Sebastian slowly removed his arm where it was wrapped around my waist, my shirt safely separating our skin. He gazed down at me, wondrous and enthralled—an expression I’d never seen anyone else give me before, and he always seemed to be looking at me that way. “Are you okay?” he asked.
I nodded, taking another step back. I looked around. “Are we in the human world?”
He smiled and with what distance I made between us; he stole back by grabbing my gloved hand and pulling me forward as he walked through someone’s door like a ghost. I quickly cast a spell over myself so that I could slip through it too. “We all have a quota of deaths we have to each take care of within a day. Thankfully, my dad has a lot of Reapers or our job would be a lot more difficult.”
I frowned, taking in the woman lying on the hospital bed in the living room. There was silence between her family as they waited. “This is... I don’t see how…” I couldn’t find the right words.
“Sad?” he offered, and I nodded. “It is,” he agreed, stepping away from me. “But it’s also a reminder that things like love still exist in this world today.” He saw my confusion and elaborated. “Look at her family, is that not love?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. I saw tears. All kinds of tears. And sadness amongst them. It made me uncomfortable.
“They’re crying because they don’t want to say goodbye.”
The only thing this reminded me of was the things I’d never had.
And just like that, Sebastian took me places across the world and was the guide between life and death, Heaven and Hell. I witnessed him open the passage to Satan’s flames and my skin was still tingling an hour later when he faded us to a small diner. I didn’t know the name of the town, but he seemed to be familiar with this place. We ordered and waited for our food. I took in the retro feel of the diner and decided this place was a reminder of the past in a chaotic present. I liked it because of that.
“You’re quiet.” He leaned back in the booth and observed me. He wore a dark pair of jeans and a black shirt that hugged the bulging muscles rippling underneath. I wondered if maybe we looked like a couple to those around us or some sort of gang because of the dark clothes. At least he had gotten rid of the cloak he wore before coming into the diner. That would have been awkward… Halloween wasn’t in June.
“It’s been a strange day.” I sighed. “It’s not every day someone forces you to rethink the way you see life and death. So thanks for depressing the shit out of me. I thought I was used to death after working at the hospital for the last year but…”
“That’s actually the tame part, wait ’til you see how we deal with the demons that get too sick for their own good.”
“I doubt that will faze me,” I whispered just as the young waitress placed our food in front of us. She blushed as she eyed Sebastian. He didn’t seem to notice, but it had me slightly annoyed. He was too handsome for his own good. Women were subject to feel things they shouldn’t feel for someone they just met, myself included.
Sebastian’s phone dinged just as our waitress walked away. He checked his text before slipping it back in his pocket. “That’s good because we might have found our witch. If not her, at least another one of her hideouts.” He looked determined if not pissed. “How quick can you eat? We’ve got kids to save.”
I picked up my spoon and scarfed some mashed potatoes in my mouth. “I’m accustomed to being on the run. I can do anything quickly, no problem.”
His eyes lifted from his plate. “You ever leave any broken hearts behind?”
Shaking my head while eating, I replied. “I don’t date.” Where were my manners again? My voice was so muffled I could barely understand myself.
“Or fuck?”
I choked on my food and had to take a drink of my Sprite. He watched me with hooded eyes.
Not in the last year, I thought to myself.
“Those are serious problems. I think we should fix those, but later.” He took one more bite of his burger before standing up and pulling me out of my seat. “We have to go.”
I bent down and took one more bite of my steak before letting him lead me outside. “Careful not to touch my skin,” I warned him as we walked behind the diner and stopped next to a stinky dumpster. I covered my nose just as he faded us to a new destination.
We were in the Underworld now. There was no sun here and a moon that rarely showed itself and wasn’t even real. I eyed the darkened sky then the spooky mansion in front of us. “Is that where we’re going?” I asked.
He pulled me forward. “Bring out the witchy business. The zapping shit you do,” he said as we walked the chipped concrete steps. “I can’t go saving you. We gotta get these kids out of here. You can go back to top priority afterwards, okay? Try not to get too jealous.”
I sighed. “I can handle myself.” Then muttered under my breath, “You’re the one that brought me.” He gave me the stink-eye before stopping in front of the door.
“I feel a lot of imps and something else,” he whispered, touching the door. “Can you tell me what kind of demon it is?”
I looked back at the door and closed my eyes. Without words, I let my magic stretch out into the mansion and now my eyes were inside instead of out here with us. Not literally, but I could see everything as I traveled through the rooms figuratively. “I don’t see anything,” I told him. “Not even imps.”
“Ohh, they’re in there. I can sense them,” he answered.
I groaned. “Then why aren’t we just going in and taking them out?” I saw another door and opened it. When I did, something roared, and I opened my eyes and gasped. “Okay, there’s definitely something huge in there and he sensed me, so I hope you weren’t planning on doing a sneak attack.”
He looked at me like I was crazy. “Does it look like I need to sneak?” Sebastian opened the door and all hell broke loose. Imps stepped out of the walls and ceilings. Others flew and crawled over surfaces.
“Ohh.” I smiled up at Sebastian. “That’s where they were.”
“Stay back,” he said, stepping in front of me. A tiny bit of heat crept up my stomach at a time like this. Maybe I had a thing for heroic guys because Sebastian was making me feel things I hadn’t since… Ever.
Twitchy fingers. Twitchy fingers.
The darkness liked him too. It was hard to take my eyes off him when the darkness was begging for me to touch him. Touch and take. Touch. Take.
A huge ass sword materialized in his hand. He began slicing through the first row of imps at his feet. Then the next row. Again and again. Seeing him had my own adrenaline rushing, and I used it to blast a few back that were getting close to our right. Only I noticed Sebastian sway, then stagger in the corner of my vision as I took out more imps. Turning slowly, I saw him grab his head and turn his attention away from the imps so that he could look at me. “Izzie… you’re gonna have to touch—”
With a defeated grimace, he face-planted onto the stone floor. His curse couldn’t have happened so quickly, could it? Right in the middle of this mess? I bent down and picked up his sword, but it was too heavy for me to even swing. I blasted some imps with my magic instead. “My hero,” I muttered as I dropped down to my knees beside Sebastian and pushed him on his back. “More like sleeping beauty,” I whispered as I slowly began to peel off my gloves. One of the imps that were flying latched onto my hair and began to tug at it. I blasted it then scrambled back to his side. “Please work. I kind of like you, Mr. Handsy. I don’t want to hurt you.”
I touched my palm to his cheek. Heat sparked low in my belly, reaching an epic peak. I was hot—the orgasmic feel to our touch had me fighting for air and he woke immediately. He moved faster than I had time to register, his hand seeking out one of mine while his second slid across the back of my neck and pulled me in. His nose and cheek met the side of my neck and he practically nuzzled me. I gasped as he blew his breath across my skin. Something was yanking on my hair again and I was aware imps were jumping all over us and flying
around, but I couldn’t separate us. Sebastian had to be the one because I was in a state of bliss. He finally pulled away. He yanked the imp from my hair and crushed its neck in his palm. Even that was oddly sexy.
I reached out for him again, the darkness purring in my ear for me to do so. I felt sated and drained all at once over simply touching him. He lifted me until I was standing. I swayed this time, and he caught me. “See?” was all he said before his heated smirk hardened. “Later,” he promised, and the darkness worshipped inside me. I didn’t know what was happening and why the darkness didn’t affect him, but I shook my head and tried to come back to reality. It took a few seconds but just in time to blast some imps with my magic.
“I don’t think there are any children here,” I told him as he sliced into imp after imp until we were left with green guts and blood on us and everything else in the spooky mansion.
“One of the Reapers likely found the kids,” he replied, wiping his blade against his pants. “Looks like the address Payne gave me was just one of her hideouts.”
The mansion shook, and Sebastian reached over and steadied me. Thump, thump, thump. Something was moving. He was touching my skin again, and the heat licked over me in a rush. I pulled away from him quick enough this time and ran toward my gloves lying on the floor, slipping them on when we heard the roar. The mansion quaked even more with the sound it made. Was this what I peeked at earlier outside the mansion?
It’s okay. Remember. The darkness killed everything.
Strangely, that didn’t help.
“I think the big guy you saw is coming to welcome us into his home.” Sebastian was radiating with energy and when he turned around and smirked, my stomach heated without him touching me.
That wasn’t good.
And neither was whatever was coming.
“Can you sense what it is?” I asked him, scooting up behind him.
He nodded with a know-it-all grimace. “Oh, yeah. It’s Cerberus.”
“How is that possible? I thought he guarded the entrance to Hell,” I said in shock. My time spent with Julius taught me one thing. To fear where evil went when evil died… I left before he turned me into a monster like him, but only because I was able to wake from the trance he had over me. Memories told me I did things that were immoral before that happened. I feared where my soul would go once I passed.
“He guards the only entrance for most demons, but not us.” Sebastian eyed the far end of the mansion and waited. “My family is probably one of the few who can reach Hell without going through that entrance other than angels, but even then, most would never be able to find it no matter how hard they tried.”
“Then… this is the gate?”
“No.” He shook his head with a tight scowl. “This isn’t the real Cerberus. He’s him, but he’s not… I can’t explain it. It’s almost like he’s a copycat of some sort.”
I swallowed the bile in my throat and blinked and blinked once more, then shook my head but the memories resurfaced.
The creature whimpered… So tiny and helpless. Julius crept up behind me and slid his hand up my abdomen as he bit into my neck. I hated when he touched me, the darkness made it so that I couldn’t function or think when he did. He always made me feel good. It was when he wasn’t touching me that I realized how twisted my relationship with him was.
“We can make him better,” he whispered into my ear and a moan escaped my mouth. “We just have to kill him first.” I wasn’t in control, the darkness was. It didn’t give me a chance to think about how warped everything was with Julius. How wrong. “Lift your arms and forge him with the demon we brought.”
My arms lifted.
“Don’t, don’t! Please don’t!” the demon begged and pleaded with me.
“He will thank us later when he’s born anew.”
A blackness seeped out of my palms and from the darkness, the demon and creature became one.
“See? One day you will understand. All of this is necessary.”
I came back to reality as the giant dog burst through the wall. His tail was that of a serpent’s and he growled as he stalked toward us. “I thought Cerberus had three heads?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Like the real one, I’m sure this copycat can choose how many heads he wishes to show.” Sebastian ran forward to meet him, blade in hand. Cerberus twisted his body around and swung his tail. Sebastian jumped, no, he practically flew across the air. “Duck!” he yelled, and I did just as he landed on top of the beast.
I raised up, seconds from running to help when a hand slid around me. “You must be the cure,” a devilish voice whispered in my ear. I turned and found charcoal eyes looking down at me. Coal black. Hair just as dark. I didn’t recognize him, but something about him looked familiar.
“Who are—”
“August!” Sebastian roared. I looked back quickly and saw murder in Sebastian’s eyes as he yelled, “Don’t you fucking dare!”
“I already took care of my job. You’re slacking, brother.” August smirked up at him. That was why he seemed familiar. He resembled Sebastian despite the difference in their hair and eyes. I briefly remembered him saying one of his brothers’ names was August as well. “I’ll take the cure while you do what you’re doing.”
Cure? Wait, his arms were still wrapped around my waist.
“Wait,” I said frantically. “Don’t touch me!”
“Let’s go, beautiful.” August drank me in and held me tighter. He grabbed my hand, and I jumped, expecting something bad to happen but remembered I had on the gloves. “I’ll show you a world you might not want to leave.”
“August!” Sebastian roared.
And I faded with him. Only it was the wrong brother that took me into the timeless place wherever it was he wanted to bring me.
Eleven
Isabella
“What do you think you’re doing?”
I shoved August away the moment he faded us inside a house. It didn’t take but a second to realize this was his home where a beautiful red-skinned demon waited on her knees for his return. She waited by a large wooden desk overflowing with papers but jumped to her feet with a dazzling smile when she saw him.
“August.” She was beaming as she spoke, then her eyes fell on me and her smile faltered. “Another one so soon?”
I had no clue what was going on. Another one? Did he bring home different women in their relationship? If so, she was an idiot for staying. “Sofia, bring our guest some champagne.”
Her eyes leveled on me before she returned her gaze back to him and smiled like he didn’t just bring another woman home.
“I think you should take me back to Sebastian,” I told him immediately while Sofia walked away.
“I think we should get rid of the gloves and get to business,” he replied, letting his dark eyes drift over me again. I said Sebastian was an ocean, well I guess that made August a vortex. There was something striking about his features that would pull anyone in. Suddenly, it made sense that this demon was tripping over herself to please him. He took one step and that single move held power, intensity, and promised chaos. It was the walk of a man or a demon confident in everything he did.
But as magnificent as this male was, I wanted to go back to the brother that changed the conversation a hundred times within a minute. The one that mesmerized me with his brilliant blue eyes. The one whose touch dimmed even the hold Julius held over my body for so long.
“Don’t come any closer,” I warned him.
“I just want to test my brother’s theory.”
“How did I know you’d do this?” I swiveled around to the new female voice in the room. She wasn’t there a second ago so where the hell did she come from?
“Go away, Maureen.” August didn’t even look her way, completely unfazed by her. He observed me as if he was trying to decide which part of me to touch. My gaze moved back and forth between them, then it became obvious. Sebastian spoke like he had a lot of siblings and Maureen was a knockout.
The family resemblance was obvious.
“I just want to give her a try too before Sebastian gets here,” she said, earning a smile from August. Now I was even more positive they were family.
“If you think by touching me, it can help you in some way, don’t be foolish,” I told them both. “You’ll only get hurt.”
“Just one touch and if it doesn’t work for me, I’ll let you go,” August replied with a devastatingly handsome smile.
Maureen lifted an eyebrow his way. “And if it does work?”
“Then, I’ll introduce her to the harem.” He flashed his teeth as if mentioning that he had a harem wasn’t one of the most piggish things demons did in the Underworld.
I could feel my heartbeat pulsing at my temples. Twitchy fingers. Twitchy fingers. These two were insanely powerful just like Sebastian. The darkness was stirring once again and reaching out to them.
Now I was getting pissed. I took in a deep breath and turned my palm up, letting my magic crackle for August to see. I wouldn’t be controlled by the darkness, and I wouldn’t let these two give me a problem.
“Now, now,” August said right before he faded. I twisted around to see where he had gone. He snuck up behind me, grabbing me by the waist to twist me around to face him. “Just a quick taste,” he whispered and the moment he cupped my cheek, his face paled and I felt it, me draining his power. The darkness gulped it in as quickly as it could and as much as I kept stealing from him, there seemed to be more waiting, an endless amount to take. Maureen separated him from me by throwing him across the room. He landed on the floor and thrashed as if he were having a seizure.
“What’s happening to him?” Maureen yelled as she ran to check on him.
Sofia dropped the plate she was holding as she entered the room and gasped. “August!” She ran to him and bent down next to him.
“What did you do to him?” Maureen looked back and asked me, but the darkness was overpowering me with everything that it had just stolen.
Bewitching Sloth Page 8
