Deadly Desires (30 page)

“Samael will be okay. None of us would let anything happen to him.”

“I know.” Marcella reached her hand up toward him. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for us. I never got to tell you how much I enjoyed our wedding ceremony. You did an amazing job.” She rubbed his hand against her face. “Now, go. They’re waiting on you.”

He nodded and brought her fingers to his lips, and then he was gone. Marcella met the High Priestess’s gaze. The woman turned to the door and closed her eyes. Words flew from her mouth in a language Marcy didn’t understand. Cool air swept inside as she broke the barrier to the outside. Marcella pulled the blanket higher over her son and watched while the woman stopped in the middle of the yard. She began walking in a circle and what looked to be salt poured down, enclosing her inside.

The sky darkened while the High Priestess raised her hands into the air. Unheard words poured from her mouth. Marcella watched, mesmerized as leaves blew toward the road, just to turn around and begin to blow back toward the old woman. What looked to be small tornados spun wildly around the yard.

Movement from the corner of her eye caught Marcella’s attention, and she saw one of the women who’d helped with the birth of Micah. “Please, come.” She could tell the woman wanted to watch, but her fear of Marcella was evident.

Red hair fell over her plaid-covered shoulder while she walked forward. The girl looked to be in her early thirties. She wasn’t common looking, by far. Her eyes were big and a deep green. The natural pouting of her mouth was the first thing that had caught Marcella’s attention when she’d first seen her.

“I’m Cora.”

Marcella moved her legs and allowed room for the Wiccan girl to sit down.

“It’s nice to officially meet you. I’m Marcella.”

“Nana told us all about you and your knights. My mother used to tell me stories that Nana had told her as a child. I can’t believe they were about you. It’s almost surreal.”

Marcella laughed and took in her men. “Yeah, I can hardly believe it myself. But what she speaks is the truth. Let’s just hope today holds a different ending.”

The woman nodded and looked outside. “I can feel that man’s power. You call him the Devil. I have to admit he is definitely the form of all that is bad. He is the pentacle of evil,” she whispered. “My Nana will put a stop to him though. I know she will. She is the most powerful High Priestess in the world. If anyone can do it, it’s her.”

Marcella took in the scene that lay before them and closed her eyes, letting it imprint into her mind. When her son asked about this moment, in the future, she wanted to be able to show him exactly what happened. He would know the sacrifices that everyone was willing to lay on the line to stop evil once and for all.

Samael held his sword tightly as he faced his father. The small glimpse of what he could only assume was love had been gone now for a while. Pure hate radiated against the shield and there would be no taking it easy on him. His father was here for his death. Samael was nothing more to him than a traitor, a man of power within his father’s world that had committed the highest possible treason. And regardless of whether it was the truth or not, Samael would not die today. He would not serve the rest of his life in hell away from his wife and son.

“We’re going to expand the shield to lock us all in with him.” He turned to the men. They were the best brothers anyone could have had. Marcella had brought them all together and had he known so long ago that they’d be destined for this moment, he wouldn’t have believed it. Now as he took in all of their faces, it felt right to be standing together, ready to die for one another. “No one gets out, nothing get in. If and when he dies, drop the shield completely and allow the High Priestess to do her work.”

The men nodded, and as their protective barrier passed through Samael he was ready for the blow of his father’s sword. The strength behind their blades hitting sent shock waves through his hand, making it almost impossible to hold on to his hilt as tight as he needed to.

“My grandson is born, and you keep me away?” Sparks flew out as their swords connected again. Samael wasn’t stupid. He was not going to fall for his father’s tricks. This man wasn’t here for a simple viewing of Micah. He wanted to take him as his own.

“You will never see my son. He’s mine. Not yours.” Samael sucked his stomach in just as the tip of the blade swung wide. The fabric of his dark shirt tore, but it missed his skin.

What looked like lightning poured out of Lucifer’s hand right toward Zepar. His brother’s arm shot out, reflecting the energy back to their father. The Devil laughed and swiped it away. “Is this seriously all you got? Come on!” He roared. “I did not raise my sons to be such pussies.”

Samael stepped back and grabbed Zepar’s hand. Together they replicated the charge, but increased the shock by a hundredfold, and sent him flying back. A wild laugh came from him as his body was pinned into the shield. “Now that’s more like it!”

The form of his father falling as they stopped made their eyes widen. Smoke poured from his body as he stood and the evil projected from him in waves. His eyes stared at all of the men and Ambrose stepped forward. His father’s legs buckled upon the glowing eyes of Ambrose’s collector. He lowered to his knees and began screaming and holding his head. Nails clawed at his face as he began to rock.

“It’s a mind fuck, isn’t it?” Ambrose said, walking forward. “To be lost in your most regretted moment in life. To actually feel like you’re reliving it over and over. I bet you can’t even see us anymore can you? You’re so gone right now.” Ambrose came back to stand next to them and waved his hand.

Lucifer looked up at them, his eyes going from haunted to so angry that Samael could actually feel fear forming inside him for the first time. They’d done nothing but piss him off. Especially now. Satan stood and charged at Ambrose. His sword swung with all of his might and Ambrose met it head-on. The shield around them rippled, filling the space with groaning noises.

“Don’t you ever get inside my head again, collector.” Ambrose dropped to the ground and began screaming as Samael’s father crippled him with some internal war within his own self. The sword reared back and Jason deflected the killing blow. Donavon pulled back Ambrose and touched his head. The dark-haired former vampire breathed deeply as he came out from under the spell.

The sound of metal was loud as Jason and his father went blow for blow. Blood poured from his father’s arm, and Samael knew Jason had been preparing for this moment since he’d remembered who he was.

“You have gotten better,” his father said.

“Fuck you. Today you will die for killing my daughter.” Jason brought the blade across the Devil’s chest and pain went over his father’s features. He swung the blade back toward Jason, but with a burst of energy. Jason hit the invisible wall hard and Samael stepped forward.

“Enough. We end this right now.”

Lucifer bowed to him. “If that’s what you want. Let me ask you this though before we continue. What color eyes does my grandson have? Does he hold ours, or Marcella’s golden color?”

“That, you will never know.” Samael charged toward him with his sword and they connected hard. His father increased the speed of the blows and they were going so fast that Samael had to put everything he had into focusing on where his father would try to stick the blade next.

Stinging raced into his side but Samael pushed the sensation away. He drove his father back until he was against the invisible barrier. Weight crashed into him and Samael’s back hit the pavement of the road, hard. He drove his sword forward, feeling pressure as it pierced through his father’s chest.

Samael could feel his eyes get big at their locked stare. Their faces were but inches from each other. Blood poured from his father’s mouth, and Lucifer fell to his side. Samael pushed himself to his feet and grabbed the hilt, pulling the blade out.

The shield around them dropped and the wind began to pick up until dust covered the air. He lowered himself next to his father. Shallow breaths came from his mouth while he fought for air. “From this moment on you will no longer let me, my wife, or my son cross your mind. You are banished from this realm. If I get wind that you so much as think about trying to find a way back, the next time will be a million times worse for you.”

Light exploded and his father was suddenly gone. The High Priestess’s hands were raised toward the sky. Lightning began hitting the ground all around them. Samael and the men rushed to the porch just as the rain began to fall. The woman tossed a fine powder into the air and finished her chant. When she turned around a big smile rested on her face. “It is done. He will never be able to return again.”

A shuddering breath left Samael, and so many emotions went through him. His wife and son were safe. They’d actually defeated his father and made it impossible for him to come back. He almost couldn’t believe it.

The men piled around him, giving hugs to each other and throwing praise here and there. Samael hugged the High Priestess to him and held her gently. “I never got your name.” He looked down into her pale green eyes as she stared up at him.

“My name is Evangeline Olivia Bannister.”

“Evangeline Olivia…” Samael nodded. “If I ever have a daughter I wish to name her after you. If, of course, that’s all right with you?”

“I would like that very much.”

Samael walked with her inside the house. He immediately headed over to his wife and son. Marcella gripped her arm around his neck tightly, cradling Micah between them. “I knew you all could do it.” She wiped the tears from her eyes and he came to sit next to her.

“You got off the bed.”

She looked toward where she’d been before and shrugged. “I didn’t stand. I got carried. You couldn’t have expected me not to watch what was going on. I mean, if I couldn’t be out there I
had
to at least see.”

He laughed. “I suppose I should be glad that you stayed in here at all. Forget I ever said anything.” He nuzzled her nose. “What do you say we go home?”

Golden eyes stared up at him. “I’d like that very much.” She turned to the High Priestess and began giving all the women hugs. Her attention focused on a redheaded woman. “Cora, you come visit me anytime. You have my number.”

“Thank you. I will.”

Samael looked at the men and took his wife’s hand. He closed his eyes and when he reopened them, they were sitting on Marcella’s bed. Since she’d been taken, Samael and most of the men had pretty much made it theirs. Eventually they were going to have to figure out how things were going to be arranged, but he was in no hurry.

A soft cry came from Micah. Samael took him into his arms and stood. Marcella smiled as the men walked over to surround him and his son.

“Well, now what?” Jason came to stand in front of Samael. His hand trailed softly over the baby’s dark hair.

Samael looked at Marcella as she held her arms out to Ambrose and Dominic. “Now we spend the rest of our lives living and loving. Things are bound to come along, but as long as we all have each other nothing can stop us from being happy.”

And it was the truth. Sure, people would rise against them in the future, and it might possibly be in the near future, but today they’d faced the ultimate evil. Nothing could be worse than that. Samael stared into his son’s face and knew that no matter what, Micah would have all the love a child could ever want. Not only from him and Marcella, as his parents, but from the knights that would protect him and his mother with their hearts and lives.

The High Priestess had been right. Marcella’s death had opened his eyes to what love truly was. Their journey had taken them down a road he wouldn’t have wished upon anyone. But life’s lessons had taught him one thing, and that was that the foundation of happiness came from an openness to love a person for who they were. Not who he wanted them to be. And as Samael took in Marcella and all the men around him, he wouldn’t change a thing about the way their new life had unfolded. From a deadly desire to have her to himself came an open love to join in the ranks. Together, they were Marcella’s men.

THE END

WWW.JENNYMAYAUTHOR.COM

I live in a small Texas town along the Gulf of Mexico. Family is everything to me. My mother always encouraged my reading growing up. Looking back, my earliest memories revolve around my grandmother, who was always glued to a book. Her passion for mystery is probably the reason I’m so comfortable around a police scanner. Hers was on twenty-four hours a day.

When I’m not writing, cooking, or brainstorming new ideas, you’ll see me with a book in my hand. Briefly before I started writing, I was devouring a romance novel every day. For some reason, I couldn’t get enough. I was finally asked the question that ultimately changed my life forever. “Why don’t you try writing a book?”

At first, I laughed. Write a book? Who, me? Having never written a story in my life, I was intimidated. From the first word of the first story, I was hooked. There was something that ultimately bothered me about it, though. I couldn’t write a love scene to save my life. Not one that would fit inside of a “romance” book, anyway. It was way too graphic.

After doing research I came across the erotica genre and knew this is where I belonged. Details are important and with my books, the more details during their “coupling,” the better.