Sinless (Deadly Omen Book 1)

by Jenica Saren

  "Get the fuck away from her!" Gatlin roared, charging at Father Belvieu like a bull in an arena.

  The preacher was standing before a circle of flames that rose almost to the ceiling, and according to my light map, Ria was right in the middle of it. I panicked when I realized her light was no more than a little spark, almost no glow to be seen. I rushed the wall of flames without thinking and dove through, spotting her in the center almost immediately.

  Stumbling over to her, clumsy in my haste, I dropped to my knees. I lifted her in my arms and cradled her in my arms. "Zvezda moya, please open your eyes." I whispered to her as I brushed her hair back from her face.

  I felt like I would collapse when her eyes fluttered open ever-so-slightly. "Hey Gray." She wheezed with a small smile. "You keep saving me."

  I choked on a laugh, feeling so much relief that I could have flown in that moment. "You keep getting yourself into these situations, Zvezda moya. You're going to be the death of me." I held her head to my chest, trying to breathe normally. When I closed my eyes, her light was almost completely out and I snapped my eyes open in panic. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was becoming so shallow that I couldn't even see a slight rise of her chest.

  Standing, with Ria still in my arms, I looked down at the floor and noticed the crude symbols that were scattered about the circle. He was draining her. I ran for one of the runes and rubbed at the chalk with my foot, trying to mar the shape enough for the spell to stop. When the flames dropped, I saw my chance and leaped over the circle, bolting for the open doorway.

  When I glanced over my shoulder, I saw my brothers taking on Father Belvieu. For the first time, I noticed how decrepit he was. His body was totally destroyed by whatever darkness he had been utilizing and was falling apart with each blow that landed on him.

  He threw Eliam across the room like it cost him not an ounce of energy. As my brother landed next to me, I nudged him with my foot. "Take Ria and get out of here." I commanded coldly. When I closed my eyes, Father Belvieu had no light, no sign of life. That answered every question I had.

  My brother nodded and took Ria from my arms, holding her against him as if she were the most fragile and priceless artifact, which, to him, I supposed she was. I wasn't going to question why he had obeyed me, since it's something we had often butted heads over, but now that I was free from my task of protecting Ria, it was on.

  32

  Ria

  Standing in nothing but bright whiteness, I saw myself walking toward me, a perfect mirror image - except for her golden eyes. As she stopped before me, I studied her, unable to figure out what I would be doing staring at myself. There was always the possibility that I was dead, which was extremely feasible from the little I remembered. But if I was dead, wouldn't I be seeing Saint Peter or angels? Or shit, even the Devil himself would have been welcome.

  "Hello, Ria." Myself said, sounding just like me. She smiled a little bit and it made me feel uneasy. There wasn't something right about the smile she gave me. Maybe it was the fact that it was devoid of warmth or kindness, or maybe it was just the fact that I wasn't exactly used to seeing myself in 3D.

  Something clicked to me then. "You're my inner self, aren't you?" I asked accusingly. Of course my brain would find a way to bring this bitch along for the ride. With the whole history of leaving your troubles and ailments behind, I was a little bit pissed to see that my schizophrenia came with me. Further evidence that there was no way I could be fixed.

  I had first imagined my inner self when I was eight, when days would go by without the sight of another person as I was locked in the cellar below. She kept me company and told me all the great things about myself, even reassured me that I wasn't bad. We would spend days and days just talking to each other. She kept me sane.

  So wasn't it just ironic that she was driving me insane now?

  "What are you doing here?" I demanded, placing my hands on my hips as though that could make me appear any more intimidating than, well, me.

  She smirked then and placed a manicured hand on my shoulder, her golden eyes sending little shock waves of panic through me. "I want to be free, and you're going to help me." She said gleefully. Her eyes flashed briefly, reminding me of the way Eliam's illuminated in the kitchen the day everything started really going to shit.

  My inner self seemed to realize that I was scared shitless and that apparently made her very happy. She leaned in close and put her lips to my ear as she whispered, "now wake the fuck up and go save our men."

  She put both of her hands on my shoulders and I felt a strange energy seeping into me, crowding my internal personal space. It made me feel taller, stronger, and more aware than I ever had. When I opened my mouth to ask her what she just did, she put her hands on my chest and shoved hard, and I started falling, tumbling down into darkness.

  * * *

  Bolting upright with a gasp, I wasn't aware of my surroundings and yelped as my forehead connected with something extremely hard and solid. "Ow!" I screeched, cupping my forehead as I rocked back and forth. My whole body hurt, so a little extra pain shouldn't have been the thing to do me in, but I sat up really fucking fast, okay?

  "Are you alright, love?" I knew that voice. I tilted my head up and found myself gazing into vibrant violet eyes that made my core melt into a puddle of raging hormones and errant emotions. We were sitting in the backseat of my car and he was cradling me in his lap, something that I would have never expected.

  I tried to think, running over my weird ass dream and everything that happened beforehand. I remembered my inner self talking to me, the strange energy she poured into me. I remembered a wall of fire, Gray's worried voice in my ear, a man falling to pieces...

  "Oh my fuck." I whispered in shock, the reality dawning on me. I looked back up at Eliam. "Where is everyone?" I was dreading his answer before he even said anything, and I knew what it was going to be.

  "They're still inside. You've only been out a few moments and-"

  Before he could finish his sentence, I was gone. I traveled effortlessly to the threshold of the church and watched as five of my guys attempted to beat down the thing that they were fighting. Whatever my inner self had done to me, it gave me a new sense of awareness that I had never possessed before then. I could feel that the energy inside of the preacher's body wasn't him, it wasn't even human. It was something dark and otherworldly, something I didn't have a name for.

  Augustus Belvieu was no longer on this earth, and what had been left in his place was as devoid of life as bodies beneath our feet. I watched the thing lift Gray by the front of his shirt and Gray swung at him with what appeared to be a flaming sword. Hell, it probably was a flaming sword, I wasn't even surprised anymore.

  As I watched the creature's arm stretch and warp into a whip-like shape, I felt the power begging to be let out, the power I cried out for so desperately the first time I faced this thing - and nearly lost. But when he slung his new appendage across the room, smashing benches and pinning the guys against a wall, I felt it really rise in me.

  It was like a raging inferno in my blood, setting every nerve ending aflame and turning everything in my sight red. Only, it took me a moment to realize that my sight wasn't actually going red, but there was a red mist-like substance that was stretching from my body and toward the unsightly thing before me.

  I grinned, feeling like a total badass as I stepped slowly, purposefully toward the shadow that had taken up residence in the preacher's body. He made to lash out at me with his whip-like arm and I threw a hand up, as if to block it, not even taking my eyes off of him as my power split through the offending limb like it was nothing more than an errant piece of paper.

  He screamed, the sound echoing around the walls of the church and shaking the walls. I saw what remained of the arm-whip swinging toward me out of the corner of my eye when I was only a few feet away and I ducked, watching as it swung into the opposite wall.

  I glanced sideways at the guys to make sure they were still a
lright and breathed out heavily when I saw that they were all on the ground, but alive and conscious.

  Directing my focus back on the monster before me, I ran for it, jumping into a handspring as I got within a couple of feet and pressed both feet to his chest. I was both pleased and disgusted to see that, not only had I knocked him flat on his ass, but I had also knocked a pretty good sized hole in his chest. The place where his heart should have been was blackened and hollow, as though he was burned from the inside out.

  I quickly ran to kneel next to him and pressed my hands against the sides of his chest that weren't crushed in. I tried not to think about the smell as I tried to push my power into him. Well, not him. I felt around with my new sense and found the slimy tendrils of whatever was animating the body. In my mind, I latched onto it and started forcing my power inside of it. I heard it scream in my mind, the sound deafening and making it hard to concentrate.

  "Ria, look out!" I heard that out loud and turned to my left just in time to watch Eliam jump in front of the whip-arm as it made another comeback. My mouth was frozen open in shock as I watched it slice through the blonde-haired Sin's stomach.

  He turned around to look at me and collapsed to his knees. He pressed a hand to his abdomen and pulled it away, staring at his bloodied hand in surprise. He glanced up at me one last time before he fell forward, as if in slow motion.

  A bloodcurdling scream filled the cavernous space and it took me a solid minute to realize that the one screaming was me. Turning back to the task at hand, I pushed with all of my might, sending as much light and power into the creature who dared to hide in another man's shadow. "My name is Ria Will Grimm." I breathed, unable to fully speak through the agony that was consuming me. "I banish you to whence you came, foul creature." I felt strong and powerful saying the words that seemed to spring into my mind like I was reading them off a script. "Go to hell, you son of a bitch!" I added the last part because it felt a lot more like me, and being myself always seemed to get the job done.

  A burst of white light from the hollow cavity that was once Augustus Belvieu's chest nearly blinded me in it sudden intensity. I shielded my eyes with my arm and felt a strange heat overtaking me, like I was stepping into the sun.

  I got to my feet and stumbled backwards, eyes still protected against the light. I fell backwards over some rubble and strong arms caught me before I could land on my ass. Opening my eyes, I blinked a few times and looked around.

  "Eliam?" I called frantically, not spotting him on the ground where the rest of the guys were huddled. "Eliam?" I shouted his name louder, feeling panicked.

  "I'm right here, love, no need to shout."

  I looked up into the eyes of the man who had caught me and nearly cried with the amount of relief I felt. I scrambled to get to my feet and turned to look at him. His neatly pressed button down shirt was ripped, torn, and bloodstained beyond repair, but he appeared fine. Fine enough to catch me was fine enough to be happy about is how I saw it.

  I threw my arms around his neck, tackling him in a hug that sent us sprawling backward and into some of the broken pieces of wood. I tucked my face into his neck and tried like hell not to cry. "I'm so fucking glad you're okay." I whispered, not able to trust my voice.

  He patted my back a little awkwardly and I barked out a laugh. "I'm fine. I told you that Sins couldn't be killed." He murmured against my hair. "We'll talk later about what you just did over there, yeah?"

  A strangled sound escaped my lips because I was torn between wanting to laugh like a maniac and wanting to cry because, shit, I'd just fought and killed an evil creature. "Yeah, sure, we'll talk about it later." I acquiesced

  "Then, can we go home now?" I heard someone ask behind me. I sat up, not even caring that I was straddling Eliam right in front of everyone. I did a quick head count and smiled hugely when everyone was accounted for.

  I looked at Rafe, knowing he was the one who had spoken. "After this mess is cleaned up, sure. We can go home."

  Everyone groaned but me and I just grinned. It was highly possible that I had actually lost my mind at some point, because no sane, rational person would be grinning after an epic life or death battled.

  "Do you want someone to stumble upon that?" I raised an eyebrow as I indicated the smoking pile of flesh and bones that was once the preacher's body.

  Gatlin started stomping over to the remains of the corpse and grumbled, "let's just get this over with so we can go the fuck home." Rafe and Kellan followed behind him as Gray and Beck headed outside, mumbling beneath their breath.

  I was so ready to go home, take a shower, plop down in my bed, and forget this whole night ever existed. Even bickering with the guys over video games and whether or not pineapple goes on pizza sounded amazing, and that probably said a lot about how far gone I was. I didn't care what I did, I just wanted to forget.

  Don't forget about me. My inner self chimed in a sing-song voice that was so unlike her. The sound send shivers down my spine and made me want to run for the hills. You're going to set me free.

  I could only pray that it was all in my head, and not something much more nefarious.

  The end… For now.

  About the Author

  Jenica Saren is an American indie author, wife, and mother, based in a state that's none of your business. She's magnificent, amazing, an experienced pole dancer, three-time karaoke champion, passionate chef, and entrepreneur extraordinaire. She manages all of this, and somehow is so gracious and humble. (No, she didn't tell me to write that.)

  She enjoys books, entire bottles of wine, The Lion King on repeat, video games, her two cats Nala and Sparta, and sometimes even her husband. She doesn't like to admit it, but inside of her is a screaming teen white girl, that craves Starbucks, gossip girl, and says way too many OMGs. Jenica tries to feed her at least twice a week. (She needs her strength up for sale season!)

  You can follow Jenica's writing adventure by following her on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/jenicasaren) or by joining her Facebook reader group. (https://www.facebook.com/groups/JenicasTroublemakers)

  Acknowledgments

  Firstly, I’d like to give a ginormous shout out to Marlee Standard. Without you, girl, I never would have started writing down any of the ideas that I had couped up in my head. They were starving to death, Marlee. Starving. So thank you for pushing a stranger in the right direction, and thank you for being an amazing friend ever since.

  Next, I need to thank Cece Rose. International bestselling author and you somehow still managed to find the time to not only help me where I needed it and get me a cover when I felt like I was on a dead-end street, but also be there for me every single day. I don’t know how I existed without my daily dose of Cece and our late night gaming sessions. You’re amazing and I love you so much.

  And here come the water works. Daqri Bernardo, do you even realize how talented you are? Every time I see this beautiful cover, all I can do is cry. You and your magic hands have a very special place in my heart.

  And then there’s my beloved Biatch Brigade. Kayla, Tay, Christina, Gem, Meagan, Autumn, and Jamie, I love y’all so much. Thank you for being there for me and never letting me quit, even when I so desperately wanted to.

  Now that this has turned into a novel all its own, I just want to thank you all, my readers. If you made it this far, I hope you enjoyed Sinless. Every single one of you that expressed your excitement for this book kicked my ass into gear. I swear I’ve barely slept since I officially announced its release (I’m currently writing this at two in the morning. Yay!) and you guys have made it all worth it. I love all of you, too.

  Afterword

  Be sure to check out chapter one in Jenica Saren’s next release, The End: A Reverse Harem Reverse Fairytale!

  33

  Happily Never After

  The wedding was perfect, everything I could have ever imagined. Silk streamers in pastel purple and pink and orange hung from the ancient oak trees and flowers the colour of a sunset decorate
d the aisles. The royal purple carpet that stretched from the garden entrance to the heavily decorated archway and was lined with standing candelabras to add ambiance to the light of the fading day.

  It was tradition for weddings to be held at the end of the day and run through the night so that the newly wedded could begin their freshly joined lives on a new day. I had been dreaming of the day that this day would come since I was tall enough to peer over the castle banisters at the weddings that took place in this very same garden. Now that my own day was here, I had no idea how to feel; I was nervous and scared, but also elated and thrilled. My emotions were at war, but also at peace, coexisting in a strange rhythm that took up residence in my rib cage.

  Tha-thump. Tha-thump. Tha-thump.

  As I peered through the narrow opening in the doors, I could hear the bustling of the staff behind me and the chatter of the guests just through the heavy double doors, both sounds making me anxious as I awaited the signal for me to begin trek through the flower hedge maze and to my future. The flower hedge maze was another tradition we had here in Blank Town, as it was believed that it would determine if the love between wives and husbands was true. If the bride made it through the maze blindfolded, then the love was equal and unmatched on both sides and they were destined to be together for the rest of eternity. The maze was often rearranged to keep sneaky eyes like my own from cheating - not just the maze, but it was considered cheating on future husbands.

  I was nervously pacing, as I always did when I was too anxious, and my poor handmaiden was struggling to keep up with the train of my gown gathered in her arms to keep it from gathering dirt as it dragged. I never much saw the point in keeping it tidy, not when it was going to be drenched in dyes later as part of the ceremony; every guest gathered a shade of dye to represent any number of things, like prosperity, fertility, peace, happiness, adventure, and wisdom. No one ever wished love on the newly wedded bride because, well, she had obviously already undergone the maze.