Free The Devil's Soldier by Rachel McClellan

"but someone special will be here soon, and I'm pretty sure he's going to want to meet you."
    With the searing pain in his head, Lucien had a hard time finding his magic. A hard thump to the back of his head made it even more difficult.
    Lucien fell face forward.
    "I've got an empty room at the end just for you," Lex said. He picked up Lucien's foot and dragged him forward. Lucien's face slid along the thin carpet.
    Even though Lucien's body was paralyzed, the nauseating pain persisted. If he was going to get himself and Eve out of here alive, he needed to block Lex's magical assault against his mind. Henry had taught him how to do this, if he could just relax despite the searing heat exploding in his brain.
    Needing something to anchor him, Lucien thought of Eve. He imagined her back at Eden, her private sanctuary, sitting on a beach smiling and surrounded by tropical trees and budding flowers. How many times had he dreamed he was with her on that same beach? It was the only thing that kept him alive during the weeks he laid at the bottom of the ocean after she had fallen from the cliff. It had calmed him then, and it was having the same affect now.
    With his mind calm, Lucien was able to feel out Lex's magic inside his mind. It was a dark parasite that was not only sucking his magic, but also using its stringy tentacles to cause him pain. Lucien produced the image of a shiny knight, his sword raised high. The knight raced around inside Lucien's mind, slicing and cutting at the plague of dark magic inside of him, and finally, with one final blast of energy, Lucien expelled the parasite once and for all.
    He rose from the ground.
    Lex turned around slowly, his eyes wide with fear.
    Lucien raised a single finger. Lex's body flew through the air until it smashed against the wall at the end of the hall. The square light fixture above him began to shake until it snapped free from the wall. Lucien mentally divided the metal square into four parts and send them whizzing through the air until they pierced Lex to the wall, one through each shoulder and one through each knee. Lex screamed. Lucien quickly used magic to close his mouth before anyone heard him over the loud music blaring from outside the hall.
    Lucien raced to Eve's door and kicked it down. He didn't mean to pause, but the moment his eyes met hers, it was as if his heart began beating for the very first time.
    "Lucien," she said, tears welling in her sea-green eyes.
    He jerked into action and tore the restraints from her chest and legs. She scrambled to her feet and stood inches from him.
    "There's so much I want to say—"
    Lucien pressed his mouth to hers. Talking could wait. Eve was here. Alive and in his arms.
    Eve kissed him back just as fiercely, both of them needing it just as bad as the other. Her skin was warm and familiar beneath his touch, igniting his body with an intense and pleasurable heat.
    It took all the will power he had to let her go. "You need to leave. Now."
    She nodded reluctantly, but still continued to stare into his eyes.
    "Go!" Lucien said, even though all he wanted was to take her back into his arms.
    Eve bolted through the door, but stopped suddenly. She glanced back and said, "I love you."
    And then she was gone.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    9
     
    Eve reappeared just inside a hotel lobby near the bathrooms where she wouldn't be seen. She had been in this hotel once before years earlier with Liane, her distant witch cousin and best friend at the time. They had attended a party in the penthouse suite. Eve shuddered when the image of the human girl they had hurt came to mind. Liane had been particularly cruel, shoving the girl down the stairs simply because she had tried to stand up against their harsh words.
    Other than a man and woman speaking to a lady at the front desk, the lobby was empty. A clock in the corner had just chimed its twelve strokes of midnight. Eve didn't feel the late hour. It felt like she had just woken up from a deep