Step Devil 2: A Dark Paranormal Stepbrother Romance (The Bishop Rituals Duet), page 1
Step Devil 2
Aiden Pierce
Copyright © 2023 by Aiden Pierce
All rights reserved.
No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.
Cover Design by Books & Moods
Editing by The Eclectic Editor
Contents
A Word of Warning
1. Chapter One
2. Chapter Two
3. Chapter Three
4. Chapter Four
5. Chapter Five
6. Chapter Six
7. Chapter Seven
8. Chapter Eight
9. Chapter Nine
10. Chapter Ten
11. Chapter Eleven
12. Chapter Twelve
13. Chapter Thirteen
14. Chapter Fourteen
15. Chapter Fifteen
16. A Note from the Author
A Word of Warning
Since this is the second installment in The Bishop Rituals duet, you should know the drill. Though this is a small novella, it packs a punch. Some of the content within may not be suitable for all readers. Even if you’re returning to Bishop, please be aware that this book contains blood play, horror elements, revenge, parental death, gore, cult violence, cutting, breath play and fear play.
Chapter One
Lore
My mother’s cries echoed down the hall, muffled by the duct tape covering her mouth. The terror in them was still unmistakable though.
I couldn’t blame her. She’d just witnessed her new husband get stabbed to death no less than seventeen times.
As I’d stood there and watched Titus Leeds thrust the knife into his father’s chest cavity, I’d counted.
If I were any other girl, I would have run as far away from Titus Leeds, this twisted town and the Pine Barrens as I could get. The backwoods community of Bishop was the place where outsiders came to die.
My mother had married their leader. It had all been a trap, to feed her soul to the Jersey Devil.
And mine too.
But my new stepbrother was only a half-devil. His cruelty had just been his way of trying to get me to run. That hadn’t worked.
So then he’d shifted and shown me his horns. His fangs. His claws. His monstrous tongue.
If anything, those things were just incentives for a monster-smut aficionado like me to stay.
Hearing him tell our parents he planned to consume my soul before the cult could get their hands on it should have been the final straw. That was the part where horror, fear or sheer human survival instincts should have been pushing me to put as much distance between me and my brutal stepbrother as possible.
Arousal was the last thing that should’ve been sweeping through my core and turning my insides molten.
What in the actual fuck was wrong with me? The list was long.
I was falling in love with Titus, a man I’d known for barely two whole days.
The fact that he was half devil just sweetened the deal, because I was what the internet coined a “monster fucker.”
I’d watched a man die. There had been so much blood…
My mother, tied to the bed beside him, had reacted like any human should. And I had felt… empty. Not a trace of pity. Nothing. Nada. Zip.
I’d have felt sorry for her if it hadn’t been for the fact that she’d offered me up to Titus in exchange for her freedom.
I was well aware of the fact that Gloria Brooks was a selfish person. But going as far as to sacrifice her daughter for her own survival? Would she have said that if she’d known it was me standing beside Titus? He’d made me wear his cult mask because he hadn’t wanted me to be the last thing his father saw when he died.
Now, it provided me insight into the true depths of my mother’s selfishness.
Slowly, a new emotion started to seep its way into my heart like poison.
“You’re angry,” my stepbrother murmured as we stepped into the hall, the door to our parents’ room clicking shut behind him.
I turned, leaning my back against the wall as the strength in my legs seemed to vanish. “Can you always do that? Read me like a book?”
Titus was tall, and his lithe body was packed with muscle. His dark hair spilled over his eyes, but I could still make out the hot slivers of his mismatched gaze slicing through me.
Bitter tears blurred my vision until all I saw was the glowing white eye drawing closer as he approached.
His heat licked over my flesh as he pressed in, pushing me against the wall.
“Yes,” he rasped as he tore his mask off my face to expose my teary eyes. “I’m more in tune with you than I ever wanted to be, Lorelei. I’m aware of every single beat of your heart. Every twitch of your pussy as you set your pretty eyes on me. Every sweet breath you breathe. Every tear…”
He arched down, then dragged his hot tongue over my tear-swollen cheeks. Tasting them. “They all belong to me now. So don’t let all this human shit bother you. It’s not your concern anymore. It’s mine. They are my burden now.”
I sighed against him, enjoying the shocking heat of his tongue against my skin paired with the smooth steel of his barbell piercing. “You don’t own me, Titus. Not until you claim my soul. I’m waiting.”
The devil pulled back, his lips tipping into a dark smirk that stretched the scar on his face. “Are you really so impatient to be devoured, little lamb?”
Every sinew in my belly strung tight at his words. “Don’t tell a girl you’re going to eat her soul if you’re not going to follow through, you fucking tease.”
His eyes flashed, then his hand was on my throat, squeezing just enough to leave me gasping against the collar of his tatted hand.
“You think this is a game, Lore? I’m not like you. I’m a devil. Days ago, I was going to sacrifice your soul to my ancestor, just to get him off my fucking back. Now I’ve decided to keep it for myself.”
The hunger in his voice sent a rush of heat through my core. I squirmed, vainly trying to escape. He laughed.
“There’s no getting away from me. You had your chance. Now it’s too late.” He leaned down, his breath a hot caress over my lips. “Now you’re mine. And I’ll do anything to keep it that way. Even if it means claiming you as my own sacrifice to keep you from the Jersey Devil’s clutches.”
“Titus…I don’t want to escape you. I should, but I don’t.” My words were strangled, laced with pleasure and pain. “You’re saving me.”
“Saving you?” he growled.
There was a glint of silver and a flash of red. He brandished a knife seemingly from nowhere. It was the same one he’d used to slay his father, still dripping with his blood. He brought the weapon to his mouth and ran his tongue over the flat of the blade, licking up every last trace of blood.
His hand dropped from my throat and was replaced with the knife’s point.
“Make no fucking mistake, little lamb. I’m not saving you. Either they capture you and the Elder One eats you…or I do. Either way, you’re screwed.”
I swallowed, the blade nicking my skin at the twitch of my throat. Titus’s mismatched eyes turned wolfish as they tracked the bead of blood pooling in the hollow of my throat.
This man was more than just my stepbrother. He was a lethal monster, and he was starving. Not just for my body, or even my soul. Titus Leeds was starving for love and acceptance.
Because he’d never gotten it from his father, just like I’d never gotten it from my mom.
Maybe that’s what made us so ravenous for one another. We were desperate to suck, fuck and take whatever we could to fill our shriveled black hearts.
I pushed onto my toes, ignoring the blade, and licked his lips until they parted on a low growl. “We’re both damned, Titus. And if we’re destined for Hell, we might as well enjoy the fall.”
Chapter Two
Titus
The taste of my new little sister on my lips did dark things to me. My darkest, most primal urges hungered for her in ways I’d never experienced before.
I needed to own every drop of her. Her blood. Her tears. I wanted to be the one to make her bleed and weep, just so I could be the one to stitch her wounds and dry her tears.
I didn’t just crave Lorelei Brooks, I loved her. And the thought of losing her to the same fucked-up cult that had taken my mother terrified me to my marrow.
In the few days I’d known her, she’d become my drug. My reason for living.
I needed her like I needed air in my lungs.
I hadn’t been exaggerating when I told Lore that I intended to own every bit of her. My obsession for this annoying little human was getting out of hand. For three long years, all I’d cared about was giving my father the death he deserved.
I’d lost count of the nights I’d laid in bed, plotting my revenge. The fantasies had been disturbing, and highly detailed. Skinning him. Cutting off his body parts slowly, cooking him and making him eat his own organs as his hacked-up system fought to survive using the nutrients of his own body.
In the end, all he’d gotten were a few stabs to the chest.
That would have pissed me off to no end just a week ago. But now? I didn’t care. It stopped being about retribution the day my offering crashed into my chest with
her moving box filled with monster smut and sex toys.
My hatred for my father had been a disease, and Lorelei was my cure. Now it was time to save her from these godforsaken woods.
Too bad there was no one to save her from me.
I threw the knife to the ground and ran my thumb over the tiny slash on her throat.
Her red blood stained my skin, its metallic tang filling me with a primal lust that had me growling.
Her tiny body tightened at the sound, and the unmistakable scent of her arousal spiked the air. Unable to resist, I pushed my thumb into my mouth and sucked her blood clean.
The way her eyes popped, and her eyelashes fluttered had my cock thickening in my jeans.
It was funny how human she made me feel. At the same time, I never felt more monstrous than I did when I was around her.
Even as the Keeper’s brat, I’d never felt like I belonged in Bishop. My father had bedded the offering meant for the Elder One. I was the unfortunate product of my father’s fucked-up nature. Shame incarnate.
Half devil.
Half human.
Full monster.
But with Lore, I was so much more than both my parts. Whether I leaned toward the soul-consuming, demonic side of me or the unsociable backwoods mechanic, she wanted me. In her, I’d found my home.
I wanted to crawl my way inside her and never leave.
My hand moved to caress the back of her skull—sweet at first, then my fingers tangled in her hair and yanked her head back. A tiny squeak left her, which turned to a moan when my other hand undid her jeans before slipping down the front of them and into her panties.
A few strokes to her clit was all it took before her pussy began to drip with her arousal, drenching my fingers. She squirmed, hips searching for more friction.
I pushed a finger inside her, and her inner walls twitched and throbbed at my invasion.
Fuck me dead.
I could feel her heartbeat through her pussy.
My fingers worked her flesh harder, rubbing and thrusting until her muscles began to spasm. “Come on my fingers, baby,” I purred, my tongue painting a lick onto her throat.
It was funny how my defiant little human was such a good girl for me…so long as I was inside her. Her pussy bore down on my fingers. She grew oh-so hot, and her features scrunched up in the prettiest “O” face I’d ever seen.
A swollen moan left her lips, low and winding. A shudder raced through her. Then she pushed me away, looking flustered.
I chuckled, licking my fingers clean as she shakily did up her jeans. “We have to leave now. Go straight to the car. There are a few things I still have to grab.”
My gaze lingered on her ass as she walked away, keeping her in my sights until she disappeared down the staircase.
Getting Lore out of the Pine Barrens was priority number one.
Marking her in every conceivable way possible was priority number two.
I had meant what I’d said. If it came to it, I’d devour her soul in this godforsaken place just to keep it away from the soul-starved Jersey Devil and his fucked-up flock.
I almost felt sorry for her.
Now that my new stepsister belonged to me, she had no idea how fucked she really was.
Chapter Three
Lore
If I were the type of girl who did what she was told, I would have gone straight to the truck, like Titus instructed.
He should have known I wasn’t that kind of girl.
When we’d decided we were going to get the hell out of here, we’d quickly packed the car. There was no reason for me to stay in the house. But when I walked past our parents’ bedroom, I heard her—my mother’s sobs still bleeding through the door.
I shouldn’t have stopped to listen to her muffled whimpers, but I did. And they burrowed under my skin, forcing my feet back upstairs.
I waited for the click of Titus’s door and peeked into the hall to make sure he’d gone into his room before creeping back to my mom’s. My attention snagged on the knife and cult mask still lying on the floor in the hallway.
Stooping to pick them up, I yanked on the mask and fisted the knife before entering the room.
The second I was inside, I paused.
Why had I come in here? To hurt her? No. Titus had asked if I wanted to kill her along with his dad, but I’d let her live. I didn’t hate her enough to want her dead.
I wanted answers. Before I could leave with Titus, she had to answer for what she’d said about offering me up in her place.
When I approached the foot of the bed, her sniffling stopped when she noticed me, her face paling. She was shaking, weakly tugging against the bindings holding her wrists to the headboard, trying to escape.
Ezra Leeds’ corpse lay beside her. His body was a grotesque mess, with his chest cavity torn open and his horrified expression boring into the popcorn ceiling. His blood had soaked into the sheets, staining everything red.
My mom arched off the mattress in a vain attempt to escape the wet sheets. It was a pitiful scene.
By the look that flashed over her eyes, she thought I’d come back to kill her. She started to sob again, tears cascading down her cheeks. I approached her side of the bed and, with a shaky hand, pointed the knife at her throat. “I’m going to remove the tape. Scream, and I’ll kill you.”
With her nod, I peeled the tape off.
“L-Lorelei?”
I ripped the mask off, angry tears pricking my eyes. “So you knew it was me?”
“N-No. Not until you just spoke! H-Honey. Please let me go.”
“You told Titus to take me as an offering in your place! You’d have me sacrificed to save your own skin!” My voice started to shake along with the hand holding the knife. “You’ve always been selfish. But this is a new low, even for you.”
Fresh tears rolled down her cheeks. “I didn’t mean it. Oh, honey, you can’t think I meant it.”
“What was I supposed to think? You…you…” My voice broke.
“You didn’t think I meant it, did you? I thought you were another one of them. Oh, honey, I never would have brought you here if I had known how twisted Ezra’s son is.”
“Why do you think Titus killed Ezra, mom? He was never in love with you.” I jabbed the knife in the corpse’s direction. “He was the twisted one! He was never a pastor. He leads a cult that worships the Jersey Devil. He never loved you. He lured us here so they could strip us of our souls as offerings to their god. He wasn’t even human. None of them are, except for Titus. His mom was an offering. Ezra lied to her, just like he lied to you.”
By her expression, she thought I was crazy.
Maybe she was right. I was running away with a murderer, after all.
But I wasn’t wrong about this. Titus had told me that the entire population of Bishop had descended from the Jersey Devil, the Lord of the Forest. Now they lived in service to him, luring human souls here to keep him strong.
I had seen the proof of what Titus was. I’d felt the ridges of his black horns when I’d held on to them for dear life as he’d fucked me. I’d seen his impossibly long tongue and felt that too.
In fact, the only thing I was certain of when it came to the enigma that was my dickhole of a new stepbrother was that he wasn’t human, and that he was probably the only devil in Bishop who didn’t want to feed our souls to the Jersey Devil.
“I’ve seen him, Mom. But he’s not like Ezra. Titus is good. He cares about me, even if he likes to pretend he doesn’t sometimes. He’s more human than devil.”
“Then let me come with you! The three of us can escape. We can leave this awful place and get out of here together.”
My heart clenched. I didn’t need her. But even if we never went on to have a picture-perfect mother-daughter relationship, at least she would be alive. If I let her go, there would always be a chance to have the mom I knew before my dad died.
“Titus has the truck ready. We don’t have time to pack anything. You’ll have to leave all your precious possessions here.”
I expected her to put up a fight, and that would push me into leaving her behind. Because there was that lingering anger still in the back of my mind, telling me to.
