Iniquitous: A Dark Paranormal Romance (The Marked Book 3)

by Bianca Scardoni

  “I’m here because I want to help you.”

  “Why?” It didn’t strike me as odd, but it did make me curious. Mostly about her intentions.

  “Because, I—” She racked her fingers through her short ponytail. “I don’t want Revenants ruling the earth any more than you do. I want everything to go back to normal.”

  “If that’s true, why would you weaken the walls in the first place?”

  “It wasn’t supposed to happen that way. It was supposed to be just Engel. At least, that’s what my sisters told me when they convinced me to do it.” She met my gaze then, her big brown eyes defeated. “My sisters don’t care about the mortal world the way I do. They only care about money and power and how to get more of it.”

  “And you’re different?”

  “I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.”

  “You’re going to have to do better than that.”

  She licked her lips and then lowered her head as though embarrassed to continue. “I’m in love with a mortal.”

  “Oh. Okay.” And now it sort of made sense. I looked back at her a little more closely—at her drooping shoulders, her downturned mouth, the glint of regret in her eyes. She was ashamed, and strangely, I suddenly felt sorry for her.

  “Hey. There’s no judgement here,” I told her and then shrugged my shoulder like it didn’t matter in the least. “I’m currently bloodbonded to a Revenant while in love with Reaper who happens to be my ex-Keeper.”

  She made a face like I’d won that contest.

  “Exactly.” I let out an exacerbated breath as I tried to put my baggage back in the overhead compartment of my head. “So what kind of help did you have in mind? I mean, if you’re here, there must be a reason.” Hopefully she had a plan because I was currently flying down shit’s creek without a paddle.

  “I know where you can get the sire blood,” she announced.

  My eyes felt like they’d just widened to the size of two golf balls. “How? Where? I mean—” I stopped myself and took a steadying breath before I chased her away with my semi-automatic load of non-stop questions. I gestured with my hands that the floor was hers.

  “You’re a…strange one.”

  “I’m aware of that.” Heck, I’ve been called a lot worse. I kind of took it as a compliment.

  She cracked a smile, but quickly buried it. “Have you ever heard of the Sacred Necropolis?” She quickly clarified, “I’m only asking because I know you didn’t grow up in this world so I’m not sure how much you know.”

  “You don’t have to worry about offending me. And no, I haven’t heard of it.”

  She nodded as though she figured as much. “It’s kind of difficult to explain.”

  “Try me.”

  She looked me dead in the eyes and said, “Basically, the Necro is a massive catacomb.”

  “A catacomb?”

  “Yeah, like an underground cemetery. It’s where they keep all the bodies of fallen Descendants.”

  “What?” First of all, gross. Second of all, GROSS! “That’s actually really disturbing to know. And who is they exactly?”

  “Your people—The Order of the Rose.”

  Of course. Who else would it be? “Okay, they’re not my people. Just putting that out there. And what exactly does this catacomb cemetery thing have to do with anything?”

  She chewed the inside of her cheek. “There’s a Revenant in there that was sired by Engel.”

  “Why would they keep a Revenant there?” I asked before giving it any thought.

  “She was a Slayer before she Turned. In the end, all Descendants are given a sacred burial and are laid to rest amongst their own, regardless of how their end came about. Because she was a Slayer first and foremost, she was never vanquished, only put into an eternal sleep.”

  “Meaning she’s laying in a coffin with a stake in her heart.” Now it was my turn to chew the inside of my cheek because I really didn’t like where any of this was going. “You’re not actually suggesting I break into the catacombs and steal blood from some Slayer-turned-Revenant’s dead body, are you?”

  “Well, no.”

  “Thank God.”

  “I’m implying you break into the catacombs, bring the Slayer-turned-Revenant back to life and then steal her blood.”

  My face went completely numb.

  “I know it sounds morbid, but it’s the only way guaranteed to get the sire blood.”

  “Because that’s just the kind of luck I have in life.” I swallowed the knot in my throat as I tried to regain some feeling in my face. “I suppose I could…I mean, we do need that blood and trying to find another sire could take weeks, maybe months, and who knows if the walls will hold up that long or if we’ll even find another sire,” I rambled on, trying to convince myself into it. I was talking out loud but it was purely for my own benefit.

  “There’s something else.” She nearly jumped out of her skin as a clap of thunder rattled the windows outside. Rubbing her palms against her jeans, she said, “It may change your mind about doing this, but I urge you to reconsider. The Barrrier needs to go back up or we risk the world as we know it coming apart.”

  “No offense, Arianna, but I’m well aware of what needs to be done.” She was giving me the lecture as though I were the one who brought the walls down, and not her and her sisters.

  “Then please try to remember that when I tell you who she is.”

  My face pinched as I blinked away my confusion. “Why would that make any difference to me?”

  “Because,” she answered cautiously. “It’s your mother.”

  30. DARK MATTER

  I shot up from the sofa like a pop tart. The abrupt movement sent the piece of furniture skidding behind me. Arianna immediately stood up, her hands outstretched as though trying to calm me. As though she were afraid I was going to toss her out on her lying ass. In fact, that was exactly what I was going to do.

  “I don’t know what game you and your demonic sisters are playing with me but you need to leave right now before I do something we both regret.”

  “I know how it sounds but—”

  “I really don’t think that you do, and I’m not about to sit here and listen to this nonsense. My mother is not dead and she is most certainly not a Revenant!” I shook my head frantically as I tried to wrap my brain around the thought of it. “I would know, my sister would know and she would’ve told me!”

  There was no way that this Dark Caster from who-knows-where, who wasn’t even a part of The Order, would know more about my family than my own family did. It just wasn’t possible.

  Was it? Oh, God…

  “Get out!” I yelled, pointing to the door.

  “Please tell her,” she said, though she wasn’t looking at me. Her gaze was directed over my shoulder.

  I turned, following her eyes. Dominic stood in the doorway, his hands buried deep in his pockets as a battle of emotions warred inside his dark eyes.

  The air was thinning in the room again.

  “Tell me what, Dominic?” I marched over to him, demanding answers. “What is she talking about?”

  Trace and Gabriel filed in behind him. They both had the same look in their eyes that Dominic did…like they knew something I didn’t know and they were too afraid to tell me.

  My legs felt weak. “Please don’t tell me you knew about this,” I said to Trace, pleading with him for a ray of light.

  He looked back at me regretfully. “I’ve only heard rumors.”

  “What rumors?”

  His chest rose sharply as he pulled in a breath. “That your mother Turned when you were a kid and that’s the reason she was gone.”

  Something began scorching me beneath my lids, but it wasn’t tears. No. It was liquid rage.

  “Nothing was ever confirmed,” said Gabriel. As if that made any of this better.

  It wasn’t confirmed, but they’d heard stories, all three of them and neither one of them thought to clue me in on it. Even Engel had enough of a he
art to say something about it, to try to tell me the truth, regardless of his deranged intentions.

  And Dominic? He was there. He heard what Engel said to me and he knew about the rumors. He had to have put two and two together…

  I turned to him as ice froze a trail down my spine. “You. Knew.”

  “Angel—”

  “You heard what he said about my mother and you knew he was telling me the truth, didn’t you!”

  “Whatever information I may have omitted was purely for your own benefit. Had you even suspected that Engel was telling the truth about your mother, you would have jeopardized the entire plan to get information.”

  “So, we’re back to everyone making decisions for me? Everyone gets to decide what I can and can’t handle and what I should and shouldn’t know? God damn it,” I shouted as I kicked the console table against the wall and sent it shattering to the ground in a barrage of noise. “I have never hated you all more than I do right now.”

  Pushing my way between them, I stormed out the den and barreled for the front door.

  “Where are you going?” asked Trace. He was right on my tail.

  “Away from the three of you!” I grabbed the door knob and pulled the door open but it quickly shut in my face. Dominic was leaning with his back against it.

  “Get out of my way, Dominic.”

  “I can’t let you go out there alone, angel. It’s much too dangerous.”

  “Everyone thinks I’m dead!”

  “And if they don’t? What if someone from the Order spots you?”

  “I can take care of myself now get out of my way before I rip your head off!”

  Dominic didn’t budge.

  I pulled my arm back, winding up to sock him in the head.

  “Angel,” said Dominic in the voice that crawled through my brain and took it over. “You’re tired and upset. You need to lay down and rest.”

  Suddenly overcome by exhaustion, I brought my arm down and yawned.

  “Did you just compel her?” boomed Trace, his voice near hysterics. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “What other choice do we have right now?” retorted Dominic as Gabriel carefully steered me away from the door like a sleepy child unable to walk. “She’s going to get herself killed and then who are we going to pine over?”

  “For fuck’s sake.” Trace ran a hand over his face.

  I pulled my arm loose from Gabriel’s grip. “I may be going to rest against my will, but I can certainly get there on my own. You can all stay here and never talk to me again!” I glared at each of them, though my glare lingered the longest on Dominic, knowing he was the one that forced this on me. “And for the record, I hate you the most.”

  He bowed his head. “Duly noted, angel.”

  I barricaded myself in the guestroom until long after the sun had set. While the compulsion had faded away, my rage on the other hand, had not. It was becoming painfully obvious that no matter how much I advanced in my training or how much growing up I did as a person, they were never going to let me stand on my own two feet. In their eyes, I was always going to be too weak or too fragile or prone to wigging out to hear the truth.

  It was bullcrap and I was over it.

  Okay, so I kind of wigged out in the living room when I found out the truth about my mother, but so what! Silly me. I guess I wasn’t supposed to have feelings. I guess it wasn’t supposed to matter to me that the mother I never knew didn’t just up and leave us when I was two, but that she was turned into a Revenant and probably spent her life being hunted by the same Order that I was supposed to sign my life over to. I wasn’t supposed to wonder whether she chose that path for herself or if it was forced on her. I shouldn’t feel sad that I lost out on having a mother, on knowing who she is, and I certainly shouldn’t feel frightened by the thought that she may have abandoned me on purpose.

  Nope. I was robo-Slayer and I wasn’t supposed to have feelings because if I did, that meant I was weak. Too girly. Too human. Too much of everything yet never enough.

  Ugh. Screw that noise.

  I was done with trying to fit into everyone’s preconceived box of who I was supposed to be. I was going to live my life my way, however short-lived it may be, and I wasn’t asking for permission anymore. They were wrong about me. I could handle the truth. I would listen to its heartbreaks and I would mourn the world as I knew it because that’s the kind of girl I was, and then I would pick my pretty self off the floor and do what I was supposed to do. Just like I always did.

  I folded my pillow in half and turned on my back as I tried to relax my racing thoughts.

  Arianna’s words pummeled through my brain, destroying all semblance of security and justice in the world. Was this really happening? Was I really going to have to go grave robbing for my own mother’s body? The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like some sick cosmic joke. Some new game the Angels of Torment conjured up to bring me to my knees again.

  It was bad enough that I was going to have to pull a stake from my dead mother’s heart in order to reanimate her body and siphon her blood. But then what? Was I supposed to take her back home with me, or was I just expected to put the stake back in her heart and close the door on ever really getting a chance to know my mother? Thinking about what was going to happen afterwards was even more terrifying than the act itself.

  The more I thought about the possibilities, the more rattled my nerves got, and the more rattled my nerves got, the more my mind searched for relief. His relief. I quickly shook away the image of his blond curls from my mind before I did something I was going to regret.

  I needed to get out of this room or I was going to go nuts.

  Climbing out of bed, I tiptoed across the room to the chair that I had pushed up against the door. I didn’t want to see anyone tonight and my sealed door was a message they’d heard loud and clear. Pushing the chair aside, I turned the lock and then opened the door. The lights were off in the hallway and the house was as quiet as a mortuary. It was just as well because I really wasn’t in the mood to see anyone.

  Relaxing my shoulders, I started down the hallway towards the stairs in search of something to eat and drink. It wasn’t what I was hungry for but it was the only thing I was going to allow myself to have tonight.

  I made it downstairs in one piece and without waking up anyone in the house. There was something to be said about the quietness of night. About the stillness. Everything was tranquil and unmoving as though the world had come to a temporary stop in its rotation—ceased its constant spiral of madness.

  I grabbed a glass from the cupboard and turned on the facet. Filling up my glass, I took a long sip and set the glass on the counter doing my best to ignore my trembling hands. I’d noticed the withdrawals were getting worse lately, though I was doing a better job of hiding them, especially around Trace. The last thing I wanted him to know was that I was fiending for Dominic. As understanding as he’s been with all this, I wasn’t about to put his patience to the test. He didn’t need to know that part. I didn’t even want to know that part.

  “Trouble sleeping?”

  I jumped at the sound of Dominic’s silky voice. My cheeks immediately burned hot as though I’d been caught with my hand in the proverbial cookie jar. I flattened my hand against my somersaulting heart to make sure it didn’t jump out of my chest and run off on me. “You scared me half to death.”

  “I certainly hope not, angel. That would be a tragedy of epic proportions.” He was resting his shoulder against the entrance, watching me like a lone wolf hunting its prey.

  I was going to need something much stronger to deal with this tonight.

  “Yeah, a real tragedy. I mean, who would you guys all lie to over and over again if I wasn’t around anymore?” I brushed past him as I tried to make my way to the den to raid his liquor cabinet.

  He snagged my elbow. “If you’re looking for an apology, you aren’t going to find one here. I did what I did to keep your head in the game a
nd I won’t be apologizing for it anytime soon.”

  I pulled my arm free. “Then by all means, get bent.”

  He tsk’ed me. “Such a lovely mouth.”

  “Isn’t it though?” Swinging my hair, I turned on my heel and made a dash for the den.

  I honestly didn’t know why I bothered arguing with him. He was unapologetic for absolutely everything he did and this time would be no different. My long-lost vampire mother be darned. I picked up the darkest bottle I could find and poured myself a glass. I just needed to take the edge off—something to help me get my mind off of, well, him. I knew it wasn’t the right thing to do, but I couldn’t seem to give any fucks about it.

  “Drinking alone, are we?” he whispered in my ear, suddenly right behind me.

  I spun around clumsily and pressed my back against the bar counter. “Can you stop doing that!”

  “I can’t help it, angel. I’m agile.” Smiling, his eyes dropped to my shaking hand. “That’s quite a tremor you have there.”

  “Yeah, it is. Thanks to you and another one of your little omissions,” I added scathingly as I mimicked his words from earlier.

  His gaze climbed back up, stopping at my neck. I could feel the blood pulsing and I swore he agitated me on purpose just to get my blood boiling nice and good.

  “I can help you with that if you want,” he said, meeting my eyes again.

  Acutely aware of his proximity, I didn’t move an inch when I said, “I bet you’d love that.”

  “As would you.” His lips curled. “All you have to do is ask, angel.”

  I felt my temperature mount as his words ran over my body with their implications. His eyes were dark pools of sin that were hungry for me almost as much as I was for him. And yet, he restrained himself, even when he didn’t have to. We both knew he could have me if he wanted to. He could compel me into his arms before I had a chance to even pretend to protest it. But he didn’t. He wanted to hear me say it—to beg him for it—like another one of his games.

  A game I was never going to win.

  Burying my need, I gritted my teeth. “Thanks, but I’ll pass.” I raised the glass to my mouth and threw my head back. The liquid burned like fire on the way down, but it calmed my nerves enough to keep a steady voice. “See? All better now.”