Dark Dreams: HarperImpulse Paranormal Romance. Dawn Treadway

at a time. He slammed open the heavy door at the bottom with all the ferocity and frustration the situation had caused to fester inside him. The thick carved wood tore from its top hinges, dangled and then careened to the sidewalk.

      Nias stalked past one streetlight to the next, one block after another. The scent of Chinese food and stale beer sickened him as he searched for what he needed. Threatened and fearful humans moved quickly out of his path, as gusts of wind swirled like dervishes around his menacing stomp, projecting dirt, discarded trash and anything underfoot. Lightning crashed in the deep-blue sky as his emotion became even darker and his self-loathing for letting this happen meshed with a determined vengeance within him.

      Now because of his fuck-up, Jade was gone and he was one step further from retrieving Joss. Nias inhaled and through the sweat of strippers, cheap cologne and myriad smells of the dirty San Francisco night, he caught the scent of what he was searching for, and what he was hoping not to – the smell of Shaitan, and Jade’s fear. And he knew they had taken her.

      Nias had then transcended directly to the Djinn Sentry. Phaeton, being the current Sovereign, had ownership and control of the compound, their base of operations, for the Cause. Nias walked in and started ordering Daemons to locations throughout the city. He would cover them all. The more guards he had out, the faster they could find her. They always found the Nests in these mass deployments. All Djinn had a potent sense of smell. When they got within a few blocks of a Shaitan Nest, they would know.

      It had taken the Sentry about an hour to locate the Nest. When they did, Nias had transcended directly inside with a small group consisting of whomever he could immediately muster. The girl had been badly injured, but he could also see she had put up a fight they would have not suspected her capable of.

      He could see she had escaped the bonds they had put her in, but not before she had been cut up. The beautiful redhead was being dragged across the blood-splattered floor of the dirty warehouse, and he was consumed with a burning rage toward the beast that had dared to touch her. That it did so sent a shuddering hatred through him he did not expect. He grasped its neck with the blind fury of a man who had been personally violated. After he picked it up and finished it, he was flooded with disappointment that he had not drawn out the vile creation’s pain.

      Nias took Jade into his arms and held her shivering body tightly to his chest, wanting to absorb her panic within him. He ordered the extinction of the rest of the pack, calling out to the Djinn to spare no violence; tear their heads from their bodies if they wished, he would welcome it. Dispose of the rot when they were through. The Sentry would take the dead creatures back to the incinerator in their compound.

      He didn’t realize Hamartia had witnessed his bloodlust and emotion until he stood with the unconscious girl in his arms and she appeared suddenly before them.

      “Hello, my delicious pet.” Her voice scraped through the darkness like nails on a chalkboard, giving him chills penetrating to his very spine.

      He growled, “Hamartia, I so do not miss your hideous whine. What could possibly draw you out of Sheol? I can’t imagine anything worth you missing even a minute of your enjoyment of the suffering and torture of the damned.” He watched her tall shadow approach him in the dimness of the room. She had long black, dreadlocked hair, which fell around an ugly scarred face. Her body was diseased from her conception and had continued to slowly rot for millennia. Wetness from her open sores shone through the encrusted dark fabric of her ancient, worn, floor-length gown.

      Iblis had once taken her as a lover simply to amuse himself with something vile. It had been during a time when he had a sick fetish for fucking things that disgusted him. After centuries of finding pleasure in those who didn’t consent to his advances, he sought a distraction with a different kind of depravity.

      When he was through with using Hamartia for his lasciviousness he took immense pleasure in telling her all about his experiment with the filthy and nauseating, letting her know she actually managed to make even the most depraved beast ever in creation, himself, sick. Some believed she had developed affection for him, if she could even conjure such a feeling. Spurned, she fell into a blood-hungry rage that continued to consume her existence. She had never left Sheol before, to Nias’s knowledge. Head Mistress of Pain; dominance and humiliation were all that gave her pleasure now. But, yet, here she was.

      Unfortunately, she had also always had a lust for Nias. His physical beauty, strength, and power were an attraction she had been fixated on even before the humiliation Iblis caused her.

      “Maybe it is just that I missed gazing at you. Why do you hold the human that way, Nias?” The she-beast drew out his name like she was playing with it on her tongue, and tilted her head in query. “She is beautiful, but have her quickly and discard her, like the other women you take to your bed. It looked to me from watching you end Rin that you almost felt something for her, but she will never hold your attentions like I could.”

      He could hear her jealousy and it made him fear for Jade’s wellbeing. He knew Jade could no longer leave his side, at least until this conflict was resolved. If she lived, they would have to find a way to remove her from the attention of the Shaitan.

      “No, Hamartia, she never could. The disgust I feel for you will never be the kind of attention I would give Jade.”

      “You use her given name?” She pulled a hiss in though her teeth. “Why did you transcend her to your residence, Nias? We saw you converse with her and block her exit. It looked to be more than bedding.”

      “She is nothing to me, Hamartia. You have no reason to concern yourself with this girl.” He did not want to give her any hint that Jade could be the key to his saving Joss.

      “Your reaction to her miniscule injuries was extreme; I would very much like to take her home with me.” She took another step towards him as if to relieve him of his burden.

      He bristled at Hamartia’s description of what her compatriots had done to her. Jade made a tiny moaning sound, and Nias realized both her clothing and his had become more saturated with blood as he held her. He needed to get her somewhere safe and tend to her wounds now.

      He glared at the monstrosity before him, disgusted with both her inner and outer self. “This one will be discarded quickly; your perception of the events is obviously skewed. I hope our next encounter will not be soon, if ever.” And he transcended himself and the girl out before Hamartia could get in another word.

       Chapter 4

      Jade abruptly found herself in a dark room, once again being held by her beautiful kidnapper. Although the room was only lit by the glow the moon and stars sent through the large windows, the fullness of the moon allowed her to see the essence of it. The furnishings were extremely nice, but different from the flat she had been in earlier. This was a huge bedroom, well appointed, even more moneyed. The change in the time of day implied she was in yet another time zone.

      Her arms were wrapped around his neck, and she was still trembling and bleeding badly through what was left of her shredded clothing. She couldn’t feel animosity right now; hell, she couldn’t feel much of anything except pain mixed with some level of gratitude. The pain was worst from the front of her body and her arm, where the grotesque fiend had ripped her open. But Nias’s firm grip on her was calming and soothing and in his arms she got the sense she would be all right, which was completely insane since he was the one who had got her into this mess in the first place.

      Nias walked over to a dark wooden four-poster bed with a dark-blue duvet and a pile of brighter-blue pillows. He turned his head toward the fireplace and under his glare the fire suddenly ignited and rose to warm the room. When he bent down to place her on the bed, she didn’t want to let go. She felt so confused, shaken, and hurt she wasn’t sure whether she needed his strength around her for a little while longer, or whether she should demand to be taken to a hospital. The latter seemed the right thing to do, but that wasn’t what her body, as badly injured as it was, wanted to do.

      He looked into