Darker (34 page)

It wasn’t quite possible to collapse together and enjoy the afterglow. The stairs weren’t afterglow friendly. So, I grabbed his hand and pulled him up the stairs to my bedroom.

After ensuring the heavy drapes covered every inch of the window, I crawled into bed to snuggle up with my vampire. We lay in the dark room, neither of us speaking for a long time. With my head on Arys’s chest, I leisurely stroked a hand through his ebony hair. He held me close, his silence speaking louder than words.

“
Wanna tell me what that was all about earlier tonight?” He asked in a lazy drawl. “You hunted that guy like an animal. I can’t say it wasn’t sexy as hell, but it wasn’t quite your style.”

“
No,” I agreed. “It was yours.”

I recounted for him the events of the past two nights. Everything from my visit to Lilah’s with Jez to discovering tonight that the demon bitch had my sister. He listened, attentive as I vented my anger with colorful words and curses. As I spoke, he dragged his fingertips up and down my back in a loving caress.

“
I’m sure I don’t need to tell you this, but I’m going to Lilah’s with you.”

I sat up to look at him, and the blanket slipped to my waist. “Arys, no. She has Juliet. If I go in with too many people or appear as a threat, there’s no telling what Lilah will do. I can’t risk anything happening to my sister.”

I braced for the argument, certain it was coming, but Arys surprised me. He nodded and pulled me back down beside him.

“
Fine,” he said. “We’ll do it your way, with a compromise. You go in without me but keep your mind open to me. If anything goes wrong, if it gets bad, I’m coming in.”

It took me a minute to respond. I was shocked that he hadn’t come back at me with a fight. It was a nice change, most likely a short-lived one as well. I’d enjoy it while I could.

“
Alright. That works for me. But, follow my lead. No jumping the gun.” I fell quiet for a moment, deciding how much crap I wanted to dig up. I didn’t want to ruin the moment, but I had to ask. “The FPA killed Bianca. What did she tell you?”

Arys groaned and made a dramatic show of whining melodramatically in protest. “She didn’t tell me a damn thing other than that she’d been sent to seduce either me or Shaz in order to find out more about you and what goes on inside The Wicked Kiss.”

“
Don’t withhold shit from me, Arys,” I warned. “Briggs said she gave you info that Shya wanted.”

“
She told me about a scroll, some kind of spell or something. Shya needs it. The FPA is trying to find it before he does. That’s all she would say.” Arys stretched and rolled us over so I was flat on my back beneath him. “I considered killing her. I thought you might be pissed if I did, so I let her go.”

“
After you kicked the shit out of her?” I stared up at him, worried that he would tell me something I didn’t want to hear.

Arys’s eyes glittered with the memory. He smirked before lowering his head to kiss my stomach. “I did what it took to make her talk. Don’t judge, Alexa. It’ll be you making that call one day.”

My mind raced, putting the pieces together. I assumed Shya needed the missing spell for Gabriel who would then use it, along with my death, to open the chamber from hell. It was likely that Lilah sought the spell as well. Hopefully, she wouldn’t be a problem much longer. I just needed to find the scroll before either Shya or the FPA did. Easy, right?

“
I was hoping Bianca would know something we could use against Shya,” Arys explained. “She didn’t. But, she did confirm that the FPA doesn’t have the scroll. Neither does Shya. As long as we get it first, we own his ass. Until then, he keeps every other big ugly bad away from you. I think it’s as good a deal as we’re going to get.”

Arys shoved me back down beneath him. I pondered his logic, finding it sound. We didn’t have many options as far as Shya was concerned. I was too impatient to wait for Shya to make a move; we had to find that scroll before the demon did.

Arys descended between my legs, interrupting my thoughts. The touch of his tongue stole my breath and left me grasping for words.

“
We should talk about this,” I said distractedly. “There’s so much to consider.”

“
Not right now there isn’t. There is only you and me. Everything else waits until nightfall. So, I suggest you stop talking, unless you’re praising my wonderful performance.” With a sinful laugh, he gripped my hips, holding me beneath him while he worshipped my body.

I didn’t argue. Hell, he had a point. Until I walked into Lilah’s, I just had to pass the time. Sleep would be a necessary factor in readying myself… after exhausting myself with my dark lover, of course.

Chapter Twenty

“
Arys, get your ass out of that shower before I’m forced to flush the toilet and scald you out.”

I swiped a hand through the steam layering the mirror, but my reflection was still hazy. I saw calm brown eyes staring back at me. My hair was long and loose, falling down my back in a wave of ash blonde. Smoky black liner and mascara was all the makeup I wore. It created a dramatic cat eye effect, just the start of the drama for the evening.

“
Why don’t you get your ass in here and soap up my… back?” he chuckled. “Don’t make me rub one out without you.”

“
Alright, that’s it.” I reached over and flushed the toilet, giggling when Arys shouted a litany of curses.

“
Not cool, Alexa.”

Ignoring him, I left the bathroom and rifled through my closet. Yoga pants and a simple black tank top made up my casual but easy to move in outfit. I knew I’d be fighting for my life in a matter of hours and couldn’t shake the sense of urgency. Having to wait until midnight to hit up Lilah’s party of mayhem and doom was making me impatient. I wanted to rush in and save my sister. Unfortunately, it couldn’t be that easy.

I took a slow, steady breath. Remaining calm and focused was in my best interest. It was just so damn tough.

Arys’s notebook lay on the bedside table. I had woken up to the sound of a pencil scratching against paper. Arys’s long buried artistic flare had recently come back to life. It was good for him; he needed an outlet that wasn’t blood and death.

Curious, I picked up his notebook. He’d been drawing a wolf. It stared off into the distance, seeing something beyond the boundary of the page. The wistful expression it wore was painfully familiar. The wolf wasn’t me; it was clearly Shaz.

“
It’s not my best work,” Arys’s voice came from behind me.

I turned to him with a smile. “It’s beautiful. Really.” And, it was. It also caused a pang of longing so fierce my chest ached.

Arys readied himself as I watched. In jeans and a t-shirt, he looked comfortable but prepared to fight. His wet hair had dried into the sexy mess it always was. The few silver piercings he often wore were absent, the jewellery left on the bathroom counter. I drank in the sight of him, wanting to hold on to one of our last moments alone together until this was all over.

“
We have time for a quickie,” he teased, poking the ticklish spot in my side until I laughed. He pulled me into his arms and kissed the top of my head. “Are you ready? I don’t want to send you in there alone.”

“
Yeah, I’m ready. The wait is killing me. Besides, I won’t be alone. Jez will be with me.” I hugged him extra tight, and a small sigh escaped me.

The drive to the city was tense. I was tightly wound; the anxious energy building in my core had me vibrating with the need to unleash it on anyone who dared to harm my sister.

Jez and Willow were waiting for us outside The Wicked Kiss. Arys tentatively suggested that we go inside and find ourselves a willing victim, something to take the edge off, but I liked my edge right where it was. I wasn’t hungry for blood tonight, only for vengeance.

“
Should we say anything to Kale?” Jez asked, gesturing to his car in the lot.

“
No,” I shook my head and regarded the door cautiously. “He’s got his own problems to deal with. I think he would be more of a liability than anything.”

A shadow of absolute hate passed over Arys’s face at the mention of Kale. I would definitely be doing all I could to keep them from having a further encounter.

I opened the Charger’s trunk and stared at my dagger. The Dragon Claw, just a nick, was exactly what I needed to take out Lilah.

“
There’s no way she’ll let me get in there with this,” I mused.

“
I’m going to try getting past her guards with this.” Jez slid the hairpin out of her golden locks, showing me the blade attached. “It’s pure silver.”

“
Nice.” I nodded, regarding her with curiosity. “Does it hurt you at all?” I couldn’t help but wonder. It would take some time to adjust to the idea of Jez being half demon.

Jez tucked the hairpin back into place and smoothed out a few loose tendrils. “Nope. That’s the beauty of being mortal.”

Sure she was mortal, but if someone got a hold of that thing and plunged it into her, what would it do then? I wasn’t going to undermine Jez’s choice to bring it; I just hoped that no one would use it against her.

“
I can get that in to you.” Willow pointed to the Dragon Claw. He had been relatively quiet. I wondered if it was because he was also relatively sober.

“
Really? You can bring something like that when you do your little teleportation thing?” I wasn’t sure if there was a more accurate term for what angels and demons did. They could pop from place to place and lurk unseen. Teleportation just didn’t seem to fit.

Willow laughed, a musical sound that produced a sense of peace. “There are many terms for it, most of them fabricated or incorrect. Let’s just call it a translocation jump. Seems to be the best way to describe it. And yes, I can take objects with me. Unfortunately, that’s about all I can take. No live beings or anything like that.”

“
Perfect. Thank you.” I lifted the dagger from its velvet-lined box and passed it to Willow, careful not to let it touch either Jez or Arys. “Wait until the right time, if you can figure out when that is. Too early or too late, and I’ll never get a chance to use it.”

“
I’ll stay out of sight until I feel I’m needed.” Willow turned the dagger over, examining the demon blade with distaste. I handed him the scabbard, and he promptly slipped it inside before tucking it into his knee-length leather jacket.

“
So, now we wait,” I said, my impatience growing. I pulled out my phone to check the time, and it rang in my hand. The hard rock sound of Guns N’ Roses was loud in the quiet parking lot. It was Briggs.

“
Shit,” I swore before answering. “What do you want, Briggs?”

“
Have you heard from Juliet? When she didn’t answer any of my calls I went by her place. There were signs of a struggle, and she’s nowhere to be found.”

I had a split second to decide between the truth and a lie. “Someone took her. Someone who wants to use her as leverage over me. She’s alive. I won’t let anything change that.”

“
If you know where she is, O’Brien, you’d better give me a little more information than that. I’ll have a team ready in minutes.” He covered the phone to bark orders at someone in the background.

“
No deal. I’ll handle this. Your people would only get her killed.” I braced for the threat of government authority.

Briggs scoffed and swore. “Dammit, I am not in the mood to play these games with you. Not everything is a power trip. She’s a member of my team, and I am genuinely concerned for her well-being.”

“
All things considered, I’m glad to hear that. You’ll be the first to know when she’s safe again.” I hung up before he could reply. Having the FPA all over this would only increase the level of danger.

I stared at the phone, remembering Briggs boasting about tracking it. Turning it off should prevent that. Still, to be on the safe side, I would have to leave it here at the club.

When it was almost time to leave, Arys pulled me aside. “Be careful and most importantly, stay calm. Don’t let her drive you to make decisions based on anger. Your short temper is dangerous.”

“
Who are you to talk?” I punched him playfully, trying to keep the moment from getting serious. It didn’t work.

He kissed me with an intensity that stole my breath. “I promised Shaz I would keep you safe. Please don’t do anything to make that a lie.”

“
I’ll be fine.” I touched his face, and he leaned into it, rubbing his cheek against my hand. “You’re always with me, even when you’re not actually with me. No worries, ok?”

By the time Jez and I clambered into her Jeep for the drive to Lilah’s, I was frightfully calm. I’d awakened with fear and apprehension, but that faded, replaced by a solemn assurance that, no matter what happened, I was going to find a way to protect Juliet. The wolf paced restlessly inside me. It, too, was eager to make Lilah hurt.

“
That worked too well,” Jez commented with a smirk.

We watched as Arys drove away in my car, followed by a grey BMW sedan that pulled out of the grocery store lot across the street. Easing into traffic behind the Charger, it had to be the feds. Briggs thought he could send a tail after me? Please. He’d be sorry when Arys led them on a wild goose chase and sent them back with punctured veins, if he sent them back at all.

A few minutes later, we pulled into traffic, heading in the opposite direction. I watched closely in the side mirror for any sign of another FPA car. We were clear.