The Darkest Pleasure (Lords of the Underworld #3)(39)

"Girl," Aeron shouted. His hands snaked around Reyes's neck and squeezed tight. "Want her."

"Mine," Reyes managed to push past his lips. "Tell me about her family."

"Die!"

"Tell me."

He heard Danika gasp. Thought he heard Lucien shout a terse warning.

"Tell me." The plea was barely audible. He dropped his knife, unwilling to use it on his friend to save himself, and clutched Aeron's wrists. If this was needed to get answers out of Aeron, this he would allow.

But all too soon, the feeling of Aeron's hands squeezing tighter and tighter, harder and harder, became too good. The pain was too intoxicating. His demon purred happily.

More.

"She must die," Aeron snarled.

"She's...innocent."

"Doesn't matter."

"Once it would have." Before Reyes could add anything else, his mind fogged, dizziness rushing through him like the ocean to the shore.

You have to protect Danika. As he pried Aeron's hands off him, his windpipe shattered, a thousand needle pricks in his throat. Oxygen could not get through. Blood laced with the bone shards and swept them into his stomach; along the way, they cut everything they encountered.

This was going to kill him. For a little while, anyway.

His eyes closed in bliss, but his mind screamed in denial.

"HELP HIM!" Danika shouted to Lucien. She gripped the prison's bars, cold all the way to her soul. Colder than ever before. Right now, she couldn't see Reyes. Not even a glimpse. Aeron, the bastard, had him wrapped in those lethal black wings. "Help him." None of her instructors had prepared her for demons attacking other demons, and she didn't know what to do. "Please."

"He'll survive." Lucien withdrew a gun from the waist of his pants, checked the magazine.

"No one could survive that," she said, eyeing the weapon. Her first thought was that he meant to shoot her. Her second, that he would have done so already if that had been his plan.

"Aeron, let him go," Lucien called.

"No!" the warrior roared.

A moment passed. Lucien stiffened, muttered, "What is that thing?" and withdrew a bullet from his pocket. He slid the lethal ball into the gun's chamber.

Danika was shaking violently, couldn't stop. "What if you accidentally hit Reyes?" She wanted Reyes...what? Alive, yes. Unhurt, definitely. He had protected her two weeks ago, had taken the brunt of Aeron's rage today, and now she would protect him. At the moment, he was her only lifeline. At least, that's what she told herself. That had to be the reason he suddenly mattered to her.

"As I said, he'll survive."

Would he, though? He was immortal, he was a demon, but was he completely immune to strangulation and bullets? Every time she'd seen Reyes, he'd been cut and bleeding. Clearly, he could be injured. And what if Aeron attempted to cut off his head while he was incapacitated? Stefano had told her that decapitation was the surest way to kill an immortal permanently. Tacking on that "surest" meant there were other ways to kill them.

Her wild gaze locked on Aeron, who most likely still had a death grip on Reyes. The enraged warrior was unmoving now, head bowed, no sound emerging from him. Oh, God. What did that mean? "Just - just let me distract him. I'll get him away from Reyes, then you can shoot Aeron."

Hinges creaked as she opened the barred door.

Lucien grabbed her arm, stopping her. "The gun isn't for Aeron." He motioned to a corner of the cell with a tilt of his chin.

"The Darkest Pleasure"

Danika followed the line of his vision. There, in the corner, was a thin, waist-high...thing. Her eyes widened in shock. Green scales covered its naked body. Its teeth were long like sabers, saliva dripping from them, and its ears were pointed. Bright red eyes glowed as Aeron's had glowed just before he'd attacked Reyes.

"To my knowledge, I didn't flash the creature here," Lucien said. "It is not our friend."

What was it? And why did she feel as though she'd seen it before? Watched it? Frowned in confusion over its antics?

"Demon," Lucien said as though she'd asked aloud. Maybe she had. Lucien aimed the gun.

"Don't shoot near Reyes," she said on a rush of air.

Lucien looked at her in surprise, as if he couldn't quite believe she was defending her captor. "I'll be careful."

Aeron's body began shaking again, nearly convulsing. He once more began growling like an animal at mealtime. What was he doing? She released the bars and her nails bit into her palms. Sweat poured down her back, even though she trembled from that shivering cold.

Standing here, doing nothing, she felt utterly helpless.

Boom.

Danika's ears rang. Underneath the ringing, however, she could make out an eerie laugh. Alarmed, she watched the creature bound around the cell walls and even crawl along the ceiling.

"Play, play. Thisss fun."

I've seen this before, she thought again. But how? Her nightmares? Her eyes widened. Yes, of course. She constantly dreamed of demons and hell, so it stood to reason she might have visualized a creature such as this.

Lucien added another bullet, fired again.

More laughter.

Aeron straightened. Blood poured from his mouth and stained his hands. Catching her first glimpse of Reyes since Aeron had begun choking him, Danika covered her gaping mouth with the back of her hand. He was slumped on the ground, motionless, his neck...flat.