Bastard Stepbrother (Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance)

by Faye, Amy

  Gripping the axe in his hand, Dean waited for a second swing of the tail. He leaped over it and swung the axe. It bit into the dragon's scales and flesh, forcing a scream from the beast's mouth. Dean pulled the axe away before the tail could swing it out of his hands.

  Drops of the dragon's blood fell onto his hand and singed his skin, leaving dark red marks long after he wiped the hot blood away.

  Dean ran forward, desperate to do something, anything to stop the dragon. The honed blade of the axe cried out for the dragon's blood. As he ran into the arms of the dragon, Dean raised the axe over his head with both arms and forced the blade into it's breast bone with savage fury.

  He tried to pull the axe back out, but it was stuck there, and before he could use more force he was being picked up and held feet above the ground. Tentacles had wrapped around his torso and arms, bringing Dean up to the dragon's face. Its red eyes were murderous, full of rage and hatred for the man that had cut so deep into it.

  Dean took a breath and closed his eyes, waiting to die. I tried, Cady. I'm sorry. He choked back tears again, thinking how pathetic he was to cry.

  A pop, a sharp scent, and Dean fell to the ground. He hit so hard that the breath left his lungs in a wheeze, then magic hit his body like an atom bomb and he lost consciousness for a total of two minutes.

  He screamed, waiting for the teeth of the dragon or its dark flame, but he felt nothing. He heard nothing. The smell of magic was faint, far away. Cracking on eye open, he gasped.

  The dragon was gone. Just, gone. The axe that had been embedded in its bones was on the ground next to Dean.

  His body suddenly released the panic that had held him. He didn't have time to dwell on the how or why. He had to get to Cady.

  Standing, he trembled, but forced himself to focus. He would have to follow the scent of magic again.

  Chapter 14

  Cady

  “Follow me, my dear.” Olivia held Cady's hand gently, her thumb stroking her skin. They were standing in the field, over the hole that she had fallen into only days before, but Cady only barely remembered that.

  The two women slid into the hole and started their slow descent into the cave. The warm flicker of candles set in holes in the rock guided them, showing Cady more of the drawings. They didn't make any more sense to her then than they did before.

  She saw the drawing of the Yith. Her chest swelled with pride, knowing that she was related to those beings in any way. Their great knowledge and unbelievable abilities filled her with awe.

  The cave eventually led to a large room with a high ceiling that was mostly empty. In the very center was a block of the same black rock that made up the walls. A long shelf was carved along the walls, too, and on the left side Cady could see many things placed on it. It was about chest high, and as they drew closer, Olivia smiled.

  “These will be our tools today,” she said, waving her hand as if she were presenting them. She picked up a knife made of a black metal. “This is an athame, a ritual knife. It will be used to cut open my palm, but it won't be used on you.”

  There was a broom leaning up against the wall, as well as a bowl of water resting next to it. The rest of the items on the shelf were pretty clearly magical in nature. A bell with a pentagram drawn in it. A small black cauldron, empty and cool. A golden chalice next to a magic wand. Olivia picked up the wand.

  “It's made from petrified wood. Ancient stuff, very powerful.” Holding it out to Cady, she showed either end to her. “On the bottom is a black opal, which represents death and rebirth. On the top is a black diamond. These stones force the truth out of people and situations and strengthens the power of spells.”

  Cady nodded. Somehow, all of that information just made sense to her. She even felt that she knew some of it already.

  Next to the wand was a sword. Its razor sharp edge was blue against the silvery steel of the face. The incense burner next to it was empty, but nearby there were different plants and herbs organized in small wooden bowls.

  “Wood stops the magic from escaping into the air,” Olivia pointed out. She seemed to be buzzing with energy and anticipation. She pointed to each of the herbs and named them. “Caraway, fennel seed, dragon's blood. Dragon's blood makes spells, potions and other magical effects more powerful. That's just a plant, though. Not actual dragon's blood. There's galangal root, then ginger root, juniper berries, and finally mandrake root.”

  There were other bowls, but Olivia didn't name their contents. She took some of the bowls and mixed the herbs into the cauldron, adding some of the herbs to some water from the bowl. Clicking on an electric burner beneath the cauldron, she let it heat up as she slowly stirred the ingredients with her athame.

  Cady was struck by the juxtaposition of a modern electrical appliance and the use of electricity in such an ancient cave, to create what must be a magical potion. She laughed to herself as she watched Olivia mutter words she couldn't understand over the water, then turn of the burner and pour the liquid into the chalice.

  “Drink,” Olivia said, holding the chalice to Cady. The taste was sweet. Expecting to fall asleep, Cady leaned against the shelf, but she didn't become tired. No, it was more like colors became brighter and sounds became more beautiful. When she looked up at the ceiling, she saw that what once was solid rock had become an opening, a portal that looked like the night sky twinkling with stars.

  “When the time is right, my dear, I will need you to open that portal. You can see it because of your blood and that potion, but we need to bring that opening to our plane of existence for the ritual.”

  “Where does it lead to?” She asked, staring in wonder at the sky above her. A strange feeling, like she was being watched, came over her. She frowned and shivered.

  Olivia placed a hand on Cady's shoulder. “It leads to the black city. A land that you could never comprehend, even with your connection to The Mad Arab and the Yith.”

  Cady's eyebrows stitched together with concern. “I don't know how to open it, though.”

  “You will, when it's time. It will come naturally to you, as it came naturally to your ancestors and will come naturally to your child.”

  Footsteps could be heard coming down through the cave's tunnel. The men and women walked in, dressed all in white. The women wore long, flowing dresses, and the men wore loose shirts and pants. Around their neck were strings of bluebells, one of Cady's favorite flowers.

  Olivia turned back to the table and made another potion as they men and women formed a circle around the altar in the center of the room. They were silent, their eyes blank, but Cady wasn't disturbed by this. It all seemed perfectly normal to her that they might behave that way.

  She dipped the chalice into the cauldron and took it around the room, having the men and women drink from it. They then, one by one, laid down on the floor with their hands clasped over their ribcage, closing their eyes with faint smiles.

  When she had gone around the entirety of the room, Olivia turned to Cady with a wide grin. “It's almost time for the ritual. Could you please lay on the altar? You need to be facing the portal when it's time.”

  Dean

  Dean's body was still aching and sore when he finally made his way through the woods and into the farm's fields. The buildings, far off though they were, were obviously empty with dark windows. The air was again crackling with visible magic. It looked similar to the stars he saw when he stood up too fast after laying down for a while.

  Looking up, there was a strange color to the sky. A color that he couldn't quite describe. It wasn't quite red or orange, but similar to blue though very different. The field and buildings of the farm, he saw, glowed a faint gray-blue.

  As he passed a tree, the glowing grew brighter, and his stomach churned. He moved away and the nausea left as his distance grew. The same happened when he passed a water pump, it glowed and he nearly threw up over its metal handle.

  He moved towards the hole, which had a light coming from it that was different from the
light of the soil and trees around him. It was warm and orange, like that of candle light.

  The tunnel into the caves below beckoned him into their belly, drawing him down. He walked, looking at the strange chalk drawings on the wall as he passed by them. Straining his ears for any sound, he found instead that all was silent, only the occasional sputter from a nearby candle making sound. The silence seemed wrong, fake somehow.

  As he moved further into the belly, his instincts started to tell him it was a mistake to go any further. He chose to ignore those feelings, knowing that he needed to save Cady. He just had to get to Cady.

  The opening greeted him, and with it came the sight of the cultists laying on the ground in their white clothes, their eyes shut. Dread was all that Dean felt then, dread that Cady could be dead and his mission to save her an utter failure. He had always been a failure. He failed Edwin when he lost a limb to save Dean, and he failed his daughter.

  He nearly choked out a sob before he saw that she laid on a large rock in the center of the room, surrounded by the cultists. Judging by their rising and falling chests, they were still alive.

  Her red hair spilled over the rock, her eyes open and her mouth open wide in a smile. Approaching her, he was relieved to see that she, too, was breathing. He leaped over one of the cultists to get closer to her, approaching the strange altar.

  Leaning over her, Dean searches her face and explores her eyes for an explanation. “Cady? Are you okay?” His warm fingers touched her cool arm.

  Her eyes never looked away from the ceiling, but her hand reached up and caressed his face. “It's so beautiful. So beautiful… and I understand now.”

  “Understand what?” Dean asked. Was there something wrong with her? Had she been drugged, brainwashed, or put under a spell? Regardless, he had to get her out of that cave and away from the whackos that had taken her.

  Away from his ex wife, who just then stepped out of the shadowed corner of the room.

  “She understands what she must do, and how she must do it. She understands her purpose. Something you have never experienced before, no doubt,” she mocked pouting, stepping closer. “But you will experience it soon enough.”

  “What the hell are you talking about? And stay away from us!” He barked, holding out a hand to stop her from moving closer. She ignored his protests.

  “You are going to be a king, my lover. A king to rule by my side, and not just a king of this planet. A king of all planets, and all times. You were made for this, just as she was made to bring about your crowning.” She held out her arms, pulling her into a hard hug.

  Dean pulled back, but Olivia grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pressed her lips against his, hard. His head swam, his muscular shoulders relaxed. This is all I've ever wanted, he thought. Wrapping his arms around her, he returned the kiss.

  Olivia pulled back, looking down to Cady who was laughing. She smiled and patted the girl's hand while Dean cocked his head. Conflicting emotions swirled in him, fighting with his desire to wear his crown.

  Cady reached out for him, and her touch was cold. It meant something to him, but he didn't know what. Pulling away, he crossed his arms. He didn't like how her touch made him feel. It made him feel wrong.

  Olivia's thin arm wrapped around Dean's waist and she turned them both towards the entrance from the tunnels. The axe slipped from Dean's hand, the metal head clattering on the floor.

  Chapter 15

  Dean

  “Come, my love, stand right here.” Olivia waved her hand over a spot on the floor, revealing a strange symbol there surrounded by a white circle. Dean obeyed her, leaving his axe on the floor. “You won't be able to move from that circle until the ritual is complete, so be patient.”

  Just then, Cady gasped, her chest rising and her eyes growing large. She raised her arms as Olivia scrambled to grab her athame from the table and stood over one of the women. The woman's pregnancy was showing, unlike most of the other women there.

  Moving her arms as a conductor would to lead an orchestra, Cady started the ritual. The portal above her opened. Looking up, Dean saw the night sky, staring into it. With horror, he felt that it was staring into him in return.

  “Dean, I thought I should tell you why you're so special before you give up your body to The Crawling Chaos,” Olivia said, kneeling down by the woman and touching her face with a smile. “You see, we were all experiments. You. Me. Cady. An experiment to mix the great races with humans. There were many purposes for this of course, but yours was the most important. You were mixed with a being that lived before humanity was even dreamed up by this cursed reality. A hound, one that exists outside of our own time. You were created to be the perfect host for our god: Nyarlathotep!” She gestured wildly with her arms.

  “Because of those experiments, something punished Nyarlathotep. Something unknown locked him away, dreaming in another dimension, only able to be opened by his own creations.”

  Olivia looked at Dean, who was staring up into the watching sky with his mouth open and his eyes wide, horror spelled out in every angle of his body.

  “He thought of that, of course. That's why he created Cady.”

  The sky above Dean moved in waves and ripples as something breached the surface. Tentacles reached down towards Dean, inching closer to him by the second.

  He tries to move out of the circle, but Olivia had been right. He was stuck there. The axe was far away, and he couldn't save himself or stop Cady.

  Past Cady, he saw Edwin, and his heart sank. He was laying on the floor with the cultists, his eyes closed and awaiting a death that he didn't deserve.

  “Olivia! You have to let me go! Don't do this!”

  “My dear, I was made to do this,” she said, and with a stroke she slit the pregnant woman's throat. The blood spilling from her raced towards the stone that Cady laid on.

  “You fucking mad bitch! I should have killed you when I had the chance!” Dean raged, slamming against the unseen shield around him. Olivia only answered with a laugh, shaking her head as she turned to the next cultist. One by one, she slit their throat as the tentacles moved closer to Dean, ready to grab him and claim him as their prize at any moment.

  They moved achingly slow, so that the fear was painful and constant. The blood flowing to Cady's altar was soaked up by the stone, in spite of it seeming completely solid.

  “Hey!” Someone cried out. Dean turned away from the horror above him and saw that Nicholas was running into the cave. “Why didn't you wait for me?! I thought I was supposed to become the vessel!”

  “Don't disturb the ritual, child. Your body couldn't handle the power,” Olivia answered, cutting another throat.

  Nicholas's face contorted with ugly rage. He howled and forced his body forward, hurling himself at Dean and forcing him out of the circle. Nicholas stood there instead, looking up to the sky not in fear but in devotion.

  The tentacles pulled back, then continue their reach towards their new target. Olivia only sighed in response, muttering to herself about men as she killed more of those laying on the floor.

  Dean leaped up in response and grabbed his axe. Its silver head sang as he swung it, chopping relentlessly at Nicholas. There was a shield around him, though, protecting him as Nicholas cackled and howled with wicked laughter. The tentacles had finally reached him.

  Nicholas's open mouth seemed to swallow something slimy and bulbous, but that Dean couldn't quite see. Thinking fast, Dean turned to Cady and grabbed her off the table, ready to run out of the cave and leave the madness to the mad.

  The portal shut with a shriek, forcing Dean to stop it was so painful. Some part of Nyarlathotep had been cut off, left behind in another dimension!

  “Let her open the portal again!” Olivia cried, cutting throats faster, frantically trying to regain control of her ritual. She would soon be upon Edwin.

  Dean laid Cady down on the floor, flinching as her red hair was soaked by blood, then readied his axe. Running at her, he swung it once a
nd met his target: he chopped off the hand that held the athame with a sickening crunch of bones. She screamed and yowled, scrambling away into the darkness of the room again.

  Sighing with relief, Dean turned to grab Cady again, only to find her floating above him.

  “What the –”

  Thin, black tentacles were wrapped around her waist. They held her high above Dean, her head flopped onto her shoulder. She was out cold, completely unconscious.

  Following the path of the tentacles, he saw Nicholas. Or, what had once been Nicholas. His body had been stretched, so that he was unnaturally tall. His skin also had a golden tone to it, and his eyes were black. Blacker than night. Blacker than even the eyes of a demon.

  Deep laughter bounced off the walls of the huge room as tentacles shot out and wrapped around Dean's arms and waist. “Let me go, fucker!” He yelled, struggling against the bindings.

  “Now I have a new body, and a new queen. Soon I will have the pleasure of killing my failed experiments,” the thing said. What had once been Nicholas showed his whites in a smile that was vicious.

  Tentacles began to work on Cady, tearing off her dress in strips of torn fabric. Still she slept, her mouth open slightly. She looked angelic even as she was about to be violated. The tentacles slowly, agonizingly slithered up her slender legs, reaching for their goal.

  The world went red then. At first Dean thought it was more magic, but he found that it was his own vision. He felt his body begin to contort, his voice growling lower and lower and his thoughts racing. Don't you touch her, don't you fucking touch her, he thought over and over again.

  His shape began to rapidly change, his form twisting into a creature with heightened senses and a hollow tongue. He was so hungry, maddeningly hungry, and there was something delicious smelling nearby.

  Somehow no longer bound, Dean's mind went weird. It felt as if he was chasing something, some prey, as if he was a wolf or a hyena. The thing was crawling, disgustingly formed, but it looked and smelled so delicious. He had to have it.