by Janie Marie
A relieved look flashed within his gaze, but his eyes widened when he looked at her more closely. He kept fighting, but she saw his devastation. She knew what he saw because she could feel the sinister smile on her lips. He saw her demon.
Lancelot laughed off to the side. There were several werewolves between him and David, but he was looking at her.
“Couldn’t resist her, could you?” Lancelot asked.
Jane’s smile stretched wider, and she walked in his direction instead of David’s. The sad girl tried to pull her toward David, but the black-eyed monster dug her nails into Jane’s arm and tugged. Jane felt sick to her stomach because she could feel how her demon was reacting to Lancelot’s naked body. She wanted him inside her.
“I knew there was a dirty little whore inside you.” Lancelot curled his finger. “Come on, bitch. I’ll give you what he will not.”
She moaned and pulled her jacket off.
“Jane, what the fuck are you doing?” David yelled at the same time she felt a fire roar in her chest.
She stopped walking and looked around, meeting David’s glare before turning back to Lancelot.
He smirked as his dark eyes scanned her body. “Even scarred, she sends blood to your dick, doesn’t she?”
“Jane, wake up, baby. Come back.” David tried to come to her, but he was tackled to the ground.
Lancelot spoke to her as if David wasn’t killing everything in his path to get to her. “Are you coming or not? He will eventually run out of my pets to kill.”
The sad girl within stood straighter, wiping her tears.
Lancelot watched her for a few seconds before grinning. “You are still fighting her. Good girl. I want you to fight me as I break you. Are you brave enough to take me on by yourself? Or do you need that bitch in you and your knight? I do not think David will want you after this anyway—your aroused scent is telling him all he needs to know. If you come to me, like a good girl, I will pull my ranks back so your knights can make it to Valhalla—let them live to fight another day. Just for you.” His gaze settled on her mouth. “You just have to come and promise me you will swallow.”
Jane felt rage from both versions of herself. While the sad girl felt disgust, her dark half was furious he’d offer Jane such a thing. They both glared at him, and he seemed to know she was no longer someone he wanted near him. His wolves growled and moved between them.
This time, Jane smirked. She became hyper-aware to all that was happening around her. In fact, she could see more than what lay in her field of vision. Her mind was connected with everything and everyone. It pleased her, and she enjoyed the sensation it created inside her body. They were her puppets.
“I will not be second to her!” Her entity’s words spat out of Jane’s mouth like acid as she dug her claws into Jane’s heart, snarling and baring her fangs at Lancelot.
Lancelot glanced at David and chuckled. “A little late for that. All I want is a taste of that sweet girl David loves. He doesn’t give a fuck about you. My entire army could fuck you, and he wouldn’t care. But if it’s her, and I break her, I destroy him.”
“That’s where you’re wrong.” She connected her mind with the silver, pulling it from the knights’ bloodstreams. “I will destroy the prince. Not you.”
The knights began to heal, fighting with renewed vigor.
“What are you doing?” Lancelot moved farther away, but he grinned at her before glancing at David, who was fighting off wolves, trying to get to her. “Are you helping them just because I won’t fuck you? It will only take you longer to ruin her without me. Jane fears me. She’s defeated you several times. Even now, I see her pretty eyes glaring at me. Whatever control she’s given you is only temporary. Choose your actions wisely, bitch. Who knows, maybe she can kill you and save the world like David believes she will.”
“Or I could kill all of you,” she said, watching him as he continued to move away from her. “That would break her pure heart.”
Jane looked at the sad girl. She had tears in her eyes, but a golden inferno burned within them. “You’re letting her destroy us,” she said, shaking her head in disappointment.
Lancelot glanced down at his semi-erect member. “Well, if you want to be my whore, bring your ass here. I just want to fuck her once, but I will let you go first if it means so much to you.”
“No. You will be my whore.” She grinned at the sight of his fury. “You will learn not to deprive me of what I want. You will suffer for wanting her instead of me.”
Lancelot’s eyes widened, and he whistled. A larger portion of werewolves surrounded them while Keres screeched and flew toward her.
The sad girl cried. “Don’t do this.”
“JANE!” David yelled, throwing several vampires and werewolves off his back.
Jane closed her eyes as her darker side laughed, and she let go of the weeping girl. He needs to suffer, she thought, turning away from the sad girl and looked up to see numerous Keres circling her. She wanted all of them to pay, and the darkness of her evil copy only increased her thirst for blood.
Several Keres suddenly dove toward her. They laughed as they took turns swiping at her face, but Jane didn’t fear them. She dodged their attacks, a cruel smile on her lips as her demon praised her, cooing all sorts of sick torture she could inflict on them.
The white eyes belonging to one of Lancelot’s mutated wolves connected with hers. She stayed still, letting it get close, and roared when the wolf growled. It was that exact moment several Keres dove to attack her. Jane, with her demon smiling beside her, lifted her hand and stopped them, leaving them suspended mid-air. The mutated wolf was stuck too. He snarled as he continued to snap his jaws, but she wasn’t letting him go.
Jane looked at Lancelot and spoke the words her smiling demon whispered in her ear. “The next time we meet, Sir Lancelot, you will beg to fuck me. Pray I still want you inside me when that time comes.” She blew him a kiss before turning back to the five monsters she held in place. They screeched as she squeezed them with her power and then slammed their bodies repeatedly into the ground until only twitching piles of bloody flesh were left in the snow.
When more Keres began to fly toward her, she stopped them and held them mid-air. She smiled as Lancelot ran away with half of his pack, but she would make sure he knew she was superior. So, she squeezed them until they exploded. Blood and gore flew in every direction, and she moaned, licking her lips when some landed on them.
Three vampires suddenly charged, and Jane leapt at the first male, grabbing his hair and yanking until his head separated from his body. She threw the head at the second vampire before tackling the third to the ground, her teeth closing around his jugular the moment they landed.
Jane savagely ripped away all she could fit in her mouth. She growled as she spat out his flesh and then grabbed him by the leg. She grinned at the sight of his life ending before swinging his body at the other vampire.
The force knocked her victim back into the air, but she reached out with her mind and yanked him back into her hands. She did this all while the Keres above her stayed frozen in the air. She was delighted by the sound of their screams, especially when they pleaded for Lancelot to return for them.
The real Jane felt herself pushed behind her demon as they glanced over to see Lancelot had turned around to watch. Her demon smiled, holding his stare as she forced the struggling vampire man onto his back. She straddled him and forced him to grab her breast as she ground herself onto the man, moaning and never losing eye contact with Lancelot. Jane panicked, horrified at what she was doing, and tried to regain control, but she was forced back, paralyzed within herself as her demon freed the man’s erection from his pants.
No words left her mouth, but she screamed and dug her own nails into her demon’s back when she began to moan and dry fuck this vampire who was now actively participating in the assault. Jane looked for the sad girl and saw her on the ground. “You let her do this,” she said, covering her eyes. “Fight her
.”
Jane turned back to her demon, glancing at Lancelot as he began to stroke himself as he watched from a safe distance. She wanted to throw up, and she screamed when her demon stood and started to undo her pants. Somehow Jane managed to tackle her demon. Her physical body fell back on the aroused vampire, who immediately began to grope her.
Her roar shook the ground, and Jane lost all control over herself as she held her demon back and started ripping the male vampire to pieces with her bare hands.
“JANE!” David shouted, the horrified tone awakening her from the madness. “Baby.”
She looked at her bloody hands and the dead vampire, sobbing as she tried to keep her struggling demon down. The sad girl was helping, telling her to not let go, but she was cracking again. “Oh, God! What have I done?”
David roared, and she turned to see him fighting. Thor had joined him along with Artemis. Their disgust with her was clear as day as they continued to fight. She watched David, his eyes darker than normal as he smashed and cut his enemy apart.
He glanced at her, baring his fangs now that he had ripped his mask off at some point too.
“He hates you.” Her demon laughed below her. “You have broken his heart.”
Jane sobbed, closing her eyes when David’s furious glare was aimed at her. She felt her demon begin to stand as the sad girl told her to stop this. She told her to wake up, but Jane was breaking.
Two Keres dove toward her, but her demon easily reacted, smashing them and holding them down on the frozen ground. She stood, letting her demon do what she wished, ashamed and broken at the sounds of the Keres’ screams. She couldn’t get David’s face out of her mind. So, she stood, watching as her demon considered what to do to the two Keres. A blonde and a brunette.
“Their skin is flawless—let’s fix that,” her demon spoke aloud, holding out her hand as she watched their flesh melt away.
“STOP HER!” the sad girl screamed.
I can’t, Jane thought, hating what she’d become.
A faint tingle touched her back, and she sobbed. The sad girl inside her roared, though. She reached for the source of that tingle, begging it to help her. DEATH!
Jane looked down at the nightmare she had created. Two Keres stared upward, their black eyes emptier than they had ever been before.
“Come back,” the sad girl inside her cried to him. “We need you.”
It—he—never reached for her. She felt sadness that was not her own, but he still only stood there. Watching.
Jane tried to search for him; she didn’t want to be this way. She wanted him back. The tortured girl grabbed her hand and tried to run with her, but her demon’s attention on the brunette fighting beside David made them stop. He blocked an attack that would have taken Artemis’ arm and pushed her behind him as he destroyed the werewolf attacking them.
“Looks like we’ve been replaced already,” her demon said, standing again. “He will learn, too—I do not come second to anyone.”
Jane, and even the sad girl, felt fire inside their chest as David continued saving Artemis when Lancelot’s wolves singled her out. Jane looked to where she’d last seen Lancelot and watched him wink.
Fury pulsed through Jane’s veins, and she told the sad girl to shut up when her demon’s wicked smile spread over her lips.
That tingle spread through her belly and out to her chest, but her demon laughed at it as she stood behind Artemis. The goddess was fighting two werewolves, and Jane held out her hand, making them implode in a mere second.
“Baby,” David said, reaching for her, but she shoved him in the chest, knocking him back several feet before erecting a barrier around her and Artemis.
“JANE, STOP!” he shouted, unable to get through the barrier.
Artemis turned to her, her eyes wide with fear when she realized David couldn’t save her this time.
Jane quickly grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off the ground, her demon speaking aloud for all to hear, but Jane didn’t care; she was furious. “I have stood by and allowed your presence to vex her, but I do not like the attention he gives you either.”
Artemis sputtered and clawed at Jane’s hand, but she squeezed tighter.
“Your death will suffice to devastate her as well as rid me of the attention you are given. Just remember you are nothing. David didn’t love you, Death barely noticed you, and I am better than you in every way.”
“No, Jane,” David yelled, holding his bloody hands against her barrier. “Baby, stop!”
She glanced over at him, still keeping Artemis’ flailing body in her hand as she watched the god of thunder bring his hammer down on a werewolf approaching David from behind. Its head exploded on impact, thrilling her with the barbarity of his slaughter.
David ignored what was happening around him, not even watching how the werewolf army was starting to retreat. “Please, my love. This isn’t you. You’ve had chances to kill her, and you’ve chosen not to. Because you are good, so good. Push her back, Jane.”
She snarled, turning back to the sputtering goddess in her hand.
“Jane, my love,” he said softer. “Please don’t do this.”
When her demon considered ripping his throat out, Jane took the chance. She grabbed a hold of the darkness encasing her heart and began pulling it away. Her demon fought her, scratching her heart and soul, leaving them bleeding, but Jane and the sad but brave girl inside her held on to each other with shaking hands.
The demon roared. She wanted to keep the upper hand. She tore huge chunks of Jane’s heart, laughing as she forced Jane to see those she’d lost. She wanted to take their laughter and memories from her. She wanted only pain left behind. Only sadness and hate. When she found David and Death, she grinned and reached for them, going for Death first, reminding Jane of his absence, of him abandoning her. It reminded her she had hurt Death by choosing David. And she promised Jane that her refusal to let go of Death would destroy David.
“Please,” Jane said, crying as she felt them slipping from her fingers.
“FIGHT HER, JANE!” David shouted, his smile flashing in her mind along with Death’s.
Jane gasped, tightening her grip on them, her desire to hold them both sending a burst of strength through her as she felt the demon squeeze her heart. The sad girl was there, pulling on her demon, roaring every time the demon squeezed harder.
David’s and Death’s laughter, how they teased her together, floated into her mind. She could see them clearly, and she refused to let the demon take them from her. Jane pulled them closer, smiling when a new image came into view. It was David and Death with her and her babies, that night in Texas when she’d returned to her home. They were happy, she was happy, and they were there helping her hold her babies.
“You will never be able to save them.” Her demon laughed.
Jane knew that was a possibility, but she sure as hell would try. Jane yanked herself away from her demon and clutching those she loved to her chest. She screamed, so overwhelmed when fresh air filled her lungs and the reality of what she’d done crashed down on her.
“Let it out,” the sad girl commanded, bleeding but smiling at the sight of her holding onto everything that mattered to her.
Jane closed her eyes, releasing a blast filled with all the hate and darkness she’d been ready to unleash on Artemis, and let her go.
The burst of energy hit every werewolf and vampire who had remained, reducing them to steaming piles of flesh and bone.
Jane glanced at Artemis coughing and crying on the ground before looking at David. She knew he’d never forgive her, but she removed the barrier and prepared to have him kill her for her wickedness and betrayal. She lowered her head, praying she didn’t have to see his face when he destroyed her.
“Oh, baby,” he said, lifting her up as he caressed her hair.
Jane stood there shocked. She couldn’t cry. She couldn’t speak. He wasn’t picking Artemis. He wasn’t even looking at the goddess—his concerned gaze was on
her. Just her.
Jane glanced out to see a massive crater where she’d been standing, and the amount of dead bodies lying in it. More than half had escaped them, but she had reaped every black heart that remained.
That tingle returned and brushed her cheek. She closed her eyes, realizing she had let a tear slip down her bloody face. The tingle followed its path, and she faintly sensed a little moment of bittersweet pride. The presence lingered, and she mentally reached for it, but it faded away.
David’s wonderful heat was there, though. He wrapped her in it and pushed his love inside the cracked pieces of her heart. “It’s going to be all right, Jane.”
“No, it’s not,” she whispered, hanging onto him as he began searching her body.
He bared his fangs when he touched her unbuttoned pants and quickly buttoned them. She cried, ashamed of everything she’d done.
David’s hands were shaking as he lifted her shirt. Bedivere quickly came over. The unsure smile he gave her made her cry harder, but he knelt beside David as they inspected her wound. She’d completely forgotten about it until Bedivere pressed down.
David grabbed her hand when she flinched. She stared at his thumb rubbing the back of her hand as Bedivere told him she’d be okay. He shouldn’t have been comforting her.
“One feeding should be enough for a full recovery,” Bedivere said.
Hades came over and hugged Jane but quickly let go when David growled.
“I am only relieved to see her standing,” Hades said, pulling his mask off. “How is her injury?”
“She will heal,” Bedivere said before walking to Artemis.
David glanced at the goddess crying on the ground. “Go see to your niece. We will discuss what happened later.” He didn’t give Jane any time to process what was happening. He lifted her into his arms and walked past everyone. Even Arthur looked away from her when she glanced at the destruction.
“I’m sorry.” Jane covered her face, sobbing when he didn’t say anything back.
David stopped, growling before speaking. “Not now, Akakios. She isn’t well.”
Jane peeked over to see the pack watching them. It relieved her they were all alive, but she felt awful when Akakios looked into her eyes. He just tilted his head sideways as David walked around them.