Mated By The Demon Collections: Paranormal Romance

by Riley Moreno

  “Yes. Delicious, indeed.”

  There was something in the tone of his voice that had her looking up at him again, but then Nika was there, sitting down in between them, and it was almost too much to take, looking at them both at the same time, their twin metallic gazes locked on hers.

  “So, explain.” She said, trying to drink the last few drops that clung to the bottom of the mug.

  “We are...We were warriors. Drakolia warriors.”

  “Drakolia.” Hazel said slowly, tasting the unfamiliar word. “I just conjured you up? That doesn’t make sense.”

  “Yes, it does. We served under Drakon himself. We were imbued with his powers, his…abilities, as all of his soldiers were. There were many of as at first, thousands of us. Now, there might only be us, left.” Nika shook his head sadly, his thoughts far, far away. Jayce picked up where he left off.

  “We were sent on a mission. Our last mission. To hunt down and destroy Eidolon, but he ended up being far more clever and more desperate than we had realized. The only way to save humanity was to lure him into a cage, using ourselves as bait, and spring the trap on us all.”

  Jayce stared into Hazel’s unusual violet eyes, trying to stay calm as he continued but there was a tightness as he spoke that told of the anger that simmered just below the surface.

  “When you cast that spell, you broke the prison, so to speak. Released us from the Neverworld, and Eidolon as well. Now, we must recapture him, and as fast as possible. He is weakened now, disoriented, but he won’t be for long.”

  “What are you saying, that I…that I…” Hazel couldn’t even get the words out as visions of massacre and devastation burning across her home played over and over in her mind. “But that’s impossible! I’m not powerful enough to do something like that, like…what you said. I can barely light a candle!”

  “Well, you did a whole lot more than that, sweetheart.” Jayce snapped at her, his temper finally getting the better of him as he jumped to his feet, the chair crashing to the floor as he stalked away.

  “You made this mess, and now we’re going to have to clean it up. Just pray not too many more people have to die because of the monster you released.”

  “But, wait, I…” but he was already gone, leaving just a flash of brick red scales as he fled through the front door and out into the night.

  Chapter 6

  Hazel stood there in the silent kitchen for a long moment, finally looking at Nika with her wide violet eyes.

  “What do I do?”

  He just shook his head slowly. “I think you’ve done enough, little witch.”

  “No, you don’t understand. There is no way in hell I would be able to cast a spell that powerful, I’m telling you the truth.”

  Nika tilted his head to the side, staring down at her with piercing silver eyes, before shaking his head again. “Only an incredibly powerful witch could break us free from the curse that imprisoned us, Hazel. I can see…in your mind, in your heart, that you mean what you say, but…”

  “Wait a minute, you can read my heart now, too? What does that even mean!”

  “Honestly, I don’t know. We are…connected somehow. Jayce and I can sense each other because of the centuries we spent trapped together in the Neverworld but you, I just don’t know.”

  “This doesn’t make any sense, Nika. I don’t under–.” Hazel’s words were cut off as a tremendous roar cut through the night, coming from the front of the house where Jayce had just disappeared to.

  They shared one tense look before they both dashed out of the kitchen, through the front door, and into utter chaos. There were spouts of flame firing into the night, illuminating the odd scene.

  An older woman stood, her hands outstretched toward the sky, was the source of the flame and as she fired again, Hazel could see it was the Mother Guardian of all people, standing on her front lawn in her nightgown. Elizabeth lived just a few houses down, every member of the coven lived close by each other, but Hazel had certainly never expected this. And then she saw it. The reason the Mother was out there in the middle of the night shooting fireballs into the sky.

  There was a massive creature, its head just reaching the windows on the second floor of her house. It towered above them all, lashing out at the singing fire that kept coming its way. Hazel froze for a moment, thinking that this beast must be the dreaded Eidolon they had spoken of, at least until she saw the eyes. Bright, burning gold in a chiseled, albeit snouted, face.

  It was him! It was Jayce! Somehow, some way, this roaring creature, so much like the animals drawn in the spell book was standing before them. A giant dragon. In the middle of her front lawn.

  Hazel saw Elizabeth raise her hands to fire again, and she moved without thought, rushing to stand in between the enraged Jayce and the equally enraged Mother Guardian.

  “Stop! Please, Elizabeth, you have to stop!”

  “Hazel, get back! Get away from that thing!” She shouted, still not taking her eyes off of the still raging dragon. His roar cut through the night like the sharpest knife, piercing and trembling all at once.

  “No, you don’t understand, just…let me explain.”

  “Oh, you certainly will, child. But first, I need to deal with this monster.”

  “Listen, Elizabeth, he’s not a monster!” But Hazel could see that she was already raising her arms again. Desperate, and without a thought of what to do, Hazel followed her instinct, running up to the dragon. Its tail lashed out, and she didn’t duck away quite quick enough. The hard, scaled tip scraped along her cheekbone. But she didn’t even feel it. Only one thought was on her mind, and that was to save Jayce.

  Hazel finally reached him, and without hesitation, held out a hand, palm up, and laid it against his side. The beast instantly calmed, his eyes more focused as he searched for her in the dark.

  “Jayce, please, listen to me. Please, you have to calm down. Come back to yourself. Please, Jayce. I need you to be human again,” She paused, risking a glance back at the Mother Guardian who was now watching with a fierce gaze. “Come back, so I don’t have to face her alone.” She finished softly, barely a whisper against the dark red scales that looked almost black in the night.

  Hazel finally noticed Nika standing there, still on the front porch, taking in the scene with wide, shocked eyes as Jayce seemed to shift before her. She couldn’t make herself follow the movements but he seemed to blur, or like the air around him blurred and rippled, shrinking until finally a man stood before her. A very naked man. A very naked, extremely handsome man.

  “Handsome, am I?” Jayce asked softly, his voice husky. Hazel opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out.

  “Inside! Both of you, now!” Elizabeth’s voice shot out, hitting her with the force of a canon ball, even though the other two seemed unaffected. Although Hazel did notice that Jayce turned to go inside just as quickly as she did. “And put some clothes on, will you?”

  Elizabeth watched Hazel and mysterious monster-then-man hurry inside. She turned to follow, determined to get answers from that girl once and for all when she was stopped abruptly as she noticed another man standing stock still on the front porch.

  “Well? Are you going to say something, or just stand there all night?” Elizabeth demanded, unnerved that she hadn’t noticed him before and about at the end of her level of tolerance for the night.

  The other man just shook his head, staring at where the other couple had just been. “I’ve never…I’ve never seen anything like that.” He finally whispered.

  “I’ve never seen a dragon before either, still no reason to stand out here until we turn to dust.”

  “No, you misunderstand me.” He said calmly, and she was taken aback by the utter confidence in his voice. “I’ve never seen anyone powerful enough to calm a fully morphed Drakolian soldier. It’s impossible. She should have been destroyed.”

  “Powerful,” Elizabeth snorted, “Hazel? I think you are the one who misunderstood.” She just shook her head as she mov
ed to continue inside, but the thought repeated in her head. Powerful? Haze? Certainly not, she told herself as she entered the small, familiar home. Impossible, indeed.

  Chapter 7

  “Wait, I’m sorry, explain that again?” Elizabeth demanded shrilly, her voice echoing through the otherwise silent room. They were all back in the kitchen again, the Mother Guardian, Hazel, and Nika all sitting around the sweetly colored table while Jayce paced the small room restlessly. He was wearing his clothes again, which Hazel was thankful for. There had been a moment, out there in the dark, standing before his magnificent body when all she could think of was running her hands down the front of him. To see if he was really as hard as he looked.

  “Stop it.” Jayce threw the softly spoken words in her direction and she blushed a bright red as embarrassment swept through her. Nika also sent her a sharp look, shaking his head at her, but she couldn’t miss the heat that had his pale skin flushing as well.

  Elizabeth looked from one to the next to the next. “What is going on here? You know what, it doesn’t matter,” she said, forestalling her own question with an ill tempered sigh. “Just, start again, from the beginning.”

  Jayce sighed, but complied. Most people did in the end, and dragons too it would seem. “We were soldiers, part of a great army of protectors, sent on a mission to capture the evil spirit called Eidolon. He had massacred hundreds of innocent lives before we could stop him, growing stronger with each death he caused. We tried to destroy him, but he was too strong, so instead we trapped him, using ourselves as bait.”

  “And you two also ended up trapped in this prison.” Elizabeth barely waited for Jayce’s nod before she continued. “For hundreds of years, without food or water, or…anything.”

  “We were trapped in the Neverworld. The world in between. Time doesn’t exist there. So yes, hundreds of years, or mere moments, both and neither.”

  “Stop with your riddles, boy!”

  Jayce’s dark eyebrows climbed up his forehead at being referred to as boy, and even Nika let out a soft chuckle at the chagrin on his face.

  “…And somehow, Hazel just happened to accidentally free you from this powerful curse.” Elizabeth continued as if nothing had happened. Jayce and Nika both nodded, serious once more.

  “Yes, she did. She conjured us back, she broke open the prison and freed us.”

  For the first time since they had all sat down, Elizabeth turned to look at Hazel with her dark, piercing gaze.

  “Is he telling the truth?”

  Hazel just shrugged, unsure how to answer.

  “Answer me, child! I am out of patience tonight.”

  “Yes…yes, I cast the spell, I did exactly what the book said, but it wasn’t…it didn’t do what it was supposed to.”

  “That’s impossible.” The Mother Guardian said, staring at Hazel as if she had never seen her before. “You can’t even…you don’t have. I’m sorry, Hazel, you’re just not powerful enough to do what they said you did.”

  “That’s what I told them, but–.”

  “And you’re both wrong.” Nika said firmly, in his soft, even voice. “Hazel freed us, and Eidolon, with her magic. There is no doubting this.”

  “Well, I’m sorry, but there really is.” Elizabeth stood for a moment, reaching for a scented candle that was on the counter. She brought it back to the table, setting it in front of Hazel with a thump.

  “Light it.” She said, staring at Hazel again, daring her. Hazel looked at Elizabeth, then at the candle, and then back up again.

  “I can’t. You know I can’t.” she said, and hated how small her voice sounded.

  “Just, try.” Nika said, reassuring her. She gave him one nod before turning back to the candle, mentally running through all the tricks, all of the exercises that would allow her to access that hidden away part of herself. Her spark. Her power. She focused on the candle, envisioning the flame, trying to draw on the source she could feel inside her but could never fully reach.

  Hazel tried until beads of sweat broke out on her forehead, and still, there was no flame.

  “See?” Elizabeth said, and that look was back in her eyes, condescending, patronizing. “See what I mean?”

  “No, I don’t understand.” Jayce said, staring at her and the unlit candle with confusion burning bright in his golden eyes.

  “I tried to tell you, to tell you both,” Hazel said dejectedly. “I’m not powerful enough to cast the spell that freed you. I’m not powerful at all.”

  They sat in silence for another long moment, each with their own thoughts until finally the Mother Guardian stood, drawing everyone’s attention.

  “Well, either way there is a dark spirit out there, and I can’t ignore that threat. I am the Mother Guardian after all. I will go call the council, and we will deal with this situation. Now, as for you…” She turned her laser like stare onto Hazel and it took all of her will power not to flinch away from it. “You will stay right here and keep an eye on these two. I don’t know if they’re telling the truth or not, but I soon will.” She stomped from the kitchen towards the front door, stopping just as she reached the exit. She turned back toward them for a moment, her words still echoing in the air as she swept outside. “And stay out of trouble!”

  Chapter 8

  They all sat in silence after Elizabeth left, and it was as if she took all the energy they had with her. Hazel stood, about to announce that she would show them where the guest bedrooms were when Jayce stopped her with a quiet curse.

  “Did I do that?” he said softly as he rose, coming to stand in front of her.

  “What? Do what? What did you do?” Hazel asked, concerned a little at the intense way he was staring at her.

  “Hush. Let me look.” Jayce said softly, not quite looking her in the eye, and she realized he was staring at her cheek. Instinctively she raised a hand to the spot, flinching slightly at the bit of sting as she touched a cut marring the sensitive skin. Immediately, he grabbed her hand, pulling it away as he examined it.

  “I am so sorry. I hurt you.” The honest way he said the words had her opening her mouth to tell him it was nothing, really, but then he reached up, brushing those long tanned fingers over the side of her cheek, just underneath the cut and she felt that touch like a semi truck had just run her over and she was now lying splattered across the highway like road kill.

  Jayce chuckled roughly. “You do think of the strangest things.” He said softly, still not quite looking at her.

  “You really need to knock off the whole mind…thingy.” She spat out when she couldn’t come up with a better word. It wasn’t her fault his touch was turning her normally pretty sharp brain into complete mush.

  “Mind thingy?” Niko smirked at her as he came closer, standing on her other side. She was pretty sure all brain function stopped altogether once she realized she was sandwiched between them. Like the bologna in a way too hot for their own good dragon man sandwich.

  “Seriously? I don’t even understand that one. What is bologna?” Jayce said it like Ball-oon-ee and it had a giggle bursting out of her before she could stop it.

  “What?” he repeated and the quizzical look on his face had her laughing even harder. Finally, she got a hold of herself. Maybe it was just the stress of the day, or accidentally conjuring two red hot dragons into her home, but it had felt especially good to let go for a minute.

  As she took a deep breath, Hazel realized how exhausted she really was, and she could see the other two men were too. She guessed traveling from one world to another took its toll.

  “You have no idea.” Niko said with a giant yawn as he turned to head out of the kitchen. He was halfway to her bedroom before she’d caught up with him.

  “You guys really do have to stop it with the mind thingy.”

  Niko just shrugged and looked at Jayce, who also shrugged, and then they both looked at her expectantly.

  “What? It’s just weird. And it’s not really fair. I can’t read your thoughts.”
Hazel said as she jumped in front of them, blocking them from entering the room. “By the way this is my bedroom, where I sleep. The guest bedrooms are down the hall, at the end.”

  They both looked longingly for a moment at her room and it had thoughts swirling of what it would be like if they all slept in there together. Instant heat flashed through her body and she had to look away from them as her face pinkened under their twin heated stares. She knew that they knew exactly what she was thinking.

  “Look, just…just go to sleep, okay? We’ll deal with big Mr. Scary Dark spirit tomorrow.”

  The men both shook their heads at her before bidding her goodnight and heading to the two smaller rooms that she had pointed out. She was pretty sure there were blankets and pillows in each of them, but there was no way she was letting herself go into the bedroom, alone, with either one of them. Let alone both of them.

  “Go to sleep, Hazel!” Jayce’s voice reached her from all the way inside the room making her jump and scurry into her bedroom, closing the door as if that would somehow protect her thoughts from her new nosy neighbors.

  Quickly, she got ready for bed, falling asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

  Fire. Everywhere she looked was burning, ash filled fire. The acrid smoke filled her lungs until she was coughing, choking, unable to breath, unable to call for help. A shadow shifted and in the manner of dreams, she knew. Hazel just suddenly had the knowledge in her mind as if it had always been there. The shadow moving ever closer, dancing around her with malicious intent, was Eidolon.

  He had no form at first, just a collection of grinding, flame colored bones and melting skin but he neared, somehow drawing closer without seeming to move at all. There was a sense of cold, ageless power that emanated from his shapeless figure and it sent a chill shooting through her. He was so much bigger, so much stronger than she could ever be and her mind whimpered in fear as its mouth opened. It was a black hole, but more than black, like the absence of all things good in the world and his teeth dripped black, oozing lava.