Sleeping with Monsters by Hutchins, Amelia (2)

Chapter 12

I lounged on my bed, unsure if I really wanted to go out with Dexter and Kat, especially after the shit that had gone down with Lucian. I felt more confident now, knowing I had countless spells within my grasp, especially since no one else knew it. I’d spent most of the day mentally turning the pages and perusing the spells I’d never dreamt existed.

Even though I tried to ignore it, the dream of Katia replayed in my head at least three times today, as if something wanted me to remember it. The mere idea of Katia trusting the Guild with the grimoires and journals I now had bothered me. Why had she run to them? The Guild was the last place she should have entrusted with her secrets, and yet they’d hidden them in a secret room. Why? Why would they go above and beyond for a witch who wasn’t part of the Guild? It made no sense, and every new piece of information I learned made everything more confusing.

Nothing made sense anymore, nothing!

I’d had sex with Lucifer in a dream, which hadn’t been a dream after all. It had led to Lucian and his men claiming me, and I wasn’t an idiot. I knew it had been more than just an act of protection—it went deeper. Spyder’s bite still ached, and anytime I touched it, my body responded in ways it shouldn’t. Lucian had bitten the inside of my thigh, and it continually ached as a reminder of what had happened.

I’d scoured the coven’s archives yesterday for anything resembling what they’d done to me, and yet there was nothing even close.

I moved away from the bed, glowering at my reflection in the mirror. I pushed the lace strap of my nightgown to the side. It revealed an angry red bite that had yet to fade. It pulsed and burned as I ran my fingertips over it. I glared at the bite then lifted the gown to expose my inner thigh, where Lucian’s was, was bright red, as if he’d just bitten me a few minutes ago. I dropped the hem of the gown, grabbed some clothes, and shuffled out of my room and down the hall to the bathroom, intending to scrub my skin raw to remove the feel of them nipping my flesh. None of the other bite marks were visible, only Spyder’s and Lucian’s, and both throbbed with a direct line to my lady bits.

I hated it, but worse, it felt like they’d placed some supernatural LoJack on me. Then again, if I had to pick between the devil and them, I’d pick them.

Once I had showered, I changed into a billowing skirt with a lacy top. I pulled my hair into a ponytail and dabbed a little rouge onto my lips before a knock at the door pulled me from all of my confusing thoughts. I hesitantly moved to it after checking to make sure my shoulder was covered, hiding the evidence of the delicate situation I’d endured.

“You need to pack, now,” my mother stated briskly as she pushed her way into the bathroom and shooed me out of there, into my room.

“Um, excuse me? I’m going out with Kat and Dexter tonight,” I explained as she moved to my bed, where she sat with a frown marring her beautiful features. For her age, she looked younger than she actually was. She sure as shit didn’t look old enough to have me as her daughter.

“No, you’re not. The coven has requested your help, and I have taken the liberty of agreeing that you would. There’s a witch in Portland Oregon who is in trouble. I need you to do this, and saying no isn’t an option, Kendra. Our numbers are low. Your grandmother believes she will be a useful addition to our coven.”

Her gaze drifted from me to the broken picture frame that still lay on the floor. The glass shards reflected the sun that entered the room from the window, and her eyes darted from the missing picture frame to the one remaining framed photo of Lena and me. Her blue eyes watered before she wiped at them and turned to look at me with resolve in their beautiful depths.

“I miss her too,” she whispered as she stood, pulling a piece of paper from her pocket, along with a little bag of herbs. “These will aide you, and I packed a few strands of Siren hair in the pouch should you need it. You merely place it on your tongue and, for a short amount of time you will inherit the Siren’s ability to charm with words. Hopefully you will not need it, but you won’t be alone in this endeavor. Lucian has sent someone to guard you in his absence. As he has agreed to breed with you, he has the right to ensure your protection.”

“I never agreed to be his.”

“You slept with him without protection. Had you used something, the coven may have considered your thoughts on it, but you didn’t. Until we know if you carry his child, there is little we can argue considering the bloodlines involved. This match, well, it would be welcomed if a child was produced from your union. With the low numbers, we need the next generation more than ever. I can see no reason for arguing this match right now, not unless you know something about him that we don’t?” she asked, pointedly.

“No,” I said, remembering what Spyder had threatened. “I just don’t like him very much, nor do I trust him.”

“And yet you slept with him?”

“I did,” I admitted. I wouldn’t lie to my mother. Not any more than I already had. She deserved better from me. I bit my tongue, knowing that the lies I told protected her from Lucian and his men.

“It doesn’t sound like you enjoyed it,” she pointed out crassly. “Is he not pleasing in the bedroom?”

“Mother,” I groaned.

Was he not pleasing in bed?

She sounded like she just escaped from a Victorian novel. The man was a beast in bed, and probably some sort of sex God, but that was beside the point! “Who am I going to get from Portland, and why me?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Your grandmother said she’s from one of the original bloodlines, but her family broke ties years ago. There’s an address on that note I gave you a place where the witch lived; you should start your search there. If you can’t find her with the info we provided, scry for her. Be careful, daughter mine. Use whatever is necessary to bring her back, but not at the cost of your life. Spyder is out front, when you are ready,” she murmured, stepping closer to hug me tightly. “If he tries to stop you from reaching her, use the Siren’s hair to make him see things your way.”

“I don’t need a babysitter,” I stated.

“No, you don’t. But you are my daughter. You’re the granddaughter to the highest-ranking member of this coven, and that makes you a target, whether we like it or not. Lucifer himself has tried to reach for you, so I’m glad you won’t be alone. Alden agreed that sending you out alone would be reckless, and you are the only one who can carry on this bloodline. I will take no chances with your life.”

“Then send someone else,” I grumbled.

“No; your grandmother chose you for this, and so you will do as she has requested.”

“Fine,” I groaned in irritation as I rubbed my temples. “How long are we scheduled to be gone for?”

“Until you find her and bring her back to us,” she answered softly as she pulled me in tight for yet another hug. “Pack quickly; there’s three thousand dollars on your credit card, use it if you need it. If anything happens, do what you must but try to conceal it, we do not need attention drawn to the coven.” With that, she left the room, leaving me to puzzle at her whirlwind of confusing words and emotions.

I packed quickly, stuffing the pouch and a few other things into my pack, along with extra clothes in case we were gone longer than necessary. My feet shuffled hesitantly towards the window, peering down into the driveway to find Spyder looking up at me with a lazy grin on his lips. Ice blue eyes held my gaze as frown tugged at my lips at the sudden burning in my shoulder. I shook my head as I moved away from the window and made my way out of my room and down the stairs.

This wasn’t a good idea, nor did I relish searching Portland for one single witch who might be in trouble. Talk about a needle in a haystack.

I exited the house and slowly approached the driveway as Spyder pushed off the hood of a sleek, black Audi R8. His smile was all teeth, which did very little to stop the wild tempo of my heart as I got closer to him. The last time I had seen him, I’d been on his lap, feeling his unmistakably hard cock against my ass.

“Hey, pretty kitty,” he purred smoothly, smirking as he moved to the car door, holding it open for me. “Be a good girl and make this trip easy on us, or you know what I will do to you. Lucian isn’t here to protect you this time. I take no shit, and if you fuck with me, keep in mind, I will fuck you back…hard.”

“Where is he?” I ignored his heated gaze. I pushed my bag into the car and climbed in, trying to disregard his choice of words and what they made me feel.

“That’s none of your fucking business. If he wanted you to know, he would have told you himself, and he didn’t. Instead, you got me here to hold your pretty little hand.”

“Whatever,” I growled as he climbed in the other side. I adjusted my skirt, wondering if I shouldn’t go back inside and change before we left. Portland was a long drive, and I needed a layer of protection against this man.

“You wearing panties, kitty?” he asked with a dark look, his eyes slowly moving to slide over my legs.

“Keep your eyes and your hands to yourself, asshole,” I warned. “This trip is business, only business.” I dismissed him as the countryside blurred past the passenger side window as we hit the highway.

“I claimed you, kitty cat, so sheath your fucking claws or I’ll show you what it means to be claimed by someone who doesn’t want you. That attraction you have to Lucian, I feel it for you now. I sure as shit didn’t want it, either. You, however, went and rode Lucifer’s cock, so here we are. Sometimes you have to do what is needed for the greater good, and other times, you help your friends out even if it is going to make them hate you. In this case, it’s a little of both. So get the fuck over it. I have.”

“You didn’t want to help him?” I questioned lamely. I slid my eyes from the passenger window to his cold face.

“Want to? No; you’re not worth the fucking trouble. I don’t want to crave that pretty pink pussy. Yet I do, and watching you get fucked the other night? I’m addicted to the idea of being the one fucking you. Everything about you is calling to me—your scent, the curve of your spine—but then, that’s the spell working, dark fucking magic. You’re not my type; I like to break my women and watch as they fight to put themselves back together. I like to tear them apart, to shatter their mind with nothing more than what the Gods gave me. Tell me, kitty, you ever feel torn apart until you no longer care who you are, and don’t care who is taking you as long as you get that next orgasm?” His eyes tore away from the road to stare me down.

“Only when you guys held me down,” I swallowed, turning away from him before he saw the need growing in my eyes.

“You wanted to fuck me, didn’t you?” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement.

“I don’t know what I wanted, or what you guys did to me,” I replied icily. “You drugged me, you let the Fae touch me, kiss me, feeding me his powers until I was mindless. So that wasn’t me in that bed, it was someone who couldn’t stop herself. The thing I don’t get is why anyone other than Lucian needed to claim me. And I sure as shit didn’t want that, either.” My voice had dropped to a throaty whisper, unable to hide the hunger in my timbre as I remembered the heat of his touch.

“There are two things Lucifer fears: me and Lucian. He isn’t wild about the rest of the guys, either. He knows what he is dealing with. You have our marks on your skin now; if he tries again with those marks on you, we’ll feel it before you even know he’s reaching for you. If he has the balls to make a go for you again, we may have to step up the claim on you. Lucian doesn’t like it, but you really need both of our scents on you.”

“And how do I get that?”

“You’re a smart girl, figure it out.”

“Indulge me, Spyder.” I waved my hand at him magnanimously.

“I’d fuck you, kitty, putting my scent with Lucian’s. Mixed together, Lucifer wouldn’t waste his precious time on you. He sure as fuck wouldn’t wait around to see who the baby daddy would be, now would he? He needs minions, but he wouldn’t wait nine months to see which one of our sons crawled out of your body.”

“That won’t happen,” I hissed as a shiver snaked through me. His hand moved to my thigh as he grabbed Lucian’s mark, pinching it until I gasped and leaned my head against the leather headrest. I struggled to push his hand away. He wasn’t even paying attention to the road or the cars on the other side of the highway. I grew flushed, excited as he held on to the mark. My eyes grew heavy and I moaned, spreading my legs even though I didn’t want to. My nipples turned to hard pebbles and he growled at my reaction.

“It’s that fucking easy,” he warned as he released me and moved his eyes back to the road. “I marked you; you’re mine now too. I can fuck you, anywhere, anytime I want you. The difference is, I don’t really want to, and Lucian does. Now, be good because this car isn’t big enough to fuck you in and my dick is already throbbing from being this close to you without being able to sate its fucking attraction.”

I grabbed for my bag and pulled out my iPod and earbuds, setting them on my lap. I looked away from him, ignoring his gaze I still felt burning my flesh. I hated that I’d been weak against his touch. Why had Lucian sent me with Spyder if he knew this would happen?

“Does Lucian even care that he sent us out together with this—condition?” I asked offhandedly.

“I don’t pretend to know what he is thinking. I do know that he’s busy or he’d be here himself. But yes, he does know that we are connected now; he’s fully aware of what happens when that spell is used—once the claiming has begun.”

“Has begun? It’s not over?” I perked up, staring him down.

“My claim is finalized when I fuck you. Until then, I’m in a perpetual state of need only you can fix—so fair warning, I’m hoping you fuck up, because after watching you fuck him, I’m needing a piece of you and I don’t really care which piece it is.”

“I’m not fucking you, so stop it already,” I muttered.

Chapter 13

The ride to Portland was uncomfortable. No matter how much I ignored it, I felt what Spyder had described. I had to force my mind to focus on other things, such as scanning the mental pages inside my head to try and find a spell that would erase the claiming spell. I doubted it would be as easy to erase as using a simple spell.

Lucian had fucked me so many times that I’d stopped keeping count that night. They had watched us every time, in every single position, and I hadn’t cared. Not that it had bothered them or me, not until I’d replayed it in my head. Then I’d been a little more than embarrassed, but they didn’t seem to mind watching what Lucian had done to me.

The Audi pulled up to the hotel and I stepped out, grabbing my bag, which I started to toss over my shoulder when Spyder grabbed and took it from me. He retrieved his own from the trunk before he moved to the valet and spoke to him as I waited.

Keys were handed off and then we were moving up the walk to the luxury hotel. The scent of roses hit me as the doors opened, revealing an impressive entryway in hues of white and blue. Large murals were painted on the walls and ceiling.

Once we reached the counter, Spyder handed the bleach-blonde concierge a card, which seemed to perk her demeanor up. I was praying that Lucian had had the foresight to know that I wouldn’t be able to afford the room service in this place, let alone a room.

“Is he joining you?” she murmured seductively. The husky undertone in her voice scraped against my nerves. “He was so—generous the last time he was here,” she giggled as she fanned her reddening cheeks.

“No, he’s busy, Ana. It’s just us,” he said in a bored tone.

“And will that be one room or two, Spyder? She doesn’t seem like your normal type.” She pointed her nose in my direction and didn’t seem to care that I was right fucking there hearing her.

“His suite, please, which of course you will charge to his card,” he grumbled, and I frowned as he stretched his neck as if he wasn’t enjoying this any more than I was.

“Two rooms,” I spoke up from behind him, frowning when he turned those icy eyes on me with an angry glare.

“One fucking room, kitty,” he snapped as he moved away from the desk. “Send up room service,” he called back over his shoulder.

“What would you like?” she shouted back.

“Two of everything on the menu,” he muttered just loud enough for her to hear.

I followed him, smothering a yawn as we hit the elevator. I leaned against the side, watching him as he studied me beneath his lashes.

“You should have gotten two rooms. We are not sleeping on the same bed,” I grumbled tiredly as I chewed my lip. No way in hell was I getting that close to him, not with these mixed emotions and the inability to prevent them.

“I call the shots here,” he muttered as he stepped closer, and a knowing grin quirked at the corner of his mouth. “Ever been fucked in an elevator?”

“No, and I don’t plan to start now,” I warned. “Besides, there are cameras.” I pointed at one with a raised brow.

“You like to be watched,” he smirked. “You like people to see what they can’t touch.”

“I don’t like to be watched,” I said confidently, but wasn’t really sure if that was the truth or a lie. I’d been turned on by them watching us, and it hadn’t had shit to do with what the Fae had done to me. “This is a bad idea.”

“Liar,” he taunted as the doors opened up and we stepped into a room that was decked out in expensive furnishings and crystals. It looked like a high rollers suite in Vegas instead of something you’d find in the Pacific Northwest.

From the entrance of the suite, I could see that the doors to the bedroom were open and the bed was huge. Sheer fabric with small crystals sewn throughout it hung from the square wooden frame above the bed. There were chandeliers in each room. Nothing in the suite deterred my eyes from slowly moving back to the bed with trepidation and fear as I noted it was the only bed in the suite.

He moved into the bedroom, dropping our bags beside the bed. He slowly turned around, looking at me as if he was contemplating saying something, and then thought better of it.

I walked deeper into the room and snuck a peek at the balcony and hot tub which waited invitingly outside, with steam spiraling up through the chilled air. Rose petals floated in it, probably having drifted from the trellised vines of roses that surrounded the balcony. I turned in a circle, taking it all in.

“This is a normal room here?” I mumbled.

“No, this is Lucian’s personal rooms when he’s in Portland. I found it fitting to use it, since I’m here with his girl. Might as well use his room with her,” he replied casually. As if he hadn’t just thrown a barb at me.

I rolled my eyes and then looked at the clock. Midnight; we’d made great timing, but it left little time to find the witch tonight and be able to turn around and head home, which sucked. It meant I’d be sleeping here, with him. Alone. I looked at the couch thoughtfully and started towards it, wondering if the room had extra blankets.

I’d no sooner reached it when the elevators opened, revealing two carts full of food trays and a bellboy, who peeked at Spyder sheepishly, as if he feared him.

“Put it in the entryway and get the fuck out,” Spyder snapped, sending the already timid kid scrambling to get away from him as fast as he could. He pushed the carts into the room and then pushed the button to close the elevator doors several times as he watched us with huge, cartoonish eyes.

I looked longingly at the silver platters as my belly growled, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten in hours. The aroma was inviting, and my mouth watered in response.

As soon as he was gone, I spun around to find Spyder watching me thoughtfully. He nodded towards the food as he brought his phone out of his pocket and spoke into it. He’d dismissed me with nothing more than a nod of his head.

I strode to the trays, finding an array of delicious smelling meals. I decided on a plate of lamb and rosemary potatoes, along with a plate of what looked like chocolate silk pie. I set it down at the table and went to the mini-bar, pulled out a bottle of champagne, two flutes, and walked back to the table. With a defiant glare at the door Spyder must have disappeared behind, I popped the cork with a sharp twist and poured the bubbly into one of the flutes.

I had just finished polishing off most of the meal, along with a third glass of champagne when Spyder entered the room again. I swiped my finger into the pie and scooped a dollop of chocolate and whipped cream up, licking it off my finger, and moaned at the heavenly taste that exploded on my taste buds.

A masculine growl brought my gaze up to lock with his as I swallowed the creamy goodness, slowly pulled my finger out, and hated the guilty flush that spread over my cheeks.

“Gods, what the fuck was he thinking?” he groaned as he rubbed his hand over his face and turned away from me, making his way to the couch.

I slid the champagne away from me and forced myself not to bang my forehead against the table. I stood up, pushing the chair away from the table, and wobbled on clumsy feet to the bed, pulling out a note from the pack and handing it off to Spyder.

“Take me here, please,” I pleaded, and then thought about how I sounded as I swayed, and started to giggle. “I’m drunk enough that I can break in without feeling guilty.”

“Fucking lightweight,” he grated as he looked at the address and then back at me suspiciously. “Why here?”

“It’s where the witch was or something, and no, I don’t know why or where it is. I only know my mother said to check it out while we were here. Maybe it holds a clue to where she is so we can get home faster.”

“Bloody hell,” he growled as he grabbed my jacket from my bag and tossed it to me. “Come on,” he muttered beneath his breath as he strode to the elevator and pushed the button. I followed behind him like a puppy dog as we exited the hotel. The car was waiting, as if they’d predicted he would need it.

I slid into the passenger seat and the car shuddered as he closed my door with more force than was needed. We drove in silence, with him looking at me oddly every few minutes. It took a lot longer to reach the address than I’d thought it would.

Of course, the address hadn’t been in Portland, which I would have realized had I looked before giving it to Spyder. The address was for a small apartment complex that was located in a small coastal town, which had a cozy vibe and was just a couple blocks away from the ocean.

I got out of the car and started forward, feeling Spyder’s immense presence behind me as we made our way down the sidewalk and past the little gate of the apartment. I double-checked the number before I tried the door, and found it locked.

“Crap,” I mumbled, already over the buzz of the alcohol in my system. I hated being at a disadvantage in this state.

“Move,” he growled as he shouldered the door, the lock giving way easily. We walked quietly inside the tiny vacant apartment, and I paused. I blinked rapidly as I looked around the tiny room.

One minute it was empty and the next I could clearly see myself in this room, with lit candles on almost every available surface, poring over books that were stacked on the table and music played softly in the background. A black kitten sat in my lap, purring as I rubbed behind its ears.

“What the fuck?” I spun around to find Spyder studying me.

“Yeah, what the fuck is about right,” he muttered as he moved deeper into the empty one-bedroom apartment, which wasn’t even big enough to fit him, much less his presence, which swallowed up the rest of the room.

There was a card on the mantel, which he took down and read. I moved closer as I watched him wad it up and turn to look at me. “You better not be playing games with me,” he warned.

“Why would I be playing games with you?” I glared as he snorted and stepped back. I moved around him to the window seat and opened up the curtains as I stared out at the ocean. I closed my eyes and envisioned a dark figure out among the surf amid a storm. I opened them, and looked out at the darkened sea. “I think I’ve been here before,” I mumbled. “That’s weird, right?” I clamped my hands over my ears as pain tore through my head.

“You’ve never left Haven Crest to come this far west, kitty.”

“I know that, but this is—familiar.” I rubbed my head and moved away from the window. “This was a bad idea; if she was here, she erased all evidence of it,” I mumbled as I took about three steps to the bedroom, pushed the door open, and found it was empty too. “We should go back to the hotel and rest.” I spun around and headed towards the door.

“Any other places you plan on dragging me off to tonight?” he grouched, and I shook my head as we walked out of the apartment and he pulled the door closed behind us.

“No, not tonight,” I muttered as we made our way back to the car. It didn’t seem to take as long to get back to the hotel, and he pulled up under the valet canopy and dropped me off with a curt nod before speeding off, leaving me alone.

Feeling a little disheartened, I made my way back to the room and eyed the tub on the balcony with a speculative gleam in my eye. Did I dare? Knowing he probably wouldn’t be back for at least a few hours, I smirked. Yeah, I did. I kicked off my shoes, shimmied out of my clothes and retrieved a towel.

I opened the doors to the balcony and dropped my clothes and the towel on the chair beside the tub. I tested the water with my fingers and gingerly slipped into the heated tub, groaning as it relieved the aches and pains. I pushed myself up against the side. Staring out over Portland’s cityscape that was much larger than Spokane’s, I saw thousands of lights dancing in the night, sparkling against the coming dawn.

Once my skin began to prune up, I stood up, staring out at the city as my nipples hardened as the crisp air stung my skin. I turned, sensing I was no longer alone. Spyder waited on the other side of the glass doors, staring at my naked figure hungrily. I slipped back into the water quickly as he glared at me.

“You weren’t supposed to be back for a few hours,” I said out loud with shock as I brought my arms up to cover my boobs.

“And you weren’t supposed to be naked,” he returned angrily, stepping backwards, as if he needed to put distance between us. He spun on his heel, headed back towards the bedroom and retrieved his bag, then marched to the elevator. I stared at him while he jammed his finger repeatedly against the button as he continued to stare at me with a hungry look lingering in his wintry, icy blue gaze.

Once he disappeared behind the doors of the elevator, I stood up immediately and grabbed a towel, then moved briskly to the bedroom. I slammed the doors closed behind me as my heart hammered wildly.

I grabbed my bag and dressed into pajamas, combed my hair, then retrieved blankets from the bed and a single pillow before I moved to the large couch and made a bed, crawled into it, and pulled the blanket up to my chin, never taking my eyes off the elevator as I waited for Spyder to return.

I awoke, sort of, to arms wrapping around and lifting me from the couch as something solid held me. I felt myself being moved onto the bed, but instead of waking up I smiled as I lifted my mouth and kissed warm, masculine lips. My hands cupped his strong face as I pulled him to myself, claiming his mouth and welcome heat against mine. He pulled away, and I whimpered at the loss of his warmth. I felt weight pressing against the bed, and then it was gone.

“Lucian,” I whispered before sleep claimed me again.

Chapter 14

The next morning, I awoke with a start as something crashed against the wall. I lifted my head groggily, then slowly wiggled out from the blankets and shuffled into the other room. Spyder glared at me as I yawned.

“Get showered; we find this witch and we get the fuck back to Metaline Falls so I can be rid of you,” he rasped angrily. His eyes were bloodshot, and his hair was mussed, as if he’d been running his fingers through it all night.

“Fine,” I nodded, still fighting sleep. “What the fuck triggered you?” I snapped, but his glare stalled any other argument I might have had.

“Get in the fucking shower and lock the door, kitty. I’ll be back,” he snarled as he punched the button and refused to look back at me.

“I’m going, asshole,” I growled as I moved back to the couch and then eyed the bed with confusion. “Did you move me?” The sound of metal crunching drew my eyes to him. I looked around the now empty-room, which was bathed in shadows. The doors to the elevator opened, but no one was there. “Spyder?” I called out as a shiver raced down my spine. I glared at the now-ruined room service cart and frowned.

I shook it off, grabbed my pack, and locked the door to the bedroom and escaped to the bathroom to shower. I quickly undressed and took in the large shower that was about as big as my bathroom at home.

I stepped through the glass doors and turned the water on, feeling a sensation of warmth as it feathered over my nipples. I paused, closing my eyes as the water started raining down over my hair and skin. I reached for the soap and removed it from the paper. I quickly lathered every part of my body that I could reach, and as I rubbed the soap over my pussy, pausing as a wave of warmth and lust surged through my body, moaning loudly, unable to stop it from coming out. I felt something, like warm hands touching me, but the moment I turned around to investigate, there was nothing there, and I wondered if I was losing my shit. I sat on the small bench inside the shower and parted my legs as my clit throbbed like a heartbeat that begged to be touched, needing release. I let the water run over my body as I pushed my fingers inside my wet sex, clenching against them. My eyes lifted to the shadow that moved on the other side of the glass, and I closed my eyes against it.

It didn’t take much; the tension of being here with Spyder and feeling this wild craving was sending my body over the edge. I pushed two fingers inside, spreading my legs further apart as I rested my head against the shower wall as the other hand stroked my clit slowly. I exploded without warning, no building pressure, just euphoria as it rippled through me.

My moans were muffled as I brought my hand up, holding it over my mouth as something slid through my naked pussy, pushing against the wet folds as it dipped and pushed inside. I cried out as my body tensed and arched for more. Something flicked against my clitoris and I shuddered as another orgasm began to build. I started to look down to see what was happening, and everything stopped as if I had imagined the pressure and entrance into my body. I stood on trembling legs, letting the steam from the shower comfort me.

I was going insane.

I was a little twisted, but who cared. I had needs, and had Lucian been here with me, I probably would have used him to fulfill them. But he wasn’t here, and I wasn’t sleeping with Spyder just to scratch my itch. It wasn’t something he could fix anyway; only one man could assuage the ache he created inside of me, which sucked to admit.

I quickly finished my shower and dried off, and pulled on a pair of ripped jeans which had black lace peeking from where the holes were. I slipped on a comfy oversized sweatshirt and ran a brush through my hair. I glowered at my tired reflection before leaving the room, and found Spyder sitting at the table, staring out the window with his finger pressed to his lips.

“Feel better?” he taunted, and I considered becoming one of those birds that hid their heads in the ground as I wondered if he’d heard me in the shower.

“Refreshed,” I stammered as I laid my bag on the floor and pulled out my kit. I set the map down on the large round coffee table and sat on the floor in front of the couch. Mother had mentioned that if we couldn’t find the witch at the address to try scrying for her.

“What are you doing?” he grumbled suspiciously.

“Scrying for the witch so we don’t have to drag ourselves through every Gods-forsaken place in Portland,” I answered softly as I shifted to my knees and bent over the small table. The shirt exposed his bite, which didn’t go unnoticed by him. He moved closer, sitting next to me as I set out what I needed for the scrying spell. I paused, and glanced over my shoulder to where he sat. He grinned wickedly, noting that I squirmed with his proximity. Before I could say anything else, he slid down beside me, sending my heart palpations into a crescendo.

He leaned over my shoulder, forcing me to look back at the map as I picked up the crystal, which was attached to a magic chain. I whispered the spell and held the crystal over the map, where it began rocking back and forth as it searched for the witch. I felt his mouth hovering inches from where he’d bitten me and my concentration snapped.

My head jerked in his direction before thinking, and I found my lips smashed against his. I stared him down, wondering what would happen if either of us moved an inch. My mind warred with right from wrong. I pulled away from him, crying out as the bite mark burned red hot on my shoulder. It pulsed and sent waves of pain through my body.

“It’s only going to get worse.” His head dipped close and his mouth moved gently against the bite, kissing my shoulder as my head rolled back. He pulled away as if I’d burned him, or as if he’d forgotten himself momentarily. His breath fanned my skin and I bit my lip to keep the moan that bubbled up at bay. He stood up and quickly put some distance between us. I gazed at him from beneath my lashes as he made his way to the mini-bar and pulled out a little bottle of Jack Daniels, biting the cap off and chucking the empties into the little trash basket. “The longer we suppress it, the more it builds. That ache, the one in your shoulder where I claimed you, I have that same fucker in my chest. It throbs for you and you alone. I fucking hate it, and yeah, I hate you a little because of it.”

“How long will it be like this?” I frowned, lifting my eyes to meet his.

“That’s the thing, kitty. It never ends,” he laughed coldly as he downed another bottle. “One of us would have to die, and sometimes the bond doesn’t end there. It’s not white magic binding us, it’s dark. Why do you think you were in a dark room with blood being taken from all of us? Lucifer could easily kill you, but there are a lot of bad things he would do to you before he did you in. We gave you our protection, but it wasn’t free. I’m not a fucking saint, and this cost me a lot, more than just the need to fuck you. That’s why you’re ours now, not just his. If I decide to act on these feelings, do you think he’d stop me?” He snickered coldly as his question danced on every nerve ending throughout my body.

“And he agreed? Lucian would share me with you and the others?” My voice hitched as pain tugged at my heart and did little to hide the growing panic I felt.

“They can’t claim you like we can. When we claim, it does more than just mark you. It claims your soul at the same time. Lucifer won’t fuck with us. You don’t have to worry about him anymore; you’re ours to protect now, kitty.” His voice was filled with lust and smoke.

Spyder’s eyes began to glow the color of freshly polished rubies as a dark smile spread across his lips. I paused, gaping at him, swallowing hard repeatedly as I gathered my courage. Once they’d changed back to the icy blue, I picked up the crystal, forcing myself not to tremble as if his little display of otherworldliness hadn’t just shaken me as much as it had.

“You obviously want me to know that you’re not like me, I get it. You also don’t want me to know what you are, which is fine. If you did, you’d tell me. I also know witches can’t mark other witches, because free will is huge and fucking with it is frowned upon. Breaking it curses you. All magic has boundaries, even dark magic. That means none of you are what you’re pretended to be. Yet he’s fully claimed me, and on top of that, he also agreed to breed with me. That means I will end up carrying his child sooner or later.” I paused, glaring suspiciously as I studied him.

“Unless of course he can’t breed, in which case, his mark and yours will be removed, Spyder,” I sighed heavily as I shook my head. “I have a bloodline to continue, and I want to be a mother someday. In fact, with everything happening around us, I’ve realized how fragile life is, and every day I have it drummed into my head from the coven how important it is to carry on my line. I mean, look at us. We are in Portland hunting down a witch because the coven thinks she is in trouble and can be of help to us in some way. We live in very dangerous times.”

“So if he can’t have kids, you’d just find another dick, just like that?” He drained another bottle and tossed it into the growing pile in the basket.

“We are not a couple,” I replied softly. “He’s fucked me. It didn’t mean we changed our social media statuses to ‘in a relationship,’” I snorted as I made air quotes with my fingers. “Now, let’s take a special note of how he fucked me. That wasn’t normal sex, and nothing between us has ever been normal, has it? He says he did it because I was in danger, but that doesn’t mean he really wants to create a life with me and I wouldn’t force anyone into it, so the entire point is moot. Then add in the fact that he doesn’t really like me, and I don’t like him. That’s a mutual understanding, which makes my brain itch when I even think of having a child with him.”

“He wants you and if he fucking offered, you can believe he means it,” he growled harshly, as if I had offended him. “He isn’t used to wanting anyone. One thing you should know, though, kitty: If I didn’t think he really wanted you, you’d be spread out on that bed with me, twelve inches deep in that naked little pussy. You think I’m enjoying fighting this? I don’t; I hate not just taking you as everything inside of me is screaming to do right now. Only reason I’m fighting this need to fuck you is because of Lucian, he’s my best friend. So do us all a favor, try talking to him before you consider tossing him aside for some limp dick that couldn’t begin to fucking scratch your itches. Because, let’s face it, no witch alive could soothe that fucking ache we created inside of you. You’re a dirty little girl, which is just the way we fucking like them. One who needs to be ruthlessly fucked, hard and often. Now fucking scry away, because I’m about done playing house with you,” he ordered and then hesitated, as if he was contemplating saying more and when he did, it was said gently. “And, kitty, if he can’t give you a powerful child, I sure as shit can.”

“You would do that for him? Because I’m not sure we’d work out, Spyder,” I laughed, trying to lighten the mood.

“I’d do anything for him. Anything he asked of me, even snap your pretty little neck.”

I swallowed hard and regarded him through narrowed eyes as the crystal continued to move across the map. His spiky hair was black, but it moved as if it was trying to blend into the shadows he tended to stand in.

“That would solve the little claiming issue we have.” I smiled as he gawked at me and then laughed outright, revealing a dimple. He looked younger smiling, and I realized I’d never seen him genuinely smile before. This man was a killer; it was etched in the lines of his face, and it shined from deep within him when he looked at you.

The crystal stopped and slid down, and I glanced at the area. There was nothing there, no buildings, no nothing that was marked on the map other than a mass of caves and heavily wooded area, marked in the terrain.

Spyder stepped forward, staring at the map. “Bloody hell,” he breathed out with a chuff as he lifted his liquid blue orbs from the map to mine. “Fuck that. We’re done here, get your shit. We’re going home.”

“No, we are not! I can’t go home without her.” I squared my shoulders as I stared him down.

“You think he’s going to let this go if I take you into that club?” he challenged.

“What the hell kind of a club is it?” I dropped the bravado a tinge. After all, it was a club in the middle of nowhere, which said a lot about it. I wasn’t even sure how he knew it was a club since the map only showed a lot of caves, and rough terrain.

“The kind where you would be my pretty little plaything, kitty,” he purred thickly. “The kind where they’d expect me to fuck you right there in front of everyone.” He moved close enough to me that I stepped back. “You think you could pretend to be my plaything for a night? Because that is the type of club that hellhole is.”

I swallowed and nodded. My hand slipped into my pocket, knowing why my mother had given me the potent Siren’s hair; because if Spyder wasn’t willing to take me, and if I had to, I’d use it. She’d said whatever it took, and now I knew she hadn’t meant against others, only him.

“I can be your fucking huckleberry if I have to be. Whatever it takes,” I whispered, hoping my voice wasn’t shaking as much as I was inside. “Just help me get her out of there.”

“And if Lucian loses his shit over this?” he asked as his mouth lowered to mine. “Who takes the punishment?”

“I will,” I said, lifting my mouth until my breath fanned over his lips before I allowed them to touch his, ever so slightly. “He likes to punish me anyway,” I whispered as I stepped away from him. “You can tell him I drugged you or spelled you to do as I said.”

“You think he’d believe that?” He laughed, but it was hollow. “He’s going to be livid.” He moved into the bedroom and punched the code to the safe in. I followed him into the bedroom, holding the Siren’s hair in my fingers, ready to use it if I was forced to.

He took a few things from the safe, closed it then turned around and moved towards me. He smirked, gazing down at me as I held his icy eyes and slowly held up a jeweled necklace as if he was challenging me.

“Lift your hair and turn around,” he ordered, and I hesitated. I rotated slowly, giving him my back and lifting my hair as I stared his reflection in the mirror that faced us on the wall. He brought his hands around my body, touching my skin as his fingers rubbed my collarbone as he slid the necklace around my throat.

No, it wasn’t a necklace; it was a collar for a submissive. I swallowed hard as I shivered at what it meant. Once it was clasped together, he didn’t move away. His lips touched the side of my neck, right above the jeweled band. I didn’t look away from him, knowing he was testing me. If I pulled away now, I failed to do as he said, I’d end up using the hair on him and his way was easier, less messy. “Grab your things; we have to go get you a dress.”

“Right now?” I asked, staring in the mirror at the sparkling collar.

“It’s only a collar, kitty. Every pretty pussycat should have one,” he said huskily as he strode away from me. “Just don’t let Lucian catch you wearing my collar.”

“He hasn’t placed his on me, yet.”

“Careful,” he warned. “I’m hanging by a thread, and you’re about to fucking cut it. Both of us would regret something like that happening, so let’s go before you end up on that bed, tied to it.”

“Okay,” I stuttered breathlessly, scooting away from him and fleeing the bedroom to the elevator, where I pushed the button several times. “I don’t have much cash with me.” I glanced over my shoulder at him.

“Don’t worry about it; we’re shopping with Lucian’s card.” He smirked at me as we waited for the doors to open. His hair seemed darker than before, black as it blended in with the shadows; even the small gauges in his ears seemed darker. I wondered what the hell he was, that he literally became a shadow.

“That’s not something I really want to do,” I said, turning to enter the elevator as the doors opened.

“Didn’t ask your permission, did I?”

“How much money does he have?” I asked.

“Enough.”

Chapter 15

I stood in the mirror of the upscale boutique he’d dragged me to. The saleswoman had been more than happy to assist once Spyder had pushed into the boutique behind me. Up until then, she’d eyed me like a bug she wanted to squish with her red-soled heels. She licked her lips and made a production out of the most expensive clothing that they had in stock once Spyder had mentioned Lucian’s name.

“This dress isn’t even supposed to be seen until spring, but for you…” she flirted openly.

Spyder smirked; his eyes seemed to slowly caress her figure before they moved to the dress. It was sheer, baby blue, and looked like something you’d wear on a honeymoon, instead of to a sex club. He took it from her and handed it to me.

“Go try it on,” he ordered, and I rolled my eyes as he turned to her and crooked his finger. I ignored him and headed into the dressing room, slammed the door, and stripped off my clothes. I removed my bra once I’d made sure the dress had enough support for the girls and left my panties on. Good thing I’d done laundry, since they couldn’t be seen through the sheer fabric.

I turned in the mirror, noting the thin straps that crisscrossed over the shoulders and laced down the back, leaving the area just above my ass bare. I tilted my head, and then eyeballed the door as noise sounded from the other side.

I opened the door and hesitated. Spyder was on the couch which was positioned right in front of the dressing room. His head was back, and the woman was sucking his cock without any care of discovery. My eyes slid to the front door and saw the open sign was facing me. She’d at least had the sense to lock the doors.

I stepped back, which alerted Spyder to my presence, and instead of looking away from me, those bedroom eyes held mine as her head bobbed over his cock. She moaned as he pushed her head down as far as she could go, holding her there as he gazed coldly at me.

I should have looked away. I should have slunk back inside the dressing room to hide. Instead, I watched as he lifted his hands and slid them into her hair before lifting her head up, exposing his thick cock to my prying eyes. I swallowed, taking an involuntary step backwards, away from him. He’d said twelve inches, and he hadn’t been bragging. If anything, he’d been modest in his calculation.

His eyes slid down my scantily clad body which had heated, because hey, I was a woman and I wasn’t immune to him. He shoved her back down without warning and she cried out, her protest muffled around his cock as I wondered if she had any gag reflex at all. He smirked as I grabbed for the door of the changing room, my shoulder burning with pain.

I leaned my head against the wall, hating that I’d stood there like an idiot, watching them. Why had Lucian sent us together? He knew we would be like this, he had to know. I closed my eyes, listening as she cried out, no longer muffled by his cock. I heard skin hitting skin and the screams of pleasure as she took what he so freely offered her. His grunt sounded, and I opened my eyes, staring at myself in the mirror as my shoulder began to buzz with hotter pain.

“That was, that was wow,” she whimpered breathlessly as she struggled to catch her breath.

“Get dressed and find her some shoes. She can’t go barefooted.”

“We just…you want me to wait on that whore after you just fucked me?” she huffed.

“She’s not a whore, she’s my kitty.” His tone was dangerous, as if he was daring her to say it again. I heard shuffling, a terrified scream, and then heels clicking as they moved across the floor. I shook my head, not wanting to know what had just happened.

I took the dress off, and was standing in nothing but my panties, feeling pretty stupid and out of place when the door opened. I grasped the dress in front of me; he didn’t say anything, and he didn’t have to. I felt it, the need to give in to what we both felt, even if it was just a spell. I was so kicking Lucian’s fucking ass when we got back from here.

“She wasn’t you,” he murmured as he leaned his head against the wall and nodded to the scrap of fabric in my hands. “Put the dress back on; we can leave from here. She’s getting shoes to go with it.”

“I don’t have make-up here,” I admitted absently, wondering why it even mattered.

“You’re fucking beautiful the way you are. You don’t need that shit on your face—and leave your hair down.” He stepped closer, uncaring that I was almost naked as he trailed his fingers down my cheek. “I know, I felt it too,” he admitted. “I hate him a little every time the mark on you burns.” He rubbed the area of his shoulder that was the mirror of where he had bitten me. “What the hell was he thinking?” He backed away from me as he adjusted his pants.

“These should fit her,” the saleswoman hissed, throwing the shoes into the dressing room. Startled, I jumped and dropped the dress as if we were under attack. Spyder growled and turned to leave the moment it dropped.

I slipped the dress back on, lacing up the back before I slid my feet into the heels. I took a quick peek in the mirror and stepped out of the dressing room with my own clothes over my arm. I moved across the room to the register, where Spyder waited for me.

“Fifteen-thousand-and-seven-hundred, even,” she huffed as she glared at me. “You may want to invest in breast enhancements if you’re going to dress her in couture; there’s not very much there.”

My stomach dropped, but not at her words. Who the hell bought a dress costing that much?

“Her breasts are perfect, you should see them bounce when she rides a cock,” he growled, winking at me as my cheeks heated. Of all the comebacks, he had to say that? I mean, I knew he watched, but he didn’t have to point it out.

I moved away from them as she huffed and puffed and rang up the dress. I wanted to cry at the price, argue that it was too much, but he’d ignore it—besides, Lucian deserved it.

The moment I stepped away from them, I pretended they didn’t exist as she jotted down her number on a business card and slid it across the counter to Spyder, who lifted a brow in question.

“Call me,” she said in a thick voice.

“You weren’t that good,” he snorted, grabbing the receipt, my bag of clothes, and leaving the card behind as he left the store.

I didn’t say anything as we sped away from the store. I didn’t know what to say. I mean, I’d watched him with her, and he’d watched me. It had been both awkward and a little hot, which also bothered me.

“You jealous?” He turned off on an old highway and stared ahead at the road. “You shouldn’t be; she meant nothing.”

“You mean nothing to me,” I growled, pissed off more at myself than him. I was jealous, and he wasn’t even mine! How dare I feel anything, or hate some unnamed woman for having him. I had no right to feel it. She didn’t deserve my hatred, because he was a free agent and she’d done nothing wrong, other than being a petty bitch who would fuck a strange man at the drop of their pants.

He smirked wickedly as he accelerated the engine. “Noted.”

“That came out wrong.”

“No, you mean nothing to me, either. This mark tells us something different, but neither of us actually feels what it’s telling us. It’s good you know it, because honestly, I’d rather break your pretty neck than shove my cock down it.”

“You’re an asshole,” I breathed as I turned to look out the window.

“I never said I wasn’t an asshole, kitty. I won’t lie to you. Nor will I fuck you unless Lucian says I can, and if he does, I will wreck you. That I can promise you. What I did to the bitch back there wasn’t even a warm-up,” he taunted coldly. “Do me a favor; stay the fuck away from Lucifer so he forgets you exist. That way you don’t have to worry about that bite.”

“I didn’t go looking for him the first time,” I seethed.

“No, but you didn’t see through the glamour to get that it wasn’t a dream and he wasn’t Lucian, either, and we all know you could have. You allowed it to happen, which is something you won’t do again. The mark won’t allow you to go to him; it will make sure you know who and what the fuck he is.”

“Whatever,” I mumbled as we pulled into a parking lot packed full of cars. In the distance it was as if the club was part of the mountainside. “What the hell?” I angled my body to find Spyder studying the club.

“Something is off,” he muttered under his breath. “You stick to me like my cocks inside you. Got it?”

“Got it,” I whispered as we parked and got out.

We started up the path which led to the club. The people waiting in line were off too. Instead of looking excited about getting a chance to get into the club, they looked vacant. As if they weren’t really interested at all about getting inside, or didn’t care either way. Where people at Lucian’s clubs exuded excitement, this one reeked of fear.

Once we reached the front door, a bouncer blocked our way. Spyder pulled out his wallet and thumbed through a stack of hundreds before holding a wad of cash out to the man.

The man eyed it and smiled coldly as he removed the red rope and swung his hand out in the direction of the pulsing club.

“Nice mortal you got there; she’s your problem. If she dies, there’s no reimbursement,” he warned.

“Nothing will happen to her,” Spyder snorted. “My property is mine to protect.”

“Yeah, sure, asshole. She’s sweet; we like to break the sweet ones.”

“This pussy only fucks me, see this?” he asked, yanking on my neck. “Claimed, in every sense of the word. I tell her what she does, who she fucks, and right now, that’s me until I say differently,” he growled threateningly.

I didn’t say a word or argue what he’d said to the guy. I’d watched the couples inside Lucian’s club the last time I’d been in there. The ones who wore collars didn’t speak unless told to; they didn’t argue with those who claimed them. They did as they were told, and who they were told to do. They were every dominant’s dream: docile, domesticated, and subservient. Pretty much everything I wasn’t.

Once we were inside the club, Spyder pulled me to him as a man with beady, glassy eyes approached us. Spyder held my tits, crushing them with his hands as I stifled a groan as the pain hit me.

“Beautiful,” the man breathed, reaching out a hand to touch my hair.

“Do not touch my property,” Spyder warned coldly.

“I have three; you can have them all for the night if I can have her?” The man’s hand moved, touching my hip until Spyder growled.

“She’s not for trade,” he rumbled threateningly. “She’s new, still being trained to serve my needs.”

“I like them like that, their skin is pure still. I’ll pay you very well to watch as you break her.”

“I’ll find you if I change my mind,” Spyder said, dismissing the man as he pulled me with him through the throngs of people. Once we were lost in the crowd, I spun around into his wide chest as he pulled me closer, acting on instinct. He smelled exotic, addictive, and anything but human.

We were being watched by the bouncers, huge creatures that eyed us suspiciously as we swayed to the heady, sultry music that played inside the club. Spyder’s hands slid to the base of my spine as he watched them.

“Kiss me, kitty,” he urged softly as his mouth lowered to hover next to mine.

I swallowed hard as I tried to think of a way out of kissing him. But, I’d told him I could do this. It wasn’t as if it would mean anything. We were playing roles here. One’s meant to save a life, right? I lifted on my toes to connect our lips and shock waves rushed down my spine as we connected. His lips rubbed against mine before his tongue pushed past my lips, claiming my tongue. He tasted of sin, sin mixed with leather and expensive spices. I moaned against him as he deepened the kiss, and then pulled back, staring into my gaze.

I mumbled incoherently trying to figure out what to say as I fought against the mixed emotions the kiss had caused. “What did he mean by break her?” I blurted, swaying to the music as I stared into his eyes. He smiled softly, as if he realized what I was doing and allowed me to ignore what we’d just done. It had worked though; the bouncers had moved their attention away from us. But my eyes seemed unable to stay off his lips, wondering how I’d felt as much as I had with him.

What the fuck was wrong with me?

“He whips and fucks his females until they are nothing more than a bloody mess on a whipping pole. He’s an extreme sadist, but where most draw a line, death is his line. The tattoos on his left arm are those he released to death. The ones on the right are for those who lived.”

I shivered as I ignored the tightening in my throat. I wasn’t meant for this world. I wanted to find that man and rip his throat out. I doubted the women had been willingly tied to any pole knowing what their fate would be. I was relieved when we started moving again.

I followed Spyder further into the seething mass of people who danced body to body. It forced us to push through them to get where we could find somewhere to sit down. By the time we reached the middle of the dance floor, which was pretty far into the club, my head started to pound and my stomach roiled. Pain shot through me and my hand, which was in Spyder’s, slid free as I started to fall backwards. He caught me and held me against his side as he began to shove people out of his way.

“Something is wrong,” he noted, and I nodded. Heat unfurled inside of me as I clung to Spyder like a lifeline. I felt sick, and my head pounded with the music. Once we cleared the crowd, I covered my mouth as the nausea swirled in my throat with a painful pulse.

“Bathroom,” I whimpered as saliva built in my mouth. “Now,” I beseeched.

He rushed me in the direction of the bathroom, pushing the door open as he helped me inside. Once he’d stepped the first foot inside, he was pushed out by an invisible force. He tried again and the door slammed shut in his face.

I rushed to the stall, unable to wait as I tossed my cookies, violently. Once I had nothing left in my stomach, I headed to the row of sinks, washing my mouth out and patting my face down with the wet paper towel as a stall door opened and a redhead stepped out. She had vivid green eyes, which sized me up and down as if she knew me.

“You finally made it,” she grinned at me as she washed her hands. “I feared you wouldn’t after you didn’t show up last night.”

“You’re the witch?” I stepped away from the sink to look at her. She didn’t have a mark on her that might indicate any kind of trouble or distress. She wore a beautiful gown, white for purity, which seemed off inside this particular club.

“I am. I’m Tiffany, Tiffany O’Hara.”

“You couldn’t find a safer place to meet up?” I asked with a shake of my head, and she gave a small shrug.

“Places like this are in these days. We should go, though, we’re not safe here. They enjoy witches a little too much in places like this.”

“You think?” I hissed, marching for the door and opening it wide.

Spyder looked pissed. His eyes looked me up and down for injury before he grabbed my arm and started towards the front door.

“I found her,” I announced briskly with a tilt of my head in her direction.

“I don’t care if you found her, we’re leaving, now,” he snapped.

I took in the bedlam of the club. Clothes were coming off, and couples were fucking right out in the open. I kept my gaze on Spyder’s back until Sweet Dreams started playing and my blood ran cold. I pulled against Spyder’s arm as an illusion of wings caught my eye. One minute he was there a few feet from us, then the next he vanished like a mirage, only to reappear a little closer to us without wings.

A man with black hair and vivid indigo eyes watched me with a knowing look in his sinful gaze. I felt my body heating up as he moved towards us in a brisk pace. Spyder yanked on my arm, swiveling to see why I’d stalled.

“Bloody hell,” he growled as he shoved me behind him, but it was too late.

Lucifer moved in a way that hurt my head. One moment he was across the crowded room, and the next he had a hold on my arm and was yanking me towards himself. Pain shot through me as his fingers curled around my arm, biting into my flesh. Black, skeletal wings exploded from his back as barbed vines shot from his fingers, wrapping themselves around and through my arm. I screamed and tried to pull myself away from him as I struggled to remain in Spyder’s arms.

“She is mine!” Lucifer growled coldly.

“Fucking try to take her from me, asshole,” Spyder returned with a dangerous glint sparkling in his eyes.

One moment I was being ripped in two directions with demons descending on us. The next, Spyder detonated with power—raw, uncut power that slammed the air out of my lungs as if he’d pulled the air from the room itself. The runes which covered his arms lit from within and his hair lifted in the air as he let out an earsplitting howl as demons exploded into black clouds of ash around him.

He had power glowing from his fingers that must have been holding Lucifer to the ground. I gawked as I gasped for air, afraid I’d pass out from the lack of it. Lightning flashed and zigzagged around the club as thunder rattled it. Lucifer on the ground shook with it; blood oozed from his nose and eyes as Spyder held him there with his power.

I struggled to get up, but I couldn’t move. No one could. Whatever the fuck Spyder was, he had brought the entire club to the ground with ease. My hand lifted, touching his leg as darkness threatened to consume me.

Silver eyes looked down at me, blue flecks mixed in the mercury depths. His hair was bluish white, as if someone had stolen the pigment from it and given him some hellish, stylish highlights. I dropped my hand, my head flopped to the floor, and my eyes drifted to Lucifer’s. He no longer actually had eyes, just blood oozing from where they should have been.

What. The. Fuck.

Spyder reached down and yanked me up as he moved. I pointed at Tiffany, who looked like she was also about to pass out from the power in the room. He grabbed her hand and dragged her with us into the dark night. Once outside, I greedily sucked in air. Tiffany sputtered, wheezed, and coughed as she sucked in her own.

Spyder set me down carefully, holding onto me as he pulled his phone from his jacket and punched the buttons with his thumb. “Now,” he demanded, his voice mixed in layers of anger and unease. I looked back at the doors of the club, noting that even those outside hadn’t been spared. Spyder pushed his phone back into his pocket. Tires squealed, and I watched as a black Land Rover pulled up and someone got out. Spyder tossed the Audi keys to whoever was in the Rover, and pushed me to the passenger side of the Rover, opening the door and lifting me into the seat.

I watched in numb horror as he pulled the barbed vines from my skin, and pressed his mouth to the damaged flesh as he sucked against it. I closed my eyes against the imagery as black pus oozed from where he’d pulled the first one out.

“Fuck, fuck!” he shouted as he pulled several more out. Brilliant light flashed and blinded me for a moment. Once my eyes adjusted, I could see the light was emanating from his hands as he slid them over my torn skin, healing it as he methodically touched every injury. The light dissipated, and he returned to the normal dark, angry Spyder I was used to. He pulled back, and slammed the door closed. Bags were tossed into the Land Rover from the Audi before it sped out of the parking lot.

I turned, looking at Tiffany, who appeared calm, as if we hadn’t just almost died. She looked too calm, and I wondered who the hell she was, and how my grandmother had found her. I spun back around to watch Spyder as he climbed into the driver’s seat and slammed his door.

We sped off, tires squealing as the club doors exploded outward. I struggled to turn and look behind us as Lucifer stood in front of the club, watching as we drove away.

My heart hammered as his eyes bored into mine; even in the distance, I knew it was me who he was looking at. I swallowed, unable to break eye contact until Spyder pushed me back and touched the side of my face.

“He can’t follow us,” he muttered. He glanced in the rearview mirror to check on Tiffany. “You better explain what the fuck you were doing there, or you can get out and wait for the fucking demons to find you. Now,” he demanded. “What the fuck were you doing in outer levels of Hell with the devil?”

I felt my blood turn to ice as images from the dream came flooding back. That club. I’d been in that club before, on stage. I’d been fucked there! Tears burned my eyes and I stared at Spyder, knowing he’d just saved my life.

“Hell?” I whispered. “Mortals can’t enter Hell,” I continued, watching him. “Only souls can, right?”

“They can if they are invited, or if they remain on the outskirts of the Hell Gate, but that one wasn’t normal. It’s been altered.”

“I wasn’t invited, I was taken there.” Tiffany licked her lips nervously. “I sent a distress call through the leylines. I had to get out of there; you have no idea what they do to witches in that place.” She sat back and closed her eyes. “I am a witch of the original bloodlines; your coven had no choice but to heed my call.”

“Fuck your blood, and fuck you,” he snapped; fury seemed to emanate from him. “And you, you scryed for it. Witches can’t find Hell Gates. They’re hidden from your kind for good reason.”

“Well, I found it,” I bit back angrily. “I only scryed for her, not the Gates of Hell, Spyder!”

He had been about to say something, but he paused, and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He held it up to his ear for a moment, then shouted, “What? Yeah, I know you fucking felt it, we all fucking felt it… No, fuck you. She took me there, you can fucking ask her why we were there… No, it’s not my fucking problem. You can ask her when she gets to you. I didn’t want to babysit her in the first fucking place. No, of course I didn’t, it was wide fucking open. Yeah, I know it’s a fucking problem, this entire fucking situation is one big fucking problem, but who’s fucking fault is it?” He turned, looking at me before he snorted into the phone. “Yeah, I’ll bring her to you.” He hung the phone up and we drove the rest of the way in silence until a few miles out of town.

“I need to go to the abbey,” Tiffany said softly as she smoothed out her skirt. “I must reach it before the solar eclipse today.”

Today? I looked at the clock on the dashboard that said it was five in the morning. What the fuck? I turned and looked at Spyder, who glared at me.

“Hell moves differently than this world. One minute in there can be a week out here, depending on what is occurring in it.”

“That’s insane,” I said hesitantly. “We weren’t in there that long!”

“We were—it just doesn’t feel like it. You were inside the bathroom a while, plus, it took us a few to work through the crowd, among other things we did. There’s no perception of time in Hell. If you’re sentenced to an eternity in Hell, you are sentenced to their time, not this world’s.”

We pulled up to the abbey around ten in the morning, and I watched the doors open as my mother stepped through them. Her eyes skimmed over me and went to the witch in the backseat as she exhaled a sigh of relief. I frowned as Tiffany exited the car and rushed towards the group of witches who came out to welcome her.

The SUV started down the driveway and I looked back, locking eyes with my mother as we sped off towards Club Chaos.

Chapter 16

We pulled up at the club and saw a crowd of people milling around outside, which was weird considering what time it was. I must have had a confused expression on my face, as I caught Spyder gazing at me oddly.

“It’s the solar eclipse. Lucian’s clubs tend to draw in those who believe in the supernatural powers of these events,” he explained to my unasked question. “There are mysteries around the eclipses that not even your coven or the Gods themselves can start to understand.”

“So they come to Lucian’s club because they’re crazy?” I laughed nervously.

“Even witches believe that the solar eclipse holds powers beyond their comprehension. Then again, life is full of mysteries that aren’t ours to understand.”

“That’s deep, Spyder,” I murmured as his icy blue eyes narrowed on me.

“Let’s go, now,” he growled as he opened his door and stepped out, ignoring the gawking girls who walked by us, fixated on him as he opened my door. He was a gentleman, at least. I got out of the car slowly, trying to brush off the curious glances from the crowd wandering around the club as he grabbed our bags out of the trunk. “Don’t piss him off when we get inside, kitty. He’s already bent out of shape as it is that we walked into a pocket of Hell.”

“We didn’t know it was,” I said defensively.

“No, but I should have known better,” he snapped angrily and slammed the trunk closed. It seemed more like he was mad at himself and not at me.

“I don’t see why he’s upset at all.” I tried to walk a little faster to keep up with his long strides. “We didn’t get hurt, we got Tiffany out of there, and we all lived.”

Spyder gawked at me incredulously. “Are you out of your ever-loving mind?” he almost bellowed at me. “We went into a shit-show and you got hurt. Yeah, we got that fucking witch, and we were just fucking lucky to get out of there.” He scrubbed his face angrily and took a deep breath trying to reel his temper in. “Just keep going.” He motioned towards the doors, where Bane waited for us.

“Here come’s trouble,” he mocked with a smile as we got closer, and held the doors open for us to pass through. “He’s waiting for you in his office.”

“Come on.” Spyder pushed a couple of guys who got too close to us out of the way. I followed close behind him until a hand snaked out and grabbed my arm. I spun around and before I could even take a breath to yell at the guy Spyder was already in action.

With one hand on the huge man’s throat, Spyder pinned him to the wall. The man’s feet kicked at air as Spyder’s nose hovered dangerously close to the man’s. “Do not fucking touch her again or you die, understand?” he growled coldly, sending a wave of chills rushing down my spine. “Leave this place, now.” Spyder shoved the sputtering man away as he gasped for air and nodded his agreement to leave the club immediately.

“I can handle myself,” I whispered, wishing I could hide from all the curious glances.

“A lady shouldn’t have to handle anything when she has someone willing to protect her,” he said softly as we resumed our trek through the crowd towards the stairway that led to the offices overlooking the club.

I followed his stiff back up the stairs and down the long hallway until we were in front of Lucian’s office. The thick wooden door was cracked open already, so Spyder pushed it open as I straightened my shoulders and prepared to face the storm.

Soft, classical music greeted us as we made our way into the office; Lucian faced away from the door, standing at the wall-to-wall window at the back of his office as he gazed down at the club below.

Once Spyder had set our bags down, Lucian turned and his eyes glittered dangerously at me. I swallowed as his eyes slowly slid down the length of me, as if he was looking for a single scratch or hair out of place. They stopped at my painted toenails and roamed back up until they zeroed in on my neck.

“You fucking collared her?” he snarled, looking over my shoulder at Spyder.

“We thought we were going to a sex club, Lucian. I sure as shit wasn’t letting her waltz in there unclaimed,” he scoffed.

“What the fuck were you thinking?” he demanded, aiming those sinful blue-black eyes at me with enough fire in them to burn my clothes off.

“I didn’t know it was that club,” I sputtered. “I scryed for that witch just like my mother told me to, rather than hopping all over Portland for the next few weeks, and believe it or not, it didn’t say Hell on the map, or common sense would have kicked in and I would have skipped it. As soon as I found where she was, I gave the location to Spyder and we headed out.”

“After charging a few items to my card?” he bit out.

“That wasn’t my idea,” I huffed. “And you know what? You’re not my father. You don’t get to bitch at me because you feel like it. I’m a big girl, and I can handle myself!”

“You should have had a father who cared enough to yell at you!” he roared, and my spine straightened as my eyes narrowed on him. “Instead, you had that piece-of-shit excuse of a father that couldn’t even stand up for you.”

“Excuse me?” I glared at him as his breathing grew labored.

“Get out,” he snapped over my shoulder, and I heard Spyder leaving the room, the door closing after his retreating footsteps.

“What the fuck would you know about my father?” I asked carefully.

“More than you, it would seem,” he snapped. “You could have died.” He smoothly changed the subject so fast I almost didn’t catch the shift.

“But we didn’t, did we?” I retorted angrily. “You have no right to shout at me. My loyalty is first and foremost to the coven; they sent me there to get something, and I did it! My loyalty isn’t to you, nor have I ever pretended otherwise, Blackstone.”

“You’re done taking chances with your life, little Witch,” he growled, and I blinked as my head started to hurt. “Do you have any idea how fucking helpless it felt to feel his hands touching you, knowing that I could do nothing to protect you?” He stepped closer, trailing his fingers around my throat as he unclasped the collar, then twisted it into an unrecognizable sparkly lump.

“Would you have cared?” I snapped as his eyes burned with liquid blue flames. “You sent Spyder with me. Alone. You knew we were connected and yet you sent us there together, anyway.”

“You think I don’t care? You think I wanted to send you with him? I didn’t, nor should I care about you, and yet I find myself stuck between wanting to kiss you or strangle you. I was busy here, dealing with matters that needed my immediate attention, so yes, I sent you with him. I should wring your fucking neck and wash my hands of you. But it wouldn’t be that easy, now would it?”

“Fuck you,” I swore as I stared up at him. “You have more mood swings than anyone else on this planet!”

“Maybe if you’d stop throwing yourself into Lucifer’s arms, I wouldn’t!” he shouted as he grabbed my arm and moved us towards the couch.

“What are you doing?” I demanded as he dragged me unwillingly along with him.

“Teaching you a fucking lesson,” he snarled as he sat on the couch and pulled me over his knees. I blinked and turned my head to look up at him as I felt the air on my ass as he lifted my dress. His hand cracked sharply against my ass before I fully guessed his intentions, and I screamed as pain burned across my derrière. I twisted, but he held me there, locked onto his lap as his hand slapped my ass over and over again. Tears slipped from my eyes as I cried out with each punishing slap of his hand against my rear.

“You motherfucker!” I shrieked as anger pushed through me, outrage riding on its heels.

The moment he stopped, I was up, moving away from him to the other side of the office. “You have no fucking right!” I tried to ignore the pain that shot through me with every step. “You son of a bitch!” I picked up a vase and hurled it at him. It shattered against the wall too far away from his head. I picked up another missile and threw it at him as he took long strides towards me.

“Little girl,” he warned.

“Screw you!” I flung the glass paperweight on his desk at him as I rounded it, remaining just out of arm’s length. “No one spanks me!”

“I just fucking did!” he roared as he pushed the desk aside and grabbed my arms. “You have no right to take chances like you did. Lucifer would take you to the darkest pits of Hell and do what he does best. Do you understand me? He’d ruin you and then, when he’d had his fill of you, he’d send you to me in pieces!”

“How the fuck was I supposed to know it was Hell? Do you think that if I’d known what that place really was that I would have gone? I’m not fucking stupid and I don’t think Spyder would have deliberately served me up, either!” I shirked as I tried to yank my arms free.

He slammed me against the wall and pressed his forehead against mine. His lips touched it so softly that I wasn’t sure I hadn’t imagined it.

“I hate you,” I whimpered as I closed my eyes.

“You can hate me, because you have to be alive to hate me,” he murmured as his hands released my arms and slowly moved to the V of the bodice of my dress. The fabric ripped right down the middle with the force of his hands. I pushed him away as I glared at him with tears swimming in my vision.

“Don’t,” I snapped coldly as I turned, intending to walk away. But this was Lucian. My brain never worked around him, and typically my body betrayed me. I barely made it two steps away from him before he jerked my body back against his, and all rational thought fled the moment his hands cupped my breasts.

“You’re mine.” It was a statement of ownership. A declaration. Anger pulsed to life as he watched me as a hunter would its prey. His hands slid up, grasping the shredded bodice that left the curves of my breasts exposed, and ripped the dress the rest of the way. “All of you, little Witch, belongs to me,” he purred as he pulled my body flush against his own.

He walked me backwards towards his desk, leaned over, and swept his arm across it, sending what little remained on it crashing to the floor. He hefted me up, gripping my hips as he sat me on it. My legs wrapped around his hips, forcing him closer as his mouth crushed against mine.

My hands untucked his shirt before ripping it open, sending buttons raining to the floor and desk as they snapped in my haste. Skin, his skin in particular, did things to me. My hands roved and rubbed over his hard lines of muscle. I groaned as his lips left mine, hesitant for him to stop.

Thinking was dangerous. When my brain worked, I knew right from wrong. When his mouth touched mine, he made the lines blur enough that I didn’t care.

Never taking his eyes from mine, he shifted back and unhooked my legs, unbuckling his belt and sliding it free from his pants. I took advantage of his movement to shed what little remained of the dress that still clung to my shoulders.

Lucian feasted on my naked figure and I smirked, knowing he wanted me as much as I wanted him. He held the belt in one hand, pushing my hair away from my face before he wrapped it around my throat and slid the end of the leather strap through the buckle gently until it was snug. I swallowed the fear it elicited because excitement of the unknown took precedence.

He applied a little pressure as his lips touched mine again, softly. The contrast was heady. I gasped as I struggled to catch his kiss, one he held just out of reach as he slid me further onto his desk. He laid me back, sliding my panties off without a protest from me. His hand slid through my sex, finding it ready. His fingers pushed inside as the belt tightened. I arched into his touch, rocking my hips as his fingers explored the depths of my desire.

He kissed the heavy globe of one breast. “So fucking beautiful,” he growled, then kissed the other before nipping gently against my nipple as his tongue curved and teased the raised skin. He slowly kissed his way down my belly, leaving a heated trail as his mouth found my clitoris. I cried out, jolting from the desk as the belt tightened even further as his teeth scraped across my delicate pussy.

His mouth sucked my pussy until I spread further apart and arched for him, giving him full access to my most private parts. He pushed another finger inside, filling me until I cried out as he stretched my body. My head dropped back against the desk as he released his hold on the belt, pushing his mouth harder against my sex as he took me sailing over the edge. I cried out his name as wave after wave of pleasure rushed through my body, then whimpered as he pulled his mouth away and glared down at me as I writhed as the orgasm ebbed.

“Lucian,” I whispered, barely able to get any words out as he continued pushing his fingers into my body.

“Don’t talk,” he ordered angrily. “You piss me off when you talk. I shouldn’t feel anything for you and yet you make me want you, make me feel this need to protect you and I’m not this guy. I’m not your fucking prince; I’m the dragon who slays the weak-ass prince as he tries to rescue you. You are a weakness, one I can’t afford.” He picked me up and then tossed me onto the couch, spreading my legs as he pulled me to the edge, working the buttons of his expensive slacks. “I want to destroy you in the most beautiful way, in a way that would ruin you for any other man. To make sure you know that no other male in this world would stack up against me,” he purred as he pushed into my body without mercy.

I whimpered, ignoring his words as he lifted my legs, spreading them apart as he drove his hard cock deeper than he’d ever been before into my core. I pulled away, only for him to capture my hands and hold them against my belly as he pumped his hips.

Seether’s FMLYHM exploded inside the room. It poured from multiple speakers that lined the walls. I dropped my head, watching as he stared down at where our bodies joined together. He pushed my arms away, wrapping his hands around my hips as he picked up speed. I cried out from the heady, addictive mixture of pain and pleasure as he fucked me without care or thought. He was too big, yet we fit like two pieces of a puzzle that had come together to become one.

I felt my body clenching around him, demanding he give me more. I felt the world teetering around us as I toed the edge of cliff once more, but right when I was about to detonate, he pulled out, shuffled my body around, and placed me on my stomach with my face buried into the couch. My legs were parted, placed on either side of his legs as I felt him rearrange the belt. All at once he was there, pulling against the belt as his cock entered me again.

I exploded without warning. My body shook with the force of it and I felt him tensing as he pulled harder on the belt, stealing my air as he fucked me from behind. His other hand slapped against my tender bottom and I arched into every thrust, every sensation he created, and then once again, my body succumbed to white-hot pleasure that held me locked in limbo as I drifted in the clouds.

I’d expected him to finish with me. Instead, he pulled one of my legs over his shoulder, spreading me wider as he situated me onto my side, more exposed as he pinched one nipple, thrusting into my body again.

I cried out, unsure I could handle him in this position, but he wasn’t asking. He was taking and giving when and what he chose. He held absolute control as he pushed in slowly and left my body slower than he’d entered it. I stared into his eyes as my body tightened, arched, and gave him what he needed. Everything I had. I gave him control—I gave him me.

I watched him as his body stiffened and a moan slipped past his lips as he pushed harder, coming undone with my submission. His eyelids grew heavy, languid as he continued to hold mine, and his body seemed to glow from within. The runes on his stomach flared up with a golden radiance, as if lit with a power from within him. My hand lifted without thought, slowly trailing over his body as he emptied his cock into me.

“What the fuck did you do?” he demanded after a moment had passed, and I blinked as I tried to guess what I had done wrong now. “What sort of magic is this?” He pulled out, leaving me bereft without his heat as he stared at the glowing runes.

“What?” I whimpered, still unable to speak through the dryness of my mouth. “What the hell do you mean, what did I do to you?” I demanded, confused as to how any of it was my fault.

“What the fuck did you do to me, Witch?” he snarled and pushed away from me as he stood up. I frowned up at him in confusion as he yanked his pants up and fastened them.

“I didn’t do anything to you,” I huffed as I followed him up, naked and bared to him. Clumsily, I unfastened the belt from my neck and tossed it at his feet. “What the hell is your problem?”

“You will tell me what you did, or I will rip the truth from you.” His growl was barely audible as he stared at me as if I’d done something to hurt him.

“I didn’t do anything! We fucked! That’s it, I didn’t use magic on you. Is that what you think? That I cast some spell on you?” I asked, horrified that he would think so little of me that he would believe that I would cast magic on him while going at it like rabbits.

“Those runes don’t react unless someone spells them to, Witch,” he taunted as if I was stupid, and I gaped at him, completely at a loss for what to say.

“I didn’t do it, so find someone else to blame,” I snapped angrily as I marched to my bag and started digging for a change of clothes since he’d ruined mine.

“You will tell me what you did before I allow you to leave here,” he ordered, and I swung around to face him, intending to tell him where to stick it when a knock sounded at the door.

I shook my head, hating his bipolar ass at the moment. I hadn’t done shit to his fucking runes, and I couldn’t have even if I wanted to. I wasn’t adept in runes, and they scared the shit out of me. I had barely gotten my panties up when Spyder burst into the room.

“We’ve got a big fucking problem downstairs…” He paused, and I felt the heat of his gaze as he admired my red cheeks. “That’s a pretty pink ass, kitty,” he said silkily.

“What’s the fucking problem?” Lucian demanded, as if he didn’t care that my panties didn’t cover much and Spyder could see his handiwork all over my ass. Heat flooded my cheeks as I ignored them, dressing in a pair of joggers and a tank top. I pulled my shoes out of the bag and slipped my feet into them, then spun around to find both men regarding me for a very different reason, I was sure.

“The coven is downstairs,” Spyder began, taking in my angry frown and the tears swimming in my vision from Lucian’s accusations. His icy blue eyes shifted between me and Lucian before he expelled a breath and turned to Lucian, only to explode with a curse as he took in the glowing golden runes on his stomach. “The fuck?”

“Ask her,” Lucian snarled, opening a closet I hadn’t even noticed before and pulling out a new dress shirt. “Seems our little witch is playing with dark magic,” he declared angrily. “She’s been learning to cast and remove curses, apparently.”

“I didn’t do shit.” I pulled a hairbrush out of my bag and yanked it through my snarled hair. “We fucked. It’s as simple and easy as that. I didn’t use magic, and I sure as shit couldn’t chant a spell between screaming your name and coming undone on your cock. If I had, you’d have heard it. Wouldn’t you?” I demanded impatiently while shoving the brush back into my bag.

“Dark magic doesn’t always need words, Witch.”

“I’m done with this,” I bit out, hating him. “I’m done with you blaming me for shit that I couldn’t possibly have known about or done. You think I’m to blame? Fine, whatever; stay the fuck away from me. Problem solved.” Fresh tears slid down my cheeks as I headed towards the door.

“You’re not leaving,” he growled.

“Try to fucking stop me, Blackstone,” I seethed as I turned to face him with a cold, dead stare. “You want a war? Because that is what you will get if you try to keep me here.”

I hefted my pack over my shoulder and exited his office, not giving a shit that I looked freshly fucked, or that the entire coven was below, waiting for me. I didn’t look back to see if they were following me; I knew they were. I felt them to my core, as if their fucked up ritual had done more than just claim me.

“Kitty,” Spyder called from behind me, but I didn’t stop.

I walked faster until I reached the steps, taking them two at a time to get away from them. I needed distance, needed to get away from them and stay away. My head pounded, my entire body ached, and my heart cracked with his accusations. To spell someone was huge; to do it during sex was just fucking cowardly and dirty. I would do almost anything for the coven, but I wouldn’t use my body to get what I wanted. That was just wrong on a level I didn’t want to even imagine.

Chapter 17

The moment my feet touched the main level of the club, I paused and managed to pick the coven out of the crowd as they waited impatiently. My grandmother wasn’t with them, but my mother and the rest of the coven with her looked terrified. I pushed through the throng of people to get to my mother and tried to ignore what I must have looked like right now, or that I ached with every step that led me closer to her.

“What’s wrong?” I demanded, wondering what could have upset her this much. Her skin was pasty white, eyes wide with fear as she leveled her matching blue eyes to mine and shook her head as tears filled her eyes.

“The Gates to Hell are open,” she cried over the music as tears streamed down her cheek. “The town is burning, and people are dying. We tried to find the others, but there was too many demons.”

“What? What are you talking about?” I replayed our drive through town as we made our way here just an hour or so earlier. “I was just in town, everything was fine.”

“I was coming to find you when the fires started, and then they converged on the town. I don’t know how many got out of there, but from the looks and damage the monsters left behind, I wouldn’t assume very many. It’s bad, really bad. The coven has cast sanction wards and doused holy water inside and around the abbey to prevent them from coming inside. I need you to come with me now,” she sobbed. “You have to come with me—it’s time, baby.”

“This is insane.” I shook my head in denial and noticed that the others in the crowd looked just as frightened as my mother and the coven did. How could the Hell Gates have opened?

“Come with me.” She held out her hand and I slipped mine into hers as we started towards the doors. I paused, hesitating as I looked back at Lucian. If anyone could help us, it was him, but would he?

“Go,” he demanded coldly. The ice in his voice shot through me, radiating through my heart and soul. I swallowed hard and nodded. Turning my back on him, we picked our way through the club and out the front door. We blinked against the bright afternoon sunlight and I noticed there was a reddish cast over the sun and I caught a faint whiff of the acrid scent of smoke from the fires in town.

I exhaled as we started towards the cars, and from the corner of my eye, I noticed we picked up an escort. Spyder walked silently beside me as some of Lucian’s men flanked our sides. The coven would run. They always had in times of crises. It was a fallback crutch, one used through generations to maintain our way of life.

I didn’t look back, knowing that if I did, he wouldn’t be there. If he was, would I still go? I wanted him; even though I hated him most of the time, I wanted Lucian Blackstone. It was as difficult and as simple as that.

A car door opened and I slid into the backseat, keeping my eyes on the seat in front of me as I waited for the door to close, but it didn’t.

“Kitty, stay safe,” Spyder ordered gruffly as he knelt down beside the car. His hand slipped between mine as he held them tightly. “Stay inside the abbey, do you understand me? What’s coming, it’s not going to end in this town. It’s going to be in every town around the world. This is some end-of-days shit going down right now.”

“Will he fight them with us?” I choked out, not bothering to look at him as tears of anger welled in my eyes.

“I don’t know. I don’t even know if we can fight what is coming. Hell Gates don’t just open, something triggered it. Someone took something through a gate recently and opened them. That means there is no barrier between earth and Hell. No one is safe anymore. There are no rules to this game, no referee here to stop them.” He bent his head, kissing my hands as my mother watched. I chewed my lip as I considered what he’d just told us.

“Lucifer is coming,” I whispered, closing my eyes as the first tear fell.

“If the gates are open, he’s been freed to do as he pleases in this world. Stopping him isn’t going to be easy and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

“We have to go.” My mother slid into the passenger seat and turned to me. “We have to get to the house. There are a lot of books belonging to the coven there; we have to protect our history from them.”

I nodded and turned to say something, but the door shut and Spyder was already walking back towards the club. The car ignition started, and we sped out of the parking lot onto the highway.

“Once we get to the house we stay together, or close to one another. Do you understand?” My mother’s voice was fairly calm, considering the situation.

“Yes,” I said softly, but my mind was back at the club, at Lucian’s anger over a curse being removed. Wouldn’t that have been a good thing? The man gave me emotional whiplash. Not to mention I couldn’t just control myself and stop fucking him. It was as if my body didn’t care that he was a total asshole; it wanted what it wanted, and that was him.

“I need you to go into the cottage and retrieve the books hidden over there for me while I get started in the main house,” she said. “Kat and Dexter will go with you and watch your back so you can get the books from under the floorboards. Do not waste time; we don’t know yet if the demons are heading this way or if they just attacked the town. We aren’t prepared to face them.”

“Lucian can help us,” I said softly, sensing her frown as we drove towards the house. Even from this far out of town, I could see the fires burning, as well as in the hills surrounding the town, which had houses scattered through them. “He can kill them. I saw Spyder take down Lucifer; he can do it again. Lucian and his men aren’t witches, that much is for sure. Whatever they are, they can fuck them up. They can save the town.”

“The town is as good as gone, daughter mine. The gate opened in the middle of town and hundreds of demons poured out of Hell from it. The lives…the poor, innocent lives.” She paused as a sob tore from her lips. “We couldn’t get close enough to see them, much less protect them, so we left them to their fates. Being helpless is a horrible feeling.”

We pulled up to the house and I stared at the old cottage. Our great-grandparents had built as they’d worked on the manor and now it was mostly used for storage.

The car stopped in front of it and I got out, waiting for a moment as the car pulled away and another one pulled in behind it. I quickly glanced back to see Kat and Dexter getting out of the car as I made my way up the steps of the cottage, stopping dead in my tracks as memories assaulted me.

Lena’s memories?

A scene unfolded in front of me. Joshua and Lena playing on the porch; running from each other as great-grandma sewed an old, worn pair of coveralls for great-grandpa. I placed my hands on my head and I turned around in a circle, searching for myself. Why was I seeing it through Lena’s eyes?

“Kendra?” Kat startled me, placing a hand on my shoulder as she turned back to look at Dexter. “Let’s get inside,” she offered, moving up the stairs. I noted both were armed with razor sharp athames. As Dexter pushed the door open, I walked past them.

“Hey, we need to check it first,” Dexter cried out.

I ignored him and glared at the couch, which was empty. My eyes swept the kitchen and found a vision of Lucian in nothing but a towel as he leaned against the kitchen entryway. I swallowed, feeling the heat that pulsed through me at the sight of him. I gazed at the ghostly figure, a memory of Lucian who made himself at home in the little cottage, unabashed to only be dressed in nothing more than a cheap towel, which hugged his hips.

I shook my head firmly, trying to dispel the image or memory.

“Are you okay?” Kat murmured, observing me intently as I slowly brought my eyes to meet hers before I answered on a hiss of breath.

“I’m fine, everything is fine,” I growled angrily.

I moved into the bedroom, looking at the bed as I made my way to the section of the room I needed. I pulled the bed out and scooted around it, pulled the floorboards up, and set them aside. I reached in and pulled out a few books and the photo albums, and paused as I reached deeper. Beneath the albums were pages upon pages of notes scribbled. I stared at them, knowing them as if I’d written them myself. I withdrew them from the hiding place and set them on the bed. I flipped through the pages, endless scribbles written in the early morning hours that had once been hidden with the sun’s rising rays. I swallowed as pain tore through my head. Memories flashed inside my head and I swallowed the cry that threatened to rip from my lips.

A cat jumped onto the bed and I paused, observing it as it pushed its head into my chest, demanding I pay attention to it.

Luna?

I closed my eyes and swallowed down the fear that pulsed through me. Someone had played with my mind, but they hadn’t made me forget anything. They’d erased me and overwritten me like I was some sort of computer. Anger vibrated through me as I spun around to face Kat.

She’d been studying me from the doorway, as if she had been expecting this. Tears slid from my eyes as memories flooded back into my mind and were held up to the light of day like treasure. My hands trembled as I tried to work my mouth, but nothing came out as Kat waited and observed me on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

“Welcome back, Lena,” she said softly. “It’s about fucking time.”

“You knew?” I demanded.

“We’ve known for a little while now, but the mind is a tricky thing. You can’t force someone to remember something unless they are ready for it. You know who you are, but the rest…it comes back over time. Mine took a little longer than the others, but you, you took your sweet ass time coming back to us.”

“Who did this to us?” I asked, watching her as she shrugged.

“That part remains blank to the entire coven. There hasn’t been any way to identify what happened, not magic or otherwise. Just faceless creatures, but we think Cassidy and Helen had something to do with it, because my memories have those two locking us inside the abbey.”

“What happened at the abbey?” I started putting the floorboards back into place.

“You have to remember what happened, we can’t tell you. If we do, it could fracture your mind. Like I said, the brain is tricky.” She scrunched her nose up and leaned against the doorframe. “It will come to you, though hopefully not all at once, because Laura had hers all return at once and she’s…different now.”

I placed the books, albums, and papers on the bed and began stacking them so I could carry everything easier. “Different how?”

“She’s straight fucked up. She screams all day and all night. She doesn’t stop, not even when her voice is gone. She sounds like a banshee wailing for the dead coming. Hell, with the gates open, maybe she was trying to warn us of what was happening.”

“We need to go,” Dexter interrupted as he appeared next to Kat and noted the tears that trailed over my cheeks. “It’s going to be all right, Kendra.”

“She knows who she is.” Kat patted his shoulder. “Who she really is,” she elaborated.

“Jesus, took you long enough, girl. Thought I was going to have to start dropping hints everywhere to get you to come out of it.” He hesitated.

“Who else knows?” I scooped up the stack of books and papers and handed them to Kat, who looked relieved when I took her athame.

“Pretty much everyone,” he murmured. Dexter glanced around nervously and motioned me towards them. “But really, we got to get the fuck out of here. I heard chants coming from the woods. We don’t have long before the demons are here.”

“Demons chant?”

“I guess they do when they are calling for our blood,” he muttered as he moved with us towards the front door. Once there, we ran to the main house, and Dexter threw open the front door. As I moved into the room and found droplets of blood spattering the floor, walls, and furniture, I slowed, and my gaze rose to the stairs.

“Cover my ass,” I whispered as we moved as one up the stairway. Once we reached the top of the landing, I sniffed the air, smelling the putrid sulfur and the copper tang of blood in the air. There was no noise; nothing. It was eerily silent; my feet made no sound as I approached the first room, peering in. Empty.

The scent grew stronger at the next door. I peeked into the room, and saw my mother on the floor, crawling towards the door as a tall, emaciated creature with white eyes twirled a dagger in one hand. I looked around the room, noting the others who had been with my mother looked lifeless. The creature looked evil and held a form close to a human, and yet something slithered just over the surface of its skin, shimmering thick black lines of evil that told me he was anything but human. I stepped from the doorway into the room, knowing my mother wouldn’t be able to fight it off, not alone.

His eyes rose, as if he was assessing how tasty of a meal I might be. Saliva dripped from his lips as he watched me saunter in. “Pretty,” he hissed.

“Kendra, run,” my mother whimpered.

“I’m not the running type.” I pulled power to me, sucking it from the air and pulling from the ground as I tapped the nearest leyline. I felt it in my bones, raw, electrical current that threatened to consume me. “Where’s your friends?” I could feel the lightness of the power as it pulsed in my words.

“They’ll be here soon enough,” he growled, unaware that I’d pulled enough power into my body to light up the entire state of Washington.

“Pity, they’ll be too late,” I pouted. I brought my hands up to direct the power and let it loose, watching as his eyes widened with the amount of power I shot at him. His body jerked, exploded, and I winced and threw my body over my mother’s as the entire house trembled around us. “I got you.” I winced at the pain that raced through my body and the scratchiness in my throat. When I looked up, there was nothing left of the creature other than black ashes where he once stood.

We stood up on shaky legs. I hugged my mother’s slight frame tighter as she trembled against me. I’d let loose too much power at once and was in no better shape than she was. I let her hold me for a moment longer before I pulled away.

“Kendra,” she cried. “You should have run away, you could have been hurt!”

“I’m not Kendra, Mom. I’m Lena. I’m Magdalena Fitzgerald.” I allowed my name to slip off the tip of my tongue for the first time in a long time, and it felt good.

“We have to go now.” Her voice was weak as I supported her until she could get her bearings and stand on her own.

“Help me with her,” I said, needing to get the others up. Once Dexter had accepted the slight weight of my mother and freed me from keeping her upright, Kat and I made our way to the two still figures lying on the floor. I knelt down, checking for a pulse. “She’s gone,” I murmured as I closed her eyes. I glanced at Kat, who sadly nodded her confirmation that my mother’s other friend was dead as well. I grabbed a blanket from the bed and placed it on the floor, intending to use it as a shroud for their bodies.

“Lena, no, they’ll awake soon,” she said softly, terror coloring her features. “There were three demons here; two are missing. I think they’re inside Meg and Sheila; I don’t think it’s a good idea to bring them with us.”

“When we get back to the abbey, we need to look up how to ward ourselves from these things.” Mentally, I had already started flipping through the grimoires, trying to locate what I needed. “I think there are some wards we can use like tattoos that prevent them from getting inside of us, so this sort of shit doesn’t happen,” I muttered. “Let’s go before they wake up.”

Chapter 18

Several days later, I found myself sitting in the corner of the great hall of the abbey with my knees against my chest. This room was the gathering center of the coven. Meals and celebrations had taken place here over the years, and now it was our sanctuary.

I frowned at how quickly the memories were coming back. I had kept most of my memories from being with Lucian, retained from when I’d thought I was my sister. I also had memories from before, which seemed to flow and ebb as they entered my mind. I’d been unable to put all of the memories into a linear direction for the first few days, and then, as time passed, my dreams mixed with what I now knew had been real.

I was a fucking mess of anger and hurt that I wasn’t able to process. I rested my head on my knees as I watched the young ones mop the floors with holy water as the older kids replaced the salt in the windowsills.

That was how my grandmother found me when she was finally allowed out of the council chamber with the rest of the coven elders. She sat beside me and patted my leg as she sighed.

“You’re angry because we didn’t tell you,” she murmured thoughtfully as she rested her hand on mine.

“I’m angry because I should have known. All of the clues were there, and I ignored them. I really thought I was going insane a few times, when in reality, it was someone fucking with my memories,” I sighed and angled my head so I could see her better. “Grandmother, we’re not strong enough to fight those demons alone.”

“No, and the Guilds which stood against those who would harm humans can’t help us right now.” She nodded her head in solemn agreement. “But he will fight for you. You’re strong as well.” She patted my hand. “You’re my granddaughter. I know whatever is blocking you is painful, but you’re stronger than you think. Our line has a long history of fighters. You, my sweet Lena, you hold power inside of you, great power. You had him, you can get him again.”

“Lucian won’t help us now.” I grimaced and focused on my chipped nails. “He thinks I’ve undone some great curse that was cast on him, or cast one on him, who knows what he thinks. He hates me right now.”

“You cannot remove a curse unless you cast it to begin with,” she said firmly. “Only the witch who cast the curse can remove it; unless you somehow triggered the loophole to his curse, you had nothing to do with it. Every curse has a way to be undone; it’s just a matter of finding and using it.”

“You think he will believe me? He said some pretty terrible things and acted like he hated me.”

She smiled knowingly. “I think he hates Kendra. He never seemed to care for her before, and you’re not Kendra anymore. You’re Magdalena Fitzgerald.”

“You sent me into Hell to get Kendra and didn’t even bother telling me it was her I was saving,” I accused, hating that she’d been the one to give the order. “You didn’t trust me, or you would have confided in me more than you did. Instead, you left me in the dark even after we’d returned. Imagine my surprise when Tiffany’s disguise dropped and I found out she was really my twin sister.

That was about as surprising and fun as getting hit upside the head with a baseball bat. You also sent me into Hell, which sucked. Did you even know where you were sending me, or were you just willing to sacrifice me for a chance to get her back?” I snapped angrily, hurt that they’d sent me to Lucifer, which could have gone down very differently if Spyder hadn’t been with me. If he hadn’t been there, I could have easily traded places with Kendra.

“We had to be sure you were on our side. Much has happened since Lucian Blackstone arrived, and he is an unknown to us. However, you are one of us, Magdalena. You always have been; even when you left us you still felt us, just as we felt you. We felt that she was in trouble, but we assumed, as we were meant to believe, that it was you who had been taken. As we planned to retrieve her, things started coming back, and the attack on the abbey surfaced in some of our memories. You were the strongest witch we had when it was attacked, so you were the ideal one to go and get her. She summoned us through the leylines; magical ties don’t end when you leave one world for another. You having a connection to her also made you the perfect one to find her. You couldn’t be fooled by magic, not when the bond you girls share is so much deeper than any magic this world holds. We could only discover the general area of where she was being held, but you, you found her and in much less time than we had hoped for. But no, we didn’t know where we were sending you into, only that her life was hanging in the balance. You freed her, and right now, it’s all that matters. With how many perished in the attack, every witch is needed if we intend to survive this.”

“Grandmother, the bond hasn’t been the same between Kendra and I since the attack happened.” I gave her a few moments for it to sink in, and when her face crumpled with the magnitude of what could have happened because of their misplaced faith, I knew I had made my point. “Will we run?” I sighed as I leaned my head back against the wall.

“There is nowhere to run to this time.” She craned her neck, glancing around the hall, and nodded to Alan, who was a little older than I was and had just been awakened with the last group of witches. He grabbed a remote and turned on the big-screen TV.

All of the channels seemed to only be showing the news. He stopped on one channel, where a reporter was giving a detailed accounting of the unexplained cases of the dead coming back to life inside the morgues, as if a mistake had been made in several parts of the country. Towns had been set ablaze with no explanation, as if riots had happened without rioters. To the outside world, it looked as if hate groups had popped up in sporadic locations and had created chaos. Some cities had countless people who had gone missing. Families held up missing persons posters as the news camera passed by them. Some bodies had been found in strange locales, torn apart in grotesque ways. None of these people had any idea that Hell had been unleashed upon them, and there was no known way to close the gates.

“Turn it off,” I hissed as I slid my feet to the floor and faced her. “You think he will help us, that he can help us?”

“The Guild is no more, not in the state of Washington anyway. The nearest one is in California, and they have not responded to any calls for help. It’s possible that it too fell in whatever war they are waging against the Fae. As of right now, we have to assume Lucian isn’t a witch. Whatever he is, he’s deadly.

“We need to know which side he is on in all of this. From what you told us, he may be able to kill these creatures, like you did. None of the covens we are in contact with have killed a single demon yet. Only you, Lena.” She gave me a weak smirk and patted my hand again thoughtfully.

“Dark magic.” I hesitated, because I knew what I was about to try and convince her to allow us to use was forbidden in our world. “You fight demons with dark magic, because they are powerful. If we change some of us to dark witches, we could fight them.”

“But you are light and you’ve killed one already. Who told you of such a thing?” she scoffed. “It’s unheard of to even speak of such a vile thing inside these walls.”

“No, no, it’s not. We have books about it in the lower levels. I’ve read some of them before. We are not the first witches to face demons, and we won’t be the last, either. There is a book based on the history of the witches of Salem, who faced a situation much like we do now, Grandma. They fought demons, and they won.” I kept my voice low, just in case someone might overhear. “They turned dark to defend the coven, but they remained bound to their coven, and it prevented them from becoming evil. There are runes which can be inked on the witch who turns, ensuring she or he remains one with the coven. I know the rules, but we are fighting for survival, just as those witches had to do back then.”

“That was a different time, and most of those witches didn’t survive being turned after those events unfolded. Most were sacrificed to save the coven. If we tried and lost more witches, we would be in more danger than we already are. Dark magic is deadly, not only for the witch who uses it, but for those around her. It plays with your mind, and takes a piece of your soul every time you use it. It’s forbidden for a reason.”

“Grandma, people are dying. There’s no place we can go that we will be safe.” I waved my hand at the great hall and the witches wandering around it, trying to find something to occupy themselves with. “This works for now, but how long will it last? Eventually, they’ll figure out where we are. Human bodies don’t last long; witches are a much better host for them because we live longer than the humans do. Our magic makes them stronger. We aren’t safe, no one is. If we go down, we need to go down fighting.”

“I want to try something on you, Lena. After that, I want you to see if Lucian is willing to help us, or if he knows how to shut the gates. I know you don’t want to go back there, but you have to. If the abbey is breached, his club will be our last hope for survival.”

“You want to use Club Chaos as a last resort? You do know it’s a sex club, right?” I asked.

“Life or death situations turn the sinister things grey and I find the name quite fitting, all things considered.”

“What did you want to try?” I asked, following her up as she stood. She appeared older than she had in a long time.

“Come with me,” she whispered.

* ~*~*

I stood outside Club Chaos with a few of the witches who had been brave enough to make the trip with me. Not that my grandmother—sorry, the High Priestess—had given them much of a choice in the matter. My stomach twirled and flipped until I felt as if I was going to toss my cookies right there on the cold pavement. I took a deep breath and pushed the door open, boldly walking in; the presence of the witches following me gave me a measure of comfort and confidence I knew I was going to need.

Lucian’s dark head was bent over a map that was spread out over the tables they’d pushed together. The Fae were here, along with a few others that weren’t Fae, but weren’t human either, who looked up and observed us curiously as we approached them. Midnight eyes glittered dangerously as he noticed me.

“Go home, Kendra,” he growled.

“The coven needs to know if you will help us fight,” I replied harshly, forcing myself to remain detached.

“I said go home.” He dismissed me with a wave of his hand and bent back over the map.

I chewed my lip as I watched him, wondering how much I should tell him, if anything. He knew; he knew I wasn’t Kendra and yet he’d left me to believe it was so.

“I can’t go home without an answer,” I blurted, and he lifted his dark head, glaring at me.

“Go home, Kendra. I won’t ask you again,” he snapped.

“I said I couldn’t, not without an answer. Say no, it’s okay. We don’t really expect you to stay and fight with us anyway.” I folded my arms in front of myself as I challenged him.

“You think you can stand against what is coming?” he laughed coldly. “The armies of Hell have been unleashed into this world, and the walls of the other worlds are crumbling. You think I care about your coven? I have bigger fucking problems at my door, Kendra.”

“Fuck. You.” I smirked as I saw his eyes narrow and his mouth curved into an angry frown. Everyone in the room stopped talking and paid attention to the drama unfolding between myself and Lucian.

My eyes slid over the pile as I focused on the rest of the room, and I saw some of the grimoires from the secret room stacked haphazardly on the table beside the maps. Empty grimoires. Synthia seemed to be sizing me up, and I tilted my head, returning it. Men stood beside her, beautiful men, and a pretty little redhead, Olivia. I remembered she’d been kind to me before when the Fae had first shown up here.

I looked back to face Lucian, only to find him closer to me than he’d been before. I craned my head up to see him better and smirked as he glared at me.

“You have exactly an hour to get back to the abbey before the sun goes down. I suggest you use it.”

“And I don’t care what you think I should do anymore, Lucian. You mean nothing to me,” I replied coldly as I stuck out my hand and, with the smallest burst of power, called the grimoires to open for me. Olivia gasped as the pages broke free of the bindings and started sailing through the air, filling the room as they ignited one by one in little puffs of fire, burning as they drifted to the ground.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Lucian demanded.

“They’re not yours, or theirs. They weren’t left inside the Guild for you or them, and you know it. Those grimoires were blank anyways. But don’t worry; I have them,” I laughed, pointing at my head. “Here. Where they are safe,” I smirked as anger pulsed from Lucian.

“You were the one creeping around inside the Guild,” Synthia said, and I leveled her with a cool look of interest.

“I was,” I admitted. “You should know better than to mess with another witch’s grimoires. Touching another witch’s history can turn you inside out,” I said, tilting my head to stare at Alden, who had joined us from the back of the club. My stomach twisted, and I struggled against tears. “You? You too? It all makes perfect sense now.” No wonder he was meeting up with royal Fae, he was friends with them. They were all working together. I took a deep breath and pushed my way through the pain clenching around my heart.

“Kendra,” he began, as if he intended to come up with some excuse for why he was here among the Fae and Lucian.

“I’m not Kendra, I am Lena!” I snapped, magic pulsing through me as I stepped back, moving closer to the men and women at my back. “You knew who I was too, didn’t you?” I demanded, turning to find Lucian regarding me with no emotion on his face. “You are not here to help us at all, are you? You’re here to destroy us. The Guild, the Fae, and whatever the fuck you are…we’re just fucking collateral damage, aren’t we?” My voice shook as tears blinded my vision. “How easy was it for you to erase me, and Lucian, did you even stop to consider what it would do to me?”

“Lena,” Alden pleaded, and I spun on him, pulling magic around me.

“No! No, don’t you fucking Lena me, you’re with them! I trusted you! You knew who I was, and you did nothing. You are not just a warlock, you are an elder and you’re one of them. You stay the fuck away from me and my mother. Did you ever even love her or was she just a means to stay close to us? You’re all fucking evil.”

“It’s not like that,” he insisted, and I saw Synthia edge closer to him protectively, as if I was a lit cannon about to explode.

“Not like what? Not like you erased what happened at the abbey and made us forget what really happened. You let us blindly go about living when so many had been murdered—and you!” I turned my rage on Lucian. “You let my sister be raped and tortured by Lucifer when it was me he wanted. He wanted to use me to hurt you. It should have been me! I should have been allowed to save her since you just left her to that monster!” No one said anything. I shook my head and eyed him as I stepped closer. “I want Luna back, and then I want you to forget I exist, which should be pretty fucking easy for you, seeing as you did it before. My grandmother thought you would fight for us, but I told her it was stupid to assume you were on our side.”

“You would have died trying to save your sister from Lucifer,” he growled. “But not until he had done everything he did to your sister to you. And this time, I am sure it would have been far worse.”

“Probably, but that was my choice to make, wasn’t it?” I replied coldly. “You didn’t even give me a chance before you decided what to do, and when you did, your cure was erasing me from this world. You took away everything that made me who I am. My tattoos, my memories of the pain I’ve endured—and you had no fucking right to do it. You erased Joshua,” I uttered as a sob bubbled up and my chest heaved. “I can’t remember him or the pain of his loss, and I know you took it from me. People are what they’ve endured. Pain we survive is what defines us. Memories keep those we love with us, and you took it all away from me. It may come back, it may not; I don’t know because you decided to play God in my world. You keep telling me I need you to protect me, but I don’t. The coven thinks they need you to protect us, but again, I don’t. I don’t need anyone in my life that can erase me so easily,” I laughed numbly, numb to the pain that threatened to rip me apart.

“You can’t keep the grimoires inside of you, Lena,” Synthia said softly. “No one is strong enough to keep the memories and magic of that many witches inside of them. Not without going mad.”

“Aren’t we all just a little mad?” I tilted my head as I took a good look at her. She was ethereal, beautiful, and she wasn’t Fae. She was more. “Besides, who wants to live forever?” I laughed coldly. “Haven’t you heard? It’s the end of the world and we know it, and I feel fine.” I laughed coldly again, pulling a line from R.E.M.

“You may not feel the grimoires inside of you yet, but the stronger your magic gets, the stronger they will grow until you lose control of them. Grimoires are living things. They can communicate with those who wield them, past and present. That’s why most witches won’t touch another witch’s grimoire.”

“We must have had the same teacher.” I turned angry eyes to Alden. “I can control them.”

“Not unless you’re a dark witch,” she growled.

I smiled as she narrowed her purple eyes on me.

“You can’t turn, not and remain with your coven.”

“I wonder how you can know so much about us, seeing as you come from the Guild.” I wiped a few of the traitorous tears away and smiled grimly at her. “Our coven isn’t like yours. Yours runs towards danger, ours runs away from it. This time, though, there’s nowhere to run, is there?” I glanced at Lucian and let out an irritated huff. “Had we known what was happening, we could have hidden ourselves, but someone intervened and prevented that. Now, now we’re utterly fucked without the fun part. It’s okay, though, because I know what to do to save us. When you have nothing to lose, you have nothing holding you back.”

I spun on my heel, heading towards the door as the others followed me. At the door, I stopped as I laid my hand on the exit bar and looked over my shoulder.

“I want Luna back. You can deliver her to the abbey; leave her at the door and she’ll find me. Then you can go back to pretending I don’t exist anymore. I plan to figure out a way to get rid of the marks you and your men cast on me, so hopefully you’ll no longer feel the need to protect me. I will erase them from my body so that whatever connects us is gone, just as I want you to be from my life. I forgive you, but I will never forget what you did to me,” I seethed, somehow keeping my dignity intact. “I suggest you leave, though, since it might become hard to decipher friend from foe as we get ready to fight demons. Have a nice fucking life, Lucian.” I waved back at him as I pushed the doors open and slipped out of the club.

I’d barely made it to the car before I was pushed against the door by an angry Lucian. His eyes were midnight, the color of a starless night. “You think I fucking wanted to do it? I had to protect you. You would have died in a manner more horrible than you can even imagine, and I couldn’t fucking live with that,” he gritted out coldly.

“You weren’t protecting me. You were being a selfish prick. You knew we would run and you didn’t want to give me up. I know why you did it. You knew the coven would run from this, and they should have been able to. I wouldn’t have run from you, I’d have stood beside you and helped you get my sister out of Hell, but you didn’t give me the choice, did you? No, you took it from me and you erased me. I remember that night and everything you said as you turned me into her, every detail of it.

“You thought I was weak, but I wasn’t. I could have loved you, Lucian. I could have been your everything and you mine, but you don’t want that, you want me destroyed. You’ve said it since the day I met you and I should have listened. Congratulations, you destroyed me. That Lena you erased, she’s gone. I’m not the same as I was, and I sure as fuck don’t need you anymore. You made sure of it when you decided for me. You told me you would ruin me, and so you have.” I pushed him away from me as the others converged outside the club to see how our drama played out. “Watch your back, because we are no longer friends. Us? We are nothing, just as you wanted us to be from the very beginning. You’re Lucian, the one who destroyed me, ruined me, and I’m just the girl who let it happen.”

“I need the pages of those grimoires back,” he grated.

“Take them, then,” I smirked. “Cut my fucking head off and take them back. The only way those pages can be returned is if I die, truly die. So kill me, Lucian.” I glared at him defiantly. “Do it, I won’t even fight you,” I chuckled as I held my arms out, offering him my neck. “No? Didn’t think so,” I laughed coldly as his eyes sparkled with anger.

He swallowed as he took note of the resolve in my eyes. I was done being his fucking chess piece, one he moved when he needed to make a play. I was a Fitzgerald, born of the original bloodlines, granddaughter to the High Priestess, and I was no one’s fucking toy anymore.

Chapter 19

My hand slid over Luna’s glossy coat as she purred in my lap. She’d been scratching against the door, and once the coven figured out that she wasn’t a threat, they brought her to me. I checked her for any sign of neglect, and instead found a very healthy, very fat cat who had obviously been pampered. I’d opened the cat food which had been in a bag that was sitting just outside of the wards. Evidently he’d been feeding her a kitty version of caviar, something I’d never be able to afford. He’d spoiled my baby, which tugged at my heartstrings and pissed me off even more. She’d been wearing a shiny new collar, which I wasn’t so sure didn’t have real diamonds in it.

At least she’d been happy to see me, which was how I ended up with her in my lap, stroking her glossy coat as I thumbed through journals from the abbey’s library, written by witches who had died over a century ago. The first witches to be housed in the abbey had written down just about everything, yet it was really nothing at all. The journals held no clues about demons, or how to fight them. They spoke of farming and the herbs that grew wildly around the abbey and other boring shit.

I tossed the last journal onto the large pile and picked up Luna, disturbing her and ruining her nap. She growled as I held her up before nuzzling her neck. As I pulled away from her, I noticed a little message capsule attached to her collar. I pulled the removed note from the capsule and stared at it a moment. Setting her down, I considered opening it, and then, as the butterflies erupted, thought better of it and pushed it into my purse. Lucian was a rabbit hole, one that sucked me in no matter how hard I tried to ignore it.

Too many things were going wrong right now, and my personal issues—and my libido—had to take the backseat to it. Considering everything happening, I didn’t have time to worry about him or the array of emotions that man made me feel, which were mostly rage and the need to strangle him, followed solely by the mortifying and conflicting need to fuck him into next year.

I stretched and bent down to retrieve the journals as Luna growled at the door. I twisted my head towards it and tried to concentrate on listening for whatever it was that Luna might have heard. I hefted the heavy load and made my way to the door, slowly opening it and peering out into the hallway.

Nothing was there: the entire hallway looked abandoned and no noise filtered through it from the kids playing or otherwise. I closed it and went to my dresser, yanked the drawer open and pushed the books inside. I bounced onto the bed beside Luna and my mind wandered to Lucian on its own.

I got where he was coming from; I probably would have died if I had attempted to go after Kendra. It didn’t change what he’d done. He’d erased every trace of me coming home. Then he’d taken my memories of Joshua away. Grandma had worked strong magic to bring back many of my memories.

Then, there was the horrifying truth of what he’d allowed to happen to Kendra by covering up the fact that she was missing, taken by Lucifer. I knew firsthand what kind of sick, twisted shit he was into.

She’d been with him for months, and even though she didn’t admit it, I knew she blamed me. There was coldness in her eyes when she looked at me. She moved away from me if I got too close, as if she feared me. She was my best friend, and I’d lost her because Lucifer had wanted me and taken the wrong girl.

Kendra still wouldn’t speak of what she’d endured to me, other than screaming at me if I asked her. There was a wedge between us, one I wasn’t sure I could easily fix. She told Grandmother of how she’d been called Lena by Lucifer, how he’d boasted of impregnating Lucian’s girl. She never told him the truth of who she was; some of the suffering she’d gone through. If I’d known, I could have tried to find a way to trade places with her, or tried to save her.

No matter how much I tried to push the guilt away, it ate at me. Lucifer had wanted me, but why? What had Lucian done or taken from him that he’d torture an innocent girl and impregnate her? The coven had confirmed her pregnancy test, which meant Lucifer had succeeded in what he’d set out to do to me, except that he’d taken the wrong twin, and to protect me, Lucian had erased me. There was no record of me ever coming home for the Awakening.

In fact, there was no record of me being in this small town, not since Joshua’s funeral. I waited for the familiar pain to rip through me, and yet it didn’t. I couldn’t even recall his face. I got up and padded over to the mirror. I looked tired, empty. My blue eyes seemed duller, my hair was a mess, and I didn’t care. I pulled at the neck of my shirt to get a better look at the bite that graced my shoulder, and I winced.

I still had the one from Spyder, but it wasn’t his that ached in the twilight hours of dawn. It was the one on the inside of my thigh, close to the apex of my sex, which pulsed with need. It had been a little over a week since the doors to the abbey had closed, and yet I still felt his presence with me every minute of the day and long into the midnight hour.

It shouldn’t have bothered me inside the abbey because nothing should have been able to reach us through the protection spells and wards that covered every inch of this place. Runes that had been painted on little rocks littered the ground outside, ones meant to keep all kinds of creatures away from us. Everything was meant to keep evil out, and yet I felt something inside of me growing as the anger I felt pulsed with a life of its own. I felt like a prisoner inside this place, unable to breathe or feel.

He’d ruined me, as he said he would. I’d fallen for him somewhere between meeting him and him erasing me. I’d fallen a little in love with the monster who had said from the very beginning that he’d destroy me. And the worse part of it was that I’d let him. I’d wanted him to, and something inside my soul still wanted him.

I stepped away from the mirror and glanced at Luna, who watched me with a bored look as she cleaned her paws. I grabbed my jacket and the journals from my dresser and headed out of my room, only to find Kendra standing across from my door, leaning against the stone wall as she glared at me.

“Kendra,” I whispered, narrowing my eyes when she didn’t respond right away. “Kendra?” I repeated, louder.

“Hmm?” she said absently, moving away from the wall as her eyes gained focus. “It is a beautiful day outside,” she mumbled before she turned away from me and headed down the winding hallway.

Shaking my head, I made my way through the corridors of the abbey to the library, placing the books I’d brought back on the return table before moving to the older section. My fingers slid over the bindings for each book, hesitating on one where the leather was older, more distressed than its neighbors. I pulled it from the shelf and stared at the ancient scrawling.

I moved to one of the benches and opened the pages, knowing it held dark magic within its ancient bindings and there would be more consequences for using any of the teachings in this book. I knew the older witches in our coven were investigating the usefulness and effects of harnessing dark magic, and every day more questions arose of what would become of us.

The news had begun reporting fewer deaths in the mainstream media, and yet we knew without the reports that hundreds had been killed, and in their place were demons.

Murders were up, husbands slaughtering their families and disappearing into the night without a trace. Some reports included entire families going missing, and yet they’d left not a single trace of where they’d disappeared to.

For those of us who knew that Hell was wide open, it wasn’t surprising. Human hosts only lasted a little while before they began rotting, so the need to find a new one would continue unless the demon found a body that could last longer. That meant we were becoming their main targets.

Messages were coming in from other covens via magical routes, such as scrying, or ink appearing upon pages next to one of us here at the abbey. Witches were now being targeted because of the ability to permanently house a demon.

We’d sent out instructions for tattooed spells to protect them, but some refused to cast the simple ward on their body. Maybe they didn’t believe us, or maybe they knew there was little hope living through Hell on earth.

Heels clicked across the library floor and I lifted my gaze from the ancient tome as my grandmother approached. She looked exhausted, but not many of us were getting sleep with everything we knew was happening outside the walls of our sanctuary. Hiding didn’t mean obliviousness to the deaths or chaos that reigned outside our doors. It did, however, mean we couldn’t help them, either. Shit, we couldn’t even help ourselves right now.

“Magdalena,” she murmured softly as she sat on the bench beside me. “You said Alden trained you and a few others in magic that our coven traditionally doesn’t teach, correct?” She peered around us as if she was afraid we’d be overheard.

“He did,” I said quietly. He wasn’t on our side, but what he’d taught us wasn’t child’s play, either. He’d taught me how to contain my power, to tap the leyline without being detected by others. He’d trained us to defend ourselves, as well as fight, which I was thankful for, even if he was now the enemy.

“Do you think you could get inside your mother’s shop and retrieve some of the items on this list?” She handed me a neatly folded sheet of paper. “It’s imperative we be well supplied if we intend to hold up here for much longer.”

“You want me to go out there?” I clarified carefully.

“I don’t want you to, but we have little to no herbs for spells and you know where they are inside the shop. I will send others with you, but to survive, we must be prepared to face the demons should they discover how to penetrate the wards. Not to mention, Lucifer himself may try to get inside to get to your sister now that she carries his child.”

“You think he cares that she’s pregnant with is child? He wanted minions to do his bidding here. Now he no longer needs them. He’s here already, and I doubt he cares much that he will be a father.”

“We can’t know what he will do, and the fact that he is here means we must be prepared no matter what, no matter the cost.”

“And yet you still fight against witches turning dark to protect us?” I wondered if her mindset about the dark witches was changing. This was as good of a time as any to test her resolve.

“I am considering it, but there’s a price for my agreeing to allow such a thing. It’s a price I’m not sure I can live with or make. We will talk more on the subject when you return. Right now we have to get supplies, or nothing will matter once they breach our defenses.”

“I’ll go,” I answered calmly, somehow managing to hide the fear pulsing through me. Outside was dangerous; demons were filing out of Hell and into our world with every passing moment. The stories of old told of armies of them coming out to slaughter the living, and that’s exactly what was happening.

“I knew you would, but not alone. Take some of the others who trained with you. There’s safety in numbers. To cut down on time, you should split up into groups once you reach town. It should cut down the time needed there, and if something should happen to one of you, Goddess forbid, we won’t lose you all or all of the supplies. I’ll give you a few more lists of what we need that you can give the groups. The others, while important, can fail; yours, however, cannot. They are needed the most, you understand me?”

“Understood,” I mumbled as I grabbed the book and pushed away from the table. “We knew it was needed when we started training with Alden, just not that it would be imperative or vital to our continued existence. At least not at the time, anyway. I also knew you wouldn’t approve of it. I’m sorry for not telling you straight away,” I admitted softly, guilt tinging my cheeks.

“Your mother knew what was happening,” she scoffed with a gentle wave of her hand. “She isn’t as blind as you think she is. In fact, she knew who Alden was but had yet to figure out why he was here. How do you think you got so smart? It’s in the blood,” she smirked with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “But, much like you, she had little control over what her heart did after she met him.”

“I don’t love him,” I interrupted icily, holding on to the book tightly. “He erased me, Grandma. The rest of you had your memories changed to alter events. For me, he erased my memories of people, of events, and the past few years of my life. He took what made me, me, and stole it from me. I don’t remember much about Joshua anymore, and that is something that aches deeper than any other wound.”

“I gave you back certain memories, but some are harder to grasp because you are not ready to. You blame Lucian for his meddling, but I can see his reasoning. You wouldn’t have stopped fighting to save Kendra. You’d have died trying to save her, and for that, I am grateful for what he did. He couldn’t stop what happened to us, nor am I convinced that he could have saved Kendra from what Lucifer did to her. But he did save you. He reset us, and because of that, we lived. Had we run as the rules dictate we do, we’d be clueless of the evil that has entered this world.”

“How can you say that? He took our memories. He took everything from me! Everything bad that happened, he erased it! Everything that made me into who I am is gone! I feel empty, devoid of emotion, and I’m terrified that I can’t get those memories or feelings back.”

“They will.” She patted my shoulder. “You’re angry, but not because of what he did, because of how he did it. You’re hurt and you have every right to be, but there are bigger matters to worry about now. Right now, the humans are being slaughtered and they are oblivious to what is happening. There’s no Guild to protect them, or us. Lucian may not be a witch, but he is something strong, and right now, we can use all the help we can get.”

“We don’t need him,” I grumbled. “We don’t even know whose side he is on in this fight.”

“He protected you from Lucifer with ancient magic, granddaughter mine,” she insisted fiercely as she gave me a reassuring pat. “Not many know magic as old as what has been used to protect you from that monster. It’s older than any of our tomes date back to, and they go back to our first generation of witches. If he is enemies with Lucifer, then Lucian Blackstone is one we have to have on our side, no matter the cost.”

“And if the cost is me?” I asked, wondering what her answer would be.

“Then you will pay it for the sake of the coven. At least until we find something else he wants more.”

Chapter 20

We moved to the doors, ignoring the people who watched us with a foreboding look. As if it would be the last time they saw us alive. We had very few weapons, and even less protective gear on. To say we were ill-prepared to face demons would be the understatement of the century. My jacket was black, as well as the jeans I wore. I had borrowed boots from Kat, who had a large uncanny quantity of shit-kickers. Luckily, we wore the same size shoes.

My pack was tightly secured, and the list of herbs was tucked away in my pocket. The more we waited for the doors to open, the more nervous I got at the idea of facing demons. The marks on my body singed with pain as I moved closer to the door, as if warning me to stay in the safety of the abbey.

“You ready for this?” Dexter asked as I approached, staring him down with little confidence. He was dressed in black as well as the others, with a larger pack held over his chest that hung empty on his back.

Would I fail him if we were faced with demons? I’d taken down a demon, but it hadn’t been easy. I couldn’t save them all, not if we faced a horde of demons. One, yes, I stood a fighting chance against, but that wasn’t what waited outside those doors. What if last time had been a fluke, and I couldn’t really stand on my own against them? It was the unknowns that worried me the most. Was Lucifer waiting for me? Did he still want me to use against Lucian, and if he did, if he caught me, would Lucian even care at this point? If he got to me, I feared what he would do. He’d messed Kendra up bad, so bad that she wouldn’t even talk to me. Instead, she hid in the library or in the archived files we had, reading. She was a mere ghost of the vibrant woman she’d once been.

“None of us are ready for this, but we don’t have a choice,” I uttered as I watched Kendra enter the room, her gaze slowly puzzled over the hunting party and our shabby gear. She blamed me; she’d even admitted it to a few others. He’d done things to her while screaming my name, and yet she’d protected me still. Now… now, she had pushed me away, and I didn’t blame her one bit. She’d screamed at me when I’d asked her about Hell, saying that it should have been me instead, and yeah, I agreed. Guilt ate at me, tore and twisted my insides when her stare went vacant as if she was reliving some event she’d endured.

I’d let Lucian into my life. I’d slept with him, and it had cost Kendra in the end, which was on me. Our connection had been severed; somehow in her leaving this plane for Hell, it had been cut or she refused to use it. It mattered little now, since she barely spoke more than a few words to me in passing if I was lucky, and those words held no meaning. It was almost as if she didn’t even know me, as if I was nothing more than a stranger.

“I will open the door and once you are outside, it will be sealed again. Once you return and are inside the runes that surround the abbey, we will open them for you to come back inside. That won’t change unless your plan changes. Understand me; they will lock you out if it is too dangerous to open them. If that happens, go to our house and activate the wards in the basement,” my mother said, visibly struggling against anxiety as she stared at me. “If you can’t get the supplies we need safely, leave them and come back. They’re not worth your life,” she whispered as she hugged me tightly. “We will find another way to get them, do you understand?”

“Failure isn’t an option. We will succeed and we will come back safely, I promise,” I replied, pulling away from her. “Talk to Kendra, see if she will open up to you about what happened.”

“You’ve tried and she refuses to say more on it,” she returned softly, staring into my gaze.

“She blames me, and she should. You didn’t hurt her as I have—try, Mother. She grows more distant with every day that passes.”

“It’s only been a week and a half, she needs time to heal,” she retorted. “The things she must have endured…”

I winced and nodded, unable to answer because I knew what she’d endured. I’d been there, watching her on stage as she’d taken multiple creatures inside her body. They’d beaten her, used her and raped her until she had become compliant. That much I was sure of. I’d taken Lucifer inside of me, thinking he was Lucian while she’d been mere feet away from me, enduring what should have been meant for me. Kendra was gentle; she was soft and unable to endure such things as she had. I was dark, twisted, and would have been able to sustain it.

The door opened and I slipped through it without another word. It was dark and cold outside the abbey, a sign that winter was closing in on us. No stars sparkled high above us in the onyx sky. Only dark clouds loomed above, obscuring their welcomed light. I stood inside the runes, searching the tree lines for any sign of danger. Shadows played across the darkness and I swallowed the doubt and fear as I stepped over the runes, knowing my mother watched me.

The others waited, as if Lucifer himself would jump out of the bushes and consume my soul. I spun around, eying them before I withdrew my old athame and started in the direction of the woods. The old trails through the trees were the best route, since we’d be covered by thick brush and no one would expect us to come through them to reach the town. Assuming demons had coherent thoughts beside bloodlust and body jumping, which we were no wiser about.

“This should be fun,” Dexter said as he stumbled over a fallen tree and righted himself. “They’re insane, sending us out.”

“They’re not insane,” I grumbled as my foot caught a root and I paused to kick it free. “They’re desperate to survive, and we are trained.”

“By someone who may or may not be on our side,” Kat scoffed from the other side of me. I turned, looking at her. I understood their fears; I had my own.

“He trained us to be like those he taught inside the Guild. I’ve seen one of them in action and she’s pretty badass. There are a lot of things we are questioning right now, but fighting and what he taught us to defend ourselves doesn’t belong on that list. He taught us to fight, so use it. You have magic; you were born with magic and it runs through our veins. We can do this, I know we can. I have faith in you, all of you, so stop second-guessing yourselves. They sent us because we are their best hope right now. We’re out here for the coven, to keep us all alive.”

“We’re scared,” Kat said softly as she wiped at her eyes.

“We’re all scared, but we are stronger than they are,” I replied loud enough to be heard by those who watched us and listened. “They are not used to our world, and they have no idea what we are capable of. They are unknown to us, but so are we to them. They may know witches, but they don’t know us.”

I started forward, ignoring the words of agreement that followed my speech of encouragement. It sounded good, but it was as empty as the woods we stood in. It took us over an hour to trek through the thick terrain, over the dead or dying frost-covered grounds as the night took hold of the land and winter’s icy grip tightened its hold over the Pacific Northwest.

I stood on the edge of the forest, staring down at the town we’d once called home. Houses were burned to the ground while others stood pristine against the violence that had rocked the sleepy little town. I tilted my head, hearing nothing except the waterfalls that roared in the backdrop of the night.

“Do you hear that?” I asked, waiting for Kat to speak up, ever endless with chatter. She was silent; tears streaked over her cheeks as she looked at the destruction our town had endured.

“Nothing, there’s nothing,” she whispered, choked up with emotion.

“No demons, either,” Dexter announced. “It looks abandoned,” he pointed out.

“Looks that way, but we should assume it’s festering with them. They will look human, so anyone you come across you must assume is now a demon. There’s a Hell Gate in the middle of town… If anyone did survive the first onslaught, I am sure they are gone now. I don’t imagine they hung around to become fodder to the fires of Hell. I’m unsure where it is, but should something look unfamiliar, stay away from it.”

“You were born to lead,” Kat pointed out as we marched towards the shops on the outskirts of town. “You’re good at it.”

“Yeah, if you consider the blind leading the blinder into battle something to be born into,” I muttered. Once we were within running distance of the shops, we paused, hugging the buildings. “Okay, get in and get out as fast as you can. Once you’ve finished, head for the woods. We will regroup there.”

“And if we find a demon?” Dexter asked.

“Kill it,” I replied carefully. “They’re not alive, neither is the body they have possessed. From what we know, once they enter it, they either feed on the soul until it’s consumed, or they extinguish it. Do not hesitate; hesitating will get you killed.” I pulled up my hood and nodded to them before I slipped from the protection of the building and headed in the direction of our store.

The town was filled with deafening silence, and the closer I got to the store, the darker it became, as if the shadows were following me into the shop. The door to the store was pulled from the building, and I had to step over what I assumed had once been a human to get inside. It was a sunken husk of meat, as if the demon had eaten it from within until only the shell of the person remained. I stalled, staring at the old woman whose sunken, lifeless gaze stared up at me.

Mrs. Carson, the baker who had always come over to get coffee from us even though her shop sold it inside.

I rubbed my eyes and looked around for something to cover her up with, finding nothing. I stepped inside the shop, pulling a tapestry of the moon down and slipping it over her. Life wasn’t fair; it was never those who deserved to die who did. It was those who were kind and goodhearted who God took from us, leaving the nasty fuckers behind.

The moment I moved inside, I whispered the spell to light the candles, unable to see in the darkened shop. It was empty, with trinkets strung everywhere, as well as potions that were shattered on the floor. The power grid was down, had been down in town since the moment the demons had entered it. As if something about the gates opening had short-circuited the grid.

I removed my backpack and entered the back of the shop, searching through the plants that looked moments from withering and dying as the last traces of magic pulsed through them, keeping them alive. I pulled buds from plants, placing them into large Ziploc bags before I eyed the smaller room.

I whispered the spell to light a few more candles and extinguished the one out front, leaving the door open in case anything entered. This room had no exit except the one I’d come in. Unlike the others, this room was secured for the plants to breathe, but also to keep the chill winter winds from killing the tropical ones. Not that it had mattered much without power to keep them alive. Luckily, they were clinging to life with the magic I’d used to grow them. I slipped packets of seeds into the bag, since we couldn’t grow them again without more. I’d plucked roots and other things to be able to use magic to replenish our supply when these ones ran out as well.

Once I’d finished placing them all into the secure bags, I zipped the pack and slung it over my shoulder. I twisted around, listening as a shiver ran down my spine. I could hear crying—a child? I slowly moved into the next room, whispering the spell to light the candles.

I could see tiny feet sticking out from the counter up front. I shoved down the urge to rush to it. I slipped closer, placing the bag on the floor as I made my way to the child. I had almost made it to her when I was rushed from the side, thrown against the wall with red hot pain that engulfed my head as my ears rang. I reached for the athame but something was thrown at me and I didn’t have time to dodge it. Pain erupted as blood dripped from where the glass had shattered against my head.

“That’s enough,” a smooth, deep voice growled as I struggled to get back up. A piercing blue gaze locked with mine the moment I regained my balance. A silent scream bubbled deep in my throat as I faced Lucifer, who smirked at me, as if he was tickled he’d found me again. “You surprise me, sweet one. You’re either stupid, or braver than your sister. You don’t strike me as being stupid. How is my little bun in the oven, anyway? Does she miss me?”

“Go back to Hell,” I growled, wondering what the fuck I could do to prevent him from taking me with him.

“Now, why would I do that when I just got here? I’m pretty happy here,” he said softly as his gaze skimmed down my body. “You look better naked. This century’s clothing is not flattering at all. I prefer the dresses; so much easier to get to the goods, wouldn’t you agree? In this outfit you almost look normal, and we all know what you hide beneath isn’t normal. I must confess; I’m not sure what it is he sees in you. You look nothing like her at all.”

“You should go before I get pissed off. You only want me because it would piss him off, but he doesn’t fucking care about me. You’re wasting your time here. I don’t belong to him or you,” I snapped as I wiped away the blood that threatened to drip into my vision. “You two, you think you can just say someone is yours and they are, but this is the real world. It doesn’t work like that. You both need lessons on how to date, or ask a girl out.”

“It works exactly like that when you’re as old as we are, sweetheart,” he purred as his gaze slid to where my hand held the athame. “Tsk, tsk, Witch,” he clucked as his lips tipped into a seductive smirk. He brought his hand up, sending me sailing against the wall where the shelves still stood; they gave under the pressure as my body slammed against them, sending the items raining onto the floor below. I screamed as pain tore through me when something stuck into my side. He held me there, in midair, my feet dangling off the floor. I watched helplessly as he moved closer as he dropped his hand, leaving me unable to touch the ground or even move as he closed the distance between us.

His nose pushed against my sex and I growled as I fought to get free. Whatever he was doing, it left me paralyzed, unable to move so much as a muscle. His nose grazed and rubbed against my sex and he laughed as his gaze rose to mine with laughter in their ocean-hued depths.

“You smell like heaven, intertwined with the depths of hellfire,” he groaned as he pushed against it harder. “You have secrets of your own, don’t you?” he asked, and I stared down at him with loathing and hatred. “Or, you are unaware, which means he is as well,” he chuckled. “Fucking priceless; it’s working better than even I assumed it would. Are you aware of what this means for you?” He laughed harder, as if whatever the fuck he said made any resemblance of sense.

I couldn’t answer him. I couldn’t move my lips. One minute I was in the air, pressed against the wall with slithering power that threatened to choke me, and the next I was on my hands and knees at his feet in the glass and other debris.

“Fuck you!” I snapped, coming up to hit him, but something smashed through the window of the shop before I could. His head turned and his minions moved to investigate, leaving only a few who stood arranged around the shop with him.

“No, it’s I who fucked you and you liked it. You are perfect for sin, un-fucking-educated on dick, but we can blame that on the creature who is grooming you to be his whore. I wonder, has he told you what he is?”

“I don’t care what he is.”

“Yes, you do, it’s in your eyes. You see, I own sins, and lying is one of them. You need to know what he is, what he wants, and how you fit into his world. You don’t. Fit into his world, that is. You’re nothing but a mere blink of an eye to creatures like us. You help us pass the time.”

“You should leave,” I offered, pulling magic from the leyline. I pulled until I felt it pull back, knowing I was taking too much at once. I didn’t care. I wasn’t dying here. I was bruised, bloody, but I was alive and staring Lucifer down. I let it loose, letting the power pulse through the shop as the minions screamed and bellowed as their skin sizzled. Bones popped, skin sagged, and the nauseous smell of burning flesh filled the store.

He didn’t get touched, at all. He watched me, uncaring that I was killing his men as power pulsed from my fingertips as I whispered the spell over and over until my head pounded and blood dripped from my nose.

“You’re not normal, after all, sweetheart. You’re…different,” he mused as he watched me. He suddenly grabbed me, pulling me to him as he spun us around. His hands wrapped around me, turning me until I faced the door of the shop with my back pressed against his.

Lucian stepped into the shop, Bane and Spyder flanking his sides. I watched them as the magic pulsed through me; anger sizzled in the air, palpable as the animosity erupted hot enough to bring the entire shop melting down around us.

“Let her go,” Lucian said barely above a whisper.

I felt my body sagging in relief, but it was short-lived as Lucifer rubbed his nose against my neck. He purred against my ear, watching Lucian as he moved a little closer. “Take her from me if you can,” Lucifer challenged. His hand pressed against my neck and I closed my eyes against what I assumed he planned to do. He had an audience now, and if he wanted to kill me, it would be while Lucian watched him.

“Let her go and I will consider letting you live,” Lucian warned, his eyes holding mine the moment I reopened them as his words registered. He could kill him? What the fuck was he?

“You think I am afraid of you? You had your chance in this world, you gave it up. Now you want it back? Why, because you fucked up and lost the seal? It’s too late to fix it now, I’ve won,” he snickered as his lips touched my cheeks. “She’s sweet, but that’s not why you like her, is it? You taste the wickedness inside of her, don’t you? I tasted it, and it’s delicious. Did you know she came for me? Screaming for more?”

“Because she thought you were me? You must feel accomplished,” Lucian replied coldly, his tone carrying death in every syllable he uttered. “Yet the moment she knew it was you, it ended, didn’t it? Always second in every fucking thing you do; must get tiring, always losing?” he purred.

Okay, what the fuck? Getting the creature at my back angry while he held my life in his hands? Not okay. I swallowed down the words as I watched Lucian wipe invisible lint from his expensive suit. He looked bored, uninterested with the entire charade. His eyes held mine and spoke without having to say anything.

“What the fuck are you doing out of the abbey?” his glare demanded.

“I don’t need you to hold my fucking hand,” I glared back at him.

“You seem to be doing a splendid job of holding hands with Lucifer at the moment.” His eyes narrowed.

“It’s a hiccup, I got this,” I smirked.

“Yet here you are, in his arms.” His frown tugged at the corners as he watched me.

Lucifer tugged me closer, placing his arms around my chest as his hands tested the weight of my breasts. I stared at Lucian, fighting for calm as he continued to grope me. I stifled the cry as he applied pressure to them, taunting Lucian to make a move as he fondled me blatantly in front of him.

“You sure you got this, Damsel in Distress?”

I lifted my arms, wrapping them around Lucifer’s neck slowly, as to not alert him or make him hurt me. I stared Lucian down the entire time, watching as his jaw ticked angrily. I leaned into Lucifer’s body, feeling his inhuman heat as it pulsed against me. His lips touched my neck, sending heat unfurling to the pit of my stomach, and my eyes grew heavy. Lucian stiffened, watching me as I kept my gaze locked on his. Lucifer’s hands slid down my side and I moved, grabbing his neck as I bent my body, using the momentum to send him sailing across the floor into a set of shelves. He never struck them; the moment before he should have hit them, he vanished.

I stood there, shocked it had actually worked and unable to move from the spot I was rooted in until Lucian moved, making a grab for me. My power sizzled, unable to find an outlet as it had continued to build.

“Let it go,” Lucian warned, watching me as he got closer to me.

“I don’t know if I can,” I admitted, jerking away when he moved to touch me. I was a live wire, an explosive device set to go off. I’d tapped the line, pulling on it even when it tugged back. I’d taken too much; the black piles of what had once been demons were proof of that.

“Kitty, stop being a pussy and release it,” Spyder demanded, coming up on my right side as he watched me. “You took too much; if you don’t let it out, this store is going to be nothing but a burned mess. You don’t want that, so fucking breathe for me and let it out.”

I trembled as the power grew, unable to stop it as my hair rose from the static charge that was pulsing through me. Items inside the store started to float in the air around me. My body burned, hatred pulsing to life as I imagined all the demons had done to this town, and I opened my mouth too fast, only to have Lucian’s lips pushed against mine. My mind whirled; the slight pressure had been enough to end the spell that had danced on my tongue. His hands touched my cheeks, erasing Lucifer’s touch with their tenderness.

When he pulled away I exhaled, but the power still wouldn’t release. It intensified until I swayed on my feet with the force of it as it filling my veins.

“Sleep, Lena,” Lucian whispered as he pushed his forehead against mine. The air whooshed from my lungs as my head dropped onto his shoulder and my eyes closed.

Chapter 21

I awoke to someone shaking my arm. I blinked, taking in the magnificent colors of the dawn as it took control of the sky. I turned my head, finding Kat staring down at me before she moved her gaze to someone who stood on the opposite side of me, staring down at where I lay in the grass. Lucian watched me; his midnight eyes sparkled with amusement as he knelt down to my level and watched me as I struggled to remember what happened.

“Time to get up, sleeping beauty,” he murmured as he nodded to someone else behind me. I tilted my head, finding Spyder there in the shadows. He stepped out, handing off a flask, which Kat accepted and twisted the top off of. She pushed it against my lips and I drank deeply before sputtering as the Jack Daniels burned its way down my throat.

“What did you do to me? Where’s Lucifer?” I demanded.

“You kicked his ass, kitty,” Spyder chuckled, but it was cut off as Lucian gave him a warning look.

“You want to explain what the fuck you’re doing outside the abbey?” Lucian demanded sharply.

“To you? No, not really,” I grumbled as I sat up, grabbing my head when my vision swam. “I don’t have to explain coven business to you anymore,” I pointed out as two of him danced in my line of sight. “Besides, I don’t even like you.”

“I told you to stay inside the abbey,” he growled.

“No, I believe you said something along the lines of I cursed your penis with my vagina by using magic, or something to remove a curse,” I mumbled as I took in the battered and bruised faces of the witches I’d brought with me. I did a mental headcount and grimaced. “Where’s Tara?” I muttered, pushing through the spinning in my head to gain my footing. I swayed as Lucian reached out, holding me up until I jerked my arm away from him.

“She hasn’t returned,” Kat answered as she stood up to stare at me. “Is it true? You took on Lucifer?” she whispered, as if the men beside her wouldn’t hear it.

“Not exactly, I just used the defense moves we learned over the summer,” I grumbled as I rubbed my temples. “How long was I out for?”

“Few hours, but we weren’t sure we should wake you up yet,” she admitted as her gaze slid back to Lucian before coming back to mine. “You were pretty out of it. You were leaking power, which was kind of scary. They said you pulled from a leyline and didn’t stop when it gave warning? Wasn’t that the first thing we were taught, Lena?”

“Yeah, well I was facing down the Prince of Darkness and some lackeys, so I had to pull as much as I could to make sure I got out alive,” I explained delicately. “You guys were attacked too?”

“A few of us; some of us heard the others being attacked and aided them to get free of the demons. We searched for you and Tara but they kept coming so we got out when Spyder came for us and told us you were with Lucian. We didn’t find Tara, though.”

“And there’s been no sign of her yet?” I asked, knowing alone she wouldn’t stand a chance against the demons.

“No, and we were told we couldn’t leave you,” she huffed as she turned to Spyder and hiked a thumb in his direction, indicating him as the culprit. “He said he’d tie us up and leave us hanging from the trees as demon bait if we even tried to go looking for her before you woke up.”

“I’m going,” I said, turning to my bag only to realize I didn’t have it. I exhaled and shook my head. “I have to get the herbs anyway. I can’t leave them behind, the coven needs them.”

“You’re not going anywhere,” Lucian warned.

“You’re not my boss,” I shot back, anger radiating from my pores. “You can’t tell me what I can or can’t do here. The coven is trying to survive alone, and in order to do that, we need those herbs and supplies. Tara was collecting medicinal things; her bag will have to be collected as well. So either come with me or step aside and let me do what I have to.”

“You shouldn’t be out of the fucking abbey, let alone traipsing through the woods. You are fucking clueless to the monsters that are topside now, Lena,” he sneered angrily.

“Then educate me, big boy,” I countered, crossing my arms over my chest as I stared at him and then faltered as heat entered his stare, as if I’d said something else.

“You’re not going alone,” he returned carefully. “You have, what, twelve barely awakened witches who wouldn’t know the difference between a demon and a fucking harpy. You can’t cast on cue let alone on the spot; shit, you can barely tap a line without almost killing yourself. So no, Lena, you’re not going out there.”

“Lucian, I may not be strong enough to save her, but I’m going one way or the other. Tara is alone. She’s probably hiding in one of those stores waiting for us to come get her. I’m not leaving without her, so either help or leave. Those are your options right now,” I seethed as I stepped closer to him, squaring my shoulders as I dug my heels in. I wasn’t leaving anyone behind.

“They’re fucking demons, Lena, ones that can smell humans and their fear, and witches? Sweeter than humans, you call to them with it. You think they haven’t found her already? She’s a fucking beacon to them,” he argued, until he noted I wasn’t giving in. “You are the most stubborn, irritating witch in existence,” he snarled as he stepped closer to me.

“You say it like I care, which I don’t,” I smirked as I turned to the group and away from the man who was even now crowding my space with his heady scent. “You guys head to the abbey, have them prepare for us in case we come in hot. Have the healers on standby as well, in case she’s bad off.”

“You think she’s even still alive? She’s been gone hours. You could end up hurt trying to find her, and she may not even be alive,” Dexter debated.

“I’m not counting her out yet, neither should you. If it was you out there, any of you, I’d come for you too. I wouldn’t stop looking until I knew your fate,” I replied carefully with a calmness I didn’t really feel. My heart had sped up, my temples throbbing with the fear I felt of going back into town, but I couldn’t leave her. “Go back to the abbey where it’s safe, and stay together no matter what happens.”

Grandma had been reckless, and wrong. She’d told us to split up to increase the odds of some of us making it back alive, and yet if we’d stuck together, we’d all be on our way back to the abbey safe and sound. There was protection in numbers.

“Spyder, go with them. Make sure they get back to the abbey in one piece.”

“They know how to survive,” I replied crisply.

“They are walking back without you, the most powerful witch of the group. He’ll keep them safe while you and I go find the missing girl.”

I watched them retrieving their bags as they slipped them onto their backs and started out of the little clearing Lucian had brought me to before gathering the others. Spyder and Lucian shared a look before he took up the tail end of the group as they made their way back to the protection of the abbey.

Lucian jerked his head in the direction of the group. “Why would you even bring them out of the protection of the abbey?”

I snorted and shook my head at him. “You don’t get it, we’re alone. You fucked us,” I laughed hollowly. “They could have been in a bunker. Instead, we’re fucking sitting ducks for demons. They might as well put us in an amusement park and pick us off one by one. Why are we out here? Because if we plan on surviving, we’ll need supplies to do so. You don’t have to help us; like you said, it’s not your fucking problem, it’s ours. You made it clear that you wanted nothing to do with me, so you tell me, why are you out here?”

“Because no matter what has happened, you’re not going to Lucifer to be used against me. You think I care if they die?” he asked, hiking his thumb in the direction the team had just walked off in. “I don’t, but you? You are being hunted, and he almost fucking had you. You think he won’t cut you up and send you back to me, piece by bloody fucking piece?”

“Would you even care?” I scoffed. “You placed me in his path, and then you allowed him to take my sister in my place. Instead of trusting me to be strong enough to handle it, you erased my memories. Do you know what he did to her?” I demanded, fighting the angry tears that burned in my gaze. “She won’t even speak to me now, no more than a few muttered or screamed words, and then she walks away from me.”

“She’ll get over it,” he growled.

“You have no remorse, do you?” I whispered as I stared at him.

“For protecting you? Absolutely fucking not,” he murmured as he closed the distance between us. I stepped backwards and shook my head.

“We don’t have time for this,” I muttered softly as I turned towards town and started the trek back.

“You can hate me if it makes you feel better, but no, Magdalena, I’m not sorry she took your place. He would have ruined you. If I was given the choice again, I’d do the same thing to protect you from him.”

“Why does he even want me?” I asked, refusing to turn around and look at him as I stumbled over downed trees and branches. We weren’t close to the trail we’d followed from the abbey. This one was more jagged, and turned in directions that added more time to the hike back to town.

“I don’t know,” he muttered angrily.

“Bullshit,” I growled, finally turning to face him. We’d just cleared the last large tree and entered a thicket that had rushing water beside it. “The devil doesn’t come hunting without reason. He sure as shit doesn’t seek one witch out to torture without a reason. You said it was to hurt you, why?”

“I took something from him,” he admitted.

“Something?” I pressed as I continued to watch him.

“I took someone he loved,” he growled as he ignored my wide-eyed look.

“And now he thinks you love me?”

“He watched us fuck, Lena,” he laughed coldly. “Whatever he saw as we fucked that night in the club, he assumed you were mine and meant something to me.”

I shivered at the reminder. “He watched us together,” I huffed out a deep sigh and swallowed as I closed my eyes. “You think that was enough for him to think you love me? You must fuck a ton of women; I mean, you own a sex club and you have women panting after you with their tongues rolled down to the floor. What was different about us?” I asked, watching him as his jaw ticked with anger. “Had to be something you did,” I said thoughtfully as I tapped my chin, recalling that night. My body heated as the memories swam inside my head.

“You were no different from the others,” he said coldly, and just like that, a bucket of ice-cold water was splashed over my head.

“No? Then why wasn’t he after the others instead of me?” I demanded. “I mean, he somehow escaped Hell to get inside the abbey. Of course, it was Samhain, so the walls were down a bit to allow the dead through. But then, he didn’t go there for anyone else you fucked, he was looking for me.”

“Walk or I turn around and take you to the abbey,” he demanded.

“What the fuck was so special about me to make him come after me?” I returned.

“Nothing,” he hissed as he pushed past me and started on the trail that led into town.

Once we were a mile from town, I paused and stood still. The smell of sulfur was thick, assaulting my nose with its putrid scent. I had been about to open my mouth and point it out when Lucian slammed into me, taking me to the ground with a bone-jarring thud as something flew over the top of us and bark flew from the tree as it gave way and slammed into the ground next to us with a deafening sound.

“Lucian,” I whimpered as the sound of feet thundering over the wet forest floor met my ears.

“Lena,” he smirked as his forehead rested against mine. “Scared?” he murmured as his lips feathered over mine.

“Shouldn’t we do something?” I asked, unsure why he seemed so calm considering there was probably an entire army of demons heading straight for us.

“Who says I’m not?” he muttered as he inhaled my scent into his lungs. “You smell fucking delicious.”

“It’s just wild berry and chamomile shampoo,” I rambled off as I shivered against him, inhaling him greedily. His woodsy scent made my senses swirl as the rich, musky aroma curled my insides with need. Lucian was raw, infused with earthy scents that seemed to work against me.

“Lena, close your eyes for me,” he whispered as his lips pressed against my forehead. I held them shut tightly as I felt his body lifting from mine, leaving me cold without his heat. On the ground, I lay there, paralyzed without his warmth to feed me strength. I listened to the sound of feet meeting the ground and then something else joined in. A new sound erupted in the forest. I rolled onto my stomach and pushed off of the ground, getting back upright as I stepped over the newly fallen tree and took cover behind a larger one.

I leaned my head against it as the sounds intensified, growing closer to my location. I turned my body and peeked around the tree as my fingers bit into the bark as I watched a whirling blue light moving through the demons. I shivered as, one after another, the demons fell into smoldering piles of nothing but ashes and sulfur. When the last demon had fallen, Lucian shimmered to a corporal form and his blue glowing gaze held mine as he moved towards me.

“I told you to close your eyes,” he growled angrily.

“I cheated a lot as a kid playing hide and go seek,” I babbled as I stepped backwards needing distance between us. “What the fuck are you?” I whimpered as a tree barred my retreat.

“Does it really matter what I am?” he asked softly as his stare landed on my lips.

“Sorta, I’m in the woods alone with you and we’ve done things,” I hissed barely above a whisper. As if someone would over hear me and start laughing at me, which would be my luck.

“Done things? Like when you swallowed my cock?” he mused cockily as he tilted his head a bit. “Would knowing what I am change what we’ve done?”

“Here’s the thing, you got really angry when we had sex and your runes disappeared. That means something, right? The coven intended to have a ball that night, inside your club. You know why? Because the solar eclipse aligned with Venus, which means fertility. Those runes of yours, they vanished as it happened, not before it, not after it. Exactly during the eclipse,” I explained in a firm tone, somehow managing to keep the utter panic from filling it. I watched his gaze darken as he stepped closer to me. “You knew that, though, didn’t you?”

“You’re not pregnant with my child, Lena. I can’t have kids,” he snapped coldly.

“Noted,” I said. “I didn’t say I was, but what if? Then knowing what you were would matter to me, wouldn’t it?” I challenged.

“Let’s move, Witch,” he growled, grabbing my hand before I could yank it away from him. I followed him closely, hating that the simple touch of his hand against mine sent butterflies fluttering through my stomach.

“Why do you need the grimoires?” I asked, trying to think of things to talk about to calm the nervousness inside of me.

“Not your concern,” he replied, not stopping as we trudged through the once again thick brush. “Why’d you take them?”

“Not your concern,” I shot back as I nearly tripped over an uprooted sapling. “Who’s Katarina?” I asked.

I was pulled against him before I even knew what was happening. His lips pulled back from his teeth as he growled at me. “How do you know that name?” he demanded coldly.

I tapped my head. “First book inside my head is hers,” I admitted carefully. “You are after them; you should know whose they were or who they once belonged to, or you wouldn’t want them, now shouldn’t you?” I smirked as he released his hold on my arm and I stepped back, putting distance between us. “You know what they hold, or what you think they hold, so tell me: Who was she and why does it repeat her name through generations?”

“It’s your history, Lena, not mine. You tell me,” he challenged as he pulled a branch up to let me pass.

“I think she’s the cursed witch, the one the monster hunts,” I said, studying his posture and body language. He gave nothing away. “She’s reborn and then he comes for her.”

“And you think I’m the monster?” he asked, turning to stare at me with his hands fisted at his sides.

“No; she does reference L a lot, but my money is on Lucifer, so is she who you killed?”

“I didn’t say I killed her, did I?”

“No, but this is you we are talking about, and I know you have a tendency for hiding dead bodies in your backyard. I did mention that when my memories came back, all of them of you came back, right?” I goaded, reminding him of the body I’d once accused him of burying. “I think you took the witch from him and he is trying to pay you back for it with my head.”

“You think too much, and this isn’t something I care to fucking discuss with you, Witch,” he growled, turning to leave me standing alone as he tromped over bushes. I struggled to follow him and then turned my head as I heard a noise.

“Lucian,” I said, trying to catch up with him. He didn’t slow down, not even as I tried running through the thick brush and fell into a hole where a tree had once grown its roots. I closed my eyes as I tried to hear the noise again, turning towards it. I could hear Lucian getting further away; his footsteps continued as I pulled myself out of the dirt and looked around.

“Lucian!” I shouted, and then I heard it. The whizzing of something as it shot through the air and moved towards me. I hit the ground, crying out as the tree that I’d been about to climb over splintered, sending slivers of it into my skin as I lay there, unmoving.

I heard feet moving, and then grunts of pain, as if something was tearing them apart. I brought my hand up and wiped away the blood from where the wood had cut me. I didn’t get up this time; instead, I waited until Lucian loomed over me and I glared up into his glowing stare.

“You’re the worst bodyguard ever,” I muttered as I got up.

“You’re bleeding,” he growled.

“It’s a scratch,” I hissed as he tried to look me over. “I called for you.”

“I know,” he said gruffly. I couldn’t tell if he was mad at me, himself, or both. “You should have stayed behind me.”

“I tried, but my legs are shorter and I can’t leap over trees like you,” I said as I stood up and ignored his hand, which he’d offered. I searched the brush for any sign of danger, pausing as the bright white straps of my bag came into view. “Tara!” I screamed, moving through the brush with ease as I raced to her as she turned and looked at me. I stopped as the damage to her face came into view.

Her eyes were blackened from abuse; angry bruises covered her face and arms, and cuts from claws bled freely. Her pants were covered in blood as well, as if she’d been held and tortured.

She didn’t say anything. She made it to me and rushed into my arms as sobs rocked her body. I didn’t ask if she was okay, because I knew she wasn’t. I rocked her as Lucian watched us, taking in the damage to her body.

“She could be possessed,” he pointed out.

“We are protected from it,” I whispered as I pulled away, looking at her green gaze and bright red hair. “You’re okay, you will be okay.”

“I thought you left me,” she whimpered as her nose started to bleed. “I thought they’d catch me again and do…that again,” she sobbed.

“They won’t touch you again, ever,” I vowed firmly, even though anger pulsed to life inside of me. “Let’s go home, Tara.”

A few hours—and a lot of stumbling to keep her upright—later, we made it to the abbey. I was exhausted, yet relieved to have made it back. Lucian hadn’t said much since the last attack or finding Tara, other than to tell us to watch our step every once in a while and placing his hand behind my back when I faltered. It sucked admitting that if he hadn’t shown up when he had, we probably all would have died tonight.

Everyone was outside as I helped Tara pass over the wards and handed her off to my mother. Lucian and Spyder stood just outside the wards and I paused, watching him as he took them in. His stare lifted, as if he’d felt me watching him. I grinned as his glare narrowed on me. Yes, I’d helped place them, and I’d used the ones from the grimoires inside my head.

“Lucian, a word?” my grandmother called out as a Land Rover pulled up into the driveway of the abbey.

“For you, Sarah, anything,” he said, but he made no move to pass the wards. He stood firm just outside of them, forcing her to step beyond the protection I’d erected. I watched in silence as she moved to him and then, together, they moved even further away, out of hearing distance.

My heart sped up as I waited for her to return. I heard Kendra speaking to the others, her tone low and muffled. I turned, watching as she smiled and nodded to the other girls, who all spoke excitedly. As if something had had happened to help her in my absence from the abbey? Her gaze lifted and held mine briefly before they moved past me and settled on Lucian with a wide-eyed look of shock.

Lucifer had taken Lucian’s form, and yet she continued to stare at him with something I’d never seen in her eyes. Hunger? Hatred? I wasn’t sure. She’d been through so much. Guilt washed over me as I turned my gaze back to where my grandmother was, watching as she shook hands with Lucian before making her way back to me.

“What was that about?” I asked as I tried to ignore Lucian as he folded his tall frame into the Land Rover before it drove off without so much as a goodbye.

“I’m adapting to the times,” she said with a sad smile. “Come, we must prepare for what must be done soon.”

Chapter 22

A couple days passed with the abbey in a bustle of activity as everyone moved around, doing daily chores and helping to create potions. I sat in the window seat again, watching the wards that protected us from the demons outside.

I’d spent countless hours trying to get Kendra to just talk to me, and yet she continued to put more distance between us. Not even doing communal chores together urged her to speak to me. She had, however, begun talking to everyone but me.

I stared out the window and didn’t hear her approach until her hand touched my shoulder. I looked up at her in surprise.

“Kendra,” I said softly before looking around at the now empty room.

“I need you to take me somewhere,” she said sternly as she folded her arms across her chest.

“We can’t leave,” I scoffed and creased my brow at her request. “It’s too dangerous to leave the abbey right now.”

“You owe me for what happened,” she snapped heatedly. “You will take me where I need to go, and you won’t ask questions.”

I looked at her in confusion and then shook my head. I stood up and stretched. “You know we could die out there, right?” I asked carefully.

“You’re powerful,” she scoffed. “It’s all everyone is talking about. How special you are, how much you’ve done, and what you will become someday.”

She hated me. It was in her tone, in the way she glared at me. Guilt assaulted me and I looked at the almost-empty room, which only had a few people milling about.

“I have to get a few things first,” I stated, staring as she nodded and fixed her skirt. “You may want to change into pants and actual shoes.”

“I don’t have any here.” She glared at me expectantly. “But you do.”

I started towards the rooms, which were down the first set of hallways. Once there, I opened my door and let her inside. I pulled out clothes and waited as she examined the pants and shoes I had placed in the bed.

“What do they say I will be?” I asked, trying to make polite conversation.

“They say you are with Lucian Blackstone, even though he should be considered an enemy to the coven. But then, I know that better than most, considering what happened to me. Lucifer called me your name every time.”

“Every time what?” I asked.

“Every time he forced himself inside of me,” she whispered, and I winced. “Those here think you will be the next High Priestess, because you hold so much power inside of you.”

“Is that so? Too bad I don’t want it,” I grumbled as I moved to grab a few things, which I slid into the backpack just in case we didn’t make it back tonight.

“Why would you not want it?” she asked in disbelief. “To even be boasted about as a possibility is an honor.”

“An honor for what? Being locked up, being hidden from others when things go wrong? I’d rather help the coven on the frontlines and leave the politics to someone else.”

“Politics run the coven, you would be the leader,” she explained, as if I didn’t understand what she was saying.

“I understand exactly what it means,” I stated softly. “You wanted to be the one running it when we were little, not me.”

“I have very little power, since you seem to have taken it from me,” she growled, and I lifted a brow at her anger.

“It wasn’t a choice. I wasn’t given it, I was born with it.”

“And yet you weren’t awakened here,” she smiled.

“No, I wasn’t, but you know that.”

“Just take me where I need to go, please,” she said softly. “I’ve been through too much and it’s hard to forgive you for what I endured.”

“I know that,” I whispered through the constricting in my throat. “I didn’t know you were there, or I’d have come for you.”

“I don’t think it would have mattered,” she said as she gave me her back and started to dress. I swallowed bile as the angry red scars were revealed. My feet stepped back, away from the guilt that clawed through me.

She’d been tortured because they’d thought she was me. My sister had been impregnated by Lucifer because he thought she was me, and then tossed to his cronies once he’d succeeded.

Her legs were scarred where they’d tied her down, and her wrists carried the same pattern of scars. Whip marks covered her back and the top of her ass as she pulled up the jeans.

“They’re tight,” she said as she turned around. I lowered my stare to the tiny baby bump that sat perfectly on her tummy.

I couldn’t speak past the growing lump in my throat. I wanted to scream that she’d endured it. That she’d taken my place and had gone through absolute hell to get back to us. I nodded and moved back to the small box of clothes I’d brought, pulling out sweatpants. I handed them to her and she changed, then we headed out.

“You expect me to go through there?” she snapped as she took in the moss-covered exit. Spider webs covered it, with decades of dust and other debris.

“You want to go? Because there’s no way they are allowing us to just leave out the front door. The other door was damaged in the explosion and instead of repairing it, they sealed it. This is the only exit available to us. The other is guarded since it leads out on the other side of town, close to the Hell Gate. I also don’t think in your condition it would be wise to crawl through it. It’s over two miles long on your hands and knees, and my car is outside—well, it’s technically your car.”

“This way works,” she said, lifting up her nose as we passed cobwebs and dust bunnies the size of Texas to sneak out.

Once we reached the door, I pushed it open and held my breath. Nothing happened, so we moved past the runes and through the trees until we reached the cars, which were situated a ways from the abbey.

I opened the driver’s door and she moved around to the passenger’s side. I stood there staring at the closed car door before I climbed in.

“You don’t want to drive?” I asked as I put the keys into the ignition and started the car.

“No, of course not,” she muttered.

“Are you going to tell me where we are going, then? Or am I just supposed to drive us around in a circle until I guess correctly?”

“I need to go to the Guild in Spokane,” she said, and I flinched.

I paused as I rubbernecked at her, sure I hadn’t heard her correctly. “You mean the newly remodeled one? The one that’s currently being built into a fortress—that Guild?” I asked.

“Yes, I know a way inside,” she replied, as if she’d said it was a nice sunny day outside, which it wasn’t. It was storming and nasty outside. And she wanted to go to the Guild, the same one I’d almost lost my head at, thanks to a crazy blonde with a large sword, who happened to be with the Fae.

“You know they’re actually there, watching it,” I mumbled. “If they catch us breaking in, they aren’t going to like it.”

She shrugged as if it was of little consequence. “Whatever comes at us, you can handle,” she said after a few moments of silence had passed.

“Uh, no, I can’t. They’re Fae, Kendra. Like, the immortal Fae of the world who don’t die and are mostly immune to magic—not to mention, they have an actual Fae who trained as a witch and isn’t one to be fucked with.”

She shrugged again and watched out the window as we passed the town’s sign. She turned as we passed it. “Where’s the Haven Crest sign?”

I scrunched up my nose, laughing at her. “They took it down when they decided it wasn’t needed anymore. It sits in front of town hall. They taught us that in our lessons. It was replaced with the one for Metaline Falls.”

“Sorry, I have chunks missing from my memory from before…well, you know.”

“Yeah, I know.”

We made it to the Guild in a little under an hour and pulled up outside a decrepit old building. I parked the car and we climbed out, eyeing the rickety old thing with unease. It looked as if it had been built when the traders first entered this city and named it.

“You’re sure this is the place?” I asked, gazing down the street to where the Guild stood with pristine new doors and stairs that led up to them. That was new, but it had been a little while since I’d been here—or the news cameras had been brave enough to get close enough to get a good image of it, for that matter.

“There’s a basement with stairs that lead into the catacombs that run inside the Guild. You can reach the secrets rooms through it. They’ll be none the wiser.”

“You were here before,” I stated, not bothering to ask it as a question.

“Many times,” she agreed. “They have archives of the first covens and even more than that. Creatures you cannot begin to believe even exist; their information is also stored in the Guild so that it was protected from our enemies.”

“I understand that, but why would you come? You knew it wasn’t safe here for you.”

“Curiosity, at first, and then I needed facts,” she explained as she pushed open the ancient door, which resisted. I pushed against it with her, and together we opened it. I dusted off my hands and then rushed to catch up as she led the way to the basement.

“This place reeks,” I said, wondering how her pregnant nose could handle it.

“At one time it was a paper mill used by both the Guild and the newspaper. Then the Guild closed itself off to the other factions, keeping its secrets protected from the outside world.” She headed down a set of stairs that looked less than sturdy. I followed her, wondering where her fear had gone. She’d been adventurous, yes, but she was afraid of heights and right now we were walking down the oldest staircase in the world, without a bottom in sight.

“And you know this how?” I countered as the wood creaked beneath us.

“History lessons, where else?” she scoffed as we followed it down to the bottom.

What felt like an eternity later we reached the bottom, the floor was submerged in water. She didn’t hesitate, just moved right through it as she headed towards the Guild.

“What do you need from the Guild?” I asked, and she stopped, swiveling to look at me.

“Why all the questions?”

“Because I’m curious what we are risking our lives for. What could they possibly have that you need?”

“They have a few necklaces, for starters, ones that ward off demons. They also have a lot of items that would assist us in fighting Lucifer, should it come to it. We need everything we can get to protect ourselves against him. You have no idea how evil he is.”

“Kendra, he’s the devil—it’s self-explanatory.”

“Actually, he’s not the devil. That would be Satan, who is one step up from him. He’s the Prince of Darkness, or Lucifer. Secondly, there are worse monsters in the world than him, now that every monster known to mankind can be freed.”

“I’m pretty sure he’s the worst of our problems at the moment,” I said as I pushed against a secret door that popped open, releasing even more water into the already growing pool at our feet.

“These items will help us,” she insisted as we stepped onto dry ground as we passed through the doorway. “Close it behind us.”

I closed it and followed her. She whispered the spell for light, and several candles that adorned the shelf-wall exploded with flames. The deeper we got into the Guild, the worse the feeling of being caught grew.

It wasn’t until we hit a room that was filled with skulls that I paused, taking in the single coffin, which sat alone. It was old, and it was beautifully inscribed. I shivered as the candlelight bathed the wording, glowing as we passed it. Shivering again, I continued following her out of the room until she stood in front of the room that had held the grimoires inside it.

She waited, eyeing it until she realized it wouldn’t open on its own. She frowned, moving to it and pushing it open. Inside, nothing remained but a few trinkets. She spun in a complete circle.

“Impossible,” she said, pushing her hair away from her face and holding it back. “There should be stacks of grimoires and jewels in here. The archive said it was rimming with artifacts from the coven’s journey here.”

“I read that a mad witch placed them here, in care of the Guild,” I muttered, and the color drained from her face.

“Mad? She was being hunted, she wasn’t mad. She was brilliant, the first to turn dark aside from the witches of old, and she remained so for a time before she caved to the desire to turn fully dark. She wrote about it for others so that we could forge through to become what was needed! They’re archived here by the Guild’s elders. If they were here, maybe they could tell us who took them?”

“The Guild fell, Kendra. Shortly after you were here, it fell to an evil from within.”

“A Guild doesn’t fall, it’s the Guild.”

“You knew it fell, remember?” I asked as she shook her head.

“That’s impossible,” she argued. “Come; there are other things she left here.”

I didn’t move. “Who is she?”

“The witches of our coven,” she said as if I was a lame child who had been told many times before. “In time of wars, they hid things for the others in case the coven fell.” I followed her with an uneasy feeling as she moved back into the room with the coffin. She started at the wall, removing the skulls and, every once in a while, pulling out a piece of jewelry from inside of it. It was going to take forever.

“Isn’t this like violating the dead’s peace?” I asked, reaching for a skull.

“Not if they gave their lives for ours. Most would have been placed here after death, but in times of discord, it’s an honor for a witch to give her life and soul to protect the coven. They hide memories, information, spells, and sometimes pieces of our protection jewels. Once you finish recreating it, you have a powerful charm that can either be of light or darkness.”

I offered her a crystal I pulled from a skull and she smiled as I dropped it into her growing pile. Once every skull had been searched and placed into its pile as she’d instructed, she moved towards the coffin.

“Some would even give their life to hunt the coven’s enemies into the new world, to revenge her sisters or the one she loved. I read that this one gave her soul to have it attached to another witch…to capture a monster, one she planned to kill.”

“That’s horrible,” I said, noting I’d read the coffin’s inscription wrong.

“Why? Why is revenge bad if it saves those you love? I think she was brave; to be soulless isn’t something many can handle, and yet hers left her to join with others. So she could never move on, so she slumbers endlessly.”

“You mean she’s alive?” I asked hesitantly.

“Not quite. Her soul joined with another, therefore she was fractured. If a piece of the soul leaves the body and another piece isn’t tethered, both souls leave both bodies. Tethering a soul takes time, though, and isn’t an easy thing to do. She tethered hers, which allowed the host to keep her inside of her as this body died. Unfortunately, when she would be reborn, she’d know only that for which she spelled herself to, and those memories would go to the same soul the larger portion died with.”

“So she’d take control of the soul and body?” I asked, not following the logic.

“If she was strong enough to silence the host and eventually kill the soul, yes,” she said as she pushed the top of the coffin off and it shattered on the rock floor. I looked around and then stepped back, unwilling to look upon the remains inside the coffin.

She searched it, uncaring of the dead inside of it. I stepped back even further, observing as she pulled things out and placed them into her pockets. I felt them before I saw them. The air sizzled with power and the hair on my nape stood up with awareness.

“Kendra,” I whispered as I moved to her and whispered the words to make us invisible. No sooner had I done it than a male with dark blond hair materialized inches from us. Synthia was next, dressed in a flowing white gown. I almost gave a sigh of relief, until a monster sifted in with huge gossamer wings the color of the midnight sky. His irises glowed amber as he stared right at the coffin.

“Lena,” Synthia sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Three seconds, that’s how long before I start swinging this time,” she growled.

I dropped the spell and exhaled slowly as everyone did a double take of me and Kendra. Kendra threw her hand in the air, intending to cast magic. I pushed her hands down at the last second.

“Why did you stop me!” she demanded.

“Because they won’t hurt us,” I stated as I stared Synthia down.

“You said they would kill us,” she hissed.

“No, I said they wouldn’t like us in here to deter you from wanting to be in here.”

“It’s our stuff!” she huffed angrily.

“Synthia,” I whispered, trying to fight for calm. The beast moved and my eyes moved up, and up, and up, until my neck was careening to see. I exhaled a shaky breath and stepped back, hitting something solid. I spun around, finding glowing sapphire orbs staring at me with interest.

“Play nice, Zahruk,” Synthia laughed. “Change back before you break their poor necks. Fairy, do not growl at me. Lena, explain why you are here. You already…” I shook my head behind Kendra and Synthia’s words stalled. “I expect a reply.”

“We needed items that the coven hid here so that we can fight the demons,” I explained as Kendra scowled at them with disdain.

“And you didn’t think to just ask?” she offered.

“No, I don’t think we actually put much thought into this at all,” I admitted and observed Zahruk’s lips as they lifted into a seductive grin. Ryder laughed outright, and Synthia covered her own laughter with her hand.

“I would have to agree; the moment you entered, the alarms were triggered,” she said softly.

Power rippled through the area and I looked around curiously, leveling Adam with a cold glare as he sifted in. He smirked nonchalantly, as if he hadn’t been all over me helping Lucian.

“Asshole,” I seethed angrily.

“Lena, good to see you with more…of your own mind,” he replied easily. “Glad to see you made it out of there alive.”

“Not with your help—what was the price for helping him brand me? Helping them brand me?” I demanded.

“What is she talking about?” Synthia asked, her gaze moving between my stiff anger and his easy grin.

“Lucian asked for a favor and I granted it, so now he owes me.”

“And what did you have to do?” she demanded.

“He turned me mindless against their…stuff,” I amended at the last moment as heat filled my cheeks.

“Is that true, Adam?” she asked softly, but he stood up straight and had the decency to look guilty as he scratched his head.

“You know what he does, you know what I needed,” he explained.

“She didn’t deserve that, no woman does.”

“You think I liked doing it? I mean, she’s hot as fuck, but she’s not the one I want—but I needed him to owe me a favor. He’d have found some other asshole that wouldn’t have cared if she was damaged in the process. She’s alive, she has her mind. She should be happy it was me and not someone else.”

“Are you guys brother and sister?” I asked, feeling a tug at my heart as Joshua’s image shimmered briefly before vanishing. They stopped, eyeing me as I surveyed them.

“No, but we were raised here together,” she said before she moved closer. “You should go, and next time, ask us first. If it is from your coven, it is yours, not ours. I have no issue with giving them to you, unless they will harm you, Lena.”

“Some witches are born in the fire. Others spend their lifetime trying to grasp it. I don’t grasp anymore. I am the fire now.” I tapped my head. “I am bathed in fire and born under the blood moon, Synthia. You need not worry about me, not for that reason anyway.” Zahruk passed me, moving into the other room as Ryder exited the one we were in. I twisted around, preparing to tell Kendra I agreed that we should go, but she was gone. “What the hell?” I moved to the coffin, finding nothing but artifacts and a staircase that led deeper into the bowels of the catacombs.

“She left you soon after we caught you,” Synthia said as she tilted her head. “I, however, needed to know how you did that, so I let her go since I assumed you didn’t want her to know.”

“Did what?” I asked, feeling an overwhelming urge to follow Kendra.

“Took the grimoires into your mind and are holding on to them. No one has ever done it before and lived,” she replied. “There are stories of witches who tried and failed. They died within seconds of it. You still have them and are in control.”

“I don’t know, honestly. I just touched the pages and they filled my mind.”

She narrowed her gaze as she considered my words, and then nodded. “Keep your secrets, Lena, but you should go. We hadn’t planned on staying much longer. Until we have guards stationed here, it isn’t safe for mortals.”

“But Kendra, she can’t be alone. She’s been through hell, literally.”

“We will find her and bring her to the abbey, promise.”

I left before they could change their minds. Kendra had ditched me, and she’d left me to face the Fae alone. Not cool. Not when this was her idea in the first place. I got in the car and looked around, hating that she wasn’t with me.

I took off for home. As soon as I entered the stretch of highway that led into town, a flash of light hit the car, the sound of glass shattering filled the small space. I didn’t have time to react before the car flipped end over end in the middle of the road. My face slammed against the steering wheel before the airbag deployed and the car came to a crashing stop on the roof in the middle of the road.

I could smell the obnoxious odor of gas, but I couldn’t move. Pain held me locked there, unable to move or do anything to help myself. I could see the feet of shadowy figures, several pairs of them as they approached the car. I mumbled for help, but nothing came out except a pain-filled gurgle. More shadows approached from the side of the car, moving towards the others, and then they collided. Light exploded, as if they were throwing light at each other.

Strong arms reached for me, pushing the shattered window away as my seatbelt was cut. I could hear other noises—fighting? I could see shadows moving around the car, heard the sound of metal clashing, along with other things. Everything blurred in and out as I blinked. The smell of gas and the sound of it pouring onto concrete made my stomach heave. I felt something tug against the seatbelt as the noise of cloth being cut and the pain sliced through me as someone pulled me from the car. Gentle arms held me, cradling me against a chest. I didn’t see who it was, didn’t care. We moved away from the car, and then it erupted into an array of lights as it exploded.

The world blurred around me, and pain tore me apart as consciousness eluded me.