Chapter 15 Temptation
TEMPTATION
CYN
When Ash suggested we follow Raelynn to keep an eye on her, I didn’t think it was necessary. Attending a human ceremony for the dead held no interest for me, and I wanted nothing to do with the woman we now lived with.
But Ezra agreed with Ash, if only to ensure she didn’t run from us. So, on his orders, we loaded onto a crowded bus that reeked of sweat and cheap perfume, headed to another unfamiliar town.
I needed to keep my distance from Raelynn.
From the moment I laid eyes on her, a tug formed behind my ribcage that only relented when I was near her. Whatever brought us to Earth had to be connected to the alien pull.
Whether someone wanted to destabilize the council or sow chaos between the planes, they were using a human to do it, and it was already affecting my brothers.
Ash focused too much on her. His laid-back attitude didn’t hide his interest half as well as he thought. Ash wasn’t interested in people outside of Ezra, Zeke, and me. He did what Ezra’s dad demanded and never let anything distract him.
But I noticed the way he wanted to step in whenever she challenged me.
Remembering how she tested me… How my hand felt wrapped around her throat the first time she stood up to me. The way her rose and plum scent slid over my tongue without even tasting her.
I shuddered.
My chaotic emotions tangled until I couldn’t make sense of my body’s reaction to her, and I didn’t know why.
I couldn’t look deeper into the part of myself that demanded more than pinning her to the wall and fucking her until she passed out while I gorged myself on her blood.
I growled, and Zeke glanced over. I shook my head, and he relaxed against the seat.
Even her blood called to me.
It called to the others too, and none of them made a habit of drinking blood. Ezra and Ash drank a glass occasionally, but nothing like I did. We didn’t bite our donors, but I often played with them beforehand, which made it easier to find willing donors and satisfy two hungers at once.
Ezra and Ash didn’t have the same appetite as I did, nor were they haunted by desires for someone they couldn’t have. Other than him, I’d never wanted to bite another living being until her.
Raelynn was a threat.
Zeke was smitten with her, and it infuriated me. How easily she stole his focus. I never thought anyone outside our circle would reach him.
I was a selfish bastard to deny him anything more, but I never claimed to be one of the good guys.
Something soft bumped my shoulder.
I glanced down at the icy strands of Zeke’s hair, and the dark lashes fanned over his cheeks. He’d fallen asleep.
I knew people suspected I felt something for Zeke—something stronger than I felt for my other brothers. But to be transparent enough that even a human noticed left me raw and exposed.
I turned my head and buried my nose in his soft hair, breathing in his comforting scent.
It didn’t matter what Raelynn stirred inside me. I’d kill her if she ever threatened what Zeke and I had.
He could never know the depth of my devotion, or the council would separate us. Our dynamic had worked all our lives.
One little human wouldn’t ruin that. I wouldn’t let her.
The council only tolerated our closeness because Mom convinced them we’d formed a Phalinos Pact to bind our souls together and save my life while stranded in Moicae. To the council, we were soul-bonded, so our pull toward one another made sense.
Until Raelynn, Dad was the only one who ever addressed my feelings for Zeke. He reminded me of my duty: marry a woman and produce an heir to keep our bloodline’s council seat.
Ash knew my feelings. I never let him broach the topic after he caught me kissing the top of Zeke’s head as he’d fallen asleep on my shoulder—the same way he slept against me now.
I rested my head against the uncomfortable bus seat, watching the highway blur by. My eyelids grew heavy.
Zeke shook my shoulder, waking me. “We’re here.”
I rubbed my tired eyes, unsurprised I’d fallen asleep. Since arriving on Earth, I hadn’t slept well. I’d always found it hard to fall asleep, and even harder to stay asleep.
Raelynn offered us her spare room. I’d taken the bed with Zeke, while Ezra took the sofa and Ash the chaise.
But I couldn’t rest with her moving around across the hall.
Smelling her rose-and-plum scent while feeling the strange pull inside me kept me on the edge of sleep. The memory of her soft hands on my horns the night we met tempted me like a siren’s call, keeping me restless all night.
More than once, I woke to find Ash lingering in her doorway, watching her.
I wondered if he felt the same pull dragging at me—if the magic that brought us here caused the sensation.
Thanks to Zeke, we’d secured a ride to the burial site. Now we stood in the shadows at the graveyard’s edge.
“She looks sad,” Zeke said.
Ezra scoffed. “Of course she looks sad. Her grandmother’s body is in the coffin in front of her.”
Human practices surrounding the dead always confused me.
Why hold an elaborate ceremony after pumping a corpse full of chemicals, only to bury it where no one will ever see it again?
Either out of tradition or desperation, humans clung to the remnants of a life gone, despite knowing the person they loved no longer existed.
“I’ll never understand why they make such a big deal about death.”
Ezra looked at me. “They aren’t able to see what happens next. This gives them peace. Some believe a religious leader grants the soul passage into Heaven.”
Where humans believed they went after death differed from one culture to the next, but we knew the truth. They all found their way to Niemna.
“It feels different seeing someone who knows the dead person.” Zeke frowned, his voice low.
My gaze caught Zeke’s. “What do you mean?”
“It hurts Rae. I feel bad that her grandmother is in Kalthea now.”
Zeke wore his heart on his sleeve; the type who’d mourn a houseplant he forgot to water. So it didn’t surprise me that her grandmother’s death upset him.
We couldn’t change their fate, so I didn’t see the point of dwelling on the dead.
Ezra crossed his arms. “She wasn’t young. Most elderly humans are tired and ready for eternal rest.”
“Well, yeah, she was old, and Rae said she had it rough seeing our kind her whole life. But it still hurt her.” Zeke froze, looking at each of us in concern. “What if her grandmother’s in Cholian? What if she didn’t end up in Kalthea?”
Ash stiffened, finally saying the first thing I’d heard from him since we caught sight of Raelynn. “Why would she be there?”
Zeke looked at the ground, rubbing his fingers together. “If she wanted to get to Rae the night she died, then whatever she needed to say… would she have unfinished business?”
Silence settled over us as we considered Zeke’s grim words.
If Raelynn’s grandmother hadn’t accepted her fate, her soul would go to Cholian, a barren purgatory beyond Elyrdin, where lost souls wandered until they accepted death.
In extreme cases, lost souls turned dark, striking out at humans. Those souls required council intervention to keep the balance between realms and limit ghost sightings on Earth.
“She’s crying,” Zeke said, voice softening, catching my attention.
I didn’t want to look.
I’d avoided looking at Raelynn ever since we arrived, but once again her pull dragged me in, forcing me to take in the scene.
She stood between a woman and a man who looked bored, staring at the casket as if it held answers she’d never get. Silent tears rolled down her cheeks.
Her composure shook me.
The sorrow was clear in her eyes, but she remained poised, hands clasped around a long-stemmed rose. A faint tremor ran through her fingers.
I expected dramatic sobs, like we’d overheard upstairs when she found out her grandmother died, but they never came.
My chest tightened when the older woman bent to whisper, making Raelynn’s body tense.
When she lifted her chin, refusing the tissue, I realized it was the aunt who made Raelynn’s life hell. How long had she endured that treatment?
Another tear slid down her cheek, tracing her jawline.
Her tears were beautiful.
She didn’t wipe them away. I couldn’t tell if it was to spite the woman at her side or to remain open to the grandmother she grieved. Either way, she stayed unguarded, and I stood captivated by both her fragility and her strength.
The sudden urge to hold her—to let her know she wasn’t alone—made panic lance through me. The relentless pull beneath my ribs magnified until I thought my heart would rip from my chest.
I bit down on the barbell in my tongue to distract myself.
I needed to get away.
Ash’s growled words snapped me out of my panic. “What are they doing here?”
I followed his gaze to a group of people at a nearby grave.
It took a second for the meaning of his words to register. Only one human stood at the grave. Several delemora hovered behind him.
“Feeding,” Ezra said, eyes narrowing. “What better place to gorge yourself on negative energy than a graveyard?”
The delemora evolved from lesser infernals in Feranzis after years of feasting on the corruption and despair of the damned souls banished from Elyrdin. They had no place on Earth.
Raelynn had been right.
Somehow, a rift had opened between planes. Infernals from Niemna were slipping onto Earth without the council’s notice. If her mother and grandmother had seen them too, how long had they made Earth their playground?
“Look,” Zeke said, stepping forward, before Ezra’s arm shot out, stopping him.
The delemora at the end turned its attention to the funeral. Raelynn noticed its approach and closed her eyes.
Her aunt said something that upset her, evident in the way her jaw clenched. Still, she opened her eyes after a deep, held breath.
Zeke squinted. “What’s she doing?”
“Trying not to react.” Ash’s voice stayed low, edged with agitation. He wanted to intervene, but we couldn’t. “She’s afraid.”
Zeke looked from Ash to Raelynn in confusion. “How do you know that?”
Ash froze.
“Ash?”
He turned his gaze to Zeke. “If you’d never seen a delemora, you’d probably be afraid too.” He said it like that explained everything, but I suspected he was hiding more.
Zeke’s voice rose, frantic. “Why’s it focused on her? It’s reaching for her.” He turned to Ezra. “We need to do something.”
“We’re not sanctioned to use magic,” Ezra said through gritted teeth.
The infernal moved, closing the distance between it and Raelynn.
Zeke turned to Ash in alarm. “It’s coming for her! We have to do something!”
“Fuck,” Ezra spat as the familiar sensation of Ash’s power spilled into the air in clear defiance of his oath to the council.
The infernal froze, looking our way, sensing the invisible power thickening the air. It turned back to Raelynn and screeched, alerting the others.
When the delemora didn’t retreat under the weight of Ash’s command, the air grew oppressive as Ezra lent his own magic. Even I struggled to stand under the power the two of them wielded to protect Raelynn.
They didn’t need to exert this magnitude of power, so why did they?
A tremor passed through the delemora before it started backing away from Raelynn, head angling from side to side.
Its limbs wrenched back in a disjointed gesture when Ezra’s magic swelled in response to the lesser infernal’s resistance.
Only when the delemora stopped looking at Raelynn did Ezra release the magical binds, allowing it to glide away from the tent.
“Look!” Zeke pointed at the other delemora. “They’re leaving.”
As the one who threatened Raelynn retreated into the shadows of a nearby cluster of trees, the others dispersed without challenging us.
For lesser infernals to feel emboldened enough to dare stand against the council’s heirs, they must have been on Earth for far too long.
One of the first things we needed to do upon returning to Elyrdin was identify who needed to pay for unleashing infernals on Earth. This wasn’t random weak points in the veil—it was a deliberate breach letting infernals slip through.