“Ow,” I deadpanned, blinking up at the dusty, three-tiered chandelier.
A tiny face appeared over mine, blocking out the light from the hanging
ornament. Her chestnut hair was streaked in hues of gold and red. Large
brown eyes, framed by thick lashes glared down at me. The little spitfire
couldn’t have been older than eight.
“You’re Miles’s sister,” I deduced as she pressed a blade to my throat.
“Where’s my brother?” she demanded, her voice high-pitched and
whimsical. “What did you do to him?”
“Funny story, sweetheart, but—”
A burst of green light appeared in her hands and rammed straight into my
chest. I arched my back against the blistering pain coursing through me.
“Motherfucker!” I screamed, staring at her with newfound appreciation. I
had assumed she was human like her brother, but apparently, Spitfire here
was a Mage.
But wait…
My shadows caressed her cheeks with surprising tenderness, and my
confusion grew exponentially.
She was a Mage...but she was also human.
A hybrid.
“Impossible,” I whispered, widening my eyes.
“I’ll ask you again, mother trucker,” she sneered. “Where. Is. My.
Brother?”
THIRTY-FIVE
Z
I remembered the day my parents died vividly.
I didn’t want to remember, didn’t want to be hounded by those
memories. For years after their deaths, nightmares pummeled me. I
couldn’t escape from their threatening, damning blows.
All I could see were the Shifters barreling through our front door and
gripping my mother’s hair. She screamed for me to run, to hide, but I was
helpless to do anything but stare up at her.
Dad had run forward, sword raised, but he had been batted aside as if he
was nothing but a pesky bug. When he had fallen to the ground, two more
Shifters converged on him, tearing into his flesh.
“Run!” Mother’s eyes were shimmering with unshed tears as the Shifter
on top of her grabbed the waistband of her pants and pulled. “Gabriella, run!”
I learned that day that monsters didn’t always come out in the dark.
Sometimes, they lurked in broad daylight.
Those memories crashed over me now like a tidal wave as I stared up at
Aaliyah. Her pretty face was juxtaposed by the harsh, manic glint in her eyes.
She looked...mad.
And no, not mad as in hostile.
Mad as in crazed. Manic. Unnerved.
Her words echoed in my head like the steady beat of a drum.
Sister. Sister. Sister.
Was it a figure of speech? A way to unsettle me?
Tilting my chin up, I met her eyes. It was strange to know such an angelic
female could be so lethal.
Hell, maybe we were sisters. We both had a tendency to kill first and ask
questions later.
“I knew you would come for him,” Aaliyah said, nodding at Jax. My
Vampire mate snarled sharply, eyes fixed solely on me. He looked as if he
was seconds from jumping down the staircase and devouring me alive.
And not in a good way.
“What did you do to him?” I demanded, eyeing Jax warily. There was no
recognition in his gaze. No indication at all that he knew where he was. That
he knew who I was.
“I simply helped him.” Aaliyah shrugged her shoulders, moving to stand
between the two gargoyles. “I made him...gluttonous.” Jax growled again,
pupils dilating and turning the irises completely red.
Blood red.
“Fuck,” Lupe cursed, stepping forward slightly to shield me. He couldn’t
help his overprotective tendencies any more than I could.
Devlin, Killian, and Bash also moved in tandem, forming a line in front
of me that Aaliyah would have to break through in order to get to me.
“What do you want with me?” I demanded. It was the easiest question to
ask.
Aaliyah’s smile grew as she languidly pet the wings of her monsters.
“I can’t give away all of my secrets, now can I?” she purred, throwing her
head back in laughter. “But I’ll give you a hint. The opposite of up is down.
The opposite of right is left. The opposite of good is bad.”
“What the fuck are you talking about, witch?” Devlin demanded, his
power sparking. I didn’t know what he would be able to do without someone
making a wish, but his show of strength was formidable. He practically
exuded raw power.
“Witch?” Aaliyah laughed again. No, not laughed. Cackled. Her blood-
red lips curved into a malevolent smile. “Try Demon, boy.” Once more, she
focused on me, and I felt something shift inside of me at being the sole
occupant of her gaze. I would almost describe it as...familiarity. It wasn’t the
same connection I felt with my mates, but it was eerily similar. No, I didn’t
want to bang the chick suddenly or anything like that, but it was as if
something fundamental inside of me changed and contorted. “I don’t want
your men, Z,” she hissed. “They’re loyal to a fault.” She jabbed a finger at
Jax, still snarling behind her. “That one didn’t break no matter what I did.”
Red distorted my vision at the thought of her attempting to seduce one of
my mates.
Because the bitch, though psycho, was fucking beautiful.
“Just come with me, and this will all be over,” she said irritatedly.
“Can you tell me why?” I pressed, quirking a brow. She rolled her eyes as
if I was a petulant child asking repeatedly if we were at our destination yet.
“You’re so irritating.” She took a step backwards, a wry smile playing on
her luscious lips. “Grab her for me, will you?”
Without preamble, the gargoyles leaped into action.
They were strong, but they weren’t smart. Immediately, they dove
straight towards me, their wings flapping erratically.
Before their stone hands could come into contact with my arms, Lupe
lunged forward in his Bear form. He bit down on the first Gargoyle’s arm,
shaking his head wildly until it broke free.
Holy shit! My mate was a savage.
The Gargoyle didn’t even react to his severed limb. Instead, he grabbed at
my arm a second time as his shit head teammate tugged on the opposite one.
Bash and Devlin sprung into action, both lethal despite their slender
frames. Bash released a green fireball at first one Gargoyle and then the
second, cracks appearing across their faces. Devlin parried a blow from the
first Gargoyle, sweeping his sword out to slice at his legs.
“I got your back, Z!” Killian called, holding up his dagger. “Errr...your
front technically.”
“Have you ever used that thing?” Bash teased, ducking before the second
Gargoyle could land a hit. “I don’t want you stabbing yourself or our mate.”
“You’re so funny,” Killian responded dryly, attempting to toss the dagger
in the air and catch it. He missed—obviously—and scrambled to pick it back
up. “I could totally seduce the Gargoyles to stop fighting and masturbate.”
“What would they excrete?” Devlin joined the conversation, cutting off
one of the Gargoyles’ hands. “Stones?”
“I can
find out.”
“Please don’t,” I pleaded, focusing my attention on Aaliyah. She was
standing on the front steps, a tiny smile on her lips as she watched the scene
unfold. She didn’t seem at all upset that her monsters were getting destroyed
mere inches away from her. If anything, she seemed thrilled.
As if she could sense me watching her, she turned towards me
completely.
“I always knew you would attract the strongest mates,” she mused. “They
need someone like you to balance out their darkness.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I screamed, racing forward.
“Don’t act like you know me.”
“But I do.” She tilted her head to the side as she watched me approach. “I
know you better than you know yourself.”
Cryptic, crazy-ass bitch.
“So what?” I laughed humorlessly. “Are you going to kill me?”
“What made you think I wanted to kill you?” she asked seriously. “I just
—” Her eyes widened marginally as blood drizzled down her chin. Slowly,
her head lowered to the knife protruding from her chest, directly through her
heart.
Jax stood behind her, panting, the manic look from before nowhere to be
found. Incandescent rage darkened his features as he stared at Aaliyah with
an all-consuming hatred.
“You foolish, stupid Vampire,” she gasped, dropping to her knees. When
she laughed this time, blood coated her teeth, staining them shades of red and
pink. “That’s not the way you kill a Demon.”
With a ferocious roar, she pulled the knife out of her chest and whirled on
my Vampire mate. Jax’s gloating expression turned stricken as he stumbled
back a step.
“No!” I cried, racing forward. Behind me, I could hear the sound of metal
hitting stone. Stone hitting flesh. Pained grunts and snarls.
“I’m truly sorry, Z,” Aaliyah hissed, bearing down on my mate. “He left
me with no other choice.”
She raised her dagger, and for a brief moment, her form changed. It was
almost as if she was an illusion—her beauty was a mask that hid a truer evil.
Her face turned red laced with golden veins visible through her papery skin.
Horns heightened through her fiery red hair, and leathery wings unfurled
from behind her.
She looked...demonic.
“No!” I screamed again as I met Jax’s resigned gaze. Tears flooded his
eyes as he mouthed three words to me. Three words that cracked open my
already broken heart until I was weeping blood. “No!”
Aaliyah stabbed the knife into Jax’s heart, and I watched his eyes glaze
over. Blood bloomed on his chest as she twisted the copper handle, lodging it
even deeper.
Tears of rage and despair trailed down my cheeks as I raised my own
dagger, preparing to cut open Aaliyah’s chest and bathe in her innards.
No. No. No. No.
I couldn’t think of any other word. I didn’t want to. All I could see was
my mate falling, the life draining from his eyes.
The air around Aaliyah began to shimmer as she called upon a portal.
Blood still seeped through her emerald dress as glanced at me over her
shoulder.
“I’m truly sorry,” she whispered as she dove inside the portal. Before I
could follow her, it disappeared from view with a bright flash.
Any thoughts of revenge diminished as I fell to my knees beside a
gasping Jax.
“No. No. No,” I sobbed, putting pressure on the wound. “You’re going to
be okay. You’re going to be fine.”
“It’s okay,” he stuttered out, gasping around the blood in his mouth.
“You’re going to be fine,” I repeated inarticulately.
Not Jax. Not him. No. No. No.
“It’s okay.” His bright eyes stared up at me with more coherence and
clarity than ever before. I had the distinct feeling that he was seeing me.
Truly seeing me for the first time. “Dying in the arms of the woman I love—”
“You’re not dying!” I screamed, pushing down harder on the wound.
Blood soaked through my fingers, but I didn’t let up.
“I love you so damn much,” he whispered. “I’ll always be with you.”
“Shut your fucking mouth, Jax Vampire. If you die, I’ll go into the
afterlife, bring you back, and then kill you myself.”
He smiled weakly, his face creased with pain, as the light gradually began
to leave his eyes. I never knew it was possible to see a soul physically leave a
person’s body before, but that was what happened. One moment, there was
life in his eyes, and the next, there was nothing. They were just…eyes.
Opened and blind eyes.
“No,” I gasped, shaking his shoulder. “No, no, no.” I pounded my fists
against the ground on either side of his suddenly still body. “No!”
Something inside of me snapped.
Something inside of me was set loose—a monster I hadn’t even realized
hid just beneath the surface.
I screamed—infusing all of my anger and rage and heartbreak into that
one soul-wrenching sound. It felt as if my heart had been dropped and had
shattered into thousands of unfixable pieces. Pain like I never felt before
consumed me. Choked me. Killed me.
No!
Blinding light emitted from my hands where they were still pressed
against the ground on either side of Jax. I could feel electricity vibrating
through my veins as my body shook with raw, unrestrained power. Heat
sizzled through my system as I focused on Jax’s unmoving body. Fury
pummeled me from all sides as the light grew and grew and grew until it
encompassed Jax’s entire form.
The world around me was still and silent. All I could hear was my volatile
heartbeat as a flurry of shivers skipped through my veins.
Jax.
Jax.
Memories bombarded me.
Jax’s broken body hanging in a cell. His lips stained red as he fed off the
dead human. His ferocious snarl as he stared at me with no sign of
recognition. His body moving in tandem to mine as he took us both to the
peak of pleasure. His lips a flurry against my own. His warning about
Aaliyah.
My dreams hadn’t actually been dreams...somehow, someway, I had been
able to see Jax. To visit him. To save him. To bring him back from the cusp
of insanity.
My heart splintered down the center, fissures cracking open the entire
organ, as I focused the blinding light on Jax. Only Jax.
There was still so much I didn’t know about him. So much I hadn’t had
the chance to learn. For as long as I’d known him, he had been ruled by
madness. I was only just beginning to learn about the man beneath it all.
What made him decide not to feed? What had he endured?
What was his favorite color?
I screamed, pressing my hands to Jax’s chest where the bright light had
congregated.
He needs to live. He needs to live.
He needs to live.
Color began to return to his face as his eyes fluttered slightly. The
vibrancy that had been absent only seconds before returned as he smiled up at
me.
“Z…” he whispered, his voice cla
wing at something raw and bleeding in
my heart.
“Jax.” Before I could say anything else, darkness rushed at me from all
sides. It wrapped around me like a tightening leash, and I was utterly helpless
to resist its thrall.
I allowed the dark waves to carry me away.
THIRTY-SIX
AALIYAH
I cursed vehemently as I exited the portal, landing in an
undignified heap on the cold wood floor.
The asshole Vampire had pushed his luck too far. I could only be
so forgiving.
Stumbling to my feet, I waited for my flesh to begin stitching itself back
together. That hurt more than the actual wound.
I crossed the bamboo floorboards and ducked into my bedroom. The
windows had been drawn, just the way I liked them, and candles lined the
windowsills. It was my home, my sanctuary, my one escape from this
disgusting world and the sheep that resided in it.
Soon, they would all be dead, Nightmares and humans alike.
A forlorn feeling—one I wasn’t used to—settled in my chest like an
uncomfortable weight at the thought of Gabriella. It wasn’t unbearable by
any means. It just sat there, like a mosquito bite that didn’t itch quite enough
to scratch.
She’d never forgive me for killing her mate.
Hopefully, she would understand why I did what I did. I refused to accept
anything else.
“Can I get you anything, mistress?” one of my servants inquired, bowing
her head submissively. Mali, I believed her name was. One of Gabriella’s
little friends.
To me, she was nothing but a fucking sheep.
I smiled at her, allowing her to see the madness that swirled in the abyss
of my eyes. My beautiful face hid something even more beautiful, more
enticing.
Darkness.
“I’m fine, my faithful servant,” I purred, pulling back my dress to stare at
the rapidly healing wound.
Why did Gabriella have to find the most hot-headed mates in the world?
Stupid, stupid girl.
She would come to me eventually, though. It was the only way she’d
survive the poison I had Zack administer.
When Mali bowed, attempting to make a quick getaway, I threw my
power at her with a simple flick of my wrist. Immediately, her back hit the
wall, trapped in my carefully crafted web.
“One more thing, dearest,” I said softly. When I met her eyes, I was