burned with red light.
Thomas sagged to the floor as she slipped the blade out. The toxic black cloud that was the demon seeped out of the wound and rose toward the ceiling. She stepped back to make sure it didn’t come anywhere near her.
“Form,” her father said and the cloud coalesced into a dark form. For a split second, she saw familiar dark eyes looking at her from a Spanish complexion. Raoul. Then the demon shrank until it resembled a three-foot hunched-over old man. Her father snapped his fingers and a cage slightly larger than the demon enveloped it. It shrieked and then both demon and cage disappeared.
“What was that?” she asked, still gripping her sword.
“I commanded it to show you its summoner before I sent it home. There it will serve as an example to those that choose to disregard my word.” The chill in his voice sent a shiver up her spine.
Thomas stayed bent over, hands on the floor. His eyes were closed and he concentrated on breathing, on ignoring the pain that infiltrated every cell of his body.
She’d done it. His Juliana had saved him. And almost gotten killed in the process. Just like Raoul had killed her when he left her here alone and defenseless. What a fool he’d been. Grief flooded him as he remembered the details of the report he’d read before he’d gone into the mindless rage that allowed the demon to take control. He groaned.
His bride put a hand on his back. “Thomas?”
He wasn’t sure he could respond. Not yet.
“Thomas?” she repeated.
Michael crouched in front of him and held out a bag of blood that he’d torn open. Juliana’s hand slid away as she took a step back. He shot his hand up and grabbed her wrist before she could move any farther from him. Just her touch helped lessen the pain, the grief. She grounded him and he needed her. “Stay.” His voice was rough from the abuse his throat had taken from the demon. “I need you. I need to touch you.”
She shifted so she was sitting and let him keep hold of her wrist. He eased himself up so he was semi- upright, but still on his knees. He took the bag from Michael with his free hand and gulped down the blood. The blood fueled the magic that coursed through his veins and immediately his body began to repair itself. Sweet relief streamed through him. When the bag was empty, he held out his hand for another. They repeated this procedure with two more bags. Finally, though he was still covered in blood, he was healed.
He moved so he was sitting and pulled Juliana against his side.
“Sorry I stabbed you,” she told him.
He smiled at her apology. No doubt, she’d carry the guilt of doing what was necessary to save his life for some time. That’s just the way she was. “Hush,” he told her and hugged her tighter against him. “It was less than I deserve. I never should have left you unprotected. I never imagined...”
The tall fae cleared his throat and they both looked at him. He leaned against the bars on the inside of the cell with his arms crossed over his chest, watching them.
“We’ll talk about it later,” she said. “Thomas, may I introduce my father, Aeron Rowantree? Dad, Thomas Kendrick, but you knew that.”
Her father was the dark fae god of death. After the initial bit of surprise, Thomas realized that made perfect sense. He also knew the man was the demon’s true master. The demon had gone into such a state of mindless panic when the fae appeared that Thomas hadn’t been able to gain enough control to keep track of what was going on. He’d only become aware again when the demon focused on Juliana with intense hatred. It had taken every morsel of his power to make it so Juliana could use her sword on him without being hurt.
Thomas nodded his head once at his father-in-law. “My lord.” There were few he would address as such, but a god deserved no less.
Juliana snickered and her father arched a disapproving brow as he straightened. “Daughter, I am pleased that I could be of assistance. You might call me more often when you are not in dire straits however. It would be nice to spend some quiet time with you.”
“You know where to find me,” she said. “Besides, at least I didn’t die this time.”
Her father froze. “Die?”
“Um, yeah. You know, quit breathing, flat line, three times. Ring any bells?”
Thomas clenched his jaw. While he realized it was a gift from the gods that his bride could cheat death, he didn’t like to be reminded of it.
Her father ran a hand across his forehead and he wondered if gods got headaches. “Technically you never died.”
“The doctors might disagree with you on that,” she said.
“I can’t bring you back to life, Juliana. I am a god of death. Not life.”
There was silence for a long moment before Michael spoke up. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to clarify this. I’ve seen it myself. How is it that she wasn’t dead?”
Michael had been there when she died and hadn’t mentioned it to Thomas. The knowledge angered him more than the fact they’d slept together. If his second had told him that Juliana was putting herself in danger, that she died for gods’ sakes, he would have come home long ago.
Her father sighed. “While it might have appeared she was deceased, her body was actually in stasis. I felt her nearing the veil that separates the living from the dead and simply refused to claim her. I healed her enough that she was able to remain on this side. If she were ever to cross over completely before I reached her, or if she was dying of something I couldn’t cure, she would be lost to us for good.” He looked Thomas in the eye. “Remember that, Vampire.”
Thomas would remember. He found it difficult to believe he’d ever be able to forget this conversation.
Someone pounded at the door at the end of the hall.
Her father looked at the door and back to James. “We really must go. They’ve been doing that for several minutes. I’ve been suppressing the sound, but they are getting more persistent.” He stepped forward and kissed the top of Juliana’s head.
With a flick of his hand, a portal sprang up in the middle of the cell. James stepped up to it and Thomas’s eyes fell on the book his brother-in-law carried. Now that the demon wasn’t muddling his thoughts, he knew where he’d seen it, couldn’t believe he’d ever forgotten, demon or no demon. “That book. Where is it from?”
Juliana looked at him. “We found it at the summoning.”
He glanced down at her, studied her expression. “You don’t recognize it?”
She shook her head. “Should I?”
Yes, she should. “It was the only thing you had when you moved in. You gave it to me and demanded I put it away, said you never wanted to see it again. It was missing from its case when I returned to the house. I assumed you’d taken it with you.”
She closed her eyes and tapped her forehead with the heel of her hand. “It was the book. That’s what they had of mine to tie the demon to me. The whole freaking spell. I still don’t remember anything before I came to the house and some of the early bits of that time are missing, too. I’m not surprised I didn’t remember it. Obviously I recognized it on some level though, I was still scared of it.”
Someone pounded on the door again, yelling to be let in.
“We must go,” the god said again.
James nodded. “I’ll see it gets back to the two of you,” he said and stepped through the portal. It closed behind him.
“I leave her in your capable hands, Vampire.” Her father stepped back and disappeared in a burst of ash and smoke.
She coughed and waved a hand in front of her face. “I hate when he does that.”
Michael ripped the top off another bag of blood and splashed the contents over the top of a roughly drawn design on the floor just before the door at the end of the hall burst open.
Thomas rearranged himself so his legs were out straight while he leaned against the wall and pulled her to sit sideways in his lap. He pressed her head against his chest. “Stay there,” he told her, his voice a whisper in her ear. Suddenly feeling very comfortable and very tired, she did as he asked. Besides, the longer she could avoid
