Devil's Eye (9 page)

Mick tipped her face up and his eyes glowed gold. “We’re gonna get through this. I’m not gonna let anything happen to you or to Liza. Tomorrow it will all be over.”

He brushed a thumb across her cheek, and she trembled, confused and longing for something that was so ill-timed, so ill-advised she couldn’t even process it. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

The moment stretched between them and his hand slid back into her hair.

Something crashed below. They both jolted, Mick automatically shifting her behind him as they raced down the stairs. When they reached the bottom, Olaf was crouched in a defensive stance, a huge double headed axe clutched in his hands. Across the room, the demon lounged against the work table looking amused.

“
I think he’s compensating for something,” it said.

“
Who are you?” roared Olaf.

Mick laid a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “He’s with us.”

Olaf didn’t take his eyes off the demon. “You brought a
demon
into my shop? Into my
forge?
”

“
By proxy. He lives in the artifact you just copied.”

“
And you didn’t think this was a relevant factor to
mention?”

Determined to be the voice of reason, Sophie stepped between them. “Okay both of you chill.” She turned to Olaf, “Is the counterfeit ready?”

“
See for yourself,” said the demon.

Sophie looked beyond it to the shining black stone sitting beside the mold. Black. Not red. The chill of fear skittered up her spine as she turned to Olaf. “Tell me there are more steps.”

The dwarf rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. “I don’t know what happened. I can try again—”

“
There’s no
time
,” Sophie snapped. “The kidnapper expects us to be en route with the Eye right now.”

“
It could still work,” said Mick. “If the Eye was lost for as long as you say, maybe the kidnapper doesn’t know what it looks like.”

“
Are you willing to risk Liza’s life on maybe?” Sophie paced a tight circle, shoving both hands through her hair in frustration. “This isn’t happening. I can’t have failed this badly. My mother will never forgive me.” Never mind that Sophie would never forgive herself. In all likelihood, Liza was going to die.
What the hell is the point of being the daughter of a
god
if I can’t even save my sister!

“
It’s not over yet,
petite
.”

“
How?” she demanded, whirling to face Mick. “How in the hell can we possibly pull this off? We can’t risk giving him the Eye.”

“
We need to be able to give it to him but have it not work,” he said. His attention shifted to the demon. “How are you transferred from one host to another?”

“
I am bound to a host until death. Otherwise it would be like playing musical masters.”

“
So our kidnapper could touch the Eye and have nothing happen if you’re already bound to someone else?”

The demon inclined its head in acquiescence.

“
There’s our answer,” said Mick.

Sophie stared at him, a sinking feeling in her gut. “I don’t understand.”

“
We have to make a deal with the devil.”

~*~

Sophie looked stricken, but the expression of anxiety rapidly shifted to one of stubborn fury. “No. Mick you
can’t
.” She shook her head, moving between him and the Eye, though Mick wasn’t sure if it was to deliberately block him or force him to listen. “You don’t know what bonding with the Eye would do to you. No matter your intent, that kind of power could warp you. No one who’s ever wielded the Eye did so with good intentions.”

She turned to look at the demon, obviously desperate for backup. “Tell him.”

It lounged against the work table, deceptively casual in stance, but its eyes burned with interest. “It is true that I have, over centuries, taken on the characteristics of my former masters. And I, in turn, have shaped them.”

“
So it was always sought after by the power hungry,” said Mick. He took Sophie by the shoulders, willing her to understand. “I’m not. Never have been. I have no intention of wielding the Eye at all, just tying up its power long enough to make the deal and get Liza.”

“
And then what?” she demanded. “Be bound to a demon for the rest of your natural life? To have that kind of power at your beck and call, just waiting for an excuse to be used? Even the most noble of men would bow to that eventually. You may not even have to consciously decide to use it. For all you know, the demon can act on your desires, whether they are voiced or not.”

That gave him pause. Mick was confident he could control his own actions, but his desires? That was another matter entirely. He looked to the demon for confirmation. “Can you?”

It shrugged. “It is a symbiotic relationship. I know the thoughts and desires of my host. But I have never had one who did not act on those desires, so, truthfully, I do not know. The Eye is not the tool of honorable men.”

“
Then it’s time you had an injection of honor to remind you of what you could have been.” Decided, Mick let her go. He took a step toward the table where the Devil’s Eye lay, but Sophie countered, moving into him.

“
What about the rest of your Pack? What happens to them if the Eye corrupts you?” she demanded.

He looked down at the small hands pressing against his chest, over the heart that was quite suddenly thudding with a fear he hadn’t considered. His Pack, his family was everything to him. He’d devoted his life to protecting his group of misfits. The idea that the Eye could somehow change that, could somehow make him hurt them was untenable. He would never betray his Pack. And that conviction was what held him firm in his resolve. “It won’t corrupt me,” he said.

“
But what if—”

Mick laid a finger over her lips, stopping whatever additional protest she was about to make. “I can’t operate on what-ifs and maybes.” He didn’t give himself time to think about whether he was just talking about the situation with Liza, ruthlessly shutting off the thought of what could be with Sophie if things had been different. For all his bravado, he knew he was probably signing a death warrant. If regret was bitter on his tongue, it was a familiar taste. “I have to operate on what is. This is. The only way we can get Liza back is if we deliver the Eye and the kidnapper can’t actually use it. There is no other choice. I have to do what’s right for her.”

“
What about what’s right for you?”

“
I don’t matter.” It was a simple, honest statement, something he fully believed. The Pack was more important.

“
You do to me.” She looked shocked, but she didn’t take it back and the words hung between them, evidence of a connection he could barely admit to.

He wanted time. Leisure to explore this unexpected gift. But time was a luxury they didn’t have, and Liza’s life depended on their actions in the next hour.

Mick cupped her cheek, memorizing the feel of it beneath his hand as he whispered, “It will be all right, Sophie.” Then he stepped around her and reached for the Eye.

The stone was cold to the touch, making the skin of his palm shrink and tighten. Then it
melted
, and the liquefied mass began to climb up his arm, growing and groping like some giant amoeba.

“
What the fuck?”

Mick couldn’t help it. He shook his arm, trying to dislodge the crimson blob. But it stayed wrapped around him, moving up to his shoulder, his chest, down his torso, cocooning him in freezing bands that drove the air from his lungs.

“
Mick!” Sophie screamed and started toward him.

“
No!” he gasped. “Stay back!”

He fell to his knees, his wolf rising up in response to the threat. His limbs popped and twisted in an agonizing attempt at a shift that left him caught between forms. He tipped back his head and let out a long, anguished howl that was choked off as the noxious liquid invaded his mouth. Panic gripped him, strangling even tighter than the nebulous blob itself. Trapped. He was trapped inside this thing, inside his own body. Dying.

You must give in to the Eye.
The demon’s voice stroked his mind like barbed fingers, slicing, sliding their way inside.

Mick screamed at the invasion, though it was silence that echoed through his brain. Terror was a living thing, clawing its way out of his chest, fighting against the bonds of the Eye.

Accept. Give in. Or you will die.

How could he calm down and accept this when he couldn’t fucking breathe!

If you are dead you will be of no use to your Liza.

Mick tried to calm his racing heart and reached for his wolf.
For the Pack, my brother. We must do this for the Pack.

He held still and waited.

Centuries passed until he had all but forgotten his name, his purpose, until at last he gave himself up to the agony.

And at length the pain eased. His limbs lengthened, settling into human form again, stiff and aching from the partial shift. Mick opened his mouth and found he could once again gasp for breath. Someone was weeping.

Not dead then
, he thought vaguely.

Breathing was good. It eased the pain in his chest. As he lay there, he came aware of hands wrapped awkwardly around his shoulders, his head in a lap. The weeping woman.

He wanted to reassure her that he was all right, but speech seemed beyond his abilities just now.

“
What did you
do
to him?” she snarled at someone.

He recognized that voice. It pulled at something hot and possessive inside him.

“
Demon or no, if you’ve done permanent damage to Mick, I’ll find a way to make you bleed.”

He knew that voice too. Booming and angry. Somehow short. And the name, Mick. It rolled around in his head before settling.

That’d be me
, he realized.

“
He will wake.”

Mick frowned at the outside embodiment of the voice from his mind. There was something important attached to that voice. Something he was supposed to do. He fought toward consciousness.

A field of vivid Aegean blue resolved itself into a woman’s eyes. His woman.
Sophie.

She looked down at him, her face run with tears. “You’re alive!”

“
Seems that way,” he croaked.

“
Are you all right?”

All right
seemed like a mighty subjective term to him. But he forced his lips into a semblance of a smile to ease the lines of strain and worry on her face. “Let’s just stick with not dead for now.”

He struggled up and a glistening red stone rolled out of his hand and onto the floor.

That was when he saw the demon across the room and remembered.
Liza. Kidnapped. I just made a deal with the devil.

“
What time is it? How long was I out? Are we too late?” The words spilled out in a rush.

“
There’s time still, but we have to go now,” said Sophie, grabbing one of his arms as Olaf grabbed the other and tugged up. “But can you make it? You’re not in any condition to fight.”

“
I can make it,” he said, deliberately stepping away to prove he could stand on his own two feet. “I’ll do whatever needs doing.”

Olaf gingerly picked up the Devil’s Eye and handed it over. “I don’t ever want to see this, or Hefty Smurf over there again.”

It was warm now. Mick nodded and slipped it into his pocket. “Thanks for your help.”

“
Fat lot of good it did. I’ll waive my fee since I didn’t provide a usable product.” He reached out, gripping Mick’s forearm. “Good luck, my friend. You’re gonna need it.”

Chapter 7

T
he
radio station was down when Mick tried to check the forecast one last time. Not that it mattered. Hurricane Roy wasn’t their primary concern. Liza and her kidnapper were waiting.

Wind buffeted the car with rain and debris. The storm was upon them. It was now or never, whether New Orleans got flattened or not.