Embrace the Desire (21 page)

Chanta barely heard his words as he walked to her room. She screamed as he laid her on the bed, every touch, every slight brush of air felt like someone was ripping her skin from her body.

Anger flooded her heart and she kicked his stomach as he reached for her hands. He flew backwards and landed against the dresser. He grunted but kept calm as she twisted to her side and begged him to make it stop.

“Stay with me, Chanta. Focus on my voice. Hear me.”

Payne pulled his black leather trench coat off and threw it on top of the black dress on the floor. He pulled his scimitars from his back and hung the sheaths over the mirror on the dresser. He watched her as she twisted and curled on the bed. She was in a great deal of pain, but he knew it was going to get worse.

He slowly unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it from his leather pants. Chanta took him in. His mark, his tattoos, ran up both arms and across his broad shoulders. Skulls, bones, faces of demons and black serpents riddled his back and arms. They all were covered in red flames and seemed to be screaming. In the center of his shoulder blades was a deep scar from his childhood, a five star pendent had been painstakingly carved into his flesh with fire.

“I'm right here, Chanta. You're not alone in this. That's it, keep listening to my voice.”

Chanta sat up as Payne sat down on the edge of the bed. Her canine teeth lengthened as Payne reached for her hand. She reached up to her mouth and her eyes widened in disbelief as the pain eased. Her stomach was still on fire but her body calmed.

“What . . . .how . . . why?” she shook her head. “I'm not a vampire, why do I have fangs?”

Payne caressed her wrist with his thumb as he tucked a stray strand of her hair behind her ear. “When a female goes through the Burning, she transforms into her true form. This is yours.”

“I have fangs.”

He nodded as he continued rubbing her wrist. “Every member of the One Race has a true form and everyone is different. You're part god and part angel. And the fangs, they have a use when the time comes. The pain has eased?”

“Yes . . . but my stomach . . . ”

“Your blood has pooled into your stomach and soon it will need to be released.”

“Released?” She cried as her hands flew to the pain that stirred inside of her belly.

Payne bared his teeth and they slid down over his bottom lip. “This is how I am going to help you.”

“What are you going to do to me?”

He pulled her into his arms and gathered her hair from her neck. “I'm going to take your blood and rid it of the impurities. You will no longer be human, you will become immortal.”

Chanta grabbed his forearms and cried harder. “Are you a vampire?”

“No. Vampires aren't the only beings that have fangs. As a matter of fact all the members of the One Race have fangs.”

“What if I don't want this? What if I . . . ”

“If you refuse to let me, you will die.” His eyes softened. “I don't want you to die, Chanta, I have just met you. I seem to have taken a liking to you.”

Chanta pulled away and searched his eyes. “Why?”

Payne ran his hand down her cheek. “I expected you to be like your father. Imagined later that you would be like your brother, but you're not, you're so much more.”

“I was adopted,” she whispered as she took Payne's hand in hers. “I didn't know I had a brother and I didn't know Gyth was my father until Varick told me. I never met my mother until today.”

Payne's nostrils flared. Gyth couldn't even raise his own child but then he did have enemies that would have loved to slit her throat in front of him. Gyth had never held her when she had nightmares, had never told her he loved her, had never tucked her in bed at night. At least his father had taken an interest in him, even though it had tormented him and would for all eternity.

“Your father is a god. He had to protect you by not being with you.”

Chanta threw her arms around Payne's neck. “Then he's a fucking bastard for making me go through this!”

Payne grinned. “He is a real piece of work, that's true. That is one thing I am sure of, but Varick and your father sent me here to help you. The Burning isn't something Gyth or anyone else can control.”

Chanta jerked away. “They sent you? The only reason you're here is because Gyth commanded and because Varick made you that promise. You don't really want this, do you? But you'll do it because you want that woman you're in love with.”

Payne gritted his teeth as he watched her face twist in pain but he wasn't going to lie to her. “I was promised one wish for helping you.”

Chanta laughed and it sent a chill up Payne's spine. “Fuck Gyth and fuck you!”

“That's the general idea.”

Chanta slid to the edge of the bed and tried to stand on her unsteady feet. “Go back to your fucking god and tell him he can kiss my cold dead ass!”

Payne grabbed her waist as she sagged into his arms. “I'm afraid I can't do that.”

“I don't want this! I don't want to be the daughter of a god who . . . get your hands off me!” Her voice cracked and her words were more of a growl than a reply.

Payne jerked her around to face him. “You won't die. You're going to let me help you through this!”

“Fuck you! I'll tear your limbs from your body if you dare to help me.” Her voice boomed in his ears and he narrowed his eyes.

“If I have to, I'll do this by force.”

Chanta's cold laugh hit him in the chest. “I can feel the power of him coursing through my veins. Are you sure you want to fight me?”

Payne's lip curled up in a sarcastic smile. “I'm going to let your little sweet ass in on a secret. There is nothing you can throw at me that I cannot withstand.”

Chanta jerked away from his hands and hissed at Payne as her blood thickened in her veins. “Then prepare yourself, Payne!”

“I keep hearing that lately.”

Chanta balled her fists at her sides and the flames on her arms grew and burst out of her skin. She held out her hand and smiled as the flames leapt from her palm and hit Payne in the chest. His feet slid backwards as he grabbed the bedpost to steady himself.

He grinned and rushed her. She fell back onto the bed as Payne grabbed her hands and pulled them over her head. His hair fanned down over her face and she arched up as flames leapt from her feet and traveled up her legs.

His smile widened. “I'm afraid your flame has no effect on me.”

Her eyes softened, her fingers running along his skin. “In case I forget, thanks for this . . . for trying to save me.”

He softly kissed her lips. “You don't have to thank me.”

His body pressed down on hers as her flame completely enveloped him. It felt good, right, and his erection pounded inside of his pants. She fought and twisted underneath him as the fire in her soul roared to life. Payne let her hands go as she screamed and her face revealed the physical and mental torture she was going through.

It was time, but he had to wait for her to acknowledge her need of him. He held her face as the tears of mental stress poured from her eyes. Dropping his empathic shields, he let her emotions and thoughts pour into him.

The anguish of a hundred million human souls filtered through her mind. She witnessed and felt them all at the same time. The One Race souls from the abyss cried out to her and tried to pull hers to their endless torment. She fought and scratched at them as she tried to flee their thoughts, their past, and their tormented futures.

Payne pulled her hair from her neck and whispered into her ear. “Tell me you want this and I will make them go away. I can save you if you'll let me.”

Chanta grabbed his shoulders and screamed, “Payne!”

His name from her lips sent a thousand sparks of fire into his soul. She needed him. Someone needed him and to have her need him was a pleasure that he had never felt.

Payne gently caressed her neck and lightly sucked on her tender flesh. The flames danced out of his way as he bit down and sank his incisors into her throat. Chanta moaned and pulled him closer to her body.

His heart somersaulted. A vision claimed him, one from Chanta. She didn't see him as a demon or a monster, she saw only him. The wall around his heart shattered.

Her anguish diminished as he sucked and her blood rushed from her stomach to her veins. It flooded his mouth and slammed into his stomach where the flame of the Underworld awaited its arrival. He pulled back and sealed the wound with a kiss. She closed her eyes and unconsciousness claimed her.

Flames licked Payne's insides as he pulled himself from Chanta's body. He violently fell backward and landed on his side. The flame inside of him cut through her blood and steam poured from his mouth as he tried to stand. Her blood was strong, stronger than he had expected and her pain was even stronger. He pulled himself to his knees and braced himself against the floor with his hands.

Tremors of pain ran up his back as the blood boiled inside of him. The horns of his demon burst from his forehead as the purple flames leapt from his hands and ran up his arms. He groaned as her memories flooded his mind.

Since her first awakening experience in the womb, she was beautiful. Her childhood spun around his brain as she was passed from one home to the next. The foster parents all thought she was a freak of nature. And they were afraid of her and the uncanny ability that she possessed. But most of all, they were all afraid of what lay behind her odd eyes.

Payne witnessed her teen years and pain fueled his heart as she yearned for comfort, a soft hand, and a tender touch. She had been beaten, hidden, and locked in a closet. And the torments had not ended there. One of her foster fathers had threatened to kill her because she had caught him cheating on his wife.

Her eighteenth birthday flashed in his mind. She was finally free of foster parents and had met a man. Her heartbreak swirled in his mind as two years passed and Payne tried to deny what he was seeing. Damon stood on her steps waiting for her as she locked the door. Chanta was smiling as she threw herself into Damon's arms and kissed him.

Payne wanted to scream, wanted to erase what he was seeing yet he couldn't and it continued. He saw Damon on bended knee, saw the ring that he placed on Chanta's finger. His groan of despair was unheard as he slammed his fists onto the floor cracking the wooden panels.

Her memories swirled, danced, and bled together. Then he saw her again.

Chanta was walking down the dark alley to her new apartment, one she was sharing with Damon. She was happy and carefree as she strolled along. She had gotten a job and things were finally looking up for her. She smiled as the dark clouds passed the moon and closed her eyes as her apartment came into view from the alley.

Payne growled as a man stepped out of the shadows behind her. She screamed as he grabbed her neck and dragged her into the shadows. Payne tried to block the vision and clutched his head as the memory refused to let him go. Payne slammed into the nightstand as Chanta was forced to face the cold block wall.

The attacker ripped her shirt and pulled it from her body. She cried out and tried to twist around to face her attacker, but he punched her in the side and she fell forward. The man used her ripped shirt to blindfold her and tie her hands behind her back.

Payne screamed his outrage as the man slid his hands around her breasts. Not her! Why would Gyth allow her to be defiled? Bastard! He would find him and brutally pull his entrails out as he died! Payne tried to see the man's face and his rage overwhelmed him.

Out of nowhere Damon appeared as the blindfold fell from her eyes. Damon licked his lips as the man stepped back, letting go of Chanta. Her fear escalated. She watched in complete horror as Damon's body shifted, as snakes poured from his fingertips and engulfed her attacker.

“Noooooo! Fucking son of a bitch! Not you!” Payne screamed as he watched Damon turn to her and pull her to her feet.

Damon's fingernails sliced her hair to her shoulders as he spoke. “Fear not, Chanta. You belong to me and no other will ever have you.”

She tried to jerk away, her tears blurring her vision. “What are you?”

Damon laughed. Taking her head into his heads, he let his fangs slide down, his face becoming white and his lips turning black. “I am Damon, Lord of the Underworld. And you Chanta, you belong to me.”

She shook her head violently, begging for him to let her go.

“Tonight, you'll become mine in more ways than you can possibly imagine.”

Damon had touched everything in his life with his disgusting hands, everything! Contempt and disgust for his father fueled his desire to kill him and now his desire soared to the Heavens as Damon pressed his lips against hers. Bile rose up in Payne's throat as Damon forced his snakelike tongue into her mouth.

Payne laughed bitterly as Chanta bit down and Damon's black blood ran down her chin. So, he did bleed! The memory started to fade as he watched Chanta fall to her knees.

He desperately tried to keep it in his mind needing to know what happened.

But the memory disappeared and was replaced with another one, a less frightening one, but no less effective on her soul.

Chanta was with another man in a bed and his thoughts were careening around her mind like metal ping pong balls. Payne wanted to puke as the bile rose up in her throat. He was no virgin to the ways of the perverted, but Chanta felt like she was dirty, unwanted, and being used. She was hurting and she ran from the bed to her car.

The man came after her begging her not to go. Chanta had screamed her disgust at him and accused him of what she had seen in his mind. His anger showed on his face as he slapped her. She grabbed her cheek and cursed him as he grabbed her hands. They fought over her keys in the driveway of his white picket fence house. She bolted down the driveway as he grabbed her hair and jerked her to a stop.