Leisl Leighton - [Pack Bound 01]

by Pack Bound (epub)

  The bilious green power she’d seen leaking from the edges of the door could be seen clearly now, hanging like a rippling curtain of water at the end of the alcove that led into the drawing room. The force pushed her towards it, but she clutched the doorframe, trying to hold back. She didn’t want to look at the rippling curtain, but it was mesmerising, calling to her. She tried to look past it and screamed.

  Ferris was pinned to the far wall, arms outstretched, legs dangling, his white shirt now red with the river of his own blood. His throat had been cut.

  Morrigan sighed behind her. ‘Yes. That was a pity. But we needed fresh blood from a willing sacrifice. He became very willing when I told him I’d use yours instead.’ Morrigan laughed again.

  Skye screamed, pushing as hard as she could against the force pulling her towards the bilious green curtain of water. For a few seconds she thought she was winning, because she managed to stop the insidious slide forward, although her knuckles felt like they were about to snap.

  Then Morrigan’s hand was on her back. ‘Now be a good girl and enter the portal. We’ve got work to do and your annoying friends will be here at any moment. We must be gone.’

  A burst of power hit her in the back, licking over her like hot lightning. Skye screamed and stumbled forward. As she hit the curtain of power, a bright light flashed before her eyes, replaced by the image of a room that seemed carved from rock, with two altars at the centre.

  On one of the altars lay River, naked and unconscious.

  ‘River!’ she cried.

  Another surge of power hit her, this time in the head. She was flung forward, falling against the other stone altar with a crack of ribs. Sinking to the floor, gasping for breath, she turned to see Morrigan and Alfrere follow her in.

  Morrigan smiled, her dark gaze caressing Skye before falling to River’s naked form. She licked her lips.

  ‘Now, my dear. All we must do is wait for midnight, on this, your birthday, the most powerful night of the witching year, and then the fun can begin. Alfrere?’

  Alfrere moved towards Skye. The look on his face, the power emanating from his pitch-black eyes, made her scream her denial. Flickers of blue fire shot out of her hands, smashing into the walls over Morrigan’s and Alfrere’s heads.

  Morrigan made a squeezing gesture with her hand and Skye gasped for breath, her fractured ribs protesting under the strain. The power died in her hands.

  ‘Such power flowing in your veins,’ Morrigan drawled. She turned to Alfrere. ‘Just think, my love, what we can do with such power when it is finally unleashed.’

  He smiled at her and she kissed him, her hand covering his rigid cock. He grasped her breast, palming the pebbled nipple through the fine satin of her gown.

  Sickened, Skye turned her head, trying to catch her breath. She had to find some way to get to River. Had to find some way of getting them out of this. If only she knew more about her power. If only she hadn’t been so stupidly gullible.

  Grandpa, help!

  Nothing. Not even the brush of comforting wind.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Skye saw Morrigan tear off Alfrere’s shirt and turn him towards her.

  ‘Now, Alfrere. You are ready for your part in this. You must prepare Skye for the sacrifice. Soon, very soon, my love.’ She licked up the side of Alfrere’s neck and gripping his cock through his pants, pumped it once, twice, three times. ‘We will be free.’

  He moaned. ‘I am, as always, yours, my love.’

  ‘Good. I must prepare myself. I leave you to get her ready.’

  Morrigan disappeared down a torch-lit hallway on Skye’s left.

  Skye looked up into Alfrere’s eyes as he stood before her, and trembled.

  ‘Come with me, Skye.’ He held his hand out.

  ‘Screw you.’

  ‘I’d rather screw you.’

  ‘What’s the point?’ she spat. ‘If I can’t have children by you as Morrigan wanted?’

  He smiled. ‘Oh, there’s always a point to sex. It’s a powerful joiner. Come. Join with me. Share your power.’ He held out his hand.

  Power surged off him, skating along her nerve ends and making her hair stand on end. Then the power turned into a caressing hand, touching her in places she wanted only Jason to touch.

  ‘Stop it,’ she yelled, pushing back. Alfrere staggered, his smile turning hard. Skye pushed again with her powers, lashing out with them as she’d felt Morrigan do to her. He staggered back further, and a welt, like a whip’s lash, reddened his chest. He looked down at the mark, his face twisting.

  She took the opportunity to push to her feet, grunting with the pain in her side and leg. Using the altar to steady her, she edged around it, away from the warlock. Glancing over at River, she saw he was breathing. He was unconscious; not a mark on him. Relief washed through her, but it was short lived. She turned to see Alfrere coming towards her. Rage filled his eyes with red-ringed black.

  ‘Morrigan has gifted you to me, you bitch.’

  ‘I am not hers to give.’

  Alfrere chuckled, the sound low, deep, throaty and filled with sex and wanton desires. Perspiration gathered on Skye’s upper lip. Fear and panic clutched at her chest as she realised she couldn’t move again. Still, she fought.

  ‘You have spunk. I like that.’ He leaned forward, his face inches from hers, his breath like mint toothpaste, cool and fresh with a slight sting. ‘I like you.’

  ‘I hate you.’

  ‘No. You don’t. You want me.’

  Desire chased over Skye’s skin, fluid and hot and other. She knew it wasn’t coming from inside her, but couldn’t stop her body from betraying her.

  ‘Come here.’ He held out his hand.

  She fought against taking it.

  ‘I can take away all your pain. And then I can show you more pleasure than you have ever known.’

  ‘I doubt that,’ she said through clenched teeth as she fought the compulsion of his magic, but she had no defences against it.

  The magical hand caressed her again; lips whispered across her skin, her nipples puckered, damp heat flooded her underpants. It was a betrayal of herself. A betrayal of everything true and real she’d felt with Jason. ‘No,’ she cried.

  ‘Yes. You want me, just as I want you. Together, we will make history.’

  She trembled with the effort to resist the call of his power—sexual and something distinctly other. ‘Why is River here?’

  ‘Oh, he has his part to play.’

  ‘Are you going to rape him too?’

  He held out his hand. She couldn’t help it. She put her hand in his grasp. He pulled her forward, his lips lingering on her cheek, brushing her ear. ‘It’s not rape when you beg me to take you.’

  ‘Never. I’ll never do that.’

  He smiled. Skye swayed towards him.

  No! No!

  Jason! His name was a cry in her mind as Alfrere’s power slithered through her.

  He tugged and she fell against him, nerves sparking with desire at the feel of his skin against her palm.

  ‘Kiss me, Skye.’

  She tried to hold back, but it was useless. His lips slanted over hers. Those lips that had just minutes before tangled with those of the woman who wore the face of her grandmother. She shuddered, managing to pull away.

  ‘Don’t touch me.’

  His lips moved along her chin, down her neck as his fingers began to undo her buttons, caressing the flesh he exposed with his too-soft fingertips. He pushed her shirt from her shoulders. She tried to catch it with her elbows, but he brushed her arms to her side and it slithered to the floor.

  ‘So sweet. Very soon, you’ll be mine.’ He covered her lips with his again. She tried with everything in her not to return his kiss. Managed to bite his tongue when he tried to slip it into her mouth.

  ‘Ow.’ He leaned back. ‘I like it rough. That’s good. Fighting or not, I will have you.’ He pushed her backward, onto the altar. She shivered as the cold stone touched her back. He
ran his hand from her shoulder to her navel then back up to unclasp her bra, pushing the flimsy lace aside. ‘Beautiful,’ he whispered, his hand brushing over her breasts, circling her nipples.

  She wanted to vomit. She tried to move, to hit him, push him away, but her hands just fluttered on the cold stone.

  ‘Morrigan is so clever. Her poison is even now working through you. And with her kiss, she gave power over that poison to me.’ He gripped her chin in his hand, his fingernails digging into her skin. ‘You are mine.’ He reached down to the side of the altar and picked up a bundle of cloth from the floor.

  Laying the bundle on her belly, he unwrapped it and pulled out an athamé, lifting it to the light. Its double-edged blade glowed, silver and ethereal, the handle carved out of ebony. It was touched by a magic she could taste on her tongue, in the back of her mouth.

  He brushed the cloth off her, exposing her nakedness again, and touched the tip of the athamé to her throat.

  ‘I will enter you at midnight and you will know the greatest pleasure as your power syphons into me, filling me with everything we will need to sever the Were–Witch bond.’ Slowly, as he spoke, he slid the cool steel down her body to her jeans.

  ‘And because we are blood-bound, Morrigan will receive the gift of your power from me and in the moment of orgasm, she will sink this blade into your twin’s heart, forever severing a bond which has weakened us all.’

  ‘No,’ Skye screamed. ‘You can’t. You can’t kill him. Please.’

  Alfrere began to unbutton her jeans. ‘He will die.’ He rose over her and licked along her neck and over her lips. ‘But don’t worry. Very soon, you won’t care one way or the other.’

  Laughing, he removed the rest of her clothes, his hands touching her everywhere, her body trembling, her stomach filled with the black claw of nausea as the heavy musk of her false desire filled the air.

  A tear trembled from her eye as she turned her head to look at River. ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered. Then, staring at the ceiling, she tried to cut off her mind from the betrayal of her body. But one thought persisted. Jason. She’d never see him again.

  Jason, she cried. Please forgive me, Jason. I love you.

  Chapter 20

  Please forgive me, Jason. I love you.

  Skye’s words reverberated in Jason’s mind through the mating bond as he returned to the front hall of Cantrae House. He tried to focus on that sound, but it faded, disappearing before he could get a bearing.

  ‘Fuck!’ He couldn’t feel her. Couldn’t sense her at all. Dark magic was at play, because even with only the fledgling mating bond, he should be able to track her anywhere. His wolf growled. Mine!

  He could find her. He had to.

  Start from the beginning. Where could he pick up her scent last? He tracked along the hallway. Fear, the sweet scent of her magic, and something else far more acrid and repulsive—like acid in his nose. But even through that, he could scent her; honey and apple and jasmine. Right by the drawing-room door. And in that room, violence and death. He hoped she hadn’t seen that. He knew how she felt about Ferris.

  ‘Where are they?’ Adam asked as he appeared in the doorway.

  ‘I don’t know.’ Jason raked his hand through his hair, relieved his brother was here. ‘The barrier was up when I got here and then a few moments later it flared and was gone. I busted through the door but the place was empty except for the body in the lounge room. I’ve searched the whole house and nothing.’

  Adam nodded, sniffed. ‘I smell blood.’ He angled his head. ‘And magic.’

  ‘Through there. I think they used the butler’s blood to form some dark spell.’

  Adam moved forward to have a look. ‘Sweet Jesus. They made a mess of him.’

  Tyres squealed on the driveway outside followed by an engine cutting and doors slamming. A few seconds later, Shelley and Bron came through the door. ‘Where is she?’

  ‘Not here,’ Jason snarled, pacing the hallway. Shelley moved down the hallway. Adam blocked her way.

  ‘Don’t. You don’t want to go in there.’

  ‘Dark magic,’ she whispered and began to shake. ‘They used dark magic. Someone died. He cried out. Such pain.’ She clutched at her chest, tears streaming down her face. She stumbled, but Adam caught her, trying to stop her from seeing the grisly scene in the room beyond. She struggled then went rigid.

  ‘What the fuck!’ Adam stared at her face.

  Jason raced to his brother’s side, Bron close behind. Shelley began to make rattling noises in her chest, her head flung back. Jason swore. Her eyes—they were molten gold, the pupils swirling, taking over the whites until all that could be seen was gold.

  ‘Has the magic got her too?’ Adam asked, his voice hoarse with concern.

  ‘No,’ Bron said. ‘She’s channelling something. It must be someone strong if it’s got through her shields. Or it’s important. Apart from Harrison, she’s not let anything through for years, not even the strongest spirit. Not after—’ She shook her head as Shelley stopped making the rattling noise. She grasped Shelley’s hand and whispered, ‘What is it, Shells?’

  Shelley’s strange eyes snapped to her. ‘Shelley’s stepped back for me. I’m Harrison.’ Her voice had that strange echoing quality it’d had when Harrison had melded with her the night before, but it was even more strained.

  ‘What happened here, Harrison?’ Jason asked.

  Shelley shook her head, the movement wobbly and unsure. ‘An ancient witch, the original Morrigan Cantrae, sister of the Curse maker, has taken over my wife’s body. Somehow she has survived through the ages and is now the Grand Master of the rogue coven. She’s behind everything that has happened to us. She killed my Morrigan.’

  The name ended on a sob. Shelley took in a shuddering breath, tears spilling down her face as her eyes focused on Jason. ‘She killed your parents so you would become Alpha. She needed the Alpha–Pack Witch bond to snap into place so you would lead her to Skye.’

  ‘We’ll kill her,’ Adam growled.

  Jason’s gaze swung to Adam and he nodded, his lip curling as black grief and hot red rage combined inside him. Tonight, someone would die.

  Shelley’s eyes closed for a moment as if she was swallowing back pain. ‘Yes. Kill them, but only after Skye and River are safe.’

  Jason roped in the fierce need for revenge as he thought of Skye. ‘Where are they?’

  ‘Taken. Through a portal. I will re-open it. Then you must save them.’ Shelley jerked forward, her limbs moving like a marionette.

  Adam put his hand out to stop her, but Bron shook her head. ‘Let her go.’

  Adam, looking uncertain, dragged his hand back to his side and followed.

  ‘What’s she doing?’ Jason whispered to Bron.

  ‘I don’t know.’

  Shelley stopped at the door of the lounge room and ran her finger around the edges, mumbling words Jason couldn’t understand but that made his hackles rise. She did the same thing at the edge of the alcove before her gaze swung to Ferris. ‘I will avenge us both, my old friend. I promise.’

  Wind blew through the room, cold and scented with death and the faint tartness of wood polish and silver cleaner. Jason frowned.

  Shelley smiled and then headed towards the body still pinned to the wall. ‘I am sorry, my friend. But to do the spell I must use the same blood, or we will end up somewhere else. Do I have your permission?’

  The cold wind blew through the room again, fluttering Shelley’s hair and clothes.

  ‘Thank you.’

  She picked up a shallow bowl on the side table next to the body—the bowl was already stained with blood. Lifting it, she placed it beneath the neck wound of the cooling corpse and with her fingers, scraped congealed, sticky blood from Ferris’s neck and upper chest.

  ‘I think I’m going to be sick,’ Adam murmured.

  Turning, she walked past them to stand in the alcove just outside the drawing room. She waved them to stand behind her.

>   ‘I will open the portal they opened. This is where they went through, but even though I use Ferris’s blood, it’s not fresh blood, so it won’t open to where they exited, but it will be close.’ She turned to Jason, her eyes still swirling gold, her expression blank as she spoke in that voice that was the echo of Harrison’s.

  ‘You must find her and River. It’s almost midnight. If you don’t find them by the strike of twelve this All Hallow’s Eve, their twenty-seventh birthday, it will be too late. What the ancient Morrigan plans must happen at the stroke of midnight or not at all.’ She gripped his arm and squeezed. ‘Find them. Stop her. Avenge us all.’

  ‘You’re not coming with us?’

  She smiled, but it wasn’t her smile. ‘I am but a fragment of what I was. A part of me went with Skye to try to help, a part stayed here to set you on the right path. I am being fuelled with borrowed power from the Goddess, but when this night is over, I will be done. Avenge me. Avenge Ferris. Avenge your loved ones.’

  ‘I will. By the Dark Moon, this will be done.’

  She stared into his eyes for long seconds, nodded and then let go of his arm. The stickiness of Ferris’s blood left her imprint on his skin.

  ‘I’ll open the portal. It will be difficult. I don’t know how long I can hold it. As soon as the portal appears, you must go through. Move quickly. Stop Morrigan and Alfrere. They are strong, but if you use the Alpha–Pack Witch bond, you’ll be stronger.’

  ‘I’ll do what I must.’

  ‘No. You must do what you will.’

  Without another word, Shelley turned to the opening and, dipping her fingers in the bowl of congealed blood, scribed rune symbols around the edge. Then she scribed symbols on her forehead, cheeks and chin, handed Bron the bowl and, raising her arms, called out words in a language Jason didn’t understand, words that made his wolf tremble inside him.

  Sickly green lightning sparked between the symbols. The air in the archway became foggy and thick. A great wind sucked at them, pulling Jason forward. He dug his heels into the carpet, grinding his fingers into the plaster of the alcove and grabbed Bron as she went stumbling past him. He turned to warn Adam, but saw he had his arms around Shelley, holding her steady as the wind tore at her hair, her clothes.