Soul Avenged (Sons of Wrath, #1) (13 page)

So cool.

After a brief
upward
whoosh
, the doors opened up to the main floor of
Sanctuary: the restaurant and bar, constructed in the same
peculiarity of a European crypt, where vampires might’ve dwelled.
The walls, carved of stone, arched into pillars throughout the
opened floor. Shadows crawled out from the sconces and climbed the
stonework, giving it a ghoulish appearance. Individual tables sat
captured by iron bars—cages— an intimate setting with candles atop
mirrors giving a soft glow.
Gothic
.

One of the
waitresses, Dara, sat at the bar, talking to the bartender. She
wore the typical Sanctuary garb: patent black leather shorts and
bikini top, with a fishnet shirt and knee high boots. Inky black
hair swung just past her cheekbones, emphasizing her voluptuous
dark berry-stained lips. She perked up at Gavin and Ayden’s
approach. “What’s shakin’, boss?”

“Not much.”
Gavin leaned against the bar with his smooth-talking Mafioso style.
“Just came to grab a drink.”

“Sure thing.”
Pat, the bartender, pulled out a pontarlier glass and absinthe
spoon. He poured a jigger’s worth of a green spirits into the glass
and placed the spoon atop, then slid it beneath an elaborate,
double-spouted fountain with a skull and crossbones etched into the
crystal. Water slowly dripped from the fountain onto the sugar
cube, dissolving into whirling clouds that turned the peridot green
into a pearly, milky shade.

The fragrant
smell of black licorice permeated the room. Ayden inhaled through
her nose, and through the white noise of conversation, images
flashed within her mind.
Laughter. Sitting in the backseat of a
car. A kiss. His hands gripping the back of her neck. Licorice on
his breath. “Only if you’re ready,” he whispers in her ear.
Nibbling on the lip. A nod. He leans in.

“You all
right?”

Ayden broke
from the visual. A warm hand snaked around her elbow. Leaning into
the bar, she stared up at Gavin, momentarily confused before
nodding. As she rubbed her forehead, a light tremble quaked through
her body, threatening to steal her balance.
What the hell is
going on? What are these visions?

“I have no
idea how you drink that shit.” Dara rested her head on her palm,
watching Pat finish preparing the drink, each slow drop from the
fountain falling into the glass in graceful silken strands. “It’s
believed to cause madness, you know.”

Pat removed
the spoon and passed the glass to Gavin.

“Ah, but I’m
in good company with the likes of Manet, Van Gogh and Hemingway.”
Gavin raised his glass. “To brilliance,” he said, and sipped the
drink.

“Don’t come
crying to me when you cut your ear off.”

Gavin smiled.
“I hear Trent Reznor drinks it, too.”

Dara perked
up. “Really?”

Pat shook his
head and slid down to Ayden. “What would you like, love?”

“Ice water
with lemon.”

Dara rolled
her eyes. “Come on, slayer. You can do better than that. Add a
little vodka to that, Pat.”

“No, really.
I’ve already left here in bad shape once this week.”

“Oh,
yeah,”—Dara smiled—“forgot about that.”

Pat pushed the
drink across the cherry wood bar without a single splash over the
rim. It slowed to a halt at Ayden’s outstretched hand, and she and
Gavin carried their drinks back to the elevator.

Lights circled
the button as Gavin sent them all the way to the top floor. They
passed the casino on the second floor, only partially filled with
patrons. Still early. All the high rolling tables made up the third
floor. Fourth and fifth floors were inaccessible and closed off by
steel doors.

Ayden had
never been on the fourth floor. She imagined it as some creepy
passage to hell where security tortured thieves and
troublemakers.

The elevator
finally opened up to the fifth floor, looking like something of a
neo-gothic auditorium with its arched beams and tall windows. She
followed Gavin down the long hallway to the back, where he stopped
in front of a closed door—Logan’s office. One hand still holding
his drink, he fumbled through keys with the other hand and unlocked
the door. Leaning forward, he paused for a moment then gave her a
kiss on the forehead.

“Stay out of
trouble.” His smile suddenly turned somber. “I hate this part of
the job. Firing someone. Sucks.”

“You’re a nice
guy.” Ayden playfully punched him in the shoulder. “What could go
wrong?”

~

Ayden entered
Logan’s office—definitely nothing fancy. He had one of her pictures
framed on the wall, one she’d taken of Joe Louis’s fist downtown.
She hadn’t realized Logan’d framed it—the only picture that adorned
the mostly empty gray walls.

Ayden slumped
into Logan’s black leather chair, kicking her boots up on the
desktop. Condensation from her glass of ice water dripped down her
arm and she set it beside her boots on the desk. She grabbed a
remote from the desktop and aimed it at a huge flat-screen mounted
in the corner of the room.

Moans
instantly hit her ear. Porn channel.

“Damn, Logan,
what do you do all day?”

She quickly
changed the channel to the news. A familiar face floated next to
the half-screen live feed of platinum blonde news anchor, Marg
Penderbaum. “Authorities claim that 30-year old Kane Walker was
last seen in the parking lot of Detroit General Hospital,” she
said, only her lips moving within the features of her stiff head.
“Blood found at the scene indicates that the victim
may have
been attacked prior to having disappeared. He’s one of five
individuals who’ve been reported as missing this week. There
doesn’t appear to be a pattern to the abductions, but police are
urging residents in the metro Detroit area to avoid being out at
night alone, and to report any suspicious activity. If you have any
information on the whereabouts of this young man, please contact
local police.”

“Report
suspicious activity.” Ayden’s lip curled. “As if they’d come
running for
suspicious
activity.” She blew out a forced
breath. “Criminy, I can’t get away from you no matter where I go,
can I, Kane Walker?”

The human
adult abductions were simple—humans being turned to wolves for the
most part, unless their bodies were found ravaged. It was the
children that bothered Ayden.

Lycans didn’t
change children.

They consumed
them.

And way too
many had gone missing, it seemed.

Damned wolves
couldn’t be killed fast enough.

Ayden turned
the TV off, closed her eyes and rolled her neck against the soft
leather chair.

A woman’s
voice drifted down the hallway, growing louder by the second. “Get
your goddamn hands off of me asshole! I can find the way out by
myself. You dirty thieving bastards! All of you!”

By the time
Ayden reached the door, the voice had faded, a flash of fiery red
hair whipping around the corner. Ayden headed toward Gavin’s office
and found him at his desk, chair turned to the side, rubbing his
temples. She slumped into the chair across from him. “She didn’t
take the news well, huh?”

Gavin glanced
up. “I’m getting too old for this shit.”

“How old are
you now?” Ayden shifted in the seat. “A ripe buck fifty?”

He frowned and
took a long swill of his drink. “Six hundred twenty five, thank you
very much.” He cleared his throat.

“Wow. And you
still have all your teeth,” she said, smiling. “Feel like scouting
with me?”

“We don’t have
to. Calix called.” Gavin swirled his drink. “Some nephilim he hangs
out with told him about an underground party tonight. Said it’s
supposed to be big.”

“Wait.” Ayden
sat up from her slouch, clutching the arms of the chair. “We’re
taking someone’s word for it?”

“A party is a
party Ayden. What do you want? An invitation to it? There’s bound
to be lycans.”

“I guess.” She
relaxed a little, but the uneasy feeling in her stomach still
tugged at her.

“Jimmy’s going
to watch the casino for me tonight.” Gavin twisted the chair and
stared into her eyes. “All of us will be there.”

“Promise?”

He tipped his
head. “Do you believe a demon that makes promises?”

Ayden glanced
down at her hands, set in her lap. “Only if that demon is you.”

“Then I
promise.”

The buzz of
the phone jerked her to attention.

A throaty
voice came over the speaker. “Sir, can you come down to the fourth
floor? We got a Saevious that got past Britus. We’re holding him
for you.”

“Fucking
demons.” Gavin hung up the phone. “It never ends.”

“What happens
on that fourth floor?” Ayden asked.

“Pray you
never need to find out.” He grinned and rose from his chair. “Stay
here. I’ll be right back,” he said, giving a quick caress to her
shoulder before leaving the room.

Not even a
minute later, the buzz sounded again.

“Sir?” the
man’s voice sounded strangled, as if fluids had caught in the back
of his throat. “Stay off … the fourth floor.” A cough interrupted
him. “The Saevious has … escaped. He’s … coming for you.”

The line went
dead.

“Shit!” Ayden
jumped to her feet and bolted out of the office. “Gavin!” she
called down the hall after him.

He stood by
the elevator door, toying with his cellphone when she rounded the
corner, and her shoulders sagged in relief.

Tucking his
cellphone in his pocket, he looked up. “I thought I told you to
stay put.” He smiled. “Miss me already?”

“Don’t
go—”

A red ball of
flames shot out from the elevator door, erupting upon exit.

“Oh shit!”
Ayden jumped back, catching her fall against the wall as the
fireball barreled into Gavin and sent him smacking back against the
floor.

Within the
innermost core of the blaze, its form evolved into the body of a
male with a whole lot of muscle mass. Shiny black skin emphasized
the intense glow of bright orange eyes, discernable even through
through the flames as Mr flambé grabbed Gavin and the two rolled
around the floor within a sphere of fire.

What the
hell?

Gavin kicked
the creature across the hallway and leapt to his feet, his shirt
singed away to nothing and leaving his bare chest exposed. His
brown bedroom eyes turned a glowing red, far more menacing than
this beast.

The fire
slammed into him again.

Like a
linebacker, Gavin braced himself and held it back.

Ayden’s
muscles tensed, though she had no idea what the hell to do. One
thing she hated more than anything was feeling helpless.

With the thud
of adrenaline pumping through her body and her heart galloping like
it might run off into the sunset, she padded quietly back around
the hall, fumbling with every doorknob she passed and checking
behind each door for the janitor closet. When she found it, she
grabbed the bucket sitting on the floor and filled it in the small
sink in the corner.

Bucket
dangling from her hand, she returned to the brawl to find the
Saevious straddling Gavin, a long, curled tongue wrapped around his
neck.

She held her
breath and tossed the bucket of water over the duo.

Nothing
happened.

Gavin lay with
a questioning expression on his face, fingers lodged in the tongue
at his neck. Flames still crackled from the Saevious’s skin, and in
a second that seemed to last an eternity, it slowly turned its
focus to her.

Its tongue
unfurled.

Gavin choked,
his eyes wide, his mouth opening and closing.

With a
singular claw, the Saevious knocked Gavin across the room, sending
his body hurling against the drywall, which cracked on impact. The
other claw swiped at the creature’s mouth.

Ayden’s eyes
widened.

Oh. Shit.

It hurtled
toward her.

She spun on
her heel and bolted in the opposite direction. Gavin’s strangled
shouts grew distant behind her. A quick glance upward sprouted an
idea as her eyes followed a pipe that ran the length of the office
space. Sucking in a breath, with the demon at her heels, she took
three steps up against the wall to the right of her and jumped
across, grasping onto the pipe while swinging her legs up into the
rafters.

The demon
followed behind her.

She
hand-over-handed herself toward the staircase and dropped. She
threw the door wide open, raced across the landing to the railing
of the stairs and jumped to the next floor, the beast hot on her
trail—literally—radiating her from behind.

A tingle
rolled through her body, stealing her breath. Excitement? Hot damn,
she was enjoying this?

Leap after
leap over railings finally landed her on the first floor—the
restaurant and bar.

She ran right
through one of the cages, knocking over the table within, straight
toward the bar. Dara and Pat, eyes wide with horror, ducked below
the countertop.

She’d never be
able to take the beast on herself. Hell, if Gavin could be knocked
into a wall, she sure wouldn’t be walking away unharmed. Her
strength exceeded that of one lycan, but demons held an exceptional
strength few other supernaturals could match.

Beyond the
bar, black curtains hung like spectral sheets, and she cut through
those and straight into the restaurant. Luckily, the place stood
empty.

Thank God.

The billows of
curtains and the smell of smoke told how close the demon kept on
her, and Ayden sent up a mental prayer for Gavin to get his
frickin’ ass there and fast.

Where the hell
is he?

The kitchen
door smacked the walls as she burst through it, before she leapt
over the long steel countertop and crouched, moving low and swift
to the ground.