Iniquitous (The Marked #3)(5)

Deep ones.

“He really did a number on you,” said a voice from the other side of the door.

I startled back, instinctively crawling away from the sound as my eyes surveyed the small peeper window.

A pair of onyx eyes, backed by pure white skin as fresh as the winter snow, stared back at me expressionless.

“Dominic.” I pulled in a breath but forgot to let it out.

“Have I ever told you how much I enjoy the sound of my name writhing from your lips?”

I scowled at him. “What the hell is going on? Where are we and why are you just standing there? Get me the hell out of here!”

“Settle down, love.” His voice, while steady and calm, only further rattled my emotions.

“Settle down? I’m in a freaking dungeon, Dominic!”

“Yes, I’m aware. I’m working on a plan to get you out of here; however, it’s not going to be easy. The circumstances have become rather muddled as of late.”

“What do you mean ‘muddled’? What the hell are you talking about?” I snapped back at him, my heart pounding harder and faster with every second of inactivity that went by.

“You need to keep your voice down,” he warned, glancing over his left shoulder to make sure no one was coming. “I told you I’m working on it.”

“It’s been days, Dominic. I’m starving. I can’t even think straight anymore.” I shook my head as tears attempted to creep up from behind my lids, but I shut them down before they had a chance to break out. “I’m losing my damn mind!”

“Yes, and you’re not looking all that good either, I might add,” he said, inspecting me.

I'd never wanted to hit him more than I did in that moment. “You better be here to help me or so help me God—”

“There's no need to bring Him into this. I'm here to help you, angel. I promise.”

I hoped to God he meant that because right now, he was the only hope I had. “Do you know what's going on?”

“Isn't it obvious?”

“No, Dominic. It's not. I thought this was about the Dark Legion, but he isn't even working with them anymore, so why am I here? What's the point of all this?” I asked, gesturing to my less than desirable bedroom quarters.

“He's trying to stop the Dark Legion from raising Lucifer.”

“What? Since when?” My head ticked back at this strange new information. I was about to assault him with a string of other questions when another thought occurred to me. “Wait. If he’s trying to stop them, doesn't this put us on the same side?” A glimmer of hope bloomed in my heart like a flower.

“Not exactly.”

“Of course not.” And just like that, the flower was squashed. “Explain.”

“He wants to lead my kind out of the shadows. To rise up and take power,” he said, waggling his eyebrows as he spoke the words I preferred never to hear. “He can't do that if the Dark Legion raises Lucifer. It would only push our kind further down the chain, and believe me, temptress, Engel isn’t going to willingly allow that to happen.”

Shit. There it was…The Uprising.

Trace’s Alt had warned me about that when he traveled back in time to give me the Amulet. He warned me what would happen if Engel ever got his hands on the Amulet and made me promise I would never take it off.

“And since the Dark Legion needs my blood to do it, Engel now wants me dead,” I concluded for him.

“Precisely.”

I was so screwed, I needed a new name for it.

Panic rose at the back of my throat. “You have to do something, Dominic. I don’t want to die here. I can't die here!” At this point, the Dark Legion was looking more and more like a better alternative. At least they didn’t want to kill me. At least they needed me alive. In desperate times like these, that stood for something in my book.

“You aren't going to die here,” he said coolly, though I could see the uncertainty in his otherwise haughty eyes. “You still have the Amulet. And he needs it.”

“Oh, the Amulet. Goody. I feel so much better now,” I said tartly.

Dominic looked back at me confused.

“It’s always about the stupid Amulet. All my problems started when I put this damn thing on.” I gritted my teeth in disgust as I contemplated ripping it off my neck and sending it to Engel with a big red bow attached to it. “I swear, this old piece of crap is going to get me killed, and for what? It doesn’t even work! It’s freakin’ broken and useless!”

He snorted under his breath as though I’d said something funny. “I assure you, angel, The Immortal Amulet is not broken.”

“No? Then where’s my protection, huh? My sister said I would be safe as long as I kept it on—that I would be untouchable. Well I’m not! All I’ve gotten from this thing is a target on my back and one attack after another!”

“That's because of your blood, angel—not the Amulet,” he said as he leaned into the small window frame. “It's only meant to protect Descendants.”

“I am a Descendant!” I roared back at him and immediately felt the blood rush away from my head at the effort.

“Yes, you are certainly a Descendant, but the Morningstar bloodline is dominant in you, and the Amulet’s magic can sense that. It’s not meant to protect His Descendants,” he said emphasizing the word as though he got a kick out of it.