Darkest Before Dawn (20 page)

He nodded at my unspoken words as though sensing my thoughts. “There are matters I must tend to. The Dark Court asks after me. If the rumors are to be believed, the Mother of Destruction is not dead.”

“Will you tell them I’m sprawled naked in your bed?” I purred.

His smile twitched. “In case you hadn’t noticed, I am the master of half-truths. I can manipulate the Court. I’ve been doing it for years.” He grinned, baring sharp white teeth before vanishing in a burst of static.

It didn’t escape my attention that he hadn’t answered my question.

T
ime
alone with my thoughts was the last thing I needed. It wasn’t long before the anesthetic effects of sex with Akil wore off, and I was faced with some cold, hard facts. Fear of what I’d become gnawed my bones. My demon stalked happily around my head while guilt, remorse, and disgust churned my gut. I found a bottle of red wine in the cellar and sat at the breakfast table, glowering at the corked bottle and the empty glass beside it. I should have been stronger. I knew that. My demon was my responsibility. I was meant to be something better than this weak-willed woman I seemed to be, and yet I sought out means to forget what I was slowly becoming.
A monster.

I poured the wine. Akil was no different from the wine in that glass. He could offer me temporary reprieve, but it didn’t solve any of the problems. In fact, he complicated matters with his dark words and even darker needs. I needed help, the kind that wouldn’t come from drinking myself silly or sleeping with the sweet-talking Prince of Hell. If I was the Mother of Destruction, I was surely running headlong down the path of self-destruction with no means of escape.

I huffed out a breath and spread my hands on the countertop. Stefan was the only person who could possibly understand how much I terrified myself. Shit, the things he must have been thinking after killing those Enforcers. We were both so terribly damaged that our only hope had to be found in one another. If only he’d agreed to run away with me where nobody could hurt us and we couldn’t hurt anyone. We could have fled, escaped all of this, but to what end? Dawn would have been trapped in a cage. I could never have left her. What ifs weren’t going to change anything. Stefan was gone and, in likelihood, had turned full-demon by now. The same fate awaited me if I didn’t get a grip.

Was this Dawn’s future? There had to be a way out for her. She was powerful beyond anything I’d ever witnessed before. She wielded an element I didn’t even begin to understand and did so with deadly efficiency. Had it not been for Ryder’s intervention, she might have killed me. That was a sobering thought. Akil had said she was powerful, but Dawn was something else. No wonder the princes squabbled over her. She could kill an immortal. That made her demon kryptonite. But that erroneous accolade now rested on my shoulders. I trailed my gaze down the dark hallway, knowing I should check in on her... but finding myself hesitating. She’d have questions, and my answers weren’t going to be happy ones.

There were two other half bloods out there somewhere, subjects in the Institute’s Operation Typhon. Were they just as damaged? Were they strong? Did they beat the system? Had they needed help like I did?

I picked up the wine glass and admired the swirl of burgundy liquid. I’d tried to help Stefan once.
Half bloods don’t get happy endings.
I’d destroyed any hope I’d had with him, despite my best efforts. Was I just delaying Dawn’s inevitable destruction? No, I had to believe the little girl asleep down the hall could have a good life. It was too late for Stefan and me but not for her.

I tasted the wine, let it roll around my tongue, and swallowed.
The Mother of Destruction...
What did it mean?

An alarm chimed somewhere, alerting me to movement outside. I checked the CCTV feed on the little flat-screen TV in the kitchen and saw Jenna striding toward the back door. The Lambo was the only car in the drive, evidently Akil’s. I sighed. They’d found me.

I answered the door before she had chance to ring the bell. Glass of wine in hand, bed-hair, and dressed in some old ill-fitting old clothes of mine, I must have looked as bedraggled and bemused as I felt.

She arched an eyebrow. “I thought I might find you here.”

I raked my gaze over her. Her jacket bunched around a sidearm at her hip. I leaned out and checked the driveway and then the pale blue wash of sky. “No backup?”

“Just me. May I come in?”

I couldn’t summon my demon inside the house. She knew that. In a straight up fistfight, she’d probably win. I was fast. I had some tricks up my sleeves. Ryder taught me well, but I didn’t have her years of training. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Is Akil here?”

I leaned against the doorjamb and sipped my drink. “What do you want?”

“To talk with you.”

I wondered if Akil had stashed any whiskey in the house. “How many did I kill?” I echoed the very same words Stefan had asked me.

“None, miraculously. But it was a close thing. Two are in the hospital. Their burns won’t kill them, but...” she shrugged a shoulder.

I clutched the doorjamb as my vision wavered with relief. “Are you here to take me in peacefully? Avoid a firefight? Is that it?”

“No. I er...” She moistened her lips and looked away. “The Institute doesn’t know I’m here, okay. Something’s happened. I need your help.”

I laughed. “Believe me, I am the last person on this earth you want helping you.” I stepped back, giving her room to step inside. “If you knew what was good for you, you’d turn around and walk away. Get as far away from me as possible.”

“I don’t think I can,” she said quietly.

She’d come all this way to talk to me? It didn’t ring true, but I was beyond caring. I checked the tree line again, expecting to see Enforcers spilling from the forest. The fresh morning air was sweet on my tongue, the pine-scented breeze cool. I listened hard but heard only the undercurrent of the breeze. “Fine.” I closed the door and showed her to the kitchen. “I’m having breakfast.” I lifted my glass. “Want some?”

“Muse...”

I shrugged at her motherly tone of disapproval. “Yeah, I’m a wreck. I know it. You don’t have to beat around the bush.”

“What happened to you?” She tucked her hands into her pockets and squared her shoulders.

“The same old shit. Don’t worry about me. I’ll survive. I always do. What did you come all this way for?” I leaned against the breakfast table.

Jenna settled against the countertop, gaze evasive, body restless. “Do you remember when your brother tracked me to the mall in Salem then brought me here?”

I tapped my nails on the table. “Yes.” It wouldn’t be long before Val showed up again. If the Dark Court suspected I was alive, Val would soon hear about it. He wasn’t a prince, but he was well connected.

“He er...” She swallowed and bowed her head. “When you tried to save me from him, after he... Y’know, when you were unconscious...” She shifted her stance and sighed. “Damn. Listen, I’m not easy, you understand? I don’t usually...”

I narrowed my eyes. “Spit it out, Jenna.”

“That day. Before he took your little girl and while you were out cold, Val... Ah, damn, he worked me over with whatever magic he has. Okay? I mean, he really went to town on me. Dammit, this is harder than I thought...”

“He got to you.” I recalled how my brother had crowded Jenna against the car, smothering her with his netherworldy presence.

She sighed. Tears glistened in her eyes when she looked up. Until that moment, I’d never really felt much of anything for Jenna. She was the infallible Enforcer, Stefan’s ‘friend,’ the type of woman I wanted to be. Driven, passionate, committed, perfect. Now, as I looked at her, I saw another life torn apart by demons and felt a tangible weariness drag me down. When would it end?

“My god, Muse,” she whispered, “it was... wrong, but I wanted it. I still do. He –” Her throat moved as she swallowed. “He comes to me. He’s been coming to me since that day. Jesus...” She chewed her lip. “He asks me things about you, the Institute, and I tell him because I can’t bear for him to leave me without...” She swiped at a tear. “...without him screwing me.”

“Oh, Jenna...” The bastard. “I’m so sorry.”

She gave her head a few sharp shakes. “I thought maybe I could deal with it on my own and stop him somehow, but he’s too strong.”

I retrieved a glass from the cupboard and poured her a generous helping of wine.

Her hand trembled as she took it. “He came to me last night.” Her focus wavered, memories clouding her eyes. “I can’t help telling him things. The way I am with him, I’m not fully aware of what I’m doing... until afterward.”

Lust was a madness. I knew it well. “What did he say?”

“He said Dawn was missing and that the Prince of Envy was dead. He knew in his blood it was you, and he asked me if you were alive. I told him.” She gulped back a few mouthfuls of wine and wiped the back of her hand across her lips. “I’m so sorry. I had to find you. This was the only place I could think you’d go.”

I spat out a curse. “What did you tell him about the Institute?”

She sobbed. “Everything. And what I didn’t know, I found the answers to because I wanted to please him.” She groaned. “It makes me sick, knowing what I’ve done, and I still want him. How can that be possible?”

“It’s not you. It’s his power. He’s the Prince of Lust’s first-born son. You didn’t stand a chance, Jenna.”

“He asked about Operation Typhon and half bloods, Muse.” She saw me tense. “I didn’t know what it was to begin with. I asked Ryder. He said it was a breeding program for demons. Something about creating weapons. He’s the weapons guy. He should know, right? But he clammed up. I asked Adam. He denied it existed.”

The fact that Ryder knew about Operation Typhon didn’t entirely surprise me. His name had been all over the file I’d got a glimpse of. I trusted Ryder more than I trusted myself, but Jenna’s words had me rethinking my opinion of my old friend.

Jenna’s gaze said she knew more, and it wasn’t going to be good. “Go on.”

“I broke into Adam’s office. This isn’t me. I wouldn’t have done it, but... I need him.”

“It’s okay.” I shivered. Val’s hideous power sickened me. “Tell me everything.”

“I stole the file and gave it to him.”

I groaned. “Did you read it?”

“Some of it. The Institute has been experimenting on half bloods in a big way. It’s not just you and Stefan. There are others and more in other cities. But they’re killers, Muse. It’s terrible. They’re caged animals, not really human.”

Nausea pooled saliva in my mouth. I gulped it back, swallowing with it the rising tide of rage. “Val knows this...”

“His name is in that file, but they don’t know much about him. I probably know more.” She threaded her fingers through her hair.

“He controls the half bloods in the netherworld. Trades them like cattle.” I downed my wine and refilled my glass. “When he learned that I was going to be sold to the Institute, he put a stop to it. I can only imagine what the Institute is doing offends him. Everything this side of the veil offends my brother. The fact he must breathe the same air as humans pisses him off.”

“What will he do to the Institute?”

I met her gaze. “I have to worry about what he’ll do to me before I can worry about the Institute. I killed Levi. I have Dawn, and we know he wants her back. He was working with Levi. I don’t care enough about the Institute to help them dig themselves out of a hole of their own making.”

She nodded, her eyes unfocused again as she chewed on her lower lip. “What am I going to do?”

“We’ll think of something.” I had no idea. Val was a terrible force to be reckoned with. One touch of his wings had rendered me unconscious. He’d dangled lust in front of my eyes, and I’d gladly thrown myself at his feet, as weak as a kitten. I couldn’t imagine the horror Jenna had been living with, knowing he had her under his control and liking it. He’d be coming for me. And for Dawn.

“I need to check on Dawn.” I left Jenna alone with her thoughts and wandered through the sprawling house, trying not to think about the physical and emotional numbness spreading through my body. I should be relieved. I hadn’t killed anyone. That was good news. So why didn’t I feel like shouting from the rooftop? Grim realization tugged the corners of my lips down. It wasn’t a relief because I’d already accepted my demon was very capable of killing. Therefore, so was I. The lines between us were eroding.

Dawn’s room was empty. The bed had been slept in and her bunny lay sprawled on the pillow, but she was gone. “Dawn?” The house was too damn big. I checked each room, my anxiety notching up a degree with each passing minute. She had to be here. She wouldn’t have left. Not without the bunny. Nobody could get into Blackstone. The symbols kept all demons out, apart from Akil. I called her name, the pitch of my voice increasing as dread pooled in my gut.

The touch of Akil’s element tugged through me as he called his power from somewhere inside the house. I turned on my heel and jogged back through the house until I found him in the kitchen, pinning Jenna to the wall, hand locked around her throat.

“Akil, put her down.”

He snarled. “I don’t take kindly to Enforcers on my property.” Heat haze rippled the air around him.

Jenna’s wide eyes locked on me. She groped for her gun, but Akil captured her hand and pinned that to the wall too. Leaning in closer, he breathed in through his nose, drawing her scent into him. “She has Valenti’s scent on her.” He swung his gaze back to me. Embers fizzled in his eyes, a sure sign he wasn’t happy.

“I know.” I sighed. “She came here for help.”

He yanked her to him, growled through sharp teeth, then threw her to the floor between us. “She’s his minion and the reason he waits outside.”

I hissed, my fear for my brother like acid in my veins. “Val’s outside?”

Jenna staggered to her feet, wild eyes finding me. “I’m sorry.” She wheezed and spluttered, gasping air. “I couldn’t have denied him even if I wanted to. I was supposed to lure you out, but I couldn’t do it. Please believe me.” She gave me a wretched stare, her self-disgust evident in the savage downturn of her lips.

I couldn’t deal with her right now. Val was outside and... “Dawn’s gone.”

“Yes,” Akil replied, smoothing back his hair. “Her departure was necessary.”

“Oh god... What have you done?”

“I did the right thing, as I told you to do weeks ago. She’s far too volatile to be allowed to roam free. If any of the other princes claimed her, they’d very quickly turn her against the rest of us. She is chaos, Muse. You saw as much when she killed Levi. Yes, I know it wasn’t you. You might well be the Mother of Destruction, but that little girl is raw chaos inside the body of a nine year old human.”