Evil

  to distrust Damien. If anyone, it should’ve been Vespar. He actually planned to kill me, but for some reason, that same feeling wasn’t there for my pseudo half-demon sibling. I knew where they stood, he and Gus. Both were too scared of Kellan to go against him. One would think they’d be loyal because we saved them both, but I snorted at that thought. I wasn’t going to hold my breath for that kind of loyalty from them.

  “What’s so funny?” Gus asked.

  “What?”

  She told me, “You just laughed at something.” She looked at Kellan with suspicion. “Are you two doing the thought thing?”

  “What thought thing?” Damien asked.

  “They can hear each other’s thoughts.” She glared. “It’s annoying.”

  “You can’t?” Damien surprised her.

  “What?”

  “You can’t hear your brother’s thoughts? You two are connected through blood. You should be able to hear each other’s thoughts.”

  Gus and Vespar shared a look, both shifted in their seats. Then, Gus burst out, pointing at us, “She and Kellan aren’t connected by blood. What the hell?”

  I felt everyone’s attention turn to us, and I straightened against the counter. I didn’t want the attention, at least that attention. Everyone knew we were close, but the less they pried, the more comfortable I would be.

  Kellan said, “Even more reason to learn your place.” He stood up and glowered down at Gus, using his body to intimidate her. “We’re both powerful, more than you.”

  And it was working. Gus sat back down, her shoulders lowering, and she seemed almost submissive. “I wasn’t challenging you. I was just wondering how you guys can do that. That’s all.”

  Vespar’s jaw clenched, shooting his sister a sideways look.

  Damien remained quiet, observing the entire exchange. His gaze was clouded over and he cleared his throat, drawing everyone’s attention. “Do you have a plan?”

  Kellan glanced over his shoulder to me. I saw one lurking in him, but he said, “No, and we have three days, maybe four tops, to figure one out. I’m assuming you’ll bring something to the drawing board.”

  Damien narrowed his eyes, but he said nothing more.

  Aumae smiled. “Well, I think if we all put our heads together, we can all come up with something. Three half-messengers. Three half-demons and two captive humans in the shed. That’s a recipe for success, if I ever heard one.”

  She clapped her hands together, amusement sparking from her. But from the rest of us—not so much.

  “Everyone wants us to bond.”

  I tensed, but turned around. I’d gone on a walk. It’d been two days of hiding. Everyone was tense inside the house. I knew Kellan didn’t want anyone to leave, but I was going nuts. For the last two nights, Kellan went with me to our room. It wasn’t my room. It wasn’t his room. It was ours, and every night, I lay in his arms. We kissed, but we never went further. The ache for him was taking over. Even the messenger in me was ready to combust.

  I couldn’t see him now. The walking path I took in the woods shut out the moonlight, but I felt Kellan before I heard him. I knew he was going to follow and a part of me had been waiting for him.

  “What took you so long?” I asked.

  He drew closer, stepping further toward me so I could make out his silhouette. I saw the whites of his eyes. They were lidded. “Bonding?”

  “No. You’ve been following me since I left.”

  “Oh.” His shoulders relaxed, straightening out a bit. “I wanted to wait until we were farther from the house.”

  “Yeah?”

  “There’s a traitor in the group.”

  Alarm jolted me. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. “Who?”

  “If you were to take a guess?”

  I frowned. “Damien?”

  “Maybe.”

  “You don’t think it’s him?”

  “I don’t know what I think yet.”

  “Who else could it be? Vespar and Gus are a-holes, but you think they’d betray us and to whom?” I laughed. “And it can’t be Aumae. She’s…she’s like the only good one out of everyone. And it’s not Matt. He’s our captive. That doesn’t leave anyone else.”

  “Damien knew where we were at the house when the demons came.”

  I nodded. “So it has to be him then.” A knot formed in my stomach. “He wanted us to bond too, but he made it sound like we needed to do that to take on my dad. But, what if…?”

  Kellan was watching me. He knew what I was thinking and when the words couldn’t form, he moved so he was right in front of me. I could feel his warmth and he pulled me into his body, folding me in his arms. He rested his chin on top of my head, murmuring, “Everything will be okay. I’ll make sure of it.”

  I heard the dark promise in his voice and closed my eyes. A sensual tingle wound through me, warming me all over and I rested my forehead against his chest, right where his heart was. I could feel and hear it working. My hand fell to his stomach, pressing there, and the longer I stayed in that position, the faster his heart sped up. He was reacting to me, too. I let out a sigh, thinking, “Everyone wants us to bond. Myself included.”

  His arm tightened on my hip. “It’s what your father wants.”

  “And that means we shouldn’t, right?” I licked my lips because that’s not what I wanted. Not at all.

  “I can hear all your thoughts, Shay. The ones you don’t think I can hear, those too.”

  “I know.” I didn’t care. I was starting to not care about a lot of things. And I moved, closing the distance between our bodies. It had been a small opening, but it was gone now. Our bodies were fused together with only our clothes as a barrier. I wanted his shirt gone. Reacting to my thought, my hand slid up under his shirt, lifting it as I explored his chest. I was becoming lost in the feel of him.

  “Shay,” he murmured, his voice almost a groan next to my ear.

  I didn’t answer. I pushed his shirt the rest of the way up, pressing my lips to his naked skin now. I was becoming intoxicated, just from this touch, from not caring, from not holding back. I wasn’t holding back anymore. I wanted him. I think I had always wanted him.

  He caught the back of my neck. “Shay.”

  “Shut up,” I growled, lifting my face. My lips were waiting for his, and I opened my eyes. He was staring down at me, torn. I saw the temptation there and feeling braver than I ever had before, my hand fell to his jeans. My fingers slid inside, touching his skin, and my thumb rested over the first button of his pants.

  An animal-like growl came from him, and he snatched me up in his arms. I was shoved against a nearby tree, but I didn’t feel the bark. I didn’t feel how rough the tree was. All I was feeling was Kellan, his mouth on mine. His hands were on my hips, holding me up as my legs wound around his waist. I opened his pants and slid my hand inside. I was addicted to him. That was the only explanation for my behavior. I was past caring. I just needed him—then his hands were between my legs, and he slid a finger inside.

  I stilled, savoring that sensation, and he began to move. In and out. He went deep, then pulled back out, only to go once more inside.

  This was natural.

  This was how we were supposed to be, except I wanted him, all of him inside me.

  “Kellan,” I gasped against his mouth.

  Desire and pleasure pulsed through me. I felt his darkness cover us, and I even wanted more of that. He protected me. He killed for me. He would do anything for me. The messenger in me was quiet. Kellan pulled his mouth from mine. He rasped near my ear, “She’s gone. She’s letting us have this moment.”

  In.

  Out.

  I needed more.

  “Kellan,” I started to whimper. Wave after wave was crashing down on me, nearing me to climax, but I wasn’t ready. Still. I couldn’t do anything. Kellan held me in place. I couldn’t move my hips in response to him. He held me firm. I could only be there and endure what he was doing to my body.

&
nbsp; “Shay,” he growled again, letting me fall to the ground. He caught me and laid me down gently, then bent over me.

  The night cold should’ve covered me, but it didn’t. Kellan’s darkness was warming both of us, and he had woven a spell over us, and then I felt his lips replace his fingers. My back arched, and I let out a guttural scream. I grabbed his head, but he caught my hands and pinned both down beside me. His tongue began moving, licking, slipping inside. I was helpless again. All I could do was lay there, panting, trying not to scream as he made me come.

  “Kellan,” I was begging. “Please.”

  I couldn’t take much more.

  He was relentless. I wanted him, not his mouth, not his fingers. I wanted him, and I wanted to touch him back. I was brazen now. I just wanted him. I wanted to give him pleasure, too.

  After coming a third time, my body was exhausted and satiated. I was panting, and Kellan lay on top of me, smirking down at me.

  I raked my fingers through his hair, grabbing ahold of him. “What did you just do to me?”

  His eyes darkened. The smirk vanished, and he lowered his lips to mine. A soft kiss there. He whispered, “I made you mine.”

  A delicious shiver.

  Goose bumps broke out over my skin, but all I could do was shake my head, my lips to his, and I murmured, “God. You’re mine.”

  “Not God. Just me.” Then he took control of the kiss again, and he started his sensual assault on me all over again.

  Hands linked, we were walking back when suddenly Kellan stopped.

  “Kellan?”

  “We aren’t alone.”

  I tried to sense out, feeling who was there, and he was right. A presence was waiting for us, just a few yards before the walking path opened back to the house’s lawns.

  “It’s Damien.”

  I tightened my hand over his, but Kellan pulled loose and strode forward. “Are you waiting for someone else, messenger?”

  Damien sighed. “Please. Like I want to smell the two of you together, what you’ve been doing. I’m waiting for you and you know it.”

  “Why?”

  “There are things at work that you have no idea about. I feel it’s time you know.”

  I waited, expecting Kellan to say something more, but he was only silent. His head turned halfway from us, like he was watching something beyond the woods. He moved forward a step. He was seeing something.

  “Kellan?” “What is it?”

  He didn’t answer me.

  My insides began to churn.

  Damien filled me in. “He’s seeing what I came to tell you guys. When you left, the traitor took advantage of your disappearance.”

  “What is she doing?” Kellan’s voice was tight and controlled.

  “You see her, too?”

  I looked, but nothing. Just the black of the night and Damien’s white aura. That was the messenger emanating from within him. “You guys.” I wanted to know. “What’s going on?”

  A door from the house opened, light spilled out. We could see from where we stood. We were close enough to the house and someone shouted, “Hurry! They’re coming back.”

  Kellan vanished. I felt him beside me and in the next second, he was gone.

  “Kellan!”

  “Shay. Come on.” Damien motioned for me.

  I ran and he ran with me. We got to the lawn just as Vespar was running toward the shed. Kellan appeared and grabbed him by the throat. He picked him up, pulled him close, said something. I tried to hear, but Kellan shut me out.

  “Stop, Kellan.”

  “Stay back, for your own good.”

  I felt his murderous intentions. He was going to kill Vespar, and later he’d regret it. I tried to run faster. Damien was right beside me. Why we couldn’t vanish and appear there was beyond me, but I gritted me teeth and kept going. We got there in time to hear Vespar squeak out, “It’s too late, Kellan. She already called them.”

  A deep roar erupted from the bottom of Kellan’s throat, and his hand closed around Vespar’s throat. We heard a snapping sound, and Vespar’s body went slack. He broke his neck. Kellan let the body fall to the ground, and for a moment, it was complete silence in the lawn. I sensed Aumae coming to the opened door. She wondered what was happening, but no one said a word, and in that small break, we heard moans from inside the shed.

  “No.” Damien tried to rush for the shed.

  Kellan flung a hand out. He didn’t touch Damien, but the messenger was thrown back. A bolt of static came from Kellan’s hand right after and when Damien tried to run back to us, he couldn’t. He ran into an invisible force field. I asked, starting to tremble, “What is that?”

  “It’s a barrier.” Kellan turned back to the shed. He only stared at it for a moment.

  “Kellan, what’s going on?”

  “It keeps them out and us in.”

  Us. He meant him and me… I thought. I assumed the ‘them’ was Damien and Aumae. He couldn’t have meant messengers, because I was a messenger, too. I was a little more than half of one even, but I didn’t voice those questions. Whatever was happening on the other side of the shed door—it sounded like sex, but I had a feeling it was more than sex. Kellan wouldn’t have cared if it was only sex, and then he strode forward. I followed, and when he opened the door, I expected the occupants to jerk at the sight of us.

  They didn’t. They kept on as if they couldn’t hear us.

  “I blocked them before I caught Vespar,” Kellan told me.

  I saw why as Giuseppa arched her back, letting her head fall backward. She was straddling Matt, who was kissing her breast. She lifted her arms, cradling his head, sliding her fingers through his hair. “More, Matt. Please more,” she crooned, urging him on as her hips moved faster. She was riding him.

  He grasped her back, jerking his hips up into her. A growl came from him as he caught one of her nipples in his teeth.

  Her mouth fell open, and she continued with her moans, but then her hand lifted from his head. It continued, moving all the way in the air, and it reached behind her. Then, the moonlight glinted off something metal, and when her hand came back up, she was holding a nasty-looking dagger.

  I started forward, but Kellan stopped me.

  “What are you doing? She’s going to kill him.”

  He didn’t answer. He kept me in place.

  “Kellan!”

  His jaw hardened. His hand was firm on my stomach—and then as Matt and Giuseppa climaxed, both letting out loud groans, her hand slashed in the air. She sliced his throat. Matt jerked forward, making empty sounding gasps as blood spilled out from his throat. His hand came to his throat, and he looked at her, shock and revulsion mixing together. She ignored him, coldly pushing his body back from hers, and she stood up. She was naked, blood covering her, and she wiped her hand over her chest, then tracing a symbol on the wall. Once she was done, she stood, facing the symbol and took a deep breath, then placed the palm of her hand against it. An explosion happened in the air, throwing her backward. Heat and fire flared in the air. It would’ve flung me backward as well, but Kellan held on to me. He anchored me in place and moved so one of his shoulders was half shielding me. Some of the fire grazed my cheek. I felt it burning there, but it wasn’t painful. It was like a warm tickle. I frowned at that, but something was coming. Giuseppa had opened a hole in the air and whoever/whatever was coming from the other side.

  Kellan was waiting for it.

  “What—?” Giuseppa struggled to her feet. The shed had blown up and ash, wood, and soot covered her body, mixing with the blood. She shook her head, gazing at us. “Wha—what are you doing here? Shay?” She gulped, jerking around. “Wait. Where’s Vespar?” Panic rose in her voice. “Vespar. Where is he? Where is HE?”

  “Shut up.”