Becoming his Monster (Playing with Monsters Book 3)

by Amelia Hutchins

  “To the death,” Lucian answered, but something in his tone had caught and hesitated.

  “So be it then,” I smirked.

  All hell broke loose.

  Chapter 5

  I paced the dome, watching the men as they mirrored my movements. I sensed them before they lunged, moving together as one powerful assault team. As if they’d done it a few times recently, which they probably had. I materialized on the other side, away from them and watched as they stopped, sensing my new location.

  The moment power filled the small room; I disappeared as it groaned from the immense magic filling it. The room erupted into utter chaos as everyone moved at inhuman speeds, sifting and materializing as body collided with body. Growls and groans exploded, filling the place as they struggled to decipher who was who, and where I’d gone. The moment we all became corporeal again, I tensed. I took in the bloodied bodies and shirtless chests that were now covered in a fine sheen of sweat. I, of course, was dripping blood from where they’d caught me but hadn’t been able to maintain it as I’d used my power to dissolve into mist. It wouldn’t be that fucking easy for them to catch me, not anymore.

  “She’s not fucking normal,” Zahruk shouted, his nose dripping blood from where I’d connected with it.

  “No shit, Sherlock,” he snapped. “She isn’t even a she,” Lucian grunted as he swiped blood from his lip with his thumb.

  “Ouch, that hurts. You’ve been in it; shouldn’t you out of everyone here know that I am female?” I laughed as he glared. The sound was as cold and empty as the space where my heart had once beat for him.

  “You going to actually fucking hurt her or just keep letting her go?” Ryder seethed as the question uncurled from his tongue. Golden eyes locked with mine and I winked at him, fully aware he wasn’t fucking around.

  “If it was Syn?” Spyder injected. “Could you fucking kill it so easily then, fucker?”

  “You’re the assholes saying it isn’t her, so what’s the fucking issue?”

  “It’s wearing her face and her bloody, sexy scent,” Spyder snapped back, pushing the hair away from his bloodied face.

  “Let’s finish this shit,” Lucian snarled, moving faster than I could follow. I didn’t see him until I slammed into motion, only to be knocked back as I collided with his massive chest. His body slammed against mine, knocking me to the ground. I kicked up, landing on my feet before I lifted a leg and kicked him directly in his chest, sending him sailing across the floor. He slammed against Spyder and snarled his irritation as he turned to look at where I’d stood, but I was already in motion again.

  Another body slammed against mine, and I bounced off the glass that kept me in. My face bounced, and I cried out, kicking back into the endless speed that sent us all moving around the dome’s small interior.

  Someone grabbed me, and I turned, finding Spyder’s icy blue gaze locked with mine. Lucian closed in behind him, and I stood on my tiptoes, nipping Spyder’s plump bottom lip before I vanished once more. Bodies collided with bodies, but at the speed we were moving at, you couldn’t tell who was hitting who, or if they were friend or foe, except me.

  Everyone was against me.

  I guess it was what I got for saving the world. No good deed goes unpunished. The moon climbed higher, inching towards the center of the dome’s glass ceiling, which meant this little workout was about to be cut short. I was running at a speed faster than they could match until something plucked me from midair, right out of motion and slammed me against the dome’s unforgiving wall.

  I stared up into midnight eyes as he slammed me back against the glass repeatedly. I shot forward, slamming against him as I moved us away from it, forcing us to the middle of the room, He grabbed my arms, slamming us against the ground as I wrapped my legs around him, intending to roll us until I was sitting in his lap, but others landed around us. My arms were yanked above my head, Ryder’s liquid amber gaze locked with mine as he secured them. Zahruk and Spyder secured my legs as Lucian lifted, peering down at me. I remained in place, wondering what they thought they could do to me. Once they’d secured my legs, Spyder moved, grasping his hands around my throat as I moaned, catching him off guard with it. Laughter bubbled deep from within and his eyes heated to liquid pools of desire.

  “Kinky, gentlemen, but I already played this game too. Turns out, it’s just not my kind of thing after all. Sorry,” I purred thickly before I vanished from their hold.

  “How the fuck?” Zahruk demanded, his growl sending the hair on my nape up in awareness as the predator in him unleashed its claws. “How the fuck is she doing that? She isn’t Fae, and she sure as fuck isn’t anything I’ve smelled before. She smells like midnight, mixed with whiskey and magic and something darker, sweeter.”

  A dagger sailed in my direction, and I vanished, appearing next to where I had stood as I plucked the weapon from midair. The metal singed my flesh, and my power erupted, leaving nothing more than a melted piece of steel in my hand. I dropped it to the floor and smirked at the handsome male who watched me with a heated gaze, as if he wasn’t sure if he wanted to fight or fuck me, or maybe he’d prefer we did both at the same time? Men.

  I licked my lips, staring him down as the others panted as they caught their breath, controlling their breathing in the respite before we started up again. I was toying with them, playing with them. I hadn’t even started yet.

  “You’re yummy, and apparently rather good with a blade. Tell me, creature, can you pierce flesh as well with your other blade?” My heated stare dropped to the one I questioned, leaving no room for error in my meaning. Once more I lifted them to hold his dark, sapphire stare. “Can you wield it as well as you do your toys?” I chuckled as his eyes widened at my brazen question. His brands started slithering, pulsing as a sexy smirk flirted on his lips. I felt it, the death-by-sex vibes he was aiming directly at me. I frowned, bringing my hand up to cover a yawn as he continued pushing power into his magic. “I have no soul. You cannot feed from me, which means your power has no pull against my mind. Not that you’d need it,” I smirked with a mixture of heat and lust filling my gaze. “I bet you’re a wild fucking ride, aren’t you? I bet you crook your finger and the panties just melt off in their need to let you play. Tell me, Zahruk, do you want to play with me?” I chuckled and vanished as the others collided where I’d stood. I exhaled at the heap of male limbs and naked torsos that untangled. “I’m not going to be that easy to kill, gentlemen.”

  “This isn’t working.” Ryder’s growl pulled my eyes to where he stood, glaring at me.

  “You thinking lethal?” Zahruk asked, and Lucian nodded.

  I watched Zahruk as he pulled out a wicked-looking blade. My gaze zeroed in on it, narrowing as I took in the craftsmanship of it. The blade buzzed with power, and when he threw it tip over end, sailing through the air directly at me, I smirked. I let it sink into my chest before I pulled it out, gazing down at the exquisite blade. Power exploded in the dome, and I peered up, staring at Ryder as his form exploded and his beast stood before me. I vanished, popping up behind them as they paused, turning slowly in my direction with their lethal stares trained onto the blade.

  It was something strong. Something they feared.

  Ryder’s eyes shifted from gold to black, and his wings expanded. I tossed the dagger onto the ground at his feet, sensing it was what had forced the beast to join the fray. I moved again, but this time Lucian’s fist collided with my face and sent me flying backwards. I bounced off the wall, crashing against something solid, something hard. Fire burned in my chest as I gasped, expelling air from my lungs as I peered down at the blade, which had pierced my chest. I slowly lifted my vision as it swam to the sapphire eyes that smoldered as he watched me react to the damage he’d just managed to do.

  I blinked past the fire in my chest and smiled as blood dripped from my lips. I pushed my body further ont
o the blade as I touched his lips with mine. “Come on, baby, I want more. Give it to me, all of it. This bitch is starving, so feed me more of those long, sexy inches,” I purred thickly as blood splattered his face as air bubbles exploded from my damaged lungs. My foot lifted, sending him and his blade sailing across the floor to land at Ryder’s feet.

  I ejected forward as my claws extended but stopped, mid-lunge as the moon bathed me in its eerie light. I stared up into the light and groaned.

  Shit.

  Fuck.

  Not now.

  I was winning…

  My eyes glazed over and I watched the men slowly approach, surrounding me,

  “The fuck is she doing?” Spyder asked.

  “Take her head!” Ryder snapped, but it was too late.

  My body slammed to the floor and flipped. I stared sightlessly at the moon as my head lifted, only to slam back against the floor. Thunder erupted in my ears, covering their noises, their voices.

  Dying.

  I was fucking dying in the middle of the best workout I’d had in a very long time.

  One…Pain erupted. It exploded as it ripped through me as blood shot from my lips, covering my mouth.

  Two… Pain met and warred with confusion. My ears rang with it, drowning out the screams and gasps from those around me who watched it unfold, silencing them.

  Three…Pop!

  Brain and spinal fluid leaked, spilling onto the floor from the crushed skull. I’d fought, I’d fought him, my hands grasped, never touching him. I screamed, everything hazy as I struggled to live, to continue breathing long enough to finish my task. I fought to live, almost able to hear their screams again, but not quite louder than a whispered breath in my ears. I rolled to my side and then she was there, and my body jerked as pain erupted. Horrifying pain burned through me as I shielded my head from the force of her anger. My midsection became her target, and I gave up guarding my damaged head to protect my child. My innocent unborn child. Another kick forced me to move, to turn my back on her assault as blood pooled from my face and head. It was everywhere, leaking from my nose, my mouth, ears, and the pressure became unbearable as I forced myself to rise, to get up and finish what I’d gone there to do. To save them.

  My eyes locked with Lucian’s, and I saw his panic, the knowledge of what was unfolding before his panic-stricken gaze. I swayed on my feet, unable to catch myself as I fell down, only to get back up, slowly as I stood before him, locking my eyes to his and the pain that continued to slice and tear me apart.

  Screaming erupted from outside the dome, but I couldn’t look away from him. I tried but failed. I could only wait for what had yet to come. The worst part still had to play out before life returned to ebbing and flowing, returning my body to what it had become.

  White-hot pain ripped me apart, severing tissue and tendons against the flesh of my throat. It was bone-deep and visceral pain. I screamed, but no noise escaped the damage done to my throat. I dropped to the floor, hard, landing on my knees so hard that the bones snapped, shattering. My hands lifted to my throat as they had that day, trying to stop the blood that flowed from me, leaking into the ground. My body tumbled to the floor even though I still continued to tell him what I needed to.

  Death was the price we paid for our sacrifice.

  No good deed goes unpunished, ever…

  I watched lifelessly as Lucian’s feet, along with the others’, left the room. They were at a loss for what had happened, or why he’d been forced to watch it happen again. After some time passed, someone else entered, and the wheels of a bed were moved past me, through my blood that was thickening in the pool around my head, my body. I’m picked up; the lifeless corpse I left behind is moved, gently placed onto the bed they’d wheeled in.

  I screamed, but they don’t hear me. They never did as I remained stuck in the vessel that death claimed. It’s a silent echo, a scream that never escaped past my lips as Lucian waited for any sign that I’d come back to him. I’d been there, aware, and yet unable to make him see I was alive.

  My arms are strapped into restraints, and I want to laugh at the uselessness of it. They exited the room, and I waited, I waited for them to come. The ones who always returned when the moon reached its zenith, full and reoccurring. The souls of the damned and lost who come to take mine from me. To take my world away from me, one I didn’t know I could want as much as I did.

  The dome was closed, sealed, and yet I could still feel his presence close to me, as I had when he’d remained beside my rotting corpse. We’d played out this scene before, him sitting beside it unable to know the horrors that played out beside him, inside my head. The runes ignited, locking us inside the dome.

  They’re coming.

  I’m coming back.

  Flames licked the glass, eating through the wards as if they’re nothing more than a nuisance. They vanished as if they’d been placed by a child instead of a talented druid. Music exploded into the room, and I listened as Lucian growled, searching for the source. Breaking Benjamin’s The Dark of You filled the room, and I wanted to laugh and tell him I am the source of that song; my heart played it over and over until it had become a piece of me.

  “What the bloody fuck is happening?” Ryder’s tone was sharp, worried. “What is she doing now?”

  “Gods,” Lucian gasped, the sound raw and haunted as if he had plucked it from the haunting melody that filled me where my soul should be. It would have hurt my heart if I’d had one still.

  The leather restraints were undone, slowly releasing my wrist. My body floated from the bed, levitating in the air, and they appeared. My hair hung limp, floating below me as the grisly damage was exposed. Ghostly images of female perfection mixed with their grey images, their white, crisp gowns so contrasting different from my blood-soaked one. They moved me away from the bed, away from him. Caught in the powerful web of their unimaginable power, I floated weightlessly as they controlled me. Power rushed over my flesh, and I continually floated until I was between them, marched to a spot where they have enough room to take the world from me.

  Once there, I’m stood upright, rooted in place, continually ensnared in their magical hold. My arms lifted, my fingers posed as if I was the world’s most graceful dancer. They spun me around, slowly assessing the damage I’d done to save them, to save him from what they’d planned to force him to become. The music grew louder; matching the turmoil that plagued my mind at what was unfolding around me. At what they were about to take from me.

  And then they began, undoing the damage to my body with their powerful magic. The pain eased, becoming comfortably numb as they continue to fix the wounds I’d endured.

  My eyes were sightless up until they were healed, the subtle sheen of white removed and the film that covered them in death healed. Everything went dark, and I waited, I waited for them to do as they always did. I knew it was coming, it always occurred after the damage was healed, and my mind could focus on what they stole from me. My body floated to my knees, landing gently against the cold marble floor. They gathered around me, pushing me down until I’m flush against the strongest of them, her hands stroking my hair in a motion meant to comfort me. She touched me as if I am a promised gift, the world’s most valued treasure.

  The music thundered around us, growing ever louder to mirror my emotions. I looked around, taking in their ghastly images, their rune-covered arms and pristine dresses of purity. Everything I no longer held or would ever be again. They began securing me, holding my arms and legs down as one settled between my thighs. Gentle green eyes watched me knowingly. I started to fight, to struggle against what I knew they planned to do. My screams were silent but filled with enough pain that they knew I was in it, they knew the pain my silent horror held. I didn’t stop screaming, I never did. I bucked against their hold, fighting to keep what they intended to steal.

  H
er hand touched my flat belly, and my fight intensified, the struggles became a fight to the death against them. My voice exploded, filling the dome as her hand pushed through my stomach, digging into my womb. It was anguish mixed with the throes of pain and loss. The sound was deafening to my own ears, the loss so searing that if I’d had a soul, they’d have shattered it.

  “No!” It ripped from my lungs, exploding into the room as it bounced off the walls around us, echoing through my ears. “No, he’s mine! Don’t do this!” Tears streamed down my face, hot and wet against the cold flesh I lived inside. My black tears fell, as black as the empty void of my soulless corpse. Devoid of life, filled with darkness and as my sightless eyes formed, becoming endless voids, they hissed. I screamed at them with sunken-in pits that had once held eyes that viewed the world differently. Now, now I had become a monster who wanted to destroy it.

  Her hand pushed into my womb, and my spine arched, hating the searing red-hot pain that enveloped my mind. Pain exploded, enveloping everything as she dug around in my womb. A sob exploded from my lips as blood splattered against her ghostly flesh. Just as fast as it started, it ended. I struggled against the hold they had on me, on my corpse. I needed him. I screamed, allowing all the anguish and pain to bubble from my lungs and explode into the dome. It was pure anguish, mixed and filled with pain so raw and deep that even those who stood outside the dome cried with me.

  Then they vanished, only to reappear in front of the one who now held my son. I pushed up from the floor, able- and full-bodied but empty. As cold as death itself. I rushed towards them, only for them to lift their hands and send me back, sailing against the dome’s wall. Bones shattered only to re-fuse, stronger than before.

  “No! Don’t take him from me, he’s mine! I love him. I can’t do this, give him back, please!” My voice cracked and broke apart, echoing through the room. I moved forward, igniting my magic and everything I held inside of me as I prepared to fight them. The entire dome rattled with the intensity of the magic I wielded. “Let me see him, now!” I demanded. My screams turned into pain; they echoed through me. I rushed at them, and fire burned my flesh to the bone. The barrier they’d placed preventing me from reaching my son. They kept me from my world.