45. Garrick
Garrick
The Angels campaign fell apart, as I suspected it would, once Tacita and Milo left through my portal.
Frustratingly, despite my best efforts, we haven't been able to confirm that they had planned to take her as well as him. And it’ll be a few days for those I’ve just dropped off in Tartarus to recover enough for us to interrogate them again.
Even Hades’s power, which is stronger than I realised, hadn’t been enough to break them fully and make them talk. Their bodies are going to take some healing to make them functionable enough to try again.
Camael managed to slip through our grasp, he and several of the legion heads flew back through their own portal before we managed to capture them.
But the two with mind powers, the two holding Milo when Tacita snatched him, are now laying in cells in the highest security wing of the prison I command.
After the Angels had either left, been captured, or taken out, I’d spent the rest of the night organising the Guards, triaging the casualties for Dom, and preparing our captives to ship them to Tartarus once Hades was done interrogating them.
Leaving Tarron in charge of the games site, and the contestants still alive, I’d left with our captives in tow.
It had been a long night, and morning, to say the least. But I was still breathing. And more importantly, so was she.
Following her scent across the city was easier than I imagined.
Coming here straight from Tartarus, I could be away for a few more hours and I had never been more glad for my tracking abilities.
I needed to see her. Jogging along on my paws, I follow my instincts as her cherry sweet scent pulls me in the correct direction.
Shifting in front of the tall high rise on the lower east side, I step into the lobby, my blood practically buzzing, telling me she’s close.
I’ve used my tracking abilities in the past, but that was decades ago when I was working my way up the ladder, when I was tracking demons that were wanted for one misdemeanour or another.
Usually it was blood from the stock the authorities kept on file, the samples taken on a first incarceration, just in case they reoffended when released and needed to be found.
The blood is weaker but it serves a purpose, and because it’s not fresh, the link fades over time.
I’ve not drunk directly from someone's veins before and the potency is strong.
“Can I help you, sir?” A young male demon asks from behind the reception desk.
Shit. I have no idea which of the apartments Tacita lives in. Or what name her tenancy will be under. “I’m here to see Tacita Anthrop,” I say remembering the name on her application for the games.
“I’m sorry, sir, there’s no one with that name here.” Fuck. It was worth a shot. My cat growls at our halted progress towards our target. “Do you have the right address?”
“Yes, she definitely lives in this building. She’s this tall.” I gesture with my hand at my shoulder. “A demon, has rainbow hair and a huge attitude.”
The receptionist tilts his head like he’s thinking but I see his hand move behind the high-topped desk, probably alerting whatever security this building has.
The last thing I need is an altercation right now.
Huffing because I’m about to cause my female a bit of scandal, I pull out my final play–my ID card.
“Look, I’m the Head of Tartarus. I am looking for the female that I just described on some classified business. Can you call her or not?” I hand over my badge and the male inspects it. He pales slightly as he realises it’s legit.
“Oh lords, are you arresting her? She’s always so nice and friendly. I can’t imagine she’s got herself into any kind of trouble, not the trouble that would involve you,” he babbles, but does at least pick up the phone and presses one of the apartment codes.
“No, not arresting. I just need to ask her a few questions.” I try my best to keep my demeanour casual looking.
The phone rings for what seems like an eternity before the receptionist gets someone on the other end.
Annoyingly, this building's tech is so high security the phone lines are magically enhanced so I can’t tell if the voice that answers is hers.
But there is a brief interaction before the receptionist replaces the receiver.
“She’ll be down to meet you in a second, you can wait by that elevator over there.
” He points to one in the far corner of the lobby. The one reserved for the penthouse.
Of course.
I walk towards it just as another male demon slips through the door behind the reception desk. He’s taller than I am and built like a bull. I have no doubt he’s the security detail the young demon alerted.
They talk quietly as I wait, but I overhear everything as I shift my hearing.
Indeed, the receptionist takes no time in relaying the scandal unfolding in the lobby.
The Head of Tartarus is here to see the millionaire demoness in the penthouse.
I’ll have to call our press contacts to make sure the rumours escalate no further.
The lift dings and my heart skips its next beat.
Then it falters altogether as the doors open, revealing my female in nothing but a silk robe.
It's a floor length garment and has long wide sleeves with drapes of extra fabric. She’s not bothered to wrap it securely, a long slit running down between her breasts practically to her navel where the tie is barely cinched.
She’s also propped a leg up against the back of the elevator wall causing the red silk to slit up her legs, miles of tan skin on show, including that fucking beautiful tattoo garland on her thigh.
Her horns are on display, framed by masses of dishevelled hair which falls down around her shoulders. She’s fucking sin personified. Her eyes light up as she drinks me in, standing in front of her.
“You found me,” she says by way of greeting.
Forgoing words altogether, I storm into the elevator and grab her hips to pull her into me.
My lips slam down onto hers, my tongue invading her mouth before I’ve spoken a single word.
Tangling her tongue with mine, the fear I’ve felt for the last however many hours pours into the kiss, fear and relief.
Heat surges from my chest and boils my blood as I taste my female, feel her warm skin through the barely-there fabric, and hear her heart rate increase in time with my own, reassuring me that we are both indeed alive.
Thankfully, Tacita is standing near the control panel, and has enough sense to slam a hand to the button so that our display is quickly hidden from prying eyes.
The elevator is already rising upwards by the time I pull back, both of us gasping to catch our breaths. I squeeze her hips between my fingers as her hands come to my face.
“Tell me what happened.” Her eyes search mine with a thousand questions.
“They retreated after I got you out, as I suspected. Camael got away.” Her eyes flick with a murderous looking fire. “The other two are now in Tartarus.”
“Casualites?”
“Mainly their side. The fucking amateurs they sent in didn’t stand a chance, as you saw. We lost four guards.”
“Dom? Tarron? Elisa? Teddy?”
“I didn’t realise you spent any time with the rookie.” The last name on her list surprising me.
“He’s sweet, and I noted his potential. Are they alive, Garrick?”
“All fine.” I reassure her, the four we lost had been on the security or maintenance side of the games, and none had been acquainted with the Death Bringer.
I rattle off their names anyway and Tacita confirms it.
She didn’t know them, but I see the guilt in the shift of her shoulders, a reflection of my own that we lost any of the team.
“And the humans?”
I take a pause, those losses being my larger regret. The games are deadly, yes, but this was an unfair fight placed upon them. “Eleven remain, and that’s including Wyatt and Milo.”
“Only eleven?”
A nod is all I can give in confirmation.
“Seffy? And Rio?” Tacita’s breath hitches after she speaks, waiting on my answer.
“Both alive also. Rio is amongst the injured, but he should live.” She sags against me before seeking my lips once more. She kisses me deeply but I can tell something’s bothering her, she hasn’t fully relaxed. “Ask me.”
She takes a steadying breath, which I feel across my cheeks because I refuse to put more than an inch between us. “What is Hades going to do?”
I don’t need her to be more specific. “He is going to want to talk to Milo.”
“Just talk?”
“You know him better than I do, surely you know the answer to that.”
“I do and that’s why I’m scared. Hades has every right to ship him to Tartarus and never let him out. He has the right to punish me too.”
“Punish you?”
“I abandoned him during a fight. I’m supposed to be his protector.”
“I’m the one who sent you through a portal. He didn’t so much as yell at me.” That seems to relax her.
“How did you coordinate that, by the way? You couldn’t know when I was going to snatch Milo.”
“Not entirely, but your intentions weren’t hard to read. And if you didn’t give me the opportunity, the plan was to have Wyatt grab you out of the sky.”
“You were going to have him kidnap me?” She raises both eyebrows.
I shrug.
“Am I going to have to keep you two separated? I’m not sure I like you plotting together.”
Laughing now, I drag my hand across her waist to toy with the knot holding the fabric of her robe together. “Oh, Goddess. It’s a bit late for that. We won’t be letting you go now.”
Those eyebrows get higher.
“I can smell them on you, you do realise?” Undoing her robe, I let the red silk fall to the sides. We both drop our eyes to my hand as I slide my fingers down the lower half of her stomach and over the mound of her sex. “I bet their cum is still dripping out of you, is it not?”