Bewitching Sloth

by Gross, Michelle

  August looked at the back of Isabella’s head, reached in front of her and took his scythe from her hand because she could barely hold it, then grabbed her by the waist and jumped backward with her. “You don’t have to tell me twice,” he told her and was careful not to touch any part of her skin through her shirt as he released her.

  Delena charged at August again and I jumped in front of them both. As soon as I did though, one of the ogres came at me from the side, reaching for my neck. I ducked and pointed out, “This is ridiculous, we’re immortal.”

  “Exactly.” Delena grinned. I had just enough time to see her reaching out.

  “No!” Izzie screamed just as Delena’s hand latched onto my arm.

  Her touch was exactly like my witch’s I assumed, only I wasn’t immune to hers at all.

  I fell to the ground with the most agonizing pain I’d ever felt.

  Sixteen

  Isabella

  The witch in front of me with the darkness crawling all over her skin—just like mine—was going to wish she’d never crossed paths with me. The moment Sebastian fell to his knees and her eyes lit up as she sucked him of his power, all I felt was rage.

  Murderous rage.

  The witch helped me figure out something about myself. I wasn’t above taking a life. I was far beneath that notion because her death would be at my hands by the time this night was over.

  I blasted her with a spell and she went flying backward. Delena rose to her feet as I ran to Sebastian who was convulsing on the ground. I watched as the lines grew thicker as they slithered over her skin. She lifted her hands to her face and smiled. “So much power. I need more.” Delena laughed like a crazed lunatic. “Julius is going to be so happy when he sees that I can handle their sins.”

  And with those words, she went after another one. I couldn’t worry about them though; my focus was on Sebastian. I bent down just as I heard a murderous scream. It was an ogre. Before I could be picked up by him, Payne slipped behind the ogre and pierced through his back with a large blade. When the ogre fell, Payne asked. “Is he gonna be okay?”

  I removed my gloves. “I’m going to try something,” I told him.

  “Watch out, Barron,” August yelled somewhere behind me. “She’s bouncing all over the fucking place. One touch from her and we’re down, brother.”

  Another murderous scream and Payne cursed next to me as he took out another ogre. “Barron’s about to rage.”

  “No,” August laughed. “He’s already there.”

  Raging?

  Only I didn’t look back to see what was going on, I reached down and touched Sebastian’s cheek and immediately he stopped convulsing. I sighed in relief. “Really fucking nice for him, but if she touches one of us, that trick won’t work on us.” How the hell August was keeping track of us over here and had the time to complain in the midst of this turmoil beat the hell out of me. All I could do was smile as Sebastian’s pupils turned back to normal and he sat up, drinking me in and a small exchange passed between us before he stood, bringing me with him.

  “Like I said, our touch means something, witch.”

  My pulse sped up at his words and through the madness, I still got sucked into his blue eyes that continued to look at me in a way that no one had before. So solemn and true. Like I was the only thing he could ever want. The only thing he desired. Even in the middle of this hell.

  “Damn it, Barron, go after the ogres or the witch,” August yelled. We turned around to see what was going on.

  I gasped at what I saw. What kind of monster was this and how did Julius create it? Before me, a skeletal figure stalked toward August and some sort of red essence flowed all around and through his bones. It was terrifying to see. I’d seen everything, and yet this was…

  “Barron!” Sebastian yelled. Barron? I was confused until I looked harder at the walking skeleton. He wore dark pants, a black shirt, and boots. The very same clothes his brother had been wearing… How? Then it clicked. Of course. The Grim Reaper’s sons! “Remember me telling you about that scary form I keep hidden,” Sebastian found the time to say and smiled. “You’re looking at my brother’s.”

  “August!” Payne yelled, rushing toward him. August saw Delena coming for him and faded while in the middle of two ogres who ended up punching each other instead of him. He reappeared close to Barron who was a storm of red.

  “Oh fuck,” he hissed, eyeing his brother. “He’s going to surge.”

  “There’s no way Delena can survive if he does,” Payne mentioned.

  “Get ready for it!” August yelled. I wished I knew what the hell was going on.

  “Come here,” Sebastian said as he materialized a cloak and covered me with it just as the harsh red essence flowing around Barron exploded and expanded for miles. The sound was deafening, and the heat touched me through the cloak, and I knew I’d a goner right now if it weren’t for it.

  Minutes ticked by before Sebastian finally peeled the cloak off me and I saw that even he had been using one. I looked around and there wasn’t an ogre left. I couldn’t see Delena either. Everyone had covered themselves with cloaks. Payne pushed his hood away from his head and glanced around. “He didn’t get her,” he cursed.

  Before I could ask how he knew, Barron was screaming, and it wasn’t a normal scream. It was monstrous and terrifying. “He doesn’t exist within his rage. It’s his curse.” The pain in Sebastian’s eyes as he looked at Barron had me reaching out to him.

  Only the second scream that pierced the air was one of pain. Delena stood behind August cupping his head. He couldn’t even fall to his knees like Sebastian had because she held him so firmly. Sebastian faded, and Payne took off running to separate August and Delena. Palms up, I started humming an enchantment and when I finished; I blasted her with it. It separated them. August fell, convulsing on the ground like he had when I had touched him the night before.

  “So much,” Delena gazed at her hands and laughed. By now, she had harvested a bit from both Sebastian and August and it showed. Her skin was almost completely covered with the darkness. She coughed, laughed, then coughed once more. I just stood and watched as Sebastian and Payne both swung at her. She blasted them both back with magic, but her eyes widened, and she coughed again.

  “Your body can’t handle what little you’ve taken of their power.” I smiled as I walked toward her. “If you take in any more, you’ll die.”

  Delena continued coughing while studying her hands. “No, you’re wrong! I can handle this and more.”

  She ran toward Barron next. In his skeletal glory, one touch from her and he went from a raging monster to a screaming man. He fell just like his brothers.

  Inside me, darkness brewed. It smelled, no, it tasted the weakness of Delena’s own darkness. Suddenly, all the surrounding power was deafening with a pulse that thundered inside me. I didn’t know which one, but it sought out everything in its path.

  Because I knew my darkness. It would put hers to shame.

  No one was safe.

  The ache that had been present while around Sebastian and his brothers came to a crashing tsunami that drowned me on the inside.

  Touch, take, touch, take.

  My fingers twitched.

  Who would I go to for?

  My body didn’t have a clue, but the darkness did.

  My feet moved—Delena my apparent destination. My smile came easily because at least she was the one I wanted to kill, anyway. I didn’t want to hurt the others. The thought made my chest ache.

  Still, my mind slipped into a dark tunnel the closer I stepped to Delena who was busy throwing magic at the three of them. I was losing control of everything. “Weak,” I whispered, and her eyes met mine. “I’ll take it from you.”

  My words didn’t sound like something I would say, and once more, I felt controlled by the darkness—Julius didn’t have to be near to still ruin me.

  She stumbled back, fell to her knees, and coughed harder. “No!”

  “Co
me here, witch,” that voice coming from my right sounded like it was speaking to me, and for a second, the darkness wavered to the rhythm of his voice. Sebastian. “And the darkness, yeah, you too, I’m right here. Let’s not go sucking in anyone’s sins, all right? She’s dying. You don’t have to touch her. We both know I’m going to be the one stuck with the power temporarily if you do. After all, you can’t keep your hands off me.” Now, I remembered. Sebastian was the only one that took from me instead me taking from him.

  I felt more like myself now.

  “Stop!” Delena screamed. “Don’t you dare, Julius! I won’t let you use me to speak—Julius—what are you doing?” She slumped forward and when she raised her head up, she spoke once more.

  It was her voice, but I knew who spoke. “Come here,” Julius beckoned me from inside of Delena. She had reached her worth in Julius, now Delena was collateral damage and he planned to use her speak to me. “As I already knew, you’re the only one that can do this. Just touch my hand and I’ll bring you to me. You know I’m waiting.”

  “That’s not Delena anymore. Is that Harvest?” someone growled. “He’s speaking through Delena somehow.”

  Hands covered my eyes and with Sebastian’s touch, air filled my lungs. I sucked in a breath and the feel of him centered me completely.

  “I told you not to touch him!” Julius’s powerful voice seeped out of Delena and just like that, she burst into ashes and every bit of power she took from August and Sebastian flew into me. Only as Sebastian covered my eyes, I could feel his electric touch stealing it away.

  I grabbed one of his hands and pulled it away from my eyes. “Sebastian…”

  “Harvest told you not to touch me?” There it was again. That slightly maligned voice that he had used last time he had absorbed August’s sin. “Who the fuck does Harvest think he is? You obviously belong with me.”

  Despite the fact that I knew it was the sin talking, warmth seeped through me. “You’ve absorbed your brother’s sin again.”

  “I know,” he whispered harshly in my ear and I shivered.

  My eyes widened when I saw the way his hand faded in and out before becoming skeletal. Unlike Barron’s red essence, Sebastian’s was a light stormy blue. Turquoise. “Sebastian… You’ve absorbed what little she took of both of your brother’s sins.”

  “I know,” he hissed. “Tell me why wouldn’t he want me touching you? Because he thinks he owns you?”

  “What?” The energy coming from him was a mess. It was chaotic, and it scared me. I had no clue what he’d do or how he’d act with their curses.

  Sebastian shoved me forward. I turned around to see him gripping his forehead. “Don’t tell me!” he yelled this time. “Fuck! I’m so fucking angry. And I need to get you the fuck out of here. Alone.”

  “What the hell is going on with you?” It was August who spoke. He rose slowly, clutching his stomach as he got to his feet. He looked awful. I was surprised he could even move that quickly.

  “He’s taken a bit of both yours and Barron’s sin,” I explained. “Every time he touches me, he takes something from me.”

  “Is there somehow you can take it back from him?” Payne asked me.

  I shook my head. “No, but it wears off. At least it did last night when it happened after I touched August.”

  “Look at his hands,” Payne pointed toward them, “he’s not going to rage out like Barron does, is he?”

  “I’m fine,” Sebastian told them. Only he wasn’t. He looked angrier the longer he stood there, and him doing the same thing his brother had been doing seemed entirely possible with the way his body shimmered and changed. I was mesmerized as I caught glimpses of the form Sebastian spoke about.

  “Come with me,” the first time Sebastian said the words to me, they came out angry and harsh. Then once again, he gripped his head and his eyes pleaded with me. “Will you come home with me?” he spoke softer this time, more desperate for me to understand the inner turmoil he was going through.

  “She can’t leave with you until we know you can handle yourself. We don’t know what the hell is going on,” Payne told him.

  Sebastian growled at him—literally, then lunged for me. “Sebastian,” Barron yelled, and I had just enough time to see him standing up as Sebastian gripped my hand and faded with me.

  Seventeen

  Isabella

  I stumbled backward with the hard way we faded into his home. I caught myself on the counter and looked up to see Sebastian stalking toward me. My stomach tightened with anticipation and already, the darkness started up again and hummed as he grew near.

  It was getting a little out of control at this point. I couldn’t figure out why the darkness wanted more of his touch when it just gave everything to him instead of taking. At this rate, the darkness would give away my very soul for more of him.

  I swayed—both literally and figuratively—for the man before me. When he looked at me with those eyes, I felt like I was being stabbed. With that mouth, I’d spend the rest of my life wanting to taste his lips again when this was all over. And with his body, I’d wish I could forever use it over and over until the darkness burned away.

  I knew that’d never happen. There was no escaping my darkness.

  Good thing it liked the same Reaper I liked.

  I opened my channel and studied his energy. It was still a huge storm inside him, but I could also see that the two energies within him that didn’t belong were burning quickly, but not fast enough.

  Just when I thought he was going to devour me whole, his brothers faded behind him. August injected Sebastian in the neck with some sort of syringe and he sagged forward. I reached out for him, but Barron pulled him back.

  “You didn’t have to do that,” I told them.

  “You said he absorbed my sin,” this was the first time Barron was talking to me directly. “I’ve lived with this sin my entire life, even a little can take you over the edge too far.” The truth and pain in his eyes held my tongue.

  August helped Barron carry Sebastian to the bedroom. Minutes later, they returned to the kitchen where I still gripped the counter with white knuckles. Truthfully, I had wanted Sebastian to come for me. I didn’t mind the first time it happened, and I didn’t mind it the second.

  And I didn’t miss the haunting mood that hit my stomach—unsettling me and rattling the darkness into restlessness—now that he was unconscious.

  Did it want Sebastian? Or was it because there was so much power for the taking with three entities in the room with me? Or was it much worse? Did Julius come for me?

  August studied me curiously before rubbing his forehead and sighing. “I hate it when he’s right,” he muttered, and there I was again not having a clue what he was talking about. “Seems Harvest has something to do with this after all. Not only that, he seems to want you and all of us.”

  Oh, that.

  “Do you know what he’s doing?” Barron asked. He had a giant scowl on his face as he stared at me. Considering he was a raging skeleton earlier, I assumed his curse was the sin of wrath, so I wasn’t going to take it too personal that he looked as if he wanted to squash me like a fly.

  “He’s obsessed with his creator,” I told them.

  “The Devil?” August asked.

  I nodded as Barron crossed his arms over his chest. “Yeah, from what I can remember, he always talked about overthrowing him.”

  “Fucking hell,” August groaned. “Why is the Underworld full of power hungry fools?”

  “Says the sleazy businessman,” Barron cast his brother a dark look.

  “Like I’d want to spend my time doing whatever it is the Devil does.” August arched an eyebrow toward his brother. “Besides, the Devil may be king down here, but I own most of the businesses. I can have anything I want, whoever I want. Why would I want his dark crown?”

  Barron’s jaw rolled with tension. “Are you sure that moment won’t ever come? That you won’t ever want it?”

  Something pas
sed between their glares, something left unsaid yet understood—an unspoken fear, possibly? Whatever it was, it was over before I had a chance to decipher their intensity. August broke it with a chuckle that was slightly odd and forced, like it wasn’t really a laugh after all. “I’m not there, Barron…” August murmured, proving I was missing a part of the story.

  Facing me, August asked, “Do you need us to stay here with you until Sebastian wakes up?” I shook my head, and he sighed in relief. “Thank fuck, I got demons with debts owed, and valuables and women due as payment.” August placed his hand on Barron’s shoulder. “You can let Payne know when you see him.”

  August faded, and without a word, Barron faded a second later leaving me alone with a sleeping Reaper in another room that I wished was awake.

  I pushed off the counter when I felt something move across my neck. I turned quickly and looked around. There was nothing, but I had a feeling of dread. Was the air changing? Did it feel colder?

  The darkness stirred, coming to life in my chest before overtaking my body.

  He’s here.

  I stepped through the kitchen, holding my breath and counting hopes. I hoped there would come a day when I no longer feared Julius. I hoped for nights where I dreamed of sunshine instead of darkness. I hoped for the kiss of someone I loved, and the taste of him on my lips.

  His deceptive voice found me. “I need you to touch them.” Julius was here, but he wasn’t. I realized it was more like he was inside me once more, underneath my skin.

  The fear of losing myself kept me afloat inside my own mind. The darkness caved to the brilliance of his deceit, and it was the darkness and him that tried to pull me under them both. Then my mind strayed back to...

  Hope.

  I knew there was such a thing. He stood over six-feet-tall, rippling with power. He moved with purpose, protruding muscles, and a body so perfectly sculpted it made one want to cry along with a smile that took me under and lifted me up.