Stephanie Rowe - Darkness Unleashed (23 page)

Kissed her!

She was death! She was
killing
him, and he was
kissing
her?

And he didn't stop! He just assaulted her with his kisses, drinking in everything she thrust at him until a slow, horrifying realization came to life within her: she couldn't kill him. She couldn't stop him. He was somehow immune to her touch of death. If he chose to destroy her, she had no way to stop him.

She went cold, the ice cold of death, rigid in his arms.

Ryland broke the kiss right away. "What's wrong?"

"You," she gasped. "I can't stop you." Her legs gave out, and Ryland went down with her as she collapsed on the stone. "I couldn't stop him," she gasped, gripping his arms. "He was my husband, the father of my child. He'd been this great salvation, a white light that kept my dark side at bay. When I slept with him, my mind was quiet, and I didn't kill anyone. I awoke each morning with no new souls in my body."

"Okay," Ryland said. "Tell me more."

She slumped, barely aware of the cold stone beneath her knees, of the chill on her upper body. "He was my salvation, Ryland. Don't you see?"

"He gave you freedom from killing people. Yeah, I get that," he said grimly. "There was a time when that was all I would have wanted for myself."

Catherine closed her eyes. "I was feeding Lucy one morning. Simon came in and asked to hold her, so I let him. Then he walked to the door and looked back at me. His eyes were black, so black, and a horrifically stained aura suddenly flowed from him. I realized in that moment that he was pure evil, pure death, and he'd somehow been hiding it from me. I didn't understand. I didn't believe it. I loved him." She reached out with her hand, just like she had that day so long ago, pleading for him to come back to her. "I didn't understand how dangerous he was to us," she whispered. "Not until he told me that it was time for me to resume what I'd started when I was four."

Ryland's grip tightened on her. "Which was what?"

"Killing souls." She closed her eyes. "After my parents died, some angels found me and brought me to an angel enclave. I was coated in death and evil, but they cleansed me and healed me. I met Alice there, and she was my dear friend. I thought it was all over, that life was good."

Ryland swore under his breath. "That was when you killed everyone?"

She nodded. "They came to me in my sleep. I don't know exactly how it happened, but I somehow flooded the village with death. Everyone died. Demon death, people said, but it wasn't. It was me." She closed her eyes. "Whatever I had unleashed was still there, feeding on everyone. I got Alice out of there, and we ran. God, we ran, even though it was me that we were running from."

"Shit, Catherine—"

"Alice refused to believe it was me, and it was her faith, her misguided naïve faith, that somehow gave me hope. For years, she protected me and kept it at bay, though I was always afraid to sleep unless she was beside me. Then I met Simon, and he was like the gift I'd been searching for my whole life. I felt safe. He gave me a family and a home, and I left Alice to be with him."

"He isolated you," Ryland said grimly. "Took away all your support except him."

Catherine nodded. "The day he snatched my daughter, he said it was time for me to fulfill my legacy, and to destroy the Order. I would get my daughter back only after everyone was dead."

Ryland's grip tightened on her arms. "And that was when you took Dante's soul?"

"No. I refused to sleep again after that, except when Alice was there. She would wake me up after five minutes, before I could fall deeply enough asleep. She and I tracked Simon, because I knew if I could get to him before he made it back to the nether-realm, I could save Lucy. But he was leading us right to Warwick Cardiff. Once
he
found me..." Catherine bit her lip. "I would wake every morning with new taint on my soul. I was taking souls every night, and I didn't remember who or what. I would just feel it in the morning." She realized she was leaning on Ryland, and she instinctively pulled way. "I remember Dante, though," she whispered. "I was awake for him. It was the first time Warwick got me to take a soul when I was awake."

This time, Ryland released her, but she sensed that he was ready to come after her if she tried to bolt. "Why did Alice want to kill you? Why did she say you wanted to die?"

Catherine hugged herself, rocking gently as she fought for control, to regain her strength. "Because every time I take a soul and kill it, a piece of my own soul dies. Eventually, I will kill my own soul, and I will stop existing just like those souls I take."

Ryland swore. "You're the angel of death. You can't just die."

"I can, and I'm very close." Catherine hugged herself, thinking of the sweet face of her baby girl who was in such danger. "I knew that as long as my soul was alive, Lucy would not be alone. I would somehow be able to get to her, even if it was from the afterlife. But if my soul dies, I cease to exist completely. That means I leave my daughter alone and exposed for all eternity." She fisted her hands. "I made Alice promise that if too much of my soul died, that she would take my physical life so that at least my soul would live on for Lucy. Unfortunately, I'm really difficult to kill."

Ryland sat back on his heels. "You would offer your life for your daughter."

"God, yes. Of course I would. What other reason is there to live?" Numbly, she tried to scramble to her feet. "I have to go get her. I have to get her now. I already almost killed you. I've never done that in the daytime when I was awake. I'm falling, and I need—"

"Hey." Ryland caught her arm, stilling her. "You didn't almost kill me. Not by a long shot. You were reacting in fear to protect yourself, because you saw me as Simon."

She stared at him. "I tried to kill you—"

"No. You didn't." Anger was burning in his eyes. "Listen to me, Cat. Simon betrayed you. The bastard lured you in and then betrayed you. He's a scum-sucking pig who should have his balls hacked off and fed to the demons."

Catherine stared at him and had the most inane desire to laugh at the image he presented. "Yes, he's all that, but the truth is that I didn't see him for who he was until it was too late. If I couldn't see that, then how do I trust my judgment with anyone?" She lifted her chin. "I swore to myself I wouldn't make that mistake again, and then I went and did it anyway, throwing my lot in with you."

Ryland's eyes flashed. "I wouldn't betray you."

"That is the same promise Simon made to me every single night for two years." She ground her jaw. "He even gave me a blood promise that he would always be there for me."

Ryland sat up. "A blood promise? What the hell's that?"

"We exchanged blood in a ceremony that binds us forever. It was part of our marriage ceremony. It's a very ancient ritual for angels that isn't done much anymore. But he wanted to do it." She grimaced. "I didn't know that he wanted the bond so that he could manipulate me."

Ryland felt his vision begin to blacken. "You're blood-bonded with another male?"

"Yes." She rubbed her arm, where his knife had carved two lines in her flesh. "I still carry the marks as a reminder every day that I trusted the wrong person. A reminder to stand on my own." She turned her arm over to look at it again and then frowned. "That's weird," she muttered.

Ryland wasn't listening. He had braced his hands on the ground, fighting against the new onslaught. "You called Thano's halberd. You hear his voice. You're blood-bonded with another man—"

Catherine gasped, and he jerked his head up. "What?"

She was looking at her arm. "There's another line here."

"What?" Ryland grabbed her arm and jerked it toward him, sudden adrenaline rushing through him. Making love was one of the stages of the Calydon bond with his soul mate. His mark could be on her—

He went cold when he saw the thin silver lines on her arm. It was a Calydon brand, but it wasn't his machete. It was the handle of
Thano's
weapon on her arm. "Jesus," he whispered, stunned. But there was no doubt. His machete was much wider and plain, but Thano's halberd was long and thin, and the end had a curve on it. She'd called Thano's weapon, which was one of the stages of the
sheva
bond, and now his mark was on her arm. Much of his weapon was showing, more than Ryland would have expected would come from a single stage. How many had they done?

"What is it?" she asked.

"Thano's weapon." Black rage began to course through him, fierce, throbbing rage. "There are five stages to the bond between a Calydon and his mate." He locked his hand around her arm, his body shaking in response to the sight of another man's mark on her skin. "Each time a stage is complete, a part of the Calydon's brand appears on her arm."

She stared at him. "But I'm not his mate."

Ryland's head was pounding so hard he couldn't even think. Thano's brand. On her arm. Blood-bonded to another male. Catherine.
With
another male.

With a roar of outrage, he tore himself away from her and backed toward the wall. "You're Thano's woman." Jesus. Not his.
Not his.

Catherine scrambled to her feet. "I'm not Thano's!"

"No, this is good, this is good." He fought against the rage and fury screaming through him. "The
sheva
bond is a trap. It makes me vulnerable to you. You're not mine. You can't trap me." He hit the wall and pressed his back against it. "You can't trap me." But Jesus, he wanted her. He fucking wanted her. This screamed wrongness. She was his.
His.

"I'm not his!" She walked toward him, and he held up his hand to block her.

"No," he snarled. "Don't come near me. Don't you get it? If we were soul mates, you wouldn't be able to resist me. I could bind you to me, just as you would bind me to you. You want that?"

She stopped, her eyes wide. "No," she whispered. "God, no."

"Yeah, so, yeah, so it's good. We aren't going to trap each other." He closed his eyes, pressing his head back into the cold rock, fighting against the blackness rushing through him. Dark anger. Dark rage. The need to tear himself off that rock, attack Catherine, and make love to her until every inch of her soul was stained with his aura, until she was so much a part of him that no one would ever be able to claim her.
Ever.
"I can't touch you," he whispered. "You belong to another man."

"No." Her voice was so bitter and strident that he opened his eyes. Catherine's hands were fisted by her side, and her jaw was jutted out. "I will
never
belong to another man. Not Simon. Not Thano." Her eyes glittered. "Not you." Then she held out her arm and stared at it.

As Ryland watched, a black shadow crept down her arm from her elbow. It flooded her pale flesh with darkness, obscuring Thano's mark and the scars from Simon, until there was nothing but ash-gray smears on her arms.

Fury continued to vibrate through Ryland, and he wanted to tear the marks from her skin, ripping them out of her very being. Just because she'd hidden them didn't mean they were gone. She dropped her hand and looked at Ryland. "All I want is to save my daughter," she said.

He gritted his jaw. "All I want is to find Dante."

She nodded. "Don't touch me again."

"No chance."

For a long moment, their gazes met, and Ryland felt something inside him crack as he stared into her blue eyes. A longing that was so foreign he didn't even understand what it was he wanted.

"You're my only hope," she said finally.

A need to protect vibrated through Ryland, a sense of purpose. This is what he was born for: protecting the angel meant to save him. He nodded. "I accept the responsibility."

She took a deep breath. "We save my daughter first. Then Dante."

Ryland shook his head. "Dante first."

Catherine blinked. "But once we find Dante, you'll have no reason to help me. You—"

"—were born to protect you," he finished. "I would burn in hell before I abandoned an angel. An angel saved my life, and I transfer that loyalty to every angel I meet. Dante first, then your daughter." His eyes flashed. "You can trust me."

For a long moment, she stared at him, then she shook her head. "No, I can't."

He swore, but he got it. After her story about Simon, he understood. Too many broken promises. The reason he understood was because he'd been equally betrayed by the people who had created him. To be betrayed by someone who you're supposed to be able to trust is the worst fucking hell of all.

He studied her, and then he knew the answer. "You're our guardian angel," he said. "You can't abandon Dante. It's against who you are." Satisfied, he levered himself off the wall. Catherine would not abandon Dante, because she was bound to the Order as their guardian angel, even if she didn't admit it yet. "Lucy first, then Dante." His ribs burned, and Ryland looked down at his chest. The turquoise had taken the beast's lower torso.

Catherine's gaze followed his and she grimaced. "How much time?"

"Plenty." But even as he reached for his boots to finish getting dressed, his heart started pounding. He had no idea how much time he had, but he suspected it wasn't much. Once Desdria and the Dark Lord confirmed his presence in their realm, he would have minutes, maybe seconds, before they would descend.

He shot a glance over at Catherine as she grabbed her shirt and pulled it over her head. As the smooth expanse of her upper body disappeared beneath the fabric, deep regret coursed through him...immediately followed by the sharp stab of fear. Real fear. The kind of fear that a warrior never, ever wanted to feel.

Because he knew that even though she carried Thano's mark, it didn't matter.

She was his, and that meant that losing her would destroy him...unless he found a way to break them apart. And soon.

* * *

Catherine's forearms were burning as she pulled on her jeans. It almost felt as if more lines were being drawn on her arms. Another male binding her? First Simon, and now Thano, who she barely even knew? Fear pounded at her as Ryland strode over to the hole in the wall where he'd originally retrieved the glowing rock. The stone that she'd drained was nothing but a faint whisper now, and she could feel the tension rising within her at the lack of light available to sustain her.