Corrupt Cravings (7 page)

Swallowing hard, Marcella took a deep breath and cleared her throat. “Yes.” The word came out raspy, like she’d stuck her head in a smoke-infested room and decided it was somehow cool to chill out inside for a while. Damn, she’d been stupid.

“Good. I need you well so you can shift in a few hours. Are you still planning to take this trip?”

“Where’s Jason?” The words seemed to get stuck in her throat.

Samael lifted the top part of her body off the bed and handed her a glass of water. While the coolness soothed the burning in her throat, she winced the moment he took it away and laid her back down. The throbbing in her head didn’t seem nearly as bad as before.

“He was pretty upset. I think he went somewhere to think over what happened.”

“But he’s okay, right?”

“As far as I know.”

“Good. Then yes, I leave tonight. Where’s Dominic? I want to see him. I bet he’s pissed, huh?”

Samael laughed. “You have no idea. Give your mate some time to cool off. Tell me what you plan to do with Donavon.”

Marcella couldn’t think. Fuzziness clouded her mind, leaving her grasping for something to say. It didn’t help that the more she stared into Samael’s eyes, the more that annoying feeling came back. “Truthfully, I have no idea. I just thought I would go up there and see what happens.”

Large, blue eyes stared at her widely. “Have you lost your mind? You’re going into a pack of wolves, for Christ’s sake! They’re thugs, literally. I’m talking rap-listening, gun-carrying, tattoo-covered, malt liquor-drinking thugs. And you’re just going to show up in what, a Juicy Couture jumpsuit with a lollypop sticking out of your mouth? Maybe flash him your smile and what, say something along the lines of, ‘Hey, remember me? I’m your long-lost queen. Wanna go grab a beer?’ Give me a break!”

Marcella sat up, regretting it almost instantly. “When have your ever seen me wear anything brand named? Since Gwendolyn’s death, I’ve given up splurging on expensive things like I used to do as a new collector. Clothes don’t mean a damn thing. The people in your life do. I think I’ve learned that the hard way.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just lie back down and get some rest. Once you wake, you’ll be as good as new. Then we’ll discuss more of the genius plan you’ve come up with. You were just going to show up. Holy hell.”

As much as she’d love nothing more than to sit there and argue with him until he turned blue in the face, she couldn’t deny how tired she was. Closing her eyes, the darkness settled over her immediately.

After what only felt like seconds, colors began to blur together as the volume of surrounding noises increased. The sound of fabric rustling brought the dark blue color of a dress into focus. A giggle surrounded her, and she suddenly knew she wasn’t looking at herself, but Marcianna.

“Samael, wait, I must speak with you!”

Firmer, Marcianna’s hand protectively pressed against her flat stomach. Marcella watched, intrigued to see what she was so excited about. The emotions exploding inside of her were obviously a combination of happiness laced with fear, but the excitement was evident.

“What is it, my queen? Have you received the news we’ve been waiting for?”

Samael looked exactly the same, even down to the dark clothes that covered his tall, wide body. This was no suit, but somehow she knew what he wore was equivalent in some way. The only slight difference was that he was clean shaven. Since she’d seen him, he always had a day’s growth on his face.

“No, I have received no news, as of yet. Come, we must speak privately. For I fear if this gets out, we have more to lose than ever.”

They entered a room off of the great hall, a room Marcella had never personally been in. She watched as Marcianna walked over to a window. The smile that crossed her face as she spun toward Samael was contagious. It seemed they were all smiling.

“Marcianna, I haven’t seen you this happy in a long time. Tell me, what makes you so joyful? I must admit, you have me intrigued.”

A blush crossed her cheeks as she looked at the stone-covered floor and then stared back up at the dark angel. “I can hardly believe it myself. Please don’t be upset with me, Samael, but I am to a have a child.”

The floor felt like it fell out from Marcella’s feet, even though she didn’t think she was standing at all. Fear overpowered her, causing a silent scream to come from her mouth. Samael’s face looked just as horror struck. Viscously, she tore into the dream, fighting her way to wake up. A child? Her? Had she been a mother? Why did the thought give her the greatest fear she’d ever known?

Marcella woke up covered in sweat, screaming at the top of her lungs. Faces stared at her, startled, and suddenly everyone was rushing forward.

Dominic made it to her first. “What’s wrong? Talk to me.”

She stared into her mate’s eyes for a long time, confused on how exactly she was supposed to say the words. Slowly, her gaze traveled to the one man who would know the truth.

“Samael…” Her heart broke just saying his name. Could she handle what happened, if anything happened? Was this just a dream or a vision? Fuck, she was so confused.

“Marcella? Tell me what troubles you.”

A sob broke past her throat. “Do I have a child?”

Dominic’s hand tightened on her arm. His gaze jerked to Samael. The silence stretched on until Marcella wanted to scream. The looks on everyone’s faces were ones of pure shock. How could she not have known? She should have felt something, even the smallest hint of a piece missing, shouldn’t she have?

A groan came from the dark angel’s mouth as he leaned back against the wall. “You carried a child, my queen. It is rare for a collector to conceive, but you were convinced the miracle was meant to save us all.”

Tears flowed freely down her cheeks. “Who was the father?”

Marcella wasn’t sure why she even asked. It wasn’t like Samael would know, but the words came tumbling out.

“It’s complicated. You see, for a collector to conceive, it has to be within her general species, collector, angel, demon, and so on. Back then, your men were human, except your other half, Jason. He was the father.

“But besides genetics, between the shifting and the high-risk death rate, a baby would have had a hard time surviving. You have to know, Marcella, when someone kills you, as did Ambrose, your physical body dies. If you would have been pregnant a few weeks ago when your knight stabbed you, the baby, of course, wouldn’t have made it. You wouldn’t be able to turn into a shifter after your third month, either. Like I said, it’s complicated.”

“How do I bring my child back? What did it look like?”

Samael appeared nervous as he looked at them. Something inside of Marcella shattered like broken glass. Why was he so quiet? Why couldn’t he say anything?

“Samael? I asked you a question. I want to bring my child back. Tell me what I need to do.”

“You were pregnant when you were killed. The baby didn’t make it.”

All the air felt squeezed from her lungs. Samael just saying the words made a vision explode inside of her head of what he was talking about. Her and her child’s deaths were so vividly played out in her mind. After a shuttering breath, Marcella fought through the racing of her mind. “Wait. That shouldn’t matter. The baby would still have a soul.”

“You’re right. But it’s impossible for you to bring it back. The soul went to its rightful place when it passed. A baby born to a supernatural is not the same as a human being turned into one. The connection to the soul wasn’t severed.”

Emotions Marcella couldn’t even begin to process ignited and blasted through her. The room began shaking at her rage. Why could she not bring her baby back? It wasn’t fair. She’d never gotten to see or hold the innocent child.

What felt like liquid lava poured down her cheeks, and her vision turned from red to black. As if she looked through a dark pair of sunglasses, she stared ahead, feeling the need to destroy everything.

“Get her down! We need to chain her!”

Letting out a scream of anguish, flashes of her growing stomach projected before her eyes. Fingers spanned across the roundness, and she could see Dominic and Jason talking to the child she held inside of her. She knew she couldn’t have more been than six months along. Laughing, excitement, tenderness, all the feelings of love ended so abruptly she felt her heart crumble.

Marcella kicked and twisted against the shackles that clamped to her wrists and ankles. Thrashing wildly, she started screaming and mourning the loss of a baby she hardly remembered. Regardless of her mental recollections, her mind knew perfectly well what transpired in the past.

The room shook again while she continued to go wild. A part of her knew the pain triggered her demon, but this evil creature wasn’t the one she remembered. Something about it held more power than she could imagine. Jason’s form appeared in the room and rushed toward her, making her cry harder.

“What happened!”

“She just learned about the loss of her child.”

Marcella saw Jason’s eyes grow big as she continued to scream. “What child?”

“Yours.”

“I killed our child?” Jason’s sob echoed though the room. The paleness of his face had Ambrose grabbing onto his arm so he wouldn’t fall over.

“No, this was the past, Jason. Marcella isn’t to the point of becoming fertile in this lifetime. Unless, for some reason, the process has started and no one’s told me about it.”

“If you’re saying what I think you’re saying about the whole egg and ovulation thing, then no,” Jason said, shaking his head.

The demon gripped onto Marcella’s insides and twisted until she clawed at the chains. The feel of her body levitating off the mattress was hazy. It wasn’t until her spine was bowed from being held down that the pain from her wounds brought her to awareness.

“How do we stop it? She’s going to be worse. Blood’s already coming through the gauze.”

Dominic’s panicked voice felt as if it literally bounced against her. Pulling against the restraints, she willed herself to lower against the strain. Everything was so dark that it began to scare her. Voices chanted in her head, begging her to destroy everything she could see. Clamping her eyes shut, she let them continue until, after a few minutes, she felt her body connect back with the bed.

Cobwebs rushed through as her collector took back over. Sobs still echoed through the room as she continued to cry. Shifting of the bed caused her to open her swollen eyes.

“Baby? Are you okay?”

“Jason. He killed our baby.”

His face buried in her neck while he took a deep breath. “You know we can share thoughts. I want you to show me what you saw. I want to see everything.”

Marcella hesitated, but the hurt on Jason’s face had her nodding her head. Replaying the scene with Samael, she showed him how excited Marcianna was. He got to see him and Dom talk to her stomach, and then she showed him the last image she saw, the one where the sword pierced right though her middle. Bile rose in her throat as she watched it all over again. When Jason let out a gasp, followed by his body shaking, she was glad the chains disappeared so they could hold each other.

Dominic’s arm came around both of them, and she was glad he couldn’t see. He deserved to know what happened, but with his anger, it was probably best that he was spared.

“How could someone do that to you, to what we created? Oh, God. Why wasn’t I there? Why didn’t I stop it?”

“You couldn’t have. You were in-between, Jason. Your body was dead.” They all looked at Samael. “Now, I can’t tell you anymore, but know that if any of you could have stopped it, you would have. Including myself.”

“You said that I thought the child was meant to save us all.”