Page 54 of Grave Devil
Aries nods. “I know, baby girl.” She mewls against his chest, falling under his carnal spell. He growls into her ear, “And I know how much they turn you on.”
Fucking hell. The heat is so thick in here you could bottle our sweat and sell it for pheromones.
Nox snatches her back with his tail, a quick lash that winds around her waist faster than the blink of an eye. Aries chuckles as his little lamb’s attention is taken off him and put onto her nightmare man.
It’s quite the dance to watch.
“My love, promise me you’ll be careful tonight.” His concern stretches farther than any of us could even comprehend. They have been together their entire lives. He wouldn’t hesitate to kill for her. Even kill one of us if we ever posed a real threat to her. The fact that she’s asked him to stay behind is breaking him. But he will obey her. He always has.
I can’t say that I would. I’m too selfish. I’m more likely to throw her over my shoulder, kicking and screaming, if I thought it was for her own good. But Nox is like a soldier. He falls in line for her without question. He trusts her in a way that we don’t. For when her life ends, as does his. Although, I can’t imagine going on without her either.
While we have all become quite close, a part of me feels like I’m intruding on them sometimes… But then they both remind me that it’s not the case. My own dark abyss is a nasty enemy. No one could loathe me as much as I loathe myself sometimes.
Mia loops her fingers through his thick black locks. “I will. I promise. Once I confirm that it’s really Sonny, then we can find out what he wants.”
“He wantsyou, Mia,” Nox growls.
Bones’s hard-as-steel expression returns. He fists his hands at his sides. “If my baby brother expects me to share my girl with him, there’s gonna have to be some ground rules laid out.”
I throw Aries a look. He nods and pats his vest. Keeping this from Bones makes my stomach turn. But we can’t be sure that he’ll agree to us pumping Sonny full of poison. Especially since that’s the reason Bones took his eyes off him to begin with, all those years ago.
It’s not enough to hurt him. I’d hurt myself before I ever harmed a hair on Sonny Crane’s head. We just need him sedated so we can get him away from the Wishing Tree and the woods. Bones has no idea how deadly he is. And I doubt he’s going to come willingly. We’ll beg for forgiveness later. Again, another reminder of how different Nox and I are.
And yet we both love Mia like an obsession. We’ve grown to love each other too. And that filthy tail between his legs… Fucking hell. I welcome his eyes on me, transfixed by their radiance. Knowingly, he stalks over to me and winds that very tail around my thigh. “Take care of her, Draven. And I will reward you in ways you never could imagine.”
I draw in a sharp breath as his tail climbs higher, teasing the crook of where my hip meets my pelvis.
He leans in and licks my jaw with his forked tongue. “If anything happens to her… I can also hurt you in ways you could never imagine.”
His threat makes my cock harder than his promise. “Don’t make me hide her just to get a rise out of you, Nox. You know how much I crave the pain.”
He groans. “I have one of those annoying portable telephones you all can’t seem to part with. Send me an electronic letter if anything goes wrong and I’ll come to you quickly.”
Aries snickers. “Yes, if something happens, we’lltextyou.”
“I’m dead fucking serious, Aries Thorn.”
He lets out a low whistle as he rubs up against him. “I always know I’m in trouble when you use my full name. It’s hot as fuck.”
Nox groans again. “For the love of the ravens, someone make him stop.”
Mia drags Aries away. “All right. Enough before he strangles you to death.”
“Shall we?” I ask the group. The sky is changing colors, going from light blue to dark with just a smidgen of pinkish-orange hues disappearing into the horizon. In the distance, the drums beat, echoing through Ever Graves as they have done on a thousand Wild Hunts before.
Before we pack into the limousine, Aries places a crown of flowers and antlers on top of Mia’s head. Except hers are special. Sacred. White like the stags of old. She wears it well. Our dark queen about to go catch herself a Skelker.
Let’s just hope he doesn’t catch her first. Because I don’t really fucking know who’s hunting who tonight.
MIA
Your bones are my bones. Your blood is my blood. And I will be inside you very soon…
His whispers are light as a feather, soft against my skin. So faint I almost don’t make out the words. I have to hold my own breath to focus. But he repeats it. He coos it into my ear like a lullaby. Though there’s nothing tender or sweet about it. It’s a promise of pain and carnal deviancy.The exact kind that stirs a yearning between my legs.Because we hunt each other tonight. And whoever claims who first will have all the control.
We are deep in these woods, close to the Wishing Tree, but far past the Circle. The Skelker chants low in my ears, his voice humming with need and thirst. It thrums in my veins, in my head, on repeat. It follows me, reverberating through me with each step I take.
The plan is to draw him out, using me as bait, then take him back from the devil. But there’s a chill in my bones that the flames dancing in front of me can’t cure. I haven’t felt this uneasy since I was sleeping on the streets of Raven’s Gate, wondering if I would make it through the night.
