The Ties That Bind (An Ariel Kimber Novel Book 4)

by Mary Martel

  It wasn't exactly nice to pick out the differences between us and feel good about myself for them, I knew this but couldn't seem to stop myself from doing it.

  She was barely dressed in some skimpy black nighty and I decided to ignore that and the implications since she had been the one to call Ty for this meeting and had had all the time she needed to get dressed beforehand and I decided to focus on her face.

  I screwed my lips up tight to make sure I didn't accidentally make any noise as my eyes finally looked over her face for the first time. I had been avoiding it until then because I wasn't so sure I wanted to get an up close and personal view of the damage Quinton and Julian had caused her.

  I shouldn't have worried.

  She had the ruined half of her face covered with a mask that was entirely black and only had a hole for her to see through on it. It even covered up half of her mouth, hiding her ruined smile from view.

  I wasn't sure if I was relieved or disappointed she'd hidden the ruined part of her away. I had seen it before in the mirror but up close and personal was a different experience all together. We both had scars on our faces now, the only differences were mine didn't cover half of mine and it hadn't been caused by one of my fellow witches.

  "Come inside and we'll talk," she rasped as she took hold of his hand and pulled on his arm.

  I cringed and was happy no one could see me because I was sure my face had a seriously unfriendly look on it. I didn't like her putting her hands on him anywhere, even if it was only to touch his hand. She'd long since lost the privilege of touching him or any of them, for that matter.

  Tyson followed behind her silently as I moved around the room, taking everything in. The first room was much like a sitting room with a fancy looking couch and chair across from it. There was a table in front of the couch and a silver tea set on a tray on top of it. There were two cups instead of just one that let me know she'd been entertaining a guest. I stuck my finger in one of the cups and the tea was still warm, not hot but warm, and I knew she'd had that guest recently.

  The hair on the back of my neck rose as a shiver raced down my spine. Something was off here, more than what we knew to already be off.

  I left the sitting room, walked through the only doorway outside of the door that lead to the front porch and stepped into a bedroom.

  Now this was certainly not where I wanted to be, or where I wanted Tyson to be with that dreadful woman.

  The walls were painted a deep, rich green. The carpet was gray. The bed frame was a dark, cherry wood and Queen sized. The bed was covered with a green comforter and gold colored pillows and it was all mused up like someone had been sleeping in it... or doing other things in there. Whichever the case I didn't want to know.

  Annabell was seated on the side of the bed with Ty standing in front of her, his hand still held inside hers.

  This did not look good at all.

  I thought she was interested in Damien now, not Tyson.

  What was going on?

  "Please," she murmured in her raspy voice and my eyebrows shot up and I wondered what it was I had missed while I'd been snooping around in the other room.

  Tyson laughed as he tore his hand out of hers. His laughter was loud and not his usual laugh but more of a mocking one.

  "I'd rather cut off my dick than have it go anywhere near you ever again," he said while still laughing at her.

  She sat forward on the bed and her face, what I could see of it, pinched angrily.

  "There's no need to be crude, Tyson," she snapped at him, and I was happy to note the sexy rasp was gone.

  Huh, I wondered if she'd been faking that this whole time and if she did it often when she was trying to get her way with a man.

  Probably. She seemed the type to fake most things.

  "Like you hitting me up for sex hadn't been a crude way to start things out here?" He asked her, and my middle moved back, like someone had struck me.

  The invisible blow was not one I had been expecting. If she'd called him only to see if she could get him to sleep with her then I was going to be pissed. How outrageous. She really did think she was so great that she could simply waltz back into his life and get whatever she wanted out of him. She probably thought she could do the same thing with Damien and Julian.

  Tyson gestured towards the bed then back to Annabell and her skimpy attire. "Especially when it looks like you've already been entertaining someone else tonight."

  Oh, gag. She'd had sex with someone in that bed earlier tonight and now she wanted Tyson to crawl in there with her and get it on.

  She laughed, high and delightful.

  "Please," she said and the half of her face I could see curled up in a catty smile. "Like you really have a problem with that. All you boys share so nicely. Don't you do that with your precious little Ariel? I heard you're all mad with lust where she's concerned, and I bet you take turns in her bed just fine."

  I wanted to smack that smug look right off of her face because she made my skin crawl talking about me like that, like I was a piece of meat that they just passed around between them when the mood struck them. I did not appreciate it all.

  Tyson didn't seem to like it any more than I had.

  "You stupid bitch," he leaned forward and snarled at her. "Don't talk about her like that, she's nothing like you are and is a whole lot more than the whore you're treated like."

  "Now you're just being mean," she pouted at him.

  That bad feeling came back to me and I looked around the room, looking for what I did not know but I felt like she was playing with him and I didn't understand why. I didn't understand why we were here and there had to be a reason for it.

  I waved at Tyson urgently as I turned to walk back out of the room.

  He caught the movement and frowned at me.

  Annabell noticed him looking in my direction and asked, "What are you looking at? What's wrong with you?"

  Shit.

  That wasn't good.

  "I have something for you," Tyson said and I stopped walking back towards the sitting room and whipped around.

  "Oh," she said coyly. "Tell me, is it something I'm going to like?"

  Tyson laughed again, and my skin crawled at the sound. It was a horrible noise and a humorless one.

  "No," he purred quietly, "but I'm going to enjoy it greatly."

  She opened her mouth and he darted forward. Tyson stuffed a small brown packet into her mouth and held it closed with his hands.

  She swatted at him and tried to fight him off, but he didn't even seem to notice.

  "Holy crap," I breathed out.

  What the heck was he doing? He'd just talked about Uncle Quint and the guys doing something equally horrible to that other woman and now here Ty was doing this to Annabell.

  She clawed at his face and blood immediately started to ooze.

  "Shit," I whispered as I raced forward to help him.

  I ran around to the other side of the bed and grabbed ahold of her arms. Her scream was muffled by Tyson's hand as her eyes frantically scanned where I was standing but she wasn't unable to see me, and I could tell she was terrified. I didn't blame her, but I couldn't say I felt sorry for her.

  Tyson hadn't shared this part of the plan with me and I was grateful he hadn't because there was a good chance I might not have gone along with it.

  She struggled and tried to wrestle her arms out of my hands, but I held on tight and held her down on the bed.

  She choked, and the smell of pepper assaulted my nose.

  Tyson started whispering as she choked.

  "Forgive and forget

  It's time to let go

  I break the ties

  that have haunted you for so long

  you will move forward

  in love, lust and sorrow

  forget and move on

  and never again harm

  anyone who once held you in regard

  this is my will

  so shall it be."

  W
hen he was done speaking she stopped choking and he immediately backed off of her. I took his cue and let go of her arms. She stayed limp on the bed and her mouth hung open wide. Her eyes were glazed over, and she stared up sightlessly.

  I shivered at the look in her eyes because it reminded me of how Vivian had looked after she'd died.

  "Why do I smell pepper?" I whispered.

  "Quiet," Tyson hissed and I immediately snapped my mouth shut and moved away from the bed. "Outside."

  Okay, I knew what that meant and turned and hustled towards the door.

  "Ty," Annabell mumbled and I stopped walking because I wanted to hear what she had to say. "What are you doing here? You shouldn't be here, it's not right."

  I sighed in relief as I resumed walking and left the bedroom. I placed my hand on the door handle and went to turn it but stopped when a hand wrapped around mine and a hard body pressed into the back of mine.

  "Girl," Tyson whispered in my ear. "You can't walk out there first because no one else can see you."

  "Oh," I whispered shakily. "Yeah. I forgot and was just doing what you told me to do."

  "I know," he whispered back. "And I'm sorry for ordering you around. I wasn't thinking right but I am now, and we need to get out of her before she comes out of her stupor and starts asking questions. If we aren't here, then she will forget she even saw me tonight. But we've gotta go and we've gotta do it now."

  I couldn't agree with him more, I was ready to get the heck out of this place and never wished to return.

  I nodded, and Ty moved back away from me. I opened the door and we both stepped outside onto the deck.

  The person waiting for us outside of Annabell's room made me wish I had stayed inside with her and made me want to run away screaming at the same time.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  A tall figure stood against the railing beside a lit torch. The fact he worked out was evident by the muscles bulging at his shoulders and arms that stretched the material on his t-shirt. He had light brown hair and matching eyes. His arms were crossed over his broad chest and there was a patient look settled on his face.

  Goddamn Chucky.

  And he looked like he'd been there for a while.

  With all the crap with Annabell I had forgotten about Chucky being here with the Council entirely. He was living here with them at the moment and hadn't been given a choice in the matter.

  I couldn't believe I had forgotten about him being here. I didn't want to see him or be anywhere near him.

  "Tyson," he grumbled, and I jerked at the sound of his voice.

  Tyson moved away from the door and I was forced to move with him or it would have looked weird when the door hit me and there was nothing standing there for it to hit. I moved out onto the porch and cleared the door. The door closed behind me and I crossed my arms over my stomach, holding myself together. I really wanted to reach out and take Ty's hand but couldn't because it would look weird because I was, thankfully, still invisible. Or, so I hoped, and guess I was right when Chucky didn't immediately lock on me and do what ever messed up thing he was going to do next.

  "What do you want?" Tyson growled, and I watched in fascination as his fists clenched and he pressed them into the sides of his thighs.

  "I want to know how Ariel is," Chucky said sincerely. "No one here will tell me anything about her and the more I ask the more they tell me to shut up about it. I feel really bad and I want to know how she's doing. I want to see her, and I want to tell her how sorry I am."

  My stomach clenched as I took another step back, closer towards the stairs and further away from him. In my mind I kept seeing him plunge that knife in Dash's middle over and over again as I stood there and watched the violence happen, watched the blood leak out of him. I felt the sting of the knife as it sliced into me, carving my cheek open wide.

  I stumbled back another step and stuck my arm out to catch my fall. I clung to the side of the building and silently cried. I didn't think seeing him again would hit me so hard.

  Tyson glanced over his shoulder at me and his face pinched angrily.

  He turned back to Chuck, and said, "That's because they know how fucked up it is that you even want to talk to her or see her at all. What you need to do is stay the fuck away from her. You scarred her for life, asshole. For fucking life, and you put both of our people in the hospital. You'll never see her again, not fucking ever."

  Chucky took a step towards Tyson and hissed, "That's not what these old dudes say. If I answer their questions and keep doing what they tell me to then they said I'm going to get to see her again. I need to see her, man, I need it. You don't even understand this need I have or how bad it gets just not being around her. It's gotten a little better being able to sit outside your house while she's in there with Adrian, and I think it's just knowing she's that close to me that makes it easy, knowing that all I will have to do is get out of the car and walk inside and it will bring me straight to her. She's like a drug to me and it feels like I'm slowly dying without having her near me."

  I took another step back and further away from him, scared out of my brain by his words. He wasn't just a crazy person, he was obsessed and a total freaking psycho.

  Just being this close to him was making it hard for me to breathe and my body was starting to lock up in fear. If I was forced to be around him for much longer there was a good chance my legs wouldn't properly work for my any more.

  I hadn't realized until that moment that I was completely and utterly terrified of him. Before, I had thought I was upset and wouldn't have wanted to see him because of what it would do for the guys to see him. I hadn't really thought about what it would do to me or how it would make me feel. I guess I should have. That was one of the problems I had that I needed to work on, taking other people’s feelings into consideration and completely disregarding my own.

  When we got out of this place I was seriously going to take my own feelings into consideration when it came to a lot of things.

  "I don't give a shit what she is to you," Tyson snarled. "You need to get over it because she's not going to be anything to you anymore and you aren't going to see her any more. I don't give a shit what the Council says, she's dead to you and you won't be able to touch her ever again."

  Chucky shook his head and started to laugh.

  "What's so fucking funny, asshole?" Tyson snarled at him.

  "You are," Chucky said as he continued to laugh.

  He was clearly not right in the head and I immediately distrusted his crazy laughter.

  "That chick you were in there with?" Chucky asked as he waved towards the closed door at our backs. "Is that your girlfriend? Because if it is you might want to be interested in the fact that she's a slut. She's sleeping with those old dudes and she's been going down on me. What, did you come here and she gave you the business, too? She's good with her mouth, right?"

  I gritted my teeth. I did not like Annabell and likely never would, but that didn't mean it was right to talk about her like that. It was gross and so was Chucky.

  Tyson thought so too because he muttered, "You're a disgusting excuse for a human being."

  He was not wrong, and I felt a whole lot better knowing that Tyson felt the same way that I did, even when he didn't like Annabell at all.

  "I bet Ariel won't think so when I see her again." Chucky crowed.

  I gagged, I couldn't help myself.

  Chucky's head snapped in my direction and he barked, "What the hell was that? Who is here with you? Is there someone else in Annabell's rooms with her?"

  Shit.

  I had blown my cover big time because, in my disgust, I had forgotten I was supposed to be invisible and no one besides Tyson could see me.

  "It's just you and me out here," Tyson lied. "What the hell is the matter with you and why are you acting so weird? You know, what I really want to know is why in the hell you're so obsessed with her in the first place. From the first fucking day of school you've singled her out and were nothing bu
t an asshole to her. Then you wanted to date her. I don't get it, not at fucking all. Tell me, Chuck, what's your play with Ariel here? Honestly, I want to know."

  Chucky grinned at Tyson and it wasn't meant to be nice but mocking.

  "She's hot," he said. "Or, didn't you notice? The chicks at school all talk about wanting to hook up with you but you turn them down every time. Are you gay?"

  I sucked in a sharp breath and wished I had something to throw at Chucky. For one, I didn't want to hear about chicks wanting to hook up with Tyson. Not now, not ever. And, I really didn't want to hear the disgust in his voice when he asked Ty if he was gay. There wasn't a damn thing wrong with being gay but there sure was something wrong with people who thought it was disgusting. Those were the types of people who disgusted me simply because they were disgusting.

  I was feeling even less warm and friendly towards Chucky than I had been minutes ago, and that was saying something.

  Tyson surprised me by saying, "She is hot, isn't she?"

  Chucky chuckled and, that too, was ugly.

  I was thinking there wasn't much about Chucky that wasn't ugly, and I was super happy he had taken such a dislike of me from day one because I would not have wanted to befriend him and then later find out he was such a horrible person.

  “What she is,” Tyson snarled, “is dead to you.”

  Something came over Chucky’s face that looked an awful lot like hatred and he lunged at Tyson. Ty saw it coming and was ready for it. He threw up his arms and grabbed Chucky by the arms before he could ram into Ty. Chucky snarled at him and tried shaking him off. Ty let go of his arms and swung his fist wide and aiming at the side of Chucky’s head. Chucky ducked out of the way and Tyson’s fist connected with his shoulder instead of his face. Chucky roared like and animal and charged him.

  I yelped and scooted to the side and further away from their struggle.

  Tyson dropped his shoulder and rammed it into Chucky’s stomach and shoved him forward.