“Tell me what you did,” he demanded. His hand pushed against the fiery barrier of the circle, and I watched as he struggled and almost succeeded in reaching me. I stepped back, narrowing my eyes on his.
I brought the vial up, tipped it against my lips, and drank the contents. Tears filled my eyes as I considered what I had done. I turned, taking in his naked body as he prowled, moving back and forth as his eyes watched the flames flare around the circle. No one had wanted me for myself in this life. John wanted a child, because once born, it would hold that which he had wanted most in this world. Lucian wanted her, the one he’d loved so long ago. My coven had chosen him over me, and in the end, I would die alone.
I dropped the vial, listening as it bounced off the ground. I lifted my eyes, staring up at the full moon as it reached its apex, high in the sky. My curse wasn’t much, but it was enough to give the next one a fighting chance against him. A chance to end this. My eyes slid back to Lucian, watching as he paced, naked, bathed in the moonlight in utter male perfection. I could see why she had loved him. I knew why they were all besotted by him until the end as their life force ebbed away. He was everything a woman would want in a man; strength, power, virile, and he’d never age. His body was sleek, hard, muscled, and covered in runes that seduced the eye of anyone brave enough to look. I dropped my gaze, watching as the flames around the circle died and he lifted his midnight gaze to mine as a dark smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.
He moved with purpose, crossing the now nonexistent barrier, and then slowly, ever so slowly moved around me as his hand touched my body, creating a storm of emotions inside of me. His touch set me on fire, and I knew I didn’t want to desire this man. He’d taken from me, and yet I wanted him to lay me down and do what he wanted, which was utterly sinful. Instead, he circled me slowly, prowling around me like some naked beast ready to claim its prize. He strutted, making sure the hair on my nape stood up at his close proximity, and I waited, I waited for him to land the blow that would end my life. It didn’t come.
Instead, his fingers slowly drifted down my sides, sending heat unfurling inside of me. I was covered in blood, and yet the moment his hands touched me, I forgot who or where we were. His lips touched between my shoulder blades, kissing his way up the base of my spine.
“Turn around, Katia,” he whispered as he kissed the curve of my neck. I turned, watching as he backed up. “Tell me what you did. If you tell me, I will be able to help you.”
“I don’t know what I did,” I said woodenly, waiting for him to respond in violence. His hand raised and he backhanded me, sending me to the ground with a punishing blow.
He knelt beside me with his cock hard, his hand slowly touching me where he’d hit me. His eyes watched me and something soft took hold. “Tell me what you did. I don’t want to hurt you. Too much depends on what you did, you understand that, right?” Despite the violence he had just used against me, his tone was still that of a lover.
“I can’t,” I whispered, and cried out as he grabbed my hair and pulled me back to my feet.
“You’ll tell me, you always do,” he growled as he pulled me flush against him. “You feel that?” he asked as my body rubbed against it willingly. “Your demon made love to you, but me? I want to destroy you. I want to take you so hard that you know you are owned, so that when you come back, you’ll still feel me, here.” He pulled me away and slid his fingers inside my slick flesh. “That excites you, doesn’t it? My dirty little girl, so dark and deadly that she isn’t even safe from herself,” he hissed coldly. “Tell me, Katia, when your demon lay between your legs whispering sweet nothings, you craved more, didn’t you? You had no idea that it was me you craved.”
“Go to Hell!” I snapped.
“Hell doesn’t frighten me, it cannot contain me. Come on, Katia, fight me,” he demanded as I struggled against him. “I like it when you fight me, remember? Did she whisper that to you as well?”
“You didn’t at first,” I hissed back. “Tell me, what would you do if you only had one more chance to save her? Because that’s what this is; you’re trying to save her from what she did. But think about this, I didn’t curse you. I cursed her,” I laughed as he swallowed convulsively and shoved me to the ground. “I figured it out: the way to hurt you? Is to hurt her. You will try to save her, but you won’t be able to, no one will. You will love her, and the moment you do, her clock starts ticking. Every one of us will be with her, but they won’t love you anymore. She won’t love you. Next time she is reborn, she will win this game. We’ve made sure of it.”
“Tell me what you did, or I will make sure the reminder of your life is nothing but unnamable pain,” he warned. When I just smirked at him he shook his head and knelt between my legs. Never taking my eyes from his, I parted them. “Last chance, Katia.”
“I can’t tell you because I don’t know,” I whispered. “I spelled myself to forget what I cursed. I spelled myself to know of a thousand possibilities, but I do not remember exactly what I cursed anymore. I saw what you did to all of them. The way you manipulated and seduced them before you killed them. You think I’d trust myself not to beg you?” I laughed, feeling him as he settled himself between my legs as he captured my hands high above my head and forced me to arch my back. His mouth crushed mine with a fervent need that I matched. Unbridled lust ripped through us and, wanted or not, I needed his touch as the poison and curse burned through me. His tongue pushed past my lips, sucking mine as they met in primal need, unaffected by the chaos that played around us. Lightning lit the sky as thunder clapped and shook the ground. I craved him.
I craved him like a prostitute craved silver to feed her babes who waited hungrily at home. I moaned, unable to deny what he did to me when he touched me. I could feel his throbbing cock as it slid between my legs, poised to take what I freely offered. He laughed coldly, the sound unintelligible, but not wholly human.
“If you won’t tell me, then beg me for mercy. If you know the past, then you know what I am capable of. Beg me,” he demanded. He pushed inside, and I cried out against his mouth, moaning as he filled me until I hurt, yet craved the pain.
I smiled coldly as he witnessed the seal taking control of me, changing my eyes to the color of his soul; black. Thick black lines raced over my skin as the power of the seal surged through my veins. A knife materialized in his hand as he raised it and clenched his fist around it. I brought my hands up to stop him, but too late. The knife sliced through my hands and plunged into my chest. I screamed as he pulled out and stood up, ignoring the fact that I was no longer it, the evil which lurked inside of me. I struggled to my feet to face him.
“Let her go!” he demanded.
“It did,” I gasped as I brought my palms up, gagging as I took in the bloody gash that had cut to the bone and flayed me open. When he moved towards me, I whispered his name and he stopped, his hooded eyes blinking slowly, as if he was waiting. Waiting for her.
“Katarina,” he whispered.
“We are all here, my love,” I replied, unable to stop the darkness as it swirled to life once more.
“Gods,” he growled as he rushed to me, knocking me down as he entered me hard, moving at a pace that wasn’t human. As he chanted words I couldn’t understand, words that sounded older than time, his body took mine, sailing over the moon and through the stars as I shattered against him. With a gasping and ragged breath, he found release.
“Lucian,” I warned, unable to stop it from controlling me. A voice that didn’t sound like mine emerged from my mouth. “You’re making this too easy. You think I’d let her go?” it laughed, changing my features to hers. I rolled away from him, unable to stop it from using me to speak to him. Pain racked me, consuming my mind as it took full control. “You have been trying to put me back into that box, and I have no plans of going willingly.”
“Gods damn you,” Lucian snapped, retrieving the blade. “I will find a way t
o destroy you.”
“No, you won’t. There is no way that this ends with me being destroyed or going back into that box. You won’t kill her again. She knows what you are and what you do to her every time she is reborn. Next time, when you find her, it will already be too late for you. The gates will open and she will be free to be reborn as I have promised her in a life without you in it. You see, she’s not going to be the same when she returns. She will be faster, stronger, smarter, and hidden until she is ready to play the game. You loved her, which means she is a weakness which can be used against you.”
“I’ll be prepared, creature, I always am,” he snarled as he jumped, slicing me as, once more, the seal disappeared, leaving me to feel the bite of the blade as he cut me to ribbons. I fell to the ground as my blood flowed and his feet kicked, hitting my spine until it snapped, and with it, blissful nothing as he ended my life.
I awoke from the nightmare, gasping for air, and turned in bed, only to see Lucian watching me. I launched myself from the bed, covered in so much sweat my nightgown clung to my curves. I crawled across the floor, to the wall, and crumpled against it, staring at him.
“Bad dream?” he asked coldly.
“You, you killed me,” I whimpered as if he’d really driven that knife through me. I brought my hands up, holding them out as I looked at them, and then pulled away the top of my nightgown to examine my body. “Holy shit, that was fucking terrifying!”
“What happened in your dream?” He looked out the window as he stood up and turned to face me.
“I killed people, and then, oh God, I killed my sister, but it wasn’t my sister. And you, you were naked, stalking me around a circle of fire. Naked, like, dick swinging in the wind naked,” I babbled as I lowered my gaze to the dick in question. “Then when the circle broke, you killed me. You, you…” I looked out the window as the sun started to rise, then back at Lucian, who had gone as still as a statue.
“You should get dressed,” he growled, and I blinked at his cold dismissal.
“That’s it? You ask what happened and then nothing?” He’d turned from warm to cold faster than jumping in an ice-cold pond in winter.
“I said get dressed; it was a nightmare, Fitzgerald, what do you expect me to do about it?” he snapped angrily.
“Nothing, nothing at all,” I muttered as I pushed from the floor and stood on shaky legs, which he noticed. “Last night I had a dream about fucking Lucifer, and everyone panics. Tonight, it’s about you. So maybe the dreams have something to do with you and nothing to do with me.”
“Careful, Fitzgerald,” he warned, his expression glacial.
“No, no, I don’t think so, Blackstone. Last night you offered me a solution; today you’re as cold as the iceberg that sank the Titanic. If that solution is you, I think I’m willing to keep the dreams. After all, it wasn’t so bad being fucked by the devil, considering you’re a close second.” I was pushed up against the door with his hand wrapped around my throat, my head bouncing against the wood. I cried out as I brought my hands up to his and gasped for air.
A knock sounded at the door and my mother called my name softly. I started to reply, but his hand tightened until I couldn’t do anything but glare at him. We listened as her footsteps retreated down the hall.
“Do not fucking tell me I’m worse than he is or I will give you a damn good reason to think I am. You think I fucking care if you think I’m a monster? I promise you, little girl, I will fuck you and then destroy you in the same night. I’m not a nice man, but I still am a better choice than he is. I’m there when shit happens because, believe it not, I am trying to protect this coven since they seem hell-bent on fighting demons when they have no fucking clue how to accomplish it. You think I don’t know about you and your little group of demon fighters? When you get in over your head and they seem to run away from you? It’s not you they fear, it’s me. When you and your little playmates got in over your head a few weeks back, who the fuck you think stopped the demons from tearing all of you apart?
“Remember, Fitzgerald, they ran away from you even though you were on your ass in the dirt. It wasn’t you and it sure as dick wasn’t the old man downstairs that they feared. You need me, like it or not. You don’t have to like it; fuck, I prefer it when you don’t. Now, get fucking showered, you have places to be today. Try not to slip and land on Lucifer’s dick while I’m away.”
He pulled away and I slapped him hard, bringing my hands up to my throat as he backed away from me.
“Yeah, I like it rough, too, little girl,” he growled as he turned, taking long strides as he left the bedroom. I slid down the wall and glared at the door long after he’d closed it.
Chapter 9
I sat on the couch with my legs under my ass, watching reruns of I Love Lucy with my mom and Alden as the doorbell sounded merrily throughout the house. Alden jumped up and hurried to the foyer, and I could hear him opening the door.
A few moments later, as I drummed my fingers on my thigh, I looked up and froze as I caught sight of our guest. Green eyes found mine, smiling before they moved to my mother and then back to me.
“Babe, Kendra, this is Adam,” Alden announced as he cleared his throat and looked at us uncomfortably.
“Pleasure, ladies,” Adam seemed to purr as he entered the room. I righted myself and slid my eyes over him, because if sex walked on two legs, it had just walked in through my front door and was waiting for my mother and me to respond to his greeting. He was tall, like well over six foot, with long dark hair the color of mahogany, and muscles that went on for days.
“Hello,” I mumbled, wishing I’d taken a little more time with my appearance. But we’d been watching Netflix and chilling with Lucy all night, so I had been pretty comfy in my baggy sweats up until he’d arrived. “Sorry, we weren’t expecting company,” I admitted as I stood up awkwardly and smoothed down my sweatpants. At least they were Pink brand, and light grey that went with the baby tee I’d made to sell that said, “Witches eat Snitches,” across the breasts.
“That’s okay, you still look good enough to eat,” he smirked as he slid those green eyes down my body with a hungry look in them. “Just here to talk to Alden for a moment.”
“Is anything wrong?” my mother asked, worrying her bottom lip as her eyes darted from Adam and settled on Alden. They made puppy dog eyes at each other and I made a gagging noise that stole a laugh from Adam, which only made him even more boyishly handsome.
Something pulsed in the room and I swallowed as my body awakened with a violent need. I eyed Adam, who almost looked as if he was waiting for some kind of reaction from me. I licked my lips nervously and tried to pull my eyes away from him.
“Maybe we can double date later, ladies?” Adam suggested with a sly wink at me. On another man, the gesture would look smarmy. With this man, I was imagining panties thudding to the ground around the state.
“Are you from his coven, his old coven?” my mother inquired, and I noticed Adam’s lips tightening, as if something about what my mom said was funny.
“You could say that,” Adam nodded, but the way he said it made me question it.
Something was off here. Yet the more I looked at him, the more I just wanted to rip off my clothes. It was all wrong. I tore my eyes away from him, trying to make the pulse that had just leapt to life between my legs stop. He wasn’t a witch, not with those eyes he was trying to hide. I turned back to him in time to see the tattoos on his arms pulse and undulate briefly over his skin. Fuck me. I shook my head to clear it as Alden asked my mother if he could use her office; the moment she agreed, I beat feet through the kitchen and out the back door.
I ignored the fact that I wasn’t dressed for the chill in the air, or the fact that I was sneaking around my house to figure out what the fuck was going on in it. I paused as I pressed myself against the house and glanced at the driveway, wondering absently what kind of car he h
ad come in.
A guy like that wouldn’t be driving around in a lime-green Gremlin or a Volkswagen bug. For starters, I doubted he would fit in one of those cars unless he was folded, but I was curious as to what he would drive.
There was nothing. I was about to head back inside when a window a few yards away from me opened, and Alden glanced around nervously as he placed new salt just outside on the ledge as they spoke. I waited for his head to move back inside, and then snuck as close as I dared to it. As my heart beat wildly against my chest, I tried to quiet my breathing so I could hear what they were saying.
“The Guild is almost finished, yet there’s still rooms inside the catacombs we can’t get into. So, if you know what’s inside of them, you need to start talking,” Adam said softly, and I froze.
“Couldn’t Olivia get into them like she did with the room that had those grimoires in it?” Alden’s voice was smooth, as if he wasn’t discussing treason against our coven in my house.
“We haven’t asked her yet, considering she’s pregnant and Ristan is being an overprotective asshole. He’d probably rip my heart out and eat it if I even suggested sending her in right now. Synthia is planning on asking him, but she’s been rather busy. All things considered, I didn’t want to bother them if you already know what’s inside there. Plus, now that the leyline witch is out of there, it’s safe to start gathering the little ones to live and train there again. Syn wants it up and running soon; seeing that other Guilds are falling, those children will have nowhere to go.”
“Has Synthia figured out what Lucian wanted from the catacombs yet? She made that deal with him without considering what it might have been first, and that worries me.” Alden’s voice turned stern, as if his own words disturbed him.
“No, but you know he’ll get it. Eventually. She won’t break her word to him.”
“No, no…once she gives it, she will honor it. God help us if it is something that threatens this world and yours, Adam. I worry about what he’s searching for, and how it will affect the Guild or this coven. Not to mention, the other night, Lucifer made another move that would have been almost as disastrous as his last one was. Do me a favor and keep an ear out, let me know if you hear anything. I’ll pour through the files you brought me last week; see if I find anything in them.”
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