Embraced (Eternal Balance) Read online

  With the seat beneath me gone, my limbs flailed wildly in every direction, desperate to find something solid, a small bit of unmovable reality to prove this wasn’t all just part of some horrible waking nightmare.

  Then, just when I thought I’d lose my mind, my breath hitched and something crushed my body. Two ironclad limbs enveloped me as a series of breakneck crashes rattled the car.

  I let go of another scream as the car gave one final shudder, skidding to a stop in a symphony of cringe-inducing squeals and broken bits. My head slammed against something. The door. A broken seat. Hell, it could have been the steering wheel. When I opened my eyes, nothing was where it should have been.

  Jax’s arms, still presumably under the demon’s control, loosened. “Are you well, Samantha Merrick?”

  Was I well?

  Whatever it was that had just happened, I was pretty damn sure well wasn’t in the description. I shifted, moving away a few inches, and gasped. The windshield was gone, leaving only bits of jagged glass dotting the pane. The dashboard was in pieces, the large chunk in front of me buckled like tin foil.

  I opened my mouth—to say what, I had no idea—but suddenly I was moving. Jax’s arms tightened and a wave of vertigo hit me as a pounding noise filled the space around us. I was jostled from side to side several times, and seconds later cool air washed over me as Azi extracted me from the car and set me down on the grass outside.

  “What happ—” The rest of my sentence was lost as the ground beneath my feet took a massive twist to the right.

  Something heavy crashed into me from behind. An otherworldly growl split the air, followed by a series of grunts. The weight on top of me shifted and was gone. I pushed onto my knees and crawled to the shelter of a large pine then turned to see the wreckage.

  Rick’s car was destroyed. The fact that I was sitting here, still breathing and in possession of all my limbs, was nothing short of a miracle. But that wasn’t our only problem. Just past the twisted metal, Jax’s body, presumably with Azirak still behind the wheel, faced off with three angels. He stood between me and them, a fearsome vision of destruction and darkness.

  “If you want the Pure, you will have to go through me.”

  One of the angels laughed. He was the shortest of the three, with deep red wings tipped in orange. He eyed me, gaze sweeping every inch with an almost lecherous gleam. “I will do so with pleasure, beast.”

  Like someone flipped the crazy switch, Azi and the angels sprang forward. It was a mass of mangled limbs, flying feathers, and bloody appendages. I’d seen Jax fight. It never failed to take my breath away. His ferocity and grace were mesmerizing. His pure power and raw strength a thing of wonder. It was nothing compared to watching Azi with full control.

  The demon tore through the first angel with ridiculous ease, twisting her head with a jerk then punching a hole through her sternum for good measure. She fell to the ground as the next one stepped up. Enraged at his comrade’s defeat, he let out a scream that chased a chill up my spine.

  The angel’s gaze swiveled in my direction for a moment before fixating on Jax. His lip curled upward, a sinister smile spreading like poison across his face. “You will not gain this power.”

  Azi growled, a sound so possessive, so threatening, it was a wonder the angel didn’t turn tail and run. He dove for our attacker, grabbing him and hefting his body into the air. The angel roared, it’s dark green wings unfurling in a furious burst. It bucked and thrashed, but was no match for the demon’s strength. With a ferocious thrust, Azi lifted the angel high, then brought him down across Jax’s knee with brutal force. The sound it made was sickening, and I swallowed back the bile bubbling up my throat as he let the lifeless corpse fall to the grass at his feet.

  The last angel, the short one with the attitude bigger than Texas, stepped forward. His grin went from ear to ear. “My brethren were noble but weak. No match for you. Not like me.”

  If it were Jax standing there, he would have laughed. Maybe made some snarky quip about size. Not Azirak. He snarled, lip pulled back to bare his teeth, and pounced. It was over almost as soon as it began. The angel made a move to grab hold of Jax’s throat, but his fingers never touched skin. Azi brought Jax’s hands up and with a violent twist, broke the creature’s neck.

  As his body fell, I swallowed back another mouthful of bile and climbed to my feet. We were well off to the side of a rarely traveled road and couldn’t necessarily call for a tow truck. Besides having no money, there were three dead bodies laying a few feet from Rick’s mangled car. Getting rid of them would be time consuming, and leaving them would be a tough one to explain. Spending time with Jax had made me a better liar, but I wasn’t that good. The car the angels had rammed us with was in slightly better condition, but a quick survey of the damage revealed two busted front tires. We were going to have to hoof it.

  I gestured to the road. “Shall we?”

  And we were off.

  With each step, I felt the chill in my bones intensify. My right arm was completely numb now, from my fingertips to the base of my shoulder. In a small way, I was thankful. It meant I didn’t need to feel the cuff as it squeezed the life out of me.

  The demon kept pace beside me, eyes straight ahead and shoulders stiff. Every once in a while I’d sneak a peek at Jax and wonder what he was thinking in there. I couldn’t imagine a guy like him being cooped up for so long.

  “What happens if we don’t make it?” I asked, a lump forming in my throat. We had less than twenty-four hours left to find a Fakori descendant or kill Malphi, both tall orders.

  “We will make it.”

  “And if we don’t? I’ll die.”

  “No one will be able to claim you, if that’s what weighs on your mind.” The demon didn’t break stride. “The theories are correct. Once you perished and were returned to your body, your power became unclaimable in death. You must give permission.”

  “But if this has never happened before, then how do we know for sure.”

  Jax’s body stopped walking and turned to me. It was unsettling to see the soulless black orbs where his gray eyes should have been. “I know because I tried.”

  I balked. “You tried? As in, to claim me?”

  “Of course,” it said, as if I were stupid for even asking. With a quirk of an eyebrow and bemused tilt of Jax’s lip, the demon started walking again.

  I took a deep breath and followed after it. “But that’s not what I meant, anyway. I’m talking about Jax.”

  “You’re inquiring if I will relinquish control.”

  I nodded. It was all I could manage. The thought of dying before I’d even had much of a chance to actually live terrified me. But not as much as knowing Jax would be lost as well—that was, gone completely. If I died I knew he’d never be the same. If I were in his shoes, I would crumble. There wouldn’t be a way to come back from that. But he was stronger than me. That fact was a small comfort as I faced the bleak circumstance ahead. The only thing left to hope was that the demon would give him back his body.

  “If we fail and you die—” Jax’s cell sounded, a heavy, grinding guitar solo from one of his favorite bands. Azirak fished the phone from his pocket and put it to Jax’s ear. The call was short, and the demon said nothing to whoever was on the other end. When he hung up, he turned to me. “You will not die, Samantha Merrick. They have located the human, Fakori.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Jax/Azirak

  The Fakori descendant wasn’t far from Harlow. After Azi hung up with its informant, it dialed another clan member and told it where to pick us up. The car had just arrived, driven by a blond-haired female demon who looked extremely unhappy. It wasn’t the only one.

  “I can’t believe I’m willingly getting into a car driven by a demon,” Sam said as the vehicle pulled over to the side of the road. “Somewhere in hell, it’s snowing.”

  “It does not snow in hell,” Azi retorted.

  Idiot. I gave a verbal sneer. It’s an expression.r />
  “I am aware,” it responded. Stepping up to the car to open the door, the demon moved aside and gestured for Sam to get into the backseat.

  She hesitated, probably wondering why the demon was talking to itself. “Huh?”

  “Jax,” it said. I felt the awkwardness as it said my name. “He finds me—”

  “Annoying?” Sam supplied as Azi lowered my body into the passenger’s seat. “Foul, manipulative, murderous?”

  Azi laughed. “I imagine so.” The car rolled back onto the road. “You forget that I did not ask for this. I am imprisoned here. Shackled to this plain, to this mortal, until he dies. And then, the cycle will begin again. My torture is unending.”

  “Torture which you deserve,” she said, justified.

  Anger flooded me, and I worried Sam would push the demon too far. My own rage was tenuous, balanced on the edge of a knife at any given moment. Azirak’s was far more combustible. Easier to incite.

  “It is my nature to conquer. To dominate. You know nothing of the war or the incident that caused it. We were justified in our attacks.”

  “To be honest, I couldn’t care less. What matters to me is Jax and the affect you have on him. I know it’s not your fault—that you had no choice. And from what I’ve seen, you’re not the most horrible demon in the world. But you hurt him. Whether you mean to or not, you cause him pain.”

  “That is not my intention. I simply desire to exist.” The demon cast a sidelong glance at the female driving the car. “And to see my clan flourish.” It wasn’t the truth, yet it wasn’t a lie, either.

  Sam must have taken the hint. With one of Azi’s clan members in the car, bringing up the future, or its plans about what to do with her, was a bad idea. We needed their help.

  We pulled up alongside the curb of a small yellow Cape Cod style cottage just after one in the afternoon. Chase put the cuff on Sam somewhere around midnight. That left eleven hours. If this went off without a hitch, then we were golden. Sam would be fine, and Malphi could live.

  For now.

  “This is it?” Sam whispered as she got out of the car. “This is where Fakori’s descendant lives?”

  Azirak nodded in confirmation, then turned to the female demon. “Wait for us here.”

  We made our way up the foliage-lined walk. When we reached the door, Sam went to knock, but it was already opened. A tendril of gray rose into the air as Azirak shouldered her aside and pushed into the house.

  With each step my sense of dread grew. I wasn’t alone. Azi was agitated, what I’d come to interpret as the demonic equivalent of worried. Through the living room and into the hall, there was nothing obviously out of place. No signs of struggle—until we reached the kitchen.

  Sam let out an anguished howl and threw herself forward. She landed on her knees in a growing pool of blood beside an older man. “Do something,” she screamed. She lifted the man’s shoulders off the ground, pulling him up and cradling him close. “Don’t let him die!”

  The demon knelt across from her. I felt its remorse. “It is too late. The human is dead.”

  “Find another,” Sam demanded. Tears streaked her face. “Get on the phone. Call your clan. Find another Fakori.”

  The demon shook my head. “There is no other. David Fakori was the last of his line.”

  Sam opened her mouth but no sound came. The tears began streaming freely down her cheeks and I lost it. Agreement forgotten, I pushed for control. I couldn’t see her like that, on the verge of falling apart, and do nothing. She needed me.

  The demon fought me at first, but it didn’t last. Sam let out a wail and fell back against the counter, and Azirak moved aside. It hated that she was in pain, and knew I was the only one who’d be able to help.

  “Sammy.” I dove forward, my knee slipping in the blood, and caught her before she toppled sideways. “Don’t,” I whispered, pulling her close. “We still have time.”

  “There’s time,” she agreed, between sobs. “But no options. This was my last feasible chance.”

  “No. Michael said—”

  She pulled away and faced me, eyes cold and full of fury. “You had him killed,” she spat.

  “Sammy, what—” And then I understood. Azirak. She was talking to the demon. I shook my head and grabbed her hands. “It wasn’t Azi. I’d know. It wasn’t—”

  “You never did like playing by the rules, brother.” From the other end of the room, Chase walked into the kitchen. The front of his shirt and jeans were covered in blood. “I couldn’t allow cheating.”

  Sam let out an agonized howl and launched herself upright. She dove for him, and, surprised, I wasn’t able to grab in her time. “The world ends if Jax kills you,” she screamed. “I’m free to do what I want.”

  Chase let her pin him against the counter. He even let her grab the butcher knife next to the sink and hold it to his throat. With an amused chuckle, he said, “Looks like the cuff is doing a number on you, Samantha.” He pointed to the clock above the door. “Time’s running out. You should focus on Malphi—something you should have done in the first place.”

  The knife broke through his skin as Sam shook with rage. Part of it was mine, feeding her actions through the link, but there was a portion of it that was all hers. After years of carrying a feeling of helplessness, reliving the night her parents were killed, she’d reached a breaking point. Pushed by the situation, or simply by the culmination of everything that had happened over the last few months, the seams of her control were ripping.

  “Take it off,” she growled.

  Chase only laughed. “This side of you is damn sexy, Samantha, and while it’s hard to resist you, I’m going to have to decline.” In a swift movement he had their positions reversed, minus the knife. “But if you don’t wish to eliminate Malphi, you can allow me to claim you and I’ll remove the cuff.”

  I jumped to my feet and wrapped my fingers around a handful of his shirt. Hauling him back, I slammed him into the far wall.

  He clucked his tongue, never losing his smile. “Don’t do it. You might not care about the fate of the world, Jax, but you kill me and she’s dead, too.”

  Azi raged inside me, flashing scene after scene—multiple, bloody ways to take Chase out. I felt the urge hum through every part of my body. It vibrated deep inside, waking something I kept buried deep. The borderline euphoric feeling that his death promised lingered just within my reach. All it would take was a single move. An instantaneous act that meant freedom from the pain and guilt I’d grown up with. Forget about Zenak. Screw Azirak. Chase might be my brother, but he was a bad person. And I fed on bad people, right? A part of me was terrified at the ease with which my mind justified it all. But it was more complicated than that.

  If I killed him, Sam would die.

  If I didn’t kill him, Malphi would have to die.

  “Jax!”

  My grip loosened and I stepped away. Chase beamed, an expression full of smug satisfaction. He was untouchable and knew it. “That’s better,” he said, glancing up at the clock. “There’s still time, Jax. You can still save her.”

  I backed away, feeling more helpless than I ever had. I would find Malphi. I would try to kill it. But I wouldn’t succeed. I knew now that the hold Azirak had over me wasn’t something I could compete with. I could fight the monster. Most of the time, I could win. But when it came to Malphi, I had no delusions. Azirak would not allow its mate to die.

  “Sammy,” I said. My throat felt thick. “Let’s go.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Sam

  Jax took my hand and led me through the house. It was all a blur. I looked down at myself and saw that my jeans were stained with red. The blood of a stranger, someone like me, caught in the crossfire of a war we had no stake in. He’d been killed simply because the blood that flowed through him could have saved my life. He hadn’t deserved this…

  We emerged from the house to find the female demon still waiting. The last thing I wanted was to get in that car. I was ou
t of options, hours away from dying. I didn’t want to spend my remaining moments on Earth with a demon.

  At least, not that demon.

  When we reached the car, I stopped and turned to Jax. “I don’t want to die.” The words came out so low that I thought maybe he didn’t hear me. “Please, don’t let me go. I just—we—I’ll do anything to stay.”

  The agony in his expression stole my breath. The corner of his eyes glistened as he sucked in a breath. He grabbed my face, fingers digging into the skin. “I’ll kill the bitch, Sammy. I will.”

  It wasn’t me he was trying to convince though. It was himself. I shook my head. “No, Jax. You won’t.”

  I watched it happen. He shattered before me, throwing his head back and letting out a scream that could have chilled the arctic. The sound blasted right through me. I felt it from the tips of my toes to the bottom of every strand of hair. Balling his fist tight, Jax slammed it down against the roof of the car, caving the side in almost a foot. Our demonic chauffer said nothing.

  I waited for his breathing to even out then gingerly took his hand. He was bleeding. The torn metal had sliced the pinkie side of his palm in an ugly gash. “I don’t know much about being a Pure.” My heart thundered inside my chest. The words came without thought. “I’ve seen what—what they can do. Demons. The ways they try to break you down to get what they want.” The memory of what I’d watched them do to my mother when I was a child was permanently burned into my brain. “I can’t—if they find me before I… Whoever gets to me will have the ability to lay claim. I don’t know if I have the strength to hold out. You should do it first. Before it comes down to torture…”

  His eyes widened. “What—”

  “The angel said she would remove the cuff if I allowed her to claim me. That she could remove the cuff.” I moved closer to him, taking comfort in his warmth. “You can get this thing off.”

  “If the situation is right.” He repeated Michael’s words. A small ember of hope burned inside me. But Jax didn’t share my enthusiasm. He shook his head and took a step away from me. “Don’t forget that if I do it, Azirak gains control over you. We don’t know what will happen. You could—”