Crown of Darkness (Divisa Huntress Book 1) Page 5

  Whirling, I kicked my leg out, catching him at the back of the knee. I waited for the cracking of bones, but nothing other than an irritating oomph came out of him. That was disturbing. Did he have no bones to break?

  “Do you need help, brother?” the one who seemed in charge mocked.

  “Fuck off, Ashor,” Soren snarled in response.

  Ashor let out a bitter laugh. “The hours of dawn will be upon us soon. We don’t have all night to watch the two of you dance.”

  Using their banter to my advantage, I struck out—this time my dagger cut through flesh. Soren hissed in response, and I turned my gaze on him. “You were saying?”

  “Bitch,” he hissed and a second later, he backhanded me, sending me sailing through the air and then crashing to the ground.

  Ignoring the explosion of pain to the side of my face, I rolled and noticed where I had landed, a mere few inches from the woman. Lifting one of my daggers in the air, I brought it down on the chains. The force of it rattled my arms, agony sung through me, but the chains snapped. My daggers were crafted to kill demons, and it was blind luck that they were strong enough to cut through Hell’s steel as well.

  “Run,” I whispered to the trembling woman. “Now. You won’t get another chance.”

  The girl blinked and stumbled to her feet. Then with tears glistening in her bright eyes, she ran, leaving me alone with the Soul Hunters.

  Every part of me wanted to curl up into a ball, but I shoved to my feet and rushed toward the horses. The beasts reacted, surging up onto their hind legs. It was a sad attempt at a distraction to give the woman time, but it was all I had. The hounds snapped and snarled at me, showing their rows of jagged fangs.

  Something grabbed the back of my sweater and yanked me backward. I hit a solid form, and my body froze at the contact. The blades were knocked from my grasp in one swift and effective movement, sending them scattering to the grass.

  Shit.

  Things weren’t looking good for me.

  “Release the hounds,” my captor demanded. The voice I recognized as belonging to the one called Ashor.

  Dread pitted in my gut. They would hunt her down—sniff her out. I didn’t want to admit it to myself, but the woman didn’t stand a chance.

  Soren was suddenly in front of my face, seething with the promise of violence. “The little whore cut me.” He brushed his arm where I had slashed him with my dagger, black blood coating his fingers.

  A smug grin tilted my lips. “What makes me a whore? Is it because I made you bleed? Pathetic. Besides, it doesn’t look like I’m the first one to take a slice of you,” I retorted, nodding at the scar along his cheek.

  Undiluted rage turned his obsidian eyes into hellfire. “I’ll kill you.”

  “Isn’t that the point of this? To take my soul?” Ashor’s fingers clamped tighter against my strain.

  “You’re nothing but a dirty half-breed. Even Hell doesn’t want you,” Soren spat.

  He was baiting me, and for a second, a speck of old bitterness changed my expression, but I banked that shit down quickly. Fuck him. Fuck them all.

  At least one soul had been saved this night. It just wasn’t mine.

  “Soren,” the one holding me said in a cold voice, the warning clear.

  “Ashor,” Soren growled in return. He was desperate to get his hands on me, and I could picture all too well what kind of torture he wanted to inflict. This one enjoyed pain.

  “Soren, go after her,” Ashor ordered, exasperated at the waste of time. “Go with him and don’t come back until she’s found,” he told the other riders.

  Soren continued to glare at me with such hatred that my skin would have caught fire if it weren’t for the biting cold wind.

  I tossed my head toward the woods. “Go on,” I said, goading him. “Be a good little dog and fetch.” I was probably setting myself up for a slow and agonizing death by antagonizing him, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself.

  The demon blinked at me—then hissed, breathing his cold breath on my face. “Our time will come.”

  “Now!” Ashor roared, the vibrations of his command trembled at my back. It was enough to rattle the constellations.

  Straining forward, I tested how tight Ashor’s hold was on me, and an arm hooked around my torso just under my breasts, pinning my back to his chest. Four of the riders took off into the woods, Soren being one of them, while the rabid barking of the hounds echoed through the night.

  I tried not to think about how strong Ashor was, how solid his body felt against mine. He was a demon, and my hatred for him ran deep. I wasn’t supposed to be thinking about anything other than carving out his heart.

  “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you, love?” he whispered in my ear, his breath cool on my neck like a kiss of death.

  “You wish,” I seethed.

  He chuckled in my ear. “Liar.”

  I bucked my hips, trying to dislodge his hold on me. Wrong move. He was hard in every place a man could be, and the knowledge warmed my cheeks. I didn’t want to think about the soul from Hell having a hard-on for me. It was nauseating.

  “Keep that up and this encounter could have a happy ending for both of us.”

  “You’re disgusting,” I spat, wishing I could see his face. I wanted to spit on him.

  As if he sensed my desire, Ashor spun me around to face him. I almost wished he hadn't, then I wouldn't have to look at his face, and what a freaking face it was… for a demon. It was unfair someone so vile, so evil could be so attractive. It was wrong. His eyes were a dark violet, his cheeks chiseled, and his lips damn kissable.

  Shit!

  I let my mind go exactly where it wasn’t supposed to travel. There wasn’t anything sexy or appealing about a demon. Not even this one!

  Liar, that little voice inside me said—the demon I never set free. Shut the hell up, I hissed, repulsed that a part of me, even the hellish part, might find a demon appealing to look at.

  Ashor’s night-dark eyes settled on my lips. “Hmm, another lie.”

  I pressed my lips tight together. My eyes defied my brain’s command as they continued their exploration of the demon holding me.

  “Do you like what you see?” he asked after an uncomfortable time had lapsed.

  The heat in my cheeks deepened at my embarrassing gawking. I jerked my head upward, meeting his amused eyes. “Please. I wouldn’t touch you with a ten-foot pole. Don’t flatter yourself. You’re not all that.”

  His brows went up. “Your body says otherwise, luv.”

  How the hell would he know what my body was saying? “Call me that again, and you won’t be able to sit down for a week.”

  He laughed, deep and throaty. The sound should have made my stomach heave, not tingle. “You are not at all what I expected to find this night.”

  Oh, I was definitely going to make this a night he remembered. Without batting an eye, I smiled sweetly as I brought my knee up between his legs. “Is that what you had in mind?”

  He groaned, but his grasp never lessened. Damn it.

  I tried not to think about the fact that my knee had touched his junk, but once the thought crossed my mind, there was no erasing the memory. It would haunt me for years, as would this encounter… assuming I lived.

  He groaned, but his grip never loosened. “That was a very bad idea.” Leaning his head toward mine, he ran the pad of his thumb across my lips. I sucked in a breath as danger zipped up my spine. His head dipped as if he was going to kiss me, but he lingered there, just hovering over my lips. “You should have run,” he whispered.

  Something cold snapped onto my wrists, and my eyes flashed down to see the metal restraints. My head shook as horror clawed inside me. “No.”

  “And to think I was actually having a bit of fun. Usually these hunts are so routine and boring—the same thing over and over again—but you, little firecracker, have made it interesting. I can’t wait to see what happens next.”

  “I’m not here to pique your interest. I’m going to kill you.” It was a dark promise I had every intention of upholding.

  He traced the column of my throat with the pad of his thumb, running over my pulsing vein. "Good luck with that. Although the night is still young, perhaps there's time yet… except from where I'm standing, I think you're at my mercy.” He captured my chin, holding my face tilted upward. “I could do what I want and who would stop me?"

  I tried to jerk away, but his hold on my chin was unyielding. My eyes burned into his with hate. Or was it? The burning inside me was confusing. I didn't want to admit what he was really making me feel.

  “Hands off my cousin, dickbag!”

  That voice. Holy crap. That voice. I had never in my entire life been so happy to hear that overbearing, conceited, unmistakable voice.

  Chase.

  5

  The sight of Chase, Angel, and Travis filled me with a relief so fierce that my knees buckled. If Ashor hadn’t been holding me up, I would be on the ground at his feet. A shadow cloaked most of Chase’s face, but not his gold eyes, which burned bright in the darkness. There was no masking the fury lining every inch of my cousin. Flanked by Travis and Angel, Chase’s lip curled back into a snarl.

  I wouldn’t be going to Hell after all. My one chance at a rescue was here.

  At that moment, I didn’t care how they had found me, though I was pretty damn sure it was Emma. Once I got over being thankful, she and I were going to have a discussion about trust and girl code.

  She had broken both. I didn’t take that lightly, regardless that she had probably saved my life.

  “Let me take a stab in the dark here. Is this guy harassing you?” Chase asked with a calmness that defied what I knew was going on inside of him. He wanted blood.

  Some days I appreciated Chase’s sarcasm. Tonight was one of those days.

  A dark wrath twisted Ashor’s features. “Friends of yours?” he murmured near my ear, his cool breath dancing over my skin.

  The bands wrapped around my wrists cut into my skin, but I gritted my teeth and continued to try and free myself. “You could say that.”

  Chase drew twin blades much like the ones I carried and pointed one of them at Ashor, while Travis kept his gaze on the other rider still atop his mount. “The way I see it you have two options here. One, you can let her go and I won’t kick your ass … much. Or two, we can move straight to me kicking your ass.”

  Ashor’s grip on my arm tightened, sending me a clear message. He wasn’t letting me go, not without a fight, and Chase was all too eager to give him just that. “Interesting, so either way you get to kick my ass. Sorry, that doesn’t work for me.”

  Angel’s blazing red eyes never left mine. She stood beside her husband prepared to fight and enraged enough to kill if she had to, but alongside the anger were traces of fear. Angel was smart, and like me, she grasped that these demons weren’t like any we’d ever come up against before. And that, unlike my cousin, made her wary.

  Chase didn’t give a damn what kind of demon or servant from Hell stood in front of him. His purpose was clear. Protect me. Protect his wife. Protect what he considered his.

  But Ashor was equally as confident as Chase, which made them a dangerous combination. “Let me explain the rules of the Hunt,” Ashor said. “There’s only one, actually: no one walks away alive.”

  Chase’s lips donned into a wicked grin. “Good thing I’ve never been much of a rule follower. In fact, this is one rule I’m looking forward to breaking.”

  A rumble vibrated at the back of Ashor’s throat as he continued to seethe at my cousin.

  Chase’s fiery gold eyes slid to mine and the wildness in them said he was past thinking, past reasoning. He looked ready to kill. I almost pitied the demons for behind the fury was a silent command.

  I gave a slight tip of my head.

  Growing up with two male demons had made me tough. I’d spent most of my childhood training with them, and not just how to attack but how to defend myself as well. Chase was signaling now for me to break free of Ashor’s hold.

  He would take it from there with Travis’s and Angel’s help. I was a little surprised he had let his wife come along, but knowing Angel, she hadn’t given him much of a choice.

  And I loved her for it.

  With the bulk of Ashor’s attention centered on Chase, I didn’t think about my next move, didn’t give the slightest indication of what I had planned. I just reacted. Using momentum and gravity to my advantage, I twisted around, allowing myself to fall backward and slammed both of my feet into Ashor’s lower belly. He faltered, releasing my arm as he bent forward with a grunt.

  I hit the ground and rolled, landing crouched on the balls of my feet. Chase swept in front of me—a barrier between Ashor and me. Angel and Travis wrestled the other ride off his horse, but the beast made it difficult, rearing up on its hind legs and letting out a piercing shriek.

  Ashor hardly had time to draw his own sword as Chase plunged his own blade toward him. Steel vibrated against steel, casting a blast of light upon the darkness.

  Travis finally grabbed the other rider, and my mind turned to the four out in the woods. If they returned …

  We’d be outnumbered (aka screwed).

  Ice coated my veins.

  Hands still bound, I went to reach for my weapon, only to come up empty. I swore. The asshole had stripped me of my daggers. My eyes darted over the snow-dusted ground, flakes still plummeting from the sky. Where are they? For the love of—Shards of ice whizzed like arrows flying through the air.

  Magic.

  The Hunt had more than nasty beasts, wicked strength, and speed. They had magic.

  So unfair.

  Moving faster than Ashor expected, Chase cut through the arrows of ice before they could impale into his flesh. “Neat trick. Have you seen this one?” Chase rammed his fist into Ashor’s face. Bone crunched.

  Ashor’s head jerked slightly to the right. My cousin packed quite the punch, but this demon barely flinched. The idea of Chase fighting against the Hunt on my behalf sent terror through me. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do to save those he loved, just like the time he bartered with Death himself to save the woman he loved. It was a testament to his character.

  Turning back to Chase, Ashor spit out the blood pooled in his mouth and grinned, his teeth coated red. From under his cloak, a spear glistening like black glass extended.

  “No!” I screamed, hurling myself forward as Ashor thrust the spear at Chase. My body slammed into Chase’s, knocking him out of the way. I wasn’t so lucky.

  The spear of darkness grazed my hip, and it hurt like a son of a bitch. I felt as if I’d been injected with death itself. It was hard to breathe. Never in my life had I experienced such jarring coldness.

  I stumbled backward, my eyes locked onto Ashor’s. It might have been my mind playing tricks on me, but I swore a flash of regret entered his violet eyes. Chase caught me, his body a flaming inferno that did little to warm the frost spreading in my veins. My teeth chattered.

  “You’re going to regret that,” Chase’s voice hard as granite.

  I didn’t see the blade until it sunk into Ashor’s gut. The demon’s uncanny eyes never wavered from mine, even when he ripped the blade from his own abdomen and flung it to the ground. The spell between us was broken by a choppy voice.

  “Ashor,” the other rider snapped, an air of impatience coating over his name. He threw Ashor the reins of his steed. The horse scoffed at the ground, snorting with impatience.

  Turning, my once captor hoisted himself up onto his horse, blood staining his hand where he clutched his gut. The hood of his black cloak once again covered his face, a faint smile playing over his lips. “This isn’t over, luv. Far from it. I’ll be seeing you.” His voice carried over the shrieking winds, followed only seconds later by the thundering of hooves.

  I stared through the rash and hasty storm left in the Hunt’s wake. The snowy ground was painted in Ashor’s blood—red blood. Not black. What did that mean? How was that possible? One thing I was certain of, I had every intention of tracking them down and killing each one of the human stealing demons.

  After I healed.

  “Are you satisfied now? You found the Hunt. And you almost got yourself killed. Check that off your bucket list.” Chase was livid. I hadn’t seen him this angry since Angel got herself possessed by a demon.

  "Something tells me he'll be back," I mumbled, not helping in the least to pacify Chase’s temper, but my cousin being pissed off at me was the least of my concerns at the moment. I’d interfered with the Hunt, not something I had intentionally set out to do, but from what little I’ve heard about the Wild Hunt, no one escaped. No one.

  "Lexi," Chase rumbled, a deep throaty sound that was all demon.

  I exhaled, fogging the car window with my arms wrapped around myself. Nothing I did chased away the permanent chill that had settled in my bones. The cut on my hip was already beginning to heal, and by morning, it would be nothing but a white scar—a reminder of this horrible night. “Why don’t you take your wife home, make love, and give me that niece or nephew I’ve been harping you about for the last year.” Do something. Anything but meddle with my life.

  “Is that what it will take for you to give up this nonsense? Fine, I’ll give you a niece or nephew right now to dote over.” He kept one hand on the wheel and with the other groped the inside of Angel’s thigh. “Then maybe you’ll give up this ridiculous notion of revenge.”

  “Chase!” Angel squealed, whacking him on the arm.

  I was oblivious to Chase’s antics and kept my eyes glued to the passing trees.

  “You’re not fooling me. I know exactly what you’ve been up to. Nothing happens when it involves family that I don’t keep tabs on,” Chase said.