Immortal Hexes

by Amelia Hutchins

  Chapter 4

  I was quickly scrubbed clean and tossed into Conner’s room wearing a tiny red nightgown that barely covered anything. My hair had been fashioned into a braid and tied atop my head, leaving my entire neck exposed. The room was decked out in medieval weapons, some I knew he wore when we had been together, while others looked newer, more modern. I moved to the wall, touching the sword I’d bought him one summer after we’d spent most of it in bed together. It shocked me that he’d chosen to keep it, considering everything that had happened.

  My eyes strayed to portraits and paintings of a dark-haired girl posed in sinful positions, her face hidden in shadows. The walls were light blue, while the carpet was white and clean. It was an opulent space, one fit for a King, but considering he became King after I murdered everyone who stood in his way of succession, it made sense. It was too bad that he never wanted to be King, considering he had been the kindest, most learned, and best fitted for the position out of the four heirs.

  I felt his eyes burning my flesh and ignored him, knowing he was watching me as I looked around his apartment. This was a game we’d often played, him the voyeur and me his victim who had no idea she was being watched. At first, I hadn’t known he watched me, and as I grew up, I felt him in the shadows, watching, waiting for me to become the woman I would, and each passing year, he grew more restless for it to happen.

  Life was much easier back then, with only the two of us in our bubble. I’d wanted his bite to prove what was between us held so much more than he led on. Eventually, it drove a wedge between us. I’d been much younger than him, and didn’t care about the rules that stood between us, or that it was against the covenant. In my mind, we were all that mattered, no one else was in our bed, at least not until he left it and never returned.

  I shivered as his hot breath fanned against my neck, he placed a soft kiss against my flesh while I waited for him to speak. He hadn’t been hiding where I thought I’d caught movement. His arms wrapped around me and his fangs brushed my flesh.

  “Admit that you missed me, little witch.”

  “Never,” I whispered barely loud enough to be heard over the thundering beat of my heart.

  His hand wrapped around my throat and he pulled me back against his naked chest. I exhaled, drinking in his sinful scent as I struggled to get air back into my lungs. He was quicksand, my poison, and he’d always known it, exploited it, and I’d loved every moment of it. He was every fantasy I ever had, and even the ones I hadn’t. Conner Halverson was my first thought when I woke in the morning and the last before I slept. His presence radiated through the room. He slowly ran his hand down the front of my body, cupping my breast, then slipping it between my legs, pushing aside the laced panties, rubbing his finger through the wetness of my pussy.

  “No, you didn’t miss me at all, little liar. This cunt is wet for me, isn’t it? Does it crave for me to wreck it, to fucking destroy it until it aches for me alone?” he growled and slipped his fingertips through the slickness of my sex, laughing darkly as he pulled away. He stepped in front of me and I struggled to breathe, to regain control of my body while his dark violet eyes watched me. I covered my chest with my hands. He smiled at the effort to shield my body’s reaction to him.

  His hand reached out, running over the cut on my cheek. Hissing in pain, I moved away from his touch. I was covered in bruises, my face swelling with every passing moment until I feared my eyes would close from the inflammation. He watched me as I brought my hand up to touch my cheek.

  “You egged her on,” he said, stating the obvious. “You know how Addison is, and your betrayal didn’t just hurt me, waif. You hurt us all. We took you in, we kept you alive and safe from the hive, as well as those that would hurt you or wished you harm. You repaid us by killing our brothers and our father,” he said harshly, then brought his thumb up to his fang and ripped it open.

  I stood in silence, watching as he moved his thumb towards me. Wincing, I recoiled from his touch and the erotic scent of his blood as it filled me with memories from long ago. He laughed at my reaction, and I might have joined him had I not endured the blood that turned me into something else, someone else.

  “I remember a time when you begged for a taste of me.”

  “I remember a time when I’d have slit my fucking throat for you. You are not that person, and neither am I anymore,” I said as he glared at me, pushing his fingers through the wound roughly before brushing it over my lips while I clamped my mouth closed.

  “Open your mouth, little witch.”

  My lips opened and Conner pushed his bleeding thumb into my mouth. I moaned as my lips clamped around it and sucked it clean. His eyes lowered, watching as he withdrew from my lips. It wasn’t enough, but his blood was never enough, not unless it was combined with my own. But it was enough for my injuries, and I felt my wounds healing and closing as my eyes grew heavy with need.

  “Why did you do it, Avery?”

  “If I told you I did it to survive, would it change how you feel?” I asked softly, my eyes lowering to the floor, unwilling to watch the answer dancing in his glare.

  “My father gave his word that you would be released without your memories. You were only meant to remain there until dawn, and then you would have been free of us. I told you to run, and I meant it. You didn’t even fucking try, did you? No, instead you took out your anger on those who guarded you. The same people who offered you a home and shelter when you had none.”

  “Is that what you think they did, guard me against harm?” I asked, my throat tightening as I trembled from the memories.

  “It is exactly what they did!”

  “How would you know, Conner? You left me. You took Addison, Mayhem, and Royal, and then abandoned me to the mercy of the hive. Do you honestly think after all the centuries I spent in you and your father’s care that he ever planned to allow me to walk away from him?”

  “Don’t talk about my father, waif!”

  “Oh, that’s right, because he was such a gentle creature? Long may he reign,” I hissed and then gasped when his hand connected around my throat, and he pushed me against the wall, my feet hanging uselessly as I kicked them, unable to get air into my lungs. My hands covered his and his forehead rested against mine.

  “Do not fucking speak of my father ever again, Avery,” he whispered and lifted his eyes to mine. “It’s time you learned your new role,” he snapped, watching me continue to gasp for air while stars erupted in my vision. “You’re no longer mine, which means you’re not safe here if I so choose to toss you into the feeder lounge. You took from me, and I will take it out of your flesh. I saved you; I gave you a family and a place to live where you didn’t have to look over your shoulder every moment, wondering if you were being hunted, and then you took everything from me. You’re a slave, nothing more. Now strip, because it’s time I remind you of how little you mean to me, and how easy it was to walk away from you.” He released me and watched as I dropped to the ground, hitting my knees on the carpet, sucking air into my burning lungs. His words stung, creating a maelstrom of turbulent emotions that pricked my eyes with tears.

  Conner stepped back, turning on his heel as he moved into the next room. I pushed from the ground on shaky legs, which refused to hold my weight. I sunk back down and placed my head against the wall as tears burned behind my eyes. Conner had never touched me in anger, it was new territory I’d never wanted to wander into, and yet here I was, stuck in it.

  “Now! Avery,” he said from the doorway.

  My head tilted slightly in his direction and I eyed him as I fought the emotions and pain of being at his mercy. I pushed up from the floor, holding onto the wall for support before I stepped toward him. I walked slowly into the bedroom, ducking under the arm he’d placed on the doorjamb.

  Inside the room, my gaze wandered over the huge four-poster bed done in crimson sheets with black pillows propped against t
he headboard. Beside it was a bar, with aged scotch and other spirits he’d probably been around for as they were placed in barrels to age. More pictures of the dark-haired beauty covered his walls, in innocent and sinful poses. I spun around, intending to ask who she was until my eyes settled on the wooden X with chains hooked to the top and bottom. Above it was a picture of the girl posed on the X, her body on display chained to it. The pictures in the apartment weren’t of just of any girl, I realized; it was me. In the last one that stood above his bed, my face was revealed. I was in a pose that exposed my cunt, with my lips curled into a smirk, as if the artist had told me a juicy tidbit.

  Swallowing hard, I turned, lifting a dark brow in his direction. “You kept the X?” I asked through trembling lips.

  “I brought it up from the cellar when I decided it was time to fetch you. If I recall, you used to enjoy being tied to it as I made you scream.”

  “I remember. I also remember you accusing me of things I had never done. You also let Royal into the room to threaten me, and at first, I thought your father had sent him. Or, I did. He told me you knew he was there with me, and that soon, you’d share me with the hive. I sobbed and screamed for you, and thought you cared enough to protect me, and then I realized you had let Royal into our bedroom to terrify me. I was an idiot to think that you were some prince in a novel who would defend my honor. Instead, you knew what he did to me, and you allowed it. You wanted me to hate you for it, and I did. You could have released me, allowed me to leave without handing me over to your father; so why didn’t you? Hadn’t I earned that much from you?”

  “You were my enemy,” he said, watching me move towards the X. “You couldn’t be trusted, and my father needed to know that you wouldn’t run to a new coven for shelter and give them everything you knew about us to get back at me for walking away from you. Royal did what he was told to do: scare you into leaving me. You needed a push to leave me, he provided it.”

  “See, that’s the sad reality of this, Conner. I wasn’t your enemy then; I was just the stupid little waif who fell for a prince that played with me until he grew bored. I challenged your beliefs, and then I was tossed to the wolves like a piece of meat. Now, here we are, and I am most definitely your enemy,” I said, a sad smile playing across my lips as I turned in front of the X to stare back at him.

  Reaching down, I pulled the bottom of the nightgown and lifted it over my head, ignoring him as I hooked my fingers through my panties, pulling them off before standing back up to stare at the floor, eventually finding the courage to lift my eyes. His stare held mine before slowly slipping down to my breasts then further down my frame.

  “You haven’t changed at all,” he whispered harshly, his eyes banking with heat as they lifted again to hold mine.

  “Veneer is easy to achieve, but even the ugliest monsters can look pretty with a learned smile, you should know that, Conner. After all, you taught me firsthand, but then you taught me all the hard lessons, except one, didn’t you?” I snapped.

  “Mmm, I would have to agree. You did murder an entire hive of vampires as they slept, after all,” he replied icily, staring at me. “I was wondering when you’d drop the act and show me my little orphan who loved to argue and give me lip. I was beginning to wonder if you had any fight left in you, or if you had become weak hiding in these mountains you thought kept you concealed from me. Imagine my surprise, after centuries of watching you, to discover you were receiving warlocks to breed that pretty pink cunt of yours. How many children did you give them? I bet you found them lacking after knowing me, didn’t you?”

  “You watched me?” I asked, aghast at the idea after I’d been so careful to remain hidden from him, and yet he’d known I was close to him the entire time. I never went outside after dusk since escaping from his kind, and never before dawn’s killing light rose from the east.

  “Did you actually think you could hide from me? I’ve always known where you were, little witch. From the moment you stepped out of the shadows to board the ship to Salem, I have known your every move, along with every male who entered your hidden little academy in the hills. Did you never wonder why the men who visited you died soon after?”

  “You killed them?” I whispered, horrified that he’d do something so careless it could have brought a war down upon both races.

  “You think I would let them live after they’d slept with my girl?” he chuckled as he stepped closer, boxing me in against the cold wood of the X. “You think you get to walk away from me and live a normal life after everything you did to my people?” he snarled.

  “I didn’t sleep with them,” I snapped and watched his mouth curve into a grin. “I didn’t; it’s true. I didn’t allow any of them to use me.”

  “You expect me to believe that? You have not left this place in over seventy-five years, and when you did leave, even for a brief time, it was to rush across the country to pick up a student and bring them back here. I know, because I followed you.”

  “You know nothing, Conner. I wanted to be here because I couldn’t be forced to do anything but teach witches how to survive against your kind, which is nothing more than monsters. Men come here to check files, not vaginas! They make sure we have everything we need to teach the children, and to ensure the crystals are charged and the sage is plentiful as well as dried correctly. You killed the clerks,” I whispered.

  “Sure, let’s go with that. Ask me if I fucking care, little witch,” he snapped coldly as he folded his arms over his chest and stared at me. “They got what they deserved for touching what belonged to me, the King.”

  “Should I say that about your father? Those men had families; you want to know what we did when they visited? We looked at pictures of their children who would eventually attend my school because of their service to the coven. You murdered innocent men because you were jealous?” I asked as he reached down, captured my hand, and locked it into the cuff above my head. Once he finished securing my other hand, he leaned against my neck, kissing it, then moved lower, flicking my nipple with his tongue before nicking it with his fang. “Don’t,” I whispered as he licked the path of my blood, tasting it for the first time. He lifted his head, staring at me with blood-red eyes that revealed his hunger. His hands lowered, locking each of the cuffs around my ankles while he continued to lick and taste my flesh.

  “You don’t get to tell me I can’t taste you anymore,” he uttered with my blood painting his lips. “If I want to drink you, I will. You murdered my family, and you bitch about me killing strangers? Fuck you, Avery. I told you when I ate your sweet cunt the first time that you would only ever know me in that way, and I fucking meant it.”

  “You walked away from me, Conner!”

  “And I let you go! I walked away because if I hadn’t, I’d have fucking done everything I could to keep you, and eventually, we’d have started a fucking war! Is that what you would have wanted? You loved me, but I had a duty to my people that I couldn’t walk away from, not even for you. I would have been disowned and hunted down right beside you, Avery. You’d have hated me, you’d have resented leaving the elegant lifestyle I had given you. You would have left me, and what the fuck would I have become?” he stepped back, staring at me as he rubbed his hand down his face, like he couldn’t believe we were having this argument two hundred years later.

  “Fuck you, waif. You wanted more than I could give you. You tried to destroy me, and bring me down with your pretty pink flesh and your shy smiles. My father knew what you were, he warned me from the moment I brought you home that you should be treated as a slave. He knew you would betray us, and I argued that I could change you. You were sin, placed right in my fucking path like a fucking moth to the flame. I walked right into it, didn’t I? I should have heeded his warning that witches are nothing but whores who fuck their way into your world, then take what they want while leaving everything in ruins if you allow them to do so. I didn’t want to believe him. Then
he showed me how easily you could be turned, and all it took was Royal spending a few hours with you. I tested you, and you failed by spilling our secrets to him. So I agreed it was best you go back to your people. My father promised once I was gone, you’d be free to leave and go back to your people with no memory of us. I fucking wish you had allowed him to do as he planned.”

  He turned, walking away from me and I watched his stiff back leave the room. The apartment door opened and closed. I blinked, wondering why he’d leave half-naked, but then he was King, and he could do what he wanted. A feminine voice sounded in the room next to me, and I lifted my head, staring at a black-haired female with lime green-eyes.

  “Avery,” Conner said sharply, walking into the room behind her. “Meet Amery,” he laughed, watching as I swung my gaze from her to him. “Amery, meet Avery; isn’t she pretty?” he asked.

  “Very, can I play with her?” Amery asked.

  “No, she’s mine to destroy.” Conner watched me as he pulled Amery closer, stripping her out of the dress she wore. Her breasts were larger than mine, her stomach covered in bite marks, along with her throat and thighs. “Avery is my prisoner, ignore her, darling. She’s nothing. Now bend over, so I can fuck you.”

  “Look, I don’t need to see this,” I stated as I watched him moving closer to me.

  “Oh, but you will, and if you look away, I will bring in the other prisoners and fuck them both while you watch me destroy their cunts,” he growled. “You don’t want that to happen, do you?”

  “You’re an asshole,” I whispered.

  “You have no idea who or what I am anymore, little witch. You’ve been away for a long time. You ruined my world, and ran away in the brilliant rays of the sun, hiding for twenty fucking years before I felt you stirring from the shadows to escape from London. I wasn’t even sure if you lived, but then I remembered that you couldn’t die unless I allowed it. Do you know how much it hurt me to walk into that hall and see everyone dead, Avery? I found my family slaughtered and the evil taint of your fucking magic so thick it made me crave your death. So you don’t get to ask to leave this room. You are my prisoner, and you will submit to whatever I want, or the other witches below will suffer for your unwillingness to cooperate. Tit for tat, let’s see how you enjoy it.”