Blood Cursed (4 page)

“How precious you are?” He kissed me, tilting me backwards so I had to squeal and flutter to stay up, the blood washing rapidly to my head. “How beautiful?” Another kiss, dark and smoky with excitement, his lips trailing to my gorestained throat. “How deadly, tasty gorgeous … mmm. God, Em, you make me hot, you bad girl.” His arm crushed my waist, my wings trailing on the floor. He nuzzled aside my flimsy wet top, and my treacherous nipple sprang hard in his mouth. I gasped at the sensation, hot and raw deep inside, and my limbs flushed weak.

“C’mon, Jay-jay, can’t screwify around in the gutter all night.”

That guiltwrapped roseglass scent invaded my stupor. I struggled, my whisper rough. “Let me up!”

Diamond grinned at us, glowing as brightly as ever, a magenta-haloed angel. He’d wiped my blood from his fingers, straightened his hair where I’d messed it.

My wings crawled with embarrassment. As smooth a liar as Jasper, and as arrogant. Obviously, he thought we had something to hide.

Jasper swept me to my feet, but he didn’t cover me where he’d bared my breast. As if he showed me off, his pretty bloodfae prize. He slung his arm around my neck and nuzzled a laughing kiss below my ear. “Watch what ya say about my girl, shitbrain. Darlin’, don’t you mind him.”

Flushing, I tugged my top into place, trying to swallow my awkwardness. “Umm … hey.”

“Evening, beautiful.” Diamond took my palm and kissed it, his usual meaningless flirtation. His warm lips teased me, but his eyes were glacial, contempt flashing clear like ice.

My stomach squeezed hot, and I snatched my hand back.

Diamond smiled coolly. “You meeting Ange, Jaspy-joo? Better lose your candy.”

Angry ants crawled under my skin. More insults. As if his own profession—that’d be sticky gang puke and sparkle pusher—was so goddamn noble.

I wanted to stare him down, say,
Who the fuck are you calling “candy,” crystal boy?
but my treacherous gaze kept sliding aside. Snarky glass-ass bastard. Still, gotta give him points for attitude. Anyone who called my hot-tempered boy Jaspy-joo had guts.

Jasper opened his mouth to retort, but settled for a sharp-toothed grin. He twirled one of my red curls in shiny black claws. “In a second. Just doing some doings. Gotta get me some Ember-time.”

Diamond wrinkled his cute pointed nose. “Better get in line.”

My heart clenched tight, but Jasper just giggled, rich. He thought it a compliment. Trusted his boss implicitly not to fool around with his girl.

Their stupid machofae code made me sick. I wanted to jump up and down, claw at my hair, scream,
What is wrong with you people? You’re gangsters. You’d sell your own legs if you thought it’d make you fly faster. What’s with the got-your-back bullshit?

Diamond winked at me, dripping irony, and I scowled, my wings bristling. This asshole really pushed my buttons. Everyone thinks we bloodfae are bimbos, good for nothing but pleasure, but his condescending stare maddened me beyond sense. One minute he’s about to kiss me; the next, he goes out of his way to make me feel worthless.

Well, screw him in a pile of pickles. I didn’t care what he thought of me.

But my skin still prickled hot. I wanted to squint my eyes shut, disappear into the background. Angry breeze ruffled my wings, and I shot him the darkest glare I could muster. “Screw you, jewelboy. Fucked up any kids with sparkle lately? Hear you sell it cheaper to the youngsters.”

“Hush it, Emmy.” Jasper squeezed my shoulder in warning. His claws dug in painfully, and the old fear speared me cold.
Naughty Emmy, annoying the boss. Be quiet, or I’ll have to punish you.

But Diamond just draped his hot claret gaze over my chest. “Nice bloodstain, candygirl. Chargify by the mouthful?”

Shame scorched my nerves, but I raised him a coquettish eyebrow. “Why? Want some?”

A crystalsharp laugh. “No, thanks. Like me a girl who can make up her mind.”

“Whatever.” Asshole. I tried to look away, keep it casual. But my gaze kept dragging back to his perfect, narrow face, those sharpglitter cheekbones, his ripe beestung lips, and it occurred to me that maybe Jasper had only the second most beautiful mouth in Melbourne.

A silent windchime chuckle tinkled in my ears, and my nerves strung taut. Glassfae had weirdsight. No doubt he’d heard everything I was thinking.

Well, the dirty eavesdropper wouldn’t need weirdsight to hear this. I opened my mouth, vitriol searing my tongue loose.

But strange images flooded hot, wobbling my knees, and the words caught in my throat. His gaze fixed on mine, distant but inescapable. Grasping fingers of glassy shadow slid into my skull, and I could do nothing to stop them.

Blood, sloshing over my vision in scarlet waves, sliding down my neck’s taut sinews. The vampire’s cruel teeth in my throat, digging, raping, feeding until I squirmed with disgust and horrid longing that made me ache. Jasper’s crueler kiss, unnerving, claws teasing me, velvet wings a dark caress that shivered my skin. His pale strong limbs entwining with mine, his hardness filling me, mouth on my swollen wingjoints, double-jointed fingers wrapped around my wrists, the echo of our urgent pleasure spearing deep.

I choked, and fought, my glamour rippling hot on my skin, but the flood wouldn’t stop. Despair, loneliness, constant terror that Jasper would leave me for a prettier, more compliant girl. Doubt forcing like cold wire into my skull, leaving me grasping for affection, attention, one tiny sign that he cared for me.

And a flush of reluctant rosetinted compassion warmed my heart like sunshine.

It shocked me rigid. Diamond watched me, relentless, scorn tainting his sulky rose lips. But for a moment, his accusing gaze slipped.

My glamour recoiled, sharp and electric. Now the fucker dared to feel sorry for me? Far too much like Jasper, this Diamond, cocky and dominant and charming like the devil when he wished. I’m a sucker for the charming ones. Look where it’s gotten me.

I wriggled, frantic, desperate to escape, and with a final glassy crack, Diamond’s magic broke.

Mirrors flashed, cold and real, my own reflection jolting me from my trance. I ripped my gaze away, flushing. No fair. He knew far too much about me. Damn him and his vulgar glasstalent. It didn’t make him special or desirable. Without his fairy tricks, he was about as sensitive as a punch in the face.

Anger ripped my skin raw, liberating, and I spat through gritted teeth. “Don’t do that. Don’t you
ever
come near me again, you crystalbrain prick.”

Jasper grabbed my arm, claws digging in deep and dangerous. “Shush now, Emmy. Won’t be a minute, Diamond, just some little seconds for darklysweet fun.” He squeezed my arm cruelly, and pain speared up the bonehollow into my shoulder. “Just gotta see a man about a thing. Catchya in a flash.”

And he dragged me off, but not before Diamond’s gaze caught mine once more, a dark ruby glare mixing pity and bitter disdain that scorched deep into my soul like a rusty brand.

4

Diamond watches the pretty bloodfairy go, sympathy and disgust coiling his nerves like wire.

She’s beautiful, all right. Sinfully long legs, brown thighs, her dusky back smooth and rich like meltified chocolate. That cherrybright hair, so crisp and crushable. Long graceful wings, so delicate and fragile. And the sweetest ass he’s ever seen on a woman, so ripe and round, it’d pop fruitylicious in his teeth like a peach … .

Ploonk.

A vile idea pops like poison.

He stares, wings itching with delicious deceit. Candy blood. Big innocent eyes to drown in. Long smooth legs, succulent breasts, lips begging for a kiss.

Tasty bloodwhore who looks like an angel.

If anyone can tempt a jaded 350-year-old vampire to carelessness, it’s Ember.

Slip her the poison. Feed her to Angelo. Scream-bleed-die, vampire—and good riddimance, too.

Crafty delight throbs in Diamond’s blood. Perfectification. Ordinarily, Ange is cold and restrained. It’s how he got where he is. But every now and then, like a man who hasn’t gotten off in too long, his hunger gets the better of him.

A sexy little ingenue like Ember—her dusky skin glowing with tastylicious bloodfae nectar—Ember is the perfect bait.

And that’s a reallytruly foul idea.

He rolls his wingjoints, sweating. The poison won’t hurt her, right? It’s especiamally for vampires, or at least that’s what his mad fairy pharmacist toldified. Just a little fever, a headache, a dizzy skull. Maybe a few other side effects. She won’t be hurt. What the hell does he care for his conscience? That weak-willed wormything bled out on the floor and died, the night Rosa tore his heart out.

But it’s not right. He can’t feedify a pretty girl to a vampire. Can he?

He grits sharp teeth and shakes his head to empty it, rainbows flashing on the floor from his hair. But the plan’s there. He can’t unthinkify it. And she’s already selling herself, right? He’ll just make her a business propomasition. An offer she can’t refuse …

But it isn’t just her angelic face and tastylicious body that haunt him. Fuck it if he can’t still taste her desperation, a bright honeyache on the back of his tongue. Still smell her, rich and warm and womanly, her earthydark scent of blood and kisses watering his mouth. Still feel the shock on his cheek where she hit him, the delicious press of her pulsing thigh against his cock.

But also tension, tight and trembling, her liquidgreen eyes hyperaware. His glassfae talent stripped her bare, the way she longs for Jasper’s approval, her utter despairification when it’s lost. Diamond’s sympathy mocks him. He knows that feeling. But he didn’t need faesight to see she’s frightened.

Acid compassion stings holes in his heart. She’s terrified. Screaming for help. Scrabbling to escape, like a scarified rabbit caught in steeltrap jaws.

Well, that’ll learnify her to feed a vampire. Right? Rosa fed a vampire, and broke Diamond’s heart. Ember’s no better.

But his gaze follows her as she twirls across the floor in Jasper’s embrace, and his claws jitter across the glass bar, his nerves wired tight. He protectifies his own. He should be helping her. Not using her as a murder weapon.

Already Jasper’s fingers crawl onto her back like a bony white spider, his tongue curling around her sexy little pointed ear. Her pretty silver skirt stretches tight around those lickable thighs as they dance. She smiles, the tip of her tongue teasing cute sharp teeth, and for one hellscorched moment, desire dizzies Diamond blind.

He struggles for breath, his body a tense, hot demand. So he wants her. He wants lots of girls, the way other fairies covet jewels or gold or shiny things. Ever since Rosa, he’s drowned himself in meaningless liaisons, hunting for something that’ll make him care.

And now here’s Ember, a luscious, feisty angel he can’t have, and it’s not just the hard-on making him shiver. It’s the old burning need to protect, possessify, spreading over his skin like a feral scorchrash.

If Jasper’s hurting her, he’ll rip the dusty bastard’s toeclaws out.

Except he won’t. She’s not his to look after. She never will be.

Foolish guilt scrapes Diamond’s nerves raw. Ember’s not the first prettyfae to fall for Jasper’s charmifications, and all along he’s known Jasper’s lying to her, sleeping with other girls, his dusty earthfae fingers creeping places they shouldn’t.

He slices shardlike claws into his palms, itching to be rid of this stupid compassion. Pain slides hot and relaxing into his veins. Luminous pink blood pools, his thoughts shimmering clear like quicksilver.

Focus, D. Don’t softify. It’ll only bite your ass later.

He breathes deep, calming, savoring the nighttime taste of sex and flesh, and stalks away from the bar. The crowd filters around him, fragrant bodies, tortured breath, deathmetal’s razor chords. His shadow glows and ripples in the dark like bloodstained water.

Absently, he licks his bleeding palm clean, and the drugrich blood fires his defiance like stars. Ember’s not his problem, right? Not enough hours in the night. He’s got sparkle to sell, gangpuke ass to kickify, vampire mobsters to murder, a squillion and twelve things to do and none of them involve screwing … umm, pauseify, rewind … none of them involve rescuing sexy damsels in distress.

It’s none of Diamond’s biznificality. Not his can of wormatrons to sidle up to her, slide her pretty hand into his, say,
Hey, sugarplum fairy, you know your boyfriend’s sticking his cock in other chicks? There, now, don’t cry. Wanna come home with me instead? Mine’s bigger.

Yessum. If she’s living on Jasper’s money, she can put up with Jasper’s bullshit. Don’t see her complainamating when he showers her in shinygifts and treats her like a glitterfairy queen. And here she is tonight, all bloodified and sweaty, holes ripped raw in her throat by some greasy essence-sucking monster.

It’s not Diamond’s problem. If candygirl wants to whorify herself to filthyscum bloodsuckers, that’s her cactus pie.

But for some reason, his anger won’t fade. His tense muscles won’t ease. Just the image of her doing it makes him hard. Tilting her luscious brown throat back for the monster’s bite, that sexy hair slipping off one shoulder, her dark lips parting in pleasure, her long throaty sigh …

Yeah. None of his biznification. Right.

His heart aches, stubborn remnants of guilt, and he sighs. Fuck it. He can’t use Ember for bait. It’s not right. Have to thinkify something else.

A warm finger of scent caresses his cheek, and he snaps back to here and now, sweat fresh on his palms and a throbbing ache in his cock.

Spice and honey. Dark, familiar, frightening.

Rosa.

Hot rocks tumble in his guts, and he twitches his nose and snaps himself dim.

His vision shimmers and clears. Colors pale, shapes lose their reality, fading to translucent windows. In his dark glamourshadow, he’s ghostly, almost invisible. Normally, it’s soothing, this darkglass world where no one can see. Metal gleams gemlike, the air smells clean and unsullied by his violence. Even the noise falls uncluttered, each harmonic tinkling clear like glassy chimes.

He doesn’t care. He just needs to get out.

“Diamond, don’t. Please.”

Rosa’s voice vibrates his bones, low and husky and full of pain that stabs straight to his aching balls. She could always see him, no matter how dim he flickered. Warm fingers catch his sharp wing edge, and that too-familiar spicy scent snaps his spine tight.

Not her. Not now.

But he can’t help but turn.

Blueblack hair, crisp and sculptured on pale shoulders. Slim body adorned in elegant crimson satin, hips swaying as she walks, drawing every glance in the room. Extraordinary violet eyes, lashes long and strokeable. And god help him, that mouth, soft and berryrich, so damned sexy, he nearly forgets they hate each other and drags her into his arms for a kiss.

She’s more classically beautiful than Ember. Ember is girlflesh and kisses, quirky, luscious, mouthwatering. Rosa makes him feel unworthy, a perfect goddess he can never deserve.

Heat floods him, and that tiny glimpse of vampire teeth only makes him harder. Anger. Shame. Lust. They’re all the same.

He swallows, parched. “Rosa. Hey.”

“Long time. I mean, it’s good to see you.” She tries a smile, but it gutters like candleflame. Fangmarks flush crimson on her throat, matching the ruby necklace Ange gave her. A bruise yellows her smooth cheekbone, the imprint of fingers fading on her chin.

Vampires don’t bruise easy, or for long.

Troublesense itches like allergy on Diamond’s palate. Something’s not right. He glances over her shoulder for Angelo. Nope. Good. He shoves his hands in his back pockets, arrogance he doesn’t feel. “Uh-huh. Sure. What you want?”

“Can’t I say hello to an old friend?”

Sick laughter bubbles. “You’ve got to be kiddifying. Just fuck off, okay? You took what you wanted from me. Sorry I boredified you. See ya.”

“Please, just a moment. I need to talk to you.” She touches his arm, and electricity tingles deep.

Stay. Kiss. Smell her hair. Pull her into the dark, slide the clothes from her body, kiss her breasts until she moans, ease his cock inside her and lose himself. Forget she shatterfied his heart, that he did raw and ugly things to her in anger. Pretend he still believes she loves him, and everything’s like it was before.

He shakes her off, and turns.

But her fingers crush his forearm, effortlessly vampirestrong, and she pulls him into hot neongreen shadow. Their sweat mingles sparklebright, dizzying.

His wings tingle. The virusblood scent on her breath intoxicates him. His blood burns jagged. He’s backed against a wall. Can’t escape. Run. Scream. Kiss her.

Her pretty lips tremble. “Diamond, I’m in trouble. You have to help me.”

The goddamn magickated words. Inwardly he curses, rich and raw. She’s lying. It’s a trick. But fear glitters her eyes wild, and her lashes fill with bloodstained tears.

Stupid compassion swells his heart golden.
Fuck. Don’t go there. Don’t touch her, hold her, wipify her tears. She’ll only tear your heart out.

But his throat parches tight, and he can’t help but lift a shaking hand and brush her brimming lashes clean.

She slides her fevered hand into his, and before he can think
Diamond, you fucking idiot,
she’s swaying closer and brushing her body against him and they’re kissing, thirsty, her lithe little tongue in his mouth. Her sharp teeth slice his lip. Blood tingles, and she groans, and he can’t help but kiss her harder, slide desperate hands into her hair, over her shoulders, down her luscious curves.

Her tears slide into his mouth, so salty and hot. His thoughts skid and stutter, useless. Is she playifying him? Maybe. Maybe not.

Who the fuck cares? His body burns. His cock aches, swollen tight, so hard with sparklethick lust that he can’t think, can’t reasonify, only smell her, taste her, touch her. Forget the shame, the emptiness, the bad things he did to her. Pretend it’s real, that she wants him back, and adore her, gentleslow and breathless, lay her down in pinklit wingshadows and love her until sunrise.

She gasps between kisses, her fingers curling in his hair, rubbing her ripe breasts against him even as she’s pushing away. “Someone’ll see. He’ll kill me. Don’t—”

He grabs her chin and forces her away, his nerves wired tight. He’s breathing hard. They both are. “So don’t. What the fuck, Rosa?”

“I’ve no one else to go to.” Now she’s sobbing in his arms, tears spilling bloody on flushpainted cheeks. “God, it’s awful, Diamond. Ange is so cold. He … he doesn’t care for me like he used to. He makes me do things. Things I hate. I can’t do it anymore.”

“So leavify.” His tone slices a jagged edge, but her misery slashes deep inside him, and he doesn’t add,
It’s what you’re good at.

She wipes her face. “I can’t. I’m frightened. He watches me all the time, him and that lizard freak.”

“Did he do this?” His fingers shake on her bruises. Too many memories he doesn’t want. Vampire marks in her thigh. The back of his hand hitting her face. The way she looked at him, dark hair spilling over her bleeding mouth. Lost. Frightified. Disappointed.

“Diamond—”

“Did he?”

Rosa wipes her eyes, flushing. “He’s so jealous, he just … If he finds out I came to you, that I still … he’s gonna kill me. You have to help me. You have to get me out of th—Oh, shit.” Her gaze darts aside, and her voice slides into panic, her eyes wide. “They’re coming. They’ll see. Take this. I’ll call you.” She snaps something warm around his wrist, sharp edges cutting, and she’s gone.

He blinks in hot confusion and looks down. A violet-dark jewel flashes up at him, rimmed in silver chain that clips tight around his wrist. A woman’s bracelet, almost too tight to fit him, lozenge-shaped links scalloped sharp. Never seen it before.

He turns it to the light. The edges slice his wrist, and a tiny drop of his hotpink blood slips over the silver. Restless flame shifts inside the jewel, eddying like scarlet smoke.

Is she gifting him? Bribing him? A memento of times gone?

Her words sear his heart like a jagged iron.
If Ange finds out she still …
what? Stealifies jewels? Kisses random fairy boys in the dark? Or something else? Something wishfully, wildly deeper, a connection that never truly died?

Diamond yanks his hair straight, her silkalicious skin still tingling his palms. Whatever. He doesn’t want her back. What’s the pointificality? He couldn’t please her before, and nothing’s changed. He’s still the same. A cute fairy bauble, pretty and useless. It’s not a life.

But he’s crossed the line. Knows that. Can’t go back now. Cursify his weakness, but the memory of Rosa’s distress—and the lingering heat of her kiss—stabs irresistible compulsion deep into his veins. She’s manipulating him, truthful or not, and he can’t help but fallify.

Just like Jasper and Ember. Only this time, you’re the whore.

The whisper taunts him raw, and he ignores it.
Nope no never. Not like that at all …