“Well, that’s a good idea I guess. It’s going to be hard enough to defeat Nick and his family,” I say, fisting my hand under the table.
“Oh, no need to worry about that. Rein has already been working out details. I have been trying to impress him with my own strategic planning, so I have mapped out everything we have been planning in my office. Once you marry Savage, I am sure you won’t have to worry about strategy anymore though. You will simply be able to enjoy your rich life. However, I still need to prove my worthiness, although it does help to be the father of a future queen.”
“Queen?” I ask in astonishment.
“Well, you and I both know Savage will eventually take over it all, and then there will be a ruling King over all the realm lords, making you queen,” My father says with pride as my sister sits with an eerie calm about her.
Audra is obviously lost and not in control over her own mind at this point. I am not sure what kind of poison she has been taking to relieve her pain, but she has been slowly pushing for her own death, and sooner rather than later. Ever since she was scarred, she has had no purpose in life. Though, today, she is going to help me make the first strategic blow in the war of the realms. My father eats with optimism. “Are you excited Father?” He nods. “Let me see, I press my hand over his rapidly beating heart and smile into his bright eyes.”
“See?” he says happily. I nod and then take a fistful of his shirt and spin him out of his chair and onto the table stuffing a napkin deep into his mouth.
“Thank you for the thoughtful wedding gift, Father.” I take out Blade and plunge him into my father’s chest, cutting out his heart without a single tear shed. His wide eyes stay focused on me for a time, but then they fall back as the rest of his body does. My sister looks down at him and begins laughing. I slide his heart out of his chest and into my already prepared bag. I take a napkin to slide a new blade to my sister. “Here you go, Audra. Enjoy.” She takes hold of it and plunges a new knife into my fathers ripped open chest. While my sister falls deeper into insanity, I open a portal to home. “Blade, time to go.” The dragon awakens and I hand him my bag before sending Blade out to Ryan and away from any suspicion. Shutting the portal back, I watch as my sister stands up and cuts, over and over again, stabbing our father through his eyes, his tongue, and then through the top of his head and down to his chin, splitting his chest into pieces throughout the room. Finally, her hysterical laughter alerts the servants, and they come rushing in as I cower in the corner, crying for help, as I am too terrified to move. My sister is immediately taken away for everyone’s safety. I wave goodbye as they take her away, and she smiles, waving back like a princess on top of her parade day float. I clean up my appearance, take what I need from my father’s home, and then set it ablaze.
“Miss, what do we do now with no place to serve you,” my father’s lead servant, Miles, asks.
“Me?”
“Yes, you are the next in line now that your father is dead and your sister has been taken away. You are the new lord. I assume you will build a new home?”
“No, we have a home, and we have a new lord, but it isn’t me.”
“Then who?” he asks confused.
I look his way with a smile … “My husband, of course.”
CHAPTER 24
Nick
Being a lord has privileges. I am able to go to the middle of destiny, the place before a soul is committed to their eternal life, whether heaven or hell. I have access to them. Ever since Eli was lost, I have been searching for him here. It’s not easy to find a particular person, but today, I finally find him, and he looks horribly lost and lonely. I look him over with a horrible sadness that I promised myself I would hide. Taking a deep breath, I call out to him. “Eli. Elijah.” He looks up but doesn’t see me right away. “Elijah Stevens.” He turns and stands up slowly before giving me a half a smile. I move towards him and hug him which he seems to need, or maybe it is me that needs it. I am not sure I would feel any differently about losing Ryan. Eli is truly my brother, and not just for life. Stepping back from him, I try to think of something reassuring, but I am afraid to tell him too much. What if it doesn’t work? What if I tell him of his child and his hopeful peace turns into a restless eternity?
“You know, it figures there would be a line in hell. Is that part of our punishment, the eternal waiting to be next? Am I going to have to call customer service and talk to a machine in the next step? Because if I am, I am just going to keep pressing zero until they let me move on.” His humor is not as energetic, but it still makes me laugh.
“You’re not in hell yet. You’re in the between. I pulled some strings and had them hold you back as long as possible.”
“Why? I’m dead, Nicky. Let me go. And not that I don’t want to be around you more, but I would prefer a less torturous realm to be sentenced to. Oh shit, please don’t let Amery get me. Or Fagan. Ugh! I’m running out of options. Honestly, I was just glad not to see Kamini coming for me. I guess Amery wouldn’t be too bad. Can I haunt him though? I would really like to do that.” I laugh. “No, seriously, is there some paperwork I need to fill out for that? A travel visa of sorts, a haunting visa?” He laughs.
“No, you idiot. Just be patient. I have a feeling everything is going to work out just fine for you.”
“Oh yeah? Did you get me into heaven Nicky? If you have some kind of pull to get that done, I would appreciate it. Actually, I am kind of excited about possibly seeing my father again.” He starts to look excited and less lost, and I become worried that as soon as he becomes at peace with death that he will disappear to his destiny, and I have no power to help him where he is going. The more he talks about his father, the happier and more at peace he becomes.
“Eli, we need you back,” I say, trying to stop his disappearance.
“No, you don’t. You have the perfect life, Nicky. Cat will marry Amery and be way better off. Everyone will be better off, even Lily. She always had to remind me to refill her water bowl. Poor dog deserves better.”
“Cat needs you, Eli. She is not doing well without you.”
He looks down with a thoughtful sigh. “She’ll get over me. Tell her I want her to be happy, even if it is with Amery. Actually, I prefer him, because I know he would take care of her like she deserves.” He looks back up at me with a smile, and I see the peace in his eyes. “I’m okay, Nicky, and you all will be too. I hope, somehow, I get to see you again, though brother, I am sure I will. I just hope it’s not soon. I hope we can spend eternity together and you’re old and grey, that way I can be forever the younger, handsome one of the two of us,” he laughs.
“Eli, don’t go.” I grab his arm and hold him with me.
“They are calling my name now, Nicky, and I don’t know when I will ever be next again. I love you, Nicky, but let me go. Let me finally get my peace.”
He turns and begins to walk away. “Your son is going to need you!”
He turns back, looking me square in the eyes for the first time ever. “What did you say?”
“Your son is going to need you. Cat is going to need you to help with him. I cannot imagine what kind of trouble your son is going to get into.” I force a smile, hoping I did the right thing.
“Cat’s pregnant?” I nod, and his sadness returns. “Why would you tell me that? I can’t do anything about it now! I’ll never know him, and he will never know me. Why would you do that to me?” He shakes his head, cringing and cursing under his breath, and I start to hate myself until I see it.
“She did it,” I say.
“She did what? Who’s she? Cat?” He rambles until I take a hold of his shoulders and smile. “Why are you smiling? You are one evil devil, Nicky, and this is not a very good joke.”
“I wasn’t joking. Your wife is waiting for you, and so is your son. I’ll see you soon, Eli.”
“What?”
“Look down, Eli.” He slowly looks down and sees his chest thumping. Placing his hand on his chest, he surely feels hi
s heart beginning to beat again. He looks up at me in shock. “Congratulations, Eli. You get a second chance at life.” He takes my hand. “We aren’t just brothers for life. We’re brothers through eternity. See you soon, my brother.” He disappears from my grasp, and I walk back to my home with a smile, but my excitement is short lived. Now that the original dragon has returned, the war of the realms has begun, and we are going to need all the help we can get to survive. Now I am going to have to check out this Ithan I keep hearing about, I have a feeling he is someone we need to get to first.
EPILOGUE
Ryan
Nick has expressed interest in a man Terrence told us he heard, when he was caged up, and I have a feeling it’s the same person who turned Acosta against me. We haven’t heard from him directly or even seen him, but Nick has tasked me to find a way to pull him out of the shadows as quickly as possible. He is clearly powerful, so we need to get to him before our enemies do. I have been purposely making myself available to him, and I know he’s there, but he is hesitant to come out of the shadows for some reason. The last time, I believe he was about to take a chance, but something stopped him and I am not sure what, but maybe it had something to do with Nick being nearby. He sensed him, so maybe he can sense me too. The more I think about it, the more I have a need to suddenly get out of the house by myself. I leave and drive to an out of the way place to stare off at the ocean as the sun begins to go down. I am not sure why I get out of my car, especially when I know someone is watching me. I can hear him breathing he is so close. I would fear that it is Savage himself, but the presence is much different than his. I send a quick text to Nick and then calmly walk towards the darkness. The only way to convince him to come out is to let him know, I know he’s there. “What do you want?” I ask the looming darkness.
“I should ask you the same. What brought you here?”
“I was looking for a new start, and you?” I ask, trying to move in closer to him.
“I was born here. This is my home, and I would appreciate it if you would go back to yours.” A shadow steps out to me with a sliver of light catching a squint of his familiar eyes.
“My home is under attack right now,” I say to him.
“That’s not my problem. Either leave my city or I will destroy you.”
“No, you aren’t capable of destroying me,” I challenge purposefully to understand more about him. He stares at me sharply, and I instantly fight off his silent attack. “Nice try, but you don’t know much about your powers, do you? You have potential, but you are no match for me right now.” He tries again to hurt me with a little more impressive of an attack, but still, I fight him off and send him stumbling backwards. “You need me. You need my brother to help show you your full potential. You can’t beat us with the knowledge you have.” He tries again with more anger, forcing my eyes to begin to swirl and my dragon wings to take form. His eyes open wide. “Give up and understand before you get yourself killed.” We battle back and forth, all the while I try to hold back enough to keep from killing him, but the more he presses, the more I fear I won’t have a choice if I want to survive.
“Stop!” Nick yells, coming out of nowhere. The battle abruptly ends, and Nick and I stare down our new friend while he begins to understand that he is clearly outmatched.
“I don’t want you here!” he urges. “You’re evil. I was warned about you people, and I want nothing to do with that world.” He begins to retreat.
“No, don’t go. You don’t have to be scared of who you are anymore. We can help you, protect you from anyone that sets out to harm you,” I say with Nick staying steady at my side.
“I certainly won’t let anyone hurt you.” Nick says with an odd protective tone.
“Why would you do that?” he asks.
“Because we are family, Ithan.” Nick says stepping into the light and confirming what I have already felt.
I glance Nicks way as Ithan begins to walk out into the light towards us. I square my body to him and prepare myself for attack, but the moment I see him fully, my jaw drops. “Oh my God!’ I exclaim in shock.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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Table of Contents
The New Devil
in Charge
Books by Jennifer Loren
Acknowledgements
Dedication
Prologue
Ryan
Chapter 1
Nick
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
Chapter 2
Ryan
Chapter 3
Ryan
(Untitled)
Chapter 4
Ryan
(Untitled)
Chapter 5
Ryan
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
Chapter 6
Elijah
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
Chapter 7
Elijah
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
Chapter 8
Skylar
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
Chapter 9
Ryan
(Untitled)
Chapter 10
Elijah
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
Chapter 11
Skylar
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
Chapter 12
Ryan
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
Chapter 13
Skylar
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
Chapter 14
Elijah
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
Chapter 15
Ryan
(Untitled)
Chapter 16
Catriona
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
Chapter 17
Ryan
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
Chapter 18
Elijah
Chapter 19
Ryan
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
Chapter 20
Elijah
(Untitled)
Chapter 21
Catriona
(Untitled)
Chapter 22
Nick
(Untitled)
(Untitled)
Chapter 23
Catriona
(Untitled)
Chapter 24
Nick
Epilogue
Ryan
About the Author
The New Devil in Charge Page 24