Drowning In The Dark - Pippa DaCosta Page 0,78

though reading my thoughts. He jogged ahead and into Ryder’s place. Ryder’s traps had sprung. Lesser demon bodies lay sprawled about the hall. “Ryder?” Stefan called. “Man, you here?”

The door to the basement gun range hung ajar.

“Wait.” I sent out my element. “Val is down there, and he has power.” I lowered my voice. “Not much, but it’s there.” He could have burned the drug from his veins as I’d done. He’d had time. Damn fire elementals.

Stefan hesitated in the doorway. “A trap.”

I nodded. “Yeah, maybe.”

The smart thing to do would be to walk away. But neither of us would. What if Ryder was still alive down there? We couldn’t leave him.

“I’ll go.” I brushed past Stefan, but he caught my arm and pulled me up short. “My brother can’t hurt me. Asmodeus wants me alive.”

“Muse, one touch of his wings…”

“I’ve got this.” He didn’t want me to go. It was in the stubborn line of his lips and his furrowed brow. “It’s time I faced him.”

“There’s no way I’m staying up here. I’ll be right behind you.”

We descended the narrow stairs into the bright, artificial light of Ryder’s gun range. Val stood against the opposite wall, wings spread behind him. Sprawled face down at his feet was Ryder. I couldn’t tell if he was breathing, but he was bleeding. His shirt clung wet and dark against his back. Rage scalded my flesh. I couldn’t have stopped the change to demon even if I’d wanted to. Black skin smoldering, I gave my wing a flick and stared into my brother’s molten silver eyes. “Hello, brother.” Pure demon, my voice bubbled and snarled.

The corner of his thin lips ticked up a fraction, and he dipped his chin. “He will live unless you defy me.”

“What happened?” I circled around, moving close while giving Stefan access from the stairs. The low ceiling and narrow space barely contained the three of us. Chaos mingled and snapped in the air, stirred up by our crowding elements.

“Revenge blinds humans. He knew it would be unwise to torment me. Still, he persisted. He feels for his mate, the enforcer female. I told him in exquisite detail how I’d entered her, ruined her fragile mind until she lay broken beneath me.”

His words slid off my cool demon thoughts. “You’re weak.”

“My strength returns with each passing moment.” His wings shifted with a sigh of velvet on velvet, and I shivered.

“Your half bloods came.”

He smiled, and I really didn’t like how pleased he appeared to be. “Come back with me. Stand beside our father. Become that which you are destined to be.”

Moving closer to my brother, I inched around the weapons table. “Destruction?” Behind my back, I scooped up the Desert Eagle. The grip smoldered beneath my touch. Val’s eyes stayed trained on mine. “Tell me what you saw in my flesh.”

“Hellfire raining from the skies. Buildings burning. Humans turned to ash, captured in a firestorm of your making.” Val bowed his head as I stopped before him, close enough to stand on my toes and kiss him. “Your fury is a wondrous thing. Alive and hungry. If it were not for Wrath, I am sure you would be eligible for such a title.” Stefan’s presence—cold and immobile—shored me up from behind. He hadn’t moved, hadn’t spoken. It was enough that he was there.

“I need only one title.” I heard Ryder’s ragged breathing. He was alive, but for how much longer? “What’s to stop me from destroying you, my father, and every beast in the netherworld? How do you know that’s not what you’re seeing?”

“The netherworld is your home.”

“No.” I flicked the safety off. “That’s the problem with demons. You believe in only one thing. Yourselves.” I brought the gun around, thrust it up under my brother’s chin, and pulled the trigger. I hadn’t expected it to work. Neither had Val. I knew Ryder had shells etched with anti-elemental symbols, but Val was immortal, the first-born of Asmodeus. I’d expected the bullet to sail through him, but it wasn’t nearly that clean. I fired, the gun kicked back, and Val’s head jerked. Half his beautiful face and skull blasted outward, painting the wall behind with brain matter, blood, and bone. This wasn’t the neat little hole Ryder had shot through my brother’s forehead in Jenna’s apartment. The .50cal round obliterated my brother’s face. His body dropped to his knees then slumped back, a dead weight of flesh and bone.

Stefan shouted at me, barking orders, but the gun blast still rang