“Oops,” she whispered in his ear, earning herself a deep laugh, but he didn’t stop her so Wynter continued on. She conjured away her own clothes and climbed across his lap, and it was her turn to laugh when she saw her husband lick his lips as he took in the sight before him. “Bet you wish you could still have a taste…” she teased.
“I can taste you any time I want, my sweet,” he replied, and then wrenched his hands free in a flash. Marcus then gripped her behind and lifted Wynter up so that her shoulders hit the desk behind her and her pussy came level with his mouth. True to his word, the vampire then demanded a taste, and Wynter let out a soft moan as he began working her body using his tongue.
Damn, he was good. Wynter was soon climbing her high, and was quickly reminded of how she’d gone there to seduce him and not the other way around. But, like always, her husband had other ideas. And, like always, things went his way. Not that she minded on this occasion, of course.
By the time he was done, Wynter was on fire for him. She quickly ripped the remainder of his clothes free and lowered herself down onto his ever ready hard-on, her eyes on his as they began moving together in perfect harmony.
They carried on for hours and Wynter let Marcus take her every which way he wanted.
She was still strewn over his desk on her belly, his hands around her neck and being pummelled from behind, when the sun rose the next morning.
Marcus pulled her upwards and nipped her ear with his teeth, relishing in her surprised cry. “I think it’s time I sent you away, Wynter,” he then whispered gruffly, still pounding into her and crushing her against him.
Panic rose within her, thinking she was being dismissed for negative reasons, but then it dawned on her. He knew. All this time, he knew exactly what she was planning and had let her try to seduce him anyway. Of course he had.
Wynter turned her head back and caught the huge grin that was spread across her vampire husband’s face.
“You knew?” she demanded, and then shuddered as another climax echoed through her. Marcus was right there with her, and when they were both done, he stepped away and grabbed a fresh set of clothes from his closet.
“Of course, who else do you think provided Marcella with the bracelet to give you?” he replied, laughing.
“But why?”
“Because I know this isn’t enough for you, my sweet,” he answered, turning oddly serious. “As in, this world I’ve brought you into. I know you wanted something different for your future and I like to think I’ve created a far better alternative, but of course I’m no fool. I know you need something more. There are things you must learn and, as frustrating it is for me to admit it, I know I cannot teach you.”
Wynter was in shock. Not once in all their time together had Marcus flummoxed her so. Not even when he’d told her he loved her.
He’d finally made some mention of the life he had stolen from her. Some hint of the future with Jakob that had been ripped away. She had to force herself not to lash out at him. He’d ‘created something different’ all right! Damn, if there wasn’t the chance of freedom on offer Wynter knew she would’ve said something to rile him and cause an argument. But that was the old her. She didn’t do that any more. She fought in other ways and was clever now. Not blinded by hate and desperation, or the love for another she wanted to get back to. Marcus had quietened his little fighter’s voice, but he hadn’t quietened her soul. No, hers still screamed loudly from deep within, and for the first time in months, even Mara didn’t seem to oppose her. In fact, the witch’s heart beat as strong as ever, but her voice was unusually quiet. Did she agree that he was wrong? Or was she too just choosing not to fight? Yet again Wynter tried asking her and knew the witch’s spirit heard her, but still refused her.
Coward, she thought, and then turned her attention back to her husband.
“Plus,” he continued, “once you’ve got everything covered I’ll have an exceptionally trained and full powered Jinn by my side. We’ll be unstoppable, my sweet.”
She nodded, but was still raging. She could see what he was up to. Marcus’s quest for power was infallible, and it scared her. Wynter also had to wonder, was this the real reason why Mara was going along with her plan to get back to Brodie? She wanted her master to prevail against all odds and anyone who rose up against him, and having Wynter at full strength was certainly a sure fire way to do so.
And then something else occurred to her. By going to Brodie and the others, she was opening them up to more danger at the hands of their old foe.
“My friends owe you nothing. They will not be expected to follow your rules or else face any form of punishment,” she demanded, and Marcus simply nodded. “I mean it. They have full amnesty. The past forgotten.”
“Cross my heart,” he told her, doing the action with the tip of his finger across the centre of his chest.
“And I can go, no caveats?”
“Just one,” Marcus answered, and then the door beside him opened. In walked the alpha vampire and he stood there, looking anywhere but at her, and Wynter realised why when she looked down and remembered she was still naked. A second later she was magically dressed and simply shrugged.
“I don’t need a chaperone, but I get it. He can come on one condition—he does what I say. Got it?”
“Got it…”
Fifteen
As she climbed into her huge four-by-four, Wynter told herself over and over that things were going to be okay. She was going back to her friends, who would welcome her with open arms. She would train and then come back to Marcus without delay.
And without the others in tow.
Marcus had let slip how he felt about having a jinni in his team, so to give him two would be beyond foolish. But Brodie would know that as well, and he wouldn’t let it happen either. She would make sure of it that they worked together and then she would go—end of story.
The alpha soldier climbed in beside her and Wynter tore away from the mansion before she could change her mind. However this turned out, she knew it needed to happen. Every thought and feeling she had was drawing her back to that island and she knew she wouldn’t be able to silence those thoughts much longer.
The two of them reached the coast within a few hours and, once the car was safely locked away, she stood staring out at the grey sky ahead, which was broken only by the bright beam of the lighthouse one island over. Wynter was itching to get there. Her skin prickled like it was still real flesh, and she grimaced at her companion. It wasn’t going to go down well that she’d brought one of the vampire soldiers along for the ride.
“I’ll carry you across, but once we’re there you have to hold back. Let me talk to them and ease their fears,” she told him, and the vampire simply nodded. Like always, he just followed along, but actually she was glad. It was easier not to have to fight.
Wynter checked they weren’t being watched and then quickly dissipated into her misty form, and was soon carrying the huge, bulky soldier across the still water towards what looked like nothingness ahead. To the naked eye the island was invisible, and to humans, the magic surrounding it would make it even less so.
Once they were far enough from the mainland, she saw Brodie’s island appear out of the fog and made for the cliff edge. She knew the opening to the cave was there somewhere and soon found a clear path that led downwards towards a mossy shard of rock. She’d seen almost every inch of this island through her maker’s eyes and yet as she came to land and transformed back into her human form, it felt brand new.
The travelling time had been a blur and Wynter hadn’t thought to stop and smell the roses, as it were. But now that they were there she took a moment to truly take it all in. The island was dreary and damp, but it was truly beautiful in its own way. The rocks were jagged and ugly, but they were also protective of those who resided within, and so she found the ancient landscape homely.
She’d never stopped to think about it much before. All she’d been focussed on was her time with Jak and t
heir few stolen moments when she’d been strong enough to emerge from her hideaway.
Wynter suddenly felt dizzy and overcome with sadness at the thought of him. This was where he had spent his final days. As a prisoner. They ought to have had the most wonderful future together and instead he had been locked away, while she too had been shut inside the confines of her own cell. And then he had died here too.
“Wynter,” the alpha hummed, and she knew she couldn’t hide her upset from him. No matter how hard she was trying to overcome the emotions flooding through her, she just couldn’t.
“I’m fine,” she lied, shooing him away, but it was no use. All she could think about was how he too had played a part in the death of the vampire she had loved. She hated him. Hated all of them.
Wynter needed to get this over with. Needed to force away the thoughts that were overwhelming her and get in the cave. She needed to get to her friends. They would help.
She turned on her heel and stormed inside, anything to get away from the vampire she’d been made to bring along, and was still figuring out what to say when she collided with someone on their way out the entranceway.
It was Archie. He was in his gym gear and had headphones in, clearly heading out for a run, and he looked great. Slimmer than ever. Wynter was about to greet him and tell him so when he backed away and held his hands up to her in his panic.
“Please, don’t hurt me,” he whimpered, and she frowned.
“Archie, it’s me,” she said, but then realised he was looking over her shoulder to where the alpha was blocking the exit with his grey, brutish body and insidious red eyes. Archie’s MP3 player slipped from his hand, and his headphones fell to the ground with it. “Hey, trust me. We’re not here to hurt anyone. It’s me, Wynter,” she told him, and saw the fear on his face slowly begin to subside.
He finally blinked and then looked into her face, which was when she realised he didn’t know what she looked like. But he knew her voice, and that seemed to be what had triggered him to come back from whatever assumptions the sight of a vampire soldier had led him to.
“Wynter?” he whimpered, and she nodded.
“In the flesh,” she joked, but then shook her head. “Not the time for jokes, but you know what I mean, right?” she added, and then transformed into her white smoke for just a few seconds so that she could prove to him she was the same jinni he had slowly gotten to know months previously. Archie nodded, but his eyes were still wide.
“And what the fuck is he doing here?” he gulped, looking back at her chaperone, and Wynter sighed.
“Babysitting,” she groaned, but then remembered how scary it had to have been for Archie having soldiers like the alpha swarm the island and take them down in that chopper. She’d tried her hardest to block out those memories, and it appeared so had he, but her return had to have taken him right back to that night too. Just like for her, those memories were doing a number on him, and Archie swayed on his feet, looking like he might be about to keel over.
She reached for him in time to stop him slumping to the ground and then carried him over to the house as fast as she could without hurting him. The poor guy had to have had too much, and Wynter started to worry that things might not be the same between them after all.
She was met at the doorway by the jinni she had come looking for, and let out a sigh when Brodie smiled and turned to let her pass.
“I’ve been expecting you,” he told her, “but not him.” He then pointed to the alpha.
“I know,” she answered, and was just placing Archie down on the sofa when his eyes shot back open and he fought his way back up to his feet. “Please, both of you, hear me out. I wasn’t allowed to come unless he was with me. I had no choice. Marcus trusted me to come but only if—”
“Marcus what?!” Archie bellowed, surprising them all with his outburst. “He trusts you now? Wanna know what I imagined was going on? That he kept you prisoner and you escaped, or that he got tired of your constant attempts to fight back and let you go. But no. You were off playing nice with him and earning his trust? I don’t need to ask how,” he seethed.
“Please don’t,” Wynter tried, but it appeared he was going to have his say no matter what.
“He killed Jakob. He murdered him right before your eyes and almost killed us all, and you’ve spent the last few months doing what? Playing happy families?”
“Archie!” she cried, feeling pain and anger beginning to rise within at his words, but she couldn’t deny that he was right and so was filled with shame.
“How can you forgive him? How can you let that thing come here with you? Who the hell do you think you are?” he carried on, and was on some kind of a roll. One that even Brodie didn’t seem to want to put a stop to. She wondered, did he feel the same too and that was why he was staying quiet?
Wynter started to feel hot. Her heart was racing and suddenly her hands felt like they were burning. She looked to Brodie for guidance on what was happening, and saw his eyes widen with shock—or was it fear?
He leapt between her and Archie just in time to intercede as she lifted her palms and shot some kind of white bolts of power from them in the human’s direction. She didn’t even know what she was doing or why, and was shocked to hear herself screaming as Brodie took the force directly to the chest and crumbled in a heap at Archie’s feet.
He backed up, looking terrified, and Wynter wanted to tell him she was sorry. To say he was safe now, but then she felt a second round of the strange lightning begin to well up from within.
“Get back, Archie. Please! Get away. I can’t control it,” she begged him, and then realised her hands were coming up yet again, ready to deliver the poor boy with the hit he’d avoided the first time around.
He clambered to the ground and curled into a ball, begging for her to stop, but Wynter couldn’t. This was Mara’s doing, she knew, and no matter what she tried the witch was clearly done with listening to Archie’s account of how awful Marcus was and had been.
Wynter closed her eyes and screamed to Mara to stop, and then felt the icy flesh of the alpha press against her red hot palms. She opened up, watching as he took the second jolt of magic as it burst out of her.
His body shook like he was being electrocuted and then he fell back with an almighty thud, and before Wynter could even think what to do next, she felt herself being lifted up off the ground and carried away by the other magical male entity in residence at the island.
Rafferty took her across the other side of the house to the kitchen and sat her at the table with a thud, and Wynter stared up at him, tears streaming down her face.
“They’re going to be okay,” he told her, “but you need to calm down. And you need to calm her down…”
“I know,” she replied, taking deep breaths. “I don’t even know what the hell that was?” she admitted as he delivered her with a cup of tea. She went to refuse, seeing as she didn’t need to eat at all, but he insisted.
“My special remedy,” the goblin said, and as she took a sniff, Wynter somehow picked out exactly which herbs and spices he’d put in the tincture he’d mixed with the hot water. It was a harmless brew and one that’d calm a human’s nerves readily, and as she took a sip she realised how the drink wasn’t there to calm her, but Mara. In focussing on the ingredients he had distracted her long enough to calm the entire situation down, and Wynter was glad he’d known to not only remove her from the scene, but also tackle the witch who was to thank for it.
“Works a treat,” she told him with a smile, having had the smallest of sips, and Rafferty smiled.
“She’s strong, isn’t she?” he asked, taking a seat beside her, and Wynter nodded.
“And thanks to her power I’m bound to Marcus forever. She won’t let anyone come between us,” she confessed, “I’ve done what I had to, become who he wanted me to, and all because I had no other choice. But I didn’t know she’d use me like that simply because someone spoke against him. I never meant to hurt anyone,” she crie
d, and had to stop herself from growing upset again.
“I had no idea,” a soft voice said from behind her, and Wynter knew it was Archie. She risked a peek at him and was glad when Mara didn’t try and hurt him again. The poor guy was trembling but he stood tall, like he was trying to show her no fear, and she was impressed. It helped that Rafferty was there to come between them should something happen, but actually, she felt fine. Mara had given her show of force and none of them needed reminding just what the young witch was capable of. She’d won, and Archie had clearly learned his lesson.
“Don’t get me wrong, I get it,” she replied, her head in her hands, “I’ll never forget what he took from me, but I have no choice other than to move forward and accept my fate. He made sure of that when his Priestess put this power inside of me.”
“The witch’s heart?” he asked, and she nodded, “Brodie told me.”
“And did he tell you how I’m alive, but damned? I’ve got more than enough energy to live on, but it came at such a high price. I lost everything, Archie. Even the friends I have left can’t talk to me because they’re under his spell, or are loyal to him first and foremost. I knew something had to give. I need to have something to live for, which is why I begged Marcus to let me come here. I wanted to find you both and try to figure out a way to live with what I have become.”
“We’ll help you,” a gruff voice replied, and she watched as a dishevelled looking Brodie stumbled towards her with a frown. His eyes were only half open and he was rubbing his chest as he then slid into one of the chairs at the table, but he seemed determined to be heard. Mara had given him a good beating, but at least he was still standing, and she was glad to see him back up and about. That blast would’ve undoubtedly killed Archie if he hadn’t intervened, so it was clearly the better alternative.
Even in Death Page 14
