Dark Secrets

by Madeline Pryce

  “Let her go, Ella,” Dante demanded, the underlying growl in his words sending a delicious shiver down my spine. I hadn’t gotten the sex I’d wanted from my half-demon boy toy. Maybe the kitty-cat could scratch my itch.

  I licked my lips and drew my gaze over the muscles straining against his pale-blue tee. “Make me, I dare you.”

  Eli took a step forward and I twisted Hannah’s head with a chiding “tsk, tsk” until she cried out. The bones in her neck strained under my strength, at the point of snapping. Humans, such fragile creatures.

  I searched her thoughts, looking for the pesky remedy to restore my soul, wondering who she’d told. Words and numbers streamed through her consciousness, a jumble of fucking nonsense. Anger whipped through me and I snarled against her ear.

  “Focus, baby sister. What did you tell the halfling?”

  “Ella,” Hannah whimpered in a little girl’s tone. “Let me go.”

  I laughed and tightened my hold, tempted to say fuck it and snap her neck without the information I needed. But that wouldn’t be any fun, would it?

  “That shit isn’t going to work on me, you bitch. If you don’t tell me what I want to know I’ll make what Lizbeth did to you look like a trip to Disneyland. I’ll start with the pup, skin him from head to toe and make a nice little fur jacket for you to wear. When I’m done with him, I’ll move on to your lion. He looks like he’d survive a lot, give me hours of amusement.”

  I focused on the wolf and the lion, who stared at me with a mixture of horror and hatred—a priceless moment, really, one I’d cherish until something better came along. Like their screams. I lashed out, sending them both flying back to the wall. Gritting my teeth, I focused on pinning them in place, assuring they wouldn’t get in my way. The shifters struggled against my grasp with their lips curled in fury, their muscles bulging from the strain. Inside them, their beasts vibrated in a clear signal they were about to shift.

  Not if I could help it.

  A blast of heat came at me and I switched my attention to the demon and the fireball hurling toward my head. Fucking demons. I dropped Hannah to the ground and phazed to Castro. The blast hit the wall and the house trembled in fury. Glass shattered. The sweet smell of burning fabric filled my nose as crackling flames devoured a tacky gold wall hanging.

  “I didn’t like that tapestry anyway.” I brought my balled fist across the side of his face with a satisfying crunch.

  Blood rushed through my veins at the physical-get-your-knuckles-bloody contact. I always had enjoyed a good fight. Adrenaline surged, making me stronger and faster, filling me with power. The rush was addicting.

  Where my flesh met his, bubbling blisters spread over my knuckles and I drew in the red-hot flash of pain—enjoying the bite. I didn’t know the exact type of demon Castro was—Fury…something or other, that shit was for Hannah to memorize—but the traits that curled smoke from his skin gave him a layer of protection, preventing people from touching him without his consent. Too bad for him I liked the flash of hurt.

  I struck again and Castro—no longer off guard—brought his arm up to block me.

  “I’m going to cut off your dick, demon. Feed it to the wolf before I cut every inch of his skin from his body. The halfling should be here soon, maybe I’ll wait, make him watch me finish all of you off so he knows once and for all his pansy-ass mate is gone. Forever. Right before I rip out his heart and feast on it.”

  We parried, Castro proving far more adept than I would have given him credit for. I phazed in and out, the demon somehow anticipating where I’d appear and blocking my blows. Annoyance surged. Red and orange fingers of fire crawled up the walls from his missed attempts to burn me alive. Smoke filled the air, a thick roiling mass slowly engulfing the dining room off to the right.

  Burn, baby, burn. With my mind, I searched through the walls and ripped out wires, not caring or knowing what cords went to what. My goal, the fire alarm. The lights cut out, throwing the house into a pitch-black hole. Castro growled and looked up in the darkness I had no problem seeing through. Grinning, I feigned left and brought my palm up under his nose. Molten blood spilled free, eating through my skin.

  I spun him around and kicked, landing a solid back-cracking hit at the base of his spine. He sprawled face first to the ground with a hiss of pain. I went in for the kill, ready to shove my fist through his back and rip out his heart, when he turned and shoved. I fell back, my concentration slipping enough for the shifters to get free.

  Oh, he’d pay for that.

  Castro bent and cracked his forehead against mine. I reeled back to the accompaniment of snarls and growls filling the room. From the corner of my eye, Hannah scampered over the ground and into Dante’s arms where he rushed to her, mindless to everything else around him.

  I’d be damned if the little bitch got away.

  The air behind me shifted with a roiling energy that was more potent than the rest. I turned, already prepared for Eli. I brought my leg out and swept him to the ground. I buried my foot against his ribs, once, twice, three times—his grunt of pain shadowing the spine-thrilling noise of bones cracking.

  Three of the Fenrir charged into the room from where they’d been on one of the upper levels, their gazes automatically seeking me out. Mine. With a single, silent command, I ripped the beasts from their skin—forcing them into a shift. Light eclipsed the room, eradicating the darkness. I turned from the beaming rays of energy and directly into a blade.

  Brimstone melted through flesh, the color a sharp contrast to my pale skin, and cut through a few of my ribs. The pain amped up my hunger and I vowed to make whatever I did to the demon lord hurt. I curled my lip, ripping the knife from my side on a snarl.

  “The Blade of Souls, it’s strapped to her thigh…” Eli growled, pushing from the ground.

  Fuck, he must have seen it when I’d kicked him. That, or he’d looked up my dress. Hmm…perhaps the wolf wanted some pussy. Surely after the string of whores he’d gone through he’d be somewhat adept at pleasure. Maybe I’d let him service me in front of Micah and the others, then, like a female praying mantis, rip off his head when I climaxed. The thought had merit.

  Blood dripped from a gash along the crown of his head, curving over his cheek. Even though a cloak of darkness covered the room, I had no problem seeing. I licked my lips, deciding to save him for last. Castro gripped my shoulder, fingers digging into skin and burning flesh.

  I focused every ounce of my power on the demon. One of his greatest strengths was his ability to project emotion. I could work with that. I collected the hurt thrumming through the room, his and mine, morphing it into a ball. I stared into his eyes.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” he seethed through bared teeth that indicated whatever he was trying to do—shove his emotions into me—wasn’t working. His face was all fierce angles and smooth lines. “But I will.”

  I spit in his face, my saliva splattering against his cheek. “Fucking prick. You hurt me—you hurt this demon spawn I’ve got growing inside me.”

  Shock filled his face and very unintelligently he asked, “You’re…pregnant?”

  I smirked. “Vampire Queen. Demon Son. This brat is mine to control and no one is going to ruin that for me.”

  When I could no longer contain the pain, I forced it out.

  My emotions slammed into him—a corporeal web that twined around his legs and crawled up his body. He made a deep, guttural noise of anguish. The more he struggled, the tighter the strands got, cutting off his circulation. I ripped his hand from my shoulder, losing several layers of skin in the process. Shoving the knife into his thigh, I pushed him back. He fell, dropping to his knees, his skin whitening under the onslaught of pain I pumped into him.

  I moved out of the way, giving my wolves access to the writhing demon fighting his way free of my tangled web. Acting as a single, well-honed beast, they attacked with a bloodthirsty ruthlessness that filled me with pride. In a mess of limbs, fur and snarling teeth, the trio cras
hed to the floor. The acrid stench of burnt hair filled the room and I watched Castro fight to keep the Fenrir from ripping out his throat.

  Eli’s voice rang out over the roar of the spreading fire. “If you think we’re just going to let you walk away, you’re mistaken. You’re part of us, Ella, our family. We take care of our own.”

  Eli rose from the ground and I blew the wayward strands of my hair from my face, advancing on him. I shoved my power inside him, let it slither under his skin and grab hold of his beast. I squeezed, ensnaring the wolf before he even knew what hit him. He cupped his throat and fell to his knees, sputtering.

  He had a different feel than the other Fenrirs, something pure and undiluted, as if he’d gotten the traits of the feral beasts but not the genetics that connected them to me. I paused and took a minute to consider how great a threat he was to my power structure. I pushed my will harder, trying to track who’d delivered the infecting blow so I’d know who to kill. The Fenrir were mine, and I’d be damned if they staged a revolt.

  Movement caught my attention. A stream of golden hair in the darkness. Dante. He dashed for the front door, dragging Hannah with him. To my left, my wolves yelped, a pitiful howling that grated on my nerves. Pussies. I wondered absently if Castro would leave them alive.

  Seconds from throwing myself into a phaze, I spotted the first red dot shining on the wall. Then another and another. Several dozen of them crawled throughout the room like feral roaches fleeing the flames.

  I looked down, narrowing my eyes and touching the dot hovering over my heart.

  The front door slammed open. Dante jerked Hannah back before the wood smacked her in the face. A squadron of men marched into the room, their black riot gear enough to have me lifting an eyebrow in curiosity.

  The Shadow Agency had arrived—how fucking cute. One after another, soldiers filled the house and trained their weapons on me. I closed my eyes and tasted the air, the subtle scent of fear and anticipation. Their minds hummed, not the same way as the vampires’ had. One thing was clear—they were to detain me for crimes against humanity.

  Oh man. Unable to contain my absolute glee, I threw my head back and laughed.

  “This is priceless!”

  Richard’s face filled their minds and he came across as a larger-than-life pillar of support. They trusted him with one hundred percent of their beings. He’d told them to jump and they’d amassed with eagerness. How positively pathetic for them. Beneficial for me, though. I could now kill two birds—well, more like several dozen—with one stone.

  Hannah’s whisper hit my ears as my mirth faded. “She’s gone crazy.”

  A hush settled, the room silent enough for everyone to hear the shifting of cloth, the crackling of flames gutting this piece-of-shit house from the inside out, as someone made their way inside.

  “You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Eli growled.

  “Nope.” I smiled and stepped forward to meet Richard McGregor—the lowliest prick on the planet—in the middle of the room.

  I glanced at the man in the three-piece suit and contemplated which injury would cause him the most pain and dole out the least amount of damage. I wanted to enjoy myself and knew I’d have to make my time with him last. You could only kill a human once. Unless, that was, I turned him into a vampire and spent the next several millennia showing him what a true predator was like.

  Richard steadied his beady brown eyes on me. His voice was just as pinched and whiny as he was. “Hold your fire, no matter what happens, you move at my command.”

  A pleased expression spread over his thin, rat-like face. I decided to let the little man talk for a bit, just so I could tell him to go fuck himself before I cut off his dick and screwed him with it.

  “Tonight, you die,” he said.

  “Really?” I asked and forced the hunters to their knees.

  They gasped, struggling under my command. I strolled through the crowd, maintaining eye contact with Richard the entire time. His nostrils flared. A vein bulged in his forehead as he came to realize things were not going to go his way.

  I caressed each hunter, tasting their minds and searching for the ones who didn’t belong. Shifter. Demon. Demon. Demon. Shifter. Richard had been a naughty boy. If the thought didn’t make me want to puke, I might be tempted to spank him. As I went, I gave a little mental snip, severing the chains that kept the hunters’ otherness in check.

  Richard’s face reddened. “I should have killed you a long time ago, you vampire whore.”

  His lids swept down and I phazed, making it to him before he’d completed his blink. Hands around his throat, I took a great deal of pleasure in how it felt to hold his life in my hands.

  “Ella! No!” Micah shouted, rushing through the door and slamming into me.

  Inertia forced me back, away from my prey. I phazed mid-fall, taking Micah with me and pinning him to the floor across the room when I surfaced.

  “You asshole,” I hissed, shoving my arm under his chin and forcing his head back.

  A large chunk of ceiling fell to the ground, the flames no longer content to be ignored. The hunters scrambled—a collective panic I did my best to stoke.

  “Do not move!” Richard bellowed, struggling to keep his men in line.

  I tuned them out, focusing on my former mate. He growled but made no move to push me off him.

  “Richard planned this, had hoped you would attack him in front of more than a dozen of his soldiers. He baited you and you lost.”

  Lost to Richard? Over my undead body.

  “I haven’t lost anything.”

  “But you will.”

  I turned to the guards and shoved every ounce of power I possessed at them. I regained control of their weak, malleable minds. I shifted their weapons, aiming them at each other, at Richard. I focused on the trigger and imagined fingers sliding into place, applying pressure.

  Something hard bit into my cheek, throwing off my concentration and I blinked. Micah. Beneath me, he used one hand to grip my face.

  “Do not do that,” he growled.

  “He deserves to die! I know it, you know it.”

  “Killing him proves he was right about you. Do you really want to give him that satisfaction?”

  Another chunk of plaster and wood crashed to the ground. The sounds of struggles reached my ears as the men snapped, one by one, and started turning against each other.

  A low, rolling ache swept through my lower back and curled in, toward my womb. I clenched my jaw. The brat couldn’t withstand much more of my surging energy. Irritation surfaced, but I knew what I needed to do.

  My hold slipped and I reluctantly let go of the men. Fear filled the room as they realized they’d been mind-fucked. When I tried to pull away from Micah, his strength increased and held true.

  “You know as well as I do there are shifters and demons out there, fed the same line of bullshit you were. He needs to die. You can’t stop me from chopping off his head.”

  He cut his swirling green gaze from mine to the troops who had control of their weapons. Beams of transparent red light cut through the haze of smoke.

  “Get the fuck out of here,” he called out. “Richard is a liar and a cheat. Ella hasn’t done anything to merit a death warrant. None of us have.”

  “Wrong,” Richard seethed. Sweat poured off his skin. “I’ve got a warrant, proof. She killed four agency hunters days ago. She’s a soulless, blood-sucking bitch. Her time here is done. Kill her! Anyone who gets in the way deserves to die for protecting her.”

  “He lies.” Castro’s voice rang out and a powerful wave of doubt went with it.

  The demon lord’s tall, lithe form came into view. His emotions crashed against me and I threw up my shields before I was infected. The men looked to each other, to Castro, back to Richard.

  “Do not be his instrument of death! Let your council decide her fate tomorrow at the trial.”

  The moment Richard saw him, something sparked in the agency leader’s gaze—so
mething more than terror. Silent communication passed between them that spoke of a long-buried history I didn’t really give a fuck about.

  I had things to do, people to kill and dawn wasn’t far off. A good place to start was right fucking here. I could taste the sulfuric flames roiling in Castro, how much he craved Richard’s annihilation. Perhaps I could take control of the demon and help speed the fire along, trap everyone in the house and listen to them burn to death.

  Micah tightened his fingers. “Babe,” he growled, as if he’d read my thoughts.

  I reached out mentally to sync with Castro. A sharp slash of pain stabbed me in the stomach and radiated out. Fucking brat! I stared at Micah, the reason for the demon spawn growing inside me, and knew I’d need to retreat.

  I’d leave…in just a second. I grabbed a fist full of Micah’s hair and brought his face to mine. Dozens of gazes burned into me and I knew I had a captive audience. “We’ll finish this later.”

  I adjusted my position and rammed my knee squarely against his nuts. He grunted with pain and I phazed to the first place I could think of—Julian’s mansion. I stepped next to the opulent bed decorated in rich hues of purple and red. I’d been reborn in this bed seven years ago.

  I glanced at my sire’s nude, partially healed body. On a positive note, I had something to entertain me all day long.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Ella vanished, leaving my cock and balls bruised—my temper red-hot. When this shit was over, I was going to chain her to the bed and keep her ass glued to one spot. Thick, black smoke plumed into the air and made each breath a struggle. Flames licked the walls, consuming everything in their path. I coughed, waving the haze away as I got to my feet.

  What a cluster fuck.

  Through the pulsing darkness, I fought my way across the room to where my uncle advanced on Richard. Rage engulfed the room and I sensed the squad’s growing agitation. Eli stepped to my side and I spared him a glance, thankful he was seemingly in one piece. He was a bit bruised, a lot bloody, but he was still standing. I’d take it.