Unhallowed Redemption

by Tara Rose

  She did as he asked, sheathing his dick with her pussy, and cried out loudly as he expertly teased her clit. Her climax was swift and intense, made more powerful when he pulled her prone against his chest. Behind her, Alexei filled her asshole with lube, and then he slipped his dick inside.

  Faina gasped as the most intense fullness overwhelmed her senses for a few moments. Neither man thrust. Alexei stroked her lower back. “Just breathe, sweetheart. You’re all right.”

  Konstantin caressed her hair. “Give it a few minutes, my love. You’re okay. We’re right here.”

  When she got used to the fullness, she lifted her head and kissed Konstantin. He began to move inside her pussy, and Alexei timed his thrusts so that they alternated. It didn’t take long for another climax to build, and Faina could do nothing but whimper and cling to Konstantin’s arms as it consumed her.

  “This is incredible,” said Alexei, his voice reverent. “Can we do this again?”

  Konstantin moaned. “I sure hope so. Tell me you like this, Faina. Please tell me you’re enjoying it as much as we are.”

  “Yes,” she whispered. “Oh, yes.” The contractions from her orgasm were still going strong, and even when the men switched, Alexei shedding his condom and Konstantin donning one, it still hadn’t subsided by the time they got her repositioned and were both inside her once more. Everything on her body was sore, but she didn’t care. She never wanted them to stop.

  When they did, neither man had come yet, and they gently rolled her onto her back. Konstantin took off his condom, and the men took turns fucking her in the pussy, holding her close and stroking her hair. It was exquisite, and Faina couldn’t get enough.

  Each man came inside her, and by the time they squeezed out the last drops, she was exhausted and covered in sweat. They held her close, whispered how much they’d enjoyed it, and she drifted off to sleep, happy and sated. Every worry she’d had earlier was gone like the wisps of a long-forgotten dream.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Monday morning, Faina woke up in Konstantin’s bed, where the three had spent most of Sunday. There wasn’t a spot on her body that didn’t ache, but it was a sweet pain that she welcomed, for it brought memories of both men with it.

  They weren’t with her, but a tray with breakfast was waiting, along with fresh flowers in the room and a note in what she now recognized as Alexei’s flowing script.

  We’ve gone to speak with Dagon again. You are safe in the house. Yesterday was nirvana for both of us, and we hope you slept well.

  All our love, Alexei and Konstantin

  All our love. What did that mean? Was it simply a formal way of ending a note? It had to be. They weren’t in love with her. They barely knew her. She didn’t really know them.

  Even as the thought formed, she knew it was bullshit. She’d fallen head over heels for both men, as impossible as that seemed. She could tell herself all day long it was only the decadent sex and BDSM play, but in her heart she knew the truth. They were a drug to her, and she had to have them.

  But it was the worst kind of folly and would only end with her heart broken. She couldn’t have them. She couldn’t even stay here. One day the beings fighting this war would either reach a truce or a conclusion to it, and then she’d return to the hotel and her friends. She’d have to go home. And she’d never see Konstantin or Alexei again.

  They’d go on trying to become human, living here in this ridiculously large house. And she’d return to her job, her tiny apartment, and her lonely life. What day was it? Monday. She was supposed to fly home tomorrow. She didn’t have to return to work for a week, but by now her parents must be wondering why they hadn’t heard from her. She hadn’t talked to them since landing in New Orleans to let them know she’d arrived safely.

  And what about Heidi, Shayla, Erin, and Dani? They must all be worried sick by now. The men had texted Dani and told her Faina was sleeping off a hangover, but that was three days ago. And her phone probably was off so it would go straight to voice mail if one of them tried to call her.

  Unless they were without their phones, too. What if they also were out of contact with each other? What if all five of them were doing the same thing right now, wondering if the others were safe? This was ridiculous. They didn’t deserve this. It wasn’t their war. All they’d done was sneak into a cemetery.

  She had to find a way to get in touch with them, just to let them know she was okay, and to make sure they each were as well. Surely whatever was going on behind the scenes would still go on even if she made a few phone calls, and those calls wouldn’t affect it. What would a bunch of supernatural beings care whether one human tried to contact her friends?

  She wouldn’t even have to go outside to do it. They’d said they didn’t want her seen. Well, she wouldn’t be. Surely there was a phone in this house she could use.

  * * * *

  Alexei hoped telling Faina in the note that they’d gone to see Dagon again wouldn’t frighten her, but he didn’t want a repeat of the other day when she’d been so upset that they’d left without any word of their whereabouts. He eyed Dagon, who looked like he was ready to spill a juicy secret. “Well? What have you found out? I assume that’s why you summoned us here so soon again.”

  “How are things with the human?”

  “She’s fine. Curious and becoming restless, of course, but she’s staying out of sight.”

  “Good.” Dagon pulled a yellowed parchment over and tapped it. “Because you’ll be interested in what I found rotting in a basement in her hometown.”

  Konstantin frowned. “Her hometown? You mean Chicago?”

  “No. I mean the town where she was born. Korets, with its convoluted history of changing allegiances and warring princes. The home where I found this was abandoned several years ago when the fifteen-year-old twin girls who lived there disappeared one night. They left behind a diary that chronicled their visit by what they called a demon.”

  Alexei and Konstantin exchanged a dark glance.

  “Yes. Same thing I was thinking. The diary talked about this demon’s charm, and how he promised them they’d have a better life and their grandmother wouldn’t have to work as a seamstress to take care of them anymore.”

  “What happened to the grandmother?” asked Alexei.

  “She had a heart attack and died soon after her granddaughters disappeared. She thought humans had taken them until the diary was found, hidden in the closet in their bedroom. Afterward, she told anyone who would listen a story about odd smells in the house at night and a guttural voice coming from down the hall, for months before the girls disappeared. But each time she went to check on the twins, they were asleep in their beds.”

  “Does this document relate to these girls, or to Faina?” asked Konstantin.

  “Hold on. I’m getting there. It was found among others, along with a journal detailing the adventures of a man named Józef Lublins who was trying to prove the existence of Lidérc. He knew the girls’ grandmother, from what I could gather, and he disappeared shortly after her death. Why he left behind his documents and his journal, no one knows. One of our kind happened to be in the house shortly after the girls disappeared, hot on the trail of Vassago and his followers. They stumbled upon the documents and the journal accidentally, and took them before the local police came to search the house.”

  “What does the document say?” asked Alexei. Dagon loved to drag things out. That was the way with fallen angels.

  Dagon nodded toward it. “It’s written in Ukrainian, but I believe you speak that as well.”

  At first, Alexei thought it was only another document with names on it, like the one they’d found containing Faina’s name, but he was wrong. This wasn’t a chronicle of human-and-demon or human-and-Lidérc interaction. This was a manual on how to break a contract with one.

  He read the entire page, then read it again just in case his translation skills had been sloppy. Finally, he handed it to Konstantin with a grin.

  “What
does it say?”

  “Just read it. I want you to experience this firsthand.”

  His brother sighed in obvious irritation, but within a few minutes, a wide grin split his face. He gave Dagon a hard look. “Are you sure this is genuine?”

  “As genuine as the furniture you two lifted from Peterhof Palace.”

  “Lifted is such a gauche term,” said Konstantin. “I prefer borrowed.”

  Dagon laughed, which was so unusual to hear that Alexei wondered what he’d been drinking this morning. “All right. Call it what you will. But I think I’ve found the answer to all your prayers, no pun intended. And, we were right about Faina. She is both the key to getting out of the contract forever, and a way for Sargatanas to enslave you both for eternity.”

  Alexei’s fingers trembled as he smoothed out the parchment. “Does Sargatanas know about this?”

  “I wish I knew the answer to that. But if he does, it would explain why he’s trying to find out if you two have her.”

  “And why he sent Vassago to find her,” said Konstantin.

  Dagon nodded. “Exactly. She was spotted in the cemetery. You two were spotted with her. Why else would Sargatanas care if you decided to have some fun with a human girl? He knows her powers somehow.” Dagon tapped the document. “And I’m guessing he knows about this as well.”

  “What do we do?” asked Alexei. “How do we play this?”

  “You need to make a public display in front of others when you declare her yours now, and the contract with Sargatanas forever broken. You must have witnesses. Who are your allies? Have you any, besides my kind?”

  They exchanged a glance. “Not really,” said Konstantin.

  “What about the beings holding Faina’s friends? Contact them. Say you need a meeting and it’s about the women. It’s not a lie, and this benefits all of us. Then you call out Sargatanas, and our kind will take care of the rest.”

  “It seems deceitful.”

  Dagon shook his head. “It’s not. Believe me when I tell you that Sargatanas is not a friend to vampires, magi, witches, or ghosts. And this may very well lead to a truce for this turf war, since Sargatanas and his followers are behind it in part.”

  “What about Faina?” asked Alexei. “Does she need to be there?”

  “Yes.”

  “No way. No. We cannot do that to her.”

  Dagon had the grace to look sympathetic. “Alexei, she is already part of this. She has been for twenty-two years, even if she didn’t know it. This started with her. The only way to end it is also with her. You’ve said she’s sensitive to supernatural beings, and that she’s curious and intelligent. She will understand if you tell her everything. If she sees your confidence in this, she will feel it as well.”

  “And if it fails?” asked Konstantin.

  “It won’t fail. You won’t be alone.” Dagon tapped the parchment again. “Even if I’m wrong and neither Sargatanas nor Vassago know this exists, once they see it, they will have no further bargaining chips. It’s over. You’ll soon be free of him forever.”

  * * * *

  Faina considered it fate that all the servants were outside today doing yard work. Even Magda had told her after retrieving the breakfast tray that they would all be outdoors. She also made sure to remind Faina that she was to stay inside. Faina told her she understood.

  She crept into each of the rooms upstairs, looking for a phone jack on the walls. If the home had been remodeled more than once in the last century, surely it would have them. Unless the guys had covered them all up at one point. She was rewarded with a discovery when she crawled underneath a bed in one of the unused bedrooms.

  The phone jack was round, so it was an older one, but it had a slot to clip in a modern landline cord. “Bingo,” she whispered. She found them in most of the rooms, behind furniture, and then went into Alexei’s study to look for the same.

  She tried his desk drawers, thinking her cell and laptop had to be in one of their desks, but they were locked. It wasn’t worth it to try and pick them open. They’d know she had done it, and then all that talk about trust would mean nothing.

  But what about what she was doing now? Wasn’t that also a misuse of their trust? She swore out loud and sat in his chair, breathing in the scents of sage and leather. Never in her life had she experienced so much conflict over simple decisions. Even at work she was given freedom to plan her workday and prioritize her assignments. It was ridiculous that now she couldn’t even decide whether or not to risk a couple of phone calls.

  They’d told her the beings looking for her could intercept cell signals, but landlines carried analog signals. Then again, she would be calling cell phones. But what about the hotel? If she called it, maybe someone there would know how to reach one of the others, and she could pass along a message? She only wanted to talk to one of them. Surely that wouldn’t cause any harm.

  But all of this was a moot point since she hadn’t yet found a damn phone in the house. Faina walked out onto the balcony and glanced around the yard, but it was difficult to see anything specific through the leaves. She heard voices, including Magda’s, so she knew she still had time to explore.

  Once she was in Konstantin’s study, she tried his desk drawers as well, but of course they were also locked. By the time she reached the kitchen, she’d given up hope of finding a phone. What did they do if they needed to call someone? The guys didn’t need doctors, but what if one of the servants did? They were all human. Was there a cell phone hidden somewhere?

  Her gaze fell on the decorative basket holding wooden spoons and other utensils, and she giggled as memories from last night washed over her. Along with those memories came the recollection of her apologizing again for what she’d done, and that sealed the deal.

  She wasn’t going to keep looking. If there was a phone in this house, she wasn’t going to use it without their permission. She’d violated their trust once. No way was she doing it again. She’d go to the library, find a thick book, and spend the day reading until they returned. And then beg them to help her get in touch with at least one of her friends, just so she knew they were all right. She only wanted to hear a voice. Surely they wouldn’t refuse her such a harmless request.

  As Faina turned to head back upstairs, icy cold fear shot through her veins as the unmistakable sound of a phone ringing filled the kitchen. She turned toward it, half-expecting to see a demon or some other supernatural being toying with her.

  Magda burst through the back door and eyed Faina suspiciously, but then her facial muscles relaxed. She opened a cabinet underneath the microwave and pulled out a 1940’s model black rotary phone, which was still ringing.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Konstantin sat across from Faina, holding her hands, which were ice cold. Alexei was on her right, and Magda on her left. “Tell me again what the caller said.”

  He’d never seen Magda look so rattled, and that worried him more than Faina’s fear right now. “He asked to speak with Faina Andropov. I told him he had the wrong number, and then he hung up. That was it. There is nothing more to tell.”

  He knew Magda was telling the truth, and he knew she was upset that he’d asked her five times now, but Konstantin was desperate to find some hidden clue that Magda had missed. The phone was only used for emergencies, and no one had the number. Magda had a cell phone, and any incoming calls from health-care providers or others that their servants routinely needed to speak with were done on that phone. The only reason they still had the landline was in case cell service went down and they truly needed help.

  But despite that, he was disconnecting it today.

  “And tell us about his voice again.”

  Magda glared at him, but he ignored it. Let her be upset. It wouldn’t change anything. “Male, older, gravelly, like he’s been smoking for fifty years. Neutral. No emotion. Didn’t even say ‘sorry’ or ‘excuse the call’ when I told him he had reached a wrong number. Simply hung up.”

  Vassago, Sargatanas, or
both knew that Faina was here. That was the only possible explanation. Who else would call their house and ask for her? It could be one of the men holding her friends, but why would they ask for Faina directly? They’d have gone through him or Alexei first, and they would have used a messenger to deliver a note. They wouldn’t phone. And no human being had the number. Even if they had, why would they ask for Faina?

  Vassago or Sargatanas would be able to find the number easily, just as they would be able to find any phone number if they wanted to. It had to be them. They were toying with them. They’d found out somehow and had called to make sure both men knew that their secret was out.

  Had she been spotted jumping from balcony to balcony? Or had they discovered she was here by some other means? Had this happened because they’d gone online? Shit. He’d known that would come back to bite them.

  He and Alexei exchanged a glance. They had no choice now but to tell Faina everything. And they needed to alert the others today. As soon as possible. That in turn would reassure them both that it hadn’t been one of the others holding Faina’s friends who had tried to contact her.

  Konstantin released Faina’s hands and removed the sheet of paper from his pocket that Dagon had helped them write. He handed it to Magda. “We need to get a message to each of these men immediately. There is an address on here, at the bottom. They need to meet us there tonight after sunset. Use a written note to be delivered by hand to each address. The note must include the words I’ve written here, so they know it came from us and they understand this is not a trick or a trap we’re attempting to lay for them.”

  He waited until Magda lifted her gaze from the paper back to his face. “Do you understand? This is very important, and it’s also dangerous. Send Seth and Daniel to deliver the messages. But have them leave at different times so it appears they’re running errands.”