Soul Enslaved (Sons of Wrath Book 3) (15 page)

“Look what you made me do! Gaszla!” Another crack buckled her knees. A tattooed arm pressed into the bed beside her face, and a strong grip of her hair forced her head to snap to the side. “I’ll do the deal. You’ve played this hand well. But it’s going to cost you, gaszla. When night falls, if you’re not dead, consider it mercy on my part.”

Her body trembled beneath him, and she clamped her eyes shut, searching for some solace as he entered her once more.

Gavius.

CHAPTER 5

The park was mostly empty, aside from a small boy who looked to be no more than a year or two older than Thomas and a woman who Sabelle presumed was his mother. While she toyed on her cell phone, the child sat poking a stick at the sand. His white T-shirt, covered in filth, looked too small for his body, as his little belly peeked beneath, and his blue shorts had worn thin. Black stains on the bottom of his feet had Sabelle instinctively looking around for a pair of shoes, though she saw none nearby. His mother, on the other hand, sported long fake nails and a Coach bag.

Sabelle stood beside the slide as Janie followed Thomas up the ladder. “I hate bitches like that.” She nodded toward the woman. “Selfish, welfare-gobbling … not for their children, but themselves.” The urge to walk up to the woman and slap her struck too hard. “Pisses me off. Why do they even have kids, if they don’t give a shit about them?”

“You think he’s her kid?”

“If he’s not, I find it even more concerning that someone would knowingly leave a child with her. And I sure as hell hope he didn’t walk up here on his own.”

TJ slid down the slide, laughing when he reached the bottom, and immediately raced to the ladder for another round.

Sabelle couldn’t help but smile at Thomas’ infectious laugh. “We’ll be here all day. He loves the slide.” She sighed. “Wouldn’t that be nice? If your only care in the world was slipping down slides?”

“The innocence of childhood.”

“I just … hope they don’t lose that, is all.”

“Why would they?”

She shrugged. “I really don’t even remember when my world turned from innocent to hell. Just seemed like everybody might’ve been happy at one point.”

“You? Happy?” Gavin jabbed her with his elbow. “I couldn’t imagine.”

“I don’t want to mess things up for them, ya know? I want them to have all the hope in the world that they can do anything, be anything, and love whoever they want.”

“You don’t feel like you can love whoever you want?”

“It’s complicated.” She tucked her hands into her pockets and made mounds of sand with her shoe. “I remember my first kiss. He was a neighborhood kid, and we used to go down to this ravine where there was this rope that hung over the water. All the neighborhood kids went. But I had a crush on this guy. Big time.” She blew out a laugh. “Anyway, he took me into a small clearing of the woods and we were just talking. Out of nowhere, he kissed me.” She smiled at the memory. “It was ridiculous how it affected me. You wouldn’t think someone’s lips could incite so much reaction. The fireworks and feeling dizzy and the wonderment all wrapped into one moment. So innocent and beautiful.” She glared down at the mess of sand she’d piled onto her shoe. “I never felt that again.”

“Too many frogs, not enough princes. Maybe you need to hop your ass over to a new pond.” Admittedly, Gavin’s sense of humor had grown on her in the last couple of days. “There’s a bench over there. C’mon, let’s sit.”

“Uh … no.”

“Do you typically follow the kids around the park?”

“Always.” She gave a quick nod. “This place gets packed with thugs and teens.”

Gavin twisted, as though scanning the surroundings. “It’s pretty empty right now.”

“What is your point?”

“Let me show you something.” He nabbed her wrist and gave a light tug.

Sabelle drew her hand back, resisting his pull. “I’m fine right here.”

“Two minutes.”

She glanced back at the kids, still sliding. “Two minutes,” she echoed and followed him toward the bench.

He led her to just outside of the fence, not far, but uncomfortable enough to have her mentally counting down the seconds. “You don’t even have to sit. Just stand here a moment.”

“What are we waiting for?”

“Watch.”

Thomas hit the dirt and immediately stood up from the slide. “Momma?”

“I’m right here, baby!” Sabelle lurched forward, stopping when Gavin clutched her hand.

Tiny fingers clasped together, Thomas looked around, as if he didn’t know what to do for a moment. With a glance back to Sabelle, he ran around the slide toward the ladder, yet seconds passed and Thomas hadn’t appeared at the top.

Sabelle stepped around the perimeter of the fence but paused on seeing Thomas crouched beside the boy. Talking to him? Her heart caught. Thomas never socialized with other children. Never.

She sensed Gavin beside her. “What are you trying to say?”

“Judging by the expression on your face and the way you’re looking at me out of the corner of your eye, probably what you don’t want to hear.”

“So I’m supposed to sit off to the side, like her? Act like I got something better to do than be with my kids?”

“You’re incapable of being like her, Sabelle. You’re too good a mother. I’m merely suggesting that you broaden your perspective. Step back, is all.”

“Step back.” She took an exaggerated step to emphasize her point. “So I’m supposed to see—” Near a tree standing off to the side, Sabelle caught a glimpse of something that stole her breath. “Oh, my gods. TJ! Janie!”

She raced forward, Gavin at her heels, as from the trees, an enormous flash of brown bolted from the row of hedges—where it’d sat crouched. Stalking.

Gavin raced ahead of her—straight for the lion bounding toward her children.

As it pounced, Gavin caught it midair, grappling for its throat. “Fuck!” He gripped the large cat, pinning it to the ground.

Sabelle scrambled to grab her children, catching sight of the woman across from them stuffing her phone into her pocket.
Trifling bitch.
Not even a lion could get her ass off that phone fast enough.

“Oh, shit! D’you see that?” the woman asked as she approached the boy who stood beside Thomas.

No, I didn’t. Ass
. No sense getting into shit in front of the kids. Sabelle gathered Thomas and Janie into her arms and focused her attention back to Gavin. He pushed up from where the lion lay unmoving on the ground—like he’d tranquilized the damn thing, though Sabelle didn’t dare get close to scope it out.

Gavin tugged out his phone, hand on hip. The lion still hadn’t moved. Maybe it
had
been tranquilized.

“Dayum. He is …
mmmmm
,” that annoying voice said beside her. “Fine.”

A spike of fire lit her veins, and Sabelle swung around. “Your son just about became a
lion’s
meal. A lion. Aren’t you worried about where the hell a lion came from? Or how the hell
a lion
escaped a damn zoo?”

“Y’ain’t gotta be rude. I’m sayin’ he was pretty amazing.”

“He was. But even more amazing is the fact that no one got hurt.” She tipped her head. “Now why don’t you take your amazed ass home before that lion decides to wake up.”

The woman’s face scrunched at the insult. “Bitch, you go home. Shit.”

Sabelle’s eyes clouded in a haze of red, capturing the woman in a momentary entrancement. “Leave. Now.”

Pupils dilated, the woman silently nodded in a zombified state and carried her son off at the same time Gavin headed over.

“That was intense.” He shook his head, flexing his fingers. “Is everyone okay?”

“Yes.” She caught a glimpse of the woman walking off and toying with her cell phone, as her son trailed behind her. “Hope she doesn’t go doing something stupid.” Sabelle directed her attention back to Gavin. “Where the hell did it come from?”

“According to the police, they’d gotten reports of sightings. They’ve been looking for it the past half hour. Apparently, it escaped the basement of a crack house.” Gavin rubbed a hand along his cheek. “Drug dealers are using lions to guard their homes now. What the hell happened to simple attack dogs?”

“Probably all these lycan attacks they can’t seem to explain. Think they need something bigger. Fiercer.”

“They’ll be here any minute to retrieve it.”

The lion still lay unmoving, about a hundred yards away from where they stood. “How …. What did you
do
, exactly?”

Gavin shrugged. “Knocked it out cold.”

Sabelle couldn’t help but smirk at that. “Step back. Broaden my perspective.” Had she not spotted the cat, all three of the kids could’ve been mauled before Gavin caught it. “Thanks for the tip.”

Vehicles raced for open spots in the parking lot behind them, and Gavin ran his hand through his hair and puffed his cheeks.

“How do you plan to explain having subdued a lion to the oncoming
humans
?” she asked.

“No clue.” He placed his hands on his hips. “Creative storytelling?”

***

“
And our top story today … ladies, brace yourselves, because this protective dad might just be the sexiest display of heroics we’ve ever seen.
”

‘Mystery Man Saves His Kids From Lion Attack’ hovered above a still screen beside Marge Penderbaum’s head, as she read the headline aloud.

Turning away from the flatscreen hanging in his casino office, Gavin groaned, clamping his eyes shut at the sound of her co-reporter’s
‘Oh, my!’

“
The man in the video you’re about to watch proves that moms aren’t the only ones who’d lift a vehicle to save a child. Check out this loving father, as he fearlessly dives in front of his kids and, get this
, wrestles
with the animal. Miraculously, no one was hurt. Not even the lion, that, somehow, this guy managed to keep pinned long enough for the mother to retrieve the frightened children. Uploaded just this afternoon, this video has gone viral on social media, and already had two hundred thousand hits on V-tube. Authorities tell us the lion had escaped an abandoned drug house, where it was believed to have been sold in exchange for drugs, and wandered into a nearby park where the young boy and his sister were playing. The new trend of owning these dangerous pets seems to be on the rise as the unusual attacks continue to plague the city. Experts warn that these are very dangerous animals and should not be considered domesticated pets.
”

A two-minute clip, which appeared to have been recorded on a phone with the way it jostled and the grainy quality, showed Gavin grasping the throat of the lion as it lay paralyzed on its back. Sabelle stood behind him, hands on her horror-plastered face.

Claire Davenport lifted the paper on the desk beside Marg and fanned her face
.
“
Phew! Not a bad looking hero, is he Margie?
”

Both female reporters laughed.

Margie raised a brow. “
Not saying I’d jump in front of a lion, but, uh … if one happened to cross paths with me, I wouldn’t protest if he saved me, that’s for sure!
” A smile stretched her lips, revealing too-white teeth. “
Whatever trick that was just earned this mystery dad a cozy place in every mom’s heart.
”

“
Feel free to comment on our Fazebook page.”
The camera panned to Claire. “
What would you do in this highly unusual situation?
”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” Gavin clicked off the television. “So much for staying below the radar. At least the humans don’t suspect anything unusual. Idiots.”

“How many kids you got now, feshjule? Three? Four? Ten?” With a snicker, his brother, Maddox—or Mad Dog, as they called him—punched Gavin in the arm. “Just playin’. But seriously, Bro, you need to keep your fuckstick in your pants.”

“Are you finished?”

“Probably not. This is good stuff. It’s hard coming up with material to mess with you,
Mister Perfecto
. Just be thankful Zeke doesn’t read or watch TV. You’d be gettin’ hella shit from him, if he did.”

The mention of his wounded brother served as a momentary distraction from the storm swirling inside Gavin’s head. “How’s he doing?”

“Getting stronger each day. I wouldn’t say he’s ready to take on
a lion
just yet, but he’s getting there. Still the same Zeke under all that shit.” Maddox shook his head. “Strung out on painkillers and the horny fucker still fiends for pussy. He’d be one jealous bastard if he could see all the attention you’re getting.”

An unsettling thought tugged at Gavin’s mind. It’d only take the wrong male—or female—to catch the news, find out he’d been released and was staying at in an unguarded home, and Sabelle could quickly inherit some long-time enemies of the Brothers. “Somehow, I’ll need to convince Sabelle to come back to the mansion with me. It’s only a matter of time before this gets out and every fuckin’ supe in three counties tries breaking down her door.”

“You don’t think she’d stay with us?” Maddox scowled. “Every female I know wants a free night at La Casa de Wrath. Bitches go crazy for that shit. Especially in your bed, Bro. They act like they’ve scored the fucking penthouse at the Waldorf.”

“Sabelle is … a very simple woman. I’ve found she’s not easily impressed by money.”

His eyebrow made a slow trek up. “Too bad she’s a soul sucker. That’s a keeper right there.” He crossed his arms. “No offense … the ladies you bring home are beautiful, but any one of them would send your soul straight to Stygius, if they could make some cash off it.”

Gavin sneered. “She’s actually not a soul sucker. Probably the only succubus in existence who can resist a man.”

“How the fuck does she do that?”

“No idea.”

“Then, this slave gig … it’s not so bad, huh?”

With a sharp exhale, Gavin shrugged. “It’s certainly not the fire and brimstone I expected.”

“Sex with a succubus is supposed to be the bomb, if you can get passed that whole eternal servitude crap they like to pull. But since you’re already on the chain, maybe this could be fun. You like that bondage shit, right?”