A Mermaid's Ransom (14 page)

Seeing Jonah's glance toward them the second they'd surfaced, Lex understood why she'd done it, to give the commander one less concern. But Lex didn't like the visible suggestion she was taking a side, and that side was away from Dante. But when she looked toward him, his gaze was locked on his opponents.

"You will not stand in my way, witch," Jonah snapped. "He does not leave this chamber alive."

"Then you will kill your own daughter," Mina shot back.

That brought everyone up short, including Dante, who spared the witch a narrow glance. Mina turned her attention to him. "I assume that's why you third-marked her. A clever strategy, though it underscores why Jonah should dispatch you in the most painful way possible."

Dante's face went to an impassive mask.

"Explain," Jonah said coldly.

"He's a vampire," Mina retorted. "He third-marked her. In this world, vampires do that to create a human servant, only this one did it to another type of being. If it works the same way, her mortality is linked to his. You kill him, she dies. A servant follows the vampire, even into the afterlife."

None of them could see how Dante felt about that, but Alexis felt his reaction, even buried under that fearfully still expression and ready violence. It startled him, almost as much as it did Jonah.

"He didn't know about that, Mina," she said hastily. "He didn't do it on purpose."

Her vampire gave her a narrow, nasty look, but she ignored him for the moment in favor of her father, who looked dubious. "I know, Pyel. I can feel his emotions. He gave me blood to keep up my strength."

"Damn it, Mina," Jonah snarled. She gave him a venomous look.

"If you had calmed down, and followed my lead, I wouldn't have had to tell you in front of him and given him that knowledge, now would I have? Hotheads, all of you."

"You gave my daughter blood for strength. But a third mark requires that you drink from her three times. Why did you take my daughter's blood?" Jonah's voice was soft, deadly.

"Well . . ." It was ridiculous to be self-conscious, but Alexis flushed as she struggled with the answer.

"I did not ask you the question. Be silent."

He'd been stern with her growing up. But he'd never snarled at her the way he might those in his command, with a thunderous undercurrent that reverberated through the cavern, bringing his angels to attention and making Alexis jump. The only sound for the next few seconds was Dante's hiss as he bared his fangs at the angel, a warning that had Mina's brows winging up.

"Do you have an answer, vampire?" Jonah said again, unaffected, unless one counted the increased tension in his broad shoulders, the hard clasp on his sword.

"I marked her the first and second time through the dream portal spell, to bind her enough to transport her to the Dark One world and to have access to her mind. My reasons for giving her the third mark are my own, but I drank from her that time for nourishment. Such blood is rare there." Curling back his fangs, Dante showed a trace of blue blood that Lex realized must have come from one of the angels he'd wounded. "Unlike a pure angel's blood, hers doesn't burn me." His crimson eyes glittered. "And hers is far sweeter."

"Does it hurt her if something hurts him?" Jonah asked Mina.

Mina shook her head. "It's only a mortality link. It--"

"So I can beat him half to death, and as long as I don't kill him, she's all right."

Dante's gaze intensified, energy gathering around him. "You can try, angel."

"I swear to the Goddess, males are the same in every dimension. The lot of you should be neutered." Mina pivoted on her toe toward the vampire and won a flick of the fiery eyes. "Listen to what I have said. If you die, Alexis dies. You don't have to fight him. He won't risk his daughter."

She turned toward Jonah despite his muttered oath. "I can bind him, send him back to his world with additional protections. It will not make life there any easier, but he will not be killed. Any Dark One who tries to fatally wound him will have it rebound on itself. So he will be away from here, but Alexis will be reasonably safe. He might get desperate enough to threaten to kill himself to win his freedom again, but I doubt it. He's a pure opportunist."

"No," Alexis said.

Her mother's steadying hand was at her waist, another on her daughter's hair, stroking, but Lex felt her watchfulness, as well as the strong link between her and Jonah. She wondered if that was why her father didn't blast her again for speaking out. But his words were clipped like razor blades.

"I told you," he began.

"I can't be silent, Pyel. You can't send him back there."

Jonah glanced at Mina, his lip curling in distaste. "Does this bond create forced feelings of . . . protectiveness?"

She'd been wrong. Her physical energy had been stolen, but the stress of her captivity and the tension in this chamber, the many things not being said that should be and too many things being said that shouldn't, gave her a different kind of strength. A sudden burst of unexpected anger.

"
Stop
talking about me as if I'm an idiot child."

Twelve

SHE captured everyone's attention with the sharp rebuke. Even her mother's hand stilled upon her. When Jonah's dark gaze flickered back to her, she felt something from him, a tightly suppressed emotion that speared her own heart, brought an ache to her throat, but she couldn't react to it now.

Dante sank onto his haunches. The dark hair spilled down his right arm, the left braced on the rock, lean muscle tense in his biceps and shoulders, breath barely moving the expanse of smooth chest. He reminded her of Lucifer there, his dark, sensuous energy and fearful potential. Because of her focus on her father and the other powers in this chamber, she couldn't gauge his intentions or thoughts.

But it didn't matter. No matter his power, she knew his fate rested with her. Mina watched her with almost an identical inscrutability. She wondered if that eerie stillness was a Dark Spawn thing.

Alexis drew a deep breath, prayed she wouldn't faint. "Pyel, I realize how I look. The past two days have been the most horrible of my life. That place . . ." Her voice faltered, and Anna made a noise. At first Lex thought the wave of powerful emotion came from her, but its source surprised her. It was David. Though his stance did not change where he stood at his commander's right shoulder, hands still on his daggers, she felt his reaction.

Seeing the shadow cross his eyes, she remembered. He'd been nearly tortured to death there. While Mina was often a closed book to her, she sensed the seawitch reaching out to him in her mind, with her heart, her eyes moving toward him.

The bond between them was something innate, hard to explain. Just as this was. But she had to do it, or Dante would be sent back. And that wasn't acceptable to her.

Swallowing, she spoke to Jonah again. "No one should be there. Not him, not anyone. I'm not deceived. I feel his darkness, as you do." She shifted her gaze to Mina. "But perhaps what you don't feel, that I can, is his light. It's there. He didn't want to be born there. He has survived all these years, focusing only on escape, and he used what means he had at hand to do it. He could have treated me much worse, but he didn't."

With relief, she saw Jonah was listening. The father who was enraged and worried was still there, his feelings grasping at her like sharp claws. It made her long to run to him, let him wrap his strong arms and the comfort of his wings around her, let her shudder out all the fear and terror of the past two days. In Anna's embrace, she'd had the barest start of how much of that she wanted to do. But she'd just told him she wasn't a child, and she wasn't addressing her father. She was talking to the being who'd made thousands of judgments on life or death.

"You all know my gift. I can see the core of what he is, and what he can become."

You were given this gift for a reason.
She let the thought bolster her where her own physical strength couldn't.
Hang in there. Somewhere at the end of this will be your bed and a long, hot shower.

"Yes," Jonah inclined his head. "I do not doubt that, Alexis. But I also know it can make you blind to other forces."

"Those were the mistakes I made as a child. I am not that child any longer." She bit back her impatience as he seared her with a glance.

"If you are not a child, you know every being has the potential for good or evil. Which they become depends upon their choices. Their environment may push them, but in the end, it comes to a choice. He made his."

To survive in my world, we kill. To have anything, we kill.
Firming her chin at the recollection, she shook her head. "In his world, his choice was only to live or not to live, and to live however he could. There is no morality there, Pyel. No good to protect by making choices against evil. Now he has more choices, and if you let him remain here, he has the chance to make them."

She pressed on, galvanized by the flicker in his expression. "Myel once told me that, soon after I was born, you took me flying over the water. She remembered how you stopped flying, hovered over the waves, holding me up in your arms so the moonlight shone on my skin, gleamed on my wings. She said they were no bigger than your hand then."

Pausing, she let the memory sink in, weave a picture between the two of them. "There were tears in your eyes."

Anna's breath drew in behind her. Jonah's gaze moved to her, then back to Alexis. She noted she'd even captured Dante's cautious interest, though he and the other angels remained far too fixated on one another. "You said you saw everything I could possibly be, all my potential, and you wanted to give me every chance to reach that potential, to achieve the highest pinnacle of happiness in my life. That's what I'm asking for Dante.
This
is his birth. He is an infant, and he deserves that chance."

Perhaps it was ludicrous to compare the tall, muscular vampire with flaming eyes and bared fangs to a tiny infant, but she pressed on. "Please. I understand you have to think about it. But please don't send him back. Give him the chance to have a life here."

Jonah looked toward Mina. Angels at his level could speak into the minds of others, and if a being thought directly at them, they could hear them. It was clear an intense communication was occurring. Lex wished she knew Dante's thoughts, because the only emotions she was clearly receiving from him had to do with impending violence. But since he'd been forced to live by his wits long before he gained the upper hand on the Dark Ones, she hoped he was using his brain rather than testosterone. The cavern was overloaded with it.

"There's merit in her words," Mina said at last. "Perhaps a probation period, thirty days, under supervision. While we sort out all the issues involved."

"He could stay with me," Alexis said.

"When Lucifer decides to build an amusement park in Hell," Jonah responded.

"I'm his surest chance of success here." She turned her appeal to Mina. "I'm the only one who can sense his intentions, help him navigate this world without misinterpreting his actions. He
won't
hurt me. I know it."

Jonah pivoted. Everyone in the chamber tensed, with the exception of Mina, but her father merely used his wings to go to the ledge where she and Anna sat. When he squatted before Lex, she couldn't suppress the full force of his emotions. In his face she saw what these past two days had done to him. That, and his closeness, his strength and familiar scent, undid her. She couldn't help it. Tears came, and her limbs trembled anew.

"Pyel," she whispered.

She was in his arms, those wings wrapped around her and her mother as he brought them both into his embrace. They slid their arms around him as well, burying fingers in his wings and hair, faces in his chest, while he tilted his head over theirs, murmuring incoherent words that Alexis didn't need her gift or ears to understand. He spoke right to her erratically beating heart.

His Legion was his family, of course, but she and Anna, they were his blood, his heart and soul. The emotion from him was overwhelming. Despite all the years of battle experience and training that had kept him focused on how best to bring her back, he'd feared, deep down, he was going to lose her. Because of that, Lex knew that not only was Dante lucky to be alive at this point, it was fortunate the cavern was still standing. It made it all the more difficult to push her father, but with the determined cruelty of the young, she knew she had to do it.

Raising her head to look up into his beloved face, she repeated it. "He won't hurt me, Pyel."

Jonah lifted her hand to his lips. Even as he pressed a kiss to it, his fingers slid over the bruises on her forearms, his gaze taking in the state of her broken wing, her battered face and weakened body. The symbols burned into her flesh, now clearly visible with the blood washed away. "Yes, I can see that."

"There's more to it than that."

"I need no supervision," Dante said. As he straightened to his full height on the ledge, the three angels closed ranks.

Jonah lifted his head, turned it toward Dante. While Lex couldn't see his face, the warm emotions were replaced by something utterly cold. "You would be wise not to speak, Dark Spawn."

When his lip curled back, showing fangs, Alexis spoke hastily in her mind.
This world is very different from the one you left. You know this. You'll need someone to help you get accustomed to it, to avoid pitfalls that might convince them you're too dangerous to be here.

I do not seek to please them. I will be no one's pet.

His voice in her head was a welcome brush on her frayed nerves, despite the tense circumstances. Lifting her gaze to him, she peered over her father's broad shoulder
. It's not like that. Please give this a chance.

Mina spoke then. "There is a way to ensure he does no physical or magical harm to innocents while he is here." She glanced at Jonah. "And it won't hamper his ability to explore this world with your daughter."

Jonah blew out a breath. "He is not staying with my daughter."

"Pyel, it's my choice."

"No, it is not."

Alexis set her teeth, but a noise between a tired chuckle and a sob drew their attention to Anna. "I thought I'd never hear the two of you having a battle of wills again," the mermaid said, her voice breaking.

Jonah spoke a soft word of reassurance to his mate. Sliding his hand under her hair to caress, he touched her cheek with his thumb so her face tilted into his palm. Alexis gripped her mother's hand.

Anna swept both of them with a loving look, but then met Jonah's gaze with unexpected purpose. "I don't like this any more than you do. But years ago, when Mina first told us about Dante, it bothered me. I think it bothered all of us on some level."

Though the cavern was a grab bag of emotions, Lex received a sharp spear of surprise from Dante. It was probably no less than her own as her mother continued.

"This is her gift, Jonah. I wish to Goddess it wasn't, but we've seen it grow, and we all knew more significant things would come from it. Perhaps he is too far gone, and it will end in his death. But if all she says is true, he deserves the chance. I can't think of anyone better equipped than our daughter to bring a dark soul back to the Light."

Alexis sensed the weight of memory moving between them. "I can think of one," Jonah said at length, making Anna's mouth curve into a poignant smile.

"I was twenty then," she murmured. "A year younger than she is now."

A muscle twitched in Jonah's jaw, but he turned his gaze to Alexis. "If Mina can figure out a restraint, and the Dark Spawn prefers it to an instant and fiery death at the point of my sword," he said, cutting a glance at Dante, "we will do this. Under my conditions only, and one of them is that I want your word that you believe this is possible because of your empathic ability. Not a sentimental desire to save a stray dog."

Temper flashed through her at the insult, but his mouth tightened. "I am not being sarcastic, Alexis. He is a Dark Spawn, and he has killed before. The scent of the blood on you tells me that, as well as the fact he's achieved power in a world where only violence is respected. You are taking responsibility for him among a host of innocents. We will be close," he added, when she paled. "A direct call from you, and one of my angels will instantly be at your side. But sometimes an instant is not enough. This is no child's game, Alexis. Be very, very sure."

Alexis looked toward Dante. He stood alone, a being of rage and fire. She knew he could do great harm, felt it within him the same way the earth could feel the lava simmering in the volcano or the tsunami waiting dormant below the ocean waves, but he would always have such power. If Mina could do as she said, and the angels would be within calling range, the risk had to be acceptable, because imprisoning him wouldn't change the nature of what he could do with his power.

She turned back to Jonah. "No matter what other feelings I have about him, my request is based on my gift. I swear it on my love and respect for you, and for Myel."

Jonah nodded. When he returned to the other ledge, he strode forward, batting an irritated hand at the barrier. Mina swept it away before his flesh could burn. His wings took him aloft, toward the outcropping on which Dante stood. Jonah hovered before him, his wings holding him steady. "I seek no promises from you, for I would trust none. But know this. I need no excuse to send you back to the hell from whence you came. I will not hesitate to instruct Mina to ward you only so you cannot be killed, and send you back to whatever lesser torments the Dark Ones might wish to inflict upon you. Knowing what you may have done to survive these past two decades, I'm certain they would welcome the ability to make you their slave again."

"Pyel," Alexis gasped, but Dante raised a hand, stilling her.

"I expect nothing less from your kind," he spat.

"Ahem."
Mina had disappeared into the adjacent chamber during the interchange and now returned, a silver band of metal in her hands. "Once this is on you, I will charge it with the spell. Any type of violence will rebound upon you, causing you three times the pain you are inflicting. You will also be unable to take a life."

He'd consented to none of it, Alexis realized. Mina's explanation of the collar's effects might as well have been in a foreign language, because when his gaze latched onto it, his rejection was a wall of denial. It would render him helpless, unable to defend himself. It was too much to ask.

"You are not touching me, witch." He dropped back into his crouch, a preparation to attack.

The combustible heat in the cavern expanded, the air much closer. Before Alexis could draw breath, swords and daggers were drawn. Jonah moved back to a position at the head of his angels, while the invisible energy cloud that seemed to float along with Mina wherever she went intensified. Darkness rolled through the chamber, a choking, suffocating reaction of rage, magic being gathered, though Alexis didn't know if it came from Jonah, Mina or Dante, or some fatal combination.

"Both of you leave," Jonah snapped, jerking his head at her and Anna. Her mother's arms tightened on her, but Alexis broke free.