“Stop!” She didn’t have a chance to picture what she wanted as, out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a blur of gray rushing at her again. Throwing up her arms, she managed to catch the blow there and save her face.
Rolling away quickly, she sprang to her feet and whirled to face her attacker.
Her mouth fell open when she saw that it was. She didn’t know what it was. It had the form of a person, but was misty and gray. It didn’t look like a solid entity, though it had certainly felt like one when it had hit her.
“What do you want?” Aria tried to distract the thing as she pictured the gray thing disappearing, and the sensation of safety surrounding her.
Her magic sparked fitfully, and Aria knew it was because she couldn’t focus.
The gray thing didn’t respond, just swung back and forth fretfully...stalking her, Aria realized. There was something off about the being.
There was no sense of sentience. It was as if this creature was no more than a shadowy zombie, programmed to do only one thing.
“What do you want?” Aria repeated herself, and there was still no reply—there wasn’t even a sense that the creature had heard her, let alone acknowledged her.
This was her chance. Drawing everything that she had into her will, she pictured the scene again, and this time the heat of her magic streamed blue light from her fingers.
The gray mass charged at her again, swinging its ghostly fists as she lifted her hands and willed the streaks of blue light to make the creature disappear. With a great roar and the stench of burning flesh it did, fading away to little more than remnants of smoke.
As her heart pounded in her chest, Aria scrambled backward, still crouched at the ready, the light of magic still streaming from her fingers.
“What the fuck just happened?”
Aria groaned. From behind her she heard the crash of the motel room door slamming open, and recognized Declan’s voice.
Casting a new spell had clearly broken her previous one. The men were awake, and they were not impressed.
“Aria.” Declan was at her side before she could blink, and his arms were around her, pulling her tightly. Her heart skipped a beat. This—this touching without lust—this made her want all kinds of things that she couldn’t have.
She batted his arms away, then crossed her own over her chest.
“Are you all right?”
Aria could see the wolf in Adam as he crouched, sniffing the air. He growled, the sound more animal than human, and a shiver skated over her skin.
“I’m fine.” Her magic was still giving off feeble, last-minute sparks from her fingers. She saw Declan glower at it, then at her, and she knew that she’d been caught.
“What the hell did you think you were doing?” Declan was nothing if not alpha, and his male pride was quite clearly wounded at the thought that she had run out on the pair of them.
“Leaving.” Her words were defensive. Like you left me before, her brain silently added, a knee-jerk reaction before she could stop it. From the way Declan’s pale brow furrowed, she knew that he’d made the connection.
“I don’t recognize the smell.” Clearly frustrated, Adam rose to his feet, scrubbing his strong hands over sleepy-looking eyes. “It stinks of dying flowers, and it’s not something I’ve scented before.”
Dying flowers. Aria frowned, not sure what to think of that.
“It looked like a person, but...not.” Suddenly weary, she fisted her hands in her hair and tugged lightly. “I don’t think it was fully...I mean...it was like it was attacking on instinct. I don’t think it had any thoughts of its own.”
Declan caught her chin in his hand, and his vampire vision scrutinized the skin of her face, which was thankfully unmarked.
Her elbows, knees and forearms were another story.
“Why were you leaving?” Avoiding his stare, Aria looked over his shoulder to where Adam stood. Her eyes moved to the bite marks that marred his neck, and she felt as though her heart was being squeezed by a giant fist.
Aria shrugged off Declan’s touch, shaking like an angry bird, though she was more unnerved by the tender touch than angry. She didn’t answer, didn’t know how to express what she was feeling.
“I’m going back to Belladonna. I want to make sure that Lori’s okay.” Aria didn’t make it five steps when she found herself scooped off her feet and dangled ass over teakettle, her stomach pressed into Declan’s shoulder.
Rather than kick and scream, which she knew from experience that he’d enjoy, she growled, the sound full of the wrath of woman.
“Save it, sweetie.” Adam fell in beside them, protecting Aria’s exposed side as, together, the two men broke into a supernaturally fast run down the street, Aria bouncing over Declan’s shoulder the entire time.
“We told you why we were back here. We’ve had a taste of you now, and we’re sure as hell not letting go.”
Wrathfully, Aria stared at the fantastic view of Declan’s ass, which was at eye level. Declan had done what she couldn’t—had acknowledged the intensity of what had happened between the three of them.
But she wasn’t the only reason Declan was back. And until he told her more, she would hold her heart close.
* * *
“What the hell?” Aria heard her sister’s exclamation as she was carried upside down into the closed shop, accompanied by a werewolf and a vampire.
Still, Aria didn’t miss the quick flicker of glee that sparked in Lorelai’s eyes as she no doubt saw the sexual red energy threads binding the three.
“It’s a long story,” she began, glowering at Declan as he slid her down his body.
She tried to ignore the lust that ignited as she felt the skin-to-skin contact.
“I’d love to hear this, too.” Adam crossed his arms, looking just as irritated as Declan, and Aria blinked in surprise.
She’d been so lonely, how on earth had she wound up with two pissed-off alpha males in her company? She was so not in the mood to deal with even one right at the moment. She was edgy and emotional, and she couldn’t quite quell the nausea from her race down the street at vampire speed.
“It’s a story I’m happy to share with my sister, after the two of you leave.” Aria pointed at the door, and neither man moved so much as a whisper. Frustrated, she cast a look at Lorelai, who was staring at Adam in disbelief.
“Do you really have to hog both of them?” Aria was darkly amused to see Adam shift uncomfortably beneath Lorelai’s frank perusal. “Obviously I’d never go after Declan, but this one? Hello.”
“Lori!” Her twin wasn’t often so frank, but then, these two were fine specimens of manhood.
“And I didn’t have a choice. They’re sort of...a package deal.”
Lori furrowed her brow
“Oh.” Understanding seemed to dawn, and Aria felt her cheeks flush scarlet under her twin’s frank perusal. “Well, that worked better than I had intended.”
Lorelai’s eyes widened as the words fell from her lips. Knowing her twin as she did, Aria narrowed her eyes, honing in on what her sister wasn’t saying.
“What did you do?” Her words were a whisper, but one she knew that the two men would pick up on.
Whatever it was, she knew that she did not want them to hear it.
“Could you two please go somewhere else?” She thought of the shadowy gray figure and felt her pulse speed up. She wanted them to go so that she could talk to her sister, but she was a little bit afraid of being left alone.
It seemed to be the story of her life.
She thought that they would refuse, but Declan instead inclined his head to one side, his version, she knew, of an enthusiastic nod.
“We’ll be right outside.” She only hoped that that was enough distance to put a damper on Declan’s vampire hearing.
As soon as the men left, she whirled on her sister, her finger pointing accusingly.
“I smell roses. I smell strawberries and jasmine. A lust spell, Lori? Am I really so scary th
at my own sister thinks I can’t get a date?” Anger trembled through her, as did disappointment. She would forgive Lorelai, she knew that already, because her sister never acted with anything but the best intentions.
But now she understood why the two men were so focused on her. They were being compelled by a spell. None of it was real.
Trying to fight through a crushing depression, she looked her sister square in the face. Lorelai was eyeing her warily.
“I only wanted to make you happy.”
Aria heaved a sigh and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
“I know.” She was more disappointed than she wanted to be, knowing that the two men—especially Declan—weren’t acting of their own accord. “I’m pissed, but let’s talk about it later. “
“Why are you all scratched up?” Seeming grateful for the distraction, Lorelai reached out and ran tentative fingers over her sister’s cuts. The worst of them were still tacky with blood.
“Have you ever come across any mention of a gray, shadowlike creature in any of the books?” In the back room of the apothecary the twins kept all the volumes of their family’s history, the diaries, the Books of Shadows.
“What kind of gray shadow?” Lorelai had paled at the words, and Aria knew with a sinking sensation in her gut that she wasn’t going to like what she heard next.
“It looked like a person. But it was more of a mist...and it wasn’t sentient. I’m sure of it.” Aria resisted the urge to press her fingers to her temples as Lorelai uttered a curse.
“One of Gran’s diaries mentioned the exact same thing.” Lorelai tugged on the length of her ponytail, the golden curls springing back as soon as she released them. “I don’t remember which one, though. Let me look.”
“It’s from the spell, isn’t it?” They’d never been able to keep secrets from one another.
Lorelai shook her head stubbornly.
“It can’t be. We’ve both cast thousands of spells and nothing like this has ever happened.” Lorelai looked as though she might cry when she looked at the blood on Aria’s arm.
“I think it might be, Lori.” She couldn’t sugarcoat it, not even to save her sister’s feelings. Her intuition was telling her that this creature was cued into her specifically, and she had a sinking certainty that it was an unwitting result of the lust spell.
“Let me go look through Gran’s diaries.” Lorelai set her chin, as if she knew that her sister would argue. “If I made this mess, then I need to clean it up.”
“No.” Aria’s voice was firm, and she made sure that it was loud enough that Declan would be able to hear her outside. “I don’t want this thing anywhere near you.”
“It would be best for you to go upstairs, Lorelai.” Declan was in the room so quickly that Aria blinked, startled. Once upon a time she’d been used to the speed with which he moved, but it had been so long. “Go to bed. We’ll talk again in the morning.”
“Do you think she’ll be safe up there?” Aria asked.
Lorelai grumbled and insisted on at least dragging the box of Gran’s diaries out of the back room. She placed a stack of them on the counter for Aria and the men to flip through.
“We’ll be able to hear her.” They’d also be able to reach her in time, Aria knew, if anything happened. Or at least, Declan would—she didn’t know about Adam.
The werewolf entered the shop as Lorelai passed through the door to the stairwell which led upstairs to the apartment that the twins shared. He paused to lock the door behind him, and to draw the blinds over the glass.
In his hand he held a coffee cup from McDonald’s, the only fast food joint in the small town.
“I thought you might need a boost.” He handed the steaming cup to Aria. The heat seeped through the thin cardboard to singe her fingers.
She was floored by the thoughtfulness of the gesture.
The reserves that she had built over the years began to melt.
“Did Lorelai have any insight into your assailant?” Declan raised an eyebrow at her, and she squirmed under the intensity of his stare.
She wanted him again, damn it. She wanted them both, even though she’d just had them.
She couldn’t have them. They didn’t know what they were doing.
“She remembered a mention of something similar in one of my Gran’s old books.” Aria gestured nervously to the pile that Lorelai had left on the table. Aria recognized the look in Declan’s eyes.
He wanted her, too.
She didn’t know if she had the strength to resist him.
“Did she have any idea of why?” One look at Declan’s face as he crossed the small space between them told her that he already had a pretty good idea of the answer, and she wondered how much he had overheard with his vampire hearing.
She couldn’t, just couldn’t, admit that her twin had cast a spell to get her laid.
“It’s to do with a spell.” Aria kept her tone deliberately vague. She was distracted as Declan stalked the remaining distance between them, then lifted her onto the counter.
With one quick movement he’d unsnapped her jeans and his own and was pressing his cock against her entrance. She was already hot and wet, and all of her common sense fled as, without any warning, he seated himself inside of her.
“Declan!” Aria’s voice echoed off the walls of the shop as she clung to his shoulders and looked over his shoulder at Adam. After what had transpired between them, she knew it was ridiculous to feel embarrassed that the werewolf was watching.
“Don’t stop on my account.” Though the werewolf continued to chew on his late dinner, he watched with avid interest as Declan caught Aria around the waist and began to thrust, hot and fast.
“I just can’t get enough of you.” Declan’s fangs extended as he set a merciless pace. Aria’s fingers slid from his shoulders to claw at the counter, trying to find something, anything, to grab on to. “I never could.”
Though her heart quickened with guilt, she was too far gone into the pleasure to do more than moan as Declan brought her to a quick, brutal climax with the press of his thumb on her clit. She felt him flood inside of her himself, his tongue swiping over the tips of his fangs as he came.
Panting, Aria winced as Declan slid from between her legs. What the hell had that been?
She blinked in amazement as Adam filled the space Declan had vacated. He pushed inside her more slowly than Declan had, his passage eased by the vampire’s pleasure.
“Declan.” With wild eyes Aria looked at the man who had once meant so much to her. He was zipping his jeans, but possession sparkled in his eyes.
Mine, he seemed to be saying. You’re both mine.
Aria barely had a moment to catch her breath before Adam began to move, seating himself inside of her again and again with long, hard strokes.
She came before he could even move his hand between her legs, her flesh so sensitive by that point that every little move was painful and still full of pleasure.
As her flesh clenched around his cock, Adam thrust one last time and grunted, his heat filling the depths of her belly.
Aria’s elbow knocked one of her Gran’s diaries off the counter as Adam withdrew from her heat. Flustered, she slid from the counter, straightening her hair, her clothing as she bent to retrieve it.
“Holy goddess.” It had fallen open to the page with a pencil drawing of the shadowy figure.
Her Gran had always taught her that there were no coincidences in the world. This page was important.
With trembling fingers, she held it out so that the two men could see.
Declan looked at her, his face expressionless.
“There are no coincidences.” His words were low, but she realized at once that he was repeating something she’d often said to him.
“No, there are not.” She turned the book back to face her, reading aloud.
At times a spell will multiply by three, despite the practitioner’s intentions. When this occurs, there needs to be darkness to balance th
e light, a payment for the pleasure. In my experience, this took the form of a man, a demon of sorts who nevertheless had no mind to call his own. His purpose was to track the one who benefitted from the spell, to eliminate him or her. To erase one is to erase the other. Though this shadowy figure seems to threaten, he is, at the bottom, simply the universe’s way of again balancing the scales.
“Shit.” Aria could think of nothing else to say.
“Indeed.” This was all that Declan said in reply.
“Should we...I don’t know. Should we go hunt it down?” She’d be damned if she was going to let some shadowy by-product of a spell haunt her. With a pang she realized that killing it would mean that the spell would be broken—Adam and Declan would realize that they didn’t actually want her.
They would leave.
It was the right thing to do. Apart from the fact that she couldn’t live with a demon stalking her every move, she couldn’t live her life as a lie.
Although neither of them had told her why they were really here. And she couldn’t bring herself to ask.
Swallowing thickly against the flood of emotions that the realization brought out, Aria looked up when Adam stepped in front of her.
The werewolf sniffed the air and nodded.
“I don’t think we’ll have to go hunting. I think it’s going to find us.”
Chapter Four
Declan studied Aria in his peripheral vision as the three of them made their way down the street to the town’s only all-night, non fast food diner. He’d thrown her off-balance when he’d placed her on the counter and touched her, but he’d meant to do just that.
It wouldn’t be long before she realized that her sister was wrong, that a demon birthed from a spell wasn’t what was hunting them. He wouldn’t be at all surprised, in fact, if she’d already figured it out.
But he knew her better than she thought, even after all these years. If she discovered why he had really left her, that he’d sacrificed his freedom to save her, she’d rip out his hair strand by strand.
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