Chapter 16 #2
“NOAH! HELP ME!” Richard cries, tears streaming down his cheeks as a glob of snot drips from his nose. It mixes with the trickle of blood and smears disgustingly across his lips. I sneer in his direction.
“Help yourself, dick,” I mock.
After all these years being with Richard, I’ve never had the gall to call him that to his face. But with Xander by my side and the weight of his arms around my middle, I lean into him for support.
“You made my life miserable!” I shout after Richard, who clings to the kitchen island, his body stretched across the floor, and Nyx hisses between her teeth.
Latching on tighter, Richard cries as he’s tugged away and over the threshold of the house.
His wide fearful eyes dart across the group as he hopelessly searches for anyone to help. But no one moves a muscle.
“Miserable? Come on, baby. I’m sorry. Just get this cat off me!” Richard wails as Nyx continues to drag him down the wooden stairs of the back porch and into the garden. Trickles of blood drip from his ankle as she bites harder.
“Don’t you baby me!” I strut onto the porch and watch from the safety of the railing.
Richard growls, “For fuck's sake, Noah! You fucking asshole! Help me!”
Richard claws at the grass yet the earth is damp and each time he tries to sink his slimy digits into the soil he loses his grip.
I sneer, shaking my head. “You don’t deserve my help.”
Closer and closer, Nyx drags Richard towards the pond. The still, dark water shivers as hands rise above the surface. Some reach for the sky, where others grasp the water and begin pulling it open, creating a dark tunnel.
Ancient screams and wails lift up into the air as the portal is torn apart. Richard thrashes in Nyx’s grip as she backs into the pond, her red eyes glowing like embers in the darkness.
“Oh, fuck you!” Richard spits, his voice torn and broken. “I hope you die. I hope that creature kills everyone in this fucking town. You’ll all burn in hell!”
“Careful what you wish for.” Xander steps in behind me, his hand wrapping around my waist as he presses his body against my back. I sink into the warmth he produces and suck in his welcoming scent.
Nyx slinks into the darkness of the tunnel and Richard cries and wails as he’s pulled over the edge of the pond.
His fingers leave deep scratches in the soft earth and with a final look he curses before he’s swallowed into the portal.
The echoes of his wails and screams merge with the hum of the night until we are left with silence.
I sigh and feel my knees wobble as my adrenaline fades. Xander picks me up bridal style and steps away from the porch. He carefully extracts the doll from my grasp and slips it into his jacket. I had completely forgotten I’ve been clutching at it all this time.
I’m about to shut my eyes when a flash of orange darts past Xander. Pumpkin races down the steps and across the garden, right for the tunnel as its walls close in.
“Pumpkin!” I cry out, my entire body seizing as fear clutches me. “Stop!”
But my cat doesn’t listen as his fluffy tail curls over the ledge and disappears into the depths of hell.
“He’ll be fine. He’s mated with Nyx.” Xander kisses my temple and steps into the house. Milo shuts the door and speeds to the other side of the house, his gaze closely focused on me.
“How do you know?” I ask.
Xander carries me across the house to the couch and takes a seat. Positioning me across his lap, he swipes a stray curl behind my ear. “Her scent has changed. She carries his litter.”
I gasp and so does Harlan, who stands beside Cassius, looking worse for wear. “Congratulations, you’re cat daddies.” His voice is barely above a whisper and he winces, clutching at his neck.
“Don’t speak. You need to heal,” Cassius murmurs to the little vampire.
Despite the last 24 hours, I find myself grinning ear to ear. Kittens!
“Are you ready to be a dad?” I snuggle deeper into Xander while finding the buttons of his jacket and toying with them.
Xander smiles fondly at me. “With you, more than ready, little mate.”
For the next few hours, the house is quiet. Harlan heals slowly and his voice returns to its usual high pitch giggles and jokes. Ambrose lounges on the opposite couch and hasn’t moved a muscle while Cassius busies himself in the kitchen. Apparently vampires have a knack for cooking.
Milo, on the other hand, has found himself a spot on the very top of my bookshelf where he watches everyone with pursed lips. I quietly laugh to myself at how cat-like the vampire is.
“What’s got you giggling?” Xander strokes my hair, his arms banded around my chest and his free hand massaging my aching bicep.
I shake my head, grinning. “Just how strange it is that for the first time in my life I feel like I’m part of a family.”
“Well, of course you are!” Harlan chimes gleefully from the kitchen table.
Cassius washes a handful of leftover grapes and passes the bowl to him.
Popping a ripe piece of fruit past his lips, Harlan chews while speaking.
“You’re Xander’s mate, which makes you part of our family. No take backs, sorry.”
I chuckle and so does Xander. But despite the newfound bubble of happiness these people have created for me, my mind drifts to Richard. A shiver of anger scuttles across my skin as his words echo through my skull.
After all these years being by his side, all the arguments and broken dishes, all the snide comments he’d make and every emotional blow I’d take without a peep, was all for nothing.
He’d told his truth. Even without Harlan’s compulsion.
He couldn’t care less for me and I get the gut feeling he never did.
Not even from the moment we met, where I saw him as my shining prince supporting me through losing my family.
I doubt he saw me as nothing more than a verbal punching bag.
A thing that would never fight back out of the fear of being alone.
Besides Richard, I had no one. No friends, no siblings, no one. Just him. And he knew that. He used that.
Xander nips at the shell of my ear, jolting me from my thoughts, and his voice drifts across my skin, “Let me take away whatever is bothering you, little mate.” He glides his tongue across the sensitive skin of my neck and I suck in a gasp.
“Am I a bad person for not caring about what happened to Richard?” I whisper, yet Ambrose opens his eyes and watches us closely. Damn vamp hearing.
Running his hands around my waist and sinking his fingers beneath my shirt, Xander lightly trails up my stomach, leaving a wake of heat in his path. “Do you get upset when the trash is taken out?”
I smirk and playfully slap his arm. “No. But still. Does he deserve to go to hell?”
Before Xander can respond, Ambrose beats him to it. “The idiot paid a witch to conjure a Soultracker to hunt and kill everyone in this house or whoever stands in its way. He deserves a lot more than to burn in hell.”
Harlan giggles from his spot in the kitchen, “You got a better idea than Nyx?”
Ambrose smiles, but it's not a kind or gentle feature. Instead, his lips tilt upwards in a way that turns his face wicked. “I could think of a few.”
Xander kisses my jaw and pushes his hips upward, grinding against my lower back. I can feel his length growing thicker by the second, and the heat beneath his skin grows stronger. “Now do you feel bad about him?”
I shake my head, biting my lip. Nyx knows better than me, she’s a Hellcat after all. Tilting my head back, I let Xander take my lips in his. His kiss is gentle. Sweet. As if he has all the time in the world for me. Which I guess he does.
The thought makes my stomach swoop with excitement, and I push my ass back into his thigh, enjoying the way he groans quietly beneath me.
“Get a room,” Ambrose scoffs, “It’s one thing to do it at Church, but in the living room?”
Xander chuckles, and I feel the vibrations of his laugh flow through me. God, this man couldn't get any more centered in my life than right now.
“As great as it is to see Xander in love, Harlan’s healed enough. We should head into town to gather weapons and supplies.” Cassius tidies away the kitchen as Harlan bounces on his tiptoes excitedly.
“I haven’t gone weapons shopping in ages!” He whoops. “I’m getting a sword.” Harlan proceeds to mockingly slash Cassius with his imaginary sword.
I grumble and yawn. “After we kill it, I’m going for a nap.”
Xander slides his hand out from under my shirt, despite my pouting, and sits up, cradling me in his lap. “After all of this, I’m going to make you come so many times you won’t even remember this ever happened.”
Well, goddamn!
“I like the sound of that, Sir,” I purr and clutch his collar, pulling my vampire into a heated kiss.
Around us, the group comes to life. With Ambrose declaring the sun is rising and Harlan shooing Milo down from his spot on the bookshelf, to Cassius grumbling about losing two sets of handcuffs in one night.
It feels so… natural that I'm overwhelmed with the urge to cry. No one blinks an eye in our direction, and everyone has their own special place in the colony. It’s the first time in my life where I feel I truly fit in.
I'm no longer some strange writer hiding in the corners of coffee shops, or the gay son who never lived up to the expected standards, or the spineless boyfriend who was pushed around from dawn till dusk.
Xander bites my lower lip and pulls away from the kiss. His cheeks are rosy and his pupils are blown wide as he sucks in my scent. Practically licking it from the air around me.
It all feels perfect. Until it’s not.
Like a clap of thunder, the bubble of perfection pops. The rush of air and a deafening howl pierces the house as a whirlwind of shadows form in the center of the living room. Growing larger and larger, a mass slips from the void and stumbles breathlessly onto the rug.
With tattoos climbing up his arms and dark shaven hair, Cole chokes and gurgles before throwing himself to his feet.
With wild, desperate eyes, he blinks. His gaze catapults around the room as he manically searches for something.
“Where?” He heaves tight breaths. “Where is he?”
“Who are you looking for?” Cassius steps forward, matching the hulking witch.
Clenching his teeth and letting out a pained cry, Cole curls into himself. And that’s when I see it. The ruby-red rivers of blood, leaking from a slash in his chest. It drips onto the rug beneath him as he sways, his skin mottled with sweat.
“Tyler!” Cole cries out, clutching his chest. “I-It took him!”