Black as Midnight

by Mary Martel

  I cleared my throat before saying, "Those two deserve each other and whatever they dish out amongst themselves. Rain gives Quinton something to focus on and obsess over other than me, and that gives me room to breathe and keeps me from mowing him down with my Rover. So that makes it a win-win for me, I think."

  Julian chuckled as he picked up a medium sized glass vial from the table. Purple liquid sloshed around inside of it as he shook it in front of my face.

  "You're terrible," he said cheerfully, and I shrugged because maybe he wasn't exactly wrong and I couldn't argue with him about it.

  I pointed to the vial. "What's with the purple stuff?"

  He smirked at me. "I think this just might be what we're looking for. I need you to try it out for me though."

  I gulped. I didn't want to try out some purple mystery liquid he'd concocted on his own.

  "Uh, Julian..." I mumbled. "What exactly is it supposed to do?"

  "You're not very trusting where I'm concerned."

  I wasn't very trusting where most people were concerned. He should know that by now and not take it too personally. And this was some magical brew we were talking about, not Grape flavored Kool-Aid for goodness sake.

  "What's it supposed to do?" I asked. "I'm not putting it in my mouth until you tell me."

  He leered at me and I blushed again.

  "Julian," I hissed in embarrassment. First, he wanted to talk about his balls, and now he was daydreaming about me putting certain things in my mouth. This was not how I'd expected this night to go at all.

  "Relax," he said. "It's nothing bad, I promise. I wouldn't do that to you. Once ingested, this little baby should make it so that I can't tell when you're lying to me. Everything that comes out of your mouth will sound like the utmost truth and I will believe anything you tell me."

  Umm...

  Say what?

  That's not exactly what we agreed on working on here. We were supposed to be coming up with something that would make it so I could tell if someone else was lying to me. This was something I would have no use for... but Marcus, on the other hand... This could come in handy for him now that he was going to be trying to take the Council down from the inside.

  "Have you tried it out on anyone else?" I inquired hesitantly, but now just a little excited too. If there was any possibility this could help Marcus, then I was all over giving it a try... but maybe on somebody else first. You know, just to be safe. Maybe Julian should go first. Yeah, that sounded like a good plan to me.

  "Nope," he gleefully responded. "I've been saving this moment to share with you."

  Geez. I didn't like how excited he sounded about sharing this with me. Why couldn't he be like normal guys and, I don't know, buy me flowers and chocolate or something? That sounded nice right about now, I liked candy bars, and what girl didn't think flowers were pretty?

  "Goodie," I replied half heartedly.

  He grinned bright and big at me, like a kid who'd just come down on Christmas to find that Santa had stuffed his fat ass down through his chimney some time while you were sleeping and left gifts for you. Personally, I always found Santa creepy, but Jules looked like he would have been into it. Maybe.

  He handed me the vial and challenged, "Ladies first."

  I sighed heavily as I took the vial out of his hands. I had to trust that Julian knew what he was doing when it came to his magic. If this Grape Kool-Aid was supposed to heal me in some way, then I wouldn't have even questioned it before I emptied it down my throat. Healing was his specialty, yeah, but I'm sure there was more to him than just that. Right?

  I put the vial to my lips and asked, "Are we sharing this one or do you have your own?"

  His eyes were intent as they roamed over my face. He seemed far too serious for someone who'd just been joking around and I didn't understand why.

  "That's all there is so far," he murmured quietly. "But you've got to take the whole thing in order for it to work."

  His eyes dropped down to my mouth and grew heated. The intensity never left but instead grew thicker, heavier, by the second. That look in his eyes told me he wanted to rip the vial out of my hands and replace its spot against my mouth with his lips. Any other time I would have been excited at the thought of Julian wanting to kiss me. He was one of my boys that I hadn't grown close to on any level of physical intimacy, and I was impatiently waiting for our relationship to get there.

  At first, it had been me who wanted to take things slow because I had trust issues and a whole slew of other problems, but now it felt like it was because of the guys that things were creeping along at a snail’s pace, since they were trying to do what they thought was best for me. They were forcing me to be open about what I wanted with them or run the risk of not getting it at all. It was awesome of them and I respected them for it, but I really didn't enjoy making the first move all the time, so I tended to make no move whatsoever and then end up frustrated in more ways than one.

  I wanted to tell Julian to kiss me. But, at the same time, I also wanted to help Marcus out in any way possible with his mission, because I thought what he was doing was more important than my love life. Way more important. My mind flashed back to Annabell on her hands and knees, taking multiple Council cocks at once, and I couldn't help the bile that threatened to climb up my throat at the thought of other girls, innocent ones, being forced into that type of situation. My eyes stung with unshed tears as my imagination ran wild and I forced myself to see things I had no desire to see. Ever.

  I parted my lips and tipped the vial back. The liquid was surprisingly warm as it filled my mouth. I didn't waste time and quickly swallowed it in two gulps. It burned going all the way down. I pulled the vial away from my mouth and coughed. The aftertaste was horrible and reminded me of something disgustingly sour.

  The corner of Julian’s mouth twitched and I knew he was fighting the urge to laugh at me.

  "You really did it," he said in awe.

  I shrugged. Yeah, I really did it. How stupid was I?

  An intense warmth spread through my entire body at an alarming rate. It was there, all throughout my body, and then, in the blink of an eye, it was gone and I felt completely normal once again.

  "I don't feel anything now," I told him honestly. "At first it was warm, everything inside me was, but now there's nothing. It's just normal me now."

  Normal me was never really normal, that's for sure. Julian looked like he thought the exact opposite.

  "Lie to me," he urged, and I blinked stupidly at him. What the hell did he expect me to lie to him about?

  "Umm..."

  "Come on, Ariel."

  "Doesn't it need time to settle into my system before I should lie to you?" Maybe more time would make me feel something different inside. Shouldn't I feel different somehow? I thought so, but Julian didn't seem to agree.

  He shook his head and repeated, "Lie to me, Ariel. Give me a good one. Something I will know is a lie so if I feel like I'm believing you, I’ll know subconsciously that you're lying to me."

  Huh. I could do that.

  "I'm a lesbian," I deadpanned.

  His eyes widened right before he burst out laughing.

  "A lesbian," he hooted. "It feels so real, but I know several of my brothers have had their tongues down your throat and you've enjoyed it. You." He laughed even harder. "A lesbian."

  I frowned at him. What a dick. I'd done exactly what he'd asked me to and now he was laughing at me. That wasn't what I'd agreed to.

  "It doesn't work," I grumbled under my breath. I didn't know what I'd expected out of him after my announcement, but it hadn't been this.

  "No, no, no," he said after getting his laughter under control. "It feels real, that you're into chicks, even though I know it's not. It definitely worked. Try another one. Come on, Ariel, hit me with another doozie."

  I did not think so. I wasn't interested in being subjected to more of his laughter at my expense.

  "No," I told him snottily. "You want me to lie, then
you should ask me questions and then you can tell me whether or not I'm lying. That's the only way this is going to go."

  "Okay," he agreed readily, before he took the forgotten vial from my hands and sat it down on the table. "If that's how you want to play it then that works for me."

  I frowned, unsure if I liked the way he'd worded that or if he was being sincere.

  He turned, facing me, and placed his hands on my cheeks, cupping my face.

  "Tell me, sweet Ariel," he murmured, "are you a virgin?"

  I tried to jerk back away from him, surprised and thrown off by his question. This was something I'd assumed he already knew the answer to, something all of my guys knew the answer to. Didn't they all get together and talk about these things when I wasn't around?

  Lie, that was the point of this. Perhaps he wanted me to lie in answer to questions he already knew the answers to. That way he'd know what he was feeling and could tell whether or not his magical brew was working or not.

  "No," I told him in a serious voice. "I'm not a virgin."

  Absolute lie, one hundred percent.

  His nostrils flared angrily and he hissed, "Who was it? Who did you have sex with? This is absolute bullshit. We all agreed to take things slow with you, and someone went behind our backs and fucked you?"

  I reared back at his ugly choice of words and jerked out of his hands. He could not be serious right now.

  "Julian," I snapped. "Maybe it would be best if you stopped talking."

  Please, pretty, pretty please. Stop talking, I silently urged him. He was going to freak me out if he kept going like this.

  "They promised," he whispered in a heated voice.

  I shook off my thoughts and stepped into him. I wrapped my arms around his middle and pressed my forehead to his. I scrunched my eyes up tight and hoped what I said next could get him to calm down.

  "That was a lie," I rasped out. "I lied to you just like you asked me to. I've never had sex before, but lately I've really wanted to. Nobody will have sex with me though, because apparently you all promised some stupid crap about me that you probably should have asked me about before agreeing to. I really don't like the thought of all of you sitting around and discussing my virginity, and the how's and when's of when it's appropriate or not for me to be rid of it. That's really fucked up if you think about it. I mean, I get that we're all in a relationship together, and we are supposed to work together on everything, but I’m seriously uncomfortable with the rest of you talking about these things without me. Especially because it's about me."

  I paused to suck in a sharp breath and immediately shut my mouth when it hit me that I was ranting and needed to stop. It wasn't helping the situation at all.

  I opened my eyes to find Julian's eyes staring into mine intently. He wasn't blinking either, and for the first time since meeting him, a sliver of fear shot through me. I wasn't afraid for myself, but for the rest of the guys, because I worried he might take his rage out on them in order to figure out who he thought had deflowered me.

  "I'm a virgin," I muttered in an attempt to calm him down.

  "That could be a lie," he rasped out.

  "It's not," I whispered urgently. "I promise."

  Honestly, I didn't get what the big deal was here, but apparently it meant something to him.

  Because I had to know, I asked, "If this is your reaction now when you just think I've had sex, then what are you going to be like when I've really done the deed with one of the guys and it's not you?"

  He shook his head and his forehead slid across mine with every move.

  "It's nothing you'll have to worry about," he choked out. "It's just the thought of one of them lying to me that has me acting irrational. We went through a lot because of Annabell and I never want to have my brothers, my family, lie to me again because of a female. I don't want to go through that hell again and I don't want them to either. You can have sex with whoever the hell you want to amongst our coven, just don't let anyone lie about it. That's all I ask. That's all any of us should ask."

  I dropped my hands from Julian's sides and stepped away from him in frustration. What he was asking was reasonable. Quinton had actually asked me for something similar when it came to honesty, it hadn't been about sex but honesty alone, and I had agreed to be completely honest with him about most things. Though, if you asked him, he'd tell you we agreed to honesty in all things, but a girl had to have her secrets every now and then.

  It was the mention of Annabell, yet again, that had me frustrated. They had an evil ex who really did a number on several of them and had left her mark. I knew this because I had to put up with the mess she'd left behind and it was starting to piss me off just a little bit. I didn't want to be looked at as untrustworthy because of the actions of another person. That really didn't seem fair to me.

  "You're mad," he said quietly.

  I shook my head and looked everywhere but at him, and ended up looking at the other end of the room.

  The dirt was smooth and a rich, dark brown color.

  I stumbled back and connected with a warm body. Julian wrapped his arms around me and held me close to him. His lips brushed my ear as I stared, transfixed, at the dirt where Vivian's body had been buried. My mind flashed back to the bathroom and watching her head bounce off of the countertop before falling to the floor, where blood oozed out of her head. It was an image that would forever be burned into my brain, because it was one of the most horrible things I'd ever seen. I had a whole list of horrible things I'd seen now, and that was only one of them. Like Chuck, another horrible memory I'd never be rid of.

  I shuddered violently and Julian held on tighter. His heat surrounded me protectively, but it did nothing to calm down my nerves.

  "Did anyone tell you about the dirt?" he asked in a hushed voice.

  I shook my head in the negative, too upset to speak. I wasn't surprised to hear something had been kept from me about this room, because the boys avoided saying anything about Vivian's death if possible.

  "It's magic," he whispered. "It's been this way for years. It's something Quinton's father and Ty's grandfather taught Quinton. It's considered black magic and is forbidden to be used by the Council. Quinton's father studied everything, no matter it was forbidden or not, he thought he was better than everyone else. He also forced Quinton to learn everything along with him. Sometimes he would even experiment on Quinton to see how well things worked out."

  My chest hurt from hearing this news. We were all so damaged by the people who were supposed to protect and love us the most. It was painful to hear about anyone's past, because I cared so much about them that it almost physically hurt me to know how they'd suffered.

  "The bodies act as a fertilizer, enriching the earth," he whispered and I gagged.

  Did he say bodies, as in plural? Just how many people had they buried down here? That was a scary thought.

  "Bodies?" I choked out.

  I felt him shrug his shoulders nonchalantly and my body shuddered again for an entirely different reason this time.

  "Who else have you buried down here?" I asked in a horrified voice. "How's there... I mean..." I stuttered to a stop, unable to get the words out.

  "There are no bodies," he told me. "It's magic. The bodies are swallowed up in the dirt. It's all very complicated. And, as for how many of them there have been, well, that's a question for Quinton, because I think he's the only one who'd know the exact number."

  My mind raced over his words.

  "Does that mean... So, she's not even down here anymore?" I inquired in small voice. She had to be down here, it was the only thing that made sense to me.

  "Nope," he said in a far too happy for my mood voice. "She hasn't actually been here for quite some time. You should feel absolutely safe in staying here from now on, because she's not here to hurt you."

  Honestly, that didn't make me feel safe staying here in the slightest bit. I eyed the dirt floor critically. No, that actually made things a whole lot worse for
me, in a way.

  I took that as my cue to leave and he didn't look surprised when I practically ran from the room after hugging him goodbye. In fact, he almost looked like he was trying not to laugh at me.

  I didn't ever want to go back down into that basement again, and I knew I'd have dreams—or more like nightmares—about tripping down there and falling into the dirt. It would suck me under and I’d choke to death on dirt that would somehow magically eat me. I had the worst luck ever sometimes, it could happen. If I had nightmares I was going to blame them entirely on Julian.

  On the way home, I picked up a phone call from an apologetic Quinton who felt badly for interrupting my time with Marcus, but still felt the need to ask me what the lunch date had been about.

  I lied to him without remorse, and thanks to Julian's magical brew he didn't question me once and bought the whole thing. I hung up feeling smug but worried. I had no idea how long the stuff would stay in my system for and probably should have asked.

  I guess there were worse things to worry about than lying to people and getting away with it. I didn't usually make a habit out of lying so I didn't think I really had anything to worry too much about.

  Chapter Five

  I screamed as I dropped down, the air rushing past me. My arms pinwheeled out uselessly at my sides, doing me no good.

  The breath left my lungs in a rush as my back slammed into the ground, and for a moment I felt absolutely nothing. There was no pain, nothing but shock.

  When I was finally able to suck air into my lungs, the pain hit me full force. I whimpered as I rolled over onto my side and hauled my knees up to my chest. I wrapped my arms around my legs and clutched them tightly.

  I squeezed my eyes shut and focused solely on breathing. After a few minutes of just breathing, the pain receded and I could feel something else.