Forever Immortal: Immortal Series, Book 4, page 21
Thank God. She couldn’t hide everything.
As frustrated as he was with the woman, her bravery amazed him. Her strength. Reaching out to her, he pushed back the lock of soft, fiery hair that had fallen down the side of her face, over her temple and her cheek. For once, she didn’t flinch away from him. “Lyssa, don’t you realize? For you to even ask me proves you could never hurt anyone.”
She met his gaze, letting him see the soul-deep fear in her eyes. “You can’t know that, Gideon. What if I lose control again?”
“Did you lose control? I don’t think so. It was a little unnerving seeing you that way, I’ll give you that much. But what I witnessed in that room doesn’t change the way I feel about you. You held it together, baby. You pulled yourself back from the darkness. If anything, what happened last night only makes me prouder of you.”
“Proud? I grew claws and tried to rip your throat out,” she spat, both horror and terror putting bright spots in her cheeks. Her hands shook as she tried to shove him away.
Oddly enough, now that he’d gotten a reaction out of her, Gideon hated seeing her so distressed. “Maybe,” he said gently. “But you did it to protect my family, and I’m grateful to you for that.”
Lyssa snarled, her lip curling in disgust. She pushed at his arm. “Is that what this is? You being grateful?” Twisting around him, she stumbled a few steps away. “Well, forget it. I don’t want that or anything else from you. I just want to get the hell out of here.”
He sighed. God, what a stubborn, maddening, argumentative woman. She got him so riled up, and at the same time made him feel more energized and alive than he’d been in years. The stimulation and challenge she presented was too tempting to ignore. It was an even headier rush than when he put together an intricate string of DNA or worked out a particularly complicated chemical equation. “All right.” He shrugged, following her. “Then we’ll go.”
She stopped dead in her tracks. “What? No.”
“Yes, babe. You won’t get rid of me that easily.”
“You can’t. What about your sister? What about Amanda?” Was that panic he heard in her voice? “They’ll need you if Damien or his demons show up.”
“I won’t deny that I want to be here to help protect them. I love them both. But in the end, they aren’t my responsibility. Rhys can handle it.” He needed for her to know where he stood once and for all. “If you need to leave, then we leave. My responsibility is to you, Lyssa. We’re in this together, to the end.”
She snorted her disdain, but her eyes widened. “And what if I don’t want you?”
He only laughed, advancing on her again. Yes, she was a challenge all right. The challenge of this woman might very well drive him mad.
When he was close enough to see the panic settling in her dilated pupils, his breath caught. “Lyssa. Baby,” he whispered, drawing her to him with a heavy hand on the back of her neck, the other blazing a path down the front of her chest into the valley between her breasts before moving over a gentle swell to pluck at her already tight nipple with his fingers. She moaned, arching into his touch. “Given the way you melt in my arms every damn time I touch you, you’ll forgive me if I don’t believe that.”
“Bastard,” she muttered, biting her bottom lip. He wanted that lip between his teeth, wanted to run his tongue over it until she opened her mouth to him.
“Stay with me, Lyssa.” A kiss. But soft. No biting. With none of the urgency that simmered in his blood. If he showed her the full force of his feelings, if he told her what was in his heart, she would freak and he’d lose this battle.
But he hoped she could at least sense it in the promise of his body. “Let me in. Let me show you that you’re not alone. Let’s get through this thing together.”
She shook her head and sighed, but she didn’t bolt. “And then what, Gideon?” Her lips moved against his mouth, her breath sweet, tempting. “People like us don’t live happily ever after.”
“Why not?”
“It’s just not going to happen.”
It wasn’t the answer his heart needed, and part of him doubted she would ever be able to give him that. He knew Lyssa would fight to her last breath before giving in to anything so uncertain as love.
He pressed another quick kiss to her lips. Each of her eyes. Her forehead. It didn’t matter. He would settle for what he could get. Her body. Her passion. Her trust. In return, Gideon knew Lyssa needed to feel safe, free, in control of her future, and he could give her those things. “Together, Lyssa baby. You and me. One day at a time. We—”
“Gideon, run. Get Lyssa and get the hell out of here as fast as you can!” Gideon’s head shot up as Amy’s call rang in his head. His hand tightened over Lyssa’s arm.
Dammit. He hadn’t expected them to attack in the middle of the morning. Lyssa’s wide-eyed gaze flew to the house.
She knew.
Chapter Twenty-three
Frozen. Lyssa couldn’t move a muscle. Couldn’t think. Both her body and mind had gone rigid with unreasoning fear. She looked to Gideon. The heat coming off of him seared through her clothes.
Like a surge of electricity it shocked her back to life. She noticed his lips had stretched into a hard line, those molten silver eyes turning cold and deadly. He looked steady and strong. So strong.
That strength anchored her. She could breathe again only because he was with her. Lyssa finally understood that he would always stand with her. Here was someone, finally, who believed in her.
With the power of that knowledge fueling her, Lyssa’s own strength flowed back. When had anyone ever believed in her before? When had anyone cared enough to bother?
“Come on, we’ve got to hurry.” Gideon grabbed her hand, pulling Lyssa back toward the gate. Running. He was going to run while his family was back there fighting the demon she had brought into their lives. He was going to run for her.
Digging in her heels, she pulled on his arm, stopping them both. He turned to face her, a look of exasperation on his face. “Lyssa—”
“No, Gideon,” she said. “You were right. We have to stay and finish this.”
He watched her for a moment but didn’t disagree. “I don’t want to run anymore,” she continued. “For the first time in years I find myself needing more than just survival. Because of you, I feel like I have a reason to live again. And I wish...I want to give it a chance. But we won’t have one if I let you run away from your family and from this fight just to protect me. I won’t have a chance for a normal life until we retrieve Omar’s amulet and send Damien back to the Abyss for good.”
One of his big hands tangled in her hair and he pulled her to him for a quick, hard kiss. “You amaze me,” he murmured against her lips.
She shook her head and pulled away from him. “Don’t get all mushy on me now, Immortal. I need you to be a badass if we’re going to take down Damien together.”
“Wait a minute.” Gideon took her hand again. “Before we go back there, I’m setting down some ground rules. First, you need to stay away from the Scelero. I don’t want that fucker laying one finger on you, especially with the amulet in his possession. Promise me the demon won’t have an opportunity to disappear with you in its clutches.”
“Forget it, Gideon. We’re in this together, remember?” Shaking her head, Lyssa wrenched out of his arms and would have started running for the house, but he held her back, his expression dark as he shook her.
“Yes, we’re in this together. But that demon hasn’t come alone. There’s a war going on up there, baby, and I need to know that Amy and Amanda will be protected. I’m trusting you to do this for me.”
While part of her said that was nothing but a bullshit excuse for trying to keep her out of the fight, another part of her understood his fear for little Amanda and took his faith in her to heart. She nodded. “Fine. We’ll do it your way.”
He squeezed her hand before they both raced for the house. “Hurry. Go back exactly the way you came out. Up the trellis to the balcony,” he yelled, his urgency spurring her faster.
“Why?”
“We need weapons from the chest in my room, and Amy and Rhys have Amanda down the hall in the nursery. Kane and Roland are holding back the first wave from downstairs.”
“How do you know that?”
“Amy.” So it was true what she had already suspected. They could speak to each other telepathically. Neat trick.
They reached the east wall of the mansion. Taking a deep breath, Lyssa thanked the gods for strength and agility she would never have been able to manage eight years ago as she climbed the wooden trellis. It didn’t go all the way up the wall to the balcony, but she was able to reach the upstairs window ledge and haul herself over the railing. Gideon was right behind her and they both ran into the hall.
There was no doubt they’d just stepped into the middle of a battlefield. The clash of steel on steel filtered up from the lower level, as did the chomping snarls of demons intent on blood.
As much as she had been ready to run from this fight before, Lyssa was now more than ready to stand against these attackers. A switch had been flipped somewhere deep inside of her and she felt ready to take on the Devil himself. Who knows, it might even come to that.
It was hard to turn away and follow Gideon in the opposite direction of the battle, but he was right. They needed weapons.
He went into his bedroom, to the large steamer trunk by the end of his bed and opened it up. “Take this.” He passed her a sword and grabbed one for himself, then clipped a gun to his belt. She shook her head when he tried to offer her another weapon. In fact, even this blade might prove redundant once the fight started. Flexing her fingers, she could already feel her claws coming out.
As they hurried back out to the corridor, Lyssa rushed down the hallway to Amanda’s room with Gideon at her back. She skidded to a stop and swung around at the sound of a loud roar ringing up from the foyer below.
Gideon shoved Lyssa behind him as the door to Amanda’s bedroom crashed open. Rhys filled the entrance. Like a gunslinger of old, he had a gun in each hand, pointed at both of their heads. “Hell, Gideon. You couldn’t have told your sister you were right outside the fucking door? I almost killed you.”
Gideon snorted and started to usher Lyssa inside, but she stopped, standing her ground in front of Rhys. He towered over her, his silver gaze inscrutable. She could sense Gideon bristling at her side, but he stayed silent. “Get in here, Lyssa,” Rhys said finally. Taking her hand, he pulled her in past him and closed the door. But he didn’t release her.
Wary and suspicious, Lyssa looked over his shoulder to Amy and Amanda. The little girl waved at her. Her face reflected the seriousness of the situation, but she seemed calm enough, as if there were no doubt in her mind who would be coming out the winner today.
Gideon swore. “Let her go, Rhys. We don’t have time for this shit.”
“She needs to know,” he said.
“It’s okay, Gideon. I understand.” And she did. It hurt, but Lyssa did indeed understand.
“No, sweetheart, I don’t think you do,” Rhys said. To her surprise, he pulled her into his chest, those massive arms coming around her in a solid embrace, holding her for a long moment before Gideon stepped forward and pulled her back to his side.
“Hey, you’ve got your own woman,” he teased. “Leave mine the hell alone.”
Bewildered, she didn’t know what to say. Amy and Amanda were smiling. Lyssa stared up at Rhys with what she was sure had to be the stupidest expression ever. “What was that for?” she whispered.
“That was an apology,” he grumbled. “And a thank you.” He lifted a hand and gently brushed the curve of her cheek with his thumb. She would never have suspected the big guy had it in him. “For what you’ve done for my family.”
Standing close at her side, Gideon squeezed her hand. “This is a beautiful, touching family moment, people, but we do have a horde of demons tearing the house apart, one of whom I’ve been waiting to get my hands on again for the last eight years. Besides, Kane and Roland shouldn’t be allowed to have all the fun down there.”
“Get out of here then.” Rhys checked the clip in his very large, efficient-looking gun and nodded at Gideon.
Gideon walked to the door. He turned and winked at Amy, who was also decked out in weaponry, and then he looked at Lyssa. She didn’t want him to say anything. She couldn’t bear it if he did. She’d agreed that they would see this through together and she had meant it, but that’s all she could handle right now. No goodbyes. No what-ifs. No declarations and promises.
He watched her with an intensity that sucked all of the air from the room, turned her knees to mush and set her heart pounding before his expression turned cold, the warrior in him coming to the fore.
His grip choked up on the handle of the sword in his hand. “We’re going to try to keep the attack contained on the lower level, but if any of them get up here...”
Lyssa swallowed. “Go.” Neither of them needed to spell out what happened then. She was only amazed that these people trusted her to stay in control, that they trusted her not to betray them.
“We’ve got it here,” Rhys said.
If only Lyssa was as certain.
* * *
Kane and Roland had positioned themselves at the foot of the stairs, effectively blocking anything from getting past them to the upper level. But it also left the two Immortals with little maneuvering room, and they were being barraged by wave after wave of wildly slashing, snarling beasts.
Gideon jumped over the railing at the top of the stairs. Landing hard with a resounding echo on the dark oak floors of the foyer below, he faced a roaring wall of demons. “Holy fuck.” He whistled, pulling his sword.
“’Bout time you decided to get in the game,” Roland muttered with a raised brow, his blade slicing effortlessly through both air and demon as if they were of the same density.
“Sorry,” Gideon shot back. “But it looks like you’re holding your own nicely.” He looked to Kane, fighting with expert skill and deadly precision...as always.
Gideon gave himself over to the cathartic rhythm of the fight. He found a certain appeal to the physicality of it that he’d never experienced standing in front of a microscope.
It was a release that he needed very much right about now. There was a thrill to taking on the nastiest creatures that hell could throw at him and coming out on top, but it had taken a long time before he’d felt that way. After Lyssa, Gideon had doubted his every step, second-guessed every move. He’d learned all he could, relentlessly forcing himself to hone his skills, to become faster, stronger, and more ruthless so that he would never make such a mistake ever again. Now all the years of training and stubborn persistence came down to this battle.
Demons descended en masse. Gideon hacked his way through them, his sword arm an extension of his body and his will. There were so many of them—a damn convention and this was the Holiday Inn Express.
Where the hell had they all come from?
Just as he asked himself the question, a shiver of warning traveled up his spine. He spun around. A shimmering wave, like scorching hot air coming off black tarmac, distorted his vision of the space just in front of the grand stairway where Kane and Roland stood.
“What the hell is that?” he yelled, but Gideon needn’t have bothered asking. He knew.
“Fuck. Not again.” Roland took the head of a Rage demon before looking over his shoulder. “Every time we take out the last demon, another fucking portal opens up, spewing out more of the bastards. Your Scelero sure is making good use of that damn key, but so far, it hasn’t joined in the fun.”
A fresh wave of Vuxi and Rage demons poured from the now fully open portal. At least another dozen of them.
Kane and Roland stepped back a few steps while Gideon eagerly jumped forward, ramming his fist into the gaping maw of a Rage demon before kicking out to throw the thing back toward Kane, who speared it through the heart from behind. “It will show,” Gideon said, glancing at Roland. “We’ve got something it wants.”
Sure enough, the Scelero demon didn’t wait much longer to make an appearance. Instead of closing up again, this time the portal hung open in the air. Through it, Gideon could clearly see the black skin and glowing eyes of the demon he’d faced eight years ago.
He was about to rush the glowing gate, to meet Damien head-on with the tip of his sword before the bastard even had a chance to take one step into his world, but he was hit from all sides by Rage demons. A set of claws tore deeply across his abdomen before Gideon managed to get his sword up.
With a roar, he whirled and chopped off the hand that had dared touch him before being forced to turn and block the swipe of another demon at his back, and another, and another.
Breathing hard, he kept one eye on the Scelero stepping out of the portal, a maniacal grin splitting that evil, cocky fucking visage.
The key.
An amulet was clutched in its massive hand, a long metal chain hanging between its claws. That had to be it. Rage bubbled up in Gideon and his movements turned frantic.
Shit. Realizing how dangerous his anger and desperation were, he forced himself to slow, to push the fury deep into the pit of his belly. If he didn’t, they were all dead.
Damien turned, looking up to the second floor hallway. Fuck. The thing knew exactly where its target was. Targets.
Gideon was too far away to intercept, surrounded by too many demons.
Roland was closest to the Scelero, the only one standing between it and a direct line up the stairs. Caught in a circle of flashing teeth and swiping claws, Kane’s sword swung madly as he tried to get to his brother, the battle having separated him from Roland’s side.
“Don’t you fucking do it, Kane.” Roland ordered his twin to back down, his gaze darting behind him as if he could push Kane further away with the strength of his will alone. “Stay the hell away from me.”
“Well, isn’t this a jumpin’ party.” The demon’s voice cut as surely as its mouthful of sharp teeth. “Who would have believed my little bird would make such interesting friends.” It stepped forward, laughing. The sound echoed off the foyer’s high cathedral ceilings. Gideon noticed that when the demon dropped the amulet around its neck and let go, the portal started to close.
