Embraced (Eternal Balance) (13 page)

Chapter Seventeen

Jax/Azirak

“N
ot a chance,” Sam cried. She took a menacing step forward, then hesitated and moved back several feet. “It’s not gonna happen.”

I opened my mouth to protest—no fucking way was I riding shotgun in my own damn body—but of course no sound came. The demon was amused by my anger, though. I felt it.

“Come to terms with the inevitable,” it said. “This is your only option.”

I realized the demon wasn’t talking to Sam. It was addressing me. And it had a point. Without offing Malphi, Chase wouldn’t remove the cuff—and that was assuming the bastard kept his word at all. And Azi had already announced it wouldn’t let me kill its mate. Letting Sam die was out of the question. Since my biggest obstacle was technically living in the same body as me, this was the only path.

Fine. You get control, but only until you do what needs to be done. And so help me, you hurt her in any way, I’ll take us both out.

The demon chuckled. “My human agrees.”

“Bullshit,” Sam spat. “I’m just supposed to believe you? Jax would never let you take over.”

“He knows that your survival will only be possible through cooperation.”

“Sounds like blackmail to me.”

More amusement from Azirak. It held out my hand to Sam. “I am allowing him to remain conscious. He will have the ability to…keep an eye on things.”

Sam hesitated then after a moment sighed. A spark of sad acceptance in her eyes made me think she felt guilty, and I wanted to set her straight. Giving the demon control was like sacrificing a piece of myself. A small part of me that, up until now, had been mine alone, untainted by the thing that lived inside me. What I wanted her to know was that I didn’t care. It was worth it to me.

She
was worth it.

S
am had been behind the wheel for almost two hours. Her shoulders were beginning to slump, and her eyes kept drooping.
She needs to rest,
I said to Azi.
Make her pull over and you drive.

Azi shifted my body toward her. “Pull over,” it demanded.

When she didn’t respond, a wave of anger erupted, and the demon latched on to the wheel, yanking it hard to the right. Sam screamed as the car jerked hard sideways. She slammed the breaks, bringing the vehicle to an uneven stop on the side of the highway.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“I commanded you to pull over,” it said.

“I’m not one of your demons,” she snapped. “You don’t get to
command
me to do jack shit.”

Her words annoyed the demon, but it didn’t respond. Instead it studied her intently.

Watching Sam from Azi’s perspective was strange. Since embracing the demon, all my senses had been heightened. But with Azi in control, my vision was even sharper. More detailed. Each strand of her hair had multiple layers, with millions of different colors all blended to make perfection. Her lips, slightly parted with the right corner pulled up slightly in irritation, were composed of thousands of superfine strands of color—reds, pinks, and just a hint of blue. In fact, her entire body was a beacon of assorted colors, all shifting slightly from dark to light, oscillating between degrees. She was brightness and beauty personified, from the top of her head right down to the soles of her shoes. Every place except a small section of her chest above her heart.

The small area was muddled, a lot like the murky swirl emanating around her—jumbled and dark.

The demon chuckled and Sam snorted. “Something amusing about that?”

“My human,” Azi responded. “He finds your appearance disconcerting.”

“My appearance?”

Don’t fucking say it like that!

Of course the bastard ignored me. It ignored her, too, getting out of the car and coming around the front. With an agitated jerk, Azi pulled open her door and said, “Out.”

“Out? Why would I—”

The demon’s impatience grew. It grabbed Sam’s arm and hauled her unceremoniously from the seat. She stumbled sideways, catching herself just before losing her balance. “I will drive. You will sleep.”

“Sleep,” she shouted. “How the hell do you expect me to sleep?” Sam adjusted her jacket and stalked toward Azi. Giving him a shove, she added, “I know this whole ‘living on planet Earth’ thing is new for you, but let’s get one thing straight. I’m not leaving you alone with him for a single minute.”

She doesn’t trust you,
I told it.

This confused the demon for some reason. It didn’t understand her tone, or the rigid set of her shoulders. It was puzzled by her expression and the volume of her voice. A rush of images bombarded my mind. Sam and I, the first time we were together. The scene played out as though I was a third party watching from the outside. It focused on the times where my eyes were dark. When the demon was in control.

“You find me repelling.” A statement. Not a question.

Sam snorted. “You’re basically blackmailing us. Damn right I find you
repelling
!”

“I am not hurting my human.” The confusion faded, replaced by a rush of logic. Azirak really didn’t see the problem here.

Sam stomped her foot. She stalked forward, bringing her face inches from mine. “
Jax
,” she spat. “He’s not your human. He’s Jax.”

There was a long moment of hesitation before the demon stepped away from her. My head nodded slowly, and the demon repeated, “Jax.” It opened the car door and gestured for her to get inside. “We should go. Time runs out.”

For a minute, I was sure Sam would turn and walk the other way. She had that look about her. Eyes narrow and lips pressed in a hard line, it was the expression she wore just before engaging in a fight. But she surprised me. With a sigh, she pushed past the demon and slid into the passenger seat, slamming the door behind her.

“She is an unusual human,” the demon said as it moved my body around the car. Pausing with my hand on the handle, it added, “It is not surprising that you find her alluring.”

Don’t get any ideas,
I growled. I was tempted to push for control, to fight the demon and take back what was rightfully mine, but Azi turned to look at Sam. Beneath all the vibrant colors, she was pale. The distorted mass over her heart seemed bigger than it had before, and her posture was slumped. That cuff needed to come off and we only had a short time left to do it.
You better not be bullshitting us. Find Fakori’s ancestor and get that fucking thing off her.

“I will do as I promised,” it said out loud.

Sam, not realizing the demon was talking to me, huffed and shifted in her seat. She yanked the seat belt out and jammed it into the lock, then turned to face the window. “You better.”

W
e drove for several hours. Sam dozed in and out. Azi kept our speed at a maximum of five miles an hour above the limit. Its reasoning was that we didn’t want to waste time with the authorities. And while I agreed, the fact that we weren’t moving as fast as possible pissed me off.

This was the longest I’d spent as a spectator. I had no love for the demon, but could almost understand its anger. I felt helpless. Weak. I was caged, and everything, even the simplest things like scratching an itch or shifting around in my seat, was beyond my control.

“I probably should have asked this up front,” Sam said after a while. “But how is it that you know exactly where to find this guy?”

“I have an entire clan eagerly awaiting my return. I had but to ask, and they fell in line.”

“What does that tell me?” she fired back.

“While you were sleeping I called my clan. They are searching for the Fakori descendant as we speak.”

Sam looked from me to her wrist and grimaced.

I wasn’t the only one who noticed. “Does it pain you?”

She didn’t answer right away, and when she did, it wasn’t to answer his question. “Can he hear us? Jax, I mean?”

“Of course. I gave my word. He is able to oversee our journey.”

She sighed. “No. It doesn’t hurt.”

The demon studied her for a moment then let out a growl. “What is the purpose of that?”

“Of what?”

“Of attempting to deceive him?”

Sam snorted. “I’m not—”

“Do not lie to me!” Azirak bellowed. My body shook with a flash of anger. It was potent. The sting of it flooded what little sense I had and momentarily blocked out what was going on in the car.

“Fine,” Sam snapped. “It hurts like hell.” She made a fist and slammed it against the dash. The sound of it echoed through my body, the demon’s heightened senses making it seem like a bomb had gone off inside my skull. “It feels like something is trying to squeeze my hand off with a pair of bolt cutters. Oh. And my body temperature? Dropping lower than a frat boy’s IQ. This thing is killing me. Why don’t I want Jax to know? Maybe because he’s got enough to deal with right now, what with you hijacking his body, his brother trying to end the world—oh, and your demonic bitch looking for a hookup.”

The demon seemed to consider her words for a moment. “I have lived a thousand lives and I still do not understand humans.”

“What’s not to understand?” Sam asked. Her voice softened a little. I knew the tone. Irritation blended with sympathy. “When you love someone, you want to keep them from pain.”

“Demons do not love like humans. The word does not exist within our vocabulary.” A long, deep breath filled my body. “Yet I do not like that you are in pain.”

“That makes two of us.” She shifted around so that she was sitting sideways, facing me. “If we can find this guy, this relative of Fakori, and he can get the cuff off, then what? You’ll hand Jax’s body back over?”

“I said I would.”

“Just like that?”

“Unlike Zenak, I am honorable. A downfall, my clan says.”

“And me?”

“What of you?”

“You’re going to simply hand Jax back his body and let him walk away with a Pure?”

“Samantha Merrick, the hum—
Jax
—will never be able to walk away with you. I will always be present.”

“I mean, you’re not going to claim me?”

The demon chuckled. It was my voice, but it wasn’t. “Would you let me?”

“Nope,” was her reply. “But that hasn’t seemed to stop everyone else from trying.”

“While your power would be an asset to my clan’s cause, I am able to see what the others cannot.”

“And that is?”

“Going home will serve no purpose right now.”

“But it will someday?”

“There is something you need to remember, Samantha Merrick. I am, and always will be, a demon. Despite whatever human-tainted feelings I may have for you, I am dangerous.”

Sam’s face filled my vision, her expression a mix of surprise and fear.

As if the universe was enforcing Azi’s words, everything shifted. There was a deafening sound—shattering glass and the scream of twisting metal.

Sam’s cries of terror echoed through my head.

Chapter Eighteen

Sam

O
ne minute I was staring into the face of the demon-infested guy I loved—the next, my entire world was spinning out of control.

I was beginning to notice a disturbing pattern.

I called for Jax, but it was drowned out by the cacophonous sound coming from all around us. My stomach lurched and my body was momentarily weightless as my hair obscured my vision. There was no up or down because the earth seemed to have disappeared, allowing gravity to use us as toys.

With the seat beneath me gone, my limbs flailed wildly in every direction, desperate to find something solid, a small bit of unmovable reality to prove this wasn’t all just part of some horrible waking nightmare.

Then, just when I thought I’d lose my mind, my breath hitched and something crushed my body. Two ironclad limbs enveloped me as a series of breakneck crashes rattled the car.

I let go of another scream as the car gave one final shudder, skidding to a stop in a symphony of cringe-inducing squeals and broken bits. My head slammed against something. The door. A broken seat. Hell, it could have been the steering wheel. When I opened my eyes, nothing was where it should have been.

Jax’s arms, still presumably under the demon’s control, loosened. “Are you well, Samantha Merrick?”

Was I well
?

Whatever it was that had just happened, I was pretty damn sure
well
wasn’t in the description. I shifted, moving away a few inches, and gasped. The windshield was gone, leaving only bits of jagged glass dotting the pane. The dashboard was in pieces, the large chunk in front of me buckled like tin foil.

I opened my mouth—to say what, I had no idea—but suddenly I was moving. Jax’s arms tightened and a wave of vertigo hit me as a pounding noise filled the space around us. I was jostled from side to side several times, and seconds later cool air washed over me as Azi extracted me from the car and set me down on the grass outside.

“What happ—” The rest of my sentence was lost as the ground beneath my feet took a massive twist to the right.

Something heavy crashed into me from behind. An otherworldly growl split the air, followed by a series of grunts. The weight on top of me shifted and was gone. I pushed onto my knees and crawled to the shelter of a large pine then turned to see the wreckage.

Rick’s car was destroyed. The fact that I was sitting here, still breathing and in possession of all my limbs, was nothing short of a miracle. But that wasn’t our only problem. Just past the twisted metal, Jax’s body, presumably with Azirak still behind the wheel, faced off with three angels. He stood between me and them, a fearsome vision of destruction and darkness.

“If you want the Pure, you will have to go through me.”

One of the angels laughed. He was the shortest of the three, with deep red wings tipped in orange. He eyed me, gaze sweeping every inch with an almost lecherous gleam. “I will do so with pleasure, beast.”

Like someone flipped the crazy switch, Azi and the angels sprang forward. It was a mass of mangled limbs, flying feathers, and bloody appendages. I’d seen Jax fight. It never failed to take my breath away. His ferocity and grace were mesmerizing. His pure power and raw strength a thing of wonder. It was nothing compared to watching Azi with full control.

The demon tore through the first angel with ridiculous ease, twisting her head with a jerk then punching a hole through her sternum for good measure. She fell to the ground as the next one stepped up. Enraged at his comrade’s defeat, he let out a scream that chased a chill up my spine.

The angel’s gaze swiveled in my direction for a moment before fixating on Jax. His lip curled upward, a sinister smile spreading like poison across his face. “You will not gain this power.”

Azi growled, a sound so possessive, so threatening, it was a wonder the angel didn’t turn tail and run. He dove for our attacker, grabbing him and hefting his body into the air. The angel roared, it’s dark green wings unfurling in a furious burst. It bucked and thrashed, but was no match for the demon’s strength. With a ferocious thrust, Azi lifted the angel high, then brought him down across Jax’s knee with brutal force. The sound it made was sickening, and I swallowed back the bile bubbling up my throat as he let the lifeless corpse fall to the grass at his feet.

The last angel, the short one with the attitude bigger than Texas, stepped forward. His grin went from ear to ear. “My brethren were noble but weak. No match for you. Not like me.”

If it were Jax standing there, he would have laughed. Maybe made some snarky quip about size. Not Azirak. He snarled, lip pulled back to bare his teeth, and pounced. It was over almost as soon as it began. The angel made a move to grab hold of Jax’s throat, but his fingers never touched skin. Azi brought Jax’s hands up and with a violent twist, broke the creature’s neck.

As his body fell, I swallowed back another mouthful of bile and climbed to my feet. We were well off to the side of a rarely traveled road and couldn’t necessarily call for a tow truck. Besides having no money, there were three dead bodies laying a few feet from Rick’s mangled car. Getting rid of them would be time consuming, and leaving them would be a tough one to explain. Spending time with Jax had made me a better liar, but I wasn’t that good. The car the angels had rammed us with was in slightly better condition, but a quick survey of the damage revealed two busted front tires. We were going to have to hoof it.

I gestured to the road. “Shall we?”

And we were off.

With each step, I felt the chill in my bones intensify. My right arm was completely numb now, from my fingertips to the base of my shoulder. In a small way, I was thankful. It meant I didn’t need to feel the cuff as it squeezed the life out of me.

The demon kept pace beside me, eyes straight ahead and shoulders stiff. Every once in a while I’d sneak a peek at Jax and wonder what he was thinking in there. I couldn’t imagine a guy like him being cooped up for so long.

“What happens if we don’t make it?” I asked, a lump forming in my throat. We had less than twenty-four hours left to find a Fakori descendant or kill Malphi, both tall orders.

“We will make it.”

“And if we don’t? I’ll die.”

“No one will be able to claim you, if that’s what weighs on your mind.” The demon didn’t break stride. “The theories are correct. Once you perished and were returned to your body, your power became unclaimable in death. You must give permission.”

“But if this has never happened before, then how do we know for sure.”

Jax’s body stopped walking and turned to me. It was unsettling to see the soulless black orbs where his gray eyes should have been. “I know because I tried.”

I balked. “You
tried
? As in, to claim me?”

“Of course,” it said, as if I were stupid for even asking. With a quirk of an eyebrow and bemused tilt of Jax’s lip, the demon started walking again.

I took a deep breath and followed after it. “But that’s not what I meant, anyway. I’m talking about Jax.”

“You’re inquiring if I will relinquish control.”

I nodded. It was all I could manage. The thought of dying before I’d even had much of a chance to actually live terrified me. But not as much as knowing Jax would be lost as well—that was, gone completely. If I died I knew he’d never be the same. If I were in his shoes, I would crumble. There wouldn’t be a way to come back from that. But he was stronger than me. That fact was a small comfort as I faced the bleak circumstance ahead. The only thing left to hope was that the demon would give him back his body.

“If we fail and you die—” Jax’s cell sounded, a heavy, grinding guitar solo from one of his favorite bands. Azirak fished the phone from his pocket and put it to Jax’s ear. The call was short, and the demon said nothing to whoever was on the other end. When he hung up, he turned to me. “You will not die, Samantha Merrick. They have located the human, Fakori.”