Incarnate: A Dark Paranormal Romance (The Marked Saga Book 5)

by Bianca Scardoni

“She’s my Sire, angel,” he answered despondently as if that explained absolutely anything. It explained nothing!

  “And?! What the hell does that matter?” I snapped, my fear morphing into anger.

  “It matters because if Pricilla wants to stay at the Manor, she will stay there—” his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed— “with or without my consent.”

  I stared at him blankly for a moment until the meaning registered and then my stomach hollowed out. “Are you saying she can…” I couldn’t even finish the thought, let alone the sentence.

  The implications were way too heavy to just throw out into the universe.

  “As my Sire, she has the ability to compel me if he so chooses to. Something I prefer never to give her a reason to do.” He crossed the small space and stopped before me, bowing gently to catch my horrified gaze. “I have found that it has served me far better to simply stay on her good side.”

  I shook my head and opened my mouth to say something back, but nothing useful came to mind. What the hell was I supposed to say to that?

  Essentially, he was telling me that Pricilla had the power to control him—to take away his free will and turn him into her personal puppet. And unlike Dominic, her conscience wouldn’t get in the way of doing it.

  This was all kinds of messed up.

  “I am confident that I can handle Pricilla,” he quickly went on as if to ease my worries. Not. Working. “I’ve done it before but that means things are going to have to change between us. At least while she’s here. The last thing I want is for her to set her sights on you,” he continued, his voice low and foreboding as he reached up and caressed the apple of my cheek with his thumb. “If she even so much as suspects that you mean more to me than she does, she will make a game of it. A game that she will stop at nothing to win.”

  Fighting the urge to sink into his touch, my eyes narrowed on his. “Are you saying she would try to kill me if she knew how you felt about me?” I mean, she couldn’t even if she wanted to, but that was so beside the point.

  “That’s precisely what I’m saying. Hence my behavior at the Manor.”

  Remembering his complete disregard of me, I scowled at him.

  “Believe me, angel, that hurt me much more than it did you,” he said, his eyes filled with sadness and regret. I could feel his emotions all around me, reaching out like a warm blanket against a sopping wet body. “I never want to be the reason you feel even an ounce of pain, angel. You must know that by now.”

  “I do.” I nodded, understanding that he was only trying to protect me. I should have trusted my gut. Dominic has always put me miles above the rest, including himself. “So, what do we do now? What’s our plan of attack?” I asked, ready to clean up this mess tonight. Honestly, I’d heard enough. Pricilla Beaumont needed to go. Permanently.

  His expression turned bleak. “Actually, I was hoping you would allow me to handle this on my own.”

  I laughed, because, was he serious? “You’re joking, right? You don’t actually expect me to sit on the sidelines for this, do you?”

  “I don’t want you involved.” His eyes darkened as they all but pinned me to the wall.

  “Are you protecting me or her?” I wondered. I mean, maybe the Sire bond also came with deep and complex feelings. It wasn’t entirely out of the realm of possibilities.

  “The fact that you’d even ask me that is insulting,” he answered, his tone clipped and clearly ticked off. “Pricilla is powerful, but more than that, she’s smart. She never takes a step without ensuring she can complete the move.”

  I wasn’t exactly sure what that even meant, nor did I really care. So she was powerful and smart. Big whoop. She still needed to be gone. “I don’t care if she’s a chess master that shoots magic out of her tits. At the end of the day, she’s still just a Rev, Dominic. It’s nothing that a stake to the heart and a fistful of Cinderdust to her face won’t fix.” I shrugged it off like it was no big deal, because to me, it wasn’t. Another day, another demon.

  “It may very well come to that,” he agreed darkly. “But that isn’t an option right now. Not yet.”

  I reeled back at his words. “Why not?”

  This woman, if we could even call her that, had the potential to take total control of him, essentially turning him into her own marionette. All she had to do was decide to take the strings, and this idiot wanted to wait it out?

  “We must err on the side of caution and plan accordingly. No good will come from rushing into this.”

  Since when did Dominic want to wait things out; to err on the side of caution. He was always the first one ready to ride off to war. Something was up. Call it a hunch, call it woman’s intuition, but he was keeping something from me, and I didn’t like it one bit. “What aren’t you telling me?” I asked, my voice and eyes as hard as stone.

  “Angel—”

  “Don’t angel me, Dominic. I know you’re hiding something from me.” I could feel it in my damn bones. “If you’re not going to be honest with me then we might as well call it quits right now. I can’t be with you if I don’t trust you,” I said, and while I was definitely using his feelings for me against him, it didn’t make my warning any less true.

  His eyes ran across my face as he thought on it and then he pushed a hand through his blond curls and released a breath of frustration. “She may know of a way to save Romeo,” he finally said and then squared his shoulders. “If I can tolerate her for a few days and manage to get her to drop her guard, I might be able to siphon the information from her.”

  I brushed my hand against my chest as I tried to ease the strange ache that his admission had conjured there. There may be a way to save Trace after all, and Dominic…Dominic was willing to risk his life to get it for me.

  “You would do that for me?” I asked, shocked because, well shit, he was putting his own life in danger. Then again, hadn’t he already done that for me so many times before? Hadn’t he already proved his feelings for me time and time again?

  “I would do absolutely anything for you, angel.” He reached out and chucked me under my chin.

  A small piece of the wall I’d built up around my heart chipped off and fell by the wayside. I knew Dominic, and I knew how easy it would have been for him to keep this information to himself, especially considering what that could potentially mean for me and him. But he didn’t. He’d shared it with me, and on top of that, he was planning on risking his own self just for the chance to get it for me. He’d come a long way from the monster he used to be, and I couldn’t help but open my heart to him just a little bit more for it.

  As for the actual bombshell he’d just dropped on me, I wasn’t sure how to process it. A part of me wanted to reach out and snatch that hope in the air, clutch it to my chest and never let it go. But the other part of me, the more realistic part of me wondered if it was just too good to be true.

  “What about what Odin said? That there was nothing we could do for him,” I asked, deciding it was best not to get my hopes up just yet. It would be too painful of a tumble if it turned out to be bullshit.

  “There may not be anything a Necromancer could do for him, but she’s a Caster, angel. A very powerful one at that.” A clap of thunder exploded outside the window, jolting me as he continued. “She claims to know of a spell that could restore his memories without further damaging his mind.”

  I smothered the hope that was fighting tooth and nail to break free. “Do you believe her?”

  “It’s hard to say.” His jaw muscle feathered. “If there is a way, Pricilla would know of it.”

  “But?” I asked, remarking his uncertainty.

  He leveled me with his eyes. “But she’ll make me pay for it dearly.”

  Another shiver flew down the length of my back. Of course she would. “How did she even find out about this?”

  “Unfortunately, Necromancer’s are not known for their ability to keep secrets. Odin told her what we’d gone to see him for, which prompted her visit here
in the first place.” He slipped his hands into his pocket and smirked at me but there was no joy behind it. “She was suspicious right out the gate.”

  “Suspicious of what?”

  “Of why I was helping a Slayer.” His jaw hardened like cracked marble. “I had to make it seem as though this thing between us was one-sided; that I’m only in it for personal gain.”

  “Right.” I didn’t even want to know what that meant. The only thing that mattered was, “Did she buy it?”

  “It’s difficult to say with Pricilla,” he said, a flicker of irritation passing through his eyes. “Let’s just say she is a woman of many hats and even more faces.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that, I thought as a wave of anxiety drifted through me. This was too dangerous. Too risky. The longer we discussed her, the less inclined I felt to play her game.

  “So, what do we do now?” I asked as the reality of the shittastic situation settled all the way in. “I mean, you can’t actually go back there. What if she suspects something? What if she compels you into her bed?”

  A barely-there smirk flared, but it was gone just as soon as it appeared. “You have nothing to worry about, angel. I know how to handle Pricilla. As long as I play her game, everything should be fine.”

  “Should be?” I quirked an eyebrow, needing something a lot more concrete than that. Frankly, I really didn’t like the sound of any of this. The risk was too big for something that came with zero guarantees.

  Also, exactly what did playing her game entail?

  “It isn’t ideal, but this might be your only chance to help Romeo—permanently.” His eyebrows lifted slightly as he met my weary eyes. “That is what you want, isn’t it, angel?”

  The air in the room was suddenly too thin, too unsubstantial to fill my lungs. If I agreed to let him return to the Manor—to send him back into Pricilla’s waiting arms—I would be putting his life in mortal danger. Something I had no desire to do under any circumstances. But if I refused, if I forbid him from going…I’d be pissing away my one chance to save Trace from the ticking timebomb in his mind.

  Essentially, I’d be putting Dominic in harm’s way for the chance to say Trace.

  Could I really do that?

  “There has to be another way,” I said, shaking my head as I swallowed down the rising bile. “If Pricilla knows of a way then someone else out there must know, too.”

  He dipped his head in a nod. “It’s possible.”

  There was that look again. The uncertainty in his eyes, the undeniable look of an unfinished sentiment. “But?” I finally asked, knowing as sure as I was breathing that there would be one.

  “But it’s not guaranteed, angel, nor are we guaranteed to find it in time.”

  I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I tried to decide what was the right thing to do here. No matter what I choose, I would be putting one of them in danger. My stomach turned as the bile tried to make its way up again. I couldn’t choose between Trace and Dominic. I wouldn’t. There had to be another way.

  “I can’t ask you to do this, Dominic. I love Trace, I do, but god help me, I love you too and if something were to happen to you, if this thing were to go horribly wrong, I—”

  My words were cut off as he stepped forward and crashed his lips against mine, kissing me passionately and roughly as though he had been waiting his entire life for the chance to touch my lips. My back knocked into the door behind me as he weaved his fingers into my hair and deepened the kiss into something that was almost primal.

  I wasn’t sure how much time had gone by or if I’d even remembered to breath, but I was panting and hungry for more by the time he pulled his lips from mine and smiled. With his forehead pressed against my own and his hand cupping the back of my head, I caught my breath and then met his eyes.

  “What was that for?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

  His eyes were dancing all over my face when he answered, “You’ve never said that to me before.”

  “Said what?” I asked, my mind still dazed and confused from his hotter-than-hell kiss. I mean, at this point, I barely remembered my own name. Jemma What Now?

  “That you love me,” he said softly, his words tickling my lips as he spoke.

  “Oh.” Hadn’t I?

  “Oh?” He quirked his brow at me, studying me as though he might find the rest of the thought on my face.

  “I mean…it’s not a big deal or anything.” I tried to shrug it off, to make it smaller than it really was. “I kind of thought it was obvious.”

  He chuckled darkly. “Nothing about you is obvious, angel.” He grazed his thumb against my jaw as he held my face in his hands. “You are a paradox, through in through, and I think I’d thoroughly enjoy spending the rest of my life trying to figure you out.”

  “Dominic Huntington, are you getting soft on me?” I smiled and then brushed my lips against his, enjoying the closeness between us—the momentary reprieve from all the madness.

  He groaned against mouth, his inky black eyes sweeping over me like a thread of fire, and then he pushed his body forward, eliminated the tiny sliver of space that had remained between us. I could feel every inch of him pressed against me as he parted my lips and tasted me.

  Everything around me ceased to exist. Overcome by the moment, I wrapped my arms around his neck and then gasped as he hoisted me into his arms. With his lips still tangled against my own, he walked me backward to the bed and then tossed me back onto it. I hit the mattress and bounced, the air leaving my lungs in a swoosh.

  His fangs clicked out as he unbuttoned his shirt, his eyes sailing over my body as though planning all of the things he was about to do to me. My pulse quickened just thinking about what those things might be.

  Fantasizing about it…

  “You are by far the most exquisite creative I’ve ever laid eyes on,” he said as he slipped out of his shirt and tossed it on the floor beside him. “Do you have any idea what you do to me?”

  My blood pulsed with excitement. “Tell me.”

  “Your lips alone keep me up at night,” he said without missing a beat as he pulled off his belt, his molten eyes never straying from mine. “Thinking about what I want to do with them. Where I want to put them…”

  My breath caught as he leaned forward and yanked me down by my waist, bringing my body underneath his.

  “Your breasts make my blood run hot.” He lowered his face to my chest and gently kissed the exposed skin peeking out from my shirt. “So supple,” he purred as he brought the shirt up over my head. “So round.”

  Adjusting himself, he slipped his hand between our bodies and then eased my legs apart. “This right here,” he said as he moved his hand to the top of my jeans and unfastened the button. “This is my heaven.” My back arched as he squeezed his hand passed the unopened zipper and touched me the way only he knew how. “So warm…” he whispered as he slipped his finger inside me, teasing me. “So sweet.”

  A small whimper slipped passed my lips, first from his fingers, and then again as he lowered his mouth to my belly and trailed a scorching line of fire from my stomach to my neck using only his lips and tongue. “But your eyes,” he said as his lips came up over my chin and then stopped. “Your eyes are my undoing. Every time.”

  Certain that I would literally combust if I didn’t have him right that instant, I threaded my fingers into his hair and pulled his mouth to mine, kissing him fiercely—hungrily—as my entire body writhed with need beneath him.

  He opened my mouth with his lips and then slipped his tongue into my mouth, savoring me like his favorite brand of whiskey. A low groan rumbled in his chest and I fisted my hands in his hair to keep from screaming out his name. To keep him from moving even an inch away from me.

  “Put your hands above your head,” he ordered against my lips, and I immediately complied. His sultry voice could move mountains. It could send melt the skin right off my bones with just its heat.

  His gaze dropped below my neckline
and judging by the wicked smile tugging at his lips, I could tell he was undressing me with his eyes. Deciding which part of me he wanted to devour first. As if making his decision, he lowered himself to my waist and then hooked his hands into my half-open jeans and underwear, dragging them down my legs as his mouth trailed another row of searing kisses after the garments before coming back up the other way.

  My fingers moved to his hair again, wanting to feel his soft curls, to touch him, to hold him against me, but he quickly caught my wrists and ordered my hands back up.

  “But I want to touch you,” I whined, my fingers damn near begging me for it.

  “You will, angel. Patience.” His lips came down against the base of my neck, his tongue darting in and out of his mouth as he slid his hand behind my back and unclasped my bra.

  His eyes flared with heat as I spilled out in front of him.

  “Pleasure or pain?” His lips were back on my breast, kissing and licking them as he cupped them possessively.

  “Pain.” I wasn’t sure why I’d said that or exactly what I wanted, but in that moment, alone with Dominic in my old bedroom under the cover of night, I felt free to ask for it.

  He lifted his head and met my gaze with smoldering eyes. Sinister eyes. In that moment, a pang of fear slashed through my belly as though I’d made a mistake—as though I had no idea of the pandora’s box I’d just opened. But that fear was quickly swallowed up by my excitement, by my desire to be wholly and fully consumed by him.

  “Pain it is,” he said and then pushed my legs further apart.

  His mouth came down hard against my inner thigh, sucking and nipping the delicate skin there as he made his way closer to my center. His kisses were rough, his teeth nipping, but not hard enough to break the skin.

  “Like that?” he asked punishingly.

  Not like that. I needed him to draw blood. “Harder.”

  He swiped his tongue over his fangs and then pressed his face against my inner thigh, his teeth cutting through my skin as though it were made of butter. My back arched as I cried out in pain, but as always, that pain was fleeting and quickly replaced by the kind of pleasure that could only be described as poisonous.