Soul Enslaved (Sons of Wrath Book 3) (39 page)

The soft glow of her skin halted his advances. Perfect. Flawless. Warm. The sight of her filled him with … contentment.

Dipping his head into the curve of her neck, he breathed in her scent—so sweet and delectable. Her skin. Her softness. Begging to be devoured. He slid her arms higher, still holding them captive, and squeezed her wrists.

“This dress … was it for me?” He curled his fingers tighter around her slender bones, pinning her against the wall, and whispered in her ear, “Did you wear it for me?”

“Why else would I wear a dress?” Her breathy voice, thick with seduction, rippled down his spine, and the words unraveled him.

Gavin braced a hand against the wall. “Fuck me, I want you, Sabelle. Right now. While you feel most beautiful. Radiant.” He kissed her throat with an intense craving to bite into her flesh. “The way I see you every time you walk into a room.”

“Let’s go, then. Let’s get out of here.”

***

The sight of the Mercedes parked across the gallery’s parking lot had Sabelle’s heart kicking inside her chest. Gavin tugged her along, his hand nearly crushing hers along the way. In his suit jacket, he looked like a well-dressed assassin escaping a crime scene.

One thing she knew about Wrath demons—they happened to have appetites for sex the way some men had appetites for steak dinners after starving for weeks, and Sabelle had witnessed the palpable heightening of his sexual hunger rising every day.

Gavin radiated masculinity from every pore on his perfectly chiseled body, like a deadly, invisible vapor that could cripple a woman with one glance. His sexual prowess happened to be honed by centuries of pleasuring women, which meant Sabelle was pretty much screwed. No way she could deny him. Not anymore. What he’d done to her throughout the evening—the dinner, the art show and that kiss—proved the male could back up every claim, every rumor passed on from the multitude of horny hopefuls—not excluding Sabelle.

Deal sealed.

They reached the vehicle, and he twirled her to face him, pressing her against the hood of the car. His hands slid up her thigh, drawing her dress up as he crushed his lips to hers.

Exhibitionism had never been her thing before, but holy stiffened tits, she wanted him. Might’ve let him fuck her right there, if he wanted, because Gavin made even the most potentially embarrassing moment feel like a life event she’d be stupid to pass up.

Instead, he yanked her to her feet and flung the door open for her. “Don’t bother to buckle yourself,” he said over his shoulder as he quickly rounded the vehicle.

Her hart jackhammered. Just a few months ago, Gavin had seemed like a dream—one she couldn’t hope to grasp for fear it might slip through her hands. Yet, there he was. About to rock her night.

Breathe, Sabelle.

Yeah, it’d been years since she’d last had sex. Was she even good at it anymore? Christ, prior to imprisonment, the man probably had more sex in a day than she’d had in her life.

The driver’s side door flew open, and Sabelle’s muscles tensed. “Gavin … maybe we—”

Her words were cut off by his lips. Hard. Possessive. Silently commanding her to shut the hell up. Devoid of any concern for what she’d say.

Suddenly, Sabelle didn’t give a shit, either. Because goddamn, the man could kiss like nobody’s business.

She snaked her hand up into his hair and allowed herself to be swept up in the excitement, the thrill of kissing a man who knew how to kiss a woman. When to be gentle, and when it was okay to take what he wanted. Right then, it was undoubtedly okay.

“These lips are my undoing.” Gavin’s stare fixated on them.

Something inside of her awoke. Blossomed. Came alive with his words. “Where would you like them, demon?”

Gavin’s chest heaved, nostrils flared. “Everywhere.”

A snort brought both of their attentions to the backseat, where a male—or something like a male—sat unmoving.

“Oh, fuck!” Sabelle scrambled backward, knocking her head against the passenger window.

Gavin turned slowly in his seat, leaning awkwardly against the steering wheel. “Sampson?”

A creature like the one they’d seen a few nights back, on the side of the road, sat behind the driver’s seat, twitching. The features of his face appeared almost bat-like against the paleness of his flesh. Networks of veins pulsed beneath his almost translucent skin. The male didn’t answer, his tongue sweeping over the blood trickling from his mouth.

Without moving her head, Sabelle directed her gaze to her arms to check for any evidence of a bite. “You know him?” she whispered.

“He looks like Sampson. An Opusal demon who comes into the bar on occasion.”

“Ssssampson issss dead.” The blood red eyes tracked Gavin. “He asssssked me to warn you. The horde issss coming.”

“The horde?”

“Desssstruction issss upon you.” The creature flashed, disappearing into nothing.

Sabelle sat quiet, taking in the strangeness of the encounter and the warning. “What. The. Fuck just happened?”

Gavin twisted back around in his seat and shot out of the car . After minutes of searching their near surroundings, and no sign of anything, he slid back into the driver’s seat. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

***

“That was some creepy stuff back there.” Sabelle stared out the passenger window, as Gavin pulled into the circular drive of the mansion. “Those things, the way they come and go.” Her nerves hadn’t settled down since the parking lot fiasco. Though they hadn’t gotten hurt, something about the possibility of death’d had a way of keeping her on the edge of her seat the whole ride home.

“It’s concerning the way they’re taking the form of their victims. How impossible is it going to be to catch them, if they change form?”

“Something’s coming, isn’t it? Those white creatures … it’s not just coincidence we keep stumbling upon them.”

“No. The longer they’re here, the more they evolve. Right now they’re unstable. Once that switch is flipped and they’re able to survive inside a host, we’re all at risk.”

“For what?”

“Extinction.” He killed the engine and exited the vehicle, coming to a stand outside her door, as she sat contemplating his words. Extinction?

How easy the word seemed to roll off his tongue.

“How?” she asked, reaching for his proffered hand allowing him to bring her up out of her seat.

Gavin tucked her arm in the crook of his elbow as they ascended the stairs. “They have no sense of self-limiting behaviors. They will consume until there’s nothing left. Just like the plague that nearly destroyed the underworld.” He tossed the keys to Bennett, followed by a pat on the troll’s back. At the foot of the staircase to the bedroom, he faced her and lifted her hand to his lips. “Don’t trouble yourself with this. Not tonight. I’d hoped nothing would put a damper on the evening.”

“Perhaps I need a night cap, to help me forget.”

Gavin’s eyebrows came together, making him appear saddened. “I’d love nothing more than to take you to my bed and inject you with some new memories. But there’s something you need to know.” He leveled his gaze. “I’m cursed, Sabelle. The gaszla who had me sent to Obsidius cursed me. Every night I’m to turn into a raging beast until …”

“Until?”

“Until it passes.”

“So … this beastly thing isn’t natural for a Savidon?”

“No. We crave sex, but we don’t take it by force. We don’t become enraged and mad with lust.”

“Even as dangerous as you claim to be, Gavin, last night you seemed …
calmed
when I first came to you.”

“I was chained to a wall, Sabelle. Let’s be clear. The fact that I haven’t devoured you yet is a credit to what little self-control I have left. Once that’s gone, your ass is mine.”

Gods, the man’s words oozed sex and authority.
Yours
. She so wanted to try the word out on her lips. To see if her rotten sense of self denial and independence would battle in protest. Maybe it had, because she didn’t bother to say it aloud, even if the very thought of being Gavin’s had her thighs clenching. “I don’t want you to leave. It’s not right for me to sleep soundly in your bed while you hang from chains all night. This is a natural cycle for a demon. You’re not a monster. Curse or not, it’s still
you
beneath all of that.”

“Being cursed a monster is an
unnatural
part of the cycle. If you knew what thoughts plagued my mind while hanging from those chains last night, you’d have kept your distance.”

“If you leave me by myself tonight, I might as well go back to my own home. The safety and peace of mind I feel comes from knowing you’re near, not chained to a wall.” She crossed her arms. “As your slaver, I demand you do as I say.” Her tongue raked against her back teeth in an attempt to keep from laughing at such ridiculous words. In a million years, Gavin would never be enslaved by anyone.

His cheek dimpled with a half smile. “As you wish. But I
will
have Ben chain me to the bed. At least that’ll give you time to run.”

Run
. What the hell was wrong with her that the sound of him chasing her sent chills down her spine? In a
hell, yes
sort of way. She nodded. “Okay.”

They continued up the staircase, Gavin following behind her, a quick glimpse showing his gaze nailed to her ass once again. Once inside the room, he gripped her arms. “Excuse me one moment, okay?”

At her nod, he disappeared into the bathroom.

With the haste of a woman trying not to get caught eating half a tub of ice cream on her own, Sabelle sloughed the dress, draping it across the nearby chaise, flung her bra atop of it, removed her bracelet, returning it to a bag inside the armoire, and donned one of Gavin’s button-downs from the rack. She ruffled her hair and gave a quick swipe of her legs to make sure they were still smooth. Breath check? Good.

The clicking of the door startled her into jumping onto the bed, and when he exited in nothing but a bathrobe, Sabelle just about went comatose.

Some guys couldn’t pull off a bathrobe. Turned them into some kind of Hugh Hefner wannabe. Gavin made bathrobes look like something a dirty biker would don in a club meeting.
So. Fucking. Sexy
. His tattoo, like flames, crawled up the side of his neck, while half the skull tattooed on his chest peeked through the opened V in front.

Edible, yet untouchable. Reminded Sabelle of those gorgeous desserts found in fancy bakeries that looked just too damn good to eat.

He crawled over her like a lion charming its prey into certain death. She spread her thighs to welcome his body and he planted his fists in the mattress at either side, lips hovering inches from hers. His eyes had turned red and his fangs protruded, just as she’d seen him nearly every night before.

Before she could react, the familiar blackness settled in, wafting around her in a suffocating vapor. “Do you see it?” She blew at the plume, just as she had before, watching it disappear.

He froze in place. “See what?” The red in his eyes slowly faded to blue.

“The black … I think … I think I’m seeing your curse, Gavin. I don’t know how, but I can sense it.”

“You see it?”

“Yes, it’s a very malevolent force. It just
feels
evil.” Gaze wandering the room, she looked for any sign that it’d returned.

“Do you still see it?”

“No. And when I’ve blown at it, it disappears.” She lowered her gaze to his. “Calms you.”

“I’ve never known anything to be more powerful than black magic.”

She couldn’t help the smug grin. “Well, I guess you’re looking at her.”

“Yes, I am.” His gaze tracked down to her breasts. “Nice shirt.”

“The better for you to remove it, my dear.” She smiled. “My, what big teeth you have.”

“The better to eat you with, my dear.” His face disappeared as he dipped his head, and her nipples strained when he found the base of her throat, kissing, licking across her collarbone.

“How … you make such … a simple gesture so exciting … I’ll never understand.”

His quiet moan vibrated against her neck and tickled her core. Sucking at her throat grew intense. Warm. So warm. A prick of pain pierced her skin. “Gavin!” Sabelle kicked back from beneath him. Only a matter of seconds, and she’d be paralyzed.

That was how bonding worked.

His face turned ghostly white before he backed away. Blood—her blood—dripped from his fang and landed on her thigh, sliding down her skin. His features didn’t carry the look of his beast with its red skin and blackened lips, just that of a demon claiming his mate, as only his eyes had turned red. “My apologies.”

“Don’t apologize.” She stroked his hair. “Let’s just take a minute to chill out, okay? Start over.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea, Sabelle. I almost claimed you just now.” He pushed off from her body, and she scrambled for his arm.

“Please, Gavin. Begging is so
completely
unattractive, but I’d totally do it right now. Stay.”

Shoulders slumped, Gavin sank against the headboard, as Sabelle settled in beside him on the pillow.

“What’s it like? The Savidon?”

“Painful. Uncontrollable. Everything I’d feared it would be.”

“That’s a strange word, coming from you. I find it hard to believe you fear anything.” She glanced up. “Why do you fight it? I mean, why not go out and find your female who’ll make it all go away?”

“Is this a trick question?”

Sabelle laughed. “Not at all. I said you were my slave, not my concubine. There
is
a difference.”

His smile didn’t touch his eyes. “Bonded, or not, I’ll be sent back to Obsidius when you decide to release me. It’s not my intent to leave a woman I’ve bonded with alone.”

A stab of reality pierced her gut.
Bonds aren’t forever
, she wanted to say. “You wouldn’t? To save yourself?”

“Not even to save myself. Males sense their mate’s pain. They suffer it. If I couldn’t be there to alleviate it, for me, that would be its own hell.”

“My father must’ve missed that memo.” Focusing on her hands kept her from having to see the contemplation in Gavin’s eyes. “Do you think … if it gets worse, you’re capable of hurting a woman?” She’d never believed the rape accusation when Gavin had told her about the woman who’d sent him to Obsidius. Even as a monster, the idea of him hurting
any
female just seemed impossible.