That’s it, pretty slut. Grab me. Embrace me and make me stronger. The pain took form, growing and rushing through her mind, fighting to keep her from letting go.
She jumped back. Or was she pulled back? Powerful arms embraced her, or what would have been arms if Braze weren’t in his spirit form. But even invisible, his strength wrapped around her, protecting her.
A growl penetrated through her, Braze’s fury so intense it vibrated her soul, heat flushing through her as he shoved her back into her body.
His anger could be terrifying. And she’d known more than one time when he’d been pushed too far and unleashed his mighty powers without reserve.
But the demon leader showed his strength too. His demented presence reached inside her, twisting around her soul. The disgusting stench grabbed her senses, making her nauseous.
“Here’s your file.” Maureen seemed to have recovered, which meant the demon had left her body. “And as I thought, you were just three when we got you. Such a pretty thing. I remember you were tormented by nightmares and terrible daydreams. You would cry out for no reason on the playground, as if some terrible memory had just surfaced.”
Bridget remembered that now that Maureen mentioned it. Cast back to childhood, her memories lost, she’d been confused and homeless, without parents. The demon had wanted her lost, growing up under horrendous circumstances.
Yes. Remember it all, little tramp. A demon had crawled into her head, attacking her thoughts. All of it is just a small sample of the wonderful tortures you will endure.
Since you enjoy torture so much, maybe you’ll enjoy this, you fucking bastard. Braze ripped the demon out of her body, the two of them soaring from the room.
“Oh shit.” Bridget sensed immediately how quiet the room suddenly was.
“What?” Maureen looked up startled.
“Remember none of this,” Bridget said hurriedly, waving her hands in front of Maureen and then disappearing.
She only hoped she could catch up with Braze before something really terrible happened.
Chapter Fifteen
Bridget flew through the building, aware of Marlita desperately trying to contact her while Bridget hurried after Braze and the demon leader. She sent reassuring thoughts to Marlita, and then focused her attention on Braze.
Time was such a mortal concept. Even so, Bridget had no time to focus on the amount of demons hurrying toward the planet, anticipation reeking through their pathetic souls. She would worry about that later.
Right now, flying through space, the rich colors of the solar system surrounding her, the only thing she could think about was what Braze might do. She didn’t have long to think about it.
Directly ahead of her an explosion occurred. White light spouted forth, growing so quickly it consumed her before she could react. Powerful waves tumbled through her. She strengthened her defenses, while turning around in a quick circle, searching for any explanation as to what might have just happened.
A sudden pulling sensation tugged at her. Powers stronger than her own, a multitude of strength, grabbing a hold of her and guiding her towards its source.
Bridget recognized the powers. She knew the strength of the coven. She didn’t see Braze though. If the coven was pulling her in, something terrible had happened. A pain formed inside her, growing and twisting. And this wasn’t the pain from the demon. Her heart constricted, panic and worry consuming, making her sick that something had happened to Braze.
What was that explosion? What would it take to destroy an immortal?
The demon leader had tried to destroy her by wiping out her memory. And for centuries it had worked, allowing the nasty things time to overwhelm Earth. But in the end, Braze’s love for her had helped her to see who she was. A sick feeling riddled through her when she wondered what was going on.
She couldn’t relax, couldn’t concentrate. The coven pulled her through space and she didn’t fight it.
Her heart burned with a sickness that she couldn’t fight. All of her powers couldn’t mend a broken heart. Braze had found her, sought her out, forced her to see who she truly was. He hadn’t left her alone when she’d cast him away that day at the orphanage. When her memory was still blocked and he’d been in the car with her, he’d remained stubborn when she told him to leave.
But now, if something had happened to him, she would live forever knowing she’d lost her one true love. She couldn’t bear the thought. If she were in her human form at that moment, tears would be streaming down her face.
There had to be some way she could learn what had just happened. In spite of the penetrating strength that surrounded her, and even with her heart aching so hard she could barely think straight, she worked to search space around her.
The power pulled harder, sensing her hesitation while she looked through the vast amount of space stretching forth.
And then she was descending, realizing as she floated down that the coven had called her in. She had recognized the power of the elders when they took a hold of her in space, drawing her to them with their incredible strength.
Materializing, she adjusted her sweatshirt, not wanting to change into the traditional attire of the elders. She hadn’t asked to be brought here, and suddenly wasn’t in the mood to offer her undying respect.
“What the hell is going on here?” She noticed Abra first, standing to the side, watching her while his hood hung low over his face, almost covering his eyes.
His lips pursed together, his expression drawn into thin lines. He assessed her, and she couldn’t tell what he thought.
“You cannot destroy the hells.” Abra’s thoughts echoed throughout the artificial environment, a show that didn’t impress her.
“They can bloody well find another leader.” Braze spoke from the side.
He startled her. Bridget knew an entire world of worry lifted from her, making her almost giddy and lightheaded.
“Braze!” She didn’t try to hide her enthusiasm that he was okay.
Running to him, she hit an invisible wall and bounced back, stumbling to the ground.
“Let me go to him,” she cried out, turning to glare at Abra before she tried to stand.
“You will not deny me of her.” Braze struggled against an invisible force that held him, his entire body contorting from his efforts.
“Calm down, friend.” Merco stepped forward and helped Bridget stand. “Let him go, Abra. We are all adults here.”
“So now you tell me what to do?” Abra’s tone was condescending. “He destroyed most of the hells.” Abra was calm, his voice suddenly too quiet.
So that was the explosion she’d seen. She gripped Merco’s hand, allowing him to help her to her feet while focusing on Braze.
Bridget ignored Abra. Braze looked so dangerous, even confined under the coven’s force. Everyone’s combined powers were used to hold Braze in place. She knew on this hallowed ground, the secluded location so far away from anything that lived, that when all the immortals assembled under this artificial atmosphere, their powers were confined, easily drawn upon. Braze was held using all of that power to prevent him from moving.
She drew on that power too, using it to her advantage. Pulling from all of the immortals present, feeling it surge around her, she looked only at those intense green eyes. The coven would not keep him from her. They would not determine whether she could stand by his side or not. They didn’t own her. They wouldn’t use her own powers against her or the man she loved.
Her heart raced, the extreme power, so raw and intense, flooding her system. The sensation of drowning, being swallowed up by the powers that had brought life to so many planets, created civilizations and molded them, consumed her yet she didn’t fight it. The strength of the immortals rushed through her, making her blood pump through her faster, her heart race against the strength of it, while she focused only on Braze.
The force surrounding him disappeared, his expression immediately relaxing when he realized he was free. Muscles rippled thro
ugh him underneath his clothing when he straightened, stepping forward while a hush seemed to descend among the small group of elders.
“Who did that?” Abra spun around, glaring at the lot of them.
“I did.” Bridget still kept her attention on Braze, smiling when he looked at her.
She let go of Merco’s hand and walked up to him. Braze’s touch was hot, his skin moist with a smooth sheen of perspiration when he pulled her to him. Hard as rock muscles pressed against her, sending a rush of desire through her. Fire burned through her, a raw ache pulsing deep within her.
“You would counter the power of the coven?” Abra looked at her, attempting disdain. But there was a more harbored emotion apparent, something raw enough that he couldn’t hide it. Fear lined his face.
“We are immortals, as strong as you are.” Braze held her close while he spoke, his strong heartbeat matching the throbbing that grew inside her.
She longed to touch more of him, run her hands over his powerful frame. The sudden thought of disappearing, taking him to some remote spot where they wouldn’t be bothered, made her thick cream seep through her pussy, coating the smooth skin between her legs.
“Her powers need to be curbed.” Macba, her hair a soft red color flowing over her ample breasts, pointed her finger at Bridget. She didn’t wear the traditional robe of the coven either, but a silk dress, the material thin enough to accent her fine-tuned body. “Obviously that demon spell that she was under for so many centuries has left her a bit touched.”
Bridget had the urge to touch her. A slap across the face sounded real good.
“No one is curbing anyone’s powers today.” Bridget quit looking at Macba before her anger got the best of her, and returned her attention to Abra. “What’s done is done. As Braze said, the demons will find a new leader. They will rebuild their hells. And while they fight among each other to do so, it will allow me time to put Earth back in order.”
“You have no voice here.” Abra threw his hands up in the air in a frustrated gesture.
Braze tightened his grip on her, muscles flexing throughout his body. She snuggled up against him, and didn’t mind a bit when he ran his hand protectively down her body, resting it on her ass.
“In fact, you’ve never even completed the official initiation ceremony,” Abra added, his voice booming against the stone structure surrounding them.
“Is that what this is all about?” Bridget placed her hand over the source of Braze’s heartbeat, his strength pulsing through her. “Then we shall have that ceremony now, while all are here.”
Immediate murmurs swept through the group, their arousal apparent as the power among the coven rose. Bridget experienced the flush of it, as it tormented her already soaked pussy. The members of this select group loved a good sex show. And she had just offered to give it to them.
There is no need for this. Braze still held her close, lowering his head to hers so that their thoughts mingled.
I won’t have anyone claiming you are not mine by right. She knew her thoughts pleased him.
“Tradition states that the initiation ceremony binds you as one with the entire coven.” There was excitement in Abra’s voice.
She knew he’d been irate at missing out on the opportunity to fuck her during the ceremony held when she was very young. But obviously now, even though she was a mature woman, the thought of having his cock inside her appealed to him greatly. Her stomach twisted in knots over the thought. The ceremony was so damned antiquated and chauvinistic.
“And entering me will strengthen your own powers,” she accused, guessing he might already know how the demons had grown in strength so quickly. “If I am one with the coven, you know I will always stand behind all of you. You don’t need to fuck me to take what I have.”
“So you refuse the initiation ceremony?” Macba held her hand out in front of her, focusing on her nicely polished nails. She glanced up at Bridget, the slightest of smiles on her face, while she batted her long lashes. “We’ve all gone through it. Are you that much better than the rest of us?”
“Yours was so long before mine though,” Bridget answered quickly, enjoying how Macba’s smile faded at the mention that she was no longer a younger immortal. “I never participated in yours. To be fair, you and your mate shouldn’t participate in mine.”
Bridget pushed away from Braze, regretting leaving the warmth of his embrace, but ready to get the ceremony going. Braze would fuck her, and she didn’t care if the lot of them watched and drooled.
“The rules of the initiation ceremony have never changed for over a millennium.” Abra held his arms out, stilling the comments that others in the group began making. “You will not change them now.”
Bridget pulled her shirt off, a déjà vu washing through her of the first time she’d entered this stone structure, walking among the members of the coven, naked.
There was one difference now. She was not trying to impress any of them. None of them had come looking for her when she’d lost her memory. The immortals had cast their seeds, made deities of themselves, and then turned their backs on their children to enjoy a more peaceful existence than fighting demons. They wouldn’t control her. She wouldn’t turn her back on them, or who she was, but it was time they realized it would be under her terms that she participated in this ceremony.
And she wouldn’t run in fear this time.
“The only reason this ceremony will take place at all is to show all of you that beyond any doubt, Bridget belongs to me.” Braze pulled his shirt off as well, enforcing the silence of the coven with his dominating baritone.
“I’ve never heard of one of the ancients agreeing to go through the ceremony twice simply to show the coven she is part of them.” Merco changed from his casual attire into the robe traditionally worn in the ceremony. “We all know she is part of us. I’d say she is being mighty generous to offer this sign of loyalty.”
Bridget couldn’t pull her attention from Braze’s smooth skin with so many bulging muscles underneath. Turning to him, blocking out the ancients surrounding them, their fellow immortals who had been bound to them since birth, she focused solely on the man who held her heart.
“If we turn on the ways of the ancients, we are no better than they are when they turn on all they’ve created,” she whispered, and placed her palm against his chest.
The heat from him scalded through her, burning her very soul with the passion that swarmed from him.
“No one else will fuck you.” A predator’s domination burned in his gaze making his green eyes so dark, so intense. “That is not open for discussion.”
“Then you mock the initiation ceremony. This whole thing is a farce.” Abra spoke from behind them, his tone biting while he spoke loud enough to make sure his voice boomed against the stone pillars surrounding them. “The ceremony is clearly laid out, its purpose to keep us strong, our power united.”
Bridget’s insides burned with need. Her desire was so great that not even Abra’s words relented her craving. Her pussy throbbed, matching the beat that pulsed through her, an aching desire to claim Braze, as he would her, now and forever.
“Shall we see exactly how the ceremony is written?” she asked Braze quietly, her hair drifting over her arm when she extended it out and quietly demanded the ancient writings appear.
A rolled scroll, thick and old, appeared, floating in the air next to her. She mentally unrolled it, displaying the ancient writing, penned carefully on the ancient parchment.
“I don’t give a damn what it says. I’ll take you out of here forever before I would let another man have you. Especially these decrepit souls,” Braze hissed, his jaw tight with determination. The muscles under his skin were balled tight, ready to pounce.
His aggressive will excited her even more, made her body scream with need.
Taking a deep breath, she forced her attention away from Braze. There was no way she could take her hand from his chest though. She swore the heat from touching him had melted h
er right into him.
“It is clearly written…” Heat rushed through her catching her breath. Staring at the sacred writings, feeling Braze’s carnal desires ripple through her, she almost went weak in the knees. Floating like a teenager unable to get a grip on her senses would have been embarrassing. She took a deep breath. “During the initiation ceremony, a most sacred ceremony where the elders agree to take another into their coven, all members will participate. The candidate will bare their self, presenting their self to the altar. As immortals, we grow stronger through the sexual act. None shall leave until the act is done, lest the coven be broken.”
She stopped. Glancing around, all members of the coven looked at her. Her nipples hardened, her hair barely covering her naked torso. Excitement rushed through her. Triumph was theirs. She looked up at Braze.
He ran his hand down her arm, shivers rushing through her from his touch. Her nipples peaked, desire making them turn into hard little buds, aching and pulsing with a life of their own. Just her hair, barely touching them, was enough to send electricity shooting straight to her pussy. If he didn’t fuck her soon she would turn into a babbling idiot. She was sure of it.
“It is clearly written that all shall participate.” Braze looked over her head, his attention on the others. The firm line of his jaw, his powerful neck, the thick spread of dark hair covering rippling muscles—he was eye candy for a starving lady. “But not all shall fuck her.”
“Enough of this blasphemy!” Abra waved his hand, the ground shaking underneath them.
It had been like this during her first initiation ceremony, the ground shaking from the release of her powers. Once again, emotions ran strong enough to shake the ground.
“It’s not blasphemy,” Merco spoke out, giving her a reassuring wink. “Unless of course you deny the word of our sacred writings.”
The others commented under their breath, moving into the ceremonial circle surrounding the altar.
Fallen Gods: Tainted Purity Page 16
