Some Like It Wicked

by Hawkeye, Lauren

  “Shit.” Aria could think of nothing else to say.

  “Indeed.” This was all that Declan said in reply.

  “Should we...I don’t know. Should we go hunt it down?” She’d be damned if she was going to let some shadowy by-product of a spell haunt her. With a pang she realized that killing it would mean that the spell would be broken—Adam and Declan would realize that they didn’t actually want her.

  They would leave.

  It was the right thing to do. Apart from the fact that she couldn’t live with a demon stalking her every move, she couldn’t live her life as a lie.

  Although neither of them had told her why they were really here. And she couldn’t bring herself to ask.

  Swallowing thickly against the flood of emotions that the realization brought out, Aria looked up when Adam stepped in front of her.

  The werewolf sniffed the air and nodded.

  “I don’t think we’ll have to go hunting. I think it’s going to find us.”

  Chapter Four

  Declan studied Aria in his peripheral vision as the three of them made their way down the street to the town’s only all-night, non fast food diner. He’d thrown her off-balance when he’d placed her on the counter and touched her, but he’d meant to do just that.

  It wouldn’t be long before she realized that her sister was wrong, that a demon birthed from a spell wasn’t what was hunting them. He wouldn’t be at all surprised, in fact, if she’d already figured it out.

  But he knew her better than she thought, even after all these years. If she discovered why he had really left her, that he’d sacrificed his freedom to save her, she’d rip out his hair strand by strand.

  He’d always loved her violent side.

  He’d have to tell her eventually, he knew. And she’d never forgive him for the decision he’d made. Because when the Capitol had come to him three years earlier, when they’d told him they required his precognition services, they hadn’t given him a choice. If he refused, those he loved—namely Aria—would die.

  If she’d known, she would have insisted on coming with him. And the Capitol would have sucked her dry, feeding on her magic until only a brittle shell remained.

  So he’d left. And now, because his senses had pulled him back toward her, he had placed her in danger once again.

  This time was different, though. This time he wouldn’t leave.

  * * *

  Sitting in between a vampire and a werewolf did nothing to diminish Aria’s lust.

  The last thing she’d expected after they’d found her Gran’s diary was to be dragged to Stella’s, a diner she’d come to since she was a child. But Adam hadn’t been able to track the scent of the demon.

  “I can smell it, all around, but it doesn’t lead anywhere.” His frustration was apparent and made Aria long to stroke her fingers through his hair. “And I need a decent meal if we’re going to be facing down a demon.”

  Aria hadn’t wanted to leave Lorelai alone, but Declan had pointed out that the demon was attuned to Aria and no one else.

  “It’s going to come after you. Lorelai will be safer away from you.”

  Aria knew better than to argue with him. Declan was alpha to the core and would never dream of leaving her in danger, and she could already tell that Adam was cut from the same cloth. So here she was, picking at a plate of French fries while Declan sipped from his flask on one side of her, and Adam ate everything on the menu on the other.

  “How are you holding up?” A faint residue of scarlet painted Declan’s lips as he sipped from his metal flask. His eyes watched her every move. “You’re not eating.”

  “I don’t normally eat a meal at four in the morning.” Her tone was waspish and she knew it. Willing herself to calm down, she managed a tight smile. “I’m fine. I’m more irritated than anything.”

  Her nerves were humming because of the overbearing presence of a vampire and a werewolf. The reappearance of Declan in her life had aroused all of the longing she’d once had, and though it might have just been the result of their sexual encounter, Aria didn’t care for the idea of being without Adam, either.

  And she was terrified that none of it was real. It wouldn’t be a sudden surge of knowledge for them, but she knew that they would wonder why they had taken up with her.

  “In all of this drama, we haven’t had a chance to talk to you about why we came for you, Aria.” Screwing the cap back on to his flask, Declan reached across the table and caught her hand in his. He looked at Adam as he did, and though the werewolf was busy inhaling what appeared to be his third steak sandwich, he nodded in agreement and understanding.

  “You didn’t come for me.” The words were out of her mouth before she thought them through, and though she cringed inwardly, she pressed on. “You weren’t disappointed to see me again, but I wasn’t the reason you came here.”

  “True.” Declan spoke slowly, and Aria felt her heart sink as he confirmed what she had said.

  “Why?” Dropping all pretenses of spunk, she rested her cheek on her hand, suddenly weary. “Why not just leave things as they were. We were doing all right.”

  “Adam and I met not long after you and I parted ways.” Declan began, reaching for Aria’s hand.

  She pulled away.

  “I always knew that there was a piece of his heart that I could never have,” Adam added, shoving his empty plate away and fixing his eyes on Aria’s face. “Because it belonged to a woman he’d once known. He was determined to get back to her someday, once he’d fulfilled what the Capitol wanted from him.”

  Aria felt her thoughts stutter as she turned that knowledge around in her head.

  “Wait a minute.” She saw Declan’s eyes fixed on her face, saw the truth in them. Fury began to rise inside of her. “You told me you left because vampires needed to roam.”

  “I left because the Capitol would have killed you if I’d refused their demands.” Declan’s voice was steady and full of strength. Aria ground her teeth to keep from shouting obscenities. “And you can hate me for it. But I would rather have broken your heart and still have you alive than the alternative.”

  Aria’s mind whirled.

  “It wasn’t your choice.” Hot, angry tears clawed their way through her throat. “I would have chosen to fight at your side.”

  “They wouldn’t have allowed it.” Declan said flatly, slamming his palm flat on the table. “They didn’t allow anything. Complete obedience or death. Though they told me they’d let me go someday—told Adam the same thing—I began to see that they never would.”

  “Declan’s precognition was too valuable to them,” Adam’s voice was full of suppressed rage. “And so were my connections to the wolf packs. But it’s how we met, how we decided to escape. If we died trying, well, we figured we were better off.”

  Aria’s mind whirled as she tried to take in the influx of information.

  “But why come here?” Turning, she looked Declan square in the face. “If you left to ensure my safety, that seems like a waste of effort.”

  The men looked at each other, and Aria found herself wanting to smack their heads together. It was as if they had their own nonverbal language.

  “I had one of my premonitions,” Declan’s voice was low and determined. “And it drew me—us—here.”

  Hope was a wild thing curling inside of Aria’s chest. Could it really be?

  “So...in theory, we destroy this spell creature, and we can...can...” she couldn’t spit out the words.

  Declan’s face was set and serious.

  “I think there’s more than a spell creature, Aria.”

  Aria frowned and looked from Declan to the werewolf, who had finished his steak and was now guzzling what appeared to be a pint glass of orange juice.

  Realization clicked
. “You think the Capitol has found you. That they tracked you down after you escaped.” Panic rose in a dark cloud, and she tried to stand. “Lori!”

  Two large, masculine hands gripped her, one hot, one cold, pulling her back down to the table. Two pairs of hard eyes—soldiers’ eyes—stared at her.

  “Lori will be safer if we’re not there.” Adam spoke flatly. “And you’ll be safer if we are.”

  They were talking in circles, and Aria had had enough. She’d had one hell of a day, her emotions were a mess and a demon was stalking her.

  “Spit it out already.” She slammed her hands on the laminated tabletop. The movement jolted her glass, and cold water sloshed over the side, wetting her hand.

  Declan raised an eyebrow at her. She glowered back.

  “We’re not leaving you. Not until the Capitol has fallen.” Aria’s mouth fell open as she looked from one alpha male to the other. Anger rose, hot and fast, as she realized that they had planned this all out for her, just as Declan had made life-shattering decisions for her three years ago.

  Fury painted her vision red.

  Standing, she hissed when Declan laid a hand on her wrist.

  “Touch me again, and I’ll give you a hex that will make your cock fall off.” Though she was certain that he would follow her, she climbed right over him and out of the booth, stomping her way to the washroom that was located at the back of the restaurant.

  She slammed the door shut behind the small, single stall room and leaned back against it, her heart pounding a rapid tattoo in her chest.

  “This sucks.” Aria had never been one to cry, not if she could help it. But this—there was nothing she could do about this.

  Declan had tried to save her with his leaving, but she couldn’t get past the fact that he’d made the decision for her. A decision that wasn’t the one she would have made herself.

  She knew her lover, and suspected Adam wouldn’t leave Salem’s Hollow—wouldn’t leave her—until she was safe.

  She’d be damned if she was going to tie them to her like that when they already had each other, though if she was honest with herself, she wanted them both, wanted them willingly back in her life.

  Sometimes Fate was a bitch.

  Once she could breathe again, she crossed to the cracked porcelain sink. The pipes groaned and the water spurted out, tainting the air with the scent of minerals. Rinsing her face, she ground her teeth and understood what she had to do.

  Closing her eyes, Aria inhaled deeply and pictured the creature she had seen earlier, the gray, ethereal shape. She focused her intentions, and at the same time channeled her energy into her fingertips.

  She wasn’t afraid of a shadow creature. Wasn’t afraid of the Capitol. They were the organization that ruled over the supernatural creatures of the world, true enough, but she refused to believe that they couldn’t be beaten.

  Especially not with rage filling her blood.

  “Come and get me, asshole.” Aria’s voice echoed off the walls as she invited the creature to her. “If I can’t handle a little shadow demon, I don’t deserve to call myself witch.”

  It took a moment before the whoosh of energy came, before she registered the out-of—place scent.

  Decaying roses.

  Her muscles tensed as she raised her head but saw nothing in the mirror. She didn’t trust her eyes—she could sense the demon.

  She whirled, pressing her back to the sink. The thing hovered just inside the door, the size of a large man. She again sensed the lack of awareness from the creature.

  Something wasn’t right. If the Capitol had sent something to get Declan back, or to hurt her in hisplace, surely they would have sent something more than this. This demon was dark, but it was as if it had been cued for one purpose only—to kill her and restore the balance altered by Lorelai’s spell. As it slid slowly, threateningly toward her, she tried to channel her magic.

  Focus, she told herself. She would take care of this, of what she was suddenly sure was indeed a by-product of Lorelai’s spell, and deal with whatever shit the Capitol threw down after.

  She’d accepted the need for balance, even if it meant giving up Adam and Declan. But she wasn’t the one who was going to die to accomplish it.

  As she’d done outside the motel, she pictured the demon disappearing. A few sparks danced from her fingers in the direction of the creature, but the stream of power that she was trying to reach for eluded her.

  Tendrils of fear began to wind their way around her muscles as her bravado disappeared and she realized that she might very well be in trouble.

  “Fuck this.” Taking a precious moment to close her eyes against the threat, Aria tried to pull her magic toward her again. A short burst exploded from her fingers, slamming the creature back against the bathroom door, but it wasn’t deterred and just kept coming.

  Blast, slam. Blast, slam. Aria could feel her energy draining, and it became harder to channel even the small bursts of magic.

  She tried again to pull her power to her, and with her heart in her throat realized that she was drained. She had nothing left.

  The creature reached for her, its arms outstretched, and Aria feinted to the side to avoid its grasp. Her foot looped behind her ankle, and she fell hard onto the tiles of the floor, jarring her spine painfully.

  She shrieked as the demon turned and bent, those fingers inches away from brushing her skin.

  The door exploded open, half of the door frame coming with it. A massive silvery wolf leaped into the small room, its muscles bunching with power. It flew at the demon, jaws open wide, lethal-looking teeth glinting in the neon light.

  Declan was in the room a fraction of a second later. Aria was in shock as he drew a dangerous-looking blade from the hilt of his cane. His movements graceful despite his injury, he swiped the blade through the air once, twice.

  As the possibility of losing him again slapped her hard in the face, Aria was faced with a hard truth.

  I still love him.

  Before the demon’s shadowy head separated from its body beneath Declan’s blade, Aria felt power blast through her. Raising her hands, she sent a wall of her magic careening toward the demon. It slammed into the creature—through it—and the thing floated upward before bursting into eerie amethyst flame.

  The rest of its form quickly followed suit, tingeing the air with the smell of flowers.

  Declan was at Aria’s side, lifting her into his arms before she could even process what had happened. With his arms wrapped tightly around her waist, he kissed her over and over again.

  Something was wrong with that, but her mind was too full of Declan, and she couldn’t think what.

  “Thank you.” She managed to mutter when her lips were finally free. “I...I was running out of steam.” It galled her that she hadn’t been able to handle the demon on her own, but she had her life, so she wasn’t about to complain.

  “If you hadn’t run away from us...” Declan’s words were a growl. Remembering why she had run, Aria looked away from the probing blue beam of the vampire’s eyes.

  A silvery wolf rubbed its furry head beneath her hand as they all turned to watch the lavender remnants of the demon dance on the air.

  “Aria.” Declan buried his face in her air. Shaken, Aria leaned into him, savoring the sensation of his solid body beneath her fingers. “Please. Let us stay. All of us, together.”

  Joy leaped through her. It was tinged with fire. Fire...heat...her warm feelings faded as an inferno of pain swept through her body.

  Movement in the corner of the room caught her eye and she jerked, turning to see a great purple serpent, its teeth sinking into the tender flesh of her leg. Her magic sparked fitfully in her fingers, but she’d used it all vanquishing the shadow creature.

  “Dec...Adam...” She could feel toxins m
oving through her as the snake, the symbol of the Capitol, a symbol that was familiar to every supernatural child even if the workings of the mysterious group were not, worked through her body. She watched, as if from outside of her body, as the werewolf howled with rage and slammed the snake into the ground. As she fell, the last thing she saw was Declan, his own throat bared to the fangs of the snake, as he slashed his sword at the beast.

  The snake, with an impossibly human look on his evil face, lowered his teeth to Declan’s neck.

  “No!” The scream came from Aria, and yet not. Her body became stiff as a board as something she had never felt and couldn’t describe slammed through her, taking over her body, suffusing her with heat.

  “Love is the strongest magic of all.” The voice that came from her throat was hers, but sounded as if a hundred of her were speaking at once. The heat of magic pushed through her entire body, but it was more than she’d ever felt before, ripping through her flesh, a wash of crimson that began a wall of flame. She screamed, her eyes rolling back in her head as the flame—her energy—incinerated the snake whole.

  She collapsed to the ground as the snake disintegrated, then disappeared as if it had never been there at all.

  * * *

  Minutes passed. Or maybe it was hours. Finally Aria felt the touch of a cool hand on her cheek, looked up to find Declan staring at her with amazement.

  “What the hell was that?”

  “I don’t know.” She turned to see the last moments of Adam’s shift, the silver pelt disappearing from view and leaving golden skin for her to eye.

  Lots of naked golden skin.

  She should have been exhausted. Confused. Terrified.

  Instead she felt like a goddess, full of power and life. And a pleasant hum worked along her skin when she saw that Adam had a massive erection.

  “Goddess.” She inhaled sharply as she saw it.

  Adam grinned. “Fighting gets wolves excited.”

  She choked on a protest when he fisted his cock in his own hand and stroked once, up and down.

  Aria cast a nervous glance over her shoulder at the splintered door frame. Neither Adam nor Declan seemed at all bothered by the idea that someone could walk in on them at any moment.