Mick (The A'rouk Brothers Book 1) (10 page)

Mick and his brothers were only allowed to stay for a little while, eventually the light they kept inside of them would bleed out and when it did no one liked how it illuminated the darkness.

“Mick, did you come because you needed me?” Lacara was a tall female with eyes so beautiful she could bind a male with a stare. But the darkness within her grew at an alarming rate.

He picked this stunningly beautiful woman, not for her looks but because he was afraid the Earth would lose someone special before they even knew she existed and now that he found his mate he wouldn’t be able to protect her. The thought of being intimate with her when he had his mate was enough to bring him to his knees. There was only one solution, but Lacara would hate him for it.

“Come here, Lacara.” Mick opened his arms ignoring his brother’s stare. If he didn’t do this, Lacara would die. She may still die, but he had to try.

She ran to him and placed her arms around him; he closed his arms around her, and his body brightened, looking like a star that went supernova. There were screams as others hid from the light pouring out of his body.

Lacara began to struggle and beg in a loud voice for Mick to let her go. That he stop this lunacy but he held on tight until she stopped moving. When he let her go, he knew she would never be a child of the dark again.

“What have you done, Mick?” Her voice was sad as she looked down at herself.

Eli stepped out of the shadows; he wore a cloak that disguised his natural body allowing the viewer only to see what he showed them. The lights of Sin City were off, and all that could be heard was groaning from the black night.

“He gave you a second chance at life, Lacara. Although I do not agree with his methods, I must admit they worked. Lacara you are no longer welcome in Sin City.”

Her scream of no would be the last that Mick ever heard of her. He knew where Eli had sent her and wasn’t upset that he didn’t get a chance to send her to the same place.

“I should banish you for bringing light into my dark haven.”

“But you won’t. You need what we have.” Julian’s voice poured out of the shadows.

“Don’t be too sure about that Jul, everything is changing, and I blame it on the six of you. Now there is Darkness, the kind I like to stay away from haunting my city. What do you plan to do about it?”

“Tonight we plan to find out who it is and how many of them are around,” Mick said.

“Then start hunting and stop causing trouble and no changing anyone else. Julian, should I send your female to you so that you can send her to the light?”

“Perish the thought.”

Eli grunted and slipped away.

They strode through Sin City as the lights came back on as they passed by, and the citizens picked up whatever vice they were doing before their light condemned them for their actions. A swell of voices followed them. They ignored it as they hunted for the real Darkness hiding in the shadows.

The shadows around them increased calling to them, directing them. The Darkness prepared for them knowing they were coming.

“It’s going to be a fight,” Julian said as they slipped away from the glitz and glamour to a part of the city most tried to ignore. The streets here were grimy even though Eli had them cleaned daily. The graffiti spoke of acts viler than either of them had seen. This was where The Darkness would make its headquarters because this would feel like home to it.

The soft laughter that slithered over their skin told them that they were being watched, but they were already aware of that.

“Show yourself,” Mick demanded.

“Why?” The voice bounced off the walls around them leaving a sticky residue behind that clung to their skin. “Do you think to scare us with your light, defeat us?”

“Are you scared? I don’t see you.”

A tall figure emerged from the shadows. He was around their height. His body was humanoid. It could have been his natural body or an illusion. With the minions of the dark army, it was hard to tell.

“You come to the city of sin in your brightest apparel and Eli lets you in. I may have to have a talk with him after all.”

“You come in your darkest, and he lets you in. I believe he’s just trying for balance.”

“You want balance?” The male speaking changed his form. He was still humanoid, but now his eyes glowed black with red pupils. “I will give you balance. Let’s see what hides beneath your light Mick.”

His hand swiftly turned into a claw cutting Mick just across his arm, dropping him to the ground as pain swamped his body.

“Julian,” Mick reached out to him.

Before Julian could move there were five minions of Darkness surrounding him.

“Mick!” He tried to break through but encountered a barrier he couldn’t take down. No matter how he tried to break through, he was defeated. When he reached for a minion of Darkness, it fled from him. He noted they wouldn’t touch him.

One warrior stood with him arms crossed. “Why don’t we kill this one or convert him?”

“Because his brother will kill us. It’s not his time. We will not touch him.”

The others frowned but agreed nonetheless as they watched Mick struggle on the ground until finally, he was able to stand up.

“You thought you were light” the first male said to him. “Look at you now. See who you really are.” He cast a reflection allowing Mick to see his form.

Mick's skin was darker, yet it still shone brightly, attractive, but he wasn’t light anymore he was darkness. His eyes looked like they were made to see sin. On his back sat a pair of black wings that folded into him when he wasn’t using them. His ears were pointed just a little, enough to let you know he was different. Growing out of his skull and flowing down behind him like his hair were two tusks, one on each side of his head. He would call them horns, but he knew this species, and they referred to them as tusks.

They were silver in his dark hair. He opened his mouth, and his fangs appeared sharp and deadly, and his stomach cramped with hunger.

“Mick?” Julian’s voice called to him.

He turned to look at his brother; they were now night and day. Mick was no longer of the light; The Darkness owned him, and he was so very hungry.

“It’s so easy,” the first male said coming closer to him. “All you have to do is return to Sin City. That’s where you will find your food. It’s waiting for you, nice and warm. Bite into it, tear it apart. That’s what your DNA demands, that’s what your ancestors did.”

“Elandra.” One of the minions of light called the first male.

“What do you want?”

“He’s here; I can feel him.”

“I feel him also, but he will not win because this one belongs to us. Let the other one go. Present him to his brother as a show of good faith. We don’t want him…until it’s his time.”

Elandra turned his attention back to Mick who was clutching his stomach.

“Your people, your real people are killers and that’s what you are. That’s what you were always meant to be. Kill and join our ranks. Let the others who thought they were your brothers know it was all a lie.”

The laughter of Darkness surrounded them before the minions disappeared.

“Mick,” Julian approached slowly now that the barrier was gone.

Mick held up his hand to stop him. “Leave.”

“No, I won’t do that. We’ll get you to Damon, and he’ll help you.”

“No, I’ll kill him and you too if you don’t leave. LEAVE ME!”

Julian disappeared, and Mick fell to the ground, his claws digging in as he tried to keep from allowing his body to return to Sin City and the food that waited there.

“I can feel you. I can smell you.” He spoke to the air around him. Finally, it shimmered until Dante’s form was standing in front of him.

“Have you come to kill me? To put me out of my misery?”

“Yes,” a Symphor appeared in his hand. A weapon that only he and his brothers could summon.

The Symphor held a dagger shape with double blades that cut going in and coming out. The blade wasn’t made of metal; it was forged in the pain of the innocence and the hatred of the wicked. It flew true and made its own judgment when it was time to kill.

The Symphor would not allow just any hand to use it. That it had picked the six brothers was just another reason The Darkness desired them. Kill an A’rouk the whispers said to gain a sixth of the untouchable galaxy.

Mick pulled himself into a crouch. It would be so easy to let his brother kill him, yet even now he wanted to cling to life. To somehow defeat The Darkness that had proven to be unbeatable. Jaz lying in that bed, waiting for his kiss to wake her up flashed before his eyes and hunger almost made him snap at his brother.

“You want to fight?” Dante said softly allowing his Symphor to catch the light and shine brightly.

Mick nodded yes, even though he had no chance against him. Taking a deep breath, he lunged at his brother knocking him down on his back. Thoughts ran through his head of how he could knock him out.

Dante reared up turning Mick over climbing on top of him. He placed his Symphor at his throat.

“Ready to die?” The power he radiated was enough to keep Mick’s body still.

No, Mick thought. I’m not ready to die. I want to see her one more time.

“So you can kill her? Rip her throat out. Join the Army of Darkness as one of his minions?”

He should have known his brother would be monitoring his thoughts.

“No!” He lowered his head because he knew his brother was right, he would hurt her. The hunger would never allow him to simply touch her hair, lay his lips against hers. He would not kill his mate, he would die first.

He closed his eyes and waited for the final blow as he sent a quick goodbye to all his brothers on the mental channel they all shared.

He opened his eyes when he felt Dante’s weight disappear to see that he was in his house. Was it a dream? He felt the same debilitating hunger as he stood. He cast a reflection, a genetic ability, and looked at himself. It was no dream he was evil incarnate. His form hadn’t changed, and the hunger was driving him to kill. No one knew if this race of beings existed anymore, but at one point they had been the scourge of the galaxy more feared than The Darkness before they disappeared.

He was standing in his living room. His walls were beige with a dark brown soft material on the floor. The sofa and chairs were gold with flecks of red in them. This room always calmed him now the red reminded him of food as his stomach cramped even more. He would not kill even if it meant imprisoning himself in this room.

“Mick?” her voice was beautiful as it echoed through the room. “Where are you? Dante said I would find you here.”

He would kill him. How could Dante bring is mate here when he knew she was the one person he wanted above all. He knew Mick would kill her and still he brought her to him.

His feet moved without permission as he walked to the door of the living room and stopped. There she was in the hallway; her eyes were wide as they looked at him.

Was his appearance enough that she would walk willingly to the death he had to offer her or would she run making him chase her? The thought of tracking her down, forcing her, made his teeth ache. That would be his first kill but not his last kill.

“Mick?” She sounded so confused and sad.

“Run, Jaz. Escape me. Call my brother, save yourself. I will stay here as long as I can. Save yourself.” He forced his words out around the throbbing of his fangs before he opened his mouth and hissed at her. She turned on her heels and ran.

Stay here; he chanted in his mind, don’t go after her.

*~*~*~*

He wanted to kill her, his mate. He had warned her, though, told her about The Darkness. She should have understood when he allowed her to fall out the hover. That should have been warning enough. When Damon told her there was no tracking device she could have run then or at least after the surgery.

There may be no tracking device but that creature, that seductive dark creature that was now her mate would find her. Mick would never let her go until he tore her apart. In the end, everyone will win except for her and Mick. The Clone Council wins, the Patron wins, and The Darkness wins. She and Mick lose. It was a sad fact of life, sometimes you had to lose.

She tried the front door pulling at it, turning the knob. Nothing happened. She ran to every window and could find nothing. She even tried to break them but they wouldn’t shatter. She was trapped in the house with a being—her mate, who wanted her dead. She ran until a door opened and she walked through it.

It smelled like Mick and gave her a false sense of security. She was in his bedroom. This must be his retreat; the place he came to when life got too much to handle. Did life get too much to handle for aliens? She didn’t know, but with all that was happening she was willing to bet the answer was yes.

The bed called to her, seducing her until she went and lay on it. Mick’s bed was as good a place to die as any other. She lay with her head facing the door and watched as it slowly opened and he moved into the space. He was handsome. She bet he’d even be a handsome troll.

“What’s funny?”

“I was just thinking I bet you’d be handsome even as a troll.”

“Thank you,” his voice was soft as he approached the bed. “I’m going to kill you.”

He waited for her to scream, to run again, to try and fight.

“I know.” She couldn’t explain the lethargy she felt. Maybe she simply accepted her fate. She never thought she would escape.

He took his shoes off and his shirt causing her to laugh. He was such a polite murderer.

He joined her on the bed allowing his hand to caress the side of her throat where her vein beat, showing him the flow of her blood and the beat of her heart.

He bent over her and kissed her there before licking her pulse point. He needed her, his mate. She closed her eyes and sighed as she felt his mouth on her. Her heart beat faster, not with fear but with desire. How could she want him when she knew what he was? A monster, a killer.

A sigh escaped her lips as he kissed down to her shoulder. Then he reached down and tugged at the hem of the shirt she had on until she raised her arms, and he pulled it off of her. He stretched his body against her and kissed her. Taking over her mouth, demanding, controlling, bringing her intense pleasure. She moaned against him. How she could she not know a kiss could be this hot or seductive? He took control, and all she could do was clutch his shoulders as she gave in to him.