Knox’s hand had slipped to my back, and he’d walked me to the house, leaving me at the door to walk directly in front of Dimitri, where he stood in the road, following us, taunting him openly with my scent on Knox. They’d both turned to look at me the moment they passed each other, and I’d done the only sane thing I could do; I’d entered the house, closing them both out and gone to sleep after I’d bathed.
Now with the screams and the music exploding from Luna’s room as she destroyed it, I almost missed the shell version. I was stuck on babysitting duty since I couldn’t go out and let loose. The others had escaped Luna’s tirade, but I was being hunted by creatures, not knowing who they were or why they wanted me. Nothing had been discernible from the car bombing.
The body belonged to a human, one who had been used as an unwilling suicide bomber from what we could tell. I’d sent his family money, because what else could you do when they were mourning a loss that they couldn’t explain? They had sent his human body back to his hometown, placed in the car that exploded without the explosive remnants.
When I had asked why I hadn’t been informed, Lore told me Knox had handled it on my behalf. What the fuck did that even mean? He’d done the same thing with the woodland creature, and it seemed as if he was protecting me, and while he didn’t like it, he still did it. The man was confusing. He was hot one moment, then ice-cold the next, leaving me with icicles hanging from my flesh.
The bounty hounds, well, they were obviously sent by whoever wanted me from within the Nine Realms, but why? I was nobody. Again, when I had gone searching for answers, I’d been told Knox was inside the Nine Realms, handling it. I could walk in the yard, and nothing tried to attack me, and I’d known Knox’s brothers were outside with me, stationed around me even though they tried to hide their presence. One minute Knox had kissed me until I didn’t care if I ever gained air into my lungs again, and then the next, he’d choked me, and I damn well prayed for air. Something had happened to him, and from his reaction to the babes, I had a heavy heart as I tried to add it up in my head.
Knox had been ghostly white as Luna screamed with labor pains. It was as if he had recalled something he’d been through, which made me wonder if he was a father, or had been at one time. Luna’s babes had been my first birthing to witness, and it had been horrifying. Knox had turned lethal at the sight of the shrouded bodies, and I’d felt his need to sink his teeth into my throat and rip it out, and then just like Knox, he’d calmed my demons and my soul.
Breaking Benjamin’s Breath exploded through the speaker of the stereo, and I turned from where I stood on the balcony, drenched in sweat, to stare down the street. Every night I was getting worse, as if I was fighting a war within myself, and the result was the feeling of melting from in the interior of my soul that radiated out of me. I couldn’t stop the gnawing within me. I ached every day, and every night and no matter how much I flicked the bean; it didn’t soothe shit.
I’d eaten copious amounts of food, and yet nothing touched the hunger I felt. The heat, the heat was endless. I spent more time making ice and dumping it into the tub before climbing in than anything else this week. Not that it helped; by the time I’d sat in the ice, it turned to water and began boiling.
Something crashed against the wall, and I gripped the railing, closing my eyes. I counted to ten and then released the breath I held and went to look in Luna’s room to be sure she hadn’t hurt herself. Luna tossed a lamp in my direction, and I ducked, staring at her with wide, horrified eyes.
“What the hell, Luna?”
“Get out, you slut!” she snapped.
“What the fuck did I do to you?”
“You want to know what is wrong with me. You rubbed your ass on the father of my sons, and then you fucking made out with him! I can’t even bring myself to tell him that our sons died because I can’t un-see you with him, you stupid whore!”
I recoiled as if Luna had hit me as I imagined her with Knox, and then frowned as the realization hit me. “Oh, Dimitri?”
“Yes!”
“Oh, my bad,” I frowned. “I didn’t sleep with him.”
She lunged, and I backed up, watching as her mouth formed into fangs before I spun around, rushing down the stairs. The problem with this situation was that the House of Magic didn’t protect us from each other. I busted out the front door, turning to look over my shoulder as she followed on my heels.
“I didn’t fuck him!” I snapped again, watching as she cracked her neck. “Luna, stop!” Her head swung toward the altar that was still covered in flowers blooming with the hold of magic we had placed on it.
“I will rip you apart!”
“No, you won’t. I’m your sister, remember? Bitches before tricks and dicks? Hoes don’t need hoses? Okay, I may have made the last one up, and it’s utterly terrible. I didn’t know you had been with him. You didn’t say anything!”
“I shouldn’t have had to! You are my sister.”
Voices sounded behind us, and I didn’t dare turn to see who it was. My heart raced, and my fingers burned. My gums were raw with pain, and I slowly stepped back, giving myself enough room to dodge her attacks.
“I heard him talking to you! He thinks of nothing else but you! What do you have, a magic fucking pussy?”
“Uh, no, but I mean, maybe?” She lunged again, and I did a backflip from a standing position, twisting to miss her other hand before glaring at her. “Luna, stop!” I shouted, swiping my foot the moment I landed, unseating hers from where she stood. “I am your sister! I didn’t fuck Dimitri, nor do I intend to. You need to stop this now!” I dodged her attacks until I stepped outside the barrier, and I was shoved behind a firm back.
“You! Our sons are dead, and you protect your whore?” Luna snarled.
“Dick move, Dimitri,” I growled, hiding behind him.
“I didn’t know she was a witch when I fucked her.”
“In an alleyway behind our damn shop? She’s not trash, dick. No one bends my sister over a garbage can!”
“Aria, she’s about to tear you to shreds.”
“Pssh, she wishes. I was just avoiding hurting her. How is it you failed to mention you were my sister’s baby daddy?”
“She’s a wolf, and she was oozing her scent. Luna bent over, and I just aided a bitch in heat.”
“You don’t get to call her a bitch.” I glared at his exposed back and yelped as we both jumped back to avoid her nails.
“Aria, shut the fuck up for a moment, sweetheart.”
“How do you turn it off?” I asked and then snorted when he vanished from in front of me. “Fucker!” I tripped backward as she lunged, only to watch her being pulled back as Dimitri sank his teeth into her shoulder.
She calmed, her eyes turning lethargic with a hint of lust banked in the deep blue depths as she lost focus. Dimitri’s eyes matched Luna’s but glowed with the strength of the alpha and his pack. Blood dripped from the bite, and yet his eyes never left mine, kissing her shoulder as he subdued her while healing the damage at the same time. She slowly began pumping her hips, rubbing against him as his hands slipped around her body, steadying her. It was erotic, and I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth as I wondered if I did that too?