Forbidden (9 page)

Mystical Mayhem by Kiki Howell

Chapter One

Pain cut like a blade stuck in her wrists each time she hurled her weight forward. Aiyanna needed her Dragon in order to break the ropes that tied her arms above her head. Yet, deep inside this cave, the Spirit remained elusive. A maize-colored light surrounded her – stifled her ability to call to her animal, the only one left to save her.

Rogue shifters had invaded her reservation here in Alaska, or at least what remained of an old one. Aiyanna had no idea what’d happened to the others there, those she called friends and family. She, alone, had been captured, taken in the dark in complete silence. Now, she hung against a cold rock wall listening to a man who’d shifted into a Hawk when he’d gotten frustrated a moment ago, but was now a man again. He fought with the other shifters present, as well as a witch about the specifics of a sex ritual she was to be sacrificed in.

“You listen to me. Bottom line. Ideal or not,” the Hawk-man hissed. “We have a sacrifice: a mystical woman, an Indian with a Dragon Spirit. The bitch is perfect. We have shifters here to represent each element with a corresponding animal. Don’t get all fuckin’ simpering woman on me because you know her.”

“I know
of
her. She is gifted, maybe too gifted to kill, was all I was saying, Aiden,” spat the witch, though she was wringing her fists in front of her. Aiyanna knew of the witch too – mostly rumors though. Her name was Selene, and she practiced on the dark side of magick despite the way she’d been raised. Selene, like Aiyanna, had lost her mother young.

“You listen to me. I’ve planned this for too long. You knew how it would work. You will do this! It’s your choice how easy or hard your participation will be. Got it? The moon is right. The ritual stones and other shit have been gathered.” The Hawk-man’s voice was rising, beating at the air as his wings had a few minutes ago. “We do this tonight. We kill her tonight! We will all mate with you, witch, tonight! A child will be conceived. One like the legends.”

Aiyanna knew exactly the legend they spoke of. The superman, if you will, of the shifters. She could use his help right about now. Not many had seen him, but the one who shifted into a combination of many beasts at once, the Chimera, saved those in dire need. She felt hanging from a wall, about to be sacrificed qualified as a bit dire.

Gritting her teeth till her jaw ached, she jutted out her chin, holding her head high no matter what they intended for her. Her head buzzed, like bees had nested there and were busy working. Aiyanna stared down her enemy, forcing her focus on this Hawk-man, Aiden, despite her pain. If looks could kill, she would no longer be in such a sick mess. Panic began to creep up her back – a thousand cold spiders crawling along her spine, enhanced by the cold wall she was against. Yet, she annihilated the worthless emotion, like her kind, who had been long persecuted, were taught to do.

Twisting, panic rising to a frenzied level, something close to insanity swirling together in her thoughts, then feeling her own blood begin to trickle down her arms, she let out a fierce cry. For her efforts, Hawk-man came at her, close to flying on his feet. His movements were swift and graceful even in his human form. Without any trace of dignity or grace, though, he slapped her across the face without a blessed moment’s hesitation.

His large hand left a stinging imprint, four lines of warm pain across her cheek. The bees in her head, shocked, stunned, hummed, building a blinding pain in one temple. Eyes watering, she hung her head, hoping her anger would rouse her Dragon despite whatever binding spell she was under. She wouldn’t give up or think herself weak because she’d been captured. Luck had just dealt her the hand of being the gifted one they wanted, and the shifters had come like thieves in the night to steal her out of her bed while she slept, unguarded and unaware.

Other men, all of different skin tones and builds, finished their preparations in the cave, finally lighting the last candles around her feet. The Lion inside the man close to her was fierce, growling, clawing, to get out. His elemental nature being fire seemed more than appropriate. Literally, she felt she’d be burned if she merely brushed against his deeply bronzed skin. She watched him as closely as she watched the flames licking almost against her body. Yet, he paid her no mind. He went about his assigned job with a great passion and an excitement she could feel. Her empathic skills, thanks to her Dragon Spirit, were on high alert.

“Strip and get to your positions now,” the Hawk-man snipped at his makeshift coven, “Witch, strip the sacrifice.”

Hell, no,
she screamed inside her head and she squirmed as if to make a hole in the wall with her ass, one she could push her body into and hide. The futile movements only brought more sweat to turn cold and drip down her back.

“I don’t need to be naked to be killed in your sick sex ritual,” she taunted, unable to keep her mouth shut. It was one thing to be comfortable with your body as it was, curves and all; it was quite another to have it displayed to a group of strangers, all but one, male.

“Everything will be as I want it!” Aiden was now so close to her that he spit on her face when he spoke. She was surprised it didn’t burn with the venom of his words. “If I want to bare your breasts, your pussy, bitch, I will. Along with anything else that suits my whims. Your dark skin and long, shiny brown hair with those generous curves of yours will make a nice display. You are our altar tonight. I want it to be beautiful.” He looked her body up and down, making her skin crawl, as if tiny invisible insects with poison on their feet were covering her. Heat flushed all over her.

“You’ll fail!” she roared, a twinge of heat at the back of her throat, the sheer volume of her voice dropping to a hoarse scream from the exertion.

He ripped her shirt and bra off in one motion, his strength characteristic of shifters. His nails left bloody scrapes across her breasts, matching the burns where her bra straps had pulled across her sides until the hooks at the back had broken. This was the first time the rough wall she was bound to felt good when she fell back against it. It was cool. When she had been brought here, the first flakes of the season had just begun to fall. Deep in the cave with a fire burning in the middle, she no longer knew that winter was upon them.

“Finish the job, Selene,” he snapped at the witch as he walked to the circle the shifters had created with small stones.

The tall, naked woman had plain features and graying brown hair, though Aiyanna knew her to be only twenty-five. Her face was set in a grim sneer as she did as she was told. The leathery skin around her eyes pulled into tight lines. Her misused magick had prematurely aged her until she looked more like a sixty-year-old smoker who’d spent too much time sunbathing, while frowning for cripes sake.

Aiyanna had heard some of the stories. Selene’s life hadn’t been like that. She’d been a poor runaway teenager, a girl running from an abusive father who didn’t understand her gifts. So, when she’d finally stopped running here in Alaska, she’d turned to those who chose her. She got attention; they used her for their own evil intent. However bad the life the witch had run from, she had fared no better than to become a fairly young, sad, washed up hag. Always one for the underdog, Aiyanna had once approached her in the street, offering friendship, which had been rudely turned down.

“Easy now,” the witch hissed, pushing Aiyanna’s hips against the stone and stepping aside to avoid being kicked. When the witch’s leg brushed by a candle flame in an attempt to save herself from Aiyanna’s body’s last-chance-at-hope tirades, a wave of the witch’s hands froze Aiyanna’s lower body, making her yank on her upper bindings even more. Blood ran down her arms, but she couldn’t be still; she would not just give up. The rage of her Dragon was at the surface, frustrated, angry, fire-breath burning inside her, yet still not able to break through.

Thin ice-cold fingers worked her jeans from her body. As Aiyanna tried to ignore that she was now completely naked, full thighs, rounded stomach, ample breasts and all, she saw the four shifters were now in the same state. Four, evil beasts stood in their full male glory, with defined abs that dipped and peaked like the rough cave walls, asses as firm and smooth as the rocks along the edge of the creek, and erections jutting from their bodies like thick tree limbs. Nature at its best, she was aware, even if each of them sickened her for being part of this, the end of her life.

One the other hand, she was a woman, and one with eyes, who was not dead yet. Her brain, full of more insane thoughts than rational ones, was on survival mode. Should she offer to screw them all to save herself? Being a sex slave to those four shifters resembling mystical gods had to be better than being dead. As they looked her over, she refused to let them define her, no matter how they might act or what they might say. She was beautiful, and one day she would find a man who thought so too.

Soon the witch joined the Hawk-man on a wooden chair right in front of her. Selene straddling Aiden, their bodies pressed together, moved to an unheard rhythm as the men representing the other three elements chanted around them. The witch’s frail body bent and contorted as he wanted her, was dwarfed against the Hawk-man’s. Aiyanna swore when his heavy dick thrust between her boney thighs, he would split her in two. There were many positives to being a sturdy woman. Rough sex, though now she wished she had indulged in more of it, was one of them.

Another glow, one foggy and grayish, formed around the woman as she bent back, her head hanging, bobbing, as Aiden moved her. Her damaged hair brushed his legs. She screeched as if she was enjoying the encounter, arms out, what there was of her tiny breasts bouncing. Aiyanna didn’t know how to feel, naked, trying to ignore the threat of death while surrounded by well-built men, and watching a live sex show. The Hawk-man thrust in and out of the witch – fucked her, truth be told, with abandon. She ignored the strange pulsing in her own nether region. Depraved or not, theirs was a consensual act of an erection entering a pussy, all sounds and orgasms represented. What human would not be a little turned on?

Again, she was still alive. Or, so she thought. She wanted to live. Her perception was becoming hazy. The energy pouring off the shifter and witch in the middle of the circle, being met and amplified by the salivating men representing the other three corners, overwhelmed her. She felt she was drifting away from consciousness, being put into some magick-induced coma similar to a drug-induced hallucination. Her solitary focus became Selene’s and Aiden’s point of connection. From her vantage point, Aiyanna could see the shifter’s wide girth stretching the witch’s opening, sliding in and out in a rhythm that made the very core of her being twitch, as if their sexual energy was invading her, touching her with the same intimacy. Never having been part of a sexual ritual before, that could be the case.

Aiyanna watched as his fingers bit into her flesh, his dark-skinned fingers making haloes even on her pale skin. Aiden kept moving the witch’s ass up and down until it looked like she was crushing his balls, which were resting, full and heavy, on the chair. Yet, the man never winched, only deriving intense pleasure by the look on his face. Eyes closed tight, his mouth half open, groaning loudly and oblivious to the way the witch’s face was held tight, the way she bit her lip so hard that blood was dripping down her chin.

It took Aiyanna a moment to realize that the naked men in the semi-circle around her had all shifted into their respective animals. With her own magickal gifts and studies, she knew each was an elemental being, one they surely hoped would be a part of the Chimera; a large Bird for air, a Lion for fire and a Wolf for earth. Although they had an Undine for water, so she had no idea where they were going with that as far as the Chimera was concerned. Having grown up on a reservation, the daughter of a Shaman, she knew the intricacies of rituals were not always obvious to the layman’s eye. She tried to hold on to these stray coherent thoughts like a lifeline. All she had left was her mind.

Her pumping heart stopped when a beast like none she’d ever seen before, up close and personal, made each of the ritual participants cower further into the cave with a roar that emanated from his three heads simultaneously. One head was a Dragon, its long neck sparkling with green scales as it moved, catching light from the candles. The second head was not as easily defined, Wolf-like maybe, with smoky gray fur. The middle head was that of a Lion with a full flowing mane. She flinched as the growling continued, each countenance making its wrath known. But she couldn’t cover her ears as the rest of them had.

When the beast approached her, her eyes focused on the sharp claws of the huge Lion paws of the animal. This Lion part of the beast took the metal clamp fastening her to the rock wall in its teeth and broke it as easily as she would pull a knife from butter. Now she was truly frozen in fear, even as the beast swung its head, tossing the chains along with her body onto his back. She landed on soft, reddish-gold fur, with a thump of pain that knocked the wind right out of her non-working lungs. Wings beat on either side of her. Their span was longer than her almost six foot frame. The sound swallowed her pathetic attempt at a scream, which was just as well as she had no air to use anyway.

She grappled for something to hold on to, the thick mane hitting her face the only real option. What bothered her most was the Snake, the creature’s tail, which hissed at her as it wrapped around her waist as they left the cave. The odd greenish skin – dull yet the same intense color as the shiny Dragon scales – looked rather beautiful against her dark skin in the night. Shaking her head at the sensuous thought, she waited for a bite that didn’t come. She realized with a start, they were far above the treetops, cutting through the dark sky.