by C. M. Owens
“But you want to die, so you’re waiting on the right time to mate me and sever the final bond, doing limited damage to me when you kill yourself for whatever prophecy calls for a Gemini twin.”
Only he’s not doing it to punish Alton, the way his brother thinks. Slade doesn’t want anyone seeing his suicide as weakness.
Slade’s eyes narrow, and the lusty spell is broken when he grabs my hands and shoves them above my head.
“You’re going to tell me who you’ve been talking to, Princess. Or—”
“You’ve already admitted you can’t hurt me,” I remind him.
His eyes narrow. “If you’re hiding my brother, I’ll kill everyone in your family. Do you doubt that?”
When my heart starts hammering in my chest and fear finally replaces the last of the stupid arousal, power flies out of me, slamming into him and throwing him off me so hard that he’s launched at least thirty feet away.
He lands hard, and immediately starts laughing when he jumps back up to his feet. His torn shirt fall off in tattered pieces, and even in the dark, I can see all the brutal scars all over his body.
Scars that must have caused so much pain to be formed.
Scars like no other immortal has ever had because our skin heals too quickly and cleanly.
They stretch all over his torso, shoulders, arms…everywhere. The protective symbols are inked all over him—so many more than I’ve ever seen on anyone, and the scars rise through them, making them all the more obvious in the places where there are markings.
When lightning strikes despite a clear sky, it illuminates him. He looks like the devil waiting to collect another soul.
“Threaten my family again, and I’ll show you how easy it is for me to really lose control. We’ll find out who’s stronger when I’m not on a leash.”
“Princess, you couldn’t fucking kill me if you lost it. You only want to claim me when you lose it.”
“Liar,” I say as I stalk closer.
“Am I?” he drawls, amused as he starts to circle me. “You throw yourself at me. Instinct rules you because you’re completely lost to the madness. Why do you think it’s me who can bring you down? Sound familiar? Perhaps a Kane and Alyssa scenario?”
Taunting me, he tsks and shakes his head like I’m an idiot he’s mocking sympathy for.
“Seems whether you’re sober or high, you don’t take rejection well.” He stops circling and just stares at me coldly. “The things I do are not some romantic gestures to spare your feelings. The people I kill are not tokens of my affection, Princess.”
“And the people you’ve spared despite your brutal nature to kill?” I ask dryly.
His eyes narrow to slits. “Just because they’re still breathing, that doesn’t mean I’ve spared them.”
“Would you let me bind you to a truth vow like you did Polly and revisit these questions?” I ask, smirking when he visibly stiffens and watches me like he’s waiting for me to strike and attempt it.
“Didn’t think so,” I state blandly, acting very unimpressed, even though I know it’s like tempting a cobra to strike at a hand.
When I twirl a lock of hair around my finger, his eyes dart to the motion then back to mine as he arches an eyebrow at me and gives me a dry look.
“If you saw me having sex—” I pause when he slips and growls before stifling it and clearing his throat. That causes me to grin because I’m tired and apparently I get crazy when I’m tired. “—then you’ve seen all of me. Possibly a lot. It’s rather unfair, since I’ve not seen as much of you.”
“Don’t play this game with me, Princess,” he says in a gruff tone.
“What game? You’re the one saying you’re completely immune to me. I’m a weak and pathetic little thorn you deal with. Yet you refuse to train me, say nasty things to compensate, and then expect me to not figure out that I’m not actually your thorn.”
His expression turns unimpressed.
“I’m your weakness,” I add, watching as a dark expression crosses his face. “You spent centuries watching a short period of time on a loop. If you don’t want me dead, I’m assuming it’s because those visions made you care about me.”
It happens too fast for me to see it.
One second he’s standing several feet away. In the next instant, he’s directly in front of me and pinning me against a stray tree in the meadow. It cracks when my back hits it, and I lock eyes with his, letting my own turn silver in warning.
Just in case.
The gaze in his eyes is predatory and lethal, but my fear is once again weirdly absent.
“I had centuries to see just enough to drive me insane,” he says quietly, pressing his body right against mine, even as he keeps his head leaned over and puts his mouth to my ear. “I’ve spent centuries learning to hate you enough to keep my control.”
His lips brush my neck, and I arch into him as his hands slide down to my waist, his grip tightening on me like he hates the fact he enjoys touching me. I feel the same way every time I touch him.
But right now, my arms are dangling loosely at my sides as I show more control than Mr. Control.
He drags his lips back up to my jaw, never actually kissing any part of me, just teasing me with his lips.
“I couldn’t smell you there. Hear you,” he whispers, and I fight hard to remain still when the tip of his tongue barely brushes my jaw. “Taste you,” he adds, then grips me tighter. “Feel you. Is that what you want to hear, Princess? You want to know that it’s a bit more of a fucking struggle for me when you’re near?”
When he drags his lips back down, I feel the teasing sting of his fangs, and my blood pumps faster in my body, almost desperate for him to do something that won’t be undone.
“Is that what you need to hear?” he asks in a hushed breath when the pressure of his fangs is gone before he breaks the skin.
Inwardly groaning, I refrain from begging. Because I know it’s just a side effect of our entwined destinies and all that shit.
Alton was so wrong.
Slade isn’t willing to die just so his twin can live in misery out of obligation.
Slade is just broken. Like the women in that suicide circle. Ready to die because they don’t want to face the nightmares that come with freedom after prison.
“No. I want to know why you’re so desperate to die when you know your brother already lost his will to live. And if a Gemini has to die, let it be him. You get his death, and—”
My breath comes out in a rush as he dematerializes and rematerializes several feet away, a smirk donning his lips. “Tell my brother I’ll be seeing him soon, Princess. Glad we had this chat.”
With that, he’s gone, and it’s like a tub of ice water is poured over me.
Oh, that twisted, insensitive son of a bitch just used supercharged incubus powers on me right after what I went through? All to make me stupid enough to accidentally slip and tell him my information source?
Shit. Now he knows I’m in contact with Alton.
I also know he’s not stupid enough to target anyone in my family. Again.
Cursing, I sit down and stare at the woods, feeling stupid and gullible and…
Huffing out a breath, I take a good long look at my whiny self.
Tomorrow, things have to change. I can’t be this way one more day.
I can’t be a danger to my family. And I think I just figured out a way to restore the piece of me that was stolen when that bond snapped and betrayal flooded me so intensely that I was sick and feverish for the first three days of my new immortal life.
I just have to really piss Slade off in order to succeed.
Then I have to make him sort of hate/love me enough to bind us and all that. If I’m right, then I’ll be able to hold onto my sanity long enough to kill Hannah and her army of damnable creatures, stop the portal from opening and releasing whatever hell it is she intends to unleash, let Alton play whatever part a dead Gemini has in this whole ordeal, and save the day.
> Piece of cake.
So long as I’m right…
We’re all dead.
Chapter 9
SLADE
Staring at myself in the mirror and working damn hard not to blink just so I don’t accidentally linger and let myself see her right now, I clutch the sink until it breaks and sends porcelain fragments scattering across the floor.
The door to my bathroom flies open, and Kya poises at the door like she’s ready to tackle a bathroom bandit. She relaxes when she sees me.
“I take it something went wrong?” she asks.
Before I’m forced to answer that rhetorical question with a deflective answer that doesn’t let her know I damn near just made a fucking mess of things, I hear my name being called.
Stalking past her and out of the front cabin door, I narrow my eyes on Simone and Hank, who have just made it back with our two missing females in tow. Both of them are out of breath.
The two dazed females sit quietly as I rein in my own anger that has me wanting to kill Simone and Hank—when we’re not in front of everyone.
“It was all a distraction,” Simone growls. “The princess was sent to the forest, because her family knew you’d be distracted. They captured Gavin again, but Hank and I lost them when they realized we were following.”
Everyone looks at me. Everyone waits for me to give them the order they think I’ll give. Kya’s eyes are wide from the steps, and a few people cast her suspicious looks like they’re worried she’ll run to warn them if I make the call.
Her family knew I’d be distracted by Ella.
Simone just fucking announced it to everyone here, and now her eyes are narrowed in challenge like she’s begging me to deny it.
Ella is the bane of my existence at this particular moment.
Instead of reacting as they expect, I smirk. “I killed the Type A incubus you left alive, even though he was imprisoning hordes of women, two of which are our own,” I drawl, watching as her pupils dilate.
Hank stiffens beside her, and a lot of accusatory eyes swing toward Simone and Hank.
“I killed him, even though the princess—who you left to remain imprisoned, even though she freed all of us—ordered me not to. Do you really think me a puppet, Simone?”
She swallows thickly, no longer looking as confident in her defiance as she did seconds ago.
“You left a slaver alive in a forest that only guards him, even though you’d managed to gain secret access without his knowledge, simply to kill a princess you envy.” Stepping closer, I cock my head. “Do you think I save her for myself? Or do you think I repay a debt owed by us so that they can’t come to call us under their reign and make us their loyal subjects out of such a debt?”
Everyone is staring.
No one makes a sound.
Not even Simone, who is hesitant to answer.
“You left him alive because I refused to fuck you, and you thought he’d kill off the one token that keeps the royals from storming in and demanding our loyalty. Is that what you’re saying?”
Her eyes water as she growls. “That’s not at all what I’m saying, and you know it,” she bites out. “Don’t make me the villain. You’ve forgotten the main quest. You let the witch-wolf live. You let a fucking Aquarius live. And—”
“Whenever you’re finished rambling about the debts I’ve paid by giving them the unimportant things, allow me to point out the fact you’ve forgotten one important thing: Alton was kept separate for many years. He possibly knows more than any of us about those rings. He’s been kept close by the ones in charge. He’s damaged in ways none of us even know, because he was weak enough to turn over a bond that could have saved him. Could possibly have saved all of us. And Ella knows where he is.”
A hushed breath falls out of a lot of lips, and Simone’s fight seems to die when I smirk.
“The princess has the one person who really matters. You think I give a shit about Gavin right now? Do you think anyone here does?” I drone on.
“You said the objective was Gavin,” she argues.
Leaning down, putting my eyes directly level with hers as I stare through her, I say, “I told you to follow the princess and kill him if he got too close. I knew she was communicating with someone, but I underestimated her by never assuming she had exactly who we’re looking for. The best part is, she doesn’t even know we’re looking for him for any other reason than my vengeful justice. And her family doesn’t know she’s hiding him.”
“How do you know that?” Kya asks from close by.
“Because you would have told me if they had,” I answer, looking away from Simone to stare at Kya like I’m daring her to say otherwise.
She may love her hybrid abomination inside that circle of royals, but she’s still the most loyal person here to me.
“I wouldn’t have said anything about Gavin,” she tells me, mostly to just be petulant. She’d have told me that too, if she’s being honest with herself.
A few looks pass between us, and the unease people have been having around her eases a little when they regard our interaction on the matter.
“Sure you wouldn’t have,” I patronizingly counter.
My gaze shifts back to Simone. “You should have stayed on the princess and killed the Type A before you secretly released her. You would have led us right to Alton eventually if you’d done as I asked. Now she’ll be expecting a tail.”
She drops her eyes, her lower lip trembling as Hank stays so silent I half wonder if he’s died of fear. As a low growl rattles out of me, Simone starts to speak, but I get right against her ear so that no one else can hear what I say as I make the sky crackle with thunder.
“I gave you an order, and you taunted me behind my back. You’re only getting to live because I have a point to make. You decide if you want to keep breathing,” I whisper. I let my lips touch her ear, giving her almost a briefly confusing moment of consoling, then add, “Otherwise, I’ll free you and give you a thirty minute head start before I track you down and let you watch me rip your heart from your chest.”
Leaning back, I smile darkly at her as the watery mascara runs down her face with her tears, leaving a streak of charcoal in rivets across her cheeks.
Talking louder, putting on a show, I say, “Give me a blood oath, and you can stay. Or you have to leave this camp. I can’t have you and Hank poisoning the water. I need people I can trust. So leave and give up any chance of getting your revenge, or stay with conditions.”
Hank predictably jumps to answer. “I’ll give a blood oath.”
No need to even threaten him.
“I’ll give a blood oath,” Simone answers shakily.
“I need to speak with Hank and Simone alone,” I tell everyone while looking at them. As soon as we have privacy, I cant my head, studying the two far weaker beings than I anticipated them to be.
As soon as the blood oath is finished, I catch Simone by her wrist, letting Hank walk away now that he’s on my puppet strings.
“I see everything around her when I close my eyes,” I whisper to Simone, hearing the sound of her swallowing hard. “I’m going to let her kill you the next time she loses her mind, and now there’s nothing you can do about it.”
She makes a sound in the back of her throat as I lean back and wipe away one of her tears, as she starts to shiver more consistently. I shush her with that faux cajoling tone once more.
Wiping one more tear from her cheek and giving her a cold smile, I quietly add, “You were right all along. She’s mine, and I’ll kill for her. But you can’t tell anyone that, because I have your oath.” I give her a pat on the back. “But I still only have one fucking agenda, so you were also wrong, and your entire little show was pointless.”
She holds in her sobs as I straighten and walk away. Hank doesn’t know it, but he’ll be dying too.
It’ll be a parting gift to my mate.
Fucking Ella.
Forcing me to scramble to recover.
If she hadn’t s
lipped and given away her source by telling me she knew he wanted to die, then I’d have had nothing to deal with the fiasco that my obsession with her just brought about.
Slamming my door behind me as I enter the cabin, I drop to a seat, immediately pouring a double shot of bourbon. At least the liquor has improved over the centuries.
I’m not so impressed with much else since I’m not a mortal.
It still takes a lot of it to even bring me any real sense of inebriation, though.
Kya walks in, gauging me warily as she lowers herself to a seat. “The stars aren’t sticking to their patterns. The last portal knocked everything out of whack. I have people checking in and searching for answers on when the next portal can be opened.”
“I’ll figure it out,” I say dismissively, staring at a spot on the wall and still refusing to close my eyes and see her.
“What about Gavin? I can’t do anything to betray them, but I will give you information.”
“Is that not betrayal?” I ask her absently.
“We’re still in a truce. A shaky one, but a truce. It’s not a betrayal to offer useful and helpful information with an ally. They’re sharing this information knowing I’ll share it with you.”
“Was Ella really a distraction?” I decide to ask, cutting my gaze toward her.
“I didn’t know that until after they were done. I was here when they got the tip on his location and made a plan to go after him without you interrupting. That forest was tricky enough to—”
“She was captured by a Type A incubus,” I say coolly, causing her to clear her throat.
“Clearly, a threat like that is not supposed to exist in that forest. The forest is the worst of it, and it won’t kill a royal when it was created by one. Well, that’s not a guarantee but a very promising theory.”
“You knew the forest was created by Alyssa?” I ask, then curse my own self for fixating on that. “Never mind. None of it matters. I’ll be here if anyone needs me.”
My star charts are suddenly back in my lap, and I resume my interrupted work.
“Follow Ella,” I tell her. “The second she leads you to Alton, call me. I’ll take it from there.”