Greed (The Damning Book 1)

by Katie May

  skin was better than having blemished skin. Although she was heartbroken,

  her pride prohibited her from exposing his cruelty. Instead, she resolved to

  cloak herself in shadows to save him from embarrassment. Thus, the first

  Shadow was born.

  I didn’t know if I believed such a fable. My father had a tendency to spin

  his stories like a spider spun a web. His own father was a terrific storyteller.

  In return, he felt the need to be an even better one.

  I thought that all as I met Lupe’s penetrating stare.

  “I’m not certain,” I said, though those words felt like a lie. I had known

  the second I had felt her essence, a touch as soft as a moth’s wing, that she

  was my mate. She was made to be mine just as I was made to be hers. They

  told me that it was fate, our mates, like two threads twined together. The

  bond was inseparable. Irresistible.

  And yet…

  And yet she had resisted.

  There had even been fear in her eyes when she had regarded me.

  Fear...and something almost haunting. Despite her youthful face, her eyes

  were ancient.

  Why would she fear me, her mate? It didn’t seem like something that

  would be possible.

  All supernatural creatures had one fated mate. I pitied the humans in that

  respect. Wandering the world without the other half of your soul seemed to

  be its own form of torture.

  “I’m probably mistaken,” I said, chewing on my lip. “Never mind. It was

  stupid.”

  I immediately began to wheel myself towards the door. It was stupid to

  have came here in the first place. What had been my reasoning? For

  knowledge?

  Or to brag?

  “Wait,” Lupe said, and I paused, turning my head to see the large man

  sitting up straighter. “I found her too. My mate, that is. I found her.”

  His expression took on a wistful, dream-like quality. A small smile made

  his harsh features appear softer.

  “You have?” I asked in disbelief - not because I didn’t think Lupe was

  capable or even worthy of having a mate, but because I knew how his father

  would react if he were to discover such information. A mate would be used as

  leverage against Lupe, a tool dangled precariously in front of his face, just

  out of reach.

  As you could probably imagine, our dads got along well.

  “What’s she like?” I spun my chair to face him fully.

  God, I felt like a teenager again. Girls may have believed that they were

  the only ones who engaged in gossip, but they were sorely mistaken. Us

  guys? Ten times worse.

  “She’s beautiful.” Lupe’s eyes glazed over, no doubt envisioning her in

  his mind. “It’s almost as if she is a beacon of light in the middle of a storm.

  With her, I know I have a way home. She’s my guide, my home, my hope.

  The way she looked at me...she didn’t see me as a mistake or even a Shifter.

  She saw me as a person. The world can burn to ashes for all the shits I give,

  just as long as she escapes the flames.”

  Lupe always had a way with words. If he wasn’t a prince, wasn’t a

  Shifter, he no doubt would be a writer or even an artist. He did not fit the

  stereotypical mold that all Shifters seemed to fall into. He wasn’t a brute

  driven by his rage, and he wasn’t cruel. If anything, he was the kindest man I

  had ever met.

  “She sounds amazing,” I said, basking in our shared happiness.

  “I don’t know her that well. I don’t even know her name, though I’m sure

  someone said it at one point.” He chuckled. “I was a little distracted.”

  “Tell me about it.” That girl made me into a drooling, googly-eyed fool.

  It had only be a minute, and she already had me wrapped around her

  diminutive finger.

  “And yours? What is she like?” Lupe pressed.

  How to answer such a question. The answer to some might have came

  easily. Kind, perhaps. Pretty. Fierce. But my girl?

  I didn’t know how to even start.

  I opened my mouth to confess that she was a competitor for The Damning

  but quickly snapped it shut. It wasn’t as if I didn’t trust Lupe with such

  important information - I trusted him with my life - but I didn’t know what

  other ears were in this room.

  There were trained assassins and murderers roaming these halls. Our

  words weren’t our own with them here.

  “She’s interesting,” I admitted at last.

  And I don’t know what she looks like. Nor do I know anything about her.

  Yeah. There’s that.

  “Was it that girl I saw you talking to?” a quiet voice asked from the

  shadows, and I flinched. Lupe jumped from his bed, hands raised

  threateningly. The newcomer chuckled darkly.

  “Damn it Ryland. Wear a bell or something next time,” I snapped. The

  Shadow that was Ryland appeared at the foot of the bed. His features were

  indistinct due to the darkness obscuring him from view. He was almost

  always clothed in shadows.

  “Did you hear the rumors?” he asked. The silhouette disappeared from

  the bed only to materialize on the windowsill.

  “What rumors?” Lupe asked. “And how long have you been here?”

  “Long enough,” Ryland said slyly. He paused, allowing that to sink in.

  Damn Shadows. “But you’re not the only princes who have found your

  mates.”

  “What?” I asked. “Who?”

  I wondered if it was Bash and snorted softly at how preposterous that

  would be. His mate had something else coming if she expected sunshine and

  rainbows. Bash was afraid of getting hurt which wasn’t so much a

  justification as it was an excuse. The walls he built up around himself

  stemmed from years and years of neglect, abuse, and pain. He would not

  settle down easily nor would he let a girl tame him. But when he did end up

  falling, he would fall hard. Bash never did anything half-assed, and I

  imagined his love would be just as fierce.

  “Jax,” Ryland said simply, responding to the question I had nearly

  forgotten I had asked.

  “Jax?” Lupe and I asked in unison. Jax? Jax, of all people, had found his

  mate? I didn’t know if that was comical or sad. I supposed it depended on

  whether or not he could become whole again. After the incident with Sasha…

  That had fucked Jax up. Maybe his mate would finally be able to piece

  his broken shards back together again. When people said rock-bottom, they

  weren’t kidding. You completely shattered once you hit the ground. After

  that initial fall, you had two choices. Try to climb back up but leave a little bit

  of yourself behind in the process or wait until you were saved. Jax? He chose

  neither. He tethered on the edge, halfway up the hole but with no real

  destination in mind.

  “Remember? He said that his blood was tingling…” Ryland trailed off,

  voice traveling from the window to somewhere behind me.

  “I didn’t even think about it,” Lupe muttered. When I glanced at him with

  a raised eyebrow, he elaborated. “A Vampire’s body begins to tingle when

  they are near their mate. It’s like an itch that is only soothed when you come

  into contact with your other half. To be frank...your b
lood begins to tingle.”

  “Shit,” I cursed, half in awe and half in shock.

  “And don’t forget about Kill,” added Ryland.

  “Kill? He found his mate too?”

  Both Lupe and Ryland began to chuckle. I couldn’t help but laugh as

  well. Killian, no doubt, was terrified on how to handle that...situation. I may

  have been slightly inexperienced when it came to sex, but I might as well had

  been a prostitute compared to him.

  “I heard him talking to it like a dog,” Ryland mused. The “it” referred to

  Killian’s dick. “He asked if he could pet it.”

  Typical Killian.

  “What’s next?” Lupe asked. “Asking it if it would like to go on a walk?”

  “I think it would have a life of its own if it gets set free. Like a compass,

  it will propel him towards his mate.”

  We all laughed at Killian’s expense. Just as quickly, my laughter

  subsided. There was somewhere I had to be before I could crawl back into

  my ocean cave, away from pitying eyes and a mate that had ran from me.

  “I’m going to the library,” I lied easily. My brothers barely blinked at my

  declaration. They were used to my nocturnal tendencies. Sleep during the

  day; live during the night.

  If you could call my pathetic existence living.

  “Don’t turn into Lupe,” Ryland quipped, and Lupe chucked a book at the

  Shadow’s head. Of course, he missed. It was nearly impossible to catch a

  Shadow unless the Shadow wanted to be caught.

  Smiling at my brothers’ antics, I wheeled out of Lupe’s bedroom and

  down the dark hallway. None of the lights were on, plunging the building into

  an inky darkness. This was only broken apart by splotches of starlight from

  the small windows. There was no moon tonight, a fact that made me

  moderately uncomfortable. Mermaids always preferred the full moon.

  My thoughts drifted to what I knew was about to transpire, as it had

  occurred every day for years. Why did I put myself through this? Why did I

  endure it time and time again? The answer came to me easily as I envisioned

  my mother’s kind face. I dealt with it so she wouldn’t have to.

  I rolled myself inside of a room nearly identical to Lupe’s in appearance.

  Four figures stood beside the bed.

  “You’re late,” my oldest brother, Tavvy, snapped. I always hated that

  term. Brother. He wasn’t my brother, despite our blood declaring us

  otherwise. The bonds authentically made between two individuals somehow

  went deeper than flimsy familial ties. He was my brother by birth and blood,

  not by choice.

  My father’s teeth gleamed in the dim lighting as he smiled at me. I merely

  glowered in response.

  “Let’s get this over with. Tavvy. Father.” I nodded at my big brother and

  father before turning towards the two other men in the room, my younger

  brothers. “Idol and Manchester.”

  They nodded in greeting, identical apathetic expressions on their faces.

  Without waiting for instruction, I pulled myself out of my chair and onto

  the bed. Once I was firmly on the mattress, I turned towards my father

  expectantly.

  He silently handed me a glass vial, and I tipped the contents back, barely

  wincing at the bitter taste.

  “Delicious,” I murmured dryly.

  Immediately, my body began to tingle, as it always did. Warmth emitted

  low in my stomach, spreading to my thighs. I bit my lip to keep from crying

  out as my body grew. That was the only word I could use to describe it. My

  legs lengthened, becoming whole once again.

  I became a whole.

  It was a powerful spell that could only be created by the blood of the

  King Mage and the King Mermaid. A reformative spell, one that people

  would pay billions to possess.

  I wiggled my toes, as I always did after downing the potion. If only for a

  moment, I could pretend to be a walking, capable man. A man that might’ve

  even been worthy of having a mate.

  Just as quickly, the dream shattered around me like a ball being thrown at

  a mirror.

  My father grabbed a keen machete, his preferred weapon, and my

  brothers all grabbed knives and daggers from their waistbands.

  I learned not to scream when they came at me, slashing at my skin. I

  learned that the pain only amplified when I outright cried. After all, pain was

  a manifestation of my imagination. If I didn’t allow it to consume me, it

  wouldn’t.

  So as my family - my blood relatives - cut through skin and tendons and

  bone to remove the legs I had just grown, I drifted away.

  It was safer that way.

  FIFTEEN

  Z

  Iwoke up feeling more rested than I had in months, if not years. I found

  this especially shocking given my circumstances. What type of assassin

  did it make me that I was able to sleep like the dead throughout the

  night?

  A pretty shitty one, if you asked me.

  I stretched my taut muscles, pulling my arms above my head and listening

  to the satisfying crack. I hadn’t even realized how tired I was, how heavy and

  leaden my body felt after a grueling day. Falling to your potential death and

  getting sexually frustrated to the point of unbearable pain most definitely

  counted as grueling.

  And I had the strangest dream…

  I snapped my head towards the empty bed beside me, nearly laughing at

  how ridiculous I was for believing he would actually be there. Did I really

  think that a guy had climbed into bed with me? Had cuddled with me? My

  libido must’ve been in overdrive due to my confrontation with Devlin and

  then the handsome Mermaid. Even the Shifter had affected me more than I

  cared to admit. All of those delicious muscles on display. The swoop of his

  dark hair.

  And now this new guy, this figment of my imagination.

  I envisioned him in my mind. His hair had been a light brown and wildly

  disheveled, as if he had ran his hands through it one too many times. His lips

  had been plush and kissable. Cupid bow lips. And his body had perfect dips

  and crevices leading towards a delectable...penis.

  Wait a minute…

  Why had I imagined a naked man coming into my room? What the hell

  was wrong with me? A lot, apparently.

  Almost involuntarily, my hand crept towards the empty space beside me.

  The bedspread was warm as if someone had been there recently.

  My brow furrowed.

  For starters, there was no reason that someone would have snuck into my

  room to do anything other than kill me. Secondly, I sure as hell wouldn’t

  have invited someone in willingly, right?

  Right?

  My head throbbed, but I managed to push aside my blankets and amble to

  the living room. Diego had set up wards around my suite when we had first

  arrived. Anyone with ill intentions would be unable to enter. Even then, the

  wards kept a record of when, and if, they were broken. It was surprisingly

  basic magic - at least according to Diego - and combined both a Mage’s

  natural skill and technology. The rectangular device resting on the wall

  beside the door sparkled with the telltale sign of Diego’s magic. It was a light

&n
bsp; sheen, an emerald green that somehow varied from the monotonous greens of

  all the other Mages. A color as unique as the Mage himself.

  Using my thumbprint, I logged myself into the database. I didn’t know

  whether I felt silly or frightened or...and this was the worst... aroused. I kept

  picturing the strange, beautiful man, and instead of fear, I felt my stomach

  churn with desire. That was most definitely not a normal reaction one should

  experience when dealing with an absolute stranger.

  My breath left my lungs when I saw the red dot on the screen blinking

  erratically. It almost seemed to taunt me, that pinprick dot.

  At 1:33 AM, someone had broken into my room.

  I didn’t know how I felt about that. Obviously, the person hadn’t intended

  to do me harm. I had been half asleep, and he hadn’t so much as touched me

  inappropriately save the cuddles. And I had been the one to instigate such

  contact, the greedy bitch I was. He had felt so warm, so right, that I couldn’t

  resist the need to get closer. I wanted to disappear inside of his soft embrace

  and drown in his musky scent. His hard, sculpted features had hinted at him

  being a Vampire, yet I felt no fear when I was with him.

  Was it because I had been half asleep?

  Had I been drugged?

  What had been the fucking point of him entering my room in the first

  place?

  I jumped, reaching for the dagger I always kept tucked beneath my

  clothes, when a knock sounded on the door.

  “Knock! Knock!” an annoyingly chipper voice said. I groaned, turning

  off the alarm and opening my bedroom door. Mali stood in the entryway, face

  flushed. Her right hand rubbed sporadically at her neck while her left hand

  crawled underneath her blouse to scratch at her stomach.

  “You alright?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. She huffed.

  “Just a little itchy.” As she spoke, she rubbed her body against my

  doorframe. Sensual moans escaped her mouth, and I resisted the urge to slam

  the door in her face. That was the last thing I wanted to deal with this fucking

  early in the morning.

  “Stop. Please,” I deadpanned. She glared at me, as if angry I had

  interrupted her itching pleasure, before pushing past me to enter my room.

  “And come in,” I added to her retreating back. She threw herself onto the

  bed, once again scratching at her arms.

  “What’s the plan today? Plan? We need a plan? P as in princess. Why did