Page 15

Luka strode out of the breakroom, his blood still buzzing with rage. He looked at Daniil, who had evidently returned and now stood with the twins. “Take us to Iain.”

Their surroundings blurred briefly as Daniil teleported them out of the pizzeria and straight to an underground vault. Located in an isolated spot of the Nevada desert, it was constructed of thick soundproof walls that were cracked and moist with damp.

It was windowless and dimly lit. The only light came from the weak, flickering bulbs placed sporadically around the vault. The air was ripe with the scents of fear, old blood, terror, rusted iron, and a defeated despair.

It was one of Belial’s favorite places in the entire world.

“You may go,” Luka told Daniil, who promptly disappeared.

Luka stalked along the narrow passageway that split the short rows of cramped detention cells.

Only two were presently occupied. A badly hurt demon was curled up asleep in the corner of the first. Iain stood at the back of the other, his palms pressed against the walls as if he might disappear into them.

Luka halted in front of the cell. “I would imagine that being here has stirred up some extremely unpleasant memories for you. People who are brought to my vault generally don’t do anything that would result in a second visit.

There have been exceptions, of course. I hadn’t thought that you would be one of them.

We both learned that your threshold for pain is far from high. ”

Iain cast a fearful look to his right, knowing what lay beyond the cells. Knowing of the furnaces, pits of water, interrogation rooms, and—finally—torture chambers.

Each chamber was worse than the one before. All contained various instruments and machines—some medieval, some modern. The severity of the crime dictated how many chambers you were taken to and the length of the torture sessions you endured.

Many words had been used to describe the happenings here in the vault. Sadistic. Barbaric. Hellish. All were accurate.

And Iain knew that well.

He’d been here before. He’d experienced the kind of suffering that would deter anyone from breaking rules or ignoring orders again. But threats of pain or not, demons weren’t easy to control—hence why Primes couldn’t afford to be merciful.

Iain skirted the old bloodstains on the stone floor as he came to the front of the cell. “I understand why you are angry with me. But I did what I did out of love.”

A snort popped out of Mikhail, and Nikandr dragged a disbelieving palm down his face.

“It’s true,” maintained Iain, curling his hands around the iron bars, his expression a plea for mercy.

“It wouldn’t matter either way,” said Luka, “because this isn’t about what you do or don’t feel for Naomi. It’s that you discounted my order to stay away from her.”

“No, I did stay away from her.”

“Temporarily. That wasn’t what I ordered you to do, was it? Was it? ”

Iain squeezed his eyes shut. “No.”

“No. What did I instruct you to do?”

Exhaling a low sigh, he met Luka’s gaze. “Leave Naomi be.”

“Leave her be. Make no attempt to contact her. Stay out of her life.” Luka arched a brow. “Did you obey me?”

“No. But it’s not as if I hurt her.”

“So I should just overlook your behavior? I should excuse your actions?”

Iain mashed his lips together for a long moment. “You would understand if you’d ever felt for anyone what I feel for her,” he burst out.

“Maybe. But you would still be punished. Because you disregarded not only my orders but Naomi’s wishes.

” Luka should have made it public that he and Naomi were involved.

Announcing his private business wasn’t something he generally did.

If he had, if his claim to her had been common knowledge, just maybe Iain would have done as ordered.

Or maybe it would have provoked the psi-demon to do exactly what he’d already done.

“I just want her to listen to me,” Iain claimed. “Nobody is listening.”

“It’s you who’s failing to hear people. I mentioned that already.

” And Luka was fucking tired of repeating himself.

“It’s going to take you a few days to recover both mentally and physically from what I’m about to do.

I won’t be releasing you right away, though.

I think it might be best to keep you here until Naomi’s song has worn off. ”

Iain’s eyes went wide. “What? No.” He let go of the cell bars and backed up.

“If you don’t get better, the situation will escalate. You could harm her in your frustration at being unable to own her. I can’t have that. I won’t have that. Naomi’s mine.”

Iain’s head jerked back. “What do you mean, yours?”

“Exactly what I said.” It was time Luka made it clear. His entities were in firm agreement on that.

The psi-demon shook his head hard and fast in denial. “No. No, she’s not—”

“In my metaphorical bed? Oh, she is.”

Lines of jealousy creased Iain’s face.

“And I will never allow any harm to come to what’s mine,” Luka added. “You . . . you’re a threat to her.”

“I would never hurt her.”

“Says every stalker ever. That’s what you’ve become, Iain. Part of why you went to see her today is that you can’t cope with the idea that you might not be on her mind.”

“That’s not true.”

Deep inside Luka, Dagon hissed at the lie. “You want to be center-stage in her thoughts, just as she is in yours—consequences be damned,” accused Luka. “Well, those consequences are going to involve an agony that’s beyond your imagining.”

Belial grinned, eager to begin. It would relish the slap of a whip lashing skin, the crunches and cracks of bone, the whimpers and screams of fear and pain.

Neither Abraxas nor Dagon got any real kick out of such things, but it pleased them that this male would pay for refusing to leave Naomi alone.

Iain backed up even further, his breaths coming fast.

“There’s nowhere to go. Nowhere you can hide. No way for you to escape. And you have no one to blame for what’s coming but yourself.”

*

Seated at one of the pizzeria’s breakroom tables, Naomi narrowed her eyes on her anchor. “Stop it.”

Leaning against the wall looking deceptively casual, Tobe widened his eyes. Eyes that gleamed with hot anger. “What?” he asked, all innocence. “I’m not doing anything.”

“You’re planning to fuck with Iain in some way—likely by setting his house on fire.”

“It really is an effective way to get a message across,” Lachlan cut in, standing a few feet away with Alfie. “I can personally attest to that.”

Beside Naomi, her mother threw the imp a frustrated look. “Don’t encourage him.”

“I really don’t think he needs encouragement,” Lachlan told her. “His mind is all made up.”

Naomi gave her psi-mate a beseeching look.

“Tobe, let’s not reward his behavior with attention; it does no good.

And it’ll only give him another reason to contact me or mine.

” That was what Iain would do, in his current frame of mind—use Tobe’s retaliation as an excuse to reach out to her.

Not that the idiot appeared to need excuses, but it seemed better for Tobe not to interfere anyway.

Especially since Luka would be mad at him for getting involved and causing whatever damage Tobe had in mind. That was the last thing she wanted.

Her inner demon didn’t care so much what “seemed better”. It wanted Iain to suffer, so it would be behind any plan that ensured that.

Tobe pushed away from the wall. “I agreed to handle this in non-violent ways, Nome, but none have worked. He ain’t listening. Someone needs to make him listen.”

“Luka will,” Tia interjected. “I have no doubt that Iain is going to be punished severely for ignoring his Prime’s directives.”

“Which he will have known in advance,” said Tobe, his tone clipped. “And yet the bastard came here anyway.” He rolled his shoulders. “A statement needs to be made.”

“A firm one,” Lachlan added, to which her anchor nodded.

“I support this plan,” Alfie piped up, his expression hard.

Tia glared at her mate. “I don’t. Right now, we have Belinsky on our side. That will change if we go around destroying his demon’s possessions or property.”

Lachlan’s brow pinched. “We can be subtle.”

Naomi snorted at him. “You don’t even know what that word means.”

The imp managed to look offended. “Are you calling me stupid?”

“No, I’m saying you’re willfully ignorant of anything you don’t want to understand or accept.” It could be maddening at times.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Lachlan claimed.

“And there you go proving my point,” said Naomi with a slight wave of her hand.

“It’s funny how men act differently when in the throes of an obsession,” mused Tia.

“Some turn stalkerish, professing undying love. Some turn aggressive, resenting the impact you have on them. Others avoid you desperately in an effort to snap out of it, knowing on some level that their feelings aren’t real. ”

“You’ve dealt with this sort of thing in your time?” Naomi asked her.

“Often,” Tia replied. “The thing with the Iains of the world is they seem foolish and weak with all their love bombing, so we can make the mistake of not being careful around them. That’s something you can’t do, Naomi.

They’re often the most dangerous, because their thought patterns are off and they’re more obsessive than most.”

Right then, the door creaked open and Jolene walked inside, her jaw tight and her face blank. Her eyes, though? They glittered with ire. She closed the door as her gaze found Naomi. “Tell me exactly what occurred here.” It was nothing short of an order.

Naomi explained, starting from when Iain first arrived. The more she spoke, the darker her Prime’s expression became. When she reached the part of the story where Luka had assured her that she had no need to feel guilty, Tia spoke. “He’s right—Iain’s behavior isn’t on you.”

“I know that intellectually, but seeing what my song can reduce a person to . . . I can’t help but feel bad about it,” Naomi admitted.