Beyond the Darkness

Page 43

The cur had nearly reached her when he belatedly realized he was no longer alone. Jerking his head up, his eyes flashed crimson and his lips curled back in a snarl.
“Just hold on, Rambo,” Harley held up her hands in a nonthreatening motion. Well, nonthreatening if you didn’t count the big knife. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
The cur tilted back his face to sniff the air, and Harley realized that he was bleeding from a wound on the temple and that the left side of his face was a painful shade of black and blue. He looked like he’d just come out the loser of a Bully Beatdown.
“You’re not Darcy,” he at last growled.
“No shit, Sherlock,” she muttered, not entirely reassured by the knowledge he was familiar with her twin.
Would she be able to tell if he was under the influence of Briggs?
“Who are you?” the cur demanded.
“Darcy’s sister, Harley. And you?”
“Hess.” He sucked in a deep breath, coming back from the edge of shifting. Not that he was any less dangerous. “Why do you smell like Salvatore?”
Hess. The name clicked into place.
Salvatore’s most trusted soldier.
She could see why. He was a freaking mountain of muscle.
“The idiot seems to think I’m his mate,” she said.
His brow furrowed, as if stumped by her explanation. “Weres can’t mate.”
“Yeah, well, that’s something you need to take up with your king.”
“Salvatore.” Instantly distracted, the cur slammed his fist against the stone wall, his expression twisted with regret. “Shit.”
Harley instinctively stepped back. “What?”
“I attacked him. Christ, I knew he was my master and I still tried to kill him.” He stepped toward her, his expression wild. “I couldn’t help it. I swear to you, I couldn’t help it.”
Anger exploded through Harley. Damn Briggs. He had to know that forcing Salvatore to hurt his own pack was the worst torture that Salvatore could endure.
“Save your pity party for later. I need to find your master,” she snapped, sensing that Hess was in need of a strong leader, not a shoulder to cry on. A good thing. She wasn’t a touchy-feely kind of gal. “Where did you see him last?”
As hoped, Hess was jolted out of his shame and squared his shoulders in determination.
“I’m not sure,” he admitted, the muscles of his jaw knotted as he struggled to control his emotions. “He knocked me out during our fight and when I woke up, he was gone, so I took off. I wasn’t going to risk being used against him again.”
Which explained the bruises and his stumbling.
“How did you get here in the first place?”
He growled, his eyes flashing red. “Caine.”
Stupidly, Harley was caught off guard. It wasn’t that she thought Caine was above using and abusing his fellow curs. He was so lost in his delusions of grandeur that he was willing to sacrifice anyone and anything to make his vision come true. But he usually preferred to leave the grunt work to others.
Precious Caine didn’t like to get his hands dirty.
“Someday soon I’m going to rip out his treacherous heart,” she muttered.
“Not if I find him first.”
“Did Caine kidnap anyone but you?”
“Three others.”
Harley grimaced. “Where are they?”
“The cur had us in silver cages before the whacko Were came to take me away.” He waved a hesitant hand to the left. “That way…I think.”
Harley didn’t fault him for being confused. The place was like an endless maze of barren stone.
“Go find them and get them out of here,” she commanded.
Hess instantly bristled. “No, if you are the mate of Salvatore, he’d kill me if I let something happen to you.”
Harley swallowed the urge to tell him exactly what he could do with his macho bullshit. It didn’t matter that she could kick this cur’s ass with one hand tied behind her back. Just because she had a uterus rather than a cock meant he had to protect her.
Instead, she simply outwitted him.
Not a particularly difficult task.
“Do you truly think you would be of any use to me if Briggs decides to take control of you again?” she demanded.
Hess scowled. “He won’t…”
“Look, we’re wasting time,” she interrupted, her tone warning he was taking his life in his hands to argue with her. “You know that it isn’t safe for you to be around Briggs.”
Hess folded his hands over his massive chest. “How do you know he can’t control you?”
“My connection to Salvatore protects me,” she blatantly lied. She wouldn’t let herself consider the possibility. “Go rescue the others.”
There was a brittle silence, then with a foul curse, Hess swept past her, headed for the entrance of the tunnel.
“I’m going to be pissed if you get yourself killed and I’m blamed,” he muttered.
Harley rolled her eyes. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Waiting until she was alone in the tunnel, Harley sucked in a deep breath and continued her nerve-wracking journey. She hated feeling as if she were buried alive in this endless web of caverns. The vamps could have the dark and dank, as far as she was concerned. She wanted the open sky overhead, and a fresh breeze filling her lungs.
Ignoring the growing chill that prickled over her skin, Harley headed deeper and deeper into the darkness, losing track of time and direction as a creeping sense of claustrophobia threatened to choke her.
She concentrated on keeping her heartbeat steady and one foot moving in front of the other, her years of training at last coming in handy as she flowed silently through the empty tunnels.
On the point of turning back and trying another path, Harley caught the unmistakable scent of smoke. It wasn’t exactly proof positive that Salvatore was near, but it was the first indication she wasn’t completely alone in the barren hellhole.
Following the smoke, Harley slowly entered the large cavern, her heart coming to a complete and perfect halt at the sight of Salvatore laid out on a stone altar, his blood dripping into a blazing brazier.
A savage, astonishingly protective fury ripped through her. Christ, his body was being destroyed by the heavy silver chains wrapped around him, and his beautiful face…it was dangerously pale from the rapid loss of blood. Dammit. She wanted to rip off Briggs’s head. She wanted to feed his putrid heart to the rats. She wanted…
Her heart twisted.
She wanted to snatch Salvatore off the ghastly altar and take him far away from this cavern.
Checking the impulse to rush across the seemingly empty cave, Harley forced herself to pause and use her brains. Hey, there was a first time for everything.
Spreading out her senses, she searched for any hint of danger. It should have been simple. Beyond the altar and brazier the vast space appeared to be empty. But she knew from bitter experience that Briggs had the ability to pop in and out without warning.
When there was no smell of rotting meat and the air remained chilly, but not icy, she took a cautious step forward. She had taken her second step when Salvatore’s head abruptly snapped in her direction, his eyes widening with unexpected panic.
“Harley, no,” he growled.
“Listen to him, Were,” an ominous voice rasped through the air. “A step closer and I’ll kill him.”
Harley sucked in a sharp breath, belatedly catching sight of the shadow that hovered above Salvatore.
She knew instinctively that the…thing wasn’t Briggs using his hocus-pocus. The thick power that suddenly pulsed through the air had nothing to do with Were, and everything to do with pure, undiluted evil.
This had to be the demon lord that Styx feared.
Or at least a portion of his essence.
She briefly stumbled, her mouth dry with sheer terror. Deep in her heart, she understood she was in way over her head. What the hell did she know about battling a demon lord? Or a zombie Were, for that matter.
Then gritting her teeth, she ignored her perfectly reasonable fear and instead concentrated on the scent of Salvatore that at last broke through the dampening spell.
“You’re going to kill him anyway,” she accused, continuing forward.
“True, but you can save your own life,” the voice promised. “Just turn and walk away.”
“No.”
“Dio, Harley, do as he says,” Salvatore rasped, struggling against the silver chains. “Get out of here.”
“Listen to your mate, female,” the demon lord warned.
“Go to hell,” she muttered, her gut clenching as Salvatore abruptly screamed in agony, his body contorting as if it were being tortured by an unseen enemy. “Shit. Just hang on, Salvatore. Do you hear me?”
Despite his obvious pain, Salvatore’s golden gaze never wavered from her.
“Please, go. I can’t bear…”
“Shut up, Your Majesty. I’m not leaving.”
Unable to halt her by punishing Salvatore, the demon lord turned his attention in Harley’s direction. She was mere steps from the altar when a bolt of energy smashed into her with enough force to send her to her knees.