The Darkest Torment Read online

  “Forget the dogs.”

  “Never!”

  The gunshots stopped. The pained grunts and groans quieted. The scent of gun smoke and corroded metal coated the air, following her.

  Just before Dominik reached the doorway that led to the outside world, she stuck out her foot and tripped him. He maintained his grip on her, lugging her with him as he crashed. As he fought for breath, she was finally able to jerk free. He reached for her, but she kicked him in the stomach and stood.

  Cursing, he hopped up. She leaped backward and—

  Slammed into a brick wall. With a gasp, she whirled. Her gaze traveled up a man’s legs...a torso ridged with muscle. There were thin rivers of black tattooed from the tips of his fingers to the edge of the black bands that circled his biceps. Three bullet holes marred his shoulder, but the wounds didn’t appear to be bleeding.

  Her eyes locked on cool copper irises. Baden.

  He was hyperfocused, radiating challenge, determination and lethal intent...maybe even anticipation.

  “Get out of the way, Katarina,” Dominik commanded.

  Baden reached around her to knock her brother’s gun across the hall.

  When confronted with an aggressive dog, stay calm. Avoid direct eye contact. Stand sideways and claim your space.

  She peered beyond him while assuming the proper stance. Then, using her calmest tone, she said, “Your quarrel is not with us. We mean you no harm.”

  “Lately I need no reason to quarrel with anyone, nevesta.” Bride in Slovak. He spoke her native tongue? “But you...you give me reason. You worry for a piece of shit.” His disgust had returned full force. “You married a piece of shit.”

  He thought the worst of her, had no concept of the truth. Don’t know him, don’t like him. His opinion doesn’t matter. “Should you really cast stones? You have glitter smeared on your neck.” Truth. “Courtesy of a stripper girlfriend?”

  When he offered no reply, her spark of temper drained. She asked softly, “Is Alek still alive?”

  “Are you worried for him, or the position of power you’ll lose upon his death?”

  Position of power? Please! “Is. He. Still. Alive?”

  Baden inclined his head. “He even has all his body parts. For now.”

  Thank God! “Listen to me. I’ll get your coin. Yes?”

  “You won’t do any such thing. And you won’t hurt her,” Dominik told Baden. “I won’t let—”

  Baden glared him into silence before returning his attention to her. “You know which coin I seek?”

  “No, but you can describe it and I can search Alek’s home.” If Baden kept the guards at bay, she could finally hunt for her dogs without fear of getting caught. “Let’s go there now.”

  “You’ve seen the trouble your husband is willing to endure to ensure the coin remains hidden.” Dark red waves fell over his strong brow, swatches of pure silk. “It won’t be in a drawer.”

  Probably not. “Perhaps it’s inside a safe-deposit box. I can gather all his keys. If we leave now—”

  Dominik squeezed her arm but didn’t say another word.

  “What do you think I did before coming to the chapel?” Baden asked.

  He’d been to the house? “Did you see three pit bulls? One is brindle, one is gray, and—”

  “There were no dogs of any breed,” he interjected, his brow furrowed. “No cats, either.”

  Devastation mixed with anger, the deadly combination frothing inside her. Where had Alek hidden her pets?

  The white-haired man sidled up to Baden and, after a slight hesitation, patted his shoulder. “We have a problem. William killed the last—” His green eyes landed on Dominik, and he nodded. “Never mind. You kept a messenger alive. We’re good.”

  Bile nearly choked her. “Three of you managed to kill over fifty armed guards?”

  The white-haired man regarded her, all did the bride hit her head on the way out? “Wasn’t like it was a big deal. They were only human.” He smiled and walked away.

  Only human. She couldn’t stop her gaze from seeking Baden’s, despite her warning to the contrary. He still watched her with that air of challenge, and she gulped. “You don’t consider yourself human? So what are you, the boogeyman?”

  “Yes.”

  What!

  He stepped aside and motioned toward the sanctuary, the muscles in his arm flexing. “You will return. Now.”

  Leave the crazy man? No need to tell her twice. She raced down the hall and burst through the doors. She would stand guard over Alek if necessary and—

  She skidded to a halt. Blood covered the walls and pews and pooled on the floor. Bodies, body parts and other things she couldn’t name were flung here, there and everywhere.

  Alek was nailed to the podium, unconscious, his head slumped forward. The bile returned, and waves of nausea crashed through her once again; she closed the distance. Her hand trembled as she felt for a pulse...it was barely perceptible, but it was there.

  “Happy now?” Baden came up behind her, his shadow completely engulfing her.

  “No! You tortured—”

  “Rapists and killers. Yes. They got what they deserved.”

  “What gives you the right to be judge, jury and executioner?” And...and...the amount of death...the level of destruction...the trial of the day... “I think I’m going to—”

  Too late. She hunched over and retched.

  Baden had dragged her brother alongside him, but neither male did the gentlemanly thing and held her veil out of the danger zone.

  She almost snorted as she straightened and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. A brutal savage and a callous heroin addict hadn’t come to her aid? What madness!

  “Mater ti je kurva,” Dominik snapped at Baden as he struggled for freedom. Your mother is a whore. “You will pay for the travesty done this day.”

  Unconcerned by the outburst, Baden looked Katarina over. A spark of something lit his eyes, making her shiver. With dread. Had to be dread. “Aleksander will be the one to pay, and in a most unexpected manner. I’ve decided to take—his bride.”

  4

  “Only one thing should be infectious. Your smile.”

  —Torin, keeper of Disease

  “YOU CAN’T JUST...take me,” the bride said, obviously alarmed.

  What was her name?

  “I can, and I will. Don’t fight me.” The blood in Baden’s veins sang, Destruction purring in harmony. Tides of pleasure rolled through him. Hate the beast, but love this. Nothing in his life—this one or the one before—had ever compared. And all it had taken? The total annihilation of another man’s army.

  So sure the annihilation is the cause? What about the girl?

  One look at her and he’d been overcome with the urge to rut, long and hard and often—and oddly enough, to protect.

  It was insanity. She meant nothing to him.

  William and Torin were busy searching the slain for the coin. Just in case. Baden watched them, and the bride watched Baden, the heat of her gaze scalding him.

  She cursed at him. “You’re smiling right now.”

  Was he?

  “Violence delights you? That’s sick. Sick!” She unleashed a stream of Slovakian profanity, calling him terrible names and accusing him of sleeping with everything from a rat to a goat. Her anger clearly freed her of all fear.

  Destruction paid her no heed. She was puny, harmless.

  She actually amused Baden. So much rage in such a tiny body.

  If ever her passion was redirected...

  He swallowed a rumble of need—to hurt, only to hurt, surely—no longer amused.

  Her brother reached out to slap a hand over her mouth, but she batted him away and continued shouting, saving the male from
a blade through the heart. Baden had claimed the girl as a war prize. For one night, she would belong to him. He would safeguard what was his.

  “Do not touch her again,” he said with undeniable hostility.

  The color drained from the brother’s cheeks.

  The bride moved in front of Baden, demanding his attention. A clear attempt to shelter the male who should have done everything in his power to shelter her.

  Her concern for the men in her life—the scum—irritated him. Delighting in violence was sick, she’d said, and yet she had bound herself to a human who’d left the bodies of both the guilty and the innocent in his wake.

  “There’s a better way,” she announced. “Killing a defenseless man is unnecessary and cowardly.”

  “No man is defenseless. Not while he has his wits.”

  “If wits are a weapon, some men are better armed than others. Some, like yourself, are actually unarm—”

  “Katarina,” the brother snapped. “Enough.”

  Katarina. A delicate name for a delicate (looking) woman.

  She pressed her lips into a thin line.

  She was far, faaar from Baden’s type. He preferred strong warrior-women. Someone able to back up her boasts with her body. Like Pandora. Once or twice he’d even considered pausing their war. In the end, the desire to defeat her had always proved stronger than the desire to pleasure her.

  He studied Katarina more intently. Her dark brown hair was wound in an intricate knot at the crown of her head, not a single tendril free to frame her arresting face. Arresting, even despite its delicacy. Big gray-green eyes possessed a catlike slant, sensually complemented by thick, straight brows and a fan of black lashes. A light smattering of freckles dotted an elegant nose and blade-sharp cheekbones. Plump lips dared a man to taste...

  Resist.

  Her jaw was her boldest feature, the one he wanted to trace with his fingertips; it was almost triangular, coming to a blunt point at her chin.

  Her skin was as smooth and flawless as a freshly polished onyx stone—except for her arms. Multiple scars stretched from the inside of her elbows all the way to her wrists, each in the shape of teeth. She’d been bitten. But by what?

  On her right arm, she had a tattoo. Once upon a time...

  It was the beginning of more than one fairy tale, and an interesting choice for a gold digger. And she was a gold digger. He could think of no other reason a woman with such an indomitable spirit would pledge to love, honor and obey a man like Aleksander.

  “Please,” she said, switching tactics. “Give me a chance to find your coin. Alek has other homes. He has businesses. As his wife, I’ll have full access. I will gladly search them all.”

  “How quick you are to betray your new husband.” It irritated him as much as her concern. “Though I doubt he wanted you for your loyalty.”

  Done with the conversation, Baden grabbed her by the waist and hung her upside down, tucking her against his side, effectively avoiding skin-to-skin contact.

  She kicked and flailed to no avail. He was simply too strong and her dress was too big, creating the perfect cage.

  The brother reached for her. A mistake. Baden kicked his feet out from under him, sending him crashing to his ass.

  “Stay,” he commanded. “Or end up like the others.”

  The brother stayed down but spit on Baden’s boots. “You won’t kill me. You need me to deliver a message for you.”

  “Do I? A note would work just as well.”

  Eyes the same gray-green as Katarina’s blazed with fury. “Take the girl, and Alek will kill you.”

  Baden grinned—so did Destruction. “You can’t kill someone who’s already dead.”

  Confusion shadowed the male’s features, followed quickly by fear as screams tapered to moans throughout the sanctuary. Did he finally grasp the full scope of Baden’s ruthlessness?

  “A note won’t convey proper emotion,” the boy said.

  He disagreed but said, “When Aleksander wakes, tell him I’ll find him in the morning. Hiding from me will do no good. If he fails to give me the coin, I’ll keep my promise and take something else he values. Something that will make him bleed.”

  As the bride continued to struggle, Baden strode down the center aisle. “Let’s go,” he called.

  William and Torin finished their search and raced over to flank his sides. They were spattered with crimson, but unlike him, they were free of injury. Good, that was good. Seeing them hurt might have propelled him into an unstoppable rampage. Against them!

  Destruction liked to kick a man while he was down.

  Should have ditched the pair and come alone.

  When he’d told his friends about the life-and-death competition hosted by Hades, the entire group had insisted on accompanying him. Baden had protested. The warriors had families now. Wives and children, as William had reminded him. There was no reason to endanger any of them. And they had life-and-death things to do, like finding the box and the Morning Star before Lucifer. Even finding Pandora, who’d gone off the grid. What if she turned her rage to the Lords, now that she was forbidden from striking at Baden? Also, Sabin and Strider were exploring ways to free Baden from his bands, and therefore Hades’s control, while allowing Baden to retain his tangibility.

  In the end, the warriors had overruled him, drawing straws to decide who would have the honor of aiding him. The honor. As if he was a prize they adored rather than a piece of shit who’d abandoned them. His guilt sharpened and razed his chest. How was he ever going to right the wrongs of his past when he owed his friends more and more?

  Cameo, the keeper of Misery, and Torin had won the draw. William, who’d returned from the sexual buffet slash murder-fest, had simply said, “Try to stop me. Dare you. Oh, and it goes without saying you’ll owe me another favor.”

  They reached the chapel exit. Baden stepped over the first set of guards he’d felled then shouldered his way through the door, sunlight and warm air greeting him.

  “Taking the human is kind of a creeper move. You know that, right?” Torin said.

  His words rallied Katarina. She increased her struggles, saying, “I can’t leave Alek. Please! Let me go.”

  Her fear thrilled Destruction. “Calm yourself, girl. I have no plans to hurt you.”

  “Plans can change, yes?”

  Oh, yes. “The good news is, we’ll be together for only one night.” No matter how Aleksander felt about her—love or simple lust—he would move heaven and earth to get her back. Today his pride had been pricked. If he allowed another man to steal his woman, he would lose the respect of his men. Or what remained of his men. His authority would be challenged daily.

  He would hand over the coin, and that would be that. Baden would be awarded his first point and take the lead in Hades’s game.

  Actually, Baden would be awarded his second point. Once he secured Katarina, he would be flashing to the siren. He would remove her tongue, as demanded.

  A dagger pierced his conscience. One he couldn’t remove. Aleksander was scum. The siren was not. How could he damage her?

  Would her tongue grow back? She was immortal, but like Baden, she was a spirit.

  How was he supposed to live with himself after committing such a foul deed?

  Easy, Destruction said. You live.

  When Katarina beat her fists into his side, Baden added, “Your actions will dictate mine.”

  “Panchart!”

  The sidewalks were crowded, the streets jammed with cars. Baden’s SUV was double-parked, Cameo waiting behind the wheel.

  “Help me!” Katarina shouted, and he wasn’t surprised. To her, there was no better opportunity to escape. “This is an abduction!”

  No one paid her any heed, everyone too busy staring at their phones, pretending the rest of the wo
rld no longer existed.

  “Give her to me,” William said, making grabby hands. “I think I’ve proven I’m better with the opposite sex. And mission planning. And fighting. And basic hair care. Frizz isn’t your friend, Baden.”

  Baden tightened his hold on the girl. “My prisoner. Mine.”

  “Wow. Selfish much?” William frowned at him. “And after everything I’ve done for you.”

  “You mean everything I’ll have to pay you for doing?” The favors to be named later had seemed innocent enough at the time. Slay an enemy for him? Guard his back during battle? Sure. Now the possibilities were endless and the beast...wasn’t pleased.

  Kill him. A command, as always, though this one lacked any true heat because of William’s connection to Hades.

  Death isn’t the answer to every situation.

  William pouted. “You act as if payment makes my good deeds less altruistic.”

  “It does!” Baden noticed two stray dogs perched on the curb.

  Destruction growled in warning, and the dogs growled right back, as if they heard the sound Baden never released. The two were big, both black and white with patches of missing fur. Mange?

  Katarina went as still as a statue. Quietly, calmly, she said, “Don’t you dare hurt those poor animals.”

  I will not be ordered, the beast snapped. I will—

  Nothing. You will nothing. Baden stepped around the dogs. The pair watched him with intense fixation, ready to pounce, and yet they made no move to jump him.

  “Have a heart and call a shelter,” she said.

  “Already messaged one.” Torin shoved his phone in his pocket and moved in front of him to open the back passenger door.

  Baden threw the girl inside the vehicle, followed her in and caught her by the waist as she lunged for the opposite door. A superfluous action. William entered, blocking her from the other side. Torin claimed the front seat.

  “Testosterone sandwich.” William pulled a moist towelette from a dispenser hanging on the back of the driver’s seat and handed it to Baden. “You should clean the condiments off your side of the bun.”

  “Curak!” the bride sneered as Baden removed the blood from his face. The Slovak word for prick. “I’ve done nothing to you. Say yes to your heart and let me go.”