Hexed (The Gwen Sparks Series Book 4) (30 page)

“You should know by now that your curiosity only gets you into trouble.”

“I was curious about you upon first meeting you,” I said with a small smile. “So I guess you’re right; it does get me in trouble.”

“You like my brand of trouble,” Dorian said, his voice lowering to a sensual tone. He was right, I did like his kind of trouble. Every dark and seductive thing about him allured me. I’d been seduced by seductive men before, but Dorian was on a level all his own. His possessive and dominating nature set me ablaze in a way no other man had. I should have been jumping for joy that he loved me, but it only terrified me. While I had loved Aiden and Micah, there was something different about Dorian. If Micah and Aiden had the power to hurt me, Dorian had the power to completely destroy me. Maybe I had known his power over me all along and it was why I’d been so cautious to start anything with him, but now that I had, there was no coming back from it.

“Dorian,” I breathed, hesitating to say what needed to be said, “about what you told me when I couldn’t remember anything…”

Dorian held up his hand, shaking his head. “Don’t worry about it. I shouldn’t have said it.”

“You shouldn’t have?” I asked, relieved and a little hurt. I never claimed to be well-balanced.

“I love kissing you. I love spending time with you. I love fucking you, but it was wrong of me to say that I was
in
love with you. I care about you, Gwen, and maybe those emotions got twisted into something that wasn’t really there.” After he was done speaking, he watched me for my reaction. There was relief washing through me for sure, but there also something else, something that struck down each fluttering butterfly in my gut.

Collecting myself, I said, “Good. I’m happy we’re on the same track.” I took another drink of my coffee, frowning at my now empty cup. “Keeping it casual is best for both of us.”

Dorian was still watching me, an indecipherable look crossing his features. It was gone before I could analyze its meaning. He nodded. “Yeah, casual is what I do best.” His tone lacked its normal playfulness, but time caught up with us, and I was unable to think of what that meant. Right at the moment, Dorian stood up so quickly his chair nearly tipped over.

Looking out the window, I saw the reason for his alert. The rogue was walking down the sidewalk, a purpose in each step he took.

MY BODY VIBRATED with rage at seeing the rogue. He was only three shops away from Broomsticks, three shops away from killing Gwen. I couldn’t help but think back to that day my entire world changed, the day I arrived too late and saw Gwen broken and bloody. Seeing the determination on his face, knowing what it meant, my entire body turned icy. Every ounce of warmth that had once clung to my body was now frosted over with my fury.

I told Gwen to stay in the café while I stalked across the street. The rogue wore a dirty, army-style jacket, had a sandy blonde hair buzzed cut and was so skinny I envisioned snapping his spine like a breadstick. Rogues were the minions of the Veil, a special brand of degenerates that surrendered themselves for the possession of demons and practiced dark magic. They craved the power the demons gave them, but ultimately were so used up from their demonic parasites that their lives were short ones. The humans lasted even shorter. This man looked on the verge of death already with sunken in cheeks and dark circles rimming his eyes.

I stepped into his path, ramming my shoulder into his when he stepped past me. He spun around, his lips curling up in a scowl.

“Watch where you’re fuckin’ going, asshole,” he snarled.

I wanted to take my time in killing him, wanted to drag out each second of his torture, but I also couldn’t draw attention to us. Instead, I decided to play his game.

“You the rogue sent for Gwen Sparks?”

He nodded once. “You here to claim her soul?” Since a demon was in control it was able to recognize me for who I was. Demons were on the same plain as every other immortal and could connect with us. While I could reap the man’s soul and the demon possessing him, I couldn’t kill the demon. The most I could do was send him back to the hell he’d been conjured from.

“Yes,” I told him, playing along. “Come with me.” I started past Gwen’s shop to where an alley rested between Broomsticks and the next business. “I know a less obvious entrance.” Out of my peripheral I had noticed Gwen had stepped outside the café, but I made a point not to look over at her. I wasn’t sure if the rogue knew what she looked like or not.

“You’re helping me kill her?” the rogue asked, his voice skeptical, but he continued to follow me.

I shrugged, feigning indifference. “I’m neutral. She’s marked for death today, and I have shit to do, so the quicker you get this over with, the sooner I can go about my business.”

The rogue nodded, an evil smirk sliding across his face. As soon as I got him down the alley he wouldn’t be smiling. Our footsteps crunched against the gravel as we made our way between the two buildings. A little further and I could unleash the all-consuming rage brewing inside of me.

When we reached the end of the alley I turned around to face the man. Rolling my neck along my shoulders, I let my power pour out of me. Instantly, ice began to creep along the brick walls, the temperature dropping so drastically that our breaths steamed out between our lips.

“What’s going on?” The rogue had the decency to sound afraid, though I knew he was more confused than scared. Demons were mindless creatures, which meant they had little to nothing to fear themselves.

“Did I say Gwen Sparks was marked for death?” I asked. “Silly me, I meant to say it’s
your
soul I’ll be collecting.”

The rogue began stepping backwards. Black seeped into his eyes, obscuring his iris so that only ebony glared back at me. He reached behind him and pulled out a double-edged dagger, the same on he had used on Gwen. Seeing it only pissed me off more. I could have easily ripped his soul from his body, but I was itching for a fight. I
needed
to feel his flesh and bones give way beneath my fists.

I stood with my feet shoulder-width apart, waiting for the rogue to make the first move. A smart man would have turned and ran. A smart man would have realized that no human object could kill me, but then, the rogue was neither smart nor a man. He rushed me, gripping his dagger so tight that the blood seeped from his knuckles. I smirked, welcomed his attack. My entire body vibrated with the need to beat the living shit out of this scum.

The rogue swung his blade forward in an arc, swiping toward my throat. I admit, that would have hurt like a bitch, but it wouldn’t have killed me. I anticipated the move and gripped his wrist before the blade found its home in my jugular. I twisted his wrist until his fingers uncurled and the blade clattered to the ground. Kicking out fast, my foot landed just under his sternum and he flew back a few feet where he landed on his behind. Stomping toward him, I gripped his coat in both hands and dragged him to his feet.

“You’re not supposed to interfere,” he snarled, bringing his knee up to land between my legs. At the last moment, I turned my body to the side so that his knee hit my thigh. Figures this bastard would take a dirty shot.

“Like you care about rules,” I told him, snorting. Bringing my arm back, I curled my fingers into a fist and let it sail toward his face. The crunch his nose made was the melody I’d been itching to hear. Blood erupted from his nostrils and covered his lips and chin. Then I lost what little reserve I had on my temper and began punching him. With each impact of my fists, flashes of Gwen bloody and half-alive raced through my head. The rogue tried to defend himself, but his flimsy body held no threat to me. His arms swung like wet noodles, his head lolling from side to side. Blood coated his entire face like some macabre mask.

“Dorian, stop!” Gwen’s voice echoed down the alley. Looking up, I saw her standing at the mouth of the opening, her eyes wide in horror. She brought a hand up to cover her parted lips, her eyes going to me and then to the unmoving rogue at my feet. Sill keeping eye contact with her, I stretched my arm out with my fingers splayed and sucked his soul from his body. Without a soul, a demon could not possess a body. Black smoke rose with his soul, twining around it as it tried to stay connected, but once the rogue’s soul seeped into my skin, the black smoke had nothing left to cling to. Fading in the breeze, it would be sucked back to the realm of the dead until conjured by another idiot practicing black magic.

Walking toward Gwen, I concentrated on each step that brought me closer to her. My heart protested from the exertion of the fight as the adrenaline slowly leaked from my body. As I took in her wide blue eyes and shocked face, all I could think was I would murder an entire village to keep her safe. Despite the fear in her eyes, I’d do much worse if it meant she was alive.

In the café I’d lied when I told her I didn’t mean to say ‘I love you’ to her. I did love her. It was an obsessive drug that fueled everything I did. I’d seen the fear on her face when she brought it up, the unease at having to discuss it. In my existence, I’d seen countless men and women suffering from unreciprocated love. That was the shitty thing, just because I loved Gwen, it didn’t mean she loved me. As powerful as I was, I couldn’t force that on her. So I lied, told her what she wanted to hear.

When I reached her, I fell to my knees and wrapped my arms around her waist, resting my head against her stomach. If she thought it was weird, she didn’t say anything. Instead, she raked her fingers through my hair as though comforting me. Looking up, she slowly knelt so that we were eye to eye.

“That was intense,” she said. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking as she looked at me. I’d been so angry that all I could think of was inflicting pain on the man that had killed Gwen. His body was now crumpled behind me, his face so messed up that they’d need dental records to identify him. I may have taken it a step too far but, like so many other things, I couldn’t find the sympathy to give a shit. He was dead and Gwen was safe.

Sliding my fingers along her neck, I brought our mouths together and kissed her. She placed her hands on my shoulders as I deepened our kiss, bringing our tongues into the mix. She tasted like the mocha latte she’d been drinking. If I wasn’t so exhausted from the force of power I’d used, I would have been hard. I’d never wanted a woman the way I wanted Gwen. If she’d let me, I’d have her morning, noon, night, and every hour in between. She was my kryptonite, the only thing in thousands of years that was able to penetrate me.

She rested her forehead against mine, her breathing now harder. “Come on, the spell should be wearing off soon.”

Standing, we started toward the mouth of the alley before I stopped and turned around. I held up a finger to tell Gwen to wait a minute, and turned back to retrieve the dagger the rogue had dropped. I’d call Micah and tell him to come clean up the body, but I didn’t want some kid coming along and picking up the blade.

When I turned back around, time froze as I saw another rogue standing just behind Gwen, a blade clasped in his hand. She hadn’t heard him, didn’t know she was inches away from being attacked.

“Gwen!” I screamed, rushing forward, but like the first time, I was too late. The rogue brought his arm around her neck and sliced her jugular ear to ear. Her face froze in terror, eyes wide and mouth agape as she choked on the blood spilling from her throat. It bathed the entire front of her body in crimson. I ran toward her, fury unlike anything I’d ever felt consumed every cell in me. Before I could reach her, though, the wind picked up, and the landscape began to swirl in and out of focus.

“No, no, no,” I yelled, fighting against the onslaught of wind pushing me away from her. “Our time isn’t up yet.” It didn’t matter that we still had a half an hour on the spell, I couldn’t fix what had been done.

Gwen gripped her throat, falling to her knees as blood spurted around her hand. I fisted my hands, arched my back and screamed up at the sky. I thought I had experienced helplessness before. It was nothing compared to how I felt now. Still, I fought against the wind as it picked up and shifted around our bodies. I knew it was pointless, that we’d be sucked into the future, back to Fiona and Ethan. What I didn’t know was if Gwen would be with me or buried in the Flora cemetery. The past had changed. In this scenario I hadn’t been able to restore her soul, hadn’t been able to stop her death.

As I traveled through the vortex that would bring me to the present day, I feared what kind of future awaited me.