Wrath, page 2
Slippy - A kraken Aaliyah sent after Z and her mates in book two. Slippy is now Z’s beloved pet.
ONE
Z
Blood.
Blood everywhere.
On my skin. My hands. My cheeks. My clothing.
Bones crunched and snapped beneath my feet as I ventured farther down the hall of the opulent mansion.
How did I end up here?
That question rattled around in my brain—bouncing around like a thrown ball —as I forced myself to take one more step. And then another. And then another.
Dark red liquid, almost resembling paint, cascaded down the white walls on either side of me. The repetitive drip, drip, drip provided an eerie metronome in tandem with my movements.
Drip. One step.
Drip. Another step.
Drip. A third step.
My heart thundered in my chest as I reached the very end of the hall, where a door stood slightly ajar.
Every alarm bell in my head rang simultaneously, warning me not to enter this room.
Go away.
Turn back.
Retreat. Retreat. Retreat.
Yet my body refused to obey my brain. I reached forward and pushed the door open the rest of the way. It creaked ominously, the noise almost deafening in the sudden silence that pervaded the space.
A cold wind tiptoed up the nape of my neck as I stepped into the room.
I gasped audibly, my legs threatening to give out from underneath me. I placed a hand against the wall to keep myself upright.
No. No. No!
My mates—my sweet, perfect mates—were dead.
A scorching, burning scream ripped from my throat as I surveyed the destruction.
Devlin, with an arrow through his skull.
Killian, lying in a puddle of his own blood, his eyes vacant.
Dair, all of his limbs missing.
Jax, his eyes gouged out of his head.
Lupe, a sword protruding from the center of his chest.
Ryland, his head disconnected from his body.
Bash, reduced to nothing but a charred husk, the smell of burnt flesh permeating the room.
“NO!” I cried as grief, fury, and pain warred for dominance.
Something fizzled in my chest. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, but everywhere it touched, it burned.
I was on fire.
“No one but me will love you now,” a deceptively sweet voice declared.
A moment later, Aaliyah came into view, looking almost ethereal in her shimmering white gown. Her blood-red hair mirrored the color splattered across the walls and floor.
My sister stepped forward until she stood directly in front of me and then knelt down, her eyes sparkling with a malicious type of joy that made me want to dry-heave. “I will have your heart. You won’t have any other choice.”
I gasped, and pain ripped through me.
Shock held me immobile as I stared at Aaliyah’s hand—which was currently in my chest.
She smiled—a sickeningly loving smile—and slowly removed her arm. In her palm lay my still-beating heart.
“See?” She tilted her head to the side as she studied the organ. “I told you I’d have your heart.”
I began to scream.
“Z! Z! Wake up, dammit! Z!”
The voice jarred me awake.
I bolted upright in bed, blinking rapidly, desperately attempting to clear away the residual fog from my most recent nightmare. My skin felt clammy, and an incessant pounding beat between my brows.
“Dev?” I asked groggily as I struggled to reorient myself to the here and now.
I was no longer in Aaliyah’s palace of horrors.
I was with my mates, on a boat, sailing across Lake Meade.
“I’m here.” My genie mate waved his hand, and one of the candles nearby erupted into purple flames. The fire illuminated his eyes, making them appear almost luminescent. Shadows danced across his olive complexion. “Did you have a bad dream?”
“I suppose you could say that.” I rubbed at my eyes as a yawn threatened to tear my jaw apart.
The last thing I wanted to do was relive that nightmare. Even thinking about it sent pinpricks of panic racing down both of my arms.
I shivered and huddled farther into the blanket. “What time is it?”
Devlin glanced towards the clock hanging opposite the bed. “A little after two in the morning.”
“Way too fucking early for you to be yapping,” Bash exclaimed from my other side. His arm encircled my waist as he nuzzled the back of my neck. “Go back to sleep.”
I tapped his wrist impatiently. “Let me up.”
“Make me.” But Bash relented with only a tiny sigh of irritation, rolling onto his back and throwing his arm over his eyes.
I crawled out from between the two warm bodies, trying to ignore the sudden, persistent chill that invaded my system. I missed their heat almost instantly.
“Where are you going?” Devlin asked with concern, sitting upright in the tiny bed the ship’s captain, Phineas, allowed us to use.
“The bathroom.” I kept my voice low since Bash had already fallen back asleep, his breathing deep and rhythmic.
Devlin nodded and then shifted onto his side, his long lashes fluttering against his cheekbones.
I allowed myself a moment—just a moment—to study the two.
Bash, with his pale skin, ash-blond hair, and lean body. His features almost gave him an angelic look, but his eyes and sinful smirk suggested he was anything but.
Then there was Devlin, with his olive complexion, dark curls, and haunting purple eyes. He was the first man I’d ever loved…and he, along with the others, would be the last.
Thoughts of my mates sent a warm, fluttering glow parading through my chest.
Fuck, how did I get so lucky? I had not one but seven men who loved and adored me, and who I loved and adored in return.
But as instantly as it came, my good mood evaporated when I thought of the clusterfuck waiting for us back at the Capital. Namely, the insidious kings who my mates had imprisoned. They wouldn’t give up their crowns without one hell of a fight.
Yet we were an expert on fighting evil.
Unwittingly, my mind strayed to Aaliyah. My sister. It felt like centuries since I’d been imprisoned by her—by her dark magic—but it had only been a few days. Still, no amount of time could heal the emotional scars left behind. They’d always remain like black sludge that refused to come off, no matter how many times I washed and scrubbed myself.
But I didn’t want to think about Aaliyah or the kings or the battle waiting for us when we returned home. I had only a short while left with my seven mates before our lives would change irrevocably. I was determined more than ever to hold on to what I had with an iron grip.
Shouldering my way into the tiny bathroom, I flicked on the light and placed my hands on the countertop. It felt as if I’d just swallowed an entire tub of battery acid. My throat stung something fierce. I sucked in a scorching breath and reminded myself to breathe.
I was with my mates.
Everything would be okay.
We would survive this.
Yet, whenever I stared at my reflection in the mirror, all I could see was Aaliyah’s grinning face.
“No one but me will love you now.”
I was afraid of the steps Aaliyah would go to make that statement true.
She’d already tried to kill my mates. And if she were to ever succeed…
I struggled to inflate my lungs with air, but it felt like I was inhaling razor blades.
I had to kill Aaliyah before she could kill me or my lovers.
There was no other option.
My sister…had to die.
TWO
KILLIAN
My father had always told me that there was power in physical appearance. He had drilled it into my head time and time again, from before I could even walk. We were incubi, and as such, we had to be the epitome of perfection and physical health, of good looks and beauty.
I wondered what he would think of me if he could see me now.
I stared in the mirror for the one hundredth time in the last hour, studying my reflection as disgust curdled low in my gut like soured milk. Hesitantly, I reached up and touched one of the horns protruding from my head. I winced as it pricked my finger, breaking skin and causing me to bleed.
Behind me, my tail swished back and forth in agitation.
A reptilian tail. With scales.
Fucking scales.
I turned away from the mirror with a pained sigh…and immediately locked eyes with Z. She stood in the doorway of the room I’d been staying in, her blue eyes aglow with an enigmatic emotion and her golden curls loose around her face.
The past few days, we’d been sailing on Phineas’s ship towards safety. Phineas was a mermaid Dair befriended and procured the help of. He ruled the waters in the Shifter Kingdom, and if anyone wanted safe passage through them, they had to go through him.
Most of us had to share a room, except for me. Originally, I’d shared a room with Bash, but when my tail accidentally bitch-slapped him across the face during a particularly vivid nightmare, Phineas led me to a room at the lowest level of the ship.
As far away from the others as physically possible.
There was nothing here but a twin-sized bed, a nightstand, and a wardrobe devoid of any clothing.
“You didn’t come up for breakfast,” Z said quietly, folding her arms around herself.
I immediately twisted away from her, shame burning white-hot and blistering inside of me. I hated that she had to see me like this—like a monster. A beast.
A demon.
“Wasn’t hungry,” I lied, even as my stomach gave a contradictory grumble.
It took mammoth self-control not to glare at and verbally reprimand it.
Bad, tummy! Bad!
Both of Z’s eyebrows lifted. “You missed dinner yesterday as well.”
“Wasn’t hungry then either.” My tail thumped against the ground, almost as if the bastard was calling me out on my lie.
Logically, I knew I had control of the tail the same way I had control of my other limbs, but I swore it sometimes acted sentient, belying my true feelings. When I was angry or upset, the tail would twitch from side to side. When I was excited, it wagged like a damn puppy’s tail. Just then, it careened off the ground like a gavel and crashed back down, the noise almost deafening in the quiet room.
“You can’t keep hiding away in here.” Z ventured a tentative step closer but stopped at whatever expression she saw on my face.
“Who said I’m hiding?” I laughed awkwardly and attempted to fork my fingers through my disheveled red hair.
Of course, I forgot about my horns and ended up smashing my thumb against the left one. Ow.
“Have you stepped out of your room once in the last few days?” Z asked.
“Um…” I looked away from her and pretended to be fixated by the blankets on my bed. They were still messy from the night before, so I reached forward to straighten them, smoothing out the corners.
“Kill…” Z swallowed audibly, her breath hitching.
The broken sound had me turning back towards her. And…ohmygod. Were those tears? I didn’t know how to deal with tears, least of all hers.
“I am so sorry.” Her voice cracked on that final word, and the last of my defenses scattered away, crumbling until they were nothing but dust.
“P-Please don’t apologize,” I begged, racing towards her but stopping when I stood an inch away.
I wanted to touch her, to caress her cheek or push her hair behind her ear, but I didn’t dare. What woman would want to be touched by a monster like me? Z had just escaped a horde of them, after all. The last thing she needed was to be loved by one.
“Fuck, don’t cry.”
Z blinked rapidly. “I’m not crying.”
Little liar.
“So are those tears just from your allergies?” I asked, my lips twitching.
“Fuck, Killian.” Z’s entire face crumbled. That was the only way I could think to describe it—her upturned lips curled downwards, her eyelids lowered, and her nose scrunched. The sight broke my heart. “This is all my fault—”
“All your fault?” I stared at her in confusion.
Was it possible that Z was blaming herself? She wasn’t the one who threw me into Lake Meade. She wasn’t the one who poisoned the water. She wasn’t the one who tried to kill me.
She swallowed. “If you hadn’t come with me, you wouldn’t have—”
Nope. Not happening. I refused to allow her to go down this train of thought.
“I chose to go with you,” I countered immediately. This time, I didn’t hesitate to give in to my baser instinct. I cupped her cheek with the palm of my head, relishing the warmth she emanated in almost perceptible waves. “Nothing that happened was your fault. Have you been blaming yourself this entire time?”
The thought devastated me.
Gutted me from throat to navel.
Ripped me open and pulled out my insides.
Z’s blue eyes ensnared my own. They were entire oceans I wanted to get lost in. Drown in.
“You can’t look me in the eye and tell me that everything that happened wasn’t my fault.” A shudder worked its way through her. “I hurt all of those people…”
I knew exactly what she was thinking of. At her wedding to the assassin, Axel, Z had used a special dagger to drain the insidious magic from the kings—our fathers. However, the magic had entered Z and turned her…dark. Evil. Malicious. She’d killed everyone at the wedding and then left with her sister Aaliyah, the mastermind behind the entire operation. I had chosen to leave with the two of them, wanting to keep an eye on my mate and protect her the best I could.
Now we had Z back, but the war had only just begun. The kings were imprisoned but still alive. And Aaliyah would stop at nothing to get Z back under her thumb.
“That wasn’t you,” I told her gently, grateful that my stutter didn’t come out and contradict those words. Since meeting Z, I’d been doing better at controlling it, but it still popped out when I was stressed or anxious. “That was the dark, corrupted magic.”
“But I still—”
Whatever Z was about to say was interrupted by the door being thrown open. We both spun around to see Dair standing in the doorway. The mermaid looked haggard, dark circles marring the skin beneath both of his eyes. He hadn’t slept since we rescued Z—not that I blamed him. It was hard to find any semblance of safety when a demon from Hell was hunting our mate.
“We’ve reached shore,” he said, volleying his gaze between the two of us. His eyes lingered on my horns a fraction longer than necessary before he forced himself to look away. “You guys need to see this. Now.”
THREE
Z
Ifollowed Dair up the staircase and to the deck of the ship. Surprisingly, Killian tagged along, his tail thumping against the wood with every step he took.
I didn’t know what I was seeing at first.
In the distance, craggy gray rocks rippled as far as the eye could see, interspersed here and there with fields of grass and throngs of trees. The water crested the shoreline, its white-tipped edges reflecting the sunlight.
The rest of my mates stood at the very edge of the boat. I couldn’t see the expressions on their faces, but tension thrummed through their bodies in waves. Beside them stood Phineas, the captain of the ship, and his first mate, Toylo.
“Come here, love,” Lupe murmured as soon as he sensed me, gesturing me forward.
I shouldered my way between him and Ryland and faced the horizon.
My breath caught.
There, lining the shoreline, were hundreds, if not thousands, of tents. In an open clearing, two warriors parried swords while a crowd cheered them on. More people were walking to and fro, traversing the makeshift trails created by the tent placement.
My first thought was—the kings. Somehow, they escaped the dungeons and were building an army.
But then I looked closer.
The men and women didn’t hold themselves with the same lethal elegance of a genie or the insouciant slump of a mage. Their eyes weren’t the bright crimson of a vampire, nor did they hold the ethereal beauty of an incubus. There were no shadows enveloping their bodies the way they would for a shadow, and none of them lumbered like a shifter. The waters were devoid of any mermaids as well. The only ripple came from our boat.
These people were…human.
As if they sensed eyes on them, the two humans fighting stopped and turned. The crowd followed the direction of their gazes. It wasn’t long until I felt hundreds of eyes piercing my flesh, devouring me like an infestation of fire ants. A tendril of electricity released in my stomach, and my hands turned clammy.
Then, as one, the humans fell to their knees and bowed their heads.
“What the fuck?” Bash murmured, his brows wrinkling.
Phineas whistled. “Damn. Never thought I’d see the day.”
Lupe placed a huge, comforting hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “They’re bowing to you, my mate.”
His deep voice rumbled through me.
A breath of disbelief escaped me—the noise bordering on hysteria. “Me?”
“You’re the Liberator, aren’t you?” Lupe asked, though I knew he didn’t expect a response.
The question was rhetorical. We all knew about the title the humans had given me.
“Great.” Bash rolled his eyes exaggeratedly. “Just what the princess needs—a bigger head than she already has.”
I reached across Ryland to swat at the mage’s shoulder. “Are you saying I have a big ego?”
“I’m saying you have a big head,” Bash quipped. “The thing’s the size of a fucking watermelon.”
This time, it was Lupe who hit the mage—much harder than I did.
Still, Bash’s words helped dissipate the tension thrumming between us. I could practically feel the muscles in my shoulders loosen.
