I felt him then, the heat he permeated along with his intoxicating scent that made my body react in all the wrong ways. It had created some of my wildest fantasies through adolescence, and while I’d never admit that shit out loud, it didn’t mean that they had ever stopped either. But I knew him, I knew the moment he got a glimpse of the monster they’d painted me to be, he’d flinch and recoil just as everyone else had so long ago.
“You shouldn’t have come here, Paladin. You’re uninvited.” My tone was flat, lifeless. It was exactly how I wished my body would react to him, and yet that traitorous bitch arched with invitation.
“You shouldn’t sleep in the bathtub; that’s what they make beds for,” he smirked as he moved from the cover of darkness and let his glowing blue eyes slip down my naked frame. Instead of playing dead, my nipples responded, hardening before those glowing blue eyes. “But you are beautiful in what the Gods gave you, Erie,” he purred huskily.
“You shouldn’t say my name with such familiarity, asshole,” I retorted as I stood to my full, unimpressive height of five-foot-nothing. My thick blonde hair decided at that moment to let loose from the ponytail holder that had held it up. I snorted as the taint of his magic cascaded down my back and past my ass. “Don’t use your magic on me,” I warned, sending a jolt of electric current at him as I stepped closer. It was ancient magic, pure and simple. It soothed my aches, pleasured my flesh in ways that made me flinch and worst of all, I had felt it before and knew without thinking or examining the magic that it was a part of him.
“You are more than blessed, woman,” he murmured as his eyes slowly trailed from head to toe before slowly moving back up to settle on my eyes. “Yet you hide and never allow anyone to see the real you. Show me who you are, Erie.”
“And let you see what our people have done to me?” I scoffed as I raised my foot to kick him, hoping to catch him off guard. No such luck. He grabbed my leg, using it to pull me closer. I wanted to break his perfect nose, to rip his eyes out so he could never see what they did to me. I hid the ugliness of what they had done to me from everyone, hating the thought of them recoiling as I did when I peered at myself in the mirror.
“Careful, little one, I like playing rough,” he warned thickly as coarse gravel coated each word that escaped his sinfully full lips.
I wanted to taste him, to touch him in ways so impure that the blush of longing smoothed over my flesh before I could prevent him from seeing it. I rounded my body, kicking him with the other leg, which didn’t even faze him. Instead, he shook it off before my feet touched the ground and took me to the floor, dropping his hefty weight onto mine, holding me down with it. I stilled, clearly aware of the heat from his massive body as his eyes bored into mine. They dipped to my lips, and then he did the last thing he should have.
He kissed me!
It stunned me, left me breathless. The intensity of his kiss and the way I responded to it sent a shiver of need pulsing through me. It sent everything out of whack; my entire sense of self-preservation abandoned me. Heat pooled to a place it only ever had whenever his image is on my mind, and yet here, now, he was creating it! His mouth was sin incarnate; the clean flavor of mint dulled my senses. I moaned against it, unable to pull away as I should have done. The emotions that danced through my mind and body were foreign, uncharted territory that both scared and exhilarated me. His tongue dipped between my lips, pushing past the weak effort I maintained to keep them closed against him. The growl that escaped his lungs was captured by me, and as I moaned, he deepened the kiss, demanding I respond to him. My entire body heated, fire blazed between my legs as a new ache filled me, building as if it could reach some epic height I wasn’t aware existed.
I pushed against his chest, which only made him push back, holding me down as a moan ripped from my lips, heat pooled between my thighs. I felt him there, his cock pressing against my vulnerable sex. The tremor that ripped through me at feeling his hardness against my naked flesh made me swallow hard.
Callaghan relaxed into the kiss, moving his hips against me and I groaned as he devoured me. His hand slipped between our bodies, moving down towards my naked flesh and I rolled us, staring down at him as my chest rose and fell with every labored breath I took to calm my response to him. What the ever-loving fuck was wrong with me? Blue eyes that glowed like the River Styx stared up at me triumphantly.
“You kissed me,” I whispered huskily as I moved to slap him, only for him to capture the hand. I used the other, unsure of where my brain had abandoned me to go, but it was no longer in this fight, or with me. I stared down at him, acutely aware of exactly how hard he was, and that I had sat directly on it. I was also aware that it had a pulse that matched mine perfectly.
“So I did,” he purred as he slowly trailed his heated gaze over my heaving chest, pausing as he took in the embarrassing state of my nipples. The heat in that stare melted my insides. “And you taste like I want to fuck you,” he uttered as he released my hand to grab my hips. He ground his arousal against my sex, watching every minuscule emotion that played across my face. My hands rested against his steady chest, balancing myself as he rubbed his cock against me erotically. “Would it be so bad with me, Erie?”
“Don’t ever do that again,” I snapped as I stood up even though his eyes latched to the thin patch of red hair that was slick with arousal. Oops, I’d forgotten to glamour all of me.
“What? Kiss you, or make you want it as much as I do?” he challenged with a brutal intensity in his gaze that scared and excited me.
“I don’t want you,” I hissed. I turned, dismissing him as I pushed my wet hair away from my face. I had done the one thing I knew I shouldn’t do; I turned my back on him. He moved with speed and precision. I was shoved against the wall, lifted, and forced to straddle his waist.
“You suck at lying.”
“I suck at a lot of things, things you’ll never experience with me, Paladin.” I pushed against his chest as my back touched the coldness of the wall. His gaze dropped to my lips before slowly rising to lock with mine. “Put me down.”
“Make me,” he challenged. “You smell ready for me,” he growled as his teeth scraped across my collarbone, sending a shockwave of need crashing down to where I did not want it to go.
“That must suck,” I whispered through the need that tightened in my throat as my lids grew heavy. “Because I don’t want you, Callaghan,” I replied huskily. My lips touched against his in a soft flicker of curiosity as my tongue darted out to slowly trace the fullness of his bottom lip.
“Let me have you, Erie,” he uttered before his mouth crushed against mine in insatiable desire and every coherent thought I had fled my mind. I moaned as my arms slid up his chest and my fingers trailed through his hair, ripping it backward, away from mine so I could think. “Careful, I can play rough too,” he warned. “I don’t think you’re ready for that, or am I wrong?” Blue eyes the color of the ocean on a bright summer day challenged me. “You will choose tonight before I leave here.”
“I choose never in a million fucking years,” I muttered flatly, sliding down the wall, pushing against his chest. He allowed it as I marched towards my bedroom, intending to dress. “There has to be another way. The Order can find another way rather than forcing me to do this.”
“You still don’t get it; even if you find a way out, which you won’t because I have fucking tried, you will be forced to do this one way or another. Every prophecy entangled with this one has come to pass. The Order will not wait to see if it is undone. They won’t chance it by waiting to see if we begin to die, Erie. Have my son; you’ll be free the moment you have given birth to him, if that is what you desire.”
Tears stung my eyes, swimming in my vision as I turned around to face him. Anger clouded my judgment as my hair rose with the electrical current of power that pulsed to life within my soul. It wasn’t a secret that my parents, both Templar and druid, had used anci
ent, powerful magic to conceive me. Dark magic twisted with light, and when I was born, I was abandoned by both as if I was nothing more than trash they couldn’t throw away fast enough.
“You think I’d hand you my son and just walk away?” I inquired barely above a whispered breath as my body heated, and this time it wasn’t lust driving my pulse to a dangerous crescendo, but rage. “You should leave, Callaghan, before I reach my blades.”
“I cannot be killed by you,” he countered as he grabbed my arm and twisted it behind my back as he pulled me towards him painfully. “I’m offering you a way to remain free, unchained from a dungeon where you would be kept, bound until you conceived a child. I will not hurt you, nor would I keep you locked up. I assure you that is the plan for you. They’re coming here right now, hunting you. You’re out of fucking time,” he growled.
“You think I’m weak? I assure you, I am not. I’m not a fucking damsel, Callaghan. I can protect myself, so take your offer and get the fuck out. I am not bound to you or any of them. Unlike you, I don’t care if we die out. This world doesn’t need a hero; it needs monsters. They don’t need you and your pristine order of crusaders to charge in and save them. Don’t you get it? They like destruction. They crave chaos, not order, not security. They’re like me, dark and deadly. So take your voodoo dick and get out of here!” I ordered as I yanked my arm free and turned away from him.
The front door was kicked opened and before I had time to react, Callaghan grabbed me, shoving me behind his back as he materialized thick, heavy blades. I peered around his hulking frame, and my stomach dropped as I shrank away from the angry faces of the Templars who crowded into my apartment.
“Release her, Callaghan,” Arthur demanded, and I winced as I took in his disheveled appearance. The Fae obviously hadn’t been kind to him. Oops, my bad, asshole. “She belongs to all of us. Not just you, princeling,” he continued as his eyes hooded, heavy with lust as he took in my lack of clothing.
“She is coming with me,” Callaghan announced as he stepped further in front of me. “She’s agreed to carry my child in her womb; my blood is pure and ancient. Both her blood and mine date back to the first man and woman of the Order, and we will breed a powerful son. She has chosen,” he challenged, and his words swallowed any argument I might have held. What the fuck was he thinking?
“Is that so?” Arthur laughed coldly. His cruel gaze stared through Callaghan as if he was taking in my current state of undress. His lips curled with distaste, and he spat on my floor. “That bitch no longer gets to choose. We all want what is owed to us. She thinks she’s above us, but we intend to show her where she belongs: On her back, serving us.”
The room exploded in a flurry of motion so fast that I didn’t even have time to register anyone had moved. I’d known all of my life that the Knights were among the most skilled killers. Until today, I’d never seen them in action—and I wasn’t sure I wanted to ever again.
The glass shattered as light exploded, and darkness engulfed the room. Grunts sounded, and then howls of pain filled the room. The sound of metal hitting flesh was sickening, and as a hand encircled my waist, I struggled against it as I tried to make my brain react to what was happening in my own apartment. Fingers brushed against my naked ass, and I spun against the hold, fully intending to fight my way to freedom.
“Gods, woman, hold still!” Callaghan hissed as he whispered a spell to bathe the room he’d shoved me into in a soft glow. I peered over his shoulder, gasping in air as I took in the grisly scene that bathed my living room in blood and gore.
“What did you do?” I whispered hesitantly.
“I told you, you’re mine,” he snorted. “Pack, because you won’t be able to come back here for a while. You’re no longer safe on your own; the Order will begin to hunt us down for what we did unless I can convince them otherwise, but I need your help for that.”
“We? I didn’t do anything! You did this,” I groaned. I looked towards the freezer, eyeing it as I considered what would happen to Fred if what Callaghan had said was true. Either way, I’d be slipping away from this asshole to save the bodiless demon. He was my only friend.
Chapter 4
Callaghan
I watched her enter my home, unaware that she took the servant quarters up to it. My home, she’s in my fucking home and at my mercy. I watched her take it in, her eyes scanning for each escape exit, noting the lack of them. Her lips tugged down, frowning as she noted the varying shades of black with worry. It was all black because I wasn’t colorful; my life had a meaning, and I lived by the code of the Knight. Sure, it was done tastefully, but I didn’t waste money on things I didn’t need. There was also the fact that without her, this is what I saw. Erie was the color to my dark world, the light that lit it on fire.
“Impressive,” she hummed as she tossed her bag to the couch and crossed her arms. Her eyes held mine with a pointed look. “Still not sure why I’m here though,” she snapped, her voice full of irritation as they searched mine for any sign of aggression. “I’m not giving you a child, nor are we doing it to even try to have one.”
I smirked, knowing she may be crude and brash in attitude, but Erie didn’t like to swear. In fact, she normally skirted over words if she couldn’t find one to substitute it for. “Fucking, Erie, say it with me.” Her eyes bulged, and I chuckled, noting she was afraid of me. Terrified, even. Her hands trembled as she stood there, and no matter how much she fidgeted to hide it, I still saw it. I was trained to spot fear in my enemies, to know when there was blood in the water. Erie was afraid of me, and it both bothered me and hurt that she had placed me into that category.
“You’re not fucking me, asshole,” she popped off, and I barely contained the need to groan with her crass use of the term. I may not have been in her personal space, but I had spent enough time studying her to know that when she took lovers, she had been discreet, careful for others not to note who they were, not even me. I’d watched, curious to see who they were, but never managed to figure it out, or catch them on their way out of her apartment. “What happens when Arthur comes next time?” she asked through the thickness of her throat.
“He won’t come for you again, ever,” I returned sharply, more harshly than I had intended to. It wasn’t a lie, not really. I would forbid him from even trying, but she assumed I meant he was dead, and the asshole that I was, I let her.
“He’s immortal,” she argued.
I swallowed past the lie that was about to drip from my tongue. “Even we can die,” I muttered, and she blinked as understanding dawned in her eyes.
“The blade you used?”
“Lethal to anyone who breaks a vow to the Knight’s Order,” I said softly. “And before you assume it will work on me, I assure you, it won’t.” I should have been pissed off that she was excited over the news, but I wasn’t.
“Didn’t think it would,” she frowned as she redirected her attention to the portrait of me in battle; one of the few left that had survived the crossing into this continent.
“Romania,” I answered, noting the question in her eyes as she glanced from it to me. “It’s from when the Turkish Empire first invaded. We were there to help those loyal to the church escape.”
“Stay the fuck out of my head,” she snapped as her eyes watched me.
“I wasn’t in your head,” I smiled coldly as she watched me, fully aware that I was a predator and she was my quarry. “That pretty face of yours hides very little from me. It’s one of the things I enjoy about you. You can’t hide what your heart holds. Come; it’s late, and you’ll need sleep soon.”
I heard her heart as it increased speed, palpating as fear entered her veins. For all of her bravado, she was afraid of being this close to me. Not that I blamed her; my intentions weren’t knightly, in fact, they were anything but. By now, Arthur and the other Knights would have been here to set the spells, to add the wards, to trap my saucy
little vixen.
“This is where I leave,” she uttered thickly, if not a little huskily as passion flared to life in her eyes.
“You are being hunted now, Erie. You are not making it out of this one without choosing your future. I see your gears turning, and I assure you, there’s nowhere you can run or hide that we will not find you. There’s no place for you that doesn’t have me in it.”
“Show me where I’m sleeping then,” she said, changing the subject as she pulled her eyes from mine, dropping them to the floor.
“In my bed, with me,” I announced.
“That’s not happening.” Her tiny arms crossed over her chest as she watched me.
I had her, I had Erie in my house, and I knew her one weakness. I hated myself for using it, knowing that it would guarantee that this happened, but it would also protect her in the long run. I had no other option, no other direction to take this. Not one that she’d like or be safe from.
“I just killed Templar Knights to protect you. I broke the rules to keep you safe; you will sleep with me tonight so that when I return to the Templar Order tomorrow, I smell of you. You don’t have to fuck me, but you have to give me enough that when I turn myself in tomorrow, when I tell them you are willing to allow me access to your body to secure a child, I won’t be lying to them.”
“I didn’t ask you to do that,” she pointed out softly.
“No, but the idea of him raping you did not sit well with me,” I admitted. “My sword cannot be used on me because I’ve never broken the law of the Knight’s Order. So you have a choice to make. I’ve given you time to decide, and a safe place to make your choice. Tomorrow you will be handed over to my father to either tell him you’ve chosen me, or you’ll be placed under lock and key until you do what you were created to do.”
“You’d turn me over after you just slaughtered your own people to keep them from raping me?” she asked flippantly as she placed her hand on her hip.
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