He stil didn’t get it. “I don’t need you to protect me.” She motioned to the vampires.
They lined up. Al of them ready.
“Because they’ve got your back?” Anger roughed his voice.
“No, because I’m a fucking vampire princess.” She bared her fangs. “And I’m riding high on my wolf’s blood.” Time for ass kicking. She pushed past Jace and grabbed the demon, wrenching him away from the wolves. “Remember me? I’m the vamp bitch who broke your neck.”
His red eyes bulged as she promised, “I’m also the one who’s going to drain you dry.”
Louis snapped his fingers together. “Now I know who she reminds me of…” His gaze flew to Jace. “You.”
Jace snarled.
“Come ahead, bitch,” the demon dared. “You think you’re strong? My blood wil burn you from the inside out.”
“Promises, promises,” she whispered and moved as fast as Jace had, a blur. She grabbed the demon’s head and yanked it back. “Bleed for me.”
She sank her teeth into him.
His blood fil ed her mouth. Warm. Not burning. But bitter. So bitter. She drank and took the memories. Fire. Hel . Screams that never ended.
“Morgan.” Jace’s hands settled on her back.
She kept drinking.
A white light entered hel . Smal . Such a narrow opening. A man’s voice cal ed.
Chanting. Serving up blood sacrifices. Trading lives because he wanted power.
“Stop!” The demon bel owed.
She drank more.
More.
The doorway opened. She saw the bastard who’d unlocked that door. Fucking asshole. Betrayal.
The door opened in her mind, and fire raced out, burning, burning…
Morgan jerked away, screaming, as smoke rose from her mouth.
The demon laughed. “Told you, b-bitch…you’l burn…”
She could feel the blisters in her throat. But…but she was already healing. Jace’s blood.
She blew the smoke into the demon’s face. “Time for you to go back home.”
He flinched.
“Tel me you know where the doorway is,” Jace growled the words behind her. She held the demon’s red stare a moment longer, long enough to see the fear flare in his eyes, then she faced Jace. “I know.” But first she had another matter to take care of. A little matter of a blood betrayal.
“Good.” Jace pul ed her away. “Then it’s time to kil the bastard.”
The demon screamed in fury and surged against the wolves who’d grabbed him.
Morgan slipped back a few steps. She caught Paul’s stare and inclined her head toward the door.
The demon’s screams rose.
She swal owed back the taste of ash. “Where’s Devon?” She whispered to Paul.
Betrayal. She should have seen this coming. He’d always been such a power hungry asshole.
He hadn’t been testing her with that fire. He’d wanted to kil her. So she wouldn’t find out what he’d done.
You nearly killed us all.
Paul’s eyes narrowed. “What did you see?”
“Devon kil ing humans.” Not just kil ing. Torturing. Sacrificing. “He’s the one who opened the doorway.” It made sense, but she’d been too blind to see it before. Devon was over five hundred years old. He would know al the ancient legends and spel s. He would know how to raise demons, how to open a doorway.
And to get power, he’d done it.
Only the demons he’d let out hadn’t exactly been keen on obeying him. You can’t cage some beasts.
“Bastard.” Paul’s hands fisted. The demon wasn’t screaming anymore. Out of time.
“I haven’t seen him since the wolves came inside.”
“Because he’s running.” Dammit. “This is our mess to clean up.” Not for the wolves. Vampire business. “Get the others. Hunt him.” The order she’d never thought to give came from her as Morgan said, “Kil him.”
Paul nodded. He always fol owed her orders. Always.
Morgan rushed away from him, already heading to the winding tunnels that led beneath the house. Before she faced hel , she’d take care of her own nightmare. And she’d take ful control of her vampire nest.
Morgan raced down the stairs. The others would come soon, spreading out.
Searching. Rage fueled her blood. So many vampires had died at the hands of the demons. The demons hunted in heavy packs. Swooping in, preying when the vamps were weak— ripping us apart.
They’d tried to stop them for months. And Devon, he’d been the asshole to bring those monsters into the world.
She twisted to the left. Snaked down the tunnel to the right. The scent of blood hit her. Fresh blood.
Dammit, what had he done now?
A heavy metal door waited in front of her, open by a few precious inches. Open just enough to let the scent of blood spil out.
“Devon!” She cal ed out as she shoved at the door. “What are you—”
Inside, a pool of blood soaked the floor. And in the middle of that pool…the broken body of the werewolf who’d attacked Jace at Howling Moon.
Footsteps thudded behind her. “Morgan!”
Jace’s rumbling voice. She swal owed and glanced around the room. Blood-stained footprints led to the left, to an escape tunnel. One that opened in the heart of the swamp.
“Fuck!” Jace’s shoulders brushed hers.
Paul came in behind him and scanned the room. Disgust tightened his face. “Looks like Devon was stil experimenting.”
Right below them. Right damn below them. The other Council members had forbidden his work long ago. But the bastard must have liked his blood and pain too much. Jace’s nostrils flared. “He fucking slaughtered a wolf.” And that’s what it was—a slaughter. The wolf’s flesh was a pale white, and Morgan knew that Devon had drained Mike’s blood. A fresh kil . While they’d been upstairs, this wolf had been dying. Jace’s dark eyes locked on her.
She swal owed back the bile that rose in her throat. “ Jace, I-I didn’t know.” Like that would make it better. She should have known. Her nest. Her responsibility. It was al …
on me.
“Look, I was coming to kil Devon, okay? He’s the one who opened the doorway for the demons. When I drank that demon’s blood, I saw him!”
Jace stared at the footprints, fol owing them with his eyes. His shoulders were tense, and she could nearly feel the fury roiling from him. “The vampires summoned the demons.”
Jace’s claws burst out. “The vampires have been capturing wolves…what other little secrets haven’t you told me, mate? ”
Oh, this wasn’t going to be good.
“Jace, let me explain, I—”
“Too late.” He grabbed her and put his claws at her throat. “Too late, princess. ”
Morgan knew she was staring at death.
“I want every single one of you bloodsucking assholes to get in that cage.” His head jerked toward the left. Toward the heavily barred cel that Devon had used to house vampire prisoners over the years.
Those bars were reinforced. Able to hold demons, wolves, and, yes, even vamps.
We won’t be able to get out.
“Move,” he ordered, “or I slice open her throat.”
Her blood chil ed at that threat.
Paul raised his chin. “You wouldn’t.”
Jace held her gaze. His stare seemed so cold. So…empty. Would he? “Get in the cel , Paul,” she told him quietly.
Jace’s jaw tensed.
Footsteps shuffled and snarls fil ed the air as the vamps went into their prison.
“They’re in!” Louis cal ed out.
Jace didn’t let her go. “What are you going to do?” She asked. “I’m the one who knows where the doorway is. You need me to—”
“Devon knows where the doorway is. I bet that bastard is running there right now.
How did you put it? High on wolf blood. He’l think he’s fucking invincible, and he’l go back.”
Maybe. Maybe not.
“Either way, I’ve got his scent.” Jace brought his head close to hers and those wicked claws didn’t move from her flesh. “I’m going to track him down and rip him apart.”
Because Devon had kil ed a wolf.
“He risked you. Tried to kil you.” His claws fel away. “The vamp wil burn by dawn.”
Wha—
Jace lifted her up, moved too fast—damn him—and put her in the cel . Then he swung the door shut and locked her inside.
She grabbed the bars. “You can’t leave us like this.”
His brows rose. “Watch me.” He paused, staring down at Mike’s lifeless form.
“Take care of him,” he ordered two of his men, and they immediately bent to pick up the body. Then Jace fol owed the bloody trail of footprints.
“Jace! Dammit, I wasn’t going to betray you.”
He didn’t stop, but she caught his growled, “I know.”
What? “Then why are you doing this? Why?”
One-by-one, the wolves exited the containment area. Jace was the last to leave.
His broad shoulders scraped the arching sides of the doorway. “I’l be back, Morgan.”
Her breath heaved in her chest.
“We’re not ending.” He spared her a glittering stare. “I’m not risking you, and I’m damn sure not taking the chance that the fire wil get to you.”
“Jace—”
But he was gone, and Morgan was trapped with an angry cel of vampires. Her knuckles whitened around the bars. Alpha asshole. He thought he could go out and take al the risks? While she what—stayed there and worried about him?
She wasn’t the kind of girl who stayed behind. Mostly because she wasn’t a girl.
“I knew he wouldn’t hurt you.” Paul’s cocky voice.
She’d known it, too. His claws had trembled and never so much as nicked her flesh.
“We real y going to let those wolves get al the glory?” He continued. “Because I’ve been wanting to give Devon a beating since I turned.”
She pul ed at the bars. Yes, they’d been reinforced, and normal y, she’d never be able to break them.
High on wolf blood.
The bars began to bend.
“Don’t worry,” she told Paul and the others. “Jace isn’t getting away from me.” And he sure wasn’t going into hel without her being there to pul her wolf right back out of the fire.
Chapter Seven
Jace and his pack chased Devon into the center of the Glades. The vamp had escaped by car, but instead of going back into the city, the guy had headed down the long, winding roads that led deeper into the growing darkness.
When the road ended, they found his car. Lights on. Doors open. Jace stared out at the night. The insects had stopped chirping when the wolves approached. They knew when danger stalked.
He inhaled, catching al the scents. Those that belonged, those that didn’t. Blood.
Brimstone.
Fuck.
“Your vamp’s gonna be real pissed at you once she gets out of that cage,” Louis warned him.
Tell me something I don’t know. But better her alive and pissed than dead and burned to ash.
He caught the whisper of sound in the air. His head tilted back as he stared at the rising moon. He could see the shapes before the blood moon. So many. Too many.
Outnumbered. The demons were coming.
“Shift!” They’d have to change quickly. “Take their heads—take out as many of them as you can.”
Then he leapt forward. The demons were coming because they were close to the doorway. Fuck that. Jace was slamming that door. Devon had run right back to this hole, and now Jace would kil him and stop the demons.
Endgame.
He shoved through the brush as the howls behind him fil ed the night.
Morgan had seen the doorway, the great gaping hole in the middle of the blackened earth. Devon had opened the door to hel —opened it on vampire land, and she hadn’t even realized it. The vamps spread out when they arrived at the battle. The snarls and growls of the wolves blended with the vicious cries of the demons. Blood bathed the ground.
“Don’t get any of their blood in you,” she warned, stil tasting ash. “And make sure you cover the wolves.”
Because the dead were already on the ground, and she didn’t want to lose anyone else. Demons flew from the air at her. “Go!” She shouted to the vampires. She lifted her gun. The vamps had taken the time to load up before they’d gone hunting. She aimed. Fired. The closest demon hit the ground. A wolf jumped on him and bit into his neck.More shots fired. The vamps knew what to do. Take the demons down. Make them weak. Let the wolves finish the kil .
She fired as she ran through the heaving bodies. No sense cal ing for Jace. She didn’t see him there. Didn’t see Devon either.
The twist in her gut told her where she’d find them both.
Deeper, deeper into the dark she went.
Her enhanced vision al owed her to see easily as she leapt over fal en trees and darted into the thick brush.
The crackle and hiss of fire reached her ears. So close.
The grass disappeared. The ground hardened beneath her feet.
Then she saw the broken skeletons. The remains of the sacrifices. So many. Far more than she’d ever imagined. Hundreds of skul s and spines. Broken bones tossed aside like garbage. She stared at the stark white graveyard as rage fil ed her. Devon.
She leapt over the bones. There— there. A sunken, sloping entrance on the ground. Smoke trickled from the thick hole and…she could hear the faintest echo of screams emanating from within the pit.