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

by Bianca Scardoni

  Unbelievably delicious but deadly in high doses.

  With his mouth still taking blood from me, he moved his hand between my legs. My breath hitched as he pressed his thumb down against my center and began moving in deliberate circles before slipping another finger inside of me.

  My body bucked as a familiar wave of heat began to build from my core, flowing outward into my limbs and threatening to take over. The faster his fingers danced against me, the more intense the wave became until I could no longer contain the overwhelming feeling. A strangled moan tore from my lips as the wave exploded through my body like a tsunami crashing through the shoreline.

  Drawing his mouth away from my thigh, he dropped a kiss on my center and then slid back up my body. Everything inside of me was vibrating as he positioned himself between my legs.

  “Pleasure or pain?” he asked again. His mouth came down over my nipple and I no longer had to think—just feel. The outside world had completely disappeared around me as though it never existed to begin with.

  I didn’t want the wave to end…I wanted to ride it out until the end of days. “Pleasure.”

  A heated smile touched his lips as he eased himself inside me. My body immediately responded, tightening around his fullness as he burrowed in. He moved slowly at first, gently filling me up, stretching me before taking it away, but his movements quickly sped up the more I responded to him.

  Gripping my hips, he rolled us over, pulling me on top of him. I hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to do or how to do it since I’d never been in that position with him. As if sensing my doubt, he clutched my hips and began moving me against him, guiding my body back and forth until I fell into a rhythm that was all my own—until my own needs took over. And then my body knew what to do and how it needed to move to get exactly what it wanted.

  With my hands splayed against his chest, I tipped my head back and rocked myself back and forth against his length, feeling that familiar tingling sensation in the pit of my belly starting to grow. Dominic groaned beneath me, his fingers digging deeper into my flesh as I increased my movements.

  My mind shut off completely as the tingle in my body continued to build upon itself, getting stronger and warmer the faster I moved. I must have done something he liked or made a noise he enjoyed, evident by the way he clutched my hips and murmured, “So fucking beautiful.”

  Not used to hearing him curse, I dropped my head and met his eyes.

  He was staring up at me, his eyes filled with lust and need and adoration, drowning me emotion as I moved my body against his. Somehow, it felt more intimate like this—watching each other at our most vulnerable moment. I could see the love in his eyes, feel it pouring over me as it tried to wrap me in its warm embrace.

  But I didn’t want to look him in the eyes. It was too personal, too revealing.

  Too much.

  Squeezing my eyes shut, I grinded against him harder—faster until I could feel that delicious tingly feeling nearing its peak at the center of me.

  “Look at me, angel,” he commanded, and I did even though it hurt to look him in the eyes.

  He reached up and caught my neck, pulling me down flat against him. His lips crashed against mine as he began to thrust below me, the sensation almost unbearably exquisite at this new angle. And his eyes. His eyes were smoldering, devouring me like prey to his wolf as he pushed me right up against the edge of the cliff.

  “I love you,” he said, and my body combusted.

  Warm, liquid silk shoot through my limbs as he held me against him, his mouth still in complete possession of mine as I cried out his name in the dark.

  He finished inside me shortly after that and then just held me there in his arms, both our chests rising and falling against each other as we gradually drifted back down from the highest of highs.

  Back down to reality and the hell that awaited me there.

  22. OUT OF SORTS

  I woke up the next morning to the gentle sound of rain tapping against my bedroom windows. With my eyes only partially opened, I reached behind me for Dominic but found only cold, wrinkled sheets in his place. Squinting through my groggy eyes, I flopped on my back and glanced at his pillow. There was a folded sheet of paper with my name on it.

  My stomach clenched as I picked up the paper and read the note:

  Let me do this for you.

  Love, Dominic.

  My blood turned cold as I realized what the note was about. Kicking the sheets off my legs, I ran to the window that faced the driveway and pulled back the curtains. His car was gone.

  He’d gone back to the Manor. Back to Pricilla. And he’d done it for me. I clutched my chest as a horrible sinking feeling pummeled through my stomach. I had made it clear to him last night that I didn’t want him going back there—that it wasn’t worth the risk and that we’d find another way to help Trace, and he agreed. He fucking agreed.

  I rushed back to my nightstand and snatched up my phone. Pulling up his contact, I opened a new text window and started angrily typing a message to him, ready to tear his ass a new one, and then I paused.

  What if Pricilla was with him? What if she was reading his texts?

  The last thing I wanted to do was tip her off. I scrubbed my hand over my face as I tried to figure out what to do here. I considering calling him instead, or possibly even passing by the Manor, but then I worried it would look even more suspicious. Too clingy. Too close.

  After several minutes of going back and forth in my mind about it, I finally decided that it would be best to take a step back and wait for him to reach out to me when it was safe to do so. And then I’d tear him his new one.

  What could I say? I may have made the decision to back off temporarily, but it didn’t mean I was happy about it.

  With my stomach still in knots, I forced myself into the bathroom to take a shower, hoping that once I was clean and fully awake, this really bad situation might magically look a lot better to me.

  Twenty minutes later and it still sucked.

  I wasn’t sure how I’d managed to make it to school that morning, or more importantly, how my car had found itself back in my driveway in working order. I had a million things bogging down my mind and the list just kept growing. Not only was I worried about Trace and now Dominic, I also couldn’t stop thinking about what Pricilla had told me last night. Everything felt wrong and out of place, like I’d been thrown out of my body and couldn’t figure out my way back in.

  I seriously couldn’t catch a break.

  As much as I’d wanted to brush off everything Pricilla said about the Horsemen, I couldn’t deny that a lot of it fit in with what the Council knew so far. And yet, it was so much worst than any of us imagined.

  The slaughter will begin with you.

  Her disturbing words played over and over in my head like some broken record set to repeat. Was that what the Horsemen were here for? To gather us up and then slaughter us like damaged cattle? How many would lose their lives before we found a way to stop them?

  Would we find a way to stop them at all?

  I had to warn the Council. I had to make sure they knew exactly what it was we were dealing with and how much was on the line. And I needed to get my ass into the Veil like yesterday. I only hoped the Angels knew more about the Horsemen than we did and that there would be a way to stop them in the book. Unfortunately, there was no way to know for sure until we actually got our hands on it.

  Best case scenario: the books tells us how to stop this thing before it even starts. Worst case scenario: we all go down in a bloody blaze of glory.

  The first bell rang as I rounded the corner to my locker. Trace was already standing at his own locker, gathering his textbook and binder for first period. I hesitated for a split second, debating whether or not I should hide out until he was gone, but then I’d remembered my late warning from Mr. Watson and decided against it.

  I sucked in a steadying breath and walked over to my locker. I’d prepared myself for Trace to immediate
ly notice me and say something, so when he didn’t and just continued digging around his locker, I paused to look over at him.

  I could feel the energy vibrating up my spine, so I knew he had to be feeling it too.

  Maybe he was mad at me? I knew I shouldn’t have cared; that I should’ve just left it alone, but my mind and heart seemed to be on two separate pages entirely.

  “I’m sorry about last night,” I said quietly as I entered the combination into my lock. “I shouldn’t have gotten plastered at your bar.” When I didn’t get a response from him, I turned to face him again. His eyebrows were furrowed, and his lips were tight and slightly downturned. He looked like he had the weight of the world on his back. “Trace?”

  “Huh?” He turned to look at me, his eyebrows creased in confusion. He clearly hadn’t heard a word I’d said to him. “Did you say something?”

  “Yeah, I was…never mind,” I said, shaking my head as I grew increasingly worried about his odd behavior. Was he getting more memories? Was he starting to lose touch with reality? My chest suddenly felt as though an elephant were sitting on it. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah. Why?” he answered coolly as if he hadn’t been staring off into space for the last two minutes.

  “I don’t know.” I studied him for a moment, trying to read his current mental health status off his face. “You look kind of out of it today.”

  He pulled his lock from the top compartment and then shut the locker door. “I worked late,” he said, his tone flat and detached. “Guess I didn’t get enough sleep.” He secured the lock on his door and clicked it shut. “See you in class.”

  “Yeah. Sure. See ya,” I said, but he was already halfway down the hall.

  My first period Humanities class dragged on as though we’d been locked in a time capsule for fifty years. I wasn’t sure if it was because of everything I had going on with the Horsemen, the book, Dominic’s Sire, or just because I couldn’t stop staring at Trace throughout the class, trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with him.

  Granted, he’d said he didn’t get enough sleep last night, but something was telling me it was more than that. Apart from the fact that he hadn’t yawned a single time during class, there was just something…off about him. Not to mention, he hadn’t looked my way or tried to communicate with me even once since I’d arrived at school today. And that was so not like Trace. All week he’d acted like a dog with a bone, and now suddenly nothing?

  It didn’t make sense.

  Granted, I’d told him to leave me alone after the ride he gave me to Temple, and then again in the bathroom at All Saints. Making he was just giving me what I told him I wanted.

  My second period went about as good as my first one did, being that I couldn’t concentrate on anything other than the full reel of horror shows unfolding in my life, so the minute the bell rang for break, I was out of my seat and out the door in search of Nikki. Surely, if anyone knew what was going on with Trace, it would be his numero uno stalker.

  With my books still cradled in my arm, I cornered her at her locker on the first floor.

  She startled upon seeing. “Can you not do that? You scared the shit out of me.”

  I leaned in closer to her, getting a nose full of designer perfume which she apparently bathed herself in this morning. “What’s going on with Trace today?” I asked quietly while breathing in from my mouth.

  “Why?” she asked and then turned to me, crossing her arms over her chest. “What did he say?”

  I couldn’t help but notice how disheveled her school uniform looked today. Her button up shirt was untucked and looked about three sizes too big and her shirt was just a few inches above her knee as opposed to be hiked up to her ass the way she usually wore it. Jeez, someone had a rough night.

  “Nothing. That’s the point,” I said, meeting her eyes again. “He’s acting really strange.”

  “Oh, well, you know how he is.” She waved it off with a flick of her hand. “He’s probably just in a mood today.”

  “A mood huh?” I thought about it and then nodded. I mean, it wasn’t impossible. Trace was could be brooding and moody even on his best days.

  At least he used to be.

  “So, anyway, I wanted to talk to you about…you know what. I’ve come up with a plan,” she said and flashed her signature conniving grin.

  My eyes widened. “You did?” I was so not expecting to hear that, and honestly, it couldn’t have come at a better time. All the more reason to call Dominic off of his Suicide Sire mission.

  Her face fell. “Don’t act so surprised, Jemma. It’s insulting.”

  “Fine, sorry,” I said, trying my best to sound sincere even though I wasn’t. “So, what’s the plan?”

  Nikki glanced around us, noting a few of the stray passerby’s and then waved her finger in a circular motion like she did that first night at All Saints. The noise around us immediately cut and I knew we were back in her little bubble of privacy.

  “I’m going to do a basic memory blocking spell on him,” she said and then upon noting my unimpressed face quickly added, “Obviously, this is only a temporary solution, but it’ll hold him over until I figure out something more permanent.”

  I supposed it was better than what we currently had, which was nothing.

  “Okay.” I nodded, going with it. “And how long until you figure out something more permanent?”

  “How should I know, Jemma. I can’t predict the future,” she snapped huffily.

  “I’m aware of that Nikki,” I answered just as snippily. “But are we talking weeks here, or like years?”

  “Weeks, I think. I’ll get a better idea of what kind of mental state he’s in once I do the memory blocking spell. If the spell holds, then we’ll know his memories are all still mostly buried.”

  Which was exactly what we wanted at this point. “And if your spell doesn’t hold?” I asked, not entirely sure I wanted to hear the answer.

  “Then he’s remembering a lot faster than my magic can handle.” She grimaced.

  Awesome. Another flaming piece of crap to add to my already craptastic morning.

  “Alright, do the spell. Like tonight, and keep me updated on everything,” I said and then pointed my finger at her. “I mean it, Nikki. I want to know what’s going on every step of the way.”

  “You do realize I don’t answer to you, right?” she asked, her lips pulled up into a smug smirk.

  “As long as you realize I can snap you bones using nothing but my two fingers,” I said and then wiggled my thumb and index finger in her face.

  Her eyes all but bulged out of her head. “Right then. Updates it is.”

  Yeah, I thought so too.

  23. LAST CALL

  The minute the final bell rang, I grabbed my bag and got the hell out of there without even bothering to pack my homework. I needed to get my butt to Temple and fill them in on everything I’d learned from Pricilla. Frankly, if the hag was even remotely accurate about any of it, we were going to need a lot more than some stupid Angel book to stop this thing from combusting.

  We were going to need a freaking miracle.

  William was already waiting for me when I walked into the atrium. I’d called in before heading over to Temple and made sure that he knew I was coming, and that I’d be bringing some gifts.

  “Thrice in a week. This must be a new record for us,” he smiled upon greeting me at the statue for which I cannot name. “Have you made your decision?”

  I had, but that was going to have to take a backseat for a minute.

  “I have some information about the Horsemen,” I said, without even bothering to ease into it. Being tactful was never a strong quality of mine. “I think I know why they’re here and you’re not going to like it.”

  I went on to tell me all I’d learned from Pricilla about The Horsemen, The Culling, and what their intentions really were. For the most part, he just nodded along, taking it all in strides as I unloaded my barrel of information.


  “According to her, The Culling is going to start right here—in Hollow Hills. They’re targeting me first and then moving on to all Anakim in general.”

  His expression pinched as he nodded. “Yes. It’s what we were afraid of.”

  Um. Hold the damn horses. “Wait. You already suspected this?” I didn’t bother waiting for his answer because I already knew he’d lied to me by omission. “How am I supposed to work with you if you keep lying to me?”

  “There was no ill intention, my dear. This was always a possibility, we simply didn’t want the word getting out until we were sure,” he said, his expression contrite. “The last thing we want to do is cause panic and hysteria among the factions. All of this is on a need to know basis. At least until we’re certain of what we’re dealing with.”

  I mulled it over for a moment and then nodded. I supposed that made sense. There was no sense in getting everyone worked up if they weren’t even sure what was coming or how to fight it.

  “Has the Order ever gone up against them before?” I asked, my voice taking on a strange edge.

  He shook his head. “Up until now, the Horsemen have been nothing more than a myth. A biblical cautionary tale at best.”

  “So, I’m guessing they haven’t come up with any viable plans to stop them?”

  “I’m afraid not,” he said, and all my hope evaporated as though it were never meant to be mine to begin with.

  Letting out a resigned sigh, I met his eyes. “Then we need the book.”

  He nodded his agreement. “Right now, the Sang Noir is indeed our best hope.”

  Sure, it was our best hope—our only hope—but again, not a guarantee.

  “What happens if there’s nothing in there about the Horsemen?” I asked, the horrifying thought having just occurred to me.

  The defeated look on his face sent a chill down my back. “Then we’ll have to cross that bridge when we get there,” he said, his eyes taking on a hollow depth.