Life Cycle (Preternaturals Book 4) Read online

  A pure white smoke rose out of the herbs, swirling into runic markings, forming the combination for the charm. The sorcerer stared at it for a few moments, memorizing the symbols and the order they came in, then he brought down the circle and blew out the candles.

  Hadrian stayed out of the way as Jack turned the dial on the disc to the correct combination and a shimmery film appeared—the doorway into the demon dimension.

  Jack tossed the charm to Hadrian, not having any pockets for it himself. “Are you coming? I need you to persuade her out. It’s less fuss that way, if she’ll fall for it. Who knows with her?”

  Hadrian hadn’t looked forward to seeing Tamara again—not under these circumstances. It wasn’t as if the vampire had started with the intent to betray her. He’d been curious and searched for another cycler until he’d stumbled upon Jack in the seventies. The Cycler had been on a break from hunting, but his interest had renewed upon hearing of Hadrian’s encounter with Tam.

  The vamp had known from the beginning the man was crazy, but now, well... they wanted the same things. At least temporarily. They both wanted Anthony out of power. Their similarities in goal ended there, but for now it was enough.

  He stepped through the portal after Jack, into a dimension that felt like a past he wasn’t old enough to remember. Jack stayed a distance away, keeping an eye out for Tam while Hadrian poked his head in tents and wandered. A few demons milled about, but most of them seemed involved in their own activities, wrapped up in the humans they’d brought back with them. One of them stopped.

  “What is your business here?” the demon asked, suspicion in his eyes.

  Hadrian looked around him, but Jack had slipped between a couple of tents out of view. The vampire pulled out the portal charm. “Cain sent me. I need to speak with Tam. It’s of an urgent matter regarding the investigation.”

  The demon made a face at the mention of the blonde witch. “She’s one street over, about halfway down, in a purple tent with two demon guards outside. You can’t miss it.” He turned and went off in the other direction.

  The vampire wasn’t sure if Jack had heard all of that, but he followed the directions to the tent. He had to go through the same explanation with the guards to let him pass.

  Tam looked up, startled, when he entered.

  “Do you remember me?”

  “Of course I do. You still wear the same clothes,” she said. “I may be old, but my memory isn’t shot.”

  Hadrian chuckled. It was regrettable that this woman had to be in the middle of all this. He’d promised to keep her secret, and now he was working directly with the man she’d been running from, the one she’d thrown herself at Hadrian’s fangs once to avoid. He just hadn’t been old enough or strong enough to kill her for good.

  “Why are you working for him? I don’t understand why you’d betray me this way. What have I done to you?” The calmly spoken words caught him off guard.

  So much for convincing her and luring her away. Still, he made an attempt at a lie. “Cain needs you.”

  She shook her head. “No. He would have come for me himself. He never would have sent someone, and he wouldn’t want me to leave the dimension. He was insistent about that point. Your face lies. Even without using magic I can see your guilt. Do you think I’ve existed this long while being repeatedly duped by those with bad intentions? Tell me why. I deserve that much.”

  But he couldn’t tell her. All he could do was yell for backup. “Jack!”

  She tossed an energy ball at him. Hadrian dodged it. He heard Jack outside the tent, chanting, no doubt incapacitating her demon guards. Tam raised her arms and started her own chant. “Jack!” Hadrian shouted, not sure what the witch was about to do to him, but not wanting to find out.

  “Bite her!” Jack yelled from outside.

  Hadrian rushed her, going for her throat, but a field of some kind forced him back.

  The witch looked shocked like she hadn’t expected that. Her hand went to her throat, but not the side he’d tried to bite. The other side. Before he could figure out what was going on, Jack entered the tent.

  Tam began to hyperventilate, but managed to push past her fear to conjure an energy ball.

  “Come now, Tam. You know that’s not going to hurt me. It’ll only piss me off. You know how strong I’ve gotten over the years—we’ve had our little meetings. I could have killed you at any one of them. I could kill you right now.”

  “So do it, then. I’m not afraid of death.”

  He chuckled and looked around him at her surroundings. “No, it doesn’t appear that you are. But you know my purposes can’t be served that way. Go open the portal, Hadrian, the one we talked about. I’ll be right behind you with the girl.”

  Hadrian, not wanting to be more involved than he had to be, left to carry out the order. The vampire walked at a normal pace, trying not to draw attention to himself, until he reached the portal point Jack had found during his dream connection with the witch.

  As soon as Jack was through the portal, Hadrian would go back to his resting place. It might be daylight where The Cycler was going, and even if it wasn’t, he didn’t trust the guy. When the sun rose and he was helpless, his usefulness was over.

  Jack finally showed up, the girl slung over his shoulder.

  “What did you do?” Although Tamara had been scared and was no match for Jack, who’d been collecting powers and additional strength with each kill for centuries, he’d still managed to incapacitate her much faster than the vampire would have bet on.

  “I punched her. You didn’t think I’d waste magic did you? First rule of magic users, Hadrian: at the end of the day, we’re still humans with human frailties. Why waste magic when you can just knock one out? Why do you think I told you to bite her?”

  “About that…” the vampire didn’t know what to make of bouncing off her like that. Whatever she’d done, it hadn’t affected Jack.

  “Please don’t tell me a boring story right now,” The Cycler said. “I’m tired, and we’ve got what we came for. Let’s go before our luck runs out.”

  Hadrian turned the disc on the charm to the runic combination that had appeared in the smoke earlier. The doorway opened, and Jack passed through with Tam. The vampire backed away and the shimmery film closed, leaving Hadrian safe with the portal charm that would take him back home.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Cain was running late for the meeting. He’d stopped to feed—anything to take his mind off the absolute possession he felt toward the blonde witch in his dimension. Was this what Luc had felt with Anna? If so, he finally understood why all his warnings against it had meant nothing. This time, when he fed, he hadn’t been able to kill the woman.

  He couldn’t stop seeing Tam’s face and couldn’t stop thinking about how disappointed she’d be in him and how much she’d equate him with Jack if he took another innocent life.

  When he reached the penthouse, Anthony and several of the others were already on the roof, but they were still waiting for Dayne and Greta and the vampire-priest guy. What was his name?

  As Cain reached the table, Cole said, “I still don’t like it.”

  Anthony rolled his eyes. “I’m sure Hadrian went hunting. He knows what time the meeting is. I’m sure he’ll be back soon.”

  Hadrian. That was his name.

  Charlee came up to the roof then with a small bundle all swaddled up. Anthony kissed his mate’s forehead when she reached him.

  “You look tired,” he said.

  The human shrugged. “It’s hard for me to sleep during the days. She just goes... dead. Do you know how terrifying that is for me?”

  “Hush, now. It’s normal. It’s what happens to all vampires. She can’t stay up during the day. It’s just the sun. When the sun sets she always wakes up.”

  “But what if she doesn’t? Watching your baby in her crib barely breathing is unsettling. Haven’t you heard of SIDS?”

  He wrapped her in his arms and held her for a moment
. “You’re going to have to try to sleep today. You can’t keep going on like this. Sit.” He pulled out a chair for her.

  As she settled into it, the metal door clanged against the brick wall and everybody’s head turned to it. The baby started crying. Charlee glared, trying to settle her back down.

  “Sorry,” Greta said when they reached the table. She was so out of breath and flustered, her words came out in broken stutters and pants. “D-Dayne’s been working on spells to figure out something that was taken from our memories. I-it’s Hadrian. He’s working with Jack. W-we did a spell on one of the victim’s blood and we saw him, but Hadrian took our memories, mine with a spell he forced Dayne to make, and Dayne’s with thrall.”

  “That’s not possible,” Anthony said.

  “Wake up,” Dayne said, reaching Greta’s side. “He’s a traitor.”

  “Why would he want our secrets revealed?”

  Cole growled. “Maybe he doesn’t like what a control freak you are.”

  Anthony’s eyes glowed red. “Like The Cycler is any better?! Does nobody care that I want to keep us all safe?”

  “No!” They all yelled in unison.

  “Please stop yelling, you’re upsetting the baby,” Charlee said.

  Their voices drifted past Cain as a dead calm came over him. “Everybody shut the hell up. When was the last time anybody saw him?”

  “Before the meeting,” Cole said. “We were up here talking. Anthony and I went inside to watch the newscasts he slept through. Hadrian said he’d be right behind us, but never came.”

  “Where’s your portal charm?”

  “In my coat over there.” Cole’s face turned white. “How could I know...?”

  “Just check for it,” Cain said, not in the mood for apologies or denials.

  “It’s gone.”

  It was an unnecessary statement. They’d all known it would be gone even before Cole had moved to check his jacket pockets.

  “How long ago did all this happen?”

  “An hour or so,” the wolf said.

  Jane arrived then along with Luc and Anna, the metal door against brick announcing their arrival. Nobody but Charlee seemed capable of opening that door without banging it against the wall.

  “Well?” Cain said, still maintaining the calm. It wasn’t that he didn’t care. He had plans to torture the life slowly out of anyone who stood between him and Tam. His calm was due to his certainty that bodies would drop and enemies would suffer.

  “We did damage control as best we could,” Jane said with a shrug. “We’ll just have to see how it takes.”

  “Go back home and find out if Tam has been taken. If she hasn’t, take her to the caves and guard her there. I’ll be right behind you.”

  “I knew you were using her. You don’t give a shit about anything that happens to her,” Anna said, mistaking his calm mask for indifference.

  “GO!” he said.

  Luc grabbed her arm and steered her toward the exit before Cain lost his temper.

  “Lucien?”

  Luc turned. “Yeah?”

  “I need heavy duty chains installed in the caves, and the setup we do for a vampire. Can you take care of that for me?”

  The other demon nodded. Jane followed them out.

  Cain turned to the sorcerer. “Can you locate the vampire?”

  “I’m not sure. I can try.”

  “I don’t think that will be necessary,” Charlee said.

  Cain turned to Anthony’s mate, an eyebrow raised, waiting for an explanation.

  “He doesn’t trust anybody. I don’t see why he’d trust The Cycler any more. He’d go to his normal resting place if he could get there. He doesn’t stay with us at the compound. He stays at the Catholic church near the woods. In the basement.” She passed the baby to Anthony, who couldn’t quite figure out how he should be holding it, while she wrote down directions for Cain.

  “Wouldn’t it be too risky to go there now? After his betrayal?” the demon asked.

  “He doesn’t know I know,” Charlee said.

  Cain took the slip of paper and turned back to the sorcerer. “Try to do that spell, anyway. If he’s not here, I need a backup. Cole, go back to the hive and get another portal charm, I want everyone here to meet up in my dimension in one hour. No later. If Tam has been taken, we have to move on this.”

  Anthony cleared his throat. “Excuse me, but I believe I’m in charge.”

  Cain rolled his eyes. “You gave up that right when you let a traitor into the ranks. I’ve played along with your king-of-the-hill routine for expediency, and mainly because I really didn’t care that much when we started, but I’m running this show now. Do you have a problem with that? In a couple of days, The Cycler is going to kill her and put his plan in motion to enslave us all. Would you like to run an election to see which one of us should lead, or will you let someone with a little more life experience take over?”

  The vampire king growled but backed down. “Fine,” he said between clenched teeth.

  Cain didn’t wait for Cole’s agreement. He knew the wolf was on board. After all, Jane was already headed back to the demon dimension. He’d want to get back to his mate as quickly as possible.

  “Oh, and Anthony, I need you to come with me to collect your traitor.”

  “Why me?”

  The demon shrugged. “You seem to think you’re the biggest badass here, and I can’t get into a church. Besides, I thought you’d want some personal time with the rogue priest, considering he’s made a bigger fool out of you than anyone else.”

  The vampire king glared, but finally conceded. “Good point.”

  “Just don’t kill him. I have a lot of aggression to get out,” Cain said.

  The two of them shared a smile for the first time. Despite their rocky beginnings, Cain could see promise in him, even if he was a half-breed.

  ***

  Cain hated that he had to rely on a vampire to get Hadrian out of the church. It was complete bullshit that a vampire was allowed inside, but a demon wasn’t. The tiny sliver of shiny human inside the vampire made him still okay? Still acceptable in the eyes of the man upstairs? Cain snorted in disgust. Anthony was every bit as evil as he was. Probably more.

  “Have something you’d like to share with the class?” Anthony asked.

  “Just go get him.”

  The vampire shrugged and went inside. Cain stood by the door, hating that he couldn’t go in there and kick an ass yet. There was a chance Anthony could end up on the wrong end of the stake, then what? Or Hadrian could. Then they were out the one informant that could possibly help them find Tam before it was too late.

  He felt the stirrings of an emotion he hadn’t felt in awhile. Guilt. What if she hadn’t been taken yet? What if she was fighting for her life, and here he was staking out the vampire priest’s church like an imbecile?

  Twenty minutes later, Anthony had an unconscious Hadrian in his arms. “He won’t stay out for long.”

  “That’s fine. I don’t need long.” The portal point was only a few blocks away.

  ***

  Cain stood over Hadrian, his anger and fear for Tam simmering underneath a mask of calm indifference. But he wouldn’t show any of that to his captive. On the surface he would be cold, empty. He had to maintain control for Tam’s sake.

  The vampire priest slumped in a set of chains, still unconscious. The demon looked over at the table filled with instruments of torture. Something inside him jumped with glee over the idea of having not only a half-breed, but a former holy man in shackles. It’s not about that. Remember why you’re here.

  Hadrian opened his eyes slowly, swaying a little as his feet sunk into sand. His gaze darted around the cave, the smallest hint of fear in his expression when he saw the demon. He tugged at the chains, but they held strong. Luc had done a good job installing them.

  “It’s about time you rejoined us. I’ve got some good news and bad news. Unfortunately, it’s the same news,” Cain said. “H
ere in the demon dimension, you can’t go dead for the day. So if you thought you just had to hold out a few hours before you got a break from me, sorry to disappoint.”

  He felt the demonic fire burn in his eyes and he rolled right into the only question that mattered. “Where is Tam?”

  Hadrian looked at the ground, his jaw set in determination.

  “Hey, I love torturing people. I don’t get to do it enough. You see, most of my time is spent in a pretty woman’s bed seducing the life right out of her. It’s a bit more low key than what I’ve got planned here. You can imagine my excitement over the change of pace. I like to be gentle with the ladies, you see. So I’ll ask again nicely. Where’s Tam?”

  “She’s with Jack,” Hadrian said. It earned him a hard punch in the jaw.

  “Don’t be clever. I’m sure the difficult task of thinking is a strain. You’re obviously not very bright to do what you’ve done.” Cain wanted to shred the vampire like paper, peeling strips of skin off one at a time. The vampire would probably survive it. It would be interesting to find out.

  Hadrian looked up. “Oh really? Because what I’ve done is going to end Anthony’s control. Do you know he had plans in place to put up barriers vampires couldn’t cross without permission? Not just therians. And after that, do you think he would have left you and the rest of the demons alone? Anthony likes control. He likes to keep tabs on everybody and have tags and numbers on them so he knows exactly where they are at all times. Excuse me for not wanting to be a lab rat. I thought this vampire gig was supposed to mean freedom.”

  “You don’t think Jack would do the same?”

  “I don’t think Jack could do the same. I’ve spent a lot of time with him. He’s too crazy to be that organized. That’s the point. I knew he was a nutter the second I met him. Why do you think it’s taken him so long to take out his coven? Do you really think he’s got the mastermind genius to be a threat over the long haul? Anthony is the real threat. The most important thing is to destabilize his control. Even if the cost is the humans finding out.”