Hammer Down: Children of the Undying: Book 2 (26 page)

Tanner froze. Zel caught his gaze and shook his head, just a little. “They’ll leave and return to the settlement. Those are my orders.”

“Commendable,” Aton mused, “but hardly helpful. The only orders that matter are my own.”

Careful, Zel. Careful…
“There’s nothing wrong in having a trusted subordinate reinforce a difficult order.”

Hearty laughter greeted his words, and Aton fixed him with a knowing stare. “You aren’t a trusted subordinate. You’re my son who despises me. The idea of me, anyway. The sheer, barbaric notion. You hate what I represent, what you think I did to your mother, and you hate that I am part of you.”

All truth, but Zel still smiled. “I wasn’t talking about your trust for me. I was talking about theirs.”

“A bemusing statement. Their trust does not matter. They are prisoners, not soldiers receiving orders.” Aton’s voice went flat, hard. “Prisoners who could easily die at
my
orders.”

The creature that had fathered him might find strength amusing, but clearly insubordination would not be tolerated. Zel ignored the rage churning in his gut and nodded. “Acknowledged.”

He waved a hand, and the guards dragged the prisoners away. Jai wasn’t among them, and Aton watched him take note of the absence. “Jai, I believe? He’s with his summoner.”

Of course he was. Jai had grown up in a demon enclave. He of all people knew what was likely to become of a woman with summoner blood trapped in a warrior camp. Zel forced himself to remain calm as he asked the question that could kill Devi. “Is she unharmed?”

“Quite. As I said—” Aton’s lips twisted. “The warrior is bound to her. If she were hurt, he’d have fought until he fell, and they would both be dead.”

The sounds of the guards and his people had faded into the darkness, leaving an eerie silence broken only by the crackling of the fire and his own breathing. No conversation came from the small group of skins stretched out around the central campsite, all of their inhuman attention fixed on him.

He’d freed six prisoners. Two were left. Three, counting himself.
Two-thirds of the way there.
“So I’m here. What do you want from me?”

Aton waved again, and the skins around the fire scattered. He settled beside the flames and motioned for Zel to join him. “I wish to know you. For you to know me.”

By the time he got out of here, his teeth would be ground to powder. It
hurt
to sit, to guard every word knowing the wrong one could spell Ruiz’s or Jai’s death. Everything he hated about the petty diplomacy of the council had taken on life-or-death urgency, and it was the one battle for which he was wholly unprepared.

He couldn’t even think of anything smart to say.
So stick to simple questions.
Simple, at least, would make it harder to offend. Maybe. “Why do you want to know me?”

“Because we made you, Sora and I.” His fingers stroked over his cheek and the patch that rested there. “How is your mother?”

Protective rage made knots of his gut as he grated out an answer. “Fine.”

“Did she tell you what happened between us? Why she left me?”

His mother had never spoken of anything that had happened to her before she married Oliver Wetzel. “No.”

“Another squad executed a routine raid, and they brought her into camp. I had to fight the demon who’d laid claim to her, kill him, but I would have done that a hundred times.” His eye gleamed in the firelight. “She was beautiful but frightened, and it took a long time for her to be able to look at me.”

Darkness wasn’t just rising inside Zel anymore. It had come to life, hungry and wild and ready to swallow him whole. “I don’t need to know.” He couldn’t know, or he’d forget Jai and Ruiz and die in his attempt to slay the monster responsible for the crime of his existence.

“Things were very good for a while, and then I made a foolish mistake,” his father admitted softly, his forehead crinkling in a frown. “I was protecting her from unpleasantness, but I forgot that human women have fragile sensibilities. I knew better, but I got…careless.”

Anyone who called Sora Wetzel fragile was a fool. “You were holding her captive. How could you protect her from unpleasantness?”

Several moments passed before Aton answered. “She’d been with me almost a year by then. There was another woman, a captive who’d been kept as a slave to another, and she was cruel to your mother. She lied, told the other slaves that Sora had whored herself to the camp warriors in return for special treatment. So I killed her. Sora…reacted badly.”

A chilling assessment of a demon’s ability to care for someone, and an uncomfortable reminder of the same compulsion buried deep in his heart. Hadn’t he been ready to set his hands around Drake’s throat for the sin of slapping Devi?

Aton seemed to be waiting for a response, so Zel gave it. “Anyone would have been upset. You don’t kill someone over a petty rumor.”

“It hurt her. I saw the pain in her eyes when they gossiped or turned away from her.” Aton shook his head. “Sora stabbed me in my sleep and ran away. I lost her
and
my eye, but I would do it again. No one hurts the mother of my child and shrugs it off.”

A grisly image formed. The challenge ring, painted in Drake’s blood. Painted in the blood of every man and woman under his command, because all of the warriors had stepped over that line at least once, driven by violence and rage and a shadow none of them could fight. He’d seen challenges over slights, real and imagined. Invented, even. Any excuse to tear each other apart.

The circle had always given them an outlet. Without it, maybe none of them would be any better than Aton, who’d murdered a woman over hurt feelings. Whatever this skin felt for his mother, it wasn’t love. But it might be the truest reflection of what Zel was capable of.

He’d done Devi a favor by thrusting her out of his life.

“You understand,” Aton whispered. “I can see it. You don’t want to, but you do.”

“I understand why it’s
wrong
.”

“What would you do?”

Zel didn’t answer. Didn’t want to know what the truth might be.

“That’s what I thought.” Aton’s gaze skipped past him, and a quiet murmur seemed to collectively roll through the camp. “What is this?”

Damn it, Tanner.
It had to be him, disobeying orders because he couldn’t leave Ruiz behind. Zel half-rose as he turned and felt his heart freeze.

Not Tanner.

Devi.

She walked down the cracked street, flanked by guards but not restrained. No, she came on her own, all of her attention focused on him.

Aton’s voice boomed out. “State your name and business here, human.”

She came to a halt in the middle of the street, her face dark in the long shadows thrown by the flickering flames. “My name is Devindra. I came for Zel.”

The slightest flicker of emotion could put her in danger. “Devi, you shouldn’t be here.”

Her expression remained bland and vaguely pleasant, betraying no fear or concern. “The summons was for both of us, wasn’t it?”

He had a new goal now—get them all free so he could shake her until her teeth rattled free of her skull. There was nothing he could say to her, though, not without revealing more than he wanted to.

The demon who’d sired him stepped forward, not too close, but close enough that Zel shuddered with the effort it took not to lunge, not to cover her body with his in an attempt to keep her safe.

Not that she seemed to be in danger from the demon’s unthreatening words. “I am Aton.”

She didn’t greet him, but she didn’t shrink away, either. “Sora told me about you.”

The eyebrow above his patch arched up. “And what did she say?”

“That you’re brilliant,” she answered at once. “Brilliant and ruthless.”

It became too much. Zel rocked to his feet and took a step toward them. “Devi, enough. What are you trying to prove?”

“Nothing.” Her gaze bored into his. “I came to see after my people, and you.”

Revealing how much she mattered would put her at risk, and that gave him the strength to turn away. “She wants to see the blonde. The summoner.”

Behind him, Devi inhaled sharply. “Are you talking about Juliet?”

“Juliet.” Aton rolled the name over his tongue. “It suits. She wouldn’t tell us her given name. Half the time, all we got was a serial number.”

An old human trick. Zel clenched his fists. “Can we see them?”

But Aton shook his head. “In time, but not right away. Settle in for the night. Hugo will show you to your campsite.”

With Devi there as the perfect hostage, Zel could only capitulate.

Devi avoided Zel’s gaze as the guard led them to one of the smaller homes off the circle. Her father had called this sort of arrangement a cul-de-sac. Once upon a time, her grandfather had lived in a place like this, had played with other neighborhood children in a circle just like the one where Aton and his men—
not men, demons
—had built their bonfire.

Inside the house, the demon called Hugo gestured to the stairs. “Don’t go up. The floor won’t hold you. There are bedrolls through here.” He opened double doors made of glass. Half the panes were missing or cracked.

Beyond lay a large square room with a hearth, stacked wood and the bedrolls he’d mentioned. Devi thanked him absently and walked in, rubbing her hands over her upper arms.

Zel stayed silent as he stalked the edge of the room, his gaze sweeping from side to side. He paused in front of a boarded-up window and pried at one edge, frowning when a rusty nail pulled easily free. “Someone’s been squatting here.”

The words were even, almost detached. He was something
beyond
angry, and she didn’t blame him, but she also didn’t intend to let him ignore it. “Zel.”

One cold, cutting look, and he moved on, to a place where the wall gave way to an alcove at shoulder height. A long row of old-fashioned books lined the shelf, their ornate, leather covers damaged with age and neglect. “We’re not talking about this.”

Maybe he didn’t think she had the right to press him, not anymore, and perhaps he was right. Devi sat by the hearth, her back against the wall, and rubbed her hands over her face. “What was he saying about Juliet? She’s not a summoner.”

“Guess she is.” He eased one of the books from the shelf, but when he flipped open the cover a chunk of rotted pages slipped free and scattered on the floor at his feet. “Jai bonded her.”

Too many questions, ones she wouldn’t be able to answer until she saw Juliet and talked with her. “Did he mention Tanner? What about the others?”

“Tanner’s fine. They’re supposed to be on their way back to Rochester now.”

“He released everyone else?”

“Yes.” Zel shoved the book back on its shelf and turned to face her. “He says she’s intriguing. I don’t know what that means, but she’s got protection at least. As long as Jai’s alive, it’ll be hard for even a fullblood to pop her.”

“I’m grateful to him.” Her head swam. Six hours ago, Juliet had been a mundane human, with no gifts beyond her mind and muscles. Six hours ago, Devi and Zel had been sparring in the training room, moments away from falling to the floor together.

Now, he would barely look at her.

Her throat burned, and she squeezed her eyes shut. Crying was
stupid
, and she refused to do it. He’d offered her the chance to stay in Rochester, and she’d declined. Then he’d tried to force her hand, and she had come anyway. He could punish her, but it wouldn’t change anything, certainly not the core of who she was.

“I’d do it again,” she said. “Hate me if you want, Zel, but I’d come here again.”

His voice came, a hoarse, pained whisper. “I don’t want to hate you, but it might be the only way to keep you safe.”

“Why is that the only way?
Talk
to me.”

“He wants to prove that I’m like him. Right before you showed up, he told me I’d kill anyone who hurt a woman I care about. I don’t want to see if he’ll test that.”

There was no way to counter that fear. Devi unrolled some of the bedding and curled up on her side, misery coursing through her in chilling waves. “You do what you have to do. I can’t fault you for it.”

Silence filled the space between them, heavy and uncomfortable. When he finally spoke, he sounded desperate. “He’s not wrong. If one of them hurts you, I’ll do my best to kill them all. I’ll die trying, and where does that leave you and Ruiz?”

Rage boiled over. “Don’t you dare blackmail me like that! If things go south, I’ll handle it as best I can, but trying to keep me in line with threats is low. It’s beneath you, Zel.”

He spun and stalked across the room, drawing up just short of her. His large body towered over her in the darkness, hard and merciless as his large hands fisted at his sides. “You don’t get it yet, do you? That
thing
outside made me. Nothing is beneath me.
I’m not human.
”

She came to her knees. “Your mother made you too. How does that line up with this theory that you’re some kind of horrible monster?”

“All that means is that I know I’m a monster. I can regret the things I’ll do. It won’t stop me from doing them.”

Arguing was a circular exercise in futility. “We keep coming back around to that. How can I make this better for you? What do you want from me?”

Something helpless filled his eyes. “I don’t know.”

“Neither do I.” Every time he looked at her like that, her heart broke a little more. “Your mother said you’d die for her, but you’d stay alive for me. Was that ever true?”

He crouched in front of her, bringing his eyes level with hers. “I’d do anything for you.”

It was a lie. “You won’t trust me not to be a weapon, a liability. The one thing that’ll get you killed.”

“No, Devi.” His fingers touched her cheek, the slightest brush, but it still left her fighting not to lean into him. “I don’t trust myself. You could do everything smart, everything right, and I’d still ruin it all by being an idiot.”

“Zel.” She had to return his caress, so she laid her hand on his chest.

His free hand came up to cover hers, almost as if he couldn’t stop himself. “He doesn’t look like a monster.”

“No.” She hesitated. “But that doesn’t mean he isn’t one. From what your mother told me of Aton, assumptions and snap judgments are foolish, at best.”