Soul Enslaved (Sons of Wrath Book 3) (67 page)

Laura returned, waving a piece of paper in the air. “The goddamn holy grail! A letter from your father.”

Scowling, Sabelle curled her hands into tight fists at her sides. “I thought you burned it.”

“I lied. ‘The fuck you want? An apology? You ain’t gettin’ one, goodie two shoes.” She threw the letter into the air, letting it float to the carpet just a short distance away from her. “Your daddy was an angel. Avenging angel. A Guardian. I got pregnant with you, and he chose to fall over going back to the heavens.” She hiccupped. “Stupid bastard.”

Trembles wracked Sabelle’s body, as she stared down at the letter on the floor. “He … fell for
you
?”

“He fell for you. Not for me. I spect your daddy didn’t give a shit about me. Not even when he fucked me again and got me pregnant with Denya.”

“Then I’m … we’re …
nephilim
?”

“Only half humans and angels are nephilim, nitwit.” She downed another swill. “You’re somethin’ much worse. Ain’t too many half succubus, half angels walking around. Sucks to be you, don’t it? You don’t take on the looks of a nephilim like the half humans. Personally, I wish you would’ve. Might’ve gotten some cash for those looks. A mint for those wings.”

Ignore her
. Gods, Sabelle could’ve hammered her fist in the woman’s face and not felt the least bit remorseful. “How the hell did you manage to get an angel to bond with you?”

“He needed a favor. I delivered. He offered to bond as payment.”

Sabelle gripped the back of the chair in front of her for support, while the lies of her childhood unraveled before her.

“I used to have a life. Before you fuckin’ brats came along and ruined it.” Laura sniffed and snorted. “Every man wanted to fuck me. I was
prime
pussy.” She tripped across the carpet, catching herself against the table, from where she grabbed a pack of smokes and lit up. “I bonded with that bastard, and suddenly I was no one’s girl anymore. My pimp left me. My friends. I had nothin’. Nothin’ but … him.”

“He fell for you. Chose hell over the heavens. And you left
him
?”

“Like I said. You don’t know nothin’. A succubus can’t fuck another man, if she’s bonded.”

Sabelle scratched her head. “This life … this is what you
chose
? You chose this … filth and depravity over a man who … what the fuck? Did he beat you?”

“No.” The catty tone of Laura’s voice made her sound insulted. “He didn’t beat me. He couldn’t beat me, idiot. A bonded male can’t lay a hand on his mate. Even an angel.”

Sabelle covered her face with her palms and tipped her head back. She wanted to laugh. Wanted to cry. Didn’t know what the hell she wanted. “All these years, I thought love had done this to you. I thought a man had ruined you. You
chose
this. It wasn’t because of him. It wasn’t because of the bond. It wasn’t even us. This … fucked up existence is what you
chose
!”

“This is what we are born to do.” She flapped her fingers, mocking an angel’s wings. “You’re just too
angelic
to understand.”

Sabelle snatched the letter up from the floor. “Believe me, it’s not a matter of being angelic. It’s a matter of being decent. A good mom. I wouldn’t choose this life as hell’s punishment.”

“That’s why your pussy gon’ go dry. Fuckin’ men is who you are. Nothin’ but a hole for a man to put his dick. Lifetime of teachin’ you that ain’t done shit, I see. You’re in for some disappointment.” A sly smile skated across Laura’s face, giving the impression her words were more a wish than prediction.

“No. It’s not. I’m not you. It doesn’t matter who I’m with, or what I do in life, I know now … there’s not a chance in hell that I’ll ever be you, Mother. It’s not in me to abandon my kids. To choose random men over them. To leave them cold and hungry and scared and alone every night. It’s not in me to make their lives so miserable that they would attempt suicide and risk a lifetime in Obsidius over a life with you.”

Laura pointed a finger. “I had nothin’ to do with Denya’s cuttin’ up her wrists.”

A shield of tears formed in Sabelle’s eyes at the mention of her sister. “You had everything to do with it.” She blinked away the moisture blurring her vision. “If I hadn’t been there, hadn’t sealed those wounds, she’d have died that night.”

Palms in the air, Laura bowed. “All hail the mighty savior, Sabelle. The
angel
.”

Gritting her teeth, Sabelle sucked in a breath through her nose. “What happened to my father?”

“Why donchu go ask your pal Griffin what happened to him?”

The mention of Griffin pierced her heart. The chaos that’d ensued in the last week had kept her from drowning in the sadness of missing the old biker. “I’m asking you.”

Laura crossed her arms, casually kicked her head to the side, and stole another swig of Jack, the following belch curling Sabelle’s lip. “You don’t go killin’ a woman’s pimp without sufferin’ the consequences.”

“He killed him?”

“Wasn’t a damn part of him left after your daddy was through with him.” Unless the lights were playing tricks on Sabelle’s eyes, it looked like Laura had tears. “Pernifis was my pimp. He beat the shit out of me and threatened to kill the two of you. Donnie, he took his time with him. He didn’t want them comin’ to take ya, so he took off.”

Donnie. Short for Donovan. Sabelle had never heard her mother speak her father’s name in all the years since he’d left.

Laura’s lips thinned. “That’s about when that pimp of yours came snoopin’ ‘round.”

Sabelle’s blood iced at that. “Jeven?” She frowned. “What does he have to do with anything?”

“Well, for one, he sure as fuck had it bad for you. Mighty unnatural for a pimp. And two, who d’you think turned your daddy in?”

She curled her fingers around the spindles of the chair once more. Tighter when the room seemed to spin around her. It all made sense. Why Jeven feared her. “He … didn’t want me stealing souls. He kept me from renoshza. I don’t understand why.”

The lazy lift of her mother’s lip revealed yellow and brown teeth. “You weren’t made to take
innocent
human souls. Only demons. A useless succubus.”

That’s why Sabelle didn’t get energy from souls. It wasn’t energy she got from using her powers to fight back. She actually sensed her victim’s fears. Her body fed off of the adrenaline of genuinely
bad
souls.

Sabelle recalled the night Jeven’d had sex with her—against the rules of the underworld forbidding a pimp to have sex with his own succubus.
He got me pregnant so he’d have something to hold over me
.
He knew I’d never murder the father of my children
.

The realization stabbed Sabelle in the gut. “If I can’t take souls then … I never belonged to Jeven in the first place. He never had authority over me.” Her eyes narrowed. “That’s why you’ve resented Denya and me. Because of our father, we were born
free
.”

“Get the fuck out my house. You got whatchu wanted.” She took a drag off the cigarette. “As for your sister … go tell the angels. I’m sure they’ll love to know one of their own’s in trouble.”

“Someday. Someday, you’ll know the feeling of regret.”

Laura’s jaw shifted. “Only regret I have in life was you.”

A slight smile tugged at Sabelle’s lip. “What do you know, Mother? For once, we agree on something.”

Tucking the letter into her pocket, Sabelle backed herself out of the house. Feeling numb, mostly.

An angel.

Free.

As she walked to the car, she withdrew the letter, unfolding the thick parchment to reveal six simple words, centered on the page

And in the end, love prevails
.

Tears flooded Sabelle’s eyes. The tattoo, etched onto her father’s forearm. The one she’d chosen to forget for so long. Simple words that she’d known for as long as she could remember.

Sabelle had once asked her father what the words meant. He’d said,
“It means, love is power that no evil or hatred could possibly destroy. It’s stronger. In the end, it will always prevail.”

He’d fallen for her mother. Even when she didn’t want him, in the end, he still did the unthinkable. For her. For love. Killing a pimp meant death in the corrupt and messed up world of the succubi.

In just the short span of weeks she’d spent with Gavin, so many forces had tried to tear them apart. In the end, they remained standing. In the end, they still loved.

Wiping the tears, she opened the car door and climbed inside.

In less than an hour, the questions that’d plagued her for a lifetime had been answered.

Yet, still, one remained.

***

Gavin sat at his
Sanctuary
office desk, knocking a pen to and fro—the same pen he was supposed to use to sign the shit ton of casino business strewn across his desk. At a sharp pain hitting his ribs, he flinched, grabbing his side. Fucking poison. For the most part, it hadn’t affected him, but he could feel the battle still raging inside his body.

The distinct knock at the door could only be one person—the security guard, Red.

“Yeah?”

“Sir, you’ve a visitor.”

Christ
. He’d had a revolving door of visitors since business had returned to usual. Some welcome. Some he’d have liked to throw out on their asses.

“Can you ask whomever it is to come back tomorrow? Really swamped.” His pen rolled all the way across the desktop calendar, before he stopped it with his left hand.

“I’m afraid this is an urgent request, Sir.”

Gavin huffed.
They’re always urgent requests
. “Fine.”
Let the whole goddamn city of Detroit come in.
He sat back, puffing out his chest in the
you better make this quick before I decide to sever your balls
posture.

The door swung open, and Gavin’s heart caught in his chest.

“Sabelle?”

Long slender legs crossed over one another, as she sauntered toward him in black stilettos that had him shivering with visuals of them wrapped around his back. Her breasts peeped out of the top of a black dress, showing off those svelte curves. Flames of hair danced with every step, cascading over her shoulders.

She fucking wore a dress. What the hell? Was she trying to tease the shit out of him, or what? Throw him into an early grave?

Her walk didn’t falter, so Gavin stood to greet her, his chest pounding as she marched past the chairs, round the desk, straight for him.

Had she not been Sabelle, a walk that determined would’ve gotten her killed.

Her lips crashed into him, before arms encircled his neck.

Like an ass, Gavin’s arms remained outstretched, as he tried to process what the
fuck
had just happened.

When she pulled away, his dicky puckered lip stayed sticking out from his face, before he cleared his throat and straightened his stance. “I—”

“My answer is yes. Let’s do it. Sooner rather than later. We’ll have another ceremony when Denya comes home. But I don’t want another minute to pass not being your tazschla.”

“Are you certain?” Holy fuck, his heart beat like a bass drum.

“I’ve never been more certain of anything in my whole life.”

Gulping, Gavin leaned in once more, that time tasting every bit of her lips on his. “I’m willing to wait, if you want. But I can’t be away from you. I need you with me. Every morning, I want to wake up to this beautiful face and know it’s mine. Mine to look at. Mine to muse over. Mine to smile at, when it occurs to me how fucking lucky I am to be alive and bonded to such beauty.”

“I’ve waited for you long enough, Gavin. I didn’t know what was missing in my world, until the day I met you.” She stroked a hand down his cheek, eyes still locked on his lips. “Funny, I always thought I needed air to breathe life inside of me. Turns out, I only needed you.” Gavin caught a glimpse of a smile, as she tipped her head forward. “I don’t know what will happen in the future with your birthright, but I’m not willing to let this pass. I’m not willing to let you go based on my doubts.”

“I intend to spend my life eliminating every doubt inside your head. I’m going to take care of you. Of Thomas and Jane. You’ll never want for anything. I will always protect you. Love you. Want
only
you.”

“You should know, I’m not looking at this like a lottery win, or something. I’m not expecting you to put out a red carpet and feed me with a silver spoon. I’ll keep working and contribute.”

Gavin smiled and rubbed his jaw. Her stubborn nature was cute as hell. “If that’s what you wish. My only request is that you pursue a job you love. Perhaps in the arts. None of this waiting tables shit.”

“And my only request is that you not work so hard. That you take time out and enjoy life.”

“I’m looking forward to enjoying lots of you.” Gavin pulled her tight to his body, threaded his fingers through her hair, and kissed her throat. “To whom do I owe my gratitude for this sudden change of plans?”

“No one.” Sabelle reared back until her smiling face came into view.

Finally smiling
.

Shades of warm blue set him afloat on clouds of sheer bliss. “Love always prevails, in the end. Always.”

***

A delicious infusion of Bergamot and cedar wood drifted along the hallways, as Sabelle approached Gavin’s bedroom. Would she ever tire of that scent? She breathed it in and opened the door, to be greeted by a sight that took her that very breath away.

“What is …?” Twisting her head brought Gavin’s handsome smile into view, as he stepped behind her, still dressed in his suit from earlier.

“After you.” He ushered her inside.

In addition to the petals still littering the floor from earlier, the warm, inviting glow of candles placed at various points in the room flickered against the dark walls. The quiet crooning of Nina Simone played in the background, while sheer curtains behind the long black drapes danced on the warm summer breeze coming in through the opened balcony door.

Simple, and yet, sublimely romantic. 

“What is this?” Sabelle asked, her gaze trailing the soft, lambent blossoms of light on the wall, as she paused in the center of the room.