She rushed toward him, her hands feeling like fire brands on his frigid chest. He craved the warmth, but the touch was too much. Painful.
"Don't." He winced. "She'll be here any moment. Get out. Now." He put every ounce of strength he had left in the words, yet they sounded whiny and pitiable.
"I can't leave you like this. I'm so sorry for sending you here in the first place. Please tell me you don't blame me."
Oh, he blamed her.
Hadn't he just been relishing the ways to punish her? But seeing her now, standing in front of him, and knowing what Lucy would do to her if discovered—fear devoured the sliver of hope.
"Please, Tierra, think of your sisters, the baby. If you have any feelings for me, you'll leave now. I couldn’t bare it if something happened to you."
"Do you love me, Killian?" she asked, her voice shy, her eyes downcast.
Did he? He had lived for so long, had many dalliances, and remembered a few women he'd taken to bed fondly, but love? Did he even know what love was?
"Are you willing to die for me?" Her hands trailed over his stomach, the touch raw and unwelcome. "I know about the deal. Why won't you take it? Be with me. I've missed you."
"To give up our child would be like giving over my own soul. I can't do that."
"You're forgetting something, Killian. I don't want this baby. I've considered aborting it."
"No." A painful fist clutched his heart. "You don't mean that. I've seen you. Your hand protectively covers your belly, the mother bear in you fighting to the forefront whenever it's been threatened. You love our baby."
"No, I don't. It's changing me, making me do things, crave things that are unnatural. Scary, dark evil things. This child was never meant to be born. It's an anomaly, a freak of nature. Please, take the deal. If not yourself, do it for me."
"Look at me, Tierra. Look me in the eye and tell me that." Suspicion started to clear his senses. The woman he knew would never consider aborting the life growing inside her, regardless of the creature that fathered it. She was an earth witch and therefore abhorred the idea of killing anything.
"I can't. I'm so ashamed of how I feel. And I'm scared, Killian, scared of what you and I will unleash on the world. How can we be that selfish?"
"Kiss me. Let me taste you, feel you against me." He held his breath as she slowly lifted her head toward his.
Their lips met, and bile rose in his throat. He yanked away from her. A crafty smile spread over her lips, and her silvery eyes met his.
Not Tierra, but Aerin. That bitch.
Had Aerin completely gone dark then? Was that why she was here? Certainly not to save him, not after he'd come so close to killing her.
She tilted her head back and laughed. "Took you long enough." She trailed a finger farther down his chest, and it felt as if an electrical current followed in its wake. "And here I'd lowered myself to dress in this hideous outfit. Though, granted, they are comfortable if not more suitable for the homeless. Did you know your precious Tierra wears the hand-me-downs of her relatives? Trunks and trunks of dusty clothes are packed away in the attic and she shops out of them. I think that's more than a bit crazy." She slid her smoky gaze down his naked body and studied his manhood, her fingers brushing close. "I have to know—you're the fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse, an immortal who could have any woman he wanted. Many women for that matter. So what kind of hold does Tierra have over you?"
He gritted his teeth as bile rose higher in his throat. Had Aerin made a deal with Lucifer? She hadn't seemed the type who needed or wanted anything from anyone else. So what could the Devil offer Aerin de Moray that would have her signing on the dotted line? It had to be power. Everyone knew Aerin was hungry for more, but would she have willingly sacrificed her sisters to taste it?
He didn't answer her question. Instead, he asked one of his own. "What have you done, Aerin?"
"Oh, I've done plenty. Answer my question, and I'll tell you all about it. Do you love Tierra?"
"Why do you care?"
She laughed and turned away, gliding to stand in the middle of the room. The bells on Tierra's bracelets sang with her nimble movements, causing his heart to ache.
"Well, for one, it would explain a lot. Why you'd forsake Lucy, a sexy, powerful immortal—who I'll admit to having a little crush on myself—for a lowly earth witch, and why you aren't willing to do the one thing that would spring you from this prison. Can't imagine you're enjoying your . . . stay."
"Do your sisters know you're here?"
"There's a lot my sisters don't know about me." She smirked. "As I'm sure there's plenty your brothers don't know about you. Come on, you can tell me. Do you love my sister or not?"
"It's none of your business. That's between Tierra and me."
"Ah, still upset with her for putting you here. But, you see, I'm not leaving until I get an answer."
"I don't give a shit what you do."
"Oh, you might." She held her hands out to her sides, and sparks flew from her fingertips, flashing into lightning. The lightning instantly sought out the copper rods skewering him to the wall. His body bowed and convulsed from the electricity arcing through him. A scream escaped him regardless of how he tried to contain it. The pain was too much and needed an outlet.
"Wow, wasn't that intense." Aerin ambled over to him, her eyes wide with fascination. "Tell me, how did that make you feel?"
"Fuck you."
She laughed, the sound unlike anything he'd heard Aerin utter. "You should be so lucky."
"Julian won't be happy to know what you're doing."
"Fuck him. Oh, wait, been there, done that. Disappointing, I can say. Virgins are so much work. All those questions, the teaching, it was downright frustrating. Really not worth all the hype. But then you took Tierra's virginity, so I bet you understand where I'm coming from—er, not coming that is."
His mind reeled. Julian and Aerin slept together. If Lucy found out . . .
Aerin was playing a dangerous game. Lucy would be beyond furious if she knew Aerin had taken Julian from her. The term, "Hell to pay," would take on a whole new meaning. He wondered if she'd considered that before she made her deal.
"What did you give up, Aerin, in your deal with the Devil?"
"That's just it. I didn't give up anything. Well, I have to train under Lucy, get back at the Horsemen, and make sure the Apocalypse is successfully accomplished, but those were things I already wanted. So it’s a win-win for me, and a loss for you since you're my first Horseman to geld. No wait. I'm pretty sure I gelded Julian. The man is useless now that I've ridden him into oblivion."
Aerin walked over to the wall and turned a large valve to a water main.
"You've been down here a while," she continued. "A lot has changed back home. And unless you want to answer my question, I guess we should step this up a notch. I do believe I have a knack for torture, and I love hearing you scream." She held her hands out to her sides again. She levitated up from the floor, her icy eyes glowing demonic in the shadowed room.
Water bled from the walls, pooling at his feet, and lightning flew from Aerin's fingertips again.
Chapter Two
"Where's Aerin?" Tierra asked, entering the kitchen to find her sisters eating breakfast and studying ways to get Killian out of Hell. Claire was on the computer, and Moira was deep in the pages of the Grimoire.
"She's sure been gone a lot lately," Claire muttered. Her hair hung in a sheen down her black silk top that she'd paired with even blacker jeans.
"And bitchier than normal, have y'all noticed?" Moira bit into a pop tart. "Gotta be her time of the month, but doesn't that only last like five or six days?"
"Maybe for her it's longer," Claire added. "Lately she seems to be in a constant state of PMS."
"I miss having a period." They both looked at Tierra like she was crazy. "Hey, pregnancy makes PMS seem like a cake walk. The bloating, the cravings, the freaky dreams. Everything is so much more intense. And my breasts hurt." She adjusted
them in the constricting bra.
"Lose the boulder holder. Does wonders for me." Moira shimmied her shoulders, her breasts moving freely under the blue Bubba Gump Shrimp t-shirt. She'd given up on the threadbare tanks as the weather had turned much cooler with fall settling over the Northwest. She even wore a full pair of jeans, instead of the cutoffs. Granted, they were torn at the knees and frayed at the hem, but she at least had more skin covered for a change.
Tierra put the kettle on to heat and pulled out organic fresh eggs. Glancing around for Cheeto, she grabbed the bacon.
Good. The pig was MIA, too.
While she'd always eaten a vegetarian diet, this pregnancy required more. Since the horrific day she'd devoured a bag of Moira's pork rinds, she'd given into the cravings as it kept the morning sickness at bay. Rather than fight it, she decided a balanced diet of organic and processed foods was called for. Hence the bacon.
"It’s the back pain for me," Moira continued. "I'd do about anything not to feel those aches every month. Well, except get knocked up. Sorry. Okay, yeah, I can see why you would miss your period."
"Let's get back to where Aerin is," Claire said. "We need her help. It's like she has a second job or something. Have you seen her work on her computer lately?"
"No, I haven’t." Tierra held up the knife she was using to slice an apple, gesturing with it for emphasis. "That is weird, now that you mention it. Her laptop is like an extra limb to her."
"Maybe she and Julian are sneaking away for a bit of the old lust 'n' thrust." Moira set aside Grim and thickly buttered a biscuit. "They about tore this house apart the night she snuck him in. I'd sure like to know how she managed that."
"You and me both, sister." Claire grunted an agreement. "Actually, Julian didn't seem too pleased with her at the impromptu meeting we all had. He seemed more confused. Definitely not lover like."
"The man hasn't had sex in like . . . ever," Moira said around a mouthful, using her tongue to swipe at a glob of butter off her lip. "He might need some tutorials."
"Sure sounded like they'd enjoyed themselves," Claire muttered. "I don't think the chandelier will ever hang the same."
Tierra agreed. The thing had swayed and bounced, dangling in the room under Aerin's bed. She needed to make a note to have it reinforced. The crystal chandelier was a family heirloom, brought over from Ireland a hundred or so years ago by their great-great grandmother.
The bacon started to sizzle, and her mouth watered. She cracked an egg, even though it wasn't the egg she wanted. It was the pork she craved. And didn't that bite? But she needed a big breakfast if she was going to face what she'd faced every day since she had sent Killian to Hell. She'd been plagued with guilt and something else she didn't want to put a name to.
"Find anything yet?" she asked her sisters.
"Nothing in the Bible," Claire said. "I've gone through both the NIV and King James' versions until I was cross-eyed. Then I tackled the Koran, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and the Witches Bible. Nothing. I'm perusing the Hortus Deliciarum now."
"The what?" Tierra asked.
"It's a medieval manuscript that came up in my Google search. I'm grasping at anything really."
"Anything in Grim?"
Moira shook her head. "He's not speaking to me, so I'm trudging through page by page. Sorry, darlin'."
"Hopefully the Horsemen are having better luck. After I eat something, I'm going to search through the attic. I remember boxes of old books. Some are journals. Maybe there's another witch's grimoire up there, and it will have some insight."
"Have you considered that no one has been able to escape Hell?" Claire pointed out. "If they had, wouldn't there be rumors?"
Moira kicked Claire under the table. "Just because nobody has don't mean nobody will."
Moira and Claire shared a look.
"It's all my fault." Tierra slumped against the counter. "How was I to know opening the earth and saying those words would actually send him straight to Hell?"
"Now, sugar, don't go beating yourself up." Moira rose from the table, walked over, and draped a comforting arm around Tierra. "We all do things when we're off kilter. And I for one, think he deserved what he got treatin' you to the Horsemen version of a shotgun wedding."
"Inexcusable," Claire agreed. "If a man married me without my permission, he'd be lucky to retain his balls. Hey, wait." Claire rose and started to pace.
"What?" Tierra and Moira said together.
"Give me a sec. I'm thinking."
While Claire paced, Tierra loaded up a plate with eggs, bacon, apples, blueberries, and a thick slice of artisan bread spread heavily with butter and freshly made orange-ginger marmalade. It was enough food to feed a lumberjack. Moira carried Tierra's peppermint tea to the table for her, and they both tucked themselves in and waited.
She'd foraged through half her meal when Claire finally turned toward them. "I think we're looking at this the wrong way. We don't need to get Death out of Hell." She pointed to Tierra. "You do."
"Excuse me? You want me to go to Hell?" Tierra laid a protective hand over her expanding belly.
"Claire," Moira chastised.
"No, that's not what I mean. Think about it. You said they were bound. There has to be a way to reach him through their bond."
"Ahh, I'm reading you, sister," Moira said, nodding her head.
"Well, someone needs to clue me in." Tierra picked up a piece of crisp bacon and devoured it with savage pleasure. Hmm, maybe she should dip some bacon in chocolate? Her stomach rumbled. Most definitely.
"You said you were having freaky dreams," Claire said, retaking her seat and typing into the search engine on her laptop. "What kind?"
Tierra squirmed in her seat.
"Oh, it's that way, is it?" Moira smirked. "Having you some cum slumbers starring your baby daddy?"
"No, nothing like that. And don't call him my baby daddy. It's weird." She couldn't imagine Killian Bane as anyone's daddy, let alone her baby's. No matter how much she tried, she couldn’t see the fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse changing diapers. If the little tyke was bullied at school and Killian was called in, he'd most likely take the offending kid's soul rather than reason through the situation.
"Yet cum slumber doesn't weird you out?" Claire commented.
"What should we call him then?" Moira asked. "Drive-by sperm donor, ye old knocker upper, wham bammer thank-you ma'ammer? No, I got it. Spawn slinger. Yeah, that's gonna stick. Hehehe, see what I did there?"
Claire laughed. "How about baby batter blaster, Johnny Applecock, Colonel Cockknocker, or killer egg splitter?"
They dissolved into a fit of giggles.
"Very mature." Tierra sipped her tea, wishing she hadn't said anything. "Can we get back to your idea, before you make me throw up my breakfast?"
Claire sobered first as Moira wiped tears from her eyes. "You're not still getting sick, are you? I thought you had that under control once we cleansed the house of Lucy's brimstone."
"Yeah, doing better. Don't worry. Tell me your idea."
"Right. First, what kind of dreams are you having?" She held up her finger to silence Moira. "Let's stay on track. You and I can revisit this conversation later. Aerin's gotta hear these names, too."
Great. Tierra picked up another piece of bacon. Jinx, her black cat familiar, wandered in with Doctor Lector, Aerin's bat, riding on his back.
"Would you look at that?" Moira exclaimed. "It’s a catbat, or batcat. I feel a superhero joke in there somewhere."
"Wonder why those two are hanging out together?" Claire asked.
"Lector is missing Aerin. He and Jinx are playing point guard," Tierra informed them.
"How do you know that?" Moira asked.
"They told me."
"Told you?"
"Uh, yeah, remember when I put on the crown that I found in the Standing Stones? Well, I can talk to the animals now. Cheeto and Kai are sniffing out zombie leftovers in the garden. That can't be healthy. They have the grounds today
while Jinx and Lector are patrolling the manor."
"Add research on the familiars to our growing list." Claire wrote down on her note pad. She loved making lists.
"What else have they told you?" Moira asked. "Did Cheeto tell you how he breaths fire and where the hell he came from?"
"I'll have to ask him. But I can tell you that he thinks of Nick as 'the hairless mansack.' In Cheeto's mind, the only man worthy of you has a curly tail, breathes fire, and trots around on all fours."
"Aww, ain't that sweet."
"Anything from Kai?" Claire leaned forward.
"He's skittish around me and doesn't like to share information. Maybe if you were in the room, I'd get something out of him."
"Well, shit on a stick, this just opened up a whole new world."
"Can we not mention shit at the table?" Tierra pushed her plate back. She'd consumed most of the food and felt beyond full. She inched her chair away from the table and leaned back. With the baby, there didn't seem to be a lot of room for her other organs, and she'd just stuffed her stomach, adding to the uncomfortable feeling.
"Crap, I just got a flash of the tongue-curbing you'll expect us to do once the little tadpole gets here," Moira said.
"Fuck." Claire swung her hair over one shoulder and started to play with the ends. "You're right."
"Claire!" Aunt Justine pounded down the stairs and ran into the kitchen. With her bright-red newly-dyed hair in disarray and the color in her face flaring with anger, she looked exactly like a boiled lobster. "You have to do something about Tommy. I found skin in the shower drain. It's time you put that . . . man to rest for good."
Silence followed her statement. Tommy, Claire's first love who had recently been resurrected from the dead, was the elephant in the room no one wanted to bring up.
"I'll talk to him and have him use a different shower."
"Not mine." Moira shuddered. "Sorry, I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I agree with Aunt Justine."
Claire looked at Tierra. "And what do you have to say?"
"Pregnant with Death's spawn, here. I have nothing to offer."
Which Witch is Wild? (The Witches of Port Townsend Book 3) Page 8
