Nexus

by C. L. Parker

  Images of a heated act of carnal lovemaking flittered through Tori’s mind. The mystery woman riding him, grinding her hips as she took him inside her with her head thrown back in ecstasy and her nails digging into his chest. Him, with his mouth agape, clutching her supple ass as he thrust inside her with blissfully tortured moans spilling from his lips.

  “Yes,” he hissed around her kiss. He slid his hands over her hips and down her thighs to the hem of her skirt, pushing it up to her waist. “I don’t care that you fucked him. All that matters is that you carry my seed inside you.”

  Tori sobered with his words—words that made no sense. He wanted his seed inside her? Did he mean to impregnate her? He stilled, obviously not meaning to give so much away. Once he realized his mistake, he began to work faster, probably hoping she hadn’t heard him, but she had. He pushed under the waistband at her hips to shove her panties down. Tori broke the kiss abruptly, stumbling backward as she tugged her skirt back into place at a hurried pace.

  “No,” she gulped, her throat thick with the word. She shook her head and looked back up at him. “That wasn’t me. I don’t want this.”

  He straightened and slowly walked toward her, his eyes darkened with need. “Yes, you do. You saw it. We’re meant to be together. We always have been.”

  The mystery woman’s voice, tight and restrained, echoed through her mind. Send him away. The compulsion is too strong . . .

  Tori felt a twinge of pain at the woman’s need, her desire to go to him. Tori had no idea what the hell was going on, but she felt the mystery woman’s desperation attaching to her own will and becoming one. Hurry, the woman pleaded, before it’s too late.

  Tori could feel her weakening resolve, her own body’s urge to strip her clothes off and let him take her right there in the filthy alley. But another bigger part of her knew that it would be wrong on an epic level. Not just wrong, but apocalyptic. Without forethought, she knew the words to speak as if they had been placed on her lips and tongue by an unseen force.

  “I don’t want—”

  He stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide with the realization of what she was about to say. “Stop! Don’t say it, Tor! Tell the bitch to shut up!”

  Tori regarded him, understanding finally hitting her like a sledgehammer to the head. He was no different from any of the others. Deception had been his game from the very beginning.

  “You tricked me, didn’t you?” she asked. The answer was yes, she knew it, but she wanted to hear him say it, to force it from him if for no other reason than because he had been so sneaky in his attempt to hide the truth from her. “I want to know how it is that you’re here on this plane instead of being confined to my dreams. Tell me. Now.”

  He grimaced, anger flashing in his eyes, and then he grinned and nodded his head in acceptance, his aggravation at his defeat very clear. “I’m here because you said you wanted me to be real,” he said through clenched teeth as if it pained him to say the words.

  “So you lied to me, too.” Tori gave a humorless laugh. “I should’ve known.”

  “I didn’t lie to you. I told you that you could have anything you wanted, that you just needed to know how to ask for it. You said you wanted me to be real, and so I was. You chose me.”

  Tori shook her head, really getting it. “No, I didn’t choose you. But you know that, don’t you? You need me to say certain words, to take your hand and let you take me away, but I haven’t done that, and I won’t. Because you’re no better than the rest of them.” She scoffed. “Fuck all of you!”

  “Tor, don’t be that way. You know I’m nothing like them. Haven’t I always been there for you? It’s no different right now. I’m here for you, just like you wanted me to be.”

  Lies. All lies. He only wanted to manipulate and control her like all the others, but she was the one in control now. She had the power, and she most certainly wasn’t above using it.

  Tori could feel the blackness of her anger slithering through her veins, empowering her with its tainted strength mixing with the energy of her Light. She let the two sources meld together, the feeling almost euphoric, making her drunk off the power. She tilted her head to the side and closed her eyes to the shiver of delight from the coldness of the curse intermingling with the heat of her gift. She didn’t need anyone. She was a force to be reckoned with in her own right, and the day of reckoning had come for any and everyone who dared cross her again.

  “Ahh . . . you’re ripe now, aren’t you, Tor? Like the forbidden fruit. Its juices run through your veins, but how will you use it? Hmm?”

  Tori opened her eyes and looked at him with a lethal stare. The illumination of her eyes cast a shadow of his hulking form against the building behind him. She knew what to do, and oh yeah . . . it was going to piss him off. One corner of her mouth lifted into a sinister smirk. His invitation was about to be revoked and, judging by the sudden change in his expression, he knew it.

  “Tori, don’t.” His voice was commanding, but he wasn’t the one in control now, was he?

  “I don’t want you to be here anymore!”

  He growled menacingly, angrier than she had ever seen him before. He lunged at Tori, but before he could touch her, she thrust both hands, white hot with her power, against his chest and sent him sailing backward. Before he even had the chance to crash to the ground, he vanished into thin air.

  Tori knew where he had gone, and he wouldn’t be gone forever. She had merely sent him back behind the wall in her mind to stew for a little while, but he would be back the second she fell asleep—pissed and probably seeking revenge. Maybe not; he needed her, after all. But, why? Why did he seem so hell-bent on knocking her up? Had that been his plan all along? Had it been Dante’s as well?

  Christ, everyone seemed to have an agenda lately, and she had no idea what was real and what was a lie. All she knew was that she couldn’t trust anyone but herself. And then there was the new power surging through her. A mixture of both Light and Dark, it was potent, volatile. She had to get a handle on it before it consumed her. Truth be known, she sort of liked the allure of the sense of invincibility it offered.

  Tori looked around at the empty alley, feeling more isolated than she had ever felt before. So it was to be: the Guardian of Mankind pitted against the world she was slated to protect, alone in a quest she no longer wanted to undertake. But she couldn’t very well stand there in the alley forever, could she?

  She sighed and rubbed her hands over her face. Although it was the last place she wanted to be, she put one foot in front of the other and started the trek back to the Dickens estate. She would cordon herself off from the rest of the household, hold out until it was time to go back home to St. Augustine, and somehow figure out where the hell to go from there.

  Something inside Tori boiled and raged like a thousand angry fists thrusting into the air while demanding Dante’s head on a platter and his blood in a goblet made of gem-encrusted gold. She sat stoic, breaths as steady as a drip from a leaky faucet, while on the inside turmoil and chaos churned. She could feel something dark, something not at all nice growing, becoming stronger with each passing second, overpowering and festering. And she let it happen, coveted it even. She was devastated by Dante’s betrayal, disgusted by his obsession with her, and exhausted by trying to stomp down the smothering power that was the wall. Yes, she felt the wall—alive and triumphant, taking full advantage of Tori’s momentary mental and emotional collapse. Its darkness spread, reaching its inky fingers through her veins, turning her skin cold, molding her will to its own.

  Tori had been sitting on the window seat for what seemed like weeks, but had only been days. The Light and Dark powers she held inside had been fighting for dominance since that day in the alley, fire and ice pulsing through her veins. Neither wanted to succumb to the other, and neither wanted to join ranks as their vessel was attempting to force them to do. Her body was wired, skin crawling from the vibrating energies just underneath.

  She refused to sleep. No
t that it would be possible even if she wanted to. Her senses were hyperaware of every muffled sound, every trace of light, every movement of air across her skin. Her stomach roiled at every minute odor that filtered through her surroundings, so she barely ate, knowing any sustenance she put in her body would only send her running to the bathroom before she heaved it out onto the floor. And she had been snapping at everyone who dared try to convince her to do any of the above, like a rabid dog begging to be put down.

  Gabe had been convinced she was having a bad bout of PMS and had left a bottle of Midol and an anatomically correct male blow-up doll along with a butcher’s knife next to her before leaving. The doll was now completely deflated with gaping holes in the crotch, while the rest of its barely recognizable body was cut into strips of rubber in the corner of the room.

  Her mother, on the other hand, had done her damnedest to try to get Tori to admit she and Dante were having issues with her whole I-told-you-so look, which had only pissed Tori off more. She had refused to tell her anything, and only got her to leave by promising she’d find her when she was ready to talk about what was bothering her. Not likely to happen.

  Dominic had tried his hand at getting her to talk, too, but Tori wasn’t buying any of their crap. If they really cared as much as they claimed, they would’ve been honest with her from the beginning.

  Dante had been sleeping on the floor on the other side of the bathroom door, and that annoyed the shit out of her. Day in and day out he had kept a vigilant watch over her, patiently waiting her out, but apparently his patience had worn thin.

  “That’s it,” he said, barging into her room without bothering to knock. Not from the bathroom that adjoined their bedrooms; that door she had kept locked. “Time for your little tantrum to end, Angel.”

  She snapped her head toward him, feeling a spike in her new energy. “Get out!”

  Dante crossed his arms over his broad chest and spread his legs to widen his stance. “No. You’re acting like a spoiled rotten brat, and I’ve had it with your brooding. So, you can either stop acting like a petulant child, or I’m going to bend you over my lap and give you the spanking of your life.”

  “I dare you to try,” she said, knowing he could see the smoldering Light in her eyes.

  Undeterred by her show of force, he showed a little of his own. With determined steps, he crossed the room and plucked her from the window seat. In one smooth move, he hoisted her over his shoulder and carried her to the bed kicking and screaming all the way. He had no sooner sat down than she was laid across his lap with her shorts pulled down to her thighs to reveal her bare ass. Dante held her in place with an arm braced across her lower back, and then his large hand came down hard on her cheeks, leaving a burning sting in its wake.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she yelled at him.

  Dante turned her loose after covering her backside again. “I’m giving you exactly what you need. And maybe a little of what you want.”

  Tori jumped to her feet and turned on him. Rearing her arm back, she let it go with a sharp slap to his face. Her chest heaved with angry breaths and her face burned with rage as she pointed an accusing finger in his face. “Don’t you ever mistake me for a child, Dante! I’m sick and tired of everyone trying to bully me into doing what they want me to do!”

  Dante rubbed his hand across his cheek and smirked at her. “Do it again,” he said, his voice even and serious.

  “What?” Tori asked, sure she hadn’t heard him right.

  “I said, do it again.”

  Tori regarded him for only a moment, and then she slapped him a second time, harder than the first. It felt good. Really good. The Dark power inside roared triumphantly.

  Dante’s head snapped to the side from the force. When he slowly turned back to her, he leveled a glare at her. “Again.”

  Tori didn’t think twice about it, she let another blow go, feeling even better now that she was able to let off some of the steam that was threatening to drive her mad.

  “Again. As many times as it will take for you to get it out of your system. You’re angry with me, Angel. I get that. Go ahead. I deserve it after what I did.”

  She didn’t slap him a fourth time. Instead, she doubled up her fist and punched him in the mouth. His head rocked back on his shoulders, but he remained sitting on the bed with no offer to retaliate. A trickle of blood dripped from the corner of his mouth and he flicked his tongue out to taste it with barely a wince at the pain. Dante touched his lip with his long fingers, and then he pulled back to see the blood for himself.

  “Nice shot,” he said. “Are you quite finished, or will you have my testicles on a platter before you’re done?”

  “I hate you,” Tori said through clenched teeth as she flexed her now-sore hand at her side.

  She was doing her damnedest to keep her anger under control because if she gave it free rein, Dante might end up like the shredded doll in the corner. Those little love taps she had just given him? They were nothing compared to all the power she held in her little finger. And he didn’t want to see that side of her. Tori didn’t even want to see that side; it scared her shitless that she wouldn’t be able to maintain control of the very volatile concoction that was now fueling her veins. Light and Dark, joined for a common purpose and very highly combustible.

  “I know,” he said, “but I still love you.”

  “Liar!”

  Tori was teetering on the edge, ready to strike out once again. Dante sensed it; she could see it in his eyes, yet he still pushed forward. Always so arrogant, confident he could win her over.

  “Do you honestly think I’d let you beat me senseless if I didn’t? It was what you needed. I’ve only ever done what I felt was in your best interest.”

  Really? He wanted her to hit him? Tori wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Such conflicting emotions, so many confusing thoughts. Everything was a contradiction. Her whole world had spun off its axis and nothing made sense. Up was down, left was right, right was wrong, love was hate . . . Tori couldn’t take much more.

  She shook her head and turned to face him. “Fuck you, Dante,” she said with little emotion. How dare he try to play games with her head after everything he had done to mess it up in the first place?

  Her own words sparked a completely contradicting need inside her. A yearning to possess him surged in the pit of her stomach, a need she recognized from her trip to the alley the other night when he was there. Only then it hadn’t been her need. Right now, it most certainly was.

  Tori raked her eyes down the length of him. Awareness of the pleasure his body could bring made her crave him even more. She needed to feel something, anything that might help balance the warring power that threatened to consume her, anything that would make her feel like she was in control despite the acute knowledge that she wasn’t.

  When her hungry gaze made the long trek back up his body to his eyes, she saw recognition dawning like that of a willing participant about to be led to the sacrificial altar.

  Tori smirked and backed up to the door, turning the lock to keep out any unwanted interruptions. Dante tracked her movements as he stood from the bed and began to slowly, methodically, unbutton his shirt. Not wanting him to be confused into actually thinking he was in control, Tori stalked toward him, fisted the opening of his shirt, and ripped it open. The remaining buttons went flying to the floor. She didn’t bother to remove the shirt; it wouldn’t be necessary for what she had in mind, but she did allow her nails to scratch his skin as her fingers traveled down his muscular chest and ripped abdomen to the button of his jeans. She kept him in her sight, almost daring him to flinch, but Dante met her challenge with a steady gaze of his own.

  Once his pants were undone and pushed over his hips enough to allow his cock to spring free, Tori palmed his chest and pushed him down to the bed. Straddling his legs, she dipped her head and flattened her tongue to lick along the underside of his beautiful shaft. Dante hissed and some sort of muffled
expletive fell from his mouth, but Tori paid no attention. She had only wanted to make sure she had his undivided attention. Judging by the titanium hardness of his cock, she most certainly did.

  As she climbed up his long, lithe form, he swallowed hard, struggling to regain control of his own body. Again, he wasn’t the one in control.

  “Take what you need, Angel,” he said, his voice soft and deep.

  Deep was the plan, but soft would never do. She wanted hard—hard and deep and at the mercy of her whim. Admittedly, it was a tall order for a virgin who just barely wasn’t, but some deep-seated confidence rose to the surface, empowering her resolve like a seasoned seductress. She wasn’t out to seduce, though; she was out to dominate, possess . . . drain her sacrificial lamb of his ability to calm the tumultuous battle of Light versus Dark that surged unabated just beneath the surface of her skin.

  Tori spread her thighs wide to accommodate his lean hips. His cock twitched when she took him in her hand while pulling the thin material of her shorts and panties to the side. Finally positioned at her entrance, she sank down on him. They both moaned. Tori’s head fell forward as she braced a hand on his chest to hold her weight. There was only a fraction of pain from his size, but pain was good. Pain reminded her to feel. She closed her eyes to the sensation of being stretched and filled to capacity, and he wasn’t even all the way in. Dante gripped her hips and lifted her slightly so she could sink back down onto him anew, further this time. Realizing he was once again trying to take control, Tori snapped her head up and glared at him.

  “Don’t,” she said, the inflection of her voice conveying the same commanding look in her eyes.

  Dante kept his hands in place, but loosened his hold to relinquish the control he knew she wanted.

  Pushing on his chest, Tori raised her hips minutely and worked herself down on him until he was completely sheathed. She bit down on her bottom lip, reveling in the vibration of energy that passed through the connection of their bodies and feeling the war raging inside her begin to ebb. Her eyes held his as she rocked back and forth slowly with determined strokes. Her insides molded around every nuance of his thick cock, drawing pleasure from the slightest bit of movement.