Unchained Beauty (Deadly Beauties Live On Book 5)

by C. M. Owens

  “Pushed too fast, Ella,” I mutter to myself when the door shuts.

  Wrapping up in his sheet, I dematerialize and land back in our house that has already been magically repaired. Dad startles when he sees me, his eyes dipping to the sheet then popping back up to meet mine as his jaw tightens.

  “Adam still dead?” I ask him, a little worried about dead people not staying dead, given our track record.

  “Adam! I told you his real name started with an A,” Dice says, still looking like Polly as he pops up from behind the counter next to Dad, a wrench in his hand.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Fixing the sink,” Dice states as though it should be obvious.

  “We have magic,” I say, even though the word magic makes me smile a little.

  “I don’t have that kind of magic, so I do things the old fashioned way when monster men come crashing into the house and cause me to soil the clothing I can’t remove,” Dice says, sounding a little miffed and utterly ridiculous.

  “Did you really—”

  “Of course not. I don’t have that biological urge,” Dice groans.

  Chaz walks in, looking relieved to see me. “Have you seen Kya? She started sneezing and then disappeared, so I’m freaking out because immortals don’t usually sneeze unless something bad is happening to them. What if that monster was contagious?”

  I point at Dice. “That monster is who’s contagious. Kya started turning into Polly number three and apparently wanted to ensure none of us saw. I saw. I was just coming out of the trance when she showed up.”

  Everyone looks at Dice, and his eyes widen as his phone rings. I see Karma’s name flash across the screen, and he ignores it before putting it down.

  “Why are you dodging Karma’s calls?” Chaz asks him. “She might be calling about Kya.”

  “She can call someone else about Kya. If she asks, I’m not here.”

  Kane groans.

  “Your pregnant girlfriend who can’t leave her safe house is calling you, and you’re dodging her calls?” Dad asks him on a huff.

  “Dray and I got a code word. If there’s anything wrong, he’ll text it to me.”

  His phone chimes with a text, and we all go stiff as Dice panics and scrambles to grab his phone, then heaves out a breath as he sags against the counter.

  “It’s not Dray. Just Karma threatening to tear my balls off if I don’t come see her now. No biggie.”

  “I go from one extreme to the other,” I say, thinking of the generally stoic Slade to…my madhouse.

  Something very unpleasant wafts into the house, and I pinch my nose.

  “Yeah, that’s your urine. Not even magic couldn’t expunge that territory marking,” Dice drawls, smirking at me as horror washes over me.

  Thoroughly dead and pissed on…

  That’s utterly mortifying.

  “Awesome,” I state dryly, as Chaz works damn hard to keep a straight face. “What do we know right now? Anything new?”

  “Gavin still refuses Slade’s offer, and—”

  “He doesn’t think he can do it?” I ask, frowning. “Because I’m pretty sure Slade is the only one who can do it. He works magic differently than we do.”

  “Oh, Gavin certainly thinks Slade is capable of doing it, because he said the same thing,” Dad says on a harsh exhale. “He doesn’t think Slade will do it. Whatever power he’s siphoning would be possibly enough to vaporize Hannah if Slade manages to be a conductor. And that’s the route Slade would more likely take.”

  I can’t even argue with that, even though the urge to defend him is almost stifling.

  Dad looks back down at his phone before speaking again. “We’re in the process of relocating. Again. I don’t know if Hannah sent Adam to us or if he tracked us himself. But I’m going to stay at the safe house with Alyssa for a while, because I didn’t know things like that existed, and I now know Drackus and Calypso can’t handle anything even close to that,” Dad says, lifting his phone.

  “You can’t handle anything close to that either,” I say, my heartbeat speeding up.

  His brow furrows as he looks over at me.

  “I’m just like you, Ella. I can—”

  “You’re not just like me. You’re more night stalker. That…whatever it was…can’t be destroyed with your strongest weapon. Its blood is equivalent to tasting toxic waste. Hannah knew that when she made it. It didn’t just withstand our magic. It baited us into using magic that it siphoned from us. Then he used it against us,” I go on. “It toyed with us.”

  “Then what would you have me do, Ella? Not fight it and allow it to kill everyone?” he growls.

  “No. I’d have you call me so I can fight it. The thing I’m best at when I’m too far gone is replicating the damage done to Slade. Hannah knows our strengths, so instead of using our strengths, we use hers and the methods of her predecessors. That’s what killed him. That magic I used wasn’t to actually hurt him. It was to bait him into absorbing too much, and clearly it worked.”

  Not that I remember anything past the point of letting the magic free from me.

  My chest is heaving, because I can feel panic clawing at my throat, the image of my father bloody and on the ground in a heap trying to niggle its way into the forefront on my mind.

  I know I’m stronger than Dad, and I couldn’t have killed it alone, not even when I gave into the power and let it run free with the force of the darkness tied to it. I could sense Slade with me, even as my mind stayed blank.

  I felt his power fuse with mine, even as the blinks seemed seconds apart, shielding me from what piece of my mind had taken over.

  “I can handle it, Ella. I’ve seen how to handle it now,” he says softly, his hand cupping my cheek.

  Dice’s phone starts playing Boogie Nights, and we all look over at him as he ignores Karma’s call again.

  “Have you seriously not gone to see your pregnant girlfriend simply because you don’t want her to make fun of you?” I ask on an irritated breath, deflecting.

  Dad won’t listen to me. He doesn’t have to. He’s the one in charge, and I’m left spinning in a circle, feeling helpless.

  “Uh, no,” Dice says, holding a finger up. “Her blind infatuation with me is what keeps her believing I’m charming. If she sees me like this, it’ll shatter the illusion.”

  I open my mouth to point out the fact Karma, for some unknown, insane reason actually loves him, but Dad waves me off.

  “Don’t even bother. I’ve already tried,” he says dismissively.

  “Is Mom really going to allow the Dragonites to exist outside our law?” I ask Dad, and he huffs out a breath like he wasn’t expecting that random shift.

  “We don’t want a war with them. They don’t want to go to war with us. I know you and I discussed this, and I completely agree at the possibility of this having consequences, but for now, it’s the most diplomatic resolution. One war at a time, Ella. I really do have to go. I’ll see if I can make sense of this portal book Chaz said you think has the answers.”

  The portal book that magically appeared in a random place where it happened to outdate every other book there by centuries.

  I don’t point that out. He has enough to worry about, and I think I know the answer to that riddle anyway.

  “Ella, is there any way you can safely discuss any of this with Alton? I never got the specifics on your interactions with him.” He says the words casually, but we both know he doesn’t really want me to discuss anything with Alton.

  He just wants me to admit I know where Alton is.

  “Kya told you,” I say on a huff under my breath.

  “Kya knew?” I hear Dad growl.

  Chaz clears his throat, and I look over to see him looking away.

  Obviously he knew, and he didn’t tell Dad. It sucks that his loyalties have to be torn within the family.

  My eyes move back to Dad’s, and I roll them. “Why would Slade tell you that?” I ask him, since that’s the only other
person who could have told.

  “Why wouldn’t you?” he volleys angrily.

  “Because I didn’t trust Alton with any of you, and it would have taken me to match him in power. I can’t trust me with anyone but Slade. Yet I knew none of you would trust me to handle this alone.”

  His eyes narrow. “We would have been right to do so, considering how things ended.”

  I nod slowly as I take a step back. “You missed the point of what I just said. Yes, Alton is unstable, but I was never in any personal danger, and honestly, neither was he. I might have been upset that night, but I learned something very valuable from all of that, and I never got a scratch. No one else got hurt, though everyone would have if they’d been there. Someone would have stepped into that circle. I also learned that I can get at least a temporary hold on control. I wasn’t wrong, Dad.”

  He just stares at me, probably trying to make sense of some of that, since he’s without all the details, it seems. He looks away and blinks a few times before walking toward the back.

  “I’ll call if I discover anything new about the portal. You closed it last time. Could you do it again?”

  “It was the wrong portal last time,” I say quietly. “I’m trying to figure out the rest now.”

  He nods, then clears his throat. “Right then. I’ll be in touch.”

  He dematerializes from the room, and I groan low in my throat. “Is it possible to feel completely right and sickeningly wrong at the same time?”

  “He sometimes forgets Drackus and Calypso did all the same things to protect their daughter in completely different ways he and Alyssa both disagreed with,” Chaz says as he gently claps me on the back.

  “Vicious circle really. Everyone screws up their kids even when they’re trying their damnedest not to. Good thing I’m gonna break that circle, because my kid will be epic,” Dice states dryly.

  “I know I could be wrong about the dragonite situation, but I don’t feel wrong. I do think I’ve been wrong about my powers though, and since Slade said what he did, and you mentioned the fact I urinated—something I don’t even have the biological urge to do—in public, I sort of think I have a general idea of how to lasso it in little by little.”

  My eyes flick to Chaz’s, and he cocks his head.

  “Ella, if there’s a way to leash yourself, I don’t even care if the source is Slade. What would you have to do?”

  “Free my beasts a little, like—”

  “Us,” Thad says as he and Roslyn appear.

  She’s avoided me for a few weeks now, almost as though she’s sensed what I am to Slade. It hurts that she fears me, but considering how unhinged I’ve been as of late, I can’t fault her for her caution, and secretly appreciate it.

  “What does freeing your beasts have to do with the dragonite debacle?” Chaz asks.

  I gesture outside. “The thought ran through my head that I was going to let Sierra come back and rip the body to shreds and piss on whatever was left. Apparently I did that, because those tiny chunks aren’t much to look at.”

  They all just blink at me.

  “My magic has been used so much lately that I lose myself too soon. I’m physically dressing myself because even the small doses are dragging me in for another hit. It was almost getting hard to dematerialize so much. Then I shifted. It was so liberating. I’d forgotten how much stronger I feel. After Slade pointed it out, I realized something. And the urine is leading me to believe something more.”

  “I’m still trying to figure out how squatting in front of all of us while you were literally an animal has anything to do with the dragonites. Anyone else struggling with that?” Dice asks, looking around.

  “I’m with Red on the confusion,” Chaz states flatly.

  Dice groans and pulls at a red pigtail.

  “I miss my hair,” he whimpers.

  “I get it,” Thad says quietly.

  “It doesn’t have to be a thing,” I tell him discreetly. “But if I do this, it might help with the lassoing effect. Because I feel like it’s what has to be done. Do you understand that?”

  “Completely,” he and Roslyn answer, at the same time Chaz and Dice say, “Not at all.”

  “Hashtag, jinx,” Dice says, winking.

  Chaz shudders.

  “I can’t fucking believe I’m on Dice’s side of the fence.”

  “Just let it happen, brother,” Dice says, clapping Chaz on his shoulder. “Hashtag, BBF. Hashtag, you’re still jinxed so stop talking.”

  “It’s BFF,” Roslyn says, causing Thad to snort when I give her a look that says, I can’t believe you’re giving him attention right now. We have a system.

  “Best bros for life,” Dice says, wiggling his eyebrows like he’s hilarious.

  “Just because I’m with your girlfriend’s sister, that doesn’t mean we’re brothers. And I still want to kill you for that shit you pulled that caused me to touch Frankie’s naked ass.”

  “Not really my fault. I merely put the dominos in place, and—”

  “This is why we don’t pay him attention when we’re talking about something very serious,” I interrupt, looking pointedly at Roslyn and Chaz.

  “So you feel it strong enough to do something that is definitely going to irrevocably change things,” Thad says to me, getting back on topic.

  “Strong what enough to do what?” Chaz growls. “For fuck’s sake, break it down for me.”

  “Ella, as we all know, is stronger than Kane and Alyssa, but has no control. She’s saying she’s more like us and less like them as far as instinct goes. The stronger the animal, the more dominant. And the dragonites threatening to endanger our entire way of life and drag us back into the darker days when things like these rings went on unattended will be the next war we’re fighting,” Thad explains.

  “Really? You got all that from lycan urine?” Dice asks him incredulously.

  Roslyn starts to acknowledge Dice, but I hold my hand up. “Don’t,” I remind her. “Anyway,” I say, looking back at Chaz, who still looks utterly confused, “think of your instincts when you give way to the dragon. What do you sense?”

  “I sense Kya mostly, everything about her. Blood. I can smell things differently and see them differently.”

  “He doesn’t shift, so the instinct is different,” Thad tells me.

  “When I’m in wolf, my instinct is to look to Ella, not Kane or Alyssa,” Roslyn finally says, then it grows really quiet, because the words we’ve been directly avoiding are out there. “I have to battle my instinct when one direction is different from the other. It’s only happened on occasion, and it snaps when she loses control. I revert easily to Kane after that.”

  Chaz’s eyes widen. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. You can’t be saying you’re ready to take over as queen.”

  I burst out laughing, and so does Roslyn and Thad.

  “Oh, hell no. That’s why I said it doesn’t have to be a thing.” My face and tone go serious in the next breath. “But I do have to disobey them and go make a new arrangement with the dragonites to soothe discord inside me, because…I’m apparently territorial.”

  “As most queens are,” Thad states like he’s trying to pity me.

  “You do this and it could start a war,” Dice says seriously. “We’re already in one war.”

  “If I don’t do this, we might not have soldiers for this war. The second this arrangement with the dragonites is official, the rebellions will spring up, and everyone will think Kane and Alyssa are weaker,” I explain.

  He tries to run a hand through his hair, but it gets stuck in his pigtail, and I look away before his cursing and his flopping begins.

  My eyes connect with Chaz’s as Kya suddenly materializes in the room, drawing all of our attention.

  She’s wearing some really tight leather leggings and a crop top, eyes twinkling like she’s just drained some dark souls, and she looks…like her again.

  “Polly fixed it?” I ask, impressed.

  “Oh, after I told her ho
w repulsive I found Dice, and explained Karma is my twin and we share some cosmic bond like all immortal twins, she fixed me.”

  “Why the hell hasn’t she fixed me too? And you only find me repulsive because I look like Polly right now,” Dice says, adding that last part quickly.

  Kya pops over to Chaz’s side, and he narrows his eyes on her.

  “At least tell me you took a picture,” Chaz groans.

  She pats his chest, then looks around at all our faces.

  “Well, at least tell me how much longer I have to look like this,” Dice bites out.

  “She told me what you did to them, so I don’t really care how long you’re stuck like that,” she says absently. “What’s going on right here?”

  “What’s going on is mutiny. Something I never thought I’d see when I joined this damn group,” Dice grumbles.

  “I won’t do it if you can tell me I’m wrong. Tell me there won’t be dissension in the ranks immediately, and I’ll find another way to start the lasso effect.”

  “Lasso effect?” Kya asks.

  “I’ll fill you in,” Chaz tells her, huffing out a breath. “At least talk to Alyssa first. Kane is stretched thin right now, exhausted from everything going on at once, and he feels guilty for Amy’s death. But Alyssa might be more pliable.”

  “Mom is confined to a bed and doesn’t need me there to stress her out with—”

  “She’s our queen,” Chaz reminds me. “She’s your queen too if you’re saying you’re not ready. Let her remind you why she’s been a good queen, Ella. You’ve spent a lot of time around Slade in the past week, and I think you’re forgetting you’re the middle ground between us and them right now.”

  “Kya’s the middle ground,” I argue.

  “Don’t even pretend to be that obtuse,” Thad says in exasperation. “He’s right. Talk to Alyssa. She was strong enough to still deal with arguments and decisions when she was downed to a bed and begging you to come out of her. She can do it again.”

  “I seriously don’t trust myself right now, and I might black out if the darkness sees a weakness.”

  “We’ve been going just as crazy, hence all the extra shift runs,” Roslyn says, clearing her throat. “It’s in the air. We can sense it coming, and knowing what it is doesn’t seem to make us any less antsy.”