Rani had hoped to delay whatever it was that Dark Star planned to do, but what she hadn’t expected was to expose a tangle of black, lightning-like wires that hooked into her spine and disappeared through a hole in the floor.
Goddess, Rani thought with dread, every one of the guys’ warnings to stay away from the basement rushing through her head as she stared at those wires disappearing through the floor.
Whatever was in the basement ... Dark Star wanted to use it to take Rani’s power and resurrect his wife. And this crackling power, like ink made lightning, was clearly how he planned to do it.
Rani uncurled her whip from the woman’s ankle with a flick of her wrist, and staggered back, gasping at the wrath that bled into Dark’s Star’s deep blue eyes. Panicking, she twisted out of reach to run, not caring where she went as long as it was away.
But darkness crowded into the edge of her vision, and before she could take more than a step, a spear of dark power shot into her shoulder. She fell, woozily, under his control.
Rani felt herself slipping away and fought it frantically, thrashing inside even if her body relaxed, a sigh slipping from her lips. She didn’t reach for the bonds to Nigh and Tom, knowing they’d rush in here and get themselves hurt; instead she felt along the link between her and Eri, and gasped as sharp pain tore through her body.
Her knees hit the tiled hallway floor, and pain rampaged through her from the crack she’d opened in the bond, but at least Dark Star’s compulsion partly cleared from her mind.
And now Rani was as angry as he was.
He’d never planned to give her the antidote. He was always going to let his son die. Orion Child might have seemed charming and friendly, but he was nothing more than poison and putrid malice wrapped in skin.
Rani snapped her whip out as Dark Star halted on the threshold of the sigil room, clearly not having expected Rani to break free of his compulsion. As her whip tore through the air, power blazed through Rani’s body, but not like fire and crackling energy—a soft, calming whoosh like cool water. It didn’t spear Dark Star like his own midnight magic, but wrapped around him like a heavy blanket, cinching tight enough to snap his arms to his sides. And all his smooth manners fell away to show the wickedness within as his upper lip curled.
“You’re not taking my magic,” Rani said, breathing fast and shaky with adrenaline, “and you’re not taking my life. Or Eri’s.” She took the plastic vial she’d stashed in her pocket what seemed like hours ago and fumbled with her magic until it formed a small, solid bar to hold open Dark Star’s mouth. He thrashed and snarled, and Rani could feel her blanket of magic weakening, but she didn’t need long. Only long enough to fill the vial, which she held beneath his open mouth as he drooled in between mangled threats to eviscerate her.
Rani exhaled shakily as the vial filled, capping it and putting it safely in her pocket, waving away the magic prying Dark Star’s mouth open. “You think you’re going to live happily ever after? You and those boys won’t live in peace until I’m gone from this earth, and I don’t plan on dying for a very long time.”
“I don’t care,” Rani replied, tightening the binding magic around him as she turned her back, walking down the hall.
“You think you can stop me bringing her back? Just because I failed this time doesn’t mean I will next time.”
Rani sighed, pity and fury mingling in her as she reached for the front door handle. “You can’t just bring someone back to life. It doesn’t work like that.”
She didn’t know much about midnight magic, but no power was capable of raising the dead; everyone knew that.
Orion laughed, a low, snide sound. “Oh, but it does. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I have friends who’ve accomplished feats you couldn’t dream of.”
Rani’s blood ran cold, and she made the mistake of meeting his eyes, horror racing through her at the idea of necromancy.
“That’s it, sweet Rani,” he said with a victorious grin. “Don’t look away now. Keep your eyes on me and let my magic wash all the fight out of you.”
Rani’s breath caught and panic raced through her blood, but already her pulse was slowing. Her magic unravelled, freeing Dark Star from her constrictive blanket, and even her whip faded into mist and ether. Leaving her powerless.
This time she didn’t hesitate to reach for Nigh and Tom, closing her eyes and sinking into the bonds between them. Heat surged reassuringly from her chest and thigh as Dark Star’s footfalls came closer, slowly, like he was enjoying her panic.
She’d used the last vestiges of her autonomy to close her eyes, but it didn’t make any difference; her body still went lax and pliant, her mind struggling to hold onto a coherent thought. All she knew was that she had to keep hold of her bonds, or something terrible would happen.
“You’re going to be so useful to me,” Dark Star said as he came closer. “Someone of your natural talent, your magic so malleable that you can use it in three ways at once.” Rani shuddered, but she couldn’t figure out why. She was floating on a sea of warmth, calm, and reassurance. A soft sigh slipped from her and she blinked her eyes open, smiling at the man approaching her. “Not only will you bring my wife back to me, but you’re going to join our cause. With you among us, cat society will have no choice but to listen and acknowledge our place among them.”
He came close enough to brush the side of her face with the backs of his fingers. “You’re going to change everything, sweet Rani.”
Rani fell deeper, warmth and dizziness wrapping her up. But then the door opened behind her, pushing her into the wall and sending a spark of pain through her wrist when she automatically put her hands out to stop her face smashing into the plaster. She cried out at the impact, but the building ache in her wrist cut through the daze in her mind, as did the sudden rush of rage and protectiveness in her bonds.
“Get the fuck away from her,” Nigh growled, magic whipping through the hallway like a tornado. “You touch her again, and I’ll rip your fingernails off one by one, and then sever each and every one of your fingers as you scream for me to stop.”
Dark Star tutted. “How graphic.”
Rani shook her head to clear it, thoughts and brain function scattered through the heavy fog Dark Star had wrapped around her.
“I’ve got you,” Tom said gently, pulling Rani into his arms. “I’ve got you, love, you’re alright now.”
“Did you get the antidote?” Nigh demanded.
Rani leant against Tom, pulling his scent into her lungs as she floated on a sea of warmth and silence. Odd thoughts kept breaking through, but it was so hard to make sense of their meaning.
“Rani,” Nigh snapped, a jolt moving through the brand in her chest. “Did you get the antidote?”
“Yes,” Rani answered, then shook her head as the brief bit of clarity was swallowed up by pleasant warmth. She tapped her pocket, but didn’t have the strength or motivation to do anything except turn her face into Tom’s shoulder and melt against him.
Tom carefully eased the vial from her pocket and told Nigh, “She did it. Knock him out, leave him, I don’t care.” But his voice cracked, and the pain in Rani’s thigh told her he did care. She snuggled further into him, trying to comfort him. She was going to fall asleep, but she didn’t care enough to move.
“We’re leaving,” Nigh said, his voice as cold and hard as iron. “Don’t try to follow us.”
Power rushed through the hallway and Rani whimpered, the blissful feeling ripping away to expose sharp pains in her chest, her wrist, and her thigh. “You’re not taking her anywhere. She’s going to stay here and resurrect your mother. Don’t you want your mum back?” Dark Star’s voice softened. Real or unreal? “Remember how she used to make you chicken broth when you were sick, and she’d sneak you chocolate mousse for afters?”
“Shut up,” Nigh snarled, but there was grief in his voice.
And with the dizziness and warmth gone, Rani was clear-headed enough to understand everything Orion said, to know how
much Nigh missed his mum.
“One more word,” Rani warned, surprised at the strength of her own voice when she felt utterly dazed, “and I’ll do what Nigh promised earlier, the fingernails and fingers thing.”
Nigh shot her a quick glance, the corners of his mouth curling up.
Dark Star sighed in disappointment.
Rani felt his power rise, and a moment later, black lances blinked into existence. The dark spears sliced through the air, fired towards her and the brothers, and the danger wasn’t in their sharpness but the compulsion hidden within.
Rani wanted to scream, wanted to run, but she had to be brave. Tom and Night were being strong enough to face their father. She could face him, too.
Letting instinct guide her magic, she threw her hand up, palm forward.
With no small amount of surprise, Rani watched Dark Star smack into a solid wall of shadows, mist, and stars.
“You don’t get to hurt us,” she said, pride and anger both burning in her in equal strength. She’d stopped him, and protected her mates. She’d done that—quiet, bookish, overweight Rani Rose. “You don’t get to hurt my mates. Not ever again.”
She made the wall extend all the way to the ceiling, then put another wall behind him, and one on either side, enclosing him in midnight magic.
A rush of pain through the brand on her bicep made her gasp, but the black walls didn’t weaken, and Rani somehow knew they’d stay that way even when she left.
“He’ll starve in there,” Tom said quietly.
“Good,” Nigh snarled. “For what he’s done, good. Did you see the black room? Did you see Mum?”
His voice cracked down the middle and Rani stumbled across the two steps between them, hugging him tight. “I’m sorry,” she murmured, stroking his back, letting instinct guide her like she had with her magic. “I’m so sorry, Nigh.”
“There are wires of magic going into her back,” Nigh told Tom quietly, his arms wrapped tight around Rani and his body relaxing, fraction by fraction. “They go through the floor and into the basement.”
Tom shuddered, dragging his hands through his long hair.
“And he was going to drain our mate to power the ritual,” Nigh finished in a bleak voice. “As far as I’m concerned, he can rot.”
Rani kept rubbing his back as he inhaled a jagged breath, glancing over at Tom. “We need to get the antidote to Eri,” she said quietly, apologetically. “But ... I’ll come back tomorrow and find a better solution.”
Tom was shaking his head, his pale eyes conflicted and his shoulders sinking. “No. I know what we need to do.”
Swallowing, he pulled his phone from his pocket and punched in a number. “I’d like to report the whereabouts of the wanted criminal Dark Star, and inform you that the murderer Orion Child didn’t die fifteen years ago. They’re the same person. You can find him here.”
He gave the address and ended the call, and Rani reached for his hand, squeezing tight. That couldn’t have been an easy call to make. Rani could feel his pain and Nigh’s through their brands; both of them had conflicting feelings when it came to their father.
“What about Mum?” Tom asked quietly. “We can’t just leave her there.”
“No,” Rani agreed.
Nigh sighed, pulling away from her. “Take Rani to the flat, make sure Eri heals. I’ll ... I’ll bury Mum.”
Rani’s chest tightened at the thought of leaving him. But one look in his eyes and she knew he wouldn’t budge; stubbornness shone loud and clear.
“Okay,” she said quietly. “But ... check in through the brand, okay?”
Nigh bent to place a kiss on her lips, lingering, soft, and full of so much feeling that Rani’s eyes burned. “I’ll check in,” he promised. “Tom, you look after her.”
“I will,” Tom replied seriously, squeezing Rani’s hand as they moved to the door.
It took a lot of willpower for her to leave Nigh in that house, but step by step, she walked away. Towards the flat, towards her dying mate. She prayed they weren’t too late.
Convalescence
By the time they got back to the flat, Eri was breathing in barely-there bursts, black infection oozing from the slashes on his cheek. Rani didn’t waste any time, smearing the antidote over his wounds and pointedly not thinking about what the antidote actually was or her stomach would turn.
She’d expected a slow healing, had planned to sit at his bedside for the next twelve hours, if not days, but the claw slashes on his cheeks closed instantly, his colour improved within minutes, and his heartbeat was strong beneath her hand as Rani leant over him to wash the blood and poison from his cheek.
“Hey,” Eri murmured, his voice scratchy. His eyes fluttered open as Rani rinsed the cloth in a bowl on the bedside table, and she jumped, nearly upending the whole bowl.
Her chest caved as she let out a breath of relief, dropping the cloth into the water and throwing her arms around Eri’s neck. “You’re awake! I’m so glad you’re okay, I was so worried.”
Eri’s hand slid along her back, affection and surprise fluttering through her brand on her bicep. “Thanks to you, I take it?”
Rani pulled back enough to look at him. He was no longer as pale as a ghost, and he’d stopped sweating. He looked healthy, and Rani’s eyes stabbed as tears built. “And your brothers,” she replied with a smile, tracing the sharp edge of his cheekbone with her thumb. “How do you feel?”
“Fine,” he replied, baffled. He pushed up, and Rani helped him sit back against the headboard, fluffing pillows. “I’m alright, Rani,” he said gently, catching her hands as she continued to fuss. He brought them to his mouth and kissed each one of her knuckles. “I promise, I feel completely fine.”
Rani flushed at the intimate touch but she couldn’t keep a smile off her face. “You’re really okay.”
“I really am,” he confirmed, squeezing her hands. “But what about you, treasured mate? Were you hurt? I know ... to heal me ... you’d have needed an antidote.”
Rani shrugged, not yet ready to let go of the dizzy relief of seeing Eri awake, his mismatching eyes crinkled with affection and his mouth curved in a soft smile. “All that matters is that we did get it, not how.”
“Rani—”
“Later,” she promised.
Eri ruffled his short hair but he nodded, his gentle eyes returning to her. “You saved me.”
Rani felt his rush of feeling through their brand, blue light blazing from her arm and shining through the shirt she’d borrowed from Tom when they got back. Not because she didn’t have her own things to wear; she just ... preferred clothes with their scents embedded in the cotton. It calmed her, especially when she’d been so worried about Eri. “Of course I saved you,” she replied, brushing an errant strand of pale hair off his face. “You’re my mate.”
Eri gave her the bright, beautiful smile she’d thought she might never see again and pulled her down towards him, capturing her mouth in a kiss.
Rani sighed against his lips, splaying her hand over his chest so she could feel the steady thump of his heart as their kiss grew heated, still as slow and loving as ever but edged with passion. Eri tried to pull her on top of him, but Rani broke away, giving him a stern look.
“You just woke up from a poison-induced coma. No ... strenuous activities for a while.”
Eri blinked, his fingers trailing down her shoulder to her waist, skimming the edge of her chest. “How long is a while?”
“At least a few days,” Rani replied, bristling with protectiveness and the need to keep him safe and whole.
“That’s too long,” Eri murmured, leaning up to press a kiss to the edge of her jaw, and then another on the delicate place behind her ear, then another over her quickening pulse.
“A day, then,” Rani compromised breathlessly, her whole body coming alive as he laid an open kiss at the base of her throat.
“I can’t endure that long a wait,” Eri complained, tugging down her T-shirt to trace her collarbone w
ith his tongue, heat racing directly to her clit and forcing a gasp from her lips.
“Erivian,” Rani complained, groaning.
“I love my name on your lips,” Eri replied shamelessly, his hands sliding under her shirt and pushing it up over her stomach.
Rani made a sound in the back of her throat and gave up fighting, pulling her borrowed top over her head and throwing it to the bottom of the bed, her breath hitching as his hot mouth traced the swell of her breast, every kiss drawing a throb from her pussy. “Eri,” she gasped as he pulled the cups of her bra down and closed his mouth around her areola, rolling her nipple in his mouth in a way that sent sparks across her body.
He pulled back only to shift across the bed and make room for her to lay out beside him, and the second she was on her back, Eri rose over her, fastening his wicked mouth to her other nipple, catching this one between his teeth.
“Eri,” she gasped, her fingers going to his hair and sifting through the silken strands.
“I thought I heard groaning,” an amused voice remarked, and Rani’s gaze shot to the door where Tom leant, grinning, the amusement and mischief back in his eyes for the first time in hours. Nigh stood behind him, bristling with darkness and intent. Indigo light rushed from the paw print on Rani’s chest as the force of his lust hit her.
Her eyes fell shut, her head tilting back as she groaned longer, deeper.
“That fucking sound,” Nigh hissed, stalking over. The bed dipped as he sat at the bottom, already reaching for her jeans and flicking the button open, pulling down the zip. “Makes me want to lick every inch of you.”
Rani’s breath caught. Ice shot down her spine, but her pussy went wild, pulsing hard as Nigh tugged her jeans off and discarded them, a throaty growl pouring from him as he hooked her legs over his shoulders and lowered his head. As Eri sucked on her nipple, Nigh pressed rough kisses to her mound and inner thighs, scraping just slightly with his teeth to make her shudder and moan.
For a long moment Tom just watched, but a moan caught in Rani’s throat and drew him closer. He sank onto the bed beside her and leant over, kissing Rani soundly as Eri sucked on her nipples and Nigh moved her underwear aside, setting his tongue to her pussy with a ferocity that made her eyes roll back.
Bound to Change: A Limited Edition Spring Shifter Romance Collection Page 76