Eddie reached into a place she’d didn’t even know existed. “No, you don’t.” With everything she had, she ripped Calix’s hand off her ankle and shoved him back.

Calix’s eyes widened before he careened back down the stairs. As he barreled into the pursuers behind him, screams, shouts, and thuds followed.

Eddie was moving again. She couldn’t feel her left leg, and she dragged it behind her. The door loomed suddenly in front of her, and Eddie lurched for the handle. It turned under her palm, and daylight blinded her. Her eyes watered. The smell of air and growing things almost brought her to her knees, but she stumbled forward.

“Get her,” Sophia yelled. “The hounds and I will deal with the demons.”

“Eddie.” Strong arms lifted her and cradled her against a chest. Honey and musk. Shade.

The door crashed open, and Xerxes and Cronus launched themselves at the demons spilling out of the door.

A blur of white wings and shining light shot past them and engaged the demons.

But Eddie was rising. Wings beat the air in a steady whump, whump, whump. Wind battered at her eardrums, and her clothes flapped around her limbs. She shivered, and Shade’s arms tightened around her, tucking her closer to his body heat.

“Shade?”

“I’ve got you, Eddie. I’ve fucking got you.”

Sounds of battle came from below them, and Eddie struggled against his hold. “My hounds.”

“They deserve this,” Shade said in a voice colder than the wind beating at her. “Let them have their vengeance.”

Shade had forgotten the sweet agony of emotion as he cradled Eddie in his arms. His powerful wings beat the air, putting distance between them and the place he had rescued her.

In his arms, she felt tiny and breakable. She’d lost a lot of weight, and she clung to him in a heartbreakingly un-Eddie way. But by the fire of hell, she was alive and with him. After all these weeks of searching, he finally had her.

Through their bond, he felt the hounds rip and sunder the demons who had pursued Eddie. Sophia’s savage thrill as she handed out vengeance for both of them warmed his soul. He basked in their gory delight as the hounds and Sophia took their revenge on the beings who had held Eddie captive. As much as he wished he could enjoy the bloodbath with them, getting Eddie safe took precedence.

He buried his nose in her dusky hair and inhaled the rich, floral scent of her. Roses and cloves, and so dear to him it felt as if his heart would explode. Soon he would need to let Wrath and Dee know that he’d found her, but he had these precious minutes when she was his alone.

“Shade?” She stirred in his hold.

Hearing her say his name, even in that broken whisper brought tears to his eyes. The cold wind whipped them away as fast as they formed. “It’s me, Eddie.”

“You found me.”

“Always, my love. I will always find you.”

And then Eddie began crying. Each sob and tear ripped through his flesh and bone like the hounds’ teeth. He would give his immortal soul to spare her this pain.

He, Sophia, and the hounds had been circling this area for days, the hounds catching hints and glimpses of her, but then having them disappear again. Only the hounds’ steadfast conviction that she was here and Sophia’s quiet but unwavering support had kept him waiting and searching. He hadn’t slept in over a week, and neither had they. And their vigilance had paid off. He and Sophia had been running a routine sweep with the hounds covering the ground beneath them when suddenly Eddie’s signature energy had surged up to him.

Like one being, all four of them had zeroed in on her location.

The sight of her pelting through that hidden door in the rock face had stupefied him for a moment. Thank hell for Sophia, because she had not hesitated, and her swift action had propelled him into motion.

Eddie’s sobs subsided to the occasional shudder, and she shivered in his hold.

“Not long now, sweetheart, and I’ll stop and get you warm,” he said, his voice rough with the emotion he could not contain.

“Shade?” She sniffed.

“Yes, Eddie.” Not in all his years had he enjoyed hearing his name spoken by another being quite as much.

“I think my leg might be broken.”

Fresh rage pounded through him, and he gloried in the carnage the hounds were wreaking behind them. “We’ll fix it.”

“I know.” Her thin hand patted his cheek. “You’re here now, and everything will be fixed.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Ashe threw Calix into the room, and his bloody form hit the floor in a wet squelch before Ashe lowered himself to the ground and pressed his forehead to the floor.

Shade’s hounds and Sophia hadn’t spared any of the demons who had pursued Eddie out of the bunker, and Ashe had fought hard to spare as much of Calix as he had.

Indolex’s power washed over him in a hot wave of fury. His voice like metal over stone grated on Ashe’s ears. “What happened?”

“She had the key, milord.” Ashe kept his head lowered. “And as far as I can ascertain, this piece of shit gave it to her.”

He felt Indolex move closer. No longer a demon, but something other and infinitely more powerful, the wash of his energy coated the back of Ashe’s throat in a metallic taste and cradled his mind like a giant hand. The sweep of his robes penetrated the edges of Ashe’s vision. “You are sure of this?”

“No, lord.” Ashe kept his forehead pressed to the hard concrete floor. “The cameras were not working during the incident, but only he and I had access to the key to her cell.”

“I see.” Indolex nudged the top of Ashe’s head with his foot. “Look at me when I speak to you.”

It was always a crap shoot with this fucking being, and whether you were looking at him or not, you were always guaranteed to be doing the wrong thing. Raising his torso, Ashe met the limitless black of Indolex’s gaze. Once a high order demon like himself, Indolex had gorged himself on the power of the Nephilim until he was what he was now—deadly and undefeatable and terrifying. His power rivaled that of a hell prince now, and in a showdown, Ashe would put his money on Indolex. The bastard was driven by a soul-deep viciousness Ashe had never encountered in another being. For the first time in his long life, Ashe was truly afraid of a being. Lucifer at his angriest had retained some shade of reason. Indolex was pure evil purpose.

Indolex gazed at him, his unbroken black eyes drawing Ashe into the void of his soul. It was like looking into the face of chaos. “Then I have only your word that it was Calix and not you that gave her the key.”

“This is true.” Ashe held that fathomless stare. “But you know what is at stake for me.”

“Yes.” Indolex’s raspy chuckle was like a cheese grater to his nerve endings. “We both know what keeps you chained to my service.”

Ashe forced down his own rage and shrugged. “I would not risk them.”

Indolex cocked his massive head, overhead lighting gleaming off the silver tips of his deadly horns. “You are a clever one, Ashe. I would not put it past you to play a deeper game.”

He chose not to answer that.

In the next two minutes, Indolex would let him know the decision Ashe was certain the giant being had already made. Nothing he said would make any difference.

Indolex loomed over a moaning Calix.