Secrets - [Guardian Trilogy 01] (45 page)

“
Do it. Do it now, Holden,”
I thought, but Holden didn't budge. He watched the demon and looked mildly amused. His eyes never even flickered in my direction.

The demon saw me look at Holden.

 ”Do you think
he’ll
help you?” He laughed loudly. “Not this one. He’s made of ice, has been since the day he closed the deal. I’ve never seen one so young be so adept at manipulation, so willing to add the extra touches that make all the difference. Lust really is your forte, isn't it?”

Holden shrugged. “What can I say? Women find me irresistible.” He winked at the demon and my heart stuttered.

The demon grabbed my chin and twisted my face to look at him.  He stared deep into my eyes and into my soul. “I think she loves you,” he said distastefully, “I can smell it in the air. It mixes with the sweetness of her fear. Perhaps she’ll be easier than I thought.”

“They all love me,” Holden said in a voice that made my stomach plunge.

The demon chuckled again. He sniffed my hair and made a clicking noise with his mouth. “Join us and Holden can mentor you. He’s one of the best.”

I shook my head. Mark lightly touched the back of neck, causing my spine to lock and spasm. Waves of red hot pain washed over me. I prayed to pass out, tears streaming down my face. The demon didn’t look at me. His eyes steadily watched Holden who had a small smile tugging on his lips. He removed his hand from my neck and my muscles went limp. I fell backwards on to the floor.

“You want to have a go?” he asked Holden.

“I have nowhere near your talent in this area. I’m honored to watch,” Holden said smoothly, though it sounded like part of him really would like to partake in what he’d just witnessed.

“You still have to resort to physical violence?” he said, turning my face towards him again and surveying my bruises. “So messy. Much more Augustus’s style than yours. I thought you would’ve progressed further than that. Practice, my boy. You retain so much of your human self, but I suppose that’s why you blend in better than the others. Personally, I’m disgusted by this entire place.”

“I’ve known nowhere else.”

“I suppose.” The demon shrugged then kicked me. I felt my ribs crack, but it hurt less than him touching me. He took a fistful of my hair and pulled me into the living room. “Get in the chair,” he ordered.

“No,” I said, trying not to gasp for air. I would do nothing he asked. If I made a concession now, the next one would be easier and the one after that and the one after that until I was agreeing to whatever they asked me. I had to hold on until the plan could work.

“Oh, goody—you’re in for a long night.” He touched me by the shoulders and again pain flooded my nerves. It felt like my skin was boiling, like I had swallowed a thousand razorblades, like I was rolling in glass.

“You’ll do as I say,” he hissed into my ear.

God, when was Holden going to stop this? When was he going to step in?

“Get in the chair.”

I couldn’t find my voice, but I managed to shake my head.

The demon paced away from me. I didn’t have the strength to look at him. His hatred and anger was heavy in the air.

“How did you deal with her?” he demanded. “How did you get her here so easily, with so little resistance? I’ve known none so stubborn.”

“You said it yourself, she loves me.”

“Show me.”

I watched Holden’s shoes come closer to me. I flinched away thinking he might actually kick me. He leaned in close. ”Olivia, get in the chair.”

“Fuck you,” I whispered.

“We already played that game, love. Get in the chair.” Holden gently brushed his hand across my cheek making my skin tingle in a good way. My mind was so confused, I wanted to reach out to him, but I knew I couldn’t. This wasn’t the same Holden I was with in his apartment. This was someone cold and foreign. Someone who wanted to hurt me. His will pressed in on me, and suddenly I wanted nothing more than to sit in the chair. I couldn’t even remember why I was fighting against it so hard.

Holden straightened and extended his hand to me. I took it without thinking. It seemed like such a natural thing to do. He helped me into the chair, my chair. His eyes never met mine, they were always averted slightly, but he continued to hold my hand, massaging it slightly.

“Impressive,” hissed the cold serpentine voice. Holden released my hand and took several steps back. “I think you’re widely underestimated, Holden. Your power is subtle, but great.”

 “Not as great as some.”

“I can see why you want others to believe that. You play the game well. I always knew you’d be good—just not this good. You’ve even managed to catch us a future guardian. Not an easy task.”

I watched the demon approach again and my skin crawled. I wanted to scream, but my reeling brain had me struck mute. Had Holden been using me all along? Was all of “us,” a lie, a clever plan?

The demon fingered my hair. I forced myself not to pull back from him. I looked him in the eyes and let my hate show plainly. He grabbed me by the face, holding my head firm, and kissed me.

“You’ll be quite the achievement.”

“You will never have me.”

The demon shrugged. “Win some, lose some. The only person it will hurt … is you.”  

And then the torture started and I realized that everything I’d endured so far was just the tip of the iceberg. I never knew one person could feel so much pain and not die. Wave after wave the bone cracking, skin peeling pain took my breath away. I couldn’t speak or scream—only whimper now and again.

I kept repeating in my mind,
“He loves me, he loves me,”
trying to not to lose faith in Holden. Between the sickening rushes of pain, broken bones, and coughing blood, I’d forgotten about Quintus. Memory of him, of our plan, slid into my aching brain like a glass splinter. He never came. Neither he nor Holden came to my aid. I was alone—the knowledge sank in my stomach like a stone.

“Hmmm.” The demon paced, livid that I wasn’t giving in. “You understand I can do this all night, but I just want to go home. Make the deal. I’ll let you go.”

“No,” I said my voice hoarse and weak. I thought I might have seen Holden flinch slightly, but his face and his eyes remained stony and indifferent. He didn’t try to say anything to me or acknowledge that he heard any of my thoughts. He stood there, a rock, cold and remote, but strong and steady. As much as I wanted to believe in him, a trickle of doubt took root in my mind. I was a sucker.

The demon walked away from me, slamming pieces of furniture onto the floor and shattering my possessions. After a few minutes of destruction, he turned back to me with a shark grin. His smile made me nervous. He’d thought of something to use against me. My swollen eyes flickered to Holden for a sign … anything.

With a flick of his finger, the demon slammed Holden up against the wall. The wall board cracked behind him and his face turned red from lack of oxygen. “So what’s it going to be, Olivia? Holden or your soul?”

“What?” I stammered. I tried to move. I didn’t expect this. I wasn’t prepared for this possibility.

“You love him, even if he didn’t turn out to be the person you thought he was. I can still smell it on you. It’s barely even flagged though he enjoyed watching me torture you. He made this happen—yet you still love him.” The demon’s mouth curled in disgust. “Take the deal and you both live. Turn me down again, he dies—and I’ll eventually find someone you love enough. Your mother perhaps? Another friend…” He looked into my eyes and shook his head. “No, I think Holden’s the one. Quite ironic really, a guardian whose greatest weakness is a jinni.”

Thirty Two

The hardest thing I’d ever endured watching Vetis hurt Olivia without letting any of my rage be known. Every stab of pain she felt was forever imprinted in my mind. I knew this demon. He was the one who’d made my deal, I had no idea how I hadn’t recognized him early. All he had to do was touch me, and he could send me straight to hell. I couldn’t keep my end of the plan. If I had only known—but it was too late now. I thought about the gun pressing against my back, but I didn’t think I could get to it before he killed me, which would leave Olivia alone. I wouldn’t leave her alone with him, no matter what.

He sensed something wasn’t quite right nearly from the start. He focused as much of his attention on me as he did on Olivia, waiting for a sign that I wanted to stop him. I felt him pushing on the walls of my mind, methodically looking for weakness. I couldn’t even risk talking to her in our thoughts. It was too open.
She
was too open. He might be able detect it. 

I waited, hoping Olivia could hold out for him to be distracted, to not be focused on me. Suddenly he had me pinned to the wall. No air came to my lungs. They burned with oxygen deprivation. But it was better me than her. He was making her choose.

She panicked—obviously didn’t realize he wasn’t going to kill me. The worst he could do was cast me to hell, but had he intended to do that, it would’ve already been done. He knew he needed me to control her. He was toying with her, fishing for a reaction. He could torture me all day, kill me even, and I would come back. Jinn are like cockroaches that way. Now I tuned into her thoughts intently, willed her to not take the deal but still didn’t dare speak to her.
Sacrifice me and make your choice, Liv. You need to end all of this once and for all,
I thought to myself

Olivia looked at me with a battered face and ruined eyes. I didn’t struggle or fight Vetis. I hoped she’d see I was letting her go. I was willing to die for her. I just wanted to do this one noble act.

“Holden, I don’t know if you can hear me—but listen. No one else will die, especially not you. You may have been—you may have lied about us, about what you feel, I can’t be sure. You may be the person that’s before me and not the one I thought you were, but I can’t risk it if there’s even a chance.”
Her internal voice paused and several thought zipped past me before she started again.
“Maybe I could learn to love you regardless of what you are, even like this. I have to give it a chance. Don’t blame yourself. I'm doing this for purely selfish reasons
I don’t want to lose you.”
It took a moment to realize that she’d spoken the last part aloud. Enough pressure released from my chest that I could breathe and even move a little. Vetis was almost completely focused on her now, intent on making this catch.

“Say it, say the words out loud,” he coaxed. I could hear her choice in her mind. She was making a mistake she could never take back.

The idea of Olivia and I staying together for the rest of eternity twirled a provocative dance in my mind. No more lies, no more hiding. We could just be together. I wanted to believe it could work. I desperately tried to talk myself into this new variation of the plan.

“I choose—”

I didn’t allow myself to think, only react. I pulled my gun, ignoring what I wanted.

Olivia sagged to the floor, blood and grey matter spraying across the room. She didn’t say the words, so they couldn’t have her.

In what seemed like slow motion, I pulled the trigger again, this time shooting Vetis in the head before he could react to what was happening. Quintus appeared in a great, blazing ball of light like the sun. He grabbed Vetis’s body and put him under the lamps. I dropped to the floor beside Olivia’s limp, lifeless body and scooped it in my arms.