by Lucinda Dark
The entrance came into view and I started jogging towards it, loving the way her nails bit into the back of my neck as she clung to me. It was so unlike her to be vulnerable. What had caused this? What had changed her scent? Because though I agreed that she smelled like fire and chocolate, there was a new scent mixed with hers—changing the original tint of her own essence. Sulfur. Brimstone. Danger. At the same time, my cock shifted in my jeans. My blood heated.
I shook my head as I turned and used my back to push through the doors. Maverick’s black truck waited, idling at the curb. When he saw me, he got out of the driver’s seat and came around, opening the door. I didn’t wait or pause to shift her around. I simply ducked my head and twisted into the front seat, keeping her pressed against me as much as possible.
Maverick eyed us both but didn’t say anything as he shut the door and sprinted back around the truck, returning to his side as fast as he’d left it. He buckled in and put the truck in drive. As we headed for the parking lot’s exit, I reached for the seatbelt as I slid her bag off my shoulder and tossed it in the back. Barbie released a whimper of pain, her limbs clamping down harder on mine almost unconsciously. Her eyes squeezed shut, white lines forming around the edges of her mouth as she worked to keep more cries from leaking out.
“Where are we going?” Maverick demanded, his eyes shifting to the woman in my arms and back to the road. Anxiety pulsed off of him in waves. I soothed a palm up and down Barbie’s spine, hoping that it would settle her. It didn’t seem to hurt, but at the same time, it also didn’t seem to do much in the way of helping whatever was happening to her body.
There was only one place I could think to go. “Take a right,” I commanded, pushing my back against the seat and moving Barbie closer to my side as I pulled her legs up against my thighs. God, I hoped I was right.
Nearly an hour later, after urging Maverick to break every speeding law in the vicinity and sending out repetitive signals for those who might stop us—police and good Samaritans alike—Barbie was a panting, sweating mess in my lap. She’d long since passed out, but even in sleep, she wouldn’t release me. Her nails gouged against my skin as she fought whatever disturbed her. Maverick pulled up to the small Victorian house I’d directed him to. “Is she shivering?” he asked, his voice tight.
“Yes.” I didn’t wait for him to come around and open the door. As soon as he parked, my feet were on the pavement, the truck door hanging ajar as I headed for the front door.
As I expected, she’d already sensed my approach. The front door opened, and a small older woman shuffled out, her cane snagging against the wooden slats of the sinking porch floor.
“Esperanza,” I said her name, but I couldn’t hide the note of my own anxiety in my tone. The hope—the very meaning of her name—that I placed in her.
“Whatever you’ve brought me must be very important,” she said lightly, her vowels rounded by her accented English. “Because I do recall telling you not to come back unless you were prepared to die.”
“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t life or death,” I said. I hoped it wasn’t as bad as that, but with Barbie shaking in my arms, small sounds of misery emitting from her throat every so often, I had a feeling it might be.
“I threaten you and you bring me a demon.” She laughed, the sound a sharp bark in the near silence of the front lawn.
“Demon?” Maverick looked up at the tiny but formidable woman from the bottom most step of the porch.
Esperanza nodded her head to the girl in my arms. “I can smell it a mile away—a demon possessed human.”
“Possession…” Maverick breathed the word as if he couldn’t believe what his own ears were hearing. I had to admit, had I been raised as a human, I likely would have been overwhelmed myself. But in the last few months, he should have grown used to the unusual. At least, Esperanza’s explanation gave me a name for what that scent clinging to Barbie’s body was.
“Can you fix her?” I demanded.
The end of the old woman’s cane snapped against the floor once. Esperanza looked up through her murky, nearly blind eyes, squinting at me. “There is no undoing what she has done,” she said.
“What did she do?” I asked, holding her closer as if that would protect her from whatever the woman would say.
“She made a deal with a demon,” Esperanza said quietly with a shake of her head. Black and white peppered tendrils drifted from the old woman’s bun, swaying to the movement. The air rushed out of my lungs and I jerked my gaze down to Barbie. Her face was creased in pain, her fingers digging into me as if I were her only lifeline, her anchor. As I should’ve been. I was her mate.
“Did she sell her soul? Can you tell?” I asked. “Why is she like this now?”
Esperanza shook her head again. “I cannot know the details of her contract. Only she can tell you.” She gestured to Barbie. “From the smell of her, though, it’s not so much the demon that’s hurting her, but…” The old woman narrowed her eyes, pausing as she came forward. I resisted the urge to turn and shield my mate from the witch. Esperanza’s gnarled, wrinkled hand lifted and smoothed over Barbie’s brow, causing her to cry out and struggle away from the touch of the woman.
“What did you do?” Maverick barked as he leapt the rest of the way up the stairs only to halt at my side as the witch lifted her palm and held it out for him to stop, her power putting every muscle in his body on lockdown. I knew. I’d felt it before. It didn’t hurt, but he wouldn’t be able to attack her.
“Esperanza,” I said her name again. A demand. A request. I needed answers.
“Bring the girl inside,” she finally said, turning towards the doorway. I was no fool. Though she turned her back to me, that in no way meant that she was vulnerable. A witch as ancient as Esperanza, as well-versed in supernatural lore—both truth and myth—was, by far, stronger than any fledgling dhampire. She was one of the few who knew how I’d been born. She’d been there after all.
I strode forward, following her into the darkened interior. Maverick’s scent trailed in as well, though his steps were much more cautious as I listened for what he would do. Esperanza led us up the main staircase and down a long hallway to what looked like a bedroom. She gestured with her cane to the mattress covered in a patchwork quilt.
“Set her down.” I moved to the bed and did as I was bid, laying Barbie’s form on the surface of the blanket and shifting my arms from around her. Still, though, she clung to my neck. It killed me, but I reached back and locked my fingers around her wrists and pulled her away as gently as possible.
I stepped back, wincing as Barbie released a heavy breath and her fingers locked onto the blanket beneath her, her body twisting in self-contained torment. Maverick’s shadow appeared in the doorway as he looked in at what was happening. Esperanza moved to the side of the bed and this time, when she leaned over and placed her hand against Barbie’s brow—Barbie released a breath of relief. Her legs shook, but no longer did they scissor apart as if there was an ache she couldn’t quite escape from.
“Do you know what kind of demon is in her?” Maverick asked.
At first, Esperanza didn’t respond, choosing, instead, to move her fingers along the bridge of Barbie’s nose and back up to her forehead and then down to her temple. “It smells … strong,” she finally said. “Though I can’t be sure which one. From the way she’s acting, however, it’s been in her for a while.”
“A while?” Maverick and I repeated her last comment in synchronized surprise.
“Oh yes.” Esperanza nodded. “A few months at least.”
Months … she’d been possessed before I’d even left for England. How had I not known? How had I not seen?
After a beat of silence, Maverick spoke again. “She’s been acting strange,” he admitted. I pivoted my head, my eyes fixating on him, though he avoided my gaze. As well he should have because in that instant, I wanted to rip his head from his shoulders. He’d known and he hadn’t mentioned it?
“
More irritable?” Esperanza asked. “Tight-lipped? She would’ve had more dreams. Perhaps even started hearing the creature in her head.”
“She’s always irritable,” Maverick muttered in response. “That didn’t change, but no. That’s not it. She’d never talk about nightmares if she had them.”
“Then how was she acting strange?” Maverick’s eyes flashed to me, but I didn’t apologize for the tightness of my tone or the dangerous warning I knew was in my eyes.
“She’s been doing things…” he started, pausing and shaking his head. “Her senses have seemed better. She’s always been good in training, but since you’ve been gone,” he directed the comment to me, “she’s been better. Stronger. Faster. We’ve gone on a few hunts and she’s handled them with ease, but at the same time, she’s been taking too many risks. After the last one, I told her we weren’t doing anymore until you came back.”
Though I was still angry, the weight of it was dulled by his words. I waited a beat, meeting his stare and holding it. It was Esperanza who interrupted the moment as she hummed and looked back to Barbie.
“That is strange,” she admitted. “Demon-possessed humans don’t normally last as long as this girl has unless they’ve made a deal with the creature. It’s a rarity for sure. Only if a demon recognizes a particularly strong soul would they even offer such a thing. What I believe is happening to your”—the old witch paused and looked back at me with a raised brow before she continued—“friend is that she’s traded something for the use of the demon’s supernatural abilities. But the human body isn’t meant to hold so much power. It’s burning her up from the inside out.”
“How do we stop it?” I asked, stepping away from Maverick and back towards the bed where Barbie lay.
“Anything I can do for her will only be temporary,” Esperanza said.
“Do what you can to release it now,” I said. “Whatever it takes.”
“The power needs to be released, but it will build again,” she warned me.
“Then what do we need to do to make sure it stops building?” Maverick asked.
Esperanza’s foggy gaze moved from him to me. Her lips pursed as she considered her answer. It didn’t matter what it was—what the cost was—I would do it. She had to sense that. Though her eyes were weak, they saw much farther than that of any human. She saw into the plains beyond sight to the ties that made up the world. The connections that weren’t visible. She would know what this girl meant to me.
“There are usually methods that the demon will tell a contracted human on how to regularly release their power,” Esperanza said. “I will release it now and when she wakes, you can ask her.”
With that, she left Barbie’s bedside and moved towards the door on slow, but steady steps—using the cane to shuffle her feet over the floorboards. “You,” she barked to Maverick as she passed. “Come with me. I will need assistance for the potion.”
Maverick shot me a look. We needed to talk more, but it would have to wait. He followed Esperanza out into the hallway, leaving me alone with Barbie. I went to her bedside and stood over her, my shadow shielding her face from the light spilling through the lace curtains at my back. I reached out and paused when I noticed the fine tremble in my own hands.
Swallowing roughly, I pulled back again, snagged a chair from the corner and tugged it to her side. I sat heavily, leaning forward, my elbows propped on my knees.
Demon possessed. Oh Barbie, what were you thinking? Though I asked the question, in my heart, I knew the answer. She’d been thinking of revenge. I ducked my head and stared down at the scarred floor, marred by scratches and dings from years of people walking across it, moving things across it. This house alone was well over a hundred years old, but human lives were so very fleeting.
I lifted my head and stared at her face. Even if she’d made the decision for selfish reasons. Even if she’d sold her soul to the devil himself, I would stand by her. She was mine.
Mine, my vampire reiterated. I moved my hand—trembles be damned—until the barest brush of my fingertips smoothed over the skin of her cheek. As sure as I was bound for destruction and she for tragedy, she was and always would be mine.
Chapter 12
Maverick
The tiny woman bustled around the large ornate kitchen, but it all seemed so distant, as if my actual body were a million fucking miles away. I couldn’t comprehend what she’d said. Demon-possessed. Barbie. Powers. Just when I thought I was getting a handle on all of this supernatural bullshit, it somehow found a way to turn around and knock me on my ass. Was that why she’d been acting so strange?
My mind shot back to the night before last, when she’d come into the workout room. We’d nearly … I’d nearly … I wanted to throw her on the ground and tear her clothes apart. I hadn’t wanted something like that—at least, not to that degree—in years. Not since puberty had first hit. I was always in control. My will dominated my fucking emotions. No amount of attraction or horniness would bring me down, but I’d nearly been felled by her. Now, I was left wondering if that was even her that had acted like that or if it was the demon.
If that was the case, if it was the demon and not Barbie, what did that say about my reaction? How I'd treated her. Was I the one to blame?
"Now you know there isn't any truth to that, young man," the woman—Esperanza, Torin had called her—said. "If you can't see what you're feeling for that girl, then at least you should know that hurting her is not something you seem to be capable of."
"What?" I jerked my head up as she moved past, dropping something in my arms.
"Hold that," she ordered, her long skirts swishing around her ankles. I looked down and blinked at the cane in my arms.
I lifted my head. "Don't you need this?"
She limped across the room and began to pull things from one of the cabinets and deposit them on the counter. "I'll live," she replied. "Will you turn on the stove for me, back left burner, child."
I set the cane to the side and moved to the stove, reaching up and twisting the handle as she'd ordered. With how much she was collecting on the countertop, I suspected she'd need a pot. I went searching through the lower cabinets where people usually kept those kinds of things and found a rather large blackened pot. Pulling it out, I set it on the burner and turned towards her, narrowing my eyes as she continued to move.
For someone who normally used a cane, and who was so short and older, she moved pretty fucking fast. "Why did you say that?" I demanded.
Coming to a stop next to me, she approved of the pot I'd selected with a nod and then reached for one of the bottles of dark sludge she'd dropped next to the stove. Uncorking it, she poured the contents into the pot. My eyes watered. Jesus—Fuck! That shit stank. I stepped away, leaning as far back as I could while still remaining nearby.
"Why did I tell you not to blame yourself?" she inquired as she set the empty bottle back on the counter and reached for a new one. "Perhaps because blaming one's self will do nothing but keep you stuck in the past when you must stay in the present in order to survive what I suspect will be coming your way."
"How did you know what I was thinking?" I snapped. Could she read my mind?
She chuckled as she dumped the contents of the bottle over the first. "It doesn't take a mind reader to know that you're concerned for the girl. Even with my poor eyes, I can see that. Though I do find it interesting that the dhampire would allow you so near considering..."
I frowned. Tamping down on the irritation that she thought Torin could allow me to do shit, I stepped forward once more. "Considering what?"
She turned her head and looked at me, those clouded misty eyes of hers sharpening—clearing until they revealed dark brown irises of the deepest brown. Like ancient soil that hadn't seen the light of day in ages, pulled from the depths of the Earth's crust. Those disturbing eyes of hers moved down over me and I felt my body tightening in response. If I'd learned anything from Barbie it was to never underestimate the looks of a person, bu
t she didn't do anything but cluck her tongue and look away. Something told me that no matter if I asked again, she wouldn't answer my question.
"You need to think over your own desires carefully," she said as she turned back to her concoction.
"My own desires?" My own desires had nearly led to me pounding Barbie into the fucking workout room floor. My own desires were the fucking problem right now. They'd blinded me to what was going on, kept me from seeing the changes in Barbie or rather—they'd forced me to overlook the changes. I cracked my neck to the side, the need to punch something pulsating through me. My foot began tapping incessantly against the tiled floor.
"You do not need sight to see that what comes for the three of you will be quite the catastrophe. That girl and the dhampire are both embroiled in a scheme of nefarious intent. Make no mistake, young man." She stopped and glanced over her shoulder at me—rooting me to the spot once again. "Should you stay with them, you may find your very life forfeit."
Hearing that said aloud ... it shocked me. I didn't know what to say. Silence descended on the room and the sounds of her movement grew dim as I thought about it. Well and truly thought about what the fuck I was doing. The fact was, between Barbie and Torin, I was the weakest fucking link.
When Esperanza asked me to retrieve items from her cabinets, I did. She directed me around the kitchen, retrieving more bottles and strange jars with contents that slicked through their glass containers. I did it all absently, as if I were on autopilot. For the first fucking time in my life, I felt out of control, powerless.
"What do I have to do?" I couldn't stop the question had I tried. It was yanked from my mouth, harsh and demanding.