Saeed had only one chance to do this right. It was now or never, and he hated that he was going in less than prepared. But he had enchanted weapons in his hands, and a powerful—albeit reluctant—ally at his side. The odds might not have been stacked in his favor, but it was as good as it was going to get.
Saeed exchanged a silent glance with Fallon before he pulled open the door to Crimson. A momentary twinge of guilt tugged at his chest as Saeed considered the possibility of innocent lives being caught in the crossfire. He needed the mass of bodies to create a distraction and add to the confusion, however. And he tempered his worry by reminding himself that every patron present was supernatural. This was a tough crowd. A group that could take a considerable amount of damage.
“We can’t let anything happen to Rin.” Saeed hated that he’d have to protect the bastard for even a second. “At least, not until we know where he keeps his stolen souls.”
Fallon gave him a look as though that went without saying. That might’ve been the case, but Saeed was going to cover all of his bases.
“Cerys is off-limits as well.” He knew the fae wanted retribution for what she’d done to Breanne. Fallon wouldn’t waste an opportunity to exact vengeance, given the chance. “Lay so much as a finger on her, and I’ll end you.”
Fallon inclined his head slightly, and Saeed knew it was all the assurance he would get. He pushed forward in front of the fae, and took point. This was his fight after all and he would not shy away.
Saeed’s gaze scanned the club and stopped at the VIP section. His heart beat a mad rhythm in his chest as he caught sight of not only Cerys, but Rin, and Ian Gregor as well. The three of them stood around the square table, their expressions severe, as though in some sort of standoff. The situation appeared volatile and put Saeed even more on edge.
Gregor’s nostrils flared and his attention wandered from Rin. Saeed tensed as the berserker’s gaze met his and a sly, dangerous smile curved his lips. So much for the element of surprise. Saeed didn’t have another moment to waste.
Not a second after Gregor caught sight of him, Cerys whipped around. Equal parts relief and terror flooded Saeed as Rin caught on to what was happening and reached out to snatch Cerys before she could take flight. Thanks to Gregor, Saeed had lost his only advantage.
“Fifty thousand dollars to whoever pierces the vampire’s heart!”
Rin was a cowardly son of a bitch. It seemed he couldn’t help but enlist others to do his dirty work for him. Saeed froze in his tracks and Fallon came to a stop not far behind him. “Don’t worry about me,” he said to the fae. “Get to Rin, get what we need, and protect Cerys.”
The momentum shifted as chaos broke out. Fallon ran against the current as a horde of bodies rushed at Saeed. So many eager, greedy bastards willing to do Rin’s bidding for a few bucks. His hope of keeping casualties and damage to a minimum evaporated under the violent onslaught headed his way. He had no choice but to defend himself as best he could and put as many of his attackers down as possible.
Saeed brought the daggers up, prepared to fight. A burst of power shot up through his arms and left his limbs tingling with foreign magic. He braced for attack and watched as at least twenty creatures of various creeds rushed at him. The daggers vibrated in his grip and one by one, the bodies rushing toward him slowed. Faerie magic. Certainly useful in a pinch.
Most, but not all, of Saeed’s attackers were deterred by the daggers’ magic. Five stalwart souls pressed on as the others stopped. A few were armed with daggers and short knives and the remaining two came at him unarmed but with claws bared and ready to shred.
Saeed lost sight of Cerys under the onslaught. He put his worry to the back of his mind as he focused on the fight and self-preservation. His arms moved of their own accord as though in synchronicity with the weapons he held in his hands. Each stab, each parry, each wide swipe of his arm was quick and precise. A blur of motion that caught his attackers off guard and gave him the upper hand.
He didn’t have time to waste on Rin’s attempt to distract him. Saeed spun as he stabbed, slashed, and hacked. The daggers were perfectly balanced, as though extensions of his hands and served him well as he put down five assailants with ease. His breath sawed in and out of his chest as he pushed toward the back of the nightclub, where Rin held Cerys against her will. Fallon fought to make ground as well, as he encountered a similar roadblock on his way to the mage.
Gregor and his men remained strangely neutral in the fight. They watched with interest, as though this spectacle had somehow been put on for their entertainment. What in the hell was going on? A large mountain of a body came at Saeed from the left, brandishing what looked to be a broken leg from a chair. Saeed swept his arm upward and caught the male in the face with his elbow. Rin had offered a hefty sum for Saeed’s death. He would’ve thought the berserkers would do the job for free. It didn’t add up, and their inactivity only served to keep his focus divided.
“Shit! Get the hell out of here!”
A shout from behind him drew Saeed’s attention. The club had quickly begun to empty as one body after another fled from what appeared to be an invisible foe. Saeed had no idea how the bean sidhes’ power worked, but it was obvious Fallon had somehow managed to project his illusions on many minds at once. For the first time since they’d walked through the door, Saeed felt a glimmer of hope that they might come out on top.
“You wanted him!” Rin’s angered shout rose above the din of chaos. “Are you going to kill the vampire, or stand there and watch him?”
Saeed found himself wanting to know the answer to that question as well. Another round of attackers came at him, eager for Rin’s bounty, and he once again had to shift his focus to the fight in front of him and not the one beyond his reach.
“Saeed! Behind you!”
Fallon’s warning came a second too late. Saeed took a hard hit to his right shoulder that sent him sprawling to the floor on his stomach. He rolled to his left, flipping onto his back just in time to miss the stabbing blow of a splintered piece of wood that shattered when it hit the dyed and lacquered concrete floor. His assailant, a willowy sylph, came at him, her delicate hands formed into claws. Saeed kicked out with his legs and sent her into the air and backward where she landed on a nearby table, temporarily immobilized, but hardly out of commission.
Supernatural creatures weren’t exactly easy to stop.
At least he was gaining momentum. Fallon’s illusions helped to clear the club and those either unaffected or out of his reach chose to enter the fray or simply watch. Saeed wished the spectators would at least show the common courtesy to lend a helping hand. No one would dare to defy Rin, though. Saeed and Fallon were on their own.
Saeed lost sight of Fallon once again as he faced a fresh and ambitious attacker. Muscle memory took over as he lurched forward with a jab and followed up with a sharp uppercut of the blade that slashed across his assailant’s chest. The male backed off as he clutched the wound and turned to run, leaving Saeed a clear path to Rin and Cerys.
He swore to the gods, he was going to cut out the bastard’s heart and feed it to him.
Gregor took a tentative step back and his comrades followed suit as though not to impede Saeed’s progress toward Rin. Saeed still didn’t trust the berserkers, but right now they were the lesser of two evils. His priority was Cerys. Nothing else mattered.
“Take another step and I’ll slit her throat.” Saeed stopped dead in his tracks as Rin brought the point of a short knife to just below Cerys’s jawline. “She’s weak, I doubt she’ll heal in time if I cut deep enough.”
“If you can’t have her, no one can. Is that it?” Saeed’s patience had reached its limit. He refused to tolerate Rin for another second.
“She won’t be any use to me for much longer anyway,” Rin offered with a shrug.
Son of a bitch. Saeed weighed his options. Fallon was still at the far end of the club fighting his own battles against those loyal to Rin. The berserkers appeared comfortable in their neutrality. Cerys might have been weak, but Saeed was strong enough for both of them. He took a lunging step forward and stopped as Cerys let out a fearful shout.
“Saeed! Don’t move!”
Fingers wrapped around Saeed’s shoulder and something sharp pressed into his back. He’d been so preoccupied with getting to Cerys he hadn’t even noticed the presence behind him. Stupid.
“Rin please.” Cerys’s pleading tone tore at Saeed’s heart. “Let him go. Let him leave Seattle and I promise I’ll never leave your side.”
She thought to save him, but what Cerys didn’t understand was that if Saeed couldn’t have her, he might as well be dead.
* * *
Rin had maneuvered Saeed perfectly. He’d presented him with a challenge, a gauntlet to run to get to her. He’d known nothing would deter him and that Saeed’s focus would be singular, making it easy to put one of his goons at Saeed’s back. Rin would take the coward’s way to rid himself of Saeed. Cerys didn’t know why she was surprised.
She expected Saeed’s expression to mirror the betrayal he no doubt felt. Instead, he looked at her with so much tender emotion that it squeezed her heart like a fist. He would never give up. Would never turn his back on her. He would die trying to save her—to protect her—rather than abandon her. If that wasn’t love, Cerys didn’t know what was. And gods damn it, she loved him too.
Cerys didn’t need her soul to tell her how she felt about Saeed. He had brought her back to life from a shallow existence of apathy and had shown her the power of selflessness. Rin would never let her go. Even if Saeed managed to steal her away and flee the city, Rin would come after her. They would never know a moment of peace. She refused to condemn Saeed to such a fate where he would always be on the run, unable to return to his coven, his family. There was only one thing she could do, and that was to repay his selflessness with a selfless act of her own.
“Saeed,” she murmured. “I love you.”
Cerys turned toward Rin. A smug expression accented his features, but he sure as hell wouldn’t be smug for long. His soul glowed like a dying cinder in the center of his chest, a pulsing red pinpoint surrounded by a shroud of dark shadow. What she was about to do would likely kill her, but it would all be worth it if in the process she saved Saeed.
If she had to go out in a blaze of glory, there wasn’t any better way to do it than protecting someone she loved.
Cerys slammed the heel of her palm against Rin’s chest at the solar plexus. His eyes went wide, and he doubled over as though she’d delivered a punch to his gut. “Cerys! What are you doing?”
His disbelief was almost laughable. So many centuries, bound to him in servitude. In hatred. In dysfunctional codependence. Bound to him because she’d convinced herself that his possession of her soul had also stolen her free will. Well, not anymore.
Cerys was free.
She leaned in close until her mouth hovered near Rin’s ear. “I’m giving you a taste of your own medicine,” she said. “And it’s about damned time.”
“Cerys!”
She ignored Saeed’s impassioned cry. Don’t worry about me, you idiot. Save yourself! He needed to focus on the stake currently poised to pierce his heart, not her! Power flooded Cerys as she felt Rin’s soul loosen its hold on his body. The draw on her energy was intense, and Cerys’s legs threatened to give out as Rin’s soul resisted the extraction.
“Stop! Cerys, stop!”
The sound of a scuffle made its way to Cerys’s ears but she forced herself not to look. It took all of her concentration to pull Rin’s soul away, and she should’ve known it would’ve been stubborn to let go. The knife dropped from Rin’s grasp and landed on the concrete floor with a ring of metal. He dropped to his knees and Cerys went down beside him, her palm still pressed firmly against his chest.
“You did this to yourself, Rin.” Cerys couldn’t bring herself to feel an ounce of sympathy. Perhaps it was a good thing this extraction would more than likely kill her. Cerys didn’t know if she’d survive the return of her soul anyway. Not when she would be forced to face the guilt of what she’d done. “You did this to me.” The shouts of several voices rang out around her but for some reason the words no longer made sense. Cerys pulled from the seat of her power and in one final rush of strength, ripped Rin’s soul from his chest. He drew in a sharp gasp that ended on a pained grunt. From his knees, he toppled over like a felled tree and sprawled to the floor.
Holy shit.
Cerys swayed on her knees but she refused to lose consciousness yet. Rin lay on the floor, shaking, in shock, his breath coming in heavy pants. She opened her clenched fist and hovering in her palm was Rin’s soul. It was sickly and black, almost sludgy. Like a writhing mass of serpents, it undulated, angry and restless. It made Cerys feel tainted just being in contact with it. Rinieri de Rege was as black and heartless as any creature could be. Not even the berserkers with their inky black eyes and violent tendencies had such dark souls. Not even Ian Gregor, whose vendetta might have been the only thing keeping him alive, was as cold and unfeeling as Rin.
She’d done the right thing by removing his soul. She doubted he’d miss it much. Rin was already as hollow and apathetic as any being could be. What she’d done was effectively weaken him. She might not have been able to bind his power in the way he’d bound Trenton McAlister, but he’d certainly pack less of a punch. Maybe now Rin would finally realize how foolish his use of her had been over the centuries.
“Give it back.” Rin’s mewling voice echoed the fear of each and every one of his victims. Her victims. “Please.”
“You made me an accomplice.” Each word issued from Cerys’s lips dripped with hateful venom. “Gods.” She let out a disdainful chuff of laughter. “My soul is probably as tarnished as yours by now.”
Rin’s soul lurched in her palm in an attempt to fly back to the body that had housed it. She would never allow Rin to reclaim it. Never. She clutched Rin’s soul tight in her fist and used every ounce of strength and power left in her stores to compress it to the size of a marble.
“What are you doing?” Rin’s voice rose to a frantic warble. “Cerys! What are you doing?”
Her strength flagged and her stomach gave a violent lurch. Spots swam in her vision and the sounds around her came to her ears as though she were under water. This was it. Time to blow this Popsicle stand. “I’m doing what I should have done the moment Fiona betrayed me.”
The thing that bothered Cerys the most was that she’d never had an opportunity to live her life. And on top of that, what really burned was that she wouldn’t get a chance to live it with Saeed.
“It’s like Gregor said.” Gods, she couldn’t believe she was about to quote the heartless berserker warlord. “The punishment should fit the crime. You are guilty Rinieri de Rege, and I pronounce sentence.”
Cerys smashed the marble-sized rock of Rin’s compressed soul onto the hard concrete floor. Rin let out a tortured shout as particles of black dust rose from the floor and dissipated into the air.
“You can’t destroy anyone’s life.” Cery’s breath rattled in her chest as she collapsed to the floor. “Ever again.”