Dawn Treadway - Dark Dreams - HarperImpulse Paranormal Romance

“Centuries ago, Djinn and Shaitan inhabited Sheol together. But we saw how the Shaitan had begun to trick humans and lead them to slaughter, forcing them to the Unseen. So we left to try to protect them …”

Jade practically flew off the table, obviously stunned, and began to completely come undone.

“You mean Hell don’t you? Because you’re a Daemon and you come from freaking Hell, right? You are telling me you used to live in Hell and then you and some of the others, after hundreds of years, millennia, possibly; you and the other Djinn finally decided it wasn’t okay that the Shaitan, the monsters that abducted me, are minions of an even more evil thing, this Iblis. That they abduct innocent humans and torture them, in ways I can’t even fathom, for eternity. Call it what you will. But you want me to go with you into the pits of HELL and get your brother. Am I getting all this straight? This is your plan? And you really think it will work? With me? I am the one to help YOU get through Hell? I think I’ll just take my chances with the Shaitan above ground if that’s okay with you; well even if it isn’t, I’m fucking out.”

He was a little speechless. Nias could not remember another time in his life when he actually was at a loss for words. But here he sat. He watched her head for the door, which led to the hallway, tracking her as she stalked across the room. She was attempting to leave. He knew there was no way she could get out of the house, much less the compound, without him, so he let her go for now, to give her some time to cool off. Then he would go find her and start again. Eventually she would either begin to accept her circumstances or she wouldn’t. Either way he would get her to cooperate.

As Jade walked swiftly to the door of the bedroom she had expected Nias to grab her and stop her at any moment, but he hadn’t. She walked into the hallway and then broke into more of a run when she realized the possibility of getting free. Her mind was moving even faster than her body. I can’t believe I let myself get taken in by him! He wants to take me to Hell! Why in the world would he think I would ever even consider that? He was just using me! That’s it. Just another asshole who treats women like something they can own, possess, control.

As her mind railed and she searched for a way out, her breathing became heavy. The hallways seemed to go on forever! She passed door after door. Through the open ones she saw bedrooms, bathrooms, rooms that she had no idea what their use was. She tried a few of the closed ones. Some were locked, but those that weren’t simply revealed more of the same. No way out! She tried to regain her composure; she needed to calm down. Eventually she came to a stairway, which led both up and down. She headed down, hoping to find a door, any door, out of this gigantic house.

When she reached the bottom of the next flight she had to choose left or right. She could see some kind of light coming from the end of the hall to her left and so she went in that direction. As she approached she could hear multiple voices coming from the end of the hall. If she got close enough, she would be able to take a read of their emotions. Sometimes, when there weren’t too many people in a room, she could even tell before she entered how many there were in it by the emotions running through them.

She got a little closer, and she could feel four or five distinct personalities. She went further down toward the room and saw a large armoire with glass shelving. She crouched down behind it, and in doing so was able to see the whole room through the glass. Unless they knew to look for her, they wouldn’t see her sitting there. They weren’t shouting, but there was an atmosphere of seriousness in the room and voices were being raised; a heavy debate was taking place.

The room was very Goth socialite – a little bit rustic Rococo. It smacked of monsters with money. Furnished with heavy wooden antiques and expensive-looking paintings of fleshy pale nudes, the room had a color scheme of dark reds, deep blues, and gold. Rich burgundy tapestries hung around windows, which stretched upwards two full stories and were surrounded by intricately carved walls. Somehow the furniture managed to look oversized and cozy, a neat trick for the old French and Italian theme. Jade had an image in her mind, due to the expanse of the place and the interior furnishing, that at least a few flying buttresses held the whole building up and stone goblins stood guard outside.

There were actually five of them in the room – one woman and four men. Two of the males stood behind the couches. Most of the heaviness seemed to be coming from a huge, amazingly hot, dark-haired male. He looked similar enough to Nias that Jade knew this must be one of the siblings he had spoken of, but this guy looked more rugged, more muscular. While Nias was tall, with heavy arms and shoulders, he managed to be sleek; he always came off like the predatory cat she had first seen. This man was still tall and lean but more pure warrior. She could see him in the old country with a dirk or present-day muddy on a rugby field with torn clothing and a mass of injuries that didn’t bother him a bit. The second man, who seemed to be doing his best to negotiate between Big and Rugged and the girl, was about six feet tall and blond. Much softer-looking and softer-spoken, he seemed far more reasonable than the others. The two men standing were both between six two and six four, still gorgeous, but not so much as the others. They stood silent, almost to attention, and seemed to be waiting for orders.

The girl was dwarfed by the men. She seemed to be around five four. But even with her small stature, she was holding her own. She had long dark hair pulled back tight in a low ponytail. Jade could see the familial gold eyes shine out of her beautiful, almost perfect, features. She wore black combat boots, black jeans and a tight fitting black t-shirt. She wasn’t made up, but she carried herself like she knew she didn’t need it, and didn’t seem the kind of girl to care that much anyway.

“We need to figure out what is going on and we need to do it now before it gets worse!” the largest male boomed.

“I agree, Phaeton, but don’t go out there on a killing spree before we have a chance to find the source of the chaos,” the girl countered, and went on. “The Shaitan never do anything without being told to do it. We need to know what Iblis is planning. Why would Hamartia be above ground? I can hardly believe that sick bitch could walk away from her closest companions – bloodshed, pain, and misery – for even a day.”

“Ella is right. We should find out how we can stop the whole, not kill the few. Hamartia’s presence signifies something completely different is happening. We have to find out what.” The blond simply stated things matter-of-factly, without elevating his voice at all.

The girl, who obviously was named Ella, continued, “Don’t get me wrong, Phaeton, we will stop them from doing harm, with the same force we always use. I don’t want them to suspect anything is different in the way we are approaching this latest assault. I will lead the Sentry to the streets, as I always have. I wouldn’t want to let a day go by without our usual body count. But I will not simply injure the body of the beast and allow the head to grow again.”

“I will join you on the street. My abilities will speed the process of finding the Shaitan and learning about their plans; besides I haven’t had the opportunity to end nearly as many of the scaly low lives as I would like recently.” Phaeton smiled.

“We would be honored to have you with us. We could benefit from your tracking, they could be anywhere in the world by now. If you can get us to the right city, we can easily flush them out by scent and sound.” This was spoken by one of the standing men, one whom Jade assumed to be part of the Sentry they spoke of.