Crave (Tainted Angels Book 1) Read online

  “Come,” he whispered as he guided me off the stool.

  My friends stared at me as I walked past them, their mouths as wide as their eyes. Their surprise was understandable, I never hooked up with anyone. But this man … I knew he would make me feel good. His worship would allow my mind to be released from the depths of the prison I was always consumed in. He could release me. He could grant me ecstasy. And right then, I craved that more than I had ever craved anything.

  The chill in the air directed a shiver through my body as my skin prickled with goosebumps. I seemed to be floating as he led me to the back of the carpark, his pull soft but secure as the night shadows secluded us from attention.

  “Don’t let me go,” I managed to whisper. The very thought that he would drop my hand was causing me to panic. I needed him with an almighty hunger.

  He stopped and turned to me, his hand rising until he gently cupped the side of my face. “Never, Angel. You’re mine.”

  I groaned in pleasure at his touch on my face, a liquid bliss curling through my hot veins as I pushed further into his caress. His hand was replaced by his mouth and an erotic moan left me as his tongue tickled over the trail of my pulsing vein.

  “Oh God,” I moaned as I grappled with his belt. “I need you in my mouth.” My urgency was torturous, my need to consume him overpowering.

  “That’s it, Willa. Get on your knees for me.”

  “Yes,” I breathed as I did what he asked and fell before him.

  “Willa!”

  I blinked for a moment when Rax’s voice filtered into my head. A large cock sprang in my face and I gasped, rearing back at the sight of it. “What the …?”

  A man’s fingers gripped my chin, his touch warm and soothing. My body sighed with serenity and I smiled up at him as his pale blue eyes warmed me inside, a flood of desire making me sigh heavily. “Stay with me, pretty girl.”

  “I’m yours,” I replied as I gently enclosed my fingers around the thick shaft of his cock and leaned forwards.

  “Willa! Listen to me!” Rax exploded in my ears.

  “Huh?”

  I paused when the tip of a penis glistened under the lamplight, the head wet and bulging. It was the fact that my tongue was out and a hair’s breadth away from the pulsing gentleman that caused me to splutter and fall back on my hands. “What the hell?” I choked out as I stared up at a strange man.

  He growled, his anger bared. I screamed when a pain tore through the whole of my nervous system. I couldn’t move, my body frozen as he clenched his fist. “I wanted to fill your throat with my cum before I had the pleasure of killing you,” he spat. “It looks like I’ll have to find another whore for the night. That wasn’t part of the deal. He said I could have you.”

  The world was rushing at me, his foreign tongue registering in my head but my brain was translating every word. “Impossible,” I whispered. My stupidity had seen me follow a Roué into his lair. Roué’s were enchanters, seducers and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t figured it out. But we had always been safe at Fred’s. And they never, never, made contact with us, only humans. Shit.

  I flew through the air at a speed that made my ears whoosh, many cars racing by until my back hit the side of one and my head bounced off the bonnet. I slumped to the ground, darkness seeping in and granting me a reprieve from witnessing my own death.

  Too late as usual. I watched in insane anger when Willa’s little body hit a silver BMW and her forehead ricocheted off the bonnet.

  I winced when a pain tore through my own head as the rage in me engulfed my rationality. The Roué yelped when I lifted him clear off the ground, the tightening of my fist cutting off his air supply. His eyes widened as I walked towards him, his own hands clawing at his neck as he struggled for breath.

  “You cunt!” I hissed, unable to grant him any relief from his suffering as I yanked my hand back and tore out his throat.

  For a moment he stuttered, falling backwards as his oesophagus dropped at his feet. The gaping hole in his neck was mesmerising when the theatrical pump of his blood covered his pristine white shirt with a gloopy red substance.

  “She’s mine,” I whispered icily in his ear when I reached him. “No one touches what is mine.”

  His mouth moved, but with a lack of vocal cord, all he managed was to force his blood to spurt harder. Finally, he fell to the floor and released his last gurgle.

  My eyes moved to Jaron who was observing everything. When his gaze moved to Willa he closed his eyes for a moment. His lips moved and I caught his quiet curse in the air. “Shit, Rax. What the fuck are you doing?”

  I trusted Jaron. He was my father’s second but he was also practically my uncle. He’d watched me grow up, he was my sponsor, but I prayed right then to a God that wasn’t mine to pray to that he would keep quiet. “This doesn’t get back to my father, Jaron.”

  “Shit,” he grumbled when I scooped Willa up and pressed her into my chest. I had to fight against the need to drain her when her unique scent of truffles and lilies drove me wild. I shivered when a jolt tore through me. My body felt on fire, my heart stampeding and my vision blurring as the most unreal pleasure slipped into my muscles, my body relaxing instantly. I couldn’t help but sigh heavily; the feeling was exquisite.

  Willa moaned and shivered in my arms as a thumping resounded in my temple. She had felt it too, whatever the fuck had just happened.

  “I need to get her somewhere safe.”

  Jaron clenched his jaw then closed his eyes. “May Diablo burn my fucking soul for this,” he growled. “Take her to mine. I’ll cover for you.”

  “Thank you,” I said, yet it seemed lacking in a way. The fact that Jaron was helping me didn’t sit well with me. He could lose his life for this.

  I knew I had his backing when he said quietly, his eyes on Willa, “I shouldn’t be saying this.” He looked in turmoil for a moment as his expression saddened. “But we need her.” His eyes lifted to mine. “She’s the only way.”

  “The only way for what?”

  “Willa!” One of her friends shouted into the darkness. Jaron and I spun round to see a blonde teetering through the concrete assault course of cars and broken slabs, her head disappearing behind a car every now and again when she found another hole to navigate.

  “Shit.” Jaron said. “Go. I’ll deal with Blondie.”

  Nodding, I shifted to the edge of the carpark and slipped through the blurred haze of heat.

  My head throbbed and the whole side of my body was sore. Background noise disturbed the peace in my head and slowly I prised my eyes open. Blinking in confusion I allowed my eyes to roam the dark room I found myself in. I was laid on a bed, yet the décor and taste in the atmosphere told my senses this was somewhere I’d never been before – unless Marie had redecorated, but then the dark blue walls really didn’t seem like her choice of colour. Marie was a proper girl; pinks, yellows and soft greens were more her thing. I couldn’t help but smile as I remembered her gasp of shock when she’d first observed my own choice of painting skills. Her pretty green eyes had grown so large she reminded me of one of those puffer fish, when their eyes grow large and then their little bodies puff out instantaneously.

  “How are you feeling?” Rax’s voice cut into my thoughts.

  I rolled my eyes when once again the irritating demon penetrated my lock. “If this were my apartment, I would expect you to knock first, so why you seem to think that invading my head would be any different is just rude.”

  He barked out a laugh, angering me as I blew out a breath and reluctantly moved my body off the super soft mattress. I jumped when knuckles rapped against the back of my head. Spinning round I found Rax – in person – grinning at me. “I knocked,” he said with a smirk and a shrug.

  I couldn’t move. My heartbeat quickened, the only thing in me that dared to move as the furious tingle in my blood told me my body was preparing for a fight.

  “Simmer down, Seraph. You’re like a fucking Rottweiler without break
fast.”

  “What the hell, Rax?”

  Ignoring my stunned stutter he held out a mug, the steam from the hot beverage curling up and distorting his handsome face slightly. I grimaced to myself when I realised I found him handsome. He was well-built; his was body lean but the contour of each of his muscles was visible through the thin cotton shirt he wore. He had thick, black hair, the style unique to him as it thinned to stubble down the side of his face and across his rounded chin. His deep brown eyes glistened with a hint of bright blue and a lot of wickedness. The shiver that trapped my breath caused me to cough faintly.

  As I narrowed my eyes on his offering, he tutted loudly. “I’m not going to poison you, Seraph. It’s just tea.”

  Giving in to the dryness in my parched throat, I hesitantly took the drink from him, my fingers curling around the warm mug. He looked around and as if he sensed my chill, he shivered and walked to an open window, slamming it closed.

  “Are you feeling okay?” he asked again, his eyes narrowing as they ran down the length of my body.

  Nodding, I pressed my fingers to my temples attempting to soothe the ache there. “I’m fine.”

  “I’m glad you are.” He winced and rubbed his own head, mumbling as if he was talking to himself. “I have a killer of a headache.”

  I rolled my eyes, typical male.

  “I can’t believe you fell for a Roué, Willa. Jesus, we need to buy you a gun.”

  I stiffened, annoyed by his mocking tone. “There’s nothing wrong with my fighting skills!”

  “Really? A Roué batted you across the carpark like you were just a moth!”

  Ignoring him, I huffed and slammed my cup down on the table. “Where am I, anyway?” He stiffened. And I didn’t miss it. “Rax?”

  He smiled as if he was guilty of something. My gut twirled apprehensively. “That’s the thing,” he said quietly as he watched me closely. “You’re at my friend’s house.”

  “Right, so can you call me a cab?”

  His mouth popped open then his brow furrowed. “You –are – at – my – friend’s – house,” he reiterated slowly as though I was too thick to understand. But his next words saw me dropping on to the sofa that was conveniently situated beside the bed. “Jaron, my father’s second in command’s house.”

  “What?” My mouth watered and I quickly closed my lips together to stop the drool dripping down my chin. “But that would mean …”

  “That you’re in Gehenna. Yes.”

  My head shook as my eyes widened. “Stop fucking me about, Rax!”

  His head slowly moved from side to side. “No shit, sweet thing.” Plopping down heavily on the sofa beside me, he screwed up his face and shook his head again. “Doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense.”

  I stared back at him. “How?”

  He shrugged. “No idea. My hatch allowed you through.”

  “Your hatch?”

  “Mmm, my portal, gateway, that I conjure.”

  I curled a lip at him. The Gehenna had abilities to summon portals, but only because the beckoning used dark magic. Didn’t mean I wasn’t jealous, dark magic or not. Taxis were expensive, and I hated buses. I needed to buy a car. Or learn to use dark magic … damn it!

  “But this is Gehenna. No Empyrean can enter. It’s not possible.”

  “And yet, here you are,” he whispered as though it had now become top secret. We both winced at the same time when a pain tore through the top of my skull, one of my migraines imminent. Both of us slapped our hands on the right side of our heads and cringed at the nauseating pain. “Fuck!” we both hissed together.

  I froze. Rax froze. Our gazes clashed and we stared in horror. Quickly snatching up my hot cup of tea I didn’t think twice as I poured some down his bare arm. The cup dropped to the floor when a scorch sizzled across the skin on my own arm.

  “Holy shit!”

  My head shook, my body trembled. What the hell was happening? Shooting off the sofa, I backed across the room, shock rendering me stupid when my back pressed against a wall and I tried to keep going, my fingers digging into the rough plaster of the wall.

  It was implausible, so much so that trying to figure out what was happening caused my migraine to worsen. “Jesus Christ!” Rax moaned as he screwed up his face. “Do you get these pains often?”

  “I want to go home.” It was all I could manage but it was all I craved for. I needed something familiar, something to ground me to reality, because this shit was fucked up. “I want to go home!” I shouted, tears popping from my eyes as my distress broke.

  “Okay, calm down,” Rax grumbled, yet there was a softness to his features, a concern in his eyes. “It’s okay.” He nodded slowly, encouraging me to chill out. But I couldn’t, everything was wrong, the world I knew had just altered so dramatically that I found it difficult to breathe.

  I was hyperventilating, the space around me shifting as I attempted to suck air into my lungs. Rax, appearing to struggle himself, slowly crept towards me. “Calm down, I’m struggling with you. And if I go down then we’ve no hope.”

  What he was saying registered in my mind finally. He could ‘feel’ me. He could feel my distress, my pain, my own breath. And the realisation of what that meant made my eyes roll into the back of my head and the darkness took me under.

  Bobby smiled at me when I walked into Fred’s the next night.

  I’d woken in my own room that morning, my headache gone but my body still aching, which was unusual. All Empyreans usually healed within hours, yet I could still feel the fragility in my bones from where the Roué had tossed me against the car.

  Rax had been nowhere in sight and since our ‘meeting’ the previous night, I’d heard nothing more from him. I hated that I was a little concerned about him, but I had too much pride to link with him. He’d stormed into my life, turned it upside down within hours and now everything was wrong. It wasn’t his fault, I knew it wasn’t, but it still didn’t mean my mind didn’t hold him responsible.

  “Usual, Willa?”

  Smiling, I nodded to Bobby and scanned the room. “Where is everyone?” There were all of three patrons in the usually packed bar.

  “There’s a gig at Ronnie’s,” Bobby explained when he placed my Bud on the bar and pushed in a few tiny cranberries; my usual concoction.

  “Frannie was supposed to meet me.”

  He shrugged, wiping down the already clean counter. “Haven’t seen her.”

  Sighing, I said, “I wanted to get wasted.”

  He grinned at me then slammed two shot glasses on the bar between us and snatched up a bottle of tequila. “Can’t see it getting much busier, and you read my mind. Let’s get drunk!”

  And so we did. Two hours later we were both leaning on the bar, the only thing holding us up as we whined about life and struggled to focus on each other.

  “But I love her.” Tears spilled from Bobby’s eyes, his heartbreak over his recent split with his fiancée saddening both of us. “You ever want to get married, Willa?”

  My chest hurt and I shook my head. “Not possible for people like me, I’m afraid.”

  “People like you?” His brow crinkled as he stared at me, puzzled.

  Realising I’d slipped up, I waved his bafflement away. “I just meant I’m too independent.”

  He nodded knowingly as he wobbled across the room when the last of his customers left, and he slid the bolts into their housing. Not realising it was closing time, I slipped off the stool, then grabbed hold of the bar when the floor shifted under my feet. “Shit!” I slurred. “How much have we had?”

  Bobby tutted. “Too much. I’ll have to call a cab. You want to share?”

  Shaking my head, I smiled, grateful for his consideration. “Nah, think I’ll walk.”

  He scowled at me and I couldn’t help but giggle at how his face screwed up. “I’m not really sure that’s a good idea, Willa. Been a lot of muggings lately.”

  Patting him softly on his cheek as he ordered his cab
, I winked and whispered, “I can look after myself.” Rax’s mockery of my fighting skills rumbled through my head and I huffed to myself as I bid him goodbye and slipped out of the door he’d just locked.

  It was a warm night and I swayed as I started up the street, the alcohol in my system mixing with the oxygen in the air and trebling my drunkenness. I grabbed hold of the wall, realising maybe it hadn’t been a good idea to walk, and turned back towards Fred’s to take Bobby up on the offer of sharing a cab.

  Banging on the doors, I groused to myself when Bobby didn’t answer. He must have already left but when I turned to leave, a muffled but loud sound from the car park at the side of the building caught my ears.

  “Bobby?” I shouted as I walked round the wall. My feet slammed to a halt and I stared in horror as a man slowly moved away from my friend, who dropped to the ground clutching his stomach. My eyes zeroed in on the ooze of blood flowing over Bobby’s white t-shirt. His eyes met mine and the air shimmered with my rage when, very slowly, his aura changed from green to grey. He was dying – and quickly.

  “NO!” I screamed as I raced forwards.

  My way through was blocked by his attacker, his long, pale face pulled into a vicious sneer as his eyes raked down my body. “Ahh, two for one night.”

  “Move!” I demanded as I tried to shift past him and get to Bobby before it was too late.

  “Not a hope, gorgeous.”

  My attention and focus was on Bobby as I willed his aura to stay grey and not shift to black, and I didn’t see the blade until it was too late, until it penetrated my chest, right in the centre.

  I dropped to my knees, my hands instinctively pressing against my wound when the bastard pulled his knife back out. I was too shocked to do anything. I was struggling to breathe and I tried to concentrate on filling my lungs bit by bit but it was becoming impossible. Where the hell were my healing abilities? Rax had been right. I was stupid and useless.

  The man pushed me back until I was laid flat on the floor. Bobby whimpered when the bastard tore at my jeans. The pain in my chest became unbearable and it was all I could concentrate on, my mind unable to focus on my powers.