I swallowed when she got close enough to touch. The urge to reach out and run the tips of my fingers down her arm that no longer held our mating marks was a compulsion I valiantly fought. Ella took matters into her own hands. She caressed my cheek and stepped into me, pressing her blood-soaked body to mine.
Her skin was icy. Her heart utterly still.
She was dead. Sorrow filled me and it felt as if I was losing her all over again. Ella pressed her mouth to mine and flicked her tongue out, painting my lower lip. Lids still shut, I pictured the woman I remembered, not the façade in front of me. My control snapped. The demon—knowing what it wanted, liking what it felt and not giving a damn about the circumstances—took over with a ruthless determination that nearly knocked me on my ass.
I growled and grabbed the back of her neck, crushing her lips to mine. Our tongues tangled in a wet slide of pure need. She tasted of blood and darkness. Evil. The demon—thoroughly seduced—responded with hunger. I plundered her mouth, devouring her. I cupped her ass and drew her to me until we were chest to chest. Her nipples were hard points against me. The leg she fitted between mine had my dick straining to get closer.
She trailed her hand down my chest, nails scratching, and I groaned at the bolts of sensation tearing through me. The muscles in my stomach flexed, my entire body anticipating a touch I’d thought lost to me forever. She palmed my cock and rubbed the length of my straining shaft, jacking me off through my pants. Pleasure numbed my toes, had me arching into her palm.
Fuck.
A loud moan from the back of the room had me fighting free, coming back to my surroundings. This wasn’t Ella. Without her soul, she was just a body—like all the other women I’d fucked to forget my obsession for her all those years ago. I caught her wrist and squeezed as I tore my lips from hers. “That’s enough.”
“I want to fuck,” she stated.
The demand was clear in her voice. Her eyes held no emotion, just a primal need that told me if I didn’t do it, she’d gladly pick up with Eiven where they’d left off.
I shook my head and debated between shoving her away from me and holding her close. I racked my brain, wishing I knew what to do to bring back my woman.
“Who did this to you?”
“Now that is an excellent question,” she purred. Ella closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. When she opened her lids, her eyes were full of power—more red than blue. “Julian freed me. Can’t you feel it?” She grinned, the sight…off. “They’re mine, all of them. I hear their secrets—know their lies.”
Julian?
She spun away from me to study the vampires who licked and sucked on her sire’s splayed flesh.
“That’s enough,” she called out and the vampires pulled away from their forbidden feast to stare up at her in absolute worship. As if she were looking for something, Ella slowly surveyed her audience.
“You.” She pointed to a male vampire in the middle.
Something silent passed between them. The airwaves shifted at the surge in her powers, but I couldn’t figure out what the fuck she did. The man’s face paled and he swallowed. He jerked forward, parting the crowd, at the crook of her finger.
He sputtered, the adoration melting into a kind of fear that I’d never seen before. “No…” He shook his head.
“What’s the matter?” she asked sweetly, innocently, as if she was concerned.
But she didn’t care. I saw it in her eyes, in the casual, almost amused way she moved. The woman before me had no qualms about the pain she inflicted and the additional hurt she was about to mete out. This situation was worse than I’d thought.
Ella, while in possession of her soul, was badass and lethal—an assassin who’d spent her entire life learning the best way to kill. Remove her morals and restrictions and you were left with a threat I’d never encountered before. Her power was immense, but her knowledge—that was where her true strength lay. In the span of a few hours, she’d become—was becoming—the thing she’d feared most in the world, a ruthless killer.
Ella pointed to a chair tucked partially beneath the large, banquet table dominating the room. The object flew through the air at her silent command, landing where she indicated in front of her.
Right. That probably wasn’t a good sign. I needed to get her out of here, back to the house where Eli and Hannah could tell me what to do to restore her soul. I refused to believe there wasn’t a way.
“Sit,” she ordered the vampire. At the command, he collapsed into the seat.
Ella traced a finger down his neck and walked behind him so she and I were face-to-face.
“I’ve figured it out. I understand how Lizbeth kept them all in line, why she did it. This one dilutes my power.” She looked at me with beguiling eyes full of eager anticipation. “He creates minions, siphons from my energy. I feel them skittering around in the darkness like fucking roaches that multiply by the hour.”
“I didn’t,” the vampire whispered.
Ella’s face shifted into pure menace. Day to night. Light to dark. She snarled. Grabbing his jaw, she ripped his head back and bared her fangs at him. She pressed her hand to his forehead. The vampire screamed, his limbs flailing as he convulsed. A cruel stinging wave of power rippled out, excess from whatever she did. Ella gritted her teeth, exerted more force and the vampire’s screams rose.
Everyone around us, including Eiven and the two other wolves he had with him, fell to their knees and clutched their ears. Bright trails of blood leaked from their noses, the corners of their eyes.
Pressure drilled into my skull and it took a concentrated effort to keep her power from touching me. Why I was immune I didn’t know, but I sure as shit would use it to my advantage.
“Stop,” I said calmly and pushed through the wall of energy surrounding her.
Her glare shifted to me. “No.” There was no love in her eyes, no recognition of the passion we’d shared. The low-level hum of arousal I felt in her presence faded.
A shiver of trepidation raced down my spine. I stepped closer and stroked her cheek, hoping there was something left inside her that would respond to me. At my touch, she released the man and the oppressive weight in the air lifted. The vampire slumped forward and dissolved into a pile of ash.
I forced the sight from my mind and licked my lips. I ran a finger down the side of her throat, over my bite, between her breasts to her navel. I palmed her stomach, the tips of my fingers teasing lower to the sweet spot between her thighs. She arched into my caress as if begging for more. Soul or no soul, her body still belonged to me and I’d do what I had to in order to keep her from doing something she’d regret for the rest of her life.
A tiny spark of life roused under my touch, a flash of heat under the tips of my fingers that filled me with hope—somewhere buried deep inside was my mate. I needed to get her out of here, somewhere safe until I could figure out how to fix her.
I teased my hand across her stomach to cup her hip, pulling her to me. “As much fun as this is, I want you to myself. I’m not in the mood to share.”
Her demeanor shifted from evil mistress to soft and sexy, making her resemble the woman I loved a little too closely. It would be so easy to pretend this was my girl, to lose myself in her. Fuck. No. I focused on the blood staining her skin, the drops splattering her cheek and how they’d gotten there. This version of Ella wasn’t real.
“Hmm,” she purred. “You’re up to something, I can taste it.”
I licked the bow of her upper lip and dug my fingers into her ass. The breath I blew over her moistened skin teased and I hoped it was enough to convince her. “Give me a few minutes and I’ll taste all of you.”
She pulled away and I leaned forward, knowing she wanted me to chase and give into her whim like a good boy.
Pleasure lit her eyes, letting me know I’d played the right card.
“I’ll go along with your game—for now—but you should know,” a cold mask settled over her features and her voice dropped, “if
you fuck me over, I’ll shove a blade through your heart before you can blink.”
She meant every goddamn word. I conjured a smile, the one Ella always said I practiced in front of a mirror, and fit her lower lip between my teeth. I tugged, swept my tongue across the sting. “Let’s just have some fun.”
“Fun.” A perverse kind of pleasure filled her gaze.
“Wolf,” Ella ordered and Eiven came to her side.
I met his gaze over her shoulder, annoyed at the possessive glare in his eyes.
She’s mine, asshole.
“Clean Julian and chain him up in one of the bedrooms, I don’t care which one. I’m not finished with him, but it’s no fun unless he’s awake. We’ll let him heal up a little—force some blood into his mouth.” She looked around the room, surveying the lot.
The vampires’ heads bowed to the floor. Eiven dipped his gaze too and I wondered where the fuck his balls had gone. “My queen, perhaps I should stay by your side. Ensure nothing happens to you.”
Ella growled and before I even saw her move, Eiven was on the ground, blood dripping from his mouth. She pressed her foot to his throat, cutting off his air supply. He gripped her ankle, as if to twist her away, but Ella pressed harder.
“Mind yourself, wolf. I make the rules. You listen to me. Never forget that I know your secrets. Do not think for one moment that I won’t hesitate to turn them on you when it suits me.”
His arms fell limply to the floor and he stared up at her, his sexual hunger making me want to shove my boot up his ass and bitch-slap him. Ella removed her foot and crossed to me, the grin on her face one of the most terrifying things I’d ever seen. She threaded her arm through mine and led me from the room.
“You have something to say?” she said and laid her head on my shoulder.
I clenched my teeth. “You said Julian freed you. Tell me what happened.”
“He thought he could control me.” Her mood shifted and she pulled away from me. The air around her frosted. Her features hardened. “I changed my mind,” she said suddenly. “I’ve got somewhere to be.”
I grabbed her arm, pulling her to a stop. She glared at my hand and I slowly released my grip. “Babe, you’re covered in blood.”
She looked down at herself and drew a finger through the blood splattering her chest and stomach. She licked her lips and shrugged. “So?”
“Ella, if anyone saw you like that, don’t you think it would raise several questions? We’re at an advantage here. No one outside of this mansion knows you’ve…risen to your full potential. We have the element of surprise. Let’s go home, get cleaned up.” I cupped the weight of her breast and thumbed the hard peak of her nipple. “Do you remember how good it was between us before? How it felt when I fucked you? Think about how much better it will be now that you can fully succumb to the pleasure. No rules. No emotion. Just fucking.”
She tucked her lower lip between her teeth and peered at me through lids that had gone half-mast with arousal. “And if I don’t want to wait?”
“Baby…” I cupped her cheek, tightening my hold and keeping her from closing the distance between us. “I want you all to myself. Indulge me, I promise to make it worth your while.”
Ella stared at me for a long moment as if weighing the truth in my words. I counted to thirty before she muttered, “Fine.”
“Let’s go then, I’ll drive.”
As we started for the door, I pulled my phone from my pocket. One-handed, behind my back, I typed out a message I hoped read—Ella is alive but soulless. Blade of Souls. Find a cure. Fast.
I hit send and hoped to hell Eli had a solution by the time we arrived.
“What are you doing?” she hissed when I slid my cell into my back pocket.
I shrugged. “Checking to see what time it is.”
Ella’s eyes narrowed. “Liar.”
My phone chose that moment to chime out a series of annoying chirps that signaled a new message. I clenched my teeth in annoyance, but didn’t make any move to retrieve my phone. Ella did that for me. She reached into my pocket, removed the cell and phazed out of reach before I could even blink.
Her gaze tracked over the screen, her lips moving as she read silently. Dread filled the pit of my stomach and I drew in a deep breath. Fuck. She lifted her sights to mine, the venom in hers a death sentence.
“You see, Micah,” she said quietly, the ice in her voice belying the calmness of her tone, “if you had just let me go, I would have simply gone after Richard. But now, now I can see I’ll need to make a pit stop.”
She opened her hand and let the phone fall to the ground with a thud. I swallowed my apprehension. My fingers twitched. Both instinct and training told me grabbing a weapon right about now might save my life. Before I could make the decision one way or the other, Ella vanished.
Damn it!
I rushed forward and scooped up the phone, reading the message.
H says there is a way to restore her, but only if she hasn’t done anything that’s beyond redemption. If she has, her soul will reject the body. Do not let her out of your sight. I’ll tell you the rest when you get here. Hurry.—E
Shit. Shit. Shit.
A pit stop. The mansion where my brother and Hannah were. Heart in my throat, stomach to my fucking knees, I ran in the direction of my car. The pounding of my boots against the floor was almost as loud as my thundering heart. I dialed Eli’s number to warn him, the continuous ringing ratcheting my anxiety. Phone pressed between my ear and my shoulder, I slid into the front seat of my car.
“Sorry,” Eli’s voice sounded through the line. I opened my mouth to speak, my relief crushed at the realization I’d gotten his voicemail. “I can’t take your call—”
I hung up, redialed and twisted the keys I’d never bothered to remove from the ignition in my haste to get inside and find Ella. Ring. Ring. Ring. I shoved the gearstick to reverse, backed up the driveway in a squeal of tires. Voicemail picked up and I disconnected the call, working down my contacts, Dante, Castro, Hannah.
Ring.
Ring.
Ring.
Every second prolonged the inevitable. I pushed the accelerator to the floor, shifted through the gears and weaved through late-evening traffic. Why the fuck wasn’t anyone picking up their phones? In my gut, I knew why. I slammed my hand against the steering wheel, cracking plastic. Ella didn’t want her soul back, would most likely do anything, kill anyone, to prevent that from happening.
The GTO’s engine roared and I pushed it faster, the odometer needle creeping from one hundred to one hundred ten. The car shook—a vibration that played through me. In the end, I did the only thing I could. I prayed to a god I wasn’t sure would have me that I made it home before it was too late—before the woman I loved slaughtered our family and damned her soul to hell.
Chapter Seventeen
I imagined Micah’s phone hit the floor at the same moment I appeared a few feet away from where my know-it-all sister stood, her back to me. There were no murky corners in my head, no spiraling colors from the world around me fading and reappearing. Point. Click. Phaze.
Huddled around her, Dante, Eli and Castro stood shoulder to shoulder in true powwow form. Heads dipped, their conflicting voices overlapping each other, they discussed my situation with an urgency I found laughable.
“Without a soul, she’ll have no morals. Castro, after you mentioned the Blade of Souls to Micah, he asked me to research it. I’ve studied the effects, looked at several different cases where this has happened. There will be nothing to stop her from slaughtering whomever she wants.” Eli’s fierce declaration rubbed off some of his man-whorish charm with words like “research” and “study”.
A bead of annoyance pulsed through me. It was clear he wasn’t going to devolve into a bitch-sniffing pack animal like Eiven. For that, he’d die.
“Ella wouldn’t—” Hannah countered before the wolf finished speaking, her voice quivering with tears that scented the air with salt.
&nb
sp; I rolled my eyes. What a wishy-washy twit. She was too girly to be considered a real threat, but she had knowledge, and knowledge was power. She needed a reminder who the Queen Bitch was. Maybe I’d eliminate her pussy cat and the let the pup add her to his list of conquests. Oh! Excitement surged. I’ll make the lion watch.
I lounged against the doorway and examined my nails, magicking them into sharp, talon-like claws to make playtime more fun while I waited for someone to notice me. Surely the shifters could scent my arrival, feel the ripple in the air? No. They all had their heads firmly planted up their asses.
Castro put in his two cents. “Make no mistake, Hannah, she would. This version of her isn’t real. She’s just a shell. She’d just as soon kill you as she would Micah. Richard knew this, planned for it.”
I scoffed. Isn’t real. The demon was wrong. The real Ella had finally arrived. The fake one was dead and buried, gone with the pansy-ass lavender swirl in the dagger strapped to my thigh.
Tired of the game, I stepped forward. The sound of my heels on the granite floor was a very deliberate click-click when the group paused to breathe. Not that they were going to be doing that much longer.
“If I were you, baby sister, I’d listen to the demon—he’s the least pathetic of the bunch,” I whispered in a conspiratorial tone, as if I were one of them.
Hannah spun toward the sound of my voice with an annoying squeal of surprise. Her eyes widened with shock. Several things happened at once. Eli growled, Dante reached to pull Hannah to him and the demon came at me.
Child’s play.
Time slowed, allowing me an edge, a speed that surpassed them all. I grabbed Hannah around the throat and jerked her from her lion’s arms. Phazing out of reach, I evaded Castro and spun my sister so her back was to my front. I placed one hand on her chin, the other at the side of her head—the perfect placement to break her neck. Hannah grabbed my arm, pitifully trying to remove my hold. How very cute. She should have learned to take care of herself instead of depending on me to wipe her nose and cover her ass when we were growing up.
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