Defeat the Darkness (Hearts of Darkness) (32 page)

“Thank you.” Shelby glanced at Kyle. “Now if
someone
would release me from this compulsion so I can move . . .”

“Sorry, forgot.” Kyle shrugged his shoulders, “I’m still new at all this.” Suddenly, Shelby lurched forward and Kyle quickly apologized, lunging to catch her. “Oh, sorry.”

“If you will excuse us,” Amyra interrupted. She possessively wrapped her arm through Kyle’s. “I believe we are finished.”

“Wait.” Dylan put a hand on Kyle’s shoulder to stop him. “What was the deal this time, Kyle?”

“She’s my maker. I agreed to accept that fact if she didn’t claim Max or Shelby. When I arrived, Max was drained and there was no time left. He agreed. I had to try to save him. We were just fortunate he had that ancestor.”

Coercion, Kyle.

“That isn’t all he agreed too.” Max struggled to rise. Two of Dylan’s vampires helped him to his feet. “Kyle turned me to protect me from her.” He snarled at Amyra. “And so I could be here for Shelby.

Duress.
Kyle caught Dylan’s fleeting messages.

Max was partially right. Although saving him meant little more than saving his life and sacrificing his soul to darkness.

Now they were both lost to the light—both demons.

Someone was going to have to mentor Max since he wouldn’t be around.

“Dylan, since I’m new at all this and not prepared to train Max, I hope you won’t mind seeing him through stasis and later mentoring him as you did me.”

Kyle needed another option. He would give himself up in exchange for his friends then shift into the jaguar and attack after Dylan and the others left. There were three other guards outside and two left inside the room. No way could they take Kyle before he struck out at Amyra.

He didn’t feel as light hearted as he tried to sound, and he suspected Dylan wasn’t buying any of his happy face bullshit. But what could he do? Facing Amyra, a vampire scorned, was something to fear, especially considering he’d already experienced weeks of torture at her hand.

He couldn’t even take pleasure at the thought of being Max’s maker. As friends, they’d always been equals. In the vampire echelon, Max now would be subservient to him. He would eventually have to consider all this and wonder why he agreed to let Kyle be the one to change him.

“I’ll take care of your friends. Remember the rules I taught you regarding coercion.” Dylan turned to Amyra. “I hope while you’re in my Parrish you won’t forget your manners or the rules. The council here is extremely intolerant and very powerful.”

“Really, Dylan? You overstep your bounds. Do not forget who I am.” Her eyes narrowed on him, and Kyle sensed there was more between these two than Dylan had revealed earlier. “Niccolai would never allow anyone to speak to me as you have.”

“Niccolai wouldn’t want you coming into his territory and endangering his son. He may have had a weak spot for you, one I neither understood nor accepted. Make no mistake. You and I have never shared a deep abiding trust.” He smiled pleasantly at her despite his frank words. “Unfortunately for you, Niccolai isn’t here. I am. And, I am the one in charge until either Jackson reaches his majority or Niccolai returns. Is that clear?”

“Very.” Amyra didn’t flinch.

The tension in the air rippled around Kyle while the two elder vampires sparred in this verbal power play. Under Dylan’s tutelage, Kyle had gathered some background about the local Parrish hierarchy. Before Niccolai went to ground, the ancient shared his powers and a few secrets with Dylan so he could better protect Jackson. Perhaps those powers and secrets made Dylan a match for Amyra and her stolen powers.

If not, Kyle was impressed. The man knew how to call a bluff.

“We will be downstairs in my private chambers if you have need of us. You are all free to go.” As if for reassurance, Amyra grasped the amulet hanging between her flawless breasts.

He’d caught one of her thoughts during a rare mental lapse on her part.
Kyle suspected the amulet contained the Grail water she’d come to depend on for her continued existence.
Maybe that would be the answer to ending her.

She clapped her hands and the jaguar guards came in. “My guards will escort you to the gate.”

Kyle fought the feeling of dread swamping him when he met the rogue jaguars’ eyes. The torture he faced was more frightening now that he knew what to expect.

“Wait!” Max became irrational, panicked. He tried to walk over to Kyle, fell in the attempt, and managed to rise to one knee with Dylan and Shelby’s help. “We can’t leave Kyle here,” he whispered.

“He’s right. Kyle has to come with us,” Shelby demanded, glaring at Amyra.

Dylan stared at Kyle, trying to read his thoughts, and although Kyle blocked him, someone was in Kyle’s head, invading his mind.

Dylan turned away and stared at Max. They exchanged a telling look.

He knows. He saw what they did to me in my memories.
Damn!

Humiliation and resentment escalated Kyle’s hatred for the demoness.

When he’d shared his blood with Max, it forged a weak link between them. If they continued to share blood, the link would strengthen over time and they would be able to read each other’s thoughts, at least until they learned how to block each other.

What Kyle hadn’t counted on was Max picking up his thoughts so quickly or broadcasting them to Dylan. But something else motivated Shelby’s objection. Was it jealousy? Or guilt? Maybe she didn’t want him sacrificing himself for her, a second time.

“Max what’s going on? Tell me,” Shelby insisted.

“She’s going to torture him. Making him weak allows her to drain his demon power and it strengthens hers.”

“Nonsense! I care about Kyle. Why would I want him weak?” Amyra ran her hand over his arms and down his chest, touching him possessively as he shivered in disgust and pulled away. She ignored his obvious revulsion and continued as if he hadn’t just rejected her. “I crave his strength.”

“What do
you
want, Kyle?” Shelby asked, her eyes searching his for the truth. “Is what Max said true?”

“It’s for the best. You’ve sensed the demon beast inside me. I’m not the man I was.” He was thankful she hadn’t asked him to clarify his answer. The jaguar within him roared his protest.

“Don’t leave him,” Max argued and fought the men helping him. He groaned, “Shelby, don’t leave him here. He sacrificed everything for us.

“Calm down, Max. I agree.” Shelby stood her ground and glanced from Max to Dylan. “Kyle should leave with us,” she firmly stated.

Kyle noted the strange, shared moment between them.

Dylan stepped forward. “If you don’t mind, Amyra, there are still a few questions the wolf pack will expect to have answered about your unannounced presence in their territory.”

“Whatever.” She tossed her hand in the air and waved him off. “You and your council bend to the demands of the wolf pack too often. Return. Ask your questions tomorrow at sundown. I am tiring. Now leave us.”

Kyle saw the determination set in Shelby’s expression and sensed a plan form in Dylan’s mind when he turned to speak to him.

“I’ll be back to check on you tomorrow at sundown, Kyle.” His threat was implied. Amyra would wait before she put him through the depths of Hell again. The anticipation was almost worse than the pain.

Do not let her into your mind. We’ll come for you.
Dylan forced the strong message straight into Kyle’s head with so much power it hurt.

“Shelby, we should go. Max needs our help now.”

Chapter 38 Planning

Two days later, Sang-froid estate

Victor Salazar arrived at the estate at sunset. Shelby met him at the door to the estate and walked him to the den, but she didn’t speak. It was hard for her to believe he was with Kyle the whole time in Guatemala and couldn’t have prevented what happened to him. He knew what the woman was like and didn’t even warn him before it was too late.

“Shelby, before we meet with the others, may I talk to you a moment?” Victor took her arm and turned her to face him.

“Come on, no one’s here yet.”

Victor kept talking as they entered the room. “I didn’t know the extent of the things Amyra did to Kyle. I knew she starved him. I never took his blood because he was always so weak. I gave him blood and provided him with donors. He never shared his thoughts or the nightmares with me. I only ever tried to help him.”

Maybe she was being unreasonable. Maybe she was looking to blame this on someone. Shelby sat on the couch and he chose a chair in front of her. He leaned his elbows on his knees.

“Was there any way you could have prevented it?”

He shook his head. “No. When Amyra discovered Kyle survived the jaguar bite she went crazy. The demon she once loved was a relative of the jaguar shifters. Kyle was her way of replacing him.”

“What happened to him?”

“Nothing. Baphomet had rescued her when she was a young girl living on the streets. He took her to the Underworld where she was nurtured by demons. Because her blood was considered a delicacy, he used her for his own purposes, but then took another as his queen.

As a means of explaining, Victor added, “The queen he took was full-blooded demon. Amyra, a Titan, is half goddess, half human incapable of reproducing with Baphomet. In the Underworld, she was powerful—in some ways more powerful than he was and certainly more powerful than his new queen. When he returned Amyra to this realm, his queen demanded he block her way back to the Underworld.”

Victor shrugged as if the rest was easy to understand and he was right. “She has spent her life hating and loving her demon lover—seeking revenge and a way back into hell, because here she must constantly search the world for the power to retain her immortality.”

Shelby twisted her hair around her fingers then sighed. “How do we stop a goddess?”

“She has many weaknesses because her father wouldn’t bestow his gifts on her and
...”

A sardonic thought crossed Shelby’s mind and lifted the corners of her lips. “Out of all the queens and kings who claimed to be descended from the gods, Amyra is in fact, the only one who truly is.”

“True. She damned the father who made her a bastard among men and gods. Damned him for rejecting her and discarding her mother, the Egyptian queen. Most of all, I believe she damned him for withholding his powers. A long life is not true immortality, and a Titan is always at the mercy of the true gods. If for nothing else, I believe she appreciated Baphomet for claiming her from the streets beneath Olympus where her father had abandoned her, and for raising her among the demons in the Underworld.”

“That’s quite a horrible story.” Shelby shivered thinking of the child’s disappointment.

“There is more.” He paused as if thinking whether he should finish. “Niccolai is her half-brother, the son her father gave his powers to.”

“Oh. No wonder she’s pissed. I guess there’s a good reason she’s the way she is.”

“If she is capable of loving anyone, Niccolai is the one being she cares for and respects. He hated their father as much as she did. He spent years picking up after Amyra’s disasters and protecting her once he found out about her.”

Dylan walked in on the tail end of Victor’s statement. “Niccolai is the father of our race and would never allow it. The council will not sentence her to death without his consent.”

“You can vote in his stead.” Since discovering Kyle’s past, Shelby understood they were all desperate to stop Amyra and help him escape.

“I know what she did to Kyle—what she’s capable of,” Dylan said, “first hand through Max’s memories. The Amyra I knew in the past was all demon, and from what I’ve seen the years haven’t mellowed her.”

“Why are you telling me all this?”

“We need to discuss a way to stop Amyra, but I want you to understand why we can’t kill her. Perhaps you can convince Kyle and Max to understand there are other ways.”

“What does she really want from Kyle?” Shelby asked.

“Since Kyle emerged from stasis, he’s fought changing into the demon…but that’s what she wants. She wants to force him to shift, and become the demon she desires. Pushing him, torturing him, taking him to his limits will push him over the edge into that abyss.”

Max entered the room behind Jackson and Garr. The first day after Max completed the transmutation to vampire, he slept the rest of the undead, alone. Dylan wouldn’t allow Shelby to stay with him while he was still unstable. He’d been having nightmares every time he closed his eyes to rest.

Kyle’s nightmares.

“Are the dreams still bothering you, Max?” Dylan asked.

Max nodded. “As bad as they are, the dreams about Kyle’s past don’t concern me as much as wondering if these are dreams or if it’s what’s happening to him now.”

“I checked on him yesterday when I stopped by,” Dylan said. “She didn’t prevent him from meeting with me, although he treats
her with open animosity. I sense he hates her to the depths of his being. He doesn’t even make an attempt to hide his true feelings from her.”

“According to my memories—his memories—he never has. She doesn’t care,” Max said.

“If you share his memories, you may have a clue about her intentions,” Dylan said to Max and then turned to Victor. “What do you know?”

“All she wants is to gain power and find a way back to the Underworld to confront Baphomet with her own demon child. She’s determined to procreate and prove Baphomet wrong. Kyle is her best hope for impregnation. The jaguar power in him is what she needs. If she keeps him weak—no human blood—she can push him to take on his demon.”

Max rubbed his forehead. “He won’t give in and risk losing his humanity.”

“Kyle looked okay when I saw him, and he opened his mind to mine for a brief moment. I gathered something about her. She was researching some ancient scroll she found with the amulet,” Dylan said.

“She clung to that amulet, yesterday, like it was her lifeline.” Shelby stood up and moved around the room. “I can’t stand the not knowing.” She was thankful the full moon and her sexual hunger had passed. She needed her wits about her to think.

“May I come in?” Simone asked. “Victor told me what happened to Max and Kyle.”

Dylan tilted his head to a chair beside him, conveniently across the room from where Max sat, distracted, focused elsewhere.

Dylan pulled the information from Max’s head.
Grail water
. “The amulet contains a life giving water.”

“She’s forcing him to feed only from her.” Max touched his temple. “Victor told him he needs human blood from the vein to keep the jaguar strong.”

“Dylan, we need to find a way in there to rescue him right away,” Shelby said. “Is there anything I can do?”

“I want to help, too,” Simone offered.

“Thanks Simone, but not you, Shelby,” Max stood up. “I’m feeling strong and in control. Dylan and I can manage to get inside to rescue him, but it will be easier if we’re not concerned for your safety.”

“It will have to be more than a rescue.” Dylan warned. “The Amyra I know will never give up her quest. If Kyle is linked to her way back to the Underworld, she’ll hunt him down no matter where he goes.”

“Then we kill her,” Max said.

Shelby walked up to him and put her hand on his arm. “We can’t, Max. I’ll tell you why later.”

Simone spoke up, “There are rules, and she’s breaking them. She coerced Kyle in the first place and is keeping him with her by threatening his friends’ safety.”

“Yes, that’s true,” Dylan agreed.

“Then who can defeat her?” Max asked.

“Only Salazar and Kyle have the power to defeat her. You haven’t gone through stasis yet to blend your DNA abilities and gain full strength.”

“Then Victor can do it,” Shelby simply stated.

“I am sorry. I cannot.”

“Why the hell not?” Max’s eyes flashed the pale silver color of a berserker’s.

“Because she sired me. She thinks she is safe from our demons. And in truth, she is from mine.”

“She grows more brazen,” Simone noted.

“Salazar gave her permission to turn him. He can’t kill his maker,” Dylan explained. “But Kyle didn’t willingly give his permission. She turned Kyle under duress. Every deal she struck with him, she used coercion to get her way. She may be his maker, but a maker can’t hold another to the sire bond rules if coercion was used. There’s just one other problem.” Dylan explained, “Kyle is reluctant to allow his own demon to rise. By allowing the demon to rise, he believes he will give up his immortal soul.”

“He’s a doctor,” Shelby said. “He spent years saving lives. Killing goes against his very nature.”

“Kyle’s the only one who can defeat her. His demon has the ability, and now he has the councils’ permission,” Salazar said.

Dylan paced the large open room. “After the last time he allowed it to surface, he thought it changed him. Each time the demon rises, he believes he loses a bit of his humanity. For justice to be served, Kyle must be the one to do it, and he’s afraid to release the one thing that will do the job.”

“Dylan, she killed me. I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around justice for my killer,” Max said. “Won’t I inherit this demon, too?”

“You, definitively, and perhaps Shelby too because it is closely related to the jaguar bite,” said Salazar. “But it may be a while before you have enough strength to fight Amyra.”

Max flexed his muscles. “Berserker blood gives me the edge. Now tell me how to tap into my inner demon, Victor. You may not be able to kill her, but I won’t hesitate if there’s no other way.”

“The demon may destroy you,” Victor warned. “You must stay strong against the darkness.”

“Kyle has suffered enough for us. We’ll do this for him.”

“Tell me,” Shelby started pacing. “Where do we start, Dylan? I want justice for us all.”

“The flower, vervain renders vampires powerless. A combination of vervain mixed with monkshood also known as wolf’s bane, leopard’s bane, or devil’s rocket can affect a hybrid. So even if she’s been feeding on her jaguars or local wolves, the demon within her will be paralyzed by the potion.”

“What’s the draw back?” Max asked.

“None of us can touch it. We’re susceptible to the effects.”

“What if I handle it?” Shelby asked. “Will my jaguar be affected?”

“I won’t risk putting you anywhere near her,” Max said. “If she captures you, everything Kyle sacrificed will be worth nothing.”

“Wait a minute. You’ve never ingested jaguar blood. The jaguar is only present during the full moon. The effects should be gone by tonight, tomorrow at the latest. Shelby could fill tranquilizing darts with the potions.” Dylan smiled at her.

“Yes, I could.”

“I can help. There’s nothing there that will bother my succubus.” Simone said.

“We would have to handle the ammunition carefully,” Dylan said and frowned. “But if Shelby and Simone loaded them, and we stash them outside the mansion, then we could use them when we infiltrate. I think I can find a few volunteers to help.”

“I could hang back until you two wrap things up with these weapons. I could watch your backs and report the rogues’ locations,” Shelby suggested.

“You could if you stay clear of the action. Dylan and I will get the hardware. Shelby, you’ll have to find a store that handles the plant extracts,” Max said.

“Try the Witch’s Brew off Bourbon Street,” Jackson suggested. “Tanya has a good variety and plenty of stock.”

Simone said, “I know Tanya,
chér
. I’ll introduce you, Shelby.”

“Good,” Dylan said, “We’ll meet you back here,” he looked at his watch, “in say, two hours. Okay?”

“Yes, perfect. Can you give me a list, Victor?” Shelby stuffed her phone in her bag and picked up her jacket. “Which car should I use?”

“Take mine.” Dylan tossed his keys to her. “I’ll have Jackson and Garr pick up the rest of us and head to Amyra’s estate.”

“Do you have a garbage bag I can take with me?” Shelby asked.

“Sure, in the kitchen closet next to the oven. What’s it for?”

“Once I have the supplies, I don’t want to risk any residues leaking out and later affecting one of you accidently. I’m going to buy gloves, too. You can’t be too careful, right Simone?”

“Good thinking. All of them will be very susceptible. I have a cedar chest to store the other material. I’ll send one of the pack for it and have him bring it to the car.”

“Thanks, Simone,” Shelby said and for the first time in a long time felt like they might succeed.