Page 28

M addy tipped her hand above her eyes to block the bright sun while she waited for Dom to appear in the sky. It had been a busy day for the Feard, apparently quite a few Immortals were turning into Scourges.

She spied four growing spots in the distance. “Here they come,” she shouted to Indigo who was refereeing Oskar and Freki.

Dom had invited the Feard for drinks, always finding diversions to keep Maddy busy and unfocused on blood. Indigo had arrived earlier with her gryphon.

Soaring into the yard first, Dom’s shadowy wings pounded the air until he landed beside Maddy on the grass. He pecked her cheek.

“Aw. That’s sweet,” said Indigo, tapping her mouth when Ohngel dropped down.

A dark cloud formed overhead, sleet and heavy rain pelting them. They raced for the cover of the house. The returning Feard gathered in Dom’s salon, sitting on the new couches and chairs.

Accustomed to Oskar and Freki, Maddy ignored the yaps, howls, and snorts from the two creatures outside while she served mulled wine to the visitors.

With a drink in his fist, Dom relaxed, his boots kicked up on the new coffee table.

Maddy poked his ribs, giving him a squint-eyed glare.

“What?”

“Off the table. We just got it.”

“I can always zap us a replacement.”

“Dom. Off.”

He obliged her, the guests staring.

Remi angled against the fireplace mantle. “Big guy, never thought I’d see the day. You not only took your boots off the fucking table, but you barely grumbled. Maddy, you work wonders.”

Dom growled. “I’ve never been as grumpy as everyone says.”

The disbelieving smirks refuted his statement.

Ely turned the convo to business, but nobody had anything new to add about Praevus or Serita.

Madeline perched on the edge of the couch, combing fingers through her hair. It was getting too long. She preferred her raggedy, chin-length cut. They still didn’t have any answers. The assassins had met with the OC. They’d met with Harmony. They’d met with Lucian and Michael.

Almost swinging his feet back onto the coffee table, Dom stopped, arching his brows and grinning at Maddy. “What did you think of Lucian?” He fixed on his brother warriors.

Indigo moved to the edge of her seat, obviously also interested to hear about the famous Scourge.

Remi responded first. “I don’t trust him. Despite what he said, he’s building an army. For what? Who knows. His actions scream rebellion.”

Dom nodded. “And the OC and Michael seem hesitant to elaborate on his powers.”

Ely asked, “Why?”

“Cause they’re assholes,” said Ohngel.

“Hey,” popped off Indigo. “The OC and I are buds.”

Maddy rested an arm on her knee. “I’m a little confused about Luce...”

“Who isn’t,” interrupted Ely.

She continued, “Is he a Blood Leech, like me?”

“Hard to say,” said Dom.

“Does he do the Ordeals? Other Scourges do.”

They all shrugged.

Maddy chewed her lower lip before adding, “Why don’t you check him out with Harmony? He should be on her list. Right, Ely?”

“Uh. Didn’t think of it. I’ll get back to her. She might have more insight into Mr. Enigmatic.”

“Here’s a biggy,” said Dom. “The OC claims he can’t make Immortals into Scourges...”

Maddy’s mouth dropped open. No . She interrupted. “I’ve been so distracted by what was happening to me, Dom, that I forgot to mention this. The OC said he DIDN’T create Scourges, not that he COULDN’T. He said it exactly that way. You need to pin him down on his wording.”

“Great catch.” Dom patted her thigh. “Now that I think about it, those are the same words Michael and Luce used. Not ‘I can’t’ but ‘I don’t.’”

“That’s the kind of shit they all pull,” said Ely. “The OC, Michael, and Luce.”

Maddy grabbed a notebook off the coffee table. She flipped it open in her lap and tapped a pen on a page. “And I make lists. It’s a minor compulsion. See if I’ve got everything. One, an Immortal kidnapped a human on Earth.” She patted her chest. “Me. Two, an Immortal, maybe the kidnapper, brought said-me into Angor. Couldn’t have been a Scourge. Three, somebody gave me to Praevus, along with nice digs and a dismissal from his punishments, most likely Serita. Four, Praevus and Serita are MIA. Five, someone killed an unkillable Scourge, Ike. Six, an asshole ... excuse the language ... gifted me with fangs and ugly wings, but we don’t know who or how.”

Maddy’s shoulders slumped. Seeing all the unanswered questions at once was troubling. “Is the list complete?”

Dom sighed. “Almost. Add seven and eight. The unnatural geological problems in OneWorld and the OC’s health. Also, we don’t know the end game. Is that an item or an aside?”

“The only problem solved is that I’m no longer a Syc. Another aside, I have a really, really big personal question.” Maddy drew a deep breath, her chest expanding. When everyone’s curious gaze fixed on her, she asked, “Now that I’m a Scourge, am I immortal?”

Dom scratched his jaw. “I never thought of that one.” From the group’s puzzled expressions, he wasn’t alone.

Adding another jig-saw piece, Dom shrugged and asked, “Is Maddy really a Scourge? I’ve been thinking about it. Her wings are not entirely like a Scourge’s. Her fangs are tiny.” He glanced at Maddy, a sympathetic look softening his dark eyes. “And she only wants to drink from me. I’d say that makes her ... unusual.”

Ohngel shot a hole in Dom’s positive thinking. “But she can’t get through the gateway. That pretty much says it all.”

They bounced those thoughts around for a while until Dom cleared his throat. “I have something else to say. For centuries, I have been,” he glanced at Remi, “grumpy, distant. But that was wrong. You’re...”

“Assholes?” offered Ely.

Ohngel chuffed, “Better looking?”

Remi crossed his arms over his chest. “More skilled lovers?”

“No,” said Dom. “Friends. Brothers. Family. And I ran from that. Tha...”

“Don’t finish that statement,” said Remi. “We’ll get all teary-eyed and want a group hug or some such shit.”

Indigo shared a glance with Maddy who shook her head. “They’re such men.”

****

R emi didn’t go home after leaving Dom’s. Restless, he strolled into his favorite BDSM club in Stupool.

Right now, the evening was young, and the serious shit hadn’t started. After asking around about Praevus, he stood in a corner watching a dominatrix straddle some Scourge, sticking a giant dildo up his ass and proceeding to spank him with a flat board. Though his cheeks were red and most likely painful, he moaned in ecstasy. He enjoyed the action so far, but things would change. Let the guy get his jollies while he could.

The female changed instruments, snagging onto a flogger. Not a nice ribboned, feathery one. Nope . This whip had leather straps ending in metal barbs. Each lash cut deep into the victim’s skin until he oozed blood.

Nonetheless, the guy shimmied his hips to rub his cock on the rough mattress, trying to orgasm. Never gonna happen. That was part of the fun here. Brought to the edge but no jizz.

The dominatrix glanced Remi’s way, her white eyes ablaze. A Rat. Nice. She was in her victim’s head, convincing him he’d blow his nut if she just kept up the punishment.

She shooed her victim away and sashayed over to Remi’s corner, giving him a come-hither. She was naked except for thigh-high, ankle-breaking black boots, gartered stockings, and chains crisscrossing her chest. Her pussy was shaved.

“How about I show you a good time?” She pointed to a contraption with chains.

A little bondage play might be welcome. Yeah . Face it, he was a bit depraved. Or a whole lot depraved, depending on perspective. Remi found that it took more and more stimuli to get him off. He only orgasmed when pain was involved. Lots of pain.

But duty before pleasure. Right now, he was on the job. So, to avoid taking the dominatrix up on her offer, he asked, “Seen Praevus?”

When she said, “No,” he sauntered toward the door no wiser than when he’d arrived.

Action on his left caught his attention. A female Flesh Eater was chained to a contraption that held her legs spread wide, her arms overhead. She wore nipple and clit clamps. When a male applied a cane to her back, she cried for more.

Her punisher dropped a hand to the front of his pants to diddle his bulging dick.

Damn .

Some of the shit here gave Remi a hard-on. Well, until things got too gross even for him.

He stomped outta there, shaking off his urges to get down and dirty. Resuming his search for the hard-to-find Praevus, he curved his bronze wings and landing on solid ground in Violence Village. He packed his feathered goods at his spine. If he gave the Rats an hour’s reprieve from the craziness here, he figured they might be grateful enough to spill their guts.

From the middle of the main street, Remi watched the Scourges run helter-skelter armed with swords, knives, baseball bats, or makeshift weapons. The goal of this Ordeal was for the participants to beat the shit out of each other. A mind game. Or a win-win, as he saw it.

Among the screams and blood, he sought Scourges who might keep up with the rumor mill. He sidestepped a blade-wielding crazy. When the female missed, Remi snapped out his bronze razor-edged wings and slashed her upper arm. She barely winced before she scampered off, looking for an easier victim. Remi ducked as a long sword swiped above his head.

Fuck.

Now he was pissed. Didn’t the Scourges know who he was? Lesson forthcoming. Remi drew both knives from the holsters strapped to his thighs. This place was good practice for an assassin. He joined in the frivolity. A tall, skinny Rat challenged him, a bat gripped in both fists and raised overhead. Anticipating the guy’s swing, Remi sliced the soft flesh on the insides of the guy’s arms. As the Scourge rushed off screaming, the bronze-winged assassin chose another Rat. Before he could slice and dice the guy, though, another attacker pounded Remi’s head with a crowbar.

Lucky hit.

Wiping blood from his eyes, Remi saw he was surrounded. About ten against one. Time to show the assholes what a winged assassin could do. Fisting two knives and flicking out his wings, he took down four Scourges with a simple three-sixty. The remaining attackers worried their lips. But Remi didn’t give them a moment to think about the error of their ways. Lunging forward, he plunged a blade into a chest, stabbed a neck, and used his sharp feather tips to gut another. After doing a backward flip, he ran at the last three. With unfurled wings, he took down a double and finished the final attacker with a knife.

Remi had drawn a crowd. He threw his fists into the air, bouncing around Rocky style. Then just to mix things up, he shouted, “Yippee-ki-yay, motherfuckers. My homage to Die Hard . A great movie if you haven’t seen it yet. Who’s next?” Damn . No takers. He re-sheathed his blades and strolled along the middle of the main street, Scourges sprinting out of his path. This stop was proving to be more fun than he’d expected. A little action to soothe his restlessness.

Cowering in an alley, a Mind Rat caught Remi’s eye. He signaled the assassin to follow him deeper into the passageway.

The Rat’s eyes were white and nearly spinning. Violence Village did that to them, making them delirious as they thrived on delivering and receiving pain. Remi waved a hand in front of the guy’s face. “I need your attention. Focus on something other than burrowing through my brains or joining the fun.”

The spinning halted long enough for the Scourge to concentrate. “I hear you’re looking for info on Praevus.”

“Yep. What do you know of him?”

The Scourge peeked around Remi, trying to keep up on what was happening in the street. “Haven’t seen him for a while. Heard he ran into some good luck.”

“I got that much. What kind?”

“The kind that won’t land him in Violence Village. Lucky fuck.”

“Who could do that for him?” asked Remi.

The guy shrugged, his eyes going for a spin again. “Another Scourge. One with power. One who is out of the punishment game.”

Remi thought that would make the Scourge pretty important. A trustee.

“That’s the rumor.” The Rat sniffed, his nose wrinkling like he had post-nasal drip.

“Got anything else?”

“Saw him flying toward the Razor Mountains once with Serita. Real friendly.”

Remi had stopped his search there when four Scourges had attacked him. Had they meant to divert him?

He supposed he should be a nice guy in trade for the intel. “You wanna ride home?”

The Mind Rat’s spooky white eyes did a funky dance again. “I’ll bide my time here.” He bent to the ground and picked up a metal bar, a smile creeping across his face.

The informant sprinted out of the alley, returning to the main street while Remi took to the air to search the Razor Mountains thoroughly. As he dipped through valleys and wove around peaks, he filtered energy through his hand to flood the dark surface of Angor with light. After hours of searching, he was about to give up.

Just before he veered off, he spotted an isolated cabin, nearly hidden by trees.

Landing in front of it, he kicked in the unlocked door to announce himself. It was empty and tidy even though the furniture was threadbare and sparse. The only litter turned out to be recognizable remnants of Praevus. A head. A decomping torso. No regeneration going on.

Remi raised a hand, fire shooting from his fingertips and incinerated what remained of Praevus, making the Mind Rat ashes on the wood floor. The guy had been extincted at least a few days ago given his state of degeneration.

Fuck .

Remi searched the cabin, finding male and female duds in the closet and a bunch of shit on a dresser. Makeup. Lotion. A brush with strands of dark hair in it. Not the Mind Rat’s. So, Praevus and a female had stayed here.

Then there was more. Cuffs were attached to the bedposts. Remi leaned over to sniff the sheets. Madeline. Her scent was faint. It had been a long time, but she’d been here.

Outside he was about to path the Feard when he heard a soft whimper. Traipsing through the underbrush, he found the source. A female, moans coming from the mouth on her nearly decapped head. Given her coloring, she was likely the source of the dark hair in the brush.

He crouched beside her, a hand to her bloody neck. “Serita? What happened?”

Her eyes widened, but all she rasped was, “Help.”

Decapitation, or even near decapitation, was a painful recovery for an Immortal. Most opted for extinction rather than to go through the process. How Luce had endured was a mystery.

Remi telepathed the OC. This was his territory.

What’s Serita’s role in all this? was the boss’s response.

I think this was her cabin. Praevus was extincted here. Looks like he’d been squatting for a while.

Will she speak to you?

Remi glanced toward the body parts. A lot of pain.

Get answers if you can. Then give her a choice.

Once the OC’s voice was gone from his head, Remi asked, “Serita, what do you want?”

She moaned, her eyes pleading. “E-e-extinct.”

“If you give me what I want. Tell me about the human.”

“Mine. Praevus did this. Took her.”

Remi said, “I need more than that.”

Her voice was so weak, he leaned close to her lips. “Mine. From Malacour. Rebel leader. Angor.”

Malacour. The bar manager and trustee. “He can’t leave this dimension. Who was the Immortal who delivered the human to him?”

Her words came in breathless starts and stops. “Don’t. Know.”

“What else?”

“No. Thing.” Serita’s lids slid closed. With such a severe injury, she could be out for hours or centuries. He opted to grant her request, believing he’d learned all he would. Remi unsheathed his sword, severed the strip of skin connecting her neck and head, and said, “May my blade bring you peace.”

Done, he pathed to the OC. Malacour’s who we want.

Some bodies ashed faster than others. Serita’s had already begun.