Thief (Rebel Heart Book 5), page 15
Should we run? Fight? Rowen fell hard and fast under her spell, and all she’d done was smile at him. I knew how hard it was to fight the pull. Nova had had me almost climbing him in a frenzy amid a graveyard full of onlookers. So I couldn’t blame him for being such an easy target.
“Better run along now,” she said, sparing a glance for me. “My father is expecting you.”
“I’m not going anywhere without Rowen.” I pinched his thigh hard enough to get a squeak of pain from him. “I’m definitely not leaving him alone with you.”
Rowen rubbed his thigh and gave his head a shake. Confusion danced in his amber eyes.
The succubus thrust out a hip, sassy as all get out. Brazen and shameless, she ran a hand down his arm. “Rowen. Now that’s a pretty name. I look forward to screaming it. My name is Nyx. You’ll need it when you’re begging me later.”
Aghast, I drew my sword and, without planning or warning, swung. Maybe it had been a natural reaction to seeing a demon enthrall someone I cared about. Perhaps a tiny bit of it had been jealousy at the thought of what she intended to do with him. Either way, the bitch had it coming.
She vanished so my blade sliced through the air, inches from Rowen who jerked back, surprised. Nyx reappeared behind me, too fast for me to react. A hand on my spine and she thrust a shot of power into me. It seared through me, slicing up my insides. I fell on my knees with a cry.
Nyx grabbed my arm and flung me onto my back before straddling my upper body, keeping my arms trapped at my sides. She stared down into my face, that long hair tickling my cheek. She smelled of cinnamon and bourbon. But it wasn’t a bad smell.
Grasping my chin, she forced me to meet her drowning black gaze. “My father knows you’re here, nephilim. He wishes to see you. Surely you want to meet him. You’ve come all this way.” She spoke in soft tones that reached inside me to the place where my willpower dwelled.
Against my will, I nodded. Seeing as Rowen hadn’t stepped in, he was now useless to me. I’d have to save us both somehow. “I’m not leaving Rowen with you.” Each word was a struggle.
Gender preference didn’t always matter when it came to succubus and incubus power, but it helped. Whereas I hadn’t been able to resist Nova, I was able to resist succumbing fully to Nyx’s persuasion.
“You’ve brought me a lovely plaything, and for that I will reward you with a promise. I won’t kill him after I have my fun with him.” Nyx snapped her fingers, and a dozen armed guards appeared. “They will escort you to my father.”
The sudden appearance of so many guards roused Rowen from his stupor. He burst into action, throwing both hands wide to create a wind blast that threw everyone off their feet. The powerful gust swept over Nyx and I, tugging at our hair and clothes.
A blast of light lit up my vision as Rowen hit her with a psi blast. With a shout she was flung from me, sliding across the smooth stone on her ass. Rowen dragged me to my feet.
We had a mere second to turn and face the onslaught.
Swarmed by guards, they sought to injure and subdue rather than kill. That still didn’t make fighting them easy. Nyx recovered, pausing to adjust her cleavage before turning her attention to the beatdown Rowen and I were about to take.
With fire and light, ice and wind, Rowen and I fought to keep them at bay. Back to back we utilized what we could. There was no room to use weapons. We were heavily surrounded.
“You’ve gotta go, Spike,” Rowen grunted, avoiding one demon’s crushing grab only to run into another’s fist. “If they wear you down, you’ll never stand a chance against anyone else. I’ll keep them busy. You take off.”
“Are you out of your mind?” I barked, using a fire shield to block the attack of three demons. It wavered under their efforts.
“I know you don’t like it when I make decisions for you, but it’s happening. Go. Now.”
Without giving me a chance to argue further, Rowen burst from the middle of the chaos with wings spread. From several feet up, he rained down a shower of white light upon the demons. His injured wing gave out, almost dropping him. He wouldn’t be able to stay up there long.
The guards divided again. Half of them rushed to protect Nyx from the divine shower while the rest went after Rowen. And I ran.
I had to. But I hated myself for it. Rowen’s distraction wouldn’t last long. He had Cinder’s stone. I had to trust that he’d use it if he must.
Behind me I heard a guard shout an order to follow me. Nyx stopped them. “Let her go. Father is going to enjoy that one.”
I fled down one of the halls on the main floor beneath the staircases. Leaving Rowen with the succubus princess felt like abandonment. I had to remind myself that he’d insisted.
Down a long hall I ran until I was certain nobody was after me. Then I slowed. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the quartz Cinder had given me. Alone and more than a little afraid, I strongly considered smashing it.
But having Cinder come would not save the day. It would be my way of tapping out of the fight. Admitting defeat. I shoved the stone back down into my pocket.
I wasn’t ready to do that just yet.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Tentatively I made my way down this new hall. It was wide and sprawling. Lavish red carpet lined the way. Gold accented the pillars and marble columns, and it highlighted precise details on the statues.
I didn’t like the statues. They peered down with such raw awareness. Like they watched me. I did my best to avoid eye contact with them.
Instead I pushed on, moving fast but not quite a run. I needed to conserve energy. Again I wondered where Jett and Arrow might be. Hopefully they’d smashed their stones and gotten out. From here on out, this job was mine alone.
The lengthy hall ended in two large wooden doors with a detailed engraving of a dragon. Oh, crap. Before I could even consider trying those doors, they burst open and a party all but spilled out. Several blonde women, giggling and talking all at once, poured from the room. They surrounded me, preventing my escape with a wall of beautiful, feathered wings. Peacock colors swirled through their feathers, matching the turquoise and purple of their eyes.
Valkyries. Cinder had told me the stories, but they were even more beautiful in person. I gaped at them for a moment, dumbfounded as they fussed over my ponytail and nitpicked my attire.
Behind them stood two red-eyed demon guards. One of them gave a slight nod. “The King welcomes you, Ember Evans, daughter of Kai. He extends invitation to the ball he’s thrown in your honor.”
An invitation I wasn’t allowed to refuse apparently. Never was I asked my opinion. The valkyries shoved me along through the doors into the foyer of a ballroom. But I didn’t get more than a peek in that direction before they whisked me off into a giant powder room.
“Look, I don’t need any of this.” Holding my hands up, I tried to ward them off as one tugged at my hair tie. Two others were trying to peel off my clothes. When one of them went for my weaponry, I stopped her with a tight hand on her wrist. “Leave it.”
“Fine. Carry weapons with your dress then.” She shrugged and huffed blonde bangs from her sea-colored eyes. “That’s not very elegant or regal though, you know.” She had a unique accent that gave a little lilt to some of her words.
As much as I wanted to be fascinated by them, I was overwhelmed and confused as hell. “Dress? No way, I’m not wearing any dress.”
“But the King has thrown this ball for you,” said another who shoved a deep, royal blue dress at me. “Surely, you don’t want to disappoint him.”
What in the actual fuck was going on here? I gaped at them, trying to break free of their cloying touch. “I don’t give a shit about disappointing him. He’s not my king. Now if you’ll please get off—”
One of them snapped her fingers, silencing my protests. Despite my best efforts to fend them off, there were more of them than there were of me. Valkyries were not to be messed with.
They were, in a sense, angels of death. Or demons, to be precise. Death maidens.
Since I didn’t fully know what they were capable of and they weren’t trying to harm me, I didn’t throw any fire in their faces. Unlike the demons I knew, they were a special race tasked to claim warrior souls. I’d been called a warrior, though I hardly thought of myself that way. They could paw away at my hair if they kept their mitts off my soul.
Proving they weren’t entirely unreasonable, they allowed me to keep my weaponry. Never once did they touch the Midnight Star or the stones I carried. In mere minutes they’d stripped me, dressed me, and primped the hell out of me.
The royal blue dress hugged my body like it had been made for me alone. A one strap number, it defined and enhanced my breasts far beyond anything any expensive bra had ever managed. Around the hips it began to spill in waves of material all around me to the floor. A slit off to the side allowed a flash of leg when I walked.
“Pretty sure this dress was designed to keep me from fighting,” I muttered, hating how much I loved it. I needed to get away from these crazy women.
“Hush now.” A valkyrie with hair to her knees ran a hand over my black curls. She’d worked some literal magic, leaving me with soft spirals tumbling over my shoulders. This was not ideal fight hair. “The King will love it.”
“La dee friggin’ da for the king. Has everyone lost their minds here? Is the king batshit crazy? Because all of this,” I said, motioning wildly at the dress, “is batshit crazy.”
Every valkyrie in the room gasped in unison. The one with the impressive mermaid hair recovered first. “You’ve been given an exclusive invitation extended to very few. It’s a privilege to be welcomed by such royalty.”
“Alright,” I muttered, tugging away from the one trying to touch my face. It didn’t stop her from waving a hand and magically painting me up like an otherworld whore. “You’ve all gone nuts. There’s no other way of explaining this.”
“If she only knew the gift she’s been given.” A snicker came from a valkyrie with vivid purple eyes and blonde curls piled atop her head. “A night with the king is highly coveted.”
Her remark had me spinning to face her, almost giving myself whiplash in the process. “The what with the who now?”
The woman who’d spoken shared a look and another giggle with a few others. “Just enjoy it, nephilim. You’ll get what you came for and be on your way.”
My face went cold, and for a second I thought I would faint. Reaching out to grasp the back of a fancy settee in the middle of the powder room, I laughed. Because it was the only response I could have to the insanity in this place without losing my mind along with all these freakin nutjobs.
“I heard that it’s more than that this time,” said another. “The king wishes to romance her. He seeks a new queen.”
“I did not come here to exchange sex for goods with the king.” That had been the final straw in this little strange charade. I started to tug the dress off. “Nor did I come to marry him. So not interested in any of that.”
Suddenly my back slammed against the wall. An arm across my throat, the long-haired valkyrie snarled, “We serve the king. Should you marry him, we will then serve you. Personally, I think you’re a trespasser who should be killed on sight. But tonight you’re a guest. I suggest you act like one.” Her eyes changed color until they were a drowning abyss of black. The place where true death lived.
Whoa. From giggling and gossiping to death maiden in an instant. Sheer panic chased my sassy attitude away. I nodded, struggling for words but finding none.
She released me, promptly smiled with candy-coated sweetness, and began to smooth out the flowing folds of material that comprised the skirt of the dress.
The nice one with the bangs smiled apologetically for her friend.
Didn’t matter. These bitches could not be trusted. Getting my name on a death maiden’s hitlist didn’t appeal to me. So I kept my mouth shut and played along. If I didn’t get a chance to escape them, I’d have to face the dragon king. That was what the Brotherhood wanted anyway.
The valkyries allowed me barely a glimpse of the thick emerald-green powder adorning my eyes and the deep blood-red staining my lips before they tore me from the powder room and marched me straight for the ballroom.
I tried to pull free so I could walk on my own, but they held tight to various parts of me until we stood before the grand, arched ballroom entryway. Then like a princess fairy tale dredged up from the horrors of my nightmares, the two guards manning the entry stepped aside, and I was all but shoved into the party.
The ballroom was immense. That same rich, red carpet covered the floor. More of those giant chandeliers hung about the room, casting it in a vibrant, warm glow. Demons filled the place, dressed in foreign but clearly fancy garb.
A valkyrie shoved a glass of something red into my hand. “Try smiling. He likes that.” Then they were gone, bustling away tittering and laughing. Except for the one who remained like a shadow, distant but ready should I try anything.
He likes that? Ugh. A chauvinist.
A sniff of the wine and I wrinkled my nose in distaste. I’d never been much of a wine drinker. I wasn’t about to start now. Glancing around for somewhere to put the glass down and finding nowhere nearby, I dumped the entire thing in a plant pot housing a willowy blue tree.
I turned to look for the best way out of the room without Death Maiden Barbie over there getting in my way. A demon with gleaming red eyes and a mask that hid half his face caught me up in his arms and swept me onto the dance floor.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I sputtered, trying not to trip over my own feet. His grip was like iron on my hand and waist. Shaking him off wasn’t happening.
“Welcoming you with a dance, my lady. Please forgive me for being so forward.” His grin harbored many secrets. It made my skin crawl.
“Forward? Is that what you call this?” Again I tried to tug my hand away.
When I refused to move along with him and stumbled to a stop, he simply jerked me into motion, letting me flail about until I kept up. “We don’t see one like you often. I simply had to get a look at you before Flint gets you all to himself.” His tongue darted out to lick the corner of his mouth. It was forked.
Somehow I suppressed a shudder.
Flint. On a first name basis with this amazing king I kept hearing about. Just who was this guy? No, it didn’t matter. Nobody here mattered. They were all the enemy. And here I was, trapped among them. I was starting to wish I’d contested the Brotherhood harder on this. What the hell had I gotten myself into?
Gaze darting about, I sought a way out. Which was tremendously difficult with him whirling me around like a doll. Most of the demons present wore a human guise. No animal-headed street demons here. This was a whole new class of demon. It was obvious in their rich linens of luxurious colors and fascinating cuts. Jewels and gold glittered on wrists and fingers, even in the hair of the ladies present. Not many of them were demons. Too rare. Aside from the crew of valkyrie seducing men everywhere I looked, the women were a mish mash of creature types: sirens, banshees, a sorceress or two.
If I didn’t have the grabby hands of some jerkoff demon pawing me, I’d have marveled over the existence of beings I’d only heard about. If they spent much time on my side of the line, I sure didn’t know about it.
There appeared to be several points of exit, all of them guarded. Shit. The throng of dancing people stretched across the entire ballroom. On the outskirts of the dance floor, people mingled and drank.
Before I was forced to throw a fist filled with fire into the creep’s face, a hand caught my free one and used it to spin me away from my unwelcome dance partner. I found myself peering into scarlet eyes, a shade all their own, one I knew well. “Hello again, beautiful,” Koda purred, flicking his hand dismissively at the other demon. “Are you regretting this foolery yet?”
Ultimately, my personal demon with his obsession for me, was likely not the best savior. Yet I still felt relief looking into his familiar eyes.
“What are you doing here?” I hissed, relieved when the demon Koda had dismissed chose to walk away. Grudgingly. Not my problem. That could be Koda’s problem.
“Still not happy to see me?” His embrace gentle, Koda guided me along, slower than the last jackass had. He didn’t let me pull away though. “You’ll never make it out of this room without being stopped.”
I scoffed. “Happy to see you? Koda, nothing about your presence here instills any faith in me. I don’t trust you.”
His hand rested lightly on my waist, careful not to hold too tight. In fact, he was being so forthright and gentlemanly that I suspected the dragon king himself must be here. Watching us.
“You can still be my bride, Spike,” he whispered, eyeing another couple who got too close. “Choose me now and he’ll have no claim over you. He’ll have to respect our laws and forget about you.”
I yanked my hand from his. “This again? Koda, really, of all the times and places for you to pull such crap. Here? Really? I will never be any demon’s bride.”
Anger flared in his eyes, causing his face to redden. “But you’ll share a bed with a dark nephilim? You’re a hypocrite. Tell me how exactly it is that you’re better than me.”
Fire burst over my fingertips as my temper flared. Any relief I’d had at seeing him had been destroyed. He was no ally. Not here, not anywhere.
Before I could draw attention with an outburst, Artem stepped between us. With a cheeky grin more for Koda than for me, he offered me a hand. “May I cut in?”
“Yes,” I said before Koda could respond. Taking Artem’s hand, I allowed the tall, blond wonder to lead me away.
We left Koda standing there in the middle of a throng of dancers, staring after us. Tearing my gaze away, I leaned in close to Artem, whispering, “I never made it to the library.”
“I see that.” His chuckle came with a playful wink. Was he flirting with me? “Big room. Lots of books. Down the hall. Can’t miss it.”
