“Please, Charlie.”
Even in this dream, his brain went to all the places he didn’t want it to. The doubts. The fears.
Though both of them were willing, was this the right thing to do?
Warm hands found the sides of his face. Lizzy’s certain gaze stared into the silver of his wolf. What he saw there broke the last barrier, and he growled and pushed into her, deep and hard.
Lizzy’s grip tightened, air stuck in her lungs. Charlie froze for a few breaths having to take in the perfectness of that moment. This, is where he wished the dream would forever get stuck. This right here.
Lizzy’s grip relaxed, the invasion had been… filling. And so God damned amazing she’d lost her mind for a moment. Her eyes fluttered open, that drunken smile on her lips that Charlie loved to put there.
His mouth lifted in a warning grin. “My favorite thing is making you speechless. But now I’m going to make you beg, and scream.” He opened his jaw and his lips curled back. Her eyes widened at the sight. Not in fear. But a little bit of shock and reality that those teeth were going to bite her. And holy shit, that was so much hotter a thought than she expected.
“Bite me, Charlie. Do it.” She stretched her neck open so he had better access to her shoulder.
So eager she was, wiggling her body underneath his. It sent Charlie into his own drunken haze, and his wolf into a frenzy. It did not need her submission, but now it needed to feed himself to her and mark her as his, forever.
His hips rocked in and out of her, his teeth clamped onto her shoulder, nearly breaking her skin but not quite. Lizzy’s breaths came out in heavy gasps, her body not her own at this moment. Captured and owned by the wolf. Her arms lost their grip around his neck and fell to her sides, gripping into the sheets as he drove himself in and out of her. His teeth pinching into her creamy skin little by little. He slammed his hips faster and faster until she cried out in the pleasure ricocheting all through her, so much so, her vision got blotchy and her mind got stuck in a moment of pure bliss. In this moment, Charlie sank his teeth into Lizzy’s shoulder.
Lizzy’s scream cemented in her throat, escaping in ragged gushes of thick air. So many things exploded inside of her all at once. Every nerve in her body fired off, from her head down to her toes. There was pain, but it was laced with hot werewolf venom that rushed into her veins igniting mini explosions of equal parts pleasure and pain, with every pulse of blood pushing through her body.
Charlie refused any mercy. He’d only claim her this one time. He wanted to make sure he did it right. He’d take no chances. But the pressure was building and he growled and snarled against her skin, the rest of him ready to burst into oblivion.
“Charlie,” Lizzy whimpered out airily. It was too much. She was going to pass out. Her body had ignited into a thousand pleasure points that he was setting off one by one, with no break in between. Her hands couldn’t even hold onto the sheets, her strength used up.
Charlie had the stray thought that for a dream, he was getting pretty carried away. And thought how strange it was to dream like this. He had never experienced a dream so real. Perhaps it was because he wanted it to be real, more than anything else in his life, ever. And that admittance is when he exploded. And sank his teeth so deep he hit bone.
Lizzy’s eyes fluttered, but she was still conscious enough to feel the pull of his teeth as he yanked them out of the tissue and muscle. He lifted his head and licked her delicious honey and bourbon blood off his lips and teeth, branding that taste on his tongue.
The venom was spreading. Changing her. But it was a little cooler now, or perhaps that was her body, already adjusting to the heat of the wolf. So fast. It was changing her so fast.
Charlie leaned his head on Lizzy’s, his lips caressing hers so softly. She was too lost and overwhelmed to speak. He was stuck in the thought of, for a dream, it was really sticking around and letting him get to the finish. Definitely most unusual, though today, a bittersweet sort of agony.
Charlie lifted his head to see a stray tear fall down the side of Lizzy’s face. He saw the pure elation in it, and refused to wipe way such happiness. Instead, he stared at the bite mark, in awe of it. If only it were real. If only all the world would see it too. To see they belonged to each other. Lizzy reached up and touched his face, so gently that Charlie wanted to weep at the idea none of this was real. He’d wake, and none of it would be real.
“We belong to each other,” she whispered. “Do not ever doubt this, Charlie.”
“Yes. I’m yours, only yours, Lizzy,” he returned. So very afraid that statement was true, no matter who she chose in reality. Because his heart was all in. Had been, from the moment he’d fallen. “I love you,” he slurred out, rather drunkenly.
She said it back, but he barely heard it. The deep dreamless sleep was trying to reclaim him. Which meant the dream was ending. He hoped he hadn’t hurt her, wanted to ask, but the words would not form.
“Sleep,” she spoke to him softly. She stroked the side of his face. “Sleep, Charlie.” He closed his eyes, trying to brand every moment of this dream into his mind. Before sleep consumed him again, he needed to make sure he’d never forget what it felt like to love Lizzy Deane.
##
Lizzy stepped along the street, not heading anywhere in particular. Not yet at least. She would be, soon enough. It had been almost three days. She’d gone into hiding, her guise, she was exhausted after everything that had happened, which absolutely no one had questioned. Because of course she would be.
And now, another dawn approached. The streets of The Demon Isle were still quiet, but not for much longer. Soon, the shops and cafes would open and the tourists would fill these sidewalks.
A tear fled down her cheek. One that contained both complete joy, and utter sorrow. Melinda’s prophetic dream had been telling. Had made making her choice easy. At least, once she had awakened from the coma. There were a few moments, though, she’d begun to lose hope that she’d live through the coma, and wondered if perhaps the dream was wrong. Just one possible outcome, one that would not happen after all.
But then she’d died and come back. And when it came down to it, Lizzy had already made the choice, even before the dream. Before she’d died and come back. She hadn’t been able to admit it fully, to herself yet, because of what it meant. And because the outcome was still not what she wanted. Someone she loved and respected, dearly, was going to get hurt in the worst way possible.
She only got one choice, and she’d made it. Now, she had to follow through.
Lizzy breathed in, an odd sensation hitting her nostrils. A hint of wildflowers and night, and freedom. Hints of heat from the rising morning sun. It was happening so much faster than she’d expected.
“The full moon’s just over a week away.” Lizzy jumped when the wiry figure of a man popped out of a shadow, and smiled gloomily at her. “The change will happen fast.”
She said nothing. Mathew already knew. And understood.
His arm outstretched, his palm open. She saw the potion bottle in his hand and he offered it to her.
“A gift. You don’t want him to smell you.” Fact. Not a question.
Lizzy grabbed the vial, a touch shakily.
“Still a master potion maker. And my best friend, always looking out for me.”
“I’ve had a few years to practice. And no matter how many years I am a Guardian, I’ll always be your best friend. And I seem to recall it was you, always looking out for me.”
She downed Mathew’s potion nervously. “How long will it mask the scent?”
“A few days.”
She would not need that long.
There was a tap tap tap and Lizzy flicked her head to the side, her gaze landing on the reflection on a glass window shop. It was just a cat pawing against the glass from inside, but this isn’t what her gaze landed on.
Two electric blue eyes glowed back at her in the reflection, and they did not belong to the cat.
“Charlie w
ill never forgive me.”
“For tricking him, I think he will. If you hide it for too long?” That was a harder thing to forgive.
“He’d try to do this task for me. I must do this myself.”
“You’ll get no argument from me. I know better than to get in your way. And I think, so does your wolf.” Meaning, in the end, he’d be an idiot not to forgive you this treachery.
She returned her gaze to the window, the electric stare, fading.
“How long until the wolf is strong enough?”
Mathew stalled.
“How long?” she asked again.
“It’s already strong enough. The venom has already taken hold of your blood. The rest of the transformation will take a little longer, not much though. It will be done by the next full moon.”
She nodded, unable to swallow the pain or excitement lanced beneath that truth.
“Be careful, Lizzy. I don’t need to, but I will remind you, he is deadly to you now, too.”
“He won’t…” kill me. She thought. Hoped. Prayed.
Dawn was approaching which meant Grayson would go into hiding until sunset. There was only one place she could think of as to where that would be. Without thinking, she turned to head to that spot. She had to do this before she lost her nerve. But doubt was already creeping in. Could she really go through with this?
“Lizzy,” called out Mathew kindly, sensing her uncertainty. “I would like to remind you of something you recently told Charlie, when he believed he would have to kill William Wakefield.” She stopped, recalling the words. “It’s not killing him, it’s saving him from a life he cannot live with.”
Lizzy spun around.
“Is there any chance Melinda’s dream could have been wrong? Even the gargoyles were not sure about him.”
Mathew approached, taking her shoulders in his hands, lovingly. Sympathy thick in his eyes.
“Melinda had that dream for a reason. And you’d already chosen Charlie before she shared her dream with you. And the reality is, even if it did matter, or make a difference before, it no longer does. You chose. You did not choose Grayson. And now that the curse is broken, the vampire can no longer survive in the human world, without you. He will kill again.”
He let go of Lizzy, and watched her walk away, feeling like doom was his middle name.
##
Grayson heard Lizzy approaching. He’d hoped she’d come. Hoped she’d seek him out and find him. He’d been hiding out since she’d almost been possessed by Charlotte. And he’d given her some space to recover. He’d needed a little too, if he was completely honest. The breaking of the curse had taken a heavy toll on him physically, and spiritually. The full measure of all he’d done under the curse, weighing on his already heavy, dead heart.
But here she was, seeking him out at last.
They’d finally put all this hell behind them, and carve out a new life together.
Lizzy walked in looking every bit the angelic creature she always did.
“Hello,” she called out softly.
He was in front of her in a flash.
“Lisbeth.” If he wasn’t mistaken, she appeared nervous, or maybe even a bit shy. So unlike her, and yet how he came to know her as, in private, when she was alone with him.
“How are you?” she asked him.
“Better. Worse. The never ending hunger is gone. I still crave the blood. I will have to detox.” He let out a clipped chuckle. “Definitely not looking forward to doing that again. Once, in a vampire’s life, is enough.”
“That was probably the least fun we ever had together,” she agreed.
“Lizzy, I,” his lungs emptied in a slow release. “I want to ask your forgiveness, but it seems almost a useless plea. There’s so much I’m sorry for, and will never have enough time to make up for all I did, even in a lifetime that could go on, forever.”
“You were cursed, Grayson. Not all of it was you. Well, the reality is, very little of it was you in the end. I find in my heart, there is nothing to forgive. If Charlotte hadn’t cursed us, we would have lived out whatever life we’d made for ourselves, when we were supposed to. And none of this would have happened.”
His head lowered, in shame, and in disbelief that once again, this human woman was capable of forgiving such monstrous acts. “I killed people. A lot of people.”
“Yes. I know.”
“And even if you can somehow forgive me, others will not.” His tone took on a more desperate measure. “Let’s leave The Demon Isle, Lisbeth.” Her head popped up. “Let’s go somewhere else and start over. This place holds nothing but misery for us.”
“It’s not all misery.” And although that was true, this cave they were standing in was a sick reminder of all they’d suffered through. “This is where our lives went off track. This is where we lost each other.” They were in the cave where Charlotte has cursed her into a ghastly form. Where in her death, the last of The First, had gifted her, with the power to fight off the dark magic Charlotte was using to return to the land of the living.
“If you will not leave this island, then at the least, let us begin by reclaiming this place as a second chance. A place to start fresh. To come back to each other, again.”
“I had another place in mind,” she admitted timidly. “The sun is rising soon, but,” she let the idea go, perhaps it was a bad one. Perhaps this was better done here.
He lifted her chin. “Anything you want, Lisbeth. That’s all I’ve ever wanted for you.”
She leaned into his hand and pressed her lips into his palm. “Can you take me to where our home was supposed to be? It’s not there anymore, of course. I just want to go there. With you.”
In a silent answer, he lifted her into his arms and whisked them away.
It took only a minute.
“Wow,” she let out in a hushed rush. “Still takes some getting used to, being vampire-sped across the Isle.” Her heart was thudding hard trying to catch up with the rest of her. Grayson’s gaze warned he’d speed her to anywhere she ever requested.
She did a full turn, taking it all in. The place where their home once stood was now trees in the middle of White Pines National Park. Not a sign left that indicated anything had ever once been built here.
“This is where our lives should have been lived out,” Lizzy whispered. “We were perfect here. Weren’t we?”
“We were. And we can be again. I know I’ve been hot-headed, made some stupid choices when I thought you were dying. I could not bear to live in a world without you in it. That has not changed. That’s no longer possible, My Lisbeth.”
His words melted over her just like they always had.
“This curse, it wasn’t fair to either of us, Grayson. It took away our choices. Took away that perfect life we’d created.”
“Turned me into the monster I never wanted to be again.”
“You were never a monster,” she reminded lovingly. And her opinion of him was all that mattered in the end. “I will never let that happen, Grayson.” Lizzy allowed peace to spread through her. Accepting a sense of serenity and clarity. She reached out for his hand, he happily obliged and let her take it into her own. She brought it to her lips, branding this moment into her mind. Remembering their perfect time together. Remembering all they had built. All they’d overcome. And then let that time go, allowing its rightful place to become nothing more than a memory as her lips stretched open, and her teeth sank into his skin.
He winced, startled, and pulled his hand back.
“Did you just bite me?” he asked her, wincing again as there was a pain leeching outward, and up his arm.
Instant sorrow replaced the serenity Lizzy had allowed to fill her up.
She’d actually done it. She’d bitten him.
There was no turning back now. It was done. The vampire’s fate, sealed. She started to shake as she watched the reality slipping into Grayson’s bewildered stare. He tore his eyes away from the bite, his penetrating gaze drilling into hers. H
is entire being, breaking, right before her eyes.
“What did you do?” he pushed out in instant agony.
“What I have to.” She backed away, he lunged at her, grasping her shoulders. Her eyes turned electric blue in the misery consuming her.
Grayson backed away, like he’d just taken a knife to the gut.
“Why? Why, Lisbeth?”
He doubled over, sucking in fast, the werewolf venom spreading and shutting down his body. He fell to his knees a second later, unable to remain standing. His gaze fixed on Lizzy pleading to understand.
She sank next to him, barely able to find the strength to speak.
“I will always love you, Grayson. I have never stopped. But you are my past. We were perfect then.” She let out a sob when he groaned and fell over. Lizzy crawled closer, wondering how long before the werewolf venom killed him. She prayed it wasn’t too painful, but imagined the real pain was her betrayal.
“We could have been perfect again.”
“No.” She shook her head gloomily. He deserved the truth in this final moment of his long life. “You would have kept killing people, Grayson. Melinda had a dream. You tried to be like you were, with me, before. But you failed. And I cannot let you fail. Then we’d both become the monsters we fought so hard against, for so long.”
“After everything we’ve survived,” he croaked out, the betrayal weighting the poison down even more. “You’re the only reason I have to live.”
“I know.”
Those two words said it all.
He did not have her.
It wasn’t just this dream of his future struggle. It was Lizzy. She’d chosen the wolf. Not him.
“Lisbeth. I love you.” His breaths were getting heavier, the poison spreading.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t save you, Grayson.” None of this was fair. She’d get a second chance to live out her life. He would not. “I love you. Forever.”
His eyes fluttered, his breaths getting shallow.
Dead Witch Walking (Demon Isle Witches Uncut): Hi-Ho Black Magic-O, A Cursing We Will Go (A Wicked Good Witches Paranormal Romance Book 10) Page 17
