Bewitching Sloth

by Gross, Michelle

  “Never say never.” Sebastian’s blue eyes shifted into the same shade of black I witnessed before. I was mesmerized by it for a second. “I’ll free you completely.”

  And with a darkened glimpse at my lips, he dived in and stole my breath with a kiss. His hand slid down my stomach, finding that place that craved his touch so much. He invaded me at once with a finger. He started gentle before he got a little callous, wanting me to squirm, then when he pulled it out, he pressed back in with two. I moaned into his lips and brought my hands around his neck, pressing him so tightly into my body, his shirt was getting soaked. I wrapped a leg around the arm between my thighs and he used that as leverage to anchor my body up for his display and to increase my pleasure.

  “Go on,” his voice was raspy between our kisses. “Slide yourself against my arm while I finger-fuck you.”

  Oh, fuck.

  I did as he said, grinding my pubic bone across his arm as he pumped in and out of me with two fingers. Pleasure built up like a hurricane inside me and soon I was seeing the stars behind my closed eyelids. “That’s it,” he encouraged me, and I whimpered and bit into his lips because I felt so out of control. He groaned, and I dived into my orgasm completely with the hunger I felt with the way he kissed me and the sounds he made as he worked me into the most satisfying pleasure of my life.

  My arms went slack around him, and my head would have smacked against the tub if not for his hand still holding the nape of my neck as he eased my head down as my body twitched and I moaned because he was still driving me mad with his fingers. The best thing about intimacy with Sebastian was the way he looked at me before, during, and after. It was always the same like I was some sort of jewel and he couldn’t have been luckier to have me.

  “You’re so fucking beautiful, Isabella.” And through his eyes, I didn’t doubt that I was. There was something intense about the way he made me feel just by looking at me. “Tell me truthfully, witch, you cast some sort of spell on me the moment we met, didn’t you?”

  His tone was playful, which made me smile. “If I did, then I cast the same spell on myself.”

  “Do you want me to keep you?” His eyes were heavy with lust but beneath that lay a lot more. So much more.

  “I know that I want to keep you.” I laughed slightly, feeling giddy along with Sebastian who seemed just as pleased as I was.

  Flapping noises grew near. My smiled slipped as I listened. They were overhead the house now. Sebastian straightened his back and looked up. “What is that?” I asked him.

  “One of the dragons,” he told me right before he stood. A piercing cry roared from above the house and I raised to a sitting position in the tub. “Don’t get out,” he said, looking down at me. “It might be mating season for them. I’ll check to make sure, so don’t worry.”

  I moved to get out. “I’ll still go.” He stopped me. “I’ll feel better if I stay close to you.”

  He must have seen something in my expression because he nodded. “Walk outside when you’re dressed.”

  I nodded, then felt the emptiness in the bathroom the moment he faded outside. The space his absence left in the bathroom was vast and unnerving. I just wanted to hurry. The unease I felt of having him away from me, even if only a small distance, felt strangely terrifying.

  And I knew why the moment I tried to get out of the tub. I recognized a clothed leg stretched out around my legs in the water, and my stomach churned with acid. A pale arm hung out of the tub, bouncing to the twisted hum falling from his lips, and the air in the room reached freezing levels. I slowly lifted my gaze to meet the green soulless expression of the monster I spent so much time running from. His red hair was blazing with flames as he blatantly gazed at my nakedness.

  I bolted out of the water, but his hands were against my neck, crushing my windpipe before I even got the chance to lift my ass off the bottom of the tub. The water splashed in the tub and I felt his weight pressing down on me even though all my senses told me he wasn’t really here.

  “You’re not really here,” I gritted out. When he released my neck, I gasped for air as he leaned back against the tub watching me. Leave it to Julius to be able to still look utterly capable and terrifying even when cramped into a tub with his legs so tightly restricted around my body, there was no room whatsoever.

  “You’re right.” He grinned. “But I don’t have to be when I’m right here.” He tapped his head, and I scowled at him.

  “Sebas—” My mouth closed shut against my will.

  “Think I’d let you call for him?” He chuckled, and anger burned through me. “Didn’t I say not to get close to the sloth?” He sighed, his eyes darkening over me. “You wasted time.”

  I lifted my arms, and he started laughing again. “Nice try.” I understood what he meant when my magic died out at my fingertips, and the darkness hissed in my ears until I cupped them and squeezed my eyes shut to tolerate the pain. “You already know what I did. I made sure to inject you with more of my harvest through the gremlin. See, what was already inside you was growing tame and it stopped trying as hard to seek me out, even finding something in the sloth that they craved just as much as my darkness.”

  My arms trembled as I lowered my hands from my ears. The vile that threatened to spill from my stomach at his nearness spoke enough. Horrified and angry—I didn’t know which I was more—I locked glares with the man that made me so completely helpless. I had no control over myself, even when it felt like I was. One little command from him… and I was gone from the inside.

  “He’s going to stop this,” I told Julius, eyeing the door and counting hopes once more. I prayed Sebastian came for me when he saw that I wasn’t coming outside. “He’s going to stop you, and he’s going to always be there to stop me.”

  “You think just because the sloth’s been inside your body a couple of times that he can stop us?” Us? There was no us. The darkness controlled me. It took my will, my thoughts, my hopes, and dreams and ran away with them. “Just know, no matter how much you give him, there’s no way he’s ever going to be inside you the way I am.”

  “I fucking hate you,” I seethed. “I hope they kill me before they let you do whatever it is you’re trying to do!”

  “Oh, Isabella, don’t you remember?” Julius asked me, and I frowned at him. “I’ve told you once before, your fate and mine.”

  “What are you talking about?” I hissed.

  “You’re the key to Armageddon.” He moved his hand up to his neck, and horrified, I watched as my hand did the same to my own neck. “You will bring upon the end of time, and with it, I’ll make sure that it’s me who claims both worlds, human and Underworld.” Hoping my hatred bled through, I glared as he exhaled. “I’ll take what the Devil so desperately wants. This world was made to be his prison, by the time I’m in control, I’ll make it so that he has nothing but what I leave him.”

  “You’ve lost your mind,” I shook my head and hissed.

  “I believe you’re referring to my sanity, and in that case, you should know that I’ve never had such a troublesome thing.” He gripped his neck and I did the same. I was choking. “Time to put my plan into action.”

  “Stop!”

  He pressed me underneath the water. I fought and kicked in the water, but I knew it was a futile effort because the monster I was fighting with wasn’t even there. I raged a war within myself, and it was one I stood no chance of winning.

  I sucked in water when it should have been air. I was choking. I was drowning, then I heard his humming.

  Seven hopeful mentions,

  Within seven deadly sins.

  He stopped, and my eyes opened underneath the water. I pleaded and hoped, but somehow, those things had always eluded me, and I knew they weren’t going to be there for me now.

  One bad apple, make sure to stay away from him.

  Don’t let him touch you.

  Bad, bad, he is.

  Six are still hopeful,

  Within their sins.

/>   Make sure to take them all,

  They’ll thank you in the end.

  My body thrashed one last time, then silence.

  When my body rose, I was in search of sins.

  Light has no place here. Dark has its own shine.

  Remember, there are seven, but only six are fruitful.

  One bad apple.

  Six to go.

  “Six, six, six,” I chanted as I wrapped a towel around my wet body. “To go.”

  This time, you won’t escape me.

  “No escape.” I murmured a lonely tune.

  Twenty-Two

  Sebastian

  A gut feeling was a sixth sense that either you were overthinking something or something was very wrong.

  In my case, my gut was so fucking late.

  Between my thoughts still lost on Isabella’s body as she came for me, and the disturbance outside with the dragons, which was weird as hell itself, I left her alone to get dressed while I checked outside. Putting on clothes only took a couple of minutes and then she’d be with me again.

  The dragons were restlessly flying overhead. Something wasn’t right about it, but when they started butting heads and tearing into each other with their teeth, it had my full attention.

  The breed of dragons that roamed our skies could be vicious creatures, but it wasn’t often that they went at each other, unless it was mating season. But it wasn’t males against males, or males chasing females, it was all against all.

  “River!” I yelled at one of the twin dragons when he bit into Ruby’s neck, who was his twin. She squawked at him, then her reptilian eyes slid over to me and she called out. I couldn’t understand her, but I recognized her distress. Something was wrong with a good portion of the dragons.

  I rushed to them, knowing this wasn’t typical behavior for River. “Get the fuck off your sister!” I hissed at him as I gripped him by the scales on his side and tried pulling him away from her. Even with slightly inhuman strength, dragons were too big for that to go smoothly. River was twice the size of me. Any other given day you could get the giant beast to flop on his back so you could pet his belly. But today, he turned around and snapped at me. Materializing my scythe, I pointed it toward his neck. The moment the blue essence swirling around my blade hit his eyes, he shook his head and tilted it at me, then looked down at his sister who he pinned to the ground. He stepped off her chest and did a full body shake.

  “What’s wrong with you?” I said harshly. When River tipped his nose down, I knew whatever had been wrong was clearly over. The giant dragon sat on his butt and hunkered down completely. Ruby moved close and nuzzled his face, checking on him.

  What the fuck just happened?

  The sound of ongoing fights throughout the air had me looking up.

  What the fuck was still going on?

  I needed to call Payne. He had a way with the dragons, unlike anyone I’d ever seen. The asshole could also understand them. Granted, the dragons adored all of us, but I’d seen them do some weird shit every time Payne was around them.

  Then that gut feeling hit me really fucking hard. I glanced back at my house. How long had it been? Too long. The way Isabella had been clinging to me since the incident at the cave, I thought for sure she’d already be out here. She didn’t want to be alone, and I didn’t want to leave her alone. Being right outside didn’t count as being gone, did it, though?

  Then Ruby started squawking toward the house, then full-on roaring as she took off in the air and landed on the top of my house. Fucking hell. She was going to fall through as big as she was. I never thought I needed a big place until looking at her resting on it as she roared. She had her brother doing the same thing.

  I didn’t run. I faded into the bathroom. A bathroom that was empty. Water covered the floor, but the water in the tub was completely black. Ice filled my veins.

  “Izzie!” I yelled, slipping in and out of the bedrooms. “Isabella!”

  I thought to check the bedroom she was using, only to find that the portal chip was missing. Her clothes were still lying on the floor of the bathroom where I went back and stood in stony silence.

  She wasn’t here.

  I pulled at my Reaper senses in search of her, and the ice in my veins hit me straight in the heart. I couldn’t feel her. I couldn’t sense her. She was gone.

  And, I didn’t even know the first place to find her.

  Finding Harvest was a problem already…

  But, he was the only explanation.

  I punched the wall and screamed in fury. How did I let him take her? Why did I leave her alone, even for just a second?

  I’ll feel better if I stay with you.

  Why couldn’t I wait another two minutes to walk outside so that she could get dressed? I could have fucking materialized clothes on her for fuck’s sake!

  “Shit, shit,” I murmured. “This was him. All fucking him!”

  I played right into what he wanted. Outside, the dragons still clashed and fought.

  He wanted her away from me. How many times had she told me that?

  Don’t let me go.

  My heart fractured at the thought of letting her down.

  Twenty-Three

  Payne

  “These two are the last ones?”

  I caught the sound of Joy’s voice several feet behind me. My life’s mission—a bit of a life chore if you knew Joy—was to steer clear of her. Avoiding her was at the top of my list along with finding out what the hell I was. Two types of torture I didn’t want to get into.

  “Yeah, it is,” Maureen replied with a sigh that I was sure we all felt.

  Going back and forth between here and the human world to get these children to their homes—places all around the world—had worn us all out.

  I used a portal chip, and I was exhausted. I could only imagine how the rest of them felt using up energy as they faded over and over again.

  “Let’s rest up before figuring out what we do from here,” Grim told us all as he placed his arm around Melanie’s shoulder.

  My spine tingled, and I didn’t even have to turn around to know why. I pretended not to hear her and slid my hand down the front of my jeans where my portal chip rested in my pocket. I could press it before—“Payne,” Joy’s voice was behind me, soft and innocent.

  Breathing in, I faced her with steely eyes just as Maureen muttered. “What the fuck?”

  I glanced around to see what was going on.

  “Isabella?” Kitty called out hesitantly, and I could see why. Isabella stood at the entrance of the cave dressed in nothing but a white towel. Her hair was wet and dripping down her tiny shoulders, but it was her skin, ashy and dull, covered in little black lines running rampant beneath it that chilled the air. Just like Delena’s had been the night she died, and just like Isabella’s had done right before Sebastian had reached out and stopped it. There was no life in her eyes—they were void, like Sebastian’s witch was vacant inside her own body. Whatever was happening to Isabella was Harvest’s doing.

  Only Sebastian wasn’t with her.

  Something wasn’t right. I reached out and grabbed my sword, which rested in its sheath against my back and waited. For what, I wasn’t sure.

  “Where’s Sebastian?” August asked her.

  “Is that what you were talking about?” Melanie turned to me and I nodded.

  “I don’t know what happens when she gets like this, but you can’t touch her,” Maureen warned us, materializing a sword in her hand.

  “Maureen!” Joy chided her sister, but Joy hadn’t seen what this little witch was capable of and how different she was when those black lines were all over her body.

  “What?” Maureen hissed at her. “Sebastian’s not here and he’s the only one that can stop whatever,” she started waving her arm in circles toward Isabella, “this is when it happens.”

  “Barron. Kitty,” Grim whispered slowly. “Go check on Sebastian.” They both nodded and faded in search of their brother.

>   Joy took a step toward the little witch. “Isabella, what’s wrong?”

  I gritted my teeth as I watched Joy’s ponytail sway as she got closer to her. “Joy,” I hissed. This woman. This woman. She didn’t know anything. She fucking drove me crazy. One of the reasons I stayed the hell away from her.

  “One bad,” I could barely hear Isabella muttering under her breath as she tipped forward, stumbled a second, then caught herself before she fell. “Six to go.”

  “What is she saying?” Prudence asked the million-dollar question.

  “What’s on her skin?” Joy mumbled as she continued to venture closer to Isabella. Everyone was silent and still as we watched her go.

  “It’s whatever Harvest did to her,” I said hurriedly. “So don’t fucking get too close. She’s in some sort of trance from the looks of it. Check out her eyes.” Only the whites were visible.

  Any other time Joy would have taken notice that I had spoken to her, but not now.

  “Did you bring the syringe we use on Barron?” Grim threw the question in the air for anyone to answer.

  “I got it.” Maureen whipped it out of her pocket and held it up for him to see. She smirked, one we all knew well, as she glanced toward Isabella. “We just can’t let her touch our skin. I got this.” With the roll of her wrists, we watched as she covered herself in black material that hugged the shape of her body and she even materialized a ski-mask that covered her entire face.

  Prudence sighed. “There she goes.”

  “Joy!” Melanie yelled at her daughter, and I whipped my head forward to see Isabella running toward Joy. Everyone made moves to get to her, but my feet pounded against the rusted metal of the cave floor before I even knew I was. Joy faded, then re-faded behind her, but Isabella anticipated her moves and blasted her with a ball of magic. Joy squalled and retreated, but her feet started sliding forward against the metal ground like she was being pulled forward. Her eyes widened just as she materialized a sword in her hand.

  “She’s pulling me forward somehow,” Joy panicked as she looked up at Isabella’s outstretched hand.