Demon's Triad (31 page)

But it didn’t block out that voice. Aleeza’s head snapped to the side and she saw her, Raven, standing nude only a few feet away. How the hell had her cousin gotten here? And why the fuck wasn’t Aleeza lunging from the table to get her hands around the bitch’s throat?

“Ferrin, stop, stop!” She screamed the words as loudly as she could, before the black cloud of drunken lust could descend on her mind or numb her lips. They’d been tricked, she and Dorand led into a trap set by her cousin. She was sure of it. Now she and Ferrin were on their way to selling themselves to the monster who stalked around the circle, and Dorand was probably dead and—

“Fight it, Ferrin. Fight it, Aleeza. I’m—” Dorand’s words broke into a roar of pure rage, and Aleeza turned in time to see him struggling toward the stone table though the demon clawed and tore at his skin. Dorand swung his arm up and around, hitting the monster upside the head with the hilt of the knife he held in his hand. The thing howled and floated away, once again becoming mist.

“Fuck, Aleeza. You have to get out of here, out of this circle.” Ferrin pulled his cock from her body, gulping for air as if emerging from too long underwater. “You have to get out before it has time to refocus its power.”

“But what about you?” Aleeza sat up and swung her legs over the side of the table, her vision dancing with gray spots. The abrupt release from the demon’s influence was dizzying. She wasn’t sure she could walk a straight line right now, let alone fight her way free of a circle of power.

“I’ve got to help Dorand. He’s been wounded already and—”

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“Dorand isn’t affected by the demon spells—you are. If you go over to help him, you might end up helping kill him. We’ve both got to get out of here—preferably in different directions. Once we’re gone, Dorand can—”

“Aleeza!” Ferrin caught her around the waist as her knees buckled. She was so fucking weak, and feeling every bruise Kali’s thugs had inflicted now that she wasn’t high on sex magic.

“I’m fine, but I think I did something to my ankle when Dorand and I were fighting those witches in the garage.” Aleeza said. “I’m not going very far on my own.”

“Neither of you are going anywhere. Get back on the table.” Raven appeared inches away from Ferrin, and Aleeza felt him stiffen against her.

“She’s got a gun, Aleeza.”

Dorand reached her side, then stilled. Just his presence there was enough to give Aleeza strength. Too bad that wasn’t enough. The strongest magic they all possessed was no match for a speeding bullet.

“You think he won’t break his word to you, Raven?” Kali’s voice, contemptuous and full of pain, entered the circle, even if her body could not. “You think he’ll deliver his promises? He won’t. He lied to me.”

“He didn’t want to lie to you, Kali,” Raven said. “I convinced him Aleeza was the better option. That having a healthy child to start the new race was better than the inbred mutant you would have conceived. And he’ll keep his promise to me. I’m a Gunera woman, after all. I’m one of the only witches powerful enough to raise this child.”

“My child?” Aleeza knew there could be no child, but she couldn’t help the pain that shot through her at Raven’s words, or the anger.

“No,
my
child. You don’t think you’ll survive the birth, do you?”

Ferrin and Dorand reached for Aleeza’s hands at the same moment, holding her back. Bullet or no bullet, she was ready to rip Raven’s cold blue eyes right out of her head.

Their touch calmed her, centered her and sent a spike of lust straight to her pussy.

There was something here, something about the connection of the three of them that made them powerful. Without knowing how or why, she knew that what she and Ferrin had not been able to achieve on their own, they could achieve with Dorand’s purity added to their power. Together she and Ferrin were nearly hopeless in the face of their bodies’ demands. When Dorand was added to the mix, she wanted him just as badly as she did Ferrin. The distraction was enough to clear her head.

And beneath her own desire throbbed Ferrin and Dorand’s. They both wanted her, needed her…but they wanted and needed each other as well. Once they’d been part of a powerful triad. She knew without either of them telling her that they both hoped to be again. Knew too that she was more powerful than Carantha had been.

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“Let’s test that one out,” she said below her breath, as Raven and Kali continued to bicker and taunt each other from opposing sides of the circle wall.

“You never cared,” Raven shouted, voice thick with unshed tears. “You used me from the beginning, so you can’t blame me for getting some of my own back.”

Do not lose focus, Raven, my love.
Reglanus was still misty. Aleeza guessed holding the circle and the blow he’d suffered from Dorand had sapped more of his strength than he would like to admit
. Why are you wasting time? Get rid of the Amiantos.
If he noticed his former fast-partner, he gave no indication.

“Aleeza, I need your blood,” Dorand whispered. He slid the blade against her arm.

She tried not to flinch.

Blood magic was dark magic, the strongest and darkest there was. Blood hadn’t even been a requirement in the anti-celibacy spell, which had been the darkest magic she’d ever dared to work.

Would an Amiantos even be able to cast dark magic? Even an Amiantos who could communicate with the dead?

She shook her head. Why was she even thinking twice about this? If Dorand wanted her blood, he could have it. “Go ahead,” she whispered, steeling herself against the pain.

But it didn’t hurt. Instead a rush of heat bloomed in her muscle, heat and a curious draining sensation. She turned to look at him, but he wasn’t looking at her. Instead his hooded eyes were focused on the demon, and his lips moved in a chant she’d never heard before.

The draining stopped, and something rushed into her now, something blinding white tinged with black. It roared through her body. It was all she could do not to scream. She bit her lip hard enough to taste blood, her fingers squeezing Ferrin’s.

The whole thing seemed to take hours, but it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds. Reglanus hadn’t even finished his sentence, Kali was still yelling, and chaos still ruled in the still air of the circle as Ferrin turned to her, his eyes dark with worry.

“Aleeza,” he said. “What’s—”

He looked down and saw the blood running down her arm, saw the blade in Dorand’s hand. Something passed between the two men that Aleeza did not understand. Her ears roared and buzzed, the buzzing slowly settling and becoming something else, a steady rhythm. She knew somehow what it was. It was Dorand’s heartbeat, and it pulsed through her own veins. He’d connected her to him, and in a flash she saw him reach out his knife to slice Ferrin’s arm and knew what he was doing.

So did Reglanus. With a roar he surged into his solid form and lunged for Dorand.

The two fell sideways, leaving Aleeza and Ferrin alone to watch, horrified and helpless, as Reglanus’ ghostly fingers closed around Dorand’s throat. The fingers didn’t look completely formed, but it was clear from the mottled hue Dorand’s skin quickly took on that they were solid enough to kill.

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Aleeza’s own breath came in gasps. The connection between them meant she experienced Dorand’s desperation for air. If he died, would she die too?

Beside her Ferrin shouted, his words lost in the echoing rasps of her breath in her ears. Her vision fuzzed around the edges. She was going to pass out, was going to die…

“Dammit, Aleeza! Breathe!” Ferrin’s words finally came through to her. Raven, who’d been staring transfixed as Reglanus choked the life out of Dorand, leapt at her just as Aleeza realized what was happening.

Through their connection, Dorand was taking her breath. She was keeping him alive somehow, but her panic was making her gasp, which was providing less oxygen when they needed more to share.

Clenching her fists, she focused on breathing deep and slow, on feeling the air fill her lungs. Almost instantly the wheezing in her chest eased and images in the clearing came back into focus.

She had a glimpse of the trees and flames around her before Raven slammed into her, knocking her to the ground with a painful thud. Raven’s fingers clawed at her face, her eyes, her cousin’s lips twisted in an ugly grimace of fury.

Still trying to breathe as deeply as possible, Aleeza brought her knee up, wishing it was a man who held her down instead of a woman. Still, no matter what sex you are, being slammed in the groin isn’t comfortable. The second of surprise and pain halted Raven’s movements long enough for Aleeza to pull back her fist and punch her cousin in the face.

Raven screamed and lifted her own fist, but by then Ferrin had joined the fray. The firelight gleamed off his naked body as he yanked Raven backward by the hair and dragged her away.

Aleeza rolled to her side, to where Dorand and Reglanus still struggled. The demon realized his choking wasn’t helping at the same time Aleeza grabbed for one of the torches. He lifted his terrible face to her, but his power over her had ceased. She was Dorand’s now, protected by his Amiantos purity, and the movements of Reglanus’ lips as he tried to bring her back under his spell did not affect her.

Dorand reached for her, but he was not offering his hand. It was the knife, the one he’d used to bind her to him, and as his eyes caught hers she understood.

She grabbed the knife from him. Reglanus lunged for her but missed.

Unfortunately, Ferrin didn’t. She’d thought Reglanus’ spell had been aimed at her, but it had not. The man staring at her now through Ferrin’s eyes was not Ferrin.

The demon turned into a whisper of smoke and disappeared, leaving them alone with the thing that used to be her lover.

On the ground Raven lay still and silent, but her aura told Aleeza her cousin still lived. She wasn’t sure she cared. But she knew she cared about Ferrin and had to find a way to take his blood. Maybe if she could make him angry enough to rush at her—165

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“It has to be willingly,” Dorand croaked, standing up beside her. “He has to give it—we can’t take it.”

The thing behind Ferrin’s eyes glared at them as they approached. A thick growl escaped his throat.

“Is that Reglanus in there?”

“I think so.” Dorand took her hand. The warmth of his skin and the leap of his energy were comforting. She belonged with him, was bound to him. Together they could be happy for the rest of their lives…except they were bound to the man in front of them, in a way no less profound. They could not kill him, could not leave him.

“Ferrin,” she started. It was a mistake. Her voice seemed to remind the demon why they were there to begin with.

“Aleeza,” it said. The voice came from Ferrin’s throat, but it was not Ferrin’s. She curled her toes in the dirt beneath her feet to try and keep from collapsing. Cold chills ran down her spine. “Come to me.”

“Can it—”

“I don’t know,” Dorand said. “I think he might still be able to impregnate you in this form, even with my protection. I don’t know enough about this kind of thing.”

“He can.” Kali’s voice from outside the circle drifted through the trees, weak and raspy. “But he’d need to kill you first to free Aleeza from the touch of Amiantos magic.”

As if waiting for this, the Ferrin-Reglanus thing lunged for Dorand.

Aleeza screamed and shoved him as he passed, but Ferrin was too strong.

He fell on Dorand, knocking the bigger man to the ground. Instinctively Aleeza sucked in a huge breath, but this time it wasn’t needed. Ferrin wasn’t trying to choke Dorand. Reglanus had learned that lesson. Instead he appeared to be trying to rip Dorand’s head off.

“No!” she screamed. Tears sprang to her eyes as she forced herself to kick Ferrin in the face. It hardly fazed him. She leapt forward, grabbing his arms, digging her nails in as she tried to tug and pull him away, but nothing worked.

“Ferrin…I love you,” Dorand gasped. Ferrin hesitated.

He did not pause for long, but it was long enough for Aleeza to see what Dorand was up to, and how it might work. Trying to still her trembling, she ran her hand up Ferrin’s arm to the spot behind his ear where he liked to be kissed, and tickled him. “I love you too, Ferrin.”

Again, the beast hesitated. Dorand seized the opportunity to raise his head, snaking his hand around Ferrin’s neck and pulling him close.

Aleeza’s insides contracted as she watched her two lovers kiss, a kiss of pure love and trust, a kiss of rising passion. She felt it inside her own body, felt Dorand grow aroused as the two men’s tongues entwined. Felt too her own arousal at the sight, her desire to join the pile and share their bodies.

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Ferrin pulled his head away and screamed, a howl of agony. Aleeza jumped, frightened, but when Ferrin turned to her it was his eyes she saw. “Quick,” he gasped.

“Take it before he—aaarrgh!”

His eyes shifted, Reglanus coming back, but then as Aleeza held the knife aloft Ferrin showed through again. She didn’t wait for Reglanus to return, cleanly slicing his shoulder with the blade.

This time she was ready, but the force screaming into her doubled. She stumbled, falling, while Ferrin’s heartbeat changed into time with theirs. Both of their power rushed in her heart, in her brain. Both of their energies lifted her, bathed her.

She had only a glimpse of white light flashing into the clearing. Ferrin glowed with it, like a photo negative against her closed eyelids. He was screaming, and Dorand was screaming, so it did not surprise her that she was too. It surprised her even less that another voice screamed below theirs, the voice of the thwarted demon as he was sent back to hell. There was no place for him now, no way to regain his power. He could not impregnate Kali or Raven, and Aleeza was no longer available. She was bound, Amiantos by blood, and so was Ferrin.

How long the light blazed and the sounds of tearing agony went on, she did not know. She knew only that when they finally stopped, her entire body buzzed with the energy the three of them generated, with love and desire and sheer, simple gratitude that they were all alive.