The Darkest Pleasure (Lords of the Underworld #3)(13)

Sometimes, though, the fantasy was replaced by his greatest fear, an image of blood and death. Danika's throat cut, her naked body painted crimson...motionless. The likelihood of that fear coming true would increase upon Aeron's release. You knew you could not hold him prisoner forever. Release him, save her and then protect her.

Protecting her would mean keeping her with him rather than walking away from her as planned. That would increase her contact with the death-hungry Aeron, but it would also increase her contact with Reyes. Dangerous though it was, the thought was as sultry and heady as a lover's caress might be - if Reyes had been able to find pleasure in softness.

"The Darkest Pleasure"

To have Danika here...to hold her...Her angel face flashed through his mind. Wide green eyes that had looked at him with a range of emotions: fear, hope, hate - and desire? Small, pert nose. Lush pink lips that cursed him to everlasting hell while silently promising the sweetest rapture. Delicate body deliciously curved and ripe for a man's touch.

He closed his eyes, his nostrils suddenly filled with her scent. Stormy nights and innocence, sugar sweetness edged with something a little dark...perilous. His brow furrowed. Dark? Perilous? She had been neither of those things before.

"Give me your hand," Lucien said, suddenly in front of him, warm breath beating over Reyes's cheeks.

Reyes blinked in surprise as he faced his friend. He trusted this man, respected him, yet he had disappointed him over and over in the past few days. Though he didn't know what Lucien planned, he offered his hand without reservation.

Without dragging his swirling eyes from Reyes's gaze, Lucien wrapped his fingers around Reyes's.

At the moment of contact, a lightning spear slammed through his entire body. Every muscle he possessed clenched and unclenched as though hooked to a generator, volts of pure, electrical power pumping through his bloodstream. Heat slithered around him, a python holding on to a meal, tightening more and more until he could no longer breathe. Felt so good, the pain. He squeezed his lids shut, savoring. His demon purred.

His mind blackened for several heartbeats, a dark shroud covering every corner. Then pinpricks of light formed, growing...growing...An image winked into place, not yet cohesive. Just an outline. And then, suddenly, he could see Danika lying on a bed just as he'd imagined all these weeks. Except she wasn't a fair goddess spread and waiting for his pleasure. She was shackled to the bed, her once-pale hair cut and dyed.

She was trembling. Tear streaks had dried on her cheeks, and she'd nibbled on her lower lip so forcefully that tiny droplets of blood had beaded. In that moment, rage was like another demon inside him. Danika was a woman meant for pleasure and light, not darkness and fear.

"She does not look well." Lucien released him and stepped away, taking the vision with him. "The longer she is with them, the more harm they can do to her. I followed the dead Hunter's body to a funeral home, stayed there in spirit form and watched as Hunters came to visit. They unknowingly led me straight to Danika. They know she killed their friend. Apparently they've had her since the night of the stabbing. They have her chained to a bed and have kept her asleep. She is unable to fight them like that, is helpless, vulnerable, a - "

"Yes!" Reyes's arm fell to his side. He was panting. "Yes," he repeated. He didn't have to think about what to do any longer. "Give me Danika and I will give you Aeron." Perhaps this was the answer to his torment. Save Danika, protect her and help restore Aeron to his former self, reminding the warrior of what he had once been. Though how he would accomplish the latter, he still didn't know. "But I will have your word that when he is brought here, he will be given the solitude he craves."

"You have it." Lucien nodded, grim. "Know that I do this partly because Anya thinks Danika can lead us to one of the artifacts. And doubt me not. When the girl is here, I will use her to find it."

"And doubt me not. I am not myself when I am with her and do not know how I will react if you willingly place her in harm's way." Already he felt feral with the thought. "Take me to her."

"First tell me you understand that we might save her now, only to lose her later. I will not have you blame me if - "

"She will not die." He wouldn't let her. "No more talking. Take me to her."

I FOUGHT FOR MY LIFE only to lose it like this? Danika laughed bitterly. She'd only just woken up, wasn't sure how much time had passed or what had been done to her. The thought made her gag.

After the...the...attack - oh, God, don't think about it - she had raced to her shabby apartment to gather her things. Mistake. She should have left the gun and clothing behind, but without the day's pay she'd known replacing them would have been too expensive. And since she hadn't yet mastered the ability to steal without getting caught, she'd felt she had no other recourse.

A group of strange men had been waiting for her, standing in the shadows next to the fire escape as though they'd known what route she most often took. As if they'd been watching her for days and knew her habits.

She could have fought one or two. Even three. But there had been six of them, all bearing the same figure-eight tattoo on their wrists as the man she'd - she'd - she couldn't even think the word now. They'd possessed the same tattoo as the man who'd died in that dirty alley. They'd overpowered her, knocked her out.