Chapter 17
Reed
Brio leads her into the cave, pausing to speak softly to her. I watch with interest, waiting to see her shout or throw a tantrum or do whatever it is that women have always done. She will hate living in a cave.
Except this is a monster who has never seen a house, and when she walks into the cave, she visibly relaxes.
She’s not like her. I can’t even remember what she looks like or how she felt.
Her scent is gone, even her name has erased itself from my memory.
All I can remember is how it felt when she handed me over to the guards and told everyone she was forced.
I thought I loved her, she was sophisticated and brilliant. Beautiful and so sensual.
And fake. All of it was so fake.
I was just a toy to pass her time while she used me to get the jealous attentions of her partner.
My thoughts are so stark and full of pain that I find myself backing away from her, unable to look away, but I can’t face her either.
Nothing about this situation is the same.
I kissed her.
She’d never been kissed; I could tell. The cautious way she responded, the eager yet nervous movements. I stole her first kiss from her.
My hands shake. She betrayed me. No, yes. I don’t know. I’m confused.
She killed my mate. But I feel more connection, more feeling with this monster than I ever did with that Fae. I would never trust a Fae lady again.
I scrub my hand across my face and move into the dark. The cave is easily fifteen feet high and really deep. The tides rarely, if ever, get high enough to reach it, and it’s so far out of the way that it’s not accessible to humans unless they come by boat, but it is close to the city.
It doesn’t smell too bad either.
“You should eat,” Canto says.
She growls low and threatening at him. I watch their interactions carefully. She’s mad, she’s mad at all of us, but I don’t understand why.
She sits down near the fire, drawn by the heat, but ignores everyone who tries to talk to her, including the miserable dragon, who brings her a beautiful, soft, downy blanket he stole.
His constant circling of her and attempts to get close are pitiful. But then I see how she listens for his footfalls and how she notes his absence.
“So, you’re just going to ignore everyone?” I snarl at her, thoroughly fed up with her behaviour.
She refuses to answer.
I stalk back towards her, shoving off Ronit, who tries to grab my arm. It just makes me so furious. Unreasonably enraged that she is just going to sit there and pretend like we don’t exist when all that stuff happened.
“Do not ignore me, Strega,” I hiss, leaning over her.
She reaches out and touches the mask hiding her lack of eyes. I wait and then shove her back, pinning her to the sand. She doesn’t fight me, just lies there completely pliant, but I know she is anything but compliant.
“Fight back.”
“Why? Does it get you excited?” she whispers, and for one long second, I think she’s talking about arousal.
But then, no, she wants to fight, and she thinks I want to fight. I hang my head, frustrated and floored by this strange creature.
Fine.
“Beating you is not exciting at all, Strega. I just find the dragon’s incessant whining disgusting.”
Her lip curls, and she reaches up and takes hold of my wrist, squeezing in warning.
“I think it makes you excited. I think it’s probably the most exciting thing that’s happened to you in a long time. And I think you hate how much you want to fight me.”
How is she this innocent? How does she not feel this?
I bend over her so that my lips are almost touching her ear. “Fighting is not what I want to do to you,” I confess.
For a long moment, she doesn’t respond, and then she gasps, and this warm sugar scent rises with the blackberries, turning the air thick and delicious.
“Um, um, um! Stop that!” Lirin shouts, and suddenly, we’re both doused in cold water.
I jump up, furious. “Lirin, what the hell?”
“You were, um, don’t do that!” he says and averts his eyes.
“She doesn’t have any other clothes; she’s going to freeze,” I snarl and shove my idiot Siren shiver mate.
He looks up with wide-open eyes. “I didn’t think of that.”
“You’re supposed to be the smart one,” I snap.
“Can’t be smart with that scent,” Lirin whispers.
I growl, and he jumps back, putting several feet between us.
“Mei,” Leaf says softly, and I look and see the dragon gently offering her a blanket with the most downtrodden expression I’ve ever seen.
Canto is gutting and preparing the fish we’ve caught, while Ronit is checking the inside of the cave for dangers.
“Why are we in a cave and not a house?”
“Do you have an issue with living in a cave, Strega?” Brio asks sharply.
“No, but it’s not human. They don’t do things like this. Aren’t we trying to pretend to fit in?”
She has a good point, but I don’t know what to say.
No one knows what happened or how our tempers exploded to create a cube of water in the house.
It’s a completely and utterly new and bewildering ability, and we don’t know how to undo it, so in order to not end up fighting with Diablos, we are here.
Not a single one of us is volunteering that information to her, though.
She strips off her clothes, and I watch, my own blood heating as the firelight turns her skin golden brown. She’s put on a bit of weight being with us and doesn’t look so skeletal, but you can see the muscles in her body, the tight and toned form that is still so utterly, captivatingly female.
Scars and runes cover her body, and I have a moment to wish all the ills on whoever got to put those markings on her.
Except…wait. Her runes shimmer and float down into her body, and a different one comes to the surface. It’s like a constantly moving dance.
I edge closer, inspecting the ones on her shoulder; it really is incredibly beautiful.
“Who gave you your runes, Strega?” I ask.
“No one. I was born with them.”
I jerk my head upright, staring at her intently. She was born with them? I don’t know anyone who has this kind of ability.
She lifts the blanket and covers herself. It’s like another bucket of cold water waking me up from a stupor that I have been lost in. I back away from her and out of the cave.
I stand on the shore and watch the push and pull of the waves until I feel the wrongness in the world. I draw a long staff from the air around me and look up, scanning the sky.
A maniacal laugh erupts. I think I hear a vicious curse, and then the male voice shouts. Two creatures plunge towards the ocean, but at the last minute, they are both grabbed by a third.
He’s got massively huge leather wings. He dumps the fallen male on the sand, he gingerly holds the female like she is a most precious item.
“Isla,” he says, and I can’t place his accent. “Are you hurt?”
She tosses her head back, her nostrils flaring.
“Take care of him, or I will.” Her voice is pure rage.
The creature folds his wings in and inclines his head. “It won’t happen again.” He’s got black, inky hair with silver tips and silver eyes. The thing on the ground has black feathered wings and is completely and utterly naked.
“Get off my beach,” I growl.
The girl snarls at me but doesn’t even turn to face me. Her hair is light pink, and she’s covered in tattoos.
The feathered asshole jumps up and lunges for her. She slams a box against his neck, and he drops to his knees, then rolls, his whole body shaking and arching.
I peer at the box in trepidation.
“I swear to fuck, Raz, if you do anything like that to me again, I will remove your testicles with my teeth.”
“Ooh, I’d love that,” he gasps out.
“You crazy fuck, of course, you would. Masochistic winged idiot.”
“Who are you?” Ronit says loudly, and I feel my shiver gather around me.
“None of your fucking business!” the human snaps. “God damn you all to hell, but if I have to answer to another misogynistic, over the top, asshole monster, I am going to shove my taser up your asses and press the button and watch your insides melt.”
I blink.
“If you touch my monsters, I’ll rip off your face and wear it as a mask to frighten children.”
That was delightfully bloodthirsty. Mei steps past us all and snarls low in her throat. Even wrapped up in a fluffy blanket, she still looks vicious. The human turns to study her intently. There isn’t a flicker of fear, just curiosity.
“Who are you?” the leather-winged creature asks.
Mei lifts her chin. “None of your business. Go find your own territory; this is ours.”
Mei turns. He dares to reach for her, but I’m quicker. I grab his wrist and hold it tight, preventing him from touching her.
“You keep your hands off my Mei,” I snarl viciously. My Mei? Yes, my Mei.
“My name is Annileo, this is our omega, Isla, and our mate, Raz,” he says, speaking to me and trying to calm the rage that is threatening to turn this into a blood bath.
Isla punches Annileo in the gut. He barely moves.
“I am not yours.”
“This is Wraith, Asterius, and Sorrow.”
I glance up and find three figures standing on the clifftop. I drop his hand like it burns me. The first creature is the one that panics me. My eyes won’t see him, they keep sliding away as if he’s not there.
“Sorrow?” Mei asks. “As in Prince Sorrow?”
Annileo bobs his head, while the human yawns as if she finds this all unbearably boring.
“Who are you?” Sorrow calls from the cliff.
“The Healer,” she shouts loud enough for the Nightmare on the cliffs to hear.
He jumps down and lands lightly in the sand, taking his time walking towards us. The Minotaur lets out a mournful cry, and for the first time, I see softness in the omega’s eyes.
Wraith disappears, and I see a shape out of the corner of my eye. One that makes my heart beat faster.
What the fuck is he? He’s not a demon, nor is he Fae, human or Nightmare. He’s something else entirely.
Wraith moves close to Annileo and drapes himself against him, and I finally get a better look, but not a whole one. My eyes still don’t want to stay. Meanwhile, the angel on the ground slowly stands up, gripping his erect cock and stroking it in Isla’s direction.
“You are so pretty when you're hurting me.”
“Psycho,” she spits.
“Only for you.”
The Minotaur lands hard, causing the beach to shake, and then he’s between us and her, guiding her back from us. So far, the smartest alpha in the bunch, but I can feel their contained aggression.
Raz lunges for her, but Wraith grabs his wing and strokes it. The angel drops to his knees, quivering, his face slack with bliss as he pumps his hips.
“I am Ronit, this is Brio, Reed, Canto, Lirin, Leviathan, and the Healer,” Ronit says, ignoring the angel fucking his fist like it happens every day.
Mei is listening with her head cocked to the side, I have no idea what she thinks. All I want to do is growl at her and make her turn away from this foul creature’s display.
“You’re the Sirens,” Sorrow says with a sharp laugh. “I heard you were so powerful you turned into a myth and disappeared.”
“As you can see, that is not the case.”
“And the Healer, out of Nightmare. Does-”
“Shut your face,” Mei snarls. “You say his name, and I’ll kill you, Sorrow.”
“You don’t have the skills to kill me.”
“You keep telling yourself that. It will help you sleep at night.”
Sorrow eyes her carefully. “He is here. I have heard the whispers, and I know the signs.”
“I am aware,” she says tightly.
“End it. I am tired of cleaning up your messes,” Sorrow warns.
“I don’t answer to you.”
“Yes, you do, unless you no longer want a home in Nightmare.”
I abruptly remember the deal we made with Diablos and want to warn her against provoking the prince. We can’t send her back to a war zone; she would never survive. Why are we still sending her back? Why does she have to go back?
She doesn’t belong here.
“I don’t have a home. I have a battlefield,” she says, echoing my thoughts.
Canto jerks his head towards her, staring with his lips parted. He’s said that a million times. He explained that it means that he will always be ready for war, always be ready to fight. He can’t rest.
Annileo clears his throat, and I realise that he and Wraith haven’t taken their eyes off Mei. I step in front of her, glaring at them.
“When you want to find out what you can really do…come find me, little warrior. I can show you how to reach the next level.”
“How do I find you?” Mei asks reluctantly.
I want to snarl, stopping his response, but I have no rights.
“The demon, Diablos, can find us.”
Raz grabs Isla and licks up her thigh, sucking on it, before abruptly sinking his teeth in, giggling around a hunk of flesh while she curses up a storm.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you, you bird brain dumbass.”
She hits him with the black box again, and I swear, I see lightning dance through his feathers. He collapses back, groaning.
The Minotaur picks him up and runs at the cliff, climbing easily with one hand. Wraith simply fades from view, while the prince seizes the shadows, leaving just this strange creature and his omega in front of me.
“Where are you from?” I ask.
“I’m from somewhere else, but I live in Hell with my mates.”
Mei is staring at him intently with a confused frown on her brow. When he transfers his gaze to her, it is with deep respect.
“Omega,” he says, snaps open his wings, and takes to the sky, the omega held delicately in his arms like she’s priceless.
There’s a deep and dark silence before Canto turns on Mei. I can’t do anything but stare at her, struggling to get my mind to make her and omega make sense.
“Omega? When the fuck were you going to share that with us?” I hiss.
She lifts her chin, turns in complete silence, and stalks away.
“Omega!” Canto shouts.
“Eat a bag of dicks,” Mei shouts back.
It’s so human, so unlike Mei, that we’re all rendered silent. Mei is an omega, and I kissed her.
Worse…I want to do it again and kill anyone who touches her.
Oh, this is bad.