Jasper’s body stiffened beneath my touch. Like he couldn’t decide whether to pull me closer or shove me away. He let out another warning. “Don’t push me.”
I was playing with fire. I knew this would go either one or two ways. He’d either give in or he’d run away. But I was too high on the chemistry between us to think clearly. I knew what I wanted, and I was going to fucking take it. Jasper was hanging on by a thread, all he needed was a little push.
“Or what?” I whispered against his lips.
Jasper’s control snapped. The words were barely out of my mouth before he let out a sinfully possessive noise and yanked me to him, kissing me hard.
Oh, God. Yes. I moaned. My fingers dug into his shirt and I clawed at him trying to pull him closer. I stumbled backwards until my back collided with the door behind me. His powerful thigh slid between my legs and his body pressed against me, pinning me against the wall. A hot shudder coursed through me with all the ferocity of a storm.
His mouth devoured mine as his hands slid under the hem of my shirt, searing hot trails across my fevered skin. He took my lower lip between his teeth and bit down harshly. I gasped at the sudden sting, but Jasper soothed the pain as he lightly sucked my lip. He thrust his tongue deep into my mouth and I sucked it like I would suck his cock if he’d let me. Dirty images filled my mind as I fumbled with his belt buckle. He was trying to get my trouser button open and oh fuck, oh yes –
Someone knocked on the door and I nearly fell to the floor as we both jerked in surprise.
“Yes?” Jasper called, his voice rough and gravelly.
“De Santis has sent for you.” The voice was deep and smooth, and I knew Alec was on the other side of the door whilst Jasper and I stared at each other, our chests heaving, bodies still pressed deliciously close.
“I’ll be there in a minute,” Jasper replied, clearing his throat. He pulled away from me and redid his belt buckle. His stoic expression fell back into place and I knew that any walls of his that I managed to crack were firmly back in place.
“I don’t deserve for you to treat me like shit just because you’ve got a problem with me,” I hissed. “Treat me the way I deserve to be treated or I’ll find a way to kick your arse.”
A fraction of a smile cracked his serious façade and it made my heart jump. “I’d like to see you try.”
After making sure neither of us looked like we were just rounding second base, or possibly even heading onto third base, Jasper opened the door. I was glad Alec was polite enough to knock because that door sure as hell wasn’t locked.
Alec walked in looking as suave as usual but with a grin plastered across his face like he knew exactly what we were up to.
“Well, I guess, I’ll… um, see you later,” I say as I headed through the door, trying to gather my wits that seemed to have fallen all over the floor whilst Jasper was kissing me senseless.
“Remember what I said Lori,” Jasper called after me. I didn’t turn around. His words hurt, and even though I knew he was saying them for his benefit, it was still painful to hear him reiterate how much he didn’t want me. I felt his gaze burning a hole in my back all the way down the corridor until I eventually turned the corner and disappeared from his sight.
Chapter 20
ALEC
I still didn’t know what to make of Lori. She’d been here for almost a week and already she felt like she had always been part of the team. I was fiercely loyal to my teammates which came with being a Hound. I had always had an innate need to protect any family I was a part of, and my team was my family. At first, I wasn’t all that keen on Lori joining us. We were a well-oiled unit and we worked well together. We had each other’s backs and I knew I could entrust my life into the hands of any one of them, but Lori was an unknown. And that worried me. She threatened the functionality of the team and if there was something unbalanced when we were out in the field, that would be dangerous, maybe even lethal.
The fact that we still didn’t know everything she was capable of was also fucking scary. She was a Sin Reaper for pity’s sake, and they were the stuff of nightmares. Then on top of that she had been singled out by a high-class demon, probably even one of Lucifer’s inner circle. I’d met them all and the lot of them were bastards. They enjoyed torturing and tormenting souls that needed punishment, and to be honest they were worse than Lucifer. I had always had a begrudging respect for the Ruler of the Underworld. Yes, he was egotistical and unscrupulous, but I always felt he had a bit of a rough bargain. I have always believed that no one is inherently good or inherently evil. The world just isn’t that black and white. Granted, I’d never really had a chance to talk to Lucifer, I was never high enough up the hierarchy in Hell to be worth noticing, but to me, he always seemed like he just wanted to uncover truths and wrongdoings. He just went about it the wrong way, which earned him the reputation of enjoying punishing people. He was overzealous in his quest for truth. He manipulated people and coerced them into fulfilling their desires at whatever cost; all for the satisfaction of discovering the pure truth of a person’s soul.
I turned my attention back to my task at hand. Saskia and I were on cleaning duty, which meant all the tactical gear and weapons were to be serviced and cleaned, ready for inspection.
As I was cleaning the barrel of my rifle, Lori walked in from her morning run with Jasper. I say walked but it was more like she collapsed in a heap on the chair on the opposite side of the table where Saskia and I were working. Her head hit the table-top and a painful groan emanated from her.
“That bad, huh?” I asked sympathetically. She just groaned again which made me laugh. I felt her pain. Jasper was ruthless when it came to training. He pushed and pushed until you were ready to collapse, and then he pushed some more just for the fun of it.
“You know that he’s doing it to find your breaking point?”
She looked up at me, her dark eyes blazing with defiance. “Yes. But I am not going to break. I don’t want to give him the satisfaction.”
“That’s my girl.”
Her eyes narrowed at me and I could tell she didn’t like me saying that. I liked to flirt and flirting with Lori was fun because she just got angry with me. But I liked that she had fire in her. It showed she had passion and part of me wanted to explore that with her very much. The other part of me liked being alive. I knew Jasper would never sanction Lori and me sleeping together, so I set the line firmly in the sand. I would flirt but no more. No matter how much those scintillating curves of hers had my hands itching to touch them, or how her eyes blazed with fury when she was mad. I liked to piss her off just watch her anger burn. It turned her into a goddess and Hell help me I wanted to take that fire of hers and explore it between the sheets. Even now, when she was all sweaty from her run, it just made her more appealing to me. Her lavender scent was wrapped in that musky natural smell of her and I had a sudden urge to lick her skin.
But I couldn’t.
I would never be able to have her so I would just have to settle for being the flirtatious jerk. I could do that; it came naturally to me after all.
Lori glanced across the wide array of weapons laid out on the table. “Do you guys seriously use all this stuff?”
“This stuff has saved our lives more than once. Without this stuff we wouldn’t be able to protect the Conclave or the people who need it.” It annoyed me that she dismissed the tools of my trade so easily. I bet she looked at us and saw vicious mercenaries, which was true, but hell, we did good things too.
“What Alec means to say is, yes, we do. And you will have to learn how to use it all too.” Saskia turned to me and grinned. “Lori is totally a blade girl.”
That I could imagine. She didn’t seem the type to be comfortable with a gun. I had always preferred blades. Guns were loud and brash. Any idiot could point and shoot a gun, but it took a certain type of skill to use a blade. They were silent, and to kill with them you had to get close to your victim. It was an intimate way to take someone’s li
fe.
“Have you picked your weapon yet?” I asked, stopping my work and focussing on Lori. She tilted her head to one side, her big brown eyes swimming with confusion. She was so easy to read; her emotions were written across her face as plain as day. She would need to work on that. It could get her into a whole world of trouble. “We each have a weapon we favour or have a certain knack for. I prefer blades but I am an expert with a rifle. Saskia is a phenomenal archer; Cassian doesn’t really do weapons, he’s a more hands on kind of guy. Jasper has his sword and Fenris prefers to just use his magic, but in a tight spot he’s more than happy to shoot you.”
Her mouth set into a grim line at my words. She was so fucking sweet it was unreal. She looked terrified at the thought of having to choose a tool that could possibly take someone’s life.
“Other than favouring knives over guns in our training sessions she’s not really shown an affinity for anything,” Saskia commented.
An idea popped into my head as I looked over at the Sin Reaper. I knew the perfect weapon for her. It was a little on the nose perhaps, but surely a reaper needed a fitting weapon.
“Saskia, have you shown her the Silent Soul?”
Excitement flittered across her face, and she practically bounced out of her seat. “Dammit. Why didn’t I think of that? It’s fucking perfect.” Saskia’s squeal followed her out of the room as she ran to get the weapon. The panic written on Lori’s face was hilarious. Poor thing. She was way out of her depth. Pity formed in my gut and something in me had a sudden desire to see if she was ok.
“How are you finding the Conclave?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I can’t say that I’ve seen very much of it. The base is nice.”
“Is your room ok?” Why did I suddenly care?
She smiled sadly. “Yes, it’s lovely. It’s just weird to think of it as my room.”
“I’m sure you’ll get used to it.” I wanted to reach over the table and take her hand. I needed to curb that. No good would come of it. So, I made my hands busy and went back to cleaning my gun.
“How big is this place? The Conclave? I kind of expected it to be a small building but this place seems to go on for miles.” She looked up at me with questions burning in her gaze and, fuck me, I couldn’t resist. What the hell was wrong with me?
“It’s probably the size of a large town. De Santis started the Conclave as a safe place for people to hide after the Dark War. Back then it was only Blackstone Castle and a few outbuildings, but as more people sought refuge the Conclave expanded to accommodate them. Now it’s a self-contained town with everything you might need.”
“The Dark War?”
“It was 300 years ago when a war broke out amongst the original three dark clans. They each existed in their own sphere and, for many years, coexisted peacefully alongside each other. One day somebody pissed someone else off and all Hell broke loose. Literally. Lucifer got involved and ended up becoming the common enemy that united the clans.”
“What are the original clans?” Lori asked, cupping her chin in her hand. She was hanging on to my every word, and I was struggling not to find that an incredible turn on.
“Vampires, demons and magic users. Lucifer created the first three, no doubt you have seen the statue in the square?”
“Yes, I did wonder about that. Who were they?”
“Mordecai, the original Vampire, Selena, the first witch and Iver, the first Demon. Every vampire, magic user and demon can trace their heritage back to these Original Three. Lucifer didn’t want humans and animals to be the only creations on earth, so he moulded his own. He imparted a little of his soul into all three. Greed and lust into the vampire, magic and pride into the witch and wrath and the ability to shift into the demon.”
“Wow. That’s quite a history.”
“It is. At the time, everyone thought that this was the moment of the prophecy, but by uniting, the clans managed to stop Lucifer before he rose to claim the world. Ironic really, that his own creations would turn against him.”
“Why did Lucifer get involved in the first place?”
“No one really knows. I think he saw it as an opportunity to rise up out of the Underworld, but he didn’t seem to get very far. In the aftermath of the war the Triumvirate was set up. It consists of one leader from each clan and they govern the Dark World together. De Santis from the vampires, Violette Dubois from the witches, and Morgon from the Demons. They each preside over their own councils and together they keep the peace.”
“That’s the Circle here isn’t it?”
“Yes. The Conclave is the capital of the Dark World, so you have a really broad mix of species residing here. But there are other places like this, hidden from prying eyes, where you may only find witches or demons.”
“What happened to the Original Three?”
“No one knows. They just disappeared from the history books. They might be dead, or they might be hiding somewhere. It’s a mystery.”
Lori sat back in her seat, I could see her mind whirring and the little cogs turning as she processed it all. It was a lot to take in, and I could only hope that the more she learned, the more she would want to fight the prophecy rather than succumb to it.
“Got it!”
Lori yelped as Saskia swanned back into the room, and it was fucking adorable. Her eyes widened as they fell on the lethal looking weapon in Saskia’s hands. The Silent Soul was a wicked-looking battle scythe, akin to its agricultural relative with a round blade and long handle, but that was where the similarity ended. This battle scythe was compact, with a large curved blade on one side and a small recurved blade on the other. It had a sharp lance to the top of the pole and a deadly little gutting blade on the bottom. It was a menacing piece of weaponry that none of us had ever really managed to master. I figured it was perfect for Lori.
“What’s a reaper without her scythe?” I asked smiling at the awe in her gaze.
“Go on take it,” Saskia said, thrusting the thing into Lori’s hands. “Go stand over there and just get a feel for it.”
Lori looked terrified but, fair play to her, she stood in the middle of the room and had a go at moving with it. Saskia was all encouragement, shouting manoeuvres for her to try and throwing some praise her way. I just watched silently, mesmerised by the way her confidence grew as she became accustomed to the feel of it in her hands. She moved with grace, like a dancer moving to music only she heard. It was impressive to see and so fucking sexy. Her muscles rippled with the effort, her lithe body twisting and turning and fuck… I was getting hard.
I stood abruptly from my chair and the scrape along the floor distracted her. Her eyes caught mine and, for a long moment, they held my gaze prisoner. She swallowed nervously and then grinned, a delicious blush creeping up her neck. She knew I’d been watching her. And she’d liked it. Fuck.
“This is perfect for you, Lori,” Saskia said elatedly. “We can start doing some Bo staff training to get you some skills.”
“Sounds great,” she replied without taking her eyes off mine.
“Don’t you have to go find your magic with Fenris,” I goaded, and her face fell. I was being a dick, but I couldn’t have her looking at me like that. Like she wanted to strip me in the middle of the room. I didn’t want her to know how much she affected me.
“Yes. Thank you for this Saskia.” She placed the scythe on the table before fixing me with a penetrating stare. I bit back the apology that was on the tip of my tongue. “I’ll see you guys later.”
My eyes were glued to the lilt of her hips as she left the room. She was just naturally sexy. Everything about the way she moved was enticing and the fact that she had no clue how sexy she was, was a massive turn on. Shame I couldn’t do anything about it. It wasn’t just Jasper holding me back. I got why he didn’t want his team sleeping together, it was a disaster waiting to happen, but I couldn’t fall for her, or anyone. I was cursed and had been for almost 80 years. I could fuck Lori if I wanted to, but I couldn’t fall
for her, and she deserved better than that.
A certain jealous witch made sure that if she couldn’t have my heart, then no one could. The spot where my heart should beat comfortingly in my chest was silent and achingly empty.
I was a dead hound walking.
Literally.
Chapter 21
LORI
Focus. Feel the pull of the threads of magic. Focus and breathe deeply.
Urgh. Stupid fucking mantra. I couldn’t concentrate and poor Fenris was getting annoyed with me. I could see it in his deepening frown. Fenris had the patience of a saint, so I must be really pissing him off if he was starting to show signs of it.
“Come on. Out with it,” Fenris commanded.
“Out with what?”
“You’re not concentrating. It’s quite clear your mind is elsewhere. We might as well work through whatever is bothering you so we can get back to coercing your magic out of its shell.”
His deep brown gaze smiled at me and I relaxed. Fenris was the first person to really make me feel at ease here and I already counted him as a friend. We had discovered a mutual love of old B-movies and popcorn, and I had spent the last few nights curled up next to him on a sofa cringing, laughing, and crying with him. It was nice to just have a friend who was just happy to be in your company. He seemed to want me to off load, and he did seem like he would be a good listener. Besides, it might even help me to clear my mind so I actually could concentrate and not waste Fenris’ time.
“I just don’t feel like I am any closer to figuring out what my purpose is or what I’m even capable of. I know you guys are trying to help, and I am grateful for it, but nothing seems to be working. I just seem to have questions and no bloody answers.”
Fenris scooted across the floor until he was right in front of me. “Have you not discovered anything in the witch’s Revelation books?”
To Crave Darkly: Trials Of A Morta: Book One Page 17
