On Midnight Wings

44 AS LOST AS I GET BATON ROUGE DOUCET-BAINBRIDGE SANITARIUM

WITH A SOFT, PAINED groan, Heather opened her eyes. She was on the floor in a corridor filled with soft red light. Emergency lighting, a more alert part of brain pointed out helpfully. With another groan, she shut her eyes again. Her head throbbed. She tasted blood at the back of her throat.

Where am I? And why the hell am I on the floor?

She rolled her thoughts backward. Texas. The man who used to be her father. The SB and Little Rock. Caterina Cortini. The rest stop. The Fallen-marked sanitarium—

Catin. Pardonne-moi.

Heather’s eyes snapped open again. “Dante,” she whispered, remembering exactly why she was on the floor, why her head felt like a coconut being pounded non-stop against a rock, why she no longer felt the hereherehere tug of the bond.

Dante had severed it.

And she hoped, prayed, wished with all she had, that he’d done so deliberately. Otherwise, it meant—

“No,” Heather growled, pushing herself into a sitting position. Pain pulsed at her temples, then faded. “No. No. No.”

The fact that she was still alive gave her hope that Dante was, as well. She was a novice where bonds were concerned—how they were made or what happened when they were unmade, but she suspected that, as a mortal, she might not survive his actual death.

Yet her traitorous mind offered a possible scenario: What if Dante severed the bond prior to death—a death he knew was coming—in order to keep her alive?

Catin. Pardonne-moi.

Heather closed her stinging eyes, refusing the tears, refusing the hard knot of grief in her chest, refusing to believe he could be gone. “Not giving up on you, Baptiste,” she rasped through a throat gone so tight, it ached. “I know you’re alive. You have to be. So you hang on. Hear me? Hang on.”

I refuse to be too late.

Opening her eyes, Heather wiped at them with angry swipes from the heel of her hand, before picking her Glock up from the floor. She rose to her feet, one hand to the wall to steady herself, wincing as a bolt of hot pain shot up from her twisted ankle. Her headache returned with her increase in altitude.

Neither would stop her. Nothing could.

Heather limped down the silent, red-lit corridor, the hair prickling on the back of her neck, her sense of horror deepening with each step she took.

Dear God. What the hell happened?

Or maybe the correct question was: Who the hell happened.

She found her answer on the third floor, in air thick with the coppery reek of blood and the ever-thickening stink of death.

Even in the dim lighting, there was no mistaking the dark smears and spatters and Rorschach splashes on the walls and floor for anything other than blood. No mistaking the forms—black-suited agents and medical staff in green scrubs, male and female—sprawled and curled like pill bugs on the polished tile. And Heather didn’t need to crouch beside the bodies for a closer look to see how they had been killed.

Each had died beneath sharp, sharp nails or fangs or merciless, pale hands.

Oh, Dante, oh, cher. Looks like you made sure no one had time or voice enough to stop you through your programming—whether they knew how or not.

A few of the agents had died with fingers locked around the grips of their guns, and judging by the faint and fading scent of cordite beneath the thick smell of blood, more than one had gotten off a few shots.

She hoped none had hit their target.

They brought him here. They had to know what could happen if he slipped their leash of drugs and pain and mental torture. They brought him here against his will. They got what they deserved.

As Heather’s gaze skipped from the black-suited bodies to the crumpled and bloodied forms in green scrubs, she realized she might be wrong, that not all had deserved what they’d received. Then she spotted syringes filled with a dark reddish substance, clutched between the stiffening fingers of two of the slaughtered medical team, and her sympathy drained away.

What do you want to bet that’s the dragon’s blood tree resin Von told me about? The True Blood poison that’s keeping Dante from healing at best and slowly killing him at worst. So much for do not harm.

Doors stood open at either side of the corridor, some lying flush against the wall as though flung or ripped open. Noticing a trail of bloody footprints leading from the nearest cell to the one across from it, then to the next, the dark prints disappearing into shadows stained red by the emergency lights, Heather felt the cold tingle of fear against her spine.

I think he’s had all he can take, doll . . .

Dante’s voice, low and husky, raw with emotion he kept shoving aside, whispered through her memory, words from another time, another place of slaughter.

Run from me. Run as far as you can.

Heather’s throat tightened. Oh, cher. What have you done?

But she already knew the answer to that: whatever he’d needed to survive. Just as she’d wished and prayed he would.

Hang on, Baptiste. Please.

Stepping past and around the bodies, Heather moved with caution, Glock held in both hands, her finger resting on the trigger. In the eerie silence, the quiet tread of her shoe soles against the tiled floor sounded as loud—to her, anyway—as those of a weekend hiker lumbering through crackling, summer-dried underbrush.

Heather winced, wishing she could move nightkind-silent, but doubted it would make any difference even if she could. Whichever one of the Fallen was keeping Dante company had probably heard the rapid beat of her heart the moment she’d crawled into the sigil-etched building.

And knew precisely where she was.

So what were they waiting for—applause? What Fallen game had she stumbled into?

Which brought up even more troubling questions: Why was Dante still here in this place of nightmare and blood and torture? Why hadn’t he been scooped up by his winged “rescuer” and flown back to Gehenna already?

One possibility stopped her cold, rooted her feet to the floor.

Maybe they had. Maybe Dante was in Gehenna right now. Without the bond, she wouldn’t know. She could be searching for someone who was no longer here.

Or worse, no longer breathing.

Heather closed her eyes, pulse pounding at her temples. Despite the cold fingers closed around her heart, she knew Dante was alive. And something deep inside of her, maybe an intuitive knowing, maybe some fundamental change Dante had unintentionally made when healing her in D.C., whispered over and over: He’s here.

Heather choose to believe that whisper. Opening her eyes, she resumed her search.

When she reached the first open cell door, she saw Dante slumped on the floor at the far end of the hall, his pale skin gleaming like moonlight in the gloom. Faint red light glinted from the ring in his collar. He rested on his side, one arm half curled beneath his head.

Her breath caught in her throat, a near sob.

The next thing Heather knew, she was dropping to her knees beside him, the Glock once again tucked into her jeans beneath her sweater, her trembling hands smoothing his blood-sticky and sweat-damp hair back from his face. She had no memory of crossing the corridor, no memory of moving at all. But that didn’t matter.

She’d found Dante—her North Star, her nightkind of fire and twilight, her man.

“Baptiste,” she whispered, bending to kiss his lips, his forehead. The icy feel of his skin shocked her. “I’m here, cher. I’m here.”

She placed her hand over his chest and didn’t release her breath until she felt the slow, reassuring thump of his heart beneath her palm. His fevered heat was gone and Heather knew that couldn’t be good. Blood oozed from his nose. Spattered his pale, beautiful face. Stained his lips. His expression was worlds—galaxies—away from peaceful.

Blood grimed his fingers, smeared his hands, and streaked his forearms. Heather thought of the bodies littering the floor, thought of the footprints marking a wet, dark path from door to door, and she blinked furiously, eyes burning.

I feel like I’m running out of time, catin.

No and no and no.

Heather’s jaw clenched when she saw the bullet wound right above his heart, half healed and trickling blood, and thought of the man who’d put it there.

May the bastard rot in hell.

Remembering her dream/vision of Dante running up flights of stairs with a red-haired girl wearing a Winnie-the-Pooh sweater and black paper wings in his arms, Heather stiffened. She scanned the corridor anxiously.

Violet. Where was Violet?

Heather refused to believe that history had repeated itself and that Violet now lay in a pool of blood, blue eyes wide open and empty like those of the little girl he’d killed and who haunted his heart, his long-lost Chloe.

He’d been only a boy then, little more than a child, abused and manipulated by adults—both mortal and nightkind—driven by instincts and a hunger he didn’t understand and had no idea how to control.

Dante was no longer a boy, no longer a shattered child. He was a man of quiet strength and fierce loyalty. He would never hurt Violet. No matter how lost he got, no matter how far he fell. She returned her gaze to Dante, brushed the backs of her fingers against his smooth, icy cheek.

As lost as I get, I will find you, Heather. Always.

“You’d better,” Heather said, each word scraping free from a too-tight throat. “I’m holding you to that, Baptiste. Come back, damn you. Come back to me.”

Eyes burning, Heather dug her borrowed cell phone out of her jeans pocket. Disappointment curled through her. No calls had come in while she’d been passed out on the floor. Meaning no one had heard from Lucien yet. But given the time displayed on the screen, it was nearly sunset. Dante would be waking soon.

The question was: would soon be soon enough?

So far, Heather had seen no sign of the fallen angel responsible for the parking lot spell and sigils. For all she knew, he or she could be watching her right now. Could she afford to wait until Dante awakened? Her gaze returned to the wound above his heart. Her fingers curled against her palms, nails biting into the skin. And if his injuries prevented him from waking up?

I don’t think I can afford to wait. The dragon’s blood tree sap isn’t the only thing poisoning him. This place and all the twisted memories it holds is twice as toxic.

She’d find blankets in one of the cells and use them to shield Dante from the sun. If she worked it right, she should be able to lift Dante in a fireman’s carry. Getting to her feet with his weight draped across her shoulders would be another problem altogether. Not for the first time, she was grateful that he was five-nine and not six-two. She would just have to hope that determination, desperation, and adrenaline would be enough.

It’ll have to be.

And if it wasn’t? If her injured ankle refused to hold?

Then, when Dante awakened at twilight, he would find her beside him. Now that she’d found him again, she wouldn’t leave him. Not even to save her own ass. Which would piss Dante off if he knew.

So let him get pissed off. We’re in this together. Side by side and back to back.

Tucking the cell phone back into her pocket, Heather was preparing to rise to her feet to begin her search for blankets when a familiar and totally unexpected voice drawled, “I go to fetch my heart and put it back where it belongs—an action only necessary due to my regretful underestimation of the creawdwr’s paranoia—and lo and behold, who do I find waiting upon my return but the lovely Heather Wallace.”

Hair prickling at the back of her neck, Heather looked up. Von stood across the corridor, arms folded over his chest, a grin parting his mustache-framed lips. But Von’s green gaze had never been that darkly gleeful, never that calculating, his words never so formal.

“I don’t know who you are,” she stated quietly, “but I do know you’re not Von.”

The grin widened. “Well, shit. So far this shape has fooled no one.” The imposter rubbed his chest, a rueful expression on his face as he glanced at Dante. “Call me Loki. Yes”—he sighed, clearly anticipating the question—“that Loki.”

Heather swung one knee over Dante’s body, protectively straddling his Sleeping form, as she pulled the Glock from beneath her sweater and lifted it in one smooth motion. She knew that bullets of any caliber were practically worthless against the Fallen, even as a distraction, but still wanted the reassuring grip of the gun in her hand, no matter how illusory that reassurance might be.

Loki grinned, approval gleaming in his eyes. “What a fierce little guard dog. Loyal. Protective. A one-woman rescue team. No wonder the creawdwr bonded you.”

Heather kept her face still. He doesn’t know what Dante’s done. And I think I just discovered one of the reasons he found it necessary.

“You have no business wearing Von’s face. Afraid to show your own?”

Loki laughed, as delighted as though she were a dancing hamster in a pink tutu.

She took that as a no.

I know from my Norse mythology classes in college that Loki was a shape-shifter, but can all Fallen change shapes?

“No,” came the drawled reply. A disquieting reply in Von’s familiar voice. “Only a special few of us possess that particular talent . . . darlin’.”

Heather tightened her shields. Her lips compressed into a grim line. Bastard had read her thoughts. She needed to make sure that she kept her shields up and reinforced at all times. Her life—and Dante’s—might depend on it.

“And speaking of special talents”—Loki tilted his head and studied her with Von’s green eyes, now crow-bright—“how did you get past my spells?”

“Without a bit of difficulty,” she retorted, keeping the Glock aimed at the heart beating beneath Loki’s idly rubbing fingertips. “Others are on their way,” she lied—well, a partial lie. She had no idea when or if Lucien would show up, but fervently wished it would be sooner rather than later—“An entire army of nightkind, Fallen, and mortals. You still have time to escape. Just leave Dante and go.”

The green eyes flicked down at Dante. Mingled fear and excitement danced there for a split second, bright embers, there and gone so quickly Heather wasn’t even sure she’d seen anything at all.

“You think I want to escape?” he whispered, lifting his gaze to hers. No fear, no excitement, no bright embers.

“If you’re smart, yes.”

Loki chuckled, a sound lacking warmth or humor. “And what would one little mortal know of ‘smart’? Or of Elohim desires?” He offered her a mock sympathetic smile. “No doubt you even think you understand Dante.”

Heather’s chin lifted as she held his gaze. But she kept silent, deciding to save her breath. Nothing she said would make any difference to this shape-shifting, egotistical bastard anyway.

Despite the slaughter surrounding her, she knew who Dante was, knew his heart.

But even the strongest heart can break.

Heather’s throat constricted. Yes. Oh, yes. And that was why she needed to get him out of here and somewhere safe before that happened.

And if it already has?

Heather shoved the disquieting thought aside. Not now.

“I’m betting you think that when Dante awakens, he’s going to be the vampire—excuse me, apologies—nightkind he was when he went to Sleep, broken and haunted and full of suppressed rage, am I right?” Loki asked, a slow grin parting his lips. He continued without waiting for Heather’s reply; his knowing, arrogant words had her tightening her grip on the Glock. “If so, you’d be wrong. Very, very wrong.”

“I don’t think so, you son of a bitch,” Heather replied, her voice Arctic ice. “I know Dante.”

“And that will be the death of you,” Loki said, voice flat, his grin gone. His form rippled, like wind-stirred water, became fluid. When he spoke, his voice flowed from masculine tones to feminine and all registers in between. “It won’t be your Dante who awakens—not at all.”

I feel like I’m running out of time, catin.

I think he’s had all he can take, doll.

“Bullshit,” Heather declared, her voice rough and low, unsure who she was trying to convince—Loki or herself.

Liquid, musical laughter filled the corridor, followed by words Heather suspected had been stolen from Dante’s mind. “Keep telling yourself that.”

“Bastard.” She glanced down, unsettled by the sudden fluidity of Loki’s shape. After a moment, she risked a look up and her heart lodged in her throat at who Loki had become. Dark brown eyes full of mischief, milk-white face framed by silken black hair, cupid’s-bow lips curved into a wicked and knowing grin. His frost and burning leaves scent perfumed the air.

Dante—but minus his heart, his warmth.

“Hey, catin.”

“You need to work on your Cajun accent. You sound nothing like him,” Heather lied, chilled by just how much he did sound like Dante.

The grin widened, revealed fangs. “I believe he would say ‘bullshit’ to that.”

“I believe he’d tear your heart out again, play a little kickball with it.”

“Not quite twilight, chèrie. Looks like we have a little time. Whaddaya say we get to know each other a little better?”

Heather’s hands tightened around the Glock, desperation and despair pouring through her in equal measure. How the hell do I keep a fallen angel away? “You’re not going to win any points with Dante—”

Heather’s words died in her throat as Loki dissolved into a blur of motion that ended with him bending over her, his face—Dante’s face—three inches from her own.

“I think he’s going to be too busy unraveling the world to worry about me,” he whispered. A golden fire lit his eyes. “Besides, I’m not exactly interested in winning points.”

Heather squeezed the Glock’s trigger and kept squeezing, emptying the magazine of its ten remaining rounds. The gunshots boomed and roared in the close confines, echoing like cannon fire down the corridor, and leaving her ears ringing. Dark blood bloomed in a tightly spaced circle of wounds just beneath Loki-as-Dante’s pale sternum. Wounds already healing.

The dark brows slanted down. “Ow,” he growled, wrenching the Glock from Heather’s grip and tossing it down the corridor to clatter against the floor tiles. “That actually hurt.”

“Good. It’ll hurt even more when Dante—”

Loki-as-Dante pressed taloned fingertips against Heather’s temples. The lightning storm scent of ozone crackled into the air. The hair lifted on her arms, the back of her neck. Her skin tingled beneath his talons. Fear iced her spine, stole her breath. A smile tilted the oh-so familiar lips.

“I like a good fight, catin. So keep it going,” Loki murmured in Dante’s voice. “I hope you’re telling the truth about others being on their way—especially the Elohim. I feel in a mood for a little chat with my brethren. But first, let’s learn all about you.”

Let me in, chère. Let me in.

Electricity surged through Heather’s mind, a mushroom cloud of devastating white light. Her shields blew apart, Tinker-toys caught in a nuclear wind, and darkness—eager and gleeful—rushed inside. She felt her body convulse, no longer under her control. She couldn’t even scream.

But she tried. Again and again.