Living Nightmare (25 page)

Madoc spun toward the sound, roaring in defiance. A demon saw the opening and lunged for his throat. Nika froze in panic, staring at its serrated teeth, glossy with saliva as it went for the kill.

She tried to scream a warning, but her lungs had closed up and she couldn’t make a sound.

A split second before the thing hit, a ball of flames knocked it back away from Madoc. It rolled aside, yelping in pain. A wall of fire shot up from the ground, separating him from the monsters, protecting him.

Madoc raced over the ground, not even bothering to look behind him. He was at her side in the space of three seconds, and in that short time, Nika realized what she had done.

She’d nearly killed him. If Helen hadn’t been here to save him, that thing would have ripped his throat out when he’d reacted to the sound of her pain.

That could never happen again.

His eyes darted over her. “Where are you hurt?”

“I’m okay.”

“What the hell are you doing out here?”

“Trying to help.”

“Go inside and stay there until this is over. You’re going to get yourself killed.”

Or someone else.

There was no sense in fighting him. He was right. She had no idea what she was doing.

Nika turned around and went back into the house. Logan was there, waiting for her inside the door.

“Would you like me to heal those burns?” he asked.

She shook her head. They weren’t bad. Just painful. “No. I think I’m going to need them to remind me of what’s real and what isn’t.”

F
or the first time in nearly a year, Torr’s feet were cold. He’d gone to sleep feeling nothing and woken up feeling cold.

A thrill of excitement rippled through him. Maybe whatever the Sanguinar had done was finally working, or maybe the venom that had paralyzed him had begun to wear off. Either way, he felt something, and that alone was worthy of rejoicing.

He tried to wiggle his toes and felt the slide of a sheet gliding across his skin. Or maybe he’d imagined it.

He did it again, and this time, his whole foot twitched.

Tears of joy slid out of the corners of his eyes and his first thought was that he wanted to share this good news with Grace.

Then he remembered she’d taken a trip—a vacation of sorts.

Disappointment rose up for a brief second before he realized what this meant. He had a few days to regain his strength. Maybe he could even be sitting up by himself by the time she came back.

Maybe when she came home, he could even greet her on his feet and hug her as he’d wanted to do so many times.

Of course, there were more things he wanted to do to her than just hug, but all of that could wait until he was strong enough to be a real man for her—the kind of man she needed.

He felt a stirring in his groin, saw the sheet draped over him twitch with the beginnings of an erection.

Relief made his head spin. He hadn’t thought he’d ever feel that again. No matter how much Grace had turned him on, he’d never once been able to get hard. And now just thinking about her, he was getting aroused.

There was no way he’d ever be able to thank her for all she’d done. She hadn’t once given up hope that he would recover. She’d stayed by his side, keeping his body moving so it wouldn’t waste away. Maybe it was all that effort that drove the venom out of his system. Maybe
she
had cured him.

Torr owed her his life, and as soon as she got home, he was going to devote his to making her the happiest woman on the face of the planet.

He could hardly wait.

 

Dawn drove away the last of the Synestryn.

Madoc was shaking by the time the fight ended, though whether from exhaustion or fear for Nika, he wasn’t sure.

She could have gotten herself killed. That thought pounded around inside his head, threatening to drive him crazy with an uncomfortable combination of terror and rage.

She was so precious. He couldn’t let her risk herself like that again.

Madoc found her in the living room. She had her legs tucked against her body and was hugging them close, staring at nothing. Her eyes were red, as if she’d been crying, but dry.

He breathed out a sigh of relief. He really didn’t think he could have handled the sight of her tears.

She hadn’t noticed him yet, though he was only a few feet away. Whatever she was thinking about consumed her complete attention.

Madoc stared at her, soaking in the sight of her safe and whole. Her white hair was damp and a total mess. Soot stained her cheek and both hands. The clothes she wore hung on her, droopy and bedraggled. And yet, despite all of that, she was still the most beautiful, precious woman he’d ever seen.

She deserved better than him. He knew that. He knew that he was too rough and harsh for someone so delicate. He also knew that he would do whatever it took to make her happy and to find a way to be the kind of man she deserved. He wasn’t ever going to let her go, and because of that, he had to step up, be a better man. Kinder. Gentler.

Maybe a soulless man like him could never love, but Madoc was determined to give her everything else she could ever need or want.

His heart clenched hard, then opened up, bleeding something into him that took his breath away with its power. He went light-headed and braced his feet to keep from spiraling to the floor. His skin fizzed along the surface as if a million tiny bubbles were popping all at once.

A shivering warmth spread over his chest, almost too much to bear. That warmth grew and spread out over the branches of his lifemark.

Madoc lifted his shirt to see what was wrong.

A thousand tiny buds had formed along the branches of his lifemark. They sprang forth before his eyes, swelling with life.

He pulled in a sharp breath. Shock radiated through him, making him sway on his feet.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Nika rise from the couch. She came to him and pressed her hand against his skin.

Joy sang through his body as his lifemark reached for her touch, swaying and shivering with her nearness.

“I don’t know how this happened,” he told her. “I thought it was too late for me—that my soul had died when you took off that ring.”

She looked up at him, her blue eyes shimmering. A smile as bright as sunlight tipped the corners of her full mouth up and he knew he would always have this image of her inside him for as long as he lived. “Apparently not,” she said. “I’m sorry I scared you, though.”

Madoc covered her hand, pressing it flat against his chest. He liked the feel of her fingers on his skin too much to resist. He closed his eyes, letting her touch flow through him, calming him.

So much had happened tonight. Both good and bad. He was still reeling from it all, trying to figure out what to do next.

Helen and Drake were in one of the bedrooms cleaning up and getting some sleep. Logan had left to rest underground. Madoc had thought he’d crash here, too, but with Nika’s touch, he was no longer too exhausted to drive home and get her to the safety of Dabyr.

As he looked down at her, staring into her pale blue eyes, all his past sins came flooding back to him. He’d hurt people. He’d even killed. Tynan. He knew what that meant—what he had to do. He had to answer for that crime, and the punishment was death.

He’d beg Joseph for a stay of execution—just long enough to find another Theronai compatible with Nika. She needed someone to take care of her and give her the power she needed to fight off the Synestryn who wanted to invade her mind. He was afraid that without the power he or one of his brothers could offer, it would be too easy for her to go back to the way she had been before—trapped in a living nightmare.

He couldn’t let that happen to her again.

Joseph would respect Madoc’s death wish and let him find Nika another Theronai. He was sure of it. He’d send out the word to each Sentinel stronghold for Theronai to come to her, even though she was currently taken. She wouldn’t want to let the men touch her, but he’d find a way to convince her to see reason. He’d pay Logan the blood debt to heal her blisters.

As much as he hated the idea of her suffering, he knew that a few blisters were nothing compared to the mental torture she’d endured. She was strong. He’d make sure she stayed that way.

And then, when they found a compatible man, Madoc would find a way to let her go into the arms of a man who deserved her—one who hadn’t murdered an ally. One who would be gentle with her and treat her like the precious treasure she was.

Regret tightened his throat. He could almost imagine the kind of life they could have had together, but it was better if he blocked those images out. It was going to be hard enough letting her go without thinking about what could have been.

Madoc cleared his throat. “We should probably get moving.”

“Where?”

“To Dabyr.”

Nika went stiff and stepped back. Her hand slipped away from him and his shirt fell back over his chest.

Something was wrong. He could see it in her face. “What is it?” he asked, ready to solve or kill whatever was bothering her.

“I can’t go back there.”

Madoc frowned. “Why not?”

“You’ll imprison me. Everyone will suffer.”

The pain radiating out from her was so thick he could almost see it. “What are you talking about?”

“The luceria warned me. I can’t go back there with you.”

“It’s not safe anywhere else.”

“Exactly.” Her voice broke on the word and he saw her swallowing as if trying to fight off tears.

Madoc stepped forward, but Nika backed away, keeping distance between them. Instinctively, he reached for the new link between them, searching for the reason behind her odd reaction.

Their connection was new, but even with only a minuscule conduit between them, he could feel the panic shrieking inside her. It was so sharp, he pulled back, shocked at the intensity of her emotions.

“What the hell is going on, Nika? Talk to me.”

“The luceria warned me that you’d lock me away at Dabyr. Tori will die. So will a lot of other people.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“The luceria didn’t think so.”

“The luceria doesn’t think. It’s just a thing.”

Nika shook her head, making the tangled white strands slide over her jawline. Her eyes were wide and her stance was defensive—almost protective. “You’re wrong.”

“Nika, please.” Madoc reached out for her, wanting to comfort her, but she backed away, bumping into the couch.

“Stay away from me. I mean it.”

“We really need to go home. I won’t imprison you.” How could he when he would live only long enough to see her unite with another man?

“Promise me,” she demanded. “Promise me we’ll find Tori.”

Madoc couldn’t do that. Any promise he made her would stick. He’d be forced to uphold his end no matter what. If he promised her they’d find Tori, then they’d spend their time running around instead of finding her a suitable Theronai. With a death sentence looming over him, Joseph would never allow him that kind of freedom.

Plus, what if they looked and never found her? He couldn’t trap them both in a promise like that—he couldn’t have Nika roaming the world looking for a sister she might never find, unable to stop even if she wanted to.

“No,” he told her in a low voice. “I can’t do that.”

“See. I knew it. The luceria was right. You
do
want to cage me.”

“It’s not that. We don’t even know if Tori is alive.”

“I do. I know it.”

Nika had known a lot of things that seemed impossible for her to know before, and generally, Madoc was willing to take a risk on his own behalf, believing her. But not if Nika was at stake, too. He refused to risk her in any way.

“I believe that
you
believe she’s alive,” he said carefully, not wanting to insult her by calling her a liar. “But I also know that your mind is not your own. What if that thought was planted in you somehow by the Synestryn that took your blood? What if it’s a trick to get you to come to them the way they tried to do with Andra?”

“She’s alive,” stated Nika, confidence ringing in her tone. “And I’m going to prove it to you.”

With that, she stepped forward, grabbed Madoc’s hand, and lifted it to her throat until the magnetic pull of both halves of the luceria locked them together.

That contact strengthened the flow of power from him into her, allowing her to use more than he’d thought possible.

As energy sparked through their link, Madoc felt the pressure he’d been living with for centuries begin to ease.

A long, slow breath hissed out from between his clenched teeth and his vision began to fail. Bright spots of glowing white formed in his eyes until he was completely blinded by them.

His body hummed, vibrating with the rush of energy Nika took from him.

“Look,” she ordered him. “See what I see.”

With that, Madoc felt his body fall away and his mind raced through space at a dizzying speed.

 

Joseph stood on the hilltop as the sun rose. Beside him, bound, gagged, and seething with anger, stood Chris.

A deep sense of grief threatened to swallow Joseph whole, but he knew he couldn’t let it sway him from this path.

Chris had to die before he could kill the people Joseph and the others were sworn to protect. The vow Chris had made to protect humans and guard the gateway had bound him for as long as his soul lived, but now that it was dead, no promise could hold him.

Chris had to die.

Joseph waited, knowing the Slayers would come. They always did, despite the stagnant war that separated their races. Duty came first. Always.

A man Joseph had never met before strode up the hill. In his jeans and T-shirt, he looked like any other man in America. Except for his slightly pointed ears, which one had to be looking for to even notice. The brown leather jacket he wore hung open, as if the chill didn’t bother him.