Sloth, p.15
Sloth, page 15
part #4 of The Damning Series
I wrapped my hand around the hilt of my blade, barely breathing as the figure inched closer and closer and then rested their hand on my ankle.
I jerked upright, Ryland’s arm falling from my waist and Killian’s hand leaving my own as he murmured something sleepily. I didn’t pay them a glance, though, as I leapt forward and tackled the intruder, the momentum forcing me out of the car and onto his body on the pavement.
“Motherfucker!” the man rasped, and I peered down at him intently, my blade pressed to his throat. He appeared to be a human a few years older than me, with sandy-blond hair, deeply tan skin, and blue eyes that were as dark as pitch in the firelight. His face was creased in horror and pain as I jabbed my knee into his stomach. “Don’t hurt me.”
“Why were you spying on me?” I demanded, pressing both my knee and knife further into his skin simultaneously. He wheezed but didn’t even try to fight me off. He was either the stupidest man I’d ever met…or the smartest. The verdict was still out on that one.
“I wasn’t…” He blinked rapidly up at me. “I just wanted your help!” The last words were almost a shout, though he quickly clamped his mouth shut and flushed bright when I gaped at him.
“Help?” I quirked an eyebrow, removing my blade from his skin slightly so he could nod.
“Yes. I know my girlfriend, Natalia, talked to you earlier. About her sister?” he pressed, and it took me a moment to remember who he was talking about. Natalia must’ve been the girl I’d met in the woods, the one whose sister was a prostitute at… What was the name of that place again? Lazy Evenings?
“And you want me to free Natalia’s sister,” I finished for him, my lips pursed ever so slightly. I wanted to help them more than anything, but I was weak and so very, very tired. If they wouldn’t accept help from my mates, then I didn’t know what we could do. We were at a stalemate, plain and simple, and one of us would have to bend.
But the stranger’s next words send a jolt of pure ice zigzagging through my veins. “No.” He once again shook his head, not seeming to care that his shaggy blond hair collected debris and dirt from the ground. “I want you to help me save my girlfriend.”
“Your—?’
“Natalia went after her sister, Ali,” he admitted. “I told her she shouldn’t, I told her not to be stupid, I told her that we needed backup, but she was fucking insane. She left a few hours ago and promised to message me every thirty minutes.” He moved his hand down his body, towards his pocket, and I tensed automatically. But he seemed unconcerned with how close he came to death as he removed a cracked tablet from his pocket and held it out to me.
It wasn’t password protected—stupid—and I was easily able to see the messages between this stranger and the woman named Natalia. When she first left about six hours ago, she would message him every thirty minutes on the dot.
But there hadn’t been a new message in over two hours.
Fuck.
Guilt bombarded me, slashing at my chest, and the grip I had on the knife faltered. I dropped the hand holding it back to my side completely before it could nick his skin, and relief washed over his face.
Why did I let her leave, knowing her mental state? Why didn’t I stop her? Why didn’t I force the issue with bringing my mates along? Why didn’t I suggest she bring other humans with her?
Why? Why? Why?
“Fuck.” I thrust the tablet back into his chest and climbed off of him. He hurried to get to his own feet, his cheeks crimson and his eyes dancing with worry.
And hope.
It was nearly impossible for me to miss the tiny sliver of hope that materialized in his eyes, as if I were the answer to every prayer he’d ever had.
I was sure he wouldn’t be looking at me with such reverence if he knew I sent his girlfriend away when she needed help.
Fuck. The guilt felt like sticky tar that clung to my skin, hardening by the second, until no amount of scrubbing could remove it completely.
“You’ll help me?” he asked softly, giving me doe eyes. He placed his hands together in the universal pleading pose, and fuck, I didn’t really have a choice, did I?
“All right,” I agreed, albeit reluctantly. I still felt weak, though I knew that wouldn’t change until I had the cure. At the same time, I doubted I would get worse anytime soon either. There was a reason Paco was adamant I needed to get more of the poison in my bloodstream to die from it.
So that meant I could go with this man to free his girlfriend and I probably wouldn’t die from the poison. Probably. Hopefully. Maybe. I was seventy percent positive that I wouldn’t kick the can early. Okay, make that sixty percent.
“But if we’re doing this…?” I cocked an eyebrow, realizing I hadn’t gotten his name.
“Toby,” he supplied, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
I pursed my lips. “If we’re doing this, Toby, then we’re doing it my way. You’ll listen to me at all times, understood? I don’t want you playing hero and ending up dead.” I’d seen enough death in the last month to last a lifetime. I didn’t want another one on my conscience.
“I promise,” he agreed quickly.
“And we need to get my mates involved,” I finished firmly. He opened his mouth as if to protest, but whatever he saw in my eyes had him nodding, though begrudgingly.
“All right,” he said simply. “If you think you can trust them.”
“I do.” That wasn’t even a question.
I could sneak off, free Natalia and her sister, and then face the consequences of my actions when I returned home. The old me might’ve done that, but the new me knew I needed to rely on and trust my mates if this unconventional relationship between us was ever going to work. I loved them, but more than that, I trusted them. They would stand by my side through any battle, any war, and all I needed to do was extend the invitation.
That wasn’t to say I wasn’t scared shitless about what could potentially happen to them while on the battlefield, but I knew that it wasn’t my choice to keep them hidden away. They were grown men who could make that decision for themselves. We were a team, and I was determined more than ever to fight as one. Survive as one.
And wasn’t that the whole point of…everything? Survival?
As Toby went to gather supplies, I turned back to the van, unsurprised to see Ryland and Killian still fast asleep. The past few days had been a long and grueling, and I knew my mates were exhausted. They needed that sleep more than I did.
What was a surprise, however, was the fact they’d reached for each other in their sleep and were now tangled together, Killian’s head on Ryland’s chest and my shadow’s arm wrapped around his middle. I bit my lip to stop the laughter that threatened to escape.
“Kill. Ry,” I said, and Ryland sleepily began to kiss Killian’s forehead.
“Hey, little dove,” he murmured, his voice drowsy with sleep.
Killian mumbled something unintelligible, craning his neck back to seek out Ryland’s lips. His eyes were still shut as he murmured my name, their lips mere centimeters from touching…
My laughter bubbled out, and their eyes snapped open immediately.
For a moment, they simply stared at each other in horror, their faces so close, they could probably feel each other’s breath on their lips.
And then Killian squealed like a girl, practically doing a backwards somersault to escape my shadow mate, and Ryland moved to a crouching position, his shadows tightening around his form.
“Awww. You guys were cute cuddling together,” I teased, and Ryland’s ice-blue eyes flashed in my direction amidst the darkness of his shadows.
“That was naughty, little dove. You deserve a spanking.”
Heat flared in my stomach at his suggestive words, but I shoved the fire aside, dousing it with water.
Not now, Z, I mentally chastised myself. You have people to save, nightmares to kill, butts to kick.
“Spankings will have to wait,” I said lightly, ignoring the way both of their gazes flashed with banked fire at my words. I already knew Ryland had a kinky streak a mile long, but Killian’s had honestly surprised me. I didn’t even think he realized what he was doing the last time we engaged in sexy foreplay, but his incubus allure came out tenfold whenever we were together.
“And why do these spankings have to wait?” Ryland questioned lazily, and a second later, I felt something slap my ass cheek. I gasped, my stomach muscles clenching as the shadows moved from my butt to my core, plucking at my clit. Arousal sparked inside of me, but I forced it away yet again to focus on the matter at hand.
“Mission. Super—” The shadows pinched down on my clit, eliciting another gasp from my mouth. “—secret mission.”
“A supersecret mission?” Killian quirked a red brow as excitement danced in his eyes. “Oh! Are we going after bad nightmares? Maybe I can finally use one of the catchphrases I came up with when I kill someone.”
“You came up with a…?” I stared at him in amusement.
“Pow! Wow! Stab!” Killian pantomimed stabbing someone in the stomach and then lowered his voice to a low, seductive murmur. “Would you like fries with that shake?”
A burst of laughter escaped me before I could contain it, and Ryland didn’t even bother to hide his.
“That’s your murder catchphrase?” I wheezed out.
Killian crossed his arms over his chest, appearing indignant, though his eyes flashed with amusement. Fuck, I loved that man. “What’s wrong with it? Would you prefer, Would you like butter with your toast? How about, This salad doesn’t come with any croutons, but I can grab you ranch dressing?”
“Okay, fine!” I threw my hands up in the air in defeat. “You can use weird-ass food sayings whenever you stab someone. Happy?”
But I had no fucking intention of ever letting Killian take a life. Yeah, not happening. I had enough blood on my hands for the both of us. He was my innocence, the one bright spot in a world full of darkness and pain. No one would take that from him as long as I drew air in my lungs.
The jovial atmosphere in the van diminished when I began telling them about Toby, Natalia, and Natalia’s sister. Both of their faces turned grave, chiseled from stone, and they didn’t speak right away when I finished.
“This isn’t safe, Z,” Ryland warned me tersely. “Especially with the pois—”
“I know,” I said, cutting him off. “But we need to do this, Ry. That woman came to me for help, and I turned her away.” That familiar, white-hot stab of guilt twisted up my insides. “And now she’s captured. Maybe even already dead. I need to do this.”
“And we need to be with you,” Killian stated simply, already crawling out of the car. “I’ll grab Dair if you guys grab Jax and Bash.” He paused when he was halfway out the door, twisting his head over his shoulder to stare at me. A blush stained his cheeks as he ducked his head. “Th-th-th-thank you for trusting us. Thank you for letting us help you.”
My heart swelled with love for this man, for all of my men. I wouldn’t have even been able to tell you when my feelings for them grew, when my mates went from infatuations to crushes to men vital to my very well-being. They were embedded in my soul now, a part of my genetic makeup, and I needed to tell them that. Soon.
“We’re a team now,” I told Kill, shifting my gaze to include Ryland as well. “No more secrets.”
“No more secrets,” the two of them agreed immediately.
Nodding once, I crawled to the trunk in the back of the van that held our weapons. I began sifting through the collection present, grabbing a sword, two daggers, and an axe.
We were really doing this—driving to an unfamiliar location, saving humans we didn’t know, and killing an unknown number of nightmares. All while I fought off the poison coursing through my bloodstream, weakening my body.
And now for the famous last words…
What could possibly go wrong?
Eighteen
Jax
A lot could go wrong with this mission.
Even with my mind steadily sinking in and out of sanity, I knew that this trip to the brothel could end horribly for all of us.
I moved towards where Z was loading up a limo Axel stole with Bash, trying to ignore the landscape constantly changing and morphing around me. Right now, the trees had been replaced by metal contraptions that rose from the ground. Hideous, distorted faces were shaped into the very top, where the boughs were supposed to be. The “tree” nearest to me displayed a young woman with her face twisted into perpetual agony, her lips opened in a silent scream and anguish visible in her metal eyes. The grass beneath my feet was red with blood, so red that I couldn’t see a sliver of green anywhere in the vicinity. When I looked up, the night sky was a mirage of disembodied limbs—a nose where the moon should be, hands and feet in place of stars, and carved up torsos everywhere else.
I shook my head from side to side rapidly, struggling to orient myself to the here and now.
I’m safe.
I’m with my mate and my brothers. My mate…who loves me. Whom I love.
I’m not dead.
Memories of that pitch-black abyss bombarded me, but I shoved them away. I refused to even think about that brief, brief moment when death had claimed me. When death had taken me away from my brothers and my very reason for living. When the world had been nothing but a barren expanse of nothingness…
The scenery changed around me in a bright flash of color. Now, instead of metal trees, hundreds of Sashas stood in the forest in lieu of them. Her hair fell around her face, and her eyes sparked with malice. Blood dripped, dripped, dripped down her cheeks, staining her white dress.
“You did this to me.” Her voice reverberated all around me. I couldn’t escape it, couldn’t run away fast enough.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
Harsh, feminine laughter grated on my nerves, and I lifted my head back to see Aaliyah’s smirking face staring back at me.
“Feed, Jaxon,” she purred, and I quickened my pace in Z’s direction. “Don’t you want to feed?”
Now, hands were erupting from the ground, their fingers gnarled and bloody. I could see tendons and muscles as the zombie-like creatures attempted to pull themselves out of the dirt.
“Doesn’t Z’s neck look so…delicious? Do you hear her pulse pounding? See the blood rushing?” I wanted to place my hands over my ears to tune her out, but I knew if I did that, Z would become suspicious. My sweet mate was always so perceptive.
As if my thoughts had summoned her attention, Z glanced up from where she bent over a duffel bag with Bash and smiled sweetly. That smile lit me up from the inside, shooting through my bloodstream like erratic fireworks.
And when I finally touched her arm, running my fingers across her silky smooth skin, the nightmares vanished and I was once more back in the front of Paco’s house with the humans.
“Everything okay?” Z asked softly as the last of the fog cleared from my mind. I remembered where I was—at Paco’s house—and why I was there—to save Z from the poison. All of the other pieces steadily clicked into place, until I felt like I was taking control of my life for the first time ever.
“Yes,” I replied, shocking myself with the sincerity of that.
No more blood.
No more darkness.
Only light.
A vampire could go insane if he didn’t drink any blood. On the opposite end of the spectrum, he could go crazy if he consumed too much of it. It was a fine line we had to balance, made even more precarious by our sin of gluttony.
And then there was me—insane for no other reason than the fact that my brain had cracked. First because I didn’t consume blood, and then because I did.
When would I ever feel whole again?
“Who’s ready to kick some ass?” Axel materialized behind me and clapped a hand down on my shoulder. I flinched instinctively at the contact but forced myself to clear my expression when Z’s shrewd gaze whipped in my direction. Her eyes narrowed slightly, but I kept my face perfectly blank.
“What’s the plan?” Bash loaded up a gun full of specialized mage bullets. Each one was able to do a completely different thing when they hit their target—the blue electrocuted them, the red lit them on fire, the green stopped their hearts, and the purple fried their brains. All effective tools for killing any nightmare. We were fortunate Paco had a surplus lying around in his shed, though Axel had to be wiener slapped to receive them.
Strangely enough, I thought the ex-assassin actually enjoyed it.
“I give Mary some sweet loving and allow her to kill people,” Axel answered sincerely, reaching behind his shoulder to caress the blade that sat there.
Z gave him a long, long look, one that might’ve made me jealous if there hadn’t been a hint of annoyance in her eyes, before sighing and addressing us all.
“We head in, kill the mages, head out. Simple.” She exchanged a wary look with Axel, one that had my hackles rising, and shoved a knife into her sheath. “Let’s go.”
We arrived at a large mansion framed by birches on either side. The paved pathway curled around a marble fountain, flashing lights illuminating the water in the darkness in shades of pink, red, purple, and green. One glance at the fountain confirmed it was spelled to do so, the familiar green glow most mages possessed surrounding it. We paused at the gate so Axel could speak to a guard, declaring he wanted to enter through the back so his wife wouldn’t get word of his infidelity, before we were led around the building towards the staff entrance, where there were no guards and only one rickety doorway.
Nobody questioned the crazed shadow and the dark power he exuded.
