Forbidden (The Preternaturals)

by Zoe Winters

  “H-how do you know a claim would protect me?” She was still confused over why it mattered so much to him that she be protected. He couldn’t want to actually spend eternity with her. He didn’t love her. They’d only been on speaking terms for a few days now. She represented everything he hated… someone with the gall to try to control him.

  “Cain said it would. I believe him. He’s old enough to know.”

  Angeline shook her head. “No. Tam’s magic will work. Everything will be fine. You can’t claim me. Claims… they mean something. They’re supposed to be for two vampires who love each other. It’s a mating link. It’s not a joke or a tool to use for convenience.”

  “Anthony claimed a human, and he didn’t get her permission. He just did it. He linked them, and they sorted it out later.”

  “You don’t want to spend eternity with me!”

  Hadrian growled, his eyes glowing dangerously red, his fangs pushing through the gums. “Don’t tell me what I want! You are mine.”

  He rushed her and bit into her throat, drinking fast, with purpose. Angeline closed her eyes and focused. Her wings came out, and she put up her shields, shoving Hadrian to the other end of the tent. He looked up at her from the ground, wounded, as if she’d viciously kicked him instead of using self-defense.

  “I never had to let you drink from me,” she said. “You aren’t stronger than me! You can’t make me do anything!”

  “Then why did you?” Hadrian stood, dusting the sand off his pants, still prowling closer, even though her shields remained up. He bounced off the barrier when he reached the edge.

  “I wanted to. I’ll give you anything you want, but not that. I couldn’t bear it.”

  “You saw too much of me with your angel surveillance? Did you decide I wasn’t good enough for eternity? You made me. Don’t judge the monster you created.”

  “I couldn’t bear being tied to you forever knowing you didn’t feel for me the way a vampire is supposed to feel with a mate.” She wouldn’t say the way I feel for you. The words wouldn’t come. And he might only scoff at them if they did.

  “And why will you give me anything I want?” he asked. He stood as close as he could physically get without touching the barrier.

  She shrugged.

  “Is it guilt?”

  “Maybe in part,” she said.

  “What if I forgave you right now, for everything and meant it? What would you do then?”

  “Whatever you wanted,” she whispered. She didn’t know how to explain it to him. She couldn’t even explain it to herself. All she knew was that she wanted to be where he was, and there were precious few things he could ask for that she wouldn’t happily deliver.

  “Except the claim,” he said.

  The tent flap opened and they turned, startled to find a woman—probably demon—with wavy black hair and bright violet eyes standing in the doorway of the tent. She wore a long, slinky gold gown as if she was about to walk the runway for a high-fashion lingerie show, and she carried a red drawstring bag.

  “Oh, this looks like I’m interrupting something,” she said. “I have a special knack for that. And it’s the bad thing about tents. You can’t exactly knock.”

  “What do you want?” Hadrian snapped.

  “Cain sent me.” She wasn’t ruffled at all by the vampire’s demeanor. But then why would she be? “He said you had a clothing project for me.” She extended her hand in greeting. “I’m Daria.”

  Hadrian looked at the offered hand as if it were on fire and might immolate him, so Angeline stepped forward and shook her hand.

  The demon smiled then sized up Hadrian until he stalked to the door. “I’ll leave you two alone. I’m going for a walk.”

  When they were alone, Daria let out a low whistle. “Mate trouble?” she asked.

  “Oh, no. He’s not my mate,” Angeline said.

  “Mmmhmm. Whatever you say. Between just us girls, if you want to keep it that way, I suggest you keep him away from your neck. So what are we doing?”

  “What?” Angeline asked, confused by the midstream topic change.

  “The project Cain said you had for me.”

  “Oh.” Angeline closed her eyes and focused to make her wings shrink back out of sight, then she slipped the slinky red top off and spun in a slow circle. “I need more of these.”

  “Oh, that’s practical. Support plus wing access. I never paused to wonder about a lady angel or guardian’s undergarments.”

  “Can you do it?” Angeline asked. “I mean, corsets are complicated, I’d understand if you didn’t…”

  The demon laughed. “I’m old. Trust me, I’ve both made and worn them. I’m out of practice, but I’ll remember and find my way. Don’t you worry.”

  Daria began unlacing her. “Do you mind if I borrow this so I have something to work from? I’ll also need to take your measurements.”

  Angeline nodded, not sure how she’d feel being without it. Maybe she should learn to live without them. There was something sick about holding onto the constriction placed upon her by Linus and the angels as if it were some mystical safety and not a wearable cage.

  “Do you tight lace?” Daria asked.

  “Sometimes,” Angeline said, “but not regularly. I can’t do it by myself.” Not that Hadrian wouldn’t be happy to tight lace her. He’d probably get a perverse thrill from it.

  “So you aren’t going for any particular waist reduction?”

  “Oh, no. It’s not about that for me,” she said, hoping they wouldn’t get into a discussion about what it was about.

  The demon helped her out of the undergarment then took a tape measure from her bag. “Arms up.” She took multiple measurements and jotted them down on a notepad.

  When Daria finished measuring, Angeline went to her bag and pulled out a red brocade corset from her previous secret stash.

  “How many do you need and what colors?” Daria asked.

  “A-are you sure it’s not too much trouble?” Angeline undid the busk and slipped the red corset on and fastened the stays in the front.

  The demon laughed. “Don’t be silly. I live for two things: kicking asses and making clothing. This will keep me busy for weeks, and when you’ve got eternity, you take all the side projects you can find. Now how many and what colors?”

  The demon seemed determined to be the fairy godmother of corsets.

  “I-I don’t know what’s reasonable to ask for.”

  “I can start with five, and if you need more later, you can come back to me.”

  “Two black, two red, and maybe another ivory one?”

  “Done,” the demon said.

  “Would you mind lacing me up?” Angeline turned and pulled her long hair out of the way.

  Daria pulled the laces snug and tied them.

  Angeline watched their reflections in the full-length mirror. “Do you think I can get away with wearing just this with the pants? My tops are all low-backs. They won’t look right with this.”

  “Oh yeah. I’d wear it,” Daria said. From the looks of it, Daria would wear a lot of things.

  “What if you need your wings?”

  Angeline shrugged. “I’ll worry about that bridge when I get to it.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Hadrian stalked down the cobblestone paths, the nervous energy rolling off of him in waves. Who cares what she wants? Claim her! His demon side insisted. It was one more reason to let go of any residual anger he’d held toward his dark angel.

  He knew first hand what it was like to live with a demon side hijacking half or more of his brain… depending on the issue at hand. With the potential claiming, the demon had staked a good eighty percent mental real estate, constantly chanting and chattering away in there that Angeline must be claimed, and she must be claimed now.

  The vampire knew now what Angeline must have felt when she’d determined Hadrian should be her mate, the need she’d had to turn him, to keep him with her always. If he did this, he was no different. />
  The part of him that retained humanity was disgusted. He couldn’t just claim her like some barbarian taking spoils, if she didn’t want to be tied to him forever… Only… didn’t she? She’d never lost that half-starved look of longing. She wanted to be with him. She’d take any crumb he offered, even if what he offered was only pain. Even if all he wanted was to use her, she seemed willing to line up for the slaughter.

  She was right, a claim meant something. It was a serious commitment you couldn’t walk away from, because even if you walked away, your blood would forever call to each other, drawing you back together over and over. You couldn’t take it back or undo it, and once it was done nothing would stop you from protecting what was yours.

  Anthony hadn’t asked Charlee. From what Hadrian heard, Linus had threatened her before the tournament for vampire king, and Anthony had claimed her immediately, without thought, to stop her from being played with—which Hadrian knew was exactly as awful as it sounded.

  And those two seemed happy enough together. Hadrian might hate Anthony, but the vampire king loved his mate and child. And despite his rough edges, the human vampire queen seemed equally smitten.

  Hadrian’s thoughts went back to his dark angel. If He was using Anthony’s behaviors as justifications for his own, he was scraping the bottom of the morality barrel.

  Angeline’s only hesitance was that she thought he didn’t want to be with her. Admittedly, he’d tried to hold those cards close. He was uncomfortable giving her any power or leverage over him again. If she only knew how she affected him, how much he inexplicably needed to protect her, how he needed her with him all the time.

  He’d been so convinced that his desire for her all those years ago had been merely a vampiric illusion, her getting inside and controlling his mind. But although she’d used her powers to push him over the edge to break his vow of celibacy, the attraction had been genuine. He’d seen the delicate pieces of her soul hidden beneath the temptress she displayed to the world. He’d wanted to protect her then, and he equally wanted to protect her now, if not more so. Because she’d let him in. She’d shown him her vulnerability honestly. She’d shown true remorse and had put herself in his hands, and there was nothing inside his makeup that could walk away from that.

  Hadrian growled and kicked at the sand at the edges of the path. He spun on his heel and moved with purpose back to his tent. He’d claim her, and she’d just have to deal with it. And if she didn’t like it? Tough. Perhaps this would be her penance. Eternity with him. Perhaps she should have thought more carefully before making him a vampire. There are consequences.

  “Hadrian.”

  The vampire considered not stopping, pretending he didn’t hear him, but Cain was just as fast as he was—if not more so—and had advantages the vampire didn’t. If the demon leader sought audience with him, he would get it. Hadrian stopped and turned.

  “Yes?”

  “You’re coming with me to collect some things we need for Tam’s ritual.”

  “This comes as a revelation to me,” Hadrian said, annoyed that the demon should think to command him like some minion.

  Cain moved into the vampire’s space and stared him down. “I would like to remind you that you breathe only because my mate decided to spare your life. So if she needs something for a ritual to protect us all from annihilation or worse, then when I say jump, you say, how high? Try it with me now: Jump.”

  Hadrian growled. “If I were going to become your indentured servant, death would have been preferable.”

  “I forget how young you are,” Cain said. “The young are always so dramatic. Come on, let’s go.”

  The vampire didn’t have much of a choice. Cain could drag him back to his cave of fun torture time and carve him up some more. Without the sun, Hadrian wouldn’t have the mercy of falling dead for the day. He fell in step beside the demon as Cain led them down several streets until they reached the portal.

  “Why can’t your mate run her own errands?”

  “Tam is meditating and gathering her strength. This will take a lot out of her and she needs every second before the full Moon in silence and meditation.”

  “Are you sure it’s night where we’re going?” Hadrian asked. Cain wouldn’t be affected by sunlight, but it would roast the vampire, and he preferred to remain in his non-roasted form.

  “Tam already thought about that when I said I was bringing you. Yet again, she saves your life. So you owe her twice.”

  Hadrian bristled when Cain pulled him through the portal. Even with a demon side, Hadrian couldn’t come and go through the demon dimension without a full demon physically helping him through.

  The portal spit them out into a small village in Romania called Biertan.

  “What exactly are we getting?” Hadrian asked as they moved down the old streets like shadows in the night.

  “A gypsy. There is a tribe that Tam knows. They have very strong familial magic, and she needs a few things they know more about than she does. She gave me a list.”

  The vampire laughed. “The ancient, immortal, and all-powerful demon leader has a honey-do list?” Hadrian couldn’t believe the demon was allowing himself near magic users of any kind. He was pretty paranoid about them. He must really love Tam.

  Cain growled, and his eyes glowed. His perfect facade faded out in his irritation to reveal the mark on his forehead. It was a mark that insisted no one should trust him. And yet, Hadrian had more recently proven to be a betrayer than Cain. For whatever reason, the demon leader seemed to get dragged into helping others more often than harming them.

  “I await the honey-do lists your mate creates with breathless anticipation,” Cain said.

  “I don’t have a mate.”

  “Yet. You’ll have Angeline claimed inside of the week, then I’ll be cracking the jokes.”

  Hadrian didn’t respond. He didn’t want to admit how right the demon was. Inside of the week? Hell, it would happen the next time he could get her alone and get her defenses down. They’d sort out the pieces later. She couldn’t be mad at him forever. He needed to shut up the demon in his head. Mixing his blood with hers was the only way.

  “It’s here,” Cain said.

  They stopped in front of an abandoned tavern at the edge of the village.

  “Are you sure you got the right directions? This place looks dead.” It appeared as if the tavern hadn’t seen a sentient being for well over a hundred years.

  “Looks can be deceiving.” Cain knocked on the door in what sounded like Morse code.

  There was a long pause, during which Hadrian was sure the demon would give up and turn around. But then he heard a shuffling sound. The door opened and, a dark head peered out.

  “What do you want, demon?”

  “Tamara sent me,” Cain said, obviously uncomfortable as an errand boy.

  “Tamara who? We don’t know any Tamara.”

  “Tamar,” Cain corrected, remembering Tam’s original name. “The cycler.”

  The gypsy looked skeptical. “Tamar would never consort with a demon unless she came to you to end her suffering. You feel old enough at least.”

  “She did come to me for that. She ended up as my mate, instead. May we come in? We need your help.”

  The woman looked from Cain to Hadrian, her skepticism growing. “My entire tribe is behind this door. If this is a trap of some kind, we will chant you both into a jar faster than you can hurt us.”

  The demon leader flinched. “I assure you, it’s not a trap.”

  “Why didn’t she come herself? We haven’t seen her in two centuries. She never calls.”

  “She would have come, but she’s preparing herself for the ritual we need to do. And I’m the one she trusts most.”

  The woman laughed and shook her head. “All right. Come in. Maybe you can entertain us before we put you in jars.”

  Cain hesitated but wiped the anxiety from his face, replacing it with a stern mask of control and crossed the threshold. Hadrian
followed.

  There was no tavern.

  It was merely a glamour to conceal their encampment—a doorway into their protected space. Small houses dotted the landscape in a circle around a large field. In the center of the field was a campfire with men and women and a few children sitting around it.

  “Why does everything look so ancient?” Hadrian asked. “Haven’t these people ever heard of electricity?”

  Cain jabbed him in the ribs. “Shut up. These people are serious.”

  Hadrian looked behind him to where they’d come in and could see the faintest outline of a glowing blue light in the shape of a door to mark where the “tavern” had been.

  The dark-haired woman laughed, and her bracelets jangled as she led them to the fire. “We avoid modern technology. It interferes with our magic. We’re more powerful when we stay away from it. Many other tribes have integrated with the modern world. As a result, they can’t do this.” She turned her hand up, and a glowing ball of purple energy rose and hovered over her palm. Few Roma tribes could conjure this form of magic.

  Cain took a step back, and she laughed.

  She looked hard at the demon leader. “You are extraordinarily old. And yet you have a healthy fear.”

  “I’m Cain,” he said. “I’m the oldest. The demons are mine.”

  Hadrian was sure by the look on her face, that the woman knew he was “that Cain” and probably a few other things about him if her expression was any indication.

  This time she took a step back, showing her own healthy dose of fear. The other members of the tribe responded instantly to her shift in body language, beginning to close in on the demon and vampire.

  She raised a hand. “It’s all right. Tamar sent him.”

  Eyebrows quirked in curiosity and confusion, but no one else attempted to advance on them as the woman led them to the fire.

  “I’m Luminitsa,” she said.

  One of the men ladled a liquid into a hand-fashioned cup and offered it to Cain. “Bere?”

  “No. Thank you,” he said.

  Hadrian was about to accept the cup when Cain again stepped in.

  “He will not be having anything, either.” He turned to the vampire and lowered his voice. “Trust me. Never take food or drink from a magic user. Don’t learn the hard way.”