“THIS IS SO fucked. This is so fucking fucked.” Niko paces the floor, shoving his hands in his hair every few seconds to tug on the long front layers in frustration. “So fucked.”
“You said that already. Now tell me what happened.” I nearly have to yell over the sounds of Dorian’s irate screams—a mix of Greek, accented English and the Dark tongue. I look over at him as he thrashes on the bed, bound by invisible restraints. Seeing him so furious and disgusted with what we’ve done to him makes my heart hurt, and I quickly turn back to Niko.
“A reversal,” he says answers, grimacing. “Stavros did a reversal spell.”
“Wait…what? Like you did for Chris? And what Dorian did to Jared? But why is he…different? I saw Jared and he was the same—kind, sweet. But that?” I wave in Dorian’s direction just as he threatens to dismantle Alexander limb from limb for spelling him to the bed. “That isn’t Dorian. It doesn’t even sound like him.”
Niko shakes his head before stopping mid-stride and looks at me with that same look of regret from earlier. “That’s because Stavros didn’t reverse his memories. He reversed him. He isn’t the same person. And judging by the fact that he doesn’t even recognize Alex, I’d say he shaved off at least an entire century. Which would explain why our father was so weakened afterward.”
A century?
This was Dorian a hundred years ago? Vile? Belligerent? Cruel?
“We have to come up with something else,” Niko says to Alex, who is staring daggers at the stranger who was once his best friend. After hearing the commotion when Dorian woke up, Alex walked in to find Niko shielding me from his older brother, who was hell-bent on slaughtering me.
“She reeks of filth and humanity, but she isn’t human,” he sneered, circling us like a predator. “Give her to me, brother, and I’ll make her tell me what she is.”
“It’s me, Dorian!” I tried to shout around Niko, but he instantly shoved me behind him. “It’s Gabriella. You know me.”
“How dare you address me, you degenerate whore! I should cut out your tongue for speaking to me in that manner, but I’ll save you for Aurora. She’ll have fun with a little bitch like you. Maybe we’ll defile you together.”
His smile was off as he looked at me, raking those pale blue eyes up and down my body. Less seductive, more disturbing. And the dialect of English he spoke wasn’t Americanized, as if he hadn’t lived in the U.S. Initially, I thought Stavros had done some weird switcheroo thing, but it was obviously Dorian. He knew that Niko was his brother. He just didn’t know me.
When Alex burst through the bedroom door, he instantly immobilized Dorian, freezing him where he stood. “What the hell happened to him?” he asked, alarm in his usually calm, level voice.
“I don’t know,” Niko said. “But whatever it is, we have to get Gabs to safety. She’s not safe around him.”
“Bullshit,” I challenged, stepping around to face them, hands on hips. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Baby girl, he’s a danger to you. You need to—”
I held up a hand, refusing to hear anymore. “I’m not going anywhere. And I’d appreciate it if you treated me like I’m not some kid who can’t defend herself. If he comes at me, you know I could seriously hurt him.”
He looked at me, a small frown etched over his brow. “I know that. But we both know that you don’t want to.”
The immobilization spell only held for a couple minutes before Dorian broke through it. Now that he had no regard for me, I could see that I had gravely underestimated his strength. Both Niko and Alex had to act fast, binding him to the bed. Problem was, Bad Dorian would not shut the hell up.
“Dude, enough!” Niko grumbles, throwing his hands up. “Does he ever close his fucking mouth? Hell, I liked him a lot better when he was knocked out cold.”
Taking the hint, Alexander throws an imaginary gag in Dorian’s direction, causing his incessant threats and insults to instantly be muffled.
I take a moment to catch my breath and flop into a white leather armchair in the corner of the room. “We can’t leave…him…like that forever. It has to be uncomfortable for him. And won’t they come looking for him?”
Him. That’s what the man I loved—love—had been reduced to. Him. I couldn’t look at him. I couldn’t try to see the person I had fallen in love with inside the monster who had threatened to rape and torture me until I begged for death. Whoever this person was, he wasn’t Dorian.
“I guarantee he’s summoned Aurora already,” Niko replies, rubbing the dark scruff on his chin. He looks up at Alex who is staring at his former friend like he’d be willing to rip..his…head off at the word Go. “Alex, how long can we hold him?”
My father tips his head from side to side. “A day, day and a half tops. I’ve bound him pretty tight, but he’s strong.”
“Shit.” Niko scrubs a hand over his weary face.
“Is there anything I can do?” I ask. “You know, maybe if I give it a go, it would be enough to hold him for longer.”
He shakes his head, resuming his pacing. “You aren’t trained. You could end up releasing him instead, and he’d have your severed head in his hands in two seconds flat. Too much of a risk. I’ll tighten up the wards around the house, so that’ll keep anyone he summons from getting in.”
“Until Stavros decides to have us over for tea again,” I mumble.
“No. He won’t have enough strength to do it. Not for a while at least. You saw how weakened he was.” Niko stops pacing abruptly and comes to kneel in front of me. “Just promise me you won’t give up. He’ll say things to you—he’ll try to coerce you into letting him go. But you can’t, you know that, right? You can’t let him get inside your head and make you think he loves you. Because that man over there does not love you. He doesn’t love you, Gabs. He wants nothing more than to see you bloody and beaten, writhing on the ground like a dying animal. And that’s exactly what he’ll do to you the minute you free him.”
“I know that.” The feeble sound of my voice doesn’t match the conviction of my words.
“I just need to know that I can trust you to do whatever it takes to bring him back to how he was. It won’t be easy—hell, I’m not even sure it’s possible—but we have to try.”
I nod once. “You can trust me.”
“Good,” he replies jumping to his feet. “Alexander and I need to strengthen the wards and patrol the area. I need you to just…watch him. He’ll be able to talk soon, and I need to know that you’re strong enough to handle whatever he says.”
“I am.”
“Atta girl,” he says, making his way to the door. “And keep Morgan out. One sniff of her, and he’ll be delirious with hunger. Not even you could stop him.”
I nod enthusiastically, remembering how wild with blood-lust Dorian had become when Morgan had tried to enter the room. Just smelling her essence from yards away was enough for him to nearly break through the invisible restraints. Now she was banished to her room in the far end of the mansion.
Niko and Alex disappear into the wooded area around the house, looking for any weak spots in the ward that protected the property. Niko told me earlier that it was one of the strongest and complex wards ever created. He said it took several months to get it just right, and any adjustments could be tedious.
“Why is that necessary, when no one even lives here?” I’d asked him.
I’ll never forget the lost look in his eyes when he’d answered. “I failed to protect something I loved. I’ll never make that mistake again.”
“Amelie?”
He tipped his head just once before looking away, ending the conversation. I didn’t dare press for more. I wouldn’t put him through any more undue pain.
I sit in lonesome silence for hours, refusing to turn my gaze to where Dorian lays. He’s given up on screaming, his voice successfully muffled by Alex’s spell. However, I can feel his eyes burning into me. Watching me. Daring me to turn to him. They taunt me from across the room, reminding me that no matter what he is now—and what he’s always been deep down—I am under his spell. He owns me. And while I may just be a broken toy to him, he is still every star in the sky to me.
“Gabriella.”
I’m not sure that I even really hear my name on his tongue. Like maybe my desire for that sense of familiarity was so strong that my imagination created a variation of it. A heavily accented version that I know, yet I don’t know.
“Gabriella.”
The voice is richer now, less raspy. I hear him clear his throat and he repeats it a third time with perfect clarity. I let myself look at him, or maybe I’m actually forcing my gaze to drift over to the man on the bed. Because even as my eyes find his in the dimly lit room, they burn like I’m looking at the sun.
“That is your name, correct?”
I nod slowly, as if the movement pains me.
“You’re a little thing. How old are you, child?” I can’t tell if there’s malice in his tone, or genuine curiosity.
After a long beat passes as I internally debate whether or not to answer him, I whisper, “Twenty-one.”
“And you aren’t human, correct?”
I shouldn’t tell him. Niko had warned me that he would try to get into my head and manipulate me into letting him go, but I honestly don’t see the harm in talking with him. This is Dorian. This isn’t some stranger on the street. Hell, just less than 48 hours ago, we were both on this bed, and I was straddling his face as he composed a symphony between my thighs.
I know this man. I love this man. And maybe…maybe if I can just remind him of that, he’ll come back to me.
“I’m not,” I squeak, not fully confident in my decision.
“But you’re not like me.”
“I’m not.”
He ponders my answer before raising a brow. “So…what are you?”
“Different.”
“Different how?”
“Just different.”
He purses his lips at my answer, yet accepts it. A few strained moments pass as I fight the urge to crawl inside his head and unearth whatever block is on his mind.
“Come here, girl. Let me have a closer look at you. I promise, I won’t bite. Unless you want me to.”
I swallow against the dryness in my mouth as I stand on shaky feet. He’s only yards away, but every step feels like I’m being torn in half. I can feel him luring me, pulling me into his trap. And while I know he’s dangerous, and his only interest in me is devious, I want to go to him. I want to hold him and kiss him and tell him how happy I am that he’s alive. Then I want to slap him for scaring me like that.
But this Dorian…this Dorian wouldn’t kiss me back. He wouldn’t laugh while I tackled him to the bed. And when I slapped him, this Dorian would surely slap me back hard enough to make me go flying into the wall.
Still, I make my way to the bed where he’s bound, his magic stifled to hinder his escape.
“There you are,” he smiles in that wrong way again. “See, that wasn’t so hard, now was it?”
I shake my head. “What do you want?”
His shoulder twitches as if his intention is to shrug, but his restraints won’t let him. “Just the pleasure of your company. You said you know me, and I know you. How?”
I nearly chew through my lip as I try to find a way to explain what he is to me… what we are to each other. There is no definition for it, no term to fully grasp that depth of devotion. Dorian once called me his girlfriend, and it just didn’t seem right. He was certainly more than a boyfriend to me. He lived inside me. He felt every one of my emotions as if they were his own. He came as he felt me orgasm, the intensity heightened through the deep emotional bond woven from his magic.
Dorian had become more than life to me. But right here, as I looked down at the imposter taking up space inside his body, I couldn’t find the words to tell him. And while I hoped to bring him back with those memories, they weren’t for this Dorian. And wouldn’t let him have them.
“We were…we dated,” I settle on.
He barks out a laugh that sounds anything but humorous. “I dated you?”
My face heats with aggravation. “Yes. Why is that so hilarious?”
“No offense, but I wouldn’t date you. I don’t think I would even fuck you.”
I take a step forward, bold on hurt and anger. “And why’s that?”
“Well, for one, you’re not one of us. And do you know what I mean by that?”
Crossing my arms in front of my chest, I twist my lips into a partial grimace. “You mean Dark.”
“Correct. And if you are not Dark, you might as well be Light. We don’t mix. Ever.”
“But you know I’m not Light.”
Dorian rolls his eyes with boredom. “Doesn’t matter. On the supernatural food chain, my kind is at the top. And you, child, are most likely somewhere in the dirt, hiding under rocks, along with the other grubs and rodents.”
Ouch. “Is that right?”
“It is. It’s the order of power. The divine powers will always rule. All others will remain docile or face death,” he replies matter-of-factly.
“Yet, you’re the one bound to this bed, being held captive by a tiny, insignificant grub.”
Dorian smiles crookedly, and for a minute, I imagine that it’s for me. “Ironic, isn’t it?”
“That it is.”
“There’s also the matter of your birth.”
I frown. What would he know about my birth? “Excuse me?”
“Your birthright. Your family name. If you know my brother, as you claim to know me, you would also know that I am a prince. But not just any prince—I am heir to the throne. You are in the presence of great royalty and an exquisite bloodline. You should be honored.”
I laugh sardonically. Is this guy for real? Did Stavros’s hot tub time machine turn Dorian into the ultimate arrogant jackass? Or was this asshole lying dormant within him all along?
“Pity all your greatness is being wasted on such a worthless peasant,” I reply, smiling sweetly.
Dorian does the weird twitchy thing with his shoulder again. “I’ve endured worse. Besides, I plan to do worse when I get out of here.” There’s promise in his words, not a threat.
“Your brother is doing this for your own good. He doesn’t want to hurt you. He wants to keep you safe,” I insist.
“My brother? Ha!” he snorts, nostrils flaring. “Fuck my brother. He’s no blood of mine. Would a brother allow this?” He tries to struggle against the invisible rope, yet doesn’t move.
“Dorian, please. It’s not what you think—”
“I told you, girl. I am a prince. You will address me as such,” he sneers, those ice-blue eyes turning eerily pale. “You know nothing of my brother. You think he cares for you? For anyone other than himself? How considerate could he be if he left you here, alone with a monster? A poor, defenseless little girl, trapped here with the epitome of evil?”
I feel something snap within me before a sizzle settles in my veins. It’s as if the magic inside me is a glow stick, and once you add a bit of pressure, causing it to crack, it comes alive.
I look at the stranger on the bed, seeing a ghost of someone I used to know. “No one said I was a poor, defenseless little girl.” My voice is cold and vacant, devoid of anything I may have ever felt for him.
“Is that right? Well, then, prove me wrong.”
I step in closer, bending forward so he can see the fire kindling behind my icy demeanor. I know I’m poking a sleeping bear, but I don’t care. He wants to see who I am—he wants to know what I’m capable of. Now’s his chance. “I could hurt you. I could reduce you to nothing but a pile of ash with a snap of my fingers. I could make you wish you had never seen my face.”
A slow smile drags across his face and ire sparks inside those pale blue eyes. “But you won’t. Because you’re in love with me. And I’m here, bound like a prisoner, because my brother thinks he is in love with you.”
“What?” I snap to an upright position and flit across the room, fast enough for the secret of my abilities to be revealed. His smile draws tighter—satisfied with himself.
“Ah. I see I’ve struck a nerve. I’m right, aren’t I? You love me. I can smell it on you, stinking of false hope and desperation. I affect you. Even though I’ve been vile to you, I can still taste your arousal.” He inhales then licks his chops, a low hum rumbling his throat. “Mmmm. Tastes sweet. The scent of your sex is on this bed. I’ve fucked you on these very sheets, haven’t I?”
Stunned, I say nothing. I can’t dispute his claim when I know every single word is true. But it was Dorian I had made love to. Not this imposter.
“Tell me, Gabriella…how many times did I make you come the last time I was inside you? Did you scream my name? Did you dig your fingernails into my back? Do you like me to take you from behind and fuck you hard like a wild animal?”
“Stop. It.”
“And when I fucked you so thoroughly, so completely, did you imagine it was my brother sliding inside you? Did you wonder if he was listening to you moan from outside the door? Did you crave his taste on your tongue, his seed spilling inside your mouth? You did, didn’t you? You claim to love me, yet it was my younger brother you imagined between your legs.”
“I said, stop it!” Every light in the room flickers and sizzles. I’m panting like I’ve just run a marathon, adrenaline spiking through my veins. The look of pure madness in my eyes only prompts Dorian to smile once more.
“Hmph. I was only joking. But considering your reaction, I’d say I’m not too far off. Dangerous little game you’re playing, pet.”
Dangerous indeed. I purse my lips and turn away, refusing to let him see my guilt and shame.
“I don’t love you, by the way,” he adds, not a hint of remorse in his voice. “I never will either.”
“I know,” I whisper in response. Now, more than ever, I’m glad Stavros broke the link. If he hadn’t, I would have been dead the moment he woke up. Still, I feel like I’m dying right now, right here in front of him as he mocks my weakness for him. For this monster.
“And whatever you may think you know about me—whatever you have in that head of yours that paints me as a perfect gentleman—is a lie. I’m not your knight in shining armor. I’m not your Prince Charming. And I never will be.”
I close my eyes to keep my emotions in check as I utter my next words through trembling lips. “I know.”
The walls are closing in on me, and I can’t escape the bedroom and my truth fast enough. I hear Dorian laugh as I race out the exit and slam the door behind me. Then I crumple to the ground, screaming and writhing as unspeakable pain crawls up my back.