Toxic Part Two (Celestra Series Book 7.5) (27 page)

“What’s going on?” Mom narrows in on me. Her cheeks fill with color after witnessing the spit swap session with my most favorite stoner.

This
embarrasses her?

Before I can properly stutter out the lie, Demetri and Darla fill in our circle.

“Everyone looks stunning.” Demetri spews the words through his perennial smile. “Skyla—a new boyfriend perhaps?”

“Yes.” I nod into Demetri. “That stunt with Mr. Dudley was just to tick off Gage.” I try to shrug it off. “I’m one hundred percent into Ellis and secretly have been from the beginning.” I pick up his hand and press it against my lips. Gah—even his hand smells like pot.

“You two should join us sometime for dinner,” Ellis’s mother offers. “In fact, I insist!”

“Oh, for sure,” I say. “I’ll be around for a lot more than one dinner. There’s holidays, birthdays… I’m pretty much a permanent fixture.” I cut a look to both Morley and Arson, who appear a little less than amused.

“Really?” Mom squints into me. I just want to shake her. Why can’t she just accept Ellis and be quiet? Did I needle her over the fact she chose to defile someone else’s baby? And I fully expect a lawsuit in eighteen years with Beau Geste at the helm, ready to trickle every last dime out of Mom and Tad over their questionable dining practices.

“Yes, really.” I contest. “This time it’s forever.” My stomach seizes as I say it.

“Don’t worry, son.” Tad pats Ellis on the back. “Skyla’s version of forever will be over in about fifteen minutes. Some other guy will sail by and catch her interest and she’ll dump you at the dinner table like the last goof.” He and Mom turn toward Demetri and start in on their own conversation.

“Gage is not a goof,” I whisper to Ellis.

“You really dump him at the dinner table?”

“On accident.” I shoot Tad a dirty look for even bringing it up.

“If you’re going to do that to me, at least have the decency to wait for dessert.”

Morley stiffens his neck in my direction as if he’s on to my fickle love ’em and leave ’em behavior. Leave it to Tad to botch everything up.

Morley leans into his son. “She seems quite the catch.” He leers over my body with his slow as molasses gaze before reverting to Ellis. “I’d savor this fifteen minutes, if I were you.” He takes the hand of the co-ed next to him and stalks off into the crowd as our small group disbands.

Perfect. Strike one.

“Thanks a lot, Ellis,” I hiss.

“What?”

“You could have let him know how much you love me,” I whisper. “Or how you can’t live without me, or how you’re looking forward to seeing me, alive and well, every single day.” Honestly, you just have to spell everything out for some people.

“What’s this about?” His mother’s brows touch in the middle. Dear, God she must have figured out the fact I’m using her son and now she’s morbidly pissed.

“Skyla’s been taken.” Ellis nods as if this were banal news on every level. “And she got her treble revoked. New moon, right?” He asks as if we were talking about our plans after graduation, only I won’t have any because I’ll be an entire scholastic year behind for the rest of my unnatural life.

“Yes, that’s right,” I offer. Fantastic. Ellis could care less.

“I’m so sorry to hear that.” Olivia takes a sip from her champagne. “I had that happen to a good friend of mine a few years back.” She shakes her head. “Hey…” She brightens. “If you see Paige Carpenter, tell her Olivia from Zumba says hello.”

My mouth falls open, perplexed by the obvious lack of heart that each and every Count seems to display.

“No. I will not say hello. She needs help.
I
need help.” I shake my head and take off.

I walk out onto the cool patio and run smack into Marshall and Triple-E Izzy.

“I hate Counts,” I hiss it low.

“Keep it down.” Marshall slits his eyes to her overexposed rack. “Perhaps a walk in the fresh night air will calm your nerves.”

“Precisely why I’m out here.”

“Other direction.” Marshall takes me by the elbow and escorts me back inside as we meander through the crowd. “Did we lose her?”

I look back and see Tad eyeing her happy sacs like an infant ready to take the taste-test challenge.

Mom is occupying Izzy, showing off the baby. Actually… she’s exposing the udder duct taped to her chest to the horror of Demetri’s fake niece.

“She’ll be busy for a while.” I pull Marshall to the side. Marshall looks like the god he is tonight in his immaculate suit, his hair slicked back—the devil winking in his eye with a constant proposition for me. “I think you’re really great but I want you to know it’s OK for you to see other people.” I’d hate to think Marshall was saving all that pent-up aggression for yours truly, when there are so many willing females ready to succumb to his every desire.

“Perfect. I’m seeing other people right this very minute. The entire lot of them smell like a cheap insert from a magazine,” he says, pressing his hand in the small of my back and navigating me through the great room.

“I mean dating, sexually assaulting, things of that nature.”

“Nonsense. I reserve those rights for you and you alone.” He gives a sly smile and my insides melt a little.

“What if you had to wait a really long time?” Like forever.

“Six thousand years is quite enough, but I suppose a few more wouldn’t kill me outright—if I were subject to the curse of death, of course.”

We head toward the entry and a blast of frigid air bleeds in from outside.

“You would wait for me?” I don’t understand this. “What if there’s nothing to wait for?” I press in my gaze and arc my body toward his. I need for Marshall to understand in the most loving way possible that we can never be.

“Everything I’ve shared with you, the news Delphinius gave us, the prophecy regarding the birth of our child”—he narrows his crimson-colored eyes over me with a sweetness I’m not used to from him—“it will happen, love.” He touches his thumb to my cheek and his wonderful vibrations tune through me like the strumming of a harp. “I love you, Skyla. In time you will feel the same.” 

I catch my breath and hold it, not sure how to respond. A part of me knows this is real. A part of me already has a very special place in my heart for Marshall. And although I’m terribly afraid to admit it, the thought of making love to him has been playing out in the recesses of my darkest fantasies for some time now.

“Really?” His brows arch in amusement.

Shit.

“I assure you”—he rakes the words across my cheek like a firebrand—“your darkest fantasies will blush at the very idea of what I’m prepared to do with you.” 

“The people from the Transfer…” I change the subject with a start. “I’ve seen them. They’re trapped in the fog.” I try to catch my breath and shoo all thoughts of Marshall and his carnal affection away but it’s like trying to put out a forest fire with a squirt gun. My face flushes with the flurry of promiscuous possibilities.  

“They, my love, are the fog.” His brows rise. “Temporarily, anyway. I couldn’t figure out how to make them go away once they seeped their way into existence so I’ve banished them to vapors.”

“You did this?” I have to say I’m rather impressed with his ability to banish at will. And the fact he has the ability to get my hormones from zero to overdrive in less than five seconds is pretty remarkable as well.

Chloe struts by in a cheetah-print scarf she’s trying to pass off as a dress with Holden by her side. Figures. She’s probably the one who suggested my treble be revoked in the first place. “Can you banish
people
to vapors?” Although, I think ashes would suit Chloe better.

“No.” He glowers over at the two of them.

“Marshall, you need to help me,” I plead. “My treble will be up soon.”

“There are rules.” He depresses a forlorn smile.

“How will I ever be your wife?” Words I thought would never leave my lips. “How will we ever delve into the dark recesses of my twisted fantasies—how will you love me with your heavenly bod if I’m captive in some cage like a zoo animal?” That’s right. I’m throwing it all into the get-me-out-of-Celestra-jail hopper, including my delicate girl parts.

“I’ll seal you as my own. Once you’re sealed, I have visitation rights wherever they drag you off to.”

“Conjugal visits?” I balk. “And this is supposed to
comfort
me?” I let out a deep sigh of discontent. “In all honesty, Marshall, it’s only you who has never let me down. If you could help me again just this once.” Technically, twice, when I fill him in on the Ezrina gaffe, but only if he saves Logan too. I’d go down with Logan in a heartbeat. There’s no way I’d let him suffer alone on my behalf.

He glances around as if he were about to impart some sage wisdom passed down from the ages. “I assure you, I will not let you down. I would never withhold my affection from you just because you’re bound and chained. Speaking of chains that bind, we could practice this art ourselves, if you wish.” He looks intent on starting the bevy of bondage exercises as soon as tonight.

“I’ll pass on the whips and chains for now.” I give a devilish grin because, if Marshall is correct, there will be plenty of time for this later.

He lifts my chin gently with his finger. “I promise you this. I’ll gift you a visit with one who can change everything.”

“You will?”

“I already have.” He points out the door, and I gasp at the sight.

Chapter 89

The Parent Predicament

The large gaping mouth of the door is bejeweled with two of the most beautiful beings to ever walk the planet—my parents.

I run over to my father and leap into a hug. He spins me, laughing his velvet, husky laugh. The familiar scent of his cologne serenades me with its blessings like a song written in the blood of a million yesterdays. It’s strange seeing him here at the Kragger estate, which sort of amounts to a Count convention.

“You look so good.” I kiss his cheek and run my fingers through his thick, dark hair. He’s younger and this alarms me on some level. I wonder how far back he’s traveling from.

“I’m not traveling, Skyla.” He pulls the loose hairs from out of my eyes. “Your mother here was kind enough to bring me along for the journey.”

I go over and hug Candace Messenger’s thin frame, take in the scent from her hair of lilac and roses. It’s so much like looking in a mirror with her, but she holds the air of authority—that look of knowing she talks about is forever embedded in her eyes.

“You let him cross the chasm,” I say.

“Indeed, there is something unusual at play.” She winks. Her gold dress sparkles under the charge of the chandelier. She looks luminescent—an alluring siren who demands the attention of every living being on the island.

Marshall bristles against me.
What’s a chasm or two when every dominion is at your disposal?

It’s almost as if he’s secretly trying to tell me something about my mother. Nevertheless, she can probably hear his thoughts—and mine.

“You guys look great and everything,” I say, “but there’s no way you two can come inside.” It might be a dead man’s party if you’re a resurrected Count, but for sure not of the dearly departed husband variety. “Mia’s here,” I add to my father.

“I’ll do my best to avoid her,” he assures. “But before my visit’s through, I’d love for the two of us to be reunited. In fact, I’ve been visiting her dreams, trying to prepare her for this.”

“I really doubt there’s a logical way to do that,” I say. “How long are you here? Where will you stay?”

“They’re guests at the ranch,” Marshall answers. “Your father has taken to the animals.”

“Well, if you like animals, you’re in luck. There are plenty in there.” I glance over my shoulder and see Morley and Arson.

Gage and Logan stand in the back, talking to Ethan, Drake, Brielle, and unfortunately Chloe. I bet Demetri is hiding like the coward he is. How morbidly exciting that both of my father’s killers are about to have the scare of a lifetime, not that either of them would be genuinely frightened. I doubt Chloe even knew what he looked like.

“My treble ends next new moon.” I direct it at my mother accusingly before reverting to my father. “Daddy, you have to do something. I’ll be of no help to those people in the tunnels, if I’m locked up in a cage for the rest of my life.”

“Skyla,” he says, sweeping over me with a look of anguish, “certainly there’s something we can do.” He protests to my mother.

“Rumor has it you’ve taken to appeasing the petitioners.” She says it low, almost as if she were holding back a laugh. “Have you figured out how to make them happy?” She’s talking about Morley and Arson. Considering I’ve yet to invoke their mercy, I’d say that rumors fly quicker than greased pigs in the nethersphere.

“If the rumor you received was via my grey matter, then yes, you’re correct,” I say. It’s like I can’t turn off the bitchy attitude with her. It’s weird. “I just have to figure out what makes Arson Kragger tick.” Preferably something I can feasibly achieve without a resurrection.

“His study is off in the back,” she offers. “Most men keep their prized possessions front and center.”

“Perfect!” I snatch Marshall up the elbow. Of course I’m not going to dig around the Kragger estate by my lonesome. “Where will I find the two of you?”

“Here and there.” She glosses over the crowd with an assertion of venom. Something about my mother scares the hell out of me on every level. “I’m sure we’ll bump into you again.”

I wave as Marshall presses me back into the house and down a corridor to the left.

“This is so freaking surreal!” I squeal into him as he wraps an arm around my waist like we’re a couple. Although, according to Marshall, and the future prognostication of Delphinius, we sort of are.

“Your
beauty
is surreal.” He says it low and sultry.

Carly Foster strolls out of a vacant room with a lanky boy I may or may not have beat up while I was hallucinating from the effects of the holy rose of terror. I duck my face into Marshall’s chest as we walk on by.

“Here it is.” He opens the door to a dimly lit study the size of the entire Landon living space.