Dance With Darkness

by Sheri-Lynn Marean

  She was the only person there who was waited on hand and foot, and reminded Elianna of those in the clan she’d left behind.

  “Unlike someone I know, I help out around here when I don’t have to be in school,” Sima said, voice raised.

  Her mother lifted her chin, and continued to sip her tea, her only reaction to her youngest daughter’s words.

  At the sound of footsteps on the stairs, Elianna turned. A gorgeous, dusky, dark-haired woman stood in the entryway. Dressed head to toe in clothing Elianna could only dream of owning, the female looked like a fashion model, only with curves in all the right places.

  Sima tensed.

  Elianna leaned into the teen. “Who is that?”

  “Genevevia,” she whispered back, then looked at the woman. “He’s not here.”

  “I have to speak with him, it’s important,” Genevevia said, dark eyes studying Elianna.

  Elianna could tell she was a cat shifter, but what kind she had no idea, though the female was stunning.

  “Call him,” Sima snapped, clearly annoyed.

  “He’s not answering his phone,” she said, and something in her voice made Elianna frown.

  “I told you he’s not here,” Sima said, and with a little growl, turned and went down the hallway to her room.

  “Who are you looking for, maybe I can pass along a message?” Elianna asked.

  “Enyowas. I really need to speak with him,” she said, and there was definitely a flash of fear—panic in her eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Sima’s right, he’s not here,” Elianna said.

  “Who are you?”

  “I’m Elianna, what did you want me to tell him?”

  “Elianna’s my son’s latest whore,” the evil queen said, coming toward them.

  At the sight of Deidra, Genevevia paled and started to turn away.

  “Did you want me to pass anything on to Enyowas,” Elianna asked, trying to ignore the bitch beside her who seemed to rub everyone the wrong way.

  Genevevia paused and shot a quick glare at Deidra. “I know what you are up to, you evil bitch. You’re so good at playing the victim, but you will get yours.” Then she turned and left.

  With calculating eyes, Deidra surveyed Elianna. “How do you like my son’s girlfriend?”

  Elianna gazed warily at her. What was wrong with the woman? She’d met her share of hate-filled people, but Genevevia was right, the bitch was evil and seemed to be in a league all her own.

  “My son has been seeing that whore for years now.”

  Enyowas had a girlfriend.

  Nice of him to tell her. Feeling as if she’d been gutted, Elianna started to leave.

  Fast as a viper, the evil queen grabbed her arm. “You thought he wanted you?” The words slapped like a whip over Elianna. “You’re nothing to him. All men are selfish beasts out for their own pleasure and my son is no different, him and his nasty whores. Word of advice, don’t trust him. He’ll use you, tell you that you matter, then move on to another. You shouldn’t ever trust him. In fact, you should leave now before he returns and sweet talks you, and you end up pregnant.”

  Oh God, she could be pregnant! Elianna yanked her arm away, wondering when she’d fallen so hard for Enyowas. Crap! She hadn’t meant for it to happen.

  He’d warned her he wasn’t looking for a relationship, but she had assumed he meant any relationship. Obviously, he just meant with her. It hurt. Bad. And to make matters worse, he’d used her to cheat on his girlfriend.

  Nausea swamped Elianna.

  “Enyowas was so jealous of his older brother—my sweet Amit—that he killed him before we escaped our clan. Enyowas killed his own brother and his father the same night.”

  Elianna knew his brother had died that night, but jealous? “What?”

  “He’s a killer, do you really think he’s capable of caring about you?” the evil queen asked.

  He might be a killer, but Elianna couldn’t see him hurting anyone who didn’t deserve it. As for wanting her, well, after Genevevia, no, Elianna couldn’t imagine why Enyowas would want her, but that didn’t excuse his mother’s spiteful words. She remembered Enyowas telling her what happened the day he and his family escaped their father and clan. “Your son was twelve years old, trying to save you all, what were you doing?” She shook her head at the woman. “Oh right, I know the answer to this, you were doing nothing. You were useless, just like you are here.”

  “How dare you!”

  “How dare I?” Elianna asked, anger pumping in her veins. “I’ve seen how you treat him, and your daughters. Why do you hate them so much? From what I’ve heard, you’ve had no use for them since before you all fled your clan. How can you be so cold and hateful, they’re your children.”

  Deidra snorted. “My children! They were forced upon me. I had no choice.”

  “What are you talking about?” Elianna asked.

  “Didn’t you hear that part as well?” Deidra asked. “I was mated to the regis of our clan. I was in love, and had a set of beautiful twin boys. I was happy, and I thought he was as well. I believed that my mate loved me back, but then he took Veldi’s mother as mate as well, and I soon saw what he was like. I told him I was done with him, but he wasn’t done with me. He forced me to have more of his children against my will. He didn’t care about me, or anyone but himself. All he wanted was to have more boys who he could train to be lethal killing machines sent out on jobs for the human government. And each time I had a female child, he’d rage at me, then spend days raping me to try for another boy.” Deidra shuddered. “The things he did to me, to ensure that I conceived another brat. The only good part was when he brought Shabina’s mother home. He fucked that bitch in front of me.”

  “And that was good?” Elianna asked in disbelief. She tried and failed to imagine the horrors Deidra had been through, and her animosity began to weaken in the face of the other woman’s pain.

  Deidra gave a little laugh, but there was no humor in it. “Good in the fact that she fucked him back.” Deidra nodded, a vicious smile on her face. “She was a priestess of her clan, and she sucked my mate’s shifting ability right out of him. He deserved it, and more. But in the end, he got his revenge by killing her. Then he kept me tied to our bed for a week while he took his anger out on me.”

  Elianna blinked back the pity and hardened her heart. “I’m sorry that happened to you, but your children are innocent in this. They didn’t ask to be born, and they don’t deserve to be punished for what your mate did to you.”

  “They are the devil’s spawn, and if I had anywhere else to go, I would. But you mark my words, Enyowas’s true colors emerged years ago, and now that he’s a man, he’ll be just like his father.”

  Pity and anger warred with each other as Elianna went downstairs and outside to get some fresh air. No matter what Deidra said, Enyowas wasn’t like that. Was he? Why had he slept with her if he had a girlfriend? Still, despite what his mother said, Elianna couldn’t see him as anything but a decent guy, and if that were the case, his cheating on his girlfriend didn’t make sense.

  Maybe he had a reason for not telling her. Elianna’s instinct was to run, but she needed to take a moment and think. In the past she always reacted, then she ended up regretting her actions.

  She saw Genevevia sitting in her car with her head back, so she went over and knocked on the window.

  The female lowered the window, a wary look on her face.

  “Are you all right?” Elianna asked.

  “Why do you care?”

  Elianna shrugged. She’d done some shitty things in her life, but she didn’t like to hurt people, and just because this woman held a spot in Enyowas’s life didn’t mean she deserved to be treated badly. “I’m sorry about how the evil queen spoke to you.”

  Genevevia blew out a breath and sighed. “She’s always hateful.” Then she handed Elianna a creased napkin. “Can you give this to Enyowas. I’m not sure if it’s anything, but I met a guy at the club last night, and some
thing about him wasn’t right. He got a call, and I heard talk about this place. I think he’s up to something, and he mentioned Enyowas by name.”

  “If your Spidey senses were acting up, I’d trust it. Yes, I’ll give this to him,” Elianna said.

  “Spidey senses?” Genevevia raised an eyebrow and then smiled. “Okay, I don’t want too, but I might be able to like you.”

  Stunned and confused, Elianna watched Genevevia drive off, then went inside and to her room.

  She sat down on the bed, then looked at the napkin with the address of an old factory.

  She should have asked Genevevia who she was in regard to Enyowas, but she hadn’t. As the other female’s words came back to her, Elianna realized she could like Genevevia as well, and she definitely liked Enyowas. Maybe more than like.

  Which made it all that much worse if Genevevia really was Enyowas’s girlfriend, because now she really didn’t want to hurt the other woman.

  Elianna set the napkin beside her on the bed, lay back, and pulled a pillow to her chest. How did she always get herself in these situations? For once she just wanted something—someone—she didn’t have to try to take from someone else. Was it too much to ask for?

  Tired of being a chicken, she sat up. She needed to speak with him before she made any decision. “Enyowas?”

  “Elie?”

  Ah … now what did she say? “Your, ah … girlfriend came by. She was desperate to talk to you. She’s stunning by the way.”

  “What?”

  “Genevevia. She said she needed to talk to you, and you weren’t answering your phone.” Elianna held her breath, waiting to see how he’d react.

  There was a long pause. “Yeah, I’ve been … busy.”

  He didn’t deny it. Moisture pricked her eyes. He didn’t deny it.

  “Look … it’s been a crazy day, but I’m almost done here. We’ll talk when I get home, okay?”

  She didn’t answer, she couldn’t.

  “Elianna?”

  “Yeah, sure.” Except no. His response told he all she needed to know.

  “I’ll explain when I get home, I promise.”

  Elianna didn’t know what she was going to do, but she refused to destroy anyone else’s life.

  Yes, Enyowas should have told her that he had a girlfriend, but it wasn’t all on him. She knew better than to blindly trust, and yet she’d willingly agreed to come here, even when she knew she was falling for him. It had happened the first time they had sex. Or more aptly, the first moment she laid eyes on him. She’d known then he was the one for her. How stupid—how wrong she’d been.

  Had his helping her get through her heat been anything other than a mercy fuck? Part of her wanted to go, to run, but despite everything, he’d also been good to her. Which made it hard to reconcile herself to this version of him, the one that his mother saw.

  Elianna got up and went to her closet, the urge to start packing up her stuff strong. But where would she go?

  She’d just turned away when the smell of smoke made her wrinkle her nose. She left her room and went down the hall. Tendrils of smoke was billowing up from the first floor.

  Elianna pulled the alarm, and as it began to screech, she hurried down the stairs.

  The front wall of the building was on fire, and the front door was just closing. Through it, she caught sight of Deidra, but it was the guard lying dead on the floor with his throat slit that froze her in place.

  Then the sprinklers activated, and water soaked her.

  “What’s happening?” Sima yelled from the second floor.

  “You need to get the kids out, use the back stairway, the front is on fire,” Elianna yelled up, and with a nod, Sima disappeared.

  Not sure what was going on, Elianna sidestepped around the dead guard.

  Two of the cooks came out of the kitchen with fire extinguishers and directed them at the flames, while water sprayed all around them.

  “How can I help?” Elianna asked.

  “Go, get out,” one said.

  Relief filled Elianna as she saw Sima ushering the kids and their teacher out the back door, then she glanced at the front door.

  What had Deidra been up to?

  She hurried out the front door and turned to see Deidra watching the fire with a smile. In her hand she held a gas can.

  “What the hell?”

  The woman turned to her, a smirk upon her face, then something hit Elianna in the head.

  Her legs gave out, and as she went down, she saw a large male standing over her. Then everything started to go black. “Enyo—”

  Chapter 23

  At Elianna’s cut-off call, followed by his sister’s saying clan home was on fire, Enyowas and Veldi dropped what they’d been doing and left the teams to take care of everything. They’d been rounding up the supes who’d gone on a city-wide rampage. Enyowas weaved the truck he was driving in and out of traffic in the race to get home.

  “Sima says the fire trucks are there and the fire is out,” Veldi said. “But she doesn’t know where Elianna is, and the guard is dead. Have you reached Elianna yet?”

  “No, nothing.”

  “Enyo?” It was Sima.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “Dontelly is dead. The cooks hid him, so the humans don’t see, but …”

  Enyowas could feel her worry that the guard’s body would be discovered. “We’re almost there.”

  He swore as he pulled into the yard and the tense faces of his pack mates turned to him.

  The front wall of the building was a blackened stain, and there were fire trucks and police cruisers everywhere. He pulled up alongside clan home, out of the way and left his weapons in the truck as he faced the humans.

  After they’d answered all of the questions, and everyone but his clan mates were gone, Enyowas had Sima and the kids taken to the shelter where Kayta was waiting for them. Then he had the cooks lead him and Veldi to the body of their slain guard.

  “Someone killed him,” Veldi said.

  Enyowas nodded and went back out to the common room where everyone had started to clean up. “Did anyone see what happened?”

  There were very few adults home at the time, and most shook their heads before continuing what they were doing.

  His mother came over and grabbed his arm, a grimace of disgust on her face. “I saw Elianna start the fire.”

  Disbelief followed by outrage that she’d make such a claim. “I don’t believe you.”

  His mother flushed, then her face grew red. “You’re calling me a liar?”

  “Are you going to tell me she killed Dontelly as well?” he asked.

  She let him go and backed away. “I don’t know, he was dead when I saw him.” Then she snarled at him. “What do you expect to happen when you’re fucking two women at the same time?” She shook her finger in his face. “One of them is going to get mad. It’s all your fault that this happened.”

  Enyowas let Veldi lead him away before he did something to his own mother he’d regret.

  “I don’t buy it,” Veldi said.

  “No, me either.”

  Enyowas went upstairs to the second floor, grateful that there’d been no more damage than there was.

  “I guess it could have been worse,” Veldi said. “The main floor got the brunt of it. Hell of a day.”

  “Agreed.” The second and third floors were untouched, with just smoke damage. But Veldi was right. They’d been chasing supes all day, it was like everyone had gone wild. The were-wolf den had been leveled, a shifter club called Underworld had been attacked and hostages taken, and two groups of shifters had gotten into a fight in front of a large gathering of humans. Then there were odd random attacks all over the city. The supes they’d rounded up acted like they were on some kind of drug. What that could be, he had no clue—drugs didn’t normally work on supes, other than the tranquilizers the Ilyium were using to take them down. But that only knocked them out, not revved them up.

  “We need to ge
t this place fixed up, I’m thinking of calling in the mages—the triplet contractors,” Veldi said.

  “Good idea,” Enyowas said as he went down to Elianna’s room.

  Veldi followed, phone to his ear. Seconds later, he hung up. “They’ll be here within the hour, but they’re charging us double their normal rate.”

  “How long?” Enyowas asked. He didn’t care about the cost, could handle whatever it was, just so long as the mage triplets got clan home fixed up.

  “They said they’d have the place in tip-top shape—good as new—in a few hours,” Veldi said.

  “Good,” Enyowas said as he found himself in Elianna’s room.

  Where was she? He knew she’d been upset over Genevevia, but he’d been in the middle of trying to take down a cranked-up wolf when Elianna had brought up the other woman. But still, she couldn’t have set clan home on fire, could she? No, he didn’t, wouldn’t believe it. She might be pissed at him, but she wouldn’t endanger everyone else. “Sima?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Do you remember seeing Elianna during the fire?” he asked.

  “She was on the stairs between the first and second floors. She told me about the fire and to take the kids out the back,” his sister said.

  “Was she carrying anything?” he asked.

  “Why?”

  “Just tell me, was she carrying anything. A gas can, matches, anything?” he asked.

  “What, no!” she said. “Are you seriously asking if she set the fire?”

  “Mother claims she saw Elianna set it,” he said.

  “Mother!” Outrage laced Sima’s voice. “She’s lying. Elianna wouldn’t do that.”

  Enyowas didn’t believe it either. He relayed the conversation to Veldi as he gazed around the room.

  All day, as they chased one bloody mess after another, all he could think of was getting back to Elianna. He ached to see her, to touch her, hear her voice, and see her smile. No one else had ever stirred him the way she did, and it seemed too good to be true after so many years of loneliness.

  A thousand times he reached for her mentally, only to stop. She didn’t need him clinging or checking on her every moment of the day. Especially after he assured her he didn’t want a relationship. Now he couldn’t for the life of him remember why. His resolve to keep his distance had been shot to hell after the night they’d spent together, and all he wanted was more. More Elianna. He needed her like he needed air to breathe. And she was nowhere in sight. “Elianna?”