Gideon's Promise (Sons of Judgment Book 2) (21 page)

A growl mashed against the back of his clenched teeth. Reflexively, his fingers tightened in the thick, rich strands. They dragged her head back, exposing the smooth column of her throat and lifting her mouth to his. Dark lashes closed, the subtle flutter of butterfly wings against the dusky blush coloring her cheeks. Her breasts rose and fell against his chest in a shaky breath that tightened the front of his pants. It took all his resolve not to throw her over his shoulder and march them to his bed. It was also the scuffle in the background.

Valkyrie pulled away, coming out of her trance before him. Her gaze remained dark and hungry even as her unsteady breaths panted between them. Her dagger wielding arm hung limply at her side, forgotten. Without a word, she turned away, but not before Gideon was speared through with a last, lingering glance from her. That single shared exchange overflowed with a hot wave of something neither of them knew what to do with.

She went to the sofa and sat, unnaturally quiet in the seat next to his mother, but not once did she glance his way again.

“Not to interrupt this riveting episode of
Jerry Springer
,” Magnus burst out, apparently unable to contain himself any longer. “But I think we have a bigger problem to worry about.”

“Yes, of course.” Their father walked to the sofa and sat in his habitual armchair. “Please.”

Magnus automatically began pacing once more. It was something from his days in the war, Gideon knew. It didn’t seem to matter how many centuries had passed, some habits were harder to break than others.

“It’s all over the underworld,” he began. “Demon and veil creatures alike have been warned to keep away from us. Some believe that we’re planning to overthrow the system and take over.”

“Which is ridiculous, of course,” Gideon broke in and earned a sharp glare from his brother for interrupting. “I mean, there’s only four of us.”

Magnus pursed his lips, impatience coming off him in waves. “That’s hardly the best argument right now considering the situation.”

“I don’t know about that,” Gideon mused. “I think it’s a very good argument to make.”

“Will you shut up?” Magnus muttered. “This is serious.”

Gideon blinked. “Don’t I sound serious?”

“Gideon, please let Magnus finish.” Their father sighed.

Gideon put his hands up and took a step back, motioning for his brother to take the floor.

“As I was saying,” Magnus said a little too loudly. “Everyone is under the impression that we’re the ones out slaughtering anyone who opposes us, which in a war, is the best strategic method of takeover.”

“What do you mean?” their mother asked.

“The first act of a takeover would be to eliminate the bond of unity, to instill uncertainty, doubt, and fear,” Magnus explained. “We are considered the law enforcement of the underworld. Creatures come to us for help. We protect those that can’t protect themselves. It’s why Imogen’s parents sent her to us. They knew we would investigate and find justice. What happens when you take away that sort of reassurance and comfort and people start turning away from those they once considered their protectors?” He didn’t wait for anyone to answer him. “They take matters into their own hands and that’s when shit hits the fan. There will be no trust, or order, just absolute chaos.”

Their mother turned to their father, blue eyes enormous against her pale face. “Liam, we must do something.”

“We will, darling,” he said at once before turning his gaze back to Magnus. “Is there nothing leading to those responsible?”

Magnus shook his head. “Whoever they are, they’re good. Also...” he hesitated. “They are in possession of angelic blades.”

“How is that possible?” their mother demanded. “Those blades are sacred.”

“Sacred or not, it’s not very hard to get your hands on one,” Gideon said evenly. He met Magnus’ eyes. “Someone is missing a Caster.”

“Or two,” Magnus added.

“What? What do you mean?” their father asked, looking between his sons.

Magnus turned to their parents. “The only way to get a blade is to get your hands on a Caster,” he explained.

“Which means one of the gates must be short a member,” Octavian said, eyes widening in realization.

“Or two,” Gideon piped in.

Magnus nodded. “You would definitely need to kill more than one or two Casters to cause the sort of damage these assholes are causing.”

“But who?” their mother wondered aloud.

“Well, it certainly isn’t us,” Gideon supplied helpfully. “Unless one of you confesses to losing your blade, I’m thinking it must be one of the other gates.”

“But would they tell us?” Magnus wondered.

“Unlikely,” their father said thoughtfully. “Something like this could be highly humiliating.”

“And you can hardly just ask,” their mother added. “That would be insulting.”

“Well, there has never been anyone defeated in my territory,” Valkyrie said sharply; she had apparently come out of her earlier shock and was sitting rim rod straight and tense with outrage. “Our warriors are the best.”

“Of course they are,
Pocahontas,
” Gideon muttered. “Calm down. No one is accusing you of being weak.”

Valkyrie shot him a scathing glower that could have killed a man at a hundred paces, but Gideon merely narrowed his own eyes and arched a brow challengingly.

“The weapons could just as easily be replicas,” she said, deliberately snapping her face away with a slight tilt in her chin. “Or some other blade. We can’t be sure unless we find those responsible, which we can’t do sitting here discussing it.”

“Forging a plan is as vital as executing it,” Magnus chimed in. “Rushing foolishly into the fray is illogical, not to mention suicidal.”

“Didn’t you hear? They’re
warriors
!” Gideon rolled his eyes. “They laugh in the face of death ... and hemorrhoids cream.”

The words had barely left his tongue when there was a glint of steel followed by the hottest surge of pain Gideon had experienced in ages. It seared through him with a force that sent him staggering back into the window as his mind grappled with the knowledge that there was a ten inch blade jetting from the taut muscle of his right thigh. Blood bubbled around the hilt and rushed down his leg to paint the floor as he clawed at the window frames to keep upright. Curse words, some English, some not, spilled freely from his mouth, mangling with the exclamations circling the room.

Magnus reached him first. He steadied one hand against Gideon’s chest. He wrapped the other firmly around the hilt protruding from Gideon’s body. He gave no warning before ripping it free.

The room swayed a moment. Bright splotches of light flashes across his vision. When he blinked, he found himself on the ground, surrounded by his family, and Imogen.

“Give him air!” Magnus was barking. “He’s not dying. It’s barely a flesh wound.”

Gideon would have punched him if he could just wrap his head around the fact that his mate had stabbed him. Four inches higher and all his chances of reproducing would have been annihilated. There was something uniquely horrifying about that knowledge.

By the sofa, Valkyrie stood watching with her arms folded and her eyebrow arched in smug triumph. It would have been sexy as all fuck, if the pain wasn’t still so fresh.

“What is the matter with you?” he snarled, grappling at the window edge and hauling himself to a partial stance. “You could have killed me, or worse, unmanned me!”

Valkyrie’s smirk only seemed to widen at this. “Remember that next time you open your mouth.”

Still gaping at her, Gideon hopped up on his good leg, batted away his mother’s fussing hands trying to remove his pants and bared his teeth. “This means war, woman!”

If his threat had any affect at all, it didn’t show. Valkyrie merely tipped her head back and watched as his mom barked orders for Octavian to get the emergency kit. Gideon knew the wound would be healed within a few minutes and all evidence of it would forever be erased from his body, but that didn’t repair the damage done to his favorite pair of pants. Not to mention his ego.

“You have anger management issues,” he shot over his mother’s shoulder. “Throwing knives at people ... it’s not normal!”

“You’re just upset that I finally did what I should have done years ago!”

Gideon narrowed his eyes at her. “There’re a lot of things you should have done years ago, but this took precedence?”

It was a small satisfaction watching the smile fade from her face, but it was short lived when she stalked across the distance in long, quick strides. She swooped down and snatched up the bloody blade Magnus had tossed aside and gripped it tightly in her grasp. Gideon wondered if she was going to stab him again.

“You know what your problem is, Maxwell?”

He never did find out what his problem was, because Riley took that moment to return. She stepped into the doorway, expression set in confusion as she took in the scene through red rimmed eyes. Her gaze moved to the clustered group around Gideon, to Gideon barely holding his weight up and the hole in his leg gushing blood, to the blood stained knife clutched in Valkyrie’s hand. He could see realization dawn across her face and the fury that bled through the shock so quickly that no one had time to shout a warning before she was across the room. The movement was so fast it seemed as though she had vaporized without the smoke. The next moment, Valkyrie was thrown across the room with a backhand that cracked like lightening through the room. She hit the wall and dropped like a rag doll to the ground. In the place Valkyrie had been seconds ago, Riley practically vibrated with rage. The fingers on each hand had extended into long, razor sharp talons that were curling and uncurling at her sides. Her fangs flashed against a face twisted with animalistic bloodlust.

Gideon struggled to stand. “Riley, wait—”

Riley was no longer listening to anyone. Her demon had reared its head and it was running the show.

Octavian lunged and enfolded his mate in his arms. He crushed her in his arms, ignoring her thrashing as he assured her everything was okay. Magnus moved across the room to help Valkyrie up, but his hand was slapped away as the Harvester rose to her own feet, hair a wild mess of tangled ribbons around her face. The knuckles around the blade in her hand whitened. She bared her teeth and Gideon swore.

“Valkyrie, no!”

Magnus lunged to take Valkyrie down, but she was already across the room, both daggers in hand now. Riley threw Octavian off and catapulted herself at the other woman. The two collided and crashed to the ground with Riley on top. Valkyrie seemed to take this for a whole second before wrapping her legs around Riley’s middle, arching her back and twisting over. Riley snarled, refusing to be taken under. One clawed hand slammed into the side of Valkyrie’s jaw. The sickening crunch made Gideon’s insides churn. Valkyrie’s eyes flashed. A fine trickle of blood ran down the corner of her mouth. It stained her clenched teeth, but that didn’t stop her from wrapping both hands around Riley’s throat and forcing the redhead’s head back as far as possible.

Valkyrie was no match for Riley. No one was. It would probably take all four of them to take her down when she was in this state. This was what Riley feared, being unable to control herself in a public, human filled place. Gideon knew, in some far corner of his mind, that she would never forgive herself for this moment, though, in that instant, he didn’t care. He needed to get her away from his mate.

Magnus dove for her first, locking his forearm just beneath Riley’s chin and yanking back in a headlock, giving Octavian room to hook his arms around Riley, trapping her arms to her sides. Gideon reached for Valkyrie, prepared to drag her out from under Riley, but Riley wasn’t having it. She had found her prey and no one was taking it away.

With a roar, she threw her head back, slamming her crown into Magnus’s mouth and disengaging his hold on her. With him gone, she backhanded Octavian, sending him crashing backwards into the wall. It was just her, Valkyrie, and Gideon now and he wasn’t going anywhere.

“Riley, you need to focus,” he tried to reason. “Come on. You don’t want to do this. I’m okay. I promise.”

For a full second, it looked like he was getting through to her. The tension in her shoulders loosened. Her hold on Valkyrie loosened—and that was all the dark haired warrior needed.

The fist sent Riley sideways, giving Valkyrie just enough maneuvering room to grab fistfuls of hair and wrench. With a roar, both girls twisted. Gideon barely managed to scuttle backwards when they rolled.

Riley screamed in pain and anger, but never released the talons gouging into Valkyrie’s windpipe, cutting gashes and soaking Valkyrie’s pretty, white sweater in crimson.

“Stop it!” their mother cried from across the room where their father was holding her back, away from the fight. “You are hurting her!”

It was unclear who she was talking to. It didn’t matter. No one was listening. Imogen stood a little ways away from them, hands over her mouth. At least she wasn’t screaming, Gideon thought vaguely.

“No!” Octavian’s roar was what brought Gideon whirling around back to the pair on the ground.

For a moment, in the confusion and in the flail of limbs, he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to focus on, what had his brother losing all the color on his face as he scrambled up. Then he saw it.

Valkyrie had finally gotten the upper hand. She sat perched on Riley’s midsection, back arched as she raised her arms over her head. Riley had the ruined remains of Valkyrie’s sweater gripped between her hands, tearing the wool as she yanked the other woman down towards her. But it was the thing glinting in Valkyrie’s grasp that gripped Gideon in cold, paralyzing sweat. The dagger, the one still slick with his blood plunged downward towards Riley’s heart.

Time seemingly stilled to a near standstill. Every heartbeat took forever. He couldn’t move. He watched with a strange paralysis as Riley took the opening Valkyrie was giving her to slam the heel of her hand between the other woman’s breasts, just between the ribs, knocking the wind out of her. He watched as the blade was torn away from Valkyrie, twisted around and buried to the hilt deep inside her chest.