The Devil's Masquerade: The Remedy (The Devil's Eyes) (21 page)

“You must first breathe, breathe deep and then fight … like this,” Kamini says before showing us a move that draws in the attacker and then quickly disables them. “Like that, but move faster and with precision. Every soldier of a Lord follows his words precisely and without hesitation. It is these men that will cause you the most harm because they won’t stop until someone is dead, whether it be you or them. No ordinary fight will do. A simple take down or knock-out will stall them, but only for a moment, and then they will come back, only stronger and more determined to accomplish their goal. Assassins, especially one like Ward, Savage’s special slayer, are the deadliest and the hardest to kill. An assassin’s only goal is to end your life as quickly as possible. You must end his without coming anywhere close to him. An assassin will search you for a weakness and then come at you, focusing only on that one weakness. Weapon or no weapon, they will turn that weakness into your death. I suggest dodging these men for as long as you can. You have to be extremely fast and effective because you will only get one chance to kill them. You, Ryan, you can do this, but you go at him when he least expects and aim straight for his throat with everything you have. If you miss … run. Now, let’s practice what you have learned.”

She pulls me out in front of everyone and places Cat in front of me. We both instantly smile at one another. She has her turn first, taking me down and with a gleeful expression. Not that I didn’t enjoy her rough handling of me, or her magnificent breasts hovering over my face. “Eli!” she snaps, realizing my eyes are less concerned about the training and more on the great angle her shirt dangles openly in front of my eyes.

“What? I’m dead, aren’t I? Give a man something before he goes off into the clouds.” I smile wide, slipping my hand across her ass and squeezing before turning her onto her back and taking her down. “Always make sure your attacker is down for good before letting down your guard.” I lean down close to her. “That is, unless you want to be taken down.” I kiss her cheek before helping her up with me.

“Clouds my ass, more like the depths of hell. I have an opening in my realm if you like?” Amery says, stepping in front of Catriona and eyeing me down.

“Oh, be nice, tall unpleasant one. I will look at your breasts next if you want?” I say, rubbing his chest.

“I could beat you into a fine dust, so I wouldn’t touch me again,” Amery says, pushing me back away from him. I laugh for a second before punching him in the face. The fury that comes back at me is up close and personal. “I won’t hesitate to kill you if you don’t learn to stay away from Cat.”

“Oh I am learning a lot, but staying away from her is not in the plans,” I fire back in his face. Amery throws a hard hit against my jaw before Ryan pulls him off of me. I go back at him and blast him again, using my new knowledge against his kind. Cat starts towards us, but Kamini holds her back.

“Fuck!” He grimaces, feeling the acute pain to his ribs.

“What’s wrong? Not liking the idea that I can beat your ass now?” I smile happily.

“Eli, come on. Back off,” Kayla says, pulling me back away from him; however, Amery and I stay locked on each other. Kayla grabs my face and forces me to look down at her. “Calm down and remember what’s important. Fighting amongst ourselves isn’t going to help any of us, including Cat who you could lose completely if you don’t focus.” I glance over at Cat’s worried expression.

Sighing, I look back down at Kayla. “Okay, I’m good,” I say, nodding and stepping back to watch Bo and Ryan go at it.

Cat approaches soon after with an angry expression. “Eli, please do your best to get along with Amery. He is my best friend, and he always will be,” she says, turning to walk away.

I take hold of her arm and turn her back to me. “Cat, are you going to hold my hand tonight?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. Amery is very upset, and I think it is causing more frustration between you two,” she says while I roll my eyes.

“Maybe he should just get over it,” I snap, pissing her off.

She walks away from me, and I spend the rest of the day and night by myself, being forced to think about my life. Nick’s office makes a great hideaway, and the bar inside is a bonus. By the end of the night, I feel much better, and I don’t give a fuck about anyone. Not good timing for Cat to walk in on me. “What the fuck do you want?”

“Why do you do this to yourself? You can’t handle your issues without alcohol?” she says before continuing on and on about some shit about me needing to learn how to deal with my issues properly.

“You know what? Shut up.” I stand up, somewhat wobbly, but I manage to get stable enough to look down at her. “I care about you. That doesn’t happen to me very often, so yeah, I needed a fucking drink to sort it out in my head. I needed a fucking drink to understand why the hell I am so fucked up over one woman? What the hell is it about her that makes me so crazy that I’m sitting here cursing myself for letting you walk away from me with that asshole without telling you that I am sorry. That I do trust you, or I want to trust you, but I don’t know how. I … I, fuck, Cat. I can’t get you out of my damn head, and it pisses me off because if I lose you, I don’t think I could handle that.” I shake my head and leave her to go to bed. I strip naked, crawl under the covers, and begin to fall asleep when I feel someone crawl in next to me, naked and just as vulnerable as I feel.

“Don’t move. Just take my hand and go to sleep. I’m not going to leave you, Eli, no matter what dumb ass shit you do,” Cat says, letting me rest my spinning head against her breasts while she runs her fingers through my hair.

Chapter 24

Nick

Grandfather seems pleased with me today for handling some tense negotiations on my own, so he never bothers to question me past my duties of the day. Galena is blissfully excited about sneaking out with her boy toy of the day, so neither of them think anything of allowing me to continue on without questioning me. I go through my same routine as the day before and end up going back to her house. She seems to purposely make herself available to me, standing outside and staring off into the distance without a care in the world. She is either brave or stupid; I don’t know which. She has to know my grandfather wants her dead, and maybe, because of that, she is using me to prevent it.
Yes, I bet she is.
I should have known better. I should have never come to see her. Once the sun goes down, she disappears into the house, and I follow. It is quiet inside, except for the footsteps upstairs. My curiosity gets the better of me, so I follow them cautiously. I catch sight of her disappearing into her room, and I quickly move towards it. I open the door and slip in, instantly meeting her eyes. She lounges calmly on a chaise as if she was waiting for me to come in.

“Why are you following me?” she asks.

“I want to know how to remove this curse you put on me.” She laughs. “Why is that funny?”

“I don’t know what it is your grandfather has told you about me, but I have no power at all. I certainly cannot put any curse on you or anyone else. That is ridiculous actually,” she says with a soft laugh before picking up a book and reading with little concern about me being in her room.

“It is not ridiculous! I have seen it done,” I snap at her.

“No you haven’t.”

“I have to.”

“Really? When?”

“You are really annoying,” I say, and she shrugs. “If there is no curse, then why did I get so sick? If it is not you then it must be that other one I have seen you with.” She laughs and shakes her head.
I want to grab her neck and …
She looks up from her book and smiles as she turns another page.
I … I swear.
I gaze over her as one of her legs slides down the other and she tilts her head slightly to one side, allowing her hair to fall back over her shoulder and against her face. My head begins to become dizzy. I shake off my daze and refocus.
Kill her.
I want to kill her, but something is fighting me. “Stop that!” I say through my teeth.

“Stop what?” she asks with an annoyed expression.

“You know what. That movement you are doing. It is making me confused.” She stands up and walks towards me, shaking her head as she looks deep into my eyes. I step back, watching her move towards me with a confident sway in her hips.

She nears me and brushes her fingers against the corner of my lips. “You really shouldn’t drool. It gives your desires away, Nick,” she says.

Full of anger and disgust for her, I push her up against the wall. “I don’t like you. I wish I had never met you. Now, tell me what you want in order to get this curse, or whatever it is you have done to me, to go away so I can forget everything about you.”

“Mommy, Brayden is sick again!” The small one yells, walking into the room. His eyes focus on me, and I step back, watching him carefully.

“There are other people here? Who is Brayden?” I ask.

“Our son, our second born son,” she says. I squint my eyes at her. “Nicky is our first born son, and Brayden is the second,” she continues, taking the small one by the hand.

“It’s okay Mommy, Daddy won’t hurt us,” the small one named “Nicky” says as Kayla keeps him to the other side of her as if she is protecting him from me. She is powerful. She must be if she believes she can prevent me from killing such a small person. She takes a breath and leaves the room, allowing me to follow them.

The moment we walk into the room, an even smaller child stands up, sees me, and instantly begins crying and holding out his hands to me. I have never seen a child so small before. I step away from him, wondering why he is reaching for me. He cries harder for me as if he knows me and continues to reach for me. I reach out to him to see what he will do, but he does nothing more than grab my hand and try to pull me closer. Before I know it, he is on me and breathing roughly against me. His little hand grips my coat tight as he buries his face into my neck. I look down at him as he looks up at me with the biggest and brightest eyes I have ever seen. My mind suddenly sets adrift, and my emotions become even more confused.

“Are you trying to hurt him?” Kayla asks.

My head becomes dizzy again and spirals as I sit in an oddly oversized chair, trying to breathe. Why such a small person needs such a large chair I have no idea. I look up at Kayla and scowl at her. “What are you doing to me? You are weakening me again.” I look down as the child begins to whimper. I want to silence him, but his innocent eyes take hold of me, and I suddenly feel as if I have no power to silence him or anyone else. He lays his head on my shoulder and breathes with a sniffle, grabbing a tiny fist full of my shirt. I let out a single long breath as Kayla gasps abruptly. I quickly look her way, but she sits on the other side of the room, away from me. The other small one works his way into the chair and sits near my side. I don’t understand what is happening to me, or why or how she is doing it, but I feel powerless. I become so relaxed and peaceful that, after some time, my own eyes start to become heavy, and I have to fight myself from falling asleep several times before I give in and do just that.

I am not sure how long I was asleep, but when I feel a tug at my arm, I jump and see Kayla as she tries to take the smallest one from my arms. “I only want to take Brayden and put him in his bed.”

“No, don’t come near me. I will do it. Where did the other one go?”

“I already took Nicky to bed. He was sound asleep, too.”

“I wasn’t asleep,” I say, putting the child down into his bed and backing away as Kayla repositions him and covers him up.

“His fever is gone,” she says with tears in her eyes.

“Why are you crying?” I ask her.

“Because there is something about you always helps him feel better. Every time he gets sick, he wants you, and every time, you make him feel better,” she says, confusing me.
Every time? What is she talking about?
An image suddenly appears in my head of me holding the feverish child at a different time. I paced the room, trying to calm him back to sleep and feeling concerned for his health. The only thing that would make him smile was a ceramic giraffe with a missing ear. I pause, looking over him and the room before going towards the closet and opening it to find the one-eared giraffe inside.

“Oh, that’s broken. We try not to let him have that unless he is … wait, how did you know that was in there?” My dizzying thoughts make me crazy, and I race out of the room with Kayla following after me. “Nick, where are you going? I thought you wanted to talk to me?”

“No, I didn’t want to talk about anything,” I say.

“Well I do.” She takes hold of my hand and pulls me back into her room.” I step back, but she steps into me and places her lips on mine, sending my head spinning out of control. Removing my shirt, she embraces me and warms my body in ways I never thought possible. Frustrated, I grab her and hold her back, only to look down into her tempting eyes. “You don’t want me, Nick?” she asks, and I slowly release my grip. She begins releasing her clothes and moving in a motion that captivates me into following her every move. Kayla eases into the bed, calling me to her. Like a fool, I go, pressing my rock hard cock inside of her. Every movement into her causes me to want more. I squeeze her breasts against my face, and she squeezes her legs tighter around me. I hold her close to me, enjoying her moans and caresses of my head. Kayla pushes me back and out of her. I don’t understand, but when she sits down on my erection and begins moving her hips against me, I don’t bother to ask. “Do you like this Nick?” She grips my hair and holds my head back to look at me with a smile. “Do you like this Nick?”

“Yes, I do,” I say, gripping her thighs, lifting her up, and pushing her back up against the wall, thrusting my erection deep inside her with a growl. Her eyes roll up into her head, and I smile, touching her neck with my lips. “Do you like this Kayla? Because I really like this too.” She looks up at me and kisses me hard and deep, and my head just spirals into an ecstasy that I can’t control anymore. I don’t want to let go of her. I don’t want her to stop kissing me. She is my drug that I can’t get enough of. She feels up the wall and back down again, fisting my hair and squeezing her legs tighter around me, moaning and calling out to me with a whimper until she fully comes on my dick. “You liked that, huh?” I ask, proud of myself. As she looks up at me, a smile comes across her face. “I thought you might,” I whisper before thrusting my erection into her until I come, hard and strong. I feel relaxed, and I allow her to pull me into bed with her and caress her warm body. The moment is nice. Kissing, tenderly touching, and teasing each other is fun and surprisingly familiar. “We have done this before,” I whisper to myself, but she hears me.