A Cursed Bloodline (WG 4) (11 page)

I couldn’t cry with them. Their tears didn’t make sense. One by one they released me, smiling despite their blotchy faces and smeared makeup. Taran clasped her hand over her mouth. “Shit.” She glanced over her shoulder at Koda. “Call Gemini. They have to let Aric know Celia’s alive before he hurts someone.”

They led me toward the couch and sat me near Bren’s feet. Koda didn’t move. He stood in front of the love seat, staring at me. “You died,” he said. “I felt you leave Aric’s soul.”

“How is he…?” I couldn’t finish the words.

Shayna wiped her eyes. “Not well, Ceel. We were with him when he thought you’d been killed. He started howling—freaking
howling
that you were dead.”

Taran blew her nose on a tissue. “Aric went berserk. No one could control him. Koda grabbed me and Shayna and raced us out of the Den. Gemini and Liam stayed to help the others trying to restrain him.” She lowered her head and shook it. “It was
awful
. I could hear and feel his pain.”

“I was at the main house with Misha when they arrived. He didn’t believe you were gone, but he was worried you might have been attacked, since no one knew where you were. He and his family are out searching for you.” She reached for her cellphone on the coffee table. “I’ll let him know you’re okay….”

Emme froze at the sight of Koda. He held his phone at his side, his nose flaring with rage. “Goddamnit, Celia. You broke your mate bond, didn’t you? You severed your sacred bond!” He stormed toward me. “How the
fuck
could you do that to Aric!”

Koda had appeared dark and menacing long before the deep-set burns riddled his face with scars. But at that moment, his vehemence threatened to devour me.

Shayna pushed herself between us. “Koda, stop it. Celia would never do such a thing!”

I clasped my hands over my eyes.
But I had.

Everyone seemed to stop breathing. The drizzling rain against the windows was the only sound. I forced my hands from my eyes and faced my family, knowing there was no way to defend my actions.

Shayna carefully turned away from her mate, her cheeks wet with fresh fallen tears. “Celia, tell Koda you didn’t break your bond. Please tell him,” she asked, but she knew then that he was right.

The silence while they waited for me to answer was deafening.

Taran covered her mouth with her hands and gaped at me like she didn’t know me. “Why the hell would you do this?”

I wouldn’t answer. Koda let out a string of swearwords and tapped the screen on his cellphone. Aric’s dreadful howls filled the room the moment the call connected. I covered my ears, unable to stand his mournful ire.

Gemini spoke urgently. “I can’t talk. We’re hitting Aric with tranquilizers. It’s not working—”

“Celia’s alive. She’s with me now.”

There was a pause on the other end. “That’s not possible.”

“She broke their mate bond.”

“Why?”

Koda glared at me. “I don’t know. She won’t speak of it.”

Gemini’s voice tightened. “Is she hurt?”

“She looks like hell, but no, she’s not harmed.”

“There’s no blood or—”

“There’s nothing wrong with her, Gem. Goddamnit, she’s just sitting here looking at me!”

A brief stretch of time passed on the other end. This time when Gemini spoke, his voice lowered with anger. “I’ll tell Aric.”

Koda disconnected. Everyone watched me, waiting for me to scream, cry, laugh—
something
. But I couldn’t. I could barely stay upright.

Shayna stood over me. I lifted my chin.

And she slapped me hard across the face.

Koda shoved his way between us to protect her from me. It wasn’t necessary. My tigress didn’t so much as growl. After what I’d done to Aric, I deserved far worse.

Bolts of lightning sizzled from Taran’s perfectly manicured fingertips. “Son of a
bitch
. What the hell, Shayna?”

Koda growled, deep and challenging. His wolf sensed Taran threatening his mate and readied himself to attack.

I couldn’t move from the shame overtaking me.

I had caused all this hate. All of it.

Shayna gaped from her hand to my swelling face, her voice trembling. “I-I didn’t mean to hit her. I…”

Koda’s growls surged at the sight of the blue and white flames flickering above Taran’s head.

“Everyone, calm down.” Emme gripped Taran and Koda’s wrists and basked their forms with pale yellow light. Her healing touch soothed them only enough to prevent a brawl, but their anger remained.

Time stretched in the tension-filled quiet.

Then Koda’s phone rang. It rang six times before he finally answered it. Aric growled on the other end, his snarls mixed with tortured sobs. “How could you do this to me?” He knew I could hear. “I thought you were dead. Are you listening to me, Celia?
I thought you were dead!
”

I curled into a ball, saturating the couch with my tears as he continued to shout. “Don’t you dare cry. You did this to us. Goddamnit, why? Just tell me why!”

I shook from the force of my misery. There was nothing I could say. I couldn’t explain my actions. I couldn’t beg him to forgive me. I couldn’t do anything but weep. Emme rested her head against me and slung her arms around my waist. She cried, too. I heard her even above my own hysteria.

Aric eventually disconnected. But it failed to diminish my sadness. If anything his absence, however aggrieved, made my tears run faster. It was a reminder that he was no longer a part of my life. And that I had forced him out.

I stared blankly at the wall. Only Misha’s arrival finally caused me to stir.

Koda lunged at him. “You goddamn leech!”

Tim tackled him in midair, forcing him away from Misha. They fought viciously, striking each other with blow after blow and barreling through the living room wall. My sisters screamed, begging them to stop. I rose and staggered outside, trailing behind them and the mob of hissing vampires. My mind reeled with exhaustion and my weak muscles failed to sustain me. I nosedived onto the slate walkway. Michael barely caught me before my body smacked down.

“Master,” he said. “Something’s wrong with Celia.”

Misha gathered me in his arms. I could barely speak. “End the fight. End it now.”

“As you wish.”

A rush of vampiric energy swept against my battered nerves. I blinked my eyes open. Tim writhed against the grass. His severed right leg lay behind him. Shayna yanked on Koda’s arm while Emme pushed him with her
force
. Taran followed closely. Her focus and that of my sisters were fixed on the vampires shadowing them.

Koda bled from the chunk of muscle missing from his arm and the deep gashes raked across his chest. He locked eyes with Misha before my sisters hauled him away. “I’m going to find out what you did to her and you’re going to pay! You piece of
filth
, I’ll get you back for what you did to them!”

He blamed Misha for my actions. They all did.

My head spun and my vision wavered. I remembered the cold rain splashing across my nose…and then I was floating in a sea of warm water that smelled like lavender and jasmine. Soft and slippery hands lovingly stroked my body before finally wrapping me in a lavish blanket and laying me on a sprawling surface.

Something sensual and delicious slicked over my lips. I licked them. The taste filled the emptiness inside me. More was offered and I took it willingly.

My subconscious eventually nudged me awake. It was hard for me to abandon this dream. I didn’t want to leave the warmth and security. The alluring scent surrounding me insisted I relax and enjoy the euphoria. But I wasn’t completely myself. My arms held something. No,
someone
. My eyes immediately shot open.

Misha stared back at me. He was naked.

And so was I.

Chapter Ten

“Good morning,” he said.

I didn’t normally swear much, but I did then. Like the offspring of a sailor and a trucker, obscenities shot out of my mouth like machine-gun fire. This only made Misha’s smile widen. He looked happy—too happy. I scrambled out of bed so quickly the sheets tangled around my ankle and I crash-landed on the wood floor. I snatched the corner of a blanket and pulled. Misha yanked it out of my grasp and patted the space next to him.

“Come back to bed, my love, so that we may continue to pleasure each other.”

“Continue?” My stomach dropped to my ankles “We like,
did it
?”

I traced my hands over my body, trying desperately to figure out what the hell had happened between us.

Misha groaned. “It pleases me to watch you touch yourself.”

“I’m not touching myself!” I screamed defensively. “Well, not like
that
.” I caught sight of a blanket left abandoned on the floor and wrapped it around me. I froze as the familiar scents of lavender and jasmine wafted into my nose and triggered my scattered memories: the warm water, the massage, and the…
tasting
.

I clutched the blanket against me. “Oh my God. I’m a slut.”

“Yes, you are, you bad girl.” Maria and the good Catholics sashayed into the room with an extra spring to their stiletto-clad steps.

And that’s when I recalled the slippery hands. Fantastic. I’d been felt up by the Catholic schoolgirls. Because my life just wasn’t entertaining enough.

Liz embraced me and kissed both sides of my face. “It’s so nice to see you’re still having sex. Would you like us to join you?”

Edith smiled and unzipped her thigh-high leather boots. “Oh, yes! Can we join you, Master?”

When I pinched myself and still couldn’t snap out of Bizarro Land I protested—vehemently. It was too late. Maria had stripped down to nothing and her tongue was already visiting with Misha’s tonsils. The others were busy tugging off their uniforms.

“What the hell? Put the plaid skirts back on!”

Misha stopped kissing Maria
and
Edith and frowned in my direction. “Would you prefer they did not join us?”

“Of course I don’t want them to join us!”

He shrugged indifferently. “As you wish. Leave, my precious ones, so that Celia and I may commence our lovemaking.”

Edith zipped up her boots and scowled. “You suck.”

My eyes narrowed. “I know. You’ve mentioned it more than once. Don’t let the door hit your unholy ass.”

I fixed my gaze on Misha when the last of the girls had disappeared from the suite. He sat in bed with his hands crossed behind his head. A sheet barely covered his waist. Strands of his long blond hair grazed his erect nipples.

I sighed. More than once I’d compared Misha to a Greek god. Like most anyone with a pulse, his physical beauty gave me pause. And for a vampire, Misha possessed the heart of a lion. Yet even now, my body failed to respond to his. Only guilt bored its way to the surface. I wanted to be in Aric’s arms—Aric, who was scarred beyond recognition, who no doubt hated me, and who most likely would never want me again.

“Why do you look so sad, kitten?”

“What we did is wrong, Misha.”

He walked to the chaise lounge where I sat. I averted my eyes when he knelt before me and brushed my hair away from my face. “I know why you broke your bond with the wolf.”

Perspiration trickled from my pores. If he knew about Anara, he was now in danger, too. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” A slow, amused smile lit his gray eyes. Of course, he knew I was lying.

“Yes, you do, my darling kitten,” he replied. “It stems from your desire to be mine.”

It felt like he had slapped me. I took a second to absorb his words. “Misha, what happened between Aric and me has nothing to do with us.”

He smiled. “Really? Tell me then why you would break such a sacred connection.”

I couldn’t tell him squat, but I had to say something. “Aric and I just shouldn’t be together.”

That was so the wrong thing to say. Happiness radiated from his features. “I know.”

His joy crushed my already battered heart. I could never love Misha. And it was time for him to accept it. My hard stare met his. “Misha, you need to let me go. We don’t have a future together.”

“You’re wrong. Tell me what you desire and it shall be yours.”

“The only thing I want is what’s best for you. And I’m not her.” I shook my head. “Misha, one day you’re going to fall in love. And it will be an incredible selfless love with someone you can give yourself completely to. Someone you can be vulnerable with. Someone you can’t live without.”

Misha gritted his perfect teeth. “I have already found her within you.”

“If that was the case, you wouldn’t have made out with your naughty little girlfriends.” My eyes stung with tears. “I’m not who you really want. If I was, you’d abandon your thirst for multiple women and commit.
Really
commit.”

“I just did.” His arm waved around the room. “Do you see anyone here but you?”

“It’s not the same thing, Misha.” I adjusted the blanket around me. “No one you’re devoted to should have to ask you to tell your hoochies to leave. It goes to show you don’t love me as much as you think.” I stood and left his room. I was halfway through the open corridor when the aroma of familiar scents slammed into me like a shopping cart. I stopped short, almost falling.

Maria smiled. “Oh, I forgot to tell you, your sisters are here.”

Emme’s lips parted with surprise. Taran crossed her arms. I could scent her disappointment, just as I could Shayna’s anger. Her fists were clenched and she refused to look at me.

I don’t know which reaction hurt me more.

Misha leaned against the railing. The wrought-iron bars weren’t wide enough to hide his naked form. He nodded to my sisters in way of a greeting. “Kitten,” he called casually. “The coordinator will arrive on the premises immediately following lunch. Take this time to be with your family. We have many decisions to make.”

“Coordinator?” I asked like an idiot.

“Why, yes. A wedding of this magnitude requires the flair of an expert.”

Shayna’s head snapped up. “What wedding?”

“Ours, of course. Celia and I are getting married.”