The Darkest Touch

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Something had swirled its way inside Angelique, consuming her with evil from the inside out.

She knew the demon within her had been pressing hard to break free. Desperate to get to Isabelle, she’d allowed the sensations to envelop her, hoping they would give her some insight into what was going on with her sister. But she’d hurt Ryder in the process, and that was unacceptable. That had stopped her cold, frightened her. The capacity for what she could do. .

Dear God help her.

Fighting the sweet malevolence-it was so strong, so easy to let it run wild-she tamped it down, forcing it back to the recesses, like shutting a prison cell door. It was still there-she could see it-but for now, it was contained.

Relief filled her. She could master this evil inside her. At least for now.

“I’m sorry.” She let go of his arm, hating that she could already see the dark imprint of her hand there. He was strong-muscular. It took a lot for her to mark him. “Ryder, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean that.”

“It’s okay.” He cupped her cheek, his tenderness more than she deserved. He seemed more worried than angry. “You’re upset and you need to see Isabelle. I’d fight anyone who got in the way of someone I loved.”

She nodded, grateful for his forgiveness when she couldn’t forgive herself. Her stomach twisted in pain. How could she hurt him? Did Ryder see his father in her, in what she’d just done? She’d been so cold, had known what she was doing, what she’d said to him, what she’d done to him. . and yet she hadn’t stopped.

No. She had stopped. That was the difference. She had stopped it, right?

“Don’t,” Ryder warned, his gaze narrowing as if he knew her train of thought. “I love you. You’re desperate to get to your sister. And I’m a tough guy. I can take what you dish out.”

“Is everything okay?” Michael hustled up beside them.

Ryder nodded. “Fine. We’re just strategizing the approach to going through that smoke and had a disagreement about the best way to handle it. Angie wanted to barge through it and I convinced her we needed to think this out first. But it’s her sister-you know how it is.”

He wasn’t going to tell Michael about what she’d just done. She so didn’t deserve Ryder’s faith in her.

“I understand. But Ryder’s right. You needed to wait for the rest of us so we can push in together. You don’t know what’s on the other side.”

Yes, she did know what was on the other side. Isabelle, surrounded by demons. Demons that would protect her sister.

Stress. Extreme duress seemed to bring out the demon in her. She made a mental note to be stronger next time, to be aware of what was happening before she lost control. She had to get a handle on this demon thing or it would consume her.

She was never going to hurt Ryder again.

Nevertheless, she nodded. “Of course. I’m sorry, it’s just that I’ve been waiting so long to get her back and I’m worried.”

“Don’t be. We’re almost there,” Michael said.

Ryder slid his hand around her waist, pulling her against him. “We’ll be fine.”

“I know.” She loved that it was “we,” not just “she.”

“You got control now?”

“Yes.” She wasn’t going to let that demon out again. Not at the risk of hurting Ryder or the others.

“Don’t be afraid to play with the demon,” he whispered in her ear. “I’ve got your back, and you may need to use that strong blood inside you.”

She tilted her head back. “Are you sure? I don’t know if I can control it yet.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you.”

Her eyes drifted closed for a second. “I love you, Ryder.”

Angelique took a deep breath and prayed that she’d find something left of the Isabelle she knew and loved when they stepped through the mist.

Michael led the way. It was obvious that the smoke wasn’t made by their weapon fire alone. It had to have been manufactured by the Sons of Darkness.

They were outside, definitely. Angelique inhaled the odor of wet grass, of dirt; she felt the chill of night. She was stuck in the middle of all the hunters, so she followed blindly, not knowing what she’d see on the other side.

She had always loved the dark, never minded working alone in a cave by herself or on any dig all alone. Now the dark unnerved her. Demons hid in the darkness.

The glasses she wore were very cool, though. Kind of like being able to visualize clearly in a blue light way. Though nothing showed up in color, everything she saw was very sharp.

The smoke began to clear. She still didn’t know where they were. No landmarks, just thick woods. Trees, bushes, no distinct path.

She swiveled around, struck by something so compelling it caused a sharp pain in her stomach.

There, down the path, stood Isabelle.

She looked the same and yet different. She was dressed all in black, a long gown covering her completely. It flowed around her as if it were alive. And her eyes appeared darker, more. . menacing.

Angelique shivered, hoping she was just imagining some transformation in her sister that didn’t exist. She scanned the area around Izzy. At her sister’s feet, the black diamond-glowing with a pulsing light, stronger than it ever had been before.

She had to see her, touch her. She had to know.

“Izzy.”

“Angelique, wait.”

She heard Ryder’s voice behind her, but she didn’t heed it. The pull toward her sister, toward the black diamond, was too strong.

Isabelle held her arms out and smiled, and Angelique ran, her boots digging in the hard dirt in time to the rapid pounding of her heartbeat. She had to hurry, because she knew the hunters were right on her heels.

She flew into Izzy’s arms, pulling her close. Isabelle wrapped her arms around her and held tight. Angelique hugged her sister close, burying her face in her hair.

“Are you all right?”

Isabelle didn’t answer. It was then that Angelique paused long enough to realize how cold Isabelle’s skin was. Even through her clothes, her sister felt like ice.

Like death.

Angelique pulled back, and gasped.

There was no life in Isabelle’s eyes. Red, glowing, only malice reflected in her sister’s once beautiful, lightfilled eyes.

“Oh, Izzy. What have they done to you?”

Isabelle lips curled, her teeth showing the beginnings of fangs. “They’ve done nothing to me, Angie, other than make me perfect. They’ll do the same for you if you come with me.”

Angelique heard the hunters stop behind her, knew they had weapons raised, knew they saw what she did.

Isabelle seethed with evil, as if snakes crawled over her sister’s skin. Angelique could swear she heard hissing. Her own skin crawled and she shuddered, her stomach turning.

Her sister was a demon. Fully and wholly demon.

No! She refused to believe it. She wouldn’t let Izzy go that easily.

“Isabelle, please. I know you’re still in there, that there’s warmth and humanity inside you. Come back with me.”

The black diamond at Isabelle’s feet hummed, as if growling a warning at Angelique.

“I belong here, Angie. The Sons of Darkness are my people, my family.”

As soon as she said it, men materialized. Ten of them, dressed all in black, appeared behind Isabelle. They towered over her, their faces devoid of emotion, their eyes black and lacking any soul or humanity.

The Sons of Darkness.

All around them, demons came forward, out of the darkness, out of nowhere, surrounding them. Purebreds, and those Angelique and Ryder had battled back at the cottage-the ones with the glowing blue eyes and mist surrounding them. Angelique held her breath against the force of such evil in one place. It was palpable, suffocating her.

One of the Sons of Darkness moved forward, and Angelique took a quick step back. He radiated such tremendous heat the hairs on her arms felt singed.

Isabelle didn’t even flinch when he wrapped his arm around her waist. Her smile widened.

“Angelique. How nice of you to come back to us.”

In an instant, Ryder was at her side, his weapon pointed at the demon Lord. “Back off,” he said. He started to pull her away, but Angelique refused to budge.

“No, it’s okay. I’m fine here.”

The demon Lord’s lips curled upward. “She doesn’t want to go with you, hunter. She wishes to remain with her sister.”

“She doesn’t want anything to do with you fuckers.”

Ryder tugged at Angelique again, but she didn’t move. Didn’t he understand how important it was that she remove her sister first?

“Ryder, please. I have to get Isabelle.”

“Tase. Take her,” Isabelle said.

The one Isabelle called Tase laughed. “She’ll come to us, my queen.”

His queen? Oh, no. Angelique couldn’t allow this.

Dalton moved past Angelique and Ryder, even closer than Angelique had been to Tase. That heat must be unbearable, yet Dalton didn’t even flinch. He ignored Tase, focusing only on Izzy.

“Isabelle.”

Recognition seemed to flicker in Isabelle’s eyes for a fraction of a second, but she resumed staring straight ahead again.

“You can’t keep her, Tase. She’s not one of you,” Dalton said, reaching his hand out to Isabelle. “Come on, Isabelle. Come with me.”

Isabelle tilted her head and frowned at Dalton.

Oh, please, please, let her go with Dalton.

“No!” Tase said, his voice thundering in the darkness. “She is ours.”

Whatever influence Tase had on Izzy was too strong. She straightened and her eyes went vacant again. But for a moment, Dalton had reached her. That gave Angelique hope.

Izzy was still in there.

Angelique tugged on Dalton’s shirt to get his attention, then on Ryder’s, drawing them away. “I need to push her. I have to do something to make her see me. . really see me.”

“You might have a fight on your hands,” Ryder countered.

She nodded, realizing what he meant. “I know.”

“Can you handle it?”

“I can pull back when I need to. Trust me?”

He didn’t even hesitate. “Yes. Do it.”

“I’ll back you up,” Dalton said. “She’s not lost.”

Bless him, she so needed to hear that. She grabbed Dalton’s hand and squeezed it.

“I’ll let the others know,” Dalton said. “We’ll take on the Sons of Darkness and their demons. You deal with your sister.”

She nodded as Dalton inched away, then turned to Ryder. “Don’t let them kill her. Not until I’ve tried everything I can.”

“I’ll do what I can, darlin’.”

That was all she could ask for.

Angelique kept her focus on Tase, Isabelle, and the demons. They seemed to be waiting, as if they knew the hunters were going to attack, were going to try to rescue Isabelle. It was as if they had planned this.

Perhaps they had. Maybe they thought the Realm of Light was no threat, that they could be easily defeated and Angelique could be taken, would do anything to be reunited with her sister.

They were wrong.

She’d kill Isabelle herself before she allowed her sister to become a part of the Sons of Darkness. The realization was like a knife in her heart. But she would do it. She’d never let her sister live as a demon. Isabelle wouldn’t want that. Not the Izzy she knew and loved.

Angelique just prayed it wouldn’t come to that.

Ryder and Dalton reappeared at her side. Dalton gave her a slight nod and she exhaled, taking comfort in the hunters having her back.

Now if only she could win this battle. No, she had to win. Isabelle’s life depended on it. She straightened her shoulders and looked at her sister, using the tone she’d always used when Isabelle had done something wrong.

“Isabelle, enough of this. It’s over. You’re coming with me, now.”

“She’s not listening,” Tase replied. “She’s under our influence.”

“The lady isn’t talking to you,” Ryder said, leveling his weapon.

Tase raised his hand and the demons moved forward, in front of the Lords.

Angelique shuddered a breath. She had to focus only on her sister, not what was about to happen around her.

“Dalton and I’ll protect you. You get to Isabelle,” Ryder said, then he and Dalton pulled away and began to fight.

Angelique tried to call up whatever this demon blood was within her. But could she bring it out at will? She’d tried before, and failed. If she was unsuccessful now, she’d lose Isabelle-she was certain of it.

Everything happened at once. The demons rushed, but Angelique had to focus past them. Dalton and Ryder fired their lasers, and it was like a skirmish on a battlefield. Angelique raised her weapons, positioning herself behind the hunters as they pressed forward to battle the demons.

Smoke, bodies, and the rush of warrior against warrior filled her field of vision as demons battled hunters. The purebreds were fast, but without physical contact they were no match for the hunters’ weaponry. They fell and melted to the ground. The other ones, the newer type of demons, Dalton and Ryder handled with the new guns outfitted with silver bullets. Angelique tried to stay out of the way as they fired on the creatures, ignoring their howls of pain as the three of them barreled ahead in order to make their way to Isabelle.

Angelique pivoted around Ryder and fired to his side, killing one of the new demons. As soon as she did, another came up around her and she blasted that one, too.

Now she understood what Ryder felt-this love of killing. Every time one fell, she felt a surge of victory, a thrill that she had taken one down. But more kept coming.

Anger that these creatures were keeping her from her sister made her blood run hot. And the more that fury boiled up inside her, the more the demon lurking just beneath her skin wanted out.

Which was exactly the result she wanted to achieve by the time they cleared the demons and landed in front of Isabelle again. She wasn’t even out of breath. She was charged, energized, filled with fury, and ready to burst. She tapped into that frustration and anger and let it free.

“Let her go,” she demanded of Tase.

He released his arm from around Isabelle. “Go to your sister,” he said to Izzy. “Convince her to join us.”

Isabelle seemed to float forward, her smile not connected to her eyes. Her gaze still bore that vacant look, as if the sister Angelique knew and loved wasn’t in the shell of her body.

But when Isabelle stopped only inches from her, her eyes cleared, and her smile was genuine. “Angie.”

Hope sprang. Had Isabelle broken free of their control or was it a trick?

“Is it you?”

Izzy nodded. “Of course. I’m still me.”

Angelique reached for Isabelle’s hands. Icy cold. “Please leave them and come with me.”

Izzy shook her head, her smile serene. “I don’t want to. Don’t you understand? I’m happy here.”

“You don’t know what you’re saying. They have you under some kind of spell.”

Isabelle laughed. “No, they don’t. I’m with them because I want to be here. don’t you see? This is where I belong, where I’ve always belonged.”

Angelique shook her head. “You don’t belong with them. You’re not a demon.”

“I am. I feel it inside me.” Isabelle fisted her hands and pulled them up to her breastbone. “There’s this rush of power I always knew was there, but I couldn’t bring it out. When I touched the black diamond. . it knew. It welcomed me and let my power soar free.”

Angelique fought the frustration threatening to send her spiraling into tears. She had to remain steady and calm in order to convince Isabelle of the mistake she was making. “Look at me, Izzy. I carry the same blood as you. I’m not evil. Neither are you.”

Her sister shuttered her lids and tilted her head. “Don’t knock it ’til you try it. Do you have any idea of the strength we can wield? Alone I’m powerful. Together we could be unstoppable.”

“Enough, Isabelle. You don’t want this. Mother wouldn’t have wanted this for you.”

Isabelle frowned. “Mother always believed I would fall into darkness. I knew she thought there was something wrong with me. I didn’t know what it was. Now I do. I’m just fulfilling the prophecy. She was right.”

“Did you read the diary? Really read it?”

“Over and over again. That’s how I realized my destiny.”

“No, you didn’t read all of it. Because if you did you would have read the part where Mother said she loved you. She didn’t fear you. She didn’t wish for your destruction or your downfall. She wanted to save you. She. Loved. You.”

Isabelle blinked. Were those tears glistening in her sister’s eyes? Come on, Izzy. Come back to me.

“Mother foresaw the darkness within me.”

Angelique shook her head, refusing to give up. “I’m not buying this. Deep inside I know my sister. You want light, not darkness. Now enough of the dramatics. You want attention. You always have. But not this way.”

Isabelle’s eyes narrowed. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Angelique knew that attacking Isabelle would rile her. It also might snap her out of this. . whatever kind of spell the Sons of Darkness had her under. Fighting with her might just do the trick.

“Don’t I? Knock this off, Izzy, and quit acting like a child. Game over. Let’s go home before you really embarrass our family name.” She jerked Isabelle’s hands, pulling her toward the other hunters.

Isabelle squeezed her hands. It hurt. Angelique gasped at the pressure, the pain, horrified at the transformation on her sister’s face, the pure demonic visage that now appeared before her. Where once stood beauty there was now ugliness, a horrible face, a widening forehead, red eyes, and, as she opened her mouth, dripping fangs.

Angelique wanted to scream, to pull away and run. This was not her sister.

“No. You will come with me,” Isabelle said with a low growl, turning the tables on Angelique, dragging her toward Tase.

Rage and frustration at her inability to reach Isabelle burst within her. She called up strength she didn’t know she had and dug in her heels, burying them in the dirt until Isabelle couldn’t pull at her any longer.

Her sister turned, her gaze one of murderous rage. “Don’t fight me, Angie.”

She jerked back, and it became a superpower tug-of-war, both of them yanking on each other, reaching out to grab at skin and clothing. Angelique didn’t even know where Ryder or the others were. She had completely tuned out the battle behind her. She hoped and prayed he was all right, that the hunters had held their own with the demons.

She intended to win this battle with her sister. She needed there to be hunters still alive to bring Isabelle back to when this was over.

Izzy was strong. So damn strong. Angelique was having a difficult time keeping up with her. She felt the rage within her sister, the sense of fury. And she knew where it came from.

Because she’d chosen a slightly different path from their mother’s and Angelique’s, Isabelle had always felt less than worthy in their mother’s eyes. And Tase had played right into Izzy’s insecurities, calling her his queen.

To Tase, Isabelle was worthy of worship, of his love.

“He doesn’t love you,” Angelique said, digging her own claws into Isabelle’s skin in order to capture her sister’s attention. “He’s using you. The Sons of Darkness aren’t capable of giving you what you need, Isabelle.”

“You’re wrong,” Isabelle said, using her strength to whip Angelique around so her back pressed against Isabelle’s chest. Izzy laid her palm against Angelique’s throat, her long claws so near Angelique’s carotid artery that Angelique stilled, holding her breath, no longer certain whether or not Isabelle would hurt her.

“I am everything to the Sons of Darkness. I am unique, their queen. No one else is like me. I can have whatever I want.”

Would her sister really do this? Good God, had Isabelle really left her?

“Do you need to kill me to prove your loyalty to them?” she asked. “Is that the kind of love you’re looking for, Izzy? You have to kill your sister?”

“I don’t need to kill you, Angelique. Unless you refuse to become one with us. Then you’re of no use. I’d rather see you dead than fighting against us.”

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t break the hold Isabelle had on her. Her demon strength was growing, but no match for the darkness within Isabelle.

Angelique had lost.