“You weren’t in the cube when I returned,” he says hoarsely.
I swallow a little. “I needed some air.”
“In the light of the moon, you’re breathtaking,” he whispers.
I thread my fingers through his hair. “That’s a lovely thing for a dark wizard to say.”
Dragneel leans in close. “Even us dark wizards have our moments.”
We both smile, and without thinking, I arch into him; my core aches for him again.
There is this new need within me he’s created, a demand that hurts badly.
“It’s taking everything in me, Kat, not to fuck you right here on the roof in front of everyone.”
Seeing the wild edge in his eyes, I release a shaky breath. Dear God, he’s going to be my undoing. A part of me wants to push him to the edge, just to see what his breaking point is.
“I need to know something,” I breathe out.
“What?”
“If you were to obtain eternal magic tonight, will you still seek it out to sell?”
His back stiffens. My question is leading us into unpleasant territory.
“Yes,” he admits.
My eyes snap to his. “For the money?”
“No.”
“Then why?” I counter, needing to know his real intent. “Why cheat, lie, and steal?”
Awareness sharpens in his eyes. “I told you before, Kat. Wizards and mages are dying because their magic is depleting. I won’t sit by and continue to watch them suffer. Nor will I blindly allow them, or myself, to think the only way to save them is with blood magic,” he replies.
I think of my own situation.
How the priestess saved me.
How I suffer even now.
Dragneel’s expression turns serious. “We can stop it. Together.”
Staring down at me, he searches my face.
I see the heart and compassion he hides behind the darkness. I have no argument ready. There is nothing new or compelling I can say to him to make him stop doing what he’s doing.
Yet, I’m not prepared to lose him so soon after finding him.
As he stares at me, I realize something in me has changed tonight.
I run my fingers through his hair, and he tilts his head down.
Pushing up on my tiptoes, I kiss him.
Dragneel’s taste is decadent like dark chocolate.
He’s sinful and righteous and everything in between.
It’s bitter and intoxicating.
I press myself deeper against him, needing more, so much more.
There is no going back after tonight. He’s changed me. In a few short hours.
“Onyx has the card,” I blurt out. “Take it. I surrender it to you.”
He stills and stares at me, looking annoyed. It’s like he’s heard something in my voice that spooked him. I know this because his body language is suddenly tense like cold steel. And for a second, all I see on his face is dark intent and anger. He backs away, putting space between us.
Heated gray eyes pin me with a hard look. He shakes as his eyes dart back and forth between my eyes and mouth as if he isn’t sure if I’m lying or just buying more time. “Why?” he asks.
I close my eyes and whisper, “Why what?”
“Why surrender it to me, knowing my intentions, after protecting it for so long?” he barks.
Maybe telling him where to find it was a bad idea.
“Whatever reservations I had about you . . . they’re gone,” I reply honestly, opening my lids.
“Because I fucked you against a wall?” he snarls, and I’m enraged at the accusation.
I tense and release a quick breath. “Because you’re not as you seem.”
“Neither are you, Katya,” he snaps as if disappointed in me.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I shout.
He watches me like he’s waiting for me to change my mind.
When I don’t, he growls.
“Darkness will always come between us because we’re the same.”
I stare at him. My mind isn’t working as fast as I need it to, to understand him.
“And you just proved it.”
With those final words ringing in my ears, he slips away into the night.
Chapter Ten
In The End
Dragneel
Torment fills me. Maybe it’s confusion. That is what I fucking am. Confused. Why am I so damn attracted to someone who is just like me? Full of the same darkness. It doesn’t matter if we’re both the same. Parts of me are still broken. I’m sure the same is true for her. It annoys me that she gave in so fucking quickly. I thought she was stronger than that. And while I came here for the dagger tonight, truthfully, I didn’t expect to leave with it. Not this easily, anyway.
I shouldn’t feel guilty.
But I do.
Because I’ve never felt whatever this is pushing on my chest.
Emotion shudders through me, causing my insides to come alive. It’s as if I’m waking up from a deep sleep. With each touch of Katya’s hands, each look, each breath, she brought me back to life. Forcing my heart to beat again even when I demand it to remain dormant. Fuck.
I fume with frustration as I take the stairs down to the first floor of the ball.
I need her to push me away.
I need her to beg me to stay.
None of this is going to end well for either of us.
Once I take the final stair, I stop, watching Onyx behind the bar from across the room. She has the card. The one thing I wanted to leave with tonight. The secrets I keep. The lies I tell. I tell myself they are all worth it at night when the blood drips from my hands. I’m saving our kind. Protecting them from drowning in the darkness. Regardless of what it costs me.
Aren’t I?
The band stops playing for a moment before the sound of the siren’s voice echoes throughout the warehouse. “We hope you’ve all found love, even if only for a little while,” she says into the microphone before instructing everyone to head to the roof for the end-of-the-night fireworks display.
Love. No. I exhale slowly. That isn’t what I found.
That is impossible.
What I feel is lust. Attraction. But not love.
Numb, I stand here, watching the guests push their way to the stairs.
As they do, the band begins to play a haunting song with a thumping beat. The siren’s voice is soothing as she sings about how we’re all just living like monsters in a cage, beseeching us to choose our lover or enemy. Tonight, I may have found both enemy and lover.
And when her voice carries words of dancing with fate, I close my eyes, challenging myself not to run back upstairs to Katya. I never promised her I was good. I sell eternal magic for profit.
That’s it.
Eternal magic betrays us, saves us, brings us back to life.
Tonight, though, all of the lines are blurring.
Feelings can’t interfere with what I do. Katya can’t interfere with what I do.
When her face and lips appear behind my closed lids, I ache to taste more of her. I shake my head and open my eyes, not trusting myself not to lose it, to allow the dark to drag me into hell.
The more she touched me tonight, the deeper I fell.
Now, I’m in over my head.
Both of us are.
And when she kissed me, devoured me, I lost more restraint.
Lost control.
Her surrender of the dagger is something I don’t deserve.
Not ever.
And yet . . .
Every choice has consequences.
She’s made hers.
I’ve made mine.
I walk quickly through the thin crowd over to the bar where Onyx is. When I’m a few steps away, she looks up, her knowing gaze meeting mine. Indecision wages war across her features as I approach. She’s studying me like she wants to strangle me with her bare hands. We both know at some point I’m going to pay for my sins. For taking the card kno
wing I don’t deserve it or Katya. And I never will. Even so, she’s going to hand it over to me.
Her voice is husky as she greets me. “See any stars on the rooftop tonight?”
“Light,” I manage, lost in thoughts of Katya. “I saw the light.”
Onyx’s eyes widen for a bit. “You have it bad for her.”
I still. “It doesn’t matter what I feel for her.”
“That’s where you are wrong.”
“I can’t offer her what she needs.”
“Keep telling yourself that.”
I rub my face. “I don’t want to feel this way.”
“I suspect Katya doesn’t either, and yet . . .” She lifts a shoulder.
“Yet what?”
“She does.” Onyx frowns.
“Feelings change things,” I growl.
“And yet, without them, we’re nothing.”
“You think she has feelings for me?” I scoff.
“What greater show of love than taking the sins of those you care for and putting them on your shoulders? She protects the dagger, hides it in the card, and yet, she surrendered it to you.”
“Against my wishes,” I whisper, and she smirks.
“All night you’ve been seeking it. Now that you have it, you don’t want it?”
“No.”
“The card is your fate.” She slaps the card on the bar, sliding it across to me.
I look down at it for a long moment before taking it off the bar.
Handing this card over to me is the ultimate sacrifice.
Or the ultimate test of loyalty.
I stare at the dagger hidden in it and decide not to use a spell to release it. What is it about Katya that has me doubting my only task, my sole purpose? When I kiss her, I feel free. Happy.
“Dragneel, she asked me to give it to you. Take it. The ball is over. You’ve won.”
Won. Have I? I don’t feel like I’ve won. Not at all. I close my eyes briefly, and Katya appears behind the lids. Her eyes will haunt me for the rest of my life if I walk away. I have no idea why.
When I open my lids, I flip the card over. Katya has written on it: save someone. Reading those two words causes realization to dawn on me. The blood magic hasn’t saved her. It just bought her time. Katya is still dying because she is still changing fates. Fucking stubborn mage.
How did I not see that before? Sense it in her words or eyes?
Exhaling, I look around the ball just as the sound of fireworks pulls me out of my thoughts.
And my decision is made.
I choose to save her.
Chapter Eleven
Fuck The Darkness
Katya
My heart is heavy as I watch the bright lights of the fireworks. The night is over. The Ball has ended, for this year at least. Soon, we’ll all be home. The night will be a distant memory. I grip the railing tightly with each pop and hiss the fireworks make. Even though I made the right decision by giving Dragneel the dagger with eternal magic, I can’t help but be sad.
I’m sure he’s long gone by now.
A dark, desperate thought grips me. What if all this time, I was protecting the dagger to save myself? I didn’t tell Dragneel this, but I am still dying. Each time I twist fates, even with the blood magic running through my veins, I am that much closer to death. I keep doing it because, in the end, everyone deserves to be happy like the guests who are leaving here tonight.
Turning, I smile and move along the edges of the crowd before cutting through a group and heading toward the door. My night is over. It is time to return to reality. Once I’ve managed to push my way through the crowd, I look up—my eyes locking with Dragneel’s narrowed gaze.
I take in all of his beauty, landing on the frown on his face. It changes colors with the fireworks display, which shadows him in darkness, then light—a new and appropriate contradiction.
He stands there, and the crowd around us falls away.
I stare at him. I can’t not.
And my stupid heart stutters.
I take a step.
Then he stalks toward me.
We meet halfway.
Before I can say or do anything, he kisses me. Hard. Desperate. Furious.
His lips are fierce and unforgiving. Powerful and possessive.
I fall into the kiss, trying not to think about anything beyond moving my lips across his.
Desire and anger fill me as I take from him.
“Do you have feelings for me?” he asks me against my mouth.
I still and lean away. My gaze roams over him. He’s so damn handsome.
“Do you?” he growls.
“Can you not tell?” I reply quietly.
Dragneel grabs my hand and twists it so my palm is facing up.
Then he slaps the card in it.
“I choose to save you.” He looks pained at the thought.
“No.” My tone is absolute, unbending.
He smiles darkly at me. “Even when I surrender to you, you fight back.”
“I don’t need saving.”
“You do. I know you’re still dying, Kat. I won’t allow it.”
How the hell does he know? Damn him.
My eyes search his, and in them, I see something.
I shouldn’t dare to hope for what I think it is, but I can feel it with every breath I take.
“I was never supposed to care for you,” I state. “But—”
“But what?”
“I do,” I admit.
Dragneel takes a deep breath. “Good. Then fuck the darkness that’s in us.”
I close my eyes at his words and hold my breath.
“Tell me to save you, Kat. To be your light.”
My eyelids flutter open, and the corners of his mouth curve up. “Save me.”
He cocks his head to the side, holding out his hand. “Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“Does it matter? As long as we’re together?”
My lips part, but he doesn’t give me a chance to reply before his mouth is on mine. Crushing our lips together, kissing me gently and adoringly. This kiss is filled with firm determination.
When he pulls back, he winks and tugs my hand forward to follow him.
I don’t give it a second thought.
I follow, trying hard not to look back.
Fuck the darkness.
I choose him.
The End
Turn the page for more Monster Ball…
As You Wish
By
Jennifer Snyder
Chapter One
My insides twisted as the sensation of being summoned swam through my veins. If only I could ignore it. I wanted to, but it was impossible. There was no ignoring a demon calling.
Especially not one you were bound to for eternity.
A few choice words pushed past my lips. I ran my fingers through my dark hair and exhaled a long breath.
Who would be my Charge this time?
I wasn’t sure why I bothered asking myself this question anymore. It was always the same—a greedy asshole. Regardless of age, sex, or nationality, they all wanted one of three things—money, power, or sex. While the first two always remained consistent, it was the third that never did. Some wanted more sex in general. Some wanted to have more sex appeal.
The list went on, but it all centered on that one thing—sex.
There was a time when my life revolved around sex too. Now everything I was revolved around wishes and the greedy ass people making them.
I adjusted my tie while looking at myself in the mirror. My eyes had long ago lost their vibrancy. They were dull and lifeless now instead of the bright blue they used to be. I exhaled a slow breath.
Life as a genie was taking a toll on me.
My hand ran along my jaw, noting the stubble there. I should shave but didn’t feel like it. I was positive nine times out of ten my Charges didn’t give a shit what I looked like, anyway. They were all self-centered, arrogant, or egotistical. I co
uld tell from their wishes. Each wish was only meant to benefit themselves. No one ever wished for world peace. To end world hunger. Or cure cancer. People only cared about themselves.
At least the ones Dickhead assigned me to.
I grabbed my suit jacket and slipped it on. Looking presentable was something my demon insisted upon. He had class if nothing else. Part of me wondered if he’d say something about my rugged appearance.
Black tendrils of smoke rolled off me. Dickhead’s pull was growing stronger. Still, I fought it with everything in me.
He might own me, and I might have to come when he called, but I’d be damned if I would let it be instantaneous. I’d hold out as long as I could out of sheer spite.
More tendrils of black smoke swirled from my skin. They rolled off my clothes and dispersed in the air. I’d been one of his genies for years now and still had no freaking clue how this whole summoning thing worked or where the black smoke came from. My insides itched for me to give in to the pull, but I still had to slip on my shoes. I sat on my crappy futon and pulled them on while imagining what this Charge would look like. It was a game I liked to play, and one of the few things that made this existence somewhat bearable.
Male or female this time? I’d go with male. The last two had been female. Thinking of them had me wondering how the last one was doing. She’d made the dreaded mistake of her final wish being to ask for a million more wishes.
My lips twisted into a smirk as I remembered her plump lips turning into a frown when I told her that was one of the worst wishes she could have ever asked for. She hadn’t understood. I was positive she did now, though. Asking for more wishes, a million wishes, or even unlimited wishes, turned you into a genie. It was a trick wish—yes, you can have a million wishes, but they won’t be your own.
The black smoke simmered from me as though I was on fire. It clogged my nose and threatened to choke me if I didn’t give in. So, I closed my eyes and folded my arms over my chest like the good boy I was.
Fuck, I hated this.
The slightly off-kilter sensation I’d grown used to rushed through me, and then my nose filled with the stench of sex and greed. I opened my eyes as low-playing music filtered to my ears. It took my eyes a few seconds to adjust to the darkness surrounding me.
The Monster Ball Year 2 Page 5