You will never defeat me!
His voice was like a scream inside my head, like thousands of nails scraping over chalkboards, and it took everything I had not to curl into a ball and clap my hands over my ears, trying to block out the sound.
His hand began to move again, slowly but surely, as he overrode my succubus control.
You’re right, I thought back, clenching my jaw so hard my teeth ached. I could fight you until I die, and I probably wouldn’t win. You’re too strong.
He was no longer speaking in my head, but now he projected pure pain into my mind. My knees wobbled, and my stomach threatened to rebel, but I clenched my hands into fists, fighting to stay on my feet. He was using my own power against me, using the connection I’d opened up between us to destroy me from the inside out.
Every breath burned my lungs, and even though I’d just been imbued with a mega-dose of power, it felt like I was burning through it like kerosene. I could feel my strength flagging already, and I pushed harder, forcing myself deeper into his mind.
I might not be able to defeat you, I told him, my voice shaking even in my thoughts. But we can.
As I projected those last th
ree words at him, I thought of my four bond-mates, the men who had come to mean more to me than I’d ever thought possible. I thought of everything we had become, everything we shared.
Love.
Desire.
Trust.
Understanding.
Every single thing we were, all the way down to our very souls.
And then I pushed those images toward Gavriel, sending them directly into his heart through the connection between us.
He stiffened, his body jerking with shock as a look of disgust and anger passed over his inhuman features.
But there was something else in his expression.
Fear.
No. His voice in my head was faint, but it grew stronger with each word. No. No, no, no.
Every thought I was feeding into his psyche went counter to the way he saw the world. To the way he saw the fallen.
To the way he saw himself.
I was forcing him to feel these emotions right alongside me, to feel what I felt for my mates. And it was driving him mad.
With a final enraged shriek inside my head, he unleashed the spell that had been gathering between his fingertips.
“Now!”
I screamed the word as I threw myself to the side. As I moved, I yanked hard on the energy I’d been projecting toward Gavriel, pulling it back inside myself with a painful snap.
Hitting the ground hard, I rolled across the packed earth just as Jayce, in hellhound form, leapt toward the lord of the underworld.
Gavriel’s defenses were down, his focus solely on me. He didn’t notice the hellhound until it was too late. Strong jaws closed around his neck as Jayce landed hard on top of him. A second later, Kai was there, his teeth flashing as they tore at flesh, allowing dark, sludge-like blood to seep out.
A dragon’s roar split the air, and Jayce and Kai stepped back long enough for Kingston to breathe a jet of fire at the dying body.
Gavriel didn’t even scream. He didn’t have time. Flames engulfed him as Xero joined in the attack, hurling balls of pure fire at him.
His body seemed to shrivel and shrink as it burned, a toxic, nauseating smell rising up in the air as if my mates had lit a pile of garbage on fire.