Scott steps away from Jaworski with a wicked smile stealing his once infuriated face.
Jaworski cracks his neck and squares his shoulders, readying himself. He turns away from Scott with a deadly scowl that holds a promise I hope will never be kept.
As Scott leans against the wall, he never takes his eyes off Jaworski, seeming to be mustering his own threat in his menacing gaze.
Jaworski faces Top, and the big, one-armed man growls. They’re from the same team, but will slaughter each other even knowing neither of them will make it out of here alive. I don’t know, I’d fight for my life too, but to not stand up for themselves, to not decline, to not try to face the enemy tells me a lot about the way they look upon Nathan and Olar. I’m unsure, though if it’s respect or fear.
“Is this really about to happen?” Glen whispers, grabbing everyone’s attention.
Heavy footsteps rush in our direction. Glen’s facial expression morphs into fear, and I turn away from her, seeing Top’s big ass making his blind way to us, using his sense of smell to find her. He sniffs the air bear-like, in search of his honey, feet shuffling across the floor.
No one moves or says anything to ward him off.
My hand thrusts out, releasing my overgrown snake of fire. It circles Top, weaving between his legs, and Top dances from the heat. I will it to stop playing. It concedes and quickly enters into Top from his bottom.
Oh, that’s nasty, buddy, I tell my pet snake of fire.
Jaworski smiles at Glen and slowly struts in our direction. The confidence in this guy is so farfetched. Stopping halfway to us, he yelps a deep, manly holler with his head thrown back, hands flying to his face, neck strained so tightly the muscles protrude.
“I like playing.” Olar moves from the wall to Jaworski side—vanishing and reappearing in seconds. “Matter of fact . . .” His voice is so venomous it makes my hair stand on end. “I have the perfect game for us to play.”
Jaworski drops to his knees, wailing in agony. The muscles in his arms flex with whatever’s happening in him, causing him to contract against the pain.
“Let’s see how long it will take for you to rip your own brains out.” Olar’s as gruesome as my pet snake, which is lighting up Top. This is about to get messy.
I look over my clothes, making sure I don’t mind messing them up. Top’s a giant, and if he explodes anything like Nathan’s deceased sister did, blood will be everywhere.
I shift my gaze to Nathan, also watching Top light up like a giant Christmas tree.
Olar steps over, the sticky liquid on the tile floor making his movement sound as the sole of his shoes peel from the tile, then again as it presses back against it. He stands over Jaworski’s kneeling body, saying nothing, just watching and enjoying himself.
Jaworski bellows a blood-curdling cry as he claws at his forehead and then his braids. Black, brittle nails claw against his skin, revealing pink flesh slithered with black veins. He rips off half his scalp, exposing his skull, and black blood streams down his arms. Lines of it trail down his face and drips from his chin, splashing in the puddle that’s forming beneath him. The drops are loud and recoils my stomach.
Top’s thundering footsteps stumble backward as the fiery glow brightens his middle. He jerks, smacking and snatching at his illuminated belly. My pet snake of fire is taking his time with this one, or maybe Top isn’t easy to slither through.
There’s a loud smacking sound—Glen’s hand covering her mouth. The mortified expression on her face forces me to follow her gaze.
I hear it before I see it. If only I could turn down my hair. Jaworski rips out his hair, each strand either breaking away or pulling straight out of his scalp. The rest of his scalp goes on his next attack, exposing the rest of his skull. He hollers, and over it I hear the removal of his skin stickily separating from the bone.
Scott snickers, enjoying every minute of it.
A glimmer in the shadows draws my attention away from Scott. Nathan blinks, causing the soft shine in his eyes to flash. He nods toward Top, then taps his arm where his watch would be. I shrug. It is taking Top a long time to blow up. The light is only just nearing his neck.
Behind Top, I spot Johann staring at me. I flick my gaze back to Nathan. He’s already noticed. Shaking his head, he lifts his index finger. I nod uneasily, waiting for the next reveal.
Jaworski’s bald and has to be bleeding to death with all that black blood flowing from his skinless head. His detached braids soak in the fluid beneath him. If he makes it through his skull and I see some brains, I’m done.
Top’s eyes shine a fiery orange. He opens his mouth, exhaling fire as he howls in distress. Exploding, blood spurts everywhere.
Whipping around, I throw my hands over my face just in time. It slops against my body as if I’ve been hit with a bucket of water.
I swallow hard, holding in my hurl. Agh.
Slowly turning back around, it’s impossible to avert my eyes from the pieces of Top hanging from pipes and splattered against the walls and the multitude of his red, human-like blood rushing down the drain in the middle of the floor.
My snake of fire slithers around the tile, making sure all of Top is gone. I open my hand, calling it back, mentally telling it ‘good job’ as it reenters.
“Okay. That was cool!” Scott says, laughing. He flicks some of top from his shoulder. “Good job, Tracey.”
“Took long enough, but good job,” Olar adds, wiping the blood off his arms.
We’re drenched in the giant’s juices.
Jaworski pulls my attention back to him with a chalkboard screech. His nails have made cracks in his skull, and he scratches and claws at it, trying to get inside. Unable to make it in, the struggle becomes far more real than I expect. He slaps his hands to the floor, wrenches his head back and then slams it against the floor with the force of a sledgehammer breaking concrete. His skull instantly cracks.
I turn away, covering my ears, trying to muffle out the sounds. Efforts in vain, I hear lumbering footsteps cross the floor, and a foot crushes the remains of Jaworski’s skull. These ears make it all too clear; hearing the pieces of bone dig into his brains. The squish of it makes me gag, and I force deep breaths to keep down my barf.
Scott’s footsteps squish across the floor as he returns to his spot.
Sure, I won’t be able to hold in the little breakfast I ate today, I avoid looking at the ground.
Nathan stands before Johann. “And now that that’s over,” he drawls, amused, wiping his hand down his face and then whipping it toward the floor. Splatters slap the concrete. “Care to tell me what he’s up to?”
Oh, I get it now. The whole scare him into talking scam.
“She did that?” Johann asks, avoiding Nathan’s question.
“Yeah. You wanna see how it works?”
Johann drops to the floor, barely able to stand. “No.” He stretches out his arms.
Nathan’s voice darkens as he orders, “Tell me.”
All of our breaths are even as we’re drawn into their exchange. Glen’s cold beside me and still as stone.
“He’s decided to take her from you, by you,” Johann finally speaks up. Looking around at his deceased colleagues, he adds, “We were a distraction as you’ve confirmed. Something to keep you busy instead of coming after him while he orchestrates something bigger. He’s used us to throw you off his trail. I’m sure he never thought you’d allow us to take her and we walk away.”
“Then he isn’t stupid,” Nathan interjects.
“He’s not. But the most I can confirm for you is that he wants her. I believe he will do anything in his power to get her. He’s obsessed and that anything, includes you willingly handing her over, or her readily discarding you. Even if he has to defeat you,” Johann finishes. Confident, he stands straight with his long, black hair touching his butt and his chin extended in his true form.
“Thank you.” Nathan steps away from him. In my next blink, Johann’s gone. A pile of ashes mixed
in with Top’s blood, carrying him to the drain.
Glen bends over and hurls. I am next if I don’t get out of this torture room.
loud whispers
Glen goes for her third spew. “I think we should leave,” I say, covering my nose.
Nathan comes to my side. “I’d wrap my arm around you, but since you got everyone covered in blood, that’d just be nasty.” He’s drenched: hair, face, and clothes all tinted with Top’s red juices. I chuckle, leaving out the let out first.
Parting, I race up to Nathan’s bathroom and plunge into the tub. No matter how many times I wash, rinse, and repeat, I can’t get rid of the revolting stench of the let out. After my fifth attempt, I give up, dress, and lay across Nathan’s bed, while he shuffles around in the closet.
I’ll never be able to unsee those images, Jaworski especially.
Half dressed; Nathan comes out of the closet and sits in front of me. Water skis down his back and gets soaked in the cloth of his shorts, hugging his waist. I snatch the towel he’s roughly rubbing over his hair and dry his back. It was hard watching the droplets of water cascade down his skin at different speeds, calling me to catch one, just one on my lips.
“Nate?”
He looks over his shoulder. His eyes find mine, and their intensity lightens to a gentle swirl of hazel. “Sup?”
“What makes your blood black and others red?”
He looks at his hands and scratches the knuckles on his left. “My blood’s tainted. Polluted with undesirable qualities. My demon.” He takes my hand from his shoulder and pulls me to his front. “Like letting one drop of black dye fall into a glass of water.”
“I get it, but how? Were you all just designed this way, to have different races, like humans?” I ask, sitting back on the bed.
“I’m not positive on the how, but from what I’ve been told. . .” He sits and pulls me to lie across his lap. I almost object when he turns my head away from him and still hasn’t finished his sentence, but his fingers brush through the back of my hair, and I love it when he does this. I sink into his comfort, and he continues, “Let’s say, eons ago, a demon seduced a female Sephlem. They had children, which put the demon in the bloodline. And now it’s like hit or miss where some families are cursed with the bearing of a Burdened child or children and others aren’t.”
“Cursed?” I don’t like the word.
He nods. “No one wants to have a Burdened child. But most accept their children for what they are. Like my mother.”
“Were you not a regular child?”
“I’ve never heard the stories, but watching Rose grow up, it was hard. She threw the worst temper tantrums. I mean, we don’t start getting our abilities until later, so our families aren’t at risk of being blown up or harmed when the baby doesn’t get its bottle in time. But that doesn’t mean they won’t try to fight you or scream louder than a tornado siren. On top of that, you have people trying to kill your child before they can walk or talk. It’s hard on the parents. Most die protecting their child and others try to kill their child.”
I sit up and face him. “What if you have Burdened children?”
“I’m fighting for my kids. You’ll be taking a step down on the podium, Sparks.”
I chuckle. “Right.” Sighing, I sit up. “This is a crazy life you have here.”
“It is,” he says, tipping his chin. “Honestly, I’m sorry I brought you into it. But I am jubilant you chose me, and you’re still here even after everything you’ve seen and things we’ve been through.”
I smirk. “Jubilant, huh?”
He chuckles. “Yeah.”
“Of course I’d still be with you. Where would I go?”
He shrugs. “Jump off a mountain and kill us.”
What? “People do that?” I ask, high pitched and surprised.
He nods. “Among other things, they’ll try to kill their mate. Mating is forced, though fate has one plan, the person may have another. Free will. Like I told you when we talked, life with me isn’t the type of life every girl dreams about. You gotta be strong to deal with some of this shit. This life isn’t for everybody. I worry about Glen and Scott because of that.”
I knit my brows, concern turning my stomach. “How do you mean?”
His brows rise and eyes squint. “You are full of questions.”
I am, but he keeps saying interesting stuff. “Sorry. This is the last one.”
His shoulders slacken. “She’s not strong enough. There should’ve been no reason those coming for you should have vacillated and gone for her. No offense, but Scott has no control over her and hasn’t provided her with a clear understanding of what we’re dealing with. And with not only their mating being forced, but their bonding too, and Glen’s not entirely accepting of either yet. . .” He shrugs, aborting it.
I wince. “You think if this begins to be too much for Glen, she’ll decide she can’t take it and will kill herself, which will kill Scott?”
Nathan fixes me with a glance from the corners of his eyes. “I thought that was the last question.”
“I thought you weren’t supposed to answer a question with a question.”
He stands and snatches his towel from the floor, and takes it to his hair. “It’s a possibility. But Scott may have left that part out, not providing her with a choice to be with him or not.”
“And she’s stuck with him forever because of it. Because of how he did her in the beginning?”
“Exactly. Never being offered the choice to make your own decision can be a hindrance on someone’s life. Although your mate makes you happy and you always want to be with them, that’s mostly just the bond. It’s not your internal feelings. It has to be equal. You and the bond should agree on what you want, which is why we—the male—should offer the female the choice to be with us after they hear the truth. If they’re not already Sephlem or any other type of creature. But especially if they’re human.”
“But didn’t you trick me into choosing you?”
He smiles and I return it. “Only slightly. But I knew you wanted me from the day you were practicing for exorcist training in the nurse’s office.”
I laugh aloud. “I was not.” I punch his shoulder. “And no, I didn’t want you.”
“You didn’t?” he questions humorously.
I cross my arms and straighten my spine. “Nope.”
Nathan steps to me, his large frame having the capability to swallow my small body. He leans forward, and I fall back on the bed. “You sure about that, because I distinctly remember you wanting me. Especially wanting to nibble—Was it?—On my bottom lip. And push your fingers through my soft hair.”
I smile, cheeks burning red. “You are so embarrassing, Nathan.” I push him, and he moves from above me. “You’ve been in my head since day one.”
“Absolutely. Every second.” He kisses my chin. “Come on. Let’s help clean up for later.”
I have a million more questions but decide I’ll wait to ask them. Time’s rounding two in the afternoon, and everyone wants to make sure the house is presentable for my parents, considering its current condition.
Nathan throws on a shirt, and we leave to help.
Originally, I was concerned about my parents coming over considering all that’s been happening over the past few months. Roehl seeing them and maybe following them, then using them as a ploy to get me. Or them getting mixed up in Olar’s crap, which I still don’t know the full extent of. But Natalia assured me we’d be safe. Her favorite line, with all of these Burdeneds in this house, no one’s coming in here uninvited. It was enough, but I’m still a bit uneasy.
Natalia also sat me down to explain the attack on my heart Nathan and I experienced last night. My heart’s now encased by a guardianic shield—Sephlem term I knew nothing about. This is what changed its beat. It does nothing in protection for me, but for the male Sephlem, it gives him an extra sense over their mate. As if he weren’t already fully aware of every (yes, every) aspect and feature of my
body, let’s add a guardianic shield. It also allows mates to age together, which is kind of cool. It makes up for the pointlessness of this shield. I don’t get the privilege to adjust the way I look, making myself blend in with the people I grew up around. But, I’ll be able to live with my mate instead of me dying from old age, years before he would. Mom may get kind of irked when she gets older and I still look young, but, hey, nothing we can do about that now.
We enter Glen and Scott’s room, where a few construction workers plaster the broken and cracked walls. There are construction workers around every corner. They’re comfortable and cheerfully greet everyone they see as if this isn’t their first time here.
“What’s up, Nate. You added a new addition to the family?” A coltish construction worker climbs down from a ladder and comes over to us.
“Hey, Fred.” He and Nathan bump fists. “Yeah. This is my girlfriend, Tracey.”
“What’s up, Tracey?”
I look to Nathan, making sure it’s okay to speak to Fred. Nathan nods, granting me his permission. Smiling, I greet, “Hi.”
“You two look happy,” Fred says, sketchy-like. Shaking away the curiosity that stuck in his squinted eyes, he shrugs.
“We are.” Nathan looks around the room. “You seem about finished in here.”
“Yeah, just about.” Fred’s glance sweeps over the room. “Just a couple of more holes to fill, then we paint. Maybe about forty-five more minutes, then on to the room downstairs.” He steps back, smiling. “You Newcombs sure know how to throw a party.”
Nathan makes a deep, throaty chuckle. “Yeah, tell me about it.” He nods for us to head out. “Alright, Fred, we’ll see you around.”
“Alright, Nate. Bye, Tracey. Nice to meet you.”
Brazen: A Dark Paranormal Romance (The Sephlem Trials Book 2) Page 15
