Soul Resurrected (Sons of Wrath, #2) (25 page)

A squeal snapped Draven’s head to the side.

Deuce stopped, chest sticking out as he stepped in front of a rugged-looking demon type.

Draven had never seen his kind before, but that didn’t mean much as he’d only come across a handful of the many species that lived among humans. He only assumed the male had demon blood based on the violet shade to his eyes.

Otherwise, he looked like any other Joe from the streets—assuming any other Joe was a big motherfucker with violet eyes.

The squeal had come from Jenna, and judging by the way Deuce’s nostrils flared and his lip peeled back over an elongated fang, his girl had been groped. Gold swirled in the big guy’s eyes and Draven’s
oh, fuck
alarms went off.

Draven gripped Deuce’s shoulder. “Don’t do it, man. We’re kill-bait here.”

With his chest still puffed out like a gorilla, Deuce exhaled a breath and stepped away, tugging Jenna behind him like his Ann-doll had almost gotten swiped.

Hands clasped together, Ryke stopped in front of them and smiled. “Wise leader.” Blue and white streaks swirled in his eyes, and before Draven could look away, dizziness struck.

Continuing on, they reached the door to the hallway where Draven had been led the night before. His stomach settled—much more at ease away from all the gore and hype. He’d had a good night the last time he stayed at Ryke’s. If truth be told, he wouldn’t mind having another beautiful woman take his mind off the bullshit night he’d just experienced.

Hell, he’d even take the Shine. Draven didn’t care.

As before, they ended up in the brightly lit hallway of the auditorium. Instead of drawing circles on the wall, Ryke continued on down the passageway, lights fading as they went.

“Where we going?” Draven asked.

“Thought we’d change it up a bit. I’m not a fan of staying in one place for long.”

The,
oh fuck
sensors flared again.

Vertigo intensified.

Ryke came to a halt in front of what looked like a dilapidated dressing room door. No chalk tricks ensued. Ryke merely twisted the knob. Draven’s stomach gurgled as the room opened up to an elaborate marble staircase, like some Annie shit, where all the orphans stood momentarily awestruck as Daddy Warbucks flaunted his cash.

Maybe he’d somehow taken Shine and had one monster hallucination going.

The group stopped just before they reached the staircase.

“If you’ll excuse me, I’ve an important meeting to attend.” Ryke held a finger to his mouth and wiggled it at Draven. He spoke low. “Do you have what I asked of you?”

Draven took a breath. Damn, he hated not delivering on something—especially when he stood about two seconds from entering what could very well be some twisted house of horrors. “Not the antibody.” Draven swiped at his nose. “Look, we, uh, came across something. Really bad. It wiped out a lot of Alexi. Like it targeted them. I don’t know what you want with my friends, but I gotta know you’ll look out for them. I promised.” He sniffed.

Ryke seemed to puzzle the request for a moment. “Of course.”

At that very moment, six gorgeous women descended the staircase, all of them completely nude. Draven’s eyes locked on the brunette he vaguely recalled from the night before. Yeah, he’d take her again.

Each female sidled up beside the males. Jenna clung to Deuce as a redhead slung her arm around him. The woman reached out to Jenna and brushed her cheek with a manicured fingertip. “I’ll take her first. So pretty,” she said.

Jenna jerked her head to the side. “We’re fine by ourselves, thanks.”

A grin stretched across Ryke’s face, and he winked before wrapping an arm around Draven’s shoulders. “You’ve done well.”

Draven looked over his shoulder, watching Ryke’s gaunt butler lead his friends up the staircase. “We’ve had a rough night. I’m sure they’ll appreciate a warm bed.”

“Absolutely.” Ryke gave Draven’s cheek a light slap. “I’ll return soon.”

The brunette and another blonde bowed their head at Ryke and hooked their arms in Draven’s. “My name is Isabella, in case you’d forgotten,” Brunette whispered.

He had.

She kissed the blonde on the lips, her eyes fixed on Draven as she fondled the woman’s breasts. When she finished, the brunette sashayed over to him, wrapped her arms around his neck and stuck out her tongue.

On the tip, a silver capsule dangled like a carrot.

Draven devoured her tongue, taking the capsule and her kiss.

* * *

Gavin arrived at the cemetery.

Trees lined the drive as he passed under a stone alter. Graves lay open and vandalized, evident in the mounds of dirt scattered about, though darkness mostly hid the fact that the place had been unkempt, left behind and unmanaged.

He pulled the car off to the side. No sign of Ryke, yet.

As he stepped out of the vehicle, another set of headlights advanced down the path toward him. Gavin shielded his eyes from the glow.

While the car pulled to a stop, Gavin leaned up against the Mercedes in a casual stance, but he pushed up again when a dark silhouette rose up from the vehicle and the door slammed shut.

“I gave you an order,” Gavin said.

Logan strode up next to him, the shit-eating grin on his face enough to make Gavin want to punch him. “Evening, Brother. When have I ever followed your orders?”

“Yeah, the last time you didn’t, you died, remember?” Gavin glanced around the vehicles, impatient for the meeting. “This is where Calix told him to meet up. ’The hell is taking so long?”

“What’s this about again? A meeting of the minds? That why you had me stay back?”

“It’s trying to level with this bastard. He can’t seem to keep his hands out of shit. It’s time someone slapped them.”

“Good, then you don’t plan to kiss his ass?”

“Have I ever been an ass-kisser?”

“I keep my distance from your kinky bedroom shit. I’m out when the pants fall.”

A noise piqued Gavin’s attention—a good couple hundred yards away but getting closer. He turned that way and stared off into the darkness.

A woman’s voice cried out.

“What the fuck?” Gavin broke into a jog, the pounding of Logan’s boots trailing behind him.

A figure hastened toward them, hobbling. The more she came into view, the more Gavin’s stomach sunk. He slowed his jog to a stop, but as she fell to the ground, Logan kept on toward her.

Gavin threw a hand out to stop him. “Could be a trick. If I’m not mistaken, that’s Ava.”

“How d’you know?”

“Black hair. Sapphire eyes. Why else would a female nephilim be here at the exact moment we were supposed to meet?”

With slow and cautious steps, the brothers approached. “Goddamn,” Gavin muttered as they reached her.

Swollen like a plum, her face carried the distinct bruises of someone who’d had the shit beat right out of them. A strange twist to her leg suggested it’d been broken the wrong way, and gouges in her thigh held the handprint of her attacker. She lay unmoving on the grass, only the rising and falling of her chest giving any indication that she lived.

“Calix is going to go balls out for revenge over this shit. Who the fuck does this to a woman?” Gavin set his hands on his hips and shook his head, letting the fury run through his body so that his movements with Ava didn’t come off abrupt. He knelt down beside her and gently brushed the hair from her face. “Ava, who did this to you?”

She stirred but never opened her eyes. “Ry … ke.”

Gavin’s lips tightened and his muscles clenched. “Bet the shithead beat her for seeing Calix again.”

Logan crouched beside him. “I, for one, cannot wait to get my hands on said shithead.”

“C’mon, let’s get her back to Calix. Call him to meet us. No doubt Ryke sent her instead.”

“Think it’s a trick?” Logan scratched the back of his head. “Get her inside the mansion?”

“I don’t give a shit if it is, or not. These bruises are real and she needs a doctor. Don’t forget, she’s half human.”

“You takin’ her to the ER, or something?”

“No. We’ll have Drechler come by and check her out. If she and her brother are at odds, we might get some information about Zeke.”

“Why didn’t you just meet up with him at Moonshine’s? Why here?”

“First, I prefer neutral turf. Second, nephilim are half human. They’re very self-conscious of their own mortality. The cemetery would have made him uncomfortable.”

“You got a psych degree now, or some shit?”

“I’ve got centuries of dealing with shady bastards.” With a sharp nod of his head, Gavin directed Logan to help him lift the girl into his arms.

Logan bent forward and gave a crooked grin. “Ryke’s gotta know I’m alive by now. Bar cameras, his staff. No doubt someone told him. I’m his dick trophy, okay? I’m the one he wants mounted to his wall. He’ll sic the bounty hunter on me now. Calix was nothing more than a sloppy second.”

Ava moaned and grimaced as Gavin slid his arms beneath her body and pulled her to him.

“Males who do this shit need to placed in a room with a Dzafolite dragon for the night. Change their fucking tune.” Gavin stood carefully. “And by the way, that doesn’t make me feel better, knowing Ryke will come after you, too, you know.”

“Enough of the sentimental shit.” Logan stood with his hands in his pockets. “You taking her back to the mansion?”

“Calix is at the bar tonight. We’ll have the doc check her out there. I don’t trust that that asshole Ryke isn’t hiding out somewhere. We’ve already had enough trespassers.”

* * *

Logan followed behind Gavin. Call it years of watching his back, but something didn’t feel right. “Hey, hold up.”

No sooner had he said the words than something knocked him in that back of the head. A sharp, needle-like sensation pierced his skin and claws curled around his bicep, digging into his flesh.

“What the—”

Logan yanked the beast at his neck and slammed it to the ground.

Its pale white face almost glowed in the darkness, the mouth smeared with blood, and it hissed as Logan pressed the weight of his boot on the bastard’s throat.

Another thump hit Logan’s back, and he gripped tight to a jaw. Bone crushed near his ear as he hauled it over his shoulder and held it out in front of him.

Keeping the first paleskin captive beneath his boot, Logan tipped his head and studied the second struggling in his grip. He tightened his fingers around its throat, forcing the sucker’s mouth open and giving Logan a good view of fangs. What would leak from its eyeballs, he wondered, if he squeezed much harder—or from its nose, its mouth?

Up ahead, Gavin set Ava to the ground just as a paleskin latched onto his brother’s back.

Logan tensed for a moment, until it flipped over Gavin’s shoulders with a haul from the demon. Its body hovered in the air for a brief second, before it slammed hard against Gavin’s bended knee, and the cracking of its spine echoed in the cemetery.

Logan couldn’t help the smile as he swelled with pride at his brother’s violence, like Gavin had just scored a touchdown, or some shit.

Gavin polished it off by ripping the head from its body, the paleskin’s blood spraying in the air like a dramatic finale.

With deep breaths, Gavin rose to his feet.

“What are these?” Logan examined the paleskin in his grip. Hisses still squeezed past its fangs; clear fluid oozed from its nose.

“If I had to guess, somebody fucked with something they shouldn’t have.” Gavin nodded toward the one in Logan’s grip. “And if I’m not mistaken, that’s ichor.”

“Blood of the ancients,” Logan muttered. “Which would make this what?”

“Only thing I know of that carries ichor died out a long time ago.” Gavin shook his head. “Looks like the same creature that tried to get inside the mansion, though.”

“Same thing that must’ve gotten ole Fatman in the alley at Moonshine’s, too,” Logan added.

“I thought that was a bounty hunter.”

“Me, too, but I saw this clear shit coming out of holes on Fatman’s neck. You think Ryke’s behind this?”

“He’d have to be one crafty son of a bitch. Once a species is extinct, there’s no going back. All traces of them disappear from both the underworld and here in the human realm.”

“If you’re referring to what I think you’re referring to, maybe they were never really extinct. Think they talk? Look mostly human to me.” Logan pulled the one he clutched a little closer. “Where’d you come from?” Logan leaned in, the glow of his eyes casting an off-red shade against the bastard’s skin.

Black orbs stared back in silence. Where there should’ve been white, blood red deepened to a richer tone as Logan strangled its neck. The dilated pupils gave the creature an animalistic appearance.

“Think if I squeeze hard enough I can make his eyeballs pop out like one of those stress-reducing dolls?” Logan’s voice carried the amusement of imagining such a thing.

“Why am I not surprised you play with dolls?” Gavin shook his head.