“It says I read a lot of trashy books…”
His hand slipped up my shirt, but in a slow, gentle way. An exploratory mission that took its time finding the sensitive nub it was seeking. They pebbled as he brushed fingers across them. “Charlotte,” he said. “Don’t be scared.”
“I’m not scared.”
He scoffed.
“Okay, well, this place is a freaking nightmare. It’s only smart to be scared. There are ghosts here.”
“You are very sensitive,” he said, lightly swirling his fingers around one of my nipples until I let out a little moan. “To ghosts.”
“Ohh…”
“Must be that necromancy study,” he said. “I’ll protect you. All right?” His voice was soft but authoritative, demanding an answer.
“All right,” I said breathlessly as the space between my legs cried for some attention.
“I just wanted you to myself now and then.” He kissed my neck. “I want you to forget where you are. Forget what you’re afraid of. Forget everything but me.”
“Such a narcissist, but I guess all exiled princes are.”
He wrapped his hand around my chin and claimed my mouth, the force of his kiss suggesting that he would like me to be quiet. I decided it wasn’t worth it to fight, certainly not when his touch felt this good. Now his hand felt up my thigh, pausing to cup my bottom before tugging my panties down. I was a little embarrassed by how needy I felt, in the midst of everything else going on. A few minutes ago I wasn’t even thinking about Harris pounding me on a creepy old bed while ghosts probably watched, and now I found myself saying, “Mm…yes…”
Our bodies pressed together now, leaning close, tangling up together, his erection confined by his pants but pressing against my naked skin as he flung up my skirt, and he was kissing me, caressing me. I started undressing his lower half with the urgency of a wolf in heat who happened to have girl hands, and he quickly started unbuttoning his shirt too. Fair enough. We didn’t need to Winnie the Pooh this.
Fear sex also makes for hot sex. I guess it was up there with makeup sex. Intense emotional states had their perks. I had no idea what it would be like being confined to the ward for bad wizards, and I shut my eyes to block out the sight of the place. Harris grabbed my knees and split me open, and since my eyes were shut I didn’t realize he was going to prime me with some tongue action.
“Oh damn,” I gasped.
“Spread that pussy,” he said, before his tongue slid to one side and then the other, urging me open.
I felt like I should say something snarky, but I was way too turned on.
“You’re mine,” he said, before sinking his cock into me deep. “Say you’re mine.”
“I’m yours,” I said without hardly thinking, shutting my eyes again. I had a micro-orgasm just from the first thrust, and it only drove my need deeper. “More, more,” I groaned as I dug my fingernails into his back.
“Ha,” he said, like he’d won a round. And he had, I guess. Maybe. But I didn’t mind losing like this.
Chapter Ten
Charlotte
After sex, I wanted to fall asleep. Harris was holding me. It was actually pretty nice. He wasn’t a gentle presence, exactly, but I felt safe with him. He seemed very awake and it made me feel like I could let my guard down.
Still, there was an eerie, faint moaning sound that might have been wind creeping through a crack in the window, or maybe was just the building settling, or maybe was a desperate cry from beyond.
I remembered something. “Harris, what was the dark side of us sharing a room?”
“You’re taking something for birth control, right? A spell?”
“Yeah, they gave it to me at the infirmary at Merlin.”
“They’re not going to give you that here, I can guarantee it.”
“Are you saying they want me to get pregnant?” I furrowed my brows. “Before we’re even married?”
“If we had a baby, my parents would have an easier way of forcing us into the life they want us to have,” he said. “They know we wouldn’t want a baby to grow up here. So, when they offer freedom in exchange for good behavior…basically, a baby makes you easier to control. As an individual person, you can jaunt off and put yourself in danger. Once a baby is in the picture, you won’t want to do that.”
“Who says? Maybe I want to jaunt around with my baby? My family has somewhat of a wild record.”
“I wouldn’t put it past you,” he said. “But then my parents would ask the council for custody. If it was my child, they would win. Then, at least, they have my heir, which I guess is better than nothing.”
My mouth fell open. “That—that is awful.”
“I warned you it was dark,” he said. “But I know how they think. My parents don’t even approve of birth control; how do you think there ended up being seven of us? Anyway, we’ll work around it. You can’t get pregnant with Montague and Firian, so you won’t be lacking for attention. And I’ll still get what I want out of you. If I fill that little mouth of yours I won’t have to hear so much complaining coming out of it.” He ran a thumb over my bottom lip.
I slapped him, my skin hot. “Then I guess I’ll have to complain twice as much the rest of the time.”
“I don’t doubt that you’ll get me back.” His smirk was so confident that I wanted to slap him again. Harder. I’d left a pink mark on his cheek but it was fading. I wondered what he’d do to me if I tried it, and I realized I was getting turned on again.
“I—I wonder where Alec and Montague are staying,” I said, feeling the need for a palette cleanser.
He sat up suddenly and reached for his clothes. He got himself put back together in about two seconds. I don’t know how it was that his clothes didn’t even look wrinkled. “I want to find Daisy,” he said. “If she’s been here for weeks already…”
In the distance somewhere, we both heard a woman screaming, “Nooo! Nooo!” It was an unhinged, desperate scream, laced with tears. “Don’t put me back in there, oh god, please, don’t take me back, nooo!” The voice shrank away and then stopped. The hall was dead silent now.
Harris’ eyes cut to mine.
“Let’s find Daisy,” he repeated, more tense.
We walked around, getting a feel for the place. There were halls full of bedrooms, of course, occupying most of the upper floors, but the side wings were blocked by guards. Windows overlooked an inner courtyard, showing that the building was actually a square, but the back side of the square also looked like it was gated off.
“Can’t come in here. Therapy in progress,” the first guard said when we tried to go left.
I was pretty sure I’d heard the screaming over here, but at least it was quiet now.
“Are you looking for someone?” asked the guard at the building’s right wing.
“Daisy Pendleton. She’s a friend of ours.”
“The diviner, oh yes. She’s always in the lounge. It’s in the basement. Follow the signs to the swimming pool but turn left before you get there.”
The basement vibe was like, 1970s college library meets a church basement where you would hold a really lame party, with a dash of Soviet recreational building. Lots of tile, gold carpet and retro furniture that was almost cool but was also somehow not. The air was cold and sterile but seemed uncirculated.
Summary: Depressing.
This was where we found Daisy. In a small room, curled up on a worn out green couch, watching television. She didn’t look up at first, not until Harris said, “Daisy!”
She blinked like she’d forgotten to do it for awhile. “Harris? Charlotte? Is that really you?”
“Can I turn a light on?” Harris asked, but did it anyway. “Yes, it’s us.”
“I was hoping they wouldn’t catch you,” she said, wiping sand from her eyes. “But I guess, since they did, do you want to watch TV? I caught up on Queer Eye, Charlotte. I cried so much. Like, it’s so beautiful. You’re right. I love Jonathan. I want to be him.”
> There were several empty shot glasses by the couch. Harris picked one up and sniffed. “What are they giving you?” he asked.
“Some stuff to like, I don’t know, make it easier.” She reached for his jacket and clutched the hem, not letting go, just holding it. “I still have to do my magic but at least I can watch all the TV. Grandmother didn’t let me watch all the TV. So I’m all caught up on Queer Eye and Project Runway and I watched all the Marie Kondos…”
“Fun,” I said.
“And then I watched all of Key & Peele and all these, like, Marvel movies.”
“That’s a lot…”
“And then there all these adorable movies about Christmas, and I saw some Real Housewives, and there was a documentary about rappers and I watched this Lego Elves show, and—”
“I have no idea how you even got to all of those things,” I said. “You must have broken the algorithms. I think it’s time to stop watching TV, though. You look like you need fresh air.” I turned off the TV and made her get on her feet. She wavered a little, and then gave me a dazed look with dark shadows under her eyes, and then she threw her arms around me.
“Something’s wrong with my head, Charlotte,” she said. “How long have I been here?”
“Daisy, have they been forcing you to do magic the same way Piers did?” Harris asked.
“Yes. They make me look for dark spots.”
“You mean Sinistral parallels?”
“Yeah.”
“And they’re giving you drugs so you don’t resist.”
“At least the magic isn’t so bad with the drugs,” Daisy said. “I don’t feel so alone when I’m alone. And when I send my mind off searching for the things they want, it doesn’t feel as weird.”
“No more drugs,” Harris said. “The Daisy I know might be crazy but she’s definitely in control. How did they get you from the vampires?”
“Oh, the vampires. They were all like, ‘We think we found Lisbeth. Goodbye!’”
“That’s cold!”
“Well, they did offer to find me a place with some other vampires, but…” She rubbed her head. “I don’t really want to be a vampire’s thrall either. I spent a week with them and they look hot but they’re actually like, old people.”
“The sad truth about vampires revealed,” Harris said dryly. “They are old.”
“So I was like, just take me to New York. And then the warlocks grabbed me. I’m never going to escape. Never. So the only thing I can do is take the edge off.”
“Well…you…could have options,” I said.
“Oh yeah?”
But it wasn’t a very good option. As soon as I said it I realized that anyone who took the faeries’ deal was still trapped. “The faeries are looking for witches and warlocks to marry. They said they will allow us to access Wyrd if I bring them thirteen brides.”
“Faeries…” Daisy looked pensive. “They’re worse than vampires.”
“But maybe they won’t force you into using your powers,” I said. “They don’t seem very interested in our magic. I have a feeling they’ll be pretty controlling, though. They want the faery brides to fit into their society.”
“Ugh. Nooo,” Daisy said. She looked sleepy.
“Let’s get her back into her room to sleep off this stuff and find the other guys,” Harris said. “Now that we know she’s okay.”
Daisy stumbled to her room and collapsed face first on the bed. It was similar to our room, just smaller in scale. Daisy had pinned magazine pages to the walls. Harris turned her over and put a blanket over her.
“Are the drugs addictive?” I asked. “Maybe I should ask Firian to watch over her.”
“Luckily, she’s also from a well-regarded family,” Harris said. “They won’t want to fry her brain or mess her up too much. The thing I know about the Haven is…well, it’s a prison, and like any prison, if you have friends in high places, you are treated well. I don’t know what’s going on behind the guarded doors.”
“All of us have friends in high places…right?” I asked nervously.
“If I’m worried about anyone, it’s Alec.”
Chapter Eleven
Alec
“Mr. Xarra, this is your room.”
Monty took one look at his small, spartan room and shrugged. “Is Alec next door?”
Miss de Georgel gave me an expression that confirmed what I already knew. I didn’t belong here. I had already been ‘purified’ and it didn’t go well. It banished my warlock side and made me a full-on demon.
“You two can’t do everything together,” she said. “Alec has…his own quarters. Follow me, Mr. Lyrman.”
“I’m going with you,” Monty said.
“You may not,” she said.
“What are you going to do to him that I’m not allowed to witness?”
“Every patient here has their own course of treatment. For the sake of privacy, you must stay here.”
“You’re going to hurt him! I know you’re fucking liars,” Monty said. “I’m not going to let you hurt my best friend. He might be an incubus but he is in control.”
“Do I need to call the guards?” she asked sharply, holding up a hand as he bared fangs are her.
“Monty, I’m fine,” I said, trying to de-escalate the situation. Montague’s temper wasn’t doing anyone any good here. “Maybe you can find Charlotte and Harris and hang out until I get back.”
I was pretty good at staying calm, usually. So I was trying to hold onto that. Why panic now? They were probably just going to ask me some questions and maybe give me one of those spells that blocked me from touching the girls. Even if they wouldn’t let me touch Charlotte, I could still get to her in my dreams. They hadn’t figured out a good way to block dreams.
“Sorry about him,” I said. “He has a lot of Aries energy in his chart, so he argues even when he shouldn’t. He was always getting into trouble when he was younger, but I guess you know that, since he was already here.”
Usually, people expected an incubus demon to be hot-headed and seductive. Little they know, I’d had a lifetime of trying to win my dad over, and I was great at mature behavior. When I started speaking in a calm voice, it never failed to settle down old witches either. After all, on a deeper level, I still couldn’t help but be seductive. The combination was a winner every time.
Except…this lady. She wasn’t even that old, maybe fifty, but she had a strict air even I couldn’t seem to penetrate.
“I hope my room has good natural light,” I said. “With these old windows, I’m sure most of them do. I don’t really care about the bed or the bath half as much as a good space to paint.”
That was angle #2. Almost everyone liked having an artsy guy around, just minding his own business.
But I already had a feeling it wouldn’t work.
We passed by a guard and turned a corner. The atmosphere changed. It seemed locked down and sort of apocalyptic. The doors were metal instead of wood and had heavy locks. I heard a banging noise and some cries and one door opened. Two nurses pushed out a gurney with a girl strapped down on it, unconscious.
“We’re done with the room,” they said, seeing us.
I immediately dropped the nice guy attitude. “What’s going on here?” I said. “They already tried to purify me once and it didn’t work.”
“Come in,” she said, pointing me through the door.
As soon as I stepped in, a few guards seized me, wrestling me to the ground.
Now I was just flat out fighting them as best I could, trying to shake off one while shoving another out of my face. Then I slammed back an elbow at the third guy. That was as good as it got for me, though, because they swished their wands at me and with a few spell words, my hands and feet were bound with magical glowing ropes.
They stood back. I heard murmuring behind me, and Miss de Georgel stepped out. It seemed like we were waiting for something.
I twisted around as best I could. “You don’t need to do this. I’m not host
ile.”
“Well, you probably will be,” one of the guards said before another one nudged him.
When the door opened again, the man who walked in had a very calm vibe that seemed to fill the entire space. He had long, straight dark hair that came just past his shoulders and large blue eyes, and he wore a long coat embroidered with Hand of God symbols, blue eyes to match his own glaring out from palms. He made me think of photographs of Rasputin; he had that same intensity. The guards got very quiet as soon as he entered the room.
“Hello, child.” He placed a hand on my head. “So I hear you are a lost one. They drove out your Ethereal nature and banished you to Sinistral. Do you want me to help you turn back to the side of righteous order?”
“I don’t know who you are,” I said. “My familiar already died because of what they did to me at Merlin College. I don’t think I want any more experimentations.”
“My name is Father Bogdan and I am a priest of the Order of the Blessed. We are a group formed from wizards of many religions who have come together as one, working silently and tirelessly to turn back the darker forces that influence our world. As the human world is ruled by sins, our task becomes more difficult. Technology is poison to magic, and it leads to greed, corruption…and lust. As long as you are an incubus and subject to lust, you are a sinner.”
“Bullshit,” I said. “I shouldn’t lust after the girl I love? She’s the only one I want. The only one I’ve ever had.”
“You lust after others.”
“I don’t,” I said.
“You are lying,” he said.
“I mean, I have physical attraction to other women, but not like I care about her. If I don’t act on it, how is that a sin? Whatever you’re selling, I don’t want it.”
He walked behind me so I had to twist again to see him, and spoke spell words, tapping my back with his wand. As soon as the tip touched me, an electric fire shot through every nerve in my body and I screamed with pain. The demon inside me stirred, wings and tail sprouting from my skin as my body grew larger to defend itself. I thrashed against the ropes. That was the kind of pain that reduces man to animal. All I could think of was escaping it. I swung my head, trying to shove him back from me with my horns.
Battle of the Hexes Page 7
