Page 25 of Grave Devil
Bones is still shouting in the kitchen when I pour myself a second whiskey. Everything feels wrong. Distorted. I pull back the blanket to see the last of the Skelker’s marks fade. Or did they just retreat under my skin? Maybe they are like tattoos that I can’t see untilheinvokes them.
“I’m going to take you home. Draven and Aries will meet us there shortly. Where are your clothes, mi amor?” Bones scans the room to no avail.
I shake my head. “No fucking clue. Maybe in my car? I vaguely remember driving over here.”
He nods. “You can wear something of mine.”
I let him help me into a pair of his gray gym shorts, which hang down past my knees, and one of his signature white cotton muscle tees. Since there’s no way I’ll be able to walk in any pairof his size thirteen shoes, I double up on a couple of pairs of his socks, then let him carry me over the gravel to his car.
“I can drive.”
He snaps his head toward me, his expression hard. “No. We’ll get your car later. The last thing I need is for this fucking demon to attack you again while you’re at the wheel.”
I nod and concede. This is exactly why I’ve been keeping the Skelker a secret from them. I can kiss my freedom goodbye from now on because there’s no fucking way they are going to let me out of their sight for a second.
As endearing as that is, it’s also a noose around my neck. Awake or asleep, I can’t ever fucking escape. The poison is the only thing that can keep the dark things at bay. If I can just convince Aries to give me more…
NOX
The front porch is the farthest I can go. Then something in my head keeps me planted. It’s a voiceless command. A feeling. It started around the same time that Mia began acting strangely. So I stand watch for them, my clawed fingers resting atop the iron railing.
The flaked rust dusts my skin like chipped paint. I make a mental note to move the porch repairs higher on our list. Harker Mansion is old and has been neglected for far too long. There is much to do, but lately, other matters have taken precedence.
She doesn’t think I know what she’s doing with Aries in the guest house. That she’s self-medicating with copious amounts of poison. I’ve never been one to tell her what to do. She’s a grown woman. But she’s also reckless. Like last year, when she set the baneberry fields on fire and almost died. I was furious with her for taking such risks with her own life.
But I’m not her keeper. Not anymore and certainly not in the way I used to be. I’m no longer inside her dreams. I live and breathe and exist the same as they do. This… untethering… it has made it far more difficult for me to know what she’s going to do and impossible to know what she’s thinking.
But tonight I sensed something for the first time. And it wasn’t Mia. I feel the pull of the willowy branches of the Wishing Tree, its dark embrace, beckoning to me. Calling me home. For I am made of whatever it is made of. And judging by the amount of recreational poison she’s been consuming and the darkened shadows under Draven’s eyes, I can only assume they’ve felt the pull as well.
The glint of the sun off chrome rims casts a spark in my vision. The monstrous exhaust roars through the thick iron gates of Harker Mansion, leaving a trail of thick smoke in its wake. Oh, how Bones loves his shiny, loud things.
They are all so different from each other and yet they’re cut from the same luxurious cloth. While Aries is flashy, even gaudy at times. He’s big, demonstrative, oozing with charm and decadence like a sultry Melancholia evening. Then there’s Draven with his dark elegance like smooth gin, vanilla smoke, and polished leather; a storm that is always brewing but doesn’t quite develop.
But not Bones. He is blood and sweat and motor oil, salt and stone, and pure primal energy. I’ve seen him be gentle only with his siblings. And with Mia.
I can only imagine what they think of me, with my slithering tail and black horns. I see how their eyes flicker when I lick my lips, revealing, as if for the first time, my forked tongue. And on the carnal nights, or the aching mornings, when they discover my cocks again, their hearts hammering as they feast their gazes upon my hard ridges and black veins. The way they salivate for me anew. And I for them. It has been exquisite. But I fear the fun may be coming to an end. At least for a little while.
My heart swells when I can finally see for myself that my Mia is in one piece. Unharmed at first glance, but her eyes tell a different story. She hops out of Bones’s car on a mission.
“Mi amor, wait, let me carry you to the porch.” Bones darts around the car, but he’s too late. She’s already on the move, beelining toward me and the gargantuan house that glares at my back.
“It’s fine. I’m perfectly capable of walking a few feet in the dirt without shoes,” she huffs out.
A patch of her leg is visible between Bones’s gym shorts and the socks that she is swimming in. The last traces of shadows are almost gone, but I can see beneath the flesh a bit. They are simmering below. The same goes for her pale arms. She wears his marks like invisible tattoos.
I grab her elbow as she tries to barrel past me. “Wait. Come here.”
She grunts when I jerk her back and wrap my tail around her waist, holding her firmly to me. I ignore my immediate erections and try to get a good look at her. Burying my two thick cocks inside her would help both of us feel better,and we certainly will be doing that soon, but I need to know she’s all right first.
Her eyes go glassy as she cranes her neck to look at me. “I need to shower… to wash it off me.”
I nod but don’t let go. I cradle her face between my palms. “Was it a Skelker?”
She gasps, her eyes wide and pupils dilated. “Shhh. He’ll hear you. Don’t call him back. Not tonight. I’m so tired, Nox.”
I release a deep sigh.
“What the fuck is a Skelker?” Bones demands. I was so focused on Mia, I’d forgotten he was lingering behind her, watching us.
