The black and purple wings curved up her navel from above the crest of her pussy, her shaved mound only a little red and sore to touch. The ink was enchanted, the tattoo created to look like the wings flapped whenever it was touched. She was a fucking idiot to have forgotten her ointment. She had always had ridiculously sensitive skin and even though the damn thing was practically healed, she was still sore. Now she was stuck an entire weekend trying to hide her first, albeit totally badass, tattoo from her over-protective friend. Seth had flipped out over every eyebrow piercing she had gotten without him, although he had at least kept his mouth shut over her many ear piercings. She didn’t want to hear what he’d have to say about the dangers of getting a tattoo, especially in such a spot. It would probably be along the lines of it being skeevy to let some guy with a needle stare at her snatch for hours on end. Which was why she hadn’t brought him and why she couldn’t tell him she needed to find a damn store with some fucking salve.
The spa was out in the middle of nowhere. It was a nice enough nowhere, but the GPS hadn’t had anything for sites or gas stations, restaurants, etc. to mention in the local area. She remembered seeing a convenience store a few miles back but she wasn’t sure how she was going to convince Seth to let her run off with his car. She could lie and say she needed tampons… But Seth was the kind of guy that would easily come along for such a trip. The idiot was too nice and clearly didn’t want to be alone.
Alexa sighed to herself, carefully sliding her shorts back in place. The material rubbed over her flesh and she bit her lip, holding back a groan. The tattoo looked amazing, it did, but the current level of soreness in the area was just making her horny as fuck. She was glad she was wearing black because she was pretty sure she was so wet that she was dripping at this point. Not great. Not when she was supposed to be cheering her best friend up from another shitty breakup with a girl that hadn’t been good enough for him in the first place. Not when she kept noticing just how fucking hot Seth looked and didn’t have the excuse of him being spoken for to keep her from fantasizing.
He had fucking thrown her over his shoulders and fuck, when she had slid down his back it had felt so good. Goddess, how could he not have noticed how wet she was? Thank fuck he hadn’t. Thank fuck he was a fucking boy scout most of the time, his mind obsessed on his perfect girl of the moment and not much else. He was always looking for his true love, some bride that was going to raise him up beyond a man to some valiant prince charming. It was annoying to watch him look for his self-worth everywhere but inside. Annoying, frustrating, and overall exhausting. Each ideal girlfriend had only torn Seth down more and Alexa was again left to have to mend the pieces together.
This time, though, it was too different. She was losing perspective and he was… Well, he was oblivious, as usual. Thank fuck.
It was her own fault. She shouldn’t have agreed to this weekend. Sure, it was what a good friend would do—and she was determined to be a good friend—it was just really difficult when she found herself with the worst fucking crush on her best friend. She couldn’t even remember when it had started or why. One day a little after her month long trip to hunt for fairies with her mother and stepdad, Seth had gone from her all around goofball of a best friend to something, well, hot. Sexy. Fuckable. And she didn’t say that easily. She was really picky when it came to what she liked in a man.
But she had always liked Seth. Like a brother. As the most loyal friend she had. She would never ruin the relationship they had for just some quick fuck while he was trying to get over another lie of a girl.
She glanced in the mirror, grabbing two ponytail holders from her wrists and twisting her hair into low pigtails to keep it from getting too messy on the hike. Her purple streaked locks reached down to her breasts, waving into loose curls to cling to her star dusted tank top. She had put on too much makeup for this, her lipgloss too shiny, eyeshadow too sultry. She had made herself look trampy, and available, and fuck—She might have it bad. Still, she leaned close, making sure her eyeliner wasn’t running from all her laughing earlier. She stuck her tongue out, her tongue ring glinting in the obnoxiously pink tinted bathroom. If she ever saw Chloe again she was going to permanently spell the bitch’s car black.
Whatever. She was just antsy, horny, and waiting for this day to get over already. Five hours in a car with Seth had not helped on the crush level. No, she had been about ready to climb into his lap after his fifth stupid ass joke about Cosmic Races. Fucking sexy nerds; they were the worst. She just needed to get through this stupid weekend and then she’d be able to get away from Seth and his hunky muscles and stupid gorgeous face.
Chapter Two
“Fuck—Mother fucker!”
Seth’s shout rang out through the woods, Alexa raising her head to hear from where she had been poking around what she thought was a pixie burrow.
“Get off me!”
“Oh, fuck,” she gasped, grabbing the pack from her shoulders, throwing it down, and unzipping and grabbing the spelled bar of metal out in record time. She was running before she fully felt it, her eyes wide open, ears straining, and heart pounding as she headed for where Seth had wandered off to. No one at the spa had warned of anything dangerous in the woods, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t possible. They were out in the middle of nowhere in a nearly untouched forest. Whatever was attacking Seth could be something as deadly as a crazed shifter to a swarm of angry brownies.
Alexa burst through a stand of brush into a small clearing, finding her friend on the ground clutching his bloodied leg while swinging his backpack to the left of him where she could just see something rustling in the green underbrush. She sprinted over, swinging her equivalent of an enchanted pipe at the shrubbery. She heard an angry yelp over the clatter of her metal bracelets although she had failed to make any content with anything solid and alive.
“Quick, my bag!” Seth shouted, tearing his own backpack open while his friend stood as a shield in front of him. “I have a fire ward.”
Alexa jumped away, feeling the heat of the spell toast up her entire side before the brush before her melted away, purple flames licking and then immediately puffing away into smoke. Nothing was revealed but she held her weapon at the ready just in case, listening and looking intently in case the creature returned.
“What the fuck was it?” Alexa asked, crouching down a moment for a different view in the hopes of spotting the creature.
“I have no idea. I think it was underground when it found me. Like a burrow or some shit.” Seth groaned as he moved his hand, blood seeping down his calf and turning his dirt streaked sock soggy and red. “I stepped into a hole and when I pulled my leg out, something bit the fuck out of me.”
“I saw a pixie burrow a yard or so away. Do you think it was that?”
Seth glared at the large teeth marks ingrained into the side of his calf. “Yeah, that would be a fuck no.”
“Shit, okay. Are you okay?” She asked, not daring to take her eyes off of the woods yet.
Seth grunted, hissing as he tried to get to his feet, only to grab his wounded leg. “I’m not sure.”
“Don’t give me that shit—You’re alive, aren’t you? Your leg isn’t melting off from acidic venom, you’re not screaming in pain.” Alexa peeked over her shoulder for a second, relieved to see that his leg was still actually attached to his body before turning her attention back to the unnaturally quiet forest.
“It bit me bad, Lexa. It got its teeth deep into my muscle and… I think it might have had something in the bite.” Seth sounded too calm even though his breathing was strained and he kept grunting in pain as he forced himself to get to his feet.
“Hospital?” She asked, Alexa’s shoulders losing a lot of their tension when she felt Seth’s body heat as he stood behind her. He was well enough to stand—it was something.
“Yeah. I’m not bleeding out or shit but…” He trailed off, leaving her to fill in the blanks as she heard him stumble.
Growling under her breat
h, she spun quickly, getting Seth’s nearest arm over her shoulder. “This will turn out to be a good thing, for real. There is no way the fucking hospital will be as pink as the spa. Promise.”
Seth grimaced, the closest thing to a grin she was going to get from him at the moment. His face was covered in sweat and had a tinge of paleness already. When she met his eyes, she could see they were taking on a glassy sheen. Whatever had bit him had poisoned him as well. They wouldn’t know if it was a bacteria found in the creature’s mouth, venom, or some sort of magical defense until they got to the hospital but given how quickly the symptoms were coming on, Alexa had a good guess magic was involved.
“Tell me what’s happening, Seth. I need you talking,” she said while helping to walk her friend forward. She paused long enough to let him sling his backpack over his shoulder, the brunette wobbling unsteadily from the new weight for a moment before he regained himself.
“I’m okay… Just feel a little fuzzy headed.”
“Fuzzy like drunk? Like you’re going to pass out? Like you’re going to start craving human flesh? Help me out here, Seth. Details.”
Seth didn’t say anything for long minutes, Alexa turning her watchful gaze from the trees around them to find his face. He was staring at her shoulder. It had gotten bloodied from his arm and he was staring at it with an odd look to his already glazed eyes.
“Come on, Seth, please tell me you’re not thinking of cannibalizing me,” she muttered, snapping her fingers to get his attention.
Shaking his head, Seth scowled, tilting his chin up. “You’d taste terrible. You eat so much shit as it is. I’m sure I could get someone organic back at the spa.”
“And don’t you fucking forget it when you start going zombie apocalypse on me, buddy,” she shot back, dragging on his arm to make him take another step. Her tattoo was flaming at her—all the running had definitely pissed it off. She did her best to ignore the way that, combined with the adrenaline pumping through her veins, she was totally dripping for dick.
Seth stumbled along the best he could, hissing with each painful step. She knew they were leaving a blazing trail of blood but she didn’t dare stop to patch him up when whatever had attacked him could still be there. Also, if he was poisoned, she could only hope that him bleeding out would push out the substance inflicting him.
“Hold on… Just, hold on,” Seth mumbled, using his free arm to grab onto a large tree trunk. Alexa glared back at him, her worry only growing when she saw just how pale he had grown.
“What? You going to puke?”
Seth shook his head, tightening his grip on her shoulder. “No… Do you smell that?”
“Smell?” Alexa raised her head, scenting while letting her eyes drift to the forest around them. They were only a half hour up the trail and they’d been wandering slowly through most of it, neither of them in a hurry to get anywhere, just happy for the fresh air outside of the car. She wanted to get him back as soon as possible and she really didn’t think a smell was reason enough to stop unless it was fire or death. “I don’t smell anything but your blood.”
Seth frowned, breathing deeper, his blue eyes closing. “It’s good, Lexa… It smells really fucking good.”
Goddamn, please don’t let this be some sort of fairy trick. Alexa raised her pipe; it was her own design, a wand enchanted to repel most predators, magical or not, with its power. And what the magic didn’t work on, she was happy to beat the fuck out of until the creature got the picture and left. “Seth, we need to get back. Now. Whatever is in your system is hitting you fast.”
“It smells so good.” Seth leaned forward, Alexa jolting when she felt his breath brush hot against her ear. “It’s heady… like thick honey…”
“If you follow that up with brains, so help me, Seth Stevens, I will not be responsible for the beating I give you,” Alexa warned, her hand grasping her wand harder.
“You smell really good… Really good,” he murmured unapologetically, his nose brushing into her long blond locks as he inhaled slowly. “Hell, why do you smell like that, Lexa?”
Alexa took a steadying breath, trying to ignore her growing fear and really fucking stupid body that wanted more than anything to let him sniff her neck like some idiot. His lips brushed her jaw and she gasped, fighting back a low whimper.
“Seth, something has injected you with a foreign, possibly magical substance,” she said as calmly and rationally as possible. “I smell the way I always smell, you’re just perceiving it differently because you’re being influenced beyond your control. Which means I need you to move your long ass legs and lug your impossibly heavy body the fuck out of here so I can get you help.” She tugged hard on his arm to no avail. Seth was a good head taller than her and was a fucking wall of a man. “Come on, you big lunk. Move.”
“I’m acting weird,” Seth said after a moment, his eyes blinking open again. He looked down to where his mouth was pressed to the side of his friend’s cheek, slowly pulling back until his breath was no longer tingling on her pale skin. “Sorry… Sorry.”
“Just walk, Seth. I’ll kick your ass later. Just do this one little thing for me.” There was no way she’d be able to carry him. She might be able to enchant a pipe with the right spell book to scare the fuck out of things, but she didn’t have anything that could make her mountain of a best friend lighter. If she had to, she’d leave him and run for help, but she didn’t want to do that. Not with Seth already so fucked up. Not with that thing still out there, likely trailing them that very moment.
Thankfully, Seth got a hold of himself. He forced his bloodied leg forward, wincing as he put weight on it and used the momentum to start walking. “I’ll make this up to you. I knew this weekend was going to suck—”
“Like I said; there is no way the hospital is going to be worse than the spa,” Alexa said briskly, glaring at her surroundings to fight back the sting of tears. Fuck Chloe for this. Fuck this entire fucking trip. If Seth ended up dead because of that stupid bitch…
“I’ll buy you a case of Red Bull,” Seth muttered, nearly walking into a low branch. “Two.”
A shrill laugh breaking free, Alexa just nodded and clutched his shoulder tighter. If the idiot made it through, she'd swear off all junk food forever.
“You were very lucky to get him back here.”
“Luck had nothing to do with it. Mr. Baristone, I just need the address of the nearest hospital or emergency ward equipped to handle this. He’s burning up.”
“Yes, well, I can see that but as I have tried to explain, things aren’t quite so simple.”
Alexa growled, snapping her mouth shut before she pointed out the fact that there was nothing simple about her best friend bleeding out on the hotel’s ugly ass pink floral couch. She fixed the manager with a look full of what remained of her patience, her tone already clear that she was beyond her limits. “Then kindly do explain.”
Mr. Baristone was dressed in a smart charcoal suit and had only a flash of floral pattern on his otherwise paisley tie to annoy. He was about the least offensive thing Alexa had run across in the spa/hotel so far and she was doing her best to focus on that while the man’s words destroyed her remaining hope.
“So, as you can see, with us being out in such a remote location, we are left with very few resources for these sorts of emergencies,” Mr. Baristone explained. “You were lucky to be an amateur sorceress and that the two of you had some sort of protection with you. We haven’t had any type of attack in our forest since the hotel was built twenty years ago. And I do mean in the entire area. The local town does have a doctor equipped to handle these sorts of things, but he usually ends up treating people passing through that were injured outside of the area, not within. We simply do not have this sort of thing happen at Honey Lotus.”
Alexa honed in on the word doctor, her hand clenching in a fist on the counter to keep from dragging the man down by his tie. “Where’s the doctor?”
“Just a few miles west—But he’s not open o
n Saturday.” At the girl’s exasperated look, he added carefully, “It’s a very small, spread out town, miss. Doc Gradie deals with the entire area and the man is due a day of rest. He’s open on Sundays. After the town’s services.”
“Goddess, please tell me he’s some form of Wiccan.” She could not handle waiting for a fucking midmorning church service.
“He’s at the office half an hour after sunrise,” Mr. Baristone assured her.
Exhaling heavily, Alexa glanced over her shoulder at where Seth was resting. His face had gone from pale and drawn to flushed by the time she had gotten him there. His wound was already starting to heal, all the more proof they were dealing with something magical and likely all the more dangerous for it. His eyes were currently closed and he was leaning back on the couch, gripping one of the pillows like a lifeline. “What about a hospital? Do you have one in the area?”
“The closest is over two hours away. They are open 24-7, though, and are more than capable of handling his condition.”
Alexa nodded, turning her gaze back to the manager. “Do they ever airlift anyone around here?”
“Not with the trees. And like I said, it’s never been needed before. There have been no attacks—”
She waved her hand briskly, cutting him off. “Listen, I really don’t give a fuck. I need to know what the hell got my friend. There might not have been any attacks before but you have something wild with a taste for human flesh roaming your damn woods as we speak!”
“Alexa,” Seth growled from his spot on the couch. “Take it down a notch.”
Scowling, Alexa took a few steps away from the desk, running a slim hand over her face, her black painted nail polish chipped and peeling. Mr. Baristone seemed to have taken her words to heart, though, the middle-aged man dialing a phone and speaking into it in low tones. When he was done, he looked up at the girl, waving her back. “I’ll speak with some of my staff. See if any of the guests have seen anything, or perhaps have lost an exotic pet. We have strict rules about not introducing anything nonindigenous into the wildlife but that doesn’t mean guests don’t try to circumvent the rules because they just can’t be parted from their pets. I will hopefully have an answer for the two of you shortly.”
Bitten: Dominated By His Inner Beast Page 2
