Callie seconded that sentiment; she wasn’t in a rush to die…again. She looked down at her chest, but her blue T-shirt covered the hole in her still healing flesh. She wanted to go home, heal, and spend time with Lucien before he plunged back into the war he’d waged for centuries.
And he would return to it soon. He’d spent far too much time away, regaining his strength and healing from his imprisonment.
But he was healed, she was a vampire, and they were mated. Now, nothing would hold him back, and once he returned to the war, she would spend her nights worrying about him. However, that was a concern for the future.
First, she had to get out of here. She tried not to let her imagination run away from her, but she couldn’t help picturing more of those hideous monsters creeping through the sand toward them.
She tilted her head back and closed her eyes as the sun warmed her. They wouldn’t come here in the daytime, or at least the demons and the worst of the Savages wouldn’t. They still had time, and they would be out of here soon.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Lucien returnedto the room and closed the door behind him. He glanced at the others who remained stone-faced as they stared at the demon. Their faces were pinched, and their eyes remorseless.
He didn’t know what had happened in this room or what they did to this creature, but it hadn’t been good.
“Did you learn anything?” he asked.
“Only that this thing doesn’t tan very well,” Saber said.
“It hasn’t revealed anything to us, but for all I know, it might not speak any of the languages of Earth,” Ronan said. “However, I suspect it does, and it’s just refusing to answer our questions.”
“Which is amazing, considering….”
Willow’s voice trailed off as she stared at the demon, but Lucien heard what she didn’t say... considering what they’d put it through.
Declan’s gaze traveled to the door behind Lucien as he removed a lollipop from his pocket. He stared at it for a minute before returning it. “We have to leave before the sun sets. We’ve already spent too much time here.”
Lucien agreed with that.
“We have to see if we can learn more from it,” Killean said.
“It’s not going to reveal anything to us,” Declan said. “Other than what it already has.”
“And what has it revealed to us?” Saxon asked. “This thing hasn’t uttered one word or sound since we put it in this room.”
“Do you sense anything from it?” Ronan asked Declan.
“No, it’s like a wall in that way. I’ve never encountered anything like it before. However” —Declan flicked a glance at Willow— “before we arrived here, it revealed it wanted the sword and believed it could call the weapon to it. Which means that, at one time, it could.”
Fire shone in Willow’s eyes as she reached over her back to touch the hilt. “It tried to take it from me, but the sword wouldn’t go to it.”
Lucien wasn’t sure how to take those words, and if the look on Declan’s face was any indication, he didn’t like hearing them.
“How do you know that?” Nathan asked.
Willow focused on the demon as she pulled the sword from its scabbard. The rasp of the blade against leather was the only sound in the suddenly quiet room. She twisted the sword in front of her before resting it across her palms and holding it out.
The light shining through the glass door caused the jewel in its hilt to gleam. It was a striking, well-crafted weapon, but no human or vampire had forged it, which made it an unnerving mystery.
The way Willow handled it with such ease made him glad she wasn’t his mate. He’d hate it if Callie wielded that weapon. The sword was a powerful weapon for their cause, but he was sure Declan would prefer to see it destroyed; they all would, except for Willow, who had forged an attachment to it.
More frightening, it had formed an attachment toher.
A muscle in Declan’s jaw twitched as he stared at the sword. Lucien wondered how many times his friend had considered destroying it while Willow slept. If it wasn’t such a powerful weapon against their enemies, and if it wouldn’t piss her off, he suspected it would be scrap metal already.
“I felt it. The sword reacted to the demon when it tried to take it from me, and he tried to take it by using his mind. Which means they have orhadthe ability to do such a thing.” Willow lifted her head and leveled the demon with a look that would have made most men cower. The creature simply gazed back at her. “It failed.”
“It would seem they only have that ability on certain things, and maybe they only ever had it on the sword,” Declan said. “Otherwise, these demons would call weapons to them all the time, and that didn’t happen when we fought the one in the tunnels.”
