Lost Beauty (Deadly Beauties Live On)

by C. M. Owens

  “You need to learn a little patience,” Ella tells him, looking amused for reasons unbeknownst to me.

  Slade ignores her. “Who is the demon?” he demands, glaring at Gage.

  Gage still looks so lost and confused. “Her name is Hannah.” His eyes come up, meeting all of ours.

  “What do you know about her?” I ask, getting a bad feeling.

  “The world will be submerged in depravity and darkness for all eternity if she’s the one running the show. She hated immortals. We need to be looking at dimensions that could kill us all, because she wants to be the only one with power.”

  “Still a fucking crazy bitch,” Dice mutters.

  Chapter 26

  CHAZ

  Gage tells us the story of his early years, before he was an immortal. Hannah was the one who enslaved him and fed off his magic to fuel her own. And he shoved a knife into her mortal body while she slept.

  He found it too easy.

  It was too easy.

  Hannah planned her own murder so she could come back a demon. It’s the most insane, most diabolical thing I’ve ever heard.

  Dice has fully healed, he’s back to hashtag jokes, and Kya is asleep in my bed—passed out, more like it. Karma is sleeping just as hard in Dice’s bed.

  Slade is gone. Who knows where?

  “Roslyn got anything yet?” I ask Thad.

  “Yeah. It’s killing me to not be there with her, though.”

  “Kimber can use the portals. Roslyn can dematerialize and get Leah out if needed. We took his blood for a reason,” Ella says quietly, as though she’s worried who would be listening in. “Zee will be catching up with them soon. They can handle a simple scouting mission. And it’s scouting only—no heroics.”

  “I don’t understand how he got out of the underground hole. It’s something I thought only I could do,” Gage says as he drops down to the bed beside us, checking his phone for the hundredth time. “And I hate Kimber being out there without me.”

  “You guys really need to start trusting our women. Gavin will be watching for you. Not for them,” Ella groans.

  I’d be wherever Kya was, but I don’t tell her that. Instead, I point out something about what Gage has said.

  “Zee dematerialized underground when we went after his niece,” I say thoughtfully, then grimace. “I knew he was stronger than he should be, so I didn’t question it. But I should have mentioned it, considering his power came from Gavin.”

  Gage runs a hand through his hair before leaning over.

  “The stones... Hannah must have found a way to keep using them. She used them to steal power from us before we turned immortal, and she drained them. What if she’s found a way to harness immortal magic within those stones and is draining them. It’d explain how Gavin became so strong.”

  Gage’s fingers tick, and I know his mind is on Kimber. Just like Thad’s is on Roslyn. Both women are more than capable of taking care of themselves, but I understand the fear tightening in the core. They want to go to them, protect them, see them with their own eyes to know they’re safe.

  Everyone is wearing the necklace that Slade made to ward against the spell that may or may not come. It’s not that we trust him more, but Kya demanded we wear them. And she’s earned the trust of everyone else.

  She’s had my trust from early on. I just failed to show her that.

  Mom is with Alyssa and Kane, where she will remain until this is over. I can’t have two distractions. She needs to be safe so I can stop worrying about her. Despite her protests, she finally agreed it would be too distracting if she stuck around. And Alyssa needs their care. Dray is with them as well, ready to swoop in if we need him.

  He’s not going anywhere for a while.

  Frankie is also there, contacting as many people as he can to keep a metaphorical ear to the ground. I’m not so sure I liked how quickly he volunteered to leave the second he found out my mother would be there.

  As they begin talking conspiracy theories and strategies, I head up the stairs to where Kya is starting to rouse from her sleep. Leaning over, I kiss her shoulder and settle in behind her.

  She melts into my arms willingly, and I cling to her. Since Slade’s cold charade of wordlessly convincing me she was dead, there’s been a burning in my center.

  He wanted my instincts to drive me toward her. It worked, but I want to kill him for the lingering fear and panic that is still threaded into every fiber of my being. I’m terrified for her to be out of my sight for longer than a few minutes at a time now.

  Kya hasn’t been bothered by my hovering yet. Hope that means she’s just going to suck it up and deal with it.

  She rolls in my arms, and I hold her to me, running a hand down her face. I’m curious where I’m supposed to bite her when I claim her. And yeah, I’ve decided to do that. There’s no doubt that she’s it for me.

  A heart as detached and cold as mine could only be warmed to this extent by something real... something worth claiming for all eternity. And not just because the beast wants her. In fact, I’m positive I want her more than that part of me does.

  I may or may not give her an option. After all, she’ll have the rest of our immortal lives to forgive me, since we’ll forever be tied together. Right?

  I’m not even sure what that means.

  Still, I’m going to do it, consequences be damned. My instincts saved her life, and my instincts demand she become mine.

  Instead of divulging all my barbaric thoughts, we talk about simple things, never once discussing the war at hand, the unknown portal’s connection, or what will happen after the fight.

  We talk about silly things she missed out on, such as roller skating in the park, binge-watching a series only to find out it was cancelled before the conclusion was filmed, and so many other non-consequential things in life. Finally, we move on to more serious topics, the stark, undeniably heartbreaking differences in our upbringings.

  After my mother saved me from the bitch who gave birth to me, I was loved, sheltered, and cared for. Kya was humiliated, degraded, and beaten regularly within the rings. I was cold for reasons I can only assume belong to heritage. She was cold for the sake of survival.

  I grew up with dark secrets that could have cost my mother her life. Kya was brought up with dreams of freedom she never thought would come true.

  Every word out of her mouth is absorbed by me, and every tear she sheds is mine as I wipe it away and claim it, imbedding her into me more and more with each word and every shared emotion.

  “Though I’d never tell him, Slade is my family. I don’t know where his head is, but I do understand how hard it has to be for him to care about anything after what he endured,” she’s telling me.

  I don’t tell her I still want him dead.

  She goes on to tell me about various other things, straying from all things sexual with other men while in the rings. Smart girl. I still want them dead as well, irrational as it may be.

  Day fades into night again, and we’ve not moved from the bed. A tangle of naked limbs under the sheets, we continue to talk, forgetting the rest of the world exists.

  Finally, I decide to trust her with our biggest secret.

  “Alyssa is defenseless right now.”

  Her look is perplexed. “Makes sense. She’s from a powerful bloodline. Her child is going to be powerful too, so it’s draining her. The more powerful the child’s future, the more taxing on the mother it becomes until birth.”

  “We don’t want Slade to know.”

  Her eyes widen. “That’s the big secret?”

  “She can’t come to the meetings because just exerting herself to join us is becoming too much. You can see it in her tired eyes and her shaky hands. If Slade had that information—”

  “Slade has that information. I was under the assumption something much more intricate was being done behind the scenes and that was the cause for all the secrecy. Slade is no fool. He’s known your queen was pregnant, and I never told him. But
logic dictates the child would be exhausting her magic.”

  I frown, studying her face.

  “Despite what you think, Slade isn’t in the market to hunt down defenseless, pregnant women. He’s into self-preservation, anyway. His attacks are always provoked from his drive to survive. After the hell he’s been through, he wants to finally enjoy freedom. But for now, all that’s guiding him is vengeance. The same is true for many of us.”

  I draw her closer, brushing my lips over hers. So all that drama for no reason at all. I could have lost her over a not-so-secret secret that she already knew.

  “What drives you?” I ask her, twirling a lock of her soft, dark hair around my finger.

  Her eyes slant toward mine, and her bare leg rides up higher on my hip. My cock springs to life, hardening painfully at the scent of her arousal and the barest touch of her slide.

  “It isn’t the vengeance that once did.”

  “So what is it?” I ask, moving my hand up her leg and reveling in the way she shivers against my touch, pressing closer.

  “An emotion.” She releases a shaky exhale, and I lean forward, flicking my tongue across her lips.

  She parts them for me, and I take advantage, tasting every bit of her that I can, exploring her mouth with the worshipful attention her entire body deserves. My arms move around her, drawing her impossibly closer.

  She whimpers when I break the kiss, leaning my head back just enough so I can study her eyes.

  “What emotion?”

  Her eyes move to my lips then meet my gaze again. “I’m not sure yet, but for the first time in my life, I feel alive. It’s because of that emotion... because of you.”

  My lips are on hers in the next breath, and she moans into my mouth as I spin her to her back, moving between her legs.

  She’s ready for me, drenched in need as I continue to kiss her and thrust in, burying myself as deep as possible. Her fingers tangle in my hair, her legs shake against my sides, and a soft keening noise bubbles from her throat as I deliberately draw out my strokes.

  Every varying angle offers me a new form of ecstasy, and I take all she has to give. The tempo moves from agonizingly slow, to relentlessly brutal, back to the tormenting languid pace again. Every time she’s on the cusp, I pull back, denying her the release she wants... craves... needs.

  It’s as tormenting to me as it is her, but I want her clawing at my back with so much desperate need that she can’t stand the thought of me ever moving from this position again. I want her screaming my name until her throat is raw. I want everything she has. I want to own everything inside her.

  I’m the first immortal to never want to own another person... Until now. And I want her to own me just as much.

  That way when I claim her, she’ll have already been mine, and there won’t be any questions about it.

  She curses me and praises me in every breathy word. She tugs me, claws me, and gives me the preface of what I want. But I need more.

  As she writhes beneath me, I fight hard against my own orgasm, staving it off, trying not to focus on how tight each drag of my cock in her pussy is. She moans and cries out, and her attacks get more violent as her nails draw blood.

  She tries to push me down, desperate to take over, but I easily overpower her, forcing her to endure every moment of the pleasure that stays just out of her grasp.

  “Chaz,” she whispers through strain. “Please.”

  One word. One command. One plead.

  “Say you’re mine, and I’ll give you anything you want,” I tell her, my lips lazily running over hers as I move back into the painfully slow rhythm.

  “Yours,” she hisses as sweat beads on her forehead. “All yours. Anything you want.”

  My mouth takes hers harder, and my hips slam into place. She cries out, biting my lip in the process. I taste blood, but I don’t care. My thrusts grow rougher, and her nails dig in deeper, holding onto me even as the bed collapses to the ground, shattering under us as the floor groans in protest.

  The walls start to shake behind the bed, but the whole fucking house can collapse as far as I’m concerned. Her heels dig into my ass, pressing against the flexing muscles there as my strokes get more insistent, more demanding.

  When she screams out my name, red energy shoots from her body, burning a hole through the ceiling.

  Fuck it. Fuck everything.

  She’s all that matters, and her falling apart to the point of losing her control on magic is fucking beautiful.

  As she clamps around me, I flip her over, ready to own her in every possible way.

  Chapter 27

  KYA

  Chaz doesn’t let me catch my breath as the most bone-shattering orgasm in the history of all orgasms continues to make each of my muscles spasm. I feel deliciously stupid and deliriously high as he jerks my hips into the air, pressing my body at an angle as he slams into me from behind.

  It drags out the euphoric overload, the still quivering mess of nerves firing rapidly in a sensual assault against my body. I don’t even know what sounds are escaping from me when a second violent wave of ecstasy shoots through me, ripping across my body like erotic flames.

  A sharp pain strikes against the skin between my neck and shoulder, but it just tips me over a third time, driving me a little closer to madness as Chaz uses my body any way he wants to. It’s incredible.

  I never knew sex could be full of connection and purpose. Something so devastatingly beautiful that it holds me down and lifts me up at the same time.

  The sting against my shoulder grows more noticeable as Chaz’s rhythm grows unsteady, staggering his pace. He’s close. So close.

  I want him just as wild as I feel. I want him thrashing with abandon as though the world could burn and we couldn’t be bothered to care.

  His growl vibrates against my skin, against the sore spot. I try to lift my head, but when his fingers dig into my hip and his thrusts turn into steady, jerks of finality, I release a smile. Especially when he makes all the wild sounds.

  His beast and my demon make an odd pair, but it all feels so good. So right.

  He collapses on top of me, but the burn in my shoulder turns into an ache I can’t ignore any longer. But I don’t have to look to know what he did.

  He just claimed me. Whatever that means.

  Instead of acknowledging it or reacting at all, I lie under him, suspended in the afterglow of impulsive decisions and a blissful high. I almost question if he meant to when he finally speaks.

  “You’re mine,” he says softly, running his lips along my neck, still pinning me beneath him.

  A slow smile curves my lips. The bastard did it on purpose.

  Not sure why that makes me feel like a giddy idiot when we’re not even sure of the repercussions—if any—that this could have.

  He runs his hand along my body, his touch moving over the curve of my ass. Everything is perfect... until there’s an obnoxious banging on the door.

  “Get your glittery ass out here! It’s go time!” Dice calls.

  Chaz is up and stabbing his legs into his clothes in a blink, and I whirl around the room with just as much speed. I almost forgot there’s a war going on.

  Chaz grabs me at the waist as soon as the last of my leather is pulled into place, and we’re suddenly downstairs as everyone gathers. It’s a very small gathering. Sierra and Deke haven’t returned. She’s been grieving the hardest over the loss of Amy.

  I now understand that Alyssa doesn’t have the strength to carry the burden of possibly the most powerful child in the world and be present at these.

  Zee, Leah, Thad, Roslyn, Dice, Chaz, myself, Gage, Kimber, and Ella are the only ones in the room.

  “Where’s Karma?” I ask.

  “With my mother,” Ella answers, offering me a gentle smile, as though she’s accepting me.

  Chaz slides an arm around my waist, pulling me to him. Something zips between us like an electric charge, but neither of us acknowledge it.

  “Ou
r army is ready and waiting for the command,” Gage says, putting a pin on a map at the table. “Roslyn, Kimber, and Leah tracked Gavin to this place. He knows where the portal is going to be opened. Zee caught up and they watched it all day. Some of those armored beasts with no eyes showed up there a few hours ago. Gavin has been staying hidden within the shadows.”

  I notice the way Dice tenses at the mention of the Harbingers of Death. He got a taste of what they’re capable of. I won’t be able to skin them alive without joining Karma, and we can’t do that. Hell, I don’t even know how we did that.

  But she’s pregnant, and the risks are too grave of hurting the baby.

  “They’re tough. They withstood the power Slade hit them with,” Chaz says, speaking of the eyeless monsters.

  “That they are,” Slade says, appearing as though he knew this meeting was called.

  His gaze meets mine.

  “Don’t get any ideas. You’re not as strong on your own,” he adds.

  “I’m aware,” I tell him.

  “Your people ready?” Gage asks him. I wonder if he’s the one who called him.

  “Yes.” He says it with a malicious smirk as his eyes flash silver.

  This is what we’ve been waiting for. This is all we’ve trained for. It ends tonight.

  “You’re sure this is going to happen tonight?” Thad asks, looking to Roslyn.

  “There was no ground-shattering earthquake of warning this time, but Alyssa feels stronger and so does Karma. That means they’re human already—ironically enough. They’re the only ones not wearing these,” she answers, holding up the talisman Slade made for everyone.

  I’m sure it’s a slip that Roslyn says that in front of Slade, given what Chaz told me about them not knowing he’s smart enough to have already figured it out.

  “We duplicated the magic, and our army is wearing the same thing,” Gage tells Slade, who doesn’t seem to care.

  He’s brooding, hating every second of this alliance, and staying far out of the circle to make a show of that fact. I still feel bad about not being at his side, but I can’t force myself to choose him over Chaz.