by Raven Steele
“How’s Faithe?”
“I haven’t seen her, but that’s not unusual. She doesn’t typically leave Korin’s room until later in the evening. Usually after he’s left.”
I frowned. “Where does he go?”
He shrugged and swiped the long hair from his eyes. “I wish I knew. He hasn’t been telling us much lately.” He hesitated before saying, “What comes next?”
“That depends on you. I plan on destroying every dirty thing Korin’s working on this city, then I will kill him.”
“I want to be a part of it.” His words were backed by strength, his gaze just as fierce.
“It will be dangerous, living a double life. If he finds out you’re not compelled anymore, he could kill you like he did Petre. Burn you alive. And you may have to do things you don’t want to do.”
“It will be worth it if we can take him down. I’m tired of seeing this coven suffer under his reign.”
I smiled, the numbness in my chest lightening. It was good to know some of my old coven would back me.
“I programmed my number into this.” He handed me my phone back. “I should go. Please keep me in the loop.”
“Thank you. I will.” I slipped the phone into my pocket.
He turned to leave, then stopped. “I hope you don’t mind, but I let Mateo know you were here.”
I hitched a breath. The thought of Mateo, the one person I used to always feel safe with, cracked through my apathy. I couldn’t add more emotions to the ones I was currently trying to bury. “I wish you wouldn’t have done that.”
“Mateo’s always been a good friend to me. He told me to watch out for you, and I swore to him I would. I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”
“I need to get out of here.”
“You will. Soon.” He said goodbye and left me alone again, leaving the lights on.
I settled back into my cell, thinking I’d be here awhile, but shortly after, Zane, the silver-eyed vampire, showed up. His black hair had been combed back, and he wore a long brown suit jacket. The planes of his face were all hard lines and angles. The cold look in his eyes wasn’t any softer. Everything about him was a sharp edge, one I didn’t want to get close to.
“How long have you worked for Korin?” I asked.
He unlocked my cell. “I don’t.”
“Did you used to work for Silas? Dominic?” Although odd for a vampire, it wasn’t unheard of. I had seen him talking with the shifters, after all.
“Wrong again.”
“Then who do you work for?”
His hand froze on the handle of the cell door. “He likes you, you know.”
“Who?”
“The one who will usher in a new dawn.”
“The Phoenix? What do you know about him, or should I say her?”
He filled the doorway with his tall and muscular body. A glazed look came over his eyes, and he licked his lips. “You are special. One day you may even be worshiped. May I touch you? Kiss you even?”
“No.”
He blinked rapidly as if he’d never heard the word. “One kiss. Before it all ends.”
“Am I free to go?” My pulse began to race. I didn’t like being cornered. It made me think of that night with Michael when things went very very wrong.
“Give me what I want.”
I stared at him, wondering what would happen if I killed him. Was he important to Korin? If so, Korin might punish Faithe for my actions. It wasn’t worth the risk. But that didn’t mean I’d give him what he wanted.
“Come here,” I said, straightening and batting my eyes.
His mouth curled upward, splitting those hard, cruel lines on his face. He moved into the cell with me and lifted his arm as if to pull my head toward him. Before he could reach me, I knocked his hand away and rammed my knee between his legs. He coughed a high-pitched sound and doubled over.
“The next time you try to touch me, I’ll remove your heart with my teeth. Tell the Phoenix the same goes for him.”
I shoved him aside and left my cell, walking with confidence, but as soon as I hit the stairway, my calm mask shattered. Too many emotions. Too much anger, sadness, and fear. I continued on, the storm raging fiercely within me. I wanted to smash the whole house down. If I released the Kiss, I could do it in mere minutes.
I sucked in a breath, counting down from ten. When I was done, I started over again, unable to let go of my rage. I would kill Korin, take out Naburus with a flick of my wrist. And while I was at it, take out Michael, too.
I had to get out of this place before I burst!
Reaching the entryway, I wished I had enough strength to go find Faithe or say goodbye to Kristina, but I couldn’t stay here another second. Not until I patched the holes in my mind and heart where the Kiss’s darkness was tunneling through.
I flung open the front door and slammed into a hard chest.
“Samira?” Mateo asked. He gripped my shoulders, his brows drawn together with concern.
“Get me out of here.” The words barely escaped my lips before he spun me around and carried me away.
Chapter 27
Leaving my vehicle behind, he opened the passenger door of his car and set me inside, then hurried to the other side. Grabbing the keys from the center console, he brought the engine to life and slammed the clutch into drive. I focused on the movements of his hands as they gripped the steering wheel, the tips of his knuckles as white as bone. My breathing hitched. Concentrate. Think of anything other than Winter’s Cove. I studied the cuff of his black dress shirt around his wrist. The second button was undone.
“Tell me what happened,” he said, glancing back and forth from the road to me.
My gaze wondered up his arm and to his chest. More buttons were undone, exposing the top of his chest. I used to run my hands over those hard muscles.
My breathing began to slow. I glanced out the side mirror. Winter’s Cove was nowhere to be seen. “I hate that place.”
He was quiet. Then, “Me too.”
“We should leave and never look back. Take Faithe. Take our friends.”
He didn’t say anything. Not like I expected him to. I settled into my seat and leaned my forehead against the cool glass of the window. “Where are we going?”
“Somewhere safe and away from prying eyes.”
I didn’t ask him to clarify. Right now I didn’t care. I should, though. I should be heading to Fire Ridge. Plotting. Planning. Figuring out a way to destroy Korin.
But I was too fragile right now. I could feel it. The mental patchwork in my mind was barely holding together. Rage, hate, anger, sadness, agony, the need to kill, to destroy all boiled beneath the surface, threatening to burst out in volcanic proportions. I had to hold it all inside, had to push it down so far that it would never come to the surface. Because if I gave into all those emotions, the Kiss would take over. And if that happened … I shivered.
If that happened, then God protect them all, because the Kiss turned all feelings into death and destruction. It would take over my life, my heart, my soul and use it to rage against the world.
I would kill Mateo, Faithe, my roommates, the innocent—the very people I tried to protect—all without guilt.
No. I had to keep it locked inside. I schooled my face into a mask of cold indifference, not blinking, not even thinking, except to contain the raging, boiling emotions inside.
As if Mateo knew how I was feeling, he didn’t press me for details. He sped through the darkened streets of Rouen, all beginning to bustle with night life. I didn’t focus on anything, just let it all whirl by, a mesh of color and sounds. My phone vibrated several times in my pocket, but I ignored it all. Occasionally, Mateo would glance at me but he remained silent.
We reached the border of the city and he continued driving. Past fields and through a forest. It was all a blur.
When the car finally stopped, I focused my eyes. We were parked on the shoulder near the tree line. He exited the car and came around to my side to help
me out. I let him guide me.
“Not much further,” he said as if I’d asked. I didn’t care where we were going, as long as I didn’t have to think or feel. Just a small break. That’s all I needed.
Mateo guided me down a small ravine and up the other side, stepping over fallen limbs and rounding bushes. Ten minutes passed. The moon was just beginning to rise above the tree line. Its full light invigorated my skin. In the distance, the sounds of a waterfall tickled my ears. My shoulders sagged; water had always soothed me.
We walked up a steep incline and stopped at the top. We stood upon the edge of a cliff overlooking a raging river. Not much further way, the great river poured from the cliff’s edge, billowing sprays of moisture in all directions. I could barely hear anything else but the thunderous downfall as it hit the rocks below.
It was like me—an endless flow of emotions pounding against the wall I built up to trap them, before they burst through and destroyed everything in their path. But the rocks below, strong and steady and unmovable, was exactly how I needed to be. I took in a deep, slow breath, attempting to contain them, the rage and anger burning inside.
I took another deep breath, and then another. I could be like the solid stone below, steadfast and immoveable.
Warm arms wrapped around my stomach and I closed my eyes, allowing Mateo to comfort me. A sliver of my anger slipped away. He smelled like the earth, like home, like warm beaches and the sun’s rays I hadn’t touched for hundreds of years. I yearned for the feel of it on my skin, soft and warm and comforting. But instead, Mateo was my sun. Or he had been in the past. I relished in it now, giving in to the temptation to just let him and me be. No thinking, no anger or heartache, just being together again, for a moment in time, like a ripple in the pond.
“Sometimes,” Mateo whispered in my ear, “I come here when I need to think.” He paused, and the silence of the forest stretched before us. His grip around me suddenly tightened, almost as if he was afraid I might fall from the cliff. “I’ve been coming here a lot lately.”
I turned to him, still barely grasping ahold of my emotions. “I appreciate your taking me here. It’s what I needed, but after this, you need to let me go.”
He raised his eyebrow, amused. “I could never let you go. You are my anima gemella, my soulmate. Sei la mia vita, you are my life. The part of me I am always looking for but can never find, not when you are far from me. Or even an arm’s length away. It is only in these small moments when you allow me to touch you that I feel whole again.” He did not know, or comprehend, the danger right before him. He trusted me, but it was a lie.
I was a lion in wait, in a cage as thin as thread. In my state right now I could easily swipe the locks away and kill him.
I swallowed hard, forcing down the emotions enough to let me speak as the chipping at my heart began again. “No. I mean, you have to let me fight my own battles. I am stronger now. I deserve this, to fight for myself.”
“I meant it when I said that without you, my life has no meaning. If you die, then I go shortly after. I cannot live sin ti.” Without you.
“Then let me take that chance. Take a chance on your anima gemella. Trust me to not only protect myself, but to protect you as well.”
He sighed, running his lips on the top of my head, and I felt the pounding of his heart in his chest. “You do not understand why I must protect you, Samira. I have seen him slowly seduce so many people into his grasp, only to break them in half the minute they are the most vulnerable.”
I turned in his arms and he pulled me closer, clasping me tight to him. His arms, so strong and steady, to the Kiss they were only brittle bone and easily sliced flesh. We were so close our faces almost touched. I swallowed hard. “Tell me, Mateo. How did I break your heart? How did you suffer so, when you were the one who chose him, and not me that fateful night so long ago.”
He closed his eyes, shutting himself off to me, but still clasped me tighter, to him. His breathing came in and out in short bursts and his eyes fluttered under his lids. And then, when he opened them, they were cold, as hard as steel.
“He knew we were to leave that night.”
I held my breath, waiting for the explanation I’d wanted for so long.
“He came to me, two minutes before I was to leave to meet you. He knew exactly what we had planned and had guards, hidden within the area, ready to take you.” He blinked, looking away, no longer allowing me to see the pain in his eyes. “Michael was there too, waiting for the order. And if I did not submit to Korin fully, to allow him to compel me, then he would let Michael imprison you, rape and beat you. For months. But that wasn’t all. Korin said he would bring you to the brink of death by torture, over and over, and then allow you to heal, only to begin it again. He called you a traitor, and that his punishment for traitors was just.”
He blinked, and a tear tracked down his face. When he looked at me again, I could see, feel, almost touch the agony inside him. “And I was not strong enough. I tried to fight him, tried to kill him, but he was stronger.”
My heart pounded, and my rage resurfaced. My insides ached until my very bones felt as brittle as twigs at the thought of them fighting. How easily Mateo could’ve died. And my armor, the very last of it surrounding my heart, melted into nothingness.
“And so I gave in,” he said. “I begged him on my hands and knees, kissing the ground below him, to allow you to go. To stay his hand at taking you.”
His tone turned vicious. “And he swore to me, swore it, that he would not kill you. That he would let you go.” He swallowed hard. “But in return, I had to serve him. I had to do whatever he asked, even if it killed me inside to do it. If I didn’t, he would threaten your life.”
Just like Faithe, Korin knew our weaknesses, and did whatever necessary, no matter how horrible, to control those who resisted.
Shame rushed over me like a tsunami. All this time, I had doubted Mateo’s love for me. Not only doubted him, but raged against him. I choked out my next words, not wanting the answer but needing to have it. “How long?” I paused and when he didn’t answer, I asked again. “How long did you serve under Korin this way?”
“Centuries. Centuries of suffering. Of killing and torturing others. And I did it because of my love for you, to keep you safe.”
My heart pounded, my stomach rolled at the thought that he had suffered for me. I took a step back, shaking my head, trying to protect him from myself. I stepped until I was at the edge of the cliff. “It can’t be.”
“Please, Samira.” He held out his hand, pleading to me. “I had no other choice, mio amore. He always knew where you were, always. That is why Michael looked for you, because Korin commanded him to do it. And he would give me reports, showing me with his knowledge how vulnerable you were. And I knew I had to continue to obey. I could not rebel, or he would do worse things than kill you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? Find some way to communicate with me?” My lips trembled, my gut squeezed at the horror.
“Why didn’t you come to me?” He caught my hand, squeezing it tight. “How could you doubt me so? Doubt my love for you? I waited for you to return, to save me from my misery, to rescue me from my fate.”
I closed my eyes, unable to face his beseeching, but I still heard it in his voice, his agony that I never came for him.
“You are my soulmate, and yet, you betrayed me when you left and did not look back.” He tapped my chest. “You broke me, my love. The only person who could do it.”
I clutched him, falling to my knees, unable to stop the torment inside. He was right. When he did not come for me that night, I only thought he had chosen Korin over me. I did not stop to think of any other option.
And yet, Korin had orchestrated it all.
Just as he had orchestrated Faithe to fall into his hands to force me to return to him. For what, I did not know. Except that in the end, I would only be a shell of myself.
I clasped at the earth, heaving, smelling the iron and minerals that
laced the soil. The pounding water below became a drum, thudding and pounding, just like my heart, at the rage still simmering inside me. I squeezed my eyes, trying to force it down.
No, no, no. Please stop.
But it raged, like a beast with long, sharp teeth and claws just as deadly, pacing back and forth inside its boney cage inside my ribs. I screamed out in short bursts, attempting to release it bit by bit, but the Kiss only hissed and coiled, wrapping its temptation around my heart, slowly squeezing it tight, tighter.
Korin deserves to die. He killed all those people who were only protecting Faithe. He tortures her. He manipulates you. He hates you. He wants to drain every drop of your blood until your empty eyes stare at a cold, cloudless sky.
“No.” I shook my head, trying to shake the Kiss’ words inside me, tempting me.
Mateo touched my shoulder; he was kneeling at my side. “Sam. I… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.”
He turned Faithe against you. He forced Mateo to do things, horrible things, unspeakable things.
“NO.” I grit my teeth together, ignoring Mateo’s gentle hand on my cheek.
He made Mateo, the love of your life, your other half, suffer! He deserves to die. You should kill him now. He doesn’t deserve to live one more second.
I pressed my head to the ground, pulling my hair between my fingers, tears streaming down my face. In hundreds of years, I had not let the Kiss get to me like this. Mateo pulled me onto his lap, surrounded me with his strong arms. I couldn’t understand what he was saying, but his voice was soothing, his hands gentle. He ran them through my hair, tugging it tenderly, his words a soft caress. I leaned my head on his shoulder, allowing him to touch me in ways I had not permitted in so long.
The hiss of the Kiss still whispered in my mind but it slowly, ever so slowly began to subside and Mateo’s words began to grow clearer. He was singing a song, the song my mother used to sing to me. I blinked my eyes at the realization of his words. I had only sung it to him once, revealed it in a moment of stillness centuries ago. And yet, he remembered it, or had learned it on his own.
