PrimEVAl Sacrifice
Page 20
The scent of her arousal fills the air sliding through the iron bars of the high open windows, blending with scent of the rich wines poured. I lose my interest in the alcohol and wait for my revulsion to pass because I do need to riddle my blood with poison to get into Darius’s mind. I’m not in the mood to keep pretending tonight, especially since I have a far better plan for the evening than this sham gathering. My most trusted men hide their snicker behind their indulgence of whores and food.
I'm into a lot of fucked up shit. Tying people up is child’s play in my book.
I plan to toy with Darius’s mind while I bring Emma to shattering heights right under his love drunk nose. Neither one of them will know what hit them in my darkly twisted ménage I have planned for tonight.
I will drive myself between them, savoring both their bodies. I'm that fucking desperate for Emmaley. I'll take her for myself anyway I can get her, and unlike my brother, I recognize the pull Darius has over her will never be broken.
Soon, they will crave me, I can't help but think with an almost possessed need to go claim my prey.
Elenessa thinks the unfulfilled need I can't hide is because I'm full of adrenaline from many years away spent battling for lycan ground until finally laying siege to their kingdom. She knows I crave power, but tonight I crave a whole different breed of it. She doesn't know I'll have those she once thought dear to her, eating out of the palm of my hand.
Fuck! I'm so fucking hard thinking about it, I'm frantic, practically panting like a wild beast.
Running my hand through my hair in pent up frustration, I turn my attention to her, so the crowd can think I've gone mad wanting her. I'm sure they imagine worse is happening under the feast laid out.
She is someone I have to keep close, but I can't bring myself to fuck her. She’s beautiful, vicious even–just how I’ve enjoyed my women in the past. Finding the traits used to be enough to get me hard as a rock, but the thought of taking her to my bed only leaves me cold and more bereft. I’d rather lose myself in drink than take her for the time being.
Drinking down the numbing contents, I ask her, “Why do you wear her locket . . . why is it so important to you?” I demand, willful to stay focused.
I pull myself away, knowing she's desperate for me. Her lips draw closer. I tense with violence, but instead of lashing out as I wished to do, I place a well-calculated smile on my lips before I lean in, giving the room a show by placing my hand on her breast and pulling all of it out for everyone to see her nipple instantly bead. The music in the room and the candlelight surrounding us makes it easy for her to forget all the eyes watching us as she throws her head back while moaning loudly. I don't forget. In fact, I make sure my brother would be pleased when whispers made their way to him, because he'd surely think I was thoroughly infatuated by her.
With my eyes surveying her body like a prize, she plays the part of a untrained tease to perfection. One that doesn't fit her in the least, as she tries to look embarrassed, covering up while still leaving half her breast out to entice. With her eyes drowning in ecstasy, she whispers, “Bring me back the locket he took, and I'll show you what its use is for. I promise you, you'll want to see this. Tonight after you come back, I'll be waiting for you.”
Out of breath, she retreats–running for her rooms, trying to appeal to the predator in me to give chase.
With perfect timing for all to see, I grip the table, before claws begin sinking into the onyx surface, slashing down thick grooves in an attempt to calm the violence I feel. Because to everyone watching, it looks like I'm doing all I can not to give chase, thus, not letting a slip of a woman do as she wished with me. So different from my brother, my hard reasoning rules me under any circumstance, making me the better ruler of the two, but that couldn't be farther from what the truth is. I’m placing my mind in chains, so I don't go after my brother because then he would know the object of my true desire.
*****
Like a worm digging through my innards, the squirming presence of my brother entering our world makes itself known to me. Roman, my second in command, notices the shift in me as my fangs pierce deeper into her skin, wanting to bury my inability to be at peace–never getting any relief, by shaking my head into the bite. The pliable trembling form, a blonde with straight waist-length hair, screams in pleasure. The sharp desperate cries, the blood pumping fast through her and gushing warm in my mouth, it all should do something for me. But the truth is, nothing does. The room is filled with intoxicating moans from the vampires and their preferred pets.
Burrowing my head into her flesh, I blindly grip the bottle of liquor as I round my shoulders, haunches rising, growling into the inner thigh of the woman Roman brought me. He laid her out for us to feast on, on the table like a slab of meat before us, so I can regroup.
All it accomplishes is spoiling me because now I know how deep Emma fucked me over. Sliding my tongue over my fangs, I stop feasting on her with a disapproving hiss. She may have all the similarities I need, but she can’t keep the woman I want from my thoughts. Her wanton abandon is a poor substitute for the years I spent, restlessly fantasizing about my brother’s death, so I can go after his girl. Clinging to control is like a noose tied around my neck, holding back and wishing I can throw it all way. This deck full of aces, plays I have yet to win, wishing I can fold and shut my eyes to my winning hand because it’s keeping me from her.
All I need is silky blonde hair, and no faces.
Never look at their faces.
The Viking is over the faceless girl, covering her because he knows what to expect from me while he's devouring her breast before switching over to the fuller one, eyeing Viktor with a sharp slant of his chin, so he can take my place when she begins whining because I've stepped away.
Drinking from the bottle, I clean the bitter taste in my mouth, swishing the strong liquid before I lean forward spitting a splash on her welcoming pussy, legs spread wide for me as her blood drips onto the table.
I turn leaving her for Viktor.
Flashing into my brother’s quarters, I slam the double doors when my brother’s body begins reappearing.
Immediately, the knife digging into his naked back catches my attention, and the smell of Emmaley’s divine scent on his two digits makes me take a moment to inhale her deeply into my lungs.
I slow my progress, almost becoming still when everything seems to slow because my taste buds are going haywire, sending signals to my brain that will put me in a feeding frenzy.
I've never wanted to taste anything more than I do right now as I hungrily stalk the distance between my brother and I.
He has her blood all over his mouth and chest, and so, I think of murdering the prick, but know I can't go through with it because he sired me. If I should strike the final blow that kills him, I'll die soon after.
“I take it she was not happy to see you,” I snicker, hiding my need while gloating as I close my fingers over the knife. Bending on one knee, I turn the blade, dig it deeper, tearing more flesh, before slashing too close to his heart–the pain mirroring into me, making it difficult to continue. So, I grind my teeth in frustration, try to purchase ground, until my eyesight grows dim, only to begin sliding the steel out of his shoulder blade. “Too bad she has great aim and didn't kill you, brother,” I say on a shaking breath. Anyone can kill him, and I'll survive,[35][36] but it's likely an impossibility because of the link he shares with Emma. She saves him every time without even meaning to.
What a fucking mess.
I wonder if she would do the same for me if she knew I existed.
It's my greatest wish to sever their link.
I think it's where I'll finally find my happiness. I may even leave her alone after I accomplish it, so she can find hers with Darius.
I shake those elusive daydreams from my thoughts that won't bring me anything, but more pain.
Tonight, the only choice I'm left with is where I put my focus. So, I'll do my best to let her know all about me.
I see so much suffering there it almost reflects mine.
He must see my intent and see the fury I'm barely holding on to. To know his fingers were inside of her while I was with Elenessa and the faceless other bitches who would use me–dying to sleep with the saner of the two. They know I'm making my climb for the crown.
Shortchanged.
Not tonight, not anymore.
“If you kill me, you'd quickly follow. You smell of sex and whores, Marcus. What could possibly pull you from a night of debauchery?”
A sigh escapes, “I felt your pain and scented your blood, isn't it obvious I came to rejoice in your torment? So, indulge me, you professed your eternal love and she stabbed you in the back?” I stalk around his suffering form, as he yells for me to get out, but this . . . this I do enjoy.
My cynical smile widens, “That sweet tight pussy you fantasized about and thought only yours clouded you blind, whispered lies on venomous lips, and now . . . well, you're in eternal misery. We both are.”
I decide to patronize him further, “You should have never set her free. She would have been easier to kill under your deranged mind.”
I play with rolling the knife through my fingers, deciding where to embed it next as he squirms like the worm he is, trying to turn on his back, so I can do it while looking him in the eyes.
“She sure as fuck pulled a number on you, told you she loved you, and you believed her, so you set her out on Darius, to kill him? What a deceitful little thing she turned out to be.”
“She does, she'll never stop loving me,” he roars.
Laughing now, I say, “How fucking broken are you to believe those lies? I bet she had his scent all over her, just like when you had to snatch back what once was yours. Tell me, brother. How does it feel to know she'll always go back to him?”
“You will never forgive me for finding her first and because she fell in love with me. Leaving you no other choice, but to seek revenge in the name of your family when the truth is you would have forgotten them had you met her. I did you a fucking favor because now you can hold onto your memory of them!”
Over him, caging the animal, I bend down gripping his head pulling it off the ground. “Don't speak of them, ever! The bitch I didn't care for, but you had no right to take my boys, you sick fuck,” I growl, bringing her knife over his neck pushing myself to do it. The knife shakes with the strength I'm using as I break it in two.
“How could I forget? My pain for yours, right? When does it end? Gods, I couldn't bring her with me!” he yells into the floorboards, pushing his neck towards the knife as it slides out of my hand and clatters on the floor. In agonized pain, his body shakes with the force of wanting her.
He really is going mad.
I take his head and smash it on the ground, knocking him out. On my haunches, I pull his fingers into my mouth cleaning her from the filth he is. Savoring her for the first time in so many nights, with my head thrown back, eyes tightly shut.
She taste like a mixture of heaven and hell. Sweet ambrosia on my lips as an unquenchable desire erupts on my tongue, distorting the peace it brings for a need so strong it borders on pain.
Her body will be mine.
Rushing to take her once and for all, I pull her locket from his neck, removing his spent body out from the circle. Completely determined, I enter it, enticing forth the fire to light a path around the circle surrounding me and find Darius with my mind, tracing to him. He's on my compass, no need for spells, all I require to get to where he has hidden them is a weak dimensional wall.
Chapter 8
A Killer’s View
From where I stand on the cliff’s edge, the scent of Emma’s blood is calling me down to the racing river. I ignore the enticingly poisonous melody of her call while priming the predator in me to be thorough. My eyes scour the surrounding dense highlands before settling over the six lycan beasts, blending into a silver moonlit reflection of the water below.
They travel steadily against the rushing current, but my eyes quickly dart up to the all too quiet dark hills that lie across. I want to lay my suspicions to rest, insuring I don’t miss any threat by putting my focus on the most obvious one.
Once I do a third sweep of the landscape, I determine no one else has made it out of the compound.
MOLI has proven to be highly efficient. I must decide on a reward, maybe something she aspires for. Perhaps even allowing her more interactions with Emma.
With no other present danger, I consider the encroaching lycans gaining ground below. They present enough risk as a combined threat if they continue to get too close to my black bird.
A nudging thought assaults my mind like a hammer while I continue to watch all the players close in on the queen similar to a game of chess. A key piece is missing in all of this. The attack feels incomplete, a ruse somehow.
Suddenly, I sober up at the thought of her broken soul hurt by any of them and take a lungful of my surroundings, inhaling the combined scent of the forest with the hopes of picking up anything I may have overlooked.
I think of all the possible threats out there, wishing to take her from me and wonder if maybe I haven’t given in to the insanity of what it is to want Emma for oneself, and maybe I’ve gone as far as becoming paranoid, overanalyzing everything.
It has been prophesied.
I thought myself safe from it if I kept my distance, but the truth is I’ve thought of little else.
I take deep calming breaths and come to the realization that she isn’t an obsession of mine anymore. Somewhere along the way, she’s turned into my only reason for existing.
I decide not to question things further for fear I may not like the answers that may lead me to make my brother’s mistakes.
I turn my face to the strong gale, comforting me in a way by clearing my thoughts as I see how it presents a challenge for my enemies, making the already treacherous river even more deadly. One of the beasts falls under the current and then surfaces farther away from the group. I can tell the fools don’t recognize it is Emma’s emotions directing the force of the wind.
My eyes follow the object of all my desires, catching her movements as she angrily jerks the soaked shirt over her head and aims it for Darius’s face, seeking to place some type of barrier between them, hoping for a way to rein him in.
He quickly snatches it, shredding it with his claws before the strips land at her small feet. He growls something at her, and although she understands him, it’s unintelligible.
From his actions, he’s warning her this would be a good time to go screaming for the hills, but of course, she pays no heed, making my own monster want to rise to the occasion.
She could be mine.
The spoils of war I get to keep for myself instead of all the meaningless riches back at the castle.
I could trace to her and steal her, trace us to my NYC penthouse, leaving Darius to deal with this mess.
My fangs lengthen, but something stops me from seeking her.
I don’t know what it is that keeps me from acting, but the unwelcome scent of the glutton animals doubling their efforts slaps me in the face before I can ponder it further, and has the purpose of a cold shower.
They can scent her, too, are too busy tasting their prey which means my brother undid Emma’s cloaking spell.
With great difficulty, I contain the savage anger consuming me. It’s the way they look at her that stops me from seeking Elenessa and strangling her, for I’m sure she did the spell. She does everything for him.
It’s their hunger for Emma that’s made them too eager and sloppy. They don’t realize their sickly sour sweat has oversaturated the air, getting caught and carried over to me in the wind, and for that, I’m thankful.
There’s no hiding from me.
I reach for my sword, but remember the only weapon o
n me is the locket I wish to return to her, lying over my heart underneath my battle form-fitting black pullover shirt.
Elenessa.
She removed my cloak and weapons upon greeting me tonight, wishing to get as close to me as possible without the hindrance, or else I’m sure the enemy would have picked up on the flapping sounds of the heavy material as it was captured by Emma’s wind. The leather pants don’t make a sound as I shift my weight getting ready to strike until I finally remember why I hesitate.
He’s not here.
Rubbing my hand over my heart— I notice the ache, the ever pestering and relentless stab of pain I can sometimes numb at suffering her absence. I blame all the drink I’ve had to dilute the constant burn of what it feels like to not have her, but because of it, I’ve forgotten a key player in all this.
With Emma taking up all residence in my mind, I wasn’t expecting to land in the midst of a lycan uprising, or I wouldn’t have been ready to fuck myself into oblivion on Drunos and alcohol.
I could hear, miles away, the rapid rain of gunfire and MOLI’s alarms blasting, followed by the roars of the lycans trapped in the compound through the otherwise densely quiet forest.
And I can’t help wondering where Luke is hiding because he can’t be one of the ones in the compound.
But more importantly, how the fuck did the lycan rebels I have been searching for, for the better part of a year, find Emma and Darius so fast? Especially when I made sure I covered all my tracks, purchasing this land under a subsidiary company, to later have it built from the ground up in the middle of nowhere.
Luke. He is Logan’s brother, the lycan king who's currently in my brother’s dungeons. I'm sure he’s responsible. Luke's been busy leading his own rebellion against Eros, and even King Logan, his own flesh and blood, should he get in his way. If he's behind this, then that could only mean we have a traitor in our midst, one who is too close, knowing things no one is privy to. This could only mean Elenessa is helping Luke or another Salisan is from her coven. Salisan are those few witches who have ascended the highest level of expertise in the craft. Darius has the compound warded, so Emma must have injured him one of those first times she woke up captured and was still trying to kill him while under Eros’s enchantment. Very likely did enough damage a Salisan got through a ripple in the barrier, gaining their location when the ward was weakened due to his dwindling life force. No other witch would have gotten through the spell, no matter how weak he was because his bloodline is too pure.