Sacrifice Me: The Complete Season One (37 page)

Finally, Rend opened his eyes and lowered himself,
pushing into me with one glorious stroke. I gasped and cried out from
the fullness of him. My hands tensed and scratched at his back,
pulling him down as my hips rose.

We found a rhythm as we danced along the edge of
abandon, taking our time exploring and learning each other's limits.
It was a game of push and pull, reaching one limit, then backing away
until control could be found again.

Wind whipped around us, cooling our heated bodies
as my magic took over. When it got too strong, Rend slowed and waited
until the wind died down. If he moved his lips toward my neck, I
pulled him back, forcing his eyes to mine until he calmed.

But eventually, desire took hold. We brought each
other to the edge, then pushed past. Debris moved around as passion
exploded within my core. I cried his name as the window broke and
glass fell to the floor.

Rend groaned as he moved inside me. He pushed a
hand into my black hair and pulled my head back hard against the bed,
exposing my neck. I screamed in both pleasure and pain as his fangs
grew long and he lowered his head to my bare skin.

His teeth drew blood just as he reached his
climax. I dug my nails into his side, trying to push him off me, even
while a part of me still wanted to draw him closer.

“Rend,” I cried as I pushed against
him. My mouth grew dry and fear pounded through my veins.

He let out a low, unearthly growl, then pushed me
away. In an instant, his body shifted to smoke and flew from the
room, leaving me panting there on the bed alone and exposed.

I reached up to touch the sticky wet blood on my
neck, then fell back against the bed and smiled, exhausted and
satisfied.

And still very much alive.

I crawled out of bed and pulled the tattered
blanket around my body. I tiptoed across the creaky old floor and
made my way out the front door of the house.

I wasn't sure how long I'd slept or where Rend had
disappeared to, but I wanted to make sure he knew I was okay.

I moved to the edge of the front porch railing and
looked out across the crow village. Rend sat near the stone altar in
the center of town, wearing nothing but his jeans. He was bent over,
his head in his hands.

But as my eyes landed on him, he looked up and
straightened. I smiled and lifted a hand in a wave and his shoulders
relaxed. His eyes tensed, but I noticed a smile playing at the
corners of his mouth.

I knew we still had a long way to go and so much
we still needed to discuss and figure out, but for now, I was happy
just to be here with him. Just to have had this one night with him.

I sat down on the railing and imagined what my
life would have been if my mother had never left this place behind.

Where would I be now? What kind of woman would I
be?

I had spent so much of my life being angry with my
mom for her choices and her regrets. I would have given almost
anything for the chance to talk to her about why she’d left in
the first place. And why she didn’t love me the way I deserved
to be loved as a small child.

I wiped a tear from my cheek. Now was not the time
for sadness and regret, but somehow opening myself to Rend had also
opened a chamber in my heart that held memories and sorrow. I was
overcome by more emotion than I'd allowed myself to feel in a very
long time.

Part of me wished Rend and I could stay here
forever, never having to face the dangers of the outside world. I was
sure we could learn to find a balance between surrender and control.
But I knew our time here was limited. When the sun came up in the
morning, I knew we would have to get serious about making a long-term
plan.

We couldn’t run forever, which meant only
one thing.

We would have to stand and fight.

Movement near the entrance caught my eye and I
pulled the blanket tighter around my body.

Mary Anne must have come back already. Did that
mean there was trouble back at the house? Had they been attacked?

Rend saw my concern and moved to my side in
seconds.

“Who is it?” he said.

“Mary Anne, I think,” I said. “We’re
safe here, right? No one else can get in.”

“Stay here,” he said.

I heard him, but didn’t want him to go out
there without me, so I followed right behind him.

Near the entrance, I saw the flutter of black
wings.

I sped up and moved ahead of Rend to the entrance
to greet her, not even caring that I was dressed in nothing more than
an old rag.

Only, the figure shifting into human form at the
entrance to the crow village was not Mary Anne at all.

The sight of the woman standing there froze my
feet to the ground. The breath was knocked from my lungs with the
sheer force of surprise.

I opened my mouth to speak, my lower lip
trembling. Could this be real?

She stepped forward, a sad smile etched on her
familiar face. “Franki,” she said.

I shook my head and took two steps back, a tear
falling down my cheek at the sight of her.

“Mom?”

Episode 6: The Doorway

“Mom?”

My mother stood at the entrance to the crow
village, her eyes bulging. Her entire body shook with fear.

“Franki, thank God you're here,” she
said. Her voice sounded foreign. Almost child-like in her terror. She
ran toward me and grabbed my arm. “You're in serious danger. We
have to get out of here. He's on his way.”

“Who?” I asked. My breath came in
short bursts. “The Devil?”

Mom looked behind her at the entrance to the
village. Her head twitched. “Yes. He's been holding me prisoner
for a very long time. I finally managed to escape, but we don't have
much time.”

“How did you know where to find us?”
Rend asked.

She looked at him as if realizing, for the first
time, that he was here. “Rend. Thank goodness you're here with
my little bird,” she said. “I don't know what I would
have done if you hadn't been able to keep her safe.”

“Answer my question,” he said.

She blinked several times, tears filling her eyes.
“The Devil knows you're here. I heard him talking about it to
one of his servants. He can't be far behind me.”

“It's okay, Mom. We're safe here. He can't
get in. This village is enchanted, remember? You have to know that.”

She shook her head violently and pulled hard on my
arm. “You don't understand.” She pushed her hair back
from her neck to reveal two swollen puncture wounds. “He's been
drinking from me for months, taking me down to almost death before
letting go. He let me heal and then he drained me again. Over and
over.”

I gasped and reached up toward the wounds, pulling
back before touching them. Her neck looked infected. What horror had
she been through? My stomach turned at the thought of her as his
prisoner all this time.

“That means he can get inside the village,”
Rend said. “When was the last time he drank from you?”

“Hours ago,” she said. “He'll
still have some of my power inside him. The spell won't keep him out
as long as he has some of my blood running through him.”

“Shit,” Rend said. He grabbed my hand.
“We'll go to my house. Or to Venom.”

“No,” my mother said. Her hand was
cold and clammy against my arm. “There's another way, but we
have to go now. We can't risk him finding us here.”

I looked at Rend and could tell he wasn't happy
about being told no. The line of his jaw was straight and tense, and
his eyes flashed with veins of silver in the blackness.

“What other way?”

“There's a doorway here inside the village,”
she said. “The Devil doesn't know about it. No one outside of
the crow witches even knows it exists.”

“Where does it lead?” I asked. She was
digging into my arm so hard, I was afraid she was going to draw
blood. I had to wrench my arm from her grasp. Rend was already tense
enough. I didn't want to aggravate him.

“To a secret network of doors belonging only
to the crows,” she said.

“Like the hall of doorways at Venom?”
I asked. I wasn't sure she knew about the hall there, but apparently
hallways like that existed all over the world and most witches and
demons knew they existed.

“Similar,” she said. “But these
doors only lead to secret hiding places of the crows. It's the Mother
Crow's personal hallway. If we can get inside before he arrives,
he'll never know what happened to you.”

“Franki, I don't know about this,”
Rend said, turning me toward him. “I don't know that turning to
the other crows at a time like this is the best plan. The Mother Crow
may be just as dangerous as the Devil right now.”

“I won't take her to the Mother Crow,”
Mom said. “I swear it.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. I couldn't think
straight. Rend and I had just gotten here. We hadn't even had a
chance to talk about what had happened between us, much less what we
were going to do about the Devil. This was all moving way too fast. I
didn't know who to trust or what to do. One wrong move could mean all
our lives.

“I have to get dressed,” I said. “I
need a minute to wrap my head around this and figure out what we
should do.”

My mother stepped back and studied me, her eyes
traveling from my face all the way down to my toes. Her gaze snapped
toward Rend. “You were supposed to be protecting her, not
taking advantage of her.”

She lashed out at him, but Rend stepped back. I
moved between them and held up a hand. “Stop,” I said.
“I've been taking care of myself for the past three years. I'm
not a child anymore. I know you're scared and you're trying to help,
but I'm not going to let you just barrel back into my life and start
criticizing my choices.”

Tears fell from my mother's eyes and she swiped at
them. “You're right. I'm sorry, but you have to understand how
this looks to me,” she said. “I didn't want to leave you,
Franki, but at the time, I thought it was for the best. You have no
idea all the things I've sacrificed to keep you safe.”

My heart tightened in my chest. Was that the
truth? Had I completely misunderstood her all this time?

“Let me get dressed,” I said. “I'll
be right back.”

Mom nodded, but jerked her head back toward the
entrance. “Hurry, please,” she said. “I couldn't
bear it if anything happened to you.”

I studied her face for a long beat. She seemed to
be genuinely worried about me. I had never seen her act this way my
entire life. Had I been wrong about everything?

I squeezed her hand once and hurried toward the
small rust-colored house Rend and I had claimed as our own.

Rend followed me into the room. I searched for my
clothes on the floor and began dressing as fast as I could.

“Franki, something doesn't feel right about
this,” he said.

I shook my head. “Nothing has felt right for
the past week or two,” I said. “My entire life has been
completely turned upside down.”

“No, I mean your mother showing up here like
this,” he said. He sat down next to me on the bed as I pulled
the tank top over my head. “If the Devil had her prisoner for
the past several months, how did she suddenly get free on her own? He
wouldn't have just let her go. Not after what she'd heard.”

“I don't know,” I said. I pulled my
pants up and started searching for my shoes under the bed. “She's
obviously terrified. You saw the marks on her neck. I think she's
telling the truth.”

“I'm not saying she's lying to you,”
he said. “I just think we need to be careful.”

I stretched to reach one of the shoes that had
somehow gotten pushed way under the bed. My hands were shaking. “What
do you think we should do, then? Where can we possibly go that is
going to be safe from him?” I asked. I finally grabbed the edge
of the shoe and dragged it out. “How did he even figure out
that we were here in the first place? It's like he has eyes
everywhere. I don't even know where to begin to fight back against
that.”

“I don't know,” he said. He stood and
punched a fist against the wall. “I hate this. I want to keep
you safe, but I feel powerless. If we can get you to Venom, we can
regroup there. I can call in any favors and friends who might be
willing to stand and fight.”

I finished dressing and stood. My head throbbed
with a sudden headache. “If we can even get there at all,”
I said. “The Chicago entrance is ruined. He's already got eyes
on Paris. Probably all the others, too. What about the entrance from
your house? Could we go through the hall in Harper's house to get
there?”

He shook his head. “It's not that easy,”
he said. “The only entrance to Venom from my house is through a
specific hallway outside of Venom. It's a trick I put in place with
my own magic. If we go through the hallway in Harper's house, we can
get to my house, but not back to Venom. Not directly, anyway. It's
complicated.”