Playing With Monsters

by Amelia Hutchins

  Rebekah had been hanging around Vlad and his people for well over fifty years, yet she looked no older than twenty because they would give her vampire blood. Rotating the vamps that fed from her kept her from being in thrall to any particular one.

  I watched her strip naked and found myself comparing her to Lena—and she was so fucking lacking. Her breasts are larger than Lena’s, but it didn’t turn me on. I could smell what that the blood she’d been fed couldn’t conceal: she was aging. Her organs and her body knew that they’re supposed to be older. He could smell it too, his nostrils flared and even as she lowered herself to the floor as she worked his pants, he rolled his eyes.

  I smiled. A few years ago, Synthia was his, but he’d fucked up. Deals with devils have a way of fucking you over in the end. He accepted Ryder’s deal, guised through Vlad. He lost the one thing he loved the most in the process. Synthia.

  I materialized as his turquoise eyes widened, and before he could open his mouth to alert the others, I was already there, one hand at his throat silencing him and placing the other hand on the girl, and watched as her eyes grew vacant, and she fell to the floor, limp, and unseeing.

  I grabbed him, not caring if he’d sent a mental telegraph to his maker or if Vlad sensed his fear, and we apparated from the building; no wards were disturbed, no alarms sounded. We materialized back in the room with Lena, and I released his throat and arm, and watched him dispassionately as he hit the ground hard. He’s used to sifting, but I don’t sift.

  “What the fuck!?” he demanded, and I smiled coldly, showing him the darkness inside of me. Ghostly skeletal images pushed and writhed over my skin as my armor formed; souls of the condemned that couldn’t escape because I was their judge, executioner, and warden. In my world, execution comes before incarceration.

  “You know who I am,” I asked, even though it sounded more like a statement. My eyes turned blue, the color of the flames that burned in hell.

  “Lucian, right-hand man to Lucifer,” he snapped, his legs still not quite willing to hold his weight.

  “The girl on the bed,” I replied, ignoring his look of panic as he tried to decide his best exit route, which would only end badly for him. “She needs blood.”

  “And if I say no?” His question was almost belligerent. He had balls. I had to give him that.

  “Don’t say no, kid. That means this trip ends badly for you.”

  He looked at me, and I allowed more of the darkness I concealed to become visible. Soulless eyes watched him, the blue hellfire burned brightly, and my armor that contained the souls slipped, purposely. Like tattoos, they slithered over my skin, moving around the runes that held them to me. His mouth popped open, and his fangs retracted, completely unable to look away from the walking nightmare I’d become.

  I didn’t just collect evil mortal souls, I collected immortals. Immortals gave more power; they fed what I had become with endless power, making me stronger with each new piece I added to my armor. Their powers became mine, and the transfer was quite painful for them.

  “Who is she?” he asked, his eyes still glued to the souls undulating on my skin like dancing tattoos. I pushed the armor back below my façade of a body, where I could still pull from their powers and let him feel the electrical intensity of the raw power they fed me.

  “She’s a witch, one who doesn’t deserve to die. Unless you plan to follow her into the next life, I suggest you remedy it. Now,” I said evenly, not needing to scare him more than he already was. He was new to being immortal, too weak to become part of my collection.

  “Guild?” he asked as his eyes moved to Lena. I felt his lust, strong and powerful as he looked at her naked body. She’d kicked the covers off while I’d been gone.

  “No,” I replied, wanting nothing more than to hide her nakedness from the kid’s lustful eyes. Spyder waited in the shadows in the corner of the room. He’d sensed I’d returned, and that I wasn’t alone.

  “No; that’s all I get? I’m about to give her my fucking blood, you can at least tell me who she is and why she needs it,” he replied aggressively. I growled, and the kid started to move, as if he’d stand up and take me on. Spyder moved forward, his eyes cold with death as his own souls escape from his armor. “What the fuck, house of horrors much?” the kid mouthed off, and I smiled.

  Kid really did have big balls, which was probably why Vlad kept him around. I moved to the bed, sensing the moment the Fae arrived outside my house. Unlike them, I knew how to keep undesirables out of my house.

  “You can either give her your blood willingly, or I can feed it to her as the life drains from you. Choose.”

  “Lucian, we got company,” Devlin said, hellfire burning in his eyes as he entered the room, fixing his gaze on the young vampire. His eyes moved from the kid to Lena, who groaned and curled in on herself as pain rocked through what had to be her stomach.

  “Choose; either way, she’s getting your blood,” I warned, hoping he would choose wisely.

  I watched as his fangs slid down and he scraped one over his wrist to slice it open. He slid his other arm under her upper back, carefully avoiding her naked flesh as he forced the lifesaving blood down her throat. I relaxed a hair, watching as color filled her cheeks, even as she latched onto his vein.

  “Lucy, you got some ‘splaining to do,” Ristan’s baritone voice was mocking as he materialized into the room. “Time to drop the Fae wards, asshole,” he demanded angrily. Fucking soul-seeking demon. The house was warded against Fae and Lucifer’s demons. Fucking half-breeds.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Everything’s fine today, that is our illusion. ~Voltaire.

  ~Magdalena

  “Who the hell is she?” a deep voice asked, and my eyes blinked open, finding the light blinding. I closed them, and wiped at my mouth where the sharp taste of copper made me gag.

  “That’s none of your fucking business; the boy wasn’t hurt, and I didn’t have time to dick around,” Lucian’s sharp retort brought me awake, and I blinked up as a pair of strange silvery eyes that seemed to swirl loomed over me.

  It was an angel, it had to be. He was beautiful in a masculine way; his features were sharp, and well-defined. His black hair fell over his shoulders as he watched me struggle to sit up. The room was full of men, beautiful men. It was official, I’d died.

  “Is this heaven?” I whispered, even as my body reacted to the weird vibe that was pulsing through the room.

  “Why do you ask?” the guy with silvery eyes asked, his eyes smiling with the question.

  “Because if I got to choose what heaven would be, this would be mine,” I said as I licked my lips and looked around. Damn, they weren’t just hot; they were ethereal, as if they were created just to drive women insane. One had brown-black longish hair and green, tri-colored eyes. He also had thick black tattoos that seemed to pulse and move on his skin. A golden eyed one with shorter black hair looked sort of familiar to me as he studied me, his eyes slowly moving to where I’d uncovered my body in my haste to get up and see what was going on. He smiled as a woman slapped his arm, his eyes immediately moving to her with a look that made my ovaries hurt.

  “Fairy,” she growled, her azure blue eyes locked with his in silent battle.

  “Witch,” he growled back with a hungry look in his eyes.

  “Stuff it, right where the sun doesn’t shine,” she countered and the silvery eyed guy who had been sitting on the bed coughed to smother a laugh.

  “You two,” he said. “Can’t take you anywhere,” he smiled and winked at me.

  I winked back, unsure of why I was winking, but I was pretty sure he had just signed up to be my baby daddy. Or so my ovaries had decreed it. I swallowed as my eyes moved back to the green eyed guy, who watched me with something dangerous etched in his eyes.

  “Adam, vibes,” silvery eyed guy
said, noting my discomfort. I wasn’t sure what he meant by vibes, but whatever he’d meant by it, the discomfort in my body eased, even as my eyes moved to Lucian, who stood in the corner near the bed with his back to the wall, watching me as I took in the buffet of hotness that filled the room.

  “Magdalena, always a pleasure,” Vlad said as he moved into the room; a young man with brown hair and turquoise eyes stayed close to his side. “Lucian, next time, I suggest you ask before you take something that doesn’t belong to you. In the meantime, maybe you could answer some questions about…”

  “Not here, not now,” Lucian said, cutting Vlad off mid-sentence. “Innocent ears and all,” he amended, and everyone looked at me, and I looked down at my naked breasts, because that many eyes on me? Too freaking much.

  “Are you well, Magdalena?” Vlad asked.

  “Kendra?” a woman called softly as she moved into the room.

  My eyes lifted to hers and I narrowed them. She wasn’t beautiful in the sense of the others in the room, but she had a classic beauty that made her stand out in this crowd. She had red hair, and blue eyes that looked at me as if she knew me.

  “That’s Magdalena,” Vlad offered.

  “Kiss my knickers, that’s Kendra,” she quipped, giving him a stare that dared him to argue with her.

  Kiss my knickers?

  “Olivia,” Lucian nodded cordially to her; her eyes moved to his and she smiled weakly.

  “Lucian, it’s nice to see you again,” she nodded back, though something in her demeanor changed, and she moved closer to the guy with the weird silver eyes. It seemed as though she didn’t think running into Lucian was as nice as she’d said it was. “I hope business at the club is well?”

  “Always,” Lucian said, with a slight bow of his head as his eyes moved to mine.

  “Kendra, are you well?” she asked, moving to the bed and reaching for my hand. I pulled it away, moving closer to Lucian, which the entire room seemed to notice.

  “My name is Magdalena,” I replied, as I reached down and pulled the covers over my body. I wasn’t sure why everyone was in the room, or why I was still naked, but at the end of the day, I felt as if they had me at a huge disadvantage.

  “You lied to me?” she asked. “At the Guild, you told me you were Kendra Fitzgerald,” she whispered and my hackles were up.

  “Guild?” I squeaked as I looked around again, noticing things my brain hadn’t computed. Like tri-colored eyes. “Fae,” I whispered. “And Guild.” I was up, moving towards the door as if the hounds of hell were on my heels.

  “Lena,” Lucian barked, as the others moved out of the way of the sheet I dragged with me.

  “No!” I shouted as I turned around with a fire inside of me. “You brought the fucking Guild here? How could you! We’ve hidden from them for centuries, and you bring them here? And Fae! To my fucking doorstep, you brought them here, to us! You told them who we were?” I seethed angrily.

  “No, Lena, you just did that,” he replied coldly.

  “No…Grrr!” I growled with my teeth clenched as I bared them at him like a wild animal. “You suck! I hate you!”

  “You said that last night, right before you ruined most of the lower level riding me,” he replied with a cocky smirk.

  “And?” I countered as I pointed my finger and poked him in the chest.

  “And you’re about to do it again,” he smiled as a wave of heat swirled through me.

  “No! No, no! Just no! Ah,” I doubled over as heat tore through me with the words.

  “It’s going to be okay, Lena, you hating me works out pretty fucking well for me,” he said with a wide smile as Spyder groaned from the corner where I hadn’t even noticed him before. He fucking blended in; as in, he was the shadow in the corner, because the moment he stepped from it, the shadow was gone.

  “You guys might want to go downstairs for this,” Spyder said, and I ignored it because the heat was burning me inside out.

  I dropped the sheet and was moving towards Lucian with purpose, even as the others watched us.

  “Bloody fucking hell,” the golden eyed guy said as I pushed Lucian onto the bed, not caring one little bit that the others didn’t have a chance to leave yet. “Damn,” he said as I ripped at Lucian’s clothes. The others watched us with wide eyes, and as if they remembered they were here, they all started moving out of the room.

  “Oh, oh shit,” the platinum blonde said. “Shit, we should…wow, go,” she said as she yanked on the green eyed guy’s arm, who was watching us with a naked hunger that I wanted to explore. “Adam, move, Ryder, help me,” she said, and the moment Lucian’s cock was free, the room emptied as if they’d all just vanished.

  It was a few hours before I had my fill of Lucian, and even as I pulled the sheet around my body, I wanted more. I was just coherent enough to know better. I could hear the people downstairs.

  “Lena,” Lucian warned with his naked body still bare as he relaxed next to me. He was hot; even after sex I still couldn’t dampen the attraction I felt to him. His tattoos stood brighter than they had the night before, and that stupid perfect nipple ring still tempted me to taste it.

  “Don’t,” I laughed mirthlessly as I struggled to get out of the warm bed. “You undid what we have worked centuries to achieve in one day. Don’t ‘Lena’ me, asshole.”

  I was halfway down the stairs when he caught up to me. He grabbed my arm and I yanked it from him, my heart racing with the complications of what the Guild being here meant for the entire coven. My grandmother told me on many occasions that the coven wanted to have nothing to do with the Guild; either they would try and get us to join them, or they would alert the Fae and demons to our presence. In trying to be some sort of supernatural police force, they just attracted trouble.

  “Let me go!” I snapped, and marched down the rest of the stairs, ignoring his anger which I could feel as I strode through the room. The heat of his stare ate at my nerves as I ignored the curious stares, and dodged plaster, which, as I looked up, I discovered was falling from the ceiling where a crack had split it. Great, I’d ruined his house.

  “Dammit, Lena,” he whispered as I opened the door and slammed it behind me as I left the house and walked the distance between our properties and into the cottage, before collapsing on my ass as my legs gave out.

  *~*~*

  I’d ignored them after that, all of them. Luckily someone had dropped off groceries, which meant that someone knew I was broke. It stung; my pride, my heart, and everything hurt. On the second day of my self-induced isolation, I cautiously tried a little magic, tapping the line as I watched the elders teach Kendra through our bond.

  I was outside of the cottage, trying to call rocks to me. It began to annoy me when they wouldn’t move on command, then anger would grow, mixed with frustration at being unable to use the magic I knew I had inside of me. The angrier I became, the more the rocks on the ground shook Just as I was about to lose my temper, they abruptly lifted from the ground around me, and waited. When I gave the command, they sailed directly at me, resulting in goose eggs and a lot of bruises.

  The next day, I’d decided to practice again. I ignored the newcomers who would show up like they were taking shifts or something and seemed to be watching the cottage and me. I wasn’t sure what had happened with the demons; if they were still present but keeping their distance, or if they were just invisible unless they had taken control of a host, which was what the elders had taught Kendra. Apparently the ones who hunted us were dark souls; ones who needed a living host if they wanted to spend any amount of time in this world.

  I decided that I really didn’t want to stay cooped up in the cottage for the rest of the day, so I slipped into shorts and a camisole, and headed towards the garden. I had been at it for some time when a gentleman who had to be in his early fifties kneeled beside me
and ignored that he was getting dirty. He didn’t speak; he just quietly pulled roots and cleaned them off before placing them in the correct baskets.

  Eventually, the platinum haired beauty, the green eyed guy, the girl with red hair, and that guy who was with Vlad the other day were gardening with us. It wasn’t a fantasy of mine, either. I watched them carefully as I continued to pull the roots to preserve them for the coming winter, since it looked as if I might be alone through it.

  Finally, the older man spoke.

  “I understood your coven’s need to separate, while a lot of the other elders didn’t. Yours didn’t want to make warriors of you, and the Guilds did. They wanted to be the law and govern the supernatural creatures they sensed moving out of the shadows. The Guilds wanted to train children for war, and the covens wanted peace,” he said as his blue eyes turned to me. “That was your coven’s choice, and it should have been respected. Mistakes were made in the beginning, but that was centuries ago. It wasn’t your war, or mine in those days. I was the teacher of the children at the Spokane Guild; I taught them how to fight, and how to use the leylines and control the magic within them. Not too long ago, enemies infiltrated the Guild and I was considered a liability. They’ve changed the Guild. It’s a dangerous place now. It took me a long time to see that it wasn’t a place I wanted to be a part of anymore. Most of the Guilds now are secretly being run by the enemy who are killing Fae and their own indiscriminately. Those who aren’t part of the enemy ranks are still influenced by them and are too proud to see that they fall from within, because they, too, stick to tradition. It’s what I call witches’ pride. You and I, Lena, we are descended from a proud race.”