Eve wanted to scream, the agony pounding through her skull so severe it felt like her head would explode.
The demon stood too close, his rancid breath skittering across her cheek.
“Well, demi?” Tobias asked from his position a short distance from her, the amulet she’d worn around her neck dangling from his fingers.
He wanted her to read the creature’s mind, like some screwed-up lie detector for his own entertainment, to confirm yet another loyal servant. For the most part, she had lied. All but a few hated his guts. She’d told him his minions loved him, were devoted to only him.
When, in actual fact, they wanted to rip his head off and…well, eat him.
She shuddered at the disgusting thoughts coming from the Orthon standing beside her. His face was only an inch from hers, staring down at her with cold, soulless eyes, all but daring her to tell the truth.
She panted through the pain. “He is loyal to you.”
Once Tobias took the amulet, she’d only been able to maintain her block for a short time; there were just too many of them. Now the strain of having every thought and disgusting image in the room bang around in her brain had become too much and she cried out in agony and frustration.
The demon sneered. Lifting its gray hand, it ran a yellow nail down the side of her face. Not hard enough to break the skin, but enough to leave a mark beside the bloody scratches she already had. It whispered something to her in a language she didn’t, or at least shouldn’t, understand. But a translator wasn’t necessary because the words filtered into her mind in perfect English.
She would be dessert.
“Don’t touch her.” Tobias kicked the creature, sending him sprawling. “She’s more important than you know. Isn’t that right, Eve?”
The Orthon hissed.
Tobias laughed. “Leave us,” he barked at the demons surrounding them from above. He’d chained her to the wall of a concrete pit in the basement. The creature eyed her as it scrambled from the floor and climbed out. The rest followed in its wake.
Tobias would soon find himself with a full-blown revolt on his hands, and after they’d feasted on him, she would be next, but not before they had used her in other disgusting ways.
Tobias moved toward her, a sneer distorting his beautiful face into something cruel and evil. And like Lazarus, she couldn’t hear his thoughts.
“I can see why Lazarus wanted to keep you around. You’re a very tempting female. How many times did he fuck you, demi?”
Keeping her eyes locked on his, she refused to give him what he wanted and rise to the bait. Instead, she pressed her lips together, refusing to answer.
“It doesn’t really matter,” his deep voice echoed in the confined space. “He didn’t mate with you, and that’s all that matters. I kind of wish he had. I would have loved for him to feel your pain, your fear the moment you give up and stop fighting. If I’d had my way, I would have delivered your used and broken body to him and taken pleasure in watching him succumb to his demon.” He rubbed a lock of her hair between his fingers. “But fate has other plans for you. You know what you are, don’t you, Eve?”
Terror made her limbs weak and her heart pound, but she tried to keep her expression blank.
“I may not be able to kill you, but I see I’ll have a lot of fun breaking you.” He cupped her cheek, letting his fingers trail down her face until he gripped her throat.
She had nowhere to go. Her back was hard against the wall of the deep pit. Leaning forward, he caught her mouth in a hard, bruising kiss. He pressed his fingers into her jaw and forced it open, trying to thrust his tongue into her mouth.
Wrenching her head to the side, she loosened his grip and took advantage by biting down hard on his lip.
“Bitch,” he hissed and backhanded her so hard her vision blinked in and out. Her head rang for a few minutes, the force of the blow nearly rendering her unconscious. When Tobias’s face came back into focus, the bastard was grinning. The metallic tang of blood filled her mouth and she blinked back the tears she refused to let fall.
His eyes flashed. “Oh yeah, we’re going to have some fun.” He turned away from her, moved to a small table set up on the other side of the pit, and picked something up.
“What is that? What are you going to do?” she said, terror almost choking her.
He turned to her. In his hands was what looked like a small leather package, brown and worn. He peeled back one side then the other, his black eyes focused on what he was uncovering.
“It’s going to help you do what you were born to,” he said without looking up at her.
Finally, he took something from the center, something yellowing, long and thin and pointed, and dropped the leather to the table.
“What the hell is that?” she choked.
“It’s a bone. A very old and very powerful bone.” He placed it in a crude wooden bowl and walked toward her. “As long as you’re alive and your blood covers this bone, Diemos will have control over the hell’s gate. He will be able to open and close it at will.” He was breathing heavily. “Can you imagine, sweet Eve, what your Earth will be like then? With demons free to do what they like, more than the knights will ever be able to contain.”
She shook her head. “No…no, please…you can’t…”
Tobias ignored her, placed the bowl on the stone floor, and grabbed her wrist. “Time to take you to your new home. Diemos is eager to meet you.”
He took the short sword, one that looked almost identical to Lazarus’s, from the sheath strapped to his thigh and drew it across her skin without warning or hesitation.
She gasped in pain and watched in horror as Tobias held her arm above the wooden bowl, catching her blood, covering the bone he’d placed inside it.
Crying out, she kicked at it, trying to knock it over, but the chains around her ankles restricted her movements.
Tobias gripped a fistful of hair painfully, holding her still. The bone was soon covered and Tobias leaned in, lapping at her blood, at the open wound in her flesh. She tried to pull away, but he held her too tight.
“You want to stop bleeding, don’t you? It won’t do for you to bleed out and die. That would ruin all our plans,” he said.
Her mind started to shut down, her psyche throwing up walls to protect her sanity.
This can’t be happening. It can’t be real.
She would never see Lazarus again.
One voice, an Orthon’s, rose, cutting through her own thoughts. Its distress penetrated the chaos of her mind and broke past the other voices in the room. Nothing she could put together, though, because its thoughts were far too jumbled.
Then it cut off abruptly, its mind suddenly silent.
More followed.
Their minds screaming, then nothing.
Tobias stood back, and beside her something flashed. A bright light. It was working. Oh God, the gate was opening.
She tried to fight her restraints, but it was no good. Her limbs felt weak from loss of blood and she was close to collapsing.
“They’re coming,” Tobias said, voice filled with excitement.
Her vision dimmed, the colors darkening. Eve blinked several times, positive she was about to pass out. A large shadow had descended over Tobias, half his face eclipsed by darkness. Her eyes were playing tricks on her.
She blinked again, looking up.
Her breath seized in her lungs.
Lazarus stood there, towering over them.
His face was in shadow. She couldn’t see his expression, but the glow from the wall-mounted lights illuminated him from behind like a golden halo.
Tobias came forward, grabbing hold of her biceps, his grip painfully tight.
“Get your hands off her,” Lazarus said, his voice echoing around the confined space, full of fury and promising death and suffering to the male beside her.
Tobias’s black eyes widened briefly before he chuckled darkly. “You found us, then?” He made a tutting sound. “Pity you’re too late. You really should have mated her, Laz, and all this could have been prevented.”
Lazarus hissed.
Tobias leaned in and breathed deeply. “She reeks of you.” He grinned. “I’m glad she’s yours. You have no idea how glad. That I’ll be depriving you of your mate…fuck yeah, it made this so much sweeter.”
“Don’t fucking touch her,” Lazarus said, his disembodied voice bouncing off the brick walls.
The portal beside them that had started as a small spark, a flash of light, was swirling, growing in size.
Tobias laughed then gripped her jaw and lifted a knife, placing it against her face. “You’re too late. It’s done. You’ve lost, and you’ve lost her.”
Eve struggled, and the tears she’d fought blazed a heated trail down her cheeks. Her reaction seemed to excite Tobias more, and he drew the blade slowly across her flesh. She screamed and felt her blood bubble to the surface of her skin. Its warmth ran down her neck and the inside of her shirt.
“Stop,” Lazarus roared.
Tobias leaned in and licked the rivulet from her neck. “Mmm, the taste of power. One of the handmaids’ blood runs through her veins. Diemos has been looking for someone like her for centuries, and it’ll be me who delivers her to him.”
“Do you think he’ll reward you? He’s using you, Tobias,” Lazarus said. “You think he’ll pat you on the back, welcome you into Hell with open arms? You spent as many centuries stopping him from reaching his ultimate goal. Once you deliver her, he will turn on you.”
The hell’s gate pulsed, still growing.
Tobias had stilled at her side. “You’re wrong,” he roared.
“You know I’m not,” Laz said back. “You know it.”
Snarling echoed off the stone walls and filled the basement. Tobias pulled Eve in closer to him. “They’re coming to welcome us home. Do you hear them?”
Light flashed so bright it blinded her for several seconds. Eve blinked, tears streaming down her face, and when she could see again she cried out in horror. Demons were crawling out of the portal.
Lazarus stepped closer.
“Take another step and I’ll take a piece out of her,” Tobias said.
Lazarus growled as demons edged toward him from all directions. He drew his sword a moment before they launched at him.
Eve screamed as he roared and tried to fight them off, but more poured out of the hell’s gate, coming at him, taking their place instantly.
No matter how many he killed, more came.
“Lazarus!” she cried.
Something was wrong.
Tobias leaned in. “You see, a male’s physical strength is irrelevant if he is weak of mind. As I suspected, seeing you bleed has caused his loss of control.”
Please, God, no.
Tobias worked on her chains and had her free in moments, then started pulling her toward the hell’s gate.
“No.” She tried to fight but it was useless.
She cried out, trying to get Lazarus’s attention, and hoped like hell she didn’t distract him from his fight and get him injured even more. But she needed to do something.
His body stiffened, just a fraction. He’d heard her. She called his name again and he turned to her. Their gazes collided and held. His body went rigid.
Tobias hissed and clapped a hand over her mouth.
Lazarus snarled, the sound inhuman. He roared, his body seeming to grow and contort. He shook his head from side to side like an angry bull.
He called her name—
And exploded into his demon form, throwing off the demons that had covered him. His chest heaved, light glinting off his crimson skin and glossy black horns. His huge charcoal wings were spread wide, the silver flecks shimmering and dancing across each individual feather as they moved—causing a delicious spicy breeze to surround her, ruffling her hair.
The demons only stayed back a moment then dove at him, attaching themselves to his big body. Their teeth flashed as they bit and tore at his skin and wings with their claws. He peeled them off, but he was bleeding, his beautiful wings damaged.
He didn’t seem to notice, and continued to fight in a mindless rage. The audible crunch of bone made her stomach lurch as he dispatched them one after another.
Tobias stilled beside her, releasing a shuddering breath. “His demon has taken him. It’s done. It’s over.”
She shook her head. Oh God. I can’t lose him now.
The demons still covered Lazarus, tearing at his flesh, and more tears broke free, tracking down her face.
They’re going to kill him.
Lazarus was in there. He had to be. He wasn’t gone. She refused to believe it. She’d brought him back the last time he lost control of his demon, and she could do it again. She twisted her head, and Tobias was distracted enough by what was going on in front of them that she managed to get her mouth free of his hand. At least long enough for her to call Lazarus one more time.
Lazarus stilled completely and looked down at them. “Let her go,” he roared at Tobias. He didn’t take his eyes off them as he again methodically peeled demons from his body, until he was free of them and holding back the horde with his sword.
Blood dripped from his wounded body and pooled at his feet. His nostrils flared and his chest heaved as he took a threatening step toward the edge of the pit.
He didn’t seem to be struggling against his demon. The two of them seemed to be working together to protect her.
Tobias cursed and lifted his blade to her again. Lazarus froze. This was it. She was about to die without ever telling him she loved him.
Lazarus roared, the animalistic sound ripped from his throat.
She wasn’t letting Tobias take her to Hell, no matter the cost. She wouldn’t be the cause of these creatures invading her world, or what that would mean for Lazarus.
The bowl filled with her blood was still on the floor, just out of reach. Eve found enough strength to jerk to the side and kick out. She braced for the pain that was coming, as the knife that Tobias held was forced into her flesh with the movement, sinking deep into her shoulder.
The bowl toppled over, her blood splashed out onto the stone floor, and the gate flickered and closed, faster than it came.
Agony burned through her and knocked her legs out from underneath her. Tobias’s hold on her vanished…then Lazarus was there.
A battle cry echoed around the brick walls, filled with so much hatred it lifted the hair on the back of Eve’s neck. Lazarus’s brothers were there. The massive males were fighting the demons that had escaped with brutal and lethal grace.
“I’ve got you,” Lazarus said, chest heaving.
He cupped her face in his large, leathery, crimson hand. He was in his demon form, but his eyes weren’t black; they were bright green. He was savagely beautiful.
His gaze dropped, zeroed in on the blood covering the front of her shirt, and he stilled. Fear, stark and violent, twisted his hard features and his eyes turned wild. “Oh, fuck.” He made an agonized sound. “Where is it? Where were you cut? Don’t leave me, sweetheart. You can’t leave me.”
Eve gripped his wide wrist. “I’m all right. I’m not going anywhere,” she choked. She didn’t think he heard her. His gaze focused solely on the growing patch of blood staining her shirt.
“Lazarus? Look at me.” Agony lined his face. “I won’t leave you. I promise I’ll never leave you.”
He shuddered, seemed to collect himself, and covered her wound with his big hand, applying pressure.
She hissed.
“You’re okay. You’re going to be okay,” he said.
She got the impression he needed to convince himself as much as her. Eve cupped his face, fighting unconsciousness. “Yes, I am, because of you. You found me.” Her voice sounded croaky, barely audible.
“I’m sorry I took so long,” he choked. She didn’t think he was aware of the tears running down his fierce and beautiful face.
“I knew you’d come for me.”
Lazarus gently kissed her lips. “Let’s get you out of here.”
“He’s getting away,” Chaos yelled.
They looked up in time to see Tobias heading for the stairs. The other knights were engaged in battle, unable to fight their way to him.
Tobias paused at the foot of the stairs and gripped his head, his gaze sliding to Lazarus. His eyes changed, the black giving way to cool pale blue.
Lazarus sucked in a sharp breath, stiffening, and an anguished sound escaped his throat that broke Eve’s heart. Tobias spun away, stumbling as he ran up the stairs.
Eve clung to Lazarus as he lifted them from the pit. Demons surrounded them, watching them with eager, hungry eyes.
But then Lazarus’s brothers were there, cutting them back, creating a clear path.
Lazarus didn’t turn back, trusting his brothers had his back, and carried her toward the stairs as well. They moved through the house and out onto the yard. Tobias was long gone, and Lazarus took flight, still managing to fly even with his wings as damaged as they were.
Eve clung to him and she was never letting go.