I’m too busy looking at her to realise exactly what she said, at first. Then it clicks and I breathe out a gasp and open my eyes. I dart into the other room and Asher comes straight to me.
“What is it?”
“Raven has Nick. We need to get the address from Eli.”
I watch as he quickly takes out his cell and makes the call. He shakes his head after a minute and puts the phone down. “Going straight to voicemail. I’ll try calling Logan.”
Ugh, this sucks ass. I can’t believe we’re just waiting around like this. I find the only pair of sensible shoes I brought on this trip, plain black flats, and slip them on. I’m ready to move, and I need Asher to be too.
“He’s not answering,” Asher tells me, as I head toward the door. “What are you doing?”
“I’m telling security to get the limo ready. We need to leave right away.”
“We don’t even know where we’re going yet.”
“I’ll call Skyler. She must know where to find Raven. Even if she doesn’t she can get the information out of her manager.” I curse at the tiny amount of battery I have left, before opening the door to request the limo. When I close it, I plug my cell into the charger before I make the call. It rings, and rings, and rings. I start tapping my foot off the floor. If Skyler doesn’t answer, I can call Ari. If she doesn’t, I can...
“Hey, Eden, what’s up?”
“Um, weird request but can you text me Raven’s home address?”
“Her what now?” Sky sounds confused. “I don’t even know her real name. Why would I know where she lives? You’re seriously interrupting my date night to ask me where a bitchy guitarist lives?”
“She’s also a Dark Forces Goddess, Sky.”
“Shit, yeah. That’s right. Sorry.”
“How fast can you find out?”
“Why? What’s going on?”
Ugh. She’s as infuriating as Cupid, sometimes.
“She has Nick, and she used compulsion to get Logan to go to her place too. I need to know where to look, and I need the info yesterday.”
“Oh. Shit. Okay, then. I’ll call Henry and get her address.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll send it over as soon as I have it.”
She hangs up and I feel a little better. We have a plan. We’re moving. Security tell us the limo is ready. Asher takes my hand and we leave the hotel. Every nerve-ending on my body feels tensed. I know what this feeling is. I’m getting ready for a showdown.
Chapter Sixty-Two
Logan
I don’t like this. I walk up the steps to the apartment block and everything feels wrong. This isn’t where a rich rock star would live. This is a fucking hovel.
What did I expect, right? I already knew it was a trap. The bad feeling doesn’t leave as I find the right door and knock it.
There’s a girl in the corridor, pretending to be looking out the window into the street. She keeps glancing over at me. Hollow stare, rail-thin. Junkie, for sure. Probably trying to decide if she can offer her services without being arrested. Barely looks sixteen. It’s a fucking sin, but this is the dark side of every major city. The ugly truth.
There are footsteps from within before the door opens. The blue-haired Goddess looks me over, unimpressed. “Took you long enough.”
I shrug. “You didn’t specify a time.”
She opens the door wide. “Come in.”
It’s a command. The trap has been sprung. Dread fills me. I’m counting on a guy I hated a few days ago to have my back here. Hell only knows what’s about to happen.
“What do you want?” I ask as I follow her down a dark, damp-smelling corridor.
“What does any girl want, bodyguard?” She glances back at me, an impish smile on her face.
“A life without fear?” I answer dryly.
She laughs as she takes my hand and leads me into a bedroom. It takes my eyes a second to adjust, and then she switches on the light. I blink. Someone’s tied to the bed. No, chained.
Nick Levine. He’s scowling at me, the asshole.
“No, Logan, fear is a necessary evil,” Raven says, glancing out into the hall. “Laney!”
The junkie girl from the hallway comes scuttling into the room. “Yes, Raven?”
“Bring me Elise.”
The girl dashes off and Raven turns her stare back on me.
“What every girl really wants is to be the baddest bitch around,” Raven tells me. “But there can only be one of us, and I’m her.”
I think of every fucked up thing that’s happened to me in the last couple of weeks and I can’t hold back the laughter at Raven’s bold claim.
She grabs my arms and stares me down. “You think you’ve been through hell? You’ve only tasted the ashes. I’m about to throw you into the fire.” She glances at Nick. “You can both burn at the same time.”
I don’t know what she’s talking about, but when Laney brings a sickly looking young woman into the room, my heart sinks down into my stomach. Whatever this bitch has planned, it’s not going to be pleasant. Not for any of us.
“Leave us, Laney.”
The girl rushes out, causing the woman she dragged in to collapse to the floor.
Raven smirks at me. “Help her up, boy scout.”
“Let her go, Raven,” Nick says, finally finding his tongue. “She’s done nothing to you.”
I help the woman to her feet but she’s so weak she can’t stand on her own. She leans against me, groaning lightly as I keep her steady. “Who is she?”
Raven laughs. “Oh, I knew you were going to be a delight, Logan. I knew the moment you chased me out to that fire exit. She’s the only mortal woman Nick has ever had real feelings for. And you’re going to do awful things to her in front of him before you kill her for me.”
So that’s her plan. Command me to hurt someone Nick loves. I can think of only one reason for that. She knows more than any of us expected.
“You leave her the fuck alone, Logan,” Nick fumes at me, rattling at his restraints.
“I don’t intend to hurt her.”
“Such strong morals,” Raven whispers in my ear. “I’ll break you of those soon enough.”
“Cut me loose, you fucking coward,” Nick snarls at her.
“Now, Logan, I want you to lay dear sweet Elise down on the bottom of the bed.” Raven begins her commands.
I resist to be sure that I can. It hurts like hell, but I can ignore her commands. I put Elise down anyway, because she’s weak and she needs the rest. Raven smirks at Nick.
His frustrated gaze is on me now. “Don’t fucking do it.” He shakes his head. “If you hurt her, I’ll kill you.”
I ignore him. I’m not going to obey whatever twisted commands Raven gives me now. I only make sure the woman is comfortable. Her eyes close and I hear her sigh, as I move back from the bed.
Raven touches my shoulder. “Now, I need you to close your eyes Logan and think of Eden. She wants you in her life again, in her bed. She’s welcoming you with open arms. Go to her Logan. Consummate.”
I don’t know what in the holy fuck Raven does to me when she touches my arm, but a vibrant image of Eden laying before me is pushed though my thoughts. It’s the way she looked laying under me in the back of that car, her gaze heated and her body welcoming. I know it’s trickery but right in that moment I don’t know why. All I can see and feel is Eden. I want her so damned badly. She was always supposed to be mine. Always.
“Yes, Logan. She’s yours. Take her.”
“No!” Nick shouts, breaking through Raven’s spell. “She’s trying to force you to rape Elise.”
I snap out of it, opening my eyes. I pull away from her. Nick’s right. That’s exactly what Raven was doing. I see it now. I understand.
“She’s trying to make sure I never become Eden’s fourth.” I hope Nick understands what I’m telling him, because he’s the only one left to accept me. Assuming Asher and Eli were right that Eden still loves me.
Raven grabs my arms. “Close your eyes, Logan. You have to fuck Eden, or she’ll never be yours.”
Her will swells and flows through me. I work to ignore it but my eyes close tightly after several painful moments. The vision of Eden returns.
“Fuck her, Logan. Make her yours.”
Chapter Sixty-Three
Eli
I watch Logan enter the scummy apartment block. I realised it when we were entering a bad neighbourhood, but I didn’t expect it to be our final destination. I check my phone while I’m waiting and discover a missed call from Asher.
Glancing around, I call him back. He picks up in two rings. “Eli, where the hell are you?”
“I’m outside a shitty apartment block, giving Logan a few minutes before I follow him.”
“We need the address,” Asher says. “She has Nick too. This whole thing must have been planned to make sure Logan doesn’t become Eden’s fourth.”
“Shit. Okay, I’m sending you the address and I’m heading inside. Fair warning, it’s a bad neighbourhood.” I hang up and take a picture of the card with the address, sending it to Asher as I rush up the stairs to enter the building. I put my phone back in my pocket and draw my gun.
Who the hell knows what I’m going to find in the apartment? I need to be ready for anything.
I find the apartment and frown at the kid hanging around outside. She frowns at me as I grab the door handle. “Are you a cop?”
“That’s not your business. Go home, kid.” I walk inside and close the door behind me as quietly as possible. I can hear talking up ahead, in one of the rooms. I walk slowly down the hall, checking each room as I go. I hear Nick swearing under his breath and walk into the room, pointing my gun at Raven, who’s behind Logan, whispering as he stands tensed, his face screwed up as if he’s in pain.
“Let him go.” I call out, over the noise of Nick’s panic and the strange whispering Raven’s doing.
“Eli!” Nick cries out. “Get me out of these fucking cuffs. We need to get Elise out of here.”
I glance his way, and notice the pale, sleeping woman on the bed. “Elise?”
I shake my head. “Nick, we need to take care of Raven first.”
“So fucking shoot her already.”
He’s wound up, clearly. I move in closer, but I still don’t have a clear shot.
“What’s she doing to him?”
“She’s trying to force him to hurt her,” he says, a sob escaping him. “We have to get her out of here.”
“He’s fighting her commands. Nick, you need to calm down. He’s not going to do it.” As much as this doesn’t feel like the time, there’s one sure-fire way to stop Raven’s commands from working on Logan. “She’s doing this to stop Logan from becoming confirmed as Eden’s fourth. She’s doing this to hurt Eden. You can stop this, Nick.”
He stares at me. “What? How?”
“Asher and I forgave him. We accepted him as her fourth.”
“What?” He sounds like he doesn’t understand. Maybe he doesn’t. He’s been through some shit to wind up here.
“Why don’t you want him to be Eden’s fourth?”
“I just don’t.” He shakes his head. “He’s an asshole. What does that have to do with any of this?”
I don’t think we have time for a long conversation, so I move close enough to touch his arm and let everything he missed flood into him. He gasps as he sees it all. When the light fades, he still seems uncertain.
“It’s what Eden wants?”
“It is.”
He nods. “Okay. Fuck. Okay, I forgive him. Everything’s water under the bridge. Did you hear that, Logan? You can be Eden’s fourth.” The panic in his voice rises as he spits the words out.
I watch as Logan’s face contorts, as Raven’s laughter fills the room.
“Oh, boy,” she says, before Logan’s tortured roar fills the room. “Talk about too little, too late.”
Logan falls to his knees, screaming. I take aim at Raven. If one thing can stop this, it’s a bullet. It won’t kill her, but it’ll knock her the hell out, and maybe that’s all it’ll take to break her hold on Logan. I fire as her lips twist into a devious smirk. The bullet hits its mark, her heart, and she falls to the ground. Logan’s scream cuts out as he drops to the ground in front of her.
I check the pulse of the girl on the bed. Weak, but steady. Then I holster my weapon and move around the bed to check on Logan.
“Get the key before she wakes back up,” Nick says. “We need to get Elise the fuck out of here.”
“She has it on her?” I ask, relieved when I see Logan’s out cold, not dead.
“Christ, I hope so.” Nick has his eyes closed as I move to her side, looking for pockets in her outfit.
Takes a little time to find a key, but when I do it looks like it might be the right kind. I move quickly to Nick’s side and undo his restraints. He breathes a ragged sigh of relief as he rubs at his wrists and gets up from the bed. “Fuck. I don’t know what she did with my clothes.”
He looks around as I go back to Raven’s side and check her wound. Still bleeding. The expression on her face is peaceful. She looks like she’s sleeping. But she’s not breathing.
“How fast should she be healing?” And why the hell did Logan pass out when she died?
Nick shrugs when I glance his way. He’s starting to tear the room apart, presumably to find his clothes. “I have no idea. I know Asher takes like half a day to come back, but Goddesses are probably different.”
“Eli?” Eden’s worried voice carries down the hall, echoing.
“We’re in here,” I call back, going to the doorway.
She rushes toward me, panic in her eyes. “You said, we?”
“I’m not naked by choice,” Nick tells her as she enters the room, Asher right behind.
“I shot Raven, but she was inside Logan’s head. She was forcing her will on him. He was fighting it. He passed out when she died.” I explain, hoping Eden will have some insight on what it means that Logan is out cold.
Eden rushes to Logan’s side and touches her fingers to his head. I see the white-gold glow of her Goddess light flare as she fixes her worried stare on his slack face.
“Finally,” Nick says.
I turn to see him pulling on his jeans. Asher’s raising an eyebrow at him as he buttons them up.
“Don’t even start,” Nick tells him.
“I didn’t say a word.”
I turn back to Eden as she purses her lips and straightens. “Raven has a grip on him. They were locked in a battle of wills. I don’t think anything can be done to break it until she comes back to life.”
She moves to look at Raven, hesitating before touching her hand over the wound. When she steps back this time, she looks confused.
“What is it?” Something’s wrong. My heart sinks as I realise it.
“She should be healing. I don’t know why she’s not.” She folds her arms as we look down at her.
I did the wrong thing. I shouldn’t have shot her. “What do we do now?”
Eden hesitates for a moment before speaking. “We need to get everyone back to the hotel. It’s not safe here.”
Chapter Sixty-Four
Eden
The limo is full on the trip back to the hotel, and our group is solemn. Asher laid Logan between me and Eli, his head resting on my lap and his knees bent with his legs over Eli’s lap. I hold him close and keep my touch on his skin knowing it’s doing nothing to help him, but needing to just feel like I’m doing something. He may never be mine, but I’ll always love him.
I was able to heal a part of Elise with my touch. Her heart was heavy, but it didn’t need to be. She’s got a long road to recovery ahead, and I’ll help her as much as I can. I saw what Nick means to her, and I saw what she means to him. Her head rests on his shoulder a
s her dazed stare drifts silently around the car. She was so lost. It pains me how easily Raven used her, knowing how much it was harming her.
Asher is sitting with the body, his expression grim. He shakes his head when I catch his eye. She hasn’t come back yet. I don’t know what that means, but I don’t really want to have to use my Goddess powers to conceal bringing a dead body into the hotel.
Cupid, where the hell are you? I call out to him in my head. This is definitely a situation that warrants his so called expertise. I doubt he’ll come. He never does when I actually call for him. I wait patiently anyway, hoping. Because the truth is, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing now, beyond moving a dead body, a comatose man and a sick girl up to my hotel room to wait for answers.
Ugh. This situation is out of control.
“Almost at the hotel,” Asher murmurs, after gazing out of the window.
“Tell the driver we need to go in the back way,” I say, doubting it’ll help.
I just don’t like the thought of dragging these three past a group of civilians and having to compel them all to forget it. A few staff members I can handle. A lobby full of hotel guests, not so much.
Asher nods and leans in to tell the driver what to do. The driver thinks Raven’s had too much to drink. Her coat covers her wound. I’ll have to compel him to forget this later too.
“He’s going around back. He’ll have the security team escort us.”
I nod, nerves filling me. I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing. I only know I need to deal with Raven to save Logan. If I have to wait in the room for days for her to revive, I will. I’ll do whatever it takes. Even though the waiting feels like it might kill me.
We get up to the room, and I make quick work of taking the memories of the security who got us inside. Then we’re all alone inside the suite, and it feels like we’re waiting for a bomb to drop.
Logan’s been laid down on one couch, Raven’s on the coffee table, and Elise has been moved to the bedroom to recuperate alone. Nick is talking quietly to her.
Asher and Eli are watching Raven. She’s still deathly pale and motionless. I hear the same question cross their minds at virtually the same time. What if she doesn’t come back?
Bad Blood (Rock Goddess Reverse Harem Book 5) Page 18