Charming Devils: A Bully/Revenge Reverse Harem Romance

by Katie May

  Just keep fighting, Peony. Keep fucking fighting.

  Gabriel’s going hand-to-hand with another Blood as I wobble towards the table, searching desperately for a weapon that can help him. My fingers close over the handle of an axe as I heft it up.

  “Peony!” Gabriel screams, and his warning is the only thing that saves my life. The female Blood I noted before had been creeping behind me on silent feet, the dropped sacrificial dagger in her hand. I have just enough time to swing my axe at her, watching in abject horror as she tumbles to the ground, blood pouring from her stomach.

  I hear a sharp inhale from behind me, and I turn, prepared to leap into the fray, when I see Gabriel tumble to his knees.

  No. No. No.

  “Gabriel!” I scream in horror as he stares from me to the knife protruding from his stomach. When he glances back up, something akin to grim acceptance shines in his gaze. And I know without a shadow of doubt, the split second he took to warn me about my attacker was a split second he didn’t have.

  “I’m sorry,” he mouths to me as his emerald green eyes well with tears.

  “I always knew we couldn’t trust you,” Emmett says to Gabriel, whistling softly under his breath.

  “Gabriel! Emmett, no!” I run forward with the axe just as Emmett swings his sword in a swooping arc.

  And Gabriel’s head falls to the ground and rolls, his eyes dim.

  Time stops. Everything stops. All I can see is the man who risked his life for mine. My family. One of the very few people in this world I can claim to care about. And that’s what family is, after all. Forming indestructible bonds that simply cannot be severed, because we don’t allow them to. Because we don’t want them to. Because we fight tooth and nail to keep them whole and strong.

  “No!” I begin to sob desperately as I stare, just stare, at his lifeless figure. Gabriel sacrificed himself for me. To save me. I can live for centuries, and I’ll never find a way to repay him. How can a person live with that knowledge? How can I go about my day knowing that a man’s dead because of me? “Why did you do it, you stupid old man?” I scream, my heart splintering in two. Searing agony grips both halves of the organ and refuses to let go. “Why?”

  “Because he loved you,” Emmett interjects, rolling his eyes as if the idea is absurd. “Because you were his family.”

  “I’m going to fucking kill you!” I scream, lifting the axe and racing forward.

  But like before, my feet abruptly still and my hands drop uselessly to my side. My fingers slowly unclench from where it was holding the axe in a death-grip. The weapon clatters harmlessly against the floor.

  “I don’t think so, my sweet girl,” Emmett whispers. He holds up the voodoo doll with a sinister smile. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

  Chapter 53

  “Emmett, please, I am begging you. Please don’t do this,” I plead, refusing to allow my eyes to flicker down to where Gabriel’s headless body now lies. I know that the second I see it, the second I see him, I’ll fall apart. And at the moment, that will do me no good.

  I have no idea if Gabriel really reverted back to his old ways and decided to spare my life, or if he was simply undercover this entire time for the witch council. That doesn’t matter. He saved my life, knowing that it would be the end of his long one.

  Fuck! Stop thinking about him, Peony! I mentally berate myself.

  “Emmett, please—” I try again, but before I can get another word out, my lips tighten into a straight line. I look to see Emmett has his hand over the doll’s mouth, eyes wild and frantic as he stares at me.

  “No talking,” he hushes, mouth twisted in a rictus grin. He glances around at the bodies of his fallen comrades. Gabriel managed to eliminate all of the ones I hadn’t before he fell, and dead bodies now litter the ground around us. Blood pools at my feet, staining my bare soles, and I know this moment will haunt me until the end of time. I’ll close my eyes, and I’ll see this exact, horrendous moment. Everything from Emmett’s cocky smile, to Gabriel’s decapitated head, to the bodies of the two women and one man I just killed, are seared into my brain.

  “Now…” Emmett begins as he slowly unzips his pants and pulls out his erect cock. He begins to stroke it lazily, almost lackadaisically, his eyes never leaving mine. “I can still do the ceremony without all of these…” His lips twitch in disgust as he decides on a word for his fellow Bloods. “Failures,” he says at last. “More for me, I suppose. But…” He moves until he’s directly in front of me and slowly runs his finger down the doll’s side.

  Unlike with Lucas, I feel nothing but revulsion at his intrusive, slimy touch.

  I try to scream at him, yell all of the profanities I can come up with, but his other hand remains over my mouth.

  He brings a blade, the same blood-soaked knife that stabbed Gabriel, to the front of the doll and slowly lowers it to the middle of its thighs. My shirt splits right down the middle, baring my breasts to him.

  Anger like I never felt before thrums through me like a fiery inferno, consuming everything in its path. I squeeze my eyelids shut as he leans forward and kneads first one breast and then the other.

  “I imagined this for so long,” he breathes as his hand drifts lower until it once more reaches the blood on my thigh. “You have no idea what you do to me.”

  “Hey! Get the fuck away from her!” a furious voice bellows, and a second later, Emmett is blasted away from me. The doll drops from his fingers, landing in a puddle of Gabriel’s blood, as I spin towards the newcomers.

  Elias, Lucas, Cassian, and Karsyn stand in the entryway of the warehouse, radiating a raw and primal fury. Behind them are Christian, Polo, and Nana.

  It was Karsyn who spoke, I believe, and that spell was definitely one of Nana’s. I would recognize her magical signature anywhere.

  Before I can run towards them, Emmett clamors unsteadily to his feet, blood dripping from a wound on his head, and picks up the fallen voodoo doll.

  “Not so fucking fast. Unless you want your little witch to kill herself.” Unbidden, my hand reaches for an unused knife resting on the table and holds it to my throat. I shake desperately as my tear-stained eyes flicker from face to face.

  The four Devils hold baseball bats, kitchen knives, and any other makeshift weapon they could probably find around the house. I imagine Nana tried to get them to stay behind, but I know for a fact that their stubbornness knows no bounds. If she didn’t bring them, then they would’ve found their own way to come.

  Nana fans out with Christian and Polo on either side of her, hands raised and bright light emitting from their palms. Their faces are set in fierce determination, eyes as hard as granite. I don’t think they’ve seen Gabriel’s dead body yet, and for that, I’m glad. I want to spare them the pain, at least for now.

  “You’re outnumbered, boy,” Christian informs, his usually chipper voice solemn.

  “Maybe.” Emmett smiles darkly, one that shows the blood splatter on his white teeth. “But do you really think you can get to me faster than I can cut Peony’s pretty, little throat?” He brings the doll’s hand closer to its throat. I yelp as blood wells once more, joining the already steady stream from when he previously cut me.

  “Let her go, you fucking asshole!” Cassian roars, his bat raised.

  “What are you going to do about it, you magicless swine?” With a flick of his wrist, Emmett sends Cassian flying in one direction. My large, smiling giant careens against the warehouse wall before collapsing on the floor with a pained groan.

  At the same moment, Polo takes a step forward, his lips moving too quietly for me to hear as he chants a spell.

  “Naughty, naughty,” Emmett tsks, turning towards Polo. With a malicious sneer, Emmett twists the doll’s arm, and my own arm jerks wildly to the side, the bone audibly snapping in half. Pain explodes inside of me like someone lit up dozens of fireworks. I scream in agony, my entire body sagging slightly to the side. I can feel myself growing dizzy from pain and blood loss, but th
e magic of the voodoo doll prohibits me from doing anything but standing here.

  “I’m going to kill you,” Elias thunders, but Emmett merely laughs.

  “Look how well that turned out for the last guy.” He nods his shaggy blond hair towards Gabriel’s dead body. And I can see the exact moment Nana recognizes his dark hair. The exact moment when Gabriel’s brothers realize that this sadistic prick killed their triplet.

  It’s the slightest change, and if I didn’t know Nana as well as I do, I would’ve missed it. Her eyes seem to shutter, almost like a lunar eclipse. All of the color drains from her face as she stares at the man she once desperately loved. The man she still desperately loves. But I also see the moment she hardens herself, becoming nothing but a bereft shell with only one goal on her mind—saving me.

  Polo releases an agonized scream, running towards Emmett, but the blond-haired Blood merely flicks him away with a wave of his wrist. He’s so much more powerful than us, the blood of dozens of witches currently coursing through his veins. I think of the missing witches and humans. At least, the ones that have been reported. How many did he actually kill? How many dead bodies is he actually responsible for? A few? A dozen? More?

  His entire body seems to crackle with pure, malevolent energy. It’s almost palpable. I swear I can see the waves spouting from his skin.

  We can’t defeat him.

  “You killed my brother,” Christian whispers, sounding so broken and despondent that I can feel myself begin to shatter for him.

  “He tried to kill me first,” Emmett dismisses insouciantly. “Tit for tat, as the kids these days say.”

  “You fucking murdered him!” Before Christian can charge at him, Nana grips his arm, dragging him to a stop. She shakes her head quickly with a pointed look in my direction. The tension doesn’t leave Christian’s taut body, but he does stop his pursuit, anger and pain cloying his eyes.

  “Can we just accept the fact that I’m more powerful than you?” Emmett asks cockily, turning to face Nana and Christian. “I have the blood of hundreds of witches flowing through me…and that’s just from this month alone.” He throws his head back in raucous laughter. “It’s a shame—”

  A loud popping noise echoes through the air.

  Emmett’s diatribe cuts off abruptly as he staggers backwards, eyes widening in shock. Only his head tilts downwards to stare at the bullet hole directly through his heart.

  “You may be more powerful than some witches,” Lucas says coldly, staring down the barrel of his handgun. His expression is as cool and collected as always. There’s no remorse. No guilt. Just violence. “But even you can’t outrun my fucking gun.”

  The doll once more falls to the ground, and Elias lunges forward to scoop it up, cradling it protectively against his chest. With nothing holding me up, I collapse as well. I would’ve face-planted straight into Gabriel’s pool of blood if Karsyn wasn’t suddenly there, desperately brushing at my hair as his face fills my vision.

  “You’ll be okay, princess. You’re going to be okay. Fuck, you’re okay. I love you, so you need to be okay. Okay?”

  “You’re saying okay a lot,” I murmur, attempting to lighten the dark mood. Something wet drips from my mouth and down my chin. Blood, I realize distantly. Pain tumbles around in my brain and rattles my skull

  “Fucking hell! We need help!” Karsyn screams.

  Dark spots dance at the edge of my vision as I teeter to the side. I have just a second to see Emmett’s glossy, blank eyes staring back at me and hear Nana’s agonized scream as she wails for her fallen lover.

  But I can’t focus on that. I can’t focus on any of that as pain, so much fucking pain, runs rampant inside of me. I throw my head back and scream as the walls begin to shake and the hanging lights explode, one by one. The floor moves underneath me as my power cascades through my veins, alive and breathing and desperate for release. Someone curses, and I feel more than see a hand touch my shoulder.

  And then darkness is quick to consume me.

  Chapter 54

  “Can you fix her?” The voice is distorted, muffled almost, as if I’m hearing it while buried beneath layers of sand. My throat feels unbearably dry, almost like it’s filled with hundreds of cotton balls. I try to open my mouth, try to speak, but I’m unable to work my muscles.

  What’s happening?

  Where am I?

  “I can,” a tired, forlorn voice replies. Nana. But why does she sound so…dead inside?

  I try to grasp at the missing memories, but they continually trickle through my fingers like the sand I’m buried in. Time seems to stand still for a brief moment. Is that where I am? In life’s hourglass? Is that where all the sand came from?

  “How?” a cold, forbidding voice demands.

  “I can stitch up her doll,” Nana says calmly. “And then, I’m going to remove the spell tying her to it and destroy it…as well as the four other dolls my granddaughter created.”

  There’s a pause, and I feel rather than see a hand brush at my hair. Another body leans over mine and plants a chaste kiss to my forehead.

  “Will she be okay?” That anxious voice…Karsyn.

  “This is going to hurt like a bitch,” Nana admits, utterly impassive. “Hold her down.”

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart,” Cassian rumbles, and I feel his large hands grab both of my wrists, keeping me restrained. Another set grasps both of my legs. Somebody sticks a foreign object in my mouth. A belt.

  And then, the pain begins.

  Agony is alive inside of me. I don’t know how it’s even possible. It’s a tangible entity, roaming just underneath my skin and overtaking everything it comes into contact with. I scream around the belt in my mouth, my back arching off the bed, as a soothing voice whispers reassurances in my ears. I wordlessly plead with them to end this torment and suffering, but like when Emmett had control of my doll, I can’t say one word.

  Are they trying to kill me?

  Do they hate me?

  The pain travels to my arm, and I hear a bone snap. Or maybe it doesn’t snap. Maybe it’s melding back together again. I honestly can’t tell; the pain is too overwhelming.

  Bright spots dance across my vision as I jerk and shake and cry.

  And then, nothing.

  ...

  This time when I wake up, there’s no pain. My body instead feels numb, as if it’s been doped up with painkillers. I move my neck from side to side, before bringing my fingers to the freshly dressed wound I expect to find there.

  But instead of a bandage, I feel nothing but a slightly raised and jagged line.

  “Your grandmother healed you,” someone announces softly.

  I sit upright in bed, head spinning at the suddenness of my movement, to see that I’m on a mattress someone pulled into the living room. Karsyn and Cassian sleep on either side of me, both of their arms sprawled lazily over my stomach, one on top of the other. When I tilt my head back, I see Elias on the sofa, his legs draped over the arm.

  But it wasn’t any of them who spoke.

  Lucas sits in the lone armchair, watching me as intensely as I watch him. His red hair is tousled, almost as if he has run his hand through it a dozen times in the last who knows how long, and he’s shirtless, the pale planes of his chest on display. He isn’t as muscular as the other three, but his stomach is toned and reveals a hint of abs.

  “What…” I clear my throat to dislodge the sudden ball of yarn present there. “What happened?”

  “You don’t remember?” His expression doesn’t change as he raises a dark red brow. With his face cast in shadows, he looks like some sort of demon sent to drag my soul straight to hell.

  “I remember…”

  Emmett. The altar. The knife piercing my skin.

  And then Gabriel’s head rolling through the blood, landing directly in front of my feet.

  Nana, Polo, Christian, and the Devils arriving.

  The fight.

  The gunshot.

  Emmett’s fallen bo
dy.

  The pain.

  Oh, the pain.

  I begin to cry wordlessly, and Lucas moves from his armchair to stand directly in front of me. At first, I’m confused about what he’s doing, but then he reaches down and plucks me from my spot between Cassian and Karsyn. He moves us both back to the armchair, placing me on his lap and wrapping his arms around me. He leans forward to rub his nose up and down my neck.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispers, his hands tightening around my waist.

  I don’t know what, exactly, he’s apologizing for. Me getting kidnapped. Me getting almost murdered. What Emmett did to me. Gabriel’s death. Or the old scars still marring the skin on both of my wrists. Maybe it’s all of the above. Maybe he doesn’t quite know what he’s apologizing for, either.

  “I didn’t really know Gabriel that well. I cared about him and considered him family, but I didn’t know him,” I confess in a whisper. My eyes flicker to the other three Devils, taking comfort in the steady rise and fall of their chests. They look exhausted. I swear a nuclear blast could go off in this room, and they’d sleep right through it. “I mean, I knew him, of course, but we weren’t close. He was kind of an asshole.” My lips twitch in a small smile when I think about the surly triplet. But that smile fades when I think about his unseeing eyes…

  “Hey.” Lucas gently shakes me. “Don’t allow your mind to wander like that.”

  “He sacrificed himself for me.” I twist my face so I can cry into his neck. “How can I live with that?”

  “You can’t,” Lucas answers bluntly. When I jerk my head back in shock, he sighs, brushing at my cheeks with the pad of his thumbs. He stares at me with an expression I’ve never seen on his face before. Tenderness. Wonder. Love. “Some days, it’s going to suck. Some days, you’re going to want to fall apart. But you want to know what?”

  “What?” I whisper.