Crave (Tainted Angels Book 1) (4 page)

He shook his head. “No, nothing. What is it?”

“I don’t know. It’s … sweet but kind of putrid at the same time. Like ... like a month-old infection.” I blinked when another scent tingled at my senses. “But then there’s this really faint hint of …” I tipped my head, trying to distinguish the distinctive smell. I frowned when I caught it, confused. “I don’t know but it’s … wow, it’s really nice, almost … exotic,” I stuttered, dumbfounded by the addition of the simple smell and my reaction to it.

Lincoln turned in a circle slowly. “There’s nothing here.”

I glanced around then tensed. Something wasn’t right. Although a quiet street, the corners, alleyways and dark shop doorways always had someone in them making a deal. But the whole area was completely deserted.

Moving my hand to grab Lincoln’s wrist, I pulled him closer. “Don’t ask!” I hissed at him when he peered at me sceptically with my unusual need for him to be close. “I don’t know, Linc. But it’s not good. We need to get out of here.”

Before I could pull him away something in the air popped, a pain rupturing in my ears at the high-pitched squeal. Lincoln’s arm snatched from mine before his body lifted and sailed across the road with a velocity that made my jaw drop, his heavy frame almost snapping in two when he hit the wall and slumped down it.

“What the …?”

The air rippled as a ring of dredgen appeared around me, their teeth descended, ready for the kill as their lips curled up, and in unison they snarled, each of them salivating at my hypnotic aroma. I stepped back but was met with resistance when another grabbed my arms and pulled them behind me, his face advancing towards the crook of my neck.

“Get off!”

He laughed as he opened his mouth to launch. He didn’t laugh for long when I propelled him in the opposite direction to Lincoln, his spindly back crunching on the wall with the intensity of my throw. Another rounded on me, his sickly sneer causing me to shiver when a trickle of blood dripped from one of his elongated teeth, an obvious sign that he’d been out hunting before coming across me.

Sensing another behind me I turned quickly, lashing out. He flew back, slamming against a parked car and setting off its alarm, the deep wail of the siren alerting people to our fight.

“Tobias?”

Nothing but silence greeted me. “Shit!” I glanced over at Lincoln but he was still out cold. I could feel his heartbeat within me so I knew he wasn’t dead, but his untimely slumber didn’t bode well for the continuation of my own heartbeat.

“Tobias!”
I tried again. What the hell? He was always there. My sponsor was at my beck and call. Always. So where the hell was he?

Two dredgen were coming at me. I shook my head and gritted my teeth, fixing them in my stare as a wall of fire lifted from the ground around me. Almost as though they were possessed, they kept coming, their gazes fixed and unseeing as they walked straight through the shield.

There was nowhere to go. Behind me was another cluster of dredgen, and in front of me three strolled through the shield, their bodies in flames, but they kept coming.

I closed my eyes and tried to link with Lincoln. “I love you,” I whispered, needing him to hear me with a desperation I had never felt before.

“Aww, that’s sweet, Seraph!”

My eyes popped open as his voice penetrated my head. “What?” I scanned my surroundings, looking for him, but he was nowhere. I knew he was in my head but, once again, the possibility of that floored me.

“Rax?”

He laughed.
“Such a clever girl. I think you’re growing on me. Well, sort of. Anyway, down to business.”

“What?”

“I told you before, and to be honest, I’m not good at repeating myself, so for the last time, you are mine, Willa. You belong to me. So before you get any ideas about falling to your knees for this filth, get over yourself.”

He was crazy.
“I’m surrounded by them. What the hell do you expect me to do?”

“Nothing.”

“What?”
I stuttered as I slowly turned around, trying to move away from each approaching bloodsucker
.

“Stand still!”

“Are you mad?”

“Quite possibly.”
He chuckled.
“After all, there’s something about you that makes my cock excited.”

My jaw dropped but a scream tore from me when arms wrapped around me and a piercing pain tore through my neck. The dirty fucker was biting me.

“Get off!” I screamed as I wriggled beneath him.

“Wait, Willa!”
Rax hissed at me.

“You are crazy! Prince of Darkness here is munching on me!”

Rax tutted at me.
“I think you’ll find that’s me, Seraph. No way is he a prince of anything. Well, maybe the toilet block over on Trent Avenue. Christ, those things fucking stink.”
My eyes widened in disbelief. He’d proved me right; he was most definitely crazy.
“Just settle yourself down and hold on!”

“It’s bloody painful! You just want me to stand here and let him chew on me?”

“Yep.”

“You …”

The pain instantly stopped and I turned to watch in horror as the dredgen dropped to his knees before me, his eyes wide and fixed on me.

“My mistress,” he said, his hand placed on his chest against what I presumed was the dredgen’s own version of a heart. He turned and growled as another dredgen headed my way, and before I could blink, The Prince of the Toilet Block on Trent Avenue launched at my predator, his almost animalistic body leaping through the air, and tore his heart right out of his chest in front of me with his bare … hands, if one could actually call the shrivelled up shovels hands.

My shock wasn’t quite shock, more complete and utter horror when he smiled at me, his long teeth still showcasing my blood, and slapped the heart at my feet in offering. He turned again and took out another that threatened me. One by one, my minion tore out the hearts of the others, each time dropping the damn things, some still pumping, at my feet until the only ones that remained were me and him.

He scanned our surroundings, checking for more before he bowed his head and then burst into flames. I squealed and jumped back, staring at the thick gloop on the floor, the remains of my saviour the only proof that I hadn’t just imagined that insane shit.

“Well, that was quite awesome.”

“I … I don’t understand.”

Rax laughed.
“I’ll be seeing you. Dream of me, Willa. Dream of when I finally make you mine. Your screams are gonna wake the dead, sweet thing.”

I dropped to the floor, the plump flesh on my arse providing a barrier against the concrete as I stared at each dead dredgen, their bodies slowly drying and turning to dust.

“Willa?” I lifted my eyes to Lincoln who was also staring at the bodies. “Shit, Bean.”

I shrugged, completely in shock. How the hell? What the hell? How the fuck had taking a bite out of me turned that despicable creature into something that would kill for me?

Lincoln lifted me up. “What the hell happened?”

“I …”

He scoffed as he once more glanced over the mess. “Well, I knew your training would kick in one day.”

“I didn’t …”

He frowned at me. “You didn’t what?”

“Shush, sweet thing.”

I blinked and swallowed at Rax’s warning. “I didn’t hold back, Lincoln.”

“So I see.” He chuckled. “Come on, let’s get you home. You stink.”

I nodded, noticing the smell had disappeared now, as had countless soulless lives. But still it didn’t make sense. Dredgen had their own unique scent, and as a seraph, it was a smell I had been met with a thousand times. The dredgen that had just attacked had smelled different than any before them.

Everything was going crazy. Me included.

H
er eyes started to bleed, the thick substance of her life making me shiver in excitement. My veins trembled with pain, the strict itch that was forever present within me driving me insane. I needed something to take my mind off it, and what better way than watching my cock sink inside Pandora’s throat?

“Deeper,” I hissed as my fingers curled around her throat and refused her oxygen until she did as I ordered.

She pleaded with me with a withering look, the soft choked sound coming from her making me roll my eyes.

Bending into her face, I curled my lip at her. “Don’t be a cunt. Take it like a good girl.”

My mood was vile, my hunger for another at breaking point. I’d always been so in control and disciplined, however, since I had been able to penetrate the seraph’s lock everything had completely changed. My mouth watered constantly for a connection, my soul begging for the link that had seemed to calm its endless turmoil.

I had no idea how I’d managed to link with her. It should have been impossible. We were two different species, complete opposites, and it was ridiculous to think we would confer, never mind relate subconsciously.

I sighed in relief as I stepped under the stream of hot water. Lifting my face into its heavy current, I gagged when I felt a piece of something slimy slide from my hair and down my face.

“Dear fucking God.” I retched then stilled and smiled guiltily at the ceiling. “Sorry.”

I was still struggling with exactly what had happened out there tonight. It now seemed surreal, like I’d dreamed it all. Touching where the wound on my neck had been before it had healed an hour ago, I shivered with a memory of his teeth piercing my skin.

Grabbing the soap and forcing the thoughts from my head, I lathered up and started to scrub at the sickly scent still engrained on my skin from their touch. That was another thing, their smell. Dredgen had a unique scent, rather like hot popcorn and cinnamon, but this, this was like a sickly sweet odour, a mix of sherry and mould. What puzzled me was that Lincoln hadn’t sensed the putrid reek.

My hands slipped over my breasts. My eyes popped open and I squealed, spinning around when a faint sound resounded around the confines of my head.
“Very nice, Seraph.”

“What the …?”
His deep chuckle angered me.
“Get out of my head, Halam!”
I answered then gritted my teeth and said, “You seriously pick the wrong moments.”

“Always,”
he answered, and I could sense his smug smile.

I frowned when something occurred to me. “Rax?” My voice was quiet, nervous.

“Mmm,”
he answered lazily.

“Fuck!”

“What?”
he whispered as he heard the shock in my voice.

“You can hear me.”

“Of course. We’ve already established that.”
His voice was tinged with something sultry and I shivered at the sound of his raspy voice.

“But the thing is,” I whispered back, “I’m not talking to you in my head but out loud.”

He was silent for a moment and I wondered if he’d severed the link, but when he spoke again, I knew he was practicing what I suggested. “You can hear me?”

The lump in my throat hindered my ability to answer him and when I finally managed to it sounded like someone different was talking. “Yes. In my ears and not my head.”

Like someone had shut a door in my head, I knew he had left me, his abrupt loss making me feel cold. Turning the temperature of the water up, I shivered even though its scorching heat was probably blistering my skin. Every one of my senses felt hyper, my ears listening, my eyes scanning, my tongue trying to taste what wasn’t there.