Seduced by Pain (The Seduced Saga Book 2)

by Alex Lux

  I picked up the silver orb and walked up to Rose. She had to know what Rainbow and I planned. She had to know how to stay safe. "We're leaving with the rose bush. For your sake, for Derek's, don't follow us."

  "How could you help her do this? I thought you loved me, that you were different! How could you do this?" Rose's voice carried through the woods.

  I looked at Derek, limp and helpless on the ground. He had bedded Rose. I could smell the deed on them. "We make the choices that are right for us. Sometimes, they aren't our first choices, because those have been taken from us, or perhaps, because they were never there to begin with, but they're the best we have. We try for better, but sometimes better is just a fleeting shadow, and it belongs to someone else."

  Rose glanced at Derek and wiped the tears from her eyes.

  I raised my hand toward her cheek, but let it drop an inch away. "Rose, I have to go, but listen to me—"

  "Why should I ever listen to you?"

  "Because I'm not Blake. Not the Blake you knew. There's more to this than you know. Your mother needs to perform a ceremony to acquire the power of the roses. A ceremony that involves a virgin sacrifice."

  Rainbow crawled toward us. "Stop. She can't know."

  "Silence." I raised my hand as if to hit her, and she twisted into a ball. "Run back to the coven, before I find another witch to do my bidding."

  Rainbow retreated out of sight, taking the other coven members and the rose bush with her.

  I turned back to Rose. "Rainbow has been using blood magic to gain more powers. That's how she brought me from the demon plane to help her."

  "You're… a demon?"

  "Yes. But Rose, there's more."

  She choked back a sob. "More? How could there be more?"

  "Your father, your real father, he was a demon. It's why you're different, and why she wanted you for the ceremony. Without you, she'll be forced to pick another sacrifice."

  "But, who? Who else could she pick who's a virgin?"

  I waited as she made the connection herself. Her jaw fell open, horror on her face. "Jasmine? She's going to use Jasmine?"

  I nodded.

  "You have to stop her. You can't let her kill my sister."

  "I have to go. I'm sorry. I'll do what I can." Yet someone will die, even if it's not Jasmine. I began walking away.

  "No, Blake. You can stay with us. With me."

  I glanced at Rose, and, for the first time, felt a heart full of agony. "No, Rose, I can't. It was foolish of me to ever think that I could."

  TWENTY SEVEN

  The Course of Love

  ROSE

  The course of true love never did run smooth.

  —William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

  Dear Diary,

  Life is a complicated mix of joy and sadness, love and hate, good and evil. This soup of mixed flavors can sometimes leave a bad taste in our mouth, but then with one bite of the sweetness, we remember why we feast, why we risk it all to sample life's cuisine.

  Derek and his family are my sweetness.

  THE AFTERMATH OF the attack left two of Derek's cousins with broken ribs, an uncle with a concussion, and the rest laid up at their homes, recuperating.

  Fortunately, no one had been killed, but the dug out rose bush looked like a child's grave, and that scar in the land pulled at the stitches that held this family together.

  Several days had passed, and still no one voiced any hope that we had a chance at victory.

  As we sat around the dinner table, picking at a pot roast, David, who didn't seem the type to stay in his melancholy, explained what the loss of the roses would mean for the O'Conners. "We still control the power of the roses, though it's waning. But if the witches succeed in their ceremony, we'll lose everything: our abilities to shift, our magic, our longevity, the foundation of our lives. And it wouldn't be like becoming normal human; it's more like losing your soul. A part of us would be ripped out. We're the guardians of that ancient power, and we've failed at our task."

  Derek squeezed my knee. He'd needed more physical contact than usual lately, not that I minded. Everything around him was falling apart because of my family, but I would find a way to make it right.

  Ocean, Lauren and Tammy sat across from us. Everyone was acutely aware of the one missing family member: Dean.

  Silence hung heavy in the room as we each considered the worst case scenario. No one had mentioned the shocking revelation that I was half demon. I couldn't even wrap my head around it, let alone process out what the ramifications of that was.

  Unable to stand it, I pulled myself away from Derek and stood and paced the room, my appetite gone. "We can't give up. I spent my whole life feeling helpless against the darkness in me, but I finally learned to control it."

  That had been a fun conversation to have with my future in-laws.

  "Dean believed that I could free him from the demon plane, which means I can. I'll find a way. Father Patrick and Drake can help. Also, Ocean and I know the coven and that land better than anyone. We can get back the rose bush before the ceremony. We have to. They'll kill my sister if we don't. I won't let you lose your power, and I won't let my sister die. And… after this, if it's too much, having me here, because of the whole demon thing, or even because of the witch thing, I can go. I know this is all my fault. But please, just let me help fix it first."

  Tammy jumped up from her chair and came around the table to hug me. "You're not going anywhere. I've been surrounded by boys too long. I've always wanted a sister."

  Lauren and David joined in the hug, repeating her words. Derek smiled and reached for my hand through the mass of people. "I love you, Rose. Where you go, I go. Always."

  I sent a silent promise up to Dean that I would find him and save him.

  David smiled down at us. "Thank you, Rose, for reminding me of the truth. We can't lose hope. We have plenty of time before the solstice to plan a strategy and get the roses back. It's time to stop allowing fear to dictate our emotions."

  In the middle of that warmth, that love, that total acceptance, a little sliver of hope dug in, refusing to give way to the many fears and doubts that so often crowded it out.

  For where there was love, there would always be hope.

  ~TO BE CONTINUED~

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  About Alex Lux

  Alex Lux is a USA TODAY bestselling multi-genre romance author who fancies herself British and living in a swanky flat in London where she and the Queen frequently have tea and crumpets. In reality, she's a native-born Californian who has a great fake accent and often compels her kids to get their fake British on as well. She does love tea, but drinks it with her Sexy Russian Prince (who's not really a prince, but he is Russian, and he is sexy). Together they write books with lots of sex and intrigue while raising three little girls who are entirely too smart for their parents' own good.

  When not penning toe-curling sexiness, she writes fantasy and science fiction with her husband as Karpov Kinrade.

  Find her at AlexLuxBooks.com

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