“What’s wrong?” Concern flared in his voice.
How could I tell him what I’d learned? I thought this entire situation was bad enough when Lexy mentioned she would have to take in a portion of the wraith during the spell, or even when she mentioned the pain, but now that I knew it called for someone to die for me, I wasn’t sure I could go through with it.
“She’s shocked by the things the spell we will have to use calls for,” Lexy answered for me without giving any distinct details.
“This means you have agreed to help,” Randal said.
Lexy smiled. “I did.”
“What does it call for?” Dex stepped to the countertop and glanced at the things Lexy had placed on its surface with interest. “All of this stuff? What is it?”
“No.” Lexy shook her head. “It doesn’t call for any of this. This is what I’m using to help keep her sane and safe until the waning moon happens in two weeks.”
“Why then?” Randal’s voice was low and calculating, as though he was waiting for the floor to drop out from under him.
“Because it’s the only time the spell can be done,” I answered. My voice was weak sounding, strangled even.
Randal smoothed his hands over my forearms and then pulled me into him. Obviously, he had taken the time length as the reason for my worry. I’d let him believe that for a little while. Of course, eventually I would have to tell him and Dex, and even Sage, what I would have to offer up for the spell, but not right now. I couldn’t.
Right now, I was debating whether I should go through with it at all.
“Will one of you flip over that sign on the door for me?” Lexy asked sweetly. There was no indication of the bomb she had dropped on me minutes ago.
“Sure.” Dex crossed the shop. “Do you want me to lock the door as well?”
Lexy nodded. “Thanks.”
Twenty minutes later, Lexy was explaining everything she had made to help me. There were two different types of teas and one vial of liquid.
“Okay?” She stared at me with hard-set eyes. I knew she was wondering if I had taken everything in and retained it. I hadn’t. My mind was jumbled from learning of the sacrifice the spell would call for. I needed to write everything down so I would remember it. “I’ll go over it with you one more time, just to be sure. All right?” Her eyes had softened, and I knew it was because I was wearing my emotions on my sleeve. I was beyond exhausted and could no longer keep up a neutral front.
“Thanks,” I muttered.
“This tea in the white bag is for before you go to sleep. You want to drink it while you focus on a calming, relaxing place in your mind. It will help you create your own dreamscape where you can rest comfortably and peacefully.” She held up the sheer white baggie. I nodded my understanding, and she continued. “This tea in the black bag is to help ward off the need to feed so often. It slows your metabolism, which will also reduce the rate the wraith is growing inside you. You need to drink this right after you feed the next time, and then at least once per day, preferably in the morning.”
I took them both from her. “White tea for sleep, black tea for after feeding, and then once a day. Got it.” I reiterated what she’d said, hoping to prove I was soaking it all in. All I wanted was to get out of here. I needed to think, to process everything. I was ready to head home.
“Yeah, and this vial is for you to place a drop on each temple and then one at the base of your neck.” She pointed to the places as she talked about them, as though I weren’t able to follow. “It’s to help keep you in control of yourself, your actions.”
I took it from her, thinking about how badly I had needed it on the ride here. Then maybe I wouldn’t have attacked that janitor the way I had. “Got it.”
“Good. Here’s my card with my cell number on it.” She handed me a white and green business card with the shop logo printed across the front. “Call me if you have any problems, or if anything changes.”
“Thank you.” I meant the words wholeheartedly. I was grateful for what she was doing for me, a complete stranger. It wasn’t her fault the spell needed to get rid of this thing called for something precious to complete it.
“You’re welcome.” She flashed me a sad smile. “Take care. I’ll see you in two weeks.”
There was a question flickering through her eyes. I knew she was asking if I was going to go through with everything. My lips pursed together into a flat line. I continued to stare at her, debating what my answer should be. Finally, I nodded.
“Yeah, two weeks.” I dropped my gaze from her, feeling as though I had practically signed a deal with the devil.
Randal placed an arm around my shoulders. “Thank you for your help. I know you didn’t have to agree to anything, but I want you to know how much it means to me that you have. Truly.” The warmth in his words nearly made me cry.
While he had every right to thank Lexy for what she was doing, he didn’t know all the details about how she would do it. I wondered what he would think of me after he found out. Would he hate me, because I wasn’t sure I could live with myself if I went through with this. My conscience already beat me up enough when it came to feeding off men. I was sure it would kill me to know someone had given his or her life to save mine.
How could I even ask anyone to do that for me? What made me worthy of life more than someone else?
“Thanks for everythin’. You’ve got a nice little shop here, by the way,” Dex said. I noticed he stepped forward and swiped another business card from her holder on the counter. He lifted it up and flashed her a charming smile. It accentuated the dimples he had. “Just in case she loses hers.” He winked.
Lexy’s cheeks tinted to a pretty shade of pink. “Oh yeah, sure.”
As we stepped outside, a warm breeze brushed my skin, and I inhaled the salty air. I had thought finding Lexy and having her agree to help me would have lifted a weight off my shoulders, not weighed them down more.
“I think she’s into me.” Dex slapped the business card against the palm of his hand. “What do y’all think?”
Randal chuckled, the vibrations of it hummed through my body. “It’s possible.” He pulled me in, and pressed a kiss to my temple. “I can’t tell you how glad I am she agreed to go through with everything for you.”
“Yeah.” My voice was small, and not nearly as thrilled as it should be. I cleared my throat and tried again. “Me too.”
“How did you persuade her to change her mind?” Randal asked.
“Yeah, she seemed pretty hell bent on a no when we stepped outside.” Dex nudged me with his elbow. “You got some secret mind tricks you haven’t told me about, darlin’?”
A faint smile twisted my lips. “No, she said she could sense I wasn’t like other succubi, that I was different.”
“Exactly what I have said about you. You’re pure, Kenna.”
“I guess so.”
My insides churned. Would he still feel that way about me if I went through with this spell? I wouldn’t. My heart hammered against my ribcage as my stomach coiled in on itself at the thought.
I had two weeks to find someone who would die for me, willingly, or else the wraith inside of me was going to savor my soul.
SACRIFICE
A Succubus Kiss Novel - Book 3
Preface
The wraith’s laughing grew closer. He was making his way up the hill at a carefree pace. Anger mingled with my panic, fueling my rapidly pounding heartbeat. I hated him. I hated everything he stood for. Most of all, I hated what he was doing to me, what he would do to me.
My eyes skimmed the shack. There were two windows caked in dust on either side of the door. If I could bust one open before he reached me, I might be able to hoist myself inside. Maybe I could use something to block the window, or maybe there would be a weapon.
What could you fight a wraith with though? Wraiths were already dead.
Moving to one of the windows, I wiped my palm against the glass and smeared the dust away so I cou
ld see inside. What I saw chilled me to my core.
The entire house was filled with ghosts.
A rainbow of auras floated through the one-room shack in the shape of people. Men, women, and even a few children were congregating inside. What the hell was this place? A storage container for the dearly departed?
While some seemed more animated than others as they flew around franticly, searching for a way out, others appeared stagnant as they slumped in a corner or lay on the floor, unmoving. I wondered if those ones had given up finding a way out. I didn’t have much time to think about it, because the wraith was breathing against the back of my neck, his icy fingers trailing along my spine.
“Do you like what you see?” he whispered. “Don’t worry. You’ll be in there before long too. No need to rush,” he teased.
I swallowed hard. “What is this place?” My muscles tensed from his close proximity, urging me to run, but I knew it would be fruitless. I was trapped between the wraith and the rough wood of the cabin.
“It’s where I store the souls I’ve overtaken.” He breathed against the back of my neck.
Shivers slipped along my spine as I inspected those trapped inside, counting them as best I could. There appeared to be hundreds. Either this wraith had gotten around, or he was older than I thought.
“Aren’t they pretty?” He tugged on a few strands of my hair. “I bet you never thought my collection of souls would be so vast.”
My eyes widened as the ghost of a little girl floated to the window. She pressed a hand against the pane, eyeing me. Her aura was my favorite shade of yellow—bright and shiny amid the sea of blues, pinks, and greens. Her eyes locked with mine. I could sense the sadness and pain in them. Her lips moved, mouthing the words, “Help me.”
Sickness twisted my gut. “Why would you keep them like this? What purpose could they serve you now?” The words tumbled from my mouth without much thought. My hand pressed against the glass pane, covering the little girl’s, wishing I could help her.
“The same reason most serial killers keep trinkets from their victims.” The wraith ran his fingers through my hair, pressing his body flush against mine. “To remember them by.”
Chapter 1
Dear God, I had become one of those girls. The type I hated most. The kind who acted as though they couldn’t breathe without their boyfriend shoved up their ass. This was what I thought about as warm hands slipped beneath my tank top to caress against my stomach. Randal had mentioned the need to visit Red River, as well as run a few other errands, and instantly, my heart pounded. The desire to ask if I could tag along burned across the tip of my tongue, but I sank my teeth into my bottom lip to keep the words at bay.
When had this happened to me? When had I become one of those girls?
If I thought hard enough—and was completely honest with myself—I could pinpoint when. It happened after returning home from Avalon Bay. Something inside of me changed during that trip, and not for the better. The search for Lexy Bloom—who happened to be the only witch I knew of with the power to rid me of the vile wraith taking up residency inside of me—had gone well. We had found her little shop, Bloom’s Garden, without trouble, and after pleading my case to her, she had agreed to help with minimal resistance. While I had felt horrible once she informed me of the toll performing a spell of this caliber would take on her, the feeling disappeared the second she elaborated on what the spell would cost me.
My soul.
No matter how you twisted it, that was the price I would pay. The spell called for someone to willingly die for me. Lexy had explained it as a balance that needed to be kept. Some sort of eye for an eye, life for a life bullshit was what I was guessing it boiled down to. It had been four days since we left Avalon Bay, and I still hadn’t shared the precious cost the spell called for with anyone. The time to mention it seemed to have passed. If I were to divulge it now, wouldn’t I seem as though I had been considering the idea in depth?
“You appear lost in thought. What has your mind so consumed?” Randal’s scent invaded my senses as he shifted closer to me. There was something about his particular aroma—all spicy and masculine—I loved. His intense stare swept over me when I didn’t answer right away. I could feel his eyes skimming my face.
“Nothing.” I shifted to look at him, hoping I had skillfully kept my thoughts from my eyes. Randal was good at reading people. It was something that came with age, I presumed. “Just wondering what the best way to celebrate my freedom tonight is.” There was a teasing quality laced within my words. I was proud of myself.
If anyone deserved an Oscar, it would be me for the performance I was about to give.
Randal arched a brow, his gray eyes catching the fragments of light in the room and reflecting them back to me. “Feeling a bit brazen, are you?”
A smile twisted my lips. This man was sexy as sin, and he was all mine. Maybe that was why I didn’t want him to leave for the night. My stomach hardened as soon as the thought surfaced, because I knew it wasn’t the truth. I didn’t want him to leave because I was scared to be alone; that was the raw and honest reality of the situation.
Never in my life did I remember feeling this afraid to be alone, not when my mother left, or even after my father passed away from lung cancer.
Somehow, I had allowed myself to become submerged in Randal, to use him as an escape from the things tormenting me, both mentally and physically. I hadn’t been alone since before our trip. While things had been smooth since leaving Avalon Bay, I somehow must have associated that smoothness with having Randal at my side twenty-four-seven. I shouldn’t have, but there was no denying I had. As my limbs trembled with the thought of being alone with my thoughts and the wraith for the night, the realization couldn’t be clearer.
“Maybe I am.” I reached out and trailed a fingertip down his sculpted chest until I reached the white sheet bunched up at his waist.
A thought hit me from nowhere: It wasn’t that I was afraid to be alone, but that Randal served as a beautiful distraction from the finer details of my life.
I could handle this viewpoint. In fact, I preferred it to deeming myself as being too scared to be alone. At least then I could exclude myself from the category of females who were so damn clingy you wanted to shake them.
Randal leaned into me and trailed soft kisses across my bare shoulder. “Does this mean you are ready for a second round, then?” His hot breath slipped along the sensitive area where my neck and shoulder met.
When he lifted his stare to lock with mine, I pressed my lips to his, letting my actions answer his question. The feel of his lips on mine sent fire through my veins, engulfing me in the only sensation that could derail my mind from the wraith and the insane price I would have to pay to be rid of it—lust. It pumped through me, waking every cell in my body and energizing it with an unquenchable hunger for more. It was a double-edged sword. It detoured my mind from my life-threatening predicament, but it also fed the wraith in small increments, allowing him to gain strength.
Thank goodness for the teas Lexy had given me. Without them, I was positive the amount of sex Randal and I had taken part in since our return would have given the wraith all the power he needed to overtake me. While the tea designed to suppress my heightened desire to feed and slow my metabolism tasted horrible, it must have been working because I still felt in control…except for when it came to Randal, of course. I couldn’t get enough of him.
As my tongue found Randal’s, I deepened our kiss. He moaned his approval, and then shifted his body until he was hovering above me. I wrapped one of my legs around his waist, pulling him closer while letting him know I was ready to propel to new heights when he was. A need for him to be inside of me pinched through my core as I rocked against him to further get my point across. It was times like this when I found myself wondering if the things Lexy had sent me home with were laced with an aphrodisiac or two, because my desire for Randal seemed to be all consuming at times.
When his hand c
upped my right breast, and he gently rolled my nipple between his finger and thumb, causing it to pebble from the friction, I knew there was nothing in the things Lexy had given me. This was something else, something far more chemical and primal to be caused by a potion. While I did harbor feelings for Randal, I also knew not having sex with anyone for over a year played a huge part in my sudden flare of libido, as well as it serving as the best way to distract me from my life.
He lifted my tank top, exposing my breasts to the cool air of the room. In the span of a heartbeat, his head dipped and he pulled the nipple he’d been fondling into the hot recesses of his mouth. I withered beneath him, enjoying the feel of his tongue and the heat of his breath. My eyes closed as the pulse of pleasure throbbing through my core became nearly overwhelming. When he shifted, moving to give the same amount of attention to my left breast as he had my right, I trailed my fingers down the length of his back and around to rub his erection through his boxer briefs. Every muscle in his body stiffened at my touch, and an animalistic growl came from between his parted lips as I increased my pressure. Tingles of excitement from the sound cascaded through me. I hoped this time when we had sex, it wouldn’t fall into the category of sensual lovemaking. Hopefully, Randal would finally let loose like he had during our first time together. When he bit at my nipple harder, I knew I was about to get what I wished for.
Our eyes locked for a moment, allowing me a glimpse of the dark and dangerous flickers of emotion heightening the cool gray of his eyes. My pulse quickened as adrenaline spiked through my system. Was this bloodlust I was seeing reflected in his stare? While I knew it had been days since he fed, due to our inability to separate for even an hour, I wasn’t sure exactly how long it had been for him.
Randal snaked his fingers through my hair and tugged my head back, exposing my neck to him. A surprised gasp escaped me from the gesture. While I had fantasized about him feeding from me, and what it would feel like, I never imagined it actually happening. My heart pounded inside my chest as his lips skimmed along the side of my throat. A groan left him, as though he was tempting himself with his actions, and I fisted the sheets, suddenly on edge. As his teeth nipped and bit at my flesh while his tongue tasted, my tense muscles loosened and so did my grip.
Succubus Kiss The Complete Series Page 33
