Page 123 of Legion
She let her inner power rush out of her system.Red-violet flames roared to life around her body, incinerating the magick ropes.As Kushiel stumbled back, shying away from the brightness of the fire, her demon rose to the surface.
Luka ground his teeth, flexing his fingers.“I see nothing.”The GPS signal had led them here, to a desert on the outskirts of Vegas—an endless sandy landscape with rocks, cacti, shrubs, thick grass, and stunted trees.
It was an area that he’d searched once before, having identified it as a possible spot for the monastery.Back then, he’d found nothing.
Of course, he’d taken into account that the building could be somehow concealed, but there would besomesigns of human life out here.Footprints.Vehicles.Tire tracks.Litter.
None of those things could be seen.Not during his previous search, and not now.
There were no sounds of human life either.A thick silence had fallen, broken only by the occasional rattle of a bush or flutter of wings.
He scanned his surroundings again—left, right, down, even up.The sun was beginning to set in the wide-open sky, turning a deep gold ringed with red.The clouds had taken on a pink/orange hue that held faint dashes of purple.Shadows were beginning to creep over the landscape, bringing with them a slight chill.
At least they wouldn’t all be baking in the daytime heat while they searched.
“She’ssomewherearound here,” maintained Tobe, his phone in hand.“She has to be.”
“Unless the clerics removed her shoes and tossed them here,” said Nikandr.“Though I see no reason why they’d feel it necessary to do that.”
Luka had brought along the twins, but not Daniil—he’d had the teleporter focus on moving Konstantin and Iain’s bodies.Only Nikandr and Mikhail knew of Naomi’s angelic blood, and Luka wanted it to stay that way.If Tobe’s prediction was correct, her entity would do nothing to hide its true nature when dealing with the monkhood.
The only others here were Tobe, Jolene, Ciaran, Tia, Alfie, and Beck—people already aware of Naomi’s secrets.They hadn’t called on Khloë, because her mate would have insisted on going into battle with her.No, that wasn’t happening.
Urgency still pounding at Luka—an urgency to find, protect, avenge—he cricked his neck.His demons continued to writhe beneath his flesh, all edgy, hypervigilant, restless, and sending him psychic snapshots of the many revenge scenarios flickering through their minds.
Luka turned, the hard-packed sandy ground crunching beneath his feet, and stalked over to Tobe.He glanced down at the imp’s cell phone.On the screen was an overhead map of the area, a thick red dot pulsing in its center.It only gave them a general sense of where Naomi might be.She could be up to half a mile away in either direction.“The signal can’t get any more specific than that?”
“No,” Tobe muttered, visibly frustrated by it.
Jolene set her hands on her hips.“The monkhood has to be using glamor magick to hide their monastery.”
Luka had considered that.Since the clerics were able to channel divine power, the glamor would be strong.Still ...“There should be some evidence of people coming and going, though, shouldn’t there?It isn’t as if they can teleport.”Almost itchy with exasperation, he called out to his mate again.Naomi, we’re close.Need a little help finding you.Can you call on your flames?
Her psyche brushed against his.Don’t ...Luka ...dandy ...trust me on ...home ...
He sighed.“If I understood her telepathic comment correctly, I should trust that she’s ‘dandy’ right now.”As if he’d be so easily reassured.“I had hoped that the mind-to-mind frequency would be clearer with close proximity, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.”
“Which means we can’t rely on her to guide us,” said Mikhail.“We’ll have to set off on foot and search for her.”
Nikandr nodded.“It would be best to split into groups and head in varying directions.”
“Not necessary,” Tia told them with a flap of her hand.“All we need to do is wait.”
Luka looked at the imps, all of whom were far too calm for his liking.“Wait for what?”
“For her demon to make its move,” replied Tia.“Trust me, it’ll make enough of a fuss for us to knowexactlywhere we need to head.”
Mikhail squinted.“You really think her demon can take on a dark practitioner and a bunch of clerics?If that were the case, it would have done so before now.”
It was Tobe who responded.“Naomi didn’t give it the chance, because she knows that it can’t be trusted to hold back.”Pausing, he pocketed his cell.“Think of it as a rabid dog on a leash.You’re not going to unclip that leash unless you have no other choice, because you know that the dog will attack without sense or control.”
“As I said earlier,” Jolene began, “the inner entities of demons with angelic blood can sometimes be unstable.”
Which was one of the reasons why Luka hadn’t particularly wanted Ella to mate Viper.A child carrying both angelic and demonic blood ...you never quite knew exactly what you were going to get.And then Luka had gone off and mated such a hybrid himself.Fate had to be laughing its ass off at him.
A light breeze brushed over him, carrying the scents of dry air and baked earth.“It might be better if we just ...”He stopped talking as a rumble built, snagging his attention.It vibrated along the ground, drumming at the soles of his feet through his shoes, making sand and pebbles dance and shift.
Alfie stumbled backwards, cursing as a thorny brush caught at his pants.“Well, I’d say that’s courtesy of our girl.We just need—”
