Blood Sacrifice (The Astral Chronicles #1)

Chapter Twenty-SixSalvator

Chapter Twenty-Six

Salvator

Revenge was best served cold and bloody, and the streets of Lima flowed with the blood of our enemies. I sat staring at the monitors in our control centre. Tarrack had logged every single mission our people had implemented, how many wolves and warlocks were killed on Balor’s side, and how many we had lost. Even one life on our side was one too many. We deserved our freedom after what they had done to us.

“Our guest is in a holding cell downstairs, and he has magical cuffs on both his hands and feet,” Jethro said as he walked into the room. “Maia put a ward on the room that should block locator spells.”

The set of his jaw said he wasn’t happy there were witches on the base after everything that had happened. I didn’t blame him, but the only reason they were here was because Maia was working her ass off to keep Luna alive. I had visited her when I returned from the mission, but her chest barely moved to breathe and her beautiful face was pale against the darkness of her hair.

“Any sight of Balor or Aisha?” I asked everyone in the room.

“Nope,” Tarrack replied. “I put the image of their faces into facial recognition software to review all the mission video. There was no sight of them.”

“Get our trackers out there, and tell them to hunt under every stone big enough for them to hide under,” I commanded. “I want them found, and preferably their heads removed so they can’t do any more harm.”

“I’m fucking exhausted with all this,” Jethro replied, collapsing into a chair and spreading his legs out in front of him. “We thought we were keeping him at bay for years, when the reality was that he was fucking controlling us.”

“Why don’t we get one of these witches to brew a locator spell?” Paulo asked, raising his head from the desk where he had had it rested on his arms. “Who better to track magic than those who wield it?”

“Do you have anything personal of either of the people you are seeking?” Owen asked, startling me. I had no idea how long he’d been standing there, but the guy was like a heart attack—silent and deadly, and you only realised he was there too late.

“Such as?” I enquired.

He shrugged one shoulder. “A piece of clothing, some hair, a chunk of their flesh.”

I eyeballed him. “I try to avoid keeping pieces of my enemies as souvenirs,” I replied dryly.

“Pity. They are advantageous to have for a number of reasons.”

“Maybe someone should search Aisha’s room?” Tarrack suggested. “She insisted on the same guestroom every time she was here. I tended to leave it for her to save any temper tantrums.”

My eyebrows shot up. I didn’t realise she even stayed here overnight, and assumed she returned home to her coven. I met Jethro’s gaze, and he silently stood up, checked over Tarrack’s shoulder, and left the room.

“I doubt we have anything belonging to Balor,” I said.

“This warlock has lived centuries,” Owen replied. “Does he not have any children?”

“I’m over four hundred years old and don’t have any children,” I pointed out.

“You are not trying to immortalise yourself,” Owen said. “Vampires, like every race, had good and bad leaders. Over the years, I observed the evil megalomaniacs tended to breed excessively because the time might come that they needed a vessel to put their slimy soul into. Why would this Balor be any different?”

I rubbed my hands down my face. “I know I’m going to regret asking this, but when did body-swapping start?”

“When creatures started making deals with devils,” Dominic said from somewhere to my left. “We live in disturbing times.”

“Marvellous,” I replied. “In answer to the initial question, I have no idea if he has any children. The warlocks tended to keep themselves separate to everyone else, having their own temple they lived in.”

“Did he keep specific warlocks close to him at all times, maybe on the premise he was training them?” Dominic asked. “It means he would be able to raise his son without alerting anyone’s suspicions.”

I cast my mind back to when we all lived together before the night he opposed the emperor. “He had two that were particularly close to him and carried out his orders, but that was a long time ago, and anything could have happened in the years since he disappeared.”

“It is a question you should put to the prisoners downstairs,” Dominic continued. “People tend to see things without realising the significance.”

“Feel free to question whoever you wish,” I replied, sitting back in the chair and staring at the ceiling.

A feeling of dread washed over me, rendering me immobile for several seconds. Then, I was on my feet and sprinting out of the room. Whatever was happening, Luna needed me. I felt her pain and distress through our mating bond, her mark on me burning with intensity. My wolf had combined his strength with mine, and instead of opening the door, I pulled it off its hinges and out of the frame, leaving it lying on the floor.

“Luna,” I said, stalking my way into the room and expecting to find her under attack.

“Her pulse is erratic and she’s fitting,” Maia said. “I can’t stabilise her.”

Luna’s entire abdomen lifted off the bed, her fingers spread wide as if trying to reach something. Instinct took over and I walked straight to the bed, climbing on and straddling her body, my fingers lacing through Luna’s, and my forehead pressed to hers.

“Stay with me, baby,” I said against her lips. “Don’t you dare fucking leave me.”

My fingers tightened around hers, and for the first time in forever, I prayed to whoever was out there watching over our miserable lives. Luna needed to come back to me because life only made sense when she was close to me. In her absence, I had been a miserable excuse for a lycan, spellbound, and nothing more than a puppet. Her love had set me free and returned me to the man I had been before.

She shook under me, her body fighting an unseen force.

I held her, talking lowly for only her to hear, my body covering hers in a blanket of protection until the movements quietened and her body relaxed. I continued to whisper to her long after the sun set outside and the night creatures began to emerge.

When Luna had stilled, I kicked off my boots and crawled into the bed beside her, tugging her close to me, and wrapping myself around her. I should have done this in the first place instead of sitting watching her. Luna belonged in my arms, and no matter what the future brought, I would stay by her side to the very end.

I must have fallen asleep, and when I woke, her body had changed position in the bed. Instead of me curved around behind her, she was lying on top of me the way she tended to do when we were in bed together, her hand on my stomach.

I lay staring at the ceiling, my fingers trailing up and down her back as I tried to organise my thoughts. There was so much in my world that needed done, yet there was nowhere else I needed to be more than beside my mate. I ran everything that had happened from the raids through my head, including the men in that final room, and the significance of the map.

“You’re thinking too hard.” Her voice was raspy from not being used for days, her words slow and low.

Every muscle in my body froze and I dared not look down while I debated if her voice had been in my head. Luna’s fingers glided over my stomach and she snuggled closer, making the little purring noises she tended to make when she was sleepy.

My fingers combed through her hair, gently tugging her head back until I was staring into those huge, dark eyes that drew me in and mesmerised me. “You tried to die on me,” I accused in a low tone.

“I tried to save you,” she replied simply. “I refuse to live in a world where you don’t exist.”

My thumb skimmed over her bottom lip. “What makes you think I can survive in this world without you?”

Her tongue darted out to move across the seam of her mouth. “I need to get up, there is a lot that’s happened.”

My eyebrows shot up since she had been lying in this bed for days driving me slowly insane. We had been the ones out slaughtering the enemy. “You need to stay in this bed until you’ve regained your strength.”

She struggled to try and push herself up, but my arm held her firm because right now I needed her close, to reassure myself she was alive and still with me.

“Are you not supposed to be an alpha asshole?” Luna said against my chest. “Do you not have rules against snuggling?”

“This isn’t a snuggle, I’m restraining you with my arms.”

Her leg snaked across my hips and she crawled on top of me, the tip of her nose touching mine. My hands curved around her ass to hold her steady.

“You’re going to make me think that you care about me,” Luna said, her eyelashes kissing mine when she blinked.

I touched her mating mark. “You’re mine,” I replied.

“I own a lot of handbags that are mine,” Luna pointed out. “I’m not a possession.”

I had spent several lifetimes locking my emotions down and ensuring no one ever saw behind my mask. She stared into my eyes, and I saw the vulnerability in their depths. Surely she knew that she was my entire world?

I rolled Luna onto her back, my hands cupping her face. “Luna, you must know that I love you with every single beat of heart?” Her eyes widened. “If you had died, I would have willingly stabbed myself through that heart because my life would be worthless without you.”

She chewed the corner of her lip, blinking once. Her silence was almost deafening since she didn’t reply for several seconds. “Mates doesn’t mean love is involved, it’s a pairing of cosmic compatibility.”

The woman was trying to drive me to the brink of insanity. Fated mates were rare, and I’d encountered very few over my long life. Mating was different as it was about procreation.

“Luna.” I stopped and stared at her until I got her full attention. “I’ve been in love with you from the moment you walked out of that temple to get water and I saw you in the moonlight. I abandoned my pack the night the war started to make sure you got to safety. From the moment I had to walk away from you, I haven’t as much as looked at another woman because the only one I wanted to be with was beyond my reach.”

I pressed my forehead to hers, our breathes mingling.

“My heart stopped beating when you stepped in front of me to accept that curse in a selfless sacrifice. I’ve walked this world alone long enough, Luna. I want a home where we can live together, start a family, sit and watch the sunset together at night, and wake up beside you every morning.” I gave in to temptation and kissed her since I had been terrified that my last words to her had been filled with hurt before she saved my life. “Mates is about a chemical reaction because our wolves sense who would create the strongest pups with us. Fated mates mean that you are the other half of my soul.”

Her fingers tightened at my waist as I spoke, her eyes becoming huge orbs of light that allowed me to see into her soul. Luna was a powerful and beautiful woman, and yet there was a vulnerability in her that made her doubt her worth to me.

“I love you, Luna. Always have and always will, time never changed how I feel about you.”

A tear slipped down her cheek, her lips pursing together as she composed herself. “I’ve loved you so much that you were alive in my head even when we were a world apart. There were times I had conversations with you, and imagined your reply. I used to fantasize what our life could have been like if we ran away together, if we would have children, and what we would have named them.” Her fingers trailed up my back. “You were with me every step of the way these past four hundred years.”

My lips found hers again, the soft kiss a sacred vow to each other to seal what had been said. There was so much more I wanted to say, but now wasn’t the time, so I allowed my lips to speak the words against hers for only us to share. We clung to each other, allowing me to convince myself that she was alive and in my arms, something that I had feared would never happen again.

We finally broke apart, our breathing erratic, but our gazes were locked together with a new found confidence.

“I need to tell you about my time in Purgatory,” Luna said, her hands gripping my shoulders.

My brow creased in confusion. “When were you in Purgatory?” I asked, pushing my weight up onto my arms so I could peer down at her.

“When I was lying in this bed,” Luna replied. “I need to share all the information with everyone before my memories fade.”

Even though I needed to stay in this bed with her until I knew she was safe, I also realised the importance of what she was saying. I climbed off the bed, holding my hand out to her to help her up.

“I need a shower first, and then a cup of tea,” Luna said, allowing me to fuss over her as she swayed when she stood up.

I wrapped my arms under her ass and lifted her. This was the hospital wing, and everything in it made my wolf howl in my head, so I walked through the back passages of the building toward my room. Luna hugged me in a koala-style embrace, her arms and legs tight around my body, her head tucked into my shoulder.

“Where are we?” Luna asked when I set her on the floor.

“My room. I hate hospitals,” I replied. “This section has personal rooms that allows pack members to have their own privacy.” The full moon affected wolves in different ways, but hormones tended to run high at that time of the month, and I didn’t appreciate orgies in my conference rooms.

I led Luna into the bathroom, peeling her clothes off one item at a time until her beautiful body was exposed to me. A mark marred her abdomen where she took Aisha’s curse for me. My fingers trailed over it, and I felt her shiver under my touch.

“I wasn’t worth risking your life for,” I said.

Her hand caught mine. “You would never have survived that curse, but I had a chance of fighting it.”

I lifted her long hair over her shoulder, examining the rest of her body, touching her to once again reassure myself that she was here and alive.

“Promise me that you’ll never do anything like that again,” I said, my fingers under her chin lifting her gaze to mine. “I mean it.”

Luna stood on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to my lips. “I can’t do that, because I refuse to let you die if I can save you.”

I narrowed my eyes at her in a scowl that normally sent my pack members running. Luna’s lips lifted in a provocative grin before she turned toward the shower.

“Are you not going to scrub my back?” she called over her shoulder, and my hand formed a fist at my side as I watched her curved ass climb into the shower.

I closed my eyes and reminded myself she was frail after being unconscious for days, even though we were immortals and tended to heal before regaining consciousness. I hauled my T-shirt over my head and pulled my jeans down my legs, my boots still on the floor in the hospital room.

The warm water had started to steam up the glass of the shower when I stepped into the large cubicle that was big enough to accommodate my hybrid form since I had had temper issues in the past.

My arms wrapped around her waist to tug her against me, my hands moving over her soft skin as I kissed her mating mark.

“I missed your touch,” she moaned when my fingers dipped between her legs, her back arching to give me better access.

My dick hardened at the sound of her deep moan, as it rippled down my spine and left an imprint on me. Luna moaned again and my hips bucked forward. I needed to get myself under control or I was at risk of ravishing her.

I grabbed the large, soft sponge and filled it with an herbal soap that tended to calm me. A neighbouring village made it with local herbs, and it reminded me of running through nature. To distract myself, I lathered Luna’s body, massaging the accompanying shampoo in her hair until I had washed every scent from her but mine.

My thumb brushed over her mating mark, and I watched as she shivered since it connected us at an intimate level. I leaned forward and gently bit down on the area, flicking my tongue the same way I would when I teased her clit.

“Shit!” Luna gasped, her head falling forward, her hands bracing her against the wall. “What are you trying to do to me?”

My hands skimmed over her breasts, my thumbs teasing her nipples while I continued to lick and suck the scar on her shoulder. “I’m experimenting with your mating mark,” I said, scraping my teeth over her sensitive skin.

Her hips bucked against mine, her back arching.

“I want to see you come using the mark my wolf left on you,” I continued. “To see you fall apart as we claim you all over again.” My hand slipped between her legs. Luna tried to clamp her thighs together but I had no intention of letting her escape from my questing fingers.

Luna thumped the wall, her body shaking as she came hard and fast, her muscles contracting against my fingers, and her ass grinding into my groin. My arms took her weight when her legs wobbled and she almost collapsed. I pressed another kiss on the raised mark on her shoulder, tugging her back and continuing to wash her.

She slowly turned in my arms, and a memory of the one time we swam together flashed through my mind, her body outlined by the moonlight. Water cascaded over her head from the shower, my gaze moving to the curve of her breast and down over her abdomen.

“You didn’t experience pleasure,” Luna said in a low tone that made my stomach muscles tense, her fingers gently caressing my erection that was pressed against her abdomen.

“Your body is healed, but you’re still weak,” I replied. “And right now, my wolf is barely on a leash.”

Her hand moved rhythmically over my dick, stroking him in a way which made me thrust into her hand. “Maybe I like it when he loses control,” Luna said. “When he is all fur, claws, and teeth.”

She was the only one able to tame him enough to find her way into our bedroom. He had never allowed anyone into our life after she left. Four hundred years was a long time to have blue balls and the life of celibacy.

Luna dipped suddenly, her mouth engulfing my dick, her hand gripping my base. She worked hard and fast, her head bobbing up and down even as she pumped me rapidly.

“Fuck,” I muttered, locking my knees into place. She was a bad man’s ultimate fantasy, with her dark eyes staring up at me, and her mouth filled with my dick. Right now, there was no good in me as my hips thrust in time with her mouth. That delicious burning lava of desire trickled down my spine and tightened my balls.

I grabbed her hair, trying to warn her, but her cheeks hollowed as she sucked harder. The intensity of the situation made my gums ache as my canines lengthened, my nails sharpening into claws. She was a temptress sent to captivate and ensnare me, and I was her willing slave.

I came hard, my dick pumping cum into her mouth and down her throat, throbbing his release. I pulled her back onto her feet, my mouth crashing into hers, tasting myself as we frantically kissed each other until I could barely breathe and my toes were wrinkling in the water swirling around my feet.

Taking a staggered breath when we pulled apart, I reluctantly pulled back and turned off the water. “I swore I would give you time to heal,” I said, my lips turning up with a rueful smile. “Then I lose control in the shower.”

She stood on her tiptoes to stare me in the eye. “We both know that’s not true. When you lose control, I have teeth marks on my body and claw marks down my back.”

A low growl rumbled in my chest at the thought of her covered in our scent and wearing our marks.

Luna grabbed my hand and brought it to her lower stomach. “I discovered something when I was in Purgatory,” she said, staring up at me. “They explained that I’ve been on a journey most of my life to reach this moment. Mother priestess also explained the main reason I survived the death curse is because our daughter protected me.”

It took several moments for her words to sink in, and then my eyes met hers.

“Daughter?” I queried, the word sticking in my throat as my gaze moved to where she held our hands.

“Your wolf did do that knotting thing and stuck your enormous cock inside me for hours.” She shrugged one slender shoulder. “You did say at the time it was a wolf thing for procreation.”

“Yeah, but I never imagined that was what my wolf was planning.” The bastard had been playing the long game, ensuring he tethered Luna to us in every way he could.

Her fingers tightened around mine and a wave of possessiveness washed over me.

I never believed I would ever have a family of my own, yet Luna stood before me carrying my child. She was more than my mate, she was the beginning and ending of every wish I had ever cast, and I would rain death and misery on anyone who tried to take her from me.