“We enjoy killing, but we enjoy fucking more. Tell them, and I’ll make you watch as they are slaughtered while I fuck you; I think you’ll know pain and pleasure on an entire new level, kitty. I have tasted you and to be honest, I understand why he fucking craves you. You’re sweet, but you hide a dirty side that drives me crazy. So please, please tell them, because once you do, his protection ends and the real fun begins,” Spyder growled as his fingers traced the crease of my thigh, inches away from where my sex was bared to Lucian’s heated gaze.
I struggled in his lap until I felt his cock growing against my backside, realizing he enjoyed it more if I resisted. I stopped, arching my ass away from him as he laughed huskily against my ear.
“Too easy,” he murmured gently as he kissed my neck. “You taste of sex and magic, and a hint of whisky—and honestly, you look a lot better tied to a bed, naked. So don’t go and fuck up, because if you do, it’s where you will stay.”
“Fuck you,” I whispered hoarsely.
“No, but you whisper our secrets to a soul and that’s exactly what I will do to you,” he promised. “Now, be a good girl and don’t do anything stupid. We are everywhere, watching you.” My skirt was smoothed down as one hand slid down my thigh, the other touching my shoulder, and it burned the moment he did. “You smell good, almost good enough to eat.”
I stood up sharply and scrambled away from him until I bumped into Lucian, who smiled as I fumbled for words. I turned away from him with crimson cheeks and watched the backs of the men as they filed out of the house. I swallowed a sob as I turned to face Lucian, who raised a finger to run it down the side of my face.
I remembered being with him, all of him. I remembered begging him to do things to me, bad things. Begging. As in, I pleaded and did things to him just so he would give me what I needed, and still, I’d hungered for more. They had watched us all night, and every time we detonated, they’d come a little undone along with us.
“What we did…” I couldn’t finish as heat blossomed on my face and tears lingered in my eyes.
“We fucked, you and me. You didn’t fuck anyone else, and you won’t, ever again. Get over it; even animals fuck when they’re in season and right now, you’re the animal and I am the wolf hunting you because, make no mistake, you are in season. I told you I wasn’t a good guy, I told you I was the one protecting you, and so I am. I fixed your problem with Lucifer, but it wasn’t for free. You let him in. Not me, not them. We paid a price to fix what you did, and therefore, you are mine. Understand? And the next time you think about exploring my club, you’ll do it with me, or you won’t like what happens. Break the rules again, and you will be punished, and it won’t end as well as this turned out.”
“I’m supposed to find a mate. I have to get pregnant, so unless you plan on having a child with me, I will be up for selection at the next event. And you…you didn’t,” I paused, staring at him while I tried to delicately ask if he’d worn anything.
“Didn’t use protection?” He laughed as he watched me panic. “No, I didn’t, and I won’t with you. You will tell the coven that you are mine, or I will tell them that we fucked, and that we will continue fucking. One of the two will happen, because you are not fucking anyone else. Not unless you want to see them at the end of a sword, without a head.”
“You’re a bastard,” I hissed as I stepped away from him as he moved closer, forcing me up against the wall.
“Save the names for in the bedroom,” he laughed as he pressed me against the wall. “Kiss me, and fucking mean it. Pretend like your pretty little life depends on it, because it does.”
I lifted my mouth to his, slowly running my tongue over his lips as I moaned against him. My tongue slipped between his soft lips, capturing his. A growl tore from deep in his chest as he lifted me, pressing my pussy against his cock, tearing a cry from my lungs as the soreness he pressed against burned.
What was it with this man? He hunted me down, moving in ways no witch could, and yet I couldn’t stay away from him. I wanted him, wanted everything about him. I wanted him to fuck me right here, right now, and he knew it. I wrapped my legs around him, grabbing between us to free his cock, until a cough sounded from elsewhere in the room, and then another, followed by laughter.
I pulled away from him, staring into his condescending midnight eyes that smiled at me in triumph, struggling to calm my body’s response to him and forcing my breathing to level out. I bit my lip, leaning my head back against the wall as he let me slide down him, right until his fingers slid through my sex with my mother and her boyfriend mere feet away from us. I smothered my face against his chest, inhaling his earthy scent as I fought to calm the storm he created.
“What is this?” my mother chirped, and I groaned. “Is this why you didn’t come home last night until late?”
“She’s mine,” Lucian said firmly. “Let your mother know that I’ve claimed her as of last night and I intend to breed with her.” He watched me as I skewered him with a glare that promised a thousand deaths. “A Fitzgerald and Blackstone will make a very powerful child indeed, won’t we, sweet girl? Probably the most powerful in the coven’s history,” he murmured before he removed his hand and kissed my forehead.
“What about him?” she asked barely above a whisper.
“He can’t touch her anymore.” His eyes bored into mine, watching me as he spoke. “I used an old family spell to protect her and claim her. She’s bound to me now, and closed off to Hell forever.” I smirked coldly as I remembered his ‘family’ spell, which had consisted of a Fae and a room full of half-naked men licking and biting me.
“I will make the announcement; the coven will be thrilled. It’s unexpected, but I don’t think I could choose a better mate for her. That is if you breed, of course.”
“I agree, as does she,” he said softly, lowering his mouth to mine in a chaste kiss, which sent butterflies into a rage inside of me. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Hold your breath while you wait,” I whispered softly, for his ears alone.
“Don’t make me spank your ass, little witch,” he said loudly enough for them to hear, causing my cheeks to turn redder than they already had at being found with his hand in the cookie jar. Literally.
Chapter 11
Pacing in my room was becoming a bad habit. I’d been doing it for over an hour, probably punishing myself for what I’d allowed to happen last night. I still didn’t know why I went to his club, for starters.
Perhaps it was the conversation between Alden and Adam that rattled me, or it could have been to spy on Lucian and finally get some answers about the crazy that surrounded him and was influencing everything in my little world. Bottom line; I knew that, for whatever twisted reason it was, he had something to do with the Fae showing up at my house.
I’d heard talk of the Spokane Guild, that it was being rebuilt after it had been rendered into a pile of rubble. I had also heard about the Seattle Guild falling, though there was no word on that one being rebuilt. The news had covered both stories about the battles at the Guilds. Both battles had fingers pointing to the Fae as the logical bad guys, yet there seemed to be something bigger going on behind the scenes with the Guilds, something the media wasn’t telling us about.
Then there was Alden. He had invited the Fae into my home and seemed to be quite friendly with him. No, he was more than friendly with him; he was almost paternal to the royal Fae rat-fink who stripped me of all of my defenses and left me open to Lucian and his depraved band of merry-men. Alden, the man who had been training us to use our magic. Alden, who had been guiding our coven, knew a lot more than he let on about Lucian and what was happening with the Guild, a place our coven was forbidden to go to. Alden, the big fat traitor who was currently shacking up with my mother!
I grabbed up a picture of me and Lena and threw it against the wall, watching as it shattered in a gratifying shower of glass. I walked over t
o the remains and plucked the photo out of the glass remnants. I shook it for sharp fragments and noticed a map drawn on the back of it.
Sitting on my bed, I studied it for a few moments, and then a thought struck me as I slowly surveyed the other pictures. When we were kids, we’d left hidden messages everywhere, but the important ones we’d hidden in plain sight.
One after the other, I removed the photos from the frames and turned them over to find hastily scrawled notes, then lined them up on the bed until I had a full message. I swallowed fear as I figured out what it meant. My heart pounded as I studied the notes side by side on the map.
Taking one last look around the room, I grabbed my pack and stacked the notes into a neat pile before sliding them into the pack. I slipped on shoes, heaved the lightweight pack onto my shoulders and made my way to the door, but hesitated for a moment as I held the knob. I pulled it open and moved down the hallway, listening as laughter sounded from my mother’s bedroom.
Satisfied that she’d be busy for a bit, I crept down the stairs as quietly as possible, glancing furtively around the room, but found no one. I moved a little quicker to the front door then out to my car. I slipped the bag from my shoulders and tossed it into the passenger seat before sliding into the car myself.
Nothing was as it seemed here, and everything felt wrong. I felt like I’d slipped into a Twilight Zone episode, one with body snatchers. I’d replayed Lucian murdering people over and over inside my head, memorizing every minute detail, right down to those people in the crowd not being human; they’d been other. No one said anything when I was being chased; no one moved to help me. As if they were used to scared people running for their lives in the lower levels of the club!
The sun was setting as I pulled out onto the road and looked in the rearview mirror in time to see another car pull onto the asphalt behind me. Lucian had warned me that his people were everywhere, watching me, and I had learned the hard way that he never made any meaningless threats. If he said he was watching, I could count on it. However, I was a girl, and he had guys stalking me. I could literally bore them to death, make them lower their guard, and then sneak away.
I spent the next several hours meandering around the mall, indulging in chocolate and perfume samples while window shopping, then headed to a bookstore that was closer to where I really wanted to be. I spent a couple more hours looking through books as the clerk watched me as if she feared I was going to finish the one in my hand. I made my way to the cash register and placed the book on the counter, nonchalantly peeking out the window to see Bane waiting in his car with an unknown passenger.
“That’s it?” she asked, pushing her perfect librarian glasses into place as she made me feel like a naughty kid reading one of her mother’s saucy novels. “You sure you don’t want the others that you read half of?”
“No, no, they didn’t hold my interest. But this one did; thank you so much for asking!” I grinned cheerfully.
“Can’t say I blame you; they do lag a bit, but that one speeds up in the middle.” She pointed to one of the books that had a bodice-ripper type cover, surprising me. I looked out the window again and she watched me speculatively. “They have been out there this whole time; friends of yours?”
“No, not exactly,” I snorted. “Friends of my very-unwanted boyfriend, I guess you could say.”
“There’s a back door,” she offered. “Not that you could get your car without being seen, but it would give you some time before they figured out you were gone. I had an abusive piece of shit once. Sent his buddies to push me around when I broke it off with him. Us girls, we stick together, am I right, sugar?”
I stared at her as I considered it. The Guild was five blocks away from here. I could make it there on foot in minutes if I hurried. I still wasn’t sure how I would get in, but I didn’t intend on not getting in at this point.
“Please. That would help me out greatly, but I’ll need to come back through here, if possible,” I whispered quietly, and she nodded as she finished ringing up the book before pointing out a few shelves and talking about other books, as if she was helping me find something else. She rounded the register counter, and I followed her to the front of the shelves, where she began randomly pulling out books and describing them to me before we moved around to the back shelves, which we couldn’t be seen from the front windows. I exhaled as she set the books down and hurried to the back door, pulled it open, and peered down the dark alley in both directions. She didn’t stop there; she moved across the alley and rapped her knuckles on the door across from her store.
“Roger, open up, sugar,” she called, and when the door opened, a thirty-something man stepped out, smiling from ear to ear as he looked over the busty store clerk. Without missing a beat or an ounce of charm, she began talking fast. “This girl needs some help, she’s got a hot one on her tail; let her out through the front for me?”
“Anything for you, Carla,” he crooned before he looked at me and blinked, his eyes slowly traveling down my body with interest.
“Now, Roger, don’t you be doing that to her, she’s been through enough. Just let her out, please?” She shook a chastising finger under his nose.
“You got it, but you will owe me,” he grinned, and I narrowed my eyes on him, unsure I wanted to leave poor Carla in this guy’s debt.
“I can just walk around the buildings,” I offered, but she shooed me through the door.
“Now, I already told ya, we girls got to stick together. And Roger here has twelve-plus inches in his pants, so I don’t mind him at all. A girl has got to find it where she can. Lord knows they don’t make them all the same. No brains, all cock on this one. He’s just how I prefer them, these days. No hard feelings, sugar, but you know I’m in it for the cock already.”
Laughing, unsure I should have, but unable to stop it from bubbling up, I hugged Carla quickly then followed Roger, who informed me it was more like thirteen or so inches and he was willing to show all of them to me if I wanted to check. I passed, slipping out the front of his shop with a quick wave and a sneak peek at his crotch before dashing into the next alley.
I jogged from alley to alley until I skidded to a halt as I rounded the last corner and came face to face with the forbidding sight of the Spokane Guild. The soft glow of the streetlights reflecting off of it showed me that it really had been rebuilt and was a lot bigger than I expected; huge, in fact. Lights were glowing from some of the windows and I saw that the front was guarded by a couple of tall and forbidding-looking males that I didn’t have to go far out on a limb to guess were Fae.
I pushed the book into the pack, exchanging it for the map. There were arrows pointing to the back of the Guild on it, and I chewed my lip as I lifted my eyes and saw a familiar blonde as she and a dark-haired male moved around the front of the Guild.
Eyeing them suspiciously, I moved around the back and hunted around in the dark until I found the storm drain marked on the map that would give me access to the catacombs. I slipped through it, holding my breath along with my pack so I didn’t make any noise as I entered the stygian interior. I scaled down, ignoring the obnoxious odor of mold and musty stagnant water as I reached another ladder.
I climbed through a pile of rubble, one that had been mapped out, which meant the map was right. I clicked on a flashlight and looked at the map again. What the fuck had she been thinking coming here after it had been attacked? Her notes said she’d been coming for months, and yet the Guild had been damaged a lot longer than that.
I moved deeper into the sewers and finally into the outer edges of the catacombs as the notes instructed, then paused, taking in my first sight of the inside of the Guild. This section was still broken, rocks and concrete blocks that had once been walls littered the floors. Dried blood coated them like macabre paint, as if this was where the Guild members had fallen, then later been moved away for burial. My heart clenched for those who had died here. I
pushed those thoughts away as I stepped past the rubble and deeper into the Guild.
I snuck down the dark hallway, following the arrows until I had to change page. My heart beat wildly as I discovered another hallway that led further into the labyrinth under the Guild.
Once I reached the floor I was looking for—thankfully without landing on my head—I turned off the flashlight and whispered the spell to see in the dark. It was a great spell, but unfortunately quite unpredictable. The leyline here was strong, strong enough that I wouldn’t cause a ripple by tapping it. I moved soundlessly through what I presumed had once been a library, holding the map at my side as I followed the picture inside my mind.
I passed what looked like a medieval altar room and stopped at the entryway of it. It was old and reeked of death, as if this had once been a place of sacrifice to the Gods of old. A shiver snaked down my spine as I stared at the door, covered in wards. Heavy wards, like the kind you didn’t mess with because it could bring the entire place down on your head.
Lena was officially fired.
I carefully picked my way through more rubble, wondering why they hadn’t fixed the lower levels as they must have done with the upper levels.
My first sight of the catacombs almost made me turn around and run; this section was worse. Every door had runes on them, and the deeper I got into the rabbit warren of tunnels, the more I wanted to leave this place. I could see traces of dried blood, as if some of the witches from the Guild had hidden deep inside the catacombs the day this place fell.
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