House of Slide: Hunter

by Juliann Whicker

  House of Slide: Hunter

  Book III

  By Juliann Whicker

  Copyright © 2015 by Juliann Whicker

  Amazon Edition

  License Notes

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  Chapter 1

  Lewis held me, his strong arms keeping the pieces of me together. His hands gripped Pisces’s mane in front of me, the silken black threads shifting to silver in the reflected moonlight. My heart beat in time with his as we sped through the mist cloaked woods on the back of the monster, the Nether creature, whose scream pierced the air and my eardrums. The wind rushed by us, sending shivers from the metal etched into my skull down to my bones. My body ached as I held on, to consciousness and to Lewis’s scarred forearms.

  As we traveled further south, the warmth and humidity pierced the Nethermist surrounding Pisces, leaving a trail of sweat between my shoulder-blades that stung when it crossed raw scar tissue.

  I barely noticed the exhaustion as Lewis’s grip tightened on my ribs and his breath skimmed my neck, raising goose bumps. He was and always would be an integral piece of me, ever since that first kiss, the first brush of our souls.

  Soul mates.

  I didn’t even know what it meant. I knew my parents had been soul-mates, but the dim recollections I had of my childhood before my father had packed up his bags and left weren’t enough to explain my own relationship with Lewis. The only thing I really understood as I rode the screaming monster made of nightmares while being held in the arms of my dynamic other half was that life was too short, too full of pain not to take happiness when you found it. Lewis, he was my happiness.

  In spite of all the pain, the fear, the horror, when he murmured something in my ear, I knew without a shadow of doubt, that I was where I was supposed to be with the one person in the world who knew me enough to love me with my scars and weaknesses.

  I fell sideways when Pisces lurched, narrowly missing a dark tree that dripped moss I wouldn’t have been able to see if it weren’t for the metal enhancement runes that circled my naked skull.

  “Hold on,” Lewis whispered, pulling me upright, the lines of his hard body against my back, his warm breath spreading over my bare neck.

  “Are we nearly there?” I whispered, feeling the weight of my arms, my eyelids as I struggled to stay awake, stay upright.

  He sighed and pulled me sideways, cradling me against his chest as he bent his lips to my forehead. He smelled like death, like life, and most importantly, sunshine on grass.

  Those may have been my last thoughts before I finally passed out. When I opened my eyes, I saw Lewis bent over a flickering fire, dancing flames that reminded me of the Hotblood he used to be, the same burning soul I’d stolen so long ago. I curled my hand into a fist around the ring he’d given me, the circlet of gold from the Nether realm, made out of metal the demons feared.

  He turned his head, showing his silhouette. I saw the slightly crooked nose, dark eyebrows above eyes that showed flickers of gold from the firelight, eyes that would never glow again.

  “You should have told me that you were tired,” he said, soft and low with a dangerous undercurrent.

  Yes, he was the big, bad, Axel, no one in their right mind would mess with. I smiled slightly before I forced myself up on my elbows, brushing off desiccated leaves that clung to my borrowed men’s shirt, his shirt.

  “I’ve heard of a fantastic mystical cure for exhaustion.”

  He turned the rest of the way to stare at me, his eyes as solemn as his frown. “Sleep. We should have tried another way. Riding Pisces is hard on you. I thought it would help for you to soak up his mists, but you’re already saturated. There’s nothing more that mists can do for you.” He ran a hand through his auburn hair then gave me a half smile. “Not that I’m complaining. Riding Pisces is a lot more fun holding my fiancé.”

  “Kissing,” I said and felt a little flutter of nervousness that I wasn’t certain whether I felt or he did. Being bound brought with it an awareness of his emotions that I confused with my own. “I’ve heard that kissing makes it impossible to sleep. I think that it’s not Pisces. I think it’s your sheer awesomeness that rendered me senseless. Am I really your fiancé? That sounds so anticlimactic.”

  He laughed while he reached for my hand, the left one with the circle of Nether metal burning into my flesh. My heart beat faster. I hadn’t heard him laugh for too long.

  “I thought marriage was the ultimate climax, all the story books say so,” he said with a grin, pulling me close while he wrapped his arms around me.

  I relaxed as I pressed my face into his chest, breathing in his scent. He would always taste of darkness, of mists, but also of Lewis, of sunshine. To me, he meant life, death, and everything in between.

  When he touched my head, fingers running over my bare scalp, I shivered and pressed my eyes against him until I saw red. The sensation of his touch on my bare runes brought awake the rest of my skin and the muscles beneath it. I listened to the wind as it brushed my arms and felt the rough edges of a broken branch buried in dead leaves against my knee.

  I pulled away from him, just far enough to brush his lips with my own, a quick kiss that made me very conscious of the fact that we were without any kind of chaperone, completely alone, unless you counted the Nether monster, with me wearing nothing but his shirt. My heart pounded in my chest in time with his. I saw his pupils dilate a moment before he leaned forward and kissed me.

  I felt his love, his desire, rising higher and higher as he breathed me in, tasting my soul. I shivered in his arms, sensing his soul wrapped around me, streaks of crimson, green, gold, and blue, entwined in one beautiful blazing chaos.

  We should have finished the bond right away, right after I’d given him my blood to save him, a transfusion that brought us closer together than I’d dreamed possible. The thought of his blood made my heart race faster than a herd of demon propelled cattle.

  I pressed my cheek against his shoulder, the cheek that had the barely healed scar, a thick rope that ran down my face barely missing my eye. I felt his pulse beating in time with mine, his blood calling me.

  “I thought after we completed the blood bond, I wouldn’t want to cut you open and climb inside you.”

  He laughed, a growl that spread through his chest and into me. “May I ever inspire you to blood lust.”

  I sighed as I pulled away to frown at him. “You shouldn’t encourage me. You still have the wounds on your shoulder from the blood binding. You are not healing very well.”

  He grinned. “I have been cut thousands of times. I wish I could keep this one wound that finally makes sense, festering forever as a token of our love.”

  I shook my head then rested against his chest, burrowing my face into him. “Now that is romantic.”

  He laughed, pulling me against him while he ran his hands down my back over the shirt, unerringly avoiding the bruising and scarring so that I didn’t feel pain.

  He pulled back so that he could look at me, scarred, bald, and possessed. He squeezed my fingers in his before he leaned forward and brushed my scar with his lips, a bare brush of skin that made me shiver.

  “Hey,” he said gently, taking my face in his palms.

  I opened my eyes wide and stared at Lewis, forcing myself to study every line, every shadow thrown by the fire beneath his eyes and c
heekbones. Bringing me back from the plane wreck had taken so much out of him. Who could say how long we’d have, how long he’d be able to stay with me?

  “How are you doing?” I asked, reaching out to caress his neck, not quite touching his skin, afraid that I might hurt him and his open wound.

  His eyes became serious, darker. “I’m not one hundred percent. I can feel my heart failing.”

  I inhaled sharply. “Your heart is failing? What does that mean? You must be joking.” He couldn’t die so soon. I couldn’t breathe.

  He shook his head slightly as he gripped my shoulders. “I’m not saying that I’m dying in two weeks, Dari. I just need to be honest with you, at least, as honest as it’s possible for me to be.” He trailed off as he gripped me tighter. I felt his panic, his horror, matching the bleak look on his face as he remembered searching for me, finding me and pulling me out of the plane wreck, a broken shell.

  “Heart transplants,” I blurted out. “They’re amazing. We’ll find a good donor and take care of anything that you need.” I smoothed his face with my fingers. “Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be okay. Grim’s a doctor, my mother’s a drug dealer, together they can perform medical marvels.”

  He smiled as he bumped my forehead with his. “And then when I’m senile, you can put me in a rest home. All I want is a nice window facing east.”

  “You are not going into a rest home,” I said, frowning at him sternly. “Lewis, I love you. You’re not going anywhere I can’t go.”

  I felt a wave of pain from him before he managed to push it down.

  “What is it?” I demanded, gripping his shoulders.

  He frowned, gazing into my eyes before he blinked, and I felt a rush of awareness, not fear, but certainty before he moved, kicking dirt on the fire until we were left in darkness. As my eyes adjusted I inhaled the dust and smoke, ashes that made it hard to swallow. I felt his knowledge of danger from the bond between us, the bond that left pieces of him buried inside of my heart and soul. The darkness, whatever it hid, wouldn’t be scary as long as I had Lewis. My only fear was losing him.

  The fear had me straining my senses until I heard something at odds with the night’s song, the chirps and rustling leaves. I closed my eyes and saw a distant flicker of conscious darkness and a buried ember of red.

  How long had it been before I’d seen my first demon man, smelled the taint, heard the sound of a million insects crawling over each other. I shouldn’t have survived that any more than I should have survived meeting the demon mistress. Everything was going too fast. I wanted to hang onto his words, his touch, take my Lewis and keep him close against my heart before he slipped away. I kept feeling like he wanted to tell me something, like there was more than that his heart was failing, but he couldn’t find the words.

  “Come on,” Lewis whispered, wrapping my hand in his as we ran blindly.

  I tried, but I was a gasping, stumbling mess when Pisces charged out of the mists towards us. Lewis pulled me out of the way of the monster then threw us over its back as Pisces passed. I hit the black silky pelt with my still healing ribs. I winced while Lewis struggled to pull himself up without letting me fall off the monster.

  “Sorry,” he whispered when we were finally situated with his arms wrapped around me. “Are you all right?”

  I nodded, still unable to breathe very well. “How long will it take me to heal? You said that the demon taint was the problem. The taint is gone, right?” My heart pounded while I waited for his reply. The taint had to be gone. I couldn’t be like Grim, like the demon mistress with her hate-filled eyes.

  He pressed a kiss to the back of my head half on metal, half on my skin. Pisces screamed as he lunged forward, bringing my back hard against Lewis. “New wounds should heal fine. The ones you had before will take time. I’m sorry. You’re going to hate having such incredible scars around Hotbloods,” he whispered into my ear, his breath caressing my cheek and his lips on my skin.

  “Why?” I asked suddenly breathless as Pisces launched into the air over a fallen log.

  Lewis held me tighter. “Girls with scars are irresistible to Hotbloods like me. You’ll have to get good at letting them down easy,” he said before he bent his head and gently nipped my neck with his teeth.

  My heart pounded as we rode, awareness of him more exhilarating than the wind sweeping past my face. I felt his excitement as we raced through the night from our enemies combining with his desire for me.

  “Who is chasing us?” I whispered, my words carried away by the rushing wind as the monster went faster than any ordinary creature could run.

  “Demon men,” he answered. “Don’t be afraid,” he added in a soft voice that made my heart stutter.

  “Why would I be afraid of demon-men?” We ducked down to avoid a low hanging branch. “What about your heart? The last time we met a demon-man you burned out.”

  “Dariana,” he said, wrapping his arms around me tighter, pressing a kiss to my shoulder. “That was a special demon man. Pisces will get us to your trainer. I’m only here as a seatbelt.”

  His low voice sent a thrill through me. I bit my lip as I shivered, the feel of his kiss bringing my senses to life. “Knowing how seriously you take your Intended duties, I’m sure you’ll be truly great,” I said, smoothing his strong arms with my fingers until his hands tangled mine. With Lewis, I couldn’t be unhappy, even though I felt my insides shaken and stirred when Pisces leapt through woods that should have been impenetrable. Running for our lives, unable to see any future for us, simply being together in the present was enough.

  It seemed hours and no time at all we spent clinging to the back of the monster, Lewis distracting my screaming body with his persuasive mouth and seductive hands until finally the sun rose, golden light shattering the mists, strands of warmth that soothed my body and soul.

  The woods glistened around us, moss covering rocks like a green blanket sparkling with dew while trees dripped vines and creepers that brushed us as we passed. Pisces pounded through the woods, snorting in the still morning air.

  “This will be a good place,” Lewis said, leaning back until Pisces pulled up so suddenly I slammed against Lewis’s chest.

  “Easy,” he said with a smile in his voice as he steadied me before he slid off the side, taking me with him.

  I stumbled a few feet before I sat down against the roots of an enormous tree with a thick trunk covered in moss and busy insects. I didn’t have to close my eyes to feel their buzzing energy.

  “Are we safe from demon men during the day?” I asked, frowning as I remembered Samaliel.

  “No,” Lewis said turning and hurling a knife so suddenly that I jumped.

  I watched him move stealthily across the small clearing between mossy boulders towards a bank with swiftly rushing water. He disappeared into the black shadows for a heart thumping moment before he returned with his knife, a bundle of greens, and a squirrel that still twitched where it was skewered on his blade.

  I averted my eyes, but he knelt in front of me, waiting until I reluctantly put my hand on the creature’s head, soft fur covering delicate bones, and took the death.

  Lewis built a fire, matter-of-factly skinned the small creature, and wrapped it in leaves before he buried it in the earth and built a fire above it. I tried to ignore the way I felt afterwards: a little less tired, a little less sore.

  “How did you learn to throw like that?”

  He grinned at me as he settled down beside me, pulling me into his arms like I belonged there, cradled against his chest, listening to his heart beat. “I try to throw like a girl. Head of the House who Trained me was a woman. I don’t throw as well, but my obsession involved paint instead of knives.”

  I sighed and let my body relax, the pain drift away as his voice soothed me. “Why did you stop painting? You haven’t painted for a while, right? Were you worried you’d be identified as Axel after you’d convinced everybody that you were dead?” My voice blurred between sleep and awake.
I must be dreaming. Life with Lewis couldn’t be anything other than a dream.

  “I wanted to be able to control my life, my death. I wanted to age normally and die normally.” He punctuated his words with kisses on my fingers.

  “You painted yourself to death?” I whispered shivering as I wrapping my arms tightly around him.

  He looked up at me, his beautiful eyes full of light and life, happiness and contentment. I felt his happiness. The fear had faded into this peace that knew no bounds. His eyes narrowed as he studied me, as though he were using me as reference for a painting. “I painted my soul into my paintings. I used my soul, my blood, until I felt the balance shift. More of me is in my paintings than inside this body.”

  I trailed my fingers down his neck to his chest, silky skin tantalizing me. If only I weren’t so tired. “How did you put your soul in paintings?”

  He grinned at me. “I drained the last Hollow One, so I had a little bit of soul skill, and I used bloodwork, mixing my blood with paint.”

  I flinched back at the blatant way he acknowledged Bloodworking. “That’s disgusting, but blood, soul, paint, no wonder they’re so mesmerizing. Why would you want to put your soul in paintings? People shouldn’t be scattering their souls around. Your soul looks so bright and beautiful, amazingly alive, how can it be that way when it’s not whole? Is that what you said Devlin did to my soul, fragmenting it? Wasn’t that a demonic skill?”

  He shook his head slightly as he studied me ravenously. “No. I have no demonic skills. All I did is pour my energy into the paintings. They’re still part of me, still connected,” he said, trapping my hand against his chest with his. “But less trouble that way.”

  “Right. Souls are so much trouble.”

  “Not taking advantage of you is my personal struggle. If I had more soul I wouldn’t have a chance. When I want something, I have a very hard time saying no to myself. Have you ever felt thing you wished you didn’t? I put those emotions, that energy, that spark of soul into paintings, and that’s what makes it what it is. Most of my paintings are a little bit dangerous. I put that desire to die away from me.”