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"I need help, Myel," Alexis spoke in their shared language at last. "I'm weak, and Pyel can't kill him. He mustn't."
Anna stared at her, her maternal eyes logging every bruise, the injured wing, the exhaustion and lingering horror of her ordeal in her daughter's eyes. It made Alexis glad she was in the water, for that meant she was no longer a bloodsoaked specter. If she'd seen her on the ledge, Anna might not have listened at all.
"Please, Myel. Trust me."
Anna at last nodded. Gripping Alexis's waist, they cautiously ascended. Alexis helped with propulsion as much as she could, but she was all too aware her mother was doing most of it, her one good wing and tail no longer responsive.
Anna paused long enough to determine that there were no more energy exchanges going on, at least not the projectile kind, then they surfaced.
The angels were at one end of the cavern, on a broken piece of ledge. Jonah's face was bleeding and there was a nasty burn across his broad chest. Perched on an outcropping from the wall, Dante was on the other side of the chamber. His fists were clenched, body in a predatory crouch. He had a bloody lip and he was holding his arm stiffly. While his wing was going to need repair, David appeared to be all right. Marcellus and Bartolemy likewise appeared uninjured, though from the plethora of feathers floating in the water and the residual fizzing of magical fire, it was obvious the brief fight had been fierce.
Alexis noted the shimmer of a barrier cutting the center of the ledge. Mina stood in the fulcrum of it. Her eyes were blazing, hands on her hips, her teeth pulled back in a sharp-toothed snarl. Overlying Dante's dark magic and the angel's fire was a vibration Alexis had never felt so overtly, though she sensed it every time she was near her fearsome godmother. David had edged closer to her, his eyes watchful, as if gauging that temper and where she was going to go with it.
In a heartbeat Lex understood better why Jonah often feared for his young lieutenant. The concentrated power of Mina's temper alone took away what feeble strength she was lending her mother to keep them surfaced. Anna's arm tightened around her waist. Despite Alexis's resistance, she moved them to the angel side of that barrier, onto one of the remaining narrow ledges.
Seeing Jonah's glance toward them the second they'd surfaced, Lex understood why she'd done it, to give the commander one less concern. But Lex didn't like the visible suggestion she was taking a side, and that side was away from Dante. But when she looked toward him, his gaze was locked on his opponents.
"You will not stand in my way, witch," Jonah snapped. "He does not leave this chamber alive."
"Then you will kill your own daughter," Mina shot back.
That brought everyone up short, including Dante, who spared the witch a narrow glance. Mina turned her attention to him. "I assume that's why you third-marked her. A clever strategy, though it underscores why Jonah should dispatch you in the most painful way possible."
Dante's face went to an impassive mask.
"Explain," Jonah said coldly.
"He's a vampire," Mina retorted. "He third-marked her. In this world, vampires do that to create a human servant, only this one did it to another type of being. If it works the same way, her mortality is linked to his. You kill him, she dies. A servant follows the vampire, even into the afterlife."
None of them could see how Dante felt about that, but Alexis felt his reaction, even buried under that fearfully still expression and ready violence. It startled him, almost as much as it did Jonah.
"He didn't know about that, Mina," she said hastily. "He didn't do it on purpose."
Her vampire gave her a narrow, nasty look, but she ignored him for the moment in favor of her father, who looked dubious. "I know, Pyel. I can feel his emotions. He gave me blood to keep up my strength."
"Damn it, Mina," Jonah snarled. She gave him a venomous look.
"If you had calmed down, and followed my lead, I wouldn't have had to tell you in front of him and given him that knowledge, now would I have? Hotheads, all of you."
"You gave my daughter blood for strength. But a third mark requires that you drink from her three times. Why did you take my daughter's blood?" Jonah's voice was soft, deadly.
"Well . . ." It was ridiculous to be self-conscious, but Alexis flushed as she struggled with the answer.
"I did not ask you the question. Be silent."
He'd been stern with her growing up. But he'd never snarled at her the way he might those in his command, with a thunderous undercurrent that reverberated through the cavern, bringing his angels to attention and making Alexis jump. The only sound for the next few seconds was Dante's hiss as he bared his fangs at the angel, a warning that had Mina's brows winging up.
"Do you have an answer, vampire?" Jonah said again, unaffected, unless one counted the increased tension in his broad shoulders, the hard clasp on his sword.
"I marked her the first and second time through the dream portal spell, to bind her enough to transport her to the Dark One world and to have access to her mind. My reasons for givin
g her the third mark are my own, but I drank from her that time for nourishment. Such blood is rare there." Curling back his fangs, Dante showed a trace of blue blood that Lex realized must have come from one of the angels he'd wounded. "Unlike a pure angel's blood, hers doesn't burn me." His crimson eyes glittered. "And hers is far sweeter."
"Does it hurt her if something hurts him?" Jonah asked Mina.
Mina shook her head. "It's only a mortality link. It--"
"So I can beat him half to death, and as long as I don't kill him, she's all right."
Dante's gaze intensified, energy gathering around him. "You can try, angel."
"I swear to the Goddess, males are the same in every dimension. The lot of you should be neutered." Mina pivoted on her toe toward the vampire and won a flick of the fiery eyes. "Listen to what I have said. If you die, Alexis dies. You don't have to fight him. He won't risk his daughter."
She turned toward Jonah despite his muttered oath. "I can bind him, send him back to his world with additional protections. It will not make life there any easier, but he will not be killed. Any Dark One who tries to fatally wound him will have it rebound on itself. So he will be away from here, but Alexis will be reasonably safe. He might get desperate enough to threaten to kill himself to win his freedom again, but I doubt it. He's a pure opportunist."
"No," Alexis said.
Her mother's steadying hand was at her waist, another on her daughter's hair, stroking, but Lex felt her watchfulness, as well as the strong link between her and Jonah. She wondered if that was why her father didn't blast her again for speaking out. But his words were clipped like razor blades.
"I told you," he began.
"I can't be silent, Pyel. You can't send him back there."
Jonah glanced at Mina, his lip curling in distaste. "Does this bond create forced feelings of . . . protectiveness?"
She'd been wrong. Her physical energy had been stolen, but the stress of her captivity and the tension in this chamber, the many things not being said that should be and too many things being said that shouldn't, gave her a different kind of strength. A sudden burst of unexpected anger.
