Sleeping with Monsters Read online

  “Don’t talk,” he ordered angrily. “You piss me off when you talk. I shouldn’t feel anything for you and yet you make me want you, make me feel this need to protect you and I’m not this guy. I’m not your fucking prince; I’m the dragon who slays the weak-ass prince as he tries to rescue you. You are a weakness, one I can’t afford.” He picked me up and then tossed me onto the couch, spreading my legs as he pulled me to the edge, working the buttons of his expensive slacks. “I want to destroy you in the most beautiful way, in a way that would ruin you for any other man. To make sure you know that no other male in this world would stack up against me,” he purred as he pushed into my body without mercy.

  I whimpered, ignoring his words as he lifted my legs, spreading them apart as he drove his hard cock deeper than he’d ever been before into my core. I pulled away, only for him to capture my hands and hold them against my belly as he pumped his hips.

  Seether’s FMLYHM exploded inside the room. It poured from multiple speakers that lined the walls. I dropped my head, watching as he stared down at where our bodies joined together. He pushed my arms away, wrapping his hands around my hips as he picked up speed. I cried out from the heady, addictive mixture of pain and pleasure as he fucked me without care or thought. He was too big, yet we fit like two pieces of a puzzle that had come together to become one.

  I felt my body clenching around him, demanding he give me more. I felt the world teetering around us as I toed the edge of cliff once more, but right when I was about to detonate, he pulled out, shuffled my body around, and placed me on my stomach with my face buried into the couch. My legs were parted, placed on either side of his legs as I felt him rearrange the belt. All at once he was there, pulling against the belt as his cock entered me again.

  I exploded without warning. My body shook with the force of it and I felt him tensing as he pulled harder on the belt, stealing my air as he fucked me from behind. His other hand slapped against my tender bottom and I arched into every thrust, every sensation he created, and then once again, my body succumbed to white-hot pleasure that held me locked in limbo as I drifted in the clouds.

  I’d expected him to finish with me. Instead, he pulled one of my legs over his shoulder, spreading me wider as he situated me onto my side, more exposed as he pinched one nipple, thrusting into my body again.

  I cried out, unsure I could handle him in this position, but he wasn’t asking. He was taking and giving when and what he chose. He held absolute control as he pushed in slowly and left my body slower than he’d entered it. I stared into his eyes as my body tightened, arched, and gave him what he needed. Everything I had. I gave him control—I gave him me.

  I watched him as his body stiffened and a moan slipped past his lips as he pushed harder, coming undone with my submission. His eyelids grew heavy, languid as he continued to hold mine, and his body seemed to glow from within. The runes on his stomach flared up with a golden radiance, as if lit with a power from within him. My hand lifted without thought, slowly trailing over his body as he emptied his cock into me.

  “What the fuck did you do?” he demanded after a moment had passed, and I blinked as I tried to guess what I had done wrong now. “What sort of magic is this?” He pulled out, leaving me bereft without his heat as he stared at the glowing runes.

  “What?” I whimpered, still unable to speak through the dryness of my mouth. “What the hell do you mean, what did I do to you?” I demanded, confused as to how any of it was my fault.

  “What the fuck did you do to me, Witch?” he snarled and pushed away from me as he stood up. I frowned up at him in confusion as he yanked his pants up and fastened them.

  “I didn’t do anything to you,” I huffed as I followed him up, naked and bared to him. Clumsily, I unfastened the belt from my neck and tossed it at his feet. “What the hell is your problem?”

  “You will tell me what you did, or I will rip the truth from you.” His growl was barely audible as he stared at me as if I’d done something to hurt him.

  “I didn’t do anything! We fucked! That’s it, I didn’t use magic on you. Is that what you think? That I cast some spell on you?” I asked, horrified that he would think so little of me that he would believe that I would cast magic on him while going at it like rabbits.

  “Those runes don’t react unless someone spells them to, Witch,” he taunted as if I was stupid, and I gaped at him, completely at a loss for what to say.

  “I didn’t do it, so find someone else to blame,” I snapped angrily as I marched to my bag and started digging for a change of clothes since he’d ruined mine.

  “You will tell me what you did before I allow you to leave here,” he ordered, and I swung around to face him, intending to tell him where to stick it when a knock sounded at the door.

  I shook my head, hating his bipolar ass at the moment. I hadn’t done shit to his fucking runes, and I couldn’t have even if I wanted to. I wasn’t adept in runes, and they scared the shit out of me. I had barely gotten my panties up when Spyder burst into the room.

  “We’ve got a big fucking problem downstairs…” He paused, and I felt the heat of his gaze as he admired my red cheeks. “That’s a pretty pink ass, kitty,” he said silkily.

  “What’s the fucking problem?” Lucian demanded, as if he didn’t care that my panties didn’t cover much and Spyder could see his handiwork all over my ass. Heat flooded my cheeks as I ignored them, dressing in a pair of joggers and a tank top. I pulled my shoes out of the bag and slipped my feet into them, then spun around to find both men regarding me for a very different reason, I was sure.

  “The coven is downstairs,” Spyder began, taking in my angry frown and the tears swimming in my vision from Lucian’s accusations. His icy blue eyes shifted between me and Lucian before he expelled a breath and turned to Lucian, only to explode with a curse as he took in the glowing golden runes on his stomach. “The fuck?”

  “Ask her,” Lucian snarled, opening a closet I hadn’t even noticed before and pulling out a new dress shirt. “Seems our little witch is playing with dark magic,” he declared angrily. “She’s been learning to cast and remove curses, apparently.”

  “I didn’t do shit.” I pulled a hairbrush out of my bag and yanked it through my snarled hair. “We fucked. It’s as simple and easy as that. I didn’t use magic, and I sure as shit couldn’t chant a spell between screaming your name and coming undone on your cock. If I had, you’d have heard it. Wouldn’t you?” I demanded impatiently while shoving the brush back into my bag.

  “Dark magic doesn’t always need words, Witch.”

  “I’m done with this,” I bit out, hating him. “I’m done with you blaming me for shit that I couldn’t possibly have known about or done. You think I’m to blame? Fine, whatever; stay the fuck away from me. Problem solved.” Fresh tears slid down my cheeks as I headed towards the door.

  “You’re not leaving,” he growled.

  “Try to fucking stop me, Blackstone,” I seethed as I turned to face him with a cold, dead stare. “You want a war? Because that is what you will get if you try to keep me here.”

  I hefted my pack over my shoulder and exited his office, not giving a shit that I looked freshly fucked, or that the entire coven was below, waiting for me. I didn’t look back to see if they were following me; I knew they were. I felt them to my core, as if their fucked up ritual had done more than just claim me.

  “Kitty,” Spyder called from behind me, but I didn’t stop.

  I walked faster until I reached the steps, taking them two at a time to get away from them. I needed distance, needed to get away from them and stay away. My head pounded, my entire body ached, and my heart cracked with his accusations. To spell someone was huge; to do it during sex was just fucking cowardly and dirty. I would do almost anything for the coven, but I wouldn’t use my body to get what I wanted. That was just wrong on a level I didn’t want to even imagine.

/>   Chapter 17

  The moment my feet touched the main level of the club, I paused and managed to pick the coven out of the crowd as they waited impatiently. My grandmother wasn’t with them, but my mother and the rest of the coven with her looked terrified. I pushed through the throng of people to get to my mother and tried to ignore what I must have looked like right now, or that I ached with every step that led me closer to her.

  “What’s wrong?” I demanded, wondering what could have upset her this much. Her skin was pasty white, eyes wide with fear as she leveled her matching blue eyes to mine and shook her head as tears filled her eyes.

  “The Gates to Hell are open,” she cried over the music as tears streamed down her cheek. “The town is burning, and people are dying. We tried to find the others, but there was too many demons.”

  “What? What are you talking about?” I replayed our drive through town as we made our way here just an hour or so earlier. “I was just in town, everything was fine.”

  “I was coming to find you when the fires started, and then they converged on the town. I don’t know how many got out of there, but from the looks and damage the monsters left behind, I wouldn’t assume very many. It’s bad, really bad. The coven has cast sanction wards and doused holy water inside and around the abbey to prevent them from coming inside. I need you to come with me now,” she sobbed. “You have to come with me—it’s time, baby.”

  “This is insane.” I shook my head in denial and noticed that the others in the crowd looked just as frightened as my mother and the coven did. How could the Hell Gates have opened?

  “Come with me.” She held out her hand and I slipped mine into hers as we started towards the doors. I paused, hesitating as I looked back at Lucian. If anyone could help us, it was him, but would he?

  “Go,” he demanded coldly. The ice in his voice shot through me, radiating through my heart and soul. I swallowed hard and nodded. Turning my back on him, we picked our way through the club and out the front door. We blinked against the bright afternoon sunlight and I noticed there was a reddish cast over the sun and I caught a faint whiff of the acrid scent of smoke from the fires in town.

  I exhaled as we started towards the cars, and from the corner of my eye, I noticed we picked up an escort. Spyder walked silently beside me as some of Lucian’s men flanked our sides. The coven would run. They always had in times of crises. It was a fallback crutch, one used through generations to maintain our way of life.

  I didn’t look back, knowing that if I did, he wouldn’t be there. If he was, would I still go? I wanted him; even though I hated him most of the time, I wanted Lucian Blackstone. It was as difficult and as simple as that.

  A car door opened and I slid into the backseat, keeping my eyes on the seat in front of me as I waited for the door to close, but it didn’t.

  “Kitty, stay safe,” Spyder ordered gruffly as he knelt down beside the car. His hand slipped between mine as he held them tightly. “Stay inside the abbey, do you understand me? What’s coming, it’s not going to end in this town. It’s going to be in every town around the world. This is some end-of-days shit going down right now.”

  “Will he fight them with us?” I choked out, not bothering to look at him as tears of anger welled in my eyes.

  “I don’t know. I don’t even know if we can fight what is coming. Hell Gates don’t just open, something triggered it. Someone took something through a gate recently and opened them. That means there is no barrier between earth and Hell. No one is safe anymore. There are no rules to this game, no referee here to stop them.” He bent his head, kissing my hands as my mother watched. I chewed my lip as I considered what he’d just told us.

  “Lucifer is coming,” I whispered, closing my eyes as the first tear fell.

  “If the gates are open, he’s been freed to do as he pleases in this world. Stopping him isn’t going to be easy and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

  “We have to go.” My mother slid into the passenger seat and turned to me. “We have to get to the house. There are a lot of books belonging to the coven there; we have to protect our history from them.”

  I nodded and turned to say something, but the door shut and Spyder was already walking back towards the club. The car ignition started, and we sped out of the parking lot onto the highway.

  “Once we get to the house we stay together, or close to one another. Do you understand?” My mother’s voice was fairly calm, considering the situation.

  “Yes,” I said softly, but my mind was back at the club, at Lucian’s anger over a curse being removed. Wouldn’t that have been a good thing? The man gave me emotional whiplash. Not to mention I couldn’t just control myself and stop fucking him. It was as if my body didn’t care that he was a total asshole; it wanted what it wanted, and that was him.

  “I need you to go into the cottage and retrieve the books hidden over there for me while I get started in the main house,” she said. “Kat and Dexter will go with you and watch your back so you can get the books from under the floorboards. Do not waste time; we don’t know yet if the demons are heading this way or if they just attacked the town. We aren’t prepared to face them.”

  “Lucian can help us,” I said softly, sensing her frown as we drove towards the house. Even from this far out of town, I could see the fires burning, as well as in the hills surrounding the town, which had houses scattered through them. “He can kill them. I saw Spyder take down Lucifer; he can do it again. Lucian and his men aren’t witches, that much is for sure. Whatever they are, they can fuck them up. They can save the town.”

  “The town is as good as gone, daughter mine. The gate opened in the middle of town and hundreds of demons poured out of Hell from it. The lives…the poor, innocent lives.” She paused as a sob tore from her lips. “We couldn’t get close enough to see them, much less protect them, so we left them to their fates. Being helpless is a horrible feeling.”

  We pulled up to the house and I stared at the old cottage. Our great-grandparents had built as they’d worked on the manor and now it was mostly used for storage.

  The car stopped in front of it and I got out, waiting for a moment as the car pulled away and another one pulled in behind it. I quickly glanced back to see Kat and Dexter getting out of the car as I made my way up the steps of the cottage, stopping dead in my tracks as memories assaulted me.

  Lena’s memories?

  A scene unfolded in front of me. Joshua and Lena playing on the porch; running from each other as great-grandma sewed an old, worn pair of coveralls for great-grandpa. I placed my hands on my head and I turned around in a circle, searching for myself. Why was I seeing it through Lena’s eyes?

  “Kendra?” Kat startled me, placing a hand on my shoulder as she turned back to look at Dexter. “Let’s get inside,” she offered, moving up the stairs. I noted both were armed with razor sharp athames. As Dexter pushed the door open, I walked past them.

  “Hey, we need to check it first,” Dexter cried out.

  I ignored him and glared at the couch, which was empty. My eyes swept the kitchen and found a vision of Lucian in nothing but a towel as he leaned against the kitchen entryway. I swallowed, feeling the heat that pulsed through me at the sight of him. I gazed at the ghostly figure, a memory of Lucian who made himself at home in the little cottage, unabashed to only be dressed in nothing more than a cheap towel, which hugged his hips.

  I shook my head firmly, trying to dispel the image or memory.

  “Are you okay?” Kat murmured, observing me intently as I slowly brought my eyes to meet hers before I answered on a hiss of breath.

  “I’m fine, everything is fine,” I growled angrily.

  I moved into the bedroom, looking at the bed as I made my way to the section of the room I needed. I pulled the bed out and scooted around it, pulled the floorboards up, and set them aside. I reached in and pulled out a few bo
oks and the photo albums, and paused as I reached deeper. Beneath the albums were pages upon pages of notes scribbled. I stared at them, knowing them as if I’d written them myself. I withdrew them from the hiding place and set them on the bed. I flipped through the pages, endless scribbles written in the early morning hours that had once been hidden with the sun’s rising rays. I swallowed as pain tore through my head. Memories flashed inside my head and I swallowed the cry that threatened to rip from my lips.

  A cat jumped onto the bed and I paused, observing it as it pushed its head into my chest, demanding I pay attention to it.

  Luna?

  I closed my eyes and swallowed down the fear that pulsed through me. Someone had played with my mind, but they hadn’t made me forget anything. They’d erased me and overwritten me like I was some sort of computer. Anger vibrated through me as I spun around to face Kat.

  She’d been studying me from the doorway, as if she had been expecting this. Tears slid from my eyes as memories flooded back into my mind and were held up to the light of day like treasure. My hands trembled as I tried to work my mouth, but nothing came out as Kat waited and observed me on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

  “Welcome back, Lena,” she said softly. “It’s about fucking time.”

  “You knew?” I demanded.

  “We’ve known for a little while now, but the mind is a tricky thing. You can’t force someone to remember something unless they are ready for it. You know who you are, but the rest…it comes back over time. Mine took a little longer than the others, but you, you took your sweet ass time coming back to us.”

  “Who did this to us?” I asked, watching her as she shrugged.

  “That part remains blank to the entire coven. There hasn’t been any way to identify what happened, not magic or otherwise. Just faceless creatures, but we think Cassidy and Helen had something to do with it, because my memories have those two locking us inside the abbey.”