by C. M. Owens
Another yelp sounds from me when I crash through a streak of Roslyn’s power, and I land on my feet, crouching low as I think of a better point of attack. Roslyn drops to her knees as several more of the night stalkers drop.
She’s risking death to take them out, and Slade is capitalizing on her distraction. I charge as orbs fill his hands, but I’m too far away. They release, sailing toward her, and I dive, hoping I’ll somehow manage to end up between them and her.
I end up crashing into Roslyn just as a set of crazy orangey red energy streaks crash into the blue orbs, exploding in unison hard enough to make my ears ring and my skull vibrate.
My body shifts from fur to flesh, and I stretch out over Roslyn to keep her covered as the energy stops flowing from her body.
“Thad.” My name is a whispered gasp of disbelief, and I look over as Zee and Slade go head to head, exchanging blows of harsh magic.
Fucking shit. Zee has his power completely under control, and Slade actually has blood on his mouth.
“Get her out of here,” Zee growls, straining to stay in step with Slade.
“Really don’t want to kill you fuckers over her,” Slade confesses.
Roslyn sucks in a sharp breath, and suddenly I feel my body dematerializing as she drags me away. The weightlessness slaps me, but it’s a smooth transition, unlike Zee’s attempts.
We’re suddenly appearing much too far away for a plane travel. Fuck, we’re almost back at the house.
“I’ll go get him,” she tells me, turning away.
The fuck she will.
I grab her wrist, jerking her to me, and my eyes fall on all the damage.
Her mouth is swollen, her lip is bleeding, and there’s a harsh bruise on her cheek. Her side is dripping blood from the hit she took from him, but she doesn’t seem fazed by it.
“You can’t go back. He’s going to fucking kill you.”
Her eyes soften, but before she can speak, Zee is suddenly appearing next to us, jogging to a halt at our side.
“Dude is seriously psycho,” he says, wiping blood from his mouth.
“I have to go back,” Roslyn says again, trying to wriggle free from my grip. “He’ll kill you if I don’t. He’ll kill you just to be able to kill me!”
The panic in her tone snaps my mind into action, and I finally take in the reality in front of me. She’s not an incoherent mess. She knows who I am; she’s alert and completely lucid; and she cares.
My eyes dart down to the wrist I’m holding, and my gaze slides up the tattoos that spiral around her arms, ending at her elbows.
“She’s turned,” Zee whispers, apparently noticing the same thing I am.
Roslyn’s eyes meet mine, and I take in her unshed tears. Pain. There’s so much pain in those soft, violet eyes right now.
It makes me want to tear them all apart for what they did to her.
I pull her to me, brushing my thumb over her bottom lip, and watch as the first tear rolls down her cheek.
“Believe it or not, we can handle him if he comes, Ros.”
My breaths grow shaky as Reese’s warning comes back to me. He said all the memories that drove her crazy would come back when she turned immortal, and she’s clearly immortal.
Her dark hair stops just below her bra strap on her back, and it tickles against my hand as I wrap my arms around her, ducking my head to just barely touch my lips to hers.
Light giggling nearby has Zee groaning, but Roslyn shakes in my arms as though she’s sobbing silently. Fuck. I hope she’s not going to lose it again. I don’t want to see her in that sort of pain.
“Dude, you need clothes. We should get inside.”
Roslyn’s head snaps up, and she shifts her body to be in front of mine when we see several girls near the edge of the lake getting a good look at my naked attributes.
They all turn around at once, gasping as though they’re surprised, and suddenly clothes appear on my damn body from nowhere. It takes a second to figure out what she just did.
“You’re not supposed to use magic on humans unless you’re dusting their memories,” Zee says with an amused grin as the girls find themselves unable to turn back around.
“So tell on me,” Roslyn mumbles.
I can hear the panic in their voices, but Roslyn just walks away as though nothing is going on. My girl’s not so sweet after all. Fuck yes.
Zee fights a grin, clearing his throat as we walk toward the cabin. I turn around in time to see the girls have been released from Roslyn’s hold, but now they’re freaking out a little.
“Looks like she’s more your type than I ever thought possible,” Zee says under his breath, keeping it so low that I barely hear it.
She put me in jeans and a hoodie, covering every inch of skin she could get away with. I’m surprised I don’t have on gloves.
“Damn, not even Gage is good enough to use magic on me that well,” I say under my breath, feeling so damn turned on. Power is hot.
Smirking like the cheeky ass I am, I jog up behind her, putting my arms around her waist and tugging her to me. She tenses in my arms, and I immediately get worried. She normally melts against me.
“He won’t kill me, Roslyn. He won’t kill you either. We’re stronger together—all of us.”
She mutters something to herself before turning in my arms and looking up at me with those watery eyes.
“Don’t fall apart on me, sweet girl. Let me hold you together and make you forget the things you don’t want to remember.”
A few tears fall this time, and she sucks in a shallow, shaky breath.
“I’m really not sweet,” she says sadly, and I fight really damn hard not to smile, because she’s very serious.
“You are, love. Much sweeter now, because I love this new style.”
A small, but encouraging laugh escapes her lips, and she pulls me tighter to her. A little too tight. Holy shitballs, she’s strong.
Kissing the top of her head, I hold her to me as Zee goes inside.
“We should get in. Slade can’t crash through Gage’s protection spell.”
“He won’t come for me here,” she says on a sigh. “He’s too smart for that.”
“You know him?”
She looks up, and purses her lips before giving me one, tight nod. “Sort of. I know of him. When you spend so long in solitude, you drink in every sound that isn’t inside your own head whenever you… get out for a bit. So to speak. There’s more you need to know. A lot more. Things they couldn’t pry from my mind when they looked into my head.”
“You mean your dad and the witch?”
“Dad’s here? With you?”
“He’s somewhere. We all sort of went looking for you. I thought… we thought you might have gotten pissed because… Well, I shouldn’t have left you alone.”
Her lips twitch, but she slowly shakes her head. “I wasn’t pissed.”
My hands slide up her arms, tracing over the proof she was stuck in the slave rings for so long. Kimber’s marks didn’t show up until after she was immortal. Apparently it worked the same on Roslyn.
“You’re mine to keep,” I remind her, watching as she lets another tear fall.
“You tried changing me,” she says softly.
Ah hell. She’s remembering everything, apparently.
Blowing out a breath, I rub the back of my neck, looking down instead of into her eyes. I really don’t want to fight or lie, but I don’t know away around one without doing the other.
“Fuck,” I mumble, feeling trapped. “Look, Roslyn, I’m sorry, but I wanted to—”
A hand around the back of my neck pulls me down hard, and she breaks my words off when her lips find mine. It only takes me a second to catch on to what’s going on. Forgetting about all the crazy shit going on around us, I pull her flush against me, kissing her back as her devilish little tongue darts out to meet mine.
A growl rumbles in my throat, and I feel her smiling against my lips.
“All those sounds ma
ke a lot more sense now,” she murmurs as her lips just barely part from mine.
Smirking, I wink at her, but we’re interrupted by the annoying fucking incubus who loves grating my nerves.
“Wolf girl crazy or not? Zee wouldn’t say anything other than she was immortal and that he was calling Reese.”
Roslyn tenses, but I slide my hand down her back as I glare over her head at Dice.
“What?” he asks, shrugging. “Oh, and Zee looks like he took a beating. Did she do it? I’d have loved to have seen that—”
“It was Slade,” I interrupt.
Dice’s eyes widen. “He went against a creature god and lived to tell the tale? Maybe his freak burst is stronger than we thought.”
“He’s not just a creature god,” Roslyn says on a deep sigh. “Let’s get in. I don’t like talking about this out here. And I’m fairly sure that house is soundproof,” she says, motioning toward Gage’s home.
My arm drapes around her shoulders, and I look over at Dice. “Call the guys. Leave the girls and Kane with Alyssa.”
“Sure. As long as you tell me something.”
I lift an eyebrow at him just as we reach the inside of the house.
“What?”
He eyes me, seeming confused. “It’s hot as hell, and our temperatures already run a lot hotter than a mortal’s. Why the fuck are you dressed like an Eskimo?”
Roslyn’s cheeks light up with a soft blush, and I realize she still is a little sweet—a perfect blend of bad and sweet. Maybe I am in love.
***
THAD
Chaz walks in, and I stand to meet him in the center of the room as Roslyn lingers upstairs.
“So your girl has her mojo in full effect now. How’s the memories treating her?”
I glance toward the stairs before facing him again. “Not sure yet. She hasn’t spoken much since we got back. She said she needed a shower. Reese is on his way, but he got held up with pack business or something. How’s Alyssa.”
“Fine for now. I don’t like leaving her, but the house they’re in couldn’t be broken into by anyone at this point. There are numerous protection spells on it. I want to focus on helping track down the big bad, and if your girl can remember something that can help us, then this is where I want to be. Besides, she has Sierra, Deke, Amy, and Amy’s night stalker who are on guard full time until further notice.”
As if she knew we were talking about her, Roslyn appears at my side, and Chaz eyes her pink shirt that says something about loving kittens and white jeans. She doesn’t look so threatening dressed like that. I prefer the hellcat outfit she was wearing when I got her back.
My brow lifts, as if to say the words aloud, and she rolls her eyes. “Trying not to be intimidating right now,” she mumbles.
Chaz laughs lightly while going to sit down beside Ella, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. Whoa, what? When the hell did Ella get here?
“You’re supposed to be with Alyssa,” I tell her, pulling Roslyn with me when I sit down on a chair.
My girl gets settled on my lap, and for the first time, she seems comfortable in her own skin.
“Chaz said it had something to do with Slade. I want in on this conversation. I’m the best chance of survival if he comes.”
She squirms in her seat, never once meeting my eyes. She has a soft spot for the bastard who wants my girl dead, but she’s not voicing it right now.
“He saves you,” Chaz points out, “but he wants Roslyn dead. Why?”
Roslyn tenses against me, and I wrap my arm around her waist, tugging her closer. She doesn’t have to be afraid in here. There’s an arsenal of people here who can protect her.
“Because she’s a predator,” Dice chimes in. “She feasts on our blood instead of humans.”
A small smile tugs at my lips, and my hand wraps around her hip, clamping down a little harder than I would if she was still mortal. When she shivers against me, I can tell she knows what’s on my mind.
“Speaking of which,” I whisper, loving how her skin pebbles with Goosebumps, “still not into blood play?”
She turns to face me, and her eyes spark to life with autumn and fire, making my cock hard in my very tight pants.
“You two going to fuck or talk? ‘Cause I thought this was a meeting,” Chaz says, reminding me we’re not alone, just as Gage appears, leaning against the wall as he silently takes in the conversation.
Roslyn clears her throat before her eyes die back down to the violet color, and that pretty shade of blush finds her cheeks again. Hard to believe she’s really immortal with the ability to get embarrassed over something so simple.
“We’ll fuck after we talk,” I announce, laughing when Roslyn’s eyes screw shut and she buries her face in her hands.
“So what can you tell us about Slade?” Ella asks, getting back on point without subtlety. “Is he one of the twins we heard about? One of the ones with the hexer’s curse that makes them feel what the other feels?”
“You know, that could be a little awkward,” Dice interjects. “I mean, if one jacks off the other feels it too. So would it be like getting a hand job from your brother?”
I fucking hate the way his sick mind works. Several groans ring out, and Zee slaps Dice on the back of the head.
“Ouch, you dick! It’s a perfectly reasonable question.”
“No,” Roslyn says, not seeming even a little amused. “They only feel each other’s pain—physical pain. Or they did, until Alton managed to somehow the link and made Slade feel double the pain while his pain ceased to exist.”
Roslyn blows out a breath while leaning back against me, and I kiss her shoulder while she talks.
“Slade isn’t just a creature god,” she says, looking around the room at all the expectant faces. “He’s half of the Gemini.”
That raises a few question marks in the air.
“You mean as in the Gemini twins?” Chaz asks, recognition sparking in his eyes.
The dots connect, and I almost slap myself for not thinking of it sooner.
“It’s not a hexer’s curse. It’s the curse of the Gemini. Fuck.”
This is a lot worse than I thought.
“Question,” Dice inserts. “Why do most of you look a little freaked out?”
Gage curses while pushing off from the wall and going to sit down on the other side of Ella.
“I’ve spent centuries thinking the Gemini were nothing more than a myth. The Gemini were never supposed to be separated. Their link was supposed to make them powerful. A force that could be called upon in dark times. By dark times, I’m talking apocalyptic. No one even knew they were stuck in the rings.”
“So I guess we should hope there’s not going to be an apocalypse,” Dice says, still not understanding the gravity of the situation.
“The link isn’t completely severed, but they’re no longer tied together to be as powerful as they could have been,” Roslyn goes on. “Slade would have already killed Alton if he could. But if Alton dies, Slade dies too. So unless he’s feeling suicidal, he’s not killing him. He will, however, lock him in his own version of hell if he ever gets ahold of him. Physical pain is pointless, since Alton is unable to feel anything now. Some say Slade created a plane just to torture his brother. He’ll destroy his mind since he can’t destroy his body.”
Ella’s eyes widen, and she looks over at me. She’s been to his plane, and she didn’t make it sound too pleasant.
“I can see how someone could go crazy in there,” she says under her breath.
“Alton ran the second the rings broke up. No one knows where he is right now. Except for me. If Slade finds out I can track him, he’ll decide he doesn’t want me dead so bad. He’ll want me to track his brother down so he can get his revenge.”
Ella leans back against Chaz, her eyes proving she feels sympathy for someone. I have a feeling it’s Slade. She’s fucking crazy.
“So you’ve had his blood?” I ask her, confused. “When?”
I
thought they blood starved her.
She turns and looks at me, guilt etched in her eyes for some reason. “Yes. I’ve had a taste of almost everyone’s blood. Including Karma’s, even though I’ve never met her before. They wanted me to be their search dog. If someone escaped, I was supposed to go collect them. At least that was their plans for me. All I need is a taste, and I can track them for years.”
“Thank God you never did that,” Dice says, his eyes narrowing. “Karma barely escaped with her life.”
Roslyn nods, not looking up.
“So are we killing Slade or not?” Dice asks flippantly, shifting the subject.
“Not,” Ella says emphatically, shaking her head. “We might need him if this big bad is really big and bad. Think about it; he or she were able to catch the Gemini twins before the link was severed and keep them for centuries. Obviously they’re powerful, and even if Slade hates us, he’ll still want revenge on whoever it is that hurt him.”
“He also wants my girl dead,” I remind her. “If it’s him or her, he’s got to die, Ell. That’s just how it is.”
“I agree with that,” Zee chimes in. “And we also need to know who we’re dealing with. Anything you can give us?”
He stares expectantly at Roslyn.
“I don’t know who’s running the show. There was a guy everyone always assumed was in charge. His name was Gavin, but he was just a puppet. They gave me his blood, too, which means he wasn’t there of his own free will.”
Everyone looks to Gage, who groans and drops his head back while putting his arm over his eyes.
“What?” Roslyn asks innocently.
“What else can you give us?” Chaz asks her, ignoring her question for the sake of Gage’s sanity.
“The blood-starved night stalkers have to be put down. They’re like a disease that festers and builds. They’ll wipe out the population in no time. Every person they change turns into the same monster they are.”
“Motherfucker,” Chaz says, getting up from his seat and pulling his phone out of his pocket. “I’m calling Drackus on this one. We’ll need his help and Dray’s too. They can hunt for them while we hunt for this… other person.”