Cursed (Demon Kissed #2) (24 page)

Pushing my back into the shadows, I
edged around a stalactite, as two demons passed on the other side.
Their voices gurgled as they walked by, “…said he knows that her
powers are immature.” I pressed my back to the stone, trying not to
breathe. They were talking about me? Immature powers sounded right.
That would explain why I couldn’t control them.

Another raspy demon voice answered,
“Does not matter. He will show her how to use them. She is most
precious to him. Master is patient. He will wait for his
bride.”

My heart pounded in my chest. I
listened as they walked away, but they said nothing else about me.
I closed my eyes slowly and rested my head against the stone behind
my back. “He knows I’m here.” Breathing deeply, I tried to deal
with that information. Before I could guess that Kreturus thought I
might be here, but now, I knew for certain that he was aware of my
presence.

A rock skittered across the ground and
slid into the side of my foot. Instantly, I jumped backwards and
scanned the darkness. There were very few paths in this part of the
Underworld. The stone floor was jagged and dropped off constantly.
It made it difficult to sneak around in the shadows. I might fall
into a chasm at any moment. But, that also meant that no one else
should be in the shadows, not unless they could fly. So who was
watching me?

My eyes fixated on a dark patch
certain that something was there. But, I saw nothing. My Martis
vision couldn’t cut through some of the shadows. It was like the
inky blackness was a being, rather than the absence of light. The
thick, dark masses oozed, filling every crack and crevice. I stayed
away from those, too. Right then the weird shadows were the only
things dangerous that I saw. Were the shadow creatures throwing
rocks at me? I shook my head at thinking something so stupid, and
turned to continue my slow progress through the pointed
stones.

I didn’t get very far. Suddenly, a
hand was at my throat, and I slammed backwards into the rock. A
shallow gasp left my body, as the air was smacked out of me. I
grabbed at the hand, trying to pry the fingers loose, before
looking up into red rimmed eyes. Fear shot through me in an icy
blast.

“
Oh my God.
Eric.”

Every muscle in his body
was flexed, pressing me into the stone. He breathed in my ear,
crushing his face to mine. His voice came out fast and hushed,
“What? Don’t like what you did? Is that why you ran away and left
me for the Lorren, Ivy?” I tried to push him away, but he tightened
his grip. His fingers pressed harder against my throat cutting off
my air supply. Panic spread through my body. Wide eyed I looked at
him, unable to speak. His eyes were rimmed in red. The bloodlust of
battle was making him act like this. If his eyes pooled red, if the
gold completely disappeared, then that meant he’d totally lost
control. Death by Valefar wasn’t something I wanted. Jake’s attack,
the bastard who gave me the demon kiss and turned me into the freak
show I am, still terrified me. The Lorren and the Guardian were
different. I could fight those. I wasn’t able to fight Jake. I
would have happily kicked his ass, but he’d trapped me before I
knew what was happening. Later, I learned from Collin that a
Valefar consumed by lust wanted nothing more than to capture his
prey. Right now that was me. Eric was singularly focused on
me.
Don’t fight him
I thought to myself.
Try and talk
him down, wait for his eyes to return to amber.

I rasped, “Eric. I thought you were
dead.” I twisted sharply and slipped out of his grip.

“
I was,” he said,
advancing again with his muscles flexed. “And you left me. Being
turned Valefar kind of knocked me on my ass. At the very least, I
thought you’d wait around for me to wake up.” Each step he took
towards me made my heart beat faster. The insane look in his eyes
revealed an Eric that I didn’t know. It was like someone turned him
inside out, and the only thing that was left was the hatred,
betrayal, and pain. It was raw and flowing off him in
waves.

“
Eric,” I said with my
hands up in front of me, trying to back away. “I didn’t know. I
tried to save you. You couldn’t speak. I thought this was what you
wanted. I thought…”

His face pinched together in a scowl
and he cut me off, “You fucking thought wrong.” I flinched at his
words. He leaned in so close to me that we were nearly touching,
“Don’t like what you made, Ivy? Too fucking bad. Deal with it! And
since you forgot to bind me, there’s nothing to protect you from
me.”

My heart was racing. This wasn’t the
Eric I knew. Apryl still had some Aprylness to her, but Eric—he was
gone. This was a Valefar! What did I do? Oh God. He didn’t want me
to turn him. There was no way to take that back. Stay focused. Calm
him down or kill him. There were no other options. And Eric was
getting madder. I needed him to talk, to get rid of the anger.
Unsure of what to say, I said whatever popped into my mind, “I
didn’t need to bind you.”

He tensed, breathing heavily in front
of me, hesitating. “Yes, you did. I remember every last speck of
pain you caused me. I remember the dust and then that kiss
stripping my soul from my body. I’m going to crack you into tiny
pieces right here. Half of Hell is looking for you to drag back to
the old demon. The other half wants you for themselves. But, I want
you dead. I’ll drain you the way you did me and leave you in the
Lorren to die!” He lunged at me, slamming me into the wall. I took
the hit, not fighting back. But, I couldn’t let him think I was the
one who killed him. Whoever did that was gone by the time I got
there.

“
Do it!” I screamed in his
face, leaning towards him. “Do it, Eric. Kiss me. Rip me apart.
Ravage me.” He hesitated. I knew his memories were blurred. He
confused the brimstone dust with his demon kiss. I needed rational
Eric, and I knew he was still in there. He had to be. I smacked my
open palms into his chest and screamed, “Do it!” His hand gripped
the back of my neck hard, and jerked me towards him. His lips were
right in front of mine. His hard breaths washed across my mouth. I
didn’t fight. I didn’t pull away. Confusion lined his face, and he
hesitated. “Do it,” I growled. His grip on my neck became tighter,
as he pulled me roughly to him. I stared at his eyes, hoping they
would return to normal.

They didn’t. He pressed his lips to my
cheek hard and breathed in my ear. A shiver ran down my spine. I
tried to suppress it, but I flinched. A wolf-like smile formed
slowly on his lips. “Ivy, you’re all smoke and mirrors. All bravado
and no bite. Your heart is pounding beneath your breast in that
thin little shirt. It’s beating so hard and fast that it’s going to
explode.” He grazed his teeth along my neck, pressed his face into
my soft skin, and inhaled deeply. “You’re delicious, Ivy.
Absolutely mouthwatering…”

I stiffened. “Do it, Eric. What are
you waiting for? Every Valefar wants to kill their maker. I made
you. DO IT!” The vein in my neck was throbbing as I yelled. He was
right. I was all smoke and mirrors. And this wasn’t
working.

Eric pressed his lips against my
cheek, dragging them across my skin, inhaling my scent deeply. He
stopped at the corner of my mouth, and turned slightly to rest his
forehead against mine. The viselike hold he had on the back of my
neck softened. His voice was a whisper, “Why didn’t you bind
me?”

“
You were a warrior,” I
said softly. “warriors shouldn’t be bound.”

“
I
am
a warrior. From the time I woke
up, I fought. I’ve tracked you, following the scent of your blood.
That is supposed to help a Valefar find their maker when they’re
called. I used it to track you. I killed the creatures that wanted
you. You’re mine, I told them. You’re mine…” his voice trailed off
and he looked up at me. His eyes weren’t rimmed anymore. They were
golden orbs.

I put my hand on his cheek, but he
pushed it down and stepped away from me. “Eric, who covered you in
Brimstone? Was it the Lorren?”

He arched an eyebrow at me, and turned
his back. His hands slid together smoothly as he folded his arms.
“It was you.”

He spun around, anger painted across
his face. “Eric, the Lorren was killing me while that happened to
you. You were a few feet in front of me, right in front of the
exit. I found you as I was leaving. Do you remember? I held you…I
told you it would be all right, but it wasn’t. You died in my arms.
The entire time it looked like you were pleading with me, asking me
to make it stop. This was the only way I knew to stop the pain. I
turned you Valefar, but someone else covered you in brimstone dust
first.”

He stared at me, completely still.
“But, I saw you. Shannon and I were ripped away from you and thrown
out of the Lorren. I wanted to go back in…Shannon said no. She said
to leave you. We fought and I walked away from her. I went back
into the Lorren myself. Within three steps, you appeared. I was so
relieved. I figured that wind must have carried you through the
Lorren as well. I spoke to you, but you didn’t answer. When I
approached to see if you were all right, you threw Brimstone dust
on me. I was shocked, and inhaled more than I would have if anyone
else had done it. I remember you disappearing, leaving me there to
die, only to let me writhe and then turn me into a fucking Valefar!
It was you! It was you.”

“
It was the Lorren. It
doused you in the dust, not me. I swear to you. After the wind
separated us, I walked through it on my own. It wasn’t a tunnel. It
was a maze. The Lorren almost killed me. Right before I found you,
it looked like Collin. The mental fog it threw over me was so thick
that I couldn’t think. It wasn’t a matter of
keep walking
like we’d thought going
in. The Lorren didn’t let me walk.”

“
Mental fog? There was no
mental fog.” He was quiet for a minute. “I remember everything, and
it was you. Without this,” he pointed at my pendant. His face
pinched in confusion.

“
I never take this off,”
my hand was over Apryl’s necklace. “The Lorren would have appeared
with it. No, it wasn’t the Lorren. You’re right. It was someone
else. But the only other person was…”

Eric’s face contorted with rage.
“Shannon.”

CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN

“
Shit,” Eric said, “They
made her the Seeker! The Martis made her the Seeker and sent her
after us. That’s why she knew about the Lorren!” He turned and
punched the cave wall. It cracked under his fist. The night of
Eric’s hearing was so chaotic that the memories blurred together.
Shannon found us just as we were entering the portal to the
Underworld. Casey ratted out my location. She’d seen the page I was
reading in the archives. This entire time Shannon was waiting to
ambush me. The bond leading us into the Lorren worked right into
her plan. She killed Eric and tried to kill me! “Where is she?”
Eric growled. His eyes were rimming.

My face contorted into a sneer as
anger burned inside of me. I looked him straight in the eye and
lied. “I sent her back to Rome.” Eric stared back, neither of us
breaking the intense gaze.

Suddenly, Eric turned and tore off
like a wild animal. He skidded to a stop, looked over his shoulder,
and said, “I’m not done with you.” Then he efanotated, and I was
alone. His Valefar powers were already in full force. He didn’t
have to learn how to use them like I did, because I made him
completely Valefar. That was how he snuck up on me this time, and
it would mean he could do it again.

I screamed in an incoherent fury as my
fists balled and I struck a stalactite, shattering it into a
million tiny pieces. Why did I take so long to learn? I was so
stupid! Shannon was trying to kill me. It made sense that she’d try
to kill Eric too. He was a traitor as far as she was concerned.
Fucking Martis. They thought everything was black and white. There
was no middle ground. Shannon sided with them, choosing the Martis
over me a long time ago. Anger coursed through me as every muscle
in my body flexed, looking for something else to punch. It messed
horribly with my head when she came after me, but I didn’t see the
point in killing Eric. He was trapped down here anyway. It’s not
like the Martis would have ever welcomed him back. But, he would
have helped me. And now he was a deranged demon. The boy I knew was
gone. My fist collided with another rock smashing it to
bits.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-EIGHT

The memory of my vision smashed into
me with icy accuracy. I remembered the darkness, the slant of the
cave floor, and the slick stone under my feet. My fingers grazed
the cavern walls as I walked, dragging slowly over the cold stone.
Hysteria rose in my throat, but I couldn’t stop. Knowing what was
ahead made my heart pound in my chest. With each step I took, the
familiarity of it made me think I was one step closer to death.
But, my visions weren’t set-in-stone predications. It was possible
that something else would happen—I just had no idea
what.