Savage Fate (Den of Shadows #5)

Chapter 37

Chapter

Thirty-Seven

The moan I’d been holding in finally erupted while Fane rocked his hips, going deeper. “This isn’t his fault. We shouldn’t flaunt our relationship in front of him.”

Making sure Saint was aware of how close Fane and I were was one thing, but having sex while he turned the other way was despicable.

“Saint’s a big boy. He can handle it.” Fane reached up and toyed with my sensitive peaks. “Besides, he realizes this is the only way I could’ve stopped you.”

I couldn’t think straight with Fane all around me, plunging in and out of me like he wanted to split me in half. Moisture leaked between us, and flames crawled over my flesh.

As if he knew my guilt and all thoughts of Saint were fading with each thrust, he gave a sinister laugh. “Give in to me, my little rebel, and I’ll make it all better.”

I rolled my eyes even as my heavy pants filled the shed. “Just shut up already.”

“I will when you deserve my silence.” His grin had electricity crackling low in my belly in anticipation of his next move. “Until then, you better ride me like your life depends on it.”

His tempo increased, and I matched it, our bodies clashing in the erotic dance. If anyone walked within a few feet of this garden shed, they’d know exactly what naughty things were unfolding inside.

Fane gripped my thighs, and he groaned as lust permeated the air. “You’re such a good girl, doing exactly what I say.” His tongue darted out as he licked his lips. “Keep it up, and I’ll reward you.”

A shudder racked my body. “Yeah? How?”

He released one of my thighs, and one hand dipped between my legs to toy with me while the other wrapped around my throat. “I’ll be your wild, savage beast and destroy you exactly how you crave.”

I couldn’t stop the whimper from slipping out, and my head arched back as liquid fire poured through my veins. “Yes, Fane. Please.” My knees dug into the hard floor, and my legs trembled, longing for him to take over and tear me apart in the most delicious way possible.

An explosion erupted in my core, and just as I fell over the edge, Fane’s fingers tightened around my throat, cutting off my scream.

Holy. Hell.

Seconds later, while my release wasn’t even finished, my back hit the floor, and Fane hovered over me like a terrifying and sexy monster poised to eat me alive.

“Good girl.” He gripped the backs of my knees, yanked me toward him, and sank inside me again. My scream tore through the shed. “Here’s your reward, fiera mika. How do you like it?”

His feral smile had bolts of electricity popping down my spine as he took me roughly on the ground like a possessed beast.

“More. Don’t stop.” I could barely form coherent words as my mate ruined me.

Fane heeded my pleas and delivered a bevy of pain and pleasure that had me falling apart for a second time.

My talons dug gouges into the floorboards, and the shed blurred around me, leaving Fane as my only point of focus. He used my body like his own personal pleasure toy, filling me up and nearly breaking me.

I longed to shatter into a million pieces beneath his brutal touch. He was the only one I’d be this vulnerable with, the only one I’d ever give this much of my control to.

No one had ever earned that except Fane Maverick.

“Fane!” I cried out as another release hit.

His roar rang in my ears seconds before he spilled inside of me, filling me to the brim with warmth and bliss. He leaned forward and kissed me like he couldn’t breathe without inhaling my flavor. His tongue tangled with mine, plunging, twisting, and exploring.

When he pulled back, desire burned in his gaze.

And so did love.

I didn’t need to hear the words. I felt the truth through the bond.

Fane loved me so much it hurt sometimes.

We’d started out as enemies lusting after each other, and somewhere along the road, our intense attraction transformed into something neither of us ever expected.

Or deserved.

After all the terrible things I’d done, I didn’t believe anyone could really love me.

Until Fane.

He pulled out and rested on his side, tucking me into him. The overwhelming craving that started after Reese stabbed me had melted into the background, muted by my attraction and addiction to Fane.

But it was there. And I still wanted the amulet.

“You’ve been fighting your whole life. You’re not just a survivor, Tate. You’re a warrior.” Fane gently pressed his forehead to mine, our bodies slick with sweat. “Don’t let Barric or this fucking stone make you believe anything else. You had tremendous power with the amulet, but you had very little control, if any. It won’t matter how strong it makes you because you won’t be Tate anymore.”

He was right. The Infernal Sol wanted me to surrender everything to it. I’d completely lose myself.

Part of me thought maybe I could control it instead of the other way around.

You can try to harness my true power as your own. I’ll give you a chance.

I ignored the voice and squeezed my eyes shut, burying my face in his chest. Exhaustion swept over me, and a sob slipped out.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, my voice broken.

His arms wrapped around me like a safe, warm blanket. “Nothing to be sorry about. The dagger influenced you. Barric wanted to make you thirst for the amulet to lure you in.”

My hand rested over the symbol on my stomach. “Something is wrong. The amulet poisoned me, and this dagger made it worse.”

“Ruin knew more about the Infernal Sol than anyone else I know.” Fane’s muscles stiffened at the mention of the high demon lord.

“Yeah, well, he’s dead,” I said. “And unless you want to find him on the other side, wherever demons go when they die, we’re SOL.”

His mouth thinned as fury pulsated through the bond. “Denton and Estella are still alive.”

The two alchemists who had worked closely with Ruin were being held captive in the lab below Wrath & Ruin, a fitting punishment for what they did to those shifters.

How cooperative would they be, and could we even trust any information they gave us?

Denton held a silver talisman over the sun tattoo, mumbling under his breath as I stretched out on a cold metal table in the lab below Wrath & Ruin. The other one was destroyed the night Ruin died, and Wrath hadn’t fixed it.

I’d been subjected to pokes, prods, blood and tissue samples, and magic doodads for the past three hours. Was the alchemist simply stalling for more time out of his cell?

Unlike the shifters he and Ruin imprisoned, Denton looked well-fed and taken care of.

“What about adding a Velamen sigil?” Estella opened a metal cabinet and withdrew a small vial of purple liquid and a delicate paintbrush.

Denton nodded. “That could work.”

The dux demon pulled out the cork and dipped the brush inside the vial. “This will be cold.” Goose bumps erupted across my flesh as she drew shapes on my abs below the sun tattoo.

While Denton looked relatively fine, Estella appeared weak with dark circles beneath her haunted eyes. Her emerald hair was dull and lifeless, pinned back in a low bun instead of an intricate braid. A sickly hue coated her pale complexion.

Her worn appearance probably had more to do with mourning the loss of Ruin than her captivity. She was madly in love with him, and even though he’d had no idea, his death had clearly devastated her.

Fane brushed his fingers over my arm as he glared at the alchemists. “If you do anything to hurt her, I’ll tear both your heads off.”

Estella’s paintbrush froze in midair. “It’s just a sigil to reveal hidden meanings. She can’t feel a thing.”

He cracked his neck, the pops echoing like gunshots in the lab. “Just remember that I know exactly what she feels.”

The dux demon swallowed hard and continued drawing on my torso.

“Tell me again why he’s here?” Logan mumbled to Fane while staring at Saint, who leaned against a counter a few feet away. “ You are her mate.”

Saint shook his head and crossed his arms. “You know I can hear you, Logan. And for the tenth time, I’m here in case I need to heal her.”

Logan gave a dramatic nod and flashed an overly sweet smile. “Right. I forgot.”

Fane smirked at his best friend, knowing he was intentionally irritating Saint.

“Stop being a dick, Logan,” I said. “I thought you were the nice one.”

His jaw dropped. “I am nice—to my friends.”

After Fane finished distracting me from my obsession with the Infernal Sol last night, we tracked down Saint and woke Reese for more torture, but she wasn’t cooperating. In fact, she’d stopped making any sense. Her concept of reality was completely warped.

Had the Infernal Sol fried her brain?

Saint called Camus to inform him of his psychotic mate so he could take her home. If she recovered, at least she’d be in Mohan Wilds where we could interrogate—or torture—her some more.

Camus also gave his word that he’d uncover his daughter’s involvement in Reese’s nefarious plot, but I didn’t expect swift punishment even if Marissa had known.

Another hour passed of boring examinations, and after Denton and Estella hunched over a desk for a while, scrutinizing their notes, Denton finally spoke.

“I think you’re right, Estella.” He studied the carvings on the dagger again and then read over something in a notebook. “That’s the only conclusion that makes sense.”

Estella’s electric-blue demon eyes flicked toward me, and for the first time, pity shined in them. Knots fisted in my stomach as I hopped from the table, my boots planting hard on the white tiles.

It had to be bad if she felt any shred of sympathy for me.

Fane’s hulking presence flanked my side. “Spit it out, Denton.”

The alchemist ran his hand over his bald head, the bright fluorescents shining on his ebony complexion. “I believe the dagger was imbued with power from the Infernal Sol.”

Logan went over to analyze their notes, muttering under his breath. “That’s what I was afraid of.” He rubbed the dark shadow covering his chin.

“When Nadia removed the Infernal Sol, she did so improperly.” Denton’s long fingers tapped at his tablet. “Only a powerful demon should remove something of Underworld origins like this. That’s why Ruin had insisted on doing it himself.”

A string of curses slipped from Logan as he read the screen on the Denton’s tablet. “Some of it’s still inside of her.”

“Precisely.” Denton passed Logan the dagger. “This tapped into that piece and heightened its influence.”

I swallowed back the bile oozing up my throat, already suspecting this information after Saint shared his theory yesterday. “How do we get it out?”

“That’s the problem.” Denton’s expression turned grim. “Since the amulet fused with your soul—you must have given it permission to take you over completely—this small piece is embedded into the very fiber of your existence. You can’t simply remove it.”

Invisible bands tightened around my chest as panic settled in. “If it can’t be removed, how the hell do we fix this? Will I crave the amulet forever?”

“Your soul has to be healed.” Denton’s gaze briefly flicked toward Fane, hesitating like he was afraid to speak his next words. “If you don’t heal it, you will eventually die.”

Air whooshed out of my lungs, and the lab spun as all the moisture zapped from my mouth. “How long do I have?”

Fane rested his hand on the small of my back to keep me steady.

“I’m not sure,” Denton admitted. “But being stabbed with this dagger has certainly sped up that timeline.”

I stepped out of Fane’s hold, turned away, and staggered back to the long table I’d been lying on. The cold metal seeped through my palms as I hunched over, my heart slamming against my ribs.

When I died, what would happen to Fane?

“If I got the amulet back, would that keep me alive?” I asked.

Fane’s growl rumbled through the lab. “That’s not an option, Teague. That thing will eventually kill you too.”

“I need to conduct more research,” Denton said. “It could help.”

All the more reason to come find me.

The lab’s stark-white and silver décor blurred and then disintegrated as I fell into another vision…

I stood near the Grim Reaper statue in Bonaventure Cemetery, the moon shining between twisted oaks and Spanish moss.

Shouts erupted in the distance, and I took off as my heart raced. I darted between marble headstones, statues, and trees, ducking limbs and moss. As I glanced down, my brows furrowed.

Instead of seeing this vision through someone else’s eyes, I remained in my body. The only other time that happened was when I encountered the Infernal Sol wherever Barric was hiding out.

Just the thought of the amulet had my blood pumping more than the running did. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel its presence close by.

“They’re surrounding me!”

Any thoughts of the Infernal Sol shattered as Hawk’s panicked voice shot through the cemetery.

“Where the hell are they coming from?”

I burst through two tall statues and found Hawk at the west edge of the property as a dozen quort sub-demons slowly converged on him, completely cutting off his escape. He lifted his sword as he frantically searched for a way out.

“Hawk!” I yelled, but his attention remained on the piglike monsters with scaly green skin and sharp tusks.

I jumped over a stump and kicked a quort. Of course, my foot just went through the creature because I wasn’t actually in the cemetery.

Hawk grabbed the radio off his belt with his free hand. “Where are you guys? I need help.”

A crackle sounded before a voice broadcasted. “We’re getting swarmed by drago sub-demons over here!” Axel cursed, and grunts sounded in the background. “We can’t break through.”

My pulse skyrocketed as a quort sprinted forward and attempted to sink his tusks into Hawk’s thigh. The raven dodged the hit, but another sub-demon took the chance to attack and managed to stab Hawk’s calf.

He bared his teeth in pain and kicked the sub-demon off. But more charged.

“Son of a bitch!”

They rushed him, snarling and shoving their tusks into his legs until he dropped to the ground.

Terror punched a hole in my chest. They were going to kill him.

And all I could do was stand by and watch…

The bright lights of the lab suddenly blinded me as I returned to reality, stumbling away from the table. Strong arms caught me before I fell on my ass.

“I saw it, Tate.” Fane spun me to face him, his warm, calloused hands palming my cheeks. “I was there with you.”

My stomach heaved at the images of those demons overtaking my best friend. “I have to find Hawk. Now .”