Wicked Ruin (Se7en Sinners Book 3)

  “You’re not going to sleep fully dressed, are you?” I tack on a small smile to ease the tense moment. He’s agreed to sleep in the same bed with me; I don’t want to push it. But I also don’t want to constantly be walking on eggshells either.

  Legion looks down at his dark jeans and black tee. When he raises his chin, a shadow falls over his features. “You know what I look like now. You know my body has changed.”

  “And you know I don’t give a damn about any of that.”

  With a resigning sigh, he grasps the hem of his shirt and drags it over his head, causing his dark hair to fall over his brow. I gasp at the beauty of him, stunned at the dark ink that now mars his smooth, tan skin. That cruel, jealous beast stares back at me, taunting me. Up close, I see that its silver eyes actually do shimmer with some type of dark, daunting magic. Even the red stone held captive in its massive fangs glimmers mystically. I’m mesmerized by it, damn near entranced by its wicked splendor. I want to look away, but it calls to me, urging me closer.

  Legion turns, allowing me to see that the dragon has wrapped itself around his back, completing the mural with elaborate scales and a razor-sharp tail. Closer, it whispers. Touch me. I won’t bite.

  With its murmured lies singing in my ear, I move in closer, my fingers outstretched. Legion catches my hand before I make contact.

  “Did it hurt?” I whisper, my lips only inches from his.

  He lets me go and shakes his head. “The transformation was excruciating. I broke every bone in my body. Muscle and tissue were torn to shreds. But this…” He runs a hand over the hard planes of his chest and abs. “This was nothing.”

  I lean back, marveling at the sheer wonder of the beast before me. I didn’t think it was possible to find him more gorgeous, more alluring. But here I am, panting with the need to have him close to me. Beside me. Inside me.

  Fuck my dream.

  If I am to birth fire, then Legion’s seed is the spark that will set the world aflame.

  “Come here.” My voice is so hoarse with desire that I hardly recognize it.

  He doesn’t crawl to me from the foot of the bed as he’s done so many times before. He prowls, like a deadly animal scenting its prey, right before he pounces and tears out its throat. My mouth dries, my knees shake, and my core clenches with anticipation.

  He settles next to me, facing me, yet doesn’t touch me. His silver eyes dim, but just barely, as if he’s trying to contain his power. Still, I feel him. He’s so hot, it would be unbearable for anyone else. Even the air between us seems to sizzle.

  “I don’t care. I don’t care if you’re different,” I whisper. I need him to believe it. Even if I have to say it every day for eternity.

  “I do.” He matches my tone, but his voice is gravelly.

  “You shouldn’t. You haven’t changed to me. The man—the demon—you were, and how I felt for you…nothing has changed.”

  “How you felt…” He grimaces, as if the thought disturbs him. “You shouldn’t feel for me, Eden. Not anymore. Because the way I feel for you…” He shakes his head before turning onto his back. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  I don’t know if he means emotionally or physically, but I don’t care. “Then you won’t.”

  “It’s not that simple.”

  Fucking hell. I don’t get it. I’m here, telling him that I accept him, whether he’s man or beast, yet still he pushes me away. Maybe he’s telling me something else. Maybe he wants me to push back.

  “Is she a threat?”

  Legion turns back to me and frowns. “What?”

  “Is Adriel a threat to me…to us? Is it she you would rather be with right now?”

  A wisp of darkness snakes between us, shading his penetrating glare. “No.”

  I pretend to ignore what I saw—the way black smoke and shadow manifested right before my eyes—and store it away for another time when I’m not trying to persuade him that I’m not afraid. “Then you have nothing to worry about. You won’t hurt me, Legion. You wouldn’t do that.”

  To drive my point home, I move in closer, closing the small space between us to a mere few inches. A blast of stifling heat wafts over my entire body. A warning? Or an invitation?

  “You don’t know what you’re saying. You have no idea what you’re signing up for with me.”

  “Then show me. Show me, Legion of Lost Souls. Show me what you are.”

  Timidly, I reach out and brush his stomach, right where that horrid serpent beast holds the ruby in its fangs. The hard ridges of his abs tremble under my fingertips, his body temperature searing my skin. I slowly begin to slide my hand up his smooth, solid chest. When I cup his jaw, he sags into my touch, and his eyes flutter closed.

  “Eden…fuck,” he curses. When he opens his eyes, they’re churning with tortured desire.

  “Don’t be afraid of this,” I urge. “Because I’m not. Don’t hold back.”

  With a growl that rings of relief and desperation, Legion swiftly flips me onto my back and gathers both my hands in one of his, pinning them over my head. No preamble. No warning. Just his body pressed against mine. My blood races with concentrated need as I look up at him through my lashes, begging without words for him to keep going. For him to strip his soul naked and show me who he truly is.

  “Last chance,” he grits, his jaw tight.

  I nod. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  I don’t know how he does it, but with the barest of brushes against my side with his palm, my gown disintegrates into ash. I’m completely naked under him, and the way his eyes glow at the sight of my bare flesh, like an animal withering of famine, I know exactly what he meant by “Last chance.” He’s going to devour me. And once he starts, he won’t be able to stop. And I don’t want him to.

  He takes my mouth and kisses me like he’s drinking the very essence of my soul. His lips feel the same, yet, this is like kissing someone else. Not quite a stranger, but not L either. I kiss him deeper, searching to taste the demon I fell for before I even knew what he truly was. He nips my bottom lip in response, hard enough to make me flinch, then soothes the tiny wound with his tongue. Groaning, his hips flexing into me, Legion sucks my lip into his mouth and savors my blood.

  I am…so turned on right now. I should be utterly freaked out. Maybe even a little disgusted. But this hunger in him, this seductive violence, arouses me to the point of pain. I ache for him. My nipples go tight and hard as he releases my hands above my head and lets his fingers trail down to my breasts. He gathers them in his palms and squeezes them together.

  “Please,” I beg, my voice a choked whimper.

  A slow smile spreads Legion’s lips, and when he bares his teeth, I see that they’ve transformed into fangs. I barely have a chance to gasp before he lowers his mouth to my nipples and sucks them both at once. The scrape of those sharpened teeth, the soft roughness of his serpent tongue…the sensation is orgasmic, and I moan loudly and grind my naked sex against his, still concealed by dark denim.

  He sucks and nibbles my pebbled flesh to the point of madness before licking a slow trail to my navel. Then he kisses me from hipbone to hipbone, all the while spreading my thighs wider. Fuck. Just the anticipation has me on the verge of coming. Legion lifts his head as if he can sense that I’m close…as if he can smell it. He drags a long, thick finger from my belly button down to my slickened folds, watching intently as my flesh quivers with the first signs of orgasm. He strokes me gently from the top of my mound to my tight entrance, rubbing circles over my clit. Up and down, over and over, he primes me for his tongue. And when he lowers his head and covers me with his mouth, I explode into a billion brilliant colors, knees trembling and hands grasping his dark hair.

  He sucks and fucks with tongue and teeth, unleashing an assault so deadly, I lose my breath. My head is swimming. My whole body is shaking. I feel like I’m dying a thousand little deaths, yet still am desperate to fall on his sword and suffer a cruel, delicious fate. This isn’t normal. No one should be
able to feel this incredible and so tortured all at once.

  I’m still shivering when Legion rises to his knees. I lick my lips as he unfastens his jeans and slides them down to the middle of his thighs. His proud, heavy hardness pulses wildly with its own sinuous heartbeat. Holy shit. It looks bigger. Thicker. How the hell…? I can’t even explain it. But all I want to do is wrap my lips around him, if only to see if he tastes as delectable as he looks. However, when Legion grips my thigh and flips me over onto my stomach in one swift maneuver, then perches my ass in the air, I realize he has other plans for my mouth.

  “Bite the pillow.” His voice is level, but there’s an edge of viciousness to it.

  I do as I’m told, and just in time. Because in the next breath, Legion spreads me open and he licks me from my dripping wet sex up to my tight, puckered hole. I gasp, the unfamiliar sensation so intense that I nearly collapse. That’s all it takes for me to be on the cusp of another orgasm. That’s all I need before I’m whimpering into the pillow, begging for him to fuck me senseless. He must have heard my pleas because, in the next moment, he rips me to shreds in one hard, soul-shattering thrust.

  I cry out into my feather down silencer, a mix of pain, shock, and undeniable pleasure rippling through me, as he fucks me deep and hard and fast. My belly is on fire with his violent intrusion, and the hotter I get, the more I buck back against him, eager for him to singe my insides with his seed. But he doesn’t show signs of slowing. If anything, my coaxing only encourages him. And when I feel his hand slip between our bodies to fondle my tight seam, I moan so loudly that I don’t even recognize my voice. Not even the pillow can muffle my cries as he presses into that puckered place and slowly slides a thick finger inside me to the knuckle.

  I feel so full, so heavy. My thighs are shaking uncontrollably and I’m afraid I’ll collapse from the intense pleasure at any moment. He must feel it too, because with one arm banded around my waist, Legion lifts my torso so that we’re chest to back. His strokes never falter, even as he reaches down to play with my clit, adding to the severe sensation at my backside. And as he holds me close, fully supporting my sagging body, I feel his lips on my neck, his breath hot.

  “So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden,” he recites gruffly, “He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.”

  I don’t know what to make of it. Honestly, with him so deep inside of me, I can’t even comprehend the significance of the scripture. And before I can possibly begin to decipher it, I feel his teeth on my skin, in the space between my neck and my shoulder. The sharp sting of pain is enough to make me yelp, but somehow the sound translates into a moan. And with his fangs still embedded in my flesh, he groans—guttural and animalistic—and I feel him throb wildly inside of me. His strokes turn jerky as he empties fire and vengeance within my womb, and seconds later, I’m coming again, shouting words of worship and sacrilege.

  He holds me until we both still. And when I’m no longer able to sit up, Legion lays me down on the bed, covering my naked frame with the silk sheets. He could leave, and I wouldn’t be able to protest, too spent and sated to say a damn word. But to my surprise, he settles down beside me, pulling me to rest my head on his chest.

  Not even that hideous dragon whispers a word as we catch our breath and bask in the afterglow of orgasm. And I drift off into a dreamless sleep, swathed in fire.

  I wake up alone, but I’m not surprised. If anything, I’m relieved, if only to have a few moments of peace to wrap my head around what went down just hours before.

  I told Legion I wanted to talk. Talk. And somehow we did very little of that. Not to mention, I didn’t even get to the bottom of that little rendezvous in the hallway between him and Adriel. However, if last night is any indication of where he and I stand, then I have nothing to worry about.

  I think.

  I hope.

  I stumble out of bed, naked, sore, and shattered. My legs are weak, and I have to hold on to the bedpost to keep from falling over. Shit. What was that? Legion and I have had great sex before. Amazing sex, even. But this was something else. This was next level fucking with a side of sadism. The monster inside him—that terrifyingly beautiful dragon—demanded blood. And while I’ve never been into the BDSM scene, I can’t deny that it was hot as fuck when Legion bit my lip. And probed my ass. And bit my neck.

  Speaking of…

  I stagger to the bathroom to assess the damage, and low and behold, there’s an angry, purplish bite mark where his teeth claimed me. Honestly, it’s not as bad as I expected it to be considering the sting it caused. I could have sworn he went all True Blood on me, but it looks like he barely broke the skin. Unless…

  Unless he did, and I’ve got a bit of that supernatural healing. Still, it’s noticeable as hell, and I can’t very well walk around looking like a fangbanger.

  After bathing (very carefully around my tender nether regions), I slip on a pair of workout leggings and a heather grey hoodie, hoping it hides the lust lesion. My hair goes up in a messy top knot, and I shove my feet into a pair of Nike trainers. Sore or not, I have work to do. Uriel and his rogue angels don’t give a damn about my sex hangover.

  As per my new routine, I stop in to visit with Sister, who is in high spirits as she watches some ridiculous court TV show with Cain over their shared breakfast of fresh fruit and croissants. Cain nods at me when I enter, yet makes no move to leave. Okaaay.

  “How are you feeling today?” I ask my sister, placing a soft peck on the side of her head that isn’t bandaged.

  “Good!” she smiles, her big brown eyes twinkling. “I’m feeling better every day. Phenex says they’ll be preparing me for a skin graft soon. However, with all the superhuman technology they have here, they may be able to accelerate the process and skip a few of the more painful steps.”

  “It’s still risky, Mare,” Cain interjects. Concern furrows his brow. “This type of stuff hasn’t been tested on humans. It could be dangerous for you.”

  Mare? And the way he talks to her—like he’s an integral part of the decision-making—it’s weird. I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to their bond, even if it is good for her.

  “I know, I know.” She smiles sweetly at him, as if he’s the most handsome man she’s ever laid eyes on and not a disfigured demon assassin. “But I want to get out of this bed. I need to get out of this bed. And you need to get back to saving the world instead of babysitting me.”

  Cain shakes his head. “I’m not babysitting you. Buttery pastries and shit television? Are you kidding me? This is a vacation. And the best part is that I get to pass the time with some damn good company.”

  Under normal circumstances, this would be the part where I start with the gagging noises. But the way he looks at her, and the way she gazes back at him…I can’t begrudge them that.

  I take up the seat on Sister’s other side and join in on the mindless court TV watching, which turns out to be just as crazy as I expect. Some guy with a mouthful of gold teeth, cornrows, and a receding hairline is suing a woman for $40, the cost of a date gone wrong. When the judge asks why the date was so awful, the man asks if he can perform a song he wrote about it, seeing as he’s an up-and-coming rapper at the ripe old age of forty-two. I laugh and shake my head at the sheer ridiculousness and munch on the extra croissant that Sister insisted I eat.

  It’s nice. It almost feels normal. I can remember all the times we sat on our old, funky sofa, eating junk food, and watching crap reality shows on our tiny TV. For that thirty minutes to an hour, our lives didn’t seem so bad. Obviously, others had it much worse if they had to prance around like idiots on national television for our entertainment. And now look at us…in a mansion, with state-of-the-art everything, and yet I miss that crappy old apartment. I miss the mundaneness of our lives, and how the scariest thing that lurked in the shadows was a wanna-be gangster or a crackhead desperate enough to try to mug someone for his next
fix. Don’t get me wrong—I like that I’ve found my place in this fucked up world and have someone worth fighting for. But I miss…I don’t know…being human.

  After the show ends, I say my goodbyes with a promise to drop by later.

  “You’ve got me this afternoon,” Cain says before I can clear the room. “Weapons training.”

  Oh yeah. That. “Got it,” I nod.

  Cain looks about as excited as I feel. Fighting is one thing, but holding a gun? Using a gun? Or even a sword like Toyol uses? I can’t even wrap my head around that.

  I don’t see Legion anywhere when I enter the gym, but the rest of the Se7en are present. Each of them is either too occupied with their training to even notice my presence, or they’re still not comfortable with my Nephilim heritage. Whatever. I hop on the treadmill, remembering what Crysis said about cardio. I am out of shape. I wasn’t athletic in school, although I was more tomboy than girly girl. If I could be categorized into a group, I’d say I fit in more with the Stoners. But drugs weren’t really my thing. Yeah, I smoked a little here and there, but it was only to help me drown out the voices in my head and to relieve the crippling guilt. And the pain. I hated to admit it, but being abused and abandoned hurt like a motherfucker. And I had the scars—both physical and emotional—to prove it.

  “You’re going to pass out if you don’t hydrate.”

  I frown at Crysis and pull my earbuds out. “Huh?” I question, although I heard him perfectly. Another symptom of my newfound pedigree.

  “You need to drink water, Eden,” he instructs. “Just because you’re half immortal, doesn’t mean you’re not susceptible to human weakness.”

  I hit the Stop button on the treadmill and note the timer. Thirty minutes. The hell? I’ve never jogged that long, let alone run. And I hardly feel winded. Maybe it was Chance the Rapper in my ears or the hit of carbs from the croissant, but somehow, I’ve managed to do five miles while barely breaking a sweat.

  Damn.

  Crysis gives me a knowing grin. “Your body is adjusting. Keep pushing it. It’ll adapt as long as you will it to.”