Chapter 29
Marcus slammedthe last of his assailants headfirst into the wall. The bastard crumpled and didn’t move. “Shadow, where’s Dove?”
“Above us. I sense her fear.”
“Above us?” Marcus scanned the room. “Shit. Zion is missing as well.”
He raced out the door into the lobby. Dove’s scream echoed from the stairwell.
“He’s gone to the roof with her.”
Two stories later, he charged outside onto the fiftieth floor.
The sight before him seized his heart in his chest. Zion stood at the edge of the roof. Perched on the stone ledge beside him was Dove. Shirt clenched in Zion’s fist, she clung to his forearm, eyes wide with fear.
Marcus stalked closer on leaden legs.
“Close enough,” Zion barked, shaking Dove, making her gasp.
While Marcus’s physical body obeyed, shadows whirled around him, his demon agitated.
“He dares to threaten what is oursss?”Shadow snarled inside Marcus’s head.
Marcus bared his lengthening fangs. “Harm her and my face will be the last thing you see on your way to hell.” His flesh burned, muscles swelling in his torso, claws tipping his fingers.
“There he is.” Pride lit Zion’s demonic visage. “There’s the male I always knew you could be.”
“After all of your lies and the destruction you’ve wrought, now this?” Marcus nodded at Dove, avoiding the look of terror on her face for fear he’d lose control. “What more do you want?”
His uncle’s features smoothed, his expression darkening. “What I’ve always wanted. For you to live up to your full potential. To be a male who is worthy of standing by my side.”
Marcus gritted his teeth. “Doesn’t your cult have enough underlings capable of kissing your ass?”
“What I need isn’t a disciple but a partner. Someone to fill the void your father left. We’d made many plans together, only he didn’t live up to his end of our deal. After he claimed your mother as his Bride, he was distracted, his focus divided. All our plans fell by the wayside. I thought if I removed that distraction, he’d come around. Instead, he became a shell of a man. An embarrassment to the family name. Instead of a partner, he was an obstacle standing in the way of progress.”
Marcus’s mind raced, filling the gaps between the twisted half-truths. His mother’s accident followed by his father’s assassination. Pain speared him, hard enough to make him double over. He braced his hands on his knees. “It was you. You killed them. Both of them.” Emotions welled, filled him with hate, flooded the dark places in his soul.
“Sadly, killing your mother, while warranted, affected me in ways I didn’t expect.” The shadows around Zion darkened, drawing inward. “Too late, I realized my feelings for her were real instead of a passing attraction born of our affair.”
Tiberius put his filthy hands on Marcus’s mother? Disgust threatened to empty his stomach.
“After your birth, I’d dared to hope that you were mine. All too soon, it became apparent you were his. Still, I believed if I raised you, I could make you better, more like me.”
The depth of his uncle’s betrayal was a bottomless pool of poison, sucking Marcus under. “It was you who headed the investigation of his death. You who discovered the male responsible. You who encouraged me to kill my father’s murderer and claim his place as lord.” He’d believed he’d avenged his father when in fact his murderer had stood at his side, pulling Marcus’s strings, watching him dance.
Zion raised his chin. “It was through my guidance that you bettered yourself. Seeing you slaughter your opponent and become lord, it was a proud moment.”
“You’re the snake,” Dove choked out. “The snake in the garden.”
Zion leveled her with his glowing red gaze and canted his head. “Where did you hear that?”
“Josephine Steele told me,” she said, voice trembling. “She recognized you for the charlatan you are. I spoke to her at her mansion.”
Zion curled his lip, sneering, “Of course you did. Necromancers love all things dead, rotting, and forgotten.”
Marcus’s heart tripped. Dove never mentioned she’d communicated with his mother. No. He needed to focus. Draw his uncle’s attention away from Dove. Keep him talking while finding a way to save her.
“If you wanted me at your side, why order Helen to kill me?” Marcus asked.
Zion turned to him, smirking. “Figured that out, huh? I gave that command once I determined you were too much like your father. You didn’t share my vision, refused to invest in my research at Legacy. When you delved into my finances, it became clear you were a problem. I decided to eliminate that problem.”
Though Marcus tried to steel himself, the coldness of that admission hurt. Without feeling or remorse, the male who’d practically raised him chose to end him, just as the bastard had his parents. “And the shade you locked inside of me?” he grated.
Zion’s smirk faded. He shrugged a shoulder and Dove’s tenuous position shifted, making her squeal in fright.
“I confess, I had a moment of regret when they brought you to my lab after the explosion. Seeing your battered form, watching you cling to life, I realized you were stronger than I thought. Despite your failures, I did think of you as a son. The shade was a gift. A second chance. It still is.” His uncle’s tone softened, reminding him of the male who’d comforted him after his parents’ deaths. The deaths Tiberius caused.
Marcus held back the rage roaring inside of him. Swallowed the words he desired to unleash. How dare his uncle claim him as son in the same breath he admitted responsibility for his attempted murder and possession. “You offered me a second chance? Well, here I am.” He spread his arms wide. “You’ve got me exactly where you wanted me. Set Dove free, unharmed, and we can negotiate the terms of our new partnership. Wasn’t that the point? The card you sent with Helen’s corpse said she was—A peace offering, in anticipation of future collaborations.”
Zion winced in mock sympathy. “If only it were that easy. As your mother was for your father, the girl is your weakness. Your feelings for her make you vulnerable, as does her influence over the shades. Seeing how she drew mine out, there’s no way we can allow her to run unchecked.” His grip on Dove loosened, and she uttered another squeak of terror, eyes going wide.
This time, Marcus couldn’t contain the fury welling inside of him. He snarled, taking one threatening step forward. “Harm her and I swear I will hunt you to the ends of this earth.”
Zion barked a laugh. “Hunt me as you hunted Helen? How did that work out for you? Have you learned nothing?” He shook his head, his tone full of mock sympathy. “Foolish boy, still so blind to what is beneath his nose. The necromancer was spying on you for me the entire time. She betrayed you, just as Helen did. Helen deceived me too, putting her own desires before my cause. I gave her to you as a gift.”
His uncle spoke of trust and loyalty, yet none had ever betrayed him more than the monster standing before him. “I believe I’ve had enough of your so-called gifts. I grow weary of this conversation. State your terms.”
Zion’s eyes glowed red with the demon’s influence. “Very well. My terms are simple. Prove your loyalty to me by reaping your Chosen’s soul. Give in to the hunger, feed your shade. Welcome the darkness into your heart and mind, as I have. Then, and only then, will you be worthy of sitting at my side.” He hitched a shoulder flippantly. “Or reject my terms and I’ll throw her off the ledge.”
Dove coughed a hysteric sound. “So option A, I’m dead. Option B, I’m also dead?” Tears wet her fear-stricken eyes. “You’re a horrible negotiator. Remind me to never call you if I need help purchasing a new car.”
“Silence,” Zion snarled, shaking her. “This will go easier for you if you don’t fight.”
Pride swelled. Even when her life hung in the balance, Dove wasn’t afraid to slice through the bullshit with honesty and realism. Problem was, as she so eloquently pointed out, both options presented would result in her demise.
“Do not like thisss game,”Shadow grumbled in his head.
“Got a better plan?” he answered through their mental link.
“Zion is hive master. I am drone. Alone, we cannot defeat him in battle.”
“What do you propose?”
Shadow relayed his desires with flashes and images.
Marcus’s temples pounded beneath the onslaught. It was risky. However, Option C just may see Dove alive at the end of this nightmare.
“Son, I know you like I know myself,” his uncle added. “We’re the same, you and me. For all your flaws, you’re a businessman. Weigh the cost and choose the most lucrative outcome. What’s the loss of one pathetic soul, a faerie’s soul, no less, compared to what I can offer you?”
Darkness welled within him. The leash he kept on his shade slipped in his grasp. His face burned, turning demonic. “Be ready, demon.”
“You be ready,” his belligerent partner snarled back.
Zion grinned. Eyes half-lidded, he drew oxygen into his nostrils as though savoring the shade’s growing presence. “That’s right. Let the beast surface. Feel its hunger rising within you.”
“Marcus?” Dove asked, her voice wobbling with uncertainty.
Marcus blocked out her whimper. “The mortal world has evolved.” His words rumbled with his demon’s rougher tones. “Perhaps it’s past time that the underworld evolved as well. Time we come out of hiding, demand our due.”
Shadows circled his body, spiraling outward. The shade’s smokey energy swept around Dove and Zion. Dove clutched the demon’s arm tighter, tears falling. At the sight of Shadow’s power circling Dove’s form, his uncle’s grin spread. “Yes, that’s it. Take what you desire.”
“Desire?” Marcus snarled in monstrous tones. “My desire is to see you pay for the damage you’ve caused both to me and our community. For your lies and deceit, the destruction you will leave in your wake. What you propose isn’t for the betterment of the underworld but your own personal gain. You want power, control. To take away choice and freewill. Yet, you are unworthy of the throne you covet. You care nothing for those you’ve sentenced to servitude. It’s you who is the disappointment. Yours is the soul with no value.”
Zion’s grin turned into a deadly snarl. His grip on Dove tightened. “It’s as I feared. You’re too much like your father. Very well. You’ve made your choice.”
His arm shot out.
His fist opened.
Dove dropped.
Marcus watched in terror as his entire world plummeted to the ground. In that second, nothing else mattered. His lordship, his scars, his wealth. In that second, it all became clear. Everything he cared about hurtled toward its demise.
“Now!”the demon at his center barked. The demon who’d invaded his body. The demon who’d fought him at every turn. The demon who gave him life, only to ruin his comfortable existence.
Marcus tipped his head back. Took one last look at the stars. Before Dove, he’d never even noticed the stars. She was the light in his darkness. With his fate in her hands, he…
Surrendered.
Fiery bladesof agony ripped Shadow from his host. Despite the pain, the shade pushed harder, tearing the bonds between him and his vessel. For once, both halves of Shadow-Steele were of one mind. Shadow’s essence broke free, shooting into the void.
Time froze.
For a single bone-chilling moment, he hung in the ether, alone, bereft. Shock trembled along his synapses. His entire being had been slapped into the world without preamble or warning.
In that chilling moment, cold replaced the warmth he’d enjoyed. Icy winds ripped through his hollow being. Color leaked from his vision, the landscape cloaked in shades of murk and mist. Gone were the complex aromas carried on the wind. His senses were muted. Dull. Lifeless. He shuddered at the loss.
In this plane, his being was without substance. Life in Carcerem had been the same.Before the possession, his sole purpose was to serve the hive. Being the weakest of his brothers, he didn’t dare want for more. Until the moment he was thrust inside a cage of flesh and bone. The undeserving leech had turned him into a creature who was weak, vulnerable…
Alive.
At first, his host had siphoned his life-force, abusing the shade’s power without preamble. Shadow was shoved into the background, cursed, hated, and imprisoned during the host’s waking hours. In return, Shadow had given the leech just enough energy to keep them whole, refusing to fully heal his captor. Both existed in a constant state of war, each fighting for the upper hand.
Until her.
He locked his conscious on the plummeting female below him. Frozen in time, Dove peered up at him with wild eyes. Silver hair swallowed her fear-stricken features. Her fingers clawed for a grip she would never find.
The day her essence was tied to his, everything changed. Since its creation, his hive had never had a queen, only a ruthless master. Zion. It was Dove who had given the lowly drone purpose. He’d served her not because he was forced, but of his own free will. Because of her, his existence had meaning beyond the survival of his host.
His host.
Fraying threads remained between them. One at a time, they unraveled. Each broken strand weakened them. Neither could survive without the other in this realm. Not the shade. Not the vessel. At first, he’d resented the constraint. Made his frustration known in bursts of violence. In time, he’d come to appreciate his new freedom. Because of her. His queen. While chasing fireflies, she’d taught them both that darkness could not exist without light.
Dove was that light.
“You cannot save her. You are weak,”snarled a voice from his past. The words spoken in his native tongue.
He turned his attention to his former master. Tiberius stood frozen, his arm locked where he’d thrust Dove off the building. Zion peered back at him from his host’s body. Piercing eyes glared out of a face of shadowed horrors. His inky form draped his vessel’s frame like a burial shroud.
“Give up and return to your host, drone.”
In his hive, drones were not considered worthy of names. Only the master was granted that privilege. Shadow was no longer a nameless drone. Dove had given him an identity. A name all his own. He was done taking orders from this bastard. “I thought you’d perished. Like my brothers,” he answered, using the language of their ancestors.
“You thought wrong. I was the first to succeed. My host’s strength was equal to my own. When bonded, I sank my roots deep inside of him. Took hold. Refused to let go.”
The others were dragged into their hosts against their will. However, Zion went willingly. “You abandoned the hive. Left us to be enslaved by Tiberius and his retched experiments. Left us to die.”
“The hive kept me weak. You pathetic drones failed to appease my hunger.”
Because their master was insatiable. No matter the number of souls they’d reaped, it was never enough. In the mortal realm, Zion’s appetite seemed to have only grown. “It was you who weakened us. Always taking. Never giving. Now, you suck the life from this plane as well.”
Satisfaction blazed in Zion’s eyes. “This vessel has great influence over this world. With my aid, he grows stronger. Together, we will have more power than either of our realms have ever seen.”
“Then you know little of this place. Its inhabitants will not be subjugated.”From what Shadow had seen, most would rather die than live as slaves as he had been. None desired to be drones. Especially not his queen.
“The people here are weak, same as you,”Zion sneered. “Together, this vessel and I are strong. Soon, we will be unstoppable.”
“You will try, and you will fail.”
“Enough talk,” Zion snapped. “Return to your host. Swear fealty to us and serve us as the creator intended.”
“You are no longer my master. I serve another. One who is worthy.”
“Who is this you speak of? Another power in play?”
“Yes. A power you cannot defeat.”
Time crept forward. Only one thread remained between Shadow and his vessel. Below him, Marcus’s pulse skipped, faltered. Breath left the vampire’s straining chest. Without Shadow’s energy to support him, his flesh burned. His fire-damaged body began to fail. Marcus knew this would happen. He’d done it anyway. While most mortal emotions still eluded him, this, the drone understood. Sacrifice. To put one’s needs above your own. Not out of duty, but…
Love.
As though sensing his intention, Zion snarled, his essence whipping around his host in a frenzy. “Accept my dominion, drone. Defy me and you will suffer.”
The monster who sought their destruction knew nothing of sacrifice, nor did its host, Tiberius. That was why they would fail.
Seconds slipped past, gaining momentum. Speeding faster. Shadow’s energy waned, the bond holding him to this realm fading. He met his former master’s fury with a snarl of his own. “You are unworthy of my allegiance.”
The last thread snapped.
Time shot forward.
Marcus collapsed.
“Damn you, Marcus. What have you done?” Tiberius lunged for his nephew, the woman he’d thrust to her death, forgotten.
But not by the drone.
Not by Shadow.
Neither Tiberius nor Zion recognized the treasure they’d tossed away. Dove was painted sunsets. Rich flavors. Sounds of music and laughter.
Dove was everything.
Dove was life.
His queen. She didn’t have wings. Shadow would be her wings. In this, his host’s trust wasn’t misplaced.
Weakness sucked at his center. Without Marcus to anchor him, his being began to disintegrate. He gathered his misty shape and launched after his target. Wind buffeted his form. His silhouette streaked behind him, breaking apart. He struggled to draw his essence tighter, calling on the dark places, pulling them from the light.
Dove’s scream registered in his psyche, along with her terror. Hurry. Faster. He had to reach her before it was too late. Time ran out for all of them. Necromancer. Shade. Vampire.
Her pendant twisted in front of her. The talisman. Both gateway and prison. She’d tried to shove him inside of it during the exorcism and he’d refused. This time, he went willingly. He just hoped his queen welcomed him.