Blood Stained Tranquility (34 page)

Once inside, he stopped, looking over his shoulder at the battle starting to die out behind him. Fucking hell, those eyes. With a wince, Eve looked away, turning to Dimithinia. In her peripheral vision, she saw the blond turn back around and continue into the mall.

Dimithinia’s wide gaze was frozen on his retreating back.

“Who is he?” Eve asked.

“That is Ryth,” Dimithinia said. “He still lives. I cannot believe it.”

“Who?”

“Ryth. The God of Memories. He was . . . he was going mad thousands of years ago because of his powers. There were rumors in my kingdom, and everywhere else, that he was going to destroy himself. That the memories he harbored were too much.”

That’s what she’d seen in his eyes. Eve was sure of it. “Where is he heading now?”

“He is the only one with enough power to erase the memories of thousands at once.”

“You’re saying he’s going in there to erase the memories of the humans, right? Take away what they saw?”

“Yes.”

“And he does that how?”

Dimithinia shook her head, her expression so full of pity that Eve had to wonder at the history behind it. “He takes them into himself. It is the only way.”

A cramp hit Evesse, making her groan and curl into herself. A myriad of images loomed, all she had to do was focus on them, and she’d see Zen and that female again.

Scratch that. All she had to do was think about it for a moment, and the images came back full force.

“Evesse!” Dimithinia caught her before she could keel over and eat cement again. Eve felt bad about that, though. Because now Dimi was getting blood all over her, too, and that just wasn’t right.

Nothing about the situation was right. The world was being torn apart by zombie-like, gigantic creatures, her friends,
gods
, were fighting off said creatures, and she was being destroyed from the inside out by a merciless entity that was hell-bent on making her pay for something that wasn’t her fault.

But damn it, had Zen really kissed that blonde? He had to have for this to start inside her. She hadn’t seen one glimpse of him and his lover until a few minutes ago, and she knew deep down that it was because another female had touched her mate.

“Evesse, what is happening?”

Eve couldn’t blame her for asking. Not only was she about to seize, but she was coughing up blood. “I . . . I . . .”

“Evesse. Whatever it is you are thinking of, try not to focus on it.”

“I am trying!”

The feelings coursing through her felt worthy of Mount Vesuvius. As it should be. She figured that any woman in love would feel the same way faced with visuals of another female fucking her male.

Covering her face with her hands, she curled into herself. She coughed and felt blood splatter hotly into the palms of her hands. She couldn’t breathe, she hurt everywhere, and no matter how hard she pressed her fingertips into her eyes—even when white spots appeared in her vision—the memories continued.

They were in surround sound, too. She could hear them moaning.

Her rage bubbled over. Feeling like nothing more than a rabid animal, she slammed her fists into the concrete beneath her. Dimithinia jumped out of the way, into the car behind her. Eve ground her teeth, trying to stop herself from lashing out again.

The sound of something impacting the cement made her think she had lost that battle. Until she heard a loud, dangerous growl that was distinctly canine.

She barely managed to squeeze an eye open. When she did, she caught sight of Cyake, just feet away from her and frozen in place. He was facing the wall. In profile, she could see his head thrown back, his enlarged, vicious teeth bared.

Fucking hell. Those canines. If she didn’t know any better she’d say he was reacting to his mate.

But he didn’t have one. She knew that.

She shared a WTF look with Dimithinia before turning back to observe what seemed to be a rabid god. Cy’s gaze was locked with the ceiling and his large ribcage pumped up and down with each hard breath. Up and down until Eve was sure he was going to hyperventilate.

Another unholy growl left him.

He lowered his head, rotating his neck slowly. When Evesse saw his expression, she actually moved back into the wall, scared. His golden eyes were enlarged, everything about them twice as big as usual. He looked like he was in the grips of something unnatural, even for a being like him. He seemed
possessed
.

Evesse shifted until she could see around the wall, wondering what the hell he was staring at with those huge eyes.

Uh . . . Spari?
Was he staring at
Spari
like that?

Cyake took off, running so fast he flew by in a blur. Eve heard him break the sound barrier, and before she could blink, he was in front of Nylicia’s human sister, grabbing her by the arms. He lifted the stunned-speechless girl off her feet, flipped her around, and in a flash had her pressed against the wall.

Spari was tiny compared to him. Her feet were left dangling in the air as he lifted her to his height. Cy got all up in her grill, baring those huge teeth and giving her a beastly growl.

“
You
.” He shoved his thigh between her legs, pressing every inch of himself on Spari without bothering to ask her consent. It was like he wanted to rub himself all over her and mark her with his scent. “It’s you. You’re the one.”

Spari gaped at Cy, fear in her eyes.

Cyake was oblivious, breathing so hard between growls that he sounded asthmatic. He let go of Spari’s arms, and shoved his hands through her hair. Fisting it, he tilted her head back. Brought her closer. His eyes grew heavy lidded and he leaned in to scent her. One long sniff across her cheek.

Spari gave a little gasp.

“You,” Cy repeated, pulling back. “You will be mine.” His eyes had gone metallic blue, so blue that they gave off a matching glow against Spari’s face.

Her next gasp was so loud that it echoed in the parking lot.

“My . . . my
R’ma
.” Cyake grunted, pulling her closer—pressing his nose up against her cheek and breathing her in hard. “My mate.”

“N—no,” Spari whimpered, staring unblinking over his shoulder.

“
Yeesss
.” He locked eyes with her, pressing his forehead to hers. “You
will
be mine.”

A dam seemed to break inside Spari. The scream that she let loose had Evesse cringing and covering her ears. In a rage, Spari began kicking at Cy, beating on him with her fists.

She didn’t stop screaming or beating on him even when her hands broke. Evesse heard the bones snap all the way across the parking lot.

“Cyake!” Ismini cried, letting go of the wall and running toward him.

Dyletri and Ianthen came running around a corner on the other side, both of them crying out his name, too.

Holy shit. Mother of all complications. Evesse was pretty God damned sure that Cy had just gone all God of Prophecy with the whole “you shall be mine” bit. She had no idea whether they even knew each other before this, but he had probably just sealed both his and Spari’s fates.

Fuck.

Double fuck.

“You gotta let her go, dude!”

Cyake swiveled his head around and growled at Ianthen like he had every intention of biting his freaking arm off. Ismini and Dyletri skidded to a halt, eyes wide as they took in Cyake’s expression.

It was like some sick soap opera unfolding right before her. Hell, it had even managed to distract Evesse from the bullshit going on within her.

Until Zen appeared out of thin air and fell to his knees next to her.

“Evesse.”

She jerked, that miserable fire sparking back to life inside her. As soon as he reached out for her, the retching came back harder than ever.

“Evesse.”

“Don’t touch me.”
Don’t pay attention to the tone of his voice. It doesn’t matter!

Coughing and spewing blood she shouldn’t have anymore, she fell to her side.

Cyake growled and shouted. Ianthen and Dyletri shouted back at him as they pulled him away from Spari. Spari sobbed so hard that Eve sympathized with her.

Ismini looked at the chaos around her helplessly before her gaze settled on Evesse.

Her eyes narrowed. In a flash, Ismini was in front of them. “Evesse!”

Zeniel pulled Eve into his arms.

“Let GO of me.” Evesse groaned, lashing out. Her fist connected with his head.

Zen grunted, but didn’t let her go. After that, the last of Eve’s strength seeped out, taking most of her consciousness with it.

Ismini glared at Zen accusingly. “What’s wrong with her? What the fuck did you do?”

Evesse was too weak to fight Zeniel, even though the feel of his body was doing nothing to soothe her. Just smelling and feeling him against her unleashed a headache so intense that her entire back arched in a spasm. What felt like a thousand knives seemed to slice into her brain, then cleave down the length of her spine.

“Evesse, baby—”

“Don’t you call me that.”

“I’m taking her,” Zen said, standing with her in his arms. She was shaking, hard, but not so hard that she didn’t feel
him
shaking, too.

Fuck, she was so enraged at him she wanted to
bite
his skin off but she couldn’t move enough to do so. Between the tremors, and the migraine eating away at her brain tissue, she could barely stay awake.

“Zeniel, wait,” Ismini said.

He didn’t wait to see what else she had to say. He dematerialized with Eve, taking her away from the parking lot as the sound of sirens blended with Spari’s cries.

Before she even got a chance to feel them travel, they came to a stop.

They were back in the bedroom where Zen had taken her virginity. Thinking about him fucking her, though, only served to bring back more images of him fucking the blond.

“You stupid fucking asshole. Let me go.”

If only she had the strength to back up that demand and force him to.

He inhaled sharply, probably at the fact that she was really cursing him out now.

She
so
didn’t care if he was offended. “Let me go!”

“Evesse, please. I’m sorry.” He pressed his cheek against hers. His warmth shot through her.

Yearning and hate twisted gleefully in her gut, making her whimper. “Don’t touch me!” She pressed a hand against his neck, pushing back. Not that it did any good. “Let go!”

“Eve—”

“I fucking see you with her!” she shrieked, sobbing anew. She had no clue how she would stop the images, but she did know that he couldn’t touch her until then. Feeling him was making it worse.

Zen froze.

“
Now
! Let me go now, damn you to hell!”

His arms slackened.

She all but spilled out of them, landing hard on the floor.

He made a low, rough sound, taking a step toward her with the clear intention of lifting her back up.

Eve scrambled across the floor, nearly blind. She didn’t stop until she hit the wall, literally. Zen took another step and she almost howled with frustration.

“Stay away from me!” Clutching her head was doing nothing but giving her something to hold on to. “P—please.” The fact that she had to beg him right then was all wrong. It rubbed against her like granite grating on a wound. “Please, stay back.”

There was a short pause and then . . . gods, he fell to his knees in front of her.

She squeezed her eyes shut, desperate to block out the visual. A tiny part of her felt bad. She could feel his own pain coming off him in dark waves. He wasn’t as sick as she was, but he was still affected.

Probably because he’d let that bitch kiss him.

“Why?” she whispered, pissed off when she felt the tears get worse. “Why’d you let her touch you?”

“Eve . . .”

She didn’t hear what else he said. Bringing her knees up to her chest, she tried to lose her face between them. Blood was trickling out of the corners of her mouth. Freaky. Downright wrong. Not for the first time, she really fucking wished that she hadn’t been mated. Being in love was hard enough, but adding this fucked-up shit to it?

Again,
wrong.

Zeniel inhaled sharply. “We are . . . we aren’t wrong, you hear me?”

Had she spoken out loud? Fuck, had she said that she loved him?

“It was an accident. She caught me off guard because—”

She didn’t look up at him. She continued rocking back and forth, as if that would help. “Why?” she gritted out. “How the hell did she catch you off guard? Why?”

“She . . . I felt guilty. I was going to have to tell her that I was mated to you, and I felt bad because I thought it would break her heart.”

The mother of all pathetic, pleading sounds left Eve’s lips as her own heart broke. She didn’t know why. Okay, she did, but she could only blame the
R’mannev
for how she was feeling. Because it wasn’t logical. Hearing that he’d felt bad about telling another female that he was mated to her had Eve ready to kill something.