Bonds of Fire: The Bellum Sisters 2 (paranormal erotic romance) (33 page)

“She’s at home. I’m sure she’ll be excited to see you both,” he said.

“Why isn’t she here with us?” Lily said softly.

Lyonis looked sharply at her. For once the youngest Bellum sister wasn’t bouncing in her seat or vying for the demon Telal’s attention. A soft frown pulled at her mouth as she sat there quietly.

“She’s with child. I’ve asked her to stay at home to rest.” Inwardly he flinched at the lie.

The Bellum sister’s exchanged jaw-dropping gapes then leapt to a stand at the same time.

“A baby!” Lily said with astonishment.

“A baby!” Chloe said threateningly.

“Yes, a baby. I’m sure she’ll tell you all about it. We’re mated now.”

I’m sure she’ll tell you that I ordered her at home. He had a brief flare of panic that he quickly quelled. She wouldn’t escape him; she wouldn’t be leaving with her sisters. He wouldn’t allow it.

Telal leaned back casually but his words were anything but. “I hope you didn’t send for me to talk about throwing you a bachelor party.”

Lyonis didn’t laugh. “We’ve had two incidents,” he began then related the missing occurrences of Stephanie and Danny to them. By time he was finished the room sat in silence.

“Well the demon’s using them to get to Willow,” Lily said simply.

“What are you talking about? Since Stephanie’s been back her parents say she’s been back to normal. Doesn’t even remember her whereabouts of that night.”

Lily nodded then said, “Sure but then she met with Willow in the bathroom and the demon showed itself.” She said the words as easily as if she were reciting her favorite colors.

Lyonis leaned forward in his seat, blood beginning to boil. “What are you talking about?”

All eyes turned to her. She only shrugged. “I had a dream of a young girl standing before Willow in a bathroom. The girl wasn’t herself though. The words she spoke were demonic.”

Before Lyonis could say anything, Chloe spoke up. “What did it say?”

Lily shrugged. “I don’t know. It was a dream. Things were blurry as they usually are. I didn’t hear any words. Only had impressions of the demon inside the girl. Willow was scared.”

Lyonis’ hands curled into fists. His mate had been scared and he didn’t know about it?

“I haven’t heard anything about this. Why wouldn’t she have told me?” The thought that Stephanie had been walking amongst his pack while a demon possible sat inside her sent his hair standing on end. The thought that she might have gotten close to Willow with that thing inside her nearly sent him into a rage.

“Ask her that,” Lily replied.

“I intend to.”

Telal sighed as if bored. “Again, why did you send for me?”

Lyonis looked Telal and Tyrian in the eye. “I need your help. Something’s coming.”

“Unless you require a load of guns then I’m afraid I can’t help you,” Telal said, coming to a stand.

Lily came to a stand too and walked around to face him. “You can too. You know more about this demon after my sister than anyone here.”

The demon sent her a withering stare. “I already told you everything I know.”

Lily clamped her mouth shut and stared him down with a withering glare. “You’re staying.”

He cocked a condescending brow.

“I’d like the assistance of the Atal Warriors.” It pained Lyonis to say that so much that he couldn’t hide his grimace.

Tyrian readily nodded. “Agreed. I will have them stationed here immediately.”

He answered so readily that Lyonis wasn’t prepared for it. He’d been expecting to coerce the vampire commander into it. The knot in his shoulders eased a fraction.

“You need to keep Stephanie away from Willow. Probably away from the whole pack,” Lily insisted. She hadn’t returned to her seat but stood close to the demon who made a pointed interest in ignoring her.

“I can’t do that. Too many questions will be raised. Her parents will be furious. I can’t betray their trust like that.” He thought about how happy the McLannhan’s were to have their daughter back. No way could he steal their daughter away.

“You have to. The demon’s using her,” Lily said.

“It’s easy to say that but I can’t take the girl away from her family. Hell they’d thought she was dead before!”

“What can we do?” Chloe asked the helpless question. She directed it at Telal. The demon only rolled his eyes and moved away from the youngest sister.

“I should let you all dig yourselves out of your own grave,” he muttered to himself. He turned back around to glare at all of them, especially the sisters. “This is all your fault. Your foolishness has put people in danger.”

“Oh and I thought you didn’t care about anyone but yourself,” Lily said innocently.

The demon took a threatening step towards her then growled and turned away.

“All of my resources have been silent. That tells me something. The demon is keeping quiet, hidden, biding its time.”

“For what?” Lyonis said, afraid of the answer.

“As if I know. The only thing I know is that you can’t let Willow get into Dura’s hands.”

“Why? What would happen?” said Chloe, her features pinched.

“Aside from her death? Dura made a demonic pact, a revargen, with the demon Karr that you ‘killed.’ If she finishes her end of the deal then Karr will be brought back to life again and then there will be two ancient demons to terrorize the world.”

“How are you certain it made the revargen?” Lyonis said.

“Deadly certain. This demon Dura would not be alive if not for Karr resurrecting her. The revargen would ensure that if he died he’d come back. If I had to make a pact, I’d do the same thing.”

“Then why’s it after Willow and not me?” said Chloe.

Telal shrugged. “Each of you casted the spell. Probably in order to gain all of his powers back he’ll need to kill all of you. Or attempt to anyways.”

There was silence for a moment as everyone contemplated the mess they were in.

Then softly Telal looked at Lily and said, “Whether your sister lives or dies, it will not stop until you are dead next. There is a pattern to these attacks. Eldest to youngest.”

Lily grimaced. “Bummer.”

Telal took a threatening step towards her, then another. “Bummer? Your life is in danger and all you have to say is ‘bummer?’”

Her lips curled into a slow smile as she looked up at him. She fluttered her eyelashes at him. “And here I thought you didn’t care about me, Telal.”

His body stiffened then he stepped away from her. “I don’t.” The ice in his voice could freeze the desert. Lily smiled happily as if he’d just said something magical.

“So let me get this straight,” Chloe said, “the demon that was after me, Karr, is dead. Though Telal doesn’t look as though he believes that. Before he died, he made a pact with another dead demon named Dura. What a stupid name that is—

“Chloe,” Tyrian interrupted.

She looked at him. “What? It is. Anyways, so now in order to fulfill her end of the bargain for getting resurrected herself she must kill Willow. Then...Karr will somehow come to life again?” she said unsure. She looked at Telal to fill in the gaps.

He only shrugged. “I have no idea. These are all guesses based off rumors of rumors I’ve heard.”

Lyonis’ harsh voice interrupted him. “That’s not good enough.”

“It will have to be,” Telal said.

“Well I was able to kill Karr with that blade and spell. We’ll do the same and give the stuff to Willow. Whenever the time comes, she’ll be prepared,” Chloe said.

Telal sneered at her. “You think it will be that simple? Already the demon has infiltrated the pack and the girl and boy are merely the only two you know about. It could be controlling dozens and you’d be none the wiser. It’ll watch, plan, then kill her and resurrect Karr again, completing its part of the pact.”

“It does not control my pack,” Lyonis growled.

“That you know of,” Telal said.

Lyonis stood with a roar and launched himself at the demon. Right before he was about to tackle him, Lily stepped between them. The demon was quick though and grabbed her by the waist. Together they disappeared and reappeared in the corner of the room. Telal shoved her behind him and took a hard step forward.

“Your fight isn’t with me, Alpha. But if you wish for a brawl I’ll gladly accept.” His words were as cold and hard as his eyes. The gold of his skin seemed dimmer than it had been a minute ago as if his dark emotions swam through it.

Lyonis collapsed into the chair, the air whooshing out from him on a defeated sigh. He’d almost hit a woman. Shaking his head slowly he said, “I’m sorry. I respect all of your help. Lily, forgive me?”

She peeked around Telal’s body and winked at him. “No biggie.”

Telal’s eye twitched. “I’ve had enough of this.” He disappeared with a quick dissolve.

“Isn’t he dreamy?” Lily sighed wistfully.

Chloe snorted. “If you say so.”

As conversations picked up and plans were made Lyonis sat back in his seat in contemplation. His mate and child were in danger. The Atal Warriors were coming into his pack and he honestly had no idea if he could protect her.

He flinched as he thought about it. Bitterness engulfed him. He’d die before he’d let her go. Lyonis wrapped up the meeting and knew. He had to kill his demon.

Chapter 32

At the sight of her sisters, Willow almost dissolved into another babbling mess of tears. Somehow she managed to force a smile though as she hugged them and led them into the living room. Her sisters refused to sit though, too engulfed in rubbing her belly and gushing.

“A baby, God I can hardly believe it,” Chloe said.

“I know! We’re gonna be Aunts!” Lily squealed.

Willow tried her best to appear excited, happy. It was hard though with the black cloud hanging over her. Lyonis hadn’t returned. She had no idea where he was or what he did but his actions spoke volumes. Finally at about nine o’clock her curiosity got the best of her and she went out front to ask the guard where he was. He’d merely shrugged and said he didn’t know. Great.

When her sister’s finally calmed down they spotted her dark look and frowned.

“What’s wrong?” Chloe said.

They sat on the sofa together and Willow spilled the beans on everything. The pregnancy, the mating, the fight yesterday morning. A part of her yearned to tell her sisters about David so they could truly see why the fight was such a big deal to her, but she couldn’t do it. Her ego refused to suffer the blow of them knowing.

“Oh honey, he’ll come around. He’s just worried about you,” Chloe said.

Willow scoffed then laughed bitterly. “So he forces me to stay in this house? I tried to leave and the guards actually blocked me off, said they had the right to use force to keep me in here if necessary. What kind of relationship is that?”

“You love him,” Lily stated.

Willow felt her cheeks flush and tried her best to force it away. “Maybe,” she grumbled.

“He loves you too. I’m sure he’ll come around,” Chloe said confidently.

“You don’t know that.”

Both of her sisters turned to give her a hard stare.

“That man is so toe up for you he was about to start a fight with Telal, Willow. He loves you,” Lily said.

“Telal? When did he see Telal? I thought you guys just came to see me.”

Chloe shook her head. “Lyonis called us in. Tyrian and the whole gang including Telal came to discuss the demon.”

“And I wasn’t invited,” Willow said coldly.

The sister’s grimaced. “We believe that the demon after you is trying to kill you in order to satisfy her end of the demonic pact she made with Karr.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

The sisters shared a glance. Chloe said, “Telal believes that if he does succeed in killing you, which he won’t, then Karr will be resurrected.”

“And if he doesn’t kill me?”

“Then its end of the bargain will be unfulfilled and it will go back from where it came,” Lily said.

“How do you know that?” said Willow.

“Because I did my research. When a revargen isn’t kept then things resort back to where they were. Dura the demon will go back to its magical shell.”

“Have you had any dreams about this,” Willow asked, unable to mask the hope in her voice. Her sister shook her head grimly.

“But I did have a dream about you and that girl in the bathroom. The demon spoke to you didn’t it?”

Willow nodded as she remembered that moment; it sent cold chills down her body. “She said that I’ll die next and the baby will become a demon.”

“Have you told Lyonis?” Chloe said. She ran an agitated hand through her hair that only made the thick mass knotted.

“How could I? I didn’t know if he’d think I was nuts. I don’t want Stephanie to get into any trouble. I didn’t know what to do.” Admitting she didn’t know was as painful as having her teeth pulled, one by one.