For the Reign

by Debbie Cassidy

  A scrape echoed in the dark chamber.

  Elias stiffened and then carefully pulled me around him so that I was shielded by his body. He squeezed my hand and patted it twice in a stay-put gesture. Probably a good idea since I couldn’t see a darn thing. But when he stepped away and stood adrift in darkness, that was even worse. The scraping was louder now, almost frantic. Talons on stone.

  Feral.

  The urge to call out to Elias was a burn at the base of my throat, but I held back. He could see. He had this. Let’s hope he had this.

  A soft thud and then a strangled yelp were followed by a sharp snap.

  “It’s done,” Elias said. “I got it.”

  “There could be more coming.”

  “I know.”

  His hands brushed my shoulders, and my body tensed sharply before relaxing into his touch.

  “You have preternatural genes, Eva. Vladul genes. You should be able to see, but your human mind is telling you different. If you stop thinking like a human, then maybe …”

  Push, push, push, what was wrong with him? The anger unfurled like a whiplash inside me. “Maybe the deterioration will speed up? Maybe I’ll die quicker?”

  The words dripped from my lips like bitter fruit, and for a moment, it was like a satisfying release. But then guilt stabbed at me, because he was only trying to help, and I squashed the anger, forcing it down.

  He exhaled heavily. “I’m sorry. So sorry.”

  My night vision had always been better than most, but here, in this coffin-like cave, I was blind and his sorry meant nothing. The helplessness teased the tumult of negative emotions that were simmering inside me.

  “I hate this. I hate not being able to see, but I won’t risk accelerating my deterioration. Forcing access to any abilities I may or may not have could do that, and as cool as it may be to raise my temperature or see in the almost pitch dark, I prefer to live for as long as I can.”

  Fighting words, but why wasn’t I feeling them? Instead, there was a yawning chasm opening up inside me, and my scalp prickled in apprehension.

  “Eva.” There was pity in his tone, and my spine stiffened.

  My chest tightened. “Don’t. I don’t need your sympathy.”

  The tightening in my chest grew worse, as if a steel band were being wrapped around my lungs, and then the anger I’d been nursing and soothing flooded my system, sudden and violent.

  “Elias, I—” My plea was choked off by a phantom fist around my throat.

  I pulled away from him, stumbling back into the darkness, clawing at my neck, at the thing that wasn’t outside but inside. At the thing I couldn’t control. Something solid hit my back. A rock wall. Good. I could use that to ground me. I didn’t need Elias. The fucking Vladul. He was one of the monsters that had taken Tobias, that had turned him into a metallic beast. Elias had been with them, fighting against us, being the good soldier, and now he’d turned coat and was with us. How could we trust him? Why should we? The choking hold melted into my skin.

  “Eva … Eva, are you all right?”

  No. No, I wasn’t all right. I was furious. I was seething, and it wasn’t normal. “Elias.” My voice sounded strangled as the rage—the blind rage—threatened to overtake me.

  “Shit.” His hands were on me, cupping my face to hold me steady. “Breathe. In through your nose and out through your mouth. Do it.”

  I did as he asked, and my vision bled red as a wicked gnawing flared to life in my lower abdomen.

  “Eva, control it.”

  Control it? “What … What is it?”

  “Primal hunger.” His voice had thickened. “Rein it in. Do it now.” His fingers bit into me, his grip too tight. “Do it now, please.”

  It was rolling through me, upward, outward, demanding something violent, anything to vent the excess of adrenaline coursing through my veins. I breathed and breathed but it wasn’t helping.

  I grabbed at him, desperate to be free of the intense emotion. “It’s not working … I can’t …”

  I needed. I needed something, and suddenly, his scent was in my head, under my skin. He was lightning, he was a thunderstorm, and he was mine. My hands found his chest, fisted in his shirt, and then clawed their way up to his neck to bury themselves in his silken hair.

  “Eva …”

  “Shut up.” My voice was a growl.

  I yanked him down and claimed his mouth. His teeth were smooth against my tongue, lips firm and salty. I licked the roof of his mouth, tamed his tongue, and plundered, taking, biting, and sucking. The anger twisted and morphed, and then he had my wrists in his grip and I was pressed flat to the wall with my hands above me.

  “Eva. Stop. You need to …”

  He was breathing heavily and excitement shot through me. Yes. I needed him to be undone. I needed to undo him, the twisted desire within writhed and yearned. I bucked and wriggled.

  “Touch me. Do it.” This gruff, demanding voice wasn’t mine.

  “Stop.” He mashed his mouth to mine, to punish, or maybe to assert control.

  It didn’t matter. Make me stop. Tear off my clothes and take me. Take me right now up against the fucking wall.

  “Eva … I can hear you. Fuck, I can hear everything you want.” He buried his head in the crook of my shoulder, his lips at my neck. A thrill shot up my spine. He was going to bite me. He was going to feed.

  “Do it …” Who was that? Whose voice was coming out of my mouth, rough and husky and primal. “I want it. I need it.” My gums ached.

  He pulled away. “No. Not like this. You’re not yourself. This is just like what happened with your djinn aspect. This is the unraveling, and you have to fight it.”

  No, he was wrong. Sage had told me exactly what to do. I needed to ride it. Let go and allow it to wash through me.

  Elias’s face was suddenly clear, his eyes too bright, his fangs, those beautiful fangs, were made for my flesh. I took a step toward him, and he took a step back.

  “Eva, this isn’t you. It’s the primal gene, the royal gene. You need to control it,” he said again. “Remember who you are. Please. The way you’re feeling is … It’s infectious. I don’t know how long I can control myself.”

  Control. There would be no control. Only violent sensation. Only screams. I pulled down the collar of my shirt to expose my neck and shoulder fully.

  Elias hissed and backed up.

  No. No getting away. I walked into him until I had him up against the opposite wall. My mouth throbbed, my gums throbbed.

  “Eva. Oh fucking hell.” Elias’s eyes were all pupil.

  And then I was on him, my carnal hunger mingling with something else, with a real hunger. A need to taste, to pierce. His flavor exploded on my tongue, in my mouth, down my throat. Images filtered through my mind—ivy and stone and a starlit sky. A velvet crimson throne and a woman with eyes the color of midnight.

  Elias bucked against me.

  Fight me. Yes. Fight me.

  “Eva. Oh …”

  He was hard against my abdomen. Another area to explore, to taste and to claim. And then his growl brushed my skin, his hands twisted my hair into a knot, and I was pulled away from the nectar.

  Brightness flooded my vision, followed by pain as he bit me back, and then there was the euphoria of his hands on my body, rough and desperate. I needed to feel his skin. Down to the ground we went, where the rip and tear of fabric swelled my heart with satisfaction. My slacks were yanked off, and my limbs were bare. I rolled with him, pinning him and tearing at his trousers to free him. His hardness, his girth was velvet in my hand. Yes. Inside. I needed him inside. I lowered myself onto him, crying out as he filled me.

  His hands grasped my hips as a low rumble filled the cave, and then I was rocking, finding the rhythm, the one that would give me the release my body needed, the one that would free me. Harder, faster, our grunts and groans a primal symphony echoing around us, the slap of flesh on flesh until there was nothing but the spiraling, desperate approach to an
abyss filled with starlight.

  “Eva?” Elias’s voice sounded raw.

  I looked down on him beneath me, still inside me. Still hard. Oh, God. What had I done? I scrambled off him, biting back a moan at the delicious friction. Every inch of my body fizzed and pulsed. How? How had I allowed this to happen?

  “I’m sorry,” Elias said. “I should have fought harder. I should have stopped it.”

  How could he blame himself for this? “Don’t. Don’t say anything.”

  “It’s not your fault.”

  My laugh was bitter. “It’s not yours either.”

  He hadn’t done this. I had. I’d pushed him. I’d allowed the primal rage to morph into carnal hunger, into … My hand went to my mouth, still coated in his blood. I used my tongue to probe my teeth, even and normal now.

  I swallowed the copper residue in my throat. “I bit you.”

  “Yes.” His tone was thick. “And I bit you.”

  Why did his words sound loaded? Oh, shit. I’d done this. I’d fucked him. Oh, God. What was wrong with me? How could I have lost control like that?

  But it had felt good, right? Real good.

  No more voices. No more. I clutched my head and groaned.

  “Eva, it’s okay.” His hand brushed my shoulder, but I pulled away.

  “Please. Don’t.”

  I pulled on my clothes and adjusted my torn top, knotting it to hold it together at the front. My night vision was fading fast, a good sign, a sign that whatever had gripped me was ebbing. But it would happen again. There was no doubt in my mind about that. The preternatural genes in my body were asserting themselves, and it was only a matter of time until my humanity was overcome.

  “We need to get back to camp. The others will be worried.” I stood, using the wall to brace myself. “I can’t see anymore. You’ll have to lead me.”

  “I’ll need to touch you to do that.”

  “I know.”

  “Eva …”

  “We don’t say anything. This never happened.”

  He was silent for a long beat, and when he spoke, his tone was cold. “It never happened.”

  I stood and waited for his hand in mine. Warm and tentative. Those hands had touched me all over. Those hands had been on my body. I shut it down. No. Not me. That hadn’t been me.

  He led me to the aperture that would lead us out. “Wait for me to go first, just in case.”

  “Okay.”

  I reached out to grip the lip of the exit so as not to lose the spot and listened to him climb up and through.

  “Now.” His voice echoed back to me.

  Taking a deep breath, I climbed in after him. Nothing had happened. Nothing …

  Chapter Five

  The rain had stopped, the clouds had cleared, and the sky was red. Close to sunset. Too close. We had to move fast. But at least the Feral had retreated. Elias led the way, not that I needed him to. My internal compass was superior to most, but it was easier to just switch off and let him do the thinking.

  No thinking meant not having to dwell on what had happened in the warm, dark confines of the cave. No thinking meant having time to get my errant body under control.

  We walked through the trees dripping with moisture, over earth even more fragrant after the heavy rainfall, boots squelching in the mud. We walked in silence, and then Elias came to a sudden halt. His shoulders tensed beneath the dark expanse of his shirt, and then he turned to me. His silver hair was raked back and tucked behind his ears. I’d run my fingers through that. Tugged on it.

  No. No thinking.

  “Your men are here.” He said it flat and unemotional, but the tightness around his violet eyes spoke differently.

  Even as my heart rose, a sinking feeling bloomed in the pit of my stomach as I took in Elias’s torn shirt sleeve—evidence of our tussle. But his gaze was fixed on my tattered top, held together by the hastily made knot that exposed my abdomen. His eyes lifted to my mouth, then dropped to my neck and widened.

  What? My hand went up to my lips to feel the crusted blood. Blood I’d neglected to clean, which then slid down to my neck. Shit. Oh—

  “Eva? Eva!” Logan’s voice, too close, but it was Ash who appeared on the path ahead of us.

  His face crumpled in relief at the sight of me, and then his body tensed, gaze flicking over me, over my shirt, my arms, bruised and scraped, and then to my neck. A low, menacing rumble lit up the forest, and then he was flying at Elias. They collided like mountains and hit the ground together.

  “Ash!” Logan appeared a moment later and stood dumbfounded as Ash laid into Elias.

  The Vladul didn’t fight back. He didn’t even block the blows. Blood sprayed from his mouth, and my paralysis broke.

  “Stop!” I strode forward and grabbed Ash’s shoulder. “Stop it!”

  Logan joined me, and together we pulled Ash off Elias. The Fang stood between us, chest heaving, face a raging storm. He shrugged us both off, signing rapidly, his movements jerky with suppressed rage.

  Logan turned to me, his attention going straight to my neck.

  “He bit you?” Logan asked softly. And then he turned to Elias, his face contorting in disgust. “You fucking fed on her?”

  Elias’s gaze flicked to me, and my insides curdled.

  “I’m fucking asking you a question, Vladul. Did you feed off her?”

  Elias lifted his chin. “Yes.”

  Logan’s fist came up, ready to swing, and my body reacted on instinct, moving in that way that left the world a blur, and then my back was against Elias’s chest and my arms were up to block Logan.

  What had just happened? How had I done that?

  Logan’s face asked the same questions.

  I shook my head. “It wasn’t … It wasn’t like that. I bit him first.” I touched my mouth. “We were hiding out from the rain and the Feral and then something happened to me. Like what happened with the djinn fire, but this time it was my Vladul aspect, and I bit him. I hurt him. I pushed him.”

  “No.” Logan’s gaze trailed down to my shirt, to the bruises unintentionally inflicted by Elias. “This was more than blood.” His eyes narrowed. “Did you let him fuck you?”

  My neck heated, but not in shame, in anger. How dare he question what I did? How dare he make it out to be something torrid and disgusting? Ironic, because until this moment, I’d wanted it to remain a secret, to be forgotten. But Elias was standing behind me, the heat of his body flush against mine, and he was bleeding because he’d taken a beating rather than tell them what happened.

  Ash signed, and Logan translated through clenched teeth. “What happened?”

  “You want to know what happened? Well, so do I. One minute, I was fine, and the next, I was ravenous, for pain, for aggression, for something. I had to get it out, to take and vent and—”

  “You let him fuck you,” Logan finished.

  “No. I fucked him.”

  Silence, thick and heavy, followed my statement, and weariness swept over me like a fog. My knees buckled but Elias’s hands grabbed me in time. He swung me up into his arms.

  “We need to get her back to Jamie,” Elias said.

  Logan and Ash didn’t argue as he strode past them. I closed my eyes and allowed him to shoulder the burden of my unraveling, just for a moment. One moment.

  I groaned and rolled onto my side. I must have passed out, and someone had made a makeshift bed using several blankets on the floor of the barn. Voices drifted through the open doors, and with my heightened senses, they were easy to make out.

  “It’s happening quicker than anticipated.” Jamie’s voice drifted in from outside.

  “So, what do we do?” Jace said. “Our army’s been wiped out. We needed the numbers to overwhelm the Genesis guards. With the Claws dead and the djinn … We need a new plan.”

  “There has to be another way. Elias?” Logan asked.

  “There is only one way in,” Elias said. “And I can walk you through that door, but the place is crawling
with guards and cameras. You won’t make it any farther, not without numbers on your side. Not without a distraction to give you the advantage.”

  I slumped back onto the blanket as a numbness stole over me. With everything else that had happened, I hadn’t stopped to think about how the death of the Claws and now the djinn affected the bigger picture, let alone how it affected me. But now hope was dwindling fast.

  Pull it together, Eva. It isn’t over until it’s over.

  There you are, Dad. Taking a nap, were you? Huh? I pulled myself up, ignoring the fever under my skin, the sign that I was edging closer to destruction.

  “There could be a way,” Sage’s rumbling voice said. “If it’s allies we need, there may be one final shot.”

  “What?” Jace asked.

  “The fey.”

  I strode out the door into the midst of what looked like an impromptu meeting. They all turned to look at me. Jace smiled wanly at my approach. Elias’s gaze was probing, and Logan’s was intense. There was no sign of Ash, and my heart sank.

  I joined the group. “The fey are gone.”

  Sage smiled. “Glad to see we won’t have to catch you up.”

  I shrugged. “My eavesdropping skills are second to none. So, you mentioned the fey?”

  “Yes. You’re right, they did leave. They retreated and sealed off their realm, just as the djinn did. Except, this is the fey we are talking about. They’ve had one foot in the mortal realm since the beginning of time. It’s their playground, and some even consider it a responsibility. Unlike the djinn, who merely observe, the fey have affected. They have a stake in the mortal realms.”

  “What are you saying?” Logan asked.

  “I’m saying that they would have left a back door. A thinning somewhere to allow them to re-emerge if, and when, this world was once again safe.” His eyes narrowed. “We just need to find it.”

  “And how do we do that?” Elias asked.

  “Oh … Oh my.” Jamie blinked rapidly. “Thinnings … disturbances in the fabric of this world which can be identified by anomalous heat or cold spots on the map.”