Blood of the Demon (22 page)

“Keegan,” Brynn cried in a mixture of shock and censure. She dropped to the ground beside Ronin, grasping his shoulder as she peered into his battered face.

Yeah, that was an asshole thing to do, but Ronin would heal. By the time he woke up, he’d probably have no more than a slight headache. Brynn, however, would suffer far worse than that if Ronin and Taeg succeeded in their mission.

Taeg dematerialized, and a fraction of a second later he reappeared right in front of Keegan. Taeg’s fist caught Keegan’s jaw. “You prick. Why did you do that?”

“You know why.” He grabbed Taeg’s shoulders and held on tight. There was no way he would let go.

Taeg grabbed onto Keegan’s shoulders in a similar lock, his face red with fury. “Come on, you dickweed. We warned you over and over.”

“I know,” Keegan yelled. “I can’t help it. She’s innocent.”

“Mammon has the
Book
,” Taeg said. “Innocent or not, she’s the key to the fucking apocalypse. And if that happens, a lot more innocents will die.”

“She shouldn’t die because of something she has no control over.”

“That’s our fucking
job
, man.”

“I—” Anything else Keegan might have said died with Brynn’s loud gasp. Keegan pushed Taeg around so he could see Brynn, who’d risen to her feet.

“I knew it,” she whispered, her eyes wide. “I knew that had to be it, but I didn’t want to believe it. My gut told me you wouldn’t do such a thing.”

“I... I can’t,” Keegan ground out. “I can’t do it, okay?”

“You dick,” Taeg muttered, shoving him back about ten feet. They continued to wrestle. “You have to do it. We have no choice.”

Keegan shook his head. “No, Taeg, it’s not right. Listen, we can find another way to stop Mammon. We have to.”

Taeg stopped struggling long enough to look at Keegan, a compassionate expression on his face. “We can’t. It’s too great a risk.”

“You said it yourself: things go better when we work together,” he said. “We can find a better way... ”

“There is no other way, brother. I’m sorry. Really I am.”

Keegan’s stomach rolled and his head pounded like it had been hit with a hammer. He contemplated his choices, pissed there were so damn few of them.

He would have given anything—even his life—not to have to do this. But he had to. He had no choice.

“You’re right,” Keegan said to Taeg. He stilled and slightly relaxed his grip.

Taeg threw him a look of utter relief and started to do the same.

“You’re right, Taeg,” Keegan repeated. “And I’m sorry, too.”

Before Taeg could react, he shoved his head forward, ramming his forehead against Taeg’s jaw with a deafening
crack
.

“Ow.” Taeg grabbed his jaw, lobbing a shocked glance at Keegan before dropping to his knees like a rag doll.

Keegan raced to Brynn, who’d crept backward toward the exit during their struggle. Now she hovered there, as if debating what to do. He stopped just a few feet in front of her. “Brynn.”

She stared at him uncertainly. Then, after what seemed like a lifetime but in reality was no more than a second or two, she gave him a slow and hesitant nod.

His heart gave a pained twinge. Trust shone in her eyes, telling him she believed in him, even if he didn’t believe in himself.

He wouldn’t let her down.

“Take my hand.”

Brynn hesitated for only a moment before placing her hand in his.

He gave her a soft smile. “You trust me, right?”

She nodded. “Yes.”

“Then hold on tight.”

He pulled her close, and she circled her arms around his neck.
Here goes nothing.

With a practiced flick of his shoulders, his leathery red appendages tore through the fabric of his T-shirt and jacket. They flapped hard, generating heat as they sliced through the air.

“Oh my... God,” Brynn said. Her eyes grew wide as her gaze skipped from his face to his large wings. With a gentle shove, he took off into the air.

“Keegan,” Taeg yelled below. “Keeg, come back. Please, bro.”

Brynn wrapped her legs around his waist, holding on tight. An expression of pure wonder lined her face. “What
are
you?”

“Brynn, I didn’t know how to tell you before,” he said. “I’m only half-demon.”

“And the other half?” she asked.

“The other half... is dragon.”

Chapter Eighteen

“Where the hell could they be?”

Back at the hotel suite, Taeg clasped his hands to the back of his neck while he paced the length of Ronin’s bedroom.

“Who knows?” Ronin wearily replied from inside the closet, where he packed up their meager belongings.

Taeg touched his hand to the jaw Keegan had recently broken. It was already fully healed, thanks to Ronin. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

“Can’t you? We both saw it coming. We just didn’t know how to stop it.”

He let out his breath in one long rush. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right. Now we’re seriously
fucked.”

“True,” Ronin muttered.

“Aw, devil’s balls.” Taeg stomped over to one of the beds and kicked the wooden footboard. It shattered into pieces, the mattress thumping to the ground.

Ronin stepped outside the closet and eyed the mess he’d made. “The Council is going to blow its stack when it gets the bill for this place.”

“Screw them.” Taeg swiveled around to confront Ronin. “Why didn’t you do it, man? Why didn’t you kill her when you had the chance?”

Ronin looked him straight in the eye. “I couldn’t. You knew I wouldn’t be able to. That’s why you came.”

“Damn it.” Taeg’s anger at Ronin melted away as quickly as it had come. He leaned back onto the dresser behind him. “None of us should have had to. It was a sucker’s mission from the very start, one the Council knew we wouldn’t turn down, thanks to our father.”

“They never gave us the resources we needed to fight him,” Ronin pointed out.

Taeg let out a deep sigh. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

“Yeah. So what now?”

“Now?” Taeg said. “Now we go out and get wasted. Drink ourselves into oblivion. Party down until the fucking apocalypse.”

Ronin lifted a brow. “No, really.”

“Now, little brother, we come up with another game plan.”

§

Brynn couldn’t stop staring. It was incredibly rude, but she couldn’t help herself.

“Half-dragon,” she said.

Keegan threw her a smile from the driver’s seat of the car he’d stolen after they touched down on the outskirts of New Orleans. “Dragon-shifter, to be exact.”

“Dragon-shifter? What does that mean?”

“Well, one of the other dimensions contains a shifter world. Everyone on that planet can shift forms, from humanoid to animal—wolf, jaguar, dragon, you name it.”

Brynn sat up straight in her seat. “Wait—there are all types of shifters there? What about monkeys? Mice?
Insects
?”

Keegan chuckled. “You name it, there’s a shifter for it. Even some animals you’ve never heard of.”

“Whoa. Will you ever stop surprising me?”

“Not today.” He tapped his fingers along the steering wheel in a gesture that belied his anxiety. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I just didn’t know how.”

“I don’t blame you.” Still, considering that Brynn knew about his demon heritage, how did one bring up the topic of dragons? Even more amazing was that she fully accepted it, without any resistance. Well, okay, not
too
much. After everything she’d seen the past few days, dragons were just one more crazy thing to add to the list of weird. Not only that, but she had to admit that in a strange way, it sort of turned her on. The man could fly. He was like her very own Superman.

“Can you actually morph into a dragon?”

He shook his head. “Full shifters can. But since I’m a half-breed, I only have a few abilities. I can partially shift, creating wings, which you saw.”

Yeah, those were weird. Red, leathery appendages that probably spanned twice as wide as he was tall. But they weren’t like the rayamara demons’ wings, not by any means. They were beautiful, in their own way. Majestic.

“That was amazing,” she confessed, “to soar in the air, above the city. It was so... exhilarating.”

“Some might find it frightening.”

“Not me.” When the corners of his mouth ticked up, she asked, “What other abilities do you have from your dragon heritage?”

“My ability to heal.”

Brynn lifted a brow. “So that’s not a demon trait, but a dragon one?”

“What I told you about demons is true. We do have preternatural strength and speed, and the ability to heal quickly. But it’s nothing compared to what dragons can do. Dragon blood heals, and incredibly quickly.”

“You’re pretty much invincible, huh?”

“Oh, I can be killed,” Keegan said. “Beheading kills about anyone. And if I were to somehow lose all of my blood I wouldn’t be able to heal myself.”

“So vampires are dangerous to you, then,” she joked.

“They could be,” he answered.

“Wait... what? Vampires exist, too?” She gulped at his patronizing glance. “Okay, let’s leave that topic aside. For now
.
What else can you do?”

Keegan snickered. “I have a slightly enhanced sense of smell, and, well, you already saw the fire-breathing.”

“Yeah. Why didn’t Mammon anticipate that you would wipe out his men that way?”

“He never knew about it. In fact, it’s only happened twice before, and both times by complete accident.”

Huh. In that case, they had gotten pretty lucky tonight. But wait...

“Oh, and
Mammon is your father
?” She turned to glare at him. “That one would have been really nice to know.”

“It’s not very easy to explain. How do you tell someone that your father is a psychopath, but still expect them to trust you?”

“Good point,” she grudgingly admitted.

Keegan tapped on the steering wheel a little longer before curling one hand into a fist and beating it against the base of the wheel. “How the fuck did Mammon find us? The
Book
?”

“I don’t know. That demon said I told him, but I... ” She broke off as the dreams of the past several days came back to her in a flash. Shooting up in her seat, she said, “Wait a minute. I’ve been dreaming about your father.”

His expression was baffled. “What?”

“Ever since I had that vision when I touched your talisman. At first, he was just there. But then he started talking to me. I might have... I think I—” She broke off with a loud groan, burying her hands in her face. “In my last dream of him, I mentioned Memphis and New Orleans. Oh crap, have I been communicating with him in my sleep?”

“If he has that ability, it’s something I never knew about.”

“But... that has to be it, right? I mean, how else could I have led him to us?”

“Don’t know.” His brows drew together. “I’ll look into it, see what I can find out.”

Seeing the exhaustion written all over his face reminded her how tired she was. She fought a heavy yawn but ultimately lost the battle. “I want to know about you and your father. Tell me your family history.”

“I will.
After
you get some rest.”