Dashing Devil Omnibus 2: Books 4-6, page 163
“He was going to give most of us away at our wedding and be Boyd’s best man, if we ever got approval for the ceremony,” Hope added sadly.
The reminder caused that hard icicle of hate that burned coldly in his chest to twist painfully. Boyd and his loves pretty much considered themselves already married, or bound for life. But getting approval for a ceremony had hit a snag when the PR people learned of their plans. They were still trying to figure out how to go about it. The Devoted had even threatened to go rogue and just do something in private that they couldn’t prevent.
Unfortunately, they had never carried through with the threat. Now, Royce wouldn’t be at their wedding—no matter what form it took.
“A reckoning fierce, with no amend… so this is what she meant…” Stepper murmured with a pleased smile. Reading their expressions, she seemed to think better of it and traded it out for a frown. “I mean, I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Can you track him?” Boyd brought the conversation back to what mattered.
“Yes, but we probably won’t need to. Give me five minutes.” And with that, she disappeared.
The big demon went back to waiting. Hope and Raev stepped close and leaned into him, both seeking and hoping to provide some small comfort. Sinoe kept her distance and watched them, seeming to understand that now wasn’t the time for conversation.
The loss was still fresh. As if he was separate and watching from a distance, Boyd recognized that none of them had truly processed it yet. It hadn’t fully sunk in.
The big demon only hoped that by ending Victory Seeker before it did, they would all have an easier time with processing it.
Stepper reappeared, facing them. “He is where he has been staying for the past few months. I had a team watching him that confirmed he left for six hours, but they said he returned half-an-hour ago. He’s at a place we call the Cradle of Carnage—though you might have heard it referred to by a different name… it was the Authority’s first fortress city. I’m sure you know this is probably a trap.”
“I’ve never heard of the place, but that doesn’t matter. I’m also well aware that he obviously wants me to come for him.” Boyd’s voice lost what little warmth it held. “I plan to make him regret that decision. Can you take me to him?” Boyd asked, a trace of excitement rising within him despite the frosty fog rolling from the clump of ice in his chest.
“Us,” Raev corrected again. “He meant can you take us to him.”
“I can only take one at a time, but I can have you all there in twenty minutes,” Stepper replied, struggling not to smile.
He wouldn’t have been offended if she had. From the sounds of things, Stepper had good reason to want Victory Seeker dead, too. She hadn’t just lost someone close to her, though.
He appreciated the effort not to grin.
‘She is smiling because you are trusting her,’ Mindy added. ‘That is something she worried she had ruined any possibility of.’
Boyd wasn’t sure he would go so far as to say that he was going with her out of trust; it was much closer to desperation.
‘Mhmm, so why aren’t you trying to extract the coordinates from her so we can come pick you up in the Osprey and then fly there? I know the thought crossed your mind, but you discarded it because you are coming to trust her—though I’ll admit it is mostly because I keep telling you that you can trust her...’
The growl that rumbled in the back of Boyd’s throat surprised all four of the women.
‘Sorry… You are right… not the time. I’m sorry, my love.’
Boyd knew she meddled because she cared, and was doing so now because it was easier than addressing the loss they all felt. He appreciated that she had quickly realized it was time to back off.
“Yes, please take us,” Boyd replied once their mental sidebar conversation was settled.
“Okay, but fair warning… it makes most people queasy,” Stepper said as she stepped forward and offered him her hand.
“I remember,” Boyd responded, reaching for the offered hand.
Stepper had the grace to blush, ducking her head as she apologized.
“Nuh-uh.” Raev stepped between them, taking Stepper’s hand before Boyd could. “I’ll go first, then the Big Guy, and then you can bring Hope. I, too, remember the kidnapping attempt.”
“Kitsune…” Boyd started to object, but stopped when faced with a flashing emerald glare.
“I’m going first because I’m the most likely to be able to escape if this is a trap set for you,” his kitsune growled. “Hopewing could probably defend herself better but wouldn’t be able to escape. If the trap is set for you, you are the least likely to get away on your own.”
She turned the glare on Stepper. “The Big Guy is also likely to make anyone who harms me wish he would kill them.”
Stepper nodded, her expression somber. “I’m aware. All my people know better than to even look the wrong way at one of Crimson Paw’s wives.”
“What about Omega Ray and the others that you sent to Glorith?” Boyd growled. “Your people have hurt Silver twice already.”
“Those weren’t our people.” Stepper frowned at him. “They were criminals born and raised in your cities who were captured out here by my people. I don’t fully understand why they were sent on those missions, but I was told it was for your benefit.” She pursed her lips, head tilted to the side. “Did you want to talk about that now, or go kill Victory Seeker?”
“Kill Victory Seeker,” Boyd grumbled, surprised that the older anger her words had rekindled had any space within him to burn. “Take Kitsune first.”
Raev had made a good point—if he was the target, he shouldn’t be the first one to step into the trap.
“Be back in five.”
With that, both Stepper and Raev disappeared.
Chapter 53
Boyd discovered that after about a dozen of Stepper’s disorienting jumps, he was getting used to it—at least used to it enough that he no longer felt the need to lock the odd sensation out using his Mental Domination. After that, it was sort of neat to see flashes of different landscapes below them for the brief moments they fell between jumps.
He might have enjoyed it if his thoughts weren’t consumed by the need for revenge. The last jump landed them in a forest clearing that already contained Raev, and an unassuming-looking man whose most notable feature was the odd, rough-spun clothing he wore.
“Holy shit! It’s really you,” the man breathed, eyes wide upon seeing Boyd.
“Not the time to go fanboy, Wilkerson,” Stepper snapped at him before turning back to Boyd. “One more to go.” She disappeared again.
Boyd folded his arms and stared into the forest, ignoring this Wilkerson.
“So,” Stepper said as she re-appeared with Hope, “I got you here… what’s next?”
“Where is Victory Seeker?” Boyd asked, having already scanned the clearing and the nearby woods with his Black Flame Vision. There were several Powered plants and animals nearby, but nothing humanoid.
Stepper held up her left arm, and a holographic map appeared over her wrist. She manipulated it with her right thumb and forefinger until it showed a small orderly city and the surrounding wilderness. There was a pulsing green dot in the forest to the east of the city which likely indicated where they were. A red dot blinked about halfway up the side of one of the buildings closest to the center of the city.
“We’re green,” Stepper confirmed, “and the target is red. He took over a one-bedroom apartment in the building and was last seen there. We have eyes on him and will be notified if he moves.”
“Good,” Boyd said.
Over their mental comms, he asked, ‘What’s your ETA, Silvie?’
‘Six minutes, I’m coming as quick as I can,’ Silvie replied. She had left their base as soon as Raev arrived, flying high and fast.
“We will wait six minutes for Silver to arrive,” Boyd said. “Then, if you don’t mind, I would like you to drop me right behind him. I’ll take it from there.”
“You plan to fight him alone?” Stepper arched an eyebrow at him. “Then why is Silver coming?”
“To keep these two safe,” he gestured at Hope and Raev, “or to chase and slow him down enough for me to catch up, if he tries to run.”
Boyd had already had this conversation with his loves in the ten minutes it took for Stepper to ferry first kitsune and the nymph which the porter insisted come along to the clearing.
“Victory Seeker cannot be underestimated. He will gleefully take anyone I bring to confront him hostage, and we can’t guarantee that won’t include Silver.” He then pushed his Black Flame into his extremities, letting it drip from his arms, legs, and wings. “His resistance and strength are a result of energy manipulation, which makes me his natural predator. I can do this alone.”
Stepper patted the air between them. “I wasn’t doubting you; I was just checking to make sure you had a plan. He’s your target, I won’t refute that given the circumstances. But I want him dead, too. I would hate to miss this chance; he hasn’t given us many. I'll get you in there as close as possible and be ready to assist if needed.”
“No. You’ll drop me off and then get the fuck out of there as quick as possible,” Boyd corrected her with a growl. “If I’m not confident I can keep Silver safe, I certainly won’t be trusting anyone else to stay in the engagement area. I may hardly know you, but you are helping me—which makes you a valid hostage.”
Stepper’s face twisted with indignation as she prepared to refute his order.
“Not the time, sweetheart,” Raev interjected smoothly before the porter could do more than open her mouth. “The Big Guy has exactly zero patience for you at the moment. Waiting for Silver was already a test of what little patience remained as it is. You seem like the badass type who is more used to giving orders than taking them, but trust me on this... do what he said.”
“Besides,” Hope added, “this is something my Lord has to do for himself. We all recognize that. You will only anger us by insisting on interfering when we have already accepted it.”
Sinoe watched all this with a frown, apparently not sure if it was her place to speak during the tense conversation. The man named Wilkerson seemed to be doing his best to blend into the background, certain that he had nothing to contribute.
With a reluctant nod, Stepper conceded the point. “Understood. I'll get Crimson Paw as close as possible and then make a swift exit. Just... be careful, please. I don’t want to even imagine the nightmares I’ll be stuck with if anything happens to you.”
Boyd acknowledged Stepper's agreement, his golden eyes burning with both shadowy fire and determination. He dismissed his Black Flame with his point made. The big demon understood the risks he was taking, but a need for vengeance pulsed through him. It drowned out any remaining fears or doubts.
As they waited for Silvie to arrive, Boyd focused on his breathing, re-centering himself in preparation for the fight. Several tense minutes passed before a streak of silver light tore through the sky, heralding Silvie's arrival. She came to stop directly in front of Boyd, holding his leaf-bladed spear carefully out to the side, with a concerned pout quirking her lips. The angry resolve burning in her silver-flecked eyes made this one of her least effective pouts.
She planted the spear in the ground so hard that it stood straight on its own before throwing her arms around his shoulders. Silvie included Raev and Hope after a moment in an impromptu family hug. Only then did she float back to rest her hands on his shoulders.
“You look clear-eyed, Darling, but are you ready?” Silvie asked this with her eyes filled with the strength he needed to see.
Boyd gently separated himself from his loves, pulled the spear from the ground, charged it with his Black Flame, and nodded firmly. “This is long overdue,” he growled.
Part of him whispered that if he had done it when he had the chance back underneath the stadium after the first duel with Archangel, Royce would still be alive.
“I’ve seen him bleed,” Boyd growled. “Now, I’ll see him dead.”
Silver nodded, then glared at Stepper. “You better not mess up his entry.”
To her credit, Stepper didn’t even flinch. “The man likes to stare out a window for hours at a time. I’ll go see if he’s doing that now. If he is, that will make dropping Crimson Paw right behind him easy.”
She vanished for a few seconds, reappearing with a tight but pleased smile on her face. “He’s right where we want him. Ready?”
“Let’s go,” Boyd grunted.
Stepper vanished, confusing him for just a moment before he felt a hand rest on his back between his slightly spread wings. Then, he was in that strange dark space that Stepper seemed to travel through for part of a second before landing in a spartan apartment no more than a yard behind his tor-mentor.
Victory Seeker was never one to be caught flat-footed and began spinning in place the second Boyd appeared. That was okay, though, because the big demon had started swinging his spear at the same moment. It was a low swing, meant to take off a foot or at least hamstring the man who had taught him to always cripple a dangerous opponent when you had the chance.
The aging Mentor-cum-Handler-turned-Powered Criminal was still spry enough to mostly get out of the way. The tip of the spear’s blade cut through his charcoal gray slacks and left a thin line that trickled blood down the side of his calf. He disappeared in a dark gray blur, smashing through the window he had been looking out of and vanishing from sight.
Boyd checked over his shoulder to make sure that Stepper had fled as instructed, then closed his eyes. He focused on the input from his ears and the change in pressure his wings could detect. Hearing a nearby outer wall shatter gave him just enough time to spin and catch Victory Seeker’s fist on a darkly burning forearm as the man came through an inner wall at him.
The punch only landed with as much force as a normal human could muster, which had the older man pull his punch, preventing the veteran from shattering his hand against Boyd’s arm. Victory Seeker glared at Boyd, but wore a satisfied smile. He blurred back to the empty living room of another apartment that could be seen through the wall he’d just come through as Boyd’s spear swept around in another strike.
“My training has served you well,” Victory Seeker stated smugly. “But you need several decades more of that training before you’ll be ready to face me.”
“Doubt it,” Boyd grunted, then threw the spear using only his wrist to avoid telegraphing the attack. It streaked through the air and went through the wall that had been behind Victory Seeker, the man zipping through the window of the other apartment before the spear got there.
He tried to come at Boyd from above this time, or at least the sound of the collapsing floors above was meant to make the demon believe that. Instead, his enemy came at him from the side again. But Boyd was ready and caught another blow that Victory Seeker had to pull back at the last instant on his left forearm as he drew his sword with his right. The blade arched out, cutting through where the murderer had been an instant before.
Once again, he’d blurred back out of Boyd’s range.
“I’m almost impressed you got here so quickly,” Victory Seeker taunted Boyd before moving back in only to have another blow blocked. He blurred away from Boyd’s counter before adding, “I was certain I was being generous when I estimated it would take you at least three days to find me, even with the obvious trail I left you.”
“You’ll have to try a lot harder than that if you want to unsettle me. Besides, a trap set for another can easily ensnare its creator. You taught me that,” Boyd growled as he palmed a handful of the obsidian ball bearings, charged them with his energy-destroying energy, and cast them at the man with enough force to blow out that side of the building.
Then, the big demon spun and caught a kick on his palm.
Again, Victory Seeker was able to pull the hit to avoid destroying his leg on impact, but now Boyd had a grip. Sinking his claws into his tor-Mentor’s flesh, he twisted and slammed him through the desk in the room. The veteran managed to escape his hold by ripping his leg from the demon’s grip, escaping certain death at the cost of several bone-deep gouges that shredded skin and muscle.
He grimaced at Boyd, his normally smug expression wiped clean by the pain he wasn’t used to experiencing. He took up a defensive pose floating on the other side of the ruined apartment. The big demon just grinned back at the man, maintaining a relaxed-looking ready stance with his sword held casually out to one side.
“You’re good,” Victory Seeker admitted, “but you’ll never be my match. No Changed ever will be.”
Boyd chuckled, the sound dark and menacing. “I’m not trying to be your match, asshole, I’m here to end you.” He punctuated his statement with a feint and spun in place to deliver a lightning-fast downward slash the moment Victory Seeker became a gray blur to evade and circled around him.
The big demon watched, his perception of time slowing down to what felt like slow-motion, as the blade descended into Victory Seeker’s path as he zipped forward. The man’s pale blue eyes widened as he saw it coming and he pulled his head and shoulders back just far enough to escape being split in two. When his legs came up, he delivered a stomping kick to Boyd’s abdomen—one of the few places he wasn’t wreathed in Black Flame.
Even with his resistance reaching S-Rank, it wasn’t strong enough to handle full-force blows from his old mentor. Which made it a good thing that the kick was delivered from an awkward angle in the middle of a dodge. While Boyd certainly felt it—and was sent flying back through several walls then out of the building to impact another with enough force to crack that building’s outer wall—he wasn’t even winded by the blow.
As he bounced off the side of the now-cracked exterior of the other building, he was airborne. Despite having wings designed for flight, he did not have air superiority over this opponent. If Victory Seeker thought to seize upon Boyd’s momentary disadvantage, he discovered it would be easier said than done.
