Death's Lover

by Marie Hall

  No one wise cavorted with them. Damn shame too. The tantalizing daydream of sleeping with the enemy never sounded more appealing. So long as it was tall, dark, and handsome over there.

  Celeste narrowed her moss-green eyes. “No way,” she said with conviction. “He’s missing the ears. Definitely vamp. Besides”—she shrugged—“you know fae aren’t permitted in Club X. Lise would have kicked him out long ago.”

  “True.” Eve smiled, her thoughts again veering toward the gutter. Suddenly he was even more appealing.

  He was still staring at her with that same intensity, devouring her. A hot shiver traveled down her spine. The man was erotic turned flesh.

  His looks made her think of a pirate, legs spread wide on the bow of his ship, hands resting casually on his hips. That long hair would be whipping behind him, white shirt exposed, tanned flesh peeking out, like one of those heroes on the covers of a cheesy romance novel.

  Eve rolled her eyes at the image, and if it weren’t for the fact that he was so darn sexy, she’d have turned and walked away.

  She imagined those full lips nuzzling her throat, maybe even the sharp scrape of fangs against her flesh. Liquid heat crashed between her thighs.

  Down, girl!

  “Hey, babe.” Celeste’s calm voice cast a spell, dragging Eve kicking and screaming back from her carnal thoughts. “You’re spitting energy like a firework. Turn down those projections, please. I would rather not know how sex-deprived my little sister is right now. Thanks.” She rubbed a hand down her arm. “Jeez, Lise worked a number on you.”

  The fine hairs on Eve’s arms stood on edge. “Ugh. Sorry.” She turned her back on the man. “I don’t know what Lise did to me. I feel like a big ball of horny right now. Get me out of here before I embarrass myself.”

  “Too late.” Celeste grinned and flipped her golden braid over her shoulder. “And good luck trying to get Tamryn away from that bear.”

  Eve followed Cel’s pointing finger to see Tamryn with her arms wrapped around a big hulk of a were, laughing. He was a nice, dark ebony. A werebear. Just Tamryn’s type. She always did go a little nutso over them. Something to do with the myth being true. Eve hadn’t wanted to ask more.

  “Well,” she sighed. “Maybe we can stay a little longer.”

  * * *

  “Eve. Celeste, this is Harry,” Tamryn said, making quick introductions.

  Eve stuck out her hand. “Hey.”

  His grip was firm, the skin rough but pleasant. He grinned, revealing a straight row of white teeth.

  “Hey, witchy woman.”

  Her lips quirked and she shot Tamryn a look. Witchy woman? Only through sheer will did she refrain from rolling her eyes. Like she hadn’t heard that one before.

  Tamryn seemed oblivious, a goofy grin on her face.

  “Right.” Eve dropped his hand, not altogether happy with the way the bear kept pinching Tamryn’s ass. Her sister had terrible taste in men. “Well, let’s go, please. I’m tired.”

  It was well past midnight, the time when all the baddies went bump in the night. Sorry, but she wasn’t really in the mood to become someone’s light snack.

  She thought of frost-blue eyes and smirked. Well, for the right baddie she just might.

  Eve walked quickly through the club, down the stairs, and out the entryway. As soon as she stepped foot outside, she took a deep breath. The city smelled of salt, fish, and danger. It quivered below the surface, like a pot of water two seconds before boiling. San Francisco always seemed on the brink of erupting into violence. And she loved it.

  This was home. Truth was, she felt more at peace living alongside the so-called evil. Maybe because she was one of them. Solidarity in numbers. It was comforting. Peaceful, even.

  Her sisters and Harry finally caught up. Eve snuggled deeper into the black leather trench coat. It was just this side of nippy tonight, but that tended to happen living so close to the bay. Regardless that it was nearly springtime.

  They walked.

  Minutes later, Harry growled low in his throat, alerting her a split second before her natural instincts kicked in that something was really wrong. She stopped walking. An unmistakable prickle of danger danced across her flesh.

  The sisters huddled close. They linked hands and waited to see if the threat would pass and leave them be, or insist in drawing them into a battle. Fear thundered in her ears as she listened to the sounds of night. The soft lap of water against rocks, the buzz of flickering streetlamps. She closed her eyes, searching, stretching her senses.

  A soft bump. The distinctive crunch of bones. The sound slithered down her spine and coiled around her heart.

  She opened her eyes. Whatever it was, was in the alley.

  “Tamryn,” she hissed. “What the hell is out there?”

  Tamryn’s violet eyes were wide. “I can’t place its aura.”

  Things were going from bad to worse. Tamryn was a rock. Her powers never backfired. She’d always been depended upon to get a read on a person’s aura and tell the sisters what it was and how to prepare. Run, stay, or hide. It was creepy not knowing what lay up ahead.

  She licked her lips, the uneasy feeling that they were walking into a trap making her breathless.

  Celeste groaned. “Great time for your powers to fizz out on us. What do we do now?”

  Harry was in the halfway stage between bear and man. His muzzle was there, but the incisors weren’t. He was still able to talk. “There’s no other escape. We have to cut through the alleyway. Just follow me. We’re four to its one. We should be fine.”

  Then he dropped to his knees and switched to bear. Black, thick hairs tore through his skin. His feet and hands transformed into large, heavy paws. Lethal-looking claws ripped through the toes. He was frightening in were form.

  Eve liked him a little bit better for it. But just a little.

  Harry lumbered forward and they followed.

  Each step she took sounded like thunder to her ears. She tried to hold her breath. She didn’t want the thing to notice them at all.

  This wasn’t some vamp or were out for food. This thing could only be an ancient if it’d been able to block Tamryn’s mental push, and from the frantic sounds of slurping, it was enjoying itself way too much.

  Her gaze shifted around the slithering shadow of the alleyway. The sounds were getting louder. They were close.

  A blur of red standing beside a Dumpster caught her eye. Its silhouette was man. It didn’t move. Her skin crawled, like the feeling of having a thousand maggots roll across her body.

  Eve bit her lip, thinking it might be the ancient something. But the slurping was still going on a little farther up.

  She clenched Cel’s hand so hard she bunched the fingers. Her sister hissed and glanced at her.

  Eve pointed at the Dumpster, but the man was gone.

  Icy fear rammed through her skull.

  Then suddenly the night exploded with sound.

  Harry was standing on his hind legs, swiping with a massive paw at a hunched figure.

  The figure roared and with a taloned hand ripped into Harry’s stomach. The bear snarled and rammed its head into the creature’s shoulder.

  It stumbled back, but didn’t fall. The thick stench of blood filled the night like a beacon. Soon it would attract every vamp and were to the area like a shark’s feeding frenzy. They needed to end this now.

  The sisters formed a circle and began to chant. A red haze seeped from the silver talismans hanging around their necks. The large center stone of Eve’s necklace, a ruby, began to glow with heat and shots of red flame. It was the manifestation of their power. It grew bigger, wider, transforming into the image of a burning phoenix. Orange flames snapped and popped from the body of the bird. Its great golden beak rose into the air, and it let out a piercing scream of warning.

  But the fighting between Harry and the creature was far from over. The creature grabbed Harry around the middle and threw him against a brick wall. The side of the building
shuddered and cracked. Dust and stone flew through the air.

  To throw a half-ton bear through the air like it weighed no more than a feather brought fear, sharp and twisting, to Eve’s gut. What was this thing?

  She didn’t have to wait long for an answer. The creature unfurled from its crouching stance and faced them, half in and half out of shadow. A streetlamp illuminated its features.

  “Oh my god!” Tamryn breathed.

  A chill black silence enveloped them.

  Demon. It was a demon. They couldn’t contain it. Not without its true name.

  It advanced. Each step deliberate. Slow. Toying with them. Lavender eyes, set in a farm-boy face, glowed with malice.

  Her heart slammed against her ribs and yet she couldn’t rip her gaze away, like watching a train headed straight at you. Knowing you had no chance to escape the death that awaited on impact.

  As one, the sisters hurled their phoenix into the advancing form of the demon. The demon hissed and spit, swiping at the burning fire as the phoenix gouged into his flesh with its dagger-like beak.

  The battle was intense and the sisters trembled, trying to contain their energy as the demon ripped and clawed at their bird.

  Sweat beaded on Eve’s brow, her body ached as she pushed her will at the creature. Black tracks of ooze slid down the demon’s sun-kissed face, but it wasn’t enough. With one mighty swipe, the demon cowed the phoenix and twisted its head off, shattering the illusion and knocking the sisters to the ground, spent and shivering.

  Small stones and rubble bit into Eve’s cheek. The chill from the asphalt seeped into her pores. Her jaw clattered as the numbing cold of ice traveled through her veins, freezing her from the inside out. They’d used too much magick; she had none left to defend herself. Blearily she looked for her sisters, fear hammering in her heart for their safety.

  Then her eyes widened as the silhouette of the man she’d seen standing by the Dumpster appeared by the demon’s elbow. He was whispering words she couldn’t decipher.

  The demon grinned and then his gaze zeroed in on her. That’s when she knew…

  She’d been marked for death.

  Chapter 6

  Cian watched as one by one the sisters left the club, followed closely by a large were.

  He rolled his neck from side to side and waited. Last thing he wanted was to have the bear catch wind of his scent.

  The women wouldn’t know he was friend and not foe. Never a good idea to startle three witches and a bear. Rubbing his skull, he nursed his drink. He should have gone up to her when they’d made eye contact; he should have introduced himself, said hi at least. All of this, what he was doing, following her around like some lovesick stalker, it just wasn’t him. He didn’t act this way, ever. But he didn’t know how to do this. In all the years he’d walked as death, he’d never felt a need to know someone. He had no skill when it came to approaching the opposite sex, to simply talk. He clenched his jaw, he should have at least tried, but every time he contemplated doing it, his pulse would race and his tongue would feel ten times too thick in his mouth and he’d lose every word in his head.

  Reaping a soul didn’t require him to learn how to interact with others. So now he just felt like an ass sitting in a bar thinking about a woman he desperately wanted to meet and not having one damn clue how to do it.

  He glanced at the clock wall. The club was still packed to capacity at one in the morning.

  Five minutes passed before he felt it safe to follow. Scrubbing a tired hand down his face, he stood, ready to call it a night himself. First he needed to make certain that his witch made it home safely. Tomorrow he’d come up with the impossible plan to keep her safe from The Morrigan’s clutches. And maybe figure out some way to initiate contact without letting her know who he really was.

  He didn’t stand a chance in hell of coming up with one, but he was working hard at being more positive.

  Positive. He snorted. The Morrigan will roast my head over a spitfire while Dagda chomps on my bones. How’s that for positive?

  With a growl he covered himself in stealth and moved quickly through the club.

  Death.

  He stopped and turned.

  Lise stood toe to toe behind him. She’d moved so quickly she hadn’t even blurred.

  Lise.

  She smiled. You should hurry. Gray wisps of hair curled around her delicate face, giving credence to the illusion of frailty.

  He frowned. What did she mean?

  And then she was gone. Not even a trace of her remained. Cian shoved blunt fingers through his hair and refocused on his witch’s lifeline.

  He wasn’t sure when he’d started thinking of the dark witch as his, but somehow it seemed right.

  Suddenly there was a ripping sensation of panic gnawing at his brain. She was in trouble. He felt it. In his heart. His soul. Her fear hammered at him.

  Running wouldn’t get him to her in time. He opened the portal between the here and there with a swipe of his hand.

  Immediately he was engulfed by color. The shifting lights a dizzying blur as he attuned himself to her spirit.

  Fire rammed through his body, down his skull, and into his hand, turning it skeletal.

  Not now. Please.

  He moved quicker than he’d ever dared before. He fell out of the portal to his knees, landing in a putrid, brackish puddle of water.

  Vertigo slammed through him. The world shifted out of focus. Dark fear, sick and twisting, filled his nostrils, his head. A carnivore devouring his soul, driving out all sanity, all reason, until only a mad desperation remained.

  She needed him.

  Now!

  That thought gave him impetus enough to stand and fight off the overwhelming sensations. What he saw made his insides clench.

  Bezel was crouched before her fallen body. Her sisters were thrown aside, their bodies contorted into unnatural positions. They didn’t look broken, just unconscious. The were was slumped half in a Dumpster, a stunned look on his face.

  The prickle of another reaper shot down his spine. He turned to see Frenzy in shadow.

  Stupid, Cian. You failed her. You should have sensed the trap.

  He clenched his jaw as the dark haze of fury blanketed his mind. He ran, slamming his shoulder into Bezel’s, throwing the demon to the concrete.

  Bezel hissed, his lavender eyes swirling with needles of red. The demon was mad with the taste of blood. One drop was all it took to bring out their baser instincts. Cian stood in front of her prone body, his arms outstretched, his legs bent into a fighting stance. “Bezel,” he growled, “she’s mine.”

  The demon jumped up, his normally gregarious face split into one of insanity. He licked his incisors. “Cian, move aside. I’ll kill you if I must.” His voice was hollow and gravelly, like the rumbles of an earthquake.

  Cian glanced at Frenzy, and that’s when he noticed the silvery thread of illusion netted across the alleyway. Frenzy had cast a chimera and incited Bezel into the fury.

  Cian couldn’t see what illusion he’d used, but knowing that a demon responded to blood the way Bezel was doing now, he knew that was the likely culprit.

  “Frenzy, quit the chimera,” Cian barked at the silent figure.

  Frenzy shook his head, his silver eyes sparking with amber flame. “I’m sorry, Cian. I cannot.”

  His hands clenched, there was no other choice but to battle the demon and fight off the illusion through pain.

  “Move, Cian!” Bezel howled.

  When Cian didn’t move, Bezel pounced on him. The demon was in a rage, ripping and clawing at his face.

  He hissed as a talon tore through his cheek. Warm blood oozed from the wound into his mouth.

  Cian grabbed Bezel around his scrawny farm-boy neck and squeezed. Appearances were deceptive, though. The scrawny neck was as tough as steel, refusing to give way under his grip.

  Bezel wrapped his legs around Cian’s waist, constricting like a python’s deadly squeeze.

&nbs
p; “Wake the hell up, Bezel,” Cian repeated over and over, trying to snap the demon out of the chimera.

  The demon snarled and slammed a fist into Cian’s chest, taking the breath from his lungs. He dropped to his knees, bringing Bezel down with him, aware enough to roll them away from her body.

  This had to end now. It was incredibly hard to overcome a reaper, but he felt too close to it for comfort.

  With one last shot of adrenaline, Cian snatched Bezel’s arms and yanked them behind the demon’s back, pulling them up higher and higher.

  Bezel struggled to free himself, but to no avail; he was trapped. Cian planted a knee into the demon’s lower back for leverage. Bezel howled with rage, kicking at his balls.

  Cian hated to do this, but there would be no other way to stop the demon when he was fully entranced. With a swift upward stroke, he snapped both arms at the wrist.

  “Bloody hell!” Bezel cried, bucking Cian off his back and crawling away on his forearms. Instantly, the silvery net of illusion faded. The chimera destroyed by Bezel’s pain.

  Dragging air into his lungs, Cian hung his head, spent. His body felt like it’d been thrown into a trash compactor. Everything hurt. But he couldn’t rest, not now. He stood on shaky legs and made his way to her. Using his essence, he created leather gloves and slipped them on—he couldn’t risk the chance of accidentally grazing her with his skeletal hand.

  Then he picked her up and cradled her slight body to his chest. He trembled, and not from her next-to-nothing weight. She was so soft. Her scent wrapped around his body like a gentle embrace.

  Cian glanced at Frenzy.

  Frenzy sighed. “You know I’ll have to come back.”

  He nodded. “Please, no more this week, Frenzy. Make this fair and give me a fighting chance.”

  Frenzy didn’t move or say a word.

  “Swear it,” he growled when Frenzy failed to respond.

  The reaper gave a slow nod. “For the kinship we share, I give you my word. But you know the queen is not bound to this oath. I’ll do what I can.” Then he swiped his hand, opening the portal between the here and there and stepped through, vanishing.