Revealing the Monster by Amelia Hutchins

Chapter Four

There’s bliss in not knowing every secret in a world, but there’s danger in not knowing the ones that could change everything. ~Lena

Lucian’s men stepped into formation behind us when we entered the bar area, working like a well-oiled machine. Each man was an extension of Lucian, doing what needed to be done without being told. My eyes slid to Bane; his expression tightened the moment he turned, his gaze drifting over me. He smirked, making the scar on his face more pronounced, but it didn’t alter the deadly beauty of his features. If anything, it enhanced them and gave him an edge the others lacked.

Layton had his dark blonde hair up in a bun, which I’d learned he did to annoy the shit out of Lucian. Unlike most men, he pulled it off and made it look sexy. His ice-blue eyes slid to mine, winking as he caught me admiring him. 

Deviant, I’d discovered, could change his appearance when he wanted but chose black hair that held a blue tint to it most of the time. Moss-green eyes framed in thick, lush black lashes made his gaze look exotic. His tattoos pulsed against his light skin. The other men had bronze or sun-kissed tones, but Deviant was pale, making all his other features stand out in contrast. He was also quieter than the others and hardly ever spoke, but it was no bullshit and straight for blood when he did.

Devlin, who had finally healed after being left for dead by Lucifer, smirked at me when my gaze lit on him. He nodded his dark head at me as his whiskey-colored eyes sparkled with amusement. Devlin was the youngest in Lucian’s group and the most carefree of them all. He still held a boyish charm that had once caught my interest. That ended when I’d learned he’d been playing a part, monitoring me for Lucian before the Awakening ceremony.

My chest clenched the moment I realized Spyder hadn’t arrived with the other men. He usually appeared from the shadows whenever someone showed up unannounced. I missed him, even though it was dangerous to be around him until we severed the bond.

Last week, I’d kissed him without thinking. Lucian hadn’t been jealous or even reacted to it, because he knew it wasn’t me. The magic used in the ceremony was winding us together, which made me wonder what would happen when we reached the end of that coil. We’d been searching for a cure, but I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that both Spyder and Lucian were hiding something detrimental from me.

Nyx stood at the bar, drumming her fingers on it impatiently as she fully unleashed her power with angry waves that rushed through the room. Her black hair was up in braids, exposing her back, highlighting a tattoo of the moon among the stars that moved as if it were a living picture or a portal that opened into a world blanketed in the night. Her mercury-colored eyes narrowed the moment she caught sight of us, flashing her rage.

“Where is she?” Nyx’s voice was cold and threatening, echoing through this level of the club.

“Where is who?” Lucian asked. His tone held a silent threat. One meant only for her ears, yet, I caught it easily. He folded his arms over his chest, staring her down without a sliver of fear. But Lucian didn’t fear many things, and I was almost sure he could easily wipe the floor with Nyx should the need arise.

“Where is Eris? Where is my daughter?” Nyx screamed, losing any composure she’d held. Her face contorted, darkness spread across it, and her eyes turned obsidian.

My lips twisted into a smile as she mirrored how I looked with the darkness unleashed. I no longer had to wonder where I’d gotten my soulless appearance. As my new mother, I’d apparently taken after her in the dark and creepy-as-fuck department. Nyx’s eyes slid in my direction, and she shot through the air at me but never reached me.

She was yanked back and slammed into the bar. Spyder’s hand was wrapped around her throat, his chest heaving with anger burning through him. He pinned her there; his shadows unleashed to drift about him in wispy tendrils of inky smoke.

“You don’t touch my Kitty, you stupid, psychotic bitch. Threaten her again, and I’ll end you. Do you hear me?” he warned, his tone clear and even as if he wasn’t threatening to murder a goddess.

“You took her. I know you did!” she hissed vehemently. “You either release Eris, or I’ll tell Lust that his little creatures and keys are alive and in play again. Do you understand me, asshole?” she snarled while holding onto his hand, still wrapped around her throat.

“Eris is here, Nyx. She’s being held in a dreamless sleep. She is unharmed, which is more than she deserves, and if that continues, well, that will depend on you. Eris assisted the enemies of the fae, intending to murder a newly born goddess. Do you recall what the crime is for murdering one of your own? Final death, wasn’t it, Lucian?” Spyder asked, peering over his shoulder, meeting my stare instead of to whom he spoke.

Ice-blue eyes slid down my body with a naked hunger that Spyder didn’t bother to hide. It took everything within me not to rush to him. My bosom rose and fell as I held his stare, whispering his name so silently that I wasn’t even sure I’d said it out loud. Neither of us looked away, uncaring that it was wrong. I swallowed the lump that grew in my throat as he released Nyx, turning to look at me again.

Spyder was shirtless, and his facade for the outside world was missing. His eyes held mine, and I felt as though if I looked away, I’d cease to exist. His dark hair had turned white, a startling contrast to the dark shadows that slid over his body and around him in smokey wisps. I lowered my gaze to the curvature of his stomach, sliding hungrily over the rippling muscles covered in the inky shadows. My lips trembled as my attention traveled lower, and my heart stopped beating, taking in the inviting V-line that vanished into his pants. I ran my eyes over it, sliding them up to his hip as my blood ceased running in my veins.

I lifted my head and gaped with shock and dismay at the bonding marks on Spyder that both Lucian and I also carried. My mouth opened, but his chin jerked, stopping the words from escaping. Tears swam in my eyes, and I turned to Lucian in horror. My heartbeat thundered with the reality of what I’d done to Spyder, to us.

“Not the place or the time, Lena,” Lucian stated, his eyes never meeting mine. “Nyx, your daughter, Eris, was causing strife and angst toward a child goddess. One she fully intended to deliver to another god to be murdered. You know the law and what the price would have been if she succeeded. Eris owed a blood-debt, and couldn’t refuse to pay it. So I took her out of play and saved her life. You’re fucking welcome.”

“I don’t believe she would be that stupid,” Nyx snarled back, her power smothering the room. “I want her and the Golden Apple of Discord, Lucian. You have no right to hold her.”

“Don’t I?” Lucian snorted, folding his arms over his chest, pinning Nyx to the spot with a glare.

I only thought Nyx’s magic had been smothering. The moment Lucian and his men released their power back at her, my chest threatened to cave. I gasped for air loudly, knowing that Spyder held the ability to suck the air from the room. Shadows rushed forward, entering me before I could process what was happening. My wide, horrified eyes slid to Spyder, noting the smirk that twisted his mouth. Heat sparkled intensely in his gaze as his shadows caressed me, feeding me air. It was like having a live power line shoved down my throat and then fed ecstasy pills on top of it.

Shadows continually rushed over my skin, kissing it with dark, seductive magic that held me in its thrall while Lucian’s men moved toward Nyx, threateningly. Spyder, on the other hand, was watching me as his shadows held my body upright. He didn’t look away from me. Instead, he stepped closer as the other men took his place beside Nyx.

“Aw, Kitty,” he uttered from inside my head. “Be a good pussycat and breathe for me.”

Spyder stopped in front of me, his head tilting as he watched his magic fondle me. The shadows weren’t only feeding oxygen to my lungs; they were inside of my body, in my mind. They stroked the bond we shared, making arousal coat my thighs, drenching my sex. The heated look burning in his stare told me he was the one controlling them. Spyder was keeping me breathing and using it as an excuse to touch me where he’d never dared to before.

I was fighting the attraction. The lust was tearing me apart, and I knew it was worse for him. Unlike Lucian and me, Spyder had no release. Those bonding marks meant that if he was sleeping around, he was leaving dead bodies in his wake when he’d finished. It pissed me off that they’d known and chosen to hide it from me. Didn’t they trust me? Why hide something that I’d done without knowing?

“It wasn’t personal,” Spyder whispered inside my head, and I smirked as the shadows slid around the globes of my breasts. I felt them between my thighs, caressing my slit and my clit, while his gaze grew heavily hooded, filling with desire.

The smell of dark masculinity and spices filled the air as he inspected me, his eyes sparkling with need as mine closed. I exhaled a soft gasp, realizing I was no longer inside the bar. I was untouchable, floating in shadows as his scent erased the chaos we were balls deep in at the moment.

“Good girl, Kitty. Let that shit go and breathe for me. I told Lucian not to tell you. It didn’t do us any good with you learning you were mated to both of us without even knowing how you’d done it. I’m looking for a way to remove the bond. We’re going to be okay. I know you tried, and I won’t ask more of you than you can willingly give me. You’re a good girl, and I’m not a good boy.”

“It isn’t fair,” I admitted. “This is our home, and you’re needed here, too. Come back, and we will find a way to end this bond.”

“Can’t do that,” he chuckled, but it was empty and cold. “Right now, I want to take you from Lucian. I want to run with you and fuck you out of my system. The thing is, we don’t know if that will be enough to break the bond, and with your mating mark on me, it changes things. It changes everything.”

Lucian’s scent fought Spyder’s as warm hands touched my face. Blue fire flickered in the depths of Lucian’s eyes as they slowly moved to where Spyder held his inhuman form. My gaze held his, and my mouth opened. But Lucian simply shook his head, placing a finger to his lips, and then pointed at his ear.

We vanished together, all three of us, and I exhaled the moment we were in the bedroom. Spyder backed up, placing as much distance as possible between him and me without leaving the room. I blinked, free of the shadows that had been slithering all over me, touching me erotically.

“You didn’t need to know,” Lucian grunted, as I fought to gain control of my emotions. “You’re both suffering, and we don’t know how to fix it. You claimed Spyder when you placed that mating mark on me. We’re all fucking mated, and the time we have to fix the bond is coming to an end.”

“What does that mean?” I asked, holding back the tears that burned my eyes.

Fighting the attraction was one thing, but fighting the need to give in to Spyder was a war. My body ached with need as my sex clenched hungrily for him. Magic be damned. I wanted to shed my clothes and inhibitions and take them both until we were nothing more than piles of ash on the floor. Spyder chuckled, forcing my eyes to lock onto his intense gaze.

“What it means, Kitty, is that soon I will lose my shit. I will become unsafe. Lucian will put me down and end it before I can unleash hell, or, you know, a more lethal version of it, into this world. If I lose control, nothing could save this shithole you love so much, not even Lucian. He will take care of it before I get to that point because me destroying this place would hurt you, and I can’t handle that type of guilt.”

“I don’t understand what that means.”

“Lucian will kill me so that I can be reborn without the mating marks on my flesh or soul. I won’t be me, but I will be what I was created to be. I cannot ask you to do what you’re not willing to do, and neither will Lucian. The only other way to stop the curse’s clock is to end the one on my life.”

Pain clenched my heart, and denial rushed through me. I shook my head, certain they were fucking with me. Lucian and Spyder were best friends, and he was Lucian’s right hand. They’d been together long before I’d even come into the equation. I couldn’t lose either of them. I wouldn’t allow that to happen.

“No,” I whispered, shaking my head faster. “No fucking way is that happening. Do you hear yourself? Spyder, there has to be another way. We just have to find it. We will figure this out together.”

“Aw, Kitty. If it was that simple, don’t you think we would have figured it out by now?” He appeared before me without warning, lifting his hand to cup my face, smiling as if he wasn’t talking about ending his life. “Would you die to save me?”

“Yes,” I said without hesitation.

“I’d ask you about Lucian, but you already proved how far you would go to protect him. Only Hecate knows how to end this without us paying a higher price. You tried to free me, and it didn’t work. You did what you could, and I can’t say I regret it, either. I have made my peace, and I’m willing to be reborn to stop this volatile need you create within me. It is my choice and not yours. You will respect my decision and allow me to do this.” His thumb traced over my cheek, wiping away the tears, and before I could reply, he’d vanished from the room.

“You are not letting him die, Lucian.”

“Lena, it isn’t that simple.”

“What do I have to do to free him?” I demanded, unable to hide the tremble in my voice that made his eyes close in response. “Tell me, and I will do it!”

“The only way we found was to give the bond what it wants, and that may not end the mating link, which means he wouldn’t crave you anymore, but we’d still be mated. He’d still carry the curse dictated by the laws of the mating ritual, unable to have sex with anyone else without it ending in their death. He fears he would eventually hate you for claiming him in the mating and would try to harm you. So to protect you from himself, he chooses death.”