Charmed by the Beast: an Adult Paranormal Shifter Romance (The Conduit Series Book 3)

by Conner Kressley

  “You’re going to die tonight,” I said, matter of fact.

  “Is that right?” He perked his eyebrows. “I’ve died before. So that doesn’t concern me quite as much as you think it might.”

  “You know something?” I said, pacing around him like a lioness casing its prey. “It doesn’t concern me, either. And I’m not just talking about your death. I learned something today. Someone taught me that it doesn’t much matter when you die. What matters is how you die and the way you live right up until that moment.”

  “What a literary idea. Perhaps you missed your calling. The Brothers should have brought back Jane Austen. I’m sure she could have rallied your thoughts in an entirely different direction and saved us all the torment of your perceived destiny.”

  “I wanna give you a choice,” I said, stopping square in front of him. “Not because I think you deserve it, though, because in case I haven’t been clear, I think you’re a worthless piece of shit. But your daughter was a good person, an exceptional person. So you’re a worthless piece of shit who did at least one thing right.”

  “Was?” he asked, the stone-like nature of his face breaking just a little.

  “Satina died earlier today,” I said evenly, forcing down the pain that pinched in my throat. “She sacrificed herself in an effort to end this nightmare. To make up for all the wrong you’ve been up to. She was a hero, Edwin, and you pushed her to kill herself.” I knelt down toward him. “She’s the only reason I’m giving you a choice here. You’ve done horrible things, Edwin. But it’s not too late. There has to be good in you somewhere. I saw as much in your daughter. I need to know how you want to be remembered, because as I told you before, you’re a good as dead. The only question that remains is whether you’re going to do something with the time that remains.”

  His dark eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?”

  “You have a chance to help me, to help us all. The way Satina would have wanted. So I’m going to finish what your daughter started. I’m going to thwart The Brothers and stop this madness, and I’m going to do it tonight. If you agree, you can spend your last night on this Earth helping to save it.”

  Edwin reared back and literally spat in my face.

  “Stupid bitch,” he said as it splattered against my cheek.

  “Or not,” I answered, wiping my cheek with the back of my sweater sleeve

  “You think you can go up against The Brothers? You’re stupider than I would ever dare to imagine. They built the world you live in. They hold dominion over me, you, your precious little soulmate—all of us are vulnerable to their whims.” He shook his head. “The fact that you think you’re worthy to stand against them is just a testament to how lacking you are. And also a testament to how foolish my whore of a daughter was right until her last breath.”

  Now it was my turn to retaliate. With a swift move of my right hand, I slapped the bastard right across the face. His head shot back, but instead of wincing, he smiled. He was still trying to put on, but it didn’t matter. I was past that. We all were.

  I was going to do what I needed to do, and I was going to use Edwin the way I needed to, whether he liked it or not. I’d wasted time on him in hopes he could make things easier, but—I pursed my lips, shaking my head—we just didn’t have time. I’d wasted too much as it was already, and if we didn’t get the ball rolling, I was going to miss our one real shot.

  “I see you’ve made your choice,” I said, standing. “I hoped, for Satina’s sake, that you weren’t as horrible as she said you were. I hoped you would at least partially redeem yourself, that you could have seen her sacrifice and found inspiration in it. But I guess you are just a waste of space.” I twisted my hand, letting magic flow through and then out of me. “It’s up to me to make use of that space. And I’ll be damned if I don’t do it.”

  The magic danced around Edwin, putting him back into his deep sleep. He’d never wake up again. He had spoken his last words, and they had been wasted.

  “Char, I need you to tell me what’s going on,” Ramsey said from beside me. He had been so quiet up until now that I’d almost forgotten he was still there.

  “Gladly,” I answered. “I need your help, too.”

  He gulped. “I hope it’s not the same kind of help you needed from him.” He pointed to Satina’s father.

  “He made his bed. We’re way past mercy at this point.” I glanced toward Edwin and then back to Ramsey. “In just a few minutes, there will be a man on the roof of the Empire State Building in need of a heart transplant. There will also be a donor present, a team of EMTs, and a doctor crazy enough to do it.”

  “Okay,” Ramsey answered, staring blankly at me. “You do understand that I’m not a surgeon.”

  “That’s not what I need from you,” I answered.

  “Then what do you need from me?”

  “After all of this is done, I need you to make the paperwork line up. No one can know what happened tonight, not a living soul.” I didn’t wait for him to answer before I looked to Edwin and added something else. “And I need you to help me pick this sonofabitch up. My hands will be full enough as it is.”

  Chapter 31

  I didn’t dare leap back to the Empire State Building. It was taking way too much of my energy to keep Edwin under. Given that I needed to save every bit of power I had if I was going to actually make this crazy-ass plan work, I couldn’t exactly go wasting it floating around when Ramsey’s SUV would do the job nearly just as well.

  After careening into the parking lot and slamming to a stop, I pulled Edwin up and left the car running sideways in the space. I grabbed the slipper from where I had placed it on the front seat, feeling its energy latch onto me.

  As I pushed through the door with Edwin floating beside me in the air, still unconscious, I could feel him rustling on the inside, trying to break free of my compulsion. It wouldn’t do him any good. I had been through too much, and too many good people had sacrificed themselves for this. This sonofabitch wasn’t getting free until I wanted him to. And by then, it would be too late.

  I flew up the endless flights of stairs, going as fast as I could while still managing to conserve my energy. When I made it back to the roof, Edwin still in tow, the fight had taken itself to a whole new level.

  Charlie was awake again—or, more to the point, Mr. Mandrake was, as he hijacked Charlie’s body.

  I had been afraid of that. The amount of energy I was using to keep Edwin in check was growing with each passing second, and it had been a while since I’d felt the connection to Charlie.

  He and Abram were skirting closer to the edge of the building than I would have liked. Abram was bruised, cut, and ragged. But so was Charlie. They had beaten the hell out of each other. Though the fact that neither of them were dead either meant that this fight was very evenly matched, which was a testament to the potency of the new curse Satina had placed on Abram, or that Abram was keeping himself in check and doing what I asked of him by not killing Charlie. That, in itself, was an even bigger testament to the curse…and to Abram’s capacity to fight through it.

  Edwin raged inside of himself, actually causing me to stumble as I rallied my energy to keep him unconscious.

  Power or not, slipper or not, I wasn’t going to be able to keep him under for much longer. I needed to do this now, and I was just going to have to hope the rest of it all fell into place.

  Flicking my wrist, I drove Edwin back into the wall, pinning him there with magic. Rushing toward the other two, slipper in hand, I pushed down my insecurities as best I could. Still, this was a half-assed plan. The fact that it might not work was as strong a possibility as anything else. Probably stronger.

  Still, it was all I could do. I had searched my heart and my mind. At the end of the day, I wasn’t willing to sacrifice someone I loved to save the world. Maybe that made Satina better than me, but Satina wasn’t here anymore. This wasn’t her world. It was mine, and if I was going to save it, I was going to do it on my
own terms.

  The slipper pulsed, as if feeling the moment it was in. This was show time, and it was going to have to put on one hell of a performance.

  Charlie sent a blast of energy into Abram’s body. It shook him to the core, knocking him backward.

  I shuddered, because that amount of energy would have taken out a mountain, let alone a man. Still, Abram managed to rally and attack again. I could see the fatigue in his bloodshot eyes. This was taking its toll on him, and, much like me, he wouldn’t survive if this went on much longer.

  Sirens blared in the distance. I didn’t know whether to be irate it’d taken them this long, or thankful I’d made it back before they got here.

  “Abram, get over here,” I yelled, pulling at him with my magic and jerking him toward me. He was pulled off his feet and slid toward me, fighting Charlie fang and claw until he reached my side.

  “That’s enough,” I said, breathless. “I got this.”

  But did I have it? Edwin was putting me through hell as he thrashed and wailed against my bindings. My breaths were coming more labored, and a sharp pain bolted through my chest.

  It didn’t matter. I had to try. What was more, I had to succeed. Because, if I didn’t, everybody died.

  “You’re finally ready to take your medicine?” Mr. Mandrake asked me, twisting Charlie’s voice until it sounded almost unrecognizable.

  “Take, deliver…something’s about to happen,” I said, tapping the slipper against the rooftop and sending a volt of energy toward Charlie.

  He just soaked it up, looking like the most powerful creature in the entire universe, as if he had just proven that he couldn’t be beaten.

  “Did you really think that would defeat me?” He cackled, throwing his head back with fiendish delight. “I’m so much more powerful than that.”

  “Oh, darn,” I said, smirking as I continued. “You mean to tell me a weapon created by The Brothers can’t defeat an instrument of The Brothers?” I bit my lip. “I guess this isn’t meant for you then.”

  His head tilted to the side. “What?”

  “Have you ever heard of mystical connection?” I asked, remembering the warning Ramsey gave me and the way the slipper had almost been the death of me back with Edwin because of it. “Because this thing has.”

  I sent a volt of energy to Edwin, who was still unconscious, still under my command. But it didn’t just stay there. The slipper was connected to all of us now: Edwin, Charlie, and me. But it had only imprinted on me, and that was an advantage I was going to use for all it was worth.

  The sirens were so close now, close enough that the medics had to be inside the building, rushing up toward us. That was so important because, after I did this, we’d have seconds—minutes at most—to get this done.

  I tapped the staff again, letting go of the hold I had on Edwin and transferring it to Charlie. This was at least one hundred times harder. Luckily, I wouldn’t have to do it for quite as long.

  Turning to Edwin, I sent a ball of pure white energy to him. But it wasn’t intended to hurt. In fact, it was intended to do the exact opposite. The energy healed all the damage I’d done to Edwin’s body.

  It was brand new now. It was perfect.

  I pulled the slipper back toward me. With it, I yanked Edwin’s spirit from his body. It was a strange and wild sensation, like walking through Jell-O in bare feet. I let it pass through me and rest inside Charlie.

  After all, there were already two spirits inside his body. What was one more? So I tucked Edwin right beside Mr. Mandrake, right in his heart.

  Then I sent a volt of the slipper’s signature energy, the kind that froze things from the inside out, right into that heart—right into the organ that was keeping Charlie alive—and sent it into failure.

  Chapter 32

  I had been in the hospital waiting room for almost an hour before Abram came in.

  After everything that had happened, I sent him away before the EMTs showed up, thinking that a giant, furry beast on the roof of the Empire State Building might look more than a little strange. Besides, I had already spelled them enough tonight. I didn’t need to pull something like that from these poor guys’ minds, too.

  It must have taken him longer than before to get himself together, because he’d have been here much sooner than this before, and without the sheen of sweat or the vaguely exhausted look he now sported.

  He must have read the look of concern in my eyes because he waved it off, saying, “I’m fine, Charisse. Let’s worry about the people who really need it.” He settled beside me on the hospital bench, and the heat of him almost took me aback. “Would you like to explain to me what happened back there?”

  “I can try,” I said, unsure that I even knew myself. Sure, I knew what I wanted to do, and I knew what I hoped I had done. But the truth was, I wouldn’t be sure until I got to see him. “The slipper is really powerful, like really powerful,” I said, taking a deep breath. “And it connects the person using it with the person affected by it.” I looked down at my hands. “I learned that the hard way. So I figured that, if I used it on two people at once, all of us would be connected.”

  “Like an electric current,” Abram said.

  “Right,” I said. “And I thought…well, hoped…that I could use that energy as a transfer point, the same way electricity runs back and forth.”

  “That’s genius,” Abram said. In that moment, I felt like everything was going to be okay. Like we were us again.

  I smirked. “Well, I’m not just a pretty face, you know.”

  “I’m inclined to agree with you.” Abram took my hand and squeezed it. His palm was sweaty, and his body seemed to be shaking a little, but I didn’t comment. He had already told me that he wanted to focus on what was going on here and not on himself. After what he had been through, the least I could do was oblige him.

  “I pulled Edwin’s soul from his body,” I said without preamble.

  “You did what?” Abram asked, the tension rolling off him in waves. “God above, Charisse. Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? What could have happened to you?”

  “No, and frankly, I don’t care. I had one play, one chance to save everyone I cared about and lose nobody. I took it.”

  Abram gritted his teeth. “Would telling you how horribly irresponsible that was make any difference?”

  “Probably not.” I leveled my gaze at him. “The truth is, I’d do it again without hesitation if I had to. No second thoughts.”

  “Sometimes, second thoughts are a good thing,” he said. “Like this one. What on earth did you do with that horrible man’s soul?”

  “I put it in Charlie’s body,” I answered.

  Abram narrowed his eyes at me.

  “In his heart, to be exact.” I cleared my throat. “Then I spelled the EMTs and doctors into replacing Charlie’s heart…which I sort of destroyed…with Edwin’s heart, which was shiny, new, and no longer containing Edwin’s soul.”

  “In the hopes that Edwin and Mandrake’s spirits will stay within Charlie’s old heart? The one you…obliterated?”

  I could tell from his tone that he wasn’t exactly sold on the idea.

  “That’s the idea,” I said. “And, as a bonus, I finally gave Charlie the new heart he deserved all those years ago. I just hope it takes.” I shook my head. “I kind of gave them some magical motivation, but I’m not sure how long something like this takes. They began treatment on the roof and got Edwin’s heart within moments of death, so I think I’ve covered everything within my control.”

  “I think you’re fine,” he said. “But, Charisse.” He pursed his lips. “You understand how big of a longshot this is. Don’t you?”

  I shuffled nervously as Abram held tight to my hand. “I’m trying not to think about that.”

  “I understand that,” he said, “but that doesn’t mean I agree with it.” He inched closer to me. “If this doesn’t work, then we need to think about what happens next.”

  “I don�
�t want—”

  “Well, you have to,” he said, an edge creeping into his tone. “If this doesn’t clear Charlie’s body of the spirits, then it’s too late. By the time this is over, midnight will have come and gone. If it doesn’t work, I’m afraid Charlie Prince won’t exist within that body anymore, and that’ll leave us with a supercharged serial killer who still has to be stopped.”

  “Abram, I—”

  “I need to know that you can do that. While he’s weak. You have to kill him. You’re the only one who can.”

  “I’ll do what I have to,” I finally answered. “But not a minute before.”

  “You have a lot of hope, don’t you?” he asked, his eyebrows pulling together.

  “I prefer to call it faith.” I blinked the tears out of my eyes. “Faith in Charlie, faith in justice, faith that all of this couldn’t have been for nothing. And faith that, after all we’ve been through—after all we’ll no doubt go through—that we’re going to get a break. Because God knows we deserve one.”

  Abram leaned in and gave me a gentle kiss. “I hope you’re right, my love.”

  * * *

  A few hours later, the doctors finally came out. It was well past midnight now. Whatever was done was done. Thankfully, the surgery had been a success. Charlie, while weak, was expected to make a full recovery.

  “That depends,” I said under my breath. And I knew it was the truth. Though his body would soon mend, that didn’t mean Charlie would live. If my wild theory didn’t pan out, then Charlie was already gone. His soul was lost to me, gone to wherever it was souls went when their work here was done.

  And, if that were the case, I would be faced with the unenviable task of getting rid of whichever of the horror shows ended up with control over Charlie’s former body.

  The idea of that made me sweat. Though it wouldn’t be the first death I could attribute to myself—Dalton took that honor—it would definitely be the hardest. Putting an end to someone, anyone, who happened to be wearing Charlie’s face, was just north of impossible in my mind.