CHAPTER 57
“No, Magicae Lupus. You must fight the desire to rest. They are coming for you. You just need to hold on for a little longer.”
Pierce’s whisper was too far away, but Mark tried to reach it anyway.
He searched for his wolf, seeking its healing energy, but they remained a single entity.
“Mark…” He took a breath. Perhaps if he engaged the demon in conversation, he might forget his battle with the desire to give in to the darkness. “My name… It's Mark.”
“Forgive me. Even after centuries spent with humans, basic etiquette escapes me.”
“Centuries?” His curiosity piqued, his next inhale was less of a battle. The next one came much easier as he searched for Pierce in the darkness. With the sliver of light gone, his eyes ceased to function, and all he could do was feel the demon’s presence.
“Yes. I was in your world for a long time before the witch imprisoned me.” He felt more than heard Pierce’s sigh. “She tried to send me back to the Underworld, but without one such as you, that proved difficult.”
“Why?” Mark took another breath, his battle with sleep that he now knew would not be sleep lessening the longer Pierce commanded his attention. “Why would the Goddess make me?”
“You struggle to understand why the living would need access to a place meant for death and destruction?”
Mark nodded and opened his mouth to respond, but Pierce interpreted his response without much fuss.
“You all have a misconception of the Underworld. Like your world, it is a world of balance. There is good and evil there, just as in your world. It is only different.”
Mark frowned. Stories he’d been told as a child did not paint the benign picture Pierce wanted him to believe now.
They spoke of evil that knew no bounds. But recent events had been clear evidence that perhaps those stories had been designed to terrify and not provide the truth. “You are a good person.”
Pierce laughed, the effect of his many voices denying the truth of Mark’s words. “I would have to be a person first, wouldn’t I?”
Mark shrugged, his battle with the side of him that wanted to simply close his eyes and get some rest lessening by the minute. “You helped us. You’re helping me.”
“That’s because you are important to my goals. Do not mistake my self-interest for generosity.”
Mark didn’t believe him for a second. He seemed more powerful than even Riley, although the signature of his power felt different.
Pierce laughed again, reminding Mark that he had the uncanny ability to read his mind even when the barrier was closed.
He checked for that fortification he and Caster had worked so hard to rebuild and sighed when he found its ruins.
In his current battle, there was no way he could summon the strength to fortify that defense.
“You have nothing to worry about. I told you; you, your vampire mate, and that powerful witch friend of yours are vital to my goals. My intention is not to cause you or your world harm.”
“What goals?” Even as he asked, he was certain Pierce would never tell him, but the question slipped through anyway.
“There will be plenty of time for that. For now, brace yourself, Magicae Lupus. Here they come. Be sure to follow my voice and only my voice, and I will deliver you back to your family.”
Confusion was momentary before the roar of the Underworld returned with a fury.
There was no hum, building up to a scream; it was pure unadulterated fury crawling over him as if the Underworld struggled against considerable forces.
The once sliver of light that indicated a tear returned, and Mark gasped, his worry that they had just broken something it had taken all his strength to repair, replacing the overwhelming sense of disorientation as the Underworld continued to roar its disapproval.
Pierce’s words made sense when the roar turned into a chorus of voices all calling his name. The chorus was a mixture of male and female voices all begging him to follow them.
“Block them out. Mark! Mark!” Pierce’s voice won over the others, the yellow smoke that made up his body coiling around Mark as he was pushed through the darkness into another realm, this one of pure brightness. The white light was empty, eliciting the same fear the darkness brought.
“Your wolf is here,” Pierce said, but his voice was distant, unreachable. “Let him find his way back to you.”
Mark closed his eyes against the brightness and reached for his companion.
In the second it took for him to recognize the other side of him, his wolf howled, flooding his body with its unique blend of reassurance.
His chest ached, but his wolf eased that pain too, completing the separation of his two distinct entities, and for the first time since the witch attacked him, he felt more like himself.