Hot Blooded

“We will wait to see if he wakes before we behead Selene,” Naomi said. “But in the meantime, I

will give her another reason to stay asleep.” She crouched next to the Goddess, plunging another dart of Tally’s into Selene’s stomach. Selene’s body gave a gigantic lurch, but she stayed immobile. “We will not take undue risks.”

“Remind me not to get on your bad side,” Danny muttered to Naomi, shaking his head. “I think that dart went all the way through and lodged in the rocks below.”

“Oui,” Naomi said. “And it did not give her the pain she deserves, but it will have to do for now.”

She turned to me, urging, “Hurry. We must not let her wake.”

There was no way I was arguing with Naomi. I worked fast. In one powerful thrust I shot my power into Rourke’s body, the gold of my essence covering the spell I’d found. It floated along the lines in his body, coating it like glue, but these spell lines were curiously blue, not Selene’s color at all. But they were definitely mingled with her essence. Tricky witch.

Once I coated the spell, I yanked my power back in a rush, pulling hard.

The spell snapped apart instantly, withering and evaporating like a flower dying on a vine.

Rourke shot awake instantly. “Jessica, Jessica,” he cried, his hands grabbing on to my arms, sweet energy rushing through me. “You have to get out of here right now. You don’t know she’s capable of now—”

“Shh. ” I lowered my face to his, inhaling his rich scent. “I’m not leaving until you’re fully healed, so you can forget that right now.” His smell brought all the hairs on my body to a delicious peak. His body began to thrum with a current of power that hadn’t been there a moment before. Whatever Selene had spelled him with had inhibited most of his power, but it was gleefully returning. “But first I need to take care of Selene.” Before I could stand and go to Naomi, Rourke grabbed on to my face, pulling me down quickly, his lips hitting mine, hot and frantic. I didn’t have time to register it until his tongue entered my mouth.

Emotion raced through me, the taste of him overpowering anything else in the room. I moaned into his lips, gripping his shoulders with both hands, pulling myself closer to him. He snarled into my mouth. Our bond rang through me, his body and soul pouring into mine. My arms and legs began to shake.

He broke away from me slowly and I stifled a cry. “Jessica,” he said roughly. “Please tell me this is not a dream.” His beautiful clear green eyes blazed as he ran his hands along my arms and face.

“It’s me,” I said. “I’m here and Selene is down, but only for a moment. I have to finish this before we can finally go home.”

“No.” He shook his head emphatically. “Listen to me: you have to ignore her and get out. Go now.

There’s no reasoning with her any longer.” There was a time you could reason with her? “She’s sold her soul. There’s no stopping her. Nothing we can do can defeat her. You need to leave here as quickly as possible and I’ll be right behind you.” He angled his body upward, a grimace of pain on his face.

“We have to try.” I rested my hands on his shoulders and tried to calm him. “I’m not leaving here unless I try. I refuse to look over my shoulder for her once we leave here. She will hound us to the death. She will never give up.” I pressed him gently back to the ground, hovering over him with concern. “Naomi just hit her with another spell. If I can’t kill her, we can at the very least incapacitate her for a very long time. I’m thinking fire might work if we disassemble her first.”

“It won’t work,” he said urgently, his face intent, his hands closing tightly over my forearms.

“Jessica, please, you have to listen to me.” When he said my name it made my insides tingle. I pushed it out of my mind. I needed to stay focused. “She can’t be killed or even be incapacitated for long. I’ve tried. Once I got here, I broke her spells and managed to hold her down until the demons came. They did something to her, and everything changed. She must’ve struck a deal, because her essence morphed. Once that happened, she was able to secure me easily. I want you to get out before she wakes. I will follow you as soon as I can.”

“There’s no way I’m leaving you,” I said. “If she’s as strong as you’re saying, she’ll be after us as soon as she heals. It won’t matter where we run.” I glanced at Selene’s body, still inert. “If Tally’s spell can knock her out, she’s clearly not invincible. I’m betting we can do some damage.”

Naomi murmured her agreement. “Oui. The only thing that can bring a demon down is a powerful witch. The spells of blood and earth are natural agents against each other. If this is true, what he is saying, and Selene’s blood is now tainted with demon, this is likely the only reason she has been out this long. We’ve been lucky and nothing else.”

“And that was the last bloody spell we had.” Danny nodded toward the dart still lodged in her stomach. “If she’s full of demon essence, once she slakes this bit off, it will be impossible to secure her for long.”

I stood. “Then we take her apart now. There has to be a way.” I walked over to Selene, laser focused. She would not win. “The demons want her soul as soon as they can get it, so there has to be a way for her to die on this plane or they never would’ve struck a bargain—as in, if she can’t revive herself within minutes here they are free to pick her up.” I didn’t know much about demons, but I did know they collected on their debts immediately. A debt like Selene’s had to be something to celebrate in the Underworld. It’s not every day you landed a goddess. I glanced around to the group, my face hard. “Getting her a ticket to the Underworld will have to suffice. How long do you think she’ll be bound there?” I asked Naomi.

“I think nothing short of a millennium,” Naomi replied. “Selling a part of your soul is a steep payment.”

“That sounds good to me,” Tyler said as he grabbed a pickax off the wall. Who had a pickax handy,

dangling on a wall?

A deranged goddess, that’s who.

“Let’s start with her hands,” Danny said. “If she has no fingers, she can’t shoot a spell. Right?” He looked around hopefully. His bare chest was massive in comparison to the tiny piece of fabric that covered him. He radiated strength, even though his brown hair was tousled, as usual, and this journey had clearly taken its toll on him.

Naomi stared at Danny, slightly openmouthed, but she averted her eyes quickly. Not before I

noticed, however. “Um, oui, that might work. Let’s start with her hands.”

I bent over Selene’s body. “Hand me a shovel instead.”

Tyler went to retrieve the shovel, which hung next to the pickax, and brought it back. There was literally a plethora of torture devices lining the walls within easy reach. If the shovel tip didn’t work for the job, we had other options.

“Jessica.” Rourke’s strong voice echoed around the cavern. “I beheaded Selene already since I’ve been here. This is not going to work. She slips back together like a ghost.”

I glanced at Rourke, who stood, looking magnificent and almost fully healed. “You beheaded her here? Already?” I peered down at Selene. Jesus. If she could recover from a beheading that quickly we were in deep shit.

Rourke was naked from the waist up, but instead of a sheet he still had his jeans on. They were crusted in blood. “Of course I beheaded her,” he growled as he paced forward. “And I took her heart out. She would never have been able to keep me had she not called the demons. She’s never been as strong as I am. It required everything she had to keep me here, knowing you were in danger. She was losing, so she dialed up her new backup squad and spelled me with something different. It knocked me out until I heard your voice.”

“That’s what the blue lines were then,” I said, contemplating. “Blue must be her demon essence.”

My eyes locked on him as he approached. My wolf growled, full of lust. I shook my head to clear her.

I couldn’t let anything distract me from my goal. “But I broke her demon spell in you, so maybe—”

He angled his head at me, his irises sparking. “You think you can break it in her,” he finished.

“How would I do that?” I asked, glancing down at her body again. My only choice would be to throw my power in and hope it was enough. I looked up at him. “If it works, and I can break something inside of her, do you think it will be enough to send her to the Underworld?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “But it sounds like the best chance we’ve got, even though I don’t like it.”

His voice held a growl. “But cutting her up will give us only a temporary fix, however satisfying it might be.”

I turned to Naomi. “Where’s your cross?” We were wasting time. “We can use it to null her while she’s out and I can try to break the demon-bond or kill the essence inside her. Then we take her head off and hope it’s enough to get her a ticket to the Underworld.”

A dark look passed over Naomi’s face. “Eamon took it from me as I tried to use it against Selene. I