Playing with Monsters (14 page)

Pressure on my sensitive places mixed with the storm already building inside of me. Lightning crashed outside, and he smiled against my breast before his teeth grazed the nipple, pulling a moan from me as pain mixed with pleasure. His cock continued to slide against my core, and moisture was forming, giving him the extra lather to use me.

My hips bucked against him, but his weight held me prisoner as his hungry mouth continued to suck, nip, and bite my soft flesh. It was a torturous mix of sensations. Every time my body prepared to go over the edge, he stopped, waiting it out, and would start his assault again. He kissed my neck, rolling one nipple between his thumb and forefinger. His other hand moved down, placing his cock at my entrance, and inserted it, but only enough that it stretched my body.

“One thrust, and I’ll own you,” he whispered huskily. “You have no idea how badly I want to hear you scream for it. Do you know what happens now?” he asked, and before I could answer, his mouth claimed mine.

It was unorthodox to be in this position with him. I couldn’t think past his mouth, past the pressure his body was creating as it rocked into mine, only to pull out as I tried to take more of him. I wasn’t adjusting to the fullness he created. He knew it; I attempted to move, and he withdrew from me.

“Lucian,” I moaned.

“Beg for it,” he growled as he pulled his mouth away and looked over my body. “Tell me what I want to hear, and maybe I’ll let you enjoy your last few minutes on this earth.”

“Go to hell,” I snapped, my mind coming back to what was happening.

“Been there; it’s not as bad as they say,” he whispered as his fingers entered my body, causing me to twist as pain erupted without warning.

I screamed in shocked horror, my eyes filled with tears as he took it from me. His eyes changed to obsidian. His demeanor changed, and his mouth lowered to lick against my flesh. He continued to push his fingers inside of me, his mouth soothing the ache until he pulled them out covered in blood. He used the blood to write on my flesh—death runes. I watched him as he continued to write, stopping periodically for his mouth to resume its slow, sensual assault.

He pulled his mouth away, and replaced it with his heavy, thick cock. He slapped it against my flesh, and lowered his mouth to claim mine. “Maybe in the next life, you’ll be more of a challenge, my little witch. I do hate it when you come back weak. However, your body always gives me enjoyment.”

His naked body hovered over mine and his cock pushed inside, further than it had before. As I cried out, he used the surprise of my response to shove a cloth against my mouth, filling it to smother my cries. Another inch, and then another. I remained still, watching him as pain shot through my body as he filled me. Without warning, he pulled out and moved from the bed. I watched him numbly as he moved to the dresser, where a basin of water waited.

“I didn’t love you in this life,” he whispered with his head down, his face away from me. “You did love me, though, didn’t you?”

I couldn’t answer, but I struggled against the ropes, hoping to find release before he returned to finish me off.

“Your coven is searching for you, but they won’t find you with any life left in your corpse. What they will find is your naked body, covered in my runes, and beautifully broken. I must admit, out of all of your reincarnations, this one has been the easiest to find. The coven, though, poor bastards, they don’t understand what is happening. They’ve all been cursed to relive your past lives in dreams. It helps me, you know, watching them struggle after they turn you against me. I enjoy their pain, but never yours, witch. Yours haunts me until I find you again.”

I screamed through the gag, my eyes growing wide as I inhaled the sickly sweet scent of whatever he’d saturated the cloth with. I turned my head, looking to the ropes that held me. Runes I hadn’t noticed before covered the walls. A mirror faced me, and I took in my naked body. Black hair and a wide, scared pair of emerald eyes looked back at me. I turned as he moved towards me, and kicked him the moment he was close enough.

“There’s the fighter I love, a little too late,” he purred as he ran his finger over my cheek. “You’re already dying; the gag was soaked in a mixture of hemlock and white baneberry. It’s a slow death, as it will sedate you and your heart will seize and beat no more. Funny, you didn’t beg me or confess your undying love for me. You always have before, right before you try to seduce and then kill me.”

His mouth touched my cheek, placing a soft kiss against it. His fingers travelled lower, and he watched as the poison took control of my system. I struggled to remember the curse, to remember what I was supposed to do. We’d planned this, and yet I couldn’t remember.

“Magdalena,” he shouted. “Get up!”

“Not yet, I have to remember,” I whispered.

“Get up, now, Lena, get the fuck up!” he shouted; only this time he sounded like Joshua.

“I must remember, before it’s too late to curse him,” I mumbled.

“Wake up!”

I sat up, my eyes wide as the dream changed.
Joshua.
I looked around the room. I was drenched in sweat, my body one touch away from being on fire. It was so bad that I could smell it. I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hands and paused.

“Fire,” I whispered as I rolled and stumbled out of bed and moved through the room, not stopping to change into something more substantial than a simple nightie.

I pushed open the front door of the cottage and my blood turned to ice running through my veins. I numbly took a step towards the main house as some of the windows in the lower level shattered, allowing black smoke to billow from the house.

“No!”

Chapter Fifteen

The brain is a funny thing. It doesn’t comprehend the magnitude of what the eyes see when it first begins to compute the image. I’d like to say I moved quickly, but I didn’t. I stood on the porch, unsure of what to do. My response time should have been fast, but it just wasn’t. I watched as flames licked the side of the house, seemingly following the trail of the smoke. I moved closer, forcing my brain to function.

Someone was screaming close to me, hysterically. It took me a moment to understand that it was me, and that screaming wasn’t going to help my family. By the time my mind reacted, I was running to the front of the house. The smoke was thick, the front window slightly warped from the heat of the fire that was within. I had a moment to react when the window began to make a horrifying sound.

I turned to run to the back, even as the glass exploded, sending molten shards flying against my skin. The pain didn’t register, only that my house was on fire, and my family was still trapped inside the inferno. I tried to look through the remaining windows as I made my way to the back door, watching the top floor as window after window exploded, covering me and anything below it in shards of fiery, burning glass.

The back door was already open when I got to it. I paused for barely a moment as I looked at the flames that danced hypnotically on the walls, curling the wallpaper my grandparents installed during the crazy wallpaper phase. It sizzled, popped loudly, and began to melt under the blazing heat.

My eyes burned as I made my way into the house, screaming for my mother and Kendra. I covered my mouth as I inhaled the acrid smoke, coughing violently as I searched. I touched doors before throwing them open; my skin was slick with soot and sweat from the flames that seemed to focus more on the walls than any of the furnishings in each room I passed through.

I started crawling on the floor as the smoke got thicker, and made my way up the stairs. I tried to focus on the doorways, and pushed them open as I came to each one. I wasn’t sure which room my grandmother had these days, and I wasn’t going to leave anyone behind.

My lungs were on fire, and each time I moved to the next door, my movements began to slow as my body turned sluggish, until I finally decided to rest my head, to gather my strength before moving on.

I am not sure how long I lay on that floor, or if I knew that I wasn’t leaving it. I remembered that I needed to get up, but couldn’t. I couldn’t breathe, or move. I closed my eyes to keep them from burning more than they already were, and felt something connect with my leg. Hands touched my exposed flesh, and I heard someone swear violently, and then I was up, closer to the smoke.

I couldn’t force my eyes to open, or get my mind to grasp onto what was happening. Something solid and wet was smoothed against my face and then whoever had found me started moving quickly through the house. The cool night air washed over me as we exited the burning house. I tried, but couldn’t open my eyes.

“Breathe for me, Lena,” Lucian’s voice was urging, gentle. “Damn you, don’t do this,” he growled as his mouth touched against mine as if to give me CPR. I coughed, violently. His mouth didn’t move, but it remained close to mine until my eyes started to crack open. “Don’t open them yet,” he warned. “Bane, we need water, now. Tell the others that her sister and mother are still inside.”

I started to struggle against his hold, but he held me in his lap on the ground as he poured water over my face, and I cried out as it burned.

“You are covered in ashes and soot, you’ll be lucky if you’re not burned to hell, Lena. What the fuck were you thinking?” he demanded as he pulled the water away for a moment, allowing me to catch a breath.

“My family,” I uttered hoarsely.

“That what, you wanted to be entombed in the fucking fire with them? You have no magic to speak of yet. None that would help you live through that,” he snapped.

Why was he so angry? He had no right to judge my actions. I’d run into a burning house, I got that, and I would do it again if I had to. Anger was making my mind come back online, and I snapped my burning eyes open and looked right at him.

“My family is in there! They’re all I have left,” I rasped, even though I’d tried to push any strength I had left, into the words.

“My men are inside looking. I’m taking you to my place,” he announced as he started to pick me up.

“No, you’re not, not until I know they’re safe,” I mumbled as I turned my head, which seemed to hurt more than it should. Had I ended up burned? The pain was god awful, and the taste of smoke lingered in my mouth and lungs. I coughed again, and wiped my mouth off with the back of my hand, watching as it came away covered in a black tacky substance.

“The moment you know that they are alive, I’m taking you to my house to heal your burns,” he growled and allowed me to move onto the cool grass, which was a blessing. I watched in silence as the house continued to burn, watching the strangeness of the flames as they continued to dance in a multitude of colors. As I continued watching, skulls were visible in the flames, and I blinked to ensure it wasn’t my mind playing tricks on me; it wasn’t.

“Someone tried to kill us,” I mumbled as I fought to stand up, and failed. Lucian was there, helping me up, as my legs seemed too weak to support my weight. “Look at the flames,” I whispered in shock. “It’s a spell.”

“It’s a fire,” he replied firmly, his eyes moving from me, to the flames.

“Can’t you see them?” I asked, watching as terrifying creatures and skeletal figures moved within the flames.

“See what, Lena?” he asked as he pulled me closer until I yelped in pain. He loosened his grip, and as I watched, Bane brought towels over to Lucian, who wrapped them around me gently.

“There are skeletons in the fire, reaching out for me,” I whispered. I could see them, beckoning to me, seducing me back into the death that awaited me inside the fire. “See?” I said as I pointed at one that had extended out further than the others as yet another window exploded. “He’s telling me to come to him.”

“Bane, take Lena to the cottage; she can watch from the porch,” Lucian directed as he maneuvered me into Bane’s extended arms and moved away from me, closer to the burning house.

“Don’t get too close,” I warned, my voice cracking as one of Lucian’s men emerged from the fire carrying a lifeless Kendra. The air left my lungs at the sight of her and I struggled against Bane and dropped to my knees. Even from this distance, I could smell the smoke that clung to her body, as if it was refusing to release her from the death it offered so seductively.

I made my way to her with Bane’s help, not because he was being helpful, but because I was getting to my sister with or without his help. I fell to the ground, oblivious of the pain as I shook her, refusing to believe she was gone.

Angry tears slipped from my eyes as I watched one of the men start CPR on her, as another carried my mother from the fire.

“Anyone else in there?” Lucian asked, and the man gave him a sharp jut of his chin, indicating no one else was inside.

“My grandmother?” I whispered.

“There’s no one alive inside that house,” he muttered as he placed my mom on the grass with smoke clinging to his shirt, and touched her cheek. “She’s not as bad off as the young one.”

I turned to look at Kendra, who was lifeless, and still not breathing. I lay on the grass beside her and kissed her cheek, whispering to her, begging her to not leave me here alone.

“Please,” I whispered out loud. “I can’t be without you.” Being apart from her had been the hardest part of being away, and living without her wasn’t something I ever wanted to experience. I closed my eyes, refusing to believe that she was gone; I could feel her. Why could I feel her if she was beside me, dead?

I heard a gasp, then violent coughing. I opened my eyes and found her staring at me, even as she tried to gasp for clean air to fill her lungs. I exhaled a shaky breath that I hadn’t realized I’d been holding, and an almost hysterical sob rocked through me as I reached up to touch her cheek.

“We need to move them away from the fire, and Bane, call the coven. The fire will go out now. It has failed to do what it was created to; it was only here for them.”

I was helped back up to my feet by Lucian, who refused to budge when I asked to be able to stop at the cottage.

“Someone tried to kill you tonight, Lena. Until I or the coven decides its safe, you will remain with me,” he ordered. “I’ll send someone back for your things later, right now you need to have your wounds cleaned, and your sister needs sleep to recover.”

I couldn’t argue with him, because someone had done exactly what he’d said they had. I needed to rest, regroup, and regain my wits. Someone had gone out of their way to hurt my family. I felt safe enough with Lucian that I was willing to forego coven protocol and allow him to take the lead. Besides, he’d told his man to call them and let them know what had happened.

I was rushed through his house, unable to take in any detail other than it was extravagantly decorated, with lush furniture that put our old shabby ones to shame. I liked the older furnishings. The antiques long forgotten, that told of another world.

His bedroom was luxurious, with deep masculine shades of blacks and blues, which reminded me of his eyes. The bed was a solid oak four-poster bed that was larger than most, and had cream silk draped around the posts. The duvet was black, with glittering crystals edging the trim, creating the illusion of shimmering diamonds. A fire burned in the fireplace next to the bed, which made me shiver with the heat I already felt. I turned to look at him, only to find him watching me as I took in his bedroom.

“Why am I in your bedroom?” I asked softly, my voice scratchy from the fire still.

“How do you know it’s mine?” he asked, his eyes lowering to my burned nightie, which was also filthy.

I swallowed and took a step closer to him, wincing as pain filled every nerve in my body. “It’s dark, like you.”

“How do you know I’m dark, Lena?” he whispered as his hand slowly lifted and he pushed a few strands of hair away from my face.

“Is there another room I can sleep in?” I asked, dodging his question.

“You need to soak in a tub. You can’t wait for your mother and sister to finish using the others, so you’ll use mine. Bane is fetching the healing salts, as well as the petals from the flowers we use to heal burns. You can sit and relax while I prepare it.”

I swallowed again. Lucian was going to run me a bath, in his bedroom. The man who’d almost had his way with me in the kitchen of the cottage, had infiltrated my dreams and seduced and tormented my body until it had been on the edge of insanity, was now taking care of me.

I wasn’t sure how I should feel about it, but I was grateful that we weren’t dead. He’d saved me twice tonight, as well as my family. Something was happening to the coven, someone was targeting us and I planned to figure out why. First, I had to heal. The adrenaline was fading, and with it, came the unbelievable pain from the burns I’d incurred while trying to be heroic, and utterly failing.

I sat in a soft wing-backed chair while Lucian and Bane moved around the room, until Lucian stopped in front of me and offered me his hand. I accepted and winced as pain sliced through me. It was horrible; the simplest movements made me stagger.

I walked into the bathroom with Lucian, who closed the door, isolating us both inside the room. I paused, and turned to look at him as tears trailed down my cheeks, burning everything they touched as they rolled off my face. It wasn’t because I was crying; it was because everything burned, including my eyes.

“I can do this myself,” I mumbled.

“You’d pass out before you got into the water; burns hurt more than any cut could. Don’t worry, Lena, I have no plans of seducing you while you recover. I’m a very patient man.” He produced a pair of scissors from one of the many drawers in the wall-to-wall vanity.

“I can do it,” I insisted. I didn’t want to be naked with him, but I also knew I didn’t have the strength to remove my clothing. Talking hurt, everything hurt. Who knew just how many muscles it took to speak, and how many of them were connected to tissues that actually moved when you spoke?

“I’ll leave your panties on, but you’re getting into the water,” he urged.

“Fine,” I caved and did my best to turn around so that he could cut from the back instead of the front. I felt him carefully moving my hair, and placing it gently over my shoulder, and then the sound of him cutting through the fabric filled the room. I hadn’t seen my burns, but as I looked down, I could see the angry marks on my legs, already swelling from where they’d been burned. Black fabric was stuck in some of the damaged tissue, and I closed my eyes and silently prayed that the coven would be here soon, so that they could heal my family and me.

“Hold still, Magdalena,” he whispered when the blade of the scissors touched my back, and I winced. I could feel his fingers as he tried to place a barrier between my flesh and the cold steel. His touch sent my already blazing flesh to flames. My nipples hardened as the cool air touched them as he freed them from my top.

I had planned to use my hair to shield them, but he carefully pulled it up and put it into a high ponytail. His ability to do this with such ease made me question just how many women he’d been around. He hadn’t tugged at it, or missed a single hair. When he was done, he moved around me, and, without taking his eyes from mine, helped me into the warm water that was filled with fragrant petals. His eyes never strayed to my exposed breasts, which I was too sore to cover.

The moment I was in the water, I moaned and closed my eyes. Heaven had to feel like this. The pain numbed, the salt from the leyline eased the burns. Salt from the lines was a type of salve for witches. They were filled with healing properties. It burned now, but it would ease almost any wound if applied correctly as fast as possible after the incident. The scent of the flowers was intoxicating, and I inhaled, ridding my senses of the toxic, sulfurous smell of the fire. I was so relieved that I hadn’t even heard him move, or return with a sponge.

“This is going to sting,” he warned. “It’s got to be done. If we can get the salt deep enough, we can stop any scarring.”

“I’m not worried about scars,” I whispered as my lashes fluttered open. “Scars tell a story. Everyone has them, even if they’re not visible. I have enough inside that it won’t matter what’s on the outside.”

“I’m washing you, so either way, princess, it’s going to happen.”

“I’m not a princess,” I whispered as I turned to look at him.

He chuckled, and shook his head as he reached into the water and pulled out my arm, which pushed against my breasts. I sat up further, watching his eyes as they slipped to my exposed flesh, and then rose to meet mine with smoldering heat that would have made the fire tonight jealous.

“Here,” I said, as I moved my arm to the edge of the bath so he could tend to it. “I’m not burned everywhere,” I whispered as I silently thought a prayer that I hadn’t been burned in other places.

“You don’t like to be touched, do you?” he observed.

“It’s not that I don’t like to be touched,” I admitted.

“You don’t like to be touched by me?” he mumbled as his eyes assessed the damage to my arm before he pulled me up until I was standing in front of him.

“What the hell?” I asked as I stood before him, almost fully naked.

“I almost fucked you tonight, so don’t pretend you don’t want me. I’m not a little boy, and you’re most definitely not a little girl. You’re not a damsel in distress, but you are burned and you need my help. In order to do that, I need to touch you. Stop acting like a child, and take what I’m offering you. I don’t normally help people, and I certainly don’t make a habit out of it.”

“Then why do you keep helping me?” I asked, lifting my eyes to hold his. “Why are you here helping the coven? Based on what I’ve seen, you’ve been helping us a lot.”

He sighed and shook his head as he removed his shirt and kicked off his shoes. I watched in shock as he continued to strip until nothing was left, and by nothing, I mean Adonis had just stripped down naked in front of me and exposed the massive package I’d already known he was carrying, and unlike him, I didn’t keep my eyes to myself. Who the hell could? He was huge, and it wasn’t even hard yet. I wanted to instinctively cover my entrance; because there was no way in hell that thing was fitting. I had a healthy sense of self-preservation, and right now, it was screaming for me to slowly back away from the monster between his legs.