I opened my mouth to speak and then hissed as pain rocketed through my chest, burning where my lungs refused to open and expand. Forming words wouldn’t happen as I whimpered, hissing through what should have been breathing life into me. My body bucked against the bed, a silent scream that never formed playing in my head as my chest began to burn fiercely, my brain becoming starved for oxygen. Callaghan’s arms reached out, pulling me into his body as he watched me struggle for air. My hands grabbed on to him, holding him close as the panic of suffocation lit within my mind, and the tissue began to turn blue where I held him against me. His mouth hovered next to mine, those glowing eyes watching me as his mouth closed the distance between us, kissing me, he blew life into my body, as if he knew how to fix me. I gasped for his kiss, letting his oxygen heal me from within.
“The next time you throw away what I have given you, I will stand by and watch as you suffer the consequences, precious sweet girl,” he growled and his body seemed to grow, dwarfing mine as he crawled above me, staring down at me. His fingers lifted, pushing the hair away from my face as he watched me closely. “I do not enjoy watching my mate die, or knowing that she chose death over being with me. You won’t do this again, ever. Your life is precious to me, even if you do not think it is. Do you understand me?” he demanded.
“I do,” I whispered through the dryness of my mouth. It came out huskily as my eyes dipped to his lips, which curved into a seductive smile. I rolled him until I was straddling his waist, uncaring that my entire ass peeked out of the gown I wore, or that his men watched us.
“You get off on dying, woman,” he observed with a sexy smirk.
I didn’t answer him because it wasn’t a question. I just stared into his darkening eyes that filled with lust as the ancient beast within watched me and every minuscule move I made. His nostrils flared, and I leaned down, kissing his lips, his tongue jutted out, claiming mine as he allowed it. It wasn’t a rough kiss; in fact, it was so fucking gentle that I wanted to sock him in the head and tell him to stop being a pussy. His lips curved up in the corners as he rolled on top of me and stared down.
“Punch me in the head, woman?” he demanded as he watched me. “Fucking try me,” he growled as his mouth crushed against mine, stealing the air from my lungs as he kissed me until my insides combusted and my moans were only captured by his mouth. When he pulled away, there was no glow to his eyes, only Callaghan staring down at me in wonder. “Nice try, Erie,” he growled as he grabbed my arm, righting the IV.
I had gotten what I needed to know: he was inside my head, listening to every thought I made. I had no privacy or defense against him. “Oh, Callaghan,” I smirked.
“How’s the pain?” he asked.
“I enjoy it,” I hissed.
“I gathered that when you decided to bathe in chemicals with a fucking alarm clock.”
“It was electrifying,” I uttered as I wiggled my brows.
“Straitjackets are an option, sweet girl. Do not fucking test me after what you just did. You have no idea how far I’m willing to go to protect you, even from yourself.”
“Except from you, the one thing I actually need protection from,” I snapped as I pushed him off of me, and slid onto my side. “OD incoming,” I uttered as I felt the first of the intense sickness rushing through me. My body arched as the first tremors pushed through it, the foam filled my throat, and then I felt weightless as the medication I’d been preventing from reaching me rushed through my system.
“Erie, this isn’t fucking funny,” he growled as he grabbed my chin, staring into my eyes as they rolled back in my head. “Get the fucking medic, now!” he shouted as he tried to hold me down, his head resting against my stomach as he waited for them to come. When they didn’t come quickly enough, he ripped the IV out of my arm, and I barely hid the smile that tried to spread over my lips.
“What happened?” the familiar voice of the medic asked as he entered the room.
“She’s awake, or she was until she fucking OD’d,” Callaghan snapped as something made a strangled noise. “What the fuck is in that IV?”
“The nulling medication and the fertility meds,” he wheezed. “The only new thing was the pain medication we added to give her some comfort so she wouldn’t continue to suffer.”
I felt my legs healing as the poison seeped from my body, and I pushed against it, forcing it from my system while the blood oozed out. I wasn’t an idiot, nor did I fail to plan every detail, down to the exact thing I had known they would resort to doing. While Callaghan had pushed the meds, my body had bled them out just as quickly as he’d introduced them.
“She’s fucking bleeding out!” Callaghan growled as he continued to hold my thrashing body down while they pushed the drugs to make my system work harder.
I’d rebooted my brain with the electrocution. Obviously, I’d come back with brain damage if I’d wanted wild beast sex willingly. But mostly, if I had wanted to come back as me, I’d have to send the other bitch away for a while. The slices to my flesh had been to force the poison they pushed through me out, knowing I’d bleed it all out faster than they could push it into me. The poison had been to hold the wounds open, to keep my flesh from healing before I could push their toxins out. Callaghan’s hold lessened, and I moved, throwing wild magic against them as I ripped my arms from the cuffs. I slid to a halt outside the room and tossed up easy wards, enough to buy me time to reach Fred.
I’d seen him through the deaths I’d suffered, mere feet away from me. I smiled as Callaghan raised glowing eyes on me at where I stood, just out of his reach. He bared his teeth as I smiled back; game on, fucker. I turned, racing to where Fred’s cooler sat, slamming my magic against the bars until they cracked and turned to liquid metal. I stepped into the cell, opening up the cooler and smiled brightly as I looked down.
“Hello, Fred, did you miss me?” I asked as a bubbling laugh escaped my lips. I reached in and grabbed him up by the hair.
“About fucking time,” he said drolly. “I was beginning to think you had forgotten me on your way out, and do you mind…that’s my fucking hair,” he growled.
“It’s not like you have many options for me to hold on to,” I snapped back as I started down the hallway, throwing magical barriers up as men came rushing forward. “I mean, you don’t have a body and all that jazz, or handlebars. I’m working with what I have. I’m open to placing handlebars on your skull, of course, if you’re into that sort of thing.”
“Just don’t roll me like a bowling ball,” he uttered.
“Can’t promise anything,” I said as we rounded a corner and came face-to-face with an angry group of Templar Knights. “Shit,” I muttered as I dropped Fred onto the ground and used both hands to send magic pulsing towards them. I picked Fred up as it hit them, knocking them backward as I watched them melt into goo that covered the floor. Oops, my bad.
“Damn, girl,” he chuckled. “Wherever my body is, it’s got a hard-on.”
“Ew, Fred,” I said as we started down another hallway, turning left and then right until we hit an elevator and slipped inside.
It was the longest elevator ride of my entire life, along with the most awkward one as the boring music played until the button dinged and I stepped off, still holding Fred by his hair. An entire class of children turned and looked at me. I swallowed hard as I tilted my head, staring at them with curiosity at how many there were. It was as if every child left in the entire world was right fucking here. I moved deeper into the room as I silently, awkwardly danced around the kids, who all stared at me. One reached out, and I sucked in my stomach as he smiled.
“They’re only tiny humans, why are you doing that?” Fred asked.
“They’re trying to touch me,” I hissed as I pulled him closer as screaming erupted around us. “Well, that happened,” I said as power rushed over us. I watched as the children all turned, setting their eyes on the source o
f that magic as if he was a saint. I turned, looking at Callaghan, who stared back with a murderous glare in his glowing blue eyes. My eyes dipped down, staring at the kids who all seemed utterly excited that they’d been graced by his presence.
“Step away from the children, now,” he warned barely above a whisper of death.
I swallowed as I stepped back, turning on my heel, and I rushed to the other side of the schoolroom, jumping onto the high railing and I peered down at the layered glass below it.
“No way, no fucking way, woman. That is at least three stories down,” Fred hissed with a note of genuine panic in his tone.
“Close your eyes if you’re going to be a pussy, Fred,” I snapped and turned, staring across the heads of the children who watched where Callaghan was slowly making his way through them, his men at his back. “This is not the time to bitch out on me, man.”
“Get the fuck down, Erie,” Callaghan snapped coldly, butthurt that I’d played him and he’d lost.
“Oh, I assure you, I plan to get down,” I said with a saucy smile tilting my lips as he shook his head in silent warning.
“If you jump, you won’t be able to run, and I will catch you. There is no way out of this that doesn’t end with you being chained to my bed, not after the shit you just pulled on me.”
“Mouth, watch it, there are little ears around,” I chided. I gave him a duh stare as I held perfectly still, buying myself time to grow enough balls to jump.
“They’ve heard worse,” he said and yet he seemed to look around at them all the same. I wondered if he saw the awe in their gazes as they took him in. To them, he was their savior, their God. To me, he was the devil.
I turned, looking at the sheet of glass that was about to break my fall, hopefully. I turned back, watching as his father entered the room, staring at me coldly. His eyes seemed to slide between Callaghan and me as he took in the situation. The alarm began to bellow as the teacher started calling the children to her, and the Knights began to flood into the room.
“Erie, get the fuck down.” Callaghan stared at me, silently begging me to listen to his order.
“If she fucking lifts a finger, kill her,” Douglas growled.
“I’m not going to hurt you, Douglas,” I purred as I stared him down. This man, he’d been on my kill list since I was a mere child; his crude examination of me had left an impression, among other things he’d done. The way he’d stared at me so impartial, coldly. The things he’d made me watch him do, well, that alone had warranted his death. After that, it had been easy to add his ass to that long list.
“You wouldn’t get a fucking chance to do it before they fill you with enough lead to make you a statue, girl.”
“Tempting,” I said as I dropped my eyes and slid them back to Callaghan. “Catch me if you can, monster,” I hissed as I fell over the edge, backward.
Weightlessness was not the coolest feeling in the world. In fact, it wasn’t even like flying; it was like straight up falling. The moment before I would have fallen through the glass, I spun and landed on the pads of my bare feet, oblivious to my bare ass sticking out of the hospital gown I wore. Fred screamed, even after I’d landed on the glass. I stood there, staring at him where he was safely tucked against my body as he continually held his eyes closed, screaming.
“Are you done yet?” I asked with a pointed look as I held him up.
“Are we dead?” he asked.
“No, not unless…” I paused as a cracking noise began beneath us, looking down as the glass spider-webbed beneath my feet. “Well, balls,” I grumbled as I pulled Fred against my chest, holding my arms close to my body as it gave out and we started free-falling to the next floor. My eyes took in the Knights on the ground floor, and I exhaled as we started for the next, and then the next, finally dropping to the last one, where I threw myself backward, breaking through the wall of glass that should have been harder to get through, but wasn’t. I ended up rolling through the shattered glass as I came up on my feet, staring at women who looked back at me and then glanced at the head that was currently smothered against my breasts.
The hand holding Fred pulled away, and he smiled. “Put me back, woman,” he demanded.
“You’re incorrigible,” I grumbled as I started forward, only for the Amazonian woman from the med center to step out with her sword held in a fighting stance. I smiled, slapping my hands together, which ended in my slapping Fred’s face against my hand, but my magic shot at her.
“Ouch! To the devil with you, woman, that hurt!” he snapped as I watched the Knight go down to her knees. A female Templar, now I’d seen everything. I walked past her, only to feel a sharp stab against my side as I did. I looked down at the sword that stuck out of my side. I pulled myself off it, fully intending to slowly turn around to finish her off.
“She isn’t immortal, Erie!” Callaghan screamed from the other side of the glass wall that separated this room from the one in which he stood. My eyes dropped to the woman, and I tilted my head, lifting it again to stare at him as I took in the glass that he stood behind. When I was satisfied that he wouldn’t get through it, I looked back down at the woman cowering at my feet.
“If you ever fucking touch me again, I will send you to the devil myself,” I warned.
“To save my children, I’d walk to him willingly!” she said emphatically, her eyes swimming with tears.
“Have you not heard? All the devils are here, and we’re fucking hungry,” I hissed. I walked past her, not bothering to cover the wound that dripped blood onto the floor. I walked past the glass that kept the Templars at bay and stopped, kissing my lips to the glass as I stared Callaghan down. “Don’t be upset. I did tell you I would never stop fighting you for my freedom.”
“You have one hour, one hour and then I begin hunting you down. I suggest you use it wisely, woman.”
“Only an hour?” I asked as I rested my head against the glass, letting the steam of my breath fog over it.
“That is exactly how long it will take me to track you down and bring you back.”
I turned, sensing the Knights behind me. “They’re immortal,” I smiled coldly as I turned, then dropped as bullets began to fly. I laughed on the ground as I rolled onto my stomach, lifting my hand, I used Fred as a prop to look over the edge of the table that sat beside us. My hands worked as Callaghan screamed and pounded against the glass. I stood, my power becoming a palpable thing in the room as I stared through the barrier I’d placed at the women who were huddled together, terrified. As if they feared a monster would consume them, but it wasn’t a monster they feared. It was me. I swallowed past the lump in my throat as I picked up Fred, slowly walking away as the pounding increased, and the bullets hit the barrier of wards I held in place to protect myself from their bullets. A full circle of magic surrounded me, protecting me as I moved toward the exit.
I started jogging down the hallway; staring at the glass doors, I began to assault them with my magic, and I busted through. I inhaled the fresh air until more bullets shot at me, nailing my shoulder and my hip as I staggered backward into the doors I’d left. I placed a moving ward around my body, swaying on my feet as blood dripped from the wounds.
“Erie, just a little bit further,” Fred said. “I’m right outside the gates, go to me. Go to my body, my Queen.”
I blinked as screaming erupted from below while I moved out onto the concrete walkway that they’d built, as if this place was a fucking castle. Bullets slammed against the wards, and I wavered as my magic began to fade. I leaned over the edge, staring down at the fast-moving river that rushed below.
“No, my body. We need my fucking body!” Fred demanded.
“I won’t reach it,” I whispered. “It will find us,” I cried out in pain as I hefted us onto the wall, swaying as I stared down, trying to judge where to jump to survive the fall.
“You won’t make it if you jump,
either,” he argued.
“I won’t be captured, and what’s the worst that happens? You get free?” I uttered as I fell forward, tightening my hold on Fred as we toppled into the water. I gasped as the cold water bit into my flesh, renewing my strength to escape the icy death that fought to keep me in the river. When the fuck had it formed rapids? I sucked in air as we went under, and my feet kicked off the bottom while the current tried to pull us down. My hands moved, slapping Fred’s face against the water with every stroke as he gasped and gurgled and I fought to live.
Once I reached the other side, I crawled onto the bank and threw up water as I turned, staring back at the Templar Knight who watched me with a wicked smile on his lips. He’d changed into full armor, and instead of giving chase, he watched me beat the shit out of myself, get shot, and wane the magic which was my only defense against him.
He’d known I’d escape, and he knew I wouldn’t have enough energy to fight him if he caught me. I turned over, pushing up from the ground as I grabbed Fred and started towards the car I’d hidden outside of his compound for when this day came. He thought he was the only one who had game? I had game. I had a fucking back-up plan for my back-up plan, and another one in case it failed. I’d spent years backing those plans up, and I’d be damned if I ended up being tied to his freaking bed. Although that beast was more than just a beast in the sheets, he made me ache at the mere thought of him. Throaty laughter sounded in my head, and I closed my eyes.
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