In a daze I walked into the void. Could I really shove the
blade into her chest knowing there was a chance she might not make it? The air
surrounding me was thick and heavy, pulling at my skin with each step, forcing
me an inch back for every foot I gained. In the utter blackness, my other
senses sharpened. The air was rich with the scents of the earth, as if I
burrowed through an underground tunnel. I veered to the left on a whim, zagged
right. A subtle pull in the pit of my gut had me putting all my faith in my
instincts. I followed the sensation until the gentle pull turned around on
itself and wrapped my intestines together in a knot.
Castro said I’d know the spot. Well, here it was.
I slashed the blade against my wrist in one quick move. The
pain was a brief flash of heat. Blood welled, dripping across my skin and
falling to whatever was beneath my feet. I swept my arm out from shoulder to
waist, left to right, as I’d seen Castro do. Drops of blood melted the air,
creating a rip. The tear widened into a spinning vortex. I pushed through the
crackling web and stepped into ankle-deep snow.
Julian’s mansion loomed before me. Smoke curled from various
chimneys, reminding me of the fire raging across town. I checked the sky and
blew out a breath. The same light-to-dark hues painted the horizon as when I’d left
the Victorian, reaffirming I hadn’t lost much time.
I trudged around the house until I made it to the driveway,
stepping through the tire tracks of my GTO. I slithered inside the house,
shutting the door quietly behind me as I went. The interior was pitch black and
the demon crept forward, just as stealthy as me, to lend me its sight. I
thought of the automatic shutters at our place and assumed Julian’s possessed
something similar. I pressed against the wall and listened for movement. Had
the vampire horde left or were they fucking in Julian’s blood for shits and
giggles?
I heard nothing at first except the howling of the wind
outside. After a moment, a murmur of voices drifted down a spiral staircase. I
looked up at the ceiling, trying to determine the owner’s location. I pulled
out my gun and went for the stairs. The Glock’s weight was familiar, something
I used as a focus. One at a time, I crept up each step, careful not to make any
sound. I held my breath, relishing the burn in my lungs.
Ella’s bored, disinterested voice pierced me and I froze.
“Fuck off, Eiven. I don’t need you anymore. Go take a nap or
something.”
She didn’t need him anymore because he’d already serviced
her, or she wasn’t interested? I sniffed the air, searching for the scents of
sex. I tasted only the lingering traces of blood. The closer I got, the louder
and clearer Ella’s voice rang out.
“I swear to fucking Christ, dog. Touch me and I’ll cut off
your dick. Go round up your wolves and do something useful, bring me my bitch
sister or something else to play with. My pathetic sire won’t be up for hours.”
I inched closer to the door, wincing at the loud, echoing
creak in the floorboard. The noise rippled out as if someone had belched during
a formal dinner with the pope. Shit. I shut my eyes and took a second of
complete stillness to hope she hadn’t heard my fuck up. I opened my eyes to
find Ella staring up at me, her blue-red eyes supremely pissed off.
Arms crossed under her breasts, she tapped her foot on the
floor. “You just don’t quit, do you?”
Eiven stepped out of the doorway and growled—a rolling
vibration that lifted the hairs on the back of my neck. Ella hissed. A ripple
of power washed out and he stopped moving. Dismissing the wolf, I looked her
over from head to toe. Still covered in blood. Still wearing her party dress.
My gaze lingered on her thigh, where she kept the blade I needed to save her,
or kill her.
I licked my lips and flicked my attention to her eyes. “Not
when it’s something I want, no.”
She didn’t seem amused. In typical Ella fashion, she punched
me. At least part of her was sticking to the plan.
I didn’t see her fist move, not until it was too late to get
out of the way. Pain flared through my face and my head whipped to the side
from the force of her blow. Blood filled my mouth, a rich salty tang. I spit
out a mouthful to the floor and glanced at her.
Hunger flared in her eyes. I used my thumb to wipe the
bleeding side of my mouth before sucking it into my mouth—a half-assed plan
forming.
“You’re either incredibly brave or supremely stupid.”
I couldn’t deny a mixture of both. I withdrew my thumb,
making sure to brush my cut before offering her a taste. I blinked and she was
gone, but not for long. Fingers threaded through my hair, and Ella, now behind
me, pulled on the strands to force my head back. She lifted on the tips of her
toes and dragged her breasts against my back, letting out a soft moan.
Eiven glared at me, his amber eyes full of a feral possession
he had no right to. He curled his lip and I curled mine right back. My muscles
flexed, preparing to fight.
“Did you fuck him?” I asked.
Ella’s sultry laughter tickled my ear. “That’s not any of
your business.”
Fire surged, flames licking from the center of my palm. “The
hell it isn’t.”
“There there, now.” She slid her hand down my side before
lifting the hem of my shirt. Ella trailed her lips across my throat as she
systematically stripped me of my weapons and tossed them to the floor. Knowing
I didn’t need them anyway, I let her.
Eiven stood and watched us with hatred pouring off him in
waves. Had she paralyzed him or was he simply following orders?
I cupped the back of her head, holding her to me. “What’d
you do to the wolf?”
Ella scraped her nails up my stomach, leaving little trails
of pain that had goose bumps spreading over my skin. “He needs a lesson. He
wants what he can’t have, so I’m going to make him watch. When he’s sorry, I’ll
let him join in.”
Just what I’d always wanted, a threesome with another man.
So not fucking happening.
I tried to calculate the time I’d been in the portal, in the
hall and how long it would take for the others to get here. Soon…ish. I spun
and pushed Ella up against the wall, fitting my body against hers. Turning my
back on the wolf was a risk I was going to have to take.
“I don’t share, babe.” I pushed my emotions out, letting her
feel—taste—my demon’s need to possess. Soul or no soul, she was mine.
She made a purring noise that, despite the situation, had my
cock hardening. I fisted Ella’s hair and tugged. I slanted my mouth against
hers, thinking of my girl, the taste of her, the feel of her against me. This
version of Ella was cold, the absence of her heartbeat—our missing
bond—jarring.
I focused on sensory memory, collected my desire and threw
it out for all to feel. Ella moaned and writhed against me. Behind me, Eiven
let out a deep groan as if even he experienced it. I nudged Ella’s legs apart
and trailed my hand from her knee up, under the material of her dress.
Close. Closer. Under my touch, the muscles in her thigh
quivered. I swept my thumb across the leather scabbard. Bingo. Ella grabbed my
wrist and squeezed, nearly snapping through bone.
“Wrong fucking move, demon.”
She threw me off her. The banister hit my lower back with a
crack. I bounced off it and forward to the floor, my knees and elbows taking
the brunt of the collision. Better than over the railing, I supposed. I glanced
at my weapons lining the floor, gaze zeroing in on the stake. I’d never make
it.
“Have your fun, Eiven, but leave him alive.” Ella’s voice
was a low, cruel warning.
Eiven snarled, nudging the weapon out of reach. He kicked,
the tip of his shit-kicker aimed for my face. I sprang from the ground and into
a crouch. The demon inside me surged and I let it. Violence filled my vision
and I everything I saw dripped red. The wolf and I collided. I buried my fist
into his gut and I took his elbow to the jaw.
The tips of his fingers lengthened, extending into claws I
barely managed to avoid. He slashed out, catching fabric and shredding the
material into ribbons. I dropped my shoulder and rushed him, aiming for his
chest. The breath knocked from his lungs and he fell to the ground. I followed
him down and swung my fist across his face on one side, then the other.
Savagery filled me. I gripped his head, lifted it from the
floor, then slammed it down with a thud. The demon demanded I do it again. And
again. Something hot pressed at the edges of my mind. Ella. I released my hold
on the unconscious wolf and rose.
Panting through the aggression, filled with a hundred
different emotions, I narrowed my gaze on the woman who was currently making my
life a living nightmare.
With a coy smirk curving her lips, she ran a finger down her
chest, between her breasts. She backed into the room behind her as if inviting
me to follow. My dick throbbed, the demon more in control than the man. The
front door slammed open from downstairs. The cavalry. Ella snapped her head in
the direction of the sound and I charged forward, gripping her wrist.
“No, you don’t,” I growled and pushed her inside what
appeared to be a bedroom.
She struggled against my grasp and I used all of my energy
to hold her in place, to keep her from phazing. The floor beneath my feet was
solid. The air around me potent with the scents of blood. A tacky bed complete
with hanging sheets of silk draped across the four posters dominated the room.
I focused on these things, keeping me—and by extension her—grounded.
“I’ll kill every last one of them. Then, when I’m done, I’ll
let you watch as I cut your brat-child out of my body and feed it to you.”
My heart stopped beating.
What the fuck did she just say?
“You didn’t know?” she asked coyly, no longer struggling to
get away but pushing closer, having found a new, more effective way to hurt me.
Because fuck, did her words hurt.
I curled my lip and felt my nostrils flare out. I squeezed
her wrist, channeling my anger. Where she should have felt pain, her eyes lit
with pleasure.
I searched her gaze, looking for the lie but finding nothing
except a calculated cunningness to say, or do, whatever it took to win this
fight.
“You lying bitch.”
Pounding footsteps echoed through the house, mimicking my
heartbeat.
“Would I lie to you?” Her voice changed into something low
and intimate. “We made a baby, Micah.”
My resolve weakened and I looked down the line of her body
to her stomach. I tried to visualize a baby growing in her belly and couldn’t
fathom it. A child. My child. The Demon Son. But she was on the Pill, we couldn’t
have. Or had we? She’d been off for a couple of weeks now. Emotional. Tired.
Horny as hell… Shit. I knew nothing about pregnant chicks.
“Don’t listen to her, Micah,” Castro bellowed and I jerked
back to myself, back to Ella’s smug-as-hell grin.
She hissed, her efforts to flee doubling. I held tight,
determined not to let her out of my sight. Hannah, Dante on one side, Eli the
other, walked into the room. Ella’s sister drew a blade across her palm without
even flinching. Drops of blood splattered to the ground.
She spoke, the words rolling off her tongue without an ounce
of hesitation.
“Accipite offeret sanguinem. Liga eam in carne mea, ut cum
illis in herbis.”
Hannah threw a small pouch on the ground at Ella’s feet.
Magic gathered, lifting her hair into the air.
“Et dominabitur a mortuis.”
Books flew from the shelves, pages flapping in an invisible
wind she created. The lights flickered.
“Be still!” Hannah threw her hand out and a stream of potent
magic whipped through the room, encompassing it.
Ella sucked in a breath and went completely motionless, as
ordered. Holy fuck.
“Now, Micah! I can’t…hold it for long,” she said between
clenched teeth.
Her face paled, lips tingeing blue. The last thing I saw before
I turned was the buckling of her knees as her legs gave out and Dante catching
her. Taking advantage of Ella’s frozen state, I reached down and removed the
Blade of Souls from the sheath. The black blade gleamed, the gems encrusted on
its hilt shimmering. At the end, a lavender light pulsed. Her soul. Shit. I
transferred my grip and took aim—her heart. In the same second, Ella broke from
Hannah’s spell.
She screamed—loud and long—her rage echoing through the
house. Glass shattered, tinkling to the floor. Hannah, Eli and Dante fell to
their knees. Castro stumbled in from the hall and curled into the wall. Blood
dripped from their noses and they grabbed their heads, as if trying to protect
themselves. Her piercing wail cut off, leaving a ringing silence in its wake.
Ella kicked my arm and the blade fell to the multicolored rug beside the bed.
We looked at the blade, at each other, then back to the
bounty. At the same time, we dove for it, but for once, I was quicker.
“I’m going to enjoy ripping out your throat, pretty boy.”
Fangs bared, she went straight for my neck. I rolled her
beneath me, pinning her arms above her head. She phazed and I dropped to the
ground where she’d been, thwacked my head. Through the stars dancing in front
of my eyes, I twisted, anticipating the best I could where she’d reappear. I
guessed right and got a shard of glass in my side as reward. I wrapped my hand
around the protruding object, hissed and yanked it out.
We circled each other, her chest heaving up and down. Blood
rushed over my side, soaking into my jeans and making the material stick to me.
I took in the room. Dante, Eli, Hannah and Castro lay unmoving on the floor.
Grief and anger surged through me and I pushed it away. Had
she killed them? Do or die. I feinted right and she followed, knowing my moves.
This wasn’t going to work. My gaze landed on the bed where Julian’s pale, still
form lay as if he were dead. But that wasn’t the case because Ella couldn’t
kill…