by JF Holland
“How could you think she was me, how is that even possible?” she was furious at the obvious lie as they looked nothing alike. She was also not a tart who went after other women’s men.
“I don’t know, but she won’t be doing it again,” he sighed.
“What do you mean?”
“I heard her screaming as I was overpowered. I’ve not heard anything from her since though.”
“She could be in another room.”
“She is, but I don’t think she’s alive. I can hear dripping and smell blood. It’s her blood Lana, but there’s no heartbeat and no noise from her – although I can hear them moving about.” Lana sucked in a breath as she tried to figure out where he was.
“Can you give me any idea where you are? Look around you, is there anything that looks familiar?”
“I’m underground somewhere by the looks of it. The only source of light is coming from oil lamps as there are no windows. It smells of damp soil... I think I’m in some sort of cavern, like a soil bunker. Shit… I’m sorry Lana, I’m out of time. Go, I can hear them coming. Damn, that’s a fucking big knife… break off… break off now… I don’t want you to hear or see this.” he ground out.
“No, Balin, you stay with me. Balin answer me, god damn you, answer me now,” she shouted out loud forgetting to speak telepathically to him. All she got back was the sensation of him grinding his teeth as agony bloomed in his stomach. Then he let out a pain filled scream as he was gutted like a fish.
A scream lit the silence, and Jaden came screeching to a halt in the living room doorway, Sam, Helena, and Maya bumping into his frozen figure. Lana was levitating off the floor, blonde hair crackling and floating around her as if caught in a strong breeze. Her usually green eyes shone amber as her mouth opened in another scream.
"They have that which is mine, playtime is over," she screeched as her feet slowly lowered to the floor.
“What are you talking about?” Jaden asked as her heard swung towards them, her fingers twitching.
Lara, came running down the stairs in black cotton pyjamas, pushing past the others in the doorway. Then her and Helena put themselves before them, sheltering them in case she lost control. Whatever was going on seemed to have woken her phoenix, not that they knew how that was even possible. Only death then fire was meant to click in the phoenix gene.
“Baby, you need to calm down,” said Lara moving towards her daughter - Helena on her heels. Sam tried to move Maya and Jaden further back from the doorway, but Jaden wouldn’t budge. He looked to Lana frowning, then his stomach bottomed out as a thought hit him.
“Who have they got Lana?”
“They’ve got Balin and I want him back. He is mine, they cannot have him. I will not sit on my hands while they torture him.” Her eyes glistened, filling with tears as her throat moved convulsively. Jaden lost colour and then roared, the sound one of agony.
“Where is he? Where is my brother?”
“I don’t know, but I will find him. I will use our connection and I will find him.” Just then she let out another scream – the sound so piercing the windows in the front room blew out. Shattered glass spraying out and then being sucked back inside as if a vacuum seal had been broken - covering the room in tiny shards. The blast of the shock waves knocked the others off their feet on impact.
“Noooo,” Lana wailed aloud as her connection to Balin began to waver and fade. “Don’t you dare leave. Take a fucking breath, don’t you dare die on me. I do not give you permission to let go. You hold on - we are coming for you, just hold on,” she screamed, still talking out loud in her distress. She dropped to her knees as if deflating, a marionette whose strings had been severed. Her eyes squeezed tightly closed and a lone tear escaped, sliding down her cheek.
“Get me a witch, get me her now,” she choked out on a heaving breath as her eyes flipped open and landed on Jaden. He was holding onto the doorframe, eyes wet and his own throat moving.
Sam pulled his phone out with shaking hands to dial just as someone began banging on the front door.
“Open up,” came the Scottish brogue of Douglas, Aggie be needin to talk to you.”
“No, not Balin… please. Open the fucking door,” shouted Jaden holding onto the door frame. Sam fumbled to put his phone away, blanching, leaving his usual healthy mahogany skin a sallow grey colour as he rushed to let them in. Maya moved up behind Jaden, her arms going around his waist and her face burying in his back to comfort him.
Chapter Fourteen
M aisie sauntered into the room. Her red hair dull, dirty and hanging in rat’s tails. Blood smeared across her cheeks and forehead, blue eyes alight with utter madness. On her tail came Davion, and Balin’s eyes slit. The man didn’t meet his gaze, eyes downcast as he shuffled in her wake. He’d noticed in the meadow the night Maya and Jaden had bound how he appeared to do her bidding - but he’d never realised until just now that the man didn’t seem to have any emotions.
“Davion, get here you worm,” Maisie spat scathingly over her shoulder. “Why they had to leave kill Adrian and Jackson and leave you I’ll never know. You are a waste of time, always have been. It’s draining me to keep you under,” she snapped.
His feet seemed to move under duress, as if he were a puppet on a string – hesitant, dragging steps as if he were fighting the pull. Balin tried to see him properly, but it was useless in the dim lighting, his cats vision not seeming to be working - as if muted somehow.
Shit, he really wished he hadn’t seen the knife in her hand - it was fucking huge. He tried to break off from his conversation with Lana. His time was up and he did not want her in his head to see or hear what was about to go down. If the look on the witch’s face - and the size of the blade were anything to go by - it was going to be bad. It was at least twelve-inches long with a serrated blade, like the ones hunters use to slice up their kill - and this one was already covered in blood.
Maisie stopped before him, head tilting from side to side like an owl. Grabbing his chin in her left hand she lifted his head so he was forced to look at her. Grinding his teeth, Balin stared defiantly back at her as she smirked and taunted him with the knife. He would not give her the pleasure of seeing him sweat even though he hated knives.
“Can you smell her blood?” she said running it beneath his nose. “Stupid little sex starved nymph - so easy to manipulate. She made a fatal error by letting her nature rule her. Taking my offer of help was also another error on her part and she paid the ultimate price for her naive stupidity. Although I must admit that her blood wasn’t quite as satisfying as it should have been – especially as her energy was depleted,” she tutted.
“Did you know that once a nymph picks a sexual partner they are stuck, fixed on and relentless in their pursuit of them. If they can’t seduce their chosen prey, they are doomed to wither away and die unless they have a mate to release them. Unfortunately for her no mate, and she chose someone with morals and a faithful streak. Obviously, when she began to weaken as she couldn’t get you to fuck – thus feed her, she became desperate enough to come to me for help. However, as you’d neglected to do the deed her energy and aura were depleted so I didn’t gain as much as I should have.” She snapped, eyes flashing with anger then shrugged again, “It was a pity that I had to kill her as she would have made a nice diversion for me. Nymphs have very few taboo’s if any, where sex is concerned,” she purred. “They make the most entertaining and satisfying lovers when they are at their peak and satiated.”
She spoke in a conversational tone - as if sharing a tasty snippet of gossip or a piece of general knowledge. Her whole tone and demeanour were at complete odds with the madness swirling in the depths of her eyes. Balin ground his jaw, sadness and anger rolling in his gut over his part in the nymph’s death. If he hadn’t allowed his cat to control his actions he would never have used her to get back at Lana. He’d been childish and petulant and she had paid the ultimate price for his temper tantrum. More galling and shameful though was that
he still couldn’t remember her name.
What did that make him?
“Davion, move your useless hide. Bring that bucket over here, I don’t want to waste any. I am desperately in need of the rush this will bring me as you are a parasite,” she scolded over her shoulder. Then smirking she turned back and lifted on tiptoe, running a fingertip over the mate mark on Balin’s palm. He tried to close his hand into a fist - her touch repellent - but the cuff on the manacle tightened preventing it.
“Hmmm,” she purred. “This is so going to pay jackpot,” she hummed a tune off key as she traced over his mark. “The rush and power I will receive from your blood running in your daughter’s veins will be worth having to deal with your sorry hide for all these years Davion. I’ll finally get the reward that Adrian assured me of when he convinced me to let you live,” she smirked.
Balin frowned as she released his hand and he again tried to get a look at Davion.
“I can see you wondering what’s going on,” Maisie laughed. Then snapped, “Davion come closer and let Balin here get a good look at you.” The figure behind her again moved hesitantly and awkwardly forward, stopping before him.
Maisie stepped behind Davion, stashing her knife under her left armpit as she grabbed a fistful of the back of his jet-black hair - pulling until he lifted his head. “Do you like my pet? Isn’t he impressive?” she mocked, licking up the side of Davion’s neck. “He takes a lot of energy to keep him at bay - and the older he’s gotten the more it takes. However, he’s powerful and the rush of the mental fight I get keeping him under control compensates slightly,” she grinned, tugging on his hair again.
Balin looked at Lana’s father and had to bite back a gasp. His green eyes were cloudy, his gaze dead as if all the life had been sucked from him - a shell of what he should be. As Balin stared, trying to fit the pieces together Davion’s eyes flicked to his, anger burning in their depths before being extinguished as she pulled his head to one side, fingering the chain around his throat.
Maisie laughed, her right hand coming over Davion’s shoulder, flicking the chain that lay close to his skin as she moved the collar of his shirt. Hanging from the chain was a silver moon pendant, blood-red ruby set into the centre with rune like markings etched around the stone.
“I can see you admiring his collar, and it is a collar. This little piece of jewellery here helps me control him. Pretty, isn’t it?” she purred, dropping the necklace and pulling his hair with a snicker before dismissing and stepping around Davion to once again stand before Balin. “With that piece of jewellery, I can control his will, his wants, needs, and desires. My will over-rides his own. He is my puppet, my slave and sex toy all rolled into one. He has been for… well, ever really. It’s taken me eons to learn how to control him properly. He’s broken free several times, but I always find him, eventually. Fun times. Especially watching and feeling the mental anguish and pain caused to him when he hurts his mate. I’ve let him go a few times just for the rush I know I’ll get when I find him, then make him do it again. He ruined my fun last time though by killing her,” she pouted, then shrugged before turning venomous eyes back to Balin. “Then you all had to come along and nearly ruin my bigger plans with your interference,” she spat angrily. “Your pain though will finally bring me my biggest reward after all these years when your mate comes running,” a smile splitting her face.
“Maybe your brother will work well as Adrian’s replacement, what do you think? He definitely has potential, I was enthralled watching him fight,” she shuddered licking her lips. “So, vicious - so lethal,” she hummed, the madness now shining clearly. Then as he watched her in horror, she pulled the knife from under her arm and thrust it straight into his abdomen.
Balin sucked in a shocked breath at the pain - grinding his teeth and trying to clamp down on the scream building.
“Do scream for me,” she said pushing it through his flesh like butter. “Pain and terror enrich the blood making it so much more powerful when I drink it. Plus, I want your mate to hear, you are nothing but a pawn to get what I need Balin. Now scream so that Lana can hear you,” she snarled grabbing onto the handle with two hands as she began dragging it up his stomach. She severed tissue, fat and muscle as she opened him up like a zipper - all the while humming as she toed the bucket beneath him.
Balin was helpless to suppress the agonised scream that was wrenched from his throat. His insides on fire, the pain so intense his vision began wavering, eyes rolling into the back of his head as he heard her maniacal laughter. He heard Lana screaming in his mind, shouting at him to hold on but he daren’t. If he survived she’d come for him and then her life would be lost, and that he couldn’t live with.
“I’m sorry,” he sent as he let go allowing the soothing blackness to take him. His heart slowing from its erratic thud of adrenaline as he gave in, blood seeping from the horrific damage she’d done to his body.
Chapter Fifteen
L ana sucked in a shuddering breath as Agatha came through the door, huddled into herself and being helped by Douglas her mate.
“It’s not Balin, Jaden, Sam, it’s Stephanie… the nymph,” Agatha managed on a groan as Douglas helped her down onto the sofa. Sitting beside her, he placed an arm around her shoulder to support her and she sighed rest against him. Douglas settled back, picking her hand left hand up and holding it in his own.
“Not Balin?” Jaden asked with confusion looking towards Lana, who shook her head, face white. “He’s still alive?”
“Barely,” Lana whispered, as her mother helped her up and onto the other sofa.
“Barely?” Jaden asked and she nodded, a tear running down her face.
“They’re torturing him,” she hiccupped on a cry, her hand covering her mouth. I think he’s passed out though, although I can still feel him, the static is still there, but I can’t connect. If he was gone I’d get nothing, like I did before this thing between us kicked in.”
Jaden blew out a shuddering breath and released the doorframe, clapping Sam on the back and squeezing his shoulder in a show of comfort as they all took seats.
“Agatha, may I get you something?” Maya asked.
“That depends on whether I need to send you out of the room on the pretence of making me tea,” she replied.
“No, I promise. I just… we all need to know what’s happening. I mean Balin was fine this morning, fed up but fine,” Maya said, taking hold of Jaden’s hand. Lana let out a sob and her mother took a seat beside her.
“Aggie be needin to get said what she came here for, then I can get her home to rest,” Douglas told them, but looked towards Jaden. “I be sorry for that bitch gettin Balin, he’s a good lad,” he said, his Scottish brogue thick. Jaden smiled despite himself as the wolf called his one-hundred-and-ninety-seven-year old brother a lad.
“Thank you both for coming,” Jaden told them, trying to reign back his cats rage over his sibling.
“You said the nymph is the one who came to you?” Maya asked and Agatha nodded.
“She tricked Balin.”
“How? Why?” Lara asked.
“The how is easy, glamour, the why… well, that is a little more complicated. Firstly, you need to know a little of their nature. Nymph’s are controlled by theirs, so it’s not personal it’s just how they are made. A nymph must have sex, it’s what feeds them and sustains their energy. Unfortunately, once a nymph decides on a partner they can’t just drop said partner when they don’t comply. They have no control over it. If their chosen partner doesn’t comply and feed their needs they begin to wither away. The only way around for them is if they find their mate - as doing so will then release them from the bad choice they made. Without a mate to free them, they are left with no energy – which can lead to death,” the room let out a collective gasp.
“I thought that was a succubus?” Sam asked, confused.
“No, the difference is once a nymph has taken enough to feed her through sex, she leaves her partners drained, but whole a
nd happy. Whereas a succubus uses sex to feed from their energy. Immortals will survive a succubus, but unfortunately, too many times is not conducive to living for a mortal, they can’t take it, as it strips a little of the soul away. It’s usually very easy for both Nymph and Succubus to seduce partners as they both have a natural allure that is normally impossible to resist. An allure which even the mate mark of an unbound mate won’t stop.”
“But Balin…” Lana began and Agatha held up a shaky hand.
“Balin was ready to settle down, he wasn’t fighting his binding, he embraced it. He had in fact been looking forward to having a family of his own.”
“But we’re his family,” Jaden replied, hurt despite himself.
“Yes, you are, but he wanted a mate. Someone to live and raise his own family with - someone who would be a true partner to him in every sense of the word. He wanted someone he could talk to and spend time with – someone who’d understand him - to wake up with each morning. Balin has been looking forward to finding his for quite some time…”
“But…”
“Jaden, you yourself were not looking forward to having a mate,” he went to protest. “I know you are now very happy with Maya, but at the time, to you, being mated represented opening yourself up to the possibility of loss. Whereas Balin doesn’t remember much of your parents. He was young when they were murdered. Plus, the added injury he himself received took what few memories of them he did have. You, he remembers as you were so close, but again he only remembers snippets about you, feelings. He was looking forward to finally being bound as he wanted what he’d been denied - a connection - a mate that would want only him.”
Lana covered her mouth, a sob escaping and her mother placed an arm around her shoulder.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know, I didn’t understand,” Lara choked out, rocking her daughter and trying to soothe her.
“Your life has not been an easy one - so your hesitation in accepting these men into your life is understandable. Now though, you must listen to me. These are good men and we have known Balin from being a boy. A badly wounded, scared, lonely and heartbroken little boy. I helped heal him of the devastating and near fatal injuries he sustained at just five-years-old. They’d tried to decapitate him with a knife, a child left dying, lay amongst the bodies of his murdered parents. So, when I say I know him, I mean, I know him. He was with Douglas and myself this morning asking for advice. All he wanted to know was what he needed to do to repair the damage his jealousy had caused - and how to get the nymph of his back. Balin is a good man, an honest man, and although he may be a little cocky and a prankster, he isn’t a cruel man. The actions on the night he met you were a knee jerk reaction to finally finding his mate. The mate he’d been looking forward to meeting and getting to know - then seeing her dancing for other males.” The room was silent as Agatha spoke softly.
