Life Cycle (Preternaturals Book 4) Read online

  Cain nodded slowly. “Oh yes, there is no way that was special effects. The way the fire rises out of the palm is exactly how I do it. And why would anybody make a hoax like that over something so serious?”

  The demon paced. He was glad technology didn’t work in his dimension. The last thing he wanted was to be glued to a TV twenty-four-seven, watching latest developments, or watching the old ones replay on a loop.

  “Well, that’s it. It doesn’t matter how much damage control is done. People have got minds of their own. We can’t box this back up,” Cole said.

  “Maybe we can,” Jane said. She’d been quiet since they got back. “If demons and vamps are sent to all major influencers to backpedal on all this... If those influencers believe what they’re saying...”

  “All it can do is slow things down. Not everybody will believe whatever story we feed them,” the demon said. While it was true that thrall would work on those it was used against, there was no way to create mass thrall. If there were, he’d know about it. The best they could hope for was to control the gatekeepers of the message and hope enough of the population fell in line behind it.

  “A slowdown is better than nothing,” Jane reasoned. “This shit is going to get ugly, and we all know it.”

  With or without Jack getting to Tam, he was strong enough to lead an army. And he’d gotten the world’s attention. Tam’s power would be the cherry on his sundae.

  Cain sighed. “Go to the penthouse and wake Charlee, if she’s not already up with the baby. See if she can get the vamps in the dark part of the world to get going on this. I’ll get some of my demons working in places where it’s light out. Our numbers aren’t as many, but we may be able to put a cap on it, at least until the meeting tonight.”

  Cole nodded. “Thanks.”

  “Yeah.” But Cain wasn’t thinking about information damage control. He was thinking about Tam and how everything was escalating too fast. Either Jack had abandoned full moons altogether, or he’d pushed up his date. It meant less than a week before he’d make his move.

  Cain left without another word. In the demon dimension, some were in, but most were out feeding. It was a lull, if there was such a thing in his world. He gathered as many of his kind together as he could and issued orders, telling them to bring any other demons they stumbled upon, or whose whereabouts they knew, into the plan. Then he headed straight for Tam’s tent.

  He was startled to find Anna there, giving him a look like she knew more than he wanted her to know.

  “I thought you’d be gone most of the day,” Tam said. “It sounded like some big mission.”

  “It is. It’s underway,” he said. He turned to Luc’s mate, who hovered protectively near Tam as if she could do anything to help or harm anybody in her noncorporeal form. “Get out,” he barked. “I need to speak with Tam alone. Go find your mate, we need him.”

  Anna looked like she was going to argue, but in the end she just gave him a dirty look and left, too scared to defy him, especially without her mate lurking protectively nearby. Smart girl.

  “Come with me,” Cain said when Anna was gone.

  “What for?” Tam looked wary, which was good, since she wasn’t going to like what he was about to do.

  “We need to keep you safe. I’m putting you in the caves.”

  She took a step back. “What do you mean putting me in the caves?”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “Over my dead body,” she said, flicking her wrist so an energy ball appeared.

  She could be so exasperating.

  “You’re too drained to fight me. It’s for your own safety just until we destroy him.”

  “That could be weeks or months or never. You can’t lock me in there without any food or water. I’ll die.”

  “You won’t die.”

  He knew exactly what she meant. She wouldn’t be gone, but she’d start a new cycle. He didn’t find that particularly appealing, but maybe it was a good thing. If she started a new cycle, he could bring himself to kick her out of his dimension more easily when this was all over.

  “I’ll bring you food and water,” he said. “I won’t leave you in there long.”

  She threw an energy ball, but he was ready for it. He’d already gone noncorporeal, knowing she’d fight him on this. She was still drained from earlier when he’d taken too much, her magical recovery time slower. He rushed her, going solid and grabbing her arms again before she could form another ball of magic.

  “You will not win this,” he growled. He scooped her up and carried her out of the tent.

  She kicked and screamed, flailing about, trying to squirm out of his arms. Halfway to the caves she started chanting. He wasn’t picking up all of it but whatever it was, it was nasty. Or it would have been if not for the ring. The magic bounced off him and dispersed into the night, going off like fireworks in the black sky.

  He flipped her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and smacked her on the ass.

  “Oww! You cretin.”

  “Don’t do that again,” he said. “Did you forget about the ring?” He was happier than ever he’d thought to have that made. Otherwise, there was no telling what she would have done to him, assuming she had enough energy reserves to do anything right now. It was hard to know. Desperation and adrenaline were funny things in humans.

  “If you do this, I’ll never forgive you. I’ll fucking hate you forever,” she screamed, still kicking and now pummeling him in the back with her ineffective little fists.

  “What do I care?” But he did care. That was the problem. He cared too much about everything. How she felt. Whether she lived or died. He wanted to blame the blood they’d exchanged, and maybe it was partly that, but he’d initiated it. It had come from his possessive nature. She was just his. It wasn’t an idea she was likely to ever warm up to, so initiating another conversation about it seemed pointless.

  She stopped hitting him, but it was only the calm before the storm. She jerked her head up and bit his ear, drawing blood. He couldn’t go noncorporeal again without dropping her and giving her a chance to run, and he was not in the mood for a chase.

  “Damnit, Tam.” He flung her down on the ground. “Our blood is already mixed, why don’t you make it worse?”

  She glared up at him. “You’re not locking me in the caves,” she hissed. “I swear, if you do, you will live to regret it. That ring won’t protect you forever. You think I don’t hold a grudge? You think I won’t make it my life’s mission to destroy you?”

  Hmmm, she had a point there. “I’m trying to keep you safe, like I promised everybody I would.”

  The witch stood, brushing the sand off her pants, then she broke off into a run toward town. Cain put on full speed and ran her down, knocking her in the sand. She struggled to roll over to fight him, and her fingernails caught him in the side of the face. She was one of the dirtiest little fighters he’d ever encountered, not that many women had the good sense to fight him.

  “What about your promise to me? Your promises are worth shit, Cain. Just take me out. Do it now, so we don’t have to go through this. You’re scared he’ll get to me. You know he will. Just take me out of the equation. It’s that simple.”

  “You think I want to sleep with you right now? After all this with you biting and clawing?” He eased off her, ready to throw her back down if she tried to move again, but all she did was peel her shirt off and unhook her bra.

  Her voice turned soft and seductive. “I don’t know, Cain. Do you?”

  She was unbelievable and infuriating. He’d just snap her neck but it wouldn’t actually kill her. She was tempting, lying there half naked and flushed in the sand.

  “If I didn’t know better I’d say you liked fucking me.”

  She laughed. “Of course I like it. Did you not hear all those times I screamed your name?”

  He covered her body with his, his mouth finding her throat, and then he bit down. Hard. She shrieked, not expecting that. He wasn’t
going to think about what he was doing or why he just had to mix their blood and make sure it stuck. An internal monologue had started, insisting he mark her in a real way. He didn’t have a knife handy, but he was pretty sure this would work.

  He bit into his own wrist and pressed it against her neck, both to blend more of their blood together and to heal the damage he’d caused.

  She scrambled away when he released her, her hand going protectively to her throat. “What the hell was that?”

  “You. Are. Mine. Now you’re going to the caves where you’ll be safe, and I don’t want to hear another word about it.”

  She was nearly wiped, but she managed to create another energy ball. Without hesitation, a fireball flared to life in Cain’s hand. He threw it to disarm her. It burnt her arm and knocked her back in the sand.

  When she was down, he picked her up to carry her the rest of the way to the caves.

  There were tears in her voice when she spoke. “I hate you. I don’t know why you’re doing this, but I hate you.”

  It didn’t matter what she felt now, some part of him had decided he wasn’t letting her go. She’d get over it. There would be plenty of time to sort out their issues if he could keep her away from The Cycler.

  When they got to the caves and he’d opened a pod in the wall, she made one last attempt to sway him.

  “Please, Cain. You don’t have to do this.”

  He ignored the pain that had started in the center of his chest, right around the region where his heart was supposed to be but probably wasn’t. He shoved her in and tossed her shirt at her, then he sealed the pod.

  The demon started to walk away, but the sound of creaking rock stopped him. He turned back, shocked to find her standing there with her hands on her hips, so much anger simmering in her eyes, he thought they might glow red with fire of their own.

  “It appears the cave’s magic is incompatible with mine. I’m not a demon or part demon, so I guess it can’t hold me. I never want to see you again.”

  He should have turned back around and walked out. He had work to do before the meeting. There were too many humans in power out there who knew too much. Damage control had to be done. He didn’t have time for this. But instead, he strode toward the witch and pulled her toward him, his mouth finding hers.

  She resisted at first, but soon enough, she was kissing back, moaning against his lips, her hand sliding down his pants. Sexual heat rose off her without thrall, without him doing anything preternatural to elicit it. He broke away from her mouth and whispered in her ear.

  “You want to see me every day for the rest of your life, and you know it. You want me to fuck you like a bitch in heat, and if you say anything different, we’ll both know it’s a lie. Now go back to your tent and stay there. No wandering until we get this situation under control.”

  He turned and left the cave, one of her energy balls hitting him in the back on the way out.

  Chapter Twelve

  Hadrian stood by the pool on the roof of Anthony’s penthouse. Jack was waiting for him in the forest near the portal point into the demon dimension. They’d discovered it while tracking the werewolf pack alpha. The sun had set less than an hour ago, but it wasn’t quite time for the meeting. Would it look suspicious being up here this early? He adjusted the Roman collar on his clerics.

  The metal door slammed against the brick. Anthony’s dress shoes clicked over the concrete as he reached the conference table. Why he preferred open air meetings, Hadrian had never bothered asking. It seemed strange for a man who otherwise seemed so intense about security.

  “Where’s Charlee?” he found himself asking. He didn’t care where Anthony’s mate was, but making small talk would make him look less nefarious.

  “She’s in her room, taking care of the baby.”

  The vampire king seemed tense. For a moment Hadrian wondered if just taking out the infant would end the police state—even though the idea made him recoil. That child had done nothing wrong, no matter who her father was.

  There was no way to anticipate what was going on with vampires in other countries—how tight the control was—but in the U.S., more magical barriers had started cropping up to keep therians in pens like cattle. Vampires could pass freely—for now—but they were under Anthony’s thumb in other ways, and Hadrian feared that by the end, the vampires would be cattle to the vampire king as well. He’d seen the plans for the vampire barriers in Anthony’s vault.

  Killing the baby wouldn’t change things—not now with Jack involved. There was no turning back, and Hadrian was determined to see this through.

  “How is she?” he asked.

  “Charlotte or the baby?”

  “The baby.”

  The vampire king shrugged. “She’s as to be expected. Weak. Needs a lot of blood. Sleeps all the time. She’ll have to be protected. Always. Kept out of the sun. Kept away from anything stronger than a human female that might wish to hurt her. She’s got her mother’s physical strength and all of a vampire’s weaknesses. That’s how these things work. I don’t know how long she’ll live. I don’t recall an abomination being allowed to live long enough to find out. She could be effectively immortal, or she could have a human life span. Is it wrong that I’m hoping for the latter? I can’t imagine the stress of worrying about her for centuries.”

  Hadrian shrugged. “I really wouldn’t know, sir.”

  It was clear the vampire king didn’t see his daughter as an abomination, even though he’d used the word. He was prepared to protect his offspring, even if it was against every vampire instinct to let something weak and frail live. But then, Anthony had always had that weakness. He’d been a king mated with a human female.

  Taking humans was still frowned upon. They weren’t considered equals. And yet, Charlee had held her own most of the time. Though many of the vampires who followed her orders probably would have slaughtered her in a heartbeat if not for fear of Anthony’s wrath.

  The two of them stood awkwardly, having exhausted all conversational topics that wouldn’t reveal Hadrian’s contempt for Anthony’s policies. At least the vampire hadn’t pulled out a wallet full of baby photos with cute little fangs popping out of its gums. Vampires couldn’t reproduce like this with other vampires. And there was a reason. It was freakish and disturbing.

  Thankfully they were interrupted by the metal door clanging against the brick. Cole. Hadrian tried not to look anxious. The portal charm was on the werewolf.

  “Where’s Jane?” Anthony asked, looking up from the projector. He’d most likely been briefed by guardians on what had been happening while he’d slept. It would be a big meeting tonight with a new death and a greater pressure to come up with ideas on ways to find The Cycler.

  The kill site was different each time. Jack would tease and taunt them, but he’d never give them a chance to find him until he was ready to bring the fight to them.

  The werewolf grunted. “She’s out doing Cain’s bidding.”

  Anthony arched a brow. “Oh?”

  Cole flung his jacket over a chair, causing the leather cord from the portal charm to spill out of the pocket. Hadrian’s eyes flicked to it for a moment, but he quickly made his face go bland, pretending to be interested in what Cole and Anthony were discussing, trying to look like it was all news to him.

  “Cain is trying to do as much damage control as possible. They’ve been at it all day. Politicians, people with power, news media. The demons have been covering all locations where the sun was out. Vampires hit the parts of the world where it was night. The people have seen what they’ve seen. We can’t stop that, but we can at least set up strong denial and retractions among those in authority to slow it down,” Cole said.

  Even if they wanted to, vampires couldn’t go about during the day. The sun being up nearly killed them, slowing their respiration to almost nothing. It was the moon that resurrected them again. It was a law they couldn’t breech. The best they could do was go underground, or black out their windows a
nd lock their doors and hope no one suspected what they were. More than most preternaturals, vampires were always vulnerable to the truth coming out.

  “Have you seen any of the news since you rose?” Cole asked.

  “No, I was being briefed for the meeting,” Anthony said.

  “You probably should.”

  The vampire king followed the werewolf back inside the penthouse. He turned at the door. “Hadrian, are you coming?”

  “In a moment. I want to read the new letter if you don’t mind.”

  The transparency was already up and ready. Anthony shrugged and went inside.

  Hadrian couldn’t have planned this better. He couldn’t have planned it at all. Cole showing up early, being left with his coat. He thought he’d have to pull off a bump and grab like the pickpockets he’d so often fed from in the alleyways of big cities.

  He took the portal charm and slipped it into his pocket, then stood on the ledge and looked down onto the small alley between the apartments and the next building over. The next building was only four stories, instead of six. As a vampire he could make a four story jump without much trouble. He leaped to the neighboring building, then jumped down into the alley from there.

  ***

  When Hadrian reached the portal point in the Cary Town forest, Jack was waiting. He’d created a circle with salt, and lit candles. Incense burned in a censor, and he had a dish with an unidentified herb crushed in it.

  “Did you bring it?”

  Hadrian passed the portal charm to the sorcerer. Jack’s eyes lit as he looked at the circular golden object with runic markings and a dial.

  “Let’s find out your secrets, shall we?” He placed the charm on the ground inside the circle and sprinkled it with the herbs in the dish while chanting: “Revelare tuum secreta. Revelare tuum secreta. Revelare tuum secreta...”