Chapter 14
Lynx
I’m about to lose my patience. And my mind. Maybe both.
Ever since we buried Sable—or at least, her corpse—the energy in the manor has shifted ever so slightly.
Not that we walk around holding hands and singing songs around a fire or some shit.
The incessant bickering is still there; so is the sharp snap of her tongue when I try to fuck around with her or throw something through her to grab her attention.
She still hates my guts, and I don’t blame her.
I did kill her, after all.
I pause my chanting and stare at the wall of symbols I carved according to the markings in the grimoire. The thought of Sable never forgiving me for murdering her has crossed my mind, and before, I didn’t care.
Do I care now?
No. It would be ridiculous to have any sort of emotion toward someone whose neck I snapped without even blinking. She’s just a ghost. No one. A girl who tragically died trying to contact her sister’s spirit.
As soon as the link is broken, I’ll leave. She’ll be nothing but a memory, still caged inside this house.
And she’ll hate me even more.
I pause for a long moment, then lower the useless grimoire to the table and pinch the bridge of my nose. Nope. I can’t go there and think about her and all the reasons why she’ll always despise me. Despite that moment of vulnerability she had as we settled her into her final resting place.
A shallow grave, where wildlife can easily dig her up.
All she wanted to do was summon her sister, and I condemned her to a prison.
Maybe if she can help me break the curse tying me to Hell, I can find a way to either locate her sister or push Sable to the other side. The only reason she hasn’t passed on is because her soul isn’t ready.
She has one last purpose before she can rest.
I need to find out what that is.
And if that purpose is talking to her sister? Then, well, fuck.
I grab the heavy grimoire, shove it under my arm, and march to the other side of the manor—the furthest room from my own and the room she was decaying in. Because, of course, she would try to hide from me at night, and lodge a chair up against the door to stop me from easily getting in.
I grip the book, teleport through the door—and freeze at the scene that greets me.
Barely fitting on the bed, tail sprawled across the floor, Tidus—fucking Tony—has his head nuzzled into the crook of Sable’s neck, while her arm rests on top of him in a half embrace. Fucking cuddling while they sleep.
The leather of the grimoire creaks under my tightening grip. I intentionally drop it on the bedside table harder than necessary. Sable could sleep through a storm, so she simply groans lightly and cuddles closer to Tidus. His yellow eyes peel open, staring right at me.
“Get the fuck out of the bed.”
He huffs and nuzzles into her neck, then peels his lips back when I step on his tail.
“I won’t repeat myself.”
And just my luck, the first rays of the rising sun pour between the curtains.
My hands fist as Tidus shifts back into his annoying fucking self.
The tail shortens first until it’s gone, then his eyes change back to their usual green, and his body shrinks, fur receding into skin until he’s as naked as the day he was unfortunately born.
My right eye twitches as he smirks, puts his arm around a sleeping Sable, and gives me the middle finger.
That’s it. I’m going to kill him.
I grab the motherfucker’s ankle and yank him off the bed so hard, his useless form catapults into the opposite wall with a bang. The plaster cracks and photos smash, and the pretty princess Sable jolts awake screaming.
And it fucking hurts my ears.
Can this morning get any worse?
Sable gasps and slaps her hands over her eyes. “He’s naked!”
Very fucking aware, ghost girl.
Tony stumbles onto his feet, putting his hands on his hips, chest puffed out and dick at half-mast while she scowls—or gags. Both are appropriate responses. “Dude, what the fuck? If you’re into her, then just say so. Bro code and all.”
“If you keep using that goddamn mouth, I’m going to rip off your jaw and shove it up Tidus’s ass.”
He feigns disbelief, flinching back as the overgrown bush around his family jewels continues to curse the room. “You wouldn’t dare.” He laughs. “Ain’t you the cutest though. I don’t smell her on you, so I know you haven’t screwed her. There’s no claim, right?”
“I’m sure Nala would love to hear you saying those words.”
“She isn’t my girlfriend. Commitment issues, remember?”
“Put some fucking clothes on!” Sable growls, still covering her eyes, but we ignore her as I step forward, blocking Tony’s junk from her view.
“Back off,” I grit out. A snarl. A warning. For what, I have no idea. But the thought of him being anywhere near her right now has my temperature spiking hotter than the flaming pits.
I know from the look in his eye, the mischievous one he throws out when he’s fucking around, he’s trying to push my buttons, but I’m not playing his game. He’s not going anywhere near her. Not if I can help it. I’ll even fight Tidus if I have to.
It’s not that I have a thing for Sable. Him getting into her bed will only cause problems.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this way,” Tony muses.
He grabs his pants and lazily tugs them on. Tony glances at Sable, who’s holding the duvet up to her neck with one hand and covering her eyes with the other.
I like Tony. He’s, annoyingly, my only friend, and I trust him to a certain extent. In Hell, we’re inseparable. We’d talk, mainly about what it was like when we were humans and what we’d do to go back to those times. I consider him a form of family.
But right now, I’m going to blind the asshole if he doesn’t stop looking at Sable like he wants to devour her.
“Maybe better if I come back another time?”
“Just put the rest of your fucking clothes on.” I lean down and grab his shirt, then toss it at his face. “And stop looking at her. She’s already dead and won’t be here for much longer.”
He quirks a brow. “Where’s she going?”
“Stop talking about me like I’m not here,” she snaps.
I look at Sable, still hiding under the duvet, and talk a volume or two louder. “She’s trapped here for some reason. In this house. I’m tethered to her since she summoned me, so I assume the connection will break when she passes on.”
He hums, finally fucking clothed, crossing his arms as he looks between us two. “So you ain’t banging her?”
A pillow flies across the room, missing Tony.
Sable gets to her feet and marches straight for us.
“I exist, you know, you assholes? And I am not fucking either of you two fucked-up perverts.” She spins to glare at my friend.
“Tell me why I can’t pass on and have to be stuck here with that psychopath instead? ”
Tony sighs and unfolds his arms. “I can try to find out.” He turns to me.
“Big dog needs me back and will want an update on you. It’s pissed, but even It can’t drag you back to Hell yet.
” Then he winks. “There’s still time to fuck her.
She wants you. I can sense the tension between you both, and she definitely smells ready. ”
I step forward to drive my fist into his face, but he launches himself back, laughing. Something utterly glorious happens instead: Sable’s knuckles hit him square in the jaw—a perfect, magical right hook—and he staggers back, rubbing his jaw.
“Ow,” he cries, rubbing his jaw and looking like a betrayed puppy.
I really am a pathetic prick because my cock is now hard enough to be used as a weapon. That was the hottest shit I’ve ever seen.
“I was kidding!”
He wasn’t kidding. By the threatening step Sable takes his way, she sees through him as well.
I can’t have her punch him again. It might make me come without being touched, and that’s a level of low I can’t afford.
“Give me a day or two.” He eyes both of us warily, backing away with his hands up in surrender. “I’m not sure what the time zone difference is down there, but I’m hoping to be back soon.”
He salutes us and scrambles out of here the second a portal—a swirling void of darkness emanating faint heat that stings my already burning face—opens behind him.
Sable leans forward, as if she’s trying to look inside, but I wrap my hand around her elbow and pull her back against my chest. “You’ll fry before you can even get to the other side.”
She stills, muscles tensing against me as the moment suspends, and suddenly, I swear I can smell her—strawberries and desire wraps around me, and fuck.
I’m also very aware of my cock pressing up against her.
There isn’t a chance in this world she can’t feel it.
She’s turned on, so am I, and fuck do I want to press into her and hear her gasp.
She yanks herself away from me and moves to the other side of the room, and I glare at her.
My gaze flies back to the portal; the need to go through it, to end this fucking madness once and for all, is intense. It’s not like we can stay here, and as far as I’m aware, I’m bound to her, so who’s to say I won’t vanish into nothing when she passes on?
With one last lingering look at her face—taking in her brown eyes, that long, two-toned hair, the way she looks beautiful without even trying—I take a deep breath and push through the portal before it can ripple into nothing.
Usually, I’d land on my knees at the gates.
It’s not the first time I’ve tried to either escape or transport around Hell, but this time, my lungs cease to work, and blistering heat encapsulates me until I’m gasping from the pressure.
A fist I can’t see grabs at my chest, gripping so tightly I yell with pain before a force hits me so hard, I’m catapulted back through the portal.
My back hits the wall of the bedroom, my vision blurry but enough to see Sable stepping in front of me.
Just when I think she’s going to yell at me for trying to leave her here all alone, she looks down at me with a sad, pitiful gleam in her eyes as she shakes her head.
“Guess Hell doesn’t want you either.”