Dark Embrace (Principatus) (22 page)

“Please let me go, Inari,” Tianya begged, her fingers scraping at Inari’s arm. “Please. I don’t understand. Why are you—”

Inari sucked in a ragged breath, the air sickly sweet with her sister’s fear.

No, not her fear. His stench. Oh, Inari, it’s the leech’s—

“Ti?”

A hot ball of guilt slammed into her. Ripe and putrid. Tianya’s face seemed to distort, her eyes burning a baleful hate. The fingers on Inari’s arms dug at her flesh, a punishing contact she couldn’t break. “Yes, Inari, it’s me.”

Inari shook her head, the guilt in her gut wriggling into her soul. She stared at her sister’s twisted expression, her head screaming. “No. You’re dead.”

Tianya’s eyes filled with tears and she let out a broken sob, gripping Inari’s arm harder. “It is
me
, Inari. You saved me. You saved me in time.”

Inari shook her head again, her pulse screaming. No, it
wasn’t
her sister. It was the leech. The very one who killed Ti over a century ago. She had to destroy the vile thing now. She had to—

“I love you, sis,” Tianya whispered, nails scraping at Inari’s flesh. She stumbled to her feet, blue eyes wild and hateful. “You saved me.” Blood streaming down her face, iridescent green blood oozing from the puncture wounds in her throat, she gazed up at Inari through welling tears. “I knew you would. Kiss me, sis. Kiss away my pain.”

Inari squeezed her eyes shut, her head swimming. Her stomach rolled. Why was this wrong? Why did this feel so wrong?

“Kiss me, Inari. I so want to kiss you now.”

Kiss…

Kiss…

She opened her eyes and stared at the crying young woman she grasped by the throat. What was she doing? She couldn’t kill her sister. She loved her. So much. All she wanted to do was kiss her. A simple kiss. “Oh, Ti,” she whispered, tears stinging her eyes as she drew her head closer to Tianya’s. “Oh, baby.”

Tianya flashed teeth glistening in green blood and saliva. “Love you so much, sis,” she whispered, the words becoming a guttural growl.

The stench of rotting meat poured through Inari’s nose, down her throat, and she froze, every muscle in her body stiffening. “What?”

A shimmer rippled over Tianya’s form, and Inari’s cry of dismay choked her as her sister vanished, the leech snarling at her instead. “
So
much.”

Inari’s heart smashed into her throat.
“No!”

She threw the leech against the fig tree again, fury and stunned disbelief tearing through her. The demon hit the ancient trunk with a bone-crunching thud. Blood gushed from his nose.

She fixed the leech in a furious glare, her wings cocked, her fingers clawed. “Gonna make you pay for—” Her knees buckled and excruciating pain ripped over her face.

Oh, by the Powers…what…

She took a lunging step for the leech, shutting out the agony as she forced herself to stay on her feet. She had to kill him. She had to. She couldn’t let him—

He spat at her again.

The burning wad hit her chest. She let out a roar and threw herself forward. Wrapping her hands around his throat, she slammed him against the tree, again, again. Bright green blood ruptured from his nose, his eyes. He flopped in her grip, his fingers scrambling at her wrists, his claws gouging deep furrows into her flesh.

And still she didn’t stop.

Not even when he thrashed and wailed, blood gushing from his mouth.

Not even when his hands found her face and clawed at her eyes. Not even when he—

Fresh pain ripped through her, a shearing wall of excruciating agony. She stumbled backward, her grip slipping from the leech’s throat, her knees collapsing. Her muscles raged with cramping fire, her mind screaming in such pain she could barely breathe.

Oh, God, she was…

Get up. Get up.

She lurched to her feet, her stare locking onto the demon.

“Later, cunt,” he rasped before, with a gurgling hiss, he turned and screeched away into the blackness of the night, the shadows of the park swallowing him whole. Gone from sight in less than a heartbeat.

Inari watched him, her body engulfed in pain, her legs refusing to move.

She shook her head, a crushing pressure building in her chest. No. He’d gotten away. He’d gotten…

Her cry rent the air, high and tearing. She collapsed to the ground, her cheeks burning with tears of disgust and shame, her body returning to human form. She punched the ground, the wet grass icy on her burning skin, blood oozing from wounds deeper than flesh. By the Powers, what had she done? How could she be so stupid? So weak?

Undone.

The word reverberated through her head, a single word spoken in a choir of voices. The voice of the Powers.

She gasped and as soon as the sticky night air surged into her lungs, she knew what the word meant. She’d failed.

Her sister. The Powers. Herself.

She’d failed. And she had no one to blame but herself and her own stupid—

“Inari?”

She froze, her breath trapped in her throat.

Ezryn. Ezryn was behind her.

“Inari?” the sound of his voice behind her, unexpected, low and somehow hesitant, struck her like a physical blow, turning the grief inside her to rage. Pure rage. She spun around and threw herself at him, releasing all control over her Principatus soul, unleashing its power. Ready to strike out. To maim. To hurt.

To kill.

Nothing happened.

She crashed into him, pain ripping through her body. Her human body.

Oh, no.

Strong hands grabbed her upper arms, his fingers curling around her
human
upper arms, holding her still. “Inari, what—?”

Oh, no. No.

She stumbled back a step, the blood draining from her face. She stared at the vampire before her, her soul still and hollow. And powerless. “Oh, my God, no.”

Ezryn’s fingers closed tightly around her arms, halting at her backward stagger. He gazed into her eyes, his eyebrows knitted. “What’s wrong, Inari.”

She shook her head, an unseen pressure crushing her chest.
No, this can’t be. It can’t…
Wild trembles wracked her body and she shook her head again, struggling to stop them.
No, please…no… Why didn’t I transform? Why didn’t I change?

Ezryn tugged at her arms, trying to pull her closer to him. “Inari, tell me what’s going on?”

Another jarring shudder claimed her. She glared at him and jerked free of his hold. “Stay away from me.”

His eyebrows pulled into a deeper frown, and he closed the minute distance she’d put between them. “Why?”

She threw him a hateful snarl, her heart constricting. “Because I’m a Principatus.” The title sheared into her undone soul, mocking her failure. “And you’re a vampire.”

Red flames flickered in Ezryn’s eyes. “So?”

The rage scalding through Inari’s veins faltered, suddenly etched with empty agony. Could he tell? Could Ezryn feel the emptiness inside her? God, what happened now? What
was
she now if not a… She choked back a tearing breath, turning from him. “So we’re enemies. We can’t…” The words caught in her throat, too painful to speak aloud, and she turned away from him, unwilling to let him see her grief.

This is what she got for being weak. For allowing a vampire to touch her. For allowing a leech demon to fool her.

“Can’t what, Inari? Be together? Enjoy each other’s company? Exist in the same world?”

She clenched her jaw, squeezing her eyes shut. “Please, just stay away from me.”

“I don’t want to.”

His blunt statement made her already thick throat thicker. “I don’t care.”

Cool fingers closed around her elbow in a firm grip, holding her still as he stepped in front of her. “What happened just now, Inari? Tell me. Why did you let the leech demon go?”

Inari’s stomach rolled at his question. He’d seen. He’d seen her failure. She ground her teeth, opening her eyes to glare at him. “Let me go before I rip your heart out.”

His eyes flared red, his jaw bunching. “Why did you stop fighting him? You had him beat. I saw it. Why did you let him go?”

She turned away, refusing to let him see her face. Refusing to let him see her shame, her grief. She’d never felt so torn apart. How did she survive this? How did she recover?

“What did he say to you?” he continued, his voice low, gentle. “What did he do to make you look so sad? So broken?”

She bit back a sob, hating him. “Go away,” she whispered through her teeth. “Just leave me the fuck alone.”

He didn’t say anything, his fingers still curled around her arm.

“Leave me alone,” she whispered again, turning more away from him. By God, what was she to do now?

“Who is Tianya?”

Her sister’s name, spoken with such gentle inquiry by the master vampire, ripped her heart apart. “None of your business.” Grief, as raw and overwhelming as the night she’d learnt of Tianya’s murder, consumed her. “Just leave me alone. Please, for the love of the Powers, leave me alone.”

She fought against Ezryn’s hold, only to feel him close his fingers more firmly on her elbow. Only to feel him press the fingers of his other hand under her chin to turn her face back to his. She glared at him, her eyes burning with unshed tears. She would not cry. Not in front of him. Not ever.

He studied her, a silent inspection she neither wanted nor asked for. “You’re wrong, Inari,” he stated, his stare holding hers. “Everything about you is my business.”

She jerked up her chin. She had to get away from him. More than ever. Before she did something she’d never forgive herself. “Why?” she snapped. “Because we fucked? Because I allowed you to stick your dick between my legs? Call it a moment of stupidity. Call me a slut if you want to. It’s not like we need to pick out curtains together.”

Ezryn’s lips curled again, that same soft, small smile she’d grown to love in far too short a time. It unnerved her. Scared her. Made her heart quicken and her pulse pound. “I can’t stop thinking about you, Principatus. Even if we are enemies, you’re always in my mind. For whatever reason, I can’t stop. Is that so bad?”

A chill, like the icy breath of Death herself, stabbed into Inari’s empty soul, and she stiffened.

Can’t stop. The confession flayed at her pain. Can’t stop. Like the chosen victim of a succubus—always wanting more, always craving more. Constantly thinking of the sex demon feeding on their existence, incapable of functioning or living a normal life. Aching for the succubus’s presence even when sex was not occurring. Aching for it, craving it, needing it. Wasting away as they longed for every new touch, every new orgasm. Obsessed and enslaved by their own sexual need and the demon in control of it.

Ezryn’s words whispered through her mind like the screaming cries of a dying man.
Can’t stop.

She bared her teeth at him, emptiness threatening to devour her. “Try.”

His eyebrows knotted in a puzzled frown, his gaze searching her face. “What scares you so much about us, Inari?”

“There is no ‘us’, bloodsucker.”

“Yes, there is. Admit it.”

“Leave me alone. You’ve had your fun. You can gloat over your triumph. A master vampire fucking a Principatus. I bet all your undead friends can’t wait to hear all the details. Or are you friendless as well as soulless?”

He didn’t react to the barbed insult. “Fine, you want me gone that badly, tell me who Tianya is and I will leave you alone.”

She dragged in a shaking breath, the pain in her chest, her soul, undoing her completely. Or was it the worry, the open concern in Ezryn’s eyes? “My sister. Tianya was my sister. The leech demon I was fighting raped and murdered her over two hundred and fifty years ago.”

An unreadable expression fell over Ezryn’s face. His stare held her gaze. Seeking, searching for something she could not let him find. Her heart.

“Oh, Inari,” he finally murmured, and her breath caught at the undeniable regret in his voice, “you know there’s not a hope in hell of me leaving you now, don’t you?”

He lowered his head and brushed his lips over hers. A gentle kiss. As if Inari herself was something delicate and fragile that needed to be cherished.

And she let him.

For the briefest of moments.

Head spinning, stomach knotting, she placed her palms on his chest and pushed him away, stepping back a step as she did. “Don’t.”

He followed her, reaching for her hands. “Let me take you home. I want to take you home. Take you somewhere safe and—”

She shook her head, taking another backward retreat from him.

“Please,” she said, her voice barely more than a scratching whisper. “Just leave me alone. Nothing good can come of this.”

He shook his head. He was stubborn and arrogant and used to getting what he wanted, a master vampire through and through. Her master vampire, her enemy, who was studying her with such open concern she felt her chest constrict.

Can’t stop.

His confession slipped through her head, taunting and foreboding. Terrifying her. Making her sick. The words of a male entranced by a succubus who would do anything to have her use his body.