by Ivy Carter
He is so much stronger than I am. I feel like this shouldn’t be, like it is wrong somehow. It must be that soul blade thing… what is it doing to me back in the living realm? I feel so weak when I know that I am strong, stronger even than this mountain of a man.
I look up as I struggle to see the nasty bigots that wanted to kill me smiling even wider. At the same time, I notice that the ones that tried to remain indifferent don’t seem to like that the master of their realm is manhandling me. Something to file for later after I hand this fucker his ass.
“LET ME GO!” I scream as a blast of jade power comes out of the hand that is currently pushing against his shoulder. As he stumbles back, his eyes start to glow an ugly greenish color, like a mixture of grey, brown, and green.
As he catches himself from falling, his hand jerks out and latches onto my wrist. I feel myself weakening as soon as his skin touches mine. He is syphoning my energy. The demented little leach!
“My name is Alexander, little girl, and you will learn to fear me. If I hadn’t smelled my own blood inside your womb I would kill you outright. I don’t know how you ended up carrying my child when my chosen bride is Selene Lillyweather. But it doesn’t matter for now. What does matter is that I have you now. We are going to my home in the Black Hills where I can keep you locked up until you pop out the heir your mother has promised me.
“My mother?” I gasp out, trying to stay awake.
“Yes, girl. Your mother. Didn’t you know? We struck up a bargain of sorts. She made it possible for me to get a whelp on a girl of my choosing and in return I would stand by her with my Shadow Knights when she faces down your father.” He laughs when my eyes widen.
The war. We were all so wrong. The darkness that is invading our people isn’t coming from my father. It is being fed to them by my mother. She is the cause of all this death and grief.
I scream out and jerk as the memories suddenly flash through my mind like a tidal wave. It feels like I caught a bolt of lightning with my head. The last thing I think of just before I faint from the pain is that I am going to rip my mother apart for using and lying to me, Goddess or not.
Chapter 4.
Jessa.
Sebastian holds me tightly as I finish feeding from him. Able to feel my strength coming back, I can’t help but notice that I still feel curiously empty. I search inside myself and try to find out why.
Then I realize that my gift is gone. GONE! I wiggle and break free from Sebastian as he releases me to my feet. Once I am standing, I shake my hands and snap my fingers willing flames to ignite, the flames that have been living deep within me since I first discovered my gift. Tears start to warm my cheeks as the blood that I just ingested starts to stream down my face.
“Dove?” Sebastian asks tentatively.
“I can’t do it. I can’t call my fire to me. It is just gone. What did he do to me?” I basically scream at him.
“I am assuming that he drained the magic that fuels your gift when he performed the spell to save Selene. You still have your gift, my love. It just needs time to rebuild itself. No one can truly take it from you. Okay?”
He approaches me tentatively as if he is approaching an angry animal. I nod my head just before I throw myself into his arms. He wraps me up tightly, kissing the top of my head. I rest my head on his chest and just breathe him in.
He is my home, my rock, my everything. I am so lucky that he puts up with my mood swings. I am so erratic. Everything in me is always in flux, it’s like an insane fucking roller-coaster ride. One that sometimes I want to get off. I have always been this way. All highs and lows.
“I wouldn’t change a thing about you, Jessa. You know that.” Sebastian whispers into my ear.
I am his home as much as he is mine. He was alone for so long, then he lost most of his chosen family when they tortured me. He trusted them and he was betrayed.
Now we cling to each other. Sometimes more than what is normal. But isn’t that what being loved is about? Always having someone to cling to, to talk to about anything, to always have arms to hold you when your world goes to shit?
Sebastian starts to kiss his way down my neck. His lips are whisper soft as they make their way down to my clavicle. I moan as I run my fingers through his hair to pull his head closer to my neck.
I want him to feed. It is instinctive, wanting my mate to feed from me. He rubs his fangs back and forth across my carotid artery, making me moan with impatience. I pull his hair sharply in warning to stop his teasing. When he finally does sink his fangs deep within my skin, it feels as if my world has stopped.
Sebastian takes off at vampire speed up the stairs to our room. I feel the mattress depress under our combined weight as we fall onto the bed.
I grab at his shirt, trying to get to the skin of his back. I want to sink my nails deep as he drinks. Deciding that I don’t have the patience to tell him to remove it, I just rip the material out of my way.
He groans as my nails score a trail down his back. He rips his fangs free of my neck, then starts to undress himself in earnest. I am so captivated by the sight of this man and his magnificent body, all I can do is stare and try not to drool.
“My Dove, you are wearing entirely too many clothes.” He grunts out as he slices through the front of my shirt and bra with his razor-sharp claws.
I suck in a breath when his claws scratch my skin on their path downward, drawing blood. I soon feel Sebastian’s moist tongue working its way up my stomach, following the bloody trail that his claws left behind. With his right hand, he grabs my hair, pulling my neck to the side. Then he sinks his fangs in deep, causing me to gasp out in surprise at the sensation. With his free hand, he roughly frees me of my leather pants and panties. I am left wearing nothing but my stiletto heels.
I part my thighs so that he can fit between them. There has never been anything better in the world than Sebastian between my thighs while he continues to feed. He sinks deeply within me so that we are as connected as we could possibly be.
Feeling completely processed by him, he starts to move in a dance that is as beautiful as the love between us. This causes me to moan and babble incoherently. Soon my body follows his lead as I meet him thrust for thrust. I run my hands over his body, trying to pull him impossibly closer.
His sweat-slickened skin slides against mine. I sink the heels of my stilettos into his ass, causing him to groan and curse. In response, his speed picks up, taking us both over the edge into oblivion.
There is nothing that compares to this, lying entwined with the man that I will spend eternity with. Smelling him on myself, knowing that I have caused him to lose the rigid control that he is constantly holding onto so fiercely.
Sebastian is playing with my hair as we are both still trying to catch our breath. I turn and crawl onto his chest, propping my chin up with my hand. I am about to open my mouth to tell him how amazing he is when there is a loud roar from the next floor up.
“Sebastian?” I ask him, opening my eyes wide. That sounded like Tristan. “Ella?” My voice is quivering.
Sebastian throws me across the bed away from him. He rushes around the room in a literal blur, throwing on clothes. I jump up just as quickly, slipping into a robe that’s lying at the bottom of the bed.
Then I am following him out the door and up the set of stairs that lead to the third floor. Sebastian rushes into the room that Ella has been using as her own, but I pause outside the door. I am afraid of what I might find inside.
“No, you are not taking her!” I hear Tristan roar once more as I finally make my way into the bedroom. Sebastian has stopped just inside the door, taking in the scene playing out in front of him. There is a very large man that looks to be in his mid-thirties with long hair and a massively scarred face.
“Alexander, what in the seven hells are you doing here?” Sebastian growls out.
“Why, I am here for my new bride’s body. I already have her soul locked away.”
He laughs as Tristan lunges fo
r him. Sebastian pulls him back at the last moment.
“What do you mean you have Ella’s soul?” I gasp out, trying to understand what is going on. And trying to figure out who in the fuck this guy is.
He is staring at her body, no… he is staring at her stomach looking so possessive that I gasp when I realize what must be going on.
“You are the child’s father?” I whisper out uncertainly.
Sebastian and Tristan both turn to me with confused looks on their faces. I just shrug, not knowing what to tell them. The man is staring at Ella’s stomach like it is a porterhouse. Sebastian’s face starts to harden as Tristan again tries to lunge for the stranger.
“Who the fuck is this fruit loop and when can we get rid of him so we can get our own shit sorted?” I blurt out, getting tired of the manly dick swinging contest that seems to be going on around the room. The testosterone in the room is so thick I think I am sprouting hair on my nipples here.
Sebastian coughs out a laugh and I realize I must have said the last bit out loud for all to hear. Everyone is staring at me like I am a bit crazy but that isn’t anything new. I just smile at my mate and lift an eyebrow.
“I made a deal and I am here to collect on the debt the Goddess Hekate owes me. She promised me an heir and a wife and I plan on taking what is mine.”
Tristan’s face has turned a deathly grey at this revelation. If Ella’s mother is behind the pregnancy and this crazy-ass deal with the idiot standing in front of us, then what else has she been up to?
I go still as I realize that I know who the woman’s voice belonged to during my time with Sebastian’s old nest. The Bitch that told me she needed me to suffer for her plans to come into fruition. I feel my hands start to shake and sparks start to shoot from my fingertips.
“She was there, she was there and she left me there in that hell so she could have another opportunity to get Ella to kill someone. So she could control her, or at least influence her actions. That bitch used me.” I whisper out as my body starts to shake hard. I feel warm hands holding me by the shoulders and I realize that everyone in the room is looking at me. Watching me as I unravel one piece at a time.
I can feel them touching me. I can hear their laughter while I scream as they violate me in the most violent of ways.
“No. No. No. No.” I gasp out, shaking my head from side to side.
Tristan is staring at me with pity in his eyes. I don’t want to be pitied. I want to kill the bitch that orchestrated the whole fucked up situation. I want to fry her with my gift until there is nothing more than ashes smoldering on the floor.
Breathing hard, I look up at Sebastian and read the answers and even more questions in his wet eyes. My pain has overwhelmed him. He thinks that he has failed me once again. But he couldn’t be further from the truth.
He is the person that literally holds me together. Without him and his love, I would shatter into nothingness and stay hiding within the shadows for the rest of my days. He is my light and my reason for wanting to experience life.
“Sebastian?” I say his name with so much love that he must know that I don’t blame him for anything. Nothing that happened is his fault.
“Look, I don’t know what the hell is going on here, but I am taking what is mine, what was promised to me,” the new guy, Alexander, points out.
We all turn to look at him as he makes a move toward Ella. I put my palm up pointing in his direction and shoot black flames toward his face. Well, that was new.
“Fucking bitch!” He screams as he tries to pat out the flames that are licking at his nasty-ass hair.
“You will speak to my mate with the respect that she is due or you will die where you stand, Shadow Lord.” Sebastian seethes through his gritted teeth.
Alexander is opening his mouth to respond when Tristan suddenly gets on his feet. His face is no longer ashen or tired looking as it has been since Ella was stabbed. He looks fierce as his eyes transform into bottomless pools of black. His body starts to expand, muscles flexing and building upon themselves. There are waves of black shadows swirling around him on an invisible wind.
“You will not take what is mine.” His voice echoes out like a tsunami. It is so strong that it drops me to my knees. The aura of raw, dark power now wrapped almost lovingly around him is as awe inspiring as he is terrifying. I look to where Sebastian is kneeling beside me. He is trying to push himself upward, fighting the instinct to cringe in the face of whatever Tristan has transformed into.
Jaxx skids into the room and almost crashes down on top of me as he is hit by the mass of power that’s swirling around the room.
“Death.” He shudders out. “How could I not know that he was Death himself?” He whispers this almost as if he is talking to himself. I have no idea what he is talking about so I just ignore him. Instead, I reach for Sebastian so I have something solid to hold onto as Tristan loses his shit.
Sebastian pulls me toward him and wraps me up tightly as if to try to shield me from what is going on in the room.
Alexander is standing stock still, observing as Tristan transforms into his true form. Then he starts to laugh.
“Of course, Fate, the wicked bitch that she is, would pair the Celios with such a dark lineage as Death himself.” He gives a huge belly laugh as if this is some giant practical joke. I just huddle closer to Sebastian, hoping like hell that we all don’t get blown to hell when the fucktard finally makes his move to steal what Tristan sees as his.
Jaxx jumps up, pushing me off my knees and onto my side. He takes a running leap and tackles Tristan from the side. They land hard, shaking whole wall as they do.
Alexander, seeing his chance, reaches out through the blue web of magic that’s surrounding Ella and grasps her ankle. Before any of us can do more than take a shocked breath, she is gone. Just poof. They were both there one second and gone the next.
“No.” I whisper, feeling such desolation that I just want to crawl into a corner and cry. She can’t be gone. She just can’t be… I shove myself out from under a surprised Sebastian and force my shaking limbs upright.
“Jaxx? Why would you do that? Why would you want him to take her?” I scream at him. He is now lying on the floor, fighting for breath. He doesn’t get a chance to answer the question though because Tristan is well and truly losing his shit. Sebastian pulls my back to his chest and quickly turns to block me from the damage that Tristan’s outrage is causing.
His roar of dismay is as heartbreaking as it is frightening. Before Sebastian can turn me completely around, I see massive black wings stretch out behind Tristan. They are taking up half the room and they aren’t even fully outstretched.
He holds a sword in his hand that looks like it is made of black flame. It seems our Tristan is way more than he ever let on. I am shaking so hard, not from fear of Tristan, but out of fear that Sebastian and I might get caught in the crossfire and die before Death even realizes that we are still in the room with him.
A shockwave of power suddenly knocks Sebastian and I forward. I feel my nose crunch as I fall face-first onto the wood floor of the hallway. Sebastian lands on my back, groaning as if he is pain.
I know something horrible must be wrong because Sebastian doesn’t usually make a sound when he is in pain. I wiggle until I can get out from underneath him, trying not to jostle him too much. But it doesn’t work because he groans out a couple of more curses before I can pull myself completely free.
When I can move into a kneeling position, I notice that half of the upper cabin is just… gone. It looks like part of the cabin has been blown outward by a major explosion. Shards of wood from the debris are sticking out of Sebastian’s back and thighs.
He is bleeding freely, so I need to act now. I reach forward, telling him that I am sorry, and quickly and as carefully as I can I remove the shards of wood from his back and limbs. By the time I am done, I am covered in blood and Sebastian has passed out from blood loss. He is going to need to feed, a lot more than I can offer, when
he wakes up from his nap.
I turn around and look at the damage, staring blindly out at the destruction. That is when I realize that Jaxx is nowhere in sight. I run to the edge of the gaping hole where a wall used to stand and look around the ground below. He isn’t there either. I sniff the air, trying to use my extra senses to pick up his scent, but all I get is a hint of his magic in the air.
He most likely transported himself out before all hell was finally released. I wish I would have thought to do that, or at least thought to tell Sebastian to get us the fuck out. Maybe then he wouldn’t be passed out cold on the floor and I wouldn’t be here alone, wondering what the fuck I am supposed to do next.
I sink to my knees beside Sebastian’s form and start to sob. Feeling sorry for myself really isn’t my thing but with everything that has happened in the last twenty-four hours, I am going to let myself get this shit out. If I don’t, then I might explode and kill someone when my anger gets the best of me again.
A sudden wailing has my head jerking up. Sebastian had told me about that sound when he was explaining about the different beings that exist in this new world that I find myself living in. A Wraith has shown up to feed on the devastation.
Chapter 5.
Jessa
Sebastian grabs my hand and we fly down the stairs to where the wailing is coming from. We stop on the second floor, surprised to find that the sound is coming from our room. Sebastian starts to drag me down toward the second floor and that is when I smell it.
I have smelled that scent from the time I was ten years old. I used to wear a large hoodie when it was cold that smelled just like that when I was still human. I have cuddled into that sweatshirt when my family disappointed me by never being around. Jerking my hand out of Sebastian’s grasp causes him to turn around and snarl, thinking that I was being pulled away from him by something besides my own will.
