Darkblood Prison: Demon At Large : Supernatural Prison Squad Series Book 3 Page 14

  I gulped, the intensity of his irises drilling into mine only heightening the threat of his words. Flashes of Thax’s dungeon streaked across my mind, and a cold chill swept my insides. I couldn’t go back.

  “Take it easy on her, T.” Hayden placed his hand on Talon’s shoulder, and a deep growl vibrated the dragon’s broad chest. My angel bunkie jerked his arm back and turned his reassuring gaze on me. “Don’t worry, pumpkin, we’ll figure this out like we always do.”

  Talon leapt to his feet and the mattress bounced up, knocking the back of my head against the wall. Ouch. “Only things are completely different this time, Hayden. This isn’t Azara. I don’t even know who this person is.” His scathing irises shot daggers as he pointed at me, and I shrank under the covers. Double ouch. What the hell happened last night?

  “Talon, she didn’t know. Vander—”

  “Don’t even say his name, brother.” He raked a hand through his tousled hair and glared at the angel.

  A chill skirted up my spine. Talon was scary AF. Even my demon thought so. I steeled my nerves and turned to Hayden. “Is someone going to tell me what else happened?”

  My bunkie shook his head, his lips thinned out to a tight line. “You really don’t remember anything about the party?”

  I searched my thoughts, but a deep fog blanketed the evening. I vaguely recalled my demon fighting to break free once the wine started taking its effect, but after that, nada. “No.”

  Talon’s dark gaze spun to me, anger carved into his sculpted jaw. “So you don’t remember hooking up with Vander?”

  My eyes widened, and all the air evacuated my lungs. “What?” I gasped.

  “And that’s my cue to leave.” Hayden shot toward the door as I cursed the traitorous angel for deserting me after Talon dropped that bomb.

  I curled my knees in and hugged them to my chest. “What are you talking about?”

  He stalked forward, his murderous gaze intensifying with each step. He halted a foot from my bed and crossed his arms over his chest. “I saw you, Azara. I was following you guys all night. Trying to keep you safe. Stupid, right? Because you obviously were having a great time in the boneyard.”

  Another gasp escaped through my clenched lips. The boneyard? My head whipped back and forth. “No way. Not possible.”

  “I saw you two.” His nostrils flared, and his lips curled in disgust. “I can still smell Vander all over you.”

  I wrapped my arms tighter around my middle to keep myself from falling apart. How could I hook up with Vander and not even remember it? “Talon, I didn’t—I don’t remember—”

  His hand flew up, cutting me off. “I don’t want to hear it, Azara. I thought we still had a chance. I thought even with your memories gone, there was still something between us, but I was wrong.”

  The pain etched into his face tore at my insides. My fingers itched to touch him, to take the hurt away, but I didn’t dare. Instead, I clenched my hand into a tight ball at my side and muttered, “I’m sorry.”

  He shook his head and grunted. “Not as sorry as I am,” he whispered as he turned away and stomped out of our cell.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Logan watched me from across his massive desk as the boys of the Triad discussed strategy in the background. After hours of plotting, their words were a blurred jumble.

  “Are you all right?” the warden asked.

  “No.”

  He reached across the mahogany and squeezed my hand. The reassuring touch sparked a wave of unexpected emotion, and I blinked rapidly to chase away the tears. Since when was I one of those weak girls that cried at the drop of a hat? Oh right, I had no idea who I was. Maybe that’s who I used to be.

  “Azara, everything’s going to be fine.” Logan’s soft words drew me from my inner ramblings. “We’d never let Thax anywhere near you again.”

  “What other choice do we have? According to Delacroix, he’s got guys everywhere in the prison. I can’t hide from him forever.”

  “Then we have to get you of here. I’ll call your parents like I should’ve done in the first place, and they’ll take you far away.”

  A pang of guilt assaulted my insides. Everything was still blurry, but the feelings the mention of my mom and dad evoked was enough to set me over the edge. I couldn’t face them. Not after everything I’d done while my demon was in control. “No, Logan, please. Don’t tell them, not yet.”

  I’d rather face my evil cousin than admit everything I’d done to my parents. My heart clenched at the shadows of happy memories with my family. GG’s potion was helping, but he was right, I may not want to remember everything, or I’d have to live with even more blood on my hands.

  He loosed an exasperated breath. “Azara, seeing them might be exactly what you need.”

  My insides told me he was probably right. Not to mention everything I’d heard about my parents from GG. “Let’s figure out this stuff with Thax and go from there.”

  “Easier said than done.” Dallas arched a perfectly shaped brow as he sauntered over. “You just couldn’t keep that naughty little demon in check, could you?”

  Heat seeped up my neck and coated my cheeks. I swept my hair in front of my face hoping to hide behind the dark curtain. “Maybe I should just go to him.”

  “No!” The word boomed from three sets of lips. One set blatantly mute.

  Talon hadn’t said a word or even looked at me since yesterday. Despite my missing memories of him—of us, the pain and intense anger that radiated off him speared me like a scorching blade. Even if I did eventually remember us, would he ever forgive me for Vander?

  Who was conveniently MIA, by the way. The guys told me he’d been sent to the SIA for some continuing education. Whatever that meant. A part of me was relieved he was gone. I wasn’t ready to face him and the consequences of my slutty she-demon’s actions. But the other part of me missed my friend. Out of all the guys, he’d been the one I’d connected with most since my return. With everyone else, I’d felt so much pressure to remember, but it had been easy with Vander.

  And now my lusty demon had screwed everything up.

  “Well, we still have two days,” said Logan. He’d stood up from his desk to join the Triad’s circle around the fireplace while I’d been distracted by my internal musings. Two days? Ugh.

  “It’s not enough.” Talon drummed his fingers on the coffee table as he stared into the flickering flames. “We need more time to mount an attack that would finally put an end to the dark lord.”

  “An unsanctioned SIA one at that,” Hayden added.

  “What about Luci?” My grandfather’s name tumbled from my lips unbidden.

  Four pairs of eyes swiveled toward me. “You remembered his nickname?” A tiny spark lit up Logan’s irises.

  “I think so. I just had a feeling he could help.”

  “I’ve been trying to get in touch with him for a while now. He’s been unreachable.”

  “I think I know how to find him.” A flicker of a memory surfaced, foreign words dancing across my mind. “I need my magic though.”

  The warden ticked his head at my cuff. “You’ve always been able to use your magic just fine around here, with or without that thing.”

  I glanced at my tattoo, the unreliable one that occasionally decided to make a mystical cameo. “Okay I can try.” Grabbing a pen and paper from Logan’s desk, I scrawled out a quick message.

  “You can do it, sweetheart.” Dallas shot me a beaming smile, and a twinge of happiness swirled in my gut. Until my eyes inadvertently landed on Talon beside him. The vampire’s smile only accentuated the lack thereof on his sullen friend. And for whatever reason, I needed Talon’s reassurance.

  I lifted my gaze to his but the moment I made contact, he lowered his eyes. A punch to the gut would’ve hurt less. He would never forgive me.

  Squeezing my eyes shut, I tuned out the four males anxiously hovered around me. The incantation that came to mind was one that Luci himself had taught me—or at leas
t I thought he had. A secret way to reach him in case of emergencies. Too bad I couldn’t remember it when I’d been imprisoned by Thax.

  I inhaled a breath, and the words of the spell flashed across my mind’s eye. Gotcha! Clutching the note in my hand, I repeated the mystical words. “Messagium sendere, messagium via.”

  The smokey scent of magic filled my nostrils, and I opened my clenched palm. A dazzling blue flame lit up the scrap of paper. It floated out of my hand and into the air, until it was completely engulfed by the mystical fire.

  All eyes lifted to the puff of smoke remaining. “Now what?” Hayden asked.

  “Now we wait for an answer from Luci.”

  “Great,” Talon muttered. “I hope the devil can fit us into his busy schedule.”

  A twinge of anger twisted my insides. Even though I couldn’t remember my grandfather clearly, I felt oddly protective of him. “He’s always been there for me, and I know he’ll come through now.”

  Talon ate up the space between us, looming right over me. “Oh, so now you remember?”

  “I’m starting to remember some things, yes.” I stood on my tiptoes and shot him a narrowed glare. I was tired of being his punching bag—even though I deserved it this time. “Like how insufferable you can be,” I hissed.

  “Me?” he barked.

  “I’m sorry I hooked up with Vander, okay?” I shouted. “Even though I had no control over my crazy demon at the time. But it never would’ve happened if you hadn’t kept me in the dark about us.” I jabbed my index finger into his chest. “You should’ve told me from the start and then maybe I’d understand why you can’t even look at me now, and why my insides hurt from seeing you like this.”

  Logan cleared his throat, and I snapped my jaw shut. “Whatever issues you two may have, you need to put them behind you for now.” The warden stepped between us and faced Talon. “Despite everything, you’re still bound to her by duty. You swore an oath, and I expect you to uphold it.”

  Talon grumbled something under his breath I couldn’t quite make out.

  “I don’t trust Thax to stick to the timeline. If he makes a move on Azara before the deadline, I need you there, Talon. Can you put aside all this BS and do your job?”

  His jaw clenched, that tendon twitching like mad. “Yes,” he gritted out.

  “Fine. Talon has point and the two of you will serve as backup.”

  The guys all nodded.

  “I’m not totally helpless you know.”

  “Yeah, we know,” Talon interjected. “Your demon always seems to show up at exactly the right time.”

  I threw my hands in the air and spun to Logan. “Does it really have to be him? He hates me.”

  “Yes, it has to be him. He’s the best, and you know it.”

  I rolled my eyes and marched to the door. At this point, surrendering to Thax didn’t seem like such a bad option.

  The frigid air nipped at my nose, and I hugged my arms tighter around my crappy polyester jumpsuit. Of all places, why had Luci insisted we meet outside?

  “Boneyard bringing back some memories?” Talon muttered beside me.

  I eyed the dilapidated old outhouses and cringed. How could my lusty demon sink so low? I was actually glad I couldn’t remember the night’s events.

  “Now you’re not talking to me?” he continued, louder this time.

  I spun at him, slapping my hands on my hips. “No, I just refuse to have the same conversation with you over and over again. I. Am. Sorry. I don’t remember my drunken make out session with Vander. My demon must have taken over and had her way with my body.” I paused and seared him with a narrowed glare. “What I don’t understand is why you care anyway. Since I returned, you’ve barely looked at me except to toss insults in my direction. You refuse to tell me about us, and you look pissed off twenty-four hours a day.”

  “You’d be pretty pissed off too if the person you searched for nonstop for three months finally came back and turned out to be a completely different person than the one you’d lost.”

  “Ugh!” I let out an exasperated grunt. “You don’t think I want to remember? You don’t think this is incredibly frustrating for me too? My entire life was taken away from me!”

  He stepped closer, his fiery irises boring into mine. “I don’t know, Azara, because you don’t talk to me. You don’t tell me anything about how you feel or if your memories are returning.”

  “Ha!” I jabbed my finger into his firm chest. “Me? That’s rich. I’ve been begging you to talk to me since I came back to this hell hole. I freakin’ broke into prison to find you. Doesn’t that count for something?”

  His chest was heaving, my finger bouncing up and down with the erratic rhythm. “Then why did you hook up with Vander?” he shouted.

  “I don’t know!”

  A dark cloud moved over the pristine white snow a second before the cloying odor of sulfur and ash filled my nostrils. Talon whirled toward the apparition as the fog coalesced into a familiar form.

  “Did I come at a bad time, my dear?” Lucifer’s lips curled into a wicked grin.

  I couldn’t help my eyes raking over the devil’s perfect form. With my memories still hazy, I was not at all prepared for his overwhelming beauty, not to mention his overpowering presence. He sucked all the air from the mountaintop as if the peaks themselves were holding their breaths at his appearance. I chased the thoughts away and scrambled for words. “No, of course not. Thanks for coming so quickly.”

  “As I’ve told you before, I am always nearby for my favorite granddaughter.”

  A swirl of happiness filled my insides, and a smile melted across my face. Thax may have told me some truth about our devilish grandsire, but the picture he painted of the Underworld tyrant was nothing like the doting man standing before me.

  From the corner of my eye, I caught Talon’s slack-jawed stare as he watched my grandfather. Apparently, even the cranky dragon found him intimidating.

  Luci tugged at the collar of his black peacoat, so it covered the back of his neck and snapped his fingers. A gilded chair with a deep crimson velvet cushion appeared beside him. He folded into the veritable throne and smiled. “Now, how can I help you? You mentioned something about Thax in your note?”

  “He kidnapped her,” Talon growled. “Logan tried to reach you for months, and you never showed up.”

  He shrugged. “I’m not a dog. I don’t have to answer when called.” His eyes darkened to two bottomless pits of black as they focused on my bodyguard. “Who are you anyway?”

  Talon threw his shoulders back and his chest inflated, making him look even bigger than I thought possible. “Talon Firestarter. I’m the head of your granddaughter’s security detail.”

  “Oh, you’re the one…” He steepled his fingers and crossed his long legs, sinking further into the chair. “Well, then, it seems you’re the fellow to blame for her disappearance, not me.”

  A low growl echoed in Talon’s throat as his jaw tightened, his teeth grinding. I jumped in before my crazy bodyguard did something stupid.

  “Luci, why didn’t you tell me Thax was my cousin?”

  Logan had prepped me for this meeting with my grandfather since he couldn’t attend, and he’d specifically requested I bring that up.

  The devil waved a nonchalant hand. “Oh dear, Azara, do you realize how many children and grandchildren I have floating around the two realms? I can hardly keep track of them all.”

  “But you specifically mentioned him when you came to help her with Delacroix,” Talon added. Apparently, Logan must have prepped him too. “You practically brought him into this story.”

  I finally caught on to where Talon was going with this, and a burst of anger lit up my insides. “Gramps, did you know Thax was looking for me? That he was the one that had me imprisoned? Did you know about the prophecy?”

  His lips thinned, the snide grin melting away. “Azara, there are a lot of things I know. Some I can share and others I cannot. Prophecies are fickle beas
ts, but sometimes it’s best to let them play out. Sometimes, there is a greater good that will come from the events they foretell.”

  “You knew all along…” His betrayal was like a knife in the gut, and I found myself gasping for air. Hot tears burned my eyes, but I blinked them back, refusing to cry in front of the Prince of Hell. “Thax tortured me for months, he let my demon run wild, he stole my memories and gods’ knows what else. How could you?”

  Talon moved closer, his arm brushing mine. Anger, almost as intense as my own, radiated off the dragon in suffocating waves.

  Luci sat straighter, moving to the edge of his makeshift throne. “Because I had to, Azara. And soon, you’ll understand why.”

  “Soon? That’s effing B.S., Luci. Tell me what the prophecy says.” My demon surged inside me, struggling to make her presence known. Darkness seeped into my vision, but I fought her back.

  “I truly am sorry, my dear, but I cannot.”

  “You won’t even help her find Thax?” Talon snarled.

  Lucifer lifted a finger and shot me a beaming smile. “That I can do.” He snapped his fingers, and a map appeared in his palm. “Azara, I take it despite your missing memories, your warlock abilities are still intact?”

  What the hades? How did he know about that?

  “Sort of—” I mumbled.

  “They’re working fine,” Talon interjected.

  “Perfect.” He floated the map over to me, and I grabbed it before it fell to the wet snow. “Thax has another underground castle. It’s located in the human world, just below Vatican City, adjacent to the catacombs. Ironic, right?” He smirked. “It’s heavily warded as you can imagine, but if you escaped his compound once, I don’t doubt you can bypass his mystical alarm system again.”

  I gulped. I still had no idea how I’d done that.

  He slowly rose, buttoning his coat. “Now that my job is done, I must run.” He held his arms open and threw me a heart-stopping smile. “How about a hug for your old gramps?”