Demon Untamed (9 page)

She wasn’t the only one losing hope. She could see it in many of the crew’s eyes, but no one wanted to be the first to admit it. The atmosphere on the ship was solemn and quiet. The crew tended their stations without the usual mirth and liveliness.

Aside from the group that had gone after Anya, Sonya worried for Marik. He was alone on Undewla, captured by foreigners who probably didn’t even know what they were dealing with when it came to demons—especially one that abhorred captivity as much as Marik. She hadn’t wanted to abandon him, but at least she knew where he was.

Once again, her mind drifted back to her family.

Please be okay
.

She couldn’t lose them. They were all she had left. After her father’s gruesome demise, she had been determined to keep the last of her family safe. And her reckless brothers took her to task every chance they got, this being the last in a very long line of rash behavior.

With most of her time spent in the control room, Sonya had closed the pub. The galley had become self-serve, with no one available to take Marik’s place as the ship’s cook. As it was, Sonya couldn’t eat. Demons could go months without food, but doing so siphoned much need energy. However, Sonya didn’t feel drained. She only felt the urgency to keep looking.

Yet, in the back of her mind, she knew stress was taking its toll. Sebastian’s words repeated in her head, taunting her. “Promise me you’ll make the choice if it comes to that.” But had it?

No. She’d not leave her brothers, Anya, or even Ethan to the mercy of that madman. She would never stop looking.

What if they’re already dead?

Her mind cracked against the terrible thought. She pressed her palms to the side of her head. She pictured Anya and her brothers lying broken on a cold stone floor, just as she had witnessed that harrowing day back in her once loving home.

“You okay, Captain?” Aidan asked from his place at the helm.

Sonya glanced up, erasing the despair from her expression. “I’m fine, Aidan.”

Aidan responded with a look that said he in no way believed her.

To lighten the mood, she laughed and said, “I never thought I’d be worried for a pirate.”

Aidan responded with a thin-lipped smile and a forced chuckle. “Agreed.”

What surprised her, however, was the truth of that statement. The fact that Ethan shared equal time in her mind alongside her family confounded her. Perhaps because she knew if anything bad happened to
him
, the same would befall the others. And he had an arrogant mouth on him that could only invite trouble. Although, wasn’t Cale even worse?

The two of them together made for a disastrous scenario.

* * *

Ethan tried to stretch his tired muscles as blood seeped from his many wounds, a task made difficult by the metal straps around his wrist and ankles, pressing him to the wall.

To his left, Sebastian and Cale appeared to be in equally bad shape.

Soon after they’d caught up to
Extarga
, the captain, Darius, had allowed them to come aboard with assurances of ransom: Anya for an extreme amount of space credits.

Sebastian hadn’t hesitated to agree, but Ethan had sensed the demon’s intention. He would never allow Darius to live.

Over the transmitted conversation, Ethan had been unable to decipher the sincerity of Darius’s motives, but he had suspected the male was merely luring them aboard to double cross them in the end.

He’d been correct.

Now they stood, strapped to a wall, bindings around their wrists, ankles, and necks, subject to a regiment of abuse. The psychopath enjoyed causing pain, and had nearly killed Sebastian when he’d refused to cry out from a lengthy punishment. Sebastian continued to flail and snarl like a rabid beast.

Both Cale and Ethan took turns attempting to draw Darius’s attention away from Sebastian whenever necessary.

While Darius was running the business end of a blade down Ethan’s face, slicing the skin to the bone, Cale called out, “Hey pirate, that looks like fun. Can I have a turn?”

Darius hadn’t hesitated to oblige with a succession of hard knuckle-filled jabs to Cale’s face.

When Darius had backed off to focus on Sebastian once more, who was still recovering from his earlier attention, Ethan asked Cale, “How was your massage?”

Cale spit out a mouthful of blood before commenting, “Almost tickled.”

Cale had no idea about Ethan’s ability to heal—a detail he couldn’t afford for Darius to learn now—and that it would be in his best interest to allow Ethan the brunt of the beatings. Still, Ethan was surprised by the tenacity with which Cale would bait Darius.

Ethan had been using his magic to heal Sebastian and Cale just enough to go unnoticed. He couldn’t heal them completely unless he was physically touching them. But he could send out tendrils of magic that kept their wounds from festering or bleeding out.

He could have easily healed himself. Instead, he kept his inconsequential wounds open to keep from revealing the nature his gift. Darius had already noted his pointed ears with a keen eye, but that didn’t stop the asshole from torturing Ethan with the same enthusiasm he showed the demons.

However, something told him that if Darius ever grew tired of his newest toys, Ethan would be the only one to survive for future study.

Aside from the physical abuse, sleep was deprived of them. If any of them nodded off, an electric current would run through their bindings, choking the air from every cell in their bodies and reopening old gashes. Each of them was coated in a generous amount of dried and fresh blood.

Ethan didn’t know how many days had passed, but his exhaustion told him it had been more than a mere few. He worried what had become of Anya. They had not been given any evidence that she even lived.

He found his mind drifting to Sonya with increasing frequency. Fatigue-induced stupors brought on figments of her large violet eyes, flashing with imagined concern—the way she would regard her kin if she were here to see their pain.

The fantasy vanished. Sonya hated his guts, and if her brothers weren’t with him, she wouldn’t bother with his predicament at all.

Darius entered the room with a threatening gleam in his eyes that brought them all to attention.

“I’ve got a little treat for you,” he muttered.

Ethan stifled a curse. He could read Darius loud and clear, and was instantly aware of the plot. Darius was going to add a new player to his game.

Anya.

Darius smiled at them. The lunatic was practically giddy over the prospect of showing her what he’d done to them, as though she would applaud his work.

Ethan’s mind reeled. How could he spare her the pain of seeing them like this? And Sebastian? What special kind of torture would the Edge bring him when he laid eyes upon his mate? When he was unable to reach her, to keep her safe? A demon could go mad from something like that, and Sebastian had already been on the Edge for days.

Ethan spotted a dagger in Darius’s hand and mentally cursed. Without even the slightest change in expression, Darius sank the blade into Sebastian’s gut. Sebastian didn’t flinch. He just continued to meet the bastard’s unwavering gaze, as if giving some unspoken guarantee that Darius was looking into the eyes of death itself.

A hint of fear etched its way across Darius’ expression, eradicated a moment later.

Ethan couldn’t help but to indulge in a taunt. “You
do
realize you’ve just signed your own death note.”

Darius focused on him. Then, with a blindingly swift movement, he slammed the hilt of his blade into Ethan’s temple. A deafening ring vibrated his skull before he blacked out.

When he came to, muffled sounds echoed through his head. He opened and closed his eyes a few times and shook away the vertigo. His vision was blurry, but he got the sense that Anya was now in the room and was fighting Darius.

Sebastian and Cale were madly struggling against their bonds. Adrenaline spiked in Ethan’s bloodstream, and he tried to pull free, but it was no use. All he could do was hope Anya was able to fend off the much larger male.

Ethan’s vision dimmed again. He called up a bit of his magic to heal himself. He looked up just in time to see Darius stab Anya with the same dagger he’d used on Sebastian. Despair ate away at him, darkening his mind and carving out a place in his chest.

I couldn’t even protect one girl
.

The dagger plunged again. Anya’s expression was pained, exhausted. She lifted her arm toward them as if reaching out for something. Then she gave them each one last sorrowful look before closing her eyes.

The bindings that held them began to shake. Magic pulsed through the metal, and he realized what she was doing. Their restraints were mechanized, and Anya could manipulate them just as she had the lock to the cell on Ethan’s asteroid.

A tiny clink was all that declared their release. Ethan leapt at Darius, but Sebastian beat him there, tearing into his flesh with unhindered hostility.

The screams escaping Darius were gratifying. Ethan wanted to join in and take a bit of his own revenge, but Cale motioned him back. “Sebastian will kill you too if you get in his way now,” he explained.

Ethan moved toward Anya, crumbled to the ground, but Cale once more stopped him.

“Don’t get near her either, pirate. Not while Sebastian is like this.”

Ethan ground his teeth. There could still be time to save her. But if Cale was right, and Sebastian killed him without thinking, he wouldn’t be able to help her anyway.

Sebastian threw Darius’ remains to the side and rushed to Anya’s side. He pulled her close to him and bellowed, “Please, Anya! Open your eyes!” His gaze flashed between Cale and Ethan. “Someone get a doctor! A healer! Now!” He turned back to Anya. “I will follow you, Dammit! You hear me? I will follow!”

The sight of Sebastian openly weeping for his mate took Ethan by surprise. Never had he felt such emotion for another.

“Anya, don't leave me!” Sebastian choked, running a bloodied hand down her pale cheek.

Ethan approached, reaching for Anya.

Sebastian snarled at him. “Get away from her! Find a doctor!”

“No.” Ethan made his voice grave. “Give her to me!”

“Do you want him to kill you, pirate?” Cale growled.

“I can help her, if it's not too late already! Give me her body!”

Sebastian’s desperate gaze met his. “How can you help her? Tell me!”

“My ability. The root of my power lies in healing.”

Sebastian seemed to digest this information for only a split second. “Then do it! Heal her, now!”

“I have to touch her body, so don't kill me. Okay?”

With a clipped nod, Sebastian relinquished Anya, though his eyes still mirrored that of a beast ready to attack.

Ethan pressed one hand to her wound and the other to her heart, drawing magic through his body and into hers. Instantly, she began to heal, but Ethan sensed her soul had already drifted away, leaving behind nothing but a shell. He could heal her body till not a blemish remained, but did he have it in him to call her soul back? 

With all his strength, he gathered his magic into the cage of his heart, letting it build until it practically overflowed. The longer it was forced into submission, the stronger magic became. However, magic didn’t like to be caged. It liked to run free, and holding on to it for any amount of time would cause it to push back and resist. When it became too much and he could no longer keep his grasp, he unleashed the magic down his arms, over his palms, and through his fingertips it into Anya. Soon he was siphoning more magic than he ever had before.

He glanced up to see both Sebastian and Cale looking dumfounded. Scraps of torn cloth and drops of blood hovered midair as magic charged the room. Anya’s body became illuminated by the coursing power. Her wounds were fully knitted, but still there was no soul to fill Anya’s shell.

Desperate, Ethan reached out toward Sebastian. “Give me your hand!”

Sebastian did as asked, and Ethan placed Sebastian's palm over Anya's heart and held it there.

“Call her back!” Ethan commanded. When Sebastian gaped at him blankly, he continued. “If you are truly hers, then your souls are linked. She will hear your call.”

Ethan had never attempted to reel a soul back from the afterlife, but if anything could aid such a task, it would be the pure devout love Sebastian harbored for his mate.

“What do I do?” Sebastian’s voice was gravely.

“Just keep your hand here and imagine her with you. The connection will help my magic.”

Ethan closed his eyes and blocked everything out. The pain of his own marred body faded to the furthest depths of his mind. Magic was like a second pulse inside him, surging life into Anya. When he began to grow weary, he called upon his last bit of energy, forcing a blast of power into the lifeless form below his fingertips.

Sebastian leaned over to whisper something in Anya’s ear. It sounded both private and intimate. Moments later, Ethan felt something he’d never felt before. An energy that felt like pure life itself.

Then, ever so slightly, Anya inhaled.

Ethan pulled his hands away. Drawing in a deep breath, he swiped a sheen of sweat from his forehead.

Cale slapped his back and let lose a hearty laugh.

Ethan sat back on his heels. “It's not over yet. She's healed. Her soul is in place…for now.”

“What do you mean for now?” Sebastian barked.

“Her soul had left her body, her vessel. Her body is in great shock. Her soul is once again connected to this body, but…that doesn't mean she'll wake up.”

Sebastian gazed down at Anya, who appeared as though she were only in a sound sleep. “She'll wake up,” he said it as if he had no doubt.

Ethan wasn’t so sure.

“Let's get back to
Marada
.” Sebastian glanced at Ethan. “Don't suppose you have enough juice left to heal us too?”

Ethan shook his head. “Sorry, I'm tapped out.”

Cale pushed his shoulders back. “I'm fine, anyway. In fact, I'm ready to do some damage.”

“Good.” Sebastian stood with Anya in his arms. “You take the front, Ethan take the back.”