Devour, A Paranormal Romance (Warm Delicacy Series, Book 3) (38 page)

“No,” I squared my shoulders, pulling myself up to my full height.

“No?” He rounded on me.

“No,” I repeated.

“I think you’re missing the point here. I give you something you want, and you give me something I want, but I do love your arrogance. Standing up to me when you have no hope of winning. It’s very
appealing
,” his last word slithered from his lips.

“What do you want then? Naos? Titan? Noire? You’ve made it clear you take what you want. What do you need me for? Do as you must, but just know that in the end you’ll suffer for what you’ve done.”

“You’re right. I
do
take what I want, and I will. I simply thought things would go much more smoothly if you were willing.”

“Willing?” The word sent a chill up my spine.

“A creature such as yourself is
very
rare. Imagine the power we could wield together! With you as my queen we could rule forever!”

“You want me to come with you?” I couldn’t keep the disgust from my voice. I’d rather die a thousand deaths than stand by his side one second.

Suddenly, he clamped his hands around me, pulling me to him. His lips crushed mine with incredible force, as his cold sandpaper flesh scraped against my chin. I jerked against his body, squeezing my lips shut and refusing him entry.

Fighting him only made him strengthen his efforts. His grip tightened around me as he plucked me from the ground, forcing my body to press up against his chest. The sensation of his muscles touching me made me want to vomit. Crumbling under his formidable strength, his tongue breeched my lips, sliding into my mouth like a serpent. I jerked back, choking on the putrid taste of him.

For a moment I thought I was going to throw up, I could feel the urge coiling inside me, but then another sensation began to blossom, distracting me from the taste of decaying flesh that was assaulting my mouth. The stones that were hidden under my shirt started to burn, and I knew what I had to do. Maybe it was the stones showing me the way, or maybe it was a last ditch effort to fight, but I had to give it a try.

Going against every fiber of my being, I wiggled in Baal’s embrace. My tense muscles relaxed, and I clenched my eyes shut as I allowed my tongue to mingle with his. My acceptance made him shudder, pulling me tighter against him and groaning his pleasure. I snaked one arm free, feigning to rub it along his bulging chest until sneaking it into my shirt. Grabbing the stones, I noticed they felt different. They were no longer, smooth or round, but long. Under my fingertips it felt sharp as if it had morphed into a jagged crystal.

I closed my fingers around one of the transformed stones, yanking it off the chain around my neck. With my lips still locked in the fetid kiss of my greatest enemy, I stabbed the edge of the stone into his chest.

Baal was the one to jerk back this time. He shoved me off him, and stared at the stone that was sticking out of his chest. The skin around it was branching out like spider-webs of burgundy and black with incredible speed as a tendril of black smoke curled up from the stone.

A blood-curdling scream tore through the throne room. For a moment I thought it came from someone inside, that the minions or Baal’s dark vampires had decided to restart the battle, but it hadn’t. The scream had come from Baal, or rather, the stone in his chest.

“What have you done?”
his words were full of venom and fear as he plucked the stone out of chest like a festering thorn.

The scream shrieked even louder, black smoke falling from the wound down to his feet before dying away. I watched in awe as he dropped it, allowing it to clatter around his feet. The obsidian color of the stone was completely gone, leaving a crystal clear shard in its wake.

I drew my eyes back to his chest. The wound wasn’t healing. In fact, the web of burgundy black covered the entirety of the right side of his chest, oozing out and dripping down from the wound in thick globules.

He stepped further away from me, wiping at the wound as if he could smear it away, as if clawing at his own flesh like a rabid animal could somehow halt the advance of whatever was consuming him. He retreated into the crowd of minions behind him, and they huddled around, worry painting their faces.

It all seemed unreal as I watched him begin to panic. Had I truly managed to harm him, or was I just imagining it? The throbbing heat from the rest of the stones I carried told me it was real. A wave of relief washed over me, but not just because I had found a way to hurt him, but because the relief wasn’t my own. I knew, without the shadow of a doubt that I
had
released the soul that had been trapped in that stone. Somehow, someway, attacking Baal with it had fractured the magic that had encased the soul inside.

I’d wanted a way to defeat Baal, and I’d also hoped I could someday find a way to save the tortured souls he’d trapped. I never would have imagined that the two could be connected.

Pulling the remaining stones from the chains around my neck, I fisted two in my hands as I marched over to Baal. His minions were attempting to heal him, offering him their bare wrists to feed from but I wasn’t going to give him the chance to regenerate. I had three stones left, and I was going to make them count. He clamped onto their wrists, as vibrant crimson dripped from his lips. His minion cried out as he drank, until he threw their arm away and latched onto another. He’d devoured three and still he wasn’t healing.

Barreling my way through the small group of minions, I snatched as many stones as I could reach from around me. They cried out in protest, but Baal ignored them giving me the chance to crash forward. I had a stone in each fist. They began to burn and contort in my hands, changing into shards as I descended them toward his chest. As if they were daggers, I plunged them into his body without hesitation.

Instantly, webs crawled across his flesh faster than Baal could tear out the stones. A scream full of misery and anger exploded from each stone. They were finally free, and I prayed that whatever might be left of that soul could finally find peace.

His minions tried shoving me away, but I wouldn’t let them. With every one that closed their fingers around my arms to stop me, I pulled the chain from their neck and rammed it into Baal’s body. Screams burst forth one after another. I almost hesitated from simple shock that he wasn’t fighting me, but the horrified yet vacant look on his face told me that whatever was happening to his body on the outside; was even worse on the inside. His eyes were flooding with scarlet, the limitless black pools draining away.

Soon his gathering of minions had crumbled to a puddle of whimpering vampires, completely distraught by the loss of their stones. It was strange how the power of the stones worked on them, making them attached at an alarming level. I didn’t know how it worked, but I was just glad that didn’t happen to me. Maybe they were each connected to the stones like Ana was. Maybe they knew the souls that were inside. It almost made me feel sorry for them.

I stepped away, turning to face the crowd behind me as the sounds of scuffling broke through the fading scream of the last stone. When I’d destroyed the stones near Baal, it had lessened the effects on those who had a small level of protection. Rennek had gathered himself, and those he’d managed to help get stones. They’d seen what I had done and were gathering stones themselves and running toward Baal to destroy them once and for all. The hooded figures weren’t putting up much of a fight anymore, even with the stones. I guessed seeing their master lying helpless on the floor made them lose their nerve.

Several of the dark vampires were still fighting, but most were fleeing; running through the open throne room doors as fast as they could. Eli, his daughter, and several of Titan’s army gave chase, and I knew they wouldn’t get far.

Letting Rennek lead the group to destroy the rest of the stones, I ran for my father. He was lying unconscious on the platform, his arm hanging over the side. One of Titan’s guards caught my attention and I waved him to me. Latched onto his belt was the small animal skin of blood laced with wine. It wasn’t much, but it would help my father heal a little. I seized the canteen from him, before sending him to check on Arrick for me.

I poured the blood into my father’s mouth, coaxing his throat to help him swallow. His eyes fluttered open, and I clutched his hand to let him know I was by his side. He tried to talk but I shushed him. Everything would be explained later, now he just needed to heal.

“Is he okay?” Arrick asked, coming to my side. The right side of his face was swollen and bruised, and blood was streaming down all the way to his neck.

“I think so.”

“What happened?” He tried looking toward the crowd of guards gathering around Baal.

“It’s a long story,” I told him. “Keep an eye on him for me.” Arrick nodded and I got up, making my way toward Baal.

The sight before me was almost more disgusting than Baal kissing me. His body had turned completely black, smoke wafting off him like he was a dying ember. His flesh had sunken down to his bones, making him look like a fleshy skeleton. Rennek had lining up behind Baal. He looked dead, but his chest was still rising and falling.

“What should we do with him?” Bennett asked, kicking the remains of Baal’s foot.

“I know not,” Rennek answered. “We’ve destroyed all the remaining stones.” He gestured to the pile of stones beside Baal. They’d fallen of their own accord, no longer having enough flesh to keep them in place. Each of them had lost the murky blackness that was once the trapped soul inside, leaving them clear and sparkling like diamond shards.

I stepped closer, empty stones cracking under my feet like glass. What should we do with him? We didn’t really have a choice; he had to die. In a way it felt wrong killing a creature that was lying helplessly before us, but he wouldn’t have shown us the same mercy. Letting him live would only give him the chance to escape. I wouldn’t let that happen.

Bennett held a blade in his hand and I gestured for him to hand it to me, but to my surprise there was one stone still dangling from my hand. I’d thought I had destroyed them all, but I was clutching onto it with a grip so tight my knuckles were white. Prying my fingers open I glanced at the stone and then at Baal. His eyes were fluttering around, but he wasn’t registering anything that was going on.

I lifted the stone, readying to slam it into Baal but it wasn’t changing like the others. This was the last and final soul, after this they’d all be free and Baal would finally be dead once and for all. A gust of wind flew past me and the stone was yanked from my grasp.

“What the…”

Ana had blown by, coming to a stop just an arm’s length from Baal. “I won’t let you destroy it,” she growled.

“Are you crazy? This could all be over!” I shouted, stepping closer to her. “If we let him live he’ll kill us all, Ana. You might think he’ll let you live, but he won’t. And he won’t bring Luka back either!”

“It’ll never be over! We’ll make you pay for what you’ve done,” she shrieked, a portal exploding open behind her.

“We?” I looked to her, and then to Baal. How could he possibly help her? His body was nothing but a smoldering husk.

The guards around Baal readied their weapons, unsure if they should continue guarding Baal or go after Ana. I raised my hand to halt them. I didn’t want her getting away with that stone.

Her eyes skewered me with unyielding hatred, as she looped the chain around her neck. She rubbed her fingers lovingly against the stone, and that’s when I knew what she meant.
That
stone held Luka’s soul. Of all the stone’s that had been destroyed, how could his be the only one that survived? We hadn’t been sure if his soul was truly inside, but now I had no doubts. Maybe he’d even used some kind of hold over me to keep me clutching on to him until Ana arrived. Either way, this could be very bad.

My eyes grew wide, and I jumped forward to stop her but she was too quick. Keeping her eyes locked onto mine, she fell backward; falling into the darkness of the portal. An eerie cackle burst from the portal.

“Claire, no!” Bennett screamed, snagging me by the ankle as I attempted to dive through the portal after her.

“Let! Me! Go!” I tugged on my leg to get away from him, but suddenly there were several hands on me, pulling me away from the portal. “What the hell are you doing? We can stop her!”

“It’s over, Claire. It’s over,” Bennett repeated, pointing his finger to where Baal was lying. I turned my head to find he had vanished. There was nothing left but a pile of black ash atop broken crystals. I should have been rejoicing, cheering our victory but all I could focus on was that last stone.

The one that got away.

“She got away with the last stone,” I told Arrick, as he strode forward with my father under his arm.

“Don’t worry about her. She can’t do anything to us.”

“But…” He might have been right, but it worried me to know she could be hiding anywhere with dark magic. In truth, we didn’t really know what she could do. There had been a time when I’d almost felt sorry for her, but that time was gone. We’d underestimated Ana. We’d thought she was just one of Baal’s servants, but her hatred for me could be all the power she’d ever need.

“Is it over?” Robin asked, shuffling up behind me as Dmitry sheltered her under his arm.

“It’s over,” Dmitry answered, taking in the mound of ash where Baal had lain.

“Is everyone okay?” my mother asked with authority as she strode into the room, followed by a few snake guard who looked like they’d gotten into a fight with a pack of wolves. They were each carrying larges boxes.

“Mother!” I looped my hands around her waist happy to see she looked completely unscathed. Arrick and the guard had done well. I was so grateful to see she’d been protected.

She kissed the top of my head, before holding me at arm’s length to survey my injuries. “You’re hurt.”

I shrugged off her worry, there were those injured worse than I was. “I’ll be fine, but father and Titan have been seriously injured.”

“Bennett!” my mother called out his name, making him snap to attention. “Attend to Cathair and Titan. Nicolae has brought supplies.”