Life Cycle (12 page)

“Let me see the book.”

Dayne brought it over, and Hadrian looked at the
spell. It was a spell to take the memory of an hour. The listed
ingredients looked about right as far as he could tell sitting
across the room. Everything had been in cloudy jars after all—it
was like some mad scientist’s basement. The vampire nodded and
passed the book to the sorcerer who put it back on the table and
chanted the spell over the potion. It was in Latin. Magic users and
their dead languages. Hadrian was convinced it was for show to
appear more mysterious. Wasn’t that why the priests had used it for
so long?

When Dayne brought the potion over, Hadrian took the
goblet and held the cat’s mouth open to pour it down her
throat.

“She’ll be asleep for awhile. When she wakes, she
won’t remember,” Dayne said.

“She’d better not. I’ll stay to be sure. I’ll be
putting you to sleep as well. I’ll make sure she wakes before you.
If she remembers anything...” It was unnecessary to expand on the
threat. He laid the cat on the stone floor and moved toward Dayne.
At least with all the magic the sorcerer had done, taking control
of his mind would be easy. It was one memory he’d know for sure had
been properly erased.

“Look into my eyes.” He placed a hand on Dayne’s
shoulder to boost the effects of the thrall.

The sorcerer obeyed, his eyes becoming unfocused as
he tried to maintain eye contact with the vampire.

“Good. You came home and attempted to do the spell,
but it failed. Some of the magic knocked Greta out, but she’s fine
now. You burned the scroll so the magical residue couldn’t attract
The Cycler.”

“Right. That’s exactly what I did.”

“Now, sleep for a little while. When you and Greta
wake, everything will seem normal.” Hadrian caught the man as he
fell and laid him next to the cat. Then he searched until he found
matches and burned the scroll, so what had been seen couldn’t be
seen again.

He sat on the table and waited. As the potion took
effect, the werecat shifted back to human. The vampire admired her
sleeping form. He’d love to taste her. A great time to accomplish
that feat was while she was unconscious, but he couldn’t justify
the act. While he couldn’t get inside her head, it only took one
look at her to know she was kind and decent—not someone who needed
to be absolved, and not someone who needed to be punished.

After a while, Greta stretched and sat up, wary eyes
darting around the room. She looked to Hadrian, then to Dayne, and
her own nudity, which she intriguingly sought to cover.

“What’s going on? What have you done?” Her eyes held
suspicion and more than a little fear. She scrambled to her
clothing and rushed to get dressed.

“You have nothing to fear from me. What do you
remember?” Hadrian asked. He was more than a little curious over
her modesty. It wasn’t a common trait in therians.

“You could have at least had the decency to turn
around,” she said, as she pulled the top over her head.

The vampire had taken in every curve as she’d moved,
not missing a second of her in her unclothed form. “I apologize. It
was rude. I was caught off guard.”

“What happened? What’s wrong with Dayne?” She moved
behind him as if a sleeping sorcerer would have any effect on her
safety.

“Again,” Hadrian said, his eyes glowing, “what do
you remember?”

“I don’t know what you mean.” She appeared genuinely
confused.

“Dayne attempted to do a spell to help find The
Cycler. The magic failed. I came by to check on things while he was
still chanting. You saw me and got spooked and shifted, then sparks
from the magic hit you and knocked you out. You must have mild
amnesia. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

She still looked suspicious but she was just
disoriented and confused enough to buy it. “W-what about
Dayne?”

“Magic knocked him out, too. He’ll come around soon.
I need to get back. You’ll be okay here?”

Greta nodded. “Yes. I mean, I think so. He’ll wake up
soon?”

He smiled. “He’ll be fine. Have a good night, Greta.”
He didn’t wait for a reply.

The orange tabby glared at him at the top of the
stairs as he brushed past her. He growled, and the cat shot off
into the dark to check on her people, not trusting the vampire for
a moment. Smart kitty.

Chapter Six

Tam had been in the demon dimension for over a week
without contact with the outside world. Her coven must be losing
their shit wondering where she was. They didn’t know what she was.
No one had except her fellow cyclers and a few vampires over the
centuries. And Henry.

She stood outside Cain’s tent draped in one of the
dresses from the trunk in her own tent. Two guards stood outside.
One arched a brow.

“Shut up before I hex you.” She and the demon leader
had been carrying on what amounted to a full-on affair for the past
week, but she hadn’t been coming to his tent, and she certainly
hadn’t been dressing like his concubine. But she was ready to raise
the stakes. The demon would crack soon, she could feel it.

The guard growled, but Tam was unfazed. Demons liked
to talk and play at being scary, but even with her books and tools
sealed up in the cave, she could still incant, and she still had
energy balls to throw. She hadn’t been left helpless. Far from it.
It was hard to be too helpless with so much age on her.

“You don’t want to go in there,” the other guard
said. “The boss is having it out with one of the demons.”

“Good. Then he’ll be in a killing mood.”

Cain had been tense ever since the human body had
been discovered. Every time he went through the human dimension he
found out more news on the situation, mainly the constant
recounting of the gory way the body had been found. So nothing
useful. Just the kind of stuff that inspired morbid fascination and
curiosity among her fellow humans.

Tam strode into the tent. Cain stopped yelling at the
demon in front of him. It was one Tam didn’t know. For a
preternatural faction, the demon numbers weren’t huge, but there
were enough of them that the witch stumbled upon a new one on
occasion.

Cain glared at her, but when he saw what she was
wearing, something in his expression changed. Heat. Desire. That
plus all the bottled rage from whatever the demon was in a snit
about equaled a possible ticket out of all this.

He turned back to the other demon. “Leave. We will
discuss this later.”

“But it’s not fair. That’s not my fault. This past
week you’ve been impossible to please. We’ve all been walking on
eggshells—”

He couldn’t get another word out because Tam was
tired of his whining. She hit the minion with an energy ball. He
rounded on her, snarling.

“I believe he told you to leave,” she said.

“See, Cain? This is the problem. This fucking witch
who’s got you all turned around.” He rushed Tam at full speed
before she could produce another energy ball, but before he could
touch her, Cain had grabbed him and flung him away from her. He
towered over the demon on the ground.

“The witch is my business. You try to harm her, and
I’ll let her seal you in a glass jar. It’s far more cramped than
the caves, I assure you. Scram!” The demon pulled himself through
the flap of the tent and hobbled away.

Cain advanced on her, fire in his eyes. “What the
fuck was that?”

She batted her eyelashes. “What the fuck was what?”
Okay, so the innocent damsel routine didn’t come off quite as
credible when she was dropping F-bombs. Still. She should get
points for effort.

“Interfering with my business with the other demons
makes it look like I have a woman fighting my battles.”

“Oh my God. You’re an even bigger Neanderthal than
Anna’s mate.”

“I’m eight thousand. Things are done how they are
done.”

She rolled her eyes. “Well, I’m two thousand, and I
managed to evolve. What’s your excuse?” She changed tactics and
pressed herself against him. If all she did was piss him off, he
might just snap her neck, and that would do her no good. She needed
to remind him why he liked her in an adult form. “Do you like my
dress?”

He gripped her wrist and placed her hand over his
erection. “What do you think?”

She smirked. “I think you’ll kill
me this time. I don’t get why you haven’t. Maybe
you
have sparkly romance
dreams? If you do, you can tell me, it’ll be our little secret.”
She never got tired of taunting him. Soon he would snap. She’d
alternated between pissing him off and seducing him every
opportunity she got. She’d be out of here before the next full
moon, before the next body hit the ground, and Jack’s game would be
over.

The Cycler would still have enough power to start
gathering an army to move forward with his plan, but this time she
wouldn’t help him. Her conscience would be clear, and she’d escape
his grip forever. She had no intention of leaving Heaven until
things were put right. Her gods were in another dimension. She’d
been faithful to them. She’d petition them to let her into the
proper world for her next incarnation. Then she’d be off Jack’s
radar forever. Truly free.

When Cain released her, she didn’t waste the
opportunity to unbutton his jeans and slide her hand inside.

He growled. “I won’t lose control. I’m not letting
you out of my world. I told you, you’ll be my toy until I get bored
with you, or until you beg me to keep you—and mean it.”

“I think that’s bullshit. I think
you like me. You don’t
want
to kill me. Just admit it. Don’t you normally get
bored by now?”

“Go to the caves.”

It was as good as an admission from him.

“We never do it in your tent. Are you ashamed of me?
Afraid we’ll get interrupted?”

He’d allowed her to continue stroking him, but he
hadn’t fallen completely under her spell yet. “I’d be greatly
amused if we got interrupted. What about you? Does your little
friend know you’re screwing the demon who tried to kill her and
would have succeeded if she hadn’t given her soul to my
brother?”

Tam pulled away. “Anna wouldn’t understand this. I
know I shouldn’t act like she’s a child. She’s got all her memories
from her other lives, but it’s not the same. They’re isolated
episodes of experience. It’s different being in one body for as
long as you and I have.”

He laughed. “Are you saying I complete you?”

She rolled her eyes upward. “Hardly. I’m saying she
doesn’t understand what it’s like for me. She thinks she does, but
she doesn’t.”

The demon pointed at the door. “Caves. Now. I’ll be
along shortly.”

She sighed and turned to leave.

“And to answer your other question”—his words
stopped her—“the reason for the caves is that tents are completely
useless if I want to fuck you against a wall.”

Her back was to him so he didn’t see her facial
expression. Given that edge, she wasn’t about to turn around or
pause, but she knew he had to sense the wave of desire his words
had caused. Or maybe he’d done it with demon thrall. Her shields
had weakened in the time she’d been with him. It was too exhausting
being on guard twenty-four-seven, and if she wanted him to break
the cycle, shields were pointless. Shields were to protect her, and
she didn’t want to be protected from him.

***

Cain watched her go. He’d let her
stew in the caves waiting for him like a schoolgirl. She was right,
he should be bored with her by now. He didn’t want to dig too
deeply into his motivations. But he most certainly didn’t
like
her. She was
confusing him with someone who still could dig up those sorts of
feelings. Killing her was the prudent choice. It was what she
wanted, and it would make it easier to kill The Cycler if he didn’t
have her power absorbed into him, too.

But a woman had never beaten him at his own game, and
it wasn’t going to happen now. If she didn’t want to die, she’d be
easier to kill, but he still resented giving her the opportunity to
escape the immortal bed she’d made.

When he reached the cave, she was sitting on the
ground. She probably couldn’t see him, but with his acute night
vision, he could see her.

“Why are you in the dark? We have torches.”

“I have energy balls, not fire, and all my tools are
locked in a pod. You do the math.”

“Surely there is some chant you could use. How hard
can it be for a witch of your caliber to produce fire?” he
taunted.

“I don’t waste energy on things like that.”

Cain lit the torches and sat beside her on the big
rock. He began to stroke her back and pushed aside one of her
straps to kiss her shoulder. She did look lovely in that dress, as
if she could rule beside him. He cringed at that thought.

A suspicion eased into his mind, and he gripped her
throat, his voice low and deadly. “If you’ve done any magic against
me, you will live to wish you hadn’t.”

She struggled for air, and he loosened his grip a
fraction to allow her to speak.

“If you kill me, and I revert to a younger body, I
will seal you in a jar so fucking fast your head will spin. Don’t
threaten me. If you plan to take me out, take me out the right way
so I can leave this forsaken place.”

He couldn’t say what kind of magic
he thought she’d done. Accusing her was as good as admitting she
was having unforeseen effects on him. She’d take it as him
admitting he
liked
her, then he’d have to kill her just to shut her up. If he
was wrong about her using magic against him to soften him up, then
he wasn’t giving her that weapon—not when he’d already said how
things would go between them.

“I could lock you in one of these pods. You’re
immortal, sort of, you’d survive it.” He wasn’t sure why he added
that. What did he care what she could survive? “I could leave you
in there until the Jack problem is solved.” He let go of her and
stood, her nearness starting to unhinge him.