I glanced over my shoulder but Belial was gone and as the doors shut behind me, I couldn’t help the disappointment that welled in my breast.
9
The apartment was quiet when I made it inside the door and I was glad for small mercies. As much as I loved Ivy like a sister, I really wasn’t ready to answer the inevitable million and one questions she would have for me.
Crossing the small living area, I pushed open my bedroom door and slammed it shut behind me, pressing my back against the flimsy wooden door as I closed my eyes.
I’d made it home.
Silence closed in around me, practically suffocating me with the stillness. Opening my eyes, I pushed away from the door and dropped my bag onto the bed, before I started to strip out of my clothes. Heading for the bathroom, I clicked on the overhead light and stared at my reflection in the mirror over the sink, shock rooting me to the spot.
I had a mass of purple and black bruising that trailed down one side of my face and onto my neck. My chest and arms were decorated with scratches and even more bruises and when I turned to the side, I caught sight of the black and blue bruises that decorated the skin of my back.
I looked like I’d been in a car accident.
You look like someone who was attacked. The voice I’d been desperately trying to ignore piped up. Tears gathered in the corners of my eyes as the realisation of just how close I’d come to biting the bullet sank in.
Dashing away the tears that had fallen onto my cheeks, with the back of my hand, I tore my gaze from my reflection. My face was pale, my eyes a little too wide, my expression a little too haunted for my liking. I hadn’t looked this vulnerable in years and I’d sworn once was enough.
Swinging open the shower door, it cracked back against the wall with the force of my violence. The sound echoed in the silence, reminding me that I was definitely alone. It surprised me, Ivy was normally back from college, singing her way around the apartment as she prepared for her evening shift down the local coffee shop.
Stepping into the shower, I flipped the water on and shivered as the initial icy blast hit my skin. The shock of water stole my breath and froze my thoughts in my head, dragging up the memory of the night before. The terror as the water had closed over my head. The feel of the creature’s clawed hand on my leg. The warm red glow of its eyes before I’d driven the spike through its head.
The water rapidly began to heat up and I stayed beneath the spray, pressing my forehead against the off-white tiles as it slowly warmed me. I pushed the memory away. It was far too crazy to be real. Deep down I knew I was lying to myself but here beneath the warm spray of water it felt better to lie, like maybe if I stayed here long enough the lies would become the truth.
Scrubbing my hair clean with my floral scented shampoo, I tentatively lathered my skin with shower gel. Despite how they looked, the bruises didn’t really hurt. At least I could be grateful for small mercies.
I waited until the water started to cool before I switched the showerhead off and reluctantly wrapped myself in a towel and stepped out into the bathroom. My stomach rumbled loudly but I ignored it, my hunger could wait. All I really wanted to do was climb beneath the covers and sleep for a week.
The air felt cold as I pulled open the bathroom door and I darted across the plain grey carpet. I dragged an oversized t-shirt on over my head and slipped beneath the purple bedclothes. The moment my head hit the pillow I felt my exhaustion slowly over take me and I didn’t fight it.
I was home and I was safe. But I didn’t really feel that way.
Instead, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d left little pieces of myself behind with Azael and Belial. That with them was where I truly belonged. That in their arms I would find the home I’d been looking for.
Pushing the thought aside, I closed my eyes and let sleep wash over me. Even if my thoughts betrayed me while I was asleep it couldn’t exactly get me into trouble.
The sound of laughter woke me. My heart thudded in my chest, the darkness surrounding me enveloping me and making it impossible for me to figure out just where I was.
Shifting onto my side, I felt the familiar press of my blankets and the bed creaked noisily.
The laughter came again and I recognised it immediately as Ivy. There were murmured voices on the other side of the wall. Clearly she wasn’t alone.
Footsteps padding down the hall toward my room were quickly followed by a gently knocking on the door.
“Yeah,” I said, poking my head out from beneath the blankets.
Ivy pushed the door open and stood framed in the light from the hall, her dark hair fell about her shoulders in waves and judging by the wide grin she wore and the glassy look in her eyes she’d been out on the town.
“We’re not keeping you awake?” She asked, rocking gently on her heels, making it look as though she was standing on the deck of a boat and not on my grey carpet.
“No, it’s fine,” I said, my voice muffled beneath the blankets.
“I missed you,” she said. “Feels like you’ve been gone ages.” I crossed my fingers hoping against hope that she wouldn’t question me on my whereabouts. “You didn’t hook up with Riley again?”
“No,” I said and without waiting for me to finish she nodded emphatically.
“Good, he’s a jerk…” She rocked backwards and turned her head as though someone was calling her. “Ok, then,” she said. “Goodnight…”
She pulled the door shut with a jerk and I couldn’t help but smile. Clearly whoever she’d brought home was far more interesting than I could ever be.
The sound of giggling and something hitting the floor with a loud thud had me ducking back beneath the covers once more. The last thing I wanted to do was listen to Ivy enjoy herself.
Pulling the pillow over my head, I closed my eyes and waited for sleep to claim me once more.
Drifting in and out of wakefulness, I wasn’t sure how much time passed but the familiar click of my bedroom door was enough to bring me fully awake. Lying beneath the covers I held my breath and waited for Ivy to say something.
Silence flowed in around me in the bed. The hairs on the back of my neck slowly stood to attention and I couldn’t help but feel as though someone was standing in the doorway watching me.
Releasing my breath, I pushed the covers back and peered out from beneath the pillow.
“Ivy, what do you want, I—”
The guy stood in the door, his golden eyed gaze instantly recognisable, and my heart took off at a gallop.
He let out a low hiss, the sound escaping from between his teeth as he stepped into the room, deliberately moving slowly as though he was savouring the moment as he shut the door behind him once more, trapping me in the room with him. I pushed up in the bed, and rolled over the opposite side, my hands easily finding the baseball bat I kept beside the bed.
“If you fight, I will kill her,” he said his voice utterly calm but his words were enough to send my mind into overdrive.
Ivy. He was talking about Ivy.
“What have you done with her?” I asked, fighting to keep my voice even.
“She’ll wake up with a sore head in the morning and no memory of me. But if you make this hard for me, I’ll drag you in there and make you watch as I gut her…”
He paused as though giving me time for his words to sink in. “Put the bat down,” he said, and my heart sank.
“You’re going to kill me,” I said, knowing the truth even as the words left my mouth.
“You have to die, all abominations must,” he said. It was probably just the panic swirling in my head but I could have sworn I’d heard regret in his voice.
“You don’t have to do this. You could just walk away, I swear I won’t tell anyone,” I said flexing my numb fingers on the handle of the bat.
He was stronger than I was, faster, and even if I got lucky and managed to slow him down, I knew it wouldn’t last long. Even as I stared at him in the dark, I couldn’t help but remember the way
he’d changed form, growing in size. And when I’d hit him with the bottle, hard enough to knock out most everyone else, he’d healed almost instantly.
But I wasn’t the type to just give up either.
“Surrender now and I will make it painless,” he said, taking a step toward me.
Tightening my grip on the bat, I shook my head and fought to swallow the bile that was crawling up the back of my throat. He sighed and dropped his gaze to the bed.
Time seemed to slow down and I watched as his shoulders tightened just before he sprang up onto the bed. He moved fast enough that it took my brain precious seconds to catch up with what was happening. By the time it did, he was already half way across the covers toward me.
I let fly with my weapon, aiming low for his knees and the satisfying crunch as the heavy metal bat struck his legs brought me small comfort. His legs collapsed out from beneath him as he let out a long roar that practically shook the paper-thin walls of the apartment.
But the blow hadn’t been enough to stop him and he crashed into me. His body slamming into mine as his momentum carried me backwards to the wall. The world tilted violently before going black as my head bounced off the thin plasterboard wall next to the window and by the time I regained my senses I was on the floor and he was sitting astride my chest.
Reaching out toward the bat that had fallen from my grip, I scrabbled at the carpet in a poor attempt to reach it. He pressed his knee onto the crook of my elbow, grinding my outstretched arm into the grey carpet. I bit down on the scream that threatened to bubble up out of my mouth as he pulled a knife from inside his jacket. The pearly hilt glinted in the half-light that filtered through the gap in the curtain but it was the razor sharp edge on the silver blade that turned the blood in my veins to ice.
“I’m sorry,” he said, and there was genuine sorrow in his voice, which took me by surprise.
“Why?” I asked, as I stared up into his golden eyes. They were beautiful. Beautiful and deadly, like everything else about him.
“Why what?”
“Why are you doing this? What have I ever done to you?”
He shifted slightly drawing a small whimper from me as his weight pressed my body down into the floor.
“Because your kind would mean the end of everything,” he said, as he lifted the blade. “Close your eyes.” I was surprised to hear kindness in his voice.
“No.” I caught his gaze as I spoke and something passed between us. A sort of thread connecting us and I could feel him caught on the end of it. He’d begun to bring the blade down toward my heart but as soon as the thread hooked into him he froze. His hand holding the blade hovered just above my body.
I could feel him, fighting whatever it was that I’d done to him.
Touch him. The voice in the back of my mind piped up and without needing to be told twice, I grabbed his arm. The thread between us strengthened, growing with each breath I took until it felt as though thousands of threads connected us.
I’d never experienced anything like it but I could feel the strain of him fighting and I knew whatever I was doing, I wouldn’t be able to hold him for much longer.
“Maqatu,” I said. The word popped into my head and I uttered it without thinking about it or what it meant. The unfamiliar word felt wrong in my mouth but I could sense the power of it all the same.
The man above me shook his head and gritted his teeth, his eyes rolling in his head until all I could see were the whites. My hand shook and sweat beaded on my skin as I continued to hold him.
“Maqatu,” I said again, this time more forcefully.
“No,” he growled, the word sounded as though it was ripped from his throat rather than spoken.
Releasing my hold on his arm, the knife poised above my heart quivered in his grip as I reached up to his face and cupped his cheek. His golden eyes met mine once more and the terror I saw there sent a jolt of shock coursing through my veins.
“Maqatu,” I said again, my voice little more than a whisper.
Something swelled inside me, spreading through my veins until my body felt as though it might burst. My skin felt electrified and everywhere my attacker’s body touched mine the heat between us intensified.
“You have damned me,” he said before he threw his head back and let out a long ragged roar.
The air was heavy and power coursed through my body and over my skin as I stared up at him. He arched his back and cried out again as though his spine was being ripped out through his body.
The air popped and he dropped his gaze to mine once more but what I saw reflected in his eyes did nothing to allay my fears. He folded over me, the blade still in his hands.
He fell toward me and I closed my eyes, cringing to the side as I prepared for the pain of the knife. The dull metallic sound of the blade slamming into the floor next to my head had me open my eyes once more and I stared at the knife embedded in the carpet.
The man above me trailed his hand down over the side of my face, his eyes filled with hunger and lust that tightened things low in my body. It was insane but there was a part of me, a pretty big part of me that desperately wanted to wrap myself around him and taste his lips.
“I am yours,” he said. “Everything I am, for eternity.”
Power slammed into me, stealing my breath and I arched up toward him.
A loud growl ripped the air and the weight of the man above me suddenly disappeared.
I scrambled back toward the bed as the curtains were ripped from the windows. The streetlights flooded the room, illuminating the two men who were locked in each other’s embrace. If you could call the headlock Belial had the stranger in an embrace.
“Harper, run,” he said, grunting with the effort of holding the other man in his grip.
But I was tired of always being told what to do and instead of listening to him, I bent down and retrieved the knife from where the stranger had stabbed it into the carpet. Pushing up onto unsteady legs, I kept my grip on the knife firm as I met Belial’s gaze.
“I’m done running,” I said.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” the stranger said, his voice half strangled by Belial’s tight hold on his throat.
“You tried to kill me,” I said, shivering at the memory of the look in his eyes when he’d tried to plunge the blade into my heart.
“That was before,” he said.
“Before what?” Belial asked, switching his hold on the stranger in the blink of an eye. He wrapped his hand around the other man’s throat and drove him back into the wall, the plaster cracking with the force of the blow. After everything that had happened, there was no way I was going to get my security deposit back if I tried to move out.
“I am fallen,” the stranger said, meeting Belial’s disbelieving look head on.
“You can’t be,” Belial said. “The Brotherhood hasn’t had a new member in centuries.”
I stared at the two men. Despite hearing their words clearly, they may as well have been speaking in tongues for all the sense they were making. And Belial’s casual use of the word centuries as though he were talking of days, or even months did nothing to slow the headache that was beginning to build behind my eyes.
“And even if you are, then you know why I cannot let you go,” Belial said.
“How do you ignore her call?” The stranger said, before he glanced over in my direction. There was a heat to his gaze that penetrated through to my very core. And something within him called to me, begged me, for release…
It suddenly hit me then, what would I have done if Belial hadn’t come in when he had?
The thought was enough to cause heat to spread up across my face and into my hairline. It would be so easy to go to them both and… An image of the three of us naked and writhing flooded into my head. It was so real I could feel the press of their mouths against my bare flesh. The feel of their teeth. The way their fingers dug in as they gripped me between them, holding me as they moved against me, in me.
I cut my thou
ghts off with a violent shake of my head.
What was wrong with me?
The one thing I knew for certain was that this wasn’t me.
And yet, for the first time in my life I finally felt as though I was getting to know my true self. My desires and wants.
My needs.
Biting down on my lip hard enough that the metallic tang of blood filled my mouth, I let a low moan trickle from me.
Give in; it’s as easy as breathing… Claim them… The voice in my head urged me on and instead I backed up until my legs hit the edge of the bed.
“What’s wrong with me?” I asked, fear pushing back the white-hot desire I felt for the men before me.
“How can she not know?” The stranger asked, directing his question to Belial.
“We don’t know but the longer she remains in the dark, the more dangerous it’s going to get. For us all,” Belial said.
“What don’t I know?” I begged, my voice hoarse with unshed tears.
As though responding to the despair I felt the stranger growled, the sound coming from low in his chest and he shook his head violently.
“You need to get her out of here,” he said, his voice growing lower, reverberating with power.
“You can control this,” Belial said, gritting his teeth and I could suddenly see the bulge of his muscles against his t-shirt as he strained to hold the man in place.
“She’s panicking, I can taste her despair, her need, it calls to me,” he said with a groan as he fought Belial a little harder. “Take her from here before it’s too late.”
Belial moved like a blur. One moment he was holding the stranger against the wall and the next I was in his arms, pressed to his chest as he carried me toward the window. The stranger roared, the sound bouncing around the paper-thin walls as he started to shed his human form.
Belial didn’t wait for the stranger to finish changing form.
“What are you doing?” I said, as he ran toward the window.
He didn’t answer and I fought his grip as he turned suddenly and threw himself against the glass.
Fallen Angel: An Urban Fantasy Reverse Harem Bully Romance (Dark Hearts Academy Book 1) Page 6