Vermilion Kiss (15 page)

“He won’t be able to help with this. His curse is in effect.”

Sang glowered. “Oh. The thing that’s my fault.” He paused. “Everything is my fault. Damn.”

I smacked him across the cheek. “Stop being so down! Everything is not your fault! Darius chose to have this curse so that you could be freed.”

He mumbled, “Still, it’s my fault.”

“No, it’s not! It’s not anyone’s fault that a fucking incubus came and attacked Hira while we were in Las Vegas! Shit happens!” I raised my hand to hit him again when I realized that he had dozed off. I kissed him on the cheek, untangled my hand from his, and got off the bed. It was high off the floor so it was easy to get underneath it. The comforter was so long that it almost swept to the floor and I was grateful that it hid me behind its beige curtain.

I ignored how cramped and uncomfortable I was under the bed and focused on the task at hand. I would get the part of Hira’s soul back from the incubus. I would. After everything was eerily silent for a while, Sang began snoring and I waited and waited patiently for I don’t know how long before I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore.

My eyes tore open at the sound of a piercing scream.

I hurriedly scrambled to my hands and knees, got from beneath the bed, and shakily stood up. The screaming had already stopped and I immediately noticed Sang lying on the bed, the covers in disarray, and his eyes rolled back, mouth agape in terror.

Oh, no. Please, no! Please tell me I made it in time!

I reached out and was just about to stroke his cheek, tell him that everything was all right, when I heard a snicker somewhere in the room and my body became stiff.

The floor creaked and I spun around to see a figure dressed in a black suit beside the door, which was not open, and on the other side was Caen.

He punched the incubus in the stomach and they went flying back, slammed against the wall, and crumpled to the floor. I heard a loud crack as the incubus got to its feet and then lunged at me.

I inhaled, relaxed, and felt the power surging within, a bright, brilliant flame that roared as it sprang to life. I extended a hand in front of me and as the incubus came about a few inches away, a stream of pink flames burst from my palm and enveloped its body.

It shrieked, eerie, hollow, like a wounded coyote, and the flames dissipated as it kicked me mercilessly in the knee and I yelped in pain and stumbled backward.

Caen’s movements were a quick blur as he darted to the incubus, wrapped a hand around its throat, and lifted it off the ground and into the air.

“Give Sang back,” he hissed, both eyes glowing a rich, bloody crimson.

The incubus snarled like a rabid dog.

With tears welling in my eyes I worriedly checked on Sang. His eyes were now closed and he lay still as a statue as I shook him to try and wake him up, but it was no use.

Did the incubus take part of Sang’s soul, too? How did it happen so fast?

My stomach clenched in anguish and I angrily grit my teeth, stomped up to the incubus whose legs were kicking and dangling as Caen held it perfectly in place, and peered up into its face.

It was wearing a ski mask, and I growled as I ripped it off and got a good look at its face.

My knees buckled as I looked ahead of me in utter denial.

No. It couldn’t be…

I had to be seeing things. I must be seeing things, right? There was no way this could be real.

Because the person staring back at me with deep green eyes was someone I knew.

Or at least someone I thought I knew.

Someone who had saved me before and invited me over for tea.

Someone I never would’ve suspected.

Because this person wasn’t a man, but a woman.

Haru
.

Caen clenched his free hand and readied it for a punch when I latched onto his arm and yelled, “No! Caen, don’t you recognize her? It’s Haru!”

He blinked his eyes and nodded his head, wisps of golden hair falling across his face as his lips formed into a silent O. “This is…the woman who visited Hira in the hospital.”

In the tiny stretch of time, Haru bit into his wrist and Caen instantly let go of her, whether because of the pain or because he meant to, I don’t know. Haru flipped mid—air and landed on all fours. She was wailing now, sharp sobs wracking her chest as tears dripped onto the floor.

Why was she crying? Just what the hell was happening?

“Haru,” I said softly, “can you please tell us why you’re here? You’re not the incubus, are you?”

Her mouth quaked as she wiped Cane’s blood onto her sleeve and looked at me straight on with those deep viridian gems. Her body shook uncontrollably as she replied, “N-n-n-no, not me. I-I was taken control of. Fell into a trap. Not the real incubus.”

“It’s okay.” I hugged her and she felt so cold, so exhausted.

“N-n-no, it’s not, L-Lily. I…” The tears poured swiftly down her cheeks in thin rivulets. “It…was me. I did all those horrible things. It’s my fault Hira is in the Hospital. My fault Sang is hurt. Me.”

“But how?” I pressed. “I really don’t believe that you’re capable of these things.”

She bowed her head. “I led him to you guys. I led him to you guys.”

“What are you talking about, woman?” Caen inquired irritably.

“Wasn’t me. Wasn’t me. Him. Him. He took control of me and made me do it.”

“You’re telling us that another person made you take Hira’s soul and now Sang’s?”

High frustrated sounds escaped Haru’s throat. “He won’t…let me…speak…right. He’s angry. Really angry now. Help, please!”

I brushed the tears from her eyes and began to massage wide circles on her back to try and comfort her. “It’s okay now. It’s okay. You’re safe. You’re safe now.”

A throaty chuckling erupted from the doorway and we all whipped our heads around to see a slim man dressed in a gray suit laughing like a lunatic. He had long wavy obsidian hair, almond-shaped golden eyes, and a very feminine-looking face. Clapping his hands, he cooed, “Naughty, naughty Haru, almost giving me away. And I thought we were having so much fun, too.”

“Who the fuck are you?” Caen growled and struck at the man with a materialized rapier.

It was so minuscule, so brief, but he just stabbed into pure air as the man appeared behind and kicked him in the back. Bright orange fire flickered around Caen’s hands and he hurled them at the man who casually dodged and retaliated with a punch upwards to Caen’s jaw. He gasped and folded to his knees as the man strode over to Haru and me.

She was torn from my embrace as the man grabbed her by the hair and threw her against the wall. Then he was behind me and both my hands were brought to my back and my arms twisted in a painful position.

“Now I can finally get the soul I really wanted,” he breathed into my ear.

“Mine?” I hissed.

“No.”

“Then who…”

“You’ll see soon enough, little lady. While I’m here, though, it’d be such a waste to leave without trying some of you.”

My breath hitched and the spirit lioness inside me growled in agitation. The man had abruptly switched my arms in front of me and was now leaning his mouth close to mine. I tried to bring forth the pink flames to my hands but I decided that would take too long so I squeezed my eyes shut, raised my leg, and kicked him right where it hurt. That oh—so—delicate triangle between his legs. He howled in pain and staggered back while throwing a string of curses at me.

It was then that I noticed Haru was gone and Caen was slumped against the bed.

It dawned on me who he mentioned.

Whom he really wanted.

Darius.

As I tried to rush out of the room, the incubus’s hand snaked out and caught my right leg, making me topple over. I gasped in surprise and my hands claws against the floor like nails on a chalkboard as the man pulled me back and smothered my mouth, inserted his fingers between my teeth. I bit down and blood sprinkled out. He wasn’t fazed at all. Fuck.

“We don’t want Darius to know what’s going on now, do we? Besides, I still haven’t gotten my taste of you yet,” he hissed

The very thought of this disgusting man touching me was enough to let the lioness free from her metaphysical cage. She roared as she sprang to a corporeal form from the hot pink aura oozing off me, and she clamped down hard on the man’s left arm, the one that covered my mouth, and severed it from his shoulder, and devoured it in one bite. For she was so enormous, her head alone was the size of a horse.

The man didn’t even flinch as blood spurted from his wound and pooled onto the floor. He clutched at his bleeding shoulder, threw back his head, and laughed. “Oh, I see, I see. So this is how it’s gonna be? You’re gonna play hard to get, huh?”

“I don’t have time for you!” I hollered and the lioness licked the black lines of her lips, held up a paw, and sliced at the man’s face. Four jagged lines spread across as her claws dug deep into his tender flesh and then she suddenly yowled as if in pain.

The pink aura that was giving her power was trickling down fast and I became dizzy as I stood to my feet. Was my strength running out? And with it, my vampiric power?

The lioness was about to swipe at the man again but the pink light of my aura was now a faded peach colored cloud and she instantly vanished into nothing.

The incubus tried to stand but his legs wobbled and he crashed to his knees. “What—what’s happening? Why can’t I move right? Is this vampire venom? But how? I wasn’t bitten.”

I grunted as I made my way to the doorway and stumbled into Darius’s room. Haru was bent over the bed and I screamed, “Get the fuck away from him!” And went to shove her aside when I saw that Darius was no longer in the bed and her body was so rigid I could probably tip her over with my pinky.

Where was Darius? He wasn’t in any state to be moving around!

I heard someone panting and whirled around to see the incubus limping toward me, a crooked smile playing on his mouth. “If you’re wondering where he is, she already disposed of him. You know what happens to vampires when they die, right? They turn to dust!”

Just as the last words left his throat, a hand plunged through his back and protruded through his chest holding onto a bright scarlet heart that still pulsed with life.

Blood dribbled from the incubus’s mouth as he turned his head to see Darius behind him. “But…how…Haru told me she killed you.”

Darius replied coolly, “You cannot always believe what others say. I have the ability to manipulate minds as you do, incubus.” He twisted his arm inside him, and I cringed at the terrible squelching sound as the man screamed in anguish as Darius closed his fingers around his heart.

“Darius,” I said, relieved. “How are you, um, moving? I thought you couldn’t move a lot with the curse?”

He chuckled. “I am not afflicted by the curse right now, my dear. I am sorry, but I lied. It is tomorrow that it will come. I told you today so our wonderful guests here would overhear and think it suitable to attack me at such a vulnerable time.”

“Then you knew…all along…who the incubus was?”

He frowned. “Yes, my dear. I have known all along that Tom Banks was the incubus and that he obtained control of Haru. He is a rather infamous man in the paranormal society, known for his exotic tastes.”

I was shocked. He knew all along? I burst out, “But how? And why didn’t you tell us? And who the fuck is Tom Banks?”

“Some things are better left unsaid,” he answered quietly and buried his nails into Tom’s heart.

The incubus shrieked and writhed as Darius snapped his fingers and Haru collapsed onto the bed.

“You’re as astute as always, Darius,” he choked. “I don’t know how you saw through me, but somehow you did and it was my mistake to underestimate you.”

“I knew it was you from the first time I saw Hira,” Darius explained. “You are known to attack those with red hair and you were foolish enough to leave your scent upon him. That is how I knew.”

“What are you, a goddamn dog?”

“No. I am the one who killed you.” And as he crushed the heart within his hand, blood flew everywhere, and Tom fell, eyes turning vacant, soulless, as death quickly claimed him.

Darius yanked his arm out and lightly licked his fingers before stepping over Tom’s body and enveloping me in his arms.

“You don’t need to worry about me,” his cold breath ghosted onto my ear, and his tongue slid out and caught my sensitive lobe, “as I am the one who shall always worry about you.”

As his hands found their way to my breasts, I blurted out, “Okay, okay, but what about Haru? Will she be all right?”

His hands stopped roaming and he said dryly, “Of course she will be, now that the control has been broken. She will most likely sleep for a day or two before awakening and then we will take her back with us and heal Hira.”

“You got his soul back?”

“Yes.”

“And Sang’s?”

“Of course.”

My eyes closed on their own and Darius scooped me into his arms bridal-style. “You used a great amount of your energy, my dear. I fear that I cannot do as I initially pleased.”

I panted. “You pervert. Just let me…go…to sleep.”

And I did.

I had given Sang the parts of his soul back and it was a quick process. The glimmering, cobalt blue light that signified his soul had melted into his chest and instantly awakened him. With blurred eyes, I hugged and kissed him, and he me, and then Caen and Darius did the same. We loitered around Wolf’s estate the whole day. Sang and I bet on who could find Wolf first and who could find the most hidden rooms, in which I pitifully lost. After eating a dinner of fish and chips with an absent Wolf, we clambered back into the room we had laid Haru in and crowded around her until her eyes fluttered open and she groaned.

“Hey, sleepyhead, you awake now?” Sang asked while poking her on the forehead. She slid her gaze from left to right, from Darius to Caen, and cradled her head in her palms with a pained grunt.

“Wha-where am I?” Her words were slightly slurred.

“You’re in France, in the vampiress Wolf’s home,” Caen clarified.

She brought her knees to her chest and sighed. “How did I get here all the way from Pennsylvania? I don’t—I can’t remember anything except that night when the man broke into my house and we fought tooth and nail and then…nothing.”