Wasteland (12 page)

“How could you do this?” She swung, and I ducked.

She turned, aiming for my legs, I jumped, but with her speed, she got in another revolution. The tip of her blade nipped my hip. Metal to metal behind us told me Russell still fought off demons. I hadn’t tracked how many were there. My focus was on Beka.

I had to concentrate very hard to keep my demon from killing her.

“Stop. I do not wish to harm you.” I backed away.

The demonic instinct for self-preservation warred with the conflicting instinct to save that which I viewed as mine. Holding Jessica was the only thing preventing me from mounting a full force attack. I couldn’t get the momentum carrying eighty extra pounds.

“Give her to me.” Beka and I circled each other. Her sword pointed at me, but I remained weaponless. I had a dagger bound to my ankle, but I couldn’t make myself grab it. I would kill her if I let my demon have a chance.

But I loved her and couldn’t allow him to harm her.

An impossible union. She was Light. I was darkness. I’d only met her days earlier. Maybe the two hundred and forty-five years of solitary had dented my sanity, not that I was exactly sane to begin with.

“Back away, Beka. I do not trust my control.” My nose twitched at the metallic tainted lilac scent. “Please.”

“Never.” The anger and hate for me rippled the air around her. I’d stabbed her to the core with what I was. A demon. A thing she killed to preserve all that was good. The betrayal she must feel.

I despised what I was. All I could hope for was to get the contract removed and try to exist in this world as a human, somehow. Some way.

It would be much better with her by my side.

She struck again, and I dodged the sword aimed for my neck. “You will hurt Jessica. Please stop.”

“Give her to me, Demon.”

“I cannot.”

“Why?”

“She is my Mark. I’m contracted to turn her in.”

“You speak riddles and deception, David. How could—” Her breath caught. “I—”

Russell grunted from the side. A sword pierced his stomach. I lunged and buried my claws in his attacker’s shoulder. Beka leapt to the demon and beheaded him, then trained her weapon on me again.

“You fight both sides. I do not understand this.” She inched forward.

I backed away, gravel shifting beneath my boots. The beast overwhelmed my heart the longer I stayed in my demon form. Jessica felt like a thousand pounds in my arms. I set her down under Beka’s scrutiny. “Please, Beka. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Too late.”

With one hand gripping Jessica’s shoulder, I knelt before Beka and showed my human form. “Tell me of her importance. What is she?”

“A treasure. Purity at its finest. Something you know nothing about.”

“Purity?”

“Her goodness is so potent, it leaks from within her. See how her chest glows?”

The light pulsed.

Beka stood tall and widened her stance. “I will not let you have her, David.”

“You have no choice in the matter.”

“I believe I am holding the sword.”

I bent at the waist, exposing my neck. “Try it.”

She whimpered. “Don’t make me do this, David. Just give me the girl.”

“I cannot.”

“You keep saying that. Tell me why. Tell me what you are. You evaded my senses. Drew me in.”

She’d drawn me in as well. I’d come so close to giving myself to her, which would condemn me to darkness. “I did not mean for that.”

“But you did.” She straightened her back. “You’re a—” She sagged to the ground, dropping her sword, shoulders shaking. “Demon.”

Sadness oozed off her and nearly flattened me like a steamroller. I looked at Jessica’s limp body.

“Beka!” Russell’s panicked voice tore me from my stare. A sword penetrated Beka’s torso from behind and stayed planted, while another blade rested across her throat.

I lunged to my feet and phased to full demonic form so forcefully my human bones protested. A roar ripped through the air, one so deep and raspy I wouldn’t have known it as mine had I not felt it leave my throat. “Release her.”

“Walk away from the girl,” the demon said. One of Master’s Elite. Must have been hiding in the darkness awaiting his opportunity. He held a collar in his hand. If it touched my wrist or neck, I would be rendered immobile and returned to Master for sentencing.

Another quarter millennia of darkness.

I diverted my gaze from Jessica to Beka. Tears spilled from her wide eyes, and her hand gripped the demon’s blade. Blood flowed from her palms, oozed down her wrists and dribbled off her forearm to the gravel. She was holding the sword, preventing it from severing her neck.

Russell appeared by my side, sword drawn. Beka alternated her attention between us. My chest heaved as I debated. I needed the girl. Somehow I knew she could free me from my contract if she was purity like Beka declared.

Nails pierced my throbbing heart. The demon took hold. I scanned the darkness. Not a thing moved. The air hung heavy and still. No demons left. Just this one. I could best him, but he would detach Beka’s head before I reached him. If I walked away from Jessica, I prolonged the inevitable.

Russell stood tall by my side, as if my partner in fighting the very thing I was. Or at least partially was. His shoulder nudged mine. Light and dark with a similar objective.

To save the one we loved. And I did love Beka. But did I love her enough to hand Jessica over to the demon to spare Beka’s life? Or let Russell take the girl and watch the demon behead my woman.

Beka whimpered. Tears streamed down her face as her gaze stayed focused on me. “Don’t let them get her. David. I beg you.”

Blood spurted from her neck, igniting a hurricane of fury raging through my body.

“Stop.” My voice thundered. “You will trade.”

The demon laughed. “The girl for this Guardian.”

“No. The Guardian for me.”

“You are of no consequence to me,
half-breed
. I want the girl.”

“For what?”

“Master shall be her mentor. Now step away or your Guardian’s head will roll.”

My demon’s talons punctured my heart. Beka’s hands and neck ran crimson, and her body struggled against the blade.

I lifted my hands in surrender. “Your word she lives if I step away.”

“No, David,” Beka said with a rasp. “Girl. More. Important.”

“Not to me.”

There, I’d decided. I choose Beka’s life. Once free, she and Russell would get to Jessica somehow. I had to believe that. But Russell alone would not survive this demon. Beka and Russell would get the girl. While I got solitary.

“I will step aside. You release the Guardian when I do.”

“Why do you care for this one? She is of the Light. You are demon.”

I reared my fangs, and inched to the side.

“The other Guardian as well,” the demon said to Russell.

“I will not.” Russell knelt beside Jessica.

Beka whimpered.

“No! Russell,” I said.

He picked Jessica up and backed away, eyes focused on Beka. “The girl lives.”

“Run, Russell,” Beka said. She squeezed her eyes shut, and the demon slid the blade. Her head fell back, and she sagged to the ground.

I leapt into the air and collided with the demon. His blade punctured my hand, then chest, but I saw only red. With one swipe of my nails, his head tipped. I landed on my shoulder, the gravel shredding my shirt. I rolled and scrambled to my Beka.

I wove one hand behind her head, cupping her blood-soaked skull, and my other clasped her neck, holding it together. “No!”

My hands turned human, and the blood streamed through my fingers. “Beka.” My human voice cracked. Her head didn’t roll off completely, so the cut had not gone through the entire neck.
Please let her survive.
Her strength was great, hopefully enough to have prevented complete separation.

So much blood, though. Pools formed beneath her head.

I’d battled many Guardians before. They were strong. Fighters. No angelic dust yet. She could still survive.

“Beka.” I held her neck tight. “Heal. God. Please heal.”

A sting, like liquor drizzled on an open wound, enveloped my hand. Electricity jolted up my arm and over my shoulder, leaving a wake of flames licking the surface of my skin. I bit back the instinct to jerk away.

My bellow rent the air.

All that connected her neck to her body were my hands. I must bear the agony and hold her together. I just hoped her Guardian nature fused her neck together instead of dissolving into the ground.

The burn zipped over my shoulder and into my chest. My heart seized. An ache froze my lungs, and the air rushed out. Nothing worked to draw in another breath.

I could not die, but it felt as if I had. My body sagged to the side. I held Beka’s neck steadfast. She’d yet to move.

“No.” I morphed into my demonic form. My heart stampeded back into action.

Beka choked out streams of red. Her body convulsed within my grasp. With one hand encompassing her neck, I wove my other arm around her waist and gathered her body to mine, her back to my stomach as I sat. “Breathe, Beka. Breathe.”

Her heart pounded like a drum, strong and fast. Funny, mine beat the same rhythm. Her lungs expanded with mine. It didn’t make sense, but I didn’t care. I hugged her, reveling in the wonderful beating within her chest as I released the demon’s hold.

Sitting on the cold, hard asphalt of the deserted parking lot, I buried my face in her matted, crimson-stained hair. I still detected a scent of lilacs above the metallic blood and dirt crusting her mane.

Mine.

The cold reality of what I’d done settled in. I’d lost my Mark to the Guardians, killed many of my kind. Soon, Master would call my contract in, compelling me to return to him.

But at least Beka lived.

I loosened my grip around her neck, convinced it had healed enough to not tip off her shoulders. A faint, thin ruby line ran the width of her throat. I skimmed my forefinger over the mark and savored her warmth.

Yes, she would be fine. I should leave now. Go face my judgment before Master ignites the contract and the burn drags me back to him.

I would feel enough torture for the next fifty years, no need to add to it by staying. I scanned the area. All clear. Russell had probably taken Jessica to their stronghold. I’d lost my chance with Jessica, but saved Beka.

I traced my fingers over her cheek and along her lower lip. I leaned forward and pressed my mouth against hers, then slid my arm out from around her. Her body eased off mine and onto the asphalt. I pushed myself up and stood over her.

Her head tilted, and her eyes remained closed as if in a deep slumber. I scooped her up into my arms and crossed the empty lot toward the coffee store Russell had mentioned.

I would see her safely there. Hopefully she would awaken and find her way to the safe house. She and Russell would protect the girl. Once Master learned the Guardian’s had my Mark, he would call me to him. Nothing could stop that now.

Beka’s cheek rested on my chest. Long eyelashes dusted her smooth, pale cheeks. The intimate contact stirred my demon. Not so much in violence like usual, more subtle. Subdued. Beka had seen my beast. Disgust ruled her eyes more than once. A memory I would not relish in solitary.

I tilted my head and rested my cheek on her forehead. Strands of hair tickled my nose, infusing her scent deep within me.
That
scent would get me through my punishment. The memory of our kiss. Her body molded to mine in the alley.

The tan stucco coffee house came into view, and I stopped at the curb across the street. The store’s windows were dark, save the dim security lights casting a meek shadow on the empty chairs visible through the window.

A sapphire awning hung over the door, and a red bench sat empty, to the right of the entrance. The perfect spot to set her down for Russell to find. I inspected the treasure in my arms and tightened my hold. Her head tilted back, exposing her neck. Through the darkness I made out the line marring her skin. Forever marked by one of my kind.

“I love you, Rebeka Abbot.” I peppered kisses along her forehead. “I know you can’t hear me. But I had to say it out loud at least once.”

I crossed the deserted street, my heart cracking with each step.

I settled her on the bench and rested her hands on her stomach. I knelt before her and caressed her cheek. Her head tilted toward me.

“You’ll always be mine.”

I pressed my lips against hers, for one last memory of her warmth, taste and smell. Maybe after two-hundred and fifty years, when I was released, I could find her again.

She would still reject me. She
should
reject me. I was demon.

But a demon who had found love. I would concentrate on that for the next quarter millennia.

I stood and turned my back on the only person I would ever love.

“Don’t go.” Russell’s voice flooded the overhead speakers. “Jessica can save your soul.”

CHAPTER 18

I froze on the sidewalk, beneath the sodium lights of the overhang, and faced the building. It might have been wishful thinking that made me hear Russell’s voice. Maybe I’d finally cracked, mentally, and imagined his proclamation.

“Hello?” I said, facing the dark picture window. Further scans of the area showed me empty sidewalks. A short distance away, at the corner, the mechanical voice of the crosswalk counted down until the light turned to walk.

Beka lay motionless on the bench.

“Pick her up and move to the door,” Russell’s voice came out of the darkness from the speaker. “Do it now.”

I gathered Beka in my arms. She nestled her face to my neck and breathed a deep sigh. It was the first movement she’d made on her own since the injury. She must be healing.

“Jessica … safe,” she whispered.

Even while straddling consciousness and unconsciousness, she worried for the girl’s safety above her own. She’d sacrificed herself for the girl. But even more aggravating, Russell had been all too willing to sacrifice Beka for Jessica.

“She is safe. Be still, my love,” I said with my mouth against her forehead.

I faced the front of the door, and the lock disengaged. I stepped back, analyzing the structure. The door was shaded, blocking me from seeing inside the establishment. Much like the tinting on the window to the room in Beka’s apartment.