To Crave Darkly: Trials Of A Morta: Book One

by Bailey Grayson

  Jasper let out a weary sigh. This had been hard on him too; he had nearly died as well and I hadn’t even asked him if he was ok. I wanted to stay mad at him but part of me could understand his frustration. He hadn’t expected me to save him. I suppose this complicated things for him with the whole mission thing, or maybe he just didn’t like the fact that he’d been saved by a girl.

  I could suck it up and be the better person. I was a big girl. “Jasper, are you ok?” He growled and I groaned in frustration. “Would you stop it with the alpha-macho-bullshit?”

  He narrowed his eyes and glared at me. I stared straight back. I bet people normally cowered under that gaze but I was having none of it. I was too pissed off and annoyed with him to let him win. I knew we would stay like that, locked in a staring contest like we were kids in the playground, until one of us submitted. It wasn’t going to be me.

  “I can do this all day, Mr. Grumpy Pants. So, you can either tell me you’re ok, or get comfy because we are going to be here for a while.” I folded my arms and sank back further into the bed.

  A string of expletives fell from Jasper’s full lips. Jeez, some of them were rather colourful and it was kind of sexy watching someone so beautiful whisper such crassness.

  “You,” he pointed at me, “are impossible.”

  “Thank you.” I couldn’t stop the shit-eating grin that I knew was plastered on my face. He was so much fun to rile up and it was fast becoming my new favourite hobby.

  His exasperation with me was apparent. He slumped back into the chair next to the bed and sighed deeply. He rested his elbow on the chair arm and pinched the bridge of his nose. He was clearly exhausted and vexed, and that almost had me feeling guilty about winding him up. Almost.

  He had pissed me off, after all.

  “Jasper?”

  “Hmm?” he muttered softly as he brought his gaze back to mine. I would never tire of gazing into the depths of the blue that shone brightly in his eyes. They really were amazing.

  “Are you ok?”

  “Yes,” he answered, curtly. “I am perfectly healed.”

  “Good. I’m glad.” I smiled tentatively at him. I really was glad he was alright. “What really happened to me?”

  “I drained you to the point of death.” He said the words unflinchingly and I knew he was trying to scare me away from him, but it wasn’t going to work.

  “And?” I said, encouraging him to continue.

  “And then I tried to heal you with my blood, but your body rejected it. It seems that there is something about you that did not appreciate the taste. I brought you into the Conclave and we managed to bring you back from the brink of death.”

  Great. There was more to me that I didn’t know. Urgh. Was I ever going to see the end of the unknown?

  Jasper must have picked up on my confusion because he leaned forward to take my hand. “Whatever is going on, we will figure it out.”

  “Thank you, I…” My words trailed off. A pulling sensation fluttered behind my ribs. It was familiar but I couldn’t place the feeling. It lingered like the remnants of a dream.

  “Lori? Are you ok?” Jasper asked softly.

  “I…” Wait a minute, was I ok? Apart from the aches, nothing felt seriously wrong, but a sense of terror still clung to me. Something sinister rankled with me but I couldn’t place it. It was like I was trying to recall a memory, but it kept slipping through my fingers like wisps of smoke. Those black eyes flashed through my mind again and a searing hot pain spread across my lips, like a kiss leaving a blazing imprint. I sat bolt upright in the bed which caused Jasper to flinch in surprise.

  “What is it?” he demanded, concern lacing his voice. But I wasn’t listening, not really. No, I was wholly focused on the images that were flooding my mind. Pieces of my dream filtered through my memory. The beach, the storm and crashing waves. The man with the angelic hair and eyes so black they were bottomless. How could I forget him?

  Orion.

  My eyes throbbed as it all came flooding back. The heat of an invisible flame seared the skin over my heart. Something was wrong. My eyes. God, they burned. I pressed the heels of my palms into them to try and stop it but that did nothing. It was like the fire was burning them from the inside out. So much pain.

  “Make it stop!” I screamed. “Make it stop!”

  Jasper grabbed my wrists and tried to pull my hands away from my face, but I wouldn’t let him.

  “Look at me, Lori!” he shouted.

  “I can’t, Jasper, it burns,” I sobbed.

  “Let me look,” he coaxed. “Do something, dammit!” He must be shouting at one of the nurses. I could hear people rushing around and the monitors were beeping rapidly behind me. Shit. My heart was racing. My skin was on fire. I needed to calm down. The pain. It was too much. I couldn’t think past the pain. It swallowed any coherent thought and all I was left with was wave after wave of nauseating pain.

  “Open your eyes, Lori.”

  My breath hitched. I knew that voice. That deep, smoky voice. He was here and he was in my mind. The connection between us blazed brightly and I could feel his presence as solidly as if he were standing before me.

  “I promise you will be fine.”

  How was I supposed to believe that?

  “If I had wanted to harm you, I would have done so on the beach.”

  My god, could he hear my thoughts?

  “God won’t help you now,” he drawled. Why did he have to sound like a prick? “Well, that isn’t very nice, is it?”

  Fuck, I had to stop thinking.

  “Such crassness from such beautiful lips. Could you be any more enticing?”

  What do you want? I projected.

  “You, Lori. You’re destined to be mine. Now stop panicking and open your eyes.”

  Orion, what have you done? I couldn’t even hide the fear from my thoughts.

  A soft chuckle filled my mind and I shivered in anticipation of his answer.

  “Merely marked you as mine. I’ll be seeing you soon, my sweet.” His voice faded and I knew the moment he had gone. The cavern of my mind suddenly felt empty without his overbearing presence in it. As he disappeared, so did the pain. My hands were still pressed firmly against my eyes and Jasper’s hands were still clasped around my wrists. My eyes were throbbing and the pain in my chest simmered to a dull ache. I slowed my breathing and tried to calm the fuck down. I let Jasper pull my hands away and opened my eyes. Jasper’s face fell as he drank in the site of me. What the fuck had Orion done to me?

  I leapt from the bed and ran to the mirror above the sink. My legs were unsteady beneath me and I clasped the edge of the basin to stop myself from collapsing in a heap.

  Everything was normal apart from my eyes. They were no longer that non-descript brown. Nope. Staring back at me were black irises framed by fire.

  “Motherfucker! The next time I see Orion, I am going to bitch slap him back to the heavens.”

  “Lori, those eyes don’t belong in the heavens,” Jasper stated, terror and wonder etched into his voice.

  “What?” I snapped as I turned to face him but something moving behind Jasper gave me pause. A figure emerged slowly with predatory grace and defined purpose and it was a few moments before he was completely out of the shadows. He looked mid-forties, classically handsome and his dark hair was peppered with grey. His angular face was stern and as he smirked at me, I saw an unmistakable hint of fang in his pearly whites. Great. Another vampire, and from the way Jasper seemed to be showing him deference, I guessed he was pretty high up in the vampire ranks.

  “Those, Miss Monroe, are the eyes of a demon.”

  Well, that’s a mind fuck. I returned my gaze back to the mirror and stared at those eerie black eyes in my reflection, all the while trying my best not to freak the fuck out. Which was kind of difficult when a demon was looking at you through your own fricking eyeballs. A weary sigh escaped my pursed lips. Why did this have to happen to me?

  “It seems you have alread
y met a high-class demon.” The guy in the sharp suit drawled behind me. I turned to face him, taking the time to really take in his features. He seemed familiar, but that was impossible. I’d never met this guy before, but there was something about him… I tried to recall where I’d seen him, but my mind elicited a dull throb which intensified the harder I tried to recall the memory. Perhaps something, or someone, was blocking the memory. I’d have to ask Jasper if that was possible, but then again, I don’t suppose he’d answer that fucking question either.

  “What gave that away?” I feigned deliberation, my finger tapping my chin. “It was the eyes, wasn’t it?” My hands came to rest on my hips. I wasn’t going to be intimidated by this guy. Well, I was, but he didn’t have to know that.

  “Miss Monroe, I am sorry you have had a somewhat tiring journey to get here. I can only apologise for the way you have been treated.”

  My gaze flicked over to Jasper standing to attention in the corner of the room. His muscles were tense to the point that he looked incredibly uncomfortable. At the man’s words his jaw clenched, and I felt bad for him. I got the feeling that Jasper had been blamed for the disastrous state I arrived in.

  “It’s not Jasper’s fault, I didn’t exactly make the journey easy on him either.” I swear I saw a slight lift in the corner of his mouth, but it was gone so fast that I doubted I’d seen anything at all.

  “Nevertheless, despite Farrow’s ineptness, you have managed to get here in one piece. I will have someone else appointed to protect you whilst you are here. Now, while…”

  “Now hold on a minute,” I interrupted, I wasn’t going to let him take Jasper away. The idea of not having him next to me sent a flood wave of panic through me. I didn’t have the time to analyse why that mattered right now but I sure as hell wasn’t about to be palmed off on someone else. “Granted, we may have had a few issues along the way, but I don’t want anybody else. Jasper managed to keep me safe and alive despite his ineptness.” I couldn’t resist throwing that in just to piss him off. I swear I heard Jasper’s teeth grind audibly at the jibe.

  “Miss Monroe, you are clearly still recovering from the aftereffects of all that has happened, and I will attribute your lack of sense to this. I suggest you reconsider your decision and take my advice.”

  “I don’t know who you think you are…”

  “My name is Cesare de Santis and you are a guest in my home.” He prematurely cut off my little outburst with his smooth words and the look in his eyes made me feel like he was looking at shit on his shoe. I did not like this guy. At all. “By the way, which Demon was it? Only the most powerful Demons have eyes like that. He probably works directly for Lucifer. I am curious to know what he wants you for.”

  “He wouldn’t tell me his name,” I told de Santis.

  “I can’t say I’m surprised, to know a Demon’s name is to have a power over him,” he replied.

  I frowned, that sounded alarmingly familiar. “That’s what he said. But only after I had given him a name of my own. Then something weird happened… Oh God…” My mind flashed back to the pain I felt whilst Orion marked my eyes. I pulled the gown to one side and stared at the skin above my left breast. “What the fuck is this?”

  I stared at Jasper and de Santis. On my chest was a symbol. It looked like it had been burned into it, the skin was all puckered and black like charred flesh. It was a circle with two crescent moons inside, facing each other but one was bigger than the other. There were some stars dotted in random places and some weird symbols around the edge.

  Jasper looked concerned. “I have never seen anything like this before.”

  De Santis leaned towards me and looked at the mark. “Neither have I, but those symbols look Enochian to me.”

  “What does that…” I didn’t get to finish my question before Cesare butted in. He was really starting to grate on me with his holier-than-thou attitude.

  “I am sure you have lots of questions, but now is neither the time nor the place, for I am engaged elsewhere. Farrow, see that she is comfortably established and then bring her to me after dinner.”

  He didn’t even look at Jasper when he spoke to him, just swept his pompous ass from the room, leaving a whiff of arrogance behind in his stead. I blinked rapidly as I tried to make sense of the whirlwind introduction that man had just put me through. I still had no idea who that man was. The only impression he had given me was that he was full of self-importance and thought himself above the rest of us.

  Jasper visibly relaxed as de Santis left. The tension left his shoulders and he took a deep breath before turning his penetrating gaze at me. I felt like a child who was about to be told off for acting up in front of their parent’s friends. Like I was an embarrassment.

  “What?” I jibed like an angsty teenager.

  Jasper ran his hands through his hair in frustration, clearly trying to keep a hold on his temper.

  “Look, you’re in my world now and things are different here than they are out there. Here, being a smart-ass in front of de Sanits could get you killed.”

  “Who is he? King of the vampires?” Sarcasm dripped from my words. I thought I was being funny, but I clearly wasn’t judging by the this-is-a-serious-situation look he was giving me. “Holy shit, is he actually King of the Vampires?”

  “He might as well be. So, if you like your head where it is, don’t piss him off.”

  I did happen to like my head where it was so perhaps caution should be adhered to. Jasper was right; I had been thrown into his world. Well, in actual fact, I had been attacked and then kidnapped into it, but who’s keeping score?

  “What is this place?” I asked, looking around the room.

  “Like de Santis said, you are in his home. This is the Conclave.” It was starting to irritate the hell out of me that he kept saying things like I knew what they meant. I made a “go on” gesture with my hand. He was going to have to spell it out for me because if I didn’t start to get some answers soon, I was going to be pissed.

  “The Conclave is a safe haven for all Dark World supernaturals. It is also where the Circle meets and where the Elite operate. It is hidden from the human world, or as we call it the In-Between, so that we can stay safe from those that would do us harm.”

  “Whoa, back up a bit. There is a whole lot about what you just said that makes no sense at all. What the hell is the Dark World? What do you mean by the Circle and the elite?” I was so confused. How on earth was I going to get my head around all this? Wait, was I even still on Earth?

  “The Circle is like your human government and the Elite are the protectors. We keep order and eliminate threats when they arise.”

  My eyebrows shot into my hairline. The way he said ‘eliminate’ made me think he was more than a peace keeper. “You’re an assassin?”

  His jaw clenched. “If I need to be.”

  Suddenly, the quiet stoic demeanour he carried made sense. No wonder he was so closed off. I guess trust wasn’t a virtue to carry if you had to go around murdering people. I’d never met an assassin before and my curiosity was piqued. Which was dangerous because it always led me to do or say something stupid.

  “What’s it like? To just kill someone on command?”

  Like that. That was a textbook example of a stupid thing to say.

  The muscles along Jasper’s jaw visibly ticked. I was surprised I didn’t hear his teeth crack under the pressure. Why did I have to go and open my god-damn mouth?

  “Do you have a death wish?” he snarled as his eyes flashed bright with anger. Yep. I’d gone and pissed off the ass-kicking, murdering vampire and he was now looking at me like I was his next target. If looks could kill, a tombstone would have materialised on the spot. I backed away slowly from him which seemed to shake him from the grips of his anger.

  He brushed his hand over his face like he was trying to scrub away the murderous thoughts racing round his mind. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and when he looked at me again, I could tell he was calmer. His
eyes had settled back to a serene blue, like two pools of a still ocean and I was getting lost in their depths. Jasper coughed nervously, breaking the weird tension that was hanging in the air.

  “Lori, we don’t have time for this now. De Santis has requested your presence and he doesn’t like to be kept waiting.” Jasper focused his intent gaze on me, and I could see the pleading look in his eyes. He really didn’t want to upset the King of the Vampires. I was about to make a witty retort, but Jasper cut me off with a huff. “Just get dressed.”

  “Fine,” I snapped. “Have you got any fresh clothes for me? Or shall I just walk around naked?”

  Jasper’s eyes flicked hungrily over my body, and for a second, the memory of him pressing his weight between my thighs flashed before my eyes. Heat crept up my neck at the thought of Jasper’s lips against mine, and judging by the way his pupils were dilating, I guessed he was thinking of it too. He swallowed slowly and my eyes were drawn to the way his Adam’s apple bobbed in the column of his throat. I had the urge to reach out and taste his skin there.

  “You’ll find some clothes in a bag in the bathroom.” His gruff voice brought me back to reality before my traitorous body made me do something stupid. I didn’t trust myself to say anything so I just nodded.

  “I’ll be back in half an hour.” He turned and started to leave the room but I called his name before he made it to the door.

  “Thank you for saving me,” I muttered to his broad back. He looked over his shoulder at me, surprise marring his brow. I got the feeling he had never been thanked for anything before. Perhaps he hadn’t. By all accounts, he was in the habit of taking lives, not saving them.

  “You’re welcome, Lori,” he said softly before leaving me to wash the day’s events off.

  Chapter 13

  LORI

  Half an hour later, I was washed, dressed, and staring at myself in the mirror. Something was different. Obviously, the freaky eyes and the new mark were different, but it was more than that. My hair looked thicker, richer and my skin looked flawless. There were no blemishes, no dry skin, no trace of that bruise on my jaw from the attack and my leg was completely healed. Hell, I looked like I was glowing. But that wasn’t possible, right? Maybe it was because I was wearing all black clothes. I mean, talk about stereotyping the vampire. I was in a long sleeve black top with skin-tight black leather pants, which were actually more comfortable than they looked. I might have to invest in a pair. They made my ass look amazing and my legs look longer which was no mean feat. These pants were definitely a keeper.