Retribution (Redemption Series) (3 page)

"He's a Demon
—
"

I almost snarled.
 

"And he's the brother of a Demon
you've
been allowing to feed off you.
Don't be a hypocrite, Amber."

Amber held out her hands.

"I'm not . . ."

I gritted my teeth as I leaned toward
her.

"You are."

I could feel the anger swirling around in
my gut, my stomach clenching as I moved to the foot of the basement stairs and
looked up. Amber moved awkwardly toward me.

"I don't want to fight, Day. I just
want to get you out of here."

"And how are we supposed to manage
that?"

Amber was at my shoulder

"You have powers now, right?"
she asked. I didn't look at her.

"They may be completely ineffective
against the ring," I answered.

I heard the fight go out of Amber.

"Then we're both dead."

I turned on her.

"What do you mean
both
?"

She placed a hand on my shoulder.

"I failed you before, Day. I won't
do it again."

Her words made my eyes burn. I didn't
want to cry. In all honesty, we had failed each other

"I pushed you away," I argued.

Amber shook her head.

"You withdrew. There's a
difference. But I was hurting so badly after Mom's death that I made myself
believe you were shoving me away. I needed to blame someone. You didn't deserve
that."

Tears rolled down my cheeks. I swiped at
them angrily.

"You were hurting. Right or wrong,
I won't let you punish yourself for that. Damon will kill you," I hissed.

Amber looked down at me. She had always
been the taller one. She looked so much like Mom.

"Even if he did, it wouldn't
absolve me of all the wrong I've done. I let them bind you to a Demon,
Dayton."

Amber was trying to be strong, but I
heard her hiccup slightly. I took her hand in mine.

"Then I should be thanking
you," I whispered.

My anger at being betrayed by my family
had been replaced by my newfound love for
Marcas
. I
loved my sister. If there was anyone I could forgive, it was her. Trusting her
was another issue, but forgiving her I could do. My other hand came up to cover
the flashlight she held.

"I can do it."

It was the mantra we had once chanted
under tented sheets as I told her the story of a little girl who had gone in
search of the Sand Man, climbing Sleepy Mountain even as she tired.

Amber sobbed then, her shoulders shaking
as she held open her arms. I went into them without hesitation, my cheek
against her shoulder as she hugged me.

"I can," she whispered into my
ear fiercely.

"We
can.

Damon could go to Hell.
 

Chapter 3

The Seal was never meant to be worn by a Demon.

~
Bezaliel
~

The basement was getting to me. Amber had
left because I knew if she stayed Damon would kill her, and so she had gone
with the promise to return. We would attempt an escape then. It was better than
waiting to be raped. If I was going down, I was going down fighting.

"Dayton
. . ."

The echo in my head was unexpected, and
I sat up too quickly, my head hitting the corner of a shelf.

"
Dammit
!"

A chuckle echoed around me.

"Is
it wrong that I love it when you curse?"

Marcas
.
I gripped the
same shelf I had just plowed into, my knuckles white against the wood.

"Where are you?" I whispered.

Silence and then . . . .

"I'm
as near as I can be without being detected by the Seal."

His words were not comforting. The Seal
was powerful.

"
Are you okay?"
Marcas
asked. I knew
by his hard tone what he was really asking.

"He
hasn't touched me
,"
I answered, switching to mind-speak while blocking my thoughts so my words
wouldn't be overheard by anyone else with the ability.
"But I'm scared."

It wouldn't do to lie to
Marcas
. He may seem unreadable, even unemotional, but I was
beginning to know him as well as I knew myself, and he had always had the
uncanny ability of reading my emotions.

"I'm
coming for you,"
Marcas
promised, and I
stiffened, my nails scraping against the wooden shelf.

"Don't
you
dare!
"
I screamed. I wouldn't let him
risk it. I couldn't bear it.

"Dayton
. . ."
he began, but I cut him off.

"Don't
come,
Marcas
! It's what he wants. He'll destroy you.
Please!"

There was silence, and I let go of the shelf,
backing into the middle of the basement. The need to see
Marcas
was strong.

"I
am not afraid of the Seal,"
Marcas
said
finally, his voice firm.

I was at the foot of the stairs now, my
eyes peering upward.

"I
am."

I felt something touch me gently on the
shoulder, but when I turned, there was nothing there.

"Look,
Day. Stare into the darkness. Visualize what you want to see most."

I didn't understand what he was asking
me to do, but I concentrated anyway, my thoughts swamped with images of him. The
dark around me shimmered, and I gasped, my hand flying to my mouth as a light
fog suddenly moved across the floor, twisting and twirling around
itself
until I was seeing the image of a man.
Marcas
.

He was leaning forward, his hands
grasping something as he stared at me.
A doorway maybe.
His image was almost translucent, but he was here, and I suddenly wanted to
sob. I reached out tentatively, my hand moving along his fog-like cheek.

"We
are stronger, Dayton. Together, we are powerful. Trust me."

Trusting him wasn't hard. The idea of
losing him was. There were sudden footsteps above my head, and I looked away
from
Marcas
' image, my gaze focused on the stairwell.

"Fight,
Day. Whatever happens, fight. I am coming."

I looked back at the fog. It was beginning
to dissipate now. His hand reached for me.

"I'll
never forsake you
,"
Marcas
said. And with that, he was gone.

I wondered if he knew how much those
words meant to me. It was more powerful than "I love you." He would
never abandon me. After losing most of my family to abandonment, death, and
betrayal, his words dug themselves into my soul and made a home there.

"I trust you," I whispered
just as the door at the top of the stairs burst open.

I looked up, my eyes searching the
darkness with my night vision only to find my frightened sister beckoning me
urgently from above. I took the stairs two at a time.

"He's feeding," Amber hissed
hurriedly as I reached her. "And then he's coming for you. We have to go
now."

I peered over her shoulder into the
corridor.

"Then let's go."

She took my hand in hers, and we moved
through the hallways. For anyone who had not lived or worked at the Abbey, the
place was a maze of confusing passageways, offices, rooms, and places of study,
but Amber and I knew the huge structure well.

We were approaching the corridor leading
to the foyer when I felt him. One moment, I was running, the next, the Seal's
power was slamming into me, and I was thrown into the Abbey's stone wall, my
heart pounding, the breath knocked out of me as I slid down to the floor.
Amber's hand was no longer in mine, and she was peering down at me, her face
pale with fear.

"What happened?" she asked as
I stood up, my hands held out, my body throbbing.

"I don't know," I answered
honestly, reaching out with my power as I glanced around the hallway.

At first, there was nothing, and then I
discovered the shield. It was a force field of magic, obviously created by the
ring. It didn't feel like Demon power. Shit!

"He knows I'm out," I said
shakily.

The corridor was a trap. I looked toward
the stairs leading up to the Abbey's upper levels just as a roar filled the
back of the Abbey.

"Run!" I yelled at Amber, my
fingers pointing at the stairs.

She sprinted toward them, and I
followed, keeping myself between her and the Demon I knew was coming after me.
She was on the second flight of steps when she squealed, and I looked up to
find the stairs blocked by a group of Sisters, their eyes white and glassy. I
groaned.

"Forgive me, Lord, for I have
sinned," I mumbled as I lifted my hands.

A white ball of light formed in my
palms, and I shoved it at the Sisters. Even with the trance, their eyes widened
as my power hit them, sending them flying backward into the wall of the corridor
behind them. Amber faltered only slightly, her eyes moving from me to the
immobile bodies as we climbed over them and continued running. I hadn't killed
them. This much I knew.

There was another roar behind us, vile
curse words strung so closely together,
I'd
even have trouble repeating them. I didn't slow down, but Amber did. She
tripped ahead of me, and I grabbed her by the arm, pulling her forcibly into a
standing position before shoving her from behind.

"Move!"

There wasn't time for kindness.

"He's going to kill us!" Amber
sobbed.

I knew she was scared. My own heart was
beating so hard, I expected it to pop right out of my chest. But I wasn't
afraid of death. No, Damon had something much worse planned for me. He wanted
me alive and bound to him.
Marcas
had given me a
choice. He had wanted me unbound so that I wouldn't be damned. Damon wasn't
considerate. He was insane, and I could not go back to the fire pits of Hell.

"Run faster!" I yelled.

I knew it wasn't the response she
wanted, but I didn't have any comforting words. There was no time to offer a
shoulder for tears. I'd seen too many awful things to make her feel better
about what may happen to us.

We were moving upward. It was the only
choice we had, and we were running out of stairs. The only exit left was the
roof. There was a door at the end of the final corridor we entered, and it led
to a flat stone roof surrounded by a low ledge. It wasn't a tower exactly but
close
.

Amber flung open the door, and we burst
out of the Abbey onto the stone walkway, our eyes searching a late afternoon
sky. Day was melding into night in an arc of pastel colors. Amber stopped at
the roof's edge.

"What now? There's nowhere to
go," she said as calmly as she could, her voice shaking as I slammed the
door closed. I looked into the darkening sky, my eyes searching the open
gardens, the pond in the distance, the tree line leading into the woods.

"Fight,
Day. Whatever happens, fight. I'm coming."

Marcas
' words rang
through my head, and I looked at Amber, my hand taking hers just as the roof
door splintered. I didn't turn around. I just pulled on my power, wrapping it
around Amber and I as shards of timber bounced chaotically off the bubble I'd
created around us. Amber's shoulders shook.

There was the sound of feet on the roof,
and my hand tightened on Amber's as I slowly turned to face my enemy. He was a
terrifying sight, his dark jeans fitted, his black blazer flying open to reveal
a black t-shirt with a simple silver chain hanging around his neck. The scar running
along his cheek was white and stark against his tanned skin, a blatant reminder
of the physical differences in
Marcas
and Damon. His
eyes met mine, and I saw the red sparkle there, the predatory gleam that proved
he liked chasing his prey.

Damon's eyes moved to Amber, and by the
way they narrowed, I knew he planned to kill her. I moved between the two of
them, my eyes catching his again.

"Still want to kill me,
Dayton?" Damon asked. He held his arms wide, his eyes searching mine.
"Here's the opportunity to try."

He moved his hand so the fading
afternoon light would catch the jewels on the Seal, his hand becoming a
refracting light show, a reminder that he held all the power. He looked down at
it, and then at me.