Darkness Bound_A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance

by Sarah Piper

  His jaw ticked as he stared at me, but I didn’t think it was from clenching his teeth. In fact, the longer he talked, and the closer I scrutinized him, the more I realized there was something seriously off about him. It wasn’t just his jaw; all the muscles in his face twitched, as if his skin didn’t fit right anymore. His left eyelid drooped, and when he laughed, one side of his mouth sagged.

  None of it was obvious or severe, but I’d spent a lot of hours gazing into those eyes, studying the lines of his face. Kissing him. Yes, we were both older now, but still. Whatever was going on with him had nothing to do with age.

  “Aww, don’t look at me like that,” he said, mistaking my morbid curiosity for something else. “It turns out, you didn’t actually give me everything. You were holding out on me, Rayanne.”

  Holding out on him? What was he talking about now?

  He gestured for me to stand up, and I did, hoping if I didn’t give him too much trouble right off the bat, I could buy myself a little time to figure out a plan. To see if I could wake up that sleepy magic inside.

  He grabbed my hand, yanking me out into the corridor and into an adjacent alcove, this one much smaller than the room I’d been in, with a metal gate over the front. I peered between the bars, but the room beyond was pitch black.

  “What is this?” I asked.

  “You tell me.”

  God, what was with the games?

  “Give me a hint,” I said.

  “Okay, but only one.” Grinning, he banged his fist on the metal gate. “Come out, come out, little mouse.”

  Seconds later, a figure emerged from the darkness, her movements slow and stiff, her eyes milky white.

  My stomach lurched, the room tilting beneath me.

  “Ring any bells, necromancer?” Jonathan laughed, but I barely heard him, all of my attention on the poor creature before me.

  She leaned against the bars, her arms reaching through them, hands grasping at nothing but air. A low moan wheezed through her chest.

  Her face was rotten in some parts, bruised in others where someone had obviously beaten her. Her clothing was in tatters, and while she’d been thin is a rail before, now I could literally count the ribs through her pale skin.

  A blue unicorn hoodie hung off her shoulders, torn and dirty and stained with old blood.

  My eyes blurred with tears, but I couldn’t look away. I owed her that much.

  I’m so, so sorry Bean. You deserved better.

  “I see you’re memory is coming back to you. I knew it would, Rayanne. You always were the smartest girl in school. And the prettiest. It’s really too bad you turned out to be a witch.” Jonathan had been rambling for so long, that when he finally shut his mouth, it took me a beat too long to realize why.

  I turned to glance at him over my shoulder. He was holding a gun, pointed right at Bean.

  “Don’t!” I shouted, but it was too late. He’d already pulled the trigger.

  Bean caught a bullet in the chest. She stumbled back from the impact, but she didn’t fall. Didn’t drop. Didn’t die. Seconds later, she was at the gate again, reaching through the bars for something she’d never, ever find.

  “Amazing,” he said, that twisted smile contorting his face.

  I lowered my eyes, unable to watch the sick spectacle a moment longer.

  “What do you want?” I whispered. It was all I could manage without throwing up.

  “Easy-peasy.” Jonathan grabbed my chin, his hand reeking with the sweet, metallic tang of gunpowder as he jerked my face up, forcing me to meet his eyes. “I want you to teach me how to make more.”

  Thirty-Two

  LIAM

  Though only hours had passed on the material plane since the vampire notified me of Gray’s disappearance, it felt as though I’d been stalking the edges of her realm for months, desperately seeking the faintest sign that she was still alive. Still within reach.

  My human vessel was exhausted. I’d been going back and forth among the Shadowrealm, Gray’s magical realm, and the material plane, scouring the corners of the globe and beyond, hoping I’d find something. Anything.

  So far, I’d come up empty. It seemed as if Gray had simply ceased to exist.

  There was a time when this would have simply upset my plans, forcing me to move on to another Shadowborn, perhaps in another time and place. That would’ve been disappointing, but not devastating. I was used to waiting. I could wait eons.

  But Gray Desario had come to mean something to me. Whether that was the result of compromising myself by spending too much time in my human vessel, unable to escape the vestiges of all its earthly concerns and emotions, or there were some other forces at work well beyond my immediate comprehension, I couldn’t say.

  I could only say that when I thought of her now, something deep inside me ached in a way that brought back more memories than I cared to admit.

  Memories of a time when I, too, walked the material realm. When I, too, willingly enslaved myself to the whims of my earthly concerns and emotions.

  But that was neither here nor there.

  Weary and losing hope, I shed my bone-tired human vessel in favor of a great grey owl, eager to rest in the black trees that surrounded her realm. Leafless and tall, they afforded an excellent vantage point from which to survey the vast lake and the dark tangled forests beyond.

  It was here, perched upon the tallest branch in the tallest of these trees, that I finally felt the tug of her essence.

  There—at the edge of the lake—a flash of blonde hair caught my attention, and I launched myself from the branch and spread my wings, soaring down to the shoreline.

  I lacked the energy to quickly transform back into Liam’s vessel, so I opted for the shadowy form—human enough in its abilities that we could at least speak.

  “Liam!” she cried out the moment I landed.

  The breeze picked up, blowing her hair into her face, whistling through my robes with a chill I’d never before felt here.

  I wrapped my hands around her shoulders. Beneath my gloves, beneath her human skin and muscle and bone, I felt the hum of her magic, electric and warm, scented with lavender and lilac and something new I didn’t quite recognize.

  But there was no time to waste.

  “Gray, I need to know where—”

  “Raven’s Cape! He’s—” She cut off abruptly, her eyes wide, her face twisting in abject pain. The gruesome, tortured sound that escaped her lips nearly brought me to my knees.

  “Gray!” Desperately I reached for her, but it was too late. Just as swiftly as she’d arrived, my Shadowborn vanished into the mist, leaving me with nothing but the memory of her hair blowing in the breeze and the heartbreaking echo of her final scream.

  Thirty-Three

  RONAN

  I was fucking gutted.

  The woman I loved had been taken. The best friend I’d give my own life for had been taken. And all we had were a bunch of stale breadcrumb clues left by a madman, the trail quickly running cold. I was running on fumes, and I wasn’t sure how much more I could take.

  “I’m not picking anything up here but shifters,” Emilio finally said. “My sister’s team must’ve done quite a number on the place.”

  We’d arrived in Raven’s Cape last night. Driving around town in a nondescript rental van we’d picked up in Blackmoon Bay, we’d done a general sweep of the area, trying get the lay of the land and make some kind of plan.

  This morning, Emilio and I had left Darius in a dark motel to wait out the sun while we headed over to William Landes’ place.

  Apparently, it was a wasted trip.

  “This is bullshit,” I said, slamming a fist through the living room wall. “We’re chasing a ghost.”

  “We just got here,” Emilio said. “We need to be methodical about this.”

  “You be methodical. I need to do something.”

  “Do what, exactly?” he asked.

  I shoved a hand through my hair, ignoring the sting in my now-bleedi
ng knuckles. “I don’t know. Put myself out there. Let him know I’m here.”

  “You mean, use yourself as bait?” Emilio shook his shaggy black head. “Not happening.”

  “We’re out of time and up against a wall and the whole place is on fire. So unless you’ve got a better idea, Alvarez, this is our plan B.”

  He eyed me warily, the skin around his mouth drawn tight. I’d never seen him look so tired.

  In a voice heavy with defeat, he said, “I hate every fucking thing about this, Ronan.”

  “You and me both, brother.” I clamped a hand over his shoulder. “But we can’t let our girl die in there. And Asher needs our—”

  “Shh!” Emilio’s ears cocked back just a half-second before I heard the footsteps, too.

  Unfortunately, it was a half-second too late for both of us.

  “Hands where I can see them, boys,” a woman’s voice said from behind us, clear and commanding and absolutely not fucking around. Her accent was Argentine, and though I hadn’t turned around to look at her yet, I knew her hair was jet black, her skin golden and smooth, her brown eyes soft and expressive.

  Just like her brother’s.

  “Both of you,” she barked. “Back up slowly, and keep those hands up high.”

  We did as she ordered.

  When she finally permitted us to turn around, I nearly gasped. I felt like I’d been yanked twenty years into the past, right back to the last time I’d seen her. The last time Emilio had seen her.

  She was just as I’d remembered, other than the fact that she was now carrying a gun, pointing it right at her brother’s chest. Three men as big and broad as Emilio flanked her. All of them were wolf shifters.

  “Elena,” Emilio said, unable to keep the raw emotion from his voice. Tears shone in his eyes. “It’s… good to see you.”

  Something told me the feeling was not mutual.

  “Didn’t I tell you not to step foot to my jurisdiction, wolf?” She flashed a feral grin. Then, without warning, she clocked him on the side of the head with the butt of her gun.

  Emilio dropped like a bag of rocks.

  “What the hell?” I shouted.

  “Shut up, demon,” she barked.

  I took a step toward her just as I caught the blur of another cop in my peripheral vision. I tried to duck, but it was too late—he cracked me right on the skull.

  The last thing I heard before the pain surged and sucked me under was the sharp bite of Elena Alvarez’s final command.

  “Cuff them and put them in the truck. Make sure no one sees them.”

  Thirty-Four

  GRAY

  “That was unwise, witch.”

  I was flat on my back on the stone floor outside Bean’s gate, Jonathan staring down at me, his foot planted squarely in the middle of my chest.

  My entire body screamed in agony, as if he were holding me down in a tub of acid. I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t even breathe.

  Somehow, seeing Bean had unleashed something in me, and I’d slipped briefly into the realm. But I’d barely been there a second when Jonathan yanked back out again.

  My shield must not have held.

  Now, I wanted to die.

  “Please,” I finally managed.

  “Do you promise to behave yourself?” he asked.

  I nodded and held my breath. It was all I could do to keep my body from imploding on itself.

  Jonathan crouched down and jammed a needle into my arm, injecting me with a liquid that warmed my veins.

  And then… bliss.

  The pain ended. I didn’t have the stomach to ask him what he’d injected me with, or what he’d done to cause so much pain in the first place. All that mattered now was that the pain was gone.

  Jonathan grabbed me by the arms and hauled me to my feet. “Walk with me, Rayanne.”

  I did as he asked, letting him lead me further down the corridor. Every few feet, we passed another dark alcove, but I kept my eyes on the ground, not wanting to see what else he might’ve chained up inside.

  The pain had completely receded, but somehow, he’d woken up the serpent inside me. I felt it uncoil, slithering in my gut, warming. I welcomed it.

  I knew now it was simply biding its time. When I absolutely needed to call on it, it would respond. It would be ready. I would be ready.

  The thought gave me courage. Hope.

  “We’re more alike than we are different, you know,” Jonathan said, reaching for my hand.

  I rolled my eyes. Really? That’s the angle he was going for here?

  “How do you figure?” I asked, shoving my hand into my pocket, out of his reach.

  “You were meant to be alone, just like me.”

  “I’m nothing like you.”

  “No? I see your struggle. I live it. Every day, torn in half, wanting to do what’s right, not knowing your true path. Fighting it.”

  The darkness roiled inside me, responding to his words.

  As if he could sense the surge in my power, he said, “That’s it, Sunshine. Let the darkness fill you, fuel you. Fuel us. We could be a team.”

  I shook my head. “You said so yourself, Jonathan. I was meant to be alone.”

  He stared at me with pity in his eyes, like he was the only one in on some sick, elaborate joke. In the silence that followed, I realized just how hollow my words sounded now—just how empty that old refrain had become.

  For so long, I’d believed it. But after everything I’d been through with my rebels, how could I say that now?

  Alone? I was the farthest thing from alone I’d ever been.

  We came to a stop at another gated alcove, and Jonathan wrapped his fingers around the bars of the gate, turning to face me.

  “In my experience, Rayanne, people who make bad choices aren’t necessarily bad people. They just lack the proper motivation.”

  A chill ran down my spine at his words.

  What was he plotting now?

  He opened the gate and hit the light switch on the inside wall. “I believe you know my guest?”

  “Asher!” I gasped. The sight was all too familiar.

  He sat in a chair at the center of the room, shirtless like he’d been in Norah’s attic, only he wasn’t chained. The ground and cave ceiling were rough and bare, no signs of devil’s traps or other magical workings. His skin was unmarred.

  But he looked exactly as he had that night in the attic. Wounded and defeated from the inside out, his eyes bloodshot, his head lolling forward.

  “Have you changed your mind yet, Sunshine?” Jonathan asked. “Or do you need another minute?”

  “What… What did you do to him?” I sputtered.

  “Nanotechnology. Have you heard of it?” He didn’t even give me a chance to respond before plowing on. “It’s brilliant, actually. All sorts medical and military applications. For now, just picture hundreds of mechanized particles mobilizing in his bloodstream like a tiny robot army, each soldier’s armor engraved with the precise symbols necessary for holding a demon indefinitely.” Jonathan laughed. “Well, not indefinitely. Only until his body gives out and his soul slips into Oblivion.”

  My heart was frantic, banging against my chest, pumping raw adrenaline through my veins. The voice inside me grew louder.

  He must die. Destroy him.

  A vision shot through my mind, bringing me back to that night in the woods when I’d reconnected with my book of shadows. In my memory, I saw the bright green pulse of the earth’s magic glowing in my hands.

  Of course!

  The cave was natural, the rocks beneath my bare feet part of the earth. If I could connect with it, I might be able to draw on some additional magic, further enhancing my own, just like I had that night.

  “My father was short-sighted,” Jonathan went on, "but I’ve always had more of a long-term vision.”

  The bigger implications of Jonathan’s plans began to crystalize.

  He was unhinged—clearly. But he was also brilliant.

  He’
d invented an internal devil’s trap, impossible to eradicate without a complete bloodletting. Even if I took Asher’s soul out like I’d done at Norah’s, it wouldn’t matter—I wouldn’t be able to put it back into his body. Not as long as his blood remained tainted.

  And this monster was planning to weaponize it.

  Horror didn’t even begin to describe it.

  I closed my eyes, envisioning my feet turning into tree roots, digging down deep beneath the cave floor. Deeper, deeper, deeper still, until they finally reached a great, glowing well at the center of the earth.

  The words came to me easily then, and I whispered them inside my mind, again and again.

  “Great green Earth, mother of all

  Hear my plea, heed my call

  Grant me the strength to see this through

  Lend me your magic, pure and true

  Bind us together, you and me

  Above and below, so mote it be.”

  Not the most elegant verse, but it was honest, and I felt the earth warm beneath my feet. Still visualizing my roots, I imagined dipping them into the great pool and drinking deep, filling myself with green, glowing, strong magic.

  Jonathan clapped once, startling me, but not breaking the connection. “Oh, and just in case you’re still dreaming about another one of your knights in tarnished armor storming in to rescue you, allow me to disabuse you of that notion.”

  My heart thudded in my chest.

  “Every last one of your allies has been captured and eliminated,” he said.

  I narrowed my eyes, my hands clenching into fists at my sides. The earth magic surged inside me, twining with my own, twin serpents of green and black. “I don’t believe you.”

  “No? Have you ever heard the sound a wolf makes when he’s being skinned alive?” he asked. “It’s not howling, exactly. More like… What’s the word? Braying? Oh, eventually he shifted back into his human form, but I think he regretted that choice, mi querida.”