Rax slammed to a halt. Very slowly he turned to me. “Who are you talking to?” His voice wasn’t his. It was deathly quiet, a hint of something ‘animal’ growling in the background as though two voices conversed as one.
I stepped back, the blood in my veins turning to sludge when I gawped at Rax. His teeth were descended, but by now I was used to them. What I wasn’t acquainted with was the way his hands grew before my eyes into thin long claws. His strong, gruff chin rippled until his skin appeared to crack and the bone stretched into a mammoth jaw of gleaming white teeth. His chest, although already bulging, spread to an abnormal swell, his shirt stretching and ripping over the great muscles suddenly developing on him.
I shook my head, my eyes wide and shocked as the enormous monster from the dream once again showed itself. Yet this time it was real, very fucking real, its hot breath making me blink rapidly when it hit me in the face.
The monster’s lip curled and his head tipped to the side, a sinister twinkle glaring from behind Rax’s usual brown eyes. My heart stopped beating, the organ also taking the time to stop and stare in horror.
“Who – are – you –talking – to, Seraph?” It snarled, causing my breath to leave me in one single gush.
“She’s talking to me, you hideous rubber dick!” Delilah jeered from behind me.
I spun around, shaking my head at her as she stupidly attempted to gain his attention away from me, but she stepped in front of me, pushing me back.
“You got a problem, you ugly fuck, then you come to me!” she spat. “Not her! Never her!”
It roared with such malevolence that every bone in my body turned to jelly. My legs gave way and I toppled to the floor. The monster’s eyes came my way and it took a step towards me. Delilah snapped her whip and jumped in front of me, tempting the beast.
“One more step, King Kong, and I’m going to show you just how cosy you can get with my whip.”
The monster sniffed, his eyes closing when he caught a scent … most probably mine. But then he shivered, released a howl of agony and turned and ran, his huge body bursting through the door and tearing it from its hinges before he disappeared.
“Chicken!” Delilah shouted after it before she turned back to me.
Dipping to her haunches, she wrapped her arms around me and helped me up. “You’re okay, Willa.”
I nodded, my eyes still on the broken doorway. “I don’t understand.”
“He didn’t want you to understand,” Delilah said angrily.
“What?” I stared at her in confusion, “He didn’t want me to understand what?”
“That I’m having his baby,” Tabitha piped up behind me.
I heard a range of growls as the ground seemed to sway beneath me and slowly I turned to her rancid grin. My stomach was trying to escape through my throat and I had to fist my hands to try and keep it in.
She sneered at me, a look on her face that I so desperately wanted to wipe off – with a flamethrower. “What did you say?”
She preened herself before me, a scoff of delight coming from her. “I said,” she repeated slowly, accentuating every fucking syllable. “Rax and I are expecting a child.” She stepped towards me, the evil in her sweeping over me and making me shiver. “He’s my mate, halfbreed. Why you ever thought he was yours is the funniest shit I’ve heard in years.” Then she scrunched up her nose as if talking to a child. “Aww sorry, honey.”
“Go home,” Jaron grumbled at Tabitha as he came to stand beside me. “Just fuck off, Tabitha.”
Dexter was reeling off some pretty cruel descriptive words Tabitha’s way. Delilah stepped up to the bitch, pushing her back with a fierce prod of her finger. Zak was mute but his angry glare said everything he needed to.
I stood mute and still, my mind repeating her exposé, every – damn – word. Over and over.
“I’m having his baby.”
“He’s my mate, halfbreed.”
“I’m having his baby.”
“I’m having his baby.”
The air around me appeared to be vibrating, a rich hum pushing through my skull and making me wince.
“Willa,” Rax’s strangled voice whispered in my head. “Willa, stop!”
My stare was on Tabitha as she disregarded my friends, checking her fingernails and blatantly ignoring their heated words as if they weren’t worthy of her attention.
The fucking bitch!
“Rax and I are expecting a child.”
I dropped my eyes to the floor, my focus zeroing in on particles of stone as they danced along the floor, bouncing high as if the ground jumped beneath them.
“Willa!”
Warmth seeped into my bones, making my whole body relax as my head rolled around my shoulders and my eyes closed to the frantic argument going on around me.
“Why you ever thought he was yours is the funniest shit I’ve heard in years.”
I could feel the rush of blood through my veins as if it carried my consciousness around with it. Every smell licked across my senses, every sound tickling the tiny hairs in my ears.
“WILLA!”
I’d never felt so relaxed in my whole life. My heart beat completely stilled as my brain liquefied all the thoughts in my head.
“YOU’RE KILLING THEM!”
My head tipped back, my arms involuntarily rising into the air as my lips parted and bliss curled deep into my lazy bones. A high pitched sound reverberated around my head, seeping in through my ears as it bounced off every lobe of my brain. My mind echoed it, the purest note lifting from my lungs as I allowed it to tear up from the depths of my soul.
And then it was all whipped away from me as I was propelled through the air by a force that crashed into me from the side. I was enveloped by a monstrous wall of flesh before everything slammed to a halt, my body jerking as it came to an abrupt stop.
A mixture of gaps, wheezes and groans filled the air as I opened my eyes. I gasped when I was met with Rax’s eyes, misery pouring from him as his monster held me tightly but lovingly in its arms.
It stared down at me, a drop of water glistening in the corner of its eye. Slowly, and so gently, one of its nails trailed across my cheek. “You’re extraordinarily beautiful,” its gruff voice whispered. Then the drop of water that was sat in its eye rolled down its cheek, freedom granted. “Mine,” it then breathed before its head fell back and the most torturous sound I had ever heard broke from it, making my soul fall to its knees in a debilitating sorrow.
It then released me, its face furrowed in pain before it whimpered and then limped away, back through the hole it had produced in the door.
“What the fuck?”
I snapped my head round to the sound of Tabitha. She was gawping at me, her hand around her throat as if she was trying to breathe. “You’re fucking crazy!” she choked out, “You nearly killed us!”
I frowned, looking at my friends when Tabitha stormed off. Delilah stepped up to me hesitantly, as if frightened, her hand outstretched before her. “Let’s get you home.”
“What happened?”
Dexter, Jaron and Zak gave me pitying looks, and I swallowed at the uneasy feeling in my gut.
“Come on,” Delilah urged as she pulled me against her chest as a hatch opened up to the left of us. She turned to Dexter and smiled gratefully. “Thanks, Dex.”
“Take care of her, huh?” Jaron whispered.
“Always,” Delilah answered before we stepped beyond the warbled air and into my room.
Feeling exhausted, unsure as to why I was, and struggling to keep my eyes open, Delilah pulled back my duvet and settled me onto my bed before pulling off my shoes and jeans.
“Delilah,” I whispered when she switched off the light and was about to unite with me. She looked up at me from her place beside me but remained quiet. “What did I do?”
I was almost too afraid to ask but I needed to know. According to Tabitha I had nearly killed my friends and I needed to know if I was a threat to them.
D
elilah inhaled loudly then slowly blew it out. Her fingers softly swept my hair to one side and she smiled adoringly. “You didn’t do anything, my darling,” she whispered.
I frowned at her. But then she finished her sentence.
“It was your demon that did.”
Without waiting for my questions, she merged back into me, leaving me stunned in the darkness of both my room and my head.
“Grub’s up!” Lincoln shouted from the main area of our apartment. “Willa?” His voice grew nearer as he came to find me.
Quickly I flicked my smoke over the railings of my small balcony and emptied my lungs with a swift hefty blow, wafting my hand in front of my face to dispel the smoke quicker.
Turning back into the room, I shuffled to a stop when I met Linc standing with one of his blond eyebrows elevated and his lips twisted, his tongue clicking away like one of those pendulum thingies. Clearing my throat, I grinned at him and walked out of the room before he had a chance to lecture me on my new habit.
It had been three days since I’d returned from Gehenna. Neither Rax nor Delilah had made an appearance, and neither of them had linked with me. I was starting to worry about Rax, even if I did want to watch Delilah play ping pong with his balls. He’d snapped me out of … whatever the hell had happened, and then he’d limped away. I was worried he was hurt. And then I was angry that I was worried. I hoped his dick shrivelled up and fell off.
Confused wasn’t in it. My brain was fried, my heart was torn in two, and my soul – if I actually had one – had decided existing wasn’t worth it. I just felt empty.
“There’s a package there for you.” Lincoln pointed to a square box on the counter with a large spoon before he dished some yummy looking stuff into two bowls and slid one over to me when I perched on a stool at the bar.
I’d told Lincoln everything that had happened over the past week. He was angry with Rax and hurt for me but he wasn’t surprised. Yet he’d been the brother I knew he was. He’d stepped up to the mark with ice-cream, movies and lots of hugs. And I couldn’t love him more than I did for it.
“When are you actually planning on going to see your parents?” he mumbled around a mouth full of the delicious beef casserole he’d rustled up.
“You know, I’m thinking of getting a hound. You think he’d be okay in here?” I looked around the room, considering the size of a hound and the size of our apartment.
“Don’t, Willa.”
I sighed and nodded slowly, giving him one last pout to see if he’d back down. Yeah, not a chance. “I’ll go in the morning, I promise.”
He eyed me sceptically. “They’re worried about you.”
“Fine!” I lifted my hands up in surrender. “I’ll go after supper. How’s that?”
“Better.” He gave me one of his smiles that made me love him even more. I noticed how pale he was and my stomach sank.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m good.” He brushed me off quickly. I knew he didn’t want to talk about it but we needed to, yet every time I brought the subject up he would hastily change it and for some bizarre reason we’d end up on a topic of his choice. Lincoln was very manipulative. That was why he made such a good hunter, directing his prey without them even realising.
“Lincoln.”
He grumbled something at me then slid off his stool and shovelled his food into the bin. “Let me know when you’re back from visiting your parents.”
I gave him a small nod and watched his back when he walked away, the slump of his shoulders telling me exactly how he felt.
The beef casserole suddenly didn’t taste so great. I pushed my plate aside, slid off my stool and dragged my reluctant body through the halls to my parents’ suite.
My mother gave out her custom choked sobbing noise when I tapped on their door and popped my head in. I always knocked; I had done since I was eighteen and walked in on my mother doing something unusual with my father’s … yeah, you get my drift.
“Willa!” She burst out of her chair, nearly tripping over the bottom of her dressing gown to get to me, and huddled me into a tight hug. “We’ve been so worried.”
“I know,” I whispered in her ear. “I’m sorry.” And I genuinely was. I hated to see her upset, but I hated to disappoint my father even more.
He sighed and grumbled something but also pulled me into a suffocating hold. “We’re four corridors away and we don’t see you for days,” he drawled. “Your mother has been out of her mind.”
He meandered over to the small drinks cabinet and proceeded to fix me a cranberry Bud in a tall glass, bless him. Handing it to me, he settled himself into the armchair he always occupied and slid his thinly wired glasses up his nose so he could study me.
I took a hefty swallow of my drink when my father inhaled deeply. His eyes narrowed and I watched in horror when he tipped his head slightly at the scent he pulled in. His eyes then widened and he gave me the killer glare that always saw me cowering. “You’ve been smoking!”
I shook my head slowly from side to side but when his glare grew fiercer I started to nod. “It’s just …”
“It’s just flipping unhealthy!” he barked, my body twitching like a chastised four-year-old.
“Well it’s not like I’m going to bloody die from it, is it?” I cringed at my tone, lowering my eyes and biting my lip as I waited for him to explode.
“Willa,” my mother whispered as she plonked down beside me on the couch. Taking my hand into hers, I noticed her tremble … and how icy cold her grip was.
The room seemed to rush at me like I was on a rollercoaster, everything blurring in my vision as my heartrate ramped up to unparalleled levels.
Seeing my reaction, she cursed quietly and dropped my hand.
“No!” My voice sounded nothing like I’d intended. It was meant to be shouted, screamed, but it came out a choked whisper.
My father closed his eyes and then dropped to the floor on his knees and shuffled across the carpet to us. I’d never seen him so unrestricted and human. He always prided himself in his controlled composure; never once had I seen him react to anything, even when his realm were deep in battle, yet as he crawled towards us, tears streaming down his face, I couldn’t cope. I couldn’t witness this strong man so … so damn distraught. I couldn’t breathe when the people I loved were dying like cattle at the slaughter house.
“WHY?” I screamed as I shot up. “Why is he doing this to us?”
“Willa, please.” My mother grabbed my hands and tried to pull me back down. “It’s okay.”
It wasn’t okay. It wasn’t okay to see my resilient and dangerous father weep into the lap of the woman he loved, the woman he was going to lose to the damn virus his master had created, just to slay his own family.
The air in the room seemed to ripple, both heat and an icy breeze radiating around us. I gritted my teeth, attempting to stop the rage that was desperately trying to free itself from inside me.
“It’s not okay!” I cried. “Why does everyone keep saying that?”
I wanted to rip God’s heart from his chest and crush it beneath my fists. I wanted to choke all life out of him for doing this to me, to us. What was so special about me that he would do this? Kill his own people with a filthy fucking virus just to slaughter me.
My chest heaved as I struggled to pull in regular breaths, my lungs aching with the frequent but small amounts of oxygen they managed to pull in.
The lights in the room were going crazy, the fire that had been flickering in the fireplace now a heaving roar of orange and blue flames. A hum rattled my skull and my fists clenched by my sides.
“Willa!” my mother shouted, her voice muted and eerie in my ears. “Stop it!”
I couldn’t control it, it was tearing at my skin, searing at my flesh for freedom, my teeth rattling and the incessant hum in my head growing louder with each passing second.
“WILLA!”
My head tilted back and my arms started to lift high. It was hap
pening again – and I couldn’t stop it.
Panic set in as I fought with whatever was trying to tear from me, my mother’s screams and my father’s pleading fighting with my soul to overpower the demon. But I couldn’t hold it, it was too strong.
“STOP!”
I gasped, my lungs filling rapidly. My body sagged in relief as everything slammed to a sudden halt. The air in the room shifted back to normal and the hum in my head ceased as though it had never been there in the first place.
Opening my eyes to look for the owner of the unfamiliar female voice that had, evidently, managed to stop the demon from making an appearance, I stilled when the most stunning woman stood in front of me, shielding my parents from my fury. She was around my height and she had curves I was envious of. Her hair was a stunning golden blonde as it fell down her shoulders and came to a stop at her thighs. But it was her striking blue eyes that locked me in her beauty, her long lashes sweeping across her perfectly contoured cheekbones as she slowly blinked.
“Hello, Willa,” she whispered, her voice like liquid gold that seeped inside me and made me feel good, my body sighing as it relaxed.
I blinked, looking around. Something wasn’t right but it wasn’t until my gaze hit my parents that I realised exactly what was wrong. Nothing moved. Even the air was still.
“Are they okay?” I whispered, even though I somehow knew they were.
She smiled softly and nodded. “They’re fine.”
Everything was frozen, as if time had just … stopped. My father’s tears were unmoving down his cheeks, his hand reaching up towards me as if he had been trying to grab me. My mother was staring wide-eyed my way, her mouth a perfect ‘O’ but her hands clamped at either side of her head and covering her ears.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly, lowering my eyes in guilt. “I couldn’t control it. I was angry.”
“I know.” She smiled and then gestured to the couch for me to sit.
It was a bit weird sitting beside my frozen parents but I shifted my attention to the woman, trying to ignore the horrified expressions on my mother and father’s faces.
Crave (Tainted Angels Book 1) Page 14
