The Darkest Pleasure (Lords of the Underworld #3)(106)

"My baby was a portal between - "

"Is," he and the demon growled in unison. "Is a portal. She's still alive."

"That's just not possible," Tinka said. Then she held up her hands. "She's alive, that's not what I meant. I just...It's too hard to believe she was some kind of gateway between heaven and hell."

"You've seen wings pop out of a man's back, daughter," the grandmother said staunchly. "Believe it."

"But how could I not have known?" Tinka whispered brokenly. "How could I have missed something like that?"

"Her dreams," Reyes said. "It was always her dreams."

"I was once just like her." Mallory uttered a sad little sigh. "First time I saw one of her paintings, I nearly fainted. I was frightened for her, I admit, and didn't know what to do. Had I not fought my own visions so terribly, I might have realized what was going on and might have been able to help her cope."

"You did help her. The stories you told her gave her the strength and courage to face her nightmares rather than run from them." His eyes burned and he rubbed them with the back of his wrist. My Danika, sweet Danika.

Mallory squeezed his hand.

Tinka's pacing renewed. Again, Reyes was given a momentary glimpse of the TV screen. There was a blur as the camera stopped rolling and picked up on another date. In this one, Danika was probably eleven years old and painting. She was covered in the stuff, a living rainbow.

He felt closer to her like this. He could not, would not, give her up. Had begged Anya for a miracle, like the one she'd performed for Maddox and Ashlyn. She'd tried to help him, but had failed. He'd even asked his friends to take his head and end this torment. They'd refused. In the end, he'd been a bit relieved, knowing his soul would go to hell, placing him only farther away from Danika.

Somehow, someway, she was in heaven. Alive - he would not believe otherwise, ever - but there all the same.

If he had to earn his way there, he would do it. They would be together again.

Ginger and Tinka seemed to have forgotten his presence as they continued to pace and talk.

"The man does seem to love her."

"Seem is the key word. I don't care what my mother says; I can't forget what he is. What all of them are."

"Demons."

"Yes. The very demons Danika used to paint."

Still does, he thought, but remained silent. Damn them. He wanted them out of his way so he could see the screen fully and without interruption.

"But he cried when she disappeared."

"He sobbed, actually."

Still want to. Pain curled into a ball in the corner of his mind, licking at its emotional wounds. The creature had fallen in love with Danika just as Reyes had. Was lost without her. They were two halves of the same whole, so Reyes supposed it stood to reason they would love the same woman.

"If anyone can bring her home, it's him."

He listened vaguely, still drinking in those flickering visions of little Danika. Even then she'd been an angel, full of light and hope for the future. I'm nothing without her.

"Are you listening to me?" Ginger stood in front of him, hands anchored on her hips. She was taller than Danika, even thinner. Pretty, but she was not his angel.

"No," he said. "Move."

Tinka joined her daughter, linking their arms. "There has to be something else you can try."

"Bring her back," Ginger said, "and we'll stop trying to convince her to leave you."

"Not that it did any good. She wanted you in her...in her..." Tinka sobbed. "In her life."

The two women embraced. Reyes's chest ached.

Pain took no notice. Want my angel.

Me, too.

Need her.

Ginger and Tinka released each other and clomped off to the corner to whisper. Finally Reyes was able to see the screen in full detail. There was Danika, proudly waving her hand in front of the finished painting.

"They mean well," Mallory said.

"I know."

"Maybe, if I concentrate hard enough, my visions will come back. Maybe I can discover a way to fix this."

Maybe. But he would not get his hopes up. Reyes noticed the design of Danika's painting for the first time. He frowned, grabbed the remote control. The camera panned away from the painting, showing a frowning woman - a younger version of the grandmother, who was studying the colors and the lines.

Reyes pressed Rewind. When the painting reappeared, he pressed Pause. Ginger strode back in front of him, determination radiating from her.

"Move," he told her.

"Uh, excuse me. You - "

"Move!"

Gasping, she raced out of the way. "Fine. No need to shout."

His gaze locked on the painting once more. Could it be - was it...? It was. It really was. He shot to his feet, numbness giving way to anticipation. "Mallory. Look at the painting and tell me what you see."

She obeyed, wide-eyed. "Oh, my God. Is that...is that...?"

"I think so." He might just have found the way to save Danika.

DANIKA FLOATED on a sea of black, surrounded by winter's chill.

Every so often she could feel the brush of fingertips across her face and neck, and knew a cloth draped her naked body because the cool silk somehow kept her from drifting away into absolute nothingness. Too, she periodically heard a voice inside her head.