Haunted by the King of Death (35 page)

“I plan to make your life hell.” She drifted out from under his arm and around his back, and he slowly turned to track her movements, his eyes narrowing on her. “I think it is high time your sunny little home had a female touch.”

He huffed at her. “I thought we agreed you would stop calling it sunny?”

“You painted it yellow… not me.” She smiled as he reached for her and she drifted backwards, evading him. “Of course… I will need my own quarters and a rank.”

He scowled, but then his handsome face softened, the darkness lifting from it, and his eyes brightened. “You have quarters… mine… and a rank… my mate.”

“A mate is not a rank.” She twirled on the spot. “I was thinking… second in command.”

The frown returned and he folded his arms across his chest. “Asher would not be happy about that. He worked hard for that position.”

“And for your love.” She ignored the way his eyes darkened again at that and kept smiling. “So, not second in command… chief advisor then.”

Her smile faltered, the jest leaving her as she thought about Melia and the First Realm, and the time she had passed there with her family.

“What is wrong, my love?” Grave closed in on her again, concern etched on his face and in his feelings that flowed through their bond.

“Advisor was the rank Melia assigned me. One I still hold with Frey’s legion in the First Realm.”

Grave’s scowl came back full force and crimson ringed his irises.

“Frey? Who the fuck is Frey anyway? You speak of him as if he means something to you… you are close to him?” He stalked towards her, a predator on the prowl, and a thrill bolted through her in response to the sensual and wicked way he moved, all darkness and danger. “I will kill him. You are mine now… mine forever.”

Isla bit back her smile as it tried to return, her heart lightening again as Grave’s jealous streak reared its head. Gods, it was wonderful to see it, to have it reassure her of his love and how fiercely he needed her. More than the demon she had mentioned and the First Legion needed her.

“My brother-in-law… and current king of the First Realm.” She drifted around Grave again and the scowl stayed as he tracked her.

“I hate him already.”

“Of course… our being mated could possibly be construed as making him a relation of sorts to you… so if I were to live with you… you would have to promise not to make war against the First Realm.” She felt awful for pressing him into it, using his love for her against him, but she needed to know that there would never come a day when Frey became her enemy.

He was her brother. The closest thing she had to one anyway.

Grave huffed and folded his arms across his chest. “Fine… but if he needs assistance, he still has to pay for it. The Preux Chevaliers do not work for free. If I am going to face death and look the bastard straight in the eye, then I am going to be paid for it.”

It was wrong that she loved it when he spoke like that, all fire and spit, and fury. She regretted the things she had said to him a few nights ago, stomping all over his pride and his beloved Preux Chevaliers, and had apologised a thousand times over. Each time, Grave had shrugged it off, but she knew she had hurt him with her thoughtless words so she would keep apologising until he accepted it.

“Frey has plenty of gold in his coffers, but little war on his lands.”

He shrugged. “Everything can change in the blink of an eye, Isla. Peace never lasts.”

Gods, he sounded like Frey when he spoke like that, so eager for battle and bloodshed, to test his mettle against the next powerful foe. She supposed she was the same deep in her heart. She loved the fight, the thrill of dancing with death, because it made her feel alive.

Just as Grave made her feel alive.

“You will be my advisor now… first female of the First Legion.” Grave’s expression soured. “Gods, Asher will think you have my balls in a vice.”

Isla chuckled and he smiled, his blue eyes lighting up, as if he loved the sound of it and she had given him pleasure.

She was about to tease him by asking if she didn’t already have his balls in a vice, when a shiver went through her and she sensed Payne reappearing below her, together with Elissa.

A moment later, the blond incubus-vampire appeared on the roof beside her. “It’s time.”

She nodded, her belly fluttering at the thought that soon she wouldn’t have to worry about fading and neither would Grave. They would be safe, and all of her dreams would have come true.

Grave held his hand out to her and she slipped hers into it, and followed him into the building and down the stairs.

Everyone was waiting for them in her room on the second floor down. Antoine and Snow greeted Grave and she gave them a moment alone, because she knew they needed it. When the time came, everyone but the ones involved would have to leave so Elissa and Lilian could concentrate.

Payne and Night were talking in one corner, watching their females work. Elissa and Lilian were busy preparing the bed, spreading leaves from a plant around it that looked familiar. She recalled seeing them around her when the mage had performed the spell on her.

Elissa had talked in depth to her about the spell when she had been putting together the list of ingredients, telling her that it might be different to the one the mage had cast on her but not to worry. There were many ways to do the same spell and the witch was confident it would work.

She stepped forwards, but Grave’s hand caught her wrist.

She looked down at his ghostly hand on her and then up at his pale face.

“I can do it,” he said and she shook her head.

She appreciated him wanting to go through the spell for her, because only one of them needed to do it to turn both of them solid as they were before, but she had to be the one to do it. She had brought him into her world, and got him into this mess, and she had to be the one to fix it.

Even though it was going to hurt like hell.

She had kept that part from him, and he wasn’t going to be happy when he realised that the spell was hurting her, but by then it would be too late and Elissa would have to keep going.

She had hurt Grave enough. She never wanted to hurt him again.

Isla raised her arm, removed his hand from her wrist and then stepped up to him and kissed him. He was quick to respond, a slightly desperate edge to his kiss as he leaned into it and sought more from her, relaying his fear to her. He didn’t have to worry. She wasn’t going anywhere. Nothing about this spell could take her from him.

It could only bring them together.

She drifted away from him and up onto the bed, and lay with her head above the pillows and her hands on her stomach. Nerves fluttered in it but she breathed slowly to keep her heart steady and calm herself as best she could.

Antoine and Snow left.

Elissa stood on one side of her and Lilian moved to the other, and Grave drifted to the foot of the bed. She could feel his eyes on her and she looked down at him and smiled to reassure him that everything would be alright. She had been through this once for him, and she could do it again.

Payne and Night filtered out of the room and closed the door, leaving her alone with the two witches and Grave.

Elissa closed her eyes, held her hands out over Isla and began to chant. Lilian mirrored her. The candles around the room flickered and then burst to life, filling the space with warm golden light.

Isla kept her focus on the two witches, and on allowing their words to flow over her. Colourful ribbons of magic swirled around their outstretched hands, beautiful and dazzling, stealing her focus away from the pain steadily building inside her, making her feel as if she was being squeezed into a container, restrained and restricted.

When the pain became so intense that even the bright magic couldn’t distract her, her eyes sought Grave. He had moved closer to the end of the bed, his steely blue eyes fixed on her and her alone.

Elissa picked up something from the side table and splashed it on her. Her skin burned wherever it touched, blazed red hot and she grimaced as she tried to keep from crying out. The witch bent over her, slipped one hand under her head and lifted it up as she brought the cup to her lips. Isla swiftly drank the contents, not wanting to draw anything out.

The second she swallowed, an inferno swept through her, fire that crushed her inwards, compressing her, and she arched up off the bed and screamed.

“Isla!” Grave’s voice penetrated the fierce fiery darkness consuming her, a light that she reached for, and her throat burned, her voice giving out as she exhausted all the air in her lungs. “I am here, Isla.”

Cool fingers touched her toes and a chill swept through her, dousing the fire and giving her relief.

She breathed hard through the pain as Elissa and Lilian continued to chant, sagging back against the bed and struggling for air. Gods. She writhed and screwed her face up, wanted to claw her way out of her skin as it pressed down on her.

Caged her.

Fresh pain rolled through her as Lilian stopped chanting, leaving Elissa’s as the only voice for her to focus on, and she tried to bear it, panted through it and told herself over and over again that it was worth it.

She would bear pain a thousand times worse than this to be with Grave.

Elissa finally fell silent, so the only sound that filled the room was her own fast breathing.

And then Grave, his voice a low snarl.

“Gods… I think we should do something about this before anyone comes back in… I might kill them.”

She frowned but before she could open her eyes, a blanket was covering her, and she realised her transformation from phantom to corporeal hadn’t brought her clothes with her this time and she was naked.

Warmth spread through her cheek as his palm pressed against it and she rolled towards him as he sat on the bed to her right. “Isla?”

She slowly fluttered her eyes open and flinched at the brightness of the room. The lights dimmed and she struggled to focus on Grave. He was a hazy blur above her. She stared up at him and slowly he came into focus. Concerned blue eyes held hers, darting between them, and then relief flooded them when she smiled and managed to lift her hand and place it over his on her cheek. That relief coursed through her too as she took in the sight of him, solid again just as she was.

“How are you feeling?” Elissa popped into view beyond Grave, her silver hair falling to her left as she canted her head to see past him. “You look pretty solid.”

Isla smiled up at the witch. “I feel pretty solid.”

“Well… we should probably let you rest now… but remember, you will have to take regular doses of medicine to stop your problem from reoccurring.”

Grave frowned at that, turned and looked at the witch. “What medicine?”

Elissa waggled a silver eyebrow. “The sort that makes a bond between mates stronger.”

A beautiful blush stained his cheeks, drawing a smile from Isla, one that fell away as he shifted to gaze down at her and the heated look in his eyes scalded her.

Gods, she was all too happy to start that course of medicine right now.

“Rest,” Elissa ordered, but she wasn’t listening to the witch, and it seemed Grave wasn’t either.

He leaned over her, his focus dropping to her mouth.

Out of the corner of her eye, Isla saw Elissa grab Lilian and drag her out the door. It closed behind them with a soft click.

Grave stopped with his lips just a bare millimetre from hers and whispered against them, “Have a nice rest.”

She growled, grabbed his shoulders before he could even think about leaving, and pulled him down onto the bed, rolling him onto his back and landing on top of him. He chuckled and planted his hands on her bare hips, his eyes darkening and turning serious as his laughter died and he looked her over, taking in her nudity.

His hungry gaze drifted back up to hers. “I am weak… I think I need medicine.”

She rolled her eyes, wondering how many times he was going to use that excuse each day to get her into bed with him.

And how many times she was going to use it to seduce him.

“I think I have just what you need.” Isla pressed her hands to his chest, feeling his heart beating strongly against her palms as she leaned over him, lowering her mouth towards his.

He lifted one hand from her hip and brushed her hair behind her ear, and stole her breath.

“You are all I need, Isla.” He feathered his fingers along the line of her jaw, his eyes darting between hers. “You were all I ever needed.”

Gods. Her heart leaped into her throat at the sincerity in his eyes and the love behind those words, and she kissed him, losing herself in him as he wrapped his arms around her and held her close to him.

The love she had felt for him a century ago, the love they had both tried to deny and destroy, had conquered her all over again and it had done the unimaginable too. It had conquered the vampire beneath her, a male who never lost a battle, a male who was hers now and would be forever.

He was everything she wanted.

He was everything she needed.

Her dreams come true.

Her love eternal.

Her King of Death.

The End

Felicity Heaton is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author who writes passionate paranormal romance books. In her books, she creates detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons!

If you're a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter, Larissa Ione and Christine Feehan then you will enjoy her books too.

If you love your angels a little dark and wicked, her best-selling Her Angel romance series is for you. If you like strong, powerful, and dark vampires then try the Vampires Realm romance series or any of her stand alone vampire romance books. If you’re looking for vampire romances that are sinful, passionate and erotic then try her Vampire Erotic Theatre romance series. Or if you like hot-blooded alpha heroes who will let nothing stand in the way of them claiming their destined woman then try her new Eternal Mates series. It’s packed with sexy heroes in a world populated by elves, vampires, fae, demons, shifters, and more.