Night of the Tiger (Hades' Carnival) (27 page)

Why wouldn’t she leave him? She should leave him.

But she hadn’t. She’d started to but stopped. He’d seen her shake herself, as if fighting off the compulsion. Then she’d turned to him and smiled.

Her eyes said it all. She was here to stay.

His heart swelled in his chest, threatening to burst. Power flowed into him unlike anything he’d ever felt before. Aimee wasn’t leaving him.

He tried to push aside the emotions flooding him. Now wasn’t the time for this. But there might never be time. That brought him up short. “You should leave.” His voice sounded hoarse and rough. He drew himself up to his full height and stared down at her.

The tiger within him roared. Like him, the beast didn’t know how to feel. He was angry she hadn’t left to protect herself and thrilled that she’d chosen to stand and fight beside him.

His fingernails elongated into huge claws and he felt his face changing, jaw elongating and teeth sharpening into fangs as the tiger surged forward. Bones cracked and started to reform. The primal part of his soul wanted dominance.

Aimee was his mate.

It no longer mattered that he was immortal and she was not. It no longer mattered that they both might die in the next few minutes. He accepted what was and embraced it. Drawing in a deep breath, he inhaled her unique scent, letting it fill his nostrils and lungs. He let out a roar of warning. He would tear the demon limb from limb if she dared touch Aimee.

Aimee’s eyes widened as his body began to change, but she didn’t run, didn’t cringe from him. Instead, she hurried closer. “What’s wrong?”

Roric shoved the tiger back, but it took a Herculean effort. His features morphed back into those of a man. The tiger snarled inside him, pacing and roaring for release. But Roric couldn’t allow the beast to have dominion. Not now.

He needed to remain in his human form, to be able to think and reason clearly. When he was in his tiger form, he was more instinctual. And it would take a combination of brains, brawn and instinct to beat Hades and his minions at their own game.

The tiger quieted when Roric silently promised to let him out if the need arose. The beast crouched, willing and ready to fight.

“Roric? Are you okay?” Aimee’s concern was a balm to his battered soul, strengthening him.

He brushed his thumb over her cheek, marveling in her softness. “You should have left when you had the chance.”

“Yes, well, I should have done a lot of things in my life.” She gave him a wry smile. “Remember what I told you earlier. Heroine. Home alone. Always ends up dead.”

“I remember.” No matter what happened, he would always remember the selflessness of Aimee, her sacrifice and her courage.

“Enough!” The frustrated screech filled the space around them. “This touching scene is nauseating. If you won’t listen to me, perhaps you’ll listen to them.”

A black hole swirled in the air in front of them, growing larger and larger the faster it spun. Roric tensed, waiting to see what new horrors it would spit out. He frowned as a tall, dark-haired man and a shorter brunette woman stepped forth. They looked very familiar.

“Dad,” Aimee gasped. “Mom.”

“Oh, sweetie.” Her mother rushed forward to embrace her. Aimee jumped back at the last second. The woman dropped her arms by her sides, looking crushed. She appealed to the man beside her.

“Aimee, honey, it’s okay.” The man reached out his hand to her. A low, menacing growl broke from Roric’s throat. The tiger didn’t want anyone touching his mate. The man hastily yanked back his hand.

“I don’t understand.” Aimee looked at her parents, at him and then at Sandra. “You’re not real. You can’t be real.”

“They are,” Sandra insisted. “Hades can do anything, including capture souls.” Her smile was cruel. “It’s up to you what happens to them.”

Roric felt his heart shrivel. There was no way Aimee would choose him over her parents. She couldn’t. Not with them standing in front of her. Not even he, with his powers, could tell if they were real or a demon trick.

Aimee shook her head and backed away until she hit the canvas wall of the tent. “This is impossible.”

“We don’t want to go back there.” Several tears trickled down the older woman’s cheeks. She looked so much like Aimee that it hurt Roric to see her in such pain. His guts twisted as he imagined just how tortured Aimee must feel at this moment.

“It’s dark and cold and it hurts.” The older woman rubbed her hands up and down her arms. Her husband stepped up behind her and wrapped her in his embrace.

“Aimee, you have to help us,” the man pleaded.

Tears flowed freely down Aimee’s face. “There is no way you ended up in Hell. You’re good people. So you must be a trick. You’re not real.”

“It’s me. It’s Mom.” The older woman reached out to Aimee. “Remember when you were six and we had the blizzard that kept us snowbound for four days? We cooked over the fireplace in the living room and camped out on the floor there.”

“And remember when you were eight and crashed your bike into the apple tree on the edge of the garden?” the man added. “You cried so hard. Not because you were hurt, but because you broke your bike.”

Aimee stepped forward, her footsteps hesitant. No one but her parents could know such things. “Mom. Dad.” She swiped her arm over her face, drying her tears in her sleeve. Eyes red and luminous, she reached out to the woman.

Roric could feel her slipping away from him. His heart ached for her and for himself. She deserved this. She deserved to have her family reunited and to be happy.

But what about the Lady? What about his fellow warriors? Didn’t they deserve to be rescued? They’d suffered for millennia. What were a few human years of suffering when compared to that?

He knew the demon was feeding his doubts and thoughts, but that didn’t stop the flood of disappointment and anger that filled him. Aimee was quick to change her mind. One minute she was staying, the next she was turning her back on him to save her family.

But wasn’t that exactly what he was doing?

The Lady wouldn’t want innocents hurt in order to free herself, and neither would his fellow warriors. Resolve filled him. He would support Aimee, whatever her decision.

As he watched, mother and daughter drew closer, almost touching. At the last second, Aimee curled her fingers into her palm.

“No! This isn’t real. This is a trick.”

“You’re my daughter,” the man cried.

Roric stared at the man. For a moment, he thought he saw the outline of the man’s body shimmer. “Aimee.”

“I know.” She smiled sadly, clearly hearing the warning of caution in his tone. She turned to the older man. “I wish you were my father, but you’re not.”

“That’s not true,” the woman cried.

“My parents are in heaven, and nothing you can say or do can convince me otherwise.”

“You’re right. You’re not my daughter,” the man whispered. “My daughter would save her parents, not sacrifice them for a man she barely knows.”

Aimee winced but stood her ground. The black hole opened up, and the pair cried out as they were sucked back into the depths of hell. They were both screaming as the hole closed around them, swallowing them whole. Aimee cried out and stumbled forward, but Roric caught her and yanked her back against him.

Her skin was cold and clammy. She was shivering. He knew how much this had cost her. The devil had made certain she’d never know for sure if she was being tested or if she’d just resigned her parents to an eternity in Hell.

“Such a selfish creature you are, Aimee.” Sandra, who’d been quiet until now, shook her head mockingly. “And here I thought you were such a good girl. You might fit in just fine in Hell after all.”

Aimee couldn’t stop trembling. Her teeth chattered as hard as if she were lying naked outside in the snow in the dead of winter. She felt so cold. Her limbs shook uncontrollably. It had been too real. Her parents had stood before her only moments before, and she hadn’t even touched them. She’d been too afraid to. If they’d felt real, she wasn’t sure what she would have done.

Would she have sacrificed Roric and his friends and his goddess for her own happiness? She was very afraid that she would have. She ached with the need to feel her father’s strong arms around her, to feel her mother’s tender kiss against her brow.

Nothing she’d ever done in her life had been as hard as what she’d just had to do. Not living through the accident or dealing with the death of her parents, not going home to an empty house and learning to start over had been as difficult.

She hadn’t had any choice with the accident. That was fate. This had been her choice.

Anguish filled her like acid, eating away at her soul. Had it been a test? Had they been nothing more than demons in disguise? Or had they been real? She couldn’t believe that, not for a second, or she’d go mad with grief.

She could still smell her father’s spicy aftershave and her mother’s gardenia perfume. Her chest ached as she suppressed a sob. She would not cry. Not again. That would give the demon way too much pleasure.

Roric’s arms were strong and warm around her. Supporting her. Protecting her.

Yet, like her parents, his protection was an illusion. There was no safety to be found. Not anywhere. Roric had his agenda, and she’d made her decision. There was no going back. For either of them.

Sandra’s words mocked her.

Maybe her actions had damned her, but that was a chance she’d had no choice but to take. As much as she wanted them to be her parents, she truly believed they were nothing more than demons, or shadows from the past.

She couldn’t discount the possibility that they’d been able to pull memories out of her mind and manipulate them. She’d been vulnerable to Hades many times in her dreams, and she had no idea how much power he wielded in that realm.

That cursed black hole appeared again and began to spin. Roric released her and shoved her behind him. “Give me a sword,” she hissed. She was sick and tired of being unarmed.

He manifested a three-foot blade and handed it to her. It was heavy but substantial. She gripped it tight and hefted it in front of her, ready to face whatever appeared from the depths of the black hole.

But this time, no creature stepped out. Instead, it was like looking through a window into Hell itself. It was dark and fetid. The dank smell seeped through the opening. Rotten flesh, damp earth and sulfur coated her nostrils and throat. She swallowed, but that only made it worse.

Occasional sparks lit the shadows, illuminating the craggy rocks and oil-like puddles that riddled the path. It was very familiar, and Aimee knew she’d walked that path in her dreams. Sweat coated her body, making her clothing stick to her skin. She was scared spitless. No way did she want to go back there.

But there was no choice. The scene changed, zooming in on one particular shadow. Aimee squinted, trying to bring the silhouette into focus. It shifted slightly as a flame flared from one of the oily puddles, revealing a pale hand. Was it a demon or a person? She prayed it wasn’t one of her parents. She couldn’t handle any more of the psychological torture.

She frowned and looked closer. The figure was almost familiar somehow. Had she seen it during her dream visit? Several lights jumped to life, revealing a naked limb partially covered by a tattered cloak. No, not a cloak. Hair, long hanks of matted hair hung around the poor creature, covering its body. Bare feet shuffled along as the pale hand used the wall for guidance.

The figure halted suddenly, almost as if it sensed it was being watched. Slowly, the head turned toward them, and Aimee gasped as the woman stared at them. The light picked up glints of her brown hair. Her face was gaunt, but her features were perfect in every way. Her vivid blue eyes were older than time itself.

Roric fell to one knee in front of the apparition, his eyes never leaving the woman. Aimee had a sinking feeling in her stomach that she knew who it was. His next words confirmed it. “My Lady,” he breathed.

Words drifted through her mind. Aimee wasn’t sure if the woman said them aloud or if it was all in her head.

While the demons from Hell tempt and deceive, a life must be given, a heart received. One step from the path and all will be lost. Your souls will be forfeit. That is the cost
.

Aimee had no idea what the goddess meant. Was this part of the spell she’d cast on her warriors? The demons had certainly tempted both of them. Did it mean she had to die for Roric to be set free? Was she destined to lose her soul to Hades? Not exactly a pleasant thought.

“I told you Hades set her free when she told him how to break the curse.” Sandra propped an elbow on one of her hands and tapped her blood-red nails against her cheek. “Of course, he didn’t release her from Hell, just her prison cell. She’s free to go.” The demon paused, teeth flashing as she smiled. “That is, if she can find her way out.”

Aimee didn’t know much about mythology, but she did know that getting out of Hades’ realm was all but impossible without his help.

Roric bound to his feet and took a step forward. She knew he was going to go through the black hole and into Hades’ realm to save the goddess. If he did, she knew all would be lost. This was his temptation, just as she’d been tested only moments before.