by Jeze Xyn
“Now, I need you to tell me exactly what the supposed blessing said, word for word. Then we can begin.”
I thought back to the way the altar was set up and explained where the woman I’d called Aunt Kiki all my life had placed each element. Then I recited the blessing I now knew was a lie.
“Perfect. Now, the barrier if you please. Arianna, I will need you to close your eyes and repeat after me. We will recite it three times.”
“Okay.” I wanted to know why we had to recite it three times, but questions could come later.
“Upon this day,
At this hour,
Goddess of Earth I call to thee.
Magic strands,
Bound too tight,
Unravel and set free.
Upon this day,
At this hour,
Goddess of Air I implore thee.
Blessings once given,
No longer needed,
Allow this soul to soar.
Upon this day,
At this hour,
Goddess of Fire, we beseech thee.
Use thy strength to remove these bonds,
and allow this witch to ascend.”
As soon as we’d finished, I felt like strings were being pulled from every pore in my body.
“Thrice spoken,
Thrice invoked,
Bonds unraveled,
Magic set free.
So mote it be.”
On the final syllable, my entire body shook, my muscles felt like they were being ripped from me, and my mouth opened in a silent scream. A flash of green, silver, and red nearly blinded me, and then the pain was gone. I collapsed where I sat, but my body hummed with...energy. When I finally lifted my head to look at the woman across from me, I saw her in a different light. She was still beautiful, but she no longer had the otherworldly glow to her. My gaze moved to the others and even through the barrier I felt the bonds that were already forming between me and my men. My men. That was who they were.
“Your eyes.”
Dax’s voice came to me as if I were listening through cotton. “What about them?”
“Here.” Selene held up a silver plate that showed my reflection perfectly. Not only was my hair less mousy brown, but more my natural blonde, but my eyes were a vibrant green.
“Oh. Wow. I feel…”
“How do you feel, Kesah?” Bastien asked.
“My body is humming. It’s strange.”
“That, Darling, is magic. You’ll get used to it. You can lower the barrier now,” Selene told them.
“Thank you for your help.” I wasn’t sure if offering a handshake was acceptable or not.
“As I said before, no need to thank me. Take care, Arianna. You are but a babe in magic, and what you have in your veins—there are secrets you need to find the answers to.”
With those cryptic words, Selene was gone.
“What was she talking about?”
“It’s a long story, Sister Dear, best explained once everyone has had the chance to rest,” came Calix’s reply.
“You know what? Fuck you, Calix. I am sick of all of you treating me like I’m some fragile doll that will shatter at any moment and who can’t handle anything. You want to know what the traumatic event you sensed when we were twenty-one? I’d gone out to celebrate my birthday with a friend. I live five fucking blocks from the club we went to, so I decided I’d walk home instead of catching a cab. I was two blocks from home when three vampires attacked me. Not only were they trying to drain me dry, one of them raped me. That was the first time I used magic. I burned all three of them to ash and then I tried to pretend it never fucking happened. I took self-defense classes from a vampire so I would never feel like that again. I’ll be damned if you—any of you—treat me like I can’t handle the fucking truth!” As my anger increased, the humming in my body rose, and I felt the magic flare. I was so furious I needed to find a target for my rage. Instead of hurting anyone around me, I turned away and mentally threw the magic at the wall. Black flame erupted along the length of it, and if it had been anything other than stone it would have caught the entire building on fire.
“Calm yourself, Kesah. You need to calm the rage before you lose control of it.”
Malik’s voice slowly filtered into my mind and as I focused on his voice, the rage cooled, and with it the flames died. With everything else that had already happened, I felt myself losing my hold on consciousness.
“The stone is scorched,” was the last thing I heard before blackness sucked me under.
Chapter 9
Malik
When Arianna collapsed, I was there to catch her. I saw the looks on everyone’s faces as I cradled her to my chest.
“She will be fine once she rests,” I assured them.
“That...that was black flame. That’s a Demon Magic, isn’t it Malik?”
I nodded at Dax’s question. “It is. I knew I sensed a kinship with her, I just didn’t know why. Now I do.”
“Wait, so you feel that with her but not me? Should I be offended?” Calix teased.
“No. This is different. It is similar to shifters when they find their mates. They are Vesalea. It is more than mate—they are the other half of our souls.”
“Back to the matter at hand,” Bastien said as his gaze locked on Calix. “Did you know about this?”
“About us having demon blood? Uh, that would be a fuck no. I suspected we were something besides Fae and witch, but I never would have imagined we had Demon in us.”
“My question is, why is it so strong in Arianna?” This came from Zaine.
“That is what we need to find out. It seems there are more secrets in the Tenebris family than we realized. None of that matters at the moment, though. Right now, I am taking my Vesalea to her room so she may recover. I will remain at her side to answer any questions I can. Zaine…”
“Already on it. I’ll reach out to my contacts and see what I can find out.”
“And if your contacts can’t find anything?” Dax countered.
“Then we pay her parents a visit. If they lie to us, they will regret it.” There was a hard edge to Zaine’s voice.
I nodded my agreement, held Arianna close, and left the temple chamber. As I strode through the corridors leading to her quarters, my gaze drifted over her. I’d never thought to find my Vesalea—not after so many centuries—and yet, here she was in my arms. I paused outside her door to brush the hair away from her face before I took us inside. We’d chosen these quarters for her because they were done in lighter colors, but I couldn’t help wondering if she might want something a bit darker instead.
“Malik?” Her voice was little more than a croak.
“Shh, Kesah. Let me get you settled in your bed and I will get you something cool to drink.” I pressed a kiss to her temple and lingered there for a moment.
“Okay,” she managed to get out.
I placed her in the middle of the bed and left the room long enough to get her some cool juice and then I was back. I crawled onto the bed with her, pulled her against me, and held the glass to her lips. “Drink. It will help.”
Our eyes locked while she sipped the juice and when she moved her head, I took the glass away from her lips and set it on the nightstand. “How are you feeling?”
“Honestly? I’m not...sure. I ache, but I don’t know if that’s from what Selene did or what I did...what...did I do, Malik? And why were you able to calm me down so easily?”
I brushed the hair back from her face. “Do you prefer the truth, or would you like me to tell you pretty lies?”
“Truth. I’ve had enough lies and secrets to last me a lifetime already.”
“Let’s get you comfortable, first. Tell me what you’d like to wear to sleep and I will get it for you and help you to the bathroom.”
“Top drawer. You’ll find sleep shorts and cami tops.”
“Good girl.” I smirked at the way she perked up at those two words. I kissed her temple, went to get wh
at she requested, then picked her up and carried her to the bathroom. After setting her down I stepped out into the bedroom and waited. Every instinct I had screamed at me to be in there with her in case she needed help, but if I knew one thing about women, it was that they liked their privacy.
When the door opened, I took in her bare legs that seemed to go on forever, the curves of her hips, the dip in her waist, and the way her cami top clung to her breasts. Her nipples were stiff beneath the material and I growled. My eyes slowly lifted and I saw an answering hunger in hers.
With slow movements, I reached out and pulled her close. One hand went to her hip, tugging her body against mine, while the other went to her hair and gripped a fistful.
“Tell me, Kesah, why did you choose such a bland color for your hair?” My head dipped and I trailed kisses along her jaw, causing her breath to catch.
“I was trying to be as plain as possible. It was easier to go unnoticed this way.”
“No more. You no longer need to hide your beauty. Tell me to stop,” I said as my lips hovered a breath away from hers.
“I don’t want you to,” came her breathy reply.
I closed that last sliver of distance between us and claimed her lips in a searing kiss. I moved us back toward her bed, and when my knees touched it, I turned us so I could push her down. “I want to devour you, Kesah, but you need to know I’m not the gentle lover that Zaine is.”
“Maybe I don’t want gentle right now, Malik.”
“Good.” I pushed her back on the bed and smirked. “Don’t move.” I went to her closet and removed the belts from two satin robes hanging in it. How did I know they were there? I was the one who procured every piece of clothing in her closet and dresser.
I returned to the bed and let my eyes drink her in. “Strip.” When she obeyed my command, I almost pounced her right then. “Arms above your head.” Again, she obeyed, and I quickly bound her wrists to the headboard in a way that would allow me to turn her onto her stomach or order her onto her knees. “We are using a stoplight tonight. If I ask you what color, you are to tell me green, yellow, or red. Green means all systems go. If you need things to slow down, it’s yellow. If at any time you want me to stop, say red and it stops. Do you understand, Kesah?”
“Yes, Sir. I understand,” she panted in return.
“Good girl.” I trailed my hands down her skin before I gripped her hips and flipped her onto her stomach. “However, you haven’t been quite such a good girl since you arrived. You’ve argued, been defiant, and a brat. All of that has earned you ten spankings on each ass cheek. Each time you try to move away, I will add two because I do not like odd numbers.” With that my hand landed on the left globe of her ass and then the right one. I started with gentle smacks, but by the time I’d reached four, my hits were landing hard enough to get whimpers from her. Once I was halfway there, I paused to rub her reddening cheeks. My hand slid between her slightly parted thighs and I groaned. “So fucking wet.” I slid a finger into her and pumped it several times before I removed it and held it to her mouth. “Clean it off. Taste your arousal.”
When her lips parted and she sucked my finger between them, my cock throbbed in my jeans. Hades, she was sexy as fuck. “Good girl.”
I resumed the spankings, and by the time I was done, tears streamed down her cheeks. I moved up beside her and pulled her close. My hand smoothed over her heated flesh. “What color, Kesah?”
“Green. Please don’t stop.”
“Your wish is my command,” I growled. I left the bed long enough to strip and sheath myself with a condom before I returned. “On your knees, Pet.” I helped her get into a comfortable position, gripped her hips, and pressed myself against her entrance. “Remember, any time you need me to stop—”
“Red, I know… Sir.”
With her confirmation, I entered her in one hard thrust. Her gasp told me she hadn’t expected that, and I paused for a beat to make sure she was okay. “Color?”
“Green, Sir.”
My fingers tightened on her hips so hard I knew she would be bruised in the morning. My thrusts were hard, almost punishing, but the mewls, whimpers, and cries coming from Arianna told me she loved every second of it.
When her walls clenched around me, milking my release, I felt my body shimmer and I knew my cock had grown inside her. In full Demon form, I was much larger in every way. As we crashed over together, shadow and flame entwined, binding our souls, and confirming what I’d already suspected. Arianna Tenebris was, indeed, my Vesalea.
Arianna
I rode a wave of bliss I didn’t fully understand. The cord I’d felt tethering me to Malik when Selene broke the bindings keeping my magic buried felt like it had strengthened in the moments where it’d felt like our souls had connected. I barely registered Malik untying my wrists and turning me to my side so he could pull me against him.
I wasn’t sure how much time passed before the bliss began to fade. I lifted my gaze to his and found him watching me. His eyes, usually so dark they were almost black, had a red tint to them. “That was...soul changing. It felt like…”
“Tell me, Kesah. What did it feel like?”
His fingers caressed my side, helping me to relax. “Like our souls connected. I don’t know if that makes sense. None of this really makes sense to me. Can I tell you something?” I bit my lip as I waited for his reply.
“You can tell me anything, Kesah.”
His thumb tugged my lip from between my teeth and the smile he gave me melted me. “When Selene broke the binding on my magic, I had this really strange sensation as if there were invisible cords going from me to you, Bastien, Dax, and Zaine. When we found our release together, it felt like that cord strengthened.”
“Ah, Kesah, that isn’t so strange. You felt that because you are connected to us. Your soul calls to each of us.”
“So, sort of like shifters and their mates?”
“Yes, like that.”
He pressed a kiss to my jaw and I sighed. “Okay. I think I can wrap my head around that.” I moved so I was propped up on my arm and watching his face. “Now, will you tell me what that was in the training room—what I did—and why you were able to calm me? I was so...enraged, I was terrified I was going to hurt someone. Oh, and did I scorch the wall? I swear before I blacked out, I thought I heard Dax say the wall was scorched.”
“One thing at a time, Kesah. To answer your first question, what you did was harness black flame. It is a magic no Witch, Mage, or Fae has.”
I frowned at him. “Uh, clearly that’s not true because all of you keep insisting that I’m a Fae and a Witch.”
“You are more than we realized, Arianna.”
“Wait, what? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“The magic you harnessed, the magic you used that did indeed scorch the wall, is a Demonic power.”
I sat up and scooted back. “No. No, no, no, no, fucking NO. I am not a Demon!” The instant the words were out of my mouth, I regretted them. I watched as Malik shut down, I felt a sharpness in the middle of my chest that made it hard to breathe. “Malik...I’m sorry. Goddess, will I ever learn to think before I open my fucking mouth? I didn’t mean there was something inherently wrong with being a Demon. It’s just...on top of everything else happening, this is too much. You’re telling me that somewhere along my family line, either someone on my mother’s side or my father’s dallied with a Demon. If my mother is Fae, wouldn’t they know if she had Demon blood in her?”
“She is of the Light Court, so it would stand to reason someone would know, yes.”
“Okay. Maybe that’s why she isn’t with the Fae...but it sounded like Selene at least knew of my mother, so wouldn’t she have known?”
I watched as he studied me. “You’re working it out, Kesah.”
“My father. It has to be from him. Right?” I collapsed back against the bed and closed my eyes. “I don’t want to think about that right now. I can’t. You didn’t answer my other question.
Why were you able to calm my rage?”
“That is a more complicated question to answer, Kesah.”
I scooted closer to him and when he lifted his arm to wrap it around me, I rested my head on his chest. “Tell me. Please, Malik.”
“You know of shifters, you know that when they find the one that completes them, they call them mates. For vampires, it is their Chosen, for Fae it is their Destined. Demons have their own version.”
There was a pause as he took a deep breath and his arm tightened around me. “I’m right here, Malik.”
“What do you know of Demons, Kesah?”
I tipped my face up to study him. “I know they come from a place humans call either Hell, Tartarus, or the Underworld. I know some humans believe Demons are pure evil and that they’re responsible for all the bad things that happen in the world. I also know that’s a load of bullshit. Demons are no more evil than humans. Every species has the ability to be either good or evil.”
“Ah, Kesah, you are truly a treasure. Demons exist, often for centuries—some their entire lives—with half a soul. We are where the concept of soulmates comes from.”
“Half a soul? Do you mean that literally?” When he nodded, I frowned. “How is that possible? I mean, does that affect how a Demon turns out?”
“Do you mean if they become evil? To an extent, it does. Many who never find the other half of their soul—their Vesalea—go insane, and it causes erratic behaviors that others often think of as evil. You, Arianna, are my Vesalea. It’s why you felt the cord between us strengthen when you gave yourself to me, and it’s why I was able to calm your rage. We are shadow and flame.”
I stared at him. I thought back to my childhood, to the way I’d never really felt right, as if something were missing. It turned out something was—a piece of me I didn’t even know I needed.
“Goddess, that explains so much. There were so many times growing up where I felt like something was wrong with me. I felt broken. Now I know why.” I pressed my palm against his cheek. “I’m so sorry for my reaction before.”
