Stigmata

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by L M Adams




  Stigmata

  Twisted Eventide - 9

  L.M. Adams

  Contents

  Also by L.M. Adams

  Quote

  Prologue

  Note to Readers

  Act 1 – The Wedding of the Damned

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Act 2 – Return of the God-King

  Map of Alkebulan

  God/Goddess Names

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 76

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 78

  Chapter 79

  Chapter 80

  Chapter 81

  Chapter 82

  Chapter 83

  Chapter 84

  Chapter 85

  Chapter 86

  Chapter 87

  Chapter 88

  Chapter 89

  Chapter 90

  Chapter 91

  Chapter 92

  Chapter 93

  Chapter 94

  Chapter 95

  Chapter 96

  Chapter 97

  Chapter 98

  Chapter 99

  Chapter 100

  Chapter 101

  Chapter 102

  Chapter 103

  Chapter 104

  Chapter 105

  Chapter 106

  Chapter 107

  Chapter 108

  Chapter 109

  Chapter 110

  Chapter 111

  Chapter 112

  Chapter 113

  Chapter 114

  Chapter 115

  Chapter 116

  Chapter 117

  Chapter 118

  Chapter 119

  Chapter 120

  Chapter 121

  Chapter 122

  Chapter 123

  Chapter 124

  Chapter 125

  Chapter 126

  Act 3 – Rise of the Blood Moon

  Chapter 127

  Chapter 128

  Chapter 129

  Chapter 130

  Chapter 131

  Chapter 132

  Chapter 133

  Chapter 134

  Chapter 135

  Chapter 136

  Chapter 137

  Chapter 138

  Chapter 139

  Chapter 140

  Chapter 141

  Chapter 142

  Chapter 143

  Chapter 144

  Chapter 145

  Chapter 146

  Chapter 147

  Chapter 148

  Chapter 149

  Chapter 150

  Chapter 151

  Chapter 152

  Chapter 153

  Chapter 154

  Chapter 155

  Chapter 156

  Chapter 157

  Chapter 158

  Chapter 159

  Chapter 160

  Chapter 161

  Chapter 162

  Chapter 163

  Chapter 164

  Chapter 165

  Chapter 166

  Chapter 167

  Chapter 168

  Chapter 169

  Chapter 170

  Epilogue - 1

  Epilogue - 2

  Epilogue - 3

  Epilogue - 4

  Author Note

  About the Author

  Also by L.M. Adams

  Twisted Eventide– Snow Covered Moon

  Twisted Eventide – Yuletide Crimson

  Twisted Eventide – Hunted Nightmare: Descension

  Twisted Eventide – Hunted Nightmare: Ascension

  Twisted Eventide – Murder of Crows

  Twisted Eventide – Harper Files

  Echoes of Time – Thread of Life

  Sin Eater – Fall of the Faithful

  Twisted Eventide – Bad

  Twisted Eventide – Good

  Echoes of Time – Absence of Time

  Twisted Eventide – Sacred Bones

  Twisted Eventide – Moon Rise

  Twisted Eventide – Touch

  Twisted Eventide – Monster

  Twisted Eventide – Finding Honor

  Twisted Eventide – Cursed

  Twisted Eventide – Stigmata

  Perhaps the idiom is true, home is where the heart is, and my heart has always been found in the eyes of Jaevia and Capaneus.

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used factiously.

  Novel contains extreme sexual horror and other content not suitable for persons sensitive to trauma fiction. Content not suitable for those under 18.

  Twisted Eventide – Stigmata Copyright © 2019 by L.M. Adams and Wycked Ink, LLC. All rights reserved. Printed and released in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in an article or in a review. For more information contact [email protected].

  Edited by: Jenifer Dyer, [email protected]

  The ache for home lives in all of us…

  Prologue

  Two monsters sit in a room together… a room in an old stone turret, in an old castle, on an old land. A fire in the hearth does little to warm the air. It’s cold, deathly cold, and neither can be sure which of them is the cause of the unnatural chill – both of their hearts are little more than grit frozen over.

  The weather outside is as hellish as the souls they claim to have. Cold rain pelts the earth unforgivingly, lighting and thunder cracking the heavens apart in retribution for such a meeting, between such men, at such a time.

  They sit in two high-backed matching chairs and stare at the flame, clear glasses with dark liquid gripped in their hands.

  The monster with the blue eyes takes a drink from his glass, hoping the bloodwine will warm him. “What brings you to my castle?”

  “
I have a task for you.” The monster with the bleeding wound smiles.

  “I did as you asked,” the monster with the blue eyes hisses. “I corrupted him.”

  “So you have,” the monster with the bleeding wound nods.

  “Then our agreement is done.”

  “Our agreement is done when I say it is done,” the monster with the bleeding wound says darkly. For when he claims a soul, he claims it to keep.

  He would not be here if he was not desperate. He’s tried every magic known to him, but his shell refuses to heal. He was cut by the Dagger of Kris – it was designed to end a god’s life.

  The only recourse left to him is to find a new shell, to ascend into a new incarnation. He knew at some point he would have to. Human flesh has its limits after all; but with the sunstone still active, transferring his spirit and melding it to a new scion does not come without some risk.

  Besides, he’s become accustomed to this body, he’s had it for eons.

  Yet he knows a simple truth, when a creature refuses to change, to evolve – it dies. It becomes a victim of time and crumbles under the weight of it – nothing lasts forever.

  He looks at his companion for the evening and is reminded of that truth.

  “Come now Evzen, it will be like old times,” the monster with the bleeding wound sets down his glass of bloodwine and stands, reaching for the buttons of his shirt.

  Much like the first time, his prey’s heart speeds with trepidation, fear… lust, “You have not visited my chambers in a hundred years, and now you think to come here and…”

  The slap across Evzen’s face is defining and sharp. The glass of bloodwine slips from his fingers, the sound of it shattering on the cold stone floor echoes up into the rafters.

  “Do not forget your place,” the monster with the bleeding wound hisses.

  The fear in the room becomes heady, perhaps Evzen believed a hurt monster was a safe monster – but that is when a wild thing is at its most dangerous.

  Evzen gets up from the chair and kneels down before his master as he did that one time, that one night, over a hundred years ago to beg the gods of old to give him a son… he should have been more specific with his request.

  “That’s better,” the monster with the bleeding wound whispers as he reaches for his pants.

  Note to Readers

  Stigmata takes place after events in the Twisted Eventide novella: Cursed.

  Act 1 – The Wedding of the Damned

  1

  Jaevia

  The earth is soft, makes for good digging. I thought the cold would never leave the earth, leave my heart. But it has, and the smell of spring is in the air. The birds are returning and bringing with them the life of the season.

  I strike the ground with my shovel again, grunting with the effort. We’re a few feet down now and this deep the earth still sits a bit frozen from the chill of the winter.

  The shovel now weighed down by a fresh mound of earth is heavy as I lift it and dump the muted brown soil into the waiting wheelbarrow. I’m sure Tabari could come up with some magical spell that would just displace the dirt and rock. But I want to do this the hard way, I want to feel the pleasure of a task done with nothing but my bare hands.

  “Water!” I call out and drive my shovel into the ground to stand straight up. I take off my work gloves and give my aching body a break.

  The hole has to be about six feet deep now. It’s not as wide or as long as it needs to be, but we’ll get it there. Hopefully, before the wedding.

  Kiah comes over with a bottled water handing it to me. He’s the youngest of the berserker boys, but lately, he’s been filling out more with muscle, losing some of that softness in his features.

  I give him a smile. “Thanks.” I crack open the top and guzzle down a good portion of the cooling water.

  The heat of the spring isn’t here in truth yet but digging holes is back breaking work and I’m sweating like a pig without a mud pit.

  I take a moment to really see Kiah, he’s dressed in a pair of old jeans, a white tank top that’s got a good bit of dirt on it now. He’s flush with his own efforts from helping me dig. But most importantly, his aura looks clean, healthy… happy.

  “Did you visit your Pax?”

  He looks away quickly, lowering his eyes. “Yes, my Queen.” He murmurs low.

  Getting them to stop calling me Queen wasn’t going to happen, so I just let it be. But I’m most definitely not queen of anything. Peter made sure of that.

  Not to say I’m running away from my problems, I just stopped. I stopped trying to fight for a people that don’t want me. I didn’t give up, I just gave in. Perhaps I should thank Peter. His little stunt with releasing the recordings of my evil deeds freed me from so much that was weighing me down.

  Bishop actually took down the voting system, I didn’t protest. He made an announcement that until they are able to ‘investigate’ me and the people of Ra’suá, it wouldn’t be appropriate to hold a vote.

  I don’t care, good luck to all of those fuckers. The world is its own, they can make their own choices and I don’t need to be a part of that. I can live a happy life away from it all, and so I’ve decided to do just that. For the first time in a long time, my life is my own.

  The next thing on my to-do list? Get this damn hole dug.

  I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. “You look good, Kiah, healthy.”

  “Thank… thank you, my Queen.” He seems shocked at the kind words coming from me.

  Another thing people will just have to grow accustomed to. I know I could be a bitch; I know how to kick a dog when it’s down. But now… now… there’s no deep-seated resentment filling me. There is nothing but peace and the possibility of what my life can be.

  I hand him the bottle back. “Got a few more hours in you?”

  He nods quickly. “Of course, my Queen.”

  “Any chance I can get you to call me Jae?”

  He cracks a real smile. “Not yet, my Queen.”

  “We’ll try again tomorrow then?”

  “We’ll try again tomorrow.” He chuckles a bit, it’s our thing now. We have a thing, an inside joke. How simple and small that is, but how it warms my heart.

  “Get back to work, I’d like to get another foot down before…”

  “What in Ra’s name have you all done?!”

  “… before Lucien and Jack get back.” I mumble before turning and waving my arm wildly so Luey can find me in the dirt.

  “Luey!” I call out and a moment later he’s standing at the edge of my nice new hole, hands on his hips, a fierce frown painted on his face.

  Even with the frown Luey is a gorgeous man. Dark skin with a trimmed beard and mustache, long locs hanging down his back. Muscular, tall… oozing with primal heat and domination.

  “What’s the meaning of this, Wench? Is it a trap?” He almost sounds hopeful.

  I chuckle. “No, it’s your wedding present.”

  He looks up and down the length of my hole, a puzzled look on his face.

  “Thank you?” He finally settles on the safest bet to not hurt my feelings.

  I grin, “You’re welcome.”

  “Are you planning on killing me?”

  I laugh again, “No it’s not a grave.” I turn around peering at my work. “But it would be the perfect size for a body or two.” I do have to admit.

  Lucien turns his head away. “Capaneus, she means to kill us for our wedding present.”

  I stand on my tiptoes so I can see over the edge of the ditch. Jack is talking quietly to Carter. Carter is the second in command of my guard and right now he’s agitated trying to explain to Jack why he let me dig a hole in the ground.

 

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