by Ashley Black
My gaze swung to Thorn and his new coat of Ravens.
My heart exploded in delight.
He was free of the cross.
The Ravens had pecked the ropes away.
They had freed him.
They had been helping him after all.
Clever little creepy fuckers had, I realized, reading their manic energy trace, only pretended to attack Thorn so they would be left alone to free him.
He was their King.
They loved him.
It beat in their strange ugly little hearts.
I thought I might cry.
Some Ravens darted to his ankles and pulled his black jeans back up.
I saw his belly clench and a flash of pain on his face as they moved up over his groin.
The zipper was pulled, a button deftly fastened.
Thorn grunted, and surged forth.
He wore some of the Ravens as a rippling black cloak. They fell over his powerful back.
The remaining animal companions fluttered after him as he stalked toward us.
His beautiful demonic flame green gaze pinned the cult leader in the back of the head.
Thorn nodded slightly at me, arching a brow, he offered a Raven to me upon his outstretched palm, his lips moved over words.
‘Do it.’
I had no idea.
Oh.
I looked from the raven to the Cult Leaders limp dick.
Yes!
We made a good fucking team.
I winked at him to signal my understanding.
But I had to throw a bonus round in.
I couldn’t have all these mindless cult fuckers attacking Thorn when the man was finally going to end his nemesis.
I squeezed my eyes shut, concentrating, reaching out to their energies, I gathered them all and pulled, hard.
I literally forced their balls up into their throats.
A chorus of wheezing, coughing and spluttering.
So sweet.
I looked at the Raven.
It cocked its head at me.
Thorns fingers stroked over it and he muttered in soothing tones
something in another language.
I snared it and flung its energy toward Snake Father’s unfortunate tiny slug.
It gave a feral cry and swooped in on it.
He screamed when the raven took hold of his cock and broke the thing.
I could hear sinews pop, skin cracking,
It removed a chunk of dick, and went in again.
It was shot dead by Cale who was now astride the motorbike he had stolen from Thorn. He grunted, pulling his struggling father up onto the bike. He flashed a strange smile at Thorn before swinging around and taking aim at me.
Snake Father stayed his son’s hand. “No, no, you can’t. Not yet. I meant what I said. This is the end of the lesson. We will kill her another day. Right after I mutilate her pussy in front of Thorn. We will wipe her filth clean from this earth.”
Holy hell.
After the bike roared away the black hooded followers melted into the night and made themselves scarce.
I noticed the Ravens.
Shit.
They rippled toward me, yellow eyes aglow with hate.
If I was truly foretold to kill their King, why wouldn’t they just take me apart right now?
To my relief they freed me of the rope binding me to the black cross.
I held my body for a moment in a perfect hand stand, toes pointed to the sky, and then toppled backwards, falling flat on my ass.
Thorn’s immense presence wrapped around me at once. He gathered me to his chest, lifted me, and buried his beautiful tortured face in my neck. “I am sorry, I am sorry, I am so sorry,” he mumbled thickly. “This will never ever happen again.”
Ten
“Get out of my face.”
Thorn slapped Aaron away with his angry rebuff as he stormed past him and Clarissa in the grand entrance of the hotel.
I, on the other hand was very pleased to see that they were all right.
The bar had exploded into mayhem when the bomb threat had been issued.
“What the fuck man? I asked Elena what happened? I am not interested in hearing anything from you.” My friend exploded, his face red and puffy.
“A lot of fucked up shit happened,” I wriggled in protest to Thorn’s choking embrace. He insisted on carrying me. His huge inked arms wrapped themselves around me strategically to conceal as much of my being naked as possible.
He grunted, his fierce grip only tightening.
I rolled my eyes. He wasn’t letting me go. “Talk in the morning?”
My gaze dropped to the bags at their feet.
I heard the toot of a horn outside.
“You’re leaving me?” I accused.
“My work here is done.” Clarissa shrugged, first to speak. “I helped you become aware of your powers Enchantress.”
“She did very well tonight,” Thorn murmured. His eyes shone with pride and adoration. “She was outstanding. Elena was the warrior for both of us.”
He dipped his forehead to mine gently then drew back.
I think my heart exploded.
“I need to get back to Daniel, babe,” Aaron huffed impatiently. “He told me since that incident with Mason the lead from Licked Forever, he has been binge eating ice-cream and drinking beer. That has been the gorgeous man’s diet since our fight. I love that man. I am not going to let him fuck up his life because of my bullshit. He is on the brink of a movie deal and that body needs the good stuff. Superior fuel. Not fucking ice cream and beer.”
“Holy hell,” I muttered. Impossible to think of Daniel having a blow out like that. But then again, I didn’t doubt the depth of love he had for Aaron. He would have been beside himself after the Licked Forever incident.
“Maybe you can be happy blimps together,” Thorn snarled. “I am bored by this conversation. Elena?” His dark brows arched as he balanced me on his hip, finger hovering over the lift button.
“Wait,” I begged him softly. “I need to speak with my best friend alone, I will see you soon.”
He shook his head. “Not happening.”
I narrowed my eyes on him. “Thornton Darko, if you don’t put me down I will need to give you a personal demonstration of what I learned out there in that field.”
The man’s eyes widened and he reluctantly relaxed his grip.
I slid out of his arms and tumbled gratefully into a bath robe being offered by one of his freak army.
“Thank you,’ I muttered, feeling a blush sting my cheeks.
They nodded deferentially and nearly skidded on the marble floor in their apparent eagerness to get away from me.
I gripped Aaron’s elbow and pulled him as far away as I could from the glowering face of Thornton Darko who sighed, whirling back to the lift. He jabbed at the button angrily.
The taxi outside blasted its horn impatiently.
Clarissa descended on me and wrapped me up in a firm hug. “Love you, call me if you need me, but you sound like you did really good tonight in your newbie state. Well done you. So proud of you gorgeous,” she gushed.
Her gaze slid to Aaron. “Be quick. I’ll tell them to wait a minute or two all right.” Then she stared hard into my eyes. “Be careful around Thorn Elena. I meant what I said. You can’t trust him. He doesn’t know how to play with his toys without breaking them.”
“I think,” I felt my chest puffing up in indignation. “I am more than just a toy to him, Clarissa.”
“He only breaks the toys he loves the most,” she murmured, fluttering her fingers in farewell.
I stared after her, breathing hard. I was deeply affected by her words.
“Oh come now, surely none of what she said was a surprise to you bitch!” Aaron scoffed.
I glared at my best friend. “He is not going to break me.”
“But you are still going to break him right?” Aaron smiled, lowering his voice.
“What?”
I blinked at him in confusion.
“You’re still going to go through with trying to get some truth out of him before Brett gets here right? You know with the,” Aaron broke off and stuck his finger in his mouth and sucked making an orgasm face.
I laughed nervously, remembering I had resolved to try getting the truth out of him by raping Thorn’s cock with my mouth. “Yes.”
“Give us a call babe when you’ve done it. I am so interested in what he has to say. I am pretty sure it is going to break your fucking heart.”
He embraced me.
My arms reluctantly rose to wrap around him.
I was stunned at his insensitivity.
“You think I am a fucking idiot,” I realized.
“I do, when it comes to Thornton Darko,” Aaron said softly, his face crumpled in pain. “I love you so much El. I can’t stand to see my best friend falling apart over such an unnecessary freak.”
“Who said anything about falling apart?” I whispered to Aaron’s retreating back.
That seemed an overly optimistic view of proceedings with Thornton Darko thus far.
I had already fallen apart.
Eleven
I found Thorn in the bath.
He lay there so very still that for a truly awful moment I thought he was dead.
I stood over him, wincing at the sight of the red angry swollen mess between his legs.
How cruel Snake Father had been to belt the poor man there.
Such a depraved lunatic.
“Take it away from me,” he whispered desperately. “Please.”
Wait, what now? He was healing. I could see his angry junk becoming a less angry flush of red. The welts were starting to mend themselves nicely.
His eyes rolled fitfully behind his lids, long dark lashes shuddering. His wide sexy mouth lengthened in a lazy sultry, dazed as fuck smile.
I frowned, noticing something dark glistening beneath his nose. It was trailing to the top of his lip.
His huge inked arm slid from the rim of the bath it had been resting on.
Dangling between his fingertips was an empty syringe.
What the actual fuck?
I screamed as his other arm shot out of the water and took hold of me. He slammed me urgently into the bath with a splash, positioning me so I perched astride of his powerful hard stomach. I noted he was careful not to place me anywhere near his angry, but healing, junk.
His eyes were crackling with green fire and dilated.
“Oh, thank God you’re here,” came a tearful, sheepish sounding voice. “I’ve been so worried about him.”
Jacob.
I whirled around in my soaking wet bathrobe Thorn was clumsily trying to get me out of.
“He asked me to get the devil juice.” Jacob was raking a hand nervously through his straight shower of black hair. “He was a raving ranting asshole about it too. I had been with his buddy that owns the Depeche Mode bar. I was carrying out Thorn’s wishes for compensation and funeral arrangements for the band.” He blinked, rubbing at his red eyes. “And then I get the call from Thorn to get my ass back here with devil juice.”
“What is devil juice?” I whispered.
Thorn’s words tumbled back into my mind, that he had mumbled against my neck in that field of hell.
‘This will never ever happen again.’
“Devil juice is a designer warlock magical fucker drug,” Jacob shrugged. “I know he drained his juice pretty hard today, but this shit is potent. He injected way too much of it.”
“What does it do?” I asked, heart swelling in terror.
“It heals.”
Thorn’s head tipped back and he laughed. A dark, throaty delicious rumble that made my clit shiver involuntarily. More inky glittering substance slid out of his nose.
“What have you done to yourself?” I whispered, afraid for him.
The impossible man straightened, pulling me to him. He lifted us both from the tub.
He frowned, rubbing at his nose, glaring at the inky shimmer smeared on his hand. “What is necessary to protect us,” he said softly and set me carefully down on the floor.
To Jacob, he snapped. “Thank Rowan for the supply. I still owe him a show apparently, but it won’t be under Cellrager.”
Poor Jacob! He was devastated to hear this. “You gunna start another act? You know Sammy and the rest of the guys would want you to go on with Cellrager. Hell man, you are Cellrager.”
Thorn shrugged. “I am severely uninterested with that now.” He waved his hand dismissively. “Please leave us. I asked Elena a question. It was important. I want to feel her pussy answer me.”
Jacob laughed nervously. “Go easy. You’re pretty fucked Thorn. You should rest. Sleep. Something. It’s been one shit of a day for you man.”
Thorn stepped out of the bath, staggered, then recovered. He reached for Jacob.
“Damn,” Jacob cried in protest as he thrust a towel at him. “Cover yourself. I don’t need to see that!”
Thorn laughed, fastening the towel quickly around his waist. He engulfed the young man in a hug.
“Thanks for caring,” he said gruffly, “but I meant what I said. Please leave.”
With a cheeky smile shot in my direction, Jacob fled the bathroom.
I shrugged out of my dripping wet bathrobe and let it fall to the floor.
I frowned.
I wasn’t sure why I did that exactly.
Thorn cocked an eyebrow at me, grinning. The ring embedded in his chin, winked at me.
Right. I didn’t do that.
He did.
“Well,” he prowled toward me. “Will you take it away from me?”
“What?” I took a step backward.
“What they put inside of me,” he whispered, continuing his purposeful prowl. “In place of my soul.”
I was forced out of the bathroom. The luxurious rug I had spied across the polished floorboards before the bed now licked softly against my feet as I padded backwards.
“I need you to take it away,” he insisted. The towel fell from his waist.
I fought to keep my gaze on his face. Damn. It fell of course. As it must.
Such a dirty bitch.
His cock looked like it had gorged itself on arousal.
It was a right mess.
I checked myself. Had I done that? Enchanted his prick at will? Again? Really?
He laughed. “No,” his hand gripped his cock as he gave it a pull and winced, “this is all me, love.”
Perfect. Horny dirty wizard practically inviting my mouth to eat his prick.
Well, sort of.
Now or never Elena, I coached myself. But I didn’t want to do this.
Not now.
Not tonight.
I wanted to comfort him. I didn’t want to sexually manipulate him into telling me the truth.
Not after what we had been through.
Not after what he had endured.
I held this beautiful chaotic man for a moment. My head pressed to his magnificent chest, hearing that big heart booming beneath my ear. I felt his energy in a way I never had before. My newfound awareness of my powers. I didn’t interfere with it. But holy hell, his sexual energy was as dynamic as Thorn himself. A dark, delicious, magnetic unending thrall. I could get lost just for a taste of him. The ultimate hit. Yummy.
The sudden blast of pounding heat between my legs made me shiver in unease.
He affected me in a way no other man ever had.
I wanted to hold him, all night.
In this make believe reality where I was ‘all or nothing’.
For him.
That I loved only him.
I served only him.
I teased only him.
I thrilled only him.
I fucked only him.
I tasted only him.
Everything ... all of me, only for him.
I sighed unhappily, and parted from his chest. Tilting my head, I peered at him through my lashes.
/> “What would you have me take away from you Thorn?”
“Hell,” he barely whispered.
My brows came together. “What?”
“What they put inside of me Elena when they scooped my soul out. Hell.”
His eyes squeezed shut.
“You wonder why I am so intoxicated by you? Why I am so obsessed? Why I near lose my fucking mind when you are not by my side?”
I shook my head, dumbfounded.
“Because you are the only reprieve I have from hell. I love you Elena. I will not lose you. You remind me of who I want to be. Thank you for not leaving me tonight,” he whispered. “I released you. You could have run away, but you chose to stay here with me. It means more than you can ever know.”
I wanted my hands all over this man.
I wanted to touch him everywhere.
I wanted his body to distract me from the storm his words had put inside my heart.
I found my fingers stroking along his strong jaw. I rose to my tip toes and licked his lips that were very slightly parted.
“Are you hungry?”
Thorn sounded faintly amused as his hand rubbed over his belly. “Because I am fucking starving.”
My stomach gurgled in loud agreement.
He smirked at the sound and pulled me after him to the huge bed. “Come on, if I am to take you the way I want to take you Enchantress we both need to eat something.
“How do you intend to take me?” I wondered.
“Ah,” he laughed softly, “what I am going to do to that pretty little pussy of yours.”
His dark green eyes scorched my insides with the intense want I saw in them. He sat on the edge of the bed, his hands cupping my ass, squeezing and pulling me closer. He began threading my arm through the sleeve of one of his long black shirts. Hmmm, wearing his clothes now. This was getting cozy.
Brett!
Don’t lose your nerve now Elena. You have him right where you want him. Don’t you want to know the truth?
I thought about all the things Thorn hadn’t told me. His deception, his outright lies. Yes! Of course I wanted to know. That was before all the events of tonight.
Before the show at the Depreche Mode Bar.
Before the field.
“Tell me,” I slapped his huge inked shoulder playfully. “What you’re going to do Thorn.”