A Demon's Dark Embrace: An Elite Guards Novel (10 page)

“You can tell her when they come to save us,” Olivia replied as she moved a few stray strands of hair from Lexie’s face. Olivia’s heart hammered wildly as she watched the blood, knowing it wouldn’t take long.

She’d been right. It took moments for Lexie to pass away, and the kids knew as Olivia released a muffled sigh that Lexie was dead. Olivia took Lexie’s hands and crossed them on her chest, and posed her as if she was only sleeping.

“Okay guys,” she whispered brokenly. “We’re going to play a game. In the next room is a silence ward; it’s used to keep the harp inside of it from being heard. You’ll still need to be very quiet, but I’m going to leave Kenny in charge, and we’re going to see who can be the quietest while I look for Michael. Can you guys do that for me?” she asked with pleading eyes as the kids moved to the small dark room where the cursed harp was.

“I’m the boss, like an Enforcer?” Kenny asked, his child eyes growing large as tea saucers.

“Just like that,” Olivia whispered.

“Okay, everyone inside,” she said as her eyes slid back to where Lexie was slumped over in death. Her heart continued to pound, and once the kids were hidden inside the room, she left to find Michael.

He was five, and he’d be scared to death about now. She hugged the walls as she made her way to the boys’ bathroom. When she caught sight of him, she released a relieved sigh, but as he stood and ran toward her, gunshots rang out, and his small frame jerked and fell to the floor. She covered her scream with her hands, as her head shook in denial and the sight of the shattered life.

They were intentionally killing the kids! Her heart felt as if it would explode from her chest, but she didn’t move. She waited for a few moments until it sounded like the gunfire was heading away from the library, then moved to Michael and felt for a pulse. A sob tore from her throat as anger took hold. This was insane. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go down! She stood, moving away from the tiny body since it was too late to save him.

Olivia pushed open the doors of the alchemy room and stepped over bodies as she moved to the premade vellum, ripping off enough—or at least she hoped it was enough—to save whoever she could in the Guild. She’d started this, and she had to stop it.

Where were the real Enforcers? Because those men currently executing children were not the one’s she’d served with. They were murderers. She grabbed a few items that she’d read about from mission logs and made her way to the door.

She hugged the wall again, whispering any prayer she could remember in the midst of the crisis. As she rounded the corner and came face to face with one of the men who’d been in the room with Cyrus, she used the enchanted dagger, whispering the spell she had memorized so long ago. She watched as the dagger sailed through the air, planting in the heart of the male, who looked as shocked as she did that it had actually worked.

She backtracked to the area where she’d left the children, using the vellum to take down anyone who stood between her and those innocent kids. She could hear screams and gunshots all around her, but stopped as a single tortured scream ripped through the area.

Justin.
If she could get to Alden, he would be able to tell her why he’d allowed Justin inside. He wasn’t the enemy since he hadn’t killed children, which he’d damn well had ample time to do. Maybe together with an Elder, and whatever the hell Justin was, they could stop the senseless deaths.

She counted the strips of vellum and winced. She hadn’t taken enough, and the room that held it was now across the library. She exhaled and inhaled slowly, her heart thudding painfully in her chest as she decided her next step.

“Oh, fuck it,” she whispered, and headed towards where they had taken Alden and Justin. If Cyrus was the enemy, then Alden hadn’t been. She’d fucked up. She had to fix what she’d done as best as she could. She had thought she’d been in the right, when she’d been so wrong. She’d been so quick to buy Cyrus’s lies. This wasn’t who she was, and she had to make it right.

Chapter Thirteen

He awoke to fiery pain as something was shot through him. His organs twisted as he cried out, his eyes searching for the attacker, only to find Cyrus watching him as he stabbed another bolt into his chest. He looked down and watched as another Enforcer held a knife to his stomach, pushing it through and tearing a bellow of pain from Ristan.

Blood erupted from his lips, and Cyrus smiled with wonder.

He knew this wasn’t the first time they’d awoken him with torture, and he’d watched as they’d tortured Alden. He’d held back at first, taking the pain, but as time moved on, he began to scream as they tortured him in front of Alden.

Questions had been asked, about Ryder, about Synthia. He’d ignored them, feeling as they sliced strips of his flesh and broke his bones. He’d held out, screaming against the pain as they’d forced Alden to watch his torture, hoping it would bring him around to say the words they wanted to know. They made promises to let the old man go if Ristan did as they wanted him to. He knew they were lying, though. They wanted him to bring the Horde King here, and they would try to kill them all. This he knew for sure.

They’d been cutting him open, and he shook his head at Alden when the man had given a strangled cry, or maybe that scream had come from his own lips. His only thought had been for the librarian, and what he would do to her when he got out of this. Because he would, because he knew his brothers would eventually figure out that he was overdue and come for him.

“The bolts seem to be holding him; he’s unable to fight us,” Cyrus announced, his eyes sliding up to Ristan’s with malice in them. “You really thought you’d come to my home and play?”

“Alden,” Ristan asked, his body on fire with the need to reject the bolts.

“He’s being questioned right over there, but I doubt he’ll be with us much longer. As for you, you’ll be with us until your brother comes for you. If you won’t call him, then he will feel your pain and it will bring him right to us.”

“He’ll never come for me,” Ristan snarled, his eyes filled with hatred as his skin turned from white to red. He allowed his fangs to stretch and elongate as he smiled coldly. “How’d you figure it out?” he asked, trying to buy time as he struggled against the restraints, aware of the God Bolts holding him powerless. The bolts; those idiots didn’t know that the bolts interrupted his link with Ryder, and he wanted to laugh at them.

“Bilé told us after Olivia helped trap you. The Fae could never resist an innocent cunt, now could they? She was like fucking catnip, and you just couldn’t stop yourself from trying to fuck her, could you?”

Olivia. That bitch would pay dearly. He’d bought her innocent act, and when he left here, and he would, she’d pay for what she’d done. Danu had fucked him royally with her need to mess with his cock and his head. She was as much at fault as the little redheaded bitch, who he’d get to fuck now.

He smiled and laughed even as blood dripped from his lips. He’d get that little librarian. She’d beg him for death. He shouted her name.

“Olivia, you’re fucking mine!” His voice was harsh, and he smiled at Cyrus, who watched him in wonder as more daggers cut him open, as Ristan continued to stare at him with murder in his eyes. “Your bolts can’t hold me for long. You’ll die screaming like a little bitch, and I’ll eat your fucking heart while you watch me do it.”

“He can’t kill you,” another male said as his eyes searched Ristan’s face. “But I can and will, Demon. Your kind shouldn’t be alive, not after what my murderous bitch of a wife did to our children, what she did to my gift. My lover,” he snorted as if he’d found something funny. “I am Bilé, Danu’s husband. Yes, I am a God. One who plans to kill off your race,” he taunted as he reached up and pulled out one of the bolts in Ristan’s shoulder, and placed it over his heart. “You should rest; they won’t be here tonight. Danu needs to be present, and my spies tell me she is overly fond of you. Care to tell me why?”

Ristan glared at him, wondering why Danu wouldn’t have warned them that her estranged husband was behind the Mages. When he continued to refuse to speak, the bolt pushed closer to his heart. It wouldn’t kill him, but it was going to hurt like a motherfucker.

“You smell of her,” Bilé growled and Ristan could see the fury building in the God’s eyes.

He refused to scream as the bolt pushed into his skin deeper. Skin gave under it, tearing with white searing pain until darkness swallowed him. The blackness embraced him and engulfed his mind as his body continued to be torn apart.

His mind wandered to its dark place, the one he tried so very hard to never visit; the memories of his father torturing his own mother raced to the fore. He tried to fight his father, to save his already beaten mother from more of the monster’s angry fists. He swung wildly, his small fist doing nothing to the creature that had sired him.

They were in the pavilion, where the others cowered and tried to escape his father’s notice, but they could never escape. His father turned his lethal eyes to the child, and swung one fist, knocking him into the pool. His mother screamed his name as she held onto the man, to protect Ristan from his rage. It wouldn’t save him, though, nothing did.

Alazander waded into the deep pool that he’d knocked the boy into and proceeded to hold Ristan under the water. It flooded into his lungs, and they burned as if hellfire was being poured down his throat. He was brought up several times, only to be shoved back under. Eventually, calm came, and with it the most beautiful creature he had ever seen.

Danu smiled at him, her eyes filled with tears as she promised him retribution for what was being done to him. She told him that the monster that was his father would pay for his deeds with his very life, and even though now wasn’t the time, he
would
pay. The only thing it would cost him was his vow of servitude to the Goddess, and in exchange, he and his mother would be free of Alazander’s hold on them. He agreed without hesitation.

He woke several times after that. Each time an organ was removed, only to regrow and with it, he would come back to lucidity. His mind tried to focus on what he would do to Olivia, and with it, he took comfort.

He awoke to the sound of screaming and realized it was his own. Pain erupted as something was driven into his hands, and then his guts were pulled on. He bucked, only to realize that nothing would move. He had no control, and panic took hold of his mind.

Ristan stared at the empty, lifeless eyes of the woman he’d accepted for his Transition. He’d done this to her, ever the disappointment to his father. He hadn’t been able to control the Demon, and in losing control of it, he’d fed gluttonously from her. His brothers and a few of his father’s guards pulled him from her body as comprehension of what he’d done to her sunk in.

He’d been barely sixteen summers when his Transitioning had occurred, which was early by Fae standards. Now he’d once again drawn his father’s ire and disgust. This time, he’d earned it for being what he was meant to be. He had wings, giant leathery black wings that flapped uselessly behind him, as he had no control over them. A tail whipped around his thighs frantically as he tried to gain control of his mind and extremities.

“Transition has exposed you for the abomination that you are,” his father growled at him hatefully. “I will not allow you to remain an abomination of the Demon Legion’s blood that flows through your worthless veins. You are my blood, and you are Fae. Do you understand me?” he snarled angrily. Alazander hissed as he held Ristan to the cold floor, his claws glowed, and with one slice down Ristan’s back, between the wings and flesh; he severed flesh, bone and sinew as Ristan screamed in agony. Screamed and begged his father for mercy until those screams turned to promises of vengeance.

A vision of Danu came to him, soothing him and warning that it was not time yet for his father’s death. Her hands soothed the pain of his ravaged back, giving him release from the torment briefly. “Soon his time will come, I promise you, sweet child. Soon he will be given his last breath.”

He’d never asked or begged for mercy after that day, and he’d waited over seven hundred years for his vengeance to come. For Ryder to deliver it.

He remained still, his mind closing in on him. More memories of his past came rushing back, and with them came emotional shit that refused to shut off. He wouldn’t scream, not anymore. He’d managed to stop the pain back then, and he’d do it again.

More organs were removed.

Unconsciousness devoured him again.

*~*~*

Unable to get into the part of the library where Alden and Justin were being tortured, Olivia went to find where the other children may have hidden. She made her way through the carnage that had been left inside the Guild. The scent of death was overpowering, yet she pushed on.

She slid her lithe frame into one of the many secret passageways that were hidden in the Guild, which crisscrossed throughout the Guild’s expansive areas. Each place she searched was much like the last. Bodies littered the floors; pools of blood created a halo around each of them.

Occasionally, she’d hear gunfire as she made her way through the otherwise silent Guild. They were searching for those who had been smart enough to stay hidden, as well as the remaining children who hadn’t been in the group that she’d hidden in the music room when this chaos had first begun.

Most of the older children had left around the same time as the Enforcers, to shadow them on missions while they were in attendance at the Seattle Guild. As the hours moved on, hopelessness started sinking in.

It wasn’t until she hit the gym that she caught the slight sound of a whimper. Near the blown out wall, she found bodies of some of the other librarians and knew that they’d put up a good fight. Other bodies she didn’t recognize lay among the mortar and bricks. Her eyes took in the hole, and she could taste freedom.

She turned to the area where she’d heard the whimper and swallowed as she made her decision. She moved towards the locker rooms and silently entered one, and then the other, finding a group of the middle-class students dirty and wounded, but alive.

“Can you guys walk?” she asked, her eyes assessing the damage the children had sustained. It took her longer than it should have, but she managed to get the kids, along with a small amount of water, to the music room where the younger kids waited.

She left them in the room as she moved through the hallway, feeling the pinch of guilt that made her hug her stomach and want to fall to the floor crying at the horrors she’d seen since the Guild had been breached. She calculated each face, and did the math, noting that at least those who were still living were safe and she’d done it. She’d saved them from ending up like most of their parents now were: Dead.

She edged closer to the dining hall. The kids needed food and other supplies to remain hidden until help arrived. They had to be starving, and she needed to at least find them protein bars, something that could sustain them until the real Enforcers arrived to stop the murdering bastards.

Olivia rounded the corner to the kitchen, and the cold steel of a gun barrel touched her temple. She turned, fully expecting to meet her death, but instead, was hit harshly with the butt of the gun. Her last coherent thought was that she’d seriously fucked up once again.

*~*~*

Daggers tore his flesh open, and he felt them touching him inside; unconsciousness was the only time he escaped it, but his immortality brought him back to consciousness each time, and back to the agony.

Death wouldn’t come easily to that little redheaded harpy; he’d show her exactly what it was to be owned by a monster. Real monsters didn’t stop because someone was afraid or because of pain; they were, after all, fucking monsters. She may not be wielding the tools that tortured him, but she was the conduit for them to get to him.

Unconsciousness took hold again, and he smiled as he sank back into beautiful oblivion.

When he awoke again, he used the mental path he’d shared with Alden, only to find it gone. He’d known it was time to go, and now Alden—and the kids, from the smell of it—were dead. Innocent blood had a pure scent to it. He latched onto it as souls of the dead moved around the Guild.

Death was everywhere, and he smiled, fully aware that while he was awake, he was drawing those souls to himself. Consuming them, gaining strength from them, growing stronger. Only to have it wasted as they tortured him again. Eventually, the souls left the confines of the Guild, aware that some monster was after them.

“He averages about two hours of unconsciousness, and then comes back from it,” someone said.

“Keep going,” a male’s voice said as he peered over Ristan’s face. “He no longer makes noises; why is that, do you think?”

“He’s growing immune to it, but then he’s also feasting on the souls of the dead,” Bilé said as he ran a sharp fingernail down Ristan’s cheek. “Mmm, do you smell that?” he asked.

“What?” The male asked, his eyes still watching the Demon.

“The Fae have arrived, and I think I smell my wife, or someone bearing her essence,” he smiled.

*~*~*

Olivia sat on the floor of the reception room to the library, trying with all of her might to stop another bout of tears. What happened in the Guild over the past couple of days would haunt her for the rest of her life; what the two fake Enforcers showed her a little while ago was seared into her mind and there was no amount of bleach that would ever get those images out of her mind. She had barely come to, and the two males had dragged her over to one of the library rooms nearby to watch as that being and several other men tortured Justin.

The sadistic bastards only had her in there for a few minutes to show her how Fae should be dealt with and she thanked Hecate for her empty stomach or she would have thrown up right then and there. Her head hung with guilt at what had happened to her beloved Guild. She felt at a loss and knew that eventually, she’d be senselessly murdered too. A hiccup slipped past her lips, followed closely by a sob.

“Stop crying. Stupid girl, what are you crying for? Huh?” one of her captors snarled angrily.

“You killed innocent people. You didn’t have to kill them. They wouldn’t have told anybody!” she cried.

“Shut her up, the Elder is gone. The Fae are in the building,” the other male said as his teeth ground together and his eyes slid over Olivia with regret.

“You feel that? It almost feels as if we’re being watched,” one of the men said, his hand going for his gun while the other’s gaze continued to slither longingly over Olivia’s body.

“If we were being watched, Bilé would tell us,” he said.

Olivia looked around the once-beautiful library and swallowed a sob. Her friends lay lifeless, along with Michael’s slight frame, discarded in piles like trash. This had been her home, and they had been her family.

*~*~*

Ristan opened his eyes as he heard Synthia’s voice. His eyes searched the room with terror, at the thought of her bringing Ryder into this fucking trap. He let out a strangled bellow of pain as another bolt was driven into his guts.

“Don’t,” Synthia’s voice was deadly, barely audible.

“What are you going to do about it?” one of the men—he was pretty sure it was a Mage—sneered.