Pain tore at Caden. He’d just found Quade and Ten, and he wasn’t ready to lose them now. “You can’t. Please. Your dad and I need our son.”
“I’ll still be your son, just not a little boy. It’s time for me to grow up.”
Ten turned on his heel and stalked off in the direction of a plume of smoke.
The only thing Caden could think of was that Ten had already missed out on most of his life. He’d worked in Sanctuary helping those who needed him, and now he was giving up what was left to save the goddamn world.
Caden’s heart sank because he’d begun to believe that his life would work out. He’d have Quade and Ten, and together they’d grow as a family. Now? Ten was telling him that dream was over.
No. Caden refused to accept that. He swore he’d fight to keep that dream, and no matter what, he’d do his damnedest to hold on to it.
Quade’s head throbbed, and opening his eyes didn’t help. In fact, it was like someone took a laser and sliced out his brain. The first thing he noticed was the tree. Its branches stretched far into the sky, beyond what even he could see. It was sickly, dying. Quade knew it for what it was. The Tree of Life.
“You’re awake. That’s good. I wouldn’t want you to miss what’s coming.”
Though his stomach knotted from the smell in the air, Quade sat up and came face to face with the ugliest demon he’d ever seen. Well over eight feet tall, with dark fur covering its body. The eyes, blood-red, bored into him. The sneer, though? That made Quade shiver with revulsion. The mouth full of teeth, sharp and vicious, made Quade think of a piranha. A maw with row upon row of bitey death.
As it moved closer, Quade noticed the miasma that swirled around its feet, turning the once-fertile ground beneath it to a dead husk. Every step it took, decay followed in its wake.
“What do you want?”
The demon was now in front of him. It stopped and peered down at Quade. “What I’ve always wanted. What I fucking deserve! Power.”
Quade stood, his legs like jelly. He might die, but he wasn’t going out on his back.
“You’ve grown a lot stronger.” The demon drew back a clawed fist and thrust it into Quade’s stomach, driving him to his knees. “Still can’t take a punch, though.”
The way the demon spoke, it was like they knew each other. Quade was certain he’d never seen this demon in his life.
He grinned as he got to his feet. “Sucker punch. Try that again,” he taunted.
The demon did it again. Then again, hammering his fist into Quade’s stomach. Through it all, Quade didn’t fall, though he wanted to. Whatever was in the air was messing with him. He couldn’t get a decent breath, and no way could he draw on his wolf. He cursed whatever it was that was hurting him in this fight.
“Kinda hard to breathe, huh?” the demon mocked. “These bug people do… did have their uses. Did you know that if you crack their shells just right, it releases enough acid to incapacitate most creatures for a few moments? Now, imagine cracking all of their shells at the same time. Every smart animal fled. Not you, though. You stormed right in.”
The demon had killed A’kosh’s people? And for what? Quade balled up his fist and lashed out, but the demon caught it. It wrapped Quade’s hand in its talons and squeezed, the sharpened nails piercing Quade’s skin and crushing bone. Through it all, Quade didn’t make a sound.
“You have gotten better. Last time we did this, you screamed like a little bitch when I gutted you. I can still remember you begging for mercy. God, I miss those days.”
The demon hit Quade again, and when Quade sucked in a breath, the demon grabbed his chin and brought their faces together. In the Stygian depths of the demon’s eyes, Quade saw it. Pure evil that shook him to his soul, because he remembered it.
“You….”
“Yes, you sniveling faggot. Me.”
The demon was his brother. Or had been in another life. The brother that had raped Marissa and killed them both. The one who Quade had dragged to the depths when he died.
Quade had questions, but only one came to mind. “How?”
That brought a grin that chilled Quade. “Demons respect strength. I was an Alpha wolf, and no way in hell—no pun intended—would I let these things hold me. After you left me there, I fought tooth and nail, clawing my way up the ladder until I got to the top. When I became his champion, the demon lord granted me a boon, sending me back as a fully realized demon.”
It squeezed Quade’s face, drawing blood.
“Eternity has a fucked-up sense of humor, you know? I would never have found you if it wasn’t for the Tree of Life. As soon as I saw you with it, I knew. Eternity was giving me the opportunity for revenge on you and the chance to remake the world the way I want.”
“I won’t let you touch him!”
The demon laughed. “You’re not going to be able to stop me. Why do you think I chose this world? This place? The acids in the air? They’re making you sick. Sure, they might not kill you, but they’ll keep you weak until I’m done with the tree. I’m going to keep you around long enough to see me win, and then I’m going to drag you into the pit, where I’ll take great pleasure in gutting you. Forever.”
This sick son of a bitch had massacred A’kosh’s people in an effort to get back at Quade? And he was planning on doing something to Caden? There was no strength in Quade. His wolf was down, and he had little chance, but no one was watching Caden or Ten. No one could protect his family.
No, this wasn’t going to happen.
Slowly, painfully, Quade put one foot in front of the other.
“It’s good to see that you’ve gotten stronger. I was afraid that you’d be the same screaming brat that cried when I helped myself to Marissa.”
Quade hadn’t been that boy in a thousand lifetimes, and it was high time this bastard learned it. He continued to move, until the demon grinned.
“By the way, I suppose I should tell you. Your… mate—” The words were said with such revulsion. “—and that freak kid of yours? They’re here, looking for you.”
The words he said caused Quade to falter. No. They couldn’t. Even if there was a way, they knew better than to follow.
“You’re lying.”
That half smile again. “Am I? Look at the tree. See how the portal has opened?
In the trunk, a swirling vortex of energy cascaded outward, as if searching for something. Or someone.
“As soon as they set foot on this planet, the tree reached out to Caden. It’s calling him home. The two will merge into one, and it will use Caden’s life force to save itself. That will be the tree’s weakest moment. That’s when I will cut them both down. You’re going to lose everything you care about in a matter of moments.”
“You’ll destroy yourself.”
“No, I won’t. With the death of the tree, a vacuum will open, desperate to be filled. I will sacrifice a thousand—ten thousand—demons. They’ll fly into the portal, and their energies will be absorbed. The tree will be reborn anew, free from the need to have a sprite. Its energies will be malleable, and I intend to be the one to wield them.”
“What about your demon lord? Surely he has something to say about it.”