Darkest Temptation

by Rachel Van Dyken

  The light burst through my eyes. What had just been darkness turned to a bright shining sun as heat enveloped my body. I lunged for my mother.

  My father held me back.

  I was two.

  I saw blood red.

  I felt their pulses.

  I felt their hearts.

  I wanted to rip them out with my teeth.

  “Son!” Father held onto me so tight my lungs burned. “You must control the lust.”

  I screamed. I fought him.

  I just wanted.

  “Son, if you do not control yourself, you will kill everyone you love. You will destroy your life before it even begins. You must learn self-control.”

  I understood the words.

  Werewolves talked at one year old.

  At two, we were expected to hunt.

  I gave my head a shake.

  A thundering sound pounded my ears, and I covered them with my hands and screamed as the archangel Sariel swept into the tent.

  He eyed both of my parents.

  And finally me.

  “He is no longer your son.” Sariel’s eyes went white. “He is other. If he stays, he will kill you.” He jerked his attention to me. “What do you hear?”

  “B-blood!” I raged.

  He pressed a hand to my forehead. “And now?”

  “Sleepy.” I yawned.

  He picked me up into his arms and gave my parents one last look. “Your punishment for what you have done. You will stay in this state until he makes his choice.”

  “My baby!” Maither wailed. “Give him back!”

  “Silence!” Sariel waved his hands, and immediately no words came from her still-moving mouth. “You know the cost of creating.”

  “He is ours.” Dad stood to his full height. “We made a pact to—”

  “I know exactly what you have done!” Sariel roared. “You have taken matters into your own hands because you lack trust. Therefore, I will take what is most important to you before you suffer the consequences of his blood.”

  I didn’t understand.

  I didn’t want to.

  What did they do to me?

  I felt normal.

  Except for the burning in my lungs… the parched feeling in my mouth…

  As Sariel carried me away, I saw tears fill my mother’s eyes. All I kept thinking was that I would never see them again. I would never know love again.

  My mom ran after Sariel and handed him a pouch.

  Inside were berries and pinecones.

  “We will meet again.” Dad nodded to me. “Be well, son.”

  My vision faltered.

  It was my last memory of my parents together.

  Of Scotland the way it used to be, with both of them smiling down at me.

  Of the large castle and the grounds around it where vampires and immortals lived and protected one another.

  I gasped for air just as the music stopped, and the show started to play before my eyes.

  It was painful to see the scenery. I could almost smell the heather.

  I looked away. “Turn it off.”

  Serenity frowned. “But it just started—”

  “I said turn it off!” I jumped to my feet and kicked the coffee table over; the glass fell to the ground with a shatter as tiny droplets of blood spread themselves wide over the hardwood.

  I sucked in a heavy breath as Serenity froze next to me.

  I could have sworn the world tilted on its axis as I eyed the three drops, not even enough to make a mess; one swipe of a cloth would cause them to disappear, it was a downward spiral, the way three drops tempted me more than the glass of blood.

  Weak.

  I was so weak.

  I rocked back on my heels just as Serenity stood. “I’ll clean up.”

  My wolf howled with outrage.

  That was what I called it.

  Because I refused to believe that there was something else lurking inside my body, begging to break free.

  I was bad.

  A monster.

  My own mate had told me I was too heavy to lie on her after I’d licked her dry, after I’d pleasured her.

  If someone who loved me was afraid of me, of the way I looked in the steamy throes of sex, of the way my fangs pointed differently than others of my kind, of the way I asked if I could bite her — begged her even…

  Then where did that leave Serenity?

  A stranger.

  Where did that leave me and my place in the world?

  I punished myself well for my monsters.

  I just never realized there would come a day when they wouldn’t recede, when they wouldn’t listen — when I suddenly wouldn’t care if they broke free and destroyed me and everyone else around me.

  The longer I stayed in that spot…

  Staring at that blood…

  The longer I thirsted beyond all reason.

  And the longer I wanted to lick the blood dry then turn my attention three inches down Serenity’s neck where her pulse sang.

  “Mason…” My name fell like a whisper from her lips. “…calm down.”

  “Never—” I clenched my hands into fists as claws started breaking through my skin. “—tell a wolf to calm down when he is angry.”

  She pressed a hand to my shoulder.

  I didn’t jerk away. My body instantly calmed. I frowned down at the blood. “How did you do that?”

  “Do what?”

  “Make it go away?”

  “I don’t understand?” She moved her hand.

  The rage returned.

  Adrenaline pumped through my system.

  Run. I need to run.

  Before I could think any more about the blood, about her touch, about what any of it meant, I turned on my heel and ran out of the house.

  Through the trees.

  Picking up speed.

  Until my wolf broke free.

  Until I shed my human skin like one would a Halloween costume and morphed into a wolf that was the size of a small Honda.

  I knew what people saw when they viewed my transformation. A black wolf with dark eyes and huge teeth.

  I made my way to the river and leaned over to drink my fill.

  Only, when I saw my own reflection, I did a double take.

  My fur.

  It was not black.

  It was blood red.

  My eyes black.

  And as if seeing a stranger for the first time, my wolf-self smiled with a secret.

  Dread threatened to overtake me.

  I was not in control of myself.

  I tried to stop smiling.

  I told myself to look away.

  I lost.

  SERENITY

  I didn’t think anything of it when Mason didn’t return right away.

  But after five hours, I started to get worried.

  It didn’t help that it was getting dark, and I was in a strange house all by myself. A house where I wasn’t sure I could stay hidden and or protected from whatever had tried to kill me the other night.

  The more I thought about it the more I pulled the blanket closer to my body, tempted to throw it over my head as if it could make me invisible.

  The clock struck ten, nearly sending me off the couch in a fit of fear. I was a vampire, for crying out loud.

  I could hold my own.

  I just didn’t want to have to.

  And I wasn’t exactly in the best practice to do anything outside of throwing a few punches and running. Besides, I’d had one cup of blood that was quickly leaving my system.

  “Stop being ridiculous,” I said to myself literally as the doorbell rang and then the door opened.

  I froze as the scent of burnt wood invaded my nostrils only to be replaced by what smelled like campfires and summers spent on the lake.

  “Mason,” the deep voice called, and then I was staring into the deepest blue eyes I’d ever seen in my entire life and trying not to panic over the fact that the strange man looked like a successful male
model with a lucrative underwear campaign. “Oh, hello.” He smiled.

  I frowned.

  He looked away and grinned as if he knew the effect he had on people and then tried again with the smiling at me. “I’m Timber. And you are?”

  “Serenity,” I said, lamely staring at his outstretched hand.

  With a sigh, he left it there just hanging between us.

  I had no choice but to shake it.

  His grip was firm.

  I decided I liked him even if I didn’t want to; it was impossible not to at least be mildly intrigued by his pretty face and apparent good manners.

  “Have you seen the wolf today?”

  “No…” I took my hand back. “…but I saw the man about five hours ago.”

  He choked out a laugh. “Same thing. I was hoping he would be here so I could discuss—” He turned. “Never mind. Seems the wolf is home.”

  Mason staggered into the living room looking like he’d just gotten in a fight with a semi-truck and lost.

  Blood caked his fingernails.

  And his sandy brown hair suddenly looked like it had been dipped in red.

  “What the hell happened to you?” Timber let out a whistle.

  Mason growled, and then his piercing gaze was on me. “I’m—” His eyes rotated into the back of his head.

  Timber reached out and caught him just before his forehead slammed into the wall.

  “Mason!” I ran over to his body and examined the cuts and bruises lining his arms before Timber laid him across the floor and pulled out his phone.

  “Something’s wrong!” He barked into the phone. “Do I look like a veterinarian?”

  He rolled his eyes while I cupped Mason’s head in my hands. His perfect lips parted just enough for me to see fangs.

  Werewolves typically had shorter fangs than vampires; it made it easy for them to tear into meat without them getting in the way.

  They didn’t, however, have fangs that elongated past their lower lips.

  That wasn’t right at all.

  “What do you mean you have a feeling?” Timber roared. “I’m not going to base this off a feeling!”

  I ran my fingers over Mason’s strong face. Something was horribly wrong.

  A garbled moan came from his mouth.

  I leaned closer, pressing my ear to his chest. I just wanted to make sure his heart was beating, that he was okay. I had no idea why I was so worried about a stranger. Maybe because of the way he’d taken care of me? Maybe because his blood still sang for me.

  Only this time, it sounded like it was in agony.

  “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea,” Timber whispered into his phone. “I’ll keep her away just in case.”

  I turned my head to Timber. “Just in case what?”

  He hung up the phone and then paled.

  Just as teeth pierced my neck.

  MASON

  “Yours,” Her blood sang.

  “Mine,” I said right back.

  I was crazed, angry, hurt. I was so many things.

  And then she pressed an ear to my chest, and my heart thumped with purpose, with new reason.

  And instinct completely took over.

  An instinct to claim.

  An instinct born into me from hundreds of years of trying to do exactly the opposite.

  I burned for her in a way that made no sense.

  I pined as if I’d been searching for her my entire life.

  My body begged.

  My heart thundered, demanding I give answers I couldn’t give to questions I refused to ask myself for fear of what I would discover.

  And.

  I.

  Snapped.

  “Mason!” Timber was yelling. “You’re killing her!”

  Her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

  Why was Timber angry?

  Why was she dying?

  No, no, this couldn’t be wrong.

  Not when it felt so right.

  So good.

  I felt her everywhere.

  In my blood, in my mouth, coating my fangs.

  More. I wanted more.

  To strip her bare.

  To expose every inch of her to my mouth.

  “Let. Her. Go.” Cassius’ voice shook me from my state.

  Why was Cassius suddenly there? What was wrong?

  I’d never experienced such pain as I released her neck and fell to the ground, Serenity falling across me, a bloody mess.

  I’d done that.

  I’d put that empty dazed look in her eyes.

  Oh God, I’d hurt her.

  I hurt everyone.

  I scrambled backward, my head knocking against the wall as I tried to swipe the blood off me, but there was so much, and I still wanted it.

  I wanted all of it.

  Wasteful.

  What the hell was wrong with me?

  Serenity finally came out of her paralyzed state. When she looked at me, it wasn’t a look filled with fear.

  It was a look filled with disgust.

  I disgusted her.

  I disgusted myself.

  This was why I’d been taken from my parents.

  Why I’d stopped being King.

  An abomination.

  A fool.

  “I’m—” Damn it. I couldn’t even get the words out; my voice sounded all wrong — gruff, loud — like it wasn’t me speaking at all. “I don’t understand.”

  Cassius let out a long heavy sigh that shook the room with its force before his wings pointed down and then disappeared behind his back. “Timber, take Serenity upstairs—”

  “No!” I roared, as if I had a reason to keep her by my side, protecting her, harming her, nearly ending her life. “She’s…” Stunned, I tried to erase the word from my mind, from my very existence.

  “Mate. Mate. Mate,” my blood chanted.

  Hell, I could hear her heart begin to pound; mine raced right along with her. I’d just somehow sealed our fates. I should have known all along it would be my lack of control that would do it.

  I should have known.

  I closed my eyes. “Go.”

  “Mason—” She opened her eyes.

  “Just go.”

  I felt her disappointment in the air like a crackle of sadness splitting us in two, separating our hearts when all they ever wanted were to be next to each other.

  I was losing my damn mind.

  Once Timber and Serenity were gone, Cassius took one look at me and scowled. “You need to be more careful next time.”

  “Tell me I heard you wrong.” I snorted. “There will be no next time. It was a mistake. I just… I’ve been having weird—” I gulped. “—weird cravings.”

  Cassius sniffed the air. “Half lie. More omission than anything. Alright, I’ll bite.” He grinned at his own joke.

  I just covered my face with my hands and prayed he’d kill me and get it over with.

  “How long have you been having these… cravings?”

  “Why do you always ask questions you already freaking know the answers to!” I roared.

  His eyebrows shot up. “Alex’s yelling, I’m used to. This is new for someone normally so calm, so reserved, so loyal.” He made the word sound dirty.

  I glared and then flipped him off.

  The bastard laughed even harder. “I can’t wait to tell Ethan.”

  “You aren’t telling anyone.” I stood to my feet, wobbly, but at least I was standing. “This is a onetime slipup, a mistake a—”

  “Why do you think her blood sings to you, Mason?”

  I ignored the burning truth in my chest, the signs, the monster within. “Because I’m a wolf. I stopped eating red meat. Red meat contains blood. Therefore, it’s a misplaced craving.” There. That sounded good even to me.

  “You are not what you think you are.” Cassius’ eyes went white as a chill overtook the room. Great. Just great. I hated when he went full-angel. Especially now that I’d tasted blood, now that I’d messed up so roy
ally I was most likely going to get struck down or at least punished. “And yet, you’re exactly what you think you are. You’re just too scared to admit it.”

  I looked away. I had to. The truth was like a punch to the chest.

  Blood, mine and hers, covered the floor.

  Mine, from trying to claw my way from the war with my wolf, the one where I’d tried to throw myself from a cliff in an effort to take back control.

  And hers, from my attack.

  God, I’d attacked her like the monster I was.

  Like a savage animal.

  I still tasted her on my lips.

  “Hmm…” Cassius tapped his temple. “…our pasts can only stay locked up for so long. Don’t you ever wonder why your human mate died to begin with?” His wings spread out from his body like tentacles testing the air. “You mated with one because it was how things were done, but your soul has always belonged… to another.”

  He disappeared.

  Without judgement.

  Without punishment.

  And maybe that was the point. I’d already spent an eternity in a prison of my own making. It would be useless to give me another.

  When I was so good at staying in mine.

  Until now.

  I eyed the stairway with hesitancy.

  The stairs creaked under Timber’s weight. “I feel like I should stay and watch the show, take notes, make popcorn,” he teased, “but if what Cassius just whispered in the air is true, then I probably don’t want to be anywhere near this house for another few weeks.”

  “Out.” I jabbed my fingers toward the door.

  He grinned and then shrugged. “Maybe if you stopped keeping secrets from your friends and family, you wouldn’t lash out and bite the first girl who wants to adopt a puppy.”

  “I will rip your throat from your neck with ease, demon. Now leave.”

  He leaned in. “After what I saw, I think I believe you. Have fun!”

  He shoved past me.

  The door slammed.

  One heartbeat.

  I counted its rhythm; I told my heart to match it.

  And the strangest thing happened.

  It did.

  SERENITY

  My neck burned.

  Blood caked my fingertips.

  I wasn’t healing as fast as I normally did, and that thought alone shot every last nerve I had.

  I could feel his teeth.

  He hadn’t even numbed me.