Soul Bound

by K. G. Reuss

  Raiden closed his red eyes, and when he opened them again, they were aquamarine. Only now, they were glowing.

  His bottom lip quivered as he reached to cradle my face with a shaky hand. With a final burst of pleasure racing through me, everything disappeared, and he collapsed against me.

  My body buzzed with an energy I’d never felt before.

  “Your eyes,” he murmured sleepily as he lifted himself up to stare down at me. His eyes were normal again. “They were glowing.”

  “So were yours,” I answered, wondering what sort of freaky powers we’d just unlocked by finishing our binding.

  He rolled off me and hauled me back into his arms.

  “Can you feel it?” he murmured, holding me tightly.

  I nodded wordlessly.

  “I’ll keep you safe in this world and in the next.”

  “Are you scared?” I asked softly.

  “Terrified.”

  “Me too,” I admitted.

  He twined his fingers through mine.

  “I’m not terrified of any of this, Ever. I’m terrified of losing you. Now that I’ve had you, I can’t. I don’t know what happened a minute ago, but I know whatever it is, it cannot be undone. And I’m OK with that.”

  “So am I.” I relaxed against him, the trembling in my body slowing.

  And I was. Mostly.

  Forty-Nine

  Raiden

  I awoke to Ever’s warm body wrapped around mine. The memory of what we did the night before slammed into me, and I smiled. I came to life, and she chuckled against me, shifting herself to be even closer.

  “What’s so funny?” I teased her softly, that strange energy buzzing through my body, making me feel incredible.

  “You’re really good at, um, that stuff.”

  I laughed. “You make me better, baby. You’re not too bad yourself.” I sat up and looked down at her in all her long, messy hair glory. Before I could bury myself in her again, a knock sounded out on my door.

  I let out a groan as Ever laughed softly.

  “Yeah?” I called out.

  “Hey, man. We’re out of bread,” Damien called through the door.

  I rolled my eyes. “What do you want me to do about it?”

  “Nothing. I’m actually only here to tell you guys to keep it down. You were really loud last night. Amara is here. I don’t want to deal with her today. Also, Ever, babe, you sound sexy as hell when you’re com—”

  I flung out a silence charm, shutting out Damien’s voice.

  “Was I really that loud?” Ever asked, worry on her face.

  “No.” I kissed her and lifted myself off her as much as I didn’t want to. “You were perfect.”

  She bit her bottom lip. I reached out and thumbed her lip out of her mouth, a hunger burning deep within me. A hunger for something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. A lot of it was for another hour buried within her warm, tight confines, but another small part of it was something else I didn’t even recognize.

  “Are you OK?” Ever asked, sitting up to run her fingers through my hair.

  “Yeah. I guess last night wore me out.” I flashed her a smile, making her skin flush.

  “Do you think we’ll be OK?” she asked after a quiet moment. Her hand moved to cradle my face.

  “I think we’ll face whatever happens head on and be stronger because of it. We seem to have a lot more power to sift through now. I can feel it in my soul.”

  “Soul bound,” she murmured.

  I rested my hand over hers against my cheek for a moment before taking her hand and kissing each of her fingertips. “Guess you’re stuck with me.”

  “I can think of worse punishments,” she murmured.

  I blew out a breath as at her words. “The memory of last night is going to make being away from you nearly impossible today.”

  She laughed softly before going quiet.

  “What is it?”

  “I-I want to talk to you later. If we could.”

  I frowned at her. “Are you OK?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, I just have to tell you something.”

  “OK. We’ll get some breakfast and then talk. How does that sound?”

  She gave me a smile. “It sounds perfect.”

  “Come on.” I lifted her naked body into my arms, relishing in her heat against my flesh as I brought her to my bathroom. I used magic to turn the water on and placed her on her feet inside the shower.

  “What are we doing?” she asked, laughing.

  “Showering together. Too soon?”

  She rolled her eyes at me. “You were just inside my body. I think I can handle a shower with you.” Her gaze traveled over my body before her cheeks reddened as she took in how hard I’d gotten for her.

  “You do that to me, baby,” I murmured, kissing her.

  When I lifted her into my arms and pressed her against the tiles, she whispered my name, “Shadow.”

  And when I pushed deep inside her again, she moaned it louder, her nails in my back.

  It was the best way I’d ever started my day.

  We’d gotten so busy after our shower, we didn’t have time to talk like Ever wanted. I ended up in Xanan for a briefing on the vampire threat before coming home to find Ever in the kitchen, giggling with the girls. Everyone was back from their vacations, and life would soon be back to normal.

  “Are you going to tell everyone?” Eric asked, nodding to Ever.

  Her ring glinted in the light from the kitchen as she pushed her hair over her shoulder and laughed with Sloane at Damien trying to balance a glass of juice on the top of his head.

  “I’m letting her decide. I feel like I’ve pushed things so fast already.”

  “We heard.” Eric laughed.

  I grinned and shrugged, not ashamed of it. “She’s amazing.”

  “Again, we heard.” He clapped me on the shoulder. “But what about everything else? The completion of this binding stuff?”

  I told him about the flames and black lines which snaked through our bodies before telling him about the strange hunger I was feeling.

  “I don’t know what it is. I can’t place it.”

  “I don’t know,” Eric mused. “Maybe she woke up something inside you. As long as you don’t go all Walking Dead on us, I think it’ll be OK.”

  I laughed. “Here’s to hoping.”

  I grinned at Ever from across the room. She gave me a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes.

  “You OK?” I asked in her mind.

  “Yeah. I think I’m just tired.”

  “Wanna sleep? We can turn in early.” I winked at her.

  “Uh, yeah. But just sleep. I’m a little, um, sore.”

  “Of course, sweetheart,” I said gently.

  “And we’ll go up separately. I don’t want you to have to deal with Amara.”

  I glanced over and found Amara glowering at Ever and Sloane. I sighed and gave Ever a nod. She excused herself and bid everyone goodnight. I followed her a moment later, getting knowing smirks from the members and a nasty scowl from Amara. Guess our plan had failed.

  When I got upstairs, Ever was already in her bed, snuggled deep beneath the covers. I got behind her and drew her into my arms.

  “I thought you wanted to talk to me today?”

  “I did, but I think I need more time.”

  I frowned. “OK.”

  “I’m just tired. I have a lot on my mind.”

  “I’ll listen if you just want to talk.”

  She let out a soft sigh and snuggled against me. “I need time to gather my thoughts.”

  “Fair enough. Sleep. Recharge. We have to face Damien’s jokes in the morning.”

  She let out a laugh as I placed a kiss on her forehead.

  She was out within moments, safe in my arms.

  Fifty

  Everly

  One week passed. One long, agonizing week as I fought with myself about telling Raiden the truth about me and Dyre. Our powers seemed stronge
r. Raiden surprised us all when he was able to call up a rainstorm earlier in the week. He’d been more tired than usual because his F.I.R.E. duties were keeping him extra busy.

  Ever since we’d completed our soul bond, there was an odd buzzing in my body whenever I was anxious. It almost felt like I could peel out of my skin if I wanted to. The thought terrified me, so I kept forcing myself to remain calm.

  When I’d asked Raiden what was going on with F.I.R.E., he’d only shaken his head and sighed, saying it was just a power struggle and the Order wasn’t happy with him disobeying commands. I knew he’d been punished a few times for it over the week because he’d come home all sullen and quiet.

  I didn’t want to add to his stress, but he needed to know what was going on. I didn’t want to lie to him, so that Friday night, I waited for him to come home. Everyone else was out on patrols, missions, or doing whatever it was they did. We would have the house to ourselves, but I wasn’t sure how long that would last.

  When he walked through the door, his face lit up as I rose to my feet to greet him. He approached and gave me a quick squeeze.

  “Are you well?”

  I nodded tightly. “Yeah, I just wanted to talk to you. If you have time, that is. I know you’re probably tired from Xanan and patrols—"

  He silenced me with a kiss before tugging me down onto the couch beside him. “I have time, sweetheart. What’s going on?”

  I cleared my throat and blew out a breath, anxiety fluttering madly in my chest. I had to do this without implicating anyone else in case he wasn’t onboard with things. And if he wasn’t onboard, it would effectively change everything. As painful as the thought was, I planned to meld out of there and get to The Place, hoping Nev and Marcus could hide me.

  “So… Here’s the thing….”

  “Yes?” He cocked his head at me.

  “Right. Remember when you said you’d follow me wherever I went? That you’d be on my side no matter what?”

  “Yeah.” He frowned, shifting forward to stare at me.

  “OK. I knew this would be hard, but I didn’t think it would be this bad,” I muttered, rubbing my eyes.

  “Ever, whatever it is, we’ll work it out, OK? Just tell me.”

  I nodded and swallowed thickly. “I-I’ve done something you might not approve of. I wanted to help people. I don’t want to fight or have wars or worry about being some monster who hurts people. You might think I’m the bad guy. That it’s Cipher. I just need you to listen. I-I joined D—” The words halted on my lips, a terrible heat starting at my feet and slowly traveling up my legs.

  I was on my feet in an instant, looking down to make sure I hadn’t really caught fire. There was nothing there, but the pain was growing.

  “What’s wrong?” He leaned toward me, so much concern on his face it made my chest clench.

  “I-I joined D-D-D-D. . .” The word wouldn’t come out, and every effort made the heat move. I knew Marcus had cast to keep us silent. Worry blossomed in my guts as the heat took over, finally reaching my face.

  I let out a strangled gasp as a heaviness seeped through my body. It was like I wasn’t in control of myself anymore. Raiden got to his feet and approached me, the worry now grave concern.

  “Ever, what’s wrong?”

  Something was taking over me. Unable to resist what was happening within me, I dashed forward, snatched Raiden’s knife from his belt, and lunged at him. The blade grazed his neck as his eyes opened wide in surprise.

  No. No. NO! What’s happening to me? I don’t want to hurt him!

  I had no control over my movements. He immediately moved into fight mode and shoved me away. I darted forward again, the knife poised to strike. He cut me down, knocking me to the floor with a leg sweep.

  “Ever, what the hell is happening? What’s going on? Don’t fuc—. Stop attacking me! Stop!” he shouted. “I don’t want to hurt you!” Panic was written all over his face as I got to my feet and lunged forward again.

  The blade caught his forearm and drew blood.

  Please no!

  He let out a growl and shoved me hard. I toppled over the coffee table and landed on the blade. The cold steel slid into my abdomen.

  The pain sheered through me, making me gasp and choke. A gurgle left me as Raiden moved to stare down at me, horrified.

  “Shit,” he snarled.

  The front door banged open and Eric, Jared, Adam, and Damien burst in.

  “What the hell is going on?” Damien demanded.

  I grasped the knife and tugged it from my abdomen with a scream which made the guys’ eyes widen. They took a step back as I staggered to my feet, my mind wild with thoughts I didn’t want. Blood gushed from my wound. Despite how weak I felt on the inside, whatever the foreign power was had taken over, I wasn’t in charge.

  “She’s spelled,” Adam shouted, pulling out his sword.

  “She’s pissed,” Damien added, taking out his weapon.

  “Ever, hey, listen,” Eric called out, his hand on the hilt of his blade.

  “You won’t stop her. She needs to be uncursed. Whoever did this is strong.” Jared backed away as I stared at the group.

  “Baby, please. You need help. You’re bleeding. Y-You could die. I have to heal you.”

  Raiden took a step forward, but I darted at him and landed a solid kick into his chest. He let out snarl as he lunged forward, both of us moving into heavy hand-to-knife combat. He was fast, and I wasn’t able to stab him as much as whatever was possessing me liked, but he was bleeding and gasping by the time he pushed forward one more time and threw us both the ground in a tangle of arms, legs, and curse words.

  “Grab her!” Raiden shouted.

  The guys sprang into action, each of them taking a limb to hold my struggling form down.

  I couldn’t even talk if I wanted to. Nothing of mine was mine any longer.

  “She’s going to bleed out if I can’t close these wounds,” Raiden growled as I bucked against my captors.

  With cat-like reflexes, his palm shot forward and landed on my forehead. As much as I hated being palm-thingied, this particular time it was a welcome relief as I stared up at Raiden for a moment as he muttered a string of spells, his palm pushed firmly against my forehead. The heat within me receded until I was me again but with five guys holding me down.

  “I-I’m sorry,” I choked out, horrified at what had just transpired. “I-I didn’t mean—”

  “Sleep,” Raiden growled.

  And so I did, the darkness descending around me.

  Fifty-One

  Everly

  I awoke in the dead of night with a screaming headache with only one thing on my mind.

  Nevron Blackburn.

  I tossed my blankets off me and jerked on a pair of sweatpants and a tank top before melding to the dark grounds. My heart went out to Raiden. He must have thought I was a total whack job. Hell, he’d probably realized I really was nuts and bailed. I wouldn’t blame him. I did try to murder him.

  I swallowed hard and gazed down at my hand. My ring was still there at least. Not that its presence offered a ton of comfort. Assuming Raiden was as good a man as I thought, I doubted he’d rob me of my engagement ring just because I’d tried to kill him. He’d probably at least let me explain. Hopefully. If I even could without going batshit crazy again.

  Nev and Marcus were both in so much trouble when I got my hands on them. They’d spelled me to ensure my silence and keep our secrets when I’d joined Dyre. But the assholes had failed to tell me I’d try to go on a murdering spree to silence all those who might have an inkling about anything I was trying to say.

  Anger bubbled hot and fast within me as I stopped outside Nev’s dorm door and banged hard on it. I didn’t stop pounding on it until I’d run out of patience and just kicked it in. It slammed hard against his wall, bouncing back and forth before I shoved it open all the way and stepped into his living room.

  He jerked away from the girl he was making out with and got to hi
s feet.

  “What the hell, Ever—”

  I shot a blast of blue flame out of my hand. It raced through the room at him. He dodged it before impact. It caught his curtains on fire.

  The girl, some shifter I couldn’t remember the name of, raced from room, screaming for help.

  “Jesus, chill, Ever. I didn’t know you were the jealous type—”

  “You’re dead, Blackburn,” I snarled, gearing up with another round of flames. “Whether I gut you or burn your ass to a crisp, you’re dead.”

  “What’s going on?” he demanded as he backed away from me. “Is this a joke?”

  “You’re the joke.” I threw another fireball at him. And another. And another.

  He dipped and dodged, putting his vampire speed to work as he whirled around the room at my never-ending attack.

  With a burst of speed, he dodged my latest ball of fire and tackled me to the ground. I punched and kicked at him, catching him in the jaw with a right hook before he hit me back, making my ears ring.

  “Why are you pissed?” he shouted as I flung him off me. “Are you really mad about Clarissa—”

  “I almost died tonight. I almost killed Shadow because of you and your stupid ass spells and curses!” I bellowed.

  “You tried to tell our secrets?” he demanded, his glare hardening. “There’s a price to pay for betrayal.”

  “It wasn’t a betrayal, you monster! I was trying to bring Shadow into the group, and your damn spell almost killed us both!” My foot planted firmly in the center of his chest, sending him flying into the wall.

  He let out a groan and slid down to the floor before rolling away to get back to his feet as I tore into him again. We exchanged blows, each of us becoming more and more frustrated until he shoved me hard, knocking me down. My head exploded in pain as my vision blurred.

  I felt Raiden stir in my mind. “Everly.”

  I staggered to my feet as Nev pushed me against the wall and lifted me up, his hand wrapped around my throat.