Chapter 26
Mei
Ronit doesn’t avoid me like I expect him to. Instead, he just acts…kind. He brings me food and drink and sits watching me while I struggle to swallow it down. Leaf moves around, prowling the space, his steps not quite as quiet as the Sirens.
“All right, we’ve had a hot minute, let’s talk,” Reed says, and I get the impression he’s the one who will make everyone face the things they don’t want to face.
They all come towards the couch. Lirin puts a huge jug of water on the table. Funnily enough, none of us can bear any of the human drinks like coffee, soda, or juice.
“Deux killed a village.”
The memories come back thick and fast, the smell, that horrible sense of wrongness, the sheer level of his depravity.
“We can take him,” Lirin says confidently, but beside me, his thigh pressed hot and hard against mine, Brio makes a scoffing noise.
“Not the way we are now. He’s too strong, and we are…diminished. Leaf doesn’t move the way he does in water, and Mei is struggling with the environment here,” Canto says and stands up and starts pacing around.
“Wow, way to hit us where it hurts,” Lirin snaps.
“It’s the truth. He is the strongest we’ve come up against. And worse, he’s smart.”
I hum in agreement.
Canto turns to me, I can feel his eyes on me; it's electric. “Tell me how he hunts, Mei.”
I shake my head. “I’ve told you.”
“You haven’t told me enough. Think, how does he know how his prey will behave?”
“He watches them for weeks. Deux studies everything. He sits in spots that are almost invisible to the naked eye, and he hunts.”
“Good omega,” Canto purrs. “Now, what does he watch?”
“How they come and go, what they eat, where they drink and hunt. He tracks their weaknesses and habits. The only way to evade him is to be completely and utterly chaotic so he can never predict you.”
Canto crouches in front of me, his hands wrap around my ankles. “Good. Who does he go after? Which prey are his targets?”
“All of them, he just likes to kill.” I pause, thinking. “But he has special targets that he tracks and hunts down, he becomes obsessed, dangerously so. Almost to the point where he becomes frantic.”
“Who are they?”
“Creatures, all sorts.”
“What do they have in common?”
I struggle to think, but I can’t come up with anything. “Nothing.”
“All right, what does he do to all of them?”
I raise my hand to my eyes. “He takes their eyes and eats their hearts while they are still living.”
Canto’s thumb strokes the inside of my ankle. “You have done really well, Mei. Really well.”
“What do the eyes and heart signify?” Leaf asks.
Reed jumps up and turns to Ronit. “We need that favour.”
“What favour?” Leaf asks.
They don’t answer him; instead, they sing a summons. I can feel the air around us tingle, until Leaf adds a strange warble to it. Spicy smoke spills into the room, stinging my nose, and suddenly, there are three new and strange presences in front of me.
“How. Dare. You!” the Fae snarls.
I don’t recognise him, but I really wish I could see what they look like. I know I will never forget that voice.
“You owe us,” Ronit says calmly.
“You are scum, the worst of our kind, betrayers, deserters, liars, cheats,” his female companion sneers.
“We are Fae.”
“You were never Fae. You were aberrations, mistakes in the fabric of the world, errors. Ha! You are dogs, and we have set you outside our house to guard it,” the third man says in such a deep, dark, vile tone that I stand before them, drawing their attention.
“What is that? You keep company with filth?” the woman shrieks, and she lashes out, her hand opening up Reed’s cheek. The sharp smell of his blood fills the air bringing me to a murderous rage in seconds.
I snarl and lunge at her, shoving her back. When they attack, I whirl and kick out a knee, then sketch a rune into the air.
The Fae screams in agony as my rune burns her face. The smell of burning flesh is revolting, but we all ignore it. The male Fae don’t dare protest.
“They are mine now,” I snarl at them. I don’t know where the words come from or the rage that makes my limbs shake, but I can barely stop from ripping their throats out with my teeth.
“I need the answer to a question, and you can go back to your houses and rot there,” Reed says calmly, as if they hadn’t just treated him like he was the worst kind of garbage.
“What is your question?” the first Fae snarls, his voice drips with venom.
“What does it signify if a creature is eating the eyes and heart of a live victim?”
The Fae gasp, and I sense fear in the air around them. Why are they so scared?
“The creature is stealing magic. It lives in the heart, but it’s given life via the eyes.”
“That’s not how I work,” I protest. My magic is skin deep and instinctive.
“You are not Fae. You are not Nightmare. Nor are you demon. You are not human. You are a perfect combination of all of us and something else. Magic for you would be in everything you do, everything you breathe. You are too dangerous to be allowed to live.”
The Fae lunge for me, but Ronit and Canto clash with them, and then they are gone, and it’s just us again.
I’m not just a nightmare or human? I’m Fae and demon, too?
I sit down but almost miss the seat. Brio grabs me and pulls me onto his lap, resting his forehead against my arm.
He shudders, and I realise what just happened has really upset him.
“Did you want to go back to Faerie? Was that always your hope?” I murmur to him.
“Yes, but only because I didn’t know there was anything else to wish for. What if there was something else? A place for us. Maybe we can find a new home.”
“Are the oceans truly that bad?”
“What is a musician without an audience?”
“A musician singing to the fabric of the universe,” I say back without thinking.
Brio sits up straight, and I can almost feel him mulling my words over.
“So, he’s eating people’s eyes and hearts to gain strength and magic. That’s…sick,” Lirin snarls.
I try to consider it dispassionately, but knowing he was trying to do that so some part of me would continue to exist in him is revolting, and I clasp my hand to my stomach so I don’t throw up.
A moment later, the air gets sharp with temper, and I stiffen in Brio’s lap.
“What’s wrong?”
“Omega,” Canto purrs, “you are oozing some very powerful smells into the world right now.”
I blink and realise they are all focused on me.
“Sorry? I, uh, I’m not sure how to turn it off.”
Brio purrs and scrapes his teeth over my shoulder. I gasp and lean back, giving him more room as his hands slide up under that jumper and cup my aching breasts.
“Not right now,” Ronit snaps. “We need to finish this discussion and come up with a plan.”
“I say we ignore Deux right now,” Reed says in a gravel growl that has me clenching my thighs together. Brio brushes his fingers over my nipples, tearing a gasp from me.
“Brio!” Ronit snarls.
He reluctantly removes his hands from inside my clothes but pulls me tight against his chest and buries his face in my back. I squirm but still when Ronit growls.
“What do you mean, ignore him?” Leaf demands. “We need to kill him. He hurt our Mei.”
“Yes, he did, but if we go and get the wish from Diablos. Kill the other four monsters, then our problem won’t exist.”
I don’t understand what they are talking about, but I’m too aroused to care. I just want the ache to go away. My mind is cloudy, and I’m struggling to focus.
Leaf snarls. “That makes no sense whatsoever.”
“Don’t worry, Leaf. It will make sense when it’s done.”
Leaf doesn’t trust them, but even that’s not enough to pull me out of this highly excitable state. I stretch and turn into Brio, rolling my hips.
“She’s going to go into heat soon,” Brio whispers.
Leaf snarls.
“We need to get that wish before that happens, too,” Ronit insists.
“Are you sure?” Canto asks.
“Do we have another option at this point?” he snarls.
“What are you talking about?” I grumble and peel myself out of Brio’s hold. It’s like trying to use my legs for the first time in a long time. I stagger, my body feels strange and heavy.
“Steady, pretty omega. No one wants to see you get hurt.”
I snort a laugh, feeling weirdly happy and delirious. “That’s not what you were saying a few months ago.”
“Things change,” Lirin purrs, stroking a finger down my arm.
I giggle, and that alarms me enough that I stagger away from him. I go into the kitchen and find the tap, waiting until the water runs cold before I stick my head under it.
I can feel them watching me.
It’s a sensation that never gets old. What is wrong with me?
“We find the other four creatures. We get the wish of Diablos, and then we go after Deux when we are at full strength,” Ronit announces.
I try to focus on his words, but everything is hot flushes and cold water. My legs tremble but feel energized. My scent is so strong I’m choking on it.
I open my mouth, and a needy whine slips out.
“Leaf?”
He comes to me right away, sliding my jumper up and shoving my shorts down. The Sirens are watching, but that just makes it hotter, makes it more. I feel powerful under their hungry stares.
His massive hands are cool and a relief to my burning skin.
“Please, Leaf.”
He snarls and lifts me up so I’m lying on the island with my naked ass and pussy exposed in the air.
Leaf rubs his cock through my slick, and I get a chance to appreciate it for a moment before he slams into me.
There is no finesse; it's just raw animal need, but this time, something is different. I yelp and push up, twisting around.
He snarls and puts a hand between my shoulder blades and flattens me to the island.
“Why are there bumps?” I shriek.
I try to count them, but I think they are moving.
“Oh, god!”
Leaf laughs, it’s a sound full of such intense male pleasure that, for a moment, I wonder what the fuck I’m doing.
He drills into me again, his hands holding me still are the only reason I don’t go sliding against the island.
“Do you like this?”
I sob, feeling these rippling bumps moving inside me.
“Do you want me to do it softly?” Leaf hisses in my ear and bites my shoulder.
“Fuck, that’s hot,” I moan. “Do it however, just move. Please, move. I need more. I need you.”
I toss my head back and groan.
“Tell us how it feels,” Ronit murmurs.
“It feels…he’s moving in me. Like hard nubs rippling and rolling. I can’t…oh, gods I can’t-“
“Take it all, pretty omega. Leaf is going to make you feel so good, and this pain is going to ease.”
I whine and drop my forehead to the cool surface of the counter. Leaf grabs a handful of my ass and squeezes. I can hear the squelching of my slick-soaked pussy and his cock and feel my juices running down the inside of my thighs.
“Leviathan,” I moan his name. He grabs a handful of my hair.
“You have to push it in, Leaf,” Ronit snarls.
“No, it will hurt her again,” he snarls, half feral with want.
“No, it’s supposed to go in there. It will fit. She was made to take you, look how wet she is, how she’s stretching around your cock. She can do it.”
Leaf grunts and thrusts harder and faster.
My mind blanks as something larger and harder presses against my entrance. My mouth waters as I realise what it is.
“Yes,” I hiss and spread my thighs wider.
He shoves inside me, the huge growth resisting until the last second and then bursting me open.
Leaf roars, but I’m too lost in my own screams as my body clamps around him, sending white lightning through all my nerves and taking me away.
And as the pleasure fades…so does that strange, hot illness.