Page 62 of The Incubus Curse

“I know, and I’m sorry. But don’t do this. The ancients don’t want to help us. They want to rule over us. Why would you want to succumb to that?”

Dustin took a step closer, Oliver tightly behind him, trying to grab up Tina, who was stumbling on the ground, still grasping her neck. And as Dustin inched closer, so did the horde surrounding us. Edward pulled me closer, farther from their reach. Even with me looking at Dustin, I could see the shadow of Edward towering over me. His hair hung over his shoulders like a Dracula cape.

“You’re a child. I’ve lived here, ruled by the reality that I’m better than humans, and yet have to pretend to be one. Pretend that I’m not better than them. The ancient ones want us to rule. Want us to take back our world from the humans and one little life is not worth all the rewards that I have coming for me.” He inhaled deeply. “Let’s see what all this commotion of angelic delight is about.” Edward hissed, and before I could concept the thought or idea of what that meant, I felt a sting in my neck, almost like a needle had torn through my skin.

I saw Dustin narrowing his eyes in concentration just as a large vampire swung his fists at Dustin’s head, disrupting his mental attack on Edward. With my eyes torn, looking at Dustin’s body sprawled on the floor, it felt like my neck was suddenly filled with acid, like my veins were simultaneously on fire, itching beneath the skin.

I saw everything turn red and then black, flashing back to me momentarily as the room spun.

All I could think about was the pain that funneled inside me, the air thinning in my chest as I stood there motionless, hearing muffled screams and cries all around. The room was spinning like a tilt-a-world. It turned endlessly, the sounds distorting all around me.

“Freya?” A voice tried to call out to me, though I couldn’t tell who it was.

“Freya?” It said again, this time more distant.

And as my sight came slowly back into view, I watched Tina cry out my name from the floor. Oliver and Dustin laid out on the ground, their eyes closed as she leaned over the boys as if to shield them.

When I looked down, all I could see was Edward’s backside as he carried me over his shoulder and walked out of the club with me.

Chapter 21

Dustin

“I should kill you, you know.” I hissed at Fiona, who smiled as she continued to prod me with a stick through the bars of the cage I had awoken trapped in.

They were the same cages we used to hold sirens back in New York.

Iron bars, impenetrable without a key- or maybe a blowtorch.

It was smaller than I remembered them being but large enough that I could stand with my head bowed in the arch of the cage, and my legs could comfortably fold when sitting. But the air was chilled at this height, and my bare chest, open to the ventilated breeze, sent spider-like chills down my spine.

My eyes darted around me, desperate to see where Oliver and Tina were. Unfortunately, it looked like Oliver was dangling beside me next to Tina, curled in the cage like a sad dog, her hand clutching her neck. Both of whom were shivering in their cages.

It didn’t help that the bars were like ice blocks, frigid to the touch.

“You should thank me for not allowing you guys to be killed.If we’re getting technical.” She snapped back, letting that stick poke my bare chest once more. “I told Azrael that I would kill all of you, but I haven’t. Even though I should, to clean up this mess you’ve made.” She paced the floor that had emptied by now.

There were maybe four or five vampires in the hive; the rest had followed Edward out, it would seem. And all I could think about was Freya. About how scared she probably was. Praying she was still alive. Praying they hadn’t sucked every last drop from her.

I wasn’t sure if I could take another loss, not this soon.

Not after Sasha and my father. And my mother, was I going to fail her too?

“The messI’vemade?” My brow twitched. “And what mess is that?”

“The angel.” She exaggerated a long exhale. “The ancients want her, and you deliberately taunt them with her by running off and stealing her every time they try to grab her. Not caring about the mess you leave behind. The demons that die in your wake.”

I scoffed, rubbing my hands over my face in frustration. “Right, because you know so much about them and everything happening.” My eyes rolled, my fingers yanking at the iron bars as if I could free myself. Even though I knew it was unlikely. I even attempted to seduce one of the few vampire stragglers, though when his eyes lifted to mine, they didn’t sink into me as I had expected.

Fiona’s lips thinned into a line. “Did you forget these bars are enchanted? How else would you keep the sirens from seducing you to let them free?” She scoffed, rolling her eyes and continuing her rant. “And you think the ancients just stoodsilent while you went off gallivanting with her for the last few days? Do you think they didn’t hunt down every creature within a fifty-mile radius of New York? They tormented us to find her. Burned some of us alive in the sunlight just to scare the rest of us into telling them anything we knew.”

I didn’t know what to say tothat.

I knew that Daemon had mentioned Azrael charming hordes of them, but the burning of them was not something I had pictured. I could see why he thought this might become an all-out war among the demons.

Hell, it had already turned Edward, though, for the wrong side.

I wondered what other demons might revel in the idea of taking back the world from the humans. It had to be irresistible to most, especially the cockroaches who had to hide in the shadows for most of the day. And without the wrath of the Elders to maintain order, there was nothing to scare demons from revealing themselves to the world. No threat of death. Especially with the rumors of the ancient’s plan cycling throughout the States.

---