, they were so wrapped up in
fighting over her, that they didn’t realize when Raider swooped in
and took her away. He cradled the little girl in his arms and ran
toward the exit. Up the stairs, down the hallway, and out the door.
He left her with Demetrius, noticing that the boy Nitro had just
fought the demon for was already there. Demetrius took both the boy
and the girl in his arms and leapt into the air, his wings opening
as he soared through the sky. Raider bolted back inside the
building and raced down the hallway. The fire had started to
destroy parts of the building, making the hallway a maze of sorts.
He reached the arena once again, noticing how many demons Nitro had
annihilated in his absence. She’d cut a clean sweep through
them—many of them were burning, their skin smoldering as they
writhed on the ground. But there were still too many.