He swallowed. "Why?"
"Because I won"t let you face h.e.l.l alone." Now her expression changed. Softened. "And if I need to, I"ll haul your a.s.s out myself. I just found you, wolf, and I"m not about to lose you."
His fingers slid under the thick weight of her hair as he tilted her head back. "You won"t." He kissed her. Long, hard, hot. Kissed her and wanted her again.
Soon...soon he"d have her forever.
If he managed to survive the night.
The vamps and the wolves hadn"t killed each other.
Morgan thought that was a good sign. Well, mostly good.
When she and Jace re-entered the great room, the wolves were still lined up on the left, and the vamps were glaring on the right. The vamps seemed a bit c.o.c.kier now, probably because they were gaining strength from the setting sun.
Two of the wolves held the now conscious demon. The guy"s face was broken and b.l.o.o.d.y, so it looked like the wolves had been enjoying some play time.
Louis raised a brow. "All better now?"
Jace growled at him.
But, actually, yes, she was better. One hundred percent better. Power seemed to pulse in her veins. If this rush would come to her each time that she and Jace exchanged blood, then she"d make sure they exchanged every day for the rest of her life.
Since she planned to spend all of her days and nights with him, an exchange wouldn"t be a hardship at all.
Her blood would enable him to live longer. Human mates who sipped from their vampire lovers could stay young and strong as long as they had that blood supply.
She"d make sure Jace fed well and often.
"You"re feeding a dog?" The demon spat blood on the ground at Jace"s feet. "Vampire, don"t you know better than to-"
Jace lunged and grabbed the demon around his throat. "I"m going to slice you open."
The demon just laughed. "I"ve been in h.e.l.l, a.s.shole. You can"t do anything to me that hasn"t already been done."
And Morgan hesitated. The demon had a point.
"We"ll see." Jace didn"t seem worried. "Once I slice off your hands and crack open your rib cage, we"ll find out if you feel like talking then."
But the demon shook his head. "Been there, done that. Why do you think we"re all coming out? This world..." His red eyes flew around the room. "It"s life. We"re coming, and we"re taking it over, and you can"t stop us."
"We"ll shut your d.a.m.n door," Jace promised, "and you"ll stay in your cage."
More laughter. "Not if you can"t find it."
"You"ll talk," Jace promised. Then he glanced back at Morgan. "You don"t...want to see this." But she read his eyes and understood. Don"t watch me do this.
He would torture. He would push and push and push...because he wanted to save her. Save his people.
But sometimes, there was just too much darkness, too much of a price, to be paid for some actions.
"There"s another way." A better way because her gut told her that the demon wasn"t bulls.h.i.tting. He wouldn"t break. What can we do that h.e.l.l hasn"t done?
Jace stilled.
Morgan spared a swift glance for the vampires. Men. Women. Their gazes were determined, their bodies tense. They understood what she meant. They were ready. She licked her lips and offered, "We can drink from him."
The demon"s bellow shook the mansion, and she knew that they had the b.a.s.t.a.r.d.
You won"t talk. Fine. "We don"t need you to talk," she said as she crept closer to him. "We just need you to bleed."
Time to sample the demon"s memories.
Jace blocked her path. "This is a s.h.i.tty plan."
She smiled at him. "It"s a plan that will work. You know we pull memories with the bite."
"Yeah, but just what else will happen when you bite him? You ever had demon blood?"
No. "Never had the pleasure," she said and saw the demon tense.
"It could be poison. It could fry you from the inside out. It could-"
"I"d never had werewolf blood until I tasted you."
That stopped him. Only for a moment. "Yeah, princess, but we all know that once you go wolf, you don"t go back."
And there, when she shouldn"t have, when it was the wrong time and the wrong place, she laughed.
Jace froze. Then he squeezed his eyes shut. "Don"t do that."
"Do what?" What was her wolf talking about now?
His eyes opened and a muscle flexed along his jaw. "You aren"t tasting him." He pointed to the vamps behind them. "One of those a.s.sholes can do it. They can all do it. But not you." He pulled her close. "I don"t want you having memories of h.e.l.l."
He still didn"t get it. "I don"t need you to protect me." She motioned to the vampires. They lined up. All of them ready.
"Because they"ve got your back?" Anger roughed his voice.
"No, because I"m a f.u.c.king vampire princess." She bared her fangs. "And I"m riding high on my wolf"s blood." Time for a.s.s kicking. She pushed past Jace and grabbed the demon, wrenching him away from the wolves. "Remember me? I"m the vamp b.i.t.c.h who broke your neck."
His red eyes bulged as she promised, "I"m also the one who"s going to drain you dry."
Louis snapped his fingers together. "Now I know who she reminds me of..." His gaze flew to Jace. "You."
Jace snarled.
"Come ahead, b.i.t.c.h," the demon dared. "You think you"re strong? My blood will burn you from the inside out."
"Promises, promises," she whispered and moved as fast as Jace had, a blur. She grabbed the demon"s head and yanked it back. "Bleed for me."
She sank her teeth into him.
His blood filled her mouth. Warm. Not burning. But bitter. So bitter. She drank and took the memories. Fire. h.e.l.l. Screams that never ended.
"Morgan." Jace"s hands settled on her back.
She kept drinking.
A white light entered h.e.l.l. Small. Such a narrow opening. A man"s voice called. Chanting. Serving up blood sacrifices. Trading lives because he wanted power.
"Stop!" The demon bellowed.
She drank more.
More.
The doorway opened. She saw the b.a.s.t.a.r.d who"d unlocked that door. f.u.c.king a.s.shole.
Betrayal.
The door opened in her mind, and fire raced out, burning, burning...
Morgan jerked away, screaming, as smoke rose from her mouth.
The demon laughed. "Told you, b-b.i.t.c.h...you"ll burn..."
She could feel the blisters in her throat. But...but she was already healing.
Jace"s blood.
She blew the smoke into the demon"s face. "Time for you to go back home."
He flinched.
"Tell me you know where the doorway is," Jace growled the words behind her.
She held the demon"s red stare a moment longer, long enough to see the fear flare in his eyes, then she faced Jace. "I know." But first she had another matter to take care of.
A little matter of a blood betrayal.
"Good." Jace pulled her away. "Then it"s time to kill the b.a.s.t.a.r.d."
The demon screamed in fury and surged against the wolves who"d grabbed him.
Morgan slipped back a few steps. She caught Paul"s stare and inclined her head toward the door.
The demon"s screams rose.
She swallowed back the taste of ash. "Where"s Devon?" She whispered to Paul.
Betrayal. She should have seen this coming. He"d always been such a power hungry a.s.shole.
He hadn"t been testing her with that fire. He"d wanted to kill her. So she wouldn"t find out what he"d done.
You nearly killed us all.
Paul"s eyes narrowed. "What did you see?"
"Devon killing humans." Not just killing. Torturing. Sacrificing. "He"s the one who opened the doorway." It made sense, but she"d been too blind to see it before. Devon was over five hundred years old. He would know all the ancient legends and spells. He would know how to raise demons, how to open a doorway.
And to get power, he"d done it.
Only the demons he"d let out hadn"t exactly been keen on obeying him.
You can"t cage some beasts.
"b.a.s.t.a.r.d." Paul"s hands fisted. The demon wasn"t screaming anymore. Out of time. "I haven"t seen him since the wolves came inside."
"Because he"s running." Dammit. "This is our mess to clean up." Not for the wolves. Vampire business. "Get the others. Hunt him." The order she"d never thought to give came from her as Morgan said, "Kill him."
Paul nodded. He always followed her orders. Always.
Morgan rushed away from him, already heading to the winding tunnels that led beneath the house. Before she faced h.e.l.l, she"d take care of her own nightmare.
And she"d take full control of her vampire nest.
Morgan raced down the stairs. The others would come soon, spreading out. Searching.
Rage fueled her blood. So many vampires had died at the hands of the demons. The demons hunted in heavy packs. Swooping in, preying when the vamps were weak-ripping us apart.
They"d tried to stop them for months. And Devon, he"d been the a.s.shole to bring those monsters into the world.
She twisted to the left. Snaked down the tunnel to the right.
The scent of blood hit her. Fresh blood.
Dammit, what had he done now?
A heavy metal door waited in front of her, open by a few precious inches. Open just enough to let the scent of blood spill out.
"Devon!" She called out as she shoved at the door. "What are you-"
Inside, a pool of blood soaked the floor. And in the middle of that pool...the broken body of the werewolf who"d attacked Jace at Howling Moon.
Footsteps thudded behind her. "Morgan!"