“Why would I be mad? You’re perfect. As you were meant to be.” She guided Kaia with her up the stairs and out onto a large patio on the rooftop overlooking the bay. Overhead, a storm gathered, the clouds constantly shifting to block what little light the crescent moon reflected.
It was then Kaia saw the marble altar and table next to it filled with sharp instruments, a few daggers, and a large black statue, half as tall as Kaia, presiding over it all. The altar was slightly tilted and solid, beautifully crafted with thin red lines, no, rivulets, carved in a pattern that led to a hole at its base. And underneath, a flat black bowl sat, ready to gather whatever flowed from the altar’s lines.
“Mom?” Kaia turned, and her mother stabbed her just above the heart with an athame that smelled of cinnamon and ash. Brimstone. Kaia couldn’t move, frozen. The pain was nothing compared to the horror that washed over her as the statue came to life over her mother’s shoulder. And grew.
“Ah, but what is this?” a deep, sibilant voice hissed. “The sacrifice I was promised is not here.”
“Not yet.” Sabine nodded to Kaia. “She mated him. He’ll be here soon.”
“And so we wait.” The man, no,demon,drifted closer. Handsome and human looking, if not for the large, black, leathery wings behind him, or the tail that whipped around and slashed her cheek. The sharp tip of his tail flicked over his lips, and he licked her blood off it. “Oh, lovely.” The creature—Pazuzu, maybe?—stroked her mother’s cheek with a long finger ending in a sharp black nail. “But not what we agreed upon, my love.”
“My love?” Kaia couldn’t believe her mother was cavorting with demons. “Mom?”
“I’m sorry, Kaia.” Sabine sounded genuinely apologetic, which made the chaos around her even more confusing. “But there can only be one White Sea Witch.”
Then her mother flicked her hand, and Kaia was yanked back and slammed onto the altar, her head higher than her feet, her wrists and ankles bound with chains of black bone. Sabine shifted Kaia’s hands in place, moving them over the red grooves in the marble. Her mother took the athame from Kaia’s chest and slit each of her wrists, the cuts deep yet small, allowing Kaia’s blood to drip constantly from her body.
Kaia screamed as the burn in her wounds intensified, the marble under her sucking her blood into the mapped lines carved into the altar.
“Slow and steady.” Her mother smiled. “You’re beautiful, almost as pretty as I am. But your blood is tainted. Time to purify it.”
“It’s not.” Kaia couldn’t help crying, especially when Sabine ground the slits in her wrists over the marble, keeping her injuries fresh. She shrieked when slender bone picks shot up from the altar through her wrists, keeping open the flesh that tried to heal itself.
A roar echoed deep inside her, and she knew Orion would come.
It’s a trap. Stop,she tried to send him as hard as she could. But she knew nothing she said would keep him from coming.
Her mother stepped away to fiddle with her ringing cell phone.
The black statue now moving around as if alive stood over Kaia and smiled. “Yes, child. I am Pazuzu. Soon to be your new sire.” He leaned down, studying her and said in a lower voice, “Or your new husband. I feel that your mother will not be enough to satisfy my needs.”
She cringed. “I’m already mated.”
“Not for long.” He tapped her forehead, and her pain stopped. “Now, that’s better.”
“What are you doing?” Sabine asked, looking up from her phone. “Oh, Kaia, your daddy says hi.”
“Leave him alone.” How could she have been so wrong about her mom? Sabine had always been dark, a little bad. But not out and out evil. Or had Kaia only seen what she wanted?
Sabine laughed. “You hear that, Will? Come to Belyy Zamok if you want her. But be prepared for a fight. The door’s open.” She disconnected and tucked her phone away. But the look she shot Pazuzu was nothing that could be called pleasant. “I’ve brought you a soul.”
“But not the one I was promised. If I can’t have the vampire, I’ll have you sweet.” Then he ripped through his clothing, and Kaia saw something she wished she could unsee. A phallus that was in no way human. The thing was several feet long and moved like a snake. It touched her leg, and she screamed.
“Not yet, Kaia. But soon,” Pazuzu promised and laughed.
CHAPTERTWENTY-SIX
Orion refused to give in to the fear threatening to cloud his bloode. It had no place in a vampire’s heart. He would fight to the end, but he would never let his own weakness stop him from battling for what he possessed. His heart and his mate.
At the thought of Kaia, he stiffened his resolve and forced the fear away.
The storm over Seattle grew stronger, clouds gathering, the rain coming down in icy sheets as the wind whipped in a fury.
“We know she’s not at her island,” Orion told those with him—Mormo, Varu, Kraft, Rolf, and Khent. “Duncan and the others are at Belyy Zamok, and he said the place is crawling with zombies and monsters.”
“Oh man. We’d better get something just as good,” Kraft complained.
“I feel you,” Rolf commiserated. “But I have a feeling the demons we encounter will sate that appetite.”
