A Curse in Darkness by Sherilee Gray

Chapter 29

Warrick

I fistedthe sheet with one hand and buried the other in my dove’s hair. Her soft, wet mouth was working my dick, her hand cupping my balls, and I had to grind my teeth to stay in control, to stop myself from flipping her over and driving into her from behind.

Her other hand went to my thigh and her nails dug in. It was that little bite of pain that flicked the switch in my brain. I reached down and hooked her under the arms and dragged her up my body.

She straddled me and I felt her slick and molten against my stomach. I didn’t have to say anything, she reached back, positioned me, and took me inside the heat of her welcoming body, stretching around me easier now that I’d had her several times.

My beautiful mate moved on top of me, her wild red hair all over the place, her cheeks dark from her own need. Fuck, I was swelling inside her already. I brushed my thumb over her clit to get her there faster. “Feel good, dove?”

“So good.”

Her head dropped back as she rode me harder, her soft hair brushing my thighs, tits bouncing, and I was overwhelmed with a feeling so fierce and deep I gasped. I’d almost lost her tonight. She’d almost died horrifically right in front of me, and there’d been nothing I could do about it.

I hooked her around the waist, my other hand going to the back of her head, and I dragged her down, taking her mouth, needing her closer. Still, it didn’t feel close enough. “Don’t ever leave me,” I said, the words torn from somewhere deep inside me.

She moaned against my lips. “I’m not going anywhere, alpha.”

But she would—one day I would lose her. Willow was mortal. Pain smashed into me at just the thought of her not being here with me. I’d never felt anything like it, but I recognized it instantly. Why the fuck hadn’t Lucifer made us like the knights? Their females became immortal as well when they mated.

I hated those fuckers right then.

I gripped Willow’s ass and thrust up into her until I’d grown too thick to move, locked in place inside her. I wanted to pull her inside me, to protect her, to keep her safe, and make sure she never left me. She rolled her hips, shaking and crying out, coming around me. Her muscles clamped down, and I barked out a harsh cry as I came deep inside her.

We clung to each other, breathing hard.

“I love you,” she whispered.

Fuck. How would I ever deserve it, her love? I had no idea, but I would keep trying, with everything in me.

I clung to her tighter, as warmth filled me, like it often did now around my dove. Another feeling I had never experienced before, until her. She had me feeling so many new things, things I wasn’t sure how to name. I didn’t know what this was, but it scared me and felt vital all at the same time. “I don’t know what love is, dove, or if I’m capable of feeling it. But I do know I will kill anyone who hurts you, that I want you, that I will always and only want you. And that not having you by my side for the rest of eternity is an eternity not worth living.”

She looked down at me. “As far as declarations go, I’ll take that over a mere I love you any day of the week.”

I gave her a squeeze, and she pressed a gentle kiss to my lips.

“I can’t believe my trial is finally over. But I can’t bear to think of my sisters being forced to fight. I have no idea how it’s going to work. The coven trials are every two hundred years. Theirs are special cases, though, so I assume the mother will choose their opponents? But then, who would want to risk losing their powers when they’ve already secured them?” Her gaze became distant.

“Maybe she’ll pit them against one of the losing covens? Like a second chance, a way to get back the power they lost.”

“That’d make more sense.” Determination filled her eyes. “If you’re right, and one of the losing covens gets a second chance, the last person I want one of my sisters fighting is Isaac. He and Sapphire will be after blood. They’ll be more determined than ever to come after us. But we know who wants to hurt us now. I’ll get my proof and I’ll take it to the council. I won’t be happy until they’re exiled from Roxburgh.”

I gave her another squeeze and pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “You want me to send them on their way?”

She smiled and rested her head on her hand. “I think I have it covered, thanks.” Her gaze grew distant again. “I knew the Eldridge’s were power hungry, but to come after us the way they did…”

I tucked her hair behind her ear. “They’ll think twice before doing it again.” And if they do come after my dove, or any of her loved ones, I’ll kill them as well.

“You’re thinking about killing them, aren’t you?”

I grinned, flashing my canines.

“I don’t think that will be necessary. They got your message.”

I pulled her down on my chest and she didn’t fight me. She lay on top of me, my dick still buried deep inside her, and let me hold her. “They fucking better have. Now sleep, dove. You look wiped.”

She nodded against me and I held her tighter, listening as she drifted off.

Whatever came next, I was going to be here for her, no matter what. My dove would never face anything alone, not ever again.

* * *

Willow

I rolled over, reaching for Warrick. Cold sheets met my hand. I opened my eyes and looked around my room. His clothes were gone, his boots no longer by the door where he’d kicked them off.

I got out of bed and walked to the bathroom, but when I opened the door, he wasn’t there. Sliding on my robe, I jogged downstairs to find him, but he was nowhere and neither were any of his brothers.

Something was wrong, I felt it deep in my bones.

I ran outside.

His brothers were gone as well, all of them, their bikes no longer parked outside our house.

He never said he had somewhere to be this morning. Why hadn’t he woken me to let me know he was leaving? I ran back upstairs and called his phone but got no reply.

By lunchtime, I was feeling seriously antsy. I passed the time with Rose, then made the family lunch and stopped by Ren’s place, just in case. Still no sign of Warrick. By dinnertime, I was close to losing my mind. I’d been calling him all day and had left a bunch of messages.

Something wasn’t right. I didn’t know what it was, but I had this strange feeling inside me, like something was missing, like there was this gaping hole right through the center of me.

Maybe they’d found Maddox? I tried to convince myself that was what it was, and Warrick would call when he could. But by midnight, I was jumping out of my skin. “I’m going to the clubhouse,” I said to Mom.

“Me and Nia are coming with you,” Iris said.

Usually, if there was even a sniff of danger, I’d tell my sister she had to stay here, but I couldn’t do that anymore. I needed to stop treating my sisters like they weren’t capable. They were, and they’d be tested on that in the near future. They needed to learn how capable they were for themselves.

We headed out and pulled up outside the clubhouse’s chain-link fence thirty minutes later. I climbed out. The bar was dark and shuttered, the big roller doors of the garage down, and none of the hounds appeared to open the gate. It was padlocked, which was usual, but the clubhouse was dark, no sign of life whatsoever. There was always someone keeping watch, lights on somewhere.

Striding to the back of my truck, I grabbed the bolt cutters from my toolbox and cut through the lock.

Iris watched me, Nia at her side. “This is weird, right?”

“Warrick wouldn’t vanish on me like this. He wouldn’t just leave.” Fear swirled inside me, doubt trying to surface, and I shoved it back down. He wouldn’t. He promised me. He said he’d never leave me. The chain fell away, and we shoved the big gates open, got back in the Morris, and drove up.

No bikes here either and no hounds came out to check who I was, or why someone had breached their territory. Nothing. Not even a whisper of sound. I opened the clubhouse door. It was dark and I couldn’t see anything. I reached for a light switch and couldn’t find one.

Iris switched on a flashlight beside me and shone it around the big space—

The big, empty space.

Everything was gone, the tables and chairs, the bar—they were all gone.

I strode to the door that led to the hall behind the main room, my heart beating so fast I felt dizzy. The stairway that led to the underground den was gone as well.

I spun and ran to the door that led straight to Warrick’s quarters and yanked it open.

It was a closet. I stepped in, running my hands over the walls as if they would magically disappear, as if this were some Narnia shit and I’d keep walking and end up in Warrick’s room. And he’d be there waiting for me.

But that didn’t happen.

Because it was gone. It was all gone, as if they’d never been here. Like they didn’t exist.

“He left,” I said.

He’s left me.

Iris gripped my shoulder. “No, he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t just leave like that.” She frowned and turned, looking into the shadows, shivering. “Can you feel that?”

“What?” There was no danger, my blade was still at my hip.

Iris hugged herself and Nia whined. “I’m not sure, I’ve never felt anything like it.”

I forced myself to calm the hell down and reach out with my senses. Power, so strong, it lifted goose bumps all over my skin and vibrated through the room. It had faded, only an echo remained, but it was still there. I couldn’t place it, had never felt anything like it before either.

The hellhounds were a fierce pack, brutal fighters, and incredibly powerful, I couldn’t imagine an enemy strong enough to do this, to make them, everything, vanish into thin air.

It had to have been the hounds themselves. “The hounds have powers of their own.” I turned slowly, taking in the empty room again. “They would’ve had to have used them to return this place back to the way it was. I think that’s what we’re feeling?”

“Maybe,” Iris said and ran her hand over Nia’s side. “I don’t know. I don’t understand any of this.”

Neither did I. All I knew was the male I loved had vanished into thin air, without so much as a goodbye.

* * *

“Any word?” Mom asked when I walked into the kitchen.

I shook my head and poured myself a coffee. It’d been three days and still not a call or a text from Warrick. I was exhausted and worried, and also pissed the hell off.

I sipped my coffee and leaned on the counter. Iris sat on Brody’s lap at the table, Nia at her side. Bram was beside Mags. He was still sticking close to her after what happened, but then he always stuck close to her, and Mom had just finished loading the table with food.

“Come and have some breakfast, Wills.”

I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t think, and forget about sleeping. I hadn’t slept since Warrick vanished.

“So they just left, the hellhounds?” Brody asked, looking confused. “They just up and left town?”

Iris gave him a sharp look, but Brody missed it completely.

“Yep, they just up and vanished, like they’d never been here,” I said and sipped my drink. He was coming back, I knew he was. Warrick didn’t lie, and he promised he wouldn’t leave me. I believed him.

“Are they coming back?”

Iris said something under her breath to him and he pressed his lips together.

Did they all think he’d left me? That things had gotten too serious, too real, or he wanted a change of scenery? “He wouldn’t just leave without telling me.”

“Of course,” Mom said.

But judging by the note in her voice, she was starting to have doubts.

“He’ll call,” Iris said.

Mags frowned. “Of course he’ll call. Warrick loves Willow. You saw what he did in that field. He’ll do anything for her.”

“He’s a hellhound, Mags,” Brody said. “Nothing more than an animal. They’re territorial over what they think is theirs, like a lion in the wild fighting over a lioness.” He shrugged. “But when mating season’s over, they move on. His loyalty is to his own kind, females are disposable.”

Iris slugged him. “Brody!”

The guy looked genuinely confused. “What? What did I say?”

“Warrick wouldn’t leave her unless he had to. And he’s not just some animal. He’s in love with her, right, Wills?”

Everyone turned to me and my face heated.

“Wills?” Mags said again.

I curled my hands around my mug tighter as Brody’s words morphed with something Warrick had told me, something I’d put to the back of my mind. It suddenly all became clear. Brody had been right, partially, anyway.

I knew where he was.

And I knew whose power had saturated the clubhouse when Iris and I were there.

“I’d return if Lucifer asked it of me. My loyalty is first and foremost to my king. My creator. He comes before anyone.”

Warrick’s deep voice filled my head, his answer when I’d asked him if he’d ever return to Hell.

“We’ve all seen the way he looks at you,” Iris said.

“Like she’s a slab of prime beef,” Brody added.

I felt like I was suffocating all of a sudden.

“You’re really starting to piss me off,” Mags said and shot to her feet.

“Your wounds,” Bram muttered and eased her back into her seat.

Iris got off Brody’s lap. “You’re being a dick.”

He stood as well, looking pissed off. “I’m the only one willing to tell her the truth. He got what he wanted then he fucked off, like the animal he is.”

I gripped the edge of the counter.

“Go,” Mom said. “And I don’t want to see you for a few days, Brody.”

“Mom!” Iris cried.

He muttered under his breath and stormed out.

“Your boyfriend’s a douchebag,” Mags fired at Iris. Bram grunted his agreement.

“He doesn’t think before he speaks sometimes, that’s all,” Iris said, watching after him.

“He’s never said it,” I said to the room, my heart racing.

Everyone stopped talking and turned to me.

“He never told me he loved me. He said he wasn’t capable of it.”

No one said anything.

“I know where he is,” I rasped.

Mom stood. “You know?”

“He’s in Hell with Lucifer.”

“How do you know that?” Mags said. “Did he text you?”

I shook my head. “It just took me a bit to figure out. But that’s where he is. I’m positive of it.”

Without the ability to feel love, there was nothing keeping him here with me. He understood loyalty more than anything else, and he’d said it himself, Lucifer eclipsed everything and everyone, and that included me.

He’d cared about me, I didn’t doubt that, and whatever this was, he hadn’t been given the chance to say goodbye, I believed that as well. Because the male I knew wouldn’t just leave without an explanation, but he still would have left.

He still would have left me.

Iris stood as well. “Wills…”

“I ah…I have some things to do.” I strode out to the front yard, around the side of the house, and away from everyone because I was about to hyperventilate.

I fucking knew this would happen, didn’t I? I knew letting myself fall for him was a fucking stupid thing to do, but I did it anyway. This was my own fault. I’d let myself believe that maybe, just maybe, if I loved him hard enough, fiercely enough, that he’d learn to love me back.

“Willow?”

I turned and Iris walked over to stand beside me. She said nothing, just pulled me into her arms, holding me against her tight. The roles were usually reversed, it was usually me being the strong one, the one doing the comforting. Now, I turned in her arms and let her hug me because this fucking hurt.

And I only had myself to blame.