Ties That Bind: The Bellum Sisters 3 (paranormal erotic romance)

by Grey, T. A.

  Lily looked around her cell and saw a bucket. The smell of it quickly burned her nose with the putrid odor of bodily waste. She gagged, bile rising hot and thick in her throat and this time she couldn't hold it back. Quickly scurrying to the opposite corner of the cell she retched, part potion, part dinner she'd eaten last night. When she finished, she grimaced. Burning liquid pooled in her eyes but she squeezed them shut to keep any tears from falling. She rarely acted foolish but now she had to agree with Telal—she'd thoroughly fucked up.

  There wasn't a bed, hell, not even a pallet of some kind. Just a bunch of dirty hay strewn about the dirty floor. Lily winced, her arms burning from being dragged about by the arms. She crawled to the back of the cage and leaned against it, her head falling on her knees. She wanted to cry but couldn't do it here. Not out of some female rage against tears but because others were around and she'd be even more embarrassed. For the first time in her life, she truly felt like a fool.

  She wiped the foul taste off her lips with her sleeve. A faint tremble began in her fingers, then spread to her hands. She wished like hell she had her special juice from back at the apartment. She should have drunk some before she left. Her stomach rolled with nausea, the first symptom of withdrawal from it.

  A hissing sound had her head jerking to the cage next to her. For the first time she noticed the person inside. An older woman, so skinny bones protruded from her knobby wrists, fingers, and shoulders. Her clothes hung loosely from her body as if she'd once filled them out but had loss significant weight. Her hair was a matted, dirty mess filled with knots and clumps from never seeing a brush. Her head jerked constantly as if she couldn't keep it still.

  “Did you say something?” Lily asked hesitantly.

  The woman suddenly crawled to the bars separating them by moving on her knees and fists like a monkey. Lily flinched as the woman's pale bony hands curled around the bars. Her hands were black with filth, but it was her face she was more interested in. It was her face she couldn't see. Dirt covered it, and what the dirt didn't cover, her matted hair did.

  “You...you are new,” the woman hissed softly.

  Lily's heart started to race with fear. The woman looked like a wild animal. Lily had the urge to go to the opposite corner of the cell, to get as far away from the woman as she could. But her choice lies between being close to the woman or the rotten excrement bucket. She chose the woman.

  “Yes, I am.”

  “What-what did you do? Steal?” She laughed, the soft sound hoarse, wheezing.

  “No, I didn't steal anything.”

  Suddenly the woman's head stopped shaking. Her grip on the bars tightened. “You...you don't speak in Demonic.”

  Lily's brow raised. She'd assumed the woman knew she was speaking in English since she did as well. “Yes, of course. I don't know Demonic.”

  The woman jerked as if she'd been hit, then frantically started shoving chunks of hair out of her face. Her eyes, glaringly white against the dirt on her face, shone wide and frantic as she stared at her. Her eyes raced over Lily’s face and hair.

  “You, you are not demon.”

  “No, I'm not.” She paused as she thought about it. “And neither are you.”

  The woman didn't respond, but her eyes widened on hers with an edge of madness to them. “No one here is not a demon. No one.” She shook her head several times to prove her point.

  She was right, but Lily didn't know what to say, so she shrugged. “That's probably true.”

  The woman shook her head like she had bugs crawling in her hair and she was trying to get them out. “No, you don't understand. I am the only one who isn't a demon. Me. Who are you?”

  Lily wrapped her arms around herself. There was a definite chill in the air, but the woman's word made her even colder. “My name's Lily.” It probably wouldn't matter but she withheld her last name from the deranged woman.

  “Lily...” the woman said softly. She repositioned herself, plastering herself against the bars until her bony knees squeezed through the tight metal bars and her face squished through. “That name is familiar. So familiar.”

  The hair on the back of Lily's neck stuck straight up. Finally having enough of the crazy woman, she scooted backwards, away from the partition between them. When she had some distance between them, she felt a little bit safer, no matter how crazy that might be.

  “What...what's your name?” Lily asked, mostly out of politeness.

  The woman's lips parted and a faraway look came to her glossy eyes as she lifted her head skyward. There was no sky to see here, only a black metal roof. “My name...” Her head slowly drifted side to side, almost as if she were humming a tune in her head or dancing a waltz in a past time. “My name is Mary. No one, no one calls me that. No one.” The faraway look disappeared in an instant, a candle snuffed out. She shook her head again and again as she said the choked words, her hands releasing then squeezing the bars over and again.

  This is what I'll become if I stay here. The thought sent dread down her spine.

  “If you aren't a demon then what are you?” The rift had been closed for so long; this woman must have been captured before the Great War. A thousand year sentence was an awful long time to be imprisoned. Lily could easily picture herself being worse off than this woman was.

  “Succubus.”

  Lily sucked in a harsh breath. Her eyes screwed up in amazement, shock. “So am I.”

  The woman jerked again and started rocking, using her grip on the bars as leverage. She looked so much like an autistic child seeking comfort. Lily's defenses finally came down, and she crawled across the dirty floor to the woman, wanting to comfort, hug her, something. The woman stopped rocking as she neared, her eyes, half hidden by hair, peered at her shrewdly.

  “May I ask you a question?” Lily asked. Well, right now she had several. Btu she felt the woman's fear and hesitance, too, and didn’t want to scare her off.

  “I don't know,” the woman said, her body pulling back in a subconscious gesture.

  Lily kept her voice quiet and relaxed. “How long have you been here?” The woman had to be well past her 29th-year, which meant she went through her new moon. Thought succubus could live to a really long time, like her father did, if they stayed well fed. How was she still alive? A succubus without sex of some kind to feed her, killed her.

  “Can't be sure,” she said quickly. “Days runs together, never end. Long time ago.”

  “Was it before the Great War?”

  The woman's eye flew open with fear. “Not that long. Not that long.” She shook her head side to side and didn't stop.

  “Do you...do you know your last name?” Lily's heart pounded as she asked. Something inside her told her this was important. She didn't know why, but maybe if she got out of here then with the help of Telal, she could get this woman out of here. Get all of these prisoners out of here.

  “Forgot long ago. Lucky I know my first name.” She paused, her eyes bulging. “If that is my first name. Is my name Mary?” she whispered.

  Lily kept her voice calm and low. “Yes, yes it is.” The woman looked relieved at her answer as if she could somehow give her information into her own life. “Can you try to remember your last name? I might be able to help you.”

  The woman scurried back a few feet on her knees, scraping the skin but making no show that she cared. Her hands ran jerkily up and down her arms as she rocked. “I don't...I don't know.”

  “Can you try, Mary?”

  Maybe it was having someone use her first name, or just being kind to her, but she stopped rocking and stared at the floor, her face hidden by hair. “Beagle. Blue. Bells.” After each guess, she shook her head like she knew it was wrong. “Balls, low, bell, bells.” She was rocking hard now, each guess sending her voice higher, more frantic. Her hands gripped her hair in tight fists and pulled. “Bellum. Bellum. Bellum.”

  The last word echoed in Lily's mind. She couldn't say anything. Couldn't even wrap her mind around it. At first,
she analyzed the woman's words, tried to figure out if when she'd introduced herself she said her last name. But no, she'd been too hesitant to do that. Her last name didn't come up at all. This woman, this older woman... Lily scrambled across the cell to her. The woman jerked at her frantic response and scrambled away.

  “Don't come. Don't come near.”

  “Are you Mary Bellum? Are you Mary Bellum!”

  The woman started shaking, her hands frantically covering her ears as she rocked and rocked, her head held low. “I don't know,” she whispered fiercely. “That...that could be an old friend, just some name I remember from the past. I don't...I don't know.”

  Lily did know. It all lined up, fused together. “When did you get down here? Why? How?” she demanded, her patience waning in the need for answers.

  The woman backed further into the shadows of her small cage, further away from her.

  “Answer me! I need to know!”

  “Years ago...years ago.”

  Lily gripped the cold bars and leaned in. “How long? About twenty-nine years?”

  The woman shook her head. “I don't know. I don't know. Stop talking. Don't talk to me anymore. I don't like.” She wrapped her arms completely around her head and rocked with her head between her spread knees.

  A door opened at the end of the hall and some frantic force inside her made her speak to this woman in fast, rushed tones. “Listen to me. My name is Lily Bellum. My father is Francis Bellum. I have two sisters named Willow and Chloe. Does any of this mean anything to you?”

  The woman made a whining sound, her voice blocking out Lily's questioning.

  “Answer me, please! I have to know. Are you my mother?” The heavy footsteps, two sets of them came closer. One stopped at her cage. Lily only spared the demon a parting glance. “Answer me! Are you her?” she practically screamed as the key in the lock turned and the cage was pulled open.

  The woman keened higher as her own cage door was opened. The guard came forward with a length of rope in his hand. Lily launched at her cage. “Don't touch her! Stay away from her!”

  The demon gave her a laughing look. “Time to feed, succubus.”

  Lily's face paled and she watched as the woman stopped moaning and stood, watching the guard with wide, terrified eyes. The guard made a lunge for her and she hopped to the side and darted for the open cage door. She didn't make it out. The guard recovered quickly and grabbed her in a brutal grip, then wrapped the rope tightly around her wrists until the skin around it turned pink from the circulation being cut off.

  “You-you can't take her,” Lily said slowly. Her mind was in shocked overload. She couldn't be witnessing what she thought she was. The truth was too awful to comprehend.

  The demon ignored her, and the woman bowed her head as he dragged her out of the cage, her feet scraping against the hard floor.

  “Mary, are you her?” she shouted one last time as the demon in her cage pulled her arms behind her and trussed up her hands.

  The woman and the guard neared the door. The demon opened it and at the last second before the woman disappeared, her face lifted completely, the hair free from covering her face for the first time, and Lily saw her sister's eyes.

  “Mother!” she screamed as the door slammed shut.

  CHAPTER 18

  Telal braced himself as two guards came into the throne room. One marched ahead while the other dragged a fighting woman behind him. She faced away from him, but he recognized her size and hair color in an instant.

  “What is she doing here?

  Alrik watched his expression. “You should know. She came here with you.”

  “No she did not. The idiot came here alone, probably thinking to help me.”

  “Help you do what exactly?” Alrik said.

  Telal leveled his hard gaze on his brother's. “To convince you to open the rift.”

  Alrik smirked, his dark lips twisting. The guard stopped at the steps of the dais and shoved Lily to the ground. “Move and we'll make you regret it,” the guard said, releasing her.

  They had her wrists tied behind her back, and Telal could see the strain it took on her body. But she didn't cry out, didn't make a sound. A small part of him...was pleased with her. Even though her own action brought her here, at least she handled it well enough.

  “What do you plan to do with her?”

  Alrik crossed his big arms across his chest. “She's fresh, young, and pretty. And she's trespassed. She'll be sentenced accordingly and I believe will become quite popular among the guards.”

  Telal kept his expression blank as rage exploded inside him, making his blood race; his muscles tightened with the need to fight. He avoided her searching eyes; he couldn't look at her now or he might lose it and get them both stuck here.

  “She's coming with me, Alrik.”

  “Is she?”

  His mother stepped forward and laid a manicured hand on Alrik's shoulder. “Let me touch her and get a feel for her.”

  Alrik nodded and Telal tensed. His family always had strong magical powers. His mother's power was different, she could touch someone and sense things about them, though what good that could do her, he didn't know. Her powers didn’t end there, she had other darker abilities. They weren't made to be dark, but Telal had witnessed her vicious attacks with magic since he was a boy.

  The queen took the steps down to the ground floor, her dress glittering in the candlelight like hundreds of little diamonds. She kept her shoulders pushed back sharply, her chin held high, her hands held loosely together. She wore her hair pulled back into an elaborate design that looped at the back of her head and trailed down in a mixture of intricate waves and weaves to her waist. She might look innocent, but he knew better.

  She bent over Lily, a small smile playing on her red lips. She held out a slender hand to touch Lily. Lily jerked back, falling onto her bottom.

  “Hold her,” the Queen demanded. The two guards came forward, each holding one of Lily's arms as she fought them like a wildcat.

  Telal didn't entirely understand the response inside him, but some mixture of rage and possession roared through him like a battle shout. Before he knew it, he was walking towards her. Lily looked up at him with wide, frightened eyes. The sight nearly killed him. He actually wanted to cradle her to him and tell her he'd get them out of this. Even with talks of jaheera demons and other things which would frighten most people, she'd never batted an eye. Now he saw real fear there and he was ready to pummel his fist into those who caused it. Starting with the guards holding her.

  “Hurt her and you'll answer to me,” he told the guards, his voice low and steady.

  The guards eased their grip on her arms. His mother turned to him with shrewd eyes. “This one means something to you?” Unsure whether to agree or not and not knowing which answer may make shit worse, he didn't say anything. His mother smiled as if she thought of something funny. “And to think Lady Arianna has been saving herself for you this whole time.”

  Telal glanced back up at the dais to see Arianna perched delicately in her seat. She watched him with concerned eyes. When he spoke, he made sure to do so loud enough for everyone to hear. “That marriage proposal was created by my father who's dead now. The contract is void and very, very old. I have moved on.” He never even knew Arianna. He and Alrik had spent some time with her, mostly formal dinners with both sets of parents around. He couldn't particularly remember much about her, except that his brother used to watch her when he thought he wasn't looking. He'd felt bad about it at the time. He'd have gladly switched to be in Alrik's place if it meant making his brother happy. But things had changed since then.

  “Get it over with,” he said.

  The queen arched a thin brow at the order then pressed her hand to Lily's forehead. Lily's eyes squeezed tight, her lips meshing together as if in pain. Telal tensed. “Hurt her and you will regret it,” he warned again, softly this time for his mother's ears only.

  His mother suddenly cried out and ripped
her hand away from Lily like she'd been burned. Her eyes glowed wide, frantic. “She's strong. There's magic in this one,” she said to Alrik.

  Alrik came forward. “I think we'll keep her.”

  “Do it and die,” Telal growled.

  Alrik sent him a chilling look. “Do not...threaten me, brother Telal.”

  A cracking, sizzling energy tapped along his skin like spikes of electricity. The sensation grew along his throat and chest until the choking reflex kicked in. A warning from Alrik.

  “I left the proposal in the study. Read it. I'll be back to learn what your decision is.”

  Alrik took a seat at his throne, his chin on his fist. “You know what my decision is.”

  Frustration crept in until Telal wanted to shout. “Just think about it, please!”

  He could tell he'd surprised his brother, and for a moment, it looked as though the darkness recessed from his eyes. But just as soon as he saw it, it disappeared again.

  “I will let you leave with the girl under two conditions.”

  “What are those?” Telal's hands curled into fists. It wasn't just having someone else make orders of him, but that another held power over him that made him want to claw out his own hair.

  “Vow to reject the contract between you and Arianna.”

  “Done.” The woman meant nothing to him, and she obviously still held Alrik's attention.

  “And never come back here again or I will kill you and any who enter.”

  “Fine.”

  The guards and queen stepped away from Lily, and Telal didn't hesitate, he strode towards her, wrapped his arm around her, felt her sag against him, and then he ported them the hell out of there.

  * * *

  Colors dissolved before Lily's eyes like a puzzle made of sand and all the pieces streamed coming together in little increments. She was in Telal's arms standing atop the black ashen rift; trees surrounded them, massive oaks with heavy branches and big green leaves. The air smelled different, colors looked different—they were home.