Gluttony

by Katie May

  surprised to see absolute hatred reflecting back at me. Maybe she wasn’t as

  much of a sheep as I suspected. Maybe she had the makings to be a lion.

  “What?” she snapped, jaw clenching.

  “Help me down to my basement.” My smile grew as the color drained

  from her face. She—more than any of my servants—knew what lurked at the

  bottom of my house. “I need to raise more of my monsters.”

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  Z

  “M omma!” I cried, reaching my arms out as if I could

  grab her and hold her to me. Tears burned my retinas

  as I witnessed something no child should ever see.

  The Shifters’ faces were etched into the skin behind my eyelids. When I

  closed them, they were all I could see.

  One was burly with midnight black hair, teal-colored eyes, and a tattoo of

  a dragon climbing up his neck.

  Another had blond hair so light it was almost white. He too had a tattoo,

  but his rested on his muscular forearm. From my position beneath the couch,

  I couldn’t decipher what it was. A tree, perhaps? A garden? It was decidedly

  plant-like in appearance.

  The third was handsome in a traditional, aristocratic type of way. With

  sharp cheekbones, a strong jawline, and long lashes, he could’ve been a

  fairytale prince incarnate. He didn’t participate with the other two. Instead,

  he was content to lean against the wall and watch, an indolent smirk on his

  face.

  “Momma!” I cried again, my tiny hand stretching forward feebly. The

  normally vibrant light in her eyes was beginning to dim. A single tear

  cascaded down her cheek before her body went still. I didn’t understand it at

  that age.

  Had she given up? Why wasn’t she fighting back? Why wasn’t she

  blinking?

  My little brain couldn’t comprehend the aspect of death. The finality of it.

  People left all the time, but they always came back. Always. Just the other

  day, Daddy left the house to retrieve supplies, but he came back only two

  days later with my favorite ice cream.

  “Mommy?” I whispered, my voice breaking. She stared back at me with

  vacant, unseeing eyes.

  The third Shifter kneeled until he was eye-level with me, his cheek

  practically against the ground.

  “Little girl, why don’t you come out and play with us?”

  Behind him, the other two men leered maliciously.

  “I just want my mommy and daddy,” I sobbed, my heart splintering. It

  was the first time I had ever broken. At the time, I hadn’t realized that was

  what the gaping hole in my chest was. I hadn’t realized how difficult it would

  be to sew myself back together, to find the pieces that had been lost that day.

  “I’ll be your new daddy,” he told me. The interest in his eyes turned to

  avarice. “I’ll always find you.”

  The Shifter extended a hand, his smile growing, but before I could accept

  it, his features twisted, becoming someone else entirely. His chestnut hair

  turned black, and his smooth face became wrinkled with age. Those hard,

  cruel eyes shifted from a bright shade of amber to an emerald green. When

  he smiled, the crinkles around his eyes became more pronounced.

  I was no longer underneath the couch. Instead, I was seven years old,

  hiding in an alleyway behind a bakery as I searched for food.

  “You’re okay now,” he promised, extending a hand. “My name is A, and

  I’m going to take care of you.”

  The vision changed abruptly.

  Now, I was twelve years old, kneeling on the edge of a roof. A was on one

  side of me, and B was on the other. Over the years, I had begun to think of A

  as my father. He couldn’t replace my true dad, but he was slowly refilling the

  numerous cracks in my heart.

  “Steady hand,” A instructed as B languidly reclined on the roof next to

  me.

  I lifted my dagger, trying to control the involuntary tremor coursing

  through me.

  “Aim,” A continued as B yawned dramatically.

  I focused on my target—a thirty-five-year-old Genie with greasy brown

  hair and violet eyes.

  “Fire.”

  Without preamble, I threw the dagger with painstaking accuracy. It

  landed in the Genie’s forehead, and he immediately dropped to the ground,

  dead. The Nightmares nearby began to cry and scream, but A was already

  pulling me back towards the portal B had created.

  “You were phenomenal, my daughter,” he praised, slapping me on the

  back.

  Together, we stepped through the portal, and the two men dematerialized

  like clouds of smoke. In their place was S.

  “You going to cry over your ex forever?” he teased, knocking me with his

  shoulder. I rolled my eyes playfully, but my stomach twisted into dozens of

  knots when I thought about Lin. It was an invisible scar, one only Mali was

  privy to.

  “I don’t want to talk about him,” I murmured, turning on my heel to

  smile up at him. “Now, are we going to train or are you going to continue

  staring at my ass?”

  “How can I stare at your ass when I’m facing forward?” he joked.

  “Wouldn’t I be staring at your tits?”

  I swatted him with the back of my hand, a laugh escaping unbidden.

  “You’re such a pervert, S.”

  “And you love it.”

  Suddenly, we were no longer in the compound I had come to love. We

  were at the edge of the woods, a scream lodged in my throat as I watched a

  Shifter tear at S’s throat. I screamed in anguish as blood squirted from the

  gashes on his neck.

  No. No. No.

  Don’t leave me.

  Everyone always leaves me.

  S stared at me hopelessly, the same glint in his eyes I had seen in my

  mother’s before she’d died years ago.

  I tried to crawl towards him, but my injuries prohibited any and all

  movement.

  “No,” I croaked out, grasping at the leaves. Rain pounded down around

  us, obscuring my vision. “No!”

  It was supposed to be a simple mission. Find the Shifter responsible for

  raping and killing two dozen women and kill him. But while we had been

  hunting him, he had been hunting us.

  The Shifter turned towards me, his features as handsome as they were

  when I was a child. I had killed the other two, but he… he had always evaded

  me.

  “I told you that I’ll always find you,” he whispered as he brought his

  claws to S’s throat.

  “No!” I screamed as the forest changed to the throne room in the

  Capital. I spun towards the thrones, only to freeze when I noticed the

  occupants sitting lazily on the huge chairs.

  Bash’s head lolled to the side as he slept, his breathing even. Killian sat

  in the throne directly beside him, shirtless with his tattoos on full display.

  Was that a…?

  “When did you get a nipple ring?” I questioned, staring intently at the

  silver bulb piercing his left nipple. He turned towards me with cold eyes.

  “Do I know you?” he asked darkly.

  “She’s cute enough,” Jax drawled, a hint of fang poking his bottom lip.

  “I’ll suck her dry.”

  “Stop teasing the
girl,” Ryland snapped as the shadows pressed in on all

  sides of him, stealing the light from the room.

  “But it’s fun,” Dair threw in. There was something in his smile I had

  never seen before. Something...evil. He stared at me as if he couldn’t wait to

  stick a knife into my neck. It went beyond vengeance, beyond anger. It was

  hatred.

  “Enough!” Lupe’s strident voice cut through the mutters like the crack of

  a whip. He rose to his feet, his lumbering frame making me feel small and

  dainty. “We don’t talk to humans. They’re scum. They’re nothing.”

  “I’m your mate,” I pleaded, tears blurring my eyes. When all of them

  began to laugh, I tried again. “You love me.”

  “Why would we ever love you?” Devlin asked coldly, stroking his lamp.

  “What makes you so special?”

  “I don’t feel any lust when I look at you,” Killian purred, gripping his

  crotch in a vulgar manner.

  “Nothing to be envious of,” Dair added.

  “I’m not greedy to have someone like you as a mate,” Devlin said

  harshly.

  “I wouldn’t be proud to have you on my arm.” The shadows tightened

  around Ryland with each word he spoke.

  “Killing you wouldn’t make me wrathful,” Lupe threw in. “It would make

  me...glad.”

  Bash continued to snore away, oblivious to the conversation happening

  around him.

  Jax stood as well, stalking forward until he was directly in front of me.

  His eyes were solid red, no white or black to be seen. They were the eyes of a

  demon—the eyes of a monster.

  “Jax…” I wanted to touch his cheeks, to trace the contours of his

  handsome, beautiful face. He was alive. He was in front of me. He wasn’t

  dead. “Jax—”

  Before I could finish my sentence, he shoved his fist in my chest. I could

  feel his hand around my heart, crushing the sensitive organ with each press

  of his fingers. A cold, malevolent grin lit up his face. “I am gluttonous for

  your blood. To drain you dry until you’re nothing but a husk.”

  With a harsh laugh, he ripped my heart from my chest.

  And…

  And I died.

  THIRTY-EIGHT

  DEVLIN

  “W hy isn’t she waking up?” I demanded, pacing the

  room. I rounded on Bash who was perched on the edge

  of her bed. “And why the fuck didn’t you tell us about

  the poison sooner?”

  Poison.

  Coursing through my mate’s body.

  Killing her.

  I couldn’t focus on that. Wouldn’t. If I did, I would go insane.

  Fuck.

  This entire day had been a clusterfuck of epic proportions. Jax had died.

  Died. His heart had stopped beating.

  Even from a distance, I could see the life drain from his eyes. Blood had

  coated his shirt and Z’s hands. My brother—my best friend—had died.

  And then, he was alive again.

  I didn’t know how to describe it. Light seemed to emit from Z’s pores

  like a golden sheen. I’d had to close my eyes against the sheer brilliance of it.

  So. Much. Power.

  When my eyes finally readjusted, I watched Jax’s chest rise and fall

  steadily as his eyes popped open. It shouldn’t have been possible. The world

  worked because the dead stayed dead. Not even Nightmares were immune to

  it.

  We had carried Z’s unconscious body back to the car, and Dair had

  quickly driven us away.

  Away from the Gargoyles that had been reduced to piles of stone.

  Away from the blood that soaked the front steps of the mansion.

  Away.

  Away.

  Away.

  It was only when we’d arrived at an inn on the outskirts of the city did

  Bash disclose the truth about Z.

  She was dying.

  “It doesn’t make sense,” Killian rambled, forking his fingers through his

  dark red hair. “She was able to bring Jax back to life. How come she can’t

  heal herself?”

  “Because the poison was given to Zack by Aaliyah,” Bash responded

  tiredly. His eyelids drooped with exhaustion. He had been attempting to heal

  her for hours now, and I could see the effects it had on him. Dark shadows

  marred the skin beneath both his eyes, and his face appeared haggard.

  “How long?” Lupe growled, eyes flashing amber. He—more than any of

  us—was having trouble controlling his sin. Controlling his Wrath.

  “How long what?” Bash sounded resigned, as if he already knew what

  Lupe was going to ask before he asked it.

  “How long have you known about the poison?”

  “I suspected it after the fight with the Kraken when I’d first healed her,”

  he admitted. “I was only able to confirm my suspicions after the Basilisk

  attack.”

  Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t Lupe who lost his shit. It was Dair.

  The normally gentle and kind man rolled his chair—which Ryland had

  stolen from a local human hospital—closer until he was directly in front

  Bash.

  “You fucking asshole!” he hissed, punching Bash square in the face. The

  Mage’s head whipped to the side, blood dripping from his nose, but he didn’t

  raise a hand to fight back. It was almost as if he thought he deserved it.

  Which he did, of course.

  But the beating would come after he healed our mate.

  “Enough!” I snapped, stepping between them. Dair trembled with barely

  contained fury, eyes spitting hate. When he looked as if he wanted to punch

  Bash again, I placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him, imploring with my

  eyes for him to trust me. “Enough.”

  Dair’s sea-blue eyes locked with my violet ones, and the air around us

  practically crackled with electricity. It was a battle of wills, each of us

  attempting to assert our dominance.

  And while Dair was strong, he was no leader. That role had always been

  reserved for me.

  With a growl, Dair turned away, focusing his vitriol instead on the

  hideously patterned carpeting.

  “Fighting will get us nowhere,” I said to the room at large. Ryland was

  balancing on the windowsill while Killian leaned against the wall beside him.

  With Lupe, Dair, and Bash around Z’s bed, the only person we were missing

  was…

  “Where the hell is Jax?” I questioned.

  Jax.

  The dead man.

  The not dead man.

  As if he had been summoned, the door to the room was thrown open, and

  a very naked Jax stepped inside. I exchanged a wary look with Lupe, who

  was nearest to me, before focusing back on my Vampire brother.

  “Blood runs red. Blood. So much blood. My blood. My. Blood.” He

  grabbed at his light brown hair, pulling at the strands until they were sticking

  out in all directions.

  “What’s wrong with him?” Killian asked nervously. “When he was with

  Aaliyah, he drank blood daily. He shouldn’t have the madness anymore.”

  “It’s a different type of madness.” Ryland’s voice now came from the

  desk sitting opposite the bed. “His brain has always been fragile, but with

  everything that happened…”

  “My blood doesn’t tingle anymore,” Jax whispered as Killian hel
ped him

  into his pants. “My blood doesn’t tingle.”

  “We don’t know what happened to him when he…” Lupe trailed off,

  swallowing. “When he…”

  “When he died,” Bash finished candidly, ignoring the fierce glare Lupe

  threw his way. “We don’t know what Z’s magic did to him.”

  “And we don’t know how her condition is affecting him,” Killian pointed

  out as he helped Jax into his shirt.

  “She’ll wake up,” Lupe asserted, softly brushing at her golden hair. She

  looked so fucking beautiful, even when she was asleep. Her face was serene,

  soft, and appeared years younger.

  Fuck, I loved her. I loved her so damn much that it almost didn’t seem

  real. This type of love shouldn’t exist. It shouldn’t be possible. It destroyed

  me in the best way.

  And now, I might lose her.

  “We need to find that bitch,” I growled out. “And demand that she give

  us a cure.”

  “And how do you suppose we do that?” Bash drawled. “We only found

  her before because she wanted to be found.”

  “Then we’ll heal Z ourselves!” Lupe roared before taking a deep breath,

  hands clenching and unclenching as he attempted to control his rage.

  “What is she?” Ryland whispered, now appearing at the edge of her bed.

  “She’s not human.”

  “So she’s an alien?” Bash snarked, and this time, I didn’t stop Dair from

  punching him in the face.

  “Can’t you take shit seriously for once in your life?” Dair shouted, hands

  balling into fists as if he wanted to hit the Mage again.

  But when Bash released a self-deprecating laugh, voice heady with self-

  loathing, Dair relaxed, loosening his muscles incrementally.

  “If I don’t joke, I’ll fall apart. And if I fall apart, I don’t think I’ll ever get

  put back together again.” He rose to his feet abruptly, eyes spewing lightning.

  “I can’t fucking lose her. I can’t. I can’t.” He shook his head vigorously. “I

  should’ve told you guys the truth sooner, but I didn’t want to break her trust.

  She hates me, and I thought that maybe…” He turned towards her, his

  expression for once unguarded. Without even being awake, she was capable

  of breaking through all of his defenses. “I thought maybe she would come to

  love me like she loves you guys.”

  Silence ensued as we all processed his words. It was Dair who broke it