Skye’s skin hummed as her hands outstretched towards Kel’s body. Slowly she began pulling Kel’s life-force inside of her. She felt it flowing from her finger tips, tingling as it went up her arms and exploding into her chest. Skye’s whole body lit up brighter than any natural light Evan had ever seen.
“More.” Skye uttered the word with a voice that was not her own. The demon part of her was taking over and it craved what it was getting, Kel’s soul.
Kel’s mouth opened up letting out a scream but no sound could be heard. The bright light draining from Kel’s body and into Skye’s was overpowering, demanding, and unrelenting. Skye understood in that moment why demons did what they did. She understood why they were evil. It felt amazing.
“Stop this! Stop her!” Buck’s howls could barely be heard over the pulsating sound of the feeding Skye was receiving from Kel.
Buck tried to enter the circle but Skye’s light kept him and everyone else out. Evan put his hands up fighting with his own magic to bring down the light to no avail. Skye’s power was much too strong to let anyone else in.
“You have to stop now. Look at her. She can’t take anymore!” Evan screamed to Skye hoping to break through the haze that she was in.
Skye heard him but the words were not processing in her brain. She was nothing but sensation. She felt wave after wave of pleasure. She moaned in the luxurious feeling of it. Suddenly, inside of Skye’s mind, there was a vision of Kel and Buck lying in bed together tangled up in each other. They were giggling and kissing innocently. The vision was so pure and beautiful that Skye felt herself come back a bit.
Skye’s eyes began to focus as she looked down at her friend on the ground. Kel’s body was pale, limp, and nearly dead. Skye’s eyes widened in shock that she had done this to her friend. Rushing forward, she hit her knees in front of Kel and put her hands on Kel’s face.
“I’m so sorry. Please come back to me. I’m so sorry,” Skye cried as she pushed her power back inside of Kel. “I didn’t mean to. I love you!”
Kel’s head laid in Skye’s hand as Kel was unable to hold her head up on her own. Slowly Skye felt all of Kel leaving her body and going back into her friend. Kel’s features started immediately going back to normal. Her face was full and her eyes flittered open. Skye let out a humongous sigh of relief as the light around her faded to nothing allowing Evan and Buck inside of the circle.
Skye’s hands were still holding onto Kel’s face but suddenly she felt the world under her disappear. Buck grabbed her around the waist from behind and threw her body at least ten feet away from Kel. Skye let out a quick and shocked yelp as she hit the ground. She quickly rolled to her side to see Buck cradling Kel’s body kissing her cheeks softly whispering to her.
“I… I didn’t mean to…” Skye tried to speak but her voice was hoarse from her tears and the disbelief at what she had done to her best friend.
Evan stood near Kel and Buck looking them over. Skye could see their mouths moving. She could see that they were talking, but she couldn’t hear anything over the loud roaring of power flowing through her body.
Skye closed her eyes as her hands gripped the dirt beneath her while trying to ground herself. She tried to release some of the left over power into the Earth. She knew Mother Earth would absorb any power she was unwilling to keep. At that moment Skye didn’t want any of it, yet she knew she could only give the extra power or she end up giving away all of her powers.
Shaking her head, Skye looked up at her friends again. Kel was trying to convince Buck that she was fine, but he was fussing over her. His love for her made Skye’s heart squeeze with even more guilt. Buck glanced to Skye with eyes so deadly that it took Skye a moment to recover. She understood why he would look at her with such hatred. Skye felt the same way about herself at that moment. Skye’s abilities were too powerful. She had nearly killed her best friend without meaning to do so, yet it had been so easy. Skye was dangerous and she recognized it. She finally truly understood why so many wanted her dead. She couldn’t blame them.
“You don’t ever come around her again!” Buck spat to Skye as he stood in front of Kel protectively. Skye shook her head in denial. She wanted to explain what had happened, but she found it incredibly difficult to find the words to defend herself. He had every right to hate her in that moment.
“Buck stop! I let her do that.” Kel said standing up beside him. Buck didn’t acknowledge Kel. He ignored her.
“If you ever go near my girl again Skye…” the threat was left hanging in the air. Words were not needed though. Skye knew what he would do to protect Kel. Anything. Skye couldn’t help but to respect that even though she was ashamed of herself.
“Buck listen!” Kel weakly yelled while grabbing at his face forcing him to look at her.
“I knew what was going to happen. I signed up for it. No one forced me. I volunteered! Don’t blame her.” Kel hollered standing her ground against her very angry demon fiancée.
“You what? You elected to be murdered by someone who is supposed to be your friend? Someone we are here to protect? Yet you signed right up for her to kill you?” Buck asked angrily.
“I trusted her enough not to kill me. I knew she had it in her to save me.”
“It didn’t look like she was saving you Kel! You almost died. It looked like she enjoyed it.” His tone was full of disgust. It took a lot to disgust a demon.
“We had to see if she could do it. We needed her to take Kel’s life force until the point of right before death and then give it back to her.” Evan interjected. Buck shot him a look full of venom. Skye winced. Everyone was angry and fighting amongst themselves when it was all her fault.
“You should have found an enemy to torture and nearly kill. Not my girl. Never again.” His eyes locked with Kel’s. “You will never agree to do anything so stupid and suicidal again. Do you hear me?”
Kel’s hand went straight to her hip which was every woman’s body language for ‘I’m about to kick your ass’ and they all knew it. Kel shook her head to Buck.
“I love you and I love that you want to protect me but I am not weak. Skye is not weak. We are here for a reason. We are here to make sure she had the power she needs to become a savior to her people and to ours. I’m sorry that you had to see that and I’m sorry that it worried you. Trust me, it was no picnic for me either. You have to know that I will do anything I can to help my best friend out.” Skye stood up slowly looking to them all keeping her distance.
Buck closed his eyes and tried to calm his breath down. His chest was heaving up and down heavily from the worry, the anger, and the murderous feelings he was feeling towards Skye. Kel wrapped her arms around Buck giving him a soft kiss.
“I love you. I’m fine. Now stop trying to tell me what to do or I’ll turn into a wolf and eat your ass. Okay?” Kel said with her usual kind smile. Buck let out a half laugh.
“Yes ma’am.” He kissed her softly then looked to Skye. He took a deep breath to calm himself. “Skye…” he began.
“No. Please don’t apologize to me.” Skye cut him off.
“I think I owe it to you.” he responded.
“No you don’t. You saw me killing the love of your life and you reacted. I would have done the same thing.” Skye said.
“But I threw you to the ground…” Buck dropped his head. “I’m not normally violent with women. I’m not that guy.” Skye let out a soft laugh and walked up to them slowly.
“I know you Buck. You weren’t thinking of hurting me when you tossed me aside. You were only thinking of getting to Kel and making sure she was okay. I understand that. I love that you will do anything to protect her. I hate what I just did. I think I’ll hate a part of myself for the rest of my life for having to see my friend look like that.” Skye’s eyes filled with tears so badly she had to look away. Everything was blurry and she just wanted to disappear. She felt a hand on her shoulder.
“I trusted you and I asked you to trust me to be able to handle it. We did it
together. I’m fine. We are fine.” Kel said softly. Skye turned and pulled Kel into her arms hugging her fiercely.
“I hate myself for what I did to you Kel! To see your beauty and life just drained,” Skye cried holding onto her. “I would have died without you.” Kel smoothed Skye’s hair softly as she kissed her cheek.
“Of course you would die without me. Ho’s before bros.” Kel said making Skye laugh a little.
“You’re my sister Kel. You are part of me.” Skye said looking into Kel’s eyes. Kel wiped a tear from her own cheek and nodded.
“I’m always going to be your sister. I knew you would bring me back. It was bound to be tricky and hard considering you’ve never tapped into that part of your power before. I trusted in our bond, in our love, that you would keep me alive.”
“Oh Kel. That was stupid but I love you for it.” Kel laughed at Skye’s assumption of it.
“Well, considering we both fell in love with demons, uh, stupid is high on our list of characteristics.” Kel joked.
“I’m so sorry,” Skye said softly.
“I am too. I’m sorry that it sucked. I’m sorry that you were scared and that we scared Buck. I’m sorry that you had to feel that. However, I’m not sorry because it worked.”
“Quit being so damned smart.” Skye pouted playfully. Kel’s loud laugh truly showed Skye that Kel was back to normal and that she would be fine.
“Skye,” Buck said approaching them both. Skye looked up at him and saw the murderous hatred that had been in his eyes for her were gone.
“I love you Buck.” Skye said. He smiled and wrapped his arms around Kel and Skye pulling them into a tight hug.
“Our big softie demon.” Kel whispered into the hug.
“I love how I’m being left out of the hugging here. You know it was my experiment and idea to do all of this.” Evan finally spoke up from the side. The three of them looked to him with wide eyes. “Maybe I shouldn’t point that out so everyone doesn’t blame me, huh?” They laughed and pulled Evan into their group hug.
“Seriously though Evan, the next time you have an idea like that I may have to tie you down and rip parts of your body off.” Buck said as they released each other. Evan had a wicked smile cover his face.
“That’s closer to the way I like it.” Skye’s eyebrows shot up. What the hell did that mean? Evan was secretive about his sexuality. Was there something to hide? Evan looked to Skye and laughed. “Don’t question it dear. It’ll blow your mind.” Evan said as he walked away.
“Evan’s a freak.” Kel said with a huge smile.
“That’s becoming more and more apparent. How did he hide it so well before? He always seemed so normal.” Skye asked.
“The quiet normal ones are always the ones you should worry about.” Buck said with a wink.
Buck took Kel away with him to be alone with her. Skye was sure he would tend to her every need and she was happy for that. Evan looked to Skye and let out a huge smile he had been holding back.
“You were amazing!” Evan nearly jumped out of his skin. Skye’s mouth could have hit the floor she was so taken back by his statement.
“Amazing? I nearly killed my best friend!” Skye wanted to grab Evan by his shoulders and shake him until the goofy ass smile he had plastered on his face left.
“Yes, that’s technically true, but you didn’t. You were able to take almost every bit of her life from her and take it inside of yourself. That was the task and you… excelled more than I thought was possible.”
“More than you thought was possible? Wait! Did you think I would kill her? Were you willing to sacrifice her for some stupid ass experiment?” Skye was ready to suck the life force out of Evan and this time she wasn’t sure if she would hold back.
“Calm down. Yes, there was a chance. She knew that. I really did think it was possible, but I didn’t think you could take so quickly and to give it back to her as quickly either. She healed remarkably fast. I’ve heard in other situations the victim, uh, volunteer took days to recover, but Kel is just fine. That shows how powerful you really are!” Evan rambled on happily.
Skye turned away from him to take a moment to calm herself. Part of her understood why he was excited and what this now meant, but she would forever have the look of Kel’s face when near death in her mind. It would be a reminder to her to be more careful with her powers.
“Evan there’s a huge problem with all of this.” Skye said.
“What?” he walked to face her.
“There’s never been anyone like me before. My powers are, or could be, different than anyone else’s. What worked for other people may not work with me. With all of the mixed bloodlines I carry inside of myself, who is to say one may not take over and next time the volunteer really wouldn’t be the victim?” Evan listened to her words thoughtfully and nodded slowly before answering.
“You have a good point. If we are going to do more tests like this we need someone disposable.”
“What? Disposable?” Skye rubbed her forehead. Evan truly was giving her a massive headache.
“We kidnap an enemy and use them.” he smiled again.
“So now we are kidnappers and people who torture others? I thought we were just trying to protect ourselves.” Skye said harshly. She didn’t mean to sound as harsh as she did, but the shock of what Evan was suggesting made her sick to her stomach.
“The bad guys out there? They don’t care who they hurt. You do. That is a great quality in a warrior, Skye, but it is also a great weakness.” Evan walked away. Skye was left standing alone filled with so many contradicting thoughts that she knew she was going to need a nap.
She knew she had to be tough enough to attack and do what was needed. Skye didn’t know if she could literally torture someone. She had never been someone who had ever thought about that sort of thing. Skye stood frozen for several minutes trying to imagine what it would actually mean.
Skye tried to imagine a horrible demon who had killed many innocents tied to the tree. She tried to imagine using him for practice knowing how evil he was and even then her stomach turned at the thought. Perhaps caring too much was a weakness, but there were certain lines Skye was not yet willing to cross. At least not now.
Chapter Nine
Skye got into her bed with one intention and one intention only, to see Maddox. He was still gone on his mission to find her Nanna, but she was missing him more than she realized she would have. Skye knew it was silly to have given her body to him and expect her heart to stay out of the matter when her love for him had never faded away. It was time for her to stop fighting her feelings and accept them while she still had time. In the world they lived in, with a war on the way, she had no idea how long they had. She was determined to cherish every moment from here on out.
Skye closed her eyes once she was tucked in under the covers and concentrated hard on finding Maddox. She had done it while in her home realm without even trying. This time though, it was much different. She had no idea where he was and this time she really wanted to wear clothes and not show up naked like before.
“Maddox,” Skye whispered as she focused on his face. The hard lines of his jaw, his soft lips, his deep penetrating eyes, and the soft black hair that would sometimes cascade around his face.
“Skye?” His deep voice made her jump just a little. She opened her eyes and she was standing in front of him. The smile that broke out on her face must have been infectious because he smiled back. Skye couldn’t help but giggle.
“I did it! I wanted to astral project to see you.” She explained. Maddox looked her up and down with hunger in his eyes and nodded.
“And you thought showing up naked would be the best idea? Don’t get me wrong, I approve.” Skye looked down and stomped her foot.
“I tried to keep my clothes on!” Maddox laughed as he walked over to her and took her into his arms.
“I prefer you this way.” he whispered into her ear.
“Oh do you now?” She raised a teasing e
yebrow at him.
“Skye, I would take you anyway I could get you. I love you. You know that.” Skye felt herself melt at the words. She knew he meant them and to be in his arms in this moment felt perfect for her. Until she finally looked around and noticed their surroundings.
They were standing in the middle of the woods. No one else was around but them. Skye looked at the small camp he had made for himself and then backed away from him.
“Where are you?”
“Outside of your Nanna’s cottage. We have it surrounded in case someone comes back. We haven’t found her yet.” His eyes looked as if he wanted to say much more but held back. Skye was about to press him when he bent down and took her mouth with his own.
In that moment feeling his body keeping hers safe and warm she forgot they were in the middle of the woods and that she was stark naked. She only felt how wonderful his lips felt against hers. She opened her mouth allowing his tongue passage inside of hers and flicked her tongue against his playfully. He made a sound deep in his throat that made her stomach feel as if butterflies were dancing inside of her.
“Maddox,” she whispered. He pulled back only a fraction, only enough to look down at her.
“Skye,” he said.
“I didn’t necessarily come here for a booty call you know. I just missed you.” He barked out a laugh.
“Booty call? Not that I don’t mind that either, but I was just kissing you. I miss you too.” Skye rested her head on his enormous chest and let out a sigh of contentment.
“Maddox, we’re together right?” Maddox looked down narrowing his eyes at her confused.
“Of course we are together.” Skye fidgeted a bit in his arms nervously.
“I mean ‘together’ together. We are a couple right? I know we didn’t officially say that or anything so maybe it’s presumptuous of me to think that, but…” Maddox put his finger to her lip silencing her.
Shattered Skye (The Skye Chronicles Book 3) Page 6
