A Feather's Worth (Spawn of Darkness Book 2)

by S. A. Parker

  Eeek.

  I have to concede he’s got me there, I just didn’t think much of it. I became acquainted with death at a very young age.

  “So yes, I’m fucked off. Which is really fucking annoying because all I want to do is kiss you.”

  Shit, that got my breath all heady really fucking quickly. I tilt my face up to him and part my lips, because if I’m only going to live a few more days then why the hell not?

  “Then fucking do it.”

  He moves forward so quickly I barely have the chance to catch my breath, but the kiss isn’t gentle or sweet, it’s punishing and rough.

  Our lips clash and he growls into my mouth, raking his tongue along mine as our teeth clank together in feral vigour.

  I let out a little moan. My vagina’s well and truly roused, and even my beast has cracked open an eyelid for the first time in forever, which confuses the shit out of me. Plunging my hands into the hair on the back of his head, I crush his face into mine and elicit another growl from deep inside him. But the need within is becoming potent, my insides coiling with angst of a thirst screaming to be quenched.

  It’s my beast, I realise, screaming at me to set her loose.

  He pulls back, just enough for us to catch a fevered breath, firmly cradling my face in his hands. “Let her at me …”

  “She’ll eat you up …”

  “I don’t fucking give a shit.”

  Holy fucking god testicles. I hope he’s got some sort of penis insurance.

  I let her at him.

  She pounces like the animal she is, launching forward and curling our limbs around his body, tugging him closer and kneading our hands into his muscles as they coil with the strength he needs to keep us held up.

  We’re clinging to him like a fucking lioness, ready to devour this man. It’s strange—all my beast has quirked her ears at before is the prospect of gaining revenge over the fucktards who’ve brutalised me over the years.

  Sucking his lip into our mouth, running our tongue along it, we taste his own desire and tug back, using our other hand to pry his head to the side and expose his neck to us. My beast roams our eyes over all the canvas there, running our tongue over the tips of our canines as my beast contemplates where she’s going to sink our teeth into this man.

  He groans, sending her fucking rabid, launching toward the spot a couple of inches below his ear, just as someone fucking grabs me from behind and pries me off my tasty Dawn God.

  We roar, my beast and I. Like, an actual fucking roar, as Sol and Kal step in front of me, chests heaving and doing nothing to hide their engorged man bits.

  “I wasn’t going to eat him, I just wanted a taste!”

  Drake’s not letting us go, damnit. He probably thinks we’re going to chew Aero’s cock off. That’s not at all what we want to do, actually. My beast wants to lick and nurture that oversized tool of glory.

  “Calm down, babe, calm down. Come back to the light …”

  My beast coils away, whimpering, and I flop into Drake’s arms. “What the fuck was that?” I don’t think his question was directed at me, so I don’t bother to answer.

  Kal and Sol part. There’s Aero, poised in a peculiar position that looks terribly uncomfortable. I narrow my eyes at Sol. “Are you compelling him?”

  He shrugs. “Easier than throwing a bucket of ice water over his head to stem the flow of blood to his cock and return it to his fucking brain.”

  I roll my eyes, though it’s an effort to do so because I’m sleepy all of a sudden. “Kal, if this is your doing, I’m actually going to castrate you this time.”

  He shakes his head, shifting closer and pushing a rogue curl from my eyes. “Not me, doll. Let go, your body’s exhausted and you need the rest.”

  He’s right. Being a feral sex deviant, hell bent on biting my sexy Fae Gods while my body’s trying to die is hard work.

  Chapter Fourteen

  I wake to a swinging world. It feels late in the afternoon though not dusk yet.

  I lift my head and realise I’ve managed to drool all over Drake’s chest in my sleep. “Oops, sorry …” my voice is groggy, like my head.

  “Don’t worry about it, I’m used to Sap drooling all over me. It’s much more pleasant coming from you.”

  I’ve noticed how empty my little pity party island is. “Where’ve the others gone?”

  “Sap went hunting for rodents.”

  Sure enough, there’s the baby drako bouncing around over there on that island, throwing cute little flames and shit. I have to admit, she looks pretty harmless. I can’t believe I thought she could melt me into a puddle when I first met her. Still … I hope she doesn’t set that medicine hut on fire …

  “And the others?” I ask, tearing my eyes away from all that flailing cuteness.

  “Tending to some business. You’ve been asleep for almost an entire day. They shouldn’t be too long.” He runs his other hand through my hair, smoothing it down.

  Almost a fucking day? That’s probably why my vagina’s pleading to me that it’s her time to shine.

  “Time for an orgasm?”

  He shakes his head, frowning. “No, babe. I’m already expelling an excessive amount of energy to keep the pain at bay.”

  Huh?

  Fucking hell … these men.

  That’s why I haven’t been in pain since I woke up in that pee-tasting hut over there. This is not okay.

  I perch myself up, pushing his hands off me and ignoring his confused expression. “Drake, you need to make your wish. This is getting fucking ridiculous.”

  He nods, features smoothing, his gaze meeting mine with a deep intensity that almost makes me want to coil into my shell. “I agree, babe. It is getting ridiculous.”

  He puts his hand on the back of my head, pushing me down towards his chest and bringing both arms around my body, securing me tightly against him. Then he starts to glow, literally fucking glow, and it takes my dying brain a moment to realise he’s initiating dusk.

  I sink further into his body, lulled by the power surging out of this man beneath me. He pulls his lips in close to my ear, his breath tickling the sensitive skin there. “I wish for you to get better …”

  A wave of heat rolls over my skin, before sputtering out like a spent candle.

  His arms tighten. “I wish for you to get better!” He growls the words, kneading the hair at the back of my head.

  The same wash of warmth swarms over me, heating me from the inside out before once again spluttering to nothing, even as I’m blinded by the light of the power flowing from Drake as he calls upon dusk, turning our surroundings golden.

  “I wish for you to get better!” His voice is choked, his arms crushing me closer. I let out a sound to remind him that even though I’m dying, I still need to breathe.

  His arms loosen and his glow fades, before he lifts me off him and places me gently back onto the hammock.

  Holy fucking Dusk God, he just tried to fix me with his wish. That was so sweet.

  He turns and strides towards the water, which is now bathed in glorious golden light, creating the perfect backdrop for the masterpiece that is Drake and making my inner whore want to lick him all over. His broad back is all coiled muscle, roaming down to his tapered waistline that would be perfect for throwing my legs around if I had the fucking energy. Too bad orgasms are off the menu because my vagina’s a thirsty tart right now, and even my beast has an eye cracked open over there in the corner.

  Kal flashes right next to me, giving me such a fright I almost pee my panties. He reaches down to scoop me up. “Come, Dell. We have an idea.”

  I push him away. “I’m not going anywhere! I’ve become attached to my pity island and I intend to die here. Besides, look at that pretty sunset!” I gesture to all that golden glory over there.

  Sol flashes next to Kal and I’m assaulted by his hard, orgasmic glare. “You’re not fucking dying. Get in his arms.”

  Drake unfurls his wings, pumping them once to launch in
to the air, coming down firmly on the other side of my hammock and sending sand spraying from here to the goddamn stars and back. “No. Not fucking happening.”

  Sol hisses at him like a feral cat. “Did your way work? Because she doesn’t fucking look healed.”

  Drake glares at him, saying nothing, though his hand comes down firmly around my arm. Sol’s eyes follow his movements seamlessly.

  “Didn’t fucking think so. We checked the boundaries, we should be able to get her in. Aero’s just checking the Bright now because it might be safer to take her through there. There must be a reason it’s so well guarded, and he always smells fucking terrible. It has to be where he’s gaining all his extra power from.”

  Drake frowns. “I’m all for doing whatever we can to save her, but we can’t control the situation. What if something happens to her? The King is all of her worst nightmares rolled into one.”

  Kal shakes his head. “She’s dying, Drake. My hold on her is slipping and I know yours is too. This is our last option …”

  Aero arrives next to Drake and gives them a tight nod, before they look down at me at the same fucking time.

  “Move me off this island and I’ll castrate the lot of you, then turn your severed cocks into petrified sex toys.”

  Kal smirks. “Not if you’re asleep, doll.”

  Fucking cu—

  I rouse to the smell of Satan’s colon mixed with fermented shit and a little bit of dog’s hairy ball sacks. Strangely, I recognise the smell, and I’m gagging before I even have a chance to open my eyes. When I do, I see a small pond dusted with a layer of decimated, rolling fog fringed with droopy trees, long tendrils of slime clinging to their spindly branches.

  Though it’s not a fucking pond at all; it’s a bog of rolling mud, alive and bubbling, sending shit smelling particles flying into the air and enriching my senses with the smell of rotting arsehole.

  “What the shit …” I’m too stunned to even try and squirm out of Kal’s arms as a hand clamps over my mouth; that doesn’t stop me from saying my fucking piece though. “You took me away from my perfect little death paradise and brought me to the world’s fucking arsehole? Whose bright idea was this?”

  “Take her clothes off,” Sol orders from where he stands on a clump of moss-covered ground. He’s barely escaping the bog particles flying through the air like shit arrows. I squirm, because my hackles are tingling, and there’s no way I’m getting naked in this shit joint!

  My body freezes, and my mouth clamps shut.

  God-fucking-damnit.

  I give Sol the biggest fucking death stare I can conjure for compelling me again. I can’t wait to cut him a new arsehole.

  “If this doesn’t work, she’s going to fucking hate us,” Drake whispers, helping Aero work me out of my shift. That perked my ears, and I let it be known as I try to yell through my closed mouth.

  I’m naked in Kal’s arms, really confused and trying not to vomit into my mouth that has a serious case of Sol induced lockjaw.

  “Hurry up and get it over with, we don’t have much time before you have to initiate night,” Sol growls.

  “You think I don’t know that?” Kal hisses, walking me towards this pit of the world’s coagulated bowel excretions.

  I realise what the fuck’s going on—they’re about to toss me into that shit bog that smells worse than something that died ten times over then was left to ferment for a year.

  Fuck my life, how did I end up here.

  “Take your hold off her body, Sol, or she’ll sink to the bottom like a rock.”

  Fucking hell. These dicks. But sure enough, I can move again. The first thing I do is try to sink my nails into Kal. “Don’t you fucking dar—”

  He throws me.

  Plop.

  They’re all shit listed for life, never to enjoy the bounty of my vagina because they threw me into a bog of crap.

  Bastards.

  Actually …

  Now I’m a bit distracted, because although I’m sinking into the rancid bowels of the world, my body starts to tingle all over as my skin seems to absorb whatever the hell this shit is. If I smell like the inside of a colon for the rest of my dying days, then someone’s going to lose some testicles.

  The sensation thickens, working its way through my body before I feel it literally start to peel away at my fucking scars. The ones on my arms, the ones on my face, the new ones on my back ... the ones I’ve spent the past nineteen years ignoring. It tries to tear at the one on my stomach, but I scream at the rancid fucking bog, telling the bitch to leave it alone. Ima’ own that scar.

  It takes the one on my hand while I’m distracted, and part of me actually mourns the loss of it.

  Then my body arches as I feel something prodding at my back … and the sensation is all too familiar because I have a fantastic fucking memory that forgets nothing.

  No.

  Fucking.

  Way.

  I’m not sure how this is possible, but it’s fucking happening.

  That pressure is growing, expanding as the intrusive fuckers forge their way through my back muscles that have grown over the ridges there, piercing through the skin and wounds that have long since healed.

  This cannot be happening.

  I feel the bastards stretch out through the bog …

  Fucking fuck-cake.

  My Gods are going to hate me. Or spank me silly. Hopefully more of option B and less of option A.

  I try to suck them back in … how do these fuckers work? I could never control them when I was little; they used to pop in and out at will, knocking shit over and catching things on fire, then I lost the bastards and that was the end of that. They feel a lot bigger now than they were back then …

  I can’t go to the fucking surface with these things out! I wonder how long I can last immersed in a shit bog without breathing? I think it just healed me of my cancer, so surely it’s not going to suffocate me?

  Something grabs at my shoulders and I groan, trying my best to haul my immortality granting wings in and gaining no goddamn glory, though I’m not sure I should really suck them back in when they’re covered in the world’s bowel remnants. I might get a wing infection. Is that a thing? I need a ‘wing care crash course’.

  I’m hauled over the edge of the bog and onto hard packed ground, covered from head to toe … to wing tip … in shit.

  Wiping at my face, gagging from the overpowering stench, I flick some of the crap onto the ground in front of me.

  “What. The. Fuck,” Aero growls.

  All four stare, like I just grew two giant penises from my back. Or wings.

  I look over my shoulder at them, flopping around uselessly. Yeah, they’re a lot bigger than they used to be. The last time I saw the bastards they were so tiny and cute. Now they’re all long and elegant. And dirty. Really fucking dirty …

  “Follow me,” Sol snaps, reaching down and grabbing my arm. He’s looking at me like he wants to cut a hoe.

  They all grab onto him and we flash through the Bright, onto his secret island that’s all golden from the sinking dawn.

  But I don’t get a chance to appreciate the beauty and sea air, as Kal and Sol grab me under my armpits, one on each side, and half drag me towards the fucking water, my wings trailing us along the sand.

  It’s about now I really start to panic. “No! No, no, no… don’t you fucking dare! I’ll eat your fucking testicles!” Yeah, they aren’t listening to me. Although my wings are fucking filthy, at this point, I’d be more than happy for them to be caked in shit forever. The repercussions of the alternative are too severe for me to stomach right now …

  I look at Drake and Aero following behind us, looking fucking murderous. And sexy, even though they’re speckled in the same shit I’m caked from head to toe in. I wonder momentarily if I’m going to smell like a toilet for the rest of my newly reclaimed immortal life, because I was essentially re-born in a pool of shit?

  Fucking hope not.

  “Pleas
e, Drake, don’t let them toss me in!”

  He ignores me. Wanker. “You guys are about as helpful as a pair of floppy penises!”

  But then Kal lets go of my arm, which Sol then grabs, and I’m lifted off the ground as my angry Day God propels us into the air.

  “Tuck them in, Dell.” I do as he asks, even though he isn’t compelling me, because I know what’s fucking coming.

  He flicks his wings twice, hauling me past the shallows, then releases me.

  I go ‘plop’ for the second time today.

  Bastards. They’re all shit listed for the rest of my immortal life. And I’m definitely going to stop fantasising about having their penises inside me.

  The water’s swirling, muddied by the brown shit that’s washing off me, hiding me from the predators. I don’t mean the malicious creatures that lurk in the depths of the ocean. I’m talking about the predators that hunt my weakness within—exposing all my lacking to the world.

  And I’m running out of breath.

  I refuse to go to the surface … to shed the muddy mask on my reality. Right now, I’m more naked, more vulnerable than I’ve ever been before.

  How the fuck do these bastards work? I scrunch my face up, trying desperately to suck them back in, but it’s like having a penis prodded into your anus; it goes against your arse grain. In short, it’s a lot easier to get them out than it is to pull them back in. Something I learnt the hard way … all those years ago.

  A rogue wave surges me back, then flicks me forward so quickly I’m sucking in a breath of water as I’m hurled towards the beach like a feathery fucking catapult, where I land at the feet of my four Sun Gods, choking and spluttering, my pure white fucking wings splayed hopelessly around me.

  Regaining my limited composure, I look up at them. Is it the fading light, or are they all about ten shades paler than they usually are?

  They certainly don’t look like they’re in the mood for some light hearted spanking.

  Damn ...

  “Surprise?”