Heart's Inferno (Fallen Guardians 4) Read online

  “No!” She darted forward, but hands hauled her back.

  “You don’t want to rush into danger,” Nicor murmured in her ear. “Besides, time’s up anyway, princess.”

  “Dammit, let me go!”

  A bone-chilling roar reverberated against the warehouse walls. “Kira!”

  She yanked hard, trying to break free of Nicor’s steely grip, desperate to get to Týr.

  “Fuck, Nicor, don’t you dare!” Riley snarled, eyes glowing neon-green in the dark.

  “Have my orders.” Nicor waved his hand, and the grimy, snow-covered asphalt opened into a swirling, black hole. What the—?

  Nicor dove straight down into the churning blackness, hauling her with him as she let out a blood-curdling scream.

  Chapter 15

  Kira stumbled as she landed on her feet, her heart thundering against her sternum. A rush of hot air slammed her face, had her gasping for breath.

  Night surrounded her. Dim sconces on the looming black boundary walls revealed that they were in some kind of courtyard. A garden rambled alongside the barrier. Reddish flowers with claret leaves bloomed wildly in the beds between trees that looked like they’d been uprooted and tipped on their heads. Wispy, tendril-like leaves hung down in a tangle.

  Nicor laughed. “That was close.”

  Furious, Kira spun to him. “You took me through a damn portal?”

  “Your sire wants you here. I made sure it happened.”

  Anger exploding, she smashed her fist straight into Nicor’s jaw, wanting to wipe the smug grin off his face. She lashed out again, but a hand on her arm prevented her from making contact. Then the pain in her knuckles registered. Aw, crap! She winced, flexing her fingers.

  A wisp of a thought in the back of her mind struck with the force of a hammer.

  Oh, shit! She yanked free of Riley’s hold, putting distance between them. Her father had demons working for him! Only they could open portals. The urge to run took hold when she recalled what Echo had told her long ago; never show a demon fear. They thrive off it.

  These two looked so normal. Human. She hadn’t suspected a thing.

  “It’s okay. We mean you no harm,” Riley said, his gaze steady, expression calm, but a nerve pounded his jaw. “Believe me, I didn’t stop your retribution to protect him.” Fury brightened his green eyes. “I just don’t want you getting hurt again. The ass has a face of stone.” His fist flew. Nicor stumbled back. “Next time, check with me.”

  Nicor cut Riley a hard look as he swiped off the blood dripping from his nose. “You can tell him you failed. I cannot. And she has…what? Two days left?”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Kira snapped.

  Nicor ignored her and lifted a brow at Riley. “Do you really think I’m going to let a Guardian take her from us? Can’t have that crazed male here. I might as well put my neck in your sire’s hands.”

  “That crazed male”—she growled despite her lingering fear and her desire to punch Nicor again—“is my man, you damn moron!”

  Both men’s attention snapped to her.

  Riley swore.

  Nicor stared at her, and guffaws of laughter erupted. The ass!

  “Things just got interesting. It does explain the male’s scent on you. First things first, let’s get out of here so she can see her sire.”

  God, didn’t they listen? “I said I don’t want to see him!”

  “Too late. You’re here now. Might as well do it,” Nicor told her before casting Riley an amused look. “Hewed from the same granite rock as your sibling, I see. He should have explained all this to you by now.”

  “Sibling? What sibling?” Kira demanded, fed-up with their obscure comments.

  Inhaling a deep breath did little to calm her frustration. Her darn father had used demons to bring her to him. Unlike other humans, Kira knew about the demons who lived on Earth to escape the oppression of the Dark Realm. She’d met a few, and most seemed nice. Of course, there were cretins like this damn Nicor.

  “Who are you people?”

  “We’re demons, princess,” Nicor happily informed her.

  “Yeah, I got that with the whole portal thing. Why couldn’t you just tell me that upfront? And what sibling is he talking about?” She narrowed her eyes at Riley.

  He sighed, rubbing a hand over his shorn, bronze hair. “Let’s go inside, and I’ll explain.”

  Ugh, it was so darn hot here. It had to be summer in her father’s part of the world. She rubbed her damp palms down the short skirt of her uniform and pushed up the sleeve of her sweater, the faint stench of sulfur irritating her nose. She frowned. Wait, this place wasn’t concealed in true night…

  Her head snapped up. Darkish skies held tinges of purple, lilac, and orange. A sudden tawny flare brightened the sky, highlighting the enormous obsidian fortress in front of her.

  This place…the odor reminded her so much of another time a year ago when Týr and Blaéz had taken her through a portal into… Kira’s heart thundered against her ribs. “W-where are we?”

  Please, please let it be some desert country in the depths of Africa or Australia that she’d never heard of. It would account for the heat.

  “You’re in Stygia.”

  She rubbed the sweat from her brow, her racing mind trying to understand everything that had occurred. “Where exactly is that?”

  “It’s in another sphere, one referred to as the Dark Realm,” Riley said.

  “You’re safe with us,” Nicor added.

  “Really? Really?” She seared him with a black look. The ass had the nerve to smile. Then what Riley said hit her like a fist to the solar plexus. “Are you both flippin’ crazy!” she yelled. “The Dark freakin’ Realm? How could you?”

  Nicor arched a brow. “Because it’s where your sire resides.”

  If she were hot before, now she was utterly cold. A terrifying chill took hold, slithering through her like a fever. Oh, God—

  Her thoughts went hazy, she swayed…

  “Kira!” Týr flashed to the churning portal in the ground, but it snapped shut. “No!” he snarled, fear ripping through him. His pyrokinesis sparked to life, flames spurting out of hands. What felt like a tanker slammed into him from behind, and he hit the building wall hard.

  “You can’t,” Aethan grunted, seizing him by the biceps. “There are humans around.”

  “Get the fuck off me!” A warning.

  Aethan didn’t relent. “You can’t lose control now, man. You set that power free, it means your ass gets benched for a helluva long time, leaving Kira to whoever took her.”

  The shock and terror on Kira’s face as she was pulled into the ground, cramped his heart. Týr thrust both hands into his hair, shoved away from Aethan and paced, needing to keep moving before his abilities burst free and all hell broke loose.

  He could open a portal, but where the hell in the Dark Realm did they go?

  “Týr?” Dagan said, his voice low. Only then did he become aware that his old friend stood a foot away from where he’d stopped. “We know what it feels like, having your mate taken. We’ll get her back. But we have to work through this logically.”

  Logic? He gave a fuck about that. Then he went motionless, a memory stirring. “Call your demon,” he barked at Aethan.

  Frowning, the warrior retrieved his cell and called the demon who’d been his informant for eons. “He’s not answering. I left him a message.” He looked up. “Why?”

  “Because the bastard was with her. I saw him.”

  “Riley took her?”

  “The other fucker did. What difference does it make? They were in this shit together. I will kill him. I should have killed him the first time.”

  “It reeks of sulfur here,” Nik said, rising to his feet from where he’d been scanning the sludgy, snow-covered asphalt where the portal had opened up. “Can only be the gateway to the Dark Realm. And you can’t go there—”

  “Who’s going to stop me?” Týr cut the Greek a cold s
tare.

  “This needs planning,” Dagan countered.

  “Dag’s right,” Aethan reinforced. “We gotta do this by the book. Speak to Michael. If he’s a no-go…well, it leaves us with only one option. I’ll help you find a way to get there and get Kira back. But we need to keep this between us. We can’t have the females knowing what happened here. They’ll freak out and want to come.”

  “Not if Jenna already got wind of it,” Dagan muttered.

  “Then let’s hope like hell she didn’t have a vision…” Aethan glanced past Týr. “Michael’s here.”

  He growled. Aethan shrugged. “Had to let him know what happened. The faster we can deal with this, the better.”

  Sure, when the Arc would put a fucking mile-high block in his way.

  The archangel walked up to them, shades on. “How the hell did a demon abduct the Oracle’s granddaughter?”

  As Aethan explained what occurred, Týr ground his molars and stalked off, terror torqueing his mind. He had to find Kira—he just had to. He doubled back, sparks escaping from his clenched fingers and his body. The others took a cautious step away. Except for Nik. “Those fucking demons who took her created a damn distraction with the horde,” Týr gritted out. “I have no time to dissect this shit to death. Give me a portal directly to where she could be. I will get her back.”

  Michael popped up his shades and rubbed his eyes, the fractured irises streaking like lightning in the dark. “It’s not that simple. Not only will your Gaian swords become useless in the Dark Realm but Gaia has made it clear that she prefers none of you return there—”

  “Don’t give a rat’s ass—”

  “Careful.” The word was soft, the tone a warning.

  “Are you opening a portal or not?” Týr gave a shit whose laws he broke or fucking toes he stepped on.

  Michael cut him an even stare. “You do realize with no clue where Kira is, I could open a portal to anywhere in the Dark Realm? Even this”—he nodded to the spot on the asphalt through which those fuckers had taken her—“means little. That gateway is no more.”

  “Then I will find a way to her, even if it means scouring the entire fucking Dark Realm.” Týr dematerialized.

  “Dammit!” Michael’s curse rang out. “Someone stay with him!”

  “Kira?” Her name came from a distance. She blinked and found herself seated on a warm stone bench beneath some white trees. Riley hunkered in front of her, green eyes dark with worry. “It’s going to be okay.”

  Reality jarred her back like a gunshot. I’m in the Dark Realm.

  Nausea churned her stomach, aided by the faint stink of gun smoke. It was all around her, coating her skin, her mouth, her lungs.

  “I know it’s a shock.” He exhaled roughly and sat down beside her. “I waited too long because I tried to get you used to me first, to trust me, so I could tell you the truth. But you weren’t answering my texts—”

  “Oh, so it’s my fault?” She started to pant, her lungs constricting as if a huge fist were squeezing her chest.

  “Breathe, Kira. Slow, deep breaths…” Riley rubbed her back. She inhaled another deep lungful of weak, sulfuric air. Someone pressed a glass into her hand. She gulped down the tepid water.

  “You’re safe here with me, I promise you.”

  The tingling in her fingers spiked like electrical buzzes as she lowered the tumbler. Safe? She stared blankly at the pathway edged with tiny crimson flowers and maroon shrubs. She’d fallen into a nightmare.

  “She’s going to need a guard.” Nicor sent Riley a look Kira couldn’t decipher and really didn’t care about right then. “And you can’t be it,” he added.

  A tic worked Riley’s jaw as he glanced at her. “Let me explain all this so you’re not in the dark, okay? First, your sire? He also happens to be mine.”

  “What?” Her jaw nearly hit the ground. “No.” She started to shake her head, her gaze darting all over his striking face. Searching…

  They looked nothing alike, not their hair, their skin color, nothing. Fine, they were both tall, and his hair was brown—er, bronze, whatever—while hers was a colorless mess. She ought to know since she changed the shade often enough. Yet something about him had drawn her in from the first time they met, a sense of familiarity.

  “Same father, different mothers.”

  Kira barely heard him when another thought, the more frightening one she’d pushed away moments ago raced back into her mind. If he was a demon, then that meant…

  Nooo! She jumped up, gripping her hair with both hands, tugging and tugging at the strands, but it did little to lock out Riley’s words ricocheting inside her skull. This can’t be happening. But deep down, the truth scraped at her, though. The daughter of a demon. A demoness…

  In one blow, she’d lost her entire past and gained not only a brother but also a dark, demon heritage.

  Oh, God. Týr!

  Pain like shards of glass splintered her heart. Once he learned the truth, he would never touch her again, let alone accept her. There’d be no welcoming smiles, no teasing kisses or passionate looks. There would only be hatred in his stare because she knew just how much he loathed demons.

  Whatever happiness she’d had with him were gone, destroyed by a twist of fate—a heart-wrenching nightmare of inconceivable magnitude that she’d never expected.

  An agonized cry broke free. She fell to her knees on the dusty pathway and hunched over, wrapping her arms around her hurting stomach. In convulsive jerks, her body tried to throw up all her agony, but she only dry-heaved.

  “Kira?” Riley—her brother—crouched near her, gently stroking her back as if to calm her. “It’s okay. Let me help—”

  “Nothing will ever be okay, don’t you get it?” She could barely get the words out, her throat swollen with unshed tears.

  “Réomer?” Nicor stepped closer to them. “Trouble.”

  Kira didn’t pay them any notice, her dull gaze on the red garden, her prickling fingers clenched.

  “Another human female in the Citadel of Wra?” a strange voice chirped. “Do we fight to the death over her, too? I’m willing.”

  She cast an apathetic look over her shoulder at the small group of striking-looking demons. Were there ever any ugly ones? Then again, how else would they lure unsuspecting prey to this world?

  “Don’t say a word,” Riley warned. He rose to his feet and helped her up, keeping her behind him.

  “She is my consort,” Nicor snapped, startling Kira out of her misery. “And claimed as such.” He pulled her to him. “Any who dares challenge me for her will face a fate worse than what Lord Réomer did to Móric when the idiot thought to claim his mate. Since this female is Lord Réomer’s sibling, you’ll probably have to face him anyway. Or their sire, Wrath. Your choice.”

  The strutting demon stopped dead and hastily cut a low bow to Riley. “Pardon, my lord.”

  Once the courtyard cleared, Kira shoved away from Nicor with a venomous glare, her agony finding a new target. “I’m not your damn mate. Grab me again, and I will…I will hurt you.”

  “You are a little drama queen, aren’t you, princess?”

  “Leave me alone!” she snarled. Tingles surged through her like lightning, and she flung out her prickling hands. Nicor went flying back to land on the ground, his dark hair now a vivid red, matching the color scheme of this horrible place.

  Kira glowered at him, then frowned, her fury morphing into confusion. A tinge of the same color shimmered all over his body like silken threads, except she hadn’t touched him. Shock swept through her like a tsunami, crashing through her anger and pain.

  Oh, no, no. What had she done? How had she done it?

  Riley stared at her, surprised.

  “Are you okay?” she asked Nicor.

  “It seems I am…” He sat up and grimaced, trying to pull the threads off him…and failing, his fingers slipping through the misty tendrils. “Sort of. I didn’t expect this.”

  Me either. This darn pl
ace was causing her abilities to become erratic. Just great.

  “C’mon, let’s head inside before more of those idiots appear,” Riley said.

  Kira stepped back. She didn’t want to go inside, she wanted to go home. But what would be the point? There was no hiding this legacy, not from Týr…

  “You’re here, best to get this over with,” Riley said softly. He put a hand on her back, ushering her to a side entrance and into the gloomy castle. Swallowing hard, Kira pulled her mind out of her pain, needing to keep her wits about her. “What is this building?”

  “Our sire’s fortress,” Riley said as they took the winding stairs up. Bright torches on the wall lit the dark stairwell. “You’re in the Citadel of Wra.”

  Wide-eyed, Kira took in the surprisingly elegant place despite its rough, dark walls.

  “Your chamber is on the top floor, one above mine. Our sire is on the third. No one’s allowed in here, so you’ll be safe.”

  “So, he puts me that high up for my own safety? It’s not like I’d be tempted to escape or any such thing, right?” she asked, her tone syrupy sweet.

  “You wouldn’t want to try that here, princess—”

  She spun to Nicor, tired of the damn name and of him mocking her. “What is your problem with me?”

  Nicor held up his hands in a universal sign of peace, cutting Riley another telling look. “You need to get this explanation done fast. And one more thing, Kira?”

  “What?” she snapped.

  “Remember, I’m only thinking of your safety.” He hauled her close, arms banded around her, and kissed her firmly on the mouth.

  What the—? After a shocked second, she thrust him off her, breathing hard. She swiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Do you have a death wish?” she snarled. If only she could summon Týr’s obsidian dagger. Before the gut-wrenching pain hit again at the reality of losing him, she bit out, “Do that again, and you’re dead, demon!”

  “Relax. I had to cover you with my scent so the demons here know you’re marked as my consort and will back off. But you sure are a feisty one.” Nicor shook his head, chuckling. “If only I was more female-inclined, I’d fight your sire, your brother, and even your Guardian boyfriend for you.”