My Darkest Passion (31 page)

The indwelling demon flicked into physical manifestation, and before it could recover from the disorientation of an indwell ended like that, Harsh ripped out its heart. Not a trick he’d ever wanted to employ. When he looked up from making sure it would be impossible for one of the magekind to trap what remained of the demon’s life force, Addison was watching him, a thoughtful expression on her face.

“If you ever have to make sure one of them is dead, take the heart.”

She put her hands on her hips. “Noted. Now let’s get the hell out.”

Harsh destroyed the axe and the taser and followed her into the street.

32

H
er heart banged against her ribs as she and Harsh shot out the side door to the parking lot. The first thing she did when they hit sunlight was get a visual on her people. All of them burned hot in her consciousness, especially Tau. Ever since her transformation, she was stronger and faster; just two of many changes that had so disrupted her existence. Right now, she wished the effect were bigger. Her sworn demons were under attack. She wasn’t going to let them get picked off. Not without a serious fight.

The duffle across her back was heavy, yet she didn’t feel the weight during her sprint across the hotel parking lot. Harsh kept pace behind her. Tau and the others were at the far end of the parking lot, surrounded by a dozen or more humans. Her kin were beacons to her. Harsh—not pure, not pure kin—burned in her awareness, too, all of them locked in with her. Details came at her, rapid-fire. Most of the humans were young and in some flavor of surfing gear. One barefoot young woman wore a wet suit. Five of them registered to her as vanilla, lacking any magic, but others had ability that ranged from practically nothing to significant.

Indwells.

As with the security guard earlier, these humans were no longer in control of their wills. They were innocent, even if the indwelling demons were not, and even then, the magehelds were acting at the command of the mages who’d enslaved them. So much for some sacred mission to protect humans from demons.

Tau and the others were cut off from retreat and severely hampered by the knowledge that the consequences of humans dying by their hand would reverberate far beyond the present. The ward they’d put up kept the humans at bay for now, but the work had been done on the fly and weak spots allowed the attackers to get too close.

At the far side of the parking lot two men stood in the shadow of a tree. Mages. She understood personally and viscerally why the demonkind had rules about indwelling only with consent, and why a warlord like Nikodemus, with his rules against harm to humans, deserved support even if he did have to extend his protection to mages and witches. They were dead, those two mages.

Harsh threw out an arm and grabbed her. “No.”

“Why the hell not?” She whirled on him, furious that he’d try to stop her. “If I kill them, this ends now.”

One of the humans bulled through the ward, body shuddering, limbs jerking as the magic tore through him. A knot of bodies swarmed toward the weakened sections of the warding. The young man screamed through the convulsions, but the indwelling demon pushed him forward, and it made her sick to know he was being forced past any sane limits for pain. The human stumbled, but he kept his feet and got close enough to press a taser to one of her demons.

“One of them is Leonidas.”

“So?”

“He was sworn to Nikodemus.”

“Not any more.” But she knew if Harsh thought it was important, she needed to listen. She gave a curt nod. “Fine. Unless there’s no choice.”

The tasered demon—her demon—bellowed then collapsed and went dark to her. At the same time, the back of her head went cold, a reminder that mages were responsible for this, and they were standing there watching this carnage. It pissed her off. This whole deal pissed her off. A lot. The single reason this broad daylight attack wasn’t a disaster already was the hotel was so shitty no one gave a damn. Before long, though, someone was going to call the police.

Tau dropped to one knee, drawing power to change the construction of the makeshift protection. Another of the humans broke through the ward, arms flailing. One of the demons with Tau shoved him back. They were hampered, all of them, by their unwillingness to harm the swarming humans, and they were all endangered by her letting the mages live.

She found the point of awareness that was Tau and widened the link between them. He hooked into that link and drew additional power from her, and she, in turn, drew from the strength that came from her bond with her sworn kin.

Three of the attackers fell back. Six more surged forward, breaking the perimeter again. They were faster than normal. Stronger. Far more dangerous, pushed beyond their physical limits.

Her hearing went out for a half a second then came back. That was Harsh, doing what he could to prevent humans from seeing or hearing what was going on. Not trivial magic. Not trivial at all. Another good trick to tuck away. Christ, she had a lot to learn.

She plunged through the melee, Harsh hard on her heels. From the moment they pushed through, the humans went berserk. Harsh shoved them away from her, hell, she shoved a few herself after one of them tried to bite her.

Tau’s warding failed on one side and possessed humans rushed in. The mob was disorganized, with some of the humans fighting the indwelling mageheld. That lack of consistent control was the only reason no one was yet badly hurt. The moment she and Harsh made it to Tau and the others, the warding strengthened, trapping three of the humans inside the perimeter.

She reached the downed demon just as one of the humans was bending over him, a stone knife clutched in both hands. She did the same thing to the young man with the knife as she had to the Rent-A-Cop: a strike to the head that pushed power from her to the human at that point of contact between them. The result for the indwelling mageheld was, she guessed, similar to what a taser did to a human. Total disruption. The man she’d struck hit the ground and stayed down.

The air around her compressed, and with a
click
that penetrated to her bones, the indwelling mageheld took physical form. Unlike the one who’d taken possession of the security guard, this one didn’t take human form. His misshapen eyes blinked once, and then the mageheld attempted to take over her will. The attack was lightning fast. Her body flicked through to pure panic, despair, and the horror that cut off her breath and threatened to swallow her whole. She shoved everything away. Had to.

She punched the demon as hard as she could. Trying not to kill, but willing to go there if she had to. One of the mages ran toward the weak point in the line, straight for her. Petrasov. The mage who’d come to the farm house with Infante. Magic rolled over her, choking her, but she held her ground. Fucking mages, pulling this kind of shit.

Petrasov grinned. He had a tire iron clutched in one hand and now he put all his weight behind a strike at Tau’s head. The bastard didn’t know who the fuck he was dealing with. There was no softness to the woman who’d survived Bejar. No blunted edges. Infante had turned her into a weapon, and if she had to go after every single mage there was, so be it.

Cold-hearted bastards like these didn’t care about the destruction they caused while they did whatever the hell they wanted. Anyone, human, magekind, or demon, who thought they had the right to do this to someone else needed to be stopped. And she was going to do some stopping right now.

She stepped between Petrasov and Tau, hand drawn back. She thrust power into her strike to his chest, not as targeted it should have been because she still wasn’t used to the adrenaline-soaked reality of a life-or-death fight. Time slowed while she pulled that power through her. Her connection to Harsh, Tau, and the others flashed hot. Their knowledge became hers and with that, she had what she needed.

Her stiff fingers went through the mage’s chest, and it hurt, that shattering of bone, the separation of cartilage, the scrape against her skin. It hurt and then it didn’t. She had all the time in the world. Shift to the left, underneath, and up. Grasp, tighten her fingers, and jerk back as hard as she could.

A roar bellowed up from her lungs and out of her mouth.

Pure triumph.

Payback.

She felt the snap when Petrasov’s death severed half a dozen magehelds.

There was another deep
click
and time resumed normal speed. The mage’s body fell away. Her fingers squeezed his heart—hot, so hot. The energy she’d called up wasn’t done. The organ in her hand smoked, then collapsed, and vanished.

Harsh didn’t want her to kill the mage who was left, so fine. She wouldn’t. But she was going to make them wish she had. She sent part of her magic toward the remaining mage. As she continued to fight here, she was aware that she’d struck the mage. He was now doubled over by the side of the building.

Tau weakened his ward at strategic places so she could pick off the possessed humans one at a time. A young woman came through next. Contact made. As soon as the mageheld took physical form, she took its heart. No time to do anything else. No choice. The others dealt with anyone who penetrated Tau’s perimeter, holding them at bay until she could get to them. Harsh flared hot in her head. He didn’t have her ability to generate the targeted pulse that forced a mageheld to give up possession, but he could sure as hell rip out a demon’s heart, and that was with his dampening wards in place.

Another strike at the mage. Harsh’s friend was a tough bastard. She tried again and failed. Harsh and Tau both were better at the fighting than she was, and that meant she was freer to concentrate on the mage.

They fell into a rhythm, with Tau constructing and deconstructing his ward and the others luring in one or the other of the possessed, berserk humans. That sense that time had slowed down came back and she wrapped that feeling around Harsh, Tau, and the others. Another of her people dealt with taking back the magic of the demons she and Harsh killed. They worked as one, stronger together than they were apart.

To her left, the side door to the hotel burst open, and her skin shuddered with the effect of more magekind, all of them too damned close. She downed the last two humans and danced aside to give Harsh room to take on the first mageheld while she dealt with the last one.

“On your left!” Tau ramped up his wards, keeping the still-unconscious humans inside the perimeter.

Addison whirled, a dead mageheld’s heart in her hand. Beside and behind her, two of her other kin swept in to make sure no mage could take the disembodied power of those dead kin. It was a macabre ballet.

Two more mages and a witch. And they had more magehelds with them. Addison was clear on what they intended to happen: kill or enslave every one of the free kin. If a few humans died? They didn’t care.

Power boiled through her, scalding her to the point where she wondered if her blood would burst into flames. She liquefied the ground under that stubborn mage’s feet and that did the trick. Another lesson learned. One of new mages looked so much like Giuseppe Infante that her breath stopped. It wasn’t him, couldn’t be. She’d killed Infante already. This was just a man of similar size and coloring. The witch stopped, and said something to her companions in a low voice. Interestingly, the mages with her stopped, too.

“Use your magic, Harsh.” She knew he understand what she meant. “Reach for your buddy Leonidas. You tell me if there’s something wrong with him or whether he should die with the others, because I’m not putting up with this any longer.”

He bowed his head, and if it hadn’t been for her control over Tau and the others, and the fact they knew she trusted Harsh, they might have attacked him when they registered that he felt a lot more like a mage than a demon.

The man he’d identified as Leonidas stumbled again, and it was an awkward motion, herky-jerky. By now she understood what she was seeing. Another indwell. Of a goddamned mage this time. One of her demons darted through the ward and went after Leonidas. She followed, Harsh right behind. She ran as fast she could, faster, lungs burning, magic flowing through her like fire.

Leonidas and the other mages whirled. But they were close enough. They’d put enough of the humans out of commission that they were in disarray. While the other demon launched himself at the witch, Addison punched Leonidas. Hard. As hard as she dared, and even then there was a risk she’d kill him. Leonidas went down. She was prepared for the mageheld who manifested when Leonidas collapsed, but instead of killing it, she struck at the witch her demon had gone after, and it was easier this time—she had better control. The witch was conscious one minute and out cold the next.

“Go!” Harsh spoke straight into her head, and his words went out along the link they had going. He reached for Leonidas, unconscious now, and flipped the mage over his shoulder. They ran. Tau let his ward boomerang out, and it hit the remaining mages hard enough to give them time to get the hell out. She snatched up the duffle she’d dropped and five minutes later they were squeezed into the van, with Leonidas on the floor, and Tau driving them north. She had the front passenger seat. The rest of them were packed in the back like sardines. Leonidas remained unconscious the entire time, which was for the best, all things considered.

Five hours later they were in San Jose, and Harsh swore under his breath.

“What?”

“This should be Nikodemus’s territory, and it’s not.”

33

S
outh of Palo Alto, Harsh unfastened his seatbelt and took Leonidas’s vitals again. The mage remained inert on the floor of the van, unresponsive to any psychic push, which was concerning.

“How’s he doing?” Addison asked.

“No change.” His pupils were equal, round, and reactive to light. His pulse remained on the high side. But he hadn’t moved since Harsh put him in the van.

She twisted in her seat. “Is he going to be okay?”

“Probably.” He kept two fingers on Leonidas’s carotid. “I’ve seen this before after an indwell of one of the magekind.” With Fen, Iskander’s blood-twin. She’d been killed during her indwell of the mage she’d gotten twisted up with. The very same mage, it so happened, who had enslaved him for so many years. The contact between Fen and the mage had not been entirely consensual on his part; the only thing that had convinced Nikodemus to let him live.