Drowning In The Dark - Pippa DaCosta Page 0,54

towered over my brother, fangs bared, and appeared to be every inch the terrifying Prince of Hell.

Val shrank back, wings tucked in and quivering. “You cannot stop her, Mammon. You know this to be true.”

Mammon lifted a hand and produced a beautiful ethereal sword of rippling blue light. “Stop her? No.” His black lips stretched into a hungry grin. The chuckle trickling from those lips was all auditory seduction.

Val vanished in a burst of static, only to reappear behind Mammon. His vast wings bellowed open, encircled the unsuspecting half bloods in his deadly embrace. This was my moment. Now. In a blink, he’d vanish again, taking the half bloods with him. I sprang forward, using all of my agility and speed. I sent out a sharp, scalpel-like thought, cutting a gap in the veil behind my brother. All I needed to do was tackle him, shove him back through the veil, follow him through, and then let it all go.

A wall of black, etched with fiery veins appeared in front of me. I reeled, but Mammon’s huge arms came down around me, clamping me against his immovable body. Screaming, kicking, I bucked and twisted, but Mammon barely moved. “Not like this.”

I knew the moment my brother had gone, felt his absence, and the absence of the half bloods, like a weight had lifted from my shoulders. Mammon roared, sending the lesser demons scattering and prompting the enforcers to open fire yet again. He turned his volcanic gaze on the crowd, seemingly unaffected by the standard bullets punching into his midnight flesh. Scalding leathery wings closed around me, locking me down, virtually suffocating me.

I sent out my element, coiled it around Mammon, and beckoned his power. How dare he stop me? That had been my only chance to make sure my breakdown at least took my brother with me—and hopefully half the netherworld. Now what did I have? Minutes, seconds, before I turned into my own nightmare. I was ridden by desires I didn’t want, poisoned by a soul-lock I couldn’t escape.

Mammon’s arms crushed me to him, and with a burst of cool energy, he jumped us away from the Institute. Pain slammed me down onto my hands and knees the moment he released me. My demon screamed her rage, but outside forces slapped her back into her mental box, leaving my human body spent and gasping. Shuddering, drenched in sweat, filthy clothes clinging to me, I peered through my matted hair at my own apartment. Jonesy trotted out from under the coffee table, tail up, and nudged my chin. “Hey buddy…” I croaked.

Scrambling back, I ran my hands over my face and pulled back my hair. My stomach heaved, body wracked by trauma, but my mind… my mind was unerringly still. I wiped my mouth with trembling hands. Damn, I was a mess. The framed symbols on my walls had beaten back my demon the moment Mammon had brought me home. Those symbols were the only things that could stop me.

“Suicide is not an option.” I turned my head at the sound of Akil’s obscenely smooth voice and saw him standing by the window, arms crossed over his bare chest, his expression one of disapproving concern. “That was your intention? To throw yourself at your brother and destroy him in the netherworld?”

I really didn’t have the energy to argue with Akil, especially when he was right. Slumped back against my couch, I concentrated on breathing and allowed myself a few moments to relish the relative clarity of my thoughts. Jonesy hopped onto my lap and massaged his front paws against my thigh. His purrs soothed me. I couldn’t ignore Akil though. He radiated fury. I wasn’t even sure he’d blinked. I sighed and would have welcomed the cool embrace of Stefan’s element.

“Stefan’s back there.”

“I do not care where Stefan is.” The ice in his voice confirmed he really didn’t.

I didn’t even have the energy to glare. “He was helping me control my power. We came together to stop Val getting the half bloods.”

“How did that work out for you?”

“Fine,” I snarled, “until you got in the way.”

Akil ground his teeth and tore his gaze away. “I had everything under control, Muse. The two half bloods were mine. They would still be mine if you hadn’t tried to kill yourself.”

“Looked to me like Val was about to steal them out from under you.”

“I made a choice.” His simmering gaze found me again, and in the darkness, his eyes blazed. “I could