UnholyCravings

by Suzanne Rock

  Eventually their movements slowed and Tara drifted back to earth. The wind had died down and the darkness that filled her receded. She felt spent, but happy, more happy than she had ever felt in her entire life.

  The men eased away, and Soren helped her to stand. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder, unwilling to let him go.

  After a while, Tara released Soren and turned to face Donar. His eyes were clear of the taint, leaving behind a beautiful emerald. They called to her with a sadness that touched her heart. Tears filled her eyes as she sensed his loneliness. He was too full of pride to go to her however. There was also a touch of shame over what he had done. He thought she’d hate him now for being hard with her.

  “Finished?” Tara asked.

  “Yes, and now we must go to this hiding place you speak of.” He bent over to retrieve his clothes. “It would be best if you hid your wings.” He picked up his belt, which had become separated from his jeans. That must have been what he used to hit her earlier.

  She watched him as he bent low, then caught a glimpse of the heart tattoo on his shoulder. It matched the one Soren wore on his hip.

  She had bonded with both men, but how? She had never heard of anything like this happening before. Yet there it was, the evidence staring at her in the face.

  “Tara, are you okay?” Soren asked.

  She glanced back at him. The red had completely gone, and his face showed concern. “Did we hurt you?”

  “No.” She pressed her lips against his, giving him a quick, chaste kiss. Then she moved closer to Donar.

  He straightened. At his full height he was taller than Soren, more foreboding. Tara didn’t fear him, however. Instead, she felt the need to touch the darkness in his soul, to make him understand that he was needed, not just by Soren, but by her. What he did wasn’t shameful, it was beautiful.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his chest. “Thank you.”

  He stiffened. “For what?”

  “For everything.” She tightened her grip and tried to press her body inside of his. She was going to make him feel her love, even if it killed her.

  After a long moment, he dropped his clothes and wrapped his hands around her waist.

  Tara turned her head up and kissed his jaw. “You were prefect,” she said.

  Donar patted her back, then disentangled her from his body. “We must go.”

  She felt him pull away and she realized that he didn’t believe her. He was ashamed of himself, ashamed of what he had become. Tara wanted nothing more than to prove to him that he was wrong.

  Later. Donar was right. They had already dallied too long in this alley. It was a miracle that a deahman didn’t stumble upon them. They had to move. Tara promised herself that later on, when they were safe, she’d show Donar how much he was needed. Perhaps she’d recruit Soren to help…

  Part of her was sad that the men had control over their deahmans once more. Tara found that she liked their inner darkness, she liked the controlling Donar and the sensitive Soren. She wanted them back. She watched Soren put on his jeans and noticed something in Soren’s pocket.

  “You’re glowing again,” she said.

  “What?” Soren looked down at his pants, then shoved his hands in his pocket.

  “What’s that?” Donar asked.

  Tara gasped as Soren opened his hand to reveal a glowing red crystal. “The stone.”

  Both men looked at her in silent question.

  “A shard of the demon stone.” She waved her hands in the air. “Don’t you remember?”

  “No,” Soren said.

  “It was why you went into hell. Darien had discovered how the deahmans were able to cross the portal into Earth. They had used a stone.” She pointed to the shard, then began to dress. “I was there the day you left.”

  “There were three of you, weren’t there?” Soren asked.

  “Yes. Myself, my queen and another warrior named Ilona. We tried to prevent you from going down into the portal, but your leader, Darien, tricked us. Don’t you remember?”

  Donar frowned. “I remember something.” He shook his head. “It’s all fuzzy.”

  Tara glanced at the shard. Why would it be glowing? They had all assumed that since Darien and Arianne shattered the deahman stone into five pieces, that the shards would be useless. It seemed as if the shards still held some type of power, but what?

  Presumably, it allowed deahmans to cross the portal once more. That was how Soren and Donar were able to get back. It was also probably how Urian and the others were able to get through. This could mean serious trouble. Now they weren’t only vulnerable to one stone, but multiple stones.

  Darien had managed to find and keep one of the five. This was the second. Urian probably had the third. That meant there were two more out there, somewhere. Who else had found a stone shard? In the wrong hands it could cause more harm than good.

  One thing was clear. Tara had to get these two back to Darien and Adrianne as soon as possible.

  She picked up her pants and threw them on. They were hopelessly ripped in the legs, but at least her private parts were still covered. “Give me a minute.” She pulled out her cell and walked a few steps away.

  “Sparrow.” The cool, masculine voice echoed through the line.

  Tara breathed a sigh of relief at the familiar voice. “Road Runner here.”

  “Fuck it all.” She heard papers rustling on the other end of the line. “Where are you, Road Runner?”

  “I’m not sure.” She looked around. “In the alley next to that abandoned Italian restaurant. Gianni’s.”

  “Stay put, I’m coming for you. I think I have some people already in that area.”

  “We can’t.” They had already wasted too much time in one spot. They had to keep moving. If the deahmans weren’t so caught up with the fire, they would have found them already.

  She needed to get somewhere safe, but where? Not the FBI headquarters. Darien still believed there was an informant there for the deahmans. It was also the first place any deahman would look for the twins. She couldn’t go to her home, Celestial Wood, either. It would be like leading an entire army of deahmans to the Iatros doorstep. It was too dangerous.

  So where did that leave them? Only one place came to mind.

  “We’ll meet you at rendezvous point A,” she said.

  There was silence for a moment, the kind of quiet that made a person uneasy. “Sparrow? Do you copy?”

  “What? Yes, yes I copy.” She heard some movement on the other line. “Rendezvous A.”

  “Good. We’ll be there within the hour.” The meeting place was still in the city, but Tara didn’t have enough money for a taxi to travel very far. It would have to do. She said her goodbyes and snapped her phone shut. “Come on,” she said to the men. “We need to move. The sky is too cloudy today to keep the deahmans indoors. We’ll have to do the best we can.”

  Tara led the two men out of the alley and hailed a taxi. She pulled open the door and motioned the twins inside.

  “Are you sure this is safe?” Soren asked.

  “Of course it is, why wouldn’t it be?”

  Soren shrugged. “I don’t know. Something feels off.”

  “It’s safe, believe me,” Tara said.

  “There they are.” A low voice rose up through the air behind her.

  Tara looked over Donar and Soren’s shoulder to see a group of deahmans round the corner and pour out into the street. Donar’s jaw hardened and he grabbed the hilt of his sword.

  “No, not here.” Tara placed her hand over his as the deahmans approached. “There are too many innocent people.” She motioned around them at the passing crowd.

  Donar hesitated, then nodded. “Hurry then.”

  Tara ushered them inside and climbed after them.

  “Wait. Stop that taxi,” one of the deahmans called after them.

  Tara motioned to the driver to go. He pulled his hooded sweatsh
irt closer around his head and pointed to the approaching deahmans.

  “I’ve never seen them before in my life. Please hurry, we’re running late.”

  The taxi driver hesitated, his pale hands hovering over the wheel. Tara suspected that he didn’t believe her. She was trying to come up with an alternative when the driver put the taxi into gear and pulled away from the curb.

  Tara told the driver to go to a local restaurant on the outskirts of town and settled back in her seat. A former FBI agent ran a bar there. Every once in a while he would grant sanctuary and information to agents passing through. You had to make it worth his while however, and Tara wasn’t sure if she had enough funds to buy his silence. No matter. Sparrow would help once he arrived.

  Rendezvous point A. If she could get sanctuary, then they should be safe enough from any passing deahmans until the twins got the rest of their memory back.

  Tara picked her cell up from her jacket and dialed Samir’s number. She wanted to give him their new location so that after he ditched the bitch back at the hotel, he could swing around and meet them. She didn’t call him often, but they were close enough so that he was on her speed dial. She pressed the number and waited.

  The call went straight to voicemail. She couldn’t leave a message. What if someone stole his phone? Tara snapped the phone shut in frustration. Where was he? She hoped that he was okay.

  Chapter Nine

  Donar didn’t like the expression on Tara’s face as she put away the phone. “What’s wrong?”

  “My friend…” She shook her head. “It’s nothing.”

  Soren pulled out the shard from his pocket once more. “It’s still glowing.”

  “It’s the deahman magic,” Tara explained. “Their magic causes things to glow red.”

  “But you said that we spent time in hell with these deahmans and we don’t glow,” Donar said.

  Tara hesitated a moment before responding. “Your eyes glow red when the taint takes control of your body.”

  Donar considered that for a moment. Did Soren’s eyes glow red? He thought he remembered them glowing back in the alley, but he couldn’t be sure. When he was under control of his deahman, everything got a little fuzzy.

  “So you can tell when the beast is in control of one of us?” he asked.

  “Yes, your eyes turn red, and your voice changes.” She turned to Soren. “Your behavior changes too.”

  Donar frowned. Part of what happened back in the alley was a blur to him, but part of it he remembered a little too well. It was wrong to use such a rough hand with Tara. She was kind and wanted to help them. It was nothing short of surprising that she didn’t run screaming from them. It was shameful how he treated her. He had to find some other way to control his deahman so that he’d never hurt her like that again.

  Still, he couldn’t deny the perverse pleasure he got from thrashing that lovely backside with his belt. If she had let him, he would have done it until his arm had tired and her skin was a lovely shade of pink. He loved how she called him master, how she bent to his will. His inner monster got off on the power trip. He hated to admit it, but deep down, so did he.

  Was the deahman changing him, or was he always like this? He couldn’t remember what he was like before he went into hell, but he suspected that his love of controlled pain was a result of his deahman. He thought back to the incident and realized that Tara didn’t seem to mind it. Did she like receiving pain as much as he liked to give it?

  Then there was Soren. Donar flicked his gaze from Tara to the blond man next to her. His twin, or so he was told. There was something familiar about the man, that was for sure. He sensed a connection with Soren, a strong one that ran deeper than friendship. Donar guessed that they probably were twins. They both carried the same strong nose, the same dirty-blond hair. He even noticed that Soren had the same snake tattoo on his hip.

  There was no denying that Soren’s deahman was bound to his own inner darkness in a way that Donar couldn’t understand. Their monsters weren’t related, but they shared a past. He felt a sense of responsibility for the man, like it was his job to take care of him. Did that darker relationship mirror the human relationship? It was difficult to tell. Donar knew that his own inner monster had claimed so much of him that he no longer knew where the darkness ended and he began.

  There was no doubt that having both these two bend to his will was rather intoxicating. He felt protective of them as a result of it. He knew that if anything, human or otherwise, threatened the two people next to him in the cab, he’d defend them with his life.

  “The shard glowed right before that woman burst into the room,” Soren said, drawing Donar’s thoughts back to the conversation.

  “And again right before that group of deahmans came after us in the alley,” Tara added.

  It seemed like those two shared a closer bond than either did with him. It added to the loneliness he felt deep inside. Had Donar the man always been a loner? Had the beast? Either way, Donar couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy over the closeness Tara and Soren obviously shared.

  Donar pushed aside his rising emotions and tried to focus. “Are you saying that the shard is some type of homing beacon?”

  “Possibly. Or it could be luring the deahmans to us.” Tara frowned. “Darien said that his deahman could sense when other deahmans were near. They could also sense him. So it either could be the stone, or the fact that you both carry deahmans inside of you.”

  “So this Darien has this same affliction?” Donar asked. It intrigued him. If he could speak with this Darien, then maybe he could learn how to exhume his inner darkness.

  “Yes. He has learned to control it through his mate and has managed to stop his transformation.”

  “His transformation?” Donar exchanged a glance with Soren.

  Tara swallowed and shifted in her seat. “Yes, well. I’m not sure what the case is with the two of you, but with Darien, his inner darkness was transforming him from the inside out. Arianne managed to stop the process through their bonding.”

  “Transforming him how?” Donar wasn’t sure if he wanted to know the answer.

  She met his gaze. He saw the uneasiness, the apprehension. It confirmed his worst fears.

  “The monster fed on his soul. Each day, Darien became a little less himself, and a little more of the monster inside of him.”

  “You mean that Donar and I are changing into deahmans?”

  She nodded. “Even now, the darkness lies at the edge of Darien’s consciousness, waiting for the opportunity to gain control and start feeding on his soul again. Only Arianne’s magic can keep it at bay.”

  “Interesting.” Donar leaned back in his seat, lost in thought. If what Tara said was true, then these magical creatures held the key for eliminating the voices in his head, and quite possibly help him regain his memory. Was it possible that Tara held what he was looking for? The key to his past? Could she help him gain control over his deahman?

  Perhaps that was why the woman intrigued him so much.

  “But if the stone or our eyes glow when a deahman presence is near, why is it glowing now?” Soren asked.

  Ah, the stone. Donar glanced at the rock in Soren’s hand. It shone red and illuminated his palm.

  Tara shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe it senses the two of you.”

  Donar shook his head. “No, that’s impossible. It wasn’t glowing while we were having…” His voice trailed off, obviously at a loss for words.

  “True.”

  Silence stretched as Donar searched his mind for a rational explanation. “Perhaps our deahmans aren’t strong enough. Perhaps it only glows when a greater deahman is present.”

  “Or when it senses another shard,” Soren suggested.

  Tara shook her head. “We don’t have another shard and there are no other deahmans in the cab. It has to be the two of you.”

  Soren sighed and silence descended upon them once more. Donar looked out the window as he thought. It was such a
damn nuisance not having his memory. He felt like the answer to the riddle was right there, at the edge of his consciousness. He rubbed his chin, feeling the stubble. Thanks to Tara, he remembered going into hell. He just didn’t remember what happened when he got there or how he had come into her presence. Everything seemed so vague, as if trying to remember a dream upon waking.

  How did he and Soren get those tattoos? Exactly what was the extent of his relationship with Soren before they went into hell? Had they shared a woman before?

  It didn’t matter, he supposed. It seemed right to share Tara with Soren in the alley back there. Both their deahmans needed to feed and she had enough sexual energy to fill them both. What they had was sex, pure and simple.

  Then why did he feel this pang of jealousy whenever Tara smiled at Soren?

  He turned away from the window and tried to remember something concrete about his time in hell. He searched his mind until a clear image came to the forefront of his thoughts.

  Bars. He remembered iron bars, as if he was held in a cage of some sort. He had gone without food and water for quite some time. He remembered someone coming to his cage and rattling the bars, yelling at him to sit up and take his medicine.

  Medicine? Why would he take medicine in hell?

  He shook his head. The more he tried to remember, the more his head hurt. Donar glanced at the driver. The man turned to look out the rear view mirror and Donar met his gaze. A very familiar set of chocolate brown eyes stared back at him. Who was he? The answer was there, right at the edge of his consciousness.

  “Do I know you?” Soren asked the driver.

  Donar started. Soren knew him too?

  “I don’t think so,” the driver mumbled.

  “No, I know I’ve seen you before,” Soren said.

  “You must be mistaken.” The driver dragged his gaze away from the rearview mirror and stared at the road, but not before Donar saw a flash of red.

  “I’ve seen you before too.” Donar tried to access the information from his brain. It was there, right out of reach. Why did his brain feel so fuzzy, as if it was stuffed with cotton?