Domiel (21 page)

She shrugged his grip off her shoulders and started walking to the building. He snatched her back and materialized them into the apartment building. Because it was such a short distance, nausea didn’t take her down. She hit the stairs running, Domiel and the other assassins right behind her. “What level are we on?”

“The next landing is his.”

She rounded the last flight of stairs, taking two steps at a time, and unsheathed her sword. With the Immortal Enforcers right behind them, there would be no time to waste. If he was still here, she was positive Nybbas wouldn’t make it out of the building alive, but she wanted him to die by her hand. She deserved that closure. She’d be damned if anyone took that away from her—death angel or not.

She burst through the exit door to the top floor of the building. Instead of searching for the number of his apartment, she followed his energy source. A few decorative plants and enough marble to sink a ship couldn’t mask the feeling of evil. How humans remained ignorant of the sensation was beyond her.

“This is it,” Domiel said from behind her.

He referred to the apartment door, but she took his words for something else entirely. “Tell that death angel he can have me when I’m finished, and not before.”

“Kels, it doesn’t work that way.”

“It does today.” She didn’t come this far to fail. Once the bastard was dead, fate could do with her what it would. Until then, she was going nowhere. “Open the door.”

The door clicked, and she kicked it open. A door slammed somewhere toward the back of the extravagantly decorated apartment. “He’ll dematerialize.”

She bolted to the back of the apartment and slammed her shoulder into the door that had just slammed shut, splintering the thick wood. Domiel yelled to her, but she ignored him. Before she contemplated her action, she ran to the demon inside the room and grabbed him just as he dematerialized, taking her with him and away from any help she’d come with.

* * * *

Domiel launched himself across the room, but he wasn’t fast enough. He slammed into a large oak dresser, right through the space Nybbas and Kelsey had occupied milliseconds before.

For a moment he leaned against the dresser, stupefied. No one could track a demon once they’d dematerialized. Even worse, he could no longer feel the Angel of Souls’s presence. Black rage nearly blinded him. Rage and a sense of defeat so sharp it felt like a kick in the gut.

Someone squeezed his shoulder. “We’ll find them. Come on, let’s go.”

Shocked at the voice, he turned to see Ambrose standing behind him. When the hell had he arrived?

“I couldn’t sit at home and not be a part of this. Not after what I did to her. We’ll make this right.”

The black rage intensified. “We?
We’ll
make it right? We wouldn’t be here without her if you hadn’t sacrificed her.”

He pushed past Ambrose and threaded his way through the numerous immortals who filled the apartment, Alliance, IE, and other incubi. Would Nybbas take her into the dream realm? If he did, one of these incubi would know. They could search for his energy there.

“You.” He grabbed one of the incubi by his upper arm and went face-to-face with him. “I need your help. Tell me how to astral project, and then take me to the dream realm.” Fear, frustration and a desperate need to get to her clawed at his gut. If she was hurt—or worse, killed—he’d never forgive himself. He should have dematerialized her when he’d felt the Angel of Souls. He should have taken her someplace safe.

The incubus tried to dislodge himself from Domiel’s grip, which only tightened until his knuckles turned white.

Alexia, who stood right next to him, gasped. She’d gone ashen. His mind, working at double speed, processed her reaction lightning quick. She’d seen something. “No!” he yelled at her. He turned back to the incubus and decided he didn’t need the Alliance. He dematerialized the incubus to the alley they’d just come from, wanting to get out of the apartment and away from all the chaos.

He didn’t want to know what Lexie had just seen.

“How do I astral project?”

The demon stepped back when Domiel let him go. “You have to meditate. It’s not an immediate thing when you first learn to do it. Once your soul has left your body I can take you into the dream realm. You’ll feel your body getting light, and your limbs will begin to tingle. You have to go with the feeling and let it take you.”

He was trusting a stranger with his life. With Kelsey’s life.

His decision was made.

“There’s a high risk in astral projection. If at any time someone severs your cord, you will never make it back to your body.”

Domiel waved away the warning and lay on the cold, wet concrete, his only thought to get to her.

“We should do this somewhere else. This isn’t safe.”

Domiel spared the man one last glance. “We don’t have time. I’m willing to take the risk. Just lead me to Nybbas. That’s all I ask.”

Then he shut his eyes and pushed every doubt and fear out of his mind. He wasn’t sure how long it took, but his limbs finally started to tingle, and a wave of light-headedness hit him just before he felt weightlessness.

* * * *

Kelsey couldn’t get over how different Nybbas had appeared in the physical world. She’d hesitated at the threshold of the bedroom door for half a second, her gaze traveling over a tall, weathered-looking man. Demons never looked weathered, nor did they look emaciated.
Ever.

Seemed he didn’t like anyone seeing him in that condition, since he took her solidly into the dream realm before she’d even seen where he’d materialized her. Now firmly rooted in that realm, he looked exactly like he did all those years ago. Strong, healthy, vibrant. His entire appearance in the dream realm was a lie.

She figured she needed to point out the obvious to him. “You looked like shit back there.”

He shrugged the massive shoulders he’d created himself. “Haven’t fed in a few days.”

So if an incubus or succubus didn’t feed they withered away like a brittle leaf in fall? Something kept him from feeding. She had a good idea why he hadn’t siphoned from her or someone else. The Alliance had started closing in on him, along with other sanctions of the immortal world—even his own. He’d have to have known the end was coming.

“You can’t hide here. Your own kind will be scouring the dream realm for you. Leave the dream realm and the Immortal Enforcers and the Alliance will track you down. They’ll eventually find our corporeal bodies. You can’t hide anywhere.”
Doesn’t feel good, does it, asshole?

He stopped pacing, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. The confidence he’d displayed the last time she’d seen him was gone. He knew he had run out of options. The inevitability of death now resided in his subconscious, and damned if that didn’t make her deliriously happy. He deserved whatever sad, painful end he got. She only hoped she would be the one to deliver it.

The vision he’d created for her in the dream realm meshed with his current predicament—a black chasm of nothing. She hadn’t experienced a true darkness such as they were in since she’d been possessed. Refusing to let her surroundings get to her, she kept her gaze on Nybbas, all the while feeling another immortal energy slip into the chasm. Nybbas felt it as well. His entire body tensed.

“Is that your kind closing in?”

“No.” He seemed generally confused as he looked around, as if he could see the presence.

The Angel of Souls. That Angel wouldn’t come for Nybbas. His soul would go straight to the Pit. It was her soul that would need guidance.

Suddenly deliriously happy didn’t describe her mood anymore. Would Nybbas somehow control her actions here, and end her life in the human realm? And why wouldn’t the Angel stay near her corporeal body? She hadn’t astral projected as Nybbas had done.

She’d had no time to astral project. Instead of thinking things through with a cool head—as every assassin was taught—she’d gone all Alexia on his ass and done something rash. Question was,
had
he astral projected? She couldn’t be one hundred percent sure. There was no way to know, and even if he had, she couldn’t sever what she couldn’t see.

Which left her at a fucking disadvantage
again
. If he did astral project, he must have assigned this image to himself. His powers were so impressive, failure seemed a likely outcome.

Actually, with that death angel breathing down her neck, her death was a certain outcome.

“How did you think this was going to end?” she asked, refusing to hang on to the defeatist attitude that had settled into her bones. If anyone should feel defeated in this moment, it should be him. Even if she died, he wouldn’t survive for long. The Alliance might have been willing to assassinate her, but they’d done so to save innocents and to save herself from the eternal fires. They’d never made the decision lightly or callously.

The truth she was finally able to admit hit her square in her chest. They’d never given up on her. They’d wanted to keep innocents safe and stop her from committing sins. What would she have done in their position?

If Nybbas ended her life, the Alliance would find him and end him, retribution in their every step.

She’d miss everyone, and she’d long for what she could have had with Domiel. Strength shoved the defeat from her body. She’d made a difference to people. She’d be missed. Mourned.

No one would mourn Nybbas. “Well?”

He refused to answer her. He seemed frozen, almost paralyzed.

Then she felt it.

Domiel’s energy ravaged the air around her, but she saw no one. She whirled around, trying to locate him. He couldn’t be far, his energy was too strong. She stood in front of Nybbas, looking just as confused as he did, until a faint, feathery touch traveled over her cheek. The ghostly touch was warm and comforting.

Domiel had astral projected.

That had to be it. He’d astral projected but didn’t have the power to conjure up his likeness in the dream realm.

Nybbas must have come to the same conclusion. He’d gone completely still. Seconds later, she felt a tug on her subconscious. Nybbas was trying to take her from the dream realm, back to the place where their physical bodies lay. She fought the pull with everything she had.

She had to give Domiel time to find Nybbas’s silver cord—if he’d astral projected. How had he done it? How had he navigated the dream realm?

Dizziness overcame her, and she went to her knees, the darkness spinning around her as though she were being sucked into a black hole. Memories of her possession came rushing back at her, claustrophobia clawing at her skin, shattering her common sense into incoherent pieces.

She didn’t falter. She stayed firmly rooted in the dream realm, even though Nybbas did everything he could to take her out. This was what she had been waiting for her whole immortal life. Vengeance for her daughter’s death, vengeance for the mortal life that had been ripped away from her, and vengeance for the helplessness that he’d made her feel throughout the centuries.

Hands on the blackened floor, she glanced up, her body tense and shaking.

Nybbas twisted his body—possibly away from Domiel’s spirit—and vanished. Instantly she felt his pull on her evaporate. She could breath again.

Had Domiel severed his silver cord, or had Nybbas given up on taking her out of the dream realm and left? She couldn’t take any chances. She left the dream realm and came to. Nybbas was already on his feet, double-timing it out of a cramped space made of concrete.

A mausoleum. He’d materialized them to a mausoleum.

She sprinted after him, tackling his bag of bones just outside on the damp grass. He struggled, seemingly stronger than she’d have thought someone capable of in his condition. He nailed her with a quick jab straight to her solar plexus, and the breath whooshed out of her. If she’d been human, she’d probably have lost consciousness. As it was, she just couldn’t breathe.

He’d have to do better than that to take her out. Hell, G.I. Jade’s training practices were worse.

She shoved her forearm into the back of his neck to keep him down and reached for the dagger strapped to her belt. He bowed with his upper body and managed to knock her off his back. She aimed for his head and kicked as hard as she could. He staggered to his feet. She jumped to hers.

She rushed him, dagger in hand, when something hit her in back. Too big to be a bullet, too small to be a person. Whatever it was pierced her heart. Pain exploded inside her chest as she went down. She hadn’t recovered from his jab, so there was no air to leave her lungs when she hit the ground. Unable to breathe, panic rose.

Someone yanked her head back by her hair.

Nybbas screamed, “No!”

Whoever was behind her was going to sever her head from her shoulders.

* * * *

Domiel’s entire body gave one massive convulsion when his soul snapped back. He sprang to his feet, back in the dimly lit ally.

Nybbas had left the dream realm before Domiel had located his silver cord. Kelsey had disappeared seconds later, to where, he still had no clue.
Shit.
He’d have to track down Ambrose or Alexia, see if they had any lead as to where the incubus had taken Kelsey’s physical body. How long had he been in the dream realm? It couldn’t have been long.

He glanced down at the ground. And where the hell was the incubus who’d taken him into the dream realm?

The energy of an Angel of Souls filtered through the air around him. He turned, not expecting to see Elizabeth. Fear made him nauseated. Kels was dead. Kels was dead, and Elizabeth had guided her soul. That was who he’d been feeling all along.

How could he have failed her? He pressed a palm against the pain in his chest. He knew how all those people had felt when they’d begged for their loved ones. He understood the pain that had been evident in their eyes. Would Elizabeth bring her back if he begged? He knew she didn’t have that power. Once a silver cord was severed, that was it. There was no coming back, but the need to plead for Kelsey’s return was still there.

Elizabeth’s blond hair whipped around her head. Her long, white dress fell to her feet, not a wrinkle in sight. Maybe she’d figure out a way to take him, too.