Page 13 of Cast in Shadow (Drenched in Darkness #1)

13

My heart was beating so hard I could have sworn a herd of tiny elephants was stampeding through my chest.

I forced a step back and shook my head, hoping it would clear away some of the fog, but he closed the gap. The man towered over me, his muscular frame exuding a brutal kind of power that was impossible to ignore. My gaze took too long to travel down to his hard chest and back up the taut tendons of his neck to the harsh set of his square jaw.

How could he still do this to me—entrance me with his mere presence—after all these years?

“You shouldn’t be here,” he repeated, his warning a low, sensuous rumble that vibrated through me. “It’s not safe.”

It barely mattered what he was saying when his body kept edging closer.

Oh, for fuck’s sake. I gave myself a mental slap. I am not this woman anymore.

I swallowed hard and backed up a few steps before leveling my pistol at him. “Where are they?”

His eyes narrowed, showing me a glimpse of the calculating monster I’d once been reckless enough to fall in love with. “Where’s who?”

“The bear shifter and the girl,” I hissed through clenched teeth.

A look of feigned confusion flitted across his face. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Like hell he didn’t. Was it possible that he was clueless to my current situation? Sure, but between the warning and the fact that he was in the same vicinity as my missing daughter and agent, the odds weren’t in his favor.

“Don’t you dare play dumb with me. My team traced them to this area.”

“I thought you didn’t work with a team,” he said with the smug arch of one dark brow.

And now he was stalling. Which only confirmed he knew exactly why I was there. And he honestly thought he knew who he was dealing with.

Good for me. Bad for him.

“Tell me where they are, Emerson.”

“Or what? You’ll shoot me?”

We both knew bullets were no use against him. It wasn’t like they bounced off, but his magic would push the metal out of his flesh and heal the wound in a matter of seconds. It was part of what made primordial demons so damned unkillable.

I lowered the gun, keeping my finger on the trigger. “Tell me where they are or get out of my way.”

“No.”

I blinked back at him. “No?”

“This is bigger than you and me.”

“How the hell is a bunch of demons kidnapping members of my team bigger than me?”

“There you go again, calling them members of your team.”

I could have slapped him for the way he said it, with that condescending twist. Instead, I pulled in a breath and dug deep to find the professional mask I usually wore when I was on the job. The one that let me feign indifference to the horrors I’d seen through the years even as it convinced arrogant assholes that they were messing with the wrong woman.

“This is not a game. Bring them out here or take me to them, or I swear to all the gods, I will make you regret it.” The threat came out smooth and calm, with just a hint of the turmoil roiling inside me.

He studied me carefully, the silence threatening to swallow us both. “What’s your plan if I don’t? Who will you call to take care of things? Your director?”

Confusion and fury coiled inside me. “What the fuck does the director have to do with this?”

“Everything.”

That was when it hit me. I was standing in another trap, only in this one, my former lover and his immortal brothers were torturing one of my closest friends and my adopted daughter. Why? Because they were trying to draw me out.

Emerson was just failing to realize how well their little plan had worked.

My skin tingled dangerously. “You’re making a mistake,” I ground out.

He studied me again, then shook his head. “Leave, Senna. Before the others realize you’re out here.”

I wasn’t afraid of them. I probably should have been. Primordial demons were terrifying creatures. Immortal and powerful beyond anything else I’d ever seen, but I was starting to wonder if they weren’t just as prone to massive errors in judgment as the rest of us. Immortal wasn’t the same as infallible, after all.

“I can give you the director,” I offered. “But only if you let Shay and Nguyen go right now. ”

“Nice try, but that’s not going to happen.”

“I was trying to play nice.” I eased back another step and raised my gun.

“Don’t.” He held up his hand as if that would be enough to stop me. “If you fire that thing, the others will come out here. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.”

“I know.” I pulled the trigger.

The bullet slammed into him, and he rocked back with a grunt. The warning gleam in his eyes turned molten. “Careful, Senna. You know I like to play rough.” His rich voice was thick with more than just anger.

I wasn’t a complete fool. I knew some part of him loved it when I fought back. He was half-man, half-animal, and he loved a challenge. Every instinct in my fragile human body demanded I run when he gave me that look, but nothing would stop me from getting my people back. Not even him.

“Let them go, Emerson.” As I spoke, I pulled power from the ribbon. It was still too far away to reach the peak of my abilities, but I would take what I could get.

“No,” he said firmly.

I shot him again.

The sound ricocheted between the buildings, but I didn’t miss the “tink, tink” of metal as his body expelled the pieces of the bullet and they fell to the ground. Then a door slammed open and there were people running. In a matter of seconds, I was facing off against three of the Brethren: Emerson, Phineas, and Jabiah.

“What the hell is going on out here?” Jabiah asked, casting me a look of disdain that I felt in my toes. He stalked forward, and Phineas closed ranks behind him. Only Emerson hung back, watching.

“Are you…?” His question faded as his gaze bounced between Emerson and me. “Is she who I think she is? ”

Emerson didn’t respond. He just kept his wild ocean eyes locked on me.

“Get the hell out of here, Senna.” Jabiah got right in my face, his brown eyes glittering dangerously. “While you still can.”

“It is so touching that you remember my name after all this time. Really. But you are all failing to understand the gravity of your situation. A fact I was trying to drill into your brother’s thick head.”

His eyes twitched once and he pulled back, just a little.

“Let my people go. Right. Fucking. Now,” I demanded, letting some of my power roll through the order.

He ran his tongue along the edge of his teeth, a predatory move if ever there was one, but when he reached for me, a large hand wrapped around his wrist, yanking it back.

Emerson’s growl was far more animal than man, and Jabiah’s eyes danced between us again before settling on me.

“Fine. Bring us the director and we will let them go,” Emerson finally bit out.

The power of the ribbon pulsed around me. It was coming in fast, almost like it knew I needed the backup. Raw magic tingled along my nerve endings, feeding power and energy into me until I could feel it crackling from my fingertips, my toes—even my eyelashes.

Emerson’s eyes went wide, and he eased back a step. “ Senna?”

The moment I felt his presence in my head, I shoved him right back out, reinforcing my mental barriers so he couldn’t force his way back in. “You want the director, you’ve got her,” I said, taking a step toward him.

The other two gaped at me, but it was Emerson who figured out what was going on. “The ribbon. She’s connected to it.”

He wasn’t wrong, but my connection ran a hell of a lot deeper than that.

The other two fell back another step without prompting, but Emerson held his ground, watching me intently with those blue eyes filled with a million questions. “If you are the director, how did you send Theloneus through the veil?”

“I didn’t.” I shoved my gun in the back waistband of my pants. “But if I don’t see my people out here in one minute, I’m not above giving it the old college try with the three of you.”

To back up that threat, I turned my palm up, focused my energy, and conjured a ball of pure light. It took a hell of a lot more effort than I remembered for something that was barely the size of a marble, but it lit up the alleyway like the midday sun, throwing off tiny blue sparks that sizzled against my palm.

All three men inched back.

“I think we all know what this is, right?” I asked coolly.

Demons and pure light didn’t mix. I didn’t know the mechanics of it, but I did know coming into contact with it disrupted their innate energy somehow. Judging from the reactions of the handful of demons I’d used it on in the past, it was also immensely painful and could weaken them, at least temporarily.

“Senna.” Emerson’s voice was a warning. “What have you done?”

“What have I done?” I let the light in my palm pulse, growing a little larger with each beat of my heart. “What have I done?” It was barely a whisper, but Emerson flinched when he caught my meaning.

“They’re fine,” he said, holding his hands out.

“How many times has she needed to heal herself? How many times did her heart stop beating?”

He swallowed hard. “She’s okay.”

It took every ounce of self-control I had not to launch forward and slam that ball of light into his chest. Gods knew he deserved it, and part of me was itching to inflict a hell of a lot of pain and suffering. To claim some vengeance for the damage he’d wrought on my life, not to mention my people.

But there would be time for that later, after I knew Shay and Nguyen were safe.

“Thirty seconds.” The energy pulsed steadily, growing a tiny fraction of an inch in diameter each time.

Emerson pulled Jabiah around. “Get them. Now.”

The other demon, who was nearly as obnoxiously attractive as Emerson, disappeared so quickly the fine particles in the air whirled in a frenzy, unsure which way to drift.

I drew in a slow breath, bracing myself, keeping my eyes on Emerson.

“Talk to me, Senna.”

There was nothing to say. I’d blocked him from my mind so thoroughly that I couldn’t even feel his presence, pressing and testing, trying to find a way in, but I knew he was. I could see it in his eyes. “Twenty seconds.”

“They’re coming. You have my word.” When he took a hesitant step forward, I let the power in my palm flare, and he eased back. “Tethering yourself to the ribbon is beyond dangerous.” He shoved his hand through his dark hair. “What the hell were you thinking?”

For the first time that night, the hint of a smile curled my lips. “Fifteen seconds.”

“Fuck, Senna. Don’t do this.”

I glared at him. “Do what? Hurt you? Betray you? Make you feel like you don’t matter? Or threaten vengeance for kidnapping and torturing people I swore to protect?”

“I’m sorry. Beyond fucking sorry. For everything.”

“Five seconds.”

“Senna.”

“Four.”

“Wait. ”

“Three.”

“Just talk to?—”

“Senna!” Shay’s high-pitched cry cut through our standoff, and I turned to see her running toward me with her dirty blond hair flying and a wild look in her hazel eyes.

I collapsed the energy ball into nothing, absorbing the power back into my palm and distributing it through my body a split second before she crashed into me.

“Hey, gorgeous,” I whispered through a tight throat as I pulled her into a protective hug. Her arms came around me like little pythons, squeezing so tight it took effort to breathe. “Are you okay?”

Her whole body trembled uncontrollably, and when her hot tears hit my neck, my magic surged within me, pressing against my skin until it felt like it might tear through.

Emerson was watching us, a mixture of emotions flashing across his strong features, not the least of which was understanding. He was just figuring out how important Shay was to me.

I slammed my eyes shut and pulled back from the ribbon, silently thanking it for its help. When I opened them again, Nguyen was there, limping forward, holding his left arm tight against his side. His face was a mess of bruises and bloody scrapes, and the gash over his left eye was still dripping blood.

Words refused to form in my throat at the sight of him, but when he met my gaze, he nodded, answering my unspoken question. He might look a little rough, but they hadn’t done any permanent damage. Nothing a shift and a few thousand calories couldn’t fix.

When he was safely by my side, I peeled Shay’s arms from around my middle and gently nudged her toward him. He would protect her with his life, but right now I just needed to get them both away from here .

I dug my keys out of my pocket, pulled my gun from my waistband, and pressed them both into his right hand. “Take her home.”

His jaw ticked. I could see he wanted to argue, but Shay beat him to it.

“What? No. You’re not?—”

“You don’t need to be here for this,” I said flatly.

“I’m not going anywhere without you,” she said.

I released a tired breath and tried not to aim the fury that was crawling across my skin at her. “I’ll be fine.” I forced myself to soften, meeting her gaze like I would on any other day, in any other situation. “I just need to have a talk with Emerson.”

“No.” She shook her head, reaching out for me. The hurt in her eyes when I backed away cut deep. Still, she was as stubborn as they came. “I’m not leaving.”

“This is not a request, Shay. You need to leave, now.” She could hate me later. I just needed to know she was safe.

I had no idea what the next few minutes or hours would hold for me. Especially if Emerson let the others question me. I risked a quick glance at the alley to gauge the mood the others were in, but someone was missing. “Where’s Phineas?”

Emerson and Jabiah turned at the same time, seeing what I saw. Phineas, the ancient being who had supposedly witnessed his brother’s eviction from our realm firsthand, was gone.