Eden's Charms (36 page)

“No.”

“Coward!” With a sharp turn and whip of her hand through her hair, Dylan disappeared down the corridor.

Chapter Eighteen

Footsteps approached. Raven sat up. “Savvy?”

“Not quite, Beauty.”

Raven did a double take. She rubbed her eyes to clear the image. “What happened to you—Donovan? You know, other than my attempt at your life.” Raven gave the man a heinous grin.

“Not quite what you’re used to seeing is it? Not quite the same man.”

“Oh, you could say that again—but don’t. Spare me the halitosis.” Raven walked a half circle around Donovan and as she took in his new appearance she found her heart beating ridiculously fast.

“It’s time you and I had a chat. A real heart to heart.”

“The conversation shall be lopsided then since only one of us has a heart. What exactly happened to you after I staked you today? You don’t look well.” Raven sat down on the lumpy cot.

“You ran a steel blade through me, Raven.” He snarled. “A direct blow. What did you expect? You’ve seen the movies after a vamp gets his due. He fizzles away and goes out screaming.” Donovan did a slow spin and showed Raven what he looked like without all his glamour and magic he’d used each and every time he’d bedded her.

“I’m going to be sick. You look exactly like—” Raven leaned over and heaved.

“Were you about to say Xavier? Didn’t he ever mention me? Not once? Your brother was his roommate in college for four years, Ray. Really? Not once?” Donovan sighed as he sat beside her.

Raven couldn’t talk if she wanted to. “Ha-how? Why?”

“Let me tell you a story, Raven. It began a long, long time ago in a land far away. My identical twin brother met a gal and fell for her. She pretended he was dirt and walked all over him. When he tried to tell her he loved her she ripped out an eye and tore off one of his balls. “You’re a little rough in the sack, Ray.”

“He raped me then tried to eat me alive.”

“Everyone has different ways of showing their love. How’s André and his new change of life these days?”

Realizing what she’d done she was certain God would strike her down any moment. “Oh no! I handed my brother over to you on a silver platter. And you killed him. You freaking killed my brother.” Guilt left her heart bleeding better than a hacksaw could have.

“That’s the face I wanted to see. Thank you. Yes, he was a delicacy…succulent and juicy. You’ve just made the past one hundred years of my life worth every dreadful second. You’re about to get a makeover, Raven. Here,” Donovan shot her a manila envelope. “Think quick.”

Making no attempt to catch it, the envelope landed at her feet. “And here I thought you were a baseball fan. When I return I want you naked and in these.”

“Die already!”

“Oh Ray! Just open the damn envelope. This is one surprise I want to see with my eyes.”

With trembling hands, Raven ripped through the enveloped and looked at Donovan horror-stricken. Turning away from him she vomited her soul onto the floor again.

“How did you get these pearls? Xavier stole them from me the night he tried to kill me. How did you get these? Was it you that tried to kill me? Not Xavier?” She yelled backing away.

Donovan snickered. “It’s our little secret, okay? Lucian killed the wrong guy. I body snatched Xavier that night at the university he came to you. His body, my brutality. He’d never have hurt you. The fool loved you. Even the night Lucian killed him, he was sputtering gibberish about his love for you and you cut off his fucking head.”

Raven realized he was actually more insane than his dead brother. “So everything was a complete lie? The story about me turning you, too? Does Ethan know you’re a Sinclair?” Raven fought the tears. Right now she was so mad and confused that if she cried…well she wasn’t going to. Not over this demon.

“I really enjoyed the sex if that’s what you’re worried about. You’re better than a seasoned whore. Kudos, Raven St. James. Not many women can achieve that honor. I’m going to eat you alive in front of your family tonight. And no, Ethan knew naught of my name.” With unsound speed Donovan grabbed Raven’s arms, and twisted them behind her back and pinned her face down on her cot.

Dylan yanked the door open to the cell, the harpoon shooter pointed at the cot. “Hey,” she yelled. “You told me I was the one. That you were just gonna kill her. That it was me you wanted.”

Donovan inclined his head toward the door, yelling, “I am going to kill her, Dylan. After I’ve had my fun. Get out!”

“Over my dead body!” Raven screamed.

“That’s in the works, Beauty, but for the love of Lucifer, shut up.” Donovan threw a right fist into Raven’s jaw. He stood and in a blur hovered in front of Dylan, holding the weapon she had seconds before.

“Why is it men always hit women in the face?” Raven shoved past the two of them, rubbing her jaw, aiming for the door only to have her foot snagged mid-air by Donovan. Landing on her hands and knees, he leaned over her, and she kicked backwards and hit his nose squarely. The weapon skidded across the floor. She crawled toward it. Dylan lunged for Donovan her fangs visible.

Donovan swatted Dylan off him as if she were an insect and watched her spiral to the floor. He followed her, grabbed a handful of her purple hair and crushed her on the cold cement, as if she were a cigarette butt.

“Hey!” Raven shouted.

Donovan lifted his head and glared into the lethal end of a harpoon aimed between his eyes. He looked past Raven, a malicious glint in his eye. “André, so nice of you to join us. You’re just in time to kill your sister!”

Raven swung around an unprecedented one-hundred-eighty degrees. “André?” Raven set her sights on the silvery-blues of her brother and scratched her head.

Donovan ordered, “André, take the gun from Raven and then stake your beloved sister.”

“Beauty, give me the gun please?”

Raven handed the gun over and walked out of the cell. “When did you get back in town?”

Lucian cocked his head to one side taking in everything and everyone. “Not soon enough, apparently.”

Donovan screamed, “Stop her! I command you!”

“Donovan, of all the time you spent with André and myself, pretending to guard us, did you never once notice the only difference between us is our eye color?” He didn’t wait for an answer and proceeded to unload the stakes into Donovan’s heart with deadly accuracy.

Dylan tried to skirt around Lucian. “I was trying to help Raven. I swear to Gah—gah—god.” Her arm extended, to keep him at bay.

“Then when you meet him—Gah—god, be sure to tell him you’re sorry for lying.” Lucian aimed the gun once more and pulled the trigger. Mercy? He had none. The force of the harpoon sent her backwards and staked her to the wall. Lucian turned to his sister, dropped the gun and held her. “Jesus, Beauty! Did he hurt you? I thought I saw a freaking ghost when I walked in.”

“Xavier and he were identical. Luce, he body snatched Xavier.”

“Go. Julian, Jonah and Ands are up a few levels. I’ll be up after I finish this deed and you can tell me all of it.”

“No, I have to finish this, Luce, otherwise it’ll never be over for me.” Raven approached Donovan’s limp body and rummaged through his pockets for a pack of matches. Finding her treasure, she opened the little book with the logo,
“
Sinsations ~ a little slice of Hell.”

More like the porthole
, she thought. Raven tossed the tiny torch on Donovan’s body and walked out.

Lucian asked, “Where’s Savanah and Ethan?”

“I’m here,” Ethan answered, his voice barely audible.

Lucian walked one door down, grabbed the handle with one hand and slid his fingers between the bars on the door and one giant yank later tore the door from the hinges. Taking a good look at Ethan, he told him, “Shift and heal your leg. Double shift if you’ve got the strength.”

Ethan squeezed his eyes shut, grunted and within a blink blond fur replaced skin and the broken bones mended before his eyes. “Where’s my fiancé? Lucian, my sister’s here. The Maestro kidnapped her. My leg’s better.”

Lucian helped him stand. “You up for this?”

Ethan didn’t answer him already headed for the dungeon after reshifting. Seeing Savanah pinned down to a table, nude with black leather straps anchoring her to the table was the beginning of Ethan’s demise. Seeing Devon undoing his trousers and watching them drop to the floor was the last straw. Ethan fought wildly to run to her, but Lucian picked him up by the back of his shirt and hoisted him off his feet.

“Hold up. Julian’s on the other side of that door. As is her father and Jonah. “Gotta get all our eggs in one basket. Then crack them. Trust me? She can handle this for a minute.”

****

“Look, Devon? I realize you were raised amongst the underprivileged, scum of the earth, but rape is wrong. Astronomically wrong. We won’t even mention murder, but did you have to kill Jacob?” Savanah prattled, “I have every known disease. Herpes, had a break out just yesterday. Totally covered with big juicy blisters.”

“Me too.”

“Shit. You so don’t want a piece of this.” Savanah cranked her head around taking in her room. “You really don’t want to get on this table with me. Holy mother of God—is that the same birthmark I have? Oh my goddess. No way. No freaking way!” Savanah screamed, seeing the exact same birthmark that every member of royal lineage held in her family.

“Hello, dear cousin. Nice of you to notice. Yes, my mother was Devona and I was raised by a nest of vamps. So this is going to make us truly kissing cousins.”

Devon’s snarl had Savanah’s stomach in a giant knot.

“Still got an itch, witch? We’ll knock it out of you from both ends. You want top or bottom, Devon?”

Don’t pass out Savvy
, she told herself.
Live first. Do as much damage as possible
. Savanah struggled to see where the voice came from. It, the
nasal-drone
voice, was supposed to be on the flip side of the pond.

“Hello, Princess. Miss me?” Radcliff walked around the side of the table, and ran his fingers up the length of Savanah’s body.

“Savor that little delight, Radcliff. ’Tis the last time you’ll ever touch me.”

“Radcliff, do you mind?” Devon asked his tone pissy. “Little busy here. In the midst of a family reunion. You can have her after I’m finished.”

Savanah hissed, “Oh my God, stop! May
vestri fingers quod penis putes
—”

When her words registered, Julian yelled, “Savvy, no!” at the same time Devon covered her mouth hard, crushing his palm into her lips.

“You recited a black charm. What did you say?” Livid, Devon spit in her face. “How could you do this to your own flesh and blood?”

“Holy crap! Are you serious? You’re insane. Look at the bleeding position you’re ass is in. How could you?” Savanah’s evil grin matched her mood. “You’ll find out soon enough. I got most of the charm out.”

Devon went to point a promising retribution in her face when his index finger burned red then turned to gray ash and dropped to the ground the way a cigarette does when it burns. With each breath he took, more of his fingers disintegrated and fell to the floor like filthy snowflakes. “What have you done to me?”

Savanah added, “That’s just the tip of the iceberg, you cowardice rapist.”

****

Before Radcliff could cry,
Uncle
, André pinned him inside the spiked casket, and pressed the door closed for all he was worth. “You obviously have no clue what five hundred ridiculous yards is, Radcliff, so I just showed you. You need some tweaking with your wish list, Crypt-keeper. It’s not what you wish for, but how you wish for it. You said you wanted a piece of Savanah’s exhibit, well here it is, boy.” André leaned back against the door forcing it to remain shut.

The air in the room dropped twenty degrees instantly when the Maestro entered.

Lucian walked in behind him, rubbing his arms. “Seamus Xier Sinclair, aka the Maestro. We finally meet. Hello, Peanut. Get you undone in just a sec, luv. You okay?”

“Little chilly, Uncle.”

André removed his shirt and threw it to Lucian as he continued to lean into the casket like a garlic press making Radcliff into a juicy, mess. As he aerated Radcliff he sang, “My name is André and I should’ve been king, but since I can’t sing they won’t let me wear the bling… Second verse, same as the first—everybody join me to drown out this pitiful lecher’s squeals.”

“Gentleman, if you don’t mind?” Lucian turned to cover Savanah. He mouthed to her, “No worries. Well except your father’s lost it.”

Her look said otherwise.

Caught between Lucian and André, the Maestro squared his shoulders. “So I finally meet the two men responsible for murdering my son. Tremendous! I’ll get two for the price of one.”

“Maestro, let’s make a deal.” Ethan stepped in front of his boss.

“Ethan?” The Maestro spread his arms wide.

“It’s not really what I can do to you. It’s what I can’t do.” Ethan turned and released the leather buckles holding Savanah captive. “I cannot allow this. You asked me to choose.” On his way to the dungeon, Ethan saw a dead blonde woman he assumed was his sister. He’d wanted to rush to her aid, but there was nothing he could do for her now. Later he would come back and give her a proper goodbye. Savanah, on the other hand, was still very much alive and screaming for all she was worth. Raven was free and told him she was going to call the authorities. “So, I’m choosing to free the love of my life. You will allow her freedom.”

“Ethan, your deal expired. And you shall too, soon.”

“You know, Maestro, how you saved your trump card for me? Here’s mine—Donovan’s burning to a crisp as we speak. Tell me you can’t smell that heavenly scent of burnt flesh permeating the stench of this sham of an establishment.” Ethan held up the string of pearls Donovan had given Raven and with a hard jerk, broke the beads open. The little balls bounced, rolled and scattered across the floor.

“No!” He cried. “It’s not possible.” Tears of blood ran from the corner of the Maestro’s eyes.

“Dammit, a Kodak moment, and we’ve no film, Eth.” Savanah jumped off the table, as she yanked her father’s shirt snug around her waist.