Sleeping with the Beast: an Adult Paranormal Shifter Romance (The Conduit Series Book 2)

by Conner Kressley

  “That’s my girl,” he said, a smile crinkling his face. “So what do we do?”

  “I know where Ameena took him. So we go there.” I turned to Ramsey. “We get Abram back, and we make that Conduit regret she ever screwed with any of us.”

  Ramsey’s pace picked up a little so that he was by my side instead of walking behind me. “I’m good with that.”

  “What!” Satina shrieked, appearing in front of us again. But we just walked around her and kept going. “You’re not serious,” she said from behind us. “You’re not actually encouraging her, are you? She’s going to get us all killed, some of us for the second time.”

  ‘Then we die,” Ramsey said. “At least my wife will know I went down fighting for her.”

  Okay. That impressed me. If Briar could inspire that sort of devotion, maybe she wasn’t the evil ice queen I always imagined her to be.

  No, she probably still is. But that didn’t doesn't mean she deserves this.

  “And you think that matters?” Satina jumped in front of us again. She waved her fingers, and suddenly we were both stuck in place.

  “When did you get my blood?” I growled.

  “Castle bathroom, before it the enchantment kicked me out again,” she said offhandedly. “And you know how that stuff has an expiration date, so believe me, I hate to see it go to waste.”

  I scowled at her, but I couldn’t do much more than that.

  “You’re being selfish, the both of you,” she continued. Then she pointed at me. “I told you that you have a destiny.”

  “You said we have a destiny,” I corrected.

  “Technicalities.” She dropped her arms to her side. “You and he did have a destiny, but it was the same way a mosquito has a destiny with a windshield. I know about cars now,” she added, giving me a rueful wink. “The point is, all of this is about you. Yes, your road would be easier traveled if he was by your side, but at the end of the day, what matters is that you’re around to travel it. The fate of so much is on your shoulders. The entire world—everything that is, was, and will be—it’s on you, and you need to keep that in mind.”

  Geesh. No pressure, right?

  “And what you need to understand,” I said, “is this road of yours doesn’t interest me, not without him. I don’t know what you think you know about me, but I’m here to tell you that, without him, there is no me. I can’t do this without Abram, and I won’t. So you either come with me or you let me go. Either way, I’m doing this.”

  “If you knew what was at stake—”

  “I don’t care what’s at stake!” I said. “But if you care so much, you can help me save the man that gives me a reason to care.” Fire rushed through me, and a pulse of energy flew from my body, freeing both Ramsey and I from Satina’s hold.

  “Good Lord,” Satina said, rearing back from the force of my magic.

  “You listen to me,” I said, sticking my finger in her face. “This conversation is over. The most important person in my life is waiting for me to come get him, and I’m not about to let him down, not even if it means the whole damn world falls down around me.”

  “That’s incredibly selfish,” Satina muttered, glowering at me.

  “Uh-huh,” I said. “Maybe it is. Or maybe it’s selfish of everyone else to think I should sacrifice someone I love to save someone they love. Ever think of that?”

  She opened her mouth, then closed it again. I was sure she had a valid point on hand, but my guess was she was starting to realize it was a losing battle.

  “And I’ll have you know,” I continued on, feeling angrier and more powerful by the moment, “I could die tonight anyway. So maybe that’ll change your view on hunting this bitch down!” I stuck out my chin. “Either get on board or run back to that castle and cower beside King Douchebag and Huntsman. But you will keep your mouth shut and stay out of my way.”

  “You don’t have to get so testy,” Satina said, looking me up and down. “I’ll help you. But I’m warning you—if you ruin this body I’ve borrowed, I’m going to ruin every spare moment you get with Abram from now until eternity.”

  “Whatever,” I said, and I sped off again toward our destination.

  Satina moved along with us, kicking dirt as she made her way. “Can we at least come up with a plan more complex than walk in and fight?”

  “Sure, if you can think up something before we get there.”

  “I’m sorry,” Ramsey said, stepping between us again. “Did you say that Huntsman was here?”

  “King Archibald hired him to kill us…among other things. Have you heard of him?”

  “Only since I was a child,” Ramsey said, eyes going wide. “He’s fabled. His ax was gifted to him by some pretty badass mystics. It’s rumored to have the power to cut through anything in a single stroke.”

  “So he’s a formidable assassin. Doesn’t mean I have to like him.”

  “No. That isn’t right. Assassin isn’t the right word. He’s more of a vigilante.”

  “He’s being paid to murder, and we aren’t exactly the bad guys,” I said. “Sounds like an assassin to me.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense. All the stories—”

  “If I’ve learned one thing from all this,” I said, “it’s that you can rarely trust ‘the stories.’ But it doesn’t matter. Magic ax aside, I don’t think he’ll be a problem for us. Turns out Ameena’s beast is actually his brother. He wants to free him of the curse so, at the very least, he’ll stay out of our way.”

  “Or maybe he’ll help us!” Satina said. “I can think of less useful things than a muscleman with a deadly weapon on our side.” Her whole borrowed face lit up. “I think a plan might be forming after all.”

  “No,” I said, still walking. “I don’t trust Huntsman, and even if I did, I don’t have time to scour the island for him. We do this on our own, and we do it now.”

  “How, though?” Ramsey asked. “We don’t even know where to find the Conduit.”

  “I already said I know where she is.” I spun around, more than a little agitated at these two distrusting my capability. “And you can thank your wife for it.” I pointed to the top of the cliff—the same cliff I was destined to die on. “There,” I said. “That’s where we’ll find them.”

  “Are you daft?” Satina asked, her face all twisted up. “There’s nothing up there. It’s a cliff, a plateau almost. The one you’re worried about throwing yourself off of, I’ll remind you. What the hell do you think you’re going to find up there?”

  “The castle,” I muttered, looking up at the admittedly empty space of the cliff.

  “That castle?” Ramsey asked, pointing in the direction of the very visible castle I had just left.

  I shook my head. “The original castle. The one where it all went down.”

  “That is the original castle, Charisse,” Ramsey said. “The royal family had it moved brick by brick after Sleeping Beauty woke up. The king thought better placement would lead to better fortune. Or so the stories say.”

  “The stories are wrong, Ramsey,” I said, as sure of this as I had ever been about anything. “Ameena just wants people to think the castle was moved. She didn’t want anyone looking for her. And she wanted to give Archibald a prison away from the home he had helped build.”

  “There are documents, Charisse. I’ve read them.” Ramsey waved his hand toward King Archibald’s current home. “There are paintings depicting the great move.”

  “Do you know what I saw?” I asked. “I saw the original castle standing on that cliff with your wife in front of it. It’s there. I can feel it.” I turned to Satina. “I just need your help to unmask it.”

  “Ugh. Figures.” She held her hand out to me. “What do I need to do?”

  “Guide me,” I said, grasping her fingers. “Imagine if your power was greater than hers, then you’d already be able to see past Ameena’s illusion. I could, though. With your help, I could make it so all of us could see it.”

  She squinte
d and rubbed her temples with her free hand. “You’re energy is amazing. Disorienting, but utterly amazing.”

  She probably meant that as a compliment, but it wasn’t anything I could take credit for. It was a product of my birth, like having bright eyes or full hips. It was just who I was.

  I funneled my energy, which had lit up like a candlewick the instant Satina grabbed my hand. I pushed all of my energy out into her and then flinched as she poured it back into me, as focused as a pinprick. Our magic cycled together might just be enough to overcome whatever this witch bitch had going on.

  The air crackled around me as my Conduit magic, fueled by my Supplicant blood, swirled like a fog, thickening and settling into a cloud over the cliff.

  And then, when it dissipated, the castle—the original castle—sat dark and looming on the cusp of where so many Supplicants had died.

  “My God,” Satina said, looking up at the monstrosity. “You were right,”

  “Can everyone see it?” I asked.

  “No,” Satina answered. “Just the three of us.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Satina cut a glare my way, and I decided to leave it at that. If anyone knew what other people could or couldn’t see, it was her.

  I looked over at Ramsey. He was so white, he wouldn’t be allowed out of the house after Labor Day. Except he wasn’t looking at the castle. He wasn’t looking upward at all.

  “Ramsey, what—”

  “I didn’t tell you everything,” he said. “The message in the mirror wasn’t the only reason I came here today. I got a call from the hospital earlier. They couldn’t find her. They said it was like Briar just woke up and walked out of there. And now…” He coughed. “And now…”

  I followed his gaze. Briar stood there, dressed in a hospital gown with her eyes closed. She turned and began walking up the path toward the cliff.

  “It’s not really her,” I said. “It’s an illusion. She told me as much in the dream last night.”

  Satina slowed her steps and shook her head. “I’m not so sure. I think it is her. Sleepwalking. The Conduit must think…she must think you’re the last.”

  I swallowed around the tension building in my throat. “Well, real or imagined, she’s leading us to the castle.”

  “Like lambs to the slaughter,” Ramsey muttered.

  “Not necessarily,” Satina said, her finger pressed to her lip. “I’ve got an idea.” She looked over at me. “But I need your help.”

  Chapter 29

  We followed Briar as she sleepwalked her way toward the once long-hidden castle. I cut my gaze toward Satina, who was keeping pace at my side.

  “Are you sure this is going to work?” I asked.

  She laughed bitterly. “Of course not. We’re in uncharted territory here, Supplicant. But if it doesn’t work, I am sure we’re all going to die today. So I’m trying to keep up my optimism.”

  Her hand grasped mine, energy cycling through us, but in a different way than before—even more tiring this time. And the spell she was trying to cast using my Conduit/Supplicant hybrid powers was even trickier than when we unveiled the castle.

  “Keep up with us!” Satina snapped at Ramsey who had, for the second time since we began our trek behind Briar to the top of the cliff, was lagging behind. “It’s important we’re all in a line when I complete the spell. We won’t get a second chance.”

  He sped up, but his eyes had glazed over since the moment he saw he wife up and moving about. It was as though there was something about seeing her here and unable to control what she was doing that made all of this realer for him. Or maybe I was just projecting my own feelings…

  Ramsey let out a sigh. “What are we going to do?”

  Satina stopped short, cringing, and spun in a slow circle to face him. “If you weren’t so busy pitying yourself, you would know the answer to that!”

  “Well, I don’t,” he said, sneering. “Sorry I can’t be as focused as you, Miss Ice Queen, but some of us are worried about people we love. Not that I would expect you to understand that.”

  She flinched. “Ouch…” Her expression softened, and her shoulders relaxed. “You know, some people handle their feelings a little differently. Doesn’t mean they don’t have them.”

  I gave Satina’s hand a gentle squeeze and locked my gaze on Ramsey with what I hoped was a sympathetic stare. “She’s going to be okay. But we do need you to focus. Like Satina said, we only get one chance at this.”

  “I know,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry. You have my undivided attention.”

  Satina gave a firm nod. “What we’re doing is basically a bastardization of the illusion spell that still surrounds this place. I’m using Char’s ability to create mirror images of us. Then I’ll direct them to follow Briar wherever Ameena is commanding her to go. Then I’ll make us invisible. Hopefully that’ll give us enough time get Abram out before Ameena realizes what’s going on. But we have to be in a straight line. The spell reaches horizontally, and I’ll only be able to do it once,” she said, looking from Ramsey to me and back again. “You ready?”

  Ramsey swallowed, then nodded.

  “Do it,” I said, my mind filling with images of Abram.

  Sooner than I expected, energy surged between us and then flowed out of me like a wave. But as the wave spread, Ramsey jumped out of line, shaking his head and waving his hands.

  “What the hell did you do?” Satina yelled as a mirror image of both her and I appeared behind Briar, following her mindlessly. “You’re not there, you moron! You think she won’t notice that? She’ll send that beast of hers looking for you, and he’ll find us!”

  “No, he won’t. I’ll be with them,” Ramsey said, pointing to the mirror images.

  Satina scoffed. “Why the hell would you do something as foolish and dangerous as that?”

  “Because Briar’s with them,” I muttered, reading his face.

  “She’s my wife, and I won’t leave her—not while I’m still able to follow.”

  Satina’s jaw clenched. “If Ameena finds you out, she’ll kill both of you.”

  “Then the last thing my wife will see in this life is me fighting for her,” he said evenly. It was as though his strength had throttled back into him. “We’ve been through too much. We promised each other our lives, and while things haven’t been perfect, I’m not willing to give up on that promise yet.” He turned to me with tears in his eyes. “You understand that, don’t you?”

  “I do.” I stepped forward and hugged him. “She loves you a lot, you know.”

  “I know,” he said, hugging me back and then backing away again. “And you’d better believe I’m going to make her say it after all of this is over.”

  “Be careful,” I muttered as he moved in line with the mirror images.

  “You, too,” he said. “See you on the other side.”

  “One way or another,” I said under my breath, and watched as they disappeared up the cliff. Then I turned to Satina. “What now?”

  She raised her eyebrows. “Now we go find your boyfriend.”

  I followed Satina as she circled halfway around the castle. I walked hesitantly, as though there might be some sort of magical landmine I needed to avoid. More realistically, I was afraid Ameena or Luca might see us and wonder why the us that was walking toward them with Briar wasn’t…well, us. With Ramsey there, though, she was more likely to think they were the real us, and that made me worry for him. Surely Ameena knew he would want to save his wife as much as I wanted to save Abram—this had probably been a trap for both of us.

  “Don’t be so prudish about your movements,” Satina said, grabbing my arm and yanking me forward. “This woman has been hiding in plain sight for over a thousand years. I promise you, she’s gotten out of the habit of standing guard.”

  She might have been right, because as we made our way toward what looked like the opening of a cave at the back of the castle, no one seemed to be the wiser.

  “This opening will l
ead us into the castle,” Satina said, sauntering toward it with all the aplomb of a woman bouncing into a sale at Barney’s.

  “How do you know that?” I asked, right behind her.

  “What, you thought I spent my entire afterlife following the likes of you around all the time? You’d be surprised what I know.”

  “I don’t doubt that,” I muttered.

  The interior of the cave got cooler and darker the farther we trekked into it. Unlike the cave at the base of the cliff, this one did not look lived-in at all. In fact, Satina and I were clearly the only people to set foot inside it in a very long time.

  “Light us up,” Satina said from in front of me.

  “What?” I asked, scrunching my nose and jogging to keep up with her insanely quick pace.

  “Haven’t you figured out that glowing thing yet? It’s pretty standard Conduit fare.”

  “Right,” I mumbled and, letting my emotions go again, I emitted a soft light from my pores. As we ventured deeper into the cave, I was like a walking, talking glow worm.

  After a while, the magic seemed mundane. The light I produced made our path visible, and it was easy to see just how empty this place was. Not even vermin existed in here, which worried me more than it should have.

  I thought I heard footsteps behind me once as we walked, but Satina didn’t so much as hesitate, so I figured it was my imagination.

  Just as I was about to ask her how much longer we were going to have to walk, we came upon a huge door. It was wooden and held carvings similar to the images I had seen back in the club Abram and I renovated.

  God, that seemed like forever ago now.

  “We gotta get through that?” I asked.

  “Look at how smart she’s getting.” Satina grinned. “Would you like to do the honors, or do you want to gash your hand against one of those rocks and let me have a little fun?”

  “I like my palms intact, thank you,” I said, rubbing them together and placing them against the huge door. Then I mumbled under my breath, “Besides, I don’t have much time left to practice.”

  A bright strike, like lightning, flew from the door, knocking me backward through the air. I collided with the cave wall and swore as I slid to the floor.