Instead, she simply outwitted him.
Not a particularly difficult task.
“Do you truly think you would be of any use to me if Briggs decides to take control of you again?” she demanded.
Hess scowled. “He won’t…”
“Look, we’re wasting time,” she interrupted, her tone warning he was taking his life in his hands to argue with her. “You know that it isn’t safe for you to be around Briggs.”
Hess folded his hands over his massive chest. “How do you know he can’t control you?”
“My connection to Salvatore protects me,” she blatantly lied. She wouldn’t let herself consider the possibility. “Go rescue the others.”
There was a brittle silence, then with a foul curse, Hess swept past her, headed for the entrance of the tunnel.
“I’m going to be pissed if you get yourself killed and I’m blamed,” he muttered.
Harley rolled her eyes. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Waiting until she was alone in the tunnel, Harley sucked in a deep breath and continued her nerve-wracking journey. She hated feeling as if she were buried alive in this endless web of caverns. The vamps could have the dark and dank, as far as she was concerned. She wanted the open sky overhead, and a fresh breeze filling her lungs.
Ignoring the growing chill that prickled over her skin, Harley headed deeper and deeper into the darkness, losing track of time and direction as a creeping sense of claustrophobia threatened to choke her.
She concentrated on keeping her heartbeat steady and one foot moving in front of the other, her years of training at last coming in handy as she flowed silently through the empty tunnels.
On the point of turning back and trying another path, Harley caught the unmistakable scent of smoke. It wasn’t exactly proof positive that Salvatore was near, but it was the first indication she wasn’t completely alone in the barren hellhole.
Following the smoke, Harley slowly entered the large cavern, her heart coming to a complete and perfect halt at the sight of Salvatore laid out on a stone altar, his blood dripping into a blazing brazier.
A savage, astonishingly protective fury ripped through her. Christ, his body was being destroyed by the heavy silver chains wrapped around him, and his beautiful face…it was dangerously pale from the rapid loss of blood. Dammit. She wanted to rip off Briggs’s head. She wanted to feed his putrid heart to the rats. She wanted…
Her heart twisted.
She wanted to snatch Salvatore off the ghastly altar and take him far away from this cavern.
Checking the impulse to rush across the seemingly empty cave, Harley forced herself to pause and use her brains. Hey, there was a first time for everything.
Spreading out her senses, she searched for any hint of danger. It should have been simple. Beyond the altar and brazier the vast space appeared to be empty. But she knew from bitter experience that Briggs had the ability to pop in and out without warning.
When there was no smell of rotting meat and the air remained chilly, but not icy, she took a cautious step forward. She had taken her second step when Salvatore’s head abruptly snapped in her direction, his eyes widening with unexpected panic.
“Harley, no,” he growled.
“Listen to him, Were,” an ominous voice rasped through the air. “A step closer and I’ll kill him.”
Harley sucked in a sharp breath, belatedly catching sight of the shadow that hovered above Salvatore.
She knew instinctively that the…thing wasn’t Briggs using his hocus-pocus. The thick power that suddenly pulsed through the air had nothing to do with Were, and everything to do with pure, undiluted evil.
This had to be the demon lord that Styx feared.
Or at least a portion of his essence.
She briefly stumbled, her mouth dry with sheer terror. Deep in her heart, she understood she was in way over her head. What the hell did she know about battling a demon lord? Or a zombie Were, for that matter.
Then gritting her teeth, she ignored her perfectly reasonable fear and instead concentrated on the scent of Salvatore that at last broke through the dampening spell.
“You’re going to kill him anyway,” she accused, continuing forward.
“True, but you can save your own life,” the voice promised. “Just turn and walk away.”
“No.”
“Dio, Harley, do as he says,” Salvatore rasped, struggling against the silver chains. “Get out of here.”
“Listen to your mate, female,” the demon lord warned.
“Go to hell,” she muttered, her gut clenching as Salvatore abruptly screamed in agony, his body contorting as if it were being tortured by an unseen enemy. “Shit. Just hang on, Salvatore. Do you hear me?”
Despite his obvious pain, Salvatore’s golden gaze never wavered from her.
“Please, go. I can’t bear…”
“Shut up, Your Majesty. I’m not leaving.”
Unable to halt her by punishing Salvatore, the demon lord turned his attention in Harley’s direction. She was mere steps from the altar when a bolt of energy smashed into her with enough force to send her to her knees.
Salvatore cried out. “Harley.”
She pushed herself upright, jerking as another bolt slammed into her. Pain exploded through her body, but she refused to go down. Just a few more steps. And then…
Then what?
She didn’t have a clue what she was going to do when she actually reached Salvatore, she only knew that she had to get to him.
Jagged shards of agony burrowed into her bones, making her movements awkward, and black spots danced before her eyes, nearly blinding her. Distantly she could hear Salvatore’s ragged breaths and the low moans that were coming from her own throat, but she refused to focus on anything but putting one foot in front of another.
Demon lord or not, she was too damned stubborn to concede defeat.
There was blood dripping from a dozen small wounds, and Harley suspected that more than one bone was cracked by the time she at last reached the altar.
Once there, she realized that Salvatore looked even worse than she felt.
The dark hair was matted with blood, and his face was an alarming shade of gray. And his poor body…
She shuddered at the charred flesh, unable to imagine the agony he must be enduring.
Instinctively she reached to offer comfort, her hand lightly touching his shoulder.
Her fingers had barely brushed his skin when the black shadow that had wrapped around her gave a bloodcurdling scream. Harley leaned protectively over Salvatore, convinced that her eardrums were about to shatter.