by Zoey Marcel
Judah’s arms went around her waist, keeping her still as he humped her and kept his jaw locked onto her with the efficiency of a determined predator. Tears spilled from her eyes at the violent level of pain that flared up, making her see red.
This couldn’t happen. How the hell was she supposed to go back to normal while being mated to Logan and now to Judah as well? They would ruin her. Torment her with unfulfilled dreams, and unrelenting desires to be with them while trying to be a good wife to Ben when she got him back.
Neil played with her hair, cooing to her while he fucked her face.
Judah’s hold let up only enough so his tongue could lap her blood before his jaw clamped tighter onto her broken flesh. The bite jarred her with unspeakable pain, but something dreamlike and heavy started to emerge. It seemed to commence at the bite, or perhaps it began in her inflamed G-spot. Whatever the origin, wicked pleasure ensued, soft, constant, and wavelike. Warm ribbons of delight flowed through her body before they became hot strands of desire.
Logan’s hands on her arms firmed and his nails felt sharper like his claws had emerged in the sexual frenzy. Razor sharpness pricked her skin and wet warmth surfaced. He drew blood. Her mind saw red—beads of red blood pooling through the tiny outlet of broken flesh that led to freedom. Claws that felt a lot like a blade cutting skin, bringing relief from suffering, and punishment that eclipsed guilt.
The trigger of being cut gave her a sense of relief even as it drew additional tears from her eyes. The bite no longer hurt. There was only rapture as her overwhelming orgasm persisted. The constricting pressure of her climax seemed to trigger their releases as well.
Logan bellowed and held her as close to him as he could without detracting from the blow job she was giving Neil.
Judah found his own release and relinquished his lethal grip on her shoulder as he gasped and roared while coming. After a moment of panting, he licked the run-off blood from her shoulder, making her whimper in pain and pleasure as she continued to suck Neil’s cock.
The feel of Logan’s hands fondling up and down her shaky arms made her shiver with a feverish trance.
“You’re my mate, baby,” Judah murmured as he loved on the bite mark with his tongue. “We’ll never let you go now.”
Her spirit sighed and screamed from within. Praise God they still wanted her.
Crap, no! This wasn’t supposed to happen. What if Ben was in hell? He was a good man certainly, though not religious. She’d been raised that religion was the prerequisite to paradise, though Ben had claimed works were more important than faith. Who was right?
What if there was no soul left for her to raise from the dead? What if this life was all there was?
What if there was something else after this that no one had ever thought of? Would she be robbing him of eternal peace by summoning him back from the dead, or saving him from unthinkable perdition?
Neil erupted in her mouth, and Jill swallowed his load, feeling like she was on autopilot from the shock of the encounter and Judah’s bite. She forgot to lick Neil clean when he ejected from her mouth. A breathy sigh escaped before she came crashing down on top of Logan. She trembled in his arms as he held her, and Judah pinned her between them from on top of her. He kissed her neck and nuzzled her while Logan caressed her arms, and Neil played with her hair.
There were no words or sounds in that moment. Only Logan’s heartbeat steadied her anxieties with its steadfast continuity. That calming noise aside, there was only silence, and it was loud, suffocating.
“Surprise, baby,” Neil teased.
In another time and place she might have given him a rather swift surprise on his face or ass for springing something so life-changing on her.
But in this moment she couldn’t think. She could only feel, tremble, and shiver helplessly in their arms as they held her, refusing to let her go.
“I’m glad you agreed to be my mate,” Judah whispered, snuggling her. “Now nothing can take you away from us. Not ever.”
Tremors of heat and cold ran up her spine. Had she agreed to be his mate? Apparently when he’d asked her if she was his mate what he’d meant was “I’m going to bite the living crap out of you during sex.” She should have known.
“We’ll take care of you, pet,” Logan promised in a soothing hush. “You’re ours.”
The words felt right. She was theirs.
A dull ache of longing crept into her soul. But she was also Ben’s.
Chapter Eleven:
Back In Time
“When you’re ready we want to marry you.” The words ran a broken record through Jill’s head as she drove down to the pier. They’d held her and touched her so gently while promising her forever. Her heart wanted them forever, but it also wanted Ben.
Should she let him go and embrace her new life with the other three men she loved? She’d had a good life with Ben, but it wasn’t enough, would never be enough. To bring him back would be to lose two of those other men who meant so much to her. She couldn’t do it, nor could she let Ben go.
She parked the car and wept into her palms, praying for death or a miracle, or to be teleported to an alternate reality where the five of them coexisted together in harmony.
She got an eerie feeling that chilled her. It was dark despite the soft light from the half moon, but beyond the harmless darkness came a foreboding sense of doom. The spirit realm.
“Get out of the car, Jill.”
She wanted to scream at the top of her lungs and speed away when she heard the sinister voice in her head. It had a smooth quality, but no less menacing. Some foolish idiot unlocked her car and opened the door. Oh crap, it was her. She got out of the vehicle and locked it, walking onto the pier.
The wind was cold and the water stirred as someone walked out of thin air from a split in reality. The veil closed behind the entity and a man with voluminous blond eighties rocker hair approached her, walking on the water.
Hearing stories about Jesus walking on water when she’d been a kid had been awe-inspiring. Seeing an evil entity do so inspired terror and serious pissing urges she managed to refrain from.
Jill swallowed, realizing her whole body shook. “Are you Samael?”
“I am. How may I be of service?”
He wore all-black and his face almost looked like he had on black eyeliner and shimmery lip gloss. Well, wasn’t that special? The look suited him well.
“My husband died a year ago and I really want him back.” Speaking was near impossible when her brain finally grasped that she was conversing with the Grim Reaper.
“Ben Easton,” Samael said rather than asked.
Jill blinked, certain she would go into cardiac arrest when the death angel stepped onto the pier with her. She stepped backward, cringing when he walked forward. “How did you know his name?”
“I have my ways.”
A purple apple appeared out of nowhere and spun slowly in his hand as he eyed it with interest. Why was it purple? It sure wasn’t a plum. That there was an apple, and she could have sworn she saw the image of a snake in the peel and heard a crafty hiss before the fruit returned to its natural state.
Oh, this was such a bad idea. How could this possibly end well?
“It isn’t often a religious person seeks my assistance. How entirely fascinating. I wonder which is greater, your moral fidelity or your desire to reunite with your husband.” Samael smiled wickedly. “My hunch says you would pay any price to see him again…even your soul.”
She shuddered. “What is it you want?”
“Take my hand, Jill.”
She paused, spooked by his demand for contact and the startling familiarity of this moment. “You know my name?”
“I know more about you than you realize.”
The perverted look in his eyes made her want to introduce him to her knuckles, though hitting her only key to bringing back Ben was probably unwise. She took Samael’s hand, stomach churning at his invasive leer. His hand was frigid…and manicured
apparently.
The scene changed to daytime in L.A. Why was it afternoon? Were they at a different point in time?
“I have one small favor to ask of you.”
She pulled her hand away from him and wiped the psychological filth off on her jeans, which clearly amused him.
“Do you see that young woman over there?”
She looked to where he gave a half-assed nod and saw a petite blonde walking down the sidewalk. “She looks familiar. I think that’s Claire, the bartender at The Gothic Angel in Temptation.”
Samael stood behind Jill, voice low and creepy as hell. “Yes, that’s Claire Lynravn. All you have to do is direct her to any of the bars here in Los Angeles. She’s looking for a job. Help her get one here.”
“Are we in the past?” Jill asked. “If she gets a job here, she’ll never end up in Temptation.”
“Don’t ask questions, little lamb, just do as you’re told.” The words were a disturbing echo of a memory lost. She’d heard them before, but where? The sound of a whip cracked in her mind. A woman screamed. Blood. Flesh. Terror. What was it she couldn’t remember? Why did she feel dirty and degraded?
His breath gusted like ice on her scalp as he murmured into her hair. What the hell was the creeper doing breathing in her hair?
She whirled around to glare at him, barely refraining from clocking him. “Excuse me? Don’t be taking liberties, asshole.”
He smirked. “All you have to do is get Claire to apply for jobs here in Los Angeles instead of going to the airport to fly to Temptation. Do that and eat this apple, and I’ll send you back in time so you can keep Ben from dying. How does that sound?”
“Too good to be true. What happens to Claire?”
His eyes were dark and concealing something…something sinister. “Does it matter? You’ll have Ben back.”
Her eyes watered when Samael held up a crystal ball that revealed her and Ben making out.
“Surely that is worth whatever it costs…even your soul.” He extended the purple apple to her. “Taste it, little lamb. Give me your soul and I’ll give you the world.”
She quaked with horror, too afraid to imagine what bargaining with a high-ranking demon and eating forbidden fruit would mean for her eternally. Ben was on the other end of this. She must eat, taste, damn herself to be with him.
Jill was about to take a bite when a woman’s voice said, “Wait.”
She turned to see a brunette who was somewhere in her fifties approaching.
Samael exhaled in annoyance.
“Who are you?” Jill asked.
The mature woman looked at Samael. “How long are you going to keep putting this poor woman through hell and taking advantage of her?”
Goose bumps sprang up on Jill’s arms. “What do you mean?”
“If you get Claire to stay in L.A. instead of going to Wyoming like she did in real life and then you bite from that apple, everything that happened in this alternate reality will become truth and permanent, and you will lose your soul.” The woman glanced at her. “All who eat of hell’s orchard are damned. Samael didn’t tell you that, did he?”
“No.” Jill dropped the fruit. “What do you mean alternate realities?”
The woman’s brown eyes flickered to Samael and then back to her. “You’ve done this before. You’ve gone to Samael to try to get Ben back thirty-nine times, and thirty-nine times you’ve lost him all over again.”
The words left her speechless.
“If Samael had let you keep your memory of Ben’s death during these trips into the past, you might have saved him, but then that would have only required one time instead of many. If you attempt to do so a fortieth time, you might save Ben, but either way, eating that apple will damn you,” the woman explained. “Do you want to know why Samael wants you to keep Claire from going to Temptation like she did originally?”
“Piss off, Isis,” Samael growled.
Isis ignored him. “Claire cheated death. Someone tried to stab her, and one of her lovers, Nex Harper, saved her. Samael doesn’t like it when people cheat him. He wants what’s his, or rather what he feels he’s entitled to. It isn’t just Claire, though. He’s got it all worked out and he’s had plenty of failed attempts on your part to figure out which events he needs to tweak in order to acquire some slaves through some well-planned deaths, some of which never originally happened.”
Jill shivered, thinking back. “All that weird stuff that happened back in Temptation a year ago, was that because of me going back in time?”
Isis nodded. “It was a sort of collision of realities. You remembered what really happened, but were also living a pseudo-reality from going back into the past to try to save Ben. The reason Joaquin Sullivan and Dakarai Hawthorne were upset was because Claire never came to Temptation after your changes in history. Samael didn’t want to lose his friendship with Eversor. You know him as Jack Dillinger. Samael knew that to keep Jack from falling for Morrigan Weaver and Mark Montego again, he would have to never send Jack after Morrigan in the first place. Instead Samael sent Nex to kill her.”
Jill gaped at Isis, frozen with shock. “Did he?”
“Yes,” Isis replied. “In this false reality Nex killed Morrigan, and Samael got to have her as his slave in the underworld. Jack remained evil as did Nex, because Nex never met Claire in this version or got a soul, and Jack never mated with Morrigan to acquire his soul. Claire got a job in L.A. and was killed by the human spirit that used to possess her, giving Samael yet another slave.”
Jill was stunned. “What about Callie Spencer, the cosmetologist?”
“Nex was too busy hunting down Morrigan to play that game of cat and mouse with Hilary, the witch. She was never raised from the grave, thus she was never there to save Callie Spencer when she got attacked by Brent, her first boyfriend, in the woods. A bear found her and mauled her. Cameron Hunter never met either of his girlfriends.”
Jill’s eyes stung. All of this happened because of her.
Isis looked at Samael. “Callie was yet another slave for Samael. He sometimes enjoys enslaving the dead and selling them at auction to demons in the underworld, don’t you, Samael?”
The death angel sounded pissed. “Why are you here, Isis?”
“Dakarai summoned me to interfere with whatever was fracturing reality,” Isis explained.
“They all got hurt or killed because of me,” Jill whispered in despair. “What have I done?”
“You did what you had to,” Samael answered.
“You tricked me.” She turned to face him. “I didn’t want anyone to get hurt. I just wanted Ben back.”
“You can have him back, little lamb. I’ll even let you keep your memory this time so you can prevent his death…if you eat the apple,” Samael bargained.
“He might keep his word,” Isis reasoned, “or he might drag you down to hell afterward, or simply return to collect your soul when you die. I have the power to send you back to the present. I can do that and everyone that died will still be alive and well. It will be just as it was in real life.”
“What about Ben?” Jill asked.
Isis didn’t answer.
Jill’s eyes closed. “Is there any way to get him back?”
“You can bargain with Samael and maybe the fortieth time will work and you’ll get your husband back.”
“What about Claire and the others?”
Isis’s face was neutral. “They will be slaves in the underworld, but the people they left behind will have their memories wiped so they won’t remember their loss. You’ll have Ben.”
Jill’s throat tightened with pain. “But people will get hurt and go through what I went through when I lost him.”
“Either you come with me and lose Ben guaranteed so others can live, or you have a fifty-fifty chance at getting him back if you go with Samael,” Isis said. “Yes, they’ll die, but no one will remember. They won’t be any wiser, and you might get Ben back this time.”
Jill’s heart broke a
nd she wept.
“I’m the only hope you have, little lamb,” Samael beckoned.
She spun around to face him. “Get the fuck away from me. I won’t bargain with you.”
Samael glared at Isis and disappeared.
Isis looked surprised. “You would sacrifice your heart’s desire so others might live?”
Jill wiped away her tears. “I can’t do that to them. It hurt like hell when I lost Ben. I won’t put them through that.”
Isis appeared contemplative for a moment. “Extraordinary. Sign this in blood and I’ll send you back to the present.”
Jill studied the document, unable to decipher the language. Two dark red signatures already stained the scroll. “What is this?”
“It frees a friend of mine from a dungeon.”
“Why does it have to be signed in blood?”
Isis’s eyes became guarded. “There is power in blood. To free my friend requires three bloody signatures, one from a deity, one from a demon, and one from a desperate soul.”
Jill saw that Isis and Dakarai were the signatures. She pricked her finger on the knife Isis presented to her, trying to shut out the memories. She signed her name, hoping she didn’t free some monster from jail.
“Where is this person being freed from?”
“It’s not a person. You just freed him from Tartarus.” Isis’s smile was subtle but sinister, eyes darker than Jill remembered and somehow devoid of the goodness she’d thought was there. “I’ll take you back now.”
Chapter Twelve:
Second Chance
Reality. Jill didn’t know which was worse, surreal numbness or crippling pain. Regardless, there was a hollow sinking feeling as she lay in bed hugging herself. She didn’t know what day it was, only that it was morning, but she didn’t care. She was alone…in the house she’d lived in with Ben.
She rolled over to his side of the pillow and held it, pretending he was there. The linen smelled like his hair. Probably psychological.
