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Daemon

“W hat?” I yell at the witch. “Where is Lilith?” I turn and ask Striker.

“She went outside with Fermin, why?” he asks.

“Fuck. Get Volis off that goddamn bus. Now,” I say.

“What’s going on?” he asks.

“Fermin was a goddamn mole. He’s leading her to Zypher,” I say as I turn and run outside to find her.

I run outside, attracting the attention of everyone. I hear groaning coming from around the side of the building, so I turn and run that way. When I see Fermin on the ground bleeding, Thuly comes out of nowhere and jumps on him.

”Thuly, don’t ,” I yell. He stops just short of ripping into his neck but doesn’t move to get off of him. “We have to let Lilith get her revenge. Okay? Lilith should be the one to kill him. She will let you have him after. I promise, Thuly. I promise I will make sure he pays.” I say, trying to calm the nearly five-foot creature.

“ He betrayed my mom, ” I hear a voice say in my head. I blink, stunned for a second, but Thuly looks absolutely heartbroken.

“I know, buddy,” I say as I kneel and wave him over as Kael and Callum get to me.

“ They took my Mom, ” Thuly says to me with a sad tone as he moves closer and lays his head on my leg. Thuly begins to let out a series of whines.

“We’ll find her,” I say. “We’ll bring her home… I promise,” I try to comfort the suthul.

“Heal him,” I say to Leli as she and the rest of Lilith’s family rush over.

“What? No. The bastard can die,” she says.

“Leli. Heal him,” I demand. “Lilith is the one who gets to decide what happens. Not us.”

“Leli,” Mazvyn says softly.

“Fine,” she sighs and kneels beside Fermin.

“Why didn’t you fucking tell her that he betrayed her?” I growl at Volis.

“I thought she knew,” he says tearfully as his new mate rubs his back. “I’m sorry, Daemon. I’m so sorry. I thought she knew. I thought someone told her.”

“Daemon,” Callum says, putting his hand on my shoulder.

“I know,” I snap.

“He’s not going to kill her,” Volis’ new mate says.

“How do you know?” I ask.

“He talked about her non-stop in there. Zypher talked about all this shit he was going to do. He and Morwen just want to break her down and make her compliant. That’s why those witches kept trying to kill you all. They wanted her dead, but Zypher doesn’t,” she explains.

“You don’t…” Mazvyn goes on to say.

“No,” I sigh. “She’s right. The witch that stabbed her. That’s what he said to her.”

“She can’t die,” Mazvyn says, hardly containing his emotions.

“She’s strong,” Kael says. “She may fawn and fall back into that, but she’s strong.”

“We need to get close to her,” I say. “If we can get close…”

“She already had the vision. They’ve all been right, so we know it’s going to happen. He’s going to hurt her, but she never saw her death,” Callum says.

“We could get close and see if they’ll take us,” Kael suggests. “Not many people know we can mind link. We could get her through this like we did with the witch.”

“You think they’ll fall for that?” Mazvyn asks.

“He took the High Witch without realizing she has a reserve of magia. That was never mentioned around Fermin, so Zypher and Morwen don’t know about it,” I say. “They are both fucking idiots.”

“All we’d have to do is talk her through slowly gaining control over it,” Kael says.

“She’ll know when she has control. It will suddenly become second nature,” Mazvyn says. “You just have to remind her to go slow. She will kill herself if she lets too much out at once.”

“Those collars block magic,” Volis says.

“It won’t block this. She won’t know that, but she’ll be able to use magic if she uses that reserve,” Mazvyn says before looking at Kael, Callum, and me. “I can’t lose her. I just got her. I can’t lose her so soon. I already didn’t get to bury my wife’s body. I don’t want that to happen to her either. I don’t want her to die.”

“We just need to get close enough and isolate ourselves. We completely humiliated Morwen. He won’t pass up an opportunity for revenge,” Kael says.

“What did you do?” Mazvyn asks.

“Uhm… I… fucked her in front of him,” I say.

“Then made him put on a chastity cage before…” Kael says. “Uhm… before making him lick up the mess.”

Leli giggles and then stops herself. “Sorry. I laugh at inappropriate things when I’m stressed,” she says.

“You understand that they are going to rape her in front of you three, right?” Mazvyn says. “Everything she went through with Zypher, he’s going to make you all watch. You’re not going to be able to help her.”

“We can help her by talking to her,” Callum says. “We can keep her calm and compliant so she can buy some time to work on getting control over that energy. She can’t do that if she’s drowning in her emotions. If we can keep her calm, she won’t get herself hurt because she loses her temper. She won’t completely shut down if we talk to her.”

“Okay. Just… bring my baby girl back to me. Please,” Mazvyn pleads.

“We will,” I promise. “We won’t come back without her.”

“I’m sorry,” Volis says quietly. I sigh and just hug him. It shocks him for a second, but he eventually hugs me back. “She’s going to hate me.”

“No, she won’t,” I say. “Everything was chaotic. We never should’ve left her side. We can all try to place blame, but the only ones responsible are Fermin, Zypher, and Morwen.”

“There. He’s healed,” Leli says as she kicks him in the side.

“Leli,” Mazvyn sighs.

“What? He can survive a few bruises,” she says as she kicks him again.

“Alright. That’s enough.” Vash says as he grabs Leli and pulls her away from a now writhing Fermin. Ulfric drags him up from the ground, and I walk over to him. He immediately lowers his head.

“Where did they take her?” I ask.

“I don’t know,” he sniffles.

“Don’t fucking lie to me, or I’ll actually let Thuly rip you apart. Where did they take her? I know that you know.”

“To an abandoned building on the outskirts of town,” he says.

“Take him back to the capital and put him in holding,” Leli says to Ulfric. “Around-the-clock guard. Nothing he can hurt himself with.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Ulfric says.

“Taking over?” I ask, raising my eyebrow.

“None of you are rational enough right now to lead. And don’t even try to deny it. Get my sister back, and I’ll handle everything. Okay? I’ll have everyone close to her on the council,” she says.

“Take Thuly,” I say. “He’s communicating with me, but he’s depressed.”

“Poor guy,” Mazvyn says. “What did he say?”

“He kept going on about Fermin betraying his mom and then said that they took his mom,” I explain.

“That’s fucking pitiful,” Leli says. “Come on, Thuly. Let’s go find a body for you to chew on,” she calls out to him, softly. Thuly lazily follows behind her as she goes to walk away. She stops. Turning back to us. “Find my sister and bring her home.”

“We will,” I say.

We ditch the car and go on foot down the sidewalk. I have no idea where we are going, but we are going to just keep ourselves isolated so that they can find us. I know that they’re gonna come for us. We walk in silence for nearly an hour before we hear a vehicle pull up behind us.

“Lost without your mate?” I hear Zypher ask.

“Where is she?” I turn and growl at him.

“Get in,” he says as he opens the back door to the SUV.

“What? No,” I frown at him.

“We could just kill her,” he shrugs.

“ No ,” I say as I feign panic.

“Get. In.” he says. “Now.” We are sluggish to get into the car. Zypher and Morwen chuckle, thinking they’ve won. They really are fucking idiots.

Morwen turns around holding an object that looks like a gun but isn’t. Before any of us can object, he fires off three shots, and the tiny darts stick out of our shoulders.

“Have a good nap,” Morwen laughs.