Betrayal (The Divine, Book Two) (10 page)

He sees it coming. His face registers fear, and to my surprise acceptance. I expect him to whine like a bitch in heat, but when I maneuver in and wrap my hands around his neck he looks at me with indignation. Even as the breath drains from him and his eyes begin to bulge he looks at me. I squeeze harder, and he uses his last bit of air to laugh.

I howl in fury, shift to my were form and rend his flesh from his skeleton even as it begins to turn to dust. The black cloud of his soul rises from him, and I open my mouth to accept it, gaining his strength and power while I continue to molest his physical form. I only stop when there is nothing more to rip, to tear, to destroy. I feel a hand on my shoulder, and I turn with my claw raised to see Lylyx standing there, a hungry, feral smile on her face. I regain my human form, lift her to me, and put my lips to hers, claiming my first taste. It won’t be the last.

When I regained myself, she was standing in front of the pack, looking down on me with a mixture of disdain and concern. Lylyx. She didn’t look a day older than she had in the memory, though her sharp business suit was a stark contrast to the revealing deerskins she had sported in her past. How long ago had that been?

“Ulnyx,” she said in a whisper. I could smell her surprise. “I heard you were killed by the diuscrucis.”

I hesitated to reply. She thought I was the Great Were, and only the Great Were. In my tired state my link to Purgatory must have been weak enough that her Sight was only reading his power. Had his stirring overpowered Josette too?

“Lylyx,” I said at last, bringing myself to my feet and pulling on Ulnyx’s power to enhance the illusion of my identity, making sure to match my golden eye to the demon’s. I was grateful to have the were’s memories to guide me. “It’s been a long time.”

She smiled and stepped forward. “Too long,” she said, reaching up and pulling my head down to hers. Her kiss was strong and sloppy, and I could feel the Great Were’s soul howling at her call. I went along for the ride, not wanting to give anything away. Finally, she broke the kiss and took a step back.
 

“So the rumors aren’t true? Nobody’s heard from you in years.”

“I’m here, aren’t I?” I asked, trying to say as little about that as possible. “You’re a bit far from home yourself.”

She smiled and looked at me with big, round eyes, eyes that I could recall from other memories that weren’t so clandestine. Ulnyx had tried to pretend he didn’t love her. I had his soul, I knew the truth. The creature standing in front of me was the only thing the demon cared for other than domination and power.

“The master sent me here with my strongest. I’m supposed to be keeping an eye out for the diuscrucis. We aren’t supposed to engage if we see him, just distract him a little bit.” She shrugged her shoulders, and then squinted her eyes and cocked her head. “You know what he looks like, don’t you?”

I let out a rough growl. “Whatever you heard, it’s wrong. I wasn’t with Reyzl in New York. We split months before. He became infatuated with this vampire girl, and was ready to supplant me in the chain.” I was proud of myself. It was a good lie.

“Vampire girl?” she asked. She spit on the ground. “You’re better off without him, and it looks like you dodged a bullet getting out of town before he showed up.”

I laughed. “You think I’m afraid of some crossbreed?”

She reached out and touched my face. “Of course not Ullie.” Ullie? “You’ve always been the strongest, and with the power Reyzl gave you...”

I reached out, wrapping an enlarged claw around her small throat. “Gave me?“ I shouted. “I take what I want. I’m given nothing!”

Her eyes widened, but she didn’t struggle. After a moment I put her down. Playing the part of the Were was a little too easy for my own comfort.

"You're still the strongest," she said. "Help me keep an eye out for this diuscrucis, and I'll make it worth your while." She licked her bottom lip for emphasis, but I didn't need it to know what she was getting at.

“If I want you, I’ll have you,” I replied. My memories told me I had before, and she preferred it that way. She was goading Ulnyx because she knew it would get him all hot and bothered. Hot and bothered was the way to get what she wanted. “Save your innuendo.”

I took a good look at her pack. They had shifted back to human form, and were standing behind her looking nervous. “Your pack is pathetic,” I said.

They may have taken offense, but there was no way they were going to try to do anything about it. Instead, each one of them dropped their heads and looked straight at the ground.

“What did you expect?” Lylyx asked. “Our best stud gone off to try to become an archwere, instead of staying with the pack and breeding?”

Ulnyx’s soul was a fire in my gut. I closed my eyes to contain the burn. He had tried to breed, man he had tried. It was the Great Were’s secret shame, the reason he had become a servant to anyone. He was sterile.

I opened my eyes, looked Lylyx and laughed. “Look at us now,” I said. “I’m here because your master asked me to come. He promised to bring me to the archwere so I could rip his throat out.”

Lylyx looked confused. “He?” she asked. “Which master are you speaking of?”

My inhale caught on my throat. I had just assumed she was referring to Gervais – the only female I knew who this one could call master was Charis. “Gervais,” I said.

A murmur rippled through the pack, and the weres around Lylyx perked up. I had the sinking feeling I had dropped the wrong name.

Time seemed to stop while Lylyx stared at me, her body motionless, her breathing escalating from calm and even, to shallow and quick. She was deciding what she was going to do with the information I had just given her, and the physical signs weren’t positive.

“When I heard about Reyzl, I hoped you had made it out okay,” she said. “When I didn’t get any news about you at all, I feared the worst.” She stepped back and put her hands out to her sides. “At least, I thought I had feared the worst.”

Her hands began to turn into claws, and her body began to grow, shifting and elongating. Around her, the other weres began to shift as well.

“I name you, diuscrucis,” she said. “I hear your lies, and I see through your deceptions. Ulnyx deserves a better fate than to have his power usurped by a crossbreed.”

I felt Ulnyx recoil at the sight of her. Whatever had happened since they had last seen one another, he didn’t know that Lylyx had been promoted. Standing in front of me was another Great Were.

Her attack was blazingly fast, and it was all I could do to step back out of the way and take hold of the fullness of Ulnyx’s power, transforming myself into a bigger, stronger version of the female opposite me.

“Let me tell you,” I said, blocking her next attack and landing a punch that sent her tumbling down the street. “Ullie is an asshole.”

 
I heard the snarls, and a moment later I had a dozen weres circled around me, trying to get past my defenses. I imagined I probably looked ridiculous standing there, this huge beast of a demon crouched into one of Josette’s martial stances, lashing out with chops and kicks like a big ugly Jackie Chan. I sent the weres sprawling, slamming them with feet and claws, leaving deep gashes in faces and abdomens. They howled and rolled back to their feet, growled and yelped and came in again, giving their leader the time she needed to regain her feet and get back into the fray.

I didn’t see her return punch coming, and it knocked me to the ground. She didn’t waste any time pouncing on me, trying to pin my arms at my sides, hoping that because I wasn’t Ulnyx, I didn’t have his raw strength. And I didn’t have his raw strength. I could draw a lot of power from him, but it was like AC to DC, and I lost something in the conversion. Lucky for me, I had Josette’s intimate knowledge of more complex hand-to-hand fighting to back me up. I used Lylyx’s leverage against her, and tossed her backwards over my head. Somehow she landed on her feet, and I had a dozen weres back at me before I could stand.

With the power from Ulnyx running through me, my physical fatigue had vanished, but his power was all I had. I could have done one on one against Lylyx, and maybe even as far as six on one. These odds were ridiculous, and even though I put up a good fight, it was a fight I knew I couldn’t win. I managed to disembowel two of the weres, rip the throat out of another, and put a massive hurt on a fourth, but in the end Lylyx helped them drag me to the ground, and a well placed stone to the back of my head took me the rest of the way out of the fight.

I lost control of the Great Were’s power then, feeling my body shrink, even feeling the cold and wet of the night on my naked skin. I wished I could relish the feelings that had been evading me for so long, but the world grew fuzzy, and then vanished.

I woke up in a small room, a simple room with stone walls, a small square window, a bed, a wooden door, and a clutter of straw-filled dolls that lay scattered around the floor. I wasn’t alone in the room. A fourteen year-old girl with a plain face and brown hair was sitting on the bed next to me. An older man with long black hair tied back in a ponytail was leaning against the wall, looking out the room’s only window into a pasture beyond.

“Josette,” I said, recognizing the girl. Her smile pierced me, and I could feel my heart begin to race. I reached out and wrapped my arms around her, holding her tight while she patted my back.

“Landon,” she said softly. “I’ve missed you.”

“You know I’ve missed you,” I replied.

“Touching. Really,” the man said.

“Piss off Ullie,” I said, breaking the embrace and staring down the demon. “What are you doing here anyway?”

I knew what this place was from the memories - Josette’s Source. Somehow, I had found my way here after the weres had knocked me out. The good news, it meant they hadn’t killed me … yet.

“It’s your party,” he replied. “If you didn’t want me along, you never should have invited me.”

Not that I had a choice. Now I was stuck with him. “I liked you better when you didn’t say anything,” I said. “Your power is useful, your mouth isn’t.”

I was rewarded with a chuckle. Josette squeezed my hand and regained my attention before I could say anything else. She started to speak, but I put my hand to her lips to stop her.

“I’m sorry Josette, but can one of you please tell me what the heck is going on here? For the last five years you’ve both been silent except for these random memories that leave me struggling to stand, and now all of a sudden I get knocked out, and you’re both here? One of you I’m happy to see, but your timing kind of sucks.”

“Be glad you have me, Landon,” Ulnyx said. “I’m the only reason you’re still alive.”

“Care to elaborate?” I asked.

Ulnyx bent over and picked up one of the straw dolls. “It’s like this, meat,” he said. “Lylyx has a thing for me. She always has. Man, no matter how hard I tried to satisfy her, she always wanted more. It’s sexy as hell, and so I have this thing for her too.”

“She wanted your puppies,” I said. “You’re sterile.”
 

I knew it would send him into a rage, especially since Josette was there. He didn’t disappoint, taking the straw doll and tearing it in half. He tried to come at me, but a thought was all I needed to hold him in place. I still owned his soul.

“Yeah, anyway,” he said, his anger falling away in an instant, “if she’s been promoted to a Great Were, it means her master has major mojo, at least as much as Reyzl, and probably more. She’s going to see if she can have me extracted.”

“Can that be done?” I asked, suddenly hopeful. I wouldn’t mind ridding myself of the demon, now that I didn’t need his soul anymore. I would miss his power, but not his twisted memories.

“It can’t be done,” Josette said. “Anyone who says it can is lying.”

“How do you know, Miss Priss?” Ulnyx asked, leering at the angel. Another thought, and his head turned to look out the window.

“It’s been attempted before,” she replied. “Gervais has a laboratory where he performs certain… experiments.” We both shivered at the memory of the room, more torture chamber than science lab. “I’ve seen him try. Once a soul is absorbed, it is entwined with that of the bearer. Trying to unravel it destroys both.”

Ulnyx sighed. “I wish you angels could lie once in awhile. The truth is crap.”

I swallowed my disappointment. “I get that our souls are connected,” I said. “I can feel that when I tap your power. That doesn’t answer why all this time I’ve only been able to catch whispers, and now we’re all having a pow-wow in your Source.”

Josette shook her head. “I don’t know, fellow,” she said. “I could hear you calling out to me, and I tried to call back, but you never heard me. Ever since I gave you my soul, I’ve been lost in the dark, aware of your experience, but at the same time cut off from you. When Izak summoned me, I saw a hint of light for the first time in years. I spoke to you, and you heard.” Tears began to run down her round face.

“It hasn’t been a picnic for me either, sister,” Ulnyx said. “I’ve had to listen to this one pray, listen to her cry, listen to her bitch and moan. ‘Oh my daughter’,” he raised his voice in pitch and held his hands up in hopelessness. I threw him against the wall.

“Shut it Ullie,” I said. “I can make your eternity worse than being in Hell.”

The Were swallowed and nodded. “Well, it sucks being here,” he said. “Sometimes you’re fun, like when you turned on that dude Silas.” He laughed. “Oh, and the way you played Lylyx was classic. Damn that kiss was nice.”

“Do you have anything helpful to say?” I asked.

“I’ve been kicking and screaming in here too,” he said. “There’s this light always shining down on me. Man, it was dim right after you got that witch to snuff herself. Then, when I smelled Lylyx, it just pushed me over the edge. If I had to guess, I would say your own power drowns us out most of the time. You get pooped, we get let out of our cages.”

“There’s only one of you I’d prefer caged,” I said.

“I’m sorry Landon,” Josette said. “I believe it is an all or nothing proposition. However; if you can learn to control it, we may be of some use to you. At the very least, it might help with the memories.”