Crave (Tainted Angels Book 1) (30 page)

Her smile was huge, her eagerness to please really quite sad. “Thank you. You know I would do anything for you.”

I froze when, as if in slow motion, he morphed into his wispy green demon and pulled her to him, embracing her at the same time as he pulled out a long silver blade and thrust it through her heart.

“No!” I screamed, writhing in the chains as I tried to get to her.

The surprise on her face was horrific, her mouth and eyes wide and stunned. Her dying eyes moved to Rax, her gaze softening with love before she fell to the floor.

“She was pregnant, you bastard!” Although I hated her for what she had done, she was still pregnant with Rax’s child. “What kind of monster are you?”

Damon shrugged. “She is no longer useful. I have what I need.”

“Why?” It came out choked, the blood in my lungs starting to ride up my throat.

He squinted at me. “You really need to ask, Willa? I thought you were brighter than that.”

“So, all this just because you want the throne? You will even use your own son and kill your own grandchild to get it?”

Damon slid his eyes to Rax. He sighed and shook his head sadly. “Such a fool, that boy. I’m almost ashamed to call him my son. I did try and warn him to stay away from you but he was too duped by your charms. ”

“So you manipulated him to kill me?”

“Not kill you, Willa. That’s my job after you give me your blood.”

“Give you my blood? You are as crazy as I thought.”

He smiled as he dragged a hand down the front of Rax’s bare chest. “Still, he came in handy. He managed to ensnare you before the others got to you.”

“Others?”

He tutted. “Really, Willa? Do you know nothing?”

“Obviously not,” I mumbled. It was becoming difficult to talk, my system starting to shut down. Inability to heal myself due to the toxin in my blood was the main problem, and the fact that Rax still hadn’t woken was starting to worry me.

“The council, Willa.” Damon meandered around Rax’s body and I tensed when he spun the blade he had used on Tabitha in his hand.

“What about the council?”

The silver blade mocked me, the glint of moonlight catching it, making it difficult to concentrate on anything but that, my eyes practically ordered to follow the route Damon was tracing over Rax’s bare torso. “The eight council members. What exactly do you think they are?”

He wasn’t making sense. “The council are there to make the rules. A government.” Well that’s what we had all been taught anyway.

He laughed, his head tipping back with amusement. “Dear Lord, all this time I’ve been dealing with delinquents. The eight council members have been tracking your whereabouts for thousands of years, Willa. Your existence was foretold to us all many years ago, and greed can be a dangerous emotion.”

He reached up to Rax’s face, tracing the contours of his cheekbone with the tip of his finger. “As time passed and The Alpha’s death became imminent we were all starting to get desperate. And then, as luck would have it, my son decided to fall for a seraph. A seraph whose scent on him was unmistakable. Well.” He smirked. “You can imagine my delight. Years we’ve searched for you, many long years. Once he led me to you I did try to get him to back off but the stupid boy never could handle orders.”

“Why are you doing this?”

He rolled his eyes. “You really don’t know, do you? Have you no idea what power you are granted as The Alpha? This earth will be ripe for the taking, Willa. The humans are so weak that taking their realm as well as both spiritual realms will be so easy.”

I stared at him in frozen horror. “You’re insane!”

“Maybe so.” He shrugged as if he agreed with me. “But imagine just how powerful I will become once it’s all mine. I’m tired of this conversation. Your stupidity is boring me. Time to get down to business.”

The pump of fear in my chest brought a whimper up my throat when, very slowly, he dragged the tip of his knife along Rax’s stomach. A line of blood followed in its wake, the crimson liquid and the pain it brought bringing Rax out of his slumber.

He frowned, confusion on his face. His eyes scanned the scene before him, his gaze snapping from me to the island we were on and then to his father before they swung back to me. “Willa? Shit, Seraph. Are you okay?”

I smiled at him, trying to soothe him but as his eyes swiftly took in the state of my dying body, his own heartbeat identifying that mine was struggling, he started to struggle in his bonds. “Hey, shh,” I soothed him. “I’m okay.”

He growled at Damon, yanking at his restraints as he tried to get free. “You son of a bitch! How can you do this?”

Damon chuckled. “It’s quite easy when she has what I want.”

“Her blood will kill you, you fool. She’s useless to you!”

“Dear fucking Christ!” Damon practically shouted, his frustration tinged with anger. “Every single one of you is stupid. Her blood isn’t toxic if it’s gifted. Have you learned nothing?”

“But it can only be gifted to her mate,” Rax said as he still struggled in the chains, his eyes frequently coming to me as my mind started to waiver.

I cried out, yanking at my own bonds when Damon pierced Rax’s stomach with the knife. “That’s what Chinese whispers does for you. It was originally thought that her blood could only sustain a mate, but in reality it’s just a matter of her gifting it.”

“I will never give it to you!” I cried out, wincing at the flow of blood oozing from the wound on Rax’s stomach.

Damon turned back to me and smiled. “We’ll see.”

Rax screamed when Damon lifted a hand and tormented him with a veiled spell. Damon was a mage and skilled in the powers of magic; dark magic his speciality. I bit my lip when Rax’s body thrashed in agony. I couldn’t think properly, the lack of my own abilities leaving me unable to help. “Stop it!” I screamed when Rax started to go into shock at the pain his own father was forcing into him.

“Gift me your blood and I will stop, Willa.”

“No!” Rax shouted. “I would rather die than allow you to give this bastard your essence, Willa.”

Another torturous scream brought tears to my eyes when Damon subjected him to another bout of torture, his body whipping uncontrollably as his back arched and scream after scream tore from him.

“STOP!”

My brain was throbbing with anguish as I watched my mate take Damon’s cruelty because of me, the incessant hum in my head lacerating every bone in my body until the pain in my chest became unbearable. “Stop it, please,” I begged.

Damon paused, Rax’s body going lax for a moment. I knew he had passed out with the pain that surged through him.

“Well?”

I shook my head, the pain causing me to heave.

“Oh, fucking hell, Willa. Really?” Damon muttered when I vomited.

I squeezed my eyes closed when a high pitched hum hurt my ears and my skull felt like it was squashing my swollen brain.

Damon turned back to Rax when I denied him what he wanted. But watching Rax take so much pain broke my heart. I could feel the beat of his heart slow, its once strong rhythm now just an infrequent whispered murmur.

“Please,” I wept. “Please.”

When Damon forced an almighty shock of agony through Rax, his brain going into shock and his body shaking violently when a seizure ravaged him, I cried out, my soul splintering inside me.

“Stop it! You can have it! You can have it all, just leave him alone!”

Instantly Rax’s body slumped as Damon turned to me with a grin. “I knew you would see sense.”

My whole body was rattling, my head banging as my body started to jolt with the pressure inside me.

“It will almost be a shame to watch you die,” Damon taunted. “It’s been quite fun playing with you. But I promise to tell the world exactly who saved their mate at the expense of everyone else.”

I gritted my teeth, holding on to my sanity for as long as I could. As Damon pounced, my eyes slid to check on Rax. He was still breathing and I used the relief to calm myself.

Once I felt his teeth pierce my neck I stopped fighting with the vibration in my brain and allowed it to set itself free.

T
he roar fractured every single atom in the atmosphere. Goosebumps broke over my skin with the terrifying sound and slowly I lifted my head.

Shock froze my body, the trembling aftereffects of the seizure that had just ravaged me instantly ceasing as horror rolled over me.

The thing, whatever it was, was huge. It was majestic and magnificent yet gruesome and chilling. Its massive dragon-like body rose into the skyline and my eyes followed its length until they came to a stop on its head.

“Holy fucking shit!”

Even though it had the body of a dragon, huge red and black scales decorating its snakelike body, its head was Satan himself. Large horns twisted out of its head and chilling red eyes prowled in search of its prey.

On spotting my father, the most horrendous sound poured from it, its battle cry one that would echo in my head for many years to come.

My father was frozen in shock, his eyes wide and full of terror, and Willa’s blood still flowing down his chin as the demon curled its tail around him. His scream made my blood chill, the marrow within my bones crumbling to dust as my father’s body was pulverised in mere seconds by the monster’s grip.

And then its fierce red eyes moved to me.

I stilled immediately when it bowed its head and Satan’s malevolence stared back at me. Fear trickled through me, my mouth drying as the bile in my stomach turned to acid.

Its nose twitched as it inhaled and when its lip curled and a low but chilling growl tore from it, I closed my eyes and prayed.

“Willa?” I whispered as I locked down the terror and faced the evil head on. “Seraph, I know you’re in there.”

A sinister smile crept over its face, its deathly eyes mocking me when it smelled my fear. “You hurt her.” Its voice was an icy rasp, each syllable wrapped in a flurry of pure violence. “You plunged your blade through her gentle heart.”

Fear caused my throat to clog and after numerous attempts to swallow, I spoke as clearly as I could. “I did.” The growl that issued from it with my honesty made the chains above me rattle with the force of my trembling body. “But I was enchanted. Willa is my mate. I love her. I would never hurt her.”

“Your weakness is unacceptable. You are unable to protect her. You are not worthy of sharing her soul.”

I nodded. “I know. I know. I deserve to die for what I did to her. My love for her is my weakness and it will always be my weakness. Willa needs someone strong who can fight for her, protect her. Her gentleness needs to be nurtured,” I whispered, my heart breaking with my own words. “My little seraph is the thing that makes my heart beat harder; she makes my mind come alive. She allows my soul to be free to be itself.” I lifted my eyes to its red ones, tears blurring my vision. “She needs a warrior who can protect her. My love will never be enough because it is the very thing that can destroy us both.”

Its eyes dropped to my chest and I frowned when it stared at the scorched black heart branded to my skin. Its head tipped to the side as its eyes became narrow slits.

“Your heart is pure,” it whispered as it brought its stare back to my face. “And it will fight for Willa more than muscle and weapons ever can. I feel the beat of your heart in hers, the elixir of your blood racing through her veins, and ….” It paused then smiled as if it held a secret, its eyes mysteriously twinkling as if it were delighted at something.

Bowing its head, my mouth fell open when its tongue slid over the chains above my head and I fell to the ground. “As Willa is my mistress, her love for you will be the very thing that grants you my protection also. I am forever your slave, Master.”

I was shocked speechless, my mouth opening and closing as it seemed to curl in on itself, its mass becoming smaller and smaller until all that remained was a dazed Willa, her pure blue eyes fixed on mine.

“Seraph?”

A distraught sob burst from her as her legs gave way and she fell to her knees before me. Wasting no time, I grabbed on to her and pulled her across the small gap distancing us. She curled into me, her arms sliding around me as she held me so hard I winced at the shot of pain to my abdomen.