25. Chapter Twenty-Five

The world started to slip away. Light faded. Sounds were muffled. I tried to hold the skin of my neck together, hoping against hope that I could heal it, just a little, to keep it together, but my fingers were covered in blood, and I was running out of time. I was dying.

I could make out the moment when Lori changed. When the demon took over and Lori was no longer in charge. Her eyes changed to the ring of fire I had become so used to seeing before and her voice dropped to a low rasp.

“You need to let me go, pretty boy,” she said, her hands tightening around his wrists.

“Or what?” Mordecai said, oblivious to the change in Lori.

The demon smiled and it was strange to see such an evil grin on Lori’s beautiful face.

“I’ll make you scream.”

Mordecai laughed and I wasn’t sure how the demon was going to get away from him here. Lori couldn’t hurt him and the demon because she was descended from the original three, couldn’t kill him. So, what was the plan? To catch him by surprise?

Lori’s fingers glowed and Mordecai’s eyes went wide.

“Take that, fucker,” she hissed right before Mordecai let out a piercing scream. Lori slammed her elbow into his chest and then threw her head back into his face. He fell backwards onto the bed. His hands clutched at his head, fingers gripping and twisting the strands of his hair.

“Come on,” the demon rasped as she grabbed my arm and tried to haul me upright. She thrust her wrist in front of my face. “Drink this.”

I shook my head and pushed her away. “No, leave me. I’ll slow you down.”

“Don’t care. I need to get you out of here and I can’t do that if your head is about to fall off. Drink.”

“Lori…No. Leave.”

“We don’t have time for this!”

Mordecai’s scream lessened and I knew she was right. He was powerful, and whatever the Sin Reaper had done to his mind, it was soon going to wear off.

“For fuck’s sake,” she growled and sank her fangs into her wrist, ripping the skin. Before I knew it, I was gulping down her blood and the skin of my neck was stitching itself back together. As soon as the wound healed, I pushed her arm away. I was still weak and a liability, but at least my head wasn’t falling off any time soon.

As I scrambled to my feet, Lori grabbed her boots and trousers before grabbing my hand and running from the room.

“We need to get to the surface. If we can do that, I think Lori can call the Shadow Fiend.”

It was weird hearing Lori talk about herself in the third person. Except it wasn’t Lori. Not really. I didn’t fully understand her relationship with the demon but seeing the Sin Reaper up this close had me understanding a little more.

“Is Lori still there?” I asked, as we paused at a corner while she threw the clothes and boots on.

The Sin Reaper snapped her head round to look at me, her gaze direct and unflinching. “Yes. She is here but quiet.”

It was strange. I was looking at the face of the woman I loved, but I couldn’t sense her at all. The Sin Reaper held herself differently, with an arrogance that Lori didn’t have. And her eyes were colder. Harsher.

“Come on. We need to move,” she said before grabbing my hand again.

I followed her down the endless corridors and thought it odd that there didn’t seem to be anyone around. Even when I’d been given the option to roam freely, I always bumped into someone, but now, the place seemed to be deserted.

“Something’s not right,” I mused aloud.

The demon nodded. “I agree. Too quiet. Be on your guard.”

I didn’t need the reminder, I already was. Centuries of sneaking into places and assassinating people meant I was always on my guard.

We pushed through a set of double doors, and I halted. The temperature dropped instantly, and I heard the soft, slow thud of a heartbeat.

“We’re not alone,” I whispered.

She nodded in acknowledgment of my words and moved at a slower pace.

My eyes darted along the corridor, searching for the owner of the heartbeat. Wide windows were situated along both sides of the walls. Most were dark except for one.

“What is this place?” the demon asked.

“I don’t know,” I replied, stepping closer to the window where a low light filtered through. My stomach churned with thoughts of what I was going to see on the other side. Was Mordecai conducting some kind of experiments? Was I going to find a monster or twisted creature on the other side of the window?

I hesitantly peered through the window and let my eyes adjust to the light.

A large wooden chair was placed in the middle of the room surrounded by magic runes painted onto the floor. They glowed, bathing the room in a low white light, illuminating a prone figure sat in the chair. The owner of the soft heartbeat.

“The magic is powerful here,” Lori said, and I knew it was her. Her voice was softer, more musical. “I can hear it.”

“Hear it?”

“Yes,” she replied sadly, her eyes meeting mine. “It’s screaming.”

The woman in the chair gasped and lifted her head. Her skin glowed, as if the magic was pumping through her bloodstream.

“Holy fuck.” I took a step closer, recognising the woman’s face. I wondered what had happened to her. And now I fucking knew. “Selene.”

“So that’s how he’s doing it,” Lori spat, the words like venom.

“Doing what?”

“Storing the magic he’s syphoned from the witches. I thought he’d have stored it in some kind of artifact. I never thought he’d do this.”

“Help… me…” Selene said, her voice barely above a whisper. Her eyes begged and pleaded as I stared at her through the glass.

Lori took a step towards the door and then an animalistic roar echoed down the corridor.

“Mordecai,” I said as I turned to look the way we came. Whatever the Sin Reaper had done had worn off and he was pissed.

Lori placed her hand on the glass. “I’m sorry.” Her eyes shifted towards me and changed to the dark fiery orbs of the demon. “Let’s go.”

We ran down the corridor, the sound of feet thudding behind us.

“They’re close,” I said, searching for some kind of staircase, some kind of way out. We burst into another corridor and for the first time, I could feel an incline in the floor. We were finally getting higher.

We rounded a corner and walked straight into a small group of guards. Well, shit. I wasn’t in any kind of shape to fight this many people and I had no idea what Lori or the Sin Reaper might do.

“Fuck,” she hissed under her breath.

We all just stared at each other for a brief moment, the tension rising with each passing second.

One of the guards took a step forwards. “Grab them.”

Then all Hell broke loose.

They charged at us, and I managed to dodge the first one, but my movements were sluggish and slow. The Sin Reaper disappeared into the frenzy, her hands glowing as she brought the men to their knees. It was quite magnificent to watch really, to be able to cause such devastation with such grace.

A fist connected with my jaw and my head snapped sideways. The guard I’d dodged a second ago was back. I blocked his punch to my gut but missed the right hook that followed.

Fuck, that hurt.

Damn Mordecai for leaving me in such a useless state. Come on, Jasper. Focus.

I tuned out the sounds around me and focussed on the guy in front of me. Dark eyes and small horns protruding from his head meant he was a demon. Right, I could just about move faster than him in my current state.

I blocked his next hits, one after the other. Then I jabbed my fist in his throat. He stumbled backwards, gasping for air. I shot forward, slamming my hand into his chest and knocking him to the floor. Then I grabbed his head and slammed it into the floor, the crunch of bones echoing in the space. I jumped to my feet, ready to face the next one only to find the Sin Reaper casually stood there watching me surrounded by the unconscious bodies of the rest of the guards.

“Remind me never to piss you off,” I muttered.

She huffed a laugh and started heading further up the tunnel that I hoped headed to the surface. I was so exhausted, and that fight had taken a lot of energy that I didn’t have.

“Lori!” Mordecai shouted from somewhere behind us.

“Shit. Run!” I yelled and picked up the pace. I ran as fast as I could, climbing higher and higher until we reached a door and I prayed to whoever was listening that it opened to the outside.

The demon pushed the door open, and I could have wept with joy when the bright light of the sun poured through the opening. The Sin Reaper crossed the threshold but as soon as my foot went to cross it, I had a moment’s hesitation.

I can’t leave Mordecai. I need to stay. To protect him.

I knew it was only because he’d forced me to drink his blood, but that didn’t lessen the sudden panic that gripped my throat at the thought of leaving him behind.

“Jasper. Come on. Move.”

“I can’t,” I confessed.

She reached back and grabbed my hand, pulling me forwards and closing the door behind me. My heart lurched. No, no, no. I needed to go back.

I pulled against the demon’s grip, but she held tightly. “We need to get home.”

“You go. Perhaps I can be of use here,” I said, even though in my head I knew it was stupid.

“Jasper,” she growled warningly. “I need to go to allow Lori to call Torsten. Are you going to stay?”

I didn’t want to but dammit I knew it was wrong. I hated Mordecai for this. “Yes.”

The demon’s eyes rolled back, and I was suddenly looking at Lori again.

“Hurry,” I gasped. “I don’t know how long I can stay.” I wanted to run. I could feel my body vibrating with the need of finding Mordecai. I knew that the further away from him that I got, the easier it would be to be apart from him. If I’d drunk from a normal vampire, I’m sure I wouldn’t be feeling this desperate, but Mordecai’s blood was powerful, ancient, and its potency had me going doolally for the guy.

Lori shouted for Torsten and within seconds the Shadow Fiend appeared. He wrapped us both in his arms and I felt my body disintegrate as the world around us founded into blackness. And just in time too.

Mordecai burst through the door, his eyes blazing, and mouth pulled into a vicious snarl. “You’ll never be able to run from me, Lori! You’re mine.”

Of fucking course the guy had to have the last words. Then I fell into unconsciousness as my exhaustion finally caught up with me.