Taken by the Beast (The Conduit Series Book 1) (21 page)

“My apology, Satina. That’s what,” he said, settling in front of her.

She looked up at him, her eyes licking over every inch of his body. Then, surprisingly, she cackled, shaking the entire room with her boisterous laugh.

“You’re desperate? Is that it?” She looked over at me, disdain flickering in her eyes. “You realize you’re out of your depth, and you think that some halfhearted apology will soften my heart.” She spit, literally spit, at him. “I’m not the weak-willed girl you knew, Beast, ready to spread her legs with little more incentive that a roguish brute telling her she’s pretty.”

“You were pretty,” he answered, wiping the spittle from his cheek. “And you’re right. I’m desperate. We won’t survive without your help, but that doesn’t change the fact that I wronged you once. And it’s past time that I take ownership for that.”

Her eyes went wide. For a second, I thought she was actually going to accept the apology. But then she scowled, twisting the dead girl’s mouth downward.

“This is about her.” She motioned toward me with her head. “About making yourself out to be the chivalrous hero to some chunky damsel in distress.”

She said that as if my curves were a bad thing, but I bit my tongue.

Abram’s posture stiffened. “That’s not what—”

“You still think you can trust him, don’t you?” she asked, looking past him to me. “I ask you, Supplicant, has he given himself to you entirely, the way I’m sure you’ve given yourself to him? Or are there still places he withholds from you, say a particular room in his Castle?”

I balked. She was talking about the strange marked door in the Castle, the one I still had never set foot in. But we hadn’t been back there yet, and I hadn’t asked him about it. There had
been more pressing matters.

“And has he told you of the price he paid in order to bring me here?”

“Enough, Satina!” Abram yelled.

“You don’t think I see it?” Satina matched his yelling with her own. “The way she looks at you, the way you look back! It’s everything it should be—every required ingredient. But it would ruin everything, wouldn’t it?” She cackled again. “God, that is delicious.”

I stepped closer to them, eying Abram carefully. “What is she talking about?”

“Forget it,” he ground out. “She’s trying to distract you.”

I could sense the anger coming off him in waves. He wanted to go, to turn away from this and find another solution. But that anger only lasted for a moment. As he stared at me, his emotions took a different turn. He sighed, clearly resolved to do what he had to in order to keep me safe, no matter what that meant.

Just like he said he would.

Crouching down, his elbows pressed against his knees, he settled himself face to face with Satina.

“Satina,” he started, looking her directly in the eye. “I know you think this is about Charisse or about me using you. And I can’t blame you for that. I did use you. I used you in a way that was completely and utterly wrong. You were a beautiful girl. You were kind and warm. You trusted people, and all you wanted was to be accepted, to be loved. I took advantage of that. I twisted it and used it for my own perverse pleasure. I broke that light inside of you. I turned it into something else. I drove you to do what you did, and I didn’t realize that before. Even standing outside that door just now, I didn’t fully understand how much I hurt you. And I suppose that’s because I never let anyone in. When you knew me, I had a wall up. My parents, they weren’t good people. They didn’t trust anyone, least of all each other. And they led me by example. I learned how to treat women by watching the way my father treated my mother. And while that isn’t an excuse, I think I at least owe you the explanation.”

He bit his lip and held his gaze steady on Satina. “I didn’t deserve you. I didn’t deserve to be looked at the way you looked at me. I was unworthy. But I didn’t realize what it meant to open yourself up to someone. No one had ever been behind the walls I built up around my heart.” He blinked hard and peeked over at me. “Now someone has. Now I do understand. Now I realize you are right. In a sense, I am the one who killed you. In a sense, I
did
push you, even if not literally. And for that, I am truly and deeply sorry.”

“You’re serious, aren’t you?” Satina asked, eyeing him again. Her face seemed to light up. Her body seemed to loosen, as though it had been freed of a weight it had carried for far too long. “God above, you’re really serious. You
have
changed.” She looked over at me. “I suppose the Supplicant was right … it
is
different this time.”

An uneasy sensation started in the pit of my stomach. I had hoped she would come around … but that was too easy. She was up to something.

She touched Abram’s cheek with a shackled hand and stared softly into his eyes. “I will help you. I’ll do everything I can. The mystery beast was in the room adjacent to us. Bring me something he touched. I can use that to identify his energy signature and track it.”

Abram stood.

Satina grabbed his leg. “This is a complicated spell, Abram. It requires much magic, much energy. I need—”

“I know what you need,” he said sternly, and they both looked at me again. “I’m not comfortable with—”

“No,” I answered, realizing what they were talking about. Regardless of my distrust for her, this was our only chance. We would just have to be careful. “If my blood is what it takes, then that’s what she’ll get.”

My eyes darted from one of them to the other. They looked different to me now. They weren’t the strapping supernatural monster and the suicidal witch who made him that way. They were a man and a woman with a complicated history. They made mistakes, and now they were trying to make it right. Maybe she really was being sincere … 

Walking toward her, I ran my nail file over my palm again, irritating the cut enough to draw blood again.

Satina gasped, shuddering just a little. Lord, my homemade heart juice must really be powerful stuff. I watched the blood pool in my hand as I moved toward the Conduit. This was a calculated risk. Hesitantly, I glanced back at Abram.

He gave a firm nod. “The chains will hold, and I’m not unchaining her until this is over.”

She scowled a bit. “Still don’t trust me?”

He frowned. “Do you trust me?”

She nodded slowly. “Fair enough.” She tilted her head to one side. “Maybe in time,” she added. “Let’s just get this done so we can all move on.”

Trying to step carefully, I somehow managed to trip over my own feet. Leave it to a former model to traipse around in five inch heels like a pro but turn into a world class klutz once you get her in a pair of sneakers.

I fumbled, stopping myself from falling.

But the blood … 

The blood in my hand spilled into the open air. I couldn’t stop it before it splattered into the ground. A huge golden ring of energy shot out circularly around us, spreading out far and wide, like a wave that eventually disappeared in the distance.

“Oh God …” I muttered, remembering what Abram said.

If just a drop of my blood was akin to a beacon meant to lead my killer to me, then I had just sent out a signal flare.

“You have to leave now,” Abram said, already taking my hand.

The instant my blood touched the floor, he changed. It wasn’t fear as much as determination. He had made a promise to my father. He had likely made a promise to himself. And judging by the way he now pulled me toward the door, he clearly intended to keep this promise.

But I was intent on something else. I pulled my hand free. “No, Abram.”

He turned to me, panic reaching his eyes, sighing too loudly for me to miss his clear exasperation. “I understand your penchant for being infuriatingly contrary might be hard to control, Charisse, but now is not the time to disagree with me. That blood you just spilled will act as—”

“A beacon. I know. It’ll draw that monster here.” I shrugged. “Isn’t that what we wanted? To draw the bastard out?”

Abram narrowed his eyes at me, his hands clenching into fists. “That was what you wanted. I thought we agreed to go about things another way. Or were we giving your blood to Satina for the hell of it?”

“What’s done is done, Abram. That monster is going to come here now, and there’s nothing we can do to change that.”

“I understand that, but ideally you would be out of harm’s way when that ‘bastard’ got here.”

I shook my head. “What good would that do?”

“It would go a long way in not getting you killed.” His nostrils flared.

“That won’t be a problem,” I quipped, pointing to him. “You already told me you won’t let that happen.”

“I did,” he conceded, as irritated as I had ever seen him. “Now you need to let me do what I need to keep you safe.”

“There’s a cost in keeping me safe.” I glanced back to Satina, remembering what she said about costs. Maybe there was a cost for everything in this new world I had stumbled into. “The girls who look like me—”

“Are already dead,” Abram said. “Joining them won’t help anything.”

“And what about the others?” I asked. “If I leave now, and that monster—” I found myself choking up. “More girls will be in danger. Ever curvy brunette in a fifty mile radius will be fair game to this son-of-a-bitch, including my best friend.” I swallowed around the knot tightening in my throat. “People always used to think Lulu and I were sisters. That’s how similar we are. How much longer before this monster targets her? She has a family. I won’t put her in danger like that. This ends right here, right now.”

He stared at me, his eyes narrowing even further. “I won’t lose.”

“Then we don’t have anything to worry about,” I said, moving closer to him and making sure he knew that I could be every bit as hardheaded as him.

“I don’t understand you,” he said glumly. “You’ve been trying to sacrifice yourself ever since you learned about all of this.”

“You’re one to talk.”

“That’s different,” he said. “I’m different. My life doesn’t matter.”

“It matters to me,” I said, surprised to feel tears burning behind my eyes. “Do you really need me to spell this out for you?” I asked. When he didn’t answer, I knew he did. Damn him. “I don’t want to leave you, you jackass. I will
not
leave you here to fight this thing alone. And if you pull me out of this house, I’ll come marching back.” Reaching him, I stuck my finger into his chest. “You’re not in this alone, Abram, no matter how much you want to be. So suck it up, big boy. I’m here to stay.”

“You’re unbelievable,” he answered, but his tone said he was just as impressed as he was concerned.

“As touching as all of this is, it’s unnecessary.” Satina’s voice, stronger than it had been before, echoed from the background.

Abram whipped around. “What are you talking about?”

“I can shield us, all of us,” she answered. “Wasn’t that the whole point of enlisting my help? The spell is complicated, and I’ll need a bit more of your blood and one of my hands to be unshackled. But I can scramble the draw that’s leading the other monster here. It will buy us some time. Though, if I’m being honest, I wouldn’t mind seeing him. His form is a trademark of mine, and I’d like to see what changes he’s made to it.”

Her eyes flickered over to me. “If you would be so kind.”

I marched over and extended my hand. Running a dead, cold palm across mine, she soaked what blood remained on my skin. Like it did with Abram, the blood glowed and turned a bright golden color. Though, unlike with Abram, it seemed to invigorate Satina, lighting her up.

“And my hand,” the Conduit said, rattling the shackles on one side.

“Just one?” I asked, half-skeptical and half-concerned. If she was really going to help us, had the roles reversed? Were
we
the bad guys now, keeping her chained up for no reason? Or was this a ploy of hers to make me wonder just that?
I would rather be a fool than an asshole, though. “What if there’s danger? Don’t you want to be able to run?”

“Supplicant, I have no interest in this body or in the life that it would tether me to. I’ve moved on from this world. Being brought back to it was an unwelcome intrusion.” She looked over to Abram. “One hand will be sufficient.”

He moved toward her. With one quick, jarring motion, Abram ripped the chain binding Satina’s hand from the wall.

“There,” he said as dust and plywood splinters flew in the air.

“One more thing,” Satina added.

“What’s that?” Abram asked warily.

“This spell takes concentration. I’ll need privacy. I’m sure the two of you can find some way to keep yourselves … occupied.”

Abram nodded and led me toward the door. As we descended the staircase, I saw the sun had set. It was dark outside, which meant Abram should have turned by now.

“I don’t get it,” I said as we stepped into the foyer. “Why aren’t you the beast? The sun has already set.”

“That’s not how it works, Charisse.” He placed his hand on my hip and guided me into the living room. “The curse is tied to the moon, but I can control it until midnight. That’s when the magic is the strongest. After dark, though, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain control. The monster begins to creep in, and it takes huge amounts of willpower to keep it at bay.” He ran a hand through his hair. “It also becomes harder to control my other … impulses.”

A spark lit in my chest and spread to the rest of my body. “You want to eat me or something?” I chuckled nervously.

“Among other things,” he muttered.

It was then that I noticed the sheen of sweat glistening on his forehead. He was fighting against something, and the small voice in my head told me he would win.

It also said that I didn’t want him to.

“Charisse.” Abram reached out to take my hand. “I believe I promised I would make you pay for what you did earlier, and I can think of no better time to handle your misgivings than the present. I know how much you love a man of his word.”

I grinned, remembering how he jumped at that playful smack on his rear. “Why, Abram, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“I think you do,” he said. “But I don’t think you realize how disrespectful your actions were.”