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“Our coven bonds are intact,” I reassured him, grabbing his hand.
His watery eyes remained fixed downward on the dark flames where we’d last seen Nico fall.
We held our breaths, and a moment later, a figure rose, his hand on his knee as he pushed himself to his feet. Much like the smog surrounding us here in the periphery, the moat’s flames only rose to mid-calf on Nico.
His eyes were black from lid to lid as he stared at us. The flickering black flames surrounding him matched the fathomless depths of his dark gaze. For a moment, I feared we might not be able to break his frenzy this time.
Then he turned his back on us, facing the infernal realm. On the far side of the moat, a horde of demons gathered in the infernal realm. Hellcats lounged atop massive vines like jungle cats. Hellbulls picked their way carefully over the vines to wait at the edge of the trench. In the background rose a dark forest.
That’s when I noticed Ty standing among them, watching Nico rise from the dark flames.
“I promised Mel your death.” Nico’s voice sounded hollow with an eerie quality I’d never heard before.
“Frenzied vampires never speak like that,” Hudson whispered from behind me.
“I know,” I said, getting to my feet and pulling Jax up with me.
In all my years as a vampire hunter, I’d never seen a vamp show much coherent thought during a bloodcrazed frenzy.
Jax wiped his face. “We have to follow him.”
“I believe you’ll go into a frenzy as soon as you step into the flames,”Tempest warned.“But you’ll need it to keep you alive.”
I gathered her into my arms. “We’ll see.”
“Mel, are you sure?” Hudson asked.
It occurred to me that of all of us, Nico was the only one to have frenzied more than once in his life. That might be why he was able to control himself now. But we lacked that practice. I nodded in spite of my doubts.
“We have to try,” Jax agreed. “I won’t let Nico fight him alone.”
Together, the three of us carefully climbed down the slope into the moat of black flames. And I felt… nothing.
For a moment, I imagined this must be what floating in outer space must be like. I could see the other side of the moat into the infernal realm, but my body felt cold and weightless.
“Follow me,” Nico’s demand cut through my momentary lapse in awareness, and I snapped back to myself.
We waded through the dark flames together, and when I looked at the twins on either side of me, their eyes were as black as Nico’s were.
Hudson started, “Mel, your eyes—”
“Yours too.”
This felt nothing like the frenzy from before. Yet I still felt… not quite myself. But I hadn’t lost touch with my identity. And I felt no desire to feed. Was that thanks to the appetite suppressors or something else?
Whatever the reason, I was glad for it as the guys helped me climb up out of the other side of the moat with Tempest still in my arms. As soon as I found my footing on all the weird vines that covered the infernal ground, Tempest leaped from my arms, her small body instantly almost pure molten orange. She looked absolutely ferocious.
It was strange to know we were likely the first humans, other than those possessed, to stand in the real infernal realm. Especially when none of the demons on this side of the divide paid us any attention whatsoever. It was as though they knew we were their master’s guest.
Ty’s body looked even more sickly here, the owl even more solid. Its flaming face stared at me hungrily.
“What a surprise.” Its monstrous voice made me shiver. “Are you so eager to become my next host after all?”
“She’s mine,”Tempest’s voice boomed inside all our minds, making me flinch. She’d never sounded so powerful before.
The devil didn’t even look down at her. “Then perhaps I’ll work my way through her coven-mates first. They all seem equally tasty to me now. And since their lifespans have lengthened, I’ll have plenty of time to make my way through all of them.”
Ty tilted his head, an inhuman grin slicing across his face.
