Embraced (The Eternal Balance #2)(54)

“Yes,” I screamed, yanking free from his grip. “Save him. I’ll do anything.”

He smiled, a triumphant grin that made me want to beat him till he bled. “Let me claim you. Let me claim you, and Jax will be safe. He’ll be alive and free.”

“No,” I said, backing away one step at a time until I couldn’t go any farther. The woods faded, and I was back in the basement, the mold and mildew scented air permeating my nose. The angel that’d been holding me the last time was a few feet away, the expression on her face murderous.

“Unless you consent,” she said, slowly ascending the stairs. “You will watch him die a thousand times. And then, when you think you can no longer take it, we will kill him again. For real.”

The door slammed and I was alone.





Chapter Twenty-Five


Jax


“It is good to have you back within the fold, my lord,” Hileeka, a male demon said. It was sitting across from me, staring. What I wanted more than anything was to hit it. To make it bleed.

Unfortunately that wouldn’t do much in the way of convincing them I was on their side.

As powerful as Azi was, I knew I had no hope of finding Sam on my own. I needed their resources. And to get their help, they needed to think their leader had returned. Azi wasn’t happy about deceiving them. Every once in a while I felt the demon’s anger at what I was doing, but it was overshadowed by concern for Sam. If this hadn’t been about her, I doubted the demon would allow me to act out the ruse.

“So tell us,” Ranook said, sitting next to Hileeka. “Where is the Pure now?”

“Angels have her.” I knew it would get a reaction. I was right.

Ranook jumped from the couch and began pacing, spewing curses in a language that, while vaguely familiar, I didn’t quite understand. Hileeka yelled something, and two other demons, a male and female, came running from the other room.

“This needs to be rectified,” Ranook said, slamming a fist against the wall. “If they claim her—”

“They won’t.” I stood. This is where things could get tricky. The whole plan could explode. “Gather as many as you can and canvas the area. Do whatever it takes to find where they’re keeping her.”

“Yes, my lord.”



Ranook stayed behind as the others went in search of information about Sam. Azi used the opportunity to set the record straight.

“I remember what you did the last time we met, Ranook,” I found myself saying. Azi shimmied inside me, angry but excited. It flashed a series of pictures depicting the other demon’s betrayal. “I remember all of it.”

“As you should, my lord,” it said in a deceptively calm voice. But it wasn’t calm. Something stirred in my gut, and Azi pushed harder for the surface, gaining a bit of control, chasing the spark of fear that wafted from Ranook. “A good leader knows the battlefield. It knows its enemies.”

I was on my feet, striding across the room. I grabbed a handful of the traitor’s shirt and hefted upward. “You have twenty seconds to tell me why I shouldn’t rip the head from your pathetic human body.”

“Lord Azirak, what—”

The potent stench of its fear was addictive, sending wave after wave of contentment through me. In that moment, I wasn’t me. I wasn’t Azirak. We weren’t a we. We were an I. “Ten seconds left.”

Ranook tried in vain to free itself. It struggled frantically, but my grip was ironclad. “I—I know where she is,” it said just as the fingers of my other hand slipped around its neck and began to squeeze. The idea of feeding off his dying breath became an obsession. “I can take you to her.”

My fingers froze. “To Sam?” I set him down and stepped away. My heart began to race. Every nerve ending was alive and itching for…for what?

Ranook laughed, a dark chuckle tainted by anger. “To your betrothed. You can finally consummate your union. Make us stronger. Undefeatable.” It’s eyes lit with glee. “I can take you to everything you’ve been searching for. I can take you to Malphi.”



Ranook took me across the town line, just to the other side of Burke, and made me wait inside the car. Suspicious, I’d wanted to refuse, but Azi spoke for me, agreeing with an eerie enthusiasm. It’d been ten minutes now, and I was starting to get pissed.

“Don’t get any ideas,” I said to Azi out loud. “We’re here to find Sam. Not provide you with a demonic hookup.”

The demon’s hesitation was easy to sense, but in the end it sent an image of Sam’s face through my head as Ranook returned to the car. It wanted to find her as much as I did. “Malphi is looking forward to seeing you,” Ranook said, opening my door. “Just as soon as you prove yourself…”

“Prove myself?” I slid from the car, tightening my fists against the urge to pummel them against the demon’s face. Azi communicated another image, this one of my hands around Ranook’s neck. I felt its skin beneath my fingers, the bones giving under the pressure. Its eyes bulged and it tried to speak. I squeezed harder. The scene ended, leaving me raw. If it didn’t have something I needed, I would end the demon right now, taking immense pleasure in feeding from every last ounce of pain and fear as its essence faded. “You dare question my motives.”