Eve's Spawn

by Tuesday Morrigan

  “I don’t think she’s ready for that, Kiros,” Nikos said, smoothly, dissipating some of the sizzling tension that flowed through the room.

  “I don’t care. She will tell us what she knows.”

  Gabrielle glanced at Kiros before clearing her parched throat. It took her two attempts, but the words finally came out. “Yes. Yes, I will. I will tell you all I know.”

  “Start from the beginning,” Nikos said, “Tell us who gave you your assignment.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  The Path to Redemption

  The aged coin danced along her fingers, moving from the thumb to the pinkie and back again.

  Two pairs of eyes watched its movements; one unseeing, the other missing nothing.

  With hooded eyes, Eve watched the Seer, waiting for the perfect moment to make her move. The moment the Seer’s cold grey eyes slipped closed, Eve took to her feet. Hours ago Rubio had removed the bindings around her arms and feet. Without the bindings Eve was quick enough to make her way across the dark room. The second her hands touched the cool metal doorknob, she felt a chill fall down her spine.

  “Nice try, love.” The cool, calm words slithered down her skin, chilling Eve to the bones. “You will receive the freedom you crave in nine months. As a matter of fact,” the Seer said, eyeing the young woman. “All I need is the body. The soul...”

  The Seer swiftly turned from Eve, lifted her hand and called for Rubio. Within moments Eve’s eyes become heavy with drowsiness. Rubio barely managed to catch her falling body.

  Rubio carefully placed Eve’s sleeping form on the long slab of stone the Seer pointed out. His movements were painstakingly slow.

  The Seer stood to his right, watching as he settled Eve’s limp body. She tapped her foot to a staccato rhythm against the earthen floor. She was restless. And nervous. She gave herself away when she pushed Rubio away from the grey stone table. “What the hell is taking you so long?” she bit off. “I may have waited centuries for this moment, but that doesn’t mean I want to wait another one hundred years to see it come to pass.”

  Rubio’s glower was just harsh enough to give the Seer pause. “What is wrong?” she asked curiously, seeking the source of his anger. She could feel it rolling off his body, coming in deep, sharp waves, but the reasoning, the source itself was unknown.

  “He’s waiting for me.”

  The Seer jumped at the menacing voice that seemed to echo through her hollow bones. Her eyes connected with Nikos’s menacing gaze for a second. The Seer stood frozen with fright for a moment before hastily throwing up a hand. Rubio’s body instantly flew across the room to land against the hard stone wall.

  “I should have seen that coming,” she muttered to herself before turning to Eve’s sleeping form.

  She had known she was taking a chance recruiting one of the werewolves to go after The Spawn. So she’d looked for one with little or no connection to the legendary Master of the Corridor. Rubio was supposed to hate The Corridor and all who associated with it, including The Master.

  She’d obviously been wrong. He was working for The Corridor the whole time.

  The realization slammed through her as she watched The Spawn, Nikos “Master of the Corridor, and Rubio make their way to her.

  She closed her eyes and focused. She could not afford any distractions. She needed to speak the ancient tongue to obtain the full power of the spell. She shut off all thoughts of the trio that ran across the long, empty room to reach her as she recited the words she had waited several lifetimes to say.

  She had betrayed the Guardians, used them and their positions to send assassins to capture The Spawn and the power that was his. When that didn’t work, she sent Controllers to cleanse the world of his abominable presence. Now that fate had given her a being that was going to be more powerful than The Spawn she had no intention of losing it.

  The Spawn’s child was going to be hers at all costs.

  “Son of a bitch,” Nikos growled, before shifting and leaping the last few yards to reach her. But the Seer knew even before he jumped, he would be too late.

  His large canine body slammed against the swirling vortex of ancient, deadly powers, dark powers. He could not penetrate the churning sphere. He was not strong enough.

  Kiros stared, horrified, as the large white wolf fell to the ground, yelping in pain. Anger and fear surged through his body as his brain processed the sight. Nikos was the oldest, most powerful were that lived and he hadn’t been able to get through the dark barrier.

  Kiros’s haunted gaze lingered over Eve’s limp, supine body with aching tenderness. He and his touch had brought her to this place and now he was unable to save her. He took one measured step toward her, then another before stopping short. He was just a stone’s throw away from Nikos’s wolf form.

  The aged wolf got back on his feet and turned his head to Kiros.

  “You must go to her. It is up to you now.”

  Kiros stared at the wolf in shock. From birth he had been able to read the minds of others, but he had never known of a were who could speak telepathically.

  He shook his head once before opening his mouth to speak. “If you can’t --”

  “You can. She is your destiny. Even now she is carrying your child.”

  His head snapped back with the force of his shock. He was a mixed breed. Like a mule, he wasn’t supposed to be able to impregnate anyone. He was infertile, at least that was what he had been led to believe. Hell, for almost four hundred years he had been infertile.

  “Remember the words I gave you centuries ago.”

  Kiros stared at the wolf for endless moments before thought registered. “Love, not lust, will always find a way,” he mumbled automatically.

  The words echoed through his mind as he passed the white wolf to stand before the spinning whirlpool of darkness.

  “Love, not lust, will always find a way,” Kiros murmured as he stepped through the swirling mass of dark, angry power. Kiros clenched his teeth as he felt the dark spirits that guarded the Seer attack his flesh. But he endured the pain, keeping his eyes on Eve’s levitating body. He could feel it in his soul: the Seer was close to accomplishing her goal; in a few more moments she would finish chanting her spell and Eve would be gone forever.

  Unless he stopped her.

  Kiros knew the moment the Seer felt his presence. She turned and stared at the white and grey wolves on the perimeter of the dark vortex before looking at him with wide, shocked grey eyes. She immediately doubled the speed of her speech. Building urgency rushed through Kiros’s veins. With a few more words the Seer would have finish the spell and there would be nothing he could do to save his mate.

  The moment he passed through the dark barrier he lunged at her. The Seer instinctively took a step back before throwing out one bony arm.

  Kiros stopped in his tracks a few feet from her, frozen to the ground.

  He gnashed his teeth as he strained against the hold. Kiros closed his eyes and concentrated, allowing the powers he had grown to hate surge through every one of his limbs. He tentatively took a step forward and felt her hold break. Within seconds he shifted form, bursting through the clothing he wore, a full grown snow white timber wolf.

  The Seer muttered an ancient curse before turning away from the laid out body to face the charging wolf.

  “You good for nothing worthless bastard. Why won’t you die?” she screamed. Her gnarled fingers clutched at the empty air, making a tight fist. Her grey watery eyes slanted to small, dull points of light as a cruel smile broke over her thin lips.

  Kiros barely managed to duck the fireball she threw at him as he charged her. She threw one after another, slowing him down, forcing him to anticipate her every move.

  “I sent the best of the Controllers after you,” she said as she threw a long bolt of lightning at him, “and still you live.”

  “I threw the best rogue were bounty hunters at you and still you live,” she said before lifting her hands and calling forth the po
wers of Mother Nature to rain down large, blinding blocks of hail. Kiros barely managed to keep his footing as he ran down the long path to the stone slab.

  “I had begun to despair, but then I received a vision. You see, you, Kiros, son of Tila, apparently weren’t meant to die. No, you were meant to live and breed with a human, of all beings, and produce the golden opportunity for me,” she screamed as she surrounded herself with a ring of fire. “And I will not be satisfied until I have that child.”

  Too bad, Kiros sent telepathically before he jumped over the scorching ring of fire to land before the Seer.

  Her shrill scream of frustration was piercing to his sensitive ears. She took a cautious step back before growling out the words, “I hate you. I’ve always hated you. You’re a beast, a pure beast, and yet the Goddesses gifted you with the greatest gifts known.”

  The white wolf took a menacing step forward before growling.

  “I wish I had killed you when I killed those bastard parents of yours, but I never once thought you’d actually survive.”

  The wolf gave a keen howl of denial. Kiros could not believe his ears. All these years he had thought that the Guardians and the leaders of The Corridor had sent assassins after his parents for disobeying their unwritten rule. After over three hundred years of searching for the culprit, he found out the truth.

  Full of anger and pain, Kiros lunged at the Seer, taking her to the cold stone floor with the force of his large frame. He clamped his jaws around the tender flesh of her neck and felt his canine teeth pierce her skin, sink into her jugular, and snap the fragile bones.

  Within seconds she was dead.

  The swirling vortex froze without her energies to keep it up. Nikos, Gabrielle, and Rubio stood at the mouth of the long length of corridor and watched as Kiros padded over to Eve.

  He was tired from his battle with the Seer.

  And he was unwilling to wake his mate and hear what she had to say about being mated to a man that was no man at all, but half were and half fey.

  The ultimate Other.

  Chapter Sixteen

  A Thwarted Exodus

  Nikos felt the tension in the room thicken.

  "I don't understand how it is that we are married?" Eve asked, confusion marking her face with fine lines of tension.

  “You two are not married, you are mated,” Nikos responded softly.

  Eve turned and looked at the man behind her with wide watery eyes. Nikos felt discomfort mark every inch of his body at the sight of her unshed tears. He did not want to be here witnessing this.

  “We’re mated,” Eve whispered.

  Kiros simply shrugged one large muscular shoulder, never once looking at her. Her body flinched in reaction.

  Eve immediately turned to him. “What is the difference?” she asked.

  “Humans marry,” he said, his anger, tension and disappointment laced his voice. Nikos gave Kiros a stern look but the young man avoided his eyes.

  “And?” she said, drawing out the word, emphasizing it with a lifted black eyebrow.

  Nikos looked at the young male behind Eve for some guidance, but Kiros avoided his eyes… again. His sigh of acceptance was audible. Kiros did not want to deal with his mate. Nikos could smell his fear. He waited for her rejection.

  “Animals mate,” Nikos finally said.

  “But... but we’re not animals. We’re humans. Aren’t we?” She turned and asked Kiros the question. “Answer me, damn it. Aren’t we?”

  “No and yes,” Kiros said after long tense moments. “You are human.”

  “And you are?”

  “A mixed breed.”

  “Mixed of what?” she said exasperated.

  Nikos could understand her lack of patience. Getting Kiros to talk was worse than pulling teeth. He got up and walked out of the room. During his lifetime, he’d seen too many hearts break, mostly his own. He had no desire to witness another’s heartache.

  Eve knew Kiros wanted nothing to do with her, but the least he could do was pretend to care.

  “I’m half werewolf and half fey... fairy.”

  “What?”

  “I’m half --”

  “I heard you,” she muttered as she stared at her belly. “And...” she said, her eyes wide as she looked at Kiros. But when their eyes collided, Eve knew Kiros did not know the answer to her question.

  “And the child you carry will be a combination of both our genes,” Kiros responded after long moments. “It will be another Spawn,” he said softly.

  She had a good indication of what he meant by Spawn. Their child would be like him. Different.

  How different was too much to focus on right then, so she said the only thing that she had processed so far. “I’m pregnant and we’re mated.”

  “Animals mate. You’re not an animal.”

  Kiros’s words cut through Eve, slicing deeper than any blade. She heard what Kiros said and she heard the words he did not speak. He might consider himself an animal mated, but that didn’t mean he wanted to be mated to her. That didn’t mean he wanted her to be mated to him. He was seeking an out.

  And he had found it.

  Even though Eve was breaking down inside, she maintained an outward calm that she would later admire. She pulled herself together, buried the churning emotions inside her, and stood from the plush leather chair she sat upon. She was halfway across the living room when he spoke.

  “Where are you going?” he called after her.

  Eve never even turned around, although her heart begged her to turn and look at his beautiful face one last time. The face of the man she had fallen in love with during one long night.

  Eve didn’t let the first tear fall until the door slammed behind her.

  She grabbed the large suitcase she kept underneath her bed and unzipped it. She needed to get the hell out of her apartment as soon as possible. She couldn’t stay there. She glanced at the suitcase and saw the rumpled sheets it sat upon. The sheets she had shared with a man that wanted nothing to do with her.

  She could not spend the night there.

  “What are you doing?”

  Eve jumped at the sound of his voice. “What the hell do you care?” she said as she shoved clothes into the small suitcase sitting on the bed.

  “Where are you going?”

  Silence. Do not speak, do not speak, do not speak, she silently chanted to herself.

  “We’re mated. You are bound to me,” he growled out, his rich baritone a mixture of gravel and molasses.

  “I’m human remember. I’m not mated and I refuse to be anyone’s obligation,” she said flippantly before giving him a harsh smile. She then turned back to her packing with renewed urgency.

  Tension rode on the bottom of her spine. Eve could feel Kiros watching her packing. She felt her heart breaking as she shoved each piece of clothing into the black leather suitcase, but the truth was she needed to distance herself emotionally and physically from him. It had been little more than twenty four hours since she had met him and she already felt herself bound to him.

  “Will you be happy where you are going?” he asked softly.

  The simple statement thundered through the room. Her hand stopped above the suitcase, still clutching several shirts. Belatedly, she wondered if he could hear her heart beating frantically in her chest.

  “Will you?” he prodded.

  Eve had to swallow twice before the truth escaped her parched mouth. “No.”

  At the sound of her voice, the beast in his soul growled with satisfaction. She didn’t want to leave.

  His large hands clenched at the sides of his body. He wanted to touch her, but he didn’t dare reach out. Not right now. Not with the way he felt.

  The beast in his soul wanted to throw her suitcase across the room and demand she look at him. The man in him needed to hear her say she wanted him. He needed to hear her say that it wasn’t hormones dictating their emotions.

  Kiros took a deep breath, steadying his nerves, drinking in the sc
ent of his destined mate before speaking. “I’m not even going to ask you if you’re going to be happy if you stay.”

  “Why not? Don’t you care?” she asked as she opened her top drawer and removed several bras and panties.

  “No, I don’t,” he said. “I only care that you and I are mated.”

  She turned to him, mouth open in shock, arms limp, falling at her sides. The luxurious bras and panties were forgotten on the floor by her naked feet.

  The confusion was there in her deep brown eyes. Her gaze followed him as he crossed the room to reach her. He gave Eve a harsh smile when he noticed she watched as his long legged stride took up the space that separated them until he stood before her, six feet three inches of angry, bestial male. And he was a male who had no desire to lose his mate.

  He placed his finger under her chin so that she looked him in the eyes. Hard amethyst collided with soft brown.

  “Where did you think you were going?”

  Her brown eyes widened. He could see her brain working. Apparently her mind focused on a single word. Did.

  Eve wasn’t going anywhere.

  “You’re my mate. You go where I go. You do what I tell you to do. No more running,” he said, speaking to himself as well as Eve. There would be no more running from the emotions, the need that coursed between them. They were mated, joined together by destiny and something deeper: love.

  “You don’t want me,” Eve whispered against his lips before Kiros swooped down and claimed her lips in a hard kiss. His tongue slipped between her open lips to sweep and slide against the tantalizing flesh of her mouth, stimulating the sensitive tissues. Eve stood on her toes, and pressed her body against his. He immediately felt the desire spike as it ran through his veins. Her simple touch drove him wild with arousal.

  Kiros suddenly broke off the kiss, staring deep into Eve’s heavy lidded gaze. “No, I need you,” he said before capturing her lips in another hot, open mouthed, bruising kiss. He couldn’t get enough of her unique, tantalizing taste. She was honey, sweet, sticky and full of beguiling allure. She was his ambrosia. When Kiros was with her, he felt like a god.