Challenged by Darkness (An Urban Fantasy Novel) (Befallen Tides series Book 2) (18 page)

The alley was dank with the heavy, sweltering summer. But convenience came with its pitfalls. Deja was too hungry to care about anything but the touch of her lovers. The man, large with muscle and manly with heat, dove his hands into her cleavage almost as soon as the doors had closed behind them. The woman, blonde and curvaceous, traced fire with her fingertips between Deja’s legs. Deja had driven them there, to this ecstasy waiting to happen. How proud of herself she was. It didn’t matter how many times she accomplished it. Her one night stands were always enthusiastic.

Deja dropped to all fours, and even the cement beneath her knees wasn’t enough to derail her from the skyrocketed pleasure she was enjoying. Her hips were held high as the man thrust inside of her. And better yet, her face was buried in the wet depths of the woman’s nether regions. Their cries of joy echoed around the alley as the rough lovemaking theatrically commenced, outside for any passersby to see.

Deja’s body thrummed with delicious curls of satisfaction as she took and was taken. She lost count of how many times the strangers achieved orgasm, how many times she herself did. They warmed the summer concrete with their liaison, shifting and clamoring at one another like animals in heat. Flesh was pierced by teeth, fingernails dug white trails into skin, and when they found themselves sated, the better half of the night had already passed.

Deja walked back into the club, sore and uncaring. Her two lovers were just as disheveled. She let them go, allowing her spell over them to wane.

“Do you need a drink?” the girl asked before leaving.

Deja declined. What drug could possibly numb her better than amazing sex?

They walked to the bar, and Deja contemplated joining the throng of still-dancing bodies in search of another dance partner. Or two.

But her revelry did not last too long. As she straightened her bosom within the tight confines of her bodice, a tickle of unease spread throughout her. She frowned, searching the room, but came up empty. The same humans frolicked before her and none seemed effected at all by her departure with the couple.

Deciding to rest, Deja walked over to the unused booths of the establishment. Red lined furniture with glossy highlights promised respite from the buzzing activity of the lounge, and Deja sunk in readily. She was bruised but sated, and she couldn’t get the goofy smile off her face.

“Are you having fun?”

Deja went cold. Her eyes rose to find a lone man before her. He was not very tall, but the fire in his eyes made his stature imposing. His well-crafted Latin features were twisted in rage. His dark hair was mussed, as if angry fingers had been rifling through the thick curls.

“Dante.” Deja tried to remain calm, even if her heartbeat had kicked up a few notches. “Hey. What are you doing here?”

“I have been looking for you.” He leaned toward her, that fire still in his gaze. He gave her a quick peck on her reddened lips that she did not return. Their eyes remained locked as he sat beside her on the chaise. “Why haven’t you been answering my calls?”

 “I’ve told you I need some space, Dante,” Deja said.

“And I have given you space. For two weeks.”

“Calling me every single day isn’t giving me space. And now look, you’ve followed me from New York here to Ohio.”

“You told me that you’re here on business.”

“I am!” she said.

His eyes flashed. “And your business involves going out to a club?”

“My work during the day does not interfere with my nights.”

“Obviously,” he said.

“Look.” She was losing her patience, and her innocent expression slipped. “I am not ready for all of this.”

His eyes went softer with sadness. “That is not what you showed me two months ago.”

 “What?”

“When I proposed? Remember? You were so happy.”

“I wasn’t happy!”

“You smiled…” he said.

“I laughed! I thought that you were joking!”

“Deja!” Dante grabbed the meat of her upper arm. “Why are you doing this to us?” There was a pain beneath his anger that alarmed her, and not for reasons of his obviously hurt feelings.

“There is no ‘us,’ Dante! I told you that I am not looking for anything serious. I told you that the day that you asked me out!”

“I thought that you had changed. I thought that our love made you change.”

She wrenched her arm from his hold, then patted her chest emphatically while she spoke with him. “I am not anyone’s property! Do you know how long it took me to strike out on my own, leave my parents’ house and get my life started? I am not jumping from one prison to another. I love my life!” She held her arms out. “I want a lot more of this. I want to be young and unattached, that was always my plan! Marriage? It’s out of the question! Probably forever!”

“So you plan to whore yourself out for the remainder of your days?”

She slapped him. The sound was muted beneath the music, but the way his head jerked spoke of how hard the blow was. When he looked at her again, the coldness of his stare froze her from within. But she stayed firm in her ire.

“What I do, and who I do it with, is none of your concern. We are no longer together, Dante. It’s over. It’s been over for weeks. Now leave me alone. I cannot make it any clearer than that.”

When Dante Chaves stood up, his eyes dawned with a new light as if seeing her for the first time. He nodded, but the anger never ebbed. When he walked away from her, Deja wondered why that unsettling feeling did not depart along with him. She was too incensed to enjoy the rest of her night out. No matter how she tried, Deja could not focus on any of the appealing faces that crowded her. She felt as if eyes were tickling the back of her neck.

Deja left the club and headed down the quiet city streets to her waiting hotel room. The mirth of her night had been ridded. The bruising on her skin, which before heated her with the memory of intimacy, now felt a nuisance. The night air was not cool, but she felt a chill that would not cease.

A car approached her. She kept her eyes downcast and waited for it to pass.

Maybe she had been too hard on her ex flame. It was not as if Dante were all bad. He was clingy, yes, and he hated the word “no.” When they met, she had singled him out due to his somber stare and aphotic attitude. He’d seemed as secluded as she was. But he was too serious. She’d had enough of serious in her life.

 “How’s it going, honey?”

Deja’s focus turned to the gang that had stopped the car beside her. They were an unruly sort, five of them piled in the car with something unsavory in their eyes. She found herself in no mood to humor them.

“Carry on, boys.” She continued to walk.

“Hey, a young thing like you shouldn’t be walking alone.” The car followed slowly beside her. “It’s dangerous out.”

She would have laughed, but they wouldn’t have gotten the joke. She was of the dark touch. She was probably one of the most dangerous things out here. “Off with you,” she said.

“No, I’m for real girl. Let us help a sister out.”

“Look.” She stopped walking. The car stopped right beside her. “You’re someone who would make a perfect stranger. Now buzz off, chuckles.”

The car window stayed down and the men inside of it had a good laugh at her attempt. Deja frowned. Why hadn’t that worked? She was a daevor. She could compromise any human’s will. She tried again, urging them to leave her alone with her mental powers. It still didn’t work.

“Come on, baby! We just want the pleasure of your company. Even if it’s accompanied by that mouth!”

“You’re having delusions of competence.” Why wasn’t this working? This had never happened to her before. She started to walk away, this time at a jog.

The car sped up significantly. The back doors flew open and a grip strong armed her into the back seat. Deja screamed pitifully, but she found herself on her back along the lap of the three thugs in the back seat, all of them cheering at their triumph.

“All right, you’ve had your laughs, now let me go!” She squirmed, trying to get away as the car sped off. She kept trying to force their compliance, but nothing she said or did stopped the humans as they drove off into the night, speeding through stops signs, to take her somewhere secreted.

She had always been able to avoid situations like this in the past, but there was nothing about this situation that she could alter to her advantage. The gang took her away from civilization and anyone who might be able to help her.

Deja was dragged out of the car and somewhere she did not recognize. The trailer they took her to was parked somewhere obviously illegal, and no matter how she screamed, she knew no one would hear her.

In her panic she searched the parameters for any human nearby whose will could be compromised to help her, but came up empty. She was forced to her knees on uncarpeted floors, and the reality of her situation blindsided her.

“Is this what you wanted, darling?”

Deja began to cry softly when she heard Dante’s voice. She looked up at him, makeup streaming down her cheeks. He looked just as desolate, as if he’d been crying for hours. His red face remained livid and she knew that she was about to endure something akin to agony.

“What are you doing, Dante?” she sobbed.

“I thought this was what you wanted!” he raged. “You wanted many different partners over the course of many different nights, right? You wanted a life that did not involve me!”

Deja lowered her head, entire body shaking. “Let me go!”

The gang members approached then. They began to cut her clothing off of her with knives. Deja fought with all of her might, but she was outnumbered. She screamed as her body began to become exposed before the strangers.

“Try all you want, you cannot control them!” Dante went on. “There is nothing that you can do to escape this.”

“Help me! Oh my God, help me!”

A shredded corset littered the floor. Then skin tight leggings. Then a frilly underwear set.

“You expect sympathy from me? No, my love. You were already dead when you decided to cheat on me.”

Deja’s screams were becoming worse and worse. Dante watched the exchange with horror, as if what the poor woman was enduring hurt him just as much as it hurt her. He screamed with her, pulling his hair at the roots, sobbing openly, kicking and punching the walls, tossing whatever was within his wake.

“Dante, stop this!” Her pained voice wavered. “Please, I’ll do whatever you want!”

Dante stopped. He held his hand up, and all ceased. “What was that?”

“I’ll marry you! I’ll stop sleeping around, I’ll do whatever you want! Just please… Please, stop this!”

Dante knelt before the bloodied and battered daevor. She was sobbing face down on the floor, her naked body riddled with shallow knife wounds. He lifted her face by her chin. “Say it again,” he commanded.

“I’ll marry you!” She choked on the foam bubbling from her throat, her nose ran, she was an entire mess.

“Say that you love me.”

She paused. “I love you.”

 “I don’t believe you, Deja.”

“I do! I love you!” she insisted.

“No, Deja. I don’t believe you anymore.”

Taking the chance of but a moment, the daevor sprung her wings and tossed herself out of the still open trailer door. Dante bellowed in betrayal as she took to the skies. With all of her might she propelled herself upward, her red wings pumping furiously, all of her efforts pushing her up and up and up…

But she did not get far. Dante stopped her, his white wingspan shadowing the moon, and she tumbled as he took out all of his pain onto her. No matter what she did, her plummet was erratic, and she hit the ground hard enough to knock all of her remaining energy out of her. Her head hit something hard, maybe a stone, and the world tilted dangerously. She did not move from the ground.

Dante was out of breath. “You never meant it! You never cared! You never understood! I thought you were different! You’re just like everyone else! You need to die like everyone else!”

The gang reappeared once more. Their eyes were cloudy, as if their actions were unknown even to them. Their forms reflected in her dark eyes as they descended upon her.

When the gang arose, Deja Rowan had stopped breathing.Dante curled himself around the limp, lifeless form of Deja. He cried and cried, wishing that he could die along with her. His fingers shook as he moved her hair from her face. Her eyes were still open, her mouth agape. She was still beautiful to him. And so still. The softness of her cheek was still alive, even if her heart wasn’t. The curve of her bottom lip, busted, but still so gloriously lush. Her vivacious form was riddled with wounds, but even the wounds bled with beautiful color.

He brought her closer, enveloping her. Why didn’t she know how much he loved her? Why didn’t she know that he would always love her?

She would know now.

“This is a very serious case,” London Iragall said. “I don’t know if, in all of my career, I have ever heard of a daevor being killed by a human. Perhaps on accident, a gunshot or something just as wilily, but this was…”

Orion Merrick finished the other chancellor’s sentence. “Deliberate.”

“Hang on now,” Esteban Chaves cut in. “That’s a bit egregious.”

“How so?” London said.

“Well, we’re talking about a young woman with the Touch. Do you really believe that someone would purposefully murder her? What would the motive be?”

“At this point it, doesn’t matter. Deja Rowan has a noble familial background. They will want justice, and it is our duty to see to it.” Orion sighed as he looked again at the evidence before him. “Though I do not know where to begin. Does anyone know anything about her personal life? Who her friends were, if she was dating anyone—”

“I have already taken the liberty of asking those exact questions,” Esteban interrupted. “Everyone who had any contact with her said that the girl kept to herself. She did not mingle with those that she worked with. She was a loner.”

Orion looked at the other chancellor calculatingly. “Odd.”

“Well, those with the Dark Touch are known for being cloistered. Just look at their communities, branched off from all contact with humans and cryptids alike. Deja Rowan lived in the Florida community. It was in her nature from the start.”