E.V.I.E.: 13 Slayers, 13 Missions

by Lexi C. Foss

  Standing up without warning, he walked me backward with his hand directing me until I was flat against the wall. His mouth lowered, claiming mine in a toe-curling kiss that stole a soft moan from my lungs. He released my hair, lifting me by my hips as he opened the connecting door, slowly walking us toward the bed in the other room.

  He laid me down, lifting his head. Rhys’s mouth brushed against mine. His eyes searched mine, and he smiled wolfishly. His erection pushed against my apex, and he snorted, feeling me rocking against him, eagerly ready for more.

  “Your pussy is delicious. I enjoyed sucking the arousal from it as you begged me to fuck you. I enjoyed wrecking your tight cunt and listening as you screamed my name for hours. It was fun fucking you, Remington. Watching your pretty eyes grow hooded as I hit that spot within you that no other man had found before, also fun. It’s been fun seducing you and learning how innocent you really are. You should have told me to leave last night. I warned you,” he chuckled, lowering his mouth to devour me slowly as my stomach clenched. His hands braced his weight on either side of my head while he pushed up, tensing his chest muscles. “It’s too bad that you weren’t more than a pussy I intended to claim. You really are beautiful, and rather amazing in bed, even with your clumsy moves. But Remington, that is all you are, and will ever be.” He watched the tears filling my eyes. He swallowed, turning on his heel to stop at the door. “That’s how you let someone down the morning after, Silversmith. They are serving breakfast downstairs. See that you’re in attendance. My staff isn’t going to wait on you hand and foot. I’ll see you down there, oh, and stay the fuck out of my room now that I got what I wanted from you.”

  He closed the door, and I laid there, staring at where he’d slipped into the other room and locked the door. Something crashed against the wall, and I jumped, sitting up to stare at the door. I slid from the bed, silently moving into the bathroom to wash him off of me.

  I dressed, slipping into a soft blue dress before adding lip gloss and mascara. I silently tied my hair up, moving from the room. The knights fell into step behind me, none of them speaking. I moved purposely to the dining room, sliding into a chair as everyone watched me. Rhys came in after me, sitting in the chair beside me at the head of the table.

  Cole scooted his chair closer to me, staring at me while I remained mute and unnerved by Rhys’s cold dismissal. Servers moved around us, and Cole leaned over, kissing my cheek. I ignored him. Illeron watched me, his eyes smiling as he leaned his arms against the table and spoke.

  “This is where you fuck Cole, and I get you after he gets bored of your snatch,” he snorted, licking his lips. Nyota elbowed him and turned angry eyes to Rhys, who silently watched it unfolding.

  “You ready to be mine, Sunshine?” Cole asked softly, reaching for my hand.

  I stood slowly, moving my eyes to Illeron, Cole, before finally settling them on Rhys. “You’re a bastard, and you need to forgive yourself. You fell for some stupid whore’s game and thought her innocent, and people got hurt. It isn’t your fault you fell for a tight pussy that was attached to the villain. Many men before you and after you will also slip and fall into cunts just like that one. It’s like the idiot guide to adulthood. You,” I said to Cole, holding his stare.

  “You deserve more than to pick up the broken pieces of those that Rhys discards like trash. You’re better than that, Cole. You may want everyone to think you’re a prick, but your heart is huge, and it deserves to be someone’s first choice. You, Illeron, you’re a fucking idiot. Nobody sticks around for sloppy thirds. It isn’t even a real thing! You are all seriously fucked up. I wasn’t alive when this shit happened, nor am I a part of it. I get that our families have history, but if you want to live in the past, do it without me. I prefer the future and learning from mistakes we’ve made so that we don’t repeat them. Nyota, I am not some evil bitch here to hurt your family. I am not here willingly, and as of this moment, I’m a freaking hostage.” My eyes slid to Rhys. “Do not expect me to take your shit with a smile on my face anymore. If you’ll excuse me, I need to wash you out of my vagina again, as you disgust me, and I can still feel you there.”

  “What the fuck just happened?” Cole asked.

  “I think you finally met someone with enough self-esteem to tell you assholes right where to shove your little game of pass the snatch around,” Nyota muttered, her eyes meeting mine briefly with regret.

  I pushed away from the table, and everyone watched me walking away with my shoulders back, and my head held high. I hit the stairs, skipping one, moving up them quickly before I burst into tears where they could hear me.

  The knights rushed up the stairs, finding it difficult to keep up with my angry strides. I entered my room, slamming the door closed before moving to the connecting door, pushing the large dresser against it. Next, I angled the bed in front of the other door and moved into the bathroom, running the water as hot as it would go. Shedding the dress, I slid into the scathing hot water, slipping beneath it to scream. I watched the bubbles rising as the sound of something hitting the door caused me to lift from the bath, glaring.

  Rhys stormed into the room with Cole and Illeron on his heels while Nyota shouted at them. I watched them all filing into the bathroom, stopping in their tracks to take in my mottled flesh and the steam rising from the tub. I stood, glaring at them.

  “Get out,” I hissed, pointing my finger at the door they’d just rushed through, and noted their eyes sliding down my body with shock.

  “Get out of the bath now,” Cole snarled, grabbing a towel and pulling me out. “You’re burning yourself!”

  “I won’t burn,” I growled, shoving him away from me. “You’re all unwanted in this room. Get out, or I will,” I warned, and when no one moved, I shoved through them, marching toward the bedroom door, and continued through the house until I reached the glass room with the forgery, slamming the door and locking it behind me.

  “Open the door, Remington,” Rhys snarled, and I turned, flipping him off as the towel dropped.

  “Remi?” Nyx screamed, entering the room. I stepped back, and her eyes took in my red flesh. “No, you don’t get to do this again. The last time sucked!”

  “So did this morning,” I snorted, turning to hit high on the thermostat, listening to her hands slapping against the glass.

  “Don’t do this. He isn’t worth it,” Nyx pleaded.

  I turned, smiling brokenly at Nyx. She placed her head against the glass and then backed away to set the timer on her watch, and I shook my head. I needed a total reset this time, and there was the only way I knew how to do it. Sure, the Van Helsings would figure out more secrets about me, but I was sure Rhys had no intention of ever letting me leave. So what did it matter? He’d made it abundantly clear that he planned to use me, and that was how I felt now—used and discarded.

  “Remi, open the damn door,” Cole growled, his eyes lifting to the thermostat maxed out at three thousand degrees.

  Nyota worried her lip, picking at her sleeve while Illeron stared at me in shock, his brows nearly disappearing into his hairline. I stood there stark-ass naked as more alphas were entering the room to figure out what was causing all the commotion. Hunter, Conrad, Ian, and others filled the room, and I shut them all out, turning as the heat filled the armory, causing my skin to sweat.

  I fired up the forge, sliding the silver into the mold, and watched it glowing red before I pushed my hand into it, dripping the liquid metal over my fingers. I could hear them gasping behind me, knowing they were freaking out at the show. I lifted myself into the fire and laid down on the coals. My eyes slid closed, and I exhaled.

  The flames kissed my flesh, heating my soul while I exhaled the pain of hearing Rhys’s words. Even though I knew he rejected me because of his self-punishment, it didn’t make the words any easier to swallow. I could hear people screaming as the fire hid my body within the flames.

  Some women were created from flames, and I was one of them. I’d discovered it in an acc
ident that should have ended my life. The car had rolled down a hill, and after bouncing several times, it burst into flames. I’d screamed, begging for someone to help me until I felt the pleasure the flames brought. I’d sat in the car on fire, listening to the crackling of metal as it burned so intensely hot that it had melted and twisted the frame. When the fire began to simmer down, I crawled out of the car and walked home naked through the woods.

  I’d told my mother everything, and she’d hosed me down as if she’d been expecting it. We hadn’t spoken about it afterward, other than to promise to keep it a secret. Speaking of my mother, I highly doubt Rhys had even looked for her. Where was my family? Where were Winchester, Sig, Weston, Smith, and Sauer? I mean, I understood them not rushing in to save me, but no one here had even mentioned them. If my family were here, people would notice.

  I sat up, sliding my legs over the forge, and walking toward the water. Slipping into the bath, I watched the water bubble as steam hissed loudly. I turned, smiling coldly at Rhys, who watched me with a dark look in his eyes. Yes, asshole. I wasn’t just a Silversmith. Whoever my mother had chosen to sire me was also a part of who I was.

  She’d chosen each father for her children based on what they were. That much I knew. Each of us had a unique skill set, but I burned things to the ground where others created beautiful works of art. Where my siblings were driven by the need to reach for things they desired, I never reached for or expected anything. I accepted that I was different and that even my mother feared me. Alpha? No. I wasn’t created to be the alpha to the House of Silversmith. I was crafted as a weapon to hold the house up, once erected.

  I slipped from the water, noticing that Nyx held up a robe outside the door. I shook my head, turning the heat to freezing, and waited for it to cool down enough that it wouldn’t harm those outside the glass room. Ice settled on my flesh, and I ignored the ache that filled my bones. Frost dusted my lashes, but I didn’t blink to dispel it from forming around my eyes or covering my body in an icy layer from my sweat. When the timer on the thermostat dinged, I opened the door and stepped out, forcing the ice to crack with my movements.

  “That was stupid,” Nyx whispered as if the entire room of immortals wouldn’t hear her.

  “I needed to feel the flames before I ended up doing something stupid. I have clarity now,” I admitted, tying the strap of the robe around my waist. Nyx stepped back, and everyone continued staring at me with worry in their eyes.

  “Phoenix?” Cole asked, and my eyes moved to his.

  “Do I look like I have fucking feathers?” I countered, pulling my hair out of the robe.

  Dismissing them, I moved toward the long hallway that led back up to the main floor entry. I didn’t stop, even though all the immortals followed us. Once I reached my room, Nyx slipped inside, and I closed the door as Rhys held my cold, dead glare.

  They could guess what I was, since I didn’t even know for certain. I was the only child my mother hadn’t planned, as my father had chosen her. A love affair that had ended when he’d caught her cutting the head off a chick in the woods. That was her explanation for his departure from our lives. I didn’t buy it, not for a moment.

  I’d always known my father had found her, intending to breed, but the why of it escaped me. Not that it mattered. No one cared what I was beyond a Silversmith witch with the ability to create weapons that could kill immortals, sending them to their long overdue graves.

  “What do we do now?” Nyx asked, chewing her thumbnail nervously.

  “Now we rent a house and figure out how to live as mundane mortals. My savings account has a little over ten thousand in it, which should be enough to find somewhere to live, and tide us over until we can find jobs.”

  “I don’t think that our skillsets are in high demand. What are we supposed to put on our applications? Will hunt down the undead for you? Good with sharp objects and killing people you want to send to an earlier grave?”

  “I’m a gunsmith and you’re a nymph. We’ll be fine,” I stated, sitting on the bed, exhaling slowly.

  “What happened, Remington? You never lose your shit like this.”

  “He was amazing, Nyx. He cherished me and my body, seducing my mind and soul, and then I tried to leave the room before it got awkward. I said I’d had fun, but that I’d never had to deal with a morning after, and tried to go back to my room. So he took me to my room, where he told me I was less than nothing to him. I could have told him to leave or just gone to sleep. I wasn’t even upset about having to deal with his self-induced punishment. It was the coldness in the way he told me I was nothing to him. At breakfast, Cole started flirting, and I was rather blunt on where I stood with them. I went to bathe in hot water, since it helps me soothe my emotions. They all decided to crash my bath. My emotions started to unravel, and I panicked. I knew I could make it to the forge, so I did. I’m sorry that it scares you so much, but I told you that I am fireproof.”

  “Your silver fails you, though. What happens if one day you’re not fireproof? Being immortal doesn’t mean you’re invincible. You’re still mortal, for Aphrodite’s sake! I can’t lose you, Remi. You’re all I have.”

  “I love you too, even if you occasionally get so horny that you try to hump my leg.”

  “Dogs do it on occasion, and people never point it out to them,” she pouted.

  “Actually, they do. They just don’t bring it up often since the dog doesn’t understand them,” I explained, leaning my head against her shoulder as she hugged me. “Who did you end up with last night?”

  “Acyn,” she smirked. “I think he likes me or my vagina. It’s either one or the other. He covers my mouth a lot when we’re going to pound town, so I’m leaning toward my vagina.”

  “Nobody calls sex pound town, Nyx.”

  She snorted, patting my head. “I just did.”

  “Yeah, but you also call your vagina a man-eater or cake.”

  “People call it cake all the time. There are literally music lyrics that call lady bits, cake. I think it’s because they eat it.”

  “Is that why?” I laughed, smiling. I stared at our reflection in the mirror. “We’re going to be okay. We have to be. We’re together, and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.”

  “Except we’re both prisoners in the hands of your family’s mortal enemies,” she pointed out, smiling at me in the mirror. “Your mother is still missing, and you’re falling for your enemy.”

  “I’m not falling for Rhys.”

  “Honey, I’m your person. I am the one person who knows you and doesn’t judge, no matter what you do. I know your faults and your strength, and I know when you fall hard for someone. I know the look that fills your eyes when you’re in pain, and right now, you’re in pain. I hate him for it. I hate that I cheered you on and that he made you feel like less than nothing.”

  “More fool am I because I knew what would happen. I still agreed to be his. The saddest part is, I wouldn’t change who I chose last night. I’m glad I allowed it for one night, but I won’t be his punching bag. I won’t fall into Cole’s arms and then have him hand me off to Illeron. I won’t be their toy or play their game. I’m Remington Silversmith, and while I may be naïve and young, I’m not weak.”

  “That is why we’re friends. You fall, but you never stay down for long. I’ll see about finding us a house to rent, or one to buy. I do have money, you know.”

  “Do not buy a house here. We won’t be staying long enough for that. Just long enough to find my family and then move somewhere far away, where men like Rhys aren’t hovering, and we’re not at the bottom of the food chain.”

  “I am not moving to Antarctica. I’d starve to death!” Nyx blurted, and the door that connected the rooms opened.

  “Get out, Nyx,” Rhys growled, crossing his arms, glaring at me over the bed. “You and I need to talk, Remington.”

  “I have nothing to say to you, Van Helsing.”

  “Now it’s Van Helsing? Pretty sure last nigh
t, my name was your fucking savior as you came for me.”

  “That was last night. A lot changed between then and now, and I still have nothing to say to you.”

  “I’m going to go,” Nyx said, leaning over to kiss my cheek. “Not because he said to, but because I’m having hormone issues with the full moon, and I don’t want to hump your leg like last time.”

  “It’s okay. I’ll be fine,” I whispered, watching her exit the bedroom. “You have five minutes before I pass out.”

  “You don’t get to decide how long I have to speak to you.”

  “No, I’m sure I don’t. The thing is, once the fire is gone, my body needs rest. You have four minutes now before slumber claims me, and I am helpless to stay awake.”

  His eyes searched my face. My eyes grew heavy with the need to succumb to the siren’s call of sleep. I swayed on the bed, watching as he rounded it to stand in front of me, cupping my cheek before my body jerked, and my eyes closed. He pushed me back, and I hissed.

  “Stop the shit, Remi. I’m helping you to bed before you end up hurt,” he growled, righting my body before adjusting the sheets. Shedding his shirt, he climbed in beside me.

  “What are you doing?” I demanded.

  “Just because you’re asleep doesn’t mean you get to escape me. I’m a male incubus demon. Once you enter sleep, you’re in my world, little girl.”

  27

  I stared at the side of the hill, watching for the car to roll over it in a spinout. One, two, three, four, five… My black Chevy Camaro rolled down the steep incline on cue. It never changed; the dream of when I learned I was something more, something else.

  Rhys stood silently beside me, watching the car flip repeatedly until it came to a stop, and my cries for help went unanswered. One, two, three… It burst into flames. A spark hit the gas leaking from the twisted frame, and it erupted into an inferno. The screams stopped and became groans and whimpers of fear. I turned my eyes to the dark shadow standing on the cliff; her face hidden within the shadows of the bright sun shining behind her.