9781618851307WitchsBrewShayNC (32 page)

“Just
so you know it won’t really be me entering your body, but a demon that aches
for revenge against you.”

Helayne felt her eyes widen.

“Who
, you ask?” He
laughed. “Kallibus sends his regards. He said tell you that you know very well
why he’s inside my body.” Black Drayke locked his fingers tightly around her
slender wrists and squeezed the delicate, bird-like bones until they shattered,
breaking into splinters.

She shook her head from side to side, a silent scream
dying in the back of her throat. Kallibus. She should have known he’d
eventually seek justice. Her chest heaved with sobs but no sound escaped her. The
warlock had rendered her hands as useless as her voice. He had no intention of
allowing her a way to fight him.

“Look
at me, Helayne,” he ordered hoarsely.

Helayne
raised her gaze to Black Drayke’s dark face.

“I know your mind struggles to fight me, but the potion I
used on you makes your body crave the demon’s touch. We smell your need, your
desire. Know that once I’m finished with you,
your
son, Talon is going
to cease to exist, that’s my revenge. Before his spirit is cast into exile,
Stry and Kali will know their true birthright and the princess will be mine.” He
laughed crazily. Helayne knew the pain and terror showed on her face. She shook
her head wildly, bucking beneath him, to no avail. He saw the loathing in her
eyes. “The next babe you conceive will be through me from Kallibus’ seed. You
will bear his child, then I’m going to destroy everything Talon loves,
everything you love, until nothing is left for either of you.”

Unable
to control the hot desire racing through her blood, Helayne lifted her hips,
arching wildly, seeking the release her body demanded.

“Alas,
my love,” Drayke hissed. “I cannot accommodate you. Kallibus wants you to
suffer.”

Her
body twisted and bucked.

He
laughed, savoring her torment. “You know what the really enjoyable part of all
this is?” He slid his tongue down one smooth cheek then raised his head,
staring at her, “the fact that the king handed you over to me without a hint of
protest.”

Helayne shook her head in denial of this betrayal.

“It’s true, sweeting. He gave you to me to do with as I
will.” He laughed softly, lowered his head, and chanted, releasing the spell on
her mouth. Slowly, he dipped his head and drew the breath from her mouth. “And
I have a lot of will.”

Helayne shivered. Her tear-filled eyes flashed with wild
desperation as she realized what he was about to do to her next. A fine tremor
shook her body. She flinched with the pain that slashed through her breasts.

Black
Drayke laughed. “That hurt, darling? Ahh, well, let me try it again. I promise
I can do much better.”

She
shook her head from side to side in silent protest, but nothing could prevent
her spirit from spiraling toward Black Drayke’s waiting mouth. He slowly,
deeply, inhaled, drawing her soul higher. Closer.

Black
Drayke sighed, his eyes brightening with ecstasy. He kept her pinned beneath
his weight. Clamping his hands on either side of her jaw, he held her tight,
lowered his mouth a scant breath from hers and drew a lungful of air. Black
Drayke brought her spirit to the realm of his tongue, to the very edge of
annihilation. There, he sampled and savored, licked and tasted the light and
airy flavor of her soul. He held it captive, suspended in mid-life, while he
tortured and teased it.

His body quivered like a tightly drawn bow with the
urgency to completely destroy what he tormented. How he wanted this. Needed this.

The pure light of her soul glittered like a newly born
star, so clean, so bright, he had to shut his eyes to keep from being blinded
by the radiance, by the purity he sampled and would never acquire in his own
black soul.

His
belly clenched with edgy need. His groin ached, throbbing with an urgent need
to mate. Ah. Sweet. So very, very sweet. Her soul. It was right there,
rippling, hovering, and stretching its ghostly arms toward him, ripe for the
plucking. Close. So damned, close.

Just
one deep breath and he could own it.

A
single, long drawn breath and it would be over.

Tempted.
He was so damned tempted.

Not
yet
!

Not
quite yet. He wasn’t finished having fun.

He stroked the fine mist of her spirit with his tongue,
taunted it with his cruel power, with the threat of extinguishing it. “Mmmm,”
he moaned.

Black
Drayke dragged her soul to the very edge of destruction and left it teetering
in a void of endless black. His body shook with the force of his sudden need.
His balls tightened. Ached. Tasting a soul had never felt this good before.

“Ahhh,
blessed gods!”

He
released her mouth, released her spirit, and stared down at Helayne with
wonder. He couldn’t believe how powerful and sweet her soul had tasted. “That
was wonderful,” he said in a strained voice. “You have a beautiful soul, Helayne.
No wonder Kallibus is so enraged over your betrayal.”

Helayne’s spirit retreated, seeking warmth, searching for
its sanctuary. She trembled, terror causing her heart to pound as she lay
beneath him.

“You
thought I was going to steal your spirit?” Black Drayke laughed as he slid his
tongue down her cheek, leaving a sticky residue. “I thought about it. But I’m
not ready for this to be over yet.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I did
so enjoy the taste of your witch’s sweet soul. It’s the sweetest I’ve tasted
yet, simply because you’re Talon’s mother, and he loves you. That is a pleasure
unto itself.”

Slowly, Black Drayke lowered his head and latched onto her
throat with his mouth. He sucked deeply. Helayne bucked beneath him but he
didn’t let her go until he’d stained her throat with his black mark.

She sobbed, shuddering with each breath she took. Black
Drayke released her throat and gave a long sigh, as if he was bored. “Have no
fear, My Queen. No one will doubt you’ve been touched by another. My brand
marks you for the betrayer you are. Kallibus said tell you it’s not over
between you, darling. It’s a long time before dawn, plenty of time to play.”

* * * *

He’d
stay the rest of the night—because he could.

Black Drayke frowned, rubbing a hand across his eyes. He felt
the whites of his eyes decrease in size, felt his pupils enlarge and grow
blacker with each use of Black Magick. Colors in the room faded to gray around
him.

His world grew ever dimmer. Ever blacker. Ever colder.

He
sighed. So be it.

Soon he’d see no colors at all. There was always a penalty
for choosing one’s own path of evil. Everything in sight would appear black as
the Underworld.

What did he care?

Black
Drayke stood up, hovering over the queen’s sprawled body. “Get up, Helayne,” he
ordered. A sneer twisted his thin lips as he looked down at her. “You look
positively trashy lying there with your legs apart in invitation.”

He
smiled, allowing his gaze to harden with ruthless distaste. “Why, whatever
would the king say if he saw you spread out like a banquet for my pleasure and
my mark of ownership now covering his?”

Black
Drayke chuckled as he witnessed the horror cross her face at the thought of
Darak seeing her now. He shook his head. “Don’t fret, my love. As I’ve said,
King Darak already knows I have you. You needn’t worry about him seeing you, my
lovely. Because at this very moment, he’s busy fucking MeLora. He’s not
thinking about you, lovely Helayne. He’s loving his new queen. Loving the son
they made together.”

Smug
with his ability to inflict pain, he relished the bruised hurt he saw in her
eyes. “Don’t worry sweeting. It’s my babe who fills her womb.” He held
Helayne’s face between his hands. “But the king believes it’s his seed ripening
her belly.”

Black Drayke waved his hand, parting a veil of mist and a
distorted vision of King Darak and MeLora appeared. Darak stood behind MeLora,
naked and massaged her swollen belly.

Drayke reared back, laughing deep in his gut as Helayne
attempted to scream, shaking her head in denial. He watched the multiple
expressions of pain cross her face as she watched her mate turn MeLora in his
arms and kiss her deeply.

“You see, my dear? Darak is in fact, enjoying what is
happening between him and the beautiful MeLora. I do believe he’s enjoyed
MeLora as much as I’m enjoying you. The truth is the king isn’t missing you at
all. He abandoned you to my tender mercies. He will introduce his new queen and
announce the pending arrival of his son at the next meeting of the guild.”

Black Drayke snickered. “Your reign as queen has come to
an end. And when I’m finished with you, why…I’m going to taste the witch your
son wants for his mate, then I shall seek the lovely Princess Kali.”

Helayne
stumbled, sobbing as he shoved her toward her bedchambers.

“But
for now, I am content to sample the delights before me. Tasting is what I do
best. It will please me to move my tongue over your spirit many more times
before this night is finished.”

Chapter Nineteen

Increase Mather returned from
England, bringing with him a new charter. He also returned with the new
governor, Sir William Phips.

~Salem Witch Trials

May 14, 1692

Sanctuary

Saylym
smiled contentedly and flipped over the OPEN sign in her shop window.

Mondays
usually sucked. But not this Monday.

Today
was going to be another glorious day of spring-like weather. No unexpected snow
or ice storms would be moving in to dampen the warmth or spirit.

There
was a man in her life. A lover. A fantastic lover.

Yeah.
Life was beautiful. Life was wonderful and rosy.

If customers kept her as busy today as they had the
previous week, then she’d soon have her books in the black in no time at all.

“Come here.”

Saylym jumped at the sound of a young boy’s voice. She
looked around, until she determined the voice came from across the aisles near
the bookshelves. No way. She really,
really,
wished she’d quit hearing
strange voices. Glancing wistfully toward the staircase, she wished Talon was standing
there.

But
nope. He wasn’t there. The voice wasn’t his. Hummmmm. Darn. The humming wasn’t
going to stifle her curiosity.

“Saylym
Winslow, I bid you, come forth.”

I bid you come forth?
No way!
She refused to
come forth.
Strange things happened to her when she came forth and too
darned nosy for her own good.
Come forth, my ass!

She
shook her head. Wasn’t happening.

Who
had summoned her?

In
her case,
what
had summoned her would be the better question?

Saylym
glanced wildly around the shop, then gave a deep sigh of resignation. Well, so
much for a normal, conventional, mundane Monday. Curiosity won out every time.

Mondays
sucked! Especially, this Monday, because that voice sounded suspiciously like
it was coming from a book.

Could
it be
the
book, the-one-who-had-talked-to-her-a-couple-of-Saturday-mornings-ago
book, screaming the word, ‘
waaa-ken’
like a town crier?

Nuh-uh.
She didn’t think so.

This
voice was different. Older. Adolescent.

She moved cautiously toward the shelves and immediately
spied a book with two green eyes and a big blue mouth. My goodness, it even had
a nose. Things
were
improving. Why not just give it an entire body in
her deteriorating mind?

“Are
you going to mate with the prince or not?”

“I beg your pardon?” Saylym gasped, jumping back. “What
kind of question is that?”

“A
need
-to-know question. Answer me.”

“I
will not,” Saylym replied indignantly. “What are you?”

A
long sigh. “Not a what.
Who?
I’m a
who
, damn it! And it’s very
important I discover if you are willing to mate with Talon.” A pause. “So are
you?”

“Don’t
swear,” Saylym ordered, frowning, “you’re too young to use such language.” Her
curiosity got the better of her in spite of it all. She edged closer. “No. I’m
not mating with Talon. What a question from a young man…er…book to ask.”

She
just knew she’d regret asking but couldn’t help herself. “Why do you need to
know something like that?”

A
longer sigh. A heartfelt sniff.

She swore she saw the sparkle of tears in the book’s green
eyes. Oh, dear. What could possibly be wrong in the book’s life? From her
viewpoint, her life was much worse. She was going crazy.

“Because,
if you don’t mate with him, I’ll never be born.”

Well,
yeah, not getting born might be a worse problem than going crazy, all right.

“Why?”
She had to ask it. Why couldn’t she just put a zipper on her mouth?

Were
books actually born in this part of the universe?

“Have
you no sense of family?” A huff of impatience.

“What?” Saylym blinked.

She was still mulling over the question as to whether
books were born or not and not paying close enough attention to what the book
said. At a total loss, she wondered just exactly what it was trying to tell
her.

Right, like said book could
really
talk to begin
with, let alone be born. Hummmm!

“Hello?
Are you listening to me, witch? I’m your son, stupid!”

* * * *

An
ear-piercing scream reverberated up the staircase, sending Talon into
knee-jerking wakefulness. Flinging back the covers, he leapt out of bed,
tangling his feet in the blanket and comforter as he staggered across the room.