by C. M. Owens
He hangs up before they can argue, and I open my mouth to tell him what a waste it is to send me off now for something completely unimportant. But he cuts me off before a word can form.
“You were the perfect teenager. Don’t start rebelling now,” he says on a sigh. “I understand that things within our circle have—”
“Imploded? Soured? Painted life-long friends and family to be shady liars?” I idly suggest.
His eyes narrow.
“—gotten out of sorts,” he finishes, belittling the constant stabs of betrayal as though they’re nothing of true caliber.
He forgets I have an inherited dark side that is fed by betrayal.
I feel…well, I feel like the little pest they have to tolerate. I’m almost on the same level with Dice at this point.
“Take Dice. You leave first thing in the morning,” is the last thing he says to me before disappearing.
Dice. I knew it. We’re total equals right now. I blame Slade for this.
Those threads of a lost memory finally weave together, my mind overpowering whatever was separating the threads to begin with.
Alton tried to make me forget.
Like everyone else, he underestimated me.
The full memory is still blurry, but it’s polishing up nice and slow, feeding me one forgotten revelation at a time.
Before I head off on a waste-of-time quest, I think I should repay Slade’s unexpected visit.
First thing tomorrow morning.
Chapter 4
SLADE
Running a hand through my hair, I open my eyes, cutting off my vision to her, and then slam my fist through a wall.
Why did I get that close yesterday? Why did I touch her like that?
Why the fuck did I stay in that position?
Why in the hell can’t I stop thinking about it?
Now, knowing she’s about to be gone for who knows how long is eating me alive like a viciously spreading virus. Everything in me is demanding I go to her, claim her, and—
No.
Breathing out slowly, I stare at the charts in front of me, reminding me of what’s to come. I might have been slow to find that prophecy, but now I know how to end the otherwise never-ending nightmares.
If I close my eyes, I see her. If I fall asleep, I remember too much of what was done to me when I’m not dreaming of her.
My eyes move to the mirror, seeing all the scars that mar my face and body. The mirror shows me—the only immortal to ever be less than physically perfect—that my heinous scars are still not accurately reflective of all the damage they truly did.
My fist opens and closes.
The scars are just small reminders of the screams they once tore from my throat. Until I learned to swallow my sounds and smile, much to their horror, despite the never-ending burn of excruciating pain.
The first time I saw her, I knew I had to be delusional. No creature that stunning would be able to see me as more than inferior. I’d been captured, after all. I wasn’t a worthy male.
The more I saw her, the more I knew it’d never happen. Marked by pain. Destroyed and weak. Hideously scarred like no other being in our world.
I’ve always seen her as my salvation and damnation. Bloody maddening girl.
The longer I had to watch her, the more hardened my heart…and other parts of my body, became. It was the worst form of sweet torture.
I saw these same visions over and over and over. Including the ones of him. The one who manipulated her and took things he had no right to take.
As soon as I finally located him, I ripped him to fucking pieces. Then I pissed on his house. And some of his other men I killed were pissed on as well. I almost lowered myself to shitting in his yard like a common town drunk or village idiot.
It was a damn good day.
Probably the best day I’ve had since freedom was achieved.
It even trumps having Ella under me yesterday, because I wasn’t annoyed that day or struggling for fucking control. I had control that day.
Damn girl with her dark temptations and lack of impulse control. She doesn’t know how to be properly afraid. She gets off on the fear. Gets off on the dark. Even as she fights the truth of who she is.
I think she even gets off on the scars.
I have to stop thinking about this. I’ve endured countless visions of her life from the day she was a woman. Never before. Only the woman, with all her indecent allure and wicked eyes. She’s all I’ve been forced to watch, and has become the single most infuriating aspect of my entire existence.
And that says quite a lot.
Cursing, I close my eyes again, when I suddenly hear a far-too-familiar voice dryly state, “Boo.”
Not reacting immediately, I pretend as though her very fucking ill-timed surprise visit doesn’t affect me.
“What, Princess? You finally ditched Daddy and decided you wanted to finish up?” I drawl, not turning around, though that’s a damn difficult task. “I’m afraid I’ll have to pass. My curiosity about your whereabouts is no longer withstanding.”
Bloody liar, I am.
And a damn good one, at that.
But she’s not going to make me cock-up all the things I’ve worked so diligently to prepare.
She snorts derisively, as though the thought of such a thing should be appallingly ludicrous, but we both know exactly how compliant she’d be under me. Which I have to say surprised me in the worst possible way, because it makes ignoring her that much harder to do.
I’m still dealing with the wayward erection a day later that refuses to lose interest in how completely fucking willing she was.
“You’re strong enough to actually train me, and you’re going to do just that. I need to be a weapon. Not a distraction. Not a hindrance. You help me, and I’ll let you bend me over your table and work out all your sexual frustrations,” she says too easily.
I lower my eyelids, feeling them flutter, unable to see her, since her close presence silences the visions. There’s always a little annoying throb in my temple when she tempts me. I want to choke her even as I fight not to take her up on her offer.
“I’m not interested,” I lie like a dodgy fucker. But she usually doesn’t pick up on a lie, or so I’ve noticed. She’s far too trusting and exhaustingly persistent. “You’re too much of a liability for anyone to suffer around. You’d likely blow us both to hell when you got good and mad at my training methods.”
My methods with her would be entirely too physical. I’d rather not feel tortured more than necessary for however long I have left.
“You could at least look at me instead of being a full-blown cunt pucker.”
I do turn at that, and arch an eyebrow. What the hell kind of insult was that?
She somehow manages to keep a straight face, despite the crude and absurd words that just left her delicate mouth.
“Nice. Now I know how to get your attention.” The wicked little grin on her lips reminds me of who she really is. She loves to quit pretending around me. Reckless girl. “In the future, I’ll make sure to come up with some more immature insults.”
My eyes narrow, and she smirks like she’s winning an award.
It isn’t until my lips twitch and I take a step forward that her confidence falters. She clears her throats and blinks as she looks away.
She wants me, wants to play with me, wants to be chased, and fears as much as she anticipates being caught. To a human, she’d seem wishy washy. To an immortal? It’s like she’s purposely ticking off a checklist of ways to excite the very primal predator in me.
And I need her the hell away from me before I unleash more sexual frustration—as she called it—than she could possibly handle in one dose.
“I’m afraid you misinterpret my interest in you, Princess. I might want you alive—for reasons you don’t need to know—but as far as being desperate to feel the inside of you? Well, that would simply be a perk and only at my leisure. I’m a bit busy now.”
As I turn,
she’s suddenly in front of me, her bravado back on her like a shield. I release an exasperated breath.
“You really don’t get it, do you?” I ask her, giving her the most disappointed look I can muster.
“Get what?” she asks, sounding bored. “That you like to chase or that you’re just a dick trying to fuck everyone over? I don’t care either way. You’re strong enough to train me, and I need to be ready.”
I put my hands on her shoulders, gripping a little harder than necessary to hold myself back from doing more than putting on a show. Her eyes search mine as I smirk at her.
I’ve gone for the heads of two of her people, yet she stupidly refuses to fear me.
“That’s what you don’t get, Princess. You’re not strong enough to be anything more than a burden, because you can’t teach control to the broken.”
No tears. I truly expected at least a little glistening of the eyes as she went to pout off in the woods until she needed saving again.
I must be losing my touch.
She steps into me, the heat of her body just shy of touching mine and teasing me with a chill in place of the barely missed warmth.
Her head craned back so she can meet my eyes, she says, “I’m not broken. But the next time you break in and try to play those games again? I’ll remind you why it would be a good idea for me to train and get control. See if you can put out the flames when you’re the one who has pissed me off.”
This girl is not supposed to be so brazen with me. I’ve apparently coddled her somehow. I’m not sure how exactly, but clearly, I’ve spoiled her. Frustrating damn female.
Just as I start to pull another cruel line from my arsenal, her brow furrows and she glances away as though she’s just recalled something.
Her body goes rigid, and she backs away, lips twitching like she holds the keys to the universe.
“You want me alive so you can sever the final bond and go out in a flame of glory, right?”
I’m the one who turns to stone this time, feeling as though someone has just replaced my spine with a steel pole. It’s very rare anyone makes me react in surprise.
Her smile spreads wider, as though she just noticed my reaction and is truly enjoying this.
“You have a weakness, Slade. The fact you survived hell just so you could end your life and ruin your brother once and for all makes you pathetic as well. You’ll understand if insults from a man who is this—”
I have her pressed against the wall in the next breath, my hand gripping her throat just tight enough to keep her from dematerializing, as my jaw grinds. Her eyes light up silver, and mine glow brighter in challenge as a growl tears out of me.
I can smell her arousal mingle with the sweet scent of her fear the second the sound escapes me, and that certainly pisses me right the hell off with the distraction it brings.
“Who’ve you been talking to, Princess?” I bite out, narrowing my eyes in suspicion. “First you close a portal not even I knew how to seal, then you turn around and goad me with information you should not possess. What’re your secrets?”
That daring little grin plays wickedly on her annoyingly tempting lips, the fear melding into just arousal with each ticking second, and driving me out of my damn mind.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,” she says defiantly.
The steely resolve in her eyes is not one of pride. It’s one of power. She likes feeling as though she has the upper hand on me. I’ll be damned if I let her keep that power.
Gavin. She has to have been in contact with him—since she’s foolish enough to trust any-damn-body who claims to have been a victim. They all do.
I release her throat and back away, forcing a cold smile to my lips as I crack my neck to the side.
“Train me and I’ll tell you my secrets,” she finally offers, forcing her composure as her eyes dim to a dull bluish-green color.
Her eyes change with her mood, and this is the color I see the most. Aside from silver.
“Why waste time on something so pointless?” I ask her, trying to mask my tension by forcing my body to appear relaxed.
I need her away from me. She smells too good so soon after touching her too much. My skin still burns with the little bit of contact we shared. And that bloody erection she miraculously hasn’t seemed to notice is also still lingering.
I need her hatred.
I sure as fuck don’t need her desire at a moment when my control is so frayed.
I need her gone.
Coldly, I prop up against the wall as she continues to stare at me like she holds the full deck of cards, calling me out on my ‘bluff.’
“Your powers are too much for you to handle because you’re the one who is riddled with weaknesses, Ella.” She flinches this time, and I go on, pushing off the wall to move closer to her.
“You think you’re so powerful, but you’re merely a burden for your people to keep worrying about, removing their focus from the life threatening events at hand.”
She moves away from the wall I left her against, glaring up at me as I approach.
“You think you can talk me into staying in a corner? What good does that do anyone? You’re just too scared to be too close to me. Admit it. It isn’t my weakness that poses a problem. It’s yours.”
Arrogant little thing that she is, she’s still not entirely wrong. Not that I’d ever admit such a pathetic thing.
My lips twitch in amusement at her futile glare, one that doesn’t hold any threat to me in the least. She doesn’t know her darkest secret—the fact that when she loses herself, she comes to me. Craves me. Hungers so darkly for me that it rains agony onto both our souls when the connection is denied.
Her pride might just crumble with that knowledge.
I’m not sure why I withhold it.
Leaning down, I put my lips much too close to hers, since I’m a masochist. “Poor little pampered princess,” I taunt, ignoring the narrowed gaze she casts at me as I begin to circle her. “Precious Ella and her perfect little sheltered life. You have no idea how hard it is to summon the control for power so great. Because you’re too…delicate for what training it would require.”
She sucks in a breath when my lips brush across the back of her neck for no other reason than my control is slipping.
Her hair is balled on top of her head like some ridiculous new-age fad that gives me far too much access to her elegant, tempting neck. I brush aside a small tendril of hair that has escaped said bun, and her entire body shivers when my fingertips barely skate across her skin in the process.
“You think you’re a big bad power,” I go on, pressing closer to her back as she remains rather rigid. “You think you can control the madness.”
She sucks in a breath of surprise, and I bite back a groan when I suck her neck, unable to resist just a small taste. Her head lolls to the other side, granting me more access, submitting without realizing she’s even doing it. My gums ache with the need to let my fangs descend, but I deny them.
My hands go to her hips, gripping them firmly as I fight with everything in me not to just take her.
Forcing my mouth away, my fingers dig into her hips a little harder when she arches into me, testing my limits.
“But you’ll always be nothing more than a liability. A weak link. Wasting time on you would mean losing a war. You’re not worth it.”
I shove her away from me, and she stumbles before whirling around angrily. With a wink, I vanish from her sight, leaving her to haunt my cabin on her own.
I land in the bunker where most of my people have been crashing. Simone startles, since she’s the only one in here and trying to take a nap, it seems. Considering she’s been on sentry duty for three nights running, I’m not losing my temper.
“How badly do you need rest?” I ask her in a bored tone, hiding all the effects Ella has left me with.
She stands immediately, her eyes brightening. “I have a few days left in me,” she says, eyeing my body and noticing the softening appendage that
is still quite too firm. She bites down on her bottom lip as she reaches for me.
“I have enough energy to do anything you want me to,” she goes on, her voice husky.
I catch her wrist seconds before her fingertips touch the front of my jeans, and fear widens her eyes when I twist her arm back.
“Good,” I tell her curtly, even as she winces. “Since you don’t have anything else to do, you can follow Ella Ice and figure out where Gavin is. She’s in contact with him, and he’s feeding her valuable information. Follow her. Find him.”
Her eyes chill, and I release her wrist. She rubs it absently, though we both know it’s just for show. She likes a great deal of pain far more than she enjoys pleasure. It’s why she pushes my boundaries, knowing there will be some pain involved. Blame it on our captors. It fucked us all up in some way or another.
“What if we have just a little fun before I go? It’s been too long for you, Slade. And it’s been too long for me.”
Honestly, the pain is the only reason she even tries to tempt me. She’d much rather have an attractive female than me in her bed.
“I’m sure you’ll find plenty of willing volunteers after you return from this mission,” I tell her flippantly, turning to stroll out.
“What about you?” she calls to my back. “What’s your deal lately? You turn everyone away, and you certainly didn’t have that issue in the rings.”
Rolling my eyes, I keep calm and continue walking. Ella fucking Ice happened. Can’t even imagine touching another woman now. The thought is literally repulsive. I assume it’s the same for her with other men.
An unsettling feeling washes over me as my steps slow. Why would Ella be sneaking around to speak with Gavin? He claims to love a witch the demon has taken over, but...clearly he can’t be trusted.
He could be spewing lies and working both sides. A snake instills fear. A butterfly brings you much closer. It’s why our kind have such physical allure.
And Ella has been gullible with males in the past.
My fists clench, and I remind myself that I have far more important things that need attending so I don’t take on this stalking mission myself.