Embraced (The Eternal Balance #2)(6)

“This demon, Malphi, is trouble for both of us, Jax. It needs to be taken out.”

Jax jabbed a finger at the stairs. “Then why don’t you take care of it?”

“I told you. If you take it down—”

“Yeah. Bargaining chip. I heard you the first time. I just don’t buy it.”

“He can’t take this thing down on his own,” I said. Despite the secrets he’d kept from me, I knew Chase. His human side, at least. He was manipulative and greedy but, above all else, worried about one thing—himself. “That’s why he’s here. This isn’t an olive branch—it’s self-preservation.”

“It’s a little bit of that, too.” Chase gave a sly grin.

“Sucks for you,” Jax said. A truly wicked smile spread across his face as he leaned in close to his brother. “Good luck with your demon. The answer is no.”

“But—”

“It’s not going to happen, Chase,” I said. There was no way this was anything more than a ploy to get us to do his dirty work. If Malphi even existed, then Chase had done something to piss it off, and now he was running scared and looking for someone to clean up his mess.

“I was afraid you’d say that.” He sighed and shot forward. One moment he stood in front of Jax, the next he was beside me, fingers wrapped like a vise around my wrist. It all took place in a matter of moments. His movement. Jax tearing him away and tossing his body across the room. The new, heavy weight around my wrist…

“What the hell?” It was a shiny black metal band decorated with strange symbols. They were slightly raised, and as I watched they seemed to flash several times before going dormant.

Chase picked himself off the floor and smoothed the front of his shirt. “Oh, that? It’s called a demon cuff, and if it’s not removed, it will kill you.” He turned to Jax. “So, care to reconsider?”





Chapter Three


Jax


Red bled through my vision, and I lunged for my brother. “What the f*ck did you do?”

“Easy, man. Kill me and not only does your clan rise and wreak havoc, but she’ll die a particularly nasty death.”

I tore my gaze from him. “Sammy?”

“I dunno…” Her voice was hesitant. She flexed her hand, wiggling each of her fingers. Whispers of gray, of fear, filled the small space between the two shelves. They curled upward and thickened, and with the link between us, it was almost all I could focus on. “I feel…weird.”

Chase noticed, too. He took a deep breath and gave a contented sigh. “Fear isn’t as good as lust, but still tasty, right?”

I pushed him away and moved to stand beside Sam. The cuff didn’t look like much, but one touch and I felt it hum with power. “Take it off. Now.”

“No way.” Chase shook his head. He took a step back. “I wasn’t lying about Malphi. It’s a danger to both of us. Samantha, too.”

She narrowed her eyes. “And of course Jax taking this demon out makes your life easier, right?”

“Killing it does him just as much good as it does me.” He shrugged and moved carefully toward the door with slow, measured movements, never taking his eyes off mine. “You’ve got a few choices here, Jax. Can’t say I envy you. You can kill me now and unleash hell on earth. Samantha will die and Azirak will take over completely. You can do nothing. Malphi lives, Samantha dies. We’ll all probably die. Or, you can kill Malphi. I will remove the cuff, and everyone gets what they want.”

“Those aren’t choices,” Sam snapped. “This whole thing is one big trap.”

Chase frowned. I’d seen the look a million times growing up, but I’d never noticed the lack of sincerity until right then. “This is no trap, Samantha. Really, if you think about it, I did you a favor.”

“A favor?” she yelled, and I grabbed her arm as a preventive measure. The explosion of red, along with the weight of her fury hitting me through the link, told me she was seconds away from lunging for him. “You sonofa—”

“Malphi would have taken you by surprise had I not brought the danger to your attention. So, yeah. I did you a solid.” He turned to me. “Both of you. Time to repay the favor.”

There wasn’t any part of me that didn’t want him dead in that moment. My human and demon side were in total agreement. To hell with the consequences. Fuck the fact that it would destroy the world as we knew it. He kept crossing me. Kept getting in my way and trying to ruin what little peace I’d gained.

But it was the unadulterated fear coming from Sam, in the air and in the link, that stopped me from acting on my growing bloodlust. Her eyes, so full of dread, were glued to Chase, like she was trying to decide if this was all just some bad dream.

Chase was smart. He’d done it again. Used Sam to steer me in the direction he wanted me to go. I was cornered and he knew it. “If you can’t kill the demon, what makes you think that I can?”

“You’re resourceful, Jax. Plus…” He inclined his head toward Sam. There was hunger in his eyes. “You have powerful motivation. Maybe your buddy Heckle will help. You don’t know it yet, but he owes you.” With a shrug, he added, “Of course, I’ll need proof the demon is dead.” He tipped his head and thought about it for a moment. “How about this? Malphi wears a red stone around its neck. Get me that stone and I’ll know the deed is done. I’ll remove the cuff.”