BURN (35 page)

Harper kept her expression neutral, betraying nothing. “You think if you piss me off, I’ll charge at you? I’ve heard worse from better.” The bitch hissed, clenching her hand around the dagger. “Ooh, temper, temper,” taunted Harper.

“I will enjoy killing you.”

A frisson of fear slithered into Harper. Shit, what if she couldn’t do this? What if she failed and let Knox down? Of course she’d fail! She was weak, pathetic. She wouldn’t—

Harper shook her head a little. She’d never thought of herself as weak. Realization dawned. “You can induce fear.” Well that wasn’t good.

“Let’s end this, shall we?”

Harper had no problem at all with causing this bitch a world of pain; her inner demon wanted to gouge out Jeanna’s eyes and shove them down her throat. But Harper needed to be away from the house before Knox arrived or he would step inside the cube to reach her. “Think, Jeanna. Knox will come, and he won’t come alone. You won’t get away from here.”

“Of course I will. Jacques is waiting for me in the woods. He’ll teleport us away.”

“You don’t want to do this, Jeanna,” Harper said, her voice compelling. “You don’t even know who I am.”

“So it’s true that sphinxes can cause confusion.”

Shit, it didn’t seem to be working here. Harper could guess why. She was still psychically weak, courtesy of Isla’s bite. And she was expending precious psi-energy on fighting the artificial fear that threatened to drag her under and make her forget why it was so important that she win this duel – Knox. She would fight because he needed her to, because she wanted to stay with him.

Resigned that this would come to bladed combat, Harper drowned out Jeanna’s next words and studied the nightmare. Jeanna was obviously comfortable with a blade. Being tall, she also had a long reach. However, her height also meant her legs were exposed.

“Before I kill you, I must ask…what is Knox? You must know.” When Harper didn’t answer, Jeanna smirked. “An amazing lover, isn’t he?”

She thought to make Harper jealous? Thought such an emotion would make her lose control? “That’s not going to work, Jeanna. You’re insulting us both by being so petty.” Hearing voices call out to each other, Harper knew she and Jeanna had been spotted. “They see us. They’ll come up here.”

Jeanna shrugged, unconcerned. “They can’t step inside the shield. Nothing can penetrate it.”

“If you kill me, Knox will kill you.”

“If he finds me, yes he will. But it won’t make you any less dead, will it?”

She had a point.

Grinning, Jeanna held up her dagger. “Like it? I bought it from the practitioners.”

“That explains why it looks more like a Harry Potter wand.”

A scowl that promised retribution. “It’s enchanted. The handle is the bone of a demon who died in glorious agony. Each time I strike you with it, you’ll hear a cry of his pain.”

“Yeah” – Harper smiled tauntingly – “if you can slice me.”

Jeanna rushed Harper, pumped full of anticipation. With the swiftness of any sphinx, Harper retrieved her blade from her boot, infused it with hellfire, and parried the blow. The blades clanged as they met. Jeanna danced backwards, eyes wide.

Harper smirked. “You didn’t think you were the only one who had a blade, did you?” Apparently so. Jeanna had thought this would be a quick win, an easy method of payback. Wrong. Harper was taught combat and fencing by imps. They fought dirty. They cheated. They were damn bloodthirsty. “You sure you still want to do this?”

Jeanna’s expression answered that. Keeping her muscles loose, Harper lunged at her; went for every weak spot, including the face, neck, and chest. She was quick. Precise. Didn’t stop moving, kept up the pressure. The blades clanged as they repeatedly clashed.

There was no hesitation in Jeanna. She parried and thrust with ease, all the while careful not to let Harper’s hands touch her. It quickly became clear she was confident and, worse, very good with a dagger. She didn’t make the error most did and try to hit the blade; she tried to hit her opponent.

Moments later, she was successful. The dagger stung, slicing cleanly through Harper’s skin like a knife through butter. For some reason, the first cut was always a shock. What stunned her more was the agonizing male cry that rang through her head.
Fucking enchanted piece of shit
.

Harper heard the practitioners gathering close like vultures. The only thing keeping them back was Jeanna’s shield…which meant this situation was fucking hopeless, really. Killing Jeanna would feel great and would save her from being impaled on a dagger, but then she’d no longer be protected from the practitioners by the shield.

Determination flooding every vein, Harper went at Jeanna again. She didn’t let up, ensuring she was in constant motion, refusing to allow the dead male’s cries to distract her. The smell of burning flesh filled the air as the hellfire coating Harper’s blade ate at Jeanna’s wounds, pleasing her inner demon. “Looking a little like a leper there, Jeanna.”

“You
will
die for this.” She slammed her open palm into Harper’s face.

Shit! Her eyes watered, making it hard to see. Jeanna took instant advantage and sliced Harper’s chest. She winced – both at the pain and the male scream that reverberated through her head. Fuck, that cut was deep; she could feel blood pooling to the surface but she ignored the urge to examine the wound. If she looked away from a smug-looking Jeanna, she was dead.

A tendril of fear curled around her. She was going to lose. Jeanna was too strong, too fast. There was no way Harper could defeat her, there was no—

Pushing aside that artificial fear, Harper swung her hips and kick her opponent hard in the stomach. Jeanna retaliated with a swipe of her blade. Harper ducked and came up on Jeanna’s side, stabbing deep. Blood bloomed, soaking her t-shirt. “Now we’re even.”

Hissing with anger as her flesh sizzled, Jeanna tossed a succession of hellfire orbs. One hit Harper’s leg and another skimmed her temple.

“You like to throw shit, huh?” Adrenalin pounding through her, Harper yanked one of the metal hair sticks from her bun, infused it with hellfire, and hurled it at Jeanna. It buried itself in the bitch’s shoulder.

With a shocked, angry cry, Jeanna yanked it out. She snarled as her flesh burned. “That really, really hurt.” Um, it was supposed to.

The taste of trepidation and anxiety suddenly filled Harper’s mouth. Jeanna was clearly redoubling her efforts to swamp her in fear. Grinding her teeth, Harper fought it. But it was hard; she could feel her psychic energy waning – she still wasn’t fully recovered psychically from Isla’s bite. Still…“It won’t work, Jeanna. You won’t reduce me to the blubbering wreck you were in the restrooms.” She blinked at the bitch’s curse. “Something I said?”

Jeanna struck again. As Harper parried each blow, she could sense the practitioners watching, waiting for her to fail and die at Jeanna’s hands…or to win and then be vulnerable to them. Either way, Harper was a loser to some extent.

Twisting slightly, Jeanna evaded one of Harper’s blows and kicked her hard in the thigh. Shit, that was gonna bruise, and Knox was gonna be pissed.

Ignoring the pain and the sweat trickling down her temples, Harper made an effort to regulate her rapid, shallow breathing. She was running out of steam, physically and psychically. It didn’t help that she was bleeding from cuts and stab wounds on her cheek, chest, and arms. Not that Jeanna looked much better. Her flesh was peeling and blistering in several places, thanks to the hellfire. The stench of it was awful. “God, Jeanna, at this point you’re just nauseating.”

Too deep in her anger, Jeanna began to strike out wildly. She should know better than that. But apparently Jacques was right – she treasured her ego. Harper slammed her foot into Jeanna’s knee, causing her leg to buckle. Then she lunged, thrusting the blade deep into the bitch’s gut. Seemingly stunned, the nightmare dropped her dagger as she inhaled sharply, eyes wide. Harper twisted her blade before withdrawing it. Then she thrust it into Jeanna’s neck just as she slammed her hand into Jeanna’s solar plexus, sending soul-deep pain rippling through her.

Her face a mask of agony, Jeanna gurgled, flapping her hands at the knife as blood fairly pumped out of the wound. She stumbled once before dropping to the ground, eyes blank. Harper retrieved her blade and, cold though it was, wiped it on the nightmare’s t-shirt. It took a few moments for her to die…and that was when the shield winked out.

The practitioners began to circle her, ready to pounce. By then, Harper had already pulled the second long, thin blade out of her hair and infused it with hellfire. Well, if she was going to die here, she’d take at least one of these bastards with her. The six males exchanged knowing looks, and she had the feeling a spell would be coming her way. Had a feeling that—

A mind slid very firmly against her own.
Knox?

I see you.
It was a rumble.

Instinct had her looking to her left. And there he was. Just standing in the field, his body language casual.
Don’t come near the house!

“He’s here!” exclaimed someone from below – apparently not all of the practitioners had joined her on the roof. “Get into your positions now!”

The magickal fuckers disappeared. Well, all but one.

The remaining practitioner smirked at Knox. “If you want her, come get—” He cut off with a scream as a huge, black blur leaped onto the roof and barreled into him.
Tanner.
The practitioner screamed over and over as the hellhound tore into him with teeth and claws.

“Hey, sphinx, let’s go!” called out a familiar voice.

Harper smiled at Larkin, who was hovering at a standstill with her gorgeous midnight black wings out. “’Bout fucking time you shitheads got here.”

Larkin just laughed, gripping Harper around the waist as she flew them off the roof and headed to—

Motherfucker
. Slamming hard into a wall, Larkin and Harper fell gracelessly to the ground. But there was no wall, she observed with a frown. She shoved out her hand, hitting something solid that flickered white like a bulb. It was a large energy barrier. They were trapped in the cube that was meant for Knox. Worse, two practitioners headed for Harper and Larkin as the she-demons got to their feet. And Harper’s blades had fallen from her grip when she hit the ground.
Shit
.

“We now have your mate and two of your sentinels! Would you like us to free them?”

Knox didn’t respond. Just stood still and composed in that eerie way that he had. His dark eyes gave nothing away.

“If you wish for them to be free, you must trade places with them!” continued the practitioner. It was clear that he was nervous. But he was also excited, obviously confident that he would get what he wanted. And that confidence freaked Harper out. The cube had to be particularly strong. “Their life for yours!”

Still nothing at all from Knox. He didn’t appear in the slightest bit fazed.

Unnerved by Knox’s cool exterior, the practitioner licked his lips. “If you do not give us what we want, we will kill them!”

“No.” Knox’s tone was so cool yet so menacing. “You won’t.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Seeing Harper there, injured and at risk of being killed right in front of him, the past and the present collided; Knox’s hold on his fury slipped a little. He had watched his parents die. He wouldn’t watch Harper die, wouldn’t allow anyone to take her from him. The demon was raging at the danger to her. It wanted to express its rage in the only way it knew how.

“Surrender yourself, and we will free them!” shouted the bastard now pointing a knife at his mate’s throat. “If you do not, she will die!”

More anger pulsed through Knox, mingling with his demon’s rage. “Give her to me, or you’ll all die.”

“We know what you are!” The practitioner wore a self-satisfied yet shaky smirk. “You’re Lucifer himself.”

Had Knox not been drowning in a fury that bordered on madness, he might have laughed. As it was, Harper and Larkin
did
laugh. “I’m not Lucifer,” Knox told him. “I’m worse.”

Knox released the power buzzing through his veins; let it fill the air as he called to what birthed him, to what lived inside him. The ground shook beneath him as flames circled his body and licked over his skin. The fire within Knox surfaced, beginning to take over every inch of him. “Now you die.”

Oh, shit
, thought Harper. Every hair on her body stood on end as a gray, thick cloud began to build directly above Knox, swirling and frothing. It looked alive, aggressive. At the same time, a red haze began to fall, and she quickly realized the moon had bled from silvery white to blood red. Worse, the flames that had circled Knox were now heading for the house, leaving a trail of black and red ashes in their wake. A figure of raging fire, Knox slowly walked towards the building.

“The flames of hell,” gasped the practitioner who was pointing the knife at her. He fisted her collar and began dragging her away. Not a chance. She went limp in his hold, causing him to stumble and bend forward. Then she slammed her hand down on his foot, letting the protective power in her fingertips pass into his body and torment his soul. As he cried out, she grabbed her stiletto blade from the ground and thrust it upwards, burying it into his heart just as she infused it with hellfire.

Blood dripped onto her face –
ew
– as she withdrew the blade and shuffled away from him. When he hit the ground like a sack of potatoes, she turned to Larkin...just in time to watch the harpy finish off the second practitioner with nothing more than her hands.

Harper might have expressed her admiration for the female’s combat techniques if it wasn’t for something else. “We’re surrounded.” Flames at least ten feet high framed the psi-cube that enclosed the house. It was odd seeing fire without smoke. “The cube’s still up.” That meant no one had managed to escape. “The practitioners wanted to trap him. Instead, they’ve trapped themselves.” It was almost ironic.

“Do you think the flames will get through the cube?” asked Larkin, wiping blood away from her nose.

“The flames of hell can get through anything. Where’s Tanner?”

“Last time I saw him, he was on the roof.”

Harper looked up at the roof, straining to see or hear him. It was hard to hear anything over the roar of the flames that battered at the cube. “The practitioners are all gathering up there. They must think they’re safer on higher ground.” There was no safe place when you were facing the flames of hell.

Tanner?
Harper called.
Tanner?
“He’s not answering me telepathically.”

“Nor me. He must be still in his demon form.” Larkin shot vertically into the air, wings flapping gracefully. “I see him,” she said, hovering at a stand-still. “He’s stuck under some kind of energy net, but he’s conscious. And seriously pissed off.”

“Can you get to him?”

“Not without getting extremely close to the practitioners. They’ll attack me.”

“I think they have more pressing problems,” said Harper as she looked at the energy wall on her right. “Look.”

“What?” Larkin tracked Harper’s gaze. “The flames are eating the cube.” There were holes that looked a lot like cigarette burns. Larkin returned to Harper, landing gracefully. “And they’re out of control.”

The flames – so beautiful, yet so deadly – indeed looked that way. But Harper shook her head. “Knox wouldn’t hurt us.”

“That’s not Knox.”

Through the fire surrounding them, Harper caught glimpses of the flaming figure. “No, it’s not.” As pot holes began to appear in the ceiling of the cube, she said, “We need to get Tanner.”

“I can’t leave you.” Larkin’s voice was firm, implacable. “You’re Knox’s mate. I’m sworn to protect you.”

“That’s great and all, but I don’t like Tanner being up there with them.” The practitioners were now stood in a circle, hand-in-hand, and appeared to be chanting something.

“What are they doing now?” asked Larkin.

“Probably casting counter spells.” A pointless exercise, in Harper’s opinion. “It might distract them enough for us to get Tanner. If they need to hold hands, I doubt they’ll break the circle just to keep him.”

Picking up movement in her peripheral vision, Harper turned her head…and found herself staring directly at the flaming figure that was her mate. Even her demon was wary of what he’d become. Only the flames and the disintegrating cube separated them. There were no eyes, no facial features of any kind, but she knew that it saw her somehow.

Knox? Knox, can you hear me?
Silence. Nothing she said seemed to penetrate the mental shield of fire that was now between them. The figure took a slow step backwards and was swallowed up by the flames. “Where’s Levi and Keenan?”

“They had to stay behind. Isla’s demons went crazy, and there was no chance Knox was going to stay there and take care of it while you were here.” Larkin peered up at the ceiling of the cube. “The holes up there are getting a little bigger. I’ll fly you out as soon as one is large enough.”

“Not until we have Tanner,” Harper told her. “We’re not leaving him behind.”

“I can come back for him.”

“We leave
together
, Larkin. Now let’s fucking go get him. It’s risky, I get that. Putting me near the practitioners might tempt them to grab me again, I get that too. But if Tanner’s stuck here when those flames get through, he dies.”

Larkin growled. “Fine. But if those bastards grab you, I’ll kill you myself!”

“You can try, I guess.”

With another growl, Larkin flew them both onto the roof. Tanner was thankfully outside the circle that the practitioners had formed. It was as both females struggled to find a way to break the energy net that one of the practitioners saw them.

As he broke the circle and advanced toward them, Harper shot to her feet, blade in hand and glowing with hellfire. “If Knox sees you holding me, you’ll be the first person he kills when he gets through the cube.”

“What is he?” the practitioner demanded. When she didn’t answer, he snarled, “Do you want to die? Look around you.” The holes were everywhere, making the cube look like a chunk of cheese. “Tell us what he is. If we know, we can stop him.”

“Fuck. You.” A growl came from the now free hellhound at her side, causing the magickal shitheads to jump.

“Maybe if we offer to give her back to him, he’ll stop,” said another practitioner.

A third practitioner responded, “He won’t hear us over the flames. He’ll just—” The walls of the cube flashed repeatedly, making everyone freeze. Then, with a sizzling sound, they disintegrated. “We’re dead.”

The flames rushed at the house, making Harper, Larkin, and the hellhound back up fast. Worse, the flames were so tall they were curling over the building, so thick and raging that there was no clear path for Larkin to fly them all out.

An elderly practitioner shrunk away from the sight. “We’ll be safe if we get inside,” he told his friends. “The house is protected, it will remain standing.”

One of the other practitioners shook his head. “No. The protective spell will do no more than buy us time.” He turned to Harper. “If you don’t tell us what he is, if we don’t stop him, you’ll die with us. You’ll—” He screamed as a single flame suddenly curled and contracted around him like a boa constrictor.

Another flame hooked around the throat of a female practitioner and tossed her into the fire. A black flame then lashed out like a whip and wrapped around the ankle of a chanting practitioner, causing him to fall flat on his face. He screamed for help, scrabbling at the floor for purchase, but the flame dragged him into the fire.

“Harper, we’re dead if those flames keep coming!” shouted Larkin, face red from the blistering heat.

She was right, but the figure controlling them didn’t appear in a rush to ease them. It stood there, calm as you please, as it watched the destruction around it. The flames were licking along the walls of the large building, ready to devour it. Each time she breathed and took that hot air into her lungs, her chest felt tighter.

“Call to him, tell him to stop! Yell at him telepathically!”

“There’s a shield of fire between his mind and mine.” Once more, Harper attempted to fierce it, but it held strong.

“If he doesn’t pull back, he’ll kill us all!”

Harper was about to reassure her that Knox would stop, that he had the control to pull back, but then she remembered something he’d once said.
‘If anything happened to you, if you were taken from me, that control would be gone.’
More of his words came to her…
‘I’d make them all pay. But I wouldn’t stop there. It wouldn’t be enough. Not for me, not for my demon. So many would die, so much would be destroyed.’

It was only now – as the flames ate at everything they touched, as the practitioners screamed in agony, and as the building began to creak and weaken beneath their feet – that Harper truly understood the severity of his warnings.

Desperate, Harper psychically battered at the shield between her and Knox. It hurt like hell, but she kept going; slamming her mind against his, crashing her psychically spiked shields into the wall of fire, calling on every single ounce of psychic energy she had and—

Screaming, Harper curled in on herself as the shield cracked and a scorching heat poured into her mind, flooding every crevice, and searing everything it touched. The agony spread like wildfire, making her back arch as it crackled its way down her spine, boiling her skin until it sweltered and sizzled. The pain ate every vertebrae, every nerve, every muscle, and every ligament.

Tears burned her eyes. She was going to die. She was. No one could live through this.

Her demon panicked, fought to surface and somehow help, but it was trapped. Harper screamed again as the scalding pain blasted the space between her shoulder blades, making her bones groan under the strain and her skin peel. She could smell her flesh burning, could hear it sizzling. Then it was like something ripped the skin off her back. A scream slid through her gritted teeth and she—

The pain stopped. Just stopped.

“Oh! My! God!”

Frowning at Larkin’s exclamation, Harper went to speak when she suddenly became aware that something was very different. Very wrong? Her demon didn’t think so.

“You have wings, Harper!”

Wait, she what? Sure Larkin was wrong, Harper glanced behind her and…“Oh, my God.” She had motherfucking wings. They were…well, they were gossamer. A striking gold with strands of red and black. Well, fuck.

The building shuddered and creaked once more. It wasn’t going to last long.

“Harper, if there’s something you can do, do it now!”

There was really only one thing she could do. There was a good chance it wouldn’t work, but she was fresh out of ideas. Taking a preparatory breath, Harper jumped to her feet, rushed across the roof, and leaped into the flames – heading straight for the figure of fire. Because there was another thing that Knox had once said…
‘The flames can’t burn you, Harper. Because they’re me. And you’re right, I’d never harm you.’

She’d love to say she flew, but it was more like she shakily soared through the fire and, fuck, it was
hot!
The flames scorched her skin, zapped every nerve ending in her body, as she headed for him. But they didn’t hurt her. Somewhat ungracefully crashing into him, she picked him up, ready to fly them out of the flames. Not yet adept at flying, however, she lost her balance and they slammed to the ground, rolling several times.

As they came to a halt with her straddling him, Harper distantly registered that she might have broken a few ribs and maybe even cracked her skull, but her concentration was on getting the flaming figure beneath her to hear her. “Knox, pull back!” He didn’t respond, and the fire continued to rage.
“Pull back!”
Just when she was about to pummel the shit out of him with her fists, the flames seemed to peel away from him, starting from his head and making their way down his body. “Thank fuck.”

Eyes of pure black met hers. “Mine,” stated the demon, as if that was all it recognized her as right then.

“Well, yeah, but that’s not important right now. Knox! Seriously, answer me!”