by CY Jones
When I hear the door opening and closing downstairs and then the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs, I turn and see the wolf has returned, but he’s not alone. Behind him is a woman with long dark hair and big grey eyes. She’s beautiful, so are the midsize feathery white wings behind her. Holy shit, she’s an angel.
“Who’s this?” Nolan says slowly.
“This is Ruby, Amethyst’s friend. She said she can help us,” Aiden answers.
“Are you sure about that?” I ask, not convinced. “You do remember what we told you about our sire. He’ll take one look at her and want to add her to his collection. We’re not trying to save Amethyst, just to doom her friend.”
“I’m quite capable of taking care of myself,” she huffs, narrowing those intense grey eyes on me. Great, I’ve pissed of an angel. Hopefully she won’t smite me.
“What happened with your pack?” Nolan asks.
“They wouldn’t help. They said since I’m no longer part of the pack, they can’t interfere.”
“That’s bull. No offense, but your pack is a bunch of cowards.”
“Don’t you think I know that? Since I gave up being Alpha for Amethyst, I left the pack in the hands of my eight year old sister. To say the pack is disappointed in me is putting it lightly,” Aiden says.
“What of your father?” I ask. “Isn’t he still Alpha for the time being? He can’t be ok with his only son going off to get killed,” I tell him, not believing what I’m hearing.
“It doesn’t matter how he feels. Pack is everything,” Aiden states.
“That blows wolf boy,” Nolan snorts.
“Blows where?” Ruby asks, and we all look at her like she’s crazy.
“Ok, well. We’ve wasted enough time here, lets go,” I order. I’m done with waiting around. Besides the angel, we won’t be getting any backup.
“Yeah,” Aiden agrees, "lets go."
Heavenly Light
Amethyst
For the second time, I wake in an unfamiliar place. Once I’m fully awake, a rush of memories hit me all at once and I remember the events that have passed. I’m trapped in an awful mansion with a madman and his toys. I don’t understand Vlad. What makes me so special? He’s surrounded by such beauty, yet he’s gone out his way to bring me here. I can’t stop myself from wondering what happened in his long life to make him this way. Did someone steal his favorite toy and the experience turned him into a modern day Scrooge? I wonder how long I’ve been here. I don’t know how long I was sleeping. It couldn’t have been long. Marcus said he’ll bring me dinner, and he hasn’t come back yet. I wonder what my mates are doing. Do they know I’m gone yet? Will they come for me? That’s the question of the day, isn’t it? I treated them horribly. They were only being honest with me, and in the first test of our relationship, I bailed. I’m a terrible mate.
“Why do you look so glum, sugar plum?” Marcus says as he invites himself inside.
“Are you auditioning for Sesame Street?” I retort drly.
“Here,” he growls, throwing a covered plate of food on the table.
“Didn’t your sire order you to be nice to me? I don’t think throwing my food around qualifies as being nice.”
“Tell me, Amethyst,” he says, climbing on the bed slowly, stalking me. “If I feed you, would you let me fuck you?” He questions seductively.
He wants to play games, let's play them.
Moving my body closer to his, I whisper against his ear, “not a chance.” Narrowing his eyes, he jumps off the bed and stalks out the room like he’s on fire.
“Asshole,” I mutter when he slams the door behind him.
Time does not fly when you’re trapped in a room. I guess it wouldn’t since it isn’t fun. I sleep, I eat the meals Marcus brings me, and for entertainment I fuck with Marcus every chance I get. I may have taken it a bit too far when I hexed his eyebrow hairs to fall out, but fuck it was funny. I also learned Vlad has some very powerful blood. One sip of that stuff and Marcus’ eyebrows were back to normal. No fun right? It may sound like I’ve been here for a long time, but all this happened within twenty-four hours. Don’t judge. I’m not my best when I’m bored. I’ve just enchanted my door knob when Marcus comes back with a dark purple dress slung over his arm.
“Here, Vlad wants you to join us for dinner tonight,” he says, throwing the dress on the bed.
“What’s with you and throwing shit? Were you an ape in a former life?” I snap.
“What?” He shrugs.
“You know what, nevermind. What’s with the fancy dress? What’s the occasion?”
“No reason. Vlad wants to introduce you to the coven.”
“Why?”
“Because he wants them to get to know you.”
“Why?”
“Just because,” he says, throwing his hands up frustrated.
Enjoying my little game, because it’s way too easy to annoy Marcus, I ask, “why?”
“What are you twelve? I’m not falling for this shit.”
“But you have,” I point out, “for about five minutes now.” Which only makes his eyes light with anger when he sees I’m right.
“Get dressed. I’ll be back in thirty minutes.” With that said he stalks to the door, and as soon as his hand touches the knob he growls, "what the fuck Amethyst?” Laughing, I glance down smugly at his rainbow colored palm with pink sparkles.
“What?” I say innocently. "I was over here."
“I swear you’re going to be the death of me,” he mumbles under his breath.
“Promise?” I retort, even though he wasn’t talking to me.
I guess my taunt was the last straw, because without warning, he’s a blur right in front of my face, holding me tight to his body with his other hand gripped tightly around the back of my neck, pushing my face to him. We’re so close, I can see the different facets of blue in his eyes as they light with anger. I should be afraid, but for some insane reason I was turned on. Jewels, this place is making me mental.
“My patience is running thin with you, princess. You have no idea what I’m capable of, so if you don’t want to be walking around here like a mindless puppet, I suggest you start showing me some respect. Trust me when I tell you, I don’t care if you’re in a daze while you’re lying on your back or on your knees sucking my dick.”
When I whimper, he pushes me away and leaves the room. “Well that went well,” I mumble to myself. Now I’m curious of what Marcus’ power is. Before, I thought he was just pretty because he hasn’t let on he can do anything else. Not that I want to force him to make good of his threat. I’d rather not be a mindless sex slave, or maybe I would? And in that people, lies the problem. I feel a connection to Marcus. Not at first. At first, I was still pumped full of adrenaline over being kidnapped, but now, since I’ve gotten to know him a little bit, I find he’s not that bad, just misguided. Oh hell, what am I’m saying? I’ve been here for twenty-fours hours and I already have a bad case of Stockholm syndrome. I need to get my shit together. Besides, no matter what I feel or how pretty he is, my plate is already full.
Taking a quick shower so I have time to wash and blow dry my hair, I think about my mates. Where are they? They should have been here by now. Even though I have no idea where we are, I suspect we’re somewhere in Louisiana, deep in the woods. The only view outside my window is a bunch of cypress and weeping willow trees, which are common in that state. I couldn’t even feel their thoughts anymore. Maybe they don’t really love me. At least, not enough to risk their necks to save me.
Thoroughly depressed now, I turn the shower off and wrap myself in one of the fluffy towels. When drying my hair, I avoid looking at my mate marks, and the hickeys still littered all over my body. It hurts too much to look at them. Too bad the dress Vlad chose for me to wear couldn’t hide the ones all over my neck. The dark color of my dress and my pale skin just highlighted them even more. I felt like I was wearing a blaring neon sign that said ‘look at me’ but besides that, it really w
as a nice dress. A short babydoll dress made from delicate lace. It looked expensive and probably cost a fortune. Not that Vlad is hurting on money by the looks of this place. I decide to leave my hair down. I have no clue what this dinner involves, but making myself more appealing to Vlad didn’t seem like a good idea.
“Don’t you look beautiful,” Marcus says, walking in.
His hand is still spelled, so I guess Vlad wasn’t in the mood to heal him. If I wasn’t frightened of his threat, I would probably rub it in.
“Here,” he says, handing over a pair of drool worthy heels. They’re black and spiky with a red bottom.
“Vlad is going over the top for this little dinner of his if he’s breaking out the Louboutins,” I say sarcastically.
“Vlad didn’t get you these, I did. I had them rushed over while you were getting ready.”
“Why?” I frown.
“I’m not falling for that again,” he grumbles.
“I’m being serious. Why would you buy me shoes literally five seconds after you threatened me?”
“I wanted you to have them. Besides I may have felt a little guilty. I scared you, and that was the last thing I wanted. You’re just so fucking frustrating and beautiful. Half the time I don’t know if I want to strangle you or fuck you. I want you to know I would never force you to do anything you don’t want to do. I want you to want me on your own. I’m not used to not getting what I want, so I haven’t been handling your rejection well. In the garage when you tricked me, I wanted those feelings to be real so fucking bad, just to find out you were playing me.”
Well hell. That’s a mouthful. I didn’t expect him to say. Like at all. My mind’s a blank, and he’s looking at me like I hung the moon and stars.
“Marcus I’m flattered, but I’m in love with someone else. Three someone else's. They’re my mates and I belong to them.”
“The twins,” he growls.
“Yes, and a wolf shifter,” I admit.
“They’re your mates, but where were they when I took you? Where are they now?” He shouts. “You’re here with me. In time, you will learn to love me as you did them.”
“I… it was,” I stop. “Look, it’s none of your business. The point is, I can’t be with you. I will never love you. Your sire is a terrible role model. You can’t just take people and expect them to be fine with it.”
“You don’t know what you’re saying. You want me, I can tell. The way you look at me isn’t an act, princess. I can feel your want, and it pulls me in like a worm on a hook.“
“Do mental issues run in your family? You’re as delusional as your father,” I spit out.
“I’m not the delusional one, you are, princess, or at least you have a bad case of denial. I know you feel the same pull as I do. I feel tethered to you, and if you opened your eyes and stop being so damn stubborn, you’d see the link too. I’m going to table this conversation for now. My father hates to be kept waiting and we’ve already wasted enough time. I wish I could tell him we were delayed doing something more fun, like you riding my dick, but we have time for that later.”
“In your dreams,” I retort. It’s the only comeback I can think of. I’m starting to think Marcus is bipolar as well as insane. What I don’t want to think is that he’s right.
“That’s the thing, princess. You have been in my dreams a lot lately.”
Ignoring the omission I say, “lets go,” as I slip on the heels and walk to the door.
When I turn the knob, nothing happens because I was the one who spelled it in the first place, and Marcus follows, relieved he got out of touching the door. In the hall, I let him take my hand in his, as he leads me through the halls. We enter a room that was more like a great hall you would expect to see in a castle. In the center of the room is a super long table with Vlad seated at the head. When he sees us, he rises and takes my hand in his and kisses it.
“Amethyst, my sweet violet. I’m glad you were able to join us this evening.”
I can’t help the wince when he calls me violet. That’s Caleb’s name for me, not his.
“Don’t call me that,” I snap.
A look of anger crosses his face, but just as quickly as it came, it disappears and he’s back to his jolly insane self.
“Have a seat dear,” he says, pulling out a chair right next to him on his right side.
With no choice, I sit. The sooner this dinner is over, the sooner I can return to my room and figure a way out of this mess. I can’t keep waiting around for my princes to save me. Despite what Marcus calls me, I’m no princess. I’m a Queen, and Elsa could totally take care of herself.
I thought Marcus would sit in one of the empty chairs next to me, but to my relief, he sits next to his father on his left side. With a snap of Vlad's fingers, servers come out and place plates full of food around us. With everyone focused on their plates, I sneak a glances at Vlad’s other dinner guests. Some were down right freaky, like the reptilian man I saw earlier, but what they all had in common were they’re utterly beautiful. Some you could tell why Vlad collected them, like the beautiful fairy with long pink hair and sparkly pink and green wings. Her wingspan was huge and I knew if Ruby were here, she would totally have wing envy. A vampire with flaming red hair and hazel eyes catches me staring and he winks at me before running his tongue over his sharp fang. Embarrassed at being caught, I look away, only to have my gaze clash against the redhead from the hall. Up close, I see her eyes have silver flecks inside that look like stars twinkling in the night sky.
“You know. Before you showed up, I was Vlad’s treasure,” she sneers.
“Well, we could always draw an X on your forehead and bury you out in the backyard, if being a treasure is so important to you,” I tell her.
Beside me, Vlad chuckles and the redheaded vamp glares even harder. It is impressive. I am prepared to burst in flames any second now, but it’s also funny as shit. Who gets jealous over being some twisted vamp’s toy? As soon as someone else catches Vlad’s attention, he’ll be throwing me to the curb too. Only, I’m smart enough to get out before then. When she sees the smirk on my face, the silver sparks in her eyes glow and a black fog leaves her body heading straight towards me. In the background, I hear Marcus’ pain filled shout, “no” as he jumps up from the table, making his chair crash to the floor. The black fog surrounds me and in a panicked attempt, I murmur a defense spell on the fly.
Go back to thee, three times three
No harm to me
Nefarious deed
Turns back on thee
Three times three
Instantly, the black fog disappears in a poof of silver sparkles, and the redhead vamp shrieks in utter disbelief before rising from her chair and coming after me, but before she can touch me, Vlad grabs her by the neck and lifts her straight in the air.
“You tried to destroy what is mine,” he shouts. You could practically feel the fury vibrating off his body.
Fighting to gasp for air she chokes, “I’m sorry,” as tears run down her face.
The apology falls on deaf ears. If anything, it makes him even angrier, and he snaps her neck like a twig, dropping her lifeless body to the floor, taking his seat once again like he didn’t just kill someone.
“Wow,” I mutter, looking wide eyed and rightfully afraid.
“Is there something you’d like to say, my dear?”
“Is this what I’m to expect? As soon as you get bored and find a new flavor of the month, you’ll snap my neck and take me out like you did her?” I reply with disgust riddled in my voice.
“She knew the rules. She forfeited her life as soon as she went after you. She’s lucky you’re so strong, or I would have tortured her before killing her,” he replies, and I stare at him in horror. “Anyone else have something to say about your new sister?” Vlad questions, addressing the others at the table.
Wisely, they keep their heads down and mouths shut. When I look over at Marcus, he’s still staring in disgust at the dead vamp on the floo
r.
“Can I go back to my room?” I ask in a small voice. My appetite is officially gone. Watching someone get killed will do that.
“Not yet, pet. I have a surprise for you,” Vlad answers. Pet. How many nicknames does this asshole have for me?
“If it’s more murder, I can do without,” I say drly.
“Careful, pet. For now, I find your smart mouth enduring. Don’t push me.”
His threat is clear and wisely, I shut my mouth. There's no point in pushing crazy. For all I know, he could be one marble short in losing his shit. When he sees I’m not going to argue, he snaps his fingers and Caleb and Nolan are escorted into the dining hall by sleeping beauty himself, Hulk. As soon as I see them, I jump up from my chair and run straight into their arms. Caleb is the first to catch me, and he holds me tight, murmuring how much he loves me in my neck. Next, his brother takes me and kisses me senseless.
“Fuck, sugar we missed you.” Nolan murmurs against my lips.
“Aww isn’t this sweet?” Marcus snorts. You could practically hear the jealousy laced in his words, which of course, Caleb picks up on.
“What’s going on?” Caleb growls.
“My sons. I’m so glad you made it home safe and sound. Although, I expected you sooner with our little gem in tow. It’s a good thing Marcus was able to retrieve her for me, and it seems he’s gotten quite attached.
I hear the accusation in Vlad words, but luckily, my men don’t fall for it.
“Amethyst is quite beautiful. It’s no wonder Marcus is confused, but we’re here now,” Nolan starts.
“We‘ve been here since this morning actually, but we were detained. Do you know anything about that sire?” Caleb finishes his brother's train of thought.
“It's a big house,” is all Vlad says, like that answers anything. Probably in his head, but for those who live in the real world, I needed an explanation. I’ve been sulking in my room thinking they’ve given up on me, and it turns out they were here since this freakin’ morning.
