Soul Enslaved (Sons of Wrath Book 3) (62 page)

Within seconds, other males swarmed toward them, and the knot in Sabelle’s gut told her she might’ve been better off staying back at the manor.

“Hello, darlin’.” Jeven’s voice from behind raked against her spine.

His smile, while her kids were being dragged off by Orcosian guards, had burned itself inside her brain, and him simply breathing the same air as her ignited fury inside her veins. Should’ve guessed his sorry ass would be there. A pussy like Jeven tended to gravitate toward the species that guaranteed his survival, and with Cash on his ass, Jessica probably seemed like his best option. Sabelle turned around.

That same grin plastered across his face taunted her fist. “How nice to see you again, love. And the children? Are they doing well?”

Sabelle reared back and clocked him in the jaw, throwing his head to the side. He rubbed where she’d hit him, and his devil’s grin told her she hadn’t punched hard enough.
Noted
. The next one would be harder.

“So many reasons I need to hurt you, and you just added another.” He dashed forward, grabbing her throat before she could dodge him, but a powerful blow from the side sent him flying across the room into the wall, where he crumpled to the floor beneath raining drywall.

Ferno pointed a finger at her, a warning to watch her ass, and Sabelle smiled back before making her way over to Jeven, crouching in front of him.

He pounced toward her, blade in hand, and knocked her on the floor, quickly scrambling to straddle her body. “Do you know how badly I’ve wanted to end you, cunt? Can’t fuck you, can’t get you to suck souls, so why keep you around?”

“Go … to … hell!” She dug her nails into his throat. Damned if that was any kind of defense move, but it seemed to be working to loosen Jeven’s grip. With one good heave, she hauled him sideways and climbed on top, her eyes burning a haze of red. “Too many times, Jeven. You’ve hurt me, humiliated me, and berated me in front of my children.”

“I spoke truths. You’re nothing but a whore.”

“I’m so much more, and you know it.” She tightened her grip at his throat. “I think you’ve known for a long time, the power I wield. I could kill you now. You know it. It’s why you’ve held me down for so many years. You. Fear. Me.” She tipped her head. “I’m more powerful now than ever. Love has given me more strength than sex ever could. So fear me more.” She opened her mouth and inhaled deeply.

His fears, his lust, all of it curled like rings of smoke into the space between them. Sabelle placed her lips to his and moaned into his mouth, as his soul seeped into her, filling the empty pit inside her stomach that craved his depravity.

Palms pressing into her chest, he pushed and kicked, wriggling, but she held firm, sucking, savoring the energy that coursed through her body.

At the appearance of Gavin’s face in her mind, she sucked even harder, until, at last, the reason he’d come to mind became the forefront of her thoughts. She pulled away from Jeven.

His face had paled. Lips blued. Eyes glassy, distant. She’d nearly sucked him to death. Thank goodness she’d stopped—the last thing she needed was having her ass shipped to Obsidius for killing someone so worthless in her life. Besides that, asshole or not, he was the father of her children. Eliminating him from their lives entirely would put them on the same track as her and every other succubus’s fucked up childhood.

“Where is the woman?” she asked.

His head lolled to the side, and she glanced about the room for answers instead, catching a flash of red at the top of the staircase, beyond the melee of fighting demons.

She turned back to Jeven. “You will stay away from me and my children. I’ve let you live only because they call you
father
. The next time you come near us, though, I
will
finish you.”

He nodded before his head flopped forward.

Up the stairs, Sabelle raced after the figure she’d seen, until she reached a door. Standing off to the side of it, she jumped forward, lifted her boot, and smashed it in, recoiling backward at the sound of gunshots. Sabelle lowered herself to the floor and peeked around the corner, to see the woman fumbling with the window.

Adrenaline pumped. Her heart beat against her chest like it’d pop out onto the floor and crawl away. Sabelle sucked in a breath and cut a dead run toward her, knocking her midsection and tackling the woman to the ground. The clank of the gun hitting the floor tightened her stomach for a brief second, as she glanced up to see where it’d fallen while straddling the redhead.

“Bitch!” The woman threw an upward punch to Sabelle’s jaw that tipped her to the side. “Fuck you!”

Flexing her jaw, Sabelle gained her stance again and pinned the woman’s arms down. “Where is he?”

“Probably dead!”

Fury boiled inside of Sabelle. She hadn’t even really been sure the woman
was
Jessica until that point. With a killer’s urge to snap her neck, Sabelle gripped the female’s throat, wanting nothing more than to see the last essence of life drain from her body. “Where. Is. He?” she gritted out.

“Fuck you!”

“Where?”

“Vissaul has him … you’ll never see him … again.”

She squeezed harder, but within a beat, Sabelle was flipped onto her back, hands to her throat.

“I’m a trained killer, bitch.”

“So are … his brothers. They’re here … to kill you.” Air couldn’t make its way past Jessica’s unforgiving grip, and the floating of objects told Sabelle she’d probably pass out.

No way. No way would she be beaten. She’d endured hell already. Trained killer, or not, the bitch would go down. She worked an arm from beneath the woman and tugged at her thumb—a move she’d been trained to do in a self-defense demo a while back.

Working her way out of the finger trap, the woman brought her hands back to Sabelle’s throat with more ferocity.

Sabelle reached for a handful of the Jessica’s hair with her free arm, twined it around her fingers, and yanked backward, until Jessica released her throat.

A coughing fit threw Sabelle forward, and she released Jessica’s locks, following up with a punch to her face. It gave her a second’s worth of opportunity to twist to the side from beneath her, and Sabelle leaned in and bit down. Hard.

A series of punches struck her back and neck, forcing her to dislodge her teeth. Jessica threw an arm, blocking a punch to her face, but Sabelle slammed a right hook to the female’s cheek.

“Bitch, you might be a trained killer, but I grew up on the streets of Detroit.”

Another punch knocked her back, and when she didn’t move, Sabelle slumped to the side and prodded her. No movement.
Fuck
. She’d knocked her out.

“Nice going, sweetheart. Anyone got some smelling salts?” She glanced up to see Xander uncrossing his arms while leaning against the doorframe.

Logan pushed past him, rubbing his stubbled chin as he came to a stop in front of her. “You knocked her the fuck out.”

“Yeah, and she better come to before I finish her.”

“Let’s get her strapped down. Helplessness has a way of making someone talk.”

Xander picked up a cell phone from the nightstand. “What do you think your passcode would be if you were a conniving bitch?”

“Fuck you,” Sabelle answered.

“Fuck you, too.”

“Try it.”

He cocked a brow. “Is that an invitation?”

“No. Her passcode.” Sabelle gestured toward the phone. “Type it in.”

“Well, considering I can’t fit seven letters, let’s try FUKQ.” His face lit up. “Hey, what do you know? Fancy that shit. You read minds, or something?”

“No. She told me to fuck myself at least twice. Figured it was a signature phrase.”

“Well, all for nothing. She deleted the texts.”

***

Gavin double blinked against the blur consuming his view. Ceiling. Stone. A cellar? Cold hardness that could only be concrete pressing into his back confirmed as such.

A snap drew his eyes downward.

Therriun stood beside a tool bench and eyed the long toothy smile of a saw. He squeezed a burgundy substance across the metal, his gaze scanning it again. Once he seemed satisfied, he set the tool aside and lifted an intimidating gismo that resembled a drill with branching hooks. A buzzing rev of the tool sent the hooks spiraling before the sound cut out.

Again, he eyed the metal. “Too much will send you into cardiac shock. Just enough will keep you alive and conscious,” Therriun said as he worked.

“Why … are you … doing this?”

Therriun glanced over his shoulder. “I have no reason. I simply enjoy killing. Torturing. And when I dump your body, I’ll still not be sated.”

Gavin blew out a laugh.

“Yes, enjoy these moments. For they will be your last as a whole person.” He gave two quick pulsing spins of what looked like a dremel from hell, with its gritty metal-pronged surface, and set the tool beside the others.

Gavin rolled his head against the concrete. “You remind me of Logan.”

“I’m nothing like you bastard sons. My joy in life will be having every one of you meet my blade.”

“Well, I’m just saying.” Gavin coughed another laugh. “I think you’d meet your match in Logan.”

“Logan will suffer more than the others because of that.”

“You don’t know Logan. You put a blade to him, and he takes it as an act of affection.”

“I know what you’re trying to do, and it won’t work.” Therriun wheeled a tray over to Gavin, lined with tools, chains, tape, paper and salt.

“What’s the salt for?”

“Hunters keep the hide.” Therriun lifted a blade from the tray. “I’m not going to lie. I couldn’t care less about the journal. Whether you tell me, or not, I’m still going to kill you. Slowly. Painfully.”

“I’ve done two tours in Obsidius, Brother. Have your fun.”

Head tipped, blade poised, Therriun stood over Gavin’s body. “Where is the journal?”

“I don’t have a clue. Where’s Denya?”

The first slice seared Gavin’s thigh, forcing him to tighten his muscles and breathe through the poisonous lava that seeped from the blade. Once the metal dislodged from his skin, the burn thickened, spreading to his entire muscle like a wildfire moving across a forest.

“They say the poison from the Juiseppa plant is the worst way to die. It erodes organs from the inside. Once they liquefy, they fill the space between cells and cause hemorrhaging. You literally bleed out your intestines from your mouth, nose and eyeballs.”

“If you were aiming for my intestines, I’d say you missed them by a long shot.”

“I just infected your femoral artery with it. Be patient. Takes time to circulate.” Therriun rubbed salt into the wound and Gavin’s back arched, but, still, Gavin refused to make a sound. “It’s rare in the underworld. Takes two centuries to grow, and will only grow in the wild jungles of Orcosia. Our native ancestors invited settlers to a feast and laced the meat with Juiseppa. Over a period of days, they’d sicken. And when they finally bled out, the whole village drank the liquefied organs.”

“You know what I miss most about the Enforcers in Obsidius?” Gavin lolled his head to the side. “They didn’t talk so much.”

“I’ll ask again. Where is the journal?”

“Think I left it in the bathroom—on the sink beside your panties and lipstick. Where is Denya?”

Sharp, radiating pain hit his other thigh, and the high-pitched buzz of a rotor trailed it. Sloshy sounds, like grinding flesh, forced Gavin to screw his eyes tight and pretend his thigh wasn’t the target of such mutilation. The poison Therriun’d laced on the blades radiated down to his ankles, and a small part of him wished for the bastard to finish him. The blade slowed to a stop like the engine had cut out on it, still lodged inside Gavin’s flesh. The second dremel spun out a tune of agony, as it beat into his stomach and tore the flesh there. Gavin cursed aloud with that one.

“Since you didn’t allow me to finish. I forgot to tell you. Juiseppa amplifies the pain. It’s progressive, meaning, by the time I’m finished with you, a slap to your face will feel like I crushed your cheek bones. There’s also no known cure for it.” Therriun smiled. “Now I’ll ask you again. Where is the journal?”

CHAPTER 35

Sabelle paced Jessica’s room, scratching the back of her head, as the woman lay passed out. Anxiety raked inside her gut as each minute passed. Every second pushed Gavin farther out of her grasp. She’d already lost a baby, and Sabelle would be damned if, after all she’d been through, after all the male had done for her, she’d let someone take him from her, too. No, she couldn’t imagine a world that didn’t include Gavin. The mere thought itched at the back of her throat.

Not the time nor the place for tears.

“To hell with this.” Sabelle drew back and gave a hard smack to Jessica’s face.

Her eyes flinched but she didn’t open them. Another hard smack had her sucking in a sharp breath before her lids flipped up.

Logan and Xander had tied her to the bed, and stood at either side of her with Ferno at the foot of the bed, arms crossed, un-amused and completely disinterested.

Nerves flaring, Sabelle had come to the level of
take no shit
. Gavin’s life could be in danger and losing him at that point would destroy her. She leaned over the redhead. “Talk.”

A lazy roll of Jessica’s eyes accompanied an aloof smile. “Kiss my ass.”

The anxiety exploded to the surface, and Sabelle tugged the dagger from her hip, holding it at the woman’s stomach. “You fucking tell me where he is, or I’ll slice your belly open like a lamb for slaughter.” She pressed into her. “He’s going to die.”

For whatever reason, Jessica’s eyes filled with tears as if she suddenly gave a damn. “He is. Shame, isn’t it? Neither one of us gets him in the end.”

“Don’t fuck with me. I will have each one of these guys tear your limbs off, one by one, while I slice the organs out of your body.”

Xander whistled behind her. “My kinda girl.”

Jessica’s gaze flitted to around the brothers before landing back on Sabelle. “The old Globe building. And when you settle down to your perfect little family, just remember, he was mine first.” She smiled all smug and proud. “That beautiful cock fucked me
so
hard.” She faked an obvious shiver.