A Life Earthbound (36 page)

She pictured the soil beneath the concrete below her, and imagined a seed growing there from nothing. In her mind’s eye, she pictured it sprouting thin green tendrils that grew and shoved skyward against the surface. Urging it to grow strong enough to break through the concrete, she felt it slip through a crack and slither up, until it was stabbing through the carpet. Biting her bottom lip, she pushed harder, relieved when she heard it break through.

Her heart was racing a mile a minute in her chest, but she tried to continue focusing on growing the tree. Once it was just big enough, she should, in theory, be able to use it to get home.

But a sound at the stairs stopped her, and she stared up warily as Burke entered the basement again and thudded down the steps toward her.

She stared at him, hoping to distract him so he wouldn’t notice the tiny sapling at her back. But there was something different about him now…he seemed stiff, strange…and when his eyes met hers, she saw none of his earlier heated emotions in them. Instead his eyes seemed darker somehow and glinted with what she could only describe as pure evil.

For a moment, he simply stood still and watched her, his lips spreading in an unsettling grin. Terror gripped her heart violently as she realized that the man standing before her, much more so than the miserable man who had left just minutes ago, planned to kill her. She couldn’t say what gave it away, but it was there, in his eyes. There was a loathing there, a pure hatred and revulsion and a desire to destroy that shocked her with one glance.

And when he spoke, she shuddered at the sound of it, for it wasn’t Burke’s voice, not really. It was different, harsher and deeper and colder…

“The Earth Dryad…how intriguing,” he said with a smile, reaching up to stroke his chin thoughtfully. “I wasn’t sure who to expect when I came down here.”

“What?” Rhiannon managed, looking perplexed as she eyed him. What in the world was wrong with him?

He chuckled, dark and sinister. “I suppose you wouldn’t recognize me, not in this outfit, anyway.” With another laugh, he suddenly lurched forward, expelling some kind of dark, shadowy mass from his mouth, hideous retching noises coming from his throat. She watched in horror as the shadowy mass formed a serpent, and then transformed almost instantly into a man.

Burke collapsed onto the ground, unconscious. But Rhiannon wasn’t looking at him any longer, couldn’t bother one single glance his way, not when her eyes were so feverishly glued to the stranger who’d just appeared out of nowhere. Because she knew exactly who he was, without even hearing his name. There was only one demon alive who could become a man, and though she had never seen him before, there was no doubt in her mind that this was him.

If she’d thought Burke was frightening, she hadn’t considered what it would be like to be face to face with Dante himself.

He smiled at her again, this time in his own body, though the grin was identical. Darkly humorous, but slick and laced with an evil so heinous she shivered at the sight of it.

He was tall, much taller than she had imagined, and lean of body with thin limbs and a long, sharply angular face. He had long, dark black hair pulled back at the nape of his neck into a tail, and a crooked, broken looking hooked nose. His mouth was thin and wide, and when spread into a grin, displayed perfect white teeth that contradicted nearly everything else about him. And his eyes…the same fiery amber as Blythe’s, but with none of her playfulness, and none of her heart. These eyes were just cold, and indescribably wicked.

“So you are Rhiannon, Rohan’s daughter.” He smirked as he stepped toward her, reaching out to cup her chin and tilt her face side-to-side, examining her. “Beautiful, but toxic, yes? I hear you’ve killed a man.”

“I didn’t,” she replied coldly, her face carefully blank as she held his eyes. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing her true discomfort. A man like him, he thrived on seeing others suffer. She wasn’t about to grant him the pleasure.

“No?” Dante’s hand trailed down her chin to her neck, his fingers tracing over her skin, his eyes following the movement. “Pity. Tell me, would you have done it, if given the chance?”

“No.”

His eyes flashed as he grinned, his hand resting at her collarbone now. “Would you kill the man who gave you these bruises?” His fingers ran along the blooming black and blue marks on her neck.

“No.”

“Would you try and kill me now, if I threatened to kill you?”

“No.” She saw the intrigue and the disappointment flash once in his eyes, moments before his hand clenched around her neck in nearly the same exact spot Burke had held her days before. She winced at the pain, but wouldn’t plead for her own life. It wouldn’t make a difference with him, that much she knew.

Dante tilted his head and stared down at her, his lips curving wickedly as he started to laugh. His body shook with it as he released her, standing back and reaching into a sheath at his waist and pulling out a demon blade. The razor sharp edge of it gleamed sadistically in the light.

After seeing the knife, she closed her eyes, and prayed it would be quick.

But when he shot toward her, the blade sliced through the bonds at her wrists and the bonds at her feet in two quick swipes. Her arms fell forward as the ropes tumbled to the floor, and she immediately rubbed her wrists, bruised and bleeding from her earlier struggles. She managed one quick glance up at him before he pulled her roughly to her feet, holding her in front of him, his hands clamped over her arms.

“I don’t believe that you won’t fight,” Dante told her, releasing her so she could stand on her own. She wobbled a bit, having been seated for hours, her legs still weakened by the drug. But she managed to stand tall, and stared regally at him.

When she said nothing, he moved to strike her, only to stop his hand mere inches from her face. When she barely winced, he started laughing again.

“Nothing? Come on, I’m giving you the chance to hurt me. You’re not bound any longer, you’re free. You just have to hit me.”

“I won’t play this game,” she said dully, standing her ground. “You’re going to kill me either way, so just be done with it.”

“You know, you are
quite
boring,” he mused, scratching his chin again in thought. “Nothing like my fiery Blythe or faithful Capri. It’s like there’s nothing inside of you, nothing that wants to live. Blythe, she would have slaughtered me by now, or at least attempted. And Capri…she would be trying to understand me, to reason with me on why she deserved to live. But you stand here and do nothing. How strange.”

Again she stood in silence, holding his eyes. So far he hadn’t noticed the tree she’d started growing behind the chair, and if she could just get him to leave the room…

“There must be something that would get a rise out of you,” Dante said, clearly losing his patience. He wanted to see the bitch cry, beg, plead for her life. On impulse, he reached out and grabbed her again, thrusting her against him and yanking her head back by her hair. His eyes bore into hers, violent now instead of amused. She braced for the pain, for the quick shock of it.

But behind them, Burke let out a muffled groan, and started to get to his feet.

“She didn’t just run away, Thea, that’s outrageous,” Liam protested, running his hands through his hair in agitation as he paced in the parlor.

“Until we have evidence to the contrary, I have to go on what little we have thus far,” Thea retorted, fighting back the uneasiness and the frustration she felt. Around her, Sebastian, Serendipity, Rian and Capri hovered, looking distracted and worried. “And hopefully we’ll know more once Blythe and Jax return from investigating that lead that came in this morning.”

“This is tied to Burke, I just know it,” Liam snapped. “And I don’t believe a damn word he says.”

“He claims he doesn’t know where she is,” Thea began, shaking her head. “He’s an Enforcer, not a kidnapper or a criminal. I don’t see him acting so brashly.”

“He’s convinced himself of Rhiannon’s guilt.” Liam stopped and stared at her incredulously. “Isn’t that enough to suggest to you that he is responsible?”

Thea said nothing, knowing that if she answered no that it would be a lie. Certainly she had considered the possibility that Burke had taken Rhiannon. But without any proof, she couldn’t bring herself to accuse him. Not when he had just lost his son, right under her nose.

“Damnit, if I had been with her last night this wouldn’t have happened.” Liam started pacing again, misery cracking his voice. “I could have protected her.”

“We’ll find her, Liam,” Capri said reassuringly, reaching out to touch his shoulder. “Maybe she just went shopping.”

“No, she left behind her money, her purse, her damn calculator. She doesn’t go anywhere without those things. She’s neurotic that way.” Liam groaned and held his head in his hands, feeling restless and broody. “This is stupid, I’m going out to look for her. I can’t sit around and wait any longer.”

He started to bolt out of the room, only to spot Blythe and Jax racing in.

“Holy shit, you are not going to believe this!” Blythe said loudly, her adrenaline and excitement buzzing in the air around her. Jax looked just as eager, but gave her the stage to speak.

Thea, Liam and the others all gave her their full attention as she launched into her explanation of what they had just learned.

“So we got that tip this morning that someone we knew down in El Paso might know something about what happened to Michael. We go down there, and meet with Ricky, a demon bar owner Jax introduced me to a couple months ago. He’s a rat for the Enforcers and keeps a lot of the illegal drug and weapons trafficking down there under control. But what he told us was that the other day Michael came to him, alone, and was demanding that Ricky give him the names of his suppliers down in Mexico, and that if he didn’t comply, he’d arrest him. Ricky tried to explain to Michael that he has an arrangement with the Furies that he and his suppliers will remain untouched as long as they follow rules and regulations and keep other demons from coming into the market. But Michael wouldn’t listen, and apparently he kept rambling on about how this was going to be his big sting, and how he was going to expose and arrest all of the demons conducting business in that area. So, when Ricky tried to give him the boot, Michael pulled out his gun and tried to shoot him, but of course he missed, given he’s a lousy shot. And so Ricky did the only thing he figured a responsible, Enforcer-obeying demon should do. He let Michael take him to Euphora under the guise of surrender, and then he killed him.”

“Ricky did this?” Rian asked, eyes hardening with shock and understanding.

“Yup.” Jax grinned, looking amused. “Said he figured he was doing a service to you guys by disposing of the prick before he could do more damage.”

“I can’t believe this.” Thea shook her head disbelievingly, rising to her feet. “I’ll contact Burke, let him know.”

She left the room, Sebastian in her wake.

While the others began talking and discussing the newest revelations, Liam was watching Serendipity.

She had been oddly quiet and expressionless up until this point. Now she looked not only shocked, but panicked. It was in that moment that he understood she knew what had happened to Rhiannon, and probably knew where she was.

When Serendipity slipped from the room, he followed her quietly, keeping back just far enough so she wouldn’t hear him. He wanted to see where she was going, and what she would do once she was there.

To his surprise, she went straight to the Greenhouse, where he knew Rohan was busy prepping Bane, Thea’s wolf, who he was planning on taking on his search for Rhiannon once they had an idea where she may be. Liam hung back and watched in the shadows as Serendipity burst into the Greenhouse and went straight to Rohan, who glared up at her cruelly. Bane growled, low and deep.

“What do you want?” Rohan snapped, his anger and fear clear in his eyes. He wasn’t convinced that Rhiannon had run away, either.

Serendipity wrung her hands in front of her, her normally cool demeanor shattered to pieces. There was honest fear and guilt in her eyes now, and perhaps it was seeing it that had Rohan rising to his feet and giving her even an ounce of his time.

“We found out who killed Michael,” she faltered, her body trembling. “It wasn’t Rhiannon.”

“I could have told you that,” Rohan said darkly, still wary of his cruel wife. “Who did it, then?”