Chaos Rises: A Veil World Urban Fantasy (16 page)

He stepped forward, dropped to one knee in front of Allard, and bowed his head, as he had on the pier.

He was wrong, I realized. Half bloods did get a choice. He chose to live and fight another day.

“Where’s my brother?” My voice bounced around the poolside. Maybe I’d wake some of the hotel guests, and maybe they’d call the cops. I could hope. Although, if the cops caught any whiff of demon, they’d send the Institute. At this point, the Institute was looking like a viable alternative.

“I tried,” Allard said, his award-winning smile pinned to his charming face. “He didn’t want to come.”

“Liar.”

“Gem, it’s the truth.” He said it in the same voice he used on me when trying to humor the silly half blood.

“You’re holding him somewhere.”

Allard’s eyes flashed a warning, and his tone leveled. “Delta is exactly where he wants to be. Come back with me, and you’ll see. Despite what you believe, I have no intention of hurting you or Torrent. You’re both…” He paused and looked down at the half blood prostrate before him. “You’re both very important.”

“At Vanessa’s…”

He opened his arms in a hapless shrug. “You ran me through, Gem. I lost my patience.”

“Torrent—”

Allard placed his hand on Torrent’s head. “Was foolish enough to attack me at the worst possible time.” He eased his fingers through Torrent’s hair and then down, beneath his chin to tip Torrent’s head up, urging him to face him “I can overlook such mistakes. You are only half bloods, riddled with humanity.”

With a dozen pairs of demon eyes on both Torrent and me, Allard beckoned Torrent to his feet. Torrent was taller, I noticed. Not by much, but it was easier to concentrate on that fact instead of the horrible emptiness gnawing on my insides when Allard slowly, deliberately closed the distance between them. He could break Torrent’s neck in the next second, and it would be my fault. There
were
other water elementals.

Allard’s dark-eyed, unblinking gaze roamed Torrent’s face, examining, reading, assessing, and then in one obscenely gentle motion, he brushed his lips against Torrent’s. It was a slow, sensual performance, drawn out with deliberate skill, testing for a reaction. Torrent’s elemental touch—the only part of him he couldn’t easily control—lashed around him. He could attack Allard, but that was exactly what the demon dealer waited for. And when Torrent didn’t retaliate, the test became more, and the kiss deepened.

It’s a small price to pay when you’re worthless to begin with,
I heard Torrent’s words, and on the tail of that memory, guilt-born tears blurred my vision.

Choice,
I thought dryly. There was no choice here. This was an attack of a different kind, a show of power. And exactly like when Allard had taken Vanessa’s wings, I couldn’t look away. And so I watched, teeth gritted, as Torrent parted his lips and brought the backs of his fingers up to brush them along Allard’s jaw in a delicately tender touch. He gave Allard exactly what he wanted. Power. I struggled to keep my head up, to keep my element locked down while Torrent’s whipped up an invisible and intangible storm.

Allard turned his face and fixed his eyes over Torrent’s shoulder on me, as Torrent trailed his mouth along the demon dealer’s jaw.
Mine.
The ownership burned in Allard’s steady gaze.

I couldn’t watch, not this, not when Torrent’s element reached for mine, crackling with tension and urgency.

“Come back with me. Gem,” Allard said, his smooth voice dark and thick with desire. He slid his hand around the back of Torrent’s neck and eased him away, and all the while those dark eyes fixed on me.
Don’t push me,
that gaze said.
I own you, and those you care for.
“Hurting you was never my intention.”

He needed us for his puzzle. He was using us, the same as I’d used Torrent to trade for my brother. But my brother wasn’t here, and that bitter taste in my mouth was betrayal. I’d betrayed Torrent for nothing.

I glanced at Torrent, but he stood at Allard’s side, his gaze on the ground—far, far away in that place he went when he couldn’t pull his wings around him and hide. I swallowed and tried to calm the rapid pounding of my heart and the vicious, barbed snarls resounding from deep inside me.

If I went with Allard now, I’d be right back where I started. He might not have me in his grip as obviously as he had Torrent, but he had my brother. There was never going to be a bargain. He’d never let us go.

I had to go back.

I wasn’t ready for this fight.
Not yet.

I locked stares with Allard. His responding all-demon smile was filled with sharp teeth and sly intentions. A low, threat-heavy growl bubbled up my throat.

Not yet.

I was going back to Fairhaven.

T
he wet sounds
of flesh tearing and the snapping of teeth filled the drained basement-level swimming pool. The room had once been a gym but now hosted Allard’s proving trials. He’d toss demons into the pool, let nature take its course, and the surviving demon attracted a higher price on the open market.

I hated it down here. I’d always hated it. The quick flash of teeth and the slicing of claws, combined with the low ceilings and little light, reminded me of the maze. I hung back, watching from the fringes. Allard paced, but only to get a better look at his prize demons. He watched for weaknesses, studying the two lessers. His flight—the trusted group of demon guards that followed him—jeered. They wore their vessels, but the snarls and growls were purely demon.

Torrent wasn’t here.

After we’d returned from our brief visit to LA, Allard had ordered me to stick to my room and promptly taken Torrent away, deeper into Fairhaven. A few hours later, he’d summoned me here, to the proving pit. Torrent’s absence was ominous. For all Allard’s sweet words about protection and not wanting to hurt us because we were important, he was demon, and a demon’s idea of protecting half bloods involved the white room, at least in my experience.

It wasn’t my fault, or so I’d told myself. I’d warned Torrent that Allard might be just as bad as whatever he’d suffered with Vanessa. He knew what he was getting into.

I hadn’t asked to be his friend.

To compound all the runaway guilt, fear, and disgust, my demon was virtually free. The injectors had been taken from my room. Considering the layered madness overlapping my normal thoughts, she might even be completely free to do as she pleased. The last time I’d been wholly free of PC34A, it had been after the netherworld, after the Fall. I’d had Del then. Now…now I didn’t have anyone. Just my demon.

Cool shivers crawled across my skin like dozens of insects. My demon remembered what it had been like to be completely free. She remembered what it felt like without my control. And she recalled precisely how we’d fought tooth and claw in the netherworld, torn into demons twice our size, three times as vicious, but none as ruthless.
None as fast. None as hungry for the kill as she and I.

I pulled my arms crossed over my chest, secretly hugging myself. It had been Hell, just like the humans had named it long ago, a mad, swirling storm of sensations: pain, fear, exhilaration. I’d wanted more.

Shoving the memories aside, I closed my eyes and dropped my head back against the wall. Allard’s demons were still trying to tear strips off each other. I tried to block those sounds too because the sounds of splattered blood and shrieks sounded too much like the netherworld.

I needed PC34A. I needed it like I needed to breathe. Allard was playing with his pet demons in his pit. Somewhere, my brother was a prisoner. And now Torrent… Torrent was gone.

A muscle throbbed in my temple. I rubbed at it and ground my teeth together so damn hard my jaw ached. I just had to keep it together a little longer. Like Torrent, I had to give Allard what he wanted, be submissive, and he’d tell me where my brother was. I had to play the obedient half blood pet.
Give him what he wants.

“Gem.”

I snapped my eyes open to find Allard’s rich brown eyes inches from mine. He stepped back, wearing a curious smile. Scarlet demon blood had splattered over his white shirt and dappled his neck. Behind him, the pit was empty, but for one demon carcass. His guards had gone. I hadn’t heard the fight end or seen the demons leave.

“Tell me where my brother is.” My voice had taken on a frosty edge. Allard’s smile twitched at the command.

Be submissive. Be the half blood girl. Do it for Del.

I cleared my throat and dropped my eyes, counting the spots of blood on his shirt. “I want to apologize.” A quick look confirmed Allard was watching me, waiting. Eyes down again, I continued. “You’ve been more than generous. When you found me and Del… We—we were lost. I’ve been ungrateful. And I am truly sorry, my lord.” Maybe the
my lord
was too much? It had seemed to work for Torrent.

He made a low growling sound in his throat, one of appreciation, and came forward. The air shifted, lacing my nose and throat with his warm, earthy scent but also the acrid burning smell from the carcass in the pool. Netherworld smells. My demon purred.

Allard’s smooth hand cupped my chin. He lifted my head and turned it left and right, examining my face like he would a new addition to his stock. “That must have been difficult for you. You are not a submissive creature. Your demon wants power.” He let go but didn’t step back. “I appreciate that. If you convince me, I can even give you more power than your little half blood demon could dream of.”

Convince him of what? I blinked blankly back at him.

Allard closed the last few inches between us and placed his hands against the wall either side of me, fencing me in. I held his gaze, looking up at him. Inside, my demon pushed to be free. I clutched at the shreds of control I had left and held her back.

He bowed his head and whispered against my cheek. “Your brother was easier to break.”

My element surged. My elemental touch unraveled, spilling outward, up and around Allard. He gasped sharply, grabbed my hands, and pinned them back against the wall. I couldn’t have stopped the demon in me even if I’d tried. With no control left, I let her free and maybe even welcomed her. Ice spritzed across my skin and clothes, encasing me in demon skin. Her chilling power licked up my spine, smothering the human until my skin, my muscles, my entire body sang with demon resonance.

Allard shuddered against me. The sound of his snatching breaths had my teeth chattering. Just like with Torrent, I wanted to fight, to sink my claws into Allard. But unlike with Torrent, my desire here was a vicious intent to kill.

Allard pressed into me. Ice snapped over his clothes and laced needles into his hair. When he freed my left hand, he clamped his right around my neck. His element whipped around us both, feeding through mine, tangling, knotting, sparking. Earth and ice. Not opposites, but close.

“Hear me, half blood. You are under me. I control you.
You are mine.
” The last words rumbled the floor and walls. “What follows is my doing. You submit to me and no other.”

Submit? Never.

Ice sparked outward. I felt it reaching, breathing, building, and behind me, my jagged wings cracked, shifted, and snapped open along the wall.

Allard pulled me forward and slammed my head back against the tiles. “Submit!”

A growl rumbled up from deep inside of me and bubbled from my lips. I grinned, showing him my teeth. “Where’s my brother, you bastard?”

He hit my head against the tiles again. Something cracked, the wall, the tiles, some ice. And I laughed.

“Submit or I will find another ice demon for my court.”

Court? I jerked my head forward and snapped my teeth together millimeters from his lips. In his black-flooded eyes, my reflection glowed, sparkling bright, a crystal nightmare.

I knew I had to submit to win, to let him think he owned me. It was the only way he’d let me closer to him. But I couldn’t. I eased my free left hand down his arm, over his shoulder, and clamped my cool fingers against the back of his neck. He seethed, practically boiling out of his vessel. But he was in control here. He didn’t want to turn. That would make us equal.

I yanked him forward, pressed my ice-dusted lips against his. “I will never submit to you.” I flicked my tongue out, sparking needles of ice into the corner of his mouth.

“Submit,” he growled low, and I felt every quiver ripple against me. “Or your brother suffers in your place.”

I heaved my shoulders forward, arching my crystalline wings around us. They sparkled and sang, even as I pointed their razor-fanned edges at his sides. I still had him by the back of his neck, but equally, he still had his hand around my throat. He could turn demon, turn to stone, and I couldn’t do a thing to stop him.

I licked at the corner of his mouth, spreading ice beneath my tongue, and purred. “What’s the matter, Azazel? Afraid of a little half blood?” The demon behind his eyes glared through the swirl of black. “You said you wanted to see me lose control. What would your demon brethren think if they saw you struggling with a lowly half blood pet?”

He tightened his grip around my throat. “Submit, Gamma.”

I might be demon, but I still needed to breathe. His body smothered mine, and while my ice snapped and danced all over him, it didn’t seem to have much effect.

Not yet.
I couldn’t do this yet. I’d pushed too far. He was killing me. My strength fizzled out of me. His face blurred, lost beneath the pounding in my head. My element flexed, stuttering, and my wings started to break apart. Fragments tinkled against the poolside.

He gave me one last shake. My eyelids fluttered closed.

“I…submit…” I rasped.

He let go, and I dropped in a heap. The pounding subsided, and I pulled my element around me, breathing it in with a shudder of relief. By the time I could see clearly again, Allard had gone.

A scream swelled inside of me. All the rage, the fear, the denial surged out of me in one great shriek that was as far from human as anything this side of the veil. He’d hear it. The whole hotel would, and I didn’t care.

Not yet, not yet, not yet.

My demon slipped away, leaving me spent and cold, kneeling in a pool of melted ice. I wasn’t sure what had happened. Somehow, my attempt at an apology had turned into a power battle, and I’d lost.

I slumped onto my forearms and fought the shivers.

I’d lost. It was always going to end that way. But I had learned something.

Allard wanted me for his
court
. Something tugged on my memory, something from the hours poring over Institute files. I suspected I knew what he was planning. There were fates worse than death. And if Clayton Allard succeeded—if Azazel created a court, he would be unstoppable.

* * *

R
eturning to my room
, I found a grocery bag sitting neatly on my bed with a single injector inside. It would have to do—anything to calm the runaway demon urges. I jabbed the injector into my neck without hesitating and waited for the drug to pump around my body, smoothing out the shakes in its wake. I needed to be clear headed if I was going to think of a way out of this. My submission act might have worked if my demon hadn’t gotten involved and upped the stakes. Damned demon urges. I knew I had it in me to fight. I’d survived the netherworld and the Fall, but I hadn’t expected to come face to face with Allard and rub his wings the wrong way. I’d licked him, practically propositioned him, in demon terms. He could have broken me in many different ways, but he’d held back.

Had he broken Del that way?

Pacing, I laced my fingers behind my head. Del had to be at Fairhaven somewhere. The hotel was huge. But for me not to be able to sense my brother was nearby meant Allard had him locked down, likely using the glyphs in the same way he’d subdued the prince.

The prince… And Allard keeping half bloods, creatures that were usually destroyed for the abomination of being half human... Now it made sense. Allard had all the elements he needed: seven princes for seven sins, if the myths were to be believed, but also the seven elements of chaos, earth, air, fire, ice, water, and the crowning elements of control and raw chaos.

Seven princes. Seven elements of chaos. A court.

If Allard succeeded in bringing it all together, completing his puzzle, it wouldn’t matter that the veil was stronger than ever, that the netherworld was locked away and probably would be for another few thousand years. It wouldn’t matter because Allard had seen an opportunity to seize more than just power over a handful of demons abandoned in LA. He was creating a court, just like the one back in his netherworld home.

My hotel door rattled, opened, and Torrent staggered in. I ran my gaze over his torn and bloodied clothes, his pale face, and the wild, haunted look in his eyes—eyes that accused. He closed the door and fell back against it. His right hand trembled, dripping blood. He’d buried his other hand inside his coat. If the blood soaking through his shirt was any indication, he was probably holding himself together.

I made a move toward him, but he shot me an icy glare. A horrible twisting guilt writhed somewhere inside, the kind I wanted to cut out but couldn’t get away from. This was my doing.

He made his way carefully to the bathroom, leaving smears of blood where his hands trailed along the wall. This was my fault.

Torrent didn’t bother closing the door. He hunched over the sink and dropped the human act, letting his demon surge free. My vision blurred, eyes burning, forcing me to look away from the transformation. Even when he was done and he leaned over the sink, suddenly filling the tiny bathroom, I couldn’t quite see him clearly through human eyes. But I saw enough to know his beautiful wings were tattered strips of flesh.

A treacherous gasp slipped free and would have been followed by a sob if I hadn’t gulped it down. I fell a few steps, but again, he turned that bitter glare on me, stopping me in my tracks.