Chapter 13 #2
I scramble up and toss Lirin at it. He shrieks and somersaults backwards, trying to get away from it. The thing crawls out onto the sand. It growls louder and louder, and then lets out a whine and just stops.
My shiver approach cautiously. Canto pokes it with a sword, but it doesn’t move. Just lies dead…defeated not by the Sirens, Leviathan, or witch who lives here but by sand.
I am exhausted. This world is so freaking odd.
“Someone go see Diablos and tell him that we killed his round thing,” I say with a growl.
When I walk into the house, Mei is sitting on the kitchen island, looking completely relaxed. I think she listens to the TV, but asking her would be crossing that barrier of silence we’ve erected, and I’m not prepared to do that just yet.
It’s hard to reconcile the monster who set our world on fire and this creature.
She’s curious but keeps it tightly contained, she’s got a wicked side that isn’t evil but just almost naughty.
It’s hard to imagine her living in a world of creatures that hunt and hate.
Hard to imagine her fighting not to be eaten.
How did she survive?
There must be more to her. Something we don’t know.
“Do you know that I hear your songs? It’s near constant. I gave up wishing that it would stop a long time ago. Does anyone else hear you?”
I stare at her, perplexed by the strange question. “I have no idea.”
She stands up, and I rush to catch her when she hits her head on the pots and pans rack that hangs above.
“Ow!”
She lands heavily in my arms and turns. Our lips mash together.
I freeze.
She stills.
Neither of us pulls back. She’s so soft, what does she taste like? I want to hold her for longer, touch her.
What the hell am I thinking? I shove her back, ignoring the bite of regret when she stumbles and almost falls. I swipe my arm across my lips, but my heart is racing like I just swam across the oceans.
Why did I think that?
Is this one of her spells? Can she do that? Probably. Maybe we are all slowly being bewitched by her.
“Watch it!” I snarl.
“Next time, just let me fall,” she snaps back.
“Don’t worry, I will,” I say coldly.
I’m too angry and alarmed to think of anything intelligent to say, I’m just relieved no one else saw it. I go into the bedroom and lean against the wall.
“It was just an accidental bump. It means nothing.”
Why am I touching my lips? Why can’t I get it out of my mind?
Because she’s a witch, and I’m worried she just poisoned me.
Liar.
I want to be out hunting the bad guys, doing something constructive so I forget about the fact that we’re living with the creature who killed our mate.
You didn’t care about your mate, you cared about your freedom.
That is true. Delia was nothing, and I felt nothing for her. Her death was just inconvenient.
I sit down on the edge of the bed. I need to get out of this house.
Everything about it is so contrived. I would never admit it, but I miss the oceans, floating in the currents, curling up on a sandy bed.
The push and pull of the tides is something I can feel even away from the ocean, but I miss the way it moves my body.
With a growl at my own annoying self, I go back out to start dinner. I might just send Leviathan to go hunt us a fish…or maybe I could go myself, that would be nice.
“WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY ROBOT VACUUM?”
I almost go back to bed.
It’s not hiding. It’s not cowardly, I just can’t take this demon’s bitching anymore.
“Ronit!” Diablos howls.
I sigh heavily and trudge back out, throwing my shoulders back and putting a mask of nonchalance on my face.
“Why are you here? Have you lost the ability to count days now, Demon?” I say with practiced arrogance.
Diablos snorts thick plumes of smoke, his hands fisted and trembling. “Assemble your team.”
“Ooh, nice reference.”
Diablos grins at Lirin. “Can’t pass these opportunities up.”
I glance between them and then turn away. The round monster is on the island. I walk closer to it and prod it.
It wheezes and coughs a high whine before it dies again.
“You killed it. This was to keep the house clean. It eats dirt.”
“Does it?” I look at it curiously. “It can’t eat sand.”
Diablos growls. “I found a job for you. So, get ready, your holiday is over.”
Leaf walks in, sees Diablos, and walks straight up to him, lifting the bigger demon off his feet and hugging him until his bones creak.
“Good morn, fellow monster.”
I stare at him like he’s grown another head, in a way, it feels like he has. Since when did Leaf jump teams and join up with the infernal demon?
His presence is another itch begging to be scratched. Everything about him is a challenge to my dominance. I want to hold him down and bite him. Wait, what? I shake my head, dislodging those weird thoughts, and tear my eyes away from his rippling back muscles.
I just catch the look the dragon gives me. Sly, shifty. He’s up to something. I don’t even know if I want to bite. Dealing with him has been…exhausting, too.
Everything is a fight, everything is a battle.
You want him to move an inch in any direction, he’s going to go the opposite way and smile as he watches you lose your freaking mind.
Over the decades, we all got inklings of his intelligence.
We were clearly dealing with a creature like us, but who knew he was learning from us while we were fighting him.
And his obsession with the Strega is all kinds of disturbing.
In a way, his obsession with her runs parallel to the way he’s treated us.
Hunting us, interrupting everything we do, just being this giant pain in the ass.
Like a bouncing puppy that I want so badly to plaster to the floor and teach a very hard lesson to.
I bite off the growl that tries to escape, refusing to give him the satisfaction.
He sets the demon down and moves close to me, deliberately rubbing his chest against my shoulder. I lift an eyebrow but refuse to acknowledge him.
“Just being friendly, Siren, no need to get jealous.”
Jealous? My eyes widen in indignation. I turn to him, seeing the smirk on his face that I want to punch off.
He leans in, and I despise how tall he is.
He always has to use the size of his damn body and rub it in my face.
I snarl in reaction to him, and his pupils blow out, eating all the colour and making them appear depthless.
I whirl and grab his throat, walking him backward until his back hits the wall.
He doesn’t stop grinning at me, not even when I kick his legs out, and he’s on his knees in front of me.
“Behave,” I growl.
Leaf bites his lower lip, his eyes sparkling as he stares up at me.
And for the first time, I get this image. This wildly inappropriate image of me feeding my cock into that smirking face, watching him choke on my girth, coming on his face, and destroying all that prettiness.
Almost as if he knows what I’m thinking, Leaf stands up, following me with a hungry expression as I step back.
Now, I’m running.
And I care, I really care.
Where the fuck did that come from? I don’t have time to think about it, Leaf is right there in my face. My temper explodes.
“Back off, or I’ll make you.”
It is the wrong thing to say. Leaf’s eyes take on an unholy joy.
“Please,” he says in a slow drawl that has my body reacting. “Make me.”
I turn away, desperate, and spot the witch. More wild images slam into my brain, and my temper sizzles, flipping wildly between arousal and fury.
Diablos moves, and my temper focuses on him and settles into a rage.
“There are omegas on Earth. Lots of them, they are making you unsteady. You will settle after a while or until you find an omega of your own,” he says calmly. “I can get you one.”
The rage that goes through me makes speech impossible. Long seconds pass as the room fills with the scent of lightning.
“Get. Out.”
He puts a piece of paper down on the island. “Go to this address and kill the thing that is hurting the humans.”
I start towards him, my temper making the walls throb, my mind pulsing. I can barely see. The urge, the complete biological demand to stake my claim on the omega and alpha, obliterates every other thought.
Mei makes the mistake of trying to leave. I brush Canto aside and grip the nape of her neck in a hold that has her whimpering.
“Where are you going, Strega,” I hiss, drawing out the sounds of that name.
“To the ocean.”
Three words that are simple and unexpected, ‘she’s not leaving’. The anger bleeds out of me, leaving me feeling shaky and dangerous. What is happening to me?
I storm into the bathroom with shaky hands, reaching down to yank open my pants, looking at my cock and the sudden appearance of a mythical knot. One I have never had before today. One that marks me as an alpha.
I grip it hard and grunt as pleasure fans out around the spot. What the fuck? What the actual fucking fuck?